Next part was tricky to decide. I didn't want the adventure to stop on its tracks. 4 hours rest is a lot when you got an investigation and a race against time, so I decided the next segment to chose rather than to roll.
It also gave me an idea to work on as well as introduce someone from the character's backstory.
Scene 2
“You know, I honestly expected that you would visit me later” The voice belonged to a young and pretty creature. I should have said lady, but I knew her too well. Her pair of azure eyes was watching me amusingly, while she, herself, was sitting on a floating piece of rock. That was the only visible piece of the scenery from the way I saw it. The rest was covered in fog, the one that comes during the night. Something like this was not part of a usual Da’liysh scenery.
“Should have told us what we want to know from the start. But you chose pain in a little game of ours.” The biker fondly patted his loyal steed. “So try to enjoy what will come next. I know I will…”
[Choose on Scarlet Hero Table of Urban Adventure Scenes of Investigation
d10: 8 – An allied Actor can get you a
Clue at a personal risk. Roll a die; on even number make a skill check to help
to succeed. On even number, Fight to protect the Actor]
Roll d6 on Odd or Even= 5 – Odd numberIt also gave me an idea to work on as well as introduce someone from the character's backstory.
Scene 2
[Clues: 0
Heat: 0
Victory
Points Harold: 0
Victory Points Antagonist: 1]
“You know, I honestly expected that you would visit me later” The voice belonged to a young and pretty creature. I should have said lady, but I knew her too well. Her pair of azure eyes was watching me amusingly, while she, herself, was sitting on a floating piece of rock. That was the only visible piece of the scenery from the way I saw it. The rest was covered in fog, the one that comes during the night. Something like this was not part of a usual Da’liysh scenery.
“Expected, you say, huh? Guess that means that you do have little faith in me, after all.”
“Not true. If I actually doubted you I would have brought my scythe. Long
time ago”
“Fair point”
Her name was Scarlet Rieper and she was… well… a Reaper, an agent of Celestial
Bureaucracy. She herself prefers the term Harbinger. Like many other of her colleagues.
She was appointed to me to… you guessed it! To collect my soul when the right time
would come. Thing is though, she had a lot of opportunities to do it in the
past years. And yet, here I am. Breathing and cussing.
A little side-note
though. The Bureaucracy does not approve their agents mingling with the mortals
and being all buddy-buddy with the… potential clients. While Scarlet herself is
quite vocal about her existence.
“So, is there a reason for you to visit me in my dream?”
“Who said anything about this being your dream? But yeh, I’ve got a reason
to be here.”
“Which is?”
“Looks like your brother is in some serious trouble.”
“Tell me something I don’t know”
“But they never were as serious as they are now. He slept with an actual conduit
this time.”
“I gathered that much. And it won’t be the first time, really.”
“Sleeping with the girl?”
“No, sleeping with the conduit, I mean. Her name is Xia, or something.”
“‘Or something?’ You don’t sound that certain.”
“Nor does Ardet. And before you say anything, he claims not to steal her
name.”
“And you believe him?”
“He’s many things, but ruining other’s lives is not his style”
“Oh?” She raised her brow with an expression which I could describe only as
“knowing disbelief”.
“Well, alright… I mean ruining other’s lives by ripping their souls out that’s not his style.”
“Now that sounds about right.”
“But tell me, why all those questions? You know him as good as I do.”
And that was an absolute truth. After all, Kleid was her first client fron
the very first day of his life. That until I showed up.
“I guess I just wanted to see how strong your resolve is”
“Oh?” Now it was my turn to raise a brow I was starting to think that she
was here just to have a laugh at my expense. “And here I thought that you may
have something useful to share.”
“I may have. What exactly do you want to know?”
A ridiculous question if I ever heard one. Of course I wanted an answer to
this damn mystery! To know the name of the one responsible and not running
around getting punched in the face. But that’s not how it works with her. Oh, no.
She’s an epitome of cat on the prowl. She would like nothing more than toy
around and mess with her clients. Especially when the clients can see her. That’s one of the reason why I’ve never seen
her wearing anything non-provocative.
“That girl, Xia… Who is she, anyway?”
“Now what’s the fun if I tell you that?”
See?! See what I mean?! This is all a damn game to her! Alright, Harold,
stay calm. Just stay calm, damn it!
“Hey, I’m not asking you to give me everything you have on her. Her true
name won’t be of any help to me anyway. I’m only asking to tell me what she
actually is.” My plea may have sounded weird, but the way the girl back in the
tea shop referred to “Xia” as Lady... There should
be something to it.
“Well… you were right, both of you. Xia, is not her real name.”
“Great. Happy that mystery is finally resolved. Fantastic.” I tried to
sound not sarcastic at all. “Anything else?”
[Roll Scarlet’s Investigation: d20 + 0
= 12]
She passed the default difficulty of 10, but I decided to play on her playful nature. So I rolled on the reaction chart.
[Roll on Friendly NPC reaction 2d6: 7 Hesitant Agreement ]
“Hmm… not sure if I should give that
sort of information for free.”
Seriously?!
“Oh, come on! Aren’t we all friends here?”
[Roll Harold’s persuasion: d20 + 0 = 10 vs Scarlet’s Passive Insight = 14]
“Yeh, but your friendship is steap.” Oh, that’s funny. I keep telling Ardet
the same thing all the time. I couldn’t help but sigh.
“All right, out of it then. What do you want?”
[Roll on General Oracle d20 – Should she give him a task to perform as a price
for information? = 18 - Yes]
To see what Scarlet would wish from Harold I rolled on the chart of Immediate Desires
[Roll on Immediate Desires d100 = 47]
“Well there’s a particular book I’m interested in…”
“The one you’re not allowed to have, I take it?”
“You’re quick as ever, but yeh, literary I’m not allowed to look for it.
Not a word about touching it. But it doesn’t really matter since I can’t get my
hands on it. You however…”
“Uh-huh… I’ll see what I can do. Now about our problem…”
“Our problem?”
Suddenly I had this chilly feeling of.. what’s the word in Shakor for that
again?
Dreja..?
Deva..?
‘Déjà vu’, that’s it!
Not the most pleasant feeling in the universe
“Well, alright… My problem”
And here I thought that it was a perfect opportunity to roll the Motivation of the "antagonist" using the same chart.
[Roll on Desire Table d20 / d20 = 1 / 14 - Love]
“Right-right. So, you might find it
interesting. It appears that there was someone who saw your brother’s
girlfriend… Right after she left him, snoring alone.”
“Who exactly?”
“Someone who was not pleased to see her with another.”
It’s always the same with Kleid. He either pisses off the father, the
brother, the lover or the girl herself by calling her the wrong name.
“And this guy has something to do with all this?”
[Roll on General Oracle d20 – Is this the love of the Antagonist? = 6, No,
but… ]
[Roll on "But... chart" d6 = 6 – Sublimely good or bad timing]
“He might know something about all this”
That was better than nothing, but still not enough.
“Where can I find him?”
She hesitated to give me the answer. For a moment she looked at the horizon
all the way through the fog, searching nothing in particular and yet, looking
at something that only she could see. She had a look of a person that was
listening to someone whisper in her ear.
[Roll on Location d6 / d20 – 2 / 2 Location Common; Blacksmithy]
[Roll on the People Chart d20: 8
– Human Ethnicity]
[Roll on the name d10 / d10: 1 / 4]
“You’ll find him among Blacksmiths. Ask for Bai Lei”
[Roll on the Tribe 2d6: 6 -
Mrakor]
“Bai Lei? That’s a Mrakor’s name”
“Worry about that later. You’ve got more pressing matters”
“Such as?”
“You might want to wake up for what comes next.”
And in that very moment, the fog devoured her, leaving only slightly
visible silhouette. Which started to slide away, further and further. As if
some unseen force pushed her away... Or rather, pulled me back, faster and
harder. The fog disappeared, so did a cozy floating rock which Scarlet invited
me to visit. Only the darkness left. And that one was of a natural kind. The
one that you could expect after closing your eyes shut.
I was back in my body.
Every nerve in my body was sore but, at least, I could breath and think
without pain. Guess Scarlett actually did something to me while I was at her
place.
Can't say I was greeted warmly, though...
[Scarlet cast “Healing Word” on Harold: 1d4 + 2 Wisdom = 6 Health restored]
I'll admit that I may have cheated a bit using the NPC as sourse of information and a healer. But since I run an adventure that is a bit more difficult than the default Scarlet Heroes advise. I though that the character need a fighting chance. In the next scene.
And here's another thing, Loomes Grity rules suggest to use Magical Healing as a mean to restore Health, but not Stamina. However, all this scene was basically in Harold's head, and all they did was talking. The description of Healing Word reads like the words of encouragment, rather than an actual Healing spell, so in this adventure it recivers Stamina
[Harold’s Health: 1/5
Harold's Stamina: 6/6]
Scene 3
[Clues: 1 Heat: 0
Victory
Points Harold: 1
Victory
Points Antagonist: 1]
“He’s been like that four hours
already.”
I remember that gruff voice from not so long ago. The one that will definitely
laugh in a nasty way after piercing your leg from the back.
“Then wake him up!” That voice I remember too.
The bikers idea of waking up though was to kick me bellow the ribs.
[Attack Roll d20+3 = Unarmed Strike: 16+3 = 19)
Oof, just got the Stamina back and now losing it again?! Time to spend another Hero Point. Drats!
1d4 + 1 = 4 HP (1 Hero
Point Spent); 4HP – roll d6 = 4 - 6 = -2; No damage]
That hurt like heck. That’s what you get for not waking up in time, I
guess. When I opened my eyes and blinked enough for tears to dry out I saw the
sunless dark sky adorned with the crumbs of cold lights. I tried to get up. But
the key word here was tried for I was tied up. Both legs and arms.
And it was a solid knot, from what I could see. Luckily they’ve decided
against blindfolding me or anything. What’s more, the rope was quite long, going
all the way to the cloud bike which was slumbering for a moment.
That was not good. I bet the same
thing they did with my arms. In fact, I could hear a low hum of the metal beast
behind me, awaken and hovering above the ground ready to dash forward with a ferocious
roar.
I was quite familiar with the torture that I was about to experience.
Though I was familiar with that one kind that used real horses, but I guess the
bikes could do as well.
“Not a very good sight to wake up to”
I had an idea of what I want in the next scene, so I decided against rolling and instead chose one.
[Choose on Scarlet
Heroes Urban Adventures Action Scene: 7 – Rally an Actor and their comrades to
oppose the foe – 1 Clue Spent]
Action scenes unlike Investigation or Conflict scene need Clues. One of the resourses that character gathers if the Investigation is succesful.
“Should have told us what we want to know from the start. But you chose pain in a little game of ours.” The biker fondly patted his loyal steed. “So try to enjoy what will come next. I know I will…”
With that said he lifted the bike and activated it. I expected to hear the
beast like roar on ignition but instead it purred like a kitten. A kitten that was ready to tear of my legs
out of sockets.
“Where’s that redhead pal of yours? ”
“You should be more specific. I know lots of reds. Take your sister for
example.”
[Roll Harold’s Persuasion
vs. Biker’s Passive Insight = 11 vs 11]
This part was a bit tricky to handle. Technically it’s a hit and miss, not a
full success, because Persuasion is equal opponent's Passive Insight. But the rating of challenge in Scarlet Heroes equals 9 +
Character Level, so it's 10. Thus I treated that roll as a draw, but not a fail though. That is, until the next check roll
[Roll on Unfriendly
Reaction 2d6 = 6 – flat rejection]
I could see that he appreciated the joke he went so far as to nod to his
pal and turn the handle on the bike ever so slightly. But the pull was real.
[Roll 2d4 Force damage = 4. Harold’s Health: 1/2 ]
I could feel both my legs and arms almost popped out. Almost…
“You’re a brave man, grey. Not anyone would dare to sleep with that ugly
hag. Now anything else to tell us, smartass?”
Well since I have a tough crowd today, guess I had no choice but to try
another approach.
“Look guys, it’s true. I am
looking for someone who might look
like someone you are after. But are we sure that it’s the same guy?”
[Roll Harold’s Bluff d20+0 vs Biker’s Insight = 18 vs 11]
“Last night the redhead had fun with
the boss’ little sister. And now she’s in some sort of comma.”
“Yep, that’s something he would do… except for the comma part.” Bit of
truth, bit of lie and I got myself something genuinely believable. “What did he
do to her anyway?”
“Don’t know. She breaths, but doesn’t react to anything. Just sit there
staring at the wall in front of her. ”
Yeh, that’s definitely sounds like something a conduit with his name stolen
would act like. But it looks like that they have no idea what’s happened to
her, so they did not have a talk with their boss. Even after dealing with me.
Which is weird since they had all the time in the world to do so.
“Look guys, I’m sorry about what have happened to your boss sister but
tearing me to pieces won’t cure her or anything. Unless I help you find him and
what he did with the girl.”
No reason to defend Ardet now since they all believe him to be guilty, so I
may as well play along… There was silence for a moment. I could have heard the
gears turning in their heads if it wasn’t for the low-key humphs of their
bikes. And that was one of those rare moments of eternal silence which I waited
anxiously, fearing to hear another roar of the bikes.
This didn’t happen, quite the contrary, actually. The purr of engines died
out. Right after that I heard some commotion behind and some clinging of the
metal.
I registered that ‘bear’ stood next to me holding a knife in his hand.
Though a sheer size of it reminded me more of a machete. And the blade of this
machete was dangerously close to my face.
“And what makes you think that you have any chance at this at all?”
Obviously he was referring to my poor performance way back in the alley.
“Well, I did land a few good ones on your face, didn’t I?”
“You did. But you still ended up here. About to be torn to pieces.”
“The thing is, that back in the alley I was not motivated enough”
“And now?”
“And now, I think I am”
He knelled taking the knife even closer. Closer than I’d like to…
“I’m taking a big risk here and lots of faith releasing you. Don’t screw
this up for me”
His pal was not so keen about all that exchange.
“And just like that? You are letting him go?”
The blade in bear’s hand made quick work of the ropes.
“Only if he knows where to look!”
“Trust me, I do…” I assured him
rubbing my wrists.
