Setup:
Is Leira at home?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
Is Harper at the Rosemight home? [ignore clarifier]
(50/50 | 10[d10]) Yes, and…
[Scene 1: Rosemight Home]
Bhartram Rosemight sits on a stump outside his home in the village of Swifthaven [RG], repairing traps. His father is currently away, visiting other towns to deliver new and repaired traps, as well as get new orders. Also at the Rosemight household is Harper Wyghtwing who just arrived a few moments earlier with some traps that are in need of repair. He glances around before asking Bartram if Leira is around.
“She left a while ago,” Bhartram tells the hunter. “I’ll make sure father gets your traps when he returns. They should be repaired by the end of the week.” Bhartram hopes this brush-off will encourage Harper to leave. He really can’t stand the guy.
Does Harper inquire about Leira's whereabouts?
(Likely | 10[d10]) Yes, and...
“Hmm, that’s good. Any idea where your sister is off to? I have something I was hoping to give her.”
Bhartram doesn’t like this. A gift? The last thing he wants is for this self-centered oaf to be enticing his sister with gifts.
Does Bhartram know where Leira is?
(Unlikely | 5[d10]) No, but…
Luckily, Bhartram does not know where his sister is, however, considering the lateness of the day and the fact that it’s the end of the week, he would guess that she went to hang out at the Filthy Princess [RG], the village inn.
“She goes where she wants. I really have no idea,” Bhartram lied.
About this time Bhartram looks up to see five [RG] figures on horseback come riding down the road. He thinks little of it, as there are always strangers riding through town. Swifthaven lies just north of a medium-sized trade route connecting the country’s capital in the west to several other cities in the east. Travelers often stop in Swifthaven to stock up with supplies or get a meal and possibly a night’s rest at the Filthy Princess. As the riders draw near Bhartram sees they are all male and wearing either scale armor or light ring shirts.
Do the riders stop to ask for information?
(50/50 | 4[d10]) No
They pass by Bhartram and Harper with little more than a glance in their direction.
Is Harper curious about the group?
(Somewhat Likely (looking for adventure) | 3[d10]) No
After getting a look at the riders, is Bhartram curious?
(Unlikely (strangers in town is common) | 3[d10]) No (Okay, this is going nowhere.)
After leaving Bhartram, does Harper go to 1)the tavern, 2)the woods to hunt, 3)home, or 4)some other location in town?
4 = 4[d4] some other location that will be determined later if necessary.
Harper says farewell and Bhartram breathes a sigh of relief to himself as he watches him walk away.
[Scene 2: Filthy Princess Tavern]
Is the tavern crowded?
(50/50 | 9[d10]) Yes
Is Leira at the tavern?
(Likely (per reasoning above) | 9[d10]) Yes
Consider all names to be randomly generated [RG]
The Filthy Princess is doing a bustling business, as is usual at the end of the week. There are few travelers in the meeting room, but most of the tables are filled with local farmers and craftsmen. Sinclair, the tavern owner, sits at one sharing drinks and swapping stories with a couple of traveling bow makers while his wife, Desty, serves the patrons. The only other women in the room are Cosette, the serving girl, and Leira Rosemight. Leira is playing cards with a couple of locals. She isn’t very good, but that doesn’t concern her as she can easily swipe a coin or two from her opponents’ stash and stay in the game.
“Sinclair, get off your arse and give me a hand!” Desty calls to her husband as she serves a bowl of stew to Otmund, the blacksmith.
“I’m busy making our new friends feel welcome,” Sinclair responds, winking at his companions.
“What you’re busy doin’ is drinkin’ up the profits,” his wife retorts.
About then the door opens and the five horsemen enter. The man in the lead is tall and broad with dark hair and a closely trimmed beard. He is dressed in black scale mail, a long sheathed sword hangs from his belt. The blond warrior next to him is clean shaven, yet with a rough face. He wears similar armor to his companion. The remaining three men wear light chain mail and clearly appear to be followers instead of leaders.
Does the strangers' entrance draw an unusual amount of attention?
(50/50 | 10[d10]) Yes, and…
Does Sinclair give them special attention?
(50/50 | 10[d10]) Yes, and…
Upon the strangers’ entrance, the room quiets noticeably as several tables pause their conversations to look at the five armored men. Anyone who didn’t initially notice the entrance eventually turn their attention to the doorway, sensing the change in the atmosphere. While unknown travelers often visit the Filthy Princess, they are typically merchants, craftsmen or commoners, not fully armored groups of men who seem ready for battle. Several patrons think better of the situation and head for the exit. [per yes, and] In fact, an entire table near the group clears out. The leader, the blond man and two of the others take seats around the table. The last man remains standing as there is no more room.
Sinclair gets up and approaches the newcomer’s table. [per yes, and] “Hello, gentlemen! I don’t believe I’ve seen you in Swifthaven before. Just passing through?”
The NPC gives: an annoyed response
The bearded man simply grunts and asks, “Ya got anything to drink around here? My men and I are thirsty.”
“Of course!” Sinclair exclaims. “We have the finest ale brewed right here in town by our own Baxter.” Sinclair gestures over to a man sitting at a table in the corner who quickly lowers his head, attempting to avoid any unnecessary attention from the rough looking stranger. “In fact, to welcome you the first round is on me. Cosette, five mugs. Quickly!”
Beard nods his satisfaction as Desty throws her husband a quick glare, letting him know she doesn’t approve of him giving away drink for free. Ignoring her, Sinclair continues his efforts at small talk.
“So, what brings you through our small village. You King’s Guard?”
“Yeah!” The blond fighter snaps. “On our way to the capital. Now leave us, old man. We’ve got things to discuss.”
Sinclar smiles embarrassingly, offers s a quick apology, and heads off to rejoin his little group.
Does Leira notice anything about the strangers? (In Adventurers! checks are made by rolling 2d6 + the appropriate stat and any modifiers. If your roll is 7 or more, you succeed. Leira will roll using her MND stat, plus she gets an advantage for her Perception skill. An advantage allows a character to roll 3d6 and pick the best two.)
3d6= 1, 3, 6 = 6+3+5MND = 14 > 7 Success!
Leira has seen many members of the King’s Guard and they all one thing in common: somewhere on their person, they displayed the King’s crest. She had a good view of the men at the table and nowhere could she spot the sparrow hawk against the black and red division [RG] which would identify them as guardians of the crown.
Does she confront the strangers about this?
(Very Unlikely (she knows better) | 2[d10]) No
Does anything else about the strangers catch her eye?
(50/50 | 3[d10]) No
What do the men do next?
(C.Q.) Change / Plans
Leira wisely decides to keep the information to herself. She quickly scans the strangers for any other trinkets that she might be able to help herself to, but sees nothing. Shame, she was really hoping for a challenge.
About this time Cosette returns with a tray filled with mugs of ale. She starts handing them out to the sitting men as the one standing helps himself. The blond man takes a big drink as he eyes the brown-haired serving girl over the rim of the mug. Putting the mug down he addresses his partner. “I know we were just passing through, Shylock, but it might be entertaining to stay for the night,” he says suggestively, still ogling the girl.
How does Cosette react?
The NPC gives: a hateful response
The men at the table chuckle at the suggestion, but Cosette is not impressed. Still holding one last mug of ale, she flings the contents into the blond man’s face. Shylock howls with uncharacteristic laughter as his companion shakes the ale out of his eyes and spits.
“You little wench!” Jumping up, he roughly grabs Cosette by the wrist and draws a hand back to slap her. Desty gasps as Leira springs from her seat, flies across the distance separating herself from the ruffian, and puts her dagger to his throat.
“That would not be a wise idea,” she warns. “What would be best is if you sit back down and buy another drink for your pal.”
How does blondie respond?
The NPC gives: a nervous response
The blond man stops in mid-swing clearly rattled by Leira's quickness and aggressiveness. Slowly, he brings his hand down as he warily eyes the weapon a mere inch from his throat. “On second thought,” he says, giving Leira a hateful glare. “I think the women around here might be a bit too haughty for my taste. Let’s get outta here. The ale tastes like pig sweat, anyway.” He glances at Baxter in the corner who is still keeping his eyes averted.
Shylock stands, still amused that his partner was bested by a woman. “I guess you’re right. About the women, I mean. Now the ale is another story. In fact, I think we’ll be takin’ our drinks with us.” He and the others pick up the remaining mugs and head for the door. Turning back to Desty, the bearded man holds his up and says, “We’ll consider the mugs souvenirs.”
His pals laugh at this and they walk out the door.
Leira makes an agility check.
2, 5, +1Agi = 8 > 7 Success!
The door closes behind them.
“And I’ll consider this a souvenir,” Leira announces, holding up the gleaming dagger she lifted from blondie’s belt as he turned away from her.
End of Chapter 1
Chapter Wrap Up:
In Adventurers!, characters gain 1 Exp at the end of each session. I’ll consider a chapter a session. Therefore, Bhartram, Harper, and Leira each get 1 experience point.
Furthermore, characters can be rewarded Heroism points for achieving certain goals and role-playing their concept’s definition. Since Leira successfully pickpocketed the stranger, I will award her 1 Her.
Thoughts on Chapter 1
I could probably write for a couple of hours about the setup and chapter 1. Being my first time attempting this, I am learning a lot and discovering things all the time. However, I think I’ll limit myself to just two points.
First, I feel that in a true solo role play I should be letting the engine truly be the GM and run my characters as I would if I were playing with a human GM. Instead, I’m using randomizers to determine what my characters do. (More so in the first scene of the chapter than the second.) However, particularly in this story, I felt it was necessary to keep from just moving the story the way I wanted it to go. In preparing for this, I admit I really overthought the setup and how I expected the beginning to unfold. If I just played my characters that way, I expect I would have ended up just “writing a story” instead of playing the game. Using randomizers let me explore different options than what I planned. While there do seem some obvious places where it makes sense to randomly generate your character’s actions (i.e. playing a prepared module and already knowing its secrets, a random roll allows your characters to make mistakes and be fallible), I’m going to attempt to “play” my characters and react to the engine’s input. Then again, I’ve read more than once that there is no wrong way to do this. Just have fun. We’ll see what happens.
Second, Cosette’s random reaction to blondie was unexpected and perfect. In my mind I had her reacting embarrassed, afraid, concerned, anything but hateful. (Sure, she probably would have hated him in the other scenarios, but a prompt like that really calls for a more outward expression.) It was so much better than my original thought and did many things. First of all, it accelerated the scene. I had some ideas about where to take it, but it would have been a much slower process. I also sparked some things that could come up later in the story (i.e. direct confrontation with Leira, blondie’s desire for revenge, the dagger could play a role, etc.) And that’s the fun of role-playing solo.
Proceed to Chapter 2
Proceed to Chapter 2
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