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
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