Season of Ghosts: Return to the House of Ulst

Nothing stays quiet for long in Doskvol. Within days of escaping the Ulst Manor with the spirit of the Crows, delivering it to the spirit-trader/wandering demon Bale, all the districts are a flutter with the news. Crews rush to pull out whatever isn't nailed down but are rebuffed by the Sparkwright Guild who arrive in force to do maintenance on the great Spark Spire that is impaled in the manor's centre. How long will it take? Just as long as it takes to strip everything of value off the old place.

Still, the manor is large and the Sparkwrights can't be everywhere. The crew decides to make a run for it and see what they can dig up. They need a plan, though. What's worth taking, where things might be left. They come away with three leads. Lady Isidor, the last and long thought to be dead member of the Isidor Estate appears requesting that the crew get her engagement ring. Her dowry was delivered to the Ulsts and she was about to receive her ring from the youngest scion Daniel when the lightning barriers failed and the districts were lost to the flood of spirits. The crew may have her dowry if they bring her ring. Benjin Ulst is known to have been a sorceror and a cultist and will have important books and magical devices if his secret lab can be found. Unfortunately all that is known is that he belonged to a cult that worked with some sort of 'sound magic. Lastly, Aldo's friend Grace puts him touch with a job. An Iruvian ambassador wants a matching pair of dueling blades from the Ulst family crypt. While it is illegal in Duskvol to bury a body for fear of attracting and producing spirits, it has always been an open secret that the Ulsts never burned their dead.

The crew make their way through the sewers during low tide using Grace's map, breaking into the catacombs. There they encounter strange holes in the walls and in some of the bones of the dead. Unplugging some of the holes in the stonework air begins to circulate and it moves across and through the holes to produce music. The crew encounters the collective spirits of the Ulst family who answer their questions about the house and warn of a great explosion coming to Duskvol. Deciphering the notes on the wall, they find a secret passage that leads to the sorceror's lab where they steal relics of his god as well as magical tomes. Last but not least, the crew manages to sneak past the Sparkwrights using the interconnected secret passageways that take them through to the far side of the manse. The stairs broken, Aldo climbs up and lowers a rope for the others. Right where Lady Isidor said it would be, they find the ring and the dowry.

On the way back they find the boats swarming with Sparkwrights. Atreus calls on the Hungry Mother to devours them from the water and they are dragged screaming into the water. They never resurface.

Upon receiving her Daniel's ring, Lady Isidor sheds tears and retreats back into her house. Her men servants escort the crew away while the lights of the great manor fade away to blackness once again. Grace, thrilled with Aldo's ability to deliver the swords he found in the crypt, promises him work whenever he needs it. Nor drowns the sound god's relic and the hungry mother receives it. At the clock tower, Atreus continues his work when the sound of a crowd outside stirs his attention...

Season of Ghosts: The Missing Piece

The War for Crow's Foot began with a murder. Or a suspected one, at least.
Lyssa, long-time second-in-command of the Crows rose to claim leadership after Roric disappeared. He was dead - everyone knew that he was dead - but nobody knew how. In the middle of the district there was a Roric-sized hole and while Lyssa thought she should fill it, many in the organization weren't so sure. Which caused the internal strife. Which gave ground to the Lampblacks to finally challenge their long rivals and eventually make the push towards overthrowing the Crows.
All because of a little murder. A murder that was a mystery. Until now.
A great spectral scream has ripped throughout Doskvol. Whispers, ghosts and demons have all heard its call. Fragments and echoes of the last few hours of Roric's life as he was betrayed and finally murdered by Lyssa. Many take this as proof that Roric's ghost is still out there, and with that possibility present the hunt is on. Many would give great sums to possess the knowledge of that spirit.
One of those persons is the demon Bale, who approaches the crew to bring back Roric's spirit in a containing vessel. A collector of stories and intrigues, he wants to know the old man turned new ghost's secrets. The crew tracks the spirit of one of the Crows who was betrayed along with Roric, an infamous cutter by the name of Gustav. The Bloody Crow of Crow's Foot. Known for his viciousness, he disappeared along with Roric. The only one who knows anything about where they may have gone is Gustav's sister, Maria, who points them in the direction of Ulst Manor, a house impaled by one of the great lightning towers of Doskvol.

Once upon a time there used to be another district in Doskvol. But one day the Deathlands rolled in a stronger tide than ever before and swallowed it whole, pulling every spirit and person back into the great black with them. It was the beginning of the end for Doskvol, but it coincided with the creation of the lightning wall. Some say coincidence but others say plan. Regardless, the wall went up and one of the towers, those great black spires that are the half-magic, half-mechanic products of the Sparkwright's Guild, was placed in the middle of the Ulst Manor, a blocks-spanning estate right on the river's edge of the Lost District and what's become Six Towers.
Many go into the Lost District and the Deathlands beyond looking for lost treasure. Things abandoned and forgotten when the walls fell. Many of those people never return. Lyssa promised Roric an easy score just inside the lightning wall. A secret stash. An embarrassment of riches. And there, far from anywhere, she murdered the man and his compatriots. She left the bodies. She'd heard about the particular effect of the Ulst house, how the reason that it had never been looted was because the looters who had tried and died remained there, their spirits trapped inside the mansion as if in a little Doskvol of their own, the lightning tower piercing the mansion's middle creating a ghost trap nothing could leave and nothing could enter.
The crew cross to the edge of Doskvol and bind the spirits they find their after much struggle. Aldo is momentarily possessed as two of Roric's fellow spirits force themselves into his bones. Deeply shaken by the encounter, he attempts to make sense of what to do next after they deliver the spirit of Roric to Bale.

Season of Ghosts: The Box

Due to the Crowfather's crows making it impossible for the deathseeker crows to find the bodies of the recently perished, Crow's Foot has been awash in two currencies: angry spirits and dead bodies. It's a hard thing to come across dead bodies in Doskvol. In the supernatural wet markets where witches and Whispers barter for the best cuts that can be kept from the Spirt Warden, Aldo does his shopping. Filling up on bone shards and teeth, he has enough to fight spirits. He's feeling pretty good as he heads back to the lair. Not even the three sailors following him can bring him down.
They want something. Something he's taken. Or something. It's hard to understand them through broken jaws. The go down easy and the only thing that he finds on them is a picture of his own self - not a very good one, mind - and some directions on where to find him. Which is...curious, but he's pissed off people before. Maybe it means something. Who knows?
Meanwhile in the docks, Kali loots a haunted house for spirit glass when he is surprised by the Nameless Spirit. He's looking for the final materials that will get him his spirit lenses and put him on the same playing field as the Whispers in the cult. On his way back he notices he's being followed and winds up following the followers, trailing them back to their meeting place. Something about them seems familiar - wait! that's right - they're The Fog Hounds, the sailors that he incriminated a couple weeks back. They were sent to Ironhook Prison. Two weeks isn't a sentence, but there was news recently of a breakout. Still, that job went off without a snag. How would they know?
Aldo and Kali meet up with Nor at the crumbling watchtower where she is puzzling over the spirit-box that almost swallowed her own spirit at Isidor Manor. There's surprise when they discover that the same people are looking for them and alarm when someone comes banging at the door. Prepared for trouble, they're shocked to find a brutally beaten Basker at their feet, a note pinned to his chest. The box for Aitrus. That's the trade. There's an abandoned warehouse in the district that they're to meet at. Only one of them, though.
Aldo's the one with the box. He's going to go in, make the trade, and if there's trouble Kali and Nor are up in the rafters waiting to assist. The sailors from before are there. Except for the one whose knee Aldo busted. Yeah, Aldo figures he won't be doing much for a good long while. Along with a trussed up Aitrus is the Whisper from the Isidor Manor, the one who used the Oslo boy as bait. Vincent. That's the name that Oslo gave, but it's the only information he had.
The exchange goes well but that's the end of it. Vincent takes the box and leaves Aldo to the sailors. It's fine by him. More meat for the grinder. The first two go down easy. Blood on his face and he's seeing red. It's a happy place.
Kali and and Nor descend to help, with Nor looking on with simultaneous horror and admiration as the usually reserved Whisper carves through two of the sailors without breathing hard. Kali gets Aitrus up and out, and Aldo busts the face of the last one, leaving a skin bag full of broken bones. A good night, all in all. A very good night.
Crows watch them go. Crowfather crows. They were there with Vincent. Were they watching for him or for you? Or both? Questions for later. You're out a box but up a friend. Better luck next time.

Season of Ghosts: Silence and Spirits

Between scores, Nor and Aitrus pursue their own ends. For Nor, that means tracking down the young Whisper-to-be, Oslo. On the street after surviving the massacre of The Red Sashes, the boy is at great risk. Untrained Whispers call out to the spirits around them without knowing it and with Crow's Foot being in the state it is, it's not a matter of if but when something ugly finds him.

Meanwhile, Aitrus continues his study of the ghost-roads at the clock tower. His first tentative investigations have come to little. The roads are either broken or incomplete. The latest one opens up into an alley of pure spiritual silence, and this isn't the first time that Aitrus has felt this. Something is happening in Crow's Foot that is draining small sections of the district of all its spiritual energy.

Both Whispers seek answers in the counsel of the demon, Setarra, who is currently giving advice to many other Whispers working for Bosk, the Spirit Warden in charge of clearing out the surge of hungry spirits in Crow's Foot. Setarra tells Nor that she knows that Oslo is working with another Whisper, probably one of the many hired by the Wardens, but she does not know which one. For Aitrus, she has more information to give. She points him in the direction of the hooded proprietor and offers him help in his continued study of the clock tower. Before leaving to meet with the proprietor, Setarra asks the pair to investigate a brothel called The Leg Up in the docks. It's another possible point of silence. The pair agree to look.

At the hooded proprietor's, located in a half-sunken building in a grotto close to the docks, Aitrus learns of a spark-engineer named Breen who works in Six Towers. The points of silence, he surmises, could be the result of a device, but he knows not what kind of device. Breen might know, and Aitrus should seek her out.

On their way back, they stop by The Leg Up and discover that the whole brothel is devoid of spiritual energy even though it's occupied. A whole building of hollows, something neither have ever heard of.  They flee the area before they are discovered.

Shortly after, Nor runs into Gen, one of his wastrels, who tells him that Oslo is working with a Whisper and is going into the Isidor Manor to help ensnare spirits. The Whisper is using him as bait, Nor realizes.

It's been a long time since the pair have been to the Isidor Manor. For all undesireables in Crow's Foot, stepping foot in Isidor's Manor is a rite of passage. Whether you're hiding from the law, experimenting with the unnatural, needing a place to sleep or steal, Isidor's Manor has always been a somewhat more safe place for the young criminals in Crow's Foot to get their feet wet. Scaling the walls outside the manor and making their way through the wild, overgrown and dark gardens, they hear Oslo scream deep inside the building. Nor dashes inside while Aitrus takes in the area, seeing a strange well-dressed figure in an ornate wooden mask staring back at him from across the lawn. Before he can react, the well-dressed Whisper takes his leave and Aitrus rushes in to help Nor.

Inside, Oslo is chased by a roiling tide of corrupted, deranged spirits. Nor catches up to him on the second floor landing and barely gets his shield up in time. While the ghosts tear and gnash at his defenses, Aitrus arrives and finds a ticking sound coming off the boy. A box is attached to Oslo and it's ticking faster. Managing to remove the box, Aitrus tosses it through the shield and into the mass of ghosts just before opens.

It's an explosion in reverse, a sudden void that pulls in all spiritual energy around it, including the kind that lives within the three Whispers. Managing to hold onto their own spirits, the box closes and they collapse onto the ground, completely overwhelmed by the sudden silence around them.

Nor offers Oslo a home. The boy takes it.

Season of Ghosts: Beyond Duskvol

Outside the walls of Duskvol, beyond the safety of the electric tower, the Deathlands stretch out in every direction. Most city-dwellers don't think about the world past the walls and the railways that connect them. If they do it's simply to shrug and consider it lost. A wasteland of demons, ghosts and worse. But there is still life out there. Small communities. Mining consortiums. It's not just the Void Sea that needs to be scraped to feed the city's appetite.

It's been a few days since the massacre of the Red Sashes. The skies are choked with ravens. Every death that happens in Duskvol is accompanied by two things: the bell and the crow. Every time a body dies in Duskvol a bell rings and a magically imbued crow, a death-raven, is loosed from the citadel to help the Spirit Wardens - Duskvol's spiritual defenders -  find and dispose of the body before its spirit rises and haunts the city. But there is chaos in the skies. Harrying the death-ravens, distracting them from their duty, are whole murders of crows. Bodies that were meant for the fire have gone unclaimed and blossomed into restless spirits that now haunt Crow's Foot.

To combat this rise of restless spirits, the Spirit Wardens have empowered one of their order to set up shop in Crow's Foot. In the ruins of the Red Sashes, the bronze-masked Bosk hires out Whispers and other crews to try and contain the spectral threat. The smell of burning bodies permeates the air, but it never seems to be enough. Ghosts and horrors are getting their hooks into Crow's Foot and it's no sure thing that the Spirit Wardens will be enough to hold back the tide.

Amidst all this, the cult receives an invitation to consort with the Crows. Meeting the Crows second-in-command, Bell, they are hired to retrieve a package that was coming into Duskvol from outside the walls. A mining consortium was using an abandoned railway to get three crates to the Crows but they haven't been heard from in days. The Crows want the cult to go out and investigate, especially since taking the Clocktower in the purge they now have an easy way through to the Deathlands.

The crew does their research. Aitrus continues his research on the Clocktower and discovers where the other end of the portal from the tower leads. Nor consults with a wandering demon named Bale, trading the captured spirits of the working class for information about Folly's Line, the abandoned railway and the horror that makes its home where the tracks break. Armed with this information, the crew gear up and step through the tuning fork gate.

They arrive in a church tower of an empty town. The wind howls around them and there is no light in any direction. They make their way as best they can across the wasted hills, trailed by lion-like beasts that can smell their essence on the wind. Aldo does the tracking and Kali keeps them hidden. Aided by the supernatural sight of Nor and Aitrus, they prove able to keep ahead of the beasts. Losing them in river crossings, they come across Folly's Line and travel to where Bale said the horror made its lair.

When they arrive at the sinkhole Aldo tracks to where the shipment went down instead of around the shipment. Unable to make sense of this strange decision, Nor notices that the trees are filled with stone spidery ghost things that whisper encouragements to go down into the hole. Nor banishes the little beasts and Kali descends into the hole where the horror is revealed.

The horror is a white, strange, tumorous spider sac that hangs in the air. Out from its deformed body trail thin jellyfish-like tendrils that connected with twelve bodies, some living, some dead, lying around the shipment. Upon hearing a shift of rock, two of the bodies jerk up, as if pulled up on the string that goes through their body.

The cult descends to negotiate with the horror. To prove their ability, Aldo demolishes the first one that crosses their path with his bone gauntlets. Aitrus steps forward to negotiate. He offers the horror a continual food supply of people in return for the boxes. The horror agrees, tying a tendril around his finger. If he fails to provide the horror with food, the finger will be lost. With that, the crew carries the crate back to the church and through back into Duskvol.

They do not notice the woman who tracks them.

At Duskvol, the cult investigates the contents of the box and discover that each box carries twenty specialty firearms, capable of multiple ammunition that could attack the living and the dead. They argue over what to do with the box and ultimately decide to keep four back and give the rest to Bell. Bell arrives and buys their story about the missing rifles. He doesn't seem to care much that the mining consortium members are dead or know anything about the Ironhook prison escapees who held them up in the sink hole who were also caught up by the horror.

A job well done, the crew splits up again to go about their individual pursuits. Business is booming in Crow's Foot right now. It's a season of ghosts, and plenty of opportunity to get into scrapes before the big battle of the Crows and Lampblacks kicks off in full.

Nor

Commissioned art for Nor. Artist: @greseadraws on Instagram

The One Where Everything Changed

Mylera Klev is dead, butchered in the streets with other high-ranking Red Sashes by Baz and the other Lampblacks. The war is over. The war has just started. After parading Mylera's broken body through the district and declaring his intention to take control over Crow's Foot from Lyssa and the other Crows, the Lampblacks go on a murderous spree. Any remaining Red Sashes are hunted down and killed. Turf is taken. Scores are settled.
The Bluecoats withdraw their support from the Crows. Now that the battle lines are drawn they pull back, sealing off the bridges so that this terrible night of revenge and murder doesn't spill out into the rest of Duskvol. It's a long night. One with grim implications...and opportunities.
When the crew returns to their lair they find a servant girl from the Red Sashes protecting several children. She needs help escaping the district and she's willing to pay. The crew decides to help and in return they'll pick up two pieces of turf, a vice den called A Hole in the World and an ancient gate that allows them safe passage through the Deathlands which lies at the top of the Old Clock Tower.
The crew splits up, with Nor and Aitrus managing the crazed spirits of the Clock Tower to evacuate the remaining Sashes through the spirit doors contained within. Kali and Twelves sneak their way through Baz's marauders to the Hole in the World where they transport the remaining Sashes in a death cart across the district.
By the end of the night the Sashes are gone and the crew's influence has spread. But what awaits them in the future, where winner takes all in the battle for the heart of the district?

The One That Got Us to Thirteen

The first time the crew met with Baz at the Lampblack's hideout, it was quiet and dark. The long, lonely warehouses piled with coal no longer useful in Duskvol were empty of people and light. The crew met Baz looking out over all that emptiness, in the dark, and took a job offer to deliver a little box. And that little box kicked off what's turned out to be a very successful war for the Lampblacks.
Now the crew is back. Aldo and Aitrus move through the crowds of crews and citizens, merchants and thugs. Goods are moving through the warehouses for the first time in decades, all lit by lanterns just like the old days. The crew meet Baz up on the walkway like before, and just like before, he offers them a job.
Someone's been killing birds in Tangletown.
Crows, to be specific. He wants that person dealt with. Doesn't matter how. Tangletown is neutral ground. He can't make a move there himself, but his associate - who he doesn't name - is having problems with someone killing his birds. Find this person, get him out of the picture, and name your price.
The crew have something in mind. A cherry piece of turf they've had their eye on but had little luck getting. A speak-easy and the corner store above it.
"Done," Baz tells him. "You do this, it's yours."

Aldo leads the pair down to the Docks where a "friend" is holding court. Grace is an extortionist who, to be clever and rhyming, is also a bit of a contortionist. They find her in the middle of winning a bet of body twisting, proving she can do things that even the sailors of the Void Sea haven't seen before. Flush from her winning, feeling the glow of all the fresh money, she only has her man break one of Aldo's fingers. He still owes her money, after all.
The man they're looking for is an hound named Basker. Old soldier from the war. Came home, tried to work in government, be respectable, but it didn't take. Tried working with crews, but the last job went sideways. Two in jail, the rest dead. Basker took the hint and went to drown his woes in Tangletown.
Leaving the bar with one less working digit, the pair try something else. Aitrus has an idea that Kota might know something. Before getting high up with the Bluecoats, he did work in the army. Maybe he knows Basker. Also, he might not owe them a favour, but he might not be annoyed to see them. Turns out Aitrus was right. Kota not only knows the old man, but used to serve under him. Captain Miles Basker. Led long ranging scouting missions in the deadlands. A deadly hound who could take down an enemy Whisper or a stray ghost a mile away. Made his own ammunition.
Not interested in civilian life, though, but Kota always has a door open for him if the old man wants to come in from out of the cold.
"Can we pass along your name?"
"Of course."
"Anything else? Something to let him know it's actually you."
The old soldier's eyes go distant. "When they die, the soul sinks, not drops." He focuses back on the pair. "He'll know what it means."

Grace told them that Basker makes his home in a bar called the Oprey. That name is the remaining letters left on the side of the hull that was one of the first to beach in the river. No one knows what the rest of the letters spell out or where the ship comes from. In the tipped over hold of the Oprey there's a bar that serves all sorts. There's gambling, a little pit fighting.
"We'll go in," Aldo says, "And we'll wait for him to come to us."
It doesn't happen quite like that.
Instead, within seconds Aitrus is restrained by a giant tattooed man and Aldo is shoved down against the bar, a pistol jammed in his face. He barely manages to get the code phrase out seconds before the old man is about to shoot him.
So they talk.
Basker got a taste for the supernatural during the war. He likes it. Needs it. The hunt, yeah, but more than that, the ghosts. Being a cop, sure, that's one part, but he needs the other. He respects Kota's offer but he knows it won't take. His crew fell out from under him and now no one will take him.
"What's with the crows?" Aitrus asks.
"Saw the same thing during the war. Whispers or Demons, they divide parts of themselves. Send them looking."
"It's the Crowfather."
"He has a name," the old man says. "That's helpful."
"You're going to leave him alone."
"Or else, what? I'm dead?"
"Yeah, basically."
"From nine-fingers over there," he says, pointing at Aldo.
"Nine WORKING fingers," Aldo points back.
They didn't walk in thinking they would offer this, but it comes out anyway.
"What if you come work with us?" Aitrus asks.
"Your crew?"
"Yeah. We deal with spooky shit all the time." Aldo says.
"How many are you."
"Ten," Aldo says.
"Eleven," Aitrus corrects.
Aldo snaps his fingers. "The ghost girl, right. You would make twelve."
"Thirteen," Basker says, pointing at his mute compatriot.
"What's his name?" Aitrus asks.
"Noise," Basker says.
"Of course it is. You bring him, I'm guessing?"
The old man smiles. He's missing some teeth. "You know it."

Later, when he's looking over the crumbling watchtower, Basker isn't so sure. Then he sees the ghost girl, the occult signs, and it only takes a look at the river where the Hungry Mother sleeps her eternal rest and he sighs. "Yeah, this'll probably do. We're not going to live here, but we'll be nearby. We'll come when you call."
Sometime even later, Aldo pays off his debt to Grace.

The One Where Someone Else Took The Fall

The conflict between the Red Sashes and the Lampblacks has gotten too loud. With the Crows unable to keep the two gangs in check and with violence spilling over to all corners of the district, the Bluecoats have arrived in force.

Leaving their places of pleasure and indulgence, Aitrus, Nor and Kali are picked up by Bluecoats and dragged off to the warehouses of the Docks for questioning. There they meet Kota, a mid-rank Bluecoat who is tracking those behind the attack on the Second Step. The deaths of that first score reached far beyond the district, and with the current problems in Crow's Foot, it's given the Bluecoats more than enough encouragement to go in and start laying down the law.

Now Kota is a practical man. He wants answers, but they don't have to be the honest ones. Sure, if he knew he was speaking to the crew who was actually behind the score he would have you all strung up, but he doesn't. Instead he's looking to pin the blame on a new player that's affecting the Bluecoats on the canal, a small group of smugglers called the Fog Hounds.

Leaving their interrogation, the crew makes a plan to frame the Fog Hounds for the attack. They discover that the Fog Hounds are currently docked in Tangletown and even though it's certain death if they're discovered working on neutral ground, they decide to make the play there where they'll be least expected. The other complication comes from a warning from the demoness Setara that the Crowfather makes his home in Tangletown and to watch out for him.

The crew makes their way by boat from their lair to nearby Tangletown where they easily spot the Fog Hound. Kali climbs up the side of the boat and disappears into the vessel, finding himself surrounded by the snoring, burping, farting forms of a dozen sailors. He makes his way through the vessel until he can plant some evidence in an officer's sea locker. From there he makes his escape.

The crew is almost away when they notice a crow watching them. Nor attunes himself to the crow and finds that it is one of the Crowfather's. More importantly, he finds that the Crowfather does not see through the crows directly but gives a piece of himself over to the crow. It's only when the crow returns to the Crowfather that he'll gain their knowledge. Nor channels arcane power through them and explodes the crow. Aitrus and Kali quickly paddle their way back to the lair.

The next day the Fog Hounds are all arrested and their vessel is impounded to be sold off to a competitor. It's a sure bet that when they're out of prison, they'll be looking for blood. But who isn't, these days?

The One That Didn't Work Out

In the fallout of the crew's score at the Second Step, the Lampblacks push their attack on the Red Sashes. A group of young students from the sword temple are ambushed and immolated by Lampblacks throwing molotov cocktails from the rooftops following an attempt by the Sashes to intimidate local Crow's Foot residents.

In response to all this, the Bluecoats arrive in force. Provisionally here to represent Doskvol as a city, it's an open secret that the Crows have welcomed the support. The Bluecoats search for the culprits behind the Second Stair score. That event hurt a lot of big players in town, and someone needs to hang for it. The Bluecoats don't care who as long as someone fits the noose.

While all of this rages on, Nor and Aitrus decide to look for a way to expand their territory. After consulting with their demon acquaintance, Setarra, they find the right target. Setarra points them towards some turf held by the Red Sashes. A speakeasy at night, a numbers shop by day, this basement under a Skovlan cornerstore is what comes up. Nor and Aitrus survey the area along with the help of their nameless ghost friend who reveals that she doesn't remember her name.

A number of street kids act as runners for the Sashes. They hang around outside the shop. When the nameless ghost scouts the inside of the store, Aitrus and Nor notice the familiar look of shock as one of the children perceives the ghost. A potential future Whisper, if they live that long. When the ghost returns they discover another way in through the sewers. The pair go to investigate.

Unfortunately, their investigation runs afoul of some loading and unloading going on at the back of the operation and both Aitris and Nor are discovered and badly injured. Nor is stabbed in the gut and Aitrus is shot in the chest. Aitrus manages to find a ghost door and escape with Nor. After limping back to their lair, they spend the next few days healing under the eyes of a paid physicker.

The Bluecoats, catching wind of this, investigate and question Setarra. She doesn't give up the crew, but between this and the survivors of the attack at the speakeasy, the Red Sashes are on alert and the heat is rising for the crew.

The One With That Crazy Egg

Tempers are up in the district of Crow's Foot. While Lyssa, new leader of the Crows, secures her position in that organization, the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes take the opportunity to move against each other. They reach out to all the crews they know of to get as much support as possible.

Aitrus, Aldo and Nor take meetings with both Baz and Mylera about working for them before deciding ultimately to go with Baz's offer. Baz presents them with a wooden box with a strange bone egg inside. The job is simple: take the egg and put it inside the walls of the Second Step, an upscale brothel run by the Red Sashes in the Docks district. 

Aitrus and Nor investigate the egg which gives off powerful waves of ghostly energy and discover that it antagonizes and distorts ectoplasmic resonances in a localized area. The three go into the Docks and case the area, looking for information about how best to assault the brothel. Nor and Aldo meet the ghost of a nameless murdered girl on a bridge and discover that the bottom floor of the second step is connected to a very powerful network of ghost-ways, echoes of previous incarnations of Doskvol. The unnamed girl shows them the entrance to the ghost-way. Meanwhile, Aitrus surveys the outside of the brothel and notices that disguised wealthy patrons are coming in with servants carrying spirit vessels.

For the score, the trio decide to split up, with Aldo going through the front door using the name of a former employer who Aitrus saw included among the select wealthy patrons. This works, and Aldo is escorted inside. At the same time, using a ghost key, Nor and Aitrus brave the ghost door along with the unnamed ghost. Inside they see a ghost-way of the like they've never seen before.

Ghost-ways are echoes of previous architecture in Doskvol. For a Whisper, the ghost of a door to a room that has since been walled up is still accessible as an echo for them to traverse through. But this is different. Instead of an echo of something once built, this was a structure built by something that never was. Ghosts and spirits that were never born. These only exist in fairy tales for the strange and broken Whispers. They encounter masked, uniformed ghosts who ignored the masked Whispers but see the unnamed ghost as an intruder. Nor compels them to ignore the ghost and is successful. The unnamed ghost flees, returning to the crew's lair where she still resides.

Aldo, Aitrus and Nor meet up in the basement of the brothel and find themselves in the middle of a debauched, blasphemous orgy. Wealthy patrons couple soundlessly with the bodies of their now possessed servants. With discovery imminent, the crew secures the egg through a loose wall which enrages the possessed bodies. The profane orgy turns into a massacre and they flee through the ghost-ways which crumble behind them. As they stalk back to their lair, they hear the sounds of screams and commotions die out behind them.

A clean crime, the crew gains no reputation for this other than the thanks of Baz and the promised reward. They will need to decide how to proceed going forward. Do they want to keep working for Baz or another faction? Do they want to take advantage of this chaos and claim more turf or maybe run their own scores? 

Factions of Crow's Foot: The Crows

No one remembers which came first, the Crows or Crow's Foot, but since the beginning they've been entwined. Other powers have held the district over the years, but inevitably it has fallen back into the hands of the Crows. This latest incarnation of the Crows has been very successful in brokering peace between rival factions bent on bloodshed like the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes. A lot of this success was attributed to the Crows former leader Roric who was recently overthrown by his second-in-command Lyssa. Now Lyssa runs the Crows and by extension the district.

Lyssa is many things. She's brash, she's imaginative, but she's also a killer and a leader. Her second-in-command Bell is the perfect combination of a lack of ambition and loyalty. Together they strangle out the last death spasms of Roric's leadership by ousting those who were loyal to him and securing support from those just looking to advance.

In the midst of this power-play, the other factions are on the move, and while Lyssa sees this happening, she can't as of yet commit her forces to it. It's a space that's ripe for opportunity for crews that have the stones and cunning to seize it.

Factions of Crow's Foot: The Red Sashes

Born from a lone line of ancient Iruvian sword arts, The Red Sashes began life in Doskvol as a sword-fighting school for the Iruvian nobility. As fortunes changed, the school opened the door to more of Doskvol's inhabitants and what was once an exclusive and prestigious salon of swordsmanship has become a privileged nest of rich killers and their less wealthy partners-in-crime.

Several members of the Red Sashes are the sons and daughters of Iruvian nobility and diplomats in Doskvol. They train in swordplay at the school that is the faction's headquarters and sometimes participate in gang activities. Their families are powerful and will commit significant resources to punishing anyone who harms their children.

The leader of the Red Sashes is Mylera Klev. An example of how different the modern day Sashes are, she originally hails from the streets of Akoros. Or at least that's one of the stories. Others tell of a Sevorosi princess on the run, or the illegitimate daughter of an Iruvian noble. Whatever her true origin, she is a shrewd, ruthless and highly educated woman, capable of surgical strikes against her enemies.

The Red Sashes operate a handful of high-end drug dens and brothels across Crow's Foot and the Docks. Like Baz and the Lampblacks, Mylera aims to use the confusion of the Crows leadership situation to finally firm up control of her turf, and maybe make a play for Crow's Foot itself.

Factions of Crow's Foot: The Lampblacks

There was a time when Duskvol was powered by coal. During that time the Lamplighters Guild prospered, bringing light to the endless dark. When their services were rendered useless after the advent of electrical light the guild turned to crime and today make their home in Crow's Foot shoulder-to-shoulder with the other gangs.

The leader of the Lampblacks is a man named Bazso Baz. He's charming, ruthless, and appreciates a fine whiskey. The Lampblacks are thought of fondly in Crow's Foot, treated as folk heroes of a sort.  They operate a handful of brothels and cheap drug dens all across the district and they make their headquarters in the office of a coal warehouse.

Since the upset in the Crows' leadership, the Lampblacks under Baz have started to make plays against their old rivals, The Red Sashes. The peace brokered by the Crows under Roric, their old leader, is now in question. Like everyone else, Baz hopes to turn the chaos of the moment to his benefit by either taking the Sashes off the board or at least greatly expanding the Lampblacks influence.