Session 06 - The Baron in the Wind

TL;DR

The morning after the Grimsby Gala, Sergeant Kalla Steelcord half-collapsed through the Slackline’s door, bloodied and short three Edgerunners — Tomass, Brell, and a nineteen-year-old recruit named Edda. The prison wagon was a scorched ruin on the seventh stair. Baron Grimsby was in the wind, Harlan Blackstitch had cut him loose, and Pip the stable boy had been taken as leverage with a 36-hour clock until the next convergence tide. With only two of the crew available, Nah Mean and Declan dragged themselves to the dry-dock barracks, broke the leak in under twenty minutes (Bram Fellweave, gambling debts, blackmailed by Harlan over a “leek soup at the Shiny Coin” that didn’t survive contact with Nah Mean’s foaming, axe-pointing interrogation), and got pointed at the Filch Tannery cellar. They raided Hem’s confiscated-contraband basement for a Bag of Badgers, a Goblin Bomb, Boots of the Cat, and a set of plus-one plate mail, then waited out the day at the Shiny Coin with two bitters and bread-and-butter-for-the-duck before dropping through an oil-slicked street grate straight onto the Baron’s lap. The fight that followed was a near-disaster — Declan went down, the duck got crossbowed off the cutting board, Cure Wounds critically failed and got the spell revoked by an angry deity — but the duck swallowed a thug whole into some kind of void-space, vomited the void-mucus back up to revive Declan, and Nah Mean’s running campaign of small-sword/small-dick taunts about Harlan’s old wardrobe accident kept the ex-Edgerunner angry enough to make mistakes. Harlan surrendered. Baron Grimsby never landed a blow. Pip was cut loose and immediately adopted himself into the crew. Harlan got marched to the docks and shipped out under a captain who would “probably just throw him overboard.” The Baron was hauled back to Juno alive.

Cast (PCs)

Nah Mean - dwarven fighter; new +1 plate mail and a Bag of Badgers; ran the entire interrogation with an axe pinned in the table and pastry crumbs in his beard; backhanded a tied-up Baron; bartered Harlan’s life for a one-way ticket out of the city.
Declan Rafferty - sailor-priest; new Boots of the Cat and a Goblin Bomb (unused); scaled rooftops to scout the tannery; quick-knotted the Baron in the surprise round; went down at 0 HP; was revived by duck vomit; lost Cure Wounds permanently (or until ritual penance) when his deity revoked the spell mid-cast.
The third party member (priest) was talked through gear selection but did not join the cellar raid — only Nah Mean and Declan went in.

Setting & Vibe

Locations: The Slackline at dawn; the Dry-Dock Barracks (reception, holding room, contraband basement); rooftops and alleys around the Filch Tannery in Spindle Square; the Shiny Coin tavern; the tanner’s grate; Baron Grimsby’s cellar hideout.
A two-player intrigue-and-rescue arc: the front half is a 20-minute interrogation that cracks open the leak; the back half is a brutal underground combat where the entire party was three HP and one bad roll away from a wipe.
No carousing this session — only two players showed up, so it was rolled over to next time.

Bad News at the Slackline

Nah Mean and Declan woke to woodsmoke that shouldn’t be there and the inn’s door rattling under someone’s fist. Sergeant Kalla Steelcord half-fell into the foyer, right arm wrapped and bloody. Her account, delivered in clipped pieces:

The Baron had been arrested at dawn, loaded into a prison wagon for transport to the cells.
They were ambushed on the seventh stair. Fire-pots through the canvas. Two crossbow bolts through Tomass before he could shout.
Harlan Blackstitch led the strike — and waved at her as he pulled the Baron away.
Three Edgerunners dead: Tomass, Brell, and Edda (nineteen, recruit).
Only four people knew the transport route: Banner-Mistress Juno, Kalla herself, High Edge-Warden Hem, and Clerk Bram Fellweave. One of them was the leak.
A note had been nailed to the wagon’s tailgate: “To the dwarf and his menagerie — bring the little vial to the seventh stair by tomorrow’s third bell, or the boy who carried your instruments will be returned to his mother in pieces appropriate to his weight. — P.G.”
Pip was missing. A kitchen girl had reported the Grimsby estate empty, the stable bedroll gone, blood on the hay.

Roughly 30 hours on the clock before the next seam-crossing tide opened and Shimmer could pull the Baron out of the city forever.

“We do not ring the bell,” Nah Mean said. “We’re going in heavy outnumbered to an obvious ambush spot to rescue a kid who’s probably already dead. Definitely not. Alright, let’s go.”

Interrogation at the Barracks

Carla, the Receptionist

Nah Mean opened the visit with the usual extended flirtation in broken French with Carla the dwarven receptionist — pressed-flower books, croissants and café au lait booked for brunch tomorrow, and a polite request that she physically restrain anyone who tried to leave the holding room mid-interrogation.

The Room

Inside: Banner-Mistress Juno (calm, cold, furious), High Edge-Warden Hem (anxious), and Clerk Bram Fellweave (sweating into his collar). Nah Mean walked in, slammed his axe into the table hard enough to wedge it, and asked which of the fucking twats it was.

A natural-22 Wisdom check let Nah Mean see exactly how hard Bram was sweating.

Juno’s Alibi

“My husband was in the same bed as me all night.”

She had Carla send for him. Cleared.

Cracking Bram (the Carrot-and-Leek Trap)

Bram claimed he’d been alone at the Shiny Coin tavern until 2 a.m. eating carrot-and-leek soup and drinking ale. Nah Mean, who actually knew the place, walked him into two contradictions in a row:

“Leeks haven’t been at the market all week. They came in fresh yesterday — people were rejoicing.”

“The Shiny Coin is a bitters house. Nobody drinks the ale there.”

Bram tried to add that “Jack” the bartender could vouch for him. Nah Mean, very gently:

“Jack is a good friend. I don’t believe he’s ever set foot in the Shiny Coin.”

Contested Charisma vs. Wisdom — Nah Mean rolled 17, Declan 15. Bram pissed himself, then confessed.

Three weeks ago, Harlan Blackstitch had approached him over a nine-hundred-coin gambling debt.
Small leaks at first. Last night’s transport route was the big one.
The Baron and Harlan are hiding in a cellar beneath the Filch Tannery in Spindle Square.
Harlan has four men. Plus the Baron. Plus Pip, alive as of his last contact.
Shimmer is scheduled to arrive at third bell tomorrow through a seam-crossing. The window stays open about half an hour.

Bram begged not to be handed to the Rival Yard. Juno took him into custody with a quiet “Which will be soon” that no one in the room mistook for kindness.

Hem Confesses Sideways

With Bram broken, Nah Mean turned his one eye on Hem. The High Edge-Warden volunteered, unprompted, that his nephew works at Grimsby’s bank and owes the Baron money. He hadn’t reported it. Juno granted him a last-chance reprieve — they’d revisit the nephew after the Baron was in irons.

Equipping for War

Juno authorized one trip to the basement contraband vault. Critical-success Wisdom roll netted two plus-one items each from the confiscated stockpile:

Nah Mean: +1 Plate Mail, Bag of Badgers (once per day, hurl an angry badger that attacks the nearest creature for three rounds)
Declan: Boots of the Cat (silent movement is always easy; near-distance jump from standstill), Goblin Bomb (1d4 round fuse, 2d8 damage at near range)
An additional magic-item pull was banked for after the mission.

Nah Mean had to abandon some old kit in the basement to make weight. He also remembered — much later, mid-combat — that he’d been carrying a Lucky Ceramic Tankard since the first session that could refresh a luck token once per day.

The Stakeout and the Grate

Declan scaled a tannery-district rooftop with his new boots (DEX with advantage, easy 19) and spotted a peculiar iron grate in a side alley. Shuttle’s Shipyard doesn’t run sewage — it dumps straight into the ether — so a grate leading down to somewhere was unusual enough to be the entry they needed.

They killed time at the Shiny Coin waiting for evening. Two bitters, bread and butter for the duck (the boy waiter advised against the butter on ducks’ stomachs; the duck wanted butter; the duck got butter). Eavesdropping picked up bar-room talk about Baron Grimsby being spotted on the streets last night and a “really angry dark-looking guy” said to look like he could kill twenty men single-handed.

When evening came they pried the grate up — caked with years of tanner’s oil — and dropped through. Declan rolled a clean 2 on falling damage. The duck just jumped.

The Cellar

The grate emptied them into the Baron’s hideout — and they landed standing right next to Baron Grimsby himself, who was reaching for a belt dagger. The drop bought them a surprise round.

The Cast in the Cellar

Baron Phineas Grimsby — fat, old, useless in a fight, tied up before he could blink.
Harlan Blackstitch — ex-Edgerunner, short sword, professional, +5 to hit.
Cutter Vin — Harlan’s lieutenant, crossbow and short sword.
Two hired thugs with clubs.
Pip — bound to a workbench leg, bruised, dried blood and snot on his face, eyes lighting up the instant he saw who’d come for him.

The Fight (Round-by-Round Highlights)

Surprise round. Declan natural-20’d a quick-knot rope on the Baron — cowboy-loop, oil-platform chain-handling style — and restrained him permanently. Nah Mean reached into the bag and threw a live badger at Cutter Vin, who caught it to the face.

Round 1. Nah Mean’s hand-axe to Cutter Vin’s face for 7. The other thug clubbed the badger to death. Cutter retreated to a crossbow line and shot at Nah Mean — Nah Mean caught the bolt on his shield. (“That was dope.“)

Round 2. Declan crossbow at Harlan for 2. A thug clubbed Nah Mean for max damage (7) — Nah Mean burned a luck token to force the reroll; the duck nudged him out of the way at the last millimeter. Then the duck. It walked across the workbench past a watermelon, locked eyes with the thug who’d clubbed its badger, grew to triple size, and the thug was devoured into a void-space that wasn’t the duck’s body. The duck shrank, ate some watermelon, and waddled on.

Round 3. Nah Mean’s axe took the second thug’s jaw off in a volcano of blood. Cutter Vin put a crossbow on Pip and demanded everyone stand down — then shot Declan instead for 7. Declan went down at 0 HP. A third thug tried to leap the table to free the Baron, banged his head, took 1 damage from his own clumsiness. Harlan calmly stepped over Declan’s body and began untying the Baron. The duck, this time, hopped onto Declan’s chest and vomited its void-mucus onto him — Declan revived with 5 HP.

Round 4. Nah Mean opened his campaign of small-sword/small-dick taunts at Harlan (“Big man. Short sword. Ha ha.”). Cutter Vin turned the crossbow on the duck. The duck went down — 8 damage straight through. Declan dragged himself across the room and tried Cure Wounds on the bird — critical fail (nat 1). His deity, displeased, revoked the spell entirely, requiring ritual penance to recover. The Goblin Bomb stayed in the bag.

Rounds 5-7. Declan stabilized the duck with first aid (Intelligence DC 15, second attempt). The fight ground on. Nah Mean sundered his own shield to negate a Harlan crit. Nah Mean remembered the Lucky Ceramic Tankard, drank it for a fresh luck token, then used it to force a Harlan reroll. Declan cast Holy Weapon on Nah Mean’s axe (+1 to hit and damage). Nah Mean cleaved the surrendering junkie-thug — chopping his sword-arm clean off at the shoulder and throwing it across the room at Harlan with the line:

“Here. Strap that between your legs, you fucking amateur.”

The taunts about the old pier story — Harlan dragged off a Weave-ship dock by a mooring rope with his trousers around his ankles, the nickname Harlan Smallstitch — finally cracked him. Nah Mean landed an 8-damage axe blow with the holy-weapon bonus and Harlan dropped to his knees:

“Alright, alright. I’m not dying for this guy. I’ll give up.”

Aftermath

The Duck Lives

Nah Mean gave the duck mouth-to-beak resuscitation (Intelligence 18). The bird inflated like a balloon, then deflated with a “Quack.” Nah Mean hugged him. The duck quacked.

Pip Promoted

Declan cut Pip loose. Nah Mean offered him two gold and told him to go get his things from the Baron estate — and grab anything shiny from the office while he was at it. Pip declined the offer to return to the barracks, instead asking to join the crew at the Slackline as a runner and stable hand.

“Tell you what, Michael. Welcome aboard.” “It’s Pip, master dwarf.” “Sure, whatever. All you human names sound alike anyway.”

The Harlan Deal

Harlan wrote out a detailed dossier on the Rival Yard’s operations, the Baron’s contacts, and what little he knew of the convergence-tide plan. The intel held up. Nah Mean walked him to the docks and made a deal with a ship captain:

“He can’t come back here. What you do with him out at sea is your business. I’d put fair odds you just throw him overboard. That’s between you.”

Captain agreed. Harlan, exhausted, said he’d been in the city too long anyway. Nah Mean threw his short sword clattering after him on the dock:

“Don’t forget your tiny sword.”

The Baron Delivered

Baron Phineas Grimsby — tied, gagged, never having landed a blow — was paraded back to the barracks alive and handed to Juno.

Loot & Rewards

Item	Source	Notes
+1 Plate Mail	Confiscated contraband basement	Nah Mean
Bag of Badgers	Confiscated contraband basement	Nah Mean. 1/day, 5 HP badger, attacks nearest for 3 rounds
Boots of the Cat	Confiscated contraband basement	Declan. Silent move always easy; near-jump from standstill
Goblin Bomb	Confiscated contraband basement	Declan. 2d8 near range, 1d4 round fuse — unused
Ornamental Swan-Neck Dagger	Baron Grimsby	Hilt shaped like a swan’s neck. Looted off the Baron
120 gold	Baron’s coin purse	Split as agreed
40 gold	Baron’s hidden backup purse	Inner pocket
Second Silver Vial	Baron Grimsby	Looks like mercury. They now have two. The first becomes interesting
Fringe Guard Reputation +1	Mission complete	They are now The People You Call
Banked magic-item pull	Hem’s promise	Still owed; not yet claimed
Pip	Cellar rescue	NPC contact. Joining the Slackline as runner/stable hand
Carla brunch	Nah Mean’s flirting	Croissants, café au lait, pressed flowers tomorrow

Mechanical Notes

Two players only. Combat ran balanced down from the prep notes — one Hired Knife and the tram-station ambush scene were skipped entirely; the party went straight from the barracks to the cellar.
Cutter Vin ended the cellar fight without being killed outright on screen — Nah Mean’s hand-axe cleaved straight through him in round one, and the cellar fight collapsed once Harlan surrendered.
Tram-station ambush (Scene 3 in prep) did not occur — the party never went hunting Harlan’s strike team in the streets; they followed the cellar lead directly.
Shimmer did not arrive. The party finished the fight, took the Baron, and left well before third bell.
Cure Wounds revoked. Declan’s nat-1 on a tier-1 prayer spell triggered the priest critical-failure table: spell lost until ritual penance is complete (holy quest, atonement, or material sacrifice — value ~5 gp). His deity is displeased.
Shield destroyed. Nah Mean sundered his shield to negate one of Harlan’s hits. AC down to 16 going forward.
Lucky Ceramic Tankard — finally identified after months of sitting in inventory. 1/day, refreshes a luck token.

NPCs & Organizations

New NPCs

High Edge-Warden Hem — Kalla’s commander; thirty years in the Guard. Confessed his nephew owes the Baron money at the bank; got a last-chance reprieve from Juno.
Clerk Bram Fellweave — The leak. Blackmailed by Harlan over a 900-coin gambling debt for three weeks. Confessed and was taken into custody. “Which will be soon,” said Juno.
Cutter Vin — Harlan’s lieutenant. Crossbow specialist. Took Declan down to 0 HP. Killed by Nah Mean in the cellar.
Tomass, Brell, Edda — Three Edgerunners killed in the ambush on the seventh stair. Edda was nineteen and made tea wrong every morning.

Returning NPCs

Sergeant Kalla Steelcord — Brought the news. Three of her people dead. The one who wanted this fixed before Council could swallow it.
Banner-Mistress Juno — Cleared by alibi (husband). Took Bram into custody personally. Quietly furious throughout.
Carla (the dwarven maiden) — Reception. Brunch tomorrow. Pressed-flower books deployed as a containment measure.
Harlan Blackstitch — Captured and exiled by ship rather than handed to Juno. Probably overboard by now. The nickname Harlan Smallstitch did real damage on the battlefield.
Baron Phineas Grimsby — Captured alive. Backhanded by Nah Mean. Frisked for gold. Delivered to the Fringe Guard.
Pip — Rescued. Now a Slackline irregular.

The Angry Duck

The duck’s session: ate butter at the Shiny Coin against expert advice; dodged a club for Nah Mean at the millimeter; swallowed a full-grown thug into a void-space that was demonstrably not its body; ate watermelon afterward; vomited void-mucus onto Declan’s chest and revived him from 0 HP; got shot dead by a crossbow bolt; was brought back via duck CPR. The thug-into-void incident is escalating — last session the duck channeled a Shadow Dance illusion with glowing red eyes; this session it ate someone. Whatever is going on with this duck is no longer plausibly deniable.

Lingering Threads

Immediate

Two silver vials now in the party’s possession. The Baron carried a second one on his person. Still unidentified — looks like mercury, but a vial this size shouldn’t be able to unravel the city. Or shouldn’t it?
Pip is the Slackline’s new runner / stable hand. He’ll need an actual role and to be told what’s safe to know.
Harlan’s intel dossier describes Rival Yard cells, the Baron’s contacts, and the convergence-tide plan. Worth following up before it goes stale.
Bram Fellweave is in Juno’s custody. The Rival Yard cleans up loose ends — he may not survive long.
The banked magic-item pull Hem owes the party is still uncashed.

Personal Threads

Nah Mean: Brunch with Carla tomorrow. The Baron now in a cell, but everything that’s behind the Baron is still out there. King Chops’s appetite for void-snacks is increasing.
Declan: Lost Cure Wounds until he completes ritual penance. The deity wants a holy quest, atonement, or a material sacrifice. Donating it to a party member explicitly does not count.
The Duck: Smiled in Session 5, ate a man in Session 6. Vomited a healing substance. Is now visibly larger when displeased.

Long-term

Shimmer never arrived at the cellar — the convergence-tide opens at third bell tomorrow regardless. With the Baron in custody, what does she do when the mirror opens to an empty room?
The convergence tide itself is still happening. There’s a hole opening in the cellar in a few hours.
Project Unravel is mapped, named, and partially exposed — but not stopped.
The devil-marked door beneath the tannery is three streets from where this fight happened. Nah Mean didn’t go look for it. Snagmaz wasn’t here to feel it pulse.
The Crimson Harvest still approaches. Valdris’s family is still coming back.
Harlan Blackstitch is on a ship leaving the city. Probably. The captain probably throws him overboard. Probably.
The Baron’s wife — still never on screen. Where is she?

Quotes of the Session

“We do not ring the bell. We’re going in heavily outnumbered to an unknown location that’s obviously an ambush spot to help get a kid back who’s probably already dead. Alright, let’s go.” (Nah Mean, agreeing to the mission)

“You see, I too have drank many times at the Shiny Coin. We all know that no one drinks the ale there. It’s famous for its bitters. What kind of fucking ingrate lunatic drinks ale in a house of bitters?” (Nah Mean, breaking Bram Fellweave’s alibi)

“Hey, Wilfred. We’re getting the band back together.” (Nah Mean, to Pip, mid-combat)

“Best bird I ever killed.” (Cutter Vin, to Nah Mean, after crossbowing the duck. He died shortly after.)

“Big man. Short sword. Ha ha ha ha.” (Nah Mean, opening hostilities with Harlan)

“Here. Strap that between your legs, you fucking amateur.” (Nah Mean, throwing a severed thug-arm at Harlan)

“Me mum always said it’s not the size of the boat, it’s the motion of the ocean. But you gotta have at least a fucking pebble of sand before you can do any motion.”

“Don’t forget your tiny sword.” (Nah Mean’s farewell to Harlan at the docks)

“It’s Pip, master dwarf.” “Sure, whatever. All you human names sound alike anyway.”

Shuttle's Shipyard

Explorer

Session 06 - The Baron in the Wind (Shuttle's Shipyard)