Humans in the Bayou and Gremlins in human areas

[Patchy]

I just bought and read the hand that feeds penny dreadful and want to run it, my group is composed of humans, how's the treatment of humans in the bayou? are there any humans? are Gremlins hostile or friendly? In a less important question, are there gremlins in the north hills and malifaux city?

 

thanks in advance

[Mike Wallace]

There are probably a fair amount of humans in the Bayou; especially in the town of Edgepoint (from the TTB "Into the Bayou" book) which is nominally held by the Guild. Explorers, hunters, smugglers... there's a meat distributor in Malifaux who receives and sells Bayou pig in secret (Peregrine's Porcine Products), so he's likely got connections to the Gremlins and men to act as envoys. Through The Breach also has Bayou Born who seem to be human kids kidnapped from the city and raised in the swamps? 

[solkan]

3 hours ago, Icaruswings said:

I just bought and read the hand that feeds penny dreadful and want to run it, my group is composed of humans, how's the treatment of humans in the bayou? are there any humans? are Gremlins hostile or friendly? In a less important question, are there gremlins in the north hills and malifaux city?

Just from the various Malifaux stories, gremlin treatment of humans is going to be as varied as human treatment of humans.  It ranges from peaceful trading, to a particularly nasty tale.  The gremlins do seem, after all, to be imitating people for their own purposes.  Unpredictable, at best, especially if dealing with strangers.

In a place like Malifaux, lots of ways for gremlins to get in to the city without going through the Guild checkpoints.  

[Sernus]

4 hours ago, Icaruswings said:

I just bought and read the hand that feeds penny dreadful and want to run it, my group is composed of humans, how's the treatment of humans in the bayou? are there any humans? are Gremlins hostile or friendly? In a less important question, are there gremlins in the north hills and malifaux city?

 

thanks in advance

"Into the Bayou" supplement is well worth having, btw, just for the background material.... 'course, I say that about all of the TtB supplements! 

[Patchy]

thanks for the responses, i figured out how I'm running that adventure as humans.

[Undercover_Guildsman]

I'm about a fortnight away from getting 'Into the Bayou' but wanted to ask: is there any official Guild policy on Gremlins?  For example, does the Guild see them as a menace?  Have they ever authorised a bounty system (eg Scrip for Gremlin ears as proof of kill); are they interested in eradicating or at least making the Gremlins fear the Guild, or do they just leave them alone? 

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

1 hour ago, Undercover_Guildsman said:

I'm about a fortnight away from getting 'Into the Bayou' but wanted to ask: is there any official Guild policy on Gremlins?  For example, does the Guild see them as a menace?  Have they ever authorised a bounty system (eg Scrip for Gremlin ears as proof of kill); are they interested in eradicating or at least making the Gremlins fear the Guild, or do they just leave them alone? 

There is a bounty for every gremlin corpse brought in, and there are stories about gremlin attacks in the northern hills as well as on Latigo specifically to get Perdita's hat which will likely make the Guild see them as a threat, if not a small one.

[Undercover_Guildsman]

On 6/16/2017 at 11:59 AM, Steamtastic Vagabond said:

There is a bounty for every gremlin corpse brought in, and there are stories about gremlin attacks in the northern hills as well as on Latigo specifically to get Perdita's hat which will likely make the Guild see them as a threat, if not a small one.

This is very handy information that makes for some interesting decision-making in my campaign.  Do you know how much each Gremlin is worth?

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

I think it's something like 2 scrip for every pair of gremlin ears retrieved.

[Mason]

Two scrip per dead Gremlin.

[Durza]

On 26/06/2017 at 8:06 PM, Mason said:

Two scrip per dead Gremlin.

Any gremlins ever try turning themselves in for the bounty?

[Steamtastic Vagabond]

1 minute ago, Durza said:

Any gremlins ever try turning themselves in for the bounty?

If any did that, they would have been the drunkest of all gremlins. Perhaps more drunk than even the great Somer "Teeth" Jones!

[Durza]

I don't think they would need to be drunk, the thought process would be something like "money for bringing in gremlins? I'm a gremlin!" *enters guild building* "where's my money?"

This is assuming that they have figured out scrip = booze, because I doubt they have any other use for it.

[Undercover_Guildsman]

4 hours ago, Durza said:

Any gremlins ever try turning themselves in for the bounty?

Hilarious.  Of course you could have some fun with a Bokor marching a host of (un)dead Gremlins in to collect the bounty on all of them.  Gives a whole new meaning to 'sell his grandmother for the right price', doesn't it?

I picked up 'Into the Bayou' yesterday  and on my initial flip through the book I think I'll like it a lot.

[Mason]

10 hours ago, Durza said:

Any gremlins ever try turning themselves in for the bounty?

Most Gremlins have an acute sense of where they stand in the pecking order of things and generally try to avoid danger. They're not necessarily good at avoiding danger, but they try. It's usually when alcohol gets involved that the real stupid comes out.

Gremlins have litters of around twenty at a time, and of those, only a handful survive to reach adulthood. Most of the really stupid or foolhardy ones meet an untimely end early on, baring luck or the assistance of a (generally apathetic) adult.  As a result, most Gremlins would probably realize just what the bounty is about (if only because they hear the adults complaining about it) or at the very least realize that the Guild tends to shoot them dead when they can.

That being said, drunk people (and Gremlins) do stupid things, and a Gremlin might not get the whole story and think that something else is going on.

[Undercover_Guildsman]

On a slightly related note, 'Into the Bayou' really reinforces for me a dark comedic tragedy theme for Gremlins, that becomes less comedic and more tragic the more you read and internalise it.  Gremlin life appears to have been written to the work of Thomas Hobbes, most notably Leviathan, wherein he notes:

"Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."

Obviously, there are key differences here, but the central theme of 'a time of war', and lack of security can be implemented.  On one hand there is an element of comic relief to their portrayal, but on the other a deeply disturbing story of colonisation, colonial views of indigenous cultures, inequality, and social determinants of Western notions of 'success'.

Just wondering if these themes were intentional, or whether I'm simply over-thinking things.  I have ideas germinating about having a Gremlin campaign that focuses on the negative impact of humans coming through the Breach.