Quinn of Axeford (Ironsworn Actual Play - Session 3)

Session 0

Session 2

I used a few Moves outside of their intended purposes last time (namely rolling Heal and Undertake A Journey when it was Servan leading the action instead of Quinn). Technically, those should have probably been resolved as oracle rolls instead, but I'm fine with it; they were instances where I wanted a framework for resolving the results with more than just a binary yes/no roll output, and I have a healthy disrespect for the rigidity of Move triggers. I'll do more of that in this session (and likely beyond, given that trend), so get used to it.

This session ended up being more roleplay and development of Quinn's internal conflicts. I was surprised by his choice at the end, as well as by how I chose to handle it, but hey, that's part of the point of playing to find out instead of just writing a story.

---

Quinn felt a hand on his shoulder an instant before Servan joined in embracing the trio. "Kato! Sola! It’s good to see you safe."

"You too, brother," Kato replied, his resonant voice carrying only a slight tremble from whatever he had endured in the hours since disappearing from his bed.

"We’ll have to catch up," Servan said before he stepped back, and Quinn felt the grip pulling him away as well, "but for now, I need a moment with Quinn." Kato and Sola had no objections, giving Quinn a final squeeze before leaving to reunite with other villagers.

Servan led Quinn to the opening of the cove, standing where the sea’s flow stopped just short of their feet. The arm around Quinn’s shoulders was relaxed, but Servan’s tone was tense as he asked, "Can you explain the blood?"

Secure An Advantage: 5 + 2 Shadow + 1 Trickster = 8 vs 2/5 -> Strong Hit

Momentum: 4 + 2 = 6

"I must’ve gotten snagged on a bit of a sharp edge on my way crawling into that idol chamber," Quinn said, pretending to laugh at his ill fortune. "I didn’t even realize I was bleeding until I tried getting a hold on Sadia. It seems like it’s clotted, at least," he finished, raising his left arm to show Servan his up-turned wrist.

"Piss and blood!" Servan exclaimed, wide-eyed, before grabbing Quinn’s forearm and pulling back his tunic sleeve for a better look. "Well, you’re right that it doesn’t look too bad. But I’d still like to bind it properly once everyone’s back in Axeford. So, the marks on the faces of the first half were from that?"

Quinn nodded. "I could see the idol’s influence shy away from where my blood got onto Sadia, so I spread a little on as many of the others as I could, in case it’d help."

"And the blood under your mouth?"

"What?" Quinn touched his fingers to the front of his chin and looked at them, shocked to find them stained red. He staggered back a step, prompting Servan to grab his shoulders again and help him sit on the rocky ground. "What is this, Servan?"

"Can’t say," Servan replied gravely, "but I’d guess something more happened in that chamber than we know."

Quinn shut his eyes and let out a long exhale as the fatigue of day crashing down on him. He tried to block out the sounds of the villagers in the background and concentrate on breathing, but the scuff of footsteps stopping next to him caught his attention.

"Is everything alright?" asked Taylah’s matronly voice.

"It’s been a difficult day," Servan said.

Quinn did not need to see her face to sense Taylah’s focus on him. "Is everything alright, Quinn?" she asked again.

Head hanging down to his chest, Quinn dipped his fingertips into the sea as it lapped close and set about washing the blood from his face. "How could it be? I left five of us behind."

"And what about those you got out?"

"That makes it all better?" Quinn said hollowly. "That makes up for leaving Khinara, after whatever miracle had helped her survive last winter? I didn’t think she was even old enough to walk yet.

"Or what about Basira? Did you know she was the first woman in the village to dance with me, after I passed the rites? She’d said there wasn’t another man in Axeford who she wanted to marry." Quinn kept quiet about the reason why; that painful moment was not his secret to share.

Taylah kept silent, so Quinn continued, "Sayer’s alone, now that I left Mertyl in that pit. And Verena’s an orphan, with Kimura and Keeana lost."

"He’s no orphan," Taylah interrupted. "There’s a whole village ready to look after him, just like there was for you."

"If only I’d been stronger, like Themon-"

"You saved Themon," Taylah interrupted again, harsher this time. "I can’t guess at why you weren’t affected," she added, softening, "but from what Servan told me, you were key to this day not being a worse tragedy."

Quinn used his tunic to dry off his face before rising. In that moment, face to face with Axeford’s overseer, he could not help being reminded of being the only man in the village who was shorter than her. The thought made him laugh at himself. "You know what I mean."

Taylah took a small step forward, arms out to embrace Quinn, but he jerked away, so she let her hands drop to her sides. "I’ll leave him to you, Servan," she said, giving a nod of parting. "Don’t be long, though. It’s getting late, and we’d all best be back home before dark."

After she left, the silence stretched between Servan and Quinn. Guessing that spending more time around the villagers would serve only to remind Quinn more of those who had been left behind, Servan turned to face out towards the sea and said, "You know you’re always welcome at my hut, if you’d rather not spend the night in Axeford."

Quinn sat down. "And if I’d rather be alone?"

Servan shrugged. "Then you can be alone. After we take care of your wrist."

Servan took it upon himself to politely ward off any more villagers who tried to approach them, waiting until the two of them were alone in the cove once more to begin packing up the scant supplies worth carrying back. "Does this give you a better idea of why Kato, Valeri, and I settled down here?" he asked eventually.

"What do you mean?" Quinn asked back, genuinely confused.

"Feeling responsible feels terrible."

Quinn thought on the words for a moment, before rising and helping to pack. "You don’t think I should?"

Oracle 1/2 (Action/Theme): 5/57 = Create/Blood

"Getting in the way when someone’s set their mind just means one of you gets trampled," Servan said. "I can’t change your truth for you, Quinn."

"So I should’ve done more?"

"Can’t see your future, either, especially not your future from a different past."

Quinn shook his head, smiling. "Is that your way of saying I need to think for myself?"

"That’ll serve you better than counting on me to think for you," Servan replied, smiling. "Come on, now. We might still have time to get you patched up and have some tea before night."

They finished gathering what they could and returned to Servan’s hut, making it there shortly before nightfall. After washing Quinn’s forearm, Servan heated some fragrant ointment and started massaging it into and around the puncture wound. "You know, you never really answered my question."

"What question?"

"About where the blood on your mouth came from."

Secure An Advantage: 3 + 2 Shadow + 1 Trickster = 6 vs 1/10 -> Weak Hit

Momentum: 6 + 1 = 7

"Oh?" Quinn thought for a moment. "Oh, I guess I didn’t. I don’t know. Like you said, something must’ve happened in that chamber that we don’t know about." The memory of speaking words he did not know written in a script that he could not read flashed through his mind.

Servan noticed the shadow of a thought cross Quinn’s face, but given the day’s events, he decided against pressing the matter immediately. "How are you holding up?" he asked instead as he started to wrap a cloth around Quinn’s arm.

"Terribly," Quinn said around a laugh.

Servan nodded. "What about?"

"Keep this secret?" Servan nodded again. "There’s a nightmare I keep having. I’m inside mom, and a hand reaches in to touch me, and...well, that’s around when I scream enough in the dream to wake myself up. And I...it’s got me thinking that the reason that old magic didn’t work on me was because of that. What actually happened, I mean, not the nightmare, but like that thing left a mark on me that makes me something wrong."

Servan took the time to finish tying the binding before saying, "Rare to cross paths with a horror and come away unscathed. And that might explain why you said the idol’s curse pulled back from your blood."

"So you think there is something wrong about me?" Quinn asked flatly.

"Not wrong, just different."

Quinn took some time to compose his thoughts. He knew the question had been unfair to Servan. "Is there a way to find out?"

Servan leaned back in his seat and sighed. "Certainly, but not around here. You’d need to find a mystic; a real mystic, not a basic trick-spinner like me."

"That sounds slow. I need something that’ll give me a chance to still help the people I left behind."

Servan let the silence stretch before saying, "Sounds like you need to make a choice. Rush after them to do what you can now, or take the time to learn and hope you can still intervene later."

Ask The Oracle: "Would Quinn favor acting immediately?" (50/50) = 95 -> Yes

Advance: new asset: Bonded

EXP: 3/3 spent

Quinn mulled over the options. "The people of Axeford are everything to me," he said eventually. "I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t do everything I could to make up for what I couldn’t do today. I’m going back."

He started to rise but stumbled as fatigue washed over him, and Servan supported him in sitting down again. "Not like that, you aren’t, boy. Sleep here for now, and we can set out in the morning."

Quinn let the older man guide him to a pile of pelts to sleep on. As he laid there, one hand reached under his tunic to grip his iron talisman as he whispered, "I’ll find them."

Vow: "Find the villagers who were left behind and rescue any survivors" – Dangerous

Swear An Iron Vow: 5 + 3 Heart + 1 Bond + 1 Bonded = 10 vs 6/9 -> Strong Hit

Momentum: 7 + 2 = 9

Making the choice filled Quinn with a sense of purpose, promising the opportunity to atone for his shortcoming. With his doubts cleared, there was nothing left holding back his exhaustion from carrying him into slumber.

Session 4