Stenn burst from the frost-den, pulling his heavy club from the hide sheath he wore high on his back. The Red Snow, Vodor's Tears, was both a natural hazard and a spiritual crisis, but in Stenn's mind and those of his fellows there was no distinction. Blood Dust was another moniker for this phenomenon, because those who succumbed to it deteriorated to a crimson, gritty pile of particulates, leaving behind not even a skeleton.
He grimaced as the cold cut through his furs like a blade. Stenn pivoted slowly in a full circle, listening for the bujant's bugle; it didn't escape his attention that the torches around the camp seemed to burn dimmer, as if the very air resisted their warmth.
Stenn saw the hulking form of his friend and cried, "Drogan, to me!" As his fellow clansman drew near, Stenn noticed his shivering and struck him on the arm, then gripped Drogan's shoulder. "I know, my friend, I know!" Stenn himself could feel a drain upon his stamina, as if his strength were being pulled upward into the sky.
"Fight it!" Stenn growled, cuffing Drogan encouragingly. "I'm going to find the bujant and deal with it before The Reddening. Get Fodor and Gahn and have them re-chalk the sky glyphs quickly, then get them inside and make sure the children are nearest the fires!" He turned and quickly moved beyond the light of the torches, then paused, staring outward away from the camp, giving his eyes times to adjust.
Ask the Oracle: Can I see the bujant?
No, but the cold may kill you before the bujant can.
Stenn stumbles, the supernatural cold stealing his strength. He calls upon the Spirit of Ursus: "Bear Father, sustain me for the sake of your people!" This depends upon a derived attribute, Anima — the intersection of soul and mind (average of Mind 3 + Spirit 4, rounded up, i.e., 4). An Anima of 4 yields a dice pool of 4d6:
Two successes! Stenn rallies, and fancies that Ursus' pelt enfolds him in warmth.
Some of the Red Snow melted on his lip, and he spat vehemently. The taste was acrid, metallic. A thud sounded to his left and he spun with his raised club, expecting the bujant, but he saw that the source of the noise was a dead bird, fallen from the sky. Another hits the ground, ten feet northward.
He didn't see the bujant, but standing motionless in this cold was a death sentence, so he took off in a lope, making a wide circuit of the camp. Time was short if birds were already dying. The children and elders of the clan would be the first to enter a shivering torpor.
Ask the Oracle: will the bujant attack Fodor and Gahn?
Yes, and here it comes now, darting out of the darkness, into the torchlight, arrowing for the Sky Glyph rocks!
Stenn altered his trajectory to intercept the wolf, and noticed that the bujant was apparently unaffected by the Red Snow — clear evidence that the Void Lord had won many of the lesser malign spirits to his cause.
Stenn's powerful legs bunched, driving him even faster across the feebly lit night of the camp, club raised in a two-handed grip.
Ask the Oracle: Does the bujant see me in its peripheral vision?
No.
Stenn glanced toward the Sky Glyph rocks. Fodor is nowhere to be seen, perhaps having already completed his work and taken shelter. But there is Gahn, still feverishly chalking the sky glyph on the second of a pair of boulders. This fell beast will rip out his throat before he even knows what hit him! "By Ursus be thwarted!" Stenn cried aloud.
Again, the powerful warrior invoked the Great Bear. So soon after the previous invocation means we'll allow Anima with a penalty of one. That's a dice pool of three:
A single success.
The bujant tried to ignore Stenn in single-minded intent to disrupt the chalking, but Stenn's invocation of the Great Bear caused it to stumble, and almost fall. The wolf righted itself but Stenn was upon it, and combat was joined!
The bujant-possessed wolf has a dice pool of 4. Stenn's Body attribute is 3, but because he's running and not braced, he can't hit as hard as he'd like (hindrance lowers 3 to a 2-die pool). However, Stenn is thugglishly strong (Trait). This adds a die — pool is back to 3 dice. He cannot add a die for the Star Spirit, as it remains neutral in this, not wishing to become embroiled in conflict with the Void Lord. Stenn has 5 banked Adversity Tokens. We'll spend two of them to add two more dice to the pool, bringing it to 5 dice.
Bujant Wolf's resolution roll yields a single Success
Stenn's resolution roll yields 3 Successes:
Images of dice are compliments of Mike Zuidgeest, and are sourced from flaticon.com
Stenn's margin of success is two (the difference between his 3 Successes and the wolf's single Success), and he chooses to inflict two ticks on the bujant's Stress Track:
Stenn's Adversity Token pool is now 3 of 5.
The dice have spoken: Stenn brought down his heavy club upon the wolf's hindquarters, injuring it. It yelped in pain, slewed sideways and went down, but quickly stood.
Ask the Oracle: Does the wolf ignore my threat and still head toward Gahn?
No, and it's decided to feast on Stenn's marrow!
Stenn was chagrined. He'd hoped to injure the creature badly enough to handicap it, but could see no indication he had done so. Stenn fancied he could see the wolf's soul struggling against the evil spirit that has possessed it. He rooted for the former, but was unsurprised when the latter won out and the beast sprang at him.
The wolf uses its special Spring attack (+1 die to its pool). And because of the evil influence driving it, the injured wolf Pushes Its Luck (+1 die — a Luck die) when ordinarily it might not do so. That's 6 dice (the wolf's normal 4, plus Luck die, +1 for Spring trait). However, I'll be kind and subtract one die due to injury/pain. I'm rolling this in *Mythic GME Digital* on Windows; we'll count the final roll as the Luck die:
Ha, the wolf gets zero Successes! And the Luck die came up 2; that's a Blunder!
As the player, I meta-rule that the wolf's Blunder signifies that it has exacerbated the injury dealt it by Stenn's club and now has a -1 die Hindrance. Stenn, of course, will show no mercy. He might have, had this just been a starving wolf, but he'll take no chances on a Bujant. Stenn has a dice pool of four for his attack (Body 3, Thuggishly Strong trait). He feels that Morning Dew and Ursus are with him now, so he doesn't Push His Luck or use Adversity Tokens.
Let's see how Stenn performs:
His resolution roll comes up two Successes:
That's a margin of success of two, and Stenn inflicts two more ticks on the wolf's stress track:
The Cro-Magnon man stepped sideways as the wolf sprang and batted it aside with his club, then was ready when the wolf scrabbled to get itself turned around and attack again.
Ordinarily, the wolf at this point would make a morale check, and possibly choose to flee. I judged that given the evil influence it's under, that's possible but unlikely.
Oracle, has the wolf had enough?
Exceptional No!
Not only does the wolf stay and fight, but it is heedless of its own well-being. If it lands an attack it will inflict +1 tick of stress, but it's hurt and confused (and suffering from the rapidly worsening preternatural cold) and it's down to a dice pool of two. The possessing spirit whips the beast furiously, and it Pushes Its Luck (+1 die, for a pool of 3) And remember, the final die will always be the Luck die, when/if a Luck die is included in a Resolution Roll:
That's a single success for the wolf, and as it lunges, Stenn defends himself:
Wolf and Cro-Magnon are tied, with one Success each. Stalemate!
Stenn managed to pop the wolf on the snout as it attempted another bite, and the wolf yelped, paused for a moment as if considering...
Oracle, does the wolf want more of this?
No.
This time the wolf does decide it's had enough. As it runs off, Stenn is too cold to give chase. He counts himself fortunate indeed to make it into the frost-den before he collapses.
Fair amount of effort: rolling, editing, correcting misspellings, updating Mechanics, Terminology, and Cast of Characters. I'm awarding Stenn a full XP for this scene. After-action character sheet snapshot (I prefer this more stylized character sheet update).
The Reddening >>
