Blades in the Dark – The Crimson Snow – Session 4
This week’s session started with the crew finishing a project identifying how the Red Sashes were getting their drugs into Doskvol. Namely, smuggled in the personal luggage of visiting diplomats and nobles from Iruvia. They also found out the identity of the Iruvian diplomat who runs the scheme. The crew contemplated hitting one of these deliveries, getting to the diplomat and a number of other schemes to find profit while hitting the Sashes. However, in the end they decided to follow up a lead on a warehouse distributing Black Lotus and other drugs to various cults within the city that they discovered a couple of weeks prior, figuring it would probably be an easier score. And so they made their way to the small warehouse located in the Docks district, hidden down some back alleys. Their surveillance showed it staffed by only a handful of workers, and containing what they assumed to be a fair quantity of merchandise. They decided to split up, Hadius, the sneakiest of the crew, would climb into the warehouse through a ventilation hatch their surveillance had turned up, while Ves and Banks posed as cult members looking to buy drugs to distract the few workers manning the warehouse.
The drugs were sealed in wooden crates, and Hadius only managed to get the contents of a couple of crates back out of the hatch, and into a hired rickshaw, before the workers noticed the disturbance. Ves and Banks attempted to distract them through a flashback procured ghost, unfortunately, the ghost of a disobedient cat, and an intimidating demand for better customer service, countermanded by the ridiculous getup Banks chose for his disguise. When neither attempt really worked, Hadius was forced to make a quick exit, spraining an ankle and shattering one of the jars of drugs on the cobblestones as he tumbled out to the street. Upon realising that someone was trying to make off with their product, two of the workers took off in pursuit of Hadius, who fled, limping with rickshaw, down a nearby alleyway.
Capitalising on this distraction, Ves and Banks knocked the remaining worker unconscious, and began loading themselves up with all the drugs they could carry. Hadius, unable to outpace his pursuers, decided to dispense some trance powder to attempt to neutralise them, a ploy which worked perfectly, leaving two calm and suggestible warehouse workers, and Hadius free to return to the warehouse. Unfortunately, a Bluecoat patrol chose this moment to head down the alleys past the warehouse. But Hadius, ever the quick talker, managed to win them over, though they insisted on escorting him to the edge of the district, for his own safety. Back inside the warehouse, Ves and Banks had secured all the drugs they could carry, and headed back to their lair.
The score turned out rather profitable, injecting enough cash into the coffers of the Crimson Snow for them to advance to Tier 1 as well as a small quantity of a few more valuable drugs they decided to hold onto for now. Unfortunately, as they were celebrating their first directly profitable score in a number of weeks, the demon Setarra chose this moment to come call in the favor owed by Vestine, informing them that Lord Scurlock had need of their assistance with a personal matter. Not wanting to anger the demon, they quickly agreed, a decision they may later come to regret, upon finding out just what it was the demon had recruited them for…
GM’s Thoughts – Since the location of the warehouse the crew hit this session was the primary reward they nabbed through a previous score, I wasn’t too concerned with having it well guarded. Stavrul, the fellow who owns the warehouse, had already been established as a fairly minor player in the city, so I figured he would want to keep things small scale anyway. The score was really a terrific example of the PC’s rolling with the punches and turning disadvantage into success – Hadius’ foiled attempt at taking the drugs without being noticed, turned into a handy distraction for the others to steal what they could. All in all, it all went quite well, though I realised I have really no idea how warehouses are actually laid out :s I should make a point of looking at a few floor-plans. The entanglement rolled this week, Demonic Notice, presented a good opportunity to call in Vestine’s favor owed to Setarra, as well as an idea for a fairly treacherous score I had when first brainstorming for the game. I’m expecting this next score will stretch over more than one session, which should shake things up a bit from the “1 score per session” pacing we’ve been managing so far.