Here’s the play report for our sixth session of Mythic Bastionland. If you’re just joining us, I’d recommend starting at the first session and reading forward from there. It’s all organized in a series, so it should be easy to find the posts that follow the first.
Today’s post is basically from memory, so there are probably some details missing, but I’ll do my best with what I can recall.
Last time, we ended off with our Knights at the gate of Caerwyn Town, waiting with Garmelia for their apprentice to show up. Session six began with him appearing at the gate…
… ready for squirehood. Well, sort of. I don’t know that anyone could really prepare themselves for the hazing he got from the Knights over the next few hours, and the Knights got the impression that he was sort of being fobbed off on them, since he’d wanted to be a squire since boyhood but had been turned down for the position by any and all Knights in Caerwyn Town. He was a lanky sixteen year old, carrying a bow and a dagger and riding on a pony—and possessed of a somewhat lackadaisical attitude. He did not give the impression of being a go-getter.
The characters caught a ferry across the river, and during the crossing they spoke to the old ferryman. He told them the disaster hadn’t produced so many human refugees, what with the forest being considered by many to be “cursed,” though he’d seen a few large animals float down the river since the Tree’s fall. He also mentioned having seen a strange shape—some large flying thing—pass the sun above that day.
As the Knights rode with Davith into the wilderness to seek out the Fallen Tree, they managed to confuse and worry him visibly. (The players referred to it as a “hazing”!)
Eventually, the Knights picked up a thin trail of blood and found beside it a very large footprint—a giant’s, by the looks of it, humanlike but about ten feet long from heel to toe. They figured out that the “clear” area they were traveling through had probably been “cleared” by this giant being. As they set out to follow these tracks, they discovered a giant, fifteen-foot-tall magpie perched on a giant broken branch, staring at them from a distance:
Perturbed, the Knights tried to make their way past it. Concerned that magpies like shiny things (a prophetic insight), Sir Augustine was about to wrap his gold armor-clad self in his bedroll when Sir Yorick offered him his black cloak instead. They gave the giant bird as wide a berth as possible, which amounted to about 30 feet because of how the fallen trees and branches had been cleared. Despite their precautions, the Giant Magpie called out to them: “Shiny?” It indicated Sir Augustine, as if to suggest that it wanted some piece of his armor. Sir Yorick negotiated with the bird, working out a deal where they would get information from the Magpie (answers to “questions three”) in exchange for something shiny. They asked about what called the fall of the tree—the bird didn’t know—and whether there were any other giant animals in the wrecked forest (the Magpie hadn’t seen any). However, the Magpie divulged that there was a Giant Man in the vicinity of the Tree and that he might have something to do with the Tree’s falling.
In recompense for this information, the Magpie expressed once more an interest in Sir Augustine’s armour, but Sir Yorick managed to convince it that the golden armour was full of very non-shiny meat, whereas he had something that was “shiny all the way through.” That being the pearl given to Sir Augustine by the Pearl Knight, which, unbeknownst to the player characters (but not the players) was a surveillance tool allowing the Pearl Knight to see through the bearer’s eyes. The Giant Magpie accepted the pearl in its beak and flew off, leaving the Knights to continue on their way.
A bit further down the track, they spied a figure on horseback, slumped forward:
Approaching cautiously, they discovered that the horse’s leg was caught in some branches. They freed it, watching its unconscious rider carefully. Once free, the horse bucked and threw its rider to the ground before running away. The Knights soon discovered that the rider was, as they suspected, was dead, with a horrible wound—seemingly from a fallen branch—in his back. The knights checked the figure for any identifying items or marks‚and found none—before claiming the figure’s possessions: a pouch of silver, some nasty barbed arrows, and a little food. They the group continued on its way. ETA: They did so only after Sir Yorick did his best to give the poor dead guy a burial and say some words over him before they left. (See the first comment below.)
They eventually reached what seemed like some kind of barrier of stacked broken branches and smaller trees, and found that the cleared area continued both to the west and to the east. They traveled along this “wall” to the west for some time. Eventually two sounds greeted them: from the west came the sound of flowing water, some kind of waterfall by the sounds of it. To the southwest, they heard faint cries from someone shouting for help. Being valorous Knights, they made their way southwest until the bush got too thick and jumbled for them to continue riding. They dismounted, leaving Davith to brush his pony and then the others’ horses—but leaving him without a brush with which to do the job. Sir Yorick suggested that his steed Pantano should be well-treated, as—he implied—if it were not, it would surely tell Yorick all about it on his return.
Clambering across the piled branches, the Knights found a clear area beyond, in which a few trees remained standing. Beneath one tree grunted a (normal-sized) wild boar:
… and up the tree huddled one terrified peasant, the man who had been screaming for help:
Ser Lyssa charged the boar, slashing at it savagely and seizing it by one of its tusks before it could attack. Then she, Sir Augustine, and Sir Yorick made short work of the beast, to the peasant’s extreme relief. He introduced himself as Terro from Belfin village, a small village a little north of the spot where they all stood. He had been traveling from Caerwyn Town to Belfin when the Tree fell, survived the cataclysm, but found himself lost and wandered through the night and into the morning, until the boar had chased him up a tree. Although his priority diverged from the Knights—he wanted to find Belfin Town and search for survivors, while they were seeking the Tree—Terro agreed to travel with the Knights for the sake of his safety. The Knights got busy butchering the boar, and then left the spot.
When the Knights returned to Davith, they found him confusedly “brushing” his pony with a stick, to little purpose. They had Davith help them strike camp, and then they built a fire and roasted the boar on the fire, sharing it with Davith and Terro.
Then the Knights took turns standing guard through an uneventful night, and greeted the dawn of a new day… still surrounded by the apocalyptic mess of the destroyed forest, but now sure they were close to the Tree.
And that’s where we left off. (Next time, they’ll get to the tree for sure, unless of course they decide to do something else… but I would bet they won’t do that.)