LogDunslough Cartographic Society-Jason-9

Game log for the 2018/05/13 session of Blades in the Dark: The Dunslough Cartographic Society, as taken by Jason

We've decided it's time to acquire some turf, and we're going to do it by sneaking into the Registry of Deeds for Duskvol, which is conveniently located in Charterhall. We set the stage by paying 6 coin to obtain temporary access to a fake city seal, tier 4, with which to ratify our possession of the property. Mads Rickard is the forger who makes it all happen.

We use our maps and passkeys to sneak into the basement, undetected. Flashback! Washout had previously talked a clerk into explaining how the archives were organized. Turns out the clerk got really enthused about explaining it and gave him every little detail, and how he knows exactly how to properly plant the sealed deed. Pool leads the team stealthily through the archives, making sure that the night staff never see us. We're in a caged area, and the old lady who controls access to the cage would freak out if she heard us, but we don't make a sound. Washout finds the existing deed, copies the relevant details to the new signed deed, fills out a matching bill of sale and writes a receipt to the DCS, and plants it all in the appropriate files. It takes him a little while to fill everything out and get it filed just so. As he does, a guard comes to the cage desk, to execute his routine check of the secure area. He spends some time shooting the breeze with the desk clerk but doesn't come down, which is a good break for us. We have no difficulty getting out, either.

The building is near, though not adjacent to, Stazia's place. The "previous" owner was a woman named Nettie Midnight. The bottom floor is taken up by a greengrocer, the second by offices of an accountant and a barrister, and then the top three floors are student housing. We immediately decide to evict the accountant for sure, since they have nothing to offer us. Pool knows the barrister, though, and knows that they're shady, because she overheard him talking about Lady Drake (a magistrate) and how she would be reasonable as long as they could pay. We ask around about the barrister, Morgan Hunley, and nobody thinks he has a drug habit or other unviable vice. He's got an upper-middle-class clientele, he does some business work, he generally seems to be a straight guy.

Clip fakes the ID of a property agent named Dunslip, brings Pool along as his assistant, and shows up to inform the barrister that his lease will not be renewed. Clip sells the whole business fairly well, although Barrister Hunley can't be said to be overjoyed with the situation. When we return, the day after the lease would have expired, the barrister is still there. He tells "Roman" the office assistant to fetch him some gin. Washout pretends to be the business factor for the new owners, Dr Oz the new client, and Arvus the construction foreman. Hunley explains that Ms Midnight doesn't actually exist. Washout immediately asks who ths Mr Cox who acted as the selling agent was, and Hunley says he must not exist. It turns out that Magistrate Drake owns the building. At that point Dr Oz comes in, wallpaper samples in hand, and expresses surprise that the space isn't ready for remodeling yet. Drake looks a bit like Glenn Close. Anyway, she's in a stern mood, not angry with us, but not inclined to budge even a little bit on this idea that she's been bilked out of a building. Washout makes up a story about they bought the place from a Mr Cox, and provides a full description of the gentleman. He then leads Drake and two Bluecoats to Cox's office, which of course turns out to be vacant now, and then expresses surprise that Cox isn't there anymore. Arvus and Dr Oz take off, leaving Washout, Clip, and Pool to sell the whole Mr Cox story. Drake asks a lot of pointed questions but Washout can't be broken - he was purely an innocent dupe in all this.

We ask around to see how Lady Drake runs her turf, and from what we can see, it's an honest racket. People who pay their dues have no problem. People who get caught on her turf pay a little extra and she lets them off. Of course, people who don't pay end up in Ironhook, as expected. A fellow named Crusty Dick Sole didn't pay her off on schedule a while back, and he's still there, seven years later.

We decide to go along for now (on a 3-2 vote) while working on compiling dirt on her that will get her off our back at some point in the future.

We set up a meet with Lady Drake, using Hunley as an intermediary. He will of course get to stay right where he is, but the "new owners" will have the run of the place. Hunley will continue to be our intermediary with her.

During downtime, Arvus drinks, and begins work on a 10-segment clock to compile dirt on Lady Drake. He gets one segment. Clip shops, trains Prowess, and contributes two more segments to the Drake clock by following some Bluecoats around. Dr Oz works on defendig himself from the Master of the Void and trains Insight. He has finished the project on deflecting the Master. Now he has to build it, and then after that, figure out how to sever his connection to it. With Daphne Templeton's help, he can perform a ritual that will ward the lair against the Master. Dr Oz must participate in the ritual, of course, and the ritual will cost nine stress, which he can of course resist. Alternately, as a devil's bargain, anyone else who participates can take on one of those stress points. Pool works on the Drake dossier and trains Insight. Washout works on the Lush formula and gets Stazia to prescribe a little something to calm him down after his recent demon troubles. We then burn four points of team rep, one for Clip to reduce our heat, three for Dr Oz, Arvus, and Washout to perform the demon warding ritual. Clip pulls one heat off of us by filing fake tax receipts, making it appear that our building is legitimate commercial activity.

The ritual actually works quite well. Daphne brings candles, chalk, black salt, a live chicken, and a whole crapton of other paraphernelia. She chalks sigils on the wall, spreads chalk along the floor edges like it was roach repellent, puts candles all over the place, and generally spends a couple hours overhauling the place. They all start chanting, and a wind comes up and they hear a distant voice, and then it all stops. The lair is now protected against the Master.

We spend one more rep so that Pool can reduce heat. She plants Lush on a few people and points them out to the Bluecoats, which takes some of the Lush heat off of us. It doesn't do as much good as we hoped, and the drug den only makes us one coin this score.

The crew takes synchronized as a crew advance. We all agree that next crew advance will go to getting a vault and personal training.