“Your employer is not a good person, Hakau,” Kami said imperiously.

Emah inwardly rolled her eyes, since this was at least the tenth such comment since they’d left the Keep as a group. She looked to Maly for commiseration, but her friend was once again distracted, looking over her shoulder as if someone was following them. Emah tracked Maly’s eyes but saw nothing. The Stone Islander woman had been talking to herself of late, either yelling during combat or muttering to herself at odd moments. Indeed, at this moment Maly muttered what sounded like “Stay close” …Emah feared that her friend was losing her wits.

“So you keep saying, Kami,” the man sighed, then grinned wryly. He truly did have a strong, handsome face. And his broad shoulders and muscled arms spoke of a trained warrior. Emah enjoyed looking at him. Perhaps after this was all said and done she would initiate something. “But what does that mean you think of me?”

“You’re too honest to be a villain,” Kami scowled. “But you’re working for a snake.”

The City Watch sergeant had accompanied them out of Inspector Calenta’s presence with two of his guards, all the way back to the Golden Heron. The group of them had waited awkwardly outside during a light rainfall while Kami went inside to speak with the Heron’s proprietor, saying little while passerbys looked at them curiously. When Kami had finally emerged, the woman was unhappily grumbling beneath her wide-brimmed hat and had stayed that way both while paying Emah’s final fee and on their muddy walk away from the Rose Quarter. Speaking of which…

“Sergeant Mewa,” Emah asked, scrunching her brows. “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the Keep.”

“No, it isn’t,” Mewa confirmed, sounding confused.

“But we were supposed to return there,” Emah stopped and crossed her arms, forcing the group to stutter to a halt on the street. The money from Kami would pay for several days of food and shelter, but they were still facing a profound lack of funds. “We were to sign our new contract.”

“You see?” Kami snorted, also crossing her arms. “Calenta’s a snake, Emah. This is all another trap.”

“What? What’s a trap?” Maly said, wide-eyed, pulling her attention away from… wherever it was she was looking and back to the group.

Hakau Mewa sighed and raised his hands placatingly. “Hold on, hold on. I didn’t know about the contract, but I’m sure Inspector Calenta will have it for you when we get back to the Keep. She asked me to accompany you to the Crafts Quarter.”

“Why?” Emah frowned, planting her feet wide. The rain had stopped, but heavy gray clouds still sat above them, beyond the Great Oak’s branches.

“The,” he started to say, and then winced and realized that people were flowing past them in both directions. He lowered his voice to an urgent whisper. “The rats. We think we know where they’re hiding.”

“And you’re just mentioning this now?” Emah arched an eyebrow.

“I didn’t know you didn’t know,” Sergeant Mewa hissed, exasperated. Emah grinned, enjoying his discombobulation. Truly, the man was pretty. “You thought you needed an escort to the Heron and back to the Keep? After what you did in the training room? Why?”

That snapped Emah’s lips shut. She assumed that their armed companions were meant to ensure that the trio of them signed their contracts, or perhaps that Kami didn’t flee. It never occurred to her that their mission to investigate the ratfolk within the city had already begun, or that Sergeant Mewa and his retinue were here to help them.

“Oh. Alright, fine,” Emah shrugged. “Lead on.” They all began walking again.

The Crafts Quarter, sometimes called The Coins, was where the diversity of Oakton’s people was on full display. Bright Kaleen fabric shops sat alongside Kaizukan fishmongers, Mescan leatherworkers, and carpenters from the Stone Isles. Each shop did its best to entice foot traffic to enter, which meant that the Crafts Quarter was a riot of color, smiling faces of varying nations, hawkers, and the ever-present street musicians of Oakton. Emah preferred university libraries or even outside the city walls to the bustling Coins. To her, Oakton was at its most vibrant here, but also its most overwhelming.

Thankfully, early in the evening on a rainy Starday, the area was much less populated. Shops were beginning to close, musicians to pack away their instruments. There were still people about, but the sparse crowds steadily thinned as shopkeepers and patrons alike found their way back to their families or surrounding taverns, avoiding the next rain showers.

Sergeant Mewa led them down a smaller cul-de-sac street. No one currently occupied the muddy road, and any shops there had already closed. At the end of the street, Mewa stopped at a rundown, square, three-story structure that looked like it hadn’t been occupied in years. Wall slats canted, leaving shadowed gaps. Its windows had been boarded and shuttered. Weeds grew untended, crowding both sides of the short staircase to the scarred front door. Since Emah only spent enough time in the Coins as necessary, she was fairly sure she’d never been to this street, much less this building.

“What a dump,” Maly commented. “Why are we here again?”

The sergeant looked up and down, ensuring they were alone. He kept his voice low. “The surrounding shop owners on this street have been complaining about huge rats here over the past two days, especially at night. Sounds of fighting and screaming too, also at night. We sent a patrolman out, and he looked through the boards and said kids were indoors and ran away from him.” Mewa looked at them each, meeting their eyes to impart the gravity of his next words. “Kids wearing fur cloaks, he said.”

“And you haven’t done anything?” Kami asked incredulously.

Sergeant Mewa scoffed, defensive. “We didn’t make the connection until today, with the…” he licked his lips. “Events at the jail. So we’re here now, with a force that can handle it. If that patrolman had entered the house, I assume we would never have heard from him again.”

“Alright,” Emah said, eyeing the decrepit structure. “What is the plan, then?”

“We enter,” Kami said, straightening the hat on her head. With long strides she walked straight towards the front door.

“Wait! Kami!” the sergeant complained. He hurried to catch up with her, the other two Watch guards in tow.

Maly looked at Emah and shrugged. Emah sighed. “Come on,” and turned to follow.

By the time they reached the front of the building, Kami and Sergeant Mewa were arguing in urgent whispers.

“You can’t just charge in!” he hissed.

“I can,” she spat. “The sooner we eliminate these ratfolk, the sooner I can get back to my life and away from the City Watch! Calenta can remove her damned collar.” That last word was delivered like poison.

“Kami, it’s not like… Hey!”

The woman pulled a board from the front door with no more effort than if she were pulling a slice of bread from a loaf. Then another, and each time tossing the wooden slat into the weeds. In only a few heartbeats, she had removed any planks that had been nailed across the doorway. Emah again noted the woman’s strength, realizing that she herself would have done the task in considerably more time and with considerably more effort.

Kami’s work had been brief, but loud. Sergeant Mewa’s handsome face shone with nervous sweat. His two City Watch companions hesitated at the threshold, gripping their spears and peering into the darkness.

“Let’s go,” Kami said, and walked in.

“By the dragon! She’s going to get us killed,” Mewa breathed.

Emah chuckled and drew her sword. “You clearly haven’t fought alongside her,” she grinned, and stepped into the shadows beyond the doorway.

She squinted and blinked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the lack of light. Weak, early evening light slanted through boarded windows, dappling the room with gray slivers amidst the darkness. Gradually, as her eyes adapted, the room’s features became clearer. A layer of dust covered everything, motes drifting in the light above a floor covered in rugs of varying sizes and shapes. Beneath every window and occupying every wall were bookshelves half filled with scrolls, bound books, glass vials, carved wooden figures, masks, and all manner of curios. Two chairs, one wooden and one with a drape of cloth across it, were the only furniture. The place smelled musty and acrid, with some other sort of unpleasant tang.

“What was this place?” Maly whispered, having entered behind Emah. Sergeant Mewa and his companions came last, spears ready.

Mewa scanned the room. “This was Sami Suttar’s place,” he said in a low, quiet voice, eyes scanning the dim light. “He was a charlatan. Sold magic potions and scrolls to fools who believed such things still held power. The man died poor and without kin.”

“That’s sad,” Maly answered, picking up some sort of charm made of what looked like intertwined chicken feathers.

Something thumped upstairs, like a heavy footstep, and everyone froze.

Emah’s eyes scanned the room, looking for a staircase. She didn’t see anything immediately, so she padded quietly around the others and past half-empty bookshelves. There, around the bend, she saw Kami. The woman had taken off her hat and set it and her walking stick aside. In front of her was a staircase, climbing up. It seemed the floor of this square house was one continuous shop space, with a central stairwell.

She was just about to motion the others when her eyes tracked Kami’s. Halfway up the stairs lay the corpse of another rat-person. As in the jail, it wore dirty rags over its furred body. Its rat-like head pointed down, as if it had died falling down the stairs. One claw-tipped hand outstretched below its head, below which was a small, black stain of blood. The tang she smelled earlier, Emah realized, was the reek of unwashed fur and death.

Maly had followed and seen Emah freeze. Her friend gasped when she recognized the form of the fallen creature. Emah laid a finger across her lips to Mewa and his guards, a gesture to be quiet, then pointed to the body. Their eyes widened. A young woman with short hair, Esira, was one of the first City Watch members to stop them outside the jail. Emah thought the woman’s lip trembled as she shifted the grip on her spear.

“Follow us,” Emah whispered, and met Esira’s eyes. “Be ready.”

Esira nodded, her breath shallow. She swallowed audibly.

Above, something went thumpthump, like definitely like someone walking.

Kami disappeared up the staircase, wood creaking under her steps.

Emah swore softly to herself and hurried to follow.

Dead ratfolk, it turned out, littered the staircase. Small, furred bodies, twisted and crumpled, lay everywhere, perhaps a dozen in total. Though many lay in dried puddles of blood, she noted that whatever killed them had not been a slashing or piercing weapon. Their furry hides were mostly intact, the amount of blood modest. Instead, each body looked… twisted or crumpled in some way. It was if a child had, in a tantrum, thrown about its toys until they’d broken.

Emah paused briefly at the second floor and looked around. It looked like the shop owner’s living quarters, but no corpses lay here, only upon the stairs, the numbers increasing the higher the staircase went. Kami seemed to notice the same thing, for she continued climbing towards the topmost floor of the building, picking her way gracefully and carefully through the carnage. Emah followed, with Maly and the City Watch members behind her in an anxious, wary procession. In the cramped space, every breath and shuffled step seemed impossibly loud.

Up the stairs they went, to the third floor. There, at the top was a narrow landing, its edge ringed by the balusters and newel posts of a carved balustrade. Dead ratfolk lay sprawled across the landing, some clutching crude makeshift weapons like shards of glass or pointed sticks. The smell had risen to the top floor, it seemed, for Emah fought back bile at the eye-watering stench of corpses. Behind her, one of the Watch members gagged, though she didn’t turn to see which one.

The eastern wall of the landing held a steel door in a bronze frame. It was a sturdy-looking door, Emah thought, totally incongruous with the rest of the wooden structure. The barrier would have been difficult to overcome had it been locked. Now, however, it was scarred and battered and hung wide open.

Kami shouted a warning at what lay beyond.

What’s beyond!? It’s time to make our first Age of Wonders villain! To do so, I’ll use the same character creation process as I did to make heroes. Indeed, in Crusaders the only difference between a villain and a PC hero is that villains never receive Hero Points.

Origin: The nature of what’s upstairs is something I’ve already decided, so I’ll create a special Origin table, allowing for the concept but still giving me some random rolling to do. All of these fit my general idea:

• 01-25               Animated Armor
• 26-50               Clockwork Giant
• 51-75               Elemental (Earth/Metal)
• 76-00               Animated Figurine

And the roll is… 09 (or 90)! So that’s either Animated Armor or Figurine. I truly can’t decide, so will go with the original roll. This villain will be an animated suit of bronze armor.

Now you see why I started my character creation with Origin instead of the ICONS Origins Background Generator. The suit of armor has no gender or ethnicity, and its age is ancient. The “manner” table is interesting: I roll a 5, which means it’s moody & headstrong. Who does it value? 11, its personal hero, which is of course the late Sami Suttar. What does it value? I roll a 9, which means it values love. Okay, this thing’s motivations are clear and easy. It’s like a child who lost its father.

Powers: Back to my custom tables for Crusaders we go! I’m going to say this is a Rank 3 villain, meaning that it will have 4 Power rolls, which I’ll make on any of the tables except Super Skills (it’s an animated suit of armor, after all). I’ll use one of these rolls automatically for Armor, which subtracts 10 from all forms of damage except psychic damage. My remaining three rolls are:

Roll 1: 85 or 58, which means Super Strength, Shapechange, Telekinesis, Psychic Shield, Weather Control, or Force Field.

Roll 2: 28 or 82, which means Energy Blast, Super Strength, Psychic Blast, Telekinesis, Energy Manipulation, or Probability Warp.

Roll 3: 06 or 60, which means Armor, Special Attack, Aura of Fear, Psychic Shield, Energy Blast, or Force Field.

Oooohhh… lots of juicy options there. After playing around with configurations, I’ve decided on 1) Psychic Shield, which adds +5 to its Psyche score when defending against any attack, plus 10 points of protection from psychic damage. The shield does need to be activated, however. 2) Super Strength, which is the same power Kami has and provides a strength level of Physique + 20 for feats of strength, unarmed damage, and resistance to knockback. Finally, 3) Aura of Fear, which means that any lower-Ranked characters can’t attack the first round of combat. In addition, the power as written says that lower-Ranked characters can’t engage in melee combat without spending a Hero Point. That seems overpowered to me, so I’m going to say that all attack rolls against it are -10% / Rank lower (so -20% on attacks and defense for our PCs), and that minions and lieutenants can only do missile attacks.

Attributes: As a Rank 3 villain, it will get 14 Attribute points, which I’ll drop into its primary two attributes: 18 Physique, 16 Prowess, 10 Alertness, 10 Psyche. Its Vitality will be 54 (Physique x3). This thing is a tank, pure and simple.  

Motivation: I won’t roll on this one. To fit the concept, its motivation is Follower (of course, its leader Suttar is dead, so it now does what it thinks he would want, which is guard his possessions).

Here is the final character sheet:

Will the PCs be able to defeat such a hardy opponent? And what other tricks do I have to make this combat difficult? Find out next time!

Next: Let’s Rumble!

“Wait, you can’t be serious!” Maly gawked. All around her and her companions, sweaty City Watch members with padded, wooden spears and swords ran at them. The huge Kaleen man with the shaved head directed them, shouting encouragement and tactics.

Above the mayhem, Inspector Calenta’s voice rang out merrily. “Testing a theory, dears!”

And then there was no choice but to react and fight.

A Kaizukan man with a spear broke from the mob directly at her. Maly ducked the wooden tip of the spear wrapped in cloth and kicked him in the chest. He flew sideways, rolling, as more Watch members rushed in.

What is happening? Are you fighting again? a deep, rough male voice growled, like something was sitting atop her shoulder and speaking directly into her ear. She yelped.

“Yes, I’m fighting!” Maly gasped. She sidestepped a clumsy swing from another Watch member.

You are in the stone house. Wait and I will tear my way to you.

“No! Stay outside!”

“Who are you talking to?” Emah barked nearby. She punched a short, older man in the face. He dropped his practice sword, which clattered to the floor, and then the man slumped unconscious. “Go! Help Kami!” Emah snarled, reaching for the sword. “I’ve got these!”

Are you fighting East Bay Dragons? Is your vengeance at hand? the voice rumbled approvingly. I should be there, ripping them.

“It’s not the Dragons,” Maly panted, trying to keep her voice from attracting Emah’s attention. “Just let me focus! And stay outside!”

Maly spun as a padded blade whistled past her cheek. Where was Kami?

The enormous, broad-shouldered leader, who Inspector Calenta had called Pannu, roared commands as he stepped towards Kami. The masked woman waited, grim-mouthed and small. As Maly slid past two spearmen, she saw Kami lunge forward unexpectedly, surprising Pannu. In a blink, the woman had her arms wrapped around him. Maly thought perhaps her limbs had elongated, allowing her to fully pin his tree-trunk arms to his boulder-sized torso, but she wasn’t sure. It seemed that their employer was not eager to demonstrate whatever unnatural powers she possessed in front of this crowd. Even still, Pannu struggled and roared in Kami’s grasp, unable to break free, something that looked so impossible that it appeared the huge man was playacting. Kami turned with Pannu in her grasp, keeping the man’s bulk between her and other Watch members.

Then another sword was cutting the air above her ducked head and Maly momentarily ignored everything but the threats right next to her.

She thrust the palm of one hand up and into the chin of an onrushing attacker. Teeth clacked together and Maly punched the exposed throat in a quick and brutal blow. The Watch member, a man with short hair and thick beard, gagged and clutched his neck as he fell. Maly was already turning, kicking another guard on the side of the knee.

Is it over? the male voice rumbled. Have you bathed in their blood?

“By the flames! Shut up!” Maly gasped, exasperated.

The sounds of clacking weapons briefly drew her attention, and she saw that Emah had indeed retrieved a practice sword from the floor. Maly grinned. Even with a poorly crafted wooden blade wrapped in thick cloth, Emah was the best swordfighter that Maly had ever seen. In the space of two heartbeats, her friend had felled two Watchmen with blows to the sides of their heads, blocking spear thrusts almost absently.

The big man screamed in fury and frustration to her right, still trapped in Kami’s hug. Maly fought her way towards the small group of guards harassing her with their spears, and as she came closer, she heard the distinct sounds of bones cracking. The gargantuan Pannu cried out with pain more than anger, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he slumped in Kami’s arms. She dropped him to the side like a sack of grain, stepping back and away from wooden spears. Maly thought she saw Kami’s arms shorten to their normal lengths, but there was too much happening to be sure.

“Maly! Emah! Help!” Kami called out, which Maly found less than genuine. Not only did the brothel owner look unharmed amidst a gang of trained, armed soldiers, but the guards gave her a respectful distance, stepping warily around the inert mountain of muscle that had been their leader. Kami, for her part, moved backwards lightly on her feet, eyes darting back and forth across the oncoming assailants.

With a defiant scream, a young man in green and yellow launched himself at Maly. Apparently, the fellow had decided that she was the weakest of the three opponents, which Maly couldn’t deny given everything she’d seen from Kami. If Maly Wywich was anything, however, it was difficult to hit. The man’s yell alerted her with more than enough time to duck and roll out of the way. He flew past her and grunted as he hit the floor, his breath knocked from him.

Maly blew a lock of hair out of her eyes and crouched, looking for another threat. But it was only the lad on the ground, struggling to his hands and knees. The rest of the City Watch members lay sprawled across the room, groaning in pain or unconscious. Emah’s mahogany skin shone with her effort, but she was grinning and spinning a practice sword in her hand, still in her fighting stance. Kami merely stood, fists clenched, glaring through her half-mask.

The sound of a lone person clapping echoed, drawing all three of their attention. At the doorway across the room, Inspector Calenta had both a bemused and annoyed look on her face, like a parent whose child had done something spectacularly embarrassing. She continued the slow clap with her meaty hands.

“Well, that’s done then,” she sighed.

“What in the Five Hells was that?” Emah demanded, taking a threatening step towards the inspector. If Calenta was cowed, it didn’t show. In fact, her face smiled warmly.

“I had to see if Sargeant Mewa’s claims were true, didn’t I? He believed you had slain all those rats on your own, and I thought, no, impossible. But it seems you’re more than you appear, ah? You do indeed hire good help, dearie,” she winked at Kami. “But perhaps you are the biggest secret, no?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Kami answered coldly.

Inspector Calenta tsked and shook her head. “Alright, alright. You don’t trust me. I understand, dear, I do. Please know this test was necessary, though. I needed to see for myself before making my offer.”

“Offer?” Emah asked, still clutching her wooden sword threateningly.

“Of course, dears!” Calenta beamed. “To join the City Watch!”

“Wait… what?” Maly blurted.

Less than a bell later, the three found themselves in a different room within the Keep, larger than Inspector Calenta’s and closer to the training room. It seemed to be a private dining room of some kind, with a heavy, round wooden table that could have seated twice their number. Calenta sat on one side, her hands folded upon the scarred surface of the table. Maly, Emah, and Kami sat across from her. Their weapons had been returned by one of the City Watch members Emah had battered in the training room melee. He glared at them, one eye swollen shut, but said nothing as he handed the Kalee woman her sword. Emah had accepted it like a swaddled child and caressed it with affection before strapping the scabbard across her hip.

Plates of food—roasted chicken, boiled potatoes, and grapes—had been offered them. Kami’s plate sat untouched in front of her. The masked woman had scarcely moved since they’d sat down, studying Inspector Calenta with an unreadable expression. Maly would never have turned down a free meal, though, especially after the day they’d had. She’d devoured the food voraciously, and Emah had joined her. Only chicken bones remained on both of their plates.

The inspector, for her part, did not eat, but waited patiently while they finished, that oddly motherly, doting look on her face the entire time. Whenever she looked at Kami’s cold stare, she smiled and shook her head.

As Emah pushed her plate away and wiped her mouth clean with the back of her hand, she asked, “You can’t be serious about joining the Watch.”

“Oh, I’m serious,” Inspector Calenta beamed. “The Watch often works with the Adventurer’s Guild. Think of it as an extended contract with the city of Oakton, ah? We pay you weekly until this rat problem is solved. It’s steady work, which is nice for you, and paid at your guild rate.”

“I… did not know the guild did that,” Maly admitted.

“Usually, it’s for work the Watch can’t cover, like guarding caravans or dealing with issues outside the walls,” Calenta shrugged. “But we’ve had special cases before. And this is quite the special case, no?”

“I am not a member of the Adventurer’s Guild,” Kami said stiffly. “I am the employer here, and a business proprietor. I simply wish to return to the Golden Heron. Once my contract with these two is settled, they’re yours.”

“Yes, yes, dear. Of course,” Inspector Calenta tapped a finger on the table, which Maly noticed was something she did a lot with tables. “But you’re not the proprietor of the Heron. It’s Miss Brehill who runs the place, no?”

“I’m her assistant,” Kami sniffed.

“Yes, yes, and no doubt valuable to her. I admit we’ve never hired someone from the Rose Guild on official business, dearie, but these are… unusual times.”

“The answer is no. I’ve been away too long already. I should go,” Kami pushed herself away from the table and stood. “Miss Elmhill, Miss Wywich. Please escort me back and then you can return and sign your new contracts.”

Maly and Emah looked uncertain, glancing between their potential future employer and current one.

Inspector Calenta held up a hand placatingly. “Please, dear. That’s all fine and you can get back in a moment. I only thought to offer since so you might get to the bottom of who killed your client in the jail, ah? What was his name again?”

Kami stared furiously.

“Raffin Hothorp, I think?” Calenta offered, raising an eyebrow. As Maly watched, Kami’s lips pursed and her eye twitched. The woman was trying very hard not to be baited, Maly thought. And failing.

“But if not, that’s fine,” the inspector tapped on the table. “But I will have to ask Miss Brehill at the Heron about what sort of fees he owed you and why you hired these guards to enter the jail in pursuit of him.” She sighed, and said almost absently, “Also, of course, I’ll have to ask about your rather remarkable abilities.”

“What?!” Kami sputtered. It was the first time Maly had seen her rattled. The Kaizukan woman gaped, looking incredulous.

“Did you know,” the inspector turned to Maly and Emah casually, like they were long friends. “That ever since the first of the year, when the Great Oak blossomed with those beautiful flowers for the first time in anyone’s memory, we’ve been dealing with all sorts of wild claims across the city? Most we can’t verify, of course, but these ratfolk are a good example of the sorts of things we’ve been hearing. Wild things! Rat-people. Magical axes. Also, stories of people with strange powers like, I don’t know, young women with extraordinary strength, whose arms get longer like snakes. I think maybe even women who don’t breathe or eat at all. Wild stories, right? Can you believe it, dears?”

Now it was Maly’s turn to gape. Her mouth fell open as she looked at Kami. Their employer had quickly regained her composure and stood stock still, her eyes fixed on Calenta.

The inspector continued. Her voice had lost much of its maternal warmth. “Now, we don’t have the resources to run down every wild rumor, you understand. Our forces are taxed, and the poor castellan and his advisors don’t know what to believe. I’m doing the best I can, my very, very best. So if I get a good lead, I’ll pursue it to discover what’s going on in this city I’ve vowed to protect. To keep it safe. It’s just,” she waved a hand, “a matter of what I investigate first with my limited resources.”

“You’re bribing me, you bitch,” Kami said softly.

“What’s that, dear?” the motherly brightness had returned as she turned her attention back to Kami. “You talked too quietly to hear. Like I said, I’m just trying to get rid of these rats, and need help. I’m offering to pay you for that help, ah? What do you say?”

Kami growled low in her throat and sank slowly back to her chair.

“Okay!” Inspector Calenta clapped her hands together. “I so appreciate the help, my dears! Welcome to the Watch!”

Next: Let’s Find Some Rats!