[Circle of Hands}Playtest: Althea

[John W]

Report on playest session 2.

The scenario, briefly: In a village in Famberge, a male spiderhag was murdering men in their sleep, one by one (as male spiderhags will do to their mate's former lovers).  The chief, who had also lain with the female, kept his shame a secret rather than lead a hunting party to the spiderhag lair.

We went ahead with two PCs after a couple of last-minute cancellations.  Our characters were Baldur, a blunt, brave and ambitious man-at-arms and youngest-son of a gentry family in Famberge (and actually dumb as a stump, which made for some fun scenes); and Werther, a fierce, cunning but romantic entertainer (high) and wizard from Rolke.

Charm rolls

Before we began play, we talked a bit about those C vs.12 rolls and how we could better stick to the rules this time, and we agreed that the social-rank mechanic was going to drive artificial-feeling play (but read on...).  The requirement to perform some act within social expectations before one could proceed with the business at hand just seemed like heavy-handed gate-keeping, like having to answer in the form of a question on Jeopardy.

But then we began play, and almost immediately changed our minds.  The knights arrived by ship, and Baldur went into Rockford mode, essentially asking the first person he saw about the murders.  When he realized that he'd only have one die, we backtracked and opened the scene again.  This time, Baldur approached an armed bloke who was obviously on watch (a fellow man-at-arms) and engaged him in chatter about his sword.  The two characters fell into conversation about family weapons, their fathers and their war with Spurr a generation ago (Baldur was from Famberge as well).  Not only did Baldur get two dice for that Charm roll, but it was a really nice scene and served to flesh out the village and its people in a very short time.

Slipping into his role as a travelling entertainer, Werther dropped his pack and put on a puppet show.  At first he was merely ignored by the men on the docks, but soon he had a crowd of laughing children around himself, with their mothers hanging nearby.  With his Charm roll, Werther parleyed his two dice into an invitation to dinner and a place to sleep.

He later learned all there was to know about the recent murders by engaging some village men in a fierce bout of dirty-joke telling, and he got a look at the bodies (to confirm death by spiderhag) by offering sympathy to one of the widows.  Baldur, with his Charm score of 2, actually failed all of his Charm rolls, but his scenes were nonetheless entertaining, and wonderful windows on characters and setting.  He spent a night on watch with some other village men, and saw the male spiderhag peering over the palisade.

So we have completely changed our minds about being "forced" to engage people on a rank, professional or cultural level in order to mitigate that standing 1-die penalty.  We like the mechanic.  It turns a location into a community, an interrogation into a conversation, an NPC into a person.

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Monsters and Combat

As this was a single-component "Monster" scenario, I wanted to really play up the dangerous forest outside the village.  When the PCs finally convinced the chief to lead them to the spiderhag lair (they promised to keep his secret), I had them make Wits vs.12 rolls as they passed through the forest.  I said that two successes would be required in order to reach the lair, and that every roll but the last would be followed by a random monster encounter.  This guaranteed at least one encounter before the spiderhags.

After the first roll (a success), they were ambushed by a pair of huge alligators as they passed through a  swamp.  The fight was over in moments (both knights and the chief were fully armoured).  Three or more alligators would have been more of a match.  We realized halfway through the combat that we were supposed to be ending each action by indicating the next intended action, so we started doing that.  It was hard to remember to do it at first, but it did help to keep our minds in the fiction rather than strictly on the dice.

Before the next Wits roll, I foreshadowed their next foe by describing an all-too-human howl that triggered their most primal fears.  "Ghouls," grunted the chief.  But they were not to meet the undead; their next Wits roll was a success, and they found the spiderhag lair.

Creeping into the lair (a hollow beneath bowed trees, about 30' deep), the knights peered into the gloom and saw a naked woman stand up from a nest of leaves and walk backwards up into the ceiling of arching branches, her extra two pairs of chitinous limbs barely visible.  The female spiderhag had been crouching over a man from the village who had gone missing.  He was not only alive but exactly where he wanted to be.  Just then, the male dropped from the ceiling onto the new arrivals.

I had the PCs and the chief make Wits rolls; the male landed on the one who rolled lowest - Baldur.  I pumped up the male's stats from B/Q/A 3/6/3 to 6/9/3, and that made him a pretty decent foe for the two knights.  The female spiderhag, whom the men had named Althea incidentally, screeched and attempted to protect her mate.  The chief dropped his attack and grappled with Althea to keep her out of the fight.

The knights discovered the utility of the Web spell, which made the male spiderhag nearly helpless.  We weren't sure how to handle clashes with one combatant in webs.  I ruled that the webbed creature could only defend, with one die.  Still, it was difficult to land a solid blow on him.  The knights cast Web a couple more times, imposing an additional 1-die penalty with each iteration.  The spiderhag wasn't able to break out of the web (B vs.12 rolls), but then I ruled that a SPIDERhag got an extra  die vs. a Web spell for obvious reasons.  It broke free, but didn't live much longer.

Then things got interesting.

The chief declared the problem solved, and ordered everyone back to the village.  The knights, on the other hand, saw the female spiderhag as a significant threat yet outstanding.  The chief hefted his axe menacingly.  "Anyone who touches Althea will die."  The other village man, obviously suffering from exposure and a few days without food, found his spear and lined up at the chief's right hand.  Althea moved slowly forward in that way that spiders do.  The knights, with a look and a nod, agreed what must be done.  And the fight was on.

This was a much more balanced combat.  The outcome was by no means certain.  The PCs were wounded from their fight with the male, and actually took several actions to cast Heal and Total Heal while going full defense in clashes.  They found it difficult to injure the fully-armoured chief, but the spell Vampirize came in very handy.  Progress was slow until they managed to drop Althea (whom I hadn't advanced from the stats given in the book), at which point the chief went manic with grief and attacked all-out with full intent.  Some deadly blows were exchanged until at last the chief breathed his last.

I just realized that I had forgotten that spiderhag bites have Envenom.  Oh well.  I also forgot to account for damaged arms and armour after each fight.  Arg!  Note to self...

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Finishing the Adventure

As it was getting late (in real life), and the PCs had gotten the best of things, I asked the players to just narrate the rest of the story.  In hindsight, they really enjoyed doing so, I like the way it turned out and will probably do it that way going forward.

The chief was severely wounded and the other man from the village was restrained.  The knights conferred and decided that everyone in the spiderhag lair had to die.  They put the chief, the other man and Althea to the sword, and set fire to the den.  They brought the chief's arms back to the village and described to the folk how their chief had bravely given his life to eliminate the spiderhag menace.  The knights then decreed it the king in Rolke's new law that congress with spiderhags was punishable by death (they were in Famberge and overstepping their authority a bit I thought, but the players were full of victory and well into their characters, so I rolled with it).  Their final act was to make the widows of all the fallen men the new joint leaders of the village.  That felt appropriate.

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Thanks to Peter and Mitch who really threw themselves into the game and brought their characters – and their surroundings – to life.

I also have some feedback about the physical accoutrements of play, but it's getting late.  I'll write about them tomorrow.  Ron, I don't know how you keep up with the forum, the re-writing, the family and the day job!

If you want to know anything else about our session, just ask.

Cheers,
-John

[Ron Edwards]

Rad! I found myself thinking, geez, shouldn't spider-hags be a little bit OK with webs? And sure enough, you thought the same thing. That'll go into the rules. (Incidentally, Juan just busted out a spider-hag picture that will give you dreams ... of some kind.)

That's a great example of single-component Monster prep.

The learning curve seems to be operating well. A few hitches here and there are part of it, and I always find myself shorting the monsters by accident too.

The procedure for encounters in a dangerous location is an interesting question. It should be based on Wits rolls for sure, but I'm not clear on just how to do it yet. The attack on a failed roll doesn't seem unreasonable, but the set number of rolls, "two and you're through," seems squishy. I mean, it's fine as a decision in the moment on your part, during playtesting, but the need for that decision is an alert for me.

Your account of learning what the interactions and rolls are supposed to be like is very heartening. I may have to put a quote into the text as a testimony, sort of a "don't take my word for it, listen to this guy" approach. I also think it's good for the GM – when I'm playing, this process helps me settle into the community and get away from engineering and plotting about what happens next, which is exactly what I'm not supposed to have to do in this game.

The tactical Healing and full-defense during the fight is fantastic. Who would have thought cleric-y stuff  could be exciting? (That' s not entirely fair as I found it very fun in 4E, but that's not to the point here.)

Some minor thoughts, not criticisms but to show you how playtesting reports affect my work on the game ...

1. I think the male spider-hag would have dropped onto the chief, on the basis of smell. He wouldn't have anything against the other guys. Also, as it happens, I've already bumped spider-hags up to Q 9, so your tweak of the male's scores was pretty minor and in the right direction.

2. I'm not too sure why Althea was still screwin' guys from the village now that she had a mated partner. I'll have to clarify my thinking about spider-hags, that once they hook up together, it's Troo Luv.

3. I would have given Baldur a much harder time given his failed Charm rolls – most likely having to sleep with the peasants or somewhere uncomfortable. Failing those rolls makes people miserable in my games. On point with that, a Low Entertainer with a decent C is an incredible resource, as you found. Those guys are welcome anywhere!

A great game and a great report. I'll look forward to your work on the tools of play too.

Best, Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Slight misreading - I now realize Werther is a high entertainer.

Cunning and romantic, fierce, high entertainer and wizard, from Rolke ... seems like a fantastic character to play. I hope someone else in the group chooses to play him soon so you can see the "many hands" at work in this game.

[John W]

You're welcome to quote me.

Can't wait to see Juan's spiderhag art!

Yes, the best thing about C vs.12 rolls is that they don't allow me, as a GM, to plan what's going to happen.  When writing scenarios, I have been testing my NPCs: "what does a failed Charm roll with her mean?  What does a successful Charm roll with her mean?"  If I can't imagine an NPC trusting or not trusting the PCs, then I've probably written a clear good-guy/bad-guy and need to re-think.

1. Good point!
2. Althea was actually just protecting that guy from the male, not screwing with him anymore.  But I didn't make that clear in my post nor in play.  And yeah, it's a bit of a stretch.  Better to just have that guy dead outside the lair, I think.

About the characters: yeah I'd really like to see what happens when these characters get chosen multiple times.  Alas, my playtest group is a skunk works and may not last that long.  Everyone committed to 3 games.  One more to go...

edited at author's request - RE

[John W]

Oops, I F'ed up the quoting in my previous post, please delete everything after my ellipsis.

About the tools of play:

The Q circle is working great now that I have placed a low ring around the outside.  Sorry, no photo.

The attack and defense scale along the edge of the character sheet is not working as well as hoped.  Here's how we're using it and why it doesn't help:
- you decide your intent, and put a mark on the scale accordingly at, above or below zero.
- you roll the dice, add Q, and add that amount above your intent mark, and mark your "attack" value there.  Then you go back to the intent mark and and count out the same value (your roll + Q) in the opposite direction, and make your "defense" mark.
- the other player does the same on their sheet, and then you turn one sheet around and hold the scales up against each other.  Now it's easy to see whose attack succeeded.

The problem is that the clash (and the math) isn't over yet.  Now, for each successful attack, you need to know the difference between attack and defense, and it's time-consuming to carefully line up the sheets to count that off.  We can all do the math quicker in our heads, which means we stopped using the scales.  The problem now is that there are four numbers to remember (two attack, two defense).  So here is our solution...

Each player has a cue card (next game, they'll be laminated), with space to write the numbers: intent, attack, defense.  The players write down their intent value, roll dice, write the attack and defense values, then turn one card and compare.  It's just as easy to see which attacks succeeded, and to calculate the BQ amount is much faster.  See photo:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7iqhg1b8fj9uzwf/CoH_attack-defense.jpg

One more tool: this one is for the GM to manage NPCs and monsters during combat.

Before the last game, I had laminated one character sheet, in order to use the scale along the side.  I ended up using the BQWC block as well.  Except, when I had multiple GM-controlled combatants in a fight, the sheet got rather crowded.  See photo:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0d1j4d1lihjf1iv/CoH_laminated-chr.jpg

So what I'm going to do for next game is to make up a laminated sheet with just the following rows on it:
B:
Q:
Armour:

...and several columns for tracking multiple combatants.  I think that'll be really handy.  Thinking out loud: I'll need space to track conditions like "Dazzled," too.

-J

[Ron Edwards]

Tell me more about how you're assigning "intent value."

Here's what I do. I look at my character, who let's say has a current Q of 6. So without modification, that's +6 offense and +6 defense to be added to the 2d6 roll.

So if I leave it that way and roll 8 on two dice (say I didn't have the advantage), then I'd get 8 + 6 = 14 for offense and 8 + 6 = 14 for defense.

But let's say I had decided instead to go offensive to some extent, so I had shifted it to +9 offense and +3 defense, before rolling. In this scenario, given the same roll, I get 8 + 9 = 17 for offense and 8 + 3 = 11 for defense.

The other guy is doing the same thing and ends up with his offense and defense numbers, and we compare.

I suppose if I used my fingers I could backtrack from your picture to how you're using a single number for intent, but it'd be easy if you explained it from the ground up.

[John W]

So, in your example of Q=6, and you go +9 offense and +3 defense, your intent (doing it my way) would be +3.

Attack = 2d6 + Q + intent
Defense = 2d6 + Q - intent

Generally, intent is a number between +Q and -Q.  Zero intent represents an even split, intent=+Q is a full-out attack, and intent=-Q is full defense.

Back to your example of having Q of 6 and rolling an 8 on 2d6.  If you choose a balanced attack, intent=0 and you get:

Attack = 8 + 6 + 0 = 14
Defense = 8 + 6 - 0 = 14

If you wanted to shift 3 in favour of attack, then intent = +3 and you get:

Attack = 8 + 6 + 3 = 17
Defense = 8 + 6 - 3 = 11

If you went full defense, then intent = -Q = -6 and you get:

Attack = 8 + 6 + -6 = 8
Defense = 8 + 6 - -6 = 20

I took a second look at my photo, and I think I did the math right.  The player with the blue card rolled an 11, and they have a Q of 6.  Their intent of +6 indicates an all-out attack.  The character with a green card took a balanced stance (intent=0); we don't know what their Q is, but we know their roll+Q was 13.

Hope that helps.  I'm pretty sure it's mathematically equivalent to the way you're explaining it.  Let me know if I can explain anything further.

-John

[Ron Edwards]

I see! Your math's fine. Sooner or later I'll have to decide which exact piece of the arithmetic gets named and considered "the mechanic."

[Nyhteg]

John, hi

I'm intrigued by your intent method, although mainly for the reason that it makes my head hurt. :)
What was your reason for coming up with this approach?

To me, it seems to be adding an extra step that makes it harder to compute something that's actually pretty simple; introducing double negatives and so on.

Not sure I'd find it necessary but if I wanted to simplify the calculation, why not go physical like your combat ring tool? Give people a handful of pennies or similar equal to 2Q and let them physically divvy them up right there on the table?

G

[Nyhteg]

Thanks the sharing write-up by the way - I'm finding it really useful to see how other people are running things as I prep for my own session.

What was your Tripwire in this adventure?
I'm not seeing Tripwires mentioned in write-ups so far, and it's another aspect I'm curious about comparing notes on.

Cheers

G

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Gethyn,

I'll hop in here. I learned long ago that there's no way to account for people's personal algebra. In the game Champions, a character's Combat Value is his or her Dexterity (DEX) divided by 3, rounded up. The equation to hit a foe was your CV - their CV + 11, which gave you the target number to roll equal to or under on 3d6. Depending on the game, starting DEX ranged from 18 to 28, so that means CVs from 6 to 9. The game featured many +1 and -1 modifiers for immediate situations, and you can see that a couple of points either way has a big effect on one's chances. You can also see that play is full of "what's your CV" dialogue, action by action during a fight.

Anyway, every single player had his or her own favored way to say it. Some people ran the numbers with target number as the linchpin, others with the CV, and everyone wanted the GM to say the one "wiggle" item to run the numbers ... therefore the desired wiggle item was different for each person. Or if the GM acted as the central calculator, each person provided a different "necessary" number - one person says the CV, the other person says the CV of the foe, yet another says the intended target number ... it was nuts because half of them threw in their personal notions of the current modifiers before saying a number and half of them expected those mods to be applied after the dialogue.

I learned not to argue. I simply said, "Do it my way," and demanded the raw CV, always and ever. Players pouted through it until they became resigned, convinced that I was being inefficient and unreasonable. In this case, though, I have a different priority, which is to discover all the ways people do it.

You can't argue about adding and subtracting across an equals sign. People arrive at ways to work it, and at present, I'm interested only in how each group found it most playable.

[John W]

Hi Gethyn,

As to the math: when I read the description of intent in the playtest doc, this is exactly how I saw it in my mind.  I suppose you could do something like this instead:
Attack = 2d6 + a
Defense = 2d6 + d

... where a and b > 0 and a + b = 2Q.  This may be closer to the way that we do it in our heads, but I find it a little more complicated to put on paper.

As to the physical method of tracking, calculating or presenting this: I just find mental arithmetic way faster than any method of counting.  You see, on my personal character sheet it says Profession: Engineer (mental math, structures, systems, etc).  It's anybody's guess what that makes my social rank ;-)  All but one of my players fall on the same side of the arithmetic vs counting question.

Tripwires...  I have to admit, my concept for this scenario broke the rules a bit.  I'll share it in my next post.  It's NOT a good example of how to follow the adventure creation guidelines in the book.  But it was a really fun scenario nonetheless.  Anything tripwirish centred on the running conflict between the chief and the marshal of the watch.  The marshal knew that the chief was involved with the spiderhag, and was trying to use that to blackmail the chief into doing the right thing.  The chief on the other hand would defend Althea to the death - which is what happened in play.

Yes I too am finding it helpful to read others' play reports.  I hope to see more.

Cheers,
-John

[John W]

Here is the scenario.  As mentioned above, this does not follow the prescribed way to structure adventures!
Enjoy,
-John

Althea

v3, John Willson, April 2014.

IMPETUS
The Circle knights have heard of a village where two murders go unexplained, and the people huddle terrified in their huts at night.  Some say a vendetta plays out, some think a monster preys upon the townsfolk.

Location: Famberge, village of Eindhoven, a fishing village on the coast.

INTRO
Eindhoven is a small fishing village that perches between dense forest and the sea.  You approach Eindhoven by ship, having learned that it is inaccessible by land.  As your little ship approaches the cove, you see the little village, and a stout log wall, as high as three men, surrounding it on all but the seaward side.  The forest beyond the town wall is dense and dark.  Enormous trees dangle moss-laden branches over the town wall.

Villagers:
don't know who or what did the murders.  Most believe the chief's and Marshall's position that it was some sort of monster from the woods, though some have heard that the men were strangled, and suspect a human culprit.
Anyone's initial stance will be guarded.  This whole thing is shameful and nobody wants the news spreading outside the village.  They are totally dependent on trade for certain types of goods.

Eindhoven: Background
Villagers: fishermen and fisherwomen, outdoorsmen, hunters, woodcutters, blacksmith, cooper...
Fish is their only source of meat; they say that the forest game is foul. 
Fishing nets are woven of willow or flax fibres.
They trade dried and salted fish for textiles, iron and other necessities.
Randerswood is full of dangerous beasts, hence the wall.  Nobody ventures far, nor stays out after dark.  The wall is old and very well maintained.

What anyone could tell you if they felt like it:
There have been two murders recently, men killed in their beds, and a third man has gone missing.
Horst (chief) has responded to the murders by leading hunting parties.  So far no "luck" (he is not leading them towards the spiderhag den).
Ansgar has doubled the night watch, and established a day watch (which includes the chief's longhouse, day and night).  He is lame and can't hunt the woods himself.

Further facts:
Ansgar guesses the chief's mind, and has confronted him, but Horst denies any knowledge of or involvement with a spiderhag.  There is great tension between the men.

WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE:
Filibert, Erich, Heiko and Horst often fished together.  Besides knowing the best fishing spots, they share one more secret: the location of a female spiderhag's lair.  They took turns making carnal visits and covering for each other.  They call her "Althea," and she has learned that name, as well as theirs.
Althea has recently taken a mate of her own species.  As happens when spiderhags pair-bond, the male is now fiercely jealous of Althea's former lovers.  Murderously jealous. 
Over two nights, the male killed two men in their beds: Filibert and Erich.  The two other friends figured what was happening, but were too ashamed to tell anyone.  Heiko snuck away to be with Althea: hoping to kill her mate, or to convince her to run away with him, who knows.  He is still missing.
Then this conversation happened, privately, in the chief's longhouse:
Ansgar: I've seen the bodies.  Filibert and Erich were killed by a spiderhag.  Probably a male.  You know what that means.
Horst: Those boys?  I can't believe they would ever...
Ansgar: How could you not know?  Your four were best friends. 
Horst: You should double the watch.  It will probably be back.  There's no telling who else is involved.
Ansgar: Listen Horst, I want you to lead a hunting party to the spiderhag lair, and take care of this.  We need never speak of this again.
Horst: How should I know where it is?
Ansgar: ...
Horst: Are you accusing me of laying with an animal??
Ansgar: You four were often gone from the village together.  I think the lair must be close to your "secret fishing hole."
Horst: If you ever repeat this accusation to anyone, I'll chop you from beard to balls.
Ansgar: You endanger the whole village if you won't kill the spiderhags – both of them.  I will double the watch to keep the male at bay, but don't count on us catching it.  I have told the men of the village that you will be leading a hunting party.  Ensure that they end up at the lair, and I will keep my accusations to myself.  Sir.

The chief has since organized a party of fighting men to search the woods for "a rogue monster."  They go out every day at dawn.  So far they have brought back a bear and a wolf, but everybody knows that neither animal was responsible for the murders.
Ansgar has doubled the watch.  He has men specifically watching the chief's longhouse.


CHARACTERs
Ansgar, fisherman. Freeman (fisherman, martial (low)). [B 8, Q 5, W 4, C 2].  Married with children.  Weapon skills: fishing knife, bill hook (quarterstaff + entangle), spear, shield, helm.
A gruff, no-nonsense man.  Life here is tough but usually peaceful.  Ansgar is the Marshall of the Watch, charged with organizing the day and night watches that keep the village safe from the denizens of the forest.
Ansgar is pretty sure that the chief is involved with the spiderhag, but knows that he must tread lightly or the chief will kill him.
Ansgar was maimed last year fighting to save the village from a manticore.  He can't bend his right knee, which prevents him from traveling on rough terrain, and may be a disadvantage in a fight, but he's still a hale and dangerous combatant.

Horst of Tillo, Chief of Eindhoven. Gentry (Martial (high)). [B 9, Q 8, W 5, C 6].  Married with children.  Arms: mail, kite shield, spangenhelm (Armour 13), sword, spears, knife.
The toughest man in the village, despite the gray hair and beard.  He is one of Althea's lovers, but would never admit it.  He'll let Ansgar live for as long as he keeps his trap shut.  He knows where Heiko has probably gone. 
He hopes that someone will kill the male spiderhag – the night patrols, his hunting parties, or the Circle knights – so he'll never have to admit to anything.  He still has feelings for Althea, and could never kill her.

Horst, on a successful C vs.12 roll:
the chief will try to take the PCs to the spiderhag den.  He will not take any of his own men, not wanting them to discover his secret.
In the spiderhag lair, the party will see Althea guarding Heiko (tableau).  Then the male will drop from the ceiling and attack (have everyone make 1d6+W vs.12 rolls (Horst gets 2d6, he knows these grounds well).  Failure means surprised.  The male attacks one of the surprised chrs with full +Q intent).  Althea does not join the fight - instead she will cuddle up with Heiko, either threateningly or protectively, we're not sure - it is expected that the humans will defeat the male easily.  They don't get a scene break afterwards.
Once the male is dead, Horst will try to take charge.  He will state that, with the male dead, the female is no longer a threat, and that they can leave.  Althea will stand and say Horst's name.  Horst will beckon to Heiko, who stands as if to go.  Althea will caress both Heiko and Horst with her long limbs, and the gentlemen will respond positively.  Horst will plead with the PCs to let Althea live, and to keep their secret.
If the PCs move to harm Althea, both Horst and Heiko will join the fight on her side, and those three will fight to the death.  Any PC who falls to one of the men will be finished off immediately - these men don't want their secret getting out.

Horst, on a failed C vs.12 roll:
Horst decides to kill the PCs when he can do so privately and with Advantage.
As above, but as soon as the male is dead, Horst surprise-attacks the worst wounded PC (2d6+W vs.12 roll or surprised), and calls Heiko and Althea to follow his lead; they do.

If the PCs stick around the village:
Ansgar will ask them to join the night watch.
On the night watch, the PCs will spot a spiderhag climbing over the wall (it is the male, it will flee rather than fight; it is far too fast in the forest to catch, but it leaves a trail that could be followed with good Wits rolls...)
Ansgar and the chief will escalate their little stand-off.  
The chief will relieve Ansgar of his position as marshall of the watch.  Some men remain loyal to Ansgar, but must obey the chief for now.
Ansgar tells people that Horst is involved with a spiderhag and is endangering the village by continuing to hide it.
Shouting match outside of chief's longhouse turns into pitched battle involving Horst, Ansgar and most of the village.  One of the two men will die, along with a few villagers.  It'll be nasty.

If the PCs go hunting in the woods:
If they have anything to go on to find the lair, then it requires 2 successful Wits rolls.  Only an outdoorsman gets 2d6.  First success: the trail (or whatever) is getting clearer, they know they are getting close.  Second success: they find it.

In any case, after the first successful roll and after every failed roll, random wandering monster encounter in the woods.
After any fight, remember: there are consequences to not repairing your gear!!  Top of pg.45.

If the chief is honestly leading them to the lair, successful Wits rolls are still required: this is about avoiding wandering monsters.  Anyone can roll, including the chief.
If instead the chief is bullshitting, a successful 1d6+W vs.12 roll by an outdoorsman (only) reveals that he's wandering, not taking them anywhere in particular or following a trail.
After any 3 combat encounters, it's too late for them to get back before nightfall (whatever happens in the lair counts as just 1 encounter).  Roll for an encounter overnight.

WANDERING MONSTERS
Alligators, 2 fucking big ones in a swampy area.
Ghouls.  Yeaah.  First they hear the howl from a distance.
Pode, a big female (the chr who fails the W roll takes a tumble down a steep path, then the pode drops onto them).
Rolke panther(s).  It pounces like a Colorado lynx.
A great big snake (envenom, constrict, high Q).  Attacks a sleeping chr if they sleep out.

[Nyhteg]

Ron, thanks for chipping in:

>>I have a different priority, which is to discover all the ways people do it

I've probably come over as all "Huh?? Why're you doing it *that* weird way??!?!?!" but my intention is actually similar to yours.
I'm genuinely interested in discovering different methods to do things than my own the 'immediately obvious way'.
My experience is that cool stuff usually comes out of that sort of dialogue.
Obviously, apologies to John if I've come over judgemental in my post.

John:

>>Profession: Engineer (mental math, structures, systems, etc).

:) If I'd had to have guessed I'd definitely have had you pegged as Engineer, Mathematician or Programmer(high)...
As an ex-coder-by-trade myself, I'm right with you on arithmetic and the streamlining of systems.

Thanks for sharing the expanded prep material, too - that's an interesting extra view of things.

Best,

G

[John W]

Hi Gethyn, no I didn't take your question as judgemental at all.  Enjoying the conversation. :)
All the best,
-John