Blades in the Dark – Session 10 – The Crimson Snow
So after missing a couple of weeks due to players being on a work trip – we dived back into the adventures of our, still largely drug-less, Hawker crew, The Crimson Snow. After another block of investigation and pondering whether now perhaps might be the time for them to try and establish a reliable source of product to sell, in the end, they settled on some cheap and quick profit by ambushing one of the carriages through the city bearing Red Sash drug shipments. Thanks to previous investigations and information discovered during a score – they were able to select an ideal location to waylay one of the Red Sashes regular shipments – a road through Coalridge that seemed only lightly trafficked. The gang managed to talk Laroze, their contact within the Bluecoats, into sneaking them a couple of disused uniforms – the plan being for Hadius and Banks to wear the uniforms and stop the carriage (under the pretense of asking for a bribe) while Vestine secreted themselves in a shadowy alley in the hopes of clambering onto the carriage once it was stopped.
A storm hit the city as the crew assumed their positions, limiting visibility – just perfect for a carriage hold up. When the carriage approached, Hadius flagged them down, backed up by Banks, as Ves began sneaking up from behind. The no-nonsense driver, seeing they were being accosted by Bluecoats, pulled a bag of coins from the carriage and inquired as to how much they wanted to let them past. The other Red Sash inside the carriage kept his attention on the Bluecoats, affording Ves a perfect opportunity to sneak onto the carriage. Unfortunately, they had a great deal of trouble with the rainslicked back of the carriage, and landed heavily on the roof after climbing up – alerting the gang member inside. Banks, spying Vestine fall on top of the carriage, marched past the driver and Hadius (who continued haggling over the bribe), opened the carriage door and beat the gang member unconscious with a blackjack. The driver immediately turned to see the source of the commotion in time for Vestine to slip down from the roof into the seat beside him – unfortunately for Ves, they actually did slip, leaving them poorly positioned to accost the driver, who drew a blade and stabbed the would be ambusher.
Seeing the driver attack his compatriot, Hadius drew a pistol and shot the driver, stealing his coinpurse and kicking him out of the carriage, before taking control of the carriage. Though not an experienced carriage driver, Hadius made up for it with an uncanny understanding of the intricacies of an Akorosian goats mind. They made it to Charterhall, having changed on route, only to be accosted by a pair of actual Bluecoats. Thinking on his feet, Hadius offered them the entire bag of coin the carriage’s former driver had carried to leave them to be on their way. As usual, his fast talking worked a treat, and left them free to enter Crow’s Foot. Rather than take the carriage back to their hidden lair – they decided to make a switch at the Lampblack’s guild house. They met with Pickett, Baz’s second, and discovered him to be quite unlike Baz – distrustful and taking an instant dislike to the crew – he took awhile to come around – the Snow in the end, offered possession of the new carriage and its battered remaining Red Sash occupant, in exchange for borrowing a carriage to shift the drugs to their lair.
The crew marveled, once back at HQ that the heist had gone rather swimmingly. And set about celebrating their new haul and the options it might give them for the future. Meanwhile, Lord Scurlock, in the basement of his manor, busied himself finishing the last step in a dark ritual, facilitated by the artifact recovered from the Lost District by the Snow. What grave consequences would their unquestioning assistance given to this sorcerer bear? Time would tell…
GM notes – Fun session this one – I’ve been keen to run a carriage heist in Doskvol from the first time I discovered Blades and it went great! Some great roleplaying, an unfortunate streak of failed rolls by Ves we painted as due to the inclement weather, and all in all, a fairly easy haul. Was a short one though, so atypically, we actually got through downtime at the end of this session, but this gave me a good opportunity to remind them of the clock they set in motion by assisting Scurlock in a prior score – their most ambitious to date, which had been quickly ticking along in the background. “Something Awakens…” was finally filled in and… I called it a night there. Looking forward to unveiling the fairly major event I had in mind for this one at the start of our next session as well as finding out how they will react (characters and players both!) 🙂