Solve it? Free play and investigation to our next score
Knights of the Night
617 - BitD There Is No Use for Accolades if Your Dead
[music] Hello, and welcome the Knights of the Night actual play podcast. This blade's in the dark adventure, "Maconation," so it was written and run by your GM, John. And now, please enjoy episode 617, titled, "There is no use for accolades if you're dead." Actual play begins immediately. [music] Hello, and welcome to the Knights of the Night actual play podcast. I'm your host, John, GM of Blades in the Dark campaign, "Maconations." The player that's with me, starting on my left, are... I'm Thomas, I'll be playing Hadrian's Briar, or Burning Briar while on the job, if he pleads. He's a leech, a saboteur and technician who specializes in arcane technologies and beautiful, mathematically perfect, magical circles. He's a the Rovian runaway demon heir, which is... I think I'm not gonna get into it. Looks wise, he appears to be an accuracy man of healthy, build-and-noble stock fitted with an open-chested long coat, pair of glasses, and hints of a thorny-briar poking out of his ears and mouth. Most spectacularly, there is a furnace burning with a pale blue ghost flame installed in his belly that keeps him tied to the rest of his unnatural form. Sometimes these flames leak out in the shape of little faces that mark the true emotions that he's feeling, regardless of what he portrays on this face he wears. I have councilan, six stress of nine. I'm pretty damaged. I got a lame foot that I'm nowhere near recovering, and I'm unstable just a day in the life. Hello everyone, I'm Scott. I'm playing Tesla in Vale, otherwise known as the bell of the abyss. Tesla is a severosi whisper. She does the dirty work of the archive of echoes, exploring the past via ghosts with her mentor Lord Pendren. Tesla is a petite brunette who is partial to petticoats. She has flowing auburn locks, olive skin, and green eyes. She also has a dead left hand sewed on to her left arm that she is mortified of and tries to keep hidden as much as possible. Tesla has five stress, which is a lot for her, and she has a level one harm of painful cuts. Hello, folks. I am Jim. I am playing a silver tongue slide, named Steven Bing, also known as Busy. He is a socializing and enterprising handsome, young, pecorosi noble. We're not working on crew business. Busy spends his times behind the scenes revitalizing the finances of being coal mining family. He calls himself busy because he's always working hard to try to find ways of profiting from both the good and bad fortune of others. Currently, he spends most of his days to skies as a spirit warden delegates. I currently have five stress. I am Tom, and I am playing Esther Roland. She is an ex-blue coat captain who goes by the name of the ghost because of her pale skin, eyes, and hair. She is a cutter who is dangerous and an intimidating figure, but she also does her best to keep her crew members safe. She is born a carosi, which is local to this environment and hasn't really ever traveled anywhere else. She currently has four stress, which is kind of in the middle. I'm Michael playing Gordon, a young, thin, good-natured scolvish lurk. As a lurky specializes in infiltration, allowing him to bypass both security measures. Gordon currently has five stress. When last we left, busy was not here, if I remember correctly. Great. So a bit of a recap was that Tesla had gone to investigate floor plans for the callousistate, I believe, in Charter Hall to try to find where her delicious artifact was hidden on the property for the eventual spirit warden raid of that place. The clerk at Charter Hall sent a telegram to the local blue coat office that a person of interest wanted for questioning in regard to Lord Penderin's escape from justice was perusing their archives. And would you like to come on by and make an arrest? And so she acquiesced to the blue coats and went in their patty wagon. But when Ghost got word of this, she said, ah, not on my watch. That can only end badly and stood in the path of the carriage on its way back to the headquarters. And had an argument with crop, a blue coat known to her to be a refusal of bribes, believer in justice, et cetera, et cetera. They had a moral argument about who to take in. She offered herself in his place, rolled poorly in the back. Tesla and hearing all of this said, OK, time to summon a ghost and complicate things rolled famously. The carriage ended up speeding away as she jumped out the back. Ghost saved Krupp, who got knocked down in the scuffle and almost got run over by the wagon. And Krupp repaid her by saying, well, if I lost my target, I'm taking you in. Ghost said fucking fine. And there was another rescue attempt. Gordon rolled his contact to try to get a street gang to interfere with the HQ, cause a crisis that she could escape in. And she got away, but both are now on the radar more than they were. Both being Tesla and and ghost. After this, what was the original reason Tesla was picked up? She's wanted for questioning in regard to Lord Penderin's disappearance. OK, from the archive of echoes. Yeah, that raid, because he's treasonous. Isn't that no, but it's after this. We were looking for threads to pull on that didn't progress the plot in one direction or the other. So Briar decided to investigate the disappearance of his Leviathan hunter friend. She's jewel, who's the blood dealer. She has a Calliope steamboat that she rides out into the void sea to collect Leviathan blood and she's gone missing. She's like a third party supplier that you don't have to go through the nobility to get Leviathan blood went to her apartment. Everything seemed very much intact and that she had been with the exception of her boat missing and her Leviathan blood refinery, like distillery, had boiled over from being unattended. But the notes and everything were in her normal chaotic places. The door was locked. There was no sign of forced entry. It was either a very professional job or she was caught out and about or willingly left the city without telling anyone. I mean, she's a Leviathan hunter. Maybe she's just hunting. She always tells context when she's out, though, and you had not received such she would leave that part distillery going either. There was telltale signs that she had been disappeared. Yes. I think they tried to study to find out what happened in her place, found not much, so decided to pack up the books and get out of there. Yes, I failed my role miserably. You did, however, tease apart her Leviathan blood distillery and can probably get something working on base if you ever have the need for such. The thought of bleeding starlight is perhaps not. I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we're burning it. Anyway, that's about all we did. That being said, we do have a downtime action remaining for busy and then we can go into free play, do some gather information, try to figure out what our next score is going to be and maybe launch it depends on how quick we are. All right, busy. Think it's something good. It could be something as simple as training if you want. Just didn't want to shortchange you. So to relieve stress, I stressed myself out by figuring out what's going on with my side hustles. Probably check in with the guy who's been watching my books in side businesses, which is his name, Eddie. Yeah. Lately, I've been having him and my brother, Bazz, do a lot of the heavy lifting, a lot of heavy lifting and work. Well, I've been busy playing spirit warden. Maybe I could make an appearance at some event. Sure. If that somehow relieves stress for you. Oh, if it's doing business work, always business. Well, your brother's trying to secure some turf against gangs in his area to keep your businesses clear. But on the higher end of society, the devout are getting ready for the celebration of our converse where spirit wardens, patrol town, burn out all the ghosts. It's a minor celebration of the dead and the necessity of bringing them to their final rest. You don't know how much of that would be part of my advice or whatever it is. Oh, you could ask around, try to score a contract with the nobility to wrangle one of their dead relatives. But that sounds more like a score than a downtime action. So I think that's basically I'm going to be checking in with my brother and my finance guy and hitting some sort of a meet and greet somewhere. And for somebody getting married or whatever. And Rob Elbows. Rob Elbows and keep up appearances. And hopefully it won't screw anything up in the process because I know there's a role involved. Yeah, okay, you're going to reduce stress. There isn't too much risk involved here, but there's some intrigue of just how it goes with nobility. Right. So you're going to take your lowest resistance category, you know, to calculate that. Well, it should be true. I got to and proudness and to an insight. Yeah, either will do. We'll do insight. That makes sense with nobility. Yeah. And you'll roll that the highest number you get is how much stress you reduce. There's no modifiers or anything. It's just a straight rolling insight, right? Yep. But an ally helps you give by giving you a dice. So your brother is a positive contact as is Eddie. So one more die for that. All right. So you reduce five stress. A, which is exactly what I think I had. So didn't go over. Yeah, that would be overindulgence, which is its own thing. It's an outdoor affair in the giant park, which is like an alchemically treated park with poisonous trees that are just blooming in this sprinkly cold wind. There's a band playing, nobility are meeting up. Strangford is there. He's a potential target in the future. Your brother is talking to him and the topic. Strangford keeps trying to steer in the direction of city council. Your brother knows enough to try to not commit to one faction or the other in city council. And do I remember why I know the name Strangford? Yeah, he's hosting the divinographer who's in town. He sits on city council and there's like a faction war going on. That's something. But yeah, there's a small airship dock to this house that you've seen. Or wait a minute. Doesn't she show up at Arkanvorn? She's not there yet, but you know, he's going to house her and that she's coming via airship from Imperial City. I bet she was in town already. I think she is too. I'm just going to go back and forth on this. But given the dates I've got down, she's in town, newly arrived. So I can go talk to Bazz and see what information it might be able to get on this demon hunter that's in town. Yes, she's actually here. She's disinterested in city politics. And so as the conversation continues to steer in that direction with Strangford's unswerving confidence, she's more and more distracted. And you can approach this group. I'll probably approach, try to rescue her from this boring. Look at this important person I brought in. And I'm important to show that he's doing. And ask her, you know, if I could like get her drink at the bar or take a walk through the trees or something you too can make your way towards the gazebo with the band has a little bar going with servants. She says, I have no idea why he has a vested interest in that. Cold dealer times have moved on. It's a dying industry. I understand it's what the city was founded on, but it's also the hub of Leviathan hunting. Surely that should be his interest. Well, you know, it's always nice to have a backup. You never know when something might happen to supply or some sort of situation arises. Like saying, you know, you might be scrambling for something to get you by over an emergency or something. So I guess it doesn't hurt to throw people a bone here or there. I'd heard that the Leviathan ships here have a backup coal generator, but I didn't think too much of it. Surely they've got enough reserves. The Imperial city certainly does, but hunting season has only just begun. So we'll see how that goes. What's your business in the city? What's your family's deal? Oh, a little of this, a little of that. She eventually picks up. You have the same last name as the coal dealer and well, she manages to pull it off. She says, you know, you're in a dying industry. Yeah, we're trying to keep what we can go into that while we look for other ways to make do. There's always a new industry popping up first. It was cold and it was blood. Who knows what else they'll come up with next? So I'm keeping an eye out of the spark rights will surprise us yet again. We accuracy were always an ingenious lot. I'm not trying to look offended or anything. It's like it's business. I wonder if your family has been looking to get into the Leviathan hunting trade. I think we've had in the past and they didn't work out. I'm exactly sure what the history is on that with our family. It's rather expensive to run a boat. So maybe when they were just starting out, your family had invested in beginner craft and technology has outstripped what you could afford or something like that. Yeah, maybe we were a little late in the in the game and had a hard time trying to keep up our catch up. So now we're looking for other sources of. I know that many crews hire whispers to divine the intentions of the Leviathan's their patterns, track them for better hunting. But I have yet to hear of a noble house. Aside from the Peruvians who have had a demonographer on their crew. I understand the contracts would be expensive, but it seems like a massive oversight to me. Yeah, it's an interesting idea. How would you apply your trade to helping Leviathan hunting? That would be information gathering, an attempt at binding. I understand the viethins are rather the more powerful of the demons we encounter. Otherwise, the immortal emperor would have one on a leash and we would have. A blood vessel that would just be on tap. Yeah, maybe that'll be next. I don't mean to say that the immortal emperor can be outdone merely that more study is needed to decide on that particular front. If you know anyone hiring, perhaps after this contract, I can apply my trade in the city. No, you might be sticking around then. There's a chance. Demonographers are a rare sight outside of Imperial City, but they were vastly important in the construction of the rail to the Ticarosi continent. There's applications that haven't been considered yet. The old ways are not all lost. Sounds like something I'll definitely keep my ears and eyes out for as I always do. If I hear something, you'll be the first to know. As you are having this conversation, a crow drops dead at your table. You know, the trees here are poisonous, but it never occurred to you that it just kills wildlife that comes nearby. And it's at that point that you look up and around and notice that in safer places, there are a lot of crows around. The demonographer. Pores out her drink. It's a kind of splatted on the table. Yeah, it's a bad, is that a bad omen? You take them as they come. I wonder if there's a death nearby. These don't seem like the type of crow, but I try not to muck with spirit war and work. Let's retreat to some shelter and we can leave it at that. Some crow is stalking you or this event. Yeah, that's why I got the operation. I'm like, yeah, someone's definitely trying to listen in on what's going on. I don't do we know what somebody uses crows to do their bidding. Your brother has something to say about it later. He has an enemy in Crowsfoot, a group that gave the district its name or perhaps took their name from the district that have captured and duplicated the training of a couple of death-seeker crows to be able to commune with humans and use them as little spies around the neighborhood. So you don't know if they were spying on you, your brother, or this event, but they seem to have an interest in the nobility, at least that or there was a death nearby. Yeah, they're both. And with that, we can open up to free play. Investigation into our next score. Who's up? It's pretty open. I'll ask burning Breyer if he's still interested in pursuing the jewel thread since we didn't find out much. We got a little information, but is that something that you'd like to pursue, Breyer? We still have several days to the end of the week when our convore is, right? Yes, there are, I think, nine days. Oh, wow. I think it's a ten-day week in this weird calendar, a ten-day. I wouldn't mind it, but it's a long thread that vanishes into the dark as of right now. We don't know who could have grabbed her or where, other than the boat's gone and so she. I'm not saying I don't want to check it out, but I am saying I don't know where to go next. I was going to cast a wider net and wait until something fell into it, be it rumor or sight of her. What other jobs do we have on the docket, though? Co-tar thing. That's, I think, to be investigated on our convore when we can maybe get inside the house during the raid of the Spirit Wardens. We're doing a raid on the Spirit Wardens doing our convore? The Spirit Wardens are doing a raid on the Kallis Estate that holds this artifact. It is a six-day week. We have five days till our convore. I got that confused at strength for this state. I thought we could double this. Strength for it holds the demonographer. Maps demons. She does indeed speak the old tongue. So there's that. There's the demonographer. There is jewel disappearance. There are a portion of demons that are bound to a location, like the one in the mire. So demonographer was a reflection of when they were pinpointing local demons to bend to their will, to augment the empire. Gotcha, gotcha. How many of us are just area-based? It's about 50/50. And that doesn't count leviathans each other on. Leviathans, some are, some aren't. It is the ones that are, that are more trackable. Are you telling me there are leviathans that have to stay still? That have like a turf, basically. Oh, okay. But navigation in the void sea is unreliable at best. The stars move. The moon is reliable when it's out. What about the stars beneath the sea? They shimmer and shimmy and shake as well. Yeah, fuck. So there are tricks to it, but it's maddening at the best of times. Okay, did we have something to do for the Arruvian connection before we burned them? Or not burned them? I can't even remember what was going on. Red's tracking down Praxis, but we sent him back a bit. Right. I was just trying to remember. I feel like we made a promise to them to help fulfill Praxis's duties, which are a little more difficult now that I'm Praxis. Praxis. Yes, I believe you promised them access to their baby leviathan. Or to supply them with the things they need to make the drug. It was vague if you would distill the drug or if they would pick up the slack. Gotcha. Well, that's like a cool turf thing I can probably do in the long term, but it's not a job. And also turf can be acquired by a long term project, a sizable investment, or a score. I agree, but I can't figure out what kind of score we would do right ahead. Okay, is there a reason we don't want to disappear to the demographer now? There's nothing holding us back that I know of. She's in town, Satora asked politely, and she kind of scares me. She also offered us compensation for the endeavor. She did. A coin or a boon, I believe, to each of us, if Esmeralda suddenly disappeared. Right, her name is Esmeralda. Yes, her name is Esmeralda. I mean, that pangs us foreign, but okay. I mean, we could put some work into finding Jule, and I wouldn't mind that. But as for things that the group should probably be focused on, we should probably put some research into Esmeralda, and then disappear her, or etc. I'm thinking so, because I thought she was coming a little later in this week. And if she's here, there's nothing to stop her from starting her persecution of Satora. Yeah, so maybe that should be on the front burner as far as our plans moving forward. Also, anything I do that's particularly loud will draw incredibly incorrect kinds of attention while she's in town. True. So if I'm not mistaken, we have the floor plans via a harker to strength for estate, correct? Yeah, you do. Do we have anything besides that? Do we have ideas of where traps might be, or alarms, or anything to guide us in a infiltration to that location? Or do we just have a basic layout? Did Harker give us inside scoop on how they got his mostly human security for the majority of his estate, plentiful servants that'll be difficult to avoid, and a tower that he keeps locked and guarded by a electroplasmic security system? If it has access to a basement that Harker was never able to get into. But the tower itself had been raided. It is where the airship has been docked. And the upper floor is being used by Esmeralda in addition to her birth on the airship. We know she's staying in the upper tower. Yes. Okay. It hosts an alchemy lab that was the source of the poison that killed an Ankhayat, an Aruvian noble, a competitor in the Leviathan hunting business that Harker went to jail for. And also the spirit I'm supposed to ingest. From Flint. Yes, yes, yeah. The family of the Ankhayats are a mystic lot by tradition. Their patron demon has something to do with wisdom, the seas, and unless you do some deeper research, that's about all you know. But they are largely all whispers and something that string for himself seems to be missing the larger details on. Like he's not as strong in this attuned department than other spirit warden captains. So he saw her as competition. You mean the Leviathan captains? Yes, I'm not sure what I said, but I meant Leviathan captains. Spirit warden, which I guess he could be. As we keep learning, they just be doing other jobs. It would be hard for a Leviathan captain and nobility to live a third life. Not on the sea, not in charge of his family's finances. But strange things. Who needs sleep? So I think we're going to need Gordon and Esther if we're going to be breaking into a tower and trying to dispatch of Esmeralda or otherwise send her on her way. We're going to need their expertise. Esther being on security detail quite a bit and Gordon being the one who sculks about well and can case places for us and things along those lines. Call me what you will. A skulk. I think a skulk is a good term. And what's our beef with her? Our demon friend said she's being hunted by her and she needs to go. Yeah, she didn't say how she needs to go. We have leeway here. We could just make her leave town ahead of time. We could kill her. We could mind control her. We can do all sorts of shit. Yeah, our beef is that a demon friend of mine or not really. I guess friend is kind of a loose term acquaintance. Yeah, but not associate, whatever. She's certainly someone who I've worked with in the past and has been good to me. And for that reason, we said that we would look into it and she would give us a coin each or a boon and a boon from a demon can be quite a nice thing. Because Satara is a demon herself and is worried that Esmeralda was sent here to take her out. If I worried, I mean, the last three demonographers were here for her and she took care of them. This one, she's worried she cannot for whatever reason. Presumably because taking out three in a row means they're a little bit prepared for her. You see, whereas I am a miss. So maybe Gordon, something that would work well for us would be you casing the tower in the residence and seeing the timing of the guard duties and where there might be gaps within or the protections at its thinnest at certain points, things along those lines that you could tell us about if you were to spend a night or two casing the guard situation there. Okay, that's my problem, at least. I was thinking a way to get her out in the open, but it would require maybe Joel, who if we find her okay and if she needs rescuing from something, she might be in her debt. This to tell this demon hunter that we can use her to see how well demon hunters can track Leviathan sound by using Joel's ship. And then if we get her out into the void, we can just push it over. That would be one way to deal with it for certain. We could also use Zittara as a trap, as a lure, and bring Esmeralda out of Lord Strangford's estate and protection and bring her out into the open streets where she's much more vulnerable. We certainly have some options. We don't have to enter Strangford's estate, but that's where she's staying and probably will let her guard down the most. Fire, could you bring that place down? The tower? Yeah, that was my first plan, but then it became a little irrelevant because she has a airship that she spends most of her time in. So, if I had one, I guess I would too. But the last time I did major demolition of that style, it was an underground facility that was maybe a couple stories. This is a rich man's tower. I feel like the impact would be bigger. Yes, it would. I think the heat would be hotter and it's protected as well. If we're going to go with the tower kidnapping, we're going to have to use stealth. I don't think we're going to be able to power our way through someone who is, he's on the city council. Yes. So, someone who's on the city council and has great connections with blue codes and mercenary protection services. A quick call to the Imperial Army would have us all thoroughly trapped. Yes, I think it's a little too much heat for a direct assault. A stealth mission or luring her out of her protected area. I mean, we went through a lot of trouble to get the floor plans in the security detail of the alarms and such by breaking harker from prison. It was also in the service of fulfilling a contract for the great cloaks that you got paid for. It was exactly. Strangford's layout isn't going to change drastically in the coming years, so it'll be useful to have. At some point, because he is a bad egg. We can pull a stealth mission while we pull a more obvious mission. I mean, this is an additional threat, but we have enough crew that we might be able to draw their attention to a different part of the manner while we head into this tower. And then we could just make off with her and the airship. Those test connections that have beef with Strangford as he owns many of the factories in Charlie. So there's other jobs we could do in here with some of your contacts. Potentially, or have them start a riot. Like his servants in the manner? No. Or enough. The factory workers. Oh, it's attached. Sorry. No, it is not attached, but it is in the same district. And very distracting. He would send his own personal guards to deal with it. Or they march on his manner? That might require more social. Right. So in character, I will say that as a ghost. You have any contacts you might be able to get us an additional job inside the manner, or maybe help us figure out some kind of distraction instead? I have someone who could help us with that. Yes, but I don't think it would be an easy thing to convince them to do. It would likely end up very bloody. Courtland is a bit of an idealist. Doesn't want to risk the blood of others on our hands if she can help it. Not even if we get some major progress out of it somehow. I still don't know what kind of job we could do for them in that manner, but I'm sure he's got all sorts of evidence of wrongdoing. People keep paper in this country on all sorts of things. True, but that paper is usually hidden. They don't want to give it to virtually anyone. Well, I'm a bit of what's in his basement. But you know what? All this is pretty relevant. This sounds like what we want to do first, unless busy's idea about rescuing Jewel first is not bad at all. I still don't know where to pull that thread towards. Maybe we could have Gordon slip in there and do some reconnaissance or question mark contact some of his workers via your contact ghost. I'm not sure who's best at this. I know I should stay well enough away until we're ready to do the fucking job. Well, currently busy is someone in power. So I could just storm in there with the spirit wardens, you thought? Possibly. I don't know what kind of leeway you have in nobles houses. Like a guy who can pull in the Imperial Army to deal with us robbing his house can also probably pull in the Imperial Army to deal with the spirit wardens having massive overstep and invading his house. But it does mean that they won't be looking at us for who caused the problem. I think we're already planning on invading one person's house. True. But in that regard, isn't it even more suspicious if you start invading other people's houses? Might they not prepare their caches and move their secrets elsewhere? And your boss get mad at you for spoiling the surprise? It's a good idea. It might be more safe than having Gordon go in. And heck, Gordon can even go in with your guys. It's not an impossibility. They all wear masks. It seems like an overstep to me of the spirit wardens to go into Lord Strangford, one of the most powerful men in the city, estate, and do what exactly? Yeah, that is something we should ask. Are they going to accuse somebody of harboring spirits or you could try to blackmail Esmeralda somehow? We're told in that big, old flying boat above the mannered there would be a shame at that thing just crashed into the mannered. You might feel so bad you'll have to leave town. Interesting thought. Why don't we case the place first just to see what we're looking at as far as security goes? That makes sense. Let's get more information before we make our decision because we really don't have information right now besides the floor plan. We do have the floor plan. We have the floor plan. Yes, that was gotten. You even have some details on triggers for his electronic security system in the tower. As Harkar was able to bypass it or a friend of Harkar was able to bypass it. He doesn't seem smart enough to do that, but he was able to supply you with some schematics from an ally. This is a good chip. Yeah, why does this seem barking mad to me? Breaking into a... stronghold, it's a freaking tower for Christ's sake. If you can see on the map, Strangford Estate has a fence around it. Quiet, I'm talking. I believe in you. I know I can get in and out, but I'm not sure about leading it. I don't know. Getting in there and fighting the resistance and getting out. Of course, I'd prefer sneaky, but that's not guaranteed. Once we case the joint, we'll know exactly how dangerous it'll be. I don't think we have patrol patterns or numbers of security personnel. Whether or not we can get away with the combat, I roughly agree with you. But I also know that we have a reputation at stake. We don't really be that quiet. If we got it, we'll do it, I'm supposed. Where is the tower on the map, John? My Strangford map itself. On my Strangford map is a little bit different. There's a round tower here at the end. Okay, yeah, there's that one and this one, obviously. That is like a small forest. It's a little park. Yeah. Of their own, a garden of sorts that they keep at the fringes north and south. For the people who aren't looking at the map, Strangford's estate, just the building itself is like two city blocks worth of houses all together in one building. It's like you've been struggling to make a battle map on that. The place is enormous and it's very hard to fill. Surrounded by a fence on its own island with like gates to the island and the north and south blocked by a guard shack or something. It's actually called Strangford Island. Freaking is. I was going to say, no, you're wrong. There's other stuff here and then I zoomed out. No. And there's a bridge named after him as well, leading to the island. Just in case that wasn't daunting enough. Only one bridge on the island isn't named in relation to the fact that he owns it. And it's because it goes north to Bagley, which is just a real place that people care about. He's got the Strangford Gate Bridge and the Servant's Bridge. You know, the one that people who aren't fucking Strangford get to use. And I think every once in a while he tries to change the name of it. Servant's Bridge or the Bagley Bridge? He wants another one after him. Yeah, Strangford. That'll be Chester's crossing. In the street that runs outside is the Manor Road. So it's all about Strangford. But let's get some information. And we can always choose to lure her out as opposed to strike within. I mean, imagine the accolades if we were able to pull that off. However, there's no use for accolades if you're dead. So I think some more information would be great if Gordon can cure that for us. Okay, I'll do that now. Do it tonight. Is it dark? This one is dead. It's pretty dark. It's a waste of dark. And the moon is waning. So it's nearly gone. It is as dark as it'll get. Okay. As a result, you're in a risky position, but the Strangford Island is fairly trafficked as it is a main way into Crowsfoot, I believe, is the neighboring district. It is the most patrolled of the Charholo Islands. So you can get in through the gate under a servant's guise or delivery person or some such and case the place around it and what types of people come in and out and whatnot. Okay, do we have any information on her as far as her likes dislikes? Work on a person, she is. Yeah, I'm thinking about bringing in a delivery, which would be a gift for her that wouldn't be too suspicious. If I might find that on your skulking, but you haven't so far. Okay. A hunt is what I'd use for tracking a target sort of thing, but I don't have any of that. You don't need it unless you're following her through the city. I was planning on using a Prowl and Prowl works. You can definitely keep an eye at a distance and avoid confrontation with Prowl. It is a risky position you are with the darkness probably going to have standard effect as the patrols keep it from being a great effect. Like you need to relocate a couple of times, but those are your conditions. Adam Gordon, is there any way that maybe Esther can help Gordon with the Prowl, knowing the blue coats and your connections within mercenary type stuff, Esther or no? Or you might have too much stress gone and you might not be able to do it even then. I have three in Prowl, so I might be in good shape. You're pretty good. I want to favor them. It never hurts though. If having the maps and the people that were there recently might maybe give you an extra die to help. Yeah, I think that's a worthwhile argument at least, or at least something that John can take under consideration. Usually extra dice come from Devil's Bargains, other people helping. I do have an idea for Devil's Bargain. Ooh, let's hear. Please. Your friend Darmot is seen heading into the estate doing a job and can get you at risk of exposing him and yourself. Can get you extra intel as to what comes and goes into the strength for the state. Okay, I was actually thinking of inviting him along just to have somebody to make it seem casual or we're laughing and joking as we walk and that sort of thing. But if he's actually working there, maybe that works better. Yeah, you can keep track of what times he and his painter crew head in and you've done work as a painter before, so it could be a cover for you in future. The complications of this are not entirely being forthright with this. There are other things going on in the strength for the state that would pose a danger to you and Darmot. So this Devil's Bargain comes with an asterisk as they all should. Shocking, shocking. Okay, I'll just go with what I have. It's a risky standard. Yeah, that sounds good. And an extra die for this Devil's Bargain if you're taking it. Can Gordon get help from our lurk crew? That's something I call lurks, God damn it. What are they called? I think they're skulls. I think they're skulls. Yeah, that's where that word came from that we've been bantering about all night. Yeah, I'm going to go for the Devil's Bargain and there we go. All right, four dice. Don't fuck up. Oh, roll the six. One, one, five, six. Two, one. Good job, you got that six. Okay, your friend Darmot is seen hither and yon. He is surprised to see you outside in a cafe on Manor Road as he heads in or out after a shift. Waves at his compatriots that he'll catch up with them and they head back over Bagley Bridge to their respective homes and sits down with you for a bit. Between him and what you've observed guards, there's three shifts. They have a various homes in this district that a lot of them live in. But if you can gain access to this district, you can probably assume one of their identities and disappear them for a bit or complicate their lives in some way and poses one of them. The job he's doing, Darmot, is a new social seasons opening up and he's having the rooms like the dining hall and ballroom redone to host a big gala that he wants to impress. This is hearsay with the servants in the place, the demonographer. He's a widower, or I believe widower is the term for if the wife dies and the husband's around. That is correct. And you don't know if he fancies the demonographer, but it would be at least a powerful alliance. Darmot's job is complicated by Strangford's mother hand-pecking them about their work in the area. She's an old crown of a woman Octavia and has very particular demands of the place and he hesitates to get into specifics. There's some kind of, I don't know what to call it, some weird shit going on that I can't talk about too much of the job or the woman. He's been referring to her as the woman and context and knowledge of Strangford has flew to you into his mother. There's a bit of a recluse in the social scene but appears to dominate the house outside of it. Okay, and this is all in around the actual manner itself. On the inside, yeah. You know anything about the tower? We've never been let in. Not surprising. I know that the woman basically lives in there. She only comes out to tell us what we're doing wrong and have us undo the past hour's work. He surely doesn't keep her locked up in there. She comes and goes pretty freely, but he steers clear of the woman and just agrees with whatever she says. Right. I appreciate that. I pay for his beer and tell him they'll probably be some more coming after whatever happens happens. Yeah, if you're headed in there, there's a cadre of spark rights that are working on stuff for him doing some tech stuff in there. They like to maintain their secrecy and they think we're ignorant, but well, in your case, I'm just kidding. Am I helping you or not? Enormously, yes, next. Anyway, you might want to steer clear of them. They've got a bit of an overzealous secret-keeping mentality. Hey, thanks again. Sure. If you're going to be here, maybe I'll see you again. Yeah, I'm sure I will. See you again. All right. He puts back on his hat because it'll tip and heads back down Manner Road to Bagley Bridge. When it gets back to busy, you know from Strengthford showing up at other social events. His mother never comes out. She's a homebody or something. Seems to still be a force in his life. Yeah, she sounds like a lot of fun. Yeah, if you're going to be skulking around the place, she's very much ordering servants around, it sounds like, so you'll run into her. Strengthford only fucks with servants when dinner's not done on time or something. Yeah, she sounds like my radar in intuition is telling me she's trouble. Octavia or Esmerald? Yeah, the woman. Okay, she ordered servants around. Sorry, in particular about the decoration of the place. I think the fact that he cowards to her and bids her. I don't think it's just out of motherly love. I think she's got some power over him. So just something to watch out for, I guess. Maybe I'm wrong, but something tells me she's doing something in the tower, besides just hanging out. Certainly is an interesting thought. Sorry, we're talking about Lady Esmeralda. No, we're talking about Octavia. There will be three persons of interest here. Strengthford, his mother, Esmeralda. Gotcha, that's why you said motherly love. I dig. I am all on the same page now. Mama, Strengthford. All right, yeah, never mind. I don't know enough. By human birthing customs and motherly relationships or shit, so I've got exactly no advice on that. Sounds right, sure. Probably Eldritch Control. That's how my parents did it. Nods. What did you break free? I did, yes. He said how, but it's not for now. Just something to think about. I wasn't on the body before, I think, is the clearest answer. I'm not sure about that yet. I haven't really put any thought into it. Are you okay in this body now or is there still some attuning and adjusting going on? I mean, the big honking furnace is keeping you pretty solidly rooted in there. All the problems I had that had to do with actually adjusting to the body or dealt with now that I'm a medic. I tuned the nerves. I don't know, man. I did the work. Thank you for asking, man. Don't worry about you. That's good. Thanks about how to worry about you. How is your family's industrial endeavors? Yeah, there we go. Nailed it. Nailed it. Oh, slow but sure. That's good. Making progress. It's slow progress. Okay, so Mama Strangford is out there demanding of servants and that doesn't sit tight with my greater good sensibilities of the lower classes deserve the respect of everybody. Not exactly going to kill her for free. That would cause some big fucking problems. No, I think Strangford is a very bad man. No, no. So for my greater good, taking out as Morelda before they can make a pack and become a power couple in addition to aiding our friend or my friend specifically, Sotara. So I think that besides aiding my friend, Sotara, taking out as Morelda and keeping something away from Strangford strikes me as something worth trying to do for our agenda of trying to make the city a better place. I'm not sure in any vision of the city that I can think of that having Strangford and as Morelda team up and Strangford become even more powerful than he already is is a good outcome for Dustfall. Anyways, that's just my two cents. It's up to everyone else. We can always renege on our agreement with Sotara and not take out as Morelda and see where it leads. I'm off for taking her out, just dissing the biz family. Right, exactly. That had to be painful for you. But based on what Gordon's telling us, the fact that that estate is so heavily guarded, you'd have to think we need to lure her out somehow. I don't know that we can actually break in. I mean, the only one that's really good at that is Gordon. But Gordon isn't good at taking out demon hunters the last time I checked. He's got a lot of good qualities, but taking out demon hunters isn't one of them. So I don't see how we pull off a heist in a kidnapping or a murder or a disappearance, whatever you want to call it. I don't see how we do that. Something that Darmit mentioned now that this is being brought up is that the crew of sparkwrights that have access to the building actually have access to the tower. Jesus, that tower again. So they're in there. If you want to like insinuate yourself in that group, it could be a way to get in. Yeah, that's certainly is a way to get in there. Sparkcraft is actually the thing of multidisciplinary talents that I'm worst at. I'm good at arcane sparkcraft and arcane tools and medicines. And even physical fleshy recovery, but actual craft of sparkcraft. That's not something I've picked up yet. What would that be under, John? What is skill? It is Tinker. It's just not there are a lot of special abilities in regard to sparkcraft that our friend, Briar, has not picked up yet. Yeah, I can do work with it. And I would be a fine tinker, a repairman, I guess you could ask me. But calling myself a sparkwright in the face of other sparkwrights, I would be questioned. In meta terms, how many dots do you have in tinker? Oh, I have two, but there is literally a skill called Artificer that lets me invent sparkcraft tools, and I don't have it. Gotcha. I can do maintenance and operation, but if you need me to do something absolutely wild, I'm probably going to run up against the tops of my experience. Yeah, I don't have that ability either. I have one dot of tinker, so I have some passing knowledge. I certainly couldn't go in as an expert. I could probably bluff my way through some basic sparkcraft 101 things. So you and I might be able to get in there. Yeah. But I don't know if you and I, by ourselves, can take out a demonologist or a demonographer. Thanks about our various supernatural accoutrements. I mean, we can certainly lay out some damage, that's for sure. Yeah, but kidnapping, yeah. And she would probably be extremely adept at shutting me down in particular. There's enough of the crew of sparkwrights in and out that there's probably someone at your skill level you could impersonate. Yeah. Yeah. And then Gordo has some knowledge of security systems in his chinker ability. Oh, Gordo has a tinker as well. Yes. It's part of the locking skill. Okay. Well, then we'll have you on as well. And that's, I don't know how marshally adept are you. He flexes and there's just nothing on these accuracy bones. Could you guys explain again what the sparkwrights and do with the tower? Thank you for listening tonight's of the night actual play podcast. If you'd like to send us questions, comments, or feedback, you can reach us at a number of ways, including Twitter @kyotn_podcast. Or you can join our Facebook page, which is facebook.com/kyotn.podcast. And while on Facebook, you can join like-minded folks at our fans page at facebook.com/groups/kyotn_famp. And lastly, there's our block, which is found at kotnpodcast.com. And please, remember to join us next week for more mystery and adventure. An accuracy man of healthy built and noble stock. Sorry, misspelled something and it made me laugh. And we did it. We made it. See you next week. Yeah, good job, everyone. When last we left, you did convey that we both got away, right? Yes, there was a street scuffle and- Right. Yeah. I thought my microphone was muted and I'm snorting my medicine and making alpine noises. Well, it didn't pick up for whatever reason. Yeah. Oh, you're good. Thanks, God. Well, we'll see. At least I don't know. I can curse myself out in the future. Okay. Divine the intentions of- Sorry, they're shouting outside. Sorry, I was, uh, daydreaming. Because it'll all tip and heads back down Bagley Road. Our manna road to Bagley Bridge. Someone has a barking dog. Yeah. I'll be right back. Okay. Friends specifically, Sotara. Sotara. Sotara. Sotara. We got there. Yeah. Other possible titles that could have been voted for for this particular episode and the Facebook Knights of the Night fans page were- He is treacherous. He is not. Nah. She's not there yet, but you know, he's going to house her. 10-day week in this weird calendar. What about the stars beneath the sea? Call me what you will. A skulk. And an infiltration to that location.