{ "schema": 1, "generatorVersion": "0.1.0", "catalogVersion": "barrow@1", "seed": "live-table-01", "params": { "areas": 5, "depth": 2, "party": 4, "deadliness": "standard", "density": "standard", "greed": "standard", "clock": "standard", "ending": "authored", "theme": "barrow" }, "skeleton": { "placeName": "The Vault of the Patient Lord", "knot": { "appetiteId": "obeyed", "accommodationId": "purchased", "claimant": "Patient Lord", "conscript": "a household", "transgression": "The Patient Lord bought a household from those with nothing left, so that someone would always obey.", "cruelty": 2 }, "motif": { "id": "voices", "danger": "obedience", "dangerLine": "the dead here still take instruction, and give it", "trigger": "loud" }, "prize": { "kind": "seal", "label": "the signet that is still obeyed", "function": "the only thing the household answers to" }, "bottomProblem": { "label": "The Patient Lord", "wantNow": "to be obeyed without asking", "failureState": "is disobeyed now, and cannot bear it", "handledBy": "giving them what they want, at a price" }, "appeasement": { "move": "do one small thing it asks, without arguing", "attribute": "Poise", "successes": 2, "why": "it was obeyed", "gain": { "vanity": 1 }, "cost": { "bane": 1 }, "repeatable": true, "faction": "The Silent Host" }, "factions": [ { "id": "host", "name": "The Silent Host", "kind": "undead", "essence": "still performing the ritual they were buried for", "handledBy": "courtesy", "conscriptedAs": "a household" }, { "id": "scavengers", "name": "things that moved in", "kind": "beast", "essence": "neither know nor care whose tomb this is", "handledBy": "force or food" } ], "foreshadow": [ { "index": 1, "role": "approach", "facet": "institution", "fragment": "servants' bones arranged as though mid-errand" }, { "index": 2, "role": "complication", "facet": "ritual", "fragment": "orders scratched into the floor, the last one unfinished" }, { "index": 3, "role": "turn", "facet": "demand", "fragment": "a hall where your own voice arrives before you speak" }, { "index": 4, "role": "descent", "facet": "wound", "fragment": "an instruction repeated until the stone gave out" }, { "index": 5, "role": "threshold", "facet": "anchor", "fragment": "a key that fits nothing here" }, { "index": 6, "role": "ending", "facet": "demand", "fragment": "a seat that expects to be addressed" } ] }, "areas": [ { "index": 1, "role": "approach", "name": "The Weeping Stair", "facet": "institution", "cueFragments": [ "servants' bones arranged as though mid-errand", "someone has been talking here, and stopped when you arrived" ], "situation": { "occupant": "three of the Host in servants' dress", "doing": "carrying out an errand that has no destination left", "onArrival": "they stop, and wait to be told what to do", "because": "the order was never rescinded and nobody outranks it", "offer": "tell them where to go, and they go" }, "truth": "This is how the place was ordered, and it still is", "decision": { "cue": "an order carved into the floor, still legible", "cost": "obey it and the Host counts you as household; step over it and they do not", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you obey exactly enough to be counted household — Skeletons stand down for you", "failure": "you obey wrongly, which is worse than not obeying: +1 Bane", "orElse": "step over it: no cost now, and the Host does not count you as theirs" } }, "encounter": null, "hoard": null, "temptation": null, "trigger": "seenTwice", "baneBeat": "announcing", "clue": { "automatic": "servants' bones arranged as though mid-errand — and it was done deliberately", "extra": "[VANITY: Observation — 1 success] buys who did it, and roughly when" }, "failureCase": "If they skip this, move its cue fragment into the next area so the motif still completes.", "fallback": { "route": "The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest", "cost": "one Bane on the tab, and they will expect it again" } }, { "index": 2, "role": "complication", "name": "The Lesser Vault", "facet": "ritual", "cueFragments": [ "orders scratched into the floor, the last one unfinished", "a door braced shut from within by furniture" ], "situation": { "occupant": "a living grave-robber", "doing": "repeating a phrase over and over, trying to get the intonation right", "onArrival": "they go quiet and put their back to the wall", "because": "they heard the password and cannot say it correctly", "offer": "trade something for the phrase, badly remembered" }, "truth": "The office is still being performed, for someone who is no longer served by it", "decision": { "cue": "two doors, and behind one a voice giving instructions to nobody", "cost": "the quiet door is longer; the voice would tell you exactly where to go", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you answer the voice as a subordinate would — it tells you the route AND answers one question about what lies on it, without taking you into its service", "failure": "you engage and it takes that as enlistment: it will give you orders for the rest of the delve, and the first is now", "orElse": "take the quiet door and never speak to it: one extra Turn, no obligation" } }, "encounter": { "heat": "fight", "kind": "undead", "roster": { "line": "1 Ghoul and 2 Skeletons", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Ghoul", "atk": 4, "def": 3, "grit": 4, "nerve": 5, "note": "on a hit, a free Called Shot to freeze for a round" }, { "n": 2, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless" } ], "harmedBy": "anything", "avoid": "the Ghoul goes for court dress first — send someone plain" } }, "hoard": "cache", "temptation": { "id": "tube", "cue": "a short length of speaking-tube, cut and carried", "benefit": "ask one question and get one true answer", "useCost": { "bane": 1 }, "standingDrawback": "whatever answers can now hear you" }, "trigger": "loud", "baneBeat": "noticing", "clue": { "automatic": "orders scratched into the floor, the last one unfinished — and it was done deliberately", "extra": "[VANITY: Observation — 1 success] buys who did it, and roughly when" }, "failureCase": "If they skip this, move its cue fragment into the next area so the motif still completes.", "fallback": { "route": "The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest", "cost": "one Bane on the tab, and they will expect it again" } }, { "index": 3, "role": "turn", "name": "The Crossing", "facet": "demand", "cueFragments": [ "a hall where your own voice arrives before you speak", "an order half-scratched out and rewritten by a different hand" ], "situation": { "occupant": "the bells", "doing": "ringing a summons room by room, coming closer", "onArrival": "the bell in this room begins", "because": "something has called for service and the house is obliging", "offer": "answer the bell yourself before whatever is meant to arrives" }, "truth": "Here the want is explicit — the place asks something of whoever enters", "decision": { "cue": "a bell-pull that would summon someone", "cost": "ring it and help comes, and it is not the kind you wanted", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "what comes is answerable to you for one scene", "failure": "what comes is not the kind of help you wanted", "orElse": "do not ring: the way on is longer by one Turn" } }, "encounter": null, "hoard": null, "temptation": null, "trigger": "loud", "baneBeat": "noticing", "clue": { "automatic": "a hall where your own voice arrives before you speak — and it was done deliberately", "extra": "[VANITY: Observation — 1 success] buys who did it, and roughly when" }, "failureCase": "If they skip this, move its cue fragment into the next area so the motif still completes.", "fallback": { "route": "The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest", "cost": "one Bane on the tab, and they will expect it again" } }, { "index": 4, "role": "descent", "name": "The Servants' Deep", "facet": "wound", "cueFragments": [ "an instruction repeated until the stone gave out", "boot-prints that stop mid-corridor and do not resume" ], "situation": { "occupant": "a single figure at a speaking-tube", "doing": "reporting, at length, to a listener who died first", "onArrival": "it pauses mid-sentence and asks whether you are the reply", "because": "it has never once been answered", "offer": "answer as the listener would, and learn what it has been reporting" }, "truth": "This is the damage the want did to those who had to satisfy it", "decision": { "cue": "a door that opens to a spoken password nobody living knows", "cost": "guessing costs a Bane per attempt; the long way costs two Turns", "resolve": { "roll": "Wits 2", "success": "the word is already in your notes. It is in something you passed earlier — *someone has been talking here, and stopped when you arrived*. Say it and the door opens; if nobody wrote it down, the roll tells them now", "failure": "you have the shape of it but not the word: one more attempt, or take the long way", "orElse": "the long way: two Turns, no guessing, no Banes" } }, "encounter": null, "hoard": "pocket", "temptation": { "id": "bell", "cue": "a small bell from a servant's board", "benefit": "ring it and one order is obeyed, by anything", "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "it rings faintly when someone gives you an order" }, "trigger": "disturbed", "baneBeat": "relicUse", "clue": { "automatic": "an instruction repeated until the stone gave out — and it was done deliberately", "extra": "[VANITY: Observation — 1 success] buys who did it, and roughly when" }, "failureCase": "If they skip this, move its cue fragment into the next area so the motif still completes.", "fallback": { "route": "The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest", "cost": "one Bane on the tab, and they will expect it again" } }, { "index": 5, "role": "threshold", "name": "The Last Door", "facet": "anchor", "cueFragments": [ "a key that fits nothing here", "wax jammed into a speaking-tube, still soft" ], "situation": { "occupant": "one of the Host, kneeling", "doing": "waiting for an instruction that was promised and never came", "onArrival": "it addresses the first of you to speak as its superior", "because": "it was told to await further orders and did", "offer": "give it the instruction and it will carry it out to the letter, wherever that leads" }, "truth": "The thing the whole barrow is arranged around is close", "decision": { "cue": "an instruction you can obey, ignore, or countermand", "cost": "countermanding it works once and marks you as someone who gives orders", "resolve": { "roll": "Poise 2", "success": "you countermand it and the dead obey you instead — this marks you as someone who gives orders: from now on the Host brings you their disputes, and once per delve you may issue one order they must follow", "failure": "the order stands and you have been seen to fail at giving one: +1 Bane, and the Host addresses someone else from now on", "orElse": "obey it, or ignore it and go round: ignoring costs one Turn" } }, "encounter": { "heat": "battle", "kind": "undead", "roster": { "line": "1 Wraith and 3 Skeletons", "foes": [ { "n": 1, "name": "Wraith", "atk": 5, "def": 3, "grit": 10, "nerve": 5, "note": "INCORPOREAL — chill touch ignores armour and drains 1 max Grit" }, { "n": 3, "name": "Skeleton", "atk": 3, "def": 2, "grit": 1, "nerve": 5, "note": "fearless" } ], "harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons ONLY", "avoid": "it will take an appeasement over a fight every time" } }, "hoard": "chest", "temptation": { "id": "staff", "cue": "a staff of office, propped where it was set down", "benefit": "give one order the dead must follow", "acceptanceCost": { "vice": "Pride" }, "useCost": { "bane": 2 }, "standingDrawback": "you may not refuse an order given to you" }, "trigger": "disturbed", "baneBeat": "refusal", "clue": { "automatic": "a key that fits nothing here — and it was done deliberately", "extra": "[VANITY: Observation — 1 success] buys who did it, and roughly when" }, "failureCase": "If they skip this, the ending opens with them holding nothing the bottom problem wants.", "fallback": { "route": "The Silent Host will receive anyone who behaves as a guest", "cost": "one Bane on the tab, and they will expect it again" } } ], "ending": { "index": 6, "role": "ending", "mode": "authored", "heat": null, "hoard": null, "name": "The Audience", "cueFragments": [ "a seat that expects to be addressed" ], "question": "\"Do as you are told.\"", "authored": true }, "triggerGlossary": { "announced": "entered somewhere grandly — the big doors, a shout, a herald", "seenTwice": "reflected, echoed or witnessed twice over in one place", "loud": "a raised voice, a broken door, steel on stone", "lingering": "stayed in one place longer than it takes to search it", "disturbed": "struck or moved something that had not moved in centuries" }, "budget": { "plannedFights": 2, "heatBase": "fight", "wantFights": 2 }, "pressure": { "turn": 0, "clockRolls": 0, "clockFired": 0, "triggerNumber": 1, "escalated": false, "tab": 5, "target": 5 }, "authored": { "title": null, "intro": "They bought a household from people with nothing left, so that someone would always obey. The household is still obeying.", "areas": { "1": { "readAloud": "Forty steps down and the bones are still on their errand — a tray here, a folded cloth there, set down mid-stride three hundred years ago. Somebody was talking as you came through the arch, and stopped.", "notes": null, "nameOverride": null, "locked": [] }, "2": { "readAloud": "The floor is scratched over with orders, the last one unfinished. A door at the far end is braced shut from the inside with furniture, and behind you a living man is whispering the same phrase again and again, trying to get the sound of it right.", "notes": null, "nameOverride": null, "locked": [] }, "3": { "readAloud": "The hall answers before you do — your own voice reaches the far wall a half-beat early, saying what you have not said yet. Somewhere below a bell starts, and then the one in this room takes it up.", "notes": null, "nameOverride": null, "locked": [] }, "4": { "readAloud": "An instruction has been cut into the stone so many times the stone gave out. Bootprints cross the floor and simply stop. At the far wall a figure is talking steadily into a speaking-tube, reporting to somebody who died first.", "notes": null, "nameOverride": null, "locked": [] }, "5": { "readAloud": "Wax has been jammed into the tube here, still soft. A key that fits nothing hangs on a nail. One of them is kneeling at the last door, and has been for a very long time, waiting to be told what to do.", "notes": null, "nameOverride": null, "locked": [] } }, "ending": { "readAloud": "The seat at the head of the hall is occupied by a shape that keeps the gown's outline and nothing else. It turns toward you and there is nothing in the collar to turn.", "notes": "**The Patient Lord** — Wraith, Grit 6, atk 5, def 3, incorporeal. Blessed, silvered or magical weapons only; say so before initiative. It opens with \"Do as you are told.\" Obey one small instruction and it will trade the signet. Refuse and it is a fight it will win slowly.", "locked": [] } } }