Seite 24
As you enter the small city, you remember your Settle Debts story arc and want to explore it. You spend story and declare that the father you never knew is here and you’ve carried this chip on your shoulder a long time—now’s the time to confront him.
Through play, you learn that your father has become a benevolent guild leader in the city, looked up to by all. Not very interested in bringing down someone helpful to the community, you bury the feelings and move on. You take spark for finishing the arc.
You want to spend story to add a detail about the guard dozing off to create a new opportunity to sneak in, but the GM vetoes it—they established earlier that the Toadking runs a very disciplined army. While not impossible to occur, it still feels off.
Your party meets with the archmage, who reveals a dark secret about your past. The GM targets your Presence to keep it together, adding a thorn—the secret is especially damning. You roll 4, 1, 5 - 7 :: grim. You’re overwhelmed by memories, becoming rattled but choose to spend spark to take vex instead!
Now you have a choice. You could fight and attack the archmage in a rage, someone your party sees as an ally. You could flight away from the group, back outside the tower. You could freeze, dropping the potion you intended to give the archmage. You could freakout, lashing out at your allies’ shocked, judgemental stares.
The dragon roars! The party all roll Presence defense, getting grims. Everyone takes vex, terrified! You choose flight and scurry away to hide. The fighter decides to freakout, and runs to hide behind the wizard. The wizard freezes, dropping her spellbook, which the fighter kicks away. The cleric grabs his battlehammer and chooses to fight, charging towards certain doom.
You start the game with the character arcs Enjoy Life and Keep a Secret, which makes sense since you’re the runaway heir to the Orchard Kingdom. Your job is to find ways to express these arcs through play, especially growth arcs like Enjoying Life.
The GM’s job is to challenge them and offer opportunity, especially a crisis arc like Keeping a Secret. It’s clear that you don’t want to live a life of responsibility, but that life will come calling whether you like it or not.
You tell the GM you want to punch the guy in the face, so he calls for a Brawn roll. Confused, you rewind a bit and explain that you’re sucker punching him, and it’s mostly just to get him to back down. Seeing the situation more clearly now, the GM calls for Agility.
With an Agility of 2, you roll 2d and get 3, 5 :: messy. You’re going to do it, but the GM makes an impact move. That guy will be back with some friends. The GM starts a 4d Hooligans timer. The fighter grabs the orc by the shirt and threatens him, but the orc’s not budging. The GM makes his impact move—the price for the horses just doubled, and you all have nowhere near enough treasure.
You step up and try a softer approach, negotiating with Presence at +1t from the price doubling. You roll 3d1t and get 4, 6, 6 - 7 :: critical! In spite of the price, your critical ignores the cut. You get the horses for the cost of the treasure and choose a secondary effect—you want to make sure this orc remains friendly permanently. The GM okays it and you’re now friends with the best horse trader this side of the Ironback Mountains.
You want to climb up this cliff to get away from the goblins shooting arrows at you. The GM has you roll Agility and adds a thorn to represent the goblins. You roll a 5 - 7 :: grim. Your messy gets cut by the 7 and turns into a grim. The GM lets you know you’re getting an arrow in your back and falling back down the wall, ending up bloodied. You start gleefully narrating how horribly it goes.
You decide to make a second attempt. This time, you spend spark and now have another thorn from being bloodied. You roll 2d2t and get 6, 3 - 7, 1 :: messy. The messy means you did it, so the GM thinks on the consequences and makes you rattled. That was one scary as hell climb. Once again, you get to narrating your near-demise.
You’re walking through the library at night when an assassin strikes from above. This could be Wits to see it coming, but the GM thinks it’s more of a physical reaction, Agility. The GM makes it clear this is dire stakes—a grim means you’re dropped, maybe dead!
You take +1t since the assassin has the drop on you. You get 6, 1 - 8 :: messy! The knife misses and you don’t end up bloodied, but Brawn gets marked as the assassin crashes into you, knocking the wind out of you. You’re both sprawled out on the ground, the knife now between you. What do you do?
As the session winds to a close, the GM calls for a montage roll to escape the collapsing dungeon. You’re bloodied, so you have a thorn and roll 1, 1 :: 7, disaster. The wizard in your group rolls 2, 2 :: grim. The fighter rolls a 4, 2 :: messy! The best outcome is a messy, so the overall outcome is a messy. You manage to get out, but the impact move leaves you each with Agility and Presence marked. You collaborate on the narration.
You already have an Agility mark, so it goes to Brawn—that’s marked, too, so it goes to bloodied. Unfortunately, you were also bloodied so you’re instead dropped. You make a 2d roll and get a messy, completely knocked out.
The wizard describes getting everyone lost in the tunnels. You narrate collapsing from your wounds, telling the group to leave you behind. The fighter refuses, hoists you over their shoulder, and heads in a single direction—and somehow finds their way to the surface!
Outside, the rogue stands waiting and cheekily asks what took you so long. They were elsewhere and got a perfect on their montage.
You have a special pack of blessed incense you brought from your home temple. It’s a 4d resource pool. Each time you use it, it triggers a roll to see how much is remaining. The first time you use it, you roll 4d and get 6, 2, 6, 4. The 2 result drops the pool by 1, 4d→3d. The next time you use it, you roll 3d and get 4 5 5. Nothing is dropped from the pool! While you did use it, the pool’s an abstract measurement of how much is remaining and doesn’t change this time. The final time, though, you roll 3d again and get 2 1 2, 3d→0d. The pool depletes and you’re out of incense!
You and the cleric, as honored prisoners, are hauled out to join the chieftain at the head table. The GM has made it clear that the chieftain angers easily, so they start a 4d Temper pool. You find a chance during the meal to try to persuade the chieftain to let you go, but roll a grim. Annoyed with your badgering, they bash the table and gesture for the guards to haul you back to your tent. This triggers the Temper pool and the GM rolls 1, 3, 1, 6 :: 4d→1d. With just 1d left, the GM makes sure to describe the chieftain being on the edge of losing it. The cleric decides to keep their mouth shut.
You look to your desire for belonging and, feeling found at last, replace it with a new one—honor. You introduce a tangle, deciding to stay on the bridge. “Go,” you tell your friends, turning to hold off the horde on the bridge while they escape.
The heir must survive as the battle turns into a rout. Just then, you introduce a tangle—you spot your nemesis, Mortica, across the battlefield. By choosing the tangle, you risk the mission to protect the heir, but your vengeance is more important. You take spark.
The GM decides to make a 2d story roll and lets you know first what might happen. On a perfect, you spot her first. On a grim, she spots you first. On a messy, you both spot each other.
Fleeing from a massive cave troll, you spend story and invoke your Dwarf of the Deepmoot heritage’s underground navigation wise. You say you spot a tight side tunnel to lead the troll in to fight it. The GM decides the cave troll can’t maneuver well and +2t becomes +1t.