Tag: Pierce Jones

So, despite all the odds, we finally got done with character and crew generation. There was a bit of an upheaval, we found out one player really didn’t want to be a cult halfway through crew generation, and that led to arguments, some players leaving, and new players joining, and a new crew sheet being selected.

The group has settled on playing as Hawkers, hoping to use the power and influence that their new product can have to eventually take vengeance against those that did them wrong. Working with a Tycherosi “scientist”, who has learned how to distill spirit essences with a potent combination of illicit hallucinogenics, and then add it into food. No name for it yet, I like the idea of ghost edibles though.

Our cast of nefarious scoundrels is as follows…

We have the Lurk still from the previous game, a Skovlander woman known as Lagertha. Originally a noblewoman, her family fled Lockport when she was a child and found residence here in Duskvol. Having lost her mother to a creeping cough, her father becoming a drunken dock worker, she is incredibly spiteful and angry. She should be dining with silver, eating off of porcelain, and not stealing small-time things just to eat for another day.

Discovered by a local locksmith who taught her some of the tricks of the trade, she has grown into quite the safe-cracker and is known for being to get in through anything. Of course, she did mess up a job and got caught (and shot) in the leg by a noblewoman after stealing some item. Yet the buyer soon disappeared and the necklace seemed worthless. Why is this woman still after her?

We have Thaddeus, the Akrosi Spider. Another nobleman who was brought low due to a spy in his midst; his own servant Jennah. The woman set all the nails correctly on the coffin and the noble families converged to wipe out this successful upstart. He only got away because of his friendship with an information broker and he longs to do the same to the other families as well as get his hands on Jennah.

We still have the Skovlander Soldier, who survived when his men were wiped out by Imperial forces. Touched by some Forgotten God, his hand and blades glowed with ephemeral force and allowed him to fight off the ghosts that attacked soon after. He very much has a “Corvo” feeling from Dishonored and is looking to strike back at the Empire for what they did to his men and his homeland.

One of the new players is playing our group’s Whisper, going by the name of Atiya and hailing far from the south, from Iruvia. She had arrived here to be a student at one of the Universities, as being a Whisper is a family tradition, but was screwed over by a student that ruined her ritual and caused a lot of damage to the school and ended up with her being expelled. Only later she realized that this student was possessed by the infamous ghost known as Nyrix. Now she hopes to capture him to find out why he interfered and looks towards more…eclectic means…for inspiration and learning.

Lastly, there is Torvald, a mighty Skovlander Hound from the mountains of his homelands. Once a hunter and fur trader, he had to flee when the destruction the Imperial Military wrought destroyed his home. With him comes a strange beast known as “Runt”. Four feet tall on all fours, lanky like a greyhound but muscular like a bear, black as hell with odd red patterns on its fur, Runt is from a breed of ghost-eating creatures called Kritters that stalk the mountains of Skovland and feast on the dead.

That makes up the crew, who haven’t decided on a name yet but are working on it. They’ve decided on being particularly ambitious and have settled in one of the ruined manors within Six Towers as their lair. Their sales territory though, is across the way in Silkshore, where they hope to get into the “night”life and hook artists who will, in turn, hook nobility and the elite. I had to come up with a gang of vice dealers that they kicked out because nothing was really catching their attention at first. So they pushed out the Red Runners, another drug dealing group, and have taken a part of Silkshore as their own.

For upgrades, the group decided on making their Lair hidden and getting the Hawker Riggings for the concealed item. In the fiction, we saw that the Skovlanders within the group approached the Grinders at one point and got buddy-buddy with them, even bringing some of their own supply as a gift to them. In return, the Grinders helped stabilize the failing castle. It still appears to be abandoned now and too unsafe to squat in. The group paid the extra coin to really ensure this gang was their friends at the moment.

For their rigging, we decided that the group “learned” it by stealing some of the ideas and techniques from the Gray Cloaks, who work in this area. The Gray Cloaks are not happy about this and are looking to take the crew down a peg. I predict a turf war to be coming.

As for their contact, the group decided to take Laroze the Bluecoat as their contact. The two of them have a friendly, if still business, relationship. This has put them in really good with the Bluecoats but have caught the eye and the ire of the Inspectors who don’t appreciate another criminal influence on the law.

All in all, the group goes as follows…

1) The Red Runners -1

2) The Grinders +2

3) The Gray Cloaks -2

4) Bluecoats +2

5) Inspectors -2

I’m still considering what my starting situation will be with them; I’m wanting it to be in Silkshore but I’m not sure which groups will go head to head and how to drag them in. Regardless, I got a little less than a week before I run again.

It was fun experience getting everything set up, a little rough trying to pick all the factions though. I want to use the ones that are in there but it is difficult seeing where they are located sometimes since some are specifically in certain areas and others are not. Overall though, I’m excited for it.

So I am going to do a bit of writing and write down what had occurred in Session 0.5. It was supposed to be the Scoundrel & Crew generation session but some players were sick and I didn’t want to do the latter and miss out on their input. I’ve been pushing very hard to let them know that it is the crew that is the main character and they are the cast members of it. I’ve been trying as much as possible to my terminology in the way of it being a show we’re creating, rather than D&D or what have you.

The group has decided on being a Cult dedicated to a Forgotten God, that much was agreed upon even by the people I contacted by messenger. I was kind of hoping against this but having read through the book more, watching some of the Rollplay, and just generally keeping myself excited for the game, I find myself very interested in the group we’ll have for it

Firstly, we have our Slide. Going simply by the name of Cavit, he is a Tycherosi. with swirling eyes like colored mist, that used to work for a travelling carnival. A con-man by trade, he distracted the marks who would be picked clean. Upon being contacted by the God, however, he has fully dedicated himself to the power and strangeness of their benefactor. All he wishes is to see its power fully manifest and to unleash its holy might upon the world.

Next we have the Lurk; a Skovlander kleptomaniac. Once a locksmith who worked with his partner taking down marked houses, he became a renowned safe cracker and was drawn into the cult. We haven’t really delved too deeply into “how” he was pulled into the cult, I wanted to delve into that more when we fleshed out who the Forgotten God was.

In the Leech, we have another Tycherosi. Going by the name Rahutu, whose cheeks are decorated with freckles that glitter like stars in the dark sky on a cloudless day, he was an apothecary that became intrigued in the potential uses of leviathan blood. He believes it can be further refined, the toxicity could be reversed and it could be used to enhance humanity. The cult provides an ample opportunity and a God’s power should not be balked at in the pursuit of science.

Next we have the Whisper, yet another Tycherosi named Aldritch (my friends love the weird look, so this was expected) whose mark are these tentacle like dreadlocks that he keeps hidden underneath robes and tatters. Once a Librarian back in Tycheros, he studies into the occult led to him being contacted by the Forgotten God’s thought-tendrils and taught a ritual that empowers a weapon to feed souls to the Forgotten God. The leader of this cult, he’ll have plenty of chances to use it because I believe they were considering taking Sacrifice as their specialty.

Lastly, we have the group’s Cutter, a defeated Skovlan soldier who has been “marked” by a demon (which grants him the Ghost Fighter ability). Named Laudius Vale, he has sworn vengeance against the Empire and likely hopes his dedication to the cult will bring his vengeance to bear. I’m going to work on his vice, changing it from “Obligation – Revenge on Duskvol” to “Obligation – Aiding the Skovlan Resistance”. I have the idea brewing that with the group seemingly focused on “cleansing” the corrupt from the upper echelons, they may work with Skovlander rebels. Of course, I’m not going to force it, but it is an idea.

We haven’t really done anything with the Crew outside of discussing it, though they decided to place their sacred sites right within the territory of the Red Sashes. The Slide has chosen Bazso Baz as his friend, so that sets them up naturally for the gang war between the two forces and I’m going to go with the artifact score that is suggested just to give a jumping point for the group.

Next time, we’ll hopefully have ideas of what will be going on with the crew and maybe the beginning of the first score. I was disappointed to not have done more that first session, so I’m trying to get everyone together for an impromptu session tomorrow to at least finish things before next game.

I haven’t thought of a campaign name yet but soon, soon we will. And we shall see if Duskvol will burn for its sins.