Burning Faith - Dramatis Personae

The Fist of the 3rd Order

John Small

Linus of Woodberry

Roylin

Barkus al Sirat

Stats

Brenly Astor

Stats

NPC's

Master Sollis

Master Peter

Mender Ignatius

Brother Carter

The Woodsman

Character Spotlight - Thorin

Thorin

Thorin is pragmatic in the way that all those who work with their hands are.  Everything is about honesty and duty, although honesty is a lot more vague than people tend to give it credit for.  He will be honest with those he respects, and he will show a certain amount of respect to almost anyone until they prove they are not worth it.  To be worth respect, though, you have to be a hard worker, and you have to know when to work and when to play.  That is one of the reasons he chose to work for Olaf out of all of those looking for an accomplished smith, and why he is so loyal to him, and by extension, Calder.

He also believes that true reality is tangible.  Philosophy is fine for mellow nights spent around warm fires and cold beer, but when it comes down to brass tacks philosophers don't get the job done.  And the only thing more rewarding than working is the satisfaction of a job well done.  And a good bar fight.

He has little patience for whiners and less patience for dandys and fops.  He has much more respect for someone who does their very best despite lack of talent than he does for a gifted artisan who squanders it.

He believes that something is worth doing then it is worth doing right, and that loyalty is such a basic need in society that it shouldn't need to be talked about, it should be taken for granted that everyone agrees and practices it.  Being pragmatic lets him see that this isn't the case, a point which is a recurring aggravation.

He believes that family is sacred and that it must be protected above all, but while many feel it is blood that defines family, he believes that it is shared loyalty and friendship that truly define it.

He feels that the darkness needs to be fought and that the humans have lost their way and could use a reminder of what it means to be stalwart.  He believes that if only the humans would do their part then the war would go better, but again he is pragmatic enough to know the odds.  Putting down ones hammer and rolling up in a ball isn't the dwarven way, though, so he will be singing dwarven battle songs and drinking when he spits in Deaths eye for the last time.  Anyone that does less is less. 

But at the end of the day, when all is said and done, he would rather be left alone to work his forge and to shape the liquid fire that is molten metal into the very best tools, be they tools of trade or tools of war.

Nothing is more real than a hammer and anvil, and nothing more honest than fire.

New Villain Emerges

The Kurusach Udureen

Dramatis Personae

Player Characters

Prince Calder Dale  <Stats>         

 Daschell, The Spy Master

Arvidus Falon, Soldier-Mage

Rhysdan Pendor, The Inquisitor

Thorin, The Artificer

Portraits do not necessarily reflect the views of the players and were selected as reference points.

NPC's

The Great Houses

House Dale

Jarl Olaf Dale - Leader of House Dale

Dagny (Torbault) Dale - Wife of Olaf Dale and Daughter of High King Hegrig Torbault

Cuylar Dale - Eldest son of Olaf Dale by his late first wife.

House Esben

Jarl Einar Esben - Leader of House Esben and bitter rivals to the Dales.

Falconar Esben - Eldest son of Einar Esben.  Recently murdered by unknown party.

Signe Esben - Daughter of Einar Esben and currently betrothed to Calder Dale.

Vildar the Bastard - Bastard of Einar Esben.

House Gunnar

Peredur Gunnar - Head of the House Gunnar, a minor house in the service of Esben.

Shahla Gunnar - Wife of Peredur and, like him, a skilled practitioner of Sorcery.

House Redgard

Jarl Halvar Redgard - Leader of House Redgard and a strong ally to the Dales.

Ayla Redgard - Wife of Halvar Redgard.

Rolli "The Bull" Redgard - Eldest son of Halvar Redgard.

Astra Redgard - Daughter of Halvar Redgard, formerly betrothed to Calder Dale.

House Pendor

Jarl Oli Pendor - Head of House Pendor and father of Rhysdan

Fallow Savja - Wife of Rhysdan and rumored to be a member of religious revival of the Old Gods

House Malmo

Current leadership unknown, but the House is rumored to have come into a large sum of riches recently.

Friends and Foes

Ingrid - A Legate from Kolding, currently in the service of House Dale.

Njall - Mysterious leader of House Dale's spy network.

Lothiriel - An elven envoy from the Witch Queen, warning of Darkspawn stirring in the North.

Celeborn - Elven Bladesinger and companion to Lothiriel.

Folcred - Knight-Herald of High King Hegrig, currently advising Jarl Dale

.

Jahzir - Sarcosan Sussar and Commander of the Wall.  Currently raising troops in Port Esben.

Aethelgar - a Legate stirring up interest in the Old Golds.  Known as "The Prophet".

Clan Doran - A Dwarven Clan called "Black Bloods" by their fellow dwarves.

1000 Very Bored People

Wow!  I see that I cracked 1000 views last night, a milestone I never expected to meet.  Why?  Well, for starters I figured I'd just get bored and wander away as I usually do.  Second, I've blogged about games before and found that people just stopped viewing the site.  Maybe it helps that I cram the blog down your throats on Google+ each time I post.  You guys are so polite you'd never even think about NOT clicking on the link.  While it really isn't much of a milestone, I thank you all anyway for your continue patronage.  I hope my game is as entertaining for you as it is for me.

The truth is, I think that the Burning Wheel system has a lot of dedicated and loyal fans who greedily ingest any scrap of news or game-based material, no matter how poorly written and bloviated.  I hope you'll all stick around for another 1000 pageviews.  Got another game coming up in 2 weeks and I look forward to writing about it!

Where'd All These Orcs Come From?

 Session 3 recap

We picked up session three where we had ended the previous session.  All the characters, along with their followers, were still at the breach in the wall.  We had set up enough obstacles in the breach to prevent another incursion, we hoped, but we knew that a large force of shadowspawn had already traversed the breach and were marauding south into lands populated by unsuspecting Dorn.  There hadn't been a breach in the wall in centuries, so we knew that nobody would be expected a raiding party of the size that we detected.  We knew we had to pursue the shadowspawn force and, if possible, get ahead of it and warn anyone in its path.

We decided to leave Thorin, the dwarven forgemaster, at the breach to oversee its repair.  We hope to meet up with Thorin again in Riismark when the repairs are complete and we can ensure that there will be no further incursions.  We set off on horseback at the light of first dawn.  We knew that the orcs had a few days lead on us, but we were hopeful that they would be traveling slowly.  I was able to successfully track the band.  It was not a particularly difficult task given the size of the orc raiding party we were following.

Our worst fears were realized when we spotted the smoke from the small village of Barrens.  The orcs had come out of the night and surprised the residents still in their beds.  Those that survived we found huddled together in the town square.  A retired soldier who had served House Davin by the name of Snorri was doing his best to organize the efforts to fight the various fires still burning in the village and attend to the injured.  We jumped in immediately with our various skills and managed to save some of the villagers.  Sadly, the most grievously injured among them were beyond our skills and they died.  It was a humbling failure for us and we took it hard.  Having done all we could for Snorri and the village, we sought out the village Legate and had him send a raven to my father at Riismark informing him of the orc band and the damage to the wall.  We informed him that we intended to continue our pursuit and do what we could against the dark forces.  

We were on the road again in short order, this time heading for the town of Kolding, on the Eb River.  We knew that a  rich community like Kolding would be hard for the orcs to resist...and easy pickings.  On the way to Kolding we finally caught up to the orc warband.  It was midday and the orcs were encamped, hiding from the sun.  I recall Thorin telling us that the shadowspawn hate the light of the sun and would avoid it if possible.  While we were tempted to attack, we knew that even sun-blinded as they would be we were no match for that number of orcs.  We decided to travel around the band and reach Kolding first.  We estimated that if we rode hard we could have at least a full day in the town before the band arrived.  Ample time to set up defenses and evacuate the non-combatants.

We found the men and women of Kolding eager to fight the orcs, so we immediately set to digging pit traps and setting up a potential battlefield to our advantage.  When the pits were dug and spiked, we splashed oil about the field that we hoped to channel the orcs into.  Let's see how eager they are to fight when the very earth they trod upon erupts into flame!  I set my House Dale warriors into a shield wall and the warriors of the village into pickets to drive the orcs back should they get past our traps.  The elderly and women who could fight were placed on rooftops with bows, slings and rocks.  They were armed with whatever they could launch or throw to damage the oncoming orcs.  Arvidus stood with the shield wall, ready to lend his magic if necessary.  Inquisitor Rysdan stood ready with sword as well, though he looked rather nervous and unsure. I'm not sure he's used his weapon on something that actually fights back.  Daschell made ready to slip off into the night.  With a wink he told he that he planned to harass any orcs that strayed too far from the mob.  He was fondling his wicked daggers as he spoke and there was an almost fevered look in his eyes.  I knew that orcs would die gruesomely beneath his blades this night.

The orcs, as predicted, rushed the village with little semblance of order or strategy, right into our killing field.  We heard the screams of pain from those that found our spiked pits.  They would have faltered, I think, had not a particularly large and gruesome one whipped them into a frenzy and drove them forward.  The field was set alight then by young men with flaming arrows.  The orcs howled and screamed in the flames and did break then, in spite of the whip-bearer, and fled into the night.  They had never even reached the shield wall and we lost no villagers in the attack.  It was a complete rout!  I learned later that Daschell tracked the whip-bearer into the night and brought him down with a dagger thrust into the neck, severing his spine.  The handful of orcs that survived fled into the night.  The men of Kolding should be able to track them down and finish them.  We had won.

Not only had we won, but we had taken a prisoner.  Inquisitor Rysdan was eager to question the orc, but none of us spoke its foul language.  Luckily, the Legate of Kolding, Legate Ingrid, volunteered to help us.  She knew a smattering of words in the orc language and would act as translater for Rysdan's questions.  The orc's will broke easily beneath Rysdan's skilled hands and we quickly learned all they it knew.  Some of the concepts that the orc were trying to convey may have been lost in translation, but we were able to gather that this band of orcs was but a spear point to a much larger force marshaling north of the wall.  We learned that the Esben fort had fallen to the orcs and that they were using it as a staging point to launch future raids.  The orc band was being led by the Kurasach Udureen, a shaman of tremendous power.  We knew that we were over our heads and had to report our findings in person to my father, Jarl Olaf, and eventually to the King himself.  But first we would scout out the disposition of the Esben fort for ourselves and see if it had indeed fallen to the orcs.

Again, our worst fears were confirmed.  We traveled close enough to the fort to see that not only had it fallen, but there were Dornish heads mounted on spikes on the walls and even the body of some poor victim hanging from the parapets.  Daschell managed to move forward close enough to identify the body on the walls as that of Barold Esben, the eldest son of Jarl Esben and the commander of the fort.  With that knowledge, we decided to make for Port Esben, ancestral home of House Esben.  Jarl Esben should be told of the fall of his fort and the death of his son.  We hoped to rouse him to action and see him recapture his fort before the orcs manage to dig in too deeply.

We arrived in Port Esben after having been on the road for weeks.  We were in no condition to present ourselves before such a powerful Jarl, so we took rooms at an inn a few miles from the walls of Port Esben.  The Legate, Ingrid, had decided to travel with us and I attempted to purchase a horse for her before we left Kolding.  The effort was a total failure and I ended up humiliating myself before a group of Sarcosan merchants.  Instead, Ingrid rode with me on my warhorse.  My ears still burn from the harsh lesson in economics those merchants taught me!

Jarl Esben received us in his great hall, which is larger and more ornate than any hall I've seen in the north.  House Esben is rich, that cannot be denied!  With the Jarl was his surviving son, Falcanar, his daughter, the lovely Signe, and his half-Sarcosan bastard, Vildar.  The Jarl seemed disinterested in our tale until we told him of the death of his son, Barold.  Only then did he agree to send a force north to retake his keep.  He told us he would do it only for his son and not for the King.  He went so far as to imply that he no longer felt the need to follow the dictates of his sovereign, King Torbault and was looking for allies to break off and form a new kingdom of the north.  I was shocked and I told him so there in his great hall before all his thanes and followers.  I felt particularly inspired in my oration and I was rewarded by seeing his face burn red with anger and shame.  He sought to remove us from his city, but I demanded hospitality, which was my right as a nobleman and a Prince of the Blood.  Reluctantly he agreed and gave us hospitality for a week.  I had no intention of staying that long, but I wanted to force him to acknowledge my claim and shame him further.  His daughter and the bastard, Vildar, seemed to appreciate seeing their father shamed by me.

In the city we found evidence that the Jarl had been hiring mercenaries, mostly Sarcosan horsemen.  We knew then that his threat of open rebellion was no mere boast.  His intentions were made real, so we sought allies in the city.  I met with the Jarl's daughter, Signe, and we discussed her relationship with her father.  She flirted with me quite a bit and I'm ashamed to admit that I flirted back.  She is a beautiful woman and her charms are hard to resist.  I didn't manage to win her over as an ally against her father, but I feel I've made her a friend.  Perhaps that will be enough.

Daschell and Inquisitor Rysdan met with the bastard, Vildar, who turns out to be a very learned scholar and a man of science and philosophy.  They spoke of those things to ease his mind before turning the topic of discussion to his father and the threat of rebellion.  He despises his father and I feel that Daschell and Rysdan were able to win his loyalty.  Time will tell if we will be able to use him, but at least we now have eyes and ears in the Jarl's hall.

As we were preparing to leave for Riismark, I was approached by none other than Peredur Gunnar, the sorceror we had met on the road to the wall.  I thought he had come to mock and humiliate me further, but instead presented a proposal.  If we would accept House Gunnar as bannermen to House Dale, he would be a loyal friend.  I had Daschell draw up a letter of introduction to my father and we tasked Lord Gunnar with keeping a watchful eye on Jarl Esben.  Another set of eyes in Port Esben couldn't hurt, but I don't feel we can trust House Gunnar fully.  They'll have to prove their loyalty to House Dale before my father would ever consider accepting them as bannermen.

The road back north to Riismark was long and rough, but soon we were once more welcomed into the city of my birth...my home.  We met immediately with Jarl Dale, my father, to inform him of all we had learned.  My elder brother was there to sneer at me, of course.  I was surprised to see that father had a guest from court, a knight of  the Order of Truth.  I told father and the knight our tale.  He was not as concerned about Jarl Esben's rebellion as I had hoped.  Instead, he told me that the knight had brought an order from the king, my grandfather, that would see Esben happy and a loyal subject once again.  It seems that the king would have me marry Jarl Esben's daughter, Signe and cement  their loyalty to the Torbault line.  I was shocked and refused of course!  I love Astra Redgard and would marry none but her!  My father reminded me that Astra was betrothed to my older brother, Cuyler, a fact that I could never forget.  I asked for a personal audience with the Jarl to plead my case, but he could not be turned aside.  I would marry Signe as the king had commanded.  I would do my duty to the House and the kingdom.  I had no argument left in me, so I agreed to speak of it more at a later date.  I retired to my estate then to consult with my friends and comrades.

...end of session.

Blame Brandon

I was lucky enough to get an analysis of the first sesssion of our BW campaign by Brandon, our GM. This is an invaluable look inside the head of a Burning Wheel GM who is running the game for a bunch of new players.  Thanks goes out to  Brandon for writing this up.  I hope we can get plenty more "Blame Brandon" posts in the future, but I'm not going to ask him for one after each session.  I don't want to burn him out or scare him away.  Running a game for my particular group can be a trying affair.  Brandon has no idea what's in store for him.   My comments are in bold italics.  So, here's....

Blame Brandon

I was woefully under prepared after a month of not thinking about the game. So after my initial “lay down, try not to cry, cry anyway” nervousness was overcome, I looked through what I had prepped: two jerk nobles and entourage on the road. Which would hit several Beliefs and Instincts. Okay, I felt better. And it feels good to be playing again after a year away from Burning Wheel. Like nice comfy slippers.

The Jarl was browbeaten by a few group-members in the great hall into giving up some horses after a failed (Beginner’s Luck) Persuasion roll and some Helping dice. That’ll come back to haunt the group, but for now the Jarl is just being tight-lipped and none-too-pleased that he was just sassed to in front of his court. (Wow!  I had no idea we had pissed off the Jarl) But since the Rule of Law die came up a success I decided it would be improper to let the prince tramp through the spring thaw on foot.

I had Calder Circle up his mother - who is the sister of the King of Erenland (I think? We need to draw that family tree)(We had established that my mother is the daughter of the King) - not to find her, but to see what her disposition was like when he went to see her. Success, so she is happy to see him. Another failed Persuasion roll. Okay, I shouldn’t have had him roll Persuade here, but since I did I’ll roll with it. She gave him five of her personal house guard and a personal mission. There’s more to the “why” but I’ll leave it there for now. Intrigue‘s certainly afoot.

As they are gathering information, and rangers, Calder’s player hit me with a Wise-style fact: each of the houses has their own fort they are responsible for on the wall. Oh. Erm. Okay! Well I had thought that each fort would just be under-manned, but with that information it means that most of the forts are now abandoned! I smile evilly. (Someday I'll learn to keep my mouth shut!)

When Rysdan talked to the Jarl I made sure to mention that Calder’s brother was smirking. Calder has been away from court for a few years being a Captain at the Wall. His brother has been up to no good while he was gone.

The letter was totally unexpected and a good surprise for me as well. If Daschell hadn’t corrected the hot-headed prince’s words, those two nobles that were my only prep would have been turned into assassins. Way to save the prince from himself spymaster. So those two nobles I’d prepped became the representatives. I love it when serendipitous events like that happen.

Those two nobles were big jerk-faces. They insulted, they whipped their servants, they rolled their eyes and laughed at the “Raven Prince“. I was trying to get someone to come to blows with them, but cooler and clearer heads prevailed. Probably for the best, since Jarl Esben would have used that against House Dale, if possible. I was surprised that Rysdan didn’t get to torture them though, since I was trying to push for it. In the end the two Gunnar nobles were so verbally tongue-lashed by the group they gave up the beans anyway. But not all of them, only what the Intent of the Interrogation made them.

Thinking back on it, it would have been a good time for a Duel of Wits. Since they wanted something from the group. Maybe I’ll start there next session? Or maybe I’ll let it go and save it for the next time they meet.

I hesitated on starting a fight with some goblins. At least one of the players looked like he really wanted to smash some orc. But I really didn’t want to slow down the game or change the pace of the socially-focused session. Plus the group spent a long time working out defenses for the gap in the wall, so I let it go.

Next session might have a big fight though, depending on what the group does of course. Thorin and Arvidus both have Beliefs about protecting Calder, so it should probably happen. I’m just not looking forward to a five player combat. Then again after they experience a BW combat, and get horrible injuries, they might avoid it next time. If it comes up I’ll talk about Bloody Versus, Fight, or even Range and Cover if combat comes up.

Fun times! And wow I'm long-winded. (Nope.  If you were long winded, you'd have a blog!)