The Watcher Wakes

One Shot Session 1 Play Report

Mythic Bastionland

The Riddle Knight

The Emerald Knight

Myths

The Toad - NW Island

The Boar - Centre Island

The Troll - NE Island

The Plague - SW Island

The Pool - radiant

*I have altered the Wilderness Roll to be: 1-2: radiant myth, 3-4: myth from corresponding island.

Prologue

Two friends were willing to subject themselves to my mythical nonsense, so we set up a one-shot. By the end the players were keen to come back to these knights, so I guess a campaign is born. 

The table decided to start at "the big castle". Then the Riddle Knight player, who has been reading Tolkien recently, decided that there was something under the volcano and that should be the focus of the session. What's under the mountain? A witch and the fountain of youth were both proposed by the table.

I wasn't familiar with the Coven myth, but it felt fitting. A brief read was in order. Running it normally might not work, but cutting it up for parts would be fine.

The Pale Keep - 007.009

Before leaving the Pale Keep, the Knights barged into the Steward's office and demanded a mithril sword. The Steward looked puzzled and mentioned his son had read about mithril in "one of his cute stories". The knights were having none of it and got pushy. The Riddle Knight even flipped the desk, at which point the guards were called in. The Riddle Knight read the room and left, but the Emerald Knight thought it best to kick the Steward's face. A gauntletted fist immediately pummelled the side of his head and he stumbled over the fallen desk, dropping by 2 VIG (keep this in mind for later!).

The knights were acting uncharacteristically unknightly. I generally don't like to pause the game to explain tone since players usually pick up on it pretty quickly, but in hindsight this was an error here. Most players I've sat down with have at least a little experience with TTRPGs or know a thing or two from live-plays or Baldur's Gate III. My current players were coming in more fresh, so not setting expectations might’ve been an error. 

008.008

The Company came upon a young man under the goat tree, washing clothes in the brook. They weren't sure what to do with this, so they asked him to provide lunch and he obliged.

The mundanity of what unfolded seemed unfun and I underlined that my task was to react to their actions. They showed their understanding by immediately departing.

Once the Company had disappeared the young man regretted not telling them of the rumours of a mithril deposit.

The Coven 4 - 007.007

The Company rode through lush woods until they came upon a large circle of dead plants. The trees were mostly toppled, torn stumps remains. Leafs that had fluttered into the circle were dead and decaying. I regrettably did not describe a leaf fluttering before the eyes of the knights, into the ring, and swiftly dying. We were playing in spring and that didn't seem fitting. But why should that have stopped me!?

The Company thought that there was probably something in the middle of the circle and they were correct for there was a mini version of the Lincoln memorial, made of packed salt as a sand castle is made out of packed sand. The Riddle Knight started hacking away at it until it toppled like a dead tree. The horses wasted little time in licking up as much of the fallen salt as possible.

Had I previously shown the circle to be somewhat awry with a fluttering leaf, then now would be the perfect moment to show that the power had disappeared by letting a new leaf fall into the circle and that it remained green. Darn!

The Coven 5 - 008.006

The Company surprisingly traversed the mountains instead of forest. The winds picked up and brought a voice to the Company that said "No night for you knights". I thought it was fittingly ominous, but the players laughed it off and continued.

Barrier - East 008.006

The Company came to a deep ravine, the bottom obscured by mist. There were the remnants of what was once a rope bridge.

The Riddle Knight used bow and arrow to shoot a rope into a wooden post and they soon had a single rope spanning the gap. Following the guidelines for action procedure, this effort cost the Company all their rope and they couldn't get their steeds across, so no roll was needed. The players didn't object.

Mt Arduus - 009.006

The Company had little desire to enter the interior via the summit and searched for a cave entrance. Unwilling to improv a site, I reused the cave system from Mt Solus.

Under Arduus - 1. Teeth

The cave opening was adorned with many stalactites and stalagmites, one player caught on and described entering "the maw".

Just beyond was a shallow pool of sweet smelling water. Neither knight could resist and both took a sip. This wasn't exactly an omen from the Pool, but I did use the table from that myth. Two failed saves and now the Riddle Knight is blind in moonlight and the Emerald Knight has severe memory loss. The Riddle Knight informed him he was Sir William the Silly Knight and having no counter evidence he accepted his new reality.

Under Arduus - 2. Mouth

They moved into the first chamber which had soft pink rock underfoot. There was a tunnel in the floor and after throwing a torch down and sensing no danger the Riddle Knight physically persuaded the Silly Knight to jump in.

Under Arduus - 7. Nerves

Since the chamber walls are covered in rich iron veins the torchlight illuminated the whole chamber. A deep gash in the ground separated the Company from a black stone statue. They thought about ways to cross, but mainly noted the fact that they had used all their rope in crossing a previous ravine.

Under Arduus - 10. Gut

The Riddle Knight felt these chambers pointless and took a rest upon the stone steps. The Silly Knight proceeded on. He came upon a chamber of soggy soil and tall grass. While seeking an exit he stepped upon a stone object and mistook it for a creature. Then he stepped upon a stone sword (I wasn't going to let him pass up another treasure). He picked it up and the Riddle Knight player suddenly regretted not pushing on.

Under Arduus - 12. Aorta

The Silly Knight entered a chamber with hanging vines, a lake and a waterfall. Interested in the waterfall he planned on taking a swim, but a territorial beast had other plans. In a nod to older D&D modules the white blood cell of this site is a four-armed giant albino ape. The Riddle Knight heard the roar and figured his companion might be in need of his help.

The Silly Knight wisely decided to turn tail and leave this chamber as the ape swung his way down from his ledge. The Silly Knight had to make a VIG save to make it out of the chamber before the ape got to him. He rolled 2 higher than he needed, and oh the consequences of previous actions!

Combat commenced and it was going to be 2 rounds until the Riddle Knight was on the scene. I gave the Silly Knight 50/50 odds of survival.

The Silly Knight and giant ape traded a few blows, but rolls were sufficiently low that when the Emerald Knight reached the scene the Silly knight was still standing, albeit not in great shape.

The two knights working together swiftly defeated the ape. The final blow dealt by the Silly Knight who leaped upon its back and plunged the stone sword into fur and flesh, severing the spinal cord. The creature stumbled back towards the water, deflating as its life force left it until nothing but a heap of discoloured skin lay in the shallow of the lake.

Two hands tore the skin open from within and a confused old lady emerged. Hunched and plain she asked the knights where she was and the Silly Knight stepped forward to kill her. She understood his distrust but urged him to remember his Oath. She said that her memories fade shortly after foolishly drinking the water at the cave mouth, but the Silly Knight, ever distrustful, ended her life before something went awry.

The Company contemplated the waterfall again, but decided to start making their way back to the surface.

Under Arduus - 7. Nerves

It was really eating at the Riddle Knight that they couldn’t get a better look at the black statue, so we chatted for a bit about crossing the gash and decided soil could be brought in from the lower chamber and used to block the gap. In hindsight this would’ve been disgusting and demoralising so some SPI loss would’ve made sense.

The Company crossed the gap and came face to face with a black statue missing a sword and heart. The Riddle Knight placed the stone sword in the statue’s hands and the statue immediately gripped it. A moment of regret followed.

Under Arduus - 14. Heart

The Company entered a vaulted chamber with a river and a single beam of light that illuminated an old man sitting on a gingham picnic blanket. He plunged a metal cup into the river and drank.

The Company approached and discovered he had lost all sense of time and was waiting for his wife who had promised to follow him here, for he had found the Stream of Youth and had sent his servant to tell her how to meet him here. He would not leave this place even for a moment, for his wife could return and she would be devastated were she to find this place empty.

The Silly Knight ripped the band-aid off and confessed to her killing. The Company tried an explanation, but the man was torn and realised he had known she wasn’t going to join him, he had just been too afraid to face the truth. He asked the knights to finish the job and unite him with his wife. He had some final words that the Company cared little for so they cut the conversation short.

The Riddle knight filled his waterskin with water from the stream and the Company then left.

Under Arduus - 7. Nerves

Walking past the black statue one last time and seeing the missing heart, the Riddle Knight, albeit somewhat disappointed out by his own behaviour, went back for the old man’s heart and placed it in the statue.

The cavity closed around the heart and the statue came to life. It wished to bless the Company that had restored it. The Silly Knight asked how to regain his memories and the statue told him to seek the blood of a great whale. The Riddle Knight asked for a sword and the statue reluctantly handed over the black stone sword.

The table discussed to what extent the sword was enchanted/magical/mythical. We settled on the name “The Watcher” and then after some back and forth landed on “+d8 on the first strike”, which felt fitting for a weapon named as it was.

Epilogue

The Company left the mountain, crossed the rope spanning the gorge, and regrouped with their steeds.

Final Thoughts

When I started MBL I struggled improv-ing NPCs so the only ones I added were created in prep. I’m glad I started moving away from this and how sometimes it works out quite satisfying. I have started rolling 2d12 on the personality table, but taking both results from the Demeanour column. I got Melancholic and Serene for the old man. It’s like the dice knew!

There were several moments where virtue loss should’ve happened but in the moment I didn’t call for it. The death of the helpless old lady not leading to SPI loss is an annoying blunder.

Understanding tone is was an issue for a while. As mentioned this usually sorts itself out quickly, but I think a brief intro would’ve made things run smoother. Anyway the players said they wanted to continue the game, seeking a grand whale next time, and they said the game took a while to click, but once it did it started to shine!

I like how the two trips to this site played out differently. Read the first playthrough here.

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Mythic Bastionland