The Bloody Hands REBIRTH: Late Returners, Episode 1 [Tricube + Mythic]

"The Late Returners," Introduction

The Returners Mercantile Company has been building up business with the Arcane Order over the past few months. Specializing in caravans that travel between pockets of Veil, they take on the risk associated with the Outside. Until last week, their track record has been flawless. Then, one of their shipments from mines in the Angor mountains when missing. 

At first, this was deemed tragic. Besides the presumed loss of life,  the Order's plans. It had been on the way to Yarlkin to help supply materials for the smithies there to prepare new resonant towers. The loss of that much material would be a set back for several new extensions to the Veil. 

The company heads in Hub promised to investigate the matter and struck an accord with the Hub Guardians to send out search parties. Alas, nothing was found. One of the guarantees of the Returners is that all shipments are fully covered, so plans were underway to help allay the cost of the lost materials. 

Early one morning, six days after the caravan went missing, Arden Ulet - a Guardian who works out of Hub and oversees investigations into external threats on the Veil - received a telegram from his brother Josef. Josef is one of the head smiths in Yarlkin and the Ulet family is a cornerstone in the construction of the towers. Josef requests Arden to come soon and to do it as quietly as possible. 

Natalia Wilson (Arden's apprentice Guardian) is undergoing exams to be promoted to Junior Guardian. Jalmar Dax has went down to Fellig to spend some time with Prenty Duffnot and examine the possibilities of making The Ord Forest the first proper wild space to be protected by a Veil. Realizing he probably needs back up, Arden finds Kate Corazon and asks her. Kate is a Junior Guardian looking to climb the ranks. Her and Arden have a somewhat complicated relationship. Something like rivals for similar assignments, they also get along quite well despite being awkward in each other's company. Kate also is getting orders from someone to watch over Arden and Arden senses this, though tries to not use any of his powers to try and pry deeper.

[Doug's Note: The bolded words represent concepts retained from "season one" of The Bloody Hands. If you want to read more, see the Canon Dump #1.]

The Strange Case of the Late Returners, Episode 1

Twilight is fading fast as Arden and Kate arrive in everyday clothing upon the evening train to Yarlkin. Kate has been bristling about being out of uniform. She bristles even harder when Arden suggests that they skip checking in with the new Guardian headquarters in Yarlkin - installed months ago after the Merge was complete. 

"What do you have up your sleeves, Guardian Ulet?," she says, ignoring his rapid hushing hand gestures, "There are folks in the Order who want to slap demotion on you for all of your violations. Maybe we should follow protocol on this one." 

"Arden, right now, please, Kate. Look, we are just going to have a...family talk...with my brother Josef. You'll like Josef. He makes a great stew. Local mushrooms, he..." 

Arden trails to silence as Kate stares at him for several heartbeats. Arden knows that Kate is capable of picking him up and tossing over the train station and he worries, briefly, that she might do just that if he antagonizes her. However, the Ulets are a cornerstone in the Orders entire hierarchy. Arden realizes he might be a black sheep in the family name but he still trusts Josef over virtually every Guardian working for the order besides possibly the one standing in front of him right now. 

"Stew, hmm? Ok, Ar-dennn." 

Well, it's a start...

***

Later, Kate sits with Josef's family in the front room discussing stories about the happening in Hub while Arden and Josef sit near the warm embers of the smithy out back. Josef has been catching Arden up on the facts about the Returners. 

"They claim it was just a bit of weather in the mountains and a couple of broken wheels. They holed up, according to Emmanuel. You know...Burgos? He might be new here, past your time. He's the local caravan leader. The guy who calls the shots. Emily Mason, you know her. Emily Hartwright, married Reginald Mason. One of Yarlkin's better known doctors? Anyhow, she's the navigator. The right hand woman. She claims she found an old cave on the maps and led the group there. Supposedly they missed the search parties because they were far enough back to stay out of sight of any bandits."

Arden chewed on a piece of sweet cane like he and Josef were young children, again, hanging out by the river. "This all makes sense, Josef. Is there something wrong with them? With the shipment?"

"No. Shipment is fine. More than fine, even. I checked it out myself. Some of the best iron and tin I have seen in months. The people are...ok, I think. It's just... if got caught up in a cave for a week while Marsha was missing me, I feel like I would not leave her side for a month. I'd be at the pub telling everyone about everything I went through. Every stubbed toe. Demanding ale. These folks, they basically are trying to shush it. It pricks up my little hairs, you know?"

Arden nods and looks at his brother. "Well, Regina probably remembers me. I'll just say I was in town and stop by to visit. Folks around here do not know Kate all that well, she can tag along as a friend. If I can get near Emily, maybe I can...you know, pick something up."

At the mention of Arden's powers, Josef looks a bit uncomfortable but returns the nod. 

"Thank you, brother."

The Good Doctor Mason

Dr. Reginald Mason grew up half a block from the Ulets in what then counted as the better stretch of Yarlkin, a town whose smiths forged weapons used to fight back against the creatures of darkness while the people mostly lived off scrub farms and fishing boats. Then Anatole Ulet and his young daughter Sophie - Arden's grandfather and mother - made a breakthrough applying anti-magic fields to a wide space using carefully constructed pipes, mirrors, and lens. The resonance towers. A potential end to the Five Generations of Chaos. The Ulet smithy, used by the family for most of those five generations to build weapons became the birthplace of a new sort of tool to push back against the darkness. The old test tower still near the smithy along with three others around the parks and other public lands. Despite this, it was nearly twenty years later before Sophie cashed in her family name to demand her home be connected all the way to Hub.

Now, the Ulets live in the industrial smithy district and Dr. Reginald lives closer to the river. Arden tries to recall Emily Hartwright and fails. He was never all that good with people. When shaking hand sometimes triggers insight into their hidden secrets, folks stop talking to you so much. 

"Kate, Dr. Mason knows I'm a Guardian and will likely suspect you are one, too. Still, we'll play it casually. Josef says I should know Emily so I will say I do."

Arden knocks on the door to the stately residence which also serves as Dr. Mason's practice. A middle-aged servant answers and after talking briefly to Arden, calls up to her mistress. Regina was always the sort of woman you think of as more handsome than beautiful, but the doctor life looks good on her. Arden goes all smiles, hoping Regina was not one of the people who called him Fantôme Ulet. A nickname that haunted him, pun not exactly intended, for some years.

"Hello, Arden," she says, warily, and behind her eyes Arden can sense fear and something else. "Who is your friend?"

"I am Kate. Kate Corazon." 

"Are you also a Guardian like Ulet?" 

Kate shrugs and looks to Arden for any sort of guidance. Arden decides to push forward a bit. "Regina, we'd like to talk to Emily. Josef said she had a hard time and I thought it might be good to chat and make sure everything is ok."

"I am sorry, Arden," Regina says, stepping back and pushing the door shut, "Emily is under my care right now and cannot see any more visitors."

"Wait, is she..." but before Arden can get the question out, the door is shut in his face. 

"Dammit, Josef was right." 

Visiting Emily and the Events that Follow

The night deepens as the two Guardians stare at the house and watch the lights drop one by one. Not the light in the Doctor's presence to the back and right of the house, though. It stays lit. Debating on when the opportunity will present itself for them to make a move, the question is answered as Dr. Mason leaves carrying her medicine bag and hails a cab, riding off down the street. The good doctor takes house calls. 

"According to Josef," Arden says, "Dr. Mason has an orderly-slash-medical-assistant that works nights and watches over any patients. Apparently not a pleasant guy so Josef has no idea why she keeps him around."

"Well," says Kate, "let's hope we do not bump into him."

The orderly/assistant's Antonio Magaña. He grew up in the not-so-well-off section of Yarlkin and true to Josef's word is not a very pleasant person. Never really mean to the patients but often surly to the point of outright antagonistic to everyone else, including Regina. Luckily, the pair of Guardians do not have to navigate these tricky waters because Kate is able to locate a window on the first floor left unlocked and the two make their way inside, sneaking past a dosing Antonio. 

Only one of the patient rooms is occupied with the door shut and a light shining under the door. Opening it up, the Guardians are surprised by two things. First, this room - clearly Emily's - is full of flowers and pleasant decorations. Regina is keeping her wife here but making sure that Emily has everything she might need. Second, a man in Order uniforms is leaning over the bed talking to a prone Emily who is speaking in droning words. Kate pushes forward but Arden pulls her back slightly. 

The man turns to face them, mumbling "Antonio, I asked you to..." and fades to silence while looking at the two Guardians who are currently not in official uniform. However, after a second, the stranger recovers and asks, "Guardian Ulet?"

Arden vaguely remembers seeing this man in the Order's headquarters at Hub but cannot place him. He steps forward, pulling the door shut and makes a broad gesture to keep the voices quiet. 

A whispered conversation brings the Guardians up to speed. The man is Izzia Kor, a Arcane Scholar working with the Order out of Hub. He was studying and helping coordinate information about the search party that has been trying to find the missing Returners so when they showed up he was informed by a "contact." In the past, he had worked with Regina while she documented some cases involving various diseases and maladies that occurred in the Veil and so she knew him. He asked to talk to Emily and she was very reluctant. She finally capitulated after Izzia pressed. Said that Emily herself had begged to talk to anyone not Regina or Antonio. 

"She would not let us in," Arden states.

"Ah, well, sometimes in there is a difference between a Guardian and a Scholar. We are less..." looking at his audience, he decides not to finish his statement. 

Izzia then explains that he has Emily under hypnosis and has been tracking what happened. It is unsurprising that they did not merely hide out in a cave for a few days but instead Emily related a story about an earthquake forcing the party to flee from falling rocks into a wider valley in the mountains. There, they found a chasm. And at the edge of this chasm some ancient temple looking down into the depths inside. 

"What happens next is hard to track down. She was able to help me pinpoint a place on the map, even gave me a name: Nollo Key Gorge. She talks about strange ghostly figures and odd people there. She just does not seem to know what happened next but...HEY..."

This shout is given by Izzia has Kate has shoved the Scholar aside and grabbed Emily roughly, shoving her back on the bed. Emily had suddenly sprung up and made a dash for the door while the others were talking. Emily is used to a lot of hard work and works first hand in loading and unloading large amounts of material. Still, she is not a match for the rune-magic of the Guardians and Kate is able to wrestle her back into the bed and begins tying her down using the sheets and any other loose cloth she can find. 

Antonio bursts into the room and shouts questions as Arden finds inner calm and pulls for a vision, trying to push back to see where Emily came from. A chasm? Darkness? An ancient temple? Maybe, but like a watercolor. A shape in the shape of a shape. While pushing deeper into the vision space he finds something else, though, a command lurking in Emily's mind. A task she was meant to aid in:

Killing Senior Guardian Mauricio Gibson, the Arcane Order's chief in Yarlkin. 

"Antonio, help Izzia keep Mason contained. Junior Guardian Corazon, we have to stop an assassination attempt. 

The Assault on Precinct Yarlkin

Arden and Kate dash into the Yarlkin headquarters and find things at odds with their level of calm.

"Where is Senior Guardian Gibson?" Arden demands of a person in the front room. The Agent balks and goes to block Arden from entering until he notices the Guardian runes of both Arden and Kate are activated. 

"Umm...he's...he's in the commander house, behind the main barracks..."

By the time the Guardians arrive the sound of muffled shouts are clearly heard. Kate kicks in the front door and they find some of Gibson's staff bludgeoned and unconscious - or worse - on the floor. The sound of a fight upstairs leads them to race up and through another door to see Senior Guardian Gibson, apparently roused from bed, struggling with several men and women who are holding him down while bringing up blades. Kate grabs the first person she can reach - a man with red hair and a maniacal expression - and throws him hard into the wall. 

The crash catches the attention of the others who are now caught between three Guardians instead of just one. Arden takes a hit from a woman with an iron bar but regains his footing a few minutes later. He sees a blade catch Kate across the face so shoves back against his own attacker to drop both in a tangle a limbs. 

Gibson gets in a few good punches against one assailant and wraps bedsheets over the head of another in time for Kate to gut punch the person hard enough that a sword drops loosely from their hands. 

All three of the Guardians nurse minor injuries, Gibson suffering the worst, as they look down on the six others. Each of them wear the patch of the Returner Mercantile Company, a compass wreathed in flame: "We bring light to all directions." 

"They are not hiding it," Arden quips. His brain fuzz earlier from the vision remaining. 

Gibson rounds on him. Senior Guardian Mauricio Gibson is not known for being a friendly man but is known for single-mindedly carrying out of his duties. When younger he was station at several remote pockets of Veil with a robust track record of defending against threats internal and external. His promotion to Senior Guardian was almost a given and his assignment to protect the newly Merged Yarlkin is one he does not take lightly. 

"Guardian Ulet. A little birdy told me you were town trying to act like you were here more casually. I assumed something was up. Was sleeping with one eye open as the saying goes."

Arden catches up Gibson with the things he learned, and brokers a deal. Senior Guardian Gibson will lock up these Returners, along with Emily Mason and others that might be located in Yarlkin, but otherwise not harm them until Arden can ascertain the oddity of the vision about the chasm and the temple within it. Arden worries that Gibson might overreact to the happening here and push criminal proceedings too soon. 

It says something about the reputation Arden has that Gibson agrees. 

"Watch your back, Senior Guardian. A little paranoia might go a long way, here."

Gibson laughs at this. "Ulet, the things I've seen. Get me the truth."

Arden and Kate, armed with Izzia's map, ride out past the Veil towards the Outside. The sun rising at their backs. 

MECHANICAL NOTES

This one returns to the original format of The Bloody Hands, where I play scenes in what you might call "scrapbook" format and then recap and reshape the play session.

You can read the raw notes here (with some minor formatting and corrections): "The Strange Case of the Late Returners", Episode 1. One advantage of this is that certain details can be worked much more in the style of how I tend to play solo games, tossing things at a wall, trying out on-the-fly mechanics, coming up with quick custom tables. Things that might be hard to post in the format I use for some other posts. Likewise, sometimes I realize I forget something and work it out later so sometimes it is nice to have that kind of raw spike of creative energy in one go. 

DOUG'S NOTES

Don't have a lot of notes on this one (at least, not yet). I have played through this entire story arc before posting anything (final should broken up into 3ish sections). I am going to try out something new, here, and schedule out posts so that The Bloody Hands hits every Wednesday at 5pm in my time zone.

As a note, the degree this series swings between more fully written out and "recap" might vary each episode for a minute until I hit the vibe that matches what I want. This remains my "quick play" game behind the scenes though I've spent about a month playing everything behind the scenes and just wanted to start working on sharing some again. 

CREDITS

This game uses Tricubes Solo, the Tricubes one-sheet "The Guardians of the Shadow Frontier," [both by Richard Woolcock and Zadmar Games] and The Mythic Game Master Emulator (2nd Edition) [by Tana Pigeon]. 

Additional tables come from Cezar Capacle's Random Realities, Ben Milton's Maze Rats + Knave 2nd edition, and Madeline Hale's Table Fables. Other sources should be be credited in the raw play notes.

Graphics come from a variety of sources. Pixabay is a source of some of the stock art and illustrations I use to create the original graphics.

The opening painting is "Birmingham by Moonlight" (artist listed simply as British School, from the early 19th century). Yarlkin in the first story was a sizeable somewhat industrial town with lots of new construction but was played off as a few scenes. Here, it shows the relative tech level of the world (equivalent to mid-to-late 19th century Great Britain). Birmingham is probably a bit oversized for Yarlkin but since Yarlkin is big enough to be a hub of the world's "French" and "Spanish" people's, it makes some sense that it's bigger than original depicted.