DM Notes 1.08 (Blackmoor Supplement)

One Night of Freedom

Stonehand Halvarsson the godfather of the Deansbridge district has given his blessing to for a single nights freedom to demonstrate to Justice Makepeace how earnest the Mollies are about their pursuit of the nineteenth seat. Molly knows that she will only get one chance at this and following an interesting judgement from Makepeace she has a plan.

The Quake Judgement

Solomon Keats, leads the Knife Edge clan with an iron rule, inflexible and brutal he recently pressed Makepeace to make a judgement on a grievance with a member of the neighbouring Quake gang. The allegation was that Danny Goldman killed Joe Ostler over a card game dispute and dumped his body in the river. None of the other Quake gang members present will bear witness against Danny and so no one expected a decision to go against him. Before the court however Keats called another witness - the corpse of Joe Ostler was presented to the court and asked to point to his murderer. Makepeace found Goldman guilty and Keats turned down the blood money and everyone watched as the murdered corpse strangled the life out of his murderer.

Everyone was shaken by the outcome none more so than Makepeace who it appears has a particular aversion to the undead. Molly was not present but her spies reported the events and this set her planning.

Keats runs a brothel in the district overlooking the graveyard in a bar named The Last Night, the madame is Rose Kicker and she is a favorite of Keats. Molly has found that over the years she has been saving a bit of the take for herself and so is vulnerable to a little blackmail.

Molly intends to persuade Rose to leave town on an extended break, then to place a headless corpse into Makepeace’s chambers that is identifiable as Kicker - she has distinctive rose tattoos on each breast. Then whilst Makepeace wonders what to do with the mess she will let him see Clarys under the aegis of a change self spell, looking exactly the same as Makepeace. She intends to make the justice believe that Rose has been killed by Clarys whilst disguised as Makepeace and that if Keats discovers that she is dead and can get to the body then he will believe that he is the murderer.

All of this requires the party to go through several steps. Molly has set aside an appropriate corpse, and it is kept in the care of Longfellow who has cast a Gentle Repose spell on it to preserve it. When the party reach the corpse the tattooist is putting the final touches on naked corpse, however there is a definite sense that something was interrupted when the party enter. The tattooist is an incubus drawn to the unusual job request by his passion for evil.

Incubus: AC: 15, HP: 66, Claw +5 (1d6 + 3), Charm (DC 15 Wis), Draining Kiss (DC 15 Con or 5d10+5), Resistance

Once the corpse has been beheaded it needs to be put into Makepeace’s chambers, preferably whilst he is sleeping in them. Makepeace lives in The Green House, a rather splendid three story double fronted townhouse in the heart of Deansbridge. He has five armed servants, all of whom are pretty handy in a fight and very alert at nighttime and access to reinforcements from the city guard at short notice. Access to the property is best done through the chimneys though, windows or front door are an option they are well secured and will need a skilled thief.

Another strategy might be to try and lightly drug the occupants if there is any craft with poisons. Diversions are easy enough to set up - the household is extremely confident - attacking a justice in Breaker territory would be unheard of. Infiltrating the household is also possible, posing as one of the armed staff members or more likely as one of the many day (cooks and cleaners) that come and go in the daytime.

The justice is likely to be returning with only a single bodyguard from his club in the late evening.

Once the justice has made his discovery he needs to understand what has happened - Clarys will need to present herself magically impersonating him - his first reaction will be to try and take her hostage so she will need to get away from him and his thugs.

Makepeace: AC: 15, HP: 65, Knife: +5 (1d4+3), Multiattack: makes two knife attacks, Parry: as a reaction can add 3 to AC for one attack

Servant: AC: 13, HP: 35, Club: +5 (1d6+3)

At some inconvenient point in the evening an assassin, sent by princess Everine will come hunting Tinian.

Assassin: AC: 15, HP: 78, Shortsword: +7 (1d6+3 Con save DC 15 or 7d6), Crossbow: (1d8+3 Con save DC 15 or 7d6) Multiattack: can make two attacks, Assassinate: first turn it has advantage and scores a critical on a hit, Sneak attack: +4d6, Evasion

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