LogIronsworn: The Would-Be King-Jason-1

Game log for the 2021/08/29 session of Ironsworn: The Would-Be King, as taken by Jason

Play starts in the village of Duskcrag, so named because it's built on a rocky prominotory surrounded by pines. As the sun sets, the village is the last area lit. Aiden lives here, Lio and Kanno have come based on rumors of an elder cave lion, and Kato and Sabine are here because they've heard rumors of treasure nearby. It's a beautiful night, though seasonanlly chilly.

The alehouse is a cozy little cottage, though Duskcrag doesn't get a lot of visitors. Everyone's nice flagon of ale is interrupted by shouts and screams. When people go investigate, they find someone in black armor with a torch in his hand, running down the street, firing buildings. He has friends. One of the black-clad men fires an arrow at Kato, who ducks out of the way just in (bullet) time and ducks back into the alehouse. Kanno, looking out the door, strings his bow. Lio heads upstairs. Aeddon runs outside to help. Kato hides under a table. Sabine ducks behind Kanno, looking to see what's going on.

Aeddon sees people trying to escape from the house that just got fired. The man of the house takes an arrow as he watches, while the woman and children try to escape. He runs to help the poor arrowstruck fellow, and gets hit by an arrow of his own. Charity doesn't pay! The arrow hits right under his floating ribs, and that hurts like the dickens. He is, however, still able to drag the villager to safety.

One of the black-armored fellows runs over to where Kanno and Sabine are, hoping to put a hole in the bowman before he engages. Sabine tries to duck around the attacker's spear to get into knife range, and since the black-clad sucker doesn't see her knife, he doesn't react until it's too late.

Aeddon sees more marauders coming in, and tries to drag the family he's rescuing farther from the center of town. He finds a lean-to behind one of the hovels where they'd be concealed, and since it has a slate roof, they'd be safe from arson. It already contains a pig, so it's a touch crowded.

Sabine tries to stab her foe but he's quicker, hammering her leg, slicing her calf open, and knocking her dow. Kato sees this and goes running into the fray. Just then, Kanno gets his shot off, feathering the spearman's thigh.

Aeddon can't fit in the pig lean-to and goes looking for more people to help.

Kato charges in with his spear, swinging it like a club at the raider Kanno had feathered. The foe reflexively raises his spear and lets Kato run right onto it. Owie. The impact sends them both to the ground.

Kanno fires another arrow at the second soldier, who throws his axe before he can release the arrow. The axe hits him and bounces out, leaving a wound and a nasty bruise too.

Aeddon sees members of the Black Vanguard kicking in doors and kidnapping people. He decides to go after the guy kicking a door, but the marauder comes out the door as he's crossing the road, lunges, and knocks the knife out of Aeddon's hand and orders him to turn around. Aeddon throws his hands up and steps backward, and the attacker starts taking him prisoner. Many other villagers are being herded in the same direction. His friend Brunhilde is being dragged down the street by her hair.

The raider Kanno missed kicks Kato in the ribs. Kato pulls his dagger and cuts his leg as he kicks, rolling free. Sabine tries to stab the arrow-struck soldier but the raider still on his feet kicks her, and orders her to stay down.

Kanno switches to rapid fire, trying to keep the raiders back on their heels so that he, Kato, and Sabine can make a break for it and get to an alley. They're pursued but they have a chance to escape.

The raiders bring Aeddon back to the tavern just as Lio finishes donning his armor. They don't know he's there, and he can hear them giving orders to the captives. One of the intruders asks who the local leader is, and Brunhilde says she is. The apparent leader of the attackers is a big guy wearing mail with engraved bits of plate. He reaches down, grabs her by the face, and asks her where the Eye of Tarash-Kar is. She doesn't know. He asks who here will speak for this woman. Her husband says he will, and the boss slits his throat. Brunhilde screams as the boss repeats his question. Lio stomps down the stairs and yells, "Leave now or my spear will do the speaking for her!" The boss looks at Lio and orders the raiders to kill him. They exchange blows, but the heavily armored Lio shakes off the blow, skewers his foe, and moves on to the next guy. Lio forces his way into the room, trying to put himself between Aeddon and the raiders. He gets the position he wants, shaking off more wounds on the way. The stairway is clear now, and Aeddon starts rushing people to the stairs.

Kato, Sabine, and Kanno run for it, heading deeper into the settlement, looking for a place to hide. Kanno finds the perfect hiding spot as Sabine tries to hide in the same lean-to Aeddon had hidden the family, which gives away her position and theirs, and Kato blunders right into a soldier. Sabine rushes the soldier and manages to stick her knife into him, but she takes a sword blow in return. This gives the woman and children a chance to get away, so there's that anyway. The soldier goes to grab Sabine by the hair, and orders her to drop her knife. She tries to slice his hand off instead, but she misses, and he smashes her head in with his axe. Sabine dies.

Lio kills a couple more raiders and the rest decide that they're not having fun anymore. The leader of these Black Vanguard makes a weird keening screeching noise, and the rest of the troops back out. As he steps out, he promises to return, and in greater numbers. Lio follows, just to keep them honest.

Kato's attacker hears the recall screech and tries to finish him off, but Kato's sixth sense works overtime, and he falls down as the strike comes in, losing consciousness. The marauder thinks he's dead and moves on.

Lio sees that the Black Vanguard left their horses at the gate, and now they're mounting up to ride away. He finds Kato still breathing and renders first air, bringing him to consciousness. Kanno comes out of hiding. Aeddon starts healing people. Lio tells Kanno to search for supplies. Kanno finds some good stuff and piles it up. Burning thatch falls on the pile and lights it on fire. Now the supplies (and the rum) are gone.

Aeddon heals Lio and then Kanno, which means it's well after dark before the party's ready to move out. Lio helps Kato burn Sabine. Kato borrows a little of Kano's blood to try to do some fortune telling, but the runes are terrible. Kato embraces the darkness. He keeps losing people. It sucks.

Brunhilde cajoles the people into moving on, not waiting for the Black Vanguard to come back. About 20 people will become refugees on the road. Aeddon swears an iron vow to Brunhilde to see her people to the nearest settlement. She's concerned that the enemy might expect that.

Kato leads the group out, and they make decent progress until just before dawn, moving through an old growth pine forest. Around dawn they find a glade with a stream, and many of the refugees want to stop. Kato decides to make camp. Brunhilda decides to join the adventuring party. As they make camp, it starts raining, and the refugees become miserable. Lio suggests that everyone should press on.

Kato leads the hungry column out again, and the miserable group covers some ground. Aeddon takes the next stretch, and the column makes good progress. It's starting to get dark. Aeddon and the villagers go foraging and comes back with some supplies, at the expense of time. Brunhilde does some scouting ahead, and then organizes a new camp. The rain stops, someone kindles a fire, and everyone gets some rest.

Brunhilde leads the column out the next morning. Wolves pick up the group's scent, and the people hear them before seeing them. Lio armors up, and Kanno strings his bow. Lio bangs on his shield to draw attention to himself. Unfortunately, the wolves don't like the noise, and go around. The attack comes from an unexpected direction.

Brunhilde waits until the last moment to let her sling stone fly, and waits too long. The wolf leaps on her, but does only a glancing blow. Kato sends one wolf flying, but the wolf right on its tail gets past him. Aeddon runs to protect the children, and gets mauled by one of the wolves for his trouble. Kanno tries to shoot that wolf to protect him, but misses the shot, and the arrow strikes Aeddon instead. Lio goes running to a place where he can defend the refugees, though he takes some incidental scrapes and bruises along the way.

Kato lunges after the wolf that got past him, and gets between it and its intended prey. Brunhilde gets away from the wolf attacking her, punching it vigorously in the snout. Kanno manages to feather the wolf that was attacking Aeddon. Lio charges into the pack, slashing the alpha female en passant, and that convinces the pack to go the hell away.

Brunhilde heals Aeddon, which slows everyone down a bit, but gets him moving again.

The party finally arrives at the next settlement. Unfortunately, they aren't welcome there. Kanno strings his bow again while Kato, an experienced negotiator, ttries to talk the people of this settlement into letting the refugees in. They local boss, a rotund fellow with a bushy beard, is named Dugoth, and will accept them if they agree that he's their leader. Everyone must renounce their previous leader. Sounds like Brunhilde is out of a job! She tells them they'll be safe here, and she wants to go adventuring, so they should swear to Dugoth. Dugoth runs Deke's Bottom, a low-lying settlement on a river, where they dig for bog iron.

Once that's settled, Lio asks Brunhilde about the Eye of Tarash-Kar. It's a black orb with red veins running through it, and it's the right eye of the elder cave lion that inhabits this area. The party is also able to sojourn in Deke's Bottom.