Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 15 (May 9 2016)

We spend some time detailing what it looks like when Kamali and Gloves indulge her particular Vices. Kamali rents a private room at The Veil and gets comfortable with the Blue Cloud and a glass of blackberry wine, while Gloves inspects his wardrobe and decides he needs some new neckwear, and heads to Dunridge & Sons, spending more on a cravat, a jabot, and an ascot than most would spend on an entire suit. We already know what it looks like when Shade indulges his Vice.

The crew discusses the results of the Turner 302 Job. Constance is in favor of Kamali’s plan to use Clermont as a periodic supply of cash. Shade is of the opinion that the crew is not in a position to be able to effectively take advantage of the political information directly, and is looking to sell it to someone who can. Constance is reluctant to give it up so easily, and wants the group to study the information and report back to her before making a decision on it. This is hampered by the fact that most of the group cannot read Skovlan.

Constance discusses her intention to hit the Red Sashes, and frame the Lampblacks for it. This will hopefully cause the Sashes to be in a more emotional state when they strike out at the Lampblacks, and as a result they will be on less certain footing. It is Constance’s hope that the two gangs will end up wiping each other out, leaving only the Crows and the Dolls.

Marlane brings a note delivered to her by Lade Drake, informing that she has a meeting with Prichard at 8pm the following evening. She will bring Boots, as he is currently the only one who knows anything of her plan.

The crew gathers info on what the Sashes are up to:

Constance goes to see Merrill Brime at the Hooded Fox, but he is currently in hiding due to the Sashes coming around recently (with possibly ill intent). Constance talks to the bartender Booker, convinces him she’s not with the Sashes, and arranges a meeting with Merrill, who is hiding out in a nearby tenement building. He talks about some friends of his who have been approached by the Sashes, and the only thing they all have in common that he can think of is that they all were at the Bell & Birch recently. He also details what he knows of the Sashes’ drug business. Their primary sources of income are Trance Powder and Dream Smoke, two fairly high-end drugs. They deal them out of several reputable establishments in Crows Foot (a couple of restaurants, a massage parlor, and a bookmaker who takes bets on the dog races in Coalridge). Constance offers him sanctuary.

Gloves heads to The Moon’s Daughter, purported to be the best source of authentic Iruvian cuisine outside of the Iruvian Quarter in Silkshore (and some might even go so far as to say it’s the best source of Iruvian cuisine outside of Iruvia itself). Mylera and some of her underlings happen to be dining there at the time, and she invites Gloves to join their table. She thanks him for the list of names from the Bell & Birch, informing him that some of them have been useful, while others were deemed dangerous, and at least one is being targeted for assassination. Conversation amongst the underlings turns to dealing with the Lampblacks. It’s agreed that while they have been doing well in the small altercations that have been occurring of late, they need to do something decisive, and soon. Gloves also learns how to inform the staff of the Moon’s Daughter that he is in the market for Trance Powder.

Shade visits the Path of Echoes and sells the occupied spirit bottle (4 Coin). Then he hangs around near the Temple to see if he can find the ghost of a dead Sash. He ends up summoning a ghost named Kelyr, and after a brief battle of wills, gets some useful information. The Sashes’ drug business is run by Branon Avrathi, whose father is a high-ranking member of the Iruvian Consulate. The Sashes and the Consulate enjoy a working relationship. Shade shows Kelyr the spirit hook to let him know who’s in charge, but then asks what Kelyr wants in return for keeping quiet about their exchange. Kelyr reveals that he is unable to possess anyone, and is jealous of ghosts that can. He wants to learn Nyryx’s secret.

Notes:

I was very happy to have the opportunity to drop some fairly big bits of information on the players this time around. I’ve been trying very hard to present a world that reacts to the players’ actions, and show them that everything they do creates ripples in the rest of the world.

I also love it when two or more characters attempt to gather information on something from different angles, and I can give each of them different pieces of the puzzle.

I’ve also made it a point that every time Shade interacts with a ghost, I build up a little more of the mythology surrounding them. Also, he’s had a very easy time of it, but all that’s going to come back on him soon.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 14 (May 1 2016)

The Turner 302 Job:

Edward Clermont has boasted that his new safe, a top of the line Turner 302, is invincible. Kamali has decided to accept the challenge.

The crew gets a 5 on the Engagement roll. Kamali and Shade get inside the house with no incident, while Gloves keeps watch outside. The maid is nowhere to be seen, due to the butler deciding he needs to take a more direct role in his niece’s care, and so the basement is clear. However, Clermont does have an unexpected visitor from the Skovlan Consulate, who shows up right when Kamali is about to get to work on the safe. He is demanding information from the papers in the safe, in relation to a recent incident involving Ulf Ironborn (the words “arson” and “terrorism” are mentioned).

The Turner 302 is a 6′ by 4′ free-standing safe, made of a combination of solid iron and steel, painted a tasteful dark forest green with the company name and model number in elegant gold lettering on the door. There are three combination locks, and several glass plates inside designed to shatter if someone attempts to drill into it or open it by force, dropping secondary bolts into place, rendering the entire thing inoperable until it’s brought back to the manufacturer to reset. I rule that opening the safe is (for Kamali) a single 8 segment clock. More on this in the Notes.

Kamali commences work on opening the safe using Finesse, as her plan involves not damaging the safe in any way, or in fact leaving any evidence that it had been opened at all (in contrast with someone like Constance, who would not think twice about using Wreck to simply force the door open, or even just try to knock a hole in the side with a sledgehammer). I rule that Kamali’s position here would be Risky, but having acquired and studied the blueprints allows her to bump it back up to Controlled. In the first recorded instance (in our group) of a player using the fill-in line at the bottom of the Gear list, Kamali produces the stethoscope that she has thoughtfully decided to bring along in order to assist in hearing the turn of the tumblers.

As Kamali is working on the safe, Shade is on lookout at the door to the room, listening to the commotion coming from upstairs. He realizes it’s only a matter of time before Clermont and his guest come downstairs (this is a 4 segment countdown clock). Before too long Kamali gets through all three tumblers, and the safe is open, revealing (as the ghost said) a leather binder stuffed with papers, and a very large amount of Coin. She and Shade manage to copy important information from the papers (an additional 6 segment clock which they make short work of using Group actions), close the safe again, and get into a good hiding spot before Clermont and his visitor come down to the basement to retrieve the papers from the safe (a wooden bench hastily laid across the door buys them some time). Once Clermont is gone, Kamali easily opens the safe again, now that she has the combination.

I offer them the choice:

A. Shade’s Plan: Take the whole stack of cash now (10 Coin) and earn 1 XP for reinforcing their Reputation for being daring (for cracking the Turner 302), or

B. Kamali’s Plan: Only take an inconspicuous amount (2 Coin), and have the option of coming back on a regular basis to skim off of Clermont’s petty cash fund, and that will result in 2 XP for being extra daring. One detail is that eventually the money taken will be missed (and there is now an ongoing 4 segment clock for that, but if they can pull off a job to infiltrate and doctor Clermont’s ledgers, that will reset the clock).

In the end, Shade agrees to go with Kamali’s plan. There is some speculation that both Boots and Gloves will object to this plan, for completely different reasons. Boots will think it’s a bad idea for the group to press their luck, and Gloves will just complain that he didn’t get paid.

Downtime actions for the Turner 302 Job:

* The crew earns enough Rep to go up to Tier 1 (Hooray!).

* Kamali, Shade, and Gloves all reduce Stress.

* Kamali trains Prowess, and spends a Coin to a project to make Frake a friend.

* Gloves talks to the remaining property owners in The Drop, advancing the gentrification project (1 segment left). There is some idle talk about renaming the neighborhood to make it sound more upscale, and “Drop Heights” was jokingly suggested.

* Shade spends some time with Nyryx, completing the project to make them a friend.

Downtime actions for The Unmarked Crate Job (session 12, but happening simultaneously with this job):

* Gears and Constance both work more on clearing the factory floor, which opens the way for a smaller clock to set up living space.

* Gears works on an addition to Constance’s anchor (a spring-loaded launch tube for a crossbow bolt), so she has a bit of a surprise for any enemy with whom she hasn’t yet closed into melee range.

* Constance and Boots reduce stress.

* Boots spends an action healing, which clears up his broken nose.

* Constance spends a Coin to reduce Heat.

Notes:

It was always Kamali’s plan to completely ghost this whole job. She very deliberately set things up in such a way that there would be no evidence that anyone had ever been there, much less robbed the place. The fact that the Turner 302’s reputation as uncrackable remains intact is also valuable, as does the as yet unspecified diplomatic information copied from the papers in the safe. We’ll see what that leads to in future sessions.

Following on from my notes on the previous session, I hit upon something that I don’t believe is specifically mentioned in the Quickstart, but everyone running the game should keep in mind: The consequence It Takes More Time should be used specifically in conjunction with some kind of countdown clock. Otherwise, it lacks bite and ends up being a cop out. In this particular session, I used it with the Unexpected Visitor clock. By judicious use of It Takes More Time and Reduced Effect to exert some control over how quickly each the opposing clocks were filling up, I was able to keep the tension ratcheted up quite nicely during the job.

Also, during this job, there was some question as to how the Turner 302’s legendary difficulty was being modeled in the game. I said that the short answer is that there are several factors at work to represent that.

As the GM, I have several dials that I can utilize to tune the difficulty of an obstacle: The number of segments on a clock, the possibility of multiple linked clocks, opposing clocks, the position of the roll.

Cracking the safe was a single 8 segment clock. However, I said that this was specifically for Kamali, and specifically for the method she used for opening it. Kamali has been presented in the fiction as a talented safe-cracker, among other things. If someone else had approached this particular task who had not been characterized as such (Boots, for example), the mechanics would look much different (perhaps a separate clock for each of the three tumblers).

There’s also the not insignificant point that the Turner Security Company is very likely overstating their ingenuity and innovative design in order to sell a product. Doesn’t mean it’s true (as Kamali has proven).

One additional note: I ran this 1 day after the previous session. This is the first game I’ve ever run where it doesn’t cause me stress (see what I did there). I could probably run this several times a week without a fuss if my schedule permitted it, I have so many ideas for what’s happening next.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 13 (April 30 2016)

Gloves and Kamali, left to their own devices, decide to go get some real food, and head to the Iruvian quarter in Silkshore. Over kebabs and a hookah, Gloves expounds on his family history at length; his father was a Court Philosopher, whose job was to be a sounding board of sorts, one of many advisors to the Sultan. Kamali, for obvious reasons, gives very little information about her background.

Shade is in a bookstore in Silkshore with Setarra. She is arguing with the shopkeeper over the price of a particular book when Shade notices Gloves and Kamali walking past outside. Setarra greets Gloves respectfully in Iruvian (“A thousand blessings upon your House”), but Kamali keeps her distance, and once Shade and Setarra excuse themselves, spits on the ground.

The next morning, Shade finds himself at a loose end, so he and Gloves and Kamali nose around for various rumors. They find the following:

* Edward Clermont boasts that his new safe (a Turner 302) is invincible.

* The Path of Echoes are willing to pay top coin for inhabited spirit bottles, no questions asked.

* There is a new drug called Lure made from leviathan blood that turns people into demons.

* The Ministry of Transport is taking over the Gondoliers

Kamali decides that cracking the safe is an opportunity too wonderful to pass up, so she takes Gloves and Shade to meet Frake, a locksmith who has a shop in Nightmarket. Frake is a dwarf who is very skilled at his trade. He knows about the Turner 302, a new model of safe from the Turner Security Company, that has a reputation of being uncrackable due to several new advances. He doesn’t have one in stock yet, but he does have the blueprints for it. He loans them to Kamali in exchange for the usual price: a game of chess, which she loses. He critiques her performance afterward, saying that she plays too defensively. “Chess is a game about armies advancing on one another on a battlefield, not about withstanding a siege.”

That evening, the crew sets about gathering information on Clermont’s townhouse, located in Six Towers. Shade attunes to the ghost field, and discovers the bum he killed way back when has been following him around this whole time. They make a deal; if the ghost goes in and scopes out the house, and in return Shade is supposed to end his suffering by dissipating him. The ghost holds up his end of the bargain (learning the location of the safe and the fact that it contains lots of cash and some papers), but when the time comes for Shade to do his part, instead of keeping his word and discorporating the ghost, Shade uses his spirit hook and stuffs him in a bottle. And thus we are reminded (much like in Sons of Anarchy and Peaky Blinders), the PCs may be the protagonists, but they are not nice people, and they are NOT the heroes.

Gloves hangs out near the side door to Clermont’s house, and seduces his maid. After some clever conversation and no small amount of flattery, they adjourn to the maid’s bedroom in the basement of the townhouse.

Later, Kamali sneaks into Clermont’s house, gets the layout and scopes out whatever’s valuable, but doesn’t take anything. She learns that Clermont works for the Skovlan Consulate.

Shortly after Kamali leaves, Gloves is still in bed with the maid when her uncle, Clermont’s butler, knocks on the door demanding to know why she hasn’t been about her duties around the house. There is some tense conversation while Gloves hides in the wardrobe, but it isn’t long before the butler becomes suspicious, barges in, and proceeds to search the room. Finding Gloves in the wardrobe, he orders his niece to go call the Bluecoats, and plans to detain Gloves in the sitting room (aided by a hastily grabbed fire poker) until they arrive. After about half an hour, when it becomes obvious that the Bluecoats aren’t coming, the butler is left in the unfortunate position of not being able to do anything about it himself without letting Gloves out of his sight (Gloves graciously offers to go summon the Bluecoats himself, but the butler is not amused). He ponders simply shooting Gloves, but decides that will cause more problems than it would solve, so in the end, he lets Gloves go, warning him that he will kill Gloves if he sees him near the house again.

Notes:

This was originally intended to be a fill-in session with just Gloves and Kamali, as Shade’s player would be out, but he was available at the last minute, so it was the whole group after all, and we got to see the B Team doing a side job away from the rest of the group.

Also, that last scene with Gloves and the butler actually happened at the beginning of Session 14, after a discussion regarding 4/5 results. The roll for Gloves to seduce the maid was a 5, and it was pointed out that I didn’t really inflict any kind of consequence on him for that roll at the time. I have resolved to take 4 & 5 results as opportunities to make things more interesting.

#dontmesswiththedolls