One of the Leech’s contacts includes “Jul the Blood dealer” and I’m having trouble imagining what exactly that means other then sounding cool. Does anyone have any cool interpretations of this text?
One of the Leech’s contacts includes “Jul the Blood dealer” and I’m having trouble imagining what exactly that means…
One of the Leech’s contacts includes “Jul the Blood dealer” and I’m having trouble imagining what exactly that means…
Fresh live Tycherosi arterial blood packs! Fresh live Tycherosi arterial blood packs! Fresh live Tycherosi arterial blood packs!
I’m Jul Harrington, of Jul Harrington’s Ritual Blood Emporium and Warehouse, and thanks to a garbled electroplasmic telegram I am now overstocked on Fresh live Tycherosi arterial blood packs, and I’m passing the savings on to yooooouuuu!
I’ll give ideas, but it’ll say more about my setting than yours. So I’ll also give my process.
Consider your version of the setting. Why would someone need to buy blood? Just brainstorm ideas – try to think about why we need blood in the real world, but also what people in Doskvol might need it for that we don’t.
– Medicine, blood transfusions, etc.
– Superstition (like medicine, but more folk lore. “Bath in the fresh blood of children to stay young”)
– Magic (“Gotta do a blood sacrifice. It’s so convenient, these days, to just buy the blood already processed!”) – can I use the blood to summon the ghost of the person it came from? Or use the blood of a living person to control or spy on them?
– Food (many cultures use blood in cooking. Goats blood, lamb’s blood, cow blood etc.)
– Supernatural stuff…. even if I’m not doing magic directly, are ghosts drawn to fresh blood? Do people living in haunted districts leave out bowls of blood as offerings so the ghosts won’t come inside? Are contracts signed in blood, and I’d need your blood to forge your signature? What about locks, might security doors and safes require a prick of blood as a Doskval version of an ID swipe card?
Then take those ideas, and think about which will create the most fun in the game. If your group really enjoys doing burglaries, needing someone’s blood to get past a security door would make a great twist. If they really enjoy the background magic and occult parts of the setting, then leaving blood out as a humdrum everyday part of life in this haunted city miht be cool.
Pick out your favorite idea. Or more than one. And now you know why people buy and sell blood.
Now why is this guy selling it on the black market? It doesn’t have to be a fancy reason. If people buy goat blood because they use it in cooking, then maybe this guy is selling on the black market to avoid paying tax and health inspections. It keeps the prices low, but there’s nothing overly sinister. Even so, there’s a story there, if your contact ends up with contaminated blood and people start getting sick… (or if someone spreads disease and blames it on your contact.)
Or it could be totally sinister – if blood is used to sign contracts, then a black market blood dealer who can get you someone’s blood is essentially a contract forger.
Feel free to steal any of these ideas. Or “run through the process” for yourself and see what great ideas you come up with 🙂
Your ideas will always be better than mine, because they’ll be much more personal for your game.
An idea that occurs to me now is that the blood could be leviathan blood and make Jul the Doskvol equivalent of some shady guy who sells uranium to people with DIY nuclear reactors.
In a world steeped in darkness, cold and death, blood would be highly desirable, be it for fair or foul purposes. At its very essence it is liquid life, or at least a link to it. Even if only symbolic it’s very powerful.
It’s the Leech’s friend – why not ask him what it means?