Aersalus B-Team: Season 1, Session 13 – Memories, New and Old

Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

While the others have slept, Trapper has been figuring out what he’s going to do when the sun rises. Listens has been meditating.

Records In This Dump

Trapper
The House of the Founders
Windsday, Skure 14th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 4th hour of the Sun
Ironhaul, Western Span

Trapper is waiting for admittance into the Hall of Founders, to see the mayor for some reason that hasn’t been elucidated. There’s people going in and out to see the mayor and it seems suspicious to Trapper, people talking too much in specific alcoves rather than out and about, rather perplexing and odd for some reason along with a large amount of janky body language. There various body languages showing micro expressions of being deceptive. The records keeper comes in, looking pretty bedraggled, he’s got burns over part of his face and is rather short for a human. He’s out of breath as he introduces himself as Athalans and begs pardon for being out of breath due to stairs. Trapper waits for the man to get his breath back so he can get to the hall of records, which is in the sub-basement. He’s walked to a rather large door and heads downwards rather old and well worn.

Down inside the sub-basement, they’re inside a single room full of shelves, bookcases, scroll cases and other things in what goes on for a large amount of room. Athalans explains that it’s not as well organized as he’d liked and that he’s got a codex up in the regular basement. Trapper offers to go instead of taking the time to grab his codex, following his nose to Athalans’s office. There wasn’t just Athalans’s scent in there though, and Trapper is able to memorize it and note that it seems to be rummaging through the record keeper’s personal shelves, a missing scroll being there.

Going downstairs he hands the codex over to the record keeper and gets information on maker marks. He asks for Athalan’s help with searching for Ironhaul’s maker mark while he looks for Tekkuder ap Spineward, finding that the record for the maker mark of Crinkum and Glim, Tekkuder’s workshop, has the same scent as in Athalan’s office. The maker marks between the two are remarkably similar, especially the top portion of the marks and it can easily be seen how one could transform Tekkuder’s into Ironhaul’s. Tekkuder’s maker mark was approved by the mayor of Ironhaul as well instead of the guilds as it normally happens.

Trapper next checks out the death records which Athalan’s father had been quite handy there, organizing them along with other records. He goes for the one that he knows the most recent-wise as the murder which apparently happened with exsanguination, the culprit being an iterant named Cobb, a trader between others. The handwriting in the ledger looking almost childish, or very pixie-ish. Talking to Athalan reveals that he used to have an apprentice named Jussii who disappeared one night a few years ago during a stormy night. Annoyed by the weirdness with the story, Trapper gets back to reading and then steps over and repairs an old printing press that had broken down before they head over to the administration area where Athalans keeps copies of documents. Trapper can smell multiple people in the area, unlike downstairs. He can smell the secretary and the other scent from Athalan’s office that’s all over the stacks of documents that seem to span back about 10-15 years. Trapper takes some time to get things right, reading them.

The Place of Red Doors

Rhum
The Poke and Squeal
Windsday, Skure 14th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 7th hour of the Sun
Ironhaul, Western Span

Rhum has managed to get to the constabulary and doesn’t have much to do in the way of jobs to do that day. First thing he does is head out to an inn to get breakfast, deciding against the three major inns and instead heads towards the Poke and Squeal which isn’t quite an inn, it’s a two floor estate which is a bit odd with the Aersalus single-floored architecture and there’s likely many more floors below. Rhum takes a seat at the bar where there’s a very tall one-eyed dwarf that eyes Rhum while smoking a cigar and serving mystery liquids from unlabeled jars, some of which are filled with viscous fluids. Rhum nods towards the dwarf and waits his turn. The dwarf demands money first. He puts down a tenner which is enough for three drinks and a penny, two drinks and a meal, or one drink and a trip back to the door. Confused, Rhum asks what that is where the dwarf has to explain that it’s a brothel. Rhum comments that it’s bound to have good food then, which the dwarf agrees, saying his husband makes it. Rhum asks for a good amount of food, drink, and maybe some cigars. The cigars are quite a bit more expensive than $10 though due to having to import them, but Rhum does get some free stuff from helping haul around heavy kegs and crates, even making labels and painting some of them. The Dwarf doesn’t believe it and makes a bet, which Rhum wins handily, getting breakfast until his work moves him on. He gets a plate of food that isn’t great, isn’t terrible, but just right. Same with the mug of beer. Rhum keep hanging out for breakfast, asking if there’s reports of problems. Which, apparently, is a lot of VD going around the girls in the back room. Rhum immediately thinks of Listens and heads out to find him.

Dropping in On Drop Street

Listens-to-Ocean
Drop Street
Woodsday, Skure 14th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 2nd hour of the Sun
Ironhaul, Western Span

Listens sets up in front of the great mines to meditate, hearing and feeling a thrum in the deep, like a heart being blood pumping. Listens isn’t quite ready to confront a giant mountain spirit, so the meditations are to announce his presence to the spirits. Though he did get a nice tour of Ironhaul from Auld, the dwarf. He heads back to the poor area of town and set up shop for healing, working on his reputation in town with his singing, medicine, and bead telling, trying to start a whisper campaign against the mayor for some reason, perhaps he felt snubbed by the man. By the time he stops healing people, Rhum has found him healing various people without accepting any payments.

Hearts and Minds

Listens-to-Ocean and Rhum
The Poke and Squeal
Windsday, Skure 14th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 11th hour of the Sun
Ironhaul, Western Span

Rhum speaks to Listens about healing people at the Poke and Squeal and leads him over where he lays on hands with the brothel workers. He hails the bartender, introducing Listens so he can heal the brothel workers. The bartender is surprised to see a hauflin healer but is ready to negotiate prices for getting them healed up, like $5 a girl or so. They feed him while they get the girls, and guys, set up to be seen. They set them up in a nice hall with a large amount of comfy, clean-looking benches. The patients are scattered around the hallway and a strange looking woman standing in front of Listens wearing Imperial clothing that leaves little to the imagination and Imperial mask obscuring most of her face: Odina, asking if Listens is the healer and checking out his robes, his pin, and his tattoos. About half of the workers have a really nasty case of VD. By the time Listens is done, pretty much no one looks ill or fatigued.

Listens asks to speak to the owner of the place, offering to place protection upon the house for free much to the madam’s suspicion. She eventually says that for that purpose, she is empowered to accept the proposal. They head back to the constabulary.

Gold and Gaudy

Trapper
Crinkum and Glim
Windsday, Skure 14th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 11th hour of the Sun
Ironhaul, Western Span

Trapper has been spending the day through the documents. Looking for copies of the maker marks, various documents, noting that there hasn’t been a public trial in years. With that information, he heads out to Crinkum and Glim which has a magical equivalent to a neon sign proclaiming its location. It’s fancy and shiny inside with many different items within including weapons and armor. There’s things that are usable in there, some swords, a crossbow or two, some armor, but most is far too glitzy to be of any use. There’s a young girl behind the counter that looks like she’s there to be eye-candy.

Trapper immediately turns on the charm by acting like he’s excited to be inside there, that he wants the glitziest items in the store. Some of the most useable items in the store seem to have had their maker marks changed and then coated with gold and jewels and possibly even a coin of the realm. The most ostentatious piece of crap in the store was a small kani crystal dagger coated with glue and run through a pile of glitter. He asks the woman who made the weapon and demands to meet the creator and led into the workshop where he meets Tekkuder and bullshits him to learn more. He manages to worm his way into getting invited to a private party from Tekkuder and being gifted the small kani crystal dagger along a sheath that looks like it also took a dip into a bunch of glitter.

Aftermath

Back at the constabulary, Trapper gets Altan to try to assay how much the dagger would be worth, with and without the gold. Altan, seeing the gold, lusts after the dagger but still does as Trapper asks. Rhum and Listens comes back in from the Poke and Squeal, with Listens heading off to his chambers to contemplate performing a shenic spirit binding for the Poke and Squeal. Rhum on the other hand goes and lays down on his cot.

After Action Report (GM)

This one was very well put together for the simple fact that Chris D. (Trapper’s player) has been working on exactly what he wanted to do for this session for a couple of weeks. We’d had stuff kept popping up preventing play and most of my players are pretty invested so they tend to consider things between sessions to make my life easier. This was one of those moments. I will admit I improv’d the record-keeper 100%, but several of the high points that Trapper managed to Poirot out were things I had previously determined. No, he didn’t know any of those. He’s just maddeningly annoying at times with sussing out details.

I wasn’t sure if my brother (Curtis) was going to be available so I also 100% improv’d his entire little thread. Turned out well though and wasn’t….err…squicky. It could have been squicky and it was not. I like it when that happens.

Rory had been a bit busy last few weeks so I had no idea what he was going to do and like he does – Rory likes to do random things that might actually make a really big deal later on.

I also invited the new full time player (Patrick) and the new part-time player (Paul Stefko) to hang out while we played, but only Patrick could show up and seemed to be having a good time being entertained. I we put on a good show.

World Lore Tidbit (Sex Work)

This is always something that can be difficult to cognate in a way that is clear, concise, and leaves room for other things. Sexual norms (and wow that is a entirely other probably multipart tidbit series) are a bit more radical in Aersalus than perhaps what we’d consider the norms to be in 21st century Earth. Before we get into the work part of sex work, you absolutely have the typical “what you’re attracted to” groups (e.g., heterosexuality or homosexuality) but there is no stigma heaped in either direction. It just is. (Author’s Note: Yeah, wish fulfillment, shut up. It’s my creation I’mma bedazzle it a bit.) There is also the concept of “the initiator,” “the initiate,” “the initiated,” and “the non-initiate.” So someone who is looking for sex. One who is open to sex. One who is open to sex, but not looking. And one who is not looking for sex. With me so far? Okay! Sex workers (prostitutes, whores, fancy ladies, whatever) are assumed to be the second. (Yes, they can be forced, that is a whole set of problems and most Aersalan societies have their own rules on it. Forced sex work is one of those tabuu things you don’t mess with overall in most societies. In general, you don’t do it. Period.) They are open, because you pay them. You get something. They get something. It’s an exchange. You don’t have to treat a sex worker well, but treating them poorly tends to invoke who they pay for protection in such cases. Usually, nasty types who love a good excuse for causing someone who deserves it pain. Most sex workers tend to congregate or group up. This allows them to have a actual establishment, make deals with local healers, offer more than sexual refreshment, and pay a single cost to their “protection.” It’s a rather tidy affair overall. This isn’t to say that some of the nasty social moors of Earth aren’t alive and well in Aersalus, but rather that they are not necessarily the norm. Sex work is just work. You do the job, and then you get paid. Note, a lot of the across-societies normatives  seen here are absolutely the result of the Companions who have worked behind the scenes for centuries to make sure that their whisperers are protected as well as Companions who are pretending to be so at the time…

Other Notes

Bonus Report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“None of Your Business” by Salt-N-Peppa

Aersalus B-Team: Season 1, Session 15 – A Mine About Town