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).