This is quite a short session — I was badly pressed for time and inspiration these last two weeks, thanks to a variety of pesky meatspace circumstances. But thanks to some fortuitous (and not-so-fortuitous) rolls, the action proceeded quickly to a significant dilemma for one of our heroes, allowing me to crank out a half-episode for your consideration.
Apologies for the meager offering, but I hope what’s here appeals! With that throat-clearing done, we’ll dive into the recap and the action.
Recap
Last episode, our heroes faced dire circumstances across all fronts of the Battle for Gordin's Delve. Anwen, confronted with overwhelming odds at the trailhead, chose to stand her ground against Maël rather than retreat. She gave her all to turn the tide, even shattering her makerglass axe to deal a lethal blow to Maël, and suffering grievous wounds that brought her to the threshold of the Last Door. But in the end, it was not enough, and the defenders were routed at the trailhead, allowing the surviving Stormcrows to enter the town.
Meanwhile, at Sorrow's Gate, Padrig orchestrated a desperate defense against the storm-marked warrior who had broken through. Rather than face the berserker directly, the old bandit concocted a hasty, perhaps ill-advised scheme to collapsed the rickety scaffolding that climbs the great walls onto the foe. The gambit succeeded, allowing the defenders to fall upon the wounded berserker, holding back the assault for a few more moments.
We ended the episode back with Anwen, who once again came face-to-face with the Lady of Crows. She and Mael saw the death goddess together, and after a few final words, the stormcrow’s champion passed through the Last Door, leaving Anwen alive and not ready to give up the fight.
With the battle at the trailheads lost, Anwen now faced a dilemma: Should she reunite with one of her comrades? Or try to track down the stormcrows who have broken through and are now spreading fear and fire in Gordin’s Delve? Let’s see what you all chose:
A near-run thing! Anwen will continue her own fight, trying to undo the damage her defeat has done. But since she’s been out of commission for a bit, we need to figure out what the situation is in the Delve when she returns by checking in with both Vahid and Padrig. We’ll start with the Seeker: He’s consumed with the effort of holding back the hdour’s storm — can he hold fast while the rest of the Delve’s defenses may be falling?
Scene 8: Jahalim’s Manor
Vahid stands in the center of Jahalim’s courtyard, as still as the looted bronze warriors that stand sentinel on either side of the still reflecting pool. Bodies lie all around the Seeker — the fallen assassin Cicatrix, Elder Kirs, denied his vengeance, and a handful of Jahalim’s bravos, felled by poison or traitors’ blades.
Dawa rests peacefully for the first time in her memory, finally free of the Howling Curse. Demetra, first among Jahalim’s wives and his bravos, watches over them alone, her face lined with worry and anger.
Vahid tears his thoughts away from these earthly concerns — his mind must remain above. In the heavens, he contends with the hdour’s storm-thralls, who beat their bodies and wills relentlessly against the bulwark of the Azure Hand.
Sweat runs freely down his face, stinging his good eye. The Azure Hand thrums with power in his hand, radiating agony up the burnt offering that is his left arm. He has maintained his concentration for what feels like hours, though the blood on the courtyard stones has barely begun to dry. Every breath is labored, every heartbeat thunderous in his ears.
His azure eye looks skyward and sees the spirits above roiling in the unseen world. Torn between the hdour’s irresistible command and the Azure Hand’s unyielding abjuration, their forms seem to writhe in agony, and he hears their voices as a keening howl in the vibrations of the staff.
Before Vahid’s eye, the spirits resolve into powerful and majestic eidolons — one leaps and charges like a nomad rider, a swift and untamable wind, another rolls and bellows like a bronze-clad warrior of the elder days, still another twists and turns like a dancer, casting rain and sleet about her. They cry to Vahid in many voices: “We have been called to this place. Let us pass or we will surely die, our promises unkept!”
But it is another voice that sends a shiver through Vahid’s body. Felt more than heard, the hdour’s voice reaches Vahid through subtle vibrations in the Azure Hand. “Can you hear them, Ebn Sulaim? They long to play their parts in this great turning of ages, as we all must. Why do you deny them?”
As the sorcerer’s sending washes over Vahid, he can feel the vibration of the Azure Hand begin to still, as the storm-spirits relent, however briefly, in their assault. Relief washes over him, and he straightens himself, lest he fall to his knees.
“I deny them to protect the people of the Delve. Innocents,” the Seeker returns.
“There is no one innocent, not even one. Slavers, mongers of iron and war, plunderers of the treasures of the earth, unleashers of the blasphemies of the Old Masters. But they can find salvation in the pyre. Their offering will turn the wheels of fate.”
The sorcerer, above the field of battle. // Source: Midjourney
The Seeker’s sight falls upon the source of the soundless voice. In the sky high above, the hdour waits. His physical form is only a speck in the sky, but the vis of the storm swirls around him in Vahid’s storm-touched eye, standing out like a mirror-bright suit of armor in Helior’s light.
The sorcerer continues. “But why must we contend with one another from afar, Vahid? Why must our champions clash while we remain aloof from the fight?”
“You will not trick me into abandoning my friends, serpent.” Vahid returns. “I am steadfast.”
“I am no deceiver, Seeker.You know as well as I that our fates are bound. Did your vision beneath the boughs of the Fate-Tree teach you nothing? We make one another greater — only together can we claim the legacy of Indrasduthir, the last of the Makers.”
“You seek to destroy, not create. I will never be a friend to such as you.”
“You mistake me. It is not our fellowship, but our enmity that shapes us into vessels for fate. Was it not my trial by wildfire on the grasslands that awakened you to the power of Stormcatcher’s staff? Will this great clash you have orchestrated not help me draw a mighty host to my banner? Ours is the purest brotherhood — iron sharpening iron, urging us to greater glories!”
Vahid is momentarily silent, appalled and compelled by the hdour’s grandiose visions. In the silence, another voice whispers in his ear. “This is truth. Through conquest, I have become great. Owain, the Valerix, Odo Thriceborn, and the other Delve Bosses all have given way to my designs. I, though a mortal man, have become the eye of a storm that shakes the World’s Edge.
His cloak stirs around him. The bound spirit within, His-Laughter-is-Thunder, recognizes his own lordly ambitions in the Seeker and begins to awaken. Borne aloft by the spirit’s wind, Vahid starts to rise in the air, towards his rival.
Demetra’s shouts of alarm are as quiet as falling rain to his ears. The wind roars around him as he draws closer to Cirl-of-the-Storms.
The town spreads out beneath him from his new vantage above Jahalim’s manor. Smoke stings his eye, rising from the fires now burning in the upper city. Below, at Sorrow’s Gate, he can see the defenders rallying at the broken barricade — for a moment, he thinks he can see Padrig, his sword high in the air, bidding the Delvers stand fast.
Scene Breakdown
We’ll pause here for a quick breakdown of the two rolls leading up to this moment, and the one that’ll propel us forward. First, at the outset of the scene, I rolled to see how Vahid’s focus and defenses were holding up. For that, I opted for a simple Defy Danger roll, rather than having him re-trigger Eye of the Storm.
Vahid triggered Defy Danger: 6+5+1 Constitution = 11, Strong Hit
Vahid’s got the hang of this. The sorcerer can’t just break through, so he instead tried a bit of a parley, and that’s where things started to get interesting. To represent Vahid’s temptation to embrace the hdour’s left-hand path, I used the whispers compel you move from the Stonetop World Guide:
Source: Stonetop // Jeremy Strandberg
Normally this move is used for the whispers and compulsions of The Things Below, an antagonist group who’ve taken a bit of a backseat in our story1. Here, it represents the lingering memories, thoughts, and emotions of the storm-spirit that Vahid briefly bound to himself to gain the power to overcome Odo Thriceborn. Storm-spirits are lordly, proud things, and this part of Vahid urges him to participate in the grandiose struggle that the hdour offers him. To sweeten the pot, rather than offering 1 XP, we’ll offer a much bigger incentive: We’ll level up the Azure Hand, unlocking an additional move that allows Vahid to further master the elements. At first, Vahid resists:
Vahid triggered the whispers compel you: 5+1+1 Wisdom = 7, Weak Hit.
As the scene ends, Vahid is acting out the first option, act as if compelled, but divert yourself at the last moment, but his dilemma remains open — he can still do as the whispers bid, and take the fight directly to Cirl. To bring Vahid’s dilemma to as sharp a point as possible, we’ll check back in with Padrig and another Deploy roll.
Pad’s forces missed their first such roll, but Pad’s quick thinking has earned them another, final shot. The odds are stacked against him — the militia, undisciplined and untested as they are, are rolling with disadvantage here, but Pad can cancel that disadvantage out using his Read the Land move.
Even with an even roll, things are dire. The fate of the Delve hangs in the balance — last episode, we ticked the second-to-last segment of the defenders’ morale clock, while the Stormcrows seem to have the initiative but are hurting as well, with only two ticks left on their clock. In the event of a Weak Hit, we might tick both side’s clocks, but that will fill the Delvers’ clock, leading to a collapse of their morale. A strong hit might mean a path to victory, while a Miss might mean an even more dramatic collapse. No two ways about it, the battle hangs on Pad’s roll here:
Padrig triggered Deploy: 1+4+1 Defense = 6, Miss
And with that, the Delvers’ clock is full, and the collapse begins. We’ll narrate this outcome not from Pad’s perspective, but from Vahid’s, continuing where we left off:
Then, the Stormcrows come. Once again, their vanguard is not men, but beasts — below, Vahid sees streaks of dark red surging through the gap in the barricade and into the wall of spears: Blood-mad pack drakes, broken to the chain by the nomads’ beastmasters and turned loose on the Delvers. The first few drive themselves snarling and snapping onto the spear points, but as the line wavers in fear, the others find their way through the thicket and into Padrig’s lines. Behind them are more Stormcrows — the bulk of their forces, dozens of fighters, and panic sets in. His fleeting glimpse of Padrig is lost in the chaos of a headlong retreat up the terrace stairs.
The Seeker can now hear the cries from below in the many tongues of the Delve. “We are lost! They are too strong! Flee!” And from the upper city, others raise cries of “Fire! Fire! The tenements burn! Save what you can!”
A ripple of dismay goes through the defenders, up and down the terraces of the Delve. Beneath him, he can see the reserves, waiting outside Jahalim’s manor, begin to fall to desertion and infighting. The once-united force begins to break into work gangs and bravo bands, who melt into the town, towards the safety of the caravanserais2 or some other boltholes.
The Seeker turns his attention back to his true adversary — Cirl-of-the-Storms still awaits him amidst the roiling stormclouds.
Padrig’s voice rings in his ears. “Vahid! Hold nothing back!”
Anwen’s softer tones speak to him, too. “Pad and I are with you, Vahid. To whatever end.”
The hdour’s call silences them. “Come, Vahid, my brother. The battle below is but a child’s game.Let us see which of us truly can be Stormcatcher, come again.”
We’ll close part one here. The Battle of the Delve may be lost, but Vahid still has a chance to claim a pyrrhic victory from the ashes. If he once again binds his storm-spirit into his body, and perhaps even binds some of the other spirits waiting here as well, he can engage the hdour directly. Their battle will unleash ruinous forces, and the Delve will be harrowed, but Cirl-of-the-Storms may yet be driven away before he achieves his ultimate aim of destroying the Foundry, thus preventing Gordin’s Delve from being reconstituted. This choice represents an embrace of Vahid’s hubris — his belief that he is indeed worthy of Indrasduthir’s power.
Or, Vahid can withdraw, regroup with his comrades, and try to save as many of their friends as possible. This choice represents a renunciation of that same hubris — a step back from the brink, at least for now.
This’ll be the subject of this week’s reader poll. Summon your elemental might and click the button below to vote, and share your thoughts in the comments!
Recall that the Delve has a few sturdy, Forge Lord-made caravanserai that are the safest places from fire and foes — our heroes first visited one in search of the merchant Kanter back in Session 11.1, and then again when Vahid visited the Ustrina in another in Session 11.3.
I have voted withdrawal. Valid is no Maker in training- he is a scholar, using his knowledge in extremis for protection of his allies. But I admit to wavering. If the hour is not defeated now, when? If Gordon’s delve cannot be defended, can stonetop?
I have voted withdrawal. Valid is no Maker in training- he is a scholar, using his knowledge in extremis for protection of his allies. But I admit to wavering. If the hour is not defeated now, when? If Gordon’s delve cannot be defended, can stonetop?