Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports – Page 18

My First Game Part 2

As this was effectively a one-off, we rattled through Downtime super-quick and skipped entanglements. Mostly, they used their vices to manage stress – though the Hound over-indulged and wound up bragging for extra Heat (which was entertaining but unlikely to pay off).

Things escalated for Job 2. The group realised they had smuggled an awful spectre into the city – and one with a burning desire to kill Lord Strangford. They realised it was a conspiracy Bowmore, Clelland and Rowan to arrange the ‘perfect assassin’ and get Strangford off the Council – but no one would believe them.

The Spider gleaned that the likeliest opportunity was at an open meeting of the Council to discuss banning Iruvian art as being more likely to be ‘cursed’. The Spider had an art dealer friend (smuggling contact) and managed to infiltrate the crew. The Hound and Lurk dressed as priests but failed their Consort, so they resorted to bribing the guards with Coin and knowing that they were regarded as suspicious.

The Spider concealed their gear in a fake statue, so their weapons etc were to hand – but not on them. Unfortunately, this was also the conspirators plan as one Iruvian statue with four swords (basically Kali-esque) turned out to be a well-made Hull that the spectre was going to use to kill Strangford.

When the statue animated, the Hound shot it with electroplasmic rounds – but couldn’t pierce the armour. The Lurk tried to get in the way with swords but found his hands full of the conspirator’s henchman (the passenger from the smuggling job).

The Whisper Compelled the Spirit out of the Hull just enough for the Spider to use the Hound’s spare pistol (also with electroplasmic rounds) to shoot the spectre.

Unfortunately, violence in the Council chamber attracted the guards – at which point, the Spider used our first proper flashback to reveal that she had doped their drinks in the guard room earlier. The Lurk looked like a master swordsman as he fended off a bunch of doped guardsman to allow the group to escape.

There was no Coin for this – but it was a one-off and the PCs felt like heroes for stopping the conspiracy (which they had unwittingly aided). The end.

—-

The second score went a bit better than the first one as the group started to get more into the swing of the game’s style, hence the first flashback – and the teamwork move between Spider and Whisper. Always good to end on a high point, with people keen to play again.

Although I will probably reboot because I don’t want to think about the kind of Heat that comes from kicking off a fight in a Council chamber (against 50% of the Council’s plans) and doping the guards.

My First Game.

I’m summarising what happened for my own reflection and learning – plus any general advice on stuff I got wrong (and stuff I got right).

Crew: 4 Smugglers – a Hound (Deathland Scavenger), a Spider (Gondolier information broker), Whisper (an expelled Dimmer Sister) and a Lurk (Errol Flynn Dashing Rogue)

The ‘score’ was moving three passengers and a relic from the Deathlands into the city; from Barrowcleft to Six Towers.

Engagement: The Hound met with the passengers as they came through the barrier and led to the rendevouz with the crew’s barge. The roll was a 4, so they were off to a risky start.

Almost immediately after boarding, the crew noticed two small boats coming up on them. The Hound took a shot at some cargo netting dropping obstacles into the path of one boat snarling it up (but with a ‘5’ the gunshot was heard).

The Lurk grabbed the underside of a bridge and then dropped into the second boat (but with a 4, lost footing and landed on his ass – worse position). Scrambling to his feet and drawing his sword, he tried to deal with the three ‘pirates’. With a Desperate roll (aided by Daredevil), he managed to knock the three into the river but at a cost of Level 3 harm (reduced to 2 by armour and then Level 1 by resistance roll).

The Lurk jumped to shore and ran to the next bridge to get back onto the barge – but his ‘rival’ (a hostile bluecoat) was patrolling the bridge. With a Prowl (6), he managed to sneak past the bluecoat and drop onto the barge again.

Meanwhile, one of the passengers (an ally of the Hound) told him that the expedition beyond the barrier had a sinister bent, including a ritual being performed on one of the other passengers that saw them possessed.

The Hound clued in the Whisper and they agreed to separate the other two passengers. The expedition’s ‘leader’ came above decks and the crew attempted to keep them there with Consort. They failed – but resisted him realising they were stalling him.

This meant that the Whisper had only limited time to examine the catatonic passenger and discover there was something awful inside him. The ‘leader’ returned below decks, but the Whisper used Tinker to adjust the stove to issue smoke to drive him back above deck again.

They managed to reach Six Towers without further incident but the crew said they would see to the wellbeing of the catatonic passenger and had to Sway the ‘leader’ into just taking the relics to the Centuralia Club.

The score ended with the save delivery of goods and passenger, but the crew inheriting a heavily possessed young man. The Whisper would, in downtime, take the young man to the Dimmer Sisters for examination – little realising that the Sisters had sold the ritual to the expedition that allowed a particularly unpleasant spirit from beyond the barriers to be placed in a host and brought into the city.

PART 2 may follow

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The players mostly had fun. The Spider felt a little hard done by that they only really had one Consort – and it failed. I didn’t really get to use clocks much.

I found that a number of my GM habits were against the game’s spirit. For example, I am a big user of ‘perception checks’ and ‘sense motive’ but in a reactive sense – where I sense this game encourages me to just hand over information and see what active rolls the PCs want to make (i.e. Sway to get more info from a person).

I’m a little hazy on when people would make an Insight themed resistance check.

It felt like there were a ton of mechanics we didn’t really use.

Having collected three out of the four pre-cataclysmic tomes, The Shroud is in hot pursuit of the final book,…

Having collected three out of the four pre-cataclysmic tomes, The Shroud is in hot pursuit of the final book, currently being jealously guarded by a drug dealer named Mareek, who is hiding in one of Madame Tesslyn’s famed houses in the Red Light District of Silk Shore.

Watch as we masterfully bumble our way through the caper to steal a not so simple book…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo-pURtCRRw

We have officially entered the 3rd and “final” season of Six and Twenty: Blades in the Dark!

After fueling the gang wars of Crow’s Foot to gain the upper hand on the Lampblacks, Red Sashes, and Crows, The Shroud threw their hat into the political game and rigged an election to have one of their own be given all the political power in Crow’s Foot, while the remaining crew members took down the Red Sashes and Crows from within.

Now with Demon Princes and Land Leviathan knocking at the walls, how will The Shroud maintain their chokehold on the city?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxaqwmgqJsQ

A whole session of ‘Gathering Information’ and freeplay, in advance of the final score of the Orphans…

Does anyone else find it bothersome that a heavy load can carry heavy armor (5 load), plus just 1 other load?

Does anyone else find it bothersome that a heavy load can carry heavy armor (5 load), plus just 1 other load? I think its fine in theory, but what actually happens is my players need 1 armor (2 load) and then a couple other things, then they can’t mark the load for the heavy armor because its 3 more.. to do so would overencumber them

I run a duo of Hawkers known as the Rabbits (not their choice of name) who are trying to get rich quick and finding…

I run a duo of Hawkers known as the Rabbits (not their choice of name) who are trying to get rich quick and finding themselves in over their heads. Our game has been running for a few months, so here’s a relatively brief summary:

Corro Vale is a Leech and former academic who dropped out of school after creating a new drug out of leviathan blood called Rabbit’s Fury. Hoxley the smuggler introduces him to Vross Nexim, a Slide who has decided to leave the life of a courtesan and is much more suited to handling the sales aspect of drug dealing. The two of them operate out of a dilapidated warehouse in the Docks that’s been outfitted with a workshop and rather than making one-off deals they focus on establishing recurring clients who pay them per month for large batches of their product.

Their first client was Vestine Daava, proprietress of “The World,” what could best be described as a mini mall of vice, housing a bar, brothel, drug den, gambling hall, and inn. Vestine was sold on Rabbit’s Fury after the players were able to demonstrate that it would be able to drastically increase one’s stamina, and keep them in the World for longer.

After their initial success Vross and Corro learn of a stash of leviathan blood owned by the Fog Hounds and decided to steal it. Deep in the labyrinth of tunnels beneath Doskvol they find they find the stash…which Ulf Ironborn is currently trying to break into. Vross is wounded and traumatized after Ulf catches him telling a half-truth and trying the old “not-technically lying” gambit. However, they end up as allies when Corro picks the iron door to the contraband and agreeing to pay Ulf back for the leviathan bod they take from them room. Ulf carries Vross back to their boat himself.

Soon after Corro is approached by a man calling himself “The Gentleman Rivers” who’s master is interested in their product. Vross, meanwhile has learned that corpses have started showing up with their fingernails stained green–the one constant side effect of Rabbit’s Fury–after a quick debate money win’s out and they race a sample delivery to The Gentleman River’s associate The Kindlady Fields rather than investigate the deaths. Fields studies the Rabbits Fury for a moment and offers them a contract on behalf of her crew: The Humble Servants. Unbeknownst to the Rabbits they are now working for Lord Scurlock.

Now that business is out of the way the Rabbits try to get to the bottom of the whole green-nailed-corpse thing, their product is more of an unlicensed supplement than proper drug, and should be safe to consume. They reach out to a Spider named Larch who offer to find the truth if they can get some illegally imported meats and cheeses off of his hands. Finding a potential buyer they go in for a meeting, only to discover that the Buyer’s assistant is Vross’ brother who is pissed of by Vross’ pursuit of the criminal life. Thankfully, the buyer is oblivious to any drama going on and takes everything to ensure a fantastic Grand opening to the brothel he’s always wanted to open. After taking the coin back to Larch the Rabbits learn that the deaths were caused by a knockoff version of Rabbit’s Fury manufactured by a figured believed to be Corro’s former teacher who tried to steal his formulas.

Meanwhile, during downtime, Corro has sought to gain as much knowledge as he can and–after learning to attune–finds himself drawn to an abandoned mansion in Six Towers where he finds a long staircase to a shrine to The Closed Eye. Following graffitied instructions, he returns when the moon is absent from the sky and discovers the H’Ivayaset, worshipers of the forgotten god of knowledge. After drinking a psychedelic mushroom tea Corro comes face-to-face with the god who’s eyes were the sun and moon which allowed them to see everything in the world. Since the cataclysm The Closed Eye has entrusted mortals to become their missing eye, and find what has been hidden from their sight. Corro accepts their offer and becomes a cultist.

Vross has a dream where he is a lord. As he lays down to sleep one of his masked servants bottles his silver tears.

Then, finally, in our latest session the Rabbit’s lair is invaded by a horde of ghosts, and they race through the city trying to find someone who will help them before the Spirit Wardens discover their base and the drug lab within it. Despite a couple false starts and a falling out with Larch, the Rabbits manage to borrow some ghost-fighting gear from Corro’s fellow cult member Roethe Skora, and equip some of Ulf’s crew, who join them in the ensuing fight. They return to their lair to find fourteen ghosts tearing up Corro’s lab and launch into a mad attack in which the Rabbits are both nearly killed. One spirit ignores the fight and searches beneath a desk until it finds a vial of Rabbit’s Fury which it absorbs into its electroplasm, and starts to become corporeal once more and tries to make a deal, before it is killed mid sentence by one of Ulf’s overzealous lieutenants. The death bells ring for it and the non-injured fighters rush to dump its strange decaying matter into a canal a few blocks away.

Ran a great session last night using Kiel Chenier’s Blood in the Chocolate module from Lamentations as the basis for…

Ran a great session last night using Kiel Chenier’s Blood in the Chocolate module from Lamentations as the basis for a score, inspired by Jason Cordova and Tom McGrenery’s Fear of a Black Dragon podcast.

Took a little bit of tweaking to move the setting from 17th century France to Duskwall, but for the most part it plugged in really well. Toned down the candy-themed poisons a little (didn’t want to kill off the crew), but they had a BLAST searching Lucia’s chocolate factory. They made a powerful new enemy that will be fun to harass them with going forward.

BitD: Ghost Echoes update.

It’s been a fun arc, but I decided Friday night’s game would be our penultimate.

The crew had managed to get on the good side of The Veil’s patron, a Tycherosi lovingly referred to by one crew member as “New Boots” (they have a serpentine disposition) after a brief spat with The Bill Hooks that sent our Whisper, Seb, to prison for half a year (they agreed to take the fall for a crime committed by the Red Sashes as part of a deal).

Our Leach, Helena, finished her Ghost Echo transportation device but wound up shunting herself far to the north, only to be rescued by a Tycherosi sheep farmer on a forgotten winter isle. Her journey home would be a long one.

And our Slide, Will, found themselves without a day job, having inadvertently meddled in the business of their own Brothell.

But things turned around quickly.

In one heist, they accepted a job from their ghostly patron, Amoncio, to steal documents from a nobles manor.

In another, they pulled off a daring plan to hijack an entire carriage full of raw Leviathan blood using zeppelin power.

And just before the score of the day, they’d accepted a request to sabotage a Halloween themed Sparkright expo, thus thwarting the unveiling of a ghost powered electroplasmic siphon.

So standards were pretty high.

Little did we know, by the end of this score, we’d be betrayed by our patron.

Little did we know, we’d find ourselves working with the Lamp Blacks against our better interest.

Little did we know we’d be commissioned to STEAL AN ENTIRE TRAIN CAR and succeed (with the power of WEIRD SCIENCE!).

And little did we know that we’d be looking forward to a final episode centered around the marriage of our now-material matron and one of the crews most painful spurs.

It’s been a lot of fun.

Last night I had the opportunity to experience Blades in the Dark as a player for the first time (I’ve GMed it a ton…

Last night I had the opportunity to experience Blades in the Dark as a player for the first time (I’ve GMed it a ton though). In appreciation, I made beef-and-onion hand pies for the group.

We decided to create a daring duo of Bravos.

I played D’ruva Hakan (alias: Salt), an Iruvian Hound with a psychic link to his hunting pet, a cunning desert cat called Sand (imagine a mastiff size sphynx cat).

My friend Sam played the role of Ralf “Silver” Williams, a Skovlander Leech who secretes Quicksilver from his skin.

We wound up with an interesting mix of faction statuses. An initial dip in reputation with the Bluecoats turned to a net +1 after we determined that Conway, a crooked Bluecoat, was our crew contact. As a result, Ulf Ironborn took a disliking to our gang for a net -2. We decided that our hunting ground is on the doorstep of the Lampblacks, to Baszo’s chagrin, for a -1 with the Lampblacks.

We started the session getting called in for ‘the talk’ with Baszo. After managing to convince Baszo that we weren’t averse to causing problems for the Red Sashes (a lie, since Salt would prefer not to mess with his countrymen), we made a beeline for our contact to see if he had a lead on any openings in the Lampblack’s defenses.

We learned of a rumor that the Lampblacks were going to make an attempt on Mylera Klev’s life at a hookah bar run by the Sashes. So, we hatched a cunning plan to ‘rescue’ Klev and ingratiate ourselves to the Sashes.

We planted our Elite Thugs in the bar to cause a disturbance at the moment of the assassination, ensuring that the Sashes would be handicapped dealing with the assassin, and Salt and Silver took up positions to come to Klev’s defense instead.

The plan worked like a charm, with Silver incapacitating one assassin with drown powder while Salt used his unusual weapon, a bullwhip, to trip another assassin into crashing down on the bar, discharging his blunderbuss into a third assassin. The fourth, and last, Lampblack surrendered after Salt drew his pistols on him, commanding him to stand down.

In gratitude, Mylera Klev gave us a tip on a juicy claim held by the Lampblacks and promised future rewards for loyalty and assistance.

During downtime, Silver filed a police report with our contact to reduce heat and Salt indulged is vice: obligation to the Iruvian Consulate. Salt is, in addition to an ambitious criminal, an ex-military spook doing intelligence work for the consulate. A deniable asset that the ambassador can write off when captured by Imperial authorities.

Also, the hand pies were delicious.