Ironsworn: Wolf and Cat, Log 4

  This is the 4th log of my Ironsworn solitaire campaign about Oddi Ice-Chosen. Character background and start of the narrative can be found at: Wolf and Cat, Log 1. 

Session length varies wildly. Some are multi-hour sessions in open evenings, others are 20-minute diversions over a lunch-break. 

Cast of Characters:

• Oddi Ice-Chosen, my main PC. Abducted by a Firstborn sorceress as a child, only recently returning to the world of men, motivated by a terrible prophetic vision. Wears an enchanted wolf-skin. Storyweaver and occassional spellcaster.
  
• Sammutisel: Oddi's pet Cave Lion. 150 pounds, 4-inch fangs. 
• Kasju Frystgrotta: The Firstborn (elf) sorceress that abducted Oddi and taught him magic.

Log 4 (Date: 7/28/2021.)

Don't forget my wolf-pelt is charged, so +1 on Edge.

Brain-storm Oracle of the Survivor:  Role: Leader  /  Goal: Obtain an Object  / Descriptor: Charming / Disposition: Suspicious /  Activity: Suffering  - There's enough there for two characters. Hmm...

Feeling entirely devastated, Oddi walks through the wreckage of the town he grew up in. Everything's burnt and broken, and fairly recently. Long enough for the fires to be out, but nothing growing back yet. A few days, maybe. Most everything is destroyed, but the village Pillar remains in town square, bloody but still standing.

He hears someone moaning from within the ash-grey third that remains of the house of Oddi's childhood. What remains of the doorstoop is clotted with blood. Oddi steps across the threshold, and sees a strange man. A dying enemy.

It's a broken Broken, with a freshly missing eye, and a wide gut wound festering in foulness. The man is covered in bugs and blood, but the signs of his Broken culture are there as well, body paint and piercings, crudely fashioned axe, and a mad look in his eye. Oddi knows the most common Broken tongue, a mishmash of the worst Firstborn and Ironlander words, snarling and brutal. This Oddi was taught by Kasju, who said "you must always strive to understand your enemy, else you will become their next victim".

Gather Information: Weak   +1momentum.

Getting an answer from him is difficult. He's still defiant, and was probably at best half-sane before he lay in the wreckage for two days with a wound that will surely prove fatal. If his words are to be believed, this man was the leader of his Broken pack. They came here seeking an object, a black sky-iron sword, which their shaman had prophecied would cleave the world.  This Broken man, once the mighty Chieftain Garl the Slayer, claims to have fought with the man who wielded the sword. Garl and the swordsman murdered each other, and the blade was carried away by Garl's main rival for control of his pack, Feris Left-Tusk. After putting the village to the torch, Feris carried his prize back into the Shatterwood.

Oddi knows the sword and man that Garl speaks of, for his own father's blade matches this physical description, and the prophecy correlates well with Oddi's own vision of a few nights ago.

Filled with pain, Oddi insults Garl the Slayer. "There is nothing I can do to you that is a more fitting fate than for you to lay here, slowly consumed by the carrion beetles and scavenger crows! When the dark day comes at the end of the world, and the Gods battle the ancient evils, you will not be in either camp, Garl! You did not fight to the death, you death will come with the slow exposure of the elements, and the pecking of the smallest of animals. You will lay in the cold dark of eternity, missing your parts and the strength you no longer have."

A woman's voice calls out from elsewhere in the wreckage. "Hello? Help! Are you from Sword Hope? I'm injured, and need your help!" Leaving Garl for the insects, Oddi heads across the rubble.

The ruins of the Blacksmith's shop have been methodically stripped by the raiders, but it is not as badly burnt as most of the other houses. A house so close to the forge is built of rock to protect against accidents. The workspace and stores have been emptied of their tools, but someone still lives. She limps and hops to the door jam. A red-headed woman with a bandaged and splinted leg.

The woman's name is Emelyn Firetop. A lifetime ago, she was Oddi and Myrgun's playmate, the daughter of the smith. It takes Oddi some time to recognize and remember her.

Test Your Bond - Strong Hit +1spirit

Emelyn recognizes him immediately, despite all his changes. Perhaps she had a crush on him as children, but that's not how she explains it. "Ever since the harvest, your mother keeps talking about how this is the year. This spring, her Oddi will return. I didn't believe it, but your mother never doubted. She will be so incredibly happy when she sees you all grown up and handsome!" This is the first good news of this entire trip.

Mechanical Note about Bonds: When you make a character in Ironsworn, they begin with 3 Bonds to NPCs or Communities. So I marked down Kasju Frystgrotta (his Firstborn mistress, teacher, and kidnapper) and Forgotten Despair (the community he was born in). But by session 3 I'd discovered that Forgotten Despair is destroyed. That doesn't completely invalidate the Bond, but let's just say I had a lot riding on this first Test Your Bond roll of the campaign.

Emelyn fills Oddi in on recent events. The Broken attack was two days ago. Even if Oddi had left Kasju a night earlier like he'd wanted, he couldn't have gotten here fast enough to prevent it. The Broken attacked in daylight, went house-to-house killing and searching. Emelyn wanted to fight, but she had to get her brother Tern to safety. Tern was born the year Oddi was taken, in that cruelest of winters, and he was always sickly and small, unable to care for himself. Emelyn and Tern and Grassa (Oddi's mother) fled into the Loneliwood.  Your father and sister were here, fighting the Broken, as we fled.

Oddi can't believe that his mother would have fled and left his father there. My mother is a shieldmaiden. Her place would be at father's side in such a time.

Emelyn explains that after Oddi was taken, things were strained between Grassa and Rygar. Grassa was always focused on Oddi's eventual return. Rygar instead mourned his only son for a time, then moved on emotionally. Eventually they split. Myrgun took Rygar's side. The family fell apart, and Rygar remarried.

Back to Emelyn's story: The Broken killed most everyone, and hunted through the woods for survivors all day. Your mother and I and my brother holed up in the Loneliwood until the Broken thinned out and went back West to the Shatterwood.

After dark, Emelyn and Grassa and Tern snuck back in to the remains of the village, also looking for other survivors, but to help or save instead. They buried many of their loved ones and neighbors, including Rygar. As they were moving about in the dark, Garl the slayer found them. Garl could barely walk at that point, but still capable of short burst of activity and ambush. He broke Emelyn's ankle in the melee, but she took out his eye and left him to die a second time.

Grassa helped her to the least damaged house, and bandaged and braced her leg. Tern was freaking out, so Emelyn made Grassa promise to take him to Sword Hope. She said she would get a cart there, and come back tonight under darkness, or maybe sooner if she could get enough help for it to feel safe.

Oddi curses his luck, because he left Sword Hope as soon as he heard news of the attack. Chances are good he and Grassa were in town at the same time, and just didn't see each other.

At this point, Garl the Slayer has again found strength enough to move, and cunning enough to ambush. Holding in his guts with one hand, he creeps out of the wreckage of the Bitterblad home, intending to murder Oddi and earn his place in the Broken afterlife.

Challenge - As a chieftain, Garl the Slayer would normally be Formidable. However, he is badly wounded, so let's just call him Garl the Gutted, and downgrade him to Dangerous.

Enter the Fray w/ Cave Lion Companion  - Weak Hit - Take Initiative - Because of using Cave Lion  also gain +2mo.

Oddi may be distracted by pretty girl and news of his family, but Sammutisel is still on guard. As the diseased and broken man stalks towards Oddi, the Cave Lion stalks towards him.

Strike w/ Cave Lion - Miss!

The scent of blood, and lumbering gait of Garl the Gutted causes Sammutisel to misjudge his prey. As the cat goes in for what it judges an easy kill, the Broken snaps into motion, swinging his jagged axe at the cat. Hunter has become hunted has become hunter again!  Sammutisel takes 2 Harm!

Companion Endure Harm - Weak Hit!

Because he's at 2 Health still, Sammutisel is still okay, but i realize that maybe Companions are more fragile than I expected.

Clash - Miss!

Hearing the snarl and scream, Oddi loosens his own axe and rushes to his cat's defense. With the speed of death, Garl the Gutted spins and strikes at Oddi! Blood flies! 2 Harm to Oddi!

Turn The Tide -  Take back the Initiative, add +1 (and +1mo if I Hit)

Strike w/ Cave Lion - Strong Hit!  Inflict 3 harm, +3mo

Garl may well be better than either of us, but with both Wolf and Cat fighting from opposite sides, it's too much for him.

Strike - Iron - Spend mo for Weak Hit - Inflict 2 harm

We hit him hard, and now I start to get a little too confident. I press my advantage, and my axe bites into him again, but he grabs my arm. We end up in a tumble where my Cat cannot help, and my axe slips from my grasp to land in the dirt just out of reach.

Clash - Iron - Miss - I take 2 harm, health to 1

In such a tight tangle the Broken bites me! I claw at his good eye, and force him to release his bite. Spitting blood he screams in the old Broken tongue: "You taste like your father!"

Secure an Advantage - Wits - Strong!  - take a move with +1

We are so close and tangled, neither can strike an effective blow. But I remember that he has an open wound on his gut, so I wrestle him closer and try to drag his torso across my gear. The buckle of my baldric snags at his guts and he yowls in pain. It's the opening I need to push him away for a moment, hold him where Sammutisel can strike.

Strike w/ Cave Lion - Edge+1 - Weak - +2mo

The cat rakes his back, but the mighty Garl continues to scream mad murder in my face.

Clash - Iron - Strong Hit - +1mo

I free my hand, and strike again at his good eye. It's enough to break him free and push him away. I roll onto my knees, and look about frantically for my axe. Garl the Gutted, his namesake spilling out into his hands, also struggles to gain his footing.

"Oddi!" Emelyn shouts my name. I glance towards the doorframe, but she's no longer there. She'd made it several paces away before her ankle gave out. She went down hard in the dirt, next to where my axe had landed. Our eyes meet. Laying on her side, she tosses my axe to me. Blood-wet hands barely manage to catch it, and I twist into a cross-body swing.

End the Fight - Weak Hit!  (Holy crap this fight is so frustrating! In a good way. To win this fight I needed to inflict 5 harm, then score a Strong Hit. I inflicted 9 harm before I got the strong hit I needed. Then on the roll to end it, since I'd done the maximum progress, all I needed to do was not roll a 10 on either of two d10s. So of course I roll a 10! It's terrifying to think that this is the second-lowest difficulty a fight can be.)

The axe bites deep, enough to kill. The look on Garl's face though is one of rapture and glory. He's earned the place in the Broken afterlife that I'd hoped to deny him. This makes me very angry, and for a second I glimpse the madness that Breaks such men.

Endure Stress - Spirit to 0 then -1 momentum.  Weak hit.

Seething with rage, I strike again and again at his body. Chunks come off at weird angles, and I am covered in viscera. I collapse, sobbing.

I get my wits back a few seconds later, when Sammutisel starts licking the gore off my face.

This is not how I imagined my return to the village.

"Are you hurt?" Emelyn is crawling towards me.

"I'll live. Will you?"

"Don't be stupid, it's just my ankle."

I manage a self-conscious half-laugh. The great cat resumes cleaning my face. His breath is hot, and his tongue only a bit softer than a briar patch. I close my eyes and start to protest, but don't really have the strength left in me to make him stop. I lay there for a moment, annoyed, but thankful to be alive.

Before I have opened my eyes again, Emelyn pulls herself up beside us, and drapes her arm across me. It's the first time I've touched human skin in 10 years and 2.  I'd almost forgotten that other humans are warm, not icy like the Firstborn. I'm suddenly very self-aware, and can barely breathe.

"Let me get those wounds wrapped up before your big friend here starts chewing on you." She wasn't trying to initiate something romantic, but was just checking my wounds. That's when the adrenalin wears off, and suddenly I'm aware of a throbbing cut on my arm, a bite on shoulder, and about a hundred bruises.

Make Camp - Weak

We decide that Feris and the Broken had abandoned Garl to his fate, so it's safe enough to stay here and catch our breath. We expect Grassa and help from Sword Hope will likely come by nightfall. So the best thing to do is wait for help from the next town over. We make a fire. We relax a bit, and my spirits are lifted.

Heal Oddi - Weak - Health up to 3, supply down to 1.

Heal Sammutisel - Strong -  Companion Health up to 4

Heal Emelyn - Strong

We spend some time patching up each other's wounds. I break into my satchel for a warming poultice taught to me by Kasju, which that plus a better brace gets Emelyn's ankle mending better. Sammutisel knows the smell of the medicines, and starts to purr.

Forge A Bond w/ Story Weaver - Strong Hit

Emelyn asks questions about the Firstborn, and my many years of absence. I tell her tales of the Frozen Cave of Zhan. Zhan the Twisted was the being who taught Kasju the ways of magic. He was a trickster figure, a deceitful liar who stole magic from the Gods and buried it beneath the earth. Zhan brings the storms of winter, which harden the soul of the earth. Zhan brings the floods of spring, which flay the flesh of the earth.

These stories significantly impress Emelyn. A friendship is starting to form. If we both didn't have so much to worry about, maybe it would be something more romantic. Two people, alone in the dark, having just been through hell, things could happen. But we're sore and injured, and our families are in peril, so nothing happens.


Ask the Oracle -  Does Grassa show up? - In a typical trope-y tale, they'd be fridging the mom or the sister. While I'm okay with Oddi having to rescue Grassa, I don't want to kill her off, and I think Myrgun is definitely in the "Princess who saves herself category". So let's subvert a bit of the usual, and call this Likely that Grassa shows up as expected. Roll 1d100. On a 1-25 she doesn't arrive and Oddi has to feel all sorts of worry and guilt about not having headed back to Sword Hope himself since he could walk. On a 26-100 Grassa shows up with the next plot coupon. Roll: 02. NO!  We'll probably start the session 5 with Oddi heading to Sword Hope to find out what's going on.


Another Mechanical Note about Bonds: Still contemplating my third Bond. I could gave just put Emelyn on the list for that instead of rolling now (or I could have just assumed she was already covered by "Forgotten Despair").  I wrote up a little backstory on his father's sword, the Bitter Blade, but that may be a waste of a Bond unless the sword is a conscious and active NPC. Likewise, a Bond to Sammutisel his cat is mechanically redundant. So the other option would be to pick up some other Firstborn that Kasju may have introduced him to. Or maybe, this Zhan the Twisted fellow, who may be an interesting and dangerous Trickster figure. I'm leaving my options open for now.