Previous: Issue 1, Part 0
(Content Warning: Regional Prejudice, Language, Residential Disaster, Parasitic Infection, Violence)
Okay, so my "next move is clear." Koavarr has clearly started this particular task with some fire in him. I wonder if there's something to that. Maybe it was the child in need? The sense of the community in danger? Whatever it was, clearly something has strongly motivated him to undertake this vow. He would have anyway, because that's the sort of person he is. But this seems personal, doesn't it? I'll try to remember that.
Anyway, the whole next move being clear thing. I think that means that Thornhill isn't actually all that far from Blackwick. The townspeople know of their sister village. They think of it as a weird, insular, inbred place, deep in the woods, across the regional line. If you take the fork at the crossroads, they say, the road will lead you to their village. But they always warn travelers not to stay overlong in Thornhill. And travelers to and from the creepy village in the woods have long reinforced this attitude. That, yes, this is a weird place with creepy, inbred people, steer clear if you can. Lucky for me, though, that means the path is well marked.
I take one last look at the little girl who has been beaten to hell to deliver her desperate plea, not even knowing if she would find someone worthy to deliver it to in this backwater, forgotten place. I shake my head and wish upon all my salt for that kind of bravery. As I duck my head at the doorway and step out, the old healer crone quietly calls for me to wait. I am eager to be about my task but, respectfully, I wait for the elder to come outside. She tucks a woolen blanket about the girl's neck and then joins me outside the hut. Again, with patience, I wait for her to address me.
"Ironsworn. The village of Thornhill is known to us. It is not far from here but it is buried in the Wood." She points a bony, knuckled, finger in the direction of the Deep Wilds. "Take the fork at the crossroads, there, and journey until the path grows small and withered. It will seem almost not a road at all. Be warned, Ironsworn, these people are not like us. They are inbred for many generations, hidden away in the darkness of the wood, away from the light of the sun, and doing only the ancient gods know what. They do not think like us." She pauses, thinking. I do not like this line of conversation but I say nothing, out of respect for her standing in the community. "We may yet save the child." She waves a shaky hand toward the hut. "Yes. Yes...go now. See what may be done." With that, she leaves me.
Just as well.
I don't think it's necessary to make a Undertake a Journey move here. The village of Thornhill is just nearby, even if the walk is a kind of slow, creepy one for most folks. I think, for me, what I'm most interested in is: is there water nearby? A river? Or at least a lake? For that, let's turn to the Oracle. Now, the way I interpreted the Oracle before was that you straight up rolled and got like a no or a series of likely, sorta likely, 5050, not likely, so on. And then interpreted those results based on the narrative. You could still do it that way if you wanted. But watching others play, I've since learned that it's really more of a yes or no simple mechanic device. You're meant to "set" the difficulty by saying how likely something is and then if its under that percentage its a no and above it its a yes.
I set foot upon the path to Thornhill without further delay and, thanks to the crone's instruction, I know precisely where I am going and I know it's not far.
The Oracle says no, no water. Koavarr will just have to rely on his other skills to figure this one out. I rolled to determine what kind of scene Thornhill presents. I got Abandoned, Expansive, and Savage. Pretty interesting, that second one throws me for a loop. I expected tighter quarters.
I can feel my pulse pounding in my throat as I sprint down the path. It may not be the wisest thing to do in the full dark with only my guttering torch to light the way but time is of the essence. My long swimmer's legs eat the ground and I thrust the torch out ahead of me to ward away the darkness as I sprint headlong into it.
I could make a Face Danger move at this point to represent the riskiness of running headlong along a dirt trail in the full dark. If this were DnD, almost certainly, most DMs would call for a roll just to fill the space. But there's a perspective shift I rather like here. The game literally tells me to be awesome. Characters are competent, smart, brave, driven, etc. They fuck up and they have limitations, for sure, but what makes them heroic is that they pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and keep fighting the good fight. So the inclination might be to punch them down every chance you get but that's not good drama and even if you thought it was, who cares? It's not fun for the player. So you have to find that balance. There will be plenty of time for Koavarr to fall down later, when he's tired and beat up, right? For now, he's well rested, eager to get to this village, maybe a little fearful about what's happened there...in a word, driven. It's not interesting for him to eat dirt running there for no particular reason than a dumb bad die roll. So why make it? Answer: we just don't.
I come upon withered, twisted path that leads into the village in short order. It is overgrown with the gnarled blackened roots of the Ebony Jasha trees. Navigating them is claustrophobic. Had I come here with a party, we could only come down this path two at a time.
When I step from the path, my heart sinks.
Ruin lies before me. Thornhill is bigger than I imagined. Situated in a large clearing at the top of a hill (I realize now that the twisted path had me walking uphill), the village houses are relatively spread out from one another. Nearly all of them have been flattened, smashed to kindling, as if by the hand of a Giant or a herd of wild beasts had set upon each home with furious purpose.
Now, I don't want to kill my quest before it has even started, that'd be dumb. So I'm going to assume as a player here that the people of Thornhill survive still. But how? In what shape? So I'm going to consult the Oracle and see what's up. I rolled on the Plot Twist table for funsies and got "It was all a diversion." HMMM. And then rolled on the Action and Theme tables and got Charge, Direction, and Spirit. So that headed in a different direction and gave me more info than I expected unrelated to my original question. Let me simplify then. Are the villagers nearby? I think it is "Likely" that they are. Which is a 26 or greater. I'm doing the envisioning two options route. The other option being, they fled into the woods, 25 or less. Rolled: 48. Most of the houses are trashed, but there's still a barn standing. They'll be in there.
As I crouch on the edge of the village, wary for signs of whatever caused this widespread destruction, I have a sense that something deeper is wrong here. I want to begin to move slowly into the village. As I do, the irises of my eyes light up with a painfully bright blue energy, reminiscent of the sea, and I begin to search the area for signs of magical malfeasance.
Cool, so now I get to put my Sighted Asset to use. It's a Path that allows me to, when I Face Danger or Gather Information to identify or detect mystic forces, I can add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit.
Gather Information:
Action Die: 1+1 Wits+1 Sighted = 3
Challenge Dice: 3, 9
MISS, reveal an unwelcome truth that undermines your quest, Pay the Price
So, Pay the Price is a move you basically always have to do when you mess up real bad. And you can handle it several ways. The most common way is to just let the most obvious negative result flow from the narrative. I can't really think of one here, so I rolled on the Price chart. Rolled: 58. Which is puts me at a disadvantage.
So here's what I'm thinking.
Combined with what we know from earlier, this was some kind of diversion having to do with the spirit, I think a real bad someone corrupted the wood spirit somehow. Maybe with...some kind of parasitic Horror. Yes. And that Horror has driven the Wood Spirit insane and caused it to attack its charges, the people of the wood it would normally protect and watch over. I can't kill the Wood Spirit as I intended. It's innocent. I also think it just found me.
My eyes find a crisscrossing of recent magical doings here in the village. Old magic. Foul magic. It's a big ritual. I can't quite put together its purpose...but a few moments later, I realize I don't need to. A writhing mass of oily black Jasha tree limbs and sloppy, otherworldly tentacles wrap around the edge of the barn nearby. There is only a cold cooking pit between me and whatever thing is approaching. I realize it is almost as tall as the barn itself, easily the size of a full grown tree. As its grip strengthens on the corner of the barn, wood and shale splinters. I hear muffled screams coming from inside. The startled yelps of terror. And now I know where all the villagers have gotten to. A face, twisted and grotesque, molded into the sliding, rotting bark of the main trunk of the horrible parody of nature before me catches sight of me but then quickly shifts its gaze to the barn door at the sound of the victims to be inside. I know that I must act without delay but I can see that this poor creature has been corrupted by elder forces and is as much a victim as anyone in this village. I ready my spear and try to think how I may stop it without destroying it. I feel the weight of the Primordial in the Pearl that rests in the necklace upon my chest.
The spirit begins to slam its limbs and tentacles on the barn door, to the dismayed shrieks within. I jump across the cooking pit and run toward it, yelling a wordless challenge. It ignores me.
"No! Fight me! I'm the one you want!"
Still the Corrupted Wood Spirit hammers away at the barn door. It is beginning to splinter and give way.
We should here note that the Corrupted Wood Spirit is a Formidable foe. I think I'd want to set Primordials in this world at a minimum of Extreme. It's what the book has them at and I think it makes sense given the narrative that we've set up so far for our maybe they're sentient/maybe they're not Nature Spirit brand of Primordials. Setting my first foe up as Formidable is probably a recipe for disaster but, eh, we'll see. The reason for the downgrade, as I see it, is that the Horror parasite isn't symbiotic. It gives this thing Horror powers (the tentacles) but its rots and kills it over time. It weakens it and locks it off from its higher level Wood Spirit powers. So its nuts and scary but its not Wood Spirit nuts. And thank the ancient gods that Nature Spirits seem to be pretty chill in this world by default.
I'm going to attempt to Compel this thing away.
Compel:
Action: 2+2heart
Challenge: 6, 6 TWIST
MISS, make a demand which costs you greatly, pay the price
Pay the Price, Rolled 25, Something of value is lost or destroyed.
Oooh, boy.
"Listen to me, Wood Spirit. I will burn your forest to the ground, do you hear me? To ashes!"
The anguished wood spirit turns toward me, locking its deep set eyes with mine. And then it's gaze flickers downward. To the pearl on my chest.
With one powerful swipe, it lashes out and wraps a tentacle around the bone pendant, snapping it free from the cord around my neck. In horror, I watch as it tosses the pearl backward into its gaping maw. There is a brief flash of light. Then, the creature turns its attention back toward the barn door. The loss I feel in that moment is unimaginable.
Holy shit, as a Formidable Foe, this thing inflicts 3 Harm. No joke that. I think losing the necklace causes me to Endure Stress, so I take 3 to my Stress, dropping me from 5 to 2. Then I roll + spirit or +heart, which is the same at this point, so I'll do heart.
Action: 2+2heart
Challenge: 1, 7
WEAK, you press on.
Now, I'm pissed. I pick myself up out of the mud. It has begun to rain in the middle of the night. The torches spaced around the village start to sputter. I furiously launch myself at the spirit.
I plunge my hands into the soft rotting flesh of its ebony bark. The tentacles wrap around my forearms and lash against me, trying to beat me away. But I will not be dissuaded.
ENTER THE FRAY
Action:3+2heart
Challenge: 3, 10
WEAK, I'm choosing to take Initiative.
"Give unto me your darkness, o spirit of the wood! Release the Horror within!" I dig further into it feeling it shudder underneath me and feeling it scream within my mind.
I'm going to do something a little unusual here and use my other Asset as a Strike. I feel like it really fits the narrative. Basically, Koavarr is going to use his ability to "consume the mystical essence of his surroundings" to suck out the bad juju in the wood spirit like a goddamn sineater. No rules for it but we don't need them. We can just combine the two things. Simple. I'll need to roll +wits to consume (strong hit does +1 dmg, weak does reg dmg). Secure An Advantage +essence (which is currently 0+action die) to pull the pearl out of him as my mystical effect (strong hit -1 essence, +1 momentum, weak hit Endure Stress 2 stress). It sounds more complicated than it is.
INVOKE
Action: 6+1wits
Challenge 1, 3
STRONG, 3 Damage, 3 Progress
so that means that 6 action die gets added to my essence for my Secure an Advantage.
Action: 1+6action+3iron
Challenge: 5, 5 GOOD TWIST
STRONG, make another move now and add +1
And I get the +1 Momentum from Invoke
Blackened energy spirals upward, falling away from the blighted creature as if gravity itself were reversed, falling around me like dirty snow. The tentacles wrapped around my forearms go slack and jellied, no longer filled with the strength of the abomination feeding from the nature spirit. Still, I grasp what good wood I can wrap my hands around. The sclera of my eyes begins to bleed a grayish color. I feel the spirit of the Sea Primordial deep within the suffering creature beneath me. I have a responsibility. A debt. I will see it paid. I reach down with all the pull of the tides and beckon the pearl forth. "To me. Rise! Rise!" The Jasha limbs beneath me thrash violently. I am only vaguely aware that we have been carried away from the barn. Again, I draw upon the magics given me by the sea.
[At this point, someone asked what a Jasha Tree is and I told them I made it up. Together, we decided that they were "big black, thorny ass vine trees."]
INVOKE
Action: 5+1wits
Challenge 6, 7
MISS, there's no miss on the Invoke so we're using the Strike which means attack fails, foe gets initiative, and pay the price
Pay the Price: Rolled 16, which is you get separated from something or someone.
That one's obvious.
Little did I realize, Thornhill isn't just named that because it sits on a literal hill in the woods. There's also a short cliffside on the north side of the village. I have been so focused on drawing out the magic and the pearl from the wood spirit that I don't notice that he's carried us to that cliffside in his maddened rampage. I lose concentration for only a second but a second is all it takes for the creature to dislodge me and hurl me from the cliff. It's a long way down...I can only hope the tree branches between me and the ground will break my fall somewhat.
ENDURE HARM
So I first take 3 harm because formidable foe. Down to 2 health. Ouch.
I can roll health or iron. Obvs Iron.
Action 5+3iron
Challenge 8, 9 lol
MISS, also suffer -1 momentum.
okay, its not as bad as I thought. If I was at 0 health as well, I would have had to mark wounded or maimed debilities (which are nasty and reduce your overall capability) or roll on a Get Fucked table. So we're still okay, just pretty banged up. Can't take another hit like that though. Need to end this fight.
Hmm, well, it messed me up pretty bad, took more than half my health. It would have no matter what it did but we're going to conveniently ignore that fact for the sake of figuring this out. I did say it was a short cliff. And I figure you can probably fall about 20 feet with training. Our dude is a diver, which doesn't always equate to jumping off cliffs into water but he probably has some experience with it. This fall still messed him up. So maybe 25, 30 feet. Much higher and we're hitting fatal drop zones.
I stand up, leaning against a nearby tree for support, my breathing somewhat labored. I glare back up the cliffside. I almost had it. I could feel the pearl. And I could sense the true nature of the wood spirit beneath all the muck and mire too. I look at the vines that blanket the cliff face like a dark tapestry. I can barely make them out in the dim moonlight. But the rain glints off of their many, many thorns. That was my quickest way back up. I apologize to my shirt as I tear it up and wrap my hands, then to my hands as I grasp the vines and realize the shirt isn't going to fully cut it. But I have to get back in the fight. Before someone up there gets hurt. I hear a scream. And a rough voice, shouting commands. The wood spirit roars. I hear splintering wood. I climb.
Next: Issue One, Part II
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