{ "id": "forest", "label": "Forest", "forgeStageType": "forest", "schema": 1, "_model": "The wild kernel: the APPETITE belongs to the place itself. A wood wants to be entered, fed, spread, or left uncounted, and the ACCOMMODATION is what it did to whoever was here — took them, grew through them, let them wander. Claimants are the wood's own names for itself.", "facetProgression": { "approach": "institution", "complication": "ritual", "turn": "demand", "descent": "wound", "threshold": "anchor", "ending": "demand" }, "claimants": [ "Green Man", "Antlered Thing", "Lady of Thorns", "First Tree", "Wood's Own", "Charcoal-Burner", "Hunt That Does Not End" ], "appetites": [ { "id": "entered", "want": "to be walked into and never out of", "lack": "walked out of", "purpose": "nobody would ever find the far side", "motif": "paths", "prize": "lantern", "conscript": "the travellers", "asks": "\"Which way did you think you were going?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "walk in deliberately, and say aloud that you mean to", "attribute": "Poise", "successes": 2, "why": "someone came in on purpose", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "fed", "want": "to be given something at the edge", "lack": "unfed", "purpose": "nobody would ever pass without paying", "motif": "tithe", "prize": "bowl", "conscript": "the offerings", "asks": "\"What have you brought me?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "leave something of value at a root, without asking anything", "attribute": "Flair", "successes": 2, "why": "the wood has been given something", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "spreading", "want": "to grow over everything that was ever cleared", "lack": "held back", "purpose": "nothing would ever stay cut", "motif": "reclaiming", "prize": "axe", "conscript": "the woodsmen", "asks": "\"Why do you cut me?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "let something of yours be taken and grown over", "attribute": "Poise", "successes": 2, "why": "the wood has taken back a little more", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } }, { "id": "uncounted", "want": "never to be mapped or measured", "lack": "surveyed", "purpose": "nobody would ever say how big it is", "motif": "trackless", "prize": "chain", "conscript": "the surveyors", "asks": "\"Do you know where you are?\"", "appeasement": { "move": "admit aloud that you are lost, and mean it", "attribute": "Wits", "successes": 2, "why": "nobody can say where they are", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true } } ], "accommodations": [ { "id": "took", "text": "took {conscript} one at a time and did not give them back", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "entered", "fed", "uncounted" ] }, { "id": "grewthrough", "text": "grew through {conscript} until there was more wood than not", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "spreading", "fed", "entered" ] }, { "id": "wandered", "text": "let {conscript} wander until they stopped wanting to leave", "cruelty": 2, "fits": [ "entered", "uncounted", "spreading" ] }, { "id": "traded", "text": "took {conscript} for a season and returned something else", "cruelty": 2, "fits": [ "fed", "entered", "uncounted" ] }, { "id": "edged", "text": "kept {conscript} at the treeline, facing out, as a warning", "cruelty": 3, "fits": [ "spreading", "fed", "uncounted" ] }, { "id": "rooted", "text": "let {conscript} put down roots where they stood", "cruelty": 1, "fits": [ "spreading", "entered", "fed" ] } ], "prizes": { "lantern": { "label": "the lantern that still shows the way out", "function": "the only thing here that knows a direction" }, "bowl": { "label": "the bowl the offerings were left in", "function": "the only place the wood has ever been satisfied" }, "axe": { "label": "the axe that held the treeline for a century", "function": "the only thing that ever cut and stayed cut" }, "chain": { "label": "a surveyor's chain, complete", "function": "the only honest measurement anyone took" } }, "placeNames": { "first": [ "The Wood of the", "The Green of the", "Under the", "The Thicket of the", "The Old Wood of the" ] }, "areaNames": { "approach": [ "The Treeline", "The Ride", "The Verge", "The Coppice Edge", "The Old Track" ], "complication": [ "The Coppice", "The Charcoal Burns", "The Deer Lawn", "The Hollow Way", "The Bramble Break" ], "turn": [ "The Clearing", "The Standing Stones", "The Green Ride", "The Crossways", "The Sunken Glade" ], "descent": [ "The Deep Wood", "The Blackthorn", "The Fallen Ground", "The Wet Wood", "The Root Hollow" ], "threshold": [ "The Grove", "The Ring of Oaks", "The Last Clearing", "The Thorn Gate", "The Still Place" ], "ending": [ "The First Tree", "The Heart of the Wood", "Where the Green Man Waits", "The Oldest Clearing" ] }, "factions": [ { "id": "taken", "name": "the Taken", "kind": "undead", "essence": "still walking the paths they were lost on", "handledBy": "courtesy" }, { "id": "foresters", "name": "charcoal-burners", "kind": "living", "essence": "working a wood that is working on them", "handledBy": "trade" }, { "id": "hunt", "name": "the Hunt", "kind": "beast", "essence": "running something down, and has been for a long time", "handledBy": "standing still" }, { "id": "thorns", "name": "what grew over the rest", "kind": "beast", "essence": "neither knows nor cares who came through", "handledBy": "force" } ], "triggerGlossary": { "announced": "came in by the ride, singing or talking, as travellers do", "seenTwice": "passed the same tree twice, or were watched from two sides", "loud": "an axe, a shout, a horn — the wood minds all three", "lingering": "stopped moving long enough for the wood to catch up", "disturbed": "cut, broke or took something growing" }, "rosters": { "skirmish": { "line": "a Bat Swarm and 2 Giant Rats in the leaf-litter", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Bat Swarm", "atk": 3, "def": 3, "grit": 1, "nerve": 2, "note": "disperses to nothing and re-forms" }, { "n": 2, "name": "Giant Rat", "atk": 2, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 2, "note": "flees from fire" } ], "harmedBy": "anything; fire scatters all of it", "avoid": "stand still and they pass around you" }, "fight": { "line": "2 Dire Wolves", "foes": [ { "n": 2, "name": "Dire Wolf", "atk": 4, "def": 3, "grit": 5, "nerve": 3, "note": "circles; takes the one who runs" } ], "harmedBy": "anything", "avoid": "nobody runs and they will not commit" }, "battle": { "line": "1 Troll under the roots and 2 Dire Wolves", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Troll", "atk": 5, "def": 3, "grit": 12, "nerve": 4, "note": "regrows unless the wound is burned" }, { "n": 2, "name": "Dire Wolf", "atk": 4, "def": 3, "grit": 5, "nerve": 3, "note": "circles" } ], "harmedBy": "anything, but the Troll only stays down if fire closes the wound", "avoid": "it is territorial and will not follow past the treeline" }, "nightmare": { "line": "the Hunt: 1 Wraith mounted, 1 Troll and 4 Dire Wolves", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Wraith", "atk": 5, "def": 3, "grit": 10, "nerve": 5, "note": "INCORPOREAL — chill touch ignores armour, drains 1 max Grit" }, { "n": 1, "name": "Troll", "atk": 5, "def": 3, "grit": 12, "nerve": 4, "note": "regrows unless burned" }, { "n": 4, "name": "Dire Wolf", "atk": 4, "def": 3, "grit": 5, "nerve": 3, "note": "runs down anything that flees" } ], "harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons for the Wraith ONLY; fire for the Troll; anything for the wolves", "avoid": "the Hunt passes over anyone standing perfectly still", "beforeInitiative": "Say so before initiative." } }, "motifs": { "paths": { "danger": "straying", "dangerLine": "the wood is still taking people in, and it is patient about it", "trigger": "lingering", "facets": { "institution": [ "a ride cut straight for a mile and going nowhere", "waymarks nailed to trees, all of them facing inward", "a stile into the wood with no stile out" ], "ritual": [ "boots left in a row at the treeline, toes pointing in", "a path swept clear of leaf-fall by nothing at all", "a lantern lit at dusk on a post with no road" ], "demand": [ "a path that widens invitingly wherever you slow down", "a clearing you keep arriving at from different directions", "a track that is easier walking than the way back" ], "wound": [ "one boot, worn through, a long way from any road", "waymarks prised off and stacked at a root", "a track worn deep by someone walking it for years" ], "anchor": [ "a lantern still burning on a post at a crossway", "a walking-staff planted upright, worn to the grain", "a map-case, empty, hanging on a branch" ] }, "features": [ "a fresh blaze cut into bark, this season", "a campfire cold but recent, with nobody's gear taken", "a hat on a branch at head height", "a path that was not there when you looked before", "a coat folded neatly at a root", "cart-ruts leading in and none leading out" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "two paths, one plainly easier walking than the other", "cost": "the wood made one of them easy on purpose", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you read the leaf-fall and take the true path, losing no time", "failure": "you take the easy path and it costs a Turn more than it should", "orElse": "take the hard path deliberately: one Turn, but you know where you are" } }, { "cue": "a lantern burning on a post at a crossway", "cost": "carrying it means the wood can see you coming", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you take it and it shows the way — the party does not stray this delve", "failure": "you take it and something starts walking toward the light", "orElse": "leave it burning: no guidance, and no attention" } }, { "cue": "waymarks prised off and stacked at a root", "cost": "resetting them is a service to whoever comes next", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you reset them and the Taken are grateful — they will guide you once", "failure": "you are seen doing it and the wood closes a path behind you", "orElse": "leave them stacked; you are not the wood's problem to solve" } }, { "cue": "a stranger's coat folded at a root, still dry", "cost": "taking it is theft from someone probably still walking", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you find the mark inside and learn who is still on these paths", "failure": "you take it and something begins following at coat-distance", "orElse": "leave it folded; you will pass it again" } }, { "cue": "a clearing you have now arrived at twice", "cost": "the third time will not be a coincidence", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you break the loop by leaving a mark and walking off it", "failure": "you arrive a third time: lose a Turn and roll the clock", "orElse": "walk out in a straight line whatever the ground does: one Turn, hard going" } }, { "cue": "a track worn deep by long use, going the wrong way", "cost": "following it finds whoever wore it", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you follow it and find them, and they can still be spoken to", "failure": "you follow it and join it — the party walks it a Turn before noticing", "orElse": "ignore it; the walker keeps walking" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "one of the Taken", "doing": "walking a path it has walked for a very long time", "onArrival": "it falls into step beside you without a word", "because": "it was never told it could stop", "offer": "tell it the way out and it will show you a shortcut in return" }, { "occupant": "a lantern on a post", "doing": "burning steadily with nothing to burn", "onArrival": "the flame turns toward you as you approach", "because": "it was lit for someone who never came", "offer": "carry it and the paths behave for one area" }, { "occupant": "a living charcoal-burner", "doing": "recutting a blaze the wood keeps growing over", "onArrival": "they nod and keep working", "because": "the marks must be kept or the burn cannot be found", "offer": "help them cut and they will mark your route out" }, { "occupant": "two of the Taken", "doing": "standing at a fork, each facing a different way", "onArrival": "they both turn to you to settle it", "because": "they disagreed once and have not moved since", "offer": "choose a path for them and both will walk it with you" }, { "occupant": "the path", "doing": "widening ahead of you into easy walking", "onArrival": "the going becomes noticeably pleasant", "because": "the wood is being welcoming", "offer": "refuse the easy way aloud and the wood respects it" }, { "occupant": "a walking-staff", "doing": "standing upright where it was planted", "onArrival": "the leaves around it are undisturbed", "because": "whoever planted it meant to come back", "offer": "take it up and the wood counts you a traveller, not a trespasser" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "lantern", "cue": "a lantern that burns without fuel", "benefit": "the party never loses its way", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "everything in the wood knows where you are" }, { "id": "waymark", "cue": "a waymark prised off a tree", "benefit": "once, make a path lead where you say", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the path you displaced has to go somewhere" }, { "id": "staff", "cue": "a walking-staff worn to the grain", "benefit": "once, walk out of anywhere in a straight line", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you cannot stop walking while you hold it" }, { "id": "bootlace", "cue": "a boot-lace from the row at the treeline", "benefit": "once, retrace your steps exactly, however far", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "you retrace someone else's too", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Pride" } }, { "id": "mapcase", "cue": "an empty map-case, oiled", "benefit": "once, know the way to somewhere you have never been", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the wood learns where you wanted to go" } ] }, "tithe": { "danger": "debt", "dangerLine": "the wood is owed something, and it remembers who has not paid", "trigger": "disturbed", "facets": { "institution": [ "a stone at the treeline worn hollow by things set down on it", "offerings nailed to a trunk at every height", "a bowl at a root, never quite empty" ], "ritual": [ "bread left out, untouched but not stale", "a first cut of every coppice stacked and unburned", "a horn sounded at the edge before anyone enters" ], "demand": [ "a root grown across the path at exactly waist height", "a hollow in a trunk at the height of an outstretched hand", "a clearing where everything you carry feels heavier" ], "wound": [ "offerings taken back, and the trees around them dead", "a bowl smashed and the pieces kept in place", "a treeline that has moved a field's width since the wall was built" ], "anchor": [ "the offering-bowl itself, at the oldest root", "a stone table with a hollow worn in the centre", "a hoard of small given things in a hollow trunk" ] }, "features": [ "a fresh offering, still wet", "a hollow tree stuffed with things nobody wanted", "bread on a stone, untouched and not old", "a coin pressed into bark and grown half over", "a dead animal laid out deliberately, not eaten", "a stack of first-cuttings, unburned" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a bowl at a root that is not quite empty", "cost": "leaving something is cheap; taking something is not", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you leave something well-chosen and the wood eases — no clock roll in this area", "failure": "you leave something worthless and it is noticed: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave nothing and walk on; the wood keeps count" } }, { "cue": "a hollow trunk full of small given things", "cost": "one of them is exactly what you need", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you take one and leave one, and the exchange is accepted", "failure": "you take without leaving, and the wood follows you the rest of the delve", "orElse": "take nothing: the need goes unmet" } }, { "cue": "a root grown across the path at waist height", "cost": "stepping over is trespass; going under is submission", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you go under, which the wood counts as courtesy, and it lets you by", "failure": "you step over and the wood treats you as a woodsman from here", "orElse": "cut it: loud, roll the clock, and the wood remembers the cut" } }, { "cue": "a dead animal laid out deliberately at a crossway", "cost": "it was left for something that has not come", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you read what it was left for, and what that thing wants instead", "failure": "you disturb it and whatever it was for arrives hungry", "orElse": "leave it and go round: one Turn" } }, { "cue": "bread on a stone, fresh, in a wood with nobody in it", "cost": "eating it accepts the wood's hospitality", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you eat and are a guest — the Taken will not touch you this delve", "failure": "you eat and are fed by the wood, which means you belong to it: +1 Bane", "orElse": "do not eat; you stay hungry and free" } }, { "cue": "a coin pressed into bark and half grown over", "cost": "prising it out takes back an offering", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you free it cleanly and the tree does not seem to mind", "failure": "the bark tears and the wood takes something of yours instead", "orElse": "leave it; it will be gone entirely in another century" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "a living family", "doing": "leaving bread on a stone and backing away from it", "onArrival": "they gesture at you to be quiet, and to wait", "because": "the tithe must be left and not watched", "offer": "wait with them and they will share what the wood accepts" }, { "occupant": "the offering-bowl", "doing": "filling with rainwater that is not rain", "onArrival": "the surface stills as you approach", "because": "the bowl must not be empty", "offer": "put something in it and the wood grants you one passage unmolested" }, { "occupant": "one of the Taken", "doing": "carrying an armful of small things toward a hollow trunk", "onArrival": "it offers you the armful to hold", "because": "the offerings must be collected and never are", "offer": "help it carry and it will let you keep one" }, { "occupant": "a charcoal-burner", "doing": "stacking a first-cutting that will not be burned", "onArrival": "they hand you an axe, handle first", "because": "the first cut is owed and they cannot bring themselves to burn it", "offer": "burn it for them and the wood counts the debt paid" }, { "occupant": "the trees", "doing": "closing a little around a stone with nothing on it", "onArrival": "the gap you came through narrows", "because": "something was due and was not left", "offer": "leave anything at all and the gap opens" }, { "occupant": "a horn", "doing": "sounding at the treeline behind you", "onArrival": "the note holds far longer than a horn should", "because": "nobody announced themselves on the way in", "offer": "answer it — shout back — and the wood treats you as expected" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "bowl", "cue": "a shallow bowl worn smooth at the rim", "benefit": "leave anything in it and the wood is satisfied, once", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "it must be filled again before you leave the wood" }, { "id": "givenring", "cue": "a ring from the hollow trunk, someone's offering", "benefit": "once, be owed a favour by something in the wood", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "whoever gave it originally still wants it" }, { "id": "firstcut", "cue": "a bundle of first-cutting, unburned", "benefit": "once, burn it to buy safe passage for a scene", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the smoke tells the wood exactly where you are" }, { "id": "stonebread", "cue": "bread from the offering-stone, still soft", "benefit": "eat it and nothing in the wood will touch you", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "you are fed by the wood, and it counts you as its own", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Greed" } }, { "id": "barkcoin", "cue": "a coin half grown into bark", "benefit": "once, pay a debt you have not the means to pay", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the tree it came from is looking for it" } ] }, "reclaiming": { "danger": "encroachment", "dangerLine": "the wood is taking the ground back, and it does not stop while you watch", "trigger": "lingering", "facets": { "institution": [ "a field wall with trees growing out of the top of it", "furrows still visible under twenty years of bramble", "a gate standing on its own with wood on both sides" ], "ritual": [ "coppice stools cut on a rotation nobody is keeping", "a hedge laid by hands, thirty years ago, still holding", "boundary trees marked and the marks grown shut" ], "demand": [ "a clearing that is smaller than it was this morning", "saplings standing in a doorway in a line", "a path narrowing behind you as you walk it" ], "wound": [ "a plough left in a furrow with a tree through it", "a cottage with the roof gone and an oak in the hearth", "an orchard gone feral, the grafts thrown off" ], "anchor": [ "an axe in a stump, handle still sound", "a hedging bill hung on a nail in a wall that is now a tree", "a ring of stumps cut clean, and nothing regrown" ] }, "features": [ "a wall pushed over from the wood side, recently", "a sapling in a doorway, this year's growth", "a plough share polished by roots", "a fence post with a living branch", "a chimney standing alone in a thicket", "a wheel-rut with a tree in the middle of it" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a clearing that is measurably smaller than the map says", "cost": "the wood will not stop while you are watching it", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you mark the edge and can tell how fast it is moving, which is useful", "failure": "you lose the edge and the clearing closes a little around you", "orElse": "move through fast and do not measure: one Turn, no knowledge" } }, { "cue": "an axe standing in a stump, handle sound", "cost": "using it is a declaration; leaving it is a concession", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you cut what needs cutting and the ground stays open behind you", "failure": "the cut does not take and the wood closes the way you came: lose a Turn", "orElse": "leave the axe; the way narrows but nothing is provoked" } }, { "cue": "a cottage with an oak growing in the hearth", "cost": "what is inside was never cleared out", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you get in and out through the roots, and find what was left", "failure": "the roots shift and the doorway closes: +1 Bane and a Turn to dig out", "orElse": "leave it; whatever is inside stays inside" } }, { "cue": "a hedge laid by human hands, still holding, blocking the way", "cost": "breaking it undoes a good piece of work", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you find the layer's gap and pass without breaking a stem", "failure": "you force through and the hedge is ruined: the wood counts it", "orElse": "go round the hedge: two Turns" } }, { "cue": "saplings standing in a doorway in a deliberate line", "cost": "pulling them is easy and will be noticed", "resolve": { "roll": "Brawn 2", "success": "you pull them cleanly and replant them outside — the wood accepts the trade", "failure": "you pull them and drop them: the wood takes something of yours in exchange", "orElse": "step over them; the doorway is half closed and you are half through" } }, { "cue": "an orchard gone feral, and one tree still bearing", "cost": "the fruit is good and it is not yours", "resolve": { "roll": "Flair 2", "success": "you take fruit in a way the orchard permits, and are the better for it", "failure": "you take too much and the orchard remembers the hand", "orElse": "take none: you go hungry and unremarked" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "a living farmer", "doing": "cutting back a hedge that grew again behind them", "onArrival": "they do not look up, and ask if you have a bill-hook", "because": "the hedge must be kept and cannot be", "offer": "cut with them and they will tell you where the old road ran" }, { "occupant": "saplings", "doing": "standing in a doorway in a straight line", "onArrival": "the line shifts, very slightly, as you look at it", "because": "the doorway is being closed", "offer": "step through and say aloud that you are passing, and they let you" }, { "occupant": "one of the Taken", "doing": "laying a hedge with hands that are mostly root", "onArrival": "it holds out a stem for you to bend", "because": "the work was begun and must be finished", "offer": "bend the stem and it will lay you a gap through anything" }, { "occupant": "the clearing", "doing": "closing by a hand's breadth while you stand in it", "onArrival": "the light changes", "because": "nothing cleared is permitted to stay cleared", "offer": "cut one sapling and the clearing holds for the delve" }, { "occupant": "an old orchard", "doing": "dropping fruit in front of you as you pass", "onArrival": "the fruit lands and does not roll", "because": "the trees were tended once and remember it", "offer": "eat, and the orchard will show you where the house was" }, { "occupant": "two charcoal-burners", "doing": "arguing over a coppice stool cut out of rotation", "onArrival": "they appeal to you as a third opinion", "because": "the rotation was lost and the wood is taking the difference", "offer": "settle it and they will burn a path for you" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "axe", "cue": "an axe with a sound handle", "benefit": "once, cut a way through anything growing", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the wood counts every cut you make and settles later" }, { "id": "hedgingbill", "cue": "a hedging bill, oiled", "benefit": "once, close a way behind you that nothing follows through", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the way stays shut for you too" }, { "id": "graft", "cue": "a graft from the last bearing tree", "benefit": "once, make something grow where it should not", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "whatever you grow is the wood's, not yours" }, { "id": "boundarystone", "cue": "a boundary stone the wood has not yet swallowed", "benefit": "once, hold a piece of ground against the wood for a scene", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the wood takes twice that ground afterwards", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Greed" } }, { "id": "plough", "cue": "an iron share off a buried plough", "benefit": "once, break new ground and have it stay broken", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the wood knows there is iron in the party" } ] }, "trackless": { "danger": "measurement", "dangerLine": "the wood will not be counted, and it notices anyone trying", "trigger": "seenTwice", "facets": { "institution": [ "survey pegs driven in rows and every one at a different angle", "a chain hung in a tree, complete, at head height", "cairns built to mark a line that does not run straight" ], "ritual": [ "a perambulation walked yearly and never finishing", "a tally cut into a post, the count restarting", "a rope measured out and coiled and measured again" ], "demand": [ "ground that is longer walking than looking", "a stand of trees that is not the same number twice", "a distance that changes depending which way you go" ], "wound": [ "a map torn into strips and nailed to six trees", "a surveyor's theodolite smashed against its own tripod", "a chain snapped and the links scattered along a mile" ], "anchor": [ "a surveyor's chain, complete and coiled", "a field-book with the last page filled in a shaking hand", "a cairn with a brass plate under the top stone" ] }, "features": [ "survey pegs pulled and re-driven wrongly", "a tally-post with the count started over", "a rope coiled at a root, measured and unmeasured", "a cairn built this season", "a page of a field-book pinned to bark", "chain-links scattered in a line through the leaf-litter" ], "decisions": [ { "cue": "a surveyor's chain hung complete in a tree", "cost": "measuring anything here is the one thing the wood minds", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you measure one distance honestly and it holds — you can trust that route", "failure": "the measurement comes out different twice and you lose a Turn to it", "orElse": "leave the chain hanging: no measurements, no offence" } }, { "cue": "a field-book with the last entry in a shaking hand", "cost": "reading it tells you what the surveyor found", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 1", "success": "you read it and learn one true thing about the wood's shape", "failure": "you read it aloud, and the wood hears itself described: +1 Bane", "orElse": "leave it; the finding stays lost" } }, { "cue": "cairns marking a line that does not run straight", "cost": "following the cairns is following someone else's error", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you spot where the line was corrected and follow the true one", "failure": "you follow the error and arrive somewhere you did not intend", "orElse": "ignore the cairns entirely: one Turn, your own reckoning" } }, { "cue": "a stand of trees you have counted twice and got two answers", "cost": "counting a third time is a challenge", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you accept aloud that it cannot be counted, and the stand lets you through", "failure": "you insist on a number and the stand does not open: lose a Turn", "orElse": "do not count; walk through without looking too hard" } }, { "cue": "a map torn into strips and nailed to six trees", "cost": "assembling it is possible and slow", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "you assemble enough of it to know where the far side is", "failure": "you assemble it wrongly and are confidently mistaken for a Turn", "orElse": "take one strip and go: you know a fragment, and no more" } }, { "cue": "a perambulation the Taken are still walking, and a gap in the line", "cost": "joining the walk means walking it to the end", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you join, walk one leg, and are let out at a place you chose", "failure": "you join and the walk does not end where you hoped: lose a Turn", "orElse": "let them pass: they nod, and the wood notes that you did not join" } } ], "situations": [ { "occupant": "a surveyor", "doing": "measuring the same distance for the fourth time", "onArrival": "it asks you to hold the far end of a chain", "because": "the survey must close and has never closed", "offer": "hold the chain and it will tell you the one distance it trusts" }, { "occupant": "the trees", "doing": "standing in a number that is not the same twice", "onArrival": "the count you began comes out differently", "because": "the wood will not be enumerated", "offer": "stop counting aloud and the stand opens" }, { "occupant": "one of the Taken", "doing": "walking a perambulation with a gap in the line where someone dropped out", "onArrival": "it beckons you into the gap", "because": "the bounds must be walked by a full company", "offer": "walk one leg with them and they will set you down wherever you name" }, { "occupant": "a living cartographer", "doing": "tearing up their own map, carefully, into strips", "onArrival": "they offer you a strip without explanation", "because": "the map was wrong and they would rather it were nowhere", "offer": "take the strip and it shows one true thing" }, { "occupant": "a cairn", "doing": "standing where no cairn was a moment ago", "onArrival": "the top stone is warm", "because": "the line must be marked and the line keeps moving", "offer": "add a stone and the cairns lead you somewhere useful, once" }, { "occupant": "a tally-post", "doing": "carrying a count that has restarted many times", "onArrival": "the fresh cut is very fresh", "because": "something is still counting and cannot finish", "offer": "cut the next tally yourself and the wood accepts the number" } ], "temptations": [ { "id": "chain", "cue": "a surveyor's chain, complete", "benefit": "once, know a true distance in the wood", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "the wood knows you measured it" }, { "id": "fieldbook", "cue": "a field-book with one honest page", "benefit": "once, know exactly where you are", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "you cannot be lost, and the wood dislikes that" }, { "id": "brassplate", "cue": "a brass plate from under a cairn", "benefit": "once, fix a place so it stays where it is", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "everything around that place moves instead" }, { "id": "mapstrip", "cue": "a strip of a torn map", "benefit": "once, find the far side of anything", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "the rest of the map wants to be reassembled", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Pride" } }, { "id": "tallypost", "cue": "a section of tally-post", "benefit": "once, make a count come out the same twice", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "something begins counting you" } ] } }, "placeNameStyle": "claimant" }