In the continuation of our Locke Lamorra infused Blades In The Dark game detailed here, my character has had one drive: Make Mom Remember.
We’ll get to that. But first, roll call. We had:
Tony, MC.
Shayna, playing Ruby the Slide
George, playing Mist the Spider
William (me!), playing Hammer the Cutter. Youngest heir of the Caruso noble family.
Off screen and very much felt: Rachael as Sickle the Cutter, elder twin to Hammer and eldest heir of the Caruso noble family.
The Caruso kids have left home and are enjoying a life of crime while their mother pretends nothing out of the ordinary is going on, and the kids are simply out on a Grand Sneer before settling down.
As the session opens, our gang has become a level 1 gang. Which also means we’re basically out of money and reputation. Hammer has a level 1 and level 2 harms – a broken nose (level 1), and a broken arrow in his bicep. He looks like hell.
We’re also at War with Strangford the industrialist, because we stole material from him that implicates the Caruso family. Basically, the material says the Caruso noble family doing that most common of all things – consorting in common mercantileism. Strategically, we really want to end the war. War’s are pretty harsh in Blades – we get fewer downtime actions and count as a half-tier lower. And we have a resources: We’ve turned Strangford’s wife – she is willing to help us so long as she winds up a widow at the end of the war.
Well.
So we’re at war with an industrialist whose working for Mom, because we stole his blackmail material on mom. And we want to end the war, preferably with the industrialist’s aspirational widow achieving her aspiration. Oh and whenever possible: To make the rich remember.
Well. Mom is very rich.
A brief segway on what The Rich Remember means. It’s the philosophical precept that gives Thieves the leeway to steal from the rich. Because the Rich Remember they have wealth they did not earn, they remember the plight of the poor. They remember that they are vulnerable.
When they do not? Make them remember and, whenever possible, rob them blind, because Thieves prosper.
So, we come up with a fantastic job: We’re going to convince mom to murderize Strangford for us. It’s a deception job, and we’re going to claim Hammer got eloped to get inside.
Mist does some gathering of information, and learns what Mom would find beyond the pale: Keeping secrets from her. That is: She would react very poorly to anyone in her employ keepng secrets from her.
Before we ever touch the dice, Tony informs me that whenever Hammers lies to his mother will start off as a desperate action with no effect. That’s bad folks!
It’s time for the Engagement roll. We assemble the dice pool. We’ve got a somewhat complicated plot - bold though it is. And we’re going against a far superior target – the head of a noble family.
We wind up with one die. Shayna rolls it, and we get a 3. It’s the worst possible thing, and we start in a desperate situation.
Tony narrates that instead of the big splashy entrance we were looking for, on the way in we are nabbed by Olf my mother’s right-hand henchman. He pulls Hammer and Ruby into a side room. Ruby is dressed as a Lady, and gives out a yell that will, eventually, pull in attention. For the moment, Olf has us at his mercy.
Hammer orders Olf – mispronouncing his name as Olaf because Hammer is too high a rank to know the names of servants – to unhand his wife. The “wife” part allows for great effect, which we hit. Olf unhands the lady.
At or around that time, Mist (who has been pretending to be a servant all this time!) brings a group of servants to see the rucus – just as Ruby slaps Olf hard across the face for daring to touch a lady. This is a Finesse roll for her to slap him at just the right time for him to be off balance and in the social wrong. She hits with maybe a 5, and we get a consequence – Olf is going to offscreen beat up Mist for showing him up.
Hammer is the sort to take on other people’s consequences, and does his best to forsee that this is going to occur. I get two dice (one from Bodyguard, one from Insight), and roll two 1’s. Which means: Mist takes no harm, and Hammer takes 5 stress. (!).
I do this by ordering Olf to show me to my mother himself, so he is not able to beat up Mist.
We’re doing all of this in the elderglass tower in which the Caruso’s live. There are five of these, handed out to the five noble families in the best standing with the Duke. These things are terrifying: While the servants entrances and locations are relatvely accessible, the Noble side is accessible only by open lift. 300 feet off the ground, taken in a lift open to the sky without much safety.
On the way up, Olf crowds Hammer close to the edge under the excuse of not crowding his lady wife. Hammer doesn’t really react much, and Olf decides it’s a good idea to poison him. He takes out a poison and, under the guide of caring for Hammer’s obvious arm wound, is going to put in a poison that will murder Hammer in a relatively short amount of time.
Mist puts a gentle hand on Olf’s shoulder, with a “not yet” - implying that it’s not yet time to take out her oblivious idiot husband, as she still needs him. Hammer sees all of this, and signals to Mist that he’s going to murder Olf – well, tries to but only has one useful arm so it is muffled.
We are brought into The Presence of The Lady Caruso. Hammer immediately opens his fool mouth, and starts saying “Mom, I want to introduce you to my wife—”.
Tony: Desperation action, no effect.
Me: …
Shayna: I push Hammer out of the way, and take over the conversation. Maybe this is helping, but how about a stress to take over the roll and change fictional positions all over the place?
Me: … Yes, plase.
Tony: Sure. I’ll be generous.
Shayna: M’Lady Caruso, it is my pleasure to meet you. I met your son during his Grand Sneer.
Tony: You know that was fictional, right? And that it was a lie she invented?
Shayna: Kayfabe! I am keeping Kayfabe.
Tony: …
George: MUAHHAHHAHAHA. While this is going on, I want a flashback so this is all preempting a meeting Strangeford was going to have with her. So, he’s on a lift about to show up.
Tony: …
------------an aside--------
OK, so at this point. A couple of things have transpired.
First, it is clear that what Hammer needs to do is shutup.
Also: The Caruso family runs on powerful women. Notice: We never see dear old dad.
Third: Tony has a “loading” look on his face, and needs a minute.
Fourth: Though I’m not sure when it happened, we completely accepted a Devil’s Bargain that Strangford is present.
It’s all part of the plan.
------------an aside--------
Tony: OK. Let’s do one then the other. The kayfabe lie is perfect, as you’re broadcasting to her that you won’t break the social norms she’s invented. Great.
George: Yeah! This is a setup roll to improve future abilitiy to lie to Donna Caruso.
Tony: Great. I get it. As for Strangford: Having him where you want seems like 1-stress, no roll.
Shayna: Right, so rolling 3 dice. PLus 1, plus… I’m at five dice.
Tony: Devil’s Bargain. She will wind up thinking Hammer betrayed his sister.
Me: Uh… that’s a little far. How about that I switched loyalty to Shanyan’s character, as that’s a pretty big betrayal of my duty?
Tony: Cool, I can accept that. That’s the devil’s bargain. Your mom will think your loyalty has shifted.
Shayna: Great. Six dice! Two six’s!
Tony: Great. She totally believes you’re in on the plan, controlling her malleable son. Future actions for you – not Hammer – to convince her of things will have great effect.
Shayna: Great. It’s time to tell her a tale of woe wherein Strangford has been trying to kill her children.
Tony: … which is true.
Shayna: The best lies are.
Tony: OK. She’s going to summon Strangford to explain himself.
George: Wait wait. I want to have Aspirational Widow show up and tell her side.
Tony: … HOW?
George: Flashback. I’ve changed clothes into Ruby’s heraldry, and will announce Madam Strangeford.
Shayna: And I’m all “She was too shy to meet you, but I think it important…”
Tony: …
Me: Hammer continues to shut up and watch as this beautiful thing happens.
Tony: Fine. What story does she tell?
Me: … Exactly the story Strangeford is about to tell. But, makes she mom thinks of it as a lie.
Tony: … Two stress. This is rewriting some history so she knows what her husband will say-- nevermind, it’s zero stress. Wives know their husbands.
Me: So … Strangford comes in?
Tony: Yes. And the first thing he does is to say that YOU are a dangerous criminal.
Me: I do believe I’ll smile and ask if that’s why he had his men break my nose!
Tony: … That’s not a lie. Damnit. Your mother retorts back to Strangford that she knows her own son.
George and Shayna: So, he tells the tale?
Tony: Yes. He explains that he’s been at war with a dangerous gang of criminals who looted his factory. That while he suspected someone from house Caruso was a part of it, he never suspected it was the kids.
George: Is it enough for her to take him out?
Tony: Not quite.
Shanyna: Fine. Time for the micdrop: Strangford killed Sickle, which is why she isn’t here. That’s how Hammer took so much physical damage, he failed to protect his sister from Strangford’s men. She’s dead now, and Strangford knew what he was doing.
Tony: … Yeah, you need a roll. Great effect, and … Risky? Sure.
Shayna, picks up some dice and rolls them. Gets a six and just smiles.
At this point, dear old mom gives a signal and Olf strangles Strangford in front of us. He chokes him from behind, and drops the body out of the tower.
George: We need an escape.
Tony: Dame Caruso will excuse her son and his new bride to freshen up, as they assuredly need it after all this. She’ll have you escorted to the visitors suite. She’ll then have a nice business chat with the new Strangford – the widow.
George: So I’m planning an escape. We’re gonna burn part of the house, including with a body. She’ll have everything so she can pretend her son is dead if she wants to. And she’ll know we put one over on her.
Tony: … you’re subborning her staff?
George: No. Flashback. I went in as a footman as previously stated. I used fake work orders to move up the alchemical explosives.
Tony: And claimed a dead body was dead drunk.
George: Right!
Tony: OK. I think this roll from George is about how much this hurts your mother. You’re going to get away, as I don’t want the next one to be with ya’ll stuck 300 feet above ground. That’s not good stakes, so the stakes are the emotional harm done to The Rich.
George: Great. I’ve got an absolute boatload of dice. Uh… I get a six!
Tony: Fantastic. She’s hurt, she knows what happened, and she knows – somehow – that her son pulled one over on her. And … yes, she remembers.
We roll for the after-effects. We don’t get a lot of coin or Heat (as the mark is actively interested in keeping it a secret), but we sure do get Rep (we have no interest in keeping it a secret).
More importantly: Stangford is dead. Long live The Widow!
We do downtime actions: Hammer finally sees a doctor about all his maladies. Ruby reduces some stress, and Mist completes the training of Milos the leech into a gentleman thief. Then Mist and Hammer go to the theatre, Ruby trains. Not thinking of another good long-term project, Hammer trains.
We do XP. I get all the XP for drives and heritage (2), but none of doing things with violence & coercion. Everybody is pretty happy with XP, and then we do the Crew XP. We get a boatload ,and take an advance. We spend the advance to upgrade our lair – it is now hidden and has a vault. We can hold onto money now.
Questions: Does the above make sense? How does the playstyle come across? What questions, if any, do you have about Blades or our little group?