Blades in the Dark – Session 9 – The Crimson Snow
Well things kicked off this week with the gang in a tough spot – outnumbered 3 to 4 within the Crows Nest, facing off against a well armed Lyssa and her cronies. Their foes dazed by a spark bomb tossed by Ves, Hadius seized the opportunity to attempt to get the upper hand on one of Lyssa’s henchmen, but he struggled, cursing his lacking physical training regime. In the ensuing melee, though both received their own injuries, Banks and Ves managed to subdue Lyssa’s henchmen, before Banks drove a trident through Lyssa’s shoulder. The gang then dispatched the injured and unconcious henchmen, an act that they reckoned would make known to other gangs their capability for ruthlessness.
Trident still buried in her shoulder, blade to her throat, the Snow lead Lyssa out of the tower. The other members of the Crows, pounding furiously on the door after being driven out, were intimidated into fleeing by a ghostly horror summoned by Ves as the gang led Lyssa to the location Roric’s ghost had requested she be brought to. Roric met them on arrival, thanked them for their assistence, and fixed his cold gaze on Lyssa. The members of the Snow decided they’d rather not stick around to find out what Roric had in store for his traitorous second, and they took their leave.
About a week later, the crew received an unexpected visitor at their lair. Roric, having seized control of Lyssa’s body, thanked the gang for their assistance in helping him regain control of the Crows and vengeance on his murderer, gifting a decent amount of coin and pledging the support of the Crows, when the Crimson Snow are ready to move against the Red Sashes. The Snow were not entirely sure they were comfortable with becoming allies of a gang led by a vampire, nevertheless, from being poised on the brink of war with the Crows, it was still a positive step they reckoned. The gang decided to take a bit of a break, get their wounds properly attended to, and that they might perhaps secure the assistance of a skilled chemist to aid in them in the manufacture of drugs. Schrodinger was perhaps an odd choice, though assured of his loyalty, and tenacious character, they figured his own drug dependence, as unreliable and wild as it sometimes made him, were drawbacks they were prepared to deal with, in exchange for his skill.
GM Notes – Well no one died this week! Though Hadius has now taken his 3rd trauma, leaving his player uncertain of whether transferring to a spirit playbook or frantically squirreling money away for his retirement is likely to be his preferred course of action going forward. This week showed me that Blades is a system that can struggle when it comes to pitched battles, largely for the same reasons it works so well at fast paced intrigue and sneakiness. It did the job, though the lack of structure frustrated one of my players. It’s really the first “proper” fight we’ve gotten into, so its possible I just haven’t figured out how best to “do” combat in Blades. But the plot developments this week were fun – the twist of having Roric’s ghost possess Lyssa’s body and become a vampire are sure to have some interesting follow on effects in the longterm – i’m curious how long their alliance with the Crows will last, as Roric is likely to be quite a different character now that he’s undead.
This week felt a lot like the big series finale, but i’m not sure that we’ll be taking a break yet – I think my players are still fairly focused on overthrowing the Red Sashes, and seizing control of the drug market in Crow’s Foot – so that’ll probably be the actual season finale, though having allied with the Crows has made it more of an achievable goal.