Black Watch Chronicles IV: Watching the Watchmen

Summary

Adventure: Watching the Watchmen
GM: Ben Taberner
Session: Autumn 809WK
Night: Thursday
Level: Introductory (New (0-3 Adventure) Players)
Location: Harlston Manor

Party
Aiming at recruiting four players still getting to grips with the DQ system and two experienced players with much patience and a suitably low character.

• Koltherna - a new fire mage played by Clare Baldock (even newer than mentioned as I seem to have put the character sheet in the front of a library book and returned the book).
• Boris - Orc Necromancer played by Michael Haycock
• Ara - played by Zeb
• Imri - Elven Water Mage played by Rosemary Mansfield
• Pierre the Halfling- An Illusionist played by Ian Anderson
• Julius- Human Enchanter played by Barnaby Wallace
• Reg from Ruska- Human Warlock & healer played by Graham Caine (+ plus his ferret Vlosh)

The Job

Employer: The Seagate Watch

Mission: Disturbing reports have reached the Watch Captain that suggest that some of the Watch are taking bribes and making deals with local criminal elements. He has struck on the idea of having independent contractors pose as new recruits to conduct an undercover investigation and has requested that the Guild supply some "fresh faces" to this end.

On that basis Guild members with political careers, visible auras, wings, unspeakable or wondrous visages, fused-on armour, and You, you know who you are! need not apply.

Pay
Guild rates and free training in standing for long periods, proceeding in the cardinal directions (along, up, down, and towards), apprehending, keeping the peace, and community relations.br> Watch Trainee stipend of 20sp per week.

Equipment Issued

Bronze Scale armour

Weight: 4 Protection: 3 Agility Modifier: -3 Stealth Modifier: -5

this is left over from mustered out troups and needs work to fit properly

Bronze Short Sword

Weight: 2 PS: 10 MD: 12 Strike Chance: 45 Damage: D10+2 Class: A (thrust) Use: Melee

Truncheon (identical to sap except it's wooden)

Weight: 2 PS: 9 MD: 11 Strike Chance: 45 Damage: D10+1 Class: C (crush) Use: Melee & Close Max Rank 5

Truncheon may be used for a knock out attact but only on targets wearing leather, cloth or no armour. Any hit stuns and 4 or more points of effective damage knocks out the target. This will not work on targets larger than the attackers size. Assassins get no bonus from this weapon.

The truncheon is a short club of hard wood, about 20" long, with a leather wrist strap

Watch Boots

Weight: 3 PS: 10 MD: 10 Strike Chance: 30 Damage: D10+1 Class: C (crush) Use: Close & Melee Max Rank 4

A boot attack is a kick, but may not be combined with other attacks unless the attacker has Rk 3 in Unarmed.

Solid black leather & hobnail boots. Those of us with small feet arrange to get properly fitted boots made, rather than standard issue.

Magic Bonuses (Buffs)

Julius' Greater Enchantment gives us +6 to one chosen area:
Boris: Combat
Imri: Skills & Stats
Julius: Magic
Kolferna: Skills & Stats
Pierre: Magic
Reg: Skills & Stats

NPCs

• Sergeant Albrecht, Seagate Watch: Our employer. He seems to be in charge of the day to day running of the Watch
• Captain Jamison, Commander of the Seagate Watch
• Corporal Oats, Seagate Watch: Looks after billeting and housekeeping
• Harry Kale - watch recruit in Troop A: a local lad, seems rather lazy & shiftless
• Troop B - the other 7 watch recruits in training. They are human and mostly Carzala townsfolk or farm boys. They work the night watch of both cities.
• Nicholas 'Nick' Holt - Troop B now deceased
• Bill - Troop B one of Nick's patsys
• William - Troop B another one of Nick's patsys
• Guardsman Gotry Shadrock - Experienced watchman Dwarf, very stern trainer
• Guardsman Lofty Lyons - Experienced watchman friendly human
• Silas - Bounty Hunter Human, tall, often wears a black pointed hat and dark cloak. His manner is smarmy and has a reputation as a coward. He is an E&E with Wizards Eye ranked high, and frequents the Grey Swan on Broad Street. He accepts commissions from the watch and civilians to locate and had people over. In the case of civilian commissions he doesn't ask why they are wanted.
• Milo - Army Healer
• Rebecca Moreson - Barmaid at the Dukes Arms. She lives with her mother and two young siblings.
• Zek and Ged Cawley - brothers who run a carting business. Middle-aged tough looking men.
• Elder Gumfudgeon - Justice of the Peace (in the area near the Diamond Spider Tavern).
• Mr Smiley - undertaker used by the Watch.
• Mr John Cameron, Chief Clerk and Archivist for the Old Seagate Town Council
• Mr Charmichael - Alchemist. Dodgy reputatation, he will sell to anyone with out question.
• Victor Simmons - criminal intelligent excitable psychopath
• Austin, Guild Namer assists the Watch when requested
• Oran Savage a wealthy merchant and philanthropist, well travelled and with an excellant reputation. He helped with the building of the Abbatior, new cattle pier and theatre. He has been in Old Seagate for 5 years and is not on the Town Council.
• Crusher, Lefty, Knuckles Clarkwell (dec'd), Killer Clarkwell, Chedder George, Frank and Mark (dec'd) - thugs for hire
• Claude Viognier - Aquilan(?) agent for hire smooth dresser, uses rapier/main-gauche and invested.
• Rupert Viognier (dec'd) - Aquilan(?) agent for hire smooth dresser, uses rapier/dagger, Dark Celestial mage.

Places of Interest

Updates will be made to the Old Seagate page where we find out new stuff

Diary

1 Fruit 809
Guild meeting; briefing with Sgt Albrecht; party arranges varied modest accommodation in Old Seagate.

2 Fruit 809
Watch Recruitment Day
Party arrive individually throughout the day and separately apply to join the Watch. Modest dress and accoutrements worn (and chosen to avoid association with the Adventurer's Guild), and information given during recruitment implying that we have recently arrived in Seagate. We do not volunteer that we are mages.

Requirements of Watch Recruits:

• Work Shifts
• Keep city peaceful
• Fire fighting (particularly organising civilians)
• Investigate criminal complaints
• Detain criminals and return them to the Watchhouse
• Be approachable
  

We are taught to salute, fed and shown to the barracks.

3 Fruit 809
We are issued our uniform and start our training. This includes:

• Walking in time so our boots echo ahead of us
• How to swing the truncheon
• Which end of a sword to hold onto and when not to use it
• Laws of Carzala and Old Seagate

4 Fruit 809
2nd day of training. More of the same

5 Fruit 809
Recruits broken into two teams and we (Troop A) go on our first patrol in Old Seagate. We mostly walk around the crowded side of town closest to the river. Silas approaches G. Gotry & asks if there is any work.
At the end of the day we move our gear to barracks in Old Seagate Fort.
In the evening we have a couple of hours free. Harry Kale wanders off saying he will be back later. Julius has earlier planted a locatable coin on him so we discretely follow him to the Dukes Arms inn. He leaves without time to have even have a drink, but the coin has been passed to a barmaid (maybe its a tip for passing a message). Reg follows him back towards the fort but loses him in the side streets.
Imri & Koltherna assist Julius back to the Guild to heal a backfire. He has to stay overnight but sneaks back before breakfast.

6 Fruit 809
Harry Kale has not returned, Corporal Oats assumes he has given up without letting anyone know (it is unusual for folk to disappear in Carzala so he doesn't suspect anything bad has happened to him).
We do some more training, and then G. Lofty leads us on patrol. We patrol outside the wall, passing the market gardens, common, the abattoir. We have a break at the Hogsend, and then pass into town through the Blue Gate. We pass the wine & food place Mother's Lament, and then patrol through the wealthy quarter and along Dedication Road. While on patrol G. Lofty tells us stories of interesting happenings in town.
In the evening some of us wander out for a drink and Julius runs into Milo, who he helped on a previous mission. Milo has a high opinion of the watchmen, as they seem good at their job and are better at knowing what is going on and dispersing trouble than the rotating army units that used to guard the town. From this gossip we discount the idea that there is major rivalry between the army & the Watch.
Ara pulls out

7 Fruit 809
Sgt Albrecht is training us today. The morning is the usual drills followed by 'investigation training', e.g. what a jimmied window looks like, how to tell abnormal behaviour etc.

On patrol we pause at the Fish Market on Blue Street. Sgt Albrecht instructs us to look around carefully as he is going to question us later.
We quickly notice the wizards eye searching around, and Harry Kale skulking at an alley entrance. We can't find the E&E and a short contact with Harry shows that he is terrified, has been followed for two nights, and targeted by magic (probably sleep) a couple of times. Harry gives us a description of his attacker and flees when the eye gets near to finding him.
We check in with Sgt Albrecht, who identifies the description as Silas the bounty hunter. We then (discretely) use magic to follow Harry into the slums behind the docks. We catch up with him in a shack in the slums. Our conversation gives us:

• Harry was asked to join the Watch by some friends, so that he could pass on to them what the Watch is doing.
• When Silas saw Harry at the Dukes Arms it was obvious he was looking for him, so Harry ran off towards the Fort. Something knocked him out and he woke up bruised on the street (as if he had fallen over). He also felt magic impact several times. He has been running since.
  

We remind Harry that he is a Watchman and Silas is unlikely to attack him in the middle of the Watch so we take him back to the Fort.
Sgt Albrecht gives us some more information on Silas, and we discuss our legal options for questioning Silas. He has good contacts in the city, and we can't prove he has done anything illegal, so we have to be careful. We let him know that Harry has been planted in the Watch.

Its late afternoon when we head to the Grey Swan to find Silas but we have to wait until dinner for him to show. As planned Julius talks to Silas:

• Julius implies that he can be bribed and is looking to make long term contacts in the city.
• Silas implies that Harry will not be pursued when he is with the Watch.
• Silas doesn't tell us anything about his commission for Harry.

The conversation ends with Silas telling Julius that Harry is currently on a red tiled roof. Since a number of the buildings in the Fort have red tiles we head back as fast as we can. When we get back Harry is in the barracks looking rather subdued.

After dinner the alarm is called and while we form up Corporal Oats is giving orders to the other watchmen. There is a disturbance at the Theatre and Corporal Oats marches us down there to help keep the peace.
   A large group of dwarfs with torches are gathered before the entrance to the Theatre, preventing anyone from entering. Most are wearing badges "DMAD" meaning Dwarven Mothers Against Depravity.
   The billboard for the latest play reads "The Shepherdess and the Goatherd" which has been badly mis-interpreted, not that these mothers approve of plays at the best of times. We organise the theatre folk to change the name of the play to "The Shepherdess and the Goat-herder", initially with a bit of paint but they are to get new billboards printed in the morning.
   The dwarves are persuaded to leave quietly and we return to the Fort to notice that Harry is missing. He hasn't been seen since he received a message from the Dukes Arms.

We are now off duty so we change into normal clothes and wander out for a drink, not at all co-incidentally at the Dukes Arms. Pierre sneaks around and eavesdrops on Harry upstairs with Rebecca the barmaid. The conversation concerns Rebecca or Harry finding an item that will 'save his life' and Mr Ketch is mentioned with no other context. Rebecca doesn't think much of Harry's behaviour or plans.
   We move to another pub down the street and eventually Harry wanders by. We amble after him towards the Fort, when Julius' Locate shows him stationery and we hear sounds of a fight.
   We find Harry cornered in a cul-de-sac being beaten by four men with another man directing them. We wade in to rescue Harry. During the fight one of the men is killed "Knuckles", another mortally wounded, one gets away and the other two surrender. We patch up the bleeding man (and Reg who is almost as bad), and go fetch Corporal Oats to sort things out.
   Once the prisoners are sorted there is a long lecture about announcing you are the Watch before wading in, as many criminals will surrender at that point. We are reminded that we are not Watchmen yet, and in a similar situation should call for help rather than trying to deal with it ourselves.
   Victor Simmons is the leader of this gang and he is a known criminal, suspected of arson with menaces around the town. (Victor had been using Greek Fire on us).

Corporal Oats asked to 'find out what is up with Harry' so we find a quiet corner of the barracks to have a long chat with him. Since we saved his life, and helped by application of alcohol Harry is a lot more open with us.    He is a petty thief and a few weeks ago broke into the house Mr Mossman, a "high quality" tinker, who repairs jewellery and fancy artefacts. He stole a locket, two large candlesticks and an icon of Lord Bolton.    Later someone knocked on the door of his doss, and he thought it was the Watch so he took off. When he returned the stolen stuff was missing. Over the next few days he was increasingly shunned by his normal associates and at least two different groups were after him (Silas & Victor Simmons). They think he still has the locket.

He also tells us a little about the criminal groups in Old Seagate:

• Mr Ketch runs thievery & general thuggery. He has been asking around for someone to join the Watch to spy for him (Harry stole the idea)
• Mad Abby runs the brothels
• Mr Slocum runs crime on the docks and smuggling

8 Fruit 809

Morning starts with drills and going over procedures, especially those we forgot last night.

• When off duty you are still The Watch
• Since we are still on probation if we see a crime we are to call for Watchmen. The have whistles to signal each other but we are a way from being issued these.

Over lunch we discuss Harry with Sgt Albretch, and then check the Evidence Room with him.

• Records show an informant told Guardsman Gotry about the doss house and someone going in with obviously stolen stuff. He lead a raid on the house and removed the stuff that obviously didn't belong.
• This stuff is now all in the Evidence Room, and no-one had reported it stolen.
• Two floor standing brass candlesticks, very solid and basic looking.
• Icon box, with worn gilded carving on the doors and sides.

We exmaine the icon in detail:

• Inside is a picture of Lord Bolton commemorating the signing of the Seagate City Charter. His cloak is painted in rich Imperial Purple.
• The picture is on velum, obvious reused as traces of writing can still be seen.
• The back of the icon box has been removed and we can see this is the side which has been written on. Is is upside down in the frame and barely scraped.
• The document is in poor Elvish and initially reads like a will. Further translation indicates this maybe the first charter. It has signatures and seals with a faint magical trace.
• It is 50 years old 'ish'
• In addition to the known clauses there is a "rent" for the land of 100 Nephrite Nearous due from the city to the family Bolton each year.
• Nephrite Nearous are shell fish that produce Imperial Purple die, but you need thousands and thousands to produce useful amounts. This shellfish is not known to be found locally, but in 200 years it could easily have been fished out, or the sea floor moved and shell beds lost.

Harry confirms this is the stuff he stole from Mossman; he gave the locket to Rebecca. We get Mr Mossman's address and then go out to visit Rebecca at the Dukes Arms. She has pawned the locket as she thought it ugly. She describes it as plain dull brass with a chain. We drop Harry back at the fort and then redeem the locket for 40 sp.

Sgt Albretch arranges for a Guild Namer, Austin, to visit. He advises the locket is completely non-magical, and identifies the magic on the Charter as 'signature authentication' and that it is one of two copies. He also goes over the translation for us (to confirm Imri's rather casual translation). The icon should be in the Mayor's House (there is no Mayor at present and there are no plans to have one). This implies we have the Council's copy of the Charter.

We spend some time fretting the political implications with Sgt Albretch. He recommends Oran Savage as a neutral party if needed. Mr Savage is a wealthy merchant and philanthropist, well travelled and with an excellant reputation. He helped with the building of the Abbatior, new cattle pier and theatre. He has been in Old Seagate for 5 years and is not on the Town Council.

We return to the Guild with Austin and ask Kali's opinion of the political implications. She thinks that might be a momentary scandal when the document is 'discovered' but in practice Duke Leto is a reasonalble practical person, who would re-negotiate the Charter without mucking the town around.
Julius pulls out
From here these scribe notes will be very abbreviated

9 Fruit 809a very early start

Discover Mr Mossman, tortured to death in his shop, about 5 days ago.
Shop door was trapped with greek fire grenados (yeah loot!).
He had a valuble commision from Mr Cameron of the Council for restoration, and has done work for him previously. He has no local family, and his only known friends are the Cawley brothers, local carters. Spent the morning asisting Corp Oats deal with the body and shop.

In the afternoon we visit Mr John Cameron, Chief Clerk and Archivist of the Town Council. We confirm:

• The stolen items came from the Mayor's Residence and are being restored in preperation for the 50th anniversary of the town Charter (next year).
• The Council no longer has a Mayor, as it sees no need for one.
• The Mayor's Residence is the town's archive and Museum
• It has a 'charter' displayed under glass. This is a fancy velum document, with with the writing laid out impressively. It looks a little younger than the icon.
  

Later we take the greek fire jars to the Guild and the alchemist suggests it was made by Mr Charmichael of Old Seagate, who reputation is rather low. Stay overnight at the guild.

10 Fruit 809

Visit the Duke's Arms and talk to Rebecca (Harry's friend)

• The Cawley brothers were 'happy' Mossman is dead
• They were almost celebrating but also threatening retribution
• They hinted to Rebecca that if she knows something she should tell them.
• We think that they sold out Mr Mossman

We set up a trap for the Cawley brothers or whoever they are associating with.

• We transfer Rebecca's mother and two younger sibings to an inn in New Seagate
• Rebecca drops gossip to the brothers that Harry left something with her for safekeeping
• We lie in ambush in Rebecca's tenement home, while Rebecca joins her family out of the way.

The ambush and after:

• Thugs trickle up the stairs and we capture them: Zek & Ged Cawley, Crusher and Lefty.
• Victor takes off and we catch up to him on a street corner (together with Killer Clarkwell, brother to Knuckles and Cheddar George)
• While we are sneaking up on Victor a horseman approaches and swaps a blanket wrapped body for a fat purse.
• The 'body' is a tied-up Silas
• We capture Victor & thugs and free Silas.
• We relieve Victor of many sharp or explosive things

Silas was happy to talk, only out of Victor's earshot.

• He had been retained by Mr Oran to keep Harry 'out of circulation'
• He had been keeping an eye on the Cawley brothers, who were following Rebecca initially.
• Something was following her to New Seagate, and he got jumped there.
• His kidnapper was a rival, and he intends to deal with that himself, so we agree to his capture quiet

Once the Watch has all our prisoners in cells questioning starts:

• Victor says nothing and seems relaxed
• His thugs finger him for Mossman
• Killer gives us Victor's home address
• Cawley brothers thought they were doing Mossman a favour

11 Fruit 809

Victor's home is on Cotter Alley off Fleet Street, an area of artisans and artists. He has the entire top floor of the boarding house. We search his, very messy, rooms and find

• A wigmakers block with a number of sharp pointy things, some with bloodstains
• A crate of grenados
• A bunch of letters from a disappointed, disapproving father. Several are rejections to requests for money.
• A map that looks rather like the Watch cells, with a suspicious X mark.

We suspect an escape plan so Imri, our fastest runner, heads back to the Fort.

Bill from Troop B is on the gate, and is surprised to see her. Corp Oats and Imri head to the barracks to collect reinforcements and overhear Nick questioning the others. He generally acts like they are his troops, and they look to him to confirm Corp Oats instructions.

Corp Oats leads us to the cells, and is ambushed when he enters first. Victor is stuns him and threatens his throat with a knife. Imri tries to negotiate while Troop B dither. Everyone moves towards the yard but before Victor gets into the open Imri jumps him, and is backed up by Harry, who leaps from overhead

During the debrief with Sgt Albrecht we discuss Nick's inappropriate annexing of Troop B (there had been some other suspicious behaviour). We also suggest the way to deal with the charter is to arrange a meeting with Duke Leto and a representative of the Town Council, to present the older charter to both parties together.

We take Harry out to dinner at the Grey Swan to say thanks for backing up Imri (and continue drinking in random pubs on the way back).

12 Fruit 809

During morning training Sgt Albrecht swaps Reg into Troop B and gives us Nicholas Holt (Nick). We take Nick on patrol to get an idea what sort of guy he is. He seems very self-centred and narrow minded, and from the way he treats the humble townsfolk, probably a bully. The only such folk he ignores rather than intimidating are a couple of prosperous looking thugs. Boris finds out they are known as Mr Ketch's boys.

13 Fruit 809

At 4am Harry wakes us as Nick has sneaked out. We follow him to the dock area and observe him persuading a doorman to let him into the back entrance of a warehouse. Pierre sneaks into the warehouse and observes Nick meeting two 'foreign gentlemen' who resemble each other strongly. There are also two bodyguards and they collect in a boxed off 'office'. The leaders seem fairly relaxed but Nick is whinging 'it's all going pear shaped'. The conversation implies that Nick is working for these guys, and that he is coercing/tempting Troop B into trouble. The give Nick a glass of wine and he falls over. They pick him up and take him to the front of the warehouse where they stuff him in a barrel.

When Boris feels a death buzz we break in through the back entrance, sending Harry for reinforcements. We find Pierre and get the general idea, then move to the front of the warehouse and engage with the murderers.

This time we remember to tell them we are the watch and give them opportunities to surrender.
One of the foreigners is a Dark Celestial, and the other uses Celestial invested. Two out of the four die, and almost two of us (Pierre and Imri both spend time unconscious and bleeding)

We search the prisoners and collect:

• 5 healing potions
• A couple of invested Web of Darkness
• some nice quality weapons: 2 rapiers, a main-gauche and a dagger

Harry arrives after a couple of minutes with a motley crew of local helpers, some are just drunks looking for excitement, but some are a 'committee' of respectable folk including some of the dwarven lads we met earlier.

The committee helps us secure the prisoners and the warehouse. The also 'arrest' Crusher and Killer who were hanging around nearby. Harry takes us aside and says that these foreigners have been messing with the local crims who want a bit of payback. He suggests that if they could have Claude (the surviving foreigner) they would question him and get him back to the Watch by daylight. We agree providing Harry lets us know what they find out.

10 mins later the Watch arrive:

• The foreigners are Rupert and Claude Viognier
• Rupert is the Celestial and is now dead
• The thugs were Frank and Mark (dead), previously identified as Mr Ketch's boys

We drag everything back to the Fort and just before dawn a barrel is rolled into the gates with Claude, badly beaten, inside. He is very keen to 'confess' and Sgt Albrecht tells us:

• The Viognier brothers work on commission and were in Seagate to cause chaos
• They were behind the "Dwarven Mother's Riot"
• He knows a lot about the icon, and from far earlier than even Victor.

Mr Cameron identifies Rupert as someone who visited the Mayor's Residence 6 months ago and asked lots of questions about the 50th celebrations next year. We decide that these brothers engineered for the older charter to come to light, and made Victor think there was big deal in it.

14 - 28 Fruit

The next couple of week are routine training and patrolling. The Cawley brothers are freed but must work for the Council in reparation. Harry seems to be bustling in and out but is no longer a watchman per se. We don't manage to get a straight answer as to what he is doing. The Watch starts investigating properly individually fitted armour and a new uniform in black and gold. Imri recommends they get a new cobbler and individually fitted boots.

29 Fruit 809
Sgt Albrecht arranges to attend the regular meeting between the Duke and Councillors, and ensures that Mr Cameron and ourselves are nearby. After their normal business we are called in and Sgt Albrecht goes over the discovery and background of the old charter. It comes out:

• there is a tradition that the city dividend is paid to the Duke in a chest inlayed with shells (a very ugly chest according to the Duke).
• the older charter was semi-private between the Baron and the Town Council
• after the shellfish disappeared and the dye market dried up a more formal arrangement was made and the newer charter was publicly signed
• it is agreed that the magic on the old charter need to be dispelled, but otherwise it is a historic curiosity

Harry takes us out for drinks and to tell us about Claude's questioning. The Viognier brothers backer seemed to be one of the diffuse spy networks in the Western Kingdom that is not specifically aligned with any respectable power base. They were probably being watched by the backers. He also thanks us for helping get him clear of this trouble. During this evening Harry's character seems changed. He is confident and even his posture is better. He offers assistance in the future and if we have trouble finding him, "Just ask for Mr K".

30 Fruit 809
Our Guild contract is finished, though we are offered positions in the Watch, or the opportunity to remain with them for the rest of the season and continue training. We are issued our official Whistles and shown how to use them.

Benefits and Loot

Guild Pay 1000 sp
Watch pay 20 sp per week, i.e. 100 sp to the end of Vintage

During Adventure training (Fruit):

• Rank 0 Truncheon
• Rank 0 Short Sword
• Watch Whistle signals
• Local Knowledge of Old Seagate
  

After Adventure training available (Harvest and Vintage):

• Any common weapon
• Military Scientist

Costs

3 coppers each: accommodation for night of 1 Fruit
18 silvers: for those who had Watch Boots made to order
4 silvers: Julius' ferryman on night of 5 Fruit
Sundry drinks & meals 7 Fruit
40 Silvers: redeem pawned locket
20 silvers: carraige between Old & New Seagate, for Rebecca's family
100 silvers: accomadation and meals in New Seagate for Rebecca's family