Episode 51
The darksome mist rolled down the streets, in mournful, inexorable billows of black. It swept over chimneys, roofs, and walls, coming closer, ever closer. In the distance, where the cloud hit the town, she heard screams and cries.
(This encounter is a scene challenge from the Delve expansion book against an anomaly, so we'll set up a progress track of ten boxes for it. The anomaly also has a countdown track of 4 boxes. This is a Dangerous scene which means we mark two boxes of progress whenever we Face Danger.)
She shook Haf frantically, not wanting to leave him out to meet this strange darkness.
Does Haf become conscious?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 2[d10]) No
The large man groaned but did not wake.
She looked about and saw light shining beyond a leather-covered window from a nearby home. With shaking hands, she sheathed her sword then grabbed him under his arms and hauled him through the downpouring rain and mud towards the light.
Face Danger + Iron to pull him (and her) to safety through the mud
4 = 3[d6]+1
3 = 1[d10]+2[d10]
Wow. That’s actually a strong hit!
He pushed on the door.
Is it unlocked?
(Unlikely | 1[d10]) No, and...
Light leaked from the edges of the barred door. She pounded on the heavy wood and shouted over the muted rain and the hammering in her chest.
“Please! It’s me, Eilwen, this man is hurt! Let us in!”
Per the Rules of dealing with a scene challenge, you only use Face Danger or Secure an Advantage moves.
Face Danger + Heart. Since she shares a bond with them, I’ll allow her to get the + 1 for her bond... I don’t know if that’s strictly legal, but since this is in place of a Compel Move and you get it with Compel, I think it’s okay.
8 = 6[d6]+2
8 = 6[d10]+2[d10]
Lucky! A strong hit.
The door opened, and helping hands drew them inside. Darkness billowed outside and swept past the door. Someone slammed the door shut behind her.
Two more progress. Now 4/10.
Is it a family?
(Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
A young family huddled around the hearth. The young mother with a dirty face held a baby boy. His incessant cries added to the sorrow and fear that threatened to surmount them. An older girl stared at the darkness with wide eyes. It blanketed the windows and puddles of ink began to ooze through the cracks and under the door.
“What is happening?” the goodman of the house said, backing away from the door, his voice hoarse.
She ignored them and darted to the fireplace, dumping two hefty logs onto the fitful flames.
This sounds like
Secure an Advantage Roll + Edge
5 = 3[d6]+2
7 = 3[d10]+4[d10]
A strong hit. Prepare to act, she takes +2 momentum.
Momentum now 2/10
Progress 4/10
Are there torches or lanterns nearby?
Likely.
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
Sparks and flames churned around the dry wood, and the fire leapt up, chasing the pools of darkness back. She saw a bundle of unlit torches, drew forth two of them, and thrust them into the flames of the fireplace.
She passed them to the father. “Here! Hold these by the windows and doors. Protect your abode!”
He did so, and the shadows seemed to shrink back for the moment. She lit two more torches and held them herself, protectively edging out any shadows.
“What are your names?” she asked.
(I used https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ce...-names.php)
“I am called Guto,” the father said, his voice a tremor, his eyes darting to the mist that shifted and churned outside the door. “This is my wife, Tangwyn. Our girl is Lili. The baby is Telor.”
“Thank you for offering us safety,” Eilwen said. “This is Haf,” she said, pointing to the injured unconscious man. “I found him injured outside when these mists came.”
“Of course. But--but what is it...this mist outside?” Guto asked, holding the fiery brands in each hand.
Tangwynn had set her baby down for a moment into a wicker basket and helped move Haf onto a cot. She covered him with a simple blanket then returned and took up her child again.
Eilwen nodded her thanks and then turned and responded to Guto’s question. “Hopefully only a passing nightmare,” Eilwen said.
“I’ve--I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Tangwynn said. She and her two children had retreated close to the hearth, shrinking back from the unnatural mist.
“Nor have I,” Eilween said, and then smiled grimly at them. “But I will face it with you!”
Sounds like Secure an Advantage + Heart
She’s trying to bolster their spirits and her own. It doesn’t say she gets the +1 to her bond with this... so I won’t.
2 = 1[d6]+1
10 = 6[d10]+4[d10]
A miss. Mark on the Countdown box
1/4
(Miss Count now 35/24)
“Mommy,” Lili said. “I’m scared.”
Eilwen’s promise sounded hollow. She thought she heard scratching at the leather-covered window, and she spun at the sound.
Through the windows and door they heard dark whispers, indistinct and muted at first. But as they listened, the voices became clearer and resolved into low shouts and desperate pleas for help.
“Eilwen!” Aaron’s voice whispered and she stepped back startled. “I’m sorry. Please! I didn’t mean to betray you! Let me in! Oh please, let me in!” He was just outside the door!
“Aron?” she groaned, and his desperation tore at her heart. She stepped towards the door, wings of hope rising in her breast. “Aron!”
Face Danger + wits to use insight to understand what’s really happening
8 = 6[d6]+2
11 = 2[d10]+9[d10]
A weak hit.
She paused, her hand on the door latch. But no... it couldn’t be. Aron had been expelled from these lands. To come back would be his death.
Her heart felt cold with indecision.
“Aron,” she breathed, and took her hand away from the latch. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
“You did this to me!” he said, accusing through the door. “Your lust for power has killed your own flesh and blood!”
“No!” she shouted and pushed away from the door. She held her head in her hands and felt tears wet her face. She vaguely realized that she had dropped her torches. The flames had guttered and went out, consumed by the strands of shadow that moved tentacle-like over their ember ends, twisting around them, hissing them to a silence of light’s death.
Progress now 6/10
Countdown 2/4
Pay the Price -- Endure Stress 1.
Spirit now 0/5
2 = 1[d6]+1
10 = 1[d10]+9[d10]
Wow. Barely a weak hit. You press on.
“Guto, it’s mother!” A woman’s voice called, also from outside. “Please, it’s so dark. I cannot see. Where are you? I need you! Please help me!”
“It’s mother, Tangwynn,” Guto said, his face drawn in concern. “I must help her!”
And then he too began to open the door, his torches also falling to the ground...
“No, Guto...” his wife shouted. “I don’t think--”
Eilwen darted to the door and slammed her weight against it. She looked at Guto, and she held his eyes with hers. “You cannot, Guto! The voices are only lies and deceptions of some fell power that haunts us!”
Face Danger + 1 Heart to convince him to leave it shut.
3 = 2[d6]+1
7 = 6[d10]+1[d10]
A weak hit.
Progress 8/10
Countdown 3/4
“But it’s my mother!” he said, in a pleading voice.
“I know it seems so,” Eilwen said, gripping one of his arms in hers. “But it is not. Think! What would she be doing wandering the rain and the mud of the streets this late at night?”
“But--” he said and tears were in his eyes
“Come to me Gusto,” Tangwynn pleaded. “Sit by the fire! Come to the light.”
“Yes, let us go to the light,” Eilwen agreed. She took his hand and pulled him with her. They backed away from the pooling, grasping, mist that oozed like a loathsome miasma under the door and poured waterfall-like from the window’s lip into the home. The mist piled down upon itself, rising up into a deeper wall of black darkness.
Gusto and Eilwen retreated back to the hearth where the wall of mist now swam and twisted in front of them. They watched as its gloom-ridden shades crept nearer.
In the shadow’s gloom that churned about them, she saw a scene emerged, totally made from the mist. The clouds showed a three-dimensional revisitation of her encounter with Aron some days back. She saw a representation of herself now, made of mist, standing over her brother, the bleeding crown in her hand, dripping mist, like bloody tar.
Aron’s misty face wept mist, and his black mouth opened wide, his teeth became stretching strands of blackness. “You did this!” he screamed.
“I am queen!” she shouted back and realized she held both swords in her hands, crossing them in front of her, as if they could ward off this strange entity. Their magical lights intermingled, one pale white, one sickly green. They reflected off the inky black wall in front of her.
“I defy you, foul shade!”
Face Danger + Heart (courage)
4 = 3[d6]+1
14 = 5[d10]+9[d10]
A miss
(Miss count now 36/24)
Countdown 4/4
Her spirit is 0 Spirit. Since it’s a dangerous scene, because she’s at 0, she loses 2 momentum. Momentum instead, now 0/10.
Now she Endures Stress
Endure Stress
2 = 1[d6]+1
17 = 7[d10]+10[d10]
Another miss. She now has the Shaken condition
(Miss Count now 37/24)
Aron’s scream reverberated in her heart, in her mind, and the mist darted towards her, tendrils of shadow licking at her face, feeding on her sorrow, her fear, caressing her staccato heartbeat, freezing her tears on her face.
She fell to her knees, groaning in heart-sick agony. The light from the swords still shone about her, a pale nimbus. Her head was bowed, her hair hung limply. Her tears were twin black jewels on her face.
“Aron... I’m sorry...I’m so sorry....”
Next to her Guto had fallen to his knees, openly weeping. The fire had nearly gone out.
Because the countdown reached 4 boxes, we now resolve the encounter by making a progress roll out of 8 filled boxes.
16 = 10[d10]+6[d10]
A strong hit
Her heart beat inside her. And a small ember of warmth warred against the cold in her veins.
She concentrated on that heart beat. Focused her will on it and what it meant.
Life and warmth.
“I am Ironsworn,” she heard herself say, a mechanical whisper, barely audible at first. Then conviction firmed her voice and her will. She roused, struggling to her feet. “I am Eilwen!” she said louder, defiant of her own weakness.
This mists churned and hissed its twisting darkness about her.
“Legitimate heir to a broken kingdom. Daughter of Queens! Wielder of the Sword of Myrddyn. I am Shadesbane!” She slashed two paths of twin skaed runes with the blades in reversed arcs. The tips of her dimly-glowing blades created lines of light that hung in the air. “I am Lightweaver! I chose this path, and I will not be denied!”
(Funny how the lightweaver thing is what she runs with. It was all part of a mystic backlash that caused her to get a bluish ethereal glow way back in Episode 7.)
The amulet about her flared and then dimmed to a faint blue light. The strange shadowy mist rolled back upon itself, churning to get away from her, as if afraid of her light.
She strode towards it, defiant of her fears, her swords crossed in front of her, and the light about her shoved the strange mists away. They recoiled, melted into the ground and retreated into the clouds, into a sky that sucked in this second night.
Time returned in a lurch. The rain had stopped. The clouds were gone, and she saw stars. Eilwen sank to the muddy ground, spent to her core.
Eilwen
Iron +1
Edge +2
Heart +1
Shadow +3
Wits +2
Health: 2/5
Momentum: 0/10
Supply: 3/5
Spirit: 0/5 - SHAKEN
The darksome mist rolled down the streets, in mournful, inexorable billows of black. It swept over chimneys, roofs, and walls, coming closer, ever closer. In the distance, where the cloud hit the town, she heard screams and cries.
(This encounter is a scene challenge from the Delve expansion book against an anomaly, so we'll set up a progress track of ten boxes for it. The anomaly also has a countdown track of 4 boxes. This is a Dangerous scene which means we mark two boxes of progress whenever we Face Danger.)
She shook Haf frantically, not wanting to leave him out to meet this strange darkness.
Does Haf become conscious?
(Somewhat Unlikely | 2[d10]) No
The large man groaned but did not wake.
She looked about and saw light shining beyond a leather-covered window from a nearby home. With shaking hands, she sheathed her sword then grabbed him under his arms and hauled him through the downpouring rain and mud towards the light.
Face Danger + Iron to pull him (and her) to safety through the mud
4 = 3[d6]+1
3 = 1[d10]+2[d10]
Wow. That’s actually a strong hit!
He pushed on the door.
Is it unlocked?
(Unlikely | 1[d10]) No, and...
Light leaked from the edges of the barred door. She pounded on the heavy wood and shouted over the muted rain and the hammering in her chest.
“Please! It’s me, Eilwen, this man is hurt! Let us in!”
Per the Rules of dealing with a scene challenge, you only use Face Danger or Secure an Advantage moves.
Face Danger + Heart. Since she shares a bond with them, I’ll allow her to get the + 1 for her bond... I don’t know if that’s strictly legal, but since this is in place of a Compel Move and you get it with Compel, I think it’s okay.
8 = 6[d6]+2
8 = 6[d10]+2[d10]
Lucky! A strong hit.
The door opened, and helping hands drew them inside. Darkness billowed outside and swept past the door. Someone slammed the door shut behind her.
Two more progress. Now 4/10.
Is it a family?
(Likely | 7[d10]) Yes
A young family huddled around the hearth. The young mother with a dirty face held a baby boy. His incessant cries added to the sorrow and fear that threatened to surmount them. An older girl stared at the darkness with wide eyes. It blanketed the windows and puddles of ink began to ooze through the cracks and under the door.
“What is happening?” the goodman of the house said, backing away from the door, his voice hoarse.
She ignored them and darted to the fireplace, dumping two hefty logs onto the fitful flames.
This sounds like
Secure an Advantage Roll + Edge
5 = 3[d6]+2
7 = 3[d10]+4[d10]
A strong hit. Prepare to act, she takes +2 momentum.
Momentum now 2/10
Progress 4/10
Are there torches or lanterns nearby?
Likely.
(Likely | 8[d10]) Yes
Sparks and flames churned around the dry wood, and the fire leapt up, chasing the pools of darkness back. She saw a bundle of unlit torches, drew forth two of them, and thrust them into the flames of the fireplace.
She passed them to the father. “Here! Hold these by the windows and doors. Protect your abode!”
He did so, and the shadows seemed to shrink back for the moment. She lit two more torches and held them herself, protectively edging out any shadows.
“What are your names?” she asked.
(I used https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/ce...-names.php)
“I am called Guto,” the father said, his voice a tremor, his eyes darting to the mist that shifted and churned outside the door. “This is my wife, Tangwyn. Our girl is Lili. The baby is Telor.”
“Thank you for offering us safety,” Eilwen said. “This is Haf,” she said, pointing to the injured unconscious man. “I found him injured outside when these mists came.”
“Of course. But--but what is it...this mist outside?” Guto asked, holding the fiery brands in each hand.
Tangwynn had set her baby down for a moment into a wicker basket and helped move Haf onto a cot. She covered him with a simple blanket then returned and took up her child again.
Eilwen nodded her thanks and then turned and responded to Guto’s question. “Hopefully only a passing nightmare,” Eilwen said.
“I’ve--I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Tangwynn said. She and her two children had retreated close to the hearth, shrinking back from the unnatural mist.
“Nor have I,” Eilween said, and then smiled grimly at them. “But I will face it with you!”
Sounds like Secure an Advantage + Heart
She’s trying to bolster their spirits and her own. It doesn’t say she gets the +1 to her bond with this... so I won’t.
2 = 1[d6]+1
10 = 6[d10]+4[d10]
A miss. Mark on the Countdown box
1/4
(Miss Count now 35/24)
“Mommy,” Lili said. “I’m scared.”
Eilwen’s promise sounded hollow. She thought she heard scratching at the leather-covered window, and she spun at the sound.
Through the windows and door they heard dark whispers, indistinct and muted at first. But as they listened, the voices became clearer and resolved into low shouts and desperate pleas for help.
“Eilwen!” Aaron’s voice whispered and she stepped back startled. “I’m sorry. Please! I didn’t mean to betray you! Let me in! Oh please, let me in!” He was just outside the door!
“Aron?” she groaned, and his desperation tore at her heart. She stepped towards the door, wings of hope rising in her breast. “Aron!”
Face Danger + wits to use insight to understand what’s really happening
8 = 6[d6]+2
11 = 2[d10]+9[d10]
A weak hit.
She paused, her hand on the door latch. But no... it couldn’t be. Aron had been expelled from these lands. To come back would be his death.
Her heart felt cold with indecision.
“Aron,” she breathed, and took her hand away from the latch. “I’m sorry. I can’t.”
“You did this to me!” he said, accusing through the door. “Your lust for power has killed your own flesh and blood!”
“No!” she shouted and pushed away from the door. She held her head in her hands and felt tears wet her face. She vaguely realized that she had dropped her torches. The flames had guttered and went out, consumed by the strands of shadow that moved tentacle-like over their ember ends, twisting around them, hissing them to a silence of light’s death.
Progress now 6/10
Countdown 2/4
Pay the Price -- Endure Stress 1.
Spirit now 0/5
2 = 1[d6]+1
10 = 1[d10]+9[d10]
Wow. Barely a weak hit. You press on.
“Guto, it’s mother!” A woman’s voice called, also from outside. “Please, it’s so dark. I cannot see. Where are you? I need you! Please help me!”
“It’s mother, Tangwynn,” Guto said, his face drawn in concern. “I must help her!”
And then he too began to open the door, his torches also falling to the ground...
“No, Guto...” his wife shouted. “I don’t think--”
Eilwen darted to the door and slammed her weight against it. She looked at Guto, and she held his eyes with hers. “You cannot, Guto! The voices are only lies and deceptions of some fell power that haunts us!”
Face Danger + 1 Heart to convince him to leave it shut.
3 = 2[d6]+1
7 = 6[d10]+1[d10]
A weak hit.
Progress 8/10
Countdown 3/4
“But it’s my mother!” he said, in a pleading voice.
“I know it seems so,” Eilwen said, gripping one of his arms in hers. “But it is not. Think! What would she be doing wandering the rain and the mud of the streets this late at night?”
“But--” he said and tears were in his eyes
“Come to me Gusto,” Tangwynn pleaded. “Sit by the fire! Come to the light.”
“Yes, let us go to the light,” Eilwen agreed. She took his hand and pulled him with her. They backed away from the pooling, grasping, mist that oozed like a loathsome miasma under the door and poured waterfall-like from the window’s lip into the home. The mist piled down upon itself, rising up into a deeper wall of black darkness.
Gusto and Eilwen retreated back to the hearth where the wall of mist now swam and twisted in front of them. They watched as its gloom-ridden shades crept nearer.
In the shadow’s gloom that churned about them, she saw a scene emerged, totally made from the mist. The clouds showed a three-dimensional revisitation of her encounter with Aron some days back. She saw a representation of herself now, made of mist, standing over her brother, the bleeding crown in her hand, dripping mist, like bloody tar.
Aron’s misty face wept mist, and his black mouth opened wide, his teeth became stretching strands of blackness. “You did this!” he screamed.
“I am queen!” she shouted back and realized she held both swords in her hands, crossing them in front of her, as if they could ward off this strange entity. Their magical lights intermingled, one pale white, one sickly green. They reflected off the inky black wall in front of her.
“I defy you, foul shade!”
Face Danger + Heart (courage)
4 = 3[d6]+1
14 = 5[d10]+9[d10]
A miss
(Miss count now 36/24)
Countdown 4/4
Her spirit is 0 Spirit. Since it’s a dangerous scene, because she’s at 0, she loses 2 momentum. Momentum instead, now 0/10.
Now she Endures Stress
Endure Stress
2 = 1[d6]+1
17 = 7[d10]+10[d10]
Another miss. She now has the Shaken condition
(Miss Count now 37/24)
Aron’s scream reverberated in her heart, in her mind, and the mist darted towards her, tendrils of shadow licking at her face, feeding on her sorrow, her fear, caressing her staccato heartbeat, freezing her tears on her face.
She fell to her knees, groaning in heart-sick agony. The light from the swords still shone about her, a pale nimbus. Her head was bowed, her hair hung limply. Her tears were twin black jewels on her face.
“Aron... I’m sorry...I’m so sorry....”
Next to her Guto had fallen to his knees, openly weeping. The fire had nearly gone out.
Because the countdown reached 4 boxes, we now resolve the encounter by making a progress roll out of 8 filled boxes.
16 = 10[d10]+6[d10]
A strong hit
Her heart beat inside her. And a small ember of warmth warred against the cold in her veins.
She concentrated on that heart beat. Focused her will on it and what it meant.
Life and warmth.
“I am Ironsworn,” she heard herself say, a mechanical whisper, barely audible at first. Then conviction firmed her voice and her will. She roused, struggling to her feet. “I am Eilwen!” she said louder, defiant of her own weakness.
This mists churned and hissed its twisting darkness about her.
“Legitimate heir to a broken kingdom. Daughter of Queens! Wielder of the Sword of Myrddyn. I am Shadesbane!” She slashed two paths of twin skaed runes with the blades in reversed arcs. The tips of her dimly-glowing blades created lines of light that hung in the air. “I am Lightweaver! I chose this path, and I will not be denied!”
(Funny how the lightweaver thing is what she runs with. It was all part of a mystic backlash that caused her to get a bluish ethereal glow way back in Episode 7.)
The amulet about her flared and then dimmed to a faint blue light. The strange shadowy mist rolled back upon itself, churning to get away from her, as if afraid of her light.
She strode towards it, defiant of her fears, her swords crossed in front of her, and the light about her shoved the strange mists away. They recoiled, melted into the ground and retreated into the clouds, into a sky that sucked in this second night.
Time returned in a lurch. The rain had stopped. The clouds were gone, and she saw stars. Eilwen sank to the muddy ground, spent to her core.
Eilwen
Iron +1
Edge +2
Heart +1
Shadow +3
Wits +2
Health: 2/5
Momentum: 0/10
Supply: 3/5
Spirit: 0/5 - SHAKEN
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