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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9841807" data-attributes="member: 42582">We played a session of Torchbearer 2e yesterday afternoon.In attendance were 3 players, and so we had 3 PCs: Telemere the Elven Ranger, Fea-bella the Elven Dreamwalker, and Golin the Dwaren Outcast. Fea-bella's player gave us a prologue, and so Fea-bella recovered from Exhaustion. Golin's player (who had been absent last session) told us what had happened to Golin: he had been looking for his cousin Aldric - but we then realised that Golin was Sick (and hence could not get any benefit from narrating his little vignette) and so maybe it was really Aldric who was leading Golin, to catch up with the other PCs. In any event, Golin (and Aldric) arrived at the Telemere and Fea-bella's camp.Golin rewrote his Instinct, back to Forage when the opportunity arises, and his Belief, from Elves are unstable! to Elves are useful! His goal was to prove his might to the nandies, by taking on the nandie-bear in single combat. Fea-bella's goal was to heal Golin, and Telemere's was to get his bear back.The PCs were lost - there had been fog about, including while they were camping - and so the first action was Telemere's attempt to work out which way was which, and where the PCs were. This check failed, however, and so I narrated a twist: the PCs stumbled into the village of Cahli at night.The PCs had one camp check, which Golin's player used to make a test to recover from Sickness. The test failed.In the village, all the buildings were locked and shuttered (some with metal shutters), and so the PCs had to sleep on the streets. This called for a roll for each on the Streets Event table. Golin had his pouch of candles taken by nandies while he slept; while Telemere woke up with his clothes filthy (+1 Ob to Circles tests), it was agreed by accidentally sleeping in nandie dung. Fea-bella escaped any consequence, because her result was theft of a purse, pouch or satchel, and she had none of the above! (<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2e-actual-play-of-this-awesome-system.691233/post-9791180" target="_blank">Having been robbed by nandies in the previous session.</a>) The only good luck the PCs had at this stage was a roll on the Town Events table: this showed that the villagers were clearing out their stores to make room for a new harvest, and so the PCs could take as many cooking supplies as they had room to carry.The PCs then did a lot of shopping, for goods that could be purchased in a Remote Village, all at Ob 1 Resources: sacks, candles, tinderboxes, fresh rations and mead; staves for both Fea-bella and Telemere; and a ball of twine for Telemere (who is planning to use the twine to lash his knife to the staff, thereby jury-rigging a spear).Fea-bella and Telemere were planning to try and heal Golin of his Sickness. But this required going indoors - namely, to the Ferryboat Tavern. The PCs bought a drink each, and each had a roll on the Tavern Rumour table:*Fea-bella found herself in conversation with a young woman from the village, who was lamenting that she hadn't seen her boyfriend, Diker Thane, for six months or more. Diker, she said, is well-off (wearing a dark green cape and his black plate armour), and lives in the foothills. *Telemere, as he was coming into the tavern, was mocked by an unkindness of ravens perched in a tree outside. When he went inside, he used his instinct (When I enter somewhere knew, check to see if I'm being watched) to listen in on the remarks by one of the slightly inebriated old-timers to the barkeep: the mocking of the ravens suggested that Telemere was likely to be the next victim of the Night Things. *As Golin sat down to drink, who should burst into the tavern but his friend from Nulb, Nink the tinker. Nink explained that the Bugbears had come back to Nulb, and driven out the pirates and most of the residents. Nink had headed north, and had encountered Rufus and his men at the Tower of Stars, who wouldn't let Nink stop there. So he'd kept going north. At one point he'd seen a soldier from the Pale (conjectured by the PCs to be <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2e-actual-play-of-this-awesome-system.691233/post-9522553" target="_blank">the inquisitor pursuing them</a>). And he'd come to Cahli because he'd heard they were doing work, rebuilding wooden buildings in stone and adding metal shutters, which might require a tinker.Golin wanted to put in a good word for Nink, and succeeded on a Circles test to meet with a village elder. In the ensuing conversation, the PC learned that the reason for the building work was to protect the villagers against the Night Things, shadowy beings who come at night and can rend a person in two with their claws, and whose depredations had become more serious over the past year or so. Which was also about how long it had been since the villagers had heard from Tizun Thane, the magic-user who lives to the south of the village, at the foot of the mountains. (The PCs also learned that the metal shutters are purchased from the Dwarven Halls.)When the elder mentioned that the village could offer 4D of coins (2D copper, 2D silver) to anyone who ended the marauding of the Night Things, Fea-bella's ears pricked up - she liked the sound of that, and promised to do that.The tavern-keeper was happy for the PCs to go into a backroom to treat Golin. The base Ob was 6 (for treating poisoning - <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2e-actual-play-of-this-awesome-system.691233/post-9776007" target="_blank">Golin was sick from drinking spirit-tainted water</a>), +1 Ob for having no tools (those being in the backpack and satchel stolen by the nandies). Telemere has the Song of Soothing, which means that his Singing Nature encompasses Healing, and so his player used a Persona point to channel his 3 Nature dice into his 3 Healing dice. Fea-bella helped with her Healer skill, and Nink also helped out (keeping the water warm). He also used a trait (Calm, I think) for 9D in total. The roll was a success, and so Golin was healed.Golin filled up his large sack with cooking supplies. And then it was then time to leave town. Telemere's was Ob 2 (Tavern + Healing), and he failed: I taxed his Resources 2 back to Resources 1. Fea-bellla also failed, and similarly had her Resources 2 taxed back to Resources 1. Golin's Lifestyle was Ob 2 (tavern + Circles), and he failed too. I decided that he was Angry, at the inability of the Elves to make good on their bills without running down their financial standing. The PCs then headed back to the Halls of Tizun Thane. The weather was windy, adding +1 Toll, for 2 Toll in total. Telemere guided the group, with a successful Pathfinder test from his player. Trouble on the Road indicated the PCs were going to be waylaid by nandies, but - with his Instinct - Telemere spotted them (successful Scout test) and so the PCs avoided the toll increase.Fea-bella foraged for healing herbs: the roll failed, and so she found herbs at night under the stars, but could see dark shapes, twice as tall as an Elf or human, moving in the darkness of the woods. This sighting of (presumably) the Night Things left her Afraid. With his Instinct, Golin foraged for stuff to cook with. He then cooked them up, to buy off one point of Toll each. Fea-bella and Telemere - with their raiment of cloaks - each were able to buy off another point of Toll. They took the final point (+1 each for their role) as a condition, each becoming Hungry and Thirsty and so taking a drink. Golin (+2 for his role, and no applicable raiment), took a portion of food and drink to buy off one point, and took the other two as conditions - Hungry and Thirsty, which doesn't penalise him, and Exhaustion, which he doesn't take, due to his Great Endurance feature.At the end of the ravine, with the nandies about, Golin jumped up onto a rock and started beating his chest, to challenge the nandie-bear. I decided that this sort of manipulation of a creature was Hunting vs Nature. Telemere and Fea-bella called out goading things to the nandies and the nandie-bear - and even if they couldn't literally understand the spoken words, the town was clear - and so added helping dice from Manipulator. So Golin's player had 4 dice vs my 6 dice for nandie-bear nature, but succeeded. The nandies started chattering wildly, and this brought out the nandie-bear, who took up the challenge.Because Golin had initiated this, I let Golin's player specify the conflict type: he opted for Drive Off. His disposition was 7, and the nandie-bear's 9. But with his scripting and rolling, Golin won (unaided - like the nandies, the Elves just looked on), though he owed a half-compromise due to losing 4 hit points of his own. The nandie-bear was driven off, bested by Golin. I thought a bit about the compromise. We agreed that Golin hadn't really been badly hurt (given how the actions of the combat had unfolded) and so Injured wasn't appropriate. He was automatically Afraid, though, due to the nandie-bear's terrible cry. And I decided that while the nandie-bear had been driven off, the nandies didn't accept Golin as a leader (he may be ape-like with a terrifying roar, some of use noted - but he's only half of 8' tall). So the nandies pursued the PCs as they headed to the Halls, triggering a Flee/Pursue conflict.As Golin fled, he saw on the ground the seed pod of an ash tree - a material component for Lightness of Being - and picked it up to give to Fea-bella.This was seven nandies with a disposition of 9, versus the PCs with 8 (Telemere was the conflict captain). But the nandies had a lot of dice - 3D Nature + 6D of help - compared to the PCs lower totals, with neither Fea-bella nor Golin being able to help (both being Afraid). The nandies caught the PCs, but owed a major compromise. The PCs had been running to the entrance of the Halls, hoping to ask the iron golem to take them in again (thus keeping them safe from the nandies); and so I used the golem as the compromise: the nandies caught up to the PCs at the entrance, and this "triggered" the golem, who threatened all of them with its sword, not letting anyone pass.Neither the nandies nor the PCs wanted to take on the golem. The nandies dispersed back to the stables. Golin tried Orator, speaking the phrase "Take us to Tizun Thane" - helped by Telemre's Lore Master (knowledge of golems and passwords) - but it failed. I can't remember the twist now: the golem didn't attack, and there was nothing nandie-related. But in any event, the PCs decided to go in via the upper level, by going around the corner out of sight of the golem, so that they could get up onto the roof and going through a window of the dome. There was a bit of discussion about how to do this, and in the end it was done one character at a time, over the course of three turns.First, Fea-bella cast Lightness of Being to levitate herself up to the roof. This was an Ob 1 test, with 4D (Arcanist 4, +1D for the seed pod, -1D to earn a camp check). Naturally the roll failed: Fea-bella succeeded in casting her spell, but was Angry at the difficulty of wielding the magic. Through the windows of the dome, she could see that there was a single, large circular room with a very high ceiling (ie extending from the ground floor up to the dome). In the centre of the room was an altar with chains and manacles on its corners; and she could see alcoves against the wall, which seemed to house tall, elegantly slim black statues.Fea-bella had carried up Golin's rope, and so after taking in the interesting view through the window, she lowered it down. Golin climbed up, with 5D (Dungeoneer 4, +1D from rope) vs Ob 3. And failed: he was Hungry and Thirsty when he to to the top.Golin had been planning to haul Telemere up, using Labourer. But Telemere - whose Belief is that Perseverance is folly - decided that he should persevere and do it himself. His player rolled 3D for his Beginner's Luck (Health 5 + 1D for the rope) and failed; and Telemere made it onto the roof, but was Angry at how difficult things are, and at how little his perseverance seems to pay off.We had to end the session there. The PCs had three camp checks by this stage, and they plan to camp ASAP. With the recovery for the prologue, a free recovery from Fea-bella's Song of Serenity, and three checks, they plan to recover 3x Angry and 2x Afraid.We also allocated rewards before everyone headed off:* Golin had achieved his Goal (1 Persona); and had acted on his Belief, by letting the Elves heal him (1 Fate); and had used his Instinct to good effect (1 Fate); and had stood up for his Creed that Elves need grounding in reality, by refusing to help the low-Resources Elves in one of their shopping attempts (for staves) that he regarded as frivolous (1 Persona); and got Teamworker (1 Persona) for making the bulk of the shopping rolls (with his Resources 4). * Telemere had pursued, but not achieved, his Goal, by heading back to the Halls in search of his nandie-stolen gear (1 Fate); and had struggled with his Belief (1 Persona); and had used his Instinct to good effect (1 Fate); and was MVP, for his might roll to heal Goline (1 Persona). * Fea-bella had acted on the basis of her Belief, that only the rich get anywhere in this world, so she must become rich (1 Fate); and had achieved her Goal (1 Persona). This was Fea-bella's lowest haul for some time.All in-all it was a good session. And at this stage the PCs are in a promising position - ready to enter the Halls in search of loot, with a reasonable supply of food, drink and candles.</blockquote>

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