I’ve finished a journey as part of a quest/vow (come to the aid of the village), so I’ll also mark progress. Since it’s a Dangerous quest, every ‘mark progress’ move fills two boxes.
Now then, the village.
Tall shapes loom out of the dense fog that surrounds everything, even in mid-afternoon.
The muddy ground underfoot gives way to slick, wet cobblestones. The tall shapes become recognizable as the dwellings of the village of Barovia. The windows of each house stare out from pools of black nothingness. No sound cuts the silence except, just at the edge of hearing, a single voice raised in mournful sobbing from a fair distance inside the town.
A few miles away, Brigitte can see the silhouette of a castle wayyyyy up on a peak, overlooking the valley.
I decide to follow the sound of the sobbing, as much as I’m able, into the village.
Brigitte enters the town from the east (red arrow), and follows the streets toward the sobbing sound, so she kind of goes by a bunch of private homes and the main square in the center of town. What we can immediately make out:
MANY of the houses have no glass in the windows. They’re broken out and then people have nailed boards over them.
- E1 right at the center of town is “Bidrath’s Mercantile” – a general store.
- E2 is the “Blood on the Vine” tavern/inn.
(They have signs, so she can tell.)
- The mercantile is well-lit inside; light signs out into the foggy streets.Same with the tavern.
- There is ZERO foot traffic on the streets. Many of the houses look abandoned or deserted, and those that don’t are closed up tight.
- The sobbing is coming from E3, which is a two-story townhouse. It’s pretty nice, but it’s been boarded up and barricaded from the inside like many others.
I go and knock on the door.
The knocking doesn’t get any response from inside the house. The sobbing continues.
Brigitte’s about to try something else when a small voice, behind her, says “That’s Mad Mary’s house.”
There’s a little kid standing in the middle of the street, about 20 feet away from the front step.
Brigitte frowns. “Who?”
GATHER INFORMATION
When you search an area, ask questions, conduct an investigation, or follow a track, roll +wits. If you act within a community or ask questions of a person with whom you share a bond, add +1.
On a miss, your investigation unearths a dire threat or reveals an unwelcome truth that undermines your quest. Pay the Price. Awesome.
“Mad Mary. That’s her house.” He points at the house . “She had a girl, named Gertruda, and never let her leave the house. “Gertruda snuck out, and hasn’t come back.”
The sobbing is the same volume, probably, but somehow it SEEMS to get louder.
PAY THE PRICE
When you suffer the outcome of a move, choose one.
- Make the most obvious negative outcome happen.
- Envision two negative outcomes. Rate one as ‘likely’, and Ask the Oracle using the yes/no table. On a ‘yes’, make that outcome happen. Otherwise, make it the other.
- Roll on the following table. If you have difficulty interpreting the result to fit the current situation, roll again.
Okay, so:
42-50 A new danger or foe is revealed.
[Man, more complications. Okay.]
“Do you know where she is?” Brigitte asks. “The girl?”
The kid just looks at her, expressionless, for a little while. Then he turns and points.
Crap.
“My da sent me to invite you to the tavern.”
Brigitte nods, somewhat numbly, and follows the child back along the street toward the center of town, wondering what she’s gotten pulled into.