Session 17 Recap – First Blood, Second Debt
Session 17 Recap – First Blood, Second Debt
Mel made good on his promise and walked the party down himself — through the dive bars and gang colors of the outer city, down a stairwell, into the heat and noise of Buckledown Row's fighting pits. Two matches in, the party had a purse, a pile of winnings nobody expected, and a reputation they hadn't had that morning.
Location: Buckledown Row — the fighting pits beneath the sewers
Objective: Make a name for the party in Rocky's book, on Mel's sponsorship
Major Discoveries:
- Buckledown Row runs on five gang colors and blood sport — Rose & Thorns and Pins & Clubs among them, with more waiting further down the ladder
- Rocky's book pays out fast, but even the house has a ceiling on what it can cover
Major Encounters: - Match 1: a full six-a-side brawl against the Rose & Thorns crew, led by Glassjaw Jake
- Match 2: a six-a-side brawl against the Pins & Clubs crew, led by Smiley Pete
Factions Involved: - Queen's Men (Blackjack Mel, Bull, Rocky)
- Rose & Thorns
- Pins & Clubs
Party Advancement:
Two straight wins in the pits under the name "the Misfits"; 100 gp from the Rose & Thorns purse; a 200-gold bet on themselves against Pins & Clubs that paid out 800 gold, plus a 125 gp purse share
Down Into the Row
Mel led the party down through Buckledown Row itself — a stretch of dive bars and gang territory on the city's southeastern edge, marked out in colors before it was marked out in anything else. Rose & Thorns wore the thorn-covered rose; Pins & Clubs wore a club with pins driven through it. The walk ended in a stairwell down into a cellar the size of a barn, packed dirt underfoot, forty-some bandits already shouting over each other and coin already changing hands. Bull kept order at the ring's edge more by presence than authority; beside him, a mustached halfling named Rocky ran the book on everything, including the party's own performance.
Introducing the Misfits
Asked for a team name before their first bout, the party settled on the Misfits, and gave Israel their catchphrase for the night: "Have you seen a little Dwarf girl?" — Tough Luck's own question, turned into a running joke the whole crowd would hear by the end of the night.
First Blood: Rose & Thorns
Their first opponents were Rose & Thorns' full crew, led into the ring by Glassjaw Jake — no lone jobber sent out to test a new team, but a full six-strong squad matching the Misfits one for one. Rocky had the party at 5:1 against — a brand-new six-person team against a stacked crew — and the crowd bet accordingly. The Misfits won anyway, and Mel, who hadn't expected them to be tested so early, collected his cut looking genuinely recalculated about what he was sitting on. 200 gold in the purse, 100 of it landing with the party after Mel's cut.
Smiley Pete and a Bet the House Almost Couldn't Cover
Match two brought Pins & Clubs into the ring, led by Smiley Pete — a blunter, more physical crew that liked to shove fighters against the barricade rather than finesse them down. Partway through, in round two, the Misfits put their own money on themselves: 200 gold down with Rocky, as much as he'd take. They wanted to bet more, but Rocky — with his own book to think about — wasn't covering a loss any bigger than that if it went the party's way. It went the party's way. Two fights in, two wins, and 800 gold in winnings landed on top of a 125-gold purse share, with Pins & Clubs' 4:1 odds working entirely in the party's favor.
Closing the Night
Two matches down, the Misfits' name was already spreading through the Row — and whatever's left of the ladder is still waiting for them, whenever they're ready to go back down.