Wolf and Cat, log 19

     This is the 19th 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 who promptly stole the . 
  

Session Log 19:  8/19/2021

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

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 at Menace 7 of 10, and we're at progress 6 of 10.

Oracle - Using the Ironsworn Dream Generator by FelMaloney at https://perchance.org/ironsworn-dream - I was just clicking on it to see another Ironsworn fan's creation and learn how perchance.org works, and when it rolled this one up which is so incredibly appropriate for my character, I just had to use it:

"You wake up as a child, under water. It is dark. You turn around and see a young boar. You look down, you are holding a hunter's bow. You suddenly appear next to the animal, they do not flee, nor do they attack. They speak in an ethereal voice: 'oppose disease'. They disappear in a bolt of lightning.  You wake up trying to understand the meaning of that vision."

I sit up straight, coughing up a small amount of water. My head is reeling with thoughts about what the Gloom showed me. There's a thing beneath the water, a thing that makes the lake bitter, and which tried to kill me as a child. Our father may have sacrificed me to it for power. Either way, it reinforces my need to help Myrgun on the island, and protect her from the Bloodsick Warrior. I can't let her do this alone. The dream boar may be out there in the dark, willing to give up its pelt. Maybe that's why the wolf-dance didn't work. I sit there in the pre-dawn, listening and peering for a sign of the boar. What comes into view is not a pig, but a man with a painted face and torso, standing stalk-still. A Broken, waiting for me to go back to sleep before he creeps up to murder us!

I whistle for my Cave Lion.

Enter the Fray w/ Edge + Sammutisel -  Troublesome foe - Strong Hit

Strike w/ Edge + Sammutisel - Weak Hit - 2 Harm, but lose Initiative

Sammutisel is suddenly near me, ripping apart one of the other Broken, one who had crept up behind me without my noticing and was seconds away from slitting my throat. I spring to my feet, but have to check over my shoulder to confirm, and at that moment the one I was aware of springs into motion. Three more ash-painted forms rush forward with ear-piercing screams and wails, and a fifth figure jumps and howls about the perimeter in uncoordinated madness. Myrgun sits up as one of the Broken leaps in her direction, and plunges his axe into the wadded cloak she'd been using as a pillow. I hurl one of Emelyn's daggers at him.

Clash w/ Edge - Weak Hit, but Burn Momentum for Strong Hit - Inflict Harm, gain Initiative, +1 Momentum

The knife buries itself to the hilt in his neck. He gurgles as he collapses. The one that lunged at me is on top of me now. We tumble, and I slip free of his grip and send him sailing away with his own momentum.

End the Fight - Progress Move - Strong Hit

He plows into the ground near Sammutisel, who is only too happy to sink dagger-like fangs into his thigh.

Myrgun steals the axe from the limp hand of the one I knifed, and plants it in the belly of the next one to close with her.

I wheel about and pull another knife from the collection Emelyn gave me. The last Broken in sight continues to hop and howl, declaring that he's going to drag me beneath the waves and feed me to his gods. The knife slices open his abdomen, and his mad dance spills out things that function better inside a human body. He stumbles to his knees, and it takes another dagger throw to silence him.


Reach a Milestone - I mark progress on my "Vengeance on the Broken" Vow - This brings us to 8 of 10.

The dawn slowly brightens the sky. We scan the camp for more madmen. Either there were only six in total, or the others scattered.  We appear to be unharmed, so we search the bodies.

Gather Information -  Miss - Reveals an unwelcome truth

Myrgun grimaces. One of these Broken is known to her. It's a man that accompanied her on her quest to the Bramblekeep. 3 days ago he was sane and loyal, this morning he was a murderous monster.

Ask the Oracle - Is this the real Amolfir?  Unlikely.  74: No, but if 2 higher it would have been yes.

The man's name is Muna, he was Amolfir's younger brother. I suggest we should bury him, so that his family isn't dishonored if family passes by. Myrgun is sterner and less forgiving than myself: she says a traitor should not be buried when so many good people were left for the crows in recent days.

I tell her the Grave Tale of the Masked Birth, which is about a human warrior in ages past, during the time when the Firstborn still had cities but humanity was primitive and cave-dwelling. Ezluk the Elf-Armored fought many Firstborn, and when they fell he kept their wooden masks as trophies, and dressed in armor made of the symbols of his hated foes. When he fell in battle, his tribe fled the field. The spirits of those dead Firstborn lingered in the mask-armor, and he arose as a revenant to plague the very people he had before defended.

Compell w/ Storyweaver and +1 from Bond -  Weak Hit

Myrgun shakes off my story. This is not the same, and she says I put too much faith in Kasju's magic tricks. She won't consent to letting a traitor be buried. However, she's surprisingly okay with me dragging him to the lake, and washing the Broken sigils from his flesh before leaving him adrift or weighting him down. I reflect on the hanged bodies in the Shatterwood. I wonder if my sister has a bit of a cruel or vindictive streak. For now, I decide she's just being acceptably pragmatic.

Mark Your Failure - 1 Tick