LogIronsworn: The Would-Be King-Jason-2

Game log for the 2021/09/12 session of Ironsworn: The Would-Be King, as taken by Jason

Kato starts his morning praying to the Green Man, and then the group gets together to swear to retrieve the eye of Tarash-Kar. Also, Kanno fletches some fresh arrows for the upcoming fun. Kato swears the iron vow, knowing that the Green Man favors this undertaking. He has a vision of Tarash-Kar eating a small child by a tree in the mountains. Aeddon tries to summon some crows and ask how close the Black Vanguard are to finding the eye. The crows tell him that riders approach with speed. Brunhilde leads the group out of the village, hoping to keep ahead of the riders.

They come to a rocky overlook and stop for a meal, then press on, with Brunhilde leading again. They come to a stream and discover it's actually a raging torrent, quite dangerous to cross.

Brunhilde starts chopping wood, thinking to build up a temporary causeway. Aeddon helps, but he's a mediocre woodsman and fells his tree the wrong direction. What a waste of effort! Kanno shoots a line attached to an arrow, but it's not quite in line with the bridge/causeway. Lio adjusts the line of his cut and lands a log exactly where it needs to be. Kato tries to help by making tea for everyone, but everyone can tell that he's being helpful to avoid having to swing an axe, which breeds resentment. All that work gives them a log that will get them partway across the torrent, but how to get the rest of the way? Brunhilde starts tying tree limbs together to get further across. After a lot of work, she thinks she has something sturdy but light enough to carry out to the end of the log, but when she tries to deploy them, the bundle comes up short, falls in, and washes away. Aeddon goes to find a better tree for Lio to fell, and discovers too late that it's full of bees. As soon as he swings at it, poor Lio has to run for his life. He goes and finds another tree to fell. Kanno steps out to the edge of the current bridge and fires some more rope arrows, which might be good for rope walking, or could be used as guide wires for the next time someone tries to put some material in place. Kato picks up an axe and fells some more trees, but when he goes to place the wood, it starts to fall back toward him, and he has to jump in. Ow! Also, now he's rushing downstream. Luckily, he's quick-witted! He surfaces briefly in a pocket of calm water, and manages to swim across. Now he's on the other side! Brunhilde tries again to get a bundle of limbs that will span the gap, but she miscalculates again. It's getting dark, and Kato's freezing cold but can't light a fire because everything he owns is damp. The rest of them have to cross.

They cross successfully and start making camp. Aeddon creates a restorative meal. Kato partakes of the meal, and so does Brunhilde. Lio prepares for the next leg of the journey, and Kanno focuses. Unfortunately, the wood around here is pretty lousy, and the camp fire makes a lot of smoke. Anyone tracking the group has a pretty strong clue. Aeddon also makes time to bind Kato's ribs, easing his discomfort.

Kato's morning prayers are not answered. He finds himself staring at a vaguely face-like bit of moss, waiting for the Green Man to speak to him, until the group tells him to get moving. Lio does a great job of leading the group, moving them down out of the hills. They find a spot where tree branches have been formed into an arch and a small stick figure dangled from them. This is Varou sign. Best to skirt it and stay out of trouble. Brunhilde takes the lead after noon, and gets them successfully to their next camp site.

When they make camp, Kanno goes hunting. He thinks he spots the track of a small elk or a big deer and follows it. He sees it drinking from a small stream. Suddenly it looks up and bolts. Just then, he hears the howling of varou. Poor ol' Kanno's in varou ground. He legs it for camp. Wanna know why this veteran archer stopped wearing armor in combat? This is why. He's quick.

Over at camp, the group hears several howls. The varou are chasing something. Lio readies his spear. Kanno arrives out of the brush, trips over a log, and faceplants into camp, with three varou on his tail. They stop at the edge of their range, and stare menacingly at Kanno. The last varou to show up snarls, points at Kanno, and says, "These are our lands. You do not hunt here." Kanno tells them he will certainly not hunt there. Kato apologizes and asks their permission to camp here and forego any hunting. One of the varou makes another varou sign to mark their range. The big one says, "Now you cannot claim ignorance. Do not enter our territory again." The varou vanish into the undergrowth, but the humans can tell they're still being watched. Group consensus is to stay in camp. Exactly in camp.

Brunhilde leads them out the next morning, but they reach camp out of supply. The following morning, they arrive in the area where Brunhilde expects to find the cave of Tarash-Kar. There's a rocky outcropping near the cave, and a path up the hill to get above the cave. As they climb, they see the mangled remains of a horse and bits of black armor near the cave mouth. Within a day or two, the Black Vanguard will know roughly where the threat is.

Lio armors up and then begins making a threat display outside the cave, banging on his shield, while everyone else takes position uphill. An unnaturally low growl comes from the cave. Kanno lines up a shot. Lio sees the glowing Eye of Tarash-Kar coming closer, shifting blue and gren, though he can't see the beast itself. It roars and springs, from preposterously far away. Lio sets himself and takes its charge behind his shield. The beast takes the entire shield in its mouth. Kanno feathers the beast right behind its skull, though it doesn't seem to care. Brunhilde lets a sling stone fly, hitting it right on the back of its head, causing it to let go of the shield and look up the cliff. It tries to shoulder Lio out of the way as it turns, but Lio stabs it in the haunch for its pains. Tarash-Kar leaps up the overhang.

Kato scrambles away from the cave lion. Well, everyone else does too, but he's the one who slips and ends up in hand-to-hand combat with it. Aeddon tries distracting it by tossing a rock, hitting it in the eye, but it turns out that it doesn't like that, and claws Aeddon with astonishing speed. Kanno fires a rapid flurry of arrows, which Tarash-Kar likes not at all. The beast stomps Kato to the grond so hard that Kanno can hear ribs break. Kato decides to play dead. Brunhilde sends another stone its way. The beast has the measure of its tormentors now, and leaps at her. She tries to roll away as Lio arrives at their level of the cliff. He tries to distract it but it ignores him and focuses on Brunhilde. She runs to get out of the line of its charge, but that forces her to retreat out of the fight. Kato senses the odds and looks for a place to hide. Kanno tries to prepare by aiming for where the beast might return, but he gets it all wrong. Aeddon tries to bandage his wounds and then to help Kato hide. They find a plausible spot.

Lio charges into the woods. Brunhilde works her way out, up, and around, staying downwind of the jumbo cave creature. She catches Lio's eye and signals him where the monster went. He advances, catches a glimpse of it, and then the beast is upon him from his spear side, determined to avoid the shield, but Lio reverses his weapon just in time, lets Tarash-Kar's momentum impale it on the weapon, and then shoves the spear through the elder cave lion lengthwise. That will just about do it. Everyone else hears Lio scream, "Ha-HA!" Lio takes himself a trophy while Brunhilde extracts the Eye. The Eye's colors are still shifting, yellow and green, as though it's alive, even though the beast is clearly dead. They hear a horse crash through the brush, riding away.

So, the Eye. What is it? Why is it there? How does it work? Could the beast see through it? Why did people think it was a black orb with red veins? We need to find an expert, somehow, but first, we need to find a settlement where we can resupply. We decide to go to the settlement of Irondale in the Tempest Hills.

With a little help from Aeddon, Brunhilde leads the group in the right direction for a spell, but it's an uphill journey, and they're all tired, and so it's a slow and painful slog. The next leg goes just as slowly, and as the sun sets, they make camp. Brunhilde finds a sort of hilltop depression, which allows them to light a fire without the fire being seen from below. Unfortunately, it's a barren spot, with no wood to make a fire. It's a freezing night for our heroes.

In the morning, Brunhilde focuses on the sunlight, while Kato prays. When they set out, Brunhilde finds a good track, and the troop moves more quickly. They press on through the afternoon, getting steadily hungrier. Aeddon is at the limit of his health. They pass some standing stones, start to see proper mountains and cliffs, and then they come to a valley with a trail of smoke coming from it. It's Irondale! Aeddon meets Pemba, a generous and armored healer who once trained him. Amara, a stern vengeful hunter who was once part of Brunhild's tribe, has also settled in Irondale. She was a childhood friend of Telen, Brunhilde's husband, and hates Brunhilde for marrying him.