Dishonored rpg part 2 - Papier machet man
Summary of the second session of our Dishonored game. More for me to keep track of things in an episodic format, but it's here to read if anyone's intrigued. Felt running the game much smoother than last time and the players I'm really proud of. After each session I'm tracking how much of the outsiders attention or interest they have gained through filling out the outsider's mark. I want getting marked to feel like a reward but also not something everyone gets, but I've also made it clear that the outsider has no interest in people who seek his attention, just people who are a little more interesting.
After Dorsey Mchint, a Morleyan Prisoner tried to escape Coldridge prison by covering himself in Whale oil and slipping through the pipes, the guards discovered him, pulled him out and set him ablaze. Our protagonists were assigned to sweep up Dorsey's ashen corpse and to clear out his cell, after doing so a black burn mark is left as a stain on the concrete as a reminder to the other prisoners.
Prudence, still with a cracked rib from one of the guards listened in on some conversation while she was being bullied and mopping up the corpse residue. The prison is understaffed, lady Coldridge is greedy and extracting all she can, and that Guard Sand will be in the cold room tonight, the guard who beat her.
Penny, on searching Dorsey's cell discovers that he was desperate to escape and had scratched this into the side of his bed.
Penny and Gullek would carry Dorsey's corpse to the generator room, where an incinerator could also be found. This was their opportunity. Prudence carefully distracted the young guard outside while Penny hatched a plan. She used her knowledge of Dunwall history to conclude that this was the only generator in the prison, that there were no spare tanks, that a delivery was soon but this was all the whale oil they had for now. She carefully stabbed a hole in the bottom of the generator tank, draining it and filling up an empty tank. She calculated that at some point tonight, the power would go out, that tonight could be their opportunity to escape.
Now they had a full tank of whale oil they needed to hide, how? How on earth would they hide it? Gullek suggested throwing into the incinerator along with Dorsey's corpse, creating a massive explosion for their escape. Penny, desperate for an alternative solution came up with a different idea.
With Prudence effortlessly distracting the guard outside, Penny and Gullek, using improvised tools cut off parts of Dorsey's sticky flesh, his clothes burned and stuck to his skin. Piece by piece they covered the tank of whale oil in Dorsey's corpse, like papier machet.
Somehow the rouse worked. They claimed this "last piece of Dorsey" would not burn, so they tossed it into the Wrenhaven.
A prisoner by the name of Winnie asked the group for some materials. Red hair, copper wire, a piece of a corpse, she already had the whale bone she needed. She did not say what she needed them for, but was grateful as the group provided the materials. As a thank you Winnie informed the group that she won't be here after tonight, that the Outsider watches this prison closely and that in her dreams she heard a voice. "What would you do if you were a rat".
Before heading off to bed, Gullek overheard Clarissa a prisoner talk about "the plan", perhaps there were more than one escape plan in motion.
In the showers Gullek was accosted by Lars Njelmar, a figurehead of the Morleyan prisoners who he had previously punched in the yard. This would be revenge from Lars. With the odds stacked against Gullek, he pulled out a wrench he had previously hidden (had not been found on his person thanks to a little intervention from a stop and search). The void seemed in his favour, as steam descended from the shower heads around him, obscuring him and adding to his voice as he threatened the gang of Morleyans. As a thank you, he told them that tonight the power would be out. A small sentence, but enough to add to the oncoming chaos of the night.
That night, as they bedded down, Penny heard a voice. A man's voice, old and young at the same time. Intrusive, curious, meddling and bored. The voice asked her, what would she do, if she were a rat. She answered, that she would escape, she would go out to sea, that she would free as many whales as she could. Intrigued the voice asked again, "What would you do to achieve this goal?"
Penny answered, "Anything".
With that a dead white rat violently fell from the ceiling and dropped in Prudence and Penny's cell. Curiously, Penny touched the rat. Falling unconscious she awoke to find herself looking out the eyes of the rat, at her own body.
Posted Aug 11, 2026, 11:27 AM UTC