An Eye See Refuge

Two Shot Open Table Play Report - Part I

Mythic Bastionland

The Amber Knight

The Leaf Knight

The Riddle Knight

The Fanged Knight

Myths

The Toad - NW Island

The Boar - Center Island

The Troll - NE Island

The Plague - SW Island

The Cave - radiant

*I have altered the Wilderness Roll to be: 1: radiant myth, 2-3: myth from corresponding island.

Prologue

In an ongoing attempt to give the players more agency in the flow of the game I started the session with a recap of the last one-shot (The Company fought the Spectre whilst travelling to the seer in the icy north). Then I asked them what they wished to do during this session. Nothing too grandiose, they wished to continue where the last group left off.

I still don't love how much of my precious one-shot time this player granted freedom consumes, but I feel it does make the game way more fun.

Chillbane Motte - 014.004

The session kicked off the day after the ship arrived at the small harbour. The Leaf Knight and the Riddle Knight were about to leave when a small rowboat with the Amber Knight and the (fresh) Fanged Knight floated into the harbour. Greetings were passed around and the adventure commenced.

Once in the Motte they spoke to Edward the steward. A surprisingly young chap, but someone who takes his work frightfully serious. The Company spoke of their plans to cross the mountains and Edward immediately told them off. Far too dangerous (read: I placed hazards and several barriers in the mountain range). His advice was to head north west to the small settlement of Alveum and hitch a ride from there.

Troll 1 - 013.003

On their journey they discovered a severed hand of the Troll, sliced it in two and decided to bring it along for their trip.

The Riddle Knight killed a weasel.

Troll 2 - 013.002

In the very first session of Mythic Bastionland I ever ran two knights travelled this island and eventually met their end in this hex. Locals erected 2 cairns out of respect for the strangers who stood up for the common folk.

Arriving at this point the Fanged Knight thought it respectful to dismount and say a few words. Now taking a closer look at the cairns, the Fanged Knight saw a small red and orange salamander on one of them. The Leaf Knight was having none of it and tried to abduct the little guy.

This caused the salamander much distress and he screamed out with as much power as his little lungs could muster. So a little squeak.

But that was loud enough for the Troll to hear and come abounding. Needless to say, a battle broke out.

Highlights:

• The Amber Knight denied once and became fatigued.
• The Leaf Knight smote once and became fatigued.
• The Fanged Knight smote once and became fatigued.
• The Riddle Knight never entered melee range and used no feats (coward!).
• It took two rounds for the Troll to find their beloved pet.
• And then another two rounds for the Company to kill it, I am still not sure in what way the salamander wronged them.
• Three knights were mortally wounded but the Troll receded into the woods to mourn the death of his best friend.

During the battle the Fanged Knight wanted to bite the Troll to put it to sleep. I think the wording on the knight's page "You can bite someone" (emphasis mine) is meant to exclude creatures that would not be considered a person. But where's the fun in that? So I left it up to the dice. The Troll took the damage, but was not put to sleep. Seeing as the Fanged Knight has a special relationship with blood I called for a SPIRIT save to withstand the acidic burn of the blood (which he did!) and he also developed minor regeneration. The Fanged Knight now regains VIGOUR when motionless, but the drawback is that his skin is a mottled green-grey colour. (Future romantic endeavours might be off the table.)

Now the battle took up a decent amount of time. I attribute it to my inability to convey just how dire the odds were of the Company actually overcoming the Troll in this encounter. A learning moment.

Alveum - 008.010

Seeing as the previous encounter took longer than I had hoped we moved through this location pretty swiftly. The knights rested, regained lost VIGOUR and then boarded a small vessel towards the frozen wastes.

Troll 4 - Somewhere at Sea

Skipping the third omen for now since this one worked better at sea.

While sailing along the coast the Company cast their gaze to the stony shore and witnessed a dark shadow looming along the rocky terrain. The hulking shape of the Troll eliminated part of the mystery, but the Company couldn't make out exactly what it was doing. Nor did they care. They sailed on.

Cave 1 - Mousehole - 015.000

The Company arrived at the icy shores and the ruined fishing outpost. It dawned on the Leaf knight that there probably wasn't a shred of green to be seen for miles. He found a nice spot to look yearningly out over the sea, and lo and behold, once he shifted his gaze towards the southern rocky shoreline he caught a glimpse of a cave mouth with vine curtains. He wasted no time in getting closer and was soon eating some of the vines.

Night at Mousehole

Wolves howled, but chose not to upset the slumbering knights.

The Leaf Knight wished to rest in his newly discovered cave, but something was seriously awry. The first sign was that the howling of the wind was amplified to contend with standing next to a speeding train. This was sufficient for the Leaf Knight to head back to the ruined outpost and any other signs were unobserved.

The Amber knight wanted to jump the Leaf knight in the morning. Hopefully call him out for flaking on the cave as resting spot. I had the two roll for it and the Leaf Knight awoke first. He returned to the outpost and nonchalantly greeted everyone with a sly grin.

No one slept amazingly, but the Leaf Knight had eaten an exorbitant amount of vines and met the day with a spring in his step.

Isoa - The Sanctum of Null - 015.001

The Company arrived at the Sanctum and in a moment of weakness I described how the Knights received a cup of hot chocolate. There was a brief moment where the players were most interested in the logistics of getting cocoa to this location.

The Sanctum was a cliche mountain monastery, but it was long past its hayday. The acolyte invited the knights to individually walk out to the rear yard of the Sanctum and wander into a crevice at the meeting point of two mountains. Heading in deeper into the crevice, the gap narrowed and narrowed until it was a silhouette of a person. Once a knight reaches the point where the rock has their shape, more of less, they receive a vision, answering their hearts greatest desire.

Visions

The Amber Knight:

In search of riches, saw themselves deep in a cave, opening a large chest filled with gold.

The Leaf Knight:

Puzzled over the origin of the cocoa beans, saw a crate being offloaded at the harbour at the Chillbane Motte. There was no stamp of origin on the crate.

The Fanged Knight:

Aimless in life, the Fanged knight desired a purpose. He was shown himself standing at a destroyed country manor and in that moment felt a sense of satisfaction.

The Riddle Knight:

Wishing to know of the greatest threat to the realm, saw a land devoid of colour. A fine throne sat in a clearing of grey grass. On the seat a golden crown, inconceivably resplendent.

The last one threw me for a loop. I wanted to convey the myth on the NW island, but without naming the myth outright. I think it was okay since the player immediately knew where to go and whom to look for. But I probably could've made it more mythical on a better day.

End of Part I

At this point we were running out of time. My players said that they felt like the session had come to a satisfying conclusion, but I felt like we could get to something better if we extended it to another session. I expect that in the next session I can expand on at least 2 out of the 3 visions in a narratively satisfying way.

We ended the session by making plans to make plans.

Part II can be found here.

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Mythic Bastionland