Ironsworn Solo Game

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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I’m interested in it as well, for a project I’ve been wanting to write for awhile, set in a post-apocalyptic setting. If it works as well for that as Masks has worked being an oracle for Silverline, I’m happy.

Last time, I took an ill-timed break from the game, realizing too late that I cannot easily add in all the cool new material from Delve in the midst of an important vow. Unfortunate. Now onto the game.

Althus, Saskai, Cratch, and all of Kiah’s bandits (well, at least a majority of them, I’m sure a few scampered off to do their own thing) are heading back down the mountain to Blackfalls. We try to follow the normal path the bandits took and roll +wits to Escape the Depths. We get a weak hit (6 vs. 1, 6) so I think that this trip is really taking a mental toll on Althus. He had to kill Kiah (not really I found out, thanks to the Ironsworn Discord, I could have Ended the Fight on any of those strong hits to Endure Harm apparently), the people of Blackfall are kind of dicks, he’s likely still not emotionally recovered from Saskai’s meltdown a couple of sessions ago, and probably not physically recovered from all his injuries from falling off the mountain path. It has been a rough week for our Ironsworn.

We take -1 spirit (which brings us to 0) and roll +heart to Endure Stress. We miss and get a complication (4 vs. 6, 6) so now we need to look at things. For the miss, we’re going to mark Shaken (in the narrative, Althus is at his breaking point mentally now; mechanically, we lower Max Momentum and Reset Value by 1 and cannot regain Spirit until it is cleared) and then lose -1 Momentum (taking us down to +2). Now for the Complication… I think Althus just gives up. He has had enough of this sidequest BS.

We’ve completed what we’ve sworn to do: Blackfall is safe from Kiah forever. And, thankfully, the trigger for Fulfill Your Vow is “when you achieve what you believe to be the fulfillment of your vow” so we’ll do that and get a strong hit (9 vs. 3, 5). Fantastic. We note the 1 xp (5 total, 3 used) and now it’s time to convince these bandits that “we” are finished as well. We roll to Compel (using violence and threats as a motivator this time) and get another strong hit (9 vs. 4, 7) so we convince the bandits to either make genuine amends with the people of Blackfalls or piss off to some other town (Althus doesn’t really care which at the moment, but it’s probably a little of both). Perhaps we’ll get to see the fallout from this decision some other time.

So our Health and Spirit are 0, our Supply is +3, our Momentum is +2, and we have the Shaken condition checked. Also, Saskai’s health is +2 (though Cratch feels great at +5). This is not something a quick Make Camp or Sojourn (as if we had the opportunity) is going to clear up. It’s time for Sojourn’s big brother (with downsides) from Delve: Take a Hiatus (Delve, pg. 158). Althus is going to tell his duty to Baron Quinn to piss off while he, his kindred, and his mammoth go camp out at a stream fishing, sleeping, and taking relaxing baths. And this relaxing montage of recovery is going to allow us to 1) clear all conditions, 2) set our health, spirit, supply, and companion’s health to max, and finally 3) reset our momentum to its reset value (back up to +2 since all our conditions are cleared). Great!

However, all this great stuff comes with a downside: while Althus recovers, Brynn will continue her plot to gain the power of the mystic springs outside of Sommersbrooke. We roll to Advance the Threat and thankfully (62) only mark one box of menace (9/10). With the new Threat Action Oracles (Delve, pg. 220-223) we roll for some inspiration and get “Use magic or trick to deceive.” I think Brynn has found a way to trick her way past the guardian of the springs and can now begin her ritual to sap their powers (for what nefarious purpose, we still don’t know).

A perfect place to pick up for next time.

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Last time, we returned to the stream. Yeah, that stream. Now onto the game.

So Althus and crew are finally heading to Sommersbrooke (for the first since the first session of this particular vow, if we want to split hairs). I’m not terribly interested in the trip at this point and I think that Blackfalls was close enough to Sommersbrooke that it doesn’t qualify as hazardous or unfamiliar. It’s also likely that, before dealing with Kiah and his bandits, some of the townsfolk of Blackfalls could have told Althus the path to Sommersbrooke, so we’ve got our way there.

Once the team arrives, Althus gets a first hand look at Brynn’s work. Everyone in the town is shut up in their homes, weary of outsiders. Large sections of the town have been excavated, looking for Firstborn artifacts. This place probably looks a bit like a ghost town.

We Ask the Oracle if anyone in town is willing to talk to Althus (unlikely). Surprisingly, someone is (87). We check with the Character Role Oracle and they are an Adventurer. We continue checking with Oracles and learn they are Taylah (he | bitter, cunning, and old) and are Curious about Althus and his friends.

We’ll ask Taylah about what happened here and roll +wits to Gather Information. We get a strong hit (6 vs. 5, 4) so luckily Taylah has some good information (as well as +2 Momentum). He tells Althus about Brynn and her take over of the town, her search for the Healing Springs of the Firstborn, and his own experiences with the site (I imagine he explored it as a younger man and tried several times to unsuccessfully bypass the guardian on his own). But this means Taylah can also tell us about the guardian.

We’ll use the new Monstrosity Oracles from Delve (Delve, pg. 214-216) and learn that it is a giant-sized bird with four taloned legs and an oversized mouth on its stomach, lined with rows of sharp teeth. Taylah also tells of its poisonous breath, its incredible swiftness, and its ability to recover from any injury thanks to its bond to the healing springs. Fantastic.

Well let’s see how we’re doing on this quest. We’ve made it to the town of Sommersbrooke and found out about Brynn and her plot. I think that qualifies for two milestones on our quest which, since this is a Formidable quest, counts as two progress (2/10). We’re going to make some headway here.

With that out of the way, let’s return to the guardian of the springs. Normally I would say something like this is an Extreme foe, nigh unassailable in combat, but Taylah has armed us with knowledge of the beast’s capabilities. Let’s see if we can fashion a makeshift gas mask.

We roll +wits (since this seems like something insightful) to Secure an Advantage and get a strong hit (7 vs. 1, 2). This seems like the definition of preparation, so we get +2 Momentum (now up to +6) but since it will partially nullify one of the guardian’s traits, I think it makes sense to drop the threat of this monstrosity to “merely” Formidable. Let’s see if we can secure another advantage…

We make another +supply roll to Check Our Gear and get another strong hit (10 vs. 2, 6)… the law of averages is going to be pain soon I suspect. We get another +1 Momentum (up to +7) and have something very useful against the bird and its tactics. This should also knock it down from Formidable to Dangerous. At this point, we are just about ready to fight the beast.

Next time, we fight the scary bird monster and maybe face-off against Brynn.

Last time, we decided to fight the Dragon-Raven of Sommersbrooke. Yeah, that seemed like a smart idea at the time. Now onto the game.

So Althus is ready to fight this beast, but what approach to take. There’s a certain amount of sense with our skillset to just run in and let fate take the wheel. But where’s going to try the subtle approach first.

Althus is going to try his best catch the bird monster unawares. First we Ask the Oracle if the bird is on watch for people trying to enter the springs (likely). Yes (68), so we’re going to try and quietly sneak close to it. We roll +shadow to Secure an Advantage and surprisingly get a weak hit (5 vs. 6, 2). We could burn our momentum to upgrade it to a strong hit, but I am perfectly fine with this being a short-lived advantage and taking the +1 Momentum (up to +8).

So thanks to the woolen cloak wrapped around Althus’ iron shirt (tied in place with the Ironlander barbed wire) he is able to sneak up right behind the bird. I imagine he’s right up thing’s tail before it even notices something is amiss. Let’s Enter the Fray and see how that turns out.

We roll +shadow (since we as ambushing or otherwise striking without warning) and get a weak hit (8 vs. 1, 10). I think our choice is obvious: take the Initiative, leap up on the beast’s back before it can act, and drive Kiah’s Cleaver into its spine.

We roll +iron to Strike and get a strong hit (7 vs. 4, 1)! Since our preparations have downgraded the guardian to a Dangerous Foe, we are dealing 3 harm (+1 from our strong hit) which is 6 progress on our track to take out the beast (6/10). Seems risky, but let’s try and End the Fight.

We roll the challenge and get so close to a strong hit, but it’s only a weak hit (6 vs. 5, 6). Since we cannot burn Momentum on progress moves, it looks like we’re going to have to choose one of the options from End the Fight.

We decide to Endure Harm. Since the beast is Dangerous, we lose 2 Health and then roll +iron to find out our fate. We get a weak hit (6 vs. 1, 9) and so do not end up any worse, but at least our Ironclad asset nets us +1 Momentum (up to +9). We also mark progress towards our Iron Vow (3/10). I’m also retroactively adding a progress for having dealt with the situation in Blackfall (4/10). Though it wasn’t directly related, it was something that hindered our ability to complete our main quest and so, based on comments from the creator, should count as progress towards it.

Now clear of the springs’ guardian, we can finally confront Brynn. I imagine she is deep into her ritual and so I’m of two minds; on one hand she could have mystical protections in place against interference, but on the other she may have relied on the guardian for protection. I’m going to make both equally likely and Ask the Oracle (phrased as “does Brynn have magical protections in place?”). Apparently not (6).

Let’s wreck up Brynn’s ritual. This is totally outside Althus’ wheelhouse, so let’s just kick over some ritual candles and hopes it does something we want it to. This definitely sounds risky, so we’ll Face Danger and roll +iron since this is an aggressive action. We get a weak hit (9 vs. 9, 6) and so I imagine there’s a bit of a backlash from breaking the ritual. We roll on the Mystic Backlash oracle and get (69) “You are tempted by dark powers.” I now think Brynn is in league with some dark demon, the ancient enemy of the elven Firstborn who is trying to free themselves to act on the Ironlands by siphoning their lost magicks.

So per our weak hit on Face Danger we’ll suffer -1 Momentum from our hesitation and surprise but Althus quickly recovers. We’ll Ask the Oracle whether Brynn is going to try and flee in the confusion (50/50) and the answer is yes (62). Althus is going to try to give chase and feel like this is a good opportunity to do a Scene Challenge (pg. 234).

We make a progress track for “Catch Brynn” (0/10) and a separate countdown track (0/4). We have until the countdown track fills to try to catch Brynn. Per the book’s recommendation, we’ll make this a Dangerous challenge for the purpose of marking progress.

So Brynn is tearing off through the spring trying to make it for the tree line. Althus is going to try and race around the outside of the spring to try and cut her off, so we’ll Face Danger with +edge. We get a complication (5 vs. 10, 10), which I think means the guardian is back up. We mark a countdown box (1/4) and I think everyone is now moving a bit more quickly (I imagine Brynn had to drop her illusion while performing her ritual).

Althus is going to try and book it for the treeline now, get out of the area around the springs and hopefully catch up with Brynn there. Roll +edge again and get another miss (3 vs. 6, 4). This one, however, we can turn into a strong hit by burning our momentum, which I think we definitely should (Momentum now +2). We mark progress (2/10) and Althus had escaped from the guardian’s area of protection. Now to see if we can find Brynn now.

We’ll try and look about the forest, Facing Danger +wits. We get a strong hit (9 vs. 4, 3) so Althus catches sight of Brynn escaping through the forest down an incline. We mark progress (4/10) and I imagine Althus is just going to try and make his way through the forest towards her.

We roll +edge again and get a strong hit (8 vs. 3, 6). We mark progress (6/10) and I feel Althus has caught up to Brynn. Now to see if we can trip her up and capture her. We roll +iron to Face Danger and get the strongest hit possible (10 vs. 8, 6).

We mark progress (8/10) and now I think is good place to try and resolve this Scene Challenge. We roll the Challenge Dice and get a strong hit (8 vs. 6, 5) which means we achieve our goal unconditionally. We’ve captured the warlock Brynn which I believe should count as a milestone on our vow (5/10).

Althus and Brynn return to Sommersbrooke and now is time to figure out what to do with Brynn. First thing first, let’s see if we can find the leader of Sommersbrooke. We roll +wits to Gather Information and get a weak hit (8 vs. 9, 2) which means the information complicates our quest. I think this means the leader of Sommersbrooke was the first person who tried to oppose Brynn and she killed them with her magicks. We Ask the Oracle (likely) but this seems like that is not the case (3). We roll on the Action and Theme tables and get “Weaken/Decay”: Brynn didn’t kill them, just set a deadly curse upon them.

We could try to convince Brynn to remove the curse, but we have very little leverage to do so. We likely could not break the curse without her, so killing her will only go so far. But we do have a healing spring and Althus already defeated its guardian once.

So we attempt to Compel Brynn into releasing the curse on Sibila (she/her | jealous, experienced, ironsworn) the leader of Sommersbrooke. We roll +heart (since we’re more bartering than threatening) and get a complication (6 vs. 9, 9). I don’t think Sommersbrooke (represented by Taylah) cares for us trying to bargain with the warlock and moves to end the threat of the warlock once and for all. We try to intercept (Facing Danger with +edge) but fail to react quickly enough (5 vs. 8, 9).

These last two major failures make me think it’s time for another new feature from Delve, Learning From Your Failure (Delve, pg. 58). We make a new progress track (called “Failures”) and mark a single tick for each failure (0.5/10). Once we’re up 6 progress or greater, we can attempt to Learn from Our Failures. But that’s a ways off.

We still need to Pay the Price for our Face Danger (the Pay the Price for the Compel was the “soft move” of Taylah threatening to kill Brynn then and there) so I think this was quite stressful. Looking at the table of stress levels (pg. 95) I feel this was an upsetting failure, so we suffer -2 spirit (down to +3) and then roll +spirit. We get a strong hit (6 vs. 3, 1), so I think we shake it off, trading -1 Momentum (down to +1) for +1 spirit (back up to +4).

Now to figure out what we’re going to do. The choices are fairly obvious: let Sibila die (not likely a good outcome for Baron Quinn) or face the guardian again to collect some of the restorative waters of the spring. And said like that, there’s hardly any option for us at all.

But we’ll deal with that particular complication next time!

Last time, we tried to offer peace to those that offered us harm but dice wouldn’t let us. Now onto the game.

So we’ve still got out preparations from our last tangle with the Raven-Drake, but since we’re changing tactics I think that we should try to Secure an Advantage. Althus is going to try and craft a potion that will heighten his focus and speed his limbs. We’ll roll +wits and get a strong hit (9 vs. 2, 5). We’ll prepare to act and take the +2 momentum (now up to +3).

Next, since we’re already delving into the herbs, we’ll attempt to Heal. We’ll take the +2 bonus from our Herbalist asset and roll +wits, but only get a weak hit (10 vs. 10, 5). Unfortunate, but we’ll still recover +2 health (up to +5), though at the cost of -1 supply (down to +4).

Finally, since our task is to secure the aid of Sommersbrooke to Wyvern’s Rest, I think a bit of flying the flag is needed. To that end, we’re going to publicly Swear an Iron Vow to see Sibila healed of her curse (which also is probably worth another milestone on our quest, since we’re giving the people of Sommersbrooke some hope, so 6/10 on that progress track). Since it seems fairly simple (though certainly not easy) I think making it only a Troublesome quest is not out of the question. We roll +iron and get a weak hit (6 vs. 6, 4) which is fine. We get another +1 momentum (up to +4) and head out to the spring (marking progress on our vow to cure Sibila, 3/10).

I think we should use another Scene Challenge for this, so we make a progress track for “collect the water of the spring” (0/4) and a countdown track (0/4). First let’s try sneaking as close as possible. We Face Danger with +shadow and get a miss (3 vs. 3, 7). While early, we’ll burn our momentum (back down to +2) to make it a weak hit. We mark progress (2/10) but also mark the countdown (1/4); I think the beast is aware of us.

Now that the beast can see us, I think we just book it towards the springs. We’re running flat out (with the help of our Hot Meadow concoction, though that doesn’t give us any mechanical benefit other than the momentum we generated) so we Face Danger again, but this time +edge. We get another weak hit (4 vs. 3, 8) so we mark further progress (4/10) but also mark the countdown track (2/4). I imagine the beast, with its supernatural speed, has gotten ahead of us and now blocks our path. Let’s see how it like iron.

We’re going to try and rush our way past the beast, leaping at it with Kiah’s cleaver. We roll +iron another weak hit (9 vs. 10, 5). I am imagining Althus leaping at the beast and getting a couple cuts in before it bats him away with one of its massive wings. Perhaps closer to one of the pools? Regardless, we mark our progress (6/10) and mark countdown (3/4).

The beast is bearing down on us, toothy maw on its stomach flapping and talons tearing. Althus takes a quick moment to dump out the last of his water over his face wrappings and dunks his waterskin into the waters. The beast crashes into him and Althus counts on his barbed wire to make the beast regret it. We roll +iron to Face Danger and get a strong hit (8 vs. 5, 1). I feel like the beast kicks him over with one of its talons and starts to stomp at him, only to cut itself on the barbed wire. The beast flaps away in confusion and pain. Luckily, Althus has only some minor bruises to show for the exchange. We mark progress (8/10) and I think it is time to vamoose.

We roll the Challenge Dice and get a strong hit (8 vs. 5, 4). We’re able to escape, most likely with the beast howling in pain behind us, wanting to give chase but the iron cuts (and perhaps its bond to this location) not allowing it to. With water in hand, we mark progress on our Vow (6/10) and rush back to town.

Once back, it’s time to see Sibila. We administer the healing waters to her and Ask the Oracle “can the waters break the curse” (almost certainly). They can (86), and while it’ll still be a while until Sibila will be back on her feet, we’ve saved her life. We roll the challenge dice to Fulfill Our Vow and get an opportunity (6 vs. 1, 1). We mark xp (6 total, 3 used) and now to imagine what this means. The most obvious answer is that we did not need to use all of the healing water to break the curse. An interesting single-use resource to hold in our back pocket. We’ll mark that on our sheet.

With Sibila saved, we’ll mark progress on that Vow as well and I think we can try to Fulfill that as well. We get a strong hit (7 vs. 2, 4) netting us 3 more XP (9 total, 3 used) which gives us a lot to work with. I’ll need time to figure out what to do with all of it. But wait, we also had a threat on that quest. And since the threat’s menace equaled or exceeded our progress when we completed it (9 menace vs. 7 progress) we get 1 additional progress (a small bonus for excepting a threat on a Vow). That puts us at 10 total XP.

But for now, we’ll attempt to Forge a Bond with Sommersbrooke. We roll +heart and get a strong hit (6 vs. 2, 4) and so we mark the bond and get +1 spirit, bringing us back up to max. With that, I feel this is a good place to leave Althus and crew until his next quest. He’ll spend some time recovering, training, and bonding with the people of Sommersbrooke.

Until next time, I leave you all with a question: What sort of adventures would you like to see Althus go on next?

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So now that Delve has been released and the Roll20 sheet has been updated with that content, it might be time to dust off the old chainmail and head back out into the Ironlands. Before I start a new adventure later this week, does anyone have any suggestions for what sort of adventures they’d like to see Althus go on?