Filling your holes in the staff is easy enough: a couple of interviews and you are done. No more reliable than your previous hires, but as long as you pay regularly, they will work well enough to keep the Casino going.
But then, you realize that you need someone reliable and able to work autonomously: you and John are simply not enough to manage all the current problems and the future ones you are sure you will get. Therefore, you do some calls with your old contacts to see if they have someone looking for a well-paid job. After calling some number, you get the contact of a Fixer looking for something more stable.
"So, miss Gardner …" You start, before getting interrupted.
"Please don't start with this "Miss" shit. Everyone calls me Mercy, that's good enough for you".
You couldn't say that she wasn't a very forward person.
"So, Mercy. I assume that you would be interested in working as Security Chief for this establishment."
"Yes, I'm very interested in breaking the faces of people who are in desperate need of having their faces broken. Like the thugs two buildings from here."
"So, you have already met them?" You ask, curious.
"One of them wasn't smart enough to understand troubles when he seems somebody like me. Not that he's going to tell anybody. In my experience is quite difficult to talk without teeth."
You knuckle: "Seems the beginning of an interesting partnership, Mercy. What do you need before start working?"
"A starting bonus, just for the beginning. And I want to be an associate."
You stare her right in the eyes and she does the same. "When I said that I was looking for something stable, I was meaning it. You pay me like you pay the other guy that I know works with you and I'll shoot everyone you want me to shoot without asking questions".
You sigh: "You do not use sweet words, are you?"
She smiles: "I don't need to use them when I can use a shotgun, Ernesto."
You both shake hands. You get muscles, she gets money and an official position as the third owner of the Casino. Like you and John, enough to get her loyalty even without sharing history.
(Result: You get +1 Casino Staff and a Named Character: Mercy Gardner. -2 funds).
You take the small tome from the bookshelf and sit on the new chair that you brought to replace the old one.
You are sure that the answer to the thing in the next room is in one of these books, so you can only take one and start reading, hoping to find an epiphany. This is as good as any other and since you see a connection between your activity and the story in the book, you decided to start from this.
The first couples of pages are mostly normal, with the first escape of Gerard Catalan from his creditors in Madrid. Without money and shelter, he spends the night in the first village he meets by breaking into a shed and planning on going away before the crowing of the rooster. Without anything to do, he idly throws his dice on the floor.
All three of them end in six. Then something appears.
You turn the page and frown: everything is gibberish, with letters almost fused. You turn back to the page you just finish reading and find it in the same situation.
You keep turning page after page, expecting something to change: the words start to bloat into a single mess, then split again while rotating in various directions and changing shapes, and font, without any order, in complete and utter chaos.
Then, after turning more pages than a book of this size should have, you can finally make some words.
A couple of dice are drawn in an extremely realistic style on the pages, with cursive writing above them.
Your turn
"What the fuck." You mutter. You try to turn another page, but it's like glue to the back of the book. But while you move the book, you see the dice moving with it. Tentatively, you try to touch the picture and you can feel your hand touching them, not just paper and ink.
You take a long breath, speechless. "Here goes nothing", you say, with a nervous smile, closing your fist on them and launching them. After the launch, the draw becomes just a picture and you can now start moving the pages again. Slowly, you turn the page, where you can see the dice rolling.
Your roll ends in a double one.
The same cursive writing starts appearing on the top of the page: Better luck next time
The book closes on itself with a slam, almost closing your fingers in it. You can't pry it open, seeming like a solid block of wood.
You put it back in the library. Then you go back to your office and pour yourself two drinks. You don't even finish the second, troubled by the noise of rolling dice in your head.
(Result: New Lore Discovered: Chaos Lore. -1 Sanity. Start a clock for the progress of the book. Part of the hidden trait revealed).
Even if the trace was getting colder, John got the first link of the chain quite easily: the dude delivering the letter was quite happy to spill the beans to the dude appearing behind him suddenly. The knife surely helped.
He got the name and the description of the other guy who paid him and that's where the first troubles start. He worked for the Eclipse, so getting him during work was not an option. Finding the address was a bit more difficult, but John managed.
So, he decided to make a home visit straight to him. It was not a place with a lot of activity, so John didn't have trouble reaching the door, opening the lock and getting inside before someone notice him.
The apartment looked like nobody has been there for a couple of days, but according to the information John had he was not at work and should be at home. Something was off.
He glanced at all the rooms, before going to the only one that was closed, which should be the bathroom.
He opens the door, and gives a long look at the room, before closing it.
That was a lot of blood.
No way in the world he would get answers from the man himself. The only thing that remained to do was look for clues in the apartment.
He looked thoroughly at the entire room, finding mostly personal effects. The most interesting thing was a picture from some years ago, taken inside what looked like the Pale Zenith.
So the man worked for them before moving to the Eclipse, but the Pale Zenith didn't have any ex-workers according to Ernesto. John was missing some connection, but what could that be?
Then, while looking over a book, he noticed an open envelope. Taking the letter inside revealed a short message.
You know what you must do. The Snake will reward you for your faith.
"The hell?" John muttered to himself. From what he saw in the bathroom, he was sure that the man did that to himself. But what could convince someone to do that voluntarily? He put the letter back where he found it and was going to go back to the Casino, but someone was opening the door.
In a flash, he stove himself inside the wardrobe, among the clothes, observing the door from a small opening between the doors.
Two masked men, with hoods and gloves, entered the apartment carrying a large suitcase. One went toward the bathroom, while the other went straight to where the envelope was.
"Can you give me a hand with the body once you are done with the letter?"
"Sure thing, but he put it in the wrong place. He knew that the letter should be inside the book."
John was sure that the letter was already in that spot when he saw it.
This means that the dead man did a mistake. Or someone looked through the room before him.
The masked man glanced around the room, searching for some other traces of the intruder.
John didn't move a muscle, holding his breath.
"Whoever it was, I think he already left."
"Yes, now can you give me a hand with the body, please?"
"Yeah, yeah". The man took the suitcase and went to the bathroom. After some minutes, they exit the apartment, with clearly the body stuck inside the suitcase.
John waited for thirty minutes before exiting his hiding place and going back home. He got some fragments of information, but maybe Ernesto would know how to put them together.
(Result: The man who gave the threatening letter to the courier is dead and was an ex-worker of the Pale Zenith, currently employed for the Eclipse. John is sure that he killed himself according to the instructions received from this Snake. Some masked men brought with them the body and the letter. Almost surely somebody rummage inside the apartment before John came and was probably not connected with the other two men).
Fulvia and his men were part of the second security team. Felix and the others decided that was better for them to go scouting since they already had an encounter with those idiots and it was better to avoid the chance to be remembered at the wrong moment.
So Fulvia dusted off her old leather jacket, put on some shitty makeup and her part of disguise was ready. The rest of her team did something similar and once they reached the party, they were perfectly camouflaged among the other punks.
Music was loud, drugs were everywhere and illumination was so dim that it was difficult to see the face of the guy standing in front of you.
Fulvia decided to take a couple of drinks, dancing a little before start asking questions. The gang better were recognizable from the other partygoers from the wolf head on their jackets or T-shirt, so she decided to get near the loud one, which was talking from the start of the party. Loose lips sink ships, after all.
"Sick party, dude!", she said to the man, who turned to her.
"You can say it! First time meeting the Desert Jackal's hospitality?" stated, before howling and being followed by his other crewmates. She didn't tell them that their symbol was actually a wolf head and that there were no jackals in the Desert around the City.
"Yeah, I didn't see you around here before", continued.
"We moved here the last couple of weeks, just the time to set up a lab in the basement and start doing business again. We used to have our hideout near Le Orchideè, the Casino, you know?" Fulvia nodded and he went on. "But the owner decided to pay us to fuck off and so we did. We didn't even start selling drugs in his neighbourhood, he suddenly come to us with a lot of cash and ask us to leave him be. We are men of our word, you see." He showed off and Fulvia feinted interest.
"Now we have the eye on another juicy target, the new place that opened up, Hell's Heart I think?". He even got the name wrong.
"We are just getting ready before paying a visit to them. We saw some nice tables that they got that would do a fine figure in our cove."
"If you ask me, I would go as soon as possible, but Maw wants to wait."
"Maw?" Silvia enquired.
"Yup, our boss. Look, he's moving to the music console right now." He pointed.
The Maw would be unrecognizable by his other lackeys if not for being bigger and with more studs on his jacket. He lowered the music and took the microphone.
"To all the newcomers, welcome to Jackal's Den!" He howled and his man join the chorus with him.
"This party has been generously financed by Le Orchideè, who saw us and did the right thing: to cower in fear and shower us with greens!" Acclamation went from several angles.
"But we are the Desert Jackals and we are always looking for new prey and we have a rich booty that we only need to pick. But soon, we'll take it!" Other claps from his henchman.
The rest of the monologue was not of interest to Fulvia: the Jackals were drunk on their previous success and seems more likely to come early to mess with them.
But they got the structure of the place and their numbers. Now it would be Ernesto's decision to what to do with them.
(Results: The Desert Jackals have a force equivalent to two groups of Followers and a Named Character (The Maw). +1 to Growing Confidence Clock)
I lied. I'll update the sheets in a moment.
Okay, can you give me a 2d6 roll for random events, please.
