Happenings of Hard Times in Ados

Steel Realms

Campaign of the Dog

THE TIME OF THE DOG!! Every Dog Has His Day! Thug LifeHard Times in Ados – Its all culminated in near civil war – factions in and out of the city are proclaiming for one side or another in the “disagreement” between the regency heirs. Who gives a shit!? In Crow Alley, its still life on the edge… but the “dogs are running wild” – a term used to denote the rise of factions of guardsmen and watchmen – the abuse is growing and tensions are spilling over into the normally self contained world of Crow Alley. Hard times indeed. THE LATEST: (Hey, these records are spotty at best, but here is what we got!)


CY 9142, Month 11, Day 13 The Queen-Mother is dead! The mother and regent to the infant (now 8) King Jatrey is dead. Rumors abound that she was poisoned, but only her death and not its manner can be confirmed. It is also said that the elder sisters (Anaise D’avlin and Bejerrie Durgrimm – both widowers) of the infant’s dead father are now trying to assume regency.

How does this effect Crow Alley? The news does not reach it until three days later, but one of the sister’s family is from Ados – Family Durgrimm. Plus, the news of the possible ascension of the high king’s older sister here in Ados as regent of the infant high king is causing a buzz – even in Crow Alley. The watch is getting rough, and needs some talking to, plus there’s a lot of suckers gambling and walking around with full pockets – too full.

Pick pocket scenario in the market place – the group tries to go after a few richer scores that are exploring Crow Alley with thoughts of the city expanding. A quick pick pocket turns into a brutal thuggery… but ultimately the group makes a few good scores.

CY 9142, Month 11, Day 16; Our group finds itself needing some bigger scores, funds is getting low.
They’ve recruited ‘Twitch’ – a nervous, second-story burglar as part of the crew now and he brings some needed skills, a jittery (though light) touch and good physical and thief skills.

Jimmy the Cod hears of a new game opening up in Larkin Alley and hes been practicing his gambling skills. The group goes and stays for a night in this low class back alley den. Jimmy has incredible luck and walks away with a big haul, everyone else loses enough to put most of us in the bread line again. Jimmy gets a reputation as a player with his luck first time out… he’ll be welcome at some of the better gambling places but the rest of the group is still considered small time.

CY 9142, Month 11, Day 17; Then there’s Billy Boy – he’s sold the gang out and he’s gotta get taught a lesson. Bossman gives the crew the job because Slick’s persuades him – and Jimmy gives half his winnings to the gang. But, first thing is that we gotta re-take the corner of the dealer he sold out, and get the Dice-Men outta the turf. An incredibly well-thought ambush is nearly bungled totally with Patrick’s drunkenness, but somehow the crew manages not to kill anyone and get the dealer’s stash while putting the beat down on 3 minor muscle-men, 2 lookouts and the dealer himself.

CY 9142, Month 11, Day 18; The money goes to the boss, and we get to keep the stash. Slick decides maybe a little side action is in order, and asks Patrick to set up a lab to make Granite – and we’ll start by cutting the pure stuff they got from the dealer. Patrick thinks he can do, and the rest of the crew is very worried, but Slick is confident. Turns out we need more money to get the lab going – and the lab is set up near a tanner shop on the border of the slums… this is very dangerous work.

CY 9142, Month 12, Day 2; Just in time as the group runs out of funds setting up the lab is the call to put the beat down on Billy Boy himself – its gotta be public and will the Dice-Men are protecting him – a message has to be sent. The group ambushes him in broad daylight with two bad-azz muscle men. Twitch nearly takes out one of the muscle men from the roof with his weird weighted rope, but the muscleman pulls him from the roof and he face-plants on a table, shattering his collar bone and cracking a few ribs. Patrick sobers up enough to at least grab Billy Boy before he escapes while the rest try and tune up the body guards. It takes a while, but the body guards are taken care of – though Billy Boy slashes Patrick a few times but PAtrick will not let go. They break all of Billy Boy’s left fingers and the pinky of each muscle man to send a message. Patrick fumbles his healing check and does even more permanent damage to Twitch – put prays over him and his meager faith grants Twitch some comfort – he’s hauled away on the table top and Slick flips the shop owner 2 silvers – ‘for the trouble’.

CY 9142, Month 12, Day 11; We rest and heal. Slick hears of a real special job and goes to talk to the boss. Its a tunnel – may it goes under Beggar’s Wall into the mercantile district… that means perfect black market supply route. Slick negotiates half of whatever they find in the tunnel (its liable to be old) and 1% of any income gained if its a tunnel under the district. Bossman agrees and in the group goes. They get spotted, the tunnel is deep in a rival gang’s territory, but Slick leads them through the maze of Crow Alley and loses them.
Getting into the tunnel is easy, but its filled with traps at the start. Patrick can barely fit in, and he cannot act as well. On hands and knees the group goes, attacked by a dreaded Cave Centipede, giant sewer rats (but the group cannot find a sewer entrance – but the smell sometimes wafts through). Cave-ins, gas pocket, spores, corpses, and bad air. It takes 2 nights to get through to a spot where its collapsed and the group does not have the skills or gear to get through. The group has to leave and come back the next night, with better digging equipment. They get spotted again, but lose their pursuers in the maze of streets. Bossman sends in a couple scouts after the group hits a wall – literally. Man made contruct of unknown origin after a wierd down and up drain loop – twitch gets real twitchy thinking about how easy it would be to flood the area and kill him. He falls, but finally gets up with his climbing gear. After hearing about the wall, the bossman sends in the scouts who get hurt, and decides its too dangerous for now. The group finds a 300 year old coin (Twitch knows his stuff) worth 200 silver crowns which they pocket as a get-away emergency fund. A few potions, silver, necklace and ring and the bossman gets half.

CY 9142, Month 12, Day 13; The group takes a well needed break. Patricks drinks heavily.

A grand total of 44 days pass, for half of them most of the group was locked up in prison.

Final Chapter on Billy Boy and Tubs is Dead

Sleepy rejoins the crew after spending time on lookout duty. Jimmy the Cod and slick fill him in on all that he has missed.

Gambling was in the air, and Jimmy the Cod returns to the addiction, but this time he’s a player and gets into a real game – not Larkin Alley, but Beeway’s Laundry. Its a back room game run by Ran Beeway and her friend Mr. Wilcut. There is a few house games, and some individuals that play for higfher stakes. He just takes on the house games and about breaks even. Cod does ok, but fails to make much more of a name for himself.

So, Billy Boy and sold out his bros again, but this time the damage was minimal. But, his time was up – no more broken fingers, not its a broken neck.
Bossman sent in Slick’s crew after slick went on and on about how it was only right that they get a crack at him.

Slick drops a lot of money looking for information sources, because no one seems to know where he’s at. He eventually finds a neutral information broker named Liam, who runs his operation out of the back of Duke’s Deli. He even follows Sleepy’s suggestion to talk to a woman who ‘knows how to find people’ – the ugly barmaid who rated him out when he was hiding under the influence of the stolen magic sword’s glamour. He follows Sleepy who spots him but is too dumb to realize he’s leading Slick to someone he probably wants to do harm to. She (for 20 silver!) tells them about Jill at the Blue Bell tavern. Slick drops by later to pay a visit, but finds she has fled the area with her gains. Liam takes a few days, but comes back with the info. Slick decides to pit the sources against each other… and Jill charges a silver just to meet with her, so expectations are high. Jill knows off the top of her head what it took days for Liam to find out – same information too.

Patrick gets a couple of his lady friends to cooperate for some easy money, who distracted his bodyguards while 3 of the crew slipped in and took out Billy Boy.
The crew hit the Blue Jay Boarding House, run by miss Billycut. He begged and plead for his life, giving a sob story and all, but Slick got brutal.
They left him with his unmentionables stuffed into his mouth and sneaked back out. Reputation for Jimmy the Cod and Slick too after really working the stories of the killing.
Cutting off his dick and putting it in his mouth – well, Jimmy the Cod was sending a message – what it was, no one knows!

For a couple days the crew was riding high, until the whore Billy Boy promised to take away from all this dumped her life saving to hire Kredge and his goons to ambush the crew in a busy market. Slick makes it away after damn near getting sliced and diced. He spots Wilma watching from the edge of the crowd and makes his way to ambush from behind. Twitch goes down and Patrick jumps to cover him as knifemen try and take him out. Patrick, now dubbed “Tubs” is the human shield for a couple knife blows. but Twitch will live. Its a brutal fight, and three of the knifemen attacking the crew end up dead. All but Slick (who runs after getting hurt bad in the first few moments) are thrown in the clink for 20 days (Sleepy bribes his way out after 10) while its sorted out… ‘disturbing the peace’ is the charge but the crew beats the murder wrap with self defense.

Slick manages to take the woman captive from the fight and stash her in the drug lab. She wont talk, but Slick won’t lean too hard for some reason. He goes to Jill and tries to find out more. Jill proves worth her coin and discovers exactly who she is and that there is a bounty on her from her pimp, Huggy Bear. For 10 silvers, Slick makes 50 from Huggy and delivers his woman back to him – apparently she is a bit of a ‘high class’ girl… Huggy promises to teach her a lesson and put her in her place. Slick just wants to make sure she won’t go psycho and put the hit out on them again.

Tubbo is working hard on the lab, but its nothing but failures. Meanwhile the crew try and heal up. There is talk of the coin found, the tunnel and gambling. Business is boming, Ados is getting popular with the potential of one of her own becoming the regent to the High King. The city watch is a bit high handed though and it needs to be business as usual in Crow Alley – word is out that the watch need to be taught a lesson.. but Slick avoids the job. Twitch and Cod prowl the market places, Twitch looking for marks and Cod taking them down. They make a good scoe, but the watch almost catches the were it not for Slick’s quick thinking. The thugging business ain’t all its cracked up to be is the decision they come to.

Patrick tries his luck in Larkin Alley, mostly breaking even after a few nights gambling. Kimmy takes it to the back room squad at Beeways Laundry and comes away more of a player than before. Gambling suits him fine, it ‘enriches’ his life (and purse). He’s making a name for himself against the house, but if he really wants to go anywhere, he’ll have to step up and challenge a few gamblers.

And… can Patrick/Tubs, with his meager skills, build a fast Granite Lab? Will Slick’s idea pan out and create a cash cow, or will Patrick blow himself and the room you rent up in a fiery cloud?

Then the group tries a little independant action.. they seek out Jill again to see if there may be any jobs she knows of. Raid on a drug lab set up by some independent; Ducateon pancake – explosive made from the residue of granite (drug) block making and wood splinters – takes out Patrick as he charges up the stair. Its a horrible fight that goes bad quick. Explosions, second story break and enter, drug labs, chemicals, workers, and no sign of ‘Big Stan’ – the leader. They do see Aloicious – dressed in black with 2 blades, he tools Cod right and proper – coming close to killing him before Cod jumps of the railing. The rest of the crew beat retreat, with Sleepy starting a fire in the lobby from the burning trap refuse (after making sure downed enemies are dead and cutting a few purses – including Tubs). Turns out the building catches and a few civilians die. No other buildings catch fire, but the group takes a hige risk and puts Big Stan out of business. They claim the reward, but at the same time lose reputation in the community for killing innocents and ruining property.

Tubs is dead. Slick at first plans a massive party, but soon scales it back after financial consideration. In the labd they find a few of his mundane effects. Slick finds some papers and has them looked at. It turns out Patrick scribled a lot of bad poetry, but amidst the usual drunken garbage, he wrote his masterpiece – stone cold sober and while in prison! It even moves some fo the gang members when they hear the tale of Prison Bound. Slick arranges to sell it for 10 silvers and royalties will bring in another 10 silvers a month. Its not the drug lab, but Tubs did manage to secure that steady source of income thats Slicks been seeking.

Sleepy rejoins the crew after spending time on lookout duty. Jimmy the Cod and slick fill him in on all that he has missed.

Gambling was in the air, and Jimmy the Cod returns to the addiction, but this time he’s a player and gets into a real game – not Larkin Alley, but Beeway’s Laundry. Its a back room game run by Ran Beeway and her friend Mr. Wilcut. There is a few house games, and some individuals that play for higfher stakes. He just takes on the house games and about breaks even. Cod does ok, but fails to make much more of a name for himself.

CY 9143 – there’s talk of the ‘Queen’s Ascent’ and movement of the King’s High Court temporarily to Ados!!! WTF?

Realm's Aptitude Powers: Divine, Occult, and Psychic