The Copper Hand (Part I)

 After foiling the bank robbery, the squad is sent to meet with Captain Melipdra, the commander of the Sleepless Sen in the Foreign Quarter. 

A quiet order lies like a thick blanket across the muted bustling of the Sleepless Suns’s headquarters, Utterhome. Each of the uniformed officers moves with a focused purpose, quickly and efficiently processing prisoners, filing paperwork, and performing other routine tasks. 

"I bet they don't 'lose' prisoners like those jackasses in the Token Guard" mumbled Valcos.

“Greetings!” Captain Melipdra’s voice is surprisingly light and melodic, considering his barrel-chested build. “I must say, I am quite thrilled to be meeting the famous Edgewatch agents whose exploits have the whole city abuzz!”

The squad reports their story thus far.

“You seem to have found yourself quite the adventure! The Sleepless Suns will, of course, assist you in any way that we can, though I do have one request of you. “I’ll soon be meeting with the Low Council to negotiate Utterhome’s funding for the next year. I believe we’re doing excellent and vital work here, but outside of the occasional fiasco with drunk Pathfinder initiates, we haven’t had many cases as… ‘exciting’ as the one you’re working on. It would greatly help our case if you could turn in any prisoners or evidence found in the Copper Hand hideout to my officers for processing. I would, of course, find a suitable way to reward you in the future.”

The squad affirms that they are ready to cooperate in any way. The squad avails themselves of extra pairs of handcuffs. Valcos buys more sleep darts to go with his blowgun. 

The Copper Hand base is a four‑story house that sits in the middle of nearly identical buildings on either side. The bottom floor is a 'doss house', a place where the indigent may, for a single copper, snatch some sleep in relative safety.   Valcos infiltrated, and the party managed to prevent their sentry from sounding an alarm via tapping in pipes.  

Valcos snuck up the stairs and failed to use the sleep darts to incapacitate the two guards at the top. The squad then engaged in a running battle through the corridor, fighting rogues with envenomed shortwords and crossbows. Eventually, the martial meatgrinder managed to put down all of the rogues and took a moment to use healing potions to repair wound and venom damage.

 

Copper Hand Rogue

(image courtesy of Pathfinder Nexus)

The Bank Job (Part Four)

Dig-Widget

The squad, having spent some time reconnoitering the bank, decided to wait for the robbery in the basement counting room. Pumpelly and Valcos were rendered invisible and waited for the robbers in the small value area. Valcos has the recording device handy to gather evidence of the crime.

The malefactors came into the basement vault area, commanding a construct called the Dig-Widget. The Dig-Widget had been designed with bank vault theft in mind; the constrict had diggers, lockpicks, and other tools. They immediately went to work on the main vault door.

More Copper Hand thugs came down, led my Kolo, the stepson of the Bank manager, and also by an ogre-sized abomination construct called a Skinstich. 

From Archives of Nethys: 

The Skinstitchs' hulking frame was made from flayed humanoid skin stuffed with straw and poisonous insects. The dark god Norgorber grants the secrets for creating these monstrosities in disturbing dreams to select followers, informally referred to as skinstitchers. While most skinstitches have vaguely humanoid shapes, they often appear monstrous due to various modifications their creators have made to their bodies. Some skinstitches' arms, for instance, may bear jagged metal blades or blunt iron rods. The most talented skinstitchers rarely bother with the humanoid form at all and instead opt to craft skinstitches that resemble other creatures sacred to Norgorber, such as scorpions, centipedes, or especially spiders. There are rumors of skinstitchers who can build skinstitches using exotic materials such as steel, daemon flesh, or even magical shadows.  The rotting materials used to build skinstitches tend to attract vermin, which may in turn make a hive or nest within the skinstitches' bodies. Skinstitchers consider such occurrences as a sure sign of Norgorber's approval.

Skinstitch

Kolo was immediately captured and taken into custody.

Jorin told the squad to turn off the runes that converted their damage to non-lethal effect; the Skinstich was immune. 

While Simimel, Grimbold, Jorin, and Mr. Gone fought the construct, Jorin charmed one of the Copper Hand thugs.  

The other Copper Hand thugs were captured, and Valcos figured out how to take control of the Dig-Widget.

Interrogation of the charmed thug revealed that the Copper Hand had taken over the main room of the bank and was holding bank customers and employees hostage.

The squad used the Dig-Widget to break through the bank wall and stormed the hostage takers. Several hostages were wounded by the Copper Hand thugs, but while most of them surrendered, the members of the Norgorber death cult were defeated before they could kill the prisoners.   

One of the Copper Hand escaped and was lost in the crowd.

The squad rendered medical assistance to the hostages and waited for their backup in the Tken Guard to arrive; they claim to have been delayed by the parade crowds. 

Witnesses reported that apparently, the Bank Robber team attacked under the guise of a decorated pirate parade float. The ship float was manned by acrobats in the rigging, and the Skinstich disguised as a huge clown in the crow's nest. The ship raised up and the float toppled into the fence, with the acrobats racing into the bank. The Skkinstick crashed into the north wall of the bank.  Some went to effect the theft, and the others took the hostages.

Reginald Vancaskerkin of Eyes on Absalom, sought an interview but was told to speak to Lt. Grospek. 

• Green - Squad
• Red - Copper Hand
• Yellow - Hostages