Category: Blades in the Dark: Actual Play Reports

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 10 (April 13 2016)

Downtime actions for the Bell & Birch Job:

The crew begins Phase 2 of their plan to gentrify The Drop:

* Constance starts going around to the abandoned buildings in the area and kicking out the squatters.

* Shade goes to the non-abandoned buildings and talks to the owners. The recent breakout of war between the Sashes and the Lampblacks helps foster the idea that now might be a good time to sell.

Constance and Boots go to meet with Lady Drake. Constance informs her of the ongoing war, her prediction that the Red Sashes will win, and of her intentions to absorb the remnants of the Lampblacks. Lady Drake mentions that the root of the conflict is a personal grudge between Baszo and Mylera. She agrees to Constance’s proposal for continuing the arrangement that she had with the Lampblacks, should the conflict resolve in the manner everyone expects. She also agrees to set up a meeting between the Dolls and Prichard, Baszo’s 2nd in command, who by all accounts is a fairly reasonable individual.

The crew decides to poach a fence. Boots knows a luxury fence named Basran from the card table at Spogg’s; he currently works exclusively with the Hive.

Boots and Gloves go to Spoggs, and get into a game with Basran. Boots steers the conversation towards business, and it comes out that Basran is unhappy with the fact that The Hive doesn’t deal in narcotics. Boots presses the matter, and Basran lets slip that he’s looking for Blue Cloud (morphine), but in the process makes everyone nervous (and suspect that Boots is an undercover Bluecoat).

Kamali’s Vice is Blue Cloud, so she goes to Rolan Volaris in Nightmarket to talk about setting up a meeting with Rolan’s supplier. Rolan asks for three Coin as a finder’s fee. Kamali brings this to the group, Constance sends Gloves to negotiate, and he manages to talk Rolan down to 1 Coin and a favor.

Meanwhile, Gregor goes to visit Stazia, an old friend who runs an apothecary. Stazia says he doesn’t have any Blue Cloud on hand, but if Gregor can bring him some raw material, he can prepare some. However, the size of his shop limits the amount he can produce at any given time. The group decides that this would make for a good long term project sometime in the future (they have their eye on the Drug Dens claim).

Notes:

We refined the rules for multiple characters a bit. Players can play multiple characters as necessary during a session, but only one character gets a downtime cycle per player, per job. A way around this is to split the group and do multiple jobs simultaneously. We’ll see this happen later on.

Some background on Blue Cloud. It’s basically morphine, and it comes from a particular breed of flower that grows in The Dagger Isles known as the Royal Poppy, due to the deep purple color of the petals. The latex extracted from the seed pod is a sky blue in color, and this is where the name comes from (even though the color mostly fades once the substance is processed into the drug).

We have yet to see Kamali properly indulge her Vice in-game, but when she does, it’s a highly ritualized affair. The syringe she uses is of a fairly ornate steampunk-inspired design, a delicate glass tube encased in lots of intricate brass filigree, with very fine replaceable needles made of an obscure steel alloy that’s resistant to rust and corrosion.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 09 (April 11 2016)

Late at night, Boots encounters someone entering the doll factory via the roof entrance. It turns out to be Gregor, the last remaining employee of the Cinder Street Doll Company.

A little about Gregor (nicknamed Gears): Once upon a time, he had been employed as an inventor and mechanic, maintaining the machinery for the assembly lines in the doll factory. When the company went out of business, he stuck around and made the factory his own private workshop. After all the doors and windows on the ground floor were bricked up, he devised ways of getting in and out of the building via the roof (that the crew have since been using). Eventually, he was hauled off Strathmill Asylum, supposedly for conducting “unnatural experiments” (he claims the charges were falsified). After five years, he’s been released, and has decided to come home.

Boots’ efforts to eliminate the intruder are thwarted by Valter, who takes an immediate liking to him (he’s familiar, because even after five years, his scent is all over the building). Gears meets with the rest of the crew. Shade takes an immediate dislike to him, which will only increase with familiarity (they’re competing for workshop space, and have wildly differing views on the nature of science, the supernatural, and the inner workings of the world). However, Constance sees potential in having a Leech around, and Kamali tests his skills with a broken pocketwatch (which he fixes with little effort) and a large padlock (which he opens with even less), so he is welcomed into the crew in a probationary capacity.

[Gears is being played by the same player as Shade.]

The Bell & Birch Job:

Shade sneaks into Tocker’s flat while she’s out and steals her stash of leviathan blood, leaving a note detailing where to meet to get it back. From a window in the building across the street he observes her coming home and proceeding to tear her bedroom apart in rage when she realizes what’s happened. Shade borrows a Spiritbane charm from Constance and meets up with Nyryx, currently possessing Skannon, the bartender from the Leaky Bucket, in case some muscle is needed.

Tocker, not thinking straight, shows up for the meeting with Shade, demanding he return her property with all the conviction of a junkie. But she hasn’t realized that he’s led her into a blind alley with no escape. Nyryx grabs her and immobilizes her with a powerful armlock. The Spiritbane charm around Shade’s neck interferes with Tocker’s ability to de-possess the woman and escape. and Shade brings out his spirit hook, a device I ruled works like one of those poles with a loop on the end that Animal Control uses for rabid animals, except here the loop is not physical material, but electroplasm. Shade manages to get the loop around Tocker’s neck despite her attempts to break free of Nyryx’s grasp. With a sharp yank, Shade pulls Tocker’s spirit out of the young woman’s body, which immediately goes limp. Shade then wrestles the protesting ghost into the spirit bottle that he had resting open on the ground, and clamps it shut once the ghost is inside. Shade asks if the woman will remember what’s happened, Nyryx says it’s likely, explaining that while some ghosts develop the ability to block their hosts’ memories while possessing them, most don’t bother. Nyryx takes possession of the bottle, and bids Shade good night. They go their separate ways, leaving the woman unconscious in the alley, but free of the ghost.

Later that night, Kamali and Boots make their way into the Bell & Birch via the side entrance into the kitchen. With Tocker out of the way, the only security (besides the vault door) are a trio of thugs named Grine, Coil, and Vale. Grine is helping himself to some whiskey at the bar when no one’s looking, while the other two are upstairs. This allows Kamali, all but invisible with her fine shadow cloak, to sneak up on Grine and knock him out cold. However, she doesn’t have time to hide him before Coil comes downstairs looking for him. Coil sees the body and draws his knife, and Boots engages him hand to hand. It doesn’t go well for Boots, and he narrowly avoids a nasty cut (Harm reduced to Minor). Kamali is able to deal with Grine in the same manner as his buddy. By now the scuffle downstairs has attracted the attention of Vale, the third guard. He comes thundering downstairs, but Boots manages to get the drop on him, but not before Vale is able to break Boots’ nose with a well-timed elbow. Boots yanks Vale’s jacket over his head, and uses the opportunity to knock him out, but not before Vale has some choice words for his attackers.

Kamali opens the safe with the combination, and narrowly avoids a spring-loaded spike trap, triggered by a pressure plate inside the door. After disabling it, she and Boots grab all the cash they can carry and get the hell out of there. It’s quite a lot, but as they will soon discover, it can disappear just as quickly as expenses start to pile up.

Notes:

It’s a completely random coincidence that the dice happened to reinforce the idea that Boots’ forte is ranged combat, and that he is just not built for close quarters.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 8 (April 6th 2016)

The Hit List Job (Part 2):

On the third night, Gloves gets some more useful info on the locals, but has to sacrifice his winnings to throw off suspicion.

Kamali susses out the weak spots in the Lampblacks’ operation at the Bell &  Birch. There is a back room which is the cash vault, secured by a stout metal door with a combination lock,  and only the pit boss Danfield has the combo, until Kamali manages to observe him opening it. She also has information on the security arrangements. While the place is open for business, cash is stored in a strongbox behind the bar, which is transferred to the vault after the places closes down (hours of operation are from about 5pm to 6am). In fact, the only time the vault is opened with customers in the place is when Baszo’s man Brock comes in, whispers something urgent to Danfield, who opens the door long enough to retrieve a bag of coin, looking annoyed the entire time.

Shade follows Tocker home, and watches her indulge her own vice,  a small drop of unrefined leviathan blood on the gums. She takes a nap before returning to the Bell & Birch for the night shift.

Kamali stays on at the place a couple of days to round out the list.  The remaining names:

Merril Brime: Information broker, owns the Hooded Fox

Jira: Merchant in the Night Market. Also a smuggler.

Ereth Skane: an advocate with unseemly vices (Shade has seen him in Setarra’s brothel).

Stavrul Kardera: Member of the Skovlan Consulate.

Sevoy: Ink Rake.

Lannic: Art forger.

Remira: Whisper.

Lady Drake: A local magistrate who is currently on the Lampblacks’ payroll.

After her shift, Kamali follows Lady Drake home and decides to leave her off the list. The crew delivers the remaining names to Mylera, who is pleased.

Later that night, Boots catches someone entering the factory by the rooftop entrance. As Boots holds the intruder at gunpoint, both of them exclaim at the same time: “What are you doing in my house?!”

Notes:

I was able to correct my earlier problem with the clocks by holding myself to narrating direct in-game results for every tick of a clock. Whenever Gloves got a success on advancing The Regulars, I gave him another name, and some details about the person. When Kamali got a success on advancing SOP, I gave her specific details about how the place handled customers, cash flow, scheduling, etc.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 7 (March 30th 2016)

Flashback:

Several weeks ago, coming off of one of his week-long binges, Shade exits Setarra’s brothel one morning and notices a young Iruvian woman who makes her way through the crowd on the street, effortlessly picking pockets as she goes. Intrigued, he keeps an eye out for her, and spies her on several other occasions on the streets of Nightmarket. He brings this information to Constance, who sets about making inquiries as to the young woman’s identity. Neither Lyssa for Mylera Klev has ever heard of her, so she seems to be independent. Constance decides to try and recruit her before someone else does.

The next time Shade encounters the girl, he manages to corner her long enough to offer her a job (his quick talking manages to save him from getting a knife in the throat for his trouble). She follows him back to the Leaky Bucket to meet Constance and the rest of the crew. The girl, who doesn’t speak the entire time, remains suspicious of Shade and Boots, but bonds with Constance, who is well served with her experience in dealing with Marlane. When asked her name, she writes something in a curly flowing script that no one can read (Gloves was not present at the time), so she writes in Akorosi: “Kamali”. Constance presents her with an offer: join the crew, and earn an equal share. Kamali agrees.

A little about Kamali, the group’s new Lurk (and Fly on the Wall): She was the daughter of an Iruvian merchant prone to falling for get-rich-quick schemes. Her father was more or less swindled into coming to Doskvol to work with his brother who was starting up an important/export company, with promises of big big money and a life of luxury. Once the family got to Akoros, the business dried up, and they were stuck there. Some time ago, Kamali was raped, and her family blamed her for it. This came to a head when her oldest brother attempted to kill her to restore the family’s honor (rich cultural heritage). A Bluecoat named Darmot intervened, killing her brother. He took her in and looked after her for a while, until she was caught attempting to burglarize Roslyn Kellis’ townhouse. Darmot was able to keep Kamali out of Ironhook, but absolved himself of all responsibility for her afterward. Kamali is an accomplished pickpocket, safecracker, and assassin. In a crowd, she’s inconspicuous. In the dark, she’s downright invisible. She never speaks; it is unknown if she is unable to, or simply chooses not to. However, she can read and write extremely well (in several languages). She’s about 19 or so.

[Kamali is being played by the same player as Constance.]

The Hit List Job (part 1):

Mylera Klev has tasked the Dolls with scoping out the Bell & Birch, and getting her a list of notable regulars. The payment for this job is the opportunity to gather intel on the establishment so they can rob it themselves.

The crew has two clocks: “The Regulars” represents their obligations to Mylera, and they can use Consort or Survey to advance it. “Standard Operating Procedure” represents all the pertinent details of the day to day operations of the Bell & Birch, and will give them vital information on how to approach robbing the place. Each of these clocks is 8 segments.

Opposing them is a Suspicion clock (6 segments), which advances every time someone messes up a roll. However, Gloves has some degree of control over this one (more on this below).

Kamali gets a job serving drinks in order to observe the business (her starting playbook ability makes her exceptionally adept at this). Gloves places himself front and center at one of the dice tables to observe the comings and goings of the patrons, as well as take attention away from the rest of the crew. They both make good progress on these tasks.

Shade is there to gamble and observe as well, but almost immediately gets spotted by one of the bar girls, who turns out to be possessed by Tocker, who is working security for the place, in exchange for small quantities of unrefined leviathan blood on a regular basis.

I presented Gloves with a mini-game of sorts. I decided that the drama of the scenes in the Bell & Birch wasn’t about whether he was winning or losing. After all, Liar’s Dice becomes a lot simpler when you can tell with absolute certainly if someone is lying or not. Instead, each game night spent in the place ends with a choice: if he decides that he’s winning, he adds 1 Coin to a running total (to be collected at the end of the job) but also advances the Suspicion clock for the job. Alternatively, he can choose to lose, which will wipe out his winnings, but also reset the Suspicion clock. The first night he decides he’s winning.

The second night, Kamali and Gloves are back in the place, and make more progress on the clocks, but Shade has other business. He talks to Nyryx (who shows up riding the body of a young man Shade hasn’t seen before). They hatch a plan to capture Tocker. Shade also visits Flint, a spirit trafficker who used to work the rails years ago. He gets some advice on how to capture and bottle the rival ghost.

Notes:

I admit I dropped the ball a little bit this session, skimping somewhat on presenting the results of Gloves’ and Kamali’s actions in favor of Shade’s scenes. Even in a game that drips atmosphere as much as Blades in the Dark, there is always the danger of becoming complacent and lazy as a GM, and boiling down actions to ticking off segments on a clock, with no supporting narrative (like those people who used to play D&D like: “Roll to hit.” “18.” “Roll damage.” “12.” “You kill it.”). I resolved to fix this next session.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 6 (March 16th 2016)

Aftermath of The Frame Lord Brogan Job:

+5 Rep (because they technically took on the City Council ,Tier V), +2 Coin, +2 Heat. Shade spends actions to heal and relieve Stress. Constance spends both actions to relieve stress. Yanth Agog directs her to Silkshore, where she meets Kasson (nicknamed Gloves), and brings him into the crew. Boots reduces Heat by 2, and trains Prowess. Constance spends 1 Coin to train Prowess. +1 Crew XP for contending with an opponent above their station, which gets them an advance, which they spend on Slippery. Boots drops off the radar for a bit (Gloves is now active).

So, a bit about Gloves. He’s a Slide, he’s from Iruvia (which we’ve decided is a lot like pre-Islam Arabia), he’s used to living in luxury (it’s his Vice, in fact), and up until very recently, he was the houseboy of a Lady Polonia who resides in a very nice townhouse in Silkshore. He’d become disillusioned with his living arrangements when he realized he was no longer the lady’s favorite, and her head had been turned by a newcomer (who happened to be possessed by Nyryx at the time). So he was in the process of looking for something better when he was discovered by Constance.

[Gloves is being played by the same player as Boots.]

There is some discussion regarding ongoing stance concerning the Lampblacks and the Red Sashes. It is agreed that the crew should keep both of them as neutral as possible, with a slight bias on the side of the Sashes. Boots brings Gloves to meet Mylera Klev, who is suitably impressed. She gives them a job to spy on the comings and goings of Bell & Birch, a small gambling house controlled by the Lampblacks. Job is to scope the place out, gather intel on the regulars, an at some point rob the place blind. Mylera has promised a minimum of 4 Coin for the job.

Notes:

This was a short session. The main action was the discussion of how to proceed. There was a moment where there was a disagreement between Constance and the rest of the group, and in the end I put it to an opposed roll. I’m not sure that was the right thing to do, and at least one of the players (the guy who plays Shade) wasn’t quite comfortable with the dice potentially taking away a player’s agency (related to his dislike of social mechanics in general).

We also have started to play around with multiple characters. My ruling at this point is that a player can have one character active per job, and that character gets the downtime actions at the end of the job. If a player brings in another character that has been absent for more than 2 sessions, they get a downtime cycle to explain what they’ve been up to since we saw them last (and they come back in with no Stress or Harm). We would eventually end up modifying these rules (only a little bit), but more on that in a later entry.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 5 (March 2nd 2016)

Downtime actions for The Bronze Statue Job:

The crew uses a lot of the Coin they got from the extra loot for extra actions to indulge their Vices as well as reduce the massive amount of Heat that was still around from the assault to remove the Lampblacks’ dealers from The Drop. Boots starts a long term project to find some rich investors and get them to start buying up property in The Drop, with the intention of gentrifying the neighborhood, in order to eventually provide better burglary targets. I decide that it’s going to be one clock to get the investors lined up, and another to facilitate the sales (including ensuring the current owners are willing to sell). I rule that anyone can contribute.

Some time later, the crew is hanging out at the Leaky Bucket, when they are approached by a man calling himself Karstas. Shade quickly susses out that he is a fire demon. Karstas informs the crew that he is aware that they have recently come into contact with a rare statue from Tycheros, and he would very much like to acquire it. He draws up a contract and agrees that in trade for an introduction to the current owner (Fitz) with the intent of making a sincere offer for the statue, he will provide them with a list of prospective investors in the real estate scheme that Boots is cooking up. Shade looks over the contract and makes some judicious edits before they all sign. Karstas says he will meet them in 24 hours.

Constance visits The Crows. Lyssa has a job for the crew: Break into the office of Lord Brogan (city councilor), and plant evidence of some nefarious crime. Once that’s done, the Bluecoats will be tipped off and will search the office and find the evidence. The ultimate goal is that Lord Brogan will be removed from office (the first hint that there are larger things at work here).

The crew discusses several possible plans, including a spell that will fleshcraft one of them to look like someone who belongs there (Shade identifies a guard that has a bit of a drinking habit and can be easily waylaid on his way to work), dressing up as a servant, and even appealing for a direct audience with Lord Brogan. After their Gather Info rolls, they decided to go with Plan #2.

The next night they meet up with Karstas, who does indeed give them a list of names, filling in half their investor clock in one shot. One of the names on the list is Adelard Fitz. They go to make their introductions, only to find out that Karstas has already met with Fitz and made a deal to buy statue (he has graciously allowed Fitz another week with it). The crew is naturally suspicious, but Karstas says he considers this sufficient for them to fulfill their part of the bargain, since it was because of them that he made contact with Fitz.

The Frame Lord Brogan Job:

The next day, Shade and Constance loiter in Heartbreak Square while Boots infiltrates City Hall dressed as a footman, makes his way up to Lord Brogan’s office. He serves tea to Lord Brogan and a guest, spills a teacup, and manages to slip the envelope under the desk while mopping up the spill. He hightails it out of there, and Constance informs Lyssa that the job was successful.

Notes:

The players initially voiced their concerns that this job ended up being too easy, considering who they went up against. After more discussion, it was decided that this was partly because they did really well on the Gather Info rolls, and for the most part, the system is working as intended, though I could probably should have added another complication (and associated clock) on the way out.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 4 (February 24th 2016)

The crew goes to see Fitz, one of their contacts. He is a collector of antiquities who runs a shop in Six Towers, and occasionally hires the crew to acquire certain items for him. This time he wants them to retrieve a curious bronze statue recently brought in from Tycheros that is currently being held by the Dockers until Fitz agrees to pay their exorbitant customs & handling fees. He offers the crew 4 Coin and the opportunity to take whatever else they want from the warehouse where the statue is being kept.

The Bronze Statue Job:

They stake out the warehouse and Constance notes the comings and goings of the guards. Boots looks for a way in, which he finds in the form of a skylight. Shade performs a ritual to take over a swarm of rats, so he can scope out the inside of the building without being detected, and in the process locates the statue. When they’re ready to do the job, Constance provides a distraction to the guards on the outside as only Constance can, while Boots and Shade go in via the roof. Boots ends up twisting his ankle a bit on the way down. The only opposition inside is in the office off to the side, so Boots and Shade shove one of the heavy crates up against the door as quietly as they can, and then let Constance in the side door once the outside guards are all knocked out. They retrieve the statue, and a number of other valuables, and quietly make their escape.

They get 3 Rep for going up against the Seaside Dockers and lots of Coin: 4 for the statue, and another 6 for the other stuff they stole. They receive a minimal amount of heat, but there was still a hell of a lot from the last job. The Entanglement roll resulted in Demonic Attention, which I will follow up on later.

Notes:

Apologies for the sparseness of this post, I actually had to recreate this entry from memory.

#dontmesswiththedolls