🗳️Session 3.1: Say the word

Emma leaves one home, and returns to another. The Jesseks tangle with the Billhooks.

Last week, we took stock of the story so far and I sounded you folks out about your feelings so far on the Jesseks’ story — a huge thank you to all who commented and shared their feedback. I did some noodling on what was shared and how to evolve my approach to both the Jesseks’ story specifically and Blades in the Dark as our system and setting. I’m going to share some measures I’m going to try to implement to better the pace and mood of the story — if you’re itching to get back to the fiction, you can skip the below musings, but I’d encourage you to read the section headed ‘A Little Retcon Among Friends,” since it contains important, fiction-relevant info about some tweaks I’ve made to a past episode.

1. Downtime & Pace: Blades’ design centers around a cycle of score, payoff, downtime, prep, with free play interspersed between those elements as needed. It works well at the table, but in AP Fiction, it’s starting to feel ponderous. I plan to loosen up my approach to downtime and to the play cycle generally, allowing the phases to emerge more organically in response to the fiction.

2. Tone and Vibe: Duskwall as written is pretty bleak, and that’s more-or-less how I’ve been playing it. I’m going to try to work in some more bright spots and fantasy-genre wondrousness where possible, to give the Jesseks’ something worth fighting for.

3. Clearer questions for the characters to answer: I think the Proper Villains pilot did an OK job setting the stage and creating the initial scenario, but I didn’t do enough prep when it comes to what we are trying to learn about these characters. I did some thinking about them, trying to tease out what we might discover as we play through their story. Here’s what I landed on:

Aldo: Aldo’s story is about ambition and family. We touched on this a little bit in Session 2.3 — the title, “Rise or Fall,” alludes to that. Aldo, despite his careful and restrained demeanor, has a burning desire to rise above the streets of Duskwall. For a time, he was content with being a very skilled thief, but Chael’s overbearing governance of him and his family have pushed him to seek more power and influence, if only to avoid having fools above him. For Aldo, we’ll PTFO the answers to questions like will he become a baron? Or even a ward boss? What will he have to sacrifice to gain the power he feels he needs? Can he keep his family together along the way?

Rian: Rian’s story is about the good life. He tries to be a carefree fellow, but Duskwall is a place where trouble finds you whether you’re looking for it or not. He wants to be happy and comfortable, and he wants the same for his family, and the path to that available to him is a life of dangerous crime. Rian’s PTFO questions are things like will he be able to find genuine happiness in a dark place like Duskwall? Will he find a way to escape a life of crime? Can he persuade Nyryx to join him in that endeavor?

Carver: Carver’s story is about violence, and when it is acceptable to hurt and kill. Carv is proficient in violence, and it’s when doing violence, or receiving it, that he feels most alive. I think there’s a missing piece of Carver’s story — we don’t really know why Carver decided to turn away from simply being a throat-cutter, and why he relies on Aldo and Rian to tell him when violence is acceptable. Learning the answer to that question is probably one of our most important PTFOs, and will probably unlock some others. I don’t have a great answer yet, but it’ll be on my mind whenever Carver is on stage.

Emma: Emma’s story is about faith. There’s a great psychological term called the ‘chapel perilous,’ which describes a moment where an individual is uncertain whether a particular experience or series of events was a divine act or simply a product of their own imagination. The Burnt King claims to be a divine force, but Blades’ world is full of false, malevolent gods, and it is difficult to know if Emma’s faith is well-placed. Answering this question is our main PTFO for Emma — and in particular, it’ll be interesting to see whether she puts her love for her brothers first, or her service to the King.

On that last point, I want to sharpen the dilemma between Emma’s faith and family, and to that end, I’ve made a small tweak to Emma’s story so far.

A little retconning among friends

When we first got a glimpse of Emma’s life at the Dalmore School in Session 2.1, we learned that the Burnt King had sent her a vision of her brother in danger, and given her a blackened skeleton key that allowed her to escape the school grounds to save Aldo’s life. Then, last episode, he sent her another vision of her brothers in danger and then demanded she ignore it and pursue Chael instead. This makes sense as a test of faith, or some larger design, but I think it is more impactful if she is given a bit more agency in how this choice comes about.

To that end, I’d like to retcon an element of this story — rather than the premonition being given to her by the King, we’ll instead envision that Emma’s own mystical abilities gave her both the vision of Aldo slain by a hungry ghost as well as her brothers in peril at the hands of the Billhooks. So, in Session 2.4, when she communes with the King, she is not there in response to a vision he sent her, but rather to beg his aid once again in saving her brothers. This time, however, the King rebuffs her, and demands instead that she seek a sacrifice for him. I’ve made some tweaks to the relevant scene: First, Emma reveals to Flint that it was her own vision, not a sending from the King, that warned her of her brothers’ danger, and that she lied to Madame D. about the source of it, and second, when she entreats the King, she asks to help her brothers once again, but instead he demands that she punish their tormentor.

We’ll begin the fiction with Emma — whether she chooses to help her brothers or obey the King, she first needs to escape Dalmore House. We’ll start with an engagement roll to determine how that goes: Will Mr. Seek dog her steps from the moment she leaves? Will she be able to call upon the magic of the key the king gifted her, or will she need to find another way out? Let’s find out:

Engagement Roll:
+1 for sheer luck
+1 for a daring plan
+1 for friends or contacts providing insight (Flint and the Burnt King himself!)
-1 for a higher-tier opponent (Tier IV Dalmore House vs. Tier 0 Emma).

Result: 5,5: Partial Success

No major setbacks — Emma’s first roll will be at the default difficulty: Risky. On to the fiction (finally!):

Scene 1: Dalmore House

That night, Emma makes her way through the near-silent hallways of Dalmore House. She passes the iron-clad doors of her fellow students’ cloisters, the thick red rug muffling her steps. Most are silent, but here and there, she hears quiet muttering or smells the telltale scent of burning incense, offered by girls desperate for a fleeting communion with their liege and a chance at escape from Dalmore House.

She freezes when she hears the telltale sound of Mr. Seek making his tireless rounds through the halls—the soft clicking of well-oiled bronze mechanisms and the trod of heavy boots. The sound approaches, and she stills her breath. The sound pauses for a heart-stopping moment and then resumes, receding until the house is quiet once again. 

Emma hurries down the sweeping spiral stairs. Hanging on the walls are the portraits of the masters and mistresses of Dalmore House, a succession of pale, severe men and women glaring balefully down at her as she descends. Soon, she is at the servants’ entrance—after her first visitation from the King, Madame entrusted her with overseeing the comings and goings of the scullions and cooks’ maids, and she knows where the key is hidden. The door opens onto a twisting path that picks its way through the manor’s greenhouses, their electroplasm lights buzzing and casting a sickly yellow glow. Emma keeps to the shadows as she approaches the tall, wrought-iron gates that ring the stately grounds. 

The black gates are tall and ornate, and as she approaches, Emma can see a pale layer of frost clinging to the metal. The other girls whisper that Madame bound the hungry ghost of her long-dead sister into the very iron and that her hungry ghost feeds upon those who leave without her blessing. But Emma has a greater blessing — her hand closes tightly around the ashen skeleton key in the pocket of her black brocade jacket. 

She draws it out and approaches the gate, the chill of the spirit’s waiting presence making her breath fog the air before her. The key feels heavy and powerful in her hand, and when she opens her senses to the ghost field, she can feel it awaken -- its jagged teeth seem to twist and reform before her eyes, and when she slides into the lock, the chill recedes from around her and the lock clicks open. She pushes the heavy gate open just wide enough to slip through and silently closes it behind her. 

Dalmore House’s grounds lour on the banks of the River Mist, on the very northern edge of Six Towers — to the west is the Nightmarket, her brothers, and whatever peril awaits them.

Now seems an opportune moment to see what path we chose for Emma tonight. The retcon changes the details of the choice a bit, but we’ll still use the outcome — apologies for the GM shenanigans here!

Emma chooses violence — she isn’t certain that her vision will come to pass, but the mandate of the Burnt King is clear: Chael must die. We’ll jump into the fiction with her, but first, we’ll kick the ‘score’ off with an engagement roll to see how things go for her escaping from Dalmore House and making her way to wherever Chael is hiding. Of course, she doesn’t know her quarry is Chael — nor does she know why the King has given her this task, which perhaps she can find out, once Chael is under her knife.

South is the Imperial Way, a four-carriage broad avenue that cuts Duskwall in half and leads south to Charterhall, past the colonnaded temples of the state, the finicker houses, and records halls, and then to the bloody alleys of Crow’s Foot. My old ward, the place where my parents were murdered. 

As she looks down the street, the old, unused gaslamps—yet to be replaced by electroplasm ones in the crumbling district of Six Towers—spring to life, flickering flames lighting the way south. ‘Obey, and I will mark you for all the faithful to see,’ the King had said. What privilege might the King’s mark give me? Freedom to leave the grounds? A chance to see my brothers without Mr. Seek dogging my steps?

The flames do not answer; they only beckon her onwards, and after a few more moments of hesitation, she follows them.

We’ll leave Emma for the moment and rejoin the brothers Jessek out in Nightmarket. When we left them last episode, they were out on the town with their feckless aristo friend Rothko Kellis, when a pair of Billhooks showed up. The Billhooks are a notoriously violent gang of cutters whose sphere of influence the Docks often impinges on Boss Roric’s. The Jesseks might not immediately expect Chael’s influence here — the Billhooks might have heard that they took over the Bluecoats’ turf and are looking to move in.

They’re on a separate score, so we’ll use a new engagement roll to determine how dire the situation is.

Engagement Roll:
+1 for sheer luck
+1 for friends or contacts providing insight (Rothko and their other friends in Nightmarket)
-1 for a higher-tier opponent (Tier II Billhooks vs. Tier 0 Jesseks).

Result: 2, Failure

The starting situation is dire, and the first roll will be a Desperate one. Let’s set the scene:

Scene 2: The Golden Hive, cont’d

Where there’s one Billhook, there’s more. Shit, this is getting worse fast. Quickly, Rian apologizes to the eager barkeep, composes his face to a mask of nonchalance, and slides in next to his brothers.

“Aldo,” he hisses urgently. “I’m afraid I’m about to say my three least favorite words.”

Aldo’s face falls. “Shit. What was I right about?”

Rian gestures to the Billhook, trying not to look like he is watching them.

“Billhooks. Shit. I thought Roric put them in their place after last year’s dust-up,” Aldo says.

“Looks like they’ve decided to make trouble again,” Rian mutters.

Carver’s eyes darken with edged readiness. “Say the word, Aldo. I can beat them til they scurry back to the Docks.”

Rian holds up a placating hand. “There’s at least one more — and he went to get his friends. No need for things to get brave when we can just make ourselves scarce.” He gestures behind the Hive’s bar — a door leads to the back alley, and as the three of them glance at it, another pair of Billhooks emerges from it. The bartender looks annoyed until one of them flashes a wickedly hooked blade from beneath his coat, and then he busies himself wiping down the already-shining bar.

The brothers want to know how the Billhooks found them -- after all, Duskwall is a big city, nobody has any cell phones to inform on them, and they were relatively careful, leaving their usual stomping grounds and donning disguises. 

Aldo rolls Study (Gather Information)
Dice Pool: 2d = 1d (Attribute Rating) + 1d (Rian assists)
Result: 6,1 Full Success
Stress: Rian +1 (Total 4)

“How did they find us?” growls Carver. 

“They must have a Whisper. Tracked us here with some spirit tricks,” Aldo whispers back. “We’ll have to find that bastard if we want to get away clean.”

“Well then, what’s the play?” Rian asks, desperation beginning to creep into his voice. The two Billhook newcomers shoulder their way through the crowded common room toward the Jesseks’ booth.  

“We need a distraction. Down in the meadcellar, there’s a passageway to the Undercrofts. If we can get down there without being spotted, that’s our way out.” Aldo says, his voice still calm, while his eyes dart all around. 

A quick mechanical aside — I did not pre-establish the existence of a secret exit in the meadcellar, nor the existence of “the Undercrofts” as a subterranean location in Nightmarket. However, on the Jesseks’ Crew Sheet, an available upgrade is “Underground Maps & Passkeys,” and after two scores, the crew has sufficient XP to gain that upgrade. So, I decided to use the experience points and give them access to that upgrade, giving them a viable escape route from this location. Off-screen, Aldo has been studying the various underground pathways that link Duskwall’s districts to one another, and the factions that control them, allowing him to make use of these passages during scores.

“Said and done, brother.” Rian rises and sidles up to Rothko. “Say, Rothko, the mood’s getting a mite tame for our taste. How’s about one of those rousing Unionist hymns? Stoke us some of that revolutionary fervor?”

Kellis rises to his feet unsteadily with a crooked smile. “Capital idea, my friend.” 

Without hesitation, Kellis is back atop his table, his hangers-on looking up at him with drunken, rapt attention. “Let’s have a song honoring those who toil, comrades! The Ballad of Lockport Bay, who knows it?!” 

Revolution starts at the bar. // Source: Midjourney

Rothko has a more-than-adequate singing voice, his parents having sent him to one of Duskwall’s premiere conservatories until he dropped out to pursue a fresher passion, and soon his crew excitedly joins in.

“Day and night in irons clad we like poor galley slaves
Will toil and toil our lives away to fill dishonored graves
But by and by I’ll slip m’ chains and to the streets I’ll go
And I’ll join the bloody Grinders¹ there, Jack Hutton and Co.
And some dark night, when all is right and quiet in the town,
I’ll get the bastards one and all, I’ll gun the floggers down.
I’ll give them all a little treat, remember what I say
And they’ll yet regret they sent me down in chains to Lockport Bay.” ”²

As Rothko leads his fellows in song, the other patrons of the Golden Hive are quickly divided -- packs of dockworkers and factory men and women join in with great gusto, while others—the well-to-do come from Brightstone and Whitecrown to rub elbows with the writers and artists—begin to shift in their seats uncomfortably.

One man, dressed in a faded Imperial Service jacket—perhaps with the look of one of the aforementioned floggers—rises angrily and leads a few of his friends to the bar, shouldering through the singing crowd with little regard for politeness. He comes face to face with two of the Billhooks, fighting through the crowd towards the Jesseks. 

“Long rule the Immortal Emperor,” he says with a brusque nod. The Billhook—a dark-haired man with a curling red serpent tattoo around his eye—looks at him incredulously for a moment. This unpatriotic hesitation is more than enough of an affront to light the powder keg. The serviceman pulls back and looses a wild, drunken haymaker, sending the Billhook reeling. 

In Skovland, it’s said that mead stokes the warrior’s spirit, and it is no different in Akoros: The Billhook recovers his footing and swings back, knocking the serviceman into his brethren, who immediately rush forward to counter-attack—one picks up one of the rickety chairs and brings it with a crash down on one of the Billhook’s shoulders, splintering it like kindling. The Billhooks fall back into a knot of other patrons, doing their best to mind their business, who push back. Then, the Billhooks draw their steel. 

The eponymous billhooks—wickedly curved, iron blades sawn off the top of polearms for easy concealment beneath a coat or cloak—shine menacingly in the yellow electrolight of the Golden Hive, and a hiss of panic and anger runs through the crowd. Rothko and his set have little stomach for violence outside of song and rhetoric, and they begin a rush towards the door, while others—emboldened by the mead—begin to push forward, eager for a scrap, whether against the Billhooks or the swaggering Imperials. 

Now Aldo will lead a group action to sneak through the confusion and make their way to the meadcellar. The Jesseks are very good at working together to be sneaky—Aldo has the ability Expertise, for his Prowl action, which means when he leads a group action, the amount of stress he has to pay to mitigate failures on behalf of his brothers is capped at one. Further, the Jesseks as a crew have the ability Synchronized, which means they can count sixes from different dice pools for the purposes of a critical. Let's see if that pays off: 

Aldo leads a Prowl group action: Risky Position, Standard Effect
Aldo's Dice Pool: 2d = 2d (Attribute Rating); Result: 6, 2, Success
Rian's Dice Pool: 1d = 1d (Attribute Rating); Result: 6, Success
Carver's Dice Pool: 1d = 1d (Attribute Rating); Result: 2, Failure
Stress: Aldo +1³ (3 Total)

Thanks to Synchronized, this counts as a Critical Success. To pay off the increased effect of the roll, we’ll envision that the Jesseks get down into the cellar relatively unscathed, and that in the cellar, they’ll find a useful opportunity that they can take advantage of.

The Jesseks don’t wait to see how the fight unfolds. Aldo leads the way, and the three of them crouch low, weaving between the tables and the outbreaks of violence. Along the way, they shed their finery—Aldo drapes Carver’s eye-catching wolf-pelt longcoat over a snoring, passed-out patron’s shoulders.

Rian shakes his head sadly. “Shame. You looked damned ferocious in it, Carv.” The big man shrugs indifferently, and hidden by the crush of the fight, the three of them reach the bar, vault over, and with a wink and a nod at the cowering barman, they slip through a trap door and into the mead cellar. 

With slow, careful steps, they descend the wooden ladder into the darkness. The cellar is cavernous—the Golden Hive was once a barracks and armory, and the vaulted stone cellar used to house powder and shot. Now, rows and rows of mead barrels fill the cool, dry air with the smell of oak and sickly sweet honey. Aldo takes a pair of dark-sight optics⁴ from his shirt pocket and dons them, leading his brothers quietly between the rows of barrels. As they approach the entrance to the Undercroft—a break in the south stone wall, concealed by an empty barrel—they hear quiet muttering, and Aldo calls them to a halt. 

Peeking around the row of tall oaken casks, he sees a pair of figures in the green-grey haze of his optics. One of them stands on guard, peering into the darkness with his own pair of dark-sights, a cruel billhook ready at hand. The other crouches beside a flickering candle, muttering quietly to a spirit-charm—a lodestone, adorned with fingerbones, raven feathers, and daubed with dark liquid, it twists this way and that on its string. Aldo strains to make out their words.

“They’re still moving,” the crouching man says. “Tomaz and Grier may have let them get away.” 

“We just need the leader - Aldo. The others can slip.”

“No matter. They’re together.”

“Where?”

“Near. Very near...” his voice trails off. 

“Aldo?” Carver whispers. 

“Now, Carv,” he replies. 

Carver's going to do what he does best here—I set the position at Desperate, because of the darkness—it's not quite pitch black, and Carver's eyes have had a moment to get used to the darkness, but the Billhook has Dark-sight glasses. Since Aldo does as well, he'll go into battle with Carv, while Rian watches their backs. 

Carver rolls Skirmish: Desperate Position, Standard Effect
Dice Pool: 3d = 2d (Attribute Rating) + 1d (Aldo Aids)
Results: 6, 6, 4 (Critical Success!)
Stress: Aldo +1 (Total 4)

Hot dice for the Jesseks. Combat in Blades can be adjudicated a number of ways— you can treat it like any other obstacle, and resolve it with a single roll, or you can create a countdown clock that functions as hit points for a more dangerous opponent. These two are not particularly skilled combatants, they're significant only because one of them is the Whisper who is able to track our heroes. So, especially given the crit, we can envision that Carver makes short work of these two with Aldo's help. 

Carver moves forward in a low crouch, with Aldo hopping atop the row of casks and darting towards their hunters. Aldo reaches them first, leaping off the barrel towards the Billhook sentry as he tries to spot the source of the sounds moving towards him in the echoing cellar.

Aldo has no blade, but his intent is not to wound his opponent. He aims an open-handed strike at the man’s face, sending his dark-sight glasses flying from his face to the stone floor, where they skitter under the casks. The Billhook swears and stoops to collect them in the darkness, only to meet Carver, charging down the row at full force. 

He barrels into the man, bearing him to the ground. The Billhook tries to bring his blade to bear, but Carver parries it with his own—a broad-bladed cleaver⁵ that flashes from a leather sheath under his arm—and shining sparks briefly illuminate the room as iron meets against iron. Carver pins the Billhook to the stone floor with his bulk, aiming a series of blows to his face—the first, he tries to block; after the second, his hands fall to the floor; and after the third, he lies still. Carver rises with bloody fists and turns on the Whisper, who points a pepperbox pistol at him with an unsteady hand. 

Carver darts forward like a viper, slapping the barker out of the Billhook’s hand. The pistol hits the ground and fires, the report echoing against the cellar’s stone walls. Carv shoves the reedy sorcerer against one of the oak barrels with one meaty hand.

Aldo wants answers from the Billhook—we as players and readers already know what he wants to know, but he needs to learn it in the context of the fiction. Carver is aiding him with his intimidating presence, and since they are on top of the situation—for now—the position is Controlled. 

Aldo rolls Command: Controlled Position, Standard Effect
Dice Pool: 3d = 2d (Attribute Rating) + 1d (Carver Aids)
Results: 5, 4, 4, Partial Success
Stress: Carver +1 (Total 5)

Success, with a consequence. We'll choose a minor complication here—they only have so much time to work before the Billhooks upstairs will come back down to investigate. Back to the action: 

Aldo comes to Carver’s side, picks up the discarded billhook blade, and stabs it into the mead barrel next to the Whisper’s face. The sweet-smelling golden liquid begins to leak out.

“Why did you come after us?” Aldo hisses. “Who sent you?”

The Whisper laughs bitterly. “Your own people sold you out, Aldo Jessek. It was Chael who told us you took Candle Street and Hulliver Lane, and he told us where we could look for you. Those streets are ours.”

Aldo rolls his eyes. “You think Chael would let you keep that patch after you made ghosts of us? As soon as you moved in, it’d be war with him and all of Crow’s Foot.”

“War is our meat and beer, little Crow. Roric’s hold on the Foot is slipping, and when it does, we’ll be there.”

“Not much more time for pleasantries, Aldo,” Rian whispers urgently. “Chances are someone heard that pistol bark upstairs.”

“He’s the one with the spirit tricks, ain’t he, Aldo? Say the word.” Carver’s voice is thick with bloody eagerness.

We’ll close the episode here. Aldo has a decision to make: The Billhooks’ Whisper can help them track the Jesseks, and their getaway is not yet assured. Killing this man will vastly improve their chances of escaping the Billhooks cleanly (to the extent that further rolls may not be required to accomplish this). Leaving him alive (even if he’s knocked out) will open the door to the Billhooks catching up with them. Here’s how I reckon Aldo’s decisions:

1. Give the word for Carver to kill the Billhook: Carver is a skilled hand at violence, and won’t need to roll to make it happen. The Jesseks can then escape and decide how to deal with Chael.

2. Kill the Billhook himself: Aldo’s never killed a man before, and he doesn’t like the idea of it. His parents were killed in street violence, after all, and he’s just a second-story man, not a cutter. He’ll have to roll, opening the possibility of failure. But perhaps this is what it means to climb the ranks of the underworld. Furthermore, Carver will likely appreciate it, even if he’ll feel conflicted in the moment.

3. Leave the Billhook alive: The Jesseks aren’t killers. They’ll chain up the Whisper, perhaps knocking him unconscious, and then try to make their escape. If rolls go poorly, the Billhooks could catch up with them. On top of that, leaving the Billhook alive will avoid ‘making a ghost of him’ — a very literal proposition in Duskwall. If the Whisper is killed, one of two things will happen: Either his body will be collected by the Spirit Wardens, Duskwall’s elite supernatural constabulary, who may choose to interrogate his ghost before destroying it; or, perhaps worse, he will rise as a vengeful spirit.

I’ll leave this choice to you all. Today’s reader poll has two votes: First, whether the Billhook lives or dies, and second, if he is to die, who is to do the deed. Mash the button below to vote!

Moving forward, for any episode that has a poll, I’ll be taking the following week off from publication. This will help on a few dimensions — it’ll help folks who trail a couple of episodes catch up and have an opportunity to influence the storyline, and it’ll give my schedule, which keeps getting busier with my day job, some breathing room, which will in turn incentivize me to create more regular dilemmas to write into the storyline. All future episodes with reader polls in them will be marked with the vote emoji, as this one is.

As such, next week, 5/13, will be off, and the next episode will publish on 5/20. Thanks as always for reading, and I’ll see you in your inbox in two weeks!

1. The Grinders are a Skov revolutionary group of disgruntled and displaced dockworkers and refinerymen from Lockport — one of the handful of revolutionary groups seeking to disrupt the exploitative production of electroplasm.

2. This song is (not very loosely) based on Jim Jones at Botany Bay, a traditional 19th-century Australian folk ballad decrying the British practice of transportation. Check it out on YouTube!

3. For Group Actions in BitD, the group takes the highest roll of all participants, and the group leader takes a stress per failure, which is mitigated to 1 by Aldo’s Expertise move.

4. This is an item available to the Lurk playbook — for the purposes of this score, we assume that all three Jesseks have a light load, and therefore can only produce three load worth of items. The dark-sight goggles are only one load, so Aldo has two remaining.

5. Carver has access to a fine-quality melee weapon from the Cutter playbook — like Aldo producing the dark-sight optics, he marks one load and has two remaining.