So last time, we defeated one of Baron Quinn’s bannersworn, allowing us to actually progress with our quest. Now we’ve just got to figure out what to do. Based on the Reach a Milestone move (pg. 100), our quest should have some loose goals we need to complete. Since our quest is Dangerous (chosen when we Swore the Vow, but I forgot that part), our quest should have about 5ish segments.
The easiest way to parse that out is: discover where the daughters ran off to, travel there, convince the daughters to return, escort them safely home. It’s only four segments (which will only net us 8 progress) but that’s fine. We don’t know what complications may await us. But first, Althus needs to deal with his injures.
Back at the Broken Bottle, Althus is collecting some of his belongings that we left behind when he was taken in by the Baron’s men. Alone, he removes his iron shirt and the tunic underneath it. His abdomen is a cascade of bruises. The first stab of Kaivan’s spear did a number, but so did the stabs he tried to get in with his knife. The iron shirt had kept Althus from getting cut, but nothing helped the bruised the impacts left behind.
Nothing, but some herbs his mother had taught him about.
He grabs a sling bag off his straw cot and rummages around until he produces a shallow clay jar. Inside is a odorous paste. Althus scraps up two fingers worth and starts to rub the concoction onto his bruises. It won’t be quick, but it will help keep the pain from slowing him down.
Althus is going to try and Heal (pg. 63). Since he is in Wyvern’s Rest, he could attempt to Sojourn (pg. 71) but that move implies for time than he’s willing to spend right now, and more willingness to ask others for help than he has. Also his Herbalist asset lets him add +2 (or heal an additional health, but heal already heals 2 health which is all we need). We roll +wits (as it is the lower of it and iron) and get, against the odds with a 1 on the d6, a strong hit (6 vs. 1, 3). We recover our two missing Health and now turn our attention towards finding the girls.
Althus doesn’t know anything about these ladies, but surely the people of Wyvern’s Rest go, which sounds like an opportunity to Gather Information (pg. 62). We roll +wits and get another strong hit (9 vs. 7, 3). This gives us clear and specific information to act upon, as well as +2 Momentum (now up to +7).
Its later in the day, just before dusk. Some of the Baron’s men have made it into the tavern, though not the ones from the duel earlier. This is good for Althus, he’d hate to have them hush up around him out of some sense of comradely against the outsider.
Althus sits at a table with Vigo. “Are you sure?” the Northern asks?
“Aye,” the vagabond replies, pointing at a particularly scruffy member of the bannersworn. Althus wondered if the man let his hair and beard grow so wild to offset his particularly young-looking face. “He’s the one who was always following Lady Lestara about; Wulan.”
“Thanks,” Althus says, leaving a few extra iron coins on the table to cover their drinks.
The Northerner stood and walked over to Wulan’s table, taking the seat next to him. Before Wulan could protest, Althus wrapped an arm around the scruffy young man’s shoulders and whispered into his ear. “I don’t want any trouble, and I don’t think you do either, so if you don’t want everyone to know you’re responsible for setting Baron Servan after the town, you’ll answer my questions.”
The boy’s face went ghost white. He tried to stammer out a question or a rebuke, but Althus cut him off before he could find his words.
“As I understand it, you were Lestara’s toady. Cleaned her gear, took care of her horse, everything she could want. Probably means you ran messages for her too, seeing as you’d disappear for five days at a time, which is about how long it takes for someone to make it Dragonshadow and back. So why don’t you tell me what was Lestara worked out with Sarria before I let everyone know you’re the reason they’re going to die in a few days when Baron Servan shows up.”
There was no end to the amount of gratitude Althus felt towards old Vigo. He was a drunk and braggart, but he watched everything that happened in and around this tavern. The vagabond had given Althus everything he needed to get the boy to crack and tell him everything: the daughters courtship, Lestara’s attempts to convince her father of the potential alliance between him and Baron Servan, how he’d rejected it all and so the girls decided to run off together. Apparently Lestara had fond memories of a hunting lodge her father had at the edge of the Deepwilds. They hadn’t been there in years and she thought it the perfect place to start her new life with her love.
It was a lovely story, like a fable a parent would tell their child before setting them to bed. Althus almost regretted having to break it up, but he couldn’t imagine anyone endangering their entire home just for their own selfish desires. Had Althus thought like that, he’d still be at Thornhall, probably have murdered Zura for some reason that he didn’t want to imagine, and probably been rightly executed.
Althus gave the boy a pat on the shoulder and a smile that didn’t reach the Northerner’s eyes. “Thank you for the information, Wulan. You’ve been quite helpful.” He get up to leave but before he did, Althus leaned in close to Wulan again. “If I see you trying to warn your Lady about me, I will end you. Ask Kaivan.”
Althus left the Broken Bottle. Outside, Cratch was already loaded up to leave. Althus hadn’t wanted to leave anything behind if his plan didn’t work and he needed to leave in a hurry. But he supposed he needed to hurry regardless; the hunting lodge was almost as far away a Dragonshadow, but Baron Servan was presumably already on her way.
Cratch let out a loud bellow and then began marching away from Wyvern’s Rest. Althus walked beside the beast, the steady ting-ting-ting of his iron shirt the only sound he made.
Before we leave off, we’ll do another move to set the stage for the next session. Althus is going to need to Undertake a Journey (pg. 65) to reach the hunting lodge. We’ll say it is a Troublesome journey, meaning we’ll mark 3 progress per waypoint. We probably will only do one or two waypoints and try our luck at Reaching Our Destination (pg. 68) with minimal progress marked. We roll +wits for the first leg and get a weak hit (4 vs. 2, 10). So next time, we’ll deal with that waypoint and something that going to eat into our supplies a little.