Blades in the Dark: Smashing Pumpkin('s house)

Last time we got our plan together (inasmuch as you ever have a plan together for Blades), this time we did the thing! On we go!

Not a great start for the Snakeskins, unfortunately - the Cabbies, another Duskwall faction apparently allied with the Wraiths, were hanging around outside the Wraiths' tower. That would have made it very difficult to sneak in. Fortunately, Two-Tooth had already covered this (through the magic of the flashback!). See, Two-Tooth had gone into Brightstone (where the theaters are located) and arranged things so that the Cabbies who would usually be around when the shows let out...weren't. This caused a sudden demand for Cabbies, and lo and behold, shortly after the Snakeskins arrive at the Wraiths' tower, the Cabbies pick up and leave!

One goat gets a little stubborn, but Moon sends a ghost over to goose it a bit and make it move. Now with a clear path into the tower, Sower opens a window a little and lets Aksha slither in to check for traps. Aksha, unfortunately, finds a warm spot and curls up without really letting the scoundrels know anything, so that doesn't help much. 

Sower takes up a position on a nearby rooftop to act as lookout/sniper, while the other three sneak into the building (Two-Tooth gives Hollow a boost to go first, but good news! No traps!). They all three slip in, and the ground floor is nothing but storage and some squiggles on the walls, which Moon recognizes as practice for summoning demons. They slip upstairs and on the second floor, find a makeshift lab with a bunch of spirit bottles. Hollow goes to check it out and trips a wire attached to an alarm bell, but Two-Tooth grabs it and silences it in the nick of time! 

Aksha, by now, has woken up and crawled into Moon's pocket (which is a kind of religious experience for her). Also, before the score Moon and Sower worked a way to co-attune to the snake so that they could communicate through her. Sower, across the street, peers into the fifth and sixth floor windows. On the sixth, she sees several Wraiths in masks. On the fifth, she sees Jack (the guy in the jack o'lantern mask) and Pumpkin, alone. She sends this information to Aksha to relay to Moon, and after a brief bit of confusion ("what the hell does she mean there's 'gourds'?"), they figure it out. They'll have to deal with the folks on five, but there's just the two.

They head up the stairs, quietly, and manage to get there without alerting the place (though they do trip a trap that sends a ghost hurtling through them, zapping them all with electro-plasmic energy. Two-Tooth: "GAAH I so prefer getting punched in the face."). They get to the fifth floor and Two-Tooth pulls out a Cabbie's cap and walks in, knocking on their door and affecting a north Duskwall accent, asking for help. "Just need a minute, don't want goat-bundles all over your doorstep, right, just a minute, please." 

Jack follows closely, and Two-Tooth leads him to the stairwell, and then jukes out of the way! Hollow gives Jack a snoot-full of standstill poison, which paralyzes him. Pumpkin, however, wasn't close enough behind, and she runs.

"Lethal force now?" asks Hollow. "NO," says Two-Tooth and tackles her. "DRUGS DRUGS DRUGS!" Hollow doses her with trance powder and she goes limp. They tie her up (and hogtie Jack and hang him from the ceiling), and Two-Tooth questions her a little. Turns out she's getting inducted into the Wraiths because she stole a valuable map book - it's right in the other room! Moon goes to grab it (deftly dodging more wire-traps with the help of a friendly ghost). 

Curious, Two-Tooth takes Jack's mask off...and sees that his eyes are sewn shut. "OK, then." 

Hollow sets up the explosives on the ceiling to drop the spirit well, and Two-Tooth tries to set the charges in the stairwell...but then the electrical fuses start to spark. "Uh, Hollow?" "OH SHIT TIME TO GO."

Two-Tooth grabs Pumpkin, and yells for someone to cut Jack down, but Hollow doesn't bother and Moon doesn't hear. Sower does, fortunately, and after accidentally putting a bullet in his leg, she shoots the rope holding him. Hopefully he survives the explosion, too!

They leave Pumpkin just outside the tower ("Don't fuck with Madame Tesslyn," Two-Tooth reminds her as the drugs wear off), and split. 

Back at the boathouse, they talk over what to do with the book - both the Leviathan Hunters and the Hive want it. In the end, they decide to make a copy and sell one to both (that might bounce back on them if the Hunters find out, but that's a problem for future-Snakeskins!). This job definitely brought some heat, but fortunately no one died, so it's not as bad as it could be. However, Sower still gets brought in for questioning and pays off the Bluecoats. 

The scoundrels go about their various hobbies - Hollow indulges in fine dining, Moon goes to visit her spiritual leader about her growing ophid worship, and Sower...well, Sower overdose it and vanishes into Duskwall for a while. She does manage to scare some folks into leaving whatever they think they know about the Snakeskins alone, however, and this coupled with Two-Tooth spreading rumors and misdirection takes some of the heat off. 

Hollow starts working on a "chemical lockpick," something that burns hot enough to melt any lock. Two-Tooth hires a street doc to help the crew heal up from the ghost-zaps they endured. And the crew sets their sights on making sabotage jobs more profitable by setting up covert drops up around the area. The Crows, another gang, already has such "nests" - all the Snakeskins have to do is take 'em.

Blades in the Dark: A Quickie

Not like that. Although we did wind up at a brothel first thing. (Seems to be happening a lot in the RPGs I'm in lately.)

So, here we are back in Duskwall, with our lovable scamps, the Snakeskins! Having gotten a lead on a job, Two-Tooth and Kesket head to the district of Silkshore, to the Red Light (a classy establishment, thank you) to talk to Madame Tesslyn. 

Turns out that Tesslyn has an interesting job for them. Recently, another minor gang called the Wraiths came into the Red Light and started making trouble. And someone called "Pumpkin" stole a book of maps that several parties are interested in getting back - Leviathan Hunters, for one. Now, Tesslyn doesn't care about the book per se; the Snakeskins are free to sell it to whomever they wish. What she really wants is for the Wraiths to be taught a lesson.Two-Tooth and Kesket agree that this is a job they can do, and they decide since they're in Silkshore anyway they'll swing by the tower that the Wraiths have been hanging out in lately and do a little casing.

The tower is about eight stories. Kesket sends her magic snake Aksha in and notes some strange, arcane writings on the wall on the first floor before she gets bored and eats a rat. They head back to the HQ, where Hollow and Moon have been waiting (Moon has been building a snake-tree for Aksha to lounge on). Kesket sketches out the sigils for Moon, her being the crew's resident Whisper.

Moon says that the sigils appear to be a kind of low-grade demon-summoning spell. The crew kicks around ideas for what that might mean - a trap that summons a demon? Practice? Aftermath of a successful summoning? But Moon guesses that it's pretty benign, at least so far. Moon and Hollow decide to go have a look, while Two-Tooth drops in on his friend Nyryx (Pumpkin was apparently trying to find work at Red Light, so if she's plied the trade on the streets before, Nyryx might have met her).

In Silkshore, Moon tunes into the ghost field, and discovers a lot of spirits hanging around the building. There's a spirit well on the sixth floor, and her guess is that the Wraiths are trying to use it as a power source. She doesn't detect any demonic activity, so maybe they're just taking their first steps into demon summoning, but there's definitely some pissed-off ghosts around.

Meanwhile, Two-Tooth learns that Pumpkin isn't officially a Wraith, she's the paramour of one of the Wraiths, a man called Jack who wears a mask like a carved gourd (Me: "Does Halloween exist in this world?" The GM: "Any world I run in a game in would have Halloween."). She's been trying to hustle, trying to find her own angle, and stealing this book might well have been her ticket. Except the Snakeskins are gonna screw that up for her, but that's life.

The crew reconvenes and discusses their options. Two-Tooth suggests setting explosives beneath the spirit well and dropping it down a floor, perhaps damaging or destroying it, but definitely alerting anyone in the area (like, say, the Spirit Wardens) as to what's going on. Kesket further suggests destroying staircases and ladders leading to the upper floors, trapping the Wraiths in their own building - no maiming or murder necessary, but it'll definitely be a strong message. The Snakeskins gear up and get ready to go to work.

Blades in the Dark: The Snakeskins!

Last night we began a new game of Blades in the Dark - wherein I finally get to be a player! Nifty!

In the decaying Penderyn estate in Six Towers, beneath boathouse, is the lair of the Snakeskins, a gang of Shadows just beginning their foray into the criminal world of Doskvol. They have a reputation as being daring - they'll take jobs that are, perhaps, a little above their weight, but pull them off with some panache. (We'll see if that rep holds up.)

Our scoundrels are:

• Kesket, aka Sower, the Hound. Kesket is a native of Tycheros, and has iridescent scales over her body that glitter in good light (so almost never, in Doskvol). She's interesting growing plants, but first she needs to fashion some of those glowy plants that allow other ones to grow. She has a very large and highly venomous sea snake named Aksha as her hunting pet.
• Mara Keal, aka Moon, the Whisper. Moon is from the Dagger Isles, and engages in ancestor worship. She believes that Aksha is the reincarnate of one of her venerated forebears. She's also always cold; the climate of Doskvol doesn't agree with her.
• Arquo Maroden, aka Two-Tooth, the Slide. Two-Tooth is also from the Dagger Isles, maybe, but it hardly matters. He washed up on the docks of Doskvol, the only survivor of a shipwreck, and his early life is something of a blur. He's socially adept and clever with disguise, but he also really enjoys having the snot pummeled out of him (it's not the pain, he insists, it's the clarity that comes after). 
• Syra Strangford, aka Hollow, the Leech. Hollow was expelled from Charterhall University after some...things may have exploded. He wears a gas mask, a long coat, and gloves at all times, to prevent others from recognizing him - no one knows, but he's a lost scion of the Strangford family.

On this particular day(?) in Doskvol, the scoundrels are in their lair, having recently taken possession of a boat from Volaris, their contact in the Ministry of Preservation. Hollow is cheerfully mixing explosives; Moon informs him that if he blows up the boathouse, he's out. 

The boat comes with a note (but not a goat, sadly), requesting that the Snakeskins join Volaris at Kellen's pub in Charhollow tonight. Moon suggests grabbing an eel pie beforehand, the four of them make their way to the borough to a nice little pie stand right near the pub. The enter and take a seat, and Volaris joins them shortly. 

He asks whether they're familiar with a blood dealer named Jul. Hollow is - and they're not friends, Jul actually wants Hollow dead (some things may have burned). Volaris says that Jul is selling Leviathan blood on the side, and the Ministry would like to know which noble family is leaking blood (ew) to him. If the Snakeskins could get some physical evidence of such, that would be great (and potentially profitable). Jul is known to hang out at the Devil's Tooth, a bar - well, a drug den, let's be honest - in Nightmarket.

The Snakeskins discuss their approach. Jul might have evidence on him, but might not, so maybe they could grab something off his person and use Aksha's keen sense of taste/smell to track him? With that in mind, we cut to the Devil's Tooth, where things have already gone a little wrong.

Hollow, since he doesn't take off the mask, is actually easily recognizable and Jul spots him. He reaches into his coat for something, and Hollow, not wanting this to turn into a firefight, ducks out. Two-Tooth, in disguise as a patron of the Devil's Tooth, blocks Jul's sightlines a moment, letting Hollow get out. Jul doesn't care enough to pursue, fortunately, and settles back into his booth.

Moon tries to size Jul up, but Jul catches her staring and winks - not useful for informational purposes, but potentially useful as an avenue of approach. Sower stumbles by, acting drunk, and spills a drink - she intends to spill it on herself, hopefully prompting Jul to wipe it off with a handkerchief or something, but she misses and spills it on him. He waves her off, frustrated, and she goes to the bar to buy him a drink in apology.

The bartender tells Sower to give him his drink, but then bid him goodnight. Two-Tooth, sitting at the bar and keeping watch, gets her talking and learns that Jul has been pressuring Mistress Kember (the owner/proprietor) to sell his blood here, and she's got no desire to do so. Two-Tooth asks if security is OK, just in case he makes a scene, and notes where she looks, clocking not just the obvious bouncer but the two undercover peacekeepers in the place.

Moon goes over to the fire and makes eyes at Jul, hoping he'll come join her and then take off his coat (because it's warm by the fire, see). He falls for the eyes, but doesn't take off the coat. Two-Tooth finishes off his drink and decides to do what he does best - get punched in the face.

He storms over to Moon and starts berating her. "HOW DARE YOU TAKE UP WITH THIS - THIS -" he yells, smacking Jul on the shoulder - "AFTER BREAKING MY HEART! HUSSY!" Jul takes the bait, stands up and takes off his coat like a gentlemen, and Two-Tooth throws a punch but telegraphs it as much as he can. Jul "blocks" it and socks Two-Tooth in the face, and Two-Tooth takes a big ol' dive and then storms out. "You deserve each other!"

"Wait, no!" Moon follows, "helping" her stricken "lover". Jul very wisely reasons he wants no part of this drama and puts his coat back on...but Sower has already liberated a little journal and a small pistol from it.

Meanwhile, outside, Hollow finds Jul's ride, and right from under the coachman's nose lifts a vial of Leviathan blood - still alive and wriggling! The scoundrels get outside and melt into the shadows, and meet back at the boathouse.

They turn their findings over to Volaris, who thanks and, more importantly, pays them. They busy themselves with their own pursuits - Sower starts scouting out locations in the lair for her garden. Two-Tooth goes to visit his friend Nyrah (she's a streetwalker who's been out in Doskvol for a long time, and she kind of looks at Two-Tooth as a surrogate son, so she patches him up when he gets beaten on). Moon starts working on mapping the surrounding estate, both the physical and supernatural landscape. And Hollow...builds a goddamn Tesla cannon powerful enough to blow a hole in a wall. 

"Not something we're going to need every day," muses Two-Tooth, "but I think we'll be glad we have it when we do need it." Moon draws a little face on it the side of the cannon. "It kind of looks like Jul," Sower remarks. 

The team puts feelers out for a new job, and hears that the Hive has been looking for a gang to steal something from the Wraiths, another local band of scoundrels. Turns out the Wraiths are already not the Snakeskins' greatest fans, so that seems like a good lead! 

Blades in the Dark: A New Crew of Smugglers

Yesterday, we were supposed to play The Strange, but one of the players wasn't feeling well, which has escalated in severity from "aw, that's a shame" to "fucking ominous." In any event, instead of just canceling we decided to play something else, and we decided on Blades in the Dark, since two of the players hadn't had the pleasure and it's something I know how to run.

So! Meet the scoundrels:

• Michelle plays the Leech, Talitha Crosswind, aka Scatterbind. Scatterbind, named for a creeping ivy plant that grows in her native Dagger Isles, is a former corsair and current witchy acolyte. She served in the Imperial military as a consultant and explosives expert. She's a bit of a clothes horse, and loves to purchase bespoke garments at Dundridge and Sons. 
• Morgan plays the Hound, Aidin Dunvil, aka Talon. Talon's mother is a deathlands scavenger who hooked up with a scion of the noble Dunvil family and later dropped young Talon off with his dad. Said dad shipped Talon into the military, where he was stationed as an electro-wall guard before leaving the service to go into professional scoundrel-ing. He spends time with his mother when he can.
• Karafa plays the Cutter, Sesereth Keel, aka Demon. Demon hails from Tycheros (he has horn-like growths instead of hair, but he keeps most of them filed down, except the front two). He, too, worked for the military as an officer and is a veteran of the Unity War. He has paid obligations to the Dimmer Sisters as a bodyguard, but that's a side gig. 

Together, these three are known as "Grime & Sons." There's no Grime (and no sons, for that matter), but the crew specializes is bringing weird artifacts out of the deathlands and in dealing arms. They're on good terms with the Cabbies (who sold them the carriage and goats they use) and the Bluecoats, but things are a little tense with the Foundation (they didn't grease the right palms when they built their lair) and the Lost (who take issue with their ally Esme).

The crew hangs out at a bar in Barrowcleft called the Drunken Goat, run by Esme, a young woman who took over the bar when he father died. The Goat's clientele is most Cabbies; they hang out there waiting for work. The Lost see Esme as a tool of the establishment and she rubbed some of them the wrong way in the past.

The crew's lair is near the Goat; an abandoned warehouse that belongs to Talon's father. They've converted the loading docks into a carriage house and built living quarters inside, so it's nice, but it's got room to improve.

On this particular day (?), the crew is hanging out at the Goat when a fellow in livery walks in. He's clearly out of place, and asks Esme where he can find Mr. Grime of Grime & Sons. She points him to Demon, who asks him what he's there for. The man starts to talk about a strange artifact he needs retrieved, but Demon stops him and brings the square over to the table with Scatterbind and Talon, and the four of them chat.

The crew recognizes the man's clothes as belonging to the house of Magistrate Drav Michter. Seems Michter wants a relic retrieved from the deathlands and brought back to him. The valet shows them a drawing of it - it's a sculpture, and looks kind of a like a horse or a fish? Very surreal. Staring at it, though, both Scatterbind and Demon get empty, cold feelings. Something's off about this thing.

They ask what Michter's interest is - is he an occultist? The valet is at first reluctant to say, but Scatterbind gets him to open up a little and he says that while the Magistrate isn't himself interested in the occult, his daughter Tonna is very much so, so this is probably a gift for her. The valet shows them a crude map to where the relic is supposed to be, but he doesn't know much more about it. Perhaps more research could exist at the university in Charterhall, but he doesn't know.

Talon, interested to know more about this guy, lifts his purse, but one of the Cabbies sees it and mouths "I WANT HALF" at Talon. Talon slides him the purse, but the valet notices, stands up, and loudly accuses the Cabbie of stealing from him. Esme shoots the characters a "fix this" look, and Demon bullies the valet into sitting back down, while Scatterbind says they'll make it good. They agree on terms, and the valet leaves.

Scatterbind suggests trying to attune together and figuring out more about this thing, so they do, and watch as the relic in the drawing melts into a hole that sucks in everything around it. Shaken, they decide they need to be careful with this thing, but the money is too good to get righteous now. They decide to spend their last Coin to hire an occultist named Sander Krauli (aka "Scar"), who's known to be knowledgeable and principled, to help them with the more mystical bits of this job. And then they set off into the deathlands.

The first bit of the journey goes well. Talon sends Anise, his hunting hawk, up to find the location on the map, and indeed, they find a conical pit in the ashy ground. Talon goes to scout ahead, but slips as the ground shifts and tumbles into the pit. He uses his climbing gear to crawl out, however, and the crew anchors ropes to the carriage. Scar, Demon, and Talon rappel down while Scatterbind stays behind with the goats and makes sure they stay anchored.

As soon as they get to the bottom, though, huge pincers appear from the ground. A giant centipede-like creature surges out and bites at Talon. Demon leaps on its back and punches its head, and Talon shoots it, but its blood sizzles and burns through his bracer (where his hawk would sit). Up at the mouth of the pit, Scatterbind throws a grenade, but pulls the throw enough that the explosion doesn't splash her comrades. She wounds the creature, but only lightly.

She does, however, manage to get it to wriggle enough that Talon can shoot it right in the face, and it burrows away, bleeding. The crew berates Scar a bit ("look, I'm paid to find relics, not fight bugs"), and he sits down and focuses, and then points at the dirt. They dig a bit and find an archway, covered in the ash, but the dirt inside the archway is solid and frigid. They clear it away, and reveal a small tunnel leading back.

Scatterbind rappels down to join them. They'll need all hands to handle this relic, they figure.

Blades in the Dark: The Conclusion

Last night was, as the title suggests, the conclusion of the Blades in the Dark game that started way back here. I really like this game, and I'm interested to see if any of the forthcoming Forged in the Dark games measure up. To me, one of the strengths of Blades is the setting; Duskwall is exactly as well-realized as it needs to be to still give players some breathing room and GMs some room to make shit up, and it rewards initiative of players who read the book.

There are things I wish I'd done differently, mostly relating to how I interpreted rules, but in general this has been a lot of fun. So!

Last time, the scoundrels had found a willing vessel for Kotar: Arvis Lomand, a junior professor of Ethics of Demonology at Charterhall. They consulted with the Path of Echoes and decided that the best place for the ritual would be the Belleweather Crematorium; it was used to playing host to supernatural stuff and it had leftover gear from the Spirit Wardens. The crew assembles and hooks Siren up to a big sparkcraft device, and she finds herself in a white plain.

Kotar approaches and thanks her for keeping his soul safe, and she thanks him for saving her ass a couple of times. He flows out and into the big hourglass shaped device, and then starts flowing into Lomand. This will, of course, take some time.

Everything goes dark around the Crematorium, and the windows blow inwards, slicing up a bunch of the adepts and other folks here for maintenance (though the crew remains unhurt). The worst is yet to come, though. Lord Scurlock lands in the center of the room and begins walking toward the device.

Copper quaffs a vial of Rage Essence, making her stronger and tougher, and slams into Scurlock, trying to push him back. It's like trying to shove over a redwood, but she does stop him from moving forward. Cage calls down lightning, and Scurlock catches it, making it splay out near him. One-Eye, having already rigged up a vampire-repelling device (basically a big gun with a tank that sprays electroplasm) straps it on and fires at him. Scurlock shrieks and vanishes, and the scoundrels catch their breath.

Everything goes eerily silent. Siren heads out a window and onto the roof, and sees corpses pulling themselves out of the canal and walking toward the Crematorium. That's bad enough, but then she also sees horrible tentacled things leaping from rooftop to rooftop. The hollows start trying to batter down the doors and the crew has their adepts brace them. One-Eye asks Lord Penderyn if it's possible to speed up the ritual, and he replies that it might be possible, but it's almost certainly unwise. She says that if the alternative is doom, that might be necessary, and he says if it is he'll need Cage to tag in.

Siren, Cage, and One-Eye get on the roof and start shooting at incoming monsters, while Copper helps brace a door. Siren has Bartok survey the area to keep anything from surprising them, and Cage sucks the ghosts out of the hollows at the front door, ending that threat. The scoundrels get out on the roof to watch for more trouble, but then Copper turns and finds herself face to face with the demon that came offering them a chance to leave the city.

Said demon takes a breath to speak, presumably to threaten or bargain, but Copper, still under the effects of the Rage Essence, punches him in the jaw and knocks him across the roof. He snarls, grows extra and limbs and claws, and leaps for her, but Cage interrupts with an ax and Siren shoots him in the forehead to finish him off. The crew turns and sees that the inside of the Crematorium is completely filled with fog, and they can't see in.

Cage and Copper leap in, and discover that inside the fog it's eerily still and quiet. Siren sends Bartok in to try and see, and although he can't really see through the fog, he can sense the device and that it's still running. Something grabs Cage and bites him, draining blood. He wheels around and strikes, and hears fluttering.

One-Eye throws a flash-globe in, and the light shows Copper and Cage a couple of silhouettes. Copper charges one and gets punched in the ribs for her trouble, but keeps Scurlock back while Button zips in and bites his leg. Cage calls up his tempest and makes a bubble in the fog, and Siren and One-Eye leap down. One-Eye straps on her device, but Siren takes a shot.

Scurlock, moving with the speed only a vampire can muster, picks poor Button up and holds him in front of him like a shield. Copper leaps in front of her dog, taking the bullet in the belly, and falls into the fog. Scurlock surges forward and grabs Siren, but One-Eye points the spray-device at him and threatens to light him up - and really, hasn't he done enough to fulfill his debt?

Scurlock hisses that he can't discharge the debt, certainly not while in this stalemate. They wait there, and Cage speeds up the process, which results in the device exploding. But then Lomand stands, glowing, and glides over to Scurlock. Scurlock tosses Siren aside and snarls at Lomand/Kotar, and then flies off.

The scoundrels check Copper, but she is gone. Button sits by her whining mournfully, and Siren stares horrified at what she's done. Cage vows to take care of Button, but they are interrupted in their grief by a salty wind from the sea blowing in. Kotar tells them if they want to be safe, they can stay here, but if they want to see, they should follow him.

They follow him to the seashore, and they see Seterra walking out of the water. Kotar walks out to meet her, and they talk briefly in demonic. Cage understands a little - basically, Seterra feels that she has lost too much ground to win in her bid to flood the city, what with Kotar protecting it. She turns and walks back into the ocean, and Kotar informs them that if they ever set sail on the Void Sea again, she will drag them down to her stone temple and torture them forever.

The Widdershins go back to work - at least some of them. One-Eye works with Master Vreen to open the goat-racing concern that Copper always wanted. Cage adopts Button, and he and One-Eye run the gang. Siren departs Doskovol for the Deathlands, unable to live with the guilt of what she did. They rename their club, the Ruby, as "Copper," and Widdershins takes its place among the power players in the city of Doskovol.

FIN

Blades in the Dark: Smoke and Teeth

After a month+ of not being able to play because of various illnesses and such, Blades is back! Last time here.

The scoundrels were in the sewer tunnels beneath Brightstone, coming up into the manor house of Lord Strangford, hoping to get some evidence of demon-worship. They open a door into the house, and Siren sends Bartok, her hunting hawk, up into the storage cellar to scout. Four servants are sitting around playing cards, and they have weird iron collars on. The scoundrels decide to incapacitate them, and they recall Bartok, and then send him back up with a trance-powder bomb.

The servants drugged, the crew heads up and asks some questions. The servants all turn and face whoever's talking in unison, which is a little creepy. One-Eye asks about the collars, and is told that they're for security. Copper asks if there's anyplace in the house that servants aren't allowed, and the servants say that there's an iron door upstairs that never opens. And just then, the crew hears a loud bang (like an iron door flying open) and screams of pain.

They run upstairs and see a butler sliding down a staircase. He's wearing one of the iron collars, and there's a demonic creature made of smoke and teeth trying to force its way into his mouth. Copper runs over and strikes the creature, knocking it away, and the butler screams in pain and spits out blood. Cage and Siren trap the creature using a demon bag that Siren kept from this job and a demon bane. Siren pops the collar off the guy's neck, and he says that there are more of those creatures upstairs. Copper runs off, Siren and One-Eye follow, and Cage kind of sighs and goes along.

The room upstairs contains six people - two dead, two possessed, and two in the process of being possessed. The crew springs into action. Siren tries to pop the collar off one of the folks in mid-possession, but manages to cut his neck open (One-Eye saves his life and knocks him out). Copper and Button knock the other demon away from its intended victim, and Button grabs it and shakes it. Cage faces off against the other folks, dodges some attacks, and rips a collar off, which seems to banish the smoke-demon.

One-Eye notes that these demons are air-aspected, and, studying the collar, realizes that the collar acts as an anchor allowing easy possession. Siren looks for a way to pop all the collars, like a key. She doesn't find one, but does notice that people outside don't seem to hear the screams. She mentions that to One-Eye, who studies the walls and realizes that there's a lattice work of electroplasm tech in the walls blocking sound.

The crew takes down the last possessed folks, with some hiccups: Siren tries to command Button to bite one and he gets confused and bites a recently un-possessed servant, but Copper gets her dog under control.

Copper, Siren, and Cage head upstairs to find the room with the iron door, leaving One-Eye behind to mess with the walls. She opens a panel and gets blown backwards and burned, and figures "fuck it." She puts an explosive into the wall and blows out the window and part of the wall. And then, she notices that the three dead bodies are getting up and advancing on her.

Upstairs, the crew finds the iron door, but the room is engulfed in hellfire. Cage calls up a rainstorm to put out the fire, and the storm swirls around outside of the house as well. And about now, One-Eye yells for help.

The other three zip downstairs and fight off the zombies, and then decide that between the witnesses, the collars, the fact that the Bluecoats are on the way, and the demon-created mayhem, there is plenty enough evidence and they can fuck off. They head back to Nightmarket.

Over the next couple of weeks, they handle business. The City Council expels Lord Strangford, and votes to give the Gondoliers use of the Crematorium. Siren takes a city council person out for dinner and gets the city to ease off of Widdershins, lowering their Heat. Flint, their spirit trafficker friend, gets brought in for questioning, but Cage pays off the cops.

And, of course, the crew continues looking for a suitable host for Kotar, scouring the university, checking with the occult enthusiasts, and communing with spirits, until they find one that they believe will work. He's a young man named Arvis Lomand, a junior professor of Ethics in Demonology at Charterhell and an aspiring Path of Echoes initiate. Cage has the Path of Echoes offer him the chance to save the city by becoming a vessel for Kotar. Next time, we'll see how that goes.

Blades in the Dark: Housekeeping and Plotting

Previously on Blades in the Dark: this.

Now the characters have a side business (Master Vreen's dog track) and a fellow who'll sell high-end shit for them, so that's nice. They have to deal with the aftermath; Siren discovers that the City Council is shaking down Rolan Volaris, owner of the Veil, for money, and so she pays them off. Cage learns from Captain Vale of the Bluecoats that some of the Widdershins' gang associates have been causing trouble for the Church, and that's something they might want to see to.

The characters reconvene and handle their downtime stuff; Cage does a little research into their ongoing issue of finding a vessel for Kotar. Siren and Copper have a stern talk with the folks who were breaking Church windows and painting Kotar symbols around, and have them cleaning out dog pens at the track (Copper offers an instructive smite, but no one takes her up on it). And then the characters talk about their next move.

Cage feels, as before, that the Belleweather Crematorium is the biggest issue, and the other characters agree. The crew really would rather the Gondoliers run the place (they don't necessarily want to take on this responsibility), but they do want the turf. They can't just clear out the squatters and move in, though, because there are legal implications. They talk to Griggs of the Gondoliers, and learn that they're trying to get hold of the property, but the Council isn't being forthcoming. The ghost problem is starting to mount, though. Griggs agrees to talk to Eliese, the leader of the group, about the prospect of sharing the turf with Widdershins.

One-Eye and Copper go out to Charterhall to see how the land lays, and they find that there a lot more ghosts in the area than usual. Copper punches a ghost away from a passer-by, and One-Eye walks and talks with him - turns out he's a clerk at the university and knows a little something about the power play for the Crematorium. The Ministry of Preservation and the Bluecoats are the strongest contenders right now, but the Gondoliers want in, too. The Church has made some overtures but not as heavily as might be expected (the crew, of course, is responsible for that), and the Foundation seems to be waiting to throw their support behind someone. In any case, it'll come down to who makes the best case (and pays the best bribes) to the City Council.

Cage goes to visit Lord Penderyn and gets more info on the Council, and learns that the scions of the six most powerful families in Duskwall sit on the council: Lady Penderyn, Elder Rowan, Lord Dunvil, Commander Clelland, Lord Strangford, and Lady Bowmore. There's a push to get rid of Strangford that Bowmore, Dunvil, and Clelland support, but they don't have enough dirt on him to make a move. But if the crew could provide that, that might very well give them the support they need to give the Crematorium to the Gondoliers.

The crew notes that they heard rumors about Strangford a long time ago (back here), but they weren't interested in pursuing intel with no buyer. Now they have a benefit, though. Siren goes to visit her friend Noggs, before he ships out and again, and learns that there are actually two Lord Strangfords - Captain the Lord Strangford is a Leviathan Hunter, and Lord Strangford sits on the Council (they're brothers). And indeed, there are unsavory rumors about the family. No one has had much luck with killing leviathans of late, but then Strangford's ship came back with the biggest one anyone had seen in a year - and his brother and entourage was there to greet him, as though he knew it was coming.

The crew discusses where to look - should they go out to sea and infiltrate Captain Strangford's boat, or stay here in town? They decide on the latter, and make a plan to sneak into Strangford Manor in Brightstone through the sewer canals. Next time, we'll see how that goes pear-shaped.

Blades: Eels Don't Have Thumbs

Well, that sounds like gibberish. Anyway, last night was Blades in the Dark, last session is here.

We join the scoundrels out doing scoundrel things. Copper is in her box at Master Vreen's dog track, when Vreen himself comes to talk with her. He tells her that he's kind of under water on some things, got overextended, and now he owes a lot of money (15 Coin) to a Foundation higher-up name of Grine Jeduin. He's concerned that if doesn't pay up soon, he's going to wake up without thumbs, and wonders if Widdershins could maybe help him out. He would be happy, then, to give them a stake in the track.

One-Eye, meanwhile, is in an upscale drug den/wine bar kind of place when Ulf Ironborn and some of his folks come in. Ulf comes to join her, and asks if she knows a fellow called Briggs. She knows him by reputation; he runs an information network in Charhollow. Ulf tells her that the Billhooks (with whom the crew had a run-in back here) murdered him, and Ulf feels this demands a response. He's planning on taking on the Billhooks, but if One-Eye would join him for Briggs' funeral, that would send a message. And hey, whoever takes revenge on the Billhooks would wind up with that aforementioned information network feeling very grateful.

Cage, on his weekly visit to Lord Penderyn, hears that the Belleweather Crematorium is sitting empty. Well, not empty, there are some squatters, but the point is that no one is officially using it. Several factions are trying to get the City Council to give it to them - the Bluecoats want it for an "Arcane Crimes" unit, the Gondoliers want it to cement their position as the go-tos for spirit problems, the Ministry of Preservation and the Church of Ecstasy also have their fingers in the pie. Penderyn feels that the Widdershins could influence things one way or the other, maybe take it over if they wanted. Cage is just concerned about where the bodies of the dead are going if not to the fire.

Siren is having lunch with Noggs, a former shipmate (we met Noggs here). Noggs mentions that the Ministry of Preservation has a warehouse in Barrowcleft that they're stockpiling with food, arcane implements, and who knows what else. It looks like they're prepping for some kind of emergency, but their claim on the warehouse is tenuous - unofficial at best. Noggs figures there's too much stuff to steal, but the Widdershins are a big enough deal that they could take it and hold it, and hey, maybe they'd need someone to manage it?

The crew comes together at the Ruby to talk over these opportunities. Copper is passionate about helping Vreen - the track is where she goes to unwind, and if he loses it or loses his thumbs, she'll be very put out. Cage is much more concerned about the Crematorium and what implications that has for Duskwall, but all of these options seem useful. And then, already spoiled for choice, the crew sees a group of tough-looking individuals come in. One of them is Karth Orris, a Hive enforcer the crew tussled with back here. They're not here for the crew, though. They approach another patron, sitting by himself smoking a water pipe, and speak quietly and threateningly to him, and then leave.

Figuring that letting other gangs intimidate people on their turf isn't a great idea, the crew approaches the fellow, and One-Eye recognizes him as Variuin, whom she met way back here before the crew took over the Ruby. He explains that he's fairly well-connected in the higher social spheres, and has been known to sell dubiously acquired objets d'arte for a commission ("Yeah, you're a smuggler." "Fence, actually."). But then he did a job for the Hive, and when the time came to take his cut, they stiffed him and told him he was going to continue working for them or suffer some non-specific but very particular harm. He would, of course, be happy to put his talents to use for the crew if they can get the Hive to back off.

The crew reconvenes and tries to prioritize. One-Eye feels like this Hive thing is important; sure, having a luxury fence would be helpful, but mostly it's about not letting things escalate. Copper still wants to help Master Vreen. She and Siren go looking for information about Grine Jeduin, while One-Eye and Cage go have dinner at a Hive establishment to try and figure out if there's a particular reason that they're hassling Variuin.

Copper and Siren have a chat with Steiner, an assassin friend of Siren's, who had a spot of trouble waaaay back here. The Foundation was the group holding the purse strings at that point, so Steiner has at least some experience with them. He doesn't know Grine Jeduin personally, but does figure that it wouldn't be hard to get in to see him - he's not a ghost or a gangster, just a functionary.

Cage and One-Eye go to the aforementioned restaurant, but a waiter warns One-Eye (in Skovic) that her food is poisoned. She sends it back, and continues being a pain in the ass until finally someone agrees to see them. They sit down with a representative of the Hive, and he tells them that the Hive is a little concerned when they see the Widdershins walk into one of their establishments. They snipe at each other for a while until finally they figure that they need to talk to a higher-up. The leader is Djera Maha, but they need a bargaining chip to start things off.

The crew decides to work both scores, and just split up - Siren and Copper will go see Grine Jeduin and try to talk him into backing off of Vreen, and One-Eye and Cage will find a way to meet with Maha and get the Hive to leave Variuin alone. A little digging reveals that Maha used to be involved with Roric, former leader of the Crows - and wouldn't you know it, the crew has Roric's ghost captive in a bottle (this happened here). They send word to the Hive revealing that they have information about Roric, and asking to meet them at the tavern that they took from the Hive, because a show of strength is never a bad way to start negotiations.

Djera Maha and Karth Orris (and some other Hive folks) sit down across from Cage and One-Eye (and some assorted Widdershins toughs). One-Eye talks for a bit, but Maha remains silent, though she visibly reacts to the ghost-bottle containing Roric being brought out. Karth tells One-Eye that she needs to make an offer, and One-Eye realizes that she isn't sure what negotiation protocol is in the Dagger Isles (which is where Maha is from). Finally she puts cards on the table: She'll give Maha the ghost-bottle if Maha agrees to leave Variuin alone and agree to neutrality with the Widdershins. Maha agrees, provided that means Widdershins leaves the Hive's businesses alone. Everyone agrees, and One-Eye hands over the bottle.

Siren and Copper, meanwhile, get lost in the Foundation building in Charterhall. As they wander, Kotar wakes up and tingles, making Siren notice a carving on the wall. She touches it and a door slides open, leading to a staircase down. Copper has reservations, but Siren is somewhat obsessed with Kotar-related things, so they descend. They note slots in the walls, leading to tiny rooms each containing a skeleton. Catacombs, maybe?

At the bottom of the staircase, they find racks of tools, each with a name carved in the wall. Hall of honor or infamy? Siren isn't sure, and this corridor is wet, dark, and spooky. They hear the door slide shut, and then heavy footsteps coming toward them. A hull emerges into the light Copper carries, and says "trespassers." Copper tries to talk her way out it, but the hull grabs for them. Siren draws a gun, and the hull starts emitting an alarm-like sound. Copper punches the bit making the noise, and the hull swipes at her. The second punch dislodges it, and then shatters it. The two of them ascend another staircase and emerge into a hallway, whereupon they hear "Can I help you?"

A minor Foundation functionary takes them to Grine Jeduin (after Siren bribes him), and Grine tells them that he invested his life savings in Vreen's schemes, and he wants his money back. Copper offers to pay him in three increments, and he agrees if she can make a small payment now, which she does. He writes up a contract and the scoundrels leave.

The new business (the dog track) and the other side business (the tavern) are making money for the crew, and they've come out of these scores without any real hardship or Heat. Next time, we'll do downtime and see what's next.

Blades in the Dark: Yonder Comes the Vamp

Last time, the scoundrels drugged and kidnapped a higher-up in the Church of Ecstasy...but then a vampire appears! Once I got my players to stop talking about Pokemon, we got down to the action.

Siren turns a spirit lamp on Scurlock, driving him back, but he bursts out the front of the restaurant, collapsing it onto the drugged Widdershins crew. Siren rolls clear, but a lot of her people are buried in rubble.

Scurlock, meanwhile, surges up into the sky and summons a storm, bearing down on Cage, Copper, and One-Eye. Streetlights go out and the wind howls as the vampire swoops in. Copper breaks away from Cage and runs back toward the restaurant, and Cage summons lightning. The blast illuminates Scurlock in the clouds momentarily, and he spins off. One-Eye runs like hell, heading for Mistshore Park, and Scurlock circles back around to attack.

Siren, though, has made contact with Copper. They lift rubble and Siren tells Copper to keep at it, and heads for the roof. She sends Bartok, her hawk, zooming down the street to give her line of sight, and shoots Scurlock with an electroplasm rifle. The blast enrages and slows him, and One-Eye clears the barrier to Mistshore. The lights here are still on, so apparently Scurlock can't or won't attack here.

Cage ducks into a door and finds himself in the carriage house of Rowan Tower. He steals some goats and hitches them up to the carriage, and heads back toward the restaurant, looking to pick up Siren and Copper.

Meanwhile, Siren is still on the roof and finds herself surrounded by rats. She kicks a few out of the way and jumps down into an alley, and then, figuring Scurlock can hear her, tells him that she wants to know what is going - if she's going to die, she wants to know what he owes Seterra. He appears behind her, and tells her that he owes Seterra, and that's all there is to it - and it's the crew's fault that he's in this predicament, because they stole his cloak and gave it to the demons. When the waters rise and the city drowns, he'll survive, but he'll miss the city.

Siren argues that if he'll miss it, maybe he should do something to save it, or give the crew the information they need so that they could help. Scurlock says he'll think about it, and vanishes.

In the park, One-Eye delivers Praeceptor Dunvil to the Reconciled, and they posses the shit out of him. They toss whatever cash he has on him to One-Eye, and she leaves, regrouping with the others and heading back to the lair.

Over the next couple of weeks, the Church of Ecstasy goes through some unpleasant changes. Services get less frequent and ghosts become more common in the city, and the war on the Widdershins ends. Widdershins also goes up to Tier IV, meaning they're basically the biggest movers and shakers in the city, as far as smuggling, transport, and weirdness-related crime go.

One evening, as Copper is out punching ghosts in order to lower the crew's Heat level, she feels a presence on her left. The demon that once gave them the job of stealing Scurlock's cloak is back, and he tells her that they should leave Duskwall. The crew can go anywhere they want, and have anything they want. It shows her a vision of herself in Iruvia, running a goat-racing track, Button by her side, her parents looking on proudly. It tells her to pass the offer on to the others - leave the city, live in luxury and bliss. Or stay and drown.

Copper tells the others, and they pretty much agree that the demon can get fucked. Cage feels that he's put far too much work into building what the crew has, and he'd fight Seterra just out of spite. Siren already ran from the horrors of the deep once; that's why she's not a Leviathan Hunter anymore. One-Eye knows what it's like to go to a new place with nothing and she doesn't want to do that again. Copper, of course, the big softie, isn't going to abandon the city to die.

The crew decides they need to find a vessel for Kotar, and start looking for someone suitable. Meanwhile, though, they'll keep their business running, so next time we'll see what the next job entails.

Blades in the Dark: Stealing a Preceptor

Vampires! Ghosts! Eels! Another day(?) in Duskwall. Last session here.

The scoundrels have agreed to kidnap a high-ranking member of the Church of Ecstasy and deliver them to the Reconciled, so that said church-person might be possessed and then end the Church's hostility toward the crew. The crew, therefore, starts off by doing a bit of recon.

Cage consults with ghosts and finds one that was a sacrificial victim of the Church (normally such people don't leave ghosts, but someone screwed up). The ghost tells Cage that a guy named Preceptor Dunvil was the one that killed him.

One-Eye, meanwhile, goes a-carousing at a high-end spa type establishment in Nightmarket, and talks to some folks who identify Elder Rowan as the heavy hitter in the Church. He comes to the spa and sits in a hot spring (after which they have to cleanse it, about which One-Eye does not ask elaboration).

Siren sends Bartok over the Church during services, but one of the guards spots the bird and shoots at it. He misses, but Bartok circles back, so Siren doesn't see anything interesting.

They reconvene and talk about their options, and decide they need to learn a little more. Cage talks to Flint, his spirit trafficker buddy, and learns that Preceptor Dunvil has a reputation for being obsessive - once he gets an idea in his head, he pursues it pretty doggedly. Just at present, he's been paying off Leviathan Hunters to bring back information about the oceans, which probably means he's obsessing about Seterra.

The crew decides to use this. Figuring that news of Copper's exploits have spread throughout Duskwall, they decide to have her have a very noticeable dinner at the Golden Plum, a famous restaurant in Six Towers (not far from Mistshore Park). Cage, Siren, and One-Eye will undergo the Rite of Occultation that Cage came up with, Copper will have a rousing dinner with a bunch of the adepts and rovers in the crew, and then One-Eye will slip in and drug the Preceptor when he shows up.

The crew sets things in motion. Copper and company are enjoying food and drink, including a kind of thick purple drink that has a pleasantly bitter finish. The others are outside. A carriage rolls up, and One-Eye sneaks over and notes a muscular, well-armed merc driving and a bunch of hollows inside. This is worrisome. Siren slips around back and sees more hollows, a slim gentlemen watching them, and the door closing. Looks like someone just entered the restaurant.

Inside, three blond gentleman, Skovs from their appearance, are seated. One of them raises a glass to Copper, and the waiter approaches with a bottle of liquor that he says is from them. Copper happily accepts and everyone at the table takes a sip...after which they start to get tingly and sleepy. The blond man who sent her the bottle slips a purse of money to the waiter, and the staff starts ushering people out.

The men get up and walk over to get Copper as her people drop into sleep. They frog-march her out, and the crew goes into damage control. Siren affixes a bomb to the carriage outside, while One-Eye and Cage move in. Copper elbows the two dudes carrying her, knocking them back, and One-Eye blows a bunch of trance powder into Dunvil's face. He collapses, but he fingers a ring. She grabs it and notes that it's vibrating, so she pulls it off and hurls it. The hollows start to follow it.

The two guards that Copper struck run in opposite directions, one of them calling for guards. Siren nails him with a stone from a wrist-mounted slingshot, knocking him out, but the other one gets away into the winding alleys of Six Towers. One-Eye grabs Dunvil and fires a grapple to get to a roof. Cage grabs Copper, but she doesn't want to go without checking on their people. Siren promises to go back and make sure they're OK, and Cage throws Copper over his shoulder and gets moving. Heading in, Siren hears Kotar's voice: "You don't want to go in there." Siren responds that she has to. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Inside, Siren sees something weird. One of their adepts, Beale, is being held up by his shirt - but she can't see anything. Kotar helps her vision, and she sees the figure - Lord Scurlock. "Where did they go?" he hisses. Beale opens his mouth, but Siren knocks him out with her sling. Scurlock turns and flows over toward her, and repeats his question.

"You know I can't tell you that," she says. "What do you want to know for?" Scurlock doesn't answer, but Kotar tells her: he's obligated, perhaps to Seterra. He also tells her that if Scurlock wants her dead, she's gonna die. It's time to do something clever.

Blades in the Dark: A Walk in the (Haunted) Park

Last night was Blades. On we go!

Last session involved water and squid punchery. This session, now that Copper's out of the clink, the crew wants to meet the Reconciled and perhaps get this war with the Church of Ecstasy resolved. Cage and One-Eye meet with Griggs, the Gondolier they've dealt with in the past, and ask about it it. He tells them he'll pass along a message to the Reconciled, but he has no idea how long it'll be before they get an answer.

Meanwhile, Siren and Copper talk with Kob, the demon expert (of Tycherosi descent) that Siren hired to consult on this whole "Seterra" issue. She tells them that Seterra is a sea-demon, variously described in texts as the most or least powerful of a nest of such demons. She also mentions that Lord Scurlock has a known history with her, but the particulars are unclear because there are conflicting agendas. Kotar, though, is usually depicted as a protector of the city, fair-haired and fond of wearing yellows and golds. This is relevant because Kob suspects that getting Kotar out of Siren's head (god this game is weird) might require a body for him to inhabit.

Cage, after touching base with the others, goes to visit Lord Penderyn and ask him about the connection between Seterra and Scurlock. Penderyn says that Scurlock has been in Duskwall for years, and in the year (or thereabouts) that the Cataclysm happened, Seterra made landfall in what is now Brightstone. Someone stood in the ruins and met her, and kissed her, and she receded into the water. Legends say that this man might have been Kotar, or Scurlock, or the Emperor - it's the kind of thing that looks good on a resume. In any case, though, Scurlock and Seterra have some kind of relationship, and it seems like this is relevant to what is happening now.

On the way home, Cage is beckoned by a street urchin with white eyes. The (clearly possessed) scamp tells him to bring a vessel to Mistshore Park, a vessel strong enough to withstand possession. Cage heads home and the crew confers.

They aren't too keen to ask Scurlock what's going on, as they feel he might kill them. They toy with the notion of sending him a message, but figure that's maybe something to put on the back burner for now. Likewise, the idea of resurrecting Kotar seems to hinge on the right vessel, so do they need someone strong and blonde? Penderyn mentioned that some of his folks are considering a hull, but Cage thinks that that much energy in an object might be unwise.

In any case, they decide to take one of their adepts to the park to act as the vessel, though Copper fills him in on what's going to happen first. They arrive, disembark, and Clave, the intended vessel, sees something in the trees and bolts. Siren hits him with a bola and knocks him down, and they talk him down. One-Eye, true to form, hits him with a paralytic and they carry him to a set of stone benches. There's a gust of wind and something possesses him, whereupon it asks why this body's lips aren't working right. One-Eye hits Clave with a stimulant to loosen him up, and a bunch of ghosts flow into his body, changing his eyes different colors in rapid succession.

The crew converses with the Reconciled, and they agree to help with the Church. They just need the crew to bring them someone from the Church's leadership so they can possess them, meaning they need this person stripped of protections as well. They'd also like to do this to leadership of some other factions, like maybe Lyssa, leader of the Crows, but One-Eye says they can negotiate that separately.

They also ask about Kotar, and the Reconciled say that a body capable of handling Kotar needs to be able to handle the parts that are already available. The ghosts agree that a hull is not the way to go.

The crew heads back to the Ruby to buy Clave some drinks, and considers their next move.

Blades in the Dark: SQUID PUNCH

Last night was Blades in the Dark. On we go!

Last time the crew was out on the Void Sea, in two boats carrying Skovic refugees. They're ready to head back toward land, and then in front of them, they see a woman rise out of the water.

The woman is tentacles from the waist down, and has entirely too many arms - every time she moves, more of them fold out of her torso. The scoundrels recoil from this horror and the Skovs panic, forcing Cage to threaten the ones on his boat with a pistol so they stop freaking out and don't capsize the craft. The woman drifts over toward Siren, but One-Eye gets on her bullhorn and asks what she wants.

She moves over to One-Eye and touches her forehead, and suddenly the water is transparent. One-Eye sees all the way to the bottom of the ocean (and feels some pretty intense vertigo), and sees a bell - a bell that the crew put there way back here. The tentacle woman demands that the crew destroy it, and claims she'll keep them safe in the water and prevent them from drowning. One-Eye asks for a moment to prep, and calls Siren over from the other boat.

The three of them (Copper, Siren, One-Eye) talk it over, and are pretty firmly of the opinion that destroying the bell would be unwise, long-term. Cage, over on the other boat, hears the voice of the woman, and she repeats the demand and promises that the crew won't die if they do it. Cage notes that this doesn't seem to be a good arrangement for the crew's future, and the creature says that she won't kill them tonight.

Copper tries to get Cage to attune and see if there's a way to avoid this, but Cage refuses, figuring that things are bad enough already. Copper attunes on her own, and gets a sense of exactly how vast and teeming with squamous life the ocean really is. She also gets the sense that this creature's influence is limited and they could maybe outrun it.

Meanwhile, Siren makes contact with Kotar, who says that this creature - Seterra - is a demon and has a restricted field of power, but he isn't sure if the boats can move fast enough to get away from her. He also isn't sure what happens if Siren dies at sea, but it probably isn't good. If they destroy the bell, though, it's likely that Seterra will destroy Duskwall.

The crew decides to run. One-Eye, as it happens, had already installed devices on both boats that allow a burst of speed, though using it will necessitate repairs later. They turn the boats, but the creature notices, and tentacles whip out and grab several of the Skovs. Copper slashes about with a blade and saves some of them, but one is pulled under. The boats take off, and the skies explode in storm.

Siren and One-Eye manage to negotiate the waves well; a few people fall out, but Cage and Copper tie down others and keep them safe. And then a huge tentacle, taller than a tower, reaches out of the ocean in front of the boats.

Copper leaps up on the cabin of the Black Lotus and leaps, striking the tentacle and knocking it off-center enough that it falls off to the side of the boats. She, however, falls into the ocean. Cage tries to rescue her with a grappling hook, but misses, and the boats speed on.

The water suddenly calms, and the crew realizes that they're out of danger. They approach the lightning wall between Silkshore and Whitecrown, and hide out in the wake of a huge freighter (it spots one boat, but Siren signals the lookout and promises to pay him off). They head to Crow's Foot and drop off the surviving Skovs, and Ulf Ironborn pays them handsomely.

They go about indulging vices and training and so on, and a couple of days later, a ship comes in carrying Copper. They pay off the sailors who rescued her (they're a Tier III crew now, so it really doesn't pay to cheap out when someone saves the life of one of your leaders), but Copper goes to jail for a few months thereafter - their Wanted Level is high, but they pay a lot of money to the Bluecoats and manage to make the sentence a little more reasonable. Siren also hires a demon expert to tell her about Seterra and Kotar.

The crew decides that they need to end this war with the Church of Ecstasy, and for that they need allies that can bring something special to the table. They decide to make contact with the Reconciled, a group of powerful spirits who are reputed to be able to possess people for longer and more capably than others. Next time, we'll see where that goes.

Blades in the Dark: Fishing for People

Last night was Blades, and once again, there were some tentacles. Hmm. Last time, tentacles and all, here.

The crew gets right to work on their new job, undertaken on behalf of Ulf Ironborn - pick up some Skovs from the Old North Port, transport them to Crow's Foot. Easy-peasy? Not so muchsy. The Old North Port is outside of the lightning barrier, and then there's the Void Sea to deal with. The crew decides to hug the coast and get to the Port, and then just do the same thing going back until they get into the Barrowcleft Canal and from there into Crow's Foot.

They take two boats, the Black Lotus and one of the boats that their crew of Rovers uses. Siren and Cage ride that boat, while Copper and One-Eye take the Lotus (obviously, since One-Eye is the only one that can drive the Lotus successfully). They cruise down the canal to the lighting barrier and One-Eye produces permits to get through. The guard takes the permits to examine them...and returns with half a dozen buddies, all pointing guns. They demand that the crew surrender Cyrene Daeva, or "Siren," as she's known.

Siren demands to know why she's being arrested, and the guards say that high-ranking members of the Church of Ecstasy have sworn out complaints against her. Siren, figuring that this doesn't end with her having tea and laughing over this misunderstanding, draws her guns and starts firing. The guards fire back, and Cage calls upon his newly acquired tempest move to call down lightning and fry 'em. The backlash singes the crew a bit, but the bigger problem is that that lightning barrier is still down.

However, Siren thought of that, and dispatched two Rovers to sneak up into the tower and lower the barrier. The barrier falls, and the boats zip out into the ocean. Someone on the other tower fires a projectile at them, which Cage manages to deflect, but it still makes the water glowy. One-Eye, using a ridiculously long blowgun, fires a shadow-essence dart at the tower and blots it out, allowing the crew to move down the coast.

The watchtowers along the coast are all lit up and the lights are searching the water. Cage summons fog to hide the boats, but they get separated. Copper uses a lantern to signal to the other boat and gets a response back, and the boats finally see each other and the dock. They pull up and see a bunch of Skovs waiting for them, backlit by pervasive light from the radiant energy farms and the lightning barrier.

One-Eye, as the only one who speaks Skov, talks to an old fella who's become the de facto leader of the refugees, wanting to know what Ulf wants all these folks for. He says that Ulf has work for them - lifting, carrying, who knows. One-Eye, still paranoid, presses, and Copper notices that the nearby lightning wall has gone down in one section. She yells a warning, and soldiers charge out, firing at the crew and the Skovs alike. One-Eye yells for everyone to get on the boat or she's leaving, and Copper grabs a couple of people and runs for the boats. Everyone climbs aboard, along with as many Skovs as possible, and Siren returns fire with a cannon. The boats pull out, and the crew sees Skovs trying to swim after them.

Copper, horrified, throws a net and pulls as many people as she can out of the drink, but of course it's not enough. People swim...until they tire and sink or something pulls them under. The crew heads back toward Doskovol...but more problems are in the offing.

A young Skov tugs on Cage's sleeve and speaks to him, but Cage doesn't speak Skov. He follows the man and finds that the man's wife has been shot and is bleeding out. Cage does his best, but the woman wakes up and screams, and One-Eye, hearing the screams, pilots the Lotus over, hops out, and stabilizes her. She asks if anyone else is hurt, and of course a couple more are, so she gets to work putting them together (after all, Ulf established early on that he was only paying for live people).

Meanwhile, though, the folks on the Lotus (where Copper is now alone) are talking heatedly. Copper doesn't understand them, but she can see something's brewing. She tries to pacify them with a bottle of booze and some commands, but they rush her, trying to toss her overboard. She calls for help and Siren runs over and draws a gun to scare them, but then the boats drift apart, leaving Siren to drive the Lotus, which remember is finicky. One-Eye pulls out a sparkcraft voice amplifier and tells everyone, in Skov, that anybody who doesn't sit the hell down is gonna swim home. That works, and the terrified Skovs grudgingly leave off the mutiny.

The crew steers the boats toward the land, but the towers are still lit up and there are a bunch of boats around the entrance to the Barrowcleft Canal. They decide to make the risky move to head further out into the Void Sea and go around. Siren is nervous, as are the Skovs (who huddle together and start chanting a prayer), but it's the best idea they have.

As they get into deeper water, Siren's forehead starts itching. She sees a woman in the distance, standing on the waves, and heads toward her. Copper tries to get her to stop, but Siren is obsessed, and Copper has to wrench the wheel away, damaging the steer mechanism. Copper calls for help and the boats reconnect, and One-Eye gets back on the Lotus (annoyed at the damage). Siren recenters herself, but the boats are still on the Void Sea, miles from land, and the waves are moving strangely languidly.

Next time, we'll see if the crew makes it back safely and whether they have any Skovs left.

Blades in the Dark: Tentacled Horror!

Last night, as promised, was Blades. Here we go!

Last time, the crew completed a score pretty seamlessly. Tonight, One-Eye is out sampling various drugs (like she do), when she is approached by her associate, Jul, the blood dealer (he first appeared way back here). Jul offers One-Eye a job - transport a large quantity of blood to a cult called the Yellow Kings. One-Eye asks why that's a job she should take, and Jul says that their crew has a reputation for transporting weird shit, and he doesn't feel like offending a cult (they tend to overreact).

Copper, meantime, is trying to sell Master Vreen on the idea of goat-racing, when she is approached by Ulf Ironborn. Ulf tells her that there are some folks arriving at Old North Port soon, people who recently of Skovland. He'd like them transported to Crow's Foot, and he'll pay two Coin a head. These folks aren't exactly in Duskwall legally, though, hence his desire to hire the crew.

The crew convenes and Copper and One-Eye present their jobs. Copper is disturbed by the notion of transporting blood - if it's human, that's a lot of people who are missing their blood. One-Eye, meanwhile, isn't necessarily keen on the idea of bringing former prisoners or revolutionaries into the city, but on the other hand, the pay is good. Copper and Siren go to talk to Ulf to learn a little more, and find out that the people coming in are folks who have done time, either in Akoros or Skovland. He's expecting 15-20 people, max, but of course he doesn't know how many survived the crossing.

Meanwhile, One-Eye and Cage go to visit Jul. They learn that the blood is mostly goat or hog, probably some human, and it's been treated with various herbs and so forth. Jul doesn't know what kind of ritual the Kings want it for. One-Eye does realize, though, that Jul really wants Widdershins specifically to take this job, but figures that's because he knows they can handle it.

The crew reconvenes, and decides to take on Jul's job first, since it should be quick. Things don't go smooth, however.

As they're loading the blood onto their boat, they get approached by two Bluecoats. One-Eye shows them (forged) papers allowing transport of goods, but the Bluecoat sees through it and releases a ghost from a charm, presumably to go and get backup. Cage traps the ghost, however. The Bluecoats attempt to arrest the crew, but One-Eye blows a handful of trance powder into one of their faces. The other one runs, but Cage hits him with a bola and downs him. They wind up paying him off, and finally get the blood on the boat and into Six Towers.

They hold their breath as they pass Scurlock Manor, and arrive at another dilapidated mansion, where they are admitted by men in robes. One of them tells the crew to be seated and wait to be paid, and they tip the blood into a big basin in the middle of the room. A young man emerges from a side room, smiling beatifically, disrobes, and then submerges. (Copper, soft-hearted perhaps to fault, vomits.)

And then tentacles emerge. The man has changed into a slimy, horrific creature, a mass of tentacles and too many legs. It charges at the characters and wraps a tentacle around Siren's leg. She shoots at it, but doesn't do any real damage. Cage yanks her back but the creature breaks her leg in the process. The cultists move to the periphery of the room and lock arms to prevent anyone leaving, but Copper punches through the line and Cage follows, helping Siren. One-Eye injects the monster with a paralysis toxin, but it only slows it down.

Copper draws a sword and starts hacking away, but the creature wraps tentacles around her legs and holds her in place. Cage notes that Siren's eyes are glowing, and Siren demands that he make contact with Kotar for help. Cage, reluctantly, does so, and finds himself standing with Siren and a mostly-formless man on a white plain.

Kotar tells them that he can help, but he'll need to take over Siren's body and Cage will need to hold her soul in stasis so it doesn't get nudged out entirely. They agree, and Siren loses consciousness.

Meanwhile, One-Eye is trying to shoot the creature in the face, but gets sprayed with acidic ichor that eats through her armor. Siren appears, though, eyes glowing, draws two knives, and says in a voice not her own, "move."

One-Eye and Copper oblige, and Siren throws the knives, now imbued with some weird crackling energy. They strike the creature and it shrieks, curls in itself, and starts to twitch. Kotar retreats into Siren's mind and Cage, who has masterfully head Siren's soul in place, lets her go. The crew flees.

They get back to the lair, and the next day the three of them (not Siren, who's injured) go to pay Jul a visit. He claims that he knew nothing about the attack, but that he was always supposed to pay them, meaning that the "sit on the bench and wait for money" was a ruse. He pays them, and gives Copper a vial of blood to make her feel better (advising her to dilute it with alcohol to cut the taste).

The crew falls back, collects their money, pays off the Bluecoats to stop harassing Vreen (probably fallout from their encounter by the boat), and goes about their usual business. The heal, One-Eye works with the Unseen to direct attention away from the crew and finally lower their Wanted Level a bit, and the crew prepares for their next score.

Blades in the Dark: Sneak Thievery

Last time's here, this time's...here. Weird.

The crew has agreed to take on the task of stealing a cut glass chalice from a noble/rich dude called Rolan Wott. We open with his swanky-ass party already in progress. One-Eye is dressed up and therefore looks noveau-riche, Copper is her bodyguard, Cage is in cover as an occultist, and Siren is there as entertainment. The scoundrels have arranged with Lord Penderyn and a glass-cutter to make a facsimile; it won't pass close inspection and it's got no magical properties, but it looks the part.

One-Eye tries to find out a little about Wott's collections, but she kinda comes off as a bit of a rube. She does learn that the really good stuff is kept upstairs and Wott normally invites a few people up later in the evening. They decide to use Siren's performance as cover, and when she starts singing, One-Eye and Cage sneak upstairs with Copper acting as lookout.

They find the chalice in a glass case with an arcane lock. Cage opens it, but as he's sliding open the glass door he spots a copper wire - a secondary alarm. One-Eye, fortunately, has her tools with her and disarms it, and they swap out the chalice for the fake one and re-arm the alarms.

Meanwhile, though, Siren is singing, and she's chosen the song that she's had in her head since getting Kotar...in her head. Cage notices that the chalice is reverberating in tune with the song.

Cage, Copper, and One-Eye sneak back downstairs and leave the party quietly. Wott himself approaches Siren and asks where she heard the song. She lies and says it was just something she heard on the street. Wott asks her to come upstairs and see his more interesting artifacts; Siren wisely declines and leaves. Wott, however, notes that she performs at the Veil...so maybe he'll see her there.

The crew heads into Charterhall and delivers the chalice to Lord Penderyn (Madame Tesslyn is also in attendance). They tell Siren to pick it up, and Penderyn says that he doesn't think that will harm her, but what he's trying to do is get Kotar out of her head. Siren picks up the chalice and drinks from it (it's empty, but that doesn't seem to matter). Tesslyn pulls a cloth away from the desk to reveal the Eye, Heart, Hand, and Tongue of Kotar.

Meanwhile, in her own mindscape, Siren hears the voice of Kotar thanking her for her hospitality and promising that he'll try and make sure the process of him exiting her head doesn't kill her (and if it does, he's sorry). She feels a burning sensation in her eye, tongue, chest, and hand, and then a sense of peace...but then Kotar slams back into her.

In the office, the pieces of Kotar hover for a moment, and then drop, and Siren collapses. Copper and One-Eye pick her up, and Penderyn muses that perhaps they need a body for Kotar to inhabit. Cage asks whether the crew is going to be hired to help find such a vessel, and Penderyn says he doesn't know - it'll depend on the particulars. Maybe a hull? But then they'd need someone who could meld flesh and sparkcraft (Copper immediately points to One-Eye, who admits that she could do it, but it wouldn't be cheap).

Penderyn points out that Kotar may be the only hope of saving the city from Seterra, so it's really in the crew's best interests to help them out. In any case, though, yes, the crew would be paid for such. He gives them some money and they head back to the hideout.

They get back to the lair and find a bunch of ghosts hanging around. The ghosts all mob Siren, chanting "sing to us." She puts on a spirit bane and they wander off, but that's a little disquieting in any case.

The job was pretty quiet, but One-Eye winds up bragging while high and gets them a little Heat anyway. Over the next few days, Siren completes her work on a Doskovol Youth Center, lowering the crew's Wanted Level a bit, and Cage starts working on advancing in the Path of Echoes. One-Eye works with the Unseen to shift focus away from Widdershins. The crew as a whole, though, decides that this "a demon is coming to flood Doskovol" thing is a bigger deal than they thought, so they decide to follow a lead they got some time back - the rumor that Lord Strangford is into demon-worship. That's for next time.

Blades in the Dark: And Several Butcher's Aprons

Last night was Blades in the Dark. Here we go!

Last time the scoundrels came up with the idea to blackmail Lady Slane, the director of operations for the Ministry of Preservation, to get her to remove opposition to the Rail Jacks unionizing (all of this to get some turf that the Rail Jacks were claiming in Nightmarket).

We open in Dunslough, with Lady Slane approaching Ironhook Prison. She meets with a guard, who hands her a piece of paper. The crew has learned from the Star that Slane runs the Billhooks, a ruthless and bloody gang of thugs, and their purported leader, Tarvul, is locked up in Ironhook. She's apparently just gotten some orders from him.

Copper and Siren do a quick one-two punch of distraction and sleight of hand, and steal the orders. Slane doesn't notice, and keeps walking. Siren checks the orders - Tarvul is ordering his people to close ranks and hassle some magistrates, so as to push them to pardon him and get him the hell out of Ironhook.

The crew follows Slane to a slaughterhouse - the Billhooks' hideout. She enters, and Siren sends Bartok, her hunting hawk, in to spy. Bartok zips straight to the rafters and remains unseen. Slane gives a set of orders to Erin and Coran, the apparent leaders on the ground, and leaves (Slane is apparently not really welcome or comfortable here; kinda a "your boss' boss" situation).

Siren decides to have Bartok snatch the orders while the Billhooks aren't looking, but one of them spots the bird and throws a bag over it. The Billhooks start arguing about the best way to cook it, and Pearl (Cage's vampire friend, remember) leaps in and trashes the place, throwing the Billhooks around and scaring the hell out of everyone. He frees Bartok (and grabs the orders, for good measure), and then vanishes, leaving the thugs terrified and bloodied but alive.

The crew checks these new orders - they're almost identical, but the list of magistrates is different and the orders don't say anything about letting them live or scaring them, just killing them. The crew takes the orders back to the lair and One-Eye analyzes them, and finds distinct but subtle differences between them. She can prove they came from different people. Now it's just a matter of putting that to Slane.

They rope a shopkeeper in Nightmarket into contacting Slane with the promise of expensive Iruvian silks, and then when she arrives, Copper and One-Eye greet her. One-Eye does the talking, and threatens Slane that if she doesn't vote the way they want on this "Rail Jacks want to be independent" issue, they'll be leaking the truth about the Billhooks to various people, including, of course, the Billhooks. Slane insults One-Eye's heritage as a Skov, but eventually caves, though she makes clear that this is a one-time arrangement, not an ongoing thing. Slane leaves, and a few days later, Spur of the Rail Jacks invites the crew back to the Bar Car. Things are progressing nicely, and he's happy to cede the turf to the Widdershins. The crew solidifies their hold (going from weak to strong), and sees very little heat from the score.

Pearl drops off the radar, going on a bit of a drunken bender (and he doesn't drink...wine). One-Eye continues working with the Unseen to shift attention away from the crew. Siren continues building up her "Skovic youth center" initiative. Cage returns, clutching books that he found while traveling. He reports being on a ship and having nightmares of siren-like creatures trying to lure him into the Void Sea; Siren says that this is a common thing. The crew talks about their next move, and Cage mentions that this whole "demon in the ocean" thing, as well as the "Kotar in Siren's head" thing, is probably a priority. The others agree, and Cage goes to talk with Lord Penderyn.

Penderyn informs Cage that the job that Madame Tesslyn offered the crew some time back wasn't just about stealing an expensive chalice - that chalice has some occult significance and might help with understanding Kotar. Cage returns to the crew and relays this, and the crew decides that, while robbing people in Brightstone isn't really their comfort zone, it's by no means out of their abilities. Turns out Rolan Wott likes to have flashy parties, and so that gives them a way in. Next time, we'll see how that plays out.

Blades in the Dark: Extortion

(The X makes it sound cool.)

Last night was Blades, here's the last session, on we go.

The crew (still sans Cage) wishes to move in to the section of Nightmarket that they've had their eye on for a while. It's Rail Jack turf, though, and they're comfortable neutral with the Rail Jacks at the moment. They don't really want to roll up and take it by force, for a couple of reasons. First, getting the Rail Jacks annoyed with them might have repercussions they don't like, even if the actual doing wouldn't be hard. Second, they are all highly wanted criminals, and anything too loud is going to bring a bad response. They decide to take this slow and see about finding a good angle.

They go to the Bar Car, a Rail Jack tavern they first visited back here. They spot Spur and his buddies, and send them a round, and eventually go and join them. Spur isn't necessarily unhappy to see them, as long as they're not here to make trouble. One-Eye mentions that she's heard the Jacks are trying to unionize, and Spur confirms that's the case, but no one in city government wants that and they're getting pretty serious pushback. They have a meeting coming up with Lady Slane of the Ministry of Preservation, but he's not optimistic.

One-Eye lays it out for him: If the Widdershins could be the "mafia" to their "labor union," would they be willing to relinquish the turf in question without a problem? Spur says that would be fine with him, if the Widdershins are willing to lean on Slane and her ilk a little. The crew agrees and they start investigating.

Copper takes dinner wit Captain Vale of the Bluecoats, and asks about Lady Slane. She learns that Lady Slane is the director of operations for the Ministry, and according to Vale is the second-most dangerous person there. The most dangerous (because of course Copper asks) is Captain Lannock, head of the Ministry's own private merc security force.

Vale cautions Copper: Widdershins' leadership is wanted and if they're arrested, they're never going to see daylight again. They need to do something to calm things down, and they need to avoid anything visible until they do. Copper thanks her and goes back to the lair to confer.

The crew decides that blackmailing Lady Slane is the best solution - they don't want to actually harm her, just have her decide things in a way that benefits them. Someone like Slane must have skeletons in her closet. One-Eye contacts Star of the Unseen, and tells her of their plans. Star agrees that this is a sound plans, and pledges to find some dirt on Slane that the crew can use.

Next session, we shall put this plan into action.

Blades in the Dark: Grinding

Last session here.

The crew is at war with the Grinders, and their last experience with being at war with a faction wasn't any fun, so they're seeking to end this one quickly. Siren, walking through the city, gets a visit from a vampire named Pearl, a friend of Cage - Cage is off on a religious pilgrimage and referred Pearl to the crew, figuring they might need some muscle.

The rest of the crew meets with Pearl, and Pearl notes that they don't have a "face" and could really use one, but that's as may be. One-Eye notes that the Grinders are tight with Ulf Ironborn, which could get awkward for the crew as they do business with Ulf, too. They go and visit him, and he notes that the Grinders aren't exactly good for business or for improving the Doskovol image of Skovs. He isn't going to take up arms against the Grinders, but he's willing to step in and take over their assets if their leadership were to disappear or die.

The crew decides on a simple assault - they'll go to the warehouse HQ of the Grinders and hit the leaders (Hutton and Sercy). They arrive and a crew of Grinders comes out to meet them, but One-Eye has already rigged the dock to collapse when enough weight gets put on it. She and Copper herd the Grinders toward the rigged area and dump a bunch of them in the drink, while Pearl vanishes and yanks a few into the shadows to drain them. Siren and Pearl sneak into the building to find the leadership, and find Sercy, Hutton, and a huge bodyguard type guy digging in. Siren shoots the big guy, and Hutton yells "Burn it!" Sercy throws a bottle of something flammable and sets the building on fire. Pearl surges out of the dark and bites Sercy.

Outside, the fighting continues. One-Eye tosses some trance powder around to incapacitate the remaining Grinders, but Copper gets caught up too and starts seeing floaty lights. They head inside (and Copper, not noticing the heat of the fire, gets a little singed), and arrive just as Hutton tries to stab Pearl and Pearl blocks him with Sercy's body. One-Eye throws a knife and stabs Hutton in the side, and Pearl tears his head off.

The crew falls back to the boat and flees, just as Ulf and his crew arrive to help put the fire out. The crew gets away, having effectively crippled the Grinders, and leaves Ulf to pick up the pieces. That's all well and good - it ends the war - but the heat generated means that the crew is back on the radar of the Bluecoats and the city authorities. Siren starts doing some work with Skovic youths to try and get them on the straight and narrow, and One-Eye starts pushing the Unseen to get Widdershins clear a bit. Widdershins is better staffed now, though, and looking to expand their turf in Nightmarket. We'll see next time how that goes.

Blades in the Dark: Dockside Heist

Nice, easy heist of some crates in Coalridge. What could go wrong?

Last time, the crew did a little transport job and learned the name of the sea-demon that is bedeviling Doskovol. This time, they crew is out doing their thing: Siren is drunk and singing at the Veil, Cage is at the lair studying, and Copper is watching One-Eye create a murder-board in the back room of the Ruby (One-Eye has gotten paranoid, and she's creating elaborate theories about how this all ties together).

A bartender at the Veil motions for Siren, and lets her know that Madame Tesslyn at the Red Lamp wants to see her. Siren drunkenly stumbles out into the night and winds up at the Lamp, where Madame Tesslyn (after ascertaining that Siren is going to retain this) tells her that she has a job for them. A rich guy named Roland Wott has a cut-glass chalice that Tesslyn wants, but he won't sell it, so might the crew obtain it for her? Wott lives in a mansion Brightstone, and Tesslyn will, of course, pay. Siren says she'll bring it to the crew.

Meanwhile, at the Ruby, one of the staff tells Copper and One-Eye they have someone asking for them (for One-Eye, specifically). Copper goes out to meet her; One-Eye is busy and buzzing on stimulants. The woman turns out to be Sercy, one of the Grinders. She tells Copper that there are rumors going around that Lord Strangford - a very wealthy Dosovol resident and one of the most important Leviathan hunters - is into demon worship and other illegal activities. If this could be proven, it would be very profitable to the right people. Copper pays Sercy for the info and goes back to One-Eye, and they head out into the night to get some food on the way to the lair.

At a food stand (getting oyster buns!), a Bluecoat passes One-Eye a note with a star on it. It says "Warehouse in Coalridge, near Ironworks. Valuable goods inside, Bluecoats watching." One-Eye recognizes this as a communication from the crew's new patron, the Unseen.

The crew convenes at the lair and everyone lays out these potential jobs. No one's really interested in the chalice - the crew isn't really equipped for sneak-thief kind of things, not in Brightstone, and they're not ready to go back to the lands of the rich again. They're very interested in Lord Strangford, but they do notice that their crew's coffers are a little dry. They need some quick cash to shore themselves up, and the warehouse job looks like a pretty easy score.

They start doing some recon; Cage sends ghosts to check out the boxes in the warehouse and see what's in the them and learns that there are crates of spices and fabrics (and other sundry goods that aren't worth taking). Siren surveys the area with Bartok, her hunting bird, and sees that there are Bluecoats watching the warehouse. Copper asks around and learns that the warehouse was the site of a brawl between the Fog Hounds and the Grinders, and the Bluecoats locked it down after that, but the stuff is going to get picked up and sent out to where it goes soon. The crew needs to act quickly if they're gonna do this.

They decide to just pull the Black Lotus up to the dock, distract the Bluecoats, go in, grab the crates, and go. Simple enough. They pull up in their boat and start going inside, but a man watching the warehouse from a nearby workhouse spots them and runs for the dock. One-Eye tries to dart him with a blowgun, but misses and hits Bartok instead. Copper and Button run over and nab the guy before he reaches another dock (and aid), and Copper knocks him out and drags him behind some barrels. So far, so good.

Meanwhile, One-Eye and Cage rig a wagon on the main road to collapse, drawing the attention of the Bluecoats. They pop into the warehouse and splash some drift oil around, making the boxes float, and the crew loads up the Lotus. Copper stands lookout on the deck, and sees another boat coming in. It looks familiar, but she can't quite place it. As it gets closer, though, a lookout on it's deck spots her.

The crew finishes their loadout and One-Eye recognizes the incoming boat - it's the Fog Hound. Figuring that they're about to get some interference the crew heads out, but the Hound fires harpoons and hits the Lotus. Copper yanks one out, but puts a hole in the hull and water starts flooding in. One-Eye and Copper run to fix it, and Siren takes the wheel. Cage, meanwhile, sets up a cannon and blows a hole in the Hound.

With the hull fixed, Copper breaks the chain on the other harpoon, and the crew escapes into the narrower canals where the Hound can't follow. They head back to the lair, a job well done.

The Unseen help the crew sell the goods; they take a cut, of course, but that's business. Unfortunately, the Grinders start making trouble for the crew, and it doesn't help that Siren, Copper, and Cage all overindulge in their vices. Siren starts singing songs about how they beat out the Grinders for the goods, and the Grinders press, trying to take the Widdershins' fleet. The crew isn't about to give up their claim, though, so they're going to war.

The crew doesn't want this to drag out - they know that war is costly. They decide to hit the Grinders hard and end this. Siren hires some sailors to act as muscle. Cage, though, has dropped off the map for the moment, which means the crew needs to take this on without him.

Blades in the Dark: Lashed by Wind and Rains

One of the things I like about Blades in the Dark is that the system scales nicely, so that even when characters have three dots in a lot of their actions, it's just a matter of raising the stakes. Even when characters usually succeed, "success" can mean something different.

And, of course, sometimes folks just have a bad dice night.

Last time, the scoundrels effectively knocked the Spirit Wardens down a couple of tiers, and catapulted their own organization to Tier III. This puts them on equal footing with folks like the Gondoliers and the Bluecoats, which is nice, but it has its own set of problems.

Tonight, most of the crew is at the Ruby. Copper is talking about goats (as usual), One-Eye is taking inventory, and Cage is unwinding. Siren is out on one of the crew's delivery boats, bugging the adepts who work with Widdershins for more information on Kotar.

A gondola slides up beside their boat, and Griggs, a Whisper and higher-up in the Gondoliers, asks to speak with Siren. She boards his craft, and he tells her that he has a job for them. There's a fella coming in to Doskovol on a ship, a doctor and demonolatry expert. He needs to be transported from the Docks to Charterhall so he can perform an autopsy on one of the bodies that's come out of the canals, and then transported to the Iruvian Consulate for safety. Siren asks if there's trouble to be expected, and Griggs says that yes, there probably is, but he isn't sure of its exact nature. Siren says she'll pass it along to the crew.

And indeed, she talks to the crew and they all meet with Griggs the next night. Griggs clarifies that this is a joint venture between the Bluecoats and the Gondoliers, bringing in Dr. Sanaat to do this investigation. One-Eye asks that Widdershins be privy to whatever information is revealed, and Griggs is amenable to that. He also clarifies that they need to stay with Sanaat during the autopsy, just for safety's sake. The crew agrees, and Griggs tells them when his ship is arriving.

Unfortunately, when the ship does arrive, it's in the middle of a vicious storm. The Iruvian craft, lighter than the Akorosi ships that frequent these waters, is getting tossed about as it puts in to the Docks. The crew lifts lanterns to help guide the ship in, but it loses control and crashes into the docks. The crew jumps clear, but the ship is damaged.

Siren starts lashing the boat to the docks, while Cage and Copper climb aboard. Almost immediately, lightning strikes the ship, splintering the deck and lightning the ship aflame. Cage and Copper pick themselves up, and Siren comes aboard and asks about the doctor. One of the mates tells her that he's in his cabin at the back of the ship. Siren yells that out, and Copper runs into the boat and finds the cabin. The door is blocked with wreckage, so she smashes through it with a hatchet and tries to kick it in, but manages to twist her knee. One-Eye arrives and knocks the hinges off, and Cage ties everyone together to help get the doctor out of the room.

Out on the deck, Siren grabs a bucket of sand and tries to douse some of the first, but realizes too late that this "sand" is actually a highly flammable signaling powder, commonly used on Iruvian ships. The powder explodes, blowing a hole in the hull. The ship starts to sink.

The scoundrels manage to all get back onto the deck when the ship collapses, and all five of them wind up in the drink. Copper, realizing that with this weather it's likely that they'll all drown, calls on all her strength and surges forward, dragging all of them out of the water...and collapsing.

The doctor examines her, and (through a translator that the crew brought, as he doesn't speak a lot of Akorosi) informs the crew that she has a concussion and needs rest. They debate sending her back home with the carriage and the translator, but decide they don't want to split their forces that much, so they just load her (and Button) into the carriage and head for Charterhall.

They arrive at the university without incident, and note that the Bluecoats are directing people off the roads (but are watching the doors). One-Eye pays off a Bluecoat to watch Button and Copper, and the rest of the crew head into the lab. Sanaat gets to work, examining the body and measuring the wounds. After some time, he (in halting Akorosi) identifies the body as a "sacrifice" to something called "Setarra."

One-Eye questions him inasmuch as she can, and learns that Setarra is a demon of the oceans and storms. This causes the crew to look askance at the weather currently rolling across Duskwall, but before they can leave the building, a hull kicks in the door.

A hull, of course, is a mechanic body possessed by a ghost. One-Eye grabs Sanaat and pulls him out a back door, into the cold stone hallways of the medical building. Cage tries to force the ghost out of the hull, but just winds up getting feedbacked and knocked down. Siren shoots it and stuns it, and Cage redoubles his efforts and forces the ghost out.

Unfortunately, One-Eye is hopelessly lost. She emerges from the building through a door that she thinks is near the carriage, but it's actually completely on the other side, and the door locks behind her. Assuring Dr. Sanaat that it's all under control, she starts heading back toward the carriage. A door in front of her opens, and a dark, scary figure steps out. She blows a handful of trance powder at it...and realizes it's Siren (who had come through a side door to find her).

Leading Sanaat and the now-dazed Siren, One-Eye finally gets to the carriage. Cage has gone back the way they came and is waiting. One-Eye calls out, and the Bluecoat standing by the carriage reaches up and breaks a silver thing around her name. Cage feels spirit disturbance, and realizes that the "Bluecoat" isn't a Bluecoat, but someone else who killed the Bluecoat and stole their uniform.

Cage, who has denied his violent impulses long enough, charges over and puts a knife through the imposter's head. The damage is done, though, and two more hulls leap over the building and give chase. One-Eye stuffs Sanaat and Siren into the carriage (and realizes that their translator has also been murdered; Copper is alive, but Button is nowhere to be seen). They take off, but the hulls are capable of catching them.

One gets close to the back of the carriage, but Cage activates a spirit barrier and sends the hull flying back (singeing himself in the process). The other hull flanks the carriage and leaps at it, but Siren, going on pure muscle memory, shoots it down, and the scoundrels fly off into the night to the Iruvian consulate. They deliver Sanaat safely, and head for home, though Cage takes the time to use the ghost field to find Button for Copper.

Back at the lair, Copper wakes up and cries upon learning of the dead translator (she's getting a little soft, it seems). The crew meets with Griggs, who pays them, and opines that the people trying to kill Sanaat might have worked for the Church of Ecstasy.

The scoundrels go to ground a bit; demons from the storm come looking, and it's better to avoid notice. Cage researches Setarra, and learns that she's a very powerful sea-demon, but according to the legends, she's imprisoned in the ocean. He also finds that her name comes up in conjunction with the Scurlock family, but the relationship is unclear - master and servant? If so, which is which?

This job improves the crew's relations with the Bluecoats and the Iruvians, and that's good, but the Church of Ecstasy is on the verge of war.