*8–9 January, 848 IE — Six Towers / Charterhall / Night Market* ### The Sisters' Manor In the days that followed [[2026-05-09 - Edinburgh Session 9|their flight from the Reclaimers]], the [[Old Town Echoes]] had returned to the familiar underground of the [[Ink & Anvil]]. [[Boo]] had spent hours at the feet of [[Quellyn]], watching the witch work, until the knot of the tracker-dispelling working had finally resolved itself in her mind. [[Watcher]], for his part, had been quietly applying himself to the cultivation of old skills—the kind of patience that makes a person harder to see. The invitation from the [[Dimmer Sisters]] had hung over them since New Year's morning. [[Cam]] decided they would not leave it longer. They crossed into [[Six Towers]] as evening came on—through streets where houses that had once belonged to people of consequence now pressed close in the manner of things that had survived by leaning on each other. The address brought them to a three-story gothic manor with gabled rooflines and dark stone, maintained with the precision of money spent on upkeep but not warmth. Two men in well-made suits flanked the front door, watching the crew's approach with professional patience. Cam produced the card. One of the guards examined it, raised an eyebrow at the number of people filing in behind her, pocketed it, and opened the door. Inside, the foyer was draped in tapestries and held the permanent dimness of rooms no one had thought to let light into for years. Waiting was a familiar face: the coachman from New Year's morning, who recognized them with the slight smile of a man pleased by correct decisions. *"That was probably a good choice, coming in and making the right motions,"* he said, and disappeared through a pair of sliding double doors. The crew stood among old statuary and waited. When they were finally admitted, the sitting room revealed a woman nothing like the veiled figure from the carriage. [[Sister Beatrice]] was perhaps four and a half feet tall, with green-and-purple striped woollens visible beneath the hem of her black velvet dress and feet that didn't quite reach the floor, kicking idly behind the desk. Papers were stacked in the half-organized way of a person who thinks faster than they file, and an inkwell threatened to overflow. Books occupied every wall—dust-heavy, mold-spotted, unopened for what looked like decades. She looked up at the assembled crew and smiled with apparent delight. *"Oh, hello! I'm so pleased to meet all of you."* She asked their names in turn, made a note, and turned to business with the efficiency of someone who keeps a busy desk. She knew about Professor Lancaster, she said—such a shame. And she knew the nature of the carriage house he had occupied. The Sisters were quite fond of that property. They would be happy to allow the crew to operate there, on two conditions. First: Lancaster's spirit, which the Echoes had bottled the night of his death. The Sisters wished to have him. Second: a job. She opened a drawer and placed before them a heavy object—a golden figure, old and tribal in form, perhaps eight inches tall, dense as poured metal. Not the real thing. A replica. The genuine article was held in a vault beneath the Brightstone estate of [[Lord Kilgrave]], a man of considerable wealth and numerous business interests. She wanted the real artifact retrieved and the replica left in its place—quietly, without Kilgrave ever learning the swap had been made. She also noted, with pleasant precision, that the Sisters didn't actually own the property—they simply had it under their protection. Someone with a valid deed might present themselves at any time. That, she said, was the crew's problem to manage. [[Boo]] picked up the replica and turned it over. Heavier than expected. She tried to read what lay beneath its surface—something was there, layered and deliberate, woven into the object—but it resisted her, slipping out of reach. She set it back down without remark. [[Watcher]] studied the books along the walls with the focused quiet of a man who has learned to want things carefully. The crew agreed. The spirit would be delivered. The Kilgrave job would be done. The carriage house was theirs to use. Before they were shown out, [[Nyx]] stepped forward and offered a small bottle she had made herself—a perfume she had named *Les Doigts de Alchemist*. Sister Beatrice uncorked it, took a careful sniff, and said *"How delightful,"* setting it on the desk before her. [[Cam]] got the crew out before the moment had time to develop. --- ### The Replica and the Board Back beneath the [[Ink & Anvil]], Boo examined the replica more carefully—setting it beside [[Mistress Ash|the statue]] already occupying a corner shelf, a temporary arrangement—and found what she hadn't been able to parse at the Sisters' desk: multiple layers of deliberate working folded into the object, purpose entirely unknown. Whatever the replica was built to do, she had no desire to be nearby when it finally happened. [[Watcher]], meanwhile, had already claimed a corner of the lair and begun unpacking the materials taken from [[Lancaster's Carriage House|Lancaster's carriage house]]. The conspiracy board went back up—encoded notes, thread-connected documents, the recurring symbol of five interlocking circles. The cipher had not yet yielded. But it would, given time, and Watcher was a patient man. --- ### Locket Cam sent word south, and [[Locket]] came. [[Freakshow]] sat with them over drinks while the crew laid out the situation: the war with the [[Reclaimer's Circle]] had gone quiet, but [[Aldric Venn]] had shown no interest in negotiation. What was left of the Circle, and how to end it? Locket was direct. The Reclaimers were essentially finished—their remaining people clustered at the [[Mortar and Pestle]], a tavern in the district, using the back entrance to avoid the open street. Cut off the money flowing into that establishment, and the ones still showing up for Venn would start looking for better employment. Among them, Locket suggested, would be someone unhappy enough, and broke enough, to eventually give up where Venn himself was hiding. They also noted that the district appreciated the crew's continued care. *"We are absolutely appreciative that you continue to keep the best interests of the district in mind."* After business was concluded, Locket turned out to be an avid chess player and spent another quarter-hour discussing theory with some enthusiasm before departing in good spirits. --- ### The Mortar and Pestle While the meeting with Locket concluded, [[Watcher]] and [[Eidolon]] went to watch the back alley of the Mortar and Pestle. The rear door was busy in ways the front was not—Circle members slipping in and out while avoiding the open street. The months of pressure had made visibility a liability. A cart from [[Stillman's Distillery]] arrived during the stakeout and made deliveries to the alley entrance. The Mortar and Pestle's supply now had a name. Watcher also noted one of the men leaving through the back: a figure the crew had encountered before, known as [[Fat Eddie]]—a name that was entirely ironic. He stood well over six feet and weighed considerably less than he should have, every line of him angular and spare. He slipped out without hurry, and Watcher recorded the sighting. --- ### The Rumor Mill The crew spread out through the district and began to talk. The message was simple and largely accurate: the [[Reclaimer's Circle]] was losing its grip on the territory, and anyone still paying them for protection was paying for something that no longer existed. [[Freakshow]] worked the conversations where it mattered and planted the story in the right ears. Others found less purchase, but the rumor had taken root regardless, and by evening it was circulating through the kinds of discussions that move coin. --- ### Chigger and Stillman's Cam went upstairs and found [[Mara Kettering]] cleaning glasses behind the bar, wearing the expression of a woman who had noticed the crew's absence and thought better of raising it directly. Cam asked about Stillman's Distillery. From a few stools down, a man who had been occupying the same spot at the bar for months—[[Chigger Nine-Wren]], a regular of the reliable kind—volunteered the details without being asked. Stillman's was in the Southern Night Market, underground, growing all its own ingredients in the cavern systems below. Mara came up with a business card from behind the bar: an address in the undercity. --- ### Stillman's Distillery On the evening of the ninth, the crew hired a carriage and rode south—through Charterhall, through the University Quarter, across the rail bridge and down into the undercity beneath Night Market, where streets wide enough for carts ran beneath girders of uncertain vintage. They climbed out a couple of blocks from the address and went the rest on foot. [[Stillman's Distillery]] occupied an alcove cut into the undercity wall: two large cargo doors, a small personnel entrance, nothing else visible from the outside. No storefront. No samples. Just a place that moved liquid out of somewhere below into barrels headed for somewhere else. Cam surveyed the face of it and found no obvious secondary entry. She asked Boo to look further. Boo tried, and found nothing she could use. Watcher activated the sight [[Mistress Ash]] had granted the crew and looked through the stone. What he saw was older than the distillery—beneath the building, the ghost field still held the shape of a guard tower's foundation, its passages intact in ways the physical structure no longer was. He traced a route: through this wall, through that far wall, and down into the aging cellar where the casks rested in the dark. A way in that left nothing on the surface to mark it. He came back to himself, made a sketch in his notebook, and showed it to Cam. They had their avenue. How to use it—which casks to find, what to put in them—was a problem for next time. --- **System Notes** - [[Boo]] learned the tracker-dispelling ritual during downtime, after studying under [[Quellyn]] - Clocks started: Lancaster's Poison Research (0/4), Lancaster's Conspiracy (0/8) - Reclaimer's Hold clock: 4/6 (advanced 2 segments via rumor campaign) - [[Dimmer Sisters]]: Neutral; crew holds sufferance to use [[Lancaster's Carriage House]] in exchange for (1) delivery of Lancaster's spirit, and (2) completion of the Kilgrave artifact job - New job: retrieve a gold tribal artifact from [[Lord Kilgrave]]'s Brightstone vault; replace with the Dimmer Sisters' replica; Kilgrave must not suspect the swap - All characters: 1 XP; [[Boo]] and [[Watcher]]: 1 additional XP each [[2026-06-06-Transcript|Chatlog]] ![[Screenshot 2026-05-09 145148.png]]