The Strangers Cometh: Episode 01 – A Rude Introduction
GM: Justin
Smiles The Cutter: Pierce Jones
Vex The Leech: Kitten
Xia The Slide: Alex
Tom the Hound: Rick
Gnarls the Spider: Andrew
The session starts with the Strangers being crowded into Baszo Baz’s office within the headquarters of the Lampblacks, having been forced in by their “recruiters” who were looking for those that’d be willing to join the fight against the Red Sashes. Instead of taking Baszo’s offer, the group immediately flashes back to a meeting with Mylera Klev. A careful negotiation is done, signing up the Strangers with the Red Sashes and making a fat stack of coin for striking a blow against the Lampblacks when they weren’t expecting it.
The action refocuses on the crew after a bit of information gathering, Smiles and Gnarls in Baz’s office under the pretense of negotiating, Xia and Vex having disguised themselves as another Lampblack and a worker, respectively, and Tom settled up in the rafters after sneaking in with his sights located on the man in charge.
The plan starts off in a Desperate situation and the Baszo has a gun on the distraction and is demanding their compliance in siding with them. Not wanting to be caught in a lie, Smiles decides to distract him with a gift and an offering. Another flashback occurs with Smiles talking to Mylera, speaking about how willing she was to get the job done. If she’d be willing to sacrifice those who are weak to seal the deal. With her agreement (and 3 stress), a Red Sash that had fucked up one too many times was brought in by the Stranger’s heavy hitters known as Wicker and Hook. With a bottle of fine whiskey offered, Smiles and Gnarls were able to diffuse Bazso’s hostility and keep the “negotiations” going. Offered a chance to try and impress the Lampblack’s leader, he offered Smiles the chance to kill the Red Sash prisoner. With a brutally wide grin, Smiles moved to the poor man and pinned him down to the ground with knives. Pulling out a metal rod with a series of shark teeth bound to the metal, he began to carve the man up like a piece of cattle both to impress and intimidate those in the room. Gnarls used his leader’s brutality to worm out additional information from Baszo, learning about another warehouse where they had jumped a group of Bluecoats in order to try and gain access to better weaponry.
Downstairs, Vex and Xia snuck in disguises through the warehouse, looking for a perfect place to strike. A supply of dynamite and chemicals that were used in the creation of Spark were a perfect location for the fire bombs to set the coal residues and dust aflame and burn the HQ down to the ground. A series of amazingly good rolls allowed the two to set up quickly and easily without being spotted. Tom’s pet, an exotic and strange bird, kept an eye out for a boat that they had learned would be arriving with a shipment of drugs to process and then ship out to their dens. The small but brutal kid has learned this after finding a docker taking a piss and then put a gun against his ass and threatened his life. The docker spilled everything he knew and was rewarded with a slit throat and a deep sleep in the canals.
With their getaway vehicle in sight, the group quickly moved into action. Smiles sealed the “deal of cooperation” with Bazso and tugged hard on his arm, helping line up a perfect headshot for their assassin waiting in the riggings and girders of the ceiling. Gnarls, given a smoke bomb, dropped it and let the smoke fill the room as Tom took his shot. An Extreme effect, controlled Hunt roll was instead dropped to Great effect as a Five was rolled. Bazso Baz took a grazing shot to the head and went down, letting Gnarls escape with their thugs in tow. The mutilated corpse was left behind by the door as an obstruction as Vex and Xia made their way out to the boat. Tom snuck back out the window, using the distraction and confusion that Xia left when she pointed out where she heard the shots from to escape to safety.
Xia and Vex make their way out to the boat with panicked Lampblacks upon it, trying to convince them that help is needed inside. When she wasn’t able to convince the first guard to go in, she quietly and quickly pulled a knife and slit the man’s throat before dropping him into the water. The next one took a face full of drown powder and began to panic, pulling the others closer. It was a shame when the fire bomb hit them then, setting them all ablaze just as the rest of the Strangers came out. With a righteously thrown grenade, the fire bombs hidden in the Lampblack HQ went up in flames and the building burned mightily and wickedly. Tom waited nearby to watch what happened and try to finish off Bazso but neither he nor his second in command left the building even as it burned to the ground. Of course, it burned thanks to a nice bribe to the crew’s friends in the Brigadiers to make sure they were preoccupied elsewhere.
The Strangers made their escape, getting paid 10 coin for the sabotage job and an additional 2 coin for selling off the drugs that were on the boat to the Red Sashes’ hawkers. The boat was sent in for a squibbing, hopefully to be remade for the crew’s use another time. After gaining 4 reputation, the Strangers immediately accrued one Wanted level and one extra heat. Downtime activities went by quickly, since it was already 1am at the time. Few members had high stress and there was no harm to speak of thanks to armor and very good rolls for resistances. We rolled our Entanglement and ended up with Cooperation; it appears our newly cemented allies will need our help. Fortunately, we earned enough Crew XP to purchase War Dogs as the Strangers immediately go to war with the Lampblacks for their betrayal. What favor will need to be done next session? What is the beef between Xia and Baszo Baz? Will Gnarls ever stop accidently yelling at the worst moments? Find out next time on…
The Strangers Cometh.
It was my friend’s very first session GMing and I am a proud GM as he did excellent. It has been a lot of fun actually playing the game and I’ve been doing my best to showcase to the players that it is a game about meta and storytelling, to get more involved with the storytelling process. I told Justin that until he join the Google Group here, I’ll forward any questions he may have. Over all though, it was very smooth and very fun. Flashbacks are as amazing as I wanted them to be and I hope my fellow players come to realize how much of a “superpower” they are.