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Jeremy Keller
United States
Minnesota
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I had the opportunity recently to run Chronica Feudalis for a few people who had recently purchased the game at my FLGS (The Source Comics & Games in Falcon Heights, MN). It started with only two players so instead of running my usual demo, I asked them if they wanted to make up their own characters and run something on the fly. They agreed. This is what they came up with...
Nicholas
The illegitimate son of Lord Guy, born to a woman who was part of a nomadic camp of travelers. When Guy's wife, Alys, could not produce a male heir, Guy kidnapped Nicholas from the travelers and began to have him trained to become a member of 'polite society.'
Mentors: Courtier (Lady Alys), Outlaw (Anna, his mother), and Thief (Gustaf, a traveler)
Aspects: Bastard, Secret coward, Tarot reader
Erin
A young woman who grew up among the peasantry and was recruited by the castle's steward, Michael, to care for the lord's forest as a forester. While in the forest, she discovered the travelers hiding out there but quickly made friends with them instead of reporting them to Michael.
Mentors: Archer (Daniel, captain of the lord's guard), Hunter (Michael), Peasant (Jane, her mother).
Aspects: Eager forester, Blood-sister to the travelers, Compassionate
About halfway through the adventure, we had one more person show up, so I handed him a pre-gen I had on hand:
Sir Simon
A knight-errant in Lord Guy's retinue.
Mentors: Courtier, Hunter, Knight
Aspects: Landless knight, Noble courage, At home in his armor
I was trying to think of a good adventure to hook everyone into. I started by writing out the six mentors of the original two characters on a blank piece of paper. To this I added Lord Guy: an obviously important figure as the central noble in the area. Out of this I started making connections, a relationship map, and added Nicholas and Erin into where I figured they would land on the map. Seeing how Lord Guy was the hub for almost every relationship, I started wondering what things would look like if he were eliminated — more specifically, if he were murdered. This spawned the idea for a murder mystery.
I started with Lord Guy and his retinue out on a hunt. It was Erin's job to track down and scare up some game for the rest of the party to go after. Using the hunting dogs as a tool, she made an amazing Hunt roll (a triple success) and found a nice wild boar. When she scared it out in front of the hunting party, Nicholas took a shot with his bow but it plunked right off the boar's thick hide. The boar ran off and everyone chased after it.
So this led us into a chase conflict. Nicholas had a definite advantage being on horseback. Erin, on foot, had difficulty keeping up and took a couple of Vigor hits early on. I steadily increased the target-die for the terrain. I had started with a d8 for the forest, but when the boar started swimming down a stream and then climbing a hill, I increased it to a d10. This helped to bring the conflict to a close. Nicholas managed to corner the boar again, getting the opportunity to take another shot. This shot wildly missed and the boar ran off again! Lord Guy, just at Nicholas' heels began to berate his bastard son for his lousy shot and his poor hunting. Nicholas didn't stand and take it, he started shouting back (a compel on his Bastard aspect). The rest of the entourage let the two had their space, and continued off into the woods.
When the fight ended the father and son stormed off into two directions. Nicholas managed to regroup with the rest of the hunting party, but Lord Guy never did. Eventually his horse was found, riderless. Everyone started looking for Guy.
It was Erin who eventually found him lying face down in the leaves with an arrow in his back. The arrow was fletched with brightly-colored 'traveler feathers'. Erin quickly removed the arrow and shot it off into the thick of the woods so that her traveler friends would not be implicated in the murder (a compel on her Blood-sister aspect).
As the party started investigating for clues as to who could have done this to Lord Guy, Sir Simon noticed that Michael Steward wasn't so much looking for something as looking for somewhere to hide something. Sir Simon confronted Michael but wasn't able to bully any information out of him.
No clues were found (and neither was the traveler feather fletched arrow) and the body was brought back to the castle. The sheriff was called for. The sheriff, Godric, and his sergeants arrived promptly and begin to question the witnesses.
It was at this time that Michael made a formal accusation, fingering Nicholas and producing an arrow fletched with brightly-colored traveler feathers. Michael claimed this was evidence that Nicholas had murdered his father as revenge for stealing him away from the traveler camp.
Erin didn't believe that the arrow in Michael's hand was the same arrow she found in Guy's back. She also noticed something else with a successful Empathy roll. There seemed to be an exchange of glances between Michael and Lady Alys. Is it possible they had been having an affair?
Nicholas defended his innocence and with a subtle communication from Erin, claimed that Michael had killed Lord Guy because he was in love with Guy's wife. And if Nicholas, Guy's only heir, were condemned, the estate would revert to Alys — giving the two lovers a nice nest egg. This all played out in a parley conflict. Nicholas won and gained the support of the sheriff and those in attendance.
But Michael wasn't finished yet. He claimed the case should be settled by Trial by Combat. Godric, being a traditional Anglo-Saxon sort, agreed. Nicholas, having no swordsmanship ability at all was a bit fearful at this. Fortunately, Sir Simon stepped up to be his champion.
That night, Nicholas consulted his tarot cards. They provided him with a clue.
The next morning, the contestants assembled on the lawn, surrounded by a slew of onlookers. Without much ceremony, and an intimidating taunt from Simon, the duel began. Both made good use of their shields, protecting themselves from deadly sword blows.
With everyone focused on the fight, Nicholas slipped away back into the castle.
Meanwhile, outside, Erin took the opportunity to impart tales of the gruesome injuries she had seen in such duels into Alys' ear. She was hoping to incite a reaction out of Alys that might cause Michael to become distracted. This was a maneuver that Erin attempted every round of the combat. It took a while, but eventually it worked and caused Michael to gain a Distracted condition. Simon was able to invoke this condition for free while bashing Michael in the face with his shield. The result was a split lip: blood was drawn and the trial was over. Simon was the victor.
At this point Nicholas had returned from the castle. He had been searching through Michael's things and found his fletching kit. Included in the kit were peacock feathers — commonly associated with the travelers. Nicholas presented this to the sheriff as proof that Michael had manufactured the arrow and was in fact the murderer.
At least, that's what everyone thinks.
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Chad Bowser
United States
Kernersville
North Carolina
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Thanks for the post. I'll have to definitely pick this game up someday. Maybe even put my Medieval Studies degree to good use for once.;)
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