GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Shannon Brueckner, Eric Fattig
System: Lady Blackbird
We kicked off Session 3 of Lady Blackbird with a recap of the last session, and a couple of short scenes and questions for the crew of the Owl. Because I wanted a few more scenes inside the Lower Depth’s we backed up just a bit from the end of last session to see the last moment in the lower depths.
Snargle – In the cockpit, all your instrumentation is reading poorly. You’ve been in the lower depths for three hours and you’ve finally stopped seeing patrol lights from above in the Wild Blue. How are you going to get The Owl fixed up?
Vance – Inside the cockpit with Snargle, for a moment you swear you see Captain Hollis’ reflecting in the glass, but then it’s gone, just another strange anomaly. Do you have any friends or enemies waiting for you in Haven? What’s your relationship with Uriah Flint’s assassin Wraith?
Lady Blackbird – Inside your personal quarters, when you look in the mirror your see yourself surrounded by coiled lightning and by means you’re unsure of it speaks to you “I’ve come to you in your time of need three times and now I call upon you to return the favor. You must lure one of my ancient foes from the lower depths into the Blue where my powers are stronger. Will you repay your debt?”
Dance of the Sky Squid
Snargle and Vance figured most of their problems could be solved in Haven. Fix up the Owl, hand over the crates of cherries, and get a lead on Uriah Flint.
The Lady, however complicated plans. “Before we leave the Depths. I’ve got one stop to make.” The eye-rolling was palpable. “We’re going to catch one of those sky squids and bring it up top with us.” Everyone laughed at this very good joke. Then they realized she was serious and they said it was possible. Then the started planning the impossible “Maybe if we fire the exhaust right in its face…or setup a lure of a baby squid sound…or fire a grapple to try and drag it.” Somewhere amongst all this planning, the Lady left the cockpit, confident he will would be done.
As the descended towards the shadows below Snargle noticed there was not one, but two giant squids side by side, their tentacles interwoven with each other. As a bit of debris plinked off the hull of the Owl the seemed to sense the vibration, but were not disturbed.
Snargle cut the engines and let the Owl drift towards one of the behemoths, firing a harpoon at a far away planetoid to distract them. Just as they were getting in place however, another bit of debris thudded against the hull and a giant eye opened beside them. Their minds were instantly filled with past memories of childhood, now however including ominous figures lurking in the shadows. A massive tentacle slammed the Owl and began to wrap around it [Obstacle 3 – Failed Roll]
Vance and Snargle couldn’t make sense of these strange messages but the Lady knew the giant creatures were offended that their domain had been intruded upon and demanded an offering. She tried to communicate with them physically but their mind was too vast and too alien to comprehend. Blackbird had their attention, but she was overwhelmed by their minds [Obstacle 4, Failed Roll. She successfully distracted them, but suffered the Injured and Hunted condition for it]
Snargle knew it was now or never. Vance yelled “punch it” and the goblin gave it everything they had! Taking advantage of the distraction Snargle flew the Owl through the tangled web of tentacles and when the squid filled the entire area with ink, they just prayed to whatever Goblins pray to and flew straight ahead! [Obstacle 4 – Success. It would have been 5 if not for the distraction caused by Lady Blackbird]
The broke into the Wild blue and saw the cold start in the distance, but another bright (blindingly bright) light was ahead of them and it was getting closer. Vance called for Snargle to veer off and cut the engines and the two massive entities collided. Lightning pulsed and coiled around the giant squid and the two were locked in a titanic battle that could be heard across the Wild Blue!
Image included for scale purposes.
So who are you really?
The Owl slipped away and kept a low profile on it’s way to Haven. Thankfully the ships hull was so thoroughly corroded by the acidic gasses of the depths it was hardly recognizable. However on the radio they could all hear many, many people (imperials and bounty hunters alike) were looking for Lady Blackbird.
Once free of danger, Snargle finally got up the courage to ask the Lady who she really was. “Snargle has met a few people who are wanted by the empire” (casual nod to Vance) “but never someone that made them get this excited!”
This was the moment when Shannon decided to pick a new key (she had bought off “Key of the Imposter” earlier but hadn’t picked a new key yet. She took “Key of the Vow” and her vow was to never hide her sorcerous nature again (an inversion of her first key). She didn’t tell all of her story but she did speak of her plans with Uriah Flint, how the pirate leaders and the empire colluded, and her plans to undermine her fiancée Count Carlowe. This was just too much for Cyrus. She had been holding onto a crush for Lady Blackbird for a time but she didn’t want to complete with both a count and a pirate queen. She cared for Lady Blackbird, but it was clear the Lady was still accustomed to all the privileges of nobility and didn’t understand (or want to understand) all the atrocities and evils they commit. [Cyrus bought of her Key of the Hidden Longing and took Key of Vengeance in it’s place]
[After the refresh scene everyone got back their pool dice, but there wasn’t much to be done for Lady Blackbird’s injury or hunted condition so those stayed in place]
Welcome to Haven sub-co-captain Snargle
From the game text, Haven is “the most prominent of the Free Worlds. Here, in the sprawling
city hubs, the Trade Union tries to impose some order on the bickering clans and factions of the Free Peoples. Slavery is outlawed here, so many ex-slaves make Haven their home.”
Haven dock security is well accustomed to smugglers and taking bribes from them, but first they had to land. Circling the planetoid on in a grid they found hundreds of spherical vessels piloted by individual goblins. The comms opened up
“Welcome to Haven vessel, this is dock admin Warbly. Please transmit your ship identifiers and manifests.”
Quickly Vance and Snargle fished through their fake IDs and came up with one that didn’t have much heat on it.
“Welcome Captain Spance of the The Hawk. I see you’re carrying beans in your cargo bay. Can you elaborate what kind of beans? Black, brown, soy, lima, kidney, pinto, fava, mung —” [Obstacle 3, Success. Warbly is just extra talkative. It would have been Obstacle 4 except Vance has a bunch of fake IDs her possession. Five successes meant the fake ID not only got them in the port, but it would last two increments of time before the real ID was discovered]
Vance got on the comm as Warbly might never stop listing beans otherwise “We’re carrying assorted beans.”
“Ah, assorted beans, my favorite type!” Warbly pulled their small pod along side the Hawk and guided Snargle down to docking bay 38. We had established that goblins don’t often have prestigious jobs like being a pilot to Warbly, who could see Snargle in the pilot seat grew a third eye in excitement and sent over much less official Comms “This is Warbly, who is this? Are you captain of the ship?”
“You’re speaking with The Snargle. I’m not captain, but I’m, uh, sub…co…captain. Yes, sub-co-captain of The Hawk”. Vance gave Snargle a dirty look.
“Wow, Sub-Co-Captain The Snargle, Warbly is very impressed.” Warbly stayed at their site until they landed and then sadly had to get back to work.
Inspector Racetrack
A solid woman with short curly hair and a Haven uniform stood outside the Owl and greeted them as soon as the hatch opened (the hydraulics got stuck and it took a few tries to get it open). “Wow this ship looks really bad. Did you guys go into the lower depths? You shouldn’t be parked here. You’re dripping fluids all over my loading bay. We’ve got move you to repair. I’ll need to inspect your good now.”
Snargle was quick on their feet and told a convincing lie that the last port they docked in the shipyard used substandard parts and the hull plating began to deteriorate the moment they left the port! Racetrack seemed to accept the farse but nevertheless wanted to get the inspection of “assorted beans” over with quickly.
She made her way past Lady Blackbird, who was also reported to need medical attention, to the cargo bay, where Vance was waiting to receive her. One of the crates had cracked during the tussle and there was red liquid dripping from it, as well as a few cherries that had escaped. Thankfully there were also many hoses dripping oil so Vance quickly diverted one of them to cover up the exposed contraband. She greeted the inspector and made mention that they would be happy to pay any finders fees normally charged to help find the Lady (who was going under her alias “Natasha Siri” again).
Unfortunately a rogue cherry (an invasive species on Haven) remained uncovered and it did not escape the attention of Racetrack. The inspector was pretty sure this was a smuggling ship that traveled through the lower depths and was full of dangerous people so she just smiled and said “Yep, everything looks to be in order. Then she called in over her radio just as casually as she could “Inspector Racetrack here in bay 38. Looks like we’ve got a code 10-44”. [Obstacle 3 to Avoid being caught by the inspectors. Failed]
Vance was savvy enough to know 10-44 wasn’t a good thing. Before the inspector could leave she redoubled her efforts. Blackbird appeared in her fine attire, handed over a few crowns and promised there would be much more where that came from. Vance finally appealed to her sense of sympathy with a kind look “we’re good people.” Was it Vance’s charm or the Lady’s coins that won Racetrack over? We’re not sure. What we do know is that she got back on the radio. “Belay that. We’ve got your standard 10-18 here.” She looked to Vance “I’ll make sure your repairs are complete and we get this bird fixed up” making it very clear Vance would pay the repair fees plus a hefty bribe to get it all done. She then smiled and said “okay, let’s get a move on” and excited the Owl with an understanding in place [Obstacle 4 to try again, which I normally wouldn’t allow, but in this case the situation changed by offering a bribe big enough Lady Blackbird will have to tap in to her imperial accounts to get it. Success!]
Divide and Conquer
The crew decided to split up. Snargle would handle the repairs, Vance would contact their buyer Vlad Vakharia to arrange a pickup, and Blackbird would find a sorcerer she knew by reputation only: Odessa! Things went swimmingly…until they didn’t. As soon as they go into port Vance saw screens showing a figure The Wraith was suspected to be on Haven. The Wraith was the empire’s #2 most wanted criminal, just behind the the crew of The Owl, who kidnapped Lady Blackbird and Captain Hollis. Snargle and Vance were both excited to be #1. Less excited to have the Wraith planetside as well.
Snargle got the repairs started and helped out themselves. The Owl was lifted from Bay 38 to a repair doc and a crew of humans and goblins got to work. The repairs were extensive. This was going to cost a lot and take time. [More time than the Owl’s fake ID as The Hawk would hold up]. While working Snargle got word that Count Carlowe had just arrived in search of Lady Blackbird with a whole retinue of Imperial Soldiers. He was determined to marry her on the spot! [Progressive Obstacle to repair the Owl. 2 successes means it would be 4 increments of time before the repairs were done].
Vance made a call to the mob boss (and her buyer) Vlad Vakharia and was immediately greeted with “Vance, you’re late”. “I’m not late. We didn’t have a set time.” “Well you’re later than I would have liked.” The deal went through, but it was frustrating and Vance could never be sure Vlad wasn’t trying to cheat, ambush, or sell her her out. [I called for a roll here because I think closing deals is worth something (Vance got paid) but comes with some danger. Obstacle 4 to arrange a fair deal. Failed. The deal went through but Vance marked the Angry condition]
Lady Blackbird finally found the location of Odessa (the red door on Whitehall street) in a busy underground bar. Just as the bartender handed over the information she heard a bellowing voice from the entrance above “My Love! At least I’ve found you! You, miscreants. Unhand her!” Count Carlowe was there with a squadron of eight imperial soldiers. Two of which descended into the bar, pushing everyone around for no good reason and presented themselves to Lady Blackbird to escort her. There weren’t a lot of exits or good ways to get away, so she went along with the ruse…for now. “Count Carlowe, you’ve come to my rescue!”
Blackbird allowed Carlow and his soldiers to escort her but the moment they were on the street and she saw and opening she called down everything she could. Lightning, Wind. Blasts. Deception. Misdirection and Running to get free! Because of her dream connection with the space squid and her injury channeling was much more difficult than normal but she threw everting into it and was able to cause a big enough distraction that she could get away.
“There is magic here!” Count Carlowe surmised (he’s a smart one!) as he picked up Lady Blackbird’s scarf that had been blow free in the wind. “Find the sorcerer who has taken my love…again!” As Blackbird channeled she recalled memories of her mentor training her but her mentor had been replaced by a shadowy figure whispering dangerous secrets in her ear. [This was an Obstacle 6 task, normally it would have been 4 to sneak past the Marine but the Injury condition made this much harder than it normally would have been. Shannon decided to spend 5 XP to take the Secret of Experience, which allows you to use tags from other traits once per refresh so she could bring all of her tags into the task…even with that she used most of her pool…and it was a Success!]
Vance and Snargle have a plan
Vance showed up at the repair bay to wait for Vlad and Snargle shared what they had heard about Carlowe. Snargle had a plan to mimic the shape of Captain Hollis (who everyone thought was kidnapped) to rescue Lady Blackbird. The workshopped the idea until Vance told Snargle the new plan: Snargle would impersonate Captain Hollis to rescue Lady Blackbird (and thus the ongoing joke of other people taking credit for Snargle’s ideas began).
They saw the flash of lightning in the distance and Snargle knew where to start looking. They made there way through port as Captain Hollis and ran into Lady Blackbird…who didn’t need saving after all! At first she saw Hollis and thought it was a ghost. She ran but Snargle resumed their normal shape and called after her “Snargle has come to help!”
Completing the Deal
Vance tried to speed up the repairs but it was more than one person could do. There was just so much work to fix up the Owl [1 Success on a Repair roll, every 2 would have added one time increment of repair, so no damage done, but no progress made].
Vlad arrived with a crew to pick up the assorted beans. To everyone’s surprise, Vlad made good on the deal and paid Vance what she was owed. Among the team of workers though, Vance spotted one who was eyeing her…it was Wraith.
In a low voice he asked where the “merchandise” was and made it clear he wasn’t talking about the cherries. Even though Wraith works for Uriah Flint, who plans to marry Lady Blackbird, Vance didn’t trust him. Wraith’s face was inscrutable but the fact that the meet up was supposed to be in the Remnants, Wraith is known for kidnapping and hostage taking, not doing escort work, and the fact that nobody else knew about this plan just seemed off. “She’s with Count Carlowe” Vance lied, and Wraith seemed to buy it [Obstacle 5 to spot their devious lies. Success!]
Another way to pay the debt
Snargle found a radio and checked in with Vance. The shared their news and decided that if Lady Blackbird accessed her imperial accounts to pay off Inspector Racetrack, everyone would know exactly where she was. Carlowe however, must also be loaded. He surely has prized possessions on his luxury liner.
Snargle would continue impersonating Hollis to get himself and Lady Blackbird onto Carlowe’s ship, the last place he would look for her.
As expected there were two guards outside Carlowe’s luxury yacht but there natural instinct to keep people out folded quickly when the legendary war hero Captain Hollis (thought kidnapped) alongside Lady Blackbird (also thought kidnapped) told them to let them in. [Obstacle 3 to convince them to be let in. Success!]
As they entered they could hear live violin music playing and could smell savory meets cooking. When the door to the vessel closed we saw the two guards again staring blankly into the rest of the dock…until one of them crumpled with a shiv in his neck. Wraith cocked his head as he looked at the other guard scrambling for his gun.
Too much fun!
Notes from the Game
- Repairs are 1/2 done (2 chips left)
- Owl’s fake ID has been discovered
- Wraith just killed the guard outside Carlowe’s ship
- Carlowe is looking for Lady Blackbird (a sorcerer took her!)
- Carlowe has arranged a magnificent ball with light shows, acrobats, and fire sorcerers to perform for his wedding with Lady Blackbird
- Vance’s trade is complete. He’s still the #1 most wanted criminal
- Snargle is impersonating Captain Hollis
System thoughts
I used poker chips again as impromptu clocks. When they used fake papers, because they exceeded the goal it got them past security and would last two more failed rolls and/or time increments before they were found out. When Snargle started repairs, based on their result, it was going to take four time increments before the ship was ready. In the course of play we took two chips off each stack. The ship is halfway to being fixed but the identity of “The Owl” has been found!
I’ve been adopting the Mouse Guard / Torchbearer rule that if a roll is missed either give them what they want anyway, but with a condition, or complicate it and create a new challenge for them. That seems to have worked pretty well. Sometimes, especially after a few bad rolls, you really just want to see “what price did they pay” rather than “can they do it?”
I also let a few rolls ride even when a new threat was present. Can Snargle pilot the Owl so it doesn’t get caught by either the Living Lightning or the Sky Squid? Seems like that should have been a challenge, but coming right on the heels of the tricky flying to escape the Sky Squid in the first place, this seemed like it would be an identical die pool. Same with Vance and Wraith. Once he saw through Wraith’s intentions, we agreed we didn’t want another roll to subvert them.
Finally, I really thought there should have been some challenge to make it to Haven (evading pirates, bounty hunters, and imperials) but given how much time we had spent escaping the lower depths, I thought more space evasion wouldn’t be fun in the moment. Looking back, I think I should have offered a Devil’s Bargain along the lines of “Snargle, why don’t you take the “Tired” condition and we’ll say you stay up all night for a few days watching the sensors so you can avoid contact with anyone on the way to Haven?”
