Things to do in Ladybones Road...
When you're On the Velocipede Squad
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This storyline unlocked with this opportunity card:
The Inspector Calls
The Knuckle-Scarred Inspector hammers at your door with his truncheon. 'Open up! I need to 'ave a little word.'
Unlocks with: 1 x Velocipede, Dangerous 110
Your reputation as a pugilist serves you well
'We're a bit short-handed in the Velocipede Squad right now. And I've heard you're a bit handy when it comes to putting the boot in.'
Unlocked with A Bringer of Death 1
(Dangerous challenge, straightforward at 130)
A bit tasty with a shiv?
The Knuckle-Scarred Inspector helps himself to your dinner while you brew some tea. 'Like I say,' he says through a mouthful of pastry. 'we're short-handed and yer known to be a bit tasty with a shiv, so yer in. Officially we're the Velocipede Squad, but the local villains call us the Pennies. We get in fast, we put the boot in, and then we pedal off. We ain't pretty, but we get results. And Mr Iron looks after us if we get a bit excitable.'
'I see you've got yer own boneshaker, which will save us a few notes. You'll need a barker, but we'll buy yer bullets. Now get yer arse down to Concord Square. It's off Ladybones Road. There's villainy to be foiled!'
An occurrence! Your On the Velocipede Squad Quality is now 1 - Putting the Boot In!
does not increase Dangerous
You come highly recommended by the Chief Constable
'The guv'nor sent me round. He said you can help us out. The Velocipede Squad is short-handed…'
Unlocked with Connected: The Constables 30
Colourful language for an inspector
The Knuckle-Scarred Inspector helps himself to your dinner while you brew some tea. 'Like I say,' he says through a mouthful of pastry. 'we're short-handed and the guv'nor vouches for yer. So yer in. Some calls us the Velocipede Squad, but the local villains call us the Pennies. We get in fast, we put the boot in, and then we pedal off. We ain't pretty, but we get results. And Mr Iron sees us all right if we get a bit excitable.'
'I see you've got yer own boneshaker, which will save us a few notes. You'll need a barker, but we'll buy yer bullets. Now get yer arse down to Concord Square, it's off Ladybones Road. There's villainy to be foiled!'
An occurrence! Your On the Velocipede Squad Quality is now 1 - Putting the Boot In!
You bunged the Chief Constable a monkey
Expensive tastes in primates, that Chief Constable. But the Velocipede Squad sounds like a fine amusement. And good exercise to boot.
Unlocked with 1 x Comprehensive Bribe
You're in
The Knuckle-Scarred Inspector helps himself to your dinner while you brew some tea. 'Like I say,' he says through a mouthful of pastry. 'we're short-handed and the guv'nor vouches for yer, so yer in. Officially we're the Velocipede Squad, but the local villains call us the Pennies. We get in fast, we put the boot in, and then we pedal off. We ain't pretty, but we get results. And Mr Iron looks after us if we get a bit excitable.'
'I see you've got yer own boneshaker, which will save us a few notes. You'll need a barker, but we'll buy yer bullets. Now get yer arse down to Concord Square, near Ladybones Road. There's villainy to be foiled!'
You've lost 1 x Comprehensive Bribe
An occurrence! Your
On the Velocipede Squad Quality is now 1 - Putting the Boot In!
Foiling Footpads
Someone has been robbing drunks. Actually, someone is always robbing drunks. But the last drunk was the Chief Constable's aunt.
Unlocked with On the Velocipede Squad 1
Into the street with bottle and truncheon
Your orders are to impersonate a drunk. Should be easy enough with this generously provided bottle of vile gin. If you encounter footpads, you are instructed to give them 'a bleeding good hiding'.
(Dangerous challenge; straightforward at 127)
Six times before dawn
You pretend to fall asleep in the gutter. The gin shields you from the worst effects of the fog and the cramp. You kick away an insouciant tabby that wishes to mark you as his territory. You are robbed six times before the lighting of the lamps. Well, 'robbed' is generous. Anyone who so much as breathes on your pockets suffers a swift beating. Is everyone in this city a villain?
Dangerous increase
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (2 change points)
Foil a Robbery
'Two villains are doing over a fancy jeweller's in Veilgarden. Mount up and nick 'em before they scarper!'
Unlocked with On the Velocipede Squad 1
Get to it
This is it. Smoke and fog in your hair. Panicked screams of pedestrians. A mission of justice.
(Dangerous challenge; straightforward at 127)
How it's supposed to be done
Your iron rims slam against the kerb as you take the sharp bend out of Burly Street. You're over the handlebars, but up again in a moment, truncheon out. The two thieves are still in the shop, one cursing at a tricky safe. You stride in and administer the swift and thorough kicking of Justice. Many satisfying thuds and crunches later, you drag them back to the station behind your velocipede.
Dangerous increase
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase
In the Boozer with the Lads
The Velocipede Squad drinks at the New Justice. Outside, velocipedes are parked in a neat row, ready for action. Inside, the floors suck at your boots and the coppers scowl and sup.
Unlocked with On the Velocipede Squad 1
Get a pint in and sit down
There are jungles more friendly than this yellowing taproom. Will the narrowed eyes acknowledge you?
(Connected: The Constables challenge, straightforward at 30)
Your round
A copper shifts a file full of blurry photographs from a nearby stool. You sit. The conversation drifts around you. '…bit him as hard as I could…', '…got to the lockup, it was full of bleedin' tigers…' '…rubber rims? No bloody good, mate…'.
Empty tankards and expectant glares. It's your round. You're in.
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (2 change points)
Connected: The Constables increase (1 change point)
Not getting along
Two pints later, you're sitting on your own. The ale tastes like someone dropped a rat in it. From the sly smirks around the taproom, perhaps someone did.
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (1 change point)
Connected: The Constables decrease (2 change points)
Listen to what's going on in the snug
A pair of veteran officers are having a private discussion in the small, smoky room.
Unlocked with The Spinning of the Wheels 1
Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.
Messenger Duty
The Velocipede Squad looks to its own ranks for couriers. Half the time when you see one of the Squad pedalling like the clappers, they're summoning reinforcements or reporting to the Masters.
Unlocked with On the Velocipede Squad 1
Your turn today
Your name is scrawled on the blackboard in the smoke-filled back room of the station. Best mount up.
(Dangerous challenge; straightforward at 127)
Waking the blue beast
There's a riot in Veilgarden. Well, it might be a party that's spilled into the streets. In any case, the Knuckle-Scarred Inspector orders you to loop around all the stations between Ladybones Road and Spite, whistle blaring. Your oily iron rims strike sparks on the cobblestones as you rouse London's finest away from their kettles and to their business. Urchins and vagabonds slink into their alleys as the blue beast wakes.
Dangerous increase
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (2 change points)
Riding the Savage Cobbles 5
Having a Lark
A band of well-dressed robbers is preying on society events. They strut about, stealing watches and jewellery, then ride off on fine horses.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 5
After them!
The robbers have struck an elegant party in Veilgarden! On yer boneshaker and off like the clappers!
(Dangerous challenge; straightforward at 130)
Not so funny now
You pedal after the fleeing horses like a champion. It's hard to steer your contraption while holding a firearm. Your iron rims cut furrows in the smooth brown turf of Tyrant's Gardens.
You chance a shot at the last of the fleeing riders, who wheels around, horrified. He loses his seating, and plummets to the ground in an elegant heap. He's not a hardened criminal. More likely, he's one of the Young Stags out on a lark. That won't spare him the sound thrashing he's owed, though.
Dangerous increase
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (2 change points)
Dealing with a Hard Case
The Knuckle-Scarred Inspector has a Stone-Faced Recidivist who won't talk. He wants you to sort the fellow out.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 5
Have a little word
The Stone-Faced Recidivist glares sullenly through the iron bars in the cell door. Perhaps you can do better than the Inspector.
(does not test any Qualities)
Nothing to be done
The Stone-Faced Recidivist knows that his brief will be here soon. And he knows better than to deliberately provoke members of the Velocipede Squad. He sits and waits and stays silent. Your words slide over him like the Hollow Street fog.
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (1 change point)
Walk away
What the Inspector has in mind is neither just nor legal.
Unlocked with The Spinning of the Wheels 1
Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.
Do whatever is necessary
Violence is just another tool. Maybe even another entertainment. He'll get a bit more talkative once you've thrown him down the station stairs four or five times.
Unlocked with The Spinning of the Wheels 1
Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.
A Blaze in Spite
Some local villain has set matches to a tenement building in Spite. The blaze has yet to spread beyond a few rooms.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 5
Speed over there
Someone else will have to deal with the fire. You're after the arsonist.
(Dangerous challenge; straightforward at 130)
What's all this then?
The stinking black smoke blinds you. The flames drive you back. The tenement creaks and pops alarmingly. It won't be long before the place collapses. But what's this? The hot metal sears your fingers, but you have the evidence, right where the fire started. A Constable's badge.
Dangerous increase
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (2 change points)
In and out
The tenements are full of rags and filthy straw. They billow thick black smoke as they burn. You are blinded, and the heat drives you back outside, coughing and retching.
Dangerous increase
Wounds increase (1 change point)
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (1 change point)
Rescue an Informer from Devils
One of the Inspector's most productive informers, a waiter at Dante's Grill, has blown his cover. You need to repair his reputation.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 5
Run to the scene!
Dante's Grill is just around the corner from Concord Square.
(Dangerous challenge; straightforward at 130)
Getting off lightly.
You crash through the elegant stained-glass doors and into the dining room. You point a finger. You accuse, you swagger, you take the waiter outside to the scrubbed cobblestones for a corrective kicking. You drag him back to the station. You wash the blood from your knuckles as the Inspector nods his approval. The bruises will heal. The devils had something more permanent in mind.
Dangerous increase
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (2 change points)
Delicious friend
No informer. Just a smug infernal maître d’hôtel and a new dish of the day.
Dangerous increase
Riding the Savage Cobbles increase (1 change point)
Nightmares increase (1 change point)
Riding the Savage Cobbles 7
An Eye Wide Open
You've seen much as a member of the Velocipede Squad. More, perhaps, than you should.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 7
Turn a blind eye
One of the lads, now.
(does not test any Qualities)
Off again
'Coach robbery in Veilgarden! Get your barkers and yer boneshakers!' Another day, another duty. All this pedalling is keeping you fit, though.
Dangerous increase (2 change points)
Connected: The Constables increase (5 change points)
note that this does not reset Riding the Savage Cobbles
Out of the public view
[This will unlock the secrets of the Velocipede Squad and allow you decide what do to about them. A dozen storylets and opportunities of metropolitan savagery!]
Unlocks with A Person of Some Importance 1
Requires 20 Fate
Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.
Another Strike
They've blown the Black Whistle at Concord Square. All officers must report to Wolfstack Docks and deal with yet another strike. Well, all officers who aren't known socialists.
[You can't play this Storylet unless your Union Sympathiser quality is less than 5]
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 7
Go and crack some heads
This rabble need to accept their lot in life and do as they're told. Those that don't can't expect a kicking.
(Dangerous challenge; low-risk at 123)
The guns of Wolfstack
You stand in a wedge with neddy men and Special Constables on the oily wharf. Half the neddy men are actually Royal Marines. You're glad of them when the shooting begins.
It's not so much a gun battle as a huge, chaotic fistfight. As if a hundred pubs had spilled onto the docks one blood-red Friday night. Only a few of the dockers have guns, but that's enough to add a deadly resolve to the strikebreakers. You see a pair from the Velocipede Squad systematically hurling dockers into the water. Most of them can't swim. You gather up rifles as you find them.
Dangerous increase
Your
Riding the Savage Cobbles Quality has gone!
Gain: 1 x Ancient Hunting Rifle
Gain: 2 x Rattus Faber Rifle
Riots in Watchmaker's Hill! Shops are Burning!
You can see smoke from Concord Square. For some reason the veteran officers call these affairs 'April Riots', whatever the month. Go and sort it out.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 7
Read them the Riot Act
'Our Sovereign Monarch the Empress chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, to disperse themselves, and peaceably depart…'
(Dangerous challenge; straightforward at 130)
An odd sort of victory
The crowd is a rabble of dockworkers, zailors, and a few villains from Spite on a day out. A few of them are shouting garbled revolutionary slogans, but most are here for the looting.
You finish reading out the Act. A platoon of your brethren arrive at your back, squealing to a stop in a ragged but formidable line, truncheons high and boots gleaming. The mob falters and falls back into the smoke.
Your colleagues send up a victorious cheer. The Fire Brigade will be here shortly, so they content themselves with a little looting at the local vintner's. The Velocipede Squad drinks well for nearly a week afterwards.
Dangerous increase
Your
Riding the Savage Cobbles Quality has gone!
Gain: 7 x
Broken Giant 1844
Attend a Funeral
A colleague in the Velocipede Squad has shut her last case. Best bib and tucker, now.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 7
Keep a quiet dignity
Fog muffles the heavy tread of policemen in the graveyard. She died on the job, they say, working for the Ministry of Public Decency. Velocipede Squad officers swap sneers with Special Constables in Bazaar-skin black. This could turn nasty.
(Persuasive challenge; straightforward at 125)
Keeping the peace
The deceased was tracking a group of Correspondence-graffitists. The Special Constables use an acid-spewing machine to erase such crimes, but it's a volatile contraption given to unexpected explosions. Your colleague was caught in the blast. There's not much left to bury. Each squad blames the other for the incident.
During the eulogy, the Knuckle-Scarred Inspector seems about to launch into a tirade against the Ministry. Your coughing and steely glances shame him out of it. The two squads line up on either side of the grave, like two quarrelling ancient clans meeting at a ford. But the solemnity of the event and an occasional harsh look from you keeps order.
Afterwards, a Decency Evaluator approaches you. 'You seem the wisest of these scoundrels,' he says, over tea and scones at Concord Square. 'Take her case notes and put them to some good purpose.'
Persuasive increase
Gain: 1 x Blackmail Material
Gain: 2 x
An Identity Uncovered!
Gain: 2 x
Incendiary Gossip
Your
Riding the Savage Cobbles Quality has gone!
The Knuckle-Scarred Inspector is Indisposed
Well, that's what the sergeant at the front desk said.
Unlocked with Riding the Savage Cobbles 7
Try to calm the Inspector down
His cases have gone badly of late. He never got to the bottom of that Veilgarden soul ring. And now it sounds like he's rearranging the station furniture with a hammer.
(Dangerous challenge, straightforward at 132)
Unlocks with Involved in the Soul Trade 1
Fate-locked content must not be placed on the wiki, per the developers.
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