Blades in the Dark: Cats and Clowns

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Juris studies and weaponizes the powdered fire, and is also visited by his ghost friend (and Rose's frenemy) Nyryx who is possessing the body of a teenage girl named Jennifer (who looks like Jennifer Connely in Labyrinth). Juris had only intended to save Jennifer who stumbled into the Weeping Lady charity after she had been brutalized by the gang war (by putting Nyryx into her to aid her weakened spirit) but doesn't really condone Nyryx now using that body for prostitution. Regardless, she brings news from the nearby Silkshore district where bodies have been turning up in canals and a bunch of clowns are gearing up to attack the Crows - one of the local gangs - over a love triangle situation. She also tries to poison Rose unsuccessfully before laughing it off and leaving.

Rose and Juris decide to warn the Crows about this at the orphanage they run (to train and recruit more gang members) and are invited to prove their worth by joining the ambush they're going to set for the clowns at the bridge. Juris and DL decide to first go to Silkshore to investigate the dead bodies though and learn from a local Gondoliers that the bodies were "hollowed" out (spirit removed) before death, and that all of these look like they fell from a great height.

With that information they investigate Fogcrest, the tallest point in the district which uses tight staircases to double as roads through its bohemian colony of eternally drugged artists and theologists. When the row houses begin to empty as they reach the higher parts, they encounter a talking cat whom Juris immediately plays with and identifies as a demon. The cat admits to having its servant at the top of the hill performing a ritual for it, and then (the cat) disposing of the bodies by throwing them. As they notice a mass of people heading for the bridge they bid farewell to the friendly demon cat and rush to get to the ambush - but arrive late!

Meanwhile mom, Rose and the other Crow sharpshooters get the drop on the militant clowns and despite being outnumbered do quite well in pinning the advancing group while only losing half their own number. When the boys finally arrive in a flanking position Juris uses powdered fire to set a good number of clowns on (powdered) fire while DL closes the distance and cuts down the remainder with his blade. They then run off before the bronze masked Spirit Wardens show up to deal with the dead, but by using the powdered fire here, Bazso has worked out who betrayed him. They find Remira's burnt corpse strung up in front of the charity the following day (and Juris confirms by talking to her ghost that it was the Lampblacks).