Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Sundered Isles Part Four

You can purchase Sundered Isles here.
You can purchase Starforged here.
You can purchase Sea of Sands here.

Read the previous chapter in Jadyn Farani’s journey here.

Oracle: Share Tool

Jadyn is roughly chucked into the torchlit basement cell by two of General Selima’s soldiers. The bar slams shut with a clink behind her. Standing up, dusting herself off, she notices a figure curled up in the corner – Qasim. The rest of the crew of The Erasmus has been split up into different parts of the dungeon. Jadyn rushes over to check on Qasim. He’s conscious but in poor health, his body continuing its transformation due to ingesting muqadas Essence over a year ago. Jadyn can tell he is not doing well and attempts to stabilize him.

(I debated using Secure an Advantage or Heal for this action. Secure felt a little transactional & cold, while Heal is written in a way that is about mechanically restoring Health. I went with Heal but modified it so that its outcome is the same as Secure but with how Heal references each ability. For Secure, regarding interacting with others, it says, “With resolve, command, or sociability: Roll +heart,” while Heal states, “Provide care: Roll +wits.” The latter felt more apt than the former in this situation.)

(Heal w/Wits – 2 + 4 = 6 vs. 1, 5 – Strong Hit. +2 momentum and hold +1 for the next roll)

Qasim’s eyelids flutter, and he wakes up, “Jay…dn,” he croaks. “It’s changing me inside.” She takes a handful of water from a bowl left in the cell and gently dampens his brow, feeling the leathery worm-like skin he’s transmuting into. 

(Develop Relationship – +2)

“You…must…have this,” Qasim reaches into a pocket, and a lump of metal clatters out onto the floor. “It…speaks…to me. It…said…you…must…have it.” Jaydn thinks of her staff, confiscated by the guards at the entrance. She pockets the metal chunk and starts searching to get herself and Qasim out of here. Jadyn attempts to force the gate of the cell open with her strength.

(Secure an Advantage w/Iron – 3 + 1 + 5 = 9 vs. 1, 6 – Strong Hit. +2 momentum and hold +1 next roll)

Jadyn finds the dungeons have been poorly maintained, and a few well-placed shoves on weak points cause the gate to break off its hinges. She holds onto it, avoiding a noise clatter to the ground, and gently leans it against the inside of the cell. Then, Qasim is lifted up, letting him lean on her as she searches for a way out of the dungeon and towards the Great Burrow.

(Face Danger w/Shadow – 2 + 1 + 6 = 9 vs. 7, 6 – Strong Hit)

Jadyn discovers the entrance to the dungeon, gently lowering Qasim to the floor. She can see the guards from around a corner, they are distracted by cataloging all the weapons taken off The Erasmus crew. Jadyn palms the metal chunk in her pocket and decides to toss it as a way to draw their attention from the weapons.

(Secure an Advantage w/Shadow – 2 + 3 = 5 vs. 9, 2 – Weak Hit – Burn Momentum – Strong Hit. +2 momentum, and +1 for next move)

Jadyn tosses the metal chunk towards the east wing, which clatters on the ground. The guards’ heads immediately look up from the weapons table and march over, hands on the hilts of their laspistols. At that moment, Jadyn crouches and runs from her corner to behind the table to reach up and grab her staff. 

(Face Danger w/Shadow – 2 + 1 + 1 = 4 vs. 4, 8 – Weak Hit. Suffer Move – 1 Spirit)

Jadyn feels her heart pounding as she grabs the staff without the guards noticing. When she gets back to Qasim, she uses the staff like a crutch under his other arm, and he can hobble forward more, taking a little weight off her shoulder as they ascend the stairs into the sandy courtyard above. There’s a weight in her pocket, and she checks. The metal chunk is back there…somehow.

She pulls it out, looking at its jagged, irregular edges. It seems like something melted down but never shaped into anything. It feels like it is moving? The metal becomes like liquid, crawling up Jadyn’s arm and onto her staff, curling around the wood and to the iron top, where it merges and reshapes. The metal reforms into something resembling a claw, a curved shape with space to attach something within? Jadyn is stunned, and the staff speaks to her again, telling her to reach the bottom of the Great Burrow.

She looks at Qasim, but he’s barely conscious. 

Oracle question: Is there anything between Jadyn and the entrance to the Great Burrow on the other side of the fortress courtyard? Odds: Likely (75 or less is Yes). Answer: (98) No. 

Jadyn realizes most of the soldiers are celebrating their victory against the Verfault. The significant threat has been routed, and Selima doesn’t assume The Erasmus crew will go anywhere until she’s ready to deal with them in the morning. Jadyn hurries across the sand-covered stones of the courtyard with Qasim and finds herself overlooking the mouth of the Great Burrow.

She places him down gently. “I don’t know if I can carry you with me. Do you want to come with me? I can try?”

Oracle question: Does Qasim want to descend into the Great Burrow with Jadyn? Odds: 50/50. Answer: (69) No. 

Qasim weakly shakes his head. “It is too…late…for me.”

Jadyn notices the crystallized muqadas Essence faintly glows its signature violet as the sun vanishes beyond the horizon. 

“De…scend…and….” Qasim trails over, his speech becoming incomprehensible gurgling. Jadyn reasons his vocal cords have finally been changed. 

She remembers that Qasim had told her General Selima had been ready to blow up the Burrow to stop the Verfault from reaching it. Qasim had seemingly betrayed the oath al Raml had taken to the worldbreakers and was willing to hand the Burrow over to the enemy. Why would he have done such a thing? No way to get an answer now. Jadyn begins her descent. 

(Face Danger w/Edge – 1 + 4 vs. 5, 5 – Miss & Match)

(Pay the Price: A new danger or foe is revealed)

(Oracle: Restore Law)

Just as Jadyn feels like she has a good grip & footing, she moves and the slick crystalline muqadas causes her to slip. She feels herself tumbling down the sloping wall of the Great Burrow, the moonlight from above quickly becoming dimmer & dimmer. She feels her body bruised and cut. Finally, after what feels like an eternity, she slides to a stop.

Jaydn lies there, afraid to move, unsure of what’s just bruised or broken. She breathes, realizing her hand is still tightly clinging around her staff. Finally, the smuggler finds the energy to move & shift. She’s on a ledge, hands reaching out to see the edge. There’s light coming from the bottom of the Great Burrow, growing larger as it seems to float up from the bottom. It gets close enough, and she can see it is attached to a metallic tentacle. Her staff is pulled towards it like a magnet, and she finds the tentacle wrapping around her.

(Face Danger w/Iron – 3 + 5 = 8 vs. 7, 4 – Strong Hit)

Jadyn wrestles herself from the tentacle’s grip and back onto the ledge. It responds by switching from its white light to a harsh red one. She notices a line emitted from the light and scans her head to toe. Then, it recedes back down to the bottom of the Great Burrow. 

She knows that construct is not connected to the worldbreakers, so what is it then? It reacted to her staff, and she’s been confused by the merging of the metals. Jadyn says she should have never taken this thing from that crashed transport months ago. It whispers even more insistently now for the smuggler to reach the bottom of this massive tunnel. Jadyn attempts to let her eyes adjust to the darkness and see if she can see anything below.

(Secure an Advantage w/Wits – 1 + 2 = 3 vs. 4, 1 – Weak hit. +2 Momentum)

There’s more light down there. Eerie blue glowing. Jadyn can faintly make out a circular shape, or is something constructed? She notices the staff feels like it is being pulled again, magnetically attracted to whatever is down there. This thing must want the staff so she can use that to her advantage in dealing with it.

(Face Danger w/Shadow – 2 + 5 = 7 vs. 2, 3 – Strong Hit)

Jayden reaches the circular object like a ship partially embedded in the crystalline wall. The bottom is close to here. She waves the staff, and the tentacle keeps its distance. The construct is unlike anything Jadyn has ever seen or heard of. (Like the Dune Universe, this region of space banned robotics and A.I. millennia earlier, so Jadyn has never heard of or seen anything like this). 

(Fulfill a Vow – 6 vs. 9, 7 – Miss)

Jadyn’s feet hit the bottom of the Burrow, where the great worldbreaker died and gave his life essence back to the people of Audun. It’s a hard, slick shell of crystal. It’s thick so no cracking under her feet. Suddenly, the staff flies from her hand and floats upright over the center of the crystalline substance. The metal claw on the top turns to liquid, pouring itself onto the crystal surface and spreading. 

The circular construct aims its tentacle at the liquid metal, casting a blue beam of light. Jadyn sees a form emerging as the liquid metal comes back together. A strange-looking man stands before her, stretching his limbs, adjusting to this form. He looks back at Jadyn, smiling in a way that disturbs her, before kneeling and slamming his fist through the crystal surface. She can see the liquid metal spreading through the muqadas Essence and realizes she has helped something terrible come to pass.

Vows

• I vow to avenge Addahak’s death against the Verfault (Extreme) 0/40
• I vow to descend to the bottom of the Great Burrow (Dangerous) 6/10 – Failed
• I vow to stop the House Verfault attack on Jahar (Formidable) 6/10 – Fulfilled
  • Summon a worldbreaker to terrify the Verfault (Dangerous) ⅖ – Failed
• I vow to uncover the true identity of Idris the Pilgrim (Formidable) 0/10
• I vow to hunt down Katulla the Shredder of Men (Formidable) 01/10

Progress

• Get to General Selima’s fortress (Dangerous) ⅘ – Failed

To be concluded…