The Friday team went bigger – they actually blew up the Lampblack’s lair. In their first session.

The Friday team went bigger – they actually blew up the Lampblack’s lair. In their first session.

Maelstrom is a daring crew of Cult who worships the Malum, deity of war, conquest and storm. In order to please their deity, the crew seeks to brew conflicts – within any group, or between groups. Crew consists of a Tycherosi lizard-headed Whisper(de facto leader), a Unity-war-veteran Hound, a Spider and a Slide.

Using the War on the Crows’ Foot as the starting condition, I decided to have Red Sashes hire them instead of Lampblacks – Wednesday and Friday team shared the same city, and I didn’t want to let Lampblacks win an easy victory.

Friday team had one more player(4) and they were marginally more willing to pull off crazy things. So that was my mistake.

I offered them the artifact score. As expected, they took interest in what this artifact actually does. What was unexpected, however, was that they decided to keep it(as up-front payment) and offered to blow up the Lampblack’s lair instead of planting the artifact there. Spider’s Sway(with assist) made 4/5, so I went with that, but Mylera will regard them with suspecions. What are they up to with an artifact with yet-to-be-known-dut-definately-not-beneficial functions?

Targets and objective set, now it was time for me to ask “What is the plan?”. And that was when the conversation went out of my hand. Planning lasted good 30 minutes, if not an hour, just to decide on WHAT ACTUALLY SHOULD THEY DO. Plant a bomb? How and where? How do we ensure the important Lampblack personnel are in there when it goes off?

I suggested two-stage score – they would sneak in and plant explosives in the lair in the score #1, have a meeting with the Lampblacks there and, ensuring everyone Needs To Be Dead are in, escape and Boom. They decided on that.

Score #1 would be sneaking into the lair and planting bombs, ready to be touched off. Slealth plan, point of entry was sewer. I told them nobody with sanity would suspect sewer because whatever lurking in it. Engagement roll: 1-3. Welp.

They confronted with a ghost who, after short conversation and threat of Whisper, turned out to be working for Lampblacks as sentry(he was bound to one of their whispers). And he gladly set the alarm off! Guards came close, the crew decided to throw the explosive prepared for the job(since the crew tier was 0, and flashback Acquire Asset rolls made 4/5, so it was more or less pathetic firecracker powder) at the guards, shot their gas lamp to ignite the bomb, and Whisper hurled some ghost at them for good measure. Guard down, but more was coming. The crew decided to step back and run like hell.

We decided that, it was the phase 1 of a bigger plan.

I told them “Of course you tested these explosives you acquired. You knew it was pathetic firecracker. You didn’t even meant to blow the building up with that – now, where is the real bomb?”. They said they acquired their bomb from the Red Sashes when they accepted the job. I told them a mad alchemist of theirs recently invented a new formula, got too excited over it, and created too much of them – enough to blow *their* lair up. It was volatile alchemical and they handed it to them gladly, as it was too dangerous to either keep or dump somewhere.

So, they borrowed a carrige from one of their friends – a tavern owner – and loaded these alchemical in oak barrels.

Their pursuer emerged from sewer entrance behind them, “commandeered” nearby civillian carrige and started following the crew. Hound took care of them with two well-placed shot – one at the driver and another right at the wheel axis. The carrige swerved, spinned and went out of control, disintegrating under violent impact.

Gunfight on the road drew attention, and a Bluecoat riding a hull(I said they had 2 in disposal, this was one of them) came in, demanding they stop immediately and submit to an inspection. The crew insisted they are civilians and the gunfire was self-defense from a gang of criminals, and they were running late for a transport contract and therefore have no time to stop. That didn’t work.

That was when the Whisper summoned a HORDE of ghost chasing behind them. The bluecoat panicked, made full speed and ran away.

The carrige went straight into the lair building of Lampblack, crashing into the front window before its cargo went off. The crew jumped off the carrige before it burst through the gangs’ defense line, and everyone was too surprised to give a chase.

Soooo, they pulled it off. Somehow. I told them they got paid but two goats, a carrige and a load of low-grade explosive enough to demolish a building(only if carefully and professionally applied) cost a ton, so it was not very profitable. On the other hand, they tried made it look like it was Grinders who did the sabotage, and blowing up someone’s lair is painting a HUGE target on their back, so I let them for now – but there is a 4-clock “Lampblacks find out the truth” ticking – Like I said, their Whisper got a freaking lizard head, and they are not getting away with *that*.