The Job: We brought a Tobacconist into our portfolio, by wrecking smugglers that kidnapped him.
Reminder: This is our Locke Lamorra-infused game of Blades in the Dark, most recently chronicled here
Roll call:
Tony, the MC
George, playing Mist the Spider (mastermind!)
Rachael, playing Sickle the Cutter and eldest Heir of the Caruso noble family (Muscle)
William (me!), playing Hammer the Cutter, twin to Sickle and youngest Heir of the Caruso noble family (Muscle)
When last we left off, we were getting in pretty good with Capa Mala. We now tithe directly to the Capa, who is one of the 12 independent Capa’s on the Council of Thieves. They leave a 13th chair open, reserved for the Crooked Warden.
As this session opened:
– We realized it had been a few weeks, and we could stand an easy job to get back into the swing of things
– Capa Mala let us know a Tobacconist had stopped tithing. This was the same Tobacconist that supplied Hammer with his cigars. It had been a while since Hammer had gone out for a good smoke, so he hadn’t seen the man in a while.
We investigator. Hammer and Mist went out to scope out the scene. The Tobacconists daughter was now running the operation, and Hammer followered her when she went on a money drop.
The poor girl was about to get beatup by 3 hoodlums, who decided that instead of exchanging money for her goods, they’d just take the goods and the money and leave her bleeding on the street.
No worries; Hammer and Mist intervened. We beat two bloody unconscious, and explained to the third (and leader) that this was inappropriate; Thieve’s Prosper and you do not get to just beat someone up who has made a deal with you.
She was breathless and asked how she could repay us. She explained her father had been missing these last few weeks. We told her to visit the Nightmarket, and we’ll discuss at her earliest convenience.
ok, so, turns out: Her father Travel was kidnapped by smugglers. Which meant he wasn’t paying his dues to the Capa. According to Hammer, this was a good opportunity tot ake over the Tobacconist’s criminal enterprise. Have a front.
Sickle had none of that. She was all “Thieve’s Prosper”, and “The 13th has given us this opportunity to help!”, and finally “I’m going to go rescue him!”.
She stormed out; we followed and convinced her we should do some more information gathering before going out.
And we learned something: The Smugglers were recently taken over a new tough guy, who named himself after his weapon. He’s very proud of it, as when you’ve got a shtick you should do it well. That weapon is, of course, a Hammer.
So: Word on the street is Hammer has kidnapped Travel the Tobacconist. that won’t do; this jerk is stealing my nome de plume and misusing it.
We decide that the best course of action is to Take. Him. Down. So the job is a stealth job; we’re going to sneak in and beat the guy up. The smugglers are holed up on an abandoned island just outside town. We get our boat and head out.
We wind up with a single die for our engagement roll; I roll a 3. We’re Desperate circumstances. Tony says there’s a problem with our rigging, and the boat is bashing itself to pieces against the wall. It’s solveable, but someone will need to white-knuckle scramble up the impenetrable cliffface to steady the line.
Sickle does so. With flying colors, and the boat is saved.
Once on the island, we discover there are lots of buildings. Weird. We do a flashback; Mist got Sickle a faked library passes so she could get architectural information about this place. Hammer is carrying the maps, and the place used to be a temple training grounds.
We go through the service corridors, and discover Hammer and a band of ten thieves partying.
Sickle enters, and gives an impassioned speech regarding their honor, the misuse of already taken thief names, who should actually be running their gang, and the probable ancestry of their current leader. She calls him out, and insists he battles her brother the Hammer of Camorr.
So … we discuss how this is going to go down. There’s some joke about it being a formal duel, therefore using Finesse rather than fightfight. We don’t do that, as neither Hammer is above cheating in such a venue. We get into a hammer fight, which the PC miraculously wins by rolling 5d and getting a 5.
I shatter his hammer and bust up his hand; the fake Hammer is out of commission, and the gang asks if I’ll be their leader. I mean … how could I say no?
That’s basically the mission, folks.
We gain 3 rep, a small amount of loot, and just 1 heat for being on hostile turf. We escort the kidnapped Travis back home, and explain a few things. Like that we’ll be paying the Dona on his behalf from now on, so he should give us his share instead. And that we explained things to his daughter, who has become the peson of Sickle.
He … pukes. A lot. Oops.
Downtime: We get our heat down to zero, then let our fancy new Vice Den (Tobacconist) trigger and get us 1d6 coin. Sickle trains, Hammer words on a long-term project: To gain The Distance from The Capa. We introduce a new long-term race clock – who trains thieve’s in Camorr?
We work on that a bit, pointing out both to the Capas and to the other thieves of Camorr that we’ll do a better more pious job than The Thiefmaker.
So … that’s pretty much what happened.
Thoughts / questions / concerns?