Daggerheart: Broken Lands - 5

Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed Session Zero and the journey through character creation. From here, we’re starting Session One. The majority of our time will be spent in Daggerheart, but Pettish will have a major part to play as well.

Pettish has some setup for the start of a session. All three players - Sha’nesh, Kpeshyo and Nyĩt - get a new Focus and a Life Event rolled every session. This reflects the session to session influences on the way they play. As the session progresses, the players will earn tokens and may even trigger a new Focus to be rolled.

Starting with Sha’nesh, who has an Agenda of SAFE and the player tags Turtle and Creative, I roll up their Focus and get a result of [2] + [2]: [4] – Power: A focus on directing the group, on gaining influence or manipulating others. Control. Exploit all the others.

For the Life Event I roll [1] - Tired.

Sha’nesh is coming to this session tired and with a power focus. This will be interesting when combining it with where I went in session zero for their personality.

For Kpeshyo, who is coming in with the Agenda of SELFISH and the single player tag of Romantic, I rolled a Focus of [1] + [1]: [2] - Playful. A focus on relaxing, on entertaining themselves, on pursuing pleasure or enjoying a hobby. Chill out. Who does it hurt?

To get their Life Event I rolled [5] - Elated. Something good has happened in their life.

Finally for Nyĩt, whose Agenda is HERO and tags are Invested and Kind, we get a Focus of [6] + [6]: [12] - Apathetic. I see the dice are getting the double numbers out of the way before the Daggerheart portion of play starts (in Daggerheart, doubles on the duality dice represent a critical success). Apathetic: they don’t care, or they really can’t bring themselves to care, regardless, can’t be bothered. Can’t deal.

This seems really against the energetic personality I gave them in the session zero. There is also the clash between invested and apathetic. The Life Event which may help to explain it is [6]: Victorious. It seems like the apathy is coming from distraction based on some significant win which probably took a lot out of then to achieve.

As the Focus and Life Event are transient and change from session to session (or even multiple times within a session), I’ll be giving them less importance than the agenda and player tags.

A core mechanic of Daggerheart is the “spotlight”. In a regular session, players negotiate the spotlight between them rather than using a prescriptive initiative system/turn order. The GM can claim the spotlight for their NPCs by spending a resource called “fear”.

As this is a Solo TTRPG, I need a way to decide who gets the spotlight. Don’t tell my players this, but they don’t actually exist outside of my head and the page. I’m concerned that I’ll favour certain patterns and characters. To help mitigate this, I’m going to use a Spotlight Check: (roll 1D6) to figure out where the spotlight is shining. Who acts and in what order when confronting a problem may have a significant influence on how things play out. As such the spotlight check goes:

I won't be doing spotlight checks frequently, the narrative still needs to flow and the players should be allowed to act when it's natural.

With that out of the way, I think it’s time to start Session One proper.

GM: The wind drives rain into sheets that lash across the dried-out grasslands. The earth, thirsty for moisture after more than a year of drought, sucks up the water, turning muddy. At a modest travellers inn, three figures push open the door and step inside to the warmth. The inn itself is largely empty, not many travellers out, given the weather over the last few days.

Players, why don’t you introduce yourselves, including a description.

Spotlight Check: [3] - Kpeshyo

Kpeshyo: The first person through the door is Kpeshyo. She is a large Infernis woman standing nearly seven feet tall, not including the spiked and slightly jagged horns that rise up from her forehead before arching in a backwards curl. She has dark hair that is pulled back over her shoulders. Her tail is long and ends in a leathery arrow tip.

She is dressed in a cloak, the clasp depicting her goddess. It’s pulled tight around the chain armour she’s wearing, and she has an axe and shield strapped to her back. The axe has a tinge of purple glow to it, like Kpeshyo's eyes as she looks around the inn.

GM: Cool. You have to duck slightly to get through the door.

Kpeshyo: Even then, I think her horns scrape the frame slightly.

GM: The innkeeper winces slightly as you enter. As a Sereph, you have something you need to do at the start of a session, don’t you?

Kpeshyo: Oh yeah, my Prayer Dice! [Rolls 2D3] That’s a double 3.

GM: All right. Thank you, Kpeshyo. Who’s next?

Spotlight Check [2]: Sha’nesh

Sha’nesh: Yeah, that would be me. Following behind is a Galapa with leathery dark green skin. He is about five and a half foot tall, not small by any stretch, and solid as most galapa are. He’s dressed in a quilted gambeson tunic that’s been woven to accommodate his shell, which is decorated with markings and designs, some fresh and others fading; each one painted based on the designs local to a community he's visited, done by a local artist.

As he makes for the fire, he’s already loosening the belt with his rapier and dagger strapped to it, but he keeps the lacquered wooden flute on him.

GM: Finally, Nyĩt?

Nyĩt: [looks up from something] Huh? Oh yeah, yeah. Nyĩt is the last to come in, easily flittering between the two giants she’s been travelling with. Just managing three feet in height, she is a faerie with blue-green shimmering wings. A shortbow on her back, somehow not causing issues for her wings, she moves with Sha’nesh to the fire.

Kpeshyo: As the others beeline to the fire, I look around. Who's here and what’s going on?

GM: The innkeeper is an older human woman, around five and a half foot and solid from years of hauling barrels and large cook pots around. “Afternoon,” she says, eyeing you all as you drip on her floor, and a boy in his early teens comes darting out from the kitchen to hurriedly start helping you with your things. “Let me get your gear hung up and drying. Nasty weather for travelling. I imagine you’ll want something warm.” Without waiting for your answer, she starts gathering up wooden plates and moving towards the pot near the cooking fire.

Around the establishment there are a few people looking curiously at the odd assortment of travellers that just entered. It’s clean and comfortable with two large tables with long benches to sit at, but the spaces around the tables and lack of chatter make the place feel empty. There is some more comfortable seating around the hearth and fire that Sha’nesh and Nyĩt went to. A youngish-looking faun is already there, dozing.

Kpeshyo: Anything seem amiss, should I be worried? Sha’nesh and Nyĩt seem to be completely off their guard.

GM: You don’t think so. An establishment like this wouldn’t last long if they robbed or assaulted their guests. You’re more likely to get trouble from other guests staying here, but there’s really only three or four people around. Plus you’ve all come in armed and armoured, so people would be thinking twice before messing with you.

Sha’nesh: Isn’t the place a bit quiet, though? I know the weather’s bad and you said that there’s been a drought before this storm, but this is a reasonably large establishment. I look over to the innkeeper. “Something warm would be most welcome, good woman. Normally I’d offer to play for my supper, but there doesn’t seem to be that many to entertain.”

GM (Innkeeper): [waving the offer away with a flick of her hands] Don’t fret, don’t fret. I wouldn’t be a good host if I let my guests stay cold and hungry. And it’s Chyitshaa, not ‘Good Woman’. That lanky mess over there’s my son, Paas̊h.

GM: The boy grunts as he throws the damp cloaks over a cord strung up in the barn. Then he stops, and turns back. “Mum, there’s a giant bird…”

Nyĩt: Oh, don’t worry about him. That’s just Si̊nhĩ.

GM (Chyitshaa): [She goes out to look] Oh! Well, that is a big bird… it'll have to stay in the stables. Roost? Is that what birds do?

GM: It’s right about then that the door is forcibly pushed open and two ragged looking fauns, a man and a woman, come staggering in. They're soaked, their clothing torn and the woman is bleeding. The faun that was dozing by the fire is instantly on his feet and rushing over.

GM (Resting Faun): Shůůkcha! What happened?

GM (Injured Faun): Something… a beast… out of the dark, it attacked…

[There's a pause and everyone looks over at Nyĩt]

Nyĩt: Oh, right! At the mention of a beast I guess I’m flying up and across the room to the injured faun. [looking at Shůůkcha] A beast? What sort of beast?

GM: Shůůkcha just groans and seems to be having trouble talking.

Sha’nesh: Hey, get him up on the table. Kpeshyo, you know how to heal, right?

Kpeshyo: Yeah, I’ve got Sparing Touch. Once per long rest, I can touch a creature and clear 2 Hit Points or 2 Stress from them.

GM: The two uninjured fauns get their companion up on a table. Chyitshaa is wringing her hands as mud and blood stain the wood.

Kpeshyo: I walk to the table, chanting slightly, the purple glow of my eyes growing a bit brighter.

Nyĩt: Wait a second! Is he in danger of dying immediately, or would taking a second to look at his wounds be possible? I want to see what I can find out about the creature that attacked him from the injuries.

GM: The injured faun’s companions are going to try and stop you. Meanwhile Chyitshaa is grabbing some old cloths and ripping them up. They aren’t the cleanest…

Sha’nesh: I’m going to try and hold the injured faun’s companions back to let Nyĩt investigate. “Let my friend look. She’s trying to help.” Are they going to resist me?

GM: No… they’re off balance and out of sorts, and you seem like you know what you’re doing.

Nyĩt: “Please, let me look. Do you know what the creature was?” I’m going to stand on the bench by the table and start studying the wounds.

GM (Companion Faun): No… I didn’t get a clear look at it, other than its eyes. It was on us the moment it came out of the shadows. It attacked, then it just sort of stopped… I ran at it, but it bolted.

Nyĩt: I’m only half listening as I study the injuries.

GM: This sounds like a knowledge roll.

Nyĩt: Aww, it’s not insight? I have that at +1. Knowledge is at +0

GM: No, you’re analysing the wounds, so it’ll be knowledge. This is a hard roll, there’s a lot of mess and chaos around you, so it’ll be Knowledge (20).

Nyĩt: Right, right. [Rolls 2 distinctly coloured D12s] "4 on my hope die and 1 on my fear die. 5, Fail With Hope.

GM: You aren’t able to figure out anything from the wounds, other than it does appear to have been made by some sort of beast's claws. Gain a Hope. Given the situation, there aren’t really any other consequences.

Nyĩt: I pull back, dejected, and shake my head. At least I’m up to 3 hope now!

GM: This has given Chyitshaa time to come to the table with the ripped up cloths and some water.

Kpeshyo: I quickly step in to replace Nyĩt beside the injured faun.

Sha’nesh: I place my hand on Chyitshaa’s arm. “Don’t worry. They’ll be fine. Just watch.”

Kpeshyo: I reach out, eyes closed, mouth moving as I appeal to the face of Shesré, then I place my fingers to the wound.

GM: The faun cries out in pain and then falls back, the wounds closing up under your touch. His breathing eases and he falls into a slumber. A silence falls over the common room.