Ironsworn Solo Game

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.

So from our last session, I know that Althus is going to be stopping at some waypoint on his way to the hunting lodge. I don’t have anything in mind for this particular waypoint, so I turn to Chartopia’s random waypoint generator and get: Mystical bay/fjord and meet a fellow traveler: Kabeera is a dangerous aggressive raider. His current goal is to protect a person. His current stance towards you is friendly.

I’ve got some ideas for this fjord (it’s got to be a fjord), but I want to know about Kabeera and this person they’re trying to protect. The generator defaults to male pronouns, but I’m going to steal Adam Koebal’s simple roll for pronouns (roll 1d6, 1-2 he, 3-4 she, 5-6 they). Got a 6, so Kabeera’s nonbinary. They’re a dangerous aggressive raider, so probably also some sort of outsider like Althus. I’m beginning to imagine they’re someone like the Scotsman from Samuari Jack, if not in style then in archetype–a fellow outsider who mimics our hero and could be the protagonist of their own story.

In the worldbuilding section, they mention a group of raiders called the Skulde as a possibility about why we fled the Old World. While I didn’t select it, but I do like there being this culture of raiders and I could imagine that they are just another people who fled the Old World to the Ironlands. So Kabeera is a Skulde.

And now for their protectee. Are they with Kebeera? Seems likely, so we’ll Ask the Oracle (pg. 107) and apparently the answer is no (rolled an 8 on percentile dice). So perhaps Kabeera is trying to find whomever they are trying to protect. But who are they? The Oracle says they are are a Hostile Mercenary named Perella (he/him). Another Skulde or someone who wandered into one of their settlements.

I think I can roll with this. Now the important question (phrased as a yes or no question for the sake of the Ask the Oracle table: does Kabeera notice Althus before Althus notices Kabeera? Seems 50/50, so we roll and Kabeera does notice Althus first.

Althus followed in Cratch’s wake, the mighty mammoth clearing brush and branches out of its way incidentally as it moved through the forest. The woods opened up into a clearing and Althus looked to get his bearings. He was near one of the many fjords that cut into the Ironlands near the Flooded Lands. If it was the one Wulan had told him about, all Althus needed to do was follow it south.

As Althus looked about for a landmark, a voice called out, “Northerner!”

Althus reached for his belt knife out of reflex. He could not tell if the shout was a challenge, a call for help, or a greeting and Althus wanted to be prepared for any of those options.

A large person came barrelling towards Althus. They were dressed in leathers and carried a bearded axe in hand. Their face was painted in a wide black stripe running down the middle from brow to collar: the tribal markings of a Skulde.

Althus tensed for an attack, but it did not come. The Skulde stopped about a dozen paces from him and raised a hand in greeting.

“Northerner,” they said in that same excited tone though at a more casual volume, “I need your assistance.” And then they ran back to the cliffs of the fjord.

Althus cocked an eyebrow at this greeting and turned toward Cratch. “What was that?” Althus asked.

As if in reply, Cratch let out a low bellow and dropped down into a resting position. It seemed to Althus he wasn’t leaving until he found out what the Skulde needed.

“What do you need, Skulde?” Althus said as he approached the cliffside. “You are a Skulde, right?”

“Aye,” the Skulde said, picking up a rope from the ground. A stick or rod was tightly cinched under one armpit, and all their other gear–a leather satchel, some freshly killed rabbits, and the rest of the rope–was unceremoniously dumped on the ground. They wrapped the rope around their waist a few times and tied a quick knot. Once it was secured, they handed the rest of the rope to Althus. “Hold.”

“What are-” Althus started to ask, but as soon as he had taken hold of the rope, the Skulde walked towards the cliff and hopped off the side.

This seems like some Face Danger. We care about how strong and sturdy Althus is, so we’re rolling +iron. We miss (8 vs. 8, 8) and it’s a complication, so we either fail or are undermined in our success and must Pay the Price (regardless if we succeed or fail). Since “Althus drops this person they just met” sounds boring, I think we’re going to go to the Pay the Price Oracle (pg. 105) for some inspiration. We get “it is harmful,” so I think what happens is the jolt of the Skulde leaping off the side of the cliff. We’re going to take 1 harm (sending us down to 4 health) and rolling Endure Harm.

I don’t think Ironclad should help with this, but it looks like we don’t need it with a strong hit (10 vs. 7, 1). We’ve got a lot of momentum (+7) so I think we can Shake It Off and lose 1 momentum to regain 1 health (putting us back to 5 health).

The sudden pull on the rope caused ALthus’ whole body to jerk. The rope’s fibers dug into Althus’ hands, but Althus quickly adjusted and found a sturdy footing. Once he had the rope managed, Althus shouted out to the Skulde, “What in iron’s name are you doing?!”

“Need to go lower!” was the Skulde’s only reply.

Althus dutifully fed more of the rope down, slowly lowering the Skulde to wherever they wanted to go. For a moment, Althus considered just letting the rope go but the dark thought passed after a moment.

Once the Skulde had reached whatever destination that had in mind, they shouted out “Stop now!”

I think Althus wants to try and figure out what’s going on. I don’t like Gather Information for this, so instead we’ll just Ask the Oracle. I figure I would rate this as Unlikely as I doubt someone from an outsider culture would know much about another outsider culture, but we will see. We get a 16 on the roll, so Althus has no idea what is transpiring.

Althus mulled the situation over in his mind. The Skulde could only be 10 or 12 feet down the cliff, nowhere close to the bottom. Perhaps something was stored in the cliff, like a cache? Althus looked across to the opposite cliff on the other side of the fjord and saw tassels or flags peppering the side of the cliff. He had no idea what it meant, but he figured he would find out in due time.

After about fifteen excurating minutes holding the Skulde off the side of the cliff, Althus felt a tug on the rope followed by a shout of “Lift!” Althus reeled in the rope and soon the Skulde was scampering over the side of the cliff.

“So what were you doing,” Althus asked the Skulde once they were back on their feet.

“Gotta find someone,” the Skulde said briskly as they collected their gear from the ground.

“Who? And how are those flags or whatever going to help?” Althus pressed.

“Ribbons are prays to the God of this cliff, Dismashk,” the Skulde answered. “Once the ribbon break free, Dismashk hear the prayer.”

“So what, you just attach it loosely to the cliff?”

“No,” the Skulde barked back as if Althus had insulted them, “that would be cheating.”

“So you’re just going to wait to find out if your god hears your prayer?” Althus said, his incredulousness barely clamped down.

“No,” the Skulde said plainly, “but could not hurt.”

Althus let that rattle around in his head. He could just call the Skulde a fool for believing in gods–his own people taught him that the gods were dead–but that did not seem like it would help the matter. Althus extended a hand for a shake. “I hope you prayers are answered.”

The Skulde did not shake Althus’ hand. Instead they grabbed Althus in a big bear hug and squeezed. “Thank you!”

After a moment, the Skulde released a confused Althus and started walking away. “Goodbye, Northerner. I go west.”

“Goodbye, Skulde,” Althus replied once he’d gotten his wits about him. “And good luck.”

Once the Skulde had disappeared into the forest, Althus turned to Cratch. “We go?”

With this milestone completed, we’re at a crossroads. We could attempt to Reach Our Destination now, but we’ve only got three progress marked. I think we will quickly do another milestone to raise our chances.

We roll to Undertake a Journey and get a strong hit. We get some options, and I would like to make good use of our resources and mark an extra progress on our journey, bringing us up to 7 total. I roll on the Random Waypoint Generator and get a forgotten lake with no additional complications. I imagine the freshwater of the lake allows Althus and Cratch to refill their waterskins and perhaps get in a quick bath.

With 7 progress, we’re now going to attempt to Reach Our Destination… and get a miss (7 vs. 9, 8). We don’t have the momentum to counteract this, so it looks like we’ve gone hopelessly astray, our objective lost to us, or we were misled about our destination. I know which I think it is: either Wulan misled us about there the daughters escaped off to or they misled Wulan. We reach the hunting lodge and they are nowhere to be found, the lodge has not been used in years.

Given our time limit before Baron Servan reaches Wyvern’s Rest, I cannot imagine us finding the daughters before then with nothing to go on. I think our goal is lost to us, which triggers the Forsake Your Vow move. We lose 2 spirit as our quest was Dangerous and must roll for the Endure Stress move. We get a miss (9 vs. 10, 9) and so lose momentum (bringing us down to 5). Since we do not have a bond with that community or the Baron, we don’t need to worry about the rest of the move.

The fallout from this is probably Althus rampaging in the hunting lodge in his anger. All he wanted to do was help the people of Wyvern’s Rest and now he cannot even get back there before Baron Servan descends upon the town. All he can do now is move on and hope he can do better next time.

Next time, Althus ventures off into the unknown.

So a bit of a change in format. I figured since I’m going to go into a lot more mechanics than fiction (that being the slowest part of this) I thought I’d try having all the game text out of the quote boxes and all of the fiction in boxes (making them more like excepts from a book). We’ll see how this works out.

When we last left Althus, he was in a bad place and didn’t want to face failing the people of Wyvern’s Rest. So I think that means it’s time for him to leave this region entirely. Per the book (pg. 111) travelling from one region to another is a Formidable task, so I think that’s what he’s going to do. I imagine we’re currently at the edges of the Havens, since we were dealing with Barons, so I think it’s time to slip down into the Ragged Coast. Perhaps we’ll run into Kabeera again.

But first we’ll make the most of this hunting lodge and camp (pg. 64) for a few days before undertaking our journey. Though our Supply is +4 we get to roll Cratch’s health which is a +5, and that lands us a strong hit (10 vs. 4, 6). I think Althus is going to relax and prepare, going out into the woods during the day and sitting by a warm fire at night.

Unfortunately, our preparations don’t help when we roll a miss for the first leg of our journey (7 vs. 7, 10) which means we are waylaid by a perilous event and must pay the price. Since we were already on the edges of civilization, I think the most obvious negative outcome is some bandits on the road.

Normally, I can see a single bandit on the road being a Troublesome foe for an Ironsworn like Althus, but there being a couple of them makes them a pack (pg. 78) and increases their rank to Dangerous. Since Althus doesn’t feel like talking his way out of this, it’s time to Enter the Fray (also pg. 78). We also get a miss (5 vs. 10, 9) and begin at a disadvantage and must pay the price. This time I am going to roll on the table and get it is stressful (69). Makes sense.

We’ll Endure Stress (they’re Dangerous, so we’ll make it 2 spirit) and get a strong hit (5 vs. 3, 4). I think now is a good time for Althus to embrace the darkness and gain momentum. And since we’re going dark, let’s Turn the Tide (pg. 81) and lash out at these Bandits with a Strike.

We roll +iron and take +1 from Turn the Tide and get a strong hit (9 vs. 2, 3) which also nets us +1 momentum from Turn the Tide. We inflict +1 harm (we’re armed with a deadly weapon, so by default we deal 2 harm) which translates into 6 progress for our progress track with the bandits.

With a decisive hit, I think it’s probably best to try and run the bandits off than just murder them, so time to Compel them to give this up (pg. 69). Since we’re going to using threats, we’re rolling +iron and get a weak hit (7 vs. 7, 3) which means they’ll ask for something in return. With nothing immediately coming to mind, I think I’ll roll on the Pay the Price table for inspiration. A surprising development complicates your quest? Perhaps they know about Sarria and Lestara. Are they holding them captive? No (38). Did they join the bandits? Unlikely and also no (27). But do they know about them? Very yes (99). We’ll roll on the Action and Theme Oracles and get Depart Debt (97/48). The women owe these bandits money and run out on it? Were they part of their scheme to flee from Wyvern’s Rest as well?

So we’ve got a new Iron Vow, though it’s sort of our old Iron Vow: Find Sarria and Lestara and get the bandit’s money back. I think this is going to merely be Troublesome since we’re just acting as a debt collector. We get a strong hit on the move (9 vs. 3, 8) and are emboldened and get a clear course of action (makes sense since we should be able to get info out of the bandits here). Because of that, I think the bandits just take us to where they think Sarria and Lestara are, which is (using the Chartopia Waypoint Generator again) a strange forest. The edge of the Deep Wilds?

We could also figure out of things about Althus’ new buddies, the erstwhile bandits. We turn to the oracles and find that they are:

Pearce (he) – cunning, hostile, and armored.
Nadira (her) – critical, sick, and aggressive.
Saskia (they) – adventurous, violent, and stingy.

Sounds like a real friendly bunch. Getting cheated out of some money is the only reason they turned to banditry.

So we’ve got to track the girls down in this forest. That sounds like Gathering some Information. We get another strong hit (7 vs. 6, 4) which actually tops us off on Momentum. It also makes the way clear to find them, so we’re marking progress (three marks since it’s a troublesome quest). So what are the girls doing when we find them? Rolling on the Action Oracle and get Escort. Looks like they’ve got someone leading them through the forest to their eventual destination.

But we’ll get to that next time.

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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.

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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.

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).

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).

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.

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Last time, we made some friends with mixed results and booze was imbibed. Now on troll country.

After camping we’re doing a lot better on the Spirit and Supply front and we’ve got a +1 to our Delve the Depths check, so we’ll go ahead and roll +wits. We get a strong hit (9 vs. 7, 6) while travelling over an overgrown path, which means we Find an Opportunity. Rolling on that Oracle, we see the terrain favors us, which I think means we gain +1 Momentum (one of the choices for Find an Opportunity).

I think with the benefit of a clear path and the fact we’re 6/10 for progress Delving the Depths, I think now is a good time to try and Locate Our Objective (Delve, pg. 44). We roll the Challenge Dice and get a strong hit (6 vs. 1, 4). This gives us either +1 Momentum or the opportunity to make another move now and add +1. I think it’s time to Compel what’s owed.

We rolled +heart with our +1 from Locate Your Objective and got a strong hit (7 vs. 1, 2). Since we knew that the daughters had a guide escorting them, I Asked the Oracle if they would go along with what Althus was asking as well and it said yes (I figured it was a likely outcome, but sometimes people surprise you).

This puts us at 9/10 progress to get our bandits their money back, which means we can finally Fulfill Our Vow (pg. 101)–that only took 8 sessions :stuck_out_tongue: . We roll the Challenge Dice and get another strong hit (9 vs. 4, 7). This completes our vow with no complications and gets us XP equal to the difficulty of vow: 1. It might now sound like a lot, but a couple XP means a lot in this game.

So now that we’ve completed our quest, it’s time to convince the daughters to return home (in a hope to restart our quest to the Baron).

So we rolled +heart for Compel and get another strong hit (9 vs. 2, 1). Looks like the girls are going along with Althus. Now to check with the bandits and Perella. We’re just going to Ask the Oracle for all of them. I’ll say Perella’s Likely to stay with him, he’s still recovering so that factors into it. Oracle agrees. The bandits are less likely, they got what they want but they also know Althus will look after them, so we’ll say that’s a 50/50 chance. Oracle also says yes.

Also since we’ve completed a vow for Pearce and Nadira, we’ll try to Forge a Bond with them (with a +1 from having completed the vow). We get a strong hit (8 vs. 7, 5) so we’ll mark a tick for each of them. Nice.

So now to Swear an Iron Vow to the Daughters to return them home to their parents. We’ll call this one Dangerous, roll +heart, and get a miss (4 vs. 10, 5)… I think this is a perfect time for the troll to show up.

Time to Enter the Fray. Our Troll is of the Formidable sort (pg. 145) so this will not be easy at all. We were ambushed, so we’re rolling +wits and get a weak hit (5 vs. 5, 4). This gives us the option of bolstering our position (+2 momentum) or taking initiative. We’ll take the Momentum (we’ll need it, I suspect).

Since we lost our weapon helping Perella earlier, let’s use a new move from Delve to see if we have something useful against this troll: Check Your Gear (Delve, pg. 42). We roll +supply (which we get to use Cratch’s health in place of, due to his Asset benefit) and get not only a strong hit but an opportunity (10 vs. 1, 1). We’ll say that the axe Saskai has thrown Althus is iron which, while normally a deadly weapon (2 harm), is particularly useful against the Firstborn (3 harm). Very good for this situation. The move also grants us +1 Momentum, getting us back up to +6 total.

Since the troll has the initiative, we’ll Clash with them. Since this is close combat, we roll +iron and get a strong hit (10 vs. 6, 5). We’ll find an opening to get a good hit on the troll, dealing 4 harm total (+1 harm from the strong hit). Against a Formidable foe, this translates into 4 progress. The strong hit also allows us to take the Initiative.

Since the troll has a lot of height and reach over us, I think we should try and Secure an Advantage, possibly by getting up on the troll’s back to get some more devastating hits in. Since this is all about speed, agility, and precision, we’re rolling +edge and get a miss. We lose the Initiative and I think the most obvious outcome for Pay the Price is the troll kicks the little iron man away. Which is going to hurt (3 harm, bringing us down to +2).

Time to Endure Harm. Since we’re Lightly Armored (from our Ironclad asset), we take +1 and roll +iron (since it is higher than our current health) which is a weak hit so we press on and take +1 Momentum (also from our Ironclad asset). I imagine the troll has kicked Althus into a tree and luckily it was the tree that broke in that exchange. But now the troll is trying to follow up with another stomp into the tree. If we’re good, we can roll under the foot and cut the tendon in their heel. If we’re not good, we’re going to get flattened. Sounds like a Clash.

We roll +iron and get a weak hit (6 vs. 4, 6) but we can totally turn it into a strong hit with our Momentum (currently +2). We’ll do that and deal 4 harm again (8/10 progress). With a strong hit, we can also try to End the Fight, which is good because I don’t know how Althus would deal with another exchange here.

We roll the Challenge Dice and get a weak hit (8 vs. 9, 6), so we probably only ran the troll off, not killed it. But we’ve also got another downside to choose. I think Cratch is spurred into the fight to make the save and takes a hit as well. This means we get to check out the Companion Endure Harm move (pg. 94). So just like Althus, Cratch takes 3 harm and now has to roll the higher of +heart and Cratch’s health (+2), We get a weak hit (4 vs. 10, 2) which means they’re battered, but this doesn’t have any further effect as they’re above 0 health. Good.

So now it is time to Escape the Depths (Delve, pg. 46). We roll +wits and thankfully get a strong hit (9 vs. 8, 1). We escape the Living Forest without further difficulty and get +1 Momentum. And after all that, I think leaving the Living Forest is worth some progress towards our Vow to get Sarria and Lestara home safely (as a Dangerous quest, each milestone is worth 2 progress on that track).

And now that we’re free, I think Althus is about ready to collapse so we’re going to Make Camp again. And we were doing so well there before the Troll showed up. But I think that should be saved for next time.

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Last time, a trolled punched our mammoth. Now onto the game.

So we’re at the outskirts of the Living Forest with our large party of followers. Althus and Cratch are hurt, so it’s time to take a look at that. We’ll tend to Cratch first (got to protect the mammoth) and then ourselves. We roll +wits and get a strong hit (10 vs. 8, 2) due to our Herbalist asset, giving Cratch +2 health (up to +4). Next ourselves, which we get to roll the lowest of our wits or iron (it’s our wits) but we still get the bonus from the Herbalist asset (this time, we’re going for an additional health on a hit) and get a weak hit (6 vs. 5, 10) which gets us +3 health (back up to +5) but lose -1 supply (down to +3). Not bad.

But now for the bad part: this isn’t the path we took from Wyvern’s Rest so we’re going to need to Undertake a Journey to return. It’s still Troublesome but we could run into all sorts of trouble on the way back (hell, even just some delays may be bad for the people of Wyvern’s Rest). So it’s time to setoff.

For the first leg of the journey, we get a strong hit (8 vs. 7, 4) and turn to the Chartopia waypoint generator again to see where we arrive: a cold grove. We mark progress and, due to our strong hit, can burn some supply to gain some momentum. I feel like we need to do so, and can probably take the hit to supplies with Cratch feeling much better, so we will (taking us to +2 supply and +5 momentum) and continue along our journey.

For the second leg, we get a weak hit (6 vs. 4, 8) and come to an isolated river ford. Our supplies also take another hit (down to +1). Since we got a weak hit, I feel like we’re going to have to ford this freezing river to continue our journey. Finding a boat (or a reasonable facsimile), especially one that will carry Cratch, seems difficult, so we’re going to see if we can Secure an Advantage to find or make something that will work. Since this is going to be a job for observation, we’ll roll +wits and get a weak hit: our advantage is short-lived but we gain +1 Momentum (up to +6). I think this means that we have something that will get us across, but we’ll need to work quickly before it sinks into the water.

So we’ll pull our makeshift raft out into the water and try and ford the river. Timing is everything here, so I think we need to roll +edge, which luckily nets us a strong hit (7 vs. 3, 2) so we don’t have anything to worry about (and get another +1 Momentum for our troubles). Since we’ve crossed the halfway point (I imagine this river may also be part of the same waterway as the fjord we crossed before) I think this a good reason to mark some progress on our Vow (4/10).

For the final leg before we reach Wyvern’s Rest, we get a weak hit (4 vs. 6, 1) but can cancel that out with our Momentum (which we will and reset back to +2). This gets us to our last waypoint (an abundant plain) without running out of supplies. Since we’re at 9/10 progress, we’ll roll the Challenge Dice to reach our destination and get a strong hit (9 vs. 2, 4). We mark progress on our Vow again (6/10) and Ask the Oracle to see if the Dragonshadow army has reached the town yet (almost certainly) and it has. This means we’re going to use the bonus from our strong hit to make another move with a +1 bonus, but what should it be.

Our choices are to confront Baron Servan and bring her Sarria or get the daughters to the safety of Baron Quinn and let him handle Baron Servan. I think handling this himself is exactly what Althus would do, so we’re going to try and make our way to Servan. But a large group seems not the best for this, so we’re going to see if we can convince the bandits to deliver word to Baron Quinn that we’ve made it back. We share a bond, so we +heart +1 (for our bond) and get a weak hit (6 vs. 2, 9), so they want something. I think it’s Cratch. Riding to the Baron’s on the back of a mammoth means they’ll probably get left alone. It’s a good plan, so Althus tells Cratch to watch over them and sends the five off to alert the Baron.

Now it’s just Althus, Sarria, and Lestara in a warzone. Excellent. :sweat:

So we’ve got some options on how we can try to get through this warzone to Baron Servan’s encampment. We could try and sneak our way through or make a run for it. Or, and this could be a winner here, Althus exudes enough “don’t fuck with me” energy that he just walks through Servan’s forces without anyone messing with him or the daughters. Let’s go with that one to Face Danger.

We roll +heart (because this idea screams courage) and we get a weak hit (5 vs. 2, 8). I think the fear’s getting to Althus, so we’ll Endure Stress. We lose -1 Spirit (down to +4) but we get a strong hit (9 vs. 7, 2). Althus is going to embrace that fear and we’ll get +1 Momentum as we walk into Baron Servan’s encampment (we also mark some progress for our Vow, now 8/10).

Well, this is the final step. We Compel the Baron to listen to their daughter and accept that Wyvern’s Rest had nothing to do with her escape. We roll +heart and not only do we get a strong hit, but we get an opportunity at that (8 vs. 5, 5). While things are not going to resolve quickly, I think things eventually do resolve. Dragonshadow pulls out of their assault on Wyvern’s Rest. Servan and Quinn agree to a peace. And most importantly, they agree to let Sarria and Lestara stay together. This marks the last bit of progress on our Vow (10/10) and when Fulfil Our Vow, we get a strong hit (10 vs. 7, 4). Finally, we’ve completed our original quest from character creation (though we did sort of forsake it for about a day or two there for a bit). We mark XP (2 for a dangerous quest) and, having completed Baron Quinn’s request, earn the bond of both him and Wyvern’s Rest as a whole.

I think a little bit of time passes. The leaders need time to argue about what peace means and Althus needs time to rest up from his adventures. We can Sojourn (pg. 71) in Wyvern’s Rest (with a +1 bond due to our Bond with the town) which we get a strong hit on (9 vs. 6, 3). We definitely need to provision (+2 supply), but the other two options are less needed. I think we’ll just recuperate (getting Cratch his missing health back, probably from having some local kids brush his hair and groom him) and consort (getting Althus back his missing spirit). We could focus on getting provisions (getting our remaining missing supply back) but I don’t want to push our luck anymore.

The bandits, Pearce, Nadira, and Saskia go their own way. They were just looking for a way to get back home anyway. Perella has probably had enough time to recover and is itching to get back to his mercenary ways.

After a few days, the Barons come to let the Northerner know the outcome. He’s pleased, especially for their daughters getting to choose their own path with supporting parents to help them out. I think Baron Quinn makes Althus an offer to join his Bannersworn, which was what he wanted in the first place. But that road is going to call him back soon enough I imagine.

Next time, who knows, but for now a poll for the audience. I’ve finally got enough XP to either pick up a new asset or upgrade an existing one, so I’d like to see what you folks think. I’ll go into those options in that post.

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  • Upgrade Cratch with Lumbering (Mammoth companion asset)
  • Take Perella as the Kindred Asset (mercenary)
  • Take Saskai as the Kindred Asset (bonded)
  • Take the Banner-Sworn Asset
  • Upgrade the Ironclad Asset
  • Take the Sunderer Asset (axes are apparently quite cool)

0 voters

So the options.

Cratch did a lot in these trio of Vows, so I could see him getting bigger and better. I don’t really want to have Althus riding him into battle, so I’m avoiding that upgrade, but having make his own path when we Undertake a Journey sounds fun.

Perella was sort of a cool character as an interesting foil to Althus’ more altruistic motives. Plus writing his self-serving dialogue is always fun.

Saskia was also an interesting character and I liked the relationship they and Althus had out in the wilds. While Althus is altruistic, relating to people isn’t his strong suit and having them push him towards being a more open, vulnerable person could be interesting (and useful if he sticks around Wyvern’s Rest).

The Banner-Sworn Asset is no brainer with the current trajectory of the story. He doesn’t need it to be one of Baron Quinn’s Bannersworn, but it certainly helps (especially since it gives bonus XP when completing Vows for him and Wyvern’s Rest).

The Armor from Ironclad helped, though I can totally see the benefit of being Geared for War. Being Encumbered wouldn’t hurt Althus too badly. Getting a bonus to Clashes while gear up would be nice.

And Sunderer is just nice because, if you’re going to get into fights, having a good Combat Talent asset helps.

You know, I really wish the Overlord had progress tracks for their current plans (filling in the track 2 boxes at a time, advancing them whenever Fellowship says “the Overlord progresses a plan”), with a move that let’s the rest of the group (1) unmark a ticked box (2) force the Overlord to complete a plan early, when the odds of success are low. I like that kind of concrete thing.

Well that’s sort of the Master Plan move for the Overlord. It’s a track with three boxes: started, executing, and victory. When the started box is filled, the Fellowship hears rumors of what is up. When the executing box is filled, the Fellowship knows exactly what is going on and can move to intervene: if they do, they have a chance to stop it and either cause the Overlord’s forces to retreat (returning them to the started box) or ruin their plan entirely and cause the plan to end in failure. When the victory box is filled, the Overlord has succeeded at their plan, to the detriment of the party. Having the Overlord try to complete their plan early is just a form of the Fellowship intervening or a description of how they achieved victory.

Should be continuing the adventures of Althus the Northerner tonight. While I already had planned to use some more of the new options from Delve, I think I need to make sure this new Vow includes a Threat as it I think it will be of great interest to @doyce given his previous topic.

Also looking forward to the new updates made to the Roll20 sheet for Ironsworn. While part of me hates having something change in the middle of actively doing something, I love some of these quality of life improvements.

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So we are back with another quest for the Northerner. Baron Quinn has asked Althus to check in on the town of Sommersbrooke and their leader: the bannersworn Sibila. First thing’s first, we need to Swear an Iron Vow. I want this to be someone significant, so let’s make it a formidable quest to “Secure Sommersbrooke’s Aid to Wyvern’s Rest.” Since we’re not just the player but also the GM, I’m going to say I already know who is behind what’s going on with Sommersbrooke’s silence (thought Althus obviously wouldn’t), a warlock named Brynn. So we’re going to make them the Threat of this particular Vow. This will be important as we make moves.

So we roll +heart to Swear Our Vow (+1 as it Vow is made to a community we share a bond with) we get a weak hit (7 vs. 7, 4). With this result, we take +1 Momentum (putting us up to +4) and envision what we need to do: the most obvious thing is going to be to travel to Sommersbrooke and get some information.

However before we set off, we have Experience to spend. With 3 Experience, we can either upgrade one of our existing Assets (which would cost 2 Experience) or buy a new Asset (which costs 3 Experience). Per the poll, we’re going to get Saskai as a Kindred asset. Since there isn’t a preselected option for this Asset, we get to choose any of the three options to start with. We’ll select Skilled and say Saskai’s Expertise is “Relating to Others” (since that seems to be hobo protagonist Althus’ biggest flaw).

So now that we’ve got our new Companion, it’s time to grab our mammoth and set out for Sommersbrooke. Since Sommersbrooke has sworn fealty to Wyvern’s Rest, I don’t think it can be that far away and so we are going to set this as a Troublesome journey. We’ll roll +wits (+1 since we’re leaving a community we have a bond with) for the first leg of the journey and get a weak hit (6 vs. 6, 5) meaning we’re going to mark progress (3/10) and suffer -1 supply (down to +2). We’ll roll for what this waypoint is and it looks like we’re going to have to travel through a mountain pass. Lots of steep cliffs and chilly winds. Good thing the group has a shaggy mammoth like Cratch nearby.

We’ll roll +wits for the next leg of the journey (we do not have our +1 anymore, since it was only for departing a bonded community) and get a miss (5 vs. 8, 6). With the mountain pass, I think some of the ground gives under Cratch’s weight and he begins to slide down one of the steep cliffs. This is both painful for the mammoth (we’ll Endure Harm for a Companion in a moment) and dangerous as we’ll need to get him back up onto the mountain pass.

We subtract -1 harm from Cratch’s health (bringing him down to +4) and then roll +health (since it is higher than Althus’ Heart) and get a strong hit (10 vs. 1, 9) which means he rallies and he regains +1 health (back up to full). Since it doesn’t make sense to rely on the supplies Cratch is carrying to save him, we’ll Check Our Gear using our own Supply and get a weak hit (5 vs. 8, 1) which means we gain +1 Momentum at the cost of -1 Supply. I imagine Althus and Saskai get some rope and throw it down to the mammoth, who wraps his trunk around it while the three work to get Cratch back up onto stable ground.

We face Danger with +iron and get a complication (7 vs. 8, 8). Oh dear.

I think the ground gives out under Cratch entirely and all three go tumbling down the side of the mountain together.

This seems like a good place to wrap up and deal with the fallout of the group falling off the side of a mountain next time, but first we’ll going to deal with our Threat. I think this situation constitutes giving ground through inaction, failure or delay, so we Advance the Threat. We roll on the table and get a 79: the threat makes a dramatic and immediate move or a major event reveals new complications; mark menace twice (2/10). Menace is a track to measures how close the Threat is to completing their goal; no matter how difficult the quest is, once the Threat marks 10 menace they have completed their goal.

I rolled on the character goal table for Brynn and found that they want to harm a rival (obviously Baron Quinn) which I believe they will do by turning Sommersbrooke again Quinn. I roll on the Action and Theme Oracles to find out how this manifests and get Release Fear. I think Brynn has just cast a spell over the town which makes them fearful of outsiders. Even in comparison with having taken a tumble down a mountain, I think Althus’ job has gotten much, much more difficult.

Next time, I wonder what’s at the bottom of the mountain. Something good hopefully.

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Last session, rocks fell and everyone died. Now on with the game.

So Althus, Cratch, and Saskai are tumbling down the side of a mountain. A fairly ignoble start to Saskai’s adventuring career, unfortunately. So firstly, I think everyone is taking 4 harm (I quibbled for a while on this, but the term “grievous harm” seemed the best fit for the situation) and then will have to Endure Harm. First Althus, who rolls +iron and gets a strong hit (10 vs. 8, 6) while we’ll use to endure the pain and take +1 Momentum.

Next Saskai, who rolls Althus’ +heart (since it is higher than their current health) and gets a weak hit (4 vs. 5, 1). We won’t burn our Momentum since there are no additional downsides because Saskai’s health is greater than +0. Finally Cratch, who also rolls Althus’ +heart and gets a complication (7 vs. 8, 8). We’ll see what else shakes out from this situation before we decide what that complication is.

Now time to Ask the Oracle some questions to find out where our heroes wind up. Does an outcropping or ledge stop their fall (Likely)? Yes (88). Are our heroes seperated due to the fall (50/50)? No (15). So all of our heroes together and have landed a few hundred feet further down the mountain on an outcropping. I think this means the complication is that Cratch’s barding was damaged by the fall and we suffer -1 Supply. This may not sound too bad, but it drops us to 0 Supply which means we perform the Out of Supply move (pg. 97). We mark the Unprepared condition and cannot gain Supply while it is marked. That’s pretty bad, especially since now any -Supply we would suffer is now -Momentum, -Health, or -Spirit, depending on the fiction.

Well, our trio is not just going to wipe the dirt off and get back to the adventure. Since we have ourselves a major complication, I think drastic action is necessary.

So we’re Swearing a new troublesome Vow: “Ensure Saskai’s survival.” We roll +heart (and get a +1 since we have a bond with them) and get a strong hit (9 vs. 2, 4). We take our +2 Momentum (up to +8) and now it is time to head down this mountain. It seems unlikely that we would end up on sometime like a washed out or disused mountain path, but we’ll Ask the Oracle anyway: no. So it looks like we’re just going to have to take this slowly and steadily, finding or making paths as we go.

We’ll Face Danger (the mountain) with +wits (since observation and expertise seems most important) and get a weak hit (8 vs. 5, 10). I think this whole experience is weighing heavily with Althus, and so he’ll Endure Stress. We get a weak hit (8 vs. 9, 1) and so all we suffer is the -1 Spirit. Very fortuitous.

Having made our way to the bottom of the mountain, we Mark Progress (3/10) on our Vow to Saskai and now need to find someplace to tend to our injuries. I think we need to Secure an Advantage to find a lake, river, or even just stream or small spring. We roll +wits (again, observation) and get a weak hit (5 vs. 5, 1) but that should be able to get us something useful: a small stream of water coming down from the mountain.

Having made it to the creek, we Mark Progress again (6/10). Now it’s time to deal with everyone’s wounds. Since we have no Supply, our Herbalist asset will not help us, so we are going to roll +wits to Heal Saskai and get a miss (6 vs. 10, 7). Luckily, we have Momentum to burn (+8) and can turn that into a weak hit. We reset our Momentum to +1 (since we have the Unprepared condition, our Reset score has lowered) and then suffer another -1 Momentum (from the weak hit to heal) to take us down to +0 Momentum. I have a feeling it is only going to get lower from here.

However, I think getting Saskai’s health back up to +2 is enough for us to mark our last bit of progress on our Vow to them (9/10) and Fulfill Our Vow. We roll the Challenge Dice and get a strong hit (9 vs. 2, 8) which means our quest is complete and we mark 1 experience. Huzzah. Now to deal with Althus and Cratch’s injuries.

First Althus. We roll +iron (since these are our own injuries) and get a miss (5 vs. 6, 8). While there are some obvious outcomes here, I think we’ll roll on the Pay the Price Oracle for some inspiration. It is stressful, so I’m going to consult the book on Stress (pg. 20) and I would say this is a highly distressing event, so we’ll lose -2 Spirit (down to +2) and then Endure Stress. We get a weak hit and so we press on.

Finally Cratch. We roll +wits and get another weak hit (6 vs. 10, 4). Cratch gets +2 health (up to +3) but we suffer another -1 Momentum (down to -1). Things are starting to look bleak.

So things are bad. While Althus is unaware of it, there is a warlock turning the town of Sommersbrooke against him and Wyvern’s Rest. Also, both he and his companions are hurting really bad and are somewhere lost in the wilderness. I think the best we can do right now is Make Camp and see if we can return to our journey.

We roll +supply (using Cratch’s health per our asset, since I imagine sleeping cuddling up next to a big fluffy elephant isn’t that bad) and get a weak hit (7 vs. 7, 4). I think the best option is to recuperate so all three can recover +1 health (Althus up to +2, Cratch up to +4, and Saskai up to +3).

Once everyone is rested up, it’s time to return to the Journey. Since we’re off the path, I think we need to Gather Information to try and find our way back. We roll +wits (lots of +wits rolls today) and get a strong hit (9 vs. 2, 5). We get back onto the path and take +2 Momentum (up to +1). We roll +wits to continue our Journey and get a weak hit (8 vs. 9, 1). We’ll suffer -1 health (since we’re Unprepared and cannot suffer anymore -Supply) but luckily we do not have to roll to Endure Harm since this is just general wasting from lack of food and rest and not direct physical harm (small comfort). We do at least mark progress on our Journey (6/10) and I think we’re going to take our chances and try to Reach our Destination.

We roll the Challenge Dice and get a miss (6 vs. 10, 9). I think we’ve gone astray, but hopefully we may have reached another town other than Sommersbrooke. We Ask the Oracle and learn that we’ve arrived a different city than the one we intended. We roll on the Location Oracles and learn this is Blackfalls, a lowland settlement in a barren area with a diverse population. Perhaps they are those who fled the various Barons and created their own town in the shadow of a waterfall. Hopefully we can restock and resupply here.

But we’ll leave that for next time.

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Last time, a ship-teasing bath scene occurred and several fanfics were spawned. Don’t worry, we keep that theme going. Now onto the game.

So Althus, Saskai, and Cratch limp up to Blackfalls and hope for the best. Let’s see what the community’s initial reaction is to this ragtag group.

So we rolled on the Character Disposition Oracle (Lorestar, pg. 29) and found that the people of Blackfalls are wanting something. To find out what, we roll on the Character Goal Oracle and find that they are wanting to pay a debt. Perhaps staying separate from the Barons of the Havens requires a lot of coin and that coin is running out. And Althus’ iron shirt is likely worth a lot in this setting (per our Truths, Iron is rare and highly sought after).

With this in mind, I think we’re going to convince the people of Blackfalls to that, while the group is in need of help, they are not to be trifled with. We roll +iron (since threats of violence seem the best way to handle this, though it does mean we don’t get the bonus from our Kindred asset) and get a weak hit (9 vs. 10, 1). We’ll get +1 Momentum (taking us up to +1) but Blackfall is going to ask something of us.

We roll to find out a little more about the person Blackfall owes their debt to. We find that it is a criminal named Kiah (he | active, disfigured, dependent). I’m imagining some bandit lord who has Blackfalls under their thumb. With those tags, I’m imagining someone with some disfigurement that caused the people of Blackfalls to turn him away, so he decided to start his own small community of bandits and brigands. While still active and healthy, perhaps he’s taken with drugs or some other addiction (due to his dependent tag). Or maybe it’s that he can only prey upon Blackfall because of its lack of bannermen to protect it? I like that second one slightly more. Since the town is going to ask something of Althus, why not that he deals with Kiah.

Althus agrees and Swears an Iron Vow. We roll on the Challenge Rank Oracle and see that this is merely Troublesome. We roll +heart and get a strong hit (9 vs. 1, 8) which means we get +2 Momentum (up to +3) and the way is clear to us. I think the people of Blackfalls know where Kiah and hit bandits stay, but are unwilling to confront him.

Since Blackfalls is slightly more friendly with us, I think we need to Sojourn here and prepare for our confrontation with Kiah. This will give Brynn more time to work their magics against Sommersbrooke, but we don’t have many options. We roll +heart (and this time I think we do get Saskai’s +1 bonus from the Kindred asset, since they will be more apt to convince people to help us) and get a strong hit (9 vs. 4, 3). We will Equip, which removes the unprepared debility and gets us +1 Supply, and Recuperate, which gets everyone +2 health (Althus up to +4, Cratch up to +5, and Saskai up to +4). While it’s pushing our luck, I think we’re going to focus on provisioning ourselves and roll +heart again. We get a weak hit (5 vs. 3, 10) so we take an additional +1 supply.

After a couple nights’ rest and some tending to their wounds, the team is almost back to fighting shape. Althus, knowing blow back in likely if they fail, is going to try and find the most able body combatants in Blackfalls and try to give them some basic training (yes, I love this trope). We’re going to start by Gathering Information to narrow down who is worth training, so we’ll roll +wits (+1 from Saskai, since they really understand people better than Althus) and get a weak hit (6 vs. 3, 7). This introduces some information with complicates things, which I think is that the people of Blackfalls tried to stand up to Kiah before and it ended very badly for the town. It’s barren description is due to Kiah and his men burning their fields when they tried to stand up to him before. I think they’re going to need some convincing.

We roll +heart and let Saskai take the reins on this, since this is exactly what they’re good at. Unfortunately we get a miss (5 vs. 7, 5) so I think the villagers refuse entirely. This is the tail end of a lot of bad that’s happened with Saskai lately and I think we might need to Test That Bond (pg. 75). We roll +heart and get a weak hit (8 vs. 9, 3) which means our bond is very fragile at the moment. Saskai’s going to ask Althus something and I’m not entirely sure what.

We’ll turn to the Character Goal Oracle and it tells us to roll twice (97). We roll twice more and get the goals of “protect a secret” and “prove worthiness.” We know from Saskai’s traits that they are Adventurous, Violent, and Stingy. We’ve seen the Adventurousness and the Stinginess, but we haven’t really seen the Violent side of them. I think they were once a very Violent person and have tried to change that about themselves, but recent events is making it very hard for them. I think this means Althus is going to reassure them in some manner.

So to give Saskai their due, we are going to Endure Harm from their punch (1 harm). We roll +iron (since it is higher than our +3 health) and amazing get an opportunity (8 vs. 4, 4) which we used to let Althus take control of the conversation. It’s rough going and we don’t know how Saskai will take Althus’ words, so we turn to Ask the Oracle (50/50) and it looks like they’re going to stay (59). :slightly_smiling_face:

With this behind us, I think it’s time to handle Brynn’s scheming with Sommersbrooke. We Advance the Threat and get another major event (90). It looks like Brynn is going all out to take over Sommersbrooke, which is unfortunate for Althus.

We mark menace twice (4/10) and roll on the Action and Theme Oracles to see what they are up to: Bolster Health. Is part of why Brynn wants Sommersbrooke due to something mythical that they are using to bolster their own health? Or, because she is loyal (from their traits, which I don’t think I’ve shared yet: deceitful, driven, loyal), she is bolstering the health of whatever dark master they serve. An interesting possibility. So let’s envision what form of magic this could take the form of.

My initial thought is some healing springs, which Brynn might have just secured. To get some ideas, we roll for the Location Description of the spring and get wild, savage, and remote. So not by the village, but the village is the most direct way to get there. Perhaps it is hidden through a mountain pass or a dense forest? Maybe it is something the Firstborn used but, because of the savage tag, they have set some ancient guardian to watch over it. Did we just create the Ironlander version of the fountain of youth? Probably.

So Brynn has discovered the path to it, but she needs to deal with the guardian in order to claim it. Perhaps she’ll force the villagers of Sommersbrooke to start working at bypassing or dealing with the guardian if we continue to get sidetracked. Here’s hoping we can deal with Kiah quickly.

Next time, up into the mountain… again.

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Last time, a damn fool decided to climb up a mountain he fell down once already. Now onto the game.

Heading up the mountain, I think this is a perfect time to make use of the material from Delve again (we’ve been told that the full release is going to be late January/early February, so I’m looking forward to that). I think for this area, the Pass domain is the obvious choice for the mountain, but I’m a little less certain about Theme: Ancient, Fortified, Ravaged and Wild all make a certain amount of sense. Looking through them, I decide that Wild’s features work best and settle on a Wild Pass.

While we did technically explore part of this area before, I don’t think that gives us any benefit here so we’ll ignore that part of the Discover a Site move. Since we already almost died here, calling it a Dangerous site seems good. Now we’re ready to Delve the Depths.

We’re in the foothills of the mountain, nothing too scary yet (hopefully). Althus is going to take this slow and steady, since he’s already familiar with the dangers of this place, so we roll +wits and get a weak hit (5 vs. 6, 1) so we roll on the wits table and get the choice of marking progress or finding an opportunity. While finding an opportunity would be nice, I think we’re just going to take the progress (2/10) and continue up the mountain.

I’m not sure about this next leg of the journey, so we roll for the feature of this area and get a denizen’s lair. I don’t think this is the bandit’s camp, so perhaps we’ve run into the territory of a mountain lion or some great birds. Hopeful we don’t run afoul of them. We roll +wits to continue to Delve the Depths and get a strong hit (9 vs. 4, 6) which means not only do we mark progress (4/10) but we also Find an Opportunity. Since we got this due to a strong hit on Delve the Depths, we can choose what form this takes. I think that this is the territory of some great bird and we’ve come across its nest. Let us not let a good opportunity to Resupply our food stores go to waste.

We roll +wits again to Resupply and get a weak hit (8 vs. 5, 8) so we can take up to 2 supply but supply -1 momentum for each. Since our momentum is 6, I think we can let both go and collect some fresh eggs (momentum now +4, supply now +4). I imagine the penalty to momentum comes from Althus and Saskai having to constantly be on the lookout for the parents while they raid the nest. Now that we’ve got breakfast, let’s scram.

Since we’re moving out of the birds’ territory quickly, it makes sense to roll +edge and get another strong hit (8 vs. 7, 3). We roll for the location features and see that this is a winding mountain path, probably not too much unlike the one that gave out under the group before.

We still get an Opportunity, however, and I’m not sure what form that should take so I’m going to roll on the table. We get “you locate a secure area,” so I think once we get across the pass, we find a secure outcropping that we can take a moment to rest at and perhaps Make Camp. Since we’re making camp as part of our opportunity, we get +1 to our roll and get +1 momentum on a hit. We roll +supply (aka, Cratch’s health) and get a strong hit (8 vs. 3, 6) so we’ve got some options to make. We get +1 momentum from our hit (now +5). Only Althus is injured (+3 health) so I think recovering is a bit of a waste but we’re going into a dangerous situation, so we’ll take the time to Recuperate (health now +4). Our Spirit, however, is quite low (+2) to I think Relaxing is a good option (Spirit now +3).

So after that wonderful bit of bonding, I think it’s time to move on. We’ll continue through the mountain passes and roll +wits to Delve the Depths. We get a miss (6 vs. 6, 7) so we Reveal a Danger. We roll on the table and get “you face an environmental or architectural hazard.” Fair enough, we have more Oracles for this. We roll for the environment features and get “remains or carrion.” We roll for environment dangers and get “weather or environmental threat.”

What I am imagining is that Althus and the group spot in the mountains after discovering some fossils of some massive titans which once walked the Ironlands. Something like a massive rib cage jutting out of the ground where even Cratch could walk inside. And while they are marvelling, a storm breaks out and they need to find shelter. And I’m not talking about just some rain, I mean waves of water deluging from the sky while lightning peppers the ground around them.

The first thing I think the group needs to do is find someplace safe to wait out the storm. We’ll Gather Information to search the area and get a weak hit (8 vs. 3, 8) which means we find something but it complicates things. I think the cave is not empty.

Thinking back to what I said earlier, I think this might be a den of a mountain lion. Not finding stats to fit the beast, I think I’ll just use the stats for a wolf (pg. 150) and ignore the “run with the pack” part. Since we did get a weak hit on our Gather Information, I don’t think we’re ambushed but I do think we are on our back foot.

The first thing Althus is going to try to do is just chase the cat out of the cave, which would be a Compel, but I think the mountain lion is very disinclined to leave: it is raining, this is its den, and it is probably not very afraid of humans. We’ll Ask the Oracle whether it’s even possible for Althus to scare the lion away (small chance) and it looks like it is not. Which means we has fight.

We Enter the Fray with +heart and get a miss (4 vs. 4, 7) but we can make it a weak hit by burning our momentum (momentum now +2). However, we then get the choice of bolstering our position (+2 momentum) or taking advantage. I think we’ll bolster our position (momentum now +4) and try to get the upper hand.

Our mountain lion is on the initiative and because I haven’t used it before, I roll on the Combat Action Oracle and get “reinforce defenses” I think the mountain lion moves into a tight part of the cave where it has the advantage. I think Althus is going to try and provoke it out of its position and Secure an Advantage. We’ll roll +iron (since we’re using aggressive action) and get a strong hit (9 vs. 1, 2). This gives us the Initiative and think Althus’ prodding has caused the lion to make a headless charge at him, so Althus can easily step aside and slice at it.

We’ll immediately make a Strike and roll +iron and add +1 (due to our Securing an Advantage) and get another strong hit (10 vs. 5, 2). We deal 3 harm (6/10) and retain the initiative. We’ll try to End the Fight (since we just made a strong hit) and get a weak hit (6 vs. 6, 5). This means we win but we need to choose one of the negative options. I think with the fiction, Althus is trying to run the mountain lion off and he succeeds, but one its way out the lion barrels through Saskai and they are harmed.

Since the mountain lion is dangerous, this mean Saskai must suffer 2 harm. This brings them down to 2 health and then we roll +heart. We get a weak hit so nothing worse happens (since they are above 0 health). Well, at least we’ve got a cave to hole up in for a couple hours until the rain stops.

Althus will tend to Saskai’s wounds and roll +wits (+2 from our Herbalist asset) and get a weak hit (7 vs. 7, 1), which means we’ll lose 1 supply (down to +3) to give them +2 health (back up to full at +4). We’ll spare the shipbaiting fiction for now (unless I’ve completely misjudged my audience and this is why you’re reading this) and turn to events elsewhere.

Between the delays with camping earlier and now the storm, I believe we’ve satisfied the delay clause to trigger Advance a Threat (it is going to be amusing for Althus to finally get there and find the big bad has already enacted their plan). We roll and get another dramitic and immediate move that causes them to mark menace twice again (98). Brynn is not messing around with their plans for Sommersbrooke. They’ve now got 8/10 menace marked and we roll for what happens: Investigate Burden. Looks like Brynn is trying to find a way to bypass the springs guardian. Perhaps looking into the town’s history or perhaps having her forces dig up some Firstborn relics looking for clues. Well, if we roll 71+ again (or otherwise Advance the Threat twice), we get to see what action she performs to get past the guardian.

Part of me kind of wants to see Althus get there too late and have to make things right. But we’ll play to find out… next time!

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Last time, we still had made no progress on our quest to secure Sommersbrooke. Now onto the game.

So after a cold and freezing night in the cave, I think the group can finally head out. I imagine once Althus and Saskai emerge from the cave, Cratch chooses that exact moment to shake all the water out of his fur. That seems about right for how this particular journey has been going.

We continue our journey up the mountain (Delve the Depths) and get a weak hit (7 vs. 1, 10). We roll on the wits table and get mark progress (8/10) and find an opportunity (91). Not a bad turn around from the end of last session. We roll for the features to get an idea of what form this opportunity takes and get 100: you transition to a new domain! I wonder if perhaps the healing spring of Sommersbrooke is not the only remnant of the Firstborn in this area, so we transition to an underkeep.

Since we’re at 8/10 progress to find Kiah’s lair, I feel good enough to Locate Our Objective. We roll the challenge dice and get a strong hit (8 vs. 6, 2). With that in mind, I think we’ve found a backdoor or unused entrance into Kiah’s firstborn ruin lair. We’ll use the bonus from our strong hit to Gather Information with a +1 bonus. We get another strong hit (6 vs. 1, 3) so I think it is time to learn some things about Kiah’s bandits (as well as take +2 momentum).

We roll on the terrain features oracle to see what major features this part of the underkeep and get an imposing doorway. Perhaps Kiah and his bandits flocked here because there is some firstborn cache or vault here. Hopefully he has not gotten into it, but we’ll Ask the Oracle to be certain (unlikely). Fortunately, he has not (67).

Now for Kiah’s bandits. We see that they are generally (rolling on the character descriptor oracle) cautious (makes sense with the firstborn ruins), ugly (wow, way to be judgmental, Ironsworn), and insightful. Looks like Kiah’s gathered together a group suited for trying to crack into this vault.

Now for our next step. We’ve found Kiah’s lair, so we’ll mark progress on our quest (6/10). We don’t really care about Kiah’s interest in the firstborn vault, we care about what Kiah might do to the town… but that makes us care about Kiah not getting into said vault. Well, if this is a vault, is there a security system?

Since we already got a strong hit on a Gather Information move, I don’t see the need to make another one, so we’ll just Ask the Oracle (likely). No there is not (16) which is unfortunate. I guess this means we’re back to the obvious solutions.

So Althus is going down alone into the midst of the bandits. First we’ll Ask the Oracle and see if the bandits do indeed subscribe to a “might makes right” system of leadership (50/50). They do indeed (75) so when Althus announces himself, he’ll be brought before Kiah.

So let’s see if we can get Kiah to agree to duel. We roll +iron to Compel and get a strong hit (8 vs. 4, 5). Looks like Kiah is down, so we’ll roll +heart to Draw the Circle. We get an opportunity (6 vs. 3, 3) so I think one of the bandits is honorable enough to cut Althus free from his bonds and give him back his knife. We get +1 momentum and can take up to two boasts in exchange for more momentum: we’ll give Kiah the initiative for another +1 momentum (bringing our Momentum up to +8). Reflecting on the difficulty of the quest, I think Kiah is probably a Troublesome opponent.

I imagine Kiah’s going to come in with thrust of the knife and Althus is going to try and step into it the swing and hope his iron shirt can take the blow. We’ll Face Danger with +iron (for endurance and forceful defense) and get another opportunity (7 vs. 6, 6). I think Kiah was expecting to bowl us over, but we are the ones who stood strong after his charge, leaving the bandit leader on the ground. We take +1 momentum (+9 total) and the initiative.

Althus is going to for decisive blow, pressing our weight onto Kiah to keep him down and follow up with some knife strikes. We roll +iron to Strike and get a weak hit (8 vs. 10, 4) so we at least inflict harm (2 harm for 6/10 progress) but we’ve lost the initiative. I think once Althus has gotten a few strikes in, Kiah is able to roll him off long enough for both of them to scramble to their feet.

Kiah’s hurt, so we’ll turn to the Combat Action Oracle to see what he’ll do. We get “attack with precision,” which I guess means he’s feeling kind of cornered and looking to go for a killing blow on Althus. We’ll meet him head on and Clash (here’s hoping we get one of those samurai showdown simultaneous strikes) with +iron. We get another weak hit (7 vs. 9, 1) so we are able to inflict harm again (10/10) but Kiah also gets a good strike on Althus. We’ll roll to Endure Harm (health down +2) and get a miss (7 vs. 7, 8) but this is finally a roll we can burn our momentum for a strong hit. We do so, taking +1 momentum from our Ironclad talent, as well as another for our strong hit (Momentum now +4). Unfortunately, this doesn’t give us the initiative or allow us to finish the fight.

We’ll see if we can disarm Kiah, which would be Face Danger +edge (since this involves deftness and speed) and get another weak hit (7 vs. 7, 1). We do manage to disarm Kiah’s knife (possibly getting it caught in our iron shirt and tearing it free when we push away from each other) but we’ve got to suffer another strike as the knife digs into our ribs (health now +0). We roll +iron to Endure Harm and get weak hit (6 vs. 6, 1) so nothing worse happens.

We’re winning each exchange but we can’t seem to get a decisive hit, so Kiah’s chipping us to death. I can imagine Kiah taunting us with something to that effect, which I think Althus would respond by just punching him in the jaw (we can’t do any more harm, but Clashing is what we’re good at). We get a weak hit (6 vs. 7, 5) and I can see the comment getting into Althus’ head. We’ll endure stress (spirit now +1) and get a miss (4 vs. 10, 5) which brings our momentum down to +3.

We need to finish this, so Althus is going to Turn the Tide and try to finish this. Kiah is in Althus’ head, so he is going to go for a killing blow. We Strike and finally get a strong hit (8 vs. 7, 2). We roll to Finish the Fight and get a strong hit (10 vs. 6, 8). So Althus finishes Kiah off with a blow to the gut (probably not that different from the one he gave the much better armored Kaivan in our first session) which kills the bandit leader. Althus might have won the physical battle, but Kiah won the ideological fight here.

With Kiah dead, we Ask the Oracle if the other bandits will flee (50/50). They do not (42), so Althus tries to convince them to do so. We roll +heart and get a weak hit (7 vs. 10, 6) so the bandits ask him something in return. We roll on the Character Disposition Oracle and see that they are threatening; they want something from Althus. The iron shirt (likely)? No (7). We roll on the Character Goal Oracle and get “find redemption.” They want him to convince the people of Blackfalls to take them in? Given how our Compel rolls have been going, I think this is not going to go well.

But we’ll leave that for next time. We did not have any significant delays so I don’t feel we need to Advance the Threat, but if things continue to be complicated in Blackfalls, we might.

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I couldn’t get the thread on Twitter to open before, but I can now and… yeah, that’s pretty much exactly …

Yeah. Man. That’s exactly it.

With all the beginning of the year travelling starting to commence next week, I am taking a small break from the solo game to let the batteries recharge… at least until Delve comes out. Much hype for all the new features and systems.

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That’s cool. I can start sharing the dumb thing I’m doing.

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If it is what I think it is, I have seen the “dumb” thing you are doing and I look forward to what occurs.

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