The Blowgun
Cold open 14 · Trill guides an Order of the Shield and Coin cargo through the Juhasa, and saves Toto from a snakebite
At a Glance
- Who’s in it
- Trill, playing their past self. The DM voices Toto. Nonne, Haxami and Marellius watch.
- When
- After the southern fire and after Trill has left the Guwala. First of three on Trill’s road to Onda; 15 follows.
- What has to be true first
- Toto served as a corporal in a military patrol company before this and is now with the Order of the Shield and Coin. He has both legs. The Order is escorting ore and gems for House Angalo through the Juhasa Jungle and has hired Trill as a guide.
- Runs
- Five to ten minutes
- Boxes
- Three, numbered below.
- Rolls
- Three — two texture, one reach (Medicine).
- Reveals
- How Trill and Toto became friends.
The one thing to know before running it
Toto lives. The bite does not kill him and does not cost him the leg. Do not foreshadow the sand worm here.
The Cordys is Trill’s own. It is the prized fungus of the Guwala, carried from home, and Trill spends it on a man they have known for days. Let the player decide how much of it they use.
The opening
The opening line
You’re tracking.
Right away, to Trill: DC 12 Survival — how well they lead. Then read box 1.
Read-aloud 1 — the trail
The Juhasa is not your jungle. The green is a different green and the birds call in a language you are still learning, but water runs downhill here the same as it does at home, and you are walking ahead of the column reading the ground for it. Behind you come the mules and the iron-bound crates, and behind them a dozen men and women in the Order’s colours sweating through their mail. One of them has walked beside you since the second day, a corporal called Toto who asks the name of every plant you step around and is writing them down. He is crouched at the side of the trail now, reaching into the roots of a fallen tree for something that caught his eye.
What happens
Beat one — the bite
Toto is reaching for a stone, a seed pod, anything a tinker would pick up. Read box 2 straight away. Do not give Trill time to stop him.
Read-aloud 2 — the snake
He pulls his hand back fast and says a short, surprised word, and something the colour of wet bark pours out of the roots and away across the trail in front of you. You see it for the length of a breath: the bands down its back, the shape of its head. Toto is sitting in the leaf litter holding his wrist and laughing at himself. Then he stops laughing.
Then: DC 12 Nature — whether Trill knows the snake from its bands.
The Order stops. Nobody else in the column knows the snake. Someone suggests cutting the wound. On a success Trill knows what it is and what it does before anyone reaches for a knife. On a failure Trill works it out from Toto’s hand as it swells, and it takes longer.
Beat two — the Cordys
Trill knows the treatment. It is the Cordys in their pack. Let the player take it out. Roll Medicine as they treat the bite, then read box 3.
Read-aloud 3 — the night
The Order makes camp where it stopped, because nobody wants to carry him. Toto sweats through the dark with his arm on a folded cloak, talking to people who are not there about gears and springs, and every time he goes quiet somebody looks at you. The pouch is lighter than it was this morning. You did not count what you used. Near dawn he opens his eyes, finds you still sitting there, and asks you, very politely, what the snake was called.
Trill answers or does not. The column moves on the next day with Toto on a mule.
That is the end of it. Stop on the question. The blowgun is cold open 15.
What’s rolled
Three, on the sheet in front of them. No roll decides whether Toto lives. He does.
| Who & what | DC | Success carries | Failure carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trill — Survival the opening line |
DC 12 | Trill leads the column cleanly, and the Order has stopped asking whether the Spree knows the way. If it carries: a Dream Inspiration die. | Trill loses the trail once and has to double back through thorn in front of the whole column. If it carries: 1d4 damage on waking, and a thin thorn scar across the back of one hand. It never goes away. |
| Trill — Nature beat one, the snake |
DC 12 | Trill knows the snake from its bands and says what to do before anyone cuts the wound. | Trill has to work it out from the swelling. Someone has already cut the wound by the time they do. |
| Trill — Medicine the reach, beat two |
DC 15 | Trill is a healer. They treat the bite cleanly and Toto is sitting up by the next evening. This is where Trill learned they could do it for people who are not Spree. | Toto has a worse night and keeps a puckered scar on his wrist. Trill does it, but with shaking hands, and it came harder than it should have. |
One reach. The Medicine roll decides whether Trill came out of the Juhasa knowing they are a healer.
What it reveals
How Trill and Toto became friends. Trill spent the Cordys on him.
How Trill fell in with the Order of the Shield and Coin. They were hired as a guide. That is what takes Trill on to Toh’Angalo, where they part in cold open 15.
Still open
Decide before you run it — none of these are invented here
The title. The Blowgun is the working title from the queue.
The snake. Unnamed. Name it if the player asks, or leave it.
How Trill got from the Guwala to Jahdr. Still unwritten on Trill’s page.
New facts this page adds. Cordys treats venom. Toto was a corporal before the Order. Both are Fluid until played.