So another week another score for the Crimson Snow. And wow, any feeling I had that last week was too easy on the players, this week corrected! After a creepy meetup at a cultists den, Vestine, our Whisper, found out from a fairly apathetic Setarra (to whom they now owe an undisclosed favor – my first successful devil’s bargain pitch!), that a fellow named Stavrul is responsible for furnishing a number of cults in the city with Black Lotus. So they made their way to his house in Coalridge and after a brief exchange with an irate and unwelcoming Stavrul, they decided to break into his place, largely to spite him. For some reason, the crew decided to pry holes in the roof and head in that way after Stavrul had left, and despite some loud clattering of tiles to the paved streets below, they got in. It was about at this point that they noticed a strange clanking sound coming from inside the, supposedly empty, house. So Ves decided to compel a ghost to investigate the house. Unfortunately, the ghost that answered the summons insisted that the house belonged to him and that the spark-craft hull within was not dangerous. In the interest of heading off problems later, the gang then decided to capture the ghost, and did so, though not before Ves was injured by it.
Dropping in through the roof, they cased the joint discovering the only room potentially of interest lay behind a door rigged with an electroplasmic trap, a detail discovered by the gang’s Slide, Hadius. Unfortunately, he discovered it quite by accident while attempting to get a look through the keyhole. A shocking experience indeed! :p Feeling fairly beaten up at this point, they decided to head into this room, again by the roof, for some reason. This time they had more trouble getting through the roof, succeeding in causing the vast majority of the remaining rooftiles to cascade, loudly to the street below. Inside the room, they found a small sputtering and clanking mechanical hull, about the size of a cat. Also within the room were some papers and books detailing Stavruls business dealings, including a warehouse held in his name.
It was about this time, that a loud banging was heard on the front door – a small contingent of Bluecoats, alerted to something strange happening within were on the scene. In an act either of audaucious boldness, or reckless stupidity, the crew decided to walk out the front door, pitching themselves as paranormal investigators/exterminators hired to deal with a ghost problem. Even with the aid of flashback generated business cards to that effect, the Bluecoats were having none of it, and only a menace cloaked offer of a bribe from “Lord” Banks and 2 Coin were enough to convince them not to take the whole gang into custody.
Upon returning to their Lair in Crow’s Foot, the Crows came a calling, in force, in response to the fellow they sent last week returning empty handed. The crew, feeling quite dejected after a not-immediately profitable score (they elected to keep the hull around rather than sell it), and really not in the mood to be shaken down, answered the door, blunderbusses in hand. The following violent, messy scuffle, ended with the bloodied Crows limping back to their lair, a new enemy made, and a retribution scheduled for sometime in the future.
This week, things kind of spiraled out of control for the PC’s, and though they certainly gained some interesting assets/information, and reputation (of a sort at least), they were left feeling like they’d done a lot of work, for little payoff. But it worked and the weird ideas they brought to the table made a terribly entertaining, if not profitable session!
Questions I was left with this week –
Was I right not to pay them? The bottled ghost, shoddy hull and warehouse location are all potential sources of wealth the score offered, but I figured that wealth would really involve a bit more work to actually bear fruit. I think I did the right thing – my understanding of scores is that, though they usually have an immediate payoff, its okay if a score generates opportunities rather than cold hard cash. I’m curious how others would have handled it though.
The faction sheet saw some action this week, with a lot of -1’s appearing as various factions had reasons to think worse of the Crimson Snow, and their relationship with the Crows dropping to -2. Seems a lot easier for players to make enemies rather than friends in Blades. Is that others experience as well? Also, is -2 (from 0) a big enough drop to their relationship with the Crows? We’d already established that the Crows are currently verging on civil war over the murder of Roric, so I thought it would probably take a fair bit to get them to actually unite enough to go to war with the PC’s gang? On the other hand, they did attack a group of their people… I thought the -2 and a new The Crows Retaliate clock (now half full) was consequence enough. But again, curious how others would’ve handled it?