Guest Post: Alex's Ironsworn Journal - Chapter 5 - Spiders of Sova

Continuing guest host Alex's Ironsworn campaign journal.

Chapter 5: Spiders of Sova

The next morning, Varro heads to the west gate, where the Merlo Bridge spans the river. The road continues south alongside the river, but there is also the faintest suggestion of a path leading west into the Deep Wilds. 

Bataar meets him at the bridge, dressed in a nondescript tunic and hooded cloak. He doesn't want any of his superiors in the Wardens to know what he's up to, Varro supposes. 

They are not as well prepared for a trip into that dark and strange forest as Varro would like, but they are both low on coin. They will just need to keep their wits about them. Bataar explains that he had a mysterious fever when he was a child, and when all the town's healers failed to help him, Tamara in desperation took him to Okoth. How she knew the way, she never said, but Bataar thinks he remembers the landmarks well enough: the path west as far as the tiny logging village of Sova, then the logging trail to Red Willow Pond, and then game trails that lead downhill into a gulley scattered with black stone cairns - at the deep end of the gulley, Okoth's cabin. 

Varro is nervous about trusting to a memory of a fever-stricken child, but again he feels there is no choice. They set out towards the Deep Wilds.

Undertake a Journey (would be formidable, having Bataar as a guide reduces it to dangerous): weak hit 

-1 supply 

At midday they arrive in Sova. It's a bare handful of cabins clustered around a sawmill, and a single tavern. They decide to take the time to speak to the people and see if they can make some kind of trade for more supplies. 

Sojourn: Miss

Pay the Price: your action has an unintended effect.

What effect does our attempt to trade for supplies have? Charge problem. 

Let's say that's "charge" as in "charge up", we're making a problem worse. Let's use the village "trouble" oracle: Nature strikes back. Perfect. 

Pausing to make an encounter table for the Deep Wilds.

Encounter roll: Harrow Spider

It doesn't take long to realise something is wrong. The people are grim and quiet. Speaking to them, Varro and Bataar discover that their logging operation has suddenly come under threat from a group of harrow spiders who previously left them alone. Now at the furthest reaches of the logging trails, where the good spiral ash trees that provide the village's livelihood stand, any human walking there draws the ire of the vicious spiders, not only on themselves but on the whole community. 

"I am sorry," says Overseer Delos. "We cannot allow you to go into the woods, and we cannot offer you any aid if that is your intention." 

Varro and Bataar look at one another. The spirits of an uncle and a sister are in their eyes, telling them they cannot turn back. Varro says what both are thinking. "Then let us root out these spiders. Send with us as many good men with axes as are willing to risk their lives for your village, and we will lead them to end this scourge." 

Compel: strong hit 

The overseer's face softens. Perhaps he was hoping for exactly these words. "If you truly mean to come to our aid, then swear it on iron. That you'll lead my folk well, and won't abandon them. You take your lives and ours in your hands if you do this, travellers. I'd have an assurance that you are serious about it." 

So the two of them kneel before him and swear, Varro on the broken clasp of his book, and Bataar on the hilt of his sword. 

Swear an Iron Vow: Strong Hit

Vow, troublesome: Root out the spiders threatening Sova 

Overseer Delos gathers a group of stout woodcutters and the group make their preparations. They share what they know of the harrow spiders - their tactics of stealth and using webs to trap their prey, and their venom that causes paralysis, and Varro settles in at the loggers' common room to browse through the archive tome's chapter on herbal lore and antidotes. 

Lorekeeper, Secure an Advantage: weak hit 

With help from the overseer's wife Kanni, they prepare some poultices that should draw out the spiders' venom if applied within a few moments of a bite. The plan is to move stealthily until they reach Red Willow Pond, where the loggers would usually camp, and lie in wait to ambush the spiders. The woodcutters bring the iron hooks on ropes that they use to climb trees, with the intention to ensnare the spiders and drag them to the ground. Kill as many as they can, but leave one alive so they can track it back to the lair. 

They set out, led by the most experienced scout among the villagers, a wiry grey-haired  man named Gethin. 

Undertake a Journey: weak hit 

-1 supplies: mark unprepared 

The path Gethin leads them on is long and circuitous, the better to be stealthy. By the time they arrive at the pond Varro realises he has drunk the last of his water. He tries not to think about it. 

The group do their best to camouflage themselves and stand ready. Some of the woodcutters take up positions in the trees, some on the ground. Varro and Bataar hide among the willows on the muddy bank of the pond. 

Secure an Advantage +Shadow: miss - burn momentum - weak hit 

After an hour or so of waiting, the first they know of the spiders is the sudden anguished cry of one of the men in the trees. It seems the two sides in this fight have ambushed each other. Looking around, they spot them now: three, then four, six, perhaps more, lurking among the trees and in their branches. Gethin utters a furious cry, and shouts go up in return as the group points out the spiders to one another. 

Enter the Fray +Heart: strong hit 

Strike: weak hit, 2 progress, lost initiative 

Varro sees the bulbous body of a spider beginning to move down the trunk of a tree just across the muddy bank from him. He catches Gethin's eye. The scout swings his hooked rope and dislodges the monster, dragging it to the ground, and Varro leaps forward and swings the staff overhead at its cluster of staring eyes, smashing into them. 

But he skids on the wet mud and barely manages to keep his footing as another spider comes creeping from between the trees. He jabs with the staff like a spear, hoping to fend the creature off long enough for Bataar to close the distance. 

Clash: weak hit, 2 progress

Pay the Price: you are separated from something or someone 

The spider’s front legs close around the end of the staff with surprising force, wrenching it from Varro's grasp. He staggers backwards as Bataar leaps from behind the spider and drives his sword into its bloated body. The spider lands atop the staff, driving it into the mud as it thrashes frantically with its legs. 

Next to Varro, another spider has leapt onto the back of one of the woodcutters and driven him to his knees. Yet another is advancing along the bank, heedless of the hook protruding from its back. Varro feels hopelessly vulnerable, and attempts to scramble to some kind of safe position. 

Face Danger +Edge: weak hit

Endure Stress +Spirit: strong hit, embrace the darkness (+1 momentum) 

Something like what he felt fighting the beast worshippers by the river returns to him, a feeling of some great encroaching darkness that will overwhelm him unless he dives headlong into it. As he scrambles past the spider with the hook protruding from its back, he lunges to grab the hook and pull it free. 

Secure an Advantage +Iron: weak hit, burn momentum, strong hit, take control 

Clash +Edge: strong hit! 4 progress, gained initiative 

End the Fight: strong hit! 

He grabs the hook, rips it free, then dashes up the bank, turns and throws the hook with careful precision. It sinks into the spider's abdomen, and this time the monster staggers and splays. Bataar comes up beside it and stabs it cleanly in its iridescent eyes. 

Varro looks around him. Three of the woodcutters are on the ground, but the spiders are retreating. He shouts to Gethin, who raises a mighty war cry. The remaining villagers throw their hooks or close in on the remaining spiders and hack them down. One wounded spider skitters off between the trees, and Gethin raises a hand to tell the others to let it go. This is the one they will track. 

Reach a Milestone: Root out the spiders, 3 progress 

They rush to examine the ones who fell. One was merely toppled, one fell and hit her head on a rock, the last is pale and rigid, and strands of webbing are already binding his arms. Bataar kneels by him and begins pulling at the webbing, while Varro produces the poultice Kanni prepared, and begins searching for the bite mark. 

Heal: strong hit 

He finds it quickly, and applies the poultice. Within a few minutes, the man returns to his senses. The pallor is still in his face, and he is slow, but able to stand and keep moving. 

Gethin herds them to where the spider retreated, and they follow him as he follows the trail of black blood. Varro pauses to retrieve his staff, and runs to catch up. 

Gather Information: strong hit 

Soon enough they come to a dark clearing at the foot of a steep ridge. A pitch black cave yawns there, its mouth choked with webs. Hurriedly, they enact the plan they made on the way here. 

Secure an Advantage +Wits: strong hit

Battle +Wits: strong hit 

The woodcutters form a circle around the mouth of the cave, readying their hooks and axes. Bataar clambers to a stony ledge just above the cave and draws his sword. Varro takes Gethin's tinder box and piles up dry leaves and sticks at the entrance - and lights a fire. 

The kindling erupts in a blaze that quickly spreads to the webs, and suddenly an orange glow illuminates the interior of the cave. There is a chorus of furious screeching, and the spiders spill out one by one, and one by one they are cut down by hook, axe and blade. 

Reach a Milestone: Root out the spiders, 3 progress 

Fulfil Your Vow: weak hit 

What more is to be done? Eliminate power. 

With the last of the harrow spiders slain, and the webs burned away, the party steps cautiously inside the cave. They find the charred remains of dozens of eggs - and at the back of the cave, an iron door. It looks ancient, and is carved with engraved runes of the old language. Varro attempts to decipher the runes, remembering the ones he knows from the archive book. 

Lorekeeper, Gather Information: strong hit 

Bearing in mind "eliminate power", what do these runes say? Transform duty. 

The runes are a kind of prayer to the spirits of the Deep Wilds, Varro realises. They implore the spirits to imbue the creatures of the forest with sacred purpose, to overcome their natural instincts and become warriors in service to the Wilds - to slay and drive out the human interlopers. 

Gethin frowns. "You mean the harrow spiders became aggressive because of... of this door?" 

"Not this door, no," says Varro. "This is like... the entrance to a temple, perhaps. Whatever power did this is old, and must have been dormant for ages before now. Something or someone has awoken it." 

"And this power. It's behind this door somewhere?" 

Varro nods. 

"Then we go through. Our vow is not yet complete." 

So, once again, Varro and Bataar swear on iron to end the threat to the village of Sova. 

Swear an Iron Vow: Miss

Chapter 6: pay the price for messing with the ancient rune door, then a Delve