Torchbearer 2e - actual play of this AWESOME system! (+)

[pemerton]

This thread is great and one of my favorites, but holy mackerel does it produce a sad story.

Sad how?

(Maybe my view from the GM's chair is distorted.)

 

[Shardstone]

Maybe I'm thinking of a let's play thread with Manbearpig. I was reading a Torchbearer game recently in one of these threads and man those NPCs got messed up and the PCs didn't get any better!

 

[CapnZapp]

Torchbearer. Huh. Now that is a name I haven't heard in a long time...

 

[pemerton]

We played another session on Sunday. (By my count, our seventeenth.) Fea-bella, Golin and Korvin all had players in attendance, although the latter only briefly.

We started with a recap from Golin's player. This allowed him to restore one point of taxed Nature. It also reminded everyone that the PCs were on the wharves of Nulb with Grud Squinteye, offsider to Tolub, the river pirate captain.

I then described Tolub's black-sailed river galley pulling up to the wharf, with Tolub - wearing his mail and carrying his battle axe - standing at the prow of the fighting deck. I also asked Korvin's player to tell us how Korvin - who was absent from our previous session - found himself on Tolub's vessel.

Korvin's player gave us a brief account of how - after the PCs had left the Moathouse - he had tried to sneak aboard Tolub's galley, and been caught, but talked his way out of trouble. He took a failed test for Criminal.

Tolub's vessel being a galley, there were rowers as well as sails. Fea-bella's player asked whether or not they were slaves, and at about the same time wrote as her goal that she will help free the enslaved. Golin's goal was to get one over a pirate. I called for a (Beginner's Luck) Sailor test to determine the status of the sailors; this failed, and so Fea-bella was Angry that while some of the rowers were free, others were clearly slaves.

Golin therefore decided to try and sell his captive (from the previous session) to Tolub as a galley slave. This caused some discussion among the participants (not in the fiction) about Golin's propensity to capture and sell beings, and also the morality of this particular action. In the fiction, Fea-bella was shocked by this idea and tried to persuade Golin not to do it - starting a Convince conflict between the two. Korvin joined in on Fea-bella's side, adding a helping die to her roll for disposition (but also costing 1 point of disposition for being hungry and thirsty), but then his player had to depart on family duties and so it became a solo effort from Fea-bella. Golin got some assistance from the bemused Grud Squinteye. (We established that Golin's cousin Aldric was not part of this particular conversation, having been told by Golin to "wait over there" while he dealt with the pirate captain.)

Fea-bella has a surplus of Persona relative to Fate, which is going to hinder her progression to level 6, and so Fea-bella's player deliberately scripted so as to lose the conflict - thus gaining the Fate for pursuing her goal but not risking achieving it for a Persona instead. Golin won the conflict with no loss of disposition; in the fiction, Golin persuaded her to butt out of the matter and go and wait with Aldric so she wouldn't have to be part of the grubby deed.

Golin then negotiated with Tolub. His initial ask was 2D of coin. During the course of the conflict, he also raised the matter of Tolub's tithe to Lareth. Golin won the conflict but owed a half-compromise, and we agreed that this meant Tolub took the slave, and agreed to sail up the river to the Moathouse in lieu of payment (this was Golin's concession to Tolub).

I then decided to introduce my new NPC - the Dwarf Fori came up from beneath the fighting deck, and announced himself to Golin. This is an ICE-authored character (Fori the Beardless - Dark Minions - Middle Earth CCG - MECCG | eBay), whom Google reveals has also turned up on this fan wiki. I had written up Fori as a 5th level NPC Dwarven Outcast after playing a game of Middle Earth the Wizards with my daughter and using Fori to reasonable affect as a sneaky agent.

I was relying on my memory for Fori's looks, and so described a full-face mask including beard. Fea-bella's player conjectured that this might be a Dwarven Forge-Mask. I asked if this was serious, and when told yes called for a Lore-Master test. The test failed, and so I described Fori taking off his helmet, revealing himself to be Beardless, and glaring at the two PCs as he told his tale. Both failed Manipulator vs Manipulator, making them Afraid.

Fori declared that he knew the truth of what had happened to Golin's parents. Golin asked Fori to tell him, offering to cook a great feast in return - but Golin's player failed the test, and so while Fori agreed to this it made Golin Angry that he had to provide a service to get this information.

They then set off in Tolub's galley. Tolub gave Golin use of the (small) galley. The roll for weather indicated that a fog was rising. The base toll for the journey was 1. Fea-bella stood on the fighting deck as a Scout (+1 toll, but her cloak raiment protected her from the fog). Golin was Cook, of course (+2 toll - I'll come back to this).

During the goings on on the dock, I had already rolled a treasure for an appropriate loot drop, and it had indicated "a tool of unknown use". I described a strange tool in the galley - a weird skillet, or perhaps even a tenderiser? - and the Cook test succeeded for Golin to identify its appropriate use, gaining +1D to his test to Cook for Fori. Golin's also foraged, using his instinct, but decided to prepare fresh rations as the Ob was lower. He wanted it to be an impressive meal, and so we agreed this was a +1 Ob. This second Cook test also succeeded, and the meal therefore absorbed the base toll for the journey, and also meant that Fori told his story as he had agreed to: he had known Golin's parents, as part of the Explosives cult at the Forgotten Temple Complex (of Elemental Evil). They had been working on a new concoction, assisted by the alchemist Vaxen (who is Golin's town friend as part of his original PC build - in a prior session it had been established that Vaxen had hosted as guests a Dwarven couple with a young child which would fit with Golin's own age and biography). Fori didn't know whether the problem was with the saltpeter that they used, or perhaps the guano from an underground source (white phosphorous?, conjectured Fea-bella's player), but it went horribly wrong, and the explosion killed Golin's parents and left Fori permanently beardless.

Golin pondered this news, and wondered how to broach the issue with Vaxen next time that he saw him.

They arrived at the moathouse, and with a successful test (Manipulator or Orator - I can't recall now) called their friendly Dire Wolf to them. Golin (as spoken by his player) was very coy about the relationship of the Wolf to the PCs vs Lareth (the Wolf is their secret ally in the Moathouse), but Fea-bella was far less subtle and so I did call for a Manipulator test to maintain the secret; it succeeded.

Golin and Fea-bella then travelled with Tolub and Fori through the Moathouse and dungeons to Lareth's well-appointed chamber. I described the rich furnishings, and the players were suitably impressed by the many dice worth of tapestries, silver plate, etc. They then excused themselves to rest (= camp) in the adjoining guardroom while Tolub and Lareth discussed the matter of the tithe.

The camp event was "Dust. You disturb a thick layer of dust while making camp: +1 Ob to all tests during this camp phase." Given the PCs were in a guardroom, I described this as smoke from the fire instead. This was also a basis for saying that the guards in the room left the PCs alone, joining their comrades in the outer guardroom. The players had accumulated three checks (at least I think that was it: a -1D penalty on Fea-bella's part, and a tie-break in Tolub's favour during the negotiation on the docks). Fea-bella's Song of Serenity was able to give Golin a free recovery test; but her Exhaustion meant she couldn't use her instinct to brew potions and salves during camp. Both recovered from Angry, but tests to recover from Afraid failed.

At the end of the camp stuff, I told the players that they could hear raised voices from Lareth's chamber - in particular, Lareth sounded either angry or upset. They re-entered, to find that discussions had become heated - Lareth was standing with staff raised, and Tolub was fingering his battle-axe. The PCs decided to intervene. I said that, given their rag-tag appearance (no shoes, sooty faces, etc) they would suffer a -1s on social actions in this context. Golin decided to try and even the odds a bit by letting the smoke in from the guardroom, to cause the NPCs to be distracted and/or annoyed by something other than the PCs. A Manipulator vs Manipulator meant that Tolub was affected, and so I said that the PCs wouldn't suffer the penalty against him - which suited the players, as they then proceeded to Convince Tolub to pay the tithe to Lareth; whereas Tolub was trying to persuade Lareth to let his well-armed guards join the pirates in return for a share of the spoils.

The players allocated a point of disposition to Lareth so that he could help the PCs (if he liked what they said) - this had the effect of encouraging action declarations that would attract Lareth's support. And the upshot was that the PCs succeeded against Tolub with no loss of disposition, and so he agreed to play the tithe rather than bringing Lareth's guards into his piracy operation. He gave Lareth 1D of coin as an initial payment.

Tolub and Fori were then ready to sail on, but the players had collected four more camp checks (a couple of lost tie-breaks by Golin) and so (via a simple test) persuaded Tolub to wait while they rested some more. Lareth agreed to let them rest in his chamber. Able to drink from Lareth's fine liqueurs (+1D to recover from Afraid and Angry) the PCs recovered from Afraid; but Fea-bella failed to recover from Exhaustion. My recollection of the precise sequence is hazy: but Golin tried to Scavenge some of Lareth's liqueur to fill a waterskin, and failed - which led Lareth to tell them it was time to leave, in effect ending the camp phase. But somewhere in there he also used his Beggar to plead with Lareth to provide Fea-bella with a potion that would restore he Exhaustion. The test failed, and, so although Lareth gave Fea-bella one dose of a tonic that will relieve Exhaustion for a turn, the PCs were left hungry and thirsty at the thought of having to forego any more of Lareth's delightful drinks.

There was some discussion of whether Fea-bella should drink the tonic on the spot to free up her instinct, but it seemed more sensible to save it. The PCs did eat some food, though, to relieve H&T - this leaves Fea-bella's Exhaustion as their only condition, which Fea-bella's player hopes to relive with a prologue next time.

We ended the session there. Fea-bella got two Fate (Goal and Belief (that Dwarves are greedy and cannot be trusted), from the PvP with Golin) and two Persona (for acting on her Creed, that these are dark times and all Elves need help, in the dealings with Tolub and Lareth; and for Teamworker). Golin got two Fate (for acting on his Belief that Elves are unstable, by manipulating Fea-bella in the PvP, and for using his Instinct to forage) and three Persona (for his Creed, that Elves are lost in dreams and need grounding in reality - the PvP again; for MVP; and for achieving his goal of getting one over on a pirate!).

It was on my way home that I realised I never applied Golin's two toll for cooking on the journey. I decided, retrospectively, that Fori covered this with a payment of coin to Tolub. Fori will announced this to Golin next time, thus making it clear that Golin is in his debt - this is a standard move for a Torchbearer to make with a PC's enemy, although Fori's status in that respect is a bit ambiguous at this stage.

 

[pemerton]

We played another session today. Fea-bella and Golin were the two PCs.

Fea-bella's player had written up notes, and gave us a thorough prologue. This relieved Fea-bella of her Exhaustion, meaning that both PCs were free of conditions.

I started the action on Tolub's river galley, heading north-west towards the mountains. I also rolled for weather, which indicated that it was snowing.

Prior to the session, I had decided that, in this session, I was going to use my work on the Dice of Chaos and Deck of Many Things. I told Golin that he found himself on the deck of the galley, at night, alone except for Fea-bella (if her player agreed that she was there - her player agreed). And a mysterious black-cloaked figure, who didn't seem to have come from beneath the deck, approach Golin and asked him if he wished to roll the dice.

The players conjectured that this figure might be Death. I asked if Fea-bella's player wanted to make a Theologian test. The reply was affirmative; Golin helped with Scholarship. The test was a success, and the characters did indeed recognise this being as a Minor Death, crossed over from the Other Side. The hand that held out the dice was a skeletal one; the dice were of obsidian, with the one pips being skulls.

Golin's reply to Death was also affirmative: he would roll the dice. The first roll was a skull and a 3 - Golin was afflicted with a disease, the Sick condition. Death asked if he wished to roll again, and he opted to double down: the second roll was double 3, which brought down the Travelling Curse.

Golin's player wanted to have another roll, but Death was not willing to permit that. I asked Golin's player if he was going to trick Death into letting him have another roll. He decided that he would - he told Death that his second personality wanted to roll the dice. This initiated a Trickery conflict - Death's disposition was 5, and Golin's 8. Golin started out strongly, using his Odd Trait to help him, and making his case for a second personality; Death had equipped the Book of the Dead, but when he said that it recorded nothing about a second personality Golin retorted that Death needed to read the book properly. But Death's Nature 8 came to the fore, and while he went as low as 2 hp remaning, a successful Defend brought him back to full hp. So Death was not tricked, and Golin was rendered Afraid.

Fea-bella had not helped Golin in his brush with death; she was quipping away, however, about Golin coming face-to-face with Death and the like, going for a Fate point for gallows humour.

When Golin regained his composure, the sun was rising and the galley was on its final approach to the mountains: it was almost as if he had slipped into the Otherworld in his dealing with Death. Fori the Beardless had arranged for the PCs to take some water from the vessel's supply, and they filled their waterskins. The snow had stopped falling, and they set off to the mountains. Fori told the PCs that first there is a stair, and then a tunnel …

At about this point, Golin set as his goal to stage an ambush. (Against Death, perhaps, or someone/something else. He made it clear he was not too fussy!) He also sweated out his sickness; I reduced his Manipulator from 3 to 2.

Fea-bella persuaded Fori to tell her more about where they were going (Persuader vs Manipulator: the roll failed, and it made Fea-bella Angry that Fori should withhold important information from his companions):

The place they were heading to was once a place of pilgrimage. Orcs, Trolls and Giants would go there to hear prophecies and to placate the dark spirits of the Otherworld, under the guidance of the Bugbear seers.

Later, Hobgoblins came made and made the shrine their own, displacing its earlier custodians until, before Fea-bella was born, the Half-Elven planewalker Meryn Caradeth assaulted the shrine by travelling through the Aether and then crossing back from the Otherworld into its great vault. Meryn Caradeth routed the Hobgoblins, but it is said that he was himself killed by a crossbow bolt shot by the Hobgoblin's warlord. The Hobgoblin armies went on to serve the new temple of elemental spirits.​

Fea-bella set as her goal to bring light to the dark places.

Climbing the stairs required a Dungeoneering test - Golin made the test, helped by his cousin Aldric and by Fea-bella Scouting ahead, and using his rope as gear. This was successful, and they came to the top of the stairs despite the snow and Golin's lack of tools.

While climbing the stairs, the PCs noticed some lint caught on an outcrop of rock. Fea-bella examined it, and a Beginner's Luck Peasant test was rolled. This failed: so Fea-bella recognised that the lint was from the breeches of an Orc, and became Afraid as a result. This didn't stop the PCs reaching the top of the stairs, where the characters could see a tunnel entrance (facing east; so entering it would be heading west); and they could see writing carved above the entrance, and on the southern (left) side of the entrance. Fea-bella tried to read that second piece of writing, but the Scholar test failed and so I sprang my twist: a group of Orcs was coming down a narrow way that continued upwards from the top of the stair - a narrow way that the PCs had not noticed - and was attacking the PCs, to drive them off.

The Orcs and PCs started out with equal dispositions - 9 hp each - but my cunning scripting, together with the Orcs' helmets and shields that let them absorb damage, and also the PCs inability to help one another properly (due to being Afraid), meant that the Orcs were victorious in this conflict: the PCs were, indeed, driven off. But I owed a significant compromise, as the Orcs had lost all but 3 hp by the end of the conflict, and so I agreed to the the player's suggestion that they were able to fall back into the tunnel. This did mean, though, that Fea-bella had to leave behind her half-moon glaive, of which she had been disarmed by the Orcs during the fight.

Not too far into the tunnel, in a slight alcove, the PCs found a pile of dried pine needles next to a pile of ash, with writing in yellow ochre. They had 5 camp checks at this point (four from breaking ties against themselves, and one from taking a -1D penalty) and so decided to camp, using the pine needles to start a fire. They also drank from their waterskins, to recover from Hunger and Thirst as the Grind clocked over.

The camp was quite successful: Fea-bella recovered from Angry and Afraid, and Golin recovered from Afraid (getting a free test from Fea-bella's Song of Serenity). Golin cooked up his forage (from last session) to ensure that his cousin Aldric was able to eat during the camp. He used his instinct to try and find more forage: Fea-bella aided with Herbs-wise and Fori helped with his Delving Nature; and Golin's player spent a Persona to channel Golin's own Delving Nature. The roll nevertheless failed, and so when Golin did find some forage hidden on a high rock shelf in the alcove, he and Fori had become Hungry and Thirsty. Golin therefore cooked again, using a portion of fresh rations, to enable them both to eat. Fea-bella was able to make an elixir that would lift the Angry condition for one turn (using Alchemist and her instinct), and the fifth camp check was spent to enable her to memorise spells. She stored Lightness of Being (= levitation) and Wizard's Aegis (= shield spell) in her dream palace.

So the PCs were once again free of conditions.

The PCs elected not to try and make sense of the ochre writing, thinking it was far too likely to just be a note from an Orc or Bugbear not to touch its stuff; and so they headed down the tunnel. This led them to the vault of the shrine proper: as I told the players, the vault is roughly circular, with the tunnel entering it on its east side. In its centre is a pool, with boulders lying in it. The ceiling is very high, and too dark to be seen, but with an opening visible at its top, through which they could see the red light of dawn. They couldn't properly judge the height, but it seemed clearly too high to drop a rope down. On the other (western) side of the pool, just illuminated by their candles, they could see a stone plinth.

They filled their waterskins from the pool, but made a point of not examining it closely; as a result (as I subsequently taunted them, near the end of the session) they did not find the 6D of gold coins at its bottom, nor the body of the mountain goat that had recently fallen into it (which would be two portions of game for cooking).

Rather, they moved on to the plinth, to see if anything was on it or written on it. On it was a box and two swords, and there was writing. They read this, with the Scholar test for Fea-bella succeeding, and I told them it was a fragment of poetry:

… and I passed beyond to journey 'mongst the planes
Sought death, found life and swords that shall ever bear my name

The Black, death black, be ever at my side
For fear of death I ever play death's game​

Sought law, found pain and swords for heroes' glory wrought

The White, pure white, you have your sting
Bitter experience has your lesson taught​

This quarrel's mortal wound shall see me breath my last breath
This night, in pain, shall see the end of Meryn Caradeth
I dwell on pain, for pain is …​

This meant that a turn had now passed in the shrine, and so - as per my notes - the haunting spirits now attacked the PCs. This was a drive off conflict, except that success for the spirits would instead mean that the PCs were Afraid and Exhausted, due to the enervating effect of the spirits' touch. Golin decided to equip his Dream-wise sword Awakener of Dreams - a good decision, as (unknown to the PCs or the players) the spirits were immune to mundane weapons but I had already decided that this blade could bite them - and Fea-bella her religious amulet of the sun, which I decided would grant +1D to Manoeuvre against these spirits of darkness, just as it would in a spiritual conflict. Fori equipped his hand axe, but was relatively quickly taken out of the conflict.

This was a close-fought contest, and I got in some cunning Feints. But in the end Golin was able to defeat the lead spirit (a nattmara) with 1 hp remaining. As my major compromise, I imposed Afraid and Exhausted on the two characters who had been taken out - Fea-bella and Fori - and also said that Aldric was not available for a turn or two as he recovered.

With the spirits driven off, Fori argued that they should attempt to banish or abjure them, but Fea-bella and Golin thought that this was too risky in the circumstances. Fea-bella instead took the box from the plinth. This caused the plinth - a Rock Spirit, with the instinct to protect the memories of Meryn Caradeth (the poem, the swords and the box) to come alive. The PCs tried to Convince the spirit that they were there to honour Meryn Caradeth's memory, but despite their equal starting dispositions of 7, and the spirit's mere Nature 3, this did not work: the PCs were defeated with the spirit having lost only 1 point of disposition. So the PCs were convinced to leave the place, and the compromise was simply that they could leave through the top of the vault if they so wished.

The players decided to take up this option. Fea-bella's Arcanist is rank 3, and it is Ob 3 to levitate a small group with Lightness of Being. I asked if she had an ash or maple seed pod (the relevant material component), which prompted Golin to use his instinct to check through the forage collected earlier to see what was there: the Scavenging test failed, which prompted me to tell Golin that he found one, but also that the whole affair in the tunnel and vault had left him Exhausted. Fea-bella took the pod and used it; she also added a die for her Fiery trait, having been driven to wrath and using her anger to help pull the aethereal strings through the Shroud Between Worlds. But her test also failed, and so she did indeed levitate the characters up through the hole, but became Angry in doing so.

As the PCs levitated up through the vault, I told the players that about half-way up, by the dim light of their candles, they could see that part of the northern wall of the vault was polished crystal, which would surely be worth something if chipped out. They noted this, and continued on their way.

At the top of the vault they found themselves on a wide ledge with a frozen pond (the water source for the pool in the vault below). They could also see that this was at the top of the narrow way that led down to the top of the stair. With the players' concurrence I rolled for weather, and determined that it was extremely cold up here on the exposed mountainside.

Golin's player, both wanting to earn camp checks and also to act on his goal, noted that they would now be above and behind the Orcs, whom they might be able to ambush. Fori made a Scout test, but (as determined by me) lied about the result, saying he saw nothing below them down the mountainside. Golin tried to press him to see if this was the truth, but the test (with a penalty from using a trait - I think Cynical) against himself failed.

The players now had two camp checks, and so decided to camp although they could not light a fire. The thought was that, with two tests plus Fea-bella's instinct and Song of Serenity, they might clear four conditions from the two PCs. Unfortunately the camp event roll was a net 3, which on the table means that biting instincts make camp impossible and which I narrated as their fleas and lice - from the dungeons of the Moathouse, and then the stables in Nulb, and then the river galley, not to mention the swamp - feeling the sting of the cold wanted more warm blood than ever. Their camp checks were lost, and they had to remain in the adventure phase.

This caused quite a bit of consternation. They considered just pushing on to the Forgotten Temple Complex, and then the possibility of a Dwarven Hall was raised. I mentioned that Fori had Dwarven Halls-wise, and so would know the way; and also that the toll in this case would be one less as they would still be within the mountains rather than having to leave them. So they opted for this.

The Trouble on the Road roll indicated delay, and so +1 toll, and so together with a base 3 toll and +1 toll for the cold, the overall result was 5 toll, or 6 for Golin due to his curse.

After discussion and calculation, the upshot was that:

*Fea-bella's cloak absorbed one toll, and she drank her tonic of 1 turn's relief from Angry, so that she took four points of toll as conditions: Hungry and Thirsty, Exhausted, Angry and Sick. When her tonic wore off, the return of Angry caused her no extra problems! Of course she is also still Afraid.

*Golin ate their last portion of fresh rations and drank the last of their water, to absorb one point of toll. He also used up his rope helping them climb through the mountains, absorbing another point. And he drank the tonic of 1 turn's relief from Exhaustion. So like Fea-bella, he took four points of toll as conditions: Hungry and Thirsty, Exhausted, Angry and Sick. And when the tonic wore off, the return of Exhaustion caused him no extra problems either.

*Fori took four points of toll as conditions, with me deciding that his clothes or raiment - unspecified in my write-up - could absorb 1 point. So he gained Hungry and Thirst, Angry, Sick and Injured. The full set.​

At the Dwarven Halls, the roll for events indicated a surly watch - was that Fori the Beardless?; they couldn't be sure, given how bedraggled he looked:

The axe bearers on watch at the gates are particularly surly. To gain entry to the halls, ask permission of the Gate Master Sergeant. Test Persuader vs Persuader 4.​

Fea-bella's player rolled the last test of the session, and this was successful. But due to being Sick, no test could be marked for advancement.

We then allocated artha. Fea-bella got three Fate - for her gallows humour, for pursuing her goal (in the tunnel and vault), and for using her instinct; and two Persona, for seeking refuge in the Dwarven Halls despite her Belief about the untrustworthiness of the Dwarves, and for Teamworker. Golin got two Fate - for pursuing his goal (trying to see if the Orcs could be ambushed) and for using his instinct; and one Persona, for MVP (he did all the damage in driving off the nightmare spirits).

The overall Fate/Persona situation is Fea-bella 3+24 spent/2+33 spent, and Golin 2+28 spent/1+28 spent. So Golin will likely be eligibe for 6th level after one more session (31/30), but Fea-bella needs more Fate to get to the same position!

 

[pemerton]

I've pasted my scenario notes for the shrine of dark spirits here, in spoiler tags, in case anyone's interested.

Spoiler

The Orcs are from the Scholar's Guide. The Rock Spirit is adapted from the Rock-Brother Vaettr in The Bridge of the Damned. The Nattmara is from the Scavenger's Supplement. The Shadows are my adaptation of the D&D perennial.

Meryn Caradeth is developed by me (as a Half-Elf, of course, given the campaign themes), and the items converted/adapted from their D&D counterparts, from the White Dwarf article in issue 12 (and reprinted in Best of White Dwarf Articles 1, which is where I know it from).

 

[pemerton]

And some post-game reflections.

The players failed a lot of tests, including many that could have been expected to go the other way. I used mostly conditions rather than twists: perhaps too many in retrospect, given that the PCs are so heavily burdened. Though the outcomes of the two failed conflicts were more in the twist than condition space.

The players were conjecturing that this might be their PCs' lowest point: so much to recover, and no loot and so little gear. Although both have Resource 3, so they may be able to do some shopping in the markets of the Dwarven Halls.

Golin's player went so far as to conjecture that Golin might be better off dead! When I said that I like Golin, I got the reply that he likes Golin too, but Golin still might be better off dead.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to our next session, to see how things go in what could be a very interesting town phase!

 

[pemerton]

We played a session on Sunday. We had three players and, therefore, three PCs: Golin the Dwarven Outcast, Fea-bella the Elven Dreamwalker, and Telemere the Elven Ranger.

Fea-bella's player provided the prologue, and got to remove Hungry and Thirsty (yay? she only had Angry, Afraid, Exhausted and Sick left).

Telemere's player filled us all in on what had happened to him since he was last seen: he had been captured by the Gnolls (everyone knows that Gnolls hate Elves!) and put in a barrel, to be sold as cured meat! But the pickling process had not taken (Elves require more salt than that to be pickled!) and so he was still alive when the Dwarves in the Dwarven Hall opened the barrel - and out he stepped!

He took a failed test in Health for his troubles, which resulted in his Health increasing to 5.

Having no conditions, Telemere opted to stay in the tavern (for 1 Lifestyle) and pick up a rumour on the Tavern Rumours Table. I rolled a 7:

Your friend, bedraggled and disheveled from the road, bursts into the tavern with an incredible tale to tell.​

The complicating factor, for this result, is that Telemere has no friends - he is a loner with an enemy (his brother) and no friends either as part of initial build, or established in play. At first I decided that a mostly innocuous rival - the bandit Turner - had turned up, and I said as much. And then, as I was thinking it through a bit more and trying to decide on some incredible tale for Turner to tell, I announced that I was changing that - in fact the bedraggled and dishevelled friend who came into the tavern was Korvin, the fourth PC, whose player was not present.

This change worked better, both because Korvin is something of a friend of Telemere, and because I knew what tale Korvin would tell: a tale about the river pirates getting ready to assault the Moathouse, in violation of their arrangement with Lareth the Beautiful.

Telemere's player, looking over his PC sheet, noticed that he had Singing Nature. So he decided to sing a song in the tavern, helped by Korvin's Oratory. I resolved this as Telling Tales - but the telling tales obstacle for the dour Dwarves is Ob 5, and so the test (with 4 Nature dice +1 helping die) failed. I then rolled snakes eyes on the unsuccessful telling tales table, and so Telemere was run out of town and barred from returning! This prompted the question Do I still need to pay for my lifestyle to which I naturally answered Of course!. This was now Ob 2 (tavern accommodation + telling tales) and Telemere had only Resources 1 and didn't want to spend his loot. So he failed automatically. I reviewed the options/suggestions presented to the GM, and decided that his hand-held items (a sword and a large sack) had been left behind in the tavern when he was run out.

We then resolved the rest of Golin and Fea-bella's town phase. Both stayed at the hotel, so Golin automatically recovered his Hungry and Thirsty, and both automatically recovered Exhausted. Before making their further recovery tests they went out and bought some wine (or, as I put it, some Dwarven Nog), to get +1D to recover from Angry and Afraid. This ended up being successful, although not without the need to spend some artha despite being 4D (Resources 3 each, +1 from the other's help) vs Ob 1 for a draught of wine (the spend was on Dwarven Chronicles-wise for Golin - where is the Nog-vendor again?; and on Herbs-wise for Fea-bella - I only want the most potent, flavoursome, herbs-infused Nog!).

They then finished their recovery, succeeding vs Angry (both of them), Afraid (Fea-bella) and Sick (both). As this was a 3rd recovery roll for Fea-bella, it took her Lifestyle from Ob 3 to Ob 4. Luckily her Resources had gone from 3 to 4 with the successful roll to purchase Nog.

Fea-bella also re-memorised Wizard's Aegis and Lightness of Being.

They then did a lot of shopping, buying food, more booze, replacement tools for Golin (except for Armourer, which was too expensive), a helmet and leather armour for Golin, a dagger for Fea-bella (to use as an improvised weapon, given her lack of proficiency), a hat for Fea-bella, a scarf for Golin, and of course shoes for both of them! At a certain point into this shopping spree, when he decided that the risks of failure were outweighed by the possible benefits of success, Golin made his free test to Haggle at the market, and succeeded (his first Haggling success during a town phase), which gave him +1D on his subsequent tests, which helped him with some of the higher-Ob purchases.

Fea-bella did get a failure at one point, however, and so I (cruelly) taxed her back down to Resources 3.

Golin also got a failure when buying rope, and I opted for a twist. Golin was wearing the Dwarven Ring given to him by the prisoner in Lareth's dungeon, and a Dwarf at the market asked him about it, in rather suspicious tones. Golin explained to the inquirer, and the other assembled Dwarves, the circumstances of its acquisition, and succeeded on the Oratory test (+1 Lifestyle). He reiterated his commitment to rescuing the imprisoned Dwarf, and the initial inquirer therefore bought him some rope and Dungeoneer's tools.

At some other point during the shopping Golin failed, and so became Hungry and Thirsty. (The failure also took him to Resource 4.) So he had to consume one of the portions of purchased rations to alleviate that. And he failed one final test too (I can't remember what that was for - maybe some lantern oil?) and so I taxed him back to Resources 3.

When it was time to leave, Golin had only Resources 3, and no artha, to try and meet his Ob 4 Lifestyle test. So he was allowed to leave, but his cousin Aldric was caught up, explaining to Golin's creditors that he is really a heroic Dwarf and not a deadbeat. I assured Golin's player that Aldric would turn up again in due course . . .

Fea-bella was in a similar position - Resources 3, and no artha, vs Ob 4 Lifestyle. The guards at the gate put it to her that she was an associate of that other Elf they had had to evict, and so she was also barred from returning to the Dwarven Halls.

Leaving in this degree of ignominy, Fea-bella and Golin were able to meet up with Telemere and learn his tale. Fea-bella also cautioned him that, next time, he probably shouldn't sing the song about the funny little fat Dwarf. "But it went down so well in the Elfhome," responded Telemere . . .

At the start of the session Golin had set his goal as Shoes!, and had already achieved that. But now Fea-bella and Telemere took on goals - Telemere to get to the Moathouse, and Fea-bella (whose player hoped for Fate rather than Persona) to confront Lareth. They wanted to use the impending pirate assault, that Korvin had told Telemere about, as cover to allow them to rescue the prisoners from the dungeon.

I rolled for weather, noting that it was now early spring. The result was Clear and Cool (-1 Toll). The Toll, therefore, was 3 for the journey, -1 for the weather. They decided to make a raft so they could sail down the river (-1 Toll) rather than trudge through the marsh. The necessary Survivalist test (Ob 4 to jury-rig a boat) succeeded, and off they sailed. The Trouble on the Road roll indicated rough travel (+1 Toll), and Telemere's instinctual Scout test didn't alleviate this: rather (a twist on failure) they had to abandon their raft and hike through the swamp after all. Golin cooked, though, and this reduced a lot of Toll. His galoshes protected him, too. So overall they were not too badly off when they arrived at the Moathouse.

They knew, from their time in the dungeons, that there was some sort of way out - a tunnel or similar - other than via the Moathouse stairs. So they Scouted for that, but failed. Another twist: they did find a way in, through the rubble and damage on the south-west corner of the Moathouse, but it led them to the lair of the giant lizard, which attacked - initiating a kill conflict. The PCs started with disposition 8, and the lizard with 11, and at one point the PCs were down to 2 hp left; but Fea-bella used Wizard's Aegis and they scripted some clever and successful Defends, and so they finished the conflict with no hp lost and so no compromise owed, while the lizard was dead.

They then scavenged in the lizard's room, but this failed to and so they suffered another twist - a giant tick dropped from the ceiling and started sucking Fea-bella's blood! This was another kill conflict. Unfortunately for the players, their scripting worked against them - they won the conflict in a single round, but the final volley was Attack vs Attack, and so while Golin handily killed the tick it also got in some good licks of its own, so that a half-compromise was owed. The PCs were all Angry, Exhausted and Injured. Golin also failed a Health test for exposure to disease from the tick, and so became Sick.

They then camped, and Golin recovered from Angry (a free test, due to Fea-bella's Song of Serenity) and Cooked some food to alleviate everyone's Hungry and Thirsty (from the Grind). The camp event roll was quite a good one, and they did find something useful in the lizard's room: some old cord and timber, supplies for Survivalist. Telemere took those.

After camping, they started looking for the way down to the dungeon. Unfortunately players' memories were poor, and given that they had not bother to do any mapping (ie no Cartographer tests at any stage) I wasn't going to help them. They did remember there was a bat colony that could cause a lot of trouble if disturbed, and so they waited for night to fall and most of the colony to fly out (via the arrow-slit) hunting. I also told them that they could see a light on the river in the distance - they inferred this was probably the approaching pirates.

They then checked out various rooms, including (cautiously) the bats' room, but opted not to do any Scavenging, so as to spare the ticking of the Grind. But none of the rooms had the stairs they were looking for.

Telemere then made a successful Scout test to try and spot something familiar, and realised that the way down to the dungeon was across the entry-way from where the PCs currently were. They therefore snuck across the entry-way to get there. At which point I asked for Scout tests from each of them - the bandit on guard had also seen the pirates' lantern, and was running back into the Moathouse to raise the alarm!

Golin's player worked out that with Scout 2, -2D for Sick and Injured, he was guaranteed to fail, and so opted to use his Cynical trait against himself to get a camp check. This produced a general pile-on of failure: Telemere the Loner could hardly sneak across accompanied by these two amateurs; and in the dark and oppressive surrounds the Dream-haunted Fea-bella suffered flashbacks to her nightmares.

So they were all well-and-truly spotted. And we stopped the session there, with the PCs about to spend their last turn on this ratchet of the Grind Fleeing the guard to get to through the door and down the dungeon stairs.

When it came to handing out artha, Telemere got 1 Fate (he had acted on his Belief, that things should be seen through to the end) and 2 Persona (he had achieved his goal, and had been the workhorse for the session - as the only player with artha for much of the session, the group had been configuring things so that he could test and the others help, given his supply of artha to pay for rerolls and the like). Fea-bella got 1 Fate (she had pursued but not attained her goal) and 1 Persona (as MVP, for saving the PCs from the lizard). Golin got only 1 Persona (for achieving his goal).

Our next session will begin with the flee conflict (PCs vs bandit lookout).

 

[pemerton]

@TwoSix

Thanks for dropping in on the thread!

 

[pemerton]

We played a session today, with two players and so two PCs: the Elven Ranger Telemere, and the Elven Dreamwalker Fea-bella.

We started with a prologue from Fea-bella's player, recounting the events of the previous session. It culminated with a description of the PC's current situation: spotted by a bandit scout while trying to cross the entry-way in the Moathouse, they were about to flee into the dungeon. Telemere was Angry, Exhausted and Injured; after the prologue, Fea-bella was Exhausted and Injured. And Golin - given that he wasn't here anymore - seemed to have headed off in some other direction!

Telemere set a goal: that he would locate the prisoners in the Moathouse dungeon. Fea-bella went for a broader re-set: a belief that only the rich get anywhere in this world - so I must become rich!; an instinct to always scavenge for loot; and a goal to persuade Lareth to lend her his crown.

My notes for the Moathouse listed, as a potential twist, 1d3 bandits. I rolled a die and determined that there were two bandits trying to chase down the PCs before they could escape into the dungeon. We then resolved the Flee conflict. Part way through, Fea-bella was knocked out at the same time as one of the bandits, and I narrated this as the bandit having blocked her escape, but having to stay put to do so. The PCs went on to win, but owed a half-compromise. I pushed fairly hard on this, that what made sense was that Telemere escaped but Fea-bella didn't. The players accepted this.

The tricky bit was that Fea-bella had the lantern, and Telemere had no light source of his own. The flee conflict was also the fourth turn on the grind, and while Fea-bella was able to take a sip of water as the bandits worked out what to do next, Telemere was stuck in the dark, Hungry and Thirsty, and was hesitant to spend his Survivalist supplies jury-rigging a torch. He used his tinderbox to create enough light to look around (successful Survivalist vs Ob 1), and unfortunately for him this alerted the 7 troll rats in the room to his presence.

There's not a lot a character can do in the dark. Telemere decided that he had to go back; I determined - with the players' agreement - that a "lead" rat would make the test against him to prevent him escaping, helped by 3 rats behind it. I discussed with Telemere's player whether we should do a full flee conflict or a versus test, and he preferred the latter, to keep things moving. So we rolled the versus test. The rats won - but I held off on the twist, because of the split party.

Meanwhile, outside, the bandits were discussing what to do with Fea-bella. They recognised her as Lareth's sister, and so were hesitant about treating her disrespectfully. Around this time, Fea-bella's player asked Telemere's player if Telemere screamed. The answer was affirmative. And so Fea-bella, acting on her creed that these are dark times, so all Elves ned help, implored the bandits to help her rescue Telemere. The test was Persuader vs Manipulator (the bandits are not naive or gullible!) - the result was a failure, and I decided that the bandits did agree to help, but that Fea-bella was genuinely Afraid as a result of Telemere's scream.

So the bandits and Fea-bella opened the door to where Telemere was - with the rats initiating a kill conflict (the held-off twist, now brought home). The rats had a disposition of 9, and so did the PCs (with Telemere as the conflict captain, and the two bandits - affectionately dubbed Mace-y and Sword-y after their weaponry - as full allied participants).

The conflict went for three full rounds, with the PCs victorious but down to 1 hp at the end, and so owing a major compromise. When the conflict had ended, Mace-y was down, the victim of a feint scripted by the rat-cunning GM. Telemere and Fea-bella had also both been taken down, and it was established that rats were crawling over them as Sword-y finished them off with his final attack. Looking through the options for a kill compromise, and also the troll rats' disease feature, I suggested that Mace-y was dead, killed by troll rats; that Fea-bella and Telemere were both Sick, having had diseased rats running all over them; and that Sword-y had become a carrier of the rat plague.

The kill conflict was also the fourth turn of the grind, and so while Fea-bella took Hungry and Thirsty, Telemere - who was already H+T, Exhausted, Angry, Injured and Sick - took Afraid. In other words, he had the full set of conditions! I made a roll on the Loot table, which turned up a bandolier (on Mace-y), which Telemere took, so as to honour his memory! Fea-bella assured Sword-y that she would recommend to Lareth that Mace-y be posthumously be awarded an appropriate honour, such as High Mace-man.

Sword-y then took the two of them down into the dungeon to meet with Lareth. They presented themselves as having come to warn Lareth about the pirate attack, but Lareth had doubts that this was their sole or even primary motivation. A Manipulator vs Manipulator test failed, and Lareth rebuffed them. A second Manipulator test from Fea-bella followed: yes, Lareth was right, she was so poor and hopeless, couldn't she just have a lend of his crown? This also failed.

In one of these failed tests, Fea-bella had used her Fiery trait against herself, and the consequence for failure was that she became genuinely Angry. The other one resulted in a twist - Lareth dismissed the PCs from his entourage and instructed them to aid in the defence against the pirates. But he did relieve their injuries, invoking the Blood Vow to the Lords of Creation. And then left out the escape tunnel with three guards, their sergeant and his lieutenant, sending his six other guards to join the defence against the pirates and leaving the PCs as well.

By this stage the players had amassed six camp checks, and had four conditions each to recover: Afraid, Angry, Exhausted and Sick. Fea-bella's Song of Serenity grants a free recover test for Afraid, Angry or Exhausted to an ally, so they could make 7 tests. The camp events roll was a safe camp in the dungeon, although it was an unsafe area - on account of being assaulted by pirates. Fea-bella, moved by her creed, decided that Telemere should get the benefit of the seventh test, which would be done as a Healing test by her, aided by him, to cure his Sickness. But after a good start by both PCs against Afraid and Angry, while Fea-bella recovered from exhaustion Telemere failed to so so. Fea-bella therefore took the seventh test as a (successful) recovery against her own Sickness. So she was now free of conditions, while Telemere was still Exhausted and Sick.

I had already described the sumptuous rug and wall-hangings that Lareth had left behind in his parlour, but these were too big for the PCs to take (pack 6 and 4D; 2x pack 5 and 3D). Fea-bella first looked about for any food, and succeeded in finding some fresh rations. She then instinctually looked about for any loot, and (at least as I think I remember it) the roll failed but I went for a condition - hungry and thirsty - and she got a roll on Loot Table 1, which turned up some forage (ie ingredients for cooking).

The PCs then left Lareth's parlour to head back into the dungeon, looking for the prisoners. When they passed through the barracks another instinctual look for loot took place, and this failed too. This time I opted for a twist: a Bugbear had come through to this part of the dungeon, wanting to know where Lareth had gone, and being sufficiently fluent in Elvish to put the question to the PCs. We resolved this as a convince conflict, the Bugbear using its Terrorising nature (and scripting Attack/Attack/Attack) to try and get an answer from the PCs, while they tried to persuade it that, with Lareth gone, Fea-bella (his sister) was now in charge. The PCs were defeated, but got a minor compromise - so before they joined the Bugbear in pursuing the escaping Lareth, the Bugbear would take them to the prisoners, who were too important to be left behind.

Quite a bit of time has passed since the PCs were locked up with the other prisoners - long enough for Fea-bella and Golin to get lost in the swamp, then rest and recover in Nulb, then travel with pirates back to the Moathouse, then travel further to the mountains, then rest and recover in the Dwarven Halls, before now coming back to the Moathouse. I decided that this made it legitimate for me to declare that one of the imprisoned merchants had died. But the other was still there, as was the Dwarf from the Herbalist cult, whom I now decided had the stats of a NPC healer.

The Bugbear collected its fellows (two other normal Bugbears, plus their Shaman) and persuaded the Gnolls to hand over the prisoners. That group then set off in pursuit of Lareth. The way I resolved this was to have the players script and roll for the Bugbears, whom (as a result of their failed conflict) they were aiding, while I scripted and rolled for Lareth and his soldiers. This ended up as a victory for the Bugbears, but with a major compromise owed (only 3 hp left, from a starting total of 14) in circumstances where Fea-bella and Telemere had both dropped to zero: narrated as them falling behind the relentless Bugbear Shaman. I also decided that the PCs (and the prisoners in their custody) were Exhausted (this didn't bother Telemere, given he already had this condition) and lost in the swamp.

They camped again - another safe camp - again with six checks available, plus the free recovery from Song of Soothing.

Both PCs recovered from their Exhaustion. I had decided that the Dwarven prisoner was Afraid, and Fea-bella used her Song to give him a free test to recover, which succeeded. Fea-bella then used her Healer, assisted by Telemere and the Dwarf, to make a poultice to grant Telemere +1D to recover from Sick. That test was a success, and so both PCs were now free of all their conditions. Fea-bella then used one of her two remaining tests to make another poultice (I think, again, to aid against Sickness) - but the test failed. I decided that it started to rain heavily, extinguishing their fire and bringing an end to their camp.

They decided to journey to Nulb, with Telemere taking the Guide role so as to make the necessary Pathfinder test (given they were lost). This was Ob 5, and failed: he became Hungry and Thirsty as he found the way to the river, that would lead them to Nulb. The Trouble on the Road roll indicated delays, for +1 toll; the rain was also +1 toll; and the base toll for travelling through the swamp was 3, for a total of 5 for Fea-bella and 6 for Telemere (because of his role as Guide).

Both PCs have a cloak as raiment reducing toll by 1. And there was one portion of food and of water left, which Telemere used to reduce his toll be another 1, leaving 4 each. Fea-bella wore out her shoes (again!) and lost her hat (drenched by rain), leaving 2 toll to be taken as conditions. Telemere was determined the he would not end up shoeless, but I allowed him to abandon his quiver (given that his bow is broken), and his iron spikes (which I thought he might have used up trying to make sightings to calculate directions, given his Star-wise), leaving 2 toll for him also.

The PCs therefore arrived at Nulb Hungry + Thirsty, and Exhausted. But Telemere at least gained a level (and took Song of Soothing as his level benefit, which allows him to use his Singing Nature in place of Healing to alleviate Injury and Sickness).

The town event roll was Billeted Army:

The soldiers overwhelm the town. No room at the accommodations, they’re occupied by officers. No room at the tavern, they’re crowded with soldiers. No room at the stables, they’re crammed full of cavalry. All live and rolling stock is claimed by the army. You can sleep on the streets or, if you mess with the soldiers, remain in the adventure phase.​

Of course, following the advice that "town events leave a lot of room for interpretation. . . . Be sure to color these results so that they mesh with the current events of the campaign" (Scholar's Guide p 279), I knew that this event wasn't soldiers, but rather pirates! The river pirates had all descended on Nulb following Tolub's call. Pirates in the taverns, and their draft animals in the stables!

The players debated what to do, but decided in the end to stay on the streets. I rolled on the Streets Event table for both of them, and got theft results both times: the pirates took Fea-bella's pouch with her personal mirror, and (more seriously) took Telemere's satchel.

On the streets you can't recover, so the PCs went to the Nulb market to shop - they bought waterskins, some wine, lots of food, candles, and a new satchel and tinderbox for Telemere. The shopping came to an end with a failed Resources test by Fea-bella, which taxed her Resource from 3 back down to 2. Telemere, on the other hand, had had a success on Resources that lifted him from 1 to 2.

Because Lifestyle is minimum 1, and both the streets and the market are free, each player declared another action for their PC. Fea-bella successfully re-memorised Wizard's Aegis. Telemre made a successful Ob 1 Circles test (at the docks, for a +1D bonus), which lifted his Circles to 2. When Telemere's player asked what he could do as Ob 1 Circles, I replied that he could get some unreliable common knowledge from someone who heard it from someone else. So, on the docks, he asked around about why all the pirates were here. The answer he got was that Tolub had some issue with some Dwarf or other - Golin the Beardless? - and so had called all the pirates here to sort it out. Telemere seemed satisfied with this gossip.

With their Resources 2 the PCs each had to roll for Lifestyle, as they left town. Both failed. I told them they were Hungry and Thirsty - so each emptied a waterskin to relieve their street-parched throats.

And as they left town, heading to Wintershiven to return the rescued merchant to safety and receive an appropriate reward, we ended the session. I'm not sure who will be in attendance at our next session (hopefully in two weeks) - but I'm looking forward to learning what happened to Golin, and whether and how it involves his cousin Aldric.