Category: Blades in the Dark

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves  and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Rules v.8

Eric and family were sick so he had to miss our Valentine’s Day special. Oh the horrors!

Catching up where we left off

This game we started mid-score (where we left off last time) but added a complication [As a part of Jadvyga’s partial success on the last desperate action at he end of the game] which was that the drown powder was administered but worked to quickly. Arquo watched from the window below in horror as he saw the silhouettes of the figures inside shake and writhe in coughing fits as they suddenly started to “drown”. So much for waiting till the walked out in the street to do the job, he had to go back into the Hound’s Tooth to get them!

Elke’s devious plan

We don’t end up using Flashbacks all that often in our game. I think the reason why is that when presented with a situation, the crew normally has a some capacity to deal with it immediately. It may be desperate action, or it may make some assumptions about what resources are already available (gear as part of load, gangs, time to address the problem in the now, etc.) but usually they can (and do push forward). Not because they don’t want to spend the stress, but simply because they have fun scrambling to address whatever is in front of them now.

But this was situation where the resources they needed (time) wasn’t available and Elke had to figure out a way to already be in the Hound’s Tooth when Erin and Lannock were poisoned so she could quickly respond. Yay, flachback!

Kristov, my love

Outside the building, Elke spoke to Nyryx. He was in the body of a young boy from Charhallow, one of the many, many Haigs. It wasn’t his favorite body but after his recent experience, he was leery of taking over a body that he cared much about. Elke persuaded him to go possess one of the sex workers in the brothel and that she would follow shortly behind him and when she entered, the two of them would make for a private room.

Nyryx did a big of bargaining. Elke hadn’t usually given him explicit permission to possess others so he wanted to know how long he could stay in the body. Just for the job or could he get his kicks as well. Elke granted him until Smoke (the final hour of the day) to stay and so he enthusiastically agreed [Mechanically we were waffling between whether he would have 3 or 4 dice to attempt the possession and I decided it came down to how interested he was in doing it. Given leave to party in some new digs, he put in the extra effort and got 4 dice, not that they did him much good.]

When Elke entered she saw the same smokey room and in the center were three people who appeared to be having a dispute. A woman (Syra) was tugging on the hand of an attractive male courtesan (Kristov), who was resisting her advances. The young host was asking why Kristov wasn’t going with her. And he didn’t seem very happy about it! As soon as Elke entered Kristov/Nyryx [who she could identify easily because of Ghost Mind] gave here the “get me out of this” look. Though she was very uncomfortable in a brothel, seeing Nyryx in need helped her forget where she was and dive into action. She approached him rapidly, through some slugs down, and walked off with him. Leaving the host perplexed and the Syra infuriated! [Elke rolled her Lifestyle to pay for it. I offered her a Devil’s bargain to come in bold and assertive and leave a lasting impression on Syra, the woman who was trying to take Kristov/Nyryx upstairs, which she took. I called this a risky roll and she got a partial success. I opted for harm, which I would bring to the table shortly].

Delayed Action Harm

From within the small courtesan chambers Elke heard a horrible thump on the wall between her and their marks. Erin was rolling on the ground coughing and incapacitated, but Lannock was still struggling trying to get in one breath [Since Eric wasn’t there to roll for effect I decided that since Drown Powder was a Tier III item it had great effect on Erin (Tier II) but limited effect on Lannock (Tier IV)].

She was confused, expecting them to be dead already, but made for the room anyway. However, as she opened the curtains from her room a knife was thrust into her stomach [The harm I had been saving from before]. “It’s Commission Day. Kristov is mine!” Syra yelled as she tried to disembowel Elke. The young whisper leapt back and tangled Syra’s knife in the curtain [Resist with Prowess] and her sturdy Lampblack coat caught the rest of the blade’s force [Armor].

Rather than fight the woman she just turned to Kristov giving him a look of “okay, I guess this is what’s happening” and then back to Syra and said “He’s all yours!” Syra, seeing that she didn’t catch them in a state of undress and that Kristov was indeed waiting for her, begrudgingly lowered the knife and awkwardly squeezed through the narrow door to trade places with Elke. As the curtain feel there was an muffled voice from within “Kristov, my love…”

Drowning Alive

When Elke entered the room she saw Erin rolling around, blue in the face and coughing uncontrollably. Lannock however looked at her with mad bulging eyes. He groped toward her and fell down, then clambered back up and began crawling her way on all fours. Trying to to speak but unable, he simply coughed and oozed foam from his mouth.  Elke recoiled in horror, trying to press herself back into the corner as far as she could.

Seeing the silhouette of this action and realizing that they would never make it down to the street, Aquo climbed up the side of the wall and did so hastily enough that a loud clattering was heard within [Risky Prowl with a Devil’s Bargain to start an Alert Clock 1/4]. When he made it to the window and saw Lannock almost upon Elke, he drew his knife and dove on top of the old man and deftly slit his throat. White foam frothed forth along with the blood and Lannock rolled onto his back, dead.

The bell tolling was punctuated with a shot firing. In his dying breath Lannock drew his pistol and shot Aquo at point blank range right in the center mass! [Arquo, because Lannock was a tough old bastard was merely going to have great effect, but Adrienne wanted him dead on the spot so she pushed to Desperate/Extreme effect and rolled a partial success. He died, but dished out Level 3 harm as he went down. I also added two ticks on the Alert clock 3/4]. Arquo leapt out of the way and let his improvised rope cuirass take the brunt of the blow [Resist with Prowess and using Armor], turning a near fatal wound into merely a grazing shot!

Elke continued to watch in horror as he moved to Erin and choked the last bit of life out of her. Slowly and with great focus and care.

Calling up the Empty Vessel

Elke brought out the corroded silver circlet and very carefully placed it upon Lannocks head. She then attuned to force the ghost back into the body to do her bidding. Yet unformed and unprepared to be wrenched out of the body and then forced back in, Lannock’s ghost was malformed and instantly bent on vengeance against his killer, who he watched choke Erin to death on the floor beside him. [Desperate Attune due to the Circlet (it’s always desperate working with that thing) with a partial success]. She used the circlet but in forcing the spirit back into the body felt the backlash of the Empty Vessel that rocked her mind and overwhelmed her with the haunting cries of the dead. Only her steely resolve kept her from succumbing but still she saw nightmares all around [Level 3 Harm – Catatonic reduced to Level 2 – Waking Nightmares].

She then called his name and Lannock’s ghost was under her command, but when it had the chance, it would lash out at Arquo. Lannock stood up and stared forward with dead eyes. However when Arquo finished his work with Erin he could swear that just for a second the eyes flashed down to the pistol lying on the ground at Lannock’s feet. [Controlled Command. Partial Success]

Then, Elke tried to do something that had never been done. Again! She Attuned to Circlet once more and commanded to absorb a second spirit, and hold control over both of them at once! The Empty Vessel, exposed in this act offered Elke a terrible possibility to open her mind to it, or reject it, which of course she did, and it once again unleashed it’s wrath upon her but she deflected it’s psychic energy out from her causing it to disperse through the building and touch everyone inside with it’s glorious visage [Elke was going to take Level 3 Harm just for trying to use it, resisted with resolve and instead of doing Level 2 Harm, it did Level 1 Harm to everyone in the building]. Arquo, already impaired and at such close range took the brunt of assault and was also struck with Elke’s Screams of the Dead! [He already had both of his Level 1 Harm boxes filled in and so he had to take it as Level 2. Adrienne could have rolled resolve to stress but she wanted to go for!].

Once circlet. Two ghosts. Many, many maddened souls.

Delivering the Product

Lannock and Erin’s bodies, led by Elke and Arquo walked out of the Hound’s Tooth amid a sea of chaos. The patrons and proprietors alike were writhing in pain, screaming at mirrors, and reliving the deaths of those who had passed before.

When the stepped into the gondola, Ogre, who had been waiting the in boat and heard the screams from the brothel, and saw the stilted walk of Lannock and Eric along with their dead eyes shimming in the night, became suddenly interested in his belt buckle and fiddling with the finicky boat motor.

“Where is Harland?” Elke asked. She proceeded to get more and more upset (which just scared Ogre even more) when he couldn’t tell her, only that Harland wasn’t around so he came to drive them.

The maid their way slowly through Crows Foot and to the docks. Just across the main channel they saw the check points where Spirit Wardens and Blue Coats watch for good passing in and out of the docks. Arquo, beleaguered as he was offered to distract the Spirit Warden so Elke could pass safely. When he tried to get out of the boat Lannock lunged forward to grapple him and pull him into the water below, but Aquro jumped out of the way and Elke once more seized control of the spirit, demading that it hold fast!

When he approached the warden Arquo told the truth, or some version of it. There was a building in Crows Foot called the Hounds Tooth and people were going crazy inside it. The plea resonated with the Spirit Warden but instead of leaving his post, he fetched a Bluecoat, Henner, to deliver the message. [Sway with Limited Effect, the Spirit Warden was distracted, but not gone]. Arquo pressed harder and got up in the face of the Warden and then knocked away the Bluecoat who tried to pull him back. He screamed that there was madness in that place! [Risky sway for standard effect, Partial success meant he had Henner on his tail!]

The Warden opted to look into this disturbance on his own as Arquo, who had used his name [+1 Heat, Devil’s Bargain] to get the Warden’s attention, fled from Henner! [+2 Heat, Serious Consequence]

Unobstructed, Elke and Ogre pulled the gondola up to a small dock with stairs leading up to the street, instructed Erin and Lannock to walk into the large headquarters of the North Hook Company, go to Lannocks Office, and await the crows, which they had been keeping ahead of. Getting there banged the boat up some, damn Harland was the only one who knew how to make it steer straight! [Controlled Finesse. Partial success]

A terrible realization. A mad dash!

After the deed was done Arquo was still fleeing Henner and that is when Elke realized that she had left Nyryx behind, having suffered the same psychic attacks as everyone else in the brothel and a Spirit Warden had been sent to investigate it. What would happen to him!?!

Elke suddenly told Ogre to gun the boat back to the brothel but when he revved the engine too quickly the boat took on water and the engine was flooded, it took Ogre a moment just to get it to start up again [Risky Finesse, -1D because the boat is finicky, bad outcome. The boat took more harm, was as now impaired and because time was running out they were in a desperate position].

They debated running but Elke knew it was still faster to race through the canals of Crows Foot that it was the streets. Arquo had circled back around by this point and he jumped off the street down into the boat, just as Ogre got the engine started and floored it to get to the Hound’s Tooth. They were making good time but as they entered the channel between districts, out of nowhere a giant steamer came plowing through and smashed right into to gondola and smashed it to smithereens [Desperate Finesse, bad outcome. The ship too severe harm and the opportunity was lost!].

Floundering in the water all looked lost but Arquo helped Elke get out of the water [Protect against the loss of opportunity]. Elke staggered out. She was wet and gasping and out of breath. She could try to run but it was still so far away and so much time had been lost. Instead she decided to dig deep, took the giant key ring from her belt and found the ancient ghost key her mother gave her years ago. She attuned to the key and envisioned Nyryx in her mind. She lifted the key to a door and all the electricity pulsing through the nearby lights burst forth and arced around he door as Elke thrust the key into the keyhole. Lighting sparked everywhere and Elke channeled all her will to open a portal into the ghost field and pull Nyryx through it!

When it opened there was scream as Nyryx flew out and bust into Elke’s chest (in her spirit cocoon) and then something monstrously large came flying out after it. A giant spectral centipede like creature with multiple sets of wings attached to each of its segments, a gaping maw in the front and a barbed hook at it’s end. It also screeched as it emerged but then flew off into the night. Elke staggered back and held Nyryx inside, sensing that the passage through the ghost field stripped away his psychic harm [Desperate Attune. Critical Result, Great effect used to heal Nyryx (as opposed to shutting the door before something else came out)].

The next morning

Terrified and confused Arquo went home, followed by Ogre who was just too overwhelmed by what had just happened. In the morning Elke appeared with hot morning buns and offered them up to Arquo and his family (and Ogre too). She tried to just leave the buns but Ramira forced Arquo out into the street to follow her… and we saw the two walk away into the dark rainy morning of Doskvol. Maybe there is some romance in this story after all.

Epilogue

Elke flexed back and from out of her mouth Nyryx flew. Now she could see him in his true spectral form and could see the concern he carried. “You don’t get to leave me” she told him, partly a request, partly a command. “I won’t ever leave you Elke. It’s my duty to protect you should another Scurlock every appear.” Elke almost corrected him but then realized that he was very intentional in what he said, Nyryx believed that Scurlock was gone…and his own sanity rested upon that assurance!

Payoff

• 4 Rep (Target: Ministry of Preservation, oh shit!)
• 9 Coin (3 of it tithed to Charterhall University)
• 7 Heat (+3 more gained during the score due to devil’s bargains… damn, wanted again!)
• Entanglement rolled: Usual suspects

What Rocked

Wow, I thought last session was intense! Elke’s discovery about Nyryx and the things that she would do to save him. Her budding romance with Arquo. Harland not being there when he needed to be and the ship sinking in the bottom of a channel. Unleashing the thought tendrils of the Empty Vessel on the entire Hound’s Tooth. Lannock clawing his way to Elke and Arquo leaping on him to save her. Lannocks lingering hate. All this stuff was so much fun.

At the end I had Elke make a fortune roll for Erin and Lannock to see how well the did arriving at their appointed places and acting like dead people the were. She got a mixed result which had to fun effects. The first was that Erin got a lot of strange looks as she entered the building. Clearly Lannock (who they had wrapped a scarf around his neck to conceal his slit throat) belonged here but she didn’t. Also their ghosts, their ghost are just wrong and someone, probably a Spirit Warden is going to have to deal with that mess!

In particular I loved being able to bring a little bit of what’s going on with the Empty Vessel and what’s going on with Nyryx to the foreground (hopefully) without overshadowing the PCs daring actions!

We had just a little bit of romance on Valentine’s Day. Two people walking through the rainy streets of the Dusk eating morning buns sounds about as romantic as our game might ever get!

Being able to use the map (even though I fudged something and moved something around to make this work) to actually make Doskwall come alive was really fun. Bazso had in mind that if they died at the Hound’s Tooth and the bodies were moved fast enough the Deathseeker crows would never falter on their way to the North Hook company. And the DSS made it work!

Their poor boat. Really, really, really, trashed that night.

I get a ghost wyrm in Doskvol. I get a ghost wyrm in Doskvol. Sean sings a jaunty tune. And no, I have no idea what it is yet, but if you’ve ready Perdido Street Station and you remember the slakemoths, that’s what I have in mind.

What could have improved

I realize all my Spirit Wardens are the same. Tall, looming, commanding. I mean, it’s fine, they are like Stormtroopers, but I want them to be people too. Hmm, that makes me wonder… what if they aren’t?

No Eric this session due to sickness, but he was back for the next game and oh, the trouble the got into then!

 

 

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Rules v.8

Hix…into the Hook

There had been two scenes I wanted to play out since I knew Hix was going into Ironhook. We did one at the start of the session and squeezed the second into the end. Good times.

An armored carriage driven by goats through the camped streets of dunslough provided a grim view of the indentured district. Workers in the radiant energy fields toiled ceaselessly while less skilled laborers carried heavy loads of supplies while watched closely by harsh taskmasters. Panning up somewhat to get a better view of the district we saw incredible damage done throughout. Smoldering buildings, dead Spirit Wardens, and other evidence of the recent spectral invasion.

When the carriage arrived a surly Blue Coat with a riding crop in one hand and heavy ring of keys in another, opened it and barked a command. One at a time the convicts within, each chained to the next, began spilling out of the carriage, and at the end of the chain gang we saw Hix, moving along but wincing at he pain of the manacle clasped around her disfigured arm.

As they approached she saw the dehumanizing process as convicts that had arrived before her were being processed. Each of them stripped down, searched, and sent inside with little or know instruction or attention. There must have been some wires crossed because two of the guards were arguing with each other and as they did, Hix caught sight of a familiar face in the line beside her. Irelen was standing between several other, much tougher looking individuals. His head was hanging low and he was avoinding eye contact with everyone.

Hix, like she does, began talking to those around her, and asked what kind of inspection the guards would do. How…for example…might someone be able to smuggle a spirit bottle inside. Brie, a frequent tenant in Ironhook was happy to describe in detail the callous process of inspection. “If you wan to bring something in either swallow it or put it in your ass.”

Hix looked at Irelen, uncomfortably shuffling across from her and then looked ahead and saw the archaic lightning gate that all inmates had to pass through to get in. The machine was a relic, but she was also fairly certain that if spectral energy did try to pass through it, the energy (and possibly everything around it) would be incinerated. She had no desire to help Augus or Irelen, but her duty to the Keeper of the Flame pressed her to action. She slipped a small metal shaving she found on the ground into her mouth, and when we was pressed to go forward stalled until Irelen had caught up with her, and then monumentally shorted out the lightning filed by grounding it while they both passed through. [One Desperate as all hell Wreck roll (Note: Had this been part of a score, I probably would have first asked for action to sneak in the metal, maybe prowl or finesse, and then another to stall the guards, but I decided the really important part was whether or not she helped Irelen make it safely into the hook. Result: Partial success].

Hix did it, but by the time she gave up on the “strange coughing fit” she had earned the ire of the prison guards and in addition to several kicks and shoves, once they had her inside they took her deep down, under the earth into the natural caverns below. With a dim torch they pushed her further and further forward as the ceiling shrunk lower and lower, until finally she had to crawl to continue. They they closed a gate behind her and left her in a cramped hole, not even big enough to stand up in or lie down in, and walked away, leaving her in the dark as well [Serious consequence: Solitary]

Eyes Everywhere in Crows Foot

Arquo went to talk to Stiener about the work they could do for the Coalridge workers while Harland and Elke headed to the Leaky Bucket, which they were told had been rebuilt since the Red Sashes burned it down. Crows Foot was just as menacing as it always is. Sneak thieves and cut purses on every corner, brutes and killers in every alley. The took their trusty gondola but even in the canals didn’t feel safe.

As they were passing through one particularly dark and narrow section, Harland was sure he saw eyes in every window and rooftop staring at him. He drew out his gun and fired into the black sky and yelled out that he saw them, he saw them all! His display sent the eyes of Crows Foot scurrying but also made them remember his name [Risky Command with a Devil’s bargain that everyone would know he was in Crows’ Foot. Full success]

The New Leaky Bucket

Having been haphazardly rebuilt as quickly as possible, the Leaky Bucket was up and running, but had leaks in the ceiling for all different reasons. Instead of sagging under the weight of decades of tar and shingles, it was now simply assembled hastily and will probably be patched one way or another for decades to come.  Bits of the old building remained. A few charred benches and tables could still be used. The old mirror, now blackened with soot was still behind the bar. And some of the bottles, now indistinguishable from each other except for their shape, miraculously maintained their contents in drinkable form. Or perhaps some just didn’t patrons just weren’t that discriminating.

When the arrived there was a table with two sarsaparillas waiting for them. A friendly jibe taken at the students after everyone heard that Harland had fired at the lookouts. A less friendly response was that soon into their meeting, one of Grace’s agents made his way into the Bucket as well to spy on Harland and discover what dirt he could.

A job from Bazso

Bazso greeted Elke fondly and gave a respectful nod to Harland once Elke vouched for him. Bazso had a job that he thought Elke would be perfect for. There were two people that needed to die – no, he wasn’t asking them to kill anyone – but they needed to be found in a different location than their death. Preferably moved faster than the Deathseeker Crows would find them.

Normally he’d just put the bodies on a carriage and drop them off, but in this case they needed to be inside the North Hook Company offices, and those are too well guarded for his people to sneak bodies into. He hoped that Elke, with her…talents, could animated the bodies to appear living long enough to get them inside their offices. Elke said she would need use of his circlet once more, which he accepted as the cost of this kind of work despite his disdain for loosing track of it.

The original offer for the work was six coin, a handsome sum, but Harland was feeling desperate and in need of quick infusion of slugs, so he pushed for more and haggled his way all the way up to nine coin, with the small caveat that they would do the entire job (i.e. killing the people as well). Elke was wrapped up in considering the ingredients she’d need for her ritual and didn’t notice the change of terms. [Desperate Sway. Partial Success]

Bazso agreed. Their targets were Erin and Lannock and they could be found in the Hound’s Tooth, a Billhook controlled brothel in a section of Crows Foot that was otherwise controlled by the Lampblacks and the Crows in equal measure. The DSS didn’t ask for any more information about their marks so they left it at that.

The right stuff for the job

Harland confided with Arquo about his arrangement and Arquo, not the sentimental type, shrugged at the transnational nature of the work. Kill people, get money. That’s fine. What he wasn’t fine was the fact that Bazso was playing them NINE BLASTED COIN to kill two people and Bazso had offered Arquo a mere coin in the memory of his sister who had served the Lampblacks unto her death!

The agreed that killing poisoned people was easier that killing fully lucid people and so Harland set off to the Society’s Laboratory (read: the Lab in Jayan hall that nobody else is allowed into else the student patrol might have some words with them) to brew some Drown Powder. A fine dust that incapacitates by giving the sensation of drowning. Yikes!

Softening up the Marks

Arquo and Jadvyga headed to the Hounds Tooth and in time Arquo noticed that the bouncer out front was wearing the bloodstained apron signature to the Billhooks. He was keen to keep his head down so no one would be suspicious of them as they entered [Full Success on the Engagement roll, meaning they stated with a controlled situation]. Jadvyga went first and Arquo slipped by and the door man leered.

Inside was a common room filled with people luxuriating, fried food, and many libations. The weren’t immediately approached by anyone so they sat down to get a lay of the land. Arquo didn’t know this Lannock figure, but he had met Erin before, she is the sister of Tarvul (the Billhooks leader) and he knew she wasn’t someone to be trifled with. He could also tell she wasn’t in a any of the common rooms but that there was a catwalk upstairs with several closed curtains and doors.

Eventually the were approached by the host, a young delicate man with smooth curves all over. He was dressed only in trousers and it was clear his bare feet and chest had been oiled recently. He sought to offer any pleasures they desired by Arquo indicated that his companion was nervous, this was her first time, and so they wanted to spend a bit more time just taking it all in [Controlled consort that ended with a minor complication of the host returning soon].

They went upstairs and this time made an active search to find Erin and Lannock and while they found them, it wasn’t before they first upset another couple in congress and brought the host back to find out the cause of some minor commotion.

Arquo ended up in one of the private rooms, and then subsequently was kicked out when they determined he couldn’t pay [Bad result on a Lifestyle roll as he had no coin in him] but that bought Jadvyga enough time that with her near superhuman speed she was able to drop the drown powder in the drinks meant for Erin and Lannock and then bolt out a window before anyone caught sight of her [Desperate Prowl, pushing herself to use the Devil’s Footsteps. Partial success]. She made it out but all her speed did not help her prepare for the fall on to hard cobblestone below. She rolled with the land but still sprain her ankle badly [Harm 3, resisted with prowess down to Harm 2].

Epilogue

As the prison guard walked out of the dank cell with his feeble torch we swiped through town and through time to Frost holding a torch of his own and setting it down before asking, nay, begging Hix not to turn herself in. “That place. It will break you. Please Hix, don’t do this. Send someone else. Send Elke. She was actually caught in the act!” But Hix was optimistic, she was sure she’d make friend and do just fine. Everything would work out. Frost blew out his lantern and we returned to Hix cold and alone in the dark. Far from Frost and farther still from the Keeper of the Flame.

What Rocked

Oh my, this entire session.

Hix in Jail. So good.

Arquo’s anger about Bazso.

Harland talking Bazso up and agreeing to kill Erin and Lannock. Elke oblivious to it all.

Elke’s fascination with the potential power of the circlet and her preparations to animate not one but two bodies at once with it!

What could have improved

I wasn’t feeling very inventive when I was thinking of complications at the Hound’s Tooth. Mostly I thought it made sense for the host to want to make sure nobody was partaking of their services (including using their spaces) without paying, so his attention was a constant thorn in their sides. I think I could have done more with Erin and Lannock though.

I forgot to tell Jadvyga that she was sickened (Level 1 Harm) after applying the Drown Powder to the drinks.

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Rules v.8

The final draft, version 8 is out! In a small bit of shilling, if somehow you’re reading this and haven’t already heard about Blades being available for pre-order, you should really go get it. Like right now. Right here. Go, already!

Upgrading to V8

We had already been playing with some of the final rules (when rolling for Engagements, Entanglements, and crafting) but now that it was out we went about moving all the characters and crew over to the new sheets. A few moves changed here and there but it was a smooth transition.

Keeper of the Flame

Adrienne and I had lunch earlier in the day and got a chance to talk about the Keeper of the Flame, and what Hix knows about it through her psychic connection. Some things we decided.

The Keeper has long been a bulwark of humanity to fend of the darkness. It was observed by keeping fires lit and in return for honoring it’s name, warded humanity from demons that preyed on them. After the Cataclysm though, all was turned upside down. No flame could burn bright enough to fend of the encroaching darkness, and once the Immortal Emperor (All Hail!) gifted humanity with electroplasm the Keeper of the Flame was nearly forgotten.

However there are still creatures which haunt the night, still demons at the doorstep, and so there are still people that revere the Keeper. Only now things have changed. Humanities hubris has convinced them that through spectrology they can fight the darkness, and so the Keeper has had to adapt. It no longer manifests in simple flames, but in the roiling bellies of electroplasmic generators. Like the Lampblacks who moved to other pursuits when gas lights were replaced, so has the Keeper adapted.

It’s methods have changed as well, now, rather than offering it’s protection openly the Keeper’s power is secret, and woven in deception. Only those who consecrate the lightning towers know of the people killed and the ghosts bound to fuel their potency. The Keeper hides it’s true power from the uninitiated and instructs it’s acolytes to herd them into it’s service, unwittingly offering up a concentration in blood.

I think there is something more there too. A more selfish hunger for worship and obeisance, but we’ll explore that in play.

Urgent summons from Quellen

In the Cat and Candle the Society discussed what crime they could do to pay their bills and how they would pass their midterm exams. They debated offers from both Stiener and Bazso Baz and decided they would go to the study room (read: their lair) to decide. Elke asked Arquo if she could carry her books, in an attempt to make him feel more like part of the crew (he’s still probationary since he isn’t officially enrolled at Charterhall) but it just made him feel all the more like a manservant sent on a banal task.

On their way however, they were met with by a messenger who had a note from Quellen. “Help. I’m in Danger”. It appeared to be scrawled very quickly and the young man who delivered said he was shopping in Quellen’s hut when she suddenly shoved the note in his hand and urgently begged him to run to the Cat and Candle with it as fast as he could.

Charhallow

The noisy, cramped tenement housing of Charhallow, where Quellen lives and operates, thrummed with the same pulse or marginal life as it always did. Lookouts high up in the districts signature petrified trees whistled and made other bird calls to signal activity to each other while the common folk churned away with what little the had.

As they got closer to Quellen’s however, Harland in particular noticed shutters close, streets empty, and in general the sounds of the city fade away. Outside her shop was a elderly man sweeping the street with a twig broom but they were otherwise along. When Elke watched him [thanks to Ghost Mind] she could sense a second spirit stirring within the shell of the old man, deliberately pacing his slow movements to lure them closer.

The Fight is On

Elke, divining the spirit within, donned her spirit mask and called it forth [Compel special ability]. From the nostrils and mouth of the man a vapor poured out which eventually formed into the misshapen form of a ravenous ghost. As though it’s very being would collapse without support, a spectral chain was wrapped around the ghost and it used the end of it to lash out at the interlopers.

Elke was prepared, no specter had hold over her [Both the compel ability and Iron Will made her immune to its fear]. Harland and Arquo however were terrified of this apparition. Harland steeled himself [Resolve resistance roll] but Arquo was frozen in place.

Harland charged forward and with his own halbard ablaze [thanks Ghost Fighter] he slashed into, and ignited, the vaporous form of Grail, Vond’s lieutenant. Elke aide by slowing the ghost with her lightning hook. They would have traded vicious blows with the specter if not for Arquo who overcame his fear [Resistance roll] and then using his electroplasmic ammunition shot the length of chain and severed it before it made contact [Protect action, I ruled that due to his Sharpshooter ability and electroplasmic ammo, it negated the damage instead of reducing it].

Vond Appears

Elke and Harland stood over the weakened form of Grail, his spectral mass fraying at the edges as they threatened to spill forth from under this chains. Harland was about tho destroy the creature utterly when two figures appeared in the doorway ahead. Quellen, with a knife to her thoat held by the form of Cricket, though clearly there was nothing left of the the young woman Cricket had formerly been.

Vond, now secured inside the body the Path of Echoes had prepared for her, called out to Harland to surrender to him else Quellen would join her in death. However she hardly got the threat out when Elke compelled her to “Stop!”. [This was a rare moment when I said, okay, this is desperate with zero effect. She can cut Quellen’s throat and because of her hold on the body and higher tier she was beating Elke on both Potency and Quality. Elke pushed herself to get limited effect and then decided to turn her effort into a setup action for Arquo to take a shot]. Though she could not truly command Vond, fortified as she was in the alchemically prepared body, she did get the specter’s attention long enough for Arquo to fire a shot.

Having overcome his initial fear and feeling even more emboldened by seeing Quellen at risk Arquo tried for an impossible shot. He was still far away from the door and had only Vond/Cricket’s face as a target. Even a near miss and he could hit Quellen, or works Vond could slit her throat. [Again, we were at Desperate, Zero effect due to quality, potency, and not that Arquo understood this yet Magnitude. However, he leveled the potency field with his electroplasmic ammunition, increased his effect by pushing himself, and increased it again with Elke’s setup action getting up to standard effect. Partial success]. The incendiary round flew true and sunk right into Cricket’s face where it burned feverishly and spread to the curtains hanging by the door and quickly caught Quellen’s shop on fire.

Vond dropped Quellen and staggered back. Elke – always one to dress in many layers – grabbed her cloak and started batting down the flames to prevent them from spreading through the whole shop [Protect action to reduce the serious consequence of “shop burnt down” to “shop damaged by fire”.]

Harland, brought his halbard down low to finish of Grail, incinerating his ghostly vapors with his burning blade.

From the smoking door Vond burst forth, pushing past Elke, and charged at Harland, the focus of her destruction. She slashed him across the brow, causing blood to seep into his eyes [Harm 1]. From the open hole in her face, instead of blood pouring out they saw orange embalming fluid and underneath the skin a writhing sea of ghostly forms. Vond had brought company inside Cricket’s body!

Arquo tried to fire another shot at Vond but this time she was prepared and from the hole in her face a ghost flew to tangle with Arquo. He fired off several electroplasmic rounds to keep it at bay but eventually used up the last of his ammunition and was at the mercy of the ghost. [Attempt at a setup action. Desperate roll. Bad Outcome. Serious complication of possession reduced to complication of grappling with a ghost. Devil’s bargain used on the resistance roll to use up the last of the electroplasmic ammunition]. He fell to the ground as he struggled to fend off the old soul from  possessing him.

In front of all to see Harland drank his special alchemical concoction and brought his halberd down with a mightily cleave just as Vond ran her blade through his chest [Desperate Skirmish, reduced effect because of Vond’s tier, increased effect because of Ghost Fighter, and even scale. Harland was Not to Be trifled with but Vond had a small gang of ghosts withing Cricket’s husk, so they leveled out there. Increased effect again because Harland was pushing himself, so it was up to great effect! However, Eric rolled and got: Bad Outcome].  Two terrible things happened at once! Vond ran Harland through with her saber [Level 4 harm] and she let free the half dozen ghosts she had caged inside Cricket to terrorize what was left of the Society and the citizens of Charhallow [Serious consequence as well as loss of opportunity because she fled].

Harland’s breastplate [Armor] and his heightened reflexes [Resist with resolve] turned the blow to a mere gut wound [Harm 2] by he was still staggered by the blow. Elke turned away from the fire to call the ghost to gain their attention [Resisting the consequence] and together [Group action, led by Harland] they banished the ghosts (including the one that eventually possessed Arquo) from their sights [Risky Command. Full success]. The ghosts would still feed, but they wouldn’t do it here!

The ghost’s hold on Arquo was broken and it fled, but before doing so it left him with the memory of it’s own death, a wall of black flesh rising up over the bow of a ship and crashing down cleaving the great ship in two, while crushing the sailors beneath it’s great mass.

Ashlyn Returns

All of the ghosts scattered except one. Elke with her spirit mask on could clearly make out the form of Aslyn who had become more defined and more focused then when she had seen her last, but also more feral and hungry. The skin on Ashlyn’s arm was tight, her fingernails grown into claws, and her eyes burned with intensity. Elke told her that she was to stay with them and that she would make her better. Ashlyn for the first time ever was defiant and said that she would find out what was happening to her. She said as a threat. Not to Elke, but to any that would try and deter her. [New descriptors: Knowledgeable, Violent]

What Rocked

Elke assisted Harland a few times snaring first Grail then Vond in her lightning hook slowing them down. I love the image of it being like a shepherd’s crook only sparking with electricity and jagged at the end!

I loved that mid-fight we realized Arquo hadn’t done the ritual and wasn’t immune to possession. We had a great time with that revelation, both as to what it meant for the current fight and what it implied about how much he was really part of the Society.

I was worried that loosing the benefit of potency against supernatural targets with the Anointed ability would feel like it weakened it too much, but the scoundrels were very happy to take a bonus on resistance rolls against ALL the consequences that came their way.

It did take our whole session, but all of this was the result of an ongoing feud between Harland and Vond and rolling “Unquiet Dead” as my entanglement. It’s really awesome when there is so much going on in the world that when entanglements come up, its so easy to see it come right out of the fiction established.

This fight was rough. By far the toughest they’ve had, but the crew pulled it together. Vond was (and is) a menace and the Society may try to find another to destroy her. Elke made mention of telling Scurlock about her and asking him to intervene. That would be awesome!

What could be improved

Now that ghost mind allows someone to sense the supernatural, the effect of Elke’s long term project studying possession doesn’t really pay dividends. We’ll have to work out a benefit she gains from her understanding of possession. One idea is that she could heal the trauma caused by it, which normally can’t be done. We’ll discuss!

I forgot what Sharpshooter did after the revisions (which is a bit silly since I working on those revisions) and so I granted Arquo some of it’s earlier narrative effects (the ability to fire a trick shot) on accident. In the case of protecting Harland, I’m pretty happy with that choice and would do it again, but the decision to say that because he had Sharpshooter Quellen couldn’t be harmed as a result of shot on Vond I regretted almost immediately as I thought catching her shop on fire had much less impact. So a word to the wise. If you want to say that the most obvious threat has been ameliorated, make sure you have another threat in mind…otherwise that action might not be so Desperate/Risky after all.

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Rules v.7.1

Crew Moving Up

As of last session the crew had an advance handy, and took the veteran move “Synchronized.” So many crits coming to dusky town near you.

They also had filled up the rep bar and had the coin to go up in tier. Having defended their charter, the Spectral Society’s name became better known on campus and off. The adepts crew grew as members of both the True Path and Elke’s cadre recruited more weirdos. Also, the School Patrol gang grew, now filled with members that were part-time students at best (read: thugs who stole, cajoled, or beat their way into getting school credentials).

Downtime

Elke finally finished her work studying possession (Long term clock finished) and learned several important facts about possession.

1. Not all ghosts can possess humans, it is a skill they must learn, or be taught by another.
2. Possession causes trauma over time [mechanically one trauma per week], however some ghosts, those who have reconciled their worldly concerns, do not traumatize their hosts.
3. The speech patters of the possess falter in just such a way. After talking to them for some time, you can hear the ghost echo in their voice.

Hix, stressed out by the last job needed to find another place to indulge. Salia wanted nothing to do with her. She could get high at home but having Harland around made that awkward. He was an ascetic now and she wasn’t sure how he’d react to black lotus in his presence. So she followed her nose to the smell of sex and inebriation… of a sorts.

Long had she heard about the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh, and while she had been at many parties where it’s adherents indulged in all manner of worldly pleasures, she sought to find it’s source at the biggest church in the Dusk, the Sanctorium. It wasn’t easy getting there. Brightstone doesn’t take well to scoundrels like Hix staining the streets with their presence, but she managed to sidle past the Blue Coats that did see her with aplomb and flattering words [Risky Consort. Full success].

Though no service was being performed, there was a curate of the Sanctorium. Nelisanne was dressed in red robes that could not conceal his golden locks, cherubic face, and other lovely features. He first greeted Hix coldly, she did not look to belong here, but when they spoke, and she revealed her interest in the sanctity of the body, the destruction of the spirits, and the investigation into hidden secrets, and suddenly Nielisanne came to life telling her far more than he should about the history and current practices of the Ecstasy of the Flesh [Looks: Lovely. Goals: Love. Methods: Manipulation. Details: Cold, Secretive, and Careless.]

Hix returned again to observe a sermon, told Nelisanne about her connection to the Keeper of the Flame [Devil’s Bargain], and then the delighted curate allowed her behind the first veil to the chamber of earthly delights [Long term project to find a new vice purveyor complete].

In another part of the Dusk, Jadvyga returned to Dundridge and Sons with Elke to try on dresses and look into other sartorial interests.

Jadvyga was fitted with some of the finest clothes by Malcolm but also reminded that the fashion show she agreed to model in was happening soon. [Indulge Vice]. Elke however was only interested in what was needed to make shadow cloak. Malcolm told her that if she could provide him with the Irruvian shadow silk they were made of, he could fashion one for her [Long term project]

After that Elke visited Quellyn to find out what strange new curios she had obtained. Her friend was happy to show her new wares [Indulging vice] but also complained that her new neighbor Aslyn had started becoming troublesome by squabbling with other ghosts and picking fights [As a ghost Ashlyn had gained the traits Knowledgeable and Violent]

Jadvyga later hosted one of their famed trivia nights at the Cat and Candle. This time she invited several of the faculty (without them knowing the others were coming) and ended up with both Una Farros [Devils Bargain: Telling her than Hix would be there and was suffering from some kind of occult curse, which Una was sure she could use to find out more about her and Augus] and Yerial Danwood [Devils Bargain: Pitting the two of them against each other at trivia, and making the professors who were otherwise oblivious of each other into threats]. The end result, Una was so impressed with the triva questions and the political cunning of Jadvyga she offered to sponsor her as as student [Long Term project x 2, Complete!]

Hix visited her friend Frost in his home. He was in convalescence after trying to stop a shipment of the Grinder’s (the one Hix had told him about) and they shared matching arms in slings. The two of them, with as many usable arms drank and swapped stories. Hix ensured him that the Spectral Society was on the right patch and just a good student society trying to represent the university in the best way they could [Reduce Heat]. He pointed out that they were involved with a mass murder in the Irruvian sword school, that one of their members was charged with kidnapping the son of a ministry member, and that he had half a dozen other unsubstantiated by believable complaints about their occult endeavors. [Reminding her of their Wanted level].

Arquo, meanwhile was there when his father got home from the jail, beat and battered but with some information. The money that Steiner brought to bail him out was snatched up by the Blue Coat LaRose, and if Arquo wanted to get it back, he was the one to take it from. He tended for his dad and ensured him that he’d make things right [Indulging vice]

Hix, Elke, and Jadvyga all did the work they promised Oilweather and Danwood and began scribing and translating text for their book on Severosi history. Jadvyga ended up doing all the work. Elke never agreed to it and Hix had a bad arm. Plus, Danwood was just so dreamy… [working on Long Term Project]

Dundridge and Son’s Winter Fashion Show

For the show Malcolm wanted Jadvyga to appear exotic, to walk with inhuman grace… to look like a demon. Yes she had a forked tongue, but that didn’t stand out on the runway. She needed something more present, more piercing. So he fashioned her glass lenses to cover her eyes. Foggy and grey should could barely see through them, but they made her eyes appear filled with with black smoke and gave just the look he needed. However, wearing them for hours cut horrible scratches in her cornea, and when she finally removed them blood came out as well [Risky (to have great effect on the audience) Finesse. Partial Success. Harm 2: Scratched Cornea].

 

Turning herself in

Hix threw a part at her place. She invited all her friends, and celebrated Jadvyga’s admission into Charterhall and their other successes. The next morning she wasn’t there but it wasn’t for a day or two that anyone really took notice. She was always in and out. It was a folded note, the kind Harland left to remind her to do her laundry or to replace the mead that she had drunk, that told her friends she would miss them.

And as they looked up the camera panned out from their crappy apartment in Charter Wall and through the streets of the Dusk, and down to Duslough where an armored carriage drawn by stocky mountain goats carried Hix into Ironhook Prison. She had turned herself in.

(A tease for next session. Adrienne rolled to see how Hix fared inside the hook. Three 1s. She took her fourth trauma and her mind was prepared to ascend to mastery to the cult of the Keeper of the Flame. Her new vice has become Servitude!)

What Rocked

Holy crap, Hix in prison and with four Trauma. Wow! Good thing she doesn’t need her vice purveyor now. There are two scenes we still need to have. Frost trying (and apparently failing) to convince her not to turn herself in and her arrival. Something special planned for that! Can’t wait. Servitude!

These darn kids and their trivia nights. But then turning them into rivalries between professors. So good.

Elke, off to make a shadow cloak… but it’s really for Aqruo. So sweet.

It was just uncanny how much the Ecstasy of the Flesh and Hix’s ideology matched up. I mean, the place was kind of perfect for her.  Loves pleasure, hates ghosts, into secret cults. A match made in heaven…if there were such a thing. All the more sad that she lost it all going to the Hook.

Watching Ashlyn become more feral is good and going to get better. Elke’s beliefs will be tested and we’ll see if her iron will can win out as it has in the past.

I didn’t remember until the end of the session that I had rolled an entanglement from their last score: Unquiet Dead. Oh shit, here comes Vond again!

What could have improved

Though I loved the complication of working the fashion show, I really wish I had done more with it. It feels like it should have at least been an opportunity to schmooze with the upper crust, or to get more information about old man Dundridge. This still could be done in flashbacks but I feel bad that we glossed over it.

We need to retcon Elke’s learning about possession long term project. As of the V8 version (see next game) Ghost Mind gives her the ability to sense supernatural entities in her presence, so the coolest part of finishing that project is now redundant. We’ll find something good!

 

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Rules v.7.1

A welcome back

We took a few weeks off for the holidays and it was great to see everyone again, and to find out what they would be up to. Arquo unfortunately didn’t have as welcome a greeting.

When he got off work and came home, it was to his mother and Steiner (rather than his father) waiting for him. The Blue had come by again, and not finding Arquo, they took his father. Ramira’s expression was grave but not defeated. Arcus would be coming back. A few days and a few lumps later, but he’d come home.

While they were conspiring around the dining room table, Steiner agreed to try and bribe the Bluecoats to release Arcus, but he also told Arquo that if he really wanted to help his family, he could make a little extra coin. The Coalridge workers are getting ready to unionize but before they do, they want to be ready for repercussions. They’ve got the money, the just need someone to move the guns. Bazso isn’t interested, he doesn’t want to get involved, but Seiner and Arquo… they could make a few slugs.

[We had a little discussion about whether this would be a score or not and decided that if the DSS wanted to do it, we’d make it a score on screen, but if not, Arquo could do it in the background and make a fortune roll to see how it went]

Steiner took two coin to pay off the Bluecoats to release Arcus on Arquos behalf (he couldn’t go, being wanted himself). The coats took the money and spit in his face. Arcus was going to sit and stew. [We handled it as a fortune roll, rolling the coin spent + Arquo’s lifestyle, result was a 1-3, poor results].

Payoff for the Kinclaith Score

Iremina’s necklace was ostensibly worth more than the Kinclaiths owed Charterhall, but until the could fence it, the necklace was just a sting of heavy gems, and not something you want to hold onto for long.

Rep: 4. Heat: 4 (Contained, Hostile Turf, Well Connected Target), Entanglement: Gang Trouble (while the leaders were out protecting their student status the gangs turned to internal squabbling about ghost affairs).

Meeting in the Sanctum

In the wee hours Hix made her way to the lightning tower in Dunslough, where she found some answers, and even more questions. Point blank Augus admitted that he was the one who brought down the lighting tower and let hundreds, possibly thousands of ghosts into the city. Why? Territory control in Dunslough. When the ghosts were running rampant, he was able to move arcane artifacts into Ironhook, smuggled by work crews that otherwise would have been caught by the Spirit Wardens. But why?

In the year 605 of the Imperium, amid rampant crime, the Lord Governor commissioned the construction of a  giant edifice that would hold the growing population of prisoners otherwise scattered throughout the city. Work camps were formed and for 13 years a chain gang labored away at creating the edifice they would die inside of.

The architects of this colossal monument put a part of themselves in it as well. In the subterranean heart of Ironhook housed a fire that would never go out. A great brazier inscribed with runes that bound a spirit within, one that grant the Keeper of the Flame a home inside the hook, to warm the bodies and souls with the prison, and to be fed by their supplications of blood and suffering.

Years ago, when electric wiring was being installed in Ironhook, the temple, which had stood in place for a century, was discovered and destroyed, the eternal fire extinguished and our god’s connection to that place severed.

There was one more piece that need to be co. In order consecrate the temple a whisper would have to carry a ghost into Ironhook and offer it up to the Keeper of the Flame. No longer a smoking brazier, now the Keeper would live in the electroplasmic current which arced through the great fortress. Augus has someone in mind. A former student of his who was down on his luck and just desperate enough to take the job even though it meant his own incarceration: Irelen.

Hix, seeming the opportunity to both fulfill the needs of her patron god and get heat off the Spectral Society, made Augus and offer. She would got in Irelen’s stead. He would get caught, she could do it undetected. But… only if he promised to teach her everything he knows about this powerful entity that they are all pledged to. But this calculating, lonely man would not take that offer. Yes, he would show her, but only in good time. She would have to learn, as he had, the Keepers secrets, in due time. [Risky Sway. Devil’s bargain to tell them about the ghost passage ability. Bad outcome. Blocked and the complication that Hix would have to do grunt work for Augus (a long term project) to advance further within the order].

Hix left, agreeing to Augus’ terms but totally disillusioned by her mentor.

Walk the path or be dragged down it

Thistle came to Harland distraught. “You need to kick Wester out of gang, er, the society!” The two of them had gotten into a fight over the fate of the ghost Ring. Thistle believed that she did not lead the austere life that Harland told them to walk, and that it would only be time before she became rabid. Wester, who knew her in life defended her and believed, like Elke said, that she could be redeemed.

“Wester may not walk the True Path, but that doesn’t mean he’s out of the Society.” Harland looked down at his loyal disciple and made it very clear that if Thistle pushed the subject, it would be him out in the cold. [Risky Command. Full success]

How to get the votes we need

Knowing the chair of Unnatural Philosophy Yerial Danwood was on good terms with Elke, the crew decided to talk to him and see if they could convince him to share his office with Professor Oilweather by getting them involved in a joint venture.

The Society caught Danwood as he was finishing up a class and returning to his office, followed by a small gaggle of enamored first year students. Hix distracted them with invitations to a trivia night at the Cat and Candle, while Elke and Jadvyga walked back with Danwood.

Jadvyga put Danwood in a good mood by first offering to tell him first hand accounts of Tycheros and then, genuinely becoming enamored by him during their short discussion [Desperate Sway setup action (Desperate because she was insulting one of the Tycheros artifacts that he had), Serious complication, falling under his thrawl).

Elke then walked him down the path of first publishing a book with Oilweather, and then, so they could work better together sharing his office with him. (Multiple Controlled Sway with Great effect due to the setup action).

Hix, relieved of the students, finally sealed the deal by pushing even further to get Oilweather’s name on the door (Desperate Sway with a serious complication). Danwood agreed, but under the condition that Hix be the go-between that would scribe all of their work. Perfect with her enfeebled hand.

The Council’s Decision

Guilt or innocence wasn’t really at stake here. The question was “are these students who will better the prestige of Charterhall University?” And the answer, after all accounts of them had been told was “Yes… but who is this Harland Younghusband that has been in my class and using my labs for his own personal work. Donovan Jayan’s name should be on that unguent he created!” [They had four of the seven professors on their side (Mendelson, Danwood, Oilweather, and Hellyers), but not all of those voices were very loud, while there were two professors that were staunchly opposed to them (Farros and Clelland), and one who was indifferent (Jayan). We opted to make a fortune roll with four dice (based on the number of professors they had) and a 4-5 result meant their charter was reinstated, but they gained an enemy out of the affair.]

Business with Bazso

While they awaited the council’s decision, the crew had gathered at the Cat and Candle. Cross slipped it, sidled up next to Elke and told her that Bazso had need of her services. A job that her talents would be well suited for… And we cut with that!

What Rocked

It was great just getting to play again. I love our scoundrels.

The exchange with Danwood was equal parts hilarious (using his own ego an vanity against him) and tricky (see what could be improved below). We ended up not treating this like a score. There was no crime committed, so material reward (except possibly keeping their charter) and we had totally forgotten to roll Engagement. Retroactively we decided this fit in as part of Free Play but pulling this move did earn them cred as well as complications so they gained 2 Rep and an Entanglement for their work.

I was reading John’s GM advice about offering opportunities and realized that I was rarely doing this, so I purposely seeded a few scenes (namely with Steiner and Cross) to open up some possibilities. If the Society takes the jobs, that is great, they may have some fun with them. If they don’t, the work will be done and I can see how it goes, and/or if any feelings are bent out of shape about it. Doing this really helped me make the world feel alive rather than just responding to their actions.

Harland making an enemy of Jayan is just great. It was totally a non-interesting character before, but now he want’s Harland to pay for his actions. This should be fun later on.

When I rolled gang trouble (after Harland and Elke had that big argument over the path to reconciliation) it was just perfect. I loved seeing Harland setting Thistle straight!

What could have improved

The society was drying to be really elusive and get Danwood to come up with the idea of sharing his office himself, but I wasn’t always stepping in early enough to call for action rolls and so the dialog continued and went in directions that I think were frustrating. I should have caught on earlier and confirmed what was trying to be accomplished. Okay, you’re trying to impress him with Oilweather’s collection of books and convince him to co-publish something with him. Sounds like you’re trying to Sway him, yeah?

At first I was a little sad that Hix wasn’t more sympathetic to Augus but then I was like, fuck that noise. He’s totally a terrible person. If she still wants to get information out of him, that is cool, but she doesn’t have to like him. I’m glad she’s thinking about switching sponsors after all! Though Oilweather, such a bore.

 

 

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Rules v.7.1

A bit of data nerding

Due to holiday plans this was our last game of the year. My bet is it will be my last RPG of the year as well. That will make 92 RPG game sessions in 2016. Of all the shitty things about 2016, gaming wasn’t one of them. That is one game every 3.97 days, which beats my nearly 10 year average of one game every 4.69 days. Put another way, I beat my average of 78 games a year by 14 game sessions. Woots!

I owe a lot of that to conventions (lots of different games in a short period of time) and being in four campaign games this year: Kingmaker, Bloodletters, Land of 10,000 Gods, and Doskvol Spectral Society.

I’m reading Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore right now and the protagonist is nerding out over some data modeling which I think is pretty awesome. It’s super vain (I’m super vain) but I’d love to do some data modeling to see what patterns I follow. Some would be obvious (lots of games during cons) but it would be cool to see how frequently I try different games or how often I play GM vs. GM-less games, and of games that are GM’ed, how often I’m a player.

I also wonder about how changes in my life have affected my gaming. My guess is that I played less during my divorce and more since I’ve moved to Oakland. I think I also have a trend of playing a single game really hard (reach Torchbearer and Blades in the Dark) when it’s still in development, but I wonder if that constitutes a spike in my gaming or just a change in the particular systems I play. It would take take a lot of data back-filling to figure out what those patterns really look like though.

Here are the stats I have:

• Actual Play reports since 5/30/2007: 743
• Most played games: Burning Wheel (77), Legend of the Five Rings (58), Pathfinder (58), Blades in the Dark (54), Torchbearer (51), Dresden Files RPG (42), Apocalypse World (37), Primetime Adventures (36), Dungeon World (24), Burning Empires (18), Fiasco (18).
• Number of different systems played (estimated because my accounting hasn’t always been perfect): 160, which means I’ve tried a new game system every 21.79 days. Every three weeks? That seems improbable, but if anything that variety comes from attending cons.

So, that’s interesting stuff. I’d love to be a twitch streamer like skinnyghost but my day job probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon. But now, to the game…

Sorting out some ritual details

Before starting the game proper we flashed back a bit to Elke’s discovery of the ritual to create Hollows (thanks to Bazso and Elke having late night philosophy and whiskey sessions together).

What does the ritual do and how is it weird?

Animate the dead by controlling their spirits before they have left the body. The bodies do not recover however, and continue to decay over time.

What must I do to perform the ritual, and what is its price?

Blood transference from the ritual caster along with the burning of tobacco, herbs, and bloodneedle. After the ghost leaves the body, the whisper can no longer command them (ever). Cost: 3 stress

What new belief or fear does knowledge of this ritual and its attendant occult forces instill in you?

Until the ghost leaves the body, a person is still a person

So yeah… as long as she doesn’t mind losing control after the ghost leaves the body, Elke can make zombies… without the circlet of the Empty Vessel.

Ghost Hound in a Bottle

Where we left off last session, the crew had stepped into a pile of trouble as Cavelle was intended to wreak havoc but instead was being chewed on by a shadow spirit wolf with burning red ember eyes.

Not expecting this per se, but assuming that Cavelle might get out of control and need to be pacified, Hix had come prepared with a bomb. A very special sort of bomb that would blaze brightly in the ghost field and momentarily blind any that could see it (including ghosts and those who were attuning).

[We handled this as a flashback to downtime and used the crafting rules. I had to make a judgement call as to whether or not this was a standard item, or something that Hix would need a formula for, and decided that it could be a standard item (see below for more thoughts on this) that was based off the smoke bomb, but bumped up in tier due to it’s electroplasmic nature:

Bombs (spark-craft)
Drawback (Conspicuous).
Ghost Flash (Tier: III/ Quatity created: 1): Creates a bright flash in the ghost field. Momentarily stunning ghosts and any whispers attuned.

Hix knew this would cause the attention of any local Spirit Wardens but opted to do it anyway [Devils bargain to start a clock “Attention of the Spirit Wardens 1/4”]. She primed the heavy canister and the wires that wrapped it began to blow and spark indicating the fuse was set. Hix rolled it across the street and then called for Elke to look away. The boom was so loud an echo of it could be heard in the physical plane! The ghosts, both ghosts were rattled and vibrating uncontrollably, but also ever attuned whisper in a three block radius knew something big just happened [Desperate setup move. Serious complication: Filling in the next three ticks on the Spirit Warden clock 4/4]. The shouts of Bluecoats were heard close by!

Elke seized the opportunity to command the spirit [via Compel] to enter her spirit jar as her captive. This was a daunting task [By default zero effect level due to being outclassed in both Quality (The guardian was Tier 4) and Scale (A monstrous beast)] only possible because of the secret rituals they had performed [Anointed special ability granting potency vs. Supernatural +1 effect], the distraction caused by Hix [Set up action +1 effect] and Elke pushing herself to the very limit [Push for +1 effect]. She called upon all her might and before the spirit could fully regained it’s senses, lightning hooked it right into her spirit bottle! [Full success, great effect!]

From inside Irimina watched this all with horror and disgust.

Breaking and Entering

The Society members vaulted over the low wall, raced across the grounds and made it to the heavy oaken front door they found it locked! Behind them the sound of commotion drawing near grew louder.

Jadvyga quickly pulled out her fine lock picks and began to fidget with the lock. It was a heavy and sturdy light with massive tumblers her delicate picks had difficulty turning. Knowing they were close, she used force to turn the tumbler even though it mean destroying her beautiful picks [Desperate Finesse with Limited Effect. Partial success: Serious complication that the picks were destroyed. Limited effect meant the door was open, but everyone in the house heard the commotion and had time to prepare]

As Elke stormed forward she halted and came up short when she saw the thin edge of a long blade just in front of her. It was so close to her face it was nearly impossible to focus on the tip itself. But the man standing behind it, dressed all in pearlescent white leather with silver accents and holding the blade without a hint of wavering, was very clear indeed.

Negotiations

While Roathe may have been ready to slice open throats, the Spirit Wardens could be heard approaching and Elke was holding their spirit guardian in a jar! That was enough to gain entrance into the Kinclaith family and after that the Society “on behalf of Charterhall Univesity” told the Kicaiths about their long standing debt which Irimina and Rothe’s father had pledged to pay in support of the fine university.

[A question came up about how solid this claim was, so we made a Fortune roll for Charterhall and got a 6. The Society had a signed agreement from Kincliath senior!]

While they were struggling with other expenses (assassinating rival nobles isn’t cheap!) eventually Irimina agreed to give the last of her family treasures (a bejeweled necklace) to cover the past and present debts if there was statue made of her and her brother and noble patrons of the school! Hix, Elke, and Jadvyga eargerly agreed, took the necklace and made their way out back before the Spirit Warden’s bullied pasted Roathe to gain entrance to the house.

On their way our Irimina insisted that the hound spirit (which Elke had at one point sneaked off to investigate the house to find out more about and realized it was some how connected to an entitiy named She Who Slays in Darkness) be released, so Elke, begrudgingly, left the spirit jar on their back lawn as they fled!

What Rocked

I paid a lot of attention to the tier difference between the Society and the Kinclaiths. As Brightstone residents (even struggling ones) I put them at a strong tier 4 (from the 7.1 rules). In most cases this reduced the effect level to limited. This was partially ameliorated by the crew’s Anointed ability which always granted potency when dealing with supernatural threats, but when they were breaking into the house, or attempting to persuade the Kinclaith siblings, they started with limited effect. What that led to was a lot of setup actions and pushing for effect… which was really cool!

I had a lot of fun playing the Kinclaiths. At one point Stras was mentioned and instantly Roathe wanted an excuse to duel her. Jadvyga jumped in front of that bullet however, and they arranged a “sporting” duel to be arranged at some future date. Irimina, haunted by visions one minute, lucid and conniving another, was also a delight to plan. Thanks Rollplay!

Things that could have improved

My instinct to let Hix make the bomb outright rather than probe deeper into it came from two pressures. One of them was that the entire reason for the bomb was that Adrienne wanted a Hix-style way of doing a setup action to aid Elke. I didn’t want to deny Adrienne of that ability. The other wanted to stay “in the action” and not play out the flashbacks so much that we forgot the immediate threat. I think this was me putting artificial pressure on myself to “keep the action moving”

Instead of deciding outright that a ghost bomb was a normal item, I think I should have thrown this back to the players and asked “do you think this was a normal thing that anyone can buy or make?” and if not asked Hix to either spend additional coin for flashbacks to invent the formula, or ask that she select another way to help. I think this can be ameliorated pretty well though by asking this question next session and letting Adrienne decide if this is something she’d like Hix to be able to do again, and then going from there.

I also really should have made the Spirit Wardens showing be more of a problem. As is, the Society used it a pressure on Roathe and Irimina, which is just fine, but I should have called for them to take some action to shift that attention away from themselves. Really I just should have put them face to face with a Spirit Warden and see what they did, rather than always having them “just around the corner”.

While I was depicting the Kinclaiths as being hostile to intruders in their home and aloof in general, what I failed to depict (because I didn’t stop to think about it) was their respect and fear of Elke for caging their guardian spirit. The Society was able to use it as bargaining chip while persuading Irimina to pay her family’s debts, but she kept this air or “fine, fine, I’ll do it for appearances” rather than “holy crap, you’re really holding a blade to my throat”.

My plan is to replay the last scene where Irimina demanded that Elke let the hound spirit free and see how that scene plays out.

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Quickset Rules v.7.1

Despite there internal disputes, one thing the entire society agreed on was that “oh crap, we have exams that we need to study for!” And thus we found Harland, Hix and Elke cramming late into the night at Strathmill Hall.

Academic Misconduct

One by one, their sponsoring professors, department chairs, and the dean entered the increasingly crowded study room:

• Augus Mendelson, professor of Sparkwright Tower. Sponsor of Hix Stromfass, with whom he holds a secret pact.
• Una Farros, professor and chair of Sparkwright Tower. Professional rival of Augus. Enemy of Hix.
• Yerial Danwood, professor of Spectral Philosophy, playboy of Morlan Hall. Sponsor of Elke Salkaren.
• Donvan Jayan, professor and chair of Jayan Hall of Anatomy and Astronomy. Only tangentially aware that he is the sponsoring faculty member for Harland Younghusband.
• Andris Oliweather, professor of Imperial History, and witness in the crimes for which the Spectral Society is being accused.
• Polonia Clellald, magistrate and professor of jurisprudence. One of the aggrieved parties!
• Thena Hellyers, famed artist, professor, and dean of admissions at Charterhall University. The senior faculty member presiding over the trial. Unwilling to make eye contact with the students.

And what’s more, two others entered behind them:

• Kamelin Prichard, first mate of the Leviathan Hunter Ironmast. A sailor with baubles from parts across the world including hair dressed up in an Irruvian beehive style and a sleeve of Severosi tattoos. The other aggrieved party.
• Grace Wells, fellow student, and extortionist. Grinning like the cat who ate the canary.

Professor Hellyers began by addressing the society by their sanctioned charter name “The Doskvol Spectral Society, for the enrichment of students seeking to better understand they mysteries of modern science and spectrology.” She then began an accusation but cut herself short and turned to first mate Prichard to give her the room.

Kamelin looked over the lot of the society and asked plainly “Do you have my book?” When she got a confused response she clarified “The captain’s logbook for the Ironmast. We know you took it. Do you have it?” Again, confused and now somewhat indignant responses.

Seeing that the Society was not able or willing to produce the log book, Hellyers took over again and pronounced that they have been found guilty, based on testimony from a reliable source, of stealing the log book from from the home of Polonia Clellald. Their charter would be disolved, the society ended, and each of them put on academic probation. If the wished to appeal the sentence they had three days to do so.

[What the hell happened here? During the downtime action after the books disappearance, I made fortune roll for the Leviathan Hunters to find out what happened to their book. It was based on their tier (4) and I felt they had plenty of opportunities to ferret out the information. Rowan, who went with them, is a braggart and a fool. Grace, who meant to offer Harland the opportunity to buy her out couldn’t find him, instead aided the school, and first mate Prichard is a devil with the details. I rolled and got a crit. The Leviathan Hunter and Charterhall by extension, has them dead to rights!]

I Protest these Charges

Of course they do. And, after filing the appeal the DSS has three days to convince the seven professors who will judge the matter, than they are of the highest moral fiber and could not possibly have committed the crimes for which they are accused (breaking and entering, theft, and worst of all, behavior unbecoming of a Charterhall student).

Augus Mendelson

Each of them sought out individual professors to find out what they could do for them. Hix spoke with Augus, both about the recent failure at the their collective lightning tower, and about their academic status. His response was “we can’t talk about this here, meet me at 2AM tonight in our sanctum” and “you had better start earning the favor of each professor”, respectively.

Thena Hellyers

Elke and Harland found Thena Hellyers in her office (of which the very pitiful looking professor Oilweather was finally moving out of completely; Hix followed him to his new office in the basement downstairs). Thena at first did not want to speak with the two of them as it was unbecoming while their status was still in dispute, however, her fondness for Elke eventually won out.

Hellyers told them that although she was fond them form an academic standpoint, she had no experience for which to evaluate their moral fortitude. However, if they could help her with a problem, specifically the student debt yet unpaid by the Kinclaith family, that would demonstrate for her their loyalty to Charterhall [Gathering information, what score can we pull to get your vote? Result: Standard effect]

Andris Oliweather

Meanwhile, Hix helped professor Oilweather carry some of his books down a creaky set of stairs into a moldy and musty basement of Charterhall. Thena had finally taken over their shared space completely, so down to the dark basement he was sent. The lights down here popped and fizzed and when they did finally come on, it was a dull glow, certainly spelling out a strain on the eyes for any who would spend their days down here reading.

To start off on the right foot, Hix climbed up on Oilweather’s new desk and started tinkering with the light. She cleaned corrosion off the wiring, replaced a burnt out fuse, cut her hand and traced her blood across the bulb consecrating this space for the Keeper of the Flame, and tightened all the contacts in the in the junction box. All the normal things you do [Risky tinker with a Devil’s Bargain to let her god have access into this place through the power lines]. The junction box sparked, nearly electrocuted Hix [Resited with Prowess] and then the lights in his office suddenly came alive, filling it with a golden red glow. [Set up action]

After that Hix offered up a bevvy of services that she could possibly provide. She could talk history with him, she had an attractive figure that he could oggle, she could improve his space further, but the one that truly sparked his interest, the offer that made him raise his eyebrows and sit up straight in his chair, was to speak with Ms. Wick, who was in charge of office assignments.

Oilweather taught in Morlan Hall, which was clear on the other side of Charterhall from his office, which meant he spent a large part of his days walking back and forth between classroom and his office…even more now that he was in the basement. Unfortunately, due to have the building sinking into the canals and being flooded decades ago, there was only one teachers office, and that was held by Professor Danwood, and positively littered with his trophies from around the world. If the Yerial could just be convinced to store a few of his baubles then a placard that read DANWOOD AND OILWEATHER would surely look very nice above the office door…didn’t she think? [Risky Study, with limited effect improved to standard effect with the setup action, Success!]

Reuniting a Family

While the DSS had only three days to appeal the charges against them, Elke had even less time to make good on her promise to Bazso. When she arrived at the coal factory with Arquo he got a set of suspicious looks. Aqruo was supposed to be out. What was he doing coming back?

Tension aside they were led into the room with the dead Raina, her family, and Bazso. Arquo, experienced with doing this put on the heavy gloves, grabbed the tongs, and picked up the ichor covered circlet. Though he knew prolonged contact would be painful, he held onto it throughout the process so that Elke could focus on speaking to Raina’s spirit [Setup action. Desperate Finesse. Devils Bargain: Starting a clock for Otherworldly Nightmares 1/4. Success]

Elke, attuned to Raina’s spirit, controlling her it through the circlet and commanded her to inhabit her body once more, and say farewell to her parents. Raina sat up, as if waking form a dream and embraced her family. She was able to say three things in her own voice, which Elke had instructed her to do. She loved her family. She was at peace. She had to go. After that Elke knew that any command she game would come out a stiff and in Elke’s voice rather than Raina, so the body simply sat there, waiting as her parents said their farewells. Bazso witnessing all of this, realized that in Elke’s hands the circlet could do so much more. The gears started moving in his head and he stated making plans for how he could use her in the future. [Desperate Attune. Great Effect. Partial Success. Serious complication that Bazso viewed Elke as an asset he needed to control].

Settling Accounts

While Elke was too focused on controlling the spirit to notice, Arquo saw the wolfish glint in Bazso’s eyes. Once the family had left he stepped up to clarify a few things “Elke has done this thing as a favor to you, because she is powerful and generous, not because she owes you anything.”

[At this point we had a discussion of what to do next. Adrienne wanted Bazso to not only keep his hands off Elke, but also to respect and fear her as a fellow gang leader. We discussed that Arquo was trying to turn the tables, and decided he should first resist the complication and then make an action to force Bazso to respect Elke. Initially this was going to be risky, but Adrienne wanted to bump it up to Desperate for great effect. Bazso would not only respect Elke, he’d pay her now for her services!]

“In fact, why don’t you pay up for services rendered” [Protect: Resist with Resolve. Desperate Command with Great Effect. Partial success. Serious complication] Bazso agreed but also understood this was no longer a favor between friends, this was a business deal, and he had put his most prized possession in the hands of people he couldn’t be sure he could trust. He handed over a sack of coin but told them in the future to stay off his turf unless a mutually agreed meeting was arranged.

Elke, shaking from of her focus on the circlet and the spirit of Raina, tried to make amends. She didn’t want his money, but if he wanted to give it to Arquo that was fine. And this of course tied back to Arquo’s anger at Bazso for not providing for his family when his sister died. The single coin was instead seen as blood money for Arquo’s sister which he judged as not nearly enough. [Protect: Resist with Insight. Complication reduced to only excluding Arquo from Lampblack turf].

A bitter exchange happened. Arquo shook the pouch and ask if that is what Bazso intended to pay him for his sister’s service and her death. Bazso, having had enough of these negotiations locked eyes with him and said “That’s all that a Llewellyn is worth!” An insult to both Arquo and his family. Mostly to Arquo though! [But hey, +1 Coin!]

Kinclaith Family Debts

Gathering information is a bust. Hix went to Silvermark Avenue in Brightstone posed as a sparkwright tending to one of the electric lights on the street. She observed the house. Large but little activity. Few servants were seen and most of the drapes were closed. As she scanned the windows, though, one of the curtains suddenly flew open and a woman stared out from inside. Hix quickly averted her gaze so the woman would not see her face and carried on. [Controlled Survey to Gather Information. Bad Outcome. Opportunity Lost]

The Plan: Occult. The Detail: Sending Cavelle into the Kinclaith home to cause havoc and offer to remove him only if they paid their debt to Charterhall University.

Engagement roll: Bad Outcome.

As they sent the chaos seeking Cavelle onto the grounds of the Kinclaith estate, they all witnessed electricity arcing wildly through the ghost (as they expected). When he crossed the threshold, one of the streetlights surged and burnt out, darkening the area. Only the shadows seemed to not just deepen, but also take shape. As though they contained something from within. A canine mouth formed in them, it’s eyes burning embers, and bit into Cavelle, causing the spirit to spark and spasm wildly! [Desperate situation!]

What rocked

You’d think, with a few weeks of knowing about this threat of academic probation I’d have considered which of the professors would favor the DSS and which ones they would need to win over. Also, you’d consider that I’d have thought of what each of the professors wanted. But I didn’t. I could have done that work in advance. Start all of them with clocks and motivations, but I didn’t. And you know how much that affected the game… not a all. Maybe for the better. When the students approached the respective professors, I just thought about what they wanted. Hellyers comes from a powerful family with great expectations. She want prestige for the school and bolster it financially. Oilweather is a meek man, he just wants a comfortable office to smoke his pipe in, without having to walk to far to his classroom. I was pretty happy that it was so easy to think of things they wanted (Hellyers I made up, but Oilweather’s desire I based off Adrienne’s good ideas).

Though I didn’t mention it above, we did flashback at the very beginning of the game to Elke and Harland talking after his sermon was over, as they were folding up and putting away the chairs. Elke was just getting used to the idea that they had a gang, let alone that they might be leading a cult. Plus, she didn’t agree with Harland’s ideas! It was a dramatic moment for both of them, which Elke punctuated by going to Harland’s apartment (she had a key) and taking all his nice clothes to give to Arquo. Since he’d wouldn’t need them any more, now that he was putting aside all the pleasures in life! It was petty and delightful. [Mechanically I wanted it to have a little oomph so I told Harland to remove one from his stash, for Arquo to add it to his, but in retrospect I think that should have been like withdrawing… two from Harland’s stash turned into one coin that Arquo could do anything he liked with].

Watching Rollplay has given me some great ideas for the world. I totally stole Irimina and Myth from that game!

Oh, Oilweather, you set your sights so low. This character is a lot of fun to play out. He’s so easily cowed.

Hell yeah to Arquo stepping up to Bazso. It really didn’t go that well but it was an awesome scene, which also really showed how Arquo and Elke’s motivations differed. This is still a fresh wound for Arquo, and Elke keeps inadvertently pouring salt on it.

V8 Engagement rules were fun and easy to apply!

What Could have Improved

During game I made a misstep. I tried to steer the crew into doing particular scores that I thought were interesting.

At bit of background. As a GM and fellow player I’m interested in the DSS pulling scores inside Charterhall University; making friends and enemies within the school, and generally having more investment in the school itself. This recent development with the Leviathan Hunter, who carries a lot of clout with the school, seemed like a good way to give the Society opportunities to do that. Steal form one professor to give to another, get involved with the schools finances, find out each others petty squabbles and take advantage of them, etc. That said, my interest does not trump (or equal) the desire of the group.

As the group was discussing how they would deal with the situation, one of the ideas was to find Rowan and get him to recant his confession. I tried to dissuade them from that option by saying “that isn’t what the professors want”. That isn’t fair, nor is it playing by the rules. The professors can want whatever the hell they want, but that doesn’t mean a group of daring students can’t solve their problems in whatever way they see fit.

This was a bad choice to make as a GM and it’s specifically not how Blades is played. I am interested in seeing school-based scores, but I get to offer that up as a suggestion, not as an imperative.

I sent an email to the players saying most of what is above (and also apologizing) and we’ll see if they want to continue on the score as is or back out of it. I have a couple ideas if they do decide to back out and choose another option.

• Out of fiction: We can say none of that stuff with the Kinclaith family happened and start the next game with another score.
• In fiction: We could wrap up this score very quickly by you determining that the Kinclaith has more formidable occult defenses than the DSS was prepared for and that once they deal with the immediate situation (Cavelle trapped by a guardian spirit) the students back off and re-think their strategy.

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Quickset Rules v.7.1

Content warning: Infant mortality.

Finding his own Path

Now that the gang had made contact with Mordis, Harland reached out to the purveyor of exotic goods and acquired from him the ghost on an ancient spirit. It didn’t matter who it was…just that it was very old.

Mordis said he had the spirit of a midwife trapped in an ancient consecrated clay urn, but who was to say how helpful she would be [Acquire Asset, Standard quality].

With Elke’s aid (who we all noticed had moved into a nicer loft on Chaterwall, thanks to her Lifestyle going up) Harland cracked open the seal and sought to commune with the ancient spirit. However when the clay urn broke open, no vaporous form emerged. For a moment Harland wondered if he had been swindled by Mordis, but soon realized something else was going on.

The shadows in the room were stretching like tendrils of a rapidly growing vine. The pulled away from their origins and pooled in the center of the room, slowly forming the shape of a woman with uncommon features. She wore beads in her hair and possessed eyes that burned like furnaces.

She did not speak, but when Harland attuned she entered him and he watched the last moments of her life.

“Push, woman push! By the devils you must be strong.” Mardoen yelled as she stood at the birthing bed of the Skov Queen. The queen seemed far away, like she didn’t realize that she was giving birth to a child, but rather imagined herself dancing or swimming through the sea of stars.

The queen, like many other Skov had taken to smoking the leaves of the lotus plant, and these days would rarely have more than a few lucid moments during any given day.

Maroden, the midwife needed her to focus. Needed her to birth this child, for which she planned to abscond with. “Pay attention woman. This child is the future of Skov. She will be strong, and she will fend off the Deathless Emporer. She will succeed where you and your husband have failed. Now push!”

But it was all for naught. The child was still born. Trapped too long in the birthing canal and suffocated. Finally the queen was present and aware of her surroundings. She looked at Maroden, her eyes full of anger and sorrow, and then down to the bloody mess that was to be her child, and without saying a word, took the short bladed knife intended to cut the umbilical cord and jammed it into Maroden’s throat.

After the vision subsided, Harland free’d the ghost and the shadows in Elke’s room receded back to their respective origins. Due to Elke’s fastidiousness, no signs of the spirits presence lingered [Resist the consequence with Resolve]. Harland finally found what he was looking for, a path for his disciples to walk: the path of austerity.

Friends with Frost, Finally

Hix, happy go lucky now that she was freed from the Griders, headed down to the Charterhall precinct to let Frost know all about her unlawful incarceration. Instead however, she was met with a wide eye and startled inspector. One alerted to her presence he grabbed her and dragged her outside the building and outside of earshot from the Bluecoats inside “What in the Devil are you doing here? Don’t you know that you and your affiliates are wanted for the murder of over a dozen Irruvians?”

Hix, also surprised, asked Frost to calm down, and to hear her story…maybe over a drink? She told him that she wasn’t a part of the attack on the Red Sashes, because she was busy being held in captivity by the Grinders. She also told him that she didn’t want any of this, and somewhat surprisingly he believed her. Over the course of the night, Frost went from suspicious, to sympathetic, to finally admiring of Hix. She wanted to lead a clean life, but she also stood by those she called family. His own life was terribly lonely by comparison, and he wondered if some day, after she separated herself from all this crime, if he might be someone she called family. [Long term project to turn Frost into a close friend completed!]

She also gave him all the information she had gathered about how the Grinders were getting guns out of the city. Who they had paid off, and where they could be pinched. Frost went home with a new friend and a giant stack of paperwork to start going through. For him, that made for the best day he’d had in a while [Reduce Heat x 2, with the Devil’s Bargain to put the final tick on the clock that the DSS are know snitches, 4/4].

Protecting your Soul

Terrified that she had discovered not one, but two ways people had been creating Hollows (Bazso Baz by applying the pre-cataclysm circlet of the Empty Vessel near near death, and the Dimmer Sisters by nearly drowning people and then extracting their soul while it’s bonds to the flesh were weakened). Now that she knew the ways (or some of the ways) to create a Hollow, she would find a way to protect herself and her companions from it ever happening to them.

With Hix’s scientific mind, and her own knowledge of Spetrology they worked up the plans for infusing purified quart crystals with a resonant energy that would pulse at a frequency counter to any which would draw out a soul. Unfortunately, pure quartz is rare and only found in Severos. They would have to get in good standing with the Severosi consulate to obtain them!

Ritual questions answered

What effect does the ritual create and how is it weird? An amulet that protects the soul from extraction prior to death. In the ghost field, the bearer shimmers as if surrounded by a reflective barrier.

What must I do to perform the ritual? Perfectly infuse pure quartz with electroplasm at a specific resonate frequency, which can typically only be achieved with the fine instrumentation of a lightning tower.

What is the price and to whom do I pay it? Coin and favor. The Severosi consulate can sell the quartz, but they will only do so to those they trust [Faction status +1 or better].

What new belief, drive, instinct, or fear does knowledge of this ritual and its attendant occult forces instill in you? Every supernatural effect can be countered if you know the means.

The True Path

Harland gathered together everyone that he could for his unveiling of his new doctrine at The Six Arms. Tesslyn and Lizette, who he had rounded up, were there. As was Thistle, sporting his fine mustachio. Hix, Stras, and Elke came for support, as did a few others, most of which concealed their faces with spirit masks.

Harland was barefoot. He carried a tome, and had changed his mask. Just as the Hierophant and the Master of Secrets had masks which designated them as such, his bore the sigils and runes which he would later indicate marked his as The Prophet.

Once the small assembly was gathered, Harland spoke to them about his journey, about his time studying the ancient spirits with the Path of Echoes and how they had lost sight of their goals when they abdicated leadership to Vond Kardera, who craved only destruction.

Harland, however, had found a better way. By abstaining from all that you hold dear, but keeping worldly pleasures at bay, one could purify the soul, such that when you died your spirit would be reconciled and prosper.

The Prophet

Several questions were asked about how to live this new life and what sacrifices should be made. These were easy questions for which Harland had the answers. Then two of his acolytes came forward, both wearing their spirit masks and holding hands. The man spoke. This is Lizette, my wife, and the thing which I hold most dear. In front of everyone, we ask that you dissolve our marriage, so that we might be worthy to walk the True Path.

Softly, under the cover of her mask, those who listened closely could hear the gentle sobs coming from Lizette as Harland pronounced that their bond to each other was broken. [Indulge Vice, Devils Bargain that some in the crowd would speak of this and word would get back to the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh 1/4. Overindulging led to attracting attention, another Entanglement]

The First Doubter

“Umm… excuse me. Just a point of clarification. So if you live this life and your ghost is reconciled when you die, that is all great. But we still want to save the ghosts that have gone made as well right? We can still find a way to help them too, yeah?” Elke, of course, spoke on behalf of the ghosts which spiraled towards madness, of Ashlyn and Cavelle and Ring.

And the answer: No, those ghosts are not redeemable and should be destroyed. And so, even as the new religion is formed, the first schism had begun!

Also, Hix noticed that she was not particularly welcomed in the The Six Arms. The prostitutes and madam that worked there all looked at her with disdain for reasons she didn’t understand. The didn’t take any action now, but she could tell they were thinking about it [Hix barred from The Six Arms 1/4. This was a place consecrated to another god, one that did not truck with the Keeper of the Flame]

How to Create a Hollow of her own

[Before this downtime action I rolled the Entanglement Harland generated and got “Cooperation”. So whole Elke didn’t generate the entanglement, it seemed perfect that she be the one who got wrapped up in it].

Back in Bazso’s coal warehouse, she talked with him more about the Empty Vessel and spend more time working with the circlet. And having done so she finally discovered how she would create Hollows of her own [Long Term Project Complete]. While she was there, however Bazso asked a favor of her. One of his soldiers had died. He had used the circlet to carry off her soul, but from what he saw Elke do with Templeton, he wondered if she could use it to allow the young woman to say farewell a final time to her family. Suuuuuuure, she could do that.

The Break Up

Hix invited Salia out to a nice place for dinner, planning to wine and dine her. The even ended almost as abruptly as it started though. Salia arrived and at first delighted to see Hix, she quickly turned to asking questions. Where had Hix been? Why was Hix blowing her off? What happened?

Hix responded…by blowing her off again…”C’mon, can’t we just have a nice night out? Why do you have to ask so many questions?” This dismissal final gave Salia the courage (and the rage) she needed to tell Hix to fucking get lost. Hix didn’t care about Salia, and Salia was through caring about Hix! [Indulge Vice, Over indulge and loss of vice purveyor. On a more meta level, this was also us deciding that we didn’t want to depict Hix and Salia’s abusive relationship any more. The dice backed us up, but that’s the route we were going down anyway].

What Rocked

During the debate between Elke and Harland there was a great quote:

“Where did you find your enlightenment?”

“I bought it at a store!”

Finally, we got to see what Harland’s new faith was all about. So cool. This will piss off BOTH the Path of Echoes AND the Ecstasy of the Flesh. Nice moves Eric!

It was fun to see Elke and Hix on the same side of a supernatural fence. Normally they are so opposed to each other, but working on preventing the creation of a hollow was something Hix could get behind. Of course the fact that then Elke went onto finding out how to create one, well that will be an interesting discussion once they have it!

Cool to see Frost and Hix hitting it off as new BFFs. Frost really hopes Hix can get out of this life of crime and at this point he’s willing to risk his own ass to help her. Can she do it?

Snitches? Yikes, that is a rough reputation to gain. That one is going to come back in all sorts of ways. Can’t wait to see what it means in play.

What could have improved

With short sessions, it’s possible to never get around to the score. This was our second session of downtime and there was still coin and rep that could have been spent if they wanted to fore more downtime actions. It works for us but I think this is something that each group needs to sort out at the table. How quickly will we handle downtime and how do we depict the pressure to perform a score in the fiction. In this case, we still had a looming threat of the dean and sponsoring professors, so that helped with motivation, but I think it’s important to keep the world in motion so tension and scarcity remain in the game.