Investigating the Forge

The encounter with the strange creature that came out of the floor left the two Host dwarves and Fergus kind of shaken, so Bozkar went with them to escort them out of the ruins.

Meanwhile, Flint & Kardin are still curious about the forge. “There’s gotta be tools around here somewhere!” Kardin actually climbs into the forge sifting through ash and suet to find anything usable. As he’s crawling around he suddenly sees a small flame pop up from somewhere (failed Scavenging roll). Then it starts dancing around. Then it flares up right in front of him, singeing him pretty badly (a Superficial wound). Not to be discouraged he just keeps sifting through the layers of ash, now looking for some kind of nozzle or plumbing. “That flame must have come from somewhere!”. He finds nothing after a few minutes and eventually scrambles out in haste (failed Steel test after his third Supie).

“Only one other thing to try, right? We’ve got the key, let’s try and get this thing started.”

Flint starts getting ready to go in, “I’ve got the key and better armor, I’ll do this.”

“Use that shield, too. It might help protect you from the flame.”

As soon as Flint gets in the forge and pulls the key out a huge spout of flame erupts in the middle, right where the key should go. Flint works up the nerve to go into the flames (successful Steel test)  and shoves his hand in with the key to get it in place. It’s hard to see past all the fire and he fumbles a bit (failed Speed test) before finally getting the key into place. Luckily between the Dwarven Mail and the shield he was able to avoid getting badly burned (successful Armor test). As soon as the key is in place the fire dwindles down and the heat in the forge lowers. It’s not going, but it’s under control. It’s likely going to take some more work to get the forge fully operational, but now they know the trick of getting the key in place.

Also, up on the balcony that strange creature has risen from the floor to its full height with a bemused expression on its face. As the dwarves notice it, it just turns around and sinks back into the floor.

“All right, now that the key is in, we need to find the control panel. Every hearth forge has one to control the temperature.” Kardin is able to find the panel (successful Beginner’s Luck forge-wise), but unfortunately this forge isn’t quite the same as he’s accustomed to. He opens the access panel to where all the dials and levers should be, but instead of all that is simply the engraved named “Oksana.” Neither dwarf knows what that means, but they both marvel at how intricate the carved runes are for the name.

At a loss of anything else to discover about the forge, they remember the second rune staircase Fergus had previously mentioned. They’ve seen no sign of it, so they set out to find it. They spend some time in the tunnels and eventually realize that there’s only one place the staircase would be — there’s a section past the mines covered completely in spiderwebs. So, the staircase must be past that in the spider’s territory. They spend quite a lot of time looking around for the staircase, giving Fergus a lot of time up top to get to Grahm first and lay out his case for leaving the ziggurat ruins alone (failed Observation).

Knowing the interest the spiders previously showed in Dwarven craft, they decide to take the key back out of the forge, just in case the spiders decide to break the treaty and come in through the mines. With that, they decide to head up to the surface.

Verbal Showdown

After getting up out of the mines, Flint & Kardin find that Fergus has rushed off to the original camp to meet with Grahm. They rush off through the forest to get there before he can convince the Captain to abandon the ruins. They get there just as he’s in the middle of laying out his argument. Flint & Fergus get into a pretty heated exchanged. (Duel of Wits time. Both sides started out with a 9 Body of Argument. Terms were Flint/Kardin: Fergus agrees whatever knowledge they find can only be useful, so he’ll basically now be on their side, Fergus: wants complete control over access to the ruins. By the end of the first exchange Flint was down to 2 BoA and Fergus was sitting pretty at 8. But due to a successful Incite followed by a Dismiss powered by Fueling the Fires of Greed, Flint pulled out a victory, owing a major compromise. The major compromise is that Grahm would leverage the decision to get a lot more political power among the civilian Dwarves.) In the end, Flint’s arguments were more persuasive and Fergus concedes defeat and even agrees to help them out in discovering more about the mines and the Dwarves and other people that once lived here. Grahm starts drafting orders to get people down into the mines to start settling in.

Seasons Changing

Time passes as the Dwarves start getting settled into the mines (we decided to fast forward a few months, giving us some down time for practice/instruction). Everybody is pretty busy for a while. Flint decides he needs some help in learning to wear his armor properly and Kardin has his hopes set on a new shield soon (Flint’s shield, to be exact), so they seek out a Dwarf in the host that can teach them to properly wear armor and shield. They spend the next two months spending most of their time training (successful Circles test to find a Dwarf with Instruction and Armor and Shield training — Flint learns armor training and Kardin learns shield training).

For the next month Kardin spent most of his time in the forest helping to forage for herbs, roots, and other edibles (successful Foraging test that will give an advantage to the upcoming Resource Cycle test).

Meanwhile, Flint spends some time practicing skills he hadn’t used in a long time (various practicing tests towards stats/skills).

For those few months Kardin is able to get by pretty well between his foraging and helping the clan out (successful Resource test), but Flint has a tougher time of it, mostly because the upkeep on his new armor is becoming costly (failed Resources).

After some time has passed, Flint goes to see Delana (relationship, and his Oath deals with earning the respect of the clan back so he can marry her). They catch up a bit since he’s been so busy. She mentions a friend, Rutger, was just by asking about him. “Rutger? Who’s that?” “He said he’s an old friend. He said to come see him over there.”

Also, Kardin goes to talk to Captain Grahm to check on how Halel is doing. The meeting is cordial, but it’s obvious that Grahm thinks no one will be good enough for Halel except the Prince. And in the case he’s died, only a Dwarf from the Host will be good enough. Kardin’s got his work cut out to get her hand in marriage.

Flint goes to have a chat with Rutger. He’s never met the Dwarf. It turns out Rutger’s wife died on the march through the mountains, leaving him alone to care for their four children. He just needs a little help to care for them. Flint plays stupid at first, but finally Rutger lays it all out. “I know it was you that stole that merchant’s goods. All I’m asking for is a little help. This doesn’t have to get ugly.” Flint gets a dangerous look in his eye. “You’re right, it doesn’t. Let me see what I can get together for you.”

Flint leaves to see Kardin. “I know you’ve been eyeing this shield I found.”

“Yeah, I’d love to get my hands on it to study it.”

“I’ll do you one better. There’s this Dwarf, Rutger. You silence him and make sure his orphans are taken care of, and you can have this shield.”

“Deal.”

End of Session

Some great stuff. That DoW was pretty close. I did some bad scripting the first volley and Fergus had me against the ropes. Luckily I was able to pull of my Incite in the last round, causing him to make a Steel test and hesitate the first volley of the next exchange. That’s when I whipped out a Dismiss and spent the Persona to Fuel the Fires of Greed. I just barely managed to take out his entire remaining 8 BoA, but I did and it was pretty glorious.

Also, the bit at the end was pretty brutal. Calling a hit on this Dwarf with four motherless children? Cold. And greedy. Flint’s well on his way to advancing to a B9 Greed.

It also seemed like a good place for a Trait vote, so Flint earned Tenacious, since he’s shown himself to be pretty single-minded and because Kardin has had such awful luck (seriously more failed rolls than anyone else) and that’s lead to him taking a beating a few times, we decided to give him a Trait to reduce his hesitation for pain by 2. I think we called is scarred.

Anyhow, this week shows the return of Bozkar the gambler. The player’s missed a couple sessions and he was playing catch up. We know from a couple sessions ago that Bozkar’s relationship, Devlin, was being blamed for the theft of valuables from Kilgen’s cart. The theft that Flint actually performed.

Delvin the Orphan

While dicing a bit, Bozkar hears word that Kilgin is accusing Delvin of stealing from him and he intends to make an example. Bozkar excuses himself and tracks down Delvin. He professes his innocence and Bozkar believes him. “People will always look down on you and make you a scape goat. You’ve gotta make your own way and turn everything to your advantage. Just stick with me.”

Bozkar goes searching for Kilgen. Turns out they’ve had a bit of interaction in the past and even diced together from time to time (Successful Circles test). Bozkar hopes to diffuse the situation pretty easily, but Kilgen’s not budging. They argue back in forth in front of a few spectators. Kilgen wants to make an example and make Delvin “pay the price” for theft. Bozkar is trying to convince everyone that it was that coward Urgo that must have done it. They end up coming to a stand-still and eventually they make a deal where Bozkar will find a way to pay Kilgen back. (Tied Duel of Wits).

Bozkar figures it’s best to get out of camp. Out of site out of mind and he doesn’t want anyone else hoping to make an example of his charge. He starts making plans to head out to the ziggurat ruins. Before leaving he starts hearing rumors how High Captain Grahm is getting reports from the ruins, but not allowing any information outside of his camp (Successful rumor-wise) and while dicing with an old friend, he fans the flames a bit by telling the Dwarf that Grahm is making a play for power and working together with the trades-dwarfs and keeping out the artisans (Successful Falsehood)

Outside the Ruins

The same night after Flint & Kardin found the mines and parlayed with the spiders, Bozkar makes it to camp. They all catch up on what’s been going on. When talking about the business with Delvin & Kilgen, Bozkar notices Flint’s reaction seems a little off (successful Persuasion) — he’s not sure what’s going on there, but something seems off.

While they’re chatting a couple Dwarves come up interested because they overheard something about mines (they’re Deep Delvers, a group that hasn’t been totally fleshed out yet. But they’re out to lay stakes on veins of metal and ore). They’re really curious about the ore Kardin find and start asking questions about who they need to talk to about getting their share. The group starts stonewalling them a bit at that point and they eventually leave.

After some more chatting Flint goes to talk with Arak and warns him about some Dwarves that seem to be out to exploit the rest of the survivors. He suggests placing guards around the un-mined area to keep anyone from trying to lay claim to what should be community resources. He also gets Arak to agree to send a couple Dwarves from the host down with them to help take care of the “living statues”.

To the Forge

The next morning they start planning how they’re going to deal with the creatures guarding the forge. They’re numbers are now 5 to 6. A little more even, but those creations seem pretty hardy.

First, Bozkar points out he has no armor and asks to borrow Flint’s old set of armor (now that he’s got the mail). He agrees. In exchange Bozkar will help in putting Arak in power (something he’s already been working toward anyhow).

They start talking about ways to get the drop on the statues and realize that since that area is near the forge, there must be a ventilation system. Maybe they could use that to make their way down below and surprise the creatures. They’re able to find some ventilation hatches, but time has not been kind and they’re all blocked off (failed Hold-wise).

At this point the party resigns themselves to having to do this the hard way. They make their way down to the shaft access (Fergus follows along as he promised to do, although he stays back from any fighting). Before heading into the ruins Bozkar is able to find a hammer that he can use (successful Scavenging).

They start climbing down (using the rope Flint previously anchored) and make their way near the bottom with no problem. When the lowest dwarf is only about 20 feet from the floor, he hears some movement below. He looks down and sees two of the creatures. One of them stands directly beneath the shaft and looks up. This one has the head of a bat and it lets out a loud screech as blast of intense heat starts to rise up the shaft. Everyone starts scrambling up the rope and wall to avoid the blast. Kardin is able to avoid the heat wave (successful Climb test), but Flint & Bozkar get a bit scorched, but are protected from the worst of it by their armor (failed Climb tests followed by successful Armor tests). One of the dwarves from Arak’s squad loses his grip on the rope, but Kardin is able to grab him while Flint & Bozkar secure Kardin and the rope to keep them all from falling (successful Speed test).

At this, the party decides to climb back up and re-assess. The room with access to the shaft is partly filled with rubble from the previous collapse that Kardin fell through to find the room in the first place. The Dwarves start heaving large rocks over the side hoping to catch a couple of the creatures unaware. They’re able to bury one in rubble, but mostly just create a pile of rocks on the floor at the bottom of the shaft (failed Power test).

With nothing left to do, but destroy the remaining statues, the party climbs back down. Luckily the pile of rocks keeps any of the creatures from getting too close too fast and the party is able to get their footing before the fighting begins.

Kardin, Bozkar, Flint, and the 2 dwarves from Arak’s squad stand back-to-back at the top of the rubble. Flint has his arbalest out, but is unable to keep one of the creatures from getting too close (failed Engagement), while Kardin & Bozkar are able to take advantage of their hammers’ longer reach (successful Engagement) — the creatures limbs are fashioned into weapons but don’t have much reach. Kardin & Bozkar trade blows each with a different statue to no real effect while Flint trusts his armor to keep him safe while hoping to get off a shot. Then within just a couple heartbeats of each other Kardin lets loose with a mighty swing felling one creature while Flint releases a bolt at another blasting a huge hole in it. The three dwarves gang up on the creature Kardin was fighting alone and are able to dispatch it with little problem. (Did a full-on fight here, abstracting the two Host dwarves each taking on a colossus leaving 3-on-3 for the PCs. Highlight of the Fight was Flint pulling out 9 successes on an Ob 8 test to hit the colossus he was fighting on 15 dice thanks to some aiming and adding in his Greed dice).

Knowing they don’t have much time before Fergus realizes the fighting is over before coming down and causing who-knows-what sort of trouble, the party quickly starts examining the remains of the creatures and soon find a small hatch one of them that can be opened (successful beginner’s luck Colossus-wise). Inside is a mess of cogs and gears. Bozkar searches around for anything usable to help dismantle parts, but comes up empty-handed (failed Scavenging). Kardin decides to just reach in and see what he can salvage. The cogs and gears are in generally good repair, but buried deep is a very plain, very rough (not cut) dark stone of unknown make (failed beginner’s luck Colossus Artifice — the failure results of which have yet to be fully revealed — also a totally made-up skill on the spot, but having a skill to make the colossi absolutely makes sense in the setting). Kardin holds on to the stone and Bozkar takes a few handfuls of gears and cogs hoping to someone will be willing to trade.

As they hear scrambling from above (Fergus climbing down) the party goes down the passageway previously defended by the statues. They come out on a balcony overlooking  a huge, dormant forge. Much like the hearth-forges from back home, but much bigger. Most of the massive chamber is covered in a thin layer of ash (not soot, surprisingly). In fact the back of the archway leading into the forge is noticeably fire-blasted and slightly damaged. Something happened here, but it’s not yet obvious what that was.

They look over the forge — it’s in good condition although dormant, of course. Also, the dwarves notice the forge is slightly warm compared to the rest of the areas they’ve been in down below. There’s no obvious source for the heat. Perhaps from the earth itself? About this time Fergus comes in demanding no one touch anything. As he’s looking at every square inch of the forge, Bozkar keeps an eye on him in case he gets any ideas of destroying anything useful and Flitn & Kardin go to the opposite side of the forge where there’s a balcony identical to the balcony they came in through. They go up and find the entire balcon (and a small semi-circular alcove) covered in some sort of mosaic tile. There’s no specific pattern, but it’s well-made and polished. Remembering a comment Fergus had made about a rune staircase Flint & Kardin start looking for any sort of hidden door. Their search is interrupted as a face appears in the tile at their feet. The face seems to be made of the tile yet almost fluid and liquid like its skin.

“Is Lord Midnor returned?”

“No, we’re claiming this forge for us. What manner of creature are you?”

The figure rises up out of the floor, it’s huge almost humanoid (with wings) body seeming to rise out of the floor made of tile and stone “I am the guardian of the forge. Only I can light the forge.”

“So light it.”

“Not without Lord Midnor. Bring me his head and we’ll talk.” At that the creature disappears down into the rock.

Shaken by what they’ve just seen the dwarves don’t know quite what to do. Fergus keeps going on about how Midnor was a bad dwarf and they shouldn’t be here. “That was ages ago, old man! Midnor’s long dead and turned to dust. We’ll find some way to deal with that thing or find Midnor’s skeletal remains.”

“Do what you like, I’ll be giving my report to Grahm.”

“You do that, we’ll have our own report.”

End

Pretty long session. A Duel of Wits and the beginning and a Fight towards the end. Most of us are still a bit new to the new BWG Fight rules, but it went pretty well overall. Definitely enjoying the changes from Revised to Gold.

We’d hoped to have a final showdown with Fergus/Grahm probably in the form of a DoW, but the session was already running long. That’s likely what we’ll be starting with next session and then probably fast forward a bit in time. Probably an entire season — let everyone practice/train/Get a Job and maybe a few over-arching montage like scenes as the clan gets settles into the mines down below. Goal #1 for Flint is definitely to get Armor Training so he’s no longer suffering penalties while wearing his sweet, sweet Dwarven Mail.

Back at Camp

Rewinding a day, Captain Arak comes to wake up Ilsa. He wants her help looking after Halel. The host’s Khirurgeon (Khirurgy is a Dwarven doctoring skill and covers quite a bit of ground), Tigh, is looking after her, but Arak is worried that Halel is poisoned and Tigh isn’t really treating her properly. Ilsa agrees to check things out. She goes to the medical tent where Halel is being cared for. It looks like she’s being pretty well cared for, the bad laceration on her neck from the attempted strangling is still inflamed, but clean. Tigh is in the tent, reeking of alcohol. Tigh is reluctant (to put it lightly) to let anyone else take a look for Halel. “I’m the doctor! This is MY job!” Ilsa is able to keep him a bit distracted by talking about different things (she also learns that Arak apparently has a thing for Halel) and eventually gets a good look at the young girl. “Look here, do you see the color of her lips and the way her tongue is extended? She’s definitely been poisoned and the treatment is simple” (successful Khirurgy test). “Bah, we just need to keep this wound clean. She’s got a bit of a fever from infection, that’s all. Now get out of here! This is my patient and I’ll take care of her!”

Unable to make Tigh see reason, Ilsa heads out into the camp. She figures her only chance at getting to the patient is to distract Tigh away from her for long enough. Ilsa decides a little family drama is just what’s called for and determines that not only is drinking on the job like Tigh is a huge social sin, but that it’s been an ongoing argument between Tigh and his father. So, she gets Tigh’s dad involved and while they’re yelling at one another she gets into the tent and applies a poultice to the wound on Halel’s neck that will cleanse the poison. Unfortunately, she’s caught going behind the doctor’s back by Tigh and his father and that’s even more of a social no-no thank drinking (failed Family Wise with Clan Wise FoRK). Ilsa’s poultice has an obvious effect on Halel’s health, but High Captain Grahm can’t let Ilsa’s mis-step go, so he sends her out of camp with the group that’s going to the ziggurat.

The Next Night at the Ziggurat

Kardin comes stumbling back into camp, heaving and vomiting. He’s holding his hand where there’s a large purplish welt of some sort. He can barely get a word out. Luckily Ilsa comes to the rescue and without any warning sharply stabs the welt to lance it. She recognizes his symptoms as similar to what Halel was going through so she also applies a poultice to the wound and he begins to show recovery pretty quickly. Kargin tells how he found a recently abandoned site that must have belonged to Urgo, but he left a nasty surprise and something stabbed his hand. Looks like that’s two poisonings under Urgo’s belt now. Turns out he’s been using the berries Flint and company found a few days ago when scavenging for food that made them violently ill. Definitely have to be more careful from now on.

Down the Shaft

The Dwarves wake up the next morning and Grahm has sent a runner with a message. With the news of the dwarven shaft as well as all the writings he’s sending some more personal to check out structural integrity and he’s also sent along Fergus, the chronicler. They’re on the way and will be arriving later this morning behind the runner. Kardin & Flint decide to descend the shaft Kardin had discovered yesterday. They borrow one of Captain Arak’s dwarves as backup and ask Ilsa to come along in case they need any medical help. They’re able to make their way back to the room with the entrance to the shaft with no trouble. They pull away the stones and Flint starts making preparations to climb down. With a little light he can see that there are rings along the walls at regular intervals, hinting at some sort of pulley system in the past. “I’ll go first and set the rope. I’llcall up if all is clear.” Flint slowly makes his way down the rock wall, anchoring the rope to rings along the way to help Kardin & Ilsa once they follow. He’s able to get to the bottom with little trouble (successful Climbing test).

Flint takes a few minutes to look around and discovered a circular room about 50 feet in diameter with 6 tunnels leading off and a waterway passing through. Seeing and hearing no signs of anything else down here he calls up that it’s safe to come down. Kardin climbs down and with the help of Flint’s guidance is able to reach the problem without incident (successful Beginner’s Luck Climbing). Ilsa, however, isn’t quite as lucky. She gets most of the way down, but loses her grip on the last bit of climbing and twists her ankle upon landing (failed Beginner’s Luck Climbing). She sits a moment tending her ankle (successful Health test) while Flint & Kardin check out the tunnels more. There are some way-runes near the tunnels and it looks like one passageway leads to the forge, 4 lead to residential & storage areas, and the 6th to some mining tunnels. “The forge! I have to see the forge!” Kardin blurts out.

Once Ilsa is up on her feet, the four dwarves set off towards the forge. While the large chamber was rough, unworked stone, they soon pass into a tunnel that is smooth and worked by dwarven hands. The tunnel is wide enough for 3 dwarves to walk abreast. They walk on for a ways and the tunnel opens into a larger more decorated room. In the middle are 6 dwarf-sized figures. As the party walks into the room, the figures turn their heads as one and seem to come to life. They’re the general size and shape of dwarves, but their heads are the heads of animals. They appear to be made of metal and stone. Some of them are brandishing weapons while others seem to have weapons built right into their arms. Whatever these things are, the Dwarves have never seen anything like it. They must have been crafted by dwarves, no other people have the skill to create something so well.

As the creations advance, the party backs up into the narrower tunnel to keep from getting surrounded. The figures stop, but don’t go back to their previous locations. They must be defenders of some sort. “The forge has to be past there, that room looks just like the hearth-forge entrances back home. We have to get past them!” Kardin says. Easier said than done as they look quite formidable. Kardin decides to look around for something useful and finds a usable bucket (successful Scavenging). He fills the bucket with water from the small river in the main chamber, then comes back and rushes one of the creatures and splashes it with water, hoping that whatever makes it move is stopped by water. It has no obvious effect and Kardin barely retreats back into the tunnel before getting swarmed. They decide the only they’re getting through to the forge is simply to take the creatures on.

They plan to stay at the mouth of the tunnel so the creatures superior numbers aren’t as advantageous. They take on the creations, but are unable to make any real headway past them (failed Hammer vs. Brawling). The dwarves retreat to the main entrance after Kardin and Flint take a few blows (a Light Wound each). “We’re going to need to come back with reinforcements if we’re going to make it past those things.” “Agreed. Let’s check out these other tunnels.”

Four of the other tunnels lead to residential areas. All told, 120 or so dwarven families could be housed comfortably down here. The tunnels leading into the housing areas have some small amount of storage areas as well as some carved frescoes. Most prominent in all the carvings is a bald, beardless dwarf. “That’s exactly like the statue I saw where I found the forge key,” Flint says.

They decide to check out the remaining tunnel where rock was being mined. Eventually they reach the end and Kardin is able to find a couple good samples of iron and silver. “There’s still veins of ore down here with good, usable ore!” One thing they notice checking out all these areas. There’s no evidence of any sort of disaster or forced retreat. There’s not broken bits of furniture or equipment all over the place like you’d expect if the inhabitants left on short notice. All the areas are still well made and in good condition, so no major disasters that might have cause areas to collapse. These areas look like a great place for the dwarves to settle for the time being.

The Spiders’ Lair

Before climbing back out, Kardin & Flint take a bit to to rest and recover from the fight with the constructs (successful Health tests). The team climbs back up with no more complications and decides it’s time to scope out what’s going on with the spider (or spiders) that Flint encountered yesterday. Flint leads them back down the way he went and eventually comes to the room covered in webbing. It’s since been re-covered and there’s no signs of his passage through there yesterday. He makes a bit of noise and calls out and eventually a spider comes along the webbing (while a second one stays along the walls). Judging by the lack of wounding, neither of these are the spider he dealt with yesterday.

Flint explains how his people have come to be stranded here and are looking for shelter. There’s no reason that the spiders and dwarves can’t exist peacefully and share the space. The spider (when asked states that the Dwarves can refer to her as Dew, “the word you use for water on the ground in the morning”) says that the spiders won’t cross into the territory of Midnor and the Sons of Midnor aren’t to cross into the spider’s territory (which is everything past this webbed room).

Meanwhile Kardin takes the opportunity to examine the 2nd spider. At first glance they seem pretty identical, but once Dew points out the 2nd spider is a bodyguard of sorts, Kardin starts to pick out small differences (successful Beginner’s Luck Great Spider Wise). While the bodyguard appears to be quite plain and nondescript with larger mandibles fangs, Dew has unique markings around her face and body. They’d seem to indicate she has some importance within whatever community exists here, while the bodyguard is like some faceless soldier. Flint puts forward how he thinks trading could be good between the two cultures. He mentions how he knows this used to be a place of trading for two peoples to come together, the Sons of Midnor and the Children of the Sun “Those were the bad times!” Dew says, but doesn’t elaborate. “What are you interested in trading?”

“We’re dwarves. We can provide all sorts of crafted goods. Right now we’re hoping you can give us knowledge. Knowledge of this place and knowledge of its past.”

“For knowledge, you must trade dwarves.”

“No.”

“Midnor used to give us Dwarves.”

“We’re not Midnor’s people. For now, we’ll stay out of each others way. I don’t have the authority to speak for all my people, but I hope we can work something out in the future.” Leaving it at that, the party goes back above ground.

The Chronicler

Back on the surface, the party of Dwarves are confronted almost immediately by Fergus, the Head Chronicler. He launches into a rant about he should have gone down with them and how as Head Chronicler all new knowledge should go through him. Kardin really doesn’t want to hear any of it so he storms off after calling Fergus out for destroying writings in the staircase, then goes off to write up a daily report to have sent back to Grahm.

As Kardin is storming off, Fergus yells out “well you would, too, if you knew what I knew!” There’s two histories of the dwarves. There’s what most dwarves are raised learning and there’s what the chroniclers know and pass down, but keep secret.

Flint asks what Fergus knows and Fergus goes on about how Dwarves were never meant to come back down here. It’s too dangerous. “Why? Does it have to do with Midnor?”

“What do you know about Midnor!?” Fergus blurts out.

Flint tells him about the great spiders referring to the dwarves as the Sons of Midnor and he’s starting to think this beardless bald dwarf might be one and the same. Fergus says how Midnor was a bad dwarf. The histories say he trafficked in really dark things and was known to sacrifice dwarves, which is inline with what the great spiders were saying. He says that he really should have been with them in the mines and that if this truly is the home of Midnor that they can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous and too much chance of disturbing something awful. Fergus is reluctant to go on at that point. But, at least for the time being Fergus, Flint, & Kardin agree: the mines need to be explored more fully and first they have to get past the creations down there (which Fergus admits to having no knowledge of).

End of Session

Another good session with some questions answered and new questions popping up. Out of character,we know that the stone/metal creatures we encountered are a type of collosi that we talked about when we first put the game together. So, we’re all interested in learning more about them and definitely finding out what secrets are in the forge. I definitely see a Duel of Wits coming up soon. I fully expect we’ll get down into the forge and verify that the mines were Midnor’s, which of course means Fergus will tell Grahm that we can’t stay, so we’ll have to convince him otherwise.

I also realized at the beginning of the session that Flint doesn’t have armor training, which means penalties to do pretty much anything while wearing his new shiny Dwarven mail. Definitely need to find some down time for him so he can get some time to learn how to properly wear heavier armor (before all he had was light armor which wasn’t an issue). I avoided too many complications this session by not being in front too much and mostly helping with rolls — and I removed the armor to climb down the mine shaft, but don’t think I didn’t consider keeping it on, penalty or not!

The Stairs

Unable to sleep and knowing he can do nothing for Halel, Kardin decides to take a look at all the writings that are on the walls of the Great Stairs that lead out of the mountains. He barely gets into the entrance before he hears the distinct sound of hammer-on-chisel on rock. Fearing the worst he rushes in and sees a crazed-looking old dwarf with hammer and chisel raised to the wall. It’s obvious he’s trying to destroy the runes and writings on the wall. Without hesitating Kardin rushes forward to tackle the old dwarf. They both go tumbling down the stairs, but not before the dwarf’s chisel catches in the stone and pulls away a sizable chunk (tied Power vs. Speed). Kardin is on top of the dwarf, pinning him to the ground. He recognizes him as Fergus, head chronicler.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

“I’m saving the dwarves!”

“Saving? You’re destroying knowledge!”

“You’ll have to kill me to stop me!” Fergus stops struggling and drops his chisel.

Kardin drags Fergus into camp in front of Captain Arak. His pleas to keep the writings safe fall on deaf ears “is anyone hurt? in danger? We have more important things to worry about than some writings in a cave. We’re trying to survive.”

Kardin walks off in a huff to get what information he can out of what’s left of the writings. He’s able to discern the writings concern forge-work of some sort , but is unable to glean anything useful beyond the basics of forge-craft. He knows there’s important knowledge to be had here. He packs up the chunks of stone that fell away from Fergus’ chisel. Hopefully what he’s salvaged can still prove useful. He stays up all night looking over the runes and is exhausted going into the following day (failed Ancient Languages).

A Camp, Divided

The next morning everyone is waking up and having their breakfast. Captain Arak comes to see Flint. “Hey, High Captain Grahm has given out assignments. Half of the host is to seek out signs of the Prince, the rest are to secure the area. He refused to let me to take a company to check out the ziggurat.”

“Is that so? Well, his duty is to defend the civilians. If we all pack up and head to the ruins, he’ll have no choice.”

Flint takes the time to walk among all the members of the camp, pointing out that their best chance of survival is more permanent shelter. “We’re Dwarves! We can’t survive out in the open like this! We need stone over our head and the ruins we find can provide safety and shelter!” Flint is able to convince enough survivors it’s the best course of action (successful Coarse Persuasion) and everyone begins packing up their belongings.

Gramm comes looking for Flint. “Ah, High Captain, how can I help you?”

“What the hell is going on here?”

“We’re moving. We have no shelter and no protection here. Everyone agrees that we’ll be safer if we seek shelter at the Ziggurat.”

“We have no idea what’s out there!”

“That’s exactly why you should send some men with me and Kardin. We even found an artificer to judge the structural integrity — young Galt, here.”

“You’re playing a dangerous game, Flint.”

“I just want to keep our people safe. That’s your duty. To the people. If we all go, you have no choice but to follow with us. I want your word that you’ll defend and protect the people.” (leveraging Flint’s Oathswearer trait allowing him to demand someone’s word and brand them a Coward if it’s not given).

“Fine. How about I send half the host with just you 3 and everyone else stays here until we know what the ruins hold. And I want all intel to come through me first.”

“As long as Captain Arak here leads the squad.”

“Deal.”

“We’ll be in regular contact with runners. If you don’t hear anything within a day, assume the worst.”

Those going on the expedition finalize preparations and get ready to head out for the short journey (about 6 hours walk) to the ruins.

Into the ruins

Upon arriving, Arak immediately begins giving orders to secure the area and set up a perimeter. He orders 3 dwarves to accompany Flint, Kardin, & Galt. Having fresh eyes on the structure, it’s obvious this isn’t Dwarven-built. It’s in decent enough shape it seems, but not as well-crafted as dwarven-hands would have made it.

The upper levels of the ziggurat all seem to be in good shape. They begin descending (past the previously-discovered lair of the large cats). They enter an open area with large columns going from floor-to-ceiling. Kardin begins looking over the carvings and runes while Galt is assessing the structural integrity. Unfortunately the floor beneath that particular column is worn with age, but nobody spots the signs of distress and Kardin, Galt, & one of the dwarven host fall through to a lower level (failed Perception), getting entirely blocked off from Flint and the other two. It’s obvious there’s nothing to be done and Kardin will have to find his own way out.

In the mean-time Flint starts looking over what carvings are on the remaining columns. He’s able to determine (successful Dwarven Rune Script) that this structure was once a sort of cultural center. It appears dwarves used it for trading with some other group (that appear to be non-dwarves). There’s also mention of tributes being brought and sealed away. “Tribute! Ah-ha, that’s what I need to find!”

Meanwhile, down below Kardin and his party seem to have fared quite well, with just some minor bumps and bruises. They’re completely sealed off in a bare room with only one exit. A bare dead-end room seems suspicious to Kardin so he begins looking for some false stones of some sort. It appears the recent cave-in may have loosened some seals and he’s able to find some rocks that can be pulled away. The way they were placed makes it obvious it was done by dwarven hands. Unfortunately whatever the stones are hiding was trapped and a blade shoots out, catching Kardin and the Host dwarf in it’s arc (failed Observation). They finish pulling up the stones and discover a shaft. A most-definitely-dwarven-made shaft. Lacking the equipment to properly explore the discovery, they make note of it and decide to seal it back up.

Up higher, Flint has been looking at more runes and discovers that tributes were stored in a vault. With a little more work, he’s able to follow markers on the walls that point the way to the vault. He and the two dwarves from Arak’s squad continue to descend down ramps “Ah-ha! Ramps! That means they were bringing in cart loads of stuff!”. Suddenly the ramp levels out and they find themselves in a room with webbing everywhere. Not just lots of cobwebs. But huge, thick webbing.

“Woah, woah. We need to go back and report this” one of the host Dwarves says.

“You can’t go back no! You’re here with me, we have to keep pressing on. Just start burning the webbing away and we can make our way forward.”

“We’re just supposed to scout! If there’s anything down here we need to go back for backup.”

“We’re still scouting! There’s 3 of us, that’s all the backup we need. Are you boys or are you Dwarves?!”

“We’re Dwarves, dammit!” The two stick around for the time being (failed Coarse Persuasion).

They begin burning the webbing when suddenly they here skittering noises. They stop what they’re doing, keeping an eye out, when suddenly a Great Spider leaps from the shadows (tied Observation vs. Stealthy). The two host dwarves lose their nerves and run off, while Flint starts cautiously backing up with his hand on Marina (his trusty arbalest).

“So, you come back?”

Flint’s taken aback. He wasn’t expecting this creature to speak. It speaks in a very precise, almost academic way. “Back? This is the first time I’ve been down here.”

“So the Sons of Midnor return?”

“Sons of Midnor”. Flint remembers back to his childhood and the tales his mother would tell him growing up. Stories of 3 Dwarven brothers, one of them named Midnor. “That old story? That’s just some legend.”

“Then why are you here? … Ah. Are you here for treasure?”

“Yes! There’s a vault down here I mean to find.”

“I can take you to it.”

“Fine, but you stay in front of me where I can see you.”

The Great Spider leads Flint along, clearing the way of cob webs. Eventually they enter a chamber with two huge double doors on the other side. The doors are obviously of dwarven make. Flint moves on, focusing completely on the dwarves “Ah, the vault!”, completely missing the spider skittering up the wall and onto the ceiling.

After just a few minutes of investigation Flint easily sees how the doors are meant to open. Inside is a medium-sized rounded room. Sub-par (non dwarven) weapons and armor scatter the floor as well as chests and bags of precious gems. More importantly, right in the middle of the room is a statue of a bald, beard-less dwarf with his hands out-stretched. In his hands is a metal cylinder of some sort, at his feet an impressive dwarven shield, and wrapped around the body of the statue is a beautifully crafted set of Dwarven Mail. Flint’s eyes widen as he’s stunned by it’s beauty (failed Steel vs. Greed), but just as he snaps out of it and rushes for the statue (choosing the I Must Have It Steel Reaction), the Great Spider comes scrambling in, planning to take Flint out and get the treasure for her own, because she was never able to open the doors herself.

Flint hears the spider coming and pulls out his hammer, bellowing at the top of his lungs “THIS VAULT IS MINE!” He charges the spider, batting away her legs and landing a solid blow against her face (successful Bloody Versus helped along by Fueling the Fires of Greed). He bloodies her nose as it were and she scurries away into the darkness.

The first thing Flint does is to remove the armor from the statue and replace the sturdy leathers he’d been wearing. He gets a closer look at the shield and cylinder and it’s not obvious what metal they’re crafted from. His father is an artificer and although he never pursued those skills all dwarves have some knowledge of metals and alloys. Whatever it is, he’s never seen it. Much more interesting however is the cylinder’s purpose. All forges require a key of sorts that help to regular heat. Forges are completely worthless without a proper key. This cylinder looks very much like a regular forge key, but it’s at least a third bigger than even the keys of the great hearth forges. Flint prepares to leave with his new treasure, but not before stuffing his pockets with gold and gems. On his way out he shuts the door, ensuring the Great Spider can’t get in to plunder the bounty he found.

Up above, Kardin & Galt are making their way out. On the way Kardin decides to seek out a library, hoping to learn something useful and maybe find more significant writings. He finds a room with some square stone tablets with dwarven script as well as what appears to be animal hides with some other type of script that’s similar, but not quite the same.

They finally make their way higher and see the two dwarves that had been with Flint on their way out. When confronted they say Flint is still down below and there’s a giant spider down there. Kardin rushes off to check on Flint and they meet up in a tunnel as Flint is coming out. Kardin’s eye catches Flint’s new treasure and they swap stories on what they just went through. Kardin and Galt also admit they have no idea what the shield and cylinder are made of and that the cylinder looks an awful lot like a forge key (Kardin thinks back to last night and the pieces of writing on the stairs he deciphered that seem to indicate some kind of new forge craft).

A Nasty Surprise

Back up top, it’s turning to night so Kardin and Flint decide to go over everything they’ve learned. They look over the tablets (successful Ancient Languages) and find that the square tablets are ledgers of some sort. It appears the dwarves were trading with someone. There’s some pictographs mixed in and the figures are tall and slender, very similar to elves, but not quite the same. They call themselves the Children of the Sun. According to the ledgers the dwarves were receiving metals and the like as well as foodstuffs and sending back finished goods.

Before bedding down for the night Kardin starts thinking that Urgo may just have come this way. He’d been here previously when they came after those cats and he wouldn’t be surprised if Urgo came here after running out of camp. He starts looking the forest nearby the ruins and eventually comes across an abandoned campsite. Signs show that it must have been left only hours before the expedition arrived at the ruins earlier that day and he finds some leavings that indicate it was most definitely Urgo. Unfortunately Urgo left a nasty surprise (failed Observation) and Kardin finds himself poisoned by a trap Urgo made.

The End

We left it on that cliffhanger. Partly so the GM can figure out exactly what the poison is going to do. Another great session. At the player level we know there are tribal humans in the valley, the “not-elves” (Children of the Sun) we saw in the pictographs and humans don’t exist anywhere else, so no one has ever encountered them. Also, we know there are collossi crafted by ancient dwarves, probably with the use of the special forge we’re getting clues about. We also know that we’re going to start seeing more Great Spiders.

Playing Flint the extra-greedy (he has B8 Greed and the Avarice trait) has been a blast and I’m worried about what’s in store for me now that the GM has given me a suit of Dwarven Mail (which is super-sweet) — I’m sure that’ll cause me all kinds of problems going forward.

There was also a short scene near the beginning where Kilgar (the merchant) came looking for “that orphan” (relationship of Bozkar, another PC that wasn’t there for the session). OOC it was obvious he’d discovered the robbery (perpetrated by Flint) and he was ready to blame Bozkar’s orphan. Flint wasn’t around and Kardin had no idea what was going on, so he pointed Kilgar in the direction of Bozkar, so he’ll get to deal with that the next time he’s present!

If I were going to describe InSpectres as succinctly as possible it would be: corporate Ghostbusters RPG. That tells you about 80% of what you need to know about the game. The idea is that supernatural stuff happens and InSpectres is a corporation that has come about to deal with such phenomena and people are founding InSpectres franchises all over. So, imagine Ghostbusters with a bit of Office Space mixed in for all of that hair-pulling corporate bullshit.

Let that awesomeness sink in.

Mechanics are pretty simple. Characters have 4 primary stats: Academics (research, knowing stuff, etc.), Athletics (physical stuff, fighting, running, etc.), Technology (using and procuring stuff), Contact (social stuff). There are also 2 secondary stats: Stress (penalizes die pools as you character experiences different sorts of things), and Cool (allows you to ignore stress or add dice to a roll).

Beyond character creation, the players form an InSpectres franchise. You talk a bit about why you form the franchise, what you want to do. Also, come up with positions for people. Is there a president? CFO? CTO? Stuff like that. The franchise itself has stats of a sort as well. The library card lets you add dice to academics rolls, the gym membership adds dice for athletics, & the gold card for technology rolls to get stuff. Those dice are lost as they’re used of course. And it’s possible to earn more throughout the game with what’s called “Franchise Dice”. Also, any Franchise Dice not allocated are in the “Bank”. Bank dice can be used to aid any skill roll. The only difference is bank dice have their own mechanics and it’s possible to lose an extra die, keep the one you rolled, or even earn an extra.

So, back to actual mechanics. When you want to accomplish something, you collect a number of dice based on your skill and whether you’re going to add any card/bank dice. All you care about is the single highest number. 6 is great, 1 not so much. The gist is the better you roll, the better things go for you and the more you get to narrate. As the values go down you might still get sort of what you want, but with humorous consequences. At the very bottom things really aren’t going well and the GM will be telling you how. In other words, you more or less narrate your success and the GM narrates failures. There’s some tangential things that can happen from die rolls like earning more franchise dice or earning cool dice, but that’s most of it.

Play is pretty simple. Narrate what you’re doing, if the GM thinks it deserves a roll then gather your dice and roll. Compare results to table. One of the things I really like is the lack of a need for heavy prep-work. As GM you can come in with an idea no more fleshed out than “there’s something weird going on at the library.” And before you know it, it’ll be over-run with all sorts of paranormal activity as the players try and investigate what’s going on and take care of the problem. And yes, hilarity will ensue.

There’s a couple other mechanics as far as how to earn and get rid of stress dice (go on vacation) and how harsh their effects can be. Nothing terribly different there, but there is one more mechanic, the Confessional that’s pretty awesome. Once per session per player you can have a confessional. The idea is to mimic all the reality TV shows where it will cut away from what’s going on and just have someone in a room talking candidly to the camera. It’s a chance for a player to get a bit more narrative control (and they can also give traits of a sort to other players). Most importantly when doing a confessional you absolutely should have the player sit apart from the rest of the group and face them as if they were the camera. It’s really a lot of fun!

Having played this once I’m really looking forward to playing again, especially now that I’ve read the book. It also appeals to my lazy GM tendencies. No prep, plenty of player narrative control.  Also make sure to check out the link up top for InSpectres, there’s some great supplemental info and there’s even a free quick play pdf to let you try out the game with some of the basics. Definitely worth a shot.

Anyhow, the setup we came up with is that the PCs are all dwarves from a formally very powerful hold. The clan wasn’t well liked, but even together the other clans couldn’t oust us. Eventually they got the help of some elves and the entire clan was forced to retreat into deeper tunnels. About 100 dwarfs survived the journey — that we know of, we were cut off from the Prince’s party and they’re assumed dead. The tunnels are collapsed and flooded behind us, so the only way to go is forward. We find ourselves in a dense jungle. In the distance we see the top of a volcano, belching up smoke.

In play we’ll discover this is a cradle of life sort of area and it’s still inhabited by men — tribal, with spirit binding. There are also ancient dwarven ruins scattered around and huge golem/automoton sort of things called Collossi that were probably built by dwarves in the ancient past.

Four of us were there for the initial campaign burning and character brainstorming. By the end we had a solid situation and solid ideas for characters, but we spent the next couple of weeks (had to take a week off with Thanksgiving) nailing down our characters.

We went into play this week with 3 fully burned characters: Flint (me), artificer turned retired adventurer. Bozkar, noble turned gambler. And Kardin, artificer turned runecaster.

We had a 4th player and he decided to go with a pre-gen — he’s newer to BW and hadn’t had time to get a character fully burned in time, so he took the dwarven coward example out of the book and tweaked him a bit and he was ready for play.

NOTE: I love that all the characters so far have gone through the outcast sub-setting. For one reason or another we’re all seen as less-than-dwarf compared to the rest of our group. But now’s our chance to change things! We’re alone and (basically) exiled. Time to change things up! Smash the status quo! I’m hoping the 4th player decides to burn up another type of outcast dwarf.

I hope to do pretty regular APs for this campaign. Still trying to decide on a format I like for these posts and how to point out mechanical things when they crop up. For now I’ll focus on the events that happen and reference rolls by bolding and putting in parentheses. Also I’ll be wording things assuming some familiarity with rpg’s in general and BW specifically. I’d be happy to clarify anything in the comments if anyone has questions.

The rescue

It’s the middle of night. We haven’t been above ground long and we’re still looking for suitable shelter. There are screams in the camp, Kilgen (a trader) has two infant twins that have been kidnapped by someone or something in the night. The four PC’s group up with Kilgen and head off into the forest. Bozkar manages to find some tracks (successful Beginner’s Luck Tracking) of some sort of animal, “There’s two of them, going this way.”

We all follow the tracks, Bozkar taking the time to occasionally notch a tree (advantage for future Orienteering to get home) so we can hopefully find our way back to camp.

After thirty or 40 minutes we come to a clearing with a ziggurat-like building (in disrepair, of course). Kardin runs forward, his curiosity and interest in the ruins overcoming any sort of danger. He nearly comes face-to-face with a large cat-like creature stalking around the columns. The rest of the party spots a second cat heading towards the entrance of the building with what looks like some sort of bundle in its teeth. Flint doesn’t hesitate to take a shot (Instinct: always keep Marina loaded) at the beast with his trusty Dwarven arbalest (successful Crossbow), causing it to roar in pain, drop the infant, and rush into the ruins.

Meanwhile the other cat charges Kardin. He fends it off as the rest of the party rushes to his aid. Together they’re able to take down the wild beast, but not before Kardin gets bruised up a bit (Bloody Vs between cat and the group, Superficial wound for Kardin). Urgo rushes up in the mean-time to secure the dropped infant, in the shadowy depths of the entrance he sees two eyes reflecting light back at him.

Fearing for the safety of the second child, Flint, Bozkar, & Kargin rush inside after the second great cat while Urgo and Kilgen stay behind with the first child. After leading the trio on a chase through the tunnels (vs Speed using the chase rules), the party manages to catch up with the beast just as it retreats into its lair and are able to put it down and find the second twin.

After loading up the cat corpses (food and hide) on Urgo’s mule Flint leads the way back home, but the group gets hopelessly lost in the dense forest at night (failed Orienteering) and are forced to set up camp for the night. Everyone’s tired and hungry and Kargin is able to forage for some berries (successful Foraging). Unfortunately no one here is familiar enough with the wild life here and everyone but Bozkar is violently ill for the entire night (Forte tests all around -1D for 24 hours for those that failed). Luckily Flint is able to get a fire going to keep predators away.

The next morning the party finds their way back to the ruins where they’re able to pick up the trail back to camp. Kargin, thinking Bozkar’s little knife notches on trees aren’t enough begins knocking down smaller trees and saplings with his hammer. NOW THAT’S A TRAIL!

Aftermath and prep for an excursion back to the ruins

The party is given a big welcome upon returning. Kilgen’s wife cooks up breakfast for the family and the 4 heroes. Kilgen says he owes everyone and will try to help them out with anything. At one point Flint pulls Kilgen aside to demand some gems and jewels for his part in the rescue. Kilgen offers some money (1D Cash on Hand), but Flint wants more. He tries to up the price pointing out the twins may very well have died without the heroes and how could Kilgen put such a low price on his children’s safety? Kilgen doesn’t back down and eventually Flint grudgingly accepts the original amount (failed Haggling).

Back at the table Kilgen demands his fair share of the two large cats we took down. “I was there and I helped, I deserve some share of the meat and hide.” Flint & Bozkar are having none of that and try to talk him down, but Kilgen’s a trader and knows his way around a deal and eventually gets his cut (failed Persuasion).

During the meal the adventurers talk about how the ziggurat ruins could make for a great new settlement. They plan to get the host involved in helping to clear it out and secure the area and get an artificer or two to judge the how sturdy the structure still is.

After the meal Flint introduces the others to his brother, Arak, who is a captain in the host. They decide Arak would be the perfect dwarf to be the leader the exiles need. He’s reluctant “I’m young, I haven’t even been in any battles yet!” But he eventually breaks down under the verbal assault of Kardin, Flint, & Bozkar (successful Coarse Persuasion). Urgo went against them and played up the fact that Arak was inexperienced and young.

Afterward Flint & Kardin go in search of an artificer. They both have connections there and Flint wants to make sure word doesn’t reach his father (hateful relationship) who is a senior Artificer. They manage to track down an artificer that will go along with the expedition (successful Circles).

That evening the party breaks up to prepare for the next day’s expedition.

Kardin decides to give a hand around the camp and borrows Bozkar’s tools and helps some smiths with the various mending work that needs to be done. He’s also hoping to start earning back some respect from the various artificers (successful Mending).

Bozkar goes off in search of a mark. He’s itching to gamble and he wants some easy money. He finds a dwarf with a bit of money that’s willing to gamble (successful Circles). They sit down for a game and Bozkar comes out ahead (successful Games of Chance earning +1D Cash on Hand).

Meanwhile word has been spreading through camp about Arak stepping up to be a leader and how Urgo, Kardin, Bozkar, & Flint were part of making that happen and how they also save Kilgen’s twins. They’re starting to be seen as heroes (successful Rumor-wise by Bozkar).

Urgo goes off in search of Halel (daughter of a high-ranking officer, betrothed to the Prince, and Halel & Kardin are in love — unbeknownst to all but them and Halel’s father, who doesn’t approve of course). Urgo’s gone a bit mad and has decide Helal and the nobles are all to blame for what happened. He didn’t want to leave the hold. He doesn’t want to be stranded in this awful place above-ground. First he stops in to see Kilgen and cashes in on his favor for a length of stout wire. He stalks through the camp and catches Halel alone behind her tent. He manages to get the drop on her and starts viciously strangling her, but the struggling creates too much noise and he’s caught before he can finish the deed (failed Stealthy). He’s caught and nearly cut down on the spot by Halel’s father. Some guards recognize Urgo and decide to take him to Arak for his fate to be decided while Halel’s father sees to her wounds.

Flint has been stalking around Kilgen’s tent eyeing the cart of goods he managed to bring along from the hold. “One measly bag of gems? I deserve more for what I did!” Suddenly there’s a commotion off near where the host is camping and he takes the opportunity to get in closer to the cart. Luckily Kilgen and his family are asleep from the trying day they’ve had, but that doesn’t stop a passerby from spotting Flint (failed Stealthy). He finds a well-locked strongbox and gets into it no problem and gets more gems and trinkets (successful Lockpick, +2D Cash on Hand).

Back in Arak’s tent Urgo is brought in and the situation is described to Arak. Arak’s trying to decide what to do when Urgo starts ranting about how he was doing her a favor and we’re just all going to die here anyway and we might as well get it over with. He wants to break Arak’s will and lose his new found confidence and get away from the camp before someone decides he should be executed. He manages to make Arak falter for a moment and get away, but Arak’s resolve stays (failed Ugly Truth). Urgo runs off through the camp yelling like a madman and disappears into the forest.

The End

The session ended there. We’d previously decided the resource cycle for the game would be seasonal and the GM said since we were suddenly cut off from everything in the foreign land that we’d be making a resource maintenance test at the end of the session. Luckily most of us had managed to get a little cash on hand or an advantage (our share of the dead cats). Luckily Flint & Bozkar were able to maintain their resources, but Kardin’s resources took a hit and he’s now taxed a die. We’ve got a whole season to prepare for the next one. Plenty of time to make some cash and bolster our resources a bit!

Next session may either involve tracking down Urgo the mad Coward or investigating the ziggurat ruins. I love how even though we all knew Urgo to be a throw away character that he ended up introducing some pretty awesome stuff. We decided he’d be made into an NPC (that player will burn up his own character for next time). He could get lost in the forest and possibly make first contact with humans (souring them against us perhaps), or maybe eventually manages to meet up with the Prince’s entourage that we were separated from. Lots of possibility for mischief for the GM to draw on.

I played in one game of Burning Wheel, a game of Dogs in the Vineyard, ran a game of FreeMarket and ended things off with two sessions of Apocalypse World. A really fantastic time was had. Instead of going through excruciating detail and rambling for pages, I’ll just go over some highlights.

Gaming (and non-gaming) highlights of the weekend:

Exploring a bit of NYC with friends I haven’t seen in a while along with people I’d never met before.

Getting to see The Compleat Strategist (game store) that I always hear locals talk about.

Catching up with even more people and meeting more people at the Friday kick-off party.

Helping to start a riot in medieval Italy that ended up getting out of control (imagine that).

Getting the drop on an enemy of the family with my assassin-turned-doctor.

Having an epic 4 on 6 fight in Burning Wheel, getting a handle on the new Fight! rules, and winning!

Having a shotgun wedding for 2 widowed neighbors, including banishing a demon of lust from one of them in the process.

Having a conversation with a stranger on the streets of NYC that wanted to take a picture of me and my friend because I’m from the Kansas side of KC, he’s from the Missouri side, I’m white, he’s black. This made the dude super excited for some reason. He was also promoting some strip show or something.

Seeing a character in FreeMarket take the memory from another character and push it into an NPC because the NPC wanted something the PC had taken. NPC now has memory of taking said item. NPC no longer a problem.

Having FreeMarket game mentioned above go so well that one player that had never played the game before went and bought a copy of it. Success!

Playing a Faceless in Apocalypse World and having really creepy conversations with my mask, which spoke with the voice of my dead mother, whom I had murdered.

Playing that same Faceless, whipping a mob into a Frenzy, and leading them into a brawl after smashing through the front doors of the Hold (from the inside, out into the angry hordes).

“Madness worms” in the Apocalypse World game that spontaneously burst from bodies when they die and consume the body and never stop growing as long as they eat. They also cause you to go insane over time if you eat them. And they’re addictive. And food is otherwise really scarce. My Faceless in that game was a worm eater. I REGRET NOTHING.

Eating delicious food from street vendors.

Seeing part of the Veteran’s Day parade on 11-11-11 when we were wandering New York.

Being slightly annoyed at said parade, because those were some sloppy, sloppy ranks marching past (having been enlisted, I’m allowed to say this).

Staying in Chinatown, which is apparently home to lighting store Mecca. There were 2 or 3 blocks of nothing but lighting stores on both sides of the street. A couple blocks after that was restaurant supply stores.

After playing two games of Apocalypse World (making for 3 total), feeling nearly brave enough to try running it sometime.

Having conversations about gaming while walking down the street. I can only imagine what people that overheard us must have thought about our conversations.

For other cool things, see here. Note: first interview is about the FreeMarket game I ran. Also, yours truly @3:25 talking about the AW game with the Faceless I mentioned above.

In the span of a couple weeks I was able to play through the game 4 times. Although thanks to busy lives and such I didn’t actually get to play it in person. I played 3 play-by-email games (two where I was the GM, one where I was the player) and I ran one game over Google+ with Hangout.

I’ll start off by saying I’m not normally a big fan of horror. I don’t so much dislike it as generally there’s plenty of other options that appeal to me. But, I’m a big fan of Vincent’s games and I’m always up to playtest something new. I was especially interested since it’s a game for just two players and is designed to be played in a short amount of time (20-60 minutes).

The game is really quite simple. There are two playbooks — one for the GM, one for the player. Each one has instructions to follow that are specific to each role. The resolution mechanic is done with a deck of cards — the GM draws cards face-down occasionally throughout the game as the player gets closer to escape. The player does most of the drawing and always draws face-up. Depending on the value of cards in their hand (Aces are 1, numbers are face value, face cards are 11), there are 3 outcomes: high hand, low hand, or bust (too low or too high). Generally, a high hand means things are going well for the player, low hand means things are okay, but could be batter, busts tend to be pretty bad news.

The game plays a bit like a 2-player choose your own adventure. Each playbook is broken into sections. And based on what happens in the game, you may do some particular action, draw a card, turn to a different section, or tell the other player to turn to a different section.

The layout is plain and simple and the text isn’t embellished. It makes it easy to follow and there are some helpful headings and margin notes to help you along — always do this, make a decision here, etc…

Each game I played in created a pretty cool, compelling story. The 3 pbem games I did took somewhere between 1 & 3 days (not counting a weekend break for one). The one game that took a bit longer was due in part to great luck on the player’s part, and he managed to eventually escape un-murdered! The Google+ game took right around 25 minutes. Even better was that they were all extremely different. For the 3 games I ran, one centered around a dead bride’s ghost that had been strangled and drowned, another was a factory worker that had been electrocuted, and the third centered around the ghost of a person that tortured animals as well as all the various animal ghosts — that one was probably my favorite.

It’s even more fantastic when you consider there’s no real prompting as to what type of ghost(s) to use. Part of the premise is always the same (the player is an urban explorer), but other than that it’s really wide open as to what you come up with.

It’s also worth nothing that a number of people reported success in playing with people that either never role-played before or just do it often. Even more impressive was the number of those thrown into the GM’s seat and how well they did. That speaks volumes about the ease of getting into the game.

I really can’t recommend this game enough, and that’s coming from someone that’s normally not a fan of the genre, but there’s something really compelling about the gameplay. The flipping pages, not knowing what might be next or where the other player might tell you to turn. Very clever and a lot of fun!

The Run-Down

Dread is a horror RPG. The core mechanic is “The Tower” — represented by stacked blocks like, say, Jenga. As the game progresses the GM require players to make “pulls” to accomplish things. The rule for a pull is to pull any block below the highest level and place it on the top — levels are 3 blocks with blocks alternating direction on adjacent levels. I’ll go into more about what requires pulls, but first I want to talk a bit more about the tower itself.

The tower is interesting on different levels. The most obvious is hey, that’s pretty different. I’ve seen games that use dice, I’ve seen games that use a normal deck of playing cards, I’ve seen games that use a custom deck of playing cards, but a Jenga tower? That’s different and intruiging.

Also, it makes a great metaphor. If the GM and players are doing things right tension in the game should slowly rise throughout a session. And as players are making pulls that’s mimicked in the tower — as more pulls are made the tower becomes more unstable, as the tower becomes more unstable pulls are more difficult to do and can become pretty tense. In the Dread hack I played in I was in the unfortunate position of making the last few pulls of the game. Everything was pretty much hinging on me. I can honestly say I’ve never had such a physical reaction to what was going on at the table. I’ve had characters I’ve deeply cared about, I’ve had them in crazy situations, but this was different. I was standing up, leaning over the table trying to finagle blocks out of the tower. My heart was racing, my brow was sweating, and my hands were shaking. It was probably the most intense moment I’ve ever had during a tabletop gaming session and it was fucking fantastic and simply rolling the dice will never be able to create that sort of physical response in me (and probably most, if not all, people).

Characters in Dread are completely statless. Instead the GM crafts a questionnaire for each character. Usually around a dozen questions and they’re tailored specifically to a situation that the GM has come up with — characters in a zombie survival game will likely have very different questions than characters for a slasher-type horror game. Questions should be open enough to generate interesting answers (which the GM will use to flesh out the story), but tight enough to be relevant for the situation-at-hand. Players are encouraged to embellish a bit — no simple yes or no answers (yes, why? no, why?).

So back to making pulls from the tower. What requires a pull? Well that depends. If based on the answer’s on a character’s sheet it’s pretty reasonable for a character to be able to accomplish something, they do. No pull necessary. So, if a character was a nurse and someone needed stitches, it’d be fair not to require a pull and just let it happen. However, if that character was something else where it’s not immediate obvious whether they would be able to stitch someone up successfully then that would require a pull. More difficult tasks require more pulls — so maybe you need to stitch someone up but you don’t have the proper materials you might need to make a pull to improvise stuff to use and another pull to successfully stitch a wound closed with them.

Once you’ve endeavored to accomplish something and it requires a pull you can 1) go ahead with the pull or 2) refuse the pull. If go ahead with the pull and don’t knock the tower over, you’ve succeeded. If you opt out of the pull then you fail. Knocking down the tower means your character is removed from the game in some way. This is heavily context sensitive — you might be brutally murdered by a psycho, you might go irrevocably insane, you might just give up. It could be just about anything, really. NOTE: knocking down the tower from a failed pull is not the only time this might happen. If any player for any reason causes the tower to fall, whether they were pulling, or they sneezed, or they bumped the table, it’s goodbye! Also, if anyone very deliberately pushes the tower over they can sacrifice themselves. They can succeed at what they were attempting to do, but they’ll still be removed from the story.

The final pulling mechanic is that any player can at anytime make an elective pull. A player might make an elective pull to look for interesting details or maybe they’re already doing a task but they want to make an elective pull to accomplish it faster or better. It’s completely on the players’ shoulders to call for these pulls.

Thoughts

Overall I really like what Dread has to offer. On top of the mechanics of the game itself the book spends a bit of time discussing how to make good horror and how to balance horror with hope for a really compelling story. Horror is probably not a strong suit of mine. I’m not really a huge fan of the genre. I rarely watch horror movies (mostly because so many of them focus on cheap startle tactics). It’s just not something I’m really drawn to often, but Dread makes me want to play a horror game.

There’s also a lot of advice on how to craft questions for characters. There’s a bit of an art to it. Luckily the book offers lots of advice and lots and lots of sample questions (the bottoms of the pages for most of the book has a sort of running list of question suggestions — even if you don’t use the specific ones they might inspire you).

I already know how nerve-wracking it can be to try and get a block out of a precarious tower and it’s something I definitely want to see again.

However (there’s always a however), I have a really hard time reconciling any mechanic that removes a player from the game (staying around as a spectator doesn’t count). I really get the design motivation behind it here, because without the threat of losing your character, there’s very little tension and pulling a block and you can’t just have simple failure when the tower falls, because it would take a while to get to that point and there’s no tension because the characters are always succeeding. So, I get it. But, I have a hard time liking it. The book does have some suggestions on ways to keep a player engaged in the game if they cause the tower to fall, but they’re options and won’t always be thematically relevant anyhow.

Don’t get me wrong, I still very much want to play the game and I’m definitely willing to give it a chance — I don’t want to be one of those assholes that completely writes something off without trying it. Here’s hoping I get the opportunity to give it a shot sometime!

It was pretty much love at first site and I immediately ran off to buy the game as well as the companion. I finally got around to reading them a couple weeks ago. And, more importantly, played a session of Fiasco shortly after that.

NOTE: The Fiasco Companion is currently my favorite RPG supplement ever. There’s really nothing new mechanically. It has some new Fiasco playsets and a handful of proposed hacks. More importantly are the pages and pages of play advice, not only from the game designers, but from other game designers and players. The best part is huge chunks of the advice pretty much exists in a vacuum. So much of what’s said can be taken away from Fiasco and applied to any other game. A lot of the advice will seem familiar to anyone that’s ever done improv or read up on it, but it’s still incredibly useful information and will positively impact pretty much every other game you play.

It turns out some of the things we did during the GenCon games were unintentional hacks that one of the guys playing had been doing for a while. The hacks were mostly minor, but I was looking forward to playing the game RAW.

The game itself is pretty straightforward: there are 4 dice for each player (2 each of different colors — usually black & white). So, for the 4-player game I was in recently, that was 8 black dice & 8 white dice. All the dice are rolled, which makes a communal pool to pull from. The dice will be used to define elements in the setup of play.

First a playset has to be chosen — think of this like a setting/genre. Each playset has 4 tables, each with 6 elements, each element with 6 details. Each element and it’s 6 details are numbered 1 through 6. So, choosing from the available numbers, people take turns choosing a broad element or choosing a detail for a previously defined elements. By default, the elements are relationships, needs, objects, & locations.

There must be a relationship between each adjacent pair of players, so with 4 players A <-> B <-> C <-> D <-> A. Depending on the playset, the relationship might be pretty broad (homeowner & tradesman) or more specific (bride & groom).

There also must be 1 each of need, object, & location. Like relationships they’re tied between two adjacent players. A need might be a need to get rich or a need to earn respect. Locations are pretty obvious. Objects could be just about anything from the mundane to the bizarre.

Also note that as more things get defined there are less dice in the pool so options start becoming a bit restrictive. It can lead to some really interesting choices, but it’s fun trying to get them to make sense and see what they’re about in play.

The setup is really a lot of fun. As details get added it’s like the fuse on the powder keg just keeps getting shorter and just when it seems like the situation is ready to explode, well that’s where you start playing!

After setup it’s mostly open narration/rp. Players take turns either setting up their scene or resolving their scene (whichever the player chooses the other players do the other). Resolution is basically at some point in the scene it’s going to become important if the character of whoever’s turn it is is going to have things go their way or not. So, resolving with a white die means things basically go well for them a black die for not working out well for them.

Halfway through (once half the dice have been taken) is the end of Act 1 and the Tilt. The tilt is basically one more way to inject even more chaos into what is probably already a pretty fucked up situation. Story-wise two more elements (each with a detail) are put into play. They can either take place immediately at the beginning of Act 2 or come about during play. Act 2 progresses pretty much the same way (there are some slight variations, but not important for this post).

Once all the dice are gone comes the Afermath. Everyone rolls the dice they’ve collected and totals the two separate colors the subtracts the lower from the higher. So, if you had 3 white dice and 1 black die, you might roll 10 white and 5 black, for a total of 5 white. There’s a table to reference, but basically 0 is bad (worse than death, whatever it is, death would be preferable) and higher numbers are better — so during play you want to aim for having as many of a certain color as possible to avoid the chances of low numbers. Each color/number combination has a description that’s a broad outline of how things turned out for your character.

Then there’s a sort of epilogue montage as everyone takes turn narrating really short scenes (we’re talking a sentence or two) for their character. Generally one short scene per die collected. But, it’s okay to trade dice away if you’re low on ideas and someone else really wants another scene or two for their character. Either way, you just use the few final scenes you have to tell everyone else how things turned out for your character based on your Aftermath roll.

I’m really looking to playing more Fiasco. The core book comes with playsets, the companion has 4 more, and Bully Pulpit releases a new one every month. So not only does each individual playset have a lot of opportunity for variety, but there’s also a lot of different playsets available!

Fiasco makes for a great pick-up game for 3-5 people that have 2 or 3 hours to kill. I really can’t recommend this game enough for anyone interested in collaborative storytelling. Hell, even if “collaborative storytelling” seems like a scary concept, I think a lot of gamers will still enjoy this game. Just go in with a willingness to tell a cool story with some friends (or hell, strangers in the case of a con situation), bring your creative hat, and have fun watching your character spiral out of control!