Welcome back to my log of the Enfield Eviscerators attempts at surviving the Iron Kingdoms! The first game we had dealt with the party’s arrival in Port Vladovar, using the first scene from “Friends in High Places” from Urban Adventure. It is a good opening, immediately providing the players with a common foe and plot to resolve, which should make the characters learn to trust one another and start working together.
We opened up with a ship arriving at the civilian docks of Port Vladovar, the least repaired set of docks along that stretch of coastline. The finer docks were being used by the Merchant District whilst the Navy docks were not only the finest, but still undergoing modernization and redevelopment. Larkin and Olliver were waiting for their cargo to be brought off the ship when they were approached by a polite, scruffy looking gobber inquiring after the time. Larkin attempted to guess the time from the position of the sun but settled on midday since it was halfway between morning and evening.
The Civilian Docks.
The gobber thanked him for his attempts at being helpful before vanishing into the crowd, just as Olliver’s crate and Dog were lowered from the ship by crane. That aided Genpi in his attempt to locate the duo, and he quickly approached the pair and introduced himself to Olliver, whilst Larkin busied himself with activating the steamjack. A few urchins tried to steal some of the coal set aside for Dog, but a glare from Larkin made them scatter. With the introductions dealt with, Genpi gave the two Cygnarans a quick overview of the situation in Port Vladovar as he led them into the Burnt District, past a large gathering of workers being assigned duties by a winter guard.
Genpi’s territory currently consists of only two streets and buildings – the basement of a ruined moneylenders house which has been set aside for Larkin’s and Olliver’s workshops, and a tavern around the corner called the Captain’s Daughter. When they entered the main hideout, they met Raksha, idly maintaining her gear. Whilst unpacking, Olliver found a broken down weapon in his bag, and asked the others if they knew anything about it. Genpi immediately recognized it as a relic of some importance to another local gang (being the symbol of leadership), which immediately set the whole group on edge.
As if on cue, one of the runners from the Captain’s Daughter knocked on the basement door, and informed the group the Cranemen (a gang formed from crane operators and their families) had arrived at the tavern and where demanding the return of their hand cannon. Raksha was given the stolen item to hide somewhere in the sewers (after Olliver had extracted the runeplate), whilst Genpi and the two mechaniks went to investigate.
The Captain’s Daughter Tavern – That is not a gazebo, but a ruined water tower to the left.
They came across the Cranemen waiting outside the tavern whilst half of the gang ransacked it, searching for the weapon. Immediately recognizing Genpi, the gang attacked the trio. Following a quick and brutal fight, Larina (leader of the Cranemen), fled with two other gang members, leaving behind the bodies of three more, one knocked out by gas, and her ogrun enforcer spitting blood.
Having looted the bodies, Genpi retired to make sure his tavern was alright, leaving Larkin and Olliver to deal with the prisoners. Olliver suggested a scheme to convince the ogrun to join the “Burning Lead”, which Larkin found himself having the stomach for. The ogrun, named Kroll, awoke to see the other captured gang member screaming as Larkin poured molten lead from his rune etching kit down his throat, melting part of his face before Olliver calmly stated the only way out was for the ogrun to pledge his allegiance to them. Unsurprisingly, he readily agreed.
The two mechaniks then had the ogrun drag the body of the dead ganger to the bottom of the street, and string it up from a lamppost, with his armband (declaring him a member of the Cranemen) tied around his eyes, over the ruined part of his face covered in cold lead. Now the ogrun is tied up in the tavern cellar whilst Olliver and Larkin get some sleep before searching for jobs the next day to start earning money.
But as first impressions go, they certainly have made one on the Cranemen.
A/N: You learn some disturbing things about your players when playing evil campaigns! Also, Genpi’s player had to leave early, whilst Raksha’s player was busy working on something but was able to drop in for a scene to make sure the party at least knew each other in the first session. I must say, I love how quick IKRPG is to play – the whole session only took two hours.
Down below is a map of the local area, with the gang’s territory marked in dark green!
And that’s that for our first session! No one died, we had come combat, some role-playing, and establishing what the character’s were like. This bodes well for the future…