Quick facts
Type: Assassins’ organization · Leadership: “The circle” · Known agents: Scuzz (handler) · Status: Hunting Escher and Fable (as of C2 Session 70)
The Pale Fang is a secretive organization of assassins that hired Escher, gave him the codename “Smoke,” and paid him well, until he turned down a contract on Bulma Briefs and made himself and his brother targets.
Overview
The Pale Fang values subtlety. Its agents talk of killing as poetry, not theater. Handlers report up to “the circle,” which decides the fate of its agents.
History
Recruitment
The Whisper recommended Escher to the organization (Session 47). Escher’s first job was a high-ranking member of the Velvet Truffle Company, identified in a note a stranger slipped into his pocket. He killed Kenton Rusk at Hamhock Harbor with a poison-tipped arrow (Session 39). The Pale Fang had wanted Kenton specifically, along with his ring (Session 80).
In Buttermere (Session 41), Escher used the code phrase “I heard there’s a private tasting in the cellar tonight” to meet a woman from the Pale Fang. She confirmed the kill but called his methods “artless” and public, theater rather than poetry, and cut his pay from the promised 8,000 gold to 4,500. She gave him the codename “Smoke” and a new assignment, warning him to be subtler or she would know he was nothing more than a “sharp blade.”
The judge
Escher’s next job was a retired judge. A contact gave him a dossier on Judge Marius Vellum in Wild Reach Village, promising a shot at a high-priority target called the “white whale” if he did it “the right way” (Session 49). His handler, Lint, identified the ghost petals for him (Session 55), and Escher killed the judge in Session 56.
On the Saline Coast, Escher met Silk at the Pink Salt Pavilion and was rewarded with platinum bars and a magic blade, the Silencer’s Verdict. Silk offered him a “blackout job” worth 250,000 gold: the assassination of Bulma Briefs. Escher accepted and kept it from his friends (Session 57).
Breaking away (Sessions 67–70)
In North City, Escher’s younger brother Fable tried to kill Bulma, hired by a handler named Scuzz (Session 67). After the Cell Games, Scuzz tailed Escher, and Escher told him that his and Fable’s business with the Pale Fang was finished. Scuzz said he was only a handler who reported to “the circle,” which would decide their fate, and warned that one morning they might simply not wake up. Their only way out was to walk into the Coliseum and finish the job on Bulma. Scuzz threw blinding powder in Fable’s eyes and escaped (Session 70).
Escher told the FAM everything, and the party made keeping him alive their top priority.
Members and affiliates
- “The circle”: the leadership that decides the fate of its agents.
- Scuzz: handler who hired Fable to kill Bulma.
- Lint: Escher’s handler; identified the ghost petals.
- Silk: paid Escher in platinum and the Silencer’s Verdict, and offered the contract on Bulma.
- The woman in Buttermere: unnamed contact who confirmed Escher’s first kill, cut his pay and named him “Smoke.”
- The Wild Reach contact: unnamed contact who gave Escher the dossier on Judge Vellum.
- Escher Reverie (“Smoke”): former agent; broke with them after the Cell Games.
- Fable Reverie: hired by Scuzz to kill Bulma; broke with them alongside Escher.
- The Whisper (affiliate): recommended Escher to the organization.
Appears in
Session 39, Session 41, Session 42, Session 47, Session 49, Session 55, Session 56, Session 57, Session 67, Session 70, Session 80