The Council hires a group of adventurers to investigate a spate of recent crimes in the docklands. The first is a dealer from the Palace of Games, found flayed, the second is a family found killed in their home and the third is a spate of disappearances amongst the homeless.
In reality Jimmy has set his sights on a seat on the True Council and has connected these acts to one Galindor the Grey. He has used his connections to manipulate the City Council in to hiring adventurers to deal with him so that he can take his seat.
Alise Luckner- Roisin
Jimmy Hoskins- Joe W
Samuel of the Warrior- Dave H
Samuel Skye- Iain D
The party head first to the home of the murdered family. They first fend off a group of disgruntled individuals, who claim to have been hard done by Hoskin's inc and then are allowed to investigate the crime scene by the Watch guards that are supervising it. Alise examining the bodies is able to dertermine that they were quite brutally tortured before they were killed (and rather unpleasently that the child probably died first). Samuel Skye finds paperwork showing the family was heavilly in rent arrears to a landlord going by the name “Mr G” and that the father had recently lost his job as a clerk.
They then head to the Palace of Games but not before fighting a group of spirits. Alise looses her fght and collapses bleeding from what appears to be a stab wound in her chest. As Jimmy patches up her wound he notices an unusual spiritual presence in her mind. At the Palace the party talk to some of the dealers and find that the deceased dealer, Mike, on the night he died he was seen in the company of smiling Sam, an employee of Galindor the Grey, a rather dour crimelord. Jimmy talks to the Viscountess, one of the White Duke's seconds, who reveals that they have Galindor's son Fillipo. Mike it seems got overly friendly with Fillipo during a meeting between his father and the duke. Jimmy also discovers frm Fillipo that his father appeared to have two new associates: a pair of haughty seeming sisters.
The party track down smiling Sam, who lets slip to Samuel Skye that he carried out the murders on Galindor's orders. Jimmy questions him and finds that the sisters have been rounding up the homeless and taking them to the sewers.
In the sewers the party fight exploding rat and rescue a woman from some crazy wounding mages. The woman is Delilah, one of the the sisters. It turns out she is an excomminicant Leader priestess. Several months ago her and her sister Dominura felt that the Leader’s time was over and Acryn need a new Leader. They began to search for this Leader and Galindor caught Dominura’s eye. They disagreed about his suitability to replace the Leader. Dominura has been responsible for kidnapping people from the docks to shape in to Gaindor's new priests. Domiura's plan is to summon the Leader so that Galindor can kill him and take his place. Dominura’s plan is to kidnap a child of Salic blood and to use them as a vessel, then to enlist a mage to help her with the summoning. She came down here to try and find her sister but was beaten near to death by some of Galindor’s favoured. Jimmy takes custordy of Delilah and they head off to free the prisoners.
After fighting off some of Galindor's favoured they free the kidnapped homeless and arrange to send them to the Church of the Tender. They uncover that Dominura intends to conduct her ritual that evening under the great temple of the Leader. The party rush to the basement of the temple, where they find the ritual well underway. The skys are cracking, as Dominura chants over an infant girl who is held in a ritual circle. They are unable to prevent the summoning of the Leader but after a difficult manage to slay both Dominura and the child before they can kill the Leader.
The Leader, now occupying the body of the small girl, reaches over towards Galindor's body, which is turning in to Starmetal, and rips out his soul. Jimmy can see him use it to repair some damage to his own soul. Samuel of the Warrior follows the avatar of the Leader. Samuel Skye, however, attempts to intervene, declaring that the Leader should return the small girl he is currently posessing. Things turn unpleasent and Samuel Skye is beaten in to the ground by the other Samuel. The avatar of the Leader passes through the temple, gathering several priests to him/her and makes his/her way to the Council building, where under the effect of the miracle “hear me!” declares his/her glorious return. Jimmy is called to an emergency council meeting, which is in uproar. Several members are loudly declaring themselves in support of the god but others are declaring the dangers of the situation and even the uncertainity that was has been summoned may not even truly be the Leader. Jimmy is called upon to negotiate with the avatar. Jimmy ascertains from him/her that he/she is happy for the Council to continue running the city but he/she is under the belief that they are now answerable to him/her. Jimmy offers the Leader a new body but this is declined. He passes this along to the Council. Although some of the Council are of the opinion that they should now defer to the Leader, most are not willing to cede their authority. The prevailing opinion appears to be that they will wait to see what it does.
Alise talks to the Church of the Tender about her curse but for the time being there appears to be not a lot they can do. She remains undecided on whether to support the Leader avatar.
In the meanwhile Jimmy buys Galindor's son, Fillipo, from the White Duke and uses him to gain knowledge of Galindor's operations. He can now take over Galindor's seat on the True Council. Smiling Sam is also arrested and after Jimmy is able to interrogate him is tried and hung for his crimes.
Jimmy addresses the Council and suggests that they really do need to do something about the sewers, since they're a hive of criminals, mad wizards and flux dangers. Worse still the vermin there, which have always been unfeasibly dangerous, appear to be developing sorcerous abilities. He puts forward the opinion that it's bad enough that the people live in fear of our mages blowing them up, if word gets out that the rats are starting to practice magic then we'll have riots on our hands. All this being the case, given his martial experience working with the Broken Wing, Warrior Church, knowledge of engineering, and past role as a garderobe attendant, he asks to be given a mandate to take over responsibility for the sewers from the department of public works and a small purse to hire the Guild to map as best they can the nature of the flux perils under the city. All this being given his is appointed to the role of Sewer Tsar and some efforts are made to begin to map the sewers, although it appears it will take some time. The Civil Service appear displeased about Jimmy moving in on what they feel is their patch.
Jimmy dissects the Rat King and attempts to work out if this was a freak accident or if the city really will be facing a plague of superrats. The best he can garner it that it was the result of some magical experimentation. Likely it can not reproduce by itself but there is the possibility that a sufficiently crazy mage could manufacture more.
Finally having determined that in a world populated with adventurous do-gooder demigods it is far better to be loved than feared and after his encounter with the anti-lawyer group, Jimmy decides his public image needs some serious work with the man on the street. He decides to fund a number of resources on behalf of the Tender church: specifically a hospice, a Large Farm to provide food purely for the poor and needy and a new firm to offering free legal aid for those in need. This seems to have the intended effect and substantially improved his standing with the common man. He is now on friendly terms with some of the high-ups in the Tender Church, who seem to be viewing his act of genorosity as divine intervention from the Tender, showing that even a cutthroat lawyer might be moved to become a better man. Nevertheless there is the odd naysayer, who claims that no amount of money is a substitute for good deeds and that Councillor Hoskins should be paying more heed to his actions.
Samuel Skye searches both his Watch and noble connections to try and identify the family of the small girl that the Leader has posessed. Eventually he finds a single mother (with no particular clue as to the identity of the father) whose child went missing and seems consistent with the girl. He gives his apologies at not being able to save her daughter and, though he doesn't say outright, strongly implies his disapproval of the Leader, an attitude which the distraught mother is easilly persuadeable to.
Samuel of the Warrior has reshaped the Palace according to the Leader's designs using the reality shaping potion. This will have consequences in that unusual things may now be found in the Council Building.
Jimmy
Alise
Samuel of the Warrior
Samuel Skye
For LARPO approval:
You have a seat on the True Council, which gives you access to more dubious supply chains. This means that you can get a 25% discount on any equipment purchased, on the understanding that it will probably be of questionable providence. You can also gain this discount for potions but this will be less reliable than buying them from a registered alchemist (mechanically if you are using your discount a GM can elect to flip a coin and if you loose the toss you have gotten a bad batch and your potions will have a roleplaying side effect).
Additional roleplay effect: Conflicting Interests
As a member of both the City Council and the True Council you will find that sometimes the two organisations goals will conflict. Whilst this is primarilly a roleplay effect, GMs should feel free to place difficult choices in front of you.
Pending GM discussions
Something claiming to be an avatar of the Leader has manifested in the City. The Churches and the Council are divided over whether they should be following its leadership, although with Samuel Skye influencing them through his connections the anti-leader faction on the Council seems to have slightly more traction. The political situation is that the Council remains in control but many people are still waiting to see what the avatar's next move will be.
All the churches are divided in opinion. Of the churches the church of the Warrior under Samuel's influences seems to have the strongest pro-Leader faction and their council representative is pro-avatar. The church of the Tender is mostly anti the avatar, with most disapproving of the Leader's manipulation of an innocent child, although their councillor appears to be waiting to see what it will do (and some will have noted a sense of discomfort in his demeanour). The Builder church is split evenly, with their councillor being in the anti faction. The Leader church itself seems to be most schismatic, with many opposed to the Leader's direct interference and the sentiment that it is time for a new Leader growing but equally many celebrating the Leader's glorious return. The council representative of the Leader appears to be struggling to balance the two factions and hasn't as yet taken a position.
To the surprise of some the Cargan seats are evenly split, with Faria Carver being mostly vocal in support of the avatar and Serena Cargan being most opposed. Kieran Salic seems to be erratic in his opinion, veering constantly between seeming to support and seeming to oppose. Julius Ravensfall, being tied up with the war effort, has not made his opinion known as yet. There is a mixture of opinions within the Wayfinder's Guild, many of whom are waiting to hear which side Councillor Luckner will take. The colleges and the councillors holding elected positions are also mostly in opposition to the avatar, whilst the Guilds and the noble houses seem to be primarilly biding their time to see how it will affect their business and estates respectively.
Outside the Council the City Watch attempt to maintain the peace and it is rumoured that Frederick Holland is less than happy with the new political situation. Many of the populous are hailing the glorious return of the Leader who will put things right at last but there is also growing fear in the light of the Leader's actions that he will become a tyrant that will bring oppression rather than freedom, especially with the memory of what a bad leader can be capable of fresh in their minds. The overwhelming sentiment is however that most people are keen to see what the Leader will do before solidifying their opinion.