Heya all. Ran my first game yesterday - how did this game skip me by? What an excellent system and setting. So enthiused I wrote this up. Hope you enjoy.
There was the sound of chatter, the clink of mugs, the smell of old beer, the buzzing of the electric lights.
‘Awright old man? Whatcha know?’
‘Awright. Ah, nuthin. Buy us a drink?’
‘For what, guvnor? Breathin this fine Dusk air?’
‘Hows about I tell you about the Coleburn Cutters?’
‘Who?’
‘Well, there’s a story. So, the drink?’
‘Awright, guv. You start, I’ll get you yer drink.’
'Awright. I heard this from a friend, right. Was a bit back. I was young, sellin the Dusk Times on the street for pittance. Two of em, to start with. They did time in the Hook, which got the crew going. Mr. Sparrow, a wiry type with demon blood. Feathers for hair and all. Other one was Bug, a bloody suspenders wearing type who looked like they’d seen a fair bit of action, yeah. Heard they laired in Six Towers. Did most of their work in Crows foot - at least to start. Apparently had some kinda code of honor shite. Did a few little scores to start, made a bit of coin, like most did. They were small, then. Real smooth shadow-types.
'I thought they called 'emselves the Cutters? They weren’t a right ‘ard gang?’
‘For the alliteration.’
‘Wankers.’
‘Yeah well. So this is back in the big turf shitfight between the Crows, the Lampblacks, and the Red Sashes. The Crows were the big deal, but their leader Roric got knifed by his right hand, a vicious bitch called Lyssa.’
‘Fuck.’
‘Too right. Anyway Mr. Sparrow and the Bug get called up to Lyssa. Old Roric had done em a favour getting em choice maps o’ the underground and shite, gave em permission to work Oldwych so long as they paid up. They go on up to the top of the rookery and meet the red haired psycho as she’s cutting some girl’s ear off and feeding it back to her.
‘Fuckin hell.’
'Cold as ice she’s up there, stropping the fucking same blade she cut this girls ear off with and cool as a bloody ice cube tells them she’s got a job in Oldwych. The Lampblacks have a black pearl they nicked, some creepy thing that has a trapped ghost. Holding it in an apartment in Oldwych, waiting for the Dimmer Sisters rep for a sale.
‘What happened?’
'Well, Oldwych was the Coleridge Cutter’s turf, right, so they already know the Lampblacks got a safe house in an apartment in White Tusk court. Bug talks to Sawbones, the old medic, who tells her George got proper fucked up in the last fight and has a weak knee. They do a bit of digging around and find out there’s only two Lampies, Gorgeous George and Avi, and they’ve hired some fresh faces. Now Avi’s a cool customer, smart, like, and is George’s brother. George was the Lampies champion pit fighter. Ugly as sin and a wall of muscle, but too many hits to the head. Couldn’t stop talking. Like a kid, really. Happy to just bounce a ball for hours. So anyway they’ve put their two hires on the door and they wait inside for the Dimmer rep.
‘What then?’
‘Well, Mr. Sparrow knew George got hit, right, cause he was at the pub where George was drinking. He saw someone spill Georges special victory drink after the fight. Apple juice, can you believe it.’
‘You’re kidding. Who can afford that?’
'I know. Anyway, Mr. Spider’s walked up to the guys on the door and he says he’s got something for George. They’re not stupid, so they call out Avi. They have a chat for a bit and Avi’s suspicious about Mr. Spider, but Mr Spider just tells him he spoke to George and Avi buys it. So he says he’s just checking up on George who looked a bit sad about the spilled apple juice and the heavy concussion he’d got a few days before, and says he wants to give George a bit of the old juice. Avi’s normally smart, but he buys it and brings out George. Mr. Spider gives him the juice, they have a quick chat and he’s on his way.
‘What about the pearl?’
'Ah, didn’t I tell you? Well, the whole time they’ve got a secret way up to the apartment. The place used to be a big manor, right, all boarded up and turned into flats and such, then left to rot for years. So the old manor has this dumbwaiter, long since forgotten, but the Crows gave them maps for all the underground stuff. Bug gets up through the ancient dumbwaiter, pushes through the mouldy plaster and finds himself in a bloody lampy safehouse filled with stolen loot. Carpets and bulk goods and crates of beer and the like.
‘Well, that strikes me as serendipitous.’
‘Yeah, well, it was what it was, sometimes you get lucky. Now George is playing snap with himself in the other room, but he starts to perk his ears up when he hears the plaster hit the floor. Bug’s a fighter, but doesn’t want to tussle if he can get in and out, so he grabs a bloody rat and skittles it in to the next room. George puts two and two together as best as he can, figures the rat disturbed something, goes back to playing snap for long enough for Mr. Spider’s plan to take effect. George goes out, gives the Bug just enough time grab the pearl and some choice loot before they skedaddle.’
'Smooth like glass, guvnor. The Lampies even figure out who robbed them?
‘Nah. So hows about that drink?’