Heyday 27th
-Warm, clear skies, slight steady breeze-
-Immersion-sound of laughter-
Ep 2: Scene 7: Alone in a Cell-Heyday 27th-altered, reduce in scope
Chaos Factor: 5
I wake to the sound of laughter. Picking myself up from the pile of straw on which I slept, I look around in the gloom. A different guard sits at the table, and another stands with him. The slim, seated guard is laughing, while the oldier, heavyset guard standing in front of him grins broadly. Perhaps, I missed a joke?
“So, that’s the prisoner, eh?” the large man asks, glancing my way.
“Yeah, she’s been sleeping since I got here,” the slim man replies, turning to look at me. “But I guess she’s awake now. Hey there! Criminal! Hungry?”
“Yes,” I reply.
The guard gets up and brings over a bowl with some pottage and a piece of bread for me, “Eat up then.” He steps back, grinning.
“It’s like feeding a dog, isn’t it?” the big man observes, coming over to stand beside his fellow. “What is this one here for?”
“Crimes!” I hear she’ll be a slave.
“Tough luck, that is,” the big man nods, then shrugs.
“What does it mean to be a slave? Truly? I’ve only heard of goblins being kept as slaves, and only for mining. What becomes of me?” I ask the older man.
Q: Does he answer? 50/50 Yes
“Well that depends on who owns you. If our lord likes you, he might have you keeping his bed warm for him until he grows tired of you. Or he might sell you to a brothel. Perhaps he won’t bother having a look at you at all, and you’ll just get sold to some wealthy burgher who needs a bit of help around the kitchen or something. Or maybe you’ll be sold to a distant lord to help in the quarries, mines or rowing on a galley, but that’s not really the way women usually go. But then, there’s a bunch of Cragland mercenaries here. Maybe our lord will give you to them as part of their wage. Whatever the fates have in store, I’m sure you earned it with that brand on your shoulder,” the older guard explains.
I slump back against the wall, setting my bowl and bread beside me. “How long until I know what fortune brings my way? For good or ill.”
Q: Do they know? Unlikely No
The slim man shrugs, “I dunno. Seems there’s a bit of a war going on right now, so not likely to be an auction soon. But in a few days, you’ll likely have some orc women and children here to keep you company…just don’t let’em get too close. They’re nearly as savage as their men, I hear.” The older man laughs in agreement.
“How do I earn my freedom back?” I ask them.
Q: Do they know? Unlikely No
“Huh? You’ve got the brand on your shoulder. That’s all there is to it. You’re a slave now,” the big man replies.
I smirk, “I am a child of the goddess, as each of us are. And my sentence is unjust. I will be free once more.”
Q: Does this provoke laughter? Likely No
“That kind of talk will get you beaten. Best to accept your fate and live with it. With a good master, it might not be so bad. But with a cruel one, that mouth will shorten it,” the old man warns.
I bite my tongue as I consider his words. They return to their discussion and I eat the food they gave me. It might have tasted much better under different circumstances.
Q: Does someone arrive for me today? Very Unlikely No Q: Do the guards engage me further? Unlikely No
The day passes quietly. After several hours, another guard arrives to replace the slim one, and a boy brings me bread and a wooden jug of water. The guard doesn’t speak to me, nor does the boy, and I hold my tongue as well, leaning back in the corner of my cell, grateful to be alive, uncertain of the future, but resolved not to let my life lose all meaning.
Ep 2: Scene 8: Blood in the air-Heyday 28th (Generate the two orcs that bring the scent with them)
Chaos Factor: 5-Expected Scene
-Cool, clear skies, light but reliable wind-
-Immersion, smell of blood-
The quiet stillness of my cell is suddenly interrupted by the main door being thrown open and a the guards push two female orcs into the vault. The guard at the table quickly grabs his keys and opens up the cell opposite mine.
One of the women angrily snarls at the guards as she is being thrust into the cell, but takes a blow across the face. The other woman pushes her on in ahead, speaking words I do not understand.
In their cells, the women huddle against the far wall as the door slams shut and gets bolted tight. The more disciplined of the pair checks her companion’s face, where her lip is now bleeding. I can smell the blood from here, a scent I know all too well from when their kind destroyed my home.
Q: have they been stripped? Likely Yes
The orc women have been stripped of their clothing, down to loin cloths. I suppose to ensure they carry no weapons. On seeing this, I tear a long strip from the bottom of my gown, roll it up into a ball, soak it briefly in my pitcher of water, then walk to the front of my cell, and throw it into theirs, gesturing that it can be used to help clean the injured woman’s face.
Q: Do they accept this? Likely Exceptional Yes
The level headed woman picks it up, looks at me, and says, “Thank you” in my own tongue, which catches me off guard, as orcs do not learn the language of men! The other orc hisses at her, ant the level headed one drops her eyes then turns her attention back to her companion, dabbing away the blood.
Q: Did the guard notice? Unlikely Yes
I glance at the guard, “what did you say?” the guard comes back towards us, glaring at the orcs.
-Deception 11 vs guard insight 4-
“I said thank you for catching the vermin that destroyed my village!” I interject.
-Generate the guard-
His eyes flick from the orcs to me, then back to the orcs, then back to me, “The entire band was slaughtered except for these two.” he looks at the orcs, “should have slaughtered these two as well.” Then he looks to me, “Sorry about your village. Goodwill? Axdull? Or Bold Claim?”
“Goodwill and Bold Claim were lost as well?” I ask, shocked by the revelation.
“Yes, and orcs are still raiding farmsteads, but…not much longer,” he smirks, then looks at the captive women, “The snare is closing around them soon.”
“Not soon enough to bring back the dead,” I reply numbly, turning my eyes back to the orcs. I feel both pity at their plight, and rage for what their people have done to my own flesh and blood. But…it is hard to hate someone who is in a cell, as I am, and bleeding for speaking her mind, as I was struck.
I sit back down in my cell and the guard returns to his post. Then I lean back, and await what fate has in store.
Q: Do the orcs make any attempt to communicate further with me? Very Unlikely No Q: Does anyone arrive to take me away? Very Unlikely No Q: Do the orcs whisper among themselves? Likely Exceptional Yes (Perception 19)
Leaning back in my cell, the hours roll by slowly. The two orcs whisper between themselves in their own tongue. The one that was struck seems very agitated. The one who spoke to me, much more calm. I get the impression she is older.
Q: Does the guard try to silence them? 50/50 Yes Q: Does the younger try to fight back? Likely Yes
Several times, the guard gets up and yells at them, with the younger one yelling back repeatedly, only to be pulled back by her companion.
-Persuasion 19-
“Leave them be,” I tell the guard. “It’s not hurting anything to let them talk, and your yelling is more annoying than their whispers,” I complain.
The guard snarls, but then turns back to his table and stops trying to silence them.
Q: Are they brought food? 50/50 Yes (Random Event, move toward thread, escape slavery. Emotion, Trap)
After many hours, the slim guard from yesterday relieves the one from earlier today. He shouts at the orcs to get back from the cell bars, and slips a small cup of water and two pieces of bread through the bars. Then he unlocks my cell to hand me a bowl of pottage, refill my pitcher and pass me some bread.
“Thank you!” I smile weakly.
Suddenly, the orcs begin fighting. The younger one choking the older one.
Q: Does he try to intervene? Likely Yes Q: Is anyone looking my way? Unlikely Yes (Stealth 20)
The guard yells at them to stop and quickly tries to open their cell. When he does this, I push him inside and slam the door shut with him trapped alongside the orcs! He looks on in shock and alarm as I dash for the exit to the vault. I quickly peek outside while the guard fights for his life against the two women. There is a man looking my way, but I duck back. A few seconds later, I peek again and he is looking away, so I dash towards the nearby stables.
(Stealth 19 to get to the stables) Q: Do I hear a stable hand inside? 50/50 No Q: Is a stable hand inside? Very Unlikely No
I listen quietly, and all I hear is the docile, occasional whicker of the horses and mules within. Nobody talking to the animals, so I slip inside, and carefully move between the animals. I fetch some horsedung and smear it all over myself to break up my scent lest the lord’s hounds catch wind of me. Then I climb up into the hayloft above to consider how best to leave the actual keep itself.
A few minutes later, I hear shouting, “The slave escaped!” Then there is a commotion and I bury myself beneath loose hay, and pray.
Q: Are dogs brought out? Likely Exceptional Yes Q: Is the barn searched? 50/50 No Q: Do they search for more than an hour? Unlikely Yes
I hear dogs brought out, and I hear a couple of lads leading some horses out, the sound of tack and saddles being strapped on catches my ears, but nobody searches the stables or comes up into the loft.
I hear a lot of movement outside the barn. People yelling out places to search. Guards checking in. A sergeant cursing out someone named Orris for having let a prisoner escape, and for killing the orc captives. Orris, the lad I shoved in the cell, apparently, protests that he was trying to stop them from killing each other! I feel bad for him, and for the orcs, but I have no desire to be captured. So I rest, and wish I’d brought the piece of bread he’d given me along when I ran. Eventually, I let myself fall asleep up in the loft.
Heyday 29th
-Immersion, dizziness/vertigo-
Ep 2: Scene 9: Life is Dung-Heyday 29th
Chaos Factor: 5-Expected Scene
I wake up feeling a little dizzy from hunger. I consider climbing down to get some water from the horse trough, and oats to chew. But then I hear the sounds of men mustering outside, and the stable hands are busy pulling horses and mules from their stalls. “Form up!” bellow sergeants outside to their men. The great bells sound across the town as a general muster is called. I wonder if the town is under attack, but the signal is wrong. It is a muster, not a call to the wall. And I consider…this might be the best time to sneak out, or the worst.
Q: Are all of the horses and mules taken? Likely Yes Q: Does anyone come up to the loft? Very Unlikely No
I listen as all of the horses and mules are tacked and led outside. As I expected, nobody climbed up into to the loft, as this is for long term storage, for the winter, as fresh hay and grain are brought in during the summer months. What’s here is an emergency store that will be replaced later this month. Once the stable is deserted, I climb down, cup out water to sate my thirst, then I put some water in a feed bucket and drop in some oats and barley to soften up in it, then carry it back up into the loft with me, eating what I can and letting more soften slowly to make it easier to chew.
After an hour or so, I hear the sounds in the courtyard die down, and the barley is soft enough to eat. With a full belly, I peek out from the barn.
Q: Is anyone in the courtyard? 50/50 Exceptional Yes (Stealth 7) (It cooks and kitchen staff, generate personality, and attitude, not a nice person, but neutral, and another not a nice person, and hostile)
“There’s the slave! I bet that’s the slave!” shouts a woman excitedly.
I make a dash for the gate.
Q: Is anyone paying attention right now while the garrison is short staffed? 50/50 Exceptional No Q: Does he chase me? Likely No
I run straight past the gate guard before he even realizes I am coming, “Wait! What?” I hear the guard stammer in confusion, and it makes me wonder if rumors of our Baron’s ineptitude might be true for his men are certainly quite dim. No crossbow bolt strikes me in the back and I race across the bridge into the town proper.
-Town Encounter-None!-
Nobody stops me as I race through the street, but as I begin to tire, I duck into an alleyway, and then collapse against the wall of an adjacent building, taking slow, deep breaths. I pull my nightrobe up high, so my branded shoulder is covered. I smell like filth and look like a beggar, but at least…I am no longer in a cell!
-Immersion-Hyperawareness-
Ep 2: Scene 10: The Alleyway-(early afternoon, 29th)-
Chaos Factor: 5 Interrupt new character (generate Character, reaction Neutral)
Leaning against the wall in the alleyway, I am suddenly aware of every sound, every smell and even the feeling of the plaster wall behind me. The streets are busy. Women are worrying over when their husbands might return. Someone is complaining their name wasn’t drawn for the march. Another laments that their husband’s name was. I hear a vendor shouting out his bread is fresh from the oven, and I smell it in the air, over the horse stench. I look farther down the alley, and see the yards behind the shops. “Laundry?” I wonder, and I get up, and head that way, hoping to find clothing set out to dry, or a hen coop whose owner hasn’t yet collected the day’s eggs. “If I’m condemned as a looter, there is no reason not to steal,” I assuage my conscience as I look for whatever I might find.
As I am about to round the corner, a man carrying a spear suddenly rounds it from the other direction and slams right into me, knocking me down!
“Oh! Didn’t see you!”, he stammers. The man is about my age, with a long scar across his jaw. In addition to the spear, he has a satchel and a blanket as well, and a knife on his belt.
“It’s alright. Late for muster?” I ask, pulling myself up and adjusting my sleeping tunic.
Q: Does he question me? Likely Yes
“Where are your clothes?” the man asks, looking at me.
-Persuasion/Deception 5-
“Lost in the fires that burned Axdull. I had to flee with what I was wearing during the attack. I’ve been begging, hungry, since then. Can you help me?” I ask.
He turns up his nose in disgust, “You’re a filthy, lying beggar is what you are! Pretending to be a refugee! People who fled Axdull arrived with clothes on their back. Unless you’re a whore, you would have too!” He shoves his way past me.
“Others survived!” I mutter in relief, but then I look into the yards beyond the alleyway to see if anyone else is back there.
Q: Are people in the back yards? Likely Yes
There are children playing, women tending gardens. Hens clucking, dogs barking, cats prowling…it’s like a tiny village behind the shops and tenements of the street. I back away, and shelter in the alley once more to wait.
-Encounter, Afternoon-Craglander Barbarian-(looking for a raid, generate character and reaction) Q: Does he speak Norgard? Unlikely NO
A man enters the alleyway. He is tall, broad shouldered, wearing rough hides and leather, covered in tattoos. He looks at me, then standing against the wall, pulls open his breeches and lets loose a long stream of urine against the wall. I look away. He chuckles. I glance back and he is staring at me as he turns, showing off his manhood briefly before pulling his pants back up. He says something in his own savage tongue, then turns away and back out onto the street.
-Encounter, Evening-None- Q: Are people back in the yards? Unlikely No Q: Is any laundry left on the lines? Unlikely Exceptional No
As the sun fades, street traffic dies down. The handful of people who passed through the alley during the day paid me no mind. I eventually get up, and take another look back into the yards and see that people have gone inside. Sadly, they have taken what laundry had been out drying earlier in the day indoors with them. As they should.
I slip out behind, and a few dogs bark, or hens cluck, but that is the usual noise of a town. I enter none of the yards or gardens, but stick to the path. I approach the well, lower down a the bucket, and am soon cleaning myself off, washing away the stench and the filth, and drinking until my belly is full. I prefer the taste my own village’s well.
Q: Do I spot a likely yard? Very Likely Yes
Satisfied, I look around for a yard with no dog, and a garden! Even in the dark, it is easy to pick out and gather a number of onions and carrots, which can easily be eaten without cooking. I rinse the dirt off in the bucket, eat my fill, and then take another day’s worth for good measure, carrying them in my arms as I really can’t carry them in my night shirt without exposing my nether regions to every passer by.
I then wait until it is a bit darker before heading out into the street to check down the alleys on the other side of the market square.
-Barbarian-hiring for an expedition-(Generate the warrior and his warband)
“Woman!” I hear someone bark at me. I look around. It is another craglander, a pale man with ink all over his face and arms. “Carry this!” he thrusts a bag at me, causing me to drop my food. “Pick that back up! Put it in the bag! Come!”
I quickly scramble to obey, and I follow the warrior, who is one among many of his people. I spot the large man from earlier in the day. He chuckles on seeing me and says something to his companions. Another of the barbarians snaps at him, and the two say something in protest, but then fall silent when the man who commanded me, commands them.
Suddenly, another bag is thrust at me by a second savage warrior, and then a third. I stop, find lashes, and soon have half a dozen sacks and satchels slung across my back, over my shoulders and I must look like a barefoot pack mule when we arrive at the town gate. The gate opens for us, and I walk out of the town in the midst of a dozen will armed, savage warriors, and down into a growing campsite filled with levies from not just Westhold, but apparently, from across the barony. The small company follows their chief into the camp and down near the river’s edge. “Here!” the chief points, and I set down the sacks. Then a hatchet is thrust into my hands, “Wood!”
-Survival 17-
I look and see he is pointing at a copse of nearby trees, so I set of at once to gather firewood for his camp. It takes less than an hour, even in the dark, to find enough wood for a good cooking fire. I barely have to chop much at all! I bring it back, and then am told “Water!” and I gather a pile of half empty waterskins, take them down to the river, fill each one. Drink my fill, then come back to see a fire is already going, and one of the men is cooking dinner. “Sit!” the chief commands me, and I sit where he points while the men assemble their tents.
Q: Do they have a spare bowl for me? Very Unlikely Yes
There is a lot of talking, boasting and sharing of stories as far as I can tell, though the words are unknown to me. People eat from the pot, each having a wooden bowl within their kit. Then the chief pulls a second bowl from his pack. The man at the cooking pot fills it, and passes it to me. The chief then commands, “Eat!” And I do. It is a thick, hearty stew of carrots, onions, peas, and…rabbit? I think it’s rabbit.
After we eat, the chief barks out a command. His men grumble, but soon start retiring to bed except for one who is apparently assigned to stand watch, even though we are part of a larger army. “Sleep!” he commands me, and points towards his tent. Somewhat reluctantly, I climb inside. He follows me, and lays down beside me on a bearskin blanket. He wraps his arms around me, but…goes no further. Gradually, I drift off to sleep, wrapped in the strange man’s arms.
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