Iskadar has two big papers of note. The first is the Triumphant Messenger, which is the oldest newspaper in the world, leans to the makerite-old-capitalist “Bog” faction of city politics, and has an extremely strict editorial policy. The second is the Canal View, the first issue of which was ten years ago, that leans to the moralist-secular “Spark” faction of city politics, and is famous for printing outright lies.
Hana Boswel is (like her father, and a string of ancestors reaching right back to Hell), a horned and red-eyed recusant (it’s a more polite term than brimstone). Recently a much admired heiress and debutante in High Society, now, five years on in harder times, she has debuted and inherited and finds herself rather bored of the serious lifestyle. Ms. Boswel desires a little excitement back in her life.
She achieves this excitement in part with daring investigative journalism - both by investigating on her own time, and by hiring people to get the latest scoop. She puts her pieces in the View, because her public reputation is as a well-known Spark. The rest of her excitement derives from attempts to stamp out any pamphlet, paper or bulletin in the environs of the City of Cities that she doesn’t have a controlling stake in.
The current target is an underground paper operating off a single press down in Bellwether, by the name of Announcer, which is a heavily syndicalist-leaning little outfit that reports on the excesses of High Society. Boswel found their issues amusing, until they started printing about her.
She has hired a group of disreputables - a few thieves-in-law from the city, to keep the local criminals happy, and then some subcontractors from Ozann to round out the numbers.
The leader of the outfit is Letitia “Tish” Vogel, an associate of the Stroza Family, formerly of Zarumaa, currently of Bellwether. A veteran of the War, she learned to operate a heavy repeating rifle in the valleys around empty Amacos, and she’s still a dab hand with it. She took her gun home from the war, deserted the day after the truce, and by this mechanism, dodged the Treaty’s ban on magazine guns. So some people call her Magazine Tish.
Her second in command is Enlo Tokaba, a Daorac nationalist assassin who failed to take out her target at an international conference in Iskadar, and was too afraid and embarrassed to return home to her terrorist cell. Enlo’s a trained climber, excellent shot, skilled knife-fighter, and practiced poisoner. Oh, and Tish’s girlfriend, which is why she’s here in the first place.
They’re accompanied by Forge, Icono, and Elezan,. three hardened Iskan gangers with long handguns, knives and a hand-grenade between the three of them. They’re fairly competent, but are primarily guided by bravado.
The head subcontractor is a low-level Ozannar wizard, by the name of Vano Piemi. He does this sort of shit - low level legbreaking, threats, breaking-and-entering - as more or less his day job, and his spells (Knock, Invisibility, &c) reflect this. He’s a skinny, unlikeable, but undeniably good-looking sort of a fellow, wearing an abominable bright orange jacket.
He has brought six low-grade thugs from his hometown, canal-girt and smoke-shrouded Shinaca. The Shinacans are not particularly competent, but they are armed with wooden clubs and metal piping, and they’re enthusiastic to be paid.
The thugs are under fairly express orders not to kill anyone, or hurt them too badly, just to intimidate them - and to smash the printing press. They will only escalate to violence if it becomes personal.
Their first attempt was seen off by an accidentally timed police raid on the illegal narcotics lab next door (no relation to the Announcer), which has given Ms. Sew Galiandra, the editor of the paper, time enough to scrape some funds together to hire you, to see off Tish and her crew when they circle around to try again. You are also under express orders not to kill anyone, because it would be a real ball-ache.
No comments:
Post a Comment