Wolf and Cat, log 18

      This is the 18th 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 occasional ritual spellcaster.
  
• Sammutisel: Oddi's pet Cave Lion. 150 pounds, 4-inch fangs. 
• Kasju Frystgrotta: The Firstborn sorceress that abducted Oddi and taught him magic.
• Grassa Bitterloss: Oddi's mother. Recently reunited after 12 years.
  
• Emelyn Firetop: Blacksmith. Survivor of the destruction of Oddi's hometown. 
• Tern: Emelyn's younger brother. Werebear.
• Myrgun Bitterblad: Oddi's sister. Currently missing in the Shatterwood.
• Rygar Bitterblad: Oddi and Myrgun's recently deceased father. Grassa's ex-husband.
• Amolfir: A villager who'd gone missing in the shatterwood. I thought I'd found and rescued him, but it seems like it was some sort of imposter. 
  

Session Log 18:  8/18/2021

We find no further danger in the Shatterwood this day, and pass without additional harassment to the shores of Bitter Lake. It is twilight by the time we get there, so we decide to make a camp in the ruins of Despair. In the last rays of the sun, we pick through the ruins a bit to see if the Broken and the wildlife have left anything usable.

Resupply w/ Wits - Strong Hit +2 Supply

Our search turns up a sealed pot of pickled herring for dinner, and another of wheatberries that will make a good porridge for breakfast, and jar of mead that will help us pass the time between them. Scraps of torn cloth from loom the enemy destroyed allow us to change our bandages and pack more for the next battle.

Make Camp - Strong Hit -  +2 Health for everyone at the cost of -1 Supply

We set up camp in the husk of the building that had been our childhood home. It seems a fitting place to make up for lost time and estranged kinship. I tell her of my recent experiences here, the death of Garl the Slayer and aiding Emelyn Firetop. Discussion of Emelyn leads to talking about childish things, shared memories and eventually the fates of friends now lost or feared so.

We sit around the hearth, with splintered pieces of the former walls crackling in its fire. After a few hours and all the jar, it finally starts to feel like we are siblings again. She asks about my life these past 10 and 2, and doesn't call Kasju an elf-bitch this time. I speak to her of travels in the hinterlands and further north beyond the Tempest Hills. Of delves in the ruins left from a foggy distant era when Kasju's people, not ours, were the dominant culture of this world. Of magic pried from the fuming vents in the Frozen Cave of Zhan, and mystic dances under the gloaming moon, drawing ritual energy from an Iron Pillar not unlike the one here in Despair.

Forge A Bond with Storyweaver - Strong Hit - +1 Spirit, +1 momentum and Mark a Bond Tick.

"Magic from the Village Pillar? Can you show me?"  Before long, I am dancing the binding of the moon into my Wolf Pelt.

Bind w/ Wits - MIss!

And I am surprised when the moon fails to plant its blessing in my furs.

Oracle - Did Myrgun just steal some portion of my magic? 50/50.  14: No

Myrgun is unimpressed. I'm not sure what went wrong. Perhaps it is a lingering affect of magic from the Shatterwood, or the influence of False-Amolfir. I decide to go to the lake and cleanse my pelt, both physically and spiritually. I wash it, then bring it back and hold it in the smoke of the hearth while calling upon the rites of Rokahast, the huntress of the [Hart of Coals]. This of course results in another tale being told, as I try to regain the respect and attention of Myrgun. Rokahast who first sought to catch and warp the war-magic of fire, and instead mastered the smoke-meditation. Sometimes when you labor for a thing, you find instead a greater truth when you learn to accept defeat.

Secure an Advantage w/ Storyweaver - Miss

Myrgun is having none of it. She sees Rokahast as a failure, who gave up too early, and watched her prize and pride vanish in a puff of smoke.

Myrgun decides that my magic is less powerful than Fluugs the Tree-Troll's, but doesn't say that directly. It may come back to bite me later. Probably her opinion of Kasju Frystgrotta has fallen even lower as well.

The cleansing isn't enough, and I am unable to enchant my wolf-pelt this evening. I go to bed unhappy.

Mark Failures - 2 ticks -

Advance A Threat - Roll Oracle - 85: The threat makes a dramatic and immediate move, or a major event reveals new complications. Mark Menace twice.

This is bad.  The Broken pack is a Menace 7 of 10, and we're at progress 6 of 10.