Exiting in a hurry
A quick recap of our anxious adventurer and his current state of danger.
- Bevan the Red
- Sellsword, and Injurious Healer
- athletics, defence, surprise and surgery
- Arm the resistance against Lord Haffir’s tyranny
- Ruin = 3
- Conditions:
- Itching blood-red hands
- Compulsively checking pulse
Bevan has broken into the house of a group of unknown people, seeking riches. It’s the middle of the night, he’s seen some individuals in cowled robes seem to writhe and grow and transform by the light of some green light; but that might have just been stress playing tricks on him because everything seemed normal straight after.
I roll 1d6 for each new scene. If the result is less than my current Doom then something alters from the plan. If I roll doubles on the oracle questions (2d6) then my Doom counter increments. At 6 it will reset and add another complication to things when it does. Nearly there!
- Doom = 5
Scene 5. Creeping down hallways
Altered Scene? (5) No
Is it just a single hallway upstairs? (4, 1) Yes but... also an attic.
Are there lights behind any doors? (5, 4) Yes but... just one door.
Bevan crept along the upper floor, listening at doors and walking where the wooden floors wouldn’t creak under his weight. He avoided the door with the light spilling underneath and looked elsewhere. Maybe it would all be kept securely.
Are there any suspiciously locked doors? (4, 2) Yes but... the key is in it.
One door had a sliding chain and a heavy lock, but there was also a key sticking out of the keyhole. Things are a bit lax around here, he thought again.
Risk: Rolled 2 light and 0 dark.
⇒ Light 4: Success with complication
Devil's Bargain: Search / History
Complication: Uncovering a foe or traitor
The prompt for the Devil’s Bargain took me a few days of thinking but I finally got something that I thought sufficiently fitted scenario and character, relating rot and his background as a failed healer.
Bevan kneeled down close to the key and he was hit by a terrible smell of rot wafting under the door. His pulse quickened and his hands itched as the smell brought back terrible memories of injured people, rotting but alive, moaning in fever. Dark field tents, temporary hospitals with too few resources and too many hopeless cases. The guilt of so many lives lost because of his own failures to prepare, his own weakness at demanding nurses and healers and herbs.
Your Ruin is increased to 4.
He remembered them all, could almost hear them calling him — “my leg, I can’t feel my leg” — “he’s stopped breathing” — “just hold my hand” — the inhuman moans, the nights-long stuttering breaths with no relief from the pain. So many voices, so many tortured faces.
Forgetting entirely where he was, Bevan leaned his sweating head against the door jamb and slumped sideways against the door.
Is there some foe behind the door? (6, 3) Yes
Is it human? (4, 6) Yes
Fungified cultist (1-3) or rotting victim (4-6)? (6) victim
How will the foe attack? (Delve/Combat Event) 79 Shove, 80 Ferocity
The oracle says ‘foe’ is a ‘victim’, so I’ll assume the victim is infected with some mind control infection, creating a zombie thing which will oppose Bevan. And from “Shove/Ferocity” we’re talking one of the 28 Days Later zombies not the slow shuffling type.
Suddenly the door shuddered as something hit the other side. His head bounced off the door as he lay there, dazed in reverie. He heard a hissing cry through the door, like someone trying to scream without vocal cords. With a jolt he heard a voice right behind him.
Who is it? (Ironsworn/Name) Vesna
What are they saying? inquisitive/curiosity/last scene
Oh Bevan those people downstairs just weren’t right were they? They were all wrong.
Bevan barely had time to whirl round before the bit of him that was still a rational thinking person pointed out “that’s Vesna’s voice and you last heard it when he was holding his own intestines”. There was nobody behind him, the voice was in his head. But whatever was on the other side of the door was pounding and hissing again. The door that he had just unlocked.
He reached back to lock the door again.
Risk: Rolled 1 light and 1 dark.
⇒ Light 3: Failure and things get worse
Just for the hell of it we’re going to re-roll and see what terrors we can unleash, bearing in mind we also have a Devil’s Bargain to flesh out too. Things are going to happen regardless of how well we roll next time.
Risk: Rolled 1 light and 2 dark.
⇒ Light 5: Success with complication
Complication: Uncovering an alliance or surrender
Devil's Bargain: The key is infectious
The lock clicked home, satisfyingly secure. The hissing continues, but becomes less desperate. For some reason the notion that it is reasonable or diplomatic springs to Bevan’s mind. I must be going crazy, he thought — then Vesna replied:
No you’re not going crazy, I think you should listen to him. Where’s your sense of justice?
Bevan isn’t sure what to make of this turn of events. The voice in his head is interpreting the inhuman gasps and hisses from whatever is on the other side of the door. And that voice, which belongs to his dead friend, wants him to open the door. I think it’s time to move along, thinks Bevan, the gold must be somewhere else. Time to check upstairs.
Listen to him Bevan! Didn’t you come here for those riches?
Riches? Behind this door? That seems unlikely, but then maybe that thing on the other side is the only guard you need.
Gold! Fine worked jewellery and many precious things! All yours for the taking. Just open the door and help the man out.
Is there any other activity in the hallway? (2, 2) No
Doom count hits 6 so time for an interruption!
Doom = 1
This is Trophy, so I don’t think we can have a cult dedicated to the destruction of the Forest without an opportunity for the Forest to fight back.
There’s a crash downstairs and some angry cries. The hissing noises from the other side of the door become frantic and Bevan is frozen in indecision. “Vesna, what’s happening? What’s he saying? Why am I talking to a voice in my head?!”
The forest has broken through the defensive magic around the house. And I’m not the voice in your head, I’m the air around you.
Your Ruin is still 4.
Does anyone enter the hall? (5, 4) Yes but runs straight past.
At that moment a door further down the corridor burst open and a hooded figure wielding an axe ran past, leaping the stairs three at a time, screaming some religious war cry. Bevan shrank back against the locked door but the screaming man took no notice of him as he went past.
Bevan finally let out his breath. “You’re a what?” He stared at his hands in the feeble candle light
I am in the air you’re breathing, on the door you’re touching, growing in the dampness on your palms…
Your Ruin is still 4.
“Oh no you’re not!” Bevan turned away from the locked door and ran to the far end of the hall. A rickety ladder sagged under its own weight, its top end disappearing through an attic entry in the ceiling. Darkness, which his shrinking candle could not penetrate.
“One peek then I’m out of here.”
Scene 6. Entering the attic
Altered Scene? (5) No
Risk: Rolled 1 light and 0 dark.
⇒ Light 4: Success with complication
Complication: Ladder collapses
Bevan quickly scaled the ladder, his sweat-slicked hand gripping the candle stub in front. As he reached the edge of the hole the ladder started to dissolve, like spores flying in the wind.
Your Ruin is still 4.
His grip on the edge was enough, just enough, to pull himself up. The candle flame burnt his fingers as he held on tight. Finally he pulled himself through and collapsed. He lay panting in the darkness, the colours swimming in front of his eyes from the exertion.
Is there riches here? (3, 2) No
Open your eyes Bevan, welcome to my domain.
The voice was different now. Not quite Vesna, it had the strange quality of a thousand voices all saying the same words. And a sense of deep time, as if the speaker had seen the world before forests had even begun to grow.
Your Ruin is still 4.
Bevan opened his eyes but the colour still remained.
More riches than you can dream if you join us, Bevan. We will beat back the forest and reclaim the riches that lie hidden under roots and briars.
The failing candle did little to light the attic space, but beyond its meagre pool of light the floor and the ceiling joists were covered in faintly glowing fungus of all shapes and colours. Long reaching protrusions like pale blue fingers, orange brackets like shelves, sickly yellow-green flapping gills. The air was filled with a thick earthy smell.
We can help you Bevan.
“Who’s we Vesna? Who are you really?” He held the candle up in front of him, hoping that the smallest flame would protect him.
What else is in the attic? Affect/Survival
Is the Forest coming in? (4, 1) Yes but not strongly
He heard only his own heavy breathing, then tapping rattling noises on the roof outside, as of birds walking about. A small window shattered inwards and tentative creeping vines pushed inside. He could hear fluttering birds just outside.
Time to take up arms Bevan, the Forest is coming for us all and we must fight it back.
The vines reached in and the fungus reached out, the two questing towards each other in enmity.
Your Ruin is increased to 5.
Condition: tempted by buried riches
Bevan turned straight around and lowered himself through the hole, dropping to the ground below. He ran back along the corridor and down the steps three at a time.
Risk: Rolled 1 light and 1 dark.
⇒ Light 6: Success
As he turned down the steps he could see light coming from below, fire and axes being used by wild figures in deep cowls, hacking at twisting vines and swarming insects.
Can he get past the fight? (3, 3) No
Doom = 2
Do the cultists (1-2) ignore him (3-4) recruit him (5-6) attack him? (4)
Do they know who he is? (5, 2) Yes but not his intentions
Scene 7. Fight at the doorway
Altered Scene? (5) No
Is anything big coming? (4, 5) Yes but you might be dead first
Loom, Local Gods p119: Gol Sorgul, The Great Boar
“You! Take a torch and put it to use!” Someone handed Bevan a long bone with a burning rag wrapped round one end. It gave off a thick oily smoke which stung his eyes. Half a dozen cloaked figures hacked at vines which burst through the main entrance. The doors hung off their hinges and swarms of crawling insects swarmed through the gaps.
By the light of the torches Bevan could see the sorry state of the door and walls. It would take more than mouldering plaster and worm-eaten wood to hold back the Forest. Bevan stood still in doubt, until the voice in his head (clearly no longer Vesna but something quite alien) said:
The riches you seek will be buried under all-consuming Kalduhr! You must fight with us!
A swarm of rattling flying blackness swooped in the entrance and entering the deep cowl of one of the cultists, who screamed and flailed. Their axe and flaming torch waved madly until finally they pushed their own torch into their face to burn the insects out. The scream of the insects was almost enough to drown out the human scream.
Your Ruin is still 5.
Fight the oppressive Forest! Quick, Gol Sorgul comes!
Bevan grabbed the axe from figure and started fighting his way through the oncoming growth. If he could maybe escape back down to the servants’ entrance and outside then the Forest might ignore him.
Risk: Rolled 1 light and 1 dark.
⇒ Light 6: Success
He hacked and burned with mad abandon, neither concerned about who or what was in his path until he could see a space to turn down the corridor and run.
Do the cultists try to stop him? (6, 3) Yes
Does the Forest try to stop him? (2, 6) Yes
Who first, (1-3) Forest (4-6) Cult? 1 = Forest
Haha. Can I say that? Hahaha.
As he turns down the steep stair to the Bevan hears a mad tinkling of bells which slows his pace. Something has broken into the same door he came in, but surely the main battle is still upstairs. Keep going with the escape plan!
On a scale of 'just the breeze' to 'something monstrous', what came in? 1
Is the way out clear? (6, 4) Yes
Oh wow, that looks like a reprieve! Except the cult are still after him.
With the torch and the axe Bevan cut his way through the small amount of growth that had pushed against the side of the house. Above him, the steps up to the main door were choked with twisting, creaking vines and increasingly large animals.
Has the sky got lighter yet? (2, 6) Yes
Is the gatehouse visible? (3, 6) Yes
As quickly as was possible in the half light of morning Bevan fought his way across the completely over-run path to the gate. He could see the brazier had been knocked over, scattering hot coals on the ground. The rusted gates were half-open, as if the guards had escaped when the Forest broke through.
Risk: Rolled 1 light and 1 dark.
⇒ Light 5: Success with complication
Complication: Plotting against old lore or magic
He could see the gate, he could see the way through. The daylight visible through the thick foliage seemed so sweet. He knew he would taste freedom. He was out!
You have disappointed me Bevan, but we will return together. Now you are mine.
That last complication was absolute gold dust, the exact phrase of the complication I rolled at the very beginning when Bevan climbed into the garden, the one that hinted at the war between the cult and forest. I am so happy with that ending.
For completion’s sake, here’s the final state of Bevan’s character sheet.
- Bevan the Red
- Skills: Sellsword and formerly Injurious Healer
- athletics, defence, surprise
- surgery
- Drive: Arm the resistance against Lord Haffir’s tyranny
- Ruin: 5
- Conditions:
- desperate to prove himself
- itching red hands
- compulsive pulse checking
- haunted by voices of dead patients
- tempted by promises of buried riches
The End.