Tag: Mark Griffin

My unnamed cult crew strikes again! They’ve gone so long without a name, that they’ve decided this is unintentional. They’re playing the insidious followers of the god of all Leviathan’s, they’re tier 0 and no one really knows what they’re about.

This game began with downtime for once, which means that instead of rushing through it so people can go home, we actually let it breathe. There were a few actual scenes, and I dropped a couple rumors on them. It was actually really nice, I think I should always do downtime first.

The Leech searches for his brother’s killer and finds out he was seen talking to some members of the Billhooks gang for several hours the night before his death. He also hears that the Kellis Family burned down a drug den owned by the Lampblacks (he knows this is because their crew framed the Lampblacks for stealing equipment from a Levithan blood refinery run by the Kellis Family).

While indulging in her vice, this whisper hears that a person going by the name of Hollow Heart attacked a Red Sash gambling establishment but was repelled. This is the second time they’ve heard this named mentioned. He represents the cult of a forgotten god that the whisper unknowingly let into Duskvol (two missions back) and is currently infecting the whisper as well.

Neither my players nor I had a mission planned, but together we decided that even though Bazso forbade it, a certain faction within the Lampblacks is out for revenge (Baszo isn’t stupid, the Kellis Family is at least Tier IV). Their plan is to wreck a museum of priceless art, The Archibald Kellis Museum of Art and Creatatorium, created by the Great Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather of Rosalynd Kellis. Hearing of this plan, the crew decided to hit the museum a few hours earlier and steal some priceless jewels on display and shift the blame to the Lampblacks. Here are the highlights.

– The Lurk discovered via flashback that the water level has raised a full story since the museum was built, and the whole first level is underwater and sealed off. They plan on using this as the entrance for their infiltration plan.

– Their engagement roll is not great, and they end up in front of a heavy sealed door, running low on oxygen and being attacked by a Devilfish (baby leviathan basically, think little makers in Dune).

– After some fighting the Leech gets a 4 on a desperate roll to shoot a vial of ghost oil down the Devilfish’s gullet. This does indeed cause the devilfish to die and allow them to break through the door to the dry second floor. Unfortunately no sooner had they caught their breath than an angry ghostly devil fish rises through the floor to attack them yet again.

– The Whisper uses her new ability Compel, and calls on the power of the forgotten god shard inside of her (another tick on that clock A Debt is Collected), and rolls a crit. Using the power of this god always gives special results, so she’s now the proud owner of a ghost devilfish pet.

– They get through a number of devious traps, the whisper got her hand cut off, another member of the crew is infected by the forgotten God and they get out with the jewels.

After the score their crew leveled up and they decided to use their two upgrades to make Artie the Ghost Devilfish a permanent cohort with the loyal and savage descriptors. Those jewels were worth 8 coin, but there wasn’t much for heat or rep since everything was blamed on the Lampblacks (again). I suspect they aren’t long for this world.

So Friday was my most recent session with my Cult crew. That session holds the (dubious?) honor of being the most sexually explicit session of a TTRPG I’ve ever experienced. Granted, that used to be a pretty low bar, but boy howdy if we didn’t clear it by about 20 feet. I’ll give the gist and a few highlights, probably leaving out some of the more extreme bits.

The crew was looking for an alchemist NPC to help speed up their LTPs related to creating a substitute for Leviathan Blood in the worlds economy. I decided this could be a claim, and pointed them in the direction of the Jayan’s School of Alchemy (thanks Sean Nittner!) where they found Noggs. Noggs was already owned by the Circle of Flame, but the team thought they could frame Noggs for a crime in order to get his cooperation. So the score was all about committing said crime and making it look like Noggs did it.

The crime in question was the poisoning of a Quartermaster aboard the Leviathan Hunter ship the Black Sun. The captain of this ship, Orlan Strangford, is known to be particularly vicious, so killing an officer of his crew would be worse than a death sentence if he found out about it. They got aboard the ship with the help of Nyryx, the ghost possessed prostitute, by posing as a pleasure crew. The Leech PC brought the drugs, and the rest of the PCs brought the sex. And things got messy, in more ways than one.

– The Cutter knocked his client unconscious after taking rage essence during some S&M reminiscent love making. He proceeded to the Quartermaster’s room, and realized the door was trapped, but was too angry to disarm it or wait for backup. He forced it open, triggering a needle in the handle to dose him with a poison that gave him a heart attack. Resisting with prowess he said that the rage essence and his impressive bulk let him power through it taking only a level 2 harm.

– The Lurk and the Leech drugged another client to unconsciousness, but wanted him to wake up later feeling happy and fulfilled. Somehow they decided the way to do this was a suppository full of trance powder and spark drug. A botched finesse roll later, they had to deal with a very angry and confused sailor.

– It was up to the Whisper to diffuse the aforementioned situation created by her reckless cult-mates. She opted to solve the problem the way she solves every problem, with Tempest. As she began to feel the power rise up inside she heard a whisper from inside her asking her to use its power as well as her own. This was the Forgotten God, One Within Many, that she got infected with last session. She agreed to use Its power and received a bonus die. A partial success left the sailor still confused but less angry after being battered about by a mighty wind, but allowed One Within Many to infect the Lurk PC as well. I also created a clock titled “A Debt is Collected” with 4 segments and ticked one of them.

During downtime the PCs heard a rumor about a brutal new figure named Hollow Heart. No one claims to know what he looks like or what he wants, but he is apparently responsible for destroying several small gangs in Charhollow (where they recently had a run in with a strange portal, a Forgotten God and the Path of Echoes).

The Whisper discovered a book in her quarters penned by her own hand in a language she doesn’t recognize that she has no recollection of writing. The book was accompanied by a note that said “Trust No One”

So we had a great third session of my (still unnamed) cult crew. It’s consistently been the most fun I’ve had playing any kind of game in recent memory. I’m going to forgo my usual wall of text and just hit on each player’s most awesomely self destructive moments.

The setup is that the PCs are after some barrels of leviathan blood that are currently sitting at the bottom of a canal in Charhollow. There is a weird swirling black portal down there, and nobody knows what it is or wants to get near it. It has two weird effects: causing the water in the canal to part like the Red Sea, and making everything down their pitch black and dimming any lights to the effectiveness of a match.

Wraith (Whisper) – She immediately left the group to go inspect the portal, which she could not see, but sense. A few ill-advised and failed attune actions later, the portal belches forth a swarm of beetles made of barbed wire. Given the choice between severe harm (beetle lodges itself in her throat) or becoming a host to a sliver of a forgotten god, The One Within Many, she chooses the later.

Boulder (Cutter) – A ghost is attempting to drag him into the wall of water, and the only thing currently keeping him out is the struggling enemy whisper whose neck he is holding. Boulder squeezes so hard he pops the whisper’s head off, and gets dragged underwater with no regrets.

Shiv (Lurk) – Seeing Boulder go underwater, he puts manacles around his ankle, hands the chain to his Leech buddy and dives in after the ghost he can neither fight nor see. He is, of course, immediately grappled by the ghost.

Tumbler (Leech) – He is holding a chain attached to his friend who is being grappled by a ghost underwater. He sees spark drug on his list of possible alchemicals and has the most brilliant idea I’ve ever heard. Ghosts are vulnerable to electroplasm, so why not send a shock through the chain (and Shiv) to attack the ghost? Devil’s bargain that the electricity destabilizes the wall of water? Yes please! He rolls a desperate 6, kills the ghost, and the wall came a tumblin’ down. IT. WAS. GLORIOUS.

I’m currently in the middle of episode 9 of the bloodletters, and you guys are just the best. I wish I could get my players to watch the episodes, because you guys give a master class on making bad decisions, both to make things interesting but also to get XP and bonus dice. I find my players are much more cautious and invested in their characters continued survival (boo). If I ever get a chance to play blades, I hereby vow to play a deeply flawed and self-destructive character.