Mörk Borg - session 5

When Things Go South (Literally)

Recap

In last week’s session, Felban found himself in the Valley of the Unfortunate Dead. While trying to find the right mausoleum, someone named Parn tried to convince him to help their friend, telling Felban that their numbers had been reduced from four to only two, and Unel, while alive, was beyond help. After leaving Parn and Unel to their fate, he found the Silfverhjelm mausoleum and confronted his blackmailer “friend” Drell. Drell, having a clear thumbscrew over Felban, “convinced” (forced) Felban to accept to get a sigil from another mausoleum to “prove himself.” It turned out, it was the very same one that Parn and Unel was squatting in, and Drell had set them, too, to the same task.

When Things Go South (Literally)

The steady rain was still pouring. I cursed under my breath while I trudged along the muddy walkways between the gravestones, mausoleums and trees, navigating towards the bel Adrach mausoleum. It had taken me some time to find the Silfverhjelm one, but now I had sort of a mental map of the area, and it shouldn’t prove too hard to backtrack.

Move Through the Area (+Agility)
6+2 | 12+2 vs 12 => Weak Hit
Narrative complication (d12): 3 => Something of value is at risk

I could see the mausoleum by now. It was just that there was a fairly steep hill down, and the unrelenting rain had transformed the hill into a slippery slope of mud. The prospect of losing my balance and rolling down was not appealing, but I had no other choice, really. I took a tentative step forward, trying my footing.

Endure the Environment (+Toughness)
16+3 | 3+3 vs 12 => Weak Hit
You endure but suffer a minor cost

I had to take it slow and think deliberately of where I placed my feet on each step. I had almost made it all the way down, when I felt my planted left foot start to slide from under me while I was repositioning my right one. I barely had time to register it before I found myself on my back in the mud.

“Nechrubels balls,” I shouted. I did not care who heard me.

After getting up, I checked that nothing was broken; everything seemed fine. Muddy and wet, but otherwise intact. Finally some good luck...

Ask the Oracle: Is Unel still alive? (Unlikely)
58 => No

As I neared the mausoleum, I heard loud crying noises, sniveling and whimpering from inside. It did not take a genius to understand what had happened while I was away—Unel had closed his eyes for the last time, and Parn was sobbing uncontrollably next to him, holding him in their arms.

Advance a Quest (+Toughness)
10+3 | 8+3 vs 12 => Weak Hit
Retrieve the sigil from Yd bel Adrach’s mausoleum: 1/4

“Hate to tell you this, but I told you so,” I said, and startled Parn. They rose to their feet quickly, palming a dagger in the process.

“Stay back!”

“Relax,” I said. “It’s only me. We’ve seen before.”

They didn’t relax as much as I’d like, but they lowered the dagger. I counted that as a win.

Parley (+Presence)
17+0 | 12+0 => Strong Hit
You de-escalate

“I think we have the same... employer,” I said, watching for their reaction. “That dreg asked me to find something down in this mausoleum.”

“Drell?” Parn asked, a bit dumbfounded. “He must’ve gotten worried when we didn’t return on time.”

Impatient, more like, I thought. “Yeah, I guess so. Anyways, I’m about to head down. Need to grab what he’s after. Want to tag along? Who knows, maybe you get to avenge your dead comrades in the process.”

“I...” They looked at Unel, lying there, glassy eyes staring at nothing. “I guess I should.”

“Good. Let’s not waste any more time. The quicker we find the sigil, the faster we can get the hell out of here.” And figure out what Drell wants from me.

Delve the Depths (+Agility)
12+2 | 7+2 vs 12 => Weak Hit
Generate room, then roll for a hazard

Size & shape (2d6): 2, 5 => Small, natural cavern
Purpose (d20): 6 => Crypt
Atmosphere (d6): 1 => Dark and silent
Dressing (d6): => Ritual markings
Sounds (d20): 10 => Steps receding

We descended the stairs, me first with sword in one hand, torch in the other, Parn following with dagger in hand. As the steps ended, we found ourselves in a small, natural cavern, with sarcophagi lined up along the walls. Carved into the walls above them were names, presumably of the deceased ones, and symbols of unknown origin.

As we ventured deeper into the room, I could swear I heard steps ahead of me.

“Did you hear that?” I whispered to Parn, who shook their head.

Must’ve been my imagination, then.

Search the Room (+Presence)
14+0 | 5+0 vs 12 => Weak Hit

“Let’s see if we can find anything useful,” I said, and started pushing open the lid of one of the sarcophagi. “Some help here?”

Parn helped to push, and together we got the lid open enough to get some torchlight inside, but there was nothing of value inside, just the bones of a long dead soul.

“What a waste of time,” I muttered. “Let’s continue looking.”

Delve the Depths (+Agility)
5+2 | 5+2 vs 12 => Miss with a match => Critical failure

Room size (d6): 3 => Medium
Shape (d12): 10 => Starshaped
Purpose (d20): 4 => Workshop
Architecture/structure (d20): 15 => Frozen
Light/visibility (d12): 2 => Dim natural glow
Air/temperature (d12): 6 => Humid
Dressing (d20): 20 => Personal belongings left behind
Sounds (d20): 7 => Insect hum
Smells (d20): 6 => Incense
Hazard (d20): 15 => Sudden tremor
Encounter (d20): 19 => Invisible stalker

Another step of stairs later, we found ourselves in some kind of lab. A damn weird shaped one, at that—there were smallish alcoves spreading out from the main room in a star-like pattern. A steady bubbling of something boiling, and a hum filled the space, while the sickly sweet smell of incense filled the air.

“Look,” Parn whispered, and pointed to the farthest corner of one of the alcoves. “That’s Irvon’s bag. But what is it doing there? I don’t even remember us going down this far...”

I decided to go and grab the bag—maybe there’s still some supplies left. Just as I entered the alcove, a powerful tremor shook the place and I nearly lost my balance. Parn was not so lucky; they dropped to one knee, and witnessed first hand the humongous crack that formed a chasm between us.

“What in Nechrubel’s balls!” I yelled out, then saw Parn. “Are you okay?”

“Yes,” they answered, voice trembling. Unconvincing, but I’ll take it.

I walked further inside, and picked up the bag. Empty, of course.

“Felban!”

I snapped around, but didn’t see anything. Not only Parn’s voice was trembling now—their whole body was, as they pointed towards the darkness. I squinted my eyes, but still couldn’t see anything. But then, something swept down a glass jar from one of the lab tables. It shattered on the floor, and something proceeded to walk on the shards, grinding them against the floor, except—there was nothing there.

“Oh god, it’s coming! Help, Felban!”

I ran to the chasm but it looked too wide to jump. Assessing the situation, I quickly realized there was nothing I could do for Parn.

“Run, you fool!” I shouted, but their feet were firmly planted on the floor.

I could not reach the door we entered from where I was, as it was on the other side of the chasm. My only option was to flee deeper into this god-forsaken crypt, and hope to find an another way out. And so I ran without looking back. I never do. That’s why I’m still alive.

If there was a scream, I didn’t hear it. Or maybe I just told myself that.

Afterthoughts

I decided that I wanted to check out the Delve portion of the rules for this session. I didn’t want to make it TOO easy for Felban to get back to the crypt, though, so I used some “Traveling” moves to get back, even though I didn’t track the length of the journey or anything like that.

The Parley move is part of the City Crawl moves but I thought it’d make sense here—after all, Felban had basically abandoned Parn earlier, so them taking up the offer to join was not too likely.

For the Delve part, I used the “quick room generator” for the first room which “only” has like 6 tables to roll on (though obviously you don’t have to roll on all of them). For the second one, I used the full set or at least a majority of them. As I rolled not only a Miss but with a Match, I had to escalate the failure since it’s considered a critical failure. So not only did I roll on the hazards table, but also on encounter table, and things clicked in place: the reason why Parn couldn’t really tell Felban what had attacked them was because it was this invisible stalker! Quite hard to describe something you cannot see, no?

Something I did NOT roll on was the number of exits, which… yeah. That’s an error on my part. I just assumed that it went down further because I hadn’t found the sigil yet. My plan was, delve until you find a room with loot in it and when I get there, it will be the sigil (because this was supposed to be an easy fetch quest). Now, not thanks to the crit fail, not only is the escape route cut off physically, but Felban has to somehow deal with an invisible stalker, too.

In keeping with his character, he of course abandoned Parn again and fled the scene, cowardly as he is.

Also, no poor drawings this time around. Holiday season has been keeping me busy, and how do you draw something invisible, anyway??

I hope you’re having a fantastic week and I’ll see you in the next session!