Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

Knives, Guts, & Coins: Episode 3 – It All Goes Up In Flames!

Where we left our enterprising group of Bravos was Nakura the Spider, Cyrus the Leech, and Nyrys the Hound are up upon the third floor of a five-story building, down below being the Nothing & More. Under fire from Red Sashes, the group tries to cut a hole in the ceiling to provide a sniper position to attack the enemy Whisper fighting below.

Elo the Whisper, with their two thugs Aldo (because I like the name too much not to use it) and Coil, fight the Red Sashes and try to deal with the ghost of the dead Blacklamp that has been controlled by the man, Myre Vale.

In the back, Tumnas the Slide gets ready to set ablaze the feet of merchants, nobles, and others who come to the Red Sashes for their fix rather than work with the Blacklamps. Arranging them in a manner to best use the oil he had, he douses the inebriated’s feet and sets fire to them. A flashback to get assistance from the Leech, he sets them ablaze and a giant panic ensues as patrons rush out of the back screaming with their feet and legs on fire.

In the front, Elo engages Myre and the gangs connect. He breaks off to fight the ghost, drawing his fine lightning hook and striking hard at it as it threatens to rip him apart. Good dice rolls all around keep him from taking major harm, though his focus on the ghost rather than the material threats leaves the crew’s thugs open to retaliation from the Red Sashes, causing them to take a level of harm as the experienced swordsmen punish the two brave and loyal men armed with clubs and a hook on a chain.

Up above, in the midst of a terrible storm, the three crew members rally against the Red Sashes that are trying to close in on them. Drawing both of her pistols, Nyrys unloads a hail of gunfire, forcing the Red Sashes to take cover even as a few of them are gunned down. Naruka flashes back to meeting a group of alchemists throughout Crow’s Foot to assemble these flashbombs and then meeting with street urchins to have them already secured within the structure to detonate right then! The Sway roll comes up as a complete success, the bombs exploding and dazzling/stunning the enemy for the Hound to take down.

Unfortunately, Cyrus’s Tinker roll goes poorly and he cuts an important girder. Two clocks start up; one being that they open a hole on the floor and the other being that the floor just opens up and everyone falls in as the roof collapses. It is at this time, hoping to give the team up above more time, Elo challenges Myre to a duel hoping the man’s brash nature will work in his advantage. The player rolls a 6 on his sole die after pushing himself and Myre calls off the ghost’s attack, willing to engage this man in a duel to the death.

Tumnas, still in disguise and hidden, has made his way into the back of the building looking for riches to take and steal. Two guards are busy loading up a carriage with Black Lotus, hoping to get the goods out before they’re spotted. Quietly, the Slide cuts the one man’s throat before he can make a sound while investigating a strange noise he heard. With another 6 on the Sway roll, he convinces the man still by the carriage that he is his friend and says that he is okay. The guard, disarmed, doesn’t expect the knife in his heart when he hears footsteps behind him. He may have heard the knife being drawn if it wasn’t for one of the flaming guest running in screaming, crashing and tipping into an open crate of Black Lotus and setting it ablaze.

Realizing there was quite a bit of coin loaded into the cart, Tumnas decided to grab what he could and get the hell out of there. Of course, a plume of Black Lotus smoke was drifting into the air and presented a…problem. I had the joy of writing down a clock called “Sooooo High”. He tried to load up more into the carriage but wasn’t very good at it. Climbing upon the carriage, he then tried to get the goats moving and utterly failed at it. Gasping in frustration, he unwittingly inhaled a large and heavy dose of Black Lotus and immediately began to suffer the effect.

Riding alongside Queen Elisbeth the Third, he took the royal sash and crashed it upon the royal turtles pulling the boat in order to evade the Nightmare Men that were chasing after them. In truth, he stabbed one of the goats in the ass and the carriage ran out into the streets, passing by Bluecloaks and citizens alike. High on Black Lotus, hallucinating, and exposed to the elements of the terrible storm crashing through, Tumnas left the scene with a hell of a ride.

Upstairs, Cyrus took a breath and brought out his fine cutting torch. With Naruka’s help and a deep breath, he carved an impressive hole that was so perfect that the metal plating didn’t fall but just hung there, not alerting the enemy to their presence. Nyrys set up a shot, just as the duel began against Elo and Myre.

Myre presented himself, ready to duel, but Elo was not the honorable man. With a quick flashback of him talking to the thugs to help out if it looked like he was losing, Elo was able to sneak a strike in on the man when Coil caught him in the back of the head with the blunt side of the hook. With this act of dishonor, the Red Sashes fought without mercy. Aldo and Coil were both pushed back, desperately trying to defend themselves, as Myre descended upon Elo. The two fought as Nyrys set up the shot, ready to take down Myre.

The shot rang out just as Myre was able to catch advantage on the Elo, beating the Whisper unconscious (who gained a Trauma). The shot went through his shoulder and, as part of the Devil’s Bargain, the enemy Whisper ordered his ghost to kill! The lights up above exploded as the angry ghost descended upon them, eager to take their lives. Naruka ran away in a blind panic, Nyrys froze up, and only Cyrys had the mental faculties to try and fight back. With a single shot of the electroplasmic bullet, wrapping his arms around the smaller Hound, he aimed and fired. The bullet destroyed the already wounded ghost, knocking out power as well.

Wanting to avenge Elo, Nyrys set up her shot to try to take out the escaping Whisper. High on stress but still pushing, accepting a Devil Bargain, and opening herself up to gunfire, the two met gazes and the two exchanged gunfire. Nyrys’s shot missed by a hair and Myre’s shot nailed her in the shoulder. The Red Sashes retreated, as the growing fires were getting out of control.

The three active members swept in using their burglary gear, moving through the burning building to try and find additional funding. A safe was discovered containing international bonds from the Iruvian Consulate. Stealing them, the group escaped with their ill-gotten goods as the Nothing & More went up in flames.

Downtime went very well, the group healing themselves, training, and the Whisper beginning a long-term project to recruit a group of Rovers to assist him in search the Deathlands for rare ingredients to make his strange device. Stress was lowered, the group earned 8 coin for themselves and helped bolster the badly beaten Blacklamps, but they earned a very large amount of heat (9 heat!). A few players seemed irritated at that but I made sure to remind them that they could take actions to lower it and that, as Bravos, they would likely be accruing it more than other crews. Subtlety is not their strongest point.

While drinking with Cyrys, however, Nyrys was caught by a group of Bluecoats who took her to their Watch HQ for a not-so-friendly interrogation. She tried to plea with the group, offering one coin for now and another three later, but Sargent Klaus and his henchman, Henry, were not kind. Taking her coin, they beat her again and again but she refused to talk and did not break until they finally released her. Cyrys, feeling guilty for not being aware enough to protect his friend, took her out for drinking on his tab as an apology. The crew celebrated their first real victory and prepared themselves to go to war. Tumnas however, disappeared after going out for a night of gambling and hasn’t been seen since… (huzzah for overindulgence!)

Overall, the session was excellent. My Devil’s Bargains need more work but I’m getting better at telegraphing the danger and giving people ideas of what the consequences could be. Originally, I thought I was being too hard on my Monday group but I’ve realized that it was more that they have been pushing themselves really hard. Both my groups are players used to games like Exalted and Pathfinder and most of them are embracing the whole “fall in love with trouble, go big” mentality. I’m looking forward to this Monday now since I feel that the system is more and more comfortable every time I play it.

Next week, we’ll see what these daring Bravos do next!