My unnamed cult crew strikes again!

My unnamed cult crew strikes again!

My unnamed cult crew strikes again! They’ve gone so long without a name, that they’ve decided this is unintentional. They’re playing the insidious followers of the god of all Leviathan’s, they’re tier 0 and no one really knows what they’re about.

This game began with downtime for once, which means that instead of rushing through it so people can go home, we actually let it breathe. There were a few actual scenes, and I dropped a couple rumors on them. It was actually really nice, I think I should always do downtime first.

The Leech searches for his brother’s killer and finds out he was seen talking to some members of the Billhooks gang for several hours the night before his death. He also hears that the Kellis Family burned down a drug den owned by the Lampblacks (he knows this is because their crew framed the Lampblacks for stealing equipment from a Levithan blood refinery run by the Kellis Family).

While indulging in her vice, this whisper hears that a person going by the name of Hollow Heart attacked a Red Sash gambling establishment but was repelled. This is the second time they’ve heard this named mentioned. He represents the cult of a forgotten god that the whisper unknowingly let into Duskvol (two missions back) and is currently infecting the whisper as well.

Neither my players nor I had a mission planned, but together we decided that even though Bazso forbade it, a certain faction within the Lampblacks is out for revenge (Baszo isn’t stupid, the Kellis Family is at least Tier IV). Their plan is to wreck a museum of priceless art, The Archibald Kellis Museum of Art and Creatatorium, created by the Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather of Rosalynd Kellis. Hearing of this plan, the crew decided to hit the museum a few hours earlier and steal some priceless jewels on display and shift the blame to the Lampblacks. Here are the highlights.

– The Lurk discovered via flashback that the water level has raised a full story since the museum was built, and the whole first level is underwater and sealed off. They plan on using this as the entrance for their infiltration plan.

– Their engagement roll is not great, and they end up in front of a heavy sealed door, running low on oxygen and being attacked by a Devilfish (baby leviathan basically, think little makers in Dune).

– After some fighting the Leech gets a 4 on a desperate roll to shoot a vial of ghost oil down the Devilfish’s gullet. This does indeed cause the devilfish to die and allow them to break through the door to the dry second floor. Unfortunately no sooner had they caught their breath than an angry ghostly devil fish rises through the floor to attack them yet again.

– The Whisper uses her new ability Compel, and calls on the power of the forgotten god shard inside of her (another tick on that clock A Debt is Collected), and rolls a crit. Using the power of this god always gives special results, so she’s now the proud owner of a ghost devilfish pet.

– They get through a number of devious traps, the whisper got her hand cut off, another member of the crew is infected by the forgotten God and they get out with the jewels.

After the score their crew leveled up and they decided to use their two upgrades to make Artie the Ghost Devilfish a permanent cohort with the loyal and savage descriptors. Those jewels were worth 8 coin, but there wasn’t much for heat or rep since everything was blamed on the Lampblacks (again). I suspect they aren’t long for this world.

Player Handouts: City Districts

Player Handouts: City Districts

Player Handouts: City Districts

Here’s an example of how I’m adapting content in the book into handouts that are usable at the game table.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Y3ZE1Ar-fDTzFFTTVtckxyYUk/view?usp=sharing

Question: Is it more useful to have the descriptive stuff from the book on these pages, or would you prefer to have more blank space to write your own notes?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Y3ZE1Ar-fDTzFFTTVtckxyYUk/view?usp=sharing

Oh My Gosh, then seconded to my last art post, I stumble across Keith Thompson’s Wonderful Leviathan Series!

Oh My Gosh, then seconded to my last art post, I stumble across Keith Thompson’s Wonderful Leviathan Series!

Oh My Gosh, then seconded to my last art post, I stumble across Keith Thompson’s Wonderful Leviathan Series!

Incredible!

http://img03.deviantart.net/487d/i/2012/328/0/0/navies_by_keithwormwood-d5m0nq5.jpg

As I continue to re-read David Cornish’s excellent Monster Blood Tattoo series, his AMAZING illustrations are…

As I continue to re-read David Cornish’s excellent Monster Blood Tattoo series, his AMAZING illustrations are…

As I continue to re-read David Cornish’s excellent Monster Blood Tattoo series, his AMAZING illustrations are colouring my worldview of Doskvol, the same way as Dishonoured had previous. Its a wonderful amalgamation.

For today’s inspiration, I share with you David’s vision for the ships of his Half-Continent – which I now cannot ‘un see’ as the Leviathan Hunters of Akarosi.

“Taking a clumsily hidden tot of hard waters from his coatflask,

Captain Wantastiquire Lacking looked back over the rocking heads

of his rowing crew to the awkward lines of his vessel. To the landed

eye she would have seemed a large and impressive vessel; undeed,

she was classed on the lists as an iron-dought, a proper line-of-battle

ram. Yet any knowledgable eye could see that the NB Coryphaeus

was a little too short along the gundeck for a true iron-dought, and

too long on her pinch deck – her truncated upper deck. She was in

truth what was rather disparagingly referred to as a mule-ram: a

ram of uncertain class and therefore of uncertain role, and she was

a rather age-ed mule-ram at that.”

http://img08.deviantart.net/bcdd/i/2015/148/7/c/vm_coryphaeus___iron_dought_ram_of__brandenbrass_by_fouracres-d8v5tb5.jpg

Blades in the Dark – So it begins http://www.giantbrain.co.uk/2016/06/blades-in-dark-so-it-begins.html

Blades in the Dark – So it begins http://www.giantbrain.co.uk/2016/06/blades-in-dark-so-it-begins.html

Blades in the Dark – So it begins http://www.giantbrain.co.uk/2016/06/blades-in-dark-so-it-begins.html

http://www.giantbrain.co.uk/2016/06/blades-in-dark-so-it-begins.html

Played my first session the other night and it was great fun.

Played my first session the other night and it was great fun.

Played my first session the other night and it was great fun. I have a question about the Hound though. His spirit animal can take three abilities but there is no reference for what those abilities do that I can find. John Harper we are just interpreting these as we like at the moment but what’s the official word?

HEEST COMPLETE!

HEEST COMPLETE!

HEEST COMPLETE!

Last night the three Dead Setters who showed up to play (Teatime the Whisper, Richter the Spider, and Deemo the Leech) discovered several things:

1. Being at war kind of sucks when you have downtime plans. Teatime had to indulge his vice because he’s the founding member of Trauma Club (“You’re not supposed to talk about Trauma Club!”), which meant he had to spend coin to reduce Heat (they were 8/9) that would have otherwise gone into his stash, or been used to advance his own plans. Deemo and Richter were similarly stifled. They did spend money to reduce Heat down to 3, and they considered a plan that wouldn’t involve murdering people this time.

2. Slippery (the Thieves ability) is pretty sweet. Also, claims can be easy come, easy go – the Red Sashes made a play against the gambling den the Setters claimed last session, and rather than start another war with a Tier II gang, they just let the Sashes have the den. This was better than 1) a war, and 2) the Arrest entanglement that was on the table as well.

3. Richter was a former Inspector. He was sold out by his partner/apprentice, Jennah, in his backstory. Turns out although Richter was taking money from the Hive, Jennah had been bought by the Unseen. Richter doesn’t have proof, though, although he recently completed a LTP while he was in prison so that if he does get Jennah on the hook for something that lands her in jail, her life becomes his to toy with.

To that end, and to possibly put an end to their war, the gang decides to bait a hook for the remaining Crows and let the Inspectors in on it. Pull an Enemy of the State ending.

4. I discover that when it comes to these social/deception scores, it’s pretty hard to figure out when to go to the engagement roll because so much of the plan making sense hinges on the fake story you want to sell. So the guys are working through what they want the Crows to believe, and we’re all making this shit up as we go because I had no preconceived notions about Jennah working for the Unseen or anything like that before the game started.

Anyways, the “score” (if you could call it that) comes down to Richter trying to plant rumors of a big score in the Strangford mausoleum* and failing forward all the way from Controlled to Desperate as some Crows take his disguised ass out of a bar and try to intimidate (and then torture) the truth out of him. He finally convinces them he’s the groundskeeper there and there really are valuables underneath. Meanwhile, he’s already tipped off the Inspectors that the Crows are seeking to rob a prominent member of society. This was mostly all done in flashback too.

5. When the score feels shaky, just roll on the friggin’ demon table. There certainly was something in the Strangford crypts – Ahazu, the Heart’s Desire. The Crows accidentally release a demon, a collection of mirror-silvery orbs that appear to be made entirely of cutting edges. The thing(s) cut into and then envelop some of the Crows, like when Neo takes the pill in the Matrix and quicksilver runs over his body. These attempt to pull the other Crows into loving embraces, but because whatever these things are cut whatever they touch, just end up with ribbons of meat and severed bones. The Inspectors arrive at the carnage and the few surviving Crows are more than happy to be arrested at this point. The Inspectors pull out, Teatime avoids the demon’s notice thanks to his demonbane charm and hella good resolve resistance, and Richter hides in a sarcophagus.

Ahazu’s many forms walk slowly out into Duskwall unopposed.

Did Lord Strangford even know this thing was down there? Was it how he came to power? What did it promise him? Did he somehow get the upper hand and trap it?

This was a shaky session heist-wise (the “score” was tricking Inspectors into arresting Crows for something they didn’t do, but since they ended up consorting with demons it worked out really well *), but plot-wise it was really nice to start some threads involving larger factions (Leviathan Hunters, Inspectors, the Unseen) and getting into demon stuff. Our game has felt increasingly tied into the Tier II criminal gangs as of late, and branching out felt good.

#heestcomplete

* Why would anyone have a mausoleum in Duskwall? They burn the bodies! Well, we decided that the rich and powerful have skeletons crafted (sometimes from precious materials) just so they can display their family heritage in crypts.

* For relative values of “really well”.

Oh Ho!

Oh Ho!

Oh Ho! Can I just say that being very loose with the idea of ‘Traits’ (quantifiable values to be rolled as a dice pool) in the game can be AWESOME?!

Drive the Hound / High Priest / Ghost Killer / Scion, who is traumatised to the max as Vicious, Haunted and Obsessed…. So rather than his Sway, he rolled his ‘trauma trait’ of three dice on a desperate roll as a means to prove his worth (his Reputation of suffering) to lead the Silver Nails and have them follow him deep into the Akarosi Mountain wilds after the fabled Leviathan Temple – the source of all souls.

He got my favourite result – a mixed on a desperate. Which gave him slight harm (which he didn’t resist) of ‘flensed chest’ as a ritual flagellation, and the serious complication that if he resisted any more ‘supernatural’ consequences and gained his fourth and final trauma, the leviathan zeitgeist present at the subterranean temple would devour his soul and he would return born again under the harbour in Doskvol into the membraneous sacs of Setarra’s clutch.

https://pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/leviathan.jpg

My crew “The Gambit” will be going live at 6:30pm PST on twitch.tv/friendlyfiretv.

My crew “The Gambit” will be going live at 6:30pm PST on twitch.tv/friendlyfiretv.

My crew “The Gambit” will be going live at 6:30pm PST on twitch.tv/friendlyfiretv. We would love for anyone interested to come join us. Tonight we see the results of the Doom Egg plant job.