04 Night's Watch.pdf - Chaos Bleeds

CHapter 4: Lords of the Long NightAt night, however, the ice begins to refreeze, returning to its strange,original state. Anything that touches the ice sticks to it, like a boy testinghis tongue against a freezing metal object. Though falling is lesslikely, movement becomes slower as one’s feet must be continuallywrenched from the floor. For each yard a character moves through it, hemust spend double the Movement to do so. Charging and running areimpossible. If the character does not have enough Movement to moveeven 1 yard, he may spend a Greater Action to move 1 yard. Charactersdealing with this terrain may spend a destiny point to ignore its effectsfor one turn.Known FactsTwo of the tribe’s young hunters went out together, and have notbeen seen since. Young Adma has finally talked his older brother,Robyn, into taking him out hunting, and the two left together nearlya week ago. They are now two days overdue, however, and theirmother is worried sick. She finds some strong warriors willing to goand see what has happened to them; failing this, she will appeal tothe chieftain and elders and get them to send a few men to find outwhat has happened.It is known that they were going hunting along the edge of a nearbylake or river. With some searching, they can finally discover a strange,newly crumbled crevice near the water’s edge. Nearby is a small boar,slung on a carrying pole, abandoned, half-eaten by scavengers and halfcoveredin snow.Unknown FactsWithin the cavern, adhered to the back wall, are two cocoons with thecorpses of the boys trapped within them. The ice-silk threads are easyto shatter individually, but breaking through the entrapping constructionrequires a Formidable (12) Athletics test (Strength applies). Upto two other individuals may lend aid to someone attempting to breakthrough the cocoons.Unfortunately for the wildling searchers, the Other who came toclaim the spider left them a gift, transforming the two trapped corpsesinto wights. These wights do not animate until the first night followingtheir liberation from the cocoons. Depending on the time frameinvolved, this may be as soon as the corpses are taken out of the cavernor on the trip back to the wildling settlement. If the settlement is closeenough, it may not even take place until the corpses are back at thesettlement, being mourned by their mother.The OthersThe Other and its ice spider are no longer here. The wights use thestandard statistics for wights from the Antagonists and Allies sectionof Chapter 11: The Narrator, in the SIFRP core book.WeirdnessThere is plenty of weirdness to be found in the entirety of this encounter.One final detail may await, however: fallen in the ice-threads of thecavern floor is a veritable treasure trove of old First Men weaponry andextremely fragile, ancient bones, of the sort found only in hoary oldbarrows. Whatever once dwelt here, it has been here for a very, verylong time.The Huntsman’s HornCharacters traveling through the Haunted Forest have something tofear. As they camp for the evening, the night suddenly grows extremelycold, very nearly extinguishing their campfire. As they attempt to keepthe fire alive and huddle together for warmth, they hear it.The low, terrifying sonorous tone of an otherworldly hunting horn,a sound that turns their blood to cold, and sets the icicles on the treesaround them to reverberating. Wildlings from the Haunted Forestknow what this is.The Huntsman hunts tonight.Suddenly, they hear something coming rushing through the underbrushtowards them, faster and faster, thrashing through the half-frozenfoliage savagely. A brace of deer, with a stag at the rear, come tearingthrough the clearing, scattering in all directions. Relief is short lived,though, for it is clear that they are not just running. They are fleeingsomething.With that realization, they see them: a small pack of three palefurreddirewolves whose eyes gleam the blue of moonlight on ice.TerrainWhen the Huntsman’s pack finds them, the night has become ExtremelyCold, as per the SIFRP core book, Chapter 11: The Narrator.The lighting is considered Darkness, unless the group managesto keep a fire lit, despite the strange suffocating cold that tries to killit. While the Darkness condition predominates, all characters receivea –2D penalty to Agility, Athletics, Awareness, Fighting and Thieverytests, and a –4D penalty to all Marksmanship tests. Characters mayspend a point of destiny to suddenly trigger a light source, negatingtheir own penalties while blinding all targets (who keep their penalties),unless they also spend a point of destiny.While the Darkness condition prevails, the terrain is also consideredTreacherous. For each yard a character moves through it, he mustspend double the Movement to do so. Charging and running are impossible.If the character does not have enough Movement to moveeven 1 yard, he may spend a Greater Action to move 1 yard. Charactersdealing with this terrain may spend a destiny point to ignore itseffects for one turn.It should be noted that the wight direwolves do not suffer penalties fromthe darkness. A Routine (6) Awareness test (Notice applies) demonstratesthat the creatures try and avoid nearing the fire as much as possible.BBBBKeeping the Fire Lit (Greater): A character who devotes an actionto keeping the fire lit may make a Challenging (9) Survivaltest. Success on this test means that the fire keeps burning for another1d6 turns. At the end of that time, it gutters for one more turn,during which the fire can be restoked. If it goes out entirely, it willrequire a Formidable (12) Survival test to get the fire relit, a processthat takes 1d6 turns in which everything is pitch black. While thefire is lit, the area is only Shadowy, which reduces the penalties fromDarkness by half. A character who snatches up a burning brand touse as a weapon reduces the lifespan of the fire by 1 turn.Burning Brands: Sticks and logs from the campfire can be usedas burning weapons against the wight direwolves, inflicting damageas a club, as well as a point of fire damage.124