GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Eric Fattig, Adrienne Mueller, and Karen Twelves
System: Blades ’68
After a month of being held captive by City Council member Patrick Nolburn, the Dirt Barons finally made contact with Delta-968 via encrypted channel from a courier hull SYP-3RD-ER. The found out where Nolburn lived and planned a heist to get inside, get Delta, and get out.
Man, this was fun game to run. Because of travel plans, it has been almost two months since our last session and I never really had a good handle on Nolburn. I knew he hated Rubens (the man that was locked up and put inside Delta-968) for getting his brother killed in Ironhook and that he wanted to steal Rubens’ research, but no idea of why or what kind of person he was.
So, in the few days before the game I read the last AP, looked in my journal, saw that I had already written down some ideas, and then just started trying out ideas and asking questions.
- Is Nolburn driving this or does he work for someone? I tried on a bunch of factions, but none of them felt compelling and they all seem to introduce too much additional lore. Was it a demon or a ghost? That seemed fun. I settled on Grandfather Nolburn, a ghost who is very disappointed in his grandson.
- What kind of shit are they up to? If they’re going after the Leviathan Song, is it to bring back demons? If so, why? Do they have some proto-demons incubating in their basement and no place for them to go without their dark lord to guide them? Sure, that sounds.
- Are the capable? This was the big thing I went back and forth with. My first thought was this was a super serious house of nobles leading a cult, and yada yada… it just started to feel trite as I described it. So what if Nolburn (junior) is pretty bad at this. He has the ghost of grandpa yelling at him all the time, and old money to help, but no real occult knowledge himself. So he hires cultists to read over books and paranormal researchers to invent technologies that would allow him to communicate through the stars….but like, without any particular direction or vision. He mostly just wants to escape his grandfather…hah (that didn’t work out for him).
- Let’s google Victorian manor homes to see what they inspire. And this is what I got. The lunar ballroom really excited me.
Here were some other notes I found in the journal and things I added to them:
- Paolo having bad dreams about alternative timelines (Nolburns are only weird cultists because Rowan House exists, the mega anomaly that restored them, also caused them to have rivals with similar aims).
- Foreshadow Blathorn Park’s moves to destroy Blueraker-5. (Didn’t end up coming up, but I can do that during personal business).
- Silkshore Celebration. (What? I totally forgot about this. A street fair maybe?)
- Section Six has people that see other timelines and sense anomalies
- Nolburn searching for the Leviathan Song
- Prirchard trying to fill Bowman’s shoes. Needs help!
I’d say some of that came into play, some can probably be left out, and some might show up during personal business. It’s nice to have a few ideas rumbling in the background.
Highlights of the game:
- Nav had a jumpsuit (fine disguise) to sneak in as a researcher, no problem. Paolo spend a downtime action to acquire one, but refused to wear anything else underneath it. He wanted to be authentic! Nothing could interfere with his role as a nobody researches foreman. Well, it worked, he convinced Doyle (one of the researches in white jumpsuits carrying paranormal equipment from a panel van parked in the courtyard) to start covering up some of the glowing skulls that were creeping everyone out.
- Little Gallo distracting the SMF Ironclad Protectors by pretending to be sick, and then swallowing the pill that made him actually sick to do it!
- Nav being trapped in the mirror courtyard and being attacked by fractal mirror Navs. Having Rorick finally be able to appear to help her out, and thank her for rescuing him from Comber house.
- Delta and Rubens, trapped in the Lunar Ballroom, being tormented by Nolburn, and then eventually breaking free (thank the the Paranormalist Echo Projection Ability) and then burning Nolburn who fell of a balcony was impaled by the garden spikes below.
- Paolo meeting the ghost of grandfather Nolburn, who was delighted to have contemporary he could converse with (these cut rate cultists don’t know the first thing about pronouncing the third sibilants!) until he saw the Rowan House signet ring and then turned into a raging poltergeist. (I really felt for grandfather, he’s an asshole but he is surrounded by incompetence).
- Nav arriving to find that DELTA COULD HAVE ESCAPED THE WHOLE TIME and just raging at Delta for putting them through it all, and always caring more about Paolo than her. It was truly powerful.
- The final escape, pitting the various forces (ghost of grandpa Nolburn, cultists, researchers, mirror Navs, and SMF) against each other to get out!
A few other notable mentions
- Of course we all loved SYP-3RD-ER and when I offered its destruction as part of a devil’s bargain it was immediately turned down. Thought that did show Paolo’s growth, as 20 sessions ago it would have been immediately accepted!
- Nav finally having someone (Rorick) who appreciates her.
- Scarry sculls that allowed Nolburn to see through the house, all getting covered in drop cloths.
- Nav’s killer fight with her mirror self, and the glass exploding into many cuts when she shot it. Rorick later throwing a grenade to destroy many of the mirror selves.
- Nav not being sure if these mirror selves were real version of her in another reality or just anomalies. One of the losing half of her hand (having almost made it through the mirror) and becoming filled with rage against her. Doubting as a deadlock is amazing!
- Finally, I’ve had this present for Eric for over a month and I was so glad to give it to him. John consulted on a design and Tim created the Rowan House crest, which I was able to laser cut into a signet ring. It was so cool!
Thoughts on the game
Adrienne told me that she’s much more attached to the individual characters than the factions and that really came alive for me this session. The dynamics between Nolburn (senior), Nolburn (junior), and the scoundrels was so much fun!
