Ironsworn Solo Game

[insomn14 (Mike)]

So after dinner and doing some cleaning, I still had the bug, so here’s session 7.
Last time, we had trollsign the likes of which even God has never seen. Now onto the game.

So we’ve been doing a lot of travelling and I feel like we need to Make Camp (pg. 64), not because I think we need it mechanically, but for an excuse to interact with some of the NPCs we have.

First we’ll forage for some supplies (Resupply, pg. 63) and interact with Saskia. We roll +wits and get a strong hit (8 vs. 5, 2) which lets us boost our supply back up by 2, maxing us out. Good. Now to figure out Saskia’s deal. We know they are a bandit for lack of options, but what’s their larger goal.

“You think you can use your axe and chop down some of these branches?” Althus asked, testing their strength with a quick flex.

Saskai gave the Northerner a look. “Why should I?”

“Well your man Pearce lost some arrows while we were escaping the wolves,” Althus said, not turning towards the bandit. “Thought it a good idea to get him material to fletch new ones.”

Althus expected another comeback, but it never came. Instead the steady sound of chopping replaced the conversation.

Althus tried looking for some herbs and other medicinal plants, but his attention kept wandering back to a single thought. After a few minutes, he finally voiced it.

“So I’ve noticed,” he said, trying his best to sound like idle chatter, “if I tell you to do something you always say no… unless it helps your friends.”

“Of course,” Saskai responded, not turning away from their task to return the Northerner’s gaze. “We all need someone out here in the wilds and they got my back.”

“Well I seem to be doing okay by myself,” Althus said with a bit of bravo.

“No you’re not,” Saskai said, still not turning to see Althus’ look of surprise at the comment. “You were looking for a fight-any fight-before you press ganged us into looking for your pretty, pretty baron princesses. Hell, that’s why you helped the Skulde, ain’t it?”

“He was in trouble,” Althus said defensively.

“Ain’t no shame in needing anyone, Northerner. You just think because you come from up North, no one’s gonna like you without you doing something for them.”

“Well?”

“Well…” Saskai drew out the word, finally stopping their work, but only so that they could take a dramatic thinking stance. “Well I think if you want to know where folks stand, you need to thank them for what they’ve done for you and see what they say.”

“Um,” Althus stuttered, a bit at a loss for words, “thank you… for coming out here to look for these women.”

“Not me,” Saskai said, their face twisted in a dismissive look, “all us. Nadira and Pearce done just as much as me and all you’ve done is tell us where to stand and where to run.”

“That’s important though,” Althus responded weakly.

“You slash a sword and take a hit, someone will stand with you for a moment til they forget what you did for them. You have a bite, you laugh, you get to know them, they’ll stand with you forever.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“Well I do and I know that’s why Pearce and Nadira’s got my back.”

So Saskai’s goal is to find a home… not too different than Althus all things considered. We tried Forging a Bond (pg. 74) with them, but only got a weak hit (7 vs. 5, 7) and so they demand something of us before we can forge that bond. Given their motives, I think the most obvious thing is for Althus to actually open up to people and be a little vulnerable. Difficult, but we’ll give it a try.

Once we’re done with the supplies, time to check in with the Skulde and see how they’re doing. We’re also going to try and Forge a Bond with them, seeing as how we freed Perella from his imprisonment and treated their wounds. This one is a strong hit (5 vs. 2, 1), and we both get to mark a tick on our bonds (putting us to 1 full mark on that progress track) as well as take +1 spirit (which is part of what we stopped for camp anyway).

“How’s the arm?” Althus asked as he sat down next to Perella’s bedding. It was barely dark and the Skulde was already tucked in, under Althus’ orders.

“Good, huvudman,” Peralla answered with a grin on his face.

“Huvudman?”

“Is Skulde thing,” Peralla said, trying to pick the right words for the air, “means you’re the head man. Look out for everyone.”

“Oh,” Althus remarked with a bit of surprise. He tried his best not to turn back to look at Saskai we he said, “Not sure everyone would agree with you.”

“Bah, you make people do what they don’t want. Who cares?! You get them to come out of it alive, that what matters.”

“I don’t think that’s all that matters,” Althus said, a little hurt by the idea.

“All that matters to me,” Peralla said as they turned over and curled up in their fur blanket. “You keep Peralla alive, you keep being huvudman. You get Peralla killed, you just some guy.”

“Thanks for that vote of confidence.”

“No problem!”

So later that night, once the stew’s ready is when Althus is going to act on what Saskai asked him to do. Thinking mechanically, I think this is a Face Danger +heart, with the danger being he opens up and the bandits do not reciprocate and it dispirits him. It feels better than trying to Compel them into… something? That’s the other hard part with Compel, it’s not like he actually wants anything out of them other than accept that he’s going to try and be more personable around them now. /shrug

So we roll and get a miss (4 vs. 10, 8). We could turn this into a weak hit by burning our Momentum (unfortunately, since our Momentum has to be higher than the dice we’re cancelling out, there’s nothing we can do about that 10) and the question is “is this something Althus actually cares about?” Does earning the friendship of some bandits that tried to rob him that morning actually matter to him? Does treating the people who (unknowingly) gave him some hope in a very dark moment of his life with some basic kindness matter to him?

I think it does.

So we burn our Momentum, resetting it from +10 back to +2, and get a weak hit. We still need to pay a small price and I think that’s a bit of supply (bringing us back down to +4).

Once the fire’s roaring and the night has fully set, Saskai gave Althus a meaningful look. Althus nodded and stood up from his stop around the fire and walked away.

Pearce cocked an eyebrow and looked over at Saskai. “Where’s he going?”

“Who cares,” Saskai said, pulling their blanket up over them.

After a few minutes Althus returned from the darkness, a glass bottle in hand. “Uh,” he said, stumbling over his words, “I, uh, never thanked you all for what you did for me today and… um, so I thought you’d appreciate this.”

Althus handed the bottle to Nadira, who sat closest to the fire, and inspected the label. “What’s this?”

“Brandy. From Grimtree,” Althus said, trying to figure out what people say in situations like this. “There was a family I helped there and that was all they could give and I don’t drink out in the field and it never seemed like the right time.”

“So now’s the right time?” Saskai asked with an discerning look at the Northerner.

“Who cares, give me some of that,” Pearce said with an outreached hand.

Nadira popped the cork and took a swig before passing the bottle to Pearce. Her face twisted for a moment before announcing, “Yeah, that’s the good stuff?”

“How would you know,” Saskai said with a bit of a laugh in their voice.

“I’ve had good brandy before,” Nadira responded sternly, slapping her knee to emphasize the point.

“When?” Pearce asked once he’d gotten his own drink from the bottle.

“I refuse to answer that question.”

I think that’s good enough to mark a bond with Saskai as well. We could also try for both Nadira and Pearce right now, but I think we’ll wait until we get them their money (so we can get that +1 to the roll). So all that leaves it Making Camp. We roll +supply (which we replace with Cratch’s health due to his Asset benefit) and get a strong hit (9 vs. 6, 5) which means we get two benefits: Relax (+1 spirit) and Prepare (normally +1 to Undertake a Journey, but +1 to Delve the Depths in this case).

So now the next morning, it’s time to leave camp and delve further into the Living Forest and closer to Sarria and Lestara (this might be our final delve roll, having 6 progress after this one). But we’ll leave that for next time.