Ironsworn Solo Game

[insomn14 (Mike)]

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.

“Althus,” Saskai said quietly, putting the Northerner on edge.

Althus put one hand on his belt knife and stalked over to where his companion was. When Althus finally reached Saskai, they pointed into a hole in the side of the mountain. Below, Althus could see the remnants of structures built directly into the mountain. And as he watched, he saw someone walk into view.

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).

From above, Althus and Saskai peered down at the bandit camp. They had taken up residence in the ruins of some firstborn city.

Althus noted that several of the bandits were examining some large door, perhaps a vault or some other secure storage area. He could tell that they were not examining it in fine detail like someone who had just happened across some find, but the long, slow examination of someone trying to unlock a puzzle.

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.

“You are a fool,” Saskai said.

Althus had lashed one end of a rope to himself and gave the other end to Cratch to hold. He tested the strength of the line with a couple of quick tugs and found them satisfactory.

“As you keep telling me,” Althus replied. “Do you have a better idea?”

Saskai started to say something but came up blank.

“Then I’m going to go challenge Kiah for leadership of the bandits.”

“But what if they don’t… you know, subscribe to a method of leadership that derives from strength of arms?”

Althus shrugged. “Then I’ll make it up as I go. Look after Cratch. If I’m not back by nightfall, I’m not coming back. Go back to Wyvern’s Rest and tell Quinn I was a fool.”

Saskai started to say something but Althus did not wait to hear it, instead beginning his descent into the firstborn ruins.

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.

Althus was brought before the leader of the bandits, Kiah. Althus immediately noticed that he did have the unsettling appearance of someone with too tight skin that the people of Blackfalls described and also noticed that the bandit’s skin had taken on an unnatural blue tint. Perhaps some taint from these ruins?

“So you know my name, Northerner,” Kiah said, lounging in a stone seat build for someone of much larger stature. “Who told you? Those pitiful villagers in Blackfalls?” The bandit leader barked out a laugh and his followers all followed suit.

Once the laughter had died down, Althus said loudly, “Yes, they did. And yes, they are a pitiful lot.”

Amused, Kiah leaned forward so he could examine the Northerner more closely. “If you think that, you’re obviously not here to stop us-”

“Yes, I am.”

The bandits began to laugh again, but Kiah silenced them with a wave of his hand. “You seem to misunderstand the situation, friend,” Kiah said as if explaining things to a small child. “You have been captured. Your arms are bound. You are not going to be doing anything without my say so.”

In response, Althus swung his bound arms into the gut of the nearest bandit and, when they doubled over in pain, shot his knee up into the man’s face. A sickening crack accompanied the blow and the man fell down in a heap. Althus turned his attention back to Kiah and said, “You seem to misunderstand the situation.”

The bandits drew weapons but Kiah raised his hand and his men stopped. The bandit leader chuckled softly and said, “You’ve got spirit Northerner, I will give you that. What do you think you can do here?”

“Beat you, scatter your men to the winds,” Althus said, but then added, “take you back to Blackfalls for their judgment.”

Kiah pulled a knife from his belt. “Challenge accepted.”

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.