Black Nerve

Like a hammer blow to the ruins of old ambrosia, Ribbolef lies at the center of an ever​-​widening crack in the expanse of dead forest that remains in the far south of Windhold.

Surrounded on all sides by the outlines of old trees, its roads and farmlands crawl outward against the wild. Deep within those forest remnants, there is still wood, still growing, twisted into the foundations of empty galleries once the home of weevils.

The weevils of this prefecture have long been exterminated to the last, and in their absence, Ribbolef once had flourished as a timber exporter, until the compounding hyloaboreal taxes dried up the industry.

Still, it grew large enough to have a pharmacium, and a population of vesperbanes, rooting out the aftermath of the weevils, healing the scars from their wicked arts.

Thus, the vesperbanes that live here are foremost rangers: clearing the wilds around Ribbolef to secure safe passage and station.

Low among those vesperbanes stand:

Dismissed from her clan compound for repeated defiance and rebeliousness, Cendela Culicida left with only a fraction of her noble inheritance.

Not fully estranged, she nevertheless isn’t welcome back unless she returns with proof of her worth. When she left, she told the cart driver to take her to any old backwater dump; it wouldn’t be hard for a Culicida to stand out no matter where.

(Black and white chitin; dark eyes; bald antennae; welkinmarked; mosquito mouthparts; wears formal robes. Age 17, tenth instar. Haughty, contrarian, short​-​sighted. Trained in use of her family’s techniques.)

As a nymph, Makanem Wensbrood saw her family’s food stores raided by direbears, season after season, while direwolf predation upon the ranch decimated their stock.

Her mother eventually could only sell the farm to keep afloat — a severe embarrassment — and Makanem became a vesperbane to lift her family out of poverty, hating direbeasts and being too weak to stop them.

(Blue and white spotted chitin; ringed compounds; pale yellow antennae; wears prideful ropes. Age 15, 9th instar. Caring, mercurial, stubborn. Trained in martial arts and bloodletting.)

Once studious and sponsored, Pann Ol’Arern planned to become a stewart; but with a pronounced, uncommon umbral affinity for water, he was pressured to become a nervecaster for the wardens.

Negotiations with the Windhold administration fell through, leaving him in the cold, and he was countenanced as neither warden nor stewart. Thus, he knows he can trust neither institutions nor vespers to not fuck him over. What can he trust? Only what’s gotten him anything: dead bat coin in his hands, and the stupid girls falling for his charm.

(Dark, reddish chitin, as of faint formicoid pedigree; small eyes; antennae fluff dyed bright, with long setae extensions; painted chitin; swaddled in robes. Age 16, 10th instar. Aloof, vapid, resentful. Trained in nervecasting and haruspex theory.)

The year is 1711, all nymphs have at least a year of experience as a vesperbane. Makanem and Pann served on a team with another wretch, Ngehi No​-​name. All three were apprenticed to a fiend, Urala Rightbane.

Things went fine till, about a year roadside encounter with erotyles turned to disaster. Urala and Ngehi got hit with a bad wraithspell, leaving them in a coma. Maka and Pann able to scare off the erotyles and drag them back to Ribbolef, but the sensors and medics present at the town could not revive them, only stabilize them.

Lacking any insurance or support, they must now take missions on their own to afford to find and secure treatment for them. Cendela arrived latter that month, and after some back and forth negotiation, gets recruited, agreeing to work with them, taking a 40% cut of profits.

The date is –04​-​14, the second Morrowaux of Queen’s Flame. Together, Makanem and Pann have 250 bone pieces to their name, which is almost enough to pay rent at the tenements (100b/mo) and eat for the rest of the month (5b/day each → 160b/mo). Cendela has been sleeping at a tavern. The Spitting Ant, to be precise, which doubles as a place for vesperbane jobs to be posted and for clients to meet with vesperbanes.

In the morning, Makanem wakes up first, and leaves alone to go meet up with Cendela, because Pann always takes forever to re​-​paint his chitin and brush his hair. It’s a brief run from the tenements to the tavern, across the rooftops and catwalks built with vesperbanes in mind. Makanem makes to the tavern without issue.

When he comes to one jump between buildings, something in the alleyway catches his eye. (Enemy stealth (1d6+4=9) tied with his awareness (1d6+4=9); I gave it to Pann).

He has a moment to realize it’s another vesperbane down there, glancing upward. As he’s crouching to make the jump, momentum carrying him forward, he sees a rope lasso flying upward. (His tactical movement (1d6+4=8) ties their tool use (1d6+6=8); I gave it to the aggressor).

The lasso catches him and pulls him downward, where the other vesperbane is waiting to grab him. (His martial arts (1d6+2=3) doesn’t beat their ??? 1d6+2=6).

He struggles, but it unable to break out of their grip. So he presses a tarsus to their flesh, and channels umbra through it. (His nervecasting (1d6+6=12) effortlessly beats their martial arts (1d6+2=3).

They jerk back from the pain, release him, and he finds his feet and runs to create distance.

Another vesperbane’s in the alleyway, though. (But his movement (1d6+6=12) beats their ??? 1d6+2=8).

Pann slips pass them and gains some space further down the alleyway, where he begins molding enervate. (His nervecasting (1d6+6=8) manages to beat a complication roll (1d6=6)).

He successfully casts melter ball, while the grunt fails to do anything about the enervate inflicted on them (nervecasting roll: 1d6+2=3).

They do managed to avoid the melter ball, but their partner, still chasing Pann, runs right into it. (1d6+4=8 to aim, 1d8+2 movement for the first grunt, 1d8+2=3 movement for the second.)

With both of them suffering from umbral deliquescence and Pann without a scratch on him, he demands the attackers stand down. (1d6+2=7 to intimidate).

Their will breaks easily. For a promise of mercy, they reveal that they were hired to capture him for ransom. Who hired them, and who’d bother paying his ransom is not revealed.

The two vesperbanes, still hissing from their wounds, flee into the streets of Ribbolef, and Pann climbs back to the rooftops, resuming his travel. He finally arrives at the Spitting Ant, where Makanem waits with Cendela.

While Pann was gone, Makanem started looking for work. In the year this team has been working in Ribbolef, they’ve garnered a reputation as unremarkable, albeit reliable, vesperbanes. (Reputation 16). The spectacular failure of your last mission, and the loss of members took a big hit (​-​8), but the addition of a noble vesperbane whose name bears some history sparks interest (+4).

(Result of the reputation roll was 3 dice (d6: 1, 4, 5, 6), so you have 3 leads.)

Thus, three clients have expressed interest in you specifically:

Of these missions, only the second has a time limit, though any you don’t take are liable to be completed by other vesperbanes.

A few choices are available to you.

A: do you take one of the missions offered to you, or check the job postings for more?

B: do you seek out another party member? It will mean subdividing payouts even more, but another body could pay for itself… (Meta: if design a plausible character, I’ll posit they’re who you find in the tavern.)

C: What do you call your team?

Characters 

(System is in flux; I was literally going to just flip coins for rolls but I couldn’t resist adding some nuance to it for now.

Pann 

Combat:

Vesperbane:

Makanem 

Vesperbane: