The Strange and Dangerous Tales of Ise: Let's Play Blades in the Dark

New LP who this?: Hi I’m Jenner. I’ve previously run a Ryuutama campaign, a Monsterhearts campaign, and a Dungeons and Dragons campaign here on the Let’s Play Zone. (I also played Panty in the Dragonball FATE campaign!) Now I’m running a Blades in the Dark campaign with my usual crew of: @heyboots, @LoakaMossi, @Breadmaster, @Fefnir and @lyrewulf.

Blades in the Dark

Is like Heist but with Darkest Dungeon. We’re still learning the system but we recently had our first session and everything is looking good.

What’s going on?: Blades in the Dark is set in its own homebrew world but I’m setting this campaign in my own homebrew world. The year is 1869, and we’re in the small town of Ise in Japan. Our crew is a group of semi-friends who market themselves as professional paranormal investigators in an Alternate Universe Japan where the supernatural is more normal than not. But there’s mysteries that lie deeper under the surface layers of Ise and I’m sure they have nothing to do with the Kagematsu one-shot we ran.

Let’s Meet The Crew:
THEY HAVEN’T SENT ME THEIR WRITE UPS YET.
Asahi Yuuki, a Cutter played by Loaka: His bio goes here.

Sensui Junkei, a Whisper played by Fefnir: Her bio goes here.

Hijikata Toshizo, a Cutter played by Breadmaster: His bio goes here.

Kalari, a Hound played by Jeff: Her bio goes here.

Abe no Yumi, a Slide played by Alice: Her bio goes here.

Videos go here I’ll also post summaries!

Session One: An Echo of Truth
The gang gets drunk but finds a lead when an old associate of Yumi’s, named Kai Kazuka, which leads them right to a Yamabiko, an echo spirit. Before they can leave the bar, however, they are confronted by Michiko who promises with a lucrative reward should the team recover, and give her, any reflective shards they find in their hunting and scamming. While on the job Kalari wanders away from the team and learns one of the darker secrets of the town in the first session: That a mirror of some importance was shattered, from the inside, and the shards were snatched away by supernatural creatures. (These are the shards that the mysterious Michiko wanted.) The team completes their mission, returns the first shard to Michiko, collect their rewards from her and Kai, and recover from their first adventure.

Session Two: On a Razor’s Edge
When people start showing up with their legs missing the gang, in need of money, decides to visit the local magistrate to offer their services. They discover their enemies, Kamaitachi, also known as sickle weasels, in the long grass of the woods and take them out. Then they get their reward and break their new cohorts out of jail by making a deal with the devil.

Session Three: Arachnid Anarchy
A villager encounters a Shirime, basically a goatse spirit, and then flees into a Joro-Gumo, a spider-woman demon, who hands him a baby bundle full of spiderlings that bite him up. He flees to the bar and complains to the crew about it. Meanwhile, Hiji’s friend Ushiyama, has been handed a real baby by, the crew eventually learns, the same spider-woman. They all split up to into groups to gather information. Asahi going to the constable, Yumi and Sensui going to check out the spiders situation, Kalari going to investigate the baby, and Hiji going to look into Michiko. The session ends with them discovering the baby is an oni, recruiting the Joro-Gumo, giving the mirror shard to the devil.

Session Five: A Manor Inconvenience
The crew decides to sneak into the Lord’s manor to rescue the children he’s endangering. They do so my suing him and talking their way in thanks to Yumi’s skill at talking. After a Deal With the Devil Asahi kills a room full of guards but gets captured and Hijikata gets chased by a demon while Sensui rescues the children. But they’re not safe yet!

Session Six: In the Heat of the Moment
Babies saved, devils dealt with, shard stolen, Lord Yoshiro killed.

Session Seven: Consersnakesionist
The crew discusses which faction to give the mirror shards to and trades for the shard of the tsuchinoko.

Session Eight: Stuck in the Middle with Yokai
The crew raids the jail, rescues the prisoners, and recovers the mirror shard.

Session Nine: Save the Soup
The crew saves the brothel from invading forces.

2 Likes

By chance could you explain to me what the classes, is this using the same system that Kagematsu did?

Our Kagematsu session was run in the game of the same name, while this full campaign is run in Blades in the Dark. BitD is a heisty game which we’ve repurposed for cryptid hunting, so classes are based on criminal archetypes.

1 Like

I’m posting the stream! 'Cause we’re streaming!

https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

1 Like

I forgot to set an update schedule. Have an update.

Session Two: On A Razor’s Edge
When people start showing up with their legs missing the gang, in need of money, decides to visit the local magistrate to offer their services. They discover their enemies, Kamaitachi, also known as sickle weasels, in the long grass of the woods and take them out. Then they get their reward and break their new cohorts out of jail by making a deal with the devil.

FWIW I feel like this session went worse and I’m sorry.

1 Like

Stream time! We probably won’t fight 30-50 yokai, but we can damn well try.

https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

1 Like

:nsfw:, :tw: This episode is NSFW for butts and trigger warning for spiders. :nsfw:, :tw:

Session Three: Arachnid Anarchy
A villager encounters a Shirime, basically a goatse spirit, and then flees into a Joro-Gumo, a spider-woman demon, who hands him a baby bundle full of spiderlings that bite him up. He flees to the bar and complains to the crew about it. Meanwhile, Hiji’s friend Ushiyama, has been handed a real baby by, the crew eventually learns, the same spider-woman. They all split up to into groups to gather information. Asahi going to the constable, Yumi and Sensui going to check out the spiders situation, Kalari going to investigate the baby, and Hiji going to look into Michiko. The session ends with them discovering the baby is an oni, recruiting the Joro-Gumo, giving the mirror shard to the devil.

This session ruled.

2 Likes

We’re streaming! It’s time for downtime!

https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

1 Like

I usually post these up sooner but I’ve been busy. In this episode it’s really just a lot of downtime.

Session Four: Chariots of Tired
The team does downtime and cleanses a grave then does more downtime.

We’re starting to follow the rules and processes more closely. I’m gonna have to learn how to apply Heat and how all those mechanics work.

2 Likes

We’re streaming! twitch.tv/batilisk

Session Five: A Manor Inconvenience

The crew decides to sneak into the Lord’s manor to rescue the children he’s endangering. They do so my suing him and talking their way in thanks to Yumi’s skill at talking. After a Deal With the Devil Asahi kills a room full of guards but gets captured and Hijikata gets chased by a demon while Sensui rescues the children. But they’re not safe yet!

Heat rules are confusing but gosh is this mission gonna be a lot of heat. This was mass chaos.

2 Likes

Stream time!

https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

I’m just gonna post up the video now.
Session Six: In the Heat of the Moment

1 Like

Stream time!

https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

This weeks session is up!
Session Seven: Consersnakesionist
The crew discusses which faction to give the mirror shards to and trades for the shard of the tsuchinoko.

1 Like

And we’re live! https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

Here’s the session for this week!
Session Eight: Stuck in the Middle with Yokai
The crew raids the jail, rescues the prisoners, and recovers the mirror shard.

Fefnir actually named this episode by making this joke statement mid-session.

2 Likes

I have to ask, is the Hijikata in this game the same one from the Shinsengumi?

Yes.

Hey we’re streaming soon. Can’t post the stream link before me this time, nerds!

https://www.twitch.tv/batilisk

1 Like