Nexus is where every low-life ended up at least once in his life. With a thieves guild, assassins guild, a pirate district, and freelancers of every kind, getting a quick job for cash under the table was fairly easy to manage.

A quick check on the want-ads in the Pirate Herald, yielded a low paying heist request from a little old lady whose dog was stolen, a teen asking for a hit on her abusive stalker ex, a descent paying request for stolen vehicles, a well paying scuttlebus heist, a high paying tomb robbery off-world.

All want-ads were brokered by the Pirate Prince, and applicants were to visit the Palace for vetting.

Cery considered the jobs. Usually he preferred doing work for people he knew, but no one had work for him right now ... at least nothing they wanted him for. He wasn't in danger of starving but he certainly didn't want to just wait until then before he took on a job. None of them looked particularly palatable.

The stalker one pricked at him. Killing was certainly an unsavoury prospect, but he hated people that would inflict that kind of pain and fear on people who couldn't protect themselves moreso. Maybe he could convince the client that ruffing the guy up and chasing him out of town would be the better course.

Sighing, he snatched the ad and from the board and headed to the palace to take the job.

The Pirate Palace had originally been a castle, but once their dominance of the district had been secured, the stone castle was sold to a retired Warlord, and the palace was rebuilt nearby. Now that stability made security less of a concern, the Pirate Prince commissioned a work of nautical art-chitecture. The base was blue, green & white marble cut to resemble a stormy sea, and a few tones of ancient weaponry that pre-dated Magem had been welded together in the form of a gigantic tall-ship. In many places it was difficult to tell which guns were ancient cruft and which were modern operational guns made to look ancient.

In the middle of the marble base, two large wroght-iron gates were open, and two guards stood by the doors. The first guard was a 15' Magem infused, heavily scarred warrior, and the other was a Battle-Golem. Golems were usually piloted by ghosts, so there was no way to tell who the pilot was unless it told you.

Just inside the gate along the corridor was a booth with a sign, "Want-Ad vetting here"

A little old lady was in the booth, crocheting an eye-patch.

When Cery approached, she looked him over, and said, "Who are you, what do you do, and what is your goal?"

Cery was never a fan of those huge constructs, he couldn't tell what they were thinking or feeling; they could be happy or ready to stomp on you. He did enjoy the work that had gone into all the designs for the building despite the imposing guards. It wasn't often that he was outside of the shacks and ramshackle shops that made up the poorer areas ... areas that lent themselves perfectly to staying hidden and conducting clandestine business.

When he approached the booth he prepared his usual innocent smile and produced the piece of paper that the ad had been printed on. "Oh hello miss. The name's Ceryni, I wanna do this job," he says as he slides the paper over her, "I do all sorts of odds and jobs and could do with a bit of coin, it's supposed to be getting colder. Could use a new cloak and a few hot mugs of ale, you know how it is."

The lady looked him over suspiciously. "You're clearly a crook, but that's just fine since that's what we want. Please don't fake an innocent smile with me, I find it annoying. Just be honest with me and we'll get along just fine. What size cloak do you wear? I ran out of things I needed to crochet years ago, so I have a stash behind the desk here of all sorts of items I've made. As for the ale,  the Palace Bar lets you pay your tab up to a week after you buy drinks. Also, I don't know how "it" is, but thank you for your confidence in me. Here's the girl's address. She didn't pay for the anonymous brokering, so you'll have to visit her for further instructions on the hit." With that longish response over, she hands Ceryni a paper with an address scrawled on it. "Oh, please don't call me miss. I'm clearly too old for that title. My name is Ethel, but you can call me ma'am."
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:26, Wed 22 Jan 2020.

Cery was equal parts taken aback and hurt by her attitude but that faded quickly as he regained his composure. "Oh size I think a small size ..." he trailed off as she continued until she passed along the details. He looked over the paper, getting an idea of where the place was and what to keep an eye out for in that area before tucking it into his pocket. "Well umm thank you ma'am, I'd best go and get to work then."

With that Cery was off. His mind raced with potential ways this meeting could go, he could imagine a hot headed girl feeling hurt and betrayed, or maybe one scared, or perhaps just confused. He had no illusions about he being a good person and if this man had done horrible things then he'd put the man down; but still he felt that he needed to know more. Once he was able to talk to the client he hoped it would all be a little clearer.

Ethel could tell she had upset Cery, but she had no idea why.


While talking, she reached behind her without looking and handed him a perfectly sized crocheted cloak.


On the back of the paper was an image of the client's face, and her name. As soon as he read it, it disappeared, but not before he was able to memorize both. She was named Diffle, and her face somehow matched that. He could tell from her bone structure that she was a Dwarf, but Dwarfs ranged in height from smaller than him to far taller ((OOC: I don't recall the exact numbers now, but I'll let you know)). Diffle lived in Dwarftown, below the main city. There were plenty of access points to the undercity, but there were also more confined spaces than the surface or the overcity. Most of undercity was fairly well built and could withstand a lot of stress.

Dwarfs, Gearfs, Narfs, Gnomes, and plenty of otherworldly peoples inhabited the undercity.


"You're welcome, Ceryni. That cloak should help."



Cery made his way to the address and found a single door along the side of a long tunnel. A tunnel branch 10' before and another one 10' after the door revealed a secret tunnel that connected them 15' down the side tunnels, showing that Diffle's home was 20'x15' on this level. No other windows or doors were obvious, though.

When he approached the door, he heard a man's voice yelling from inside.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:47, Wed 22 Jan 2020.

Crey was grateful for the cloak and it showed in his expression. He wasn't the type to look for handouts but when one was practically thrown into his lap he wasn't going to argue. He tried it on, happy with the fit of it. His old one was caked in mud and stiff, so much so that pieces had broken away and the material had frayed. The new one was warmer and he pulled it tightly around him as the wind whistled around him.

Once down in the underworld he dropped his cloak in the lap of the first cold street urchin he found. "That'll keep you warm for years, it done me good so take care of it," he said with a smile before hurrying off.

Once he had gotten a feel for the area he listened in at the door briefly as he detected the shouting. Well he was here to kill a man, maybe this was him. If it was him it wouldn't do for him to kill the client before he could meet her he reasoned. He looked around to ensure no was watching him as he spied the gap between the door and the ground. He focused on the shadow there and willed his senses through them, to see from the position of the shadow, hoping that whatever was happening would be visible from the door.

Cery was able to see into the room fairly easily. He saw Diffle and a muscular Dwarf arguing. The man (Dwarf) was taller than Diffle and Diffle was taller than Cery. He had been shouting at her and hitting her.

"Don't you get it Diffle? You're my girl! No one else's!" At those words his fighting hand reached for his knife. Diffle was blinded by tears and blood and couldn't see what he was doing.

Cery recognized the man as Hamish Findle, of the Findle clan - an infamous organized crime group mostly consisting of members of the same large Dwarf family. Hamish was muscle for the Findle clan, but he was also 3rd in line to become their Undermountain King, and the current King's great grandson.

The Findle clan was certainly not the largest mafia or gang, but they were practically untouchable among Dwarfs.

He didn't know of any connections that Diffle had.

Cery's blood boiled as he watched what was happening. If he had to be honest with himself he didn't know what the situation was, there could be any number of reasons why he might be behaving like this; but all he saw right now was a brute threatening and attacking someone who couldn't defend herself and who hadn't done anything to deserve this treatment.

He withdrew his senses from the inside of the house and quickly ducked round the corner into the shadow cast by the lanterns outside. He closed his eyes and felt for the shadow the man was casting inside and then forced himself through the connection between the two shadows appearing silently right behind the dwarf man.

His goal was to intimidate and protect rather than kill at that moment; if he attacked the man his client might get hurt. Better to distract him and draw him away or even chase him out. He placed a firm hand on the man's shoulder declaring in a demanding tone, "I think that's enough of that, don't you."

---

Spoiler for rolls: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
16:32, Today: Narrator, on behalf of Ceryni, rolled 14 using 5d6 with rolls of 2,1,2,3,6.  Dodge (& counter?).

16:32, Today: Narrator, for the NPC Hamish, rolled 15 using 4d6 with rolls of 5,3,5,2.  Surprised reaction.

---

Cery is only just able to reach Hamish's shoulder. Surprised by the sudden appearance of a much shorter man behind him, Hamish turns fast and swings his arm toward Cery as he exclaims, "What the frak!?"

Cery jumps to avoid the swing, but Hamish's knife handle catches Cery's left hand on a nerve, making it go numb.

OOC: You are now in a Risus battle. You had the element of surprise, and it's still on your side. He acted against you first, but I'm giving you an opportunity to roll or otherwise respond first. However you respond, whether with words, fists, knives or whatever, roll for it. If you want to use magic, roll twice the current stat which would mean you'd roll 6d6. If your attack is higher than his roll, you'll do double damage. Either way, your magic stat will go from [3/3] to [2/3]. You could roll for Underworlder/Thief (4/5) which would be 4d6. You lost one d6 from your roll because his first attack roll was higher than yours by 1. His stats are:
Hamish Findle
Brute (4/6)
Once he reaches (0/6) you'll be able to determine his fate.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:42, Sat 25 Jan 2020.

Cery flinches as the blade catches him, he should have been quicker on his feet but he hadn't gotten into a fight for a while, he was rusty. He called on the shadows to assist him as he jumped back out of reach of a second swipe. He swirled his hands catching the darkness around him and forcing twin tendrils to whipe out of the ground next to the dwarf in an attempt to bind his wrists.

20:53, Today: Ceryni rolled 16 using 6d6 with rolls of 3,1,1,4,5,2.  Shadow magic.

18:04, Today: Narrator, for the NPC Hamish, rolled 13 using 4d6 ((1,5,1,6)).

Hamish couldn't avoid the tendrils of shadow as they confined him. Although Hamish's wrists were now bound by a mysterious force, his feet were still free, and long enough to reach Cery. He kicked out with all his effort, bound as he was.

Hamish
Brute (2/6)
18:07, Today: Narrator, for the NPC Hamish, rolled 7 using 2d6 ((4,3)).
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:09, Sat 25 Jan 2020.

Cery hadn't expected him to still attempt to fight while his arms were bound but he now had superior mobility allowing him to dart in and out, doing his best to avoid what kicks lashed out at him as he cut at the dwarf with his daggers, doing his best to disable him.

22:13, Today: Ceryni rolled 12 using 4d6 with rolls of 1,6,3,2.  Underworlder.

18:35, Today: Narrator, for the NPC Hamish, rolled 17 using 4d6 with rolls of 6,3,2,6.  final lashing out.
Hamish lashed out with all of his effort in one last push, kicking Cery's knife so that the blade cut Cery's other arm. But in truth, he was now completely at the mercy of Cery.

Hamish
Brute (0/6)

Now as the player, you can decide the fate of Hamish.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:37, Sat 25 Jan 2020.