Transcribed by Michelle Kelly.

##Intro

Rhi: Welcome to Aldermark. Today, we’re stepping away from Duskwall and playing a newly released Forged in the Dark game: Band of Blades. The core mechanics are based on Blades in the Dark, but rather than being about criminals and scoundrels pulling off daring heists in a city, it’s about the soldiers of a battered, retreating military force, fleeing across the countryside ahead of an undead horde. It’s a dark military fantasy that sees players taking on multiple roles throughout the campaign.

I’ll admit, this is not a genre that I usually seek out, but one of my favorite things about RPGs is their ability to bring you into genres you might not have considered before, where you can tell the kinds of stories you want to hear. Kim, Minna and I had a great time with this one. If you’re into military fantasy at all, you should definitely pick this up. And even if, like me, that’s not usually the kinds of stories you’re interested in, it’s worth giving a one-shot a try. Band of Blades has a lot of really cool playbooks, moves and long-term campaign mechanics that set up groups to tell some really incredible stories. I want to say a special thanks to Sean Nittner for reaching out about this collaboration, and to John LeBoeuf-Little for GMing this one-shot.

A couple content notes about this episode. One, a general content warning for the whole episode for undead, actual dead, and some body horror. Two, I left in a bit more of the mechanics than I usually do when editing, in order to demonstrate how the new system works and how it differs from Blades in the Dark. And three, we played this game using Roll20, an online platform for hosting RPGs. The system worked really well. The built-in character sheets in Roll20 were especially cool.

Other Magpies announcements: First and foremost, our Shapeways store with Magpies pins is now officially open. I wanna say a huge thanks to James Bricknell for designing and donating the multiple 3D models that we used for the pins. Shapeways will be taking the majority cut of the prices, and any profit that we make form the sales will be donated to our monthly featured charities. Visit shapeways.com/shops/magpies-podcast to check them out, and that link will be in the show notes.

Our Patreon backer drive and contest is still ongoing. I have five 3D-printed, silver painted Magpie pins that James sent me, that I will be giving away to Patreon backers when we hit 100 total backers. We’re coming up on our one-year Patreon anniversary and we have a ton of great behind-the-scenes content available. Blooper reals, bonus episodes, in-character art and essays. It’s an awesome collection. There are also opportunities to contribute to the show by sending in Devil’s Bargains and NPCs. So visit patreon.com/magpiespodcast to back us, if you can.

I recently did an interview with the Too Many RPGs Podcast, and that interview should be live today. As soon as I have it, there will be a link in the show notes. I had a great time chatting with them about Blades in the Dark and the Magpies. Next, Kim is going to tell us about this month’s featured charity.

Kim: The Rainforest Action Network’s Protect an Acre program works directly with grassroots and indigenous-led organizations to prevent vulnerable ecosystems from natural disaster and deforestation efforts. Since 1993, RAN has saved millions of acres of land and has collaborated closely with the indigenous communities who protect it. They uphold the values of fair trade, promoting the dignity and human rights of rainforest communities, and fighting against corporations who seek to disproportionately consume it for resources. Right now, the Amazon rainforest in Brazil is being intentionally burnt down with the intent of creating more farmland for cattle. President Bolsonaro has time and time again proved unwilling to stop the global crisis that is at hand.

Of the world’s oxygen that is not produced from the ocean, one third of it comes from photosynthesis occurring on land, and of that one third, the Amazon is responsible for nearly half. It is imperative that we begin and remain, louder than ever, on the side of science, the side of nature, and the side of indigenous people. To make a donation, visit www.ran.org, select support, and go to Protect an Acre. For a donation even as low as $20 your money will go directly to protecting an acre of rainforest land and to the people who are its closest defenders.

Rhi: At the time of this recording, the US House of Representatives has started the lengthy process of impeachment against the president, and information about the president’s efforts to use a foreign government to influence our elections continues to flood the news. For US citizens, it’s vitally important to contact your elected officials, no matter what party they are, and tell them you expect them to take action against the corruption and cruelty of this administration. It’s also important to check and double check that you’re registered to vote. This administration and their supporters in the GOP have proven that they have no regard for rule of law or democracy, and both are in jeopardy as we move ever closer to the 2020 election. So take action when and where you can.

Now then. Let’s get started, shall we?

##Story begins [00.05.51]

John: Uh, let’s talk about Band of Blades. This is a game about playing the Legion and members of the Legion as you’re retreating across Aldermark. You have been part of the latest offensive of humanity to deal with an ever-emergent undead threat that is to the west, and your last sally has gone poorly. Humanity suffered an overwhelming defeat at the hands of the undead, championed by the Cinder King, and are now attempting to regroup to the east. You’re going to bunker down in Skydagger Keep and hopefully make your way home sometime after the winter has thawed. So, this is a story about that group of intrepid heroes and whether or not they can make it to Skydagger Keep. Let’s talk a little bit about your characters.

Rhi: I can start, since I don’t usually get to play a character, so this is very exciting for me. So, I am playing the Scout playbook. My character’s name is Zaya Alikovna. She is from the Zemyati people, which is kind of, based on the description, sort of roaming clans that live to the far north. Prior to joining the military, may have been a thief. And my special ability is Infiltrator. I’m very good at getting past traps and security.

John: Excellent.

Rhi: Thus the “might have been a thief” background.

John: Right, right.

Minna: I am playing Mitali Dewa. She is the Officer playbook. She is from Barta, which is kind of their republic. They really value familial alliances and kinship. They’re a matrilineal society, it looks like, and a lot of contracts are sealed with tokens, which they usually have on jewelry. The special ability I chose is Tactician. You anticipate problems others would never see coming, and when you lead a group action you can suffer at most one stress.

John: Excellent.

Rhi: Very useful.

Minna: Listeners, I want this in regular Blades.

John and Rhi: [laugh]

Kim: So, I am playing the Heavy playbook, and my character’s name is Arun Arani. And he is also from Barta. The special ability that I chose is backup, which is when you protect a squad mate, resist with plus one dice, and when you assist someone, their pushes only cost one stress.

John: Excellent.

Rhi: Nice.

Josie: Cool. So, we’re going to play through the starting mission for Zora. Zora is the Chosen that is following alongside the Legion and keeping them from the worst of the undead armies. Chosen are essentially avatars of the divine forces that have been summoned by humanity to fight off sometimes supernatural, sometimes just overwhelming threats. This one particularly is from the Living God, Zemyati. Long ago, the Zemyati’s Living God created nine Chosen altogether, all at once. Which is unheard of. Well, it’s only been done that one time. Usually, each particular God incarnates once and becomes that particular Chosen. Instead, the Living God created nine, and Zora is one of those. The Chosen of the Living God don’t burn out or fade away, they persist until they finish some ultimate task. But they can be killed. They sometimes are. But Zora has defied even that expectation. She was supposedly tasked to deal with a problem in a kingdom to the west called Dar. She did that, she ended the God’s war, there are a bunch of things about her, we’ll get more into her at some point, but she is going to be the Chosen that is with the Legion. And we’re gonna talk about the starting situation.

With the crafting of black shot, the undead armies had been at a standstill in the western kingdoms. They were too well entrenched to attack directly, but they were held at bay by smaller and better-equipped forces. That changed at the battle of Ettenmark fields. That was the battle that you guys just had that went poorly. Now, the Legion has been shattered and the Cinder King’s troops now march east, bolstered with heretofore unseen horrors, to fight humanity. You Commander, the Legion’s Commander, was captured holding the retreat and taken to an Aldermani castle on the border of Dar. The red banners of the Cinder King were sighted entering the keep, and Zora claims a special interrogator was sent to turn the Commander with his mind intact. The Legion’s leaders have decided on one last-ditch rescue attempt. Castles are designed to keep people out, but there is a drainage pipe beneath the mountain that might provide a way in. Can you rescue the Commander before they are turned and all Legion secrets extracted from them? Can you take them out before it’s too late? Can you make it out alive? That’s what we’re playing to find out.

Rhi: So no pressure.

John:  No pressure.

Rhi: Or anything. Like, yeah, just very chill and relaxing.

John:  What’s gonna happen here is that there’s this keep. It has your Commander inside. You’re not 100% sure where they might be, but Zora is gonna assault the main gate, and this is going to take some time, and eventually she will be driven off because there are just too many undead for her to present a credible threat for too long. So, there’s gonna be a clock that indicates how long she has left. There is also an Alert clock in the upper left, and that indicates whether or not they’re hip to what you’re doing, right? Because you’re sneaking in trying to find your Commander, maybe rescue them, maybe just take care of them. The Commander, meanwhile, is being interrogated using supernatural forces and then will at some point break and divulge all of the Legion secrets to the undead, which would be terrible. So, there’s a clock in the upper right to track how far that is. So, this is the situation you are in. You, the three of you, and your squad of elite rookies…

Rhi: [laughs]

John:  Which we’re gonna say—

Minna: The A team.

John:  You have been assigned the… let’s say the Ghost Owls. So, I’ll just move them to the top.

Rhi: Aw.

John:  Did you want a different one? I can totally do a different one.

Rhi: No, I like the ghost owls.

Minna: [laughs] I think that was a happy “aw”

Rhi: That was one of the names I was looking at like, “Oh, I like that.”

Kim: They go [ghost noises] “Ooh, hoo hoo!

Minna and Rhi: [laughs]

John:  I could tell you a little more about them, if you’d like.

Rhi: Yeah!

John:  Yeah, I’ll go ahead.

Rhi: Yeah, so we can be more sad when they start dying.

John:  Absolutely. And who’s the Officer again?

Minna: Me.

John:  Excellent. So, when people start dying, I will ask you to name them.

Minna: Ah.

Kim: Whoa!

Rhi: [laughs]

Kim: Why? Why then?

John: [laughs] Alright.

Rhi: Get a name list ready, Minna.

John: [laughs] Later this particular duty will fall to someone who takes over the Marshal, but for now, since you’re in charge, you are the Officer, you’re in charge, don’t know if that was clear, it’s going to be you’re job to name them.

Minna: [whines]

John: [laughs] Yeah, so anyway. Let’s talk about the Ghost Owls. Each of the squads has a little bit of history. When the Legion needs problems dealt with quickly and quietly, they send the Owls. They are traditionally stocked with Legionnaires experienced as special operatives, trained in infiltrations and extractions. A little-known fact is that their squad motto is an imperative, their squad motto is “Calm Before the Storm”. To always remain calm, regardless of the situation. Many Legion Snipers and Scouts were once Owls. Perhaps your Scout was once an Owl.

Rhi: Yeah. So, even more reason for me to be sad.

John: Yeah, exactly.

Minna: Uh huh. Mm hmm.

John: [laughs] Excellent.

Minna: This seems like the perfect legion to take with us for this particular mission.

John: Are you comfortable with the idea of infiltrating through the sewers?

Minna: Yes.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: We’ve done this. [laughs]

Kim: That’s my business shit.

Minna: This is unfortunately my go-to if you give me a keep that I can’t get into.

John: [laughs] Okay. So this is perhaps, in some way, comfortable ground.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah. I think when you all broke into Ironhook you went in through the sewers, right?

Minna: This is how we got into Ironhook, yes.

Kim: Yeah. I think we did.

John: Awesome, fantastic. Yeah, okay, cool. So, let’s set the scene. So, there’s rain and thunder, because there’s always rain and thunder outside as you’re sneaking into the sewers of a castle, right? So, the rain and thunder is punctuated by the howls of undead that are above. The rainwater is exiting this drainage pipe that you’re crawling up. Your Chosen, Zora, is leading an assault on the main gates as a distraction. This is a stealth and speed mission, so get in, get the Commander, get out, and whatever you do, don’t let the undead learn the Legion’s secrets. Do not fail. So, how do you proceed? You are in a sewer pipe.

Rhi: Well, I imagine as the Scout, I probably am ranging a little bit farther ahead of the main squad.

John: That sounds reasonable. So it sounds to me like you’re scouting ahead.

Rhi: Yes.

John: So, let’s make a roll. So that’s going to be Scout. You tell me actually, I assume you’re going to use Scout.

Rhi: Yes. [laughs]

John: Okay. I think that is a fairly standard— I think you’re in a controlled position, just for the moment.

Rhi: Alright.

John: With standard effect.

Rhi: So, it looks like I got a 5.

John: So, on a controlled position for a 5, you hesitate. Let’s talk about what happens. I think it’s not very far you get down the pipe before you hear the sloshing around of undead feet in the sewer pipe. You’re clearly not alone here. Can’t just range forward. You could continue to press on, but it will be risky.

Rhi: Okay. Or I can try…

John: Or just come back to the group. Or you can try a different approach, if you have something else in mind.

Rhi: Yeah, let me look at what I’ve got. I think I’m gonna fall back to the rest of the group and let them know. So, yeah. I will return to, uh… I gotta learn a whole bunch of new names. Mitali, and say:

Rhi (as Zaya): We should figure out how we wanna proceed here. There’s at least a few undead up ahead in the tunnel. We need to take them out quietly.

Minna (as Mitali): Yes, I agree.

Minna: Alright, how do I do this? [laughs]

John: This could be done a number of ways. I see that you could sneak up on them. I’m assuming that you don’t want to give up the element of surprise.

Minna: Yeah, absolutely not.

Kim: Not yet, no.

Rhi: So, in the sewer tunnels, is it just kind of like a smooth tunnel, or are there, like, nooks and crannies where people could perhaps hide, ambush?

John: Oh yeah, I absolutely think that there should be some crannies that you can stuff a bunch of soldiers into. Yeah, that’s fine.

Rhi: Okay.

Minna: Okey doke. Um, yeah, I think we should try and get in there.

Rhi: Yeah, if we can, like, split up along both sides and then just kind of jump on them.

Kim: Yeah.

Minna: Sounds good. I’ve got a decent Skirmish.

John: Cool, so you’re going to lay a trap for them.

Rhi: Yes.

John: How are you going to get their attention to draw them out?

Rhi: I have a flare gun.

John: Oh.

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: I was gonna say, I also have oil. So we could just light a fire.

Rhi: I mean… yeah, we could do that.

Kim and John: [laugh]

Minna: I’m good with either. I think you actually have more uses of the flare gun.

Rhi: Yeah, I do have four uses. A flare gun’s not gonna be super loud, right?

John: I think it depends on how you fire it. Let’s say no.

Rhi: Okay. [laughs] It’s just gonna be a bright light.

John: Sure. So, you set this thing. This sounds like you’re trying to, like, deceive them in some way.

Rhi: …yes.

John: Like, ambush might be some sort of… we could do this a couple ways, you tell me how you wanna do this. Like, what action do you think this is?

Rhi: Um… could I make an argument for Wreck? Because I’m looking at the description of, it does say careful sabotage, distraction…

Minna: Sow chaos.

John: I will say you can absolutely, you could totally do a Wreck here. Are you trying to do a group Wreck?

Rhi: Yeah, if this for the whole ambush, yeah it could be a group Wreck. Or it could be— I don’t know if people, if people— I don’t have anything in Skirmish.

Minna: I’m happy to lead.

Rhi: [laughs] You’re volunteering for that a lot. If other people have better rankings in Skirmish than Wreck, we could do that.

Kim: Um…

Rhi: I don’t have anything in Skirmish, but I’m—

Kim: I have 2 in Skirmish.

Minna: I also have 2 in Skirmish.

Rhi: Let’s do Skirmish instead, then.

John: Okay, cool.

Rhi: If we’ve got two people with two dice, me rolling 2d6 and taking the lower isn’t gonna be the worst thing.

John: Excellent. Okay, so you fire off the flare.

Rhi: [gun noise]

John: The undead that you’re engaging with are troops from the Broken. I should have talked about Broken a little bit. Let’s talk about Broken. So, the undead armies are championed by this one person known as the Cinder King. However, their lieutenants are the Broken, who are very analogous to Chosen. They are essentially, in fact, were once Chosen that have been corrupted by the forces of undeath and then turned into divinely powered monsters. The one that seems to be present today is Bone Render, or just Render. Also once a Chosen of the Living God.

Rhi: [grimaces]

John: Yes. So, uh, [laughs] So let’s talk about the troops for Render. The mainline troops for Render are called the Gaunt. They’re humans who have been desiccated over several months and then infused with Cinder blood, pumped back into them. And they have bolts, like, armor and plates bolted onto them. So they’re actually fairly heavily armored. They move slowly, though. They are obviously dead. They are reanimated after they, you know, had the metal fused to them. So, firing long range shots at them, not so easy, but setting up an ambush and then attacking them with swords, I feel like that’s exactly what you should be doing. So yeah, so these shambling undead, like, you can hear almost like a clanking sound as they come towards the flare and you see, perhaps— I would love the idea of maybe it’s a Legionnaire who was once at Ettenmark, that is still wearing some of the outfit of a Legion soldier.

Rhi: Ugh.

John: Right, like, comes forward, leading this pack of undead. And it is a pack, it’s like, five of them or so. So, let’s make some Skirmish. Who’s leading this action?

Minna: I am.

John: Mm.

Rhi: As we’re doing this roll, just a quick question, what position are we in?

John: Oh, yeah. This is definitely risky.

Rhi: Okay. How smart are these undead? Like, you know, on a scale from, like, your standard Walking Dead zombies to… [laughs]

John: Sure. So, undead have differing levels of intelligence. So that’s a given. More elite undead have more intelligence. Rank and file undead usually are given orders and can accomplish those orders within some broad interpretation. So, if they say, like, “Patrol this area, make sure nobody gets in,” like, that’s an order that they might get and they can follow. But they’re not super clever. They’re not going to deduce, exactly. Like, they might have suspicions, right, but if a bunch of them go missing it won’t necessarily be reported, you know what I mean?

Rhi: Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay. I have never been so proud of a 2d6 take the lower roll.

John: [laughs]

Minna: [laughs] Right?

Rhi: I got two 6s.

John: Wow.

Rhi: And I mean, you both got two 5s. We did very well.

Kim: Yeah, somehow.

John: As a group, you just nail it. Yeah, describe how you just take these people apart.

Minna: So, I think you shoot the flare gun and kind of run off that way, and then we’re both in nooks and we wait for the undead to come along.

John: And then it’s just one and done. Just basically super quiet, super effective.

Minna: Yeah. Like, the cover their mouth, like… I don’t know if slitting the throat works, or how you kill them?

John: Awesome. Well, however you, I mean, we don’t need to dwell on the exact details, but you basically [laughs] take them apart in some way. You don’t have to completely dismember them, but just destroy enough of them that they stop moving around. It seems to do the trick, anyway, unless you have black shot or black arrows, which are able to dispatch the energies directly. Yeah, awesome, great job. So, you’re still in the sewers, but I now imagine you trying to get up top.

Kim: Up top!

Minna: [laughs] Kim.

Kim: [laughs] Thank you, Minna.

Rhi: I’ll go back on point.

John: Excellent.

Rhi: I think for any of the undead that do have any, kind of like, Legion gear or insignias, if there’s anything that I can, like, take off them as here’s confirmation that this poor bastard’s dead, I’m gonna collect those.

John: Nice.

Minna: Aw, yeah.

John: You tell me. Does the Legion have, like tags?

Rhi: Oh, um…

Minna: Maybe they have, like, labels? Either over the heart or just sewn into their uniforms somewhere.

Rhi: Yeah. I like that it’s something sewn on that you can just, like, if you need to, you can just rip it off the uniform really fast.

Minna: Yeah.

John: Nice, like a patch.

Rhi: Yeah. And I think that, like, there’s kind of a standard insignia for your squad or the Legion, but then people tend to customize them in some way. Will sew little, like, charms or other little symbols onto them.

John: Nice.

Minna: Mm.

Rhi: So yeah, it’s a little more personalized. So yeah, we’ll collect those.

John: That’s fantastic. So, Mitali, can you name a rookie for me?

Minna: [groans] No!

Kim: [laughs] Aha, great!

John: This isn’t bad, like, this is a just a development of the story. I just wanna put a face on there.

Minna: Oh, okay, yeah. Um, let’s come up with a rookie real quick. Emerald Rushing Field.

John: Yeah, so Emerald Rushing, then. I think looks down at this particular undead as Zaya is pulling the patch off of their uniform. You can tell, Mitali, that Emerald Rushing is shaken. And they say:

John (as Emerald Rushing): I knew this guy.

Minna: I think I put a hand on their shoulder.

John (as Emerald Rushing): Is this… is this what’s going to become of all of us?

Minna (as Mitali): This is not what’s going to become of all of us, recruit. This is what we’re coming to stop.

John: So, now that you care about them [rubs hands together] let’s move on.

[laughter]

Kim: We’re fucked.

John: [laughs]

Minna: Yeah, this is not at all a terrible thing for the GM to say.

Rhi: Well, we’re probably not. [laughs]

Kim: Almost certainly, we’re fucked.

Rhi: I’m gonna file that away.

John: Alright, so scout ahead I guess, or however you wanna do it.

Rhi: Yeah, I’ll keep prowling forward.

John: Cool. I think, again, you’re back into a controlled position. We’re really just negotiating how much time this is gonna take.

Rhi: Oh no. I got two 6s, I suppose I was due. So, that’s a 2.

John: Okay, so this was a controlled position, so like, there’s only so bad it could be.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: So, I think what’s gonna happen first off is you’re going to get up from the sewers, but you’re not gonna be able to get out into the courtyard, you’re gonna be stopped first. So, as you emerge from the sewers, there is this booming of fire, perhaps even the thunder of siege weapons that are raining down into the courtyard. There’s various things on fire inside the courtyard. Right nearby where you are, there are large Heartless, and I’m gonna talk about what a Heartless is, as well as a number of Black Oak Knights, who are operating siege weapons of their own. So, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna make some fortune rolls and see how the battle at large is going. And we’re gonna see how the Commander is holding up. Right, I’m gonna roll that right now. So, we’re gonna put a couple of ticks on this clock. So, the Commander is slowly breaking down.

Minna: [sighs]

John: It’s fine. You have plenty of time.

Minna: [laughs] I know.

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: I’m just worried about them. I’m not sighing at you, I’m sighing at life.

John: There is always some amount of emotional scarring that happens every tick.

John and Rhi: [laughs]

Minna:, I mean, isn’t that what we play RPGs for?

John: Right? [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah.

John: Okay, and then we’re gonna roll four dice to see how Zora holds up. Ooh, not so well. So, the undead are mounting a very solid retort to Zora’s flare and flash at the main gate. So, this is a situation, you know, things are happening. You see several crews of Black Oak Knights, who are human. They are not undead. They are one of the few actual humans to be working with the undead. And I don’t know how you all feel about that, but that’s a thing.

Minna: Not great. [laughs]

John: Not great. [laughs] That’s fair. As well as Heartless, who are sometimes taken from the ranks of the knights. They are giants, they’re essentially like eight, ten feet tall. They’ve had their heart removed.

Minna: [gasps]

John: Their chests are bare, you can see a giant hole where their heart used to be, as if it was like—

Rhi: Oof.

John: Yeah, ripped out of them. And they are plated elsewhere, they are plated in metal and they have giant weapons. Many of them seem to be moving large equipment across the courtyard to the knights, who are mounting an actual siege offense.

Rhi: And we don’t know where the Commander is, right?

John: You don’t know where the Commander is, and worse yet, you are in the sewer tunnels. There’s, like, essentially a cart right above the grate that you’re supposed to be coming out of. [laughs]

Rhi: Oh no, so I like poke my head up and it’s just, like, right over me.

Minna: Oh no.

John: Right. So now it’s like, “What do we do now?”

Rhi: Yeah.

Kim: Yikes.

John: That’s the 1-3.

Rhi: Okay.

John: If you wanna say, like, “I don’t want that to happen,” we can resist, we can do stuff like that. But I think it’s a fun position.

Rhi: I like this particular inconvenience.

John: [laughs] Okay, fair enough.

Rhi: I guess I’ll whisper back down the ladder to kind of explain what is happening up here. That, like:

Rhi (as Zaya): There’s a big crate blocking the way, I—

Rhi: Is it, I’m guessing like, we could probably wriggle out one at a time, but it’s gonna be slow and kinda obvious.

John: Right. It’s gonna be a little risky, that’s really what it comes down to.

Minna: [laughs] Heavy.

Rhi: Yeah, I was gonna say, maybe does Arun wanna climb up here and push?

Kim: Yeah, that seems like something I’d probably do.

John: Excellent.

Kim: Just to, you know, carve a path for all of y’all.

Rhi: Yeah. I will climb back down the ladder and get out of the way so you can clamber up.

John: Awesome. So, tell me what you’re doing here and we’ll talk about what you should be rolling, if anything.

Kim: That’s a really good question, because I don’t know.

John: Okay, if you wanna just like, physically just be strong and push this cart off, we might have to talk a little bit about what’s required for that. Because it’s not really an action, but I do feel like that might be a roll. I would probably make a fortune roll using your prowess.

Kim: Yeah. That makes sense. What did that come out to be?

John: So that’s a 5.

Kim: Oh.

John: So I think here’s what’s happening. I think what you’re gonna do is you’re gonna heave really hard on the this cart, essentially, and you’re gonna topple it to one side so that everybody can get up. And then, essentially, you’re in a war zone, right? So I think you’re gonna all be bunkered down behind this cart as people are running from left to right and whatever you do from there, you’re gonna be in a risky position. Does that sound right?

Kim: Mm hmm.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: So I just imagine Arun, like, crying out and heaving and then this cart toppling over, and then just the pile of you coming out, and then someone looks to the Officer and is like,

John (as solider): What do we do?

Minna: Okay. Let me think out of character for a second. [laughs]

John: Sure, yeah, take your time.

Minna: So, the situation— are there people, like, really near us?

John: There are a few people that are near you, but they haven’t seemed to have noticed you yet.

Minna: Okay.

John: A cart tipped over in the middle of a battle. It’s not super noticeable right away, but like, whatever you do, if you’re gonna try and dart across this cart, if you wanna sneak, it’s probably gonna be risky.

Minna: It seems there’s some buildings to our right. I think we’re gonna try and, like, duck into the shadows behind and between them, if we can?

John: Yeah, okay. That sounds fair.

Minna: So, I think what Mitali says to the group at large is:

Minna (as Mitali): Alright, scatter. Let’s get into the shadows behind those buildings over to the right.

John: Okay. Is this a flat run, or are you trying to, like, slowly, carefully Maneuver so that you—or Scout, rather, so that you cannot be seen?

Minna: I think it’s kind of a sneaking, careful movement, not like darting.

John: With carefully placed barrels, that are every so often, so that you can—

Minna: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: [laughs] Nice. Okay, it sounds like you’re doing some sort of group Scout roll.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: I can lead. I have noting in Scout, but I can lead.

Rhi: Okay. I have 2 in Scout.

John: Yeah, another way to do this, if you think that this is more appropriate, you could also try saying this more about directing the people and you could use a Marshal role. But then it’s… it’s probably better to do the Scout, to be honest.

Minna: Okay.

Rhi: Alright. And this is risky, still?

John: Yes.

Minna: Well. I’m only gonna take 1 stress from that, because of my ability.

Rhi: And it looks like we got a 5.

John: Excellent. Again, on a risky, on a 4-5, you do it, but there’s a consequence. I’m gonna say that someone notices the cart that’s been turned over. You all file into what turns out to be a chapel. It looks like it was, at one point, a chapel. It’s now been sort of torn apart by undead. There’s no one in here, thankfully, but you do hear a human voice call out in Zemyati, so if you as a character, if you just tell me you understand Zemyati, all of you could.

Rhi: Yeah.

John (as Voice): Someone get that cart upright. What’s going on here? Why isn’t this where it’s supposed to be?

John: And I think what we’re going to do is we’re gonna put some ticks on this Alert clock.

Rhi: Oh boy.

Minna: That sounds about right. [laughs]

Kim: I fucked up.

Minna: I mean, technically I fucked up.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: Well, I guess, no, we all…

Kim: It was a team effort.

Minna: As a group, we fucked up.

John: It takes a village. [laughs]

Rhi: [laughs] Yeah. I feel like before we move around too much more, because this is a big place and we could be stumbling around without direction here, we need to try to figure out where they would have taken the Commander. [hums] Can I use my fine lenses?

John: Mm, yeah.

Rhi: This was a chapel, so is there some kind of, like, bell tower or steeple type ting that I could climb up to get a high vantage point?

John: Absolutely.

Rhi: Yeah. I’m gonna—

John: Do you have a climbing kit?

Rhi: I do.

John: Excellent, then yeah, this is not even a roll.

Rhi: Okay.

John: Yeah, so you just scramble up to the rafters and maybe look out from a higher position?

Rhi: Yeah, and I wanna just try and to get a lay of the land. Ideally see if I can figure out—I’m assuming that wherever they’re holding the Commander is probably gonna be more heavily guarded?

John: Sure.

Rhi: So, I’m gonna look for a place that has, like, an unusual number of stationary soldiers, given that there’s, like, a battle happening. If there’s a bunch of people being held back, that’s probably significant.

John: Absolutely. So, let’s say, give me a Gather Information with Scout.

Rhi: Okay. Ooh, when I Gather Info through clandestine observation, would that count as this?

John: That’s this. Yes, absolutely.

Rhi: Okay, so I have potency on this roll. 4.

John: So, with potency, because you’re real good at this, that’s good information.

Rhi: Nice.

John: Normally you would expect the Commander to be in this tower.

Rhi: Yes. [laughs]

John: But what you notice is that the Cinder King’s banners are actually outside a different building, on the ground level. This building is actually multiple stories, so like, you enter through the ground but there’s another story above. And you’re convinced that this is actually where they’re holding the Commander, that it’s not actually in this tower.

Rhi: Okay.

John: So, that’s the situation.

Rhi: Yeah. So, I will rough out a map for what I can see up here, and I will scramble back down and run over to—

John: You got a 6, though, so I actually think I’m gonna say one more thing, which is you actually see an undead— you think it’s undead, you’re not certain. You see what is essentially a large, larger than normal, knight come out. It’s like a knight, if you think of Game of Thrones, like The Mountain, right? This is, like, a huge guy.

Rhi: Oh, okay.

John: But you see none of him, right? You only see, like, the armor. Armor from top to bottom in this, sort of, Onyx-y armor with spikes in various places. Clearly a bad guy. And there is, like, a knight that’s there and you can’t see because— I mean, you can see, but you can’t hear, because it’s too far away and the battle’s going on. But the knight says something to this thing, and then gets backhanded. Just, like, hits him.

Minna: Oh.

Rhi: Oof.

John: And this knight flies maybe three feet. And you’re not 100% sure whether or not they are still alive, but then the creature turns to another knight, something is exchanged, and then it goes back inside. So, you don’t know what’s going on there, but you’ve seen this thing and what I can tell you is this is Cinder Guard, this is one of the personal guard that the Cinder King dispatches for very specific purposes.

Rhi: Like maybe interrogations?

John: Uh, you don’t think this would do interrogations, but it might protect the interrogator.

Rhi: Okay.

John: And just looking at it, you’re like, “Yeah, maybe we could take one of them with all of us.” That’s gonna be a tough order.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah. I’ll rough out a map of, sort of, what I can see of the courtyard and then scramble back down—

Minna: I have a question actually, really quick, before you scramble down.

Rhi: Mm hmm?

Minna: Are the walls patrolled? Like, around the tops of the walls?

John: you probably see a few patrols, but they’re not, like, they’re not anything worse than what you saw in the sewers.

Rhi: How does the courtyard look in terms of…

John: It’s a giant mess. If you’re not seen by the knights or dealt with by a Heartless, you might get caught with siege fire. It’s bad.

Rhi: Yeah. I’ll scramble back down and kind of report what I saw to Mitali.

Minna: I think you catch Mitali kind of whispering a blessing to whatever once ran this church.

Rhi: Aw.

Minna: And then she turns to you.

Rhi (as Zaya): Alright, so, it’s not the tower. There’s a smaller building, on ground level, we won’t have to fight our way up a hill, where Cinder King’s flags are flying and there’s at least one of the Cinder Guards in there. So, that seems like our target.

Minna (as Mitali): What’s our best route? Quietest. We don’t have enough people to fight off everyone in the courtyard.

Rhi (as Zaya): Well, I mean, it depends. We could use the battle as cover. There’s a lot of chaos out there, and we can add to it a bit, keep people from noticing us specifically. Or we could go up on the rooves and around the walls.

Kim (as Arun): If it’s more chaos that you need, I can help out with that.

[laughter]

Minna (as Mitali): That’s certainly true.

Rhi (as Zaya): Yeah, I feel like… I mean, there are patrols on the walls. There’s risks either way. But—

Rhi: What is the Officer’s title?

John: Oh. Um, it doesn’t much matter anymore, because there’s only, like, 50 people in the Legion.

Rhi: Oh no! [laughs]

Minna: But you know she insists on it. [laughs]

John: Whatever your official rank was at the time.

Rhi: Yeah, so what was your rank?

Minna: I’m thinking she’s Captain Dewa.

John: Okay, nice.

Rhi: Alright.

Rhi (as Zaya): So, what’s your orders, Captain?

Minna: Out of character, which one do we think is more fun?

Rhi: Ooh, more fun.

Kim: Chaos!

Rhi: Yeah, I feel like the more fun option is definitely going through the cluster in the courtyard, but…

John: [laughs]

Minna: Yes, this is the group that chanted, “Ghost riot!”

Rhi: Yeah, that’s… I will point out that is not necessarily in line with our “keep it quiet” mission.

Minna: That’s true. Our mission is kind of…

Kim: That’s a shame. Yeah.

John: [laughs]

Rhi: I’m personally leaning a bit towards the walls, because then we can go in— we don’t have to try to go through the front door.

Minna: Yeah, my thing is if we try to go in through the front door, we might have to fight the Cinder Guard, and if we go in through, like, a second-story window or something, if we try and go in through the rooves, that might actually put off having to fight anything. Or at least anything big.

Kim: True.

Rhi: Yeah. I mean, I expect that that Alert clock is gonna fill up when we bust in to grab the Commander.

Minna: Absolutely.

Rhi: We’re gonna have to fight our way out, probably.

Minna: Yes, but I think we need to conserve our strength.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: I think we need to go up to the rooves, I thin that’s our best bet.

Rhi: Alright, I’ll rig up my climbing gear so everybody can, like, get pulled up the ropes or whatever to get up there.

John: Excellent. So, I think that sounds like you’re Rigging something.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: Are you any good at that?

Rhi: I don’t have anything in that.

John: Getting you up there is just a matter of, like, you rolling a Scout roll or something. Like, that’s fine. But if you wanna Rig up something for them.

Rhi: Right. Arun, do you wanna help me with this? Cause then I only take one stress if I push myself.

Kim: Sure, kiddo.

Rhi: [laughs] So, I would, if I’m getting an assist and I’m pushing myself…

John: You get two dice.

Rhi: That puts gets me up to two?

John: Yeah.

Rhi: Okay. So, I take one stress. What position is it?

John: Hmm, what is the position here? I feel like if they weren’t alerted to the fact that there may be somebody around here, it would be absolutely controlled. I think there’s a question in my mind of whether this is risky or not. But I have to establish what that risk might be. I think you might get sighted by somebody.

Rhi: Yeah, cause I imagine this is not a fast process of, like, pulling everybody up these ropes.

John: Right. So I think maybe it depends on, like, are you gonna go slow? If you go slow, you can probably make this a controlled position.

Rhi: Um… I dunno, what do you two think? Shall we do this slow and quiet or fast and slightly…

Minna: I think slow and quiet.

Rhi: Slow and quiet? Okay, yeah.

Minna: At least for the objective that we seem to be going for, which is get in there as quietly as possible.

Rhi: Alright. So yeah, we’ll go slow.

John: Okay. I think what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna let you roll the Rig. You’re gonna be in a controlled position with standard effect. And then I’m gonna roll for how the front gate’s doing.

Rhi: I got a 6!

John: Oh. Wonderful. You put up exactly what you need to do.

Rhi: I imagine it’s like a pulley system where, like, Arun is at the bottom working some of the ropes and I’m doing the other ones at the top and we just sorta lift everybody up.

Kim: Oh yeah, that works.

John: It looks like you are about halfway down on the main gate. And then, perhaps a little more interesting, is this.

Rhi: Our poor Commander.

John: Your poor Commander … it’s just the first ten years of their life that they are no longer going to be able to remember. It’s fine.

Minna: Oh my God.

Rhi: Oh!

Kim: What?

Rhi: Oh no….

John: It’s fine. Okay, cool, so you create this scaffolding, essentially, and I don’t think we’re gonna need to make any rolls to see that people get up onto the rooves. You get up onto the rooves, but you have these patrols that you have to deal with. So, you’re about here, and you see a number of undead patrols sort of here and here. You have a couple of approaches available to you. Just let me know what you wanna do.

Minna: I will say that we have our Heavy with us, which means we could probably make work of some small patrols.

Kim: Mm.

Rhi: Yeah, let’s just sneak along the wall and then we can just… we did pretty good with that group in the sewers. I think if we keep an eye on where they are, we can try and set up some ambushes again and just take them out.

John: Excellent. Cool. Just gimme a controlled Scout roll, just to set up an ambush, maybe.

Rhi: Okay. Alright. 5.

John: I think you’re able to set up the ambush just fine, that’s all good. The patrol is coming along and I believe what happens in that a Heartless comes upstairs.

Rhi: [gasps]

Minna: No!

Rhi: Uh oh.

John: And then brings, like, another stack of undead. Essentially repositions a bunch of undead. So, when abouts do you wanna attack?

Minna: Yeah, I feel like we don’t wanna confront a Heartless at this point.

John: Okay.

Rhi: Yeah.

Kim: Maybe not.

Minna: That could be noisy, if nothing else.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: He leaves the group that he was with there and then he leaves. So, you have about, I wanna say like a dozen of these Gaunt that are just spread throughout the area, and you’ve set up your ambush so that’s not really a problem. Call out individual— like, how are you approaching this?

Rhi: I have been, as we’ve been picking our way along this wall, there’s a battle going on, there’s lots of little bits of gravel and rock, and I’ve just been picking up rocks.

John: Absolutely.

Rhi: I’m just gonna throw rocks at them.

John: Okay.

Rhi: One at a time, to get their attention. [laughs]

John: You’re gonna try and, like, murder them one at a time? [laughs]

Rhi: I mean, I’m gonna try to lure in, like, small numbers of them by just throwing rocks at their heads. So they’re like, I’m figuring they’re not too bright, they’re gonna be like, “Huh, something hit me, I will go investigate,” and then everybody else can stab.

Minna: Oh my God.

John: Awesome. Cool. What action is luring in undead? [laughs]

Rhi: Let’s see… Shoot, maybe? Shoot a target with precision, make trick shots?

John: Yeah, maybe. Like, you wanna nail him in the back of the head.

Rhi: That’s kind of what I’m picturing, is I’m just, like, plinking their helmet.

John: Sure.

Rhi: I’m not gonna push myself on this, I’m just gonna roll it as is. Oh no.

John: [laughs]

Kim Oh no.

Rhi: [laughs] I threw too many rocks!

Kim: Baby, no.

John: Your intention was very noble. And you just, you nail one right in the back of the head, and I think it knocks something over. Like, I think that’s the problem, it is confused and sort of like— it knocks over a bucket that maybe you saw it there and were just like, “Well, obviously that’s gonna be fine,” but you hit it, it knocks the bucket over, a bunch of other undead look up.

Rhi: The bucket falls down a flight of stairs…

John: [laughs] Right. And they’re just all like, “Okay. That’s bad.” We can talk about resistances.

Rhi: Oh, hmm. Hmm. It’s so much harder to choose to do things when I have so much less stress.

John: Yes.

Rhi: You know what? I think I’m just gonna let it ride.

John: Okay.

Rhi: And we’re gonna [laughs] We’ve got some combat-oriented folks here, it’s fine. Let’s just see how this goes.

John: So, it’s a melee. There’s a bunch of undead in the area, they all turn to look, they all move as a pack, and so it’s like a phalanx of armored undead that are shuffling as quick as they can, which is not super fast, but fast enough, to come over to you guys. And you’re very quickly in the thick of things. I’m assuming that you guys are gonna draw weapons and just engage them at that point.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: So, that sounds to me like maybe a group Skirmish?

Minna: Sure. I can lead.

Kim: Yep.

Minna: What’s the position and effect?

John: It’s risky, because people might get hurt. So, I think you’re technically at limited effect. And the reason for that is that they outnumber you.

Rhi: Okay.

Kim: Oh.

Rhi: Could the Heavy use the Anchor thing? To fight as a…

John: Yes, absolutely. You can spend a use of Anchor. And then basically it’s standard effect and you just wipe the floor with them.

Kim: So what am I doing?

Rhi: Over next to the harm box, just to the right of it, there’s a thing that says Anchor. You can click one of those uses, and then you will fight like you’re a small group.

John: Yeah.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: Aw, good job, rookies.

Minna: They’re well-trained and I trust them.

John: Right? Has everyone rolled?

Rhi: Yeah.

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: Looks like Minna got a 5, I got a 5…

John: Yeah, and I think you guys just shine in that moment. Like, the Heavy is a massive influence on the battle and the rookies know exactly what they’re supposed to be doing, they’re all set up in the right spots, and despite the fact that this does not go off the way that you intended, it certainly ends the way you intended. And you just dispatch them all. So there’s, I think at a certain point you look up and the whole group is looking at each other and there are no more zombies. They’re all kind of in parts on the ground, and there’s a clear shot to what you now recognize as the former guard house.

Rhi (as Zaya): Nice!

Rhi: I’m gonna high-five the nearest rookie.

John and Minna: [laugh]

John: Yeah, who is the rookie that did, like, the best job?

Minna: His name is Gallant Elrik Garrosi. And you would think he’d be, like, a very confident, gallant person, but he’s very shy. Very few words. But he’s very good with a weapon sometimes, and he’s definitely blushing as Mitali congratulates him.

John: [laughs] Awesome.

Minna: [laughs]

John: Yeah, he probably says something humble, like:

John (as Gallant): I’m just doing what anyone would do.

Rhi: [laughs]

John: Fantastic. So, you guys make it to the guard house.

Rhi: Okay.

John: You guys are crawling through the catwalks of the guard house, looking down upon the Commander in a makeshift prison, surrounded by undead. So, good times. Let’s describe this prison a little bit. So, imagine if the main dining room area of a guardhouse was cleared out and iron bars of some sort had been, like, bolted together into a giant kinda cage, prison thing that’s maybe ten, fifteen feet on one side, right, so it’s a big cube. Inside this cage is the interrogator. The interrogator is this gaunt, tall, angular, pale creature. It moves in unsettling ways and it has really long arms. And it has these extremely long fingers on its hands and it seems like they are burrowing into the Commander’s head.

Rhi: [disgusted]

John: And this creature is, like, concentrating and attempting to extract the Commander’s secrets physically. Your Commander is putting up an incredible fight.

Minna: [whines]

John: It’s fine.

Rhi: [sighs] Yikes.

John: [laughs] That’s inside the cage. Outside the cage there is a smattering of Gaunt who seem like they’re waiting around to be ordered, there’s the Cinder Guard that you saw earlier. I’m gonna have you make a roll real quick. And that seems to be the sum of who the people are in this room, if you can call them people.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah.

John: I imagine that you guys are like, sort of on an upper level, looking down. So you can imagine that this is a big room with a walkway that goes all around it. This is like a facility walkway that goes to other rooms, that looks down into a dining area which is now a prison. Yeah. So, who was it that actually saw? It was the Scout, right?

Rhi: Yeah, I was the one that saw this Cinder Guard.

John: Can you give me a Gather Information roll with Scout?

Rhi: Sure, 5.

John: Great news. You recognize that the spikes on this suit of armor are not the same spikes on the last suit of armor you saw.

Rhi: Oh.

Minna: [gasps]

Rhi: So there’s at least two of them.

Minna: Oh no.

John: [laughs]

Rhi: Oh good.

Kim: Why?

Rhi: How delightful.

Kim: Why?

Rhi: How wonderful….

Kim: Why?

Rhi: … this news is for us. Yeah, so, there’s two of these spiky murder things.

Minna: At least two.

Rhi: At least two. Two that I have seen. Cool.

Kim: But why?

Rhi: Okay, I’ll relay that to our Captain.

John: Evidently the Cinder King really wanted this done.

Rhi: Yeah, apparently. Well, I mean, apparently there’s only, like, 50 of us left, so you get stuff from the Commander and that’s gonna finish us off. Okay.

John: It’s also possible that this interrogator’s just very valuable.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: So, what do you guys do?

Rhi: Yeah, Minna, you said you had some idea about a distraction?

Minna: Well, I can modify it.

John: I’m excited.

Minna: [laughs] So, I have this ability to use something called Channels and acquire an asset in a flashback.

John: Yes, you do.

Minna: I’m gonna go ahead and roll that and see how I do.

John: Cool. What are you trying to acquire?

Minna: A Orite clockwork creation.

John: Okay.

Minna: That should be able to be wound up and zoom away to a certain point and then make a lot of noise.

John: Okay, cool.

Minna: I’m gonna roll it and see how it goes, I think.

John: Yeah.

Minna: 4.

John: You’re gonna get it. I think that these are not normally found. This is, like, a very unusual item.

Minna: Yeah.

John: So, I think what we’re gonna say is this is damaged, or weak, or somehow insufficient in some way. And I would say that probably it’s just very fragile. So you probably don’t want to throw it very hard, but you could still get one.

Minna: So, I think actually I’m gonna take this fragile thing and I’m gonna climb down to place it.

John: Excellent.

Rhi: Oh no!

John: I love every bit of this.

John and Minna: [laugh]

Minna: And so, I think I only have to get to the base of the wall and set it on the ground and kinda wind it up, but I still have to get to base of the wall.

John: Sure. How are you doing that?

Minna: I think this is a Maneuver?

John: It sounds like a Maneuver to me, yeah.

Rhi: Do you want an assist? Because I’ve got climbing gear, I’ll help you out.

Minna: Yes, that would be nice.

Rhi: So, I’ll take one stress.

John: You’re probably in a controlled position right now. Like, they’re not really expecting anyone here.

Minna: Darn it.

John: Okay, so something happens. I think you’re climbing down— are you on a rope or something?

Rhi: I think that’s the assist is that I have a rope tied from my climbing kit.

Minna: Yeah.

John: Excellent. So, I think the thing is nobody ever looks up, right? And the undead are no exception to this. I think the Cinder Guard goes over to where you were coming down and it begins to acquire a bunch of materials that the interrogator wants. So, there’s like alchemicals, essentially, and we’re gonna say that there’s like a bench and various things it’s attending to, And you are hanging from a rope about a foot above it. So…

Minna: [laughs] Just gonna hold still and wait for it to turn around.

John: Right. Do you wanna continue along this road? I think it’s gonna be a little riskier than you were expecting it to be.

Minna: That’s fine with me.

Rhi: [laughs]

John: Fine, sure. Let’s make a risky Maneuver.

Minna: Okay…

John: You look up and you lock eyes with the Commander. And I want you to tell me the fondest memory you have of the Commander.

Minna: Augh!

John and Rhi: [laugh]

Kim: Wow.

Minna: So, I think I probably enlisted as whatever the rank below Captain is. It looks like maybe Major, from the book?

John: Sure.

Minna: I think my fondest memory is the day that the Commander raised me to Captain.

John: Oh, excellent. Are you still wearing the pin? Obviously yeah, I guess you would be.

Minna: Yeah. I think it’s just the pride, kind of, because it’s hard to earn their respect, you know.

John: Oh, they’re a bit stern.

Minna: Mm hmm.

John: Nice. Yeah, so there’s that moment of like, they lock eyes to you. And it’s almost as if you could see the, like, a conflict in their eyes of, like, they’re going through hell right now, but then they see you and you see that flash of pride as they look at you. Now you can make your roll.

Minna: I think Mitali does, like, as much of a salute as she can manage from this position. [laughs] Okay. Devil’s Bargain. What does a Devil’s Bargain look like?

John: So, the thing you’re attempting to do is to throw this thing and then have it cause it a distraction and basically lead them away, right?

Minna: Can I make a suggestion?

John: What’s that?

Minna: So, I think that the rope we’ve got, the reason that we’re having trouble here is that there’s not quite enough to reach all the way down the wall.

John: [laughs] Okay, that’s fantastic.

Minna: So, no matter what happens, I’m going to have to get on the ground, and no matter what happens, I’ve gotta find a way to get back up to the rope.

John: Got it. I love it. I love that to pieces. Okay, so you just don’t have enough rope. [laughs]

Rhi: [laughs] Minna is very good at asking for consequences and then proposing her own terrible consequences.

John: [laughs] Ah.

Rhi: Just like, great. [laughs]

Minna: It’s fun!

John: That’s way better than anything I would have come up with. That’s great. Cool. Alright, so let’s have that be the case. So, you’re gonna get an extra die from not enough rope.

Minna: Come on, dice bot.

John: Oh, excellent. Okay, well you do it, there’s a consequence. I’m gonna say the Alert level goes up.

Minna: Okay.

John: That is very reasonable I think, you’re setting off a very annoying thing.

Minna: Mm hmm. Can I describe how this happens?

John: Absolutely.

Minna: So, I think she does get to the ground and she’s kinda crouched in the shadows. And what she has… I think we’re just gonna have a moment on top of the wall before she went down, and she says:

Minna (as Mitali): Sometimes you have to resort to childish tricks.

Minna: And so now she pulls something out of her sleeve, and it almost looks like a mechanical mouse. And like, you see her wind it up and place it on the ground, and it goes kind of skittering along the ground for about 50 feet and then there’s just this ungodly mechanical noise. Like, screeches and beeps and [laughs] as much horrible noise as a clockwork mouse can make.

John: I love the idea this is like something that Orite parents, or maybe even Orite grandparents give to their Orite grandchildren.

Minna: Yes.

[laughter]

Rhi: The parents through gritted teeth, “Thank you, Mom for this gift that I’m definitely going to smash with a hammer when you leave.” [laughs]

John: “Thank you, Lady Whatever,” because she’s gonna be noble. [laughs] Okay, cool. So, I’m gonna add two ticks to the Alert clock. That is not gonna fill it, it does have exactly one segment left. So, you manage to distract them. I can’t do anything about the fact that when this thing finds and subsequently destroys the annoying toy, then it’s gonna come right back here. So, you really don’t have a lot of time. But you do manage to get the Cinder Guard’s attention, and it storms off. What do you guys do in that moment?

Rhi: So, it pulled off the Cinder Guard. Did it take any of the Gaunt with it, or did we just get rid of the Cinder Guard?

John: I think it’s possible. Let’s say that’s gonna be a fortune roll. I think it’s, like, a couple dice. Let’s say it left a couple of Gaunt.

Rhi: Okay. The interrogator I’m assuming is some kind of undead.

John: Yes. Absolutely.

Rhi: I’ve got black arrows.

John: Okay.

Minna: [gasps]

Kim: Ooh.

Rhi: I don’t wanna shoot him with the black arrows while he’s got his fingers in the Commander’s head, I feel like that’s gonna be bad for the Commander. But if we can pull him away enough and I can make that shot, I could fry him in one.

John: Yes.

Rhi: Yeah. So I’m thinking maybe if Arun and the rookies go down to deal with the Gaunt and, like, break down the cage?

Minna: I could draw off the interrogator.

Rhi: Yeah. I can just, sort of— I didn’t pick the Sniper playbook, but I’m basically playing one on TV. Try and take that shot to hit the interrogator with one of these black arrows.

John: Your mission is, of course, two-fold. One, bring the Commander back, or make sure that the secrets don’t fall into enemy hands. Worst comes to worst…

Rhi: Yeah. I’d rather not kill the Commander.

John: Yeah, no, that’s definitely…

Rhi: But I’ll do it if I have to. But I don’t have to yet. Does sound like a good plan to everybody, if we can just…

Minna: Yeah.

Kim: Honestly, it works for me.

Rhi: Okay. So, I’m gonna stay up on the second floor, but I think that our squad and Heavy gotta jump down and— because we have to do this fast, we need to get back out before any of the however many of the Cinder Guards are around get in.

John: Awesome. You set up into a sort of sniping perch, nocking an arrow and training it on the undead interrogator. Does the rest of the squad come down as well?

Rhi: I mean, I think that’s up to either the Captain or Arun.

Kim: Yeah, I was gonna say, wasn’t the plan that I was going down with the guys?

John: Yeah, that sounds good.

Kim: The fam?

Rhi: [laughs]

John: You and the squad come down and descend upon the Gaunt. That’s gonna cause the interrogator to look up. If you have something where you wanna, like, convince the interrogator to come away as a distraction thing first, then we can do that.

Rhi: I think just kill a bunch of undead.

John: Yeah, that’s fine.

Kim: Yeah. Yeah.

John: Let’s do it. So, it sounds to me like you’re doing a Skirmish?

Kim: I would think so, yeah.

John: Because you’re using, you’re leveraging the rookies, right, so it’s gonna be a group Skirmish where you have equal scale. And I think you’re going to just be in a risky position because they might get hurt or killed. And we’re gonna take out a bunch of undead.

Kim: Yep.

John: Standard. Awesome.

Rhi: Nice!

Kim: I rolled a 6.

John: Like a boss. You do— would you like to describe how this awesome fight scene comes out?

Kim: I am just ploughing through these motherfuckers

John and Rhi: [laugh]

John: Mighty indeed.

Kim: Yeah. I’m dummy thicc.

Rhi: [laughs]

John: I imagine you, like, check one of the Gaunt across the room and then bisect another.

Kim: Yeah!

John: And then the rookies come out like a swarm and take out the rest of the undead.

Kim: Yep.

John: Are they only using blades? I think that is the real question here.

Rhi: I think we would probably tell them to only use blades.

Kim: Yeah.

John: Nice.

Rhi: We don’t want to draw more attention than we need to.

John: Yeah. Maybe there’s like, a cinematic thing where a rookie draws a pistol, but you put your hand over it, and you go back to—

Kim: [sings] Take the bullets out your guns, put the bullets out your guns.

Rhi: [laughs] Yes.

John: You just absolutely wreck the room. And then the interrogator is looking up at this, and then it curls up around the Commander.

Rhi: Oh, that’s the opposite of what I wanted!

Kim: Oh no.

John: And takes one hand out of, like, the burrowing, and around the neck. And you can tell that it’s basically like, you cannot, if you shoot me, I will kill this guy. There’s clearly almost like a detente.

Kim: Umm… we are at an impasse.

John: Well, it depends on how well you shoot, I think, is the real answer to that.

Rhi: Well, I…

Minna: Poor.

Rhi: Yeah, I was gonna say. Mitali, since you’re down there, do you think you can do anything?

Minna: So, a little background for me. What’s the leadership like in our army? Obviously, the Commander’s in charge, are there any other high-profile people?

John: Yeah. There’s the Quartermaster, there’s the Marshal.

Minna: What does the Marshal do?

Kim: He sends people to die.

John: The Marshal picked you for this mission, yeah. Is there something you know that I would love to hear?

Minna: Okay, so, I think Mitali steps forward.

Minna (as Mitali): You and I both know that the Commander’s a tough nut a crack. Wouldn’t you like to try your hand at an easier nut? Perhaps the Marshal of the army?

John: Ooh, very interesting.

Rhi: [laughs] You’re just trying to bluff into… oh my God.

John: Yeah, okay. I think there’s a moment where it, like, looks at you and is confused. And it’s like, I don’t know if I’m being sold a bill of goods here, what is this. Okay, so I think you have a chance to maybe confuse and/or delay whatever’s going on.

Minna: I would like to Sway.

John: Yeah, that sounds like what you’re doing, right?

Minna: And I would like to push myself.

John: That sounds like a good choice. [laughs]

Minna: Okay, and what is my position effect?

John: Hmm…. [laughs]

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: Is it… a desperate? [laughs]

John: That’s interesting. I think that your position here is tenuous at best. I feel like it’s desperate. You’re like, I want to offer myself up in trade, and the creature is like, maybe I can just wait for the Cinder Guard and I get you both. So, I think it’s desperate. You’re basically trying to— let’s talk about what your effect level is, though. Are you just trying to tell them, “Let the Commander go and I’ll come to you”? Like, what’s the…

Minna: I’m literally trying to get them to step towards me.

John: Just to step a little closer.

Minna: Yeah, just to step towards me. Like, I don’t even need it to be like a thing that they fully believe forever, just enough to get a little bit of distance from the Commander.

John: I think you have enough effect for that. Yeah, for sure. But I do think it’s desperate, because I doesn’t really trust you.

Minna: So desperate, standard.

John: Yeah, I think desperate standard is what we’re talking.

Minna: And I have one bonus die.

Rhi: Can I aid?

John: Yes, absolutely you can aid.

Minna: Please. [gasp] Just shout out, “Marshal!” [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, I do:

Rhi (as Zaya): Marshal, no!

[laughter]

John: Fantastic.

Rhi: Yeah, I’ll take that one point of stress. Because I really want this to work.

Minna: 5?

John: 5.

Kim: Wow.

John: Well, the good news is you do it.

Minna: Uh huh?

John: The bad news is there is a severe consequence. I think you’re just a little closer than you intended to be, and it reaches out with its unpossible, like, long hands, and it manages to get its fingers onto your skull.

Minna: Yes!

John: [laughs]

Kim: Minna, no!

John: It stretches out and that’s why it stepped away from the Commander for a bit, because it still has, like, a finger or two in the Commander’s skull, and then it has a finger or two in your skull. And it’s trying to, like, grab you both.

Rhi: This is the worst! This is not what I wanted!

Kim: It’s the opposite of what we wanted.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: Sorry. [laughs]

Rhi: It’s okay.

John: Well, the good news it you have an entirely clean shot on it.

Rhi: [sighs] Yeah, I gotta take it.

John: But before that happens, I should also do the other stuff. So, you’re gonna take some corruption here. I think that when an undead creature jams its bony hand into your head, starts raiding your thoughts, it probably corrupts you.

Minna: Yeah.

John: Right? And it’s desperate, so I think it’s 3 corruption.

Minna: Nice.

John: You’re like, “Yeah, that’s fine, it’s great.” [laughs]

Rhi: [laughs]

Minna: It’s a one-shot!

John: So, I think there’s that. And then of course the consequence of now it’s got its hands inside your head.

Minna: So, what happens when this thing sticks its hand into my skull?

John: I think there’s a lot of cool things that happen. There’s two things really important. One is, I’m gonna say that you forget something. You can tell me what it is that you forget. And I think that something else is you remember chunks of the Commander’s life.

Rhi: Ooh.

John: Because, like, it’s never done this before. So I think it’s become a conduit of memories.

Minna: I think what happens is that it plays through a few things related to the Commander’s time as a soldier, including losing someone very important to them. I think at some point it, like, stops on one of the Commander’s promotions and I forget that moment with the Commander when I was promoted to Captain.

Rhi: Aww.

John: Oh! [cringes] I love it. I love it so good. [laughs]

Rhi: [pained] Oh.

John: Yeah, okay. Cool.

Rhi: I’m gonna take my shot…

John and Minna: [laugh]

John: Before you take your shot.

Rhi: Yeah?

John: I wanna hear a story about you and the Commander, like, tell me why the Commander is important to you personally.

Rhi: I think that I am of the Zemyati, but I grew up with them but I didn’t stay there. I didn’t fit in well and that’s how I ended up as a, quote, “retrieval specialist” in one of the cities. And I think that I ended up in the army as kind of a, like, you can go to jail or you can do a term of service. So, I came in with kind of a bad reputation. And I think that the Commander was one of the first people in command who trusted me.

John: Nice.

Rhi: They started giving me, like, solo missions without someone watching me. They were not, like, I think that a lot of my initial commanding officers would frisk me to make sure I hadn’t lifted stuff, and I think they put a stop to that. I think that they, once they saw that I had proved myself to be a good soldier, that was all that they needed.

John: Nice. Cool.

Rhi: I’ve made myself sad.

John: There you go. Take a shot.

Rhi: Yeah, alright, okay. So, I am going to push myself, which leaves me with one dot of stress left. Oh, unless…

Kim: Unless…

Rhi: Is there a way that I could get an aid from Arun?

John: Oh yeah.

Kim: Of course.

Rhi: Okay. So that’s gonna give me, if this is Shoot, that’s gonna give me three. Position and effect?

John: Feels risky to me. Where the risk is probably some sort of backlash on your friends.

Rhi: Yep.

John: And I feel like you have, I mean, you have black shot arrows, right? Black arrows?

Rhi: Yeah.

John: So I feel like you have greater effect. One arrow is enough, if you can just land the arrow.

Rhi: Yeah. And then I get two extra dice… yeah, I’m so nervous right now.

John: Right?

Kim: Oh…

Rhi: Oh, sure! Critical! [laughs and claps hands]

John: Oh dang.

Rhi: [relieved sigh]

Minna: Yes!

Rhi: Oh, the dice could not have done better for me in that moment.

John: Wow. I’m thrilled.

Rhi: [laughs]

John: I think, phew, you—

Rhi: That’s awesome.

John: Yeah. You plug it straight into the center of mass and then there’s this eruption of green fire, and it releases both of them and then gabs its chest, and then falls back and bursts into green fire. Wow. I feel like that’s… you just do it. You do it with greater effect, but like, you just get it done. I think it probably burns faster than you expected, like it burns to ash in a moment. That’s when you head the thundering of the Cider Guard in the background, so what do you guys do in that moment?

Rhi: Uh… well…

John: I think the rookies are probably scrambling and then barring the door.

Rhi: We need to get the Commander out of the cage.

John: Sure.

Kim: I’m probably the only one who can carry him, I think.

Minna: Yeah, I was gonna say, Arun can you carry him?

Kim: Yeah.

Rhi: Yeah, well we gotta— I imagine that the cage, I mean, is the cage locked?

John: Well, you have a wrecking kit and you have Arun, so you just smash the lock and it’s good.

Kim: Arun smash.

John: [laughs] Right.

Rhi: Yay.

John: And then yeah, the Commander is, like, barely conscious, maybe drooling a little bit, and just like, really out of it. But you’re able to, like, I guess fireman carry or something. So yeah, cool. So, you all, what do you do?

Rhi: What exits are available to us?

John: Well, so here’s the problem, right. You don’t actually have enough rope. [laughs]

Rhi: Yep.

Minna: Sorry. [laughs]

Rhi: No, no that’s fine.

Minna: But I think we can get up to that gallery, because didn’t Arun come down? There’s stairs, that we can—

John: Oh, absolutely. There are totally stairs. But, I mean, there is that big door where you would go through to get out to the stairs.

Rhi: Oh, okay.

John: There might be other passageways, like, through the kitchens or something. Like, maybe you could just keep going somewhere, try and meet up.

Minna: I feel like we try and get out the other side, like, outside the walls. They clearly at one point, there were doors that way, because there’s a road that comes through.

John: There is a road that comes through there.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: So you wanna try and exit through there. Alright, well I am gonna make a couple of rolls. I wanna see how the main gate is doing. The Alert clock isn’t gonna go anywhere, the Commander’s clock is halted. And then I think we’re just gonna see how Zora’s doing. Oh. It’s… she only has a little bit more in her. So, you guys are gonna bolt through the kitchens and the back passages and try and get to the rear exit of the guardhouse. There are undead all along the way. I’m assuming that there is gonna be some place that you can, like, link up so the Scout can rejoin the group. That’s not a problem.

Rhi: Yeah. I would like to, though, if I can, since I’m still kind of up and have more of a vantage point, if I can get somewhere to like… I wanna know what’s gonna be on the other side of the door that we’re gonna come crashing through out onto this road. I wanna know what we’re gonna be dealing with. So if I can find, like, a window, or a ledge overlooking.

John: Yes, absolutely. Give me a roll.

Rhi: Okay. Is this gonna be a Gather Info, or a regular roll?

John: I think this is a controlled Scout.

Rhi: Okay. 6.

John: Excellent yes. Absolutely.

Kim: Woo!

John: Yeah, no, just like you expected, the other Cinder Guard is at the front.

Rhi: Oh, okay. Well, so—

John: One here, one here.

Rhi: That’s… okay.

John: So, good job. Before things got exciting, you managed to identify that there is gonna be this problem.

Rhi: Okay. Yeah, so I’m gonna see that, and then I’m gonna, like, sprint down to where the rest of the group is. I think we designated, like, I imagine one of you shouted up like, “Meet us in the kitchen!”

John: Right.

Rhi: And so we all— I, like, come skidding into the room and it’s like:

Rhi (as Zaya): Okay, we have a problem. Cinder Guard on both doors, either way out from this level.

Minna (as Mitali): Ah… okay.

John: So, during this conversation, there is a big giant thudding as the other Cinder Guard is beating on that door.

Rhi: Either we try to sprint past one, get out to the road and hope we can make a run for it, or try to find a way back up to the rooves and the walls.

Minna: So, getting back up to the roof. That would involve having to get up to the second story. We still have to go past a Cinder Guard for that, right?

John: No, I think you can avoid the Cinder Guard. You’re able to get basically out back onto the wall, if you go back the way you came. So, maybe a little bit of a detour, because you’ll still have to go all the ay along the wall and then figure out a way to get back into the sewer tunnels and out that way.

Minna: Or, you know, try and figure out a way to get down from the wall to somewhere on the other side.

John: You could do that. That would be very exciting.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah, I like that. Just putting some distance between us and the Cinder Guards. Yeah.

John: Alright, so you retreat back the way you came, and you’re back out on the… I guess, are they parapets? I feel like they are. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, I think that’s the word.

John: Yes. Out onto the parapets. It looks like thing have calmed down in the courtyard as you emerge with the Commander over your shoulders. Things have calmed down quite a bit in the courtyard, and it looks like they’ve set up a crisp defense, where the knights are calling out and they’re setting up volleys. And it looks like they almost have all of the stuff here in order to repel this attack,

Rhi: Yikes. Yeah, so we need to get the heck out.

John: What’s the plan?

Rhi: Oh man.

John: Do you wanna dive over the wall and hope?

Minna: There’s a river down there.

Rhi: I mean, and I do still have my climbing gear.

Minna: Yeah.

John: It’s true.

Minna: We’ve established it’s not enough rope to necessarily bridge the gap, but we can get down further and then try and jump into the river.

John: Yeah.

Rhi: Hmm. I’m wondering… okay. How do flash— do flashbacks work basically the same as in Blades?

John: Yeah, totally.

Rhi: What would it cost for a flashback with some other squad? We arranged, like, okay, we’re gonna come—

John: Like an exit point?

Rhi: Yeah. An exit point where they would be there with, like… I dunno, more rope. Or a net or something, where they can help us get down.

John: Sure. Yeah, I mean, are you looking to eliminate the fact that you have to roll, or just reduce the…

Rhi: Reduce the consequences.

John: I think that’s a one stress flashback. Like, you’re basically saying maybe they could have thrown up some grappling hooks and then hightailed it out before they got caught.

Rhi: Yeah, okay. So yeah, I’ll take that one stress. I have one stress box left.

John: Good luck! [laughs]

Rhi: [laughs] You know what, I had my moment of glory, I’m good.

John: [laughs] Awesome. So yeah, the squad all assembles. You are out on the parapet. There’s a bunch of grappling hooks that are dug into the wall and it looks like you have a shot down to the river. You just have to get down there.

Rhi: Yeah, so group Maneuver, I guess?

Minna: Uh huh.

John: I think this does feel like it could be risky, because you are carrying somebody and, like, that’s a thing. There’s also a bunch of rookies and you’re trying to get out quick.

Rhi: Yeah. Who’s leading?

Minna: I can lead.

Rhi: Oh yeah, cause you’ll only take one. Alright, 4. What did, um…

Minna: I have not rolled yet.

Rhi: Yeah. Alright.

Minna: Let’s just go for it.

Kim: Hey!

John: There you go.

Rhi: A 6, heck yeah.

John: That is fantastic. Okay, yeah, it was a grim there for a second, but yeah. [laughs] I think there’s probably a moment when Emerald Rushing is like, not properly clipped in and loses their footing, and maybe you manage to grab them and keep them from falling.

Rhi: I think that I’m the last one down because I stay up on the wall with my flare gun and I fire two flares up, and that’s the signal to Zora that, like, we’re out! Go!

John: Peace, deuces! [laughs]

Rhi: But that’s also like, you know, I think I fire that, I jump over the wall and there’s, like, a volley of arrows where I was standing.

Minna: Yeah.

John: Fantastic. Awesome. Okay, and I think that’s the end of the mission. Like, I don’t see anything else. You guys get down to the river, manage to swim across, get out of dodge. Manage to recover the Commander and get away.

Rhi: Yay, and we didn’t lose any of our redshirts.

Kim: We did it!

Rhi: I’m so proud.

Minna: Yes.

John: [laughs] So, there is a little bit of book-keeping that we do between here and the downtime scenes. And then we do some downtime scenes, and then we’re done with the session.

Rhi: Cool.

John: So, the next bit, because this is the first session, the next bit would be to go ahead and make the command staff, the roles, as their called. They are under the characters the Commander, the Marshal and the Quartermaster. Each of you would play one of these. We don’t need to go through too much of actually doing the setup, because we’re not going to push forward past this point. Cool, so now you’re at the Western Front. And then you can have back at camp scenes. Potentially I can set a back at camp scene, but you had in mind something that you wanted to see, and I kinda wanna just go do that. So, what was the scene that you wanted to do?

Minna: Yeah, can I ask, what’s the back at camp scene supposed to be?

John: Oh, so there’s a list of back at camp scenes that you can chose from. Essentially, the list is based on your morale. So ,what you do is you look at your morale and you decide, okay, well we’re good morale because we’re at 9, and we’re gonna chose one of the scenes that looks fun.

Minna: I feel like the squad talking about home and asking the captain about theirs could be an interesting one with the Commander.

John: Oh, yeah. That’s cool.

Minna: So we find out how much he lost.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: So, who do you wanna play in that scene? Because one of you is, I am assuming someone should play the Commander.

Rhi: Yeah. Since I think I laid dibs on the Commander role, I can play them. Zaya is off drinking and telling stories of her incredible shot.

John: [laughs] Bragging.

Rhi: Is she mildly mocking the snipers? Maybe.

Minna: [laughs]

Rhi: Is there gonna be a drunken shoot-off later? Who’s to say?

Minna: Does one them tell her to watch her back when they’re in their sniping position next time? A little bit.

Rhi: Mm hmm.

John: Awesome.

Rhi: Oh I gotta think of a, I gotta come up with a name for the Commander real quick. Let me look at the list of names. I think it’s Commander Khatri.

John: Oh, nice.

Minna: Beautiful.

Rhi: Commander is not addressed by their first name.

John: Very cool.

Minna: And they’re from the same heritage as me. They’re also Bartan.

Rhi: Yeah, I picked Bartan for their heritage, reputation is unstoppable, personality I went with stoic and calculating, their look is athletic and currently very haggard.

John: Nice.

Minna: Aw, buddy.

Rhi: They’re not having the best time. It’s been a bad day.

John: It’s been a bad few weeks, actually.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: Oh…

Rhi: Yeah. So, where do we think this scene takes place?

Minna: I feel like it’s in the Commander’s tent.

John: Have you invited them to, like, say thank you?

Rhi: Hmm. I think so, I think we’ve kind of established this Commander is kind of like, stern and stoic but will give praise and acknowledgement when it’s been earned.

John: Sure.

Rhi: Yeah. So, I think that when the two of you get there, that like there is a medic who’s, like, fussing over them. And the medic will head out when the two of you come in.

Rhi (as Khatri): Captain Dewa, Arani. Where’s Alikovna?

Minna (as Mitali): As far as I know, she’s off getting drunk and mocking the snipers.

Rhi (as Khatri): Ah. I suppose she’s earned that.

Minna (as Mitali): [laughs] I would say she has.

Rhi (as Khatri): Both— all of you, the rest of the squad as well, have very much earned my thanks. Don’t know how much longer I would have been able to hold out against that thing.

Minna (as Mitali): I don’t know how long we would hold out without you to command us.

Rhi (as Khatri): Well, you may need to have that conversation. There’s not a lot of us left, and if the army falls apart on one person, not much of an army.

Minna (as Mitali): But we didn’t fall apart. We found you, we came for you, we devised a plan. We can function without you; we just don’t want to.

Rhi (as Khatri): Hmm. Well, I appreciate that.

Rhi: I’m imagining that they’re, like, in bed but propped up. Just kinda like, leans their head back.

John: I am squee-ing so hard because this is, like, really cool.

Rhi: [laughs]

John: I wanna know, do either Mitali or the Commander say anything about the memories?

Minna: I feel like this is how this comes up.

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna (as Mitali): Commander, I feel that I have to lay this on the table. I saw a few things that I don’t think you would have liked me to see.

Rhi (as Khatri): Hmph. Well, I think that went both ways.

Minna (as Mitali): Oh. I wasn’t aware.

Rhi (as Khatri): Yes.

Minna (as Mitali): Can I ask, nothing too embarrassing? There are things one doesn’t want one’s Commander to see. One wants to earn their respect.

Rhi (as Khatri): [laughs]

Rhi: Gosh, I’m trying to think. What memories do you think the Commander got of yours?

Minna: Oh boy…

John: Does it matter? You should say no. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah.

Minna: Yeah, that’s fair.

Rhi: That’s true.

John: But I love the idea that you might be lying. [laughs]

Rhi: Yeah, I think that there’s a moment of hesitation. Just, maybe Miltali picks up on it, maybe she doesn’t, but the Commander’s like:

Rhi (as Khatri): No. Nothing too terrible, and all secrets are safe with me. Don’t worry about it.

Minna (as Mitali): That’s good to hear.

Rhi (as Khatri): How are you holding up, Arun?

Kim (as Arun): Honestly, I’m fine.

[laughter]

Rhi (as Khatri): You and the squad did some work through those Gaunts. You got the makings of an officer yourself. May put you in charge of a squad next time we send you out.

Kim (as Arun): I might want to reconsider until I get a bit more field experience, with all due respect, sir, but I appreciate the compliment.

Rhi (as Khatri): [sighs] Well…

Rhi: I there anything else we wanted to cover in this? Because I feel like the Commander’s like, thank you, please leave so I can sleep, oh God my head. [laughs]

Kim: Yeah.

Minna: Aw.

Kim: Well, his head got poked.

Rhi: Yeah, yeah, I imagine this has gotta be the worst migraine imaginable.

John: Oh my God, yeah. [laughs]

Rhi: So, I think the Commander nods to each of you and is like:

Rhi (as Khatri): Thank you again, and I’ll send for Zaya in the morning. Bright and early.

[laughter]

Minna (as Mitali): Good to see you didn’t lose your sense of humor, sir.

Rhi (as Khatri): Managed not to take that.

Rhi: And I think kinda gives you the nod of, “dismissed”.

Minna: She salutes.

John: That’s fantastic. So yeah that’s basically the game. There’d be some downtime actions that happen. Downtime actions happen for the Legion as a whole, so you don’t get individual downtime actions. The Legion as a whole, particularly the Quartermaster, is the one who decides which downtime actions to pursue.

Kim: Oh.

John: Yeah. So those are the things, essentially, each of these things is slightly a different responsibility. So you would decide, do we recover? Do we, like, provide rest and recuperation for people, if they’re injured? Or do we give them liberties to blow off some steam? Do we start some long-term projects? What do we do as a Legion? And then, the Commander decides what kinds of missions that they want to pursue inside the theatre that they are operating in. So, you would say, Western Front has both Assault and Recon missions available. You would say, “I really would prefer to get Assaults” or “I would prefer to get Recons,” and then I would roll some missions, generate those, and then you’re gonna get a set of missions which is probably, like, two to three. Yeah, in that case, if you roll three you can only do two missions. Because you just don’t have the staff. The third mission you fail automatically, and that’s a bummer, but it’s also just the reality of the situation you’re in.

Rhi: Yeah.

John: And that’s basically— oh, and then the Marshal decides once you have the set of missions and the Commander has selected which mission will be primary mission, that’s the one you play through, and secondary mission, that’s the one you resolve with a fortune roll, the Marshal decides who goes on those missions. So, they staff those missions with specialists and the appropriate squad. So, any given session, you may or may not be playing the specialist that you generated at the beginning, and you may be playing a specialist that was played by someone else before.

Rhi: Oh, interesting.

John: Yeah.

Rhi: That’s cool. Alright, well that was really fun. Thank you so much for running this for us.

Kim: Yeah, thank you.

John: Yeah. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Rhi: And yeah, yeah. I’m a little bummed that this isn’t gonna be more into a campaign, because yeah, all of that you described about how the downtime works and the campaign maneuvers, that’s a very cool element to this. This was a very fun one-shot, thank you so much for running this for us.

Minna: Yeah.

Kim: Yeah.

John: Absolutely guys. Thanks for having me.

##Outro [01.26.34]

Rhi: Thanks for listening. The Magpies will return in two weeks.

The Magpies podcast is produced by Rhi, who played Zaya Alikovna. Follow me on Twitter @rhiannon42 and visit rpgskillcheck.net for copy editing and accessibility consulting for tabletop games.

Mitali Dewa was played by Minna. Follow her on Twitter @mynaminnarr.

Arun Arani was played by Kim Kogut. Follow her on Twitter @kimdianajones.

This Band of Blades one-shot was GMed by John LeBeouf-Little. Follow him on Twitter @worldnamer.

The opening and closing theme music is from ‘Trio for Piano, Violin and Viola’ by Kevin MacLeod and is used under a Creative Commons license.

Band of Blades was written by Stras Acimovic and John LeBoeuf-Little and is published by Evil Hat Productions.