Ironsworn RPG, Session 5
Enter the fray using Heart. I thought about wits, but the little conversation probably leans me this way. 6+1 = 7 vs. 7,7. Miss with a match, wheeee. I’m going to be mean to myself and increase the difficulty rating of this fight to Formidable.
Kori used the reach of his spear to push the closest back away from the doorway. As he left the shelter, he saw the true depth of the trouble he was in: Asha and Morien had returned already. He was surrounded from the front, the people on the sides pushed at him, trying to get behind him.
Instead of backing back into the trap of the building behind him, Kori rushed towards the less confident-looking of the two. Luckily, they jumped backwards. An arrow from Asha’s bow struck the doorframe. She would be the biggest threat. Kori hefted his spear and launched it at her.
The spear took Asha in the shoulder, she screamed and dropped her bow. Kori pulled out his carving knife. He counted on no one expecting him to throw away his biggest advantage. Morien however saw the opportunity as it was, and moved to attack.
Kori quickly unslung his satchel and threw it at Morien, slowing his advance. Kori whistled for Rythane, but had to continue to move as someone else leapt at him. He frantically searched for the weak point in the surrounding circle.
Kori chose the first man he scared off, but this time he held his ground with a woodcutting axe held at the ready. With the circle closing in behind him, Kori was forced into the man.
Kori could not afford to use any restraint. His shield blocked the axe and Kori drove his sharp cutting knife into the man’s neck. He continued his forward momentum, and spun around, finally able to keep an eye on everyone at once. He could see the grimace among their faces. They wanted to take their vengeance now. Rythane imitated the sound of a wyvern in the distance, and Kori used the moment to dash towards Asha and his spear.
She had let others pass in front of her and was trying to remove the spear from herself. Kori helped. Rythane dove through the small crowd. Bastien took a wild swing in her direction, but she gained altitude and flew away. Kori shoved Asha between himself and the group. Morien charged from his left in a rage with an axe in each hand.
First Kori took a step backwards, but then juked ahead deeper into the battle. Morien’s strikes found no flesh, but Kori was nearly surrounded once again. He reluctantly took his carving knife and threw it at Bastien.
The knife stuck in Bastien’s thigh, and he slipped and stumbled in the mud. Before Kori could react, someone else was brave enough to make a lunging swing with their club, which struck Kori in his arm. Pain shot through him.
Kori grunted. Sensing his desperation, they charged. It was all he could do to keep them at bay with his spear.
Oops. Secure Advantage +Edge 4+3 = 7 vs. 3 3. Hit with a match. That at least gives me some ideas. +2 Momentum (now 3)
Strikes hit shield and haft, Kori saw only a sliver of opportunity. These were not trained soldiers, there was just enough of a gap to slip through. Kori ducked under a blow and slid in the mud between two people, stabbing upward towards one as he passed.
They recovered quickly, knocked the spear aside and slashed out at Kori. He twisted, and the knife cut only his bag, which spilled contents along the pathway as Kori sought a better position.
Kori ran through the village circle, looking for any place he could hold them off securely. Morien was on his heels and was catching up. Kori shouted, voice echoing off the village’s buildings, “Are all of you complicit in this madness?”
“Is this how you will live the rest of your days? How many more winters will it take until they take one of you? Or will you spill your own blood willingly?” Most slowed, some breaking off to usher inquisitive families back inside. Morien did not waver, and was soon upon Kori.
Kori met him, barely blocking the first axe and ducking under the second. Kori’s spear pierced the large man’s side and he screamed, scrambling away. The overcast sky began to sprinkle rain down. Blood and water pooled under Kori’s feet, but he was frozen. Abram drug Nia through the rain and mud, a dagger point stretching the skin at her neck. “End this stranger. Throw down your arms,” he said. Kori responded, “She is already dead, to protect your secret from those who could not bear it’s weight. Do you think you can keep that secret now, after your people watch you kill her from their homes?”
Abram threw Nia at Kori; she fell into the muck before him. Abram said, “They won’t trust a stranger over their own kin, not after all we’ve been through together. Take her, leave this place and never return.” Kori’s hand moved to his necklace and its iron arrow head, clenching it to stop his hand from shaking. He looked towards Nia, struggling to stand and met her eyes. Kori mouthed “Sorry” and threw his spear at the circle’s leader.
The spear flew true, impaling Abram through the chest. Now that Kori was unarmed, the crowd before him closed in with renewed determination. Nia rose before him, and doors opened around the village center, people poured out of homes.
Kori passed out from exertion, and fell into the cold embrace of the earth.
Blue text is my thoughts or meta commentary
Red text is backfilled, added after the fact some time in the future, and was not present when originally written