Ironsworn Solo Game

[insomn14 (Mike)]

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 what are we going to do?” Saskai asked as they neared the town.

“I’m going to go up to the first person I meet and say I require lodging,” Althus said, his tone turning grim at the end. Saskai looked at him with a befuddled expression and the Northerner shrugged. “It always works.”

Saskai shook their head. “You’re a fool. We just need to explain what happened and hopefully the people of this community will be glad to help out.”

Ahead, the two saw a tall woman standing watching at a wooden archway. She was leaning on a spear, watching the fields, but stood up at attention when the three neared her.

“Who goes there?” she asked in a neutral tone, eyes scanning from Cratch to Saskai to Althus.

“We’re travelers and we had a bit of trouble at the mountain pass,” Saskai said, gesturing at their still fresh wounds. “We’re lost and hoping that we could get something to eat and maybe rest.”

The guard nodded along with Saskai’s statements but suddenly froze. Her eyes were transfixed on Althus and his iron shirt.

“Are you Ironsworn?” the guard asked. Althus began to confirm but the guard had already brought their spear up to the ready and prodded it in the Northerner’s direction. “Take off the iron shirt and give it to me.”

Althus turned to Saskai and gave them a very flat look. Suddenly his hand shot forward and grabbed the spear, wrenching it from the guard’s hands and flinging it idly a couple meters away.

“I require lodging,” Althus said grimly.

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.

“I apologize Northerner, but you must understand our situation,” the young hunter said.

At the public house, Althus and Saskai sat with the defacto leader of Blackfalls, a huntsman named Elstan. Althus did his best to maintain his composure and dignity while Saskai greedily dug into the bread and cheese the landlord of the public house had brought to the table.

Althus nodded, “I understand but I have nothing to offer you.” The young hunter gestured to the iron shirt, but Althus waved him off. “I would no more be willing to part with this than I would give up my own life.”

“He had a thing about the shirt,” Saskai chimed in between bites. “He doesn’t ever take it off. And don’t ask about the mammoth either.”

Elstan groaned at this and kicked the table leg in frustration. “If we cannot muster something to pay off Kiah, he and his bandits will surely take whatever they wants when he comes to collect his payment.”

Althus sat up in his seat. “Tell me more about this Kiah.”

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.

That night at the public house, Althus and Saskai tried their best to get comfortable in the hay cot that the landlord provided them. They shared a blanket but only in the loosest of terms, for Saskai had curled up with as much of it as possible, leaving most of Althus exposed to the cold air.

“What are you planning,” Saskai asked when they had finally decided Althus was not going to stop drumming on his iron shirt.

“Don’t know,” Althus admitted. “Give these folks a little bit of courage and training before we leave in case we fail, then head back up the mountain to confront Kiah.

“Is that wise?” Saskai asked, rolling over so they could see the Northerner’s face.

“Probably not,” Althus said with a faint shrug. “But I am a fool.”

Saskai kicked Althus’ leg from under the blanket and rolled back over to try and go back to sleep.

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.

“This is Althus,” Saskai announced to the assembled villagers, “and he is an Ironsworn. He’s sworn to protect your village from Kiah but if he fails, Kiah will come here looking for revenge.”

“Then he best not fail!” a swineherd from the back of the crowd shouted.

“He won’t,” Saskai said, trying to speak over the chattering of the villagers, “but we would feel so much better knowing that you folks were prepared to defend yourselves if something were to happen.”

“But you said he wouldn’t!” another villager in the crowd shouted. “And now you’re trying to tell us he might!”

The crowd’s shouting and arguing drowned out Saskai’s words and Althus grabbed their arm. “I think we need to go.”

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.

Outside of town, Cratch lead the way while Althus and Saskai walked in his wake. Althus wanted to give Saskai their distance after the people of Blackfalls turned on them but that was difficult on the road, so he just averted his gaze from them. He finally looked up when he heard them crying. Saskai’s face was red and patchy from the tears, but what Althus noticed the most was that their hands were clenched into white-knuckled fists.

Althus tried to say something comforting but couldn’t find the words. Finally Saskai broke the silence. “I want to kill them.”

“Who?”

“Those villagers,” Saskai said between sobs and blowing their nose, “they’re cowards. Every last one of them.”

Althus didn’t know how to respond to this. He still wanted to comfort Saskai but, while he didn’t want to belittle their feelings, he didn’t fully agree with them either. “They are,” Althus finally said. “But that doesn’t mean they don’t need our help.”

Saskai froze at that. The tears flowed more freely now and Saskai began to shake softly. Althus reached out a hand but Saskai slapped it away and punched him in the jaw. Saskai froze in surprise at their own reaction, but the Northerner used this as an opportunity to reach out and grab their arms; not gruffly to bind them in place, but gently.

Saskai started to cry out an apology, but Althus shushed them quiet. “I know,” Althus croaked out, his voice starting to crack. “I know how damn infuriating these people can be, but they are scared and hopeless and they don’t know what to do. But I am Ironsworn; I have to do something. I cannot look away when I see someone in trouble.”

Althus bowed his head, the thought that his time with Saskai coming to an end weighing heavy on him. Being Ironsworn meant walking a different path and it had taken him away from so many people: his home, his family, his friends. He’d hoped that joining Quinn’s baronsworn and Wyvern’s Rest might have changed that but perhaps nothing changed so easily.

And then he felt Saskai’s forehead softly rest on his own.

The Northerner didn’t dare look up, just enjoying the warmth and closeness. Through the touch, Althus could still feel Saskai’s body shutter and jerk with tears but each one grew weaker and weaker as they stood like this.

“I know,” Saskai whispered. “I know you can’t. That’s what I love about you.”

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).

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.