Guest Post: Alex's Ironsworn Journal - Chapter 3 - Sign of the Beast Worshippers

Continuing guest host Alex's Ironsworn campaign journal.

Chapter 3 - Sign of the Beast Worshippers

Varro sets off from Newstone alongside the bank of the Kenning. He hopes to make good progress today, although he knows there is no settlement now until he reaches Merlo. 

Undertake a Journey: 5 vs 8, 8 --- miss with match! 

Major Twist: two seemingly unrelated situations are shown to be connected.

Ok. What situations do we have? The Elder Wolf. The village feud. 

Oracle, what is the nature of the connection? Bolster knowledge. 

Well that's what I'M trying to do. What if there's a faction within Newstone who are even more anti-peace than Faldon? For them it's deeper, it's spiritual. And they are trying to enact a ritual that will call the Elder Wolf to Newstone's aid, so they can destroy White Wick altogether and rule with the sacred Elder Wolf as their source of power. For their ritual, they think Varro's book will contain the secrets they need. One of the fishermen from last night is a member of this cult. 

Who is the leader?  Temir. A clay merchant, and secretly a worshipper of the Elder Beasts. Bitter, dour, devoted to the cause. 

At midday he comes to the Strangled Valley, a narrow part of the Kenning's course where it winds among sharp turns and steep ridges. This place is sometimes manned by raiders who wait to rain arrows on the barges as they navigate the river bends, or ambush foolish travellers. Like Varro. But the only other option would be to go around the hills to the east, adding days to his journey. He goes carefully, checking the ground for tracks, the trees and undergrowth on the east side of the narrow path for signs of disturbance. 

Enter the Fray +Wits: Miss

Endure Harm +Health: 5 vs 10, 10 --- Miss with a match! 

He thinks he is safe. He is in sight of where the valley becomes gentle again. And then there is movement in the trees to his left. He doesn't see it in time. He feels something like a punch in his shoulder, looks down and sees an arrow sticking out of it. No pain yet. Just shock. A voice from the trees. 

"Hand over your book, knave! Relinquish the secrets of the ritual! Live to bow before the Elder Wolf, or die here like a dog! It is all one to me!" 

Two men in furs and wielding hatchets emerge from the trees. A confused thought flashes in Varro's head: neither of these are the archer who just shot him. Surely another arrow, any second. 

He darts to the right, meaning to throw himself off the ledge, as hard as he can, hoping to clear the steep, stony bank and land in the river. 

Face Danger +Edge: Miss

Pay the Price: -1 momentum

But they had anticipated it, and the nearest of the two moves to block his path. At the last moment, he brings his staff to bear defensively. 

Long-arm, Clash +Edge: 8 vs 6, 6 -- Strong Hit with a match! 

gained initiative

The years of training with Serenne in the little yard behind the militia longhouse take control. As the nearest man charges at him, Varro drops to one knee and extends the staff with a vicious jab into the man's stomach. From his low angle and with the man bearing forth with all his weight, lifting him is easy. Varro completes the motion and the man is raised into the air above Varro, over him, and over the edge of the ridge. A shout of pain and fear as he tumbles down the near-vertical bank to the swift-running river. 

Varro stands back up and swings the staff in a wide arc, crying out with as much ferocity as he can muster. The other man takes an instinctive step back, shaken. 

Strike +Edge: 9 vs 3, 7 -- Strong Hit 

Varro presses his advantage and rains blows on the attacker. 

Strike +Edge: 4 vs 1, 2 -- Strong Hit 

The attacker crumples to his knees, drops his axe as the staff clips his hand and breaks some bones, then another blow to his head lands with a crack and blood spatters. Varro skirts around him and charges, thoughtless and screaming, for the trees as another arrow thuds into the ground a foot to his left. 

Face Danger +Edge: 5 vs 4, 7 -- Weak Hit 

-1 momentum 

He plunges between the trees, narrowly avoiding the next arrow, and looks frantically about. He is ready to strike, but where is this bastard archer? He feels the fear threatening to close in, and then he spots her, a woman, young, mud or ash smeared on her face, already nocking the next arrow. He lunges at her with an overhead swing, hoping to crash into the bow or her hands. The reach of the staff is just enough. 

Strike +Edge: 8 vs 4, 10 -- weak hit 

lost initiative 

The bow is slapped from her hands and lands on the ground. Varro draws a breath to demand surrender, but she draws a knife with serpentine speed and is already lunging forward at him. 

Clash +Edge: 5 vs 8, 10 -- miss 

Endure Harm +Iron: 7 vs 8, 1 -- weak hit

He wasn't ready, and her knife bites through the hide jerkin and into his stomach. He staggers backwards, raising his staff defensively. He feels the arrow in his shoulder now. But he can still come out of this. Their leader said "bow to the Elder Wolf". A flash of realisation. He knows why they want the book. 

Turn the Tide

gained initiative 

"There's nothing about the Elder Beasts in the book! I know what you want. You want to summon it, pledge yourself to it. The book speaks of the ritual, but not how it is performed. No one knows. That lore is lost. I swear it on my ancestors." 

Lorekeeper, Secure an Advantage +Wits +2: 10 vs 6, 8 -- strong hit 

+2 momentum

She pauses. She lowers the knife ever so slightly. She opens her mouth to speak. And Varro brings the staff around in a low, wide arc, looking for the perfect leverage that will knock her off her feet. 

Strike +Edge: 7 vs 4, 10 -- weak hit 

lost initiative 

The leverage is there, and he sends her tumbling into the undergrowth, but again she moves with snakelike speed and is already launching herself at his legs before he can bring the staff down to finish it. 

Clash +Edge: 6 vs 4, 5 -- strong hit 

progress track full

 

End the Fight: 10 vs 3, 4 -- strong hit 

He brings the staff up just in time to stop the knife getting through again, but her weight against his knees brings both of them crashing to the ground, the staff between them. Without thinking he grips her knife hand in both of his and twists. Grapple. Grip. Please, ancestors, please. She screams with rage and he feels her breath hot on her face. And then he has turned the knife around, and forced it into her throat. Blood falls on him, and she collapses on top of him. 

At some point he finds himself breathing and able to think once more, and he stumbles deeper into the woods to be away from the place where he nearly met his ancestors. He slumps against a tree and inspects himself. The knife wound is superficial, but the arrow has done some damage. He snaps off the shaft, then roots in his pack for the aloe and garlic paste he bought before leaving White Wick. 

Heal +Iron: 6 vs 4, 1 -- strong hit 

+2 health

He manages it cleanly, but he will need to find a way to safely remove the arrowhead, and soon. He does his best to calm himself. He is alive, and he still has the book. He knew it would be dangerous. 

But who were these people? Elder Beast worshipers? The book made reference to them, and he had heard tales from travellers that such people had existed once. But today? 

He makes his way back to the path. 

Are either of the two axemen still alive? Unlikely (1-25)

96 -- no 

The one he battered with the staff is still there, the ground around his head saturated with blood. Varro checks his pulse and finds none. He peers over the edge of the ridge. No sign of the other. He must have either been washed away or drowned. It makes little difference. 

The one lying dead on the path is the one who spoke. The leader, perhaps. He turns the body over and searches it. The face, he now realises, is familiar. It is the face of one of the fishermen that he drank with the night before. One who said little, drank little, and sat on the fringes of the hearth fire. Varro should have paid more attention to him. 

Gather Information +Wits: 4 vs 4, 10 -- miss

Burn momentum: weak hit 

The man was carrying nothing of interest. Something catches Varro's eye on his neck though. He wipes away the drying blood and finds a small symbol carved just below the ear. A wavy cross between the suggestion of a pair of jaws. Has he seen it before? He doesn't think so. He will need to look out for it. He wonders how far and wide these Elder Beast worshippers are spread. 

He takes out the book, and opens it to the scant lore of Elder Beasts that he had shown to the men in Newstone. He dips his pen in lampsoot mixture and carefully copies the cross-and-jaws symbol onto the blank parchment. Beneath it writes "Sign associated with those who worship the Elder Beasts." 

Walking briskly and fighting the pain in his shoulder, he makes good progress after all. It is several hours before he considers the threshold he has crossed. He has added lore to the archive. He has begun his journey. 

Chapter 4: continue the journey to Merlo 

Commentary 

As I mentioned before I was trying to be more terse with chapter 3, but even in third person my instinct is still to write as if I’m writing a piece of prose fiction. I do want to keep trying to be faster, because although I quite enjoy the writing, I do feel like it’s slowing me down. The problem is that everything feels ephemeral to me if I just “envision” or speak out loud what’s happening. This journal feels like an integral bit of the game, and I always feel like I need to flesh out Varro’s thoughts and so on. We’ll see what approach I end up settling on though. 

Also, I did sort of cheat a little bit here. These first three chapters are already played and written, and when I made the Turn the Tide move during chapter 3 I decided that Varro knew about the idea that there’s a ritual to summon and pledge loyalty to an Elder Beast. So I went back and added the line about the ritual to the archive’s passage on Elder Beasts in chapter 1. Now that these chapters will be uploaded to the Lone Horizons blog I won’t be able to do this kind of shenanigans again, but I didn’t want to make a habit of it anyway. I have no comment on whether this kind of retcon constitutes good play in Ironsworn, but I would imagine if you did it too much you would end up really feeling like you were writing a novel rather than playing a roleplaying game. 

Lastly, I was thrilled by this combat scene. I love how the different moves and the initiative system work together in this game.