Session 3.3: Sicaria (Part 2)

Rian doesn't find anyone. Roric asks Aldo a favor. Emma sees the flame burn anew.

Last episode, Emma and the Jessek brothers converged on Fisher’s Court — an old hagfish farm that Chael uses to dispose of inconvenient bodies, whether they be living or dead. For these sins and likely others, Emma put Chael down using the pyrokinetic abilities granted to her through devotion to the Burnt King, and then used the ashen blade He gifted her to collect Chael’s tarnished soul.

Meanwhile, the Jesseks arrived on the scene with Roric, the ward boss of Crow’s Foot, to settle matters between them and their overbearing alley baron. After finding Chael’s burnt corpse, the Jesseks were pressed into service hunting for his assassin. Fortunately, it was Rian who found her first. Coming face-to-face with her in the shadows of Fisher Court’s farmhouse, he recognized his long-lost sister instantly, and now he has to help her get away.

This episode is on the shorter side — I had much less writing time than I anticipated this week, but I still wanted to honor the commitment I made last week to have new stuff for you today. Hopefully you’ll find it’s arrived at an OK stopping place — if not, feel free to blow me up in the comments. ;-)

We’ll rejoin the action right where we left off — Rian is face-to-face with Emma, who is hiding in the shadows. Lyssa, the prima sicaria of the Crows and two of Chael’s bravos are searching the farmhouse. They don’t have much time.

Scene 8: The Fisher’s Court Farmhouse, cont’d.

Rian’s heart pounds as he makes his way through the farmhouse. Behind him, he hears the farmer’s niece crying hysterically as one of Chael’s boys pulls her out of the larder. The other man gestures with a crude-looking machete. “You go along that wall. I’ll take this one. You see anything, you holler,” he growls.

Rian nods and moves along the wall, heading towards the rear of the farmhouse, eyes jumping at every shadow. Until a shadow jumps back. A black-clad arm reaches out, grasping his arm, and a pale face emerges from the darkness. She has pulled her mask so he can see her face, but Rian instantly recognizes those pale blue eyes.

He is about to gasp, call out, embrace her. But then he hears Chael’s bully-boys moving in the farmhouse, and his voice dies in his throat.

They’re stalking through the farmhouse, looking for the one who left their boss burnt and bleeding on the floor. The ashen blade is still in Emma’s hand, and he can see a bloody tear in the sleeve of her jacket where Chael’s blade struck home.

He rips his eyes away from his sister’s face and scans the farmhouse frantically. His eyes alight on Emma’s way in — the open skylight above Chael’s burnt body.

“Damn us for fools! We’re looking in the wrong place, boys,” Rian calls out, pointing up toward the rafters. “Eyes up!”

Rian is trying to create an opportunity for Emma here, using one of the teamwork maneuvers, specifically a Set up. Right now, it would be very difficult for Emma to reasonably escape from this room — the farmhouse is cluttered, but it’s not that large, so with three bravos — including Roric’s best — searching for her, all she can do is hide. But with Rian’s distraction, she may be able to find another way out. If he succeeds with a Sway roll, she’ll have a chance to make a Prowl roll to escape. Let’s see how it goes.

Rian rolls Sway: Desparate Position, Standard Effect
Dice Pool: 3d = 2d (Attribute Rating) +1d (Emma Aids)
Result: 2, 4, 5 Partial Success
Stress Emma +1 (9 Total)

Partial success means there’s normally a consequence, but Rian expends his ‘special armor’ slot and uses his Subterfuge move to resist it. 

Next, Emma has to make her Prowl roll to overcome this last obstacle and escape. She’s one away from her threshold of 10 stress, so she can’t push herself, so instead she takes a Devil’s Bargain. She’s also dealing with the wound that Chael dealt her during their exchange.

We’ll envision that it’s been long enough that Mr. Seek, Dalmore House’s fearsome enforcer, is on her trail and approaching this location.

Emma rolls Prowl: Controlled Position, Limited Effect
Dice Pool: 2d = 1d (Attribute Rating) +1d (Rian Aids) +1d (Devil's Bargain) - 1d (Wound)
Result: 6, 1, Success

Chael’s bravos look up, mouths agape. The larger of the two beckons Rian towards him. “Oi, Jessek, come over here and I’ll give you a boost.”

“Me?” Rian squeaks in mock protest as he shuffles closer to them. “If the killer that did for Chael is still up there, how do you think I’ll fare?” Behind him, he hears a whisper of movement, and when he glances back, Emma is gone.

“You going to give me a boost instead, you little whelp? Get over here.”

Out of the corner of Rian’s eye, he sees a shadow moving to the back of the farmhouse. He turns back to Chael’s man and gestures pleadingly to the man’s gunbelt. “Give me your barker, at least. A fighting chance!”

The bravo puts his hand to his belt protectively and waves Rian off. “Mine? Where’s your iron, cov?”

Lyssa, listening to their bickering, snarls in frustration, and takes a few quick steps towards the table where Chael died. She vaults up first onto the scarred tabletop, and from there she leaps up to the rafters like a stalking panther. She peers through the open skylight with her stiletto held low and ready.

“All clear up here. Keep looking — find any sign of who did this.” She drops back down from the rafters with a nimble roll. “Tear this place apart if you have to. I’m going to have words with the boss.”

She turns and stalks out, collecting the weeping farmer’s niece as she goes. Chael’s men continue to search, but in vain — when they reach Emma’s hiding place, Rian breathes a sigh of relief to find her gone. The bravos’ search becomes more frenzied as they fail to find their quarry — stacks of barrels are toppled, the canvas tarps that hang from the rafters torn down, but to no avail. Rian finds one of the back windows half-opened, just wide enough that a slight young woman could crawl through. He closes it gently before following Lyssa out the front door.

---

Outside, Aldo and Carver are at Roric’s side, awaiting Lyssa’s return with Chael, or news of him. She emerges from the farmhouse empty-handed, with Rian trailing behind her, trying his level best to blend into the scenery under the boss’s gaze.

“Well?” Roric growls.

Lyssa shrugs. “Chael’s dead.”

His eyes flick towards Aldo and Carver. “Billhooks?”

Lyssa shakes her head. “Not likely.”

With a nod, Roric beckons her close, and they begin a whispered conference.

Rian siddles up to his brothers. “He’s dead.”

“We heard,” Carver whispers back with a grin. “Couldn’t have happened to finer fellow. I hope he didn’t go easy?”

“No worries on that account. He was cooked to a fine temper. Never seen anything like it.”

Aldo’s eyes linger on Roric, speaking in hushed tones to his prima sicaria. “This changes everything for Roric. Chael was one of his stalwarts. With him gone, he may not have the muscle to keep the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes from tearing each other apart.”

"Aldo, there’s something else,” Rian says, his voice barely a breath now. “This is going to sound mad, but I think it was Emma that did the deed. I saw her in there with my own eyes, just like you said.”

Aldo’s eyes widen. He looks up to the nearby tenement, scanning the silhouettes against the night sky with his dark-sight optics. He follows the trail he spotted before — the clean cut in the courtyard’s fence, leading up to the brass standpipe that could give an agile climber an easy path to the rooftops and escape. And there, he sees her, a dark shape crouched behind the crumbling stone balustrade. Though it is almost certainly a trick of his mind, he imagines for a moment that their eyes meet.

His heart races as he tries to maintain his composure. In his periphery, he sees Roric shooting glances his way as he takes Lyssa’s report. “Not another word,” Aldo whispers. Then, Roric beckons to him.

Aldo composes himself and approaches. Roric lays a thick, scarred hand on his shoulder. “Aldo, my son,” he begins. “Gangs are either rising or falling in the Foot, isn’t that so?”

“I’ve heard it said, governor,” Aldo says cautiously.

“Chael’s taken a bit of a tumble. No doubt your brother told you.”

“He did, governor.”

“He was a vicious cur, but loyal. He had a dozen cutters who followed him, and he looked after the protection and assurances trades well enough. Now his seat at the table is empty.”

Aldo’s thuds in his chest. Only an hour ago, Roric was weighing our lives against Chael’s, and we were about to be found wanting. Now, he’s offering us a place at the high table. He hesitates just a moment before seizing the opportunity.

“If you need something from me or my brothers, it’s yours,” Aldo says.

“I need someone to take Chael’s business in hand. He didn’t have a good second—no one who understands how things are done like you do. I had my doubts about you, boy, but…” He pauses, and withdraws from his coat the billhook blade that Aldo surrendered earlier that night.

“Tonight, you showed you’ve got some iron. Chael had his boot on your neck for years, now the boot is gone. What are you going to do?” He offers the blade to Aldo — still rust-red with the Whisper’s blood.

Aldo takes the blade from his boss’s hand, and looks into in Roric’s eyes. If I say no, we’re food for the eels. “I’m your man, Roric. Carver and Rian, too. If you tell us to take Chael’s patch, we’ll do it, simple as.”

“Good lad.” Roric lays a warm, fatherly arm around Aldo’s shoulder. “Come along, and let’s discuss the particulars.”

---

On the rooftop above, Emma watches the exchange, crouched low behind the balustrade. She’s near-certain that no one down there can spot her, though she sees Aldo’s eyes linger on her hiding place, and her breath catches as she remembers him calling out to her in the darkness of Mistshore Park, weeks ago.

Her breaths come hot and shallow, the wound Chael dealt her throbs in agony as she presses down on it, doing her best to staunch the flow of blood. In the courtyard below, she sees her older brother take conference with this older man.

From the rigid formality with which her brothers and the other scoundrels on the scene move around him, he is clearly their master. Her eyes strain to make out anything about him in the courtyard’s dim electroplasm lights.

She watches Aldo speak with him. Her brother’s tight, restrained body language reveals his fear and caution, but she can sense beneath it an eager, simmering ambition. She watches as the man puts his hand on Aldo’s shoulder, and then she feels a flash of pain radiating from her wound. With the clarity of the pain comes insight.

The man’s features, once shrouded in darkness, are now lit bright by a burning red fire. In her mind’s eye, she sees a burning vision: Sitting on the man’s brow is a crown of fire, a sign of the Burnt King’s curse. Where Chael’s mark was a humble coronet, little more than the flames of a few candles, this man’s crown is a roaring fire atop his head. As she watches the flame dance and spark, she can hear the whispers of the King, beckoning her towards him, bidding her to draw her knife again.

Roric, too, is marked for death by the Burnt King. // Source: Midjourney

She shakes her head, trying to banish the voices, and draws back from the edge of the rooftop. When she turns to plan her escape, she sees a familiar but unsettling face.

A slender man in a tattered greatcoat awaits her across the rooftop. Mr. Seek’s baleful, pale orange eye, turns and clicks as it focuses on her. His pistol is held low at his side.

“Something’s changed about you, little bird,” he rasps, his head tilting curiously. “But I’m here to take you back to your cage, all the same. Madame has so many questions.”

We’ll close the episode and session out there. With Emma returning to Dalmore House with a powerful sacrifice for the Burnt King, and the Jessek brothers presented with a golden opportunity to climb the ranks in Crow’s Foot, we’ve got lots of payoff and follow-up to process in the upcoming downtime phase. The next episode will be a light fiction/no fiction planning session, where we vote on the gang’s next moves: Can the boys grab hold of Chael’s holdings and establish a foothold as one of Roric’s lieutenants? And what sort of brewing conflict are they stepping into?

And on Emma’s side, how will her latest revelation complicate matters? Why has the Burnt King chosen her to visit his wrath on the leaders of the Crow’s Foot underworld?

We’ll play to find out the answers to those, and other questions, in Session 4 of Proper Villains. I’m going to take a week off this week, so publication will resume on 6/24. Thanks as always for reading!