You gonna tell me fairy tales?

I have a working theory that Heat is Michael Mann's least interesting work. Stay with me on this one. I know in some quarters that is a blasphemous statement...

Sure, it has that wonderful coffee shop scene with Pacino and De Niro. The shootout on the street is a solid piece of action. There are a ton of amazing character actors all over the place, and Hank Azaria has a funny story about the "great ass" scene...

But it feels hollow and empty. A character of a movie about criminals and cops. Slick, but vacant of humanity. Too clean.

The criminals are too competent. The cops are too righteous. The language too pristine. The friendships feel forced and the family scenes feel like sketches of families drawn by an outsider.

Basically, it ain't no Thief.

Thief is scary. It is raw and unvarnished. The language is natural. The lines of morality are fuzzy. The relationships complex. Nothing is clean and everything has weight. Human weight.

It also helps that Robert Prosky is terrifying.

That is what our second session of Lankhmar by way of the Torchbearer RPG felt like. Raw and messy, but felt heavy. Was linear at times, but by accident. Smart but imperfect characters prepared for violence, but avoiding it at all costs. The scary moments felt scary...

Session Two

Our second session picked up where we left off, squatting in a mausoleum. Our criminals need a moment to rest, and when you have nothing, hiding in a crypt seems like a pretty safe space to do that.

Well safe enough. We did hear ghostly whispers the entire time we sat in that musty hole...

But Ishlum meditated to settle his nerves just like his mentor taught him. Murgon made himself a potion to deal with his own anger issues. Both settled, they had to face their real problem.

They got the good to bribe the ghost, but their disguises was torn to shit.

No needle and thread in sight. No tailors in the necropolis. So Ishlum put his nimble fingers to the test trying to clean things up, and did. Not bad for a first time seamstress...

All that is left is bribing a ghost to put the malorka on the guards at the estate. Our criminals need to get in, get a book, get the money, deliver the message, and get out clean. Murgon brokered the deal to make that work and off we went to pretend to be rich kids.

This time around, the manor is quiet and nary a guard to be seen. Could it have worked? Could bribing someone's dead grandma actually clear the way into the house?

Apparently so, because two guards were crying in a study with two other guards giving them hugs. No need to bother them, and so up the stairs we go.

A study is ransacked. A laboratory found and inside... Inside is a surprise. The man himself. Julm, beaten and bloody. Tortured and near broken.

Did this just stop being a caper? Did this become a rescue mission?

As far as Julm was concerned it did. Murgon made sure of that with some clever quick wit. So time to get going, but first a distraction would be nice.

And so we learn how Murgon the Blackest became Murgon the Reddest... Or at least how, in his attempt to make a smoke bomb, he let the guards know we were here...

With aplomb...

With a red smokey bang...

And like clockwork the double doors burst open and some skeletal honor guards burst in hoping to honor us with our heads in our laps.

Time to jack rabbit out of here. Golgo grabs the broken down merchant and heads down the ladder, down the hall, down the stairs, and into...

Those fucking guards...

But they ain't looking at us. Lucky that. Murgon whistles like the dead and screams, "She's still here!"

And off they run away again and out the door we go, sauntering our way back to our little corner of the necropolis.

Ishlum locks the gate in the mausoleum and our criminals camp once again. Time to talk with their new friend. The situation has changed and we need the skinny.

Turns out Julm was hired by Lagabot the Scribe to get the tome. Ulkahar the sorcerer's tome. The same Lagabot who hire the guy who hired us to get the tome. The same Ulkahar who was torturing Julm by possessing Goultu. Goultu who is Julm's manservant.

It's a lot of names, but we still are on the hook for getting the back pay Julm owes. Getting that letter of credit. How are we going to get back in that house now clearly haunted by this undead sorcerer prick?

There is a secret tunnel from our campsite to the secret basement with the goods?

Well shit.

An easy walk late and in hand is the letter of credit, some walking around money, and a stolen family heirloom. A cake walk, only not.

We still need to get that book cause Lagabot is connected. We are going to have to deal with an undead guy because as scary as he is, the mob is scarier. You can say that the smart play would be to walk away.

There is no walking away. That ain't the life. You do the job until you burn out, get busted, or you die.

So time to do the job...