In reply to Tristan (msg # 92):

Welcome to your first gained flaw!  Which we'll talk about after this story is finished.

The crone smirks and smacks her lips, as if you were offering her a honey comb to snack on.

"Done and done!  I will now take your path.  And you...you will "do something about that guy"."

She suddenly cackles in a way that is not at all reassuring.  She stops her spinning to point at a pile of thread.

"Under there is a box.  In the box is a candle.  Take the candle to light your way.  And take this..."

Her large, warty hand uncurls, revealing a small ball of twine.

"Go back the way you came.  And then keep going.  You'll hear the sound of children weeping.  Snuff out your candle and feel along the wall on your left.  You'll feel a face and then they'll ask you who you are.  Tell them you're just a mouse who's looking for crumbs under the table.

"They'll tell you where to go.  Once you are under the table, you must sneak until you see the largest set of feet you can find.  Tie the twine around both ankles, so that they are tied together.  Then come out from under the table and yell

"Olly Olly Oxenfree!"

She picks her distaff back up.  "Then you and the children must run.  You'll see some stairs.  Climb up them and don't look back.  Anyone who looks back will not like what they see.  You should remember to tell the others that.

"Those who make it to the top of the stairs without looking back can pass through the door.  Those who don't..."

She shrugs.  Then goes back to her spinning.

He respectfully takes the ball of twine from her hand, then digs under the pile of thread for the box.  Assuming he finds it and that it does contain an unlit candle, he politely asks her how to light the candle.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:47, Sun 16 Oct 2022.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 94):

As soon as you pick up the candle, a small flame ignites at the end.

The Crone giggles and makes a shooing motion.  "Hurry now.  We'll see each other again later."

You follow her instructions.  The hallway bends to the left after a while. A long while.  And then it continues on.  And on.  You're starting to get tired when you hear it.  The sound of children crying.

You snuff out the candle and move forward, feeling along the wall.

Ahead, you can see a glow.  It starts to get brighter.  It seems you are coming to a set of stairs that descend.  At the bottom of them, there some kind of light.

As you move towards it, the wall suddenly gets squishy.

"OUCH!  Who the hell just put their dirty finger in my eye?"

The voice sounds like a man's voice, except the man's mouth must be full of brittle, autumn leaves.  There's a sort of royalred>crunch crunch</royalred> sound everytime he speaks.

“I’m just a mouse looking for crumbs under the table,” Tristan says, hoping he isn’t forgetting anything the crone told him.  And also hoping she hasn’t set him up to be eaten…

In reply to Tristan (msg # 96):

"Ha!"  The voice barks a laugh.  It's loud enough it could easily be heard by those in the room.

"If you really want to find the crumbs little mouse, you need to crawl not walk.  Kneel down and feel along the wall.  You'll feel a hole.  Crawl through that and you'll come to your crumbs.

"But mind the shoes."

You kneel and feel along the wall.  There, just a hands span away, is a large hole in the wall at floor level.  Big enough for you to crawl into.

The floor of the hole feels damp and a bit slimy.  At one point your hand comes down into something...sticky.  But, perhaps thankfully, you don't have enough light to see.

The passage way turns and suddenly you are coming out into a larger space.

You quickly realize you are under a table.  A large one, maybe one meant for ogres to sit at.  And there are large people sitting at it.  All kinds of them.

Whoever "they" are, they are all seated at the table.  Their big feet clad in well made shoes stick out into the space under the table, leaving only a narrow pathway down the middle.

On the other side, what feels like almost a mile away, you can see the other end of the table.  No one is sitting there.  You can get out that way.

By walking down between the long, long rows of shoes on each side...

So you have to walk between the shoes/feet of all the people sitting at the table.

I want an Athletics/Qik test please.  This one is a stress die so remember:

1s should be rerolled and the next result doubled.

Zeros are potential botches. If you roll a 0, reroll and hope you don't get 0 again.

Questions?

No questions… yet.  Here goes nothing.

19:42, Today: Tristan rolled 6 using 1d10-3.  Ath/qik.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:42, Thu 20 Oct 2022.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 98):

You scurry down the narrow aisie of...feet.  You stomp down on one shoe.  You can't help it.  It's the largest set of shoes under the whole table.

"Hey!" bellows a voice from above the table.  "Did someone drop crumbs?  I though I felt a mouse run across my toe!"


Other voices say no, no crumbs dropped.  You hurry forward.

You come to the end of the table.  Peeking out, you can see the stairs the Crone was taling about.  Near their base, a herd of children huddle, crying.  You can see Mallory among them.  She looks small.  Tiny.  She's one of the ones crying the hardest.

Remember what the crone told you to do.  All the hints I can give you.

Thanks

Tristan goes back until he reaches the largest pair of feet again.  Then he ties them up with his twine.

Then he yells, “OLLY OLLY OXENFREE!” As he runs to the weeping children.

When he reaches them, he urges them to run up(or is it down?) the stairs and warns them NOT to look back.  Naturally, he also conveys this by setting a good example…
This message was last edited by the player at 03:56, Sun 23 Oct 2022.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 100):

Sorry.  I somehow missed your post.

When you come shooting out from under the table, you can only see one person seated at it.  He's the man you saw in the hallway before.  The one who looks like the man with the bag, except bigger and somehow scarier.

He lurches upright and then falls over, his feet tied together.

The children all look up, staring at you in surprise.  As if the Olly Olly Oxenfree was like some kind of slap or a bucket of cold water, they seem to come to their sense.

The stairwell runs upwards.  And at a steep angle.  The children, including you and Mallory and Mary, start to surge towards it.

So I need you to roll me a social check here.

Either a Charm, Leadership, or Intrigue roll/Pre roll.  If you don't have levels in any of those skills make, you can still make the attempt.  Just remember if you make a skill roll in a skill you have no levels in (and it's a skill you can attempt untrained), you roll three extra botch dice if you botch.  And yep, this is a stress test.

Also, are you running up the stairs ahead of the group?  In the middle of the group?  Or at the end of the group?

I’m grasping Mallory’s hand while running up, if she’ll let me.  And going up the stairs as quickly as possible.  If it’s up to me, I’m either in front or the middle… but I suppose that also has something to do with how quickly the other kids react.

I have none of those skills, and also suffer a social penalty of -1.

:30, Today: Tristan rolled 4 using 1d10-1.  Unskilled leadership roll.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:31, Wed 26 Oct 2022.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 102):

Mallory seems a little surprised when you grab her hand, but she obligingly trundles along behind you.  Mary and the other children start to stumble after.

You start up the stairs...they seem much steeper than you thought they were.  At the top, you can see a light, like a lantern lit outside an open doorway.  You pull Mallory along.  You can hear the other children scrambling after you.

The stairway suddenly starts to shake.  Like it's been struck by something large.  You tremble, and you hear a couple of the others behind you shriek in fear.

Someone behind you pushes at your back. You hear Mary shout, "Keep going!"

You rush forward, about three quarters of the way up.  The light seems to be getting brighter and brighter...

The stairs shake again.  This time enough so you almost stumble.

"Hey!  He said not to look back!"

You can feel Mallory start to pull away from you a bit.  As if she was turning around...

"No!  Don't look back!"  Without turning, Tristan tugs her hand HARD.  "Do what I say or you'll DIE!"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:57, Fri 28 Oct 2022.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 104):

So one thing we haven't really touched on yet is Tristan's magic itself.

Starting on Pager 22 of the Apprentices sourbook, it talks about Turbulences.  I think that the amount of stress Tristan has suffered thus far, coupled with his reaction to Mallory's turning around warrants a check for Turbulence.  No, we're not following the rule as written.  But the moment feels like it warrants it.  And I want you to experience making a magic type roll at least.

You will need to roll a stress die+Int+4 for the aura of this place.  If your result is higher than both my die roll or Tristan's age, we got a turbulence.  I can tell you that you've already beaten my die roll which was a 3.   With Tristan being just 5, I think we're almost guaranteed a turbulance.

Go ahead and make the roll for the turbulance.  And if you want, make the roll for trying to control it described in the Apprentice sourcebook.

Questions?  Thanks

19:55, Today: Tristan rolled 4 using 1d10+1.  stress die roll.

That’s lower than my age.  Do I still need to try to control a turbulence?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:06, Sat 29 Oct 2022.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 106):

You still have the adders.  So -3 on your int and +4 for the aura.  So your total was 4+4-3 or 5.

But that ties your age, so you are good.  No turbulence.  Thus far.

You hear Mary shout something and then the weight at the end of your arms suddenly gets lighter.  Like you aren't dragging Mallory behind you but something else.

You are almost at the top of the stairs.  The light is an opening like an arch of some type.

Turning to look behind you?

Tristan refuses to look back.  He pushes forward until he reaches the light…

You push through into the light...

You find yourself somehow crawling on hard packed dirt.  The light is daylight.  A bright, sunshiney day.  You realize you are back at the camping spot where you met the bag man.  Behind you is the bag you crawled into.  You are now crawling out of it.  No sign of the Bag Man.

Mary is crawling out now.  She hits your leg to make you move aside.  The other children seem to be trying to crawl out after her.

You don't see Mallory.  That's when you realize you're holding the laces on a pair of pretty brown shoes.  The kind fancy ladies wear, though to your eye, the heels look a little scuffed.

Mary finishes crawling out and glances at the shoes. Then at you.  "Sorry.  I couldn't stop her from looking back.  But at least they can't wear her."

We are coming near the end of your first story.  It was a bit railroady and I apologize for that.  But I wanted to give you a taste of some of the die rolling and ability mechanics as well as a taste of a typical storyline.  Or at least what I think is a typical storyline.

We will be continuing of course. But we need to consult on a couple of things.

You agreed to pay the Crone with your path.  Kind of a bold choice on your part.  Here is what that is going to mean.

Below are three options.  You must chose one of them.

1) Tristan gains the No Sense of Direction flaw.  This may morph into something more serious later on in his apprenticeship.  It will definitely be a recurring theme at least.

2) You the player lose the right to chose what House Tristan will apprentice into.  I will decide it for you.

3) Tristan must take one of the two Major Story Flaws: Plagued by Supernatural Entity or Supernatural Nuisance

How the rest of this story will go may depend on which of the three you chose.  So please let me know.

Please feel free to ask any questions.  Thanks

Hey, I liked the game just fine.  Not too 'railroady'.

I'll choose doom #2, which is letting you choose my House.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 110):

You watch the children crawl out of the sack.  One girl stops, blinks in the sunlight, and then stares at the sky, breaking into a big smile.  She then turns to dust.

Some of the other children start to fall into dust as well.  A couple get up and run off, heading into the woods.

You look back from the pretty pair of shoes you are now holding and back at Mary.  She smiles gently at you.

"Thank you.  So much.  I thought I'd end up like her..."  She nods at the shoes.

"I don't know if you can get her back. But there's supposed to be a way. But I don't know what it is.  You should run away now.  I hope you live a happy life.  Goodbye."

And she turns to dust.  A wind springs up and picks the dust up, carrying it away.

So it's just you, a sack, and Mallory-who-has-turned-into-a-pair-of-shoes.

On the plus side, you get XP.  I'll give you 3 XP for this one.

Questions thus far?
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:00, Mon 31 Oct 2022.

Does Mallory fit on my feet?  And is there enough dust left for me to gather up a sample?

In reply to Tristan (msg # 112):

The shoes seem designed for a rich girl.  They're decorated with ribbon shaped into flower petals.  But you think your feet could fit into them.

You can pick up a handful of dust is you like.

Anything else you want to do here?

He considers putting the shoes on… then refrains.

Nope, I’m done.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 114):

Okay.  Let me know if you have questions about spending your XP.

I need to jigger something.  So I will post the start of the next storyline tomorrow or Thursday.

Let me know if there are questions thus far.

Thanks

Awesome.  Looking forward to the next one.

Will it take place immediately afterwards, or is there a time jump?
This message was last edited by the player at 15:02, Wed 02 Nov 2022.

In reply to Tristan (msg # 116):
The very next day.  See the new thread please.

Thanks