View source for Log7th Sea: The Search for Salvation-2012/11/08-Jason-1

{{Gamelog
|Session Date=2012/11/08
|Campaign=7th Sea: The Search for Salvation
|Author=Jason
|Session Title=Traps & Treachery
}}
Evil bullies are interfering with our efforts to give food to the
poor. We shall smite them for great justice!

The guy Nikolai hit goes down hard. Pierre's men start to react and
then see Felix's zweihander in their faces. "We're in charge of food
distribution now. Let it go," the Eisen commands. Seeing six feet of
steel in his face seems to take some of the starch out of Pierre. We
finish giving out the meat, with a little extra tension sauce with our
beef. When the food's gone, Benito asks to talk to Pierre's boss.
Pierre claims to have no superior. When challenged, he agrees to take
Benito to see the man, but insists that Nikolai and Felix stay behind.
"Your men stay with my men," Benito counters. They're off!

As they go, Pierre talks loads of shit to Benito, insisting that his
upper class guilt has no relevance to anything that happens in Petite
Charouse. They enter a table, with seven men sitting around a long
table in a candlelit room. A massive Eisen with Posen heraldry tatooed
on his face stands and says something in Eisen. Benito responds in
Montaigne. The Eisen ({{npcref|Markus}} spits on the ground and asks,
in Montaigne, what business Benito has in his city. "We seek passage."
A discussion of details ensues. One of the other men comes around the
table and reminds him that L'empereur keeps a tight rein on the
catacombs under the palace - not to keep strangers out, but to keep
whatever's there from escaping. End of the story, though, is that
they're not especially interested in keeping us out of the east side.
They ask 50 guilders a head as a fee for passage, which Benito
immediately tries to bargain down. Negotiations swiftly break down as
Benito counter-offers so low that the boss switches from bargaining to
intimidation. Yeah. This journey could really suck if we don't get on
the right side of the racket! Benito switches to barter and agrees to
get him credit for an entire cow at the butcher's. They bicker a
little over security for the deal and settle on payment in advance -
the Eisen will go collect some from the butcher before we come back.
Pierre walks him back out to rejoin us.

Benito eventually rejoins us and informs us that we owe Pierre 1
guilder - "per hand." "You might find out one day what a one-handed
man can do," Pierre says. Tough man. Proven survivor. Oh well. Next:
bathing. Because we reek. A lot. Benito also pays to have Antonia and
her brothers bathe.

Reginald returns to the Explorer's Society to meet with
{{npcref|Emmanuelle Aubois}}. She tells him that bad things are
happening in Petit Charouse. Musketeers only go down there in force.
Screams echo from the tunnels at all hours of the day. She mentions
that she has worked on finding people who could enter the tunnels with
him, but it's been difficult to recruit. Luckily Reginald already has
a team! Actually recruiting has been so difficult that their
recruiters contributed to the fire at Luc's. Anyway - she also knows a
new way to get into the catacombs, by going through a section that the
Musketeers have been avoiding. She warns him that many things have
changed in 20 years and he should expect more traps or bricked-up
passageways. She can help get him better lanterns and a crazy flash
bomb that might help to get rid of ghouls. Neat!

At the spa, we find {{npcref|Antonia}} and her brothers getting hassled by a
Musketeer. Benito, who does not like seeing the poor hassled, tells
him to leave his servants alone, and tells Léon that he's beginning to
dislike the Montaigne locals. Benito asks about the salon to see if
there's someone who could procure clothing for the children.

In the bath Felix overhears people talking about Nicholas Trague and
the huge amount of money he's been spending on mercenaries as Fauner
Posen and Stefan Heilgrund begin laying siege to Freiburg. Nikolai
tries to find someone in the baths who can talk about the state of the
countryside and the reason the peasants are doing so badly. All he
gets is the party line, that the taxes are a sacrifice gladly made by
all Montaigne for the glory of the nation. The man also warns Nikolai
not to discuss that subject much. It's not a good time for people to
have opinions about the state of the nation. We also hear that
Montague has crossed the Eisen border with 30,000 men.

Based on everything he's heard, Nikolai counsels us all to make sure
that we aren't in the city for long after we finish our mission.
Benito, on the other hand, wants to stay and make some sort of
positive contribution. He begins talking in a disturbingly
revolutionary way. We decide to get out of there before he gets us all
arrested for sedition. In the new clothes Benito purchased for the
kids, Antonia appears quite Castille.

Léon finds a caterer and begins setting up a series of picnics for a
large group of people, featuring wine, fresh fruit, etc, in baskets.
Luckily he mentions his dream of feeding the hungry to Nikolai and
Janisse, who caution him to thin it down and make sure the hungry
don't eat themselves to death. Perhaps just small bread rolls would be
better. Anyway, he pays out for enough food to keep deliveries to
Petit Charouse going for a week. Unfortunately there's no way to make
sure the food gets distributed. Felix suggests that a soup kitchen
might be better, although the expense will get considerable. Léon
takes no pains over money when it comes to righting this egregious
social injustice, at least until the money runs out.

We spend the rest of the day getting supplies, make an early night of
it, and then get up early to begin our descent into the most dangerous
part of the crappiest section of a city building toward widespread
rioting, because that's just how hard we are.

We have no trouble getting to the entrance we're looking for. We
immediately notice the difference between the areas that have become
part of Petit Charouse, with Antonia in the lead, then Reginald, then
Benito, then Nikolai, then Léon and Claude, and Felix in the rear.
Antonia uses a stick to check for sinkholes, traps, etc. She
accidentally trips a wall trap featuring swinging blades and goes down
without so much as a scream. Benito tries to pull her out of the water
and immediately realizes she isn't conscious. Her insides are on the
outside, but Benito works feverishly to get them stuffed back inside.
Even if she lives, though, all this blood means we have major
problems. Benito orders us to bug out, so Felix begins backtracking,
and Reginald slides past the rest of the group to take the lead again.
Then we run into Pierre and three other guys, who sees Reginald and
almost freezes up. They then exchange compliments. Benito reminds him
that we paid to be here, but they think Reginald is worth more than
just beef. They attack but can't connect. Benito whirls in with his
Soldano form and immediately takes out two of the thugs. Nikolai
throws an axe at Pierre but misses. Sploosh! Felix maneuvers around
Nikolai. Reginald stabs at Pierre but doesn't do enough damage to take
his old "friend" out of the fight. Léon gets Antonia from Nikolai,
getting her out of the midst of the fight. Nikolai asks Claude to
watch behind us. Benito whirls again, taking out the third henchman
and catching Pierre on the knee with the flat of his blade. Reginald
stabs at Pierre again, and since Pierre is off balance and stumbling
toward him, Reginald's knife goes deep into Pierre's belly. Pierre
lashes out at Reginald's throat, instantly doing a dramatic wound.
Nikolai swings his axe again and takes Pierre's ear off. Benito whirls
again and slits Pierre's throat with both blades and a martial
flourish. "We should go," Reginald croaks out through his hammered
throat. Claude adds that he thinks he hears something. Nikolai and
Reginald lead us back to the safehouse, but Janisse isn't there.
Reginald calls for her with his magic.