I’ve written before about one of my favorite urban supplements,
The Kaiin Player’s Guide. It’s a
player-facing resource for The Dying
Earth RPG covering the titular city. Kaiin’s
a hefty book detailing locations, people, and secrets, but it’s not for the GM.
Instead the players may peruse it at their leisure. Eschewing ambiguity, the book clearly lays out problems. Players declare they
want to get tangled up in a particular story.
That’s a useful approach for the fiction-first mechanics of Blades in the Dark. I’ve created a player-side
resource not for Doskvol, but for U’duasha, an alternate campaign locale from
the BitD Special Edition. This Iruvian city offers new atmosphere, color, and
supernatural elements. I hope John Harper will eventually release a pdf of the Iruvian
text for those who didn’t buy the special edition. Johnstone Metzger’s done an
amazing set of Iruvian playbooks and those now have a Roll20 version. It would
be great to have more players experience this material.
I’ve provided six hooks/rumors for each of the five
neighborhoods of U’duasha. Some of this will only make sense if you’ve seen the
full Iruvian appendix. But I hope a good deal of it could be useful for Blades in the Dark generally.
BETU’AT
The district of
miners, laborers, and craftspersons.
1. Nozar Tabasi, a respected tapestry
maker, has been searching for his lost brother, Uktannu. However he’s
unaware that family Anserekh killed
and placed Uktannu’s soul in a Hull to preserve and exploit his mining
expertise. Tabasi will undoubtedly pay well for those who can find (and
possibly free) his brother. On the other hand, Makru Anserekh would like
this nosy busybody to go away before others, such as his philanthropic sister Ishana,
learn of his operations.
2. The I‘Rajin gang has a formal hierarchy built on
contracts and connections. Their wealth and power make others wary of crossing
them. But sometimes the gang’s internal disputes spill out into the open. Leader
Saru
Daava has been more agitated and reckless in recent months after one of
her gang’s internal ledgers went missing. She has searched desperately and
punished several of her enforcers. Currently she suspects the Vizier Akhita
the Fair took the book, but has
no proof and no idea where it went. That’s good news for the freelance Mirage Ozutok
Sabanci who currently has the volume. He doesn’t quite understand its
importance, but believes he should be able to sell it on for some coin.
Depending on where it ends up, heads could roll.
3. The fixer and marriage broker Mete Balcan is much loved
throughout the district. He can be found drinking in a tea house, wandering the
market, or gambling in a back room. But Balcan’s façade hides a dangerous agent
of the Empire. He covers his tracks well and few suspect him. He often hires
scoundrels for strange tasks to indirectly gain information. His generosity to
those who serve him well is renowned. However some serve him unwillingly, like
the assessment clerk Tirgataô. He would love destroy the
evidence the fixer uses to keep him in line and extricate himself from Balcan’s
grip.
4. Long-time Rail Jack Nikou Kamran has a fairly encyclopedic knowledge of the comings and goings of
various trains. She’s often seen at the station talking with younger Jacks or
signing up for a short journey. She keeps a particular eye out for interesting
shipments, especially those which people want kept quiet. Nikou knows there’s a
shipment of valuable spices heading out from House Anixis, bearing saffron-like
azayzl and vault pepper. Kamran knows the terrain along the routes and the
necessary stopping points for deliveries, watering, and sidetracking from other
trains.
5. Those who have suffered injustice often go to the district’s
Khuset Spire to beseech at the Demon Prince of Justice. However of late, owl-masked
vigilantes have been taking matters into their own hands here. The locals have
a whispered system to ask for aid, pinning a message onto an owl in a
particular place. The vigilantes are local merchants who have secretly banded
together. They could need aid or be blackmailed. On the other hand, the I’Rajin would pay well for information
on the group.
6. Some among the A’Tahim bristle at the gang’s focus on
stability and protection. They would like to push further into an all-out war. Nozar
the Welder works to undermine this approach. He’s among those
overseeing Betu’at neighborhoods, protecting local citizens from other criminal
gangs. He’s been pushing for confrontations and working behind the scenes stirring
up trouble between gangs. In some cases
he’s hired outsiders to hit places. Nozar believes that if an all-out war
erupts, the A’Tahim can seize control. He has several gang members under his
influence who don’t exactly understand his intent. Nozar works to keep this
project from his own leadership as well as his rivals. He has aid in the form
of an I’Yalim officer who would like blood to wash the streets, Hunter Arman Radan.
IYANU’AT
The district of parks,
theaters, and high culture.
1. People have sought the treasures of Mazaiyar the Guiltless
for years. The master thief pilfered from the nobility while maintaining a
respectable façade. When he passed, his associates rushed to raid his vaults
for wealth and incriminating information. However they found nothing. The
scavenger Sênêkas has a new lead. Mazaiyar apparently had a
fascination with opera and may have concealed his loot in the Circle of Hearts,
an aged theater. There some question whether theater manager Asatira
Baastani knows of these
matters, perhaps drawing on those resources herself. Currently the theater is
in the midst of a long-running performance of “The Shah of Blackvale.” Actors
and staff live on the premises making a search difficult.
2. Like the rest of the world, darkness dominates Iruvia.
But alchemists and botanists have developed plants which can survive and
thrive, fed in other ways. There’s a strong industry in carefully tended
flowers and herbs. They’re processed and converted into perfumes and scented
oils for sale here and in other nations, sometimes mixed with Leviathan ambergris.
Darya
Zangane of the Falling Petals Market in particular uses unsavory
methods to obtain cuttings, seeds, and whole plants from collectors in U’duasha
and beyond. She’s made enemies in the process, especially Gemeti Anserekh who
suspects her of stealing a rare rose from his secure greenhouse.
3. Those who wish to have an event recorded for posterity
turn to the many faceted Guild of Painters in U’duasha. Like the city, the
guild splits into four traditions, reflecting different styles and approaches.
Painters use a reed-derived paper, carefully prepared and reinforced to last.
Nobles expect treaties, agreements, large-scale contracts, marriage
arrangements, and the like to be recorded in a painting. These serve as a
history, though not an unchanging one as artists may be hired to “correct” an
earlier image. Currently two traditions of painter families, Daqiq and Wahuma,
vie for leadership of the art world. They jealously guard techniques and
secrets. Hossein Daqiq presently rages about an amazing blue tint used
by Omid
Wahuma. Omid makes his remarkable paint from secret fungus gathered in
the deepest vaults of the city’s underground reservoirs.
4. Plays and performances held in licensed theaters must
gain approval from The Conclave. Such permission is usually granted by Seeker
Abbas Eshtiaq without much trouble, provided those requesting have a
good reputation, able patrons, or enough ready cash. When complaints come in
from those above, Eshtiaq’s quick to revoke approval. In the last year, The
UnCutting Blade, a group of disgruntled artists and performers have been
putting on underground shows. These satirize the nobility, the Conclave, and
the rule of the four demons. Eshtiaq has been trying to hunt down these
performances, while the troupe’s leader, Rukhsana, has been trying to undercut and expose the Seeker.
5. The House of Dreams and the House of Majesties were once
a single restaurant, the House of Majestic Dreams. However when the owner-chef
died, he left two competing heirs: Poriya Vaansh, a master of classical
dishes and Bawan Roşan, an experimenter who integrates foreign techniques.
The two have been locked in a battle for over a decade, since the original
restaurant burned down mysteriously. They steal each others’ staff, hijack
ingredients, disparage recipes, and even engage in sabotage from time to time.
In particular they battle to serve parties at the houses of the nobility.
6. Some consider Iruvian bees the great survivors of the
cataclysm, perhaps thriving even more than humanity. The size of a thumb, these
bees pollinate scattered plants and somehow continue to produce wax and honey.
Killing a bee’s considered bad luck and a hive infestation can force a family
to move out. Jahanabad Kamran, the Grand Apiculturist of Emberthorn Park
takes special pride in the floral and wondrous products from his hives. However
recently new honeys and striking waxes have made their way onto the market. The
Forger Xartamos wants his identity and process kept secret: using
specially-made Hulls as intelligent, mobile hives of ghost bees.
SUKRU’AT
The golden district of
the wealthy.
1. The Counting Lodge is both a tea house and place to play “Baaz
Yafiri,” the Game of Deaths. This abstract board game has an ancient tradition,
devotees, and respected masters. However a recent series of games between
masters Kurigalzu and Azita Riahi has come to a halt split
3-3. The former has vanished for reasons only known to him. The latter is
relieved because she has been pressured by the A’Tahim to lose the final game.
However with nothing settled in the match, bettors and enthusiasts have been
driven to a frenzy.
2. River sailors
who wish to partake in the delights of U’duasha have two choices: settle for
the sketchy, violent entertainments of the River Lock warehouses or travel
through Sukru’at to reach sections of the city with higher, but not too high
class pleasures. Seneschal Mahdi Shajarian has seen an opportunity here. When
his master, the reclusive Mehram the Corpulent, died he hid
this fact. Mahdi has been quietly running affairs of the household. He’s turned
the secluded estate into a house of pleasures. Using a network of servants,
maids, and butlers from other houses, he provides discreet services for river
captains and their crew. It’s a small operation, but a risky one. Shajarian has
recruited a group he’s more than willing to cut loose if he can make a decent
score.
3. Master Rajan, spy-master for the
house of Anixis, looks to uncover the secrets behind the spectacular lanterns
recently displayed by House Ankhayat. Long lasting, bright, and multicolored,
these have become a point of pride for Eshala, the expected heir to the
house’s fortunes. He has not sold any of these, preferring instead to display
them conspicuously at gatherings. His artisan, Ajkuna of Thrask,
accompanied him back from Tycheros. She has remained on the estate grounds
since then, but has been looking for new materials.
4. Access to the Asha’va river locks offers lucrative trade
for who can seize it. Though nominally outcast, The Forsaken gang have the tightest grip on that. That’s given them
control over most water-based smuggling. But gang leader Torek has become angered
as reports of other goods being smuggled in reach his ear. He has told his
allies in the Dockers to keep an eye out the perpetrators. Unknown to him, a
city surveyor named Burnaburiash discovered
a series of underground tunnels leading to the river. He’s enlisted his cousin Ku-Baba,
an inspector and assessor in his scheme. She makes sure certain packages vanish
from the books and get left in the right place for Burnaburiash’s agents to
pick up.
5. Two generations ago, House Anixis split as a brother and
sister contended for control. The victor, Matriarch Pegah, still lives and
pulls strings behind the scenes. However some resent her control and others
worry about the number of buried bodies. A small group arranged to smuggle in Sevder
Ferhat, the only surviving child of Bawan’s brother. Sevder has spent
the last decades in Doskvol, building up a network of agents and informants.
More importantly he has acquired a number of artifacts associated with the
Demon Prince Ixis. He’s accompanied by a Mitra Aslani, an Iruvian in the pay
of the Empire and a former agent of Elstera Avrathi, House Anixis’
diplomat to Doskvol.
6. Far and away the most common bird in U’duasha is the owl.
These come in all shapes, sizes and species. Other birds don’t survive well
against these predators. It is why the falcon serves as a symbol of status for
the highest of the I’Yalim investigators. The House of Merciful Fletchers, run
by Reza
Safavi, sells unusual birds. He pays top dollar for new birds and the
eggs of birds “borrowed” from collectors in the city. Safavi has heard of a
bird of unusual plumage which has taken roost in one of the machine works near
The Well, but has been unable to obtain it since the workers regard it as a
good luck charm.
VAASU’AT
The district of
schools and training halls.
1. Students of several schools of swordplay, including Serpent
Alighting and the Falling Star, have been killed in recent months. They have
been caught out in the evening and engaged in duels by Şeyda Behram,
illegitimate daughter of Scholar Najra. She has mastered a corrupt
style and secretly trains herself to kill her father. Several schools would
like to discover who has slaughtered their students, while Behram herself would
like to catch Najra in an ambush. But Erfan Mahmoodi of the Rising Moon
school has noted the strange wounds on the victims and is looking into how
someone learned such an unusual style.
2. The Vaasu School provides education…to those who can
afford it. Some actually study and learn there while other spoiled elites coast
through to please their families. But a few run up against the limits of
scholarship, moving into the realms of speculation and heresy. Some have turned
to the Zindiq Sulili. This revolutionary firebrand teaches them
forbidden arts laced with political commentary. He moves from house to house,
salon to salon, always one step ahead of the authorities. He’s sought by Hunter
Deemethresu of the I’Yalim, but the Gualim avoid him. He claims to know
secret way to dismiss and fool the black-clad enforcers. In fact while Sulili
possesses mystical powers, he’s something of a charlatan, using the trappings
of subversion to raise his rates.
3. Lacking strong central institutions, social power is key
in Iruvia. The four houses struggle over loyalty, influence, and reputation.
They command society. However from time to time a member of the nobility will
commit a reprehensible act in public, a transgression with witnesses which
cannot be hidden away. In this case the fallen noble may seek redemption by
supporting or establishing a Lodge of Charity. These lodges provide loud and
visible charitable acts in their patron’s name. Nazanin sul-Kian has
become a widely sought expert in establishing these Lodges. She knows how to
stage for effect, have clients demonstrate believable penance, and hire reliable
actors. More importantly she’s also good at funneling charitable monies back to
a noble’s family, allowing them to appear extravagant in their generosity. Some,
especially members of the Hadrakin, resent her corrupt work. Nazanin herself
continues to look for new avenues to generate money using these Lodges.
4. Student Roya Mahdavi has developed a new and
unbreakable cypher. A break-in led her to believe that the Ankhayat want to
steal her work. She has gone underground, becoming politically active in a
group called the Shadow of ar-Rafiyyah.
They use strange graffiti encoded with her cypher to pass messages. Imperial
agents and Enlil-nasir, second to Captain Hayansa of Anixis, have been
seeking Mahdavi and her knowledge.
5. Siyabend Kardux of the Vaasu school
has been slowly and carefully insinuating himself into the operations of the
school’s archeological institute. While not a scholar, Kardux masters
logistics, scheduling, and recruitment. As a result he knows where excavations
take place, what they’re bringing back, and who has been hired to work. He’s
looking for a reasonable partner, trying to avoid the scrutiny of the Hadrakin,
who usually consider such areas under their auspices. Kardux also hopes to
avoid the attention of cultists or the Unburned.
6. U’duasha doesn’t share Doskvol’s culture of broadsheets
and daily journalism. Instead they have storytellers and pamphleteers. The
latter travels throughout the city providing daily news and information at the
tea houses in exchange for tips. Such storytellers have circles of associates,
complete with streetrunners. The former craft longer, more in-depth
pieces—bound volumes detailing their researches and reports. These authors
write under pen names and their exposes can bring down notables. One such
author, Apsu the Green, has gone missing. He had been investigating
corruption and vanished monies involving the military and the current Warlord. Captain
Nassim Hematti grabbed up Apsu, but is uncertain what to do with him.
She’s tortured him for his sources, but so far the writer has given up nothing,
hinting that if he dies he has allies who will publish his notes.
U’DU
The city center which
burns with eternal arcane fire. Home of the poor, the zealots, and the great
steam machines of the city.
1. Cultists serving the Forsaken Gods have recently set up Spirit
Nets to catch ghosts before they fall into The Well. The frighteningly sane
zealot Atrus al Atrus collects these in a forgotten tomb near the
heart of the city. He hopes to use these as power for binding other forces and
perhaps to destroy the Hulls used by the mining companies. Atefeh Manesh, a Zindiq,
has tried to pursue this, but her warning have been turned aside by Ekurzakir,
a senior member of the A’Tahim and secret ally to Atrus.
2. The heat and power of The Well is turned to many
purposes. At “night” it powers forges, great steam engines, punch & form
machines, and material cutters. During the day the lifting of the barriers
creates a wave of heat. It is a crushing task to manage. Unlike the Miners,
these workers have no union. Lezgîn Ararat of The Forsaken
exploits this, and materials which slip between the cracks come to him. There
are those, such as Red Mot, who would like to unionize or at the very least pitch
people like Ararat into the Well.
3. A new and potent beverage has appeared on the streets of
U’Duasha-- A’tiraq-- a scarlet liquor
of surpassing intoxication despite tasting like burning. Many have sought out
who created and distributes this in hopes of obtaining the secret. The Rakshasa
Mansahet intends to keep this under his control.
By aging a cheap brew in specially treated barrels near the light and heat of
the Well, he’s imbued the drink with power. Currently he uses a loose
conglomeration of street thieves and fellow ghouls to move his product. He
knows eventually he’ll have to face The Forsaken, but he doesn’t realize how
intently the Gualim search for him since the drink echoes their biding
techniques.
4. The Weedwall Souk is an occasional black market run
amidst the twisted brambles of the Blackwood. It is said that anything can be
had here for a price. Occultists and arcane practitioners frequent the place
looking for rare substances. The Souk is overseen by Ozdemur, a masked figure
who secretly represents the Unburnt. The market master is in fact a carefully
crafted and statuesque Hull who escaped from the Aserekh. That knowledge would
upset Arezoo Raeisi, a Rafiq for the Hadrakin who has used the Souk
as a resource and recruitment center. She’s even sold some incriminating pieces,
which Ozdemur has carefully kept as insurance.
5. From time to time bravos travel into the U’du area,
looking for easy marks to taunt and injure. In recent weeks some have returned
sickened, and a few have even perished from an unknown malady. Doctors sent
into the U’du neighborhood have found no sign of this disease there. The son of
Ashur-dan
Ankhuset lies dying and his father has turned to less savory methods to
find a cure. So far the source, the Deathland Scavengers, have kept quiet. Jaffar
Farzin, a scavenger leader, found an artifact he has used to sicken
those who offend him. While this began as a means of gaining justice for the
downtrodden, Jaffar now has bigger plans.
6. Iruvians take astrology seriously as each star represents
a demon exiled from the world. Though gone they still exert influence. The
hours of the night are named after the most prominent constellations. Carefully
trained astrologers are consulted before major decisions by the military and
the nobility. In the last year, however, a new astrologer has operatied out of
U’da. Armaiti of Dastani has developed an entirely new schema and set
of constellations. She believes these readings reflect a new order coming to
the world. Armaiti’s following has grown, with certain nobles secretly
travelling have her perform a reading. Argamênos the Seer, master of
astrology in the Vaasu, wants her condemned formally at the very least and has
begun to make moves against her.
