System used : Cairn 1e
Supplement : Block, Dodge, Parry
Oracle : One Page Solo Engine, Solo Roleplaying Tools
Scene Start
Yes/No (Even)
Is Boroth have a dream this night?
[3,3] No
Boroth is exhausted. He was about to sleep when all of that ordeal happened. And when The woman already asleep he silently used Cure Wounds to himself adding to the exhaustion. He even doesn’t dream at all.
Set the Scene
Morning comes and the sun rises, roosters can be heard from distance…
Complication: [2] An obstacle blocks your way
Altered Scene: [1] Normal
Boroth wakes up, he opened his eyes and checked the wounds on his face. The woman did a pretty good job listening to his instructions on last night procedures. And good thing that the wound misses his left eye. He almost go blind because of that.
Rolling additional HP from scar (1d6) : 3
HP + 3 : 6
“Oh! You’re awake!”, a voice comes from his side, it’s the woman he saved last night, “And it seems your eye is good to go too. With that much blood I thought it got your eye. Can you see well?” Boroth blocks his right eye and inspect the room with the opened one. “It’s okay”, he replies, “I can see well. The wound itself is not really serious. It looks bad because of the blood, but it’s really no problem”.
“Are you sure you’re eye’s okay?”, she asked again. Boroth leans forward and shows her his left eye, barely missed the blade.
“Oh, thank the gods. I thought the worst happened. By the way, My name is Yslen Wolder”, she said while offering a handshake. Boroth grabs her hand and replied, “Boroth Candlewick”.
“So, you’re hungry? Wanna go down and eat something?”, asked Yslen while gets up from the chair, “Foods here are pretty good. I recommend their garlic bread with smoke meat…”
“Before that”, Boroth interject and stealthy takes a peek on the road, outside window. There’s not many but he saw some individual wearing the Blue Fire insignia, from the Order of Purifying Flame.
“It seems like they’re still in the town looking for us. Maybe we better lay low for a while”, he told her, moving away from the window, “maybe we can ask if they can allow us to eat here.”
“Seems reasonable. Let’s get down and ask, shall we? I’m starving”, she answers while opening the door to and walk towards the stairs. Boroth followed suit.
Set the Scene
Boroth and Yslen both walk down the stairs to the tavern
Complication: [6] Things actually go as planned
Altered Scene: [6] Altered
Alteration: [4] Add a Scene Complication
Complication: [2] An obstacle blocks your way
Yslen asked the Tavern Master if they can bring their food upstairs. The burly Tavern Master just nods and quickly whipped up two smoked bacon and garlic bread sandwich, and a jug of water with two wooden cups for them. Boroth and Yslen quickly pick the foods up.
Action Focus
What is the nature of the obstacle?
[2C] Seek (physical)
Topic Focus
[3H] Allies (social)
Someone opened the tavern door. It was Oswald from the order.
The bell on the tavern door rings, Both Boroth and Yslen turned their heads towards the door, and they saw Oswald, wearing the order’s insignia, entering the tavern…
Yes/No (Even)
Do Oswald saw them?
[3,1] No but…
Oswald wasn’t really look to his forward while Boroth and Yslen quickly turned their heads and walk towards the stairs, trying their best to not look suspicious. Oswald saw a glimpse of them but pay no mind. He quickly stand near the counter and start talking to the Tavern Master.
“That’s from the Order!”, she exclaimed.
“That is Oswald…”, Boroth responded weakly.
“You know him?”
“Knew, not anymore”
Both went silent. The Yslen urges him back to the room, “We’ll talk, while eating our breakfast”.
Boroth thinks that maybe he can trust this woman to some extent so while eating he told Yslen how he was a member of that order but he was expelled, without disclosing why. He showed her a tattered banner with their insignia underneath his armor. He haven’t meet with any of his former comrades for some years already. He don’t know why the Order is here.
When he saw Oswald last night, he thought that The Order was pursuing him for some reason, so he ran away until he met Yslen. Then he put 2 and 2 together
“It was you, right? They’re after you.”
Yslen is silent for a moment, then she answers,
“Yes, you’re right, I was running away from them”
“Care to tell me why?”, he ask again.
Plot Hook
Objective: [2] Learn the truth
Adversaries: [2] Outlaws
Rewards: [3] Knowledge and secrets
(I will ignore the Objective, Adversaries and Rewards terms, and use the prompts as keywords)
“I learned some information, they want to capture me for that, maybe”, she says
Action Focus
What is this information that she learned?
[3H] Oppose (social)
Detail Focus
[AH] Unique (social)
Topic Focus
[7C] Enemies (physical)
Keywords : Oppose Enemies (physical social), Unique (social), Outlaws
Use Oracle : Solo Roleplaying Tool for prompts
(J♣️) : a child, teenager, or ambiguous NPC
“So I was in my usual Tavern, not here, in the next town over, drinking ale and eating bacon, when I hear an interesting conversation between two people”, she said excitedly.
“One of them wore those insignia”, pointing at Boroth’s chest,
“And the other was scrawny looking man”.
“And they were making a deal! in a Tavern! How stupid is that?”
Action Focus
What is the nature of this deal?
[8H] Reveal (social)
Topic Focus
[7C] Enemies (physical)
Card Oracle (2♦️)
Change, adaptation, alteration
“And what they’re dealing is to kidnap the child of this town’s mayor! Can you believe that? What if someone heard? Like me?”, she looks proud and Boroth don’t understand why.
“The scrawny man seems like part of an outlaw gang, so using my connections as an ex-outlaw I managed to enter their circle-“
“Why? To help them?”, Boroth interject, start to feel uncomfortable.
“What? No! Of course not! There’s nothing in me if I do that! I’m just thinking if I rat them out to the Mayor I’ll be rewarded handsomely. Afterall, taking from the weak is not fun!”, she said puffing her nonexistent chest.
Yes/No (Even)
Has the kidnapping occurs?
[1,3] No
“There’s no news on the streets so I assume they haven’t made their move yet?”, Boroth tries to assess the situation.
“Yes, and it’ll happen pretty soon”
NPC Generator
Identity: [4H] Tradesman (social)
Goal: [5S] Restore (mystical)
Features: [6] Unexpected age or origin
– [4D] Old (technical)
Attitude to PCs: [5] More than expected
Conversation: [3C] Allies (physical)
“Why they targets the Mayor’s child though? He seems like a good person?”
“The answer is obvious, isn’t it?”, she answers, “He’s rich. He is a merchant who is also elected as a mayor. Some people believed the election was rigged but there’s no evidence of that”.
“And like you said, he seems like a good person. In his reign the town grew more prosperous and the townspeople seems to like the dude”, she stops and chomp down the last of her sandwich. This info confuses Boroth more (and also me who needs to come up with this).
“So what exactly do they want? Money?”, Boroth asked.
Yes/No (Likely)
Do they want ransom money from the Mayor?
[5,5] Yes
“Yup, lots of them”, Yslen answer confidently.
“The poor kid will be ransomed, and he’s still 10”.
“Typical for outlaws I guess”, but doesn’t explain why The Order is in this”, Boroth still sceptical about any of these.
“I didn’t see anyone with The Order’s insignia on the Outlaw hideout. But by logic the reason must be greed. Even inside The Order there bound to be some corrupt people”, said Yslen.
Boroth still doesn’t buy it but he stay silent…
Yes/No (Even)
Is there any interuption to the conversation?
[5,4] Yes
Random Event
What happens: [2S] Seek (mystical)
Involving: [KS] A Faction (mystical)
“Before we continue, I think we should check if that Order guy still downstairs or not”, Yslen said, standing up and walking to the door.
Yes/No (Even)
Is Oswald still there? Or any of the Order’s men?
[2,3] No
Yslen take a peek to the tavern hall, hidden on the stairs. She search for any Order members among the customers. There is none.
“The coast is clear, we should move out while we can”, Yslen says to Boroth.
Boroth move to the window and check the road.
Yes/No (Unlikely)
Does he see any Order members?
[5,5] Yes
“Some of them are still lingers on the road, we can’t just waltz out the front door”, Boroth replies with concern.
“I don’t think it’s wise for us to go now. We need to wait for the situation to calm itself down”, Boroth said with low, trembling voice.
“But if we don’t go now, we’ll never have a chance!”, Yslen inisist, “We may not get another chance!”
“Why don’t we just stay a little longer, I also need to hear what your next move gonna be”, Boroth suggest while filling her cup with more water.
Contested willpower (WIL) check to convince Yslen to stay (take lower).
Boroth : 12
Yslen : 9
Failed.
“We can talk while we walk, time is on the essence here”, she said while packing up her stuff into her bag.
“But how do you propose we go now? Just look outside, there’s Order’s henchmen out there, not to mention if there’s outlaws after you”, ask Boroth half pleading. She stopped whatever she’s doing and walk to the window.
“Yeah, there’s some of them walking around”, she said
How Much
How many Order members can be seen through the window?
[1] Surprisingly lacking
“But it’s just a few, just one or two mens standing near here. We can manage”, she said confidently.
Boroth rack his head hard for a solution. He’ll never convince her to stay, might as well start thinking how to get out.
“…Is there any back door on this Inn?”, he asked.
Yes/No (Likely)
Does she know if there’s any backdoor on this inn?
[4,3] Yes
“In fact, yes, there is! How didn’t I think of that?”, she said estaticly.
“There’s a door leading to a small alley in the back of this inn. It’s also a viable option for us to get out from here. Come! We have our path now!”, she said while quickly finishing up packing and brought her belonging with her outside.
“And, oh, by the way. I won’t be able to use this staff magical property until I recharge it somehow, but it’s sturdy enough to bludgeon the hell out of someone”, she said while pointing at her fizzled staff.
They quickly making a beeline towards the stairs into the tavern area. Boroth searching around the perimeter for someone… No one noticeable in particular. Then he look for the door.
Yes/No (Even)
Is the backdoor on plain sight?
[2,3] No
He didn’t see any door, just a passageway leading to the kitchen area. Yslen is walking towards the Tavern Master and talk a bit. He then gestures for them to go inside.
“Let’s go”, Yslen said while donning the cowl on her hooded robe. Boroth did the same and follows her.
Yslen on the front, opens the door slightly to check on the alley.
Yes/No (Likely)
Is the alley empty?
[1,4] No
Yes/No (Unlikely)
Is there anyone seems dangerous on the alley?
[2,2] No
Just 1-2 beggars and homeless people sitting around. Usual stuff.
“Coast is clear, c’mon”, she said while opening the door and both of them walk into the alley with vigilance.
End of Scene 2