Scene 2
It is now midday. After the disturbing fight with the bear, Macce and Phas take a quick break.
The date is Springrise 02, 1165.
calendar
I am using the SimpleCalendar module with the Forbidden Lands setting.
They both eat and drink to recover their strength. They otherwise sit in silence in a clearing.
Info
I am using the official FL Foundry module together with a bunch of modules
Active Modules: ---------- Actor Link Indicator Chat Portrait Clipboard Image Combat Chat Compendium Folders Dice So Nice! Dice Tray Drag Anything to Hotbar Drag Upload (Get Over Here!) Forbidden Lands - Bitter Reach Forbidden Lands - Core Game Forbidden Lands - Raven's Purge FXMaster Inline Table Rolls lib - Color Settings libWrapper Markdown Exporter Minimal UI Mythic GME Tools Quick Insert - Search Widget Roll Table from Sidebar and Journal Scene Preview Sidebar and Windows Resizer Simple Calendar Terrain Randomizer Tidy UI - Game Settings Tokenizer Token Mold Year Zero Engine: ⚔️ CombatI am also using the solo oracles in Book of Beasts, from the PDF.
What do they see on the horizon between the trees?
Oracle
“Escaped Slave” name: Tilda Character Background: Guided Military
As they rest, they suddenly hear the bushes behind them rustle. Phas jumps in one smooth movement, readying her longsword.
“Another bear?!” she says.
Instead of a bear, a sickly female figure stumbles out of the tree line.
Tilda introduces herself.
“Am I relieved to see you!”
“Do we know each other?” Phas asks. She still holds her longsword at the woman.
Then Macce recognizes Tilda.
“Tilda? Tilda!”
Tilda’s portrait
Phas lowers her sword too. She also recognizes the missing militia member. Tilda had disappeared four months ago. She had been part of a group of militia from Fangwoods village. They were tasked with scouting out the area. Then her group disappeared without trace.
“Sunvard lost his mind!” Tilda says.
She collapses on the ground. Macce hands her a couple of his rations and his water flask. She welcomes them and begins to eat with trembling hands.
“What happened?” Macce asks. Phas keeps a watch to make sure they are not surprised by any other encounters.
Sunvard was a captain in the militia of the Fangwoods village. He was an arrogant dwarf that always clashed with the leader of the village, Herseli, a female orc. Sunvard wanted more control over the village, and wanted to capture and enslave the weak. Herseli never allowed that, instead opting for a more kind and pragmatic rule.
“Sunvard cooked up some plot”, Tilda continued. “He and his crew had been planning to set up fort to the south as the basis for their ‘village’”.
“The bastard! Who else is there?” Phas asks.
“A bunch of them are holed up in there. I wasn’t in on their plot so I and a couple of other guards were chained up and forced to work in the mine they dug up in the mountain.”
Phas and Macce exchange troubled looks.
Map now
Finally Tilda stands up.
“I need to get back to the village and warn the others.”
“We’ll investigate Sunvard’s fort and see what the situations is.”
“Be careful, he and his men are strong and devoted to their warped idea of a new community.”
Tilda thanks them again for the food and disappears on the road back to the village.
end of scene
Chaos factor = 5 Added Tilda and Sunvard to Character List Added Sunvard’s plot to Thread List.
Scene 3
Macce and Phas continue travelling south, to inspect Sunvard’s fort.
Encounter
Rolled ‘no encounter’
Luckily nothing happens on the way there.
Finally, in the distance, between the trees, we see a ruined fort at the base of a craggy mountain face.
Random encounter
Quard Pilgrims I interpret this as we see 3 pilgrims that have been captured by one of Sunvard’s thugs.
As they exit the tree line, Macce stops. He grabs and pulls Phas back behind the trees.
“Look!”
On the road leading into the fort they see four figures. One of them seems to be brandishing a short sword, the others walk in front and wear robes with the designs of one of the faiths of the land.
“New slaves or captives” Phas remarks.
FC: “is there a guard watching over them from the fort?”
No!
Macce examines the face of the fort. No other figure is visible to his keen eyes.
“Hm this might be our chance to mess up Sunvard’s plan. We can sneak up on the thug and release the three priests before they arrive. But we have to do it now!”
Phas unsheathes her sword.
“Let’s!”
Map
from https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/lskacr/badlands_ruined_fort_30x30/
They both sneak up quietly on the road, staying outside the thug’s eye sight. Phas loses her balance but manages to catch herself. The stress makes her grit her teeth.
Macce makes his way quietly behind the thug and prepares his dagger.
Phas catches up, also in perfect silence.
Then suddenly, with ferocious power, Phas sweeps her longsword and chops off the head of the thug.
Macce freezes for a moment, reminding himself never to get on her bad side.
The body drops limp. The priests turn around. Their faces are frozen from the cold and they seem terribly weakened.
“What…”
“No time, come with us!” Macce says and grabs one of their hands.
They dash back into tree line and make a run for it!
fate question
Are we noticed and followed? (Unlikely) No!
End of scene
Chaos = 4
Next time: who are these priests? What is Sunvard doing?