Tales of the Ironlands

Kalyra Sophisdottir

Episode 13: Going South

Recap

Last time, on Tales of the Ironlands, Kalyra fended off a false accusation of banditry in the court of Osmond Trygveson, the Jarl of Eidynholt. Her accuser, Bregi Brantsson, was the actual bandit, and accused her of his own crime in order to cover his tracks.

Bregi did not expect Kalyra to challenge him to trial by combat. He also did not expect her to know how to fight with a sword, and therefore chose that weapon for the duel. As a result, Kalyra broke his wrist and forced him to yield the duel, whereupon Jarl Trygveson found him guilty of bearing false witness, exiled him for three months, and awarded his sword to Kalyra in recompense.

Free to pursue her own goals once again, Kalyra set about her business. She delivered the message from Sigrun of Orvindal to Thorvaldr of Eidynholt. She met briefly with Bard Arvidsson, a local rival of Bregi’s, who warned her that Bregi will almost certainly seek vengeance on her once his wrist has healed.

Finally, Kalyra and Einari met with Dagny Olgasdottir, the priestess of Miršanu who tends the dead of Eidynholt. She told them that she could help Kalyra learn how to speak with the spirits of the long dead, but that it would take time. In return, she asked Kalyra to gather Night’s Ease, a plant that she needs in order to alleviate the symptoms of a disease that she has suffered from for many years. The only source she knows of is Elenmir, a ruined settlement south of Eidynholt whose people were wiped out by the same disease that Dagny suffers.

And so Kalyra and Einari set off, hoping to retrieve Night’s Ease from the midst of the Bonewalkers who haunt Elenmir’s ruins.

Session Report

Began with Undertake a Journey to Elenmir, a troublesome journey. 6v5/8, weak hit. Misread my notes and initially gave myself the benefits of a strong hit. Progress 3/10.

It takes a little while for Kalyra and Einari to find the path to Elenmir. As Dagny said, it is overgrown: choked up with plants that have spread across it in the 30-plus years since the settlement was depopulated by the disease the Dagny suffers. There is little left of it this point.

Eventually they find it, now choked with bracken and ferns; but there is a space leading through the forest where there are fewer trees than there would be in the rest of the area. “That must be it,” Kalyra says. “Come on.”

The two of them strike out from the road that they had been following, which led further southeast towards the coast and head almost due south, along what’s left of the path. Undertake a Journey. 7v5/3, strong hit. Realized my mistake from previous roll, gave myself -1 supply for previous weak hit. Supply down to +1. 6/10.

The way is difficult. It’s often hard to see where the trail is leading, such as it is, and in places they are forced to depart from the path and find their way around spots that have grown particularly thick. Kalyra considers taking her sword and using it to chop away a path through the overgrown brush, but opts not to. She does not like getting sap up on her sword blade: it’s difficult to clean off, and iron soon goes bad if it is not kept clean.

The forest is quiet. There are a few birds chirping here and there, and there is the sound of the breeze in the tall branches of the trees all around them, but other than that it feels empty. They see no signs of larger animals. “Hmm. I would’ve thought to seen at least some tracks for deer, or perhaps some bears,” says Einari.

“I know,” says Kalyra. “It’s strange.” She looks nervously around, and sees nothing but the forest extending out in all directions. “Let’s keep moving,” she says. Undertake a Journey: 8v8/6, weak hit.

They make good progress — right up until Kalyra stumbles. There is a stone in the path, and she trips over it. As she awkwardly tries to catch herself, she falls to one side and lands on her bag. She feels supplies within being crushed under her weight “Oh, damn,” she says. Because of that second weak hit, -1 supply, dropping me to zero supply. Marked progress and unprepared.

“We should have gotten more supplies before we left Eidynholt,” she says.

“Yes, perhaps we should have,” says Einari examining the damage. They have very little left: a few scraps of food that were spoiled, and almost all of their medicinal supplies have been damaged. All that is really left are the bandages. The bottles the herbs are kept in have been shattered, and their contents inextricably mixed all over the interior of Kalyra’s leather bag.

“I’ll have to get a whole new set,” Kalyra berates herself.

“Do you want to continue?” he says.

“I’m worried. Without my supplies, I’m not nearly as capable of healing us should be be injured in fighting these bonewalkers. We have to be close now. Let’s get this done quickly!” Kalyra says. “I want to get that Night’s Ease and return to Dagny. We’ve wasted enough time as it is.” Decided to make a Reach Your Destination move even though the progress bar was only at 9/10. 9v4/9: weak hit. We arrive and there’s a complication. Asked the Oracle: what sort of complication has arisen as they reach Elenmir? Rolled on Action (14) and Theme (40): Avoid Duty. Struggled with this a bit, came up with nothing that made much sense, and opted to roll again. This time I got 21/98: Leave Home.

Elenmir proves to be a settlement — or the remains of the settlement — that lies along the banks of a small spring-fed lake. It’s still mostly clear of trees. There are young trees which have sprouted up in between the buildings and pushed through the broken roofs in some places, but the the center-most portions of the settlement are still open. As they come to the edge of this clearing, Kalyra suddenly realizes that Einari has stopped walking forward. She looks back. He is standing stock still. “What is it?” she says.

He raises a finger and points. Looking to where he’s pointing, she sees a skeleton lying against the side of a crumbling, rotten wooden wall. “I ... I can’t. I should never have left home! I can’t!” says Einari. He turns and flees, abandoning Kalyra.

“Einari! Wait! Einari!” she calls out, extending a hand towards him. Looking back, she sees that this noise has attracted the attention of some bonewalkers.

“Einari ...” she says. So there’s our complication: Einari is avoiding his duty, and wishes he hadn’t left home.

Three bonewalkers move towards Kalyra and she attempts to evade them. Face Danger +edge. 6v4/1, strong hit, +1 momentum.

Thinking quickly, Kalyra bolts to one side, turning about 90 degrees to the right and tears off into the forest. The bonewalkers behind her begin running. It’s spooky how quickly they can run after her, but she manages to keep ahead of them.

Up ahead she sees a tree with a low hanging branch. She launches herself towards it and swings up onto the branch, pushing herself up into the tree and climbing up as quickly as she can. Up in the tree she presses herself into the shadows of the branches and the leaves, and attempts to hide from them. Face Danger +shadow. Natural 1, 2v5/6, Miss. Started to burn my momentum to make this a weak hit, and then realized my momentum was at 5 — one too low to be useful here. Proceeded with as a miss. She’s been treed by a bunch of bonewalkers.

Perhaps it was the swaying motion of the branches that Kalyra passed over on her way up into the tree that gives away her position; perhaps she made some noise as the three bonewalkers entered the space below her. Regardless, they come to a halt and look up at her. The bonewalkers are yellowing, aged bone. One of them is missing its left hand, and a purple light hovers inside of their empty eye sockets. She can see the light a purple cast hovering in those six sockets, staring up at her where she hides. “Well, crap,” she says, and draws her sword. Suffered -1 Spirit, and rolled Endure Stress: 8v2/9, weak hit, she presses on. Enter the Fray: 6v2/1, strong hit. +2 momentum and began with initiative. One bonewalker is dangerous, so I set up three as formidable.

Kalyra decides that she does not want to stay in this tree, beating at the bonewalkers crawling up to get her. Instead she draws her sword, swings off a branch and launches herself down amongst them. Strike: 5v2/10, weak hit. Dealt 3 harm for 3 progress, and lost initiative.

Kalyra launches herself down amongst them and lashes out with her sword. The one that was missing its left hand looks less durable. She lashes out at it and smacks it firmly with her sword. It crumbles away, leaving two bonewalkers left which both move to attack her. Their jaws make a chattering, clacking noise; the ancient teeth snap against one another as they move towards her. Face Danger to dodge out of the way, +edge. Natural 1 on the die, for 2v4/6. Miss.

Kalyra starts getting out of the way of these bonewalkers. And for a moment, she thinks she has succeeded! But then something halts her. Looking down, she discovers that the one she just smashed isn’t entirely down. The hand — the right hand — of the destroyed bonewalker has clutched her ankle. She pulls forward, but loses her boot in order to get away. She is now only partly shod. It will be more difficult moving around the forest with a bare foot. Meanwhile, she’s been slowed down enough that the other two bonewalkers get her. Clash. 5v4/2, strong hit. Chose +1 harm, for 4 harm: one base, one for being armed, one for the strong hit, and one for Keen. That’s 4 more progress, to 7/10, and we gain initiative.

As the two lunge forward towards her, she smashes one down, sending it spinning to the forest floor, and then whips her blade around in order to fend off the other. It leans over her, careless of the blade and snaps towards her face with its teeth as she pushes it away. It staggers backwards Strike 6v2/6, weak hit. Inflicted 3 harm, to 10/10 progress.

The final bonewalker has been staggered back by Kalyra’s shove. She raises her sword and brings it crashing down upon the bonewalker which falls in a heap before her. For a moment, she thinks it’s all over — but then she feels something grab hold of her bare foot. Looking down she discovers that the first bonewalker, the one that she thought was down, is still not down. It has clutched onto her with its one hand and has brought its stump of an arm around her. It climbs up her like a tree trunk, and she can’t bring her sword to bear on it. Face Danger to shake it off, +iron. Natural 1, 3v5/5, miss on doubles. Momentum was at 7, and considered burning it, but opted to Pay the Price instead.

The skeleton swarms up her, climbing her as if she were a tree trunk and it sinks its rotted teeth into the side of her neck. She screams. Suffered 1 health damage. I later realized this should have been 3 for a formidable foe. Whoops. Endure Harm: 5v7/9, miss.

Clasped in the bony embrace of this partially destroyed bonewalker, Kalyra struggles once again to get free. Face Danger +iron again. 8v6/6, strong hit. I didn’t really give her a twist for the double 5’s on the previous roll, and considered doing so on this one, but couldn’t come up with anything that interested me, so I just ignored both. I guess the doubles on the hit balanced out the doubles on the miss.

Kalyra reaches up with her free hand and wraps her fingers around the vertebrae of the skeleton and rips it off. “Get off me!” she says, and hurls it to the ground, brings her sword around and cracks it straight through the empty nose of the skeleton. End the Fight: 10v6/10, weak hit.

As she brings her sword crashing through the nose of the downed bonewalker, she steps on a hidden rock underneath the leaf litter on the floor of the forest and it cuts her foot. -1 health. Endure Harm: 6v5/8, weak hit. She presses on.

Kalyra just stands breathing heavily in the midst of the piles of bones that used to be bonewalkers. Her foot is bleeding, her neck is bleeding, she is missing a boot, and her companion has abandoned her. “Well, dammit Einari,” she mutters to herself. She sits down and tends her wounds as best she can. Lacking Supply, she does not have her usual bonus from Herbalist. 5v1/3, strong hit. +2 health, to 5.

The wounds from the bonewalker are shallow. Its jaws didn’t seem to find much purchase; it scraped the surface of her neck. It’s painful and bloody, but did not cause any serious damage. She cleans it and binds a bandage around her throat. It looks like she’s wearing a scarf, almost; just a white linen scarf wrapped around the base of her throat.

The wound in her foot is a little more worrisome. It punctured into the bottom of her foot a ways. She cleans it as best she can, wraps it and then retrieves her boot and puts it back on. It’s painful to walk on, but much less debilitating than she feared. “Horrible things,” she says, looking at them.

The forest is quiet once more select “I still have to get the damned Night’s Ease. I wonder how many of those things there are in there? Well ... nothing for it.” Secure an Advantage +wits to scope out the area from a distance. 5v3/9, weak hit, +1 momentum (to 7).

Kalyra finds a tree at the top of a small rise. She climbs up into it and finds a perch in the upper branches where she can see out a little bit into the clear space that is what is left of Elenmir. It looks like it wasn’t a very large settlement. There are still 13 houses that she can see, although it’s possible there are others that have vanished entirely in the intervening decades. She can see one large structure, probably their common hall, which is in somewhat better shape than the rest.

The houses were made of wattle and daub like the ones that she grew up in. The whitewashing has gone, entirely washed away by years of rain, and the daub has in most places fallen away. The wattle is still there in most, although it looks as though in many cases it has begun to rot away. The interlocked branches that form the weave and the weft of the walls have begun to rot, and as they did they snapped and set free from the ends of the weave so that they stick out in a much more disorderly fashion than when they were first bound together. This description was much clearer in my head than it came out in narration, so I went and found an illustration.

Most of the roofs have collapsed. It looks like the great hall has one large hole in its ceiling, but is otherwise more or less intact. The other houses have all lost their roofs. Two of them have trees growing out through where the roof used to be.

As she sits there and watches she does not see any signs of motion. She sits a while and watches. Secure Advantage +wits: waiting and watching for further motion. 6v6/9: miss.

If there are more bonewalkers down there, she doesn’t know where they might be. Marked Progress on the quest to Harvest Night’s Ease, to reflect the fact that she is now in Elenmir where the stuff grows.

After it becomes obvious that she’s not going to be able to spot any further opposition, Kalyra makes her way down from the tree and approaches Elenmir cautiously. Face Danger +shadow to see if she can get into town unobserved. Five on the die, for 6v7/8. Miss. Asked the Oracle: does Kalyra get attacked immediately when she is noticed, or do they wait? 50/50 chance, low is immediate, high is later. 62. They wait.

Kalyra makes her way into the ruins of Elenmir, sword in hand. The place is quiet; empty. She keeps a sharp eye out for any bonewalkers, but does not see where they might be, if indeed they are here. Once she has reached close to the center of town, she begins looking around. “Dagny said they were in this clearing; they grew over the town.” Secure Advantage +wits to locate Night’s Ease. In the audio I said I would give her a +1 from Herbalist because she is well familiar with identifying, locating and harvesting plants, and then failed to actually give her the +1. Whoops. Still, got an 8v1/1.

It is immediately clear where to find the Night’s Ease, for vines of the stuff have grown up all over the central hall. They climb over the beams that made up its structure, cling to the bits of wattle that poke out from between them. Most of it is covered with the green, growing vines of Night’s Ease. She can see the purple blossoms with black edges there. “Oh good, they’re in bloom.”

She looks around again and makes her way cautiously over to the over to the main hall. Marked progress on Harvest Night’s Ease because she has found them, 4/10.

Reaching the great Hall Kalyra’s looks around one last time, sets her sword down on the ground beside her and pulls out her belt knife, which she uses to begin harvesting Night’s Ease blossoms. It occurs to her to look for seeds. It’s much too early in the year for these to have borne seeds, but she’s hoping to find some seedpods from the previous year’s blooming. Started to do a Secure Advantage to see if she finds seeds, realized that I forgot the +1 momentum from the strong hit on the last one, which capped my momentum out at 9. Asked the Oracle instead: are there any seedpods left over? 50/50, low is no, high is yes. 32. No.

Although Kalyra pokes through the vines, she cannot afford to take a great deal of time to search for seedpods in the luxuriant growth of the Night’s Ease vines. “Damn,” she says to herself quietly. She takes a clipping instead. In addition to harvesting the flowers, she also takes a large sprig of the stuff which quickly wraps up in one of the bandages left over from herbalist supplies “I hope we can get that to take root,” she says. She packs it all away, and turns to go.

And that’s when she discovers that she is not alone. There are bonewalkers watching her. They must have come up behind while she was dealing with the Night’s Ease. Marked progress on Harvest Night’s ease (6/10). All she has to do now is survive and get back to Dagny!

“Shit,” she says. Face Danger +wits: attempted to run inside the great hall and slam the door on them. Natural 1 on the die, for 3v4/10.

Kalyra rushes into the great hall and turns to slam the door, only to discover that the door fell off of its hinges years ago and is lying on the floor, where it is bound in place by Night’s Ease vines that have wrapped around it. “Shit!” she says.

Outside the bonewalkers begin moving towards her, their jaws clattering as they gnash their teeth. Looking around wildly she remembers there was a hole in the roof of the great hall. She can see it now that she’s inside, it’s at the back right. There are some posts holding up what is left of the roof. Face Danger +iron to climb the posts and get onto the roof of the great hall. 7v5/9, weak hit.

Kalyra gets partway up the beam or partway up the post that leads to the beams in the roof and then the rotten wood gives way beneath her. She falls to the floor. Announced this as a weak hit, but then I proceeded to treat it as a miss. I didn’t even realize I’d done this until I was listening back to the audio. I really don’t know what I was thinking — failing to get onto the roof made my life a lot harder. We will call this “Brain Fart Number 1”. Anyway, gave myself -1 momentum.

She manages to catch herself without harm, but it is now too late to evade the bonewalkers which have begun filing into the building. Asked the Oracle: how many bonewalkers are there, 3 (formidable, 1-50), 5 (extreme, 51-90), or 7 (epic 91+)? Rolled a 17, for three, and proceeded to treat it as if I’d rolled for five of them. Again, failed to realize this until listening back later. We shall call this Brain Fart Number 2.

There are five bonewalkers that have pressed their way into the hall with her. She clutches her sword. Enter the Fray. Announced I was rolling +wits and instead rolled +heart, hence Brain Fart #3. Rolled 6 on the die +3 from heart for 9 ... versus a 9 and a 10. Started without initiative imposed a -1 penalty on my next roll.

“I should have stayed by the door,” she says to herself. “I could have fought them one at a time as they came through. Damn!” Face Danger +edge to try and run away. She wants to dodge around them get to the door. Natural 1 on the die, +1 from edge, -1 penalty = 1v1/6. Miss.

She dodges around three of them, but two others managed to get between her and the door. They’re circling in, closing in against her. Clash. 6v6/1, weak hit. Inflicted 3 harm for 1.5/10 progress. Suffered four physical damage. At this point I decided to burn momentum to cancel the dice on the Face Danger check. I should have done that earlier if I was going to — Brain Fart #4. Momentum dropped to 1. Having succeeded on the Face Danger, I felt it necessary to make an End the Fight move to see if I successfully got away; but of course succeeding on that requires a bunch of progress that I did not have because I was running away. So I made a “negative progress roll.” That is, I made a progress roll, treating the 9 progress that I did not have as the check result and comparing it against two challenge dice. 9v10/2, weak hit. Decided to suffer -4 health in the course of fleeing and Endure Harm. Natural 1 on the die, +2 iron for 3v4/5: miss. Suffered -1 momentum, to zero.

The bonewalkers lash out at her with sharp fingers, and bite at her with their ragged teeth. She cries out in pain as they slash at her, but she manages to get away before they can entangle her and their bony grasps. Fleeing, she pelts out of Elenmir at top speed, diving into the forest as quickly as she possibly can. She ignores the pain of running on her injured foot.

After a good 10 solid minutes of running as fast as she possibly can, she is forced to come to a halt, gasping for breath, by a tree deep in the forest. She wasn’t even looking particularly where she was going when she left. Looking back and listening, she sees and hears no sign of pursuit. With shaking hands she reaches into her pack and tries to heal with what little supplies she’s got left. She has 0 supply, so no bonus from herbalist. Rolled +iron (2). 4v1/9, weak hit. Suffered -1 supply, which became -1 momentum (current total -1). Healed 2. Decided she cannot try another Heal check until she manages to resupply.

Kalyra manages to stop the bleeding from her worst wounds. Leaning back against the tree she spends some time recovering her breath. “I hope Dagny appreciates this,” she says. Marked progress on Harvest Night’s Ease, to 8/10, because she has successfully escaped Elenmir. Just the journey home now.

“Where am I?” she looks around. Rolled Secure Advantage +wits to figure out if she’s lost. A strong hit would mean she found the path; weak hit means she’s lost the path but knows which way is north; on a miss she’s lost. 6v3/8, weak hit. No path, but she can tell roughly which way to go. +1 momentum, to zero.

“That way,” she says. “The moss gives it away. Time to head on. Need to get back.” Undertake a Journey back to Dagny’s hut. This was a troublesome journey when she started out, because she had directions, she knew where the path was, roughly, and it wasn’t terribly far. It’s still not terribly far, but she no longer has the path, she’s been severely wounded and has no supplies. So marked it as a Dangerous journey on the way back. Rolled a natural 1, for 3v4/6. Miss. Rolled on Pay the Price: 11, you are separated from something or someone.

Kalyra begins trudging north. Her foot hurts. Her neck hurts. Her arms and chest hurt from where she was scratched by the bonewalkers. She hurts all over. And before she even gets very far, she suddenly gets paranoid and checks to see whether she’s got the Night’s Ease — only to discover that it fell out of her pack while she was fleeing. -1 Spirit and Endure Stress. 7v2/8, weak hit. She presses on.

She gives a long, heavy sigh. “Crap,” she says. She turns around and starts trudging back towards Elenmir, looking for the Night’s Ease. Secure Advantage +wits to locate it. 6v3/10, weak hit. +1 momentum, to +1.

About halfway back to Elenmir, Kalyra finds the bundle of Night’s Ease: the clipping that she took, and the flowers. They must have bounced out of her pack as she fled pell-mell from Elenmir. “Thank goodness,” she says looking nervously towards where she knows the settlement must be. She packs them away again. Undertake a Journey. 7v4/10, weak hit. -1 Supply, which drops momentum back to 0. Marked progress, 2/10.

Her foot begins to hurt worse as she heads north. The longer she walks on it, the worse it gets. It slows her down considerably, but she does make some progress north. Marked progress on the journey for 2/10. Decided there was time for one more Undertake a Journey before night fall. 8v6/10, weak hit. Marked progress, 4/10.

As she stumbles northward Kalyra becomes increasingly desperate. Se has no supplies; she’s wounded; she isn’t entirely certain where she’s going — or how to get where she’s going anyway. She’s hoping to hit the road that she was following this morning. The one that led southeast. But ... maybe it turns. Maybe she’ll miss it. Maybe she’s already missed it! -1 Spirit, down to +1, and Endure Stress. Natural 1, for 4v4/9. Miss. -1 momentum, back down to zero.

Darkness falls both within and without. As Kalyra is bitterly contemplating her dire straits, night falls. “I can’t ... I have to have to rest.” Make Camp. Lacking any supply, she adds nothing to the action die. Natural 1v6/10. Miss.

Kalyra wraps herself in her cloak and huddles against the base of the tree. During the night she becomes feverish. She wakes staring into the trees at every snap of the branch, every rustle. She takes no rest. -1 health as fever takes hold, leaving her at 1 health, 1 spirit, zero supply, zero momentum.

Eventually, morning comes. Kalyra lies quiet, burning with fever, against the tree. “Have to ... have to keep moving,” she says in a moment of lucidity. “Have to ... find ... can’t ... can’t just lie down. Move. Move, Kalyra!” And she struggles to her feet and begins staggering northward once again. She pauses for a moment, resting on a tree and just struggles to think clearly. “I have to ... find the road. If I find the road, I can get where ... I can get to Dagny. Find the road.” Reset momentum to +1.

She begins the grind again, walking northward. Undertake a Journey. 7v8/10. Miss.

Kalyra makes it no more than a couple of hundred yards before she staggers forward and lies on the floor of the forest. The fever is too much. Asked the Oracle: how long does she lie there? Until noon (1-50), until dark (51-80), or until the next morning (81+)?. The oracle said: 95.

Kalyra lies unconscious on the forest floor for almost 24 hours. Asked the Oracle: Is she found? Decided not to ask by who or what. 50/50 chance, low is no. 28.

Nothing and no one finds Kalyra where she lies burning of fever in the shadows of the forest. The leaf litter by her face rustles faintly with each breath, but she’s not found. Not by a friend; not by a foe; not by a beast of the forest; not by the bonewalkers behind her.

Finally her eyes flutter open. She is unaware even that time has passed. It was not long after dawn when she set off yesterday, and it is not long after dawn now. As far as she knows, she was out for just a moment — just the barest moment.

She hauls herself to her feet — to her knees first. Her mouth is dry. She coughs, and pulls a water skin out of her pack. It is one of the few things that survived. She takes a swig, clears her throat, and puts the stopper back in. It’s almost empty. Then she begins crawling northward. Undertake a Journey. Natural 1 on the die for 3v9/7. Miss.

The fever burns in her veins. Asked the Oracle: is this the disease that killed the folk of Elenmir? 50/50 chance, low is no. 42: no, it’s just a terrible infection.

She makes it another few hundred yards before she collapses into unconsciousness once again, this time only for a few hours. She stirs with the sun high in the sky, peering down at her through the branches of the trees. Her eyes open and she raises her hands to fend off the rays slightly. “So bright!” She shakes her head slightly and says “Can’t ... just lie down. Must move!” Undertake a Journey. 7v7/6, weak hit. Marked progress to 6/10. -1 supply, translated into -1 momentum (to zero).

By the time night falls once again Kalyra has managed to struggle her way a little further north. She still hasn’t found the road. She’s not even sure what her own name is anymore. Fever burns in her veins. Her wounds hurt. She knows she ought be able to do something about that, but every time she reaches for her bag she finds that her supplies are gone.

Partway through the day, at least, she comes to a creek. She falls gratefully into the cold water and drinks deeply of it. She fills her water skin and washes her face with the cold, cold water. Night is falling and so she decides to make camp right by the stream. Or not so much decides, as staggers up the north bank of the stream and then weakly slides down a tree and closes her eyes once more. Make Camp, so to speak. Natural 1 on the die, for 1v7/10. The dice apparently want to kill me today. Rolled on Pay the Price. 42: a new danger or foe is revealed.

Kalyra wakes to a sharp pain in her shoulder. She opens her eyes and screams, discovering that there is a wolf which has found her and begun to try and drag her someplace. It’s rangy and lean; it looks like it must’ve been thrown out of its pack. It’s a lone wolf. Enter the Fray, +wits. Natural 1 on the die, for 3v1/3. Weak hit. Decided the wolf is troublesome. -1 health, to zero. Endure Harm: 7v6/1, strong hit. +1 momentum, to 1, and gain initiative from the Endure Harm.

Kalyra is not even sure what this creature is at the moment: all she knows is that it is furry, and has teeth, and is trying to kill her. The sword comes out and she strikes with all of her (currently limited) might. Strike: 6v3/2, strong hit. Inflicted 3 harm, for 9 progress. Forgot I could have inflicted one additional harm for the strong hit, which would have filled the progress bar entirely. Brain Fart #5.

The wolf has her by her left shoulder; her right arm is free. She pulls her sword free of its scabbard, brings it back and then shoves it directly through wolf’s rib cage, piercing it from side to side. The wolf drops her arm and gives a grunting, gasping noise that might have been a howl if it hadn’t been strangled by the pain. End the Fight. 9v2/9, weak hit.

She panics. This beast came out of nowhere and began trying to eat her! Suffered -1 Spirit for the weak hit on End the Fight and Endured Stress: 6v6/8. Miss. Spirit was at zero. Suffered -1 momentum and marked Shaken.

Kalyra shoves the corpse of the wolf off of her blade, heedless of the blood stains the blade and courses down her front. She falls back against the tree. The dirt beside her absorbs some of the blood as she lets her blade fall to the ground. She lies there, hyperventilating, breathing in and out.

After a long time she manages to get ahold of herself. The blood is sticky on her front. Through the haze of fever and injury, a spark of determination burns She gropes down beside her in the dirt, finds the hilt of the sword. She wraps her hand around the blade. “I will not just lie down and die. I swear it.” Swear an Iron Vow. 7v5/5. Marked this as a troublesome quest. Forgot to give myself the +2 momentum for the strong hit. For the double fives, I cleared the shakened condition.

There is a core of hard, determined purpose to Kalyra Sophisdottir. She is stubborn. She has iron in her heart. She grits her teeth, struggles to her feet once again, rinses the sword in the stream, and then struggles northward once again. Undertake a Journy. 7v2/10. Weak hit. Marked progress to 8/10. Suffered -1 supply, which became -1 momentum. Remembered to give myself the +2 momentum from the vow at this point, so wound up at +1 momentum overall.

Kalyra didn’t even realize it, but the stream that she had been lying by for so long was just over a hill from the road. If she’d kept going a little further, she would’ve seen it hours — days? she’s lost track of time — Long ago. “Yes! Just need ... to follow ... the road.” she says. Marked Progress on Don’t Just Lie Down and Die, to 3/10.

Time has been skipping forward; it is night again. For fear of losing the road in the dark, she decides to stagger off to the side and curl up under the shadow of a rock. Make Camp. 3v5/9, another Miss. Rolled on Pay the Price and got 21, “your action has an unintended effect.” Failed to come up with any interesting side effect of lying down, took -1 momentum and got on with things. Back to zero momentum.

The night is cold. Kalyra shivers in the shadow of the rock. It has been several days since she got any real sleep — unless you count periods of unconsciousness. When light comes, she crawls back onto the road and begins following it. Undertake a Journey. Rolled a six+2, somehow added that up to 7. I’ve lost track of how many brain farts we’re at, is that six or seven? Bah! Anyway, it was 8v1/3 for a strong hit. Marked progress to 10/10 on the journey.

Kalyra no longer has the energy to stand. She just crawls along the side of the road. She sees every stone that passes, looking down at her dirtied, torn hands: moving one ahead, and then the other; and then the next. Over and over; until finally she can’t. She can’t. She collapses slowly forward. And as she falls ... it’s very strange. It’s like she hears something. She hears a clattering ... a thumping? She hears an exclamation: a woman’s voice. “Colborn, stop! Stop, there’s a woman on the side of the road, stop!”

And as she falls into unconsciousness she hears the crunch of boots approaching on the gravel of the road. She has been found by a pair of travelers in a wagon, who roll her over, put her in the back of their wagon and take her with them on the road to Eidynholt.