#spinner'sshears

Business As Usual

After the misfortunes of raiding the Broker’s archives, Sarij found a simple job so that the members of Agent could do to keep a lower profile, make some gil, and allow their members to mend from the last one. This one was escorting some merchants to Rhalgr’s reach. The job by all accounts was a legit and on the level, approved by the Immortal Flames. Berrod Armstrong, Cerina Borlaqq, Reks Blanc, Dylan Skye, Crooked Tarot, Elevi, Garyn, Autgar Blood, and Khaisan Tumet, and N’hara Tia set out to complete the job.

Unfortunately, upon arriving at the rendezvous point, the merchant caravan was decidedly absent. It did not take long to find the missing mission objectives on the Pall of Clarity bridge. Though it seemed beast, man, and escort already had been cut down. Khaisan determined throats were slit and all fallen that Agents inspected bore the mark of the Spinner’s Shears. During the investigation, however, the Astral Agency was set upon by another company.

The Golden Dawn had received a job to wipe out bandits that were attacking caravans on their way to Rhalgr’s Reach. Barais Steelshield, Jessie Wildflower, Poe Dotharl, Lacy Firesand, X’alan Windstrike, and Burnt Eagle the Toxicwind, picked up the job as their usual fair. They discovered the Agents in the middle of their investigation and assumed they were the bandits referred to by the job.

A short battle took place on the bridge. The Agents pressed forward against Barais, while the Golden Dawn had Lacy try to take out targets from on high with the support of Poe and Burnt Eagle. Through the din of battle Berrod and other members attempted to bring the battle down to conversation, some had more success than others. Crooked Tarot was stabbed rather deeply as he made his case with Lacy and Poe. Berrod attempted to communicate with X’alan the monk, but her vicious assault and preparation to take down Reks and Elevi forced Viktor to knock her out. Autgar tried to talk to Barais, but Burnt Eagle had other ideas and set his plans into motion to bring an end to the fight.

Garyn was able to neutralize the arcanist’s ability to continue forging new arrays, but Eagle’s ace was already in play: customized microbes designed to consume aether. The microbes were contained in odd aetheric bubbles that gave the Agents and Golden Dawn time to act to defend themselves.

Barais had caught on to what was going on, and despite Cerina landing a near incapacitating blow, yanked her behind him. N’hara attempted to keep the man grappled despite the fact now the Roegadyn was protecting both him and Cerina from the microbes. Between Barais’ shield and Jessie’s barrier they were unharmed by the miasma

End of Agent: Now What?

The Astral Agency now knew who was behind the conspiracy against the Agency. They also gained valuable intelligence to help their comrades arrested by the Grand Companies.

Through that information Viktor was released by a blond haired, dark skinned Highlander named Everett Black; a man claiming to be the former Blade of Blutvyse and present member of the Ala Mhigan resistance. Gideon and Lurial remained working on presenting a proper case for Balthius’s trial with the Maelstrom.

However all of this left the Agents with the question of “Now What?” They had zero evidence to present to anyone above the Flame Marshal as to his actions or even any direct proof that he hired the Spinners’ Shears. Sarij gathered the Agents to try to answer that question and start them down the path to getting evidence they needed.

Milo, Autgar, Crooked, Garyn, Reks, Viktor, Khaisan, Avenio, T’dras, and a couple unexpected faces of Sterrbhar and Erioch showed up to the meeting with Sarij. However, the most startling visitor was Berrod fresh out of the gaol. Once the shock of his presence ended, the officially dead ex-director began the meeting.

In order to catch everyone up, Sarij reviewed the the entire affair since his own arrest several sennights prior. Explaining how Iron Jaw had tipped them off to the start of the company’s downfall as well as leading them to the Broker. He also elaborated on the Broker’s revelations after they completed his tasks. The Broker was neutral despite previous assumptions. Once the topic of the Spinner’s Shears came up, Rahzersyn handed the floor over to Avenio who briefly explained what the Broker had given them.

Eventually the topic of Berrod and Cernia’s arrest… and namely Berrod’s presence was raised. Sarij explained that upon learning Iron Jaw was the force behind the arrests, he was forced to make a deal with Mountain’s Shadow to get those members of the company under Iron Jaw’s authority in the gaols out of his clutches. It was only a matter of time before Iron Jaw would take more direct actions against the Agency, and Sarij did not want him to have hostages. The deal merely was clearing Mountain’s ledger with the actual company… and not the people. Naturally, no one was pleased the with deal but after some fiery discussion the meeting moved onward.

Once the review was completed, Sarij laid out the direction he believed that would help the company. The ultimate goal was linking Iron Jaw with the Spinner’s Shears. If they could provide solid evidence on that connection, his reputation would be tarnished beyond repair due to the hundreds of lives taken. Anything he attempted to present to destroy the Agents would then could be branded as falsified or creation of a conspiracy. Iron Jaw likely would be courtmarshaled, gaoled, or even executed.

The problem was, Agents had no links other than the Spinner’s Shears seeming to clean up loose threads. Nearly the entire Golden Dawn’s company was massacred after agreeing to help investigate into who set up both Agents and them, but there was nothing but a verbal contract. Two pirates were murdered after Viktor acquired the map to the Broker’s Archive, but since both men were wanted the investigation was half hearted. The Agents required information.

Sergei Harlenk, while absent from the meeting until the very end, had prodded his sources within the Immortal Flames. He discovered that Iron Jaw slowly had begun purging corrupt officers and soldiers from the Grand Company, but unfortunately everything was being done by the books, but Sergei would continue to investigate. Crooked offered to man the investigation into Iron Jaw’s external connections and finances.

Avenio set himself up to lead a more active investigation into the Spinner’s Shears. He would target what lines of gil he could track down and attempt to cripple the sprawling organization and acquire information from what cells the shut down. The Highlander called upon anyone more interested in an active… noisy approach to get into contact with him.

Sterrbhar offered to use his Maelstrom contacts to see what he could find out about Balthius’s continued incarceration as well as look into how the Maelstrom got the false report about Sarij which led to his arrest and ‘execution.’  Erioch expressed his willingness to look into why Cerina remained in a gaol while Berrod was released.

When the survivors of the Spinner’s Shears were mentioned, Reks remarked that Autgar and he would be the best to meet with them as Barais and Jessie should be more cooperative with those pair because they did save them.

A final matter was raised regarding a structure that Sarij had purchased nearby but was unable to ever get into. When three of the Agents succeeding in bypassing the particularly stubborn door, they instead were teleported to what later was discovered to be some sort of chamber belonging to the Broker.  The Broker was neutral, but made it clear he does not violate the contracts he had made. Sarij desired to figure out what was inside of the house, either to confirm it as a red herring or prevent something from happening under their noses. Garyn, who had been trying to figure out what was going on with that building, set up a job post for anyone who wanted to help.

The Astral Agents only had a limited time before Iron Jaw would figure out they were attempting to flank his actions, and they were going to make sure they used that window get one step ahead of him.

Dusk Sets on the Golden Dawn

After the botched mission to the Fringes where the Agents were attacked as suspected bandits and were forced to defend against the Golden Dawn, Barais of the Golden Dawn promised to share any information about the people who set them up with Autgar should he find any. So when Reks Blanc and Autgar Bloode were together after a meeting with Sarij about the recent arrests, they decided to visit the Golden Dawn’s estate to check in on the guild and share what information they had.

Upon arrival in the Lavender Beds the were both directed to Dawn’s Break, the guild hall, and quickly made their way to it. Unfortunately, upon arrival things seemed off as there were no lights coming from the building and even the chocobo stables seemed quiet. Further investigation by the pair found the chocobos had been culled in a feathery mess and a blood trail leading away from the house. Reks discovered the building was locked and both he and Autgar put on masks to help deflect the chance of Agent’s being framed.

The options were flee the scene, report the attack to the Adders, or investigate further. Autgar and Reks decided on the latter two. First to investigate the blood trail and then report it to the Adders. The blood trail led down to a bridge where they discovered what happened to the Golden Dawn.

Almost the entire guild was strung up on the bridge with their throats slit and the symbol of the spinner carved into their chests. They had all been killed there as the bridge was stained crimson. Both Reks and Autgar recognized some of the victims as members they met in the Fringes. On the other side of the bridge they spotted Barais down on the ground with Jessie trying to heal his injuries.

Through sobs Jessie begged for help as she could not heal all the wounds. Reks quickly assisted the Midlander and Autgar cast off his mask and readied himself to defend the injured and the healers. Autgar’s actions were wise as mere moments later they found themselves beset by the Assassin that took out the guild. Autgar fended him off as Reks finished stabilizing Barais, but unfortunately after Reks had completed his task, the both of them ended up blasting apart the fallen members of Golden Dawn, including Jessie’s husband, Burnt Eagle.

In the end the Assassin exploded all the remaining corpses with lightning, creating a dangerous cloud of charred, bony shrapnel.  Autgar was able to use riddle of earth to prevent any major harm to Reks, Autgar, Jessie or Barais. The assassin used the explosion to escape, but left the Agents with the decision of what to do with Jessie and Barais.

At first Reks suggested leaving them with the Adders, but Autgar and Jessie’s protest led him to posing the question to the new linkpearl. Most agreed that they could not be taken to the Agent’s Estate, but what to do with them no one had a solid answer. Eventually, Autgar and Reks took them to Rhalgr’s Reach and the Barber to tend to their remaining wounds.

Jessie quickly sobbed herself to sleep when they reached the beds. Barais revealed they were attacked right after their guild master had discovered somethings about the Spinner’s Shears, but he too broke down and and began to weep over his fallen family despite their attempts to comfort him. He did not want revenge, he wanted them back. Soon Reks and Autgar were left with watching over the two survivors of the end of Golden Dawn; both of which wept themselves to exhaustion and passed out.

Throughout the night Barais stirred only to break into what tears he had left for his friends and his family. The Barber was filled with his somber howling many times that night as there was nothing he could do but suffer their loss in agony.