Returning Grey

One Shot Open Table Play Report

Mythic Bastionland

The Fanged Knight

Squire Suzy

Myths

The Catacomb

The Cave

The Demon

Prologue

Two returning players! One player had previously been the Salt Knight. But the Salt Knight died horrifically and the player had continued with Suzy, who was to take on the role of squire today. It seemed fitting to all at the table that this session should see her take a more prominent role in helping the realm, followed by her being knighted.

Her back story was that her hamlet (002.003) had been ravaged when she was but a child and that today's session would play into that somehow. This is cool backstory but didn't answer the question of how today's session would start. So I gave some suggestions and we decided the party would begin at the Fetid Sanctum (004.001) and escort an acolyte to Windswept Spire (004.006). There was something buried there and the acolyte would help find it and help convince the locals that this digging operation was sanctioned. As you will read only some of this came true, but it was sufficient to get the session rolling.

Fetid Sanctum - 004.001

The Company had spent some time hanging out with the acolytes, mostly drinking normal tea. I was worried the Company would want to get a cheeky vision in and put me under pressure to improvise something when the session barely had any bones. I sighed with relief when they set off.

Spectre Ruins - 004.002

The Company travelled along the top of a steep cliff, until they came upon a rickety wooden stair that winded down to the water. Down below an old weathered cabin. As they stood looking they saw a white speck ascend until they made out a white spectral crow. It landed in a nearby tree and cawed at them with malice (see Spectre Ruins).

Arture, the acolyte travelling with them, was a cautious man (thank you spark tables) and asked if they could move on with haste. The Company obliged.

The Catacomb 1 - 003.002

Green had recently returned to these lands, so colour the Company surprised when they came upon a grey tree in the middle of their path. Arture took no chances and passed with a wide berth.

The Company was a little curious and got closer. A small monkey-like being with wings leaped into the branches and hissed like a cat at them. It had decaying black skin barely holding onto foul bones, the dark of the eye sockets stared at the Company.

The Company thought Arture was onto something and they decided to move on. As they passed the tree a great shadow rose from amidst its roots. In one swoosh it formed a large dark humanoid silhouette that plunged a black spear into the head of the monkey creature, that fell limp before it could let out another hiss.

The Shadow spoke to the Fanged Knight. It spoke of a cave that had once granted crystals that held strange power, and that those very crystals had been the key to escaping death by the Hound. The Shadow demanded the Fanged knight face off with the Bone Collector and orchestrate the release of the Crowned Prisoner.

The Fanged Knight's player had endured enough Mythic Bastionland that this request wasn't even that surprising.

The Catacomb 3 - 003.002

The Company rejoined with Arture and they made camp nearby. Arture made some spiffing tea and all prepared for their rest. The Company was about to climb into their bedrolls when they heard the swelling noise of a thousand bones banging and clanging. They sought out the noise and discovered a nearby brook that was carrying these bones. Animal bones, human bones, misshapen bones, all being taken away.

Leaving Arture and the horses behind they headed upstream in search of the origin of all these bones. They travelled until the sun came up.

Mt Solus - 002.003

Undeterred by their lack of sleep and suffering Spirit they pushed on until they came to the foot of a cliff. Here the water plummeted from up high and what would generally be a lovely sight was somewhat off-putting given the presence of these damn bones!

The Company initially sought a way to climb up, but without adequate climbing gear they would need some kind of major game plan. They opted to walk around instead. They started by heading north and eventually came to the coast that had no clear passage upwards. In the moment I thought it might be cool to have some way to get up, but have it still be a challenge, alas I could think of nothing and just had the barrier continue to the edge.

The Company sighed and headed back south.

The Demon 4 - Mt Solus - 002.003

By the time the Company was back at the waterfall I thought it was probably time another phase would have passed. The die called for the random myth and I had the Demon as radiant myth (which is my way of handling random omens). I had already triggered several omens in previous sessions, so omen 4 was next.

So as the Company neared the waterfall and they spotted two bone-monkey creatures several metres up, hanging out on a rocky outcropping. Then suddenly the sun went pitch black with a fiery corona. The Monkeys scampered away. The Fanged Knight noted the Sun is weird in these here parts.

The Catacomb 2 - 002.004

The Company maintained a southward directions and towards the end of the day the top of the cliff descended and the angle of the cliff-face declined. The Company uttered a word of joy, but had little motivation to travel through another sleepless night. So they started making camp under a rocky overhang.

While Suzy was out collecting firewood she came upon a black tree, it was jet black (Vantablack even!). The roots were spread over the earth, and amongst these roots a surprisingly rectangular opening that lead down below. Suzy retrieved the Fanged Knight and they both peered down into the hole. The Fanged Knight said it might be wise to investigate in the morning, but I was having absolutely none of it and described the sound of hollering bone-monkeys. And so the Company thought their rest might be horribly disturbed if they didn't address this issue imminently.

Below was a round chamber, with three of these bone-monkey creatures. It was pretty clear that combat was upon us, so I rolled to determine the manner in which the bone-monkeys attack and landed on Fire burst. So the creatures had an ember within that flared when they attacked. Cool! But I envisioned the attack as a self-destruct ability, so there was little chance they would survive their own attack. Might be best to let the dice decide though.

The three creatures leaped at the Company and detonated. A tactical deny was applied and while the wounds were hefty, the Company remained standing. Two bone-monkeys detonated themselves into oblivion and the last one scampered around as a living torch with questionable structural integrity. It wasn't long until this little guy was a mere scattering of bone fragments on the cold floor.

This dank dark spot, littered with bone fragments, turned out to be a desirable resting spot for the Company. And they sure did have a sound sleep.

003.002

The Company awoke and exited the dank chamber. They emerged into daylight next to a grey tree and the white peak of Mt Solus was no longer to the north east, but the south west. This caused more confusion than I expected and I am somewhat glad it did. The realm is supposed to be weird after all.

Catacomb 5 - Mt Solus - 002.003

The Company soon came upon the bone river once again. This time as they followed it they came upon an elderly man dressed in flamboyant colours. This chap was making an exquisite watercolour of the river, as a way to warn the folks in the Holding that something is awry and preparations need be made. He warned the Company that if they do not make haste a plague of bone creatures will sweep over the land!

Catacomb 6 - 001.003

The Company circumvented the cliff, passed the black tree, travelled along the top of the cliff and came to the top of the waterfall. From here it was going to be simpler to trace the river to its origin so I told the players that they are obviously about to face off against the Bone Collector. What steps would they take to prepare for this confrontation. I had an idea of my own, but I was interested in seeing what the players would come up with.

• Suzy had a net on her and captured a bone-monkey.
• The Fanged Knight collected some bones from the river and fashioned himself a helmet of sorts.
• The Company came upon the Shadow's black spear thrust into the muddy banks and the Fanged Knight thought it a suitable weapon.

As the Company got closer the sky turned a blood red, the water churned heavier, the surrounding forest grew quieter. Finally they came upon the river's origin. A pond of violent water. Both water and bones sprung forth from deep, deep below.

Soon the Bone Collector emerged, a mass of misshapen bones, large bone sword and a collection of five large skulls. It dragged itself out of the water and faced the Company. Five voices in grating cacophony requested a duel. It thought nothing of the squire and agreed to a 2-on-1 fight. The wager? The Fanged Knight's soul if the Company lost, but the soul of the Crowned Prisoner if they won. The Bone Collector chuckled and leaped forward, sword poised to strike.

General highlights:

• The Fanged Knight opened combat with a well placed smite, eating through almost all the Bone Collector's Guard.
• Suzy threw her captured bone-monkey at the Bone Collector, it exploded and bone shards peppered all those present.
• Suzy swung onto the Bone Collector's back and with the late Salt Knight's mace she pummelled one of the skulls into dust. The Bone Collector yielded.

The math here is more crazy than the narrative might indicate. The attack needed to deal at least 12 damage to neutralise the Bone Collector. Suzy rolled an 11 on a smite die which was bolstered by the only die that was high enough to do so. The ball hit the post but soared into the goal.

The Bone Collector took a moment to understand how defeat could be so swift (2 rounds!). But admitted he had underestimated the squire. Nonetheless, a deal's a deal and he was compelled to uphold Bonelaw! (during the session I struggled to say this line without cracking up.)

The Bone Collector went back into the pond, descended into the watery abyss and a bone cage subsequently emerged. The flow of bones also stopped! There are 4 important figures missing from this realm, so I had Suzy's player roll to see who was freed and it turned out to the be ruler of this very island, Ser Grey the Tusk Knight.

Epilogue

The Company returned to Sudden Storm, a very surprised and confused Arture (remember the acolyte?) was glad to see them. Ser Grey was welcomed with open arms, for many had missed him. He wished to show his gratitude to the Company and granted each member of the Company an ask. The Fanged Seer asked for a helmet and Suzy asked for a mandate to rebuild her hamlet (at some point in the session we had decided that the last time the Bone Collector was in the realm was also when the place was ravaged). The hamlet is a quaint settlement in a valley under the salt mountain. I forgot to ask my player to name the place,... shoot!

The Company returned to the Fetid Sanctum and Suzy was knighted. I gave the player the option to become the knight coupled with the Rotted Seer in the book, or to roll randomly, or select a knight that was fitting to what had transpired in the session. The player wished to roll randomly and, I kid you not, rolled the Bone Knight!

Some say that to this day the acolyte is still waiting for an escort to Windswept Spire.

Final Thoughts

I included in this summary the sighting of the Spectral Crow. The players didn't immediately connect the dots that this was the bird they had killed several sessions ago. I wanted to have the bird make an appearance and then maybe show up at a later moment. Nothing really called for it, so that never materialised, but persisting omens is something I have been playing around with more and more, and this is a neat example that I wanted to include in this summary.

I think it was during the first combat that I decided that playing a squire in a 2 person Company is pretty crippling (and much less fun). So we agreed that during the stay at the Fetid Sanctum Suzy had received some wisdom/visions that translated to being able to use 3 feats this session. Few enough that it still feels like a squire, but the ability to use feats make combat more interesting. I think this was a good choice, only I wish I had done right at the start of the session.

When I made the realm I thought it might be neat to have the 4 rulers trapped somewhere and at some point it would just make sense to have the Company save them. But I never actually thought up the what and how. When the Company used the crystals from the Cave last session I thought about the consequences and the myths that were currently in the realm and I kinda just walked myself to the point that it made sense for the Debt Collector from the Cave (seen today as the Shadow) to demand the return of one of them as some kind of favour (why? hmmm maybe some secret to uncover). I like how now that one has returned he can be motivated to increase his power before the other rulers return, while the other holdings desire the return of their own rulers. This is a little homework on my side, but it is a cool way to have players influence the direction the realm evolves towards.

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Mythic Bastionland