Blades in Taiwan!
This is an AP report of the Blades game I’m running in Taipei. Today we had our second session after an opening session with the two founding characters stealing the Red Sash treasury.
The Characters
Sharps – The Hound
A petty poacher from Skovland turned freelance animal control agent, tracking down strange beasts that lurk amidst the corpse-filled alchemical soup that is Duskvol’s sewers. Seeking higher pay, she now uses her skills for espionage. Her vice is an underground beast fighting ring. (NOTE: Her player hasn’t seen any of the Bloodletters stuff and just inferred that such a thing must exist!)
Misler – The Slide
A former street urchin who managed to land himself a job as a Sparkwright. He eventually lost the job after a former accomplice ratted out his on-the-job dirty dealings to the boss and he was forced back into full-time criming. He’s a frequent patron of the theatre.
Mikal – The Whisper
The newest addition, this well dressed Dagger Islander comes from a village that regularly sacrifices people to a demon to protect them from the deathlands. He fled to Duskvol after incurring the wrath of a vampire and since arriving has taken to drinking a concoction brewed with spirit essence. His spirit mask is clear crystal but fogs up with shadows and crackling light when he wears it.
The Crew
Misler & Sharps – Shadows.
A new gang, specialising in espionage around some of the illicit stores of Crow’s Foot often visited by the well-to-do up to no good. Respected by the citizens of Crow’s Foot for their focus on the upper-crust and lack of violence, but mostly for the M&S Gazette – equal part scandal sheet and street news. Rarely trusted, always read.
The Score
The score was relatively quick. Lyssa asked them to get dirt on Bazso. They flashed back to working out what Lyssa wanted from them and convincing Bazso to give them real but minor info with the goal of gaining Lyssa’s trust to later play her false. So they told Lyssa that Bazso was planning on leaving a couple of gambling dens under-guarded and moving the muscle to the docks to secure the latest shipment. But Bazso played them – instead moving a lot of muscle close to the Red Sash school and attacking and burning it down while some of the Red Sashes went after the gambling dens. The crew was implicated as the previous day’s headline in the M&S Gazette was “WAR in Crow’s Foot HEATING UP”
We’ve established that Bazso puts a lot of effort into selecting a whisky to serve whenever he meets people. Today he selected Prickle Leaf – a kind of Dagger Isles version of Fireball made with a leaf a little like sichuan peppercorn or pickly ash. Most everyone but Dagger Islanders thinks it’s foul.
Downtime
Misler, instead of just going to the theatre, went to a manor-party where he knew his favorite opera writer (maestro Helleren) would be. He pitched an idea for a mack the knife style opera, based on a thief who publishes his wealthy victim’s secrets. Helleren was delighted – mostly at the popular appeal – and suggested they could stage a fake riot for tickets as a publicity event. Misler over indulged and his theatre-going companion Nyryx was questioned by a noble jealous of Helleren’s attention. She did not hold up well to questioning.
Misler then reduced heat by publishing so much scandal about the two bluecoats looking into them that they were re-assigned.
Sharps had a little ghost trouble. Gorrick, an old colleague, had blamed her for his death and was haunting her. So Sharps and Michel searched for Gorrick’s body, to summon and bind his ghost. On the way they discovered the sewer beast that killed him – a giant tentacled rat like thing with a crocodile head. Michel compelled Gorrick to destroy it and the ghost – enraged at the creature that killed it – possessed it and pulled its head off with it’s own tentacles.
In memory of her former friend Gorrick, she organised an evening at the beast fighting ring and dedicated it to his memory. Word spread far though, and she attracted extra heat.
Mikal started a long term project to investigate scaling up spirit juice production for sale, but then we had to leave because the game store we were in was closing.
I felt the score was not as exciting or involved as it could have been, though it held together in the end. That’s on me. But the downtime was great – everyone seemed to really treat it as their time to expand on their character, thinking of interesting ways to fictionalise the downtime actions.
