The Last God

So we decided to try out Sword and Board, based off of  Lasers and Feelings. It was originally just going to be Lena. I'd asked a couple of friends and no one else was available, so we prepped to have a solo game. And then David, her husband, had a free night. Which was excellent! David is a very imaginative player and I don't get to play with him enough. We decided to just do a one shot, see how we liked the system. I'll put up my thoughts in a later review. For now, here's what we did!

I rolled the quest randomly, as per the rules: Retrieve the Lordvessel to slay the last god. Travel to the Upper Iron Wharf, which is guarded by the Duke's Orphan Giant. 

David made Sasha, who was cursed by his priestess mother-in-law to kill the Last God, who he could smell, but could smell him as well. Sasha was a Hunter, whose class ability was to spot weaknesses. He had a pair of binoculars, a shortsword, and a longbow. He started his Stance at 7, meaning he was excellent at attack and aggression, but not defense and finesse.

Lena made Yelena, who was cursed to be in torment until the Last God perished. Yelena was a thief, with the class ability to go unnoticed. She had a bandit's knife, master key, and a repair box (which was totally not abused throughout the game. NAW). She started her Stance at 4, meaning she was good at finesse and defense, but not attacking.

I explained the quest, telling David and Lena that the Upper Iron Wharf was built into the side of a shardmind inverted pyramid, made entirely of the same crystals that powered their bodies. This Shardmind Temple was in the arctic circle of Pyheeta, in a land named Chetyre. Sasha and Yelena had made their way to the desolate snow plains of this abandoned land. Well, mostly abandoned.

Sasha and Yelena were about a quarter mile from the Upper Iron Wharf. Sasha took out his binoculars to examine the place from a distance. So it was here I decided to try out the rolling mechanic. I explained it as best as I could (I am not a very confident teacher in media res), and David asked if he could use his class feature (which can only be activated by Poise, which he had none of at the time), as proof that he was an expert in examining things, thus getting the extra dice. I thought that was pretty reasonable. 

And... he got one success. Oof. That's a success with a twist. So I had it that a gigantic crystalline avian came out of a cave that was at the inverted base of the pyramid. And it looked right at Sasha, over a quarter mile away. Lena quickly had Yelena cover herself with snow so that she could sneak attack the avian when it go closer. She critted! So I ruled that she would get advantage on her next roll against the avian. Lena seemed more than okay with that. 

The avian charged, and Sasha noticed that its eyes were probably quartz, and thus brittle. So David rolled to shoot out an eye... and got it. Down went the avian, crashing almost atop Yelena. Lena declared the repair box had some wire in it, and jumped up, out of the snow, wrapped the wire around the avian's long crystalline neck, and held it down. Sasha then shot out the other eye. The avian flipped around flapping its wings and screaming in a digitized sound that sounded like a tape being played backwards. David gave a helping die to Lena to help get Yelena from under the avian creature... and his dice rolled a failure. Which in this game is bad. A wing clipped Sasha in the face, giving him a concussion. There's no HP in the game, so you just hand out conditions. Stumbling over, Sasha had to roll for what I would normally make just a narrated action, due to the concussion... and David rolled one success. Gah. I took away Sasha's sword. I think now it was a mistake. I should have lamed him or something, because the sword allowed Sasha a greater amount of autonomy than he had later.

I hard cut them to the cave Sasha had spotted, and flat out told them there was nothing else walking around inside of it. No need to roll or anything, that wasn't what I was interested in. I told them there were multiple tunnels bored into the crystal. 

And that's when David does what David does. He just made up something, right on the fly. The curse he had linked him to the Last God, allowing him to see the god's smell. It also meant that he could not avoid the Last God. I'm sure not going to say no to someone who says something like that. 

So they found the correct tunnel, one where they Last God had definitely been. But they heard footsteps and had to hide. Lena rolled well.... Sasha rolled one success, even when David lowered his Stance to 6 thanks to a Poise point.... gah. So Sasha managed to find a hiding space, but got boxed in by the shardmind who had come in who, knowing someone was around, called out to his fellows in a digitized, odd sounding voice (think those weird birds from Twilight Princess). Yelena and Sasha could hear the tramping of inorganic feet. So Yelena took a screw out of her repair kit and chucked it down another hallway, rolling two good successes. 

They quickly made their way to another room. And that's when there was a stomping from above them. The crystalline ceiling crack, and down came the Orphan Giant. The shrapnel of its landing was a danger to Sasha, since he had a concussion and couldn't move as quickly as he'd have liked. He got cut up. Lena spent poise and automatically hid. The giant swung and Sasha ducked beneath the swing, winding up next to Yelena, who had found a locked door. Good thing she had The Master Key!

Up and up they went, till they came out on top of the crystalline inverted pyramid. The god stood on the iron wharf, jutting out into the air. The good was covered in dragon scales, with draconic wings, even though he had the shape of a man. The god walked away from the wharf and came up to Sasha and Yelena. He didn't want to fight; the gith were coming to get him off the planet and he just wanted to leave. And be at peace. But Sasha and Yelena could not be at peace, so long as he lived.  The god gutted Sasha with his wing talons. Falling backwards, Sasha saw the wound on the side of the god's head... and the dagger that was in a nearby fallen god's hand. Sasha grabbed the dagger... as the god jumped on Sasha's legs, breaking them. Sasha threw the dagger to Yelena. Lena tried to get me to let her cheese that damn box again, which I outright refused. Lena lowered her Stance with a point of Poise and struck the god in the wound on his head, driving the Lordvessel dagger all the way through his skull. 

The god fell, dead. His blood washed over Sasha, who found himself drinking it. It cured his wounds. And so Yelena drank it as well. 

Wings sprouted from their backs, as scales cascaded over their skin.

The gith ship, sails spread wide, came to the dock. They got on board. And left the two dead gods behind.