As fate would have it one of my players was sick tonight so we couldn't play D&D. Partially inspired by the resurrection of this thread, I opted to run our Blades game. One of the nice things about Blades is that it lends itself very well to sessions where not everyone is able to make it. Since the crew had it's first Wanted level, I decided to have our missing player's PC be arrested and tossed in the clink where he will cool his heels and rid the crew of that nasty Wanted level. They have plenty of other problems to deal with anyway.
What follows are my notes for the entire campagin. Fair warning, it's a bit long and some of it might not make sense without context that I may have left out. Generally I show up to a Blades game with a bare outline of what I want to get done that night, and then toss it to the players. If they take my bait, so be it. If not, I follow them and see what happens.
At the end of the night I usually write up a brief synopsis of the session.
Some of this is just me kind of thinking on paper to try to figure out where a plotline might go. Some make the cut, some do not.
One more note: I loved the Roll Play Blades campaign so much that I used their crew (The Last Word) as a group of NPC's. My players have taken jobs from them and one of the PC's was even introduced to our crew by Cariless Firm. There are a few times when I mention PC specific abilities that they have in their game, but was advised against using for NPC's. It's a small point, but one that someone knowledgeable about the game might notice.
The Crew...
CREW - The Solution - Assassins (Professional) Tier I (W)
Lair in Coalridge - Basement of an abandoned train depot with quarters.
Hunting Grounds in Charterhall
Crew Ally: Lydra - Deal broker
Crow's Veil
Training: Insight, Prowess, Resolve, Personal
Quality Tools
Deadly
Mastery ****
Hidden
Quarters
1 Turf (Rat-a-Tat tattoo parlor)
+2 City Council (Vesna Culbrick)
+1 Fog Hounds (John Breunor)
-3 Red Sashes (Kale: Dead) WAR!!
+2 Dockers (Henry Bell)
-1 Rail Jacks (Big Bill Tarn)
+1 Ironborn's (Ulf Ironborn)
-1 The Grinders
The Characters...
Chris - Hound - Sevros - Alabaster Jones/Whitey (pink eyes) Vaskari - 24
Must earn 50 horses
Disowned noble
Veleris (spy)/friend Spies for Alabaster's father. Was instrumental in convincing him to flee Sevros.
Steiner (assassin)/enemy Sevrosi.
Hunting animal: Snow Leopard: Zalvroxos
Vice: Path of the Forgotten Gods/Weird. Murder for Goheiem to relieve stress.
Goal - Return to Sevros and win the hand of his beloved.
In Doskvol for two years. More or less the leader of the crew.
Father: Vex
Mother: Zamira
No one knows about his feelings for Lilly Wayland, Not even her.
Insight 2
Hunt **
Study *
Survey *
Tinker
Prowess 3
Finesse **
Prowl **
Skirmish *
Wreck
Resolve 2
Attune *
Command **
Consort *
Sway
Sharpshooter
A Little Something On The Side
Glorious Visage
Ron - Slide - Iruvia - Hamza (Arabic, beard) - 26
Escaped slave - Academic (scribe)
Nyryx (prostitute)/ally. Higher end escort. Hamza has strong romantic feelings for her.
Harker (jailbird)/enemy. Hamza framed Harker and had him sent to jail.
Vice: Faith/Ilacille (Runes of temple of forgotten gods). Indulgence of vice resembles Pentecostal church.
Goal: To ensure his freedom. Lord Hamid Abdul Zief was his former master. Zief is the sort that would take Hamza's escape as a personal affront. More than likely there are slave hunters on his trail.
Insight 3
Hunt *
Study *
Survey
Tinker *
Prowess 3
Finesse **
Prowl **
Skirmish
Wreck *
Resolve 3
Attune *
Command
Consort *
Sway ***
Mesmerism
A Little Something On The Side
Alex/Hawk - Whisper - Iruvia - 30
Underworld - Gang member
Ally: Lord Scurlock
Enemy: Quellyn
Vice: Gambling, Spogg's dice game
Goals:
Insight 3
Hunt *
Study *
Survey
Tinker *
Prowess 2
Finesse *
Prowl *
Skirmish
Wreck
Resolve 2
Attune **
Command *
Consort
Sway
Ritual
Tempest
Brandon - Cutter - Tycheros - Drona (Black, scales on the backs of hands) - 38
Survivor of shipwreck - Labor
Marlane (pugilist)/ally
Chael (thug)/enemy. Dead. Chael is cruel and goes in for torture. Chael actually tortured a friend of Drona's and Drona beat the hell out of Chael.
Vice: Weird/Ojak (Tycherosi rooftop vender in Silkshore).
Survived the wreck of a leviathan hunter a couple of years ago.
Goals: To advance his station/make coin.
Trauma: Haunted
Insight 2
Hunt ***
Study
Survey **
Tinker
Prowess 4
Finesse *
Prowl ***
Skirmish ***
Wreck *
Resolve 2
Attune *
Command *
Consort
Sway
Not to be trifled with
Ghost Fighter
Brady/Jasper (J. Rat) Dagger Isles, Lurk,
Ally: Fraka (locksmith)
Enemy: Darmot (Bluecoat)
Vice: Pleasure (Singer - Bath house in Crows Foot) Jasper is secretly in love with Singer.
Insight 1
Hunt
Study *
Survey
Tinker
Prowess 4
Finesse ***
Prowl ***
Skirmish *
Wreck *
Resolve 1
Attune
Command
Consort
Sway *
Reflexes
Nick/Kropotkin - Skovlan, Leech
Ally: Malista (priestess)
Enemy: Valdren (pschynaut)
Vice: Stupor (Avrik - Powder dealer in Barrowcleft)
Kropotkin is a Skovlan loyalist. He might not like it if he finds out the crew was responsible for the death of Hutton.
Insight 2
Hunt
Study **
Survey
Tinker ***
Prowess 2
Finesse
Prowl **
Skirmish
Wreck **
Resolve 0
Attune
Command
Consort
Sway
Alchemist (although he might be better off with something else. Discuss it with him).
Season 1
Episode 1
Score 1
Madam Tesslyn, owner of the Red Lamp brothel in Silk Shore. Her son, Phillip, was killed in a duel with Lord Byron Manifort some three weeks ago. She wants him dead and is willing to pay 3 coin to see it done.
The duel was over the favor of Lady June Torwits.
Devils Bargain: Veleris might know the crew killed Manifort
Alabaster tracks Manifort to the Velvet Pool Sauna in Nightmarket.
Engagement roll: 5. One tick on household wakes up clock.
First session, they fail the score due to terrible Prowl rolls.
Episode 2
Start the session with the crew fresh with no stress. Slow down and lead them through some role play. Find out what THEY want to do. If they don't know, provide some options.
Remember to frame the game as a television show.
Lydra might be able to put them in contact with another prospective client in the person of Ulf Ironborn, who operates out of Coalridge. Ulf would like to hurt the Billhooks, and with some newly acquired wealth he is willing to offer four coin for the head of Coran of the Billhooks.
Or, Nyryx has been badly beaten by a trick named Sedric. Sedric is a bruiser and a dock worker. Currently the crew is on good terms with the Dockworkers, so if it's discovered that they kill one of the dockers, that could mean trouble. Nonetheless, Nyryx is willing to pay two coin to see him dead.
Lydra asks for a meeting with Alabaster at the Billy Goat in Silk Shore.
Andre (street urchin kid), Hamza contact.
1st engagement. 5 on roll. They go after Sedric with an ambush.
Entanglement: The Usual Suspects.
Success!
With the PC's a little bit gun shy after their first failure, I started the session slowly, getting more character specific information from them which helped me get an idea of their goals, and helped the players breath life into their characters.
So far Alabaster is still a bit of a mystery, and Drona is pretty straight forward in his desire for coin. Alabaster is more or less the de facto leader of the crew and has issues with his family in Sevros, namely that Steiner, his assassin enemy is out to kill him.
Hamza is more forthcoming. I found out that he pines for Nyryx, his prostitute ally, and that, more than likely, bounty hunters are on his tail to return him to his slave master.
I introduced two more potential clients. First, Lydra set up a meeting with Ulf Ironborn who wishes to see Coran, the son of the Billhooks leader, dead. He gave them some good info on where they could possibly find him with his guard down. Coran visits a girlfriend most Wednesdays. The doxie lives on Cider street in Crow's Foot. Ironborn is offering 4 coin.
Second, Hamza went to visit Nyryx only to find her badly beaten. She told him that a dock foreman named Sedric had beaten her after she serviced him and refused to pay. She wants him dead. She offers 4 coin for the job.
The crew do some information gathering and figure that Sedric is their first target. They ambush him on his way home on Tuesday night and all goes relatively well. Hamza does take a knife wound in the fray, but ultimately they prevail. Alabaster snipes him with a crossbow from a 2nd floor vantage point while Drona and Hamza flank him. Sedric is a tough fighter, but in short order the crew leaves him dead on the street.
Downtime involved Alabaster going into a bit of debt in order to afford his luxury vice. Hamza must spend both his downtime activities recovering from his knife wound. Drona has only two stress and no wounds, so he trains.
The crew have not yet claimed their payment from Nyryx. (Where does she live?)
They intend to go after Coran the following day (Wednesday). This might be difficult with a wounded Hamza. Double check what "severe harm" entails.
Still need to deal with their entanglement. Most likely Nyryx is picked up and sweated a little, given her connection with Sedric.
Get more information about Alabaster. I need specifics about his exile. Names, and what he did to get exiled.
Also ask about Alabaster's animal companion.
Remind Brandon about his fine heavy weapon effect.
Sooner or later I'd like to introduce Cariless Firm as a potential benefactor. Drona especially may notice the shark eyed Tycharosi lurking here and there.
Perhaps Lord Manifort enjoys going to the pit fights. Marlane the pit fighter could play into this.
Speaking of Manifort, the payoff for his murder should be more than I've offered. Retcon Lady Tesslyn's offer to 6 coin. Manifort is a magistrate after all.
Maybe get more info on why their relationships with +/- factions are the way they are. Introduce NPC contacts for those factions.
Episode Three
Bluecoats: Caruthers and Mince.
Score 1: Coran
The crew got an excellent engagement roll and Alabaster nailed Coran square in the head from his sniper post across the street, killing him with a single shot. Hamza and Drona slipped away into the night. Very successful score.
Entanglement: Gang trouble or questioning. Caruthers and Mince came round to Hamza's place to ask him a few questions, but Hamza turned on the charm and sweet talked them into believing his alibi. I think Ron rolled a crit, so I wiped away the +2 heat they had gained and the two bluecoats are now on friendly terms with Hamza.
Score 2: Manifort
Mr. Rolm, 3 crew members, bodyguard (Samuel King), Manifort.
After gathering some info from Vesna Culbrick at the city council they find out that Manifort is an avid fisherman. Hamza heads to the docks to see if he can convince the dockers that Manifort had Sedric killed. Hamza does well on his sway roll and the dockers offer the crew another 6 coin to kill the magistrate, thereby doubling their potential payoff. They even provide the crew with a speedy boat with which to go after Manifort while he is at sea. Hamza meets with Manifort via Culbrick and rolls a consort crit which makes Manifort think he's the greatest and he insists on taking Hamza fishing as his guest.
After a pretty good engagement roll, Alabaster and Drona slide alongside Manifort's vessel. Manifort's bodyguard (Sam King) guesses something bad is afoot and takes a shot at Drona. Alabaster's rifle misfires and jams so he switches to pistols and lays down covering fire while Drona hulks out, downs his rage potion, and leaps into the other boat, sword swinging. He lops the head off the bodyguard, hurls a crewman into the sea, and cuts down a second crew member.
The captain throttles the Lightning in an effort to escape, but Alabaster plugs him with a ball of lead.
Meanwhile, Hamza, Manifort and Mr. Rolm flee down into the hold. Hamza shanks Manifort as the magistrate goes for a sword. Badly wounded and finally realizing that Hamza is trying to kill him, the pair square off for a duel. Hamza promptly rolls a 6 and stabs his target through the heart, killing him. He then dispatches poor Rolm.
As this is happening, Drona sees only enemies on the boat due to his berserker potion and must resist the urge to murder his ally, Hamza. In so doing, he takes a trauma and falls over unconscious.
Alabaster and Hamza transfer their friend to their boat and set Manifort's craft afire before heading back to land to collect 12 coin.
They get a +1 to their relationship with the Dockers.
Drona takes "Haunted" as his trauma.
Entanglement: Arrest! Deal with it next session.
Episode 4
Should probably start with the arrest entanglement.
Also go over their coin holdings. Also I think they get a Stash bonus for raising a tier.
Perhaps introduce Cariless Firm. Perhaps he has a target for them.
I like the idea of them attending a ball (a masquerade perhaps) and having Hamza see Nyryx in the company of a noble as his escort.
Further complications: Maybe the Billhooks get wind that the crew had something to do with the death of Coran. They might hear about a hefty reward being offered by the Billhooks for info on his murder.
Explore Drona's Haunted trauma.
Perhaps introduce Mr. Pebbles as a sort of foil to Cariless Firm. Mr. Pebbles is involved in a cult of demon worshipers who seek to free Rurunoth, a star demon, from his imprisonment. He will send the crew on a test mission to see if they have what it takes to handle further missions for him that will eventually lead to Rurunoth.
Mr. Pebbles wants them to kill Nathanial Rockwood. Drona manages to upset Mr. Pebbles to the point where he cuts their meeting off and shows them the door. Drona buys an apology basket.
Cariless meets with Alabaster, sets up a meeting with the crew at the Devil's Tooth.
Drona gets a 6 on his Sway to get back into Mr. Pebbles' good graces. Lydra agrees to set up another meeting.
Count Simon Gibson. Where Cariless Firm is hosting his soiree.
Score: Nathanial Rockwell. Entanglement: Flipped or Interrogation
Hamza overindulges. I believe he is going to choose another entanglement.
Look into bolstering crew rep.
Episode 5
Introduce Alex's character. A protégé of Cariless Firm's, perhaps?
First deal with the entanglement from their murder of Nathanial Rockwell (flipped or interrogation).
Then, deal with Drona's overindulgence. Another entanglement?
Start a clock for the Billhooks finding out some info about the crew's involvement with Coran's death. Probably an 8 clock.
On to the next score. Cariless Firm has invited them to a masquerade ball at the mansion of Count Simon Gibson. While there they are to figure out a way to assassinate Lady Winifred Muller. Lady Muller is a countess of high standing and is accompanied by Lord Sergey Cunningham.
Firm will tell them to come ready to work, but of course to not be ostentatious.
Also, Hamza will spot Nyryx there with another gentleman.
The Score: Lady Winifred Muller
Quellyn has Baneroot poison.
The ball is at the mansion of Count Simon Gibson in Charter Hall.
The Final Word is there, and Cariless will greet them and point out Lady Muller (wearing a cat mask), and Lord Cunningham (wearing a dog mask).
Among other nobles at the masquerade, Lord Scurlock is there.
Hamza will recognize Nyryx, resplendent in an expensive gown, wearing a fox mask. She is here with Phillip Oliver.
Engagement Roll: 3. Security, Johnathan Kitzman gives Alabaster grief. Alabaster rolls 666 on a Command and promptly turns Kitzman into his bitch!
Once inside, they meet Cariless Firm and Aldo. Firm points out Lady Muller and even offers them a 2 coin bonus if they happen to kill Lord Cunningham.
Hamza does his best to schmooze Lady Muller with mixed results. Hawk helps him out as much as he can before spotting Lord Scurlock disappearing through a door and decides to snoop after him a bit.
Hamza somewhat endears himself to the lady, although Lord Cunningham is not buying it and takes a dislike to Hamza. Hamza has poison but cannot find an opportunity to put it in her drink, so he introduces her to Alabaster instead. She drags him onto the dance floor and he promptly fails utterly to convince her that he is who he says he is.
So she decides to seduce him.
She drags Alabaster into an empty sitting room.
Meanwhile, Hamza decides to seduce Lord Cunningham. Cunningham is not won over, but sees a chance to humiliate his rival and pulls Hamza into a coat closet and pushes Hamza to his knees. Hamza complies and orally pleasures the dandy noble, relishing the fact that he has poisoned Cunningham's drink.
For most of this, Drona is chatting with Aldo.
Hawk discovers Lord Scurlock having a meal. Scurlock sees Hawk and the two exchange somewhat strained pleasantries.
Meanwhile, in the throes of passion, Alabaster makes his move, suffocating Lady Muller with a pillow and slipping out a window to make his escape.
Cunningham finishes and returns to his clique to talk smack about Hamza, but suddenly breaks out in boils and drops dead as Hamza, Drona and Hawk casually saunter out of the party.
Of note: they procured the poison -Baneroot- from Quellyn for the price of one coin.
Also, Alabaster realizes that he is missing a button from his jacket. (Lady Muller tore it off as she was being murdered. The investigator in charge of her case will find it clenched in her hand.
Episode 6
We took care of experience, but did not do downtime. Cariless Firm owes them 10 coin.
The addition of Hawk to the group presents some very interesting prospects. He is Cariless Firm's protégé, but Firm does not know that Lord Scurlock is Hawk's friend. Neither do the crew. Hawk knows that Firm intends to go after Scurlock. What will he do?
And how does Hawk know Scurlock? Are they actually relatives? Why are they friends/allies? Scurlock saved Hawk from slavery in Iruvia and was instrumental in bringing Hawk to Doskvol. Scurlock was going to kill him, but something about Hawk made him let him live. Scurlock helped Hawk escape and make it to Doskvol.
Furthermore, Hawk's enemy is Quellyn. She does not know that he is now with the crew, and the crew are unaware of the conflict between them.
So there's a lot of moving parts there. Hawk is treading very shaky ground and obviously knows it.
Some more things that Hawk knows: The whereabouts of The Final Word's hidden lair and how to access it. That Cariless Firm apparently has no heart. He knows about the hollow knights. He has an inkling of the Final Word's plan to assassinate Lord Scurlock. He knows that Lord Scurlock is a vampire. He has overheard the Final Word talking about Satara and She Who Slays In Darkness (although what he actually knows about those entities is still a mystery). He knows that there is some sort of connection between Satara and The Red Sashes, and that the Rat-A-Tat tattoo parlor is somehow involved. He knows that Cariless Firm is probably not of this earth.
Ret-con the scene where Hawk sees Scurlock feeding. Instead of the traditional biting and blood sucking, Scurlock draws his victims life essence from their mouth into his in the form of ghostly shadow stuff.
Hawk's former gang was The Eels, although they were not the original Eels. How does Hawk feel about their fate? Hawk does carry a bit of a grudge against Cariless for destroying the Eels.
Finally, Hawk wants to have a ghost pet ala Myth. Perhaps a long term project is in order. OH! This might be a good ritual project!
Some questions: Why does Chael hate Drona? Why does Quellyn hate Hawk? Dig into Hawk's goals. What does he think about Scurlock being a vampire? Maybe flesh out their relationship a little more.
How old are Drona, Alabaster and Hamza?
In this episode Cariless Firm will pay them and congratulate them on a job well done. He will promise more work in the future.
Mr. Pebbles will approach them about a new contract. He wants them to murder his rival in the cult of That Which Hungers in order to solidify his own position. The target is Gerrade Mormont. Mormont is a Captain in the Akarosi military by day, and a cultist by night. In addition to killing him, Mr. Pebbles wishes them to steal a book entitled, The Unblinking Eye.
In the meantime, the murder of Lady Muller and Lord Cunningham has not gone unnoticed. An inspector is now on the job. He is Francis Drochack.
Perhaps Lord Scurlock has lunch with Hawk. Maybe he has a job for them.
I need to dig into their personal goals a bit more and find bait specific to them.
How is the feud between The Ironborn and The Billhooks going? Maybe Ulf Ironborn has more work for them.
The Lampblacks and the Red Sashes are at war in Crow's Foot. The crew is on unfriendly terms with the Red Sashes. Why is that? Would Bazo Baz seek them out for a Red Sash murder?
Rules to brush up on: Teamwork maneuvers. P.134
Assist
Group Action
Protect
Set Up
Some ruling questions to address: How do they change their rep. P.93
Episode 7
Downtime and spending crew xp took some time, but after that was taken care of we got into some nuts and bolts.
I found out that Hawk, while in Iruvia, was destined to be sold into slavery when Scurlock, there on a visit for some reason, saw him and helped him escape. Why? We don't really know. Scurlock facilitated Hawk's travel to Doskvol. While en route, Scurlock was going to feed on him, but again, showed a strange mercy uncharacteristic of the vampire. Why? Again, we don't know. I'll need to give it some thought, because Hawk doesn't know either.
At any rate, Hawk feels a debt to Scurlock.
We dug into Hawk and Quellyn's story as well but all we could really nail down was that Hawk had somehow made her look bad. To who? And how?
The crew's post masquerade ball assassination entanglement came up as Demonic Notice or Show of Force. I chose Demonic Notice. Goheiem, a shadow demon, appeared to Alabaster with an offer: Slay an innocent in my name and I will bestow my blessings upon you.
Alabaster decides to make targets of the two kids who saw him on the roof during the Coran assassination. He wants them to be the innocents he kills for Goheiem but he fails to find them.
Hawk was cornered and questioned by Francis Drochack. When asked if he'd been at the ball Hawk lied and said he'd been at Spogg's dice game that night; an alibi Drochack will easily find out is baseless.
On top of that, Hawk overindulged his vice and got kicked out of Spogg's game and will need to find another purveyor for his vice.
Hawk also used a downtime to cast a ritual, summoning forth from the ghost field a dog very much like Myth. Hawk's dog is a ghostly Doberman named Shadow.
Cariless pays them for the murder of Lady Muller (with the added 2 coin bonus for killing Sir Cunningham).
Drona takes some heat off the crew by paying Johnathon Kitzman a visit and beating the holy hell out of him (Skirmish crit. A triple 6, I think). Kitzman is well and truly petrified of the gang.
They get a summons from Mr. Pebbles and Hamza and Hawk go to see him. Pebbles tells them that the target is Mormont and givers them information that the enemy cultist will be performing a ritual at the top of an abandoned coal factory's smokestack that has been converted into a tower in three days time. He offers them 6 coin. Hamza bargains it up to 7.
Alabaster and Drona go to scope out the factory and get into a face down with a youthful gang. The gang is, The Dead Hearts, led by Reesa, a 19 year old tough girl from the mean streets. The confrontation ends in a bit of a stalemate.
On the night of the ritual the crew head for the factory. Chris rolls a 6 on the engagement roll and they are in good position as they sneak into the building and up the ladder to the tower's first floor. Drona murders the first guard with no problem.
Up they go to the second floor, killing two more.
There are three more guards on the third floor. Drona takes a nasty sword wound and realizes that he's been carrying around a pistol ball all this time as well. But he does roll a pretty sweet crit and lays waste with his claymore.
Finally reaching the top of the tower, Shadow drags a cultist off the edge while Hawk shoots another fellow only to get stabbed himself. Drona follows and slices off Mormont's hand. The rest of the crew is soon there and they make short work of Mormont and the remaining cultist. They secure the book (The Unblinking Eye), and Alabaster finds his innocent victim in the form of a young girl who was to be sacrificed in Mormont's ritual. She becomes a sacrifice to Goheiem instead, and each crew member gets 2 xp.
We wrapped there. We did xp, but not downtime.
Episode 8
Entanglement from Tower score: Gang trouble or questioning.
Prologue: Take care of downtime. Hawk needs to find a new gambling place to indulge his vice. He'll go to Lady Caterby's gambling hall. The Golden Lion.
Mr. Pebbles owes them 7 coin.
Scurlock and Hawk probably need to have a chat.
Possible jobs:
Ulf Ironborn wants to damage the Billhooks.
The Lampblacks would like to hurt the Red Sashes.
Cariless Firm should not be inactive for too long.
Of course there is always Mr. Pebbles.
Maybe Lord Scurlock needs someone dead.
It might be time for the Red Sashes to make an appearance. OR… Bazo Baz and The Lampblacks might come seeking aide against the Sashes.
Veleris might come to Alabaster with information that his network of informants has heard of people asking for information about an albino Sevrosi. Is Steiner getting close?
Drochack might make another appearance, this time tracking down one of the other crew members to ask a few friendly questions. If he talks to Alabaster he will show the missing button from Alabaster's coat.
Just to put it in writing, what I'd really like would be for Hawk to find himself in a position of having to choose between his loyalty to Scurlock and The Final Word. How I can make that happen I'm not so sure.
For one thing, I need to press Ron a little bit about his plans regarding Scurlock.
It could be that Cariless means to use Hawk as a way to get at Scurlock.
Could be I need to find a way to strengthen Hawk's loyalty to Cariless. As it stands, Hawk has no real love for Cariless.
Hawk and Quellyn.
Alex has said that the enmity between them is because he made her look bad. For the life of me I can't figure out how to make that work. So maybe he'll be open to an alternative. How about: Before Hawk met the Eels and the Final Word, he was involved in a heist with another gang during which a friend of Quellyn's (Bailey Short) was killed. She found out the identities of those involved and holds a grudge. Perhaps Rune has told her that Hawk is now part of The Final Word (or was) and Quellyn is hesitant to tell Aldo, not wanting to pit him against someone that has ties to Aldo's own gang.
Hawk doesn't know that she knows and would be pretty sure that if she did know, she'd tell Aldo and Aldo would make short work of him.
Complicated.
Maybe Aldo DOES know (Quellyn told him), but Aldo ran it by Cariless and Cariless has forbade Aldo from killing Hawk since he needs Hawk in order to get close to Scurlock.
Either way, Hawk doesn't know how much of this any of the Final Word knows.
Alex came up with a story that works. Write it out.
Hawk and Scurlock.
Have Scurlock contact Hawk via a ghost messenger. The ghost will instruct Hawk to visit Scurlock in Six Towers. Scurlock will have a drink or three with Hawk and converse with him about a few topics.
He might tell Hawk that he didn't kill him after his escape from Iruvia because he recognized that Hawk was a whisper. Scurlock understands how rare and valuable a Whisper can be, and because of his own connection to the supernatural he decided to let the lad live, to see what might become of him. One never knows when one might have need of a Whisper who owes one a debt.
He might also discuss his vampirism. Scurlock might admit that Hawk is one of the very few who knows his true nature. He might wonder aloud how Hawk feels about it.
Scurlock might also talk about a group of assassins that have made some waves in the city. Cariless Firm and The Final Word. He might mention that Cariless has made significant inroads into the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh. This troubles Scurlock. He has no love for the Church (he is, in fact, enemies with them), but his spies have told him that Cariless has shown some interest in Scurlock; asking questions about him and so forth. Has Hawk heard of them?
Scurlock will quiz Hawk about his presence at the Gibson ball. Does Scurlock, in fact, already know that Hawk has a connection to Firm?
I'm beginning to think it might be interesting if Quellyn was a spy for Scurlock. Although this would be tricky, given that Caterby always knows when someone is lying to her. Still, so far Quellyn has given no reason not to trust her.
Drona and Chael.
Chael is currently a member of the Grinders and plies his trade in Coalridge.
Maybe the crew hears that The Grinders have been making a bit of noise in Coalridge. Normally they work the docks, but lately they seem to have gained a foothold in Coalridge and appear to be expanding their territory.
Maybe they approach the Solution demanding a tithe of their profits after having got wind of them via Chael. Might be cool to force the crew to deal with this gang.
This might become a bit sticky since The Grinders are allies with both the Dockers and Ulf Ironborn.
The Episode
Starting off with downtime, the crew collected their fee and set off to do their respective errands. Hawk needed to heal and find a new vice den. He chose to utilize Lady Caterby's Golden Lion gambling den and got rid of some stress. Healing was a bit more expensive for him since he is loath to go to Quellyn. A visit to Johan set him right, but it was probably far more expensive than it needed to be.
Drona, on the other hand, has no beef with Quellyn, and after a bit of convincing and some bribery she agreed to see to his wounds. He was pretty badly beat up so it took some doing. When all was said and done he was broke and still carried that pistol ball in him (note: when that bullet is finally removed, maybe give it to him as a souvenir).
Hamza and Alabaster, worried that the Billhooks might find out that they were the cause of Coran's death, decide to try to frame Kale, of the Red Sashes. They get to work on a clock and almost fill it up. Actually they do fill it up. Correct my mistake re: crits and clocks.
Speaking of Hawk and Quellyn, we find out that the cause of the enmity between them stems from an occurrence that happened some time ago. It seems that, during his time with the Eels, one of that gang was injured. They took him to Quellyn, but for reasons she did not divulge, she refused to treat him. Hawk took this personally and gave her a piece of his mind. The two have been on bad terms ever since.
Hawk pays Scurlock a visit and learns quite a few things. Scurlock tells Hawk that he didn't kill him after the escape from Iruvia because he recognized Hawk's talents and decided to see what fate had in store for the lad. Not to mention that it never hurts to have a Whisper owe you a favor.
They discuss Scurlock's vampirism a bit, and then the conversation turns to Cariless Firm and the Final Word. Hawk is able to tell Scurlock a few things he didn't know about Firm, and vice versa. Scurlock also explains a bit of the nature of She Who Slays In Darkness and Satara.
Finally, Scurlock asks that Hawk be his eyes and ears on the inside of The Final Word, and obviously to warn him if need be. He also reveals that he has another agent on the inside and tells Hawk that person's name.
Alabaster is paid a visit by Francis Drochack while he's trying to enjoy a chamber music concert. Alabaster is wholly uncooperative and stonewalls the inspector. Drochack is left with no choice but to employ some bluecoat muscle to get Alabaster to the station and into an interrogation room. The questioning takes awhile and Alabaster more or less successfully bluffs his way out, but Drochack did catch him in at least one lie. The Inspector promises that they will meet again.
Meanwhile, The Grinders show up at the lair, eight men strong. Matthew Sullivan, their leader, explains to Hamza that it's time to tithe. Hamza is having none of it and tells Sullivan to get bent, in so many words. The Grinders promise to return, but eventually leave.
The crew gather and try to come up with a plan to deal with the Grinders. They wonder if going to war with them will be an issue with Cariless Firm, so Hawk and Alabaster set up a meeting with him. Firm and Aldo meet them at the Devil's Tooth and Cariless tells the fellas that he has no problem with them dealing with their rivals, but also that he has a job for them.
He want's an amulet that is in the possession of a leviathan hunter captain by the name of Kolby Puloch, who lives near the docks and keeps the amulet in his safe, the key for which he keeps on him at all times.
How hard could it be?
They settle on a frontal assault and promptly roll a 1 on the engagement roll. Kicking open the front door, Drona is greeted by a hull. Drona soon finds out that hulls are very dangerous indeed. Drona, Alabaster and Hawk stay downstairs to deal with the hull while Hamza heads upstairs in search of Captain Puloch. He finds him in the upstairs hallway and soon wishes he hadn't as the steely eyed leviathan hunter begins to carve him up like Christmas ham.
Back downstairs, Drona downs his rage potion and, despite taking a hell of a beating, rips the arm off of the hull and uses it to beat the mechanical beast into junk.
Alabaster and Hawk head up to aide Hamza.
The captain hits Shadow hard enough to dissipate the ghost dog before returning to bleed out Hamza. Hamza is in bad shape, but finally Alabaster gets in a good shot, blowing the captains brains all over the wall.
Drona, in the grips of his rage, must resist the impulse to murder his own comrades, and fortunately, does so.
We wrapped there for there for the night. They still need to get the amulet and make their escape.
We did xp, but as the score is not yet over, no downtime.
Episode 9
Prologue: They are still in Captain Puloch's home. The captain and his guardian hull are dead. Gunshots were fired, so back up may be on the way.
Also, I think Drona may have to "Not stop until it's all broken" or resist it. He did resist the urge to kill his pals; maybe he'll have fun smashing up the place.
On Puloch they will find his sword, which is magical, and potent against ghosts. The sword is named, Shavatook's Razor. Also his ring is magical. Once per session it can provide the wearer +1d.
Breaking into Puloch's safe, they will find the amulet and enough coin to sweeten this score. There is also a scroll with the amulet:
The Eye Of Katara. Do not allow contact with unclothed flesh. Only he who has preformed the proper rituals and is possessing of great strength in mind, body and spirit should attempt to attune to this device. Once donned and mastered, no demon may exorcise it's will lest the wearer so deems it.
I did NOT take care of the entanglement from their last score (the tower hit). It is either gang trouble or questioning. Get it done!
More than likely they will escape back to the lair and lick their wounds. Drona and Hamza are pretty beat up, and I think all of them have high stress, so I imagine that will be the order of the day.
They might want to think about hiring a Physicker full time.
Note: During their work on the long term project to frame the Red Sashes for Coran's murder, one of them (I think it was Alabaster) rolled a crit. That should have filled in 5 ticks on the clock instead of 3, so I owe them for that. That means the clock is actually full and Kale will take the fall for Coran's murder. The downside of this is that the Red Sashes will now want answers, not to mention putting them at odds with the Billhooks.
The Grinders still want their cut. Their clock will begin to fill.
Furthermore, maybe Francis Drochack has an axe to grind with the Grinders and may use the Solution to hurt them. That would be a nice bit of blackmail.
Perhaps Goheiem will approach Alabaster again. Maybe we can turn him into a serial killer.
Is Drona still carrying around that bullet? I'd sure like to give it to him as a souvenir.
I'd like to have Quellyn get involved. She's a talented healer and the crew knows that. Maybe the crew are invited back to the Final Word's lair for the exchange of amulet for reward and Cariless throws in Quellyn's services as a bonus.
While she is seeing to their wounds she may find a moment to speak with Hawk alone. She might tell him the reason she refused to aide Hawk's friend, William Short. It seems that she and Short were once friends when they were quite young, but things took a nasty turn as William became more and more involved with the underworld. Eventually he decided that Quellyn would be his woman. When she resisted his advances, he took her by force.
Hawk knows of her connection to Scurlock, and she might know about Hawk. Does she bring that up?
Story arc for season finale: So what I would very much like to do is have the season story arc culminate with a showdown between Lord Scurlock and The Final Word. Ideally this would include a plot where The Solution - and Hawk in particular - somehow deliver victory to Cariless Firm without the PC's knowing they are doing so until a big reveal at the end.
Essentially Cariless is playing puppet master, setting Hawk and the crew up by manipulating them into bringing Scurlock into an ambush or vulnerable situation while they think they are actually doing the opposite. Only after it's all said and done will they realize (with a bit of monologuing from Cariless, probably), that it's all been part of his plan.
Ideally this would also end with Quellyn being outed as a loyal Scurlock minion, after which Aldo will kill her, though it breaks his heart to do so.
I feel like I have most of the pieces to make this happen, but I can't quite work out how to fit them together.
One idea: They've just stolen the amulet from Captain Puloch. What if the amulet was a cursed item that, once worn, sucks the wearers spirit into it?
Cariless lets it be known to Quellyn that the Solution is currently on a mission to retrieve the amulet, but tells her that it is actually an artifact of great power used for controlling demons. It is The Eye Of Katara, he leads her to believe.
Quellyn goes to Scurlock and tells him this while the crew is on the mission. Scurlock instructs her to intercept them before they deliver the amulet to Firm. She will tell them what she believes to be true, that the amulet is the Eye of Katara, and that with it Scurlock can defeat Cariless easily. Not only that, but Scurlock is willing to double their payment. Also, he will offer his protection to them.
Assuming they take the bait, Scurlock will take the amulet, pay them 18 coin, and want them to aide him in ambushing Firm. He'll tell them to contact him as usual and have him meet them at the Devil's Tooth for the exchange of coin for amulet. Scurlock will be waiting there, in hiding, and reveal himself with the amulet, ready to put it on and control Firm.
But… he will put the amulet around his neck and the moment it touches his skin his essence will be drawn into it, effectively imprisoning him for good.
Quellyn will have accompanied him, revealing her treachery before Scurlock puts the cursed item on. Too late, she will realize that she has been nothing more than a pawn in Firm's game. Aldo will snap her neck.
Cariless will spare the Solution. He harbors no ill will for Alabaster, Hamza and Drona. Treachery is all part of the life, and he can hardly fault them for taking a bigger payday. As for Hawk, he magnanimously suggests that, now that he no longer owes a debt to Scurlock, there should be no bad blood between them.
Cariless will fill them in about the role Scurlock played in killing Aldo's sister.
Trapping Scurlock's spirit will provide the last component Cariless needs to preform the ritual that will return him to demon-hood. He will do just that and disappear from the city, leaving Aldo, Rune and Miss Caterby to do as they wish.
One issue I have is time. I'd like to have all this happen during the last session before Ron takes over Dming again, but I have no idea how to stretch this out for another three weeks. Maybe this isn't the worst thing that could happen though. The PC's will largely be bystanders while all this plays out, so maybe a better season finale can be worked out.
The more I think about the above scenario the less I love it. It casts the PC's as mere bystanders and I'd rather they have a more active role in things.
Think, think, think…
The Episode
No Alex tonight so that whole storyline got shelved for the time being.
As Drona, still in the grips of his rage, destroys the house, the rest of the crew toss the upstairs looking for the safe. Alabaster finds it and uses the key to loot it while Hamza cuts off Puloch's hand and uses it to write anti Imperial/pro Skovlan rhetoric on the walls in blood. Alabaster finds a box, some cash, papers containing potentially valuable leviathan hunting information, and a scroll. Hamza takes Puloch's ring and sword while Hawk tries to calm Drona down.
Eventually they slip away from the house and are met at their lair by Quellyn. She is there to speak to Hawk, but she treats their wounds for free and asks them to wait twenty-four hours before giving the amulet to Cariless. She convinces Hawk to leave with her, saying they need to talk to someone.
This delays their payment from the score, but they did find 6 coin in the safe, so that gives them something to spend. Good thing, because the entanglement from their last score is Lydra being picked up for questioning. She gets word to the crew and Hamza pays off the Bluecoats for her release. He asks that she come visit them soon; he wants her to be a go-between to sell the leviathan hunter information.
No sooner has he returned than their newest entanglement arrives. Arrest! A contingent of Bluecoats shows up, led by Sargant Klellan. This ends up costing them another three coin to get him to shove off.
They get into downtime, getting rid of stress and heat, only to have Alabaster overindulge and brag, costing them more heat. They also get more recovery from Johan, who has now advanced to a Tier I Physicker. When all is said and done, they are mostly broke.
Goheiem visits Alabaster at his home and the two strike a deal. Alabaster gets the, A Little Something On The Side ability in exchange for accepting Goheiem as his new stress purveyor. Alabaster will now slay innocents in the demons name to relieve his stress. This also puts him on the path of the Forgotten Gods and earns him his first trauma.
Hamza visits Nyryx and the pair have a nice dinner while sharing gossip. Through her Hamza finds out that Kale, of the Red Sashes, has been murdered in retribution for the murder of Coran. The Billhooks are known to be behind the murder, and they and the Red Sashes are now at war. Hamza is delighted to hear this, but it bears remembering (cautions Nyryx) that the Sashes are renown for their retributive ways. They are now looking for the real culprit.
Hamza and Alabaster rejoin Drona at the lair just in time for yet another visitor. It is Francis Drochack with what he frames as a mutually beneficial proposition for them. He explains that the Grinders are Skovlan rebels and he knows that their leader, Hutton, is going to be at an exchange of coin six hours from now in Dunslough. He wants them to kill the Grinder leader. In exchange, they may keep the coin if they can retrieve it, and he will also make the rather large file of evidence against them disappear.
They take the job and scope the area out. They decide on an assault and roll a 6 on the Engagement roll, which allows them to position themselves as they wish and use a flashback to wire the area with dynamite.
The unknown faction shows up with the coin (7 of them), followed shortly by Hutton and five more of his men, including Chale.
Hamza sets off the explosives, killing five of the men outright and sending the rest reeling. Hutton is badly wounded.
Alabaster steps out of his hiding place and shoots the first man he sees in the head.
Drona charges out from another direction and promptly cuts Hutton nearly in half. Chale, seeing his leader killed at the hands of his arch enemy, flees with Drona in hot pursuit.
Hamza enters the fray and uses his pistols to good effect, but fares a bit badly against a machete wielding tough. Alabaster scatters three of them and kills a fourth. He Commands them to flee and one does.
Drona chases Chale down the alleyways until he corners him. Chale draws his blade and slashes at Drona, drawing blood, but Drona grabs him and impales him on his claymore, watching the life drain from his foe.
The last of the men in the vacant lot are killed. Hamza and Drona are wounded, but they find 8 coin in the lockbox, which takes a bit of the sting out. They pocket the loot and head home.
During downtime the Entanglement roll goes bad and the Red Sashes decide to make a play on their territory. Unwilling to give up their hold, they opt for war! Hamza throws the death of Kale in their faces. Things will surely be heating up between the two factions.
Alabaster murders his first victim for stress relief.
Tired of unexpected visitors to their lair, they move into a hidden lair (the basement of an abandoned train depot in Coalridge. With crew quarters.
We'll be breaking here for the foreseeable future, but hopefully we will return with a new season of The Solution.
Episode 10
Prologue: An unexpected session due to Ron's anniversary!
Two major things to consider. 1) No Hamza for this episode. I feel like he will be captured, likely by either the Grinders or the Red Sashes. 2) Brady is joining the crew, so we'll need to get him a character and a believable reason for him to join.
First things first: Quellyn and Hawk will have their discussion. Scurlock may also be involved. In fact, He will make his offer for the amulet of 16 coin. Quellyn will tell Hawk about William Short and the fact that he raped her. This will also mean that Quellyn knows about Hawk's connection to Scurlock and vice versa.
Hamza will be captured by The Red Sashes, which makes sense given that the crew is now at war with them and also that Hamza basically threw the death of Kale in their faces. To further complicate things, the capture will happen during their move to the new lair. Hamza will have been traveling with the amulet when he is abducted. Either the Red Sashes now have the amulet, or Hamza may have been able to stash it before his capture.
Brady will need a reason to become involved with the crew. I'll give the players a chance to come up with one, but if they can't I think perhaps that he has just been released from Iron Hook prison and is a close friend or relative of one of the PC's.
The Red Sashes have Hamza imprisoned in one of their lairs. It is an underground hold in Crows Foot. Lydra will alert the crew to this after hearing about it from her contact in The Lampblacks. Or… perhaps the Lampblacks will simply tell the crew themselves. Any hit on the Sashes is good for them.
Somewhere in there Cariless Firm will certainly want his amulet. Their 24 hours will be up very soon.
The Episode
Brady and Nick join our game tonight. Ron is absent (wedding anniversary).
Hawk and Quellyn have a chat on the way to Scurlock's manse. She tells him about William Short and the rape. Hawk keeps his feelings about this to himself even as they get to Scurlock's.
The upshot of their conversation with Scurlock is that he wants the amulet and is willing to double the price for it (16 coin). He arranges to make the offer anonymously so as not to cast suspicion on Hawk.
Hawk returns to the new lair and they soon find out through Lydra that Hamza has been captured by the Red Sashes. Alabaster seems in no hurry to effect a rescue, but it turns out that they captured the amulet along with Hamza, and that interests him greatly now that the offer of 16 coin has been made.
Lydra found out about Hamza's capture via her contacts in the Lampblacks. The Lampblacks, being also at war with the Red Sashes, are only too happy to aide the Solution as long as it hurts their rivals. They provide them with information about the whereabouts of Hamza (the Rat-a-Tat tattoo parlor), as well as two low level cohorts, Jasper and Kropotkin, played by Brady and Nick respectively. Both of these new scoundrels feel that their talents are going to waste with the Lampblacks and they are eager to join a crew that will make better use of them, with the promise of better pay.
Lydra makes the introductions, and soon Alabaster and Jasper set out to scope out the tattoo parlor in Crow's Foot. Jasper does an excellent job of sneaking around outside the place and returns with a rough number of men they will have to face, as well as overheard assurance that Hamza is indeed in the basement of the place.
The crew gathers and hits two of the Sashes as they step into the ally for a smoke. The pair go down quite silently, but Kropotkin, at the front of the store, tosses a grenade through the front window and blows two more guards to bits.
With the element of Surprise gone, they charge in the back door. Drona kicks open the door to the basement stairs only to come face to face with a shotgun. Drona manages to slay it’s wielder as he looses both barrels into the ceiling.
In the basement they find an odd pool of water and Hydrothi runes crowding the walls. Hawk attunes and soon understands that this is a shrine of sorts to the demon, Satara. Even as he relays this to the crew, a ghost attacks Drona.
Drona fights back, but the ghost is tough, even knocking out Shadow when Hawk directs the ghost dog to attack. Kropotkin douses an axe in ghost oil and promptly crits the phantom, dissipating it.
Through another door and into a sewer tunnel, Jasper takes out another pair of guards silently with a crit of his own. They see light down the tunnel and hear Hamza as well! Kropotkin hands a blind powder bomb to Drona who tosses it into the room, blinding two of the Sashes there.
The crew charge in. It’s a bit touch and go for a moment, given all of their stress levels, and a few of the gang take some hits. But eventually they slay the Sash thugs, and the one true Red Sash swordsman there.
They find six coin, the amulet, and Hamza, who they quickly escort back to their lair.
They gain their first Wanted level, and we skip the Entanglement for this score, at least until I find out whether or not Entanglement complications can be resisted.
It was a quick wrap up, but we did manage to take care of downtime and xp.
Alex had to leave early, so make sure he gets his xp (3, I believe).
They did get a message from Cariless Firm stating that he is eagerly awaiting his amulet.
Episode 11
Prologue: The Steiner clock is full! He knows where Alabaster is!
We should find out just how much information Hamza spilled under torture.
(He lies to them about Kale successfully. He also lies about the amulet, but they beat the crap out of him.)
The slave hunters track down Hamza. Their clock is full!
Check Alex's xp. I feel like he should be more advanced than he is.
Note: The Entanglement question has been answered. You cannot resist entanglement consequences. The crew now has a Wanted level, so there's that to deal with.
The Episode
We retcon a bit to see just what Hamza gives up to the Red Sashes under interrogation. He rolls a crit Sway when they ask him about Kale. That throws them off pretty good and they lose two ticks on their investigation clock.
We deal with Hamza's downtime and a little bit of healing for he and Jasper.
Next, we straight screw over Brandon because he couldn't make it to the game tonight on account of having a cold. Who better, then, to take the shaft for the Wanted level the crew now has? Ron rolls the Incarceration Roll and comes up with a 2. Drona gets a Trauma.
Hamza, Alabaster, Jasper and Hawk gather the next morning to decide what to do with the amulet. They eventually think better of screwing over Cariless Firm and opt to honor the original deal.
Alabaster and Jasper set off for the tavern from which they send and receive messages (The Mother Goat) only to find Aldo and Rune already waiting there for them. It is quite clear, despite Aldo's friendly demeaner, that they mean business. Cariless want's his amulet. Alabaster stays at the bar while Jasper returns to the lair to fetch Hamza and the amulet.
On their way back to the Goat, Hamza realizes that they are being followed by some dangerous looking Iruvians. Jasper leads a group Prowl to give them the slip, which they do, but they know that something is up.
Once at the bar they make the exchange and collect their 8 coin payment.
Jasper heads back to the spot where they saw the Iruvians and eventually finds five of them gathered in a coffee shop. He manages to eavesdrop on them and finds out that they are escaped slave hunters looking for Hamza. He returns to the lair and fills the rest of the crew in.
There is quite a bit of talk about possibly poisoning the slave hunters, and eventually Hamza, Jasper and Hawk go to Quellyn's to purchase a poison. Unfortunately poison is expensive and their funds are a little low. Hamza does end up purchasing a single does of Folic Bark and a does of it's antidote for some possible future use. Quellyn does manage to ask Hawk what the crew decided to do with the amulet and Hawk tells her. Scurlock will, no doubt, be unhappy with that turn of events, but there wasn't much Hawk could do about it.
The Score: Jasper gathers some info and finds out that the group of Iruvians has been coming back to the same coffee shop at around noon for the last few days. The crew decides on a Deception ploy using Hamza as bait to draw them into an ambush in a dead end ally. Alabaster and Hawk set up in the ally, and Jasper will follow the slave hunters as they follow Hamza.
We decide on two dice for the engagement roll and Alex volunteers to roll them, promptly rolling a pair of 6's! A crit!
Thus, the set up goes off without a hitch. Hamza saunters into the coffee shop as if he didn't have a care in the world, orders a meat pie and saunters back out again. The slave hunters, hardly able to believe their luck, quickly follow their quarry through the crowded streets, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Jasper trails them.
Into the ally, Hamza rounds the corner and shimmies up to the roof via a prearranged rope. As the slavers get to the corner, Jasper is in motion from behind, running silently after them and hurling a knife at the last guy. Due to the engagement crit I put their first round of attacks at Controlled/Great. Jasper gets a 6 and drops his man without a sound.
Hawk is waiting behind a door that leads out into the ally and kicks it open, blasting away with a pair of pistols. He wounds one of them but not fatally.
Alabaster, above them on the roof, also unloads his pistols, but he's a Hound and has much better luck. He gets a 6 and because of the Controlled/Great position/effect, he kills the wounded guy and takes out another with his volley.
Hamza pulls his own pistols, but can't get a clear shot.
The slaver in the rear draws his scimitar and turns to escape the ally, intending to go right through Jasper if need be. But Brady/Jasper has a hot hand and drops another 6, taking the guy between the eyes, killing him.
Another slaver charges at Hawk, but Hawk is just able to slam the door shut, blocking the attack, although he did drop one of his pistols.
Alabaster drops fresh rounds into his own guns and opens fire. He had three dice to roll and tosses not one, not two, but three 6's! What could I do but make that a cinematic moment?
The ball from his left pistol hits the slaver at Hawk's door square in the back of the head, killing him. The last slaver pulls back his arm to hurl his dagger at Hamza, but Alabaster is tracking it with his right hand and blows the knife out of the air. Even as he does so, he's reloading his left pistol one-handed and brings it around to plug the last guy right between the eyes. The last slaver drops dead.
They search the bodies quickly, finding a few coin and a contract for the return of Hamza to his former owner with a stated reward of 8 coin. Hamza is pleased that he is worth so much.
We broke for the night there and did downtime. Alabaster elected to ignore his vice and take another stress which gave him his second Trauma, pushing him another step down his evil road and granting him still more demonic powers.
Entanglement: Gang Trouble or Usual Suspects. Have not done this one yet. Take care of it.
We did xp.
Note: Give Brandon a break. It was hilarious, but giving the poor guy a trauma while he wasn't there is probably a bit much. Figure something else out.
What follows are my notes for the entire campagin. Fair warning, it's a bit long and some of it might not make sense without context that I may have left out. Generally I show up to a Blades game with a bare outline of what I want to get done that night, and then toss it to the players. If they take my bait, so be it. If not, I follow them and see what happens.
At the end of the night I usually write up a brief synopsis of the session.
Some of this is just me kind of thinking on paper to try to figure out where a plotline might go. Some make the cut, some do not.
One more note: I loved the Roll Play Blades campaign so much that I used their crew (The Last Word) as a group of NPC's. My players have taken jobs from them and one of the PC's was even introduced to our crew by Cariless Firm. There are a few times when I mention PC specific abilities that they have in their game, but was advised against using for NPC's. It's a small point, but one that someone knowledgeable about the game might notice.
The Crew...
CREW - The Solution - Assassins (Professional) Tier I (W)
Lair in Coalridge - Basement of an abandoned train depot with quarters.
Hunting Grounds in Charterhall
Crew Ally: Lydra - Deal broker
Crow's Veil
Training: Insight, Prowess, Resolve, Personal
Quality Tools
Deadly
Mastery ****
Hidden
Quarters
1 Turf (Rat-a-Tat tattoo parlor)
+2 City Council (Vesna Culbrick)
+1 Fog Hounds (John Breunor)
-3 Red Sashes (Kale: Dead) WAR!!
+2 Dockers (Henry Bell)
-1 Rail Jacks (Big Bill Tarn)
+1 Ironborn's (Ulf Ironborn)
-1 The Grinders
The Characters...
Chris - Hound - Sevros - Alabaster Jones/Whitey (pink eyes) Vaskari - 24
Must earn 50 horses
Disowned noble
Veleris (spy)/friend Spies for Alabaster's father. Was instrumental in convincing him to flee Sevros.
Steiner (assassin)/enemy Sevrosi.
Hunting animal: Snow Leopard: Zalvroxos
Vice: Path of the Forgotten Gods/Weird. Murder for Goheiem to relieve stress.
Goal - Return to Sevros and win the hand of his beloved.
In Doskvol for two years. More or less the leader of the crew.
Father: Vex
Mother: Zamira
No one knows about his feelings for Lilly Wayland, Not even her.
Insight 2
Hunt **
Study *
Survey *
Tinker
Prowess 3
Finesse **
Prowl **
Skirmish *
Wreck
Resolve 2
Attune *
Command **
Consort *
Sway
Sharpshooter
A Little Something On The Side
Glorious Visage
Ron - Slide - Iruvia - Hamza (Arabic, beard) - 26
Escaped slave - Academic (scribe)
Nyryx (prostitute)/ally. Higher end escort. Hamza has strong romantic feelings for her.
Harker (jailbird)/enemy. Hamza framed Harker and had him sent to jail.
Vice: Faith/Ilacille (Runes of temple of forgotten gods). Indulgence of vice resembles Pentecostal church.
Goal: To ensure his freedom. Lord Hamid Abdul Zief was his former master. Zief is the sort that would take Hamza's escape as a personal affront. More than likely there are slave hunters on his trail.
Insight 3
Hunt *
Study *
Survey
Tinker *
Prowess 3
Finesse **
Prowl **
Skirmish
Wreck *
Resolve 3
Attune *
Command
Consort *
Sway ***
Mesmerism
A Little Something On The Side
Alex/Hawk - Whisper - Iruvia - 30
Underworld - Gang member
Ally: Lord Scurlock
Enemy: Quellyn
Vice: Gambling, Spogg's dice game
Goals:
Insight 3
Hunt *
Study *
Survey
Tinker *
Prowess 2
Finesse *
Prowl *
Skirmish
Wreck
Resolve 2
Attune **
Command *
Consort
Sway
Ritual
Tempest
Brandon - Cutter - Tycheros - Drona (Black, scales on the backs of hands) - 38
Survivor of shipwreck - Labor
Marlane (pugilist)/ally
Chael (thug)/enemy. Dead. Chael is cruel and goes in for torture. Chael actually tortured a friend of Drona's and Drona beat the hell out of Chael.
Vice: Weird/Ojak (Tycherosi rooftop vender in Silkshore).
Survived the wreck of a leviathan hunter a couple of years ago.
Goals: To advance his station/make coin.
Trauma: Haunted
Insight 2
Hunt ***
Study
Survey **
Tinker
Prowess 4
Finesse *
Prowl ***
Skirmish ***
Wreck *
Resolve 2
Attune *
Command *
Consort
Sway
Not to be trifled with
Ghost Fighter
Brady/Jasper (J. Rat) Dagger Isles, Lurk,
Ally: Fraka (locksmith)
Enemy: Darmot (Bluecoat)
Vice: Pleasure (Singer - Bath house in Crows Foot) Jasper is secretly in love with Singer.
Insight 1
Hunt
Study *
Survey
Tinker
Prowess 4
Finesse ***
Prowl ***
Skirmish *
Wreck *
Resolve 1
Attune
Command
Consort
Sway *
Reflexes
Nick/Kropotkin - Skovlan, Leech
Ally: Malista (priestess)
Enemy: Valdren (pschynaut)
Vice: Stupor (Avrik - Powder dealer in Barrowcleft)
Kropotkin is a Skovlan loyalist. He might not like it if he finds out the crew was responsible for the death of Hutton.
Insight 2
Hunt
Study **
Survey
Tinker ***
Prowess 2
Finesse
Prowl **
Skirmish
Wreck **
Resolve 0
Attune
Command
Consort
Sway
Alchemist (although he might be better off with something else. Discuss it with him).
Season 1
Episode 1
Score 1
Madam Tesslyn, owner of the Red Lamp brothel in Silk Shore. Her son, Phillip, was killed in a duel with Lord Byron Manifort some three weeks ago. She wants him dead and is willing to pay 3 coin to see it done.
The duel was over the favor of Lady June Torwits.
Devils Bargain: Veleris might know the crew killed Manifort
Alabaster tracks Manifort to the Velvet Pool Sauna in Nightmarket.
Engagement roll: 5. One tick on household wakes up clock.
First session, they fail the score due to terrible Prowl rolls.
Episode 2
Start the session with the crew fresh with no stress. Slow down and lead them through some role play. Find out what THEY want to do. If they don't know, provide some options.
Remember to frame the game as a television show.
Lydra might be able to put them in contact with another prospective client in the person of Ulf Ironborn, who operates out of Coalridge. Ulf would like to hurt the Billhooks, and with some newly acquired wealth he is willing to offer four coin for the head of Coran of the Billhooks.
Or, Nyryx has been badly beaten by a trick named Sedric. Sedric is a bruiser and a dock worker. Currently the crew is on good terms with the Dockworkers, so if it's discovered that they kill one of the dockers, that could mean trouble. Nonetheless, Nyryx is willing to pay two coin to see him dead.
Lydra asks for a meeting with Alabaster at the Billy Goat in Silk Shore.
Andre (street urchin kid), Hamza contact.
1st engagement. 5 on roll. They go after Sedric with an ambush.
Entanglement: The Usual Suspects.
Success!
With the PC's a little bit gun shy after their first failure, I started the session slowly, getting more character specific information from them which helped me get an idea of their goals, and helped the players breath life into their characters.
So far Alabaster is still a bit of a mystery, and Drona is pretty straight forward in his desire for coin. Alabaster is more or less the de facto leader of the crew and has issues with his family in Sevros, namely that Steiner, his assassin enemy is out to kill him.
Hamza is more forthcoming. I found out that he pines for Nyryx, his prostitute ally, and that, more than likely, bounty hunters are on his tail to return him to his slave master.
I introduced two more potential clients. First, Lydra set up a meeting with Ulf Ironborn who wishes to see Coran, the son of the Billhooks leader, dead. He gave them some good info on where they could possibly find him with his guard down. Coran visits a girlfriend most Wednesdays. The doxie lives on Cider street in Crow's Foot. Ironborn is offering 4 coin.
Second, Hamza went to visit Nyryx only to find her badly beaten. She told him that a dock foreman named Sedric had beaten her after she serviced him and refused to pay. She wants him dead. She offers 4 coin for the job.
The crew do some information gathering and figure that Sedric is their first target. They ambush him on his way home on Tuesday night and all goes relatively well. Hamza does take a knife wound in the fray, but ultimately they prevail. Alabaster snipes him with a crossbow from a 2nd floor vantage point while Drona and Hamza flank him. Sedric is a tough fighter, but in short order the crew leaves him dead on the street.
Downtime involved Alabaster going into a bit of debt in order to afford his luxury vice. Hamza must spend both his downtime activities recovering from his knife wound. Drona has only two stress and no wounds, so he trains.
The crew have not yet claimed their payment from Nyryx. (Where does she live?)
They intend to go after Coran the following day (Wednesday). This might be difficult with a wounded Hamza. Double check what "severe harm" entails.
Still need to deal with their entanglement. Most likely Nyryx is picked up and sweated a little, given her connection with Sedric.
Get more information about Alabaster. I need specifics about his exile. Names, and what he did to get exiled.
Also ask about Alabaster's animal companion.
Remind Brandon about his fine heavy weapon effect.
Sooner or later I'd like to introduce Cariless Firm as a potential benefactor. Drona especially may notice the shark eyed Tycharosi lurking here and there.
Perhaps Lord Manifort enjoys going to the pit fights. Marlane the pit fighter could play into this.
Speaking of Manifort, the payoff for his murder should be more than I've offered. Retcon Lady Tesslyn's offer to 6 coin. Manifort is a magistrate after all.
Maybe get more info on why their relationships with +/- factions are the way they are. Introduce NPC contacts for those factions.
Episode Three
Bluecoats: Caruthers and Mince.
Score 1: Coran
The crew got an excellent engagement roll and Alabaster nailed Coran square in the head from his sniper post across the street, killing him with a single shot. Hamza and Drona slipped away into the night. Very successful score.
Entanglement: Gang trouble or questioning. Caruthers and Mince came round to Hamza's place to ask him a few questions, but Hamza turned on the charm and sweet talked them into believing his alibi. I think Ron rolled a crit, so I wiped away the +2 heat they had gained and the two bluecoats are now on friendly terms with Hamza.
Score 2: Manifort
Mr. Rolm, 3 crew members, bodyguard (Samuel King), Manifort.
After gathering some info from Vesna Culbrick at the city council they find out that Manifort is an avid fisherman. Hamza heads to the docks to see if he can convince the dockers that Manifort had Sedric killed. Hamza does well on his sway roll and the dockers offer the crew another 6 coin to kill the magistrate, thereby doubling their potential payoff. They even provide the crew with a speedy boat with which to go after Manifort while he is at sea. Hamza meets with Manifort via Culbrick and rolls a consort crit which makes Manifort think he's the greatest and he insists on taking Hamza fishing as his guest.
After a pretty good engagement roll, Alabaster and Drona slide alongside Manifort's vessel. Manifort's bodyguard (Sam King) guesses something bad is afoot and takes a shot at Drona. Alabaster's rifle misfires and jams so he switches to pistols and lays down covering fire while Drona hulks out, downs his rage potion, and leaps into the other boat, sword swinging. He lops the head off the bodyguard, hurls a crewman into the sea, and cuts down a second crew member.
The captain throttles the Lightning in an effort to escape, but Alabaster plugs him with a ball of lead.
Meanwhile, Hamza, Manifort and Mr. Rolm flee down into the hold. Hamza shanks Manifort as the magistrate goes for a sword. Badly wounded and finally realizing that Hamza is trying to kill him, the pair square off for a duel. Hamza promptly rolls a 6 and stabs his target through the heart, killing him. He then dispatches poor Rolm.
As this is happening, Drona sees only enemies on the boat due to his berserker potion and must resist the urge to murder his ally, Hamza. In so doing, he takes a trauma and falls over unconscious.
Alabaster and Hamza transfer their friend to their boat and set Manifort's craft afire before heading back to land to collect 12 coin.
They get a +1 to their relationship with the Dockers.
Drona takes "Haunted" as his trauma.
Entanglement: Arrest! Deal with it next session.
Episode 4
Should probably start with the arrest entanglement.
Also go over their coin holdings. Also I think they get a Stash bonus for raising a tier.
Perhaps introduce Cariless Firm. Perhaps he has a target for them.
I like the idea of them attending a ball (a masquerade perhaps) and having Hamza see Nyryx in the company of a noble as his escort.
Further complications: Maybe the Billhooks get wind that the crew had something to do with the death of Coran. They might hear about a hefty reward being offered by the Billhooks for info on his murder.
Explore Drona's Haunted trauma.
Perhaps introduce Mr. Pebbles as a sort of foil to Cariless Firm. Mr. Pebbles is involved in a cult of demon worshipers who seek to free Rurunoth, a star demon, from his imprisonment. He will send the crew on a test mission to see if they have what it takes to handle further missions for him that will eventually lead to Rurunoth.
Mr. Pebbles wants them to kill Nathanial Rockwood. Drona manages to upset Mr. Pebbles to the point where he cuts their meeting off and shows them the door. Drona buys an apology basket.
Cariless meets with Alabaster, sets up a meeting with the crew at the Devil's Tooth.
Drona gets a 6 on his Sway to get back into Mr. Pebbles' good graces. Lydra agrees to set up another meeting.
Count Simon Gibson. Where Cariless Firm is hosting his soiree.
Score: Nathanial Rockwell. Entanglement: Flipped or Interrogation
Hamza overindulges. I believe he is going to choose another entanglement.
Look into bolstering crew rep.
Episode 5
Introduce Alex's character. A protégé of Cariless Firm's, perhaps?
First deal with the entanglement from their murder of Nathanial Rockwell (flipped or interrogation).
Then, deal with Drona's overindulgence. Another entanglement?
Start a clock for the Billhooks finding out some info about the crew's involvement with Coran's death. Probably an 8 clock.
On to the next score. Cariless Firm has invited them to a masquerade ball at the mansion of Count Simon Gibson. While there they are to figure out a way to assassinate Lady Winifred Muller. Lady Muller is a countess of high standing and is accompanied by Lord Sergey Cunningham.
Firm will tell them to come ready to work, but of course to not be ostentatious.
Also, Hamza will spot Nyryx there with another gentleman.
The Score: Lady Winifred Muller
Quellyn has Baneroot poison.
The ball is at the mansion of Count Simon Gibson in Charter Hall.
The Final Word is there, and Cariless will greet them and point out Lady Muller (wearing a cat mask), and Lord Cunningham (wearing a dog mask).
Among other nobles at the masquerade, Lord Scurlock is there.
Hamza will recognize Nyryx, resplendent in an expensive gown, wearing a fox mask. She is here with Phillip Oliver.
Engagement Roll: 3. Security, Johnathan Kitzman gives Alabaster grief. Alabaster rolls 666 on a Command and promptly turns Kitzman into his bitch!
Once inside, they meet Cariless Firm and Aldo. Firm points out Lady Muller and even offers them a 2 coin bonus if they happen to kill Lord Cunningham.
Hamza does his best to schmooze Lady Muller with mixed results. Hawk helps him out as much as he can before spotting Lord Scurlock disappearing through a door and decides to snoop after him a bit.
Hamza somewhat endears himself to the lady, although Lord Cunningham is not buying it and takes a dislike to Hamza. Hamza has poison but cannot find an opportunity to put it in her drink, so he introduces her to Alabaster instead. She drags him onto the dance floor and he promptly fails utterly to convince her that he is who he says he is.
So she decides to seduce him.
She drags Alabaster into an empty sitting room.
Meanwhile, Hamza decides to seduce Lord Cunningham. Cunningham is not won over, but sees a chance to humiliate his rival and pulls Hamza into a coat closet and pushes Hamza to his knees. Hamza complies and orally pleasures the dandy noble, relishing the fact that he has poisoned Cunningham's drink.
For most of this, Drona is chatting with Aldo.
Hawk discovers Lord Scurlock having a meal. Scurlock sees Hawk and the two exchange somewhat strained pleasantries.
Meanwhile, in the throes of passion, Alabaster makes his move, suffocating Lady Muller with a pillow and slipping out a window to make his escape.
Cunningham finishes and returns to his clique to talk smack about Hamza, but suddenly breaks out in boils and drops dead as Hamza, Drona and Hawk casually saunter out of the party.
Of note: they procured the poison -Baneroot- from Quellyn for the price of one coin.
Also, Alabaster realizes that he is missing a button from his jacket. (Lady Muller tore it off as she was being murdered. The investigator in charge of her case will find it clenched in her hand.
Episode 6
We took care of experience, but did not do downtime. Cariless Firm owes them 10 coin.
The addition of Hawk to the group presents some very interesting prospects. He is Cariless Firm's protégé, but Firm does not know that Lord Scurlock is Hawk's friend. Neither do the crew. Hawk knows that Firm intends to go after Scurlock. What will he do?
And how does Hawk know Scurlock? Are they actually relatives? Why are they friends/allies? Scurlock saved Hawk from slavery in Iruvia and was instrumental in bringing Hawk to Doskvol. Scurlock was going to kill him, but something about Hawk made him let him live. Scurlock helped Hawk escape and make it to Doskvol.
Furthermore, Hawk's enemy is Quellyn. She does not know that he is now with the crew, and the crew are unaware of the conflict between them.
So there's a lot of moving parts there. Hawk is treading very shaky ground and obviously knows it.
Some more things that Hawk knows: The whereabouts of The Final Word's hidden lair and how to access it. That Cariless Firm apparently has no heart. He knows about the hollow knights. He has an inkling of the Final Word's plan to assassinate Lord Scurlock. He knows that Lord Scurlock is a vampire. He has overheard the Final Word talking about Satara and She Who Slays In Darkness (although what he actually knows about those entities is still a mystery). He knows that there is some sort of connection between Satara and The Red Sashes, and that the Rat-A-Tat tattoo parlor is somehow involved. He knows that Cariless Firm is probably not of this earth.
Ret-con the scene where Hawk sees Scurlock feeding. Instead of the traditional biting and blood sucking, Scurlock draws his victims life essence from their mouth into his in the form of ghostly shadow stuff.
Hawk's former gang was The Eels, although they were not the original Eels. How does Hawk feel about their fate? Hawk does carry a bit of a grudge against Cariless for destroying the Eels.
Finally, Hawk wants to have a ghost pet ala Myth. Perhaps a long term project is in order. OH! This might be a good ritual project!
Some questions: Why does Chael hate Drona? Why does Quellyn hate Hawk? Dig into Hawk's goals. What does he think about Scurlock being a vampire? Maybe flesh out their relationship a little more.
How old are Drona, Alabaster and Hamza?
In this episode Cariless Firm will pay them and congratulate them on a job well done. He will promise more work in the future.
Mr. Pebbles will approach them about a new contract. He wants them to murder his rival in the cult of That Which Hungers in order to solidify his own position. The target is Gerrade Mormont. Mormont is a Captain in the Akarosi military by day, and a cultist by night. In addition to killing him, Mr. Pebbles wishes them to steal a book entitled, The Unblinking Eye.
In the meantime, the murder of Lady Muller and Lord Cunningham has not gone unnoticed. An inspector is now on the job. He is Francis Drochack.
Perhaps Lord Scurlock has lunch with Hawk. Maybe he has a job for them.
I need to dig into their personal goals a bit more and find bait specific to them.
How is the feud between The Ironborn and The Billhooks going? Maybe Ulf Ironborn has more work for them.
The Lampblacks and the Red Sashes are at war in Crow's Foot. The crew is on unfriendly terms with the Red Sashes. Why is that? Would Bazo Baz seek them out for a Red Sash murder?
Rules to brush up on: Teamwork maneuvers. P.134
Assist
Group Action
Protect
Set Up
Some ruling questions to address: How do they change their rep. P.93
Episode 7
Downtime and spending crew xp took some time, but after that was taken care of we got into some nuts and bolts.
I found out that Hawk, while in Iruvia, was destined to be sold into slavery when Scurlock, there on a visit for some reason, saw him and helped him escape. Why? We don't really know. Scurlock facilitated Hawk's travel to Doskvol. While en route, Scurlock was going to feed on him, but again, showed a strange mercy uncharacteristic of the vampire. Why? Again, we don't know. I'll need to give it some thought, because Hawk doesn't know either.
At any rate, Hawk feels a debt to Scurlock.
We dug into Hawk and Quellyn's story as well but all we could really nail down was that Hawk had somehow made her look bad. To who? And how?
The crew's post masquerade ball assassination entanglement came up as Demonic Notice or Show of Force. I chose Demonic Notice. Goheiem, a shadow demon, appeared to Alabaster with an offer: Slay an innocent in my name and I will bestow my blessings upon you.
Alabaster decides to make targets of the two kids who saw him on the roof during the Coran assassination. He wants them to be the innocents he kills for Goheiem but he fails to find them.
Hawk was cornered and questioned by Francis Drochack. When asked if he'd been at the ball Hawk lied and said he'd been at Spogg's dice game that night; an alibi Drochack will easily find out is baseless.
On top of that, Hawk overindulged his vice and got kicked out of Spogg's game and will need to find another purveyor for his vice.
Hawk also used a downtime to cast a ritual, summoning forth from the ghost field a dog very much like Myth. Hawk's dog is a ghostly Doberman named Shadow.
Cariless pays them for the murder of Lady Muller (with the added 2 coin bonus for killing Sir Cunningham).
Drona takes some heat off the crew by paying Johnathon Kitzman a visit and beating the holy hell out of him (Skirmish crit. A triple 6, I think). Kitzman is well and truly petrified of the gang.
They get a summons from Mr. Pebbles and Hamza and Hawk go to see him. Pebbles tells them that the target is Mormont and givers them information that the enemy cultist will be performing a ritual at the top of an abandoned coal factory's smokestack that has been converted into a tower in three days time. He offers them 6 coin. Hamza bargains it up to 7.
Alabaster and Drona go to scope out the factory and get into a face down with a youthful gang. The gang is, The Dead Hearts, led by Reesa, a 19 year old tough girl from the mean streets. The confrontation ends in a bit of a stalemate.
On the night of the ritual the crew head for the factory. Chris rolls a 6 on the engagement roll and they are in good position as they sneak into the building and up the ladder to the tower's first floor. Drona murders the first guard with no problem.
Up they go to the second floor, killing two more.
There are three more guards on the third floor. Drona takes a nasty sword wound and realizes that he's been carrying around a pistol ball all this time as well. But he does roll a pretty sweet crit and lays waste with his claymore.
Finally reaching the top of the tower, Shadow drags a cultist off the edge while Hawk shoots another fellow only to get stabbed himself. Drona follows and slices off Mormont's hand. The rest of the crew is soon there and they make short work of Mormont and the remaining cultist. They secure the book (The Unblinking Eye), and Alabaster finds his innocent victim in the form of a young girl who was to be sacrificed in Mormont's ritual. She becomes a sacrifice to Goheiem instead, and each crew member gets 2 xp.
We wrapped there. We did xp, but not downtime.
Episode 8
Entanglement from Tower score: Gang trouble or questioning.
Prologue: Take care of downtime. Hawk needs to find a new gambling place to indulge his vice. He'll go to Lady Caterby's gambling hall. The Golden Lion.
Mr. Pebbles owes them 7 coin.
Scurlock and Hawk probably need to have a chat.
Possible jobs:
Ulf Ironborn wants to damage the Billhooks.
The Lampblacks would like to hurt the Red Sashes.
Cariless Firm should not be inactive for too long.
Of course there is always Mr. Pebbles.
Maybe Lord Scurlock needs someone dead.
It might be time for the Red Sashes to make an appearance. OR… Bazo Baz and The Lampblacks might come seeking aide against the Sashes.
Veleris might come to Alabaster with information that his network of informants has heard of people asking for information about an albino Sevrosi. Is Steiner getting close?
Drochack might make another appearance, this time tracking down one of the other crew members to ask a few friendly questions. If he talks to Alabaster he will show the missing button from Alabaster's coat.
Just to put it in writing, what I'd really like would be for Hawk to find himself in a position of having to choose between his loyalty to Scurlock and The Final Word. How I can make that happen I'm not so sure.
For one thing, I need to press Ron a little bit about his plans regarding Scurlock.
It could be that Cariless means to use Hawk as a way to get at Scurlock.
Could be I need to find a way to strengthen Hawk's loyalty to Cariless. As it stands, Hawk has no real love for Cariless.
Hawk and Quellyn.
Alex has said that the enmity between them is because he made her look bad. For the life of me I can't figure out how to make that work. So maybe he'll be open to an alternative. How about: Before Hawk met the Eels and the Final Word, he was involved in a heist with another gang during which a friend of Quellyn's (Bailey Short) was killed. She found out the identities of those involved and holds a grudge. Perhaps Rune has told her that Hawk is now part of The Final Word (or was) and Quellyn is hesitant to tell Aldo, not wanting to pit him against someone that has ties to Aldo's own gang.
Hawk doesn't know that she knows and would be pretty sure that if she did know, she'd tell Aldo and Aldo would make short work of him.
Complicated.
Maybe Aldo DOES know (Quellyn told him), but Aldo ran it by Cariless and Cariless has forbade Aldo from killing Hawk since he needs Hawk in order to get close to Scurlock.
Either way, Hawk doesn't know how much of this any of the Final Word knows.
Alex came up with a story that works. Write it out.
Hawk and Scurlock.
Have Scurlock contact Hawk via a ghost messenger. The ghost will instruct Hawk to visit Scurlock in Six Towers. Scurlock will have a drink or three with Hawk and converse with him about a few topics.
He might tell Hawk that he didn't kill him after his escape from Iruvia because he recognized that Hawk was a whisper. Scurlock understands how rare and valuable a Whisper can be, and because of his own connection to the supernatural he decided to let the lad live, to see what might become of him. One never knows when one might have need of a Whisper who owes one a debt.
He might also discuss his vampirism. Scurlock might admit that Hawk is one of the very few who knows his true nature. He might wonder aloud how Hawk feels about it.
Scurlock might also talk about a group of assassins that have made some waves in the city. Cariless Firm and The Final Word. He might mention that Cariless has made significant inroads into the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh. This troubles Scurlock. He has no love for the Church (he is, in fact, enemies with them), but his spies have told him that Cariless has shown some interest in Scurlock; asking questions about him and so forth. Has Hawk heard of them?
Scurlock will quiz Hawk about his presence at the Gibson ball. Does Scurlock, in fact, already know that Hawk has a connection to Firm?
I'm beginning to think it might be interesting if Quellyn was a spy for Scurlock. Although this would be tricky, given that Caterby always knows when someone is lying to her. Still, so far Quellyn has given no reason not to trust her.
Drona and Chael.
Chael is currently a member of the Grinders and plies his trade in Coalridge.
Maybe the crew hears that The Grinders have been making a bit of noise in Coalridge. Normally they work the docks, but lately they seem to have gained a foothold in Coalridge and appear to be expanding their territory.
Maybe they approach the Solution demanding a tithe of their profits after having got wind of them via Chael. Might be cool to force the crew to deal with this gang.
This might become a bit sticky since The Grinders are allies with both the Dockers and Ulf Ironborn.
The Episode
Starting off with downtime, the crew collected their fee and set off to do their respective errands. Hawk needed to heal and find a new vice den. He chose to utilize Lady Caterby's Golden Lion gambling den and got rid of some stress. Healing was a bit more expensive for him since he is loath to go to Quellyn. A visit to Johan set him right, but it was probably far more expensive than it needed to be.
Drona, on the other hand, has no beef with Quellyn, and after a bit of convincing and some bribery she agreed to see to his wounds. He was pretty badly beat up so it took some doing. When all was said and done he was broke and still carried that pistol ball in him (note: when that bullet is finally removed, maybe give it to him as a souvenir).
Hamza and Alabaster, worried that the Billhooks might find out that they were the cause of Coran's death, decide to try to frame Kale, of the Red Sashes. They get to work on a clock and almost fill it up. Actually they do fill it up. Correct my mistake re: crits and clocks.
Speaking of Hawk and Quellyn, we find out that the cause of the enmity between them stems from an occurrence that happened some time ago. It seems that, during his time with the Eels, one of that gang was injured. They took him to Quellyn, but for reasons she did not divulge, she refused to treat him. Hawk took this personally and gave her a piece of his mind. The two have been on bad terms ever since.
Hawk pays Scurlock a visit and learns quite a few things. Scurlock tells Hawk that he didn't kill him after the escape from Iruvia because he recognized Hawk's talents and decided to see what fate had in store for the lad. Not to mention that it never hurts to have a Whisper owe you a favor.
They discuss Scurlock's vampirism a bit, and then the conversation turns to Cariless Firm and the Final Word. Hawk is able to tell Scurlock a few things he didn't know about Firm, and vice versa. Scurlock also explains a bit of the nature of She Who Slays In Darkness and Satara.
Finally, Scurlock asks that Hawk be his eyes and ears on the inside of The Final Word, and obviously to warn him if need be. He also reveals that he has another agent on the inside and tells Hawk that person's name.
Alabaster is paid a visit by Francis Drochack while he's trying to enjoy a chamber music concert. Alabaster is wholly uncooperative and stonewalls the inspector. Drochack is left with no choice but to employ some bluecoat muscle to get Alabaster to the station and into an interrogation room. The questioning takes awhile and Alabaster more or less successfully bluffs his way out, but Drochack did catch him in at least one lie. The Inspector promises that they will meet again.
Meanwhile, The Grinders show up at the lair, eight men strong. Matthew Sullivan, their leader, explains to Hamza that it's time to tithe. Hamza is having none of it and tells Sullivan to get bent, in so many words. The Grinders promise to return, but eventually leave.
The crew gather and try to come up with a plan to deal with the Grinders. They wonder if going to war with them will be an issue with Cariless Firm, so Hawk and Alabaster set up a meeting with him. Firm and Aldo meet them at the Devil's Tooth and Cariless tells the fellas that he has no problem with them dealing with their rivals, but also that he has a job for them.
He want's an amulet that is in the possession of a leviathan hunter captain by the name of Kolby Puloch, who lives near the docks and keeps the amulet in his safe, the key for which he keeps on him at all times.
How hard could it be?
They settle on a frontal assault and promptly roll a 1 on the engagement roll. Kicking open the front door, Drona is greeted by a hull. Drona soon finds out that hulls are very dangerous indeed. Drona, Alabaster and Hawk stay downstairs to deal with the hull while Hamza heads upstairs in search of Captain Puloch. He finds him in the upstairs hallway and soon wishes he hadn't as the steely eyed leviathan hunter begins to carve him up like Christmas ham.
Back downstairs, Drona downs his rage potion and, despite taking a hell of a beating, rips the arm off of the hull and uses it to beat the mechanical beast into junk.
Alabaster and Hawk head up to aide Hamza.
The captain hits Shadow hard enough to dissipate the ghost dog before returning to bleed out Hamza. Hamza is in bad shape, but finally Alabaster gets in a good shot, blowing the captains brains all over the wall.
Drona, in the grips of his rage, must resist the impulse to murder his own comrades, and fortunately, does so.
We wrapped there for there for the night. They still need to get the amulet and make their escape.
We did xp, but as the score is not yet over, no downtime.
Episode 9
Prologue: They are still in Captain Puloch's home. The captain and his guardian hull are dead. Gunshots were fired, so back up may be on the way.
Also, I think Drona may have to "Not stop until it's all broken" or resist it. He did resist the urge to kill his pals; maybe he'll have fun smashing up the place.
On Puloch they will find his sword, which is magical, and potent against ghosts. The sword is named, Shavatook's Razor. Also his ring is magical. Once per session it can provide the wearer +1d.
Breaking into Puloch's safe, they will find the amulet and enough coin to sweeten this score. There is also a scroll with the amulet:
The Eye Of Katara. Do not allow contact with unclothed flesh. Only he who has preformed the proper rituals and is possessing of great strength in mind, body and spirit should attempt to attune to this device. Once donned and mastered, no demon may exorcise it's will lest the wearer so deems it.
I did NOT take care of the entanglement from their last score (the tower hit). It is either gang trouble or questioning. Get it done!
More than likely they will escape back to the lair and lick their wounds. Drona and Hamza are pretty beat up, and I think all of them have high stress, so I imagine that will be the order of the day.
They might want to think about hiring a Physicker full time.
Note: During their work on the long term project to frame the Red Sashes for Coran's murder, one of them (I think it was Alabaster) rolled a crit. That should have filled in 5 ticks on the clock instead of 3, so I owe them for that. That means the clock is actually full and Kale will take the fall for Coran's murder. The downside of this is that the Red Sashes will now want answers, not to mention putting them at odds with the Billhooks.
The Grinders still want their cut. Their clock will begin to fill.
Furthermore, maybe Francis Drochack has an axe to grind with the Grinders and may use the Solution to hurt them. That would be a nice bit of blackmail.
Perhaps Goheiem will approach Alabaster again. Maybe we can turn him into a serial killer.
Is Drona still carrying around that bullet? I'd sure like to give it to him as a souvenir.
I'd like to have Quellyn get involved. She's a talented healer and the crew knows that. Maybe the crew are invited back to the Final Word's lair for the exchange of amulet for reward and Cariless throws in Quellyn's services as a bonus.
While she is seeing to their wounds she may find a moment to speak with Hawk alone. She might tell him the reason she refused to aide Hawk's friend, William Short. It seems that she and Short were once friends when they were quite young, but things took a nasty turn as William became more and more involved with the underworld. Eventually he decided that Quellyn would be his woman. When she resisted his advances, he took her by force.
Hawk knows of her connection to Scurlock, and she might know about Hawk. Does she bring that up?
Story arc for season finale: So what I would very much like to do is have the season story arc culminate with a showdown between Lord Scurlock and The Final Word. Ideally this would include a plot where The Solution - and Hawk in particular - somehow deliver victory to Cariless Firm without the PC's knowing they are doing so until a big reveal at the end.
Essentially Cariless is playing puppet master, setting Hawk and the crew up by manipulating them into bringing Scurlock into an ambush or vulnerable situation while they think they are actually doing the opposite. Only after it's all said and done will they realize (with a bit of monologuing from Cariless, probably), that it's all been part of his plan.
Ideally this would also end with Quellyn being outed as a loyal Scurlock minion, after which Aldo will kill her, though it breaks his heart to do so.
I feel like I have most of the pieces to make this happen, but I can't quite work out how to fit them together.
One idea: They've just stolen the amulet from Captain Puloch. What if the amulet was a cursed item that, once worn, sucks the wearers spirit into it?
Cariless lets it be known to Quellyn that the Solution is currently on a mission to retrieve the amulet, but tells her that it is actually an artifact of great power used for controlling demons. It is The Eye Of Katara, he leads her to believe.
Quellyn goes to Scurlock and tells him this while the crew is on the mission. Scurlock instructs her to intercept them before they deliver the amulet to Firm. She will tell them what she believes to be true, that the amulet is the Eye of Katara, and that with it Scurlock can defeat Cariless easily. Not only that, but Scurlock is willing to double their payment. Also, he will offer his protection to them.
Assuming they take the bait, Scurlock will take the amulet, pay them 18 coin, and want them to aide him in ambushing Firm. He'll tell them to contact him as usual and have him meet them at the Devil's Tooth for the exchange of coin for amulet. Scurlock will be waiting there, in hiding, and reveal himself with the amulet, ready to put it on and control Firm.
But… he will put the amulet around his neck and the moment it touches his skin his essence will be drawn into it, effectively imprisoning him for good.
Quellyn will have accompanied him, revealing her treachery before Scurlock puts the cursed item on. Too late, she will realize that she has been nothing more than a pawn in Firm's game. Aldo will snap her neck.
Cariless will spare the Solution. He harbors no ill will for Alabaster, Hamza and Drona. Treachery is all part of the life, and he can hardly fault them for taking a bigger payday. As for Hawk, he magnanimously suggests that, now that he no longer owes a debt to Scurlock, there should be no bad blood between them.
Cariless will fill them in about the role Scurlock played in killing Aldo's sister.
Trapping Scurlock's spirit will provide the last component Cariless needs to preform the ritual that will return him to demon-hood. He will do just that and disappear from the city, leaving Aldo, Rune and Miss Caterby to do as they wish.
One issue I have is time. I'd like to have all this happen during the last session before Ron takes over Dming again, but I have no idea how to stretch this out for another three weeks. Maybe this isn't the worst thing that could happen though. The PC's will largely be bystanders while all this plays out, so maybe a better season finale can be worked out.
The more I think about the above scenario the less I love it. It casts the PC's as mere bystanders and I'd rather they have a more active role in things.
Think, think, think…
The Episode
No Alex tonight so that whole storyline got shelved for the time being.
As Drona, still in the grips of his rage, destroys the house, the rest of the crew toss the upstairs looking for the safe. Alabaster finds it and uses the key to loot it while Hamza cuts off Puloch's hand and uses it to write anti Imperial/pro Skovlan rhetoric on the walls in blood. Alabaster finds a box, some cash, papers containing potentially valuable leviathan hunting information, and a scroll. Hamza takes Puloch's ring and sword while Hawk tries to calm Drona down.
Eventually they slip away from the house and are met at their lair by Quellyn. She is there to speak to Hawk, but she treats their wounds for free and asks them to wait twenty-four hours before giving the amulet to Cariless. She convinces Hawk to leave with her, saying they need to talk to someone.
This delays their payment from the score, but they did find 6 coin in the safe, so that gives them something to spend. Good thing, because the entanglement from their last score is Lydra being picked up for questioning. She gets word to the crew and Hamza pays off the Bluecoats for her release. He asks that she come visit them soon; he wants her to be a go-between to sell the leviathan hunter information.
No sooner has he returned than their newest entanglement arrives. Arrest! A contingent of Bluecoats shows up, led by Sargant Klellan. This ends up costing them another three coin to get him to shove off.
They get into downtime, getting rid of stress and heat, only to have Alabaster overindulge and brag, costing them more heat. They also get more recovery from Johan, who has now advanced to a Tier I Physicker. When all is said and done, they are mostly broke.
Goheiem visits Alabaster at his home and the two strike a deal. Alabaster gets the, A Little Something On The Side ability in exchange for accepting Goheiem as his new stress purveyor. Alabaster will now slay innocents in the demons name to relieve his stress. This also puts him on the path of the Forgotten Gods and earns him his first trauma.
Hamza visits Nyryx and the pair have a nice dinner while sharing gossip. Through her Hamza finds out that Kale, of the Red Sashes, has been murdered in retribution for the murder of Coran. The Billhooks are known to be behind the murder, and they and the Red Sashes are now at war. Hamza is delighted to hear this, but it bears remembering (cautions Nyryx) that the Sashes are renown for their retributive ways. They are now looking for the real culprit.
Hamza and Alabaster rejoin Drona at the lair just in time for yet another visitor. It is Francis Drochack with what he frames as a mutually beneficial proposition for them. He explains that the Grinders are Skovlan rebels and he knows that their leader, Hutton, is going to be at an exchange of coin six hours from now in Dunslough. He wants them to kill the Grinder leader. In exchange, they may keep the coin if they can retrieve it, and he will also make the rather large file of evidence against them disappear.
They take the job and scope the area out. They decide on an assault and roll a 6 on the Engagement roll, which allows them to position themselves as they wish and use a flashback to wire the area with dynamite.
The unknown faction shows up with the coin (7 of them), followed shortly by Hutton and five more of his men, including Chale.
Hamza sets off the explosives, killing five of the men outright and sending the rest reeling. Hutton is badly wounded.
Alabaster steps out of his hiding place and shoots the first man he sees in the head.
Drona charges out from another direction and promptly cuts Hutton nearly in half. Chale, seeing his leader killed at the hands of his arch enemy, flees with Drona in hot pursuit.
Hamza enters the fray and uses his pistols to good effect, but fares a bit badly against a machete wielding tough. Alabaster scatters three of them and kills a fourth. He Commands them to flee and one does.
Drona chases Chale down the alleyways until he corners him. Chale draws his blade and slashes at Drona, drawing blood, but Drona grabs him and impales him on his claymore, watching the life drain from his foe.
The last of the men in the vacant lot are killed. Hamza and Drona are wounded, but they find 8 coin in the lockbox, which takes a bit of the sting out. They pocket the loot and head home.
During downtime the Entanglement roll goes bad and the Red Sashes decide to make a play on their territory. Unwilling to give up their hold, they opt for war! Hamza throws the death of Kale in their faces. Things will surely be heating up between the two factions.
Alabaster murders his first victim for stress relief.
Tired of unexpected visitors to their lair, they move into a hidden lair (the basement of an abandoned train depot in Coalridge. With crew quarters.
We'll be breaking here for the foreseeable future, but hopefully we will return with a new season of The Solution.
Episode 10
Prologue: An unexpected session due to Ron's anniversary!
Two major things to consider. 1) No Hamza for this episode. I feel like he will be captured, likely by either the Grinders or the Red Sashes. 2) Brady is joining the crew, so we'll need to get him a character and a believable reason for him to join.
First things first: Quellyn and Hawk will have their discussion. Scurlock may also be involved. In fact, He will make his offer for the amulet of 16 coin. Quellyn will tell Hawk about William Short and the fact that he raped her. This will also mean that Quellyn knows about Hawk's connection to Scurlock and vice versa.
Hamza will be captured by The Red Sashes, which makes sense given that the crew is now at war with them and also that Hamza basically threw the death of Kale in their faces. To further complicate things, the capture will happen during their move to the new lair. Hamza will have been traveling with the amulet when he is abducted. Either the Red Sashes now have the amulet, or Hamza may have been able to stash it before his capture.
Brady will need a reason to become involved with the crew. I'll give the players a chance to come up with one, but if they can't I think perhaps that he has just been released from Iron Hook prison and is a close friend or relative of one of the PC's.
The Red Sashes have Hamza imprisoned in one of their lairs. It is an underground hold in Crows Foot. Lydra will alert the crew to this after hearing about it from her contact in The Lampblacks. Or… perhaps the Lampblacks will simply tell the crew themselves. Any hit on the Sashes is good for them.
Somewhere in there Cariless Firm will certainly want his amulet. Their 24 hours will be up very soon.
The Episode
Brady and Nick join our game tonight. Ron is absent (wedding anniversary).
Hawk and Quellyn have a chat on the way to Scurlock's manse. She tells him about William Short and the rape. Hawk keeps his feelings about this to himself even as they get to Scurlock's.
The upshot of their conversation with Scurlock is that he wants the amulet and is willing to double the price for it (16 coin). He arranges to make the offer anonymously so as not to cast suspicion on Hawk.
Hawk returns to the new lair and they soon find out through Lydra that Hamza has been captured by the Red Sashes. Alabaster seems in no hurry to effect a rescue, but it turns out that they captured the amulet along with Hamza, and that interests him greatly now that the offer of 16 coin has been made.
Lydra found out about Hamza's capture via her contacts in the Lampblacks. The Lampblacks, being also at war with the Red Sashes, are only too happy to aide the Solution as long as it hurts their rivals. They provide them with information about the whereabouts of Hamza (the Rat-a-Tat tattoo parlor), as well as two low level cohorts, Jasper and Kropotkin, played by Brady and Nick respectively. Both of these new scoundrels feel that their talents are going to waste with the Lampblacks and they are eager to join a crew that will make better use of them, with the promise of better pay.
Lydra makes the introductions, and soon Alabaster and Jasper set out to scope out the tattoo parlor in Crow's Foot. Jasper does an excellent job of sneaking around outside the place and returns with a rough number of men they will have to face, as well as overheard assurance that Hamza is indeed in the basement of the place.
The crew gathers and hits two of the Sashes as they step into the ally for a smoke. The pair go down quite silently, but Kropotkin, at the front of the store, tosses a grenade through the front window and blows two more guards to bits.
With the element of Surprise gone, they charge in the back door. Drona kicks open the door to the basement stairs only to come face to face with a shotgun. Drona manages to slay it’s wielder as he looses both barrels into the ceiling.
In the basement they find an odd pool of water and Hydrothi runes crowding the walls. Hawk attunes and soon understands that this is a shrine of sorts to the demon, Satara. Even as he relays this to the crew, a ghost attacks Drona.
Drona fights back, but the ghost is tough, even knocking out Shadow when Hawk directs the ghost dog to attack. Kropotkin douses an axe in ghost oil and promptly crits the phantom, dissipating it.
Through another door and into a sewer tunnel, Jasper takes out another pair of guards silently with a crit of his own. They see light down the tunnel and hear Hamza as well! Kropotkin hands a blind powder bomb to Drona who tosses it into the room, blinding two of the Sashes there.
The crew charge in. It’s a bit touch and go for a moment, given all of their stress levels, and a few of the gang take some hits. But eventually they slay the Sash thugs, and the one true Red Sash swordsman there.
They find six coin, the amulet, and Hamza, who they quickly escort back to their lair.
They gain their first Wanted level, and we skip the Entanglement for this score, at least until I find out whether or not Entanglement complications can be resisted.
It was a quick wrap up, but we did manage to take care of downtime and xp.
Alex had to leave early, so make sure he gets his xp (3, I believe).
They did get a message from Cariless Firm stating that he is eagerly awaiting his amulet.
Episode 11
Prologue: The Steiner clock is full! He knows where Alabaster is!
We should find out just how much information Hamza spilled under torture.
(He lies to them about Kale successfully. He also lies about the amulet, but they beat the crap out of him.)
The slave hunters track down Hamza. Their clock is full!
Check Alex's xp. I feel like he should be more advanced than he is.
Note: The Entanglement question has been answered. You cannot resist entanglement consequences. The crew now has a Wanted level, so there's that to deal with.
The Episode
We retcon a bit to see just what Hamza gives up to the Red Sashes under interrogation. He rolls a crit Sway when they ask him about Kale. That throws them off pretty good and they lose two ticks on their investigation clock.
We deal with Hamza's downtime and a little bit of healing for he and Jasper.
Next, we straight screw over Brandon because he couldn't make it to the game tonight on account of having a cold. Who better, then, to take the shaft for the Wanted level the crew now has? Ron rolls the Incarceration Roll and comes up with a 2. Drona gets a Trauma.
Hamza, Alabaster, Jasper and Hawk gather the next morning to decide what to do with the amulet. They eventually think better of screwing over Cariless Firm and opt to honor the original deal.
Alabaster and Jasper set off for the tavern from which they send and receive messages (The Mother Goat) only to find Aldo and Rune already waiting there for them. It is quite clear, despite Aldo's friendly demeaner, that they mean business. Cariless want's his amulet. Alabaster stays at the bar while Jasper returns to the lair to fetch Hamza and the amulet.
On their way back to the Goat, Hamza realizes that they are being followed by some dangerous looking Iruvians. Jasper leads a group Prowl to give them the slip, which they do, but they know that something is up.
Once at the bar they make the exchange and collect their 8 coin payment.
Jasper heads back to the spot where they saw the Iruvians and eventually finds five of them gathered in a coffee shop. He manages to eavesdrop on them and finds out that they are escaped slave hunters looking for Hamza. He returns to the lair and fills the rest of the crew in.
There is quite a bit of talk about possibly poisoning the slave hunters, and eventually Hamza, Jasper and Hawk go to Quellyn's to purchase a poison. Unfortunately poison is expensive and their funds are a little low. Hamza does end up purchasing a single does of Folic Bark and a does of it's antidote for some possible future use. Quellyn does manage to ask Hawk what the crew decided to do with the amulet and Hawk tells her. Scurlock will, no doubt, be unhappy with that turn of events, but there wasn't much Hawk could do about it.
The Score: Jasper gathers some info and finds out that the group of Iruvians has been coming back to the same coffee shop at around noon for the last few days. The crew decides on a Deception ploy using Hamza as bait to draw them into an ambush in a dead end ally. Alabaster and Hawk set up in the ally, and Jasper will follow the slave hunters as they follow Hamza.
We decide on two dice for the engagement roll and Alex volunteers to roll them, promptly rolling a pair of 6's! A crit!
Thus, the set up goes off without a hitch. Hamza saunters into the coffee shop as if he didn't have a care in the world, orders a meat pie and saunters back out again. The slave hunters, hardly able to believe their luck, quickly follow their quarry through the crowded streets, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Jasper trails them.
Into the ally, Hamza rounds the corner and shimmies up to the roof via a prearranged rope. As the slavers get to the corner, Jasper is in motion from behind, running silently after them and hurling a knife at the last guy. Due to the engagement crit I put their first round of attacks at Controlled/Great. Jasper gets a 6 and drops his man without a sound.
Hawk is waiting behind a door that leads out into the ally and kicks it open, blasting away with a pair of pistols. He wounds one of them but not fatally.
Alabaster, above them on the roof, also unloads his pistols, but he's a Hound and has much better luck. He gets a 6 and because of the Controlled/Great position/effect, he kills the wounded guy and takes out another with his volley.
Hamza pulls his own pistols, but can't get a clear shot.
The slaver in the rear draws his scimitar and turns to escape the ally, intending to go right through Jasper if need be. But Brady/Jasper has a hot hand and drops another 6, taking the guy between the eyes, killing him.
Another slaver charges at Hawk, but Hawk is just able to slam the door shut, blocking the attack, although he did drop one of his pistols.
Alabaster drops fresh rounds into his own guns and opens fire. He had three dice to roll and tosses not one, not two, but three 6's! What could I do but make that a cinematic moment?
The ball from his left pistol hits the slaver at Hawk's door square in the back of the head, killing him. The last slaver pulls back his arm to hurl his dagger at Hamza, but Alabaster is tracking it with his right hand and blows the knife out of the air. Even as he does so, he's reloading his left pistol one-handed and brings it around to plug the last guy right between the eyes. The last slaver drops dead.
They search the bodies quickly, finding a few coin and a contract for the return of Hamza to his former owner with a stated reward of 8 coin. Hamza is pleased that he is worth so much.
We broke for the night there and did downtime. Alabaster elected to ignore his vice and take another stress which gave him his second Trauma, pushing him another step down his evil road and granting him still more demonic powers.
Entanglement: Gang Trouble or Usual Suspects. Have not done this one yet. Take care of it.
We did xp.
Note: Give Brandon a break. It was hilarious, but giving the poor guy a trauma while he wasn't there is probably a bit much. Figure something else out.
