LogDunslough Cartographic Society-Jason-5

Game log for the 2018/04/15 session of Blades in the Dark: The Dunslough Cartographic Society, as taken by Jason

In the absence of other notions, we put the word out that we're looking for gigs in Charterhall. Frake the locksmith has brunch with Pool and complains about all the bureaucracy in town. A clerk named Mordecai Barkus has been spending too mch time looking into his business. If something happened to Barkus, or at least to his notes, that would really make Frake's whole week. Later that day, one of Frake's people drops off some notes on Barkus' habits. He works in the Bureau of Monies and Merchants in Rust Hall, on Clerk Street.

Clip suggests that instead of hurting Barkus, we should observe him carefully, noting his weaknesses and personal habits, and then swap in a notebook containing that information and take his notes on Frake.

Barkus stops for a meal at the Golden Plum restaurant while Washout's following him. It's a very high end place and suddenly our scoundrel looks desperately out of place. Worse, Barkus' three Bluecoat escorts all know he's out of place. Washout immediately doffs his hat, looks sheepish, and tries to act like a servant trying to get the maitre de's attention. In the process, he tries to get a good look at Barkus' ledger. He does get a look, but then he's swiftly intercepted by a large busboy. He claims to have a message for the chef ("the soup as awful") and then gets ejected. Washout deliberately makes it seem like he's an ass who hates the restaurant to disguise his interest in the book. On the sidewalk, he dusts himself off, yells, "Only one star!" and walks off to find the team.

The cover of the book has an embossed symbol of the Department of Monies and Merchants, and a few ribbons for bookmarks. Washout concludes that he'll have to steal one.

The rest of the team completes the surveillance of Barkus, under Pool's direction. Clip and Pool both get worried that they're going to get made, and it's only Arvus' experience that keeps the whole scheme from unravelling. In the end, we stil come up with a fairly good picture of his day-to-day activities. We're a little worried that if we swap the book in the next couple days, this weird incident may put him in mind of us. Arvus also tries following him solo, to see if he goes anyplace unusual or unexpected. He tails him to the Silver Stag casino in Silk Shore, where he spends several hours playing cards. He carries a valise with him everywhere on duty, and keeps the ledger in it. After hours, he leaves the valise and ledger in the office. He also does without the Bluecoat escort after hours. He spends most of the night in the casino, and doesn't seem super-happy when he leaves.

Clip gets the casino pit boss a fine drink and tries to elicit the dirt on Barkus. He's not a well-liked man. Barkus is always flush, even though in theory he's not especially well paid, so obviously he's got a lot of collections going on. He's always making subtle threats, throwing his weight around, and according to rumor, he uses his Bluecoat connections to get back at people who beat him at cards.

Washout tries to steal a ledger from the bookseller, and gets spotted. "Hey! You!" Since he's got no coin, he has to run for it. On the plus side, he's fast. On the downside, he was definitely seen. Washout then returns to the lair to forge the embossed cover and sew in the ribbons just so, and it turns out great.

We decide that the simplest way to create a lot of distracting confusion in and around the restaurant would be for Dr Oz to summon a ghost there. He gets seated, enjoys the soup, and gets a crit on his summoning roll. He closes his eyes, leans his head back against the wall, and begins to hear shouting from the kitchen. First some of the staff come running out of it, and then all the patrons hear hooves, and then a lancer on horseback comes galloping out of the kitchen with a cook spitted on the end of the lance. Everyone in the restaurant loses their goddamn mind. The lancer switches to his cavalry saber just to chase off the stragglers. Dr Oz steals a few goodies from the kitchen on his way out the back door.

Outside, Washout is back in front, haranging Pool about how bad the soup is. He arranges to bump into Barkus. It works perfectly. The Bluecoats are too scared to worry about their charge, so nobody even tries to intercept Washout. In fact, in their haste, they pretty much shove Barkus into him, and he stumbles back into Pool. They arrange a bit of confusion about the ledger and hand the fake ledger off to Barkus.

Arvus sees the ghost come out of the restaurant and decides that things are getting out of hand, so he pulls a pistol and shoots at it. He misses, but he definitely draws its attention.

Clip freezes up in terror and can't move.

Arvus opens fire again. This time he hits the ghost, and ghost rears his horse around and goes in the other direction. Lots of deathseeker crows start to fly in. We return to the lair to regroup. We begin reviewing the tax ledger to see what we can find out from it.

Arvus heals and indulges his vice. Clip trains and gives Jaren some (misleading) information about how might have summoned that ghost. Dr Oz train and plants some false information in the ghost field, framing Quellyn for the summoning. Pool trains twice. Washout works on the Prognosticator, indulges his vice, and plants rumors that the ghost was the ghost of a cavalryman who was killed by the Golden Plum's horrible soup and returned for revenge.

Dr Oz asks around to see what the Map of Esketra is worth. Fitz invites him over and takes tea with him in the Doll Room. She's expecting! He tells her that the Map is a thing that has a use, not just a unique bauble. She'd like to have it in her private collection. He asks whether he might get time to study it, and she agrees, provided that he studies it in her house. She does not want us to leave a fake behind.

We decide that since we're going to be leaving traces of burgling anyway, we're going to steal everything we can, especially the bug we planted before. Pool and Clip watch the place for a while to ascertain the household schedule, and have no trouble.

We go into the Inspector's house buy the tunnels again. This time, before sending Pool up to take a look, Washout oils the dumbwaiter, so it won't squeek. Pool rides it up to the third floor, but the moment she gets out, it starts moving again, as someone else starts using it.

Washout gives Clip and Arvus instructions on how to sneak upstairs. They're wrong. Clip straightens him out. Pool sneaks into the office and begins stealing the things we need, then begins looking around to see what other good stuff is here. Turns out he mostly collects maps, especially old or esoteric maps. She comes up with 1-coin worth. It's interesting stuff but it's not fabulous wealth. Washout suggests looking for things too heavy to be easily moved, and we realize that there's a marble bust of some famous guy, which would be worth something. Washout covers it in drift oil to make it easily stealable. Pools leads us back down the stairs, though Arvus has to move quick at one point to keep her from stepping in front of a servant. When we return to the wine cellar, Dr Oz has been studying the wine cellar. Unfortunately, he hasn't been studying it to see what's worth stealing. He's massively drunk on it. We do have a cart full of wine, but it's not the good wine.

Arvus trains and works with Clip to reduce our heat - Clip hides empty stolen wine bottles at some other gang's hideout, Arvus leads the cops to them, and presto! The crims have been caught! Clip also indulges his vice. Dr Oz trains Prowess and Resolve. Pool over-indulges in her vice, which is being possessed. When she comes to, she's in an interrogation room, shackled to a table, and there's an Inspector who's telling her that this charade is tired and she can go ahead and wipe the tears away. She collects herself and says, "What are you really after? Forget all the bullshit, tell me what you're really after." He wants to know where her friend is. She claims not to have any. The cops really want to know about Washout, and unless she bribes them properly, they're going to beat it out of her. She takes the beating, giving them nothing, and then goes right back to Stalia's house to get possessed some more. Washout finishes work on designing his Prognosticator, trains Resolve, and over-indulges in whoring. He's passing some time with Birdie the prostitute, hears a ruckus outside, and immediately goes out the window. They're waiting. He runs for it and manages to elude them. So far so good but there's going to be a warrant out for Washout now.

Dr Oz takes the Map to Fitz, who's ecstatic, and promptly opens it for her. It holds a gilded phalange (finger bone), probably a woman's middle finger, suspended in a wire cage. Fitz is nonplussed but has no objection to letting Dr Oz continue to study. Oz tries to attune to the toe, and when he does, the room goes dark. He can see the night sky and all the stars in it. A voice speaks to him in a language he doesn't understand. It hurts, and fills him with a sense of betrayal stronger than he'd ever felt in his life. A void begins to grow in front of him, blacking out the stars.