Knowledge is power in Mythic Bastionland.
What does the Oddpocrypha have to say about that?
PLAY
The Company are staying in the Holding of a friendly
ruler. After dinner they are left to their own devices for a while. They have
already encountered one Omen of the Child.
Ref: Okay, what are you both doing?
Tal: The ruler here seems friendly enough, but I’ll
see if anybody else looks keen to talk.
Moss: I’ll ask around to see what people know about
the Child.
Ref: Okay, Tal, as you’re moving around the hall a
Knight strides over. You’ve not met them before, they’re…
Ref rolls on some Spark Tables to get an idea of their
appearance.
Ref: He looks sort of soft-bodied for a Knight, a
tattered cloak over his patchwork mail. He speaks to in a whispered tone.
Ref rolls a random Myth of the Realm for this Knight to
know about, getting the Shadow.
Ref: “Greetings, Knight. Have you come from the
north?”
Tal: Erm… (she checks the map) no, we’ve
ridden in from to the east.
Ref: “Well, take my word for it, if you’re heading
north then don’t look too closely into the shadows. A sorrowful presence lurks
there. My brother-in-arms has already been taken by its melancholy.”
Tal: Is this something to do with the Child?
Ref: He doesn’t seem to know anything about the
Child. He explains that he’s recently arrived in the Realm. He also describes
the location of a monument he passed on the way, the mausoleum of a nameless
Knight.
Ref points to the monument’s location on the map, a few
Hexes north of the Holding.
Tal: Great, that’s useful.
Moss: Yeah, do I have any luck?
THOUGHTS
Non-player characters can be useful in different ways. They
can offer hospitality, equipment, remedies, military aid, new positions in a
council, or even a Holding to rule. Whoever they are, most people are also able
to offer the resource of knowledge, as detailed in the Folklore section of the
rules.
We can see the importance of this here, with Moss actively
seeking information and Tal being more passive. I like that Ref gives Tal this
useful information even though she didn’t explicitly ask for it. When it comes
to Myths I like to ensure they’re worked into the conversations happening all
across the Realm, even if the character is a new arrival.
Ref gives some very vague knowledge of the Shadow here. They
could have had the Knight outright explain an encounter with the Shadow, or one
of its omens, but the key is that they wouldn’t know the inner workings of the
Myth. That level of knowledge is restricted to Seers, and is the basis for
their powerful position within the society of the Realm.
Ref could have gone further here, and had the Knight who Tal
meets actually be the Knight described in the Myth itself. One Omen describes a
sorrowful Knight, lashing out at passers-by, and they could have presented this
character to the Company, appearing before their miserable fate.
They could go in another direction, changing the Myth so
that this new Knight is the one present in the Omen.
Instead, Ref takes the slightly safer option of having the Knight who Tal meets simply having a connection to the Knight that will appear in a later Omen. Still effective, but it’s always good to consider other options.
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