Torchbearer AP (session 4)

Players:
Charlie – Lorne the Guide
Max D – Gerald the Burglar

Leaving Town Rolls:
Lorne – Resources 1 – Ob 2 – Wealth Spent 3d – Success
Gerald – Resources 0 – Ob 1 – Wealth Spend 2d – Success

Adventure Phase Rolls:
Turn 1 – Gerald – Scout 2 – Ob 3 – Success (Tapped Nature 6)
Turn 2 – Lorne – Sneak Nature 5 – Versus Giant Centipede (Nature 4) – Success
Turn 3 – Gerald – Scavenger 2 – Ob 1 – Success
Turn 4 – Gerald – Scholar (Beginner’s Luck) – Ob 1 – Success
Turn 5 – Lorne – Sneak Nature 5 – Versus Giant Centipede (Nature 4) – Failure
Turn 6 – Lorne – Laborer 2 – Ob 2 – Success

Adventure Recap:

  • Hjordis gave Lorne and Gerald the location of the Abandoned Armory, which she received from Svana Goldnose
  • Lorne and Gerald arrived at the Armory. The larger door was sealed from the outside, with a large iron bar and some paint in the shape of a rune or glyph. Another door swung in the wind, open.
  • Lorne and Gerald lit candles, and proceeded through the open door. They investigated a room that had a fire-pit and three bedrolls. T1 – Scout Test. Gerald successfully found a hidden satchel behind a wooden shelf. It contained a partial map of the dungeon and a leather-bound journal embossed with a blazing sun.
  • Partial Map (From Dyson Logos)
  • Lorne read the last page in the Journal, it said that:
    “…we are doing the good work of the lord, giving these men the burial rights now that they were denied in their day. All is well, except the workers keep insisting that something is watching them while they work. I told them it is just the rats, but they insist it is something else. I must keep vigilant.”
  • Lorne and Gerald explored the next room, it was an abandoned kitchen room with six large rats. The rats scurried out of sight from the candles.
  • They explored the adjoining room, it was a larder with eight human skeleton. Each skeleton was broken down into a pile of bones topped with the skull. Underneath each pile there were some chalk marks. The room also contained a small bag with chalk, incense, and candles.
  • They explored the next room, a long hallway filled with makeshift cots and abandoned skeletons. The dead looked as if they were sick and injured, and died from their wounds.
  • The party explored to the right, on the inside of the large exterior door, they saw 10 skeletons that looked as if they died while trying to get out through the main door. T2-Sneak Test. The party continued down the hall.
  • Further down the hall, the makeshift infirmary cots ended and rows of pews began. At the end of the hall, a bust of an old man oversaw the pews from atop a plinth. Around the bust stood six torchière, one had toppled over.
  • Gerald decided to take a rubbing of the inscription below the bust, as it was difficult to read and filled with soot and cobwebs. First, he needed to scavenge about for some charcoal or soot to blacken his paper. T3 – Scavenger Test
  • Gerald, with scavenged charcoal in hand, made quick work rubbing the inscription into a blank page in the journal he just found. T4- Scholar Test
  • Grind Advance
    The candles went out. Lorne lit his lantern. Both adventurers ate a ration.
  • The adventurers decided to sneak back out of the armory and report back to town with the journal, map, and etching. The made a bit too much noise however, and stumbled upon a giant centipede. T5 – Sneaking Test
  • Lorne and Gerald ran from the beast, busting into a room that they had not yet opened. Lorne looked about for means of barring the door, and saw a heavy wooden chest. He lugged the chest over just in time, hearing the giant centipede busting against the door in protest. T6 – Laborer Test
  • Catching their breathe, the two adventurers heard gibbling whispers behind them, somewhere out of sight. “…lightssss…. noissssse… breathsssss… yessss… ssssssomeone has come to vissssit…”

End of Session

CharacterBeliefGoalInstinctOther
GeraldPersonaTeamworker
LornePersonaMVP

To Think of the Life of a Man – One Page Prep

Pyle_Round_Table_30To Think of the Life of a Man (1967)
In a time that breaks
in cutting pieces all around,
when men, voiceless
against thing-ridden men,
set themselves on fire, it seems
too difficult and rare
to think of the life of a man
grown whole in the world,
at peace and in place.
But having thought of it
I am beyond the time
I might have sold my hands
or sold my voice and mind
to the arguments of power
that go blind against
what they would destroy.
I leave all that behind.

Poem by Wendell Berry
Illustration by Howard Pyle


FaeFarmFarmstead on the edge of the Fae
Every eave and beam is honed with craft and skill
– The larder is full of jams, honeys, and dried goods

Blood-Red Barn
Fresh paint spread evenly across well-sanded lumber
– A dappled roan whinnies, oiled plow-harness nearby 

The Timeless Oak
An idyllic post oak stands alone beside a cleared field
– The tree demands your worship and adoration
– The tree soothes your fears and dulls your mind

Fields of Gold and Barley
The smell of freshly cut hay wafts from shapely bales
– Farmer offers you shelter and food for your labors
– Fields are sown with bones and watered in sweat

Fairy Time:
Time passes more slowly in this realm, every day here is a mortal season.

Forget the World:
Every time a character eats, sleeps, or labors they risk forgetting their:

  1. Dreams
  2. Loves
  3. Friends
  4. Fears
  5. Foes
  6. Family
  7. Home
  8. Self

 

Adventure Prep PDF: Here
Hex Kit Map
For
Forest Hymn

Shoalmont_26_Fae_Farmstead

The Arctic Trail – One Page Prep

The Keep
Summer hunting fortress of a distant prideful lord.

  • Iron-barred gates, deep claw gouges in the wood
  • Rear wall was partially collapsed by a rock slide
  • Pristine trophies decorate the inner chambers
  • Hunting tapestries depict all manner of beasts

Prospector Camp
Spruce-pole longhouse near a mountain stream.

  • Frozen sluice box glimmers with bits of gold dust
  • Scattered remains of prospectors long decayed
  • Buried stashes, a dwarf might smell out the gold
  • Gold is haunted, unless burial rites are performed

The Tower
Biting winds howl through the broken battlements.

  • Diabolist dwells here to study the ancient portal
  • Eternal fires burn in volcanic hearths on each floor
  • Bound blue imp deters visitors, loathes
    Diabolist
  • Dozens of journals describe the Stygian realm

The Stones
Obsidian slabs stark against a snowy embankment.

  • Ancient hell portal rimed with icy Stygian runes
  • Frigid wind carries whispers from the fifth hell
  • Hoarfrost blights the hillock around the stones
  • Remnants of a recent blood ritual on an icy table

Dangers along the trail:
Yeti Stalker – lurking in the snow, looking to prey on the weak
Woolly Rhinoceros – digging for roughage below the snow
Icy Demon – trap those in cold, promise safety for a pittance
Blizzard – frozen sleet and hail batter those without shelter
Avalanche – pummel and suffocate everything in the path

Adventure Prep PDF: The Arctic Trail
Map made with: Hex Kit

Shoalmont_24_Arctic_Trail