Surrounded by the muck and refuse of an entire city the unnamed (come on guys) mercenaries push on through the sewer tunnels in search of some no-good Rhulic saboteurs.
Earlier that day Zee had received an urgent missive from his clan’s trading post in Lowtown. It turns out that a rival clan, the Vaine, were going to destroy their final bastion of trade. Having fallen on some hard times recently the Sons of Stonefathers couldn’t suffer the loss of such an important location and had decided to seek the aid of Zee and his merc friends. All they knew was that the attack would come from below, from the sewers and the labyrinth of tunnels that wind their way under Cairnholm.
It doesn’t take long for the crew to work their way to beneath the shop and as Dib scouts ahead he hears voices bickering. Through a door on the side of the tunnel a deep voice complains about having to wait around, to which a higher voice replies with a comment on the importance of calibrations. With Rhul in the mix the party decides that Zee should enter and see what is going on.
The plan backfires immediately as the group they run into was expecting trouble. A pair of Ogrun guards flanking the door immediately draw weapons. Thankfully the party still get the drop (with some good Initiative rolls) and O’Hare charges past Zee to engage one of the brutes. As the mercs push through the door pairs of sword-and-board Rhul attempt to join the fray. While O’Hare and Pal face off the two Ogrun, Llalrii charges past to slay one dwarf with his claymore before firing off an icy blast which catches three more, dropping them as well! A backhanded swing from O’Hare’s trench knife sticks his opponent in the throat and down he goes.
Over the heads of their assailants the party sees a smaller dwarf, wearing the Vaine clan symbol, run out through an alcove to where an underground river rushes past. Zee tries to make chase but as he advances across the room he spies something terrifying around the corner. Two large barrels sit against a support pillar, wires connect them to a ticking contraption nearby. To make matters even worse a Rhulic Driller has been fired up and approaches the party, alongside a couple more dwarves. As the come into sight of the rest of the mercs, O’Hare takes one down with a quick shot from his repeater pistol. Zee fires his scattergun, laying corrosive chemicals across their armour.
But the Warjack fires up it’s drill and Zee begins to lament his positioning. Sure enough the ‘Jack charges him and although he manages to dodge the brunt of the attack the whirling drill tears down the side of his face and the party’s mechanik falls to the stone floor. (Heroic dodged the first attack, but the second put him to 0. Zee’s player rolls a 12 on the injury table – Battle scars)
Pal, having finished off the Ogrun with the help of Alexis’ dual pistols moves in to get the Drillers attention. O’Hare rushes around the battle to provide Zee with some urgent medical attention. After a few attacks back and forth the Rhulic ‘Jack goes down to a combination of frozen gears, corroded armour plating, and crushed hydraulics. Meanwhile, the fleeing Rhulic engineer goes flying past in a swamp boat.
The party splits. O’Hare rushes over to the underground river where two more swamp boats are moored and starts one up (excellent Driving roll) with ease. As he sails past Pal leaps on board. Alexis attempts the same and almost falls in the river but Pal grabs her outstretched hand and pulls her back on board. As they race off after the saboteur Llalrii starts up the last boat and idles while Dib, with some guidance from the Mechanikally minded Zee, diffuses the bomb. ( Mech. Engineering rolls to aid an Agility roll to disarm the correct components) Once the threat is neutralised they join Llalrii on the last boat and join the chase.
Downstream, O’Hare has managed to duck and weave the craft close enough to the fleeing Dwarf for Pal to jump between the boats. Once there he wrestles control from the comparatively tiny Rhul and slows the boat. A barrage of shots from O’Hare and Alexis bring the Rhul to his knees, but a few stray shots manage to hit Pal as well. He shrugs them off, but fires a dirty look back at Alexis.
Soon the entire party is regrouped, with the prime suspect in hand. They decide to turn him over to the Sons of Stonefathers clan for proper persecution. Although the tradepost is very grateful for it’s safety it cannot afford a reward and instead offers access to their trade network should the party ever need to acquire rare or foreign materials.
Next week the Player better known as Dib the Alchemist is taking a turn at GMing as the group heads out of Cairnholm into the Ordic countryside. This means that I get a chance to take my own character out for a spin. I’m not sure if the rest of the group is quite prepared for the prim and proper stylings of Randall Chadry Peddleswarth.
