troika tuesday: 2D6 Henchmen
When entering a locale full of hireable goons, roll 2D6 per party member present. A duplicate roll is a dud; do not roll again.
For every 100p slapped down conspicuously on the bar, make the next roll at +1.
Notated as name, skill/stamina/armour/damage, followed by price and special notes. If no damage is listed, damage is as Unarmed or Weapon. If no weapon is listed they must be provided with one.
- Hoot, 4/4/0/as Small Beast
Price: 2 live rats or equivalent, daily
Eurasian eagle-owl. Comprehends speech, indicates responses with head tilts and wing flaps. Can be heard talking in brief moments between waking and sleep. Amenable to most owl-suitable activities. Shunned by other birds, especially city-owls. - Mysterious Friend, 4/5/3
Price: Free
4' tall, clad in potbellied platemail. No visible face, no voice, happy little metallic claps only. Armed with a small LANCE (as Spear) and a shield. Very happy to help. In fact, difficult to dissuade from accompanying you without physical threat. If physically threatened, the Friend becomes a sullen Enemy who will follow you from afar and conspire to ruin your life. - The Remin of Gwauss, 5/5/2
Price: 1p a day
Counts as Skill of 9 for Second Sight and Mathmology.
Delicately wrought thinking engine, shaped like a stringless silver fiddle-bow with chrome arms and legs. Head antenna reacts to proximity of beings, including invisible or ethereal: emits a synthesized sonorous wail, louder and higher pitched the closer it gets. Will waive fees if the proposed caper is in a Golden Barge or the black void between the Spheres. Categorically refuses to approach the Demon Sea. - Cherlie Creggle, 5/10/1(mail shirt of copper pennies)
Price: 2p a day
Local orphan with a KNIFE. Ostracised from the Pennyshirts, a juvenile street gang, for being too old. If you're after illicit goods and services in Troika, he knows where to start looking, and has a 2/6 chance of being personally acquainted with a provider (on a 1, they're on good terms; on a 2, there's bad blood). Afraid of the dark, requires double pay for dungeon-delving. - Dizzie Longtooth, 6/7/0
Price: 2p a day
Arm of living rowan. Failed out of witch school. Has an owl familiar -- won't work with Hoot. Knows the spells read entrails, assassin's dagger, and presence. - The Hero of Thindowel Lane, 6/12/1
Price: 3p a day plus intellectual property rights
Wields her cast iron AXE effectively, is brave, and reliable. She is also insufferable. Her side-gig is self promotion via biographical epic songs. If you hire her you will gain a reputation for being cowardly and ineffectual as she inflates her role in all events. - Sandwish Stan, 5/15/2
Price: 12p a day
Boistrous meal maestro. Provides 1D6 free sandwiches a day, each not counting towards any PC's limit of 3 Provisions a day for healing. Stan is a non-combatant; if he takes more than 2 points of damage, or if he simply feels inadequately safeguarded, he will blacklist the PCs and abandon them. Refuses to work with Longchaff. - Longchaff, 5/18/0
Price: 6p a day
Bald, red-skinned, tattooed in thick latticed blue lines. Undercuts Sandwish Stan with a worse product: keeps an ever-bubbling alchemist's crucible of thin sulfurous broth and slimy soba noodles. 1D3 free bowls a day -- these DO count towards the 3 Provision maximum. Longchaff also has no compunctions about getting his KNIFE dirty; he is, as he will tell you with relish, 'down to clown'. - Mac Gristle, 6/20/0/Damage as Modest Beast
Price: 15p a day
B-list wrestling celebrity. His mask has a 1/6 chance of being recognised by enemies native to Troika: Have them test their Skill or become afraid and quit battle. Will not work with his sworn rival, Captain Plutonium. - Captain Plutonium, 7/14/1
Price: 15p a day
Heel on the local wrestling circuit. It's not an act. Handy with his PISTOLET. Is only joining onto your enterprise because he knows Mac Gristle is going to be nearby at some point, will detour to face him down. - Pneuroga the Magnificent, 9/9/0
Price: 15p a day, plus 15p per spell cast
Fleshy raisin of a woman with hair as dry as lichen. Spells: wall of power, teleport, sentry, hurricane, jolt. Loathes witches, will need to be physically restrained from attacking them. - Anathotum of the Obsidian Lens, 8/15/1/Damage as Large Beast
Price: Free
Sphinx of black glass. Descended from his utopic sphere to experience lavish violence. Must see a new method of killing once per day or he will grow restless, seek his own victims. Spells: farseeing, thought vapours, cockroach, read stars, Zed.