Choose Your Adventure: Session 2

What threads should we follow on the homefront?

Today, we’ll recap session one briefly, talk about XP awards, and choose what story threads we’ll start following in Session 2.

Session 1 Recap

Last session, we opened on the wedding of Donal (one of Padrig’s warriors) and Nia, a young woman of the village. There was some trouble at the revel — Owain, the village bully was picking a fight with the Companions and Ozbeg, Padrig’s second-in-command, is getting antsy about rejoining their bandit crew. Anwen intervened between the Companions and Owain and earned Owain’s ire once again.

All that was put aside, however, when Vahid arrived with news a villager had gone missing in the woods, perhaps taken by the crinwin — the twisted monsters that lurk in the forest. The party went searching for her and ultimately found her in an ancient ruin of the Green Lords, a precursor civilization that vanished long ago. Vahid, using his arcane senses, discovered that she was magically contained within a strange root-woven arch in the cellar of the ruin. As Vahid vainly attempted to uncover the workings of the arch, the crinwin found them and attacked. After a battle where Anwen was badly wounded, the party escaped and returned home with Blodwen. As they withdrew, Vahid saw a strange crinwin marked with the same green Forest Eyes that mark Blodwen herself.

End-of-Session Questions

To close out the session and award experience points to each character, we ask a few end-of-session questions.

First, each character answers these questions, and for each ‘yes’ answer, marks an XP.

1. Did you demonstrate or struggle with your instinct?

2. Did you change your relationship with a PC or NPC?

For Padrig, I think he marks both XP. He definitely tried to keep everyone safe, which reflects his Caution instinct. A few examples include planning an ambush using the hunting blinds, watching for threats, ordering the withdrawal as soon as more crinwin appeared. He kept his relationship with Ozbeg and Anwen pretty much as-is, but he has to re-evaluate Vahid, now that he’s seen his power and knowledge in action.

Anwen for sure marks both. She refused to back down when Ozbeg advocated they turn back, and she refused to give into her fear, which reflects her Defiance instinct. Finally, she impressed the Companions with her resolve, which changes her relationship with them (and Padrig) a bit.

Vahid marks both as well. He was driven by his instinct of Curiosity into the ruins and put the party in danger by trying to unravel the mystery of the root-woven arch. He also revealed the power of the Azure Hand to the rest of the party. They definitely think he’s a wizard now.

Then, we answer these three questions to behalf of the whole party. For each, the whole party marks an XP:

1. Did we learn more about the world and its history?

2. Did we defeat a threat to Stonetop or the region?

3. Did we improve our standing with our neighbors?

4. Did we make a meaningful improvement to Stonetop, or make progress towards doing so?

I think we mark 2 XP — For questions #1 and #3. We learned a bit about the Green Lords through Vahid, and we brought home a missing villager, which will certainly be popular. If you think I missed something, throw it in the comments.

Each character also gets an XP for each time they rolled a six or less. Padrig and Anwen missed once, and Vahid missed twice, for a total of five XP for Anwen and Padrig, and six for Vahid. Leveling from 1 to 2 costs 8 XP, so we’ll be leveling after next session.

Let’s Plan: Session 2

Session 2 will be more of a ‘homefront’ session, where the characters spend some time recovering, planning, and spending time with one another and village NPCs. To plan session 2, we’ll need to decide what storylines we want to pursue.

Here’s where I want your help. I’ve got some ideas below for what the PCs might get up to. Take a gander, and then head to the comments to let me know which ones you’d be most interested in seeing played out, or, if you see an opportunity I missed, let me know!

Anwen’s Initiation

This was raised during the Keep Company move in the final part of Session 1. Anwen’s initiation is coming up, though we haven’t decided when it is specifically. Anwen established that initiations in Stonetop are done through challenges that are ‘gifted’ to the initiates by someone in their lives (often their parents), and Padrig’s story gave some color to how it works in practice.

Anwen outlined her problem: Now that there’s a rift between her and Cerys, she’s not sure who will gift her a challenge. Padrig gave a possible solution: She could win her initiation in combat. But Owain controls that path to initiation, and he won’t make it easy on her.

This storyline will feature Anwen and Padrig primarily, and we’ll play to find out how Anwen is initiated into the community of Stonetop.

Vahid Seeks the Green Lords

This direction follows what happened in Session 1. Vahid has a lot of questions: How did Blodwen find the ruin? Where does the root-woven arch lead? What do the Forest Eyes mean? And what of the green-eyed crinwin?

Vahid wants to get to the bottom of this. To do so, he’ll need the help of a local, and Anwen is someone he can rely on. This storyline will feature the two of them, and we’ll play to find out if Vahid can unravel the mysteries the Green Lords have left behind in the Great Wood.

Vahid Explores Stonetop

Vahid came to Stonetop to unlock its mysteries. One of those mysteries is the Maker-crafted cistern that the village uses to store rainwater and snowmelt for lean times. Vahid is confident that the Makers, with their mastery over the elemental forces, had much greater designs for it than merely to store water, and he intends to discover those designs.

But he is wary of poking around the village alone, lest he be accused of some sort of black magic. But what if he could explore the cistern while providing a valuable service to Stonetop? To this end, Vahid could design a clever system of gutters and roofs that will funnel rainwater directly into the cistern. This allows him to practice his Lycaeum training as an engineer, to do a good turn for his hosts, and to explore the works of the Makers, all at once. He wants to bring the proposal to Garet, and he wants Padrig’s help to do it.

Quick mechanics aside here — Stonetop very cleverly lays out some specific improvements in the Playbook for the village that can be made if the PCs work with the villagers to build them. These improvements give benefits within the game that help the village grow and flourish, which is part of the fun of the game (and the story). The above storyline is how we are intrepreting this improvement from the Stonetop ruleset:

Source: Jeremy Strandberg // Stonetop

This storyline will feature Vahid and Padrig, and we’ll play to find out what Vahid will discover about the works of the Makers, and whether Stonetop can pull together to build something new.

Anwen & Padrig Plan for Stonetop’s Defense

It’s clear the crinwin are a danger here — during their expedition to find Blodwen, the party saw dozens of crinwin within a few hours of the village. If they attacked in those numbers at night, there’s no telling what havoc they could wreak. Padrig knows this and knows he could do something about it, and Anwen wants to help.

This is represented by another improvement from the village Playbook. Here it is:

Source: Stonetop // Jeremy Strandberg

Padrig is currently held in high regard by the village thanks to his crew’s action against the crinwin (though that could change quickly, if his secret is discovered). Anwen isn’t quite a ‘veteran warrior’ but she certainly has some courage and strength that could command respect. Together, they can collaborate on this project.

This story will feature on Anwen and Padrig primarily, and we’ll play to find out if Anwen and Padrig can help Stonetop prepare for the crinwin — and whatever other threats might arise.

Padrig Makes Good to Ozbeg

Padrig owes things to his crew — information about what their comrades are up to, and what Brennan’s next move is. There are a few ways he could get that information, but it might involve a covert trip to Marshedge.

This story will feature Padrig primarily, but it could involve either of the other PCs pretty easily (Anwen wants to go to Marshedge to find news about her mother and father, Vahid would visit to attempt to learn more about the Green Lords from the people who ply Ferrier’s Fen. We’ll play to find out whether Padrig can find a way to get himself and his crew free of their old bandit associations.

Choose Your Adventure!

So, to recap — the plot threads we could follow during this homefront session are:

1. Anwen’s initiation (Ft. Padrig)

2. Vahid seeks the Green Lords (Ft. Anwen)

3. Vahid explores Stonetop (Ft. Padrig)

4. Anwen & Padrig plan for Stonetop’s defense

5. Padrig Makes Good to Ozbeg (ft. Anwen and/or Vahid)

Make your preferences known in the comments. We can probably follow at least two threads, but vote for as many as you like, and feel free to hold forth in more detail in the comments about your favorite or least favorite. Threads not explored may not be dropped — they’ll just continue to boil a bit until they become interesting enough to focus on.