Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 29 (August 10 2016)

The Hot Sot Blot & Jot (or, The Lampblack Damp Whack):

Constance lays out the plan to take down Baszo. Prichard will orchestrate a celebration for Aleira’s safe return, and the Dolls will be invited. Once Baszo gets good and sloshed, Prichard and Constance will agree to walk him home, and all they have to do is get him in a secluded spot, and that’s that. Prichard is adamant that Aleria never know the truth about what happens to her father.

The crew gets a 6 on the Engagement roll, so everything starts off exactly as planned. The crew gets to the Bucket to find that Prichard is already there, making preparations. He’s even hired a band. Before long, everyone filters in. It becomes apparent to the crew that, apart from Prichard and Baszo himself, the Lampblacks are down to the 5 men that Prichard brought with him to assault the Billhooks (mechanically, they are down to Tier 1, if not Tier 0). The guests of honor arrive. Baszo gets up on a table to make a speech about loyalty and friendship, and assures his men that they will soon once again be on top. “It’s all part of His Design,” he says. Constance manages to suppress a reaction.

The party goes on for a couple of hours, and Baszo gets very drunk. Once he’s about to fall off his bar stool, Prichard gives Constance the signal, and they make a show of offering to walk him home. Baszo protests, insisting he’s not done drinking, and Gears gives Baszo his flask, “for the road.” Gears stays behind to keep an eye on the rest of the Lampblacks and Aleira, who is sitting in the corner with a mug of wine, which she apparently doesn’t like very much. She’s still a bit shell-shocked after the events of the past few days.

Constance and Prichard have their hands full keeping Baszo on task, they frequently have to stop and bodily steer him in the right direction. Along the way Baszo begins singing an old sea shanty, loudly and off-key, and Constance joins in. Kamali scouts out about a block ahead to ensure the route is clear, Boots brings up the rear, trailing along about a block behind.

Kamali encounters a quartet of rich debutantes, two men and two women, doing some celebrating of their own, and taking up space along the street where Constance is leading Baszo. She makes a show of stealing one woman’s purse and taking off, to get them to chase her. They do so, and once she gets about a block away she drops the purse. This is enough to satisfy three of them, but the leader continues to pursue her, as he’s got a case of beer balls and is intent on detaining her for the Bluecoats. Kamali rounds the corner and breaks line of sight, climbing up a drainpipe, and when the guy comes around after her, he very nearly runs right past her. When he sees that she’s disappeared, he starts rattling doorknobs to try and see where she went. Kamali slips back down to street-level to try and come up behind him, but makes more noise than she expected. He wheels around, intent on grabbing and restraining her.

Boots comes up on the two of them, and calls out “Is everything alright?” When the man brushes him off, Boots sics Valter on him. The dog pins him to the ground and threatens to tear him to shreds, and Kamali gets away. Once Boots tells Valter to stand down, the man gets up and berates Boots for letting the thief get away. Boots berates him right back for not being clear about what was going on. The man strides off in a huff, muttering about bringing up the matter with his councilman.

Meanwhile, Constance and Prichard maneuver Baszo into place in the darkened underpass of the large bridge that connects Crow’s Foot to Silkshore. He realizes where he is, and makes an offhand comment about using the place to dispose of a rival once upon a time. Constance tells him that his time is at an end. He initially believes that Prichard will be on his side in a conflict, but it soon dawns on him that he has been betrayed. He sobers up a little, and (as he assumes that Constance sold him out to the Sashes) there’s some pontificating about what Mylera did to his wife, her own sister. Constance tells him that he makes a good husband, but a poor chief. Baszo goes for his gun, but Constance is quicker on the draw. She had asked Gears to rig up a makeshift suppressor out of a soup can and some cloth. This allows Constance to fire a shot without alerting the guards on the bridge above. The shot is perfect, catching Baszo right in the center of his forehead. He keels backward and topples into the canal behind him. Prichard acknowledges that while he is sorry to see his friend go and feels guilty for his part in the betrayal, there’s really no other way it could have gone. He takes off on his own. Kamali and Boots catch up with Constance just as the crematorium’s bell tolls.

They head back to the Bucket, where one of Prichard’s men takes Aleira home. Constance informs the remaining Lampblacks that Baszo is gone. Further elaboration on her part is unnecessary.

When Constance visits Lyssa to inform her that Baszo is dead, she finds that the Crows have been recruiting (there at least a dozen new faces she doesn’t recognize), in preparation for some kind of push outward. Everyone’s moving on up.

The Dolls earn a crew upgrade, which they spend on a Cohort. The remnants of the Lampblacks are now a gang of thugs, under the command of Prichard (who in turn answers to Constance). In recognition of their heritage, the design of their porcelain masks will incorporate soot marks on the cheeks.

The next day Gears receives a note from Bellino informing him that the Lost made their money selling surplus Imperial Army gear after the Skovlan Uprising. The crew is having lunch at the Bucket when there’s a resounding crash from down the street. They emerge to see a giant cloud of dust down the block, and once it clears, there’s a crane with a wrecking ball. The construction projects in the Drop have begun in earnest.

That evening, Keel and Drav, two of the Bluecoats that were present for Constance’s impromptu fight club in the street in front of the Temple (way back in Session 1), show up at the Bucket to talk to Constance. They are not in uniform, and it turns out that they were in fact drummed out of the service, following the investigation into the death of Sgt. Galloway. Their associate Avan turned on them and got them thrown out, while he got a promotion and a fat raise. They ask to join up with Constance.

Notes:

The Lampblacks are no more, and the Sashes are soon to follow. I decided I needed to start bringing back in all the various plot threads I’d cast out there over the past few months. This was definitely a turning point for all involved.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 28 (August 03 2016)

Aftermath of the Churl’s Girl Burl:

Coin: 2. Rep: 3. Heat: 4 for high exposure, +2 for killing, +1 for hostile turf, and 1 existing, for 8 total. Eeek.

Entanglement: Arrest! Gloves is getting measured for a new suit when a contingent of Bluecoats comes into the shop and asks politely for him to come with them. They take him down to the station in Charterhall, where they make him wait for several hours in an empty interrogation room before an Inspector comes in to question him regarding the altercation at the slaughterhouse, as a witness has put him at the scene. They’re operating under the theory that the building was attacked using a wrecking ball on a huge crane, but no one’s actually seen it (for whatever reason, none of the witnesses who have come forward are able to properly describe the giant monstrosity made of rock and cobblestone). The Bluecoats make no secret of the fact that no one’s too broken up about the deaths of the Billhooks. However, they are concerned about the property damage in the surrounding area (not to mention the big hold in the street), and that’s what they’re following up on. Gloves confesses to being involved, which makes the Inspector happy, as it allows him to close the case quickly and quietly. The next day the hearing is over and done with, and Gloves is sent off to Ironhook for three weeks (he actually managed to get the Inspector to lobby for reducing it down from a month, because that’s what Gloves does).

After what they did to the Billhooks, the Dolls are at definitely at War, so they only get one free Downtime action each. Shade heads to Setarra’s brothel, overindulges, and is Lost for the time being. Kamali trains Prowess. Constance and Boots work on completing the Workshop project. They are just about done when Gears comes home with his latest pet project. In a box he has a large rodent, which he has modified with various mechanical bits. When connected up to a power source, it begins moving. Its movements remind Kamali of a tortoise that’s been flipped on its back and is struggling to right itself. This was the first thing that popped into my head:

http://img15.deviantart.net/f2c1/i/2012/112/0/5/changes_for_a_hare_and_dormouse_by_wolena-d4wzz7h.png

Meanwhile, in Ironhook: Gloves does not have a good time of it in prison. He fails the Tier roll, so when he’s released he’s walking out of there with a the first Trauma for our group (Paranoid). He is menaced by a Tycherosi thug named Hook, who keeps taking his food every day. Gloves hasn’t eaten in four days when he gets rescued by Tavrul, who commands an impressive amount of respect and fear within the prison. When speaking later, Gloves informs Tavrul of recent events, including the deaths of his sister and son (he minimizes the extent of the Dolls’ involvement). Tavrul says he tried to dissuade Brynn from messing with Crow’s Foot business, and considers the results all part of doing business. Gloves got a crit on his Sway roll, so Tavrul agrees not to pursue retaliation against anyone in Crow’s Foot.

Constance brings Gears up to speed on everything that’s been happening, and calls a meeting to discuss what to do next. Constance’s plan is to bring down Baszo as soon as possible. They bring in Merrill Brime and Livio. Merrill states that from what Livio has told him of the recent goings on (including Sevoy’s murder), he surmises that he is likely not in danger from the Sashes anymore. He is grateful for what the Dolls have done for him, but is eager to get back out into the city. Livio assures Constance that he’s in no danger from the remnants of the Billhooks, as he is capable of being quite inconspicuous when he wants to be. They are both blindfolded again and led out.

Notes:

The prison thing nearly threw me for a loop. The moment it came up on the Entanglement roll, the players remembered that Tavrul was in there, and suddenly there was a plan for the Dolls to send their most socially adept member inside to negotiate a cease fire from behind bars. And all it cost was a Trauma and a few weeks of discomfort.

The Billhooks were not eradicated, but their numbers are greatly reduced, and their leadership is gone. Tavrul will have a difficult time rebuilding, if he ever gets out.

#dontmesswiththedolls

http://img15.deviantart.net/f2c1/i/2012/112/0/5/changes_for_a_hare_and_dormouse_by_wolena-d4wzz7h.png

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 27 (July 29 2016)

Constance goes to meet with with Lyssa, only to find Tavrul’s son Derret already there, ostensibly to lodge a complaint against the dolls for accusing them of the kidnapping, threatening Bryan, and killing one of their guards. Lyssa flat out asks if the Billhooks took Aleira, and Derret lies, saying they had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Lyssa immediately slashes his throat and throws him out the window. Constance informs Lyssa of the Dolls’ intention to assault the Billhooks in order to get Aleira back. The subject of territory comes up, and Lyssa mentions that the Billhooks are beholden to the Circle of Flame. She doesn’t forbid Constance from attempting to take the turf, but she advises against it.

Shade speaks to Kelyr and gets confirmation that the Billhooks took Aleira, and he knows where she was taken. He gives Shade the address of an apartment block not far away from the slaughterhouse. Shade tells Kelyr that he’s working on a solution to his problem.

The Churl’s Girl Burl:

The Dolls know that the Billhooks have taken Baszo’s daughter, and they know where she was last seen. Now they have a plan to get her back. It’s not subtle. The bad news is that the Billhooks know they’re coming, and have had time to prepare.

The Engagement roll is a 3. Kamali and Boots scope out the safe house, and it’s obvious that the girl is not there. However, there are about a dozen Billhooks laying in wait. Kamali throws a firebomb (known locally as a Skovlan Porridge, because no one in Doskvol would have heard of a Molotov Cocktail) through an open window. This has the desired effect, as Billhooks begin pouring out of the building to escape the fire and smoke. Boots covers the front door (lining up all his guns on the parapet of the building across the street for easy access). Kamali intercepts anyone attempting to leave via the back door. With advantages in both position and surprise, they are able to easily pick off the Billhooks and prevent any of them from making it back to their HQ to raise the alarm.

Meanwhile, Constance and Gloves are heading up to the front door of the slaughterhouse. The guards on the door see just the two of them and laugh, but they go pale when they see what Shade has summoned with one of his Rituals: an Earth Demon. He has a specially prepared vial containing his blood and a small quartz crystal, which he smashes on the ground. Instantly, the street erupts and disgorges a hulking 10 foot tall monstrosity made up of cobblestones, rocks, dirt, and the odd geode, and it wants to destroy. Shade very nearly goes into Trauma just summoning it: Magnitude 4, and Shade spends extra Stress up the Duration to an hour because he doesn’t know how long he’ll need it. It reminds me of this:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jz_Q9ch2B4Y/VjI3rHvV_RI/AAAAAAAARNM/GOzzjVxz6zo/w220-h201/bc2.gif

Shade sets it loose on the front doors of the slaughterhouse, and it makes short work of both the guards and the doorway. Constance and Gloves slip in, and the main force of about 20 thugs armed with meat hooks and cleavers is waiting for them. That’s when Constance gets to work. She brings out that damned boat anchor of hers, and starts swinging. Between Constance, Prichard & his Lampblacks, and the rock monster, the advance guard doesn’t stand a chance.

While this is going on, Kamali and Boots arrive on the scene, and Shade manages to keep the beast from smashing them when they enter. Boots heads up the stairs to peek around the doorway, and gets a crossbow bolt whizzing past his hear for his trouble. Kamali climbs up the outside wall to try getting in a 2nd floor window, and gets the same, but this one actually hits. Armor keeps her from getting injured, but it delays her actually getting inside the building.

Boots makes a Desperate roll to charge the crossbowman, and hits, taking him down. He finds the door to Brynn’s office ajar, and there’s a warning shot from a pistol. Boots makes another Desperate roll to shoot his opponent blindly, and once again makes it. He enters the room just as Kamali is getting inside through the window.

Constance and Prichard arrive, and everyone finds that Brynn has the girl tied to a chair, and her bodyguard dead from Boots’ blind shot. They inform her of Derret’s fate. Seeing that she has lost, she concedes. When Constance asks how she would like to die, Brynn draws herself up and goes out with dignity, on her feet. Boots puts a bullet in the back of her head. Constance unties the girl and Prichard takes her home. Shade allows the rock monster to destroy the building before discorporating.

Notes:

This session really exemplified the whole “looking at NPCs through crosshairs” mentality. I needed to illustrate Lyssa’s impulsiveness and fiery temper, and the crew also learned not to ever try and lie to her. Gloves isn’t the only one with that ability.

One of the things I love about this game is that I can run it at the drop of a hat, with little to no prep. We usually run about once a week, but there have been a couple of times when we’ve been able to double up.

Another thing I love about this game: Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t hate combat. I hate combat that gets bogged down in tediousness and minutiae. This session was a gigantic combat. In any other game this would have been an 8 hour slog, but we accomplished everything related above in a little over two hours. I love that this system lets you craft these grandiose scenes of conflict and violence, and lets the PCs be the badasses everyone wants them to be, but it doesn’t concern itself with who’s standing next to who, how long it takes to perform an action, or even what weapons a character is carrying. It lets the fiction take care of all those concerns.

However, it was noted afterward that the fight should have been a lot harder than it was. I have resolved to not make things too easy in the future, and to not be afraid to hammer them with incoming Harm, as they can always roll to Resist (unless they’re Stressed out).

#dontmesswiththedolls

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jz_Q9ch2B4Y/VjI3rHvV_RI/AAAAAAAARNM/GOzzjVxz6zo/w220-h201/bc2.gif

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 26 (July 27 2016)

Gears is Lost, and Shade is unavailable.

Gather Info for The Churl’s Girl Burl:

Boots investigates the scene of Brock’s murder. He finds evidence of a fight, an damage to surroundings by an unusual piercing implement. He talks to Steiner, an assassin, who points him in the direction of the Billhooks.

Kamali spends some time spying on the Sashes. At the Moon’s Daughter, she overhears a report to Mylera that all members of the Sashes were accounted for at the time of the kidnapping, and no one is admitting to having anything to do with it. The next day, at another of the venues controlled by the Sashes, she overhears another report indicating the Billhooks seem to be the ones responsible.

Armed with this information, Constance goes to confront the Billhooks directly. Their HQ is in a slaughterhouse near Bellweather Crematorium in Charhollow. There’s a little bit of static with one of the gate guards before his buddy tells him who Constance is. She meets with Brynn, acting commander of the gang, and sister to Tavrul, the actual leader (who is currently serving time in Ironhook). Brynn smugly denies having anything to do with the kidnapping, and maintains that it was the Sashes that killed Brock. Constance makes a promise to Brynn before leaving (“I’ll see you again”), and on the way out, kills the uppity guard on the front door.

Gloves talks to several members of Merrill Brime’s network. They all point him toward Lillie Thomas, who runs a small gang of kids in Charhollow. He goes to meet with Lillie, who is 14, and looks like she has never had a bath in her life. One of her friends, a Tycherosi boy of about 8 named Livio, saw two of the Billhooks taking a girl back across the bridge from the Docks (he had gone over there to try and scam some lobster, to which he’s partial). He doesn’t know their names, but the tall thin one has an eyepatch, and the short fat one had a hook for a hand. Lillie fills Gloves in on the current situation with the Billhooks. They’re in the midst of a power struggle, as Tavrul’s sister Brynn and his son Derret are both looking to take over the gang when Tavrul’s gone. Gloves takes Livio back to the hideout (blindfolded), where he meets with Constance and the rest of the crew.

It’s clear to Constance that the Billhooks are taking advantage of the war between the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes to try and carve off a piece of Crow’s Foot for themselves. She takes Boots with her to go talk to Lyssa, and walks in to find Derret already there.

Notes:

Another short session. Shade’s (and Gears’) player was busy with work this time. It took all my willpower not to play Lille Thomas like Tiny Tina from Borderlands.

The question came up regarding exactly what animals the Billhooks butchered in their slaughterhouse. I decided that in addition to eels, it’s common to keep pigs, as they don’t take up anywhere near the amount of space that raising cattle or sheep would require. And like goats, they can eat just about anything.

Thinking back on the Dolls’ interactions with the Lost in Session 22, there was some question as to why, after the Dolls tried to take control of their informants, the Lost would be at all favorably disposed to them. I’ve since realized (and I’ve been playing it up) that’s kind of looking at it backwards. What happened is that the Dolls were able to negotiate an alliance of sorts, and as a result of that they’ve gained some measure of control over the informants as a shared resource (there’s very little overlap in the sort of information each group is gathering from them, so there’s no competition for resources). Now perhaps I made it a little too easy to forge that alliance, but that’s easily remedied on the back end with complications arising from such an arrangement. The Lost have a pretty solid code of honor, and some of the Dolls’ activities run the risk of bringing them into conflict over it.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 25 (July 20 2016)

Downtime Actions for The Rich Kid Rid & Bid:

* Constance: Reduces Stress twice (for a total of 4), and reduces Heat (3, for 1 Coin).

* Kamali: Reduces Stress (by 3), and trains Prowess and Personal (for 1 Coin).

* Boots: Trains Prowess.

* Gloves: Trains Prowess and Personal.

* Gears: Reduces Stress (overindulging, and is Lost for a while), and makes some progress on the workshop project (3 more ticks, 2 left).

* Shade: Works on a project to learn a ritual that will allow a ghost to manifest (3 ticks, 5 left), trains Personal (and takes Warded as an advance, 1 Coin).

When Constance follows Yanth Agog’s instructions (fill a tin cup with water, bring it to the north end of Charterhall, and place it on a fence post outside the clerk’s office on Sabre St), she witnesses the corpse haulers taking away the body of Sevoy (the Ink Rake that was spotted at the Bell & Birch, which was subsequently reported to the Red Sashes).

Kamali hangs around waiting for Boots, and leads him out into the city, bringing him to Darmot’s flat. Introductions are made, as is tea, and we get to learn a little more about Kamali’s background (Darmot was the one that saved her from being killed by her brother, and took her in for a while when she had nowhere else to go). When Boots explains that he accidentally shot Kamali, Darmot stresses the importance of the Bluecoat tradition that Boots had previously related to her. She relents and gives Boots the bullet.

Constance brings the group together (minus Gears), doles out the cash and instructs them to stash it. She also decides that the group needs to find Aleira, and this will win the loyalty of the Lampblacks rank & file. Once they are on the Dolls’ side, Constance will move against Baszo. Shade already has eyes looking into this. Gloves says that Mylera is also looking into it, but Constance doesn’t want to rely on that.

Everyone knows that the Lampblacks are enemies with the Cabbies, the Red Sashes are enemies with the Gondoliers, and both are enemies of the Bluecoats. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.

* Boots will investigate Brock’s murder.

* Kamali will spy on the Sashes.

* Shade will use his ghost informants to investigate the kidnapping.

* Gloves will talk to Brime’s network.

* Constance will talk to Lyssa.

Notes:

This was a short session, so not a lot here, but we did get a couple of nifty character moments.

Gathering Information: I believe I mentioned this before in a comment, but it bears expanding on, so here’s my take on Gather Info rolls. I’ve divided Gather Info rolls into two types: Downtime, and Everywhere Else. In the rules as written, there are two phases: The Job, and Downtime. I know the rules are set up in such a way that a job can be run without any planning. However, I personally like to have a little context for what’s going on in the job (it goes a long way to help me frame the opening scene based on the Engagement roll). So what I’ve been doing is inserting what I guess could be called an additional phase before the job, where each character gets one action (usually Gather Info, but it doesn’t have to be). Mechanically speaking, these act as 0 Stress flashbacks that happen to be shown before the job rather than during. They are subject to the usual Position rules (and the Consequences that go with them). They do not come out of a player’s Downtime actions, and you can’t spend Coin to get more than one (however, you’re always free to request a flashback during the job to gather more info), but I do allow PCs to use their Contacts (see below).

Conversely, Gather Info rolls made during Downtime are considered “safe”; in other words, not subject to the usual Position & Consequence rules, but instead use the results of the roll to determine how many questions the player gets to ask (1/2/3/5), or simply the quality of the information they receive (Poor/Standard/Good/Excellent).

Using Contacts: I also frequently encourage players use a Contact to get a bonus die, even outside of Downtime actions, as long as it makes sense in the fiction (and that’s not insignificant), for example, waaaay back in Session 1 Constance brought Marlane along with her to help deal with the Red Sashes, and they ended up starting an impromptu Fight Club in the street outside the Sashes’ HQ to create a diversion.

As for the mechanical difference between Friends (up arrow), Rivals/Enemies (down arrow), and Acquaintances (everyone else), the way I run it is that a player can always use any of the people on the list to get +1D, but only someone listed as a Friend will do it for free. The rest will almost certainly ask for something in return. I’ll even let them use a Rival/Enemy, but the price will be much higher.

Thus far, the question of using Coin to bump up the results of a roll hasn’t really come up a whole lot, but I’d limit that to Downtime actions as well, unless it really made sense (like you were trying to bribe a guard or something).

#dontmesswiththedolls