This is our second post using Deep Cuts and it’ll be the first one where we properly get to using the new and improved Action Roll. Here are the changes introduced:
Threat Roll: Instead of the previous Action Roll, here the player declares what their character is doing and the GM provides a threat that might occur when they do it. The player then rolls the corresponding Action or Attribute and can push themselves to mitigate consequences.
Push Yourself: As in vanilla Blades, you can push yourself by exchange stress for a reduced consequence, you no longer do this for +1d. When you push yourself, you suffer the reduced consequence, then you roll the relevant Attribute (Insight, Prowess, Resolve) and suffer stress related to the result:
6,6 or better: 0 stress.
6: 1 stress.
4/5: 2 stress.
1-3: 3 stress.
Edge: Replacing Crits from vanilla Blades, you get 1 point of Edge for every additional 6 beyond the first (I think this applies both to Threat Rolls and to Push Yourself rolls). Edge can be exchanged for a bonus die or for greater effect.
Position: Position still exists, in a sense. Controlled Position means there is no associated Threat, you declare what you do and you do it. Desperate Position means you suffer a consequence on any roll other than a 6.
Effect: Effect also still exists but it’s not quite so powerful now, it is still of the form limited, standard, greater, and extreme, and Deep Cuts provides examples of effects corresponding to each. I’ll share the most relevant ones here:
Now, when we last left off we did the Engagement Roll and it came up with a Desperate Situation, using what we have (that Raffello is Tier 1; the Circle is Tier 3; and we have a rough idea of some members of the Circle), I’ve devised a starting complication for the pair. I’m not trying to run them into the ground here either, because this is more designed to be a ‘breather’ score while the other two recuperate.
Raffello’s Den of Vice, Six Towers
Siena and Bell both lowered their hoods at once. It was darker than usual and the hour was late, but there were still signs and dull sounds of concealed revelry coming from the Vice Den they had staked out earlier that day.
“You’re sure this’ll work?” Siena asked, her voice was still as a pond, but the question itself betrayed some shades of doubt.
“No other way in.” Bell answered with a shrug, “Worst comes to worst we turn and run.”
Siena suppressed a sigh and managed to say, in the same even tone, “Sooner rather than later, then.” And she began to approach.
They stepped up two creaky, wooden steps onto a dilapidated porch, covered by an equally decrepit awning that leaked drops here and there from the most recent rainfall. As they got closer to the door, the scent of freshly mixed paint became more pronounced.
Bell reached out for the handle, as her fingers closed on it the metal swung downward and the door opened, pulling Bell forwards.
“Well, well, well.” Came a familiar feminine voice, “Bellocq, we meet again.”
“Selina.” Bell said the name as if it was a curse.
“Don’t stand out in the cold, come on in!” Selina’s tone was jocular but, like Siena, there was something beneath the surface. Her toned arm tensed as she took Bell by the collar and bundled her into the room. She ignored Siena, who slinked in behind and stayed close.
Siena took in the Penderyn woman for the first time, though she had heard stories from Bell. She was wearing utilitarian gear - a leather tunic with a lot of pockets; tailored trousers that offered good mobility; a pair of mud-stained boots that had seen a lot of action and come out just as solid as when they went in; a sword belt with a fearsome looking blade attached. Siena looked harder - black riding gloves, a faintly glowing bottle clipped to the belt just out of view, messy black hair, any other details that stood out were quickly absorbed while Selina studied her prey.
Bell had been taken entirely by surprise. She was cursing herself for not connecting Sparrow’s previous job with this one, after all, that was when she’d last been left for dead and it was by Selina’s hand. This Circle cult clearly protected its members well. Right now she was dangling, feet just off the ground, being held by the collar in an iron grip. Selina’s face, features sharp and twisting in a sort of pleased malice, was inches from hers.
“What are you doing here, little wolf?”
“I came for-”
“I don’t care.” Selina said with glee, spinning on the spot and letting go of her grip. Bell went sailing across a poorly appointed living room, landing roughly on the floor and kicking up dust as she rolled. She came to a rest on her back, staring up at a ceiling with visible dark spots on it from water leaks.
At the other end of the room, Siena was taking in more information. She felt the adrenaline pumping, the situation was about to escalate dangerously and she needed to find the right course of action, choosing incorrectly here could be fatal. She looked around - a weapon would be no good here, Selina had turned to face Bell but stepped just sidewise enough to keep an eye on Siena in her peripheral. She grasped instead for the right words, but she grasped in desperation.
“We came here to hire you!”
This is a Desperate Sway. The Threat here is that Selina is going to start dishing out the harm. I’ve judged this whole score to be roughly vs Tier I so she won’t go extreme with it - probably Level 2 Harm.
Siena needs to get a 6 on her dice here to not suffer the Threat. Anything less and she will have to Push Herself to mitigate it somewhat (Reducing Level 2 → Level 1). She will also mark XP just for making the roll.
She has two dice in Sway and gets… a 5. She’s not going to Push Herself, it’ll be cool to see the new Harm Rules in action.
To Siena’s surprise, it actually seemed to work, at first. Selina hesitated, dropping her guard for a split second before rallying and going for her sword. Siena leapt forward but Selina was a skilled duelist, drawing the blade in a fast motion that caught Siena across the side, a warning shot. Siena felt an instant of coldness as the steel edge brushed hard enough against her clothing and under-armour to cut the skin, followed by the heat of blood running down.
Of course, Siena brought armour with her. She checks one use to reduce this harm to Level 1 - Cut.
The new Harm rules state that you can have as many Level 1 harms as you like. But if you ever double-up (e.g. she gets cut again) it jumps up to Level 2 harm, of which you can have two. It does not leapfrog Level 2 if Level 2 is full.
Siena’s right hand had been raised to intercept Selina, the other hand acted on autopilot. It produced a small box marked ‘Snuff’ on the side. Instinct taking over, Siena swung the box upwards, the lid flipping open as she abruptly halted her movement, and blew.
The trance powder came out in a thick cloud, engulfing Selina. She stopped mid-slice and blinked, trying to clear her vision.
I’m going to Invoke Harm here to reduce Siena’s effect. This will give her one more XP. The threat is obviously that Selina is going to carry on swinging the sword.
Bell is going to jump in with the new and improved Assist action to nullify that consequence and is going to have to pay a cost to do so, which I judge to be another round of Level 1 Harm, there’s a dangerous sword in play and that’s a risk they take.
Now Siena needs to roll and it’s probably going to be Skirmish, which she has zero dots in. She rolls and gets the dreaded snake eyes.
The sword came down again, Siena again felt the blade cutting against her and then the twin blooms of pain and blood, she fell backwards as Selina flourished the blade over her head. At that moment, Bell clattered into her back.
The two women were sent sprawling, Bell herself felt Selina’s Spirit Edge as it cut down her arm, she didn’t have time to curse and kicked out, sending the blade skittering across the floor.
Siena’s going to mark another point of armour to reduce this. From a strictly mechanical point of view she should probably save it, but it makes narrative sense here. She takes another tick of Level 1 - Cut harm and upgrades it to Level 2 - Slashed.
Bell takes Level 1 Harm - Cut, and seizes the initiative.
Bell landed and turned it into a roll, coming up quickly and levelling her pistol.
It’s a race to get to their feet first and the Threat here is that Selina wins the race and disarms Bell, turning it into a fistfight. The attribute here is probably Finesse, but Bell could put a good case for Prowl to move faster than the Penderyn, so she can roll with that.
She rolls and gets a 5, so she succeeds and suffers a lesser consequence (Here this would probably be Selina getting close enough to force another Threat Roll later), but she’s going to Push Herself to ignore it entirely.
When you Push Yourself now you roll your Attribute and the stress you get is based on the roll, maxing out at 3. Bell rolls Prowess (3d6) and gets a 6, so she only suffers one stress.
Bell’s Deep Cuts character sheet, just the left-hand side (right-hand side has the Lurk specialities).
Selina was up a second or so after, but it was too late to react. Bell held the pistol levelly, pointed square at Selina’s chest. Even at this distance, good armour would do nothing. Selina slowly raised her hands in surrender, eyes locked on Bell’s.
“Still want to make me an offer?” Selina said, smirking.
“I wasn’t serious.” Siena said from her position on the floor, she had opted to check over her wounds while the two rivals hashed it out.
Selina shrugged, “Shame.”
“Enough. Where’s Raffello?”
“In here somewhere.” She replied, her lips spreading into a smug smirk that Bell was fantasising about wiping off. “What? You’re not going to shoot. You won’t risk ringing the Death Bell.”
“Could get you in the leg, or your sword arm.” Bell said, but she was hesitating.
“Then you’d alert Raffello.” Came the retort.
Siena stopped what she was doing and sat up, her head coming into view just behind Selina’s tree-trunk legs. “That fight didn’t tip him off?”
Selina scoffed again, so fighting wasn’t outside the norm here. Siena took a moment to look around the area - they had had their tussle in the living room of what was now clearly an abandoned house. A hallway divide the building neatly into two on this floor and it contained a stairwell going up into darkness, on the other side of the hallway was what used to be a dining room. Siena sized up what she could see.
The den wasn’t exactly a hive of activity, but there were other people. They wore raggedy clothes, clearly the poorer denizens of the district, and they were paying little heed to the commotion. They all seemed to be drawn into private conversations, or were staring off into the middle distance. There weren’t many seats in the next room and they were all occupied, the remaining people either stood in pairs near the corner, or were sitting on the floor. Four marks in the dust on the floor indicated where the legs of a fairly long dining table once rested. That was all that was left of the previous occupants.
Siena got to her feet. Upstairs was clearly unoccupied, maybe people meandered up there when they wanted to get away from the crowd here, but their quarry was unlikely to be there.
“Bell, there’s a basement. He’s down there.”
“Didn’t survey this place well, eh?” Selina taunted.
“Shut up.” Bell gestured with the gun, “Get out of here. You can come back for your sword after we’re gone.”
Selina tutted, lowering her hands. “Actually, if it’s all the same to you…” She raised one booted foot and stamped hard on the floorboard at her feet. It obediently dropped down, the other end flicking up. Spirit Edge, balancing delicately across said floorboard, rocketed upwards and into Selina’s waiting grasp. Bell tensed, her finger getting tighter on the trigger, and watched Selina sheathe the sword.
“Don’t like him anyway.” Selina spat on the ground and turned for the door, “Make it fast.”
The two members of the Blood listened to the footsteps heading down the outdoor steps for a second before exhaling heavily. Siena gave Bell a reproachful look, “You shouldn’t have let her go.”
“I didn’t see you in a hurry to knock her out.”
“She’s twice my size, Bell!”
“And what’s that make her to me?”
Bell and Siena stared at one another for a moment. It hit Bell first, the mental image that an observer might have, watching two five-foot-four women argue over who should be the first to swing at the six-foot1 Penderyn duellist. She doubled over and yielded to a fit of giggles, the pistol gradually making its way back into the holster at her hip.
Siena stared up at the ceiling while Bell calmed down. She didn’t want to admit it but the catharsis of shouting at one another coupled with the laughter was helping. It made the stress of the job more bearable. She looked back at Bell, black hair2 hanging in a short curtain that bounced as she laughed, and fought the rising comic hysteria. She sighed heavily, failing to stop it mutating into a little chuckle at the end, and folded her arms and waited for her companion to calm down.
Shortly afterwards, they mentally and physically gathered themselves at the end of the hallway. As Siena had predicted, a closed door barred their entry downstairs. She tried it, more for the hell of it than anything else, and found it to be locked. Glancing around, she took in several details. Throughout the house, empty bottles of drink were either lying discarded or gathered in small collections, except in front of this door. When she looked down she saw that the layer of dust that permeated the rest of the floor was disturbed here, so the door was opened fairly regularly.
“We could wait out for someone to come through.” Siena suggested, squatting to get a closer look at the floor like a detective in a penny dreadful. Perhaps there was a further clue here?
Bell began unclipping something from her back. “Nah, I have another idea.”
Bell’s going to roll a Wreck here, and the Threat is that the people downstairs will have time to prepare a response. If she succeeds, they’ll take the opposition by surprise.
The sledgehammer meant business. Bell took a few practice swings to get into the rhythm and feel of it. It had been some time since she’d deployed a really heavy demolition tool like this one, and she had missed it. It had been a speciality of hers back in the cat burglary days, defeating fine locks and intricate machinery with a level of brute force that her victims had entirely failed to predict.
She rolls a three, opting to Push Herself to reduce the consequence. She rolls on Insight (0d) and gets a 1, scoring three stress. Her victims are now merely alerted, but not prepared.
Unfortunately this approach was only tested on people who didn’t spend their spare time running vice dens. When the door splintered and gave under her swings, they heard immediate shouts from below. Bell dropped the sledgehammer with an echoing thunk, its head snapping a piece of floorboard and wedging firmly in place, becoming fairly immovable, as is the wont of all dropped items everywhere to stay dropped.
Siena raised a hand as Bell went for her gun, “Don’t shoot but keep it up. I’ll deal with this.” She whispered.
“This is the police!” She shouted, “Drop your weapons and come out, and you won’t be harmed.”
The Threat here is that this will score 2 Heat for the gang, impersonating police never goes down well and we’ve established Raffello is well-connected. Siena rolls Sway and gets a 6. The threat is nullified.
There was some muffled arguing down below, then an Isles-accented voice called back, “Do you know who I am?”
“Not if you don’t come out!” Siena came back quickly.
The dust was settling in the stairwell from the wrecked door. Bell was watching Siena’s back and heard a smashing sound as some of the patrons in the building suffered a natural reaction to the sound of a door being knocked in followed by the shout of “police”.
A figure walked around the corner at the bottom of the stairs. Visibility was still fairly poor, and Siena nudged Bell forwards.
“Stand back at the wall, we’re coming down.” Siena ordered. She had a good authority voice.
Bell watched the figure back up, hands raised. Unlike Selina, his posture really was one of surrender. She looked around the corner as they reached the bottom of the stairwell and was hit with a wave of puzzlement.
The basement had been refurbished, extensively. It looked more like the hall of a stately mansion or a drawing room. A lively fireplace crackled, but emitted no smoke. A rug was laid out in front of that along with two luxurious leather armchairs. Easels had been set up at several points throughout the room, along with several full bookshelves. It was an artist’s study, not a dealer’s den.
Two other men occupied this room. Of the three, two of them were clearly some kind of hired muscle. The third was tall but lanky, wearing worn-out clothes much like what the people upstairs did. His blond hair hung in dirty strands across his face and he regarded Bell and Siena with a searching look.
“They’re no officers.” The man - Raffello - stage whispered. The goon who wasn’t standing against the back wall went for his weapon.
“Which means I’ll shoot you much more readily, big guy.” Bell threatened.
“We’re here for a book, Raffello.” Siena said, addressing the artist, “Just one book and then we will leave.”
Raffello’s eyes darkened, “I know exactly which book you want. Men, to arms!”
A switch flipped. The man at the wall moved first, dropping his arms and moving quickly towards Bell, his arm dropping to pull a cosh from his waistband. Bell had a moment to fire before he was on her.
Bell’s going to roll Hunt vs the Threat: Harm 2 from the bodyguard. I’m going to Invoke Harm to give Bell +1xp in exchange for lowering her effect here. It’s 0d and Siena is going to assist to give +1d, I don’t assign her a cost for this because of what she’s going to do. Bell rolls and gets 3, and opts to Push Herself to reduce the consequence. This puts her at risk of Trauma, which I wouldn’t mind as it allows us a chance to see the new Trauma Rules in action.
Bell’s going to roll on Prowess (3d), and gets a 4, she suffers 2 stress. In vanilla Blades, she’d Trauma out here and be effectively ejected from the score3, but in Deep Cuts she will only Trauma if she has to mark another stress. She got lucky.
The gun went off. Raffello screamed, but nobody really heard him, because the confines of the room combined with the architectural changes made, presumably, by Raffello made the noise deafeningly loud. The bodyguard charging Bell went down, yelling and flailing, the cosh knocking the gun out of Bell’s hands and sending it off into a dark corner. Bell swore, but she couldn’t really hear much beyond the ringing either, all she knew right now was that her hand was stinging badly.
Everyone stood stunned for a moment, waiting for the ringing to go away. The conflict briefly forgotten. Siena seized the opportunity and reached into her hooded jacket, removing a small bottle that was strapped to the inside. It emanated an ethereal green glow. All conscious eyes in the room closed on it. They all knew what it was.
Once everyone’s hearing had come back, Siena held the glass high above her head. Nobody dared move.
“You know what this is.” Siena declared, “Hand over the book, or I release it.”
The spirit in the jar swirled around, unaware of the situation unfolding below it.
Another Threat roll now, this time it’s just straight failure. Worst case the remaining bodyguard is going to launch himself at Siena and the glass shatters.
Siena’s rolling Sway again, getting a 4 and pushing herself to ignore the consequence. She rolls on Resolve, which I’m a little uncertain on but since the threat is failure I’ll use the attribute the action came from, and gets a 6, so she only marks 1 stress.
Raffello gasped, he had darted towards the bookcase and grabbed a book from a specific spot. Bell was watching him.
The bodyguard looked back at Raffello, it was a look that asked for hazard pay, and Raffello responded with a look that said no.
Bell stepped forward, pulling a second gun from her belt and pointing it towards the ground as she held her hand out to Raffello. “Give.”
Carefully, eyes not leaving the jar, Raffello handed over the book. “You…” He sputtered, still not looking at Bell, “You can’t cross the Circle. You’ll never get away with it. We will find you.”
Backing away slowly up the stairs, Bell and Siena exchanged glances. It was one of the slower retreats in living memory, but when one person was holding a situation changer in their hand there was a degree of care required.
“Should I throw it?” Siena whispered.
Down below, Raffello and the standing guard were tending to the other one’s wound. He was on his feet but grumbling loudly. Bell risked leaning down to look.
“No,” She whispered back, “Let’s just go.”
And so the two members of the Blood departed. First slowly, then very quickly down the road that took them through Charterhall and on towards Crow’s Foot. Bell constantly on the look out for silhouettes of tall women with swordbelts following them, and Siena wary of any sign of a Spirit Warden approaching.
Forgotten about for now, the book in Bell’s hands settled softly.
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Conclusion
That was a great one to write. I was sort of hoping to trigger a Trauma near the end there but the dice decided it was not to be. I’m going to quickly go over the XP triggers (which have changed slightly in Deep Cuts):
Siena: Embodied a core principle of her playbook in deception, a couple of times. She gets 2XP on top of what she’s earned from desperate rolls and invoked harm.
Bell: Didn’t employ much stealth or evasion but did call on her background for some extra fluff. She gets 1XP and fills a clock.
Next up will be Downtime which has a different approach than usual, and the Payoff. I won’t handle these now as I’m writing this one quite close to publishing and want to be more present for those rolls.
