Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

The Fugue Men: Actual Play

Hi Bladesters!

This is a combo of Session 2 and 3, a Score and the following Downtime. The Fugue Men are Fuzz the Slide, Fix the Leech and Fingers the Lurk. I opened on an Entanglement with Ulf Ironborn since he’d been harassing Stasia, Fix’s apothecary friend.

The Fugue Men decided to keep messing with the Red Sashes, aiming to eventually have a drug den of their own. They figured it would be a grand idea to pull a daring caper so as to embarrass the Red Sashes and impress some other folks, in hopes of Claiming some Informants. If they could grab some loot as well, all the better!

They started off with dropping by to see Baszo Baz, a friend of Fuzz and leader of the Lampblacks, who are in conflict with the Red Sashes. They sought information from Baszo regarding the layout and security of a Red Sash drug den. The Crew had heard that the Red Sashes were planning a soiree to showcase their new drug, Djinn Salts. The Fugue Men planned to disrupt the event and Baszo offered some coin in support (messing with the Red Sashes is good for the Lampblacks). After Surveying the drug den, the Fugue Men had a plan.

They decided to disguise themselves as barristers attending the soiree. The Engagement roll was a partial success and the entered the den to find a trio of Red Sash lieutenants personally greeting all the guests, on top of the usual bouncers. Fuzz managed to lead a group action that successfully convinced the hosts that all was legit. The Red Sashes had laid out a table of edibles, all dosed with Djinn Salts so their guests could sample their new wares. Fix was eager to Sabotage the lot of it and do so in a Strange manner as befitting their reputation.

Fix flashbacked to creating some ‘spray tubes’ that the crew had up their sleeves. These tubes were full of a nasty alchemical toxin, Gutrot, that would give everyone in attendance serious tummy troubles. The crew had already each downed a dose of Alcahest, to counteract any possible contact with either Djinn Salts or Gutrot. A successful group action covered the whole table of samples in a fine mist of Gutrot. It wasn’t long before the whole room was voiding out of both ends… Fix and Fuzz had accepted a Devil’s bargain during the group action: the Alcahest was not quite sufficient and they too were suffering mild Tummy Troubles (Harm 1).

To keep up appearances Fuzz decided to retire to the lavatory, pretending to be afflicted like the rest of the room. Fingers and Fix, meanwhile, moved out of the public area to the back of the drug den, seeking the strong room. The ran into one more bouncer, outside the strong room and Fingers was able dose the bouncer with Gutrot through an astute use of Finesse. Fix helped with the attempt, taking a ninth Stress and pushing himself into Trauma. Fix became Reckless, and proceed to strut back and forth along the hall, exclaiming how badass he was for the next while.

Meanwhile Fingers got to work on the lock of the strong room door. It was a decent lock, requiring 2 Finesse checks to fill a 4-tick clock. While the second check was a full success (6) the first check was less smooth (4-5), and complicated matters by alerting the clerk within the strong room. Fingers opened the door to see a nervous young woman pointing a pistol at him, hands shaking wildly. He managed to connect with her, due to similar backgrounds and convince her that everyone had the plague and she had better flee. Fingers accepted a Devil’s Bargain for his Consort action, and the gun went off when the girl dropped it to flee. Fingers got shot in the ear (Harm 1). The Fugue Men grabbed some loot and took off into the Dark.

Downtime was mostly smooth, with some deeper exploration of the characters and Duskvol. The Fugue Men had earned an advancement and decided to bring on board a Cohort of Rooks. They invited the Grine twins, Sid and Nancy to join the crew. Sid and Nancy are a noble’s bastards who grew up as noble children until their dad died when they were 6 and they were tossed to the streets along with their mother, a chamber maid. They are Independent and Loyal, Principled (Solidarity with the Poor) and Savage.

During downtime all 3 scoundrels sought healing, with Fix needing two actions to heal completely, while Fingers and Fuzz opted to pay for higher quality care. Fingers also went out to Indulge his Vice at the Silver Stag Casino, while Fuzz reduced Heat by spreading rumours about the poor hygiene of Iruvians as a way to explain the recent explosive bowel events at a Red Sashes’ drug den. Sid Grine, the Cohort member, was picked up by the Bluecoats for questioning but stayed strong and didn’t give up any info.

The Fugue Men then got word that Twelves, a Gondolier Boathouse Boss, wanted to see them. The Gondoliers were offering a job to the Fugue Men and considering the benefits the crew had received in the recent past from the Gondoliers they really did owe them a favour. Their first score involved posing as Gondoliers, complete with a Gondola, to kidnap the Red Sashes Master Alchemist. Twelves asked the Fugue Men to sneak into an estate in Brightstone and capture a ghost, then bring it back to Twelves. They accepted the job and proceeded to Survey to gather some info on the Estate of Lord Timoth Keel as well as dig a bit deeper into the Gondoliers motives via a visit to Baszo Baz.

We had a lot of fun during these two sessions. As GM I was seriously impressed with how easy it was to run the Score with no prep. I’d pestered my Players to propose a Score before the game… but no real decision was made, so we started the session with no firm plans. Nonetheless, I was able to run a full 3-hour session with just improv, setting background knowledge and player creativity. So awesome!

So far, the PCs have been rolling very well. Only a couple of partial successes over multiple sessions and not a single fail. It’s only during gather info or vice rolls or the like that I’ve seen 1-3 results. As GM I’m actually glad for this, since it’s allowed the players to dig into the game mechanics and a setting while still feeling like kick ass scoundrels. They’ve also been leaning on their strengths so far, so getting 3 or 4 dice to roll has been pretty common (and easy). I’m hoping to throw some curve balls at them soon. For example, capturing a ghost should be interesting with no Whisper nor a single dot in Attune for anyone. We’ve also not had any combat, and none of them are really built for combat… it should be interesting when the Red Sashes finally come a-knocking.

I am curious how other tables have dealt with interfacing with Spirits and the ghost field in situations where none of the PCs are actually focused on that aspect, no Whisper, no Attune. How did that play out for your table?