Author: Ben Morgan

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 45 (December 14 2016)

Shade is in his quarters at the factory when there’s a knock at the door. He answers it, and it’s Jezelle. She says she figured it would have been rude to just go in. She tells him about the addictive effects of the spirit well, and speculates that sooner or later Sebjorn will have to come back there, so it might be a good place to ambush him. She recommends using wards similar to what Quellyn had around her apartment to protect it, though she acknowledges that Sebjorn might be powerful enough to break through them. After some reluctance, she also admits to having hurt someone really badly, and that she’s trying really hard to stay away from the well, but it’s pulling her back.

Constance heads back down to Dunslough to talk to the Skovlanders again while Gears is doing his thing. She tells Markus to throw a huge party two nights from now, and invite everyone he can think of, even Bluecoats. At first he’s confused, as he thought she was going to assist the refugees get revenge on the Grinders. Constance patiently explains that she will take care of the Grinders herself, and the Skovlanders need to stay out of it so they won’t be implicated. She uses Glorious Visage to seal the deal, scaring the crap out of everyone in the process.

Gears meets with Kamali outside the Broken Anchor. He describes Nelson and his buddies to her. The identifying feature is that they all wear thick leather weight belts that are common among the dock workers (this comes from a time when a majority of the Grinders were in fact employed on the Docks, but the affectation has long outstripped the actual employment). She stakes out the place until the four of them emerge, very drunk, and make their way to their clubhouse, a storefront several blocks away with a banner out front bearing the imperial crest (the closest thing Akoros has to an official flag). She creeps around back, and sees that the back door is open. She slips inside and sets a tripwire across the doorway in case she has to make a hasty exit, then hides in the kitchen to listen in on their meeting. Their leader, who Nelson identifies as Leo, berates the four for getting to the meeting late, and getting too drunk. He reminds them all that while they scored a victory against the refugees, they can’t sit back and get complacent. They need to keep pushing hard, and work on actually wiping them out. After much badgering from Nelson, Leo very nearly snaps, but allows Nelson to explain about the job they’d been hired for, to rough up an Iruvian shop owner and his son. Leo says to handle it quickly, as he needs everyone to be on point for the next step in their campaign against the refugees. Kamali gets very detailed notes, including a basic map of the clubhouse and sketches of the seven members present. However, she very nearly gets spotted when Leo notices that one of his buddies left the back door open, and tells them to go close it. Fortunately for her, they’re a bit lazy, so she has plenty of time to remove the tripwire and slip back out.

Constance holds a meeting. They know that while the Grinders are dealing with the job for Gears, they will be separated. She asks Shade which group he would prefer to deal with. He chooses the clubhouse, which leaves Kamali to deal with the four in Silkshore.

The Two-Stroke Folk Bloke Stoke & Choke:

On the night in question, while the Skovlander refugees are ostensibly partying down in Dunslough, Shade heads to the Grinders’ clubhouse and uses binding oil to seal the front and back doors, but not before tossing in a lit Skovlan Porridge. A crit on the Engagement roll means that he can hear the commotion inside as the Grinders first try frantically to put the fire out, and when that doesn’t work, they try to break the front door down. Eventually, the pounding stops. He uses alcahest to remove the binding oil on the doors, and the smoke begins to pour out. He sees that the fire is on the way to burning itself out (fortunately the building itself is made primarily of stone), so he very quickly enters and cuts the throats of the three now unconscious Grinders. On his way out he burns Wulfric’s symbol on the front door.

Kamali heads to Silkshore and stakes out the butcher shop. Before long she sees the four Grinders come stomping up the block and barge their way into the shop. There’s a lot of shouting, a lot of breaking glass, some screaming, some threats, some crying, and the sound of people getting beaten with wooden clubs. Several customers run out the front screaming. Once the noise dies down, the Grinders emerge, and Kamali begins tailing them. Engagement roll is 4. She’s able to follow them, but she can soon hear the sound of Bluecoat whistles down the block. The Grinders hear it too, and take off running. One of the Grinders lags behind, and Kamali shoots him in the leg with her crossbow. He cries out and goes down on one knee, prompting one of his buddies to turn around and come back to help him up. She takes the opportunity to shoot the second one in the eye. She drops down from her vantage point and cuts the wounded one’s throat, and stashes both of them in a nearby alley before taking off after the other two. There’s a tense moment when she loses them for a bit, but manages to catch up with them again a couple of blocks down. She banks a smoke bomb off the wall of a nearby building to land right at their feet. The ensuing cloud is enough to confuse and disorient them, and she uses the cover to sneak up on them, stabbing one in the back (getting him right in the lung), and then rolling up and clamping a hand over the last guy’s mouth before cutting his throat. She takes the time to stash these two as well. Later on, when everything has died down, she retrieves all four bodies, and stashes them somewhere they’ll be found in the morning, with Wulfric’s symbol prominently displayed.

The last thing she does is circle back to the butcher shop, where the Bluecoats are crawling all over the scene, taking statements and cataloguing evidence. It quickly becomes obvious to Kamali that it’s not a high priority case. Eventually the Bluecoats all leave, and then it’s just the shop owner and his family left to pick up the pieces. Kamali breezes right in the front door with a mask on, hands them a piece of paper, bows with a flourish, and exits.

The paper bears, in flawless flowing Iruvian script, a passage from the Book of Light, a classical Iruvian text: “I was parched, and you gave me vinegar. I was cold, and you closed your door to me. In Paradise, I will drink wine and wear silk. You will be judged.”

As she disappears into the night, there are calls of “Who are you?! Why are you doing this?!”

Notes:

I am REALLY loving the new rules for the Engagement rolls. Nice and simple: Start with your crew’s Tier, add/subtract dice for advantages/disvantages, result tells you what the default Position is for the job.

This was definitely a case of work smarter, not harder. If they’d hit the Grinders head on (like the refugees had been trying to do), they would have needed a lot more hands, and it still would have been really difficult. They managed to find the gang’s weak spot and exploit it.

It would have been a bit too on-the-nose to make the Grinders actual skinheads (besides which, there were a very particular set of circumstances that led to the skinhead movement first coming into being in the UK in the 60s, and then becoming what they eventually became in the late 70s and early 80s), but I hit the important markers. The banner with the Imperial Crest was a reference to the National Front co-opting St. George’s Cross (and the Union Jack, for that matter) for their political aims.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 44 (December 01 2016)

Constance goes to Dunslough to speak to the Skovlan refugees. She finds them at the Devil’s Tooth, somewhat subdued due to several of their friends having recently been killed. She speaks to Markus, giving Shade’s alias Geirfin Holm as a reference, and offers her services in making an example of the Grinders. Markus accepts, and speculates that Constance has Skovlan blood, due to her height.

Kamali and Shade meet with Clermont that night at his home. After Kamali is certain that they are not being spied on, they speak openly about the refugee situation. Clermont explains that someone higher up in the Consulate seems to have something to gain from the conflict continuing, and he’s been forbidden from intervening. He is growing ever more dissatisfied with the situation.

Kamali gets the idea to put together a shipping company, that the refugees could buy into, and they would all have a way to make money, and a built-in means of going home if they wished. All that’s required is some startup capital (and a ship, of course).

Clermont agrees to organize letter-writing to loved ones at home, and grease the wheels in regards to permits and such to facilitate the setting up of the company. Shade agrees to look into who’s pulling the Grinders’ strings.

The crew meets. Shade presents their findings, which alters Constance’s plan a bit. She resolves to speak to the refugees again and convince them not to take any direct action against the Grinders, as she needs them to stay clean.

After the meeting, Constance and Shade are up on the roof. She asks him about Skovlan legends, and he tells her the story of Christof, a great warrior, whose exploits and heroic death were detailed in several epic poems written by distant Skovlan ancestors. However, Christof is not the sort of character that Constance is looking for, as he had a habit of walking up to the front gates of the enemy and loudly challenging them to single combat. Shade also tells the story of Wulfric the Stalker, a mysterious hunter who strikes at night, leaving his victims dead with no witnesses, walking through walls, and the like. This is much more to Constance’s liking, and she formulates a plan to engineer the rebirth of Wulfric, who will wreak vengeance on the Grinders on behalf of the refugees (who meanwhile will all have airtight alibis).

Gather Info on the Grinders:

Gears heads to the nearest pub in Barrowcleft, The Broken Anchor (the pub used to be located in the Docks, but the original building burned down several decades ago after one too many drunken brawls). He meets Nelson, one of the Grinders, and gives him the name Corbett. He tells Nelson a sob story about his wonderful innocent daughter, the light of his life, whose head had been turned by a dirty Iruvian reprobate (whose father owns a butcher shop in Silkshore). [Kamali had no trouble providing a suitable target that was less than sympathetic to her family’s plight several years ago.] Nelson introduces Gears to his friends, Ned, Mack, and Frank. Gears negotiates 1 Coin to rough up the father & son and wreck the shop, but not kill anyone. They give him an address to bring the Coin to in two days.

Notes:

Continuing with the theme of mounting racial tensions. There’s a fair bit of nationalist talk from the Grinders, a lot of “Akoros for Akorosi”, and all that.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 43 (November 30 2016)

The crew heads into the Bucket in the morning, and finds that many of the familiar faces have been replaced by a somewhat more upscale clientele, and the prices have nearly doubled. Constance speaks to one of the few remaining regulars at the bar, who complains that they’re being run out by the rich snobs that are taking over the neighborhood. She promises to do something about it.

Constance speaks to Gears and Prichard, and says that the factory needs a commissary. Constance runs the idea by Fitz, and he’s all for it, says to work out the details with McDonough.

The crew holds a meeting. Things have been set in motion with the Strays, and it needs time to percolate, so they turn their attention to the Skovlanders. Constance relates the story of the Sisters of the Open Hand, a defunct charitable organization made up mainly of bored rich housewives. Years ago, Constance’s father asked one of them if they spent their husband’s Coin, and she had explained to him the concept of a fundraiser. It is Constance’s intention to hold some sort of function to raise money to give the Skovlander refugees a means to get back home, if that’s their wish. They discuss the details and logistics of such an undertaking. Gloves volunteers to speak to possibly charity-minded ladies of means (Lady Polonia’s associates). He also suggests speaking to Clermont directly. Constance puts Shade on this.

Speaking to Clermont:

Shade goes to the Skovlan Consulate to speak to Clermont, with Kamali posing as his personal assistant. He gives a clerk his real name, Valeris Lamond, and they’re put in a waiting room and given tea. While they’re there, they both attempt to Attune. They see a ghost caught in a loop, hiding behind a corner, then stepping out, drawing a pistol, addressing someone who was apparently sitting on the couch where Shade and Kamali are waiting, and firing. Then he turns and abruptly flickers out, beginning the cycle again. Kamali gets the bright idea to sit in the spot where the ghost was aiming, and when he shoots again, she is hit with spectral energy. She is not in a position to spend Stress to Resist, so she takes a level 1 wound.

The clerk returns and leads them upstairs, and they see what passes for Skovlan art on the walls as they’re taken to Clermont’s office. To Kamali’s eyes it seems primitive, savage even, but it reminds Shade of home. Clermont is waiting for them in his office. Shade introduces himself, and finds that his reputation precedes him. Clermont listens politely to his proposal, but in the end dismisses it with some bluster, claiming it’s not feasible. However, he surreptitiously passes a note to Kamali on their way out, directing them to meet with him privately later.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 42 (November 22 2016)

Kamali forges some written orders from Ellsworth to an unspecified party to hit the Strays’ HQ. Gears drops them in a conspicuous spot in Strays territory, where he knows they’ll find them.

Engagement roll is 6. Everything goes as planned. The Strays are on edge due to what they found, and have all assembled in their hideout.

Constance, Shade, and Boots head into the apothecary, while the Lampblacks stay outside to keep anyone else from coming in. The shop owner sees what’s about to happen, and with minimal coaxing from Constance, decides he’s overdue for a vacation. They head downstairs and Constance kicks the door in. The Strays are ready for them. There are six of them, three in front with clubs, and two in back guarding the leader, who is armed with a crossbow. Constance wades in and starts swinging. She didn’t bring the anchor, as it’s close quarters, and she’s not actually trying to kill anyone. She gets some good hits in, and takes a couple of knocks in return, before deciding to bowl through to first rank to get to the leader. Upon seeing this, he raises the crossbow. Constance grabs one of the bodyguards and throws him into the leader’s line of fire just as the crossbow goes off. The poor guy gets a crossbow bolt in the back as he tumbles into the leader, sending them both to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Shade manages to stay out of the front ranks’ reach for the time being. Boots hangs back with two pistols at the ready.

Gears, Kamali, and Gloves traverse the sewers, and find the side passage that leads up to the Strays’ back door. Gears doesn’t want to use anything noisy like explosives on the door, and he knows he can’t pick the lock after Kamali jammed it. Instead he applies some acid to the door itself, around the area where the lock is mounted. It takes a few minutes, but by the time they hear the front door team getting busy, the acid has done enough damage that Gears is able to kick the door open, the lock clattering to the ground. They make a beeline for the vault door, which is no match for Kamali. Opening the vault, they set about cleaning it out, transferring everything they can carry to Gears’ cart down in the main tunnel. On the way out, Kamali drops the remaining blackmail material halfway down the stairs, and fires a single shot from a Derringer-type holdout pistol.

Upon hearing the signal, Constance is able to down the other bodyguard and disengage, but Shade isn’t so lucky. Boots comes to the rescue and hits each of the remaining front-rankers. The shots aren’t fatal, but they’re enough to distract the thugs long enough for Boots to help Shade retreat while Constance drags one of the shelves from the shop and topples it down the stairs to block the doorway, at least temporarily. The crew makes their escape while the Strays are picking themselves up and trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

Aftermath:

Rep: 1

Coin: 8, -1 for the tithe to the Crows, +8 from the Drug Dens and the Gambling Dens

Heat: 3. They managed to not kill anyone, but it was not exactly a quiet job, and the Strays qualify as a well-connected target.

Entanglement: None

Downtime:

Constance starts by reducing Heat (and manages to clear it all), Heals, and Reduces Stress. Yanth Agog appears, and directs her to go back to Coalridge to find Ellie, the pregnant woman she saved from being trampled by a runaway cart back in Session 20. Constance finds her exactly where she was told she would, and escorts her back to her home, where it is evident that the baby will not wait any longer. Constance assists in delivering a baby boy. Ellie tells Constance that her husband can’t know about Yanth Agog, but she knows that someday He will come for the child. Constance looks into the child’s eyes, and just for a moment, sees something ancient and alien staring back.

Kamali trains Playbook, and Gathers Info on the Skovlanders by going back to Clermont’s safe. The situation is continuing to escalate, and Clermont is evidently not happy that his orders continue to be “observe and don’t intervene”. The Grinders have retaliated very recently, and several of the refugees that Shade was acquainted with have been killed.

Shade reduces Stress, and Heals. He also spends a Coin to cast a Ritual.

Gears works on the carriage (completing the project), and starts a new project to mount the cannon on the carriage (and gets 4 ticks).

Notes:

Nice basic heist. I made good on my promise to myself to start hammering them with Harm, and the job felt appropriately dangerous as a result. I made it clear at the beginning of the fight that the Strays were not out to kill them outright just yet, as they certainly wanted to know exactly who was stupid enough to try and mess with them in their own hideout. Once Constance dropped the first guy however, they realized what was at stake, and the leader immediately went for his crossbow.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 41 (November 17 2016)

Shade wakes up in the alley in Charhollow. It has apparently only been a few minutes. Quellyn wakes up a few moments later, and they take stock of the situation. The Spirit Well is still there. Jezelle is nowhere to be seen. Shade considers informing Setarra of the Spirit Well’s existence, which Quellyn believes is the worst idea ever conceived. She puts up an illusory wall to hide the alley and deter passersby from getting too curious.

Not too long afterward, Jezelle returns to the alley, seeing through the illusion immediately but thoroughly amused by it. She is crackling with spectral energy, and her eyes are solid white. She is more than a bit giddy from the experience, and has been experimenting with her newfound abilities, zapping rats with bolts of energy. She speculates that she should use this power on people that deserve to be punished. Shade and Quellyn have a philosophical difference of opinion on this. They discuss how to proceed, both agreeing that anyone they could possibly ask for information regarding Spirit Wells (The Dimmer Sisters and the Path of Echoes come to mind) would also be someone that certainly shouldn’t be informed of its existence. Quellyn resolves to go look up whatever books she can find on the subject, and they both will work on securing the well in a more permanent fashion.

Shade returns in time to see Constance come back. He is in awe.

The crew discuss business. Shade gives a report on Sebjorn and the Spirit Well. Constance asks Shade about the Skovlanders, he says his cover is intact. She decides Kamali should visit the safe to see if Clermont has any information on their recent activities.

Constance brings up Ellsworth, and Gloves & Kamali give a report of their interactions with Ellsworth’s former blackmail victims. Ridwaan Jaffer (of the Iruvian Consulate) & Ettore Rodia (of the City Council) were both very glad to be out from under Ellsworth’s thumb, and paid a total of 8 Coin for their blackmail information. They will be happy to help deal with Ellsworth when the time comes. However, Luther Curtis was very suspicious of the whole thing, and politely told them to fuck directly off (which they did).

According to the information the crew got from the Lost, the Strays are based in Coalridge, hang out at the Red Lamp pub, and are nominally friendly with the Grinders and the Cabbies. They do not know where the Strays’ HQ actually is as of yet.

Constance has a plan. They will start by planting forged instructions from Ellsworth to some unknown party to hit the Strays’ hideout in a place where the Strays are sure to find it. This will be followed by an actual break-in (the crew will not be wearing anything which would identify them as the Dolls), during which someone (possibly Kamali) will drop the remaining blackmail material for the Strays to discover. If the Strays believe that Ellsworth has sold them out, they are more likely to attempt to capitalize on the blackmail material themselves. Ellsworth will likely see this as the Strays turning on him. Once Ellsworth is cut off from his hired muscle, the crew will hit his house directly, taking anything of value that they can. Finally, the grateful blackmail victims will descend on him and deal with him as they see fit. It is Gears’ intention that the man live long enough to suffer properly.

Preparation & Gather Info:

Gloves puts the word out that Ellsworth is dissatisfied with his arrangement with the Strays, and is looking for outside assistance. However, this doesn’t go as well as he’d hoped (bad roll, -1 to Engagement).

Gears will hang out in the Red Lamp observing. Takes a Devil’s Bargain, and the Strays notice him. But he gets a crit, so it’s worth it (+1 to Engagement). He gives Kamali a detailed report on the members of the Strays that he was able to observe.

Kamali and Boots follow one of the Strays from the Red Lamp all the way back to their HQ, in the basement of an apothecary not too far from the pub. While Boots distracts the shopkeeper with a conversation regarding potential remedies for Valter’s digestive troubles, Kamali is able to slip downstairs unnoticed and scope the place out. Another crit on a desperate roll sees her prowling around the place. She’s able to put together a full map of the place, sees the door to the Strays’ vault (but holds off on opening it right then and there), and finds an emergency exit to the sewers. She decides against leaving the door unlocked, as her policy is to never leave behind any evidence that she was there, so the crew will need to use force if they want to get in that way. She does jam the tumblers of the lock so that if the Strays attempt to use it as their escape route, they will be unable to open it from the inside. She leaves the way she came in, and makes her way back to the hideout to give Constance her report (+2 to Engagement).

Notes:

A little more planning than is usual for Blades, but we were having fun with it, so it’s all good.

I need to work on coming up with good Devil’s Bargains, and giving them out more often.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 40 (November 03 2016)

Shade and Boots sit on their Stray prisoners until Constance arrives. She dismisses Boots, telling him to send a message to Inspector Woll, and have him meet them at the quarry. Shade helps set up a spooky atmosphere in which to question the prisoners.

Constance heads over to the neighboring room across the hall, bangs on the door, and offers some money to the occupants (a young couple engaged in some very personal business) to vacate the premises. Upon seeing the cash, they retreat forthwith, pausing only to hastily put enough of their clothes back on to make a dignified exit.

Constance questions the prisoners separately at first, then all together, telling them that one of them will go free, and the other two will go to Ironhook. The three give up Ellsworth almost immediately, but when it becomes clear to the two larger prisoners, Vladimir and Abdur, that the smallest of the three, Willy, had managed to answer first, they turn on him and toss him out the window. Because fuck him.

Constance has Shade go retrieve Inspector Woll as the crematorium bell tolls, and the ravens are seen circling overhead. Shade brings Woll in to see the remaining two prisoners, and he takes charge of the situation. Vladimir all but confesses to killing Willy. This is good enough for Woll, and he asks Constance to go to the nearest watch station and bring the Bluecoats. Thoroughly bemused by the thought of actively aiding the law, she does so.

Downtime:

Payoff: Constance got 3 Coin off Ulstano. She paid 1 to the Gondolier.

Heat: 2. Willie was killed, but the Inspector got a confession out of Vladimir, so it doesn’t come back on the Dolls.

Constance: Reduces Heat by using Command to threaten everyone in the flophouse to keep their mouths shut. She also reduces Stress, going up to the roof of the factory to listen for the Voice of Yanth Agog. He appears, as usual, as a shadow just barely visible out of the corner of her eye over her shoulder. He tells her that she has been following His instructions well, and she is to be rewarded. He tells her to turn around and look at Him. When she does, the world explodes into a cacophony of light, sound, and sensation, that lasts either an eternity or a fraction of a second, depending on your point of view. Before she can claw her own eyes out, the experience ends, and she finds herself in a wholly unfamiliar location. It’s a city, but not like any she’s ever seen.

Kamali: Trains playbook and reduces stress.

Shade: Finishes the ghost manifest ritual, and picks up Quellyn to investigate Sebjorn. After a successful Attune roll, they find his trail, and it leads to an apparently unclaimed Spirit Well in Charhollow. Jezelle, who had been covertly following them, is transfixed by the sight of the thing, and despite Quellyn’s warnings (and prompted by Shade’s urging), steps forward into the spirit well. The last thing Shade hears of Quellyn screaming “Do something!” before everything explodes. [Note: Shade still has one downtime action left.]

Gears: Reduces stress, and starts a project to build a carriage (and gets halfway).

Epilogue:

It turns out that Constance didn’t travel all that far after all. The unfamiliar location she’s found herself is on the roof of one of the more opulent manor houses in Whitecrown. Finding no convenient way down to the ground, which is easily ten stories below her, she pries up some roof tiles and knocks a hole in the ceiling underneath to get into one of the attics. From there she makes her way down to the front entrance. All the while, anyone she comes across, servant and guard alike, is frozen to the spot at the sight of her, seemingly in abject terror. She makes it out onto the street unmolested, and begins the long walk home. Across Bowmore Bridge, through Brightstone and the Docks, the reactions of terror from passersby continue all the way back to Crow’s Foot, and even when she enters the Bucket.

Turns out she’s been missing for three days, and her Lampblack cohort have been busy whipping themselves up into a frenzy, convinced that someone had actually managed to kidnap her, and are just about ready to go out and start rampaging to find her. With her newly purchased Glorious Visage veteran advance, she shocks them into submission (and in the process completes the project to remove their Wild trait).

Notes:

A side plot session, to be sure, but no small amount of personal drama going on, and Constance’s Forgotten Gods arc comes to a head. The reaction from Constance’s player when I said “Turn around” was well worth the wait.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 39 (November 02 2016)

A Brief Interlude:

Constance assembles the Lampblacks and has Boots brief them on Ulstano’s description and suspected location. After talking privately with Prichard, Constance gets the idea to wait until after Ulstano’s friend has delivered his cash and he makes a break for it. That way they also get paid.

The Lampblacks stake out the area along Bell St, which is their former territory, so they know it very well. They and Constance are able to corner Ulstano and his friend at the end of the street by the canal. They scare off the friend and tie up Ulstano. Just at that moment there’s a Bluecoat patrol coming up the block, so Prichard gets them off the street and into the cellar of a nearby tenement building. Constance sends one of the Lampblacks to go hire a gondola, and send a message to The Lost.

The crew meets with Col Adams and Sgt Lynch to hand off Ulstano. Constance makes sure Adams sees her pay off the gondolier to forget he ever saw any of them. The Lost are from Coalridge, so Constance hits them up for information on the Strays. Adams is able to give her reliable information on where they are likely to be found. Constance judges this, along with the cash they got from Ulstano, to be fair compensation. The gondolier drops her off at the Temple, and takes The Lost back to wherever they want, with Ulstano in tow. Constance notices that the Temple is looking a little forsaken, so she hangs a doll part on the front door with a bit of string to let everyone know it’s still claimed.

Kidnapping for Fun and Profit:

The Strays (Tier I) are a culturally diverse lot, based in Coalridge, with a number of different concerns, but are known mainly for being fairly mercenary, doing various odd jobs for other larger gangs. They are in fact much like the Dolls in this respect.

Shade and Kamali head off to Coalridge. Along the way, Shade attunes to try and find Virgil, his ex-Bluecoat ghost contact. It takes a little longer than usual, but he eventually finds Virgil in Charterhall, in the middle of an errand. Shade and Kamali accompany Virgil to deliver a small wooden box to a fellow ghost, learning a bit more about ghostly abilities than they did before. Apparently, Virgil’s “sense of self” is still very strong, and this is both a weakness (he has to deliberately concentrate in order to be able to pass through walls and other solid objects) as well as a strength (he is easily able to manipulate physical objects, such as unlocking a door for them once he’s inside the building). After this, Virgil follows them to Coalridge.

Their detour in Charterhall gives Boots enough time to catch up with them and deliver the information from Col Adams. The Strays tend to hang out at the Red Lamp, a pub located in Brickston, the most densely populated section of the city (the streets are so narrow and the buildings so close together that carts won’t even fit between most of them). After renting a room for the night in a local flophouse to serve as a temporary hideout, Shade, Kamali, Boots, and Virgil stake out the Red Lamp and manage to locate all three of the individuals detailed in the report and follow them back to where they call home.

They grab the first gang member, Willie, in his flophouse apartment with no problems. Kamali shoots him with a drugged crossbow bolt and knocks him out, and Boots ties him up and carries him back to their temporary hideout.

The second, Vladimir, lives in what is actually a fairly upscale townhouse, relatively speaking. There’s even a guard on the front door. However, Kamali goes in via an upstairs window, and surprises him just as he’s coming out of the bathroom.

The third, Abdur, ends up being a bit of trouble. Kamali ends up spooking him just as he’s coming out of his room above a takeout Iruvian place. A chase ensues. He attempts to get back to his friends at the Red Lamp, but Shade, Boots, and Virgil are able to steer him in the right direction while Kamali gets ahead of everyone and sets up an ambush. In the end, the team is able to work together to bring him down. Once he’s tied up, they drag him back to where his two friends are still lying unconscious. Kamali takes off to inform Constance that she has some interrogations to conduct.

Notes:

Shade has some ideas of how to better utilize Virgil’s particular talents. The primary obstacle to all this is that Virgil still has a strong sense of duty and honor (he was after all, killed for being an honest cop).

Boots’ player is no longer available, so for now we’re treating Boots and Gloves as Expert Cohorts, each with a Quality of 2.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 38 (October 20 2016)

A newspaper article on the front page reveals that a Lieutenant in the Bluecoats and a member of the City Council were found dead in Nightmarket last night. Gears recognizes the names as two of Ellsworth’s blackmail victims.

Gears gets the idea to approach the remaining victims and attempt to rally them against Ellsworth, but Constance is reluctant to assume that Ellsworth is behind it. Constance suggests that she and Gears sell the blackmail evidence back to the rest of the victims, while Kamali and Shade investigate the murders.

Door to Door Salesmen:

There are nearly a dozen people in Ellsorth’s files, but the following names stand out:

* Ridwaan Jaffer: Associate in the Iruvian Consulate. Blackmailed for taking bribes.

* Ettore Rodia: City Council member. Blackmailed for monkeying with local elections.

* Luther Curtis: Wealthy merchant. Blackmailed for bucking import tariffs.

* Lady Drake: Local Magistrate. Blackmailed for association with local gang members.

Constance and Gears speak to Lady Drake, as she’s the only one they already know. They offer her folder to her for free, but they ask for assistance in contacting the others on the list, for the purposes of letting them sort out amongst themselves how best to deal with Ellsworth. Lady Drake is grateful to be out from under his thumb, and says she will coordinate everything and send them info on times and places.

Law & Order: Doskvol

Shade goes to see Inspector Woll to try and get a copy of the crime scene report. Woll knows the Inspector on the case (Ingrid Frantzen), and gets a copy of the report to give to Shade the next day.

That evening after dinner, Fitz brings McDonough to the Bucket. He’s considerably cleaned up, and quite grateful for his new lease on life. Constance asks about Ellsworth, he tells them about Ellsworth’s ruffian friends that used to hang around the factory. Kamali brings a message from a crow, stating that Col Adams of The Lost wants to speak to Constance about an urgent matter.

Flashback to earlier in the afternoon: Shade hands off the report to Kamali, who brings it to Darmot that evening. They review the report together over some curry. The victims were Lt Stevens of the Watch, and Councilor Bollen. They were found together under a bridge in Nightmarket, each shot once in the head with a pistol at close range. The circumstances are suspicious, because the two men didn’t have any particular reason to be together, and neither of them had any particular reason to be in Nightmarket. Darmot sees a description of several suspicious individuals with distinctive tattoos that were seen in the area, and based on the tattoos he identifies them as members of the Strays, a small gang based on Coalridge. He notes that it’s only a matter of time before Ingrid figures out who they are and rounds them up, but Kamali has a bit of a head start. Kamali brings the info back to the Factory, where she finds a crow waiting on the roof with a message for Constance.

Constance heads to The Cat & Cradle in Charterhall. The Lost want permission from Constance to hunt down a serial killer they’ve tracked to Crow’s Foot. His name is Ulstano, and the bodies of several children were found in his basement. He’s currently hiding out in a tenement building in Crow’s Foot, waiting for a friend of his to bring enough cash to get him onto a ship. Constance agrees to have her people apprehend him and bring him to The Lost, as she’s concerned about the public’s perception of an unknown gang coming into Dolls territory and meting out justice.

Notes:

Things are starting to come together for our second arc. The Dolls are established now, and starting to branch out, and we’ll see their friends and enemies grow accordingly.

#dontmesswiththedolls