The Argument (11/20/2025)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Eric Fattig, Adrienne Mueller, and Karen Twelves
System: Blades ’68

Picking up on the heels of last session, after doing the harm complications (Paolo is impaired -1d Sway on the next score), we decided to try out the group argument. A cool part of Aftermath that Tim created to reflect how found family sometimes fight. And that it’s okay.

First part of the process is for everyone to write down the things the think the others are most likely to criticize them for.

• Delta – Not using his astral projection ability to escape earlier. Endangering everyone by having them rescue him when he could have escaped on his own.
• Nav – Prioritizing getting revenge on Bowman over rescuing Delta. It was a month that he was trapped in Nolburn mannor.
• Paolo – Keeping the secret that he had altered the timeline twice and changed everyone’s memories and realities (this hadn’t come out yet, but we figured out a way for it to surface).

We followed the procedure:

First PC (Nav): Who says something, accidentally or in a passive aggressive way, that needles you? How do you needle them right back?

Delta, in his harmless, sweet voice asked Nav (who was cut by glass but not nearly as bad as Paolo who was electrocuted and generally beat up) why she didn’t do a better job protecting Paolo?

Nav, annoyed said she was getting the job done and rescuing him.

Second PC: How do you overreact? What do you say, and to whom?

Delta, now with Rubens’ voice, said “Navita, I had to be be completely rebuilt from from the ground up…and it still took weeks for you to arrive.”

Then: Escalation. What do you say that makes things personal and takes them up a level?

Nav yelled “YOU SHOUDN’T HAVE USED YOUR UNTESTED NUCLEAR WEAPON IN A PARKING LOT! I was going to terrible places to save everyone, and to do the job.

And maybe: Collateral damage. Who do you fling mud at that wasn’t even involved in the argument so far?

Delta, back to his normal voice, said “That reminds me, now that I’m home and looking at all my recordings from the time we were in anomalies I have both a recording of Paolo with and without his signet ring at the same time.

Paolo, after a series of evasions emits he’s both always and not always been affiliated with House Rowan, and that he accidentally created an anomaly that re-wrote time.

Lash out. How do you deliver an outburst? A fist on the table, something flung to the ground, or grabbing someone by the lapels?

Nav, appalled that he hid this so long and feeling robbed of her own memories yelled “That’s incredibly dangerous. But it was an accident that you just did the once?

Paolo sheepishly admitted he accidentally did it twice. [He’s done it three times, but he doesn’t know that because the last time it rewrote his memories]

Finally: We’re Done Here. Dramatic exits, doors slammed, awkward silence.

Nav looked at him line a stranger she didn’t know “I don’t know how to trust you.” She didn’t storm out, it just got very quiet. She gathered her things and left, and from then out, she stayed out more and more and more.

Woah!

Personal Business

Delta, alone, worked on finishing his generator [Long term project, clock completed] and then turned it on for the first time, causing a brown out in the Velvet Veil for a moment, but eventually, the ultraplasm stabilized and he was able to charge his resonance core [Recover Drain].

Nav, working more and more on her own decided to practice he spycraft to get back in the groove [Long term project to remove the Doubting deadlock]. She teamed up with Mita Ankhayat to tail Prichard (who was doubling as Bowman) and saw all the trouble he was having keeping up the act. He didn’t know all of the signs and countersigns to confirm his identity with Bowman’s undercover moles. Some of them trusted him when he said the Palace was updating the codes, but some did not and he missed out on information about the Master Warden’s activity in Whitecrown.

Paolo, not wanting to stay at the base for Sister Elise’s ministrations, went to the Goldcrest Hospital on Carmine Street in Brightstone. They asked a lot of questions about how he received his injuries and he answered all of those questions with stacks [3 stacks instead of 3 heat]. He had bad dreams, other realities or timelines or dimensions, he could not know. Waking up in a strange place, looking in the mirror and seeing a strange face.

When Nav did eventually return to the base late one night, Delta was waiting for her with first aid supplies and instructions he had gotten form Sister Elise on how to patch her up. She begrudgingly accented to his care. As he pulled one of the mirror shards out of her arm, he saw a tiny mirror copy of Nav inside the reflection. Worried that breaking it would just make more of them, Nav yelled “burn it!” so he took an acetylene torch to the mirror, melting the reflective surface and blackening the glass. Did they hear the tiniest cry from within? Surely not.

The next day she was gone again with Mita. This time going to the Ministry of Discovery where they had overheard the Master Warden frequented. The snuck past the World Fair style exhibits and got into the employee areas [Crit on her Prowl roll. It was a fortune roll to work on the Long Term Project, but in this case I had it do double duty and allow her to sneak inside and gather information]. There the found a schematic showing the Bubble opening like an observatory dome and Blueraker 5 firing out of it, into the stars. She also spotted a janitor who looked up and locked eyes with her…it was Agent 36 from Blackthorn park….stepping into an elevator and going down deep below! [Doubting deadlock restored to the Confident key].

In the hospital, Kassius brought Paolo real food (he couldn’t eat that orange gelatin dessert one more time). A breast of Iruvian hen and langoustine custard from The Golden Plum. Paolo was delighted to be pampered and told Kassius how much he appreciated him…and that he was going to take the fall for the Barons [currently Wanted Level 2]. Kassius cut him off “No. You’re not suited for Ironhook, that place is terrible. No somebody else should go. Send the robot again. How about that Gallo kid? What about the nurse? Anyone but you Paolo.” Paolo had good reasons why it had to be him and was not going to be dissuaded. Kassius finally “accepted” this and left Paolo with a kiss. “See you on the outside.” It was only a few moments after he left that Paolo understood what that really meant.

Paolo pulled his IV out and ran out of the hospital, barely taking time to tie his cravat. He got back to the base and called Loretta (their lawyer). Nav was there as well and he told her that Kassius was going to try to take the fall for them and he couldn’t let it happen. “We’ve got to move fast!”

Nav drove Paolo to the Silkshore Precinct. They hadn’t made up after the fight, but this was important and the were working together now. On the drive over Nav mused “Do you think he really cares about you, or the you from his world?” Paolo didn’t have an answer for that, but he learned that the other Paolo last scene held at gunpoint by Horriston and likely dead, trapped in the Dark World, or both.

Paolo said “I know I don’t have to tell you not to do anything stupid, but tell Little Gallo not to do anything stupid.” Nav would probably have to tell him that many times.

Paolo (and Loretta, who came on her own after his call) arrived at the precinct just as Kassius was in the process of turning himself in to Sergeant Vran. Paolo ran up to him and gave him a deep and long kiss…and in doing so slipped a sleeping pill (that he had broken the capsule open in his own mouth moments before) into his mouth. Both tried vehemently to get arrested but as Kassius grew drowsier and drowsier, Paolo’s arguments won out, and he was put in holding, to be sentenced and taken to Ironhook. The crew, along with Loretta went to the trial to get him the lightest sentence he could get. They were the last kind faces he would see for a very long time.

When Nav returned Delta looked up confused “Where’s Paolo?”

“He took care of us.”

Inside Paolo realized part of the terror surrounding Ironhook wasn’t just the guards and the inmates, but something else that was caged there. As the lights flickered above he saws all the heavy cabling that was run through the building and felt the charge of plasmolium pulsing through it. Some powerful machine (or machines) were operating deep in the prison, and he didn’t want to find out what they were. But he did need a new connection to gamble with [He was cut off from the Velvet Veil]. He started carousing among the other inmates and met Cecil who was doing time for SCORPION Syndicate and worked at the Plaza Imperial hotel [2/6 ticks on a clock to get a new Vice Purveyor].

Grandfather Nolburn

As we discussed what we should do next in the game, I offered some ideas to explore supernatural issues (Paolo’s connect to Section Six, the anomalies, Rowan House), political intrigue (Nav’s new connection to AFU and her parents), general underworld conflicts (SMF, Tomorrow Program), or social good (Hull Directive).

Adrienne has something way better than these general concepts. What if the Dirt Barons claim Nolburn’s house (now with no living inhabitants) as turf? I fucking love it. I love it because it makes total sense in the fiction…and that place is MEGE haunted.

When Eric was trying to figure out what character to play, I offered the Time Traveler and he jumped on it. He’s going to play Winthrop Nolburn, aka Grandpa Nolburn, from the past! We talked and determined that the demon he was bound to (and had bound) was only contained as long as there was a living Nolburn to keep them bound. Winthrop was brought from the past to maintain the bond (brought back by who? Rowan House perhaps?) but he can only stay for so long. A young Nolburn arrived moments after his grandson died and witnessed the Dirt Barons escape the house. They seem competent, at least more so that the cut rate cultists and researchers!*

So as the Barons were in their base, discussing how they could possibly lay claim to Nolburn House, there was a knock on the door!

We rolled engagement for an paranormal score and got a desperate situation. I’m excited to see how that plays out.

* And speaking of those cut rate researchers and paranormalists, I made a fortune role for how everyone in the house, plus Section Six (since the klaxon sounded) fared when the Barons fled last session with their quality dice in parentheses.

• Ghost of Grandpa Nolburn (4) – Mixed success. He’s protected his home, but ended in drawing too much attention to himelf.
• Researchers (1) – Miss. Oh yeah, they’re mega dead, or possessed.
• Paranormalists (1) – Success. They got free. And with what incredible lore they took from the library.
• City Council (4) – Mixed success. They’ve kept the story out of the news rags, but the house (which they wanted to claim) has been cordoned off as a crime scene, so they’ll have to wait to take it…they don’t know (yet) that there are others who see it as well.

Thoughts on the game

At Kublacon last week in the Trophy Dark game, Nate said “Our paper dolls fight when we high five” and that was exactly the sentiment I shared before, during, and after our group argument. The players had all invested in everyone’s choices, but the characters were BIG MAD about them. I loved that the players could all be so invested in their characters.

I was unsure about some of the procedures in the argument however. Steps 3+ don’t specificy which character, so I suspect it can be anyone, but I think that should be included (at least once).

What an amazing session. Even when I expected things to be low key as they tackled personal business, had infiltration into the Ministry of Discovery, a heated fight, personal sacrifice, making out, and time travel. I love this game so much!!!