Session 1.3: Discretion
Aldo meets Mr. Seek. Emma makes a plea. Carver knows a man.
Last episode, the Jesseks successfully executed their burglary of Molino House, stealing into Roland Molino’s locked library and absconding with a precious piece of jewelry known as the Emperor’s Tear — likely the most valuable thing any of the brothers have ever possessed.
Just when it seemed they would make it away cleanly, Aldo was set upon by a restless spirit — a not-uncommon danger in Duskwall, even more common in the decaying Six Towers district. Aldo is not skilled in dealing with the dead, and it seemed as though the spirit might steal his breath, but he was rescued at the last moment by an unexpected ally: His long-lost sister Emma.
After banishing the spirit, Emma fled, begging Aldo not to follow her. Aldo was never one to throw caution to the wind and abandon the agreed-upon plan, but seeing a lost loved one after all these years might make a man do strange things. The decision was left up to you all — let’s see what you chose:
A close one! It was fun watching the votes roll in this week. Up until Wednesday, the voting was tied, and the final two votes that came in pushed it over the edge. I think that’s a good representation of Aldo’s internal state: He knows Rian and Carver are waiting for him, but his emotion just barely overwhelms his reason, and he gives chase.
Unfortunately for Aldo (and I perhaps should’ve realized this before posing this choice) he is not very good at pursuing people through the city. He has no points in the Hunt action, and none of the other potentially applicable skills that he has (Finesse and Prowl) feel quite right for the situation. Rolling with a zero action rating means he’ll roll two dice and keep the lower — a recipe for disaster. To get a fighting chance, he can either push himself or accept a Devil’s Bargain, and I think the latter sounds like more fun.
Devil’s Bargains
A Devil’s Bargain is a cost, drawback, or consequence that is imposed in exchanged for the bonus die, which is applied no matter the result of the roll. For this bargain, we’ll envision that in pursuing Emma, Aldo will be late to the meeting with their prospective fence, risking the outcome of the meeting and angering their partner. Uncharacteristic of him — he’ll have some explaining to do to Carver and Rian, no doubt.
With all that considered, let’s make the roll:
Aldo rolls Hunt: Risky position, Standard effect
Dice Pool: 1d = 0d (Action Rating) +1d (Devil's Bargain)Result: 1: Failure
Ouch. I don’t want to envision complete failure here — we just chose to go after Emma, after all, so it would be a little anticlimactic if she just got clean away. Instead, we’ll choose the consequence you end up in a desperate position, and put Aldo a little in over his head.
And now, after that lengthy preamble, back to the fiction:
Scene 3: The streets of Six Towers
Aldo plunges into the billowing smoke. Even as he does, he curses himself for a fool. What if you are caught? Fool. What if you miss the meet? Fool. Rye and Carv are waiting for you. Fool, fool, fool!
The black cloud claws at his eyes, stinging and blinding, but still he struggles on -- after all these years, he refuses to let her go a second time. The smoke seems to thicken around him, enveloping him like an embrace. He loses sight of her, stumbling blindly with arms outstretched.
"Emma!" he cries hoarsely. "Wait!"
No response but the roiling smoke. He trips and nearly falls, barely catching himself against a cold brick wall. The smoke pries at his lips and forces its way down his throat, choking him. Still he pushes on.
Finally, he breaks through the smoke and into the cool night air. The alleyway opens up onto a broad avenue, and beyond is the sprawling, overgrown green of Mistshore Park. He catches a glimpse of her pale hair in the darkness, disappearing between the gnarled trees.
Aldo hesitates for a moment -- it is whispered that the park is a nest of unquiet spirits -- but he has come too far to not go on. He crosses the nearly-deserted avenue and climbs over a low stone wall, overgrown with vines, and onto the park's cracked, uneven pathways.
He follows the footfalls of Emma’s boots in the darkness, but among the gnarled branches, it seems as though the sound is coming from all around him.
Then, after what seems like an eternity, he hears her voice, quiet and afraid: “No need for that, Mr. Seek. I’m ready to come home.”
Aldo slows his pace, and creeps up to the source of the sound. Through the twisted branches, he catches a glimpse of Emma in a small, weedy clearing, standing with her back pressed against a long-dead oak. Before her is a man, tall and slender in a long oilcloth coat with a short top hat on his head. His back is turned, but just from the way the man stands and moves, Aldo can tell he is dangerous -- a tight economy of motion, and a wary, ready stance.
"Shouldn't have left," the man rasps. His voice is a rattle, like a man dying of the white plague1. "Madame isn't pleased."
"I can explain everything," Emma says, holding up a placating hand. "Take me back to her."
Then, slowly, the man turns, his attention drawn by some sign. Mr. Seek is shrouded by a mask and the low brim of his hat, but Aldo can see one of his eyes clearly. It is strange, lensed device, glowing with a pale orange light, whirring and clicking as it seeks in the darkness. Aldo silently steps back and crouches low, drawing his shadowcloak around himself and holding his breath, willing himself to be as still as death. His heart pounds in his chest, and Mr. Seek’s head tilts curiously, almost as though he can hear it.
Here’s Aldo’s desperate position. Mr. Seek isn’t called that for nothing — he will be hard to hide from. Seek’s tier is high enough that normally Aldo would have Zero effect, but his shadowcloak gives him a chance at least a Limited effect.
Aldo rolls Prowl: Desperate position, Limited effect
Dice Pool: 3d = 2d (Action Rating) +1d (Push Yourself)
Stress: Aldo +2 (5 total)Result: 1, 1, 3: Failure
The crew’s luck seems to have run out. Aldo fails, and he’s spent half his stress pool to boot. Failure on a desperate roll means a serious consequence. Back to the fiction:
Then, twitching like a striking spider, the man raises up a heavy, thick-barreled pistol and fires. A sickly green flare blooms from the black muzzle, and Aldo feels the round strike him in the shoulder as he tries to dodge, shattering against him and spreading a cold, numbing agony through his body.
His joints lock up, his breath fades to a whisper, and he collapses to the ground, amidst the crawling vines and cold earth. He lays on his back, looking up at the starless2 sky, and then Mr. Seek looms over him in the darkness. He reaches into his oilcloth and draws a long, slender blade — its blade is ash-black, with etched writing in a language Aldo does not recognize. He kneels, but then Emma’s voice rings out in the night.
“No! Don’t hurt him. You can’t.”
Mr. Seek looks toward her, his eye clicking and rattling. “Discretion. Madame’s rule,” he hisses.
“He’s not a witness. He’s my brother. He won’t betray us. He won’t say anything.”
He looks back down at Aldo, and kneels. “Can’t be too careful.”
Aldo hears the sound of another dagger being drawn, and he strains to see Emma, approaching them from the edge of his vision. Her straw-blonde hair is wild, and her face is flushed from running, and in her hand is a thin steel stiletto. Mr. Seek doesn’t even bother looking.
“What are you going to do with that?” he rasps mockingly.
Emma’s mind races for a split second, and then she raises the knife to her own pale neck. “If you lay a hand on him, I’ll open my throat. And you can explain to Madame how you lost one of her precious pupils.”
Seek freezes, and his head slowly rotates towards her. “You wouldn’t. You don’t have the sand for it.”
“He’s my brother,” she repeats. “He followed me here. He was willing to risk everything for me. Why not me for him?” A crimson drop of blood springs up where the blade meets her white skin.
Aldo’s heart is racing despite the cold suffusing his limbs. It feels like an eternity before Mr. Seek replies.
“Have it your way, Miss,” he hisses. The black blade disappears into the oilcloth, and the slender man rises. He takes Emma roughly by the arm and pulls her away.
“I’m sorry, Ali,” she calls as they disappear into the park’s overgrown gnarl.
Aldo lays there, dead-limbed, cursing his foolishness. As tense moments pass, he begins to hear strange whispers from the corners of his perception, half-heard, half-imagined, like an incipient madness.
Whether by resolve or pure fear, Aldo wills his arms and legs to painful life. Dragging himself to his hands and knees, he crawls, inch by inch, across the cold ground and over the twisting dead roots. He sees cold, spectral presences at the edges of his vision, drawing ever closer, trailing tendrils of shadows that coil and grasp. Finally, he reaches the edge of the park, and he pulls himself under a twisted iron gate and onto the cobblestone sidewalk beyond.
After a few more moments gathering his strength, he rises, slowly and jerkily. As he crosses Mistshore Avenue, he sees the silhouette of a large, broad man in a dark coat swiftly approaching him. Aldo turns and tries to shuffle away, but the figure breaks into a run and seizes him from behind, turning him by his coat lapels. Aldo breathes a sigh of relief when he sees Carver's unbeautiful face, staring at him, lined with worry.
"By the Emperor's balls, Aldo, you look like you've danced with a devil. Are you 'right?"
"The meeting, Carv. What happened with the fence?"
"We didn't have the goods. You weren't there. Rian sang a pretty song, but his bully-boys wouldn't take us to see him empty-handed. Aldo, what happened?"
"Not here. Where's Rian?"
"Rigney's Tavern. We went there to see if you'd turned up, and when you hadn't, I came back here to look for something -- a body, anything. Thought we’d lost you."
"No chance of that, Carv. I'll explain everything at the tavern. Can you help me?" Aldo grimaces as he tries to move his stiff joints.
"'Course I can. Count on Carv," he says with a crooked, gap-toothed smile." He offers his shoulder to his younger brother, and they trudge down Mistshore Avenue together like two vagabonds, unnoticed in the darkness that comes before false dawn3.
Scene Breakdown & Setting
After the failed Prowl action roll, no further rolls took place — the serious consequence resolved into a serious complication (being incapacitated by whatever Mr. Seek shot at him) plus Level 1 harm, which I recorded as Drained — this will affect all of Aldo’s rolls, but I rule that it will clear without the need for Aldo to seek medical attention4.
An important aside: This serious consequence (plus any of the consequences the Crew faced in the score) could be nullified using a Resistance roll — the player describes how they avoid the consequence and rolls a dice pool equal to one of the character’s appropriate Attributes (Prowess, Insight, or Resolve5). I’ve chosen not to do that more frequently than I think would happen in an at-the-table game of BitD, simply because I introduce complications that I think will be interesting to play through, and nullifying them seems like less fun. Later in the story, we will likely see Scores that we want to progress through quickly, almost montage-style. In those scores, we’ll resist consequences much more liberally, to keep the action flowing. If you’ve GMed Blades and have thoughts on this approach, by all means feel free hold forth in the comments.
So where do we go next? Well, thanks to the Devil’s Bargain that Aldo accepted, plus the serious complication, the meeting with Aldo’s fence is blown. Unfortunately, the acquisition of a reliable fence was the whole point of the score, so the crew can either accept defeat, or they have to find a new fence on short notice6.
In BitD, players are empowered to worldbuild and invent characters that fit in with their backstories and the as-established fiction, so at the gaming table, the need to find a new fence would be addressed with a bit of a brainstorm. For our purposes, I fired up the Ironsworn character descriptor oracle and rolled a few times, getting the results: Deceitful, Driven, Loyal. “Deceitful” and “loyal” together are interesting — we’ll put loyal and driven in our back pockets and focus on deceitful for now, since it provides a tidy explanation for why they didn’t go to this fence in the first place.
But before the Crew talks about the fence, Aldo has some explaining to do. We’ll set the next scene at Rigney’s, a tavern in Crow’s Foot. The tavern’s backroom functions as their lair7 — it’s not very secure, but it’s discreet (they enter and exit through the cellar door in the back alley) and Rigney himself is loyal to them personally. He knew Aldo and Rian’s parents before they were killed, years ago, and feels as though he owes it to look out for the boys — and Carver, though Carv makes him nervous (not uncommon).
Rather than have Aldo tell the whole story (which we’ve already heard) again, we’ll open the scene with that having happened already. Back to the action:
Scene 4: Rigney’s Backroom
“How could it have been Emma? She was gone, Aldo,” Rian says, pacing and cutting the air with an emphatic hand. “We spent years looking at every orphanage she might’ve been bundled off to. Nothing!” He punctuates this declaration by uncorking one of Rigney’s rotgut bottles, spitting the cork on the floor, and filling a chipped glass to near-overflowing.
He goes to take it down in one gulp, but Aldo’s fast hands cover it and hold it on the backroom’s bar. “No. We’re still on the job,” he says, patting his jacket pocket where the Tear still waits, with all its promised riches and dangers. “We need to keep our heads about us until we rid ourselves of this thing.”
“Keep our heads about us? That’s rich coming from you. ‘Stick to the plan, Rian, stick to the plan,’ you always say!” Rian says, in a dead-on imitation of Aldo’s clipped cadences. “You left Carv and me standing there on the Old Star Docks with a pair of stone-cold cutters,8 with nothing but empty hands and our smiles.”
Carver sits in the corner of the backroom on a crooked, three-legged barstool, his eyes darting between his two brothers as they speak. “She saved my life, Rian. If it hadn’t been for her, that wraith would’ve had me, simple as. I couldn’t just let her go — and I was right. She needs our help.”
“Our help?”Rian asks. “It sounds to me like she saved your skin twice. What are we going to do against whatever that thing was in the park?”
“I don’t know. Yet. First things first, we have to get rid of the Tear.”
“How? Throw it into the harbor, maybe? We don’t have anyone who can move it.” Rian says, taking a swig of rotgut straight from the bottle. Aldo gives him a glare, but doesn’t press the matter.
“We could take it to Chael,” Carver says flatly.
Rian groans. “Chael will have us kissing his rings and thanking him for the privilege of handing our score over. Better we throw it into the harbor. He’ll take it to that tuppenny fence of his and get maybe five crowns for it. What a bloody waste of months of work. Nyryx will never speak to me — us, again,” he corrects hastily.
“Might be I know someone who could move it,” Carver says quietly from his corner of the room. “But you’re not going to like it.”
His brothers turn their rapt attention on him. “What about Fife? Didn’t you trade your takings with him, Rian, when you were fresh out of Jessek House? That old pocket-watch-and-snuff-box trade?”
Rian rolls his eyes. “Be serious. Fife is a fine man to work with if you’re craving a stretch at Ironhook9, or a short walk and a sudden drop up at Saltford10.”
He looks to Aldo, who is silent. “You can’t be considering this. Back when I was running with Harker11, word was that Fife gave us up to the Bluecoats to protect his own hide,” Rian continues. “If Rigney hadn’t hidden me here, I would’ve been snatched up, taken to Ironhook, and probably gutted by one of the Billhooks12.”
“‘Word was?’ Did the Bluecoats tell you it was him? Are you sure he pointed the finger?” Aldo replies mildly.
“Who else could it have been? He’s a bloody traitor — a Skov13 who fought for the Empire against his own people. Half the scoundrels in Crow’s Foot spit on him, and every Skov in the city would gladly slide a shiv through his ribs. How can we trust a man like that? Like you always say, Aldo — ‘if there’s any doubt, there’s no doubt.’”
Carver shrugs resignedly. “Then it’s back to Chael in the end. Aldo?”
Aldo looks to Rian. “This may be our best chance to cut Chael out of our trade. Let’s see what Fife can offer us. And settle any doubt.”
Rian takes another hit from the bottle. “Right. When we’re on the scaffolding, wearing fetching hemp scarves, don’t forget I told you so.”
Aldo smiles at his brother. “At least you’ll have the pleasure of crowing at me one last time.”
Rian stoops to pick up the bottle’s cork from the ground, wedges it back into the bottle, and slips the whole thing in his overcoat’s voluminous pockets. “I’ll set it up. Dead gods14 protect us, for no one else will.”
Aldo and Carver sit in silence for a moment after Rian leaves. “What’s on your mind, Carver?”
The big man shrugs. “Things changing, is all.”
“Emma?” Aldo asks quietly. Carver doesn’t reply.
“You’re our brother, Carver. And when she comes back to the family, you’ll be her brother too. She’ll understand.”
Carver rises, the broken stool beneath him thudding to the ground. “I’d best go have a poke around and see if Chael’s been asking after us. Wouldn’t do for him to catch us with that shine in your pocket, and find out we’re planning to cut him out of our trade.”
With that, he departs, leaving Aldo alone with his thoughts — of the Tear, of the score gone wrong, and most of all, of Emma being dragged away in the night.
Scene 5: Fife’s Longship
Rian makes the arrangements, and just before midnight the next night, Aldo, Rian and Carver row out to meet Fife. The Skovlander holds court on an iron-sided Skov longship at anchor near the Strand Bridge. A pair of his bravos — a man and woman from the Dagger Isles, white-ink shark tattoos climbing their dark arms — row them out to the ship.
Here, Aldo is going to take a moment to see what he can see as they climb aboard Fife’s ship. This is a Gather Information roll using Aldo’s Survey action rating — back in Session 1.1, when the crew was preparing for the Score, an astute reader (thanks Noel!) noted that a few of those rolls could have been G.I. rolls rather than Action Rolls. The key difference is that, unlike Action Rolls, they do not invite consequences. Handy!
Aldo rolls Survey to Gather Information
Dice Pool: 1d = 1d (Action Rating)Result: 5: Partial Success
Finally, not a failure. Aldo gets a little tidbit about Fife’s operations. Back to the action:
Carver climbs aboard first, surveying the scene — two more bravs watch with feigned disinterest, and Carv fixes his gaze on them, alert for any signs of violence. Aldo is next, and his sharp, pale eyes scan the deck — a handful of workmen hurriedly throw canvas tarps over a stack of long iron crates. Before they are covered, Aldo glimpses an Imperial Army Aquila15 burnt into their timbers. Rian follows behind him, hustled by one of the islanders, who gestures brusquely to the ship’s armored sterncastle.
There, Fife awaits them, sitting behind a captain’s desk, carefully making ledger notes in some illegible shorthand.
Fife looks old for his age — thirty five, but weather-beaten and worn down. One eye is covered by an eyepatch, centered by a dull blue stone, and his unruly hair and beard are a dusty red. When the Jesseks enter, he motions for his guard to leave, studying them for a moment before speaking.
“Rian Jessek. It’s been a long time. I was surprised to hear from you, after Harker went up.”
Rian smiles thinly. “Yes, this is a surprising reunion for all concerned. But we’ve got business to conduct.”
“I’m not in the business of hawking trinkets lifted by quick fingers any longer, Mr. Jessek,” Fife says dismissively.
“You wouldn’t have brought us here if you thought that’s what we had, so leave out the high and mighty. We’re not pinching from workadays anymore,” Rian retorts.
“Is that so?” Fife says, a smile creeping onto his face. “Well then, since you haven’t any pleasantries to speak of, let’s to business. What do you have to move?”
Aldo reaches into his coat pocket and brings out the Tear, wrapped in plain brown butcher’s paper. He places it on the desk for Fife to unfold. The Skov obliges him, unwrapping it with amused curiosity. Once the gem sits on his desk, shining in the lantern light, he looks back up at the Jesseks, his ginger brows rising in respect.
“Where on earth did you lay your hands on this? And what sort of hell is following you from there?”
“From Roland Molino. He bought one at auction a few months back — you can read about it in the papers,” Aldo says.
“Molino of the North Hook Company? He’d have the funds for it, I suppose. Did he have it in his pockets walking the Strand Bridge?”
“We lifted it from Molino House,” Rian cuts in with a smile. “Used to be the old Lightly Manor. Old Roland hasn’t had a chance to lock it up tight just yet, and in we slipped. Aldo did his work on the locks, and we left a pretty little forgery in its place.”
“Surely the fake will be discovered before long.”
“Maybe,” Aldo parries. “But when it is, they won’t know when the swap happened. Maybe the auction house sold them a goat for a stallion. Who’s to say?”
Fife’s brows furrow thoughtfully. “All right. It seems you Jessek boys are growing up. I can find a buyer for this. After I verify its quality, of course.”
“And what’s your cut?” Carver asks.
“In matters like these, I take forty percent. I do not negotiate. Finding a buyer is often riskier than acquiring the item.”
Carver snorts. “I’m sure it is.”
Fife shrugs. “You are welcome to go elsewhere, gentlemen. But I think if you could have, we wouldn’t be speaking.”
“We have a deal,” Aldo says coolly. “If you answer one question for me.”
Fife fixes his hooded blue eye on Aldo. “Yes?”
“When Harker went up, word was that you gave him and Rian up to the Bluecoats.”
“That’s not a question,” Fife says. He shifts in his seat, one hand going under the table. Carver’s eyes follow his every move.
“Did you?”
Aldo wants to know what they’re getting into, here. He’s strongarming Fife, just a little, and Carver, with his physical presence, is providing assistance.
Aldo rolls Command: Risky position Standard Effect
Dice Pool: 3d = 2d (Action Rating) + 1d (Carver assists)
Stress: Carver +1 (5 total)Result: 6, 2, 2: Success
Fife’s eye narrows. “Yes.”
Rian tenses — he wants to let loose on the Skov, but the mood of the room holds him back. “I told you, Aldo,” he says through gritted teeth. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Harker was sloppy, Rian. And so were you, back then. It’s understandable, even forgivable, in fresh-faced young thieves, but his sloppiness put my business at risk. Someone had to pay the price, and it certainly wasn’t going to be me.” He turns his gaze on Aldo. “You aren’t sloppy, are you Aldo?”
We’ll close this episode here. Decision time: Does the crew get into bed with Fife? He is an outsider, a collaborator, a seeming pariah among the criminal set. But he has a real buyer, and their other option, Chael, will unload the jewel for much less than its value and give them scraps. If they go with Chael, they stand a chance of getting in his good graces, perhaps positioning themselves to get rid of him at a later date. It’s not how Aldo likes to operate, but needs must when the devil drives.
Hit the button below to choose which evil sounds like the lesser.
Next episode, we’ll close out this score (finally!) get the Jesseks paid, and play out character’s Downtime actions — a chance for them to recover and pursue their own aims. Until then, and as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in your inbox next week!
Another (real-world) name for Tuberculosis, so-called for the pallor of its victims.
In the world of Blades in the Dark, the ancient cataclysm that scarred the world took the stars from the sky. They can now be seen in the inky black ocean, shining up as though far, far below the surface.
Recall that in the post-apocalyptic world of Blades in the Dark, the sun has been blotted out by an ancient cataclysm. There are, however, brief periods of hazy light at sunrise and sunset, hence ‘false’ dawn.
Normally, Harm must be cleared by using downtime actions. Some Blades GMs, however, choose to play looser with this rule, with some harm clearing on its own, because of how many resources it eats up for the characters. Blades aficionados, I welcome your input!
These are calculated by counting how many skills the character has at least one rank in that attribute’s category. You can see the character sheets here — on the right-hand side of the sheet, the first column of each skill is shaded, and you count the number of shaded marks to determine the attribute.
This makes me glad I did light GM prep and didn’t envision anything about the fence they planned to go to in advance. Now that nameless contact can vanish, and we can spend the cycles thinking about what they do next instead.
The Crew’s “lair” is a mechanically-defined location, and is listed on their sheet. They can always move to fancier digs later, but for now they make do with pretty humble ones.
Throat-cutters, of course. Duskwall slang for professional doers-of-violence in the criminal world. Carver is one of them, though he doesn’t cut throats, he prefers to bludgeon them.
Ironhook is Duskwall’s notorious prison. It is wildly overcrowded, so stretches there are often short — if you can survive the brutal gang politics within.
A notorious merchant’s bank in the Dockyards of Duskwall, where robbers are hanged from the streetlamps.
Harker is one of Rian’s contacts that we established during character creation — you can see his brief write-up in this section. They are not on good terms — Harker went to Ironhook while Rian escaped punishment.
A notorious gang of the Coalridge district, with inside influence at Ironhook Prison.
Skovs are an ethnic minority in Duskwall, whose homeland recently rebelled against the Empire and were brutally suppressed. The Irish are a good real-world analog, though Skov culture also evokes medieval Scandinavia as well.
The same cataclysm that blotted out the sun of this world left its gods dead and dying. Pretty grim!
A fancy word for “Eagle,” a common icon of many empires, though in this world, they are likely extinct or only alive in the menageries of the very well-off.
Love seeing characters handle their failures. Do you use the solo supplement Alone in the Dark?