Agents of the Comprachicos (Wermspittle)

The Comprachicos, we insist, had nothing in common with the gipsies. The gipsies were a nation; the Comprachicos were a compound of all nations—the lees of a horrible vessel full of filthy waters. The Comprachicos had not, like the gipsies, an idiom of their own; their jargon was a promiscuous collection of idioms: all languages were mixed together in their language; they spoke a medley. Like the gipsies, they had come to be a people winding through the peoples; but their common tie was association, not race. At all epochs in history one finds in the vast liquid mass which constitutes humanity some of these streams of venomous men exuding poison around them. The gipsies were a tribe; the Comprachicos a freemasonry—a masonry having not a noble aim, but a hideous handicraft...

The Man Who Laughs, by Victor Hugo

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Ten Agents of the Comprachicos

1. Rudarl is a Minimus, a type of artificially-produced dwarf created by deliberately stunting the development of a young child using bindings, clamps, metal frames, knot-grass and a host of other techniques. Constantly wracked by pain, Rudarl is a product of the Comprachico family known by the sign of the Black Unicorn. They have his three children and his wife. His family is supposed to be safe, so long as he does what he is told. He knows all too well what the Comprachicos are capable of doing to his loved ones. That's why he serves them. For now.
2. Alnuf was a Forager until he fell through a rotted roof and landed in a vat of Drab Jellies being cultivated by a mad artist. His entire left side is permanently a colorless dish-water gray. It seems harmless enough, but he's convinced his peculiar skin condition is what has turned people against him. He works for the Three-Toed Claw every now and then. They don't judge him. Nothing heavy. None of the dirty stuff. He doesn't have the stomach for that sort of thing. He just handles courier jobs, makes deliveries and pay-outs. That sort of thing. That way no one gets hurt by what he does. He really believes that.
3. Gritta is an Eloi who works for those who know how to display the token of a laughing monkey cast in green-brass without drawing undue attention. She doesn't make much of an impression. Even her own family tends to overlook her. Except for the Cheshire Grin that a pimp cut into her face with a broken bottle. They never found his body.
4. Datchmir has worked for the Crook-Tongues for three dozen Winters and more. As a Perdu he has always enjoyed a certain advantage over their usual agents. Until tonight. Some interloper botched a deal three months in the making. An entire shipment was lost, running loose through the Low-Streets even now. And Datchmir needed to reach a surgeon soon. There was Achromic Powder in the bullet he had lodged in his chest.
5. Gleer the Invunche is twisted in more than just their body. He squats fat and toad-like atop his usual stool at the end of the bar in some dismal, unnamed tap room on Plover Lane, sipping Black Liquor and trying to keep the Black Swans from finding out he has been selling their secrets to a group of vigilantes. Little does Gleer realize, he's being used to lead the would-be abolitionists into a trap. It's not the first time, but the Black Liquor makes it hard to keep some things straight.
6. Korzu ran away from the Circus, Bairini's Big Top no less. He was going to be a sailor on an airship. Like he read about in his family's stash of old magazines and other relics from their time on the road as a travelling company. Of course that all ended many years ago. As he found out to his chagrin and dismay one bitterly cold night. He probably would have starved, if the Butcher Boys hadn't gotten to him first. But Granny Trosh took him in and gave him a job. He's been a good boy. Loyal, dedicated, productive. He expects to take over for Granny when she retires. The crew has different ideas. That's why they've paid a pack of Ractur to see that Korzu disappears one of these nights. Preferably by way of a Loathsome Mass or something similar.
7. Doktor Heronimond Wu, late of Breneva, used to work on retainer for some of the Comprachico families that operated out of the capital before the war. It was his great misfortune to have been found out, tried and placed into exile only three days before the city fell. He hates this place. He doesn't like to talk about his life in the old country, but when he gets more than a little drunk he'll show off his right hand--the one that he keeps gloved all the time--and regale an appreciative audience with his tale of how he avoided being crucified, only to be rendered a shadow of his former self, for the most part. What makes it all one big farce, once he gets going, is that he cannot afford a license to practice medicine in Wermspittle. So he has fallen back upon his old connections and sordid acquaintances in a certain disagreeable trade. He reeks of cheap gin and curdled guilt. In the Spring he gently weeps for the children as he sips his armagnac or amontillado.
8. Lurim is studying the soft spells favored by those who hope to get somewhere within the Black Swans. It hasn't been easy. He attends night classes taught by a clique of uppity apprentices trying to earn better wages than they'd get serving as Foragers. The one spell he most wants to learn is Charm, but they never seem to cover that on the nights he can make class.
9. Murzane has a hard time doing as he's told. He and the elders who run his family have butted heads more and more often since he returned from his three years service in the Franzikaner Unterkorps. He suspects that a large part of the friction stems from his being Half-Morlock. His father's family never approved of his mother, nor of him. But he is still family, so the Black Unicorns try to find him things to do, if only to keep him out of mischief. Little do they know that he's seriously considering the offer to join a band of Takers who have far more respect for his skills and abilities than his family ever did. It might even be worth it, just to give his grandparents a shock.
10. Hrumido is a purveyor of damaged goods. He used to be in 'acquisitions,' but no more. He quit. He got religion, kicked the habit (who knew that even a 3% solution could be so difficult to beat?), and got out of that filthy trade his family has been doing for generations. With a small loan from his maternal grandfather an the help of a couple of cousins, he set himself up in business for himself. He has an arrangement with the family. He buys the defectives, the bungled and the botched specimens (at a substantial family discount) and re-sells them to researchers, experimental investigators and the like for whatever the market will bear. He feels good about himself these days.

A Dozen Possible Missions, Jobs and Assigned Tasks

1. Keep tabs on someone, either a Player Character or one of their extended circle of family, friends or acquaintances.
2. Provide a little discrete discouragement to some nosy busy-body. If they don't take the hint, escalate things.
3. Keep possible do-gooders and unwanted witnesses out of a particular alley for (1d4) hours tonight.
4. The contact they were supposed to meet had been drowned within Spectral Brine. They must have fought like hell before getting stuffed in that barrel like that. 
5. Track down a small group of Refugees from Istovia. They are protecting a famous torturer who used to serve the Arch Duke of Malzard. She's supposed to be something of an artist. Those who work under the sign of the Black Swan wish to discuss certain matters of potentially mutual interest with the one they call The Agonatrix.
6. Deliver a Spectral Arquebus to representatives of a Fantomist Cabal. They are supposed to pass the agent a calling card depicting a flaming skull with the word 'Remorse' on the back. Avoid any unnecessary entanglements, especially with vengeful Barrow-Men (see Entry 20).
7. It was supposed to be a simple abduction. No one told them that these kids were definitely Not Alright. Now these Feral Children are hunting after them.
8. Some loud-mouthed Illigom has taken-up residence near the overgrown section of the Aerodrome. Their Companion is some sort of would-be hero who has crossed the family know by the sign of the Three-Toed-Claw one too many times. Spreading a few false leads and planting some incriminating evidence ought to get these meddlers into plenty of trouble, well away from the family's business interests.
9. A sack of 2,000 black disks must be handed-off to a one-eyed Ourang at Midnight in the third booth on the right at Sibillent Sue's Sustainery for services rendered. Do not go upstairs to the Succulatrium no matter what. That is all they know.
10. Follow and report back on the movements of an otherwise nondescript recent arrival.
11. Pay the bar-tab and gambling debts for a burned-out Dowser who the Red Spade family wants to keep out of commission.
12. Place an order for another 600 pounds of Hard Candy with one of the local Candymen. It's a rush order. Replacement for a lot shipment.