Ironhook Insurrection (1/11/2026)

GMs: Matt Fisher, Michael Constant, Nik Heath (NPC)
Players: Chris Chelberg, Shannon Thomson, Mindy Yong, Sam Tillis, Megan Fisher, Daniel Whalen, Leo, Amanda Stowers, David Black, Karen Twelves, Ronan Beltracchi, Ryan Christiansen, Michael Micheletti, Sean Nittner, Sarah Terman, Elena Churilov
System: Blades in the Dark LARP by Matt Fisher

For the past year, Doskvol has maintained its twisted equilibrium: the nobility schemed in their estates, criminal crews carved up territory in blood and coin, and the city’s arcane horrors kept to their shadows—so long as you knew which streets to avoid. Last night, that balance shattered.

A catastrophic surge ripped through the sparkcraft grid, detonating every electroplasmic light from the grand chandeliers of Brightstone to the humblest hand-lamp in Dunslough, and even the stars seemed to flicker out for a moment. In that instant of absolute darkness, those with the sight were the only ones who witnessed the only light left in Doskvol: an emerald fire blooming behind the Spirit Wardens’ masks. The corruption leaped from warden to warden like a plague of light, each warden shrieking as it took them. These unbreakable sentinels—who face down vengeful ghosts without flinching—screamed and ran like children. None escaped. Every last warden collapsed where they fell, locked in deathlike slumber.

The city’s response was predictable: the cautious barricaded themselves behind whatever wards they could afford, while the bold saw opportunity in the Wardens’ absence. Someone saw too much opportunity. The explosion that tore through Ironhook Prison could be heard in Charterhall and felt in the Docks. The Pit—that legendary sub-basement where they keep things too dangerous to execute—had been breached.

What emerged defied classification. Neither ghost nor demons, those who have witnessed them call them revenants, though the name hardly captures their aberrance. These things move through the city like a tide of teeth and shadow, leaving only mangled corpses behind.

Without the Spirit Wardens at their call, the Council ordered the Imperial Military in; with their rifles and their rigid formations, the revenants tore through them like wet paper. After watching two full companies disappear into the creature-haunted streets, the remaining soldiers abandoned their posts. By dawn, anyone with sense had gone to ground.

Now the nobility face their nightmare: the leviathan blood refineries stand empty or in ruin, the lightning barriers flicker, and their entire industrial empire crumbles while monsters roam their city. Their desperate messages to the capital might as well be thrown into the void sea—help is days away, and they have another day at best.

Which brings us to tonight’s unprecedented gathering. The lords and ladies of the Council have swallowed their pride and sent perfumed invitations to the only people left in Doskvol with the skills to survive this chaos: the criminal elite. The venue speaks volumes—the Centuralia Club in Six Towers, behind the strongest electroplasmic wards old money can buy. The invitation’s language is all silk and courtesy, but everyone can read between the lines. The nobility are cornered rats, and cornered rats will promise anything.

The scoundrels hold all the cards now. The only question is what price they’ll name for saving a city that’s spent generations grinding them under its heel.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Matt will likely run this game again so if you want to play, I recommend not reading further. You’ve been warned. [Though you could skip the text and scroll down to the some of the great pics from the game]

I played Raffello the visionary painter rumored to be a part of the Circle of Flame…and so much more. Here’s my breakdown [in brackets] of all the dramatis personae, and my take on them after playing the game.

Noble Attendees (in order of wealth)

Timoth Bowmore (Chris Chelberg): brash, confident, entitled — Heir apparent of the Bowmore family. [Wouldn’t join the Cult of the Closed Eye (which I’m also part of)…turns out he’s a Spirit Warden. Boo.]
Lady Minerva Penderyn (Shannon Thomson): charming, patient — Patroness underwriting tonight’s assembly and believed to be involved in the Circle of Flame. [Wanted to know her daughter Vivienne would be okay…she wasn’t, but she was so much more. Anyways, we had a close alliance that was tested when I advocated for setting demons free to fight the revenants, but we mended fences and continued to work together to help her find all three artifacts of Kotar and maybe find a way to bring back the sun. Such incredible potential in these mortals!]
Vivienne Penderyn (Mindy Yong): ambitious, eager — Lady Penderyn’s younger daughter, just graduated from Doskvol Academy. [Another who was mostly mortal. A 1000 year old sorceress whose soul was bound until the incursion and then she took the fallen body of Vivienne Penderyn. Her inesurrection was not complete but she got very close. She rivals the so-called Immortal Emperor for power…I delight in seeing her seek it!]
Evangelos Rowan (Sam Tillis): influential, elusive — Brother of Lord Rowan, stewards the Rowan’s artifacts and treasures. [My arch-nemesis. I pitted his daughter against him but in her weak human emotion she still forgave him. Hopefully I planted the seeds of his demise. Upon reflection, those seeds would have born a bitter fruit. I should have instead given him the chance to contain me. What few mortals can say that they have done it.]
Lorette Rowan (Megan Fisher): rebellious, outspoken, impulsive — Evangelos Rowan’s eldest daughter. [I had hoped she would be more rebellious, more outspoken, more impulsive. I did everything in my power to make sure obtained my Onxy Key so that she could see my greatest work…a painting that would show her the future. But of course, she believed it was a future that could change, and so she would not act on it. Pity.]
Lord Roderick Strangford (Daniel Whalen): secretive, calculating, arrogant — Council member who leads the Ministry of Preservation and initially proposed tonight’s desperate gathering. [He came to some power, lord governor or some other trifling. The top of an ant hill.]
Genevieve Strangford (Leo): scandalous, exotic — Lord Strangford’s niece from a lesser family branch. [Unbeknownst to me, the Reconciled Nyryx. A shame, I could have offered her so much.]

Underworld Attendees (in order of scale)

The Tower (Amanda Stowers): ?? — The mysterious leader of the Unseen, shrouded in a strange aura. [Truly a Dimmer Sister but she would never admit it. I had little to offer her as I did not know her desires.]
The Star (David Black): ?? — A high-ranking Unseen operative. [A dastardly Reconciled who tricked me into believing she was Setarra. I should have know when I asked her desire and she told me to rule over man. Why seek so a trifling achievement? So hollow. I was disappointed in my own judgement but also delighted to find she was actually the reconciled ghost Salia. Again, what I could have done for her if I had known.]
Djera Maha (Karen Twelves): bold, strategic, confident — Former Dagger Isles urchin who now commands the Hive. [A bright star, exemplary in her desires. She arranged to have my kin unleased on the Revenants, but the were they extinguished by the light of Kotar. A pity to snuff a star out of the sky, but this one…this one seeks to join us in eternity, and I think she just might make it.]
Karth Orris (Ronan Beltracchi): ruthless, insightful, jealous — Djera Maha’s commander, Unity War veteran with exacting standards. [He sought to help the poor. But who among the mortals are not poor. They see though a pinhole into the universe and think they know it. Still he sought a difficult goal and achieved it. I salute the work done!]
Seresh (Ryan Christiansen): bold, brash, defiant — Leader of the Silver Nails who wants control of the Lost District. [Another mortal after my own heart…or you know the thing that beats in the chest of this form. Suresh should have fought more to take over the lost districts, but he bested a Spirit Warden, and for that I salute him.]
Tuhan (Michael Micheletti): bold, cunning, charming — Seresh’s lead scout, here to help smooth over negotiations. [My first muse, my most delicate plot. Tuhan risked his short life to raid the crematorium and take back the closed eye, and then in the final hours opened it to find another world, allowing Lady Penderyn to find the last artifact of Kotar, and hopefully allowing the ghost Salia some notion of what eternity truly is. Splendid!
Roslyn (Sarah Terman) patient, loyal, arcane and Aveline (Elena Churilov): Idealistic, diplomatic, restless:Representatives of the Dimmer Sisters, who control the supply of arcane goods throughout the city and are almost never seen outside their house. [I had so much hope for these two, but I could never gain their trust, despite aiding them multiple times. In the end, I almost sided with the pirate Maha to accost them, but it it was only over a bauble of the moon, my cruel cousin.]
Raffello (Sean Nittner): visionary, obsessive — A prophetic painter rumored to be associated with the Circle of Flame. [Ah me. I was delighted to help the mortals grow closer to the demons they worship, grow closer to me. My dark desire: ambition and temptation. I feasted this evening and it was a delight!]

And finally, Harvale Brogan (Nik Heath): shrewd, charismatic–is your host tonight, proprietor of the Centuralia Club in Brightstone. [A clever one who kept ties with all among the assembly, binding many to a ritual regarding tigers and daggers. Well played!]

More thoughts

Oh, this was so much fun. Matt gave me a character with a lot of power, but my only ambition was to see other succeed ad their most daring plans. I didn’t want to sew chaos so much as change, but at the end of the day, those were the same. In my mind I scored major victories helping Djera Maha, Minerva Penderyn, Vivienne Penderyn, and Tuhan achieve incredible goals. I think had partial success with Suresh, Lorette Rowan, and Roslyn, which feels remarkable itself!

Mechanically I liked the separate resources (political, criminal, and arcane) were great for getting people to trade resources (often having one that wasn’t useful to themselves but was useful to others). The scores were great, lots of good reasons to go on them with a diverse group and lots of surprising along the way. Though, I’d probably shorten the flavor text quite a bit. I know we felt very rushed to go through the one that I was on. The wall of secrets was great, but I think it would have been used more if it didn’t introduce a new currency. I suspect that coin could have worked and a little more coin could have been injected to cover that. I didn’t have the ability to get secrets from people who were “marked” though, so I didn’t see the full cycle of the secrets currency (and thus might not fully appreciate how it worked.).

My master ploy, which turned out to be a folly, was placing my name on the wall to gain Roslyn’s secret (with her consent, we planned this together) so that I could lure Setarra out to reveal herself. Only to find that she was an imposter. Impressive!

Oh, oh, oh, I made “paintings” and put them up all over. It was so much fun to use my limited Prisma and Photoshop skills to put them together. Here they are (including a correction for Daniel!).