Padrig's Session Zero
We’ll start the first of the three character deep-dives with Padrig since he was spotlighted most in Session 1. Jeremy Strandberg’s Stonetop has you go through several steps with each player character to introduce them to the group — I’ve adapted them a bit here:
Introduce yourself by name, pronouns, background, origin, and appearance.
Describe your special possessions. These are chosen from a list in the Marshal’s playbook.
Tell us the town’s war stories. The Marshal is responsible for creating a recent battle that Stonetop’s militia fought in and that he or she participated in. This one has a few sub-questions.
Answer a question about the NPCs in Stonetop. These are chosen from a list in the playbook — I’ll share which one I chose on behalf of this character. You can see the full list of questions in the Stonetop playtest rules if you preorder it on Kickstarter.
Pose a question to the other PCs about your character. Just like the above, these are chosen from a list. I’ll share the one I chose and which other character answered it.
Describe your home and place it on the village map.
We’ll go through these six steps with Padrig for this post, plus a few other details from his character sheet, and then next time we’ll head into The Great Wood with our heroes.
Introduce yourself
Padrig of Stonetop, a no-longer-young man of 40-something. Brown hair going slightly to grey in the beard, sharp blue eyes, tall and wiry. His voice is clear, even over the din of a battlefield. He wears old, well-kept traveling gear, and a thick hide vest with a few armor plates sewn here and there. He was born in Stonetop, but nobody recognized him at first when he came back, leading the Companions.
Describe your special possessions
Padrig has a longbow that he took from a dead Hillfolk champion. It’s a composite bow, made with the horn and tendon of an aurochs. A very fine weapon. He also has an iron sword — one of the few in Stonetop. It was made by one of the better smiths in Gordin’s Delve, but he’s dead now, stabbed over a gambling debt. It still bears his mark, a rough glyph of a bull’s head.
The crew also has with them a whisky still, made from glass and copper stolen from a trade caravan from Marshedge some years ago. Other folk in Stonetop distill whisky, but they claim the Companions’ brew has a spicier taste to it.
Tell us the Town’s War Stories
The last time the Companions and the town militia saw serious action, it was during a nighttime raid by the crinwin.
When exactly did it happen?
Padrig and his crew came to Stonetop about a year ago, after parting ways with Brennan and the Claws when the bloody-handed bandit crew was chased out of Gordin’s Delve. Padrig thought -- rightly -- that Stonetop wouldn’t welcome a gang of down-on-their-luck bandits, so they gilded their tale a bit -- They styled themselves “The Companions,” a band of mercenaries, in need of shelter following a bloody battle against bandits that hunted the road to Gordin’s Delve. This tale of bravery brought them some temporary hospitality in Stonetop’s public house, and during their stay, the Crinwin made their first major attack against the village.
It was a terrifying and chaotic night in the village. The crinwin struck shortly after midnight, and before the militia could be roused to fight them off, three villagers were pulled from their homes and dragged screaming into the Great Wood. Padrig seized the opportunity to win a place in Stonetop for himself and his warriors, first fighting off the crinwin attack with the Companions until the militia could be roused, and then leading his force into the woods to rescue those taken.
Who saved the day, and how?
Padrig led the Companions and a handful of Stonetop’s bravest into the Woods. Owain and Anwen were among the villagers who joined them.
In Brennan’s gang, Padrig had been the scout; quick to learn the lay of the land and a sure hand with traps and ambush. The crinwin weren’t hard to track down. They had taken their victims to a nest a few miles into the Wood, and there the Companions encircled them and struck, catching them by surprise as they reveled in the strange treasures they had stolen from town and tormented their captives. Of the three who were kidnapped, two returned alive.
Who lost their life, and who mourns them?
The third, Ifan, had already been taken into the nest. His screams had gone quiet by the time the others had been freed. The Companions were preparing to enter the nest when dozens more of the creatures came boiling out of the woods. Padrig made the decision to withdraw, leaving Ifan to his terrible fate, but saving the rest.
Ifan was the oldest grandson of Cerys, the matriarch of one of the larger families in Stonetop. Her two sons, Owain and Mado, oversee a third of Stonetop’s farmland, and Owain is recognized and Stonetop’s strongest and toughest fighter. He was there when Padrig gave the order to withdraw and had to be dragged away from the clearing. Neither Cerys nor Owain has forgiven Padrig for leaving Ifan behind.
Answer a question about an NPC in Stonetop.
The question Padrig chose is “Who is your lieutenant?”
Ozbeg is second-in-command of the crew. He is a stout, mustachioed man from the Barrier Peaks. He bears a tattoo on his cheek that marks him as a criminal and an exile from the mountain peoples, though none in Stonetop recognize it for what it is. He is eager to reunite with Brennan and the Claws, and as Spring has approached, regularly reminds Padrig that it’s almost time to end this charade with Stonetop and meet up with the rest of the crew in Marshedge.
Pose a question to the other PCs about your character.
The question Padrig chose to ask is “Which of you is or was part of my crew?”
Ever since Anwen braved the Great Wood with the Companions, she has wanted to join up with Padrig’s crew. She’s an unofficial member, but she doesn’t know about their bloody past.
Describe your home and place it on the village map.
Padrig lives in one of three houses by the ringwall on the western edge of the village, near the watchtowers. These houses were empty when the Companions arrived, and they were lodged there (Stonetop has a small surplus of housing — that’s how you know we’re living in a fantasy realm). These houses are considered undesirable, since they are on the outskirts, and feel unprotected, but it’s the safest any member of the Companions has slept for years.
Character Sheet Highlights
Padrig’s Instinct
All NPCs and PCs in this game have an Instinct — a value they rely on in decisive moments. They don’t always heed their instinct; Sometimes they struggle with it.
For Padrig, we’ve got Caution. He and his crew have been through a lot of danger, lost friends, and now are in Stonetop, laying low. Padrig wants to keep everyone safe and alive, and “everyone” is starting to encompass the people of Stonetop as well.
In his younger days, his drive was probably Ruthlessness, as that’s what was required to survive in Brennan’s bandit crew. Someday, we may change it to Honor or Drive, as he gains a steadier foothold in the village.
Padrig’s Moves
Marshals in Stonetop automatically get two moves:
This move gives Padrig his crew of warriors, The Companions. In his case, they are bandits who are laying low in Stonetop.
This move means Padrig is good at getting people to work together and getting the material or tools he needs to achieve his goals.
And he gets to choose one additional move from the Marshal’s list. For Padrig, we have:
Padrig and his crew acted as wilderness scouts for Brennan and the Claws, so Padrig has the ability to survey the terrain and quickly learn where dangers or places of strength might be. This move is unusual in that it doesn’t require a roll, so it’s pretty safe to use.
The Crew
We’ll learn more about Padrig’s crew as we play, but here are a few tidbits to get to know them. First, they have some tags — tags are descriptors that help the player and the GM understand the crew’s strengths and weaknesses. As wilderness scouts, Padrig’s crew tags are: Archers, Observant, Warriors.
They also have an instinct, like Padrig does, as well as a cost, which is how Padrig keeps them loyal to him:
Right now, the crew is a bit on edge and there’s disagreement about their course of action, which comes out in infighting and bickering. The thing that’s holding them together is that they know Padrig has and will continue to take big risks to keep them alive and fed. We’ll play to find out how their instinct and cost changes as Padrig leads them through the coming challenges.
Next Time
Next up we have Session 1, Part 2. We’ll go deeper into the Great Woods and see if Padrig can get everyone back safely. Thanks for reading!
Just re-read the last of this to make sure I got it - If I were Pod, I'd want "the thing that’s holding them together is that they know Padrig has and will continue to take big risks to keep them alive and fed" somehow codified, like, as a north star.
Your descriptions of the mechanics here are really easy to follow.