Bloodsucking Financiers

While Lita returns from her ancestral home and manages to insult the Lord Mayor of Bolden, (getting herself thrown in the cage for good measure) most of the Lonely Street Irregulars find themselves in Brambleton and it’s environs. Beleg and Shecky fight a zombie outside of town and then Shecky takes ill with the stomach flu and sits out. The rest of the Irregulars meet in and around the Cracked Mug where they run across Perkin and find that his last name is Koslowe. He is a well-known financier and money changer.



Using Beleg as muscle, Thalwyn asks Koslowe to “straighten” the books regarding Pig Tucker and his debt owed. Koslowe first claims ignorance and asks the party to meet him after nightfall. They disagree and demand his immediate agreement. He relents.

That afternoon a ruckus is heard in the main marketplace of Brambleon. When the Irregulars respond, they find even the town guard are retreating from a staggering man with outstretched hands. The man assaults and tears out the throat of an unlucky townsperson. The Irregulars mount an attack and find even their magical weapons are ineffective. Finally, a timed headshot from Orcboy drops the zombie.

Just then a lad enters the now abandoned marketplace ready for battle. He carries a barrel lid as a shield and an old rusty sword. He explains that he is the only one in town brave enough to stand against the scourge of the zombies coming out of the South. Even the town guard flee. He alone has killed one. The Irregulars are intrigued by the boy’s sword and ask to see the corpse. He takes them outside of town to where the body was dumped. The only remarkable thing about the desicated form is the number of arrow shafts imbedded in it’s chest and the single head wound it suffered.

Later that evening Thalwyn breaks into Koslowe’s apartment above the Cracked Mug and sifts through his belongings, activing a trap and hovering at death’s door. Orcboy thinks him overdue and goes to the rescue, finding him bound and gagged and oblivious to Koslowe’s mutters in a wine-induced stupor. After attacking and defeating Koslowe, Orcboy wakes the three dwarves and goes downstairs only to discover… Koslowe playing cards. He returns to the apartment.

As it turns out, the man they’ve fought is only a doppleganger. The real Koslowe only comes out at night and knows a number of spells — including, as a revived Thalwyn discovered, Grease.

The financier is also able to control some people’s actions with his gaze and sucks life energy by touch. He is also unfazed by mundane weapons and has an annoying tendency to turn to smoke when injured too much. After “defeating” him three times, the party grabs as much loot as they can, along with his spellbooks and vacates the premises. But not before the dwarves employ their favorite weapon: fire.

They leave the Cracked Mug in blazes and seek refuge in the local church for the night. Then journeying only by daylight, and seeking refuge in churches along the way, the Irregulars make it back to Bolden with a good deal of loot and a new, powerful enemy.

Quote of the Day: “Somebody looking for me?”