Encounter

The Blood Price Debt Collector

Encounter: The Blood Price Debt Collector

The cobblestone street is choked with sawdust and the smell of wet timber. As you round the corner near the main market, a commotion draws your eye. A middle-aged logger, his face weathered and his hands trembling, is being violently shoved against a timber post by two massive Blackjackets. The lead enforcer, a scarred woman with a cold, calculating gaze, holds a parchment up to the man's face.

"Your debt is three hundred gold, Hendrick's son," she barks. "Your father's Blood Price was forfeited when he disappeared. By law, the debt passes to you. Pay it, or we take your hands. Those are the terms." The logger looks up, his eyes wet with tears, and whispers, "I don't have it. I haven't been paid in weeks because of the forest."

The Blackjacket shrugs. "Then we take the hands. Unless..." She turns and looks directly at you, a cruel smirk forming. "Unless these strangers are willing to pay it for you. Or unless they wish to challenge the Blood Price of the Logging Guild."

GM Note: The Faction. This is a direct introduction to the Blackjackets. They are not mindless thugs; they are lawful enforcers. If the party pays the 300 gold, they gain a loyal, grateful ally in the young logger, whose name is Orin. Orin knows the forest trails intimately and can act as a guide later. If the party refuses, Orin loses his hands, and the Blackjackets will remember the party as "unhelpful outsiders."

GM Note: The Twist. Orin mentions that his father (the missing foreman) was last seen going toward the Pulgari Estate, not Reiver's Right. This is a lie planted by the Society of the Golden Hand to throw the party off the trail. If they investigate, they find evidence at the estate.