A Winter Dark Heist
Yesterday, I ran some Blades in the Dark and I thought the scenario was a lot of fun, so I'm posting it here! It includes a custom starting situation - my group was playing as a Cult, so I emphasized the supernatural elements. NPCs are framed per my MVP post.
Starting Situation
The Dimmer Sisters and the Church of the Ecstasy of the Flesh have started a shadow war in Six Towers as they race to collect artifacts that have no clear relationship to each other; no-one knows what they have in common but higher ups in both organizations have realized that certain artifacts may contain pieces of the Last Door. The Reconciled, enemies of both, are taking advantage of both factions' desperation to weaken their holdings whenever they can.
The Briefing
A contact (recruited by Roslyn of the Dimmer Sisters) meets with the crew and provides the address of Father Neidhart, a retired parish priest who retired from the Church to a rundown home in Six Towers. He has a painting that Rosslyn wishes returned, but he refuses to let it go and his home is difficult to scry into, so they need a second-story team to go on-site and recover it.
The Reconciled, possessing someone innocuous, will pay even more for the crew to destroy it.
The Cast
- Arietta Neidhart, waifish, fraying at the edges, haunted. Wants freedom, technique latch on to a powerful figure
- Frederic Coleburne, hot, full of emotion, secret Sparkwright. Wants romance, technique daring risks of athleticism
- Father Neidhart, losing memory, fastidious about salt baths, religious. Wants stability, technique rail against young people
The Location
- Neidhart House, spirit guarded, strewn with artifacts, warm. Staffed with 2 housekeepers, a cook, a scruffy old cop as a guard (LeGrande, scruffy, cunning)
- 2 live there (old cop and cook), 2 housekeepers leave to their homes every evening
- Neidhart's salt bath - connected to a reservoir on the roof and warmed in the basement through some unwisely-knocked-down walls.
- The artifact room - inscribed with Church runes and protected from scrying. Contains the painting behind a silverglass barrier.
- The painting, called The Ghost's Remorse, depicts a sublime Deathlands landscape. It seems to move slightly. when you look at it
- The pigment contains a small fragment of the Last Door, so it is extremely supernaturally potent.
Levers
- Father Neidhart is very faithful and is known for having ecstatic visions which send him into fits of strange acts.
- Arietta is desperate for attention and finds the criminal underworld enthralling.
- Frederic has convinced Father Neidhart to hold a soiree to celebrate the Winter Darkest, a time for feasting and warming the flesh with wine and dancing. Technically, it's a religious festival. But, in practice, it's a big party.