Lady Blackbird (7/31/2024)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Shannon Brueckner, Eric Fattig
System: Lady Blackbird

After having a blast with the last session, we decided to play another game of Lady Blackbird…how will the travelers escape the Hand of Sorrow, who now has their full attention!

Since our last session was a month ago, we spent sometime going over the details and Karen reminded everyone to spend their XP. Several folks picked new tags and Lady Blackbird needs a new key (now that Key of the Imposter has been bought off).

A bad sitch

Things were looking bad, both inside and outside the Owl.

From the cockpit Snargle could see the Hand of Sorrow’s spotlights searching for them. There was also oil leaking from a hull rupture and the gas gauge was still hovering just above “stranded” level. Down the hall were the unconscious and bloody bodies of Cyrus Vance and Captain Hollis, both shot by one another in a fight. Their bodies were sitting upright leaning on opposite walls, blood smeared everywhere, and getting worse every time Snargle did some of his “Tricky Flying”.

In the Hand of Sorrow, Lt. Hazel Cross had taken the con and she was marshaling all the Sorrow’s forces to capture the owl and recover their kidnapped captain (she didn’t know he was dead).

Lady Blackbird, who just learned how to use her lightning as a “blast” felt there was a lightning storm nearby (she had channeled it on the Hand of Sorrow) earlier. She channeled it once again into a forceful (but not too forceful) blast aimed right for Vance’s heart. She sputtered and spasmed and choked, but was alive! (removed dead condition) Vance got up and headed for the cockpit, without a “thank you” or “you saved my life” to offer!

In Sorrow’s shadow

We then cut to spaceship action, including:

• Evading spotlights. Snargle used the old “when the magnetic grapples fire if they “just” barely miss their target it can cause them to falsely register a hit, send an electromagnetic surge through them, and with nothing to contact cause them to short. Or at least that was the theory and it worked well enough!
• Hiding under the hull of the Hand of Sorry. The bodies of Vance and Hollis tumbling in the hall as the ship twirled.
• Vance making it to the cockpit, while having to walk on the ceiling.
• Snargle tapping into the the imperial signals as Lt. Cross called for reinforcements “Captain Hollis kidnapped by the Owl, which we’ve lost in the storm. Send reinforcements immediately!” With a reply that scout ships were en route but also “Lieutenant who? Why are you in command? Where is your superior officer?”
• Lady Blackbird using her knowledge of imperial codes to send false signals to the Sorrow, sending them further off course.
• Vance climbing along the hull of the Sorrow to hook up the Owl’s umbilical to one of the Sorrow’s ports and siphoning fuel. The the nozzle wouldn’t stick and she had to hold it (tired condition, time lost)

Refresh

With a little bit of time to spare while the ship refueled (hopefully faster than the scout ships arrived), the crew had a some downtime to reconnect.

• Snargle and Vance talked over the wireless while she held the fuel line in place. Vance asked Snargle to sing some working on the ship songs to pass the time in the Wild Blue. I asked what roles goblins normally have in the Empire and found that though they can technically have any job, they are almost never seen in the military (none on the Hand of Sorrow) and are usually relegated to entertainment jobs.
• Meanwhile, Lady Blackbird was pulling herself along the fuel line (making it frustratingly that much more difficult to keep attached) and decided to come clean (a bit) about her background. “So it looks like neither of us are on good terms with the Empire right now, right?” I asked some questions and it we confirmed that Vance was exiled for refusing to commit war crimes under Hollis’ command, and that the Lady’s magic came from a mix of noble blood and very hard training.

Sir, I’ve spotted them!

Just as Vance and Blackbird were returning to the Owl, the spotted the lights of the scout ships (six of them) arriving and starting their search. The Owl would be found for sure.

• Lady Blackbird tried to scramble signals and give misdirect them, but they spotted the Owl on visuals and give chase!
• Vance commanded Snargle to drop the Owl down and go into the Lower Depths. The body of captain Hollis tumbling around in the cargo bay.
• They made it into the depths and for a moment couldn’t see at all. The acidic fog was dense and the remains of a shattered planetoid filled the aether with debris.
• Despite not having hulls equipped to resist the acidic effects of the Lower Depths the scout ships plunged in after them. Spotlights now muffled buy the fog, the continued to fling their grapples as well as trying to ram the Owl off course.
• Cyrus got in the co-pilot seat and pulled the stick hard just as the approached, dodging the grapples (avoided the slowed condition).
• As one ship slammed into the side of the Owl, Lady Blackbird once again channeled the storm above (inviting it into the lower depths) to strike the ship with destructive force. For a moment the depths were illuminated revealing the giant tentacles of a creature floating (flying?) below. Coincidentally, Snargle has seen a real sky squid before, or at least the beak of one, that was attached to a ship in for repairs.
• Snargle, in a daredevil move, turned the Owl around to ignite the oil that was leaking from the hull and catch them and the remaining imperial ship in the flames. It worked spectacularly but they heard the horrible sounds of gears grinding and the smell of them burning up (now out of oil, The Owl needs supplies).
• Vance ordered the the ascend and the Owl lifted out of the depths (just as sky squids approached). The set a course for Haven.

A Funeral for Hollis

We had just a bit more time so we had one more refresh scene, where Hollis was put into their trash incinerator and his ashes were spread out into the Wild Blue. Folks had this to say.

• Vance (delighted): He was a war criminal, an asshole, and a terrible leader. That’s all I’ve got to say.
• Lady (offended): I take offense a that. He served my father with distinction. She resisted saying he was almost like an uncle to her.
• Snargle (thoughtfully): He died in the Blue, so in the next cycle he’ll be a wanderer.

Of note. Snargle’s scariest moment was when they were being chased on foot by imperial soldiers for some supposed crime they can’t even remember. They accidentally ran out into a big open bay and would have been caught if not for the floor opening up underneath them and dropping them onto the hull of the ship below. Thankfully the soldiers assumed the would not survive the fall, but that’s why Snargle always feels safe facing danger while on a ship (and much less so when not).

Thoughts

• I used a stack of three poker chips as impromptu clocks (when will the scouts arrive, how much work is needed to escape them). Once something was started I grabbed three chips emulating a 4-tick clock and the first tick was already done by the initiating action. It worked well and helped foreshadow impending danger and show degrees of success.
• I was very eager for the Sky Squids to appear but in retrospect I’m glad they were just hinted at. We’ll see what happens in the next session.
• No pics of the game this session, so I guess we’ll all just have to settle for a pic of this silly boy:

Questions for next time

• Can they make the rest of the trip on a ship that is busted and leaking and needs supplies?
• What’s going on in Haven?
• Will the ghost of Captain Hollis still haunt Vance?
• Are there any more goblins around?
• What is Count Carlowe up to?
• What price will the Living Lightning Storm (whose aid was summoned three times) ask of Lady Blackbird?