“It has to be the enforcers and if they want a war we are going to give it to them.” “Hesul sent us out yesterday. I was worried we would be stuck in that graveyard for the whole week!”
The motor skiff finally comes to a halt on an old wooden pier on the edge of the Commercia district. Georg and his gang disembark and beckon the acolytes to follow the group around a large building and through its massive doors.
The Turning Hand’s great central chamber is a richly decorated (but long-faded) domed room dominated by seven great pillars, each appears to be ten times the height of a man and glittering with tarnished golden fume pipes pumping incense into the air. Looking up, you all see faces of cards from the Emperor’s Tarot — enameled on brass sheets – rotate on chains dangling from the painted ceiling. Clearly designed to hold hundreds, the chamber seems now oppressively silent and ill-lit, its high stained-glass windows shrouded in grime and rainwater. A circular bar fills the center of the crimson carpeted floor. There, a plump elderly man watches over decrepit-looking servitors that are cleaning and serving drinks to patrons.
Georg leads the group to a back alcove pushing aside a wall of lacquered beads to enter a private area. Sitting behind a large wooden table are three figures.
The first to catch your eye is the most dominating of the space, a large man that appears to made from solid muscle. His crossed arms and a sour expression on his face accent his rough appearance. He has short white hair pulled back against cybernetics extending out of the back of his head into his arms. He is wearing a mix of metal and leather clothes with a black cloak draped to the side. The second is an extremely pale lady who is mostly obscured beneath an animal skin hooded cloak. Her eyes have a flash of interest as you enter. The third is a bloated old man wearing a fanciful robe. His bejeweled hand rests on an ornate cane that he fidgets with.
“Ah, so these are the Priator’s men…”, the lady says as you survey your surroundings. She smirks before continuing, “Georg you have been most helpful. We can take it from here.” Georg nods before turning and leaving you alone in the alcove.
The lady sighs after he walks out, “a fool, but a lucky one at that. I had been hoping to hear what the Inquisition has been able to find out about our recent mishaps.” She pauses for a moment before raising a finger, “I am Hesul. This is Scorn and Tiber.” Pointing to the old man and the pile of muscle.
Tertius
Visible relief comes over Tertius as the charade of being undertow thugs is dropped.
“Madam Hesul.” He says politely with a slight bow. “To Georg’s credit, I don’t believe he completly bought our deception.”
“I am Tertius of the Ordo Xenos and with me are my colleagues Torqul and Servius.” He says, gesturing to each in turn.
“A sharing of information may be of mutual benefit since it seems we have a common cause.”
GM
“Ah, yes, well we will see.” Hesul gives a slight eye roll and looks at Tiber as he slams his fist on the table. His voice is deep and rocky as he states, “The Undertow are not responsible for the murders. Surely you have seen this by now. We know it must be the Enforcers and they will get what’s coming to them.”
Hesul interjects, “Yes, and the Judiciary is a weak fool who does what the Khan tells him so this likely has been approved from the very top although they will never achieve their goals.” She stops for a moment. “If you are truly here to stop these murders you will find aid for the moment with us.”
Scorn takes a long drag on a lho-stick before finally speaking, “What is your intent?”
Tertius
Addressing Scorn, “To carry out our duty sir and find those responsible for these murders.” Then looking to Tiber, “And yes, in the main we are in agreement with you that the Undertow is not guilty of these crimes. However, nothing we have found thus far indicates that the Mundato (the enforcers) are either.”
Looking to Hesul, Tertius proceeds in a diplomatic tone, “Having answered your initial queries, may I presume that we can proceed on a question for question basis? If so, we should like to know how you knew of our arrival to Sinophia and if it was one of your men that we encountered yesterday during our investigation of Baal Grey’s residence?”
GM
Scorn lets out a slight chuckle, “We aren’t the only ones following you, you know. There are others: Khan’s Mandato skulkers now that then, and someone else, we don’t know who, off-worlders we think, and they are very, very good at not being seen.” Hesul taps her fingers against the table adding, “It is our job to know who arrives on Sinophia. And you were not being exactly quiet during your defense of Margrave Cal Sur’Maywroth’s cargo vessel.”
She pauses a moment, “You have told us who you do not suspect. That is not very useful, but we do have some information about additional attacks that the Arbiters do not seem to know about. Why don’t you tell us what you do know and we might be able to be mutually beneficial.”
Servius
Servius reaches out to Tertius to get his attention. He whispers, “Yes. It might be beneficial to share with them.”
Tertius
Tertius nods in understanding to Servius, and returns to talking to the Ragcourt, “Our apologies for interrupting your raid yesterday. We happened upon the scene while in transit. Some of your men opened fire upon us and so we engaged.”
He pulls his arms across his chest and brings his right hand up to cup his chin in thought. “Yes, clearly the Arbiters had no idea about The Priator’s death and the thought has occurred to us that they may not be aware of earlier murders tied to this case. We do not believe that the Undertow or the Mundato are responsible, on an organizational level that is, that does not rule out private actors within either group that are working towards their own aims, unsanctioned by their leaders. Our current theory is that a third group is in play and that they are carrying out these killings. Let me give our reasons for why we believe this to be the case:
First, the murders have been bilateral. Nobility and Undertow. It seems most have quickly dismissed this as revenge killings between your separate groups. This may be intentional on the part of the perpetrators to sow chaos to better hide their actions.
Second, the way the murders have been carried out indicate that they have been accomplished by the same group.”
Tertius takes time to explain the supernatural violence of each attack, valuables left untouched, etc.
“And lastly, something most unusual. Please permit me to show you some picts from my dataslate.” He slowly and deliverability removes his almost comically large backpack and retrieves his dataslate. He flips through to the autopsy picts of the special cadaver from Baal Grey’s murder and hands them to Hesul.
“This is one of the weapons that this group is using. A corpse reanimated and imbued with unholy strength. I found no records that the Mundato or the Undertow have used such heretical means before. Do you have any thoughts on who would?”
GM
Hesul’s eyebrow raises as the data slate is shown. “Most interesting, Praitor was a petty warb dabbler and would-be demon bait, but not much use at it though. I’d have gutted him for it if he had been. But he collected all sorts of odds and ends, most of it junk. The fool was no true sorcerer, but I wouldn’t have put him past running afoul of the real thing sooner or later. I suppose it is possible that it has come back to bite him. But I don’t know how this could spread beyond him to so many others.”
Tiber raises his hand, “Even if this is true we cannot simply call off hostilities with the Enforcers without another clear target. But, if you happen to find out who is behind this we will see that they do not live to see another day.”
Tertius
“I thank you for your willingness to bring the Emperor’s justice to these malefactors sir.” Tertius says politely to Tiber.
To all three, “It may be that the Praitor successfully moved past the realm of just a dabbler. Torqul found indication that some of the people the Praitor was holding captive were likely experimented upon for this purpose. Any information you could provide us regarding his close associates or those he had traded with would be useful.”
With more confidence that he isn’t about to be set upon, he approaches to retrieve his dateslate while saying , “Also, you mentioned additional incidents. May you enlighten us about those?”
GM
Tiber looks at Tertius, “There have been other attacks that have not been reported. One such attack happened at a run-down chop show called Worm’s End: same pattern, several dead. It is probably worth looking into.”
Hesul strums her hand against the table for a few moments. “That off-worlder money broker, that perfumed high and mighty Sen-har Dole tried to sell us… what did he call it… A ‘witch mirror’ for some bankrupt noble as collateral for debt recently. He also suffered a similar fate. It could be that these relic collectors are somehow the connection. However, I don’t have any additional information as to the Priator’s connections to these bobbles. I will be sure to look into it though.”
Tertius
Tertius asks for more information on what the chop show and witch mirror are. He also shows them the heretical text that was on the corpse’s neck and will roll Scrutiny to see if one of them is lying if they say they don’t know what the script is. And last he will ask if they know what the gift was between the Priator and Baal Grey.
