Blades in the Dark Solo - The Pincers - Part 8

No score in this session; instead, we’re going to think about the rest of the fiction.

Downtime: Talitha

Talitha’s changed. She has much more of an edge about her, is more likely to resort to violence, and more commonly will display cruelty in thought, word, and action (Trauma: Vicious).

These wounds definitely hold her back and that requires attention. We could just recruit a Leech into the crew, and I probably will at some point in the future. For now, though, even though Junker didn’t work out, that process still makes sense to me.

This means starting by trying to find a medic. At tier I, we have more connections and resources to acquire this asset… rolling crew tier, 1d => 1, meaning a tier 0 healer. We learned our lesson on this and will spend 2 coin to upgrade to tier I. To explore the NPC, I used a Blades in the Dark NPC generator on Perchance, which seems to use some tables from the book and a few others. I’ve lightly edited things to fit my tastes.

Abraham Morriston, a rough-looking Akorosi who wears leathers. He’s a cooperative sort who is massively in debt to his family. He handles matters with alchemy and has a strong interest in essences.

Already, he seems more likely to be useful than Junker, at least in the sense of handling this particular matter.

Talitha now recovers, and Morriston proves effective as 1d => 6, which is 3 ticks out of 4. She could spend coin for medication and bump that up to full, but instead (since she doesn’t have anything in her pockets and using stash would prove more expensive), she’ll tough it out, taking 1 stress. This would be a 0d roll, but since she only needs 1 tick, we won’t worry about it. This clears her harm and she’s ready to rock.

Downtime: Wicker

Wicker remains his same odd self (no trauma). Highly stressed and suffering from a psychic burn, he’ll also take a turn recovering with Morriston. 1d => 2, which only gives him 1 tick. That’s not enough, so we’ll go again: 1d => 3, 1 more tick. At 2/4 on the healing clock, let’s spend 2 coin to finish that. His “Slashed” drops off and the “Psychic Burn” drops to level 1 (reduced effect).

Unfortunately, he hasn’t dealt with his vice yet. While Wicker doesn’t have a listed trauma at this point, his stress is at 8/9. He’ll spend a coin for some extra downtime and go worship the Radiant Word with Aranna the Blessed, 2d => 5. There’s a bit of breathing room now for the next job. Trauma is coming eventually, though!

Factions

We haven’t looked at factions in a bit. Since then, we’ve gone on 3 scores (Black Sheep, Bloody Bricks, Little Rat Bastard).

☞ Reconciled

The Reconciled were at 5/8 on infiltrating the Church of Ecstasy. 3 phases, plus the Bloodstone Opal, means we’ll consider this clock filled.

Of course, this has MAJOR implications. Dunvil is Possessed (a body containing two or more spirits), or rather he would be if he and the Path of Echoes had not been manipulated. In a ritual using the Hollow Vault and Bloodstone Opal, they instead Hollowed him into a particularly special state, allowing Kinclaith to seize the body, effectively becoming a vampire who sits on the Council, helps run the Church, and controls the Path of Echoes cult.

Mechanically, we also bump up the Reconciled to Tier IV and give the crew another status level with them (up to +2 now).

☞ The Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh

Did the Church ever see it coming? Maybe Elder Rowan did, but he has his own plans and Dunvil is (in theory) a neutral party in terms of the City Council.

Rowan is working to unlock the secret of ascension,, becoming (in effect) an immortal demon. Kinclaith-as-Dunvil will not want this.

In this interim period, he’ll have worked on this a few times. The Church is Tier IV, opposed by the Reconciled on this particular goal, so we’ll knock this down a bit and roll 2d => 4, putting 2 segments on a 12-clock.

Also, keep in mind that the Fog Hounds now fall in Rowan’s sphere of influence as he’s become their patron. We can perform an operation against them at some point to deal with that. For now, let’s assume they’re out of Doskvol on a smuggling job across the Void Sea.

☞ Rivals

More on our level, Corille is a thorn in our side. His family suffered an incalculable loss at the hands of the Pincers, and he doesn’t know that his lover’s “father” has it. Does Kinclaith-as-Dunvil want him eliminated? 2d (uncertain) => 6, yes. Of course, it needs to be quiet, so potentially another job opportunity.

Other rivals include Petra, a city clerk. Talitha’s vicious streak has her looking to make a move. What was the windfall we previously mentioned? Looking once more at Eskur’s Gaslamp Oracles:

• Action / Theme: Suppress Obligation
• Character Motivation: Debt

Somehow, Petra prevented Talitha from having a debt forgiven. Maybe it was a debt that impoverished Telda, not Talitha herself. This will become a long-term project, and I envision that leading to some sort of confrontation when it fills up. This clock will hopefully get started in the next downtime phase.

Similarly, what’s the deal with Flint? Returning to the Gaslamp Oracles:

• Action / Theme: Discover Death
• Descriptor / Focus: Impossible Key
• Character Impression: Provocative

Flint wants Wicker’s ghost key. (I guess those things are rare!) He is holding something over him and poking him about it. Maybe this is related to Wicker’s old pirate crew? 1d => 2, not really. I still like the idea that Flint could pop up on a job as a complication, like Corville did during Little Rat Bastard.

(The military and Iruvian consulate just didn’t hold my interest, I guess.)

So, future opportunities, projects, or complications:

• Oppose the Fog Hounds as a proxy for Reconciled versus the Church
• Eliminate Corille Macallum
• Deal with Petra as a long-term project
• Use Flint as a complication on a job
• Resolve an entanglement with the Unquiet Dead (probably not Fidalis after all)

With these thoughts organized, next time we’ll tackle a job - and at Tier I, it’ll be time to look at the Claims map.