Silver Sasquatch

One Shot Open Table Play Report

Mythic Bastionland

The Tiger Knight

The Ring Knight

The Saddle Knight

Myths

The Troll

The Pool

Prologue

For this one-shot a fresh Company of Knights was to arrive in the realm. The table thought it fitting that they were exiled from their realm and needed some artefact as means of redemption. The book's margin sparks suggested Silver Fur to which the table nodded in agreement.

South Harbour - 008.011

The Company disembarked after their weeks long travel. Their horses kissed the solid ground and all left towards the Pale Keep.

The Pool 2 - 008.010

The Company crested a hill and saw in the valley below an elderly chap who was beyond distraught. He had sipped from a strange brook and upon taking his lunch break discovered his body old and aching. He looked to the Company for a guide to rid this curse and a curt Tiger Knight dashed any hope the man had had by telling him they had no idea how to help him.

Nevertheless, when he was much much younger (hours prior) he had been an adept hunter, and so the Company thought his presence might be useful.

The Pale Keep - 007.009

The Company spent some time mingling with the smallfolk in taverns and around market stalls. They gathered several accounts of hunters and travellers who had heard of sightings of a furred silver creature in the area north of the Pale Keep. A seller of dried plants and a variety of herbal drinks (not all harmful) had heard of others drinking from strange water bodies and subsequently enduring odd phenomena. Last she heard they had travelled to the NW island in search of wisdom from the Seer.

The Troll 1 - 007.008

The day started with a paradoxical gentle thunder. Fittingly more nonsense followed when they came across an arm that had been lobbed off a rather large creature. The arm was minding its own business, plodding along when the Company decided to hack at it and cut hand from radius and ulna. The Saddle Knight was pleased to have this as a keepsake, but did show concern about her horse potentially being weirded out (probably not the strangest thing to go into those saddlebags).

The Troll 3 - 006.007

The sun touched the horizon as a freaked out woman ran from the treeline towards the Company. She was innocently cave robbing when she saw strange movement the periphery of her torchlight. She was keen to mention that she had perforated the moving thing in her retreat.

The Company was obviously keen to see what was in that cave.

Close to the entrance was a substantial area of dried blood and broken bones, already checked for valuables by the woman. This weak attempt at interior decoration would give most mortals at minimum reason to think over proceeding, but the Company didn't think too much of it. Further in the cave they found a severed arm, perfectly skewered by a single arrow. Coincidentally a left arm, as was the previous one they came across.

There where large slabs of rock that had been placed atop now dried mud. The Company took this to mean that this was a site for rituals and who was I to deny that. The Saddle Knight vandalised these creations and came upon a cold pendant.

The Troll 2 - 006.007

During her nightly watch the Saddle Knight saw a bright red salamander crawl up the trunk of a nearby tree. She lobbed her axe at it, but it scampered away. I wonder if the death cry of the salamander would've alerted a nearby creature...

Havenbrook - 007.006

The Company spent little time mingling with the smallfolk of Havenbrook. They asked a trapper on the outskirts of the hamlet about a creature in silver fur, were pointed towards the north east and they pretty much immediately left. The Company left in a bluster that left the trapper puzzled at how surreal the encounter had been.

The Troll 5 - 007.005

The Company stumbled upon a small pond a shade of metallic bronze. They immediately cautioned each other that drinking the water would surely bring upon sudden and intense ageing. The Saddle Knight dipped the recently acquired giant hand into the water. As the ripples radiated out the distorted reflection showed a scene of a large furry creature flanked by men with long axes. They moved back and forth in a strange dance, each time the creature lunged forward menacingly the men at its back would dig their axes into its back. As the scene played out the creature diminished in size.

Other things were dipped in the water and the same scene played out each time. The Company was sure that each of these objects were of import to this ritual they were seeing. It was the Ring Knight who (wisely) said that the objects are not linked and that the scene will show no matter the disturbance, but the other two knights continued to seek a deeper connection. The Saddle Knight threw out the idea that it is the Silver Fur that turns humans into these creatures and oh boy, that would be a cool myth.

The Company made camp well away from the pond.

The Troll 6 - 008.004

Traversing the dense forest the Company heard the manic wailing of the Troll. The day was misty and the canopy let in but mere beams of light, so the tone was fittingly ominous. The Troll was wild with rage and throwing logs and boulders, slamming and bashing. Something had sent the creature into a blind rage.

The Company set up a trap where the Ring Knight and the now geriatric hunter stood within the Ring Knight's Unbreakable Circle. The Saddle Knight, somewhat unsurprisingly, remained saddled (coward!) and the Tiger Knight hid behind a tree, unsurprisingly ready to pounce. The Knights all living up to their archetypes.

The dumb beast fell for their trap and bounded towards the Ring Knight only to swat empty air as the Circle pushed him back. The hunter shot, the Ring Knight taunted, the Tiger Knight pounced and the Saddle Knight lobbed an axe.

But the Troll, green and grey under a magnificent silver fur cloak, was not going down without a fight, it picked a large rock and lobbed it at the Ring Knight who was suddenly confronted with a potentially fatal flaw of his Circle.

A few rounds later and the Company had the Troll down on one knee, as it tried to stand up the Saddle Knight skewered a spear behind its kneecap and, thrusting outwards, cut skin and severed tendon. The Tiger Knight used his two blades to reopen a large gash in the creature's chest, a half healed wound now bleeding again. The Ring Knight vacated his Circle and leaped up, pulling the silver fur cloak off the Troll's shoulders and landing like a superhero.

The players took a minute to describe the Kurosawa-esque spray of Troll's blood as I wiped a tear of happiness from my cheek.

Epilogue

The Company made plans to head to the NW island to speak to the Seer. The elderly hunter had helped out in the battle against the Troll and they respected that. So the players essentially wrote the set up of my next one-shot :D.

Final Thoughts

For anyone keeping up with these play reports, it might be useful for me to clarify that this one-shot is organised by another org and not the usual chain of one-shots that are organised by my FLGS (which often feature the Fanged Knight). So I wanted a fresh set of knights and a non-filled map and fresh quests.

For this session I did not follow strict omen order. I jumped around a bit, but it wasn't all referee-fiat. For example, when Troll 6 occurred I had decided that omen 4 and 6 were plausible encounters. I rolled to see which encounter would be the final encounter of the evening and 6 came out. My goal here was to better fit the myth into a single session and especially have a satisfying ending.

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Mythic Bastionland