Tales of the Ironlands

Kalyra Sophisdottir

Episode 15: Alumpana

Recap

Last time, on Tales of the Ironlands, two travellers rescued Kalyra Sophisdottir following her disastrous expedition to the ruined settlement of Ellenmere. They gathere her from where she lay unconscious on the side of the road back to Eidynholt, and brought her to the house of Dagny Olgasdottir, the priestess of Mirsanu who had sent Kalyra to Ellenmere in search of Night’s Ease, a flower necessary for treating Dagny’s chronic illness. Dagny tended to Kalyra’s wounds, and sent a flock of crows looking for the missing Einari, who turned out to have been waiting for Kalyra in the forest.

Meanwhile, in the grip of a fever, Kalyra experienced a strange half-dream half-vision of a lifeless, rocky island whose stones filled her head with screaming every time she touched one of them. At the island’s center, she met an elven woman spinning silver thread. The woman asked Kalyra to join her, for there was much spinning to be done. Kalyra asked what she was spinning, and the woman said “All the woes of the world.” Kalyra noticed that the raw materials of her thread appeared to be screams torn from the stones of the island and demanded to know who the woman was.

“My name is Pala,” the woman said. She is in fact the Barren — the horror whom Kalyra has sworn to put down. Pala demanded that Kalyra join her; but Kalyra refused, fleeing the island.

Kalyra woke in the darkness of Dagny’s hut to find Einari tending her. He apologized, and begged her forgiveness for abandoning her; but she said nothing, and turned her back.

Session Report

And that’s where we’re going to pick up. For beginners, some bookkeeping. Moved to Reach Your Destination on the Journey Back to Dagny, currently at 10/10 progress. 10v7/7, strong hit with a twist. Reset momentum before taking +1 momentum (currently at +2), and failed to do anything with the twist.

Marked Progress on Harvest Night’s Ease, to 10/10 progress. Moved to Fulfill your Vow on that quest: 10v9/10, weak hit. Gained only 1 XP instead of 2, and was annoyed at my dice.

Kalyra took too long returning — the Night’s Ease will be useful, but there’s no chance that Dagny will be able to grow any more from the cutting Kalyra took. It will last only so long as this small supply Kalyra retrieved, and if Dagny needs more, another expedition will be necessary.

Opted not to swear a fresh vow to set things right; one expedition to Ellenmere was ample. Continued to be annoyed at my dice.

Moving on, moved to Fulfill your Vow on the vow “Don’t Just Lie Down and Die,” which she took part way through her extraordinarily difficult journey back from Ellenmere. It was at 9/10 progress, and I couldn’t think of anything else she could reasonably do to advance it. Wondered briefly what a miss would mean here — maybe she just dies? This issue took on greater importance moments later when the dice said: 9v10/10. Miss. Paused the recording for a while to cogitate.

After doing some thinking, I turned the recording back on and talked it out. First off, let it be noted for the record that I am seriously unhappy with my dice. I was anticipating getting an easy 3 XP at the beginning of this session: really looking forward to that, and instead I get one. More problematic is the fact that I just failed a Fulfill Your Vow move on a vow entitled “Don’t Just Lie Down and Die.” My options are either: recommit, clearing all but one filled progress and raising the quest’s rank from Troublesome to Dangerous, which would mean that Kalyra is still in serious danger of death; or she could give up. She could Forsake Her Vow. In this particular instance, that would mean that decides just to lie down and die.

I don’t think that just lying down and dying sounds like something Kalyra would choose to do. Which means that all the things I wanted to do this session after she recovered are not going to happen, because she is in imminent peril of death and has to fight it off all over again. (Editorial note: found this intensely frustrating.) I was seriously tempted to simply abandon this recording and start all over and roll everything again. But ... I’m not doing that. Because although I wouldn’t have to tell anyone ... I would still know myself. And it would bug me. Cleared 8 progress on Don’t Just Lie Down and Die, increased it to Dangerous, and paused recording again to go figure out what was going on.

In the morning, Kalyra does not wake up. After their very brief conversation in the dark of night, Einari sat dejectedly by her side, and she went back to sleep. When morning comes, her fever has returned. She is suffering a relapse.

Dagny makes her way into the room. Einari looks up at the sound of her staff as she walks through her house. The door creaks open. “Well? Did she wake at all during the night?” asks Dagny.

“Yes,” he says. “Briefly. She opened her eyes and she looked at me, and I apologized to her. I asked for her forgiveness.”

“And what did she say?”

“Nothing,” he says. “She just … turned away.”

“Hrm. Well, I can’t say I blame her,” says Dagny, pointedly. “Here we are. Let me have a look at you.” She comes over to the side of Kalyra’s bed and examines her, laying a gnarled hand across Kalyra’s brow. “She’s burning up! Her fever is higher than it was yesterday. Go fetch some water, boy,” says Dagny. “We need to get her temperature down.”

Kalyra finds herself walking through mist once again. She is uncertain of where exactly she is. She remembers her confrontation with Pala, on the island of screaming stones. She remembers waking up. She remembers Einari’s apology. But now she is here.

She looks around, and can make out very little. The fog cuts off all vision further than perhaps twenty-five or thirty feet away. She can see dimly around her. In addition to the fog, she can make out the landscape immediately around her, which is composed of dirt, stones, and nothing else. It is neither cold nor warm. In fact, as she becomes aware of it, she is puzzled to learn that there does not seem to be any sensation of temperature at all, here. Wherever “here” is.

“Where am I?” she says. Her voice falls away: deadened by the mists that surround her. “How do I get home again?”

Nothing answers. All is still, and quiet.“I guess I’ll just … pick a direction, and go,” she says. She walks into the mists; and walks; and walks. Asked the Oracle: does she come to a hazard or a haven? 50/50 chance, low is hazard. 3, hazard. Rolled on Theme to figure out what kind of hazard. 46, corruption.

The mists clear once more, and Kalyra discovers that she has returned to the lake: to Pala’s lake. She frowns, looking out over the still waters towards the empty island at the center where she knows Pala sits spinning thread from the screams that dwell in the rocks. “No. No point going back there.” She turns and walks away again, back into the mist.

Once again: Hazard or Haven? 97, haven. Rolled on Theme to work out something about what type of haven this is. 9, wound. Rolled on Action: 92, distract.

As she walks through the mists, Kalyra comes to another clear space. Things open up before her: she finds herself standing on a stony plain. There doesn’t seem to be any sun, per se, in this place, but an omnipresent light. The shadows are weak. The illumination from all directions means that shadows fall in all directions as well. It’s very peculiar-looking to the eye.

What is this place? she thinks. She goes into it alert for any danger.

Towards the center of the plain she discovers a small spring: water that seeps out of the siede of a low rise and forms a pool in amongst some boulders. Ah, how strange, she thinks as she gets near: for she feels something. She feels a pain in her foot, which is most peculiar, because up to this moment she had not experienced any pain at all in her time in this strange place. Looking down she discovers that the foot she wounded in the fight with the bonewalkers outside of Ellenmere has begun seeping dark blood. She leaves dark red footprints on the dirt behind her.

I should wash that, she thinks. She approaches the spring and lowers her foot into it. Asked the Oracle: what has Kalyra failed to notice about this place because her wound distracted her? Rolled on Theme. 24, balance.

Kalyra has failed to notice a creature. “Who goes?” comes a gravelly, deep voice as she finishes washing her foot.

“Oh! Hello?” she says.

“Who goes?” Looking up, she discovers a primordial: an earth primordial. It was balanced precariously above the source of the waters. It looks just like a boulder until it uncurled itself and stood up.

“Oh! Hello. I’m Kalyra Sophisdottir,” she says.

“Why are you here?”

“I was just … well, I don’t know, really,” she says. “I don’t even know what this place is. I, uh … was just walking through the mists, looking to get away from the Barren’s island. Are you … the same primordial I have spoken with before?”

“No,” it says. “We have not met. You have spoken with one of my kind?”

“Oh yes,” she says. “In a way, I guess I’m sort of related to the other one. Sort of.”

“Explain.”

Kalyra relates the story of how her father made a bargain with a primordial: an earth primordial, who helped him to conceive her, and in exchange became the primordial’s child, and is even now in the cave in the Hinterlands, becoming a new primordial.

“I see,” says the primordial. “You are part of the balance that remains to be struck.”

“What does that mean?” she says.

It just looks at her.

“Won’t please explain? I feel like half the time I don’t understand what’s going on.” Compel +heart. 5v5/6, miss.

“You will learn all about that in due time; or else you won’t.”

“What does that mean?” she says.

It just looks at her.

“All right. Well, listen, if you won’t tell me about that, can you at least tell me about this place? Where am I?” Compel +heart. 8v6/8, weak hit.

The primordial is stoic; impassive. “Why should I tell you anything? You are so fleeting. Give me a reason.”

“Because I have sworn a vow to put down the Barren Pala to another of your kind. And if I can’t figure out where I am, I won’t be able to do that.”

“Hmm! … Very well. This is Alumpana, the Before Time. This is the memory of the world. Its remembrance of what it was like before the First Spirits separated from it and became those creatures that the elves refer to as the Green Father, the White Mother, the Blue Sister, the Red Brother, and the Black Lady. It is a between place. It is a place where spirits come when they have died, but refused to pass beyond the Black Lady’s door.”

“Well, I haven’t died,” says Kalyra. “Or rather, I did, earlier. I saw the Black Door, and the Black Lady offered me a chance to go back if I would … do something for her.”

“And what did you offer to do for her?”

“I didn’t offer so much, as she told me what to do. She said I was meant to go pluck the Rose of Light and Shadow that grows in the Shattered Wastes beyond the Veiled Mountains and bring it to her.”

“Hrm.”

“Do you know something about the rose?”

“Yes. But I do not think I need to tell you about that.”

Kalyra sighs. “All right, well … so you said this is Alumpana, the Before Time. The remembrance of the world. What am I doing here? I haven’t died.”

“No. But you are close to it. This is a between place, as I said. You will be here until either you die in truth, and pass through the Black Door, or else find your way back to the lands of the living and resume your quests.”

Kalyra gives a huff of frustration. “I thought I did that!” she says. “I woke up! Einari was there. Argh.”

“It seems that your trouble is not yet concluded.”

“May I stay here, for a while?” she says. “I don’t … feel weary, and yet I know I am. I am weary. I must be!” Compel +heart. 9v6/9, weak hit. All right, oracle: what does this primordial want from her? Rolled on Theme: 69, prize; but ignored the results and took 68, portent.

“Great things occur in the world, and the path forward is not clear to me. I require your assistance in a ritual that will grant me some inkling of what is to come. That is the price I demand for offering you a safe place to stay for a while.”

“All right,” says Kalyra. “I don’t see that I really have much choice. I … would ordinarily swear a vow to help you. But I have no iron. None of it has come with me.”

“There is iron in your heart, little one. Swear on that.”

“All right.” Kalyra lifts a hand and presses it against her own chest. “By the iron in my heart, I will assist you with the ritual to gain a portent of what is to come.” Swear an Iron Vow to Assist with the Primordial’s Portent. Troublesome difficulty. 6v4/10. Weak hit. +1 momentum.

“What do I need to do?” she says.

“First, I need your blood,” says the primordial.

“Oh! Uhh … how much?”

“A drop will do.”

“Oh! Well, that’s easy,” she says. “My foot was bleeding as I walked here. Look!” She points back at her bloody footprints along the plain. She picks up one of the bloody stones and hands it to the primordial.

*“That will suffice,” it says. Marked 3 progress.

“So that was easy. What else? That can’t be it,” she says.

“You must make me fire. It does not lie within my power to bring fire to this place.”

“Oh. Well, all right.” She looks around. There are rocks, everywhere. Asked the Oracle: are there rocks in the area that will strike sparks when struck against one another? Decided it was Unlikely; 30 or lower is yes, higher is no. Rolled a 1: yes, there are suitable rocks here.

Kalyra searches around the plain, banging rocks together until she discovers two of them that strike sparks when struck together. “Oh good,” she says. But then it occurs to her: she has no fuel. There’s nothing here but stone and earth and water.

“What shall I burn? … oh!” she looks down. She’s still wearing the flowing white robe that she found herself in. She takes a sharp rock and saws it against the edge of this robe. It hurts, actually.

As she does this, in Dagny’s house, Kalyra stirs. “Ahhh,” she says. “Ahhhhh …”

Einari looks over from where he sits besides her bed. “Strange,” he says.

“Ow!” says Kalyra, back in the lands of mist and shadow, Alumpana. “That hurts!” But nevertheless, she tears a strip off her robe. Suffered -1 Spirit, which became -1 momentum (to 2) because health, spirit, and supply are all at zero at the moment. Endure Stress: 9v2/1, strong hit, gained +1 momentum back up to 3.

In Dagny’s hut, Kalyra settles once again.

In the lands of mist and shadow, Alumpana, Kalyra takes the small strip she has torn from her flowing robe. She bundles it up and sets it on top of a rock. “All right,” she tells the primordial. “I think I can set fire to this. Why did it hurt, though? I don’t understand.”

“Your robe: it is part of your life force.”

“Oh … so … I’m burning my own life away here?” she says.

And it nods its head, the glowing orange eyes peeking out from between the rocks that make up its head. Marked progress on Assist with the Primordial’s Portent, to 6/10.

“All right. What else? Do I just need to set this on fire?”

“Yes,” says the primordial. “I will be … vulnerable while I am conducting this ritual. Your final task is to defend me while I seek portents.”

“All right,” she says. “What am I likely to defend you against?”

“If you are a lucky, nothing at all. But … there are spirits out there that will be drawn to the scent of life force burning. If they come, you must fend them off.”

“Can I fight them with weapons?” she asks.

“No. If they come, you will have to fight them with your will.”

“What does that even mean?” she asks.

“You will know, when the time comes. Go ahead and light it.”

Kalyra takes the two stones, strikes them against one another. It takes several tries before the sparks catch in the strip of cloth which she tore from her robe. It catches fire and it burns blue. The primordial takes the stone that has her blood on it and sets it in amongst the flames. A sweet-smelling vapor rises up from it. The primordial sits cross-legged in front of it and peers into the vapors; and first one, and then the other of its two glowing orange eyes change color to teal. It goes still.

Kalyra looks around, waiting nervously to see whether any spirits will emerge from the fog and mist at the edges of this clearning. Asked the Oracle: Do any Spirits come? 50/50 chance, low for yes, high for no. Rolled a 1: yes, spirits come. Asked the Oracle: How many, one, two or three? Lowest 40 is 1, 41-70 is 2, 3 on 81+. 79: three. My dice want to kill me.

As the vapor rises, Kalyra catches sight of motion in the swirling mists at the edges of this rocky plain, and three spirits emerge from it, taking form out of the white-grey mists. They are tattered, empty half-spirit things, lacking any physical form beyond the mist they’re holding to mark their position in space. Their eyes glisten a pale yellow, and they make a hissing noise as they advance on her position. Enter the Fray +heart: 5v3/10, weak hit. Chose to take initiative. Marked this as a troublesome fight.

As they advance on her position, Kalyra picks up a rock; and then remembers that the primordial said that she would need to fight them with her spirit. She thinks back to facing those drowned spirits in the lake around the barren island. She lifts up her gaze to the approaching spirits, holds up a hand, and simply orders them: “Back! This is not for you. Return whence ye came.” Compel. Initially thought about rolling +iron, but this is not really a physical confrontation; opted to roll +heart because it seems closer to fighting with her spirit. Added +1 because of Deathtouched. 6v2/6, weak hit. Decided it did not work on all of them. Asked the Oracle: was it 1 or 2 who obey her? 50/50, low is 1, high is 2. Got an 86, two. Lost initiative.

Two of the spirits slow and halt as Kalyra orders them back. They pause and hiss — but they do not care to take their chances against her, and reluctantly fade back into the vapors that surround the plain. The third one keeps coming, trying to get to the vapors rising from the fire. That’s what it wants: the sweetness of burning life essence. Face Danger +wits to attempt to restrain the spirit. 7v2/1, strong hit. +1 momentum, to 4.

Seeing that the spirit is headed for the smoke, Kalyra reasons that she can disrupt it simply by running straight through it; and this is what she does. She charges forward, waving her arms through the evanescent mist that is its form. It is disrupted, temporarily. As she glances through it, she glances back at the primordial, whose eyes are still teal and looking into the curls of smoke rising from the fabric.

For a moment she thinks she sees something in those swirls; but then she shakes her head. She can’t look at that right now. She has to deal with the spirit, which has reformed behind her. Now its attention is on her: she is what is preventing it from reaching the essence that it wants. Forgot I had initiative and used a Clash +iron. 7v7/1, weak hit. Inflicted 3 harm.

“I told you to go back,” she says, but it swarms towards her and gathers up around her face. She can hear the hissing as it tries to inhale her breath. -1 Spirit, which becomes -1 momentum.

She opens her eyes — her death-touched eyes — and stares into its glowing orbs. There’s a brief flash and it falls back from her: but it takes portion of her breath with it, leaving her winded. Endure Stress: 4v1/2, strong hit. Gained +1 momentum back to 4, gains initiative.

“Back, I said!” Strike, by staring into its eyes. Rolled +heart for this attack. 6v5/8, weak hit. Inflicts harm, lost initiative.

The spirit quails under her glance, but then it launches itself back at her once again and latches onto her face. It is unpleasantly like being kissed by someone who does not care for you at all; someone who wants something from you. In this case, her life essence. Clash +iron. 7v4/10, weak hit. Inflicted harm, up to 9/10, -1 Spirit which becomes -1 momentum to 3.

She glares back at it, and it winces away from the glow of her pale blue eyes. Endure Stress. 4v3/2, strong hit, +1 momentum to 4, gains initiative. Moved to End the Fight: 9v7/2, strong hit.

As the ragged spirit latches onto her face once again, Kalyra gives it what it wants: she puffs a breath of air out. A quick breath, which disrupts its form. She stares at its eyes as they fade and wither away. -1 Spirit, becoming -1 momentum. Endure Stress, 6v2/9, weak hit. She presses on.

In the hut of Dagny, Kalyra stirs once more. She moans: “Ahh … ahhh … AHHHH!” Each moan draws closer to a pure note. Einari looks up in alarm.

“That’s a strange noise she’s making,” says Dagny.

“Oh, no!” says Einari. “How could it be?”

“What?” says Dagny.

“We, uh … it’s the Singing Death,” he says.

“The Singing Death? What on earth is that?”

“On the way here we stopped in the lost village of the Shatu tribe. They died of a plague called the Singing Death. There was a spirit there that spoke to her and told her about it. It said that the people suffering from it had high fevers, and they emitted strange musical shrieks.”

Dagny lowers her head and winces. “And is it contagious?” she says.

“I don’t know!” says Einari. “But it did kill off an entire village, so it wouldn’t surprise me. But, on the other hand, it was caused by the Barren.”

“A Barren? I am not familiar,” says Dagny.

“A Barren — it’s an elven death spirit. It rises from the spirit of an elf who has made a pledge to the Black Lady and failed to keep it. The Barren was the cause of the disease. But that was ages ago. How could she have it? I don’t understand!”

Back in the land of mists and shadow, Alumpana, Kalyra heaves a sigh of relief as the final spirit dissipates. Marked progress on Assist with the Primordial’s Portent, to 9/10. Moved to Fulfill her Vow: 9v2/9, weak hit. (Editorial note: was demoralized.) Declared the quest over. No XP, again.

The primordial finishes its task. The last of the vapors from the burning shred of Kalyra’s robe dissipate, and its eyes return to their normal orange. “Is that it? Are you done?” says Kalyra.

“I am.”

“If I asked you what you learned, would you tell me?” she says.

“No,” it says.

“Keep your secrets,” she says. “I am too tired to ask. I can rest here now?”

“Yes. I will watch over you while you rest.” Sojourn. 5v2/9, weak hit. Opted to gain health, because then she can mark progress on Don’t Just Lie Down and Die. 2 progress, to 3/10.

Kalyra rests by the spring. The primordial is silent, contemplating whatever it learned from the ritual it conducted.

In the cabin of Dagny, Kalyra tosses and turns, occasionally emitting strangely musical shrieks. “I don’t know how long this disease might run, but we must keep her cool,” says Dagny. They continue mopping her brow, and bathing her with cold, cold water to bring down her fever.

Kalyra, in the lands of mist and shadow, in Alumpana, rests for a long while. And then she stands; stretaches her legs, although she doesn’t feel stiff, she walks around anyway, more out of habit than anything else.

“I guess, I can just … is there something I need to do? To get out of here?” she mutters to herself. “This whole thing is so … terrible. I should … I’m going to rest some more.” Sojourn again. 4v9/8, miss. Pay the Price. -1 Health as the disease advances. Endure Harm: 4v1/2, strong hit. +1 momentum, back to 4.

Kalyra takes no rest from the time she spends sitting by the spring. She becomes restless. In the waking world, she stirs and turns and tosses and shrieks; her voice is beginning to sound ragged from the shrieks that she’s made.

“I can’t just sit here,” she says to herself. “I should go and, and do something. Excuse me,” she says to the primordial. “What else is out there? Is there anything I can do to help myself?”

“This is a place of will; of determination. Of spirit. There are things you can do to help yourself, out there.”

“Such as?” she says.

“One thing you could do would be to seek a healer.”

“Where would I find one in here?”

“Traveling in Alumpana is a matter of will. And there are … creatures; spirits that dwell here. It would be hazardous for you, but if you could locate a cromlech, then you might be to find some help.”

“A cromlech! You mean, like the elven circles? The stones?”

“Yes,” says the primordial.

“I’ve seen those. But, how would … I mean, I don’t understand.”

“The cromlech stones are connected to Alumpana. Elven spirits that choose may stay in Alumpana, and offer their knowledge and experience, though the stones, to those they have left behind. It’s a settlement, if you will, on this side of existence. Find a cromlech, and you will find those who can aid you better than I.”

“Huh!” says Kalyra. “Well — it beats sitting around here and waiting. How do I find a cromlech?”

“Envision where you wish to go, and begin walking. Distance is … not the same here as it is in the waking world.”

“All right. Thank you!” she says.

Kalyra stands and nods her head to the primordial, and begins to walk into the mist, thinking of the cromlech of the Skaren tribe — where her friend Belisant Tovani sits and listens to the stones.

End of session.