ACTUAL PLAY: The Hagfish?
This is a long post, you are warned, so here’s
TL;DR: First operation of a new Assassin crew trying to establish hold beneath the shadow of a hidden war between two ancient Iruvian cults.
We recently rebooted our Blades game in a Living Campaign fashion, and I thought people might be interested some actual play about it. Also, I’m GMing and I kinda wanted to organize my thoughts.
This reboot, we decided to go with a new Assassin crew(!), caught up in some of the aftermath of our last campaign.
Some premise: We have two factions of our own making.
1) The Lilies: The last crew we were playing in our campaign. An ancient Iruvian sex cult that worships a dead god named Illith Lindee who was said to be the god of death and shepherd to spirits before the Gates of Death were constructed. Essentially the cult believes that ghosts can be transcended beyond this world through practice of sex magic. Also possessors of rituals that mitigate a ghost’s need to drain spirit essence, and can prevent them from going feral. Their lair was the Lily’s End, an old dilapidated theatre on the outskirts of Six Towers that they’ve turned into an arcanely hidden Brothel for ghosts. Also owners of a couple other brothels. Strong ties to the Reconciled, and old Iruvia, which brings us to…
2) The Ouroboros: An ancient Iruvian occult society, said to be run by a Demon. Basically the Unseen to the iruvian underworld, lots of human trafficking and contraband. Heavy inspiration from Tzimsce, Bene Tleilaxu, and Faceless Men. They practice occult Chirurgy, and are rumoured to warp flesh and bone to their purpose. Also rumors of a royal lineage exhibiting snake-like features. Not a big organization, but said to have sleeper agents everywhere. Agenda unknown. Tried to muscle on the Lilies before we broke off our last campaign.
Both decided to be Tier III at the time of this new campaign.
Which brings us to the Hagfish(?), our new (and newly named) Assassin crew.
Characters:
Hix Maroden: Hound – A hulking, scarred, grey skinned(disease remnants; think greyscale from GoT, but it’s under control) former dock worker with a boat harbored at the west tip of the canal. She took Not to Be Trifled with, if that gives you a better picture. She picked a portrait of Ursula’s scowling face from the Little Mermaid as her character’s image, if that gives you and even better picture. Pet decided to be a giant man-eating Conger Eel. Observations from play; like to drink, fuck, fight, and freak people out. Also, ostensible face of the group, despite her demeanor and appearance.
Lizette: Hound – Skovlander orphan turned mercenary for the Imperial armies. Athletic, hooded, and threadbare. Stalks the rooftops of Doskvol with a hobby for killing “bad men”. Has a few rooftop lean-tos ala the Punisher’s ammo-caches in Daredevil. Observations from play; Quiet, Macho, Shy.
Polonia: Slide – Broodling of a snake-like lineage from the Ouroboros. Decided she was trying to prove herself as a valuable operative for them by getting some dirty work done, and organizing a cell. Took mesmerism as a slide advance, which is fantastic color for a freaky snake lady. As her fine “disguise kit” we argue that she has something she calls “glamour powder” which smooths out her minor snake-scales among the other implied effects, and her passive mesmerist stuff makes people not notice her snake eyes unless as a consequence of an action. Observations from play: flirtatious, no-nonsense, arguably brains of crew.
Lair: Hix’s boat The Kosuku Unagi – The crew took Boat House and Assassin Rigging as advances. Why they didn’t take hidden or secure instead of Assassin Rigging? IDK. Trying to be generous with the boat, since it’s their junking lair as well. We’ll figure that out. Moored at the west end of The Docks.
Also, according to our crew creation, we start with a downtick for the Ouroboros, and an uptick with the Lilies. Decided we sold out the Ouroboros’ action, and we’re trying to redeem ourselves.
SESSION 1: Dead Drop orders, a brief date with Orlan Keele, and brawl some Bluecoats because why not?
Making our crew, we took the Patron advance, saying that the relatively small-staffed Ouroboros was hiring disposable cells to do their dirty work, with Polonia organizing this one. Decide they get orders from their patron, the Ouroboros, through a (not-quite) dead-drop package at an establishment Polonia frequents. Orders: infiltrate dock house 3, retrieve Orlan Keele with face unharmed, alive if possible, and change a ledger entry to allocate a shipment to a different warehouse.
Our crew took Disappearance as their starting hunting ground, and we decided it was constrained to the Docks (still working out how to manage hunting grounds). The order note had a timeline of “2 days” for the operation, so Lizette took a free pre-downtime to survey Dock House three. It was discovered that Keele’s schedule seems predictable. Right after sundown he heads to a nearby bar for a couple drinks. I’m not sure if our op was planned as Social or Deception, but it ended up with a fantastic engagement roll. Polonia met Keele at the bar, proceeded to flirt it up, while Hix and Lizette surveyed the Dock House. More good rolls, and Polonia had Keele to agree to move to a more “private” location, for a more enjoyable evening; the Dock House. In the meantime Hix is scumming the docks and notices Keele’s beefy security guard stepping outside to smoke a cigar. A fortune roll, with some weight from her background, and we realize it’s an old coworker Roan. The bicker, and I’m fuzzy on the details, but I’m almost positive that after a failed roll trying to goad Roan into arm-wrestling, Hix just decks him. Goes well (as far as Hix’s agenda) and they end up in a brawl in the middle of the docks. Bluecoats come and ask for a bribe… goes bad, yada yada yada, Roan and Hix ended up kicking the shit out of two bluecoats as a crowd gathers. A bloodied Roan and a nearly stabbed, black-eyed Hix stumble to a bar; friends forever. Meanwhile…
Polonia has a smitten Keele arriving at the backdoor to the Dock House just as Lizette sprints up, blasting him in the back of the head with the butt of her rifle. Rolls well. Unconcious Keele and keys to the dockhouse are obtained. Lizette busies herself carrying the unconcious man, while Polonia deals with the ledger. She finds it easily, but after a failed study roll to do it quickly, a bluecoat raps on the door asking for witnesses involving the beating of the two bluecoats. Mesmerism engages, and the Bluecoat officer agrees that tomorrow morning would be a better time to come by. Lizette uses her mental linked hawk to scout a clear path through the alleys, and dumps Keele (bound and gagged) into the boat house beside Hix’s dock. Some brief interrogation takes place on the bound Keele, which goes poorly and he warns “Whoever is paying you, they don’t understand what their dealing with. You make mistakes on the docks and they’ll come! They’ll fucking get you! There’s something you don’t want to delve into.” Eventually they all slink back and ferry their ‘cargo’ across the canal to silk shore, completing the hand-off of Keele to their Patron. Bag of coin tossed across from a gondola. Operation concluded.
In term’s of payout I decided “Face unharmed?” check. “Ledger adjusted?” check. “Quiet” not quite… Six coin score, moderate heat. Our crew spends most of downtime healing from injuries, following up on the new warehouse they adjusted cargo to goto (only witnessing a fancy palanquin leaving the new warehouse), and training. Training EXP is no joke.
I roll entanglements and get “Rivals”. A neutral crew throws their weight around. Knock knock. It’s the Hive. Thanks for fucking with our biz.
If anyone read all the way through this, show some support and I’ll post our second session tonight. New to actual plays, and up for critique. Trying to bolster my GM skills, and to that effect I’d love to give a play-by-decision breakdown of some stuff that happened.
xoxo