Tag: dontmesswiththedolls

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

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 24 (July 13 2016)

The Job – The Rich Kid Rid & Bid:

The group splits up for two simultaneous linked jobs. One team will handle the kidnapping of Ellsworth Dunne’s children, while the other will take advantage of the chaos and rob the house itself.

Part 1 – Team Kidnap:

* Constance

* Gloves

* Shade

Based on the info Gloves got from the noteboard in the house, the children are always taken by their nanny to piano lessons in the afternoon on certain days of the week. This is taking place in Brightstone, which I decide automatically counts as hostile territory for purposes of calculating Heat due to the frequent Bluecoat patrols (btw, John, thanks VERY much for the neighborhood preview, I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of them).

The group crits on their Engagement roll. Constance and Shade lurk in an alley adjacent to their quarry’s normal route, while Gloves approaches the nanny and the kids in a frantic state, with a story about a lost dog. With a dramatic flourish of his handkerchief, he blows trance powder in all their faces, and it’s enough to make them woozy and distracted. Constance and Shade quickly scoop up the kids and disappear back into the alley. Gloves runs off, calling for his imaginary dog.

Constance and Shade quickly place the nigh-unconscious kids into large burlap sacks, and nonchalantly make their way north to the Docks. Shade engages in some working-class chatter (which he has picked up from the refugees), and Constance makes a passing comment about Skovlan Shrieking Potatoes (“They just keep screaming until you boil them”), but fortunately, the kids do not make a sound, and a contingent of Bluecoats guarding the foot of the large bridge to Whitecrown don’t even bat an eye when the two of them pass by carrying their sacks of “potatoes”.

They make it to the Docks, and stash the kids in the office of a disused warehouse (owned by a small shipping company currently in receivership). Constance does her best to make the kids comfortable, as she has no intention of hurting or mistreating them. For their part, the kids are more than a bit naïve, and blissfully unaware of the potential danger they’re in. They’re both a bit excited by the prospect of having an adventure, and they’ve decided that Constance and Shade are pirates, based on the hoods they wear to conceal their faces, and the fact that there’s nautical trappings all over the office. They both agree that this is a lot more fun and exciting than boring old piano lessons.

Part 2 – Team Burlgary:

* Kamali

* Gears

* Boots

In a flashback, a ransom note was carefully crafted by Boots and Kamali. They include a particular detail in the ransom note that is intended to appear as an amateurish mistake that implicates someone in the household staff, so the Bluecoats will round them up for questioning.

The successful kidnapping nets them an extra die on the Engagement roll, and this time they get a 5. The note is delivered to the house, and Boots watches from a nearby rooftop. He sees the Bluecoats arrive, march the staff off for questioning, and then escort Dunne and his wife to a safe location. However, a trio of Bluecoats remain behind to guard the house, making regular patrols around the perimeter.

Kamali goes in via the chimney, and unlocks the side door for Gears. He heads inside and goes straight to the basement. After some searching, aided by the copy he made of the plans for the house, he finds a hidden door behind a bookshelf. The door is locked, and there is an alarm wired up. He manages to disarm the alarm and open the lock, and finds Dunne’s secret office. In a strongbox on the desk is 1 Coin, but Gears’ interest is taken by the large filing cabinet in the corner. All five drawers are stuffed full of files on dozens of notable citizens around the city, including some of the other City Councilors; Dunne’s blackmail material.

Meanwhile, Kamali makes her way upstairs to the master bedroom, and opens the wall safe (after the Turner 302, it’s almost disappointing). Inside, she finds 4 Coin in cash and jewelry. Going through the rest of the house, she manages to pick up another 2 Coin in random valuables. She heads back downstairs to find Gears emptying the contents of the filing cabinet into his cart.

Boots sees them exit the side entrance just as one of the Bluecoats is rounding the corner to patrol the side and back of the house. Boots fires a shot into the air, both as a distraction and as a signal to the others that it’s time to get the hell out of there. In both cases, it has its intended effect. The Bluecoats all hear the shot and take off running down the street, and Kamali and Gears hightail it in the other direction.

The ransom note includes demands for a payout and instructions for the drop, but when Dunne and the authorities get to the location specified, all they find is another note informing them that the children can be picked up at a local church. It will likely take the Bluecoats some time to search all the various churches in the area. When the children are finally found, the priest will only be able to tell them about the mysterious individual who simply dropped them off, saying they found them on the street. The children themselves will go on and on about how they went on a grand adventure with pirates who wore hoods to hide their faces.

Aftermath:

Payoff: After visiting Basran to fence the non-cash items, the crew gets a total of 9 Coin (4 from the safe, 2 from the rest of the house, 1 from the secret room, and 2 from the Luxury Fence claim), one of which has to be paid to the Crows, leaving them with 8.

Rep: The crew again technically went up against the City Council again, so they earn 5 Rep (which gets applied when they visit Lyssa to pay tribute). Don’t expect it to be anywhere near this easy ever again. This brings them a Tier advance, which they spend on raising their Hold back up to Strong, rather than jump to Tier 2.

Heat: 1 for Low Exposure, +1 for a high-profile target, +1 for hostile turf, add that to the 1 they already had brings the total to 4.

Entanglement: Prichard shows up at the Bucket, a look of consternation on his face. He asks to speak with Constance regarding the kidnapping. There’s a tense moment, when Constance considers risking the bartender’s wrath by killing Prichard right there in the tavern, but instead leads him outside to have a stern talk. After a brief confused exchange, it’s clear that Prichard is talking about a completely different kidnapping. After the fire at the coal warehouse, Brock was found dead, a Red Sash’s dagger in his back, and Baszo’s daughter Aleira nowhere to be seen. It comes out that Mylera’s sister Celia was Baszo’s wife, and Baszo blames her for Celia’s death. For her part, Mylera always despised Baszo for how he treated Celia. Aleira’s kidnapping has sent Baszo off the deep end, and he is currently on his way to challenge Mylera himself. Prichard understands that Baszo’s days are numbered, but if he gets himself killed now, there will be nothing to stop the Sashes from wiping out the rest of the Lampblacks, which does not suit Constance’s plan.

The group accompanies Prichard down to the Temple. They arrive there ahead of Baszo, but only just, and they are spotted by the guards on the front door. Baszo is on his way from the west, it’s clear even from a distance that he is very drunk, and he’s dragging a cannon on wheels (an artifact of the Severosi Civil War about two hundred years ago). Constance and Prichard immediately move off to intercept Baszo, while the rest of the group heads up the walk to deal with the Sashes.

Gloves and Shade speak to the guards, and Aldo appears at the front door to bring them inside. He leads them upstairs to Mylera’s private office. They inform her of Aleira’s kidnapping, and not only is Gloves able to determine that Mylera had nothing to do with it, but it’s also obvious that she’s visibly concerned for the girl’s safety. She states that she would never condone anything that would hurt her niece (it turns out that she was not aware that the girl had stayed behind at the warehouse when the Sashes attacked), and resolves to investigate the matter herself. If one of the Sashes did it, it was without her permission, and discipline will be meted out. If it was someone else, they will almost certainly pay dearly for exploiting the situation by implicating the Sashes. On the way out, Shade summons Kelyr, who corroborates Prichard’s story regarding the history between Baszo and Mylera. Kelyr warns Shade that his name is getting around in ghost circles, and there’s been some grumbling about the way he’s been throwing his weight around.

Meanwhile, Constance and Prichard manage to talk Baszo down, pointing out that he is hopelessly outnumbered and will almost certainly die if he attacks the Sashes now, and they promise to help find Aleira and bring her back safe. His resolve gone, he slumps visibly and sits down right in the middle of the street. Constance feels slightly odd comforting a man she fully intends to kill within a few days. Gears and Boots take the opportunity to make off with the cannon.

Downtime actions will come next session.

Notes:

I decided to go with a home-brewed entanglement instead of rolling on the table. Everyone seemed to be fine with this.

Over the last 20+ sessions, I had thrown a lot of plot threads out there, so I figured it was high time to start bringing some of them back in. Some of this was stuff I decided the nature of as far back as Session 1 (such as the cause of the conflict between the Sashes and the Lampblacks).

We have made a concerted effort to give all the sheets a once-over at the end of every session to make sure no one gets shorted on XP. I have resolved to be generous with it, as advancements have been fairly slow.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 23 (July 06 2016)

After determining that Fitz did not in fact know that the doll factory is currently in use, the group gives him the bad news. Fitz is disappointed that he will not be able to start up a new business venture, but Constance promises to compensate him for the loss of the building. They discover that Fitz went to great lengths to track down the previous owner, Edmund McDonough.

Constance meets with Karstas, and makes it clear that she is not amused by this recent development, and asks if it’s a declaration of war. Karstas asks Constance if she has ever bothered to declare war on an anthill. He points out that by steering Fitz toward buying the building, he has kept other more inquisitive buyers away from the property, and thus the Dolls have avoided dealing with a potentially unpleasant situation later on. Constance gives him a warning, for what that’s worth.

Gears speaks to his former boss, Edmund McDonough, who is drinking himself into an early grave. McDonough points him to a former foreman, Ellsworth Dunne, who ran the business into the ground, and has since wormed his way onto the City Council (and coincidentally is also responsible for having Gears put away). He is married and has two children. Gears brings this information to the group, and is determined to bring him down.

Constance gets the idea to kidnap the man’s children and hold them for ransom, but the true purpose of the kidnapping is to get everyone out of the house so it can be robbed.

Gather Info for The Rich Kid Rid & Bid:

Boots remembers kidnapping investigations he worked on back in his Bluecoat days, and knows that the most vulnerable point in a kidnapping plan is the ransom handoff. Also, if one has no intention of returning the victim, it’s better to not demand a ransom in the first place, as the Bluecoats devote special attention to those who neglect to free their kidnap victims after the ransom is paid.

Constance gets a handle on areas on the waterfront that are not heavily patrolled, etc. This gives them information on feasible escape routes and secure places to stash the children.

Gloves and Kamali get jobs with a local Iruvian laundry service, and arrange to be in the right place at the right time for a delivery. Gloves gets a hold of the childrens’ tutoring schedules from the help, while Kamali scopes out the house itself after hiding in one of the laundry baskets. She finds a wall safe in the master bedroom.

Gears goes to the city planner’s office and find the plans for Dunne’s home. He corroborates Gloves’ and Kamali’s findings by identifying the servants’ entrance as the most vulnerable spot. He also notices a suspicious empty spot in the basement.

Shade gets Nyryx to help shake down the ghost of a dead Bluecoat named Virgil. There’s a brief struggle, but Shade gets the upper hand. He finds out that Dunne was the one behind the frame-up of Lord Brogan. Shade gets the idea to set up a network of spectral informants. Nyryx is somewhat horrified upon seeing what Shade is capable of.

Notes:

Everything involving Ellsworth Dunne was completely improvised. It all sprang from a single line from Gears’ player when he went to see McDonough: “Tell me where the son of a bitch is.”

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 22 (June 29 2016)

Constance takes Boots and Gears to meet The Lost at the Cat & Cradle in Charterhall. They all opt for a Light load, which I rule nets them an extra die on the Engagement roll, since it’s a Social plan.

They formally meet Colonel Corbett Adams, Sgt Rodney Lynch, and Sgt Annabelle Day. They inform the group that they have it in for Thorn (Sgt Lynch in particular), and are currently looking for information on his whereabouts. Constance tells them that they no longer have any dealings with him. Adams has concerns that what The Dolls are involved in will run at cross purposes with the Lost’s agenda. Sgt Day is open to the idea of sharing the informants. In the end, they negotiate an understanding. The Dolls and the Lost will share the informants, provided that the Dolls don’t engage in anything that runs at cross-purposes for the Lost (should be fine, as they’re not raping anyone or stealing from the poor), and if the Lost are hunting anyone that crosses into Crow’s Foot, they will defer to the Dolls to deal with it.

Shade spends time infiltrating a group of Skovlan refugees in Coalridge, introducing himself as Geirfin Holm. Nyryx helps by possessing various members of the group and talking him up to the rest of them. Frans Antonsen is the de facto leader of the group. Henry Ruen is Frans’ best friend; both work at the nearby eel farms. Haldor Henrickson is quiet and withdrawn, and Marlina Melby is his girlfriend. Frans says he has been in contact with Maldor Williamsen, who has been in hiding, but will be returning soon. The current target of their ire are the Grinders (who I changed from Skovlan ex-dockworkers to a group of Akorosi nationalists), and things have been heating up lately.

Shade comes back to report on what he’s learned. Constance decides to play the long game with the Refugees and the Grinders.

Downtime Actions:

* Gears indulges his Vice, continuing his experiments, and finishes upgrading Constance’s anchor.

* Shade trains Prowess (raising Skirmish), and gets rid of his Frostbitten injury from a couple of sessions ago.

* Boots trains Prowess and Personal.

* Gloves also trains Prowess and Personal.

* Constance trains Prowess and starts a long term project to start building the workshop.

* Kamali trains Personal.

Epilogue:

Fitz shows up at the Bucket in high spirits. He invites the Dolls to celebrate with him, as he has just closed the deal to purchase a piece of property in the Drop. On Karstas’ recommendation, he has purchased an abandoned factory that had belonged to the Cinder Street Doll Company.

Notes:

The meeting with the Lost could have been more tense. I let things develop as they did entirely through conversation. There was some intense negotiation, but no one rolled for anything. Afterwards, the players felt that it was too easy. So I’m working on ways to follow up on this new working relationship, and making it more interesting.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 21 (June 22 2016)

Shade is still off getting in good with the Skovlan refugees.

The crew has the master list of Merrill Brime’s informants. They start going down the list, and informing everyone that Brime is now in the Dolls’ employ.

Some background on Merrill Brime: Once upon a time, he was a quartermaster in the Imperial Army, and now has ties to The Lost, a group of ex-soldiers turned vigilantes.

Constance talks to Richard Graham, a retired Imperial Army soldier who lost a leg in the last conflict, and makes a show of begging in the square in Nightmarket. She notices a man with a sharp face and a military look in his posture watching them. Graham refers to him as Sergeant Lynch. Constance tips her hat as she walks off, and Lynch returns the gesture.

Gears talks to Bellino Claro, an aging Severosi who hangs out in a park in Coalridge with some fellow retired dockworkers where they play Bocci and smoke cigars. When Gears explains the situation with Merrill Brime, Bellino says they will need to deal with The Lost one way or another, and agrees to find out how they’re funded.

Gloves talks to Tamanna Majeed, an Iruvian artist in Charterhall who makes a living drawing charcoal sketches on the street. She does an impressive sketch as they talk. She suggests talking to a Colonel Adams to work out The Doll’s issues with The Lost. Kamali watches from afar, and picks up on Tamanna’s aversion to being touched. Later she sees Tamanna meet with a man with a military look to him, wearing an Imperial Army sabre. She follows him and tracks him to Quinn’s tavern in Six Towers, whose compatriots address him as Colonel.

Boots talks to Basheer Ajad, an Iruvian food vendor in Six Towers. While they are talking, Boots is approached by Sergeant Annabelle Day, who politely but firmly insists that they have a talk. They sit down for drinks, and discuss Merrill Brime’s change in allegiance. They both decide that their respective leaders need to meet to hash this out. She tells him they will meet that evening at the Cat & Cradle in Charterhall.

Notes:

All NPCs in this session, Brime’s cadre of informants and the members of The Lost, were 100% improvised on the spot.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 20 (June 15 2016)

Aftermath of The Church Merch Search & Lurch:

* Payout: 6

* Rep: 4

* Heat: +2 (3 total)

* Entanglement: The Usual Suspects. Spogg gets nabbed in a raid of his gambling house, and the crew pays 2 Coin to get him out before he says anything that might incriminate Boots or the rest of the crew.

Downtime Actions:

Gloves reduces Stress by going shopping again, this time for the perfect pair of shoes at Auberto Finelli’s (“Purveyor of Fine Footwear for the Distinguished Gentleman for Over 30 Years”), and trains Prowess.

Gears reduces Stress by dissecting the dead body that Constance brought from the fire. He still has a day or so before it becomes dangerous, and preserving the vital organs in jars is fine, as long as the bulk of the body is dissolved with electroplasm. Once that’s done, he finishes the construction project to build crew quarters. Constance gets on everyone’s case to move in, as she wants them close at hand from now on.

Boots (coming off of a gambling binge) helps reduce Heat (by 2), and trains Personal.

Kamali reduces Stress (she’s staying away from the Veil for a while, so she takes advantage of having her own room for once), works on healing her gunshot wound, and spends some time making Frake a friend. She wins the chess game this time, and shows him sketches of the Turner 302. Frake asks if she will take him along the next time she goes to visit Clermont’s house.

Constance works on healing her burns, and reduces Stress. Yanth Agog tells her to go to Coalridge, where saves a pregnant woman from being trampled by a carriage by standing in the middle of the street and staring down the charging goats, who stumble all over themselves while skidding to a stop, and end up on their knees in front of her. She helps the woman gather up her groceries, and it turns out she’s a believer.

Notes:

The meat of this session was downtime stuff. I think players are really doing themselves a disservice if they treat this phase as strictly bookkeeping, dealing with their actions in a perfunctory manner. These actions (and the scenes that result from them) are your chance to see how your characters live day to day, how they spend their time.

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 19 (June 06 2016)

Shade goes to infiltrate the Skovlan refugees. We decide that this is going to take some time, so Shade is Lost for the time being. When he comes back, he will have a story to tell. Boots is also still Lost due to gambling (he’ll be back at the end of this job).

The Church Merch Search & Lurch:

Everyone else convenes to go over Gloves’ info. There are several promising points of entry. It’s decided that Constance and Gears will go in through the sewers and drill their way into the wall of the vault. Gloves and Kamali will disguise themselves as acolytes and enter the basement from above. Gloves will act as lookout and create a distraction if necessary while Kamali attempts to locate and open the vault.

Gears crits on a Tinker roll to build a hydraulic drill, mounted on a raft in the sewers and powered by a foot-operated bellows pump.

I gave them 3 dice on the Engagement roll, because the Church was not at all expecting this incursion, but they are a higher Tier than the Dolls. Wouldn’t you know it, they rolled three 1s.

So everything starts off perfect. Gears breaks his drill down to serveral main components that can be carried around and assembled later. They head down into the sewers and Gears locates the tunnel that adjoins the basement of the church. They put the drill together and start it up. It’s loud, but not as loud as a combustion engine would be. They start drilling exactly at noon, in order to use the sound of the bells pealing out across the city to mask the sounds from below. They start drilling into the ancient brickwork, and not too long after, there’s a loud whine, and the drill stops. They pull it out, and find that behind the brickwork of the wall is a solid metal plate.

Gloves and Kamali have acquired acolytes’ robes, enter the church, and head to the side hallway that leads to the basement. Kamali heads downstairs while Gloves stands lookout. She hears him talking to someone as she heads down the hallway in the basement. She finds monastery-style meditation cells, and around the corner the hallway branches off in a T-intersection, at the end of which is an iron door with a heavy lock on it. Bingo. She downs a silence potion and gets to work with her lockpicks, noticing the intricately drawn ritual circle on the ceiling above her. The moment she touches the lock, she hears a faint whispering which she realizes that if it had not been for the potion would likely be an ear-piercing shriek, centered on the circle above her.

Gloves is approached by an acolyte who tries to get past him to go downstairs for his daily meditation. Gloves engineers a pratfall, and fakes an injured leg. I offer him a Devil’s Bargain to make the injury real, but he declines. It’s alright, as the roll is good enough to convince the acolyte that Gloves needs medical attention.

Constance and Gears do some probing along the wall, and come to the end of the metal plate. Turns out only the wall facing the sewer was reinforced, so they are able to dismantle the brickwork and start bending the metal back and are able to peer into the vault. This is also fairly loud, and they don’t have the bells to cover it up any more, so I throw down two opposing clocks, one for their efforts to expand the breach, and another for the acolytes to hear something. The gap is widened enough for Gears to squeeze past, and he lights a lamp and begins looking for the statue.

The dice are not on Kamali’s side tonight. Try as she might, she can’t get the lock open, and her attempt to set up a trip wire in case anyone comes around the corner also fails. Fortunately, just as she’s about to leave, she hears movement from inside the vault. She gives the secret knock, and Gears responds and opens the door (it having only a latch on the inside) just a crack. Kamali slips inside, and they find the statue in one of the wooden crates. They pass it back to Constance, who is waiting at the breach. There’s a short debate as to whether they should take anything else. Constance decides against it, as there’s only other works of art, and no actual cash around. Kamali locks the vault door again, and they drag one of the larger crates into the corner to cover up their escape. As they make their escape down the tunnel, Kamali moves out range of the magic circle, and it begins emitting its alarm at full blast.

Gloves is having his leg bandaged when there’s an ear-piercing shriek, and the gathered acolytes drop what they’re doing and make a beeline for the vault. The ranking acolyte unlocks the vault, but they don’t notice anything amiss. Gloves assumes that Kamali ran into trouble and aborted the mission, so he heads back upstairs to make his way out the front door. Kamali meets up with him outside, and they head back to the factory.

The group reconvenes, and Constance is there with the statue (she’s using it as a hat rack when Gloves and Kamali arrive). No one is happy about how the job went, but they console themselves with the fact that they got what they came for and got out, and the Church doesn’t seem to know that the statue is missing yet.

Constance and Gears meet with Karstas in one of the now abandoned buildings in The Drop, and he pays them 5 Coin. When Constance mentions how difficult the job was, he gives them another Coin for their trouble. Constance asks about the statues, and Karstas tells them the story of the Twins Who Are One, who figure centrally in a creation myth from several thousand years ago, two siblings who are aspects of the same being that created a sculpture (there is a school of thought that this was a metaphor for a more ‘physical’ act), and in so doing made the world. Many centuries ago, they were locked in a desperate battle with an adversary whose name is lost to time, and they were banished beyond the boundaries of the world. Karstas states that his plan is to attempt to bring the Twins back from wherever they are, in hopes that they will be able to repair the damage caused by the Cataclysm (apparently this isn’t the first such event that has happened in the long history of the world). Karstas assures Constance that the Twins are not in opposition to Yanth Agog (which is technically true, they are from different pantheons).

The group meets with Merrill Brime, who has been in their custody for several days now. Constance orders him to turn over the identities of all of his informants, with the implication being that if he doesn’t, she will decide he’s too dangerous to let live. He begins listing names, which Kamali begins writing down. This lays the groundwork for the Informants claim.

Among the junk that Gears leaves all over the factory is a book which is several hundred years old, but tells the myth of The Iruvian Humunculus, a mixture of machinery and living flesh, inhabited by a human soul, that was supposedly built thousands of years ago. Gears believes it’s just a fairy tale, but that he can make it a reality.

Notes:

I’ve relaxed my rules on multiple characters a little bit more, since we were down two PCs, so Kamali and Constance were technically on the same job, but on different teams.

I’ve also decided that Hulls do not actually exist yet in my game, and that is what Gears is working on. The difference between his Vice and a Long Term Project is one of scale. It basically moves at the Speed of Plot (much like Yanth Agog’s Grand Design).

#dontmesswiththedolls

The Porcelain Dolls: Session 18 (June 1 2016)

Constance instructs Kamali to go put her hand in Clermont’s cookie jar again, in order to gather more information on the Skovlan refugees. Shade will attempt to infiltrate the militant Skovlan community.

Constance sends a message to Karstas to set up a meeting (we stipulated that he had left instructions to send a messenger crow anywhere, and simply include his name in the message, and it will reach him). They meet at the Leaky Bucket. Karstas wants to hire the crew to steal an artifact from the Church of the Ecstacy of the Flesh, a statue that is the mate of the one he bought from Fitz (his exact words are that the two “fit together”). Karstas cannot himself enter the church, for reasons he won’t say (but everyone can guess). Gears takes a Devil’s Bargain to make a Study roll to look over the contract, and enlists Constance’s aid by reading several clauses out loud. They find a loophole that Karstas put in regarding not being able to back out of the arrangement, but decide not to close it. They have a reputation to maintain, after all.

Constance is about to go see Prichard, but there’s a giant explosion. Gears can immediately tell that it’s the coal warehouse. Constance and Gears rush in to try and rescue any survivors. I gave them a 6-segment clock to for the rescue, and there were several other clocks that would advance automatically at regular intervals. One of these was for the building to collapse, and the others were for the arrival of the fire brigade, the Bluecoats, and the crematorium’s corpse cart. Gears uses Survey to search for anyone who’s alive, while Constance uses Wreck to smash anything that’s in her way to get at people who have been trapped behind debris. Most of the rescues are suffering from smoke inhalation, but at least one of them, Brock, has had the presence of mind to tie a wet cloth over his nose and mouth. Constance learns from him that Baszo and Prichard are not in the building, and Brock makes a beeline for the 2nd floor office to retrieve Baszo’s daughter Aleira. Constance helps herself to the cash in the now exposed vault (8 Coin). There is also one more unconscious gang member here, but Yanth Agog instructs her to leave him to die in the building. Brock and Gears get Aleira out of the office just before the 2nd floor structure collapses. At Gears’ request, Constance manages to drag one of the dead bodies out for later dissection.

Gloves goes to the Church of the Ecstacy of the Flesh and speaks to one of the acolytes, who is happy to give him a tour of their rather impressive art collection. The statue in question is not on display, but Gloves gets a good idea of the layout of the place, including several promising points of entry for an infiltration. He also can make a fairly good guess as to where the statue is being kept.

Kamali goes to Clermont’s safe. She botches the forgery attempt, and so doesn’t take any Coin, but instead concentrates on copying important bits out of Clermont’s notes. She learns the name of the prime suspect of the Skovlan Refugee uprising (Maldor Williamsen), and that the Consulate also suspects that they are planning something in retaliation, but are currently hanging back to observe.

Notes:

Everything involving the coal warehouse on fire was completely 100% improvised. All I started with was “you hear a huge boom from across town, and the ground shakes slightly.”

There was some amusement to be had when we realized that Gears’ player was considering taking a Devil’s Bargain while dealing with a devil’s bargain. The upshot is that Karstas has taken a personal interest in Gears, as he is fascinated by Gears’ completely logical and scientific mindset and world view.

#dontmesswiththedolls