Dunscaith Session 4
filed under actual play on 22 Nov 2016 tagged dunscaith, scarlet heroes, and finian
I was hoping for one more shot at the dungeon but it ended up not happening. Oh well! There will be plenty of ruins and adventures in the wilderness of the Isle of Wings. I hope.
Viandus will stay with him if he gets sick, that's for sure -- he's interesting and the Alfar has pledged a debt to him.
Issa, well, she doesn't seem the type to abandon a comrade.
Is she?
[unlikely, 79 ≥ 35] NO
It's likely they'll head back to Whitefell, just as a matter of course. It's the nearest town that would be large enough to have an inn and a general store and possibly ships.
[unlikely, 29 ≤ 35] YES
That was supposed to be a fifty-fifty but whatever. So they make it back to town. Rent rooms in the inn. Eat dinner. Normal stuff. Issa will start looking for someone to buy the treasure they found.
Is it valuable enough to last them a few weeks of town time?
[fifty-fifty, 98 ≥ 91] Exceptional NO
There's no buyer for it, and it's not that valuable -- more an art piece than anything else. Might be able to sell it in Sentar Nystu, but that's a pretty long journey.
Which leaves them with limited resources -- the coins the Duke paid him. Issa's camping gear.
How many coins, by the way?
Rolling 1d100 1 times.
[ 52 (Outside Influences) ] 52
50 silver, pretty decent amount. Enough to keep them all a couple of weeks, if Fin weren't sick.
So Fin wakes up feverish and delirious. The inn keeper doesn't want him to stay, and the town healer is a churchman who refuses to tend an Elderspawn.
The sickness is basically going to wipe him out physically for a while. However, the penalties to Str, Dex, and Con aren't accumulating or actual damage, so I'm guessing about a week of being delirious and weak but relatively swift recovery after that.
So Issa and Viandus do the only sensible thing, they carry the sick Fin back to the fortress and set up a camp. Use the funds he got from the Duke to purchase food and any needed supplies. Wait it out.
The old man he freed, maybe he has some healing knowledge?
[fifty-fifty, 36 ≤ 50] YES
He's a hermit and a healer who roams Fort Iseu's respite themed rooms. Someone thought it'd be funny to chain him up.
I'm going to use Pathfinder's "young" template, I think. Seems easy enough to apply. "+2 to all Dex-based rolls, –2 on all other rolls, –2 hp/HD".
For age categories, is it young adult, teenager, pre-teen, child?
[fifty-fifty, 74 ≥ 50] NO
Rats, that would have been nice to be able to use the Game of Thrones aging scale. And potentially only be a couple of years down from 16. Young adult, teenager, child, then. Great. So the range is 7 to 12. I'll do base 6 plus 1d6.
Not that it's that important since he's going to seek out a cure as quickly as possible.
Rolling 1d6 1 times.
[ 3 (Time Required) ] 3
Great. My hero is a nine year old.
I'll apply the -2 to all rolls situationally, I think, since he shouldn't take hits to his knowledge, for example.
On the plus side, I do get a level, since that's two sessions and one XP per session.
Going to go back to straight SH style HP, I think -- Grit/Flesh seems like a neat mechanic but I think I've already stacked enough of the deck against myself this time. So that's 6 HP more, but -2 for the age penalty.
Fin woke up in a cave. It took him a minute to process where he was; he'd gone to sleep in the inn in Whitefell. It was dark and quiet, and he recognized the bathing chamber in Fort Iseu.
Is anyone else here?
[fifty-fifty, 28 ≤ 50] YES
[List Options] Issa, Viandus, the old hermit, two of them, all of them,
[Choice] all of them
Issa and Viandus were having a very quiet but animated -- at least on Issa's part -- discussion with an old man. The old man he'd freed from the shackles on his earlier trip. He couldn't quite hear what they were talking about. He felt weak and wrung out. He suspected he'd been very, very sick.
He sat up, feeling a bit lightheaded. Issa shot him a worried look, quickly covered with an attempt at cheerfulness. "You're awake," she said, glancing at the Alfar, who was looking a bit gloomy.
"He's going to freak out," the old man whispered loudly to Viandus, who looked even more sour. Fin cocked an eyebrow.
"I never--" he started to say, and stopped. There was something wrong with his voice. Cleared his throat. Tried again. Still wrong. Dread started to wash over him. He scrambled out of the cot -- it was much higher than he expected, and his shirt was flapping around his wrists and legs, and he fell to his knees next to the bath and --
A child's face -- his own from his street urchin days -- stared back at him from the water, blue eyes wide and round, black hair that nobody'd ever cared to cut falling in his eyes. "What the hell," he breathed, and his reflection mouthed the words.
He shot them a look. "Why?" he asked, as forcefully as he could. Issa looked distressed.
"We think the altar granted you a wish," Viandus interjected, after a bit of hemming and hawing.
Fin stared at him. "I did not. Wish. To be. A child," he said, biting each word off. Childhood the first time had been a nasty struggle for survival and he had no desire to relive it. Or, Gods forbid, the teen years he'd spent training.
Viandus nodded. "Obviously not out loud," he said. Fin stared at him, wheels turning in his head.
What had he been thinking about when he touched the altar? He groaned and rubbed a hand over his eyes. He'd been thinking about what had gotten him into this mess, and how it had all started with his first encounter with the archmage. At the age of nine or ten.
"How do I fix it?" he asked, and the three of them exchanged looks.
Do any of them have any ideas?
[fifty-fifty, 14 ≤ 50] YES
Viandus?
[fifty-fifty, 63 ≥ 50] NO
Issa?
[fifty-fifty, 37 ≤ 50] YES
A magical, quicker than "time" method?
[fifty-fifty, 32 ≤ 50] YES
But no doubt a dangerous and inconvenient one.
"Well, the safest thing to do is just to wait it out," Viandus said, a little doubtfully. "I'm not an expert on Man life stages but I'd assume none of them last very long."
Fin climbed to his feet, not even justifying that comment with a response. He didn't remember being this short. The thought of going through his teen years again was a terrifying one. He was about as close as he ever got to "freaking out".
Issa's option; is it somewhere in Fan Cadfan?
[fifty-fifty, 83 ≥ 50] NO
Ha. She's Scytian; she thinks one of the elders of her clan might be able to help.
[New Actor] Duke of Scyte, early twenties, athletic, political, a bit of a bully, arrogant.
[New Actor] Hermit, an old healer who lives in Fort Iseu.
Issa sighed, and Fin shot her a look. "I know someone who might be able to help," she said, "But it's a long walk. And they will want repayment."
Let's see, what kind of repayment?
An item retrieved?
[fifty-fifty, 16 ≤ 50] YES
From Fan Cadfan?
[fifty-fifty, 91 ≥ 91] Exceptional NO
Oh, okay. So we'll discover details once we get there.
---
So headed out of Fort Iseu, deep into the wildlands of the Winged Isle.
[How Far?] Within a week's travel.
Do they have enough funds left to stock enough provisions to get there on foot?
[fifty-fifty, 83 ≥ 50] NO
Can they afford to charter a boat?
[fifty-fifty, 72 ≥ 50] NO
So, they need funds, enough to provision a trip into the wilderness. Maybe head to Glwysing and see if any caravans are headed inland?
Scratch that; she'll head down to get the provisions. I don't think Fin can go anywhere since his clothes are all now ridiculously too big.
Unless Issa's already got their provisions and clothes for him?
[fifty-fifty, 7 ≤ 10] Exceptional YES
Nice! So they've been stockpiling supplies, scrounging what they can, and made at least one trip into Whitefell for clothes that'd fit him. And he still has the satchel he scrounged from sub-level 2, filled with books.
Viandus doesn't really need to eat, at least not all that frequently. The hermit's likely staying here. And Fin won't need nearly the supplies he would have.
They could always sell off the dagger Fin found in the locked chest. Is it valuable enough?
[fifty-fifty, 51 ≥ 50] NO
I'm going to read that as "nobody here would want to purchase it" just like the art fruit.
So... hexcrawl time!
They set off the next morning; Issa'd been busy while he was out of it selling what she could of the things they'd found in the Fort and purchasing provisions. They were pretty thin, but she seemed confident they'd be able to make their way to wherever they were going.
And she'd found clothes sized to fit him. Just a threadbare tunic, leggings, and boots that were a little big, but better than anything he'd had the first time he was this age.
Viandus, being an Alfar, was not overly fond of sunlight, but contrary to rumor, he did not burst into flame. He did sulk, though.
[Settled Level] Desolate [Seed] 0
[Terrain Type] coast (1) | light forest (2) | heavy forest (3) | mountains (4)
[Settlements] ['Abandoned']
[Beneath] Solid
[Known Ruins] ['academy', 'temple', 'habitation', 'temple', 'cavern', 'habitation', 'fortress', 'temple']
Nice, that's a pretty good representation of the area as it seemed to me. Each day of travel will be one unit, and I'll roll on the Scarlet Heroes charts as well.
[Time Units] 2 [Road?] No
And pull up new terrain in two units.
[Direction] North or Up. If this direction won't work, use up or down.
It just occurred to me, at least Fin's enemies won't be able to find him now. Hahaha.
How many days of supplies do they have?
Rolling 1d6 1 times.
[ 6 (Knowledge) ] 6
That's good, then.
Okay, day one. So that's roll 1d6 and 1d8 and 1d8 for encounters, events, and features. Plus subtract one day's worth of supplies.
Rolling 1d6 1 times.
[ 4 (Style) ] 4
Rolling 1d8 1 times.
[ 1 (Time Required) ] 1
Rolling 1d8 1 times.
[ 4 (Outside Influences) ] 4
No encounter, an event, and no features.
[List Options] wet season, dry season, cold season,
[Choice] cold season
Great. And it's cold.
Rolling 1d6 1 times.
[ 1 (Finesse) ] 1
Rolling 1d12 1 times.
[ 2 (Skill) ] 2
Avoid thin ice, next move must be back.
I'm going to say they lose a day to navigating around the ice.
[Terrain] light forest (2)
Rolling 1d6 1 times.
[ 5 ] 5
Rolling 1d8 1 times.
[ 2 ] 2
Rolling 1d8 1 times.
[ 6 ] 6
The second day passes pretty uneventfully. Reading SH again seems to indicate I only need to make these rolls if I'm looking for a Feature, but I think it's more interesting this way.
[Terrain] coast (1)
They've found the river! Are they crossing it?
[fifty-fifty, 61 ≥ 50] NO
So walking alongside, that's good, there's a road.
Which means generall northwest, and they're in a new area.
[Settled Level] Unsettled [Seed] 1
[Terrain Type] coast (1) | swamp (2) | light forest (3) | heavy forest (4)
[Settlements] ['Village']
[Beneath] Caves
[Known Ruins] ['sewer', 'academy']
Rolling 1d6 1 times.
[ 2 ] 2
Rolling 1d8 1 times.
[ 3 ] 3
Rolling 1d8 1 times.
[ 3 ] 3
Nice, they found a feature.
Is it the village?
[fifty-fifty, 33 ≤ 50] YES
[RANDOM] PC negative "Adversity Riches"
Bandits!
sufficient if not beautiful
It was cold, and it was a hard couple of days before they found the river that wended north into the wilderness that was the heart of the Winged Isle. A decade of city living followed by two weeks at sea and another week of severe illness, not to mention much shorter legs, and Fin was having a hard time.
On the plus side, he ate a lot less now than he would have otherwise, and their meager supplies were holding out longer than he'd thought they would.
Mostly he just kept his head down and trudged forward through the light snow and tried not to lose sight of his companions.
How competent are the bandits?
[More or Less] Less than expected.
roll 1d10 2d8 2d8
Rolling 1d10 1 times.
[ 6 ] 6
Rolling 2d8 1 times.
[ 5 7 ] 12
Rolling 2d8 1 times.
[ 6 5 ] 11
They're patrolling the area for intruders, disinclined to fight unless absolutely necessary, and they've been hard-pressed lately, so Morale is down by 1.
Are they:
[List Options] outlaws, opportunistic villagers, disloyal soldiers, bandits, pirates,
[Choice] bandits
So probably a problem for the village, too.
So I'll set them at relatively low, and give my side a chance to recognize an ambush.
[above average vs below average, 69 ≤ 80] YES
His head shot up, suddenly, as he heard a twig snap somewhere up ahead. He wasn't sure why, but he knew it was an ambush.
Reflexively he slid off the path, like a ghost into the trees, as the leader stepped out of the bushes, a bow drawn and leveled at Issa.
First, stealth check from Fin.
oh, let's set the area's threat, too.
Rolling 2d4 1 times.
[ 4 2 ] 6
+2, so 4. Not too shabby and pretty dangerous!
Still, they're worse than expected, so I'll bump it down a step to an 11.
Rolling 2d8 1 times.
[ 8 7 ] 15
Good time for a high roll, plus his bonuses puts him at a whopping 23. It's what he does, apparently.
And with let it ride, that 23 stands until things change significantly.
So, while the bandit leader is threatening Issa, he's going to count them up.
I'll assume six.
[More or Less] As expected.
He could quietly dispatch a number of them using quick death, but I don't think he's actually that ruthless. Or that confident of his abilities at the moment.
So he'll slip up behind the leader and be prepared to run him through if they don't surrender.
What's the leader like, anyway?
[Visible Quirk] paragon of their race
I'll interpret that as he's a dashing highwayman sort.
"And so, milady, I would suggest you pay the toll if you wish to proceed," the leader finished up, smiling confidently.
Issa gave him a wide and predatory grin that really should have made him reconsider his options. "No," she said. "I think, instead, you'll surrender -- if you'd like to keep your kidneys."
Fin took the opportunity to delicately poke him with the tip of his dagger. Couldn't really use -- or even carry -- his shortswords effectively, given his unfortunate size, but he still had that dagger he'd found in Fort Iseu.
Morale check, I think.
Rolling 2d6 1 times.
[ 6 4 ] 10
The highwayman did the sensible thing, he immediately ordered his men to retreat back to camp and lowered his bow. Issa confiscated it, and had him march in front of them towards the little village.
"Nicely done," Issa said approvingly, and Fin shrugged. He'd trained to be a ghost for a decade -- it'd be a shame if he were bad at it.
The village quickly hove into view. Issa gave the highwayman a look from head to toe, then shrugged. "You're free to go," she said. "By all rights I should rob you as you tried to rob me, but your pretty manners have earned you a reprieve."
He shot her an unrepentant grin and touched his hat as he faded back into the underbrush.
Viandus snorted. The elf, loquacious at night, was downright taciturn during the day, and it was the first sound either of them had heard all day from him. "I wonder why you didn't just kill them all," he asked Fin a bit begrudgingly, as if his curiousity were dragging the words out of him.
Fin shrugged. "Killing is wasteful," he said simply.
The elf gave him an appraising look, but he missed it as he looked forward, towards the approaching village.
They're running low on supplies now. Only two days of supplies left and at least three more to their destination, assuming they don't get lost or slowed down.
