Raspud Sasoon
A Mover and Shaker of the Hands of Havoc
Raspud Sasoon (planar human bard [he/him] / Hands of Havoc / N )
Raspud grew up in a relatively well-off family in the Lady’s Ward and received all the spoils of an affluent education from his Guvner parents. Despite his relative physical comfort, Raspud progressively felt more and more dissatisfied with the decadent and unreal lives of his parents. His studies of law only filled him with disgust as he saw the unjust way it was applied by the Harmonium, Mercykillers, and even Guvners themselves. One gloomy day in the Lower Ward he met a Anarchist factor that convinced him of the need to topple all authority; a plan that fit Raspud’s world view perfectly. However, he soon became frustrated over the lack of momentum in the anarchist movement – infiltrations and covert operations failed to visibly bother the governing Factions.
Raspud began preaching his own brand of revolutionary dogma to anyone who would listen: “The only way to get rid of the repressive Factions and to build a truly free society is through direct destructive action. The Harmonium and the Guvners must be struck with uncompromising force to bring the message through. To this extent ethics and morals are but artificial notions imposed by the ruling classes to preserve their own rule”.
Raspud gained notoriety when he “bombed” [see below] one of the Hardheads’ favourite kips for consuming “minisigils” [guess what this refers to], killing four and wounding nine officers of the Harmonium. He is also believed to be involved in the assassination of a prominent high-up of the Guvners. It need hardly be mentioned that giving the Hardheads this much of a bloody laugh is not a wise thing, and the hunt has been on for Raspud ever since.
Raspud’s charismatic nature convinced enough disillusioned cutters in the League that his small group soon became embarrassing to the mainstream of the Revolutionary League. The high-ups apparently hold that directly attacking the powerful rulers will only increase the repression of people. But even if Raspud’s small band are alienated within his own faction, his nihilistic acts of destruction has won him some friends with the entropic Doomguard.
“Ah, great. They’ve hired people to slander us.”
—Saotome Keiichi, before his murder trial
“I’ll slander you guys for free.”
—Kahlid, in response
It may be from these sources he has acquired his unique explosive mechanisms. Chant variously holds that the devices are from an infernal Abyssal layer, from giff suppliers on the Rock of Bral, or even from some deranged prime wizard. Whatever the case, Raspud’s bombing devices are a combination of healthy doses of smoke powder and magic. [Each device is about the size of a human head and can be thrown to explode on impact, doing 8d4+8 points of fire damage to everything within 20 feet (save for half damage). The unstable nature of the device gives it a 20% chance of misfire. In addition the potential attacker must be careful when transporting the bomb to the target, any serious shake has a 10% of prematurely setting of the device.] Apparently a member of Raspud’s crew blew himself up in the Market Ward recently, killing several civilians and contributing to a small public outcry over the attacks. Quite a few people in the Hive and Lower Ward still support the acts, seeing it as legitimate strikes against the oppressing Hardheads.
Darker chant links these earlier acts of terrorism directly with the new band in Sigil calling themselves “The Cadre” — see recent articles in SIGIS for more details on their actions. The true identity of the Cadre is still unknown; however, given their penchant for explosives, a link should not be ruled out…
Anarchist Internal Memo #7
This brief concerns break-away ring-leader Raspud Sasoon, and the security measures to be taken against him. It has recently come to the attention of this council that one “ex-anarchist” Sasoon may well be a Guvner infiltrator.
Raspud was born to two Guvner parents and lived out his early years in the Lady’s Ward. We only learned of this association by chance when member Jiaste D’norr (planar githzerai thief [he/him] / Hands of Havoc / CN) met Chameleon Lathar Sasoon (alleged to be the mother of Raspud, currently acting as a Taker) on a jaunt through Carceri. Remarkably, she claimed to have imitated her Guvner husband for over a decade before their child was born. Unfortunately for her, Jack Sasoon (planar human wizard [he/him] / Fraternity of Order / LN) was able to utilise some unknown means of compulsion with a rather expensive but simple hand-held clock, and convinced Lathar that the best thing for their son would be to have him become an infiltrator into the Anarchists, spying for the Guvners.
Jack apparently reckoned that the best way of avoiding detection and thereby insuring discretion would be by making sure that Raspud never knew of his mission, or where his true affiliations lie. Jack decided that the best way to gain information on one of the Lawmakers’ biggest problems (namely us) would be to infiltrate our ranks using our own techniques , and hoping to have their very own infiltrator rise as high as possible in the divided Anarchist ranks. It is interesting to not that such impersonations are probably illegal in their own right, so ironically the Guvners are breaking their own barmy laws!
However, something seems to have gone wrong. Raspud was to report every year once, and forget about the entire incident unless he felt that such a report would seriously jeopardise the mission, until his safe conduct home and subsequent interview could reveal more information. Raspud was covertly observed after this information was obtained, in such a way that there is little chance that he could have detect us, and he did not make any attempt to return home at all. When he should have been being interviewed by his father, Raspud was busy assassinating a high ranking Harmonium member, who we have recently discovered was his cousin!
Raspud is to be communicated with discreetly and carefully and not contacted at all without proper backup. There is some hope among the investigators that we could purge our ranks of any other such spies by utilising Raspud.
Handwriting turns into indecipherable scrawl and message proceeded to disintegrate at this point.
Plot Hooks:
Ways for PCs to become involved in these events:
- Hired by the Harmonium to find Raspud (involving searching unsavoury areas in the Hive, not a pleasant prospect).
- Accidentally becoming collateral damage to one of the bombing attacks, sure to make the PCs want revenge.
- Asked by high-ups of the Revolutionary League to take care of the embarrassment, “make it look like an accident (a non-League job)”.
- Having a friendly NPC become target of an assassination.
- Being convinced of the need for action against the ruling Factions, and joining Raspud’s anarchists.
- Try to convince Raspud et al of the futility of wanton destruction to bring about change in society (a true role-playing challenge). Hired by fiends (or others interested in weaponry) to uncover the dark about the nature of the bombing devices, would involve investigative work and travel to other planes.
Source: Truls Rostrup and Brian York
