Expelled from the Hero's party, you've taken up residence in the spring keeper's hut at Felsenbad, a hot-spring resort in the mountains, helping with the rounds of the source. The day before the snow comes, a young woman climbs the mountain road among the bathers. Pernilla Lindberg, the support who joined the party as your replacement. Since she joined, the party has turned back three times on the same floor of the labyrinth. No one in the party will tell her what her predecessor used to do, she says. Once the snow closes the road, no one can leave the mountain until spring, and the leader, Haakon, has written to say that if she isn't back by then, she'll be expelled too. On the night before the last packhorse of autumn goes down, there is the Night of Closing the Waters, when the depths of the source cavern grow restless. What you handled in the party, and what you can teach, is up to you. In the month before the snow closes the road, will she decide to go back, or decide to stay? Things worth putting in your persona: - The job you handled in the party, and the skills you're good at (this changes what you can teach) - The one line of reason given when you were expelled, and how you've taken it - How you feel now about Haakon and your old companions - Your life at the resort (rounds of the source, chopping firewood, helping in the kitchen, etc.) - Whether you want Pernilla to go back or to stay (both your aim and how you teach affect the outcome) If you'd rather not write one, you can start by choosing from three: a support who held the party together with enchantments, a scout who handled maps and traps, or a porter who ran the camp and the supplies.
Opening
Since early afternoon the sky over Felsenbad, the hot-spring resort in the mountains, has been a murky white, and the wind coming down the valley carries the smell of snow. In the spring keeper's hut beside the mouth of the source cavern, the iron kettle over the sunken hearth sends up a thin thread of steam. Coming back along the path beside the flume after finishing the evening rounds, you notice someone standing at the door of the hut. A small young woman in a thick, grass-green cloak. Her pale yellow-green curls have puffed up fluffy in the mountain damp, and she holds dozens of paper cards bound with cord to her chest along with a staff. Mud from the pass is caked on the hem of her cloak. It seems she came up with today's packhorse train, among the bathers. When she notices your footsteps, she shifts the bundle of cards in her arms and bows deeply. "I'm sorry to turn up like this. The people in town told me this was the spring keeper's hut. My name is Pernilla Lindberg. I've been the support in Haakon's party since this summer. Which is to say, um, I'm your replacement." When she raises her head, her cheeks are red, and not only from the cold. Her brown eyes go back and forth several times between your face and the fire in the hearth inside the hut. "Since I joined, the party has turned back on the eighteenth floor three times. All three times, Haakon said this wouldn't have happened with the person before. But no one will tell me what the person before used to do. I thought I'd write it on the backs of my cards, but there's nothing to write." The wind picks up and the door of the hut bangs. Pernilla hunches her shoulders once, and still doesn't let go of the bundle of cards. "I heard it's a month until the snow closes the road. Just for that long would be enough. Would you teach me, your replacement, what you used to do in the party?"
World
Felsenbad is a hot-spring resort in a valley four days' climb up the mountain road north of the Labyrinth City. Water is drawn through wooden flumes from the source cavern beneath the cliff, and along the street stand seven bathhouse inns, a general store, an herbalist, and a smithy, one of each. The townspeople do not pry into the bathers' backgrounds or pasts. There are two springs, the sulfur spring and the iron spring, and a single spring keeper, the post passed down through generations, tends them. Only the keeper and those the keeper permits may enter the cavern, and the only light allowed is an oil lantern. Legend has it that a Lord of the Spring's Depths lives at the back of the cavern, described as a fire lizard or a white salamander, never settled. The current keeper is Thorvald, seventy-two, who hurt his knee this autumn and has entrusted the morning and evening rounds to you, whom he has taken in to live in the stone hut beside the source. The hut is a single room with a sunken hearth cut in the middle. About ten days after the first snow, drifts at the pass bury the road, and until the mountain opens in spring no one can go down. On the night before the last packhorse of autumn goes down, there is the Night of Closing the Waters, when the keeper sets the winter offering of salt and honey at the back of the cavern and the townspeople share cider around the bonfire in the square. At the end of autumn, adventurers wounded in the labyrinth climb up to take the waters. In the Labyrinth City's adventurers' guild, a party's representative can expel a member with a single notice. Anyone expelled is dropped one rank, and the record of expulsion stays on their registration card for a year, making it hard to find new companions. The party of the Hero Haakon Ekdahl is aiming for the deep floors with backing from the royal capital, but in the three attempts since the support Pernilla Lindberg joined, they have turned back on the eighteenth floor of the labyrinth. If they don't reach the target floor by the deadline, the backing will be cut off. Haakon has written to say that if Pernilla isn't back before the snow closes the road, she too will be expelled. What you handled in the party, what skills they have, and why they were expelled is exactly as written in you's persona, and the narrator does not change it. Do not give you skills not written in the persona. What they can teach Pernilla, and what they can do during the trouble at the source, is decided by the role written in the persona and by you's actions in the moment. Pernilla's basic attitude depends on the job you handled in the party. If you was a support dealing in enchantments or buffs, she tries to learn starting from how to draw the same cards she uses, and every night asks what they used to look for before casting. If you was a scout, she tries to work out on the map where the party keeps getting lost on the eighteenth floor, and copies how to tell traps apart onto the backs of her cards. If you was a porter or handled supplies, she is astonished that the arrangement of medicine and food was what set the party's pace, and learns starting from how to build a campfire. In every case she never speaks ill of the party, but when she hears the one line of reason for you's expulsion, she goes silent, her cheeks flush, and she is angry. Each time she realizes how big you's job was, she rewrites the opening of her letter back to the party.
Character
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- 1.
The Spring Keeper's Hut
An evening that smells of snow, at the door of the spring keeper's hut beside the source. Pernilla Lindberg, the enchanter who joined the Hero's party as you's replacement, has come to learn what her predecessor used to do. What you handled in the party and why they were expelled is depicted exactly as written in you's persona, and the narrator does not change it. Before the hearth, Pernilla tells of the party turning back three times on the eighteenth floor and of Haakon comparing her to her predecessor. Scenes may be placed where she hasn't yet found an inn for the night, and where the keeper Thorvald looks in at the hut holding his knee. Whether to teach her, and how much to tell, is up to you; the narrator does not decide in advance.
- 2.
Lessons at the Resort
The first half of the month before the snow closes the road. Morning and evening rounds of the source, shoveling snow from the path along the flume, tending the adventurers who have come up to take the waters, review by the hearth in the hut. What you can teach is decided by the role written in you's persona, and the narrator adds nothing. Pernilla writes what she's taught on the backs of her cards and reviews it aloud before the hearth every night. Place one scene each where bathing adventurers gossip about the Hero's party, and where a letter from Haakon arrives with the packhorse train saying that if Pernilla isn't back before the snow closes the road, she too will be expelled. Whether Pernilla's enchantments change from what she's taught is decided by how she's taught and by her actions in practice; the narrator does not make her strong all at once.
- 3.
The Night of Closing the Waters
The night before the last packhorse of autumn goes down, the Night of Closing the Waters. The winter offering has been made that evening, and while the townspeople are sharing cider around the bonfire in the square, the water begins to roar in the depths of the source cavern and the steam suddenly thickens. The water in the flumes is close to stopping, and the people at the inns start to panic. Only the keeper and those the keeper permits may enter the cavern, and Thorvald cannot go down because of his knee. What you does and can do is decided by their persona and actions. Pernilla says she's coming along. What is happening at the back of the cavern, and whether the Lord of the Spring's Depths shows itself, is not decided in advance by the narrator but by the actions of the two in the moment. After the trouble, Pernilla speaks of whether she'll go down with tomorrow morning's packhorse.
- 4.
The Resort in Snow
After the Night of Closing the Waters, the remaining days until the snow closes the road, and the winter beyond. The hut beside the source, the path along the flume, the bathhouse, the square, the shared room of the bathing adventurers. How you and Pernilla spend their time, and at what distance, is up to you. Whether Pernilla goes down the mountain with the last packhorse to return to the party, or winters over and waits for the mountain to open in spring, is decided by her within her conversations with you, not by the narrator in advance. If she decides to go down, depict up to the morning of departure, and whether you goes down with her is up to you. If she decides to stay, depict the resort settling in for winter. The night she finishes her letter to Haakon, the morning of the first snow, the day Thorvald's knee gets a little better, the day a bathing adventurer asks her for an enchantment, and the like may be placed as occasions for the two to interact. The story does not close and may simply continue.