Rough Beasts Pt. 4
Well enough shopping let’s get back to exploring this place. We currently have two clocks going for exploration.
The first clock is our big quest currently. If this was a video game proper that would be the level we’re working on. We’re currently on a side quest to get supplies from the church back to Helen and her little cadre in the catacombs. And that side quest is what we’re accomplishing with the second clock. We need to get to the church where the supplies are cached.
At the time where we made progress towards the church we had two factors in our favor: a rough map gave us potency. Quality was already in our favor as the city is navigable by humans. It’s a city, after all. Hence the two ticks.
Lorentine says that she must return to her work and Maria takes her newly acquired goods back down the stair and back out into the winding city streets, towards the cathedral of Beggar’s Square.
Buildings are boarded up, doors barred. Once or twice she things she hears movement, but when she looks there is no one there. She is careful to avoid patches of snow, hoping to leave no footprints to follow.
Take Action: Maneuver through the ruins towards the church of Beggar's Square. There’s still two factors in our favor, Quality. The city is navigable by people, even in it’s ruined state. More than that Maria is a trained operator. She is also equipped with maps and knowledge given to her by Helen.
Shadow (3) + 4 = 7 vs 10/4 = Weak Hit
So that fills the clock (1 tick per factor in our favor) but there’s a compromise. We’ve got a lot going on in this scene right now. A mysterious figure with some connection to Lorentine, the hulking Headsman, and the church with the cache of supplies. I guess the easiest thing to do is just throw them all together in something that pulls at Maria’s Motivation.
Side note for World Building Purposes:
Even during the height of the war the armies made pains not to destroy the churches and often the civilian population would hide there. The church, opposed to the war, refused to garrison troops and instead acted as a hospital for the wounded.
It’s the smell that hits her first. Even through the filters and flowers in the long beak of her mask meant to keep out everything from contagion to evil spirits. The cold makes it sharp and metallic. The smell of blood and rot.
Beggars square is an abattoir. As circle of gibbets, stacked with bodies in a circle. Heads in piles at the base. This must be the head’s man’s work, but there are too many gibbits, too many piles for this to be the work of one.
In the center of the square stands the church, proud and strong against the fading and smoke tinged light.
Side note for World Building Purposes:
Even during the height of the war the armies made pains not to destroy the churches and often the civilian population would hide there. The church, opposed to the war, refused to garrison troops and instead acted as a hospital for the wounded.
Scanning the area around her, Maria has no other option. She ready’s herself, looks left and right, and breaks from cover.
She feels the footsteps behind her before she hears them. Maybe it’s the breathing through her mask. Maybe it’s her heart hammering in her ears. But she feels the heavy foot steps in the ground under her feet before she hears them. She can’t help herself. She has to look.
But she is not alone in running from the headsman.
Bloodborne’s Executioner is how I’m picturing this.
There is another figure, in a ragged straight jacket, laces torn and sleeves flapping behind them as they run. Their dirty face is haggard and hollow eyed and as Maria watches the headsman veers after them as they run screaming and gibbering across the square in a different direction.
So here’s what happened. The figure that the other person that Lorentine was talking to, her patient in the ruined hospital followed Maria as she was exploring the city. Unfortunately for both of them, their presence tipped off the headsman. In particular, as a GM, I’m putting another innocent in danger. I do this because it threatens Maria’s Idea of Altruism. I haven’t really covered this in the blog before, but this seems a good time.
Design Talk
Samuel Rondón created this amazing resource for Ironsworn called Motivations which are an adaptation of Keys from The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Nixon. These let you gain Momentum (in core Ironsworn, or Grit here in Bladesworn) by acting in accordance with what makes your character tick.
My intent for this game is to make a unique set of Motivations, which I’ve referred to as Ideals in the Bladesworn Character sheet. We mentioned how I established Maria’s Ideal of Altruisim back in the first episode. At the time I mentioned how not knowing these things when I start play lets me just dive in. Now that we know she is Altruistic, we can lean on this to make better fiction.
I don’t think I’ve ever made Maria’s ideal explicit, so I’ll do so now:
Altruism:
Take 1 Grit when you help those who cannot help themselves.
Take 2 Grit when you put yourself in danger or sacrifice something of value.
Take 3 Grit when you take someone who can’t help themselves and change their life so that they can.
Buyoff: Willingly ignore a request for help or the fact that someone needs it.
It’s all together too early to go buying off this ideal. So the question becomes how will Maria help this person? Who are they? What can they possibly want?
