Another week, another session of Age of Blades 🙂
This week, the Silk Hats were recovering from their successful, but damaging, mission to plant an explosive artifact given them by The Dimmer Sisters onboard the Fog Hounds’ steamship. We treated the raid as a Plot Action (in the Fantasy Age organizational rules) against the Fog Hounds, and the roll was not only successful (doing some damage to the Fog Hounds’ stability, basically their organizational “hit points”) but also generated stunt points, which they chose to use to gain a +2 vs. the Hounds in their next organizational roll.
Goldie, the Hounds’ navigator who escaped the boat recognized Hishan and Jailiya, so there is no doubt who hit them, and the Fog Hounds and Silk Hats are now officially at war. The crew gained a point of reputation (their first), but no Heat, since the underworld is aware of their actions, but not the authorities.
While Saiya and Moon Eye set about finding a buyer for the bottles of spirit essence they stole from the Hounds, Noggs pushed her luck at the Silver Stag and lost a chunk of her accumulated wealth (failed her Willpower roll to avoid overindulging in her vice, but recovered her Scoundrel’s Luck point anyway).
Saiya negotiated a sweet deal to sell the spirit essence to a shady representative of the Path of Echoes (spirit cult) as a bargaining ploy, but when Moon Eye and Jailiya approached the Dimmer Sisters to see what they would offer, the Sisters (through Roslyn, their servant) offered friendship and a future favor (but less cash). Despite knowing it would piss off Saiya (she’s all about the cash), they agreed, feeling that good relations with the creepy but powerful Sisters was worth some lost income. The crew now have a +1 relationship with the Dimmer Sisters, and can call in a valuable occult favor.
Multiple times, crew members felt that they were being followed while moving around town, but were never able to determine who was doing the watching.
Saiya, to relieve her stress over the lost money making opportunity, went to the Red Lantern to smoke some opium. She smoked too much (another failed Willpower roll to resist overindulging in her vice), and ended up comatose. She had (wisely) taken Jailiya along with her as a bodyguard since they knew someone was following them, but as Jailiya was dragging her almost unconscious form up onto the deck of the Red Lantern (the opium den is on a boat docked in Silkshore), they came face to face with two turban wearing Red Sashes who told Jailiya she could leave, but they were taking Saiya (Mylera Klev had recognized Saiya from Lord Penderyn’s party where they stole the necklace, and knew she was an associate of Hishan’s, so she wanted to question her).
Jailiya gently set Saiya down on the deck and pulled out her mace, ready to take on the two skilled opponents before she would let them take her friend. Unfortunately, despite Jailiya’s skills, the two sword students proved too much for her, driving her back to the boat’s railing with vicious slashes of their curved swords, and finally striking her down.
The Red Lantern attendants nursed Jailiya back to consciousness (they don’t like customers dying on their boat – too much involvement from the Spirit Wardens), and she made her way back to the Black Raven, the Silk Hats’ lair.
After a quick conference in which everyone agreed they had to go after Saiya immediately, Moon Eye used some of his Blood magic to track Saiya’s location (he had early on taken blood samples from all of the crew members for just such an eventuality), and determined that the Red Sashes had taken Saiya back to their headquarters.
Hishan went to the Lampblacks, and told Baszo Baz what had happened. He suggested that helping rescue Saiya might go a long way to improving his romantic chances with the attractive Slide, so Baszo agreed to send 6 of his guys with the crew for the rescue mission.
Saiya woke up tied to a chair in a windowless room in the Red Sashes’ basement. Mylera questioned her, but she held her own, and convinced the Red Sashes’ leader that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, so she was untied and they had a more civilized conversation over strong Iruvian coffee, although four Red Sash sword students still stood ready nearby.
Moon Eye, Jailiya, and Noggs, along with the Lampblacks, took their boat and approached the undergound canal that runs below the Red Sashes’ school. Noggs made quick work of the intricate lock on the metal grating that blocked the canal (really good roll), and the group approached the landing and made their way up into the basement of the Sword School without further obstacle.
Meanwhile, Hishan, in his alter ego as Lord Rusten (the same fake identity he had used as a distraction when the crew stole the Red Sashes war chest, and again at Lord Penderyn’s party), approached the main gate and demanded to see Mylera. Hishan was shown in to the room where Saiya and Mylera were talking, and joined the conversation.
Right about this time, the rest of the crew, guided by Moon Eye’s Blood magic tracking, found their way to the same part of the basement, and Noggs silently approached and cracked the door to see Saiya and Hishan surrounded by Red sashes and conversing with the somewhat ill looking Mylera (she is suffering from the effects of the curse tablet that Moon Eye placed under her bed at Baszo’s request during their first score).
After a hushed confab, the crew decided speed was of the essence and opted to kick in the door and grab their mates, while hopefully capturing Mylera Klev as a bargaining chip.
And that’s where we ran out of time, so we’ve left the crew on that cliffhanger and will start with the combat next week.