Spellbreaker, the final showdown – Part 1, screw this I’m gonna cheat

I had other things to do for a few weeks, and Spellbreaker has just been sitting on the table every time I got a break. But I’m back to it. And honestly, I have played this first section of the book twenty times now and I’m kind of tired of it. I’ll keep my stats from the previous play, which were pretty good but not 12/24/12 superhero good, and I’ll cheat on the required dice rolls to get through this part of the story.

I know a fair number of the required bits:

• Have a skill of at least 11
• Note the pilgrim’s story about Gwythain and Aryn’s Hill
• Lie about the Faith roll when sleeping, and get the staff
• Lie about the Faith roll in the healing springs so I get the blessed heal-all
• Buy drake nettle and phoenix grass for a salamander potion, and some scarlet lady to help with prayer, and a few religious trinkets to boost my Faith and to convince someone later that I’m cool
• Go via the south gate, meet two people from Aryll and get some rat-charming magic pipes
• Head to Aryll and survive the tomb’s gauntlet

So here we go:

Skill 11 / Stamina 20 / Luck 10

The demon on page 1 goes down easily, dealing me only a scratch, and then I receive my quest to go find the book.

First stop: Hallow’s Well.

I’m offered a job riding with Lady Attana’s entourage to provide a strong arm in case of bandits, and I take it. That was a good thing for them, too, because there are bandits including a famous and mysterious bandit known as The Mask. We get to the Pilgrim’s Rest Inn a little scratched up, and a bit tired – but not too tired for a drink before bed. I hang with the other travelers for a while, and even win 6 more gold for telling tales of adventure and sword skill, before I head off to bed.

At night, I decide that, because this is my twentieth time playing and I only passed this 50/50 roll once, I “pass” the Faith check, and have a dream. The pilgrim on the sign outside talks to me, kind of like that one time I ate the other mushrooms in the woods that one time, and tells me that many forces are against me, but at least some spiritual forces are with me. I wake up with +1 Faith, and also the pilgrim’s staff. And yeah, the pilgrim on the sign outside no longer has a staff! Whoa.

The next morning, it’s off to the market… but only after the healing spring because once you visit the market you leave town. At the healing spring, my Faith is 4 so I will only get the blessed heal-all on a 1 or a 2. I roll a 4, but again twenty times is a bit much and I’m sick of this so it’s a 2 now. The magic healing water glows and makes that “ahhhh!” choir sound thing, and now I can potentially survive the plague that is upon city of Aryll, if I survive Aryll at all.

I do some shopping for my herbs and trinkets, then make for the city gate to leave. I run into a man from Aryll who tells me that the town is overrun by a plague spread by rats, then later I run into a man playing a pipe and controlling rats. He plays a mesmerizing tune, which causes me to fall asleep, and I wake up robbed and with a witch’s mark on me! No wait… again, ten times now this has happened. Let’s do that again… okay, this time I resist the strange lure of the music, and confront the man about his strange pets and what he had to do with the plague in Aryll. We get into a fight, and I kill him. I snag the rat pipes,then flee for the gate when the guards come after me. (I mean, fair enough, I did just kill a guy.)

So finally, I’m up to page 300, leaving Hallow’s Well on my way to Aryll, and I only needed to cheat three times!

Next: the Rats of Aryll.