The Porcelain Dolls: Session 29 (August 10 2016)

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 29 (August 10 2016)

The Hot Sot Blot & Jot (or, The Lampblack Damp Whack):

Constance lays out the plan to take down Baszo. Prichard will orchestrate a celebration for Aleira’s safe return, and the Dolls will be invited. Once Baszo gets good and sloshed, Prichard and Constance will agree to walk him home, and all they have to do is get him in a secluded spot, and that’s that. Prichard is adamant that Aleria never know the truth about what happens to her father.

The crew gets a 6 on the Engagement roll, so everything starts off exactly as planned. The crew gets to the Bucket to find that Prichard is already there, making preparations. He’s even hired a band. Before long, everyone filters in. It becomes apparent to the crew that, apart from Prichard and Baszo himself, the Lampblacks are down to the 5 men that Prichard brought with him to assault the Billhooks (mechanically, they are down to Tier 1, if not Tier 0). The guests of honor arrive. Baszo gets up on a table to make a speech about loyalty and friendship, and assures his men that they will soon once again be on top. “It’s all part of His Design,” he says. Constance manages to suppress a reaction.

The party goes on for a couple of hours, and Baszo gets very drunk. Once he’s about to fall off his bar stool, Prichard gives Constance the signal, and they make a show of offering to walk him home. Baszo protests, insisting he’s not done drinking, and Gears gives Baszo his flask, “for the road.” Gears stays behind to keep an eye on the rest of the Lampblacks and Aleira, who is sitting in the corner with a mug of wine, which she apparently doesn’t like very much. She’s still a bit shell-shocked after the events of the past few days.

Constance and Prichard have their hands full keeping Baszo on task, they frequently have to stop and bodily steer him in the right direction. Along the way Baszo begins singing an old sea shanty, loudly and off-key, and Constance joins in. Kamali scouts out about a block ahead to ensure the route is clear, Boots brings up the rear, trailing along about a block behind.

Kamali encounters a quartet of rich debutantes, two men and two women, doing some celebrating of their own, and taking up space along the street where Constance is leading Baszo. She makes a show of stealing one woman’s purse and taking off, to get them to chase her. They do so, and once she gets about a block away she drops the purse. This is enough to satisfy three of them, but the leader continues to pursue her, as he’s got a case of beer balls and is intent on detaining her for the Bluecoats. Kamali rounds the corner and breaks line of sight, climbing up a drainpipe, and when the guy comes around after her, he very nearly runs right past her. When he sees that she’s disappeared, he starts rattling doorknobs to try and see where she went. Kamali slips back down to street-level to try and come up behind him, but makes more noise than she expected. He wheels around, intent on grabbing and restraining her.

Boots comes up on the two of them, and calls out “Is everything alright?” When the man brushes him off, Boots sics Valter on him. The dog pins him to the ground and threatens to tear him to shreds, and Kamali gets away. Once Boots tells Valter to stand down, the man gets up and berates Boots for letting the thief get away. Boots berates him right back for not being clear about what was going on. The man strides off in a huff, muttering about bringing up the matter with his councilman.

Meanwhile, Constance and Prichard maneuver Baszo into place in the darkened underpass of the large bridge that connects Crow’s Foot to Silkshore. He realizes where he is, and makes an offhand comment about using the place to dispose of a rival once upon a time. Constance tells him that his time is at an end. He initially believes that Prichard will be on his side in a conflict, but it soon dawns on him that he has been betrayed. He sobers up a little, and (as he assumes that Constance sold him out to the Sashes) there’s some pontificating about what Mylera did to his wife, her own sister. Constance tells him that he makes a good husband, but a poor chief. Baszo goes for his gun, but Constance is quicker on the draw. She had asked Gears to rig up a makeshift suppressor out of a soup can and some cloth. This allows Constance to fire a shot without alerting the guards on the bridge above. The shot is perfect, catching Baszo right in the center of his forehead. He keels backward and topples into the canal behind him. Prichard acknowledges that while he is sorry to see his friend go and feels guilty for his part in the betrayal, there’s really no other way it could have gone. He takes off on his own. Kamali and Boots catch up with Constance just as the crematorium’s bell tolls.

They head back to the Bucket, where one of Prichard’s men takes Aleira home. Constance informs the remaining Lampblacks that Baszo is gone. Further elaboration on her part is unnecessary.

When Constance visits Lyssa to inform her that Baszo is dead, she finds that the Crows have been recruiting (there at least a dozen new faces she doesn’t recognize), in preparation for some kind of push outward. Everyone’s moving on up.

The Dolls earn a crew upgrade, which they spend on a Cohort. The remnants of the Lampblacks are now a gang of thugs, under the command of Prichard (who in turn answers to Constance). In recognition of their heritage, the design of their porcelain masks will incorporate soot marks on the cheeks.

The next day Gears receives a note from Bellino informing him that the Lost made their money selling surplus Imperial Army gear after the Skovlan Uprising. The crew is having lunch at the Bucket when there’s a resounding crash from down the street. They emerge to see a giant cloud of dust down the block, and once it clears, there’s a crane with a wrecking ball. The construction projects in the Drop have begun in earnest.

That evening, Keel and Drav, two of the Bluecoats that were present for Constance’s impromptu fight club in the street in front of the Temple (way back in Session 1), show up at the Bucket to talk to Constance. They are not in uniform, and it turns out that they were in fact drummed out of the service, following the investigation into the death of Sgt. Galloway. Their associate Avan turned on them and got them thrown out, while he got a promotion and a fat raise. They ask to join up with Constance.

Notes:

The Lampblacks are no more, and the Sashes are soon to follow. I decided I needed to start bringing back in all the various plot threads I’d cast out there over the past few months. This was definitely a turning point for all involved.

#dontmesswiththedolls