Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Against the Wind Part Three

You can purchase Against the Wind here

Read about our previous session here.

This is my final actual play of Against the Wind for now, but I have to say this is one of the best solo systems I’ve played thus far. I love the tools of Ironsworn/Starforged, but I do feel it misses procedures that help create settings and situations sometimes. Against the Wind has such clearly written steps for building the world, creating NPCs, exploring the wilderness & settlements, and in this session dungeon delving. The tables are evocative enough without locking you into one path. I can definitely see myself returning to this one in the future.

Oracle question: Do Aelwen and Elanar have an encounter on their journey to the Dwolin city? Yes (monster) but…Close/Open, Cold, Modest/Grand

It happens from a distance. Elanar whispers at Aelwen to drop to the ground as they walk across a ridge overlooking a snowy valley. Aelwen does and looks in the same direction Elanar gazes. It’s a glacial serpent, the same kind the hunter from before was stalking. It slithers up to a stone door inset on the side of a mountain. The doors are around 20 meters tall, with ornate carvings across them, worn down by time. Aelwen can tell this was once an important place, the valley would have been protected from attacking armies. It was probably the palace of some fickle god who had moved on to another land. Ice covers the doors, freezing them shut, but the glacial serpent slithers through a large hole that’s been chipped away at the base.

“There’s a large nest inside there,” Elanar shares. “I’ve swiped my share of eggs in my day. Very sensitive to sound, it would’ve heard our footsteps if it had kept moving.”

Aelwen is thankful for his wise companion and whispers back, “Is it okay to get up now?” Elanar nods.

“What was that place, before the serpents?” Aelwen asks.

Elanar answers, “A temple to a forgotten god. One who used up the land and then sailed off across the frozen oceans, never to return.”

---

Galdahr, The Dwolin City

Origin: Result of a grand, unfulfilled vision | Legends: Home to a legendary, lost artifact | Ruination: Desecrated by dark, forbidden magic | Ruler: A gargantuan frost creature

Aelwen & Elanar approach the stone doors of Galdahr, a city built into the side of one of the great mountains. Grand stone gates have been shattered, hanging off their hinges. Large claw marks scar them. The bodies of dozens of dwarves lie scattered at the entrance, frozen in an icy permanent rictus. Elanar is stunned at such violence and horror. He mentions how kind the Dwolin always were. Aelwen can sense dark primordial magics, such that he becomes afraid. But his training prepared him to deal with such evils in the world. He steadies himself.

Room #1 – Regular Room

Size: Medium | Purpose: Ceremony | Adornment: Strange, arcane symbols | Sight: Colorful murals or tapestries | Smell: Pungent odor of sweat and grime | Sound: Silence, eerily quiet | 

Connection: Iron-bound door with strange markings

Ask the GM: How many connections are there to this room? Five, all either blocked, locked, or stuck

Room Event: Feature – Interactive – Shifting floor sections

Aelwen finds the medium-sized entrance room has been set up for a ceremony. There are symbols etched across the walls that are unfamiliar to him, some magic developed by the dwarves. The room emanates a strong, poisonous magic. The symbols have been etched over painted murals that depict events in Galdahr history. As he steps forward, Elanar blocks his way and points at the floor. The tiles are blinking in & out of existence revealing the chasm beneath. 

Challenge
Maneuver: 3 | Endurance: 1

Action: Aelwen watches the blinking, looking for a pattern he can memorize. Once he thinks he has one, he tells Elanar to follow him. Roll: 4 (3+1)

Just as the warrior-monk is about to step down the tile blinks away. Damn, he doesn’t have the pattern down as well as he thought he did.

Challenge turn: Aggressive – Quick changes lead to confusion (Lose 1 Resolve)

The tiles start varying their pattern, moving faster, than quicker. Aelwen swears they must be aware he is trying to cross.

Action: Aelwen starts making note of solid structures across the room, planning to jump and grab onto them to make his way across. Roll: 10 (5+5) – Hit – Challenge defeated

Ask the GM: Does Aelwen find anything of significance on the other side of the room? Answer: Yes, but…Shadow/Light, Chaos, Cold/Hot

Buried under some rubble is a glowing mining pick. Aelwen touches it but recoils quickly. The pick was so cold it burned his hand from a slight touch. The warrior-monk notices how thick and heavy his breath is in this room, yet rivulets of sweat trickle down his forehead. Things do not make sense in this place.

Action: With the large door locked, Aelwen and Elanar decide to move the rubble from the blocked passage next to it, hoping they can get deeper into Dwolin. Roll: 9 (5+4). Aelwen puts his back into a little harder (-1 Vigor) and soon enough the passage is clear.

Room #2 – Regular Room

Size: Medium | Purpose: Gathering | Adornment: Dimly lit alcoves | Sight: Flickering torches and candles | Smell: Fresh herbal fragrance | Sound: Muffled thuds or footsteps | Connection: Straight corridors with torches

How many connections? 3

Room Event – Feature – Lore – Tattered banners of a forgotten hero
Oracle: Elusive, Grand, Open

As the duo trudges down the dimly lit hallway, footsteps echo on stone, Elanar points out the frayed and torn tapestry on the wall. It depicts Brulmera, a hero from the founding days of Galdahr. The tapestry only shows her arm holding a pickaxe. Her arm is decorated with ornate golden bracers, etched with runes. The pickaxe has a dragon carved into its handle. It’s point is striking a rock that has cracks in it. Elanar explains this is a depiction of the stones being moved to unveil the grand hoard that a dragon had buried in the mountain. Brulmera would lead the battle with the dragon and drive it from the land.

There’s a door ahead and one to the side (which should lead to behind those large, locked doors). 

Action: Aelwen decides to try and bust the door down. Roll: 7 (6+1)

Leverage: Forge Warrior – Aelwen was made to go through intense training at the monastery. One of those exercises was to break through a door-sized piece of wood. It took many tries, multiple blisters, but he eventually pushed through it like it was melting snow. He does the same here (6+6 = 12, Hit).

Room #3 – Unique Room (double 6s)

Bottles, herbs, strange glow. Flickering shadow play. Acrid smells. Sealed alchemical tome, elemental guard

Aelwen knows exactly what they’ve stumbled upon from the burning, herbaceous stench. This is the workshop of a warlock, a summoner of demons and practitioner of black magic. 

Room Event – Encounter – People – Rogue Archaeologist – Thalion

Disposition: Neutral or indifferent | Magical Feature: Gentle snowflakes falling in aura | Eyes: Confident and assertive | Hair: Bald, shiny under the light | Build: Muscled and compactly coiled | Clothes: Earthy tones, rugged and worn | Weapon: Dagger, etched with an inscrutable map

Aelwen and Elanar are stunned for a moment as a stout man is on his knees digging through a chest he appears to have forced open. What is strangest about the fellow is the small gray cloud floating above his head depositing snowflakes on his bald pate. The man seems to feel their eyes on him and turns around, putting a finger to his lips with a “shhhh” sound. He resumes scrounging around in the chest.

Challenge – Learn what is going on in Galdahr
Maneuver: 3 | Endurance: 2

Action: Aelwen approaches the man to see if they can open a friendly dialogue. Roll: 5 (3+2)

Aelwen quiet words are seemingly ignored, the man mutters something the warrior-monk can’t quite make out. He looks back to Elanar for support who simply shrugs his shoulders.

Challenge turn: Aggressive – Intimidate with body language (Lose 1 Factor)

The man seems to have found something, but quickly stows it away in a shoulder bag. He stands, pushing his way past Aelwen and heading across the room to a large tome on a podium with a glowing lock. Aelwen knows this man is on a mission, but he can’t determine if he is a potential ally or a threat.

Action: Aelwen decides to put his foot down and display his authority as an Allerville Monk. He stomps his boot on the ground, letting it echo. Roll: 6+6 = 12, Double Hit. Challenge ended.

The man freezes, the snowfall still happening over his head. “Ya must be quiet, fella. The beast stalking these halls.”

Aelwen wants to know more. Oracle: Very Grand, Scarcity, Stillness

Thalion introduces himself. He’s an anarchologist (anarchic + archaeologist), meaning he belongs to none of the explorer’s guilds. He’s on a quest to get as close to the center of the world as possible and he’d read that there was a grand tunnel network in Galdahr that could get one quite near. However, when he arrived he could find no one alive. He says he briefly heard and glimpsed a large creature stalking the halls and he found his way into this room. Thalion figures a warlock might be behind the devastation, summoning a demon.

Elanar introduces himself and inquires about the snow cloud floating above Thalion’s head. The anarchologist replies that he pissed off a witch six months ago and the damn thing just floats there all the time. He wonders aloud if there might be a cure in this warlock’s sanctum. Aelwen decides to search for something of value in this strange, mysterious room.

Rewards (Tangible): Map, tracing the paths of snow spirits

Aelwen looks the paper over. It seems the Dwolin were quite gifted at recording the snow spirits that came down from the mountain tops. This beast stalking Galdahr could be one of these and the Dwolin angered it?

Room #4 – Final Room

Size: Small or Cramped | Purpose: Containment | Adornment: Engraved pillars | Sight: Muted, subdued lighting | Smell: Overpowering stench of rot | Sound: Whispering voices

The Frost Demon – Grakoroth

Disposition: Defensive, guarded | Category: Natural and primeval – corrupted humanoid | Unique trait: eyes flicker with an otherworldly flame | Seeks: Artifact | Offers: Spells

Slumped against one of several large pillars in this cramped chamber is a muscular figure covered in a coat of white fur. Crystals have collected across the fur. Aelwen stands with his companions in awe at the creature. It turns to look at them, Aelwen can see exhaustion in its face and body language. He also notes that the face resembles a dwarf’s, that this was one of the Dwolin who was corrupted. The warlock?

The Frost Demon softly laughs to itself, then coughing. He slides back away from the three explorers. Its eyes crackle with an icy blue fire. The chilly gaze looks over the three and stops on Aelwen.

“You,” it gurgles. “You are seeking it, too. Simbi’s Finger. Yes?”

How does it know? Aelwen nods. The monster continues, “You should find it. It is the only thing that can stop all of this, that can restore the springs. The icy fingers of the underworld are clawing their way into yours.”

Aelwen wants to know more.

Challenge – Chat with Grakoroth
Maneuver: 8 | Endurance: 2

Action: Aelwen asks what happened to this poor soul, who he was before. Roll: 4 (3+1)

Leverage: Masterful Diplomacy (3+3 = 6). Spend 1 Gear (offer the demon food from his pack), 2 Essence (cast a spell to provide a small fire in the room, hoping to warm the creature), and 1 Resolve (bolster himself against the fear of being in the presence of such an entity) = 10, Hit, reduce endurance by 1

The creature reveals his name Grakoroth, a demon from the frost planes of Hell. He is possessing the body of the Dwolin warlock who summoned him. Grak was furious to find he had brought to another freezing place, he had hoped to have relief from that eternal torture. He puts out his large, clawed hands towards the flames Aelwen has summoned.

Action: Aelwen asks if Grakoroth knows where he should search for Simbi’s Finger, explaining how he found where it was supposed to be at the nearby shrine, but it was missing. Roll: 10 (5+5), Hit. Challenge defeated.

Oracle: Abundance, Bond, Shadow/Light

Grakoroth says he can feel Simbi’s Finger, the magic pouring from it. It is in a large city forged from an alliance between two armies that battled for generations. Times had been tough, but someone there is using Simbi’s Finger to push back the endless winter. They grow crops found nowhere else. 

Aelwen knows the place he speaks of, Aranthar – the Kingdom of the Sun. He’d read about it during his studies in the monastery but never ventured there. Grakoroth says he is trying to fight back the bloodlust and hunger, but he cannot do it forever. Only the flames of the sun itself could save him. Aelwen says he will attempt to trap the demon within this chamber until they return and the creature agrees to this.

---

Outside the chamber, back in the warlock’s sanctum, Aelwen asks his companions if they wish to accompany him on this journey across the land.

Elanar – Yes – the hot springs beneath Iggen must be restored

Thalion – No – I have no wish to join an adventuring party, I must get to the center of this world to learn its secrets.

So Aelwen and Elanar set off on a journey to recover Simbi’s Finger, knowing they would be met with great resistance…