1. Journals

009: Juggling Jagals

Session

PREVIOUS: 008: Ill Omens


Lostmoor Tavern

The conversation lulls as they reach the circle of Lostmoor once more. Lucya gathers her things from the spare room, and they stop to talk to the kindly bartender on their way out.

BARTENDER]">Shrek: "Ach, you are leeaving so soon, little Lucya?"

LUCYA: "Aye, it is a long road ahead a me... Thank ye for the room, Mr. Bartender."

BARTENDER: "Of course, of course! I owe yer father quite a beet more than a night's rent, hoho!"

BARTENDER: "Actually, if you will pass by Mossgrove again, there is theeng you can do for me..."

Jagal's momentous uptick in mood has settled down comfortably by now, but he's still agreeable enough.

JAGAL: "Oh? What would that be?"

The bartender reaches below the counter and pulls out a basket, containing a few bottles of liquor and a glass jar covered with loosely-woven burlap. It's not immediately obvious what's inside.

BARTENDER: "Here ees payment, for the last load of lumber! Geeve to Duncan, yes?"

Jagal is even more interested in escorting goods that he could take a friendly thief's peek at. He leans against the bar close to the basket, attempting to casually scan the burlap.

JAGAL: "I'm sure we can manage that." (to Lucya, quieter) "Oh, but you're avoiding him, aren't you? That make it my job?"

Lucya hesitates for a moment, then sighs.

LUCYA: (quietly) "No I... I think I'd like tae see them one more time."

LUCYA: (to bartender) "Aye, we'll do it!"

The bartender seems blissfully unaware of whatever is going on over there.

BARTENDER: "Oh, wonderful! Travel safely, little Lucya... do not drink eet all before you get there! Hoho!"

LUCYA: "I won't! Although..."

She finally notices Jagal not-so-casually eyeing the basket and squints at him.

LUCYA: "...Well, I am ironsworn now, I s'pose... Maybe we should make a vow?"

She draws her axe with a beatific smile.

Jagal raises an eyebrow at her but draws a dagger and spins it in his hand.

JAGAL: "Fair enough."

Jagal pushes one sleeve up a bit to find a good spot.

JAGAL: "I vow to safely deliver this basket to Lucya's father in Mossgrove."

LUCYA: "--and we will NOT remove or tamper with its contents,"

Lucya does her little rune ritual quickly before Jagal can do any take-backsies.

Jagal gives her a hurt, puppy-eyed look as a trickle of his blood snakes down his arm.

JAGAL: "Ohhh Little Lucya, do you really think I would've done something like that?"

Lucya gives him the most The Look™ she's given him yet.

The bartender seems rather concerned about Jagal's bloodletting. Jagal is too busy breaking down laughing over Lucya's reaction to notice.

🎲 Lucya Swears an Iron Vow, and gets a weak hit despite the bonus.

BARTENDER: "Ach-- a-are you sure, ees this worth a vow-- but I am honored?"

JAGAL: "Can't hurt!"

LUCYA: "We'll make sure it gets there safely, sir!"

BARTENDER: "Okeey, well-- be careful!"

Still a little confused, the bartender bids them farewell and turns to serve his next customer.

Flooded Lands

❗ New Vow: Deliver the Shrasket (Shrek Basket)

🎲 Lucya rolls to Undertake a Journey, and gets a weak hit. We make progress, but lose -1 supply.

The path is marked fairly clearly so far, but slugging it through the mud of the Flooded Lands will take its toll on any traveler. They come to the remnants of a bridge-- a storm must have taken it out recently.

Jagal looks up from where he's carefully keeping his boots from sinking in the mud, and he sighs.

JAGAL: "Don't suppose there's another bridge I'm just not seeing?"

LUCYA: "Auhh, the river is higher than before..."

LUCYA: "I dinnae want t'lose the path, but, maybe there's a narrower spot?"

JAGAL: "I'd hope so."

Jagal looks in either direction and picks one, muttering to himself how this would be so much easier if there were trees for him to stay on instead of picking through all this rot.

They do find a somewhat narrower patch of the river, but it's still too wide to safely jump across with all of their cargo.

LUCYA: "Hummm... Do ye have any rope?"

JAGAL: (squinting at her) "Do I—Yes??"

Jagal opens up two of his larger pouches to start fingering through the choices.

JAGAL: "Got kernmantle in dynamic and static, and laid in three-strand and eight-strand. The..."

Jagal catches himself slipping into a salesman voice and clears his throat.

JAGAL: "The, uh, just the basics. As far as river crossing, we probably want..."

Jagal picks out one, pauses, looks back and up and up at Lucya, and shuffles his fingers over to a thicker braid instead.

JAGAL: "...Yeah."

LUCYA: "...Huh!"

Lucya blinks.

LUCYA: "Ehh, just use one ye dinnae mind not getting back, I guess?"

She starts rearranging her bags so she can carry them all above water level.

LUCYA: "I can carry some of yer stuff, if that makes it easier for ye t'get across..."

JAGAL: "Oh, I can replace any one of these, no problem."

JAGAL: "...Did you really not bring any?"

Jagal retrieves a reasonably hefty length of rope that barely seems like it should have fit in his bag. And he's carrying at least three more similar?

JAGAL: "I can handle my things, thanks. Just keep the basket nice and steady, yeah? Be a shame if any of the contents got unsettled and we had to tamper with them."

LUCYA: "...Nay, I have ne'er packed fer such a long trip before..."

She musters a glare at him over the basket, but she is genuinely a little embarrassed.

JAGAL: "Clearly."

Jagal quickly checks the rope for deformities—none, naturally.

JAGAL: "Seriously, though, don't get that specific on vows. It will bite you eventually, fairly or otherwise."

JAGAL: (looking over the river as he clutches the rope) "Bit of a gap, huh..."

Lucya brightens up a bit.

LUCYA: "Ach, I can help with that part...! Lemme have one end a the rope?"

Jagal isn't sure what she's planning if she didn't even know to bring rope, but it's not like she'd need any tools if she was aiming to hurt him.

JAGAL: "Sure?"

Jagal tosses one end up to her and turns his focus back to the other.

LUCYA: "Okay, get ready!~"

JAGAL: "For what—"

Lucya makes no move to tie the end of the rope to anything. She just wraps it around her wrist a couple of times so she won't drop it, then lifts Jagal by the waist and tosses him bodily across the river.

JAGAL: "Wh—"

Jagal is stuck trying to figure out if this is supposed to be some kind of vantage point thing until it's too late. At least he instinctively grips his end of the rope for dear life.

The other bank comes up fast, but between his own agility and the throw aiming him feetfirst anyway, he has minimal trouble sticking the landing.

JAGAL: (sputtering as he gets turned back around to her) "What in depths was th-that?"

Jagal is trying to sound indignant and outraged but is already this close to laughter.

LUCYA: "Aye, I may nae be a proper traveler yet, but I've a mighty good throwin' arm!"

JAGAL: "Fine, I'll give you that much."

She ties her end of the rope around the closest tree, then gathers up her things and gets ready to wade across.

LUCYA: "'Tis me brother, y'see, the wee thing loves if ye toss him around...!"

Jagal gets his end of the rope secured and double checks that nothing went flying out of his pockets during transit.

JAGAL: "All right, well—I don't. I'll take an exciting new experience every once in a while, but that is about enough of that one, thanks."

LUCYA: "If ye say so.~"

With the rope to hold onto, Lucya manages her balancing act across the river without much trouble.

Jagal keeps a careful eye on the basket as she comes, but nothing calls him to emergency action. By the time she makes it to the bank, he's calmed down enough to just nod in acknowledge and start back towards the path.

🎲 Jagal rolls to Undertake A Journey this time, and gets a miss. For reasons that will be evident later, we decide a passing encounter with a haunt would be fun...

The path winds ahead without any real interruption for a while, but as they push closer to Mossgrove, something starts to feel... off. Sudden gasps of bitter cold, passing moments of the sickly-sour smell of death-rot, occasional branches or stones seeming to shift once they pass out of sight...

But there's nothing that can't be dismissed until a pale, flickering figure begins to approach them from ahead.

JAGAL: "......."

JAGAL: "I—Am I the only one seeing that, or. Um."

LUCYA: "...Nay, th-this is... It wasnae like this before..."

Lucya draws her axe and moves in front of Jagal. Jagal is in no rush to get out from behind her.

The strange figure draws a bit closer yet before vanishing. Another cold burst of wind that doesn't touch a single branch around them is enough to make at least Jagal jolt, but they can't see anything approaching anymore...

JAGAL: "....Okay..."

The figure simply blinks into existence again a foot in front of them, gaping mouth full of grave-smell and all.

LUCYA: "WAUHHHH!!!"

Lucya shrieks and instinctively swings at the thing. The apparition shudders around Lucya's blade as the iron passes straight through its translucent, gore-streaked clothing.

Jagal couldn't shriek if he tried, though he near about jumps his own height.

JAGAL: "NOPE nope I do NOT do these NO."

Jagal just takes off sprinting—not in the correct direction for their purposes. After seeing her blade does nothing, Lucya follows him immediately. Better to be lost than to be separated.

Despite Lucya's efforts, Jagal swiftly outpaces her and starts to slip beyond her view ahead—but thankfully there's a thud that way not long after.

Lucya finds him on the ground in a daze. Without thinking, she scoops him up and keeps running until she can't smell death anymore.

📝 Jagal endures 2 stress. He gets a strong hit on the Endure Stress move, but chooses to take +1 momentum instead of recovering +1 spirit.

Jagal flinches at a few sights along the way, though Lucya doesn't catch sight of anything there herself.

JAGAL: "Oh is it just in my head now that's FANTASTIC but well this is just how my blooming life GOES, isn't it!!"

Jagal groans in some mix of fear and frustration, pressing the heels of his hands against his closed eyes until his ride comes to a stop.

Lucya's grip relaxes a little but she doesn't set him down yet, just in case. The trees look normal again.

LUCYA: "I-I think it's gone now..."

She orients herself and keeps moving, checking to make sure nothing's fallen out of the basket. Thankfully, the walls are pretty deep.

LUCYA: "Auh, me grampa Oskar, he told me about things like this... But tae think, one so close t'home! Auhh!"

Jagal warily opens his eyes again, looking about the trees for any more flashes of white, whether it's the real thing or just him. All quiet for now.

JAGAL: "Okay. Cool. Back to normal adventuring, which seasoned adventurers can actually be equipped to handle."

Jagal proceeds to register he's currently being carried on Lucya's hip like an enormous toddler.

JAGAL: "Aaand that's enough of that."

Jagal moves to twist himself free—he's still shaky, but he looks significantly less terrified without any haunts over his shoulder.

JAGAL: "What, do people magically not die anywhere close to Mossgrove?"

LUCYA: "Oy, ye'll break yer neck doin' that!"

Lucya sets him down lightly and adjusts her bags.

LUCYA: "Nay, but... I guess the funeral rites do somethin' after all? But that means this person was..."

JAGAL: "I have an extremely good record of not breaking my neck, thank you. Stop fussing all the time."

Jagal puts a little distance between them the first chance he gets.

JAGAL: " 'Was'...?"

JAGAL: "Actually you know what this is enough ghost talk, let's just. Not."

LUCYA: "Ach, the way ye carry on, would ye rather I left ye tae the..."

She's a little too worried to really follow through on the sentence.

LUCYA: "Aye, let's move on... Hope me folks are okay..."


NEXT: 010: Wee Boys