Cults in the Dark – The Beginning

To my great delight I have managed to start up a second Blades game this time for some folks online, a couple of whom I have played with before and a couple who are totally new to me.

We’ve had 2 sessions so far, a proper session of play and session 0 where we did all the character and world burning. This group wanted to play a Cult and I had no idea what that was going to look like, but they came through with some fantastic ideas. Let’s meet the team!

Volette ‘ Silhouette’ De Ganis played by Gary Bowerbank. Whisper.

Dalmore ‘Wicker’ Krantz played by Steven Hanlon, Spider.

Crimson Tascha, the Bloody Handed played by Baz Stevens. Cutter.

Masika ‘The Brush’ Rassul played by Rich Stokes. Leech.

The group decided on a Cult and we started there to get a handle on exactly what they were going to be rewarded for when it came to xp.

An early idea from Baz took hold that they were devotees of Engimata, though that is only one of her names. She was the first Secret from the dawn of time and few now remember her. Those who do subvert the artifacts and places of worship of other deities in order to deify her name. They decided that their hunting grounds were going to be in Six Towers, using the front of essentially cleaning out the houses of the dead to gain access to art and artifacts that can be ‘altered’ to praise her.

I decided to drop the group into the same version of Doskvol that my Edinburgh group was in, and have the events of one affect the other. This would be my first time doing this kind of play and I am eager to see how each group informs the world of the other.

We kicked off in the offices of the Red Sashes where Myleera offered them artifacts and paintings from Iruvia in return for getting back some precious stones that were recently stolen form her by the Lampblacks. Being new to the situation they decided to play it cautious and look into the Lampblacks , Dalmore reaching out amongst his web to find out what was going on (rolling a triple 1!). It wasn’t long before Bazso’s men got wind of what they were doing and decided to bring them in for questioning, but a bit of judicious lying and punching got most of the crew out of trouble. Masika was not so lucky and ended up face to face with the man himself.

Bazso had a job for them to, infiltrating a cache of the Circle of Flame and stealing a very specific artifact. Deciding that Bazso was the man in charge the group decided to take on his job.

Infiltrating through the sewers, via a map supplied by Bazso, they found themselves in the bottom of an old hotel in Six Towers. No problems getting in, with a 6 on the engagement roll, found them in the basement of the old hotel the Circle were using. Sneaking around the basement they quickly found a vault door with no obvious means of infiltration. Whilst Crimson and Masika investigated the noises coming from the other direction, Silhoeutte reached out into the ghost field to find a massive spider hovering above the place, it’s web covering the entrance to the vault and strings going into other parts of the hotel above.

Figuring that the spider might be distracted by some chaos elsewhere Crimson and Masika went to cause the request trouble, pulling it away from the door long enough for Dalmore and Silhouette to get through the door. A quick rifle through the valuables led to them finding the box Bazso wanted. Making a fast exit as the screaming from above began the crew made good their escape in short order.

Examining the box in the quiet of their hideout, Masika realises, rolling a crit, that it is marked with the icons of the mage Kotar. Who knows what Bazso wants with that? They decide to give the box over to Baz, sealing their reputation with him, pissing of the Circle and ignoring, for now, the offer from the Sashes.

It was a good first session, and I deliberately made it a gentle introduction to the game system. I’m getting really good feedback from the folks I am playing with which is helping me improve as a GM and I find Blades is just making me better at running games regardless. I still have trouble zooming to the action as quickly as I should, but as we play more I am going to get better no doubt.