Session 07

The Heist (continued)

Sanmeria is out but Darren there too and holding her by the elbow while both walk briskly into the night's air: "Why are we leaving? What's the danger, my Lady?" She quickly takes in the surroundings [Look Around] and finds a dark alley with conveniently reachable fire-escape ladders. She then distracts the bodyguard by looking back towards the tavern and faking panic... the moment he turns to face the (illusory) danger she bolts and disappears among the rooftops [Sometimes You're the Mouse].

Inside, Dayne eyes the kitchen [Look Around] and starts dragging the lightly wounded Heleesa while the surrounding crowd looks, not sure what to do. When Dandelion manages to see what was going on he rises as to intervene, but Dayne stops him on his tracks with a ferocious look and challenges him or anyone else to try and interfere in the Patrician's affairs (a big fat lie, but intimidating and effective none the less) [Sway].

Sisters

Heleesa is thus captured and brought into a hidden prison located inside a felled hollowed out tree on the dangerous surface. There, the AC crew takes shifts watching over their captive. During one of those shifts Sanmeria, always disguised [A Thousand Faces]to not be recognised by her older sister, tries talking a bit with her... with understandably poor results.

A Dark Shadow

Now that the kidnapping has been performed, Usul reports to his JIRA contacts, now in the person of a jerboa mouse named Qamar. He wants to cut the AC out of the operation now that they have done their job, but thanks to Usul's predatory behaviour [Feral] he is convinced [Sway] to involve them in the future negotiations with the Patrician and with the continued handling of the prisoner ... in exchange for being shown her prison's location.

Back at the hollow tree Qamar is pleased and complacent, feeling back in control of the whole operation. This allows Usul to extract some precious info from him [Read Someone]: the JIRA has two souls!
One is Najib's faction, focused on improving jerboa life standards through diplomacy and politics. The other is Qamar's faction, much more radical and extreme, thirsting for blood and chaos, eager to pick a fight against an unjust society no matter what the cost might be.

Revelations

During one of his off-watch shifts Dayne organises a meeting with Alford, meeting the old mouse in a private location near a pond. In their conversation a lot of details about Dayne's family tragedy are revealed:

• Alford's house was one of Whitefall allies, then reduced to silence and compliance after the brutal extermination of Dayne's family

• Alford has always been uncomfortable with the Richax's political methods, and lately has been openly opposing him (although still in the role of faithful advisor)

• yes, it was Richax Kerrygold who commissioned the assault on the Whitefall family

• no, Alford doesn't know exactly who carried the order out, but at the time there only three plausible agents capable of that...

  • • the then young Guild, led among others by one named Ursus

    • an independent gang led by Ben LeBrie, which would later join the Guild

    • another gang, now forgotten as it was eventually squashed by the growing Guild