For this scene, I envision myself walking down the hall, with the letter, heading toward my father's forge. Turning to JV'S Scene Designer, I roll a few d10's for some more ideas, and get the following:
- Type: 6 (World building)
- Challenge: 7 (Social/Charisma/Intimidation)
- Factor: 4 (Particularly difficult)
- Complications: target 15 (Something), circumstance 20 (Delayed/Timed/Wait)
So, this scene will involve a bit of exposition about the world, a particularly difficult challenge involving a social situation, complicated by having to wait for something.
So let's turn to the oracle and flesh this out a bit more. Assuming a social situation implies a person, or people, I ask: "Do I run into someone I would rather avoid?" I roll 2/3/6 = NO, BUT. Okay, so I don't necessarily want to avoid them, but I still run into them. Hmm. Do I run into them before I have a chance to read the letter? I roll 4/2/2 = YES.
Is the encounter about the letter? Roll 4/6/2 = NO, AND. Okay, so it's unrelated to the letter, and what is more, it's unrelated to my mother, the attack, and the disappearance of my father.
Um, so what is it about? Let's get a prompt: "air" and "warm". "Air" makes me think of wind, and breathing, and inflating things, and flying. Birds, clouds. "Warm" is blankets, and soup, and hugs, and a summer day. Combining this with the scene design ("something delayed", and a particularly difficult social interaction), what if I'd promised to take someone up into the mountains ("mountain air", during a warm day), looking for alchemical reagents? And they came looking for me?
Yeah, that checks out. I'm not absent-minded necessarily, but I am chaotic, and unpredictable. I blew it off this morning, and now they're here to collect. Why am I obligated to do this? Do I owe them something? Oracle says 4/4/3 = WRONG QUESTION. Hmm! Maybe I'm not obligated to do this! In fact, I want to do this.
Ah! It's a young woman, someone I'm interested in, and who is possibly interested in me. It wasn't that I blew it off, it's that the walk was scheduled for right now...and I need to delay it ("something delayed") without making her think I'm not interested...
The hallways were quiet, which was typical for this wing of the Tower. It was the older, original construction that the Tinker had built when he'd settled in this valley, almost two hundred years ago. The stonework was rough and held together by a pale, contrasting mortar, pitted with age. Most people preferred to live and work in the newer buildings, which had better lighting, wider corridors, higher ceilings, and more comfortable accommodations, but Mother always said she liked the charm of the original wing.
I had to admit, I shared her opinion. My own quarters were at the other end of the wing, and I found them plenty comfortable. Also, I appreciated their relative remoteness; fewer people meant fewer interruptions, and more time for my work.
Father's smithy, though, was in a different wing. He shared many of Mother's opinions, but there just wasn't room in the original wing for a forge of the scope he needed for his work. To go from Mother's lab to Father's forge was a twenty-minute walk under ideal conditions, but just now I had some hope of setting a new record.
Feeling the stiff parchment in my pocket, I wondered if I could read it and still make good time through the passages and breezeways that connected the various buildings of Tinker's Tower. I was just about to pull it from my pocket and it give it a try when I spotted someone coming towards me from the other end of the hallway.
Mariella. It had to be. No one else had that flaming head of hair, or moved with that determined gate. For a moment I wondered what would bring her here...and then I remembered.
Mother's attack had driven it out of my head, but I'd promised Mariella a walk into the nearby foothills to look for alchemical reagents. I'd been trying for weeks to have a conversation with her, and then—just yesterday!—she'd overheard me telling one of the other alchemists about a particularly lovely specimen of lichen that I'd found up in the foothills. She'd immediately interrupted the conversation and asked me where I'd found the lichen, and I'd somehow summoned the presence of mind to offer to show her the place. We'd set a date...for today. This afternoon. Right now.
And then Mother had been attacked, and now I needed to find Father... What horrid timing! I had no doubt that Mariella would be understanding....but would she be willing to go with me another time? Or would she go find someone else that could take her, sooner?
Question: Is Mariella angry with me for not being where I told her we were going to meet? Roll 1/5/1 = NO, and quite a resounding one at that.
She smiled and waved at me as she drew closer, and I felt some tension ease in my shoulders. I realized that it couldn't be much past the time we'd agreed on, so she probably hadn't been waiting long for me. The fact that she was smiling was a good sign.
So, what's going to be difficult here? She's not angry, and if it's "just" a matter of setting another date...? Let's get some word prompts: "shear" and "channel". I find that it is sometimes hard to get past my first impressions of words, so I look to the dictionary to shake those assumptions lose. The American Heritage dictionary says "shear" has to do with cutting, like cutting hair, or fleece. So "cut", "shorten", "truncate". "Shorn" is the same word, just a different form. And "channel": a river bed, a groove or furrow, a broad strait connecting two seas, "a course or pathway through which information is transmitted", and "the medium through which a spirit guide communicates with the physical world." Perhaps a "cutting of the flow of information"?
So. She's going to want to know how to get to the lichen by herself. I'm her source of information, but I want to hold that information close...as a way to ensure some time with her later!
This is going to require some persuasion, which I am unfortunately not so great at... I only get a +1.
Question for the Oracle: Is Mariella at all interested in me? Will she perhaps be willing to wait for me? Roll 1/6/1 - NO. Oof. That's about as strong a "no" as I can imagine. I really am just a means to an end. I'm going to put this at a DC 15 Persuade. I can make multiple checks (and must make at least two), but I need to succeed at more than half of them to convince her.
I wave back. "Mariella!" I said. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there!"
"No worries," she said, both of us stopping as we drew close enough. "I know you tend to get pretty absorbed in your work. I had just stopped at your rooms and knocked, when I saw you coming up the hall."
"Yeah," I said, choosing my words carefully. "I was just at my Mother's laboratory. Um...apparently someone attacked her--"
Mariella gasped. "Attacked her? Lady Koru? Here? In the tower? Who would do that? Is she okay?"
It was always odd to hear someone refer to my mother as "Lady Koru," but as a member of the king's court, she was due the title. It was just that it had been years—decades—since she'd lived in the court, and she'd given up most of those privileges when she'd run away to the Tower to pursue alchemy. "She's been poisoned," I told Mariella, "but Osior says she's going to be okay."
"Poison! But why? And who?"
"We don't know yet," I said. I wasn't about to tell her Osior's suspicions about my Father. Not yet. She'd probably find out soon enough, anyway. "I was just on my way to find my Father... I'm so sorry, Mariella, I know we were going to go up into the foothills, but do you think we could reschedule?"
That's a pretty good argument... Any reasonable person would see that I obviously couldn't make the appointment under the current circumstances. I'll grant a +2 bonus, in addition to the +1 for charisma. Roll = 13 + 1 + 2 = 16. Success. That's one.
She looked genuinely stricken, which I had to admit did her credit. I'd not spoken to her much, but I knew from her reputation that she tended to be driven and pragmatic.
"Of course!" She said. "Take the time you need, Reinold. Your family obviously takes priority. I'm sorry to interrupt you!" She hesitated a moment, and then, asked, "Could you maybe just point me in the right direction? If you let me know which path to take, I could probably find some of the specimens on my own..."
This was exactly what I didn't want her to do. If she figured out how to find the specimens without me, I'd never convince her to accompany me in the foothills again! Thinking furiously, I tried to come up with a compelling reason why she needed me.
"It's...not that straightforward, unfortunately," I told her apologetically. "The trails up there cross and recross each other quite a bit. I mean, it's hard to actually get lost, since you can see the Tower campus easily down below in the valley, but unless you're willing to spend a few days exploring, you really need a guide to find the foraging areas."
Hmm, weaker. Not a bad argument, but it's nowhere near as compelling as the first. No bonus, except for charisma. A measley +1. Roll = 8 + 1 = 9. Oof. She doesn't buy it. We're 1 for 2. Not good enough.
She nodded. "That makes sense. Maybe I'll see if Royston knows his way around up there." She turned to go. "Thanks, Reinold. I'm so sorry about your mother!"
Panic had me by the throat. *Royston!* He'd definitely know all the trails. I'd only meant to suggest that she needed *me*, but she'd found the loophole and realized that *any* guide would do.
"Ah, yeah," I said, desperate for another try, but trying to sound nonchalant. "Royston'll steer you well. He knows his way around the foothills." I paused with precise intent. "I mean, he knows them okay. I think he might know one or two places with those lichens I was telling you about. If that's all you were wanting, he'll probably do fine."
Mariella paused. I could see her thinking this through. "What do you mean, 'if that's all you were wanting'? What else is up there?"
"Oh, lots of things," I said, quite honestly. "I've been to some sites where amethysts and various jaspers are lying rough-cut on the ground. There are a few caves up there, too, where you can find blindworms and bat guano, but the caves are well-concealed. My mother showed me where to find several of them; she might be the only other person that knows where they are."
Okay, *that's* a pretty solid argument for why she needs me, specifically. I'll give that a +3. Let's do this. Roll = 5 + 3 + 1 = 9. Ouch. 1 for 3. I think I'm out. It was such a good argument, too!
I could see her thinking about it, and for the briefest moment I was sure I'd convinced her. But then she shook her head. "That's so tempting! But I need those lichen, at least, by this evening. I'll go see if Royston is available." She turned to go. "I hope your mom gets better soon!"
"Thanks," I said weakly. "I'm sure she will be. And—" I swallowed, and hated myself for the pause. "And maybe I can show you the caves another time."
She smiled at me over her shoulder. "Sure," she said. "I'd like that." And then she was walking away, back up the hall. I stood there stupidly for a full minute, watching her go, before realizing I needed to go the same direction and could have offered to walk with her. Maybe I could have convinced her after all!
But to catch up with her now would require that I run, and I didn't want to appear that eager. I shook my head angrily and cursed myself for a slow-thinking fool.
Mariella would have to wait. For now, I needed to find my father. Putting romantic hikes out of my mind, I hurried down the narrow hallway toward my father's forge.
———
← 1.1 : "Mother!" / Table of contents / 1.3 : The Smithy →