Blades in the Heart: Kicking the Bank

[Part of the Party Time journal]

Just over a week after the Lord Governor's visit, the extremely brief civil war ended with a whimper and the remaining rebels rallied at the docks. Due to the Iruvian and Dagger Isle secession that was announced over this period the military has since shifted focus to a massive draft and are now training new recruits at the closed off Six Towers district. For their previous efforts the Shield of Dawn was granted access to supplies usually restricted to the military forces and are now TIER VII, which is actually higher than the local military forces. While that makes them really tough, it also means gaining XP is going to slow to a crawl as you gain much more when going up against things leagues more powerful than you (and somehow surviving).

I'm also experimenting with something new this "season" with an idea pilfered from Heart RPG (hence the new title) and have made each of my players have a fading dream which states a goal and contains random tasks they vaguely remember doing to reach that goal. Mom wants to rule a nation, Juris seeks to kill the emperor, Rose hopes to rule the ghost veil and DL is somehow going to achieve world peace. I mention that they hear their own voice in their head suggesting they "follow their dream" and then provided them with their dream list. Also, Juris' corgi (whom he names "Nyryx the 2nd") inexplicably shows up with an ancient looking key and drops it at his feet.

Colonel Sanders, liaison to the Lord Governor, again re-iterates the rebel threat at the docks which Rose, mom and DL decide to look into, especially since Rose's tavern keeper friend Klyra has gone missing ever since some Ironhook Prison guards (who are now doing double duty as police since the original police force has been wiped out) came around looking for her and that is one possible district she fled to. En route a cloaked Lord Elon Dalmore bumps into the trio, saying that the rebels have taken his bank, and to please just level the whole place as he has some secrets within. DL says "we'll see what we can do" and Elon just trusts them to get it done as they proceed into the docks district.

The Colonel, who is disappointed to not be going with them, asks they first kick down a rebellious flag in the square which they totally ignore and instead proceed to the bar where Rose thinks Klyra may be, but it is empty. They then cross the street to Elon's bank and out of the forty rebels within capture 16 thanks to Rose. The rest are obliterated by mom and DL who then scout out the place, finding a corpse and ritual circle they don't touch, and a secret passage down to some laboratories where it seems someone was combining humans (listed as "in debt") and eels!? At the very bottom they slay an eel man and a number of eels in a flooding tunnel before returning topside where Rose is dealing with a handful more rebels whom mom just guns down immediately.

They don't blow up the bank and instead return to Colonel Sanders with prisoners (and five rescued captive women) and then let him and his troops move in to sweep out the district, and the first thing he does is to proudly march up to that rebellious flag and kick it down himself - triggering the frag grenade attached to it and killing himself. The Colonel got fried!