Blades in the dark: Servants of Halthar

Game Master Meetch

"Certainly. Let me go see what can be done and I'll get back to you. When do you need them by?"

Tarnikos cracks his knuckles and waits for someone to tell him what he's supposed to do.

I’m sorry, I misread the engagement chart. You got the attention of the Inspectors, not the Greys. They’re hassling your dice game. You can bribe them 1 coin OR take -1 status with them.

I would vote to bribe them. If nothing else, it'll give us a bit more space in our vault.

In that case, I'm much more inclined toward bribery.

I am too. We have a boatload of money now.

let's get bribing!

Velaris slinks down to madame Tessaryns. he needs a friggin' drink

relieve stress: 1d6 ⇒ 1

or 10

relieve stress: 1d6 ⇒ 2 Goddamnit

And then spends a day or so with various texts and occult talismen. filling out my last playbook xp to get compel I hope I get a lot of that.

Hutch will spend 1 coin on training, consulting and consorting with the spiders of other crews he's gathered into his flock... and take Weaving the Web.

Then he will stop in on Velaris, who is frustrated with his own vices. "Blackstar... I am finding some difficulty locating my old minister of faith." Hutch scratches his head, and leaves a ridiculous blast of tousled hair on one side of his head. "Would you care to hear out my thoughts?"
Vice: 2d6 ⇒ (6, 5) = 11 high resistances rock.

Tarnikos decides to have some fun 'redeeming himself' by serving soup and doing other volunteer work, making nice with Narnya.

Consort: 1d6 ⇒ 3

And training to do better at the whole talking-to-people thing.

Hutch
Sure, that works for me!

Tarnikos
Are you paying into the LTP of improving status with The Weeping Lady?

Yes.

Duly noted!

Let me know when everyone is done with their downtime and we'll assign individual XP/Class XP!

screw it, gonna train resolve. mark off another coin, and then I'm done

Ready to kill Velaris proceed.

Ready to kill Velaris proceed.

Did you weigh in on Crew and Individual XP?

Did you weigh in on Crew and Individual XP?

I gained 1 XP before I made Cissa. I agree with Mender's assessment of the crew XP. Probably 2 XP, maybe 3... 4 if we're feeling generous. Definitely one for stepping up to the Greycloaks, possibly one for our second Daring mission, possibly one for telegraphing the friction between Hutch and Blackstar or working in a coordinated way for the first time.

I certainly agree for the 2 XP. I thought the Hutch/Blackstar friction certainly qualifies. Did you work in a coordinated way? Is that something important for your cult?

We cracked out some set ups and help rolls, which we don't usually do. If anything, though, it goes against our usual MO.

Ok, are we ready to dive in? Do you need any gather information rolls before the score kicks off?

I think we are ready, yes.

Hutch, you'll need to give me a command roll for your goon squad to get into position. Hutch, did you give assignments or did you just pick people who had scores to settle in the required sites? Are they all across Duskvol or centered in Six Towers? What is the signal that you're going to use to set the plans into motion?

Velaris, where do you need to be to attune the whale bone into Halthar's service? Can you do it in your lair or do you need to travel to a place of power?

There are actually two scores going on at once, maybe three. The first is the ritual (I'm guessing it's an Occult plan) and the other is the sacrifice in the jail. The third depends on how Hutch plans to get somewhere where his signal can be seen/heard from all the sacrifice sites, unless the signal is something that Hutch isn't doing himself (freeing you up to use Cissa?)

And remember: You can do gather information rolls to improve your engagement roll. Look at your character sheets: each of your playbooks have their own sets of questions you can ask to gather information. The more you know, the better off you'll be.

Hutch runs the Flock as a collusion of spiders. All of the mask carriers have their own crews and agendas, and Hutch spends time at the Black Diamonds hideout connecting the dots. The introduction of the grand design is less “now you owe me” and more of a “this is the day we’ve all been waiting for” as getting folks dead on purpose is a major challenge. He’s not telling anyone to kill anyone they don’t want dead, he’s telling them what day and time is most advantageous for them to do it because he’s done his homework to find when people that they want dead have lined up in an advantageous pattern.

The constellation crisscrosses the six towers, but Hutch made sure he could get from end to end on horseback in a reasonable time.

I would guess there are clock towers? The Flock is told their best bet is to get into position when the clock begins tolling midnight, and do the deed at the stroke of twelve. (There’s the music part, then it ‘bongs’ twelve times, giving everyone a minute to make sure they get the timing close.)

I expect to retroactively end up Obsessed for all the flashback stress Hutch will accrue making it come together.

Hutch finishes laying out the plan for his Flock, and awaits their reactions.
Command/Consort/Study: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 6) = 8 Either a 2 or a 6. At least I have three dice in Resolve...

~~~weeks later~~~

The pieces in place, the crew suiting up for the score, Hutch goes over his notes one more time, looking for a hole.
What should I look out for?
Study: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 4) = 6

Would also probably help to know any common knowledge about the Spirit Wardens. Like, are they or their birds finite, are the birds actual birds, do they all ride mechanical uber-horses that travel through time etc... Can I roll Gather Information twice?

I'll buy "consort" as a roll for this. You successfully get them onboard up for this mission (though you'll take 1 stress for the flashback). They're excited to have an opportunity to deal with some problems that have plagued them.

Common knowledge for the spirit wardens: The birds are likely finite, but there are so many it'd take a massacre would tap their resources. They are real birds, but the methods for making them sense death is unknown. The Wardens do not ride horses at all. Instead they race through the city, lunging over walls and crisscrossing rooftops. They are very fast, but the further out from the mortuary you go, the longer it takes for them to arrive.

[ooc]What are you looking for a hole in? The crew's target? Your path on goatback (horses are terribly rare in Duskvol, so people ride and harness goats)?

The plan as described to the Flock is to do all the murder at once so no one has the full force of the Spirit Wardens coming down on them. Is that a 'cool, let's see how that works out' plan, or a 'yeah, but you're going to, like, murder all the birds, or something, right?' kind of plan? Is there anything Hutch clearly needs to be on top of in order for the Flock, Mender, and Tarnikos to benefit from the scramble? Hutch is probably going to try and snipe out the Black Diamond's bird, and expects the other crews to come up with similar plans if that 'extra something' is needed. Otherwise, Hutch is free to help with the start of the prison break, then ride off into midnight to murder Velaris get into a slap-fight with Velaris.

There are considerably more birds than there are Spirit Wardens, so planning out the murders gives an unusually long time to get away. The Flock has confidence that your plan will work. As long as the clock works correctly (and you have no reason to believe it wouldn't) Hutch doesn't have much to do beyond what you've already one.

Velaris prowls through the streets near the jail Felfiz had shown him, looking for a greycloak. this is, after all, their turf. what he needed was a sacrifice,a dn it was better to use a Greycloak. If he couldn't find one, A vagrant would have to do, though his preference was for an enemy.

Prowl: 2d6 ⇒ (2, 1) = 3 and that's the story of the time The Greycloaks found Velaris on laudanum, and kicked his teeth in

I'll take stress to give you a die.

1d6 ⇒ 3 sorry guys

Hutch will be so mad when he shows up at the hideout to find out Tarnikos ends up killing Velaris because he gets himself arrested. Total inverse Sweeny Todd.

Fortunately, "gather information" has fewer consequences than an action roll.

There are many vagrants to scoop up from the streets, but if you want to get at a Greycloak, you're going to need to break in to the jail.

Unfortunately, you're not as subtle as you hoped, and you make eye contact with one of the sentries. You run off as he calls out for support, but they'll be on the look-out.

How many of these guys are even left anymore... also, Do I get Tarkinos with me, or does he have another part in this plan?

Also, You said this was 2-3 scores... is that official, or just a complicated score?

Mender is on break-in duty, and Tarnikos is on murderkill duty. Hutch has conspicuously assigned Velaris to work alone at the hideout, but there are some cohorts to help draw your magical sand circles. Hutch has said nothing about his own role in the plan.

Cool... I thought I was doing the sacrifice in the jail... did I misunderstand?

There's a whole constellation of sacrifices, mapped out over the whole city to jump-start your ritual. Should be v. powerful (assuming Halthar likes murder in their name...)

Velaris: Not counting leadership there are like...10 Greycloaks total, including some who ran away from the dice game.

I thought the intention was that there would be a sacrifice at the jail (score 1) and a ritual somewhere else to attune the bone (score 2). Am I incorrect?

That is Hutch's plan as it's been explained to the crew. Only Hutch and Ramsey Billington III know otherwise. I'm not even sure what the whole plan is yet, but the Saw theme is playing on an infinite loop whenever I come back to this thread.

Oh, sweet, Velaris isn't on the "Prison-break crew. so, are we doing downtime between the two scores (basically, can I use Emaline to help the break in, or shall I cool my heels intil the murderin' starts (note: cool w/ either)

There's simultaneous.

Don't worry. There will be...things for you to do. This won't be easy.

Hutch has basically announced a day and time when the Hideout will be unprotected. I expect most of the downside of the Flock is that using it advances our enemies' objectives, and leaves the crew vulnerable to double-crossing. Plus the Greycloaks hate us. Then, there's the challenge of the bone itself... So yeah, part of the evil metagamey player plan is to run Hutch back to help.

Yayyyyyy... wait a minute...

Hutch has basically announced a day and time when the Hideout will be unprotected. I expect most of the downside of the Flock is that using it advances our enemies' objectives, and leaves the crew vulnerable to double-crossing.

[ooc]Oh dang. I was hoping you DIDN'T notice that...

The Flock would expect it to be empty though, so the intruder(s) might be surprised to find an active ritual going on. Anyway, it's going to be an awesome score. I'm stoked as heck.

I'm not going to gather any information. If that's why we're waiting.

If everyone is ready, call out your load and plan/missing detail (and which score you're on) and we'll get started.

Load: Normal
Plan: Stealth - thermite wall-hole > Transport - Goaty McGoatface > Occult - wale boan

oad: Heavy. he's not going anywhere, and he plans to stay safe

Load: Normal. Since I am on the break in crew, I'll go ahead and check two of my load boxes to have fine wrecking tools. Also, I realize I never made my Study roll to create the Bombs that Hutch requested, so I'll go ahead and do that now. Let's call it an asset, and I'll spend a coin to pay for a downtime activity to acquire one.

Study: 1d6 ⇒ 51d6 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 4

Mender, you’ve created a set of bombs that you’re pretty sure will probably work. What are the triggers for the bombs?

Load: Normal. Break-in crew