[Burning Wheel] It's a Dirty Job

[Luke]

Last night we wrapped up one of the last loose ends of a long running situation and rivalry in game. Our previous session was described in the Wild Magic post.

I thought some of the highlights were worth mentioning as I think these scenes would have played differently in other games using other mechanics.

A brief setting: The players' characters are agents and high level officials, part of an insurrectionary faction in the capital city. They have just performed a (bloodless) coup and kidnapped the emperor, leaving their long-standing enemy, Kwok Qing, alone in the citadel tower. Kwok is a masterminding Red Wizard who was attempting to insinuate himself behind the imperial throne. The players removed the emperor and declared martial law for the good of the empire (at least that's what the press releases said).

In the Wild Magic post, the mage player's character caused an unmitigated disaster -- the lightning storm. However, rather than destroy the game, this new element simply changed it. I think it was for the better, because it spurred the players into immediate action.

Under the cover of the storm the players prepared a clandestine raid on the citadel tower (which is unto a city itself). The wizard has summoned an old ally to him -- an old samurai prince and his retinue of diehard followers.

Most of the characters have history with the wizard and the prince -- the PC wizard was captured by him and forced to be his student, the PC General fought against them in a rebellion in another land, and the PC Ranger-Assassin was an agent dispatched (years ago) to disrupt their plans and hopefully kill both of them.

The last character in play -- Dro's brilliant "Architect" -- had no history and no stake in the matter. The other players approached me individually, concerned that Dro wouldn't have a stake or even a role in the preceedings. I assured them I thought his character was competent to participate. Dro was also more than willing to go along with their goals, as it furthered his character's goals.

Their goal? Obviously they chose to infilitrate the tower and kill the wizard and the prince.  This was not possible before the storm because the wizard would have been able to sense them coming. But using the magic storm as cover, they could approach the tower undetected and attempt to get inside. Once inside they hoped a lightning raid would take the day.

The tower, known as Core, is a labyrinthine city unto itself. Entering would be hard enough, but navigating it was going to be impossible.

As a GM I determined (when they set their plan), that I was NOT going to map out anything of the internal workings of the tower. A dungeon crawl was not the order of the day, and I didn't want to demystify the innards of the tower with a dirty old map. I determined that they were going to have to find their way around the tower by other means, probably by accosting and intimidating servants and whatnot to lead them.

Enter Dro's Architect. Dro had him take a quick trip to the hall of records and used his prodigious influence and contacts to procure an architectural schematic of the tower. Beautiful! I gave Dro a prop map of medieval Tokyo and announced to the group that the map was unreadable to all but the Architect, "So don't even try to step on his toes." This was a deliberate choice on my part to force the other players to rely on Dro's skills. The other players had no problem with this arrangement.

Dro tested his Architecture FoRKed with Engineer to translate the schematic into directions -- he rolled 4 successes. Just consulting the basic obstacle level chart, he had achieved a masterful result. Based on his level of success, I allowed Dro to narrate where he lead the group -- through what areas, what kinds of rooms he stopped in, etc. I would only stop things to embellish, describe a scene or add what I felt was an important feature.

Using guile and some of Dro's Architect's other fantastic skills (Falsehood FoRKed with Jargon and Engineering to bluff a doorkeeper and his guards), they managed to introduce the General's soldiers into the tower and begin the battle. They used this as a distraction to track down the wizard.

I determined that the tower, being so old and so holy, was a base Ob 5 Perception test when trying to detect Sorcery via  the Sense -- Chris' wizard and Kwok both had massive Sense areas and were searching for each other via this extended ability.

Chris actually rolled successfully and helped the Architect home in on the wizard's location, "He's in this direction."

Once they arrived outside the chamber wherein dwelt the wizard (the Imperial Audience chamber, of course), Chris' wizard began his ploy. First, he had brought along bamboo tubes full of water. Using an abstraction he froze two of them. He kept one for himself and handed the other to the General. Then he moved to the entrance of the chamber and cast a Chameleon abstraction to hide himself and the Ranger-Assassin from sight, but more to attract the wizard's attention while the General and the Architect moved into the chamber Inconspicuously.

The General approached the throne with his dripping weapon. (All of my players are well-conditioned to the fact that wizards cannot be touched by mortal weapons. They just assume that a wizard is protected by a massive Turn Aside the Blade spell. In this case, they were very correct.) The General leapt upon the dias and struck the wizard across the face with the fragile club of ice and caused a Superficial wound.  Their plan worked perfectly. BW magic is very elemental; TAB's elements are Earth and Anima, NOT WATER. The ice weapon sailed through the wizard's defenses unimpeded. The players also know that wizards tend to be a house of cards after they are hit -- getting wounded while sustaining spells triggers a bunch of ugly Will tests. I had determined that Kwok was sustaining three spells via his Will alone (plus 3 more via Sustainers). Rather than start failing Will tests, he let down his spells, recovering 3D of Will, and managed to pass his other tests --TAB, Sense, and Eldritch Shield.

The players also absolutely demanded that Kwok be forced to make a Steel test -- even though his wound didn't dictate it. They countered, "When was the last time he's been touched against his will, let alone HURT!" Both good points, I rolled the Steel test in front of them and passed without Hesitation.

The battle here was short and bloody. The General and the Architect were alone in the throne room with Kwok, the prince and an assassin, Luma, (whom the General knew from his days as a rebel). All three set out to destroy the two would-be assassins before help arrived. They failed, largely due to Dro's selfless sacrifice from the Architect (and his heretofor unmentioned bodyguard). Dro simply had the Architect and bodyguard throw themselves physically at the wizard and the assassin -- distracting them (barely) long enough for the PC wizard and the Ranger-Assassin to arrive on the scene. After a short, sharp battle (with the threat of death in every roll), the players managed to kill the assassin and drag down the prince (who was in great armor wielding a tachi, beating the beejeezus out of the General). But the wizard, Kwok, made his escape behind a magically sealed door.

We ended one session here and then picked up the next week exactly where we left off.

Rather than give up and count their blessings, the players demanded to press on. They knew they had Kwok on the run -- they also knew he had failed a Forte test during the engagement, and they didn't want to give him a moment to rest. (Which was very smart).

Chris managed to build an abstraction to bring down the wards temporarily and get the party through the door. (There was funny scene where the prince's bodyguard were chasing after them, but couldn't see through the chameleon screen chris' character had erected. Two samurai dashed in and were killed in a bloody brawl. Realizing now that they couldn't be seen (they didn't know about the spell before), the players started howling like demons ("My soul hurrrrts!") to keep the other samurai from getting too brave while the wizard worked on the doors.

Once through the door, Danny stepped forward and demanded that his Ranger be given a chance to track the wizard. He crowed about the water droplets from the ice-club and scuff marks on the carpet. (As a matter of form, I always make players justify their tests -- what are they looking for and why.)  He knew it was going to be a ridiculously high obstacle, but he wanted it anyway. Using Artha, he got 8 (or more) successes. The Character Burner lists "Following tracks on hard earth after rain" as Ob 7. There was no doubt he was on the wizard's trail.

Chris chimed in with an amazing 7 succeess (I think) Perception/Sense test to keep a bead on the fleeing wizard.

They were definitely on his trail, and they weren't going to lose him. The dice had unequivocally determined this, but I threw an obstacle in their way nonetheless -- the sealed doors. They could unerringly follow him, but it took time (about 20 minutes, determined by the wizard's Reflexes vs Spell syllables and casting mode) to abstract a way through the doors. Chris, Danny, and Pete all turned to Dro without hesitation and cried: "You have to find us a way around these doors!"

12 successes later! (agh!!!) Dro had rolled inordinately well (Architecture plus FoRKed Engineering), and this roll determined if they were to catch up with the wizard. They caught him alright.

I narrated a bit of the chase, how it lead down to the base level of the citadel tower and how they burst into the Imperial Stables as Kwok was mounting his charger and preparing to flee. 15 seconds later it was over.

Danny had his Ranger-Assassin launch an arrow into the horse and did a Light wound to the animal. I FLUBBED the beast's Steel test. I also failed the Riding test to control the animal's Steel reaction -- the players demanded that I roll randomly. If the charger bolted, the wizard was home free. If the charger reared or rolled, the wizard was in trouble. The horse reared for 7 actions. Ugh. The party surrounded the wizard (desperately trying to control his animal) and the Ranger wounded the beast again, incapacitating it.

Kwok's last act was to fill the hall with Bilious Smoke, in a vein attempt to distract and overwhelm his many pursuers. He was still down on Forte dice and couldn't risk casting Persuasion (for fear of a secretly high Will exponent or badly worded commands) and Rain of Fire would have knocked him cold (Ob 5).

General and the Wizard tackled Kwok to the ground. The Architect's body guard and the General dumped choking powders in his face. The General bashed Kwok's head against the stall door. The Bilious Smoke retreated into Kwok's gasping mouth and the General drove his sword into the wizard's gut -- repeatedly.

Ugh. What an ignomious end!
Later, I asked Chris if he saw the same fate for his wizard. "Yes, at the General's hands," he answered without hesitation.

We all agreed that it was an ugly, dirty end for anyone -- to be murdered in a stable by a hand of desperate assassins. I wouldn't wish such a fate on anyone, especially not one of my most beloved villains! But such a death was earmarked for him -- he was invulnerable to a "noble end". Since no sword or spell could harm him, it would have to have been an ugly murder (his head bashed open on the stall door!) or poison.




New Artha System
One of the highlights of running this scenario was watching the artha spent. Most of the characters entered the scene with quite a bit socked away, and they spent nearly all of it. Those heroic rolls (8 successes, 12 successes, etc) were purchased with liberal use of Fate, Persona and Deeds. There was much doubling of dice and open-ending of 6s, and at one point, Pete paid for an Aristeia/Minor Epiphany for his General's Tae Kwon Do skill (he Grayed it out for the fight with the Assassin and the Prince).

What really pleased me was the players' eagerness to spend the artha -- and this was largely due to the Epiphany rules. I can safely say that they LOVED the idea that each time they spent Artha on these rolls, they got closer to "going gray."

And you know what? This encouraged me to keep the artha flowing. Initially it took me a while to get used to giving out rewards throughout and during play, but now I look for junctures to award artha at every opportunity -- entertaining roleplay, crucial success, and of course playing out Beliefs, Instincts and Traits. Much to my amazement, I actually handed out three Deeds points across this encounter -- as they bested each (very major) villain, they were rewarded with Deeds. Characters who had additional history with the villains gained Persona points as well. And I think they spent nearly all of them as I awarded them.

I can't stress enough how much fun this made the game for us. The more they played their characters into the scene, the more they were rewarded (the more I wanted to reward), the more they wanted to spend to bring their characters closer to epiphany. And this spending allowed them to accomplish the heroic acts necessary to see their task done and resolve those pesky Beliefs!

(Hell, there were a few instances where I gave out a Fate or Persona point before a roll, just because the player was doing "the right thing" and driving the story forward.)


Very fun. Very satisfying.
-L

[taepoong]

As the player of the General in the above conflict, I had a blast. Finally, we were able to corner and resolve one of the game's longest standing rivalries. However, it wasn't the ending I foresaw - close, though! I thought the finale would've taken place in the throne room. With the Prince and Assassin dead, I thought we could've finally brought low the Wizard. But, the f-er ran! :o)

The chase led to an anti-climactic murder in a stable! Oh, it was ugly! I could feel Abzu's demeanor go from confident to resolved to broken as the horse reared for those seven long actions! It was even more insult as we choked him into inaction with powders before I doubled my dice to throw the Wizard 8 paces into a stall door. Not a heroic end at all! Afterwards, there were no cheering and no congratulations despite the huge achievement. I even felt guilty for killing off Abzu's favorite villain! (He'll deny any emotion, I am sure.)

Anyway, it was fun and I couldn't agree with the Artha issue more! I spent artha furiously knowing that each point took me one step closer to achieving my epiphany. I think I was the first character in our entire BW career to aristeia a skill, too! Although the finer points of when Artha is deserved are still a bit unclear to me, I think this new system has great potential - as soon as the final numbers for an epiphany is locked down, that is. As it stands, I think the numbers are outrageous. But then again, I am a greedy player. :o\