18 Comments

This was a great episode once again. I loved your portrayal of Elder Kirs and hope we can see more of him, be it the bitter old man, or the hope of a father to see his girl again.

And the choice is really hard, but I had to go with them running from town, as they can't afford to lose to the whims of the bosses. It will be harder to fight the swelling armies of the hdour, but at least they might fight them at their terms. (And slightly because I want to see how you use the delve supplement)

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Apr 13, 2023Liked by SGH

I really want to hear about PbtA mass combat, but I agree with you that they need to put Stonetop first and get that crown. With the power under Stonetop in hand, they can probably fight off the hdour. I hope.

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Even if we don't hold fast at the Delve, I think we'll see some mass combat before the adventure's end, never fear. :)

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The Barrow of the Thrice-Betrayer is almost certainly on the itinerary, even if we stay to defend Gordin's Delve, so never fear, we'll be getting into the Delve supplement either way. :)

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Apr 11, 2023Liked by SGH

So, here I heard the late actor Peter Vaughan's voice as the Elder Kirs and I'm not going to hear otherwise. Probably because of his performance as Denethor in the BBC Radio play version of The Lord of the Rings (the best adaption, in my opinion).

Funnily enough and speaking of not suffering witches to live, he played Giles Corey in the 1996 film version of The Crucible.

Run gets my vote, I think. I might have a penchant for dark powerful trinkets.

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Strong fancast, sir! I was imagining a bit of Daniel Day-Lewis, but I think Peter Vaughan is an excellent choice as well -- someone who can convey stoicism pushed past endurance!

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Ugh, I can't choose!

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In a good way, I hope? :-)

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Yes, "ugh" would perhaps been better an "Ack! The narrative tension! Characters I care for and a difficult choice of fraught options!"

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Boy oh boy.... Like what do you even say to this one. Like this is a tough one.

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Always glad to have a tough dilemma :-D

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Apr 10, 2023Liked by SGH

Kirs Sr. turned out great, I’d love to see more interactions between him and his daughter.

I also want to ask you a question: how come your heroes haven’t used Burn Brightly even once (to the best of my memory)? Is it to preserve the integrity of the dice?

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Great question -- there are a few overlapping answers:

One, I'm not great at tracking XP totals, so parsing whether they have the 2 to spend above and beyond the total required to level is tricky during minute-to-minute play. Second, the one who I think has the most thematic reason to push hard and Burn Brightly is Anwen, and she has Impetuous Youth instead, which for my money is just a better option. And third, it's just not an option that readily springs to my head during play -- I do spend a good amount of time thinking about what moves to trigger and when, but usually when the dice fall, I'm focused on how to envision the results, more than if I want to change them using XP as a resource.

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Apr 10, 2023Liked by SGH

Regarding the first point, I think Burn Brightly just needs a PC to be able to level up to trigger, the character doesn’t necessarily has to be able to level after the move is used.

Speaking about the second point, imagine how cool it’d be to combine these two moves though? Turning a miss at 6 into a weak hit and that into a strong hit could lead to some very cool and very would-be-heroey fiction!

Thanks for the response!

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Very true, they have some synergy! You've persuaded me, I'll do a quick XP tally and see where everyone stands. :)

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I’m glad! Now we’ll just have to wait until the first of May (the hard part).

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First, the reconciliation of father and daughter gave me the feels.

Second, I already care much for baraz and madam,... Damn you.

So to the late vote, I vote for leaving with as much allies as possible. I would like to see them taking refuge in stonetop. Also, I guess the masked clockwork will maybe bargain with cirishe hour and thus he need to split his attention maybe?

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I voted the party stay and fight for the Delve. I think it's very risky. Madness possibly, but none of the three PCs are the kind of person to run away when the common folk of the Delve are threatened, even if they owe Stonetop their first loyalty.

Kirs came across well, btw. Poor man, that line about his daughter sounding like her mother really got me.

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