Ironsworn - Deshi the Healer: Session 4, A friend in a high place

 

Session Start

Health: +5
Spirit: +1
Supply: +2
Momentum: -2
Tethered: Nabuma village

We dive straight in with an Undertake a Journey roll for the new journey to get back to the village. Please actually be just troublesome this time.

Journey to Nabuma village (Troublesome)

Undertake a Journey + Wits +1 (Tethered): Weak Hit
Mark progress. -1 Supply (+1)

Journey to Nabuma village (Troublesome)
***_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Waypoint: Beautiful Hovel

Unable to believe his eyes, Deshi sees lights through the dark and the storm. It's only been an hour since he started walking downriver so it's definitely not the town, and he's not aware of any settlements in this location. He gets closer and sees that there seems to be a very well kept little house that blends into the hillside. With nothing to lose, he walks over and knocks loudly on the door, trying to be heard over the sounds of the storm. To his relief the door is opened and framed in the doorway is a figure.

Deshi doesn't know this figure's name yet, but we need to.

Name: Dotani
Role: Mystic
Descriptor: Affectionate

Disposition:  Unfriendly
Goal: Defend a place

 

And this is one of those occasions where my brain just latched onto something in the random Oracle results and the storytelling followed it. This was going to be a hunter's cabin, but as soon as I rolled up the Character Oracle attributes I thought "who might you bump into that's Mystic, living in a beautiful but isolated hovel in the middle of nowhere, unfriendly to the human traveler knocking on their door in middle of a horrific storm, and dedicated to trying to defend a place"? And I immediately went back and re-rolled the name on the Elf Names table.

 

At first with water in his eyes and in the darkness that now surrounds him Deshi doesn't notice anything unusual, but when seconds pass and he hasn't been greeted, let alone invited inside out of the rain, he wipes his face and takes a closer look at the figure in front of him. It doesn't have a face. And it dawns on him that the figure is wearing a mask. He's never met one of the firstborn but he's heard the tales, and most of them end badly. However, the storm is lashing down around him - though as he now notices, a little less fiercely in the vicinity of the building - and he has very little to lose. Deshi does his best to adopt a respectful stance, averts his eyes downward, and chooses his words carefully, speaking them loudly but firmly over the storm-noise.

 

"Greetings friend. My name is Deshi, a healer of Nabuma village. I am honoured to meet one of the firstborn of this land. On any other day I would respectfully take my leave, as I understand the firstborn do not welcome the company of humans and I do not wish to intrude upon your home. But the storm is fierce and my supplies are low, and I am on a mission to gather herbs to treat an outbreak of disease in my home village. It is imperative for my people that I find my way back to them. I beg leave to shelter here until the worst of the storm has passed."

Deshi keeps his eyes down for a full count of ten before glancing up to see how this has landed with the elf. He can't read their expression through the mask, but they regard him for several more seconds before warily gesturing him forward and watching him closely as he enters the house. The elf closes the door and the noise of the storm disappears entirely. Deshi is no mystic himself, but he has his own connection with the magics of this land and there is a feeling here of a web of ritual workings and effects. He doesn't begin to understand what they are or how they work.

Removing his sodden cloak and boots, Deshi arranges them as best he can beside the door but keeps his silence until the elf finally speaks. Her voice is soft but utterly controlled and gives no hint of her inner thoughts.

"Greetings Deshi, healer of Nabuma. You should know that this place is warded, I was surprised you were able to find it. But now we are close I think I understand. You have the spirit-sense, yes?"

Deshi explains, briefly, the connection that healers traditionally held with the magics of the old world and the tether-sense he has with his home village. She nods and he senses that, though she is still wary, this is a common thread that could help bridge some of the divide between them.

 

"You may call me Dotani, that is my glade-name that we share with those outside our families. I too have the spirit-sense, you humans would call me an 'elder mystic' I believe, yes? One who is experienced in ritual and magic? It has been long since I had news of the wider world. Please, I understand you are tired from your journey but perhaps we can talk a while? I too was a healer in my community, and I would hear more of this disease you mention."

Deshi is happy to oblige and they talk for a couple of hours of the vow he has undertaken and the finer points of herb-lore. Gradually Dotani lets down her guard and eventually she steers the conversation toward the problems she has been having with a nearby human hunting camp.

And we get to roll one of my favourite Tables! The Settlement Trouble oracle. This Oracle is where sidequests are made and tangents are born.

 

Settlement Trouble: Roll twice

    - Broken truce

    - Revolt against a leader

 

This is a pretty neat result for a double-roll. A classic case of new leader deposing the old and reneging on a long-standing agreement that the old leader had agreed and abided by.

Under the old overseer the hunters of the camp would leave her glade alone. There was little contact, but the couple of times she had met him he seemed honourable and keen to co-exist. However, recently hunters from the camp have been trespassing onto her land, taking advantage of her charms and rituals to trap wildlife and harvest her provisions.

 

Deshi does his best to sympathise and follow the conversation but his eyelids are heavy and he is betrayed by a drooping head and a sudden jolt as he snaps back to wakefulness. Dotani apologies, it's been a long time since she had company and she has been talking much longer than she intended. 

 

Sojourn: Strong Hit

+2 supply (+3)

+2 momentum (0)

 

She offers Deshi a pallet in front of the hearth and the chance to restock his supply of medicines from her warded enclave in the morning. Deshi gratefully accepts. She's also able to share a sketched map of the paths and major landmarks down to the coast which should help him on his journey. He barely remembers putting his head down before waking rested to a bowl of nourishing grains and rejuvenating herbs warmed by the fireplace.

Come the morning the storm has abated and Deshi is ready to leave. He feels that he's made a friend here, and would like to return once his mission is complete.

Forge a Bond: Weak Hit
They ask something of you first. Envision what it is and do it, or swear a vow.

Dotani is happy for him to return and actually seems pleased that he might want to come back, but asks that he helps to stop the hunters from trespassing in her enclave and stealing her provisions. As a human, she hopes he can wield some influence with his fellow men and women.

 

Swear an Iron Vow (I will stop the hunters trespassing and stealing from Dotani(Troublesome)): Strong Hit

+ 2 Momentum (+2)

Deshi stands and closes his fist around the pendant to Eir that he wears around his neck. Closing his eyes, he focuses on the feeling of the iron talisman in his palm and speaks clearly.

"I swear on iron that I will stop these hunters trespassing and stealing from you. I will speak to this new overseer at their camp and I will make it right."

I mark a tick into my bond tracker to represent my new bond with Dotani.

 

I also mark progress on my background vow to Heal the Ironlands. This is an epic vow and I don't expect to get anywhere near completion in this series, but I think finding a magic user that he could learn from is a big step for Deshi, and a potential route to getting some of the skills and tools he'll need to understand what's wrong with the land and how it can be fixed.

 

Of course, actually becoming a student of Dotani means earning the ritualist Asset, which means fulfilling a Formidable vow for her. Maybe we'll come back to that.

 

Session End

Health: +5
Spirit: +1
Supply: +3
Momentum: +2
Tethered: Nabuma village

Ironsworn - Deshi the Healer: Session 3, A Bridge Too Far

 

Session Start

Health: +5
Spirit: +4
Supply: +1
Momentum: +2
Tethered: Nabuma village

Deshi knows he needs to move quickly, but he's also down to crusts. As he pushes ahead he starts diverting off course to inspect likely spots for foraging on the move - fallen wood where mushrooms might grow, or thickets of bushes where he might find berries - hoping investing a bit of time in investigating likely spots will save time finding food overall.

Secure An Advantage + Wits: Miss. Find nothing, Pay the Price
Pay the Price: -1 Momentum (+1)

The most likely and most relevant price here is to lose more time, so no need to roll for it. We lose momentum.

However, all it does it slow him down further. As he climbs higher the forage is different, he's not used to foraging in these lands, and Deshi finds nothing useful. Finally he accepts that he's no use to his overseer starved to death on the hillside and he takes a long detour to a distant stream to refill his water bottle where he knows there will also be edible plants.

Resupply + Wits: Weak Hit
+2 Supply (+3)
-2 Momentum (-1)

Journeys in Ironsworn are brutal. Combat gives you lots of options to take consequences other than harm and spread the damage, but even a troublesome journey is only a couple of bad rolls from leaving you Unprepared. So I'll gladly trade supply for Momentum here, and hope that the weak hit is a sign of my dice rolls turning the corner.

With his satchel slightly damp with edible river plants but reassuringly heavy on his shoulder Deshi turns once again to the horizon and sets forth hoping that the worst of the journey is behind him and he can focus on grabbing the medicine and getting back before the disease progresses past the point of no return.

Undertake a Journey + Wits: Miss, with matched 10s.

Well, fuck. That is the worst possible result. This one will have to hurt.

Pay the Price: You are separated from something or someone
Action / Theme: Withdraw / Shelter
Major Plot Twist: A new danger appears

And I have everything I need. Please dice, be kind for the next few minutes.

That forboding sky suddenly takes on a new aspect. Deshi hears the rain before he sees it, and by then it's too late. There is no shelter as the storm sweeps in from the mountains and his visability is reduced to a few yards in front of his face. Hail pelts his eyes and he pulls his travel cloak tight up over his head. Thunder splits the sky, and he realises he's the tallest point for hundreds of meters around. Deshi pushes forward into the sudden cold wind and hopes that he can hold his course to the distant bridge now hidden by sheets of water from the skies.

By some miracle he finds the bridge and looks nervously at the river which is beginning to swell with the rainwater that has no doubt been chasing this storm all the way from the mountains. This is a large river and impossible to ford at the best of times and the bridge has seen better days. The old wood creaks as he sets foot onto the planks. Deshi gets most of the way across before the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and a deafening roar of thunder drives him forward. He doesn't even look back as he sprints and dives for the far bank.

Face Danger + Edge (we are relying on our speed): Weak Hit

Deshi barely makes the far bank before a crashing and groaning of splintered wood behind him tells him that the bridge did not survive the lightning strike. He braces himself to look around from his prone position and where there used to be a bridge there's now a small splintered jetty, a rapidly rising river and a charred, smouldering mess on the far side. His heart darkens as it sinks in that the only way back is the week long trek downriver to the estuary where there's a settlement that will have boats and traders. The medicine supply in Nabuma won't last that long, especially if others get sick. This may have spelled death for the village.

Endure Stress + Heart (-1 Spirit (+3)): Weak Hit
Press On

The moment of despair passes. He cannot control storms, thugs or random acts of lightning, but Deshi has sworn an Iron Vow and will see it through whatever the cost. He picks himself up and pushes on into the teeth of the storm. First he must find the medicine. The fates will weave what they will. He tries to focus his mind on Eir and her teachings and block out the danger that still surrounds him.

Undertake a Journey + Wits: Miss
No Progress, Pay the Price -1 Momentum (-2)

I roll 50/50 to see if the price is momentum or supply and we lose momentum.

The falling rain stabilises into a heavy downpour but the wind seems to be driving directly into his face. Deshi ploughs on but his progress is slowed to a crawl.

Undertake a Journey + Wits: Miss
No  progress, Pay the Price -1 Spirit (+2)

Endure Stress (-1): Miss
-1 Momentum (-3)

Deshi's whole world shrinks to the action of placing one squelching foot in front of the other over and over again. He is wet, frozen and increasingly exhausted. The vow weighs heavy, but without it he might have just laid down here in the mud. He repeats the mantra in his head, "Whatever it takes, whatever it takes...". Even Eir seems distant as his internal world starts to come apart around him.

Undertake a Journey + Wits:  Weak Hit
Mark Progress, reach a waypoint. -1 Supply (+2)

Journey to Heathlands (Troublesome)
*********_

Deshi looks up as the endless climb through wind an rain levels off and slowly realises that he's at the place where he gathered Moonwort all those years ago. Feverishly he gets down on hands and knees in a likely spot and scans the ground.

Reach your destination (Journey to Heathlands): Weak Hit
Reach destination but there is a hazard or complication.
Action / Theme: Journey / Trade

Mark progress: Heal the village overseer (Dangerous)

****_ _ _ _ _ _

Finding a source of the medicine gets me another progress mark on the inciting incident quest. Given the Action / Theme prompt, I'm going to say that the complication is that I can't go straight home. I might even have handled the journey back as narrative with no dice rolls since it would be back along a known route, but now I need a new journey via the estuary.

Medicine secured, Deshi looks round for somewhere to rest hoping for a thicket of trees, an outcropping of rock, anything that might get him out of the driving wind for half an hour.

Make Camp + Supply: Miss.
Take no comfort. Pay the Price. -1 Spirit (+1)

But there is nothing, just open grassland and relentless storm. Deshi could almost weep, but at least the journey downriver will be downhill toward the coast. There's no getting lost, and he should see the lights of the town when he gets near even in this weather.

He turns downriver and begins the long trudge downhill to the coast. 

Session End

Health: +5
Spirit: +1
Supply: +2
Momentum: -2
Tethered: Nabuma village

Ironsworn - Deshi the Healer: Session 2, A Troublesome Journey

Session Start

Health:  +5
Spirit: +5
Supply: +4
Momentum: +2
Tethered: Nabuma village

Deshi sets out in a North Easterly direction. It only takes a couple of hours before the ground slopes upward and what started as a brisk walk becomes an uphill trudge. From the top of this first hill he can see a broken sky, and makes a mental note that he'll need to keep an eye on potential spots to shelter if the weather breaks. The path opens before him as the hill gently slopes downward to the foot of the next hill a mile away.

Undertake a Journey + Wits: Weak Hit, -1 Supply (+3).

Journey to Heathlands: Troublesome

*** _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Reach Waypoint: Wild Rapids

Straightforward narrative here. Rapids are an easy place to lose supply.

Deshi sees a fast-running river about halfway to the next hill. As he approaches he remembers fording this river last time he travelled to the heathlands. There are large stones blanced across the fifteen or twenty foot span that can be used by those who don't want to get soaked to the knee with freezing water. The river has obviously been slowly removing the soil that holds them steady because two or three steps from the other side one of the stones gives way and Deshi is forced to lunge to the far bank. There's no danger of drowning but his bag is soaked, and he spends 5 minutes picking through some of the ruined provisions, eating anything that looks like it now won't keep and throwing anything beyond rescue into the rushing water. "Should have just waded, idiot" he mutters.

Undertake a Journey + Wits: Miss, Pay the Price

Action/Theme: Defend / Bond

I decide to use the action and theme Oracles to give me some inspiration for my Pay the price move rather than the pay the price table. I decide that the price relates to my ability to defend my bonded settlement.

As Deshi shivers his way up the next hill with wet feet he remembers the little pack of dried Moonwort tucked into his pocket to help identify the plant when he reaches the heath. His hand rubs painfully cold against his soaking wet travel cloak as he fishes around for the tiny linen parcel and finds it disintegrated, with the Moonwort little more than a green slime coating the inside of the wrapping. He takes a moment to direct a couple of carefully chosen swear words at the sky and wonders what he did to Eir lately to merit this extra little test. He stuffs the linen back into his pocket, unable to bring himself to waste good material even if the contents are now useless, and carries on up the hill a little less hopeful than he was before.

-1 Spirit (+4)

The loss of Moonwort is purely narrative, but rather than take a point of supply I decide  that mechanically my price will be a loss of spirit as it starts to look like this journey is conspiring against Deshi.

Cresting the next hill, Deshi sees a welcome stretch of flat walking over solid ground. He aims for a stand of trees in the distance that will take him in roughly the right direction, puts his head down, and tries to pick up the pace.

Undertake a Journey + Wits: Strong Hit. Make progress. -1 Supply (+2), +1 Momentum (+3)

Journey to Heathlands: Troublesome

****** _ _ _ _

Reach Waypoint: Strange Lake

What's strange about the Lake? My land is supposed to be dotted with mysterious Iron columns, time to introduce another one.

Deshi reaches the trees and sees the lake stretching to the East, confirming that he's on the right path. And if he's remembered correctly, there's something here that he wants to visit...

Rising from the Western shore of the lake is a large black iron obelisk set firmly into the ground. It looks very out of place surrounded by nature and he wonders again, as he did last time, why no settlement had grown up around this iron monument. Especially given its proximity to fresh water. A small mystery, and one he won't solve today.

Deshi takes a moment to place a hand on the hard iron surface, lay his forhead against the cold metal, and renew his vow to heal his friend and Overseer Shekhar. He lifts his eyes feeling slightly renewed by the ritual, but his visage darkens as his eyes meet the clouded sky which is looking more brooding than ever. No time for rest then.

Deshi fishes around in his satchel and pulls out a small stoppered bottle of  Elderberry wine from his dwindling provisions. With pang of regret, he pours out half at the foot of the obelisk and takes a good swig of what's left before placing the bottle back into his pack. Whatever spirits guard this place, they'd better appreciate that little sacrifice. Turning, Deshi heads toward the next upward slope his eyes deliberately avoiding the growing cloud above.

Undertake a Journey + Wits: Miss, with matched 8s.Waylaid by a perilous event.

Pay the Price: It wastes resources

Action / Theme: Take / Resource

Sometimes the Oracles just gang up on you. Rolling a match on the challenge dice triggers a twist or complication. Common practice among those who play Ironsworn is to envision a positive event for a match on a strong hit and a negative event for a match on a miss, and to scale the event to the number rolled. So matched 10s would be the worst roll in the game, and would result in something catastrophic happening. Matched 1s would result in something highly beneficial.

8 is bad, but not terrible. Given the Oracle results I feel that narratively I'm being signposted a pretty clear message about the nature of the price I'll be paying.

Eyes down was a mistake. The dangerous creatures usually don't come this far down toward the Ragged Coast and bandits usually stick to the roads, but there's no such thing as safe travel in the Ironlands. As Deshi passes through a field of large rocks deposited apparently by Gods, giants or the raw fury of the elements on the next large plateau, he hears the creak of a bow being drawn and looks up to find himself face to face with a small group of rough looking men and women.Their hideout must be nearby since there's no profit to bandits hanging round the middle of nowhere. These hills must be full of caves.

They take almost everything he has left, leaving him half a water-damaged loaf and what's left of his waterskin. Deshi takes a moment of pleasure remembering the wine he poured out onto the ground an hour ago - better to give it to the dirt than these scum - but keeps his face carefully neutral. Adding insult to injury, his attackers bind his arms and legs and leave him helpless on the path as they head back to whatever hole keeps the rain off their heads. It's lucky they didn't kill him really, they must know he'll be back here with the wardens if he makes it back to civilisation. Maybe they were planning to move hideout anyway.

It's getting late in the day by the time he's free of his bonds. Picking up his staff, discarded on the dirt beside him, he sets off again in the direction of the heath making a note of the location. He will be back. Letting this group go would be like allowing a wound to fester, it goes against everything he stands for, but one man with a stick isn't going to last long against a gang and he has a mission to complete. He needs to find somewhere to bed down for the night before darkness sets in, but maybe it's best to put some distance between himself and these brigands, lest they decide there's more sport in chasing him up the hill than letting him go.

I decide that the mechanical results of the complication will be -1 Supply (+1) and -1 Momentum (+2). Having Deshi bound and losing time on his journey seemed like a serious enough complication along with the robbery to satisfy a matched 8 roll. And since it's my first time playing I wasn't quite ready to go to 0 supply and suffer the Unprepared debility quite yet. Time to wrap up this session and come back fresh, hopefully with better luck next time (this is called foreshadowing, I was very wrong).

Session End

Health: +5
Spirit: +4
Supply: +1
Momentum: +2
Tethered: Nabuma village

Ironsworn - Deshi the Healer: Session 1, Sickness strikes Nabuma villiage

It's the middle of Spring, and the snows have mostly melted away in the lowlands though there are signs that the cold still has a hold on some of the distant hills. Winter is now behind us, but in its place the unpredictable spring weather brings morning frosts and sudden storms.

Deshi is interrupted by an urgent summons to the home of the Village overseer. She didn't leave her shack this morning, and when someone went to check on her they found her still in bed, feverish and rambling. Something is very wrong.

I envisioned my own Inciting Incident as I wanted something that would be relevant for a Healer, so we're dealing with a mysterious sickness. You can roll yours on the Settlement Trouble or Major Plot Twist oracles if you prefer to let the dice gods have their fun.

First dice roll of the game. Let's create ourselves an overseer.

• Name: Shekhar
• Disposition: Suspicious
• Descriptor: Active
• Goal: Defend a place

A fitting set of attributes for a leader, but that suspicous disposition makes me wonder...

Deshi rushes over to Shekhar's home with a grab-bag of herbs and prepared medicines. He orders boiled water to be bought to the shack, crouches down by her bedside and starts to investigate. First glance suggests that this isn't an ordinary fever, and not an illness he has encountered before.

Gather Information: Miss. 'Your investigation unearths a dire threat or an unwelcome truth that undermines your quest.' 

 

I don't know what that might be, so I'm going to roll on the Action / Theme oracles for a seed.

 

Action / Theme: Affect / Survival

 

I'm going to interpret this as a dire threat that might affect the survival of the whole villiage. This steers me away from the ideas I had (triggered by that 'suspicious' disposition) about this being a poisoning attempt by an enemy.

Apart from the fever Shekhar's skin is clammy and, while her forhead is burning up, her hands are freezing. Her eyes are focusing on a point somewhere up in the rafters of her home, and her rambling is agitated. The water arrives and Deshi crushes in some herbs that he knows will bring down a temperature and asks another of the villager's to hold the Overseer's head while he slowly pours the concoction into her mouth.

While they sit by her bedside and wait for the medicine to have an effect Deshi asks the others in the room if they know what she has been eating and drinking over the last few days. He hasn't seen any strangers pass through the village but asks if anyone has noticed anything unusual.

Diagnosis will need to be a process of elimination. If the village water was bad he'd expect others to have fallen ill, but maybe Shekhar is just the first. Disease would concievably affect one person but if it's not the food, and no strangers have passed through, where did it come from? At the back of his mind an unwelcome thought lurks. Every healer in the Ironlands holds a secret fear that the plague that drove humanity from the Old World is just biding its time and will one day return.

He keeps this forboding to himself, but advises the other villiagers to boil all water before drinking and make sure food is well cooked before consumption. If the water has gone bad it could be the end of the villiage, but at least they could outrun it. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

This fever hasn't moved. Deshi reaches into his satchel and lays his supplies out on a cloth next to him. He'll have to work through his remedies one by one.

Heal: Weak Hit. -1 Supply (-4)

 

The Herbalist path lets me add +2 to this roll and a good thing too. I'm using the degree of success to determine whether this has no effect, limited effect or allieviates the symptoms completely. The weak hit is the most interesting result in terms of narrative, so I'm not too sad.

 

I started the game with the vow 'Heal the Village Overseer' (dangerous) since this was my inciting incident, so I also mark progress on that quest track for finding a working medicine.

It takes all night and Deshi burns through a lot of his supply of the more unusual remedies, but he finally finds something that seems to sooth Shekhar and help her rest more easily. Unfortunately there is barely enough of it to keep her dosed for the next few days, and definitely not enough to treat anyone else that might fall sick.

Checking his labels he sees that the herb he needs is Moonwort. He casts his mind back to his teachings. Moonwort... an unusual plant of heathlands and unforested highlands. Usually used in a poultice to close wounds, but sometimes boiled in red wine to reduce vomiting and the expulsion of fluids (not that the Ironlands have ever seen Old World wine, but the berries of the Elder bush make a close enough approximation). He vaguely remembers gathering this years ago. Checking his notes he sees that yes, he gathered this from a patch on a heathland a few days travel from the villiage. It's the nearest high ground, and the best bet for getting more of the herb.

A quick stop to plug the excellent Herbalists Primer which I picked up from Dungeonland and completely fell in love with. An amazing resource for the role player who wants something based in real-world herb-lore from which to supplement their fantasy adventures. Painstakingly researched, beautifully illustrated and written with you,the role player, in mind. Very much my cup of tea.

 

Deshi heads back to his own shack and gets a few hours sleep as the sun rises. Then he prepares the rest of his stock of the herb and leaves dosing instructions with his apprentice. He also asks one of the village hunters to head to the coastal village of Brackwater, a day's journey to the west but mostly along well-trodden roads, with a small sample of the precious Moonwort to see if they have any supply. It's a long-shot, but Brackwater is a regular stop for the trading vessels that ply the Ragged Coast and there's a possibility that they'll have a chest of the stuff in a forgotten corner of a warehouse somewhere.

Finally he pulls on his travel cloak, checks his pockets to make sure there are enough stones for a decent volley from his sling, and takes his staff in hand. No one else has ever seen this herb in the ground, let alone harvested it. And the harvesting process is delicate. It has to be him.

He casts an eye up at the brooding skies and mutters a small prayer to Eir to have mercy on his friend and Overseer, and to protect him on the road as he goes in search of the cure. With a final backward glance he sets out for the distant heath.

Ironsworn - Deshi the Healer: Session 0, World and Character creation

The World

Since this is my first session we start by establishing the truths of this world.

Bear in mind the 'Truths' in an Ironsworn playthrough arn't necessarily absolute truths, rather the things everyone believes to be true. There is scope to adapt or replace a 'truth', and discovering evidence that those commonly held 'truths' might not tell the whole story might make a nice story hook.

The Ironlands

Credit to Kiero_PL on the Ironsworn subreddit for the below map image.

In my Ironlands the first landings were in the northern stretches of the Ragged Coast, so those are reasonably populated with village communities which become gradually more scarce as you travel south. The Ragged Coast is the 'centre' of human population in the Ironlands at this time.

There are few settlements but a number of hunting camps on the Hinterlands, fading into the southern reaches of the Tempest Hills. 

The Havens are just starting to be populated from the north, but while the land is flat and with potential for half-decent farmlands it is currently untamed and dangerous, and progress is necessarily slow.

There is some exploratory mining in the upper reaches of the Tempest Hills but miners are forced to return to the lower regions come winter or be trapped without the resources to survive. The Veiled Mountains are the territory of the giants. There have been expeditions but no one has attempted to settle or mine in the area.

The Deep Wilds are unexplored. Those who have ventured further than half a day's travel into the forest do not return. Wise Ironlanders go around.

The Old World

The old world was swept by a terrible plague which killed all in its path. Our best medicines and most effective rituals barely slowed it down. What was left of civilisation was forced to flee onto ships and cross the ocean, not knowing whether there was another land within reach or if we would die adrift upon the seas.

It is two generations since this migration, so the plague is no longer fresh in the minds of the inhabitants but some of those who fled the old world still survive, and their warnings are still passed on. Those who survived the journey passed the Barrier Islands and landed on the Ragged Coast near the borders with the Hinterlands and Deep Wilds. All humans on the Ironlands have spread from this landing point.

Iron

Unknown Iron pillars are found throughout the land. They have gained a certain ritual significance with the settlers but none know their real purpose. They are often found at the centre of communities, which tend to grow up around them.

They are often used by those called to the path of the Ironsworn in the swearing or affirmation of Iron vows.

Legacies

As far as we can tell, we are the first humans to walk these lands. There is no sign of human civilisation discovering the Ironlands before the great flight over the ocean to escape the plague.

Communities

We live in communities called Circles. Some of these are as small as a single steading, others can consist of several villages and outlying settlements connected by well-trodden roads. The largest circles are concentrated in the northern end of the Ragged Coast.

Leaders

Leadership model varies by community, especially once you're off of the main trade routes.

The largest settlements on the coastline or at the estuaries of major rivers tend to be big enough to self-govern.

Circles that encompass multiple villages tend to have a local overseer in each settlement who meets with their peers in other settlements as a kind of council. Other high profile citizens may also be part of these councils.

There are settlements, particularly in more remote areas, where leadership is more military in nature. There are also communities based around worship of a particular god or spirit that follow a theocratic model and are governed by a high priest or religious council. One you're off the beaten path all things are possible.

Defense

Larger centres of population, chiefly the coastal settlements, have Wardens who stand sentry and patrol the surrounding lands. Free Wardens and mercenaries sometimes sign-on to protect caravans and expeditions.

The further you get from there, the less likely you are to find uniformed protectors and more likely to find local militia who are activated when needed.

The same applies to law and order. The justice of the Wardens is recognised throughout the Ironlands, but most places outside the main trade routes will only see the occasional Free Warden and local overseers are accustomed to dealing with local criminal behaviour using whatever resources are at hand.

Mysticism

Magic is rare and dangerous, but there are some gifted among the humans.

Stories say that those gifted in magic in the old world felt the change in magics as they entered the Ironlands. The old world magics flowed from life and growth, while the magics of the Ironlands are altogether darker as though a different set of spirits are responding to the summons of magic users in this land. A lot of the old rituals no longer work, and much hard-won knowledge seems to have become useless.

In the old world magic users tended to be the community Healers and Herbalists as their magics allowed them to supplement their herbal remedies with healing rituals, and their connection to nature spirits helped them find and cultivate healing herbs.

In the Ironlands those sensitive to magic are often apprenticed to the community healer out of lingering tradition. However this practice is starting to disappear as healers are realising they are better off selecting among those with a drive to help others and an affinity for herbalism.

The loss of the old rituals means many of those who feel a magical connection don't have a way of utilising it.

Religion

The people honour old gods and new. In this harsh land a prayer is a simple but powerful comfort.

Firstborn

The firstborn effectively control the regions they inhabit - the Elves the Deep Wilds and the Giants the Veiled Mountains. They have tolerated humans as long as they don't infringe on those areas. Small communities are starting to spring up on the borders and cause tension, particularly along the Deep Wilds where the Elves are feeling distinctly more threatened by human proliferation than the Giants in their mountain homes.

Beasts

Beasts stalk the wild areas of the Ironlands. They are occasionally seen in the settled areas but the Wardens and nearby communities respond quickly to any threat, either by organising a militia or posting a bounty and sending word that they have need of assistance.

There is a market for monster slayers, often mercenaries who have chosen to specialise, who make a living traveling the outer communities and collecting bounties on troublesome beasts.

Horrors

The darkest forests, wildest mountain areas and the dangerous Flooded Lands region are known to harbour supernatural beasts and horrors. They sometimes seem to spawn at the site of particularly violent or horrific acts as though drawn to the echoes of the event. Most Ironlanders can go their whole lives without encountering one, but the odds are greater in some areas than others.

On certain nights of the year the scattered communities of the Ironlands variously light huge fires, perform warding rituals or just stay indoors and bar their dwellings. On these nights the reach of the supernatual seems to extend across the whole land, regardless of how civilised it has become.

 

Getting into solo RP with Ironsworn

Since my last blogpost I've started doing some RP. Some of it with a group and some of it on my own. I didn't know you could RP on your own, it sounded a bit weird if I'm honest. But I'm hooked. And it all started with Ironsworn.

Ironsworn

If you don't know, Ironsworn is an RPG designed to be played in solo, co-operative or guided modes. Solo and Co-Op have no GM, you use Oracle tables and dice rolls to give ideas for where the action will go. Guided mode is a bit more traditional, with a GM to make decisions and push forward the story. By default, all action takes place in The Ironlands.

The Ironland

The Ironlands setting is a bit like what you'd get if you implemented Skyrim the way the characters talk about it

• the weather is harsh and deathly cold
• food is scarce and hard to grow
• dangerous wild animals and worse roam the forests and hidden places

rather than how it's actually implemented 

• a stranger fresh off the boat can run around in all weathers wearing skimpy leather armour without a care in the world
• you can steal so much food from town that you literally cannot move
• you can kill three wolves single-handed on the way to your first villiage

One of the first things I loved is that there's a workbook that encourages you to flesh out your own verison of the Ironlands by choosing your 'truths' across a range of categories - how did your people come to live in this land? how did it get the name 'The Ironlands'? how well tamed has it been in the years since it was settled? Is magic common or non-existent? How do communities work in this environment? etc

Each truth has a few options to get you started, and the player is encouraged to add flavour and make it their own. Each truth also comes with an inspirational prompt for an inciting incident, which is where you'll begin your story.

Iron Vows

Your story is driven by the Iron Vows you swear. Your characters gets an epic 'background vow' which gives a bit of flavour to their motivations, and you may or may not make progress against that vow in your campaign. Your inciting incident will drop you into the middle of the action as you either Swear an Iron Vow to see something done, or tackle the first obstacle in a vow already sworn. Again the Skyrim comparison is apt, with a main story quest that you can choose to chase or ignore as you talk to people, pick up random sidequests and generally decide what your character sees as their priority.

The Move System

Actions are framed as 'moves', and your dice rolls against those moves encompass both your actions and those of the people around you. Hits mean progress, while Misses typically introduce complicatons. So if you roll a Gather Information move on a hit you discover something helpful and specific, and the way forward is clear. If you roll a miss you still get information, but you discover a new threat or something that undermines your quest. An example.

The family sword of the villiage overseer has been stolen from above the great hearth in the villiage hall. You have sworn a vow to get it back and Gather Information to work out whether you can find any clues about what happened.

1. You roll a strong hit! You roll the Action and Theme oracle and get A: Demand T: Solution. You decide that this means the Overseer tells you that a warrior from a nearby community came to the villiage and demanded that the overseer provide men and resources to help fight off a threat. When the overseer refused he took matters into his own hands and stole the heirloom blade, and you need to track him in order to retrieve it. Your next steps are clear, you know who has the sword and you know where he was going with it.
2. You roll a miss! You roll the Action and Theme oracle and get A: Demand T: Solution. You decide that this means the head of a powerful family, a rival to the overseer, is demanding that the question of villiage leadership is resolved. He claims that without the family sword the overseer cannot fulfil his duty to protect the villiage and should hand over the leadership role to someone who can. Maybe the sword was stolen by this rival family, maybe they paid someone to take it, maybe it really was stolen by an outsider and the family is just jumping on the opportunity to weaken the overseer's position. Your next steps are unclear, you have several possiblities to contend with and the political situation will make progress difficult unless you do something to resolve it.

The Dice

The dice mechanic is streamlined and easy to use. You roll two D10 and those set your target number. You roll a D6 and add your modifiers. If your D6 plus modifier roll is higher than one of the the D10 you score a weak hit. If it's higher than both D10 you score a strong hit. There's enough swing that you're never really confident, but enough influence from the modifiers that your character still feels like they have strengths and weaknesses. 

The rulebook suggests getting a different set of dice for your Oracle rolls which are percentile based. You can do it with D10 if you nominate one for ones and one for tens, but the books says having separate dice makes those rolls feel a bit special and I did enjoy the excuse to do some dice shopping.

The Narrative

The big change from other games I've played is that dice rolls are to be embraced. All RP is storytelling, but solo RP is more so. We all love rolling hits, but a miss is a chance for the story to get interesting. The thing that really hooked me was having the game take my cliched, on-rails story ideas, yank them off-course with a poor dice roll and a weird Action/Theme, and force me to be a more interesting and creative storyteller as I weaved the narrative back together from these disperate ends. The words 'trust your instincts' appear throughout the rulebook and it's absolutely true - you are not a bad storyteller, you just have well-worn patterns of thought that need the occasional kick up the backside to get them out of their rut and onto more exciting, unfamiliar territory.

The rules often ask you to 'envision' what your character is doing. When you swear an Iron vow, how do you swear that vow? Do you swear on your blade? On a pendant you wear around your nec? On the Iron pillars that may dot the land? Is it a vow of quiet determination, or a full-on cut-my-hand-and-swear-on-the-blood-of-my-ancestors type of deal? However your charcter does things, envisioning is about stopping for a moment and really picturing the scene, letting the fiction and the setting lead you story. Otherwise it feels less like a narrative and more like like you're just chaining together a bunch of moves and dice rolls. Personally I like to journal as I go with pencil and paper, and I've really enjoyed reading blog posts from other people running games who alternate blocks of narrative with fourth-wall-breaking inserts describing the moves and dice results that drive those story beats. I have every intention of posting some here.

Helpful resources

If all this sounds interesting I'll recommend two resources that really helped me start. The first is this video playlist from voice actor Trevor Devall, who runs a short Ironsworn campaign and gives a really neat flavour of what the narrative flow of the game is like.

The second is the Ironsworn rulebook, available free as a PDF from DriveThruRPG. The rulebook is tidy and professional - phenomenal quality for a free product. You'll need to be able to see the asset cards, but you don't necessarily need to print them. Being free, there is absolutely no risk and nothing to lose from giving the system a try, other than a little time investment learning the rules (and really, if you're interested in tabletop RPGs then reading through rulebooks and settings probably isn't your idea of a chore).

A big thanks to Shawn Tomkin for his extreme generosity in giving this away. It's definitely paid off with me, as I've put my money straight down for the second print run of his Ironsworn-in-space follow up Starforged.

Misprint seconds as terrain

Sometimes you make a buying decision that doesn't work out the way you planned.

Having had fantastic luck with a bundle of misprint seconds from the MasterofMiniatures Etsy store, I went all-in on a similar offer from a different store grabbing one bundle of 28/32mm scale models and one of misprint busts. Sadly, while the quantity of resin was huge, the quality was lacking. Nothing in the huge bag of tabletop resin is usable, and my greenstuff skills aren't up to replacing whole legs.

The busts were a little better. Of the 5 in the bag, one is good enough to paint, but the others are fit only for scrap or practice.

Or are they?

Lately I've been taking a break from miniatures and making some terrain. It struck me that a 75mm giant head makes the kind of 28mm scale statue that might be quite appropriate for the Wizards of Felsted, who are known for being somewhat caught up on their own mythologies.

And so with a little milliput, some misprints have found a second life as broken terrain pieces. An idea I might try to replicate with the 28mm figures.