The Orphans continue their war against the Billhooks, building up their reputation with the local community in…
The Orphans continue their war against the Billhooks, building up their reputation with the local community in Charhollow. They become entangled in the affairs of Lord Scurlock…
The Porcelain Dolls: Session 60 (March 29 2017)
The Porcelain Dolls: Session 60 (March 29 2017)
Clermont brings Shade to the Cat & Cradle. They order lunch, and once Shade is confident that they are not being listened in on, they discuss current events. Shade is able to put Clermont’s mind at ease regarding the Ambassador’s role in the situation. Kamali watches the place from across the street.
Shade escorts Clermont to the Pint and Hound, where he will be safe for the time being.
Constance and Gloves head to the Docks to speak with the Crimson Skulls. On the way there, she discusses Gloves’ time in Ironhook, and asks if anything is plaguing him. He expresses concerns about Kamali.
They find the Skulls in their usual spot. Constance plays a round of darts with Byron and tells him that she wants him and his friends to keep an eye on the locals, and report back anything they find.
Everyone meets back at the factory. Constance asks for everyone’s report. They discuss how to locate Roric’s ghost, if he is still around.
Constance assigns Shade to check his usual haunts (no pun intended) in Crow’s Foot, and Moira to search among the dead. If he is found, Constance wants to know if he can tell them who killed him.
Kobb will accompany Constance to the Pint & Hound, and distract the Bailey & Sons delivery men while Kamali doses the supplies.
Kamali follows the cart and doses the supplies while the deliverymen are distracted. It goes like clockwork.
Moira attempts to locate Nyryx, but instead runs into the Spirit Wardens. They pick up on her extrasensory abilities, and move to bring her in for questioning. She Traumas out while attempting to resist them.
Shade goes to talk to Flint, the spirit trafficker. Flint is friendly enough, but he asks for a cut of whatever is coming to the Dolls in exchange for assistance. They start searching around Crow’s Foot. When they get to Strathmill House, they encounter several spectres who are in the process of menacing another ghost. They successfully fend them off (though Shade takes some nasty scratches in the process), and meet Angus MacMillan, former superintendent of the orphanage. Turns out he knows Roric, who used to live in the orphanage as a child. More to the point, Angus has encountered Roric’s ghost, and can take Shade to meet him. He warns that Roric is not entirely lucid.
Kamali continues working on the deliveries, gets head start with crit, gets a 5 on last roll, finishes, but gets noticed.
The crew meets back at the factory, minus Moira. Kamali and Shade give their reports.
Aftermath:
Rep: 0.
Coin: 0.
Heat: 2 (0 base, +1 for a high-profile target, +1 from a Bargain)
Entanglement: Moira was taken in for questioning by the Spirit Wardens.
Downtime:
Constance trains Playbook (earning an advance, which she spends on Closing of the Eye), and reduces Heat (to 0).
The Pint & Hound and The Moon’s Daughter earn a total of 10 Coin.
Constance receives word from her Ironhook guard contact that Hook has been released from prison. He’s currently staying in Charhollow.
Shade heals (spending 3 Coin to remove all his Level 1 Harm, and reduce his Level 2 to Level 1), and indulges his Vice (relieving 6 Stress).
Gears works on The Big Idea (2 of 8), works on the Eye/Mind Interface Device (5 of 8), and spends a Coin to train Playbook.
Kobb trains Playbook, which earns him an advance, which he spends on a Veteran Ability (Calculating, from the Spider), trains Resolve (which gains him another advance, which gets him a 3 in Consort). He spends his third action working on his relationship with Marian Dunne (7 of 8). He then spends a Coin working on his relationship with Sgt. Bartlet (5 of 8).
Moira doesn’t get downtime actions, but when she comes back all her Stress and Injuries are healed and she has a Trauma. We’ll find out what happened to her next time.
Kamali trains Prowess and Insight, and spends Coin to work on her relationship with Kazima (4 of 8). She spends a Coin to work on attuning to the scarab, completing the project. She gets the whole story of Tahir and the Demon from Tahir’s point of view, including getting trapped in the scarab. In the end, she meets Tahir in the dreamscape again, and offers him her hand.
Notes:
Our third Trauma, and the first one caused by Stress.
#dontmesswiththedolls
The Porcelain Dolls: Session 59 (March 22 2017)
The Porcelain Dolls: Session 59 (March 22 2017)
Kamali brings Clermont’s message to Shade, who brings it to Constance, who calls a meeting. She doles out the work:
* Kobb and Boots will follow the Bailey & Sons delivery cart to learn the route.
* Moira and Gears will go the Hall of Records to research what became of Roric.
* Kamali and Shade will go to the embassy to bring Clermont in if possible. If he is not agreeable to this, then they should learn all they can from him. They resolve to stash him at the Pint & Hound.
* Constance and Gloves will pay a visit to the Crimson Skulls to get them on retainer to spy on the Dockers for them.
Kobb follows the Bailey & Sons delivery cart, changing his outfit each time he comes across them. Boots follows along from up on the rooftops. Kobb gets the route, but the eventually the delivery guy notices him and becomes suspicious.
Kobb and Boots then spend the rest of the night bar-hopping, and keeping an eye on what the other patrons are ordering at each place. During the course of the evening, they exchange their life stories. Boots tells Kobb the story of how he first joined the Bluecoats, and then was later drummed out for attempting to bypass his superior officer in a side deal. Kobb gives an abbreviated account of his life before joining the Dolls. He says he doesn’t see himself or the rest of the crew as criminals, compared to the aristocracy. Boots heartily agrees. By the end of the evening, they have a good idea of what’s popular at each of the stops on the Bailey & Sons’ delivery route.
Gears and Moira visit Edmund Baines at the Hall of Records. They get a surprising amount of information on Roric, including when and where he was born, how long he was affiliated with the Crows (which, aside from whatever illegal activities they engage in, do operate a legitimate service for the city). Regarding his death, it is known that his body was found in the canal and his throat cut. However, the Spirit Wardens were not able to sufficiently determine the exact time of death, and as such there is still an open investigation, and they are on the lookout for his ghost.
Kamali and Shade head to the Skovlan Embassy to meet with Clermont. As they speak to the receptionist at the front desk, Kamali notices an aide who perks up at the sound of Clermont’s name and disappears down a side corridor. Kamali makes herself inconspicuous and follows him. The receptionist asks Shade to wait, and after a few minutes comes back to lead him up to Clermont’s office. Before Clermont can speak, Shade Attunes, and discovers an enchanted ring in a cigar box, which is being used to spy on Clermont. He tells Clermont that he’s taking him to lunch.
Meanwhile, Kamali finds the aide in Erik Petersen’s office, speaking with Petersen in hushed tones about Clermont and Shade (whose real name causes a significant amount of amazement and concern). Petersen tells the aide to follow them but not to engage.
Kamali tails the aide as he’s tailing Shade and Clermont. Once they’re off the main street and out of traffic, she intercepts the aide and diverts him into a blind alley. At first he believes she’s with the Circle of Flame and think they’re escalating matters. However, soon enough it becomes apparent to him that this is not the case. She shows him Wulfric’s symbol, and he understands the implication. She shows him a garrote and a dagger, prompting him to choose. This he doesn’t pick up on so easily, so she gestures over her shoulder back at the embassy. Realization dawns, and he tells her that Petersen isn’t her enemy, he’s being manipulated by Madame Tesslyn. She’s intrigued by this notion, and gestures for him to go on. He gives her as much information as he can, and asks her to help get his boss out from under Tesslyn’s influence. Again, she offers the garrote or the dagger. He chooses the former. She politely indicates to him to back off from tailing Shade and Clermont.
#dontmesswiththedolls
First Scum & Villainy session with the crew. Awesome game.
First Scum & Villainy session with the crew. Awesome game.
We played the starting scenario for the Stardancer, escaped on the rover in hot pursuit by the Cobalt Syndicate in retrofitted forklift-bikes, psy-danced some cops and got off Warren with the box which they may or may not sell to the Yaru.
#comunidadsierpesdelsur, #scumandvillainy, #bladesinthedark
Originally shared by Duamn Figueroa
First Scum & Villainy session with the crew. Awesome game.
We played the starting scenario for the Stardancer, escaped on the rover in hot pursuit by the Cobalt Syndicate in retrofitted forklift-bikes, psy-danced some cops and got off Warren with the box which they may or may not sell to the Yaru.
#comunidadsierpesdelsur, #scumandvillainy, #bladesinthedark
A downtime phase, rife with big talk, seduction, massive benders, and unholy scientific experiments!
A downtime phase, rife with big talk, seduction, massive benders, and unholy scientific experiments! Rind, Dancer, and Tubes make their mothers proud.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtBYin1uOBmCrN_OC_bfbVFTnKXqC3Bqm
The Charterhall Bank Caper
The Charterhall Bank Caper
The Dead Setters, in what turned out to be the third session of this heist, set out to copy the printing plates/dies for Coin by accessing their vault at the Charterhall Bank. They were also trying to frame this band of “untouchables” (in the Elliot Ness sense) put together by the Iruvian consulate to catch them for all the dead young Iruvian nobles in the Red Sashes. They figured if they could finger the Untouchables for it, it’d be enough of a political mess that even the consulate would have to back down.
They got Raven the Hound into the vault, and she managed to stave off asphyxiation and make a decent copy of the dies. Then Richter the Spider and Teatime the Whisper basically got the Captain of Currency, one Beneful Camshafterbutch, to open the vault and then booked it.
The fun part is one desperate team Prowl roll while being chased by Hull bank guards toting blunderbusses is that you essentially get Matrix lobby destruction with a single roll. Good thing they all had room for armor.
Then Teatime trauma’d out resisting consequences from a blown desperate Study roll to find an escape route on their blueprints. He resisted being cut off by bank guards but was caught in a blast that blew out the floor. The Iruvians captured him in the confusion and dragged the poor Whisper into the sewers. That’s his third trauma, but he’s also at 4 ranks of Lifestyle. Will Teatime survive the Untouchables long enough to retire?
Interesting things we brainstormed about the Charterhall Bank for our game:
1. It uses hulls once you get past the lobby and front offices. Armored and armed hulls for guards, lighter-duty ones for menial tasks. They don’t make good targets for social engineering, they do their jobs well, and they’re intimidating.
2. Rumor has it it’s never been robbed. That’s not true, but the bank doesn’t want people to know that and when you mostly employ hulls you don’t have a lot of leaks.
3. It has its own lightning barrier (as some noble houses do) but the interior is inlaid with runes and patterns to create something of a building-sized spiritbane effect or faraday cage. We had them firmly on the “industrial” side of Blades’ industrial-fantasy slider.
4. They’re used to having the Coin and getting their way, much like a Broken Empire or Westerosi bank. Inside the bank, their word is law, even if you’re posing as a magistrate. And if that’s not good enough, they’re happy to detain you while they “sort out the irregularities.”
#heestcomplete
Here’s our special game of Kingdom set in Doskvol.
Here’s our special game of Kingdom set in Doskvol. We played the Sparkwrights and were dealing with a hostile takeover attempt by a noble as well as a the fences being outdated and dangerous.
My crew, the renamed Triflers, hit two scores today:
My crew, the renamed Triflers, hit two scores today:
They dove into Strangford Manor to get the Key of Daemonostromos to deal with the fire demon they released last session. The score went off with out a hitch, outside of them picking up a haunted painting and the Whisper’s possessor ghost friend establishing a keen rivalry with their Cutter, Rockie.
Then they opened to help Lute clear a pesky Skovlander named Ulf Ironborn out of muscling in on their tavern. the Skovs saw through their poison ploy and put the Hound and Lurk in a desperate position. The newly dubbled Triflers came out in force, even going so far to inject Ulf with Drowning Oil as they were all arrested so that he died while being transported to the Bluecoat district house. Of course, when the Triflers got home thanks to a few greased palms to the Charhollow ward boss Sgt. Marconetti, they found that the Grinders had stolen their bakery boat in retaliation for sending Ulf to an unnatural watery grave.
(They were gonna let him live with some broken legs, but after they saw how he ‘collected’ on someone who didn’t pay his protection, the switch quickly flipped to ‘we gotta kill this asshole’.)
Despite their scoundrel behavior, they are winning over the citizenry of Charhollow by donating a lot of time and coin to the poor Widowhaven Hospice in the district. If it just so happens they have access to physickers to help them recover in between scores…so be it.
My group did character and crew creation for our first game last night.
My group did character and crew creation for our first game last night. We ended up with a daring crew of espionage-focused Shadows with turf in Brightstone (One of my players is drawing heavily from The Lies of Locke Lamora for inspiration, so the crew is focusing on the wealthy/nobility as their primary targets). They got their turf by paying off The Hive, and based on their crew choices also ended up with +1 status with the Bluecoats. Based on those two things and drawing heavily on The War in Crow’s Foot for background, I came up with the attached starting situation that I plan to use when we get back together for our first session.
Most likely, the opening entanglement will be Laroze, their Bluecoat contact, asking them to help steal some of the evidence the Inspectors have been gathering on the Hive, in order to delay the planned arrests that they are being forced to make.
All this talk of Blades in the Dark has me feeling nostalgic for the end of Season One of the Unrecommendables.
All this talk of Blades in the Dark has me feeling nostalgic for the end of Season One of the Unrecommendables.
The session was built around a twisted heist; they had acquired and refurbished a theater, and the “heist” was making sure opening night went well and any complications were dealt with so the event wasn’t spoiled.
https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/blades-in-the-dark-unrecommendables-grand-opening/
There was a clock for their artist to finish the operetta in time, and they took turns dedicating down time actions to use their various strategies to coax the art out of him in time for the big day. There were clocks for finishing the construction decorations, and for managing the invite list.
Once the big night started, a major curve ball–since the Dimmer Sisters came out for opening night, and they very seldom left their fortress mansion, a keen Inspector showed up with a brute squad and a sheaf of warrants to take the Sisters into custody.
I thought of that event because we were talking about flashbacks that cost 3 stress, and one of the players dropped those 3 stress to have a flashback about how the event was in fact prepared so it was a trap for the inspector! I was tickled by the audacity, and I think it played out well.
Making the crew responsible for something like an opening night uses the same tools as heists, but puts a whole different spin on them, and it can be a real pip.
https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/12/15/blades-in-the-dark-unrecommendables-grand-opening/