Vanishers

Vanishers
Type	Criminals
World of Origin	Scadrial
Universe	Cosmere

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The Vanishers are a criminal gang on Scadrial.

They are employed by the Set to steal shipments of goods insured by House Tekiel and to kidnap women with Allomantic heritage.

They are lead by Miles Dagouter. Tarson is the most trusted member, although he isn't anyone's boss, preferring to hit things.

They carry out seemingly impossible train robberies, stealing cargo and kidnapping women. They also rob a couple of high society gatherings, taking valuables and hostages.

Methods

The Vanishers would first stop the target train by obstructing its tracks. This would always occur at a position where the rail line came close to the canal it was built next to. Earlier robberies would accomplish this with a fallen tree, later they would employ a ghostly train coming the opposite direction. That particular illusion relied on a hand-powered train carriage with a wooden train engine facade and a powerful light attached. This light may have been battery powered. Mists would help obscure the fake engine to aid the illusion. Once the train is stopped, they wold use a barge-mounted crane in the neighboring canal to swap the target car for an empty replica. In this way, they are able to steal the cargo without leaving forced locks or dead guards on the train once it arrived at its destination.

When they rob high society gatherings, they do so methodically, even making people speak to check for jewelry hidden inside of their mouth. Tarson and Miles give instructions. They attempt to conduct the robbery without provoking violence, but they take a woman captive and threaten to kill her if any follow. They attempt to make it seem as if they pick their target(s) at random, while in truth they are taking a specific captive as directed by the Set. It is likely they carry out the passenger car robberies in similar fashion.

The Vanishers, except for Miles, do not mask their faces. They wear loose buttoned shirts, slacks, and vests. Wax describes them as not particularly well dressed. They use a mix of rifles and pistols, including aluminum ones with matching aluminum bullets.

History

Early Robberies

They began train robberies on the 14th of Vinuarch 341 PC (early summer). They first stole a shipment of aluminum from House Tekiel before going to ground for four months, presumably to smelt the aluminum into bullets and guns. Afterwards, they robbed six more trains, including two from House Ladrian and four more from House Tekiel. The first and second shipments stolen after resurfacing were steel. Next they stole food, followed by more metals, including pewter, iron, zinc, brass, bendalloy, and tin. The first three after coming back were only cargo robberies, but they quickly progressed to also robbing a passenger car for valuables and some of their Allomancy-blooded targets. They took two captives on their seventh overall train robbery. However, as the high-class Allomancy-blooded targets the Set laid out for them stopped riding trains due to safety concerns, they were forced to rob the Coolerim Playhouse to get their next target, Armal Harms.

Yomen-Ostlin Wedding Dinner

The next target was the Yomen-Ostlin wedding dinner, with Steris and Marasi to be taken as the Allomancy-blooded captives. The Vanishers burst into the room as the meal was underway and systematically robbed each person of their valuable belongings. Afterwards, they loudly took the two predetermined captives. Lord Peterus, a retired constable, was vocal about his distaste for their actions, and Miles shot him. Shooting Lord Peterus provoked Wax and Wayne to intervene. In the firefight that followed, Wax and Wayne rescued Marasi, killed 25 bandits, and temporarily incapacitated six others. Those six were later captured by the constables. Wax shot both Tarson and Miles but neither suffered significant damage from it and both escaped. No civilians died, although some suffered as badly as broken bones. The few remaining Vanishers got away with Steris.

Recovering

The six bandits captured by the constables were kept at the Fourth Octant's constabulary precinct offices. The constables failed to get any useful information out of them, but Wayne (disguised as a constable) was more successful. After learning important information from Sindren, Wayne told him to tell the cops everything he knew at nightfall.

Once the Vanishers had some of their number taken captive they quickly evacuated their previous base of operations, a foundry in Longard. They set a few explosive traps as they left in the hopes of catching Wax and Wayne in them, which Clamps assured Miles were foolproof, but the pair of lawmen easily disarmed them all. They took all of the forging equipment with them to their new underground base of operations, leavng behind only the explosives, some furniture, an empty box of cigars, and some nudes.

As the remaining thirty-odd gang members unloaded their aluminum and forging equipment to the new hideout, Miles met with Suit, the operations' backer. Suit was disappointed that Miles provoked Wax by shooting Peterus. Suit unveiled plans to rob Tekiel's new Breaknaught train car, and Miles promised to kill Wax. Miles attempted to kill Wax as he was riding a train back to Elendel from the site of one of the earlier Vanisher robberies, but failed.

After this failure, Miles once again met with Suit. Suit revealed that the robbery of the Breaknaught was to be the last before the Vanishers went to ground for six months for recruitment. He directed Miles to kill Wax during the robbery, as both men expected Wax to interfere. Steris was to be kept at the new base as bait, while the other captives were presumably moved elsewhere by the Set. Suit assigned Push and Pull, two Set Allomancers, to Miles to ensure he carried out the operation successfully. Half the aluminum from the Tekiel robbery was to be taken by the Set to fund their own operations, with the rest being kept by the Vanishers. After this conversation, Suit left the city. Preparations for the Breaknaught robbery continued.

Robbing the Breaknaught

The Vanishers used their now-standard ghostly train illusion to stop the train hauling the Breaknaught. This time, however, Tekiel guards jumped out to inspect the phantom railcar. The false front was dropped and the Vanishers used a rotary gun to kill the guards. They then used their barge-mounted crane to swap the Breaknaught with the Set's replica. Additional guards and engineers were killed with handguns. The barge, now carrying the real Breaknaught with Wax and the aluminum cargo inside, headed back to the Vanishers' base near the Ironspine Building. They unload using the Ironspine's crane and descend into the underground portion of their hideout. Miles is expecting Wax to be inside the train car, and he is. However, he does not expect that Wax has rigged the door with explosives, and this allows enough of a distraction for Wax to get out of the car and begin taking down the Vanishers a few at a time.

Wayne and Marasi arrive by horse not long after. During the course of the fight, the three manage to take out every Vanisher except Miles, free the captured gunsmith Nouxil, and send Steris to get the constables. Marasi uses her powers as a Pulser to trap Miles in a speed bubble, giving the constables time to arrive and accost Miles.

Aftermath

Wax is debriefed by the constables. They decide not to charge Wayne for impersonating an officer and furthermore to give Wax citywide deputized forbearance, due to how useful he was in the Vanishers case. This forbearance request was backdated so that it would appear to have covered Wax's actions during the case.

Miles was prosecuted by Daius and Marasi and sentenced to death. His metalminds were forcibly removed from him and he was killed by a firing squad.

Wax found Suit, who is his uncle Edwarn. Edwarn revealed that the stolen goods were only temporarily stolen to defraud House Tekiel so that the Set could purchase shares in them. He intends to return the goods once the operation is complete. The Set still has several of the captives they intended to take, and they do not intend to return them.

Wax and his team received a monetary reward for their work on the Vanishers case.

Media Coverage

The Vanishers are extensively covered in Elendel's broadsheets, and Miles considers the resulting publicity essential to ensuring the incompetence of the constabulary, as well as serving his cause. Some sheets speculate that the phantom railcar used by the Vanishers was truly supernatural in origin. Some put forward theories on the method of robbery involving Sliders or Brutes. Many papers interview eyewitnesses and experts, however, they still lack solid information.

Augustin Tekiel wrote a letter about the first robbery to a broadsheet that ran with the headline "Constables Incompetent, Tekiel Slams". This letter was written three months after the first robbery, presumably to avoid drawing attention to their aluminum that was being smuggled as wool. Later, the Elendel Daily ran an article praising Tekiel's new Breaknaught cargo car.

Known Members

For less information, see Category:Vanishers.

• Miles Dagouter (leader)
• Tarson (second in command)
• Clamps (recruitment officer)
• Push (Set agent working with the Vanishers)
• Pull (Set agent working with the Vanishers)
• Sindren (new agent)

Notes

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