Session 13.3: Odo's Lair, Part 2

Padrig descends. Anwen and Vahid come upon Odo's lady.

Recap

Last episode, our heroes reached the underground complex, built long-ago by the Forge Lords, where Odo makes his lair with his ‘family’ — a gang-turned-cult of bravos, cutpurses and other unsavories who have been infected with the Howling Curse, a strange magical affliction from a distant land that drives those it touches to acts of brutal savagery.

Anwen and her party, including Vahid and Mutra the Teeth along with a few hand-picked bravos, managed to sneak in along a disused and crumbling path while Padrig and Jens were led in as ‘guests,’ taken as potential recruits for Odo’s forces.

Before we dive back into the fiction, I did some rethinking about how we’re approaching a particular element of a character’s backstory, and I wanted to share how that rethinking informs some GM decisions the coming scene, so let’s get into it — or, you can always skip the behind-the-scenes talk and go straight to the fiction here.

Setting the Scene & Reckoning with Pad’s Past

I realized, perhaps a bit belatedly, that we’re letting Pad a bit off the hook here — we’ve set him up to have a good amount of bad blood in Gordin’s Delve, and we’ve paid it off a bit, but we could definitely go harder on the old bandit. At this moment, he’s not very well disguised, maybe a scarf over his mouth, and pretty soon that’ll start to be suspicious, so he has to reveal his face and hope that these bravos (whom he doesn’t recognize), don’t recognize him from the bad old days.

For this, I’m using the Ironsworn yes/no oracle, and I’m setting it so that it is Likely that Padrig is recognized, meaning the Oracle has a 75% chance of delivering a ‘yes’ result, including the potential ‘yes, but’ and ‘yes, and’ outcomes, which either harden or soften the outcome. My result for this roll was: Yes, and…

Which is, of course, the worst possible result for Padrig. We’ll read this as: Yes, Padrig is recognized, the person who recognizes him holds a grudge, and acts on it immediately. This could escalate the situation for him very quickly, if he doesn’t find a way to defuse it.

Now, it’s arguable that the GM shouldn’t make a hard move against Padrig here, since he hasn’t missed a roll. But the GM doesn’t necessarily have to wait for a miss to make a hard move — one of the core play loops of Apocalypse World is that when the players look to the GM to see what happens, the GM makes a move. In this situation, Pad is looking to see where they take him — but before we decide where they take him, we have to establish whether the sentry recognizes him, and if he does, then the GM might decide to make a very hard move indeed.

The hardness of a move should generally map to the stakes or risks that have been established, and as discussed when Pad’s fortunes first began to turn in Session 13.2, we’ve established that this mission is risky indeed. So, with all that throat-clearing aside, back to the fiction where we left of — Padrig being led deeper into Odo’s Lair, and Anwen and Vahid using the sentry’s moment of distraction to move deeper into the disused Ustrina’s Quarters, in the upper levels of the Forge Lord ruins that Odo has claimed as his lair.

Scene 5: The Forge Hall, cont’d

Anwen, Vahid, and Mutra’s party steal through the shadows on the walkway high above as the Gasper leads Padrig and Jens through the archway and down a wide, tall hallway. Their lanterns cast deep shadows on the bas-relief that adorns the walls: More regal giants working their arcane artistry at the forge and anvil. From behind them, Red Radha calls out. “Gasper! Wait! Hold fast there!”

“Oh, leave it, Radha. I’ve got a mighty hunger after tending to Odo’s poor flock all night, and this lot needs to rest up before sunrise service.”

“Gasper! Hold fast, or the Thriceborn will hear of this!”

Gasper wheezes theatrically, calling his men to a halt. “What is it, Radha?”

When Radha approaches, his pale yellow eyes are fixed on Padrig, and a slow sneer creeps across his face.

“I thought I recognized him. You see, Kellen?” he says, aside to his perhaps-brother. “This is why the newcomers to our family need to be watched carefully.”

“Get to the fucking point.”

“This man, who you think to bring into our family, is a hated enemy of the Thriceborn. He is Bastard Brennan’s dog. He and his three lieutenants slipped the net — Bertrim the Snake, Ivan Iron-Eye, and this one — Padrig the Hound.”

Padrig sees the ground shifting under him here, and is going to try to figure out which way everyone’s going to jump:

Padrig triggers Seek Insight: 5+2+2 Wisdom = 9, Weak Hit

He asks one question: What is about to happen here? We’ll deliver his insight (and how he acts on it — in the fiction:

Padrig’s eyes dart among all of Odo’s family. Gasper’s eyes meet his, and his face quickly leaps from surprise and dismay to an opportunist’s gleam. At Red Radha’s right hand, Kellen’s yellow eyes are burning a hole in Padrig’s chest. His head flicks back and forth, as though hearing whispers at his shoulder. “That man has revenge on his mind. And he won’t wait long to make his move.”

“That’s right,” Padrig growls. “And I know where Brennan is. I know where Iron-Eye is. I know where Bertrim is. And I know exactly where they’re soft. I’ll tell Odo every bit of it, but only if I speak to the man himself.”

Pad’s trying to influence the Gasper here and persuade him to keep him alive:

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

Once again Pad managed to snatch a bit of victory from the jaws of disaster. Back to the fiction:

The Gasper’s eyes flick to Padrig’s face, and his face goes from surprise and dismay to an opportunist’s gleam. “Is that so? No doubt the boss will thank old Gasper for bringing him in.”

Kellen bursts out in anger. “The Claws killed our brother. Blood for blood, Radha.” He rips a bronze, serpentine dagger from its sheath at his hip and brandishes it.

The Gasper gives a low whistle, and his spearmen come to his side, weapons at the ready, putting themselves between the sentries and their prisoners.

“I will fetch the Thriceborn,” Radha says, his voice rising in shrill protest.

“You won’t do shit but stand your post, sentry. Nobody made you Odo’s page boy.”

“You had no idea who you were bringing into our den, Ghespar.”

“Aye, but now I do. And I’ll be taking him to the pens where he can wait on the boss. If I catch a glimpse of that great ginger mane of yours lurking about before sunrise service, I’ll unseam your pale belly with your brother’s pig-sticker.” The Gasper begins to hustle Padrig and Jens through the corridor, leaving Radha and his brother and their frustrated revenge behind them.

Radha draws himself up. “On your head be it, Ghespar. Keep a close eye on him. Bastard Brennan’s lot were clever — cleverer than you.” The Gasper’s only reply is a crude gesture as they continue on.

Scene 6: The Pit and the Pens

The Gasper and his men lead Padrig deeper into the complex — the hallway opens into another grand hall, this one a round amphitheater with a sunken stage, set with a long-cold forge in the center and four raised anvils around it, as though the smiths’ work would command a grand audience. The braziers that light the place have burned low, and all is in shadow.

The stage floor is covered with red-stained sand and dust, fallen from the cavern’s roof above, mostly obscuring the intricate mosaic floor. Around the stage, Odo’s Family has erected a palisade of jagged spikes cut from scrap iron and bronze, turning the once-exalted space into a fighting pit.

Their captors lead them around the arena, giving the bloody sand a wide berth. Out of the corner of his eye, Padrig sees the Gasper’s head twitch as though something is in his ear, and then he hears it — a quiet but insistent whisper, unintelligible but still unmistakably urging to violence. Padrig feels his fist tighten and his heart quicken. The Gasper and his men are distracted, the thoughts cascade through his head. Take the spear from one, do the other quickly. Then the Gasper, through the guts. Let him feel his insides twist. He can imagine the Gasper’s narrow, mean face contorting in agony, terror lighting his sickly yellow eyes.

Padrig hears the whispers // Source: Midjourney

Padrig is now hearing the whispers of the Things Below that is the source of the Howling Curse: it has marked this place, and now it seeps into the minds of any who come. Stonetop’s world almanac gives us some moves for dealing with this situation:

Source: Stonetop // Jeremy Strandberg

Importantly, the whispers can’t force your character to do anything until you’ve done what they suggest at least once. Personally, I like this — it allows the player to invite in a loss of mental control for their character, rather than giving the GM the ability to override your character’s agency (with a spell like Dominate or Charm Person in D&D) and then relying on the player and GM to negotiate between one another what’s fun for everyone.

Needless to say, in this case, Padrig is not going to be taking the XP. Vahid warned him about the whispers, and he’s a cool customer, regardless. Instead, he’s going to use his suite of perception moves: Seek Insight from the basic moves, along with Read the Land from his Marshal playbook and Situational Awareness, which he picked up from the heavy playbook.

Padrig triggers Seek Insight: 5+5+2 Wisdom = 12, Strong Hit

A strong hit here means he gets three questions from the base Seek Insight list and the Situational Awareness¹ list, and one extra from Read the Land. That’s a ton of information — his question list might be something like:

1. What here is useful or valuable to me? (Seek Insight)

2. What here is not what it appears to be? (Seek Insight)

3. Who or what here is the biggest threat? (Situational awareness)

4. What’s the best way in, out, or through? (Read the Land)

That’s a lot of info to dump — I’ll just include a bit of detail in the fiction rather than going deep on each question:

Padrig shakes his head, casting the visions from his mind, and instead surveying the place, seeking any possible advantage. By Pad’s reckoning, this grand arena seems the central hub for Odo’s lair with another wide archway at each of the compass points, leading deeper into the complex. To their right, some late-night carousing can be heard, perhaps a mess hall or dormitory, which the Gasper leads them away from, along the left-hand path, where another archway leads to stairs that lead further down into the earth.²

As they make their circle, giving the whispering arena³ a wide berth, Pad sees that the arena’s floor is strewn with discarded weapons — choppers made from scrap, simple wooden spears, and rocks knapped into crude cutting blades — easy for the taking⁴, if one had but a moment. His eyes travel up from the bloodstained arena floor to the ceiling above — in its center is a grating of tarnished bronze, a window into a darkened chamber above the amphitheater’s stage. He strains his eyes to see what might be within, and as though in reply, a hand with too-long, taloned fingers grips the bars, and a pair of golden eyes glow in the darkness, looking back at him. The creature rattles the cage’s door, and the sound reverberates through the hall — Pad’s ears detect the clanking of chains and the metal protest of some poorly maintained mechanism. It can be opened, Pad muses. And whatever it holds unleashed onto those below.⁵

The Gasper, following Pad’s gaze, chuckles. “Those are the Most-Blessed. Pray to your god you never meet them.”

“What are they?”

“They were like us, once,” The Gasper chortles. “They were Odo’s closest bravos, and his god has made them into monsters. Belike some of them even remember your face, and what you did to their mates at Bastard Brennan’s command.”

As though to confirm this, a keening howl comes from the eyes above, and a handful more join in the chorus. The Gasper and his men pale at the sound. One of the spearmen shoves Padrig forward. “Let’s go,” he mutters. “No cause to stir them up.” The Gasper nods sagely, and gestures Pad and Jens onward with mocking courtesy.

They pass through the left-hand archway and down another steep stairway that leads to the pens. Once perhaps a luxurious apartment of one of the great artisans who dwelled here, it is now a dismal prison. Three floors have collapsed in on one another in the aftermath of some long-ago quake, resulting in terraced depressions filled with Odo’s captives. A rickety wooden lift has been erected at the edge, and it is to there that the Gasper’s men prod and shove Padrig and Jens, while their leader moves to the crank.⁶

“I was going to let you sleep at the top, with the other hard ones. But we wouldn’t you to get gutted before your audience with the boss, so down among the wretches you go!” He wheezes in laughter as he turns the crank, and with a sudden jolt, the descent begins.

We’ll leave Padrig in the pens for now and return to the Delve proper — perhaps Anwen and her party will find their way to the Pits — or perhaps they’ll find some other opportunities.

Scene 7: The Ustrina Quarters

Meanwhile, Anwen leads her party deeper into the complex. Behind them, they can hear voices raised, but the echos render the words unintelligible, and Anwen steels herself and puts her trust in Padrig as she goes onward.

Anwen’s crew now attempts to make further progress into the site using the Ironsworn Delve ruleset. Since they no longer have to be quite as stealthy, they can do so using Vahid’s expertise in the Makers and his foreknowledge of the site from the visions he received from Brogan’s mind.

Vahid triggers Delve the Depths with Intelligence: 6+4+2 Intelligence = 12, Strong Hit

They mark progress, and Discover an Opportunity.

Randomly generating the opportunity, I got: You get the drop on a denizen. I want to make this an important NPC, but not Odo himself. The natural choice is Dawa Eyegouger, one of his lieutenants, who Brogan described as “Odo’s Lady.” This is an NPC who is outlined in Stonetop’s world almanac, but I’ve made some changes to her to fit our version of Odo Thriceborn.

Randomly generating the surroundings, I got “Carved Passages,” so we’ll envision lots of long passageways in the Ustrina quarters. That said, I also want to connect this scene to what Padrig saw, so I’ll play a little fast and loose with the Oracle result (which is allowed by the rules as written in Ironsworn!)

They continue down the passage, carved with images of robed Ustrina serving — and abasing themselves before — regal depictions of the ancient Forge Lords. Hallway after hallway branches off, revealing more identical cells. The passageway continues in a sharp left turn but they slow, for ahead of them they can hear shuffling movement and inchoate voices. Then, the quiet is pierced by a keening, inhuman howl, joined quickly by other voices like it.

“More of those creatures we fought at Parvati’s,” Anwen whispers. “Steel yourselves.” Her companions nod and raise their weapons in acknowledgment, save for Vahid, who quietly shoulders past her to peer around the corner into the darkness before Anwen can hold him back.

Down the corridor, standing before a wide archway blocked with a makeshift gate of hammered-together scrap iron is a tall, slender woman with short, dark hair and the look of a Peakswoman. She is illuminated by a torch she holds high — Vahid can see in her hands, with their too-long fingers, the signs Mutra described of the Howling Curse. As Vahid watches her, she recoils back, and he with her, as someone — something — flings itself against the gate and snarls like a rabid beast. The woman regains her composure, takes a long swig from a clay flask at her belt, and continues her vigil.

Anwen pulls at Vahid’s shoulder, but he waves her off — the woman’s attention is riveted by whatever she looks upon, and he doubts she will notice him watching her. He breathes deeply, closes his eyes, and reaches for the opening to his third eye.

Here, Vahid is going to enter his third-eye trance and attempt to read Dawa’s mind — he doesn’t yet know who exactly this is, but he’s curious about the psychology of Odo’s family.

Vahid triggers Seek Insight: 5+5+1 Wisdom = 11, Strong Hit

Three questions from his The Eye, Opened arcanum. He chooses:

1. What here are they most afraid of?

2. What are they really feeling right now?

And for his third question, he’ll use the special question he gets from his Let’s Make a Deal move, which is “What do they really want?”

When his eye opens, he sees in a flash what she sees: A monstrous creature, half-man half beast, with a long snout and wickedly sharp gnashing teeth, covered with a patchy pelt of mottled fur. It grasps the bars of its cage, straining with all its might to tear them from their fittings.

Then, in another flash, she sees herself in its place, her body twisted, her mind lost to violence and savagery. He feels her terror at the prospect of so devolving, and he hears the whispers of the presence he felt in Brogan’s mind, hissing cruel urges into the woman’s ear, their sharpness dulled by a thick haze of foul liquor. And then, he feels her deep longing for release from the curse — a distant, forlorn dream, almost given up on.

He is shaken from his trance by Mutra’s hand on his shoulder — she too peers around the corner before she pulls him away. “That is Dawa Eyegouger, Odo’s right hand — and lover, if the rumors are true,” she whispers urgently. “We have the advantage of her, and she is alone — we should take her now.”

Anwen’s eyes dart to Vahid. “Seeker?”

“She has done terrible things, to be certain, Anwen. It would be wise to take her off the board,” he whispers back tentatively.

“But?” Anwen asks.

“I have looked into her mind. Her loyalty to Odo rests on a knife’s edge. If we take her alive, we can offer her a chance to turn against her cruel master and undo some of the wrong she has done.”

“She’ll never turn,” Mutra hisses. “She is as bloody-handed as he is!”

“She is driven by the curse. She craves release from it.”

“I have her release right here,” Ollem growls, hefting his heavy blade.

“Anwen?” Vahid says pointedly. “What is your command?”

We’ll pause here with a simple approach decision: Do they attempt to take Dawa Eyegouger prisoner, or do they try to drop her quickly and cleanly? Hit the button below to make your choice, and as always, thanks so much for reading!

1. You can reference that special list here.

2. This is the answer to “what’s the safest way out, in, or through?” — the best way out is clearly the way they came in.

3. This touches on the answer to ‘What here is not what it appears to be?” — this not only an arena, but a place that is consecrated to whatever power Odo serves, and its whispers can be heard here.

4. This is the answer to “What here is useful or valuable to me?”

5. This is the answer to “Who or what is the biggest threat here?”

6. Padrig probably ruefully remembers the last time he was lowered into a pit — Session 4.5, where he narrowly escaped thanks to Anwen and Ozbeg’s timely arrival.