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.
Oh! I forgot one of the best parts. During downtime the Cutter was working on a Long Term Project and got help from his friend Mercy, the cold killer. The Lurk tagged along just for funsies because there was going to be violence and he’s a murderous psychopath. Anyway, Mercy and the Lurk really hit it off, and now the Lurk is talking about a Long Term Project to go steady with Mercy.
That I know of, he’s never watched John’s game and I haven’t mentioned Canter’s obsession with marriage, but my game now has it’s own budding ,and completely psychotic, romance.
how’d the hand-cutting go down? Is she going to take this opportunity to replace it with a weapon, as is her right? 🙂
There was a ghost field lock on the door to the room containing the jewels, and the Whisper attempted to attune to it. The lock was a black box about the size of a hand with an opening to blackness inside. She failed her roll and I briefly took over her character and said that it reminded her of a similar lock she had on a box in her room. It simply read a hands deformation of the ghost field and was attuned to a specific signature, basically a haunted ghost steampunk hand-print scanner. Hubris convinced the character she could spoof it and she stuck her hand inside. She figured wrong. I offhandedly (pun!) mentioned that if this had been a desperate roll I’d probably cut her hand off. The player said that sounded really cool, so we decided the box cut her hand off.
I honestly have no idea what she plans to do now, but she kept the hand.
Inviting worse permanent outcomes. Now that’s a player with the right spirit.
Of all the players she has the least RPG experience (zero until now), but is consistently the most fun. I assume it’s because she’s an author. She reaps the reward of having the coolest story moments, so hopefully other players follow suit.
<3
Great stuff!