This is the second session of the Band of Bastards. Due to Russell’s inability to curb his abhorrent work hours has led to his replacement by Lauren. Russell’s character Drennet has been relegated to be an NPC.

Lauren plays Hoto as rolled by the One Roll Imperial Characters as described in Reign Supplement #1. Comments by Liam regarding Lauren’s Hoto will be placed in square parentheses (y’know, the square brackets [just like these]).

Session Two: A Taste of Things to Come

A two short weeks have passed and Prime Honour has started unrolling and restacking the wood pile to alleviate boredom (it’s how Prime keeps himself busy and warm). Drennet has been absorbed by the Household and is being groomed as an assistant to Jegro and thus spends most hours deep inside the House not just at the cold orbits like Prime Honour.

Jegro is getting busy now. Not a day goes by when some entitled crusty knob or slippery tart enters the house and leaves at an appointed time later. The strange customs and alien formalities of Imperial etiquette are lost to a simpler Prime.

Late one night, Drennet enters the little tick-cabin and collapses on his bunk stripping off awkwardly as he lies there. Drennet tells Prime that Jegro has a task for him in the morning.

Prime Honour rises and wipes down his hair and puts on freshly laundered formal clothes as laid out for him by Cayshelle (who it seems, is impressed by Prime not being a ruffian).

After a cup of tea is poured for him by Pasre, Prime is led by Maon to Jegro in his study. Jegro is not alone. With him stands an incredibly pristine women, so beautiful is hurts to look upon her. Her movements are small and precise, every motion a little orchestrated dance.

Unlike his attitude with Drennet, Jegro has become far more relaxed with Prime, often hand-waving the required decorum as needless irritants. With such as gesture, Jegro casually introduces Prime Honour to Hoto Hori, a woman of obvious championship breeding from the Deep Empire not just the wild Skirts like Riverrun.

Hoto greets Prime with a little, almost imperceptible swivel of the eyes.

It is Prime Honour’s task to deliver a message to a certain merchant in New Riverrun. This person, Lily Drum, is staying at the Puckered Roost. Prime and Hoto will deliver the message.

With little else, Hoto and Prime are carted and barged across to New Riverrun. True enough, they indeed find the portly, nervous Lily Drum who is quite taken aback by Hoto but is far more interested in the scroll. It seems Hoto is drawing quite a crowd despite her tremendous emotionless content to assuage spectators.

Lily hastily scrambles through scroll and drops it in almost tearful dejection. It seems, he wails to the two in hopes of sympathy, his two shipments of Uldish steel ingots from Vigil have been stolen by brigands near intersection to The Mounds.

The shipments were both destined to arrive in Riverrun so Jegro could buy them from Lily.

The story goes that the shipments were bought from an Uldish steel-monger called Olrick. Olrick possesses smelting foundries in Uldholm. Lily needed those shipments. The money he received for it was to help pay off his considerable gambling debt. Lily has a nasty habit betting on dog-fights. He has gotten in over his head with a staggering fifty Imperial Pounds to a notorious small-time criminal Filgo the Brick-Lugger (as the story goes he used to move loads of bricks on barges and murder-for-money on the side). This is not good for Lily because if he owes money to Filgo, it means he owes money to The Merchant. Filgo (and his Dirty Boys) maintains the Merchant’s criminal activities and keeps his fingers unsticky. The sum of Lily’s liquid cash is a small-seeming five pounds.

Filgo is a vicious and violent thug but he’s not stupid. It’s known he delegates the worst work to his three henchmen, the Dirty Boys. Unlike Filgo, the Dirty Boys enjoy cruel as work and entertainment. The Dirty Boys are Pizzane, Faross, and Gammo.

It seems, the task is important to Jegro because these were to be his steel ingots. Prime decides to investigate this further and hoists a confused Hoto along.

The two dawdle off the dodgy side of New Riverrun, to the business of Brago the Dogherd, the man who breeds dogs and stitches up the pit survivors.

They arrive and Prime speaks to a dog-hand about buying some dogs for his master, who apparently wants to raise pit-dogs. They work out Prime would have to buy seven breeding pairs for £2s. Prime also enquires about a legendary pit-dog nicknamed Half Face who is owned by Filgo the Brick Lugger. It seems, Prime has some interest in also buying Half Face. The Dog-herd sends a boy to run over to Filgo and enquire.

A little later the boy returns and says Filgo will speak to Prime about Half Face. Thanking the dog-hand, they walk the circuitous journey through derelict houses and squats. They make it to Filgo and are met and leered at by one of the Dirty Boys before being let in. Actually, Prime is ignored and Hoto gets all the attention.

Prime starts by saying his Master is offering a number of breeding pairs of pit dogs available as a gift for Filgo. It seems his Master is worried about the debt accrued by Lily Drum. Filgo tells them the debt is for £50 and that he, Filgo, knows Lily will indeed pay off the debt as any gentlemen would rather die than besmirch his good name with something as slanderous as a gambling scandal.

Prime offers a small cash advance, a once-off payment to defer the rest of the debt for a time. They haggle and declare that 3£ would defer the payment for two weeks.

Prime leaves with Hoto and go back to the Puckered Roost to once more speak with Lily Drum.

They eventually convince Lily to give them the £5 to buy two additional weeks from Filgo. With the 5£ they decide to rather find lodgings although Hoto wants to sleep at some other place than the Puckered Roost. The only other place they can sleep at is the main Watch House.

The rest of the night passes largely without incident except for a gaggle of young Watch members ogling and vying for Hoto’s attention. This reception allowed Hoto to successfully demand a hot bath. The young man who found her a shaving razor got to touch her smooth, hairless leg [I allowed Lauren to roll Hoto’s Inspire and decided that the WxH determined the size (H) and Threat (W-1) of her enraptured audience].

In the morning, they step out into the freezing, foggy air and step to Filgo’s house. They reach it safely and present to him the three Imperial Pound coins – no small sum of money to anyone’s eyes. Filgo agrees to let Lily’s debt hang unpaid for two weeks and not a moment longer. They depart.

They walk halfway back to the Puckered Roost before they are stopped by a knife-wielding Pizzane and the rest of the Dirty Boys, Flaross and Gammo, who crept up after and behind them. It seems Pizzane caught a glimpse of money and wants to get a taste – to ensure Prime’s and Hoto’s protection from the many murderous thieves and rapists and other such terrible criminals hiding just around every corner.

Prime Honour drops to his knees and grovels for his life, fumbling with harried abandon to get his purse out, which he promptly drops to the roads pilling some of the contents. Meekly staring down from Pizzane, he scraps back from the purse allowing Pizzane to scoop it up which he doesn’t.

As Pizzane bends down, Prime whips his dagger up at Pizzane’s throat and jerks him around to face the other two Dirty Boys behind them. They all hold up there hands and take a step or two back but no further. Only Pizzane has dropped his knife. [Mechanically, Prime used his Plead to distract Pizzane into thinking he was a craven and base loser – it worked well. Believing Prime to be no threat he moved to pick up the purse – Liam rolled his Expert: Filch skill and palmed his dagger. When Pizzane grabbed the purse, Liam rolled a 3x4 with a +1 Width because of Path of the Serpent’s Fangs and used Iron Kiss on Pizzane. It wasn’t exactly how Iron Kiss works but it was fine].

With Pizzane held with an iron kiss at his neck, Prime and Hoto move – well eventually. Prime has to ask Hoto to collect and pick up his spilled purse – but the other two Dirty Boys keep step with them and while still keeping their arms up, still hold their knives.

Realising the two Dirty Boys are not going to let them go that easily brings it down to which Flaross and Gammo prefer, two Imperial Pounds or Pizzane alive. It seems they have trouble letting go of two easy pounds.
Prime and Hoto stop and understand that Flaross and Gammo aren’t going to leave them alone.

Hoto steps forward toward the two trailing Dirty Boys takes a stance, which elects sniggers out of them, grips her thin sword and whips out a waving flaming sword like a Dindavaran noble from Hell and points at them both at the distance of just a quick step and thrust.

They jump back in fright at an unblinking women holding a burning sword and flee. A shocked Prime lets Pizzane go before he pees his pants and he obligingly scampers off into the shroud of mist.

The two walk back to Lily Drum free from further incident and tell him he has a two week extension on his debt repayment.

They also speak amongst themselves that they need to get a better understanding of the Merchant’s forces. They speak to the barkeeper and he introduces them to a young tout, Honesty Swallow. Honesty knows New Riverrun and its inhabitants and for regular money, he will work for Prime and Hoto.

The session ends with Prime and Hoto going back across the river to make a report to Jegro.

End of Session Two and Notes
Lauren is replacing effectively replacing Russell’s character, Drennet.

From my side the session took some time to get off the ground although everyone seemed to have fun.

Liam was in disbelief that Hoto was prettier than Prime but had a better sword skill, was prettier, and practiced sorcery. But this is not all, Hoto has a dark secret she is keeping from Prime and everyone. Maybe later the shocking truth will be revealed.

Experience

Liam 3
Good job, nice host, fun character.

Lauren 3
Lauren played an excellent character and no fault of her own she rolled a bisexual femininja sorceress. Quite on her own, she turned Hoto into a prissy, awkward cauldron of psychopathic violence under her managed exterior.

Me 1
I had to restart the game but I felt I couldn’t introduce Hoto to Prime with Prime rescuing her from rapists since a clichéd story would be insulting to both players. I hope to stitch both plots together in some sort of sequence.