Latest / These Solitary Defilements! - A Dark Fantasy Mörk Borg Actual Play Serial Novel / These Solitary Defilements! Book 1 - Chapter 3

Transcript

These Solitary Defilements! Book 1 - Chapter 3 · These Solitary Defilements! - A Dark Fantasy Mörk Borg Actual Play Serial Novel

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, and in actual fact,
0:02
SPEAKER_00: you are listening to these
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Solitary Defilements!
0:14
SPEAKER_00: A dark fantasy serial novel by me, Ryan Leandres,
0:20
SPEAKER_00: written by the die and doomed to die.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: This solo actual play is going to feature cursed language, adult situations,
0:30
SPEAKER_00: terrible violence, body horror, and the intensely occult.
0:36
SPEAKER_00: If you're a metalhead, you'll be fine.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: The Solitary Defilement of One Ryan Blacklion Book One,
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Chapter Three, A New Friend.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to These Solitary Defilements with me, your wretched host, Ryan Leandres.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Come along as we see what befalls our poor donkey knight.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: When last we left him, he was mounting a spiral tower to get a view
1:08
SPEAKER_00: over the park pale and hopefully find sight of the misery lodge and orient himself.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: But as he reached about 10 feet up the stairs, something emerged from the eel farm pool.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: A great eel of monstrous size, oak thick, raises its puckering,
1:28
SPEAKER_00: snaking head from the farming well.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Lesser eels spill over the well wall in exultant distress and fall
1:36
SPEAKER_00: from their lord's body like flies kicked from waste.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: The tumult of the water's churn is immense in the knight's ears as he wheels
1:44
SPEAKER_00: and backs against the stone wall, shoved by his own horror and surprise.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: But he is not lost to such horror and surprise for long.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: No, friend, it is Black Lion's greatest natural gift,
1:58
SPEAKER_00: not one given him by any demoness,
2:01
SPEAKER_00: not one bought and paid for by any suffering but his own,
2:05
SPEAKER_00: to turn horror into revulsion, revulsion into hatred, and hatred into fury,
2:12
SPEAKER_00: in the same span one might strike a match in.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: Fire does have the fun of changing a thing into different orders of itself,
2:20
SPEAKER_00: and this fire is his own.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: He is quick to ignite, burn or be burned.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Sneering, the whites of his eyes shining wild through the mournful holes
2:32
SPEAKER_00: of his frowning faceplate, the knight levels black roar at the slimy head
2:37
SPEAKER_00: of the arching eel and snatches the ripped chain at its hilt.
2:41
[music]
3:48
SPEAKER_01: At First Night,
3:53
SPEAKER_01: Destroyers of the Enemy Dead Will Burn Rides.
3:58
SPEAKER_01: Every morning, they choose to die.
4:05
SPEAKER_01: Zero hour of this night.
4:08
[music]
4:30
SPEAKER_01: I'm coming home!
4:32
Strap!
4:33
[music]
5:09
Extendible
5:11
[music]
6:14
Diffid Morning...
6:16
[music]
6:31
SPEAKER_00: This thing is decidedly dangerous, and I don't think Blackline is gonna mess around here.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: A real pitter-patter, let's get at her situation.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: So, alright, we have gunpowder.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: We should use it.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Let's make our first ranged attack with Blackroar, the dread sword cannon,
6:47
SPEAKER_00: because I don't think we want to get close to this thing.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I know we don't.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: It says here that if we fail a defense test, we become encoiled by the Great Eel.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: And that sounds like a distasteful situation.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so, black powder weapons for the rich and foolhardy.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Let's review how this works.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: These sorts of Dark Age weapons were powerful but difficult to aim and use,
7:10
SPEAKER_00: so the difficulty rating is actually a little higher than normal.
7:14
SPEAKER_00: It says here it's DR-14 presence test to hit something when normally it's 12.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: More than fair.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Black powder weapons ignore armor.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: This eel has a thick skin that would normally subtract to die four worth of damage.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: I think if we ever fumble our roll and it's a one,
7:32
SPEAKER_00: the barrels jam and backfire and we probably won't be able to use them again
7:37
SPEAKER_00: until they get repaired by a professional.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Probably hard to find.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Might even hurt us a bit, probably.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't say that in the book, but it makes sense to me.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: These early guns were pretty dangerous.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Let's see, the weapon will not be able to be reloaded while in melee range
7:51
SPEAKER_00: with an enemy, which makes sense to me.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: And the reload time, when safe to do so, will take a die six plus two rounds of time.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: Now a round in Mörk Borg is about the time it takes to make an attack,
8:03
SPEAKER_00: or do some magic, or cross your average sized rooms.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: About 10 rounds in a minute, the book says.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, not something we'll need to rely on much, I think,
8:14
SPEAKER_00: as time will mostly sort itself out and seem obvious as the logic
8:18
SPEAKER_00: of the story presents itself.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: But if we ever need to get serious about a tight sequence of events,
8:24
SPEAKER_00: we can keep that temporal measuring stick in mind.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: We've had a night's rest, a knight's rest even,
8:31
SPEAKER_00: and have a fresh set of omens to play with if things go really badly.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: But we don't want to burn our way through them too quickly.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: For the day is long and full of terrors.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: And so is the night.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: Really everything is full of terrors.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: Afternoon tea is full of terrors.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: Cucumber sandwiches of terror with the crusts cut off.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: Terror does abound in the dying lands and what can you do when you live in a shoe?
8:54
SPEAKER_00: You attack without mercy.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Let's see who goes first.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Us or it?
8:59
SPEAKER_00: We do.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Let's attempt our presence test to fire this thing.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: We've got a plus two in presence, which is real good.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: On a die 20, we make our attempt and need to match or exceed that black powder target of 14.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: If we succeed, we get to roll an intensely respectable die eight worth of damage,
9:17
SPEAKER_00: armor ignoring damage. Tasty.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, we could burn an omen to do max damage right off the bat, but, you know,
9:25
SPEAKER_00: it's still only just past dawn,
9:27
SPEAKER_00: and who knows what other horrid trials await our bitter night
9:30
SPEAKER_00: before he can rest again.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: We'll let it ride, I think.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay, dice don't fail us now.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Basilisks, avert your dooming gaze!
9:40
SPEAKER_00: 19.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: Most excellent.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Let's see how hard we hit this thing.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Fire and fume and shot explode from the twin lion head barrels
9:55
SPEAKER_00: in a furious red flash and a familiar pungent smoke roils angrily about Black Lion.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: Ghosts turned loose.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: And maybe they are.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: With a sick and wet smack, the eel's slurping and toothy face blows open like
10:10
SPEAKER_00: the petals of a red porous flower of meat.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: A horrendous and ribboned display of human ingenuity, this black roar and its powder.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps thievery, as some say the art of the gun was taken from one hell or another.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: The eel is looming and hanging in a moment of body shock, and sopping confusion,
10:31
SPEAKER_00: as the first gouts of blood pump to the stairs from its flayed face.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: A sucking and woeful gurgle coughs into rage as one remaining good eye fixes
10:43
SPEAKER_00: on the source of this new pain with a new fervor.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: The eel well might as well have been a fountain,
10:50
SPEAKER_00: As the great eel stretches and squirts and reaches for Black Lion to batter him down
10:56
SPEAKER_00: from the slick stone steps, but as the smoke clears,
10:59
SPEAKER_00: the eel's ruined mouth finds only the stone wall.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion pounds down the stairs,
11:06
SPEAKER_00: eager to return to the floor before the eel reaches him,
11:09
SPEAKER_00: but his blood-soaked boots and savatons betray him.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: In his hurry, the stone slides out from beneath him.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: His spurs grind against the steps,
11:18
SPEAKER_00: and he tumbles forward and down to meet the wet tower floor with his side.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: A lesser eel is crushed beneath him as the knight gasps for air and groans when he finds it.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Above, a greater eel thrashes mad with pain against the tower wall and follows
11:36
SPEAKER_00: the twist of the step to its base.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: What remains of its head, cocking and angling its one glossy eye along the search.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Searching, searching, searching and finding.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Striking with teeth it no longer has, a great sopping face as a fist,
11:52
SPEAKER_00: hammering at the knight as it tries to pick itself up.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Clang, Clang, Clang and the night is down again and the eel coils around it
12:01
SPEAKER_00: and squeezes with all its strength how it longs to squeeze the life
12:05
SPEAKER_00: from the creature and find a way to swallow it down.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: It can still swallow, Kenneth.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: There was nothing it could not devour, but this, this black, sharp,
12:15
SPEAKER_00: heavy thing was something else, a crab of some kind, how it wants to crush it,
12:20
SPEAKER_00: this wicked, spitting, pinching crab.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Even now its claws rake at Finn and rip at me, how to suck out the flesh,
12:29
SPEAKER_00: how to suck out the flesh.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: But Black Lion will not have it.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: Held aloft in the crushing coils of the raging fish,
12:38
SPEAKER_00: he feels his armor strain but hold its steel ground.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: His arms are still free.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: On the floor below him, Black Roar lays mutely.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: The eel's head snaps toward him, bubbling,
12:49
SPEAKER_00: and tries to work out where his armor might end,
12:52
SPEAKER_00: but the knight raises a hand to clasp at a shred of the maw.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: His other hand drives its gauntlet into the lone, glossy eye.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: A thrash and a gout, and the knight falls down, not to the floor, but into the squirming pool.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: He may well have drowned then and there,
13:11
SPEAKER_00: but for his arm having caught and hooked the stone rim of the well.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: He wastes no time Hauling himself out and away from the water,
13:18
SPEAKER_00: where the trunk of the great eel seethes and searches at his kicking legs.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: He rolls and crawls and scrapes Blacklore up from the stone,
13:27
SPEAKER_00: his breath laboring to find its proper course through his exertion.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: And finally, in a breath, he rises, lunges,
13:36
SPEAKER_00: and makes his whole body the lever that moves the world.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: The black Zweihander meets the Shining Eel's trunk and bites so deeply
13:45
SPEAKER_00: that a second blow butchers the thing into two.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: The upper half falls to the floor and twists out its final agony.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: The lower half slumps back into the pool and sinks from sight.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion stands, blade forward, lungs working like bellows, and watches the eel die.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: When its twitching finally stops, the knight sighs and leans heavily on his sword.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion leans now against the entrance to the tower,
14:21
SPEAKER_00: carefully reloading Black Roar and waiting against the stone for the strength
14:25
SPEAKER_00: to return to his legs.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: He watches Beauty, watch him,
14:30
SPEAKER_00: and surveys the tree line for anyone or anything that might have heard
14:33
SPEAKER_00: the black powder boom and come to investigate.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: A better vantage for such survey would be found at the tower's top, of course.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: His legs feel good enough, and he moves and ascends the corkscrew stair once again.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: No eel comes for him.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: The air atop the tower is fresh and cold compared to the rank odor
14:52
SPEAKER_00: of the dead beast fish below,
14:54
SPEAKER_00: and the night peers out over the park pale with renewed vigor.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Through the gray light of the dead day, he spies what he knows is the distant misery lodge.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: A sumptuous stone building, a castle cabin, roofed with grim gargoyles and flying pennons.
15:11
SPEAKER_00: So be it.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: He orients himself from the tower and descends, but before leaving completely,
15:17
SPEAKER_00: he pauses at the carcass of the eel.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: He remembers that his food supply is pitifully low.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: That was certainly our first serious challenge.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: We got a bit banged up there, Defilers.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: That fall down the stairs was not fun, and we almost got crushed and drowned.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: We're down half our health points from six to three.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: But the Donkey Knight abides, doesn't he?
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe we should risk a brief rest here.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Not a camp and sleep, but a catching of breath.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: We can roll the camping move,
15:53
SPEAKER_00: but choose the momentary resting option so that the roll's difficulty is lower.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: The reward is also less.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think we really need enough at this particular juncture to take the bigger risk.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: So alright, let's rest.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: If we roll poorly, we'll find more trouble, but the DR is only 9 to rest briefly.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: And our presence, as always, is real good-like. Okay.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Catch your breath, Black Lion.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: Nice. A strong hit. Wicked.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: On a shorter rest, with a strong hit, we'll get a d4 health.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: Not bad.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: One. Well, we'll take it.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: We're still living in that shoe after all.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're back up to four out of six. Not terrible.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, speaking of ones, we only have one ration left.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: But luckily, if disgustingly,
16:42
SPEAKER_00: it says here that the eel can be carved up into a die four days worth
16:46
SPEAKER_00: of food rations.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get some demonic unagi.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Three days rations.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Waste not, want not.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: Waste not, want not, he thinks, and sets about to a second butchering.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: The extra rations are timely.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: He does not dare fill his waterskin from the fouled well, however,
17:09
SPEAKER_00: and hopes instead to come upon a stream before long.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Taking one last look at the slain eel,
17:15
SPEAKER_00: he wonders if he should someday pay an artisan to work the effigy of a lion fighting
17:20
SPEAKER_00: a giant eel onto the black steel of the main, but the thought dies quickly.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: What is glory worth now when few gods or honest men are left to witness?
17:30
SPEAKER_00: No, he stops himself from following that inside path to the eel well at its end.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: There is no time for anyone to drink there.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: He is the witness of himself,
17:39
SPEAKER_00: and he needs no embellishments to remember his last deeds in this world.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: No one, though, will put his initials on this armor when he is dead.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: That thought pulls at his guts.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: I would have this suit destroyed before the fingers of scum pick it over, he thinks,
17:56
SPEAKER_00: but then takes pause.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: It is likely that the unworthy would find and wear it, but perhaps, too,
18:03
SPEAKER_00: it could find someone in their need.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Who am I to say what is to be done with such things in such times,
18:09
SPEAKER_00: something I myself have received out of its time and out of its deserving?
18:15
SPEAKER_00: He leaves the tower and climbs into the saddle.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Beauty turns and finds her path along the wilted and struggling grass back
18:21
SPEAKER_00: into the trees and continues through the sprawling woodland.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Bleak, squat bracken, and unambitious cedars stretch around them
18:30
SPEAKER_00: until another ambivalent fountain decorates a small clearing in what seems to be
18:34
SPEAKER_00: the end of the path.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: The fountain sports a leaping fish like the one they found when they first entered
18:40
SPEAKER_00: the park's environs.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: It is thankfully at least not Aneel.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Beauty snuffles as Blackline urges her towards the fountain.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Clear water arcs from the stonefish's mouth and plays into the fountain pool's basin.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: If no creek winds back to him soon, his water skin will be empty by tomorrow.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: He frowns and recounts the jet of slime that shot for him the previous day.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: But thirst is thirst.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: His donkey needs watering as well.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: He dismounts, collects his water skin, and leads beauty forward.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Ambivalent Fountain, it's you and we.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: Don't be a dick this time.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Be a bro.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Be a mensch.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Says here we can actually make a test plus amount of omens we currently have
19:22
SPEAKER_00: as a modifier to our roll.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: And if we beat a DR-12, we can heal with a die six.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: That's huge, my loves.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to need to top up our water for ongoing travel, right?
19:34
SPEAKER_00: I think.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: I think it's worth the risk here.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: We do have three omens at present, so that's an enormous plus three.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: I like those odds.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: All right, here we go.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: A 12 and a 20.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: One of those is a dirty 20, which is to say a 20 arrived at because of our bonuses
19:56
SPEAKER_00: and not a naturally rolled 20 as with a critical success.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: But that does beg the question,
20:01
SPEAKER_00: if I roll a natural 20 on one of the two I need to roll
20:05
SPEAKER_00: for a Solitary Defilement move, should that be an extra success of some kind?
20:10
SPEAKER_00: The odds of getting two natural 20s are pretty damn slim.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: So am I okay with Solitary Defilement moves never critting?
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Hmm, I'm all that over.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe check ye old reddit or whatever.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Let me know in the comments what you think I should do.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we succeeded.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: We solved the drink from the fountain puzzle.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Mystery Quest on YouTube.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: So we will fill our water skin and heal another die six of health back.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: Three, cool.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we are back to full, six HP.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: It's actually quite fortunate we rolled up another fountain when we did,
20:46
SPEAKER_00: and should we need to, we could potentially backtrack to heal or drink
20:50
SPEAKER_00: when we get overly banged up again.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Thanks fountain.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion unties the mouth of his water skin,
20:57
SPEAKER_00: tips it to the leaping fountain stream, and watches the bladder fill.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: Beauty nudges past him and drops her head into the basin for a long drink.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: The Knight watches her do this for a time.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Then, placing his water skin back into the donkey's saddlebag,
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion finally removes his helmet.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: We see a weary man who has travelled too far for too long.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: His bright, stark, steel-blue eyes have never closed to the comfort of a good sleep.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: Dagger-hewn hair, salt and pepper-black, hangs down to his shoulders,
21:30
SPEAKER_00: matted and clinging wetly from well-water and blood.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: A flat-bridged, hawkish nose has been broken and set more than once,
21:39
SPEAKER_00: and no longer fears any fist.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: It sits proudly above a trimmed mustache and a short beard that covers
21:46
SPEAKER_00: and follows his jaw to terminate into a stately,
21:49
SPEAKER_00: if slightly villainous point at his chin.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Salt and pepper also.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Eerie and eccentric tattoos creep up his neck, wind beneath his beard,
22:00
SPEAKER_00: and swirl along his cheekbones.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: They look like a memory you had and forgot,
22:05
SPEAKER_00: a precious one that you will not remember to remember before it is gone forever.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: The knight breathes unstifled air and dips his helmet into the fountain.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: He rinses it onto the ground and sets it carefully down before pulling a kerchief
22:18
SPEAKER_00: from beauty's packs.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: He wets it and reaches down into the main's gorget to scrape at blood
22:24
SPEAKER_00: and grit caught uncomfortably in a crook of the neck.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: A wayward piece of twig, it seems.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: And then dab at the cuts the desiccated imp made on his cheek.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: He inspects the initialed kerchief.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: R.B.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: It is as stained and overburdened as he is, but it has held together as he has.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: He looks himself over in the fountain's reflection, a blank face backed by a blank sky.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: He has lingered too long here already, but beauty is thirsty.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: So he goes to her pack once again and pulls his small shaving mirror and holds it above him.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: He bends and twists and makes a spot inspection of the mane,
23:01
SPEAKER_00: looking for new dents and torn fixture.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: Good enough, he comes to think, and after cupping some cool water for himself,
23:08
SPEAKER_00: fixes his helmet back onto his head and takes the donkey's reins.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: So, we've reached a dead end because I rolled no exits for this spot.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: As we find the four special rooms we need to find in Park Pale,
23:22
SPEAKER_00: we roll fewer and fewer exits and pathways on our journey,
23:25
SPEAKER_00: and we'll have to retread old locations.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: But it's not as easy as all that, because every time we retread a space,
23:31
SPEAKER_00: we do have to roll a die six to see if anything encounters us.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: So, Let's do that.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Mmm, a five, which says here is a common encounter.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's a common encounter table that we have to roll on now.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, we get to roll on now because this is of course a joy and not a trial.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And we get, okay, maybe it's a trial.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Four, we encounter a trapper's trap of some kind.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: A snare or something that requires a presence test or you
24:04
SPEAKER_00: or a companion takes d4 damage.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: Strength test to break free or suffer another one damage on every fail.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Ouchie.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's make our presence test.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: If we fail, I think the snare is going to, the snare is going to snag beauty, isn't it?
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it would.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: We are riding.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Okay, here goes.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: Ah, fail. Okay.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: We'll hang on to our omens, I think, and save it for if this goes really badly,
24:35
SPEAKER_00: and we can't break her free.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Our donkey actually has twice the hit points Black Lion does,
24:40
SPEAKER_00: so this trap won't be immediately devastating,
24:42
SPEAKER_00: but we could fail enough strength tests to make this a problem.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Every health point lost leads to a bottleneck of tragedy down the road.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's roll our initial damage.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: Die four.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: Four.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Damn.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, girl.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: They turn from the fountain and the dead end it guards and double back towards the eel tower.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: It stands tall and silent as the eel corpse turns sour
25:07
SPEAKER_00: within and sends its signals up and up the stone to vultures and stranger birds
25:12
SPEAKER_00: that glide and circle above in the grey sky.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: They are making wagers.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Dip and feast, or stay high and safe from a world that bites back.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion watches them and feels a wry kinship.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Good luck, he thinks, and presses Beauty on to the other path,
25:29
SPEAKER_00: leading off further into the park.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: The new path is easy enough to travail,
25:33
SPEAKER_00: but as the donkey rides along and passes her hooves through a swath of old leaf
25:37
SPEAKER_00: and loam, something hidden beneath springs and tightens,
25:41
SPEAKER_00: leaping like a lurking snake.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: A cruel rope snare seizes and yanks at one of Beauty's back legs,
25:48
SPEAKER_00: and she brays in pain and alarm and strains piteously,
25:52
SPEAKER_00: hopping and kicking to free herself.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion goes tumbling from the rocking saddle,
25:57
SPEAKER_00: but it is a thankfully soft fall into thick shrub and vine.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: Freed from the burden of the night, the donkey kicks on,
26:05
SPEAKER_00: back leg lifted and wrenched by the straightening snare.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: Her balance thrown, she falls into her side and calls out.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion rips himself from the bushes and makes swiftly for her to pull
26:17
SPEAKER_00: the Zweihander from its holding place at the saddle.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: It is a stroke of some luck that it is on the side of the donkey that the knight can reach.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: He circles the kicking beast, takes the blade, and finds a safe path to the taut cord.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: One swing and the line is cut.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere nearby, a clever twist of wood cracks into place,
26:36
SPEAKER_00: and the remains of the rope whips away along the bracken.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: The donkey rolls and stumbles to its feet,
26:42
SPEAKER_00: blood trickling down from the place where the noose bit into her flesh.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: She skips a meter or two away,
26:48
SPEAKER_00: but Black Lion moves quickly to her to hold her reins, pat at her neck,
26:53
SPEAKER_00: and offer a calming word before she bolts any further.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Easy, easy, he says.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Still holding her reins, he stoops and inspects her leg.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: A nasty cut.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: But there was much more to her leg than the rope could burn off.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: He pulls his gauntlets off and sets them down, ties the reins to a stubby tree,
27:12
SPEAKER_00: and works away at the bloody noose as gently as he can.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Easy girl, easy now.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: His tattooed fingers tug away at the knot and cord,
27:22
SPEAKER_00: and it falls about her hoof in a defeated clump.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: The donkey already seems relieved as Black Lion rises and pulls his handkerchief
27:30
SPEAKER_00: from the saddlebag.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: He splashes her wound clean with the water skin and sets about tying
27:34
SPEAKER_00: the old cloth around her as a tourniquet,
27:36
SPEAKER_00: taking great care to run tight enough to staunch the blood and loose enough
27:40
SPEAKER_00: to keep her mobile.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: That will have to do, he says, dissatisfied.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: His field dressing box ran empty long ago,
27:48
SPEAKER_00: and he had not the coin nor the merchant to stalk himself for the dangerous road.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Again, he pats her and grabs her reins, but rather than lead her on straight away,
27:58
SPEAKER_00: he waits a while and watches.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: The makeshift bandage, in time, does its work well enough and the bleeding slows.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: All right, beauty, away we go, eh?
28:09
SPEAKER_00: And they begin to walk.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: The poor creature limps along.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Before long, they come to a ruin,
28:16
SPEAKER_00: and Blackline decides to give his mount a small respite while he assesses
28:19
SPEAKER_00: the situation.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: It seems like there is no way forward, and they have reached another dead end.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: He knows by his view from the Eel Farm Tower that the two paths he has tried
28:31
SPEAKER_00: so far are the only ones that look to be making for Misery Lodge.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: He sniffs at the air and scans the rubble.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: Wide spires half-stand and connect to each other with crumbling bridge and buttress.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: The towers split open by trebuchet like a harvest festival turkey.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion can see the flung boulders among the defeated walls.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Some old and massive fortress was broken here,
28:56
SPEAKER_00: and it has collapsed in on itself to snuff out the road and bar the way ahead.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Thick cedars surround the environs,
29:03
SPEAKER_00: and refuse-filled defensive ditches would make circumvention difficult
29:07
SPEAKER_00: if not impossible.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: And with beauty wounded, the knight checks her bandage.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Still in place.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: The bleeding has stopped for now.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: Alright, another dead end.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: A ruin.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: A seemingly deserted fortress of some kind.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: We'll have to turn around and head back to the park gate to find another route at this point.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: But, uh, what else is here?
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Let's roll for it.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: An object?
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Make a search roll.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Beauty is having herself a little rest, so while she does that,
29:38
SPEAKER_00: let's see if we can find something useful to help us out on our mission
29:42
SPEAKER_00: to kill Gilbert Skyr.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: An old fortress may have many useful things.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Let's make the solitary defilement move searching for an object.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: You can use the amount of omens we have as a modifier.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: We still have three, so that's great, plus three.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: We'll have a difficulty rating of 12 as our usual target.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Two die 20s.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: Ah, less sigh.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Neither of them made for 12, and that's a full-on fail.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: No object is found, and for our effort, a woe befalls us.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: Hmm, okay, an old fortress with many a cracked open and collapsed spire.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this fortress is not so abandoned after all.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Something else moved in after whoever lived here was overthrown?
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's make a quick roll on the common encounter table for inspiration. Ha!
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay. Yeah, I can buy into that.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: More errant wings.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: Those wretched non-bats that attacked us back at the bridge earlier on in our trek.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: In fact, this may be where they all roost.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think it is.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Hmm, what's their morale number?
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Sword resting flat over his right shoulder,
30:55
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion steps slowly among the shattered walls of the crumbling fortress,
31:00
SPEAKER_00: peering into open columns and behind leaning walls.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: The ditches are filled with debris, but nothing of use or interest.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: Only stone remains, looming, crowding, dead.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: He stares and wonders what the ruins of his own home looks like now,
31:17
SPEAKER_00: some 23 years after it too fell apart.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: What sits in his old chamber?
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Who dines in the Great Hall, wooden plates licked clean now by fire.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Gone, gone, gone, dead and gone.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Exploded and gone when the flames found the armory.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: He wastes his time here, he realizes suddenly.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: Wasted on Wings.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: To pass
31:45
SPEAKER_00: this place.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: Wings!
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Does it seem to him that leathery wings without body flutter now and again
31:57
SPEAKER_00: among the higher stones?
31:58
SPEAKER_00: What are these pennon flaps of old skin, he now notices, waving in the wind?
32:03
SPEAKER_00: With a heavy frown and held breath, he recognizes them.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: The razored bat things he slew at the old bridge.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: Squinting upwards, there are many such skins, and many such wings.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: They are roosting here, Black Lion thinks as his bile rises.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of them.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: He decides it is time to leave, but he has already betrayed time with his wandering.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Inerrant wing has been crawling along a shattered wall and watching the night
32:29
SPEAKER_00: from its non-body of bent understanding.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: It chooses its moment well.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: As Black Lion turns round and begins He begins to pace back up the incline
32:37
SPEAKER_00: of a defensive ditch.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: The wing flickers from its hiding place and hurls itself at the black steel
32:43
SPEAKER_00: of the knight's back.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: It climbs swiftly along the man and sends a probing,
32:47
SPEAKER_00: razor-wing finger underneath Black Lion's right arm to jab at the unstealed armpit.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: To his credit, the knight does not cry out.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he is too shocked.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he is too melancholy.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: He spins and discovers swiftly that the thing still clings to his back.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: His left hand reaches over to pull the wing from his body and hurl the creature
33:07
SPEAKER_00: to the ground at his feet.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: It flails and tries to rise into the air, but Black Lion has stepped back for room,
33:15
SPEAKER_00: spread his feet, and clasps the grip of his vihander with both hands.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: The sword swings from his shoulder and hammers the bat into the ground, dead now,
33:24
SPEAKER_00: if it ever lived at all.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: He can feel warm blood beginning to wet his gambus and shirt
33:30
SPEAKER_00: and make its way down his right ribs.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Sucking a curse through his teeth, he looks back to the roosting heights.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Ah, the brusseless fucking beard.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: Sure enough, some fifty sets of leathery wings flap and strike the air,
33:43
SPEAKER_00: roused by the commotion.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: They circle like the vultures above the eel farm as he breaks into a run,
33:49
SPEAKER_00: up the ditch, down another, around stone and wall and huffing towards beauty.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: They follow above.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: He glares up at them, sucks another curse.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And refuses to lead them any further to an easier meal.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Do they even eat?
34:05
SPEAKER_00: Or is killing enough to sustain them?
34:08
SPEAKER_00: Should he flee into the wild thick cedars and labor through its needles?
34:12
SPEAKER_00: Or should he stand his ground and die for a donkey?
34:16
SPEAKER_00: No further, he thinks.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: What would I be to leave her now?
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Why not die for a donkey?
34:21
SPEAKER_00: He has seen a glut of ignobler endings.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: No further, he barks as he leans Black Roar's pommel into the clever notch at his hip.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: He holds a keel and pulls the rip chain.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: The shot explodes into the flapping sky and the boom careens along the ruined spires.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: As a great wind might sweep smoke from the sky,
34:44
SPEAKER_00: the great sound of the culverin drives off the errant wings.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: They scatter, flee, and cling to their roosting stones in some semblance of panic
34:53
SPEAKER_00: as Black Lion churns away to collect beauty and lead her back down the path
34:58
SPEAKER_00: as quickly as he might.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: The wings do not follow.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: They may have their fortress until the seventh misery befalls the world.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: The knight takes some comfort in that.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: When that comes, it will be a sound that even wings will not be able to escape.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion leads Beauty back towards the eel farm, slow and sure,
35:18
SPEAKER_00: and shuffling through the loam to hunt for snares as his bloodied armpit throbs
35:22
SPEAKER_00: with every push of his sword arm.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: No more snares are fooled upon or found.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: What is found, once they return to the site of the farm, is another ambivalent fountain.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: It was not there before, Blackline is sure of it,
35:34
SPEAKER_00: but Beauty's pull on the reins had led him to an awkward billow of bracken.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: She sniffed and snuffled at it, and the knight noticed the stone fish mouth within,
35:45
SPEAKER_00: gawking like the rest of the fountains they have seen.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: He pulls enough of the vines away for a better look.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: No water spills from the stone fish,
35:53
SPEAKER_00: but a crack at its lower carving sends water trickling slowly
35:57
SPEAKER_00: into the fountain's basin.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: Beauty worries about the basin's rim and pauses for a moment before she decides,
36:03
SPEAKER_00: evidently, to dip and drink.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: Her back leg twitches and kicks,
36:08
SPEAKER_00: and something about the movement speaks to Black Lion as some kind of confidence.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: That motion did not seem to pain her.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: Wait. Could it be?
36:18
SPEAKER_00: He has heard stories of healing waters found by questing knights at springs
36:22
SPEAKER_00: and strange fountains.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: He has certainly seen cursed ones.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: When he inspects the handkerchief tourniquet and bends the cloth down with a finger,
36:30
SPEAKER_00: the donkey's wounds are gone.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: He removes a gauntlet and searches behind his visor.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: The cuts on his cheek are gone too.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: It must have healed when he drank at the other fountain.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: With his armpit pinching and burning,
36:43
SPEAKER_00: he palms water from the fountain and raises it to his lips.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: And that candle of pain blows out.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: It is a rare thing to find a miracle in a cursed world.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: He wonders if such things are bought with future woe,
36:55
SPEAKER_00: but supposes that woe will come miracle or no.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps a gift is just a gift.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Everyone in the course of their lives will find out in due time.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: Nice, our backtracking encounter was a common one, and another fountain at that.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad for it, and our past omens test.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: It would have absolutely sucked to have a limping donkey for a big stretch of the journey.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: We want to be able to ride if need be,
37:22
SPEAKER_00: and dismounted it'll take us longer to travel through this demonic place.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: Every day that passes, after all,
37:27
SPEAKER_00: is a roll on the calendar of Necrobel and a potential foretold misery.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: I suppose we could have gone back to the other fountain to try and heal up,
37:34
SPEAKER_00: but I'm not really sure Black Lion knew what was happening until now. Yeah.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're fantastically healed up again.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Let's backtrack back to the park gate.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Looking at my map of where we've been, and I should really post a picture of that,
37:49
SPEAKER_00: we need to go back through the gate and then to the circle of stones where we saw
37:53
SPEAKER_00: the dead deer.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: And then back to the Leaning Tower where we got our gunpowder.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: Saw the Jester Imp and where Scar found the scroll.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: There's another exit in that area that we can explore.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: Alright, let's roll to see if our backtracking to the gate gives us any other encounters.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, it does!
38:13
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, we encounter another person.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: An NPC!
38:18
SPEAKER_00: There's an NPC table of characters to be found in Park Pail, six characters in total.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: We roll a die six to see who we find.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion rides a healed and refreshed donkey to the park's gates.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: The great iron doors are still open and pulled ajar where he left them,
38:37
SPEAKER_00: and as he surveys the gates' many spikes and watches the posted heads warily
38:41
SPEAKER_00: for an opening mouth, he almost misses the motion by the door.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Someone passes through them.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: The knight stops his mount and moves slowly and carefully to unsling his Vihander
38:54
SPEAKER_00: from its resting place along Beauty's flank,
38:56
SPEAKER_00: for the sight of the person is a strange one.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: It is indeed a person, a woman by her shape,
39:03
SPEAKER_00: but she shuffles from the bars of the door and onto the path before him,
39:07
SPEAKER_00: contorted and leaning, as though the road were a traveling circus
39:11
SPEAKER_00: and she were employed in some clowning trick.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: But the trick is an unsettling one to him, and moving bent and palsied,
39:18
SPEAKER_00: the woman in furs comes to a stop some two meters away.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: Her back is arched backwards and her shoulders twist to her right.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: Her long hair is bound at her temples into dirty blonde braids.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: Sitting atop her brow rings a black crown, metal prongs as crooked as they are kingly.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: She leers appreciatively along Black Lion like butter scraping along bread.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: She is middle-aged as he is, and despite her crooked and twisting frame,
39:46
SPEAKER_00: the knight finds her regal and handsome in her bent crown.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: But something about her warns him to keep caution.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: Well now, you are a sight I did not expect, she says.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion remains silent.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: You have the look of a knight, but are you a true one?
40:06
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
40:07
SPEAKER_00: Not one of Gilbert's.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: No, Black Lion says finally. Are you?
40:12
SPEAKER_00: His grip tightens on Black Roar's handle and on Beauty's reins also.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: No, goodness no.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: He is a fool.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: I am trying to find out about a mysterious thing that has come into his full possession.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: A scroll, Black Lion offers.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Yes, indeed.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: The woman returns with heightening interest.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: Ones that could have the power to command a demon?
40:38
SPEAKER_00: An army of demons.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: The woman turns serious.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: Her face tightens and her lips twitch.
40:44
SPEAKER_01: You know this.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: The conviction, borne from his memory of the dead deer's sonnet,
40:50
SPEAKER_00: seems to pass through him to land with weight upon the woman.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: Oh my, she says,
40:56
SPEAKER_00: then it is a worse foolishness than I thought, in such stupid hands.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion watches her in silence for a breath before she continues.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Might I see your face, stranger?
41:07
SPEAKER_00: Or do you greet all travellers frowning?
41:10
SPEAKER_00: The mask gives me little comfort.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: Such is the world, traveller.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion is still suspicious.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: Some ominous power knocks at the back of his mind, at a door he did not know was there.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: The woman studies him and attempts to straighten.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: She does not quite manage to, but her eyes reveal no shame.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: I am an occultist, a scholar, she says.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: I took you for a drunken queen by your movements.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: Whatever was knocking at his mind has come in.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Something was happening.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: A movement within him like some fever shake from the other world.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: A chill of weird strength and a weirder weakening of soul,
41:50
SPEAKER_00: as though his soul had skipped dinner and gone to bed.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: He tugs at Beauty's reins.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: Cast no spell on me, scholar!
41:58
SPEAKER_00: I have a steel to split you before it takes me!
42:01
SPEAKER_00: He pulls Blackraar up.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: She pulls up an eyebrow.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: Stay your hand.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: I cast no spell.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: I give you my word.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Words are worth little in the Dying Lands.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Something came over me as you approached.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: I am sure of it.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: I feel cursed or sick.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: Do not lie now, scholar.
42:21
SPEAKER_01: Your life depends on it.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: He has turned beauty and the point of this vihander toward her as a lance.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: The woman's eyes widen.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: You sense it, do you?
42:31
SPEAKER_00: How curious, curious indeed.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: I will not warn you again.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: He means it.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: She can tell.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: It will not harm you, not as such.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: She touches the crown at her hair.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: This crown is my burden.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: For now, anyway.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm afraid this is no mere band of iron.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: This is the Black Crown of the Crooked King.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: It gives a secret boon to all those near it, and a curse to the one that wears it.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: A mixed blessing, as all occult treasures surely are when exposed to enough time and ennui.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: You feel it now as we speak, that is strange,
43:19
SPEAKER_00: for only the gifted may discern it.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: Are you gifted, Sir Knight?
43:26
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion has not lowered his weapon,
43:28
SPEAKER_00: but she has not lowered her shrewd and unsettling green eyes.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: Should you find yourself stronger and keener of sense, you may thank the crown.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Should you find your enemies feel the same, you may also thank the crown.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: I cannot remove it, but by the pale light of a full moon.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: I await one two weeks from now.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: Believe me, my back will rejoice.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: It is the crooked crown that bends me so.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion studies her for a moment and sieves through her face for lies.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Then he lowers his blade.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean to find the scroll, he says, and slay Sir Gilbert Skyr.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: Then we are of similar purpose.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Similar, but not same.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: I must send the scroll back to hell.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: I am bound to do this.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: You may not have it.
44:20
SPEAKER_00: Ah, that is unfortunate.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: But, despite my fantasies and my luck of late, I did think it best to dispose of it,
44:31
SPEAKER_00: or else sell it.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: But an army?
44:34
SPEAKER_00: Disposal will indeed be necessary.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: Burned, Black Lion says firmly.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: Sensei Belle, then I will aid you.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: Why let the world get even worse, hm?
44:45
SPEAKER_00: Show me your face.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: You are quick to trust, or more dangerous than you appear.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: She studies him in silence for a stretch, eyes sliding between him and the donkey.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: Then, finally, I am not the former, but I am the latter.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: The wise would trust the man that files his vested spurs down so as not to harm his donkey.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: The road wore them down.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: He is not sure why he is embarrassed.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: I think not, she says.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: You bound her bloody leg with care.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Lies catch in your teeth.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: Despite all odds and years, you are a true knight.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: For I am no sorceress.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: We see such things, you know.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me see your face.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Should I have to bury you, I would see it alive first.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion says nothing.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: Then after a moment, he unhooks his morose faceplate and lowers it to the saddle.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: I am Soror Thrun, she says.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Sir Donkey Knight.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: Despite the pain it calls for, she bows low.
45:55
SPEAKER_00: He takes the gesture as the gift it is.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: Black Lion, he says.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: Remembering some of the old court and the old ways, he raises a fist to his heart.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: So I see.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: She purses her lips and studies the effigies along the main,
46:11
SPEAKER_00: and wonders at the sort of specimen he would have to be to carry it.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Beauty snorts softly and nibbles at some slender flowers
46:18
SPEAKER_00: that have been doing their best in these trying times.
46:24
SPEAKER_00: Amazing. I love this NPC.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: A wizard to join the knight on the quest.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: It's perfect, isn't it?
46:33
SPEAKER_00: The disposition I rolled for her is leering and creepy,
46:36
SPEAKER_00: so I think she's certainly unsettling and a little into him, I guess.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: She's creeping on him a bit. Why not?
46:44
SPEAKER_00: He's a good looking dude.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: A silvering fox, or lion as it were.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: And what did I say before?
46:50
SPEAKER_00: Danger and love is the spice of human life.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't think I want romance out of this particularly,
46:56
SPEAKER_00: but we'll see what makes sense as things unfold. You never know.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: This Soror Drun is, in fact, a quite dangerous person.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: She comes into the scene with a sacred power, a sacred scroll, a spell basically,
47:12
SPEAKER_00: and an occult treasure.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'll reveal the spell when the moment is right, but holy shitting shit,
47:19
SPEAKER_00: this occult treasure.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: I rolled for it and got one that absolutely changes the game.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, all of the occult treasures in the Mörk Borg book are wild, but this one,
47:31
SPEAKER_00: in particular, the Black Crown of the Crooked King, is probably the most extreme.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it does.
47:39
SPEAKER_00: Black Crown of the Crippled King.
47:41
SPEAKER_00: Sharing this crooks your body as you become aware that you and every creature
47:45
SPEAKER_00: within 100 yards gain plus 10 to attack rolls but minus 10 to defense rolls.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: Rolls that go above 20 always count as crits and below 1 count as fumbles.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: The worn crown can only be removed in the pale light of a full moon.
48:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: So I flipped a coin to see if she already had it on and the answer was yes.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: So every attack roll is likely to hit and every defense roll is now likely to fail.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Awesome, until we're on the receiving end.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: The game extremely perilous to say the least.
48:25
SPEAKER_00: Combat just got very very dangerous and very swingy.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Omens are gonna be even more clutch.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have to have an omen hopefully ready at all times somehow.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: Thankfully this so-called scholar is on our side since they made a reaction roll
48:40
SPEAKER_00: for her and got helpful.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: Could have been hostile, yeah.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: The slightest fight might turn into a TPK,
48:47
SPEAKER_00: a total party kill, as they say in D&D parlance.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: Well friends, our duo has officially become a trio,
48:56
SPEAKER_00: and with the addition of the third, a sorceress in a cursed crown,
49:00
SPEAKER_00: the quest has become twice as unforgiving.
49:04
SPEAKER_00: Tracks today were Bolt Thrower with At First Light and Eternal Champion with Flight
49:10
SPEAKER_00: Over the Battle at Arithia.
49:23
SPEAKER_00: If you found this podcast out in the wilds,
49:25
SPEAKER_00: you can follow it and read the fiction parts at thesolitarydefilements.substack.com.
49:32
SPEAKER_00: And you can find me on Instagram if you want, at thewizaard.
49:36
SPEAKER_00: That's the wizard, with two A's, because I was too damn slow.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: This is produced by the will of the Watchers by the Gate of Horn.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: But credit really goes to the lore and vision of Pell Nilsson and Johan Neuer
49:52
SPEAKER_00: of Occult Ortmastar Games and Stockholm Cartel for Mörk Borg and 1D10 Plus 5
49:58
SPEAKER_00: for the solo play supplement Solitary Defile.
50:01
SPEAKER_00: The solo module Park Pail is also by 1D10 Plus 5.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: The title track is Descending Into Darkness by Disrape
50:08
SPEAKER_00: and the closing credit song is Grav Frost with a cover of Misanthrope
50:13
SPEAKER_00: by Blold Belsvimels.
50:14
SPEAKER_00: Please find these people online or in meatspace and support their stuff.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: I'll imagine you listening to more of my foolishness in two weeks.
50:24
SPEAKER_00: Until then, burn or beep.