Phase 1.2: Those Who Went Before

Septon Arlyn wrote:Your streetwise roll should be 25 because connections offers +1d and you had a 4 on your other roll

Hmm...that would get me another DoS on the Streetwise, and a 27 on the empathy. Not enough for another DoS on the final roll.

That's a good point though, on how the Connections die would have/should have worked, instead of me rolling another separate one.

Can't get more than 4 DoS on that anyway, but squeezes in a +1 which may matter when tallying up results.

Gwyneth Drakeson wrote:That's a good point though, on how the Connections die would have/should have worked, instead of me rolling another separate one.

Actually it's both - a +1D adds a die rolled and a die kept - so you roll the extra die, and then take the X+1 you want, where X is the number you would have kept without the +1D.

In this case the +1D moved your roll from [6, 5, 5, 5], 4, 3] = 21 to [6, 5, 5, 5, 4], 3, 1] = 25.

[Rp to come]

TPoB: 5d6+2 25 4 DoS (Status)
TPoB Will: 4d6k3 7 Failure
Mushroom bonus dice: 1d6 3 brings total to 8, still a failure.
TPoB knowledge: 2d6+4 8 Failure

• The Path of Books

Status: 5d6 11 (+1 to Knowledge test)

Will: 4d6 11 (+1 to Knowledge test)

Knowledge: 3d6+2 12

[Ugh. I expected better rolls than that.]

Corrine had been tempted to interview survivors, but eventually decided that dredging up their harrowing memories ran the risk of being cruel to them, and her own capacity to handle the tales felt a little low. Finding her energy rather sapped by worry about family & future, and by the early stages of pregnancy, she resolved to spend her time reading. There was much to be learned that could help.

Despite being the head of a major Vale House, she could not access the more secret reaches of the royal libraries, but she managed to gain access to some useful collections.
Poring through each volume and taking notes was laborious and tedious, but she managed to learn a few items of potential value. Several times, she was found asleep in the library, a candle burned down to nothing beside her, a scroll in her lap or a weighty volume beside her, her fingers smudged with residual ink.
Eventually, she pieced together some new knowledge that might be useful, though she was not kind to herself inwardly for not being able to do more. Or, by her estimation, enough.

Baelon Drakeson wrote:

Gwyneth Drakeson wrote:That's a good point though, on how the Connections die would have/should have worked, instead of me rolling another separate one.

Actually it's both - a +1D adds a die rolled and a die kept - so you roll the extra die, and then take the X+1 you want, where X is the number you would have kept without the +1D.

In this case the +1D moved your roll from [6, 5, 5, 5], 4, 3] = 21 to [6, 5, 5, 5, 4], 3, 1] = 25.

what he said. (posting from tablet, descriptions are hard)

The Path of Memory – You were there or know those who were. Maybe you saw something useful…

Warfare TN 9: 3d6 11
+1B + 1B (Warfare TN 9): 1d6 5
=> 12 (1 DoS)
Will (Dedication) TN 9: 3d6 12
+ 1B + 1B (Will TN 9): 1d6 5
=> 15 (2 DoS)
Cunning TN 9 (+3): 4d6k3+4 18 -1 (clerical error)
=> 17 (2 DoS)
(Bah, late night math made this a mess somewhat, apologies !)
----
Ser Alfred remembered the Stepstones well, after all, he had been in his best years back then, well, somewhat at least... Adding to that that he had also lived there for some time, and there was a colourful caleidoscope of memories that he either was unwilling or unable to part from. He remembered how it all started, how he heard the news about Prince Daemon calling the banners and going for the Stepstones. Leona had not wanted to go, but he would have none of it. He had been filled to the brim with ambition back then. To have a house of his own and a plot of land of his own. He had been convinced Leona would see that after their inevitable victory. The life was nothing he was unaccustomed to, and so he moved down the road while the throng of knights, soldiers and adventurers following the Prince grew in numbers. His newlywed wife had way greater difficulties with what must have been like the life of vagrants for her. In hindsight, he liked to claim he did not see that, but perhaps, he had just not wanted to see it. Perhaps he didn't want to have to see his ambitions crushed because his wife was unhappy.

The feeble attempts of the enemy to stall their advance were in his memory as if it had been merely a year since then. Sure, he couldn't name every hamlet, but the big picture was still there. Two years of blood, sweat and toil. The injuries, the sickness, it all came back to him. But there was also the day that he got his own plot of land, just a hamlet with some land around it. Poor, shoddy and troublesome to enforce the new King's peace in. But it was his hamlet and he had a very meagre income and, most importantly, a new home of his own. Despite how much he detested the climate and what it had done to his health, he had loved the place as such. The day he had learned Leona was expecting a child and the look on her face when she told him. The day Malcolm had been born. He remembered how he had stood at the window with his newly-born heir. That day, he had won everything and if he had died right there and then, he would have been a happy man. But just because the stories cut away at those points, that didn't mean the lives of those in them did too. The King had left the Stepstones and the Triarchy slowly started gaining ground with their renewed attacks.

They had been forced back step by step until the day House Haigh of the Stepstones had had to flee their lands as the enemy forces reached them. Parts of their dwelling going up in flames. The fighting retreat. Embarking on the crowded ships and seeing the Stepstones and almost everything he had owned disappear at the horizon. Their arrival at Westeros. Finally, the day he had to bury Leona by himself because there was no one else who could have done it. That day, he had lost everything. Well, everything but his son, the only thing he had been allowed to keep. He couldn't remember how long he had just stood at the beach, looking at the horizon where all his dreams had come true and then vanished again, before packing his scarce belongings and starting his march towards the Vale. He wrote down what he still remembered and made a few annotations on the things he found important, but he wasn't fully with it, as his memories distracted him.

Inside, he wondered how he would react once he was back. And what side the Stepstones would show this time, and for how long...

Results:

Gwyn 27, 4 DoS (Glory, +1 Princess [Coldbrook])
Your research results would make for a great book. Sell your research for 1 Wealth or write it yourself for 1 Influence.
You learn something interesting about the geography of Bloodstone. You can grant a commander +1 to initiative tests for one battle in Phase 2,3, or 4.
There is a tunnel leading into Bloodstone! [Access to a Phase 3 Stepstones track event. May share this access with others.]

Ereth 26, 4 DoS* [if BttB failure 24] (+1 Glory, +1 Queen [Longshore])
Your research results would make for a great book. Sell your research for 1 Wealth or write it yourself for 1 Influence.
You learn something interesting about the geography of Bloodstone. You can grant a commander +1 to initiative tests for one battle in Phase 2,3, or 4.
There is a tunnel leading into Bloodstone! [Access to a Phase 3 Stepstones track event. May share this access with others.]
Ereth, please make a test to see if Bound to the Bottle triggers. If it does, you would be at -2 to all tests in the event, lowering your score to 24.

Kevan 24, 4 DoS
Your research results would make for a great book. Sell your research for 1 Wealth or write it yourself for 1 Influence.
You learn something interesting about the geography of Bloodstone. You can grant a commander +1 to initiative tests for one battle in Phase 2,3, or 4.
There is a tunnel leading into Bloodstone! [Access to a Phase 3 Stepstones track event. May share this access with others.]

Theo 22, 3 DoS
There is a tunnel leading into Bloodstone! [Access to a Phase 3 Stepstones track event. May share this access with others.]

Luecian 20, 3 DoS
There is a tunnel leading into Bloodstone! [Access to a Phase 3 Stepstones track event. May share this access with others.]

Baelon 18, 2 DoS
You learn something interesting about the geography of Bloodstone. You can grant a commander +1 to initiative tests for one battle in Phase 2,3, or 4.

Jorah 17, 2 DoS
You learn something interesting about the geography of Bloodstone. You can grant a commander +1 to initiative tests for one battle in Phase 2,3, or 4.

Daveth 15, 2 DoS
You learn something interesting about the geography of Bloodstone. You can grant a commander +1 to initiative tests for one battle in Phase 2,3, or 4.

Loreia 10, 1 DoS
Your research results would make for a great book. Sell your research for 1 Wealth or write it yourself (or have a friend write it) for 1 Influence.

Heck yeah I'm writing the book myself. Language check here for uh, how well-spoken it is. Including Daveth's assist if that's allowed or possible.

writing a book: 3d6+2 12

+1 Influence to House Coldbrook then. Does your book have a name?

The Bloodstone Accounts
A Compiled Ledger of Bloodstone Foreign Commerce, Circa [xx-xx AC]
by Ser Loreia Durant, the Shieldmaiden

Something along those lines. "The Bloodstone Accounts" for short. Definitely including "Ser" in there. Kinda worried that they'll try to have it banned or burned just because of that, but if I left it out they'd just use that as a "gotcha" or something. Including my alias is for their benefit though.

Now that she's put her "findings" to parchment, she can walk away and forget it all. You're welcome.

Bottle: 3d6 3 - Failed and critically failed it at that my Bound to the Bottle roll

Guess that puts me at 24 tied with Kevan.

I write y own stuff for +1 Influence.

No idea of title yet will think of something later, I'm still getting over rolling triple 1's...

Well, at least it wasn't on a critically important roll. All it means is that you got tipsy, and being tied with Kevan means that Kevan gets a point of Glory too, should he return. Some might have seen you drunk, but you didn't go on a bender or anything.

Luckily you were on the Path of Memory, not the Path of People; that would have meant you would have been drinking with other Stepstones vets and would have gone on a binge, taking a -2D penalty instead of a flat -2. That would have been the full bender...