Since the last session had been 90% written for a couple weeks and I was feeling it after finishing it up, here’s the next session.
So when we last left Althus, he and three bandits were tracking down Sarria and Lestara in some strange woods. Since I have access to it, I’m going to use the Delve Aspect Oracle to see what’s what’s so strange about it. I roll a 100 and get “Active.” I’m getting a really interesting “the forest has eyes” vibe from this and feel like the forest actively changes around you so you cannot easily find your way through. Must be part of why Sarria and Lestara have a guide showing them through–only certain areas stay “mostly” the same and are a somewhat safe way to travel through.
Well this sounds a little more dangerous than first thought (I’m sure once Althus learns that his bandits friends have led him to the Living Forest, he’ll have some unkind words for them) so we’re going to make this a full on Delve (I also just want to try it out). For Theme we’ll go with Haunted and for Domain we’ll go with Tanglewood.
Time to Discover a Site (Delve, pg. 23). Since we’re on a Troublesome quest, I’m inclined to make it a Troublesome site, but my gut says make it Dangerous. So now we’re ready to Delve the Depths (Delve, pg. 25). Rolling on our Theme and Domain tables, we see we encounter something unusual or unexpected. We’ll roll on the Focus table and get Corruption. Looks like something bad lives in this part of the forest.
We’re moving pretty quick, so we’re going to roll +edge and get a strong hit (8 vs. 7, 5). Per the move, we mark progress and Find an Opportunity. Let’s see what that means. We roll on the table (Delve, pg. 34) and get “you encounter a denizen in need of help.” Since I imagine the denizens of this area would be either travellers like ourselves or wild beast (or possible some of the Firstborn) we’ll roll on the Character Role table and learn what sort of person it is we’ve encountered. We get Mercenary… and haven’t we already heard of a mercenary who might be in trouble?
It was Perella, the Skulde mercenary Kebeera was looking for. Kebeera didn’t tell Althus about him, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be Perella. Plus, any opportunity to run into that weird Skulde raider again is a worthwhile endeavor.
We already know they are a Skulde mercenary, but let’s see what other details we can find out about them from the Oracles (3 from the Character descriptor and 1 from the Character Disposition)–cruel, confident, sick, and they are demanding towards Althus (not terribly different from Kebeera, come to think of it).
So it seems like a fairly straight forward Face Danger (though part of me would be amused about using the “attempt to gain leverage” part of the trigger for Secure an Advantage, but it wouldn’t get me what I want right now) and since we’re using strength, we’re rolling +iron. We get a weak hit (6 vs. 6, 3) and while we could burn our Momentum to get a strong hit, I think a weak hit is fine for this. The most obvious cost is losing our short sword in the sticky, viscous fluid and losing some supply (down to 3). But we still succeed and the Skulde is free, though I don’t think that’s all of it (looking at Perella’s sick tag).
We’re doing to try and Heal the Skulde. Luckily, we’re an Herbalist and so I imagine Althus has a few elixirs and draughts in his saddle bags. This asset gives us a +2 to our +wits roll to try and treat the Skulde, which it appears we did not need with a very strong hit (10 vs. 1, 4). That means our care was helpful and Perella will survive. For now, he can ride along on Cratch’s back and give amusing commentary while the group makes its way through the rest of the forest. And from our Find an Opportunity move, we gain some insight and can prepare for what’s to come, granting us +1 Momentum (maxing us out at 10 Momentum, which is pretty useful).
Before we finish up this session, let’s see if we can delve a little further.
Since we’ve now got Perella I don’t think we’ll be moving as quickly as before, so I think we’re going to rely more on observation, intuition, and expertise to traverse this forest (when you’ve got a mammoth, you’re never stealthy). We roll +wits and get a weak hit (7 vs. 7, 1), which means we roll on the table for wits and get to mark progress (4/10) and Reveal a Danger (Delve, pg. 38). We roll on that table and get told to check our Domain (Tanglewood) which is a stalking denizens. Wolves seem like the most likely danger, but a pack of wolves doesn’t seem like too much of a threat… but a pack of wolves led by an Elder Wolf (pg. 152), that’s got some legs.
Since defeating the wolves isn’t the most important part of this, but moving through the forest to find the Daughters, I think we’ve going to use the Battle move (pg. 84) to see if we can get through the wolves territory without too much issue. Althus is going to try and keep the bandits on the alert, so we’re going to roll +heart (since we’re relying on our companions) and get a weak hit (9 vs. 9, 3). This means we are going to get through the territory, but not without cost. We’ll roll on the Pay the Price Oracle and we Reveal a New Danger or Foe is Revealed.
Well the threat of a lurking troll seems the perfect place to leave things off.