The Redemption of Brynn - Interlude

Housekeeping

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The Redemption of Brynn - Campaign Index

Art by Andy ‘Onegraydot’ Gray

Housekeeping

This session will be a bit different—if you’re looking for actual play, you might want to skip this post.

I’ve got to address something that's been nagging me for the past, oh, I don't know, ten, maybe fifteen sessions now, and I can't put it off any longer.

I've learned A LOT about my preferences after writing Brynn's story, what my likes and dislikes are about the Ironsworn system etc. Would I do things differently if I started Brynn's journey today? You bet. But it doesn't change that I loved every single minute of my time spent with him, with Asha, Keelan, The Griefkeeper... but I feel like I've painted myself into a corner. Let me explain.

In Ironsworn, you swear your vows upon iron, and these vows are sacred. You work towards a big background vow, and while at it, you often swear smaller, easier vows that will help define your character and even net you some XP so you can level up. My first mistake was Brynn's background vow—it reads thus: "I will prove myself worthy of the iron, and reclaim the right to swear an oath upon a pillar." Reading it now, thirty sessions later, it feels way too open-ended to actually mean anything. There's no actionable stuff to do to advance it. At some point, I came to the conclusion that whenever Brynn put someone else's wellbeing before his own, that's when I mark ticks in this epic vow. So far, I've got 1,5 boxes ticked (that's 6 markings of progress in total in thirty sessions, so one tick every five sessions.) Sure, it's a noble goal and feels like it fits Brynn, especially with his background as Warden, but it could have been worded differently.

So, what about the other open vows he still has? Well, let's see:

"Find the mystic Ashvine and bring her to Keelan, before the boy’s breath fails him" - Formidable. 7/10 progress on this one, but you can probably see the glaring issue if you've been following along—Ashvine passed away in session 8. This vow is ALSO worded poorly, because it hinges on Brynn finding Ashvine, which he did albeit too late, and "before Keelan draws his last breath", which he also did, because even though I put that wording there, I did not have the balls to set up a ticking clock. Though, if I had, Keelan would probably have died many times over already, given how the story has developed.... but here's the deal—I don't know how to progress this vow anymore, and I'm terrified of rolling for the fulfillment of it with only seven boxes filled. If it's a miss, I would have to start from even further back (as you have to erase progress) or Forsake the Vow. I think that's what I should have done a good while ago for this, but instead, I've kept ignoring the elephant in the room and it's just been sitting there.

Brynn also swore a vow, "Convince Sarria to relinquish the circlet and renounce the Iron Faith" to get help from Thorne. This is sitting at 0/10 progress, because frankly, I all but forgot about this quest. I think that's my biggest gripe with the system—I can't seem to figure out a way to remember to keep everything up to date with all the assets and vows and stuff. When I planned this vow, I thought that he'd have a few things he'd need to be able to step down:

* The Varou attacks against Bleakbarrow should be stopped

* Brynn would need to find a replacement for Sarria to take his place as Iron Priest

Brynn managed to stop the varou attacks, so I should have filled 2/10 from that. He has also asked Asha if she'd be willing to take Sarria's place, but he needs to find someone to take her spot as Warden for her to do that, which, let's face it, is pretty difficult when they're not in Bleakbarrow or frankly, anywhere near and always seem to spiral further down the rabbithole of side quests of side quests. But even filling these would only be 4-6 progress in total and I struggle to come up with any more ideas on what Brynn would need to do to convince Sarria to relinquish the circlet.

Since the "Find Ashvine" vow was basically unfixable, Brynn, in his great wisdom, swore another vow to help him. I'd learned to make the wording a bit more open-ended but still actionable at this point, and so "Find out if there’s something that can be done to help Keelan." is sitting at 6/10 progress as a Dangerous vow, so two more and he'll be up to 10/10. I'm not sure what the remaining steps would be, though...

And the last one he has is "Recover the Latchstone from the Hollow Beneath for Thorne" which is also of rank Dangerous, and is sitting at 6/10. And to be fair, this one I had all but forgotten about. Brynn has already found the thing, escaped with his life from the delve that he had to do to get it, and given it to Thorne. So again, I'm sitting here, wondering how the hell I should come up with another two steps that he could take so I could roll to fulfill this vow.

And here's what I really dislike about the system—if you've already fulfilled whatever task you've set out to do, not even a 10/10 progress is a guarantee that it will be even a Weak hit. I kind of think that that's absolutely bonkers. Sure, "you find out the real truth about your quest," is kind of viable here and you don't actually have to swear a new vow to set things right, but come one—Brynn is not the kind of guy that would leave a task half done, now is he?

So where am I going with all of this? You've probably noticed that I've not been posting as regularly as I used to, and in part, this is the reason. I'm very harsh on myself if I don't play by the rules, even in solo games where I don't hurt anyone by cheating. And so, not Forsaking that Ashvine vow is bugging me because it feels wrong to do it now but I also don't want to just pretend it never existed in the first place. I don't think Brynn is in the state at the moment where he could safely take the hit from Forsaking that vow, especially since it's a Formidable one, and thus would require him to pay 3 Spirit for it—he has had it pretty rough as is. But maybe, just maybe, when (if) he ever makes it back to Bleakbarrow, he can leave that behind.

As for Thorne's Latchstone, I've marked the last progress when Brynn got out from the depths with it, but before the fight with Aelira. I think I'll say that the next is when they arrive at the Spire after the fight, and the last progress is after he hands it to Thorne, thus he had 10/10 progress on it, and I'm also going to houserule that a 10/10 is an automatic Strong hit, and since it was Dangerous, he gets 2XP for it.

For "Help Keelan", I marked the first two boxes when Brynn arrived at Thorne's spires in session 22. What I should have done is mark another progress for this in session 26, when Thorne tells Brynn that he needs more than the Latchstone, that he needs to get the ash from Vaelthamar also. Then, in session 28, when he made his way there, another two boxes filled. That would leave him at 6/10. Gathering the ash would be 8/10 and getting back to the Spire would be 10/10.

For "Convince Sarria" I think I'll have to say that dealing with the varou attacks against Bleakbarrow and earning Asha's trust is the two boxes he has filled. If one was generous, maybe they could be counted as two separate milestones for a total of four progress, but I don't know... But regardless, she has agreed to take the position, so that could count as the second milestone. Third could be finding a new Warden, fourth to finish curing Keelan, and fifth? I don't even know at this point...

Sorry for the rambling, I hope this all makes sense, I think I needed to clear the air a bit and do some housekeeping before I continue Brynn's journey in Vaelthamar.

Until next time—I hope I’ll find the time to get another session under my belt soon.