On a separate note: Anjali Sachdeva is one of my favorite short story writers (and comes out of the same broad gang of college creatives that gave us Choice of Games and Max Gladstone). I just caught up on one of her free-to-read stories from last year and thought I’d recommend it here.
4 Likes
I mean when I read through the Xaos-lands and Irduin, re-reading the sections again recently, I kinda felt two ways. The first half felt exciting and pretty diverse enough to keep focus. Good tension, plenty of interesting characters, and the overall Xaos dynamic. I guess only complaint is about things yet to be added so i can’t complain.
Irduin will defintely be better when everything is said and done but honestly right now I think its good. When I first read it, whilst I was waiting to enlist in my last year of high school, I felt like the MC. Like wow new world I never saw before. Though really waiting on Rime Rebellion management so I can make the Rim quiver >:D.
4 Likes
I dont know if you have watched/read vinland saga. But irduin reminds me alot of the second act of that. The very action intense first half to the skip into the whole farming part. I think alot of people may have dropped the series at this point. But for me i love this change in dynamic. To go from the skin of your teeth survival and bloody action to the more grounded problems of peoples day to day. To see the more human faces of the system you may be trying to destroy really brings it to life for me.
On a side note the embodiment of “I have no enemies” is my favorite mc to try and make.
And a second note: I understand the feeling of really wanting to be able to see the whole story. I first encountered rebels as a teen. I am now in my mid twenties with 3 children. But I really appreciate the time you put into crafting this story and world and cannot be more excited to share this saga with my own children, and see the characters and stories they craft themselves
7 Likes
Personally I like Irduin, my biggest concern is that how boring it is is… highly variable. Two playthroughs can either have clandestine rebel meetings and assassination and kidnapping plots and constant near riots, or just a whole bunch of conversations about pacifism and state-building. I worry that a lot of people will do something like picking Ulmey and Maurs as their focuses, and just end up with what is an ultimately pretty dry experience compared to what they could have had (not that the convos on those paths are bad, they’re just better supplementing a more actiony side imo). Maybe rebel managing interludes will help this.
22 Likes
Does seem like our rebel has a penchant for finding trouble wherever they are. Really it’s the Hegemony’s fault though. You can build a refuge all you want but they can’t be ignored when they come for their blood and taxes. Like how you can’t ignore a Xaos-storm on the horizon, until we found that safe haven in Sojourn. Remarkably calm and quiet time there, except for the looming threat of the Hegemony raining fire, but still.
I’ve felt something similar about the whole game, but less about boredom/action and more that there’s not a singular universal experience of Stormwright (by design, I think). You can take two people’s first playthrough and find two dramatically different stories from beginning to end. The anchors of the plot are the revelations about aether and Theurgy as told by Cerlota; the discovery of the City as a safe haven; our meeting with the leader of the Rim Commotion (at least half of it); the discovery of Irduin as an anomaly, and the rising tensions created by the Telone and the Theurge. Strip away the variation, that’s the spine: a (not causally linked) series of thought-provoking discoveries. Blood and taxes. Everything in between – a great deal of freedom, and it’s up to [what’s in] that freedom to drive the action forward. A danger there is that it can be easy to just remember the action or lack thereof.
This is different than Game 1, where there’s a much more shared rhythmic march of doom, constant crisis and response. The threats are the same; our self-expression is in how we respond. For Game 2, not even the threats are the same, and a key question the story asks is where the threat even lies. The choice of rebels of whether Irduin’s order should be preserved or destroyed (or whether to care at all) is probably the biggest example of that, completely reframes the drama in Irduin.
That does make it harder to balance and is something playtesting will ultimately have to sort out.
I suspect high suspicion vs. low suspicion trade-off is going to be a major line that we’ll have to look at once the endings are out, especially since setting that threshold is a numbers balancing question. The Ulmey focus is a good example of that: alleged fragments of a Shayarin Codex are a big deal for those interested in religion, but for now that seems exclusive to those [low suspicion] trusted by Ulmey. (But I do hope people who focus on the priest and innkeeper aren’t expecting a ton of classic action)
Separately, my biggest concern is that people will miss some of the best stories in the game just because they’re even just slightly out of the way, but Havenstone’s discussed that before and it’s a philosophical difference. Vigil in particular comes to mind, but also the conversations with Maurs. The parts of Game 1 that got me back into the story for good in 2021 were parts I’d missed when I first played the game (in 2018): the final conversation with Ganelon, the in-depth conversations with Kala/Kalt, Simon/Suzane in the Brecks, in all their variations. Nothing particularly hidden, just off my beaten path enough that it was a “holy shit” moment to discover them when trying out different things.
But that’s the difference between writing the game and reading it. It’s meaningful because it wasn’t served to me on a silver platter, and what hits for me might not hit for someone else. Maurs and Tamran are good examples of that: I’ve talked before how I enjoy their stories, and they alone demonstrate the narrative significance of Irduin for me, but that’s me as a reader collapsing the catbox story into one thread.
I think the goal is to inspire a similar sense of almost providence to other routes, the click of “This is why I’m here in this moment, to do this, to remember this.” We’ll see how it goes.
At the very least, with extremely limited information, I like the idea of incorporating parts of what would’ve been Chapter 9: Master of Fragments into the end of Game 3, as a sort of Scouring of the Shire. It completes the journey of exile, discovery, and return, changed, that spans all the way back to the Fourth Harrowing. Though there is merit to leaving things not quite complete – cracking open the nutshell of Grand Shayard is probably the biggest “The world’s mine oyster” moment we can have yet, and there’s something to that kind of open-ended hope.
Even if the ending of Uprising is, strictly speaking, running away from certain death, it’s also the world opening up to a place our character had never imagined they could go. But when I finished my first game of Uprising and read that
Here ends Part One of Choice of Rebels.
The rebellion will continue in Choice of Rebels: Stormwright.
I had no expectation that it would ever continue, no clue for how many parts if it did, and the thought that all of the next book would be set in the Xaos-lands (a belief I expect plenty of others to share – though I should note that the Steam page for Stormwright still has an outdated description referencing Grand Shayard). Future books didn’t really factor in; I still had enough to imagine the broad shape of the future rebellion. I think inspiring that imagination and refining it as we
is the point. And that imagination isn’t on a timetable of 5 or 6 books or 10 or 20 years, even if the rest of us are, what’s key is making each book standalone fun and thought-provoking.
15 Likes
Quick note just on this point: I’ve thought better of the idea of having one of Stormwright’s best segments be accessible only to someone who’s bought Game 1. Meeting Wolfbait is still going to be a surprise contingent on you talking to the right people in the village/nomad camp, but I’m amending the startup section so that rescuing a helot is the default for a Game 2 new reader.
I’ll do a similar thing in the later games where we get an Olynna adventure and a Carles adventure. Someone starting from those games will automatically be assigned the relevant G1 prelude.
I love the “holy shit” experience of discovery too much to stop seeding bonus stories in odd corners of the game, even though I recognize that will frustrate readers who don’t want to feel that they’ve missed good content in their one ideal readthrough, as well as those who aren’t inclined to re-reads and/or code diving. XoR is meant to be an experience that rewards re-reading to explore some new corner, which will inevitably appeal more to some readers than others.
20 Likes
Definitely doesn’t appeal to everyone, but me personally, I love missing stuff. Whether because that’s by the writer’s/developer’s design or because of my own ineptitude lol. It gives a feeling of a playthrough being my own, influenced by own own successes and failures. Also adds a sense of scale to the game and the world.
8 Likes
Same but when the game is very long most are unlikely to replay it, same for series which you carry over your save. I’m a bit different since I still have a lot of time on my hand 
5 Likes
God these games are so fun and unique and GOOD. The intricate worldbuliding, characters, and storyline have so much effort and passion put into them. The fact that we can can have debates about the politics, morality, magic-system, and goddam geography feels like something out of a real novel, much less a interactive choice game. Sometimes I’ll just get to urge to drop my responsibilities to play this again, sink my teeth in and just-
13 Likes
If you want to yap about the setting I highly recommend hitting up the discord (Choice of Rebels Community) to find likeminded individuals, I promise you aren’t the only one who feels that way lol.
8 Likes
Now what about a cosmo (or centrist) MC who proposes to Cerlota that Shayardene elites and Erezzan elites form a Xthonic pact/oath (backed with mutual commercial interests, not just shared religious vision) to…
1- Form a new theocratic empire (co-opting Koine as an easy lingua franca compromise to not only save state capacity for other important things, but also to avoid Shayarin or Erretsin from becoming overly privileged/marginalized)
2- Mollify each of Shayard’s and Erezza’s respective “winning nationalist” factions (or whichever ones prove most amenable to compromising with MC and Cerlota’s cosmo project) by creating “light treason” safe space outlets to preserve homelander traditions in autonomous special zones constantly monitored by MC regime-approved kryptasts
3- Put into practice binding treaty guarantees that Shayard and Erezza will always send troops to protect each other’s respective provincial territorial integrity (while Aveche will become either the empire’s capital, or a Schengen Area borderless zone). MC will accordingly make sure his Shayardene elites are staffed full of the Wisards (or Theurges) who personally trained under Cerlota (with MC’s blessing) during the “good old rebellion days), so that the Shayardene administration is constantly sympathetic towards Cerlota’s ‘defend Erezza’ agenda (while also keeping around enough Leaguers to ensure that the admin doesn’t neglect Shayard’s territorial integrity TOO much).
4- Divide Karagon, Wiendrj, Nyryal, and other imperial subjects evenly (or as close to ‘evenly’ that the postwar circumstances will allow) between Shayardene and Erezzan elites/future governors (whomever MC and Cerlota prefer AND can install/keep into power).
5- The new “target of Harrowing” sacrificial class? I mentioned the atheistic Neres earlier (and other commentators did mention ‘Halassurq prisoners of war’), but I suppose we could also add…
5a. ‘Undesirable state actors’ banished by the “presumably lost their federation ties with each other after being sufficiently destabilized by the continental famine to become a new autocracy in its own right” Seracca Empire (now a new client state of MC and Cerlota’s empire)
5b. Deliberately cultivate a revived ‘Cult of the Forgotten Gods’ in Wiendrj, so that its expected rebellion/heresy against the Xthonos-practing empire will serve as the casus belli for Harrowing them. (thus creating a new unofficial class of helots, aka ‘designed to lose periodic rebellions the empire planned ahead of time’)
And PS. how would Cerlota feel about the Cold War era-USA imperialism model (aka Alistair Smith’s The Dictator’s Handbook) of creating a republic whose voter base’s needs are satisified (through deals made with foreign banana republic dictators who will screw over their own people to satisfy MC central government’s resource extraction needs)?
If we were to apply game theory/prisoner’s dilemma here, one could also argue that if “third meal is skipped” schedules became widely known and/or predicted amongst the various post-Hegemonic states/factions, all it takes is one ‘defector’ state who eats their third meals and coordinates to attack the communities who didn’t eat their third meals on certain days/hours. Boom, trust is destroyed everywhere, and no state ever goes back to skipping a third meal out of fear of being the next ‘foolish guys who got betrayed.’
Ray Dalio mentioned an interesting trend about the rise and fall of empires. There’s a recurring transition in which the leading empire typically reaches a point where it is no longer the world’s workshop (manufacturing) but instead becomes its banker (finance).
| Era | Power 1 (The Lender/Spender) | Power 2 (The Maker) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17th C. | Spain: Dependent on New World silver; spent it on wars/luxury rather than industry. | UK/Netherlands: Developed advanced manufacturing and trade networks. | Spain defaulted multiple times; the UK became the industrial hegemon. |
| 20th C. | UK: Devastated by the costs of WWI and WWII; lost its manufacturing lead. | USA: Became the “Arsenal of Democracy” and the world’s largest creditor. | The USD replaced the Pound Sterling as the global reserve currency. |
How’s this for a plan on ‘Rim-based MC’ to come out on top? MC’s high literacy faction initially/nominally makes no overt moves to stand out on its own as the conquering hegemon, but merely offers its advanced manufacturing/trade services to the ‘initial conquering hegemon(s)’, wooing the conquerors into complacently overborrowing/overspending (covertly creating enough periphery conflict and chaos whereever needed to prompt such financial wastefulness from the hegemon). And once enough elites are co-opted (“your loyalty in exchange for partial or complete debt relief”), boom. MC’s manufacturing/trade-dominant ‘assistant faction’ becomes the new ruling body, not through a bloody invasion/burning of cities, but through a Bretton Woods “UK to USA torch handing of power” conference.
But the difference this time? Compared to the USA, my MC will impose a shadowy cabal of “eternity juice” drinking Theurges whose sole goal is to use whatever means are necessary to enforce fiscal discipline (aka do NOT make the classic imperial mistake of overspending/overborrowing) amongst the new ruler(s) of the replacement empire.
3 Likes
No sane nationalist would ever take this deal. You’re basically describing a bantustan or other reservational system, except attempting to enforce it against a people who already have a (very large) country and equivalent power to you. No Shayerdene is going to accept being sent to the Shayard reservation by some psycho in Aveche, not without a fight.
I feel like any plan that relies on “my caste of wise mages will ensure the state never gets out of line” will run straight into the problems of the currently existing Hegemony, where the mages just take over and bend the state to their needs and whims. So long as the monopoly on force is in the hands of a select elite (which, it will be so long as Theurgy is monopolized, its really hard to compete with people who are basically bulletproof bombers in a human-sized package), that elite will dominate.
11 Likes
Ngl this kinda just sounds like Hegemony 2 electric boogaloo, with the MC as the new Thaumatarch. Maybe I’m misinterpreting though.
4 Likes
I’d like to ask a question: What are Simon/Suzane’s limits regarding your vision for the post-Hegemonic world? How radical can you be before losing them? My guess to their ideal would be a feudal Shayard with some social reforms, but how much wiggle room is there? Would they continue to support a rebellion that aims to abolish nobility and distribute their land to the helots who work it?
7 Likes
My understanding is that S would never accept the abolition of nobility or any substantial land reform. As Havenstone has stated before regarding aristos:
S is someone who takes great pride in their noble heritage: their ancestral sword, the aristocratic rules of courtship, the land on their estate that acted as a refuge for them against a vindictive world. The way S describes the latter is telling:
Our estate's forest was always part of my secret world. A place I imagined as safe—a place that had sheltered and fed my ancestors for time out of mind. The place I knew better than any other. Everyone knew that I was accustomed to spend days out there; no one would be surprised if that time increased after Loane's death.
I think that forcefully taking away the nobles’ land would go against S’s entire identity and worldview. Land is an inseparable part of the aristocratic culture and social class: S would likely interpret any meaningful land redistribution as taking away the dignity and fundamental rights of the Shayardene aristocracy. I can imagine S enthusiastically accepting the conversion of helots into pre-conquest serfs or tenant farmers, but even for someone as progressive as S, land reform would destroy their identity and be devastating to them on a personal level. And regarding the abolition of nobility, that would be horrific to them: how could you expect them to throw away their entire ancestral legacy like that? How could you ruin the “good” aristocrats like the de Irde who are doing their best to create a better world and could be valuable allies against Karagond?
We also have to account for the fact that widespread land reform and helot emancipation would inevitably require lots of violence against the aristocracy (basically nobody will give up their land and slaves without a massive fight), and S has made their opinion on that very clear in Irduin:
"I came to join you because I thought you'd keep the door open to well-meaning folk exactly like the de Irde." ${simon}'s expression is torn, ${zhis} voice heavy. "If you only spare those who go so far as to emancipate their chattel and join the fight on your side…then you'll get only a few mad young allies. And you'll fail."
10 Likes
Interestingly, S is on board with assassinating Ueron, even though doing the same to the De Merre blocks them off. Chock it up to hearing about his crimes first hand rather than after he’s already been killed I guess.
8 Likes
I’ve always wondered more about the logistics of having the theurge sword and giving it to a follower.
Does your follower with the sword get to use it? Is it just a useless beacon that brings theurges that would get your chosen follower killed off? Or are they comically smiting their opponents with an unstoppable weapon fighting against Alastors who aren’t prepared for that level of fighting.
And finally does Korzatza and the phalangites have a bigger impact in the second game where you as the MC would get more time to train your band into soldiers rather than just struggling for food and survival.
5 Likes
Snippet day! If Yare Chastin concludes that the MC’s attention to Earith and Auche comes from sufficiently wrong motives, you could meet Heud for the first time in the late game.
Simplified for forum readability as usual
You’re walking back from the de Irde estate one afternoon when a mine drudge cautiously hails you from the orchards. He’s young and lanky, with more scars and burn marks along his arms than you’ve ever seen on any field helot. “$!{kuria} ${ird_name}?”
You study him. “Do I know you, lad?”
“My name’s Gaether, ${kuria}. Heud Gaether. I was sent from the Stannary to ask for you. @{sralibi There’s a cauldron that needs a tinker’s eye if we’re going to eat hot food tonight.|One of the drudge elders has fallen ill, and our abler Derys has asked for a herbalist’s help.|They dug up something alchemical and want to know what you reckon it’s worth before the Telone spots it.|The Alastors think they found more of the assassins that went for Quaelle, and want someone who knows their weapons to be standing guard at the mine.|The foremen are preparing a Langnight entertainment in honor of milady de Irde, and need your advice.} It’s an urgency.”
@{(sralibi = 4) Interesting—this is the first time that Korren has asked for your help in guarding something|Getting called in for such tasks is a normal enough part of your alibi here}. “Well, lead on.”
Heud offers a small, grateful bow and points with his walking stick toward a footpath leading out into the moors. “There’s a short cut, ${kuria}. Follow me, if it please you.”
The two of you soon pass out of view of the orchard and road, into the scrub and heath. The narrow path wends its way past old mine shafts and natural sinkholes.
*if cha > 1
You sense something in the drudge’s demeanor that worries you—a tension he’s barely managing to conceal. @{(sralibi = 4) Is it truly just fear of assassins?|Nothing about a simple errand should cause this kind of stress.}
*fake_choice
#“Why don’t you run ahead, lad, and let them know I’m coming. I can find my way from here.”
He shakes his head, lips pressed tightly together. “I’m happy to escort you, ${kuria}.” But the
#I let myself fall behind and see how he reacts.
He looks around and slows his pace to match yours. When you apologize, he’s gruffly dismissive. The
#I just chat lightly as we walk, gauging the strain in his responses.
His answers are courteous and brief, expressing nothing of any interest. But the
flicker of his eyes, the tautness in his step, the tense note in his voice he’s trying to hide, all point to the same conclusion: Heud’s afraid of you.
So you’re not taken entirely by surprise when—still far from both village and mine, in a lonely stretch of moor with cavernous pits on all sides—he whirls and tries to brain you with his stick. You @{(com > 1) leap|stagger} backward, which avoids the blow while almost sending you into the nearest sinkhole. But you regain your balance on the brink of the pit, draw your knife, and brandish it at him.
“What by ${ird_oath} are you doing, boy?” you bark.
Heud doesn’t immediately press the attack; perhaps he’s trying to gauge how much of a threat you are to him armed.
*label heuddontpret
“Don’t pretend you don’t know, ${kuria}!”
“I’ve got no bloody idea!” You throw your free hand skywards in exasperation. @{(drudgeq = 0) “I don’t even know who you are!”|}
“You’re a Kryptast,” he snarls. “Here to nose out the de Irdes’ secrets and kill anyone you don’t like.”
*choice
#“I’m @{aristo no such thing|swiving not}!”
#“I’m not—but even if I were, what would you care? What does a drudge gain from protecting the de Irdes?”
#“You little idiot. I’m a rebel.”
[…]
*elseif com > 1
Some part of your mind is always scanning the landscape for risks, and you’re mindful that this would be a dangerous place for an ambush.
Still, even your lightning reflexes barely save you when Heud abruptly whirls and tries to knock you into a pit.
*choice
#I try to fend him off and disarm him as quickly as possible.
His walking cane is stout enough to leave you dazed and pain-blind if he lands a blow. You back away to the very brink of a mineshaft, hoping to tempt him into jabbing it at you instead.
And Heud goes straight for your chest, trying to push you over the edge. You spin on one heel, grab the stick as it goes past you, and yank it hard enough that he’ll either let go or be thrown completely off-balance. When he curses wildly and releases his grip, you hurl his weapon down into the pit.
That brings the fight down to knives, and you’ve whipped yours out in an eyeblink. “Try anything else, boy, and I’ll gut you like a sheep.”
Breathing heavily, Heud backs away from you. “You’ll try that now, whatever I do, won’t you, ${kuria}?”
You’re not about to deny it. “Why by ${ird_oath} did you try to kill me?”
*goto heuddontpret
#I talk to him as we fight, so I can find out who’s behind this.
You don’t have anything that could block a blow from his walking cane, so you just keep dodging it. “What by ${ird_oath} do you think you’re doing, boy?”
“Self-defense, ${kuria}.” Heud bares his teeth at you, breathing heavily as he tries to force you closer to a mineshaft.
“What? I’ve done naught to harm any helot in Irduin.”
@{(earith = 5) “Except Earith Stallard, you lying bastard!|“And} I’ll see you rotting before you’ve had a chance to kill @{(earith = 5) anyone else.”|me.”}
As you’d hoped, he’s not a experienced enough fighter to talk without distracting himself. On his next swing, you manage to snatch the stick out of his grip and hurl it into the dark shaft next to you. “Bloody Taratur, lad!” There’s only one reason he’d think you were trying to kill him. “I’m not a Kryptast!”
“Aye, and you’d tell me if you were,” he scoffs, managing to seize your kyrtle with both his hands.
You can tell he’s ready to take himself over the brink with you. Nothing but the truth or killing him will save you now.
*choice
#I hurl him off to his death.
[…]
#“I’m a Xthon’damned rebel leader! And you’re about to do the Hegemony’s work for them.”
[…]
#That’s not how I respond to someone trying to kill me. I throw the treacherous little bastard to his death.
You don’t even draw your knife; better for all his wounds to look believably accidental. When he next lunges for you, you duck under the blow, then catch his arm and pull him past you. He screams as he falls, but only for a few heartbeats. There’s the wet sound of impact, and silence.
*set violence +1
*set heud 0
*set yaresusp 10
To your relief, in the days that follow there’s very little fuss around Heud’s disappearance. Whenever a drudge goes missing, the de Irdes bring their hounds out to see if they can catch a runaway’s trail; but even if that trail didn’t lead to a mineshaft, death by accident is generally deemed the more likely explanation. All you hear from Captain Korren is an assurance to Baldassare that the drudge is certainly dead.
@{h_access You|One surprising comment you overhear is, “The Gaether boy wouldn’t have just run off. He was handfasted to that Chastin girl up at the manor, and had every hope of being brought up there one day.” After that, you} keep an eye on the grieving Yare, but she doesn’t show any signs of fear or hatred around you. Surely if she were the reason Heud came after you, you’d see something in her face.
*fake_choice
#@{(ruthreal > 50) I’d dispose of her to be on the safe side, but|And even if I were willing to dispose of her to be safe,} a house drudge is much harder to kill in seemingly “accidental” fashion.
#@{(ruthreal > 50) I almost feel sorry for her. Almost.|It’s hard work to keep my own grief and guilt from showing around her.}
#One more reason to be angry with Heud: his reckless attempt on my life left Yare needlessly bereaved.
*else
*comment low cha low com
You’re mostly-focused on picking your way between them, with the rest of your mind working through the dilemmas facing ${bandlead} in the Rim. If Heud’s showing any signs of unusual tension or nerves, you don’t notice them.
So you’re in a poor position to dodge when Heud abrupty turns and swings his walking cane toward your head.
*page_break
“$!{oath}!” you howl as you twist away. The blow glances off your skull, leaving you momentarily blind and reeling. Before you know where you are, Heud slams his shoulder into you and knocks you into the nearest sinkhole.
All you can do is twist as you topple, enough to get one hand around a thorny bush growing from the pit edge. It delays your fall for less than a heartbeat before tearing free. But it slices opens the ball of your thumb.
You almost lose concentration irretrievably when you hit the wall of the shaft halfway down, hard enough that you wonder if you’ve broken your thighbone. Somehow, your scream and the sunburst of agony empty your mind of everything except the sense of elemental fire threaded through your body.
When you can see again—when the waves of pain are no longer blinding, when you’ve tremblingly wiped the blood from your brow, and when your eyes have adjusted to the darkness—you realize with dull relief that your ${wisardric} levitation has stopped you mere inches above the rocky floor.
*set irdwound true
*set ird_theu +1
*choice
#Treacherous little bastard. I fly back up and kill him.
*set yaresusp 10
*goto flyupatheud
#I fly back up and question him.
*goto flyupatheud
#I’m in no shape for a fight, or to spend more blood on a murderous drudge. I lie low here.
*set yaresusp 7
*goto staydown
*label flyupatheud
*set ird_theu +1
You hover for some time in dazed silence first, to settle your stomach, confirm you’re still able to focus your eyes, and convince Heud you’re dead. When you finally right yourself and soar quickly but shakily upward, you’re hoping you’ll catch him with his back turned.
But he’s waiting for you, somehow neither surprised nor dismayed at the sight of your ${wisardry}—and he sends a knife flying at you as soon as you appear.
—if com = 0—
You probably couldn’t have dodged it even if you hadn’t just taken such a beating. As it is, the fresh agony in your shoulder carries you immediately beyond consciousness. The last thing you hear is a frightened snarl of, “Swiving Kryptast!”
*page_break
Slowly the world buzzes back into visibility around you. You’re alone, your Change has already mostly worn off, and you’re sinking back into the pit with increasing speed. You use your last energy to slow your fall, then pass out again as soon as you reach the bottom.
The night passes in a thirsty blur of pain and delirium. You wake three times from a nightmare of Heud standing over you with a rock big enough to bash in your skull. But you’re alone, and remain alone until around noon the next day. That’s when you hear @{gam ${gamgee}'s shouts and|} the clamor of the de Irde hounds echoing down the shaft. “Here!” you cry back—thick-tongued, dry-throated, and feeble, but audible.
A crew of mine drudges, clearly well-experienced at this kind of rescue, descend to you with ropes and a stretcher, patch up your worst cuts, and haul you back up into the dusk light. “It’s a miracle ${he} survived the fall, Captain,” you hear their leader murmur to Korren. But the blood all over you, your concussion, and the enormous swelling of your thigh make the miracle just about believable. Certainly you don’t look the part of a secret Theurge who saved yourself with your magic.
Alastor Korren is leaning over you. “Who did this to you, ${alias}? How many were there?”
“Just one,” you rasp back.
*fake_choice
#“Said his name was Heud.”
*set heudgoete 6
#“Some drudge. Never seen him before.”
#“Some Rim rebel. In helot garb.”
“Told me I was needed at the Stannary. Then he tried to kill me.” You’re already fading out again.
*set yaresusp 6
When you regain consciousness, you’re in one of the Chesnery’s softest beds, not in your usual stable-loft cot. The smell of agrimony and honey is strong in the air, and your throbbing shoulder and leg are wrapped in enough poultices and bandages that you couldn’t move them if you wanted to. After a few moments, Tamran leans over you. “Awake again, ${alias}? Don’t try to sit up. We’ll bring you whatever you need.”
When you’re recovered enough to limp down to the caskroom a couple of days later, you find the whole village knows that you were attacked by a rebel-sympathizing @{(heudgoete = 6) drudge: the confirmed runaway|drudge. Despite your discretion, the Alastors have confirmed his name is} Heud Gaether. The hounds are combing the moors for him now, though so far without picking up a scent.
*fake_choice
#At least this should ease @{(ird_sus > ird_sus_med) everyone’s|any} suspicion that I’m a rebel.
#I hope the hounds catch Heud and tear him to bloody bits. Backstabbing wretch.
#Why did he think I was a Kryptast, of all things?
In any case,
*set ird_sus -6
*set heudgoete 6
you get treated @{(quaelle > 4) the same way as Quaelle|as a guest of the de Irdes} during your recovery, with more luxurious food and medicines than you’ve had @{aristo since your childhood on the Keriatou estate|in your life}. “We do our best to protect our @{((ird_focus = 1) or (ird_subfocus = 1)) retainers|commons}, ${ird_name},” Alasais says, “and to see them healed when our protection fails.”
—if com > 0—
You’re barely agile enough to dodge [the knife he throws], and the sudden movement sends waves of blinding nausea through you.
Thank ${thankoath}, that’s the only other weapon Heud has, and when your vision clears again, he’s fleeing back southward through the brush. You thrust a hand out and send him soaring up into the air; the impetus of his own flight carries him forward, over a gaping pit.
*if yaresusp = 10
A scream of “Swiving Kryptast!” erupts from his throat.
“Murderer,” you say coldly, and reverse the impact of your Change.
[…]
*if yaresusp < 10
Even hovering near an open mineshaft, Heud doesn’t scream or plead for mercy. He just snarls at you: “Swiving Kryptast! Bloody drop me, and be damned to you. Better this than a Harrowing!”
*set heudgoete 5
[…]
*label staydown
*set ird_theu +1
You drag yourself into the darkness beneath the overhang, then let yourself sink silently to the ground. There’s a silence so long that you’re almost sure that Heud must have fled while you were falling. But at last, “Swiving Kryptast,” you hear muttered from the top of the pit, thick with hate and satisfaction. Only then do you hear the rustle of him walking away through the scrub brush.
It’s nighttime before you levitate yourself back up and hobble slowly back to the Chesnery. The darkness lets you wash the blood from your scalp and hands without being noticed by any passersby. You make a brief appearance in the caskroom—explaining your stiff, swollen leg and bruised head as the result of falling out of a tree, looking for the season’s last fruits—then retreat to the stable loft and sink into a near-delirious haze.
By late the next day, you hear the first rumors of a vanished drudge—whether a runaway or dead in an accident, no one is yet sure. The name, when it finally comes, doesn’t surprise you.
*fake_choice
#So Heud decided not to face me again, now that I know he’s coming. Coward.
#Why by Xaos did he think I was a Kryptast in the first place?
#$!{ird_oath}—I just hope there’s no one still in Irduin who wants to kill me.
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This is a new one, is this something that happens outside the MCs control?
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In the Return of Quaelle Charbo scene, it’s clear that someone tried to kill her – and in the bit I didn’t yet excerpt upthread, you have the choice of trying to hunt down the assassins. (Or help them finish the job.)
A couple days ago, I missed the ADAT of cascat asking if black powder was used for mining and I answered that I was thinking of writing it into Game 2. Now as we speak, I’m up late writing miners’ powder scenes. 
A decadish ago we also had the gameworld’s version of John Lennon.
Oh, and I missed celebrating @Lys’s first appearance in the XoR WiP thread, a decade and a couple weeks ago. Thanks for lots of good bug catches and feedback, Lys!
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