The Bloody Hands [Tricube Solo] Episode 6: Sink or Swim, Part 3

Arden is having a morning. He went first thing to the Mayor's office and has been trying to work out a deal to retrieve the material to finish the resonance towers. It has been hard going. It will take a good number of boats to get the materials back or they would have to spend some time rebuilding the boat. Without an absolute guarantee of safety, both seem like bad ideas to the riverfolk. Anything that could take out a dozen of the Order's people is a threat. 

To this, Arden agrees. "This is why we go right now, this morning, and we get it done in a hurry. That ship may or may not be left like that as a trap but from experience I can say that giving the people who did it any more only makes things worse for all of us. Besides, if you let them start telling you can and cannot go along this river, they will only take more and more." Eventually a few agree and this brings in a couple of others. As word gets about that people are going to help the Order, more and more agree to sign up. Arden is offering to pay well and the riverfolk accept his sentiment that they must keep the river for themselves. [1]

They are shaking hands and writing out contract terms when Jules Quintesia runs in. 

"Sir Ard! Sir Ard! They have Nat!" 

"Who? What are you talking about?"

"Ormand and some of his people grabbed her and dragged into the Prisoner." 

Arden looks around at the Mayor and the riverfolk, and then strides out of the room at haste. Some of the others follow him. 

He walks steadily down the streets to the The Poisoned Prisoner and without breaking stride pulls forth his dual swords while the sigils on his arms and neck begin to pulse and glow and with a single kick smashes through the front door. [2]

Inside, he sees Ormand and other Guillarme folks around a chair and in that chair is Natalia, tied up by rough rope. Everyone has stopped their conversation and is now looking at Ulet. His sigils burning bright in the dim interior of the tavern. Obviously some of the folks have never quite put two and two together how Guardians can survive against monstrosities and realization is starting to set into their eyes. 

"Guardian Wilson," Arden says, fudging her title a bit for appearances, "Explain!"

"I was just trying to do a little shopping for their finest wine and I think they need to work on their sales pitch."

"Are you harmed?"

"No, despite the whole kidnap and trussing up thing, I think they are kind of bad at the bad guy routine."

Arden walks across the floor, shoving some folks aside, and slices the ropes with one sword before pivoting to Ormand. "What in the dark hells are you hiding that would make you think that attacking a Guardian head on is a good idea?" 

"It's not what it looks like? I mean...we are...I..." [3]

"Guardian Wilson, I need a report about what it was they were trying to stop you from seeing." 

Natalia disappears out the backdoor and comes back with a vial of dark red liquid that she and Arden recognize. The same drug that had been introduced to Oakwood. "Blood," they called it then. Derived from the same ichor the Bloody Hands thrive in. A gateway to letting the Darkness flow through you. 

"Can someone get me the Mayor and some guards. We know the effects of this. It...changes people. We need to find out how many people are taking it and round all of it. If this was being used in Guillarme, we know what it fell now. Not even towns under the Veil are safe from it."

Later, as Arden is overseeing the destruction of the drug and looking at other evidence - clear signs of the ichor trails left by the Members of The Hand showing that at least some them have been in town and a note that is giving instruction to Jenz and his people about how to continue distribution in this new place - Jalmar and Raymond returns.

"It's bad, Arn. The Hand are nearby. In person, this time, with no Veil to hold them out." 

A dozen river folk stand guard while others unload equipment from the downed Vainglorious Shard. On the deck of the doomed ship, Arden and his crew discuss general strategy to get to the temple, frequently glancing west and wondering how deep their journey is about to go. 

"Did you confirm if any of the missing folks are still alive?" Arden asks Jalmar. 

"No, there was a guard and no clear approach. By all accounts, everyone from the village also have gone inside." 

Natalia has been working on a series of complicated contraptions involving glass bottles rigged with Order tech to explode. After the raid on the Guillarme tavern-keeper Ormand Jenz's business, she managed to stock up on as much of the strongest alcohol they had. 

Fights have broken out all over Basinghall as people come to terms with the number of folks who had been regular customers of Jenz, people taking a drug that lets the Darkness free. Possibly destroying you. Possibly destroying everything around you. The majority are working with the Order. Diana Anderson, the Basinghall mayor, has been a major source of assistance. She has spent most of her life repairing and strengthening Basinghall. She has also made note that the Guillarme folk who were not involved with Jenz's gang are not to be targeted for this. [4]

"Guardian in Potential Wilson, how big of a boom are you able to get us?" Arden slipping into formal speech now that the mission is coming to fruition. 

"Big enough that it could take out two temples," Natalia replies. [5]

"Ok, the three of us are going to move fast. First priority is always saving the people. Second is to try and smash through whatever stronghold the Hand have in these parts."

"What about the Wildkin?" Jalmar asks. Wildkin himself, though of a different type than the goat-featured ones in the forest, he has regularly campaigned for protection of the peculiar and varied Outsiders by the Order. A cause that Arden has been sympathetic towards even when the Order has been less so. 

"I said save the people first. I meant it. You know this, Senior Retainer Dax." 

The older man claps Arden on the back. He had been a Junior Retainer when Arden was brought on as a Guardian in Potential and has stayed by his side since.

Franco Jones, the Order boatman comes up and says the riverfolk have gathered most of the equipment. 

"Ok," says Arden, "Get it back to Basinghall. Mayor Anderson will help you to unload. Then return here. We have until morning to return. If we do not, give us one more day, then return the next morning. After this second morning, make fast for Yarlkin and get word to Hub."

One more man is standing back: Raymond Quintesia, a hunter from Basinghall that has been helping the group. He was there when Jalmar found the temple. "I can come along." 

"And I appreciate that," Arden tells him, finally dropping some of the official mask he has put during preparation. "But this is a different kind of danger. The last time I entered one of these temples, I saw people's souls ripped from their bodies. I had to dive in and risk a lot just to save a portion. You take care of your daughter. Go back with Jones and make sure the towers stay safe if we do not return. The Hand cannot enter once the Veil has been activated. If nothing else, we can buy you some time."

With that, Arden gathers Natalia and Jalmar race off west from the river, going into the woods and racing the setting sun. Just a day later since they first arrived at this spot but time has felt so compressed to all three who have barely had time to rest.

The temple is before them, now. a strange shadowy structure jutting off of a cliff. The guard Jalmar had been describing is gone but the red robes it had worn to make itself look more human remain on the steps. [6]

"Is it a trap?" Natalia asks. 

"It is always a trap with The Hand. I just fear it might have already been sprung," Arden replies. 

The trio make their way across the distance, keeping an eye on temple. Which almost means they miss the danger in front of them. The odd statues, shaped like monstrosities are a defense. This is why the Hand abandoned its post after gathering up all the people into the temple. The trap is sprung and Arden and Jalmar grab their heads as a psychic attack begins pouring in. It is Natalia that realizes the alignment of the trap. Grabbing a rock from the ground she beings pounding on the protrusions roughly aligned where the heads might be and begins breaking and twisting the figures out of true. She shouts to the other two, all hope for stealth being lost, how to dismantle the trap. The other join in and help her to topple some of the weird shapes and otherwise disengage the other. [7]

"If they did not know we were near, before, they know we are near now," Jalmar frets. 

"Well, then, let us go and say hello." With that, Arden walks up the steps, kicks the red robes to make sure they are empty, and goes inside.

"How did you know how to disable it?" Jalmar asks Natalia. 

"My dad served in some of the first fights with the Hand as the Order were discovering this hidden enemy. Before Arden convinced the Order to take the Hand seriously. He wrote to me about some of the weird tricks they were pulling. They have a sort of odd five sided shape to their geometry, gathered in particular sets of prime numbers. I realized statues were aligned along it. My dad is why I got assigned to Arden in the first place." [8]

With that they follow Arden down into the darkness. 

Inside, a gruesome sight is before them. Dozens upon dozens lie dead. The goat-featured Wildkin. The missing members of the Order. Even the black armored guardsmen. [9]

"Monsters," Natalia comments seeing the dead before her feet. Arden staring quietly past them into another room at the center of the temple. Walks into it and the other two follow. A stone chamber lit with the light of many burning braziers. A foul stench pouring forth. And at the center of that room is a pool of bloody ichor bulging out like it very nearly ready to overflow.

"What do we do? Can you save them?" Jalmar asks Arden.

"I do not know. Last time I encountered something like this, I was there when the ritual was still active, before it was complete. Even then it was a struggle. This could have been done hours ago. Maybe right after you and Raymond were here. By now those people are...somewhere else. And something else has either taken over their body or will, soon." 

Jalmar curses. "I should have pushed forward. I might have been able to save someone. Anyone."

Arden tries to console him. "No, back in that outer room I counted at least a eight more robes. They were here in force. You were right to get reinforcements. The timing was just beyond our control."

Arden reaches out and tries to find his connection to that Other Place, that great river of blood where he keeps being drawn, but for once he unable to do so. In some strange irony, this very horizon on the cusp of There is also shielded from the in-between. Perhaps the Hand are worried about Here invading them, as well. [10]

Arden begins to look around and make note of the various sigils written into the floor. 

"By Khel. Look. They are very nearly like our own. At least, you can see they come from the same root." And sure enough, the symbols which are etched all over the room are different but also very similar as the sigils the Order have etched into Arden and Jalmar's skin (and will etch into Natalia once she is approved to enter full training as Guardian or Retainer). 

Arden furiously jots down as many as he can and then begins exploring the temple, keeping an eye in case any of the bodies wake up with something else inside. Like what happened at Narys. He knows they could be running out of time. 

Soon enough, in one of the empty red robes, he finds a complex shape. He thinks "key" as holds it but using it is a another task he does not yet grasp. A heptagon and hendecagon arranged in such a way to form a five pointed shape between them. Again, somehow tied to the sigils but again slightly different. Three mystical alphabets all from some ur-language. [11]

"Senior Retainer Dax, help me carry a couple of these bodies. We'll stick to the Order folk for this. They at least signed up for the horror. Guardian in Potential Wilson. Blow this temple."

"What about the others? We cannot kill them!" Natalia protests. She points at the large number of people left on the floor. Once this temple is destroyed, these people will be buried in the rubble left to fall down the cliff. 

"Those people are lost and there are other things ready to control their bodies. We can maybe trap just a couple of them at their own game, and find out more. But if any of these bodies are left unattended somewhere, someday some of them will return and the Hand will have another foothold. Do you understand?"

"I...do. I will set the explosives, sir!" [12]

The other two grab up a couple of the bodies, each, and begin running. As they make it through the doomed now empty village, Natalia's explosives tear through the early evening and close the gate. Only one many but at least this is gone for good. 

"Arden," says Natalia with a tired voice as she tries to slam the piece of equipment into place, "are you...sure...we should be...doing this?" Formal language dropped as the three are sweaty, strained, and quite literally bloodied as they do the work normal reserved for a dozen better trained people.

"Didn't you know?" Jalmar quips, less out of breath but also struggling to get the pieces into place. "Ulet here is legacy." 

"Wh...at?" Natalia stops to wipe sweat from her brow right as Arden curses loudly as the equipment slams down into his hand. 

"My mom," Arden says, nursing his wound. She was one of the ones who designed these towers to begin with. I was five when the first one went up. In the crowd. I didn't know what it meant, only that I was proud of her."

Jalmar jumps back as a pieces crashes at his feet. "Ach, sorry."

"This goes..." "and, hells!..." "Now we..."

The next day has been spent by the three members of the Order in constructing the Resonance Tower rather than wait the week it might take to get more technicians out this far. Raymond and Jules are there, though Jules is asleep at this point. Mayor Anderson has a series of volunteers to bring food and water to the square. Many people from Basinghall have been hanging about. Nervous. Unsure. Hopeful.

And then the tower is turned on. A small globe. One that would fit into your hand. Like a soap bubble. Vibrant with color and swirling fast. Expanding explosively outwards and filling the sky, covering not only all of Basinghall but a bit beyond. Weak, though. There are moments where you can see through it. [13]

"This far from other towers, it might take time to build up Resonance. I'll make sure to send some technicians out. I'm sorry..."

Arden only stops explaining when he realizes that the crowd is starting to cheer. Arden Ulet, Jalmar Dax, and Natalia Wilson will be talked about for months to come. The heroes of Basinghall. 

"You'll need to keep guard. Wouldn't want anything to happen to you or Jules." Jalmar and Raymond have been drinking beer for the past few hours and have swung from happy to sad to happy to sad again. Many folks are gathered in the The Poisoned Prisoner. The front door has been fixed and Mayor Anderson is now claiming the tavern as her own. A few of the Guillarme folk who had not thrown in with Jenz have come forth to join her, offering to teach her how to brew Guillarme Ale. 

"They said we can call it Gilly Ale and make it a local staple," Anderson laughs. 

In the back corner of the tavern, a more serious conversation is taking place. "It was tough call to accept my orders, I know." Natalia got only partially into her second beer before guilt at blowing up the temple, still with several bodies inside, overwhelmed her. She has been crying ever since. Arden hands her a note. She looks at it almost fearfully. Her first true assignment as a Guardian in Potential. And she questioned orders. Opening it, looking at it, her eyes go a bit wider. "What?" 

"I am recommending you for promotion to Guardian in Training. When you get to Hub, you can start that process. Might be a nice break from all this..." Arden gestures around, "Outside."

"What about you, sir? Will I still be serving under you?" 

"If you like, but I am not going back to Hub. You will be escorting Senior Retainer Jones and the bodies back to a station near Hub. They have not reanimated yet but he has been keeping an eye on them outside the veil. When you blew up the temple, it might have severed them. Or maybe the ritual is something new after we thwarted them a few months ago. 

"At any rate, I talked to Jalmar and he and I are taking a detour. One that has its own particular flavor of danger. Have you..." and as he says this Arden leans closer, speaks in a quieter voice, "Have you ever heard of The Lighthouse?" 

MECHANICAL NOTES

1. Hard Crafty Challenge. Had to spend two Karma just to pass BUT with that it became an extraordinary success.
2. Hard Brawny Challenge. Which Arden makes, fun enough, without having to have the riverfolk bail him out.
3. Are they hiding something. Queen of Spades. Definitely yes, but... it's not exactly there's. Are they working with The Bloody Hands. Ten of Diamonds --> Yes...so the first thought I have about hiding something related to The Hands that might be stored and served in barrels is a call back. Other clues they find are "hand written note" and "pool of vomit" but in the past, like here, we attacked that pool into a "pool of ichor" instead.
4. "How helpful have the townfolk been?" Ace of Clubs --> New Person (went with the Mayor because again, new people in the very last scene is silly). She is a discrete, sympathetic, architect. Jack of Clubs so overall very helpful. 
5. Locked to Crafty, got a 4 so Hard. Spent her last Karma to make it Standard and that gives her two success. 
6. "Is the watching Hand still there?" 6 of Spades. No, but... a part remains.
7. Queen of Clubs: a skill or action focus, 2 effort per character. Jalmar and Arden lose one resolve but Natalia manages two hits. In subsequent sequences, each scores at least one hit until the full 6 effort is made.
8. "How did she know?" Communication + Conflict. 
9. "Are any of the prisoners still alive?" 3 of Spades. No, but... 
10. Locked to Craft. 7 of Spades. Hard Crafty. No successes.
11. Ace. 1 --> Positive for Arden. Jack of diamonds. Effort (1) and transaction/object. Jack of Hearts. Positive for Arden finding a way to break past the Hand's world. 5 of clubs. Easy Brawny challenge. Both Arden and Jalmar make it to get some bodies out. "Are the sigils similar to the ones the Order use?" Yes, and... they point to some shared background for magic between the two. 
12. Does she protest? 4 of spades. No, but... she is not happy with what she is doing.
13. 5 of clubs. A scene about activity. 10 of Hearts. Hard Crafty AND triggering the final scene. The crew decide to build the tower after getting back to Basinghall. It takes all of Arden and Natalia's remaining Karma, and all three lose a point of resolve, but they do get through it. "Does it cover all of Basinghall?" Jack of spades. Very much so But... it is not as strong as it can be.

DOUG'S NOTES

This one and the end of the previous part is a good example of how solo play can go. It was meant to be around three paragraphs of Natalia and Arden prepping for the final couple of scenes and ended up becoming two full side scenes in their own right. Guillarme's fall was going to be a potential moment of introspection by our Guardian team and before the ending of this session I had planned on perhaps having a side trip out to see it, to learn more from it. However, once a throwaway note about barrels and crates and how badly that went I thought it would be a good idea to back explore that. 

The Lighthouse hint at the end might sound familiar and it should. This and the SoloDark world of "The Bleak and the Pearl" are two completely separate universes but at the same time they share DNA. I had the idea for a solo ShadowDark campaign involving "The Bleak" before I started this but ended up playing this campaign first. The early moments of both fed off of each other. "The Bleak" became an encroaching darkness rather than a merely a "bad spot" and The Lighthouse in that other campaign was heavily influenced by playing this one. 

Once I established that Ulet's mom was a researcher I had the idea of maybe exploring that. Now that my potential follow up for Guillarme has been nixed, I figured why not? And as soon as I thought about where the idea for The Veil came from I thought of a lighthouse in the darkness and a group of folks - something of an insular cult dedicated to a natural energy - and how it was the basis for it all. I do not want to dive too much more deeper than this because the fun is in being surprised.

We have established that the The Bloody Hands are somehow...entwined with the Veil. It makes sense that for the Veil to so disrupt their magic, and for them to try so hard to work against it, that it would be from a similar but possible opposite source. Arden has spent this entire campaign trying to break down the barriers that prevent him going deeper. It was finally time and the cards were finally good to him. He actually has forward progress on this. By a single card. But so it goes.

Natalia only got a single card the whole time related to her quest to become a Guardian and it was positive. I think for her I will alter her Quirk from "Surly" to "Inexperienced". She's actually be fairly sociable and fun and spunky and I have never quite played her as surly more so as just...unused to people not from Hub. 

When she shows back up (I mean, depending on how things go, she should show back up) she will be a Guardian herself and have the sigils so will be able to take a few more hits and deal a few more hits. Though it's also fun having someone who can toss a bit of Nitro-9 when needed. 

After this, I am going to increase Arden's and Jalmar's Karma to 4 each. I am also going to give Jalmar a second Quirk: "Loyal". He is loyal to Arden. Loyal to Wildkin. Loyal to his friends. This is not bad, but it threatens to distract him. 

That wraps up this episode. The next couple will likely detail the trip to the Lighthouse and then start working towards an endgame. It has been a pleasure to dive more into the language and themes. 

I am still trying to figure out how long to make these write-ups. I think these last two are close to the right length. I am aiming for about 15-20 minute reads with maybe 5-10 minutes of extra on *some* of them. This also represents the first time I have set the posts up with scheduled posts. Which should help me to write up a few at a time, have time to edit them, but generally gives me gaps when I am in between actual play to work out the next.

CREDITS and RESOURCES

The game used is Tricube Tales: "Guardians of the Shadow Frontier" and Tricubes Solo. There is very little additional content used but in principle two additional resources are

• Random Realities by Cezar Capacle
• Rory's Story Cubes

The art comes from the base game, from Pixabay, and is generated from Chat GPT4o/Dall-E. Additional edits and tweaks are made by myself.