Tell me your stories of when the hero spends a Deeds point and fails at the test!
Tonight … it was awesome, and painful! Siggar has a complicated relationship with Princess Medel of Pelark. He’s been trying to win her over to get in with the royal family, because he’s afraid of what her mother will become. Siggar brought the Pelarkers in to help win the war against the liche, but the Sorcerer-Queen could soon overpower the fragile alliance that’s come together - and perhaps become just as bad a tyrant herself. He’s not the only one that thinks so, and his chief supporter is her treasonously ambitious daughter Medel. He wants to cement his bond with her as best he can.
To this end he’s been doing Medel’s bidding for several sessions now. She enjoys his company because of his reputation, and because it annoys her mother. Despite his heroic reputation, he’s utterly unsuitable marriage material. (He’s a refugee commoner without a penny to his name.) Nothing is going on, but it amuses her to make her mother wonder what’s going on between them.
Tonight, Siggar made a painful decision and went against his belief to win Medel’s admiration. Only a few hours later, he finds himself in need dire of her help - money! and he comes crawling back.
He offers her a rare gift in trade, and makes the most incredible speech full of bravado and inspiration - it later wins him embodiment - but she doesn’t care. She’s quite happy to give him the money, if he’ll show her how to get into the Reaching: He may not want to go with her, but she’s going to carry out her nearly suicidal plan on her own, without Siggar’s help. This is a heavy moment in itself.
But what really strikes me is that in his speech, he actually implied the two of them might be King and Queen together, usurping her mother. This is so out there (it’s treason!) but it’s really interesting - it calls her bluff on this game she’s been playing. So far, their relationship has been pragmatic. When push comes to shove, what does she really feel?
I call for a Seduction test. This isn’t about whether he gets what she wants in this particular negotiation, this is whether she can see herself sleeping with this guy. Does she dismiss him and think he’s an ass, finally rebuking him for talking way above his station? Or does their relationship take the romantic twist he’s been subtly angling for all this time?
I set the Ob at 3. Her Will is 5, but she’s on the fence. But of course, he doesn’t have Seduction. It’s an Ob 6 Will test. Then he does the unthinkable - he lays down his Deeds point. Deeds! It’s that important to him.
When all the dice are laid out, he’s rolled twelve of them. He fails by one.