04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

CHapter 3: beyond the WallThe characters’ objective is first, to determine the circumstancesof the departure and second, to return the youngster to the community.That all of the youngster’s personal possessions have been takenshould indicate that the youngster has left voluntarily, but a villageelder insists that she has been abducted, and must be rescued. Another,more circumspect, insists that the characters must not alienatethe raider and his band, as their protection has been valuable to thevillage in the past.In either case it should be clear to the characters that the youngsteris going to be in over her head. The characters’ objective is first, to determinethe circumstances of the departure and second, to return theyoungster to the community. They will need to track either the raidingparty or the youngster, unless they managed to learn details of theraiders’ plans while hosting them in the village. If and when they catchup with the raiders, it will become clear that the youngster left the villageand joined the raiders of her own free will. They could most likelysimply overpower her and drag her back to the village, but once bandsof raiders accept someone as one of their own, they will defend themferociously.Convincing the raiders to release the youth into their custody for returnto the village may involve offering a replacement capable of fillingthe role the raiders had imagined for the youth, or performing a serviceof some kind for them.InterlopersThe characters are away from their village or tribe on an errand of somesort: it could be hunting, gathering, delivering a message, rounding upsheep, or something else entirely, depending on the mix of charactersand skills. On their way to or from, though, they come across a smallerand weaker party of outsiders in territory they consider to be theirs. Thechallenge to the characters is to identify the interlopers and to determinehow to respond to them.The interlopers are members of a rival group, so driving them off orkilling them would garner approval within the character’s community,and maintain the status quo. However, one of the interlopers has informationof use to the character’s community, for example about theactivities of a third (and also rival) party, or the location of natural resourceof some sort. Extracting that information, or even discoveringthat it exists, could be of substantial benefit to the characters and theircommunity. Doing so in such a manner that relationships with the rivalcommunity are improved at all might also have long-term benefits, ofcourse at the cost of the displeasure of those in the larger communitywho prefer the status quo.Finally, another member of the interloping group possesses skillsnot available to a comparable degree in the character’s communityand wishes to defect. The skills are valuable to his current community,though, so they will likely try to prevent any defection. Aiding in thedefection would benefit the character’s community, but worsen relationshipswith the rival group. If the characters choose not to encourage andaid in the defection, the defector will instead attempt to join the rivalthird party. The defector will attempt to cover his tracks by timing hisdeparture so that it implicates the characters and their community, andmay go so far as to make a point of being seen or overheard discussinghis defection with them.FugitiveOne or more of the players, out ranging or hunting, discovers a Brotherof the Night’s Watch, wounded and alone. The crow claims to be aranger deserted from the Watch, disgusted by the unfair treatment ofthe free folk by his former brothers. He is wounded, apparently havingbeen attacked by a bear, and is in fact no ranger at all, but a steward unjustly(in his mind, at least) put upon by his superiors, who clearly don’trecognize his talents. He begs for assistance, and touts his prowess as awarrior and hunter as reason enough to take him in.He’ll need medical care and shelter if he’s going to live, but will turnout not to be of much use even when he’s in his best shape. But he isfairly familiar with certain sections of the Gift, in which he has workedas a forester, and in a general way with the patrol patterns of the Watchalong the Wall. More impressively, he knows where the face of the Wallis fissured and cracked, such that scaling it might be possible. And finally,most enticingly, he took with him in his flight from the Wall asizeable stash of steel weapons from the armories of the Watch, havinghidden it somewhere in the Gift.The players may be tempted to kill the steward out of hand, to turnhim over to the Watch, to leave him for dead, or to pursue the coursehe obviously hopes they will, and grant him shelter and care. The consequencesand rewards of any of these courses of action depend in largepart on the tone of the players’ community’s relationship with the blackbrothers. If they are fairly friendly with the Watch, they may choose toreturn him to the Wall, maintaining a tacit peace between their peopleand the crows. In that case they will need to treat him at least enoughto stabilize for travel, and to transport him, as he cannot travel on hisown. The deserter will do whatever he can to delay his return, doling outthe information he has as carefully as possible, intriguing to save his life.He’ll be reluctant to reveal the specific location of the cache to someonehe thinks is looking for an excuse to kill him, and he won’t be in a hurryto reveal secret vulnerabilities of the Wall to anyone who seems likelyto report as much to his former brothers. He will certainly drop hints,however, attempting to influence characters who seem sympathetic tohis cause.If the players elect to take the steward in, he will require a lot ofmedical care, and not be able to contribute a great deal to the community.Worse, the Watch will eventually hear of his presence amongthem. The leadership of the Night’s Watch does not believe it couldsurvive if deserters had any prospect of safe haven among the free folk.They therefore strike very hard against free folk who shelter deserters.The community will, at a minimum, find the Watch to be a lot moreaggressive towards them, and may even find themselves the target of afull-scale ranging.Against this there is only the information the deserter brings, whichwill need to be carefully drawn out of him. Time is against the playersin this, as well, as patrols and security measures on the Wall are changedwith fair frequency, and no damage to the wall sufficient to make iteasier to pass goes unnoticed for long. As soon as they discover thedamage the crows will set to work repairing it—unless they elect to usethe point of access as a trap for any incautious raiders. If they players domanage to cross the Wall into the Gift, who is to say how extensive theweapons cache will be, or even if it will still be there… or what will happenif the Watch has discovered it first, and laid an ambush accordingly?116