Session 5.5: Guardians

Vahid and Padrig face the guardian. Anwen is offered a new path forward.

We spent all of last episode with Vahid and Padrig as they explored the House of Nine Thunders, an ancient Maker complex, hidden all these years inside Stonetop’s cistern. As they delved deeper into the dungeon, they encountered all manner of Maker-crafts, including a mysterious cylinder of unbreakable Makerglass, contained within a runic circle of absolute silence, and pools of water enchanted with spells of revitalization and cleansing.

Today, we’ll wrap up our delve, and then move the spotlight to Anwen, who has been resting, recovering, and thinking about her future in Stonetop. Before we rejoin the action, let’s check in on last week’s reader poll and see what advancement Vahid has selected for level 3:

I like this a lot — it gives Vahid a bigger social toolkit when he’s speaking on behalf of the party, which he does regularly. So far, we’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of our social moves: Anwen’s Speak Truth to Power, Padrig’s Stentorian, and Vahid’s Sage Advice.

We will rejoin the action right where the last episode left off — Vahid attempted to channel the latent energy of the House of Nine Thunders to command the door open, but something has gone wrong. The chamber’s serpentine stone guardian has been awakened, and is preparing to strike Vahid.

Scene 14, continued: The Pools

The serpent’s body is carved from stormcloud-grey marble, cleverly segmented and joined together like a chain. As Padrig looks on, its jaw swings open, revealing rows of crystalline teeth, barbed and honed to razor-sharpness. It looms over Vahid, its dead eyes training on the scholar.

“Vahid! Move!” Padrig bellows, rushing forward with the Makerglass axe held high. Vahid, still reeling from the staff’s power, throws himself to the side, out of the path of the serpent’s attack, but the Azure Hand clatters to the floor, rolling out of his reach towards one of the pools. The construct’s jaws snap together with thundrous force, a shower of blue-white sparks striking from its fangs.

Padrig slams the Makerglass axe into the serpent’s flank and it tears a gouge into one of the stone segments, sending a cascade of blue-white sparks showering onto the marble floor. Faster than should be possible, it darts out of Padrig’s reach, rearing up to its full height again, ready to strike.

Vahid scrambles for the Azure Hand, while Padrig faces down the stone guardian. Its jaw opens again and it sways menacingly as a hood wrought from glowing cerulean crystal snaps out from its head, crackling with barely-contained energy.

He holds the staff high, ready to contend with whatever magic is bound into the stone beast. There is a smell of ozone, and a crackling ray of lightning strikes out, only to be captured by the staff, contained in a whorl around the headpiece.

“How do we kill it?” bellows Padrig.

“They are powered by a crystal heart, hidden in the stone! Destroy the heart and it is lifeless!” Vahid shouts, as Padrig dodges a darting strike of the serpent’s snapping jaws, separating the pair on opposite sides of the causeway.

The guardian turns on Vahid, jaws yawning open, but before it can lunge, Padrig is there — he hooks the Makerglass axeblade into the beast’s fanged gullet, hauling it’s head to the side, away from Vahid. There’s a shrieking squeal as the rows of crystalline teeth scrape against the glass blade. It bites down hard and hauls axe haft out of Padrig’s hands, flinging it down the causeway — the weapon clatters and slides across the slick glass, coming to a rest a dozen feet away.

“Where’s the bloody heart?” Padrig yells. He feints left, then darts right, ducking under the serpent’s next lunge and seizing the axe back up from the floor. In reply, Vahid calls upon the lightning held by the Azure Hand and casts it at the serpent, but it is unscathed, safe for a blackened scorch on its midsection. “There!” he cries. “The lightning is drawn to the heart!”

The beast is turning towards Padrig as he darts forward to strike, aiming for Vahid’s mark. The Makerglass blade bites deep into the stone, and the segment splits in two, revealing a prism of cerulean crystal, glowing brightly from within. The snake lashes its heavy stone tail at Padrig, but he dodges beneath it before rearing back for another strike, hewing into the crystal heart as though he was splitting a log. The blue stone splits in two with a blinding flash of light, and the serpent falls, abruptly returning to lifeless, carved marble.

Scene Breakdown

The boys rolled very, very well here. Let’s break it down:

First, Padrig shouts a warning to Vahid using Stentorian, giving him advantage when he dodges.

Vahid triggers Defy Danger: 3+5+1+0 Dexterity = 8, Weak Hit.

Vahid dodges out of the way, dropping the Azure Hand. He scrambles to recover it rather than making another move, passing the spotlight to Padrig, who has the guardian’s attention now, and they get into it.

Padrig triggers Clash: 6+4+0 Strength = 10. Strong Hit, 4 damage.

Padrig deals his damage and avoids the guardian’s. Some quick info on our combatants: The Makerglass axe gives Padrig +2 damage and 2 piercing, allowing him to ignore up to 2 armor¹. The stone serpent has 16 HP and 3 armor (1 after taking into account Pad’s weapon) — after this first strike, it has 13 HP remaining. But the HP count isn’t the whole story: Given that the thing is made of animate stone and not flesh and blood, they don’t have straightforward fictional positioning to destroy it. We record the damage anyway, because Padrig may end up hacking the thing to pieces to destroy it, but at the table we’d let the players know that regular hacking and slashing will have diminishing returns.

Meanwhile, Vahid has recovered the Azure Hand, which is convenient, because the stone guardian now foreshadows its ability to call on the storm’s lightning. In response, Vahid actives the staff’s ability to capture elemental energy.

Vahid triggers The Azure Hand: 6+5+1 Constitution = 11. Strong Hit.

He captures the lightning, and is able to maintain it with no concentration. At the table, we would establish that Vahid knows that the guardian is unlikely to be hurt by its own energy, so he holds onto it.

Next, Padrig asks Vahid for some advice. It’s not quite an order, so Stentorian doesn’t apply this time. Vahid gives it a think:

Vahid triggers Know Things: 5+4+2 Intelligence = 11. Strong Hit.

Vahid learns an immediately useful fact about the guardian — its power source. During this exchange, we also threaten Padrig, forcing him to respond to an attack from the guardian.

Padrig triggers Defy Danger: 2+4+1 Dexterity = 7. Weak Hit.

He successfully dodges, but is physically separated from Vahid. As a result of the weak hit, we pass the spotlight to the Stone Guardian, which is going to attempt to attack Vahid — obviously, from the GM’s perspective we want to kill the mage first. In response, Padrig offers to Defy Danger on Vahid’s behalf, using the Makerglass axe as his fictional positioning to protect Vahid from the monster’s deadly attack — they have similar Defy Danger rolls, but Padrig is better-positioned to make the move (and suffer the consequences).

Padrig triggers Defy Danger: 4+4+0 Strength = 8. Weak Hit.

Padrig protects Vahid, but as a result, he loses hold of the axe — the only thing that can easily hurt this stone construct. He scrambles to recover it, while politely asking Vahid to elaborate on the creature’s weakness.

Padrig triggers Defy Danger: 6+3+1 Dexterity= 10. Strong Hit.

He gets the axe, and our heroes regain the initiative. Vahid’s next move would likely involve a bit of a negotiation between player and GM — We’ve established that lightning won’t hurt the creature, but we envision instead that it can be used to locate the heart. Vahid attempts this:

Vahid triggers Let Fly (with the lightning): 5+4+2 Intelligence = 11. Strong Hit.

No damage, but gives an opening to Padrig. Now it’s just a slugfest between Padrig and the guardian — we trigger Clash twice in back-to-back, with advantage on attack (following Vahid’s Sage Advice).

Padrig triggers Clash: 5+5+4+0 Strength= 10. Strong Hit. 6 damage, counterattack avoided.
Padrig triggers Clash: 5+5+1+0 Strength= 10. Strong Hit. 8 damage, counterattack avoided.

That totals to 17 damage, putting the guardian down. A pretty clean kill, too, with no damage suffered by the party!

Back to the action:

Scene 15: The Binding Chamber

The pair collect themselves and exchange determined glances as they enter the open doorway, past the body of the fallen guardian. Beyond is a long, descending stairway, decorated with carved friezes. First, the sculpture depicts proud human warriors testing themselves in unarmed combat in the amphitheater’s arena under the approving eyes of their Maker rulers. Next, the pools are shown, with the victors in meditative poses, immersed in the water, and then the rune-carved chamber, where they are gifted ornate weapons of Makerglass. Last, they are shown entering a huge black chamber where arcs of lightning issue forth from a great orb. There, they are bestowed with a strange regalia — an aetherium crown that sheds blood from the wearer, which serves as a conduit for the vis that marks the victorious Thunders with their lightning-tattoos, inlaid in the stone with gleaming blue-grey aetherium.

The strange grandeur of the final panels of the freeze would defy belief if there were not proof directly before Padrig and Vahid’s eyes. The stairs end in another archway leading to a vast, domed chamber. Here, in the heart of the House of Nine Thunders, the walls are dull, black basalt. The room is lit only by the flashes of lightning arcing on the surface of a perfect sphere of aetherium, so enormous that it would fill the whole of the Pavillion of the Gods.

It hangs from the vault of the chamber, suspended by heavy chains of gold and copper, stretched taunt and crackling with power. Every inch of the surface of the sphere is covered in intricate, flowing runes, save for a huge cartouche, ten feet high, inscribed with a hand holding a cloud-and-thunderbolt — the same sigil that marks the headpiece of the Azure Hand. The carved cartouche is mirrored on the black stone floor below the aetherium sphere. Vahid feels the device pulling at the Azure Hand as though it was his own flesh-and-blood. He begins to walk forward, towards the center of the chamber, beneath the aetherium orb.

“Vahid,” Padrig says quietly. “Surely we have learned enough. Let us speak to the elders before we go farther.”

Vahid turns and looks back to him, abashedly brought to his reason. “Yes. Yes, of course, you are correct. There is much to think on.”

Scene Breakdown

Just one roll here — when Padrig reminds Vahid that it’s probably not a good idea to muck around with this thing:

Padrig triggers Persuade: 5+5+1 Charisma = 11. Strong Hit.

He doesn’t say a lot to trigger this move — but he’s calling on his friendship with Vahid. He’s trusted him this far, risked his life to get to this point — how much is Vahid going to push this? This represents Padrig going hard into his Instinct — Caution, to keep everyone safe.

It pushes in turn against Vahid’s Instinct — Curiosity, to seek questions to answers he maybe should not. The symbol on the device matches the the one Azure Hand — we established in the conversation with Tymon Amar in Session 4.1 that Vahid bought the Azure Hand from a merchant who dismissed its true value. Vahid has always believed that his staff is an artifact of tremendous importance, and here before him is proof of that.

Ultimately, though, it’s not clear what Vahid will gain by activating the device here and now. Its apparent purpose is to create the marks they see on the warriors in the freizes, and Vahid’s not especially interested in undergoing that process personally. He is also canny, and he values Padrig as an ally. We chose Let’s Make a Deal, after all, and a dealmaker has to be at least a little reasonable.

Based on all that, Vahid takes the prudent course, here, heeding Padrig’s advice and receiving an XP for his trouble, thanks to the Persuade move (you can get a refresher of how Persuade works on PCs in Session 2.1). Sound off in the comments if you would’ve gone a different way!

We’ll cut the action at this point — at the table, the natural question for the GM to ask here is, “So, Vahid, what do you tell the elders?” The elders have already had a lot of spotlight this session, so we’ll do a shorter scene here, zooming out on some of the explanatory parts of the discussion:

Gnarled bark and shadowed canopies

Scene 16: At the edge of the Great Wood

When the elders wish to meet in secret, they do so beneath a spreading live oak tree, near the banks of the village’s stream. That night, Vahid speaks to Garet and gathers the four of them to tell them what he has discovered. Padrig accompanies them, as both witness and protector.

Vahid describes in detail their journey through the House of Nine Thunders and the sources of power contained therein — the galvanic pools, the makerglass chime, and the central chamber with its powerful storm-arcanum.

At first, the elders are overwhelmed and incredulous of what they have heard — much of what Vahid describes is utterly beyond their ken, but when Padrig reveals the Makerglass axe, wrapped in plain deerhide, they begin to accept it as truth.

Pryce, ever the merchant, is the first to begin to grasp the smaller implications. The value of the raw materials below — Makerglass, aethereum, exotic marble — is a sum well beyond the wildest dreams of Stonetop, Marshedge, and perhaps even the merchant princes of Lygos. Garet chides him gently for divvying up Stonetop’s ancient past for sale at market, to the general agreement of the other elders.

Vahid then describes the friezes — the depictions of ancient battles between warriors marked with lightning and the forces of the Green Lords, and the creation of these marks using the aetherium device in the deepest chamber of the complex. He reminds Garet of the oldest entries in the Stonetop Chronicle, detailing a feud, hundreds of years old, between the Hillfolk and village’s forebearers, and the signs that the nomads had been the ones who sealed away the House of Nine Thunders for centuries.

Cerys has listened, coldly and quietly, up until this point. Now, she speaks. “It is good you have brought these things to light, Vahid. It is the nature of the young to rush in headlong without caution. But these things were buried in the past for a reason. Our elders who came before us knew of them, and chose to let them be forgotten,” she says, taking Pryce, Marged and Garet in with her stern eye. “The works of the Makers brought them to ruin. If we meddle with them, they will do the same to us.”

Vahid marshalls his rhetoric and addresses himself to Marged and Garet. “It was not the mighty works of the Makers that brought them to ruin, but their strife and mistrust, driven by the corruption of The Things Below. We should not fear these things; we should seek to understand them — as your forebearers once did — and to use them, if they serve our needs. I believe now we may have need of strength, and that is what Indrasduthir’s works seem to provide, in abundance.”

Vahid is working on Marged’s desire to protect the village and Garet’s desire for knowledge of Stonetop’s history — the two themes we established for them in the NPC breakdown earlier this session, and using our shiny new Let’s Make a Deal move, he upgrades weak hits to strong ones:

Vahid triggers Persuade: 6+2+1 Charisma = 9. Weak Hit → Strong Hit.

Marged and Garet at least are persuaded, providing that Vahid continues to show that the arcana below the village can help protect it from threats like the crinwin — Cerys is less so, but she will bide her time, intending to take some share of whatever Vahid discovers for her family. She also sees an opportunity to unite Stonetop against external threats, acting within the Bond theme we established for her.

Garet’s face is grave as he listens to Vahid, and when he has finished, he and Marged exchange a glance. She nods silently, and Garet turns back to Vahid. “How would you learn more about this Indrasduthir and her creations?”

“I would begin with our allies among the Hillfolk,” Vahid replies. “They may yet have tales told among them that cast light on the shadows within Stonetop’s Chronicle. I also believe there was something unnatural that drove the thunder drake to the village — I heard something within the storm speaking to it, in a tongue I do not know. A Hillfolk spirit-talker might be able to tell us more. These events may all be of a piece.”

Garet and Cerys exchange a meaningful glance. “I heard it too — whispers of the spirit-speech, beckoning the beast towards the Standing Stone,” she says. Her eyes narrow appraisingly at Vahid. “Yes, perhaps it would be best for us to seek the truth among the nomads.”

Garet nods, and puts his hand on Vahid’s shoulder. “Learn what you can, Vahid. But understand that we must tread very carefully here. I know you believe the works of the Makers are blessings, but too great a blessing can bring a people to ruin, just as surely as a terrible curse.”

Vahid recognizes the words from the Hieros Nomos of Aratis, and a dozen counter-rhetorics spring to his mind, but he holds them back. “Of course, elder. I will remember.”

Setting the Scene for Anwen

When we last left Anwen, she was carried victorious from the field after felling the thunder drake that threatened the village. She’s been resting and recovering — the Convalesce move requires her to rest for a few weeks under the care of a healer to heal the lingering wounds the fight with the drake left her. We can envision that this is a mixture of ancient medical practices with a bit of magic or alchemy — this is a magical iron age, after all. The village’s healer is Cerys (and perhaps her apprentices), so that will make for an uncomfortable few weeks as Anwen is trapped in a healer’s hut, overseen by her estranged foster mother.

Cerys has kept Anwen bedbound these weeks — perhaps because it was the best course to heal her wounds, and perhaps because she wished to stop Anwen from training for her initiation; who is to say? We’ll envision that some of that time was spent in magically-induced unconsciousness — ‘Danu’s Slumber’ — which speeds Anwen’s natural healing.

That doesn’t mean Anwen can’t have any visitors at all, however, and we’ll play out a couple of those visits. From the GM’s perspective, our agenda is to show how Stonetop folk react to Anwen’s heroics, and to use that to help her move her initation story thread along (perhaps to a conclusion!)

Scene 17: A Healer’s Hut, a week ago

The hut is dark, with only a few rushlights smouldering against the night, and it smells of sandalwood smoke and honey. Anwen awakens sharply from a deep slumber, dimly recalling a dream of black wings and a pale, cold hand on her shoulder. She is in a low, narrow bed, the straw beneath her scratches her back, and the shaggy wisent hide laid atop her is sweltering — her red hair is matted with sweat against her forehead. She sits up with a start, throwing off the hide, and immediately feels a sharp pain in her side, but she bites back her cry and breathes deeply. She feels a cool summer breeze through the open window, and when she turns towards it to feel it on her face, she sees a watcher in the shadows — tall and slender, looking down on her.

Her hand reaches under her straw-stuffed pillow and grasps the hilt of the fighting-knife hidden there — she remembers Ozbeg kneeling by her bedside before she entered Danu’s Slumber, putting it there ‘just in case,’ — and she waits, tensed and ready.

Then, she hears Cerys’ voice. “Twice in as many seasons, I have had to call upon Danu’s blessings to take your pain away, Anwen. Why are so eager to throw your life away?”

Anwen grimaces, still supressing the sharp pain in her ribs. “The village was in danger. The militia was mustered. I’m a fighter, what was I supposed to do?”

“You are still just a girl,” Cerys says sternly. “A fledgling. You must learn from your elders and be initiated before you take up such duties.”

“It was my spear that felled the drake! Would you have rather I stood by? Maybe it would have been your son under the thing’s claws!”

“Owain has already given Stonetop children, to carry on his duties when he is gone. He has led the warrior’s circle with honor. When fate calls upon him to lay down his life for his people, I will welcome it. That is how his father died, after all,” Cerys says. Then, her voice goes very cold indeed. “Not everyone is ready for such an end, however — Cadoc rushed to protect you, and now Cadwyn has no son.”

Anwen closes her eyes and bows her head, reeling from pain and hiding from Cery’s gaze. She feels Cerys’ bony hand clasp hers — at first, she tenses, but the priestess’ touch soothes the pain in her chest, and she feels herself breathing more easily. Her vestments smell of sage, and her bangles of amber and horn are cool against Anwen’s skin. “It hurts me, Anwen, this strife between us. Since you first came to us with your mother, I had hoped you might take up my path.”

“What? You never spoke of that to me!” Anwen exclaims.

“Did I not? Did I not welcome you into my house and share with you Danu’s blessings? Did I not beg your aid with my duties? But your heart was always with your mother’s tales of your father and his bravery.” Cerys says bitterly.

Anwen goes silent at the mention of her father. She has not spoken of what transpired in Marshedge’s oubliette with anyone but Padrig and Vahid.

Cerys takes her silence as an invitation to continue. “It is not too late, Anwen. Heed me: Do not challenge the warrior’s circle for your initiation. Mend your strife with Owain, and we will find another way.”

Anwen doesn’t reply, instead sinking back down into the bed. Cerys rises, and withdraws. “There are other ways for you to be powerful than to fight, my dear one,” she says, pausing at the doorway before leaving Anwen alone in the dark.

Scene 18: A Healer’s Hut, a few days ago

Anwen is still chewing on this advice weeks later, after her wounds have finally begun to mend. Nevertheless, her chest tightens and her breath draws raggedly when she sees her dead friend’s father appear in the hut’s doorway.

Cadwyn’s face is weathered and grief-lined, and has been marked with black mourning ash. He is dressed in herder’s goathides, and his grey hair and white beard are unkempt. Their eyes meet, and Anwen looks away, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Cadwyn. He died to save me.”

Cadwyn takes her hand in his. “I know, Anwen. Olwyn came and found me, she told me what you two did, that you saved her life, and that Cad saved yours. And now the whole village is talking about how you slew the drake, like the Slayer-of-Beasts himself.”

Anwen shakes her head. “I never would’ve made it back to the village to strike it, if it weren’t for Cadoc.”

Cadwyn looks at Anwen with hope in his eyes. “Could you tell me about that day? Before the storm? You were the last person to speak to him.”

Anwen smiles sadly. She wipes some of the sodden ash from his cheek, and marks her own forehead with the mourning black. And for a time, they talk about that summer day. When Anwen has finished, Cadwyn looks her in the eye. “Cadoc spoke very fondly of you, Anwen. He told me you mean to challenge the warrior’s circle for your initiation, and he told about your strife with Owain.” His eyes harden with determination. “Well, I think you’ve proven yourself well enough, and I’m not the only one who thinks so. Since your mother’s not here to stand for you, I wanted to offer myself.”

“What do you mean?” Anwen asks, her voice uncertain.

“When Cadoc came of age, I gave him the task to go alone into the Flats with our herd, and lead them to the Titan’s Bones for trade with the nomads. A simple task, to be sure, but a fair one, and the same one my father gave me. It is in the spirit of the Rainmaker to risk a dangerous journey to provide for the commonweal,” Cadwyn explains. “I could give you the same task for your initiation. No one could begrudge it to me, nor to you. How could they? We have shared a loss.”

“And not challenge the warrior’s circle?” Anwen asks. Then, her eyes narrow in suspicion, but she bites back an accusation — did Cerys send him?

“You’ve already earned your way. Everyone thinks so — folk who saw you fight, folk who can see the matter clear. Cadoc told me how Cerys has penned you in, trying to force you to reconcile with Owain, to apologize for quarreling with him — I don’t like it, nor do my kin,” Cadwyn says, with a bitter look on his face.

“Would the storm-priest accept it?” she asks, a little bewildered.

“I journeyed out to her campsite and asked her. She gave her blessing,” Cadwyn says, smiling.

Anwen frowns in confusion — why would the storm-priest offer her an easier path? Cadwyn frowns in response, uncertain why his offer is so mistrusted. Anwen, seeing this, recovers her composure and takes his hand in hers again. “Thank you, Cadwyn. I will think on it.”

We’ll close here, and put Anwen’s decision to this week’s reader poll. A few folks in the comments sections of Session 5.2 noted that Anwen’s initaition might be a bit of a formality after she slew an incredibly dangerous monster in full view of the village militia, so I wanted to take that notion and run with it: Tales of her heroics have given her a bit of popular support against Owain, and now she’s been offered an end-run around him and Cerys.

But, does she want to take the easy way? Is that really what the storm-priest would want her to do, after the advice she got in Session 5.1?

And Cerys’ demand also complicates things. Anwen may want to challenge Owain out of sheer defiance. Or she might even be considering Cerys’ suggestion that she turn away from the warrior’s path — after all, it didn’t serve her mother or father very well, did it?

We’ll vote on whether she takes Cadwyn’s offer, or holds her course and challenges the warrior’s circle. Sound off in the comments as to your reasoning, if you feel so inclined.

Next episode, we’ll play out whatever choice is made, and we’ll conclude this homefront session and plan our next expedition — there are a few potential directions brewing, but we’ll play to find out. As always, thanks for reading!

1. If you’re following along but you’re not a big PbtA person: Armor in these games subtracts damage from each hit — it doesn’t make you harder to hit, though occasionally armor might play into your fictional positioning of how you describe your character mitigating damage.