Author: ClockworkOwl

Duskwall Weekly, Oct.15.

Some of the events are not related to either crew.

Decided to do weekly summary for the players, since there are two crews running on same city. Here’s the first one(English version; I make separate one for my local language):

Friday team, session 2. The cult blew up Grinders stable – second KA-BOOM score of the crew. Since their deity approves brewing conflict and war, this is appropriate action of them. On the site of explosion of Lampblacks’ lair(last session) and Grinders’ stables, certain objects belonging to the Grinders and Lampblack members, respectively, were deliberately planted by the crew.

Of 3 gang members who were guarding the place, one was possessed by Oskar, a possessor ghost, on the behalf of the crews’ Whisper. Another one was killed in action when the bomb went off – he was unlucky to have picked the wrong time to go satisfy the need for evacuation. The last one saw the explosion and promptly knocked out by “debris” – long, cylinderical metal debris that happened to be held by the one possessed by Oskar.

Grinders declared war with the Lampblacks, so the war on the Crows’ Foot had grown larger.

The operation went entirely silent(at least before the bomb went off), but the Red Sashes’ transport was caught with the explosive alchemical used by the crew(they made do with backup supply). Bluecoats, led by Investigators, are following these lead.

……And I’m more and more convinced that I have to “split the universe” between them and Tuesday team.

The Friday team went bigger – they actually blew up the Lampblack’s lair. In their first session.

Maelstrom is a daring crew of Cult who worships the Malum, deity of war, conquest and storm. In order to please their deity, the crew seeks to brew conflicts – within any group, or between groups. Crew consists of a Tycherosi lizard-headed Whisper(de facto leader), a Unity-war-veteran Hound, a Spider and a Slide.

Using the War on the Crows’ Foot as the starting condition, I decided to have Red Sashes hire them instead of Lampblacks – Wednesday and Friday team shared the same city, and I didn’t want to let Lampblacks win an easy victory.

Friday team had one more player(4) and they were marginally more willing to pull off crazy things. So that was my mistake.

I offered them the artifact score. As expected, they took interest in what this artifact actually does. What was unexpected, however, was that they decided to keep it(as up-front payment) and offered to blow up the Lampblack’s lair instead of planting the artifact there. Spider’s Sway(with assist) made 4/5, so I went with that, but Mylera will regard them with suspecions. What are they up to with an artifact with yet-to-be-known-dut-definately-not-beneficial functions?

Targets and objective set, now it was time for me to ask “What is the plan?”. And that was when the conversation went out of my hand. Planning lasted good 30 minutes, if not an hour, just to decide on WHAT ACTUALLY SHOULD THEY DO. Plant a bomb? How and where? How do we ensure the important Lampblack personnel are in there when it goes off?

I suggested two-stage score – they would sneak in and plant explosives in the lair in the score #1, have a meeting with the Lampblacks there and, ensuring everyone Needs To Be Dead are in, escape and Boom. They decided on that.

Score #1 would be sneaking into the lair and planting bombs, ready to be touched off. Slealth plan, point of entry was sewer. I told them nobody with sanity would suspect sewer because whatever lurking in it. Engagement roll: 1-3. Welp.

They confronted with a ghost who, after short conversation and threat of Whisper, turned out to be working for Lampblacks as sentry(he was bound to one of their whispers). And he gladly set the alarm off! Guards came close, the crew decided to throw the explosive prepared for the job(since the crew tier was 0, and flashback Acquire Asset rolls made 4/5, so it was more or less pathetic firecracker powder) at the guards, shot their gas lamp to ignite the bomb, and Whisper hurled some ghost at them for good measure. Guard down, but more was coming. The crew decided to step back and run like hell.

We decided that, it was the phase 1 of a bigger plan.

I told them “Of course you tested these explosives you acquired. You knew it was pathetic firecracker. You didn’t even meant to blow the building up with that – now, where is the real bomb?”. They said they acquired their bomb from the Red Sashes when they accepted the job. I told them a mad alchemist of theirs recently invented a new formula, got too excited over it, and created too much of them – enough to blow *their* lair up. It was volatile alchemical and they handed it to them gladly, as it was too dangerous to either keep or dump somewhere.

So, they borrowed a carrige from one of their friends – a tavern owner – and loaded these alchemical in oak barrels.

Their pursuer emerged from sewer entrance behind them, “commandeered” nearby civillian carrige and started following the crew. Hound took care of them with two well-placed shot – one at the driver and another right at the wheel axis. The carrige swerved, spinned and went out of control, disintegrating under violent impact.

Gunfight on the road drew attention, and a Bluecoat riding a hull(I said they had 2 in disposal, this was one of them) came in, demanding they stop immediately and submit to an inspection. The crew insisted they are civilians and the gunfire was self-defense from a gang of criminals, and they were running late for a transport contract and therefore have no time to stop. That didn’t work.

That was when the Whisper summoned a HORDE of ghost chasing behind them. The bluecoat panicked, made full speed and ran away.

The carrige went straight into the lair building of Lampblack, crashing into the front window before its cargo went off. The crew jumped off the carrige before it burst through the gangs’ defense line, and everyone was too surprised to give a chase.

Soooo, they pulled it off. Somehow. I told them they got paid but two goats, a carrige and a load of low-grade explosive enough to demolish a building(only if carefully and professionally applied) cost a ton, so it was not very profitable. On the other hand, they tried made it look like it was Grinders who did the sabotage, and blowing up someone’s lair is painting a HUGE target on their back, so I let them for now – but there is a 4-clock “Lampblacks find out the truth” ticking – Like I said, their Whisper got a freaking lizard head, and they are not getting away with *that*.

Just ran a first-ever session of Blades.

A yet-to-be-named crew of Bravos, consisting of a Leech-turned-Hound(Physicker special ability and Leech action ratings on Hound playbook), a Venomous skirmishing Leech, and a Whisper.

Hound was an ex-medic on the Unity War and insisted there will be “no killings” while conducting our business, which the rest of the crew gladly adhered to – even the thugs had Principled drawback for that! But as long as the enemy lived, she didn’t mind what actually happened to them – went around blowing up a couple fingers or a foot without hesitation.

I used the starting situation War on the Crows’ Foot, and they assaulted a Red Sashes drug den by the docks. They were in slightly good terms(+1) with Grinders who had control over the area, so things went smooth(a 6 on the engagement roll) in the beginning. The supposed-to-be-guards were drinking in the front room disguised as a small bar. Hound provided covering fire, Leech and Whisper came barging in, and 2 guards and the “bartender” was quickly incapacitated. A Bluecoat went running for any nearby patrol, though.

Back room had 5 gangs high on Sparks, which were quickly neutralized as well, before the last remaining one strides straight to the Leech(a failed Skirmish roll), extends both arms towards his face and exclaims with dignity:

“UNLIMITED POWER!”

A static ZAPs harmlessly in Leech’s face(Spark makes the user emit mild electrical energy), everyone falls silent, before the Hound decides to kneecap the guy in an attempt to regain serious air(assist provided by her, making final result a 4).

That filled the Bluecoat Patrol clock though, so sergeant Roland knocks the (already opened) door and asks what the hell were they doing discharging firearms in private property, and just in case, if this were their private property(and on a Totally Unrelated note, he would have a use for a coin or two).

The Leech responds by splashing an Eyeblind poison on his face and everyone ran out of a window in the back room, starting a chase which ended with a small canal just wide enough for a really daring leap between the crew and chasers, and a hapless Bluecoat having an unintended swimming session in it.

That made 03:40(character and crew making ended in 23:40) and had to postpone downtime for the next session – hopefully with me prepared for it.