Pursuing the Exiled Prince - Game Thread

[Tibbius]

Cal Arath, prince of the Northlands, has been exiled by the usurpers who murdered his father and stole his throne. You, the loyal remnants of his courtiers, know only that he is rumored to have crossed the Tregoth River southward near the ruins of Jakor's Folly. Your goal is to find him and aid him in gathering an army to reclaim his throne.

You have tracked Cal Arath by rumors told by travelers, so far as the ruins of Jakor's Folly, the ancient keep named for the northern king who thought it would bring good revenue by enforcing a tax on the tricky river ford a mile away across the hills. Caravans instead avoided the ford, diverting to the bridges at Ogon and Weshor. For centuries the keep has been falling into disrepair.

It is mid-morning. You could search the keep for clues or useful items. You could hunt for food. Or you could try to find the ford and cross the river. What else could you do? What do you do?

We will use this thread for in-character narrative and dialog and for out-of-character discussion. Please italicize and right-justify OoC comments - like this.

Spoiler: Zand the Forester

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Toughness 6, Fate 4
Fighting - hand to hand combat
Foraging - tracking, shooting.
Equipment : leather armor, long bow, twenty arrows, hunting knife. Three haunches of deer meat in a bag. Water skin with three days water. Water skin of whiskey three swigs.Three coins of the lowest denomination.

Zand is a loyal servant whose job is to keep the lord's law in his forests. He is able to track all kinds of animals and is well versed in bow and knife.

Spoiler: Cara Dell, Mysterious Lady

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Toughness 3 / Fate 7
Rhyming: Telling Stories. Carousing: Charming, Cooking & Eating
Clothing: Fur cloak, Boots, Leather Garments.
Goal: To seek atonement for her crimes through service to her prince.

Cara Dell had always been a reclusive courtier, hiding behind her cloak and status. She came to Call Arath claiming to have been attacked along the way, wearing only her finery and bearing nothing else on her person. Her charm, stories and cooking skill secured her place at the table, though she would rarely show off her gifts.

Spoiler: Aveus the Clever, Apprentice Court Wizard

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Toughness 4 Fate 6

Magic-scrying
Riddling-reading runes, solving puzzles
Equipment- a silver scrying bowl, a new spellbook, IDK what else a wizard would have.

Aveus was the apprentice of Court Wizard Ventus the Grand until the coup, where his master was slain. He is intelligent, but inexperienced in the mystical arts.

Rules. A mashup of Barbarian Prince with my own adaptations of Ray Otus' light-running indie game There and Back Again.

Map.

Spoiler

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[gryffydd65]

Zand looked at the ruined keep. My lady, we need to know if our lord has come this way. I believe it we search the keep we might find old coals from a fire or other objects that might help us .

[Tibbius]

What have your travels been like since you left the castle where the prince should reign? How did you depart?

[gryffydd65]

Once news reached the forest where Zand worked to protect his master's land. Zand vowed to search for his prince. It was a struggle moving from one place to another as rumors blew in like leaves on the wind. Zand gathered information sometimes leading the right way while most were like dead branches. He did meet a mysterious woman who worked in the castle although his path never crossed hers before. They have decided together to move towards the keep of Jakor's Folly.

[Wuff]

Cara pulls her cloak about herself against the cold, beading her eyes slightly at the bleak surroundings. The ruining keep looked like a poor choice to stay too long, but it would suffice to warm her for a little while, at least while they searched for things to take with them.

The journey had been harsh on her so far. Cara was not one who was used to the long marching and exposure to the elements. Her decision to accompany the forester this far had been driven by a strange desperation inside her, a creeping dread, a realisation that despite all her efforts to date, she'd done little to atone for what she'd done so long ago. Recently, the secret she held had been rising to haunt her.

I agree, it would be unwise for us to just move on. Although I'm sure a good pace should be kept, a good rummage around might help us find things for our quest. The lady rubs her hands together, blowing softly and hotly on each for a few moments.

We have a whole day ahead of us, and anything that might get us across this river would be very useful. Do you imagine there to be any riches in here? Some coin might help us on our way. Though... I imagine many others would have had the same idea.

Cara shrugs further into her cloak before advancing. There's only one way to find out!

[Tibbius]

searching Jakor's Folly [1d6] = 3[1d6] = 4 ... you spend most of the rest of the day searching among the tumble-down walls and towers of the ancient keep. When the lowering sun sends long cold shadows and golden rays across the inner bailey, you turn to each other, shaking your heads. You've turned many stones, but they're only a fraction of what's in the place, and you're not sure any of them have been well-chosen. You have a couple more hours before it's time to seriously consider sheltering from the temperature drop that comes with an early fall evening.

Will you continue to search in a more focused manner, or hunt for food, or do something else?

[gryffydd65]

ooc: I think we should do a focused look and then prepare for making camp.

[Tibbius]

ooc: I think we should do a focused look and then prepare for making camp.

Describe where you'll focus. Assume the keep has all the standard areas that you would expect in an early medieval fortress.

[Wuff]

Time seems to be slipping away from us, and I'm tiring of just tipping rocks... Maybe we have missed something. The woman rubs both of her arms slowly before closing her eyes tight shut.

I'm going to give one of the towers one last look over... Then we can set up camp perhaps? Cara spins on her heel, then points directly at the most structurally sound tower.

That one. I'm going to check out that one, there's something about it.

ooc: Cara feels like there's something around here, and she's willing to burn up her luck and trust her gut to find out what it is. She'll spend up to 2 Fate points towards finding out what that is, obviously unconsciously.

[Tibbius]

first search: [1d6] = 4 [1d6] = 5 [1d6] = 1 ... you haven't really investigated this tower before. The entry gapes wide and shadowy. Going forward, you pass under an archway barely high enough for you to pass. People might have been shorter centuries ago. At the inner end of the archway, the walls open upward to the sky. The roof has long since collapsed and its remnant rafters and slates, along with the ruins of what once were the floors between this level and the roof, are piled in a heap about as high as your neck and about twenty feet across. Broken beams stick out of the heap at awkward angles. Around the heap the ground is paved with square grey stone tiles, each of them two or three feet wide. They must be quite heavy. At the edge of the heap nearest you, you can see a verdigrised bronze ring lying on one of the tiles. It is about the size of your hand. It appears to be fastened to the tile by an equally tarnished bronze hasp. Most of the tile is covered by the heap.

What do you do?

[Tibbius]

I'm a little worried - posting seems to have dropped off pretty quickly. Are we still interested?

[gryffydd65]

Sorry not getting my message through email instantly like I wanted. Will write later.

[gryffydd65]

first search: [1d6] = 4 [1d6] = 5 [1d6] = 1 ... you haven't really investigated this tower before. The entry gapes wide and shadowy. Going forward, you pass under an archway barely high enough for you to pass. People might have been shorter centuries ago. At the inner end of the archway, the walls open upward to the sky. The roof has long since collapsed and its remnant rafters and slates, along with the ruins of what once were the floors between this level and the roof, are piled in a heap about as high as your neck and about twenty feet across. Broken beams stick out of the heap at awkward angles. Around the heap the ground is paved with square grey stone tiles, each of them two or three feet wide. They must be quite heavy. At the edge of the heap nearest you, you can see a verdigrised bronze ring lying on one of the tiles. It is about the size of your hand. It appears to be fastened to the tile by an equally tarnished bronze hasp. Most of the tile is covered by the heap.

What do you do?

Zand starts to clear the rubble away until from the tile with the bronze ring.

[Tibbius]

Zand starts to clear the rubble away until from the tile with the bronze ring.

It takes a while, and by the time they finish the sky above the ruined tower is purple with sunset. But Cara and Zand get the rubble off the ringed stone tile. They probably could heave it open if they worked together.

This would be a Test of Strength for which Zand has [1d6][1d6]. I'll give you another [1d6] to roll if Cara assists with the initial heave. Failure means Zand or Cara takes 1 wound. A Blunder means you each take a wound.
You can spend Fate for additional dice.

[gryffydd65]

I will spend the fate point.

[Tibbius]

I will spend the fate point.

Ok, we're just waiting to see if Cara helps (roll 4x[1d6]) or not (roll 3x[1d6]).

--> Actually, please note you can wait to spend Fate until you see what the initial roll is. So if you get all 1s, you can spend Fate to roll another and try to avoid the blunder, or if you get a success in your initial roll you can save the point of Fate.

[gryffydd65]

can you put up the dice rollersite again.

[Tibbius]

can you put up the dice rollersite again.

unseenservant.com

[Wuff]

Cara looks over herself, going as far as to ineffectually flex a muscle before looking sceptically at Zand. After a second, however, she moves into position and grasps the best she can.

Apologies for the late/short post, I had a similar issue with email.

[gryffydd65]

in order to speed the game. I am asking for someone else to roll for me. I have to reapply to the dice site as I lost my password .

[Tibbius]

Zand and Cara heave away [1d6] = 2[1d6] = 3[1d6] = 4 ... with a lot of straining and grunting (more like moaning by the finely cloaked lady), you exert your utmost and have essentially no effect. Zand and Cara spend 1 Fate [1d6] = 3 Taking a deep breath, Zand really puts his back into it and hauls the stone slab upward by about an inch. Then the bronze ring slips from his aching fingers, and the slab slams back down with an echoing thump.

A moment after the echoes die, the ground trembles a little.

Overhead the clear sky has faded from purple to night blue, and stars are visible. It's getting chilly. Soon the moon should get high enough to shed some light into the ruined tower. You can see the pale white light and crisp shadows that it casts into the bailey outside the doorway.

As you stand back from the slab, rolling your shoulders and flexing your hands, hoping for no permanent injuries from your efforts, the slab suddenly flips over and a massive dark figure bursts up from the hole that's revealed.

Unfortunately, one of you does take a wound from a strained muscle.

Zand recognizes the figure from hunters' tales: a troll. It has two small stubby horns at its temples, shaggy fur all over, bowed legs, long thick muscled arms, and gleaming green eyes. You stand barely three yards away, easily within its reach, staggered by its stench of urine and sweat, and it is poised to snatch you up and eat you. Do you run, fight, or try to communicate?

If you had minions I would make you roll to see whether they flee in terror. If the legends are right, the troll has Toughness 10 and Fighting (brawling), so Zand would be at a disadvantage if it grabbed him but at an advantage if he kept it at the end of a sword.

[gryffydd65]

Zand will take the wound. I saw talk or run.

[Tibbius]

Zand will take the wound. I saw talk or run.

Toughness -1 = 5; Fate +1 = 4 (spent one, gain one for volunteering to take a wound).
You don't have time to discuss your options. Each of you must decide for yourself what to do. PM me accordingly.

[Tibbius]

As the troll raises its massive arm behind its shoulder, poised to snatch at them, and as Cara takes a breath to say something to the creature, Zand spins and ducks and tries to hoist Cara onto his shoulder and run. Zand's feat of strength to save Cara [1d6] = 3[1d6] = 4. His foot slips on the stone tile and he staggers, almost falling to his knees. As he regains his balance, the troll's heavy paw slams into his back, knocking him flat on his face and hurling Cara tumbling from his clumsy carry.

Either of you could spend any amount of Fate to gain additional dice; any success (5 or 6) would result in a positive outcome. Otherwise, you each take one wound.

[Wuff]

Cara lets out a panicked wail as she is so unceremoniously hoisted over a shoulder, and then subsequently dumped on the floor like a hunter's haul with a far less lady-like grunt. At the last minute, she manages to catch herself in a bout of extraordinary luck, pulling herself back up to a standing position with the forester's arm, then pulling him hard behind her.

Zand, you clumsy lout!

She yells, her words slightly muddled by the fast movement, the spinning in her head and the rush of adrenaline flowing through her.

Spent a fate point, landed a 5 on the roller.

[gryffydd65]

Spoiler: roll

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(1d6)[1] (1d6)[5]

Sorry Miss, lets get out of here Zand says in a hurry. Trying to look back as they go.

[Tibbius]

You scramble several feet through the low arched passage under the thick wall of the tower, out into the grassy bailey. Behind you, a furious deep-throat howling and growling. The troll batters its clawed hands against the stone blocks of the tower wall. It is too big to fit its bulk into the passage barely large enough for men to pass centuries before. How did it get into the tower to begin? A mystery you can ponder at leisure, since it seems to be trapped in there. How did it survive its time beneath the slab? Another mystery.

You could get further away, camp here, or somehow get rid of the troll and continue exploring the tower in the dark. What are some other ideas?

It looks like Zand spent 2 Fate points, leaving 2.
Zand Toughness 5, Fate 2.
Cara Toughness 3, Fate 6.
By the way, I added a map to the first post.

[gryffydd65]

I am thinking of shooting arrows at it. If Cara could distract it.

[Tibbius]

Thought is deed ...

Noting the troll continued to batter at the wall around the passage, Zand took his bow off his back and strung it as the beast raged. Nocking an arrow, he drew back to his ear and let fly the dozen feet through the thickness of the tower wall. It was a shot in the dark, but a point-blank shot at a body that covered the whole open end of the passage.

Zand's arrow at the troll [1d6] = 6[1d6] = 1[1d6] = 3

Zand and Cara heard a sudden howl of pain and a cessation of the beating of claws against stone. Abrupt motion at the end of the passage and sounds of leathery paws scraping on stone as the troll scrambled away. They could no longer see where it was.

[gryffydd65]

"My lady, that should teach the beast a lesson. Come it is getting late and no sign of our prince. We need to eat and get some rest." Zand said to the fair Cara.