Session 1.4: Business As Usual
Session 1.4: Business As Usual
Rian keeps up appearances. Carver does some bloody business. Aldo makes a play.
Last episode, after successfully making off with one of the Emperor’s Tears, Aldo made the split-second decision to pursue his long-lost sister Emma into the night, throwing his crew’s carefully-laid plans into disarray. He caught up with Emma at the haunted, overgrown Mistshore Park, and there he encountered Mr. Seek, a fearsome servitor of “Madame,” Emma’s apparent captor. Mr. Seek disabled Aldo, but Emma interceeded before he killed him .
After losing their opportunity to meet with their fence, the Jesseks met to consider their options, and hastily made arrangements to meet a new potential buyer: Fife, a Skovlander who collaborated with the Imperials against his own people. In the course of their negotiations, Fife revealed that he had indeed been responsible for Rian nearly being sent to Ironhook, but the crew’s only other option was the fence the Tear through Chael, their distasteful current boss.
The decision of which contact to work with — Chael or Fife — was up to the readers, and the decision was unanimous: The Jesseks are getting into bed with the Skov collaborator. We’ll jump back into the fiction to close out that scene, and then we’ll get into Downtime, the phase of the game when our characters pursue their own aims and deal with any entanglements from their criminal activities.
Scene 5: Fife’s Longship, cont’d
“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?”
Aldo holds Fife’s gaze steadily. “No. I’m not.” He had known this was coming. Fife’s betrayal still burned in Rian’s heart, and Carver looked ready to leap across the table and throttle the fence. But they needed Fife, for now.
“Then you’ve already considered your options. Do we have a deal?” Fife offers his hand.
Aldo shakes it. The Skovlander’s grip is dry and firm. “So if the Bluecoats come asking after us, you’ll give us up?” Aldo asks.
“Yes,” Fife says simply. “See that no one comes asking after you, and you’ll have no cause to worry.”
“And if someone comes asking me about you?”
“They won’t.” Fife smiles thinly and rises. “Give me some time to find a buyer. A few weeks. When it’s done, I will send a man to collect the stone discreetly.”
The Jesseks disembark from Fife’s ship, and one of his bravos rows them back to the Crow’s Foot docks. When they’re away and out of earshot, Rian finally snaps. “Damn it all, Aldo.”
“I know.”
“Didn’t like the smell of him one bit,” Carver mutters.
“I know,” Aldo growls.
“What are we going to do about him?” Rian hisses. “He’ll give us up, first chance he gets!”
Aldo nods. “He will. We need leverage. And until we have it, we can’t put a foot wrong.”
“Any leverage you have in mind?” Carver asks.
“Saw it when we were climbing aboard, just for a moment before his men hid them away: Crates branded with the Imperial Armory crest.”
“What’s a Skov collaborator doing with the Emperor’s guns?” Rian muses.
“Might be worth it to find out,” Aldo says. “Come on, boys. Let’s get off the streets, hide this damn stone, and get back to business as usual -- not a stitch out of place.”
Downtime: Session 1
The Jesseks have completed their first score — they’re due a payday for the Emperor’s Tear, and they’ve captured a claim on the claim map for their Crew — the loyal fence, though I think given the events, I’ll add some scare quotes around ‘loyal’ to capture Fife’s particulars. Now we enter the Downtime phase — this part gets pretty gamey, so if you’re here for the fiction, it’s OK to skip much of it, and we won’t be going into this level of detail in subsequent episodes.
Rules Breakdown: Downtime Phases
There are four phases to Downtime in Blades in the Dark:
Payoff. The crew receives their rewards from a successfully completed score.
Heat. The crew accumulates suspicion and attention from the law and the powers-that-be in the city as a result of their last score.
Entanglements. The crew faces trouble from the rival factions, the law, and the haunted city itself.
Downtime Activities. The PCs indulge their vices to remove stress, work on long-term projects, recover from injuries, etc.
For the purposes of the fiction, we’re going to futz with the order a bit — Fife hasn’t paid them yet, so Heat and Entanglements come first. Heat is easy: The score was clean, and although Carver had a run-in with Molino’s batman, they easily passed it off as unrelated to the robbery. Scores are assigned between zero and six heat, and the description for zero heat is “Smooth & quiet; low exposure,” and I think this score matches that closely enough. As a reminder, you can see all this stuff tracked on the live character sheets here.
Next is Entanglements — after each score, the GM is invited (but not necessarily required) to complicate the crew’s lives with a random event1 or the consequences of some previous action. The severity of these entanglements is tied to the current heat the players have accrued, so this session’s entanglement should be relatively tame.
In the Blades community, many GMs seem broadly skeptical2 of the random Entanglements, often preferring to use the phase to make a hard move (to borrow a PbtA phrase) against the crew if it seems like the story is in need of one. That’s largely how I’ll operate, too, but I may occasionally dip into some randomness to keep us PTFOing. This time, however, an easy entanglement suggests itself: the crew is trying to cut their old boss, Chael, out of their business, and so we should have him make trouble for them to keep the spotlight on him as the antagonist of our early story.
As mentioned above, the Downtime phases in Blades can get pretty gamey — you can run through the phases, roll a random entanglement and pay a purely mechanical cost, make marks on the Crew and Character sheets, and all of a sudden, you’re not really telling a story anymore.
The best advice I read on the Blades subreddit is to use every element of the Downtime Phases as an opportunity to frame scenes between characters, so that’s what we’ll be doing throughout. Most of these scenes will ideally feature no more than two of the four characters. As a GM at the table, I find scenes with one or two PCs and one primary NPC tend to be the sweet spot for good character moments, with simple scene geography and tight pacing.
Setting the Scene: Entanglements
With all the above in mind, we’ll set the scene for the Entanglement Phase. Aldo has told the crew to stick to business as usual, so the night after the score, Carver and Rian head out to work their usual hunting ground: The bridge between Crow’s Foot, their home ward, and the red light district in Silkshore. Chael knows they can be found there, and so there he finds them. Back to the action:
Scene 6: The Strand Bridge
‘Business as usual’ means the Strand Bridge -- a five hundred-foot span of cobblestones between Crow’s Foot and Silkshore over the inky black water of Dusk River, crowded with the crush of the red light trade, bound for their night of debauchery. Hawkers’ stands line the street, selling cups of steaming root wine, ersatz spiritbane trinkets and wards against black magic, and Leech’s brews that promise clarity, wakefulness, potency and all manner of other dubious effects. Beneath the bridge, gondoliers poll their canopied boats slowly and steadily, bearing the weller-heeled clientele of the brothels and wine sinks to their destinations in safety and privacy.
Carver leans against an iron lamp post, his collar turned up against the cold and his hat pulled down against prying eyes, trying for all the world to look like part of the furnishings. Under his hat brim, he watches Rian work the crowd, flitting from passerby to passerby like a bumblebee in a greenhouse, scanning the crowd for well-heeled marks with inattentive eyes.
Soon, Rian’s loose coat is heavy -- a brass pocket watch, a half-drunk silver whisky flask, a moth-eaten silk purse plump with copper slugs. Carver gives Rian an approving nod as his brother works his way back through the crowd, but his eyes narrow as he spots a familiar face moving through the crowd - the tall frame and wild mane of Chael, flanked by Nestor and Rollo, two of his favored bravos. Rollo is a bald Skovlander, fresh off the boat when Chael first recruited him and still eager to prove himself. Nestor, on the other hand, came up with the brothers in Jessek House, and Carver tenses when he sees him, his pulse quickening, but he keeps his face impassive.
Chael seems to be wandering without purpose, scanning the crowd lazily, but there’s an undercurrent of menace to his movements that puts Carver’s teeth on edge. He watches from the corner of his eye as Chael pauses by a flower stand, leans down and mutters something to the vendor that makes her go pale. Chael smirks, takes a flower, and continues prowling along the edges of the crowd.
Carver catches Rian’s eye and gives a subtle jerk of his head towards Chael. Rian’s expression doesn’t change, but he turns back and begins to fight against the tide of the crowd back towards their home, and safety. But Chael’s nonchalance melts away, and like a lion shark seeking its prey in dark water, he cuts a path through the crowd straight for Rian, with his men falling in behind him.
Carver quickly stirs from his perch and reaches Rian at the same time as Chael and his bully boys. “Rian Jessek,” he says with an edged grin. “How’s the trade?”
Rian puts on his most charming smile. “Chael, you old wolf, you’re looking properly turnt out this fine winter’s night,” he says, reaching up to brush some soot from the man’s shoulder and straighten his ratty silk kerchief.
Chael snatches Rian’s hand and squeezes painfully. The muscles in Carver’s jaw tense, and his brother hastily flashes a subtle hand sign -- wait.
“I asked how the trade is, little magpie -- I don’t need my arsehole licked, do I, Nestor?”
“Not likely, governor,” the bravo chuckles.
Rian smiles, gritting his teeth and retrieving his hand. “The trade’s well enough, I suppose. Once I’ve got a nice take, we’ll render unto, proper as you please.”
“I ain’t seen you boys around these nights. You seen them out and about, Rollo?”
“Not hide nor hair, governor,” Rollo supplies eagerly.
“Thought you might’ve been planning something,” Chael growls. “But that can’t be so -- you couldn’t be planning something without getting your right and proper governor’s blessing, could you?”
“Never in my life, Chael,” Rian replies, doing his best to look the picture of innocence. “Do I look like a man with deep-laid plans? Just keeping my beak clean is all -- Sergeant Darmont has been watching the bridge like a Bellweather crow3 these last few weeks.”
Chael steps closer, taking Rian by the lapel and dragging him to the bridge’s railings. He snarls through gritted teeth. “I don’t give a tupenny fuck what the Bluecoats are up to. If you’re not working, I expect to see you at my doorstep, doffing your caps and making your apologies.”
Carver moves closer, and Nestor steps up, blocking his path. Chael shoots a dagger-gaze his way. “You got something to say to me, Carver?”
Rian gives Carver a pleading look, shaking his head ever so slightly. Carver clenches his fists til the knuckles are white, but he shakes his head. “No, governor.”
He turns back to Rian, his eyes growing wilder. “Turn ’em out. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
“Out here? In the open?” Rian says helplessly.
Chael doesn’t wait, he roughly turns out Rian’s coat pockets, quickly finding the lifted purse and silver flask. A few copper slugs fall to the ground through the holes in the silk, and Chael looks down at them contemptuously. “There’s your cut, magpie. Now flutter on home. I’ve got a job for the big man.”
“Me?” Carver asks with forced mildness.
“By the dead gods, you’re thick,” Chael snarls, poking Carver in the forehead. “Yes, you. Barker and Stillwell’s over on Washer’s Lane ain’t paid their proper dues. You and Nestor are going to go and have a kind word with ’em, and when that’s done with, I want you to work them over until they don’t recognize themselves in the mirror. Get me?”
Carver remains stone-faced, and Chael stews in his silence. Rian interjects before things boil over. “Why don’t I go with the two of them? I’m sure I can get the gentlemen to pay without any need for the unfortunates.”
“The unfortunates are the bloody point, Rian. You stay here and keep at your work. All I need is Carv,” Chael replies, his eyes still locked on Carver. “‘Yes, governor’ is your part, Carver.”
Carver’s eyes dart to Rian for confirmation, and Chael barks at him. “You don’t look at him when I give you an order, you plug-ugly cuss.”
“Yes, governor,” Carver grates out.
Chael claps him on the shoulder, his fingers digging in painfully. “There’s a lad. Count on Carver, I always say.” He nods to Nestor. “Well, what are you waiting for? Be about it.”
“Right you are, Guv,” Nestor says. “This way, Carv.” He grabs Carver roughly by the arm -- Carver immediately pulls free but consents to be led away, leaving Rian alone with Chael and Rollo.
With false nonchalance, Chael smooths out Rian’s now-rumpled jacket and takes a swig from the silver whiskey flask. “I know you aren’t a schemer, Rian. But I also know your brother Aldo has a busy little mind. Let him know I’ve got my eye on all of you -- nothing in my patch is beneath my notice, even your little flock. Understand?”
Rian sketches a bow. “Of course, governor. We’d expect nothing less.”
Chael shoulders by him and Rollo follows suit, giving the youngest Jessek a rough elbow as they leave. Rian swears under his breath as he watches Carver and Nestor disappear into the crush, and, after a discrete interval, he hurries back to Rigney’s Tavern to find Aldo.
Rian finds him at one of the corner tables, eating a bland meal of rice and mushrooms and paging through an old leatherbound journal. Rian breathlessly reports their encounter with Chael and Aldo listens, his face growing graver with each passing moment.
“Damn. We need to get his hooks out of us. As soon as the payout comes through, I’ll meet with Boss Roric. No more of this,” Aldo mutters.
Later that night, Carver returns. His face is blank, and his fists are battered and bloody. His brown coat is a mess of dark splotches, and his dirty white shirt is spattered with crimson stains. Rian rushes to his brother’s side. “Carver, my man. You ‘right?”
Carver remains stone-faced, barely acknowledging him. “It’s done. They paid up.”
“And the rest?” Rian asks knowingly.
Carver’s jaw tightens. “I did what needed doing.”
Rian sighs and pushes away from the table. “I’ll fetch some water and rags to clean you up a bit. Sit tight,” he says, shooting a pleading glance at Aldo.
Aldo pushes his chair a bit closer to his hulking brother’s seat. “I’m sorry, Carver. I know you hate this kind of work. We’re going to get out from under Chael soon.”
Carver shakes his head. “Barker got down on his knees and begged for grace. But Stillwell, he was all spit and fire. Shouted in my face, called me every name he knew. Dead gods help him, when he opened his fat mouth, he looked just like me father. So I set to work until he didn’t look like him anymore.”
He pauses, taking a deep breath. “Hating it weren’t the problem, Aldo. I loved it. It felt right.”
Aldo nods silently, just listening. “And it were right, weren’t it?” Carver continues in a monotone. “If I hadn’t done, Chael’d come straight for Rian, and you next. So it was Stillwell or you lads. Right, Aldo?”
Aldo pours a dram of root wine from a clay bottle and slides it in front of Carver. “Stillwell got caught up in the churn. If it wasn’t you that put hands on him, it’d have been Nestor, or Rollo, or one of Chael’s other bravs. You did what you had to and now it’s back to the quiet life with us, simple as.”
“Simple as,” Carver says, taking down the root wine in one gulp. Rian returns with a bowl of water and a few ragged scraps of linen to clean Carver’s skinned knuckles and wipe the blood off his face and hands.
Scene Breakdown: Entanglements
No rolls occurred here, just pure fictional positioning. To ground the scene in the game mechanics, I opted to give the crew +2 Heat4 — Chael’s public shakedown of Rian, plus Carver’s brutal beating of a citizen on Washer’s Lane have brought some exposure to the Crew, though it’s still at a low level. That’s a lot of scene for just +2 Heat, but it helps us establish Chael as a threat and someone the PCs want to take down a few pegs, and it helps characterize Carver, who we’ve spent less time with so far.
Setting the Scene: Payoff and Aldo’s Downtime Actions
The next scene we’ll set is the Payoff — we’ll envision a couple of weeks passing and Fife coming through with the promised cash. Scores are worth Rep, the crew’s standing on the streets of Duskwall, and Coin, an abstract representation of the individual characters and crew’s cash reserves which roughly represents a week’s pay, or a large purse of silver coins (scales, in the parlance of the Duskwall streets).
Both coin and rep are used to increase Tier for the crew, making them more powerful and able to contend with larger factions. For hitting Molino, the crew receives four Rep (2 base + 2 for hitting a faction with a higher tier). As for coin — the rules recommend between 2 and 10, though there’s no real ceiling. I settled on 8, which is described as “a big score; serious loot.” That is then increased to 10, thanks to the bonus from the “‘Loyal’ Fence” claim they just secured from this score. 10 coin is divvied up among the characters themselves and the Crew’s reserves. Part of the Payoff phase is also paying a tax to a more powerful criminal organization, equal to Tier+1, or 1, in the Jessek’s case. The crew can choose not to pay, but in this case, the GM is advised to start a countdown clock representing the coming reprisals from their boss.
For the next scene, we’ll (briefly) envision the payout, and then roll into Aldo’s downtime actions. To create structure around the fiction between Scores, BitD’s rules provide finite a list of actions PCs can take5, and each PC takes two per downtime:
Acquire Asset
Advance a Long-Term Project
Recover
Reduce Heat
Train
Indulge Vice
Aldo’s first downtime action will be Train. Train is an odd one — the rules describe this action simply as “When you spend time in training, mark 1 xp on the xp track for an attribute or playbook advancement.” This action is very, very important in the game when played at the table — it can double the rate at which characters level up and increase their Action Ratings and number of special abilities, and in the Blades games I’ve been in, it’s used at least once by every character, every downtime, if they can manage it.
Unfortunately using it all the time is not very interesting, fictionally — of course, there are great training scenes in this genre — Jean Tannen being trained by the swordmaster Don Maranzalla in The Lies of Locke Lamora, for example — but in my imagination, scoundrels don’t spend their nights pumping iron or running obstacle courses. So, for our purposes, I’m going to take a very broad view of what constitutes ‘training’ — pretty much any scene where the scoundrel in question taps into their skills during downtime can be used to trigger the Training downtime action and mark an XP. This will allow us to frame scenes like Aldo speaking with Boss Roric about getting out from under Chael and have the character accrue mechanical benefit for spending downtime that way.
So, for the next scene, we’ll envision the payoff from Fife and the first of Aldo’s two downtime actions — a visit with Boss Roric that counts as training. Back to the action:
Scene 7: The Crow’s Foot Docks
Fife’s courier arrives just after dusk on the tenth day after the Molino job. Aldo has slept fitfully: Dreams of his brothers up on a scaffold with nooses around their necks, of Chael finding the stone and drowning them in the bay, and of Emma, disappearing among clawing branches in Mistshore Park have awakened him nearly every night.
They meet the Dagger Islander on the deserted, dilapidated Crow’s Foot docks with Fife’s longship in sight, sitting at anchor in Dusk Bay. The dark-skinned bravo nods at them brusquely, opening a beaten-up leather satchel to show sacks of gleaming silver.
“Five thousand scales, as agreed,” he says, his Akorosi6 touched by the singsong tones of the Isles. “The buyer sends his thanks, and is eager for more such treasures.”
Carver accepts the heavy satchel, placing it on the docks. Rian’s eyes widen when he hears the thud of the weight onto the wooden, and the clink of coins within — the sum is far more than any of the Jesseks have seen in their young lives. Carver glances around and then closes the satchel tightly.
“Tell your boss we’ll be in touch soon,” Aldo says quietly. The islander nods and pushes off from the docks, pulling hard for the Skov’s ship.
Rian kneels down next to the satchel and opens it again, letting a few of the coins fall through his fingers. “Look at this. Dead gods bless Roland Molino and his shoddy locks, we’re bloody rich!” he whispers.
Aldo smiles at his brother, and kneels beside him, closing the satchel tightly once again. “We won’t be rich for long if you flash these coins around town like that.”
Carver grunts sagely at this, and Rian, a bit shamefaced, nods along. “Right,” he says. “What’s the plan?”
“I’ll take a nice full purse to Boss Roric tonight. He’s holding court with his barons7 along the canal, and I’ll make our case to him. If we get his blessing, Chael won’t be able to touch us.”
“And us?” Carver asks. “D’you need us with you?”
“No,” Aldo replies. “You two lay low. Don’t show cash, don’t go partying, Rian. There’ll be time for all that once we’re free and clear of Chael.”
“Right,” Rian says, still staring at the satchel. “Lay low. No celebration. Savvy.”
As he waits for his audience, Aldo clocks no fewer than half a dozen bravos guarding Boss Roric — two cutters, their belts a-jangle with knives guarding the stone stairway down to the canal’s cobbled esplanade, another two on the narrow bridge above the meeting place, and two hounds with long rifles looming on the rooftops above. The purse of silver feels heavy in his coat pocket as the bravos eye him.
On the walkway, in the shadows beneath the canal bridge, Aldo can see Boss Roric — a short, broad man in a fine maroon topcoat trimmed with crow’s feathers, tapping heavy ebony swagger stick on the cobbles. He’s in a quiet but animated conference with a tall, lithe woman with close-cropped hair, dressed in loose, flowing silks, in the Iruvian8 style.
Roric’s manner is calm and collected, while the woman is growing more and more agitated, pointing emphatically at Roric and reaching to her belt, rattling the saber that hangs there in its sheath. Roric’s men look tense and edgy, ready to leap to their boss’s defense, but they hold back.
Waiting with him at the top of the stairs down to the esplanade is Loose Lucas9, an amiable young man who, rumor has it, is an absolute devil with a blade. Roric recruited him as a bodyguard straight out of Jessek House, and he and Aldo managed to steer clear of any bad blood from their old school days.
“Who’s that?” Aldo asks quietly.
“You been living under a loose cobble, Aldo? That’s Mylera Klev, baron of the Red Sashes.” Lucas smiles and continues cleaning beneath his nails with a long, thin stiletto blade.
“I’ve heard the name. Just never seen the woman in the flesh. I keep to my patch.”
“Smart man,” Lucas says. “Things in the Foot are starting to get brave10 between Bazso’s Lampblacks and the Sashes. I’d keep laying low if I were you.”
“Shut up, Lucas,” growls one of Roric’s older bravos. “If you keep flapping that loose jaw of yours, I’ll unhinge it for you.”
Lucas looks chastened. “Right you are, Jos,” he says, shooting an accusing look at Aldo.
The older man nods at Aldo. “You can go down now. Keep it brief, and come correct.”
Aldo nods and heads for the stairs, passing Mylera Klev as he goes. She has sharp, aquiline features, and moves with a fighter’s grace. Her fiery eyes meet Aldo’s for a moment, and he tenses — she seems ready to lash out at any moment, but she shoulders by him without a word.
Boss Roric watches Aldo as he descends the stairs down to the narrow, shadowed walkway alongside the canal. The black water laps at the stone at their feet, the sound echoing against the bridge, hiding any conversation from curious ears.
“Aldo Jessek. You and your boys keep a low profile, so imagine my surprise when Lucas told me you wanted to meet. What brings you to me?”
“Just wanted to offer a token of my respect, governor. From myself and my brothers.” Aldo reaches slowly into his coat, one eye on the rifleman watching them from the rooftop, and withdraws the silken purse, heavy with silver.
Roric takes the purse and opens it, a slight smile creeping onto his lips at the sight of the silver. He closes it and ties it tight, gives a whistle, and tosses it up to Lucas’ waiting hands before turning his attention back to Aldo.
Roric leans thoughtfully on his cane, regarding Aldo with an appraising eye. “A generous gift. You’ve been busy, it seems. This is a lot of scratch for the Strand Bridge trade.”
Aldo inclines his head slightly. “We came upon a rare opportunity, one my brothers and I couldn’t pass up.”
“Has Chael seen his piece of this?” Roric asks with deceptive mildness.
Aldo’s jaw tightens. “That’s why I’m here. If it were up to Chael, we’d never have laid hands on this coin. He doesn’t understand the second-story trade, he’s holding us back. We can make real scratch for you, governor, if you give us your blessing.”
Roric nods thoughtfully, rubbing his hand across his stubble. “So you’re asking my protection. And to be put out on your own.”
“That’s right, governor. Put your trust in us, and we’ll keep the silver flowing.”
To decide how Roric reacts here, we’ll do a Fortune Roll. We’ll use the gang’s tier, which is not a great stat for the Jesseks: Tier 0 means we roll two dice and keep the lower. It makes sense to use their Tier in this case — Roric is thinking about his underworld empire, and the Jesseks are small fish in his pond.
Aldo rolls Fortune: Risky position, Standard effect
Dice Pool: 2d (keep worst)= 0d (Tier)Result: 4, 5: Partial success
Roric isn’t yet sure he wants to back these upstarts against his loyal baron, but he’ll at least open the door.
“You ever killed a man, Aldo? Looked into his eyes, gripped your blade tight, and made a ghost of him?”
Aldo stops short. “Can’t say I have, governor. Bodies are a liability in my trade.”
“But a necessary one, for a baron. I’ve got plenty of knife-hands, ready to cut if I say the word. But that doesn’t mean I can look after those who don’t have the stomach for the brave work themselves. Understand?”
Aldo keeps his face calm. “It’s not the title or the respect I’m after, governor. My brothers and I just want to be left in peace to do our work.”
Roric chuckles. “Chael ain’t the easiest man to work with, I’ll grant you that. But he’s a loyal baron, and that’s rarer than honey and wine11, these days. Tell you what I’ll do -- I’ll share this gift with him, as is right and proper. He’s your governor, after all. But I’ll tell him to loosen the leash a bit, let you work. If you keep putting shine like this in my hand, we’ll talk again soon.”
Aldo is about to speak again, but Roric waves a hand dismissively, and Lucas starts down the stairs to lead Aldo away. When they're halfway up the stairs, Roric calls out to him.
"By the by, Aldo -- there might be a way you could help me, even if you're shy about a bit of red work. Do me a good turn, and perhaps we'll see about putting you out from under our friend Chael."
We’ll close out the episode here — there’s still a lot of Downtime to go, and I’m curious if you folks think the level of detail and focus we’re giving to each phase is worthwhile. I’m certainly enjoying the scenes as I’m playing through them, but if folks feel like we should gloss over this stuff in favor of more scores, let me know what you think.
Next episode, we’ll finish up the Downtime phase and identify what the Jessek’s next score will be, bringing the session to a close. As always, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in your inbox next week!
Bellweather Crows are another name for the infamous Deathseeker Crows that inhabit the rookeries above the Bellweather Crematorium. Any time a person dies in Duskwall, one of these eldritch birds flies to the site of the death and circles above it. This draws the Spirit Wardens to the scene, who recover the body and put it through an arcane process that destroys the emerging ghost. If this is not done, the ghost will inevitably rise and become dangerous. Among other implications, this means that murder is very tricky in Duskwall — the Spirit Wardens can interrogate the ghosts of murdered individuals before destroying them if their mysterious agenda leads them to do so.
This is roughly equivalent to the low-level Entanglements in the random tables, which I used to guide my decision.
I’m not going to go too deep on the full list, but you can read an explanation of each of them here in the Blades SRD.
Akoros is the heartland of the Empire, and Akorosi is the language everyone’s been speaking all this time.
Barons, or more properly, ‘alley barons,’ are the gang leaders who pay their taxes to Ward Bosses, and are sometimes expected to do violence on their behalf.
Iruvia is one of the Empire’s eastern provinces, and it evokes Persian and South Asia in its worldbuilding.
I rolled up some random attributes for one of Roric’s people to flesh out his gang a bit and got “Careless, Skilled” — a man after my own heart.
‘Brave’ describes any situation that requires a bravo’s ability to do violence. This term is drawn from a list of Duskwall slang created by a talented GM and shared with the community — you can see the full list here.
Agricultural products like these tend to be even rarer and more precious than gold in post-apocalyptic the world of Blades in the Dark.
I don't think this is too much fiction for this downtime phase, especially this early in the campaign when there aren't as many hooks and leads for the characters. Obviously it should fit the pacing of wherever the campaign is at.
I like the downtime detail at this stage, but would probably progressively streamline it to one or two downtime scenes between scores.