Hexplore24 — Day 19
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WEATHER: 4 — BLIZZARD
SKY: SAPPHIRE SHEEN
DAWN WATCH: [-] 3-DEPLETE
Snow falls constant and thick. It has piled up overnight, and when Satis opens the tent, the light comes through the snow in a sapphire sheen.
Malla comes by to let them know the obvious — no travel until the storm passes. She asks if they will help gather firewood. Belus agrees but Satis asks if she can be excused — she wishes to spend the day in meditation to change the magic she is attuned to.1 Malla is fine with this.
6 hrs of firewood gathered
AM WATCH HAZARD: 3 — DEPLETE
Exhausted from foraging, Malla, Aima, Belus, and Blain rest in their cramped tents. Belus wants desperately to ask the strangers questions but they are still very fatigued from their ordeal and sleep and rest.
PM WATCH HAZARD: 5 — SIGNS
It’s remarkable how often I’ve rolled 5’s and how infrequently 1’s2
Malla, though she is exhausted, makes the rounds to check in on everyone, her grey hair looking like it’s blended with the snowfall in it, her cheeks red & eyes sharp but tired and bloodshot.
“I saw them again,” she says as she returns to Blain & Aima’s tent.
“Who? The watchers?” Blain asks.
“Yes,” Malla replies.
“Don’t they get cold?” Blain asks.
“Could be magic,” Aima suggests, “They might only want us to think they are there.”
“I want to ask Mahbe if he knows what they want,” Malla says, brushing snow off her cloak, “I mean, I have a lot I want to ask them — I can’t believe we’ve found new-old landers.”3
“They found us,” Aima says, “like the ransom messenger found Beacon, and found those witches.”
“You saw the sorry state they were in,” Blain says.
Aima shrugs, “At least two magic users in that group. It’s not advanced magic to make a few people look ragged.”4
Malla turns to Aima, frowning, “Now you’re making me worried Aima,” she says.
“That’s her job,” Blain sighs, “She always sees the worst in people.”
“What should we do?” Malla asks, Aima looks out the tent and shrugs. “Not much ‘til the storm passes.”
Malla nods, “What do you make of Satis and Belus?” she asks.
“They seem eager to help,” Blain says.
“They are using us,” Aima adds, “Not in a bad way, but we are just a means to scout more land — they each seek the lost capital,” both Malla and Blain look surprised.
Aima shrugs, “That’s what their friend Goster told me. He spoke highly of them. Satis’ magic is what saved their lives.”
“She’s meditating to attune a new spell,” Malla says.
“Really?” Aima asks, “Did she say what it is?” “No,” Malla replies.
Aima makes a note to find out.
“All this going nowhere is exhausting,” Blain says, laying down, “I’m going to nap.”
Belus & porters gather 12 hrs wood. Dusk watch hazard: 6, nothing.
The tents are all as close to the fire as possible, and as Mahbe distributes the rations Malla gave him to his people, Belus asks if Mahbe will tell them a story.
Reaction rolls of 6, 7, & 9 tell me he eventually agrees
Mahbe declines, but after some light persuasion, he agrees.
For this story, I don’t want to just make it up. Also, it could be part of the lore, so I’ll use the 1-page adventure crafter.5
TP1: Tension: Depletion, Tension: Catastrophe, Mystery: Death
I want a little more context, so rolling on EM Gods: “Animal court”
Mahbe begins: “All the animals of this world came to the trial to determine who had killed time itself, ending everything in an endless instant.”
TP2: Mystery: Information, Social: Transaction, Action: Intervention, Action: Location
“The stone rams presented evidence of a deal between the sky cranes and the under-folk.6 That, they bleated, was proof of guilt.”
TP3: Mystery: Intercept, Social: Rural, Social: Gathering, Mystery: Object
“But the long-grazers objected, they had seen the stone rams delivering an artifact to the forest walkers. This, they coughed, was proof of guilt.”
TP4: Myster: Vulnerability, Personal: Protected, Mystery: Intercept, Tension: Pursued, Social: Revenge
“‘No,’ hissed the grass beasts, ‘it had been men who took the artifact and burned the forest when their crops failed. They blamed the forest walkers for using the artifact, but men’s greed led them to use it too.’ This, they shook, was proof of guilt.”
TP5: Mystery: Behavior, Social: Reinforcements Action: Conclusion, P: Preparation
“And so the verdict was rendered, man bore the guilt. But, before the animals could march and exact proper justice, man and the under-folk made a pact and sacrificed the artifact to rebirth the world. And the animals wept, because they knew man had not learned their lesson, and so they too would destroy this new world one day.”
Mahbe is thanked, and all turn in for sleep — though in each Beaconite tent the strange storm is dissected and discussed for clues about the new-old lands.
Night watch hazard: 5 — Again!
All but Belus sleeps poorly that night, the storm and visions of the watchers mixing about.
More and more questions unanswered about these lands, and people who might know the truth tantalizingly close.
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In Whitehack, classes like The Wide (what Satis is) or The Deft (what Malla is) can have more than one ability in a slot. For Satis this means she knows several spells, even though she only has one slot currently. Only one spell can be active in a slot at a time, and it takes a day of meditation to change which spell is the active one. I’m choosing to have Satis swap out her Sleep spell for a new one, taking advantage of the downtime forced by the storm.↩
I roll the Event/hazard die once per watch, and each day has 6 watches. The last time I rolled a 1, causing a random encounter, was on Day 14 when we saw the elephants. Today is Day 19, so it’s been 5 days without a single 1 rolled. This is a prime example of the main critique you hear whenever hazard die systems are discussed online: what if you keep rolling just one event over-and-over? Interestingly, this particular pattern I’m having of a lot of 5’s (signs of the next encounter) and no 1’s (that encounter actually occuring), adds a lot to the story being told. But, as I continue to use this system it will be interesting to see what happens when I have, say, a 1 being rolled every watch for a few days, meaning wall-to-wall encounters. That may feel very different...↩
This type of conversation, where I have several characters discussing the ongoing story and what they think about it and their questions or debates about what it can all mean, is some of my favorite types of roleplaying to do in solo games. I find it really helps me as the player to better understand what’s going on, and to try and see the plans and ideas the characters might come up with. Often these conversations take me to new ideas as they are a sort of thinking-through in real time. You will see me use these often when there are dilemmas or large unanswered questions facing the PCs.↩
I don’t know if Mahbe’s group has ill intentions towards my PCs. I don’t think they do. But I absolutely think Aima and the other PCs would at least entertain the possibility that there is some danger in this situation.↩
The 1 page adventure crafter from Mythic Magazine is a simplified version of the system presented in The Adventure Crafter by Wordmill Games. I’ve never clicked with the full TAC system, but have been surprised at how much I enjoy using the 1 page version. What you are about to see is me roll up “turning points”, which are collections of prompt-words, which combined represent a part of the story. I then interpret them to create the story Mahbe is telling. I should note it’s taken me a fair amount of practice to get to a point where I can confidently use the 1-page adventure crafter to create a coherent story on the fly like this.↩
A lot of this story is based on the prompts. The names of these groups? I’m just making up what feels right in the moment. Not everything needs to be the result of a random oracle.↩