Casia will do what she does best, sneak. Taking one stress for an additional die.
It's two stress to give yourself an additional die, it's one stress to assist someone else.
Okay, just admit it. You just want to see Cas under stress. :P
Hi all - I've hurt my back so sitting and typing is not helping right now. I won't be posting for a couple of days unless it's a short post from my phone.
Sorry to hear that and totally understand. Hope you feel better soon.
OK, i have some ideas on how those rolls play out but going to give my back another day to recover before I sit down and write something.
In the meantime - Min, do you have an action roll you want to make or would you prefer to see how it goes down and then do something?
update: I'm back to sitting at a desk for shortish periods so should be able to concentrate long enough to type GM-length posts in a day or so.
Thought I'd just check in to see if we're still moving this forward? Any word from Min?
I'm still here, back was troublesome so I left it but will get a post up in a few minutes. Haven't heard from Min but it is Easter so may be on holiday.
Sure. It's bound to happen sooner or later and I'd prefer to save the stress for when it does. So.....
[dice=Attune]3d6
Eep...well, thank goodness for that 4. Will get something posted in a bit.
So, the ghost picks up your trail again due to the devil's bargain, and you also have a complication. Sarah had something about Min and Jonah's magic interacting with each other due to a complication with Cas, and I think that's what happens here: Jonah's in a hurry and pushing the limits of what he can do, and his magic catches the Weave the Min left on Cas - there's a lot of sparks and everyone takes Level 2 Harm, electroplasmic burns.
You can resist down to level 1 harm, singed, with Prowess.
Casia will do what she does best, sneak. Taking one stress for an additional die.
[dice=Prowl]3d6
That's a success, so you manage to get the drop on Hutton! He sent his lieutenants out to check the distraction you set up, and the fog Jonah conjured up has separated him from his bodyguards. Cas spots Hutton before he spies her, so the group get one "round" of actions before he and his bodyguards can regroup.
The downside is it's a limited window of opportunity: I'm making a 4-clock "bodyguards to the rescue" and ticking it twice. There's also an 8-clock "lieutenants figure it's a distraction and come to the rescue" and I'm ticking that one twice, as well.
Hutton by himself? Tough fight. Plus his bodyguards? Nasty. Plus his lieutenants? I don't see that one going well for you.
Down one stress.
Good luck with the drive! Long distances in a car are not my idea of fun.
No stress for Casia this time! I need an action roll to go with your newer post, it sounds like you're using Skirmish to knife Hutton.
This is a high-tier opponent so I'm giving you 2 consequences. The first is reduced effect: your blade lands but even caught by surprise he's fast and he ducks the worst of it. Bleeding and injured but still incredibly dangerous. The second consequence is another tick on the bodyguards clock, we're now at 3/4.
You can resist the reduced effect using prowess, and/or you can resist the bodyguard clock using insight.
Min and Jonah to act!
Taking a stress to resist the reduced effect ...
I'll leave it up to someone else to resist the clock.
2 stress but no clock advance.
Casia, that's a crit on the resist roll so you regain 1 stress!
Need action rolls from Jonah and Min
Going to use Sway here combined with the illusionary effects of the ongoing ghost field spell to generate fear in Hutton and his allies. In Hutton to hopefully make him a less capable and effective fighter. Break his spirit and sense of power or control of the situation while reinforcing the ruse that this is all an attack by the Silver Nails.
I like it! Silver nails seem like an entirely appropriate thing to bring to this fight.
Anyway, Min gets a full success on his action so there's nothing for me to do on that. Jonah's sway is a success with consequences, and because he is using the weave the obvious complication is that the ghost that was chasing you catches up with you.
EDIT: I love Duskvol. From heist movie to survival horror in a few dice rolls.
Okay, so it looks like Hutton is dead, correct? As for the ghost, neither Min or myself seem to be in a place to be able to defeat it outright. I could try a Compel to send it after Hutton's lieutenants or some other delaying Attune action to give us more time or cover to escape.
GM, do we have access to any ghost shot or was that only Lolo? It looks like that equipment was pretty specific to the Hound, but it can't hurt to check.
IIRC, the electroplasmic ammo is a Hound-specific bit of gear, just like the ghost mask is specific to the Whisper.
Min's tinker action on the door could really work in your favour here if you opt for a hasty retreat!
Makes sense on the ammo.
Hrmmm....so the ghost has entered a physical form. How about an Attune flashback where Jonah was working on an oil or other liquid substance (Strange Methods akin to something like a Black Salt Bomb, but not that specifically) to help keep a ghost connected to a mortal body. This would have been part of his attempts/experiments to restore and help Naty. The experiments were mostly a failure in that the oil only kept aetheric energy attached to flesh for a short period of time (seconds, minutes, hours?) Being the packrat he is, Jonah drug it along just in case it could be useful. By splashing the stuff over Hutton's body the ghost is unable to escape the physical form. Thus it is more susceptible to Min's traps and Casia's knives and maybe even stuck long enough for the Wardens who're likely to come knocking. Or Hutton's emerging ghost and the invader have to fight it out. Regardless, trapped in a physical body even for a few moments would give us a better chance of outrunning it, because I'm all for hasty retreat.
Would that be a reasonable 1 point flashback? This is important because that's all I've got. :)
That could work, although I can save you the flashback and tell you that the ghost isn't looking to leave Hutton's body: it's looking to use it. It has been a long time since it properly tasted flesh and blood, and it will joy-ride the body until it falls apart.
The reason the Spirit Wardens disintegrate bodies is not simply so that no ghost arises from that corpse - it's to deny any existing ghosts a vehicle they can use.
In that case, I'd say we just run. Jonah will use Finesse to jab his lightning hook into Ghost-Hutton's leg hopefully slowing him down as it spasms and goes numb. Giving Cas and Min a chance for a head start and then Jonah follows.
OK, that will work but the consequence is you lose time doing it which fills the bodyguard clock EDIT no it doesn't because you resisted the previous tick so now it's nearly full, 3/4, and I'm adding more ticks to the reinforcements clock because you have NOT been subtle. That's now at 5/8.
Giving Cas and/or Min a chance to chime in before going any further.
Since I've already rolled, I'm thinking hold on to it unless Cas can use it to help us escape.
Min's previous action is in play here, which is what allows you to escape. You don't need a roll for that, although we may not be quite finished yet.
BTW, I am aware that you are low (or high?) on Stress and your Harm tracks are rapidly running out of space; fear not. You are now into the final - but crucial - part of the heist: the getaway.
I am thinking it's time to ditch the Silver Nail disguises. Knowing we'd have to at some point, can we assume we've got regular dock workers clothes on underneath?
Given Jonah's Skov looks he might be able to pass as a local worker or even a Grinder. I've also got my Deck of Obscurement which we could use to shift attention away from us while making a getaway. I don't think we ever decided on the exact mechanics of the deck. Maybe it provides a bonus die to everyone's Prowl or Sway attempt to pass through the streets unnoticed? Also okay if it just allows for the attempt to Prowl under the circumstances.
Totally open to other ideas. Except Jonah is definitely ditching the Silver Nails jacket. :)
Posted Casia's 'plan'. :)
Yeah, ditching the Silver Nails getup is the first thing on it.
I like it! It sounds to me like that's a Sway action based on the narrative - "nothing to see here, just us normal folk doing totally normal things" Sway is about persuasion, making people see things your way; it doesn't have to be purely about verbal communication.
But I'm open to hearing other suggestions.
Uh, yeah, Sway, sure.
Anyone else care to roll?
I think I can put Min's assist to good use...
Will get a post up later today.
Nice! Another 6 just when you need it.
I'll let Min decide how his Foresight ability helps Jonah get you all out of trouble!
OK, I'll give it another day for Min and/or Casia to post anything in response and then move us forward.
Sorry for delay - I thought I'd give Min another day or so to post but will move us on now.
Congratuations! You have made it to Tier 1 (weak hold). Let's work out in mechanical terms what those things mean.
Lady Phroiag's gifts are essentially the Coin that pays for you to get to Tier 1. They also mean that you now have gear of Tier 1 quality, so feel free to decide what that looks like for your PC.
The Sashes and Lampblacks have each given you a Turf. If you look at the Dusk Mites' character sheet you can see that Shadows have various Turf options - feel free to decide which 2 you would like.
The various lackeys are just a sign that you have some numbers now as a Tier 1 gang. Unless you take the relevant actions, they won't count as a Cohort. But they are the mass from which a Cohort could be recruited, if you are that way inclined.
Either way, we are now in Downtime. You are no longer at war with anyone (for now!) so you have 2 actions available. You also gain XP - there were a mountain of Desperate rolls so that makes for advanced characters!
More existentially: that seems like a good place to end the "season" - there are plot threads still dangling, but you have resolved a long-running dispute decisively in your favour and gained a Tier in the process. So... do you want to continue? I'm having fun running the game and am happy to keep doing so for as long as you want to keep playing it.
I'm good to continue, but what about a bit of recruitment if we do? I think we could use a couple more folks if possible. What do you all think? I might know one or two who might be interested if we do.
For XP, were we still in a Desperate position toward the end there or had we managed to get or keep ourselves at Risky? It may have just felt Desperate because of such low stress levels. :)
I think that sounds sensible. I see that Lolo's player is back on these boards so I will ping them to see if they are interested; I will also PM Doug to see if he is still around. But I'm also open to some fresh blood, if there's anyone you can think of then let me know; otherwise I will try an open recruitment and see who is interested.
In terms of XP, there was definitely a point at which you stopped being in a Desperate position but I would need to go back and find it!
EDIT Found it. Every dice roll you made once you got to Hutton's base was Risky; everything before that was Desperate. If you can't face going back to count it, I'm willing to accept that everyone made 4 rolls at Desperate position which by itself gives 4 XP regardless of anything else.
I'm still in. Another project I'm working on has been sucking away my time, but I'm in the process of re-adjusting how much time I spend on it.
Hoping to see how the characters' story plays out.
It's BitD, so it won't be a happy ending, but I can hope for an okay one.
Any hints on when Finraeth will be getting 'better'?
Good to know you're still here. I haven't heard back from Min, but I've reached out to a couple of people and had one definite interest. That would bring us back to three players, which is at least the minimum needed to run this game. We can reach out to anyone else if you know who might be interested.
It's now 5 April, so Fin was poisoned 3 days ago. He'll be unwell for a bit longer but up and about very soon. One entanglement from your score though is going to be that the Silver Nails found out it was Fin who hit them. Their current assumption is that the Grinders paid you to do it, because there's no way a bunch of nobodies like you would have the stones to do something like that of your own volition; but they want a very personal word with Fin, so he's going to lie low for a bit.
(I can't GMPC a character in this game, it just doesn't work. So Fin will still be available for RP stuff in downtime and so on but he won't be going out on missions with you.)