Expensive Henchman - HMS APOLLYON

The Madam’s Special Friends:

Below are three henchman that the party might hire from Madam Introuvibibi of the HMS Apollyon.  These individuals will not work for less than 5,000 GP a mission and only for those who have Bibi's special favor.  The party in a recent game hired Brickbat, though they discovered that a Cleric's find Traps spell makes a skilled safe cracker redundant.

Brickbat Moldoon

 Brickbat Moldoon (Magsman)

A gentleman thief, suave and wry, Brickbat is his trade name and there are rumors that he’s actually the black sheep of a high caste Steward family.  Brickbat dresses well, lives lavishly and spends freely.  He’s completely in love with Madam Bibi, despite having broken the hearts of numerous Uptown debutants, and hangs around the Gilded Exile between jobs.  Brickbat is no thug, and will freely suggest that any time one gets in a fight it’s a botched job.

Brickbat is a lithe dark man in his early thirties, whose most distinguishing features are his eyepatch (he lost an eye once but recently paid the merrowmen for a new one that can see in the dark), and his long beautiful fingers, but he’s a generally attractive in a vague, unmemorable and unthreatening way.  He is most often found wearing a tasteful black dinner suit with his slightly thinning hair shaved clean. If seen shirtless, Brickbat’s Vory connections will be clear due to the large of tattoos, principally simple wave designs.  

Quite useful at climbing, hiding and breaking into things Brickbat also has a good understanding uptown etiquette, families and procedures (May roll under Intelligence if faced with a situation involving these to have savvy advice or quick talk uptown functionaries). Brickbat is also a well-respected freelance Vory, and keeps to the code.  

Foible – Mobbed Up: Besides his adherence to the Vory code (which may limit his behavior in some ways) Brickbat is a bit paranoid of hiring on with adventurers, he’s contracted with the Brown Jenkins gang (Bibi’s greatest rival) for “death insurance”.  If anything happens those who were with Brickbat last will receive a visit from several skilled assassin while they sleep.  Brickbat will reveal this fact is he distrusts the party in any way.

“Brickbat Moldoon” – Thief 8

Strength 14 (+ 1 melee hit & damage)

Intelligence 15 (Speaks and Writes Monkey, Common, Baatezu, Cant)

Wisdom 10

Constitution 6 (- 1 HP per Level)

Dexterity 18 (-3 AC +3 Hit Ranged Weapons)

Charisma 16

HP: 22  AC: 3

Skills (21)

Climbing (4 ), Stealth (5), Awareness (2), Tinker (6), Firearms (1), Light Armor (2) (-1 AC)

Equipment: Blackened Leather Armor (A ridiculous suit covered in blackened buckles), Curved dagger (1D4), Pepperbox pistol (1D4) (5 Round Bursts), 10 bullets, 10 enchanted hushed bullets (not magical for combat purposes). Love letter to Bibi, 100 GP roll of platinum coins, Knockout drops x4 doses, pungent dried meat in a sealed metal jar, 500 GP hell gem (in sole of shoe), Tattoo of Gaseous Form (as potion must be cut from body - 1D4 damage - to use), 2 flasks of military oil, 1 flask of ship spirit oil, 2 doses opium, 50’ silk rope, smoke bomb (30’x 30’), Fragmentation bomb (20’x20’ 2D10*) 2 minutes of gunpowder fuse, safecracking tools, thieves tools   

Special: May remove eye patch and a see in day with dark vision 80’. Eye is obviously not human having been vat grown from a devil eye, but is close enough is Moldoon wears a smoked monocle (which he has been known to).

Manu Stex (Assassin)

The up and coming Assassin of the Vory in Sterntown, Manu Stexx is a product of the worst slums of Picked Bone Square with its downtrodden grey despair.  Himself faded and pale, Manu would be unremarkable, dressed in the clothes of a casual industrial worker, if not for his Vory tattoos and uncanny Dexterity.  Stexx is a crude man, pretending at refinement and using elaborate metaphors an half understood erudition to cover his crudity. Despite his efforts,  Stexx’s accent and full body Vory tattoos of faded skulls (he claims one for every victim, but Stexx got them all when he was young) will forever bar him from being more than an assassin, while his lack of business accume and odd streak of mercy prevent him from rising to become crime lord.  Stexx is a very good assassin however, moving with a fluid languidity and striking the vitals of his victims with a deadly aesthetic touch.  Currently he is in mourning, his lover Handsome Jules the Pugilist having been killed by cultists of Sheriff Buck Naked. Stexx killed Buck with a perfect backstab and now carries the bandit’s gilded submachine gun, mostly for intimidation purposes. 

Despite the untold number of murders he’s committed Manu is not cruel or heartless.  He will never inflict unnecessary pain, and avoids violence if possible, intimidating or threatening if the job does not call for actual killing.  It's rumored that Stexx has not killed anyone he wasn’t paid to kill for the last ten years. He also has an altruistic streak and with the added impetus of the fun loving gregarious Jules’ death he’s been spending a lot of time fighting on behalf of the Temple of the Ship Spirits and listening to the catechisms of Brazen Gear.

Foible – Peaceful:  Will avoid killing is possible, will try to deescalate situations if possible, saving his deadly skill for those he has been specifically paid to kill.  He is also disgusted by incompetence, and if the party makes too many blunders he will leave without apology.  If they kill innocents, he will mark them down for later attention (from his friends, not himself).

Manu Stexx – Specialist 8

Strength 16 (+ 2 melee hit & damage)

Intelligence 14 (Speaks and Writes Frogling, Common, Cant)

Wisdom 15

Constitution 14 (+ 1 HP per Level)

Dexterity 18 (-3 AC +3 Hit Ranged Weapons/melee weapons)

Charisma 10

HP: 47 AC: -4

Skills (21)

Light Armor (5) (-2 AC, +1 Saves, +1 Attack, Agility (3)(Acrobatics, +1 Initiative, -1 AC), Dual Weapons (5) (+2 attacks per round, Feint, Defensive Weapon), Assassin (5) (Backstab, Crit on 17+, +1 INT, Assassination, 3X crit damage), Stealth (1) Duelist (2) (-1 AC, Dex for Melee Bonus)

Equipment: Rapier of screams (+2/Hit +1 Damage – on successful kill will let out psychic scream requiring save vs. paralysis or flight for 1D6 rounds), Ebonite Armor +2 (AC 4) Gilded MP38 Submachine Gun (1D6*) 32 round magazine (up to 20 round burst), 3 extra magazines, 1 magazine of silver bullets.  Ring of Stealth (3 in 6 stealth chance causes headaches when used). 4 flasks of oil, 2 vials of poison (3D6) for rapier, shrunken head in a bag (weeps loudly if removed from bag), potion of levitation, Stinging Gas bomb (20’ x20’ cloud – save v. poison to enter, -2 hit for 1D8 turns if inhaled), Lantern, 60’ silk rope, grappling hook, hard candies.

Note: Stex has four attacks per round and does 1D8+2+3 x3 on a successful critical hit.  He also has a -3 AC.  He gets a critical strike on 17+ and has a +5 to hit. He likely shouldn’t go with the party unless they are in serious need of muscle. Also I really shouldn't reveal his stats as somoen might hire him to do in PCs.

Pox on the Dead (Merrowman Warrior)

His tribe all but destroyed, Mushrooms in the Dew was the only warrior of his tribe to survive the disaster and escape to the protection of Madam Bibi.  The experience cause Dew to change his name to one that reflects his overwhelming hatred of the undead and Pox is now a dour, joyless face amongst the ranks of Madam Bibi’s enforcers.  A towering 8’ nightmare of ropey grey flesh covered in scars and equipped with the best equipment his tribesmen can turn out, Pox is not to be trifled with and his experiences have given him an utter lack of mercy or pity.  He’s also quite a bit smarter than he looks and while he loves a good fight will not put himself unnecessarily in danger.  Like all Merrowmen honor is a foreign concept to Pox, replaced by the imperative of survival and slavish loyalty to his tribe and leaders (which now include Bibi).  In battle he is canny and brutal, always on the look out for advantage or a way of injuring the enemy quickly and decisively without harm to himself and allies.

Foible: Berserker – When faced with the undead, or anything like the undead, Pox will work himself into a towering rage.  Not the fury that he pretends to let out when he needs to break knees to collect a debt, but a soul deep nihilistic hatred, so severe that anyone capable of sensing evil will feel waves of it radiating off of Pox when he goes into this state.  He will not break off a fight with the undead, and has little concern for anyone else in melee with him (on a miss roll a 2^nd to hit against the nearest ally).

Pox on the Dead – Fighter 6

Strength 18 (+ 3 melee hit & damage)

Intelligence 11 (Speaks and Writes Merrowman/broken Common)

Wisdom 8 (-1 to Spell related saves)

Constitution 16 (+ 2 HP per Level)

Dexterity 14 (-1 AC +1 Hit Ranged Weapons)

Charisma 10

HP: 64  AC: 1

Skills (8)

Fortitude 4 (+1 Saves, additional save from charm/sleep, +3 HP per level), Heavy Armor 1 (up to Plate Mail), Two Handed Weapon 3 (Set for Charge, Cleave, x3 damage on Crit)

Equipment:  Scintillating Platemail +1 (Save vs. any missile attack to avoid), Two Handed Devil Fang Falx (1D10 +2 damage/magical), 2 potions of scabrous healing (save v. poison or mutate), Crawling Caltrops (can cover 20’ square) (1D6), Bone Throwing ax x4, Necklace of Hatred (May continue to fight for 1D4 rounds after death), 30’ rope, packet of choking dust (10’ square – save v. poison or -2 to all rolls), bag of dried shrimp, 24 GP.