Mortal Wounds: How to Deal with the Campaign Ramifications

Burning Wheel Subsystem Advice and Guidance
21

I forgot to update y’all! My bad. We’re still playing (hooray!) and the players – both D&D refugees – are loving Burning Wheel Gold.

Here’s how it was:

  • The Dwarf got himself treated, took some (major) painkiller herbs (which he almost got addicted to), then went after the bad guys to try and save the sister.

  • Bad rolls on finding his way there, and he showed up too late. The bad guys succeeded in putting the demon in control of sister’s body. She “marked” the Dwarf with a burned hand print on his pretty, pretty Dwarf face then went to go find her brother and the badass sword her soul is imprisoned in. With it destroyed, she’ll have her full power back. Remember, brother is currently Mortal Wound’d. Luckily, he’s protected by the small army that helped them storm this hell hole.

  • Oh, wait, not he isn’t, because this is a GOD DAMN FIRE DEMON. It burns the army alive, leaving brother as the only living soul surrounded by charred corpses. The demon takes some delight in pretending to be his “real” sister, but he sees through the mask. He’s mostly dead, but I let the poor guy talk, and he tries to convince her that he loves her and don’t do this. Doesn’t work. “The time I spent as your sister was a heartbeat amidst a thousand lifetimes. You are nothing to me.” But then, when she tries to take the sword, a pale light glows from it – pale, but she reacts as if it’s blinding, and shrieks. The brother realizes it’s the tiny, tiny portion of her uncorrupted soul, fighting back.

  • Because she can’t take the sword now, she promises to get it soon and probably in a very impolite / stabby manner, then (literally) blazes out of there. Dwarf comes back and takes the brother out of there. They return to one of the Elf glades they’d visited before, but find it abandoned save for one Elf-maid who the brother was trying to woo before everything went to shit. She sees that he’s in desperate need of help and agrees to take him as fast as she can to see a healer.

  • Then – and I think this is key, as Luke said – the Dwarf LEAVES him. He heads off toward Khazad-dum to continue his (and to be fair, the brother’s) mission while the brother recovers from his wounds. BUT HE DIDN’T TAKE THE SWORD!

  • That all happened about four months ago (in game time and real time, strangely enough) and the Dwarf has been having great fun in Khazad-dum. Oh, except for the part where he ventured into the Under-deeps and accidently led the aforementioned fire demon (who was spying on him through her mark) to the sleeping Balrog – whom Sauron was trying to awaken – and ended up awakening it for HER instead. Oh, and since he accepted her power she’s corrupted him a little bit (I gave him a new Emotional Attribute, “Corruption,” which he can call on). Oops.

  • The “brother” player has been a good sport, playing as a new Dwarf character and also as the main Dwarf’s “henchman.” He seems to like both characters, but I can tell he’s getting a tad impatient. He sent me a text the other day asking when we’d see the brother again. I explained to him the heartbreaking details regarding healing from MW’s and his response was a plaintive, “Don’t taze me bro.” I’ve been thinking about doing some brief “flashes” to him during the next few games to show him just how bad a situation he’s in.

Now, I would love some more advice if you guys are willing:

Since the Dwarf abandoned his friend and for months the Big Bad (former sister) has had time to try and get that sword back, how BAD should I make his choice? I mean, to me, it was pretty bad. He knew exactly what would happen if she got it, but he still left his friend and left the sword, too.

That said, I don’t want to punish the brother player because the Dwarf player made a bad call? I’ve already kind of warned him, though. Hm.

Anyway, if any of this is interesting to you, you can check out the campaign website, too:

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/lord-of-the-rings-shadow-of-the-east

22

With travel time to get to Khazad dun plus adventuring time plus maybe some well placed downtime can you get to when the brother is healed enough to travel?

I’d consider dangling a Faustian bargain in front of the brother. Maybe another demon with the power to get him up and running to pursue his beliefs but at terrible cost.

23

Yes, probably. All depends on if the Dwarf goes back for him yet. But, you know what…?

I’d consider dangling a Faustian bargain in front of the brother. Maybe another demon with the power to get him up and running to pursue his beliefs but at terrible cost.

THIS is a great idea. I already established that some mysterious figure from his tribal homelands are searching for him, and his tribe is all about “imprisoning demon souls in mortal flesh so they have a chance to redeem themselves” thing. It’s not all all outside the realm of believably that another equally powerful demon might come looking. Hm. Don’t wan’t overpopulate the campaign with uber-demons, though. I’ll have to think about it, but I like the concept.

24

Dooooo eeeeeeet!!!

25

It’s not a good match for all campaigns, but this seems magical enough that around this time you toss out the quest to get the Healing Doodad to heal the brother. Demons work, but so do all kinds of other options that are less evil, if not less onerous. Owing big favors to people with a lot of power is always interesting. You undercut the threat of a mortal wound a bit, but it sounds like that particular lesson has sunk in. There’s been plenty of in-game and real-life time to make that abundantly clear.

26

What about divine intervention as an alternative to another demon?

Some god or divine being, either aligned with the players or opposed to the demons, steps in and helps out, seemingly out of the “good of his heart” (or whatever he keeps in his chest). It’s an excellent chance to make the players feel like they’ve really hit a gold mine and are being rewarded for being such heroes, BUT they will soon realize that divine beings can be just as big a pain in the rear as demons - they’re just nicer about it when they screw you over. :slight_smile:

27

Thank you for the suggestions, guys. :slight_smile:

Since this is a Middle-earth campaign, I’m trying to stick to Tolkien’s themes. Unfortunately, that means that while infernal intervention is inherent to Creation, divine intervention is exceedingly rare.

That said, I do agree with Wayfarer that the “Mortal Wounds are unfun” lesson has sunk in. Then again, we haven’t even done the poor guy’s Health checks yet so he may end up crippled for life anyway. :stuck_out_tongue:

28

Divine intervention, no, but there are artifacts and elves with ancient arts and wizards. I’d worry more about demonic possession: Middle-Earth doesn’t really have demons as such. The closest I can think of is balrogs, and you don’t make deals with them or get possessed. They just maul you.

29

Right. I’ve used the term “demon” in the above for simplicity’s sake, but really what I’m talking about is a Maiar spirit (like Gandalf, Sauron, or a Balrog). The sister is not possessed, technically. She is and always was a corrupted Maia inhabiting human flesh. Some great power is trying to redeem her over many, many human lifetimes. Unfortunately, things went haywire and now the corrupted part is in charge of the body, allowing it a conduit to affect Middle-eath.

Anyway, I think the Dwarf character is too close to his goal to turn back and embark on a seperate journey to heal the brother. The fact is, he messed up by not taking the sword. Actions have consequences, and these are going to be nasty.