Author: Adam Schwaninger

The Dead Setters had an entire session devoted to downtime in the We Won’t See You At The Party, Richter (because you’ll be in jail) Caper.

With the crew rocking an impressive 8 Heat and 1 Wanted level after winning their war with the Eels, the entanglements were harsh: Demonic Notice (#teamnope) or Arrest. I thought they were going to pass off some of their Eel captives to take the fall for them, but Richter, the crew’s Spider, actually really wanted to go to jail.

Richter: “No, it’s okay, I have a plan!”

Me: “You know you have to roll your crew’s Tier and see if you get a Trauma, right?”

Richter (more apprehensive): “… no, I’m still good. I’d rather have the Eels in our hands.”

Richter takes the fall, with his former partner Inspector Jennah heading up the opposition. He rolls a 4, scraping by unscathed while in prison, and with his Mastermind and Foresight abilities, he’ll still be able to help the crew with their next job. Not only that, but since his vice is gambling, we all agree that’s available in jail. Then he overindulges. Instead of making a new character or losing access to the source of his vice, he rolls a new entanglement, but because the crew’s Heat has been wiped and they have no +3 allies, he lucks out with one of those “non-entanglement” results.

The rest of the crew fares really well with their actions – Nearly everyone clears their stress or finishes off long-term projects. Raven, the Hound completes her string of sacrifices and befriends the Deathseeker Crows:

1. Casta, a Tycherosi bounty hunter (done in heist time)

2. Moray, the Eels’ leader (also done in heist time)

3. A rich merchant (reeeally wanted her to take the devil’s bargain and have the victim be one of the Hive, but she didn’t and rolled a crit anyway), one who survives off the bloated corpse of the city (like a carrion bird himself).

4. An old Bluecoat, days from retirement, someone who has seen a lifetime of murder, someone the crows favor. His death is made gentle at the crows’ request.

5. A priestess of Schmwhocaresyoucantpronounceit, a Fallen God. Raven infiltrates her nascent cult and sacrifices one who sacrifices.

Deemo, the Leech, finishes her gadgeteering with the stolen lightning barriers around their Claim, a spirit well inside a crumbling manor. The gang all have pendants now that allow them to pass through a barrier without shutting it down first. The last of her current projects is to make their own barrier fully one-way, so other spirits can wander in but cannot escape, adding to their supply for eventual bottling and sale to their allies the Dimmer Sisters.

Finally, Rook (the Cutter)’s player has been studying the faction writeups in the v6 quickstart. He made progress a few sessions earlier with gaining the Gray Cloaks’ favor, but that backslid when the crew chose a different job than the one the Cloaks asked them to do. He was also looking at the Grinders, and works out a heist idea to get back in with the Gray Cloaks and foster an alliance with the Grinders. The Grinders want to steal a ship and get a crew. The GCs want revenge on Lord Strangford and his leviathan hunters. The PCs will steal cargo, crew, and shipping manifests from Strangford and release them to both gangs. This helps the Grinders target a ship, which advances their LTP, and the Gray Cloaks get intel they couldn’t get otherwise, since they’re known to Strangford.

Because the last few sessions have seen quite a bit of combat, I figure maybe Strangford’s files* are in his manor in Brightstone, and maybe he’s hosting a ball. And then Rook asks “Is it a masquerade ball?” and I have to say yes.**

One last downtime action to acquire clothes worthy of Iggy Azalea, and next session we’ll party like it’s 1899!* *

James Garner in The Strangford Files. It writes itself.

** I really didn’t mean to rip off John’s Bloodletters game.

* * * Or some dubious time period and tech level that sometimes approximates that year. We’ve started watching Penny Dreadful, which is great inspiration for some of the creepy bits.

#heestcomplete

HEEST COMPLETE!

The To Survive War You Gotta Become War Caper ended with the Eels’ war preparations proving ineffective against the submaritime ingenuity of the Dead Setters.

We left last session after the Dead Setters laid a trap in the catacombs/mine tunnels under Coalridge. They used the strongboxes the Eels were after in the previous session (which led to their current war), filled them full of explosives, and staged a fake shipment meant to lure in the Eels. The Eels ambushed the convoy and were counter-ambushed in turn. We ended with the Dead Setters’ Whisper, Teatime, coercing one of the Eels’ recently dead to lead them to his lair in a half-flooded warehouse (useful for loading wagons, docking boats, storing cargo, and looking disused and abandoned) on the canal where some of the retaining wall had crumbled into the water. Richter, their Spider, had gotten lost along the way but he had purchased the Foresight ability so he could still assist.

Richter tried to find his way out of the catacombs and did so, clambering up a watery rockfall right into the Eels’ lair (a devil’s bargain)! The Spider turned it around perfectly, though – he produced his fine whiskey flask and claimed he was there to parley. An impressive Sway roll stopped his impending stabbing and we discovered that Richter had drugged the bottle with sleep essence. The half-dozen Eels – and their lieutenant Unagi – all passed out, along with Richter (who was still able to help through Foresight and Mastermind).

Meanwhile, the Setters’ Leech rigged up a gondola to be a submersible and the Cutter approached out of sight of the enemy lookouts. The Hound took out the Eels’ sharpshooters and the Cutter obliterated the lookouts on the water-facing side of the lair. The Eels simply weren’t prepared for a submarine.

The main battle I ran as an 8-clock, since I figured as a Tier I gang the Eels probably only HAD about eight guys left, and that was being generous. A crit on a Teamwork Skirmish felled most of the Eels, prompting one lieutenant, Remora, to attempt an escape by gondola. The Leech’s clockwork spider-bot had been waiting for this (via flashback) and started drilling holes in the boat. The Leech rocked an Attune roll and actually summoned a ghostly gondolier to punt the surrendering Remora back to the Dead Setters’ waiting thugs.

Moray, the Eels’ rotund, dangerous boss, dragged Richter’s unconscious form out onto the catwalk ringing the warehouse floor. The Hound snuck up behind Moray and all three fell into the canal. Moray let Raven (the Hound) stab him and wrapped his meaty hands around her throat, determined to drown her even as he bled out into the inky water.

I dealt harm to Richter, as he was unconscious and underwater. That’s when he used his Mastermind ability, his special armor taking the form of inflatable clothing, pulling him and Raven to the surface. Rook the Cutter and Raven drowned the shit out of Moray and Raven left him as a sacrifice to the Deathseeker crows (she’s started trying to gain their favor as a LTP).

We ended the session there, but we still need to see how the Dead Setters will treat their prisoners (Unagi the Lurk, Remora the Spider, and five thugs who were lucky enough not to fight the Cutter), handle Heat (HEAT WILL BE GAINED), and decide if they want a bigger Coin payout and liquidate all the things, or a smaller Coin payout but use the Eels’ lair as Turf or something.

Quickest. War. Ever. But then, sixes on near every roll will do that, and it was still a fun session and one where I felt I got everyone into the spotlight. Everyone’s pretty damn good at fighting or resisting harm at this point, and although it’s hard to steer clear of that in a gang war, I’m going to look for ways to maybe lure the guys towards more cerebral scores in the future. We’ll see. It might be that they’re just Thieves who secretly act like Breakers, and that’s okay. That’s what veteran advances are for.

#heestcomplete

HEEST COMPLETE!

The Not Another Sewer Level Caper:

With the Spirit Wardens closing in on the tattoo parlor the Dead Setters were currently in, the Cutter and Hound set the building on fire for them, covering their tracks, and the gang escaped into Duskwall’s catacombs.

After some navigational mishaps, they found their way to a sewer crossroads/hideout of sorts where their score was. The only problem was that they spent too long mucking about in the tunnels and the Eels got to Father Yorren’s stash first – barely. The Dead Setters took the Eels by surprise (a 6 on an engagement roll) and Rook, the Cutter, laid into a half-dozen toughs while the Hound and Leech chased down the two Eels escaping with the strongbox.

The fighting went in the PCs’ favor, though everyone had to burn armor (that’s what it’s there for!). The Leech burned the corpses and they dumped them in the deeps – I didn’t ding them the Heat for killing because they covered their tracks and it happened far away from witnesses.

Then the best entanglement happened. With 7 Heat and 1 Wanted level on the table, I rolled “Show of Force”. The Eels make a play against the Dead Setters. They could either give up their single claim (a spirit well/turf area) or go to war. Considering that they took the spirit well off the Eels in the first place, and the guys already were thinking of ways to get the Eels off their back, it was an easy choice.

During downtime, everyone spent the Coin they earned to reduce Heat and recover Stress, so they’re down to 2 Heat/1 Wanted. They’ll be glad of that reduction because in the grimdarkness of Duskwall, there is only war.

#heestcomplete

HEEST CLIFFHANGER!

The Dead Setters helped out their Leech’s vice contact, Father Yorren, who had his supplier disappear on him. He was pretty sure she’d have to be dead to miss a shipment? Either way, he needed the crew to find her corpse and get the location of her stash from her ghost before the Wardens zeroed in. If she wasn’t dead, then they were to get the stash from her and then make her dead. Yorren’s clients expect a certain timeliness to their transactions with the priest.

A group action for Gather Info resulted in a 1970s split-screen cop montage (“Can I use Skirmish to gather info?”*) and they learned the supplier, Lucia, was dropped off at the Hound’s physicker contact. She had been tortured and mortally wounded and she died at Melvir’s “clinic”. The Eels who likely did it likely dropped her off so maaaybe she wouldn’t die and haunt them? Or they already got the info they wanted? Were the Eels on their way to get Yorren’s stash?

The snag here was that someone stole Lucia’s body out from under Melvir’s nose a few hours before the PCs showed up. The Leech’s nemesis, Eckerd the corpse-thief, strikes again! The Hound tracked Eckerd to a tattoo parlor/tenement between Coalridge and Nightmarket where somebody had gotten the bright idea of mixing in leviathan blood with tattoo ink. No idea where that idea came from (thanks Bloodletters game!), but with a location and general idea of what the score was, the PCs picked an Assault plan, with the Cutter and cohort kicking in the door, the Hound on overwatch, and the Leech using spider oil to come in from the roof.

The only danger came from a few Grinders guarding the basement and one huge guy getting an arm tat. The Cutter grabbed the huge guy, carved off his tattoo, and punched him in the meat until he passed out. The Spider talked the other guys down after that.

Meanwhile, Eckerd burst out the back door with Lucia’s body slung over his shoulders – and was immediately gutshot by the Hound. He fell back inside, blood pouring from the hole in his armor. Then the Leech landed on him. A Desperate cripple-fight ensued but Deemo the Leech smashed a bottle of binding oil over Eckerd, holding him fast to the floor.

With the players’ Whisper out this week unabashedly watching his new Force Awakens blu-rey instead of gaming, interrogating the dead woman’s spirit fell to the Spider and the Leech. She used Life Essence and got a mixed success – Lucia returned to life, but her grevious wounds were too much for her to bear. Plus, the gang’s lookouts spotted the Spirit Wardens coming in.

With the Wardens on their way, Deemo had to make a Desperate Tinker roll to keep Lucia’s body together enough for her to talk (using bellows to work her lungs, that sort of thing) while the Spider made a Desperate Sway attempt to convince her to give up the location of her stash. The Eels had grabbed her, but she had lied to them. She wanted vengeance and it was all the Spider could do to coax out a partial clue (“it’s buried near my-“) before the Life Essence wore off and she died again.

For youse guys in the audience – have you used Spirit Wardens much? Anything you did with them that was cool or well-received by your players? I’ve been playing the Division so I’m mostly imagining them as steampunky Cleaners from that game, but I imagine they’re a little more ritualized than that maybe. More Warhammer?

#heestcomplete

*The answer was “Skirmish is fun but you’re not really going to get answers if you do that.”

HEEST COMPLETE!

The Opulence I Has It Caper was the first time where we really let planning get out of hand. The warning in the rules about overplanning really isn’t made idly. Between the engagement roll and flashbacks, you really do have the tools you need to make whatever happens feel like it was part of the plan all along.

This plan generally involved stealing Severosi sculptures off a train, and had an optional goal of getting the Lampblacks in trouble for it. The Spider and the Dead Setters’ cohort of Thugs used stolen Bluecoat uniforms to gather real Bluecoats around one of the Lampblacks’ coalworks where the ill-fated train had been rerouted earlier in the heist.

Not only did the Spider manage to get the Lampblack capo (Badger Baz, Baszo’s cousin or something) to bribe him to take his cops and go, he flashed back to bribing the actual cops with him to ambush the Lampblacks instead of simply accepting the bribe. The coalworks ended up burning to the ground while the rest of the crew was far away with the stolen goods.

The Cutter had a knife fight with his nemesis (Stras, the “clever blade” off the contacts list) where Stras learned the hard way that you should always secure loose clothing around moving trains.

Heat was gained. The crew also has a spy in their midst! The Whisper pulled in a spirit to animate the hull that was carrying their score after the previous occupant was devoured in a summoning mishap. Unbeknownst to the characters, this new spirit was already following the crew under the command of a Red Sash Whisper. The poor Whisper plugged a spy right into their prize and walked it into their hidden thieves’ lair. That was by far the best “a complication occurs” so far in the game, I think.

They hit all 4 XP triggers for their crew, though, got 3 Rep, and a ton of Coin (which they mostly spent on extra downtime actions). Everything’s working like I assume it’s supposed to. I’ve got a bunch of PCs who are just about to hit Trauma in a gang about to tip over into Wanted level 2, but at the same time we’re seeing our first playbook advances and 3-dot action ratings and stuff.

Somewhat unrelated, I can’t get the idea of a Mutant playbook out of my head and I kind of want to try my hand at a Blades hack for Mad Gamma Max Fallout World. “Glow in the Dark”, maybe.

#heestcomplete