Dungeons Are Bad Business

Vee was nearly skipping as he made his way back to the boarding house by himself. He’d spent almost half an hour walking around with Luna before the cold had been too much for them both to bear, and they’d remorsefully parted ways after making plans to get together for their date in just over a week. They would have scheduled it to happen sooner, but Luna’s time away with the open call meant that she had things to take care of at both work and home.

He whistled an old love song that’d been popular when he was a kid, still unable to believe his luck. He’d asked Luna out and she’d said yes! It was so great that Vee pinched himself to make sure that this wonderful night wasn’t actually a dream. He’d had that one more than once, and would have been heartbroken if this had been another rendition. Thankfully, the stinging pain in his forearm assured him that he was indeed awake, and Vee started singing in earnest as he turned the last corner before the boarding house.

“Warm nights and red roses forever and ever, my dear.”

His heart had slowed back down so that it was no longer pounding in his chest like a [Blacksmith] forging a blessed weapon for a boy king to slay a [Demon Lord], but his cheeks were still red as cherries as he bounded up the steps. He stopped to smile and chat with Sculla, who was perched on her stoop as she always was, smoking something that created green smoke. The smell was strange, reminiscent of cinnamon but without the bitter tang at the end. Vee thought he’d smelled it once or twice before, but he couldn’t exactly remember where.

“How are you doing this wonderful, no, incredible evening?” Vee asked.

Sculla raised an eyebrow and took a long drag from her pipe. “Fine, I reckon. What’s got into you, kiddo? You’re grinning like a [Mad Clown].”

Vee told her what had happened, but the ogre didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm.

“Relationships are like meals and vacations,” she said with a shrug when she noticed Vee’s wounded expression. “They’re important to the people having them, but boring as hell to those who aren’t. Unless they have nothing else going on in their own lives, I suppose. Regardless, congratulations, Vee. Good for you on asking her out. I wish you two nothing but the best.”

There was a faraway sound to her voice that made Vee pause, but the ogre said nothing more. When Vee turned to leave, Sculla held up her hand and took another pull from her pipe. “Just remember…good and bad are two sides of the same coin. Wax and wane. Life has a way of balancing things out.”

Vee stopped in his tracks. “What? What are you talking about?”

The ogre shrugged again. “Nothing in particular, but it never hurts to be mindful, does it?”

Though he was rather unsettled by the ogre’s cryptic statement, the [Dungeon Master] couldn’t argue with the idea of being mindful. Eager to share his news with his friends, Vee hurried up to his room to tell his friends about everything that’d happened and thank them for going along with Holly’s plan to ditch him with Luna in the first place.

Reginald and Alforde were both genuinely excited at the news – Take that, Sculla! Vee thought smugly – and they congratulated him on finally taking the plunge. Then, as the moment passed, Alforde took his manual on martial arts stances to his corner and started practicing his forms. Reginald turned to Vee.

“So, what exactly was it that you wanted to talk to me about, Boss?”

The hat’s question brought Vee back down to the ground, dulling his euphoria. He explained what he’d heard from Holly, and then leaned forward and looked into the hat’s eyes.

“I want to know as much about them as you can tell me,” Vee said. “Help me understand what they’re after.”

Reginald rocked back and forth on the table. “I can definitely do that for you, Boss, but why do you care? Westown is so big that even if they’re doing something out there, we’ll probably never notice it. What do you want to do with this information?”

Vee felt the Expectation stir on his shoulders and looked into the hat’s eyes. “One of the dangers from my quest to rebuild Oar’s Crest was animosity from the existing powers within the city,” Vee said. “I can’t say for sure that it meant Sacre and the don, but I wouldn’t bet against it either. It might not be for a while, but I think there’s going eventually going to be a conflict between us. I want to be ready for when that happens.”

“What exactly do you think you’re going to do when that time comes?”

“I don’t know right now,” Vee admitted, “but does it matter? I’m sure I’ll figure it out. For now, I just want to know how their organizations work. We can handle the rest as it happens.”

Reginald looked over at the mess of small objects on the countertop across the room and jerked toward them. “Got it. Grab some of those, will you? I think you’ll benefit from having some props to help visualize things as I explain them.”

Vee did so, and arranged the trinkets as the hat directed. He was ultimately left with a mess of bottle caps, cans, pens, utensils, and a saltshaker arranged in a complex web around the table, which Reginald assured him was only a poor imitation of the various networks and relationships between the gangs and members of the city.

“We’ll start with Sacre since you’re already somewhat familiar with him,” Reginald said as he used one of his yellow arms to point at the saltshaker. “His family has been around for decades, but the man himself has only been on top of the ladder for the last thirty years or so. Their numbers fluctuate, but I’d guess that he doesn’t have more than sixty or seventy direct underlings at any given time.

“In the old days, the Sacre family used to make most of their money through loan sharking, extortion of local merchants, and the drug trade, but these days the balance is more evenly split between those activities and their legitimate businesses. Sacre owns a chunk of almost everything in Eastown from shops to restaurants to residential buildings, and he gets a cut of every fleur that passes through them. Beyond that, he owns one of the city banks as well as its biggest carriage company. He’s in charge of the city’s Merchant Guild too, and that position pays him a monthly stipend as well. All in all, he’s got his fingers in a lot of pies and is always looking for more.”

Vee whistled through his teeth and moved the pieces around as Reginald directed to show the connections. “I can see that,” the [Dungeon Master] said. “What about the don, then? How do the kitrekins make their money?”

“I’m not as sure about that,” Reginald said as he gestured to the can of tuna on the opposite side of the table. “The don is cagey, and suspicious of outsiders. I tried getting close to him a few times, but I wasn’t ever able to get deep enough into the organization that I could collect concrete information. Here’s what I do know, though. Size-wise, I’d say that the kitrekins are simultaneously bigger and smaller than Sacre’s family. Smaller in that they probably only have thirty or forty regulars, but bigger in that they employ a large pool of associates to handle almost all of their day to day jobs. The don likes to hire young and eager kitrekins for small tasks, then never contact them again. It’s like a rite of passage in their community.”

“Doesn’t that increase the chances of someone betraying them or screwing things up, though?”

“That’s what I thought at first, but so far as I know, it’s the way all the kitrekin crime families do things around the continent. The Little Miss, their real leader – if she even exists – is said to have started the practice as a way of keeping the road to success wide open within the organization. Keeping a steady churn of applicants moving through its parts is a crucial part of that strategy. Now, I know that the kitrekins make some of their money from extortion and real estate like Sacre does, but the bigger chunk of their funding comes from gambling and smuggling goods up and down the continent. They also have ties to the council, if Michael Seidon’s regular trips to the don’s villa are any indication, so they probably also skim fleurs off the top of public works contracts or other things of that nature. Like I said though, I’m not sure of the specifics.”

Vee took a moment to digest what he’d just heard, and then asked, “What do you mean if the Little Miss even exists? You mentioned her when we were at the casino a while back. You said you were a close friend of hers!”

“Nah, I’ve never met her. I was just lying to see how you’d handle the situation when it all went sideways,” Reginald said. “You failed, by the way. But that’s not important right now. The reason I say if the Little Miss even exists is that nobody has ever seen her. Well, I guess some kitrekins probably have, but they’re not talking and nobody else has. She’s real reclusive, and clearly rather paranoid. I’ve heard that she was once an [Opera Singer] in a big city, but I’ve never found any proof of that. Personally, I believe that it’s a fake name for a council of some sort. Like a group of well-connected kitrekins that govern the various gangs around the continent, but I don’t have any proof of that either. So who knows? What’s important for you to know is that the don tends to stick to Southtown, and is probably well-connected with the council. He might make that a problem if you start poking your nose into his business.”

Looking at the table, Vee rubbed his chin and studied the web of relationships and tributaries. The more he looked at the crisscrossed mess, the angrier he became. Sacre and the don didn’t use their holdings for the good of the city; they were just parasites growing fat on the backs of others. That thought pissed Vee off, and the [Dungeon Master]’s hands curled into fists. Though he knew it was a crazy idea that would take years to happen if not longer, he vowed then and there to find some way of freeing the city from the clutches of the gangs squeezing it dry.

To his surprise, the Expectation stirred then, reaching up to nuzzle his cheek and purring like a cat. Vee looked into the snake-dragon’s eyes, and saw the fiery purpose there. He was slightly intimidated by the weight of its gaze burning into his own.

The spirit opened its mouth and spoke, it’s voice low and silky.

“You’re sssetting a lofty, dangerousss goal, but it’s one worth pursssuing. Do you truly promissse to do what you have sssaid?”

“I do,” he said.

With a smile that looked more than a little sinister, the Expectation tightened around Vee’s shoulders and returned to its sleeping position.

“Excellent. I ssshall be watching you, and if you prove true, I ssshall reward you,” it murmured as it closed its eyes once more. Vee looked down and saw that the word freedom and safety lingered on its scales.

[Ambition +1]

[Congratulations, you can now use Shoot For The Stars]

Unfamiliar with the name, Vee closed his eyes and consulted his soul’s mirror to read his new skill description.

[Shoot For The Stars] – (Passive) This skill allows the user to verbalize ambitious dreams and goals that have a chance of inflicting the Devoted, Loyal, or Staunch Supporters status on those who hear them, whether the goal is attainable or not.

Well, that could prove rather useful, Vee thought, though it also seemed…a little manipulative? A lot manipulative? Just how strong were those statuses? And how long did they last?

He was conflicted about whether or not he liked his new power, but would have to wait until later to consider the implications more fully.

For now, he turned his attention back to his [Majordomo].

“How do we figure out what Sacre and the don are after in Westown?”

The hat thought for a moment.

“Well, the easiest way to do that would be to follow the people who go in somehow, but if they got caught it would not be good. I suppose we could use the fiends for that, actually.” Reginald said. “None of the members of the medium section have any proper scouting skills, but they know the city well and can move through it quickly and silently. If we have them keep an eye out, maybe we’ll get some information about what the gangs are up to.”

“That’s a good idea,” Vee said. “but I’m nervous about losing one of them if they get caught. They’re my responsibility.”

“So it goes, Boss.”

“Maybe we should wait until after Rortenferry has examined them all and figured out why they’re developing the way they are.”

Reginald frowned. “You could do that, though I think you might be waiting a while. Old Rortenferry seems like a good guy, but he’s kind of scattered. So long as something is right in front of him he’s great about paying attention to it, but he seems easily distracted. If you’re serious about knowing what’s going on in Westown, I think you’re just going to have to take the risk and send one of the fiends.”

Vee and Reginald continued discussing the matter further into the night, until Vee’s eyes could stay open no longer, but ultimately Vee agreed with his [Majordomo]. Flopping onto his bed, Vee fell asleep in a warm mixture of contentment and purpose.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales

Primary Class: Ghost Maestro (Locksmagister University), Level 28

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar’s Crest), Level 17

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 5

Might: 12

Wit: 31

Faith: 21

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 14 (+1)

Plotting: 18

Charisma: 12

Devious Mind: 21

Leadership: 16

Guts: 13

Intimidating Presence: 9

Citizenship: 20

Public Relations: 6

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Afficionado (Self), Level 21

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 12

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar’s Crest), Level 14

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 3

Might: 39

Wit: 12

Faith: 26

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Endurance: 19

Intimidating Presence: 13

Heart of a Champion: 8

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 8

Vigilance: 6

Vanity: 4

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

--~%@(%$@ &% (*$ #&#e !i$$ (#$%#$%#$@!)~--, #$v@& ????

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 39

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 15 (+1)

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 8

Might: 1

Wit: 32

Faith: 11

Ambition: 27 (+1)

Greed: 22

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 36

$#&*!@!!

Loyalty: 46

Patience: 10

[#&%%%@%!#@__--#%]

%^(@#!! @#$@!@#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 7