{"id":45198,"date":"2020-01-28T11:02:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-28T18:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/?p=45198"},"modified":"2020-01-25T23:15:42","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T06:15:42","slug":"ravenloft-ironsworn-part-6-gooooo-ing-to-the-chapel-and-were-goooonnnna-get-buried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/randomaverage.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/ravenloft-ironsworn-part-6-gooooo-ing-to-the-chapel-and-were-goooonnnna-get-buried\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravenloft Ironsworn, part 6, Gooooo-ing to the Chapel and We\u2019re\u2026 Goooonnnna get Buried\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, we\u2019re heading to the northwest part of the village, E5 and E6, the church and cemetery. Sounds peaceful.<\/p>\n

\"|388x492\"<\/p>\n

Now, not to be too much of a gamer about it, but the thing is, I\u2019m pretty sure the only way to get XP in the game is to make and complete Vows. \u201cFree all of Barovia from Strahd\u201d is epic and all, but it\u2019s not going to be meat on the table any time soon, if ever. I need to keep doing small things – side quests, if you like.<\/p>\n

So: a troublesome vow to bury the Burgomaster. On the one hand \u201char har, you have to carry him allll the way across town, what a big tough adventurer you are\u201d, but on the other, the job is exactly as tough as I choose to make it – I can elide through pretty much everything else that happens in town and just get to the road up to the castle in about a paragraph, but I don\u2019t learn or gain anything from that, so why not have some fun with this stuff?<\/p>\n

Anyway, I swear the vow:<\/p>\n

\"|226x122\"\"|345x98\"<\/p>\n

Which is good. My goal is clear. No complications like \u201cwe can\u2019t bury him here – it\u2019s not hallowed ground anymore!\u201d or whatever. And hey: +2 momentum brings me to the max of 10, so wooot.<\/p>\n

I see myself and Ismark walking slowly up the street toward the church, at either end of a bier. Ireena flanks us, pensive but resolved.<\/p>\n

\"|349x236\"<\/p>\n

Since this is actually attached to a vow, I need to make some kind of progress here, and that means challenges. The first thing I imagine is the possibility of more interference from the village – either more superstitious, angry villagers (they wouldn\u2019t help bury their Burgomaster in the first place, maybe they don\u2019t want to see him buried at all, for fear it will make Strahd angry), maybe some vistani, or even something worse. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

To reflect that, I\u2019ll Face Danger (Ironsworn\u2019s catch-all move for \u201cI\u2019m doing something generally risky for which there isn\u2019t a better move) using Heart (loyalty, courage) as we carry the dead man through town in front of pretty much everyone.<\/p>\n

\"|341x153\"\"|232x119\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m feeling pretty good about this – the challenge was strong, but I overcame. (I\u2019ve been pondering moving Brigitte\u2019s stats to the \u201cchallenging\u201d stat array (4,3,3,2,2), as some folks have suggested, but so far this session the dice are making me feel silly for worrying about it.<\/p>\n

I mark three boxes on the vow, but other than that, benefits to me are kind of slim, since I could get 1 more momentum, but I\u2019m maxed out.<\/p>\n

Atop a slight rise stands a gray, sagging edifice of stone and wood. This church has weathered the assaults of evil for centuries on end and is worn and weary. The bell tower hangs to one side, its strident call long silenced. Flickering light shines through holes burned through the roof shingles. The rafters strain to maintain their burden.<\/em><\/p>\n

The church interior is a shambles, with overturned and broken benches littering the floor. At a claw-scarred altar toward the far end is the priest.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"|211x291\"Donavich has apparently been praying and chanting throughout the night for weeks. He spends each night, every night, warding off evil from his church, and has fallen asleep against the altar.<\/p>\n

So I need some information from this guy on several topics. I\u2019m going to Gather Information (+1 for the community Bond) and play from there:<\/p>\n

\"|233x175\"<\/p>\n

Oy. Okay, my dice are mayyyybe saying I should change my stat array. Whatever. I don\u2019t want to snag the story at this point on this guy, so I\u2019m going to burn my momentum to get a strong hit instead of a miss.<\/p>\n

This works for me, since I imagine him not being too enthused about our plans – it takes a lot of energy to convince him to help us out at all and, thus, be involved. Cool.<\/p>\n

\"|340x120\"When woken, introductions made (his voice is hoarse and weak), our intentions explained, and our will convincingly conveyed (until he finally stops trying to talk us out of \u201cthis madness\u201d) he shares the following…<\/p>\n