The Bones of the Ironlands [Ironsworn] [Campaign Record]

[Kylia Quilor]

The Ironlands. A bleak, forebodding, ancient land seemingly growing out of the roof of the world. A land perhaps cursed, perhaps simply unlucky, littered with the ruins of civilizations that have risen and fallen, the legacy of lost magic and wicked rituals. Dark deeds were done here - you can feel it whenever you tread into the places where civilization has fled and not returned, where the wind howls just right at night, and the moon dies every month before being reborn, and in those shadows hours, the line between life and death, real and unreal blurs, like wet paint splashed with water.

It is into these lands that our forebears fled from the Zaevori. From whence we fled, why and from what, none quite remember. Every village and clan once had their own version of the story - today, scholars in places like Wolfshadow and Greencairn have tried to find some single truth, but with four hundred and fifty years since we came here, a scattered, ragged fleet of refugee peasants and hunters, escaped slaves and former serfs, truth has melded into myth as the chain of time broke us. Some believe the Zaevori were demons or beasts, others merely a different group of humans. Others say they were our masters, and we fled to escape bondage. In truth, it perhaps does not matter - the Ironlands are our home, and the Zaevori do not seem inclined to chase after us.

In this grim land, our people first formed nomadic clans and small villages, some of which eventually grew, while those who could not abide by the rules of others were cast out, becoming raiders or hermits. As we spread from the Ragged Coast to the Havens, from the Flooded Lands to the low reaches of the Veiled Mountains, our people established new villages, new tribes, and spread further. We competed not only with one another, but with the Firstborn - the original human civilization that built great structures and ruins is long since lost and gone, but the Elves of the Deep Wilds, the Varou of the Hinterlands and the Giants of the Veiled Mountains remain - some trade with us, some attack us, some refuse anything to do with us, varying by village and clan, by personal predilection. Once the Firstborn had their own great civilization in the Ironlands, though whether they rose and fell before or after the humans who built the greatest of ruins (and practiced the darkest of deeds) remains uncertain.

Amidst these ruins, and from the Firstborn, some of our people have relearned magic, an art our forebears either never knew, or lost.

After a century and a half in the Ironlands, of scattered villages and limited trade, great Trading Towns rose up, centers of population and commerce - a thousand people or more might call one of these places home. Wolfshadow is the greatest of them today, and the House of the Lightstep rules us still, two hundred and fifty years since the Lightstep's War. In the earliest days of the rise of the Towns, they would control their surrounding villages through allying with savage clans and tribes of raiders, using them as fodder to secure trade, food and power. Such benighted practices were only partially ended by the Lightstep herself, when she finally gathered her own alliance of raiders and warriors and laid siege to the city, defeating her former Mistress Irena and claiming Wolfshadow for herself by force of arms, by the justice and rightness of her cause.

Talia the Lightstep is the greatest of the Ironsworn, though outsiders to Wolfshadow may wrongly disagree, but there are numerous Ironsworn to tell tales of. Legends, Heroes, Villains, Champions and Monsters - touched by Fate, or perhaps the dying gasps of the Gods we lost when we fled the Zaevori, or the gods of the Firstborn, the Ironsworn are those who vow oaths on Iron, the Iron our soil and hills are rich in, and it is from those Oaths and Vows they draw strength, and through those Oaths and Vows that they change the world.

It is of one of those Ironsworn, a sister-by-choice of the Lightstep herself, that I will tell you the tale of now. It is a tale of revenge, of dark magics and vile cults, of ancient mysteries and

In her fury against Irena for trying to chain her, then scarring her and casting her out, The Lightstep made but two missteps - she left a raider named Vesna escape her more than once, the woman blessed by fate to fail but escape constantly, and she left the village that had taken her in after she was banished from Wolfshadow, Taron's Hollow, unguarded.

A year after the Lightstep took power in Wolfshadow, the story of Salesca of the Hollow begins.

Ah. I see you recognize the name. Some part of her legend is known to you, I take it, good people? Then please, allow me a moment with my beer, and I shall continue. For I promise you have not heard the tale of Salesca truly until you have heard it from my lips.

---

Salesca was a woman of fiery hair and fiery temper, born in the small village of Taron's Hollow, her parents - Naera and Norcis - were both dead by the time she was five, and she was left in the care of her father's older brother, Hallistar. Old Man Hallister, the legends of the Ironsworn call him - much could be said of him, but I will lave the tales of his battles against raiders, his friendships with an Elven Witch and a Varou Warmaster and his Oaths and Vows for another day, another time.

Hallistar taught Salesca to hunt, to fletch, to use her bow as an extension of herself, more than a tool or weapon. He taught her to track and to hide, and by the age of thirteen, she was already bringing ample game in for Taron's Hollow, to be shared with her fellow villages. It was at this age that the Lightstep came to the Hollow. Scarred by Irena for Talia's audacity to reject her claims to mastery over her, Talia was a dancer and a whore and little more, with no sign of what she was destined to become. But Hallistar could sense that iron spine of will that allowed her to spit in the eye of Irena Vorhesk, may her name be cursed forever, and so he took Talia in, and taught her the bow and the ways of the Wilds.

Talia and Salesca soon became as close as sisters, and as Salesca aided her uncle in teaching Talia to hunt and to shoot, Talia in turn taught Salesca to dance - not just how to entice and allure, as she had, but to use such movements to evade harm to avoid the blows of your enemies, to be as nimble on your feet as the wind itself. For five years, Talia recovered and learned and planned, but her heart burned with righteous fury at Irena, her crimes and the sins she inflicted on Wolfshadow as she seized more and more power, restricting the movement of people out of the town to her own forces and to the merchants on whose trade her wealth rested.

When the Silver Thorn Clan of Raiders began to absorb other claims and put out a call for murderers and outcasts to join them in a great devastation across the Havens, Talia saw her opening - in a masterful campaign of battle and diplomacy, wits and iron, Talia defeated the leaders of the Silver Thorn and bound them to her command -

And though she was victorious in her quest, finally putting an end to Irena's cruel rule over Wolfashadow, in the last months of the Lightstep's war, Vesna, a monstrous thorn in her side time and again, would enact her revenge against Talia for the Lightstep's actions against her own kin among the Silver Thorn - Tarons Hollow was burned to the ground and though Talia and her forces arrived in time to save the lives of many, Hallistar was dying and could not be saved. With his last words, he begged Talia to protest Salesca.

In the burning ashes of her home, Salesca sworn an Oath and Vow on Iron, cutting her hand with her knife and vowing she would avenge the destruction of Taron's Hollow by Vesna.

For many months, she would blame Talia for Vesna's crime, saying Talia had brought it on the Hollow, and though she forgave her, their bond as sisters was frayed. While in hiding, Salesca grew close with Sareta the Wayfinder, who taught her still more about journeying in the Ironlands, about the lands beyond the Havens she called home. Salesca would reconcile herself with Talia in time to be part of the final act of the Lightstep's War, and would come to life in Wolshadow with the other survivors of the Hollow.

But much as Talia's heart had burned for revenge on Irena, Salesca's burned for revenge on Vesna - Vesna had not been at that final battle at the Gates of Wolfshadow, and when word came south of a new band of raiders, the Bloody Crows plaguing the Hinterlands and Greencairn's mining camps, and that among the Bloody Crows were raiders who had fought by Vesna's side, Salesca decided she must follow this one, thin lead for her revenge. And so, she went to Talia, her sister by choice, to ask her support in setting forth. Joining her at first in this endeavor - Sareta.

In time, Salesca's journeys would take her all over the Ironlands, and she would meet figures of myth and legend, and do deeds that would change the course of history, but even the greatest of journeys begin somewhere...

And that beginning is often with a setback.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Ironsworn, for the likely many of you who do not know, is a low fantasy tabletop roleplaying game built for solo or co-op play. It was created by (and is owned by) Shawn Tomkin in 2018, and is one of my favorite indie TTRPGs (to be fair, I've only played a comparatively small number of indie TTRPGs, but I've read the rules of more, and Ironsworn was the first to really grab me.) For those who end up being interested, the core rules of Ironsworn can be obtained, for free along with a pdf of the Asset Cards, from this website. There are also options to obtain print copies (for money) as well as buy the Ironsworn: Delve expansion, or the Sci-Fi game Ironsworn: Starforged, which uses the same basic concepts but for stories set in space.

It takes great inspiration from the Powered-by-The Apocalypse game system, with inspirations from other systems.

The basic mechanic of the game is the Action Die and the Challenge Dice. If you wish to perform a Move - such as Secure an Advantage or Strike or Forge a Bond you roll the Action Die - a six sided die -and add any relevant modifiers (This is called your Action Score) and the Challenge Dice - two ten sided dice. The objective is for your Action Score to be greater than the numbers showing on your Challenge Die.

If your Action Score is say, 6, and you rolled a 5 and a 2 on the Challenge Die, then you get a Strong Hit. This, in Improv Terms could be defined as 'yes and' - you succeed and you get something more, often.

If you had an Action Score of 6, but rolled a 5 and a 7, for instance, then you get a Weak Hit. In Improv terms you could call this 'yes but'. You succeeded, but at a cost, or in a lesser way, or with a complication.

If your Action Score was 6, but you rolled a 7 and a 9, then you have a Miss. This can just mean you failed, but it often - in order to keep the narrative flowing, works out to the Improv 'No, And'. Not only did you fail at your task, but some new complication or problem arises.

The test of each Move will provide some guidance on how to translate these results both mechanically and narratively, but wide latitude is left to the player(s). Using previous information, the outcomes of their moves and their own imagination, players turn their rolls into an ongoing story. When stuck or when seeking additional information, they may Ask the Oracle - that is, roll two ten sided dice and have one be the 'tens' column and one be the 'ones' column (with double tens being 100) and then consult assorted tables to get information. The various Oracle Tables can cover be as simple as rolling an Action and a Theme as inspiration, to determining the motivations and 'roles' of a character, plot twists, types of locations and more. You can also ask the Oracle a Yes or No question, and set the likelihood of a Yes based on the context and go from there.

Every Character has five stats - Edge, Heart, Iron, Shadow and Wits. When you roll your Action Die, you add one of these and any bonuses from your Assets, and that is how you know your Action Score.

Edge, put succinctly, is the stat you use for anything involving quickness, agility or ranged combat. You might use this when trying to Face Danger to dodge an attack or escape a trap, or when you Strike by shooting your bow at an approaching enemy.

Heart is courage, empathy, willpower, sociability and so forth. You might use this to Compel someone by appealing to their emotions or to try and convince them you are correct, or when you wish to Forge a Bond with a person or community with whom you have grown close.

Iron is your strength, your endurance, your aggressiveness. You use this when you Clash in melee, or when you chose to Face Danger head on - by blocking an attack with a shield, or by simply being too rooted to the ground for an onrushing enemy to knock over.

Shadow is your ability to lie, to deceive, to be stealthy. You could use this to Enter the Fray from stealth, or to Compel with lies and deceit.

Wits is more or less what it says on the tin, serving as your ability to think on your feet, your knowledge, your expertise. You use this when you Resupply - perhaps by tracking small animals to hunt, or to barter with someone in a village - or when you Undertake a Journey to make sure you can safely cross the distance and reach your destination.

Every player also has four Tracks - Spirit, Health, Supply and Momentum. All except Momentum go from 5 to 0.

Health is... your health. Your current physical condition and stamina. Whenever a situation may require you to Endure Harm, it is this track that is reduced. When you Endure Harm when your Health is at 0, you are at risk of dying or suffering a debilitating injury.

Spirit is your mental state. Your ability to deal with exhaustion, isolation, or awful horrors. It may be reduced in any situation where you face despair or mental shock, forcing you to Endure Stress. When your Spirit is 0 and you Endure Stress, you risk your sanity in one form or another, and could break entirely.

Supply is a catch-all for the general gear your character might have - food, camping supplies, spare arrows, coins or small valuables you might use to barter with, et cetera. It is deliberately left as a general number to represent a floating thing - it is assumed your character is often hunting or gathering along the way as they travel where possible, so your supply only goes down if you fail to do so, or if something causes you to lose some of your supplies or the like. If your supply is 0, you will be Out of Supply and will start to suffer -health and -spirit or -momentum as appropriate.

Momentum is perhaps the most interesting track in Ironsworn. Momentum starts at 2 for most players, and it represents how well your character is doing. Have they been taking L after L, constantly on the back foot, or have they been going from strength to strength? The outcomes of various Moves, as well as certain Assets, will dictate when and how you add or subtract momentum, but loosely - when things go well, you gain momentum, when things go poorly, you lose it. Momentum's primary use is to be burned. When you Burn Momentum you may cancel any Challenge Dice that is lower than whatever your momentum currently is. Then your momentum goes back to its reset number - usually 2 for most players.

For Example.

My momentum is 10. My character has been doing well of late. I decide to try to Compel a raider and convince him I've come to join his band. Since I'm lying, I roll +shadow, which is 2. I roll the Action Die, get a 4, add 2, and my Action Score is 6. Respectable. But I roll a 7 and 8 on the Challenge Dice. That is a Miss. Now I could eat the Miss, and suffer the consequences, but I decide to Burn Momentum - in doing so, I can cancel out the 7 and the 8, and immediately I get a Strong Hit. The raider buys my lie hook line and sinker and lets me into their fortified camp so I can talk to their leader.

If my Challenge Dice had come up with a 7 and a 10, then I would only be able to cancel out the 7 - 10 is not lower than 10, after all. That would give me a Weak Hit, still better than a Miss, but perhaps I decide it's not worth Burning Momentum in that scenario, or perhaps I don't.

Every Player has Assets - Assets are cards that represent mechanical and narrative benefits. They can be Companions, like a tamed Hawk, a Path, like Herbalist, or a Combat Talent, like Archer. They can also be a Ritual, like Communion.

Now, to be clear, just because you don't have Archer or Herbalist doesn't mean you can't shoot a bow, or can't gather and use herbs. It just means there's no mechanical benefit and it's not something your character necessarily focuses on.

Each Asset Card has three items or features. When you first buy (with experience points) or start with an Asset, you have the first one. You can spend more experience points to upgrade an asset to get at the additional features.

Take for example, the asset Herbalist:

1. When you attempt to Heal using herbal remedies, and you have at least +1 supply, choose one (decide before rolling). Add +2. OR On a hit, take or give an additional +1 health.

2. When you Heal a companion, ally, or other character, and score a hit, take +1 spirit or +1 momentum.

3. When you Make Camp and choose the option to partake, you can create a restorative meal. If you do, you and your companions take +1 health. Any allies who choose to partake also take +1 health, and do not suffer -supply.

If you start with Herbalist or when you first buy it, you'll only have feature #1 - so it makes using the Heal skill easier or better. As you upgrade it, you'll have additional mechanisms that will give you more additional tools to improve your character's journey. Every asset has options like that.

(For the purposes of the game mechanics 'Ally' means a fellow player in Co-op mode, while 'Companion' represents an NPC on your side, whether they're represented by a Companion Asset or not)

The last things to discuss are Vows and Progress Tracks.

Vows are the mechanism by which you gain experience points. You can think of them as 'Quests'. Vows can be sworn to yourself, to another person, to a god or entity, etc. When you swear a vow, you decide what the specific task or goal is, phrased simply, such as 'I will find my tribe's stolen totem', and the relative difficulty of the task - Troublesome, Dangerous, Formidable, Extreme and Epic.

The difficulty represents both how rewarding it will be - completing a troublesome vow will give you 1 experience, while completing an Epic Vow gives you 5 - and how... well, hard it is. The higher the Challenge Rank of the Vow, the more steps you need to advance the Progress Track.

A Progress Track - which represents a combat, a journey, a vow or any other multistage task is a range of 0 to 10 (the base rulebook represents these with 10 boxes and ticks, four ticks filling a box, but for this medium, a raw numerical representation is easier to present). Whenever you advance your Track, either by hurting your enemy in a battle, or reaching a milestone on your vow, or reach a waypoint in your journey, etc, you progress based on it's Rank.

Any time you progress a Troublesome Track, your Track goes up by 3. For a Dangerous Track, it goes up 2. Formidable, up by 1, Extreme, by .5 and Epic, by .25.

A general advice for players is that you shouldn't attempt to 'Complete' a given Track before reaching at least 6. So that means for a Troublesome Track, you need to progress it at least twice, and for an Epic, at least 24 times. So the Challenge Rank you pick also represents how much narrative space you really want a given Vow or Journey or Combat to take.

The Challenge Rank can also represent how much damage an enemy might do to you when you Endure Harm or Endure Stress, etc. 1 Damage for a Troublesome Enemy, 5 for an Epic Enemy. Epic Combats are thus very deadly if you're not lucky, and something you may need to run from and come back to - thankfully Epic Enemies for are things like Krakens and Dragons, rare and legendary creatures.

Click to shrink...

When you want to try to complete a Track with a move like End the Fight or Reach your Destination or Fulfill Your Vow you roll your two Challenge Dice, and have the number of your Progress Track serve as your 'Action Score', and get a Strong Hit, Weak Hit or Miss and follow the narrative and the rules of the Move accordingly. So while 6 is a generally accepted minimum, there are advantages to going higher. This can lead to some tricky stuff like - if you roll a Miss on Reach Your Destination, how did you fail to do that? If you sliced and diced that bear that attacked you, why did End the Fight miss?

The key to remember is that a Miss is more nuanced than just 'failure'. Perhaps you did reach the village you wanted to reach (or perhaps you were just way off base), but the village was destroyed, or abandoned or the thing you wanted there just... isn't there. In a battle, perhaps the Bear gets away, wounded but alive, or perhaps that thief you were hunting is now dead, and you had hoped to take him alive so he could tell you where he hid what he stole.

When it comes to rolling against your Progress Track, Momentum cannot be burned, and the ill effects of negative Momentum (to be discussed later) do not apply.

As I post installments of the story as I play the game, I will stop and explain more rules as I go, as while Ironsworn isn't the most complicated game, it isn't a simple 'here's all you need to know in five minutes' game either.

If you want to see a really well done live play if Ironsworn, I highly recommend Me Myself and Die Season 2, where professional voice actor Trevor Devall plays Ironsworn and chronicles the journey of Arn Kalapunki to fulfil a vow he made long ago, and face down a threat his forebears fought long ago.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Salesca of the Hollow is the 'Player Character' for this story. A girl raised by her Ironsworn Uncle and then forging a close bond with Talia the Lightstep, who would go on to be an Ironsworn herself, and whose quest for vengeance would destroy her home of Taron's Hollow, Salesca is a girl of 18 years, with fiery red hair, a temper, and a legacy she feels the need to live up to. She burns for revenge, and also hopes to one day make a name for herself like that of her uncle Hallistar, or Talia herself, as one who aids others and makes the Ironlands safer for all those of good will.

When you create a character in Ironsworn, you assign your stats - one stat gets a 3, two get a 2, and two get a 1. Salesca, with her focus on archery and dance, puts 3 into Edge. Trained to track and to hunt stealthily, Shadow and Wits get the 2s, leaving the 1s for Heart and Iron. She is not especially physically strong or enduring (though she's no weakling) and she's not great with people, in part because she lets her temper and sense of righteousness get in the way.

Options exist to have a different spread of stats than 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, if you wish to make your character's life harder or easier, but I went with the default here.

Click to shrink...

For Assets, you get three to start, and she has Archer, Fletcher, and Dancer. As of beginning posting the 'chapters' of this actual play, she's upgraded the Dancer Asset once, so I'll include that on her 'sheet' below as well, but she won't have that second Dancer feature in the early 'chapters'.

Every new character has 3 starting Bonds. Salesca has four now, as of posting. Her starting three, however, were Talia the Lightstep, Sareta the Wayfinder and The Survivors of Taron's Hollow.

Bonds represent people or communities with whom your character has forged a relationship with. When you have a Bond with someone or a group, rolls interacting with that person or community will usually get a +1. Bonds are created with the Forge a Bond move. Every bond you have also gives you .25 on your Bonds Track (was with other Progress Tracks, this is represented with Ticks and Boxes in the actual Rules), which is used for the Write Your Epilogue move, which you can determine how your character's story ends when they 'retire' or 'step back'.

An optional rule I have seen discussed by players is how, given that a Bonds Track is effectively an Epic Track, if you want, you can reduce the 'Challenge Rank' of your Bonds Track to make it easier to eventually Write Your Epilogue, if you'd rather not have to forge 24 Bonds just to get to six, let alone 40 to get to 10. For this campaign, I have decided to effectively treat my Bonds Track as an 'Extreme' Track, and thus my Bonds Track will advance at .5 with every Bond, rather than .25)

Click to shrink...

Health, Supply, and Spirit all normally start at 5. If you started with the 'Battle-Scarred' Asset, you could have your starting/max health reduced to 5, but Salesca does not have that. Her Momentum starts at 2, and it refreshes at 2 when she Burns it.

Every character starts with at least one Vow, up to two. A 'Background Vow' and an Initial Vow. A Background Vow is essentially your 'Main Quest'. It's a vow that defines what your character is ultimately aiming to do. It's going to generally shape the main course of their story. Then you can also have an Initial Bow. Sort of a 'what your character is going to do first'. Their initial problem. The first thing they're going to address.

A character's story does not have to end when they complete their Background Vow. Maybe it opens up more story to tell, or you just want to keep going, but many players will end a campaign/story when their character fulfills their Background Vow.

Your background/Initial Vows do not need the Move Swear and Iron Vow to be made and rolled.

I didn't give Salesca an Initial Vow, but I did give her a Background Vow: "Avenge the Destruction of Taron's Hollow By Vesna." I set it at Formidable - a little low for a Background Vow, but in the loose idea I have for this campaign, I have notions for possible stories past resolving the Vesna issue.

In general especially for Background Vows or other 'high value' vows, it's good to somewhat open-ended, so you can have some flexibility on what counts as fulfilling and what counts as a milestone - you don't know how the Oracle, etc will shape what happens to your character, and so while 'Kill X' is a fine vow, if you kill the character with only two milestones marked because you ran into them earlier than you thought you would due to unlucky (or very lucky) dice rolls, you might find yourself in a poor position when it comes to rolling to Fulfill Your Vow.

When it comes to equipment, there isn't really much to it. Equipment is largely kept vague and encompassed with 'Supply'. It can be fairly assumed your character has some kind of weapon or weapons - but the baseline Ironsworn setting has a generally 'Dark Age' tech level, so if you're in something like the 'standard' Ironlands, work with that.

Salesca begins with a Bow (and a Quiver and Arrows), a Dagger, A travel Cloak, Basic Clothing, and Quilted Armor. She's added a few other items that are reflected on her sheet now, as of posting these first chapters.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Edge: 3
Heart: 1
Iron: 1
Shadow: 2
Wits: 2

Bonds: Talia The Lightstep, Sareta the Wayfinder, the Survivors of Taron's Hollow, Namba's Hall
Bonds Track: 2/10

Health: 5/5
Spirit: 4/5
Supply: 4/5
Momentum: 2/10
Momentum Reset: 2
Failure Track: 5/10

Equipment: Bow, Dagger, Quilted Armor, Quiver & Arrows, Basic Clothing, Cloak, Onyx Wolf Statuette (Artifact), The Bloodstained Heart (Artifact), Strange Coded Cultist Map

Active Vows:
Avenge the Destruction of Taron's Hollow By Vesna: 2/10

Assets:

Archer: If you wield a bow...

• When you Secure an Advantageby taking a moment to aim, choose your approach and add +1.
  • Trust your instincts: Roll +wits, and take +2 momentum on a strong hit.
  • Line up your shot: Roll +edge, and take +1 momentum on a hit.

Fletcher:

• When you Secure an Advantage by crafting arrows of fine quality, add +1. Then, take +1 supply or +1 momentum on a hit.

Dancer:

• When you Secure an Advantage +edge by dancing for an audience, add +1 and take +2 momentum on a hit. On a strong hit, also add +2 (one time only) if you make a move to interact with someone in the audience.
• When you Face Danger +edge in a fight by nimbly avoiding your foe's attacks, add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Ironsworn
Talia the Lightstep, Ruler of Wolfshadow, Former Prostitute
Sareta the Wayfinder, Caravan Guide
Old Man Hallistar, Salesca's Uncle, deceased

In Wolfshadow
Jaxyn, a Survivor of Taron's Hollow, a Hunter

Companions of Indirra
Indirra, a Merchant
Kaberra, a Scholar
Eder, a Scout
Resaa, a Hunter
Vukro, a Varou Sworn Guardian

The Bloody Crows
Black Maevis, a Witch and a leader of the Crows, a former companion of Vesna
Regol the Red, her Husband and a leader of the Crows, a former companion of Vesna

Children of the Tainted Scholar
Forinia, a Cultist leader (Dead)

Other
Vesna, a Raider, the object of Salesca's vengeance
Irsia, leader of a nomadic band
Jartr, leader of Namba's Hall
Settlements
Wolfshadow, a trade-town in the Havens, recovering from war
Kharzu, a trade-town in the Flooded Lands, constantly short of iron
Greencairn, a trade town in the Hinterlands, commands many outlying iron mines
Taron's Hollow, a small village near Wolfshadow, now destroyed
Namba's Hall, a small village in the Havens, often beset by raiders, holds Mareila in great esteem
Elderbrook, a small village along the 'main road' between Greencairn and Wolfshadow
Stormrest, a small village on the Ragged Coast, where Sareta though Indirra died

Other Sites of Interest
Witch's Creek, a ruined tower near a small creek not far from Wolfshadow, believed by some to be cursed or haunted
Vidarna's Watch, a watchpost of the Jemshida Tribe of elves, along the border between the Deep Wilds and the Hinterlands
Warrens of Thyri, an extensive natural cave network that has housed dozens of groups over the centuries, presently held by the Bloody Crows raider band.
Den of Bloodstained Prophecy, the underground remnants of an ancient structure built by the ancient humans of the Ironlands, occupied by the Children of the Tainted Scholar until recently
Jartr's Ford, a natural ford across a river not far from Namba's Hall

Gods and Heroes
Haevaris, Elven god of the hunt, luck, opportunities, ambition.
Crodus, Old World Hero who gave his life to defend a shipment of food during the early days of the Zaevori war. Now worshipped or honored as a patron of trade and protection.
Mareila, Old World God, of agriculture and cities. Honored and remembered as a patron of settlements, farming and so forth.
Jasseira, Old World Goddess, of justice, revenge and punishment.
Kolbaeri, Elven goddes of death, the dead, funerals, graves
Croyla, Legendary heroine of the Old World. Faced down horrible monsters and powerful magi

 

[Kylia Quilor]

"I am not letting you do this, Salesca!" Talia, even now that she was ruler of Wolfshadow, didn't usually raise her voice, even with enemies, but she especially didn't with her friends. And yet... Salesca stiffened, swallowing as she tried to fight the urge to shout back. To remind Talia that the whole reason Salesca even wanted to do this, needed to find Vesna and kill her for what she did was because of Talia's own failures.

Because it's not that simple and you know it. And yet, Talia was trying to stop her from -

From cleaning up her mess.

"I'm sorry, Talia, but I thought part of your wonderful new order here in Wolfshadow was that people were allowed to come and go as they wanted. Go, especially." The old families had been more than willing to force people to stay in the town, when it suited them. Talia had tried to undo their restrictive laws, though she could only do so much without risking the entire town...

"Don't take that sarcastic tone with me, Salesca," Talia growled. "You know exactly what I mean. You are my respon-"

Talia the Lightstep
​

"You're not my mother, Talia, and if you don't let me do this, you won't even be my sister!" Salesca interrupted, hating the words even as they left her mouth, hating them even more as Talia flinched - Talia, the Lightstep herself! - flinched. I - she immediately opened her mouth to take back the words, but she found herself without any words to actually...

"...you..." Talia closed her eyes and looked away. "I thought you didn't - I... I thought you'd... how many times do I need to apologize, for not realizing what Irena would do, what Vesna would do, for not getting there in time?!" Salesca heard Talia inhale sharply, but it was too much of a sniffle for her to think that she wasn't tearing up.

"You don't - I - I'm not -" Salesca started, then inhaled. "Talia you -" She inhaled again, closing her eyes as she centered herself a moment. "I don't feel that way anymore, Talia." Salesca promised. "I... I shouldn't have said it like that, that's not what I -" She inhaled again.

"The Bloody Crows need to be brought to justice. You know that. For what they did, to Hallistar, to Taron's Hollow." Talia nodded slowly. "You can't do it. You can't leave Wolfshadow. Not while so many of your forces are ex-raiders. And you can't take too many with you. Not without some of the other towns getting ideas. or the remaining members of the old families."

(Move: Secure an Advantage using +Wits (2) to logic and reason Talia into starting see her POV on this. Weak Hit. +1 Momentum)

"She does have a point," Sareta cut in from where she'd been watching, arms crossed in front of her, "When I went to Kharzu with the last caravan... there's a lot of talk in the taverns, about how weak Wolfshadow is. That it's a sign from Haevaris-"

Sareta the Wayfinder​

Talia hesitated for a moment, then scoffed. "They hardly have any respect for Haevaris in Kharzu, Sareta. You know that. I'm not - I'm not worried about Kharzu. They don't have enough iron to equip their own force, and if they tried it, It would take them too long to muster together enough raiders to be a threat, even if I sent some of my men after the Bloody Crows."

"Talia - please. I know you promised my Uncle to keep me safe, but you know - you know you can't spare the men. You can't spare yourself. Not for somewhere as far away as the Warrens of Thyri. Not all the way out into the Hinterlands! And I - I need to do this."

(Move: Compel using +Heart and +1 for Bond with Talia. (2) Miss.)
(1 tick on Failure Track)

The Failure Track is an optional rule from the Ironsworn: Devle expansion. It creates an additional track you can fill every time you roll a Miss. You add .25 (for a normal move) or .5 (for a progress move) and when you feel like your failure track is full enough - minimum of 6 is a rule in this case, rather than a general precept - you can make a Progress Roll against your Failure Track and see if you Learn From Your Failures, which will give you experience points if you are successful.

Click to shrink...

Talia stared at her a moment, then shook her head. "Salesca, you're not ready for this. You're right, I can't stop you from doing something so stupid, but maybe you'll rethink it if I don't let you take arrows from the armory, or food from the pantries, for a journey that long. Hm?"

Salesca stiffened again, heart rising in her throat a little. She'd... she'd been rather expecting she'd be able to do that. She had what she needed to make arrows, and she could always hunt for her food along the way, or forage, but - she'd rather been expecting, counting on -

I can manage. I'll just trade for what I need.

"Fine. You can do what you want. I'll manage on my own." Salesca turned, trying to blink back hot tears. Why does she - why can't she just believe in me!?

(Move: Pay the Price. -2 Supply as Salesca will have to barter and trade for the food she'll need for the journey ahead.)

Salesca stormed out of Talia's private room, out into the meeting hall where she 'held court', out of the manor that had once belonged to Irena Vorhesk. Out onto the streets of the town. Busy and bustling, as people went about their business, shopkeepers and merchants dickered and bartered, townsfolk and visitors buying and selling - the Wardens on the streets, the Wolf's Head symbol of Wolfshadow painted onto their armor or shields...

Two of Talia's ex-raiders, her personal forces, stood guard outside her home, their shields emblazoned with Talia's personal seal, a Notched Bow, angling upwards.

Does she think she can just send these kinds of people so far away, and expect them to obey, to come back? Some, perhaps. Talia was inspiring, and she'd convinced many of the raiders she brought to her side, but - still. Many of them only behaved out of fear of her.

"Salesca!" Sareta's voice called out behind her as she turned down an alley, cramped in between buildings. Salesca turned, wiping away her tears rapidly, as if Sareta hadn't been in the room, hadn't seen -

"Leave me alone," Saleaca muttered, bitterly. "I don't need to hear you defend Talia-"

"I wasn't planning on it. She's being an idiot. At least... a bit." Sareta's words drew Salesca up short, and swallowed.
"So you - you do think I'm up for this?" It would be nice to know that Sareta didn't think she was still a fucking child. Well, she can't think that, not after we shared bedrolls while in hiding and-

Salesca forced herself to banish that. It was just two people, desperate for connection in a trying time. Sareta didn't return her feelings, and... and Salesca... she couldn't afford to let feelings like that, this... childish crush, distract her.

"I think you deserve the chance to prove that you are, yes." Sareta answered, which... wasn't quite a yes, but...

At least she respects my right to make mistakes. It was a low hurdle to clear, but one that Talia, her sister in all but blood, seemed to fail at.

"That wasn't a 'yes, you can handle this'," Salesca pointed out.

"Well, no one really knows what they can handle until they try. Talia nearly died that first outing, against the Silver Thorn." Sareta reminded her. Salesca looked away, flashing back to that. The sight of Talia, staggering into the village, half-dead, a bandage soaked with blood on her side, pale, weak. It had taken a week for her to recover, and that was with the best poultices of their medicine woman. And even then, Talia shouldn't have gone out so soon, but she had. The Silver Thorn, closing in.

"Gods, my first solo wayfinding, I nearly drowned a few miles into the Flooded Lands," Sareta chuckled, rubbing one hand on the back of her head.

"I remember," Salesca murmured, unable to stop a smile on her face, recalling the way Sareta had told her that story. So distracted by where she was going, she'd forgotten to watch her own feet, and hit the sinking mud. It was easy to see, if you were paying attention. And Sareta hadn't.

"You're good with a bow. Great even. Probably as good as Talia was, when she started her little crusade." Sareta pointed out, and Salesca bit back the 'I'm even better' that she wanted to retort with, because it probably wasn't true.

Probably.

"But you're proposing to travel all the way to the Hinterlands, and then take on a rising raider clan, all on the slim chance you can find something useful about Vesna's location. If that stone bitch is even still alive."

"She's not dead." Salesca said, flatly. Vesna couldn't be. No one was allowed to kill her. No one was allowed to avenge the Burning of Taron's Hollow, but her.

"...You just know that?"

"I do." Salesca - she knew. Because it had to be so. Jasseira may have died, like all the other old gods had, at the hands of the Zaevori, or their gods, as the old stories said, but the justice she'd ruled over had not. There was justice in the world - the fact that she was standing here, in Wolfshadow at all, proved it.

"Vesna survived Talia four times. No one else came close."

"And yet," Sara countered, "You propose to do better."

"Most of those times, Talia wasn't out for blood. And Vesna was. Vesna doesn't know me, she won't recognize me. She won't know I'm coming. And she won't be fighting for revenge." Salesca gestured around them. "Revenge is a powerful force. It's what kept Talia alive long enough to be here, to replace Irena, to succeed where she failed." Sareta already believed she deserved this chance, so why - why was Salesca wasting her breath, hunting a dead deer?

Because you want Sareta's approval as much as you want Talia's.... more, in some ways. And...

"Okay. So fine. I'll grant you. You're as stubborn as Talia is, and you're right about what a thirst for revenge can do for you. Sure seems like Haevaris watches over you both, sometimes. But getting to the Warrens of Thyri is going to take more than just being damn good with a bow."
"Are you questioning how well you've taught me?" Uncle Hallistar and Talia had taught her the bow, and dance, and how to hunt, and stalk the grass and trees of the Havens. But it had been Sareta who had taught her how to blaze a trail across unfamiliar ground. How to find forage, and set a camp safely, far from home. "You taught me all I needed to know, about such travel. The Hinterlands are hardly the Veiled Mountains. You taught me how to find a good place to set my tent, how to find signs of a bear or wolf nearby, and avoid them. How to trap small animals. How to know what berries I can eat, which ones to avoid. And how to orient myself to my destination." She ticked off each item on her fingers. "I learned from the best."

(Move: Secure an Advantage using +Wits (2) to convince Sareta that she taught Salesca well enough to make this journey. Weak Hit. +1 Momentum)

"You were an excellent student," Sareta agreed with a laugh. "Always attentive, dutiful and eager." she grinned. "...you know Talia just wants to keep you safe."

"This is the Ironlands. There is no 'safe'," Salesca offered back, rolling her eyes. Then -

It's not that I couldn't without her, but -

"You know, it occurs to me," Salesca said slowly, "That I'd probably have an easier time of it, and Talia would have more peace of mind if you came with me. I could do it myself, but you have travelled this path, gone to the Hinterlands many times..."

(Move: Compel using +Heart and +1 for Bond with Sareta. (2) Weak Hit.)
Sareta inhaled sharply, then bit her lip a moment. "...you would have an easier time of it, yeah. But," Salesca tensed, knowing what was coming, the rejection -

"But," Sareta repeated. "I can't just go off to the Hinterlands yet. I have something I need to do, first, here in the Havens. On the other hand... you could help me with it." Salesca felt her shoulders suddenly sag. That - that wasn't what she -

Salesca hadn't expected that.

"What? Name it." Salesca said, quickly, before Sareta changed her mind.

"Well, you know how hard it is to get through the Deep Wilds, especially with a caravan. It's so overgrown, and the elves are... well, the elves." Sarea started, and Salesca nodded. The Ragged Coast and the Barrier Isands were good fishing grounds, and people in Wolfshadow paid well for fish, even if it had to be heavily salted or smoked to still be edible by the time it got to them. But coming overland through the Deep Wilds was nearly impossible - and you could sail a ship around, but with as far inland as Wolfshadow was...

"Well, you don't wayfind as long as I have without getting to know a few elves. One of them... a well, let's call him a friend. Vidarna. His tribe live on the fringes of the Deep Wild, and there's a clear path through the Wilds that starts on their lands. Vidarna sent a hawk with a message for me, a week ago. I'd talked to him about it before, but now, he says his tribal elder is willing to hear me out, next time I visit. Might not be for a bit, but... it's a start."

Salesca grinned, "That's amazing news, though! Just think, if you could blaze a clear, and regular path for caravans through the Wilds-" Then she frowned, processing everything she just, "...what could I do to help?"

"Vidarna's tribe prize boar tusks. They consider them good luck charms. I figure, a few boar tusks might be just what I need as a gift, to get the elder in a good mood..." Sareta suggested.

So help Sareta kill a boar or two, and get the tusks, and she helps me get to the Warrens...


"Deal." Salesca said, quickly, reaching under her shirt and gripping her Uncle's Iron Amulet in her hand. "I swear on Iron that I'll help you get the boar tusks you need to gift Vidarna's elder."

(Move: Swear an Iron Vow. +Heart, +1 for bond with Sareta. (2) Burn Momentum to turn Miss into Weak Hit. +1 Momentum)
(New Iron Vow: Help Sareta get gift-worthy Boar Tusks. Troublesome Rank.)

Sareta burst out laughing, and Salesca flet her cheeks warm,

"Salesca, Gods, you didn't need to - sometimes you and Talia..." She giggled, "So dramatic, both of you!" She covered her mouth a moment, then got herself under control. "Sorry. I shoudln't have laughed, I just... thank you." She let out a breath. "I'm decent with a bow, but boars... they're something else." She shook her head, "I wouldn't want to take one on on my own."

"Well, then it's good I'm here to help you. Of course... boars aren't exactly thick on the ground in this part of the Havens..." Salesca didn't really like the idea of going too far out of her way to find a boar, but she had just made an Iron Vow. Even if Sareta didn't take it seriously, in the same way...

Well, no, she did, but - well, like she said, I didn't have to. But I did.

"I've heard about some possibilities. I'll ask around. You can do the same."

"True..." Salesca considered. "Jaxyn and his band came back yesterday. If anyone knows if there's a boar anywhere for miles... it would be him." Jaxyn wasn't the easiest of people to talk to. Guarded, and prone to hiding what he really thought. Still, he was good with a spear, and a reliable enough man, especially with his inner circle. She'd considered him one of the best of the men avaialble, in Taron's Hollow, when it came to thinking about who she might have to lay with to have children. That had been the expectation for every woman in the village, eventually. The obligation for a new generation.

Not something I need to worry about now.

Still, a good place to start.

"Good. You talk to Jaxyn, I'll talk to some of the people I know, we'll meet at the West Gate?"

"Sounds like a plan." Salesca agreed, then, before she could stop herself, leaned forward and hugged Sareta tight. "Thank you."

"No, thank you." Sareta countered, returning the hug, before they seperated. Sareta turning back away, onto the main road, while Salesca continued down the alley. Jaxyn and his fellows liked to drink at the Drowned Rat, on the north end of Wolfshadow. She'd start there. Maybe stop and purchase some supplies on the way, too.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Bartering for the food she needed - hard bread, baked twice, dried and smoked meat, dried fruit, a few other items that would keep well and could be eaten on the move, if she had to, or used with water and forage to bulk out a diet. A few arrows, some assorted small coins, other trinkets. Debating the value back and forth took longer than she'd have liked, but eventualy she was done and on her way to the Drowned Rat.

It was a place that sold cheap, well-watered ale and beer, it's patrons hunters, trappers, farmers and the like, as likely to barter off a bit of their produce, or run a tab on future gains, as to pay with coin or other standard trinkets used for exchange in the ironlands - small decorated pieces of wood, stone, or bone, arrows, sling bullets, very small pieces of iron...

Salesca pushed the door into a dimly lit room, catching the scent of some kind of meat cooking over the fire in the back, roasting, maybe some vegetables being boiled. But the primary smell was that of the cheap alcohol that the Rat was known for. Not overwhelmingly unpleasant, but still, Salesca wrinkled her nose at way it lingered in the air, even on her tongue.

Jaxyn and the other men and women he hunted with regularly, all fellow survivors from Taron's Hollow, were in the corner, gathered around a table, rolling dice and passing little wooden and stone tokens back and forth, quietly talking.

"...could be worse, you know. But Winter's coming, so... might want to pick up the pace, now?" One of the other men suggested, and Jaxyn nodded.

"Aye. With everything gone wrong... back in the Hollow we'd have had other options, but here? Got to keep going, got to save up plenty, store it all. Nobody's gonna help us just because we're neighbors. Not anymore." Jaxyn shrugged. He raised his head, looking up past the man he'd been talking to, gesturing at her.

"Salesca."

"Jaxyn," She nodded. "Have a minute?"

"You look all set to head out. Where you bound, then?"

"Out to hunt boar. Thought you might know where to start looking." Salesca could never get a read on him, and that held true as Jaxyn raised an eyebrow, his tone cool.

"Really?"

"Really." Salesca nodded again. Was he thinking she was trying to interfere with his work? Judging her for going after boars specifically? Jaxyn wasn't necessarily Talia's greatest ally, for all that he'd appreciated being welcomed into the Hollow, and joined her in the final days of the conflict against Irena, so was she being judged for that?

"So, have you, or any of you, know anything about where I might go looking for one?"

(Action: Gather Information. +wits, +1 for bond with the survivors of Taron's Hollow (3) Weak Hit. +1 Momentum)

A Weak hit on Gather Information means that the information you get is useful, but also complicates your quest in some form.

Click to shrink...

"There were those pits up by that creek, north of here?" One of Jaxyn's band suggested. "Boar tracks in the mud, and the signs of them rooting in the trees? We didn't see any, could all be dead, but..." he shrugged.

"The creek near that creepy old ruined tower? Where they say that witch lived, when our forebears first came to the Ironlands?" Salesca grimaced. Not the best omen sort of place to go for starting a journey like this but...

"Aye, that's the one," Jaxyn nodded. "But it was a good number of footprints. Including small ones. So probably a few sows, maybe a father to the babies if he's still around."

Salesca let out a breath. That was... even more unfortunate, and more directly so. A bad omen or bad sign was... well, not great, but it didn't have to mean serious risk of death. Multiple boars? Especially protecting their children? She'd have to be very careful and hope she and Sareta could find one or two that were isolated.

"It'll have to do. Thank you." She nodded, setting a few wooden tokens of her own on the table as thanks for their help, heading back out of the tavern, weaving through the town for the west gate. It wasn't really time to meet Sareta yet - not quite - but close enough, and she could settle in by the gate and set to work on making some new arrows, at least.

(Action: Reach a Milestone. +3 Progress on Troublesome Vow)
However, by the time she got there, Sareta was waiting for her, a dour, disappointed frown on her face, looking down at the ground as much as at her surroundings. Exhaling slowly, Sarta looked... well, hardly defeated, but very much like a woman denied something she'd been hoping for.

"I take it your contacts didn't pan out?" Salesca murmured, nudging Sareta's shoulder with her hand to draw the woman's attention. Sareta shook her head.

"Nothing close, no. Even when I did find a hunter who killed a boar recently had already sold off the tusks. This is not a great start to our little boar hunt."

"Well, then it's a good thing Jaxyn came through," Not great news was better than no news, in this case. Salesca forced a bit of a grin, though it was only half-forced. The chance to get Sareta good news was still a reason to smile. "Remember that old tower, the one everyone says a witch used to live in two hundred or more years ago, even if no one can agree on anything else?" She'd heard at least a dozen different stories of the witch and twice as many different names for her.

Sareta nodded, slowly, a bit of hopeful light returning to her eyes.

"Jaxyn and his fellows saw signs of boars up there - footprints in the mud, signs of rooting." She inhaled a bit, "But... they also think it was a family. Or at least a couple young ones with mothers." Please don't call this off. Sareta had seemed pretty sure that getting some boar tusks would help her with the elf tribe she was going to try to negotiate with. If she can make a good impression with them, get that clear passage through the Deep Wilds...
It would be the sort of thing that could get Sareta's memory remembered for generations to come, passed down not just among wayfinders, but the kind of story that would be told to children around the campfire, even.

Sareta deserved the chance to do this, and do it right. And Salesca was more than happy to help her.

That and you'd like her help getting to the Warrens of Thyri, a selfish little voice in the back of her head reminded her.

"It might be risky, but if we can do it right,,," Sareta murmured softly.

"And we can," Salesca told her. Boars were dangerous, yes, but they were not the greatest threat in the world. Not by any measure.

"Alright." She looked over at the sun, which was still high in the sky, but starting it's journey downwards. "The tower's 8 miles away, give or take, right?" Salesca nodded at Sareta's question. it sounded about right.

After a brief discussion with the gate guards, the West Gate opened, the wood creaking open, and Salesca followed Sareta out, onto the flat land of the Havens around them. There were plenty of hills in this part of the Ironlands, but from Wolfshadow, you could only just see them in the distance.

As they travelled, trudging steadily through the taller grass the further you got from Wolfshadow and the trade roads, they talked little, occasionally trading a few questions about recent happenings in Wolfshadow, or the surrounding area, but little more. Sareta was not one for idle chatter while on the road, and while Salesca would have preferred to fill the time, she wasn't sure what to fill that time with.

Finally, they drew close, the tower looming ahead. The creek wouldn't be far.

"Should we look for the boars now?" Sareta asked. "You have more experience with hunting, and all the wisdom your Uncle passed on."

"It's still light, so we could," Salesca agreed. "But it could take us some time to find them, so I think it would be better to wait. Besides, I'd like to make some more arrows, before we go." She gestured to her quiver. "Traded a few for supplies, and I needed to make more anyway. Boars are tough animals." And you needed a lot of arrows to remind them they were dead, sometimes. Her Uncle had shown her that personally, on the last hunting trip they'd gone on together.

All that you robbed from me, Vesna, I will be taking back in blood.

"You could just learn to stab them with a spear, or get better with that dagger of your," Sareta suggested, the chuckle in her voice and the grin on her face belying the suggestion. "Camp it is."

(Action: Make Camp +supply (3). Weak Hit. Focus: +1 Momentum)

The Make Camp move offers 5 possible rewards - increases to health, momentum, spirit, trading supply for more health, and a bonus on your next Undertake a Journey Roll. A Strong Hit on Make Camp means you can pick two, a Weak Hit means you can pick one. In this case, I picked the increase in momentum - unless your health or spirit are low, increasing your momentum when you have a chance is often the best choice, because momentum can and will save your bacon later on.

Click to shrink...

They found a couple of bushes near a tree that made a passable place to set up camp, though it took some work clearing away fallen leaves, a couple of downed branches - though she set a few choice pieces of wood aside - and digging a small firepit. On the plus side, they found a few wild onions. A pot of water from the creek was set to boil over the small fire, and while they waited for the water to be safe enough to use, Salesca set to putting arrows together. She had a few shafts, and she could make something... useable from some of the longer, more solid bits of wood available. Nothing all that good, but it would do the job, and that was all she needed.

Getting the components separately and putting them together herself was cheaper, and scavenging things from the wild to make arrows from, or at least stretch her supplies was... serviceable. Sometimes, every arrow counted.

"I know how important finding and killing Vesna is to you, but... then what?" Sareta asked as she worked. "The Bloody Crows, Vesna... there's probably more raiders left, that were part of the Burning of the Hollow, but you may never find them. You wouldn't even know where to look!"

"If the Bloody Crows weren't a lead on Vesna, the only one I have, I... I wouldn't make them a focus." Salesca admitted. "The Burning of the Hollow was the work of Vesna, and Irena. It was the work of one woman's need for revenge and another woman's power play. The rest of the raiders... they were just tools. Irena is dead. Vesna is all that's left, and I will bring her to justice."

"And then what, Salesca? Talia isn't happy, you know."

"She's getting to finally out her vision of a just rule in Wolfshadow, why wouldn't she be happy?" Salesca knew she was being petty and bitter, but she couldn't stop the sour note in her voice. Who was Talia to give her grief over this, really? "She seems to be handling things just fine."

"She still sees you as her little sister, she's not going to drink and bitch about all her problems with you." Sareta rolled her eyes. "She doesn't say it in so many words, but she's miserable. Running Wolfshadow with justice is easier said than done. And more importantly, more relevantly, Talia let her desire for revenge drive her for years. The only thing she cared about. She got revenge and it didn't make her happy."

"Spare me the words of wisdom, I'm not Talia and I'm not trying to be." Salesca muttered the words. "I'm not going to get so focused on Vesna that I let Wolfshadow burn!"

"Salesca!" Sareta's eyes widened, she stood. "What are you-"

Salesca put down her tools and a half-finished arrow, standing up as well. "I know it's not Talia's fault, and I know the fight that made Vesna hate Talia would have happened either way, but Talia had a good life in Taron's Hollow. She had my Uncle. She had me. She had a place to call home, people who cared about her! Wasn't that enough?!" Why hadn't it been!? Had Salesca not been a good enough sister, a good enough friend? Had Uncle Hallistar not mattered to her? The other people in the village? "Why was revenge so damn important? And that revenge?! She could have just snuck into Wolfshadow and killed Irena in her sleep! But no, Talia had to do it her way!"
She had to bring Irena down. Tear down her position piece by piece. Build an army. Take Wolfshadow by force, watch as Irena realized it had all been ruined.

"You think Talia should have left Irena to keep up her ways? The people of Wolfshadow didn't deserve-"

"Irena got worse the more Talia pressed her! If Talia had left well enough alone, would Irena even have taken over?! She was just an influential man's wife, at first!" Salesca knew the story by hear. Talia had told her the first part, and the bards and poets told the rest, over and over again. Kind of accurately.

The Burning of the Hollow was just one part of the heroic rise of Talia, of the Lightstep.

"Taron's Hollow was my home, Hallistar was my family, my blood, and Talia was my family too, and now? Now she's not. Because she feels like she can demand I put aside revenge, when she pursed it as far as she did?" Salesca shook her head, raising her hands a little. "Oh, wait, she's just worried about my safety." Salesca made a face twisting her lips into a derisive grimace. "Right. So worried. Like I wasn't worried every godsdamned day she went out on her little war! Every day she was gone, I'd wonder if I'd ever see her again!"

Salesca sat back down, chest rising and falling quickly. She hadn't - she hadn't meant to... not like that. She didn't -

Was that really how she felt about Talia? Really?

It was. It wasn't only how she felt about her, and yet...

She'd never said it. Never admitted to herself, how much she resented Talia for it. How much she wished it could be so simple, so easy to blame her.

But it wasn't.

"I... I'm sorry. I -" She shook her head and picked up her tools again. "I know - I know it's more complicated and - just... I'm sorry." She repeated, taking a breath and trying to focus.

Ignoring Sareta as she focused on her arrows Salesca tried to force herself to banish all that from her mind, for now. She had boars to track and kill tomorrow, she had Vesna to hunt after that.

(Action: Secure an Advantage using Fletcher Asset. +edge +1 (4). Strong hit and Match. +2 Momentum, +1 Supply)

A match on your Challenge Dice in Ironsworn means some kind of plot twist. Generally, it's a good twist if you did a Strong Hit and a bad twist if you missed, and something in between on a Weak Hit. I used the Plot Twist Oracle and got 'The Enemy Gains new Allies', but since it was on a Strong Hit, I decided it meant that Salesca herself got new allies, which she will meet the next day.

Click to shrink...

The sun had set by the time Salesca had several arrows she was happy with, and she finally set them aside, feeling... well, perhaps not better, but at least calmer. She looked up at Salesca, the other woman drawing in the dirt with a stick.

"I shouldn't have taken all that out on you." She said, apologizing again. "I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't have," Sareta agreed. "But you shouldn't have been holding that in. I'm your friend, Salesca. I wish you'd said something sooner."

"I - I didn't really realize I felt that way until I said it," Salesca admitted, flushing. She stood and walked around the fire, to sit next to Sareta, looking at the spiral pattern the other woman had drawn in the dirt. "I never answered your original question."

"I hadn't noticed." Sareta observed, dryly, turning to look at her directly. Salesca flushed a little, looking away, biting her lower lip before she finally gave an answer.

"Like I said, earlier, I don't - I'm not so obsessed with Vesna. I promise. Not to the exclusion of all else, the way Talia was with Irena. As for what comes after... my Uncle was one of the Ironsworn. He helped people because he could, because out here, outside the towns where things are safe, and prosperous, or close enough... the only reason we're all still alive is because we help each other. I want to follow in those footsteps." She was good with a bow, and she could only get better.

She wanted to help. Not enough people did that.

Sareta smiled softly. "You always had a good heart." She reached over and took Salesca's hand, squeezing it. It took all Salesca could do to not react to the touch, not read into it more... Sareta didn't mean it like that. "I'll take you at your word that you won't let yourself get so obsessed with Vesna." She chuckled. "But if I find out otherwise... I'll be quite cross."

Salesca couldn't help but chuckle herself at that, and she let out a long breath afterwards. "Entirely fair." She started to sigh, but it turned into a soft yawn and she covered her mouth. "I suppose we should get ready for tomorrow, and sleep. I'll take first watch."

"Sure you won't fall asleep?" Sareta teased, then nodded. "Wake me when it's time to switch off," she murmured, and Salesca nodded.

As Sareta slipped into her bedroll, Salesca moved back to her previous position and, using a long stick, pushed some of the mostly unburned bits of wood away from the flames, to keep the fire from getting too big, to keep some fuel available to add back to it as needed.

Tomorrow there were boars to slay. Perhaps a whole family, if they couldn't isolate one or two, and then... then...

Well, then she could finally head for the Warrens. The Bloody Crows had information, and Salesca was going to get it from them, one way, or the other.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

Witch's Creek
​

The sun had only just risen when they moved to the creek and the trees and bushes around it. The old tower was close, sort of looming overhead, but with the sun where it was, it didn't cast a shadow over things literally, at least.

There were still some signs of the boars in the mud, dried further away from the waters of the creek. Spots where more than one sow - had to be sows, if there were young ones as part of the group -had dug in to cool off. Hoofprints as well. The trees nearest the mud showed signs of rooting, dug up, tubers and roots eaten, or damaged by the work.

"Well, Jaxyn was right, there were boars here, but... the question is where are they know." Salesca crouched down, closing her eyes a moment, trying to focus herself, recall Hallistar's lessons, on tracking. She opened her eyes again.

(Action: Gather Information +wits(2) Strong hit, and a match. +2 Momentum.)

I Consulted Action+Theme Oracles to determine meaning of the positive match In addition to the Ironsworn core book, and the Ironsworn: Delve book (a supplement that offers rules for 'delves' - dungeon crawls - I also use the fan-created supplement Ironsmith. Ironsmith, created by Eric Bright, offers a whole bunch of extra Oracle Tables. Using the combined Ironsmith Oracle table, resulted in Amass + Warband. In combination with the ally from the previous strong hit, it seems to me that a friendly group of warriors, or at least armed people, is nearby, and actually got rid of the boars already. But because it's positive rolls, they're favorably inclined towards providing the boar tusks, or trading for them anyway.

Click to shrink...

"The tracks head off this way, away from the tower," Salesaca followed the hoofprints - only a few were actually still left in the mud, others lost in the moving of it when it had bee wet, presumably, coming to the creek. On the other side of the creek was more signs of rooting, and more hoofprints. They went through the trees and bushes clustered just past the mud, a few berry bushes now all but bereft of fruit, presumably from the boars, from the way some leaves show signs that they were bit as part of grabbing the fruit.

But as Salesca, with Sareta right behind, crossed the creek, boots only getting a little wet as they stepped through the shallowest parts of already shallow water, the sound of voices drifted through the foliage. Salesca stilled, one hand behind her back, grabbing an arrow, lifting her bow, crouching down lower. There was the sound of branches being pushed aside, and then, a few branches were pushed away and five people came through, one after the other.

"...there was definitely a fire in this direction last night," one of them said in a low, thick growling voice, their voice strange, accented, or something. That one wore long brown robes, and a heavy hood that shrouded their face, the sleeves of the robes even covering their hands, and trailing down along the ground. All Salesca could make out was eyes, which were an unnatural yellow, maybe. It was hard to say from here, in the lighting.


The other four wore nothing of the sort, more conventional travelers clothes, simpler, smaller, open cloaks with the hoods down, some patchwork armor.

The other three wore nothing of the sort, more conventional travelers clothes, simpler, smaller, open cloaks with the hoods down, some patchwork armor.

(Ask the Oracle: Do Salesca or Sareta know any of them? It's a big Ironlands, but Sareta has been around the block a lot, so I'll rate that 50/50 for Sareta, and unlikely for Salesca.
Sareta: Yes, Salesca: No.)
(Name: Indirra Role: Trader Goal: Feel personal accomplishment. Descriptor: Aggressive)

"Indirra?" Sareta's voice was raised, higher pitched, the confusion evidence. Salesca removed her hand from her quiver, straightening back up and turning to look at Sareta, then back to the group. One of them, a woman with long blonde hair, and a stocky, muscular build, her bare arms drawing Salesca's eye for a moment, stepped away from the group, towards Sareta.

"Gods, Sareta, what the - what the hell are you doing here, you bitch?" Hostile words, but with a smile on her face and the way the two women half-ran to meet eachother in the muddle and wrap each other into a hug, laughing. Indirra wrapped her arms around Sareta's waist and actually lifted her off the ground a moment. Sareta let out an indignant half-shriek, demanding to be put down, and after a moment, Indirra complied.

"Gods," Indirra repeated, shaking her head incredulously. "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Thought you never see me again? I thought - they said you were dead!" Sareta shook her head, blinking back tears. "How did you - the headman in Stormrest - he said - he said you washed out to sea in that storm, insisting on going back for your - for your treasure. I..." she shook her head. "It's really you?"

"It's really me," Indirra chuckled. "And yeah... I did go back." She rubbed the back of her head, her smile small, but rueful. "You know me. I wasn't going to abandon all those coins. Some of them were gold. Gold! I actually found real gold in that cave, you don't think I was going to risk losing it after all I put in to get that? And let people say I was a liar?!"

"I would hope you wouldn't have - at the expense of your own life, I - How did you survive? What are you doing here? It's been three years. How - I've criss-crossed the Ironlands so many times. How -"

"I'm not all that sure how I survived, to be honest. I did manage to grab my bag, hold onto it, even as I got tossed around on the waves." Indirra looked past Sareta a moment, distant. "I think I grabbed onto a piece of one of the huts that got washed away with me. I'm not sure. Ended up on one of the islands. I was stuck there for two years. Living on fish, fishguts, seaweed that washed ashore and the water from the little natural spring on the island. Finally I got lucky and a ship was passing by. Extortionate bastards forced me to hand over some of the gold - the actual gold! - before they'd take me aboard, but I was desperate and they knew it."

"You always say what use coins if not to trade them,"

"Aye, but gold's not for trading, it's for proving you have it. What was that captain going to do with gold?" she shook her head. "After I got back to land, I ended up spending a lot of time wandering the Hinterlands and the Tempest Hills, using my silver and copper coins to rebuild my caravan, carrying goods from village to village myself if I had to."

"...and I've been in the Havens, the Deep Wilds and the Flooded Lands, this past year." Sareta shook her head. "But why are you here? I mean, you didn't know I'd be here, and- gods, what are the chances?"

"The Gods probably don't have a role in it," The hooded man grunted, in that same sort of growling tone. "You and your friend share a bond. Fate always conspires to make such people find eachother once more."

"Well, of course you'd say that, Vukro," Indirra countered, shaking her head, but then looking back to Sareta. "As for why we're here - I heard stories about this old tower in Greencairn." Salesca recognized that name. The only tradertown in the Hinterlands, a nexus for all the iron and coal and other useful things mined in the Hinterands and points north. "My Caravan's doing well enough up north I figured I'd come down myself, see if there's anything worth finding here. I've a knack for drawing shiny trinkets out of these old places, you know."

Sareta shook her head, smiling, "True, true enough. " She muttered 'Gods' again, mouth once more half-open, as if she still couldn't believe this was happening. "So you've already rebuilt from nothing?"

"Far from it. A lot more work to do, hence why I'm bothering with what could be a wild goose chase." Indirra waved a hand dismissively in front of her. "But enough about what I'm doing - what are you doing here? And who's your friend?"

"Right," Sareta cleared her throat. "Indirra, this is Salesca, late of Taron's Hollow, now of Wolfshadow. She's a friend, and one of the finest shots with a bow I've ever seen. Salesca, this is Indirra, probably my oldest friend. We grew up together. Travelled together a lot sometimes, though I was always blazing ahead and she was staying behind to see if anything worth trading could be found."

"It's always nice to meet a friend of Sareta's," Salesca said genuinely. Sareta could be reticent about details of her past, - well, perhaps that wasn't the right word, but she didn't volunteer much of it. I wonder if Indirra has any embarrassing stories...

"Likewise," Indirra nodded.

"We came here hunting boar. You wouldn't happen to have seen any?" Salesca asked - she was curious about Indirra and her past with Sareta, but there was a task at hand.

"We did. Whole family. Killed the male and several of the sows, the rest ran off." Indirra answered. "Their meat is still smoking up at our camp, what this endless gullet didn't gobble up last night." She gestured at Vukro.

"What about the bones? The tusks? Do you have those?" Salesca asked. She couldn't imagine they'd be that far - you could make a lot of things from animal bones. If this Indirra was as enterprising as she seemed...

"We do. Is that why you were after boars? The tusks specifically? Seems a bit of a waste."

"It's not as if we'd have wasted the rest of it," Sareta pointed out. "But yes, we were looking for boars for their tusks, specifically." Sareta explained why she was looking for them, telling Indirra and her fellows about Vidarna, and her goal to chart a safe path for caravans through the Deep Wilds. Vukro made a strange sound at the mention of elves, like a growl, but... almost inhumanly so.

He's a Varou! Salesca had only ever heard stories of the wolflike Varou, one of the Firstborn peoples of the Ironlands. Their glowing yellow eyes were legendary, and the large hood must be to cover the face, complete with the snout much like any dog or wolf had, the sleeves to cover the hands, which were said to resemble paws as much as normal hands, though they did have moveable thumbs, unlike actual wolves. And of course, they stood on two feet.

What is one doing so far from the Hinterlands? And in the company of an Ironlander? Varou were said to be territorial, preferring to keep to themselves and keep others - humans yes, but even more, elves and giants, or so said the legends - at arm's length. Even her Uncle Hallistar had only seen Varou from a distance.

Salesca looked to Sareta, but the wayfinder showed no reaction to the sound. She has to know, right?

"By Crodus, that's a worthy goal. Ambitious, but worthy." Indirra nodded. "It would beat needing to go the long way around from the Ragged Coast, by ship, or up through the Hinterlands. And you think the boar tusks will help?"

"Maybe not by much, but anything that lets me get a good impression with his tribe..."

"Pah! Elves are liars all," Vukro growled. "They will not honor any agreement they make with you. As soon as it suits them, any path you mark for caravans-"

"Will you shut up about how we can't trust elves, Vukro!" One of the other three of Indirra's companions complained. "We get it, you hate elves. Gods, you hate pretty much everyone but Indirra, now that I think of it."

"Foolish," Vukro turned, walking away, back to the camp. "I will fetch the skull of the male boar. It's tusks are the most magnificent. That is, if you are set on aiding your friend in her folly."

"I'm afraid I am, Vukro," Indirra chuckled. "But no need to fetch. Come on up to the camp with us. Share a meal, if you like, we can catch up and you can have your tusks."

"Just like that?" Salesca's eyes narrowed. This seemed far too easy.

"Why not? I get to help you," she looked to Sareta, "And, if it works, maybe I can get first pass of a caravan through your new path."

"If this works, gladly," Sareta agreed, laughing. "By the way, you don't have to keep your hood up, Vukro, I knew you were a Varou from the start and Salesca figured it out when you were growling about elves."

"And yet you do not scream and run. You are uncommon Ironlanders." Vukro turned back to them, and his hands came out of his sleeves, coming up to pull down his hood, revealing his face.

Salesca didn't scream, didn't run but she did inhale sharply.

Vukro​

The stories always said that Varou looked like wolves, but - I never expected it to be so much... it didn't look identical to a wolves, there was some difference in the way the face was oriented on the head and the head itself still looked humanlike, but... Her glimpse of his hands - they were humanlike in shape, but they seemed to have something like the pads that could be found on the paws wolves, dogs, cats and other such animals.

"You're going to have to tell me the story of how you ended up travelling with Indirra." Sareta told him

"I do not," Vukro countered, turning back away from them and starting into the foliage they'd come through, walking quickly.

"Vukro really doesn't like most people. Not even sure he likes other Varou," Indirra explained. "Come on. I can fill you in on the story of how I met Vukro and convinced him to come with me while we eat." She gestured, turning away, starting after Vukro, much more slowly. She started to push a branch out of the way, then turned back halfway to point at Sareta. "And you're going to fill me in on what I missed of your life in the last three years, or at least as much as you can in an afternoon."

"Not sure how much I can summarize, but I'll try," Sareta agreed. She followed after Indirra, the three other, still unnamed compatriots of the trader and her varou companion following behind Sareta, and Salesca took up the rear.

Does it really count as me helping her if Indirra gives her the tusks? Perhaps it didn't, she considered as she slung her bow over her back again. But Sareta wasn't the sort to refuse to help her, after agreeing, just because something unexpected, but fortunate happened.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

While most of the remainder of the meat from the boars that Indirra and her companions had slain the day before was being smoked for long-term storage and later use, there was some left, and that was supplemented by some fruit and bread - bread a least a little more edible than the twice-baked travel rations Salesca was used to seeing on the road. It wasn't great, but it did do the job of being a filling lunch, which always had it's advantages.

"...and so there Sareta and I are, the bear is on the other side of the bushes, shuffling around, looking for us, and Sareta goes and mimics the sound of a Wyvern on the hunt. I nearly scream, thinking we were about to have to deal with one of those beasts. I turn to grab Sareta and run, and there she is, screeching again. The bear hears it, and somehow - still not sure how - falls for it, loping off, and I'm left gasping when I finally let out a breath." Indirra shook her head. "You never told me you could do that!"

"It's not like you didn't know I could mimic birdcalls," Sareta shrugged, as if that made any sense at all.

"A wyvern's not a bird!" Indirra countered, nearly shouting, indignant. Though from the way Sareta grinned and giggled, it was a familiar exchange for them.

It was the latest in several stories Indirra had shared with her about her history with Sareta. Nothing truly embarrassing - Sareta apparently had her own share of stories and had threatened Indirra with sharing the details of some event, but still, they had filled in a few questions Salesca had had, about where Sareta had picked up a few of her scars, where she'd picked up some of her skills.

Though the ability to make the hunting all of a wyvern... Salesca had never done more than seen a wyvern from a great distance, and she hoped that never changed, but... how? How could Sareta do something like that?

"Perhaps not, but they're close enough when it comes to making their hunting calls." Sareta shrugged. She looked over to where two of Indirra's companions, Eder and Resaa, were busy separating the tusks from the jaw. It was a delicate process, but Resaa seemed to know exactly what she was doing. Better even than Salesca could have done, she had to admit. There was a third man, now paging through a thick tome by the edge of the camp, who had introduced himself as Kaberra before opening the tome.

"I have to agree with Indirra here, Sareta," Salesca smiled, shaking her head in wonderment. "I'm still stunned that you got those cuts on your shoulder from a cat. Not even a mountain lion, just a cat." Those had been deep gouges, and a whole lot of them.

"You didn't see the little bugger. It was vicious!" Sareta defended herself, and this time it was her raising her voice indignantly. "The teeth and the claws and - it wasn't some ordinary mouse-killer!"

"Is that why you picked it up and tried to kiss it between the ears?" Indirra teased. Sareta muttered something unintelligable, and the trader laughed, then turned, looking over at Salesca. "Sareta called you one of the best shots she'd ever seen. High praise. What do you do with it though? Are you a wayfinder, like her?"

"No." Salesca pulled her Uncle's amulet out from under her shirt, showing it to her a moment. "I'm an Ironsworn of a broader purpose, like my Uncle Hallistar." She flushed. "Or at least, that's my goal."

(Does Sareta know Hallistar? Rated Unlikely, Oracle says Yes)

"Hallistar." Indirra furrowed her brow. "Hallistar. Did he have a scar, over his right eye, kinda shaped like a fishhook?" She traced a line over her own forehead, directly above her right eye. Salesca had never actually seen a fishhook, but she could say that her Uncle's scar did have a hooklike shape to it, and the way Indirra was moving her fingers...

"You knew him?" Sareta had known Hallistar, in passing, but by the time she'd started wayfinding, he'd retired to raise her.

"Met him once. I was just starting out on trading - Sareta too. She'd gone and rushed ahead while we were heading up the Ragged Coast, all excited about finding a way up a new cliff. I stuck around in the village we'd passed by and made some of my first sales. An Ironsworn came by, delivering the head of some raider."

Salesca furrowed her brow, trying to think back to her Uncle's stories. He'd been at the Ragged Coast when her father had fallen ill, staying behind when he came home because everyone knew her father was not long for this world...

Who was that raider? The last one he hunted as an Ironsworn, rather than just protecting Taron's Hollow? Then it hit her.

"Maygar the Silent."

"Yeah... that sounds right. Had no tongue?"

"Had no tongue," Salesca nodded. She laughed, "I'm amazed you remember seeing him once, so many years ago."

"The man made an impression, and I heard a lot of other stories about him and his exploits while I stuck around. Heard a few others here and there, though who knows how they grew in the telling." Salesca nodded at Indirra's words, she'd heard some of those exaggerated stories about her Uncle's heroism, the people he'd saved, the beasts he'd fought. Hallistar had killed a Wyvern once, but it was alone, and the village he'd been defending had helped to weaken it with arrows and spears of their own before it had run off, and he'd tracked it, finding and killing it a few days later, when it was still recovering.

A mighty battle and a worthy quest, but not the singlehanded slaying of a whole pack of the winged beasts.

"Well, if you're ever looking for people in need of help, come to Greencairn. Always work for people looking to help." Indirra offered. "Use my name. I'll be happy to vouch for a friend of Sareta's."

"Thank you. I'll consider it." Salesaca nodded. At the very least, Greencairn could be the closest tradertown to the Warrens of Thyri, so depending on the nature of the lead she got on Vesna's location from the Bloody Crows...

It could be a reasonable place to stop, get supplies, gather more information...

Indirra started to tell another story, but before she could further then mentioning the name of a village - Blackwood - Sareta cut her off.

"Oh no, I think it's my turn to tell a story about you," Sareta countered. Indirra laughed, and gestured for Sareta go to on, looking down a bit as she did so, and Sareta leapt into a tale of how Indirra had managed to find herself tricked into buying four crates worth of sand. The liars that had done so had managed an incredibly convincing scheme, complete with roping an entire village into unknowingly aiding their deception, distracting Indirra with a handsome man, and spinning an entirely fictitious story about the legacy of a supposed king from the Old World, here in the Ironlands. the whole effort really was far more than they managed to get out of Indirra, but it was insane nonetheless.

By the time Sareta was winding down, after ignoring Indirria's half-serious protests for her to stop at various embarrassing points, Eder and Resaa had managed to finish their work with the boar tusks, and brought them over to Indirra, who handed them over to Sareta.

"These... these are marvellously intact," Sareta ran her thumb over one as she examined it. "Thank you."

(Action: Reach a Milestone, mark three progress on the Troublesome Vow)
(Action: Fulfull your vow. Progress move versus 6. Miss.)
(Mark Failure Track, 2 Ticks/+0.5)
(Action: Forsake Your Vow. -1 Spirit)
(Action: Endure Stress, +spirit (4). Weak Hit.)
(Action: Test Your Bond +heart(1). Miss. Burn Momentum to make it a Weak Hit)

Translating the failure of an Iron Vow that it seems like you succeeded - or failing End the Fight on a battle you seem to be winning is always finnicky, but ultimately, you need to just work with the fiction and go from there. Salesca wants to impress Sareta and prove herself, and she feels like she failed to achieve a pretty basic task - kill some boars and get their tusks for Sareta. Is she about to be a little dramatic below? Sure, but she's also eighteen.

Click to shrink...

Salesca bit her lip as she watched the two talk a bit more, feeling...

Well, like a failure. This wasn't the first Iron Vow she'd sworn - she'd sworn to bring Vesna to justice. She'd sworn others, during the last months of Talia's conflict with Wolfshadow, as she'd tried to do her part to keep the other survivors of the Hollow alive, but -

This was...

She'd sworn to help Sareta, and she'd done nothing of the sort. At best the information she'd gotten from Jaxyn had directed them here, since Sareta hadn't gotten any direct leads, but..

I failed at something so minor, and how - how can I expect to have any chance to bring Vesna to justice? Hm? Salesca knew she was being... overdramatic. That this - it hadn't even merited swearing a vow on Iron, on her uncle's amulet, but she'd -

She'd been so damn obsessed with proving herself to Sareta, and indirectly to Talia, to convincing them that she knew she was doing and -

How can I hope to be like my uncle if I swear on something so frivolous, so minor, and then - and then fail at it?!

She was mostly just staring off into space, or at the ground, as the two old friends talked, but finally, as the sun reached the midday height, Sareta stood.

"As much as I would love to stay, and linger here with you for... a long while, catch up, reminisce..." Sareta sighed. "I do have places to do, things to do." Indirra stood as well, and the two clasped hands, exchanging quiet goodbyes. "Once I finish with the elves, I'll travel to Greencairn myself, I promise. Either to meet you there, or at least leave a message."

"I'll look for you, or your message," Indirra smiled, and Salesca followed Sareta away from the camp, heading north.

Once they were a good distance from Indirra's camp, Sareta pulled up short, and turned back to her. "Okay, so... what's bothering you?" Salesca stared a moment, jolted out of her self-recrimination by Salesca's tone.

"I... I failed. I made a vow, on iron, on my uncle's amulet no less, and I failed." Salesca looked at Sareta, her throat tight, voice coming to her ears higher pitched than it should. You're being overdramatic. And yet, she couldn't stop herself, stop the crushing feeling inside her. "I failed you."

"We got the Boar tusks. So what if we weren't the ones who killed them?" Sareta rolled her eyes. Then she sighed. "I - you didn't fail at what you promised me," Sareta stepped forward, placing a hand on Salesca's shoulder, looking her in the eye, tilting her head downwards to do it. "You didn't promise to kill the boars yourself, or personally rip out their tusks, just help me to get the tusks."

"I feel like I failed." Salesca muttered.

"That..." Sareta shrugged, helplessly, her free hand splaying outward, mouth falling open wordlessly. She let out a long breath. " - I can't change how you feel, but I can assure you I don't think you failed me." Salesca knew that, but she still looked down on the ground, the weight in her gut feeling less, but... only a little. She tried to meet Sareta's gaze, and Sareta inhaled.

"If - if will help make you feel better, you can promise me something, okay." She took her hand off Salesca's shoulder, holding it up. "Not an Iron Vow, or anything like that. Just a promise from a friend, to a friend. Can you do that for me?"

"If you're going to see this as a failure, then... learn from it. From all your failures. Because you're going to fail. It happens. We all fail, it's what you do next that really decides what sort of person you are. Hallistar didn't succeed at every task he set before himself. Talia didn't. I haven't. And the gods know Indirra has a track record of failure a mile wide." She chuckled, though it was more a mere hint of humor than anything else. "All I want is for you to promise that you won't let any failure get to you. Not here, in your heart." She placed a hand over Salesca's chest for a moment, then pulled it away. "And when you do fail, when you do fall, pick yourself up and try to see if there's anything you can learn from it."

What did I learn here? Well, Salesca knew. Be more careful about her vows. Or perhaps not take her vows so seriously, in that way, in the way that she had to do it personally. Watching her vows would be easier, at least, than completely retraining her mind, but... she could try that.

"I can try." Salesca nodded. "I promise."

"Good." Sareta smiled a little, clapping one hand on her leg. "Then I think we should get moving, because - well, we're not going to get to the Warrens of Thyri by standing around here, are we?"

Salesca shook her head, feeling... not light, perhaps, but the knots and weight in her gut much reduced, her sense of... shame lessening. A little. "No, I guess not."