Nobleman's son, turned sellsword, turned monster hunter. From Prussia.
Mildred Hubble, Magic-User 1:
A horny 12 year old girl from a very secretive school for young spellcasters.
It only smellz...
The party can smell London before they see it, a horrid conglomeration of shit, piss, and sickness. A long queue of sellers and travelers wait outside the city to enter. (Ref’s Notes: I use the “default” LotFP setting of the 17th century.. HOWEVER I am not a historian and use the setting as a backdrop more than a history book. Think of my 17th century Earth as a different world line to ours where weird and supernatural shit happens.)
The Shakedown...
The party is forced to wait in said queue to enter the city and after four hours finally manage to crawl their way to the front. The Guards manning the check-in see their “normal” attire and know they can shake them down for some coin. Average is rich in this time afterall. Luckily the party manages to knock the 10sp toll down to 2sp each thanks to Aki’s exotic charm(dat+1 CHA).
The Curiosity shop on Puddin’ & Rose...
Otto leads the party through alleys and streets, beggars and charlatans and across the river Thames to a small shop on the corner of Puddin’ & Rose. The party enters ringing a small bell over the door and are greeted to a vast assortment of strange baubles and trinkets. Aki and Mildred are mesmerized and immediately begin rummaging through the shoppe. Otto sees his employer Vespero reading a piece of parchment behind the counter in the back and saunters over to him.
The Antiquarian…
At the back of the shop behind a screen of burning incense stands a tall man dressed in all black with a long beaked plague mask obscuring his face. The man known as Vespero lifts his head and greets Otto after some subtle reminding of his relevance. “Ah, yes of course, now I remember. Were you able to procure the item for the client?” Vespero asks. “Of course” Otto replies and recants a small tale to Vespero.
The Antiquarian and Otto strike a deal regarding the parties yet to be brothel and a 10% stake in profits in exchange for Vespero sending clients their way.
Additionally Otto is able to sell the stolen monkey paws for +100sp each(3x).
The esoteric doctor takes an interest in the strange foreigner Aki and asks if he can withdraw some blood for some coin. Aki is hesitant but relents after some coins are waved in her face. Vespero pulls a curtain and takes Aki into a small laboratory in the back of the shoppe. He asks her to disrobe and lay on the steel slab in the middle of the room. Aki hesitates but begins to pull her kimono off her shoulder but is only stopped when the ever persistent Otto denies the good doctor the opportunity to be a creep and tells Aki disrobement shan’t be necessary. Instead Otto sees a slimey opportunity to prey on Aki’s non-english tongue and tells the doctor that the price of a Japanese woman’s blood is 2 doses of Purple Lotus Powder(Death Frost Doom) Vespero agrees to the new terms. (Ref Notes: A chance for someone to horribly screw themselves? What’s not to like?) A long slimy green leech is laid on Aki’s forearm and is fattened with her blood. After removing the leech with fire and squeezing the blood out like toothpaste into a glass jar, the doctor labels it and puts it in a safe. The Prussian is handed a small velvet sack filled with glowing purple dust. Otto immediately jaunts to a nearby chair and begins to roll his newly obtained substance in some paper pulled from his coat.
Meanwhile…
The child witch Mildred peruses the wares of the curiosity shop and tries to ignore the now watchful eye of Vespero at her back. The esoteric man slowly approaches the young girl and offers to buy her for 500sp. A child Magic-User is a rare find after all. Mildred declines the proposition and instead asks if Vespero has a dragon egg for sale. “Of course.” he replies.
Aki dresses and joins Mildred only to find her bartering with Vespero for a dragon egg. “I could commission a hunt for one for 10,000sp.” Vespero says. “Hmmm, that’s a little rich for my blood.” the child squeaks.
Aki inquires about the rare spider lycanthropy but botches it with her bad english
The Prussian rolls and smokes the lotus. He’s stricken with a lucid vision indescribable in human words. (Ref Notes: He rolled hidden from gods[temp]& a permanent +4 to saving throws. Damn his luck.) Then passes out briefly.
Otto wakes with a little blood leaking from his left nostril. He feels different...
Vespero offers to buy the child witch from Otto for 400sp. Otto is tempted but shelves the idea for now…
The party leaves the shop with their new acquired pay but not before Otto buys a strange wooden shield with a man’s face stretched across it. “What does it doe?” Otto asks. “It looks cool.” the doctor replies.
Oh gawd...
The party gathers in a circle outside the shop and discuss where they will gather some prostitutes for their budding brothel. After some ideas are thrown around, eventually they settle on buying some near expulsion age kids from an orphanage. (Ref’s Notes: Oh gawd. We talked about how gross the idea was and continues to be but decided to continue cause fuck it their characters are the real monsters in this game. Also I'm rolling hella low loyalty scores)
The Search…
The party spends a couple hours searching the city for an orphanage instead of easily getting some prostitutes from the red light district.
Otto feels they're being followed by someone…[Narrator: They are.]
The party makes the mistake of asking a Catholic guard for some assistance. Otto is struck but defends with his weird ass shield. Aki and Mildred manage to deescalate the situation and move on.
The party tries to ignore my doomsayer NPC but I get in there face with him. He remarks on how God is looking for Otto but cannot find him. Also that they’re going to hell. They understandably move on.
Otto sees some poor and destitute on a street corner and asks one of the children, a boy, if he knows where an orphanage is. The boy says he does but he's ever so hungry...Otto offers 2sp if he leads them it. The boys leads them across London to a homely two story house with a chimney. Otto hands the boy a silver piece and walks away. Aki feels bad and pays the boy the other silver piece. The boy kicks his feet and scampers away.
The Orphanage...
Otto, Aki, and Mildred agree to masquerade as a rich noble family looking to adopt some of the children at the orphanage. The priest in charge is hesitant but recants after Otto shows the deed to the manor back at Nonsbeck. "Of course I will allow you buy--URM adopt these poor children" the gross priest says.
The sweaty priest gathers all the children in a line in the backyard and presents them to their new "family".
Aki goes down the line picking the "choice cuts" and pays the "adoption" fee for four of the younger children to work in the manor's kitchen and 4 of the near enough adults to work in the brothel section.
The party then determines how they're going to get out of the city with their haul without attracting too much attention.
But that is a tale for another day...
Read Session IV here!
