A few random, not particularly detailed thoughts for BitD Crews:

Little Whispers. Amidst the raucous, crowded alleys and tenements of Charhollow, sometimes quieter whispers can be heard. Children, in particular, swap secret stories of a Whispering Lady. The Little Whispers are a Cult of urchins devoted to a mysterious figure, ready and eager to carry out her obscure workings. Reputation: Strange.

Spokers, a crew of Charterhall Bravos specialising in academic sabotage. “Let’s be blunt here, eh? Intellectual brilliance is all well and good, but when it’s down to the wire, a spoke in your rival’s wheel is what you really need.” Reputation: Savvy.

The Sleepers. “None of this fancy pissing about. This is Coalridge, yeah? Brickston. Down here there’s only one language anyone listens to.” A railyard wrecking crew carving out turf in one of the city’s roughest areas, you mess with the Bravos crew of The Sleepers at your peril. Reputation: Brutal.

Gaspers. Dunslough is grim on the absolute best of days, a pit from which there’s no escape. Unless you know the right people. The Last Gaspers are a Smugglers crew who aim to corner the market on getting things (items, information, people) into and out of Ironhook, Dunslough and the surrounding areas. Reputation: Honourable.

The Tailors, a small crew of bespoke Assassins who’ve set up shop in the back rooms of a tasteful boutique in Nightmarket. “We do cutting and stitching in a range of styles to suit our patrons’ preferences. Discretion guaranteed!” Reputation: Professional.

Miriam’s Teas, a Silkshore specialty shop and purveyor of tailored experiences. And no, not the tawdry sort, although those may be added for a consideration. Hawkers of some refinement, Miriam’s specialises in … nostalgia, delicacies. Teas that taste like a world that still has a sun. Mementos of far flung homes. Specialty items. Experiences. Reputation: Subtle.

The Magnolias, a genteel ladies’ society of deceptively spry Six Towers dowagers who moonlight as Shadows. A little light thievery to liven up the day, and bring some sparkle back into these tired old mansions, restoring Six Towers to at least a little of its former glory. Reputation: Daring.

The Brethren of Light, a small but hopefully pervasive Cult among the students and instructors of Doskvol Academy on Whitecrown, who worship a great glowing leviathan far out to sea, and hope one day soon to turn North Hook Lighthouse into a grand summons. Reputation: Ambitious.

This actually fell out broadly by district, and covers most of the crew types, too. If I wanted to fully finish it out, there’d be one more each of an Assassins, Hawkers, Shadows and Smugglers crews, divided among the remaining four districts of Barrowcleft, Brightshore, Crow’s Foot and The Docks. So, you know. If anyone feels like filling in those blanks, feel free?

Okay. I just really want to sketch out a Cult crew. And I specifically want to sketch out a Cult crew on a theme of the Void Sea, the stars in the deep, leviathan blood, electroplasm, light in darkness, the radiant plants and eels that feed the city, the North Hook lighthouse, a radiant thing calling from the deeps. Not a leviathan. Something else. Because if I’m playing a cult, I’m playing a lovecraftian cult. And all the ingredients are already here!

So. A cult of a forgotten god. A god that is radiant, and sinister, and transcendent. A god that appears in dreams in the form of a radiant serpent or eel, but no mean thing like those found in the canals and fields of the Radiant Farms down in Barrowcleft, no creation of alchemy and electroplasm and leviathan blood. A thing that predates the leviathans. A titanic shining eel, swimming through the stars in the depths of the Void Sea. A thing that was released by the leviathans in the cataclysm that shattered the world and that, perhaps, created those stars in the depths of the Void Sea.

The Maw of the Void. A star of the deep that will swallow the world whole to remake it anew.

(We’re gonna do something so damn occult to that lighthouse. I just really wanna. It’s powered by leviathan blood. It’s a beam of eldritch light powered by the blood of demons shining hundreds of miles out to sea. There’s got to be a ritual that will turn that into a navigation beacon for something else, no?)

The Motes of the Void are a small group that have heard (felt) the calling of the Maw in our dreams. Perhaps initially we thought the figure we saw was the radiant wildlife of the farms, some human creation, and perhaps that is a test that the god sends, but the ones who came together to form our crew and cohort were the ones who reached a deeper communion and realised that the god was something far larger, far older, and far beyond the reach of human artifice.

Our initial reputation is, obviously, going to be Strange. We will be doing some very bizarre things.

The lair. I do think I want to be close to Barrowcleft initially. Many of us might have thought that the call was towards some strange creature in the farms at first, and so we gravitated southwards. But Barrowcleft itself is too clannish and insular for the likes of us, and the Ministry of Preservation too strong. Lets set our sights slightly northwards, somewhere more shadowy and genteel and accepting. Lets head to Silkshore, and the hill of dreamers that is Fogcrest. A small, abandoned house on one of the narrow, twisting stair-lanes of that venerable outcrop. Yes.

Our favoured operation type, at least initially, might be Augury. We want to attract our gods attention and counsel. We want to know what it needs of us.

For hunting grounds … I suspect our ‘hunts’ are going to be a bit more abstract. It’s not the places that matter so much as the materials. But nominally speaking, I’d say we’ll start in Silkshore itself, and the northern section of Barrowcleft along the river. But the gang we’re stepping on the toes of isn’t going to be the Wraiths, because although they work the same territory, they work very different sorts of jobs. No, I think the group we have to contend with will be either the Dimmer Sisters or Lord Scurlock, in their pursuit of arcane mysteries. Let’s say it’s the Sisters, as Scurlock tends to be more circumspect. And I say we don’t pay them off. These are riffraff playing with bottled spirits, while we pursue true majesty. We’re not going to kowtow to them!

For our special ability. There are several more practical, sensible options. But we’re not going to pick those. We’re going to go straight for Glory Incarnate. Our god sometimes manifests in the physical world. For its own inscrutable ends, of course, which may help or harm us as it wills, but who would worship a god expecting anything else? What could be a better sign of the truth of our faith than, say, a glowing eel appearing in a waterway to defend our retreat? Oh, would that we might earn such favour!

For crew upgrades. Cults automatically get Training: Resolve, and a Cohort, a small gang of Adepts. Adepts are scholars, tinkerers, occultists and chemists. Starting at Tier 0, we’ll only have one or two of them in it, but it’s good to gather a small circle of like-minded individuals. Ones who have dreamed the right dreams, and heeded them. To start, since we’re in Fogshore, lets say we have an occultist and a chemist. Cohorts have Edges and Flaws. Lets say our little coterie has the Edges of Loyal (can’t be turned against us) and Tenacious (won’t be deterred from a task), but the Flaws of Principled (each has their sticking point in terms of behaviour that they won’t cross) and Unreliable (they have day jobs, and aren’t always available to us).

For our two free upgrades. I think we want a Ritual Sanctum in the lair, which will function as a workshop for occult/arcane/sacred practices and rituals. And I think, since our god is a god of the deeps, we’re also going to want a boat. So a Boat House, with small boat, dock and storage shack. As for the factions impacted … We were always going to run into Lord Scurlock. Always. So I think that while acquiring the materials for our Ritual Sanctum, we happened to acquire several items that he was also interested in, earning his ire. We weren’t initially aware of this, but once made aware, in a much more intimidating fashion than the Dimmer Sisters managed, we were persuaded to give a Coin to mollify him slightly. And for the boat house … I think we keep it on the north shore of the Dosk in northern Barrowcleft, among the fisher folk on the eastern side of the Barrow Bridge. And I think we have a good reputation among those fisher folk, a sense that we’re good luck charms, so they helped us set it up. The Barrowcleft Citizenry have been decently helpful to us.

And then finally, our favourite contact. And look. Our god is a shining star in the depths of the Void Sea. We’re going to pick the astronomer. Bennett. A scholar at Doskvol Academy, studying Void Sea Navigation. An astronomer studying not just the stars above, but the stars below. Because perhaps they can be navigated by. And divined by. Perhaps they might show the shifting migration paths of leviathans? The Leviathan Hunters have a fervent interest in his research. And perhaps Bennett has caught glimpses of our god’s design in the course of his work. Enough to reach out because of it. Which has … annoyed. Certain other factions that had hoped that he might join them instead. I thought perhaps the Circle of the Flame, being jealous like that, but actually … Perhaps the Ministry of Preservation, instead? As part of their crusade to gain control of the Leviathan Hunters. Because that will dovetail nicely with Radiant Energy, with radiant eels, with the farms in Barrowcleft as well. Yes. Let’s say that Bennett, by his association, has won us the distantly benevolent gaze of the lords of the city, the Leviathan Hunters themselves, but also the aggravation of the Ministry.

(For those keeping track of factions, that puts us starting out at -1 with the Dimmer Sisters, Lord Scurlock, and the Ministry of Preservation, and +1 with the Barrowcleft Citizenry and the Leviathan Hunters. All subject to change, given that our god’s true goals are unlikely to align with most of them).

And there we are. The Motes of the Void (or Moteys, for short). A nascent cult of the forgotten god, the Maw of the Void, a radiant creature shining among the stars in the depths of the Void Sea. A god that might pull together the leviathans, the cataclysm, leviathan blood, radiant energy, the debt of blood that protects and feeds the city around us. A god that initially appeared in the form of a lowly, man-made, alchemical creature, one of the radiant animals that light our waterways and grow our crops and decorate the houses and aquariums of our nobles, but that truthfully is something much, much older, and bigger, and more cataclysmic. Perhaps there is a debt calling due for Doskvol. A debt of blood, and a debt of light, and a debt of life.

Okay. Having doodled a spooky oceanic Tycherosi Whisper character, and a spooky oceanic Duskwall Hound character, I felt like maybe building out a bit of a crew for them?

(My Skovlander Leech, I think, doesn’t quite belong, she’s more a different crew type, possibly a crew of Bravos allied to the Grinders? She’s not quite as fishy as the other two).

But the other two definitely have a theme of sea and salt and ink and spookiness, so I feel like they can be on a crew together. And I want to try out crew creation. So. Heh.

Smugglers. Without a doubt. We’re feeling oceanic over here. Emeline is a Hound with a career as a waterwoman and a ghostly gull companion. Indira is a tempestuous foreign Whisper with demon blood and inked tentacles beneath her skin. We’re going to be a crew of smugglers operating out around the port and the river and the close seas, for sure.

And our initial reputation … they’re both on the spooky end. Emeline is a worshipper of a forgotten sea god, and Indira traffics with demons. I feel like the initial reputation is definitely going to be Strange.

For the lair, I definitely want to be in the Docks. Both of them already live there, Indira around Ink Lane, and Emeline closer to the Docks themselves. I definitely did put some thought into the half-sunken grotto on the underground canals option, because, well, it’s really cool? Also makes sense for smugglers to be on a waterway. But both of them feel a bit too … surface legit for that? Indira’s a reporter, and Emeline a harbour pilot. I feel like they both want to blend in a bit more. So I think we’ll go with the unassuming back rooms of a chandlers on the Docks. (This, mind you, might be subject to change more than anything else).

Hunting grounds. The Smugglers crew type says that we have cargo types instead of hunting grounds? But other crew types have typical hunting grounds and favourite operation types, so I’m not sure how much that’s meant to be followed? I think it makes sense to have a favourite type of cargo and a favourite area of the city to run them. So we’ll pick some hunting grounds. We’re going to be a boat-based smuggling crew, for sure, and I think we’ll specify that we operate in the harbour, along the river, and in the seas near the city, more than the canals within the city. So I think we’re operating in Fog Hound territory, more than Gondolier territory. So the Fog Hounds will be the ones we have to choose whether to pay off or not, and given how baseline hostile they are, I think we’d better. But we’ll only pay them the one Coin, to get them to neutral, rather than the two to get in good with them. (Emeline potentially has more of a relationship with them later, since both the Fog Hounds and her cult operate around the Old North Port, so that could be a fun thing to come up).

For our preferred cargo type … Again. We’re spooky. And, just browsing the factions list, there does seem to be a bit of a niche for spooky cargo, since the likes of the Hive and even the Fog Hounds themselves don’t seem to have much truck with it. And, well. A demon-blooded foreigner, and a devotee of a forgotten sea god. I do think we’ll be trafficking in weird shit. So Arcane/Weird it is!

Though, when I go down to Special Abilities … there is one that makes me think we might have a sideline in Passengers, as well. Not always of the living variety. Because there’s a smuggler special ability called Ghost Passage, which means our crew, through hardship or ritual, is immune to possession by spirits, but we can choose to carry them as ‘passengers’ in our bodies. The ability asks if in our case the ghosts have to be willing, or if we can essentially trap them to traffick them, and I think … The Smuggler crew book also asks if we have hard lines on cargoes we carry, and I think that might be one of them. No unwilling cargo. Whether we’re carrying people in the hold or ghosts in bottles or inside our bodies, they have to be willing.

Now. Crew Upgrades.

Smuggler baseline gives us Training: Prowess and a Vehicle. That vehicle is absolutely going to be a boat. Since Emeline is already a(n ex-) harbour pilot, I feel it’ll be a nippy little pilot cutter, or in-universe equivalent.

And I think the first of our two free upgrades is going to have to be a Boat House to go with it, a dock with a shack attached to moor her up and store things near. (Here is where I’m doubting my lair choice, the underground grotto would make this much more hidden, but I think we want to be directly on the river). So. We’ve got a dock. And I think the faction we pissed off with our upgrade comes from the other harbour pilot that we beat to that dock, earning us the ire of the Sailors faction. I think we’ll spend our last coin to mollify them slightly, because you don’t want to piss off other waterfolk too much if you’re going to be operating among them.

Our final upgrade … I think we’ll go Smugglers Rigging? Makes two of each character’s carried items perfectly concealed, which feels important for smugglers. (I did also consider Camouflage to conceal our boat, but I think she’s already pretty innocuous as a pilot cutter). And I think the faction that helped us out, that shows us how to rig concealment like that, was the Gondoliers. Because I think we might be friendly with the Gondoliers, because they also deal in spooky shit in the interior waterways of the city, and I feel like we might have helped each other out a time or two. They’re a bit more hostile to it than we are, mind you. We’re more the ‘put the problem in a cup (/boat) and put it outside the city’ to their ‘squish it with a hammer’, but still. We have a bit of simpatico.

Then we come to our crew’s favourite contact. And I did strongly consider Elynn, the dock worker, because it’s just practical to get in good with the people running the docks when you’re a smuggler. But. Again, the lure of the spooky overrode, and we’ll go with Nyelle instead. The spirit trafficker. Because, well, that’s what we do. We’ve got Ghost Passage for a reason. She can hook us up with ghosts in need of passage, and other assorted spooky jobs. Heh.

Nyelle comes with faction riders, one that’s unhappy with her, and one that likes her. And from the options in the faction list, I feel like we could maybe go with the obvious? I think the Path of Echoes likes her (and therefore us) a fair bit, and the Spirit Wardens like her (and us) decidedly less. Heh.

Which in terms of our starting relationships with various factions gives us a +1 with the Gondoliers and the Path of Echoes, a neutral standing with the Fog Hounds whose territory we’re in, and a -1 with the Sailors and the Spirit Wardens.

And then. Final detail. The crew name. I did want something fishy, again. And also … between the demon marks and the void sea cult, both of them have a bit of a thing with ink as well. Daughters of ink and salt. So. On a theme of ocean and ink. Squid is too obvious, but Indira’s tentacles do incline me in that direction. How about cuttlefish? They also produce (quite useable for humans) ink. And, a unique thing about cuttlefish, they have an internal shell called a cuttlebone, which has quite a wide variety of uses, including polishing powder for jewellers, calcium rich dietary supplements for caged animals (which in Doskvol with its DIY farming industry, potentially very useful), lime production, and shell jewellery. So it’s a very useful item, and the name also evokes both fish and death, cuttlebone, which for our spooky crew feels extremely fitting. Perhaps we can have a small piece of cuttlebone jewellery as a crew marker?