Fitz's Big Contact List

"Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed." --- Elbert Hubbard

As Fitz allocated nearly a quarter of his character points towards Contacts when we started the game, I thought I should do a bit of work on what they were like.

Street/Underworld Contacts

As Fitz essentially has dragged himself up from the gutter (into a state of merely extreme poverty), most of his contacts are street and underworld contacts.

Unconnected

Veronique, Paulis, Tom and Valance

These are Fitz's "distributors" (read: newsies.) They are dirty but endlessly spunky and entrepreneurial Dickensian street urchins. Veronique is the head of the bunch, she's a tough tomboy. Paulis is a weaselly little sneak, Tom's a big bully and Valance is "the quiet one".

Connected

"Krakken" Losorison

Krakken is a former legbreaker for Warden Ramirez. Not the brightest crayon in the box, but a very good judge of people, and always willing to share the latest on who's backstabbing who (figuratively and literally) and what's going on beneath the surface.

Krakken had a bit of a tiff with Hugh Brien last time, when Ramirez claimed that Brien owed him money and had stolen from him. Current relationship between the two strained but largely unknown. After a...falling out with his former employed, Krakken now works for Warden Spenser.

Viik Ianus

Viik is a former casino impresario, now arranger-of-parties. He tends to be hired by crimelords and a few upper class types. His casino operations were shut down by crusading Hammers. Viik likes Fitz because when his casinos got shut down, the Courier came out against the Hammers. There are rumored to be a few gambling dens back under his belt now, but they're by invite-only and Fitz really doesn't have the money to be on the list, at least not without a close escort.

Hammerite Contacts

Fitz has an uncomfortable relationship with the Order of the Hammer. Clearly he is sullying their press technology by using it for secular purposes, but there are rich and influential people that do that too. What is most disquieting to the typical Hammerite is the purposes to which Fitz is putting the press - the glorification of gore, debauchery and sleaze is clearly sinful, but there's also the shining of light into dark shadows. Hammerites acquainted with Fitz's family will also recall that his six brothers (half-brothers all) died at Cragscleft. Blood will out.

Very few Hammerites know about the "harbingers of the Metal Age" prophecy of the Smith-in-Exile, one of which involves expanding literacy among the poor and the "poor man's press" which will accompany it. Fewer still might have drawn the connection between that prophecy and Fitz. (Fortunately for Fitz the same is true of the pagans who don't want the Metal Age to come...see Enemy, below.)

Unconnected

Brother Thornton

This Hammerite thug...er...I mean "holy warrior", is a friend of Fitz's from the old neighborhood. He probably knows more than he tells Fitz, who is clearly a secular knowlessman, but he does tell him some things from time to time.

Connected

Overseer Paltaranan

Fitz doesn't know why Overseer Paltaranan sends him solid, undeniable, confirmable, incredibly useful information every so often. He can't get in to ask him. The information usually consists of accusations against corrupt Hammers which Paltaranan can't make himself, or reports of various Hammer activity in the area which Fitz has to investigate on his own. (Paltaranan knows that for some reason some very nasty woodsie people don't like Fitz, and that's good enough for him to be used.)

Town Guard Contacts

Fitz has a love-hate relationship with the Town Guard. Although he often times trumpets the Town Guard as heros of the day, particularly in gang wars and dramatic rescues, he also is constantly pointing out their shortcomings and exposing collaboration with the wardens. Fitz is, despite himself, a rather law-and-order sort of person, at least where the crime victimizes the poor and downtrodden. So some Guardsmen are willing to reluctantly share a bit of information with him in return for the good press he provides.

Unconnected

Snelling

Guardsman Snelling and Fitz go way back. They were pals back when neither one of them could really do anything worthwhile. Now Fitz is a grade-A asshole and Snelling is the sort of unambitious lamp-post-leaner that isn't even worth a large bribe. But he knows the area like the back of his hand and gladly accepts even the small "gifts" that he gets. Generally from taverns.

Political/Legal Contacts

Fitz has worked reeeeally hard to build up his political contacts, but, wisely, they're chiefly staying as far away from him as possible. He therefore has to generally resort to skullduggery and/or searching through the scanty public record for evidence for his political stories.

Unconnected

Captain Seldon

The captain of the guard at the home of Lord Bafford, Seldon is privy to many shady goings-on - he is more connected to the high society world which he more directly oversees as master of security than the political world which he can only infer.

Assistant Mayor Shriver Larson

The last remnant of the days when The City was ruled by a Mayoral government - he knows the ins and outs of city politics like the back of his hand, but can't give much in the way of current information. He is, however, good for background dirt on the players.

Bailey Parric

Bailey is a young clerk at the Central Municipal Court who handles pleadings, writs and executions for some of the municipal judges. Although he isn't privy to the insider workings of the bar and bench, he can certainly ladle out the gossip (and which courtroom will be most interesting to sit in) to Fitz. (He thinks Fitz is a colorful character, and even somewhat admires him.)

Connected

Lady Talasia Simms

Lady Talasia Simms, a very, very, very minor skinny-faced noblewoman whose influence (lots) is disproportionate to her wealth (little). Her chief line is blackmail. Simms has breakfast with Fitz every week in the Glass Front Tavern, right up in the front window where everyone can see them but nobody can hear. This public friendship between a scandalmonger and a blackmailer is useful for both - the blackmailer's threats have more weight and the scandalmonger's accusations have more credibility.

High Society

High Society folk avoid Fitz even more than politically-connected folk. In an area where reputation is everything, a smear artist is not the most popular person to be. He therefore has to get his information sidelong. Spying helps.

Connected

Lady Talasia Simms

See above.

Captain Seldon

See above.

Unconnected

Carl the Digger

"The Digger" is an honorific title, indicating that Carl is one of the family that helps inter people in the Bonehoard. He is thus a regular at high society funerals.

Deirdre Salinger

Deirdre is the chief gardener at the Quintus family manor. She's pretty, competent, poor and honest, and she and Fitz have an on-again off-again romance. She also hears the back-stoop gossip from the various noble families. She really wishes Fitz would give up this silly Courier business and take up an "honest trade". Much to her chagrin, the Courier has been doing quite well in recent days, so Fitz is in no danger of becoming "honestly" employed.

"Catseye" Katzelman

A footman for the Di Rossi family who keeps an eye on their heir, has a regular seat at the Ignatz Inn and can share coachride conversations with Fitz.

Douglas Trionnor

A tutor to the nobility who got his job "shepherding around the snot-nose brats" after he was unable to land a University post. Bitter about it, but very broadly knowledgable.

Contacts In The Arts

Unconnected

Artenoldo "Artie" Cista

President, owner and operator of Calendra Publishing Company, which produces penny dreadfuls and "serious" literature as well as a few Hammerite and government contracts. He met Fitz last year when they were both trying to keep their finicky presses running. Now he passes aspiring authors whose work doesn't fit the book format to Fitz for serialization, or to promote the sale of their full works.

Unwilling Ally

Benjamin Victorine

Fitz has blackmailed this poor bastard into providing him with a press in return for Fitz's silence. Fitz, when he was still doing cheap broadsides at one imprint per page, discovered that Victorine had an affair with his wealthy fiancee's poor and simple (but shapely) cousin. Since the Victorines were deeply involved in politics, influence and, eventually, the Hammerite Order, there were ample reasons for Benjamin to pay off Fitz for his silence.

When Fitz's press was destroyed by a curse sent by a mad nobleman last year, Victorine agreed to provide him with a second one. Fitz rarely asks Victorine for anything, not wishing to press his luck. Victorine, for his part, knows things might be a lot worse.

Enemy

Because Fitz is a harbinger of the Metal Age, pagans who are aware of his significance tend to hate his guts with a murderous and cold rage. Fortunately, such pagans are extremely rare. Unfortunately, the reason they are rare is because it takes great mystical power and insight to understand his significance, so the woodsie-ones that do know about him are very nasty and tend to have very nasty servants.

These enemies are unknown to Fitz.

Other People In Fitz's Background

The Hurstwood Brothers

"Poor Mother Hurstwood, she lost so many sons." Fitz was the youngest of seven brothers. (Well, half-brothers really. Hurstwood fathers are emphemeral things.)

Theodore Hurstwood was the guiding light of the family and definitely the man of the house, very responsible and always trying to keep everything together. Everyone looked up to him. However, he was an outspoken critic of the Hammerites' involvement with local affairs and he was taken away to Cragscleft as a blasphemer, slowly tortured to death while refusing to recant. After his death, the rest of the Hurstwoods fell to lives of squalor and desperation.
Shelby Hurstwood was a lamplighter who was first transferred to the Wall District, and then fired when the city switched to electrical streetlights. He had a small racket in smashing electrical lights and then selling his services as a torch-bearing private guardsman to the inhabitants of the street where the light was broken. Finally he was caught in executing this racket, and sent to Cragscleft. He was killed there when he fell into a vat of molten iron.
Wharton Hurstwood found work on the docks of the river. He picked up extra money by cracking open shipping crates of grain and fruit, skimming off the top, and selling what he stole at rock bottom black market prices. Often he sold to servants at their lords' manor before dawn. He was caught when he cracked open a crateful of angry crabs which attacked him, and his screams were heard by a Hammerite patrol. At Cragscleft he was involved in a dispute with another prisoner over some smuggled-in wine and was stabbed to death with the broken bottle.
Clement Hurstwood was never good with horses but somehow managed to bully his way into a place as a groom with Lord Sherrinford's estate. Never the brightest of the Hurstwoods, Clement attemped to steal and then sell the horses he was given charge of, and was immediately caught. He was transferred to Cragscleft from the city jail when he tried to break out. At Cragscleft he attempted nine more escapes. Unfortunately on the last escape he took a wrong turn and blundered into the guard barracks and was beaten to death. The long-timers at Cragscleft who still have a tongue still talk about him in the yard: "Tenth Time's A Charm" Hurstwood.
Edgar Hurstwood turned to pickpocketing and cutpursing after Theodore's death. One of the worst pickpockets on Market Street, he was arrested when he accidentally stabbed an anemic nobleman while trying to cut his purse-strings. The nobleman died and hapless Edgar was put on trial for murder. In the dock, he was mistaken for a big wheel in Warden Hichester's organization and released. When the Town Guard realized their mistake, they gave chase. Edgar, again struck by bad luck, rushed in the back door of a building from the alley only to discover it was the Hammerite chapel. He was taken to Cragscleft where on his first day a stack of crates fell on him and crushed his skull, killing him instantly.
Ambrose Hurstwood was the other Hurstwood to try to make a living with his pen instead of his fists. He became a clerk to a crooked municipal judge. Rather than be upset about the oppressive air of dirtiness, Ambrose himself started to take bribes and fudge records. But when a rival warden started to muscle in on the district where Ambrose was working, he arrived at work one day to find the judge's head on his desk and the axeman coming after him to finish the job. He was rescued by Town Guardsmen, but the records convinced them that he was a con artist so far gone that only the Hammerites could rehabilitate him, and he ended up on Cragscleft. There, pretending to be an influential man with a great deal of information about the city, he swindled the Overseer out of an indeterminate amount of gold and the keys to the lower factory, but his flight was discovered, he was pursued, and he fell down an ancient mineshaft and died on the rocks below. His body was eaten by spiders.
For the record, Fitz's full name is Fitzgerald Scott Hurstwood. The Hurstwoods were not particular about birthdays (or indeed, literacy) until Ambrose was raking in money with his pen, so he's not quite sure how old he is - he imagines about twenty-five or twenty-six. He continues to live in the squalid Wall District, although he's no longer squatting in an abandoned building.

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