Crusader's foundling

Farmers everywhere grow or raise most of the things they need. The rest, they buy in shops, like this one in a town just like any other.
'Something important today, Marsh?' - asked the clerk
'A bit of a family meeting. A few of the boys have grown enough for their name-choosing' - said the woman, smiling, by the sound of it.
- 'That's nice, isn't it? The young ones growing into adults, I mean' -
- 'It is, right? More hands, less work, they say' - 
They spent a few more minutes chatting while a rude looking man in a badly-battered armor walked slowly through the merchandise, paying attention to a few items. The clerk and the client seemed a bit nervous, but when the conversation started sounding awkwardly as if the clerk didn't want to be alone with the stranger, he plod to the counter.
- 'I want half a dozen coils of rope, the sturdiest you have. Also, rolls of fabrics, thread and sewing needles. Where could I buy milk, and dried meat and vegetables?' - 
The clerk seemed nervous and scared, the stranger seemed taller and stronger this near, so it was the client who answer, smiling charmingly.
'We use to change our surplus milk and harvest here, but I think Bill - she signaled the clerk with her hand - sells them to John, down the street. John's sister smokes and dries provisions for selling adventurers, mercenaries and whatnot passes through, if that's what you want. - The stranger looked at her calmly, Marsh thought he looked to people as if they were a different species.
- 'Thanks' - he said, before turning his head to the clerk - 'Now, could you help me with the other supplies?' -
While the clerk gathered the thread and sewing items, the stranger shouldered the ropes, three and four coils at a time, and loaded in a cart outside, helped by a younger and even quieter man. After everything was loaded, the young took the reins, the man looked at the clerk first, and at Marsh after. Then he climbed up the cart and the two drived down the street, to John's store.
- 'What a weird couple' - said Marsh.
- 'Didn't like them. Muscled, armored brutes aren't of my liking' -
- 'Their money was, though' -
- 'Gold's always good. Besides, things are not so good I can pass on good money.' - answered the clerk, before going inside again.

***

The stranger was now with his captain. - 'Name-choosing?' - he was asking. The second in command, an old but still strong, one-eyed man, said - 'Some cults have that kind of ceremonies, but are not so much name as host choosing. Children are not strong enough to host most demons, so they wait till they grow and then they're possessed. We should storm that farm right away, before they can reinforce their ranks.' - 'Such cults are not the only ones using that kind of ceremonies. - countered the captain - In the south and north there are tribes we believe each person has the right to decide how he's to be called. We're not going to storm anywhere if we are not sure. Sergeant, tell the troops tonight is a stealth. Light armor, no horses. Get them ready.'

***

The wet soil's smell filled the nose of the sergeant, bringing him memories of youth. They felt as old as if they were another man's memories. Happy times, green grass, cattle... a simple, happy life. The sergeant and his troops were crawling as stealthy as they could, considering the bulk of their bodies and weapons. Light armor was riskier, but their work was to make sure before signaling the heavier armored soldiers, so they had to get there in silence, so, light armor.
It was a cold night, the fog made it eerie and colder, and the tension could be felt in every man. They were almost wishing for this to be a fight and to start as soon as possible. That always meant rushing into problems, so the sergeant had to control them, and himself, as best as he could while they got near enough the farm's buildings to crouch by them instead of crawling like beasts. The sergeant could hear words, but not understand them, so he slid along the wall, toward a window.
- 'What do you mean, killed them?' - asked an old man's voice
- 'What does 'kill' usually mean? That bloody child killed his parents with a bloody hammer.' - the voice sounded just like the woman at that shop
- 'Could have been the mercenaries you saw in town' - 
- 'They seemed more like the ride-in, kill-em-all type. And then that child is the only one missing' -
- 'And today of all days!' - 
- 'It's a Black Moon, for heavens' sake. They're brutes, but even they must be able to learn with time. That's why I propose to bring forward the ceremony.' - 
- 'The ceremony can't be rushed! The proper respect must be paid, the proper rituals must be followed' -
- 'I fucking know! That's what you all said before, but if those were Crusader's soldiers, the sooner we can count our reinforcements, the better' - 
- 'It'll be hours before the new hosts are completely taken' - 
The woman's voice was strained with frustration, managing to convey the shouting even when she was whispering.
- 'I already know! So let's start the bloody ceremony now, get ready as soon as we can and kill that blasted child when we find him instead of wasting time looking for him' - 

The sergeant was thinking that the lieutenant had been right about storming in, but now was too late to change plans and... what was that burning smell?

- 'Smell that?' - asked the old man
- 'Something's burning' - hurried steps drew near the door while the sergeant walked back as fast as he dared and as quietly as he could.
They opened the door worrying about the smoke, though
- 'You don't think...' -
- 'Better be sure. Let's go...' - 
A loud crack interrupted the woman, Marsh, the clerk called her, and part of the barn's roof fell in, letting red flames through.
- 'The barn! the barn's burning!' - the woman shout, as the two of them ran towards it. At that point, the sergeant thought he had hear enough and things were going south too quickly to wait more, so he nod to one of his men and that one signaled the main force with his hooded lantern.

The night's air filled with shouts of surprise and war cries when the riders reached the farm and started hacking the farmers, and the sergeant was proved right when hellish fire sprout from them, and they grew horns and claws and fangs, and pounced on the riders. The sergeant and his men also joined in the fight, using surprise to get some easy kills. When no one else came forth to challenge the soldier's strength, they checked the buildings before setting them on fire and then gathered in the fire's ligths.

- They were talking about children sir, and a ceremony. -
- I told you, dammit! - 
- Silence, lieutenant. Have you checked the buildings? -
- All but the barn, sir, that was in fire already. - 
- Short as the fight was, if the children were there, they'll be dead already. Let the trackers get their dogs and look for tracks outside. If some of those demons have flee, I want them captured or death before sunrise. -

***

The dogs did find a track, children by the size of the footprints, and not too many. They got to them in the forest, illuminated by the lanterns, bows aiming at them. A small group of three girls and four boys, and a fifth standing before the armored soldiers and the barking dogs, a bloody hammer in his hands, covered in blood. More blood splattered his face and stained his clothes, and his expression was grimly regarding the soldiers, waiting for them to move and willing to fight with a farmer's hammer against steel swords and shields, and armored men.
Brave or crazy as he seemed, demon seemed not. The captain dismounted slowly, weapons sheathed, hands empty as he walked forward, towards the boy.
- 'Calm down, boy.' - 
- 'Go away. I have already killed more of you than you can gain by taking our bodies, so learn from that and go away.' -
- 'We don't want your bodies, boy. We are the Crusader's soldiers. We were warned that children were going to be sacrificed tonight, so we came. You're safe, now.'-
- 'We trusted the demons we had as parents while they raised us. I know better than to trust you.'-
- 'I understand, boy. Lieutenant, we won't go further tonight, organize guards, tend the wounded, recover the dead. Boy, we have food, milk too, if there's a baby among those other children. Tomorrow we all will go to the town's temple for them to take care of you. We're no demons'-

The Mountain's son

Balin and his wife Kera lived in the mountain range, north of the Empire. When they were younger, Kera used to joke about Balin's true love being the mountain, but with the decades, the joke had lost in humor and Kera had gained in bitterness. "This is an absurd place to live, far from other Dwarfs, far from the more populated outposts, far from the richer veins..." Her complains hurt Balin for he loved his wife dearly, although, certainly, nothing could compare to the magnificence of the Mountain. It was just another mountain on the range for everyone else, but for Balin, it always was the Mountain, with capital M.

One night, Balin came back and found the fire out, the pot empty, and their home, cold. Thinking that something must had happen to Kera, he took a lantern to keep the mountain winds from putting out the light, and went out searching for her. He shout her name to the dark until he could not talk anymore, and he finally came back to the house, determined to search again the next day, with sunlight.

Balin lit the fire and, when he got warm, looked around, for any clues about where could Kera had gone. And he found a clue in the shape of a message written with coal over a piece of leather. Dwarves' runes are made to be engraved in stone, a laborious work, so their sentences tend to be as short and clear as they can. Translated, Kera's message would have been more or less "I went back to my family. Be with your mountain."

Sadness and realization overcame Balin while he drop to sit on the floor. He didn't remember having ever felt so alone.

The next day he almost woke up already in the mine, in the last shaft he had opened on the Mountain. He was already hitting the rock with his pick, although he didn't even remember how he got there. He wonder what he was doing, what was the point of discovering the Mountain's secrets and gifts with no one to share them with. And got angry. And then he got furious and started hitting the rock harder, complaining first and then shouting the Mountain for his love for it made him lose his wife.

And then the rock gave way and left a hollow under the pick. At first, Balin didn't understood, lost as he were in his fury, but years of mining took control and he realized he had found a geode, the first one he had found in the Mountain.

And he could hear a child's cry from it.

Astonished, he looked inside the geode, pouring light with his lantern, and saw a little wounded baby inside the geode, crying. Balin knew not what to do but to take the baby out of there, so he took the smaller pick he used when he had to get gems out of the rock, and started hitting as delicately and fast as he could until he could put his hands in and take the baby out. He (he was a "he") was still crying, but Balin's was relieved when he could see better the wounds and realized it was barely more than scratches. He wrapped the baby in his own coat and ran with him back to the house, looking for something else to protect him from the cold and then go down to the hamlet and look for advice about taking care of babies.

For the next months he fed the baby with goat's milk, following the advice of Mara, an old, half-blind dwarf-woman who was also considered half-crazy. At least she was crazy enough to accept Balin's story without questions and giving him the advice the baby needed. For the next years the hamlet's opinion was that Balin had a lover, the mother of that child, and that that was what made Kera leave. Since Mara helped Balin but was too old to be his lover herself, they thought she knew the affair and had helped keeping it secret.

Be as it may, Balin named the child "Berg" and raise him as miner. However, Balin often caught Berg with the sight lost to the horizon and got thinking that a dwarf born from the Mountain wasn't meant to be kept there, less so considering the relationship with the hamlet's people. They kept to the lover's story and so the dwarves Berg's age taunted him, until the day he lost his temper and badly beat a few of them. Finally, Balin decided he should do something for Berg's future but he had grown old by then, and that winter was going to be his last. "I'm dying, son." he told Berg "as grand Mara did. You will be by yourself now, but I think fate has more for you than mining the Mountain. Open that chest" Berg did so and found a piece of a geode, half carved. "I intended to make a shield for you with that, part of the geode you were born from, but I had not enough time or skill. I ask you, take it when you go and find somebody able to make a shield from it, for I hope it'd be a link with your mother's strength in your traveling."

Spoiler warning, Make your own luck

Haldron suspiró, cansado. Los ritos funerarios élficos son tal como puede esperarse de una especie que tiene todo el tiempo del mundo para rituales y para quienes la muerte siempre es una tragedia debida a violencia de algún tipo, accidentes o, raramente, una enfermedad mágica.

Por suerte, no cambia la parte esencial, la que impide que el Rey Liche levante a sus muertos para que luchen contra quienes les lloran.

En todo caso, los largos rituales resultan agotadores para un humano como Haldron. Al menos le queda el consuelo de saber que, si los asediantes consiguen pasar las puertas, la atención que ha puesto en respetar sus costumbres puede haberles perdonar que sea un nigromante.

La ciudad de Leafall, donde Jaria había tenido su problema con los gólems de Iñigo Sharpe, había resistido un asedio troll durante las últimas semanas. Varios de los ciudadanos pensaban que el motivo del ataque era tomar o destruir uno de los artefactos del archimago, localizado allí. Algunos decían que era uno de sus dispositivos para controlar las lluvias y las tormentas, otros, que era un detector de monstruos que vivían en la oscuridad entre las estrellas. En cualquier caso, su destrucción no supondría nada bueno.

Los trolls que asediaban la ciudad consiguieron abrir un hueco y los personajes tuvieron que encabezar la lucha. El que encabezaba el ataque tenía pintada una calavera en el rostro, como si ya estuviera muerto. Quizá en ese momento fueran sólo las expectativas de los jugadores las que les hicieran pensar que el Rey Liche estaba involucrado, pero cuando, tras un golpe mortal de necesidad, la carne del troll se convirtió en ceniza mientras su esqueleto seguía luchando, quedó confirmado.

El combate fue aprovechado por un grupo de trasgos para colarse, y los personajes les persiguieron por las callejuelas, subiendo hacia la ladera donde se situaban las casas de los más ricos. Por supuesto, les mataron sin dificultad.

Por la mañana, un soldado fue a ver a Eiseman, que estaba liderando las fuerzas de los defensores, para decirle que habían encontrado un mensaje entre las pertenencias de uno de los trasgos. El mensaje pedía a alguien llamado Jareh que siguiera con el plan. 

Empujados por los trolls atacantes, muchos refugiados habían buscado y encontrado refugio en la ciudad, así que hicieron que la guardia buscara entre ellos a alguien llamado Jareh, y sólo algunas horas después volvieron para decirles que le habían encontrado en la zona alta y que había tomado como rehén al hijo de la familia que le había acogido.

Los personajes entraron en el sótano donde se habían alojado los pasados días: Jareh, la mujer, esperaba junto al pozo con su daga en el cuello del muchacho, y un hombre armado esperaba a su lado, preparado para defenderla.

"¿Crees que me importa la vida del chico?" preguntó Eiseman. Jareh sonrió y degolló al muchacho. "¿Y ahora?" preguntó, mientras empujaba, con la daga ensangrentada, unos guijarros al pozo. No habían llegado a caer cuando el guardaespaldas de la asesina se puso en el camino de uno de los personajes, que se lanzaba al combate. Éste no fue fácil, pero no hubo daños graves entre los compañeros. Y si alguno de ellos esperaba oír arrepentimiento en la voz de Eiseman cuando dio a la familia la noticia de la muerte del chico, quedó decepcionado.

No hubo mucho tiempo para la decepción, sin embargo, pues un temblor de tierra silenció a todos. El temblor se repitió una y otra vez, cada vez con más fuerza y con menos tiempo entre ellos, y de pronto la casa donde Jareh se había refugiado se hundió en la tierra.
Como si se abriera el mundo bajo la ciudad, casas enteras caían por las grietas que se abrían en el suelo, partes de la muralla cayeron sobre atacantes y defensores, permitiendo que los trolls entraran, indiferentes al peligro del terremoto, sólo la matanza en sus mentes.

Eiseman acudió de inmediato a la zona más peligrosa y empezó a combatir, arengando a gritos a los hombres cuyo valor flaqueaba. Los demás personajes llegaron después y ayudaron en la lucha como pudieron, hasta que sólo quedó el jefe de los atacantes, un troll infame conocido como Médulaliento. La lucha se prolongó lo suficiente como para que se abrieran enormes grietas que se tragaron a muchos combatientes e incluso casas enteras. Finalmente, consiguieron eliminar a Médulaliento y escapar antes de que la ciudad entera se hundiera. Cuando el polvo se asentó, sólo quedaba un cráter de Leafall.

Cientos de vidas se habían perdido. ¿Cuántas más se cobraría la destrucción del artefacto del Archimago?

Iñigo Sharpe (Spoiler Warning, Strangling Sea)

Iñigo escuchó con atención, intentando extraer alguna información de las voces que escuchaba, pero estaban demasiado amortiguadas por los gruesos paneles de madera de aquel maldito barco. Tras las voces, empezaron los gritos, sin embargo, y golpes pesados contra la cubierta. Luego, pudo oír pasos alejándose y acercándose, hasta que se abrió la puerta de la sala donde le tenían prisionero. Le levantaron y giraron y pudo ver a quien le sostenía: un humano con armadura de cuero tachonado y sangre fresca sobre ella, detrás de él, otro humano y una elfa, ninguno de ellos con armadura, le miraban con una mezcla de sorpresa y curiosidad, la reacción que Iñigo esperaba frente al resultado de su genio, de todos modos. "¿Iñigo Sharpe?" preguntó el humano armado. "Sí, soy yo"

Tras la muerte de los piratas, los PJs registraron su barco sin encontrar ni rastro del inventor al que estaban buscando. Suponiendo que sólo podía estar con el único bando restante en este lugar, convencieron al oficial enano que había venido con ellos de que les dejara hablar con su capitán para buscar a Sharpe. Sin embargo, dándose cuenta de que el oficial pensaba conducirles de algún modo a una emboscada, decidieron disminuir sus incentivos para hacerlo traicionando primero a los enanos. Sólo uno de ellos, muy malherido, sobrevivió a la demostración para abrir las puertas de la empalizada con la que los enanos protegían su barco.

Cuando llegaban, sin embargo, la lealtad pudo más y el oficial avisó a gritos de las intenciones de los personajes. No fue una lucha larga, sin embargo, y al atravesar la empalizada vieron como las pesadas puertas del barco se cerraban para dejarles fuera. Mirándolo desde fuera, resultaba sorprendente que este barco pudiera flotar siquiera, no ya navegar, pues parecían haberlo construido como una fortaleza - no sólo en cuanto a dureza y seguridad - sino en que tenía la misma hidrodinámica que un ladrillo e incluso almenas en lugar de la baranda de cualquier barco construido por una cultura más pendiente de las diferencias de entorno que supone el mar que de la construcción tradicional. La única concesión que habían hecho a la realidad del viaje marítimo era construirlo con madera en lugar de piedra, al parecer.

Sea como fuere, los personajes consiguieron abrir una de las puertas, tras la que obviamente esperaban los enanos del interior y, ya sin paciencia, mataron como paso previo a buscar sin más resistencia ni falsa diplomacia por parte de los enanos. La sorpresa vendría al descubrir que Iñigo Sharpe no era ya más que una cabeza mecánica dotada de la mente del famoso inventor.

Eso no les detuvo a la hora de pedirle ayuda para reparar los motores del barco - por supuesto, los enanos no confiaban el movimiento de su navío a viento ni a remos cuando podían hacerlo a sus ingenios mecánicos - Con las instrucciones de Sharpe y la experiencia de Turgosh - relojero, al fin y al cabo - pudieron poner en marcha los motores y alejarse del maldito Mar Estrangulador, poniendo rumbo al norte, donde la elfa Jaria aún esperaba su regreso.

En el muelle del pueblo al que llegaron, sin embargo, se las verían con otro problema. Una emboscada llevada a cabo por varios humanos y una osga tremendamente hábil que, por algún motivo desconocido, les atacaron. Las heridas que recibieron nuestros protagonistas fueron importantes, pero las que recibieron sus atacantes fueron mortales, sólo uno de ellos, un arquero que ni siquiera se había acercado al combate desde la seguridad de su atalaya, pudo huir para pelear otro día o contar historias sobre la sorprendente capacidad de los personajes. Las preguntas que acosarían a los personajes, sin embargo, eran obvias ¿quién había enviado a los atacantes? ¿cómo les habían reconocido? ¿por qué les habían atacado?
La primera intuición, por supuesto, fue que los hechizos de localización que los antiguos clientes de Sharpe habían estado usando para encontrar al genial pero chanchullero inventor, por fin habían tenido éxito al alejarle de la maldición del Mar Estrangulador.

Sea como fuere, el tándem de las instrucciones de Sharpe y las hábiles manos de Turgosh pudieron desactivar los golem que tantos quebraderos de cabeza y mobiliario habían dado a Jaria, y los personajes pudieron recibir por fin la recompensa a sus esfuerzos y reflexionar, orgullosos de su éxito.

13th Age (Spoiler Warning: Strangling Sea)

El hombre despertó sobresaltado con una mano en su hombro y la hoja de un cuchillo en su cuello. El dueño de ambas le indicó silencio y apartó la mordaza de su boca. "¿Cómo te llamas?" preguntó. Notaba humedad en la hoja en contacto con su garganta, así que, intentando no moverse, respondió "Jacob". El cuchillo se retiró entonces y soltó sus ataduras.

El cazarrecompensas decidió rescatar a sus compañeros de las manos de aquellos trasgos semi acuáticos. Avanzó en silencio y se coló en el barco, degollando a los goblins que dormían confiando - erróneamente - en los guardias fuera. Liberó a la elfa y el enano, que seguía sin despertar, posiblemente como efecto de una fea herida en su cabeza, y luego pensó en qué hacer con los otros dos hombres atados en el barco. Ambos estaban amordazados y eso no era buena señal, así que finalmente decidió liberarles.

Cuando salieron del barco le falló la puntería intentando eliminar a un centinela y tuvieron que luchar con ahínco para sobrevivir, pero al menos estaban libres y, aunque con algunas heridas de importancia, alcanzaron la victoria.

Decidieron alejarse. En el otro lado del mar de sargazo se veían dos barcos más o menos enteros. Uno de ellos parecía diseñado con la estética de un bloque de piedra, lo que le delataba como de factura enana. Quizá fuera la empalizada levantada a su alrededor lo que hizo que prefirieran el otro barco, pero al menos les granjeó una recepción, si no cálida, al menos no hostil. El barco naufragado al que habían llegado llevaba semanas o meses atrapado, sus tripulantes no podían precisar cuánto. Varios de ellos estaban afectados por la maldición de este lugar, que impulsaba a las personas a sacrificarse por él y a perderse en alguna niebla dentro de sus mentes.
Los marineros confirmaron que, en efecto, los refugiados del barco cuadrado eran enanos, y que les habían negado ayuda por la fuerza cuando se encontraron por primera vez.

El grupo, reforzado con la unión de un nigromante y otro estudioso de lo arcano, decidió acercarse a parlamentar con los enanos, en busca de una forma satisfactoria de que todos consiguieran sus fines. La versión que los enanos dieron del primer encuentro con los marinos no fue exactamente igual, acusándoles de intentar robarles su barco a las armas y situándose como defensores legítimos. Conseguir que los enanos aceptaran reunirse con los hombres con quien tan mal había ido el primer encuentro no fue tan difícil, pero en cuando se vieron empezaron los insultos y acusaciones mutuas y finalmente todo estalló en violencia.

Cuando terminó el combate, los humanos que no habían huido habían muerto, y varios enanos yacían también sobre las algas.

13th Age los viernes, (Spoiler warning, Strangling Sea)

Jaria apartó su pelo dorado, destacando más sus altos pómulos de su rostro de elfa. "¿Cómo que no puedes desactivarlos?" preguntó al enano frente a ella - un enano como en 'Gimli el enano' y no como en 'un humano bajito'. Sin dar tiempo a responder, continuó "Me dijiste que podías. ¡Me convenciste de que eras capaz!"
"Bueno, mi señora, quizá sobreestimé ligeramente mis capacidades..." En realidad, Turgosh Kazamien, pues tal era el nombre del enano, ni siquiera se había acercado a ninguno de los cuatro golems que, presa de algún tipo de mal funcionamiento, habían destrozado el salón principal de la mansión y trataban como intruso a cualquiera que entrara. A Turgosh le gustaban los ingenios mecánicos, pero cuando los ingenios son tienen la forma de cuatro fuertes humanoides de bronce de casi cuatro metros de alto... encontraba formas de disminuir su interés.

Obligada por las circunstancias, Jaria decidió encontrar al diseñador original, Iñigo Sharpe. Un cazarrecompensas como Natham Northgate podría encontrarlo. Por si no era posible traerle, extender el contrato de Turgosh, para que aprendiera de Iñigo cómo desactivar a los gólem, parecía buena idea. Ante la idea de una aventura, Libertah, prima de Jaria y algo así como trotamundos profesional, expresó su deseo de participar.
Los tres atravesaron el mar rumbo a Newport y fueron a caballo desde allí hasta Ensenada de Plata, un pueblo de pescadores donde Firigin, un mago, antiguo colaborador de Sharpe, vivía. Allí, tras acabar con unos bandidos que pretendían entrar en casa del mago, supieron que Sharpe tenía la costumbre de desviar fondos de sus clientes a sus proyectos personales y que el propio Firiguin había sufrido las consecuencias de algunos de sus trapicheos. A cambio de la promesa de no dejar que Sharpe estuviera cerca de él, Firiguin les cedió un barco que había diseñado presa del deseo de venganza contra Iñigo. Por suerte para el inventor, a Firiguin le relajaba crear objetos así y para cuando terminó, ya había decidido que no merecía la pena vengarse. El barco encantado estaba preparado para ir directamente a donde Sharpe estuviera, así que tras obtener algunas provisiones en la aldea, pusieron rumbo desconocido, confiando en que la magia diera con Sharpe, cuya localización precisa no había podido obtener una magia menor.

Y el motivo resultó ser la maldición del Mar Estrangulador, un mar de sargazo famoso por los barcos que se habían visto atrapados sin escape hacia su siempre hambrienta y verde superficie. Las algas estaban entremezcladas tan fuertemente que podían caminar sobre ello, pero con la dificultad de un suelo flexible que obedecía a las corrientes marinas en lugar de a la firmeza del suelo de verdad.

Debería haber sido suficiente, pero la mala fortuna y el exceso de confianza les impulsó a atacar sin palabras a un nutrido grupo de goblins acampados en el camino a un barco aún a flote, aunque atrapado. Sólo Natham consiguió escapar con vida, y vio desde lo lejos cómo se llevaban a sus compañeros al barco, posiblemente para variar la dieta de pescado a la que estaban acostumbrados. Con el consuelo de saber que, al menos, la captura les había costado media docena de sus congéneres, el cazarrecompensas se dispuso a seguirles a distancia y planear el rescate.
Y, posiblemente, la venganza

Un enemigo desconocido (Spoiler Warning, Shadows of Eldolan)

Eldolan, una ciudad portuaria, pero no como cualquier otra. La magia está tejida en la propia ciudad: los mejores artesanos murmuran hechizos mientras se concentran en su última obra, los estudiantes de la universidad se retan, a veces por rivalidad entre escuelas de magia, a veces por demostrarse sus nuevos hechizos, incluso para la persona más normal, la visión de las torres flotantes de Horizon, ciudad del Archimago, es un recuerdo constante de la magia que alimenta la ciudad de visitantes en busca de objetos mágicos, libros raros o conocimiento arcano, relegando el mundo "normal" a un segundo plano.
El mundo como el de la plaza de Hawker, un día más. Los vendedores gritan desde sus tenderetes, intentando vender sus productos, convencer a los que pasan que es una oferta que no pueden dejar escapar, que se acaban, se acaban... Algunos compran, otros no. Akrish es uno de los que no. Una leve sonrisa tuerce la comisura de sus labios mientras arregla su túnica verde, una de sus formas de desafiar las convenciones de los Maestros Arcanos, su escuela, y distinguirse de los demás académicos. Un estrépito le hace levantar la vista, pero la calma vuelve a sus rasgos cuando ve que sólo es un carro de calabazas, que ha volcado su mercancía. Apenas aparta la mirada cuando el estridente grito de una mujer le hace girar el rostro hacia ella. Grita, señalando al otro lado de la plaza, un guardia está siendo atacado por varios hombres con túnicas desastradas y entonces uno de ellos se lanza sobre el hombre, mordiendo y desgarrándo su garganta. El guardia se aferra mientras cae a la túnica de su asesino, que se termina de romper y revela el cuerpo de un hombre, abierto y con órganos desaparecidos. Más gritos llaman su atención al centro de la plaza, de donde salen varios cadáveres más, caminando por su propio pie. Tras ellos, cerca del carro volcado, dos hombres con túnicas oscuras, encapuchados, le señalan a él y a otros en la muchedumbre, que ya corre despavorida, y una niebla sombría se arremolina a su alrededor. Como si les llamara, los no-muertos giran el rostro hacia él y otros dos marcados, y se lanzan contra ellos.

Además de Akrish, un Alto Elfo con piel extrañamente olivácea, hay dos personas más marcadas por los encapuchados: Edielle, una soldado de los Elfos de los Bosques, y Libertah, una guerrera enana con más instinto que entrenamiento.
Los no-muertos no fueron rivales para ellos, pero era extraño que se hubieran centrado en ellos tres y, no fiándose de los esfuerzos que los Escudos Plateados, la guardia de Eldolan, pudieran hacer en la investigación, tomaron cartas en el asunto. El grueso de los zombies había salido de un cuarto de mantenimiento de alcantarillas en el centro de la plaza, pero el paso a las propias alcantarillas no se había usado en años a juzgar por el estado de la cerradura, así que dedujeron que sólo había sido un lugar para esconderse hasta el momento del ataque. Más tarde descubrirían que un guardia, para pagar una deuda de juego, había dejado hacer una copia de la llave a un tipo de los muelles, pero mientras, una sacerdotisa que dirige un albergue para mendigos, les dijo haber reconocido a dos de ellos y que había oído rumores de desapariciones recientes.

Decidieron investigar primero en los muelles, lo que les llevó a quienes habían encargado la llave. Se escondían en un almacén más o menos abandonado. Tuvieron que vérselas con un escarabajo-demonio de dos cabezas y un culto de adoradores infernalistas antes de llegar hasta la líder y el demonio que estaba invocando. Heridos como estaban, sacaron fuerzas de flaqueza y obtuvieron la victoria.

No hubo supervivientes a los que interrogar, pero encontraron el diario de la líder del culto, en donde, entre desvaríos apocalípticos, se hablaba del tipo de los muelles que les había dirigido aquí y se decía que hechizos de adivinación habían revelado que su lealtad no era para con el culto, sino para una sociedad secreta con infiltrados en varias organizaciones de la ciudad, incluso en las Bóvedas de los Muertos, en donde se preparaba a los fallecidos para su descanso eterno, protegiéndoles de los poderes oscuros que podían levantar sus cadáveres para utilizarlos como armas.

Icon Morality By Players' Point of View

The 13th Age RPG includes the concept of "Icons" of the campaign. An Icon is a NPC/Organization that has enough influence to define the setting. 13th Age includes a mechanic to make them influence the PCs abilities in the form of help and complications. Sometimes the relationship between a PC and an Icon's organization may be useful to the PC (help) and sometimes may get him/her into more problems than usual (complications)

13th Age considers three kinds of Icons:

• Heroic Icons are the "good guys"
• Villainous Icons are the "bad guys"
• Ambiguous Icons are in the middle, sharing some traits with the Heroic and some with the Villainous.

13th's Age relationships between a PC and an Icon (more often, the Icon's organization) can be fleshed as desired, but mechanically it has a 1-3 points value. The relationship may be positive if the Icon/Organization opinion about the PC is good, negative if bad, conflicted if both.
In character creation there are some guidelines about limits for the relationship values that consider the PCs to be, at worst, not-bad-guys:

• If the Icon is evil, the limit is 1 point to positive relationships, 2 to the others.
• If the Icon is good, the limit is 1 to negative, 3 to the others
• If the Icon is in the middle, the limit is 2 for negative, 3 to the others.

The "official" setting (and the books reminds a lot of times that it's only an example) sets the morality of the Icons and then limit the relationships, but maybe you find this idea interesting:
Make the characters with these relationship limits:

• Negative relationship: 2 points limit
• Other relationship: 3 points limit

Now you can use the relationships to define how the Icons are according to their PCs' perspectives.
If any PC has a 2-point negative relationship with an Icon, then the Icon is not completely good. It may be Villainous or Ambiguous.
If any PC has a 3-point conflicted or positive relationship with an Icon, then the Icon is not completely bad. It may be Villainous or Ambiguous.

Conflict with a god

This is the 31th Dramatic Situation of Polti. Elements

• a Mortal
• an Immortal

Plot: The Mortal and the Immortal enter a conflict
This “plot” is often not by itself, but a particular trait of a story: Rivalry between a Mortal and an Immortal, Conspiracy of Mortal against Immortal, etc. An Immortal may be in any Element the PCs are conflicted with and it qualifies for this Situation.
It could be “purely” Conflict with a God if the conflict is based in whatever the god’s morals or values are.

Mortal

The Mortal is usually not against the Immortal per se, but against some particular goal, moral or whatever.

PCs as Mortal

As the Immortal is usually part of a status quo, the PCs are reacting to actions the Immortal did not target directly against the PCs and often nor even indirectly. That means your story is based in whatever way the PCs react against those actions and can not be really planned, but offered.

Immortal

The Immortal does not need to be literally a god, the believers in that god fill that role perfectly and it is often the only way this plot can be in some settings (like realistic ones, in which faith is the only supporting “evidence” for the entities the faith is in)

PCs as Immortal

In this case the PCs may be the instruments of their god’s will - or believe to be so - and their actions are reacted against the Mortal.
Thus, you can’t plan this story unless you already know what the intentions of the PCs are.

Loss of loved ones

This is the Situation 36th of Polti. Elements

• a Kinsman Slain
• a Kinsman Spectator
• an Executioner

Plot: The killing of the Kinsman Slain by the Executioner is witnessed by the Kinsman Spectator.
For the story to be something more that the start of something, there’s the need of anticipation, inability to save the Slain and spare of the Spectator.
Anticipation builds when the Spectator and/or the Slain fears the bring about the death and take steps to try to avoid it. This can be build as an Enigma, with death being the consequence if the Enigma is not solved.
The inability to save the Slain can be due to

• the Spectator not being powerful enough to stop the Executioner: both because of rule-wise power, because of status differences, because the Executioner has law in its side...
• the Spectator unable to intervene: it could be hiding in a closet, imprisoned - a werewolf chained for the full moon night that is unable to stop the Executioner of killing his wife, the one with the keys to the manacles.
• the Spectator not actually present, seeing the killing through clairvoyance, dreams, cameras or something.

It doesn't really need to be death: a curse or madness works just the same, as long as there is loss by the hand/will of the Executioner Element.

Executioner.

The Loss of Loved Ones has strength only for the Spectator, so the PCs shouldn’t be the Executioner.
Had the Executioner legal rights to kill the Slain? Maybe it wasn’t only rights but duty.

Spectator

The strength of the story is that, for what matters the Spectator, it doesn’t matter the rights the Executioner may have.

PCs as Spectator

The inability should never be due to literal cheating.
If the PCs were not powerful enough they could become so in the campaign, or they could conspire, look for allies or other methods to finally be able to take revenge.
If the PCs were not present or were present but unable to intervene there should be something for them to feel they failed instead of that they were robbed of their kin.
They don’t need to see the killing “live”, so to speak. Maybe they discover the corpse, assume it was an accident, or suicide or something and some days later they received a recording, showing it was a murder.
Probably the best way is it the result of bad luck. Let’s say the PCs are investigating a serial killer. In the course of the investigation the killer learns of them, spies one of them and discovers it is married. By failing in the detention - or in the trial, for lack of hard evidence - the killer has the chance to kill the Slain and does so. If it is one of those games the PCs are better than everyone else - like D6 Star Wars or Savage Worlds - a bomb set by the villain may kill the wife but not the PC, or the combat may leave the PC gravely wounded, the Executioner kills the Slain and, when it is going to kill the PC, it hears the police sirens and flees. The doctors have a hard time bringing the PC back, but manage to do so, and now he lives the feeling of loss.

Development

The Spectator may feel like Falling Prey to Cruelty/Misfortune, but since they'd be the PCs is most probable they want to punish the Executioner (Ambition). That punishment may need something to be reached: Conspiracies, Supplication, Obtaining (the means), solving an Enigma if they need to prove who was it or that it didn't had the right. Everything to get their Vengeance.

Recovery of a lost one

This is the Situation 35th of Polti. Elements

• a Seeker
• the One Found

Plot: The Seeker finds the One Found.
A Recovery can be both a good story or a conflicted one. It can be the solution for an abduction story but that doesn’t pose a new story. What if the One Found behaves strangely and the Seeker suspects foul play? What if the One Found have legal rights over the Seeker’s possessions? Then there is a conflict between the happiness of the finding and whatever conflicted feelings appearing because of it.
The lost one maybe because of abduction, madness, curse, magic, apparent death... whatever. Even if it is an argument between brothers that gets solved in the deathbed of one of them.

Seeker

The Seeker at least was looking for the One Found and may had still been doing that. Maybe it gave up and some time - days, months, years - after, the One Found appears and there’s the remorse of the Seeker, who now knows it could have done better; and maybe the disappointment of the One Found, who thought the Seeker shouldn’t have given up.

PCs as Seeker

For the Recovery to have meaning it should be a long and difficult investigation, probably extended so long that it started to seem more like a background than a story, like Mulder being “the FBI agent looking for her disappeared sister”.

The One Found

The One Found is usually what brings about new conflicts on those who find it. Mulder’s sister only brought more questions with her; the last member of a supposedly disappeared bloodline may bring about inheritance or succession issues; an abducted friend who appears to have lost all its memories may be a clue to mind-erasing aliens…
The finding may be the end of the investigation, but it can be the start of the new one.

PCs as the One Found

It could be difficult to put PCs in this role, but they could be involuntarily or unknowingly. Imagine that the wardrobe to Narnia changed the passage of time so that, when the children come back, they have been considered disappeared or dead, and their adoptive family have been detained as suspects of murdering them. Imagine that the time was stopped when they went away, so they actually grew up away and are not recognized when they come back. This last case is in several fey stories, in which the main character stays with the fey and when it comes back he is told not to do something and, when it does, it realizes that centuries have passed and becomes dust, as dead as it should have been.
In several settings PCs are lost to their families and actually avoiding being discovered. In the game Vampire it would be actually dangerous for their families to find again their now vampiric kin, because they can be killed just to avoid word getting around or be targeted by the PCs’ enemies. It is more or less the same with Werewolf or Mage, for that case.

Development

A lot of things may be result of the apparition of someone.

The finding of a person with legal rights over lands or throne may be the start of Ambition, reignite a Rivalry, bring about the discovery of terrible things the lost one did (Discovery of Dishonor in a Loved One), opposition to a relationship established or otherwise (Obstacles to Love)

The Recovery by itself may be result of solving a Enigma, gathering help and support (Supplication), planning a Daring Enterprise or executing a Deliverance...

Remorse

This is the 34th Situation of Polti. Elements:

• a Culprit; 
• a Victim OR the Sin; 
• an Interrogator

Plot: The Culprit wrongs the Victim or commits the Sin, and is at odds with the Interrogator who seeks to understand the situation.
This is a difficult story to bring about in a RPG. The PCs are not going to be Interrogator - it would be then an Enigma story - or the Victim - they will become the Interrogator to make something about it - so they can only be the Culprit.
The story’s force is that the Culprit feels fear about being discovered and there is a real danger of the Interrogator doing just that.

Culprit

In stories, often the Culprit feels remorse, but it is not needed. Sometimes it tries to hide the remorse and forget, but the Interrogator Element prevents that. The conflict is usually between what the Culprit needs to do to stay undiscovered, the fear of the consequences of being discovered and even the remorse it may feel, making it think it’s more dignified to surrender than to be discovered.

PCs as Culprit

You can’t plan to make the PCs feel remorse, but they can feel it by themselves - for instance, being the Mistaken One in a Erroneous Judgement, and then learn about the mistake, they could feel guilty about what they did to the victim.
What you can plan is for one of their kin to be the Culprit and share its feelings with them. In that case, though, it is more a Discovery of the Dishonour of a Loved One. Also, if they are guilty of something but don't care about the damage caused, the appearance of an Interrogator and the risk of being discovered and punished may provoke this story

Victim

If there is a Victim, PCs should not be it. If they are the Victim usually they want to do something about it and then they are also the Interrogator, being the Interrogator role what carries their weight.

Interrogator

Should the PCs were the Interrogator then this is not about Remorse or the fear to be discovered, but an Enigma.

Development

The Culprit may conspire against the Interrogator or its investigation (Conspiracy), ask it for mercy or silence (Supplication), or do Daring Enterprises or Obtaining to eliminate evidences it may find

If the Interrogator discovers them, the story probably develops into Pursuit, Vengeance or Falling Prey to Cruelty/Misfortune. Remember the Interrogator needs not to denounce the Culprit, but it may blackmail it.

Erroneous judgment

This is the Situation 32th and 33th of Polti. The 32th is a special case of Erroneous judgment (mistaken jealousy). In that case, the victims of the mistake are the spouse and the supposed accomplice. Elements

• a Mistaken One; 
• a Victim of the Mistake; 
• a Cause OR Author of the Mistake; 
• (Optional) the Guilty One: the one the judgement should be passed against

Plot: The Mistaken One falls victim to the Cause or the Author of the Mistake and passes judgment against the Victim of the Mistake.

Mistaken One

The Mistaken One needs reasons to pass judgement upon the Victim of the Mistake.

PCs as Mistaken One

You can plan the Cause or Author of the Mistake to deceive the PCs, but for the story to have meaning, the PCs need to be able to error by themselves. In this case, you can use an Enigma the PCs interpreted incorrectly, for instance, or give them circumstantial evidence against the Victim - like it fleeing from the crime scene.

Victim of the Mistake

The persons the Mistaken One judges against.

PCs as Victim

The PCs need to be able to prove they are unjustly pursued, punished or whatever consequence the judgement is about. For that, they need to know or be able to learn about what the judgement was.

Cause or Author of the Mistake

If it is a Cause, then it is whatever reasons the Mistaken One have to think the Victim is guilty.

PCs as Author of the Mistake

It is an spontaneous action in part of the PCs, and as such you can only give them the chance to do it and be prepared both in case they do and in case they don’t.

Guilty One

Optional Element because the erroneous part in Erroneous Judgement may be the very existence of the crime. For instance, Peter arrives home early and hears a couple having sex’s sound upstairs. Sneaking there, he sees through an aperture in the bedroom’s door a redhead woman riding over a man and thinks she’s his wife, Betty. He flees, not knowing what to do. Some days after that, living whatever crazy adventures he live through, he confronts his wife and learns that woman was not Betty but her sister.

PCs as Guilty One

If PCs are the Guilty One Element this is surely going to develop as a case of Remorse.

Development

As stated, if there is a Guilty One, you only need to add an Interrogator who doubts the judgement to develop this into a Remorse story.

If the error is known, the Mistaken One and the Author of Mistake can be considered Criminals and be pursued (Pursuit) or punished (Vengeance)

Usually the judgement provokes a Pursuit, Vengeance, Disaster or Falling Prey to Cruelty/Misfortune for the Victim of Mistake.

Obstacles to love

This is the Situations 28th and 29th of Polti. In the 29th, the Obstacle is a Hater who hates one Lover and has a positive relationship with the other. Elements

• two Lovers
• an Obstacle

Plot: Two Lovers face an Obstacle to their love (possibly) together.

Lovers

To the Lovers Element belong also all who help and support them.

PCs as Lovers

As stated, PCs don’t need to be the actual lovers, but helpers and supporters of the relationship. They may even do that for not-so-good reasons: take Romeo and Juliet and now create Betty, the little sister of Juliet. She knows about the love between Romeo and Juliet and the hate of their father against Romeo’s family. She thinks that, helping her sister run away with Romeo, their father will forsake her and Betty will inherit everything, so she helps the lovers in a way she can’t be blamed.

Obstacle

Anything can be an obstacle. It can be personal and indirect, like the hate between Montague and Capulet, personal and direct, like Juliet’s cousin hate for Romeo, but it need not be personal: a war, one of the lovers fighting in it, is an obstacle; another suitor taking advantage of the war to have a chance with one of the lovers is another part of that obstacle; poverty can be an obstacle; great differences in status, education… anything can be an obstacle to love.

PCs as Obstacle

They need a reason to oppose the relationship, either it affects them directly or indirectly. For instance, a knight PC is supposed to marry a Count’s daughter, but she loves a peasant boy. The marriage is important to the PC, not only because he loves the girl, but because that marriage means an army to pursue and defeat an enemy. Indirect consequences could be that, should the daughter run away with the boy, the Count will have nobody to inherit his lands, and then it will be his brother, a cruel person, who takes control of them.

Development

This kind of story may easily mix with Ambition, Fatal Imprudence, Obtaining or Daring Enterprise.

Once it takes place, it can be the seed for Rivalry, Crimes of Love or Loss of Loved Ones.

As with Obtaining, solving the Obstacle may require a Sacrifice for at least one of the lovers. Romeo and Juliet were willing to leave their families because of their love.

Discovery of the dishonour of a loved one

This is the 27th Dramatic Situation of Polti. Elements:

• a Discoverer
• the Guilty One

Plot: The Discoverer discovers the wrongdoing committed by the Guilty One.

Discoverer

The Discoverer can

• keep the secret
• reveal it
• keep it secret but try to make the Guilty One undo the wrondoing
• keep it secret but try to compensate the Guilty One wrongdoing

PCs as Discoverer

There’s need of a good relationship from PCs to Guilty for them to really doubt what to do.

Guilty One

There are several questions about it:

• It is repentant?
• It is willing to undo its wrongdoing?
• It is willing to force silence upon the discoverer, for fear of the secret being revealed?

PCs as Guilty Ones

There should be a good relationship from the PCs to the Discoverer, so they don’t just kill it, but for the story to be interesting, they need to take action to ensure the Discoverer is not going to denounce them.

Development

If the Discoverer denounces the crime the story mixes with Sacrifice (the relationship between Discoverer and Guilty One) and develops in Pursuit, Vengeance or Disaster for the Guilty One and Loss of Loved Ones for the Discoverer.

If the Guilty One asks the Discoverer's help or silence it could be a Supplication if the Discoverer has to face the Persecutor

If the Discoverer helps the Guilty One it can develop into a Conspiracy with them, against the Persecutor or Interrogator looking for the Guilty One.

If the Discoverer denounces itself as the guilty, the story mixes with Sacrifice and, besides developing into Vengeance or Falling Prey of Cruelty/Misfortune for the Discoverer, it becomes a Remorse story for the Guilty One.

Crimes of Love

This is the Situations 26th and 18th of Polti. The 18th adds only that the error is involuntary (result of error, deceive… whatever) Elements:

• Lover
• Beloved
• (Optional) Revealer: something/someone that reveals the crime, betraying the trust of either the Lover or the Beloved

Plot: A Lover and the Beloved enter a conflict.
The crime is related to Lover and Beloved's relationship, most often infidelity in some form.
This is a story in which PCs may be distributed between the Elements, with a few as kinship of Lover, others as kinship of Beloved (or common kinship) even one of them as Revealer.

Lover

Is the Element that makes the error against its relationship with Beloved.

PCs as Lover

Not every PC would be the actual Lover, and often none of them will, but they can be the actual Lover's friends or family.

Beloved

It is the person betrayed by Lover's crime.

PCs as Beloved

Again, the PCs may and probably will be the actual Beloved's friends or family.

Revealer

Revealer may be because of jealousy. If Revealer is in love with Lover or Beloved it can reveal the crime to end the relationship and have its own chance.

Revealer may be common kinship of both Lover and Beloved, such as Lover's brother and Beloved's friend, and doubt between the loyalty to both, finally folding to the innocent Beloved and revealing the crime.

Revealer can do so without good intentions to anyone, just to take revenge upon either or both Lover and Beloved.

PCs as Revealer

As in other cases, this is something you can at most give the chance for, because you don't know what the PCs are going to do. Just take two NPCs of your campaign with good relationship to most or all PCs, introduce their own relationship slowly, like background story, and have them announce the PCs their will to get married and committed to one another.

Then, not too much time before the wedding, have a few PCs learn about the crime. If they learn about it in different ways - maybe one of them is witness, other is trusted by Lover with the story, etc - it can add an inner intrigue layer since each one that knows the secret may want to be the only one.

Do the PCs reveal the crime to protect the Beloved? Don't, to protect the Lover? Decide to forgive the Lover's crime and not to tell?

Development

The crime itself may be a Conspiracy or a Fatal Imprudence.

When the crime is revealed, from the betrayed spouse it could be Discovery of Dishonor in a Loved One, provoke him Madness, and/or develop in Pursuit or Vengeance.

The Betrayed Spouse may also Sacrifice the relationship it had, his good name, etc leaving the adulterers be.

A divorce may be considered a Disaster from the left spouse. The very adultery may be a Disaster from the Betrayed Spouse perspective.

The crime may easily mix with or be the result of Rivalry

Madness

This is the 16th Dramatic Situation of Polti. Its Elements are

• Madman
• Victim

Plot: the Madman goes insane and wrongs the Victim
There is some relationship between Madman and Victim that prevents the Victim to react as it would in other case. The very "not responsibly" idea about madness could be what makes the Victim forgive the Madman.
The "madness" is whatever could alter the conscience of reality or right/wrong of Madman: actual madness, temporary derangement, berserk fury, magic enchantments, spirit possession...

Madman

Madman is victim of madness, its conscience and/or will is altered.

PCs as Madman

If PCs are the Madman they are victims of the story. For them to still feel like main characters, it has to be a way for them to realize they are crazy and do something to cure it while avoiding damage to their loved ones/innocents.

For that, the madness should be intermittent, such as a berserk fury in really stressful situations or a lycanthropy curse.

Victim

The Victim element can grow as the story develops, when more and more characters are wronged and become a new part of the Victim. It also may stay stable in number of characters, while the threat of new victims or new wrongs still exists.

PCs as Victim

The PCs need to know there is madness moving the madman or they will do as with any other offender. It is best if, besides the madness, there is some kind of relationship with the Madman that forces the PCs to look for a cure, to take care of the Madman, etc.

For the story to have a sense of victory, though, they need to reach a solution. Maybe they get a cure for the madness (or curse/enchantment) or even accept the need to sacrifice the Madman (by killing it as well as intern it into a mental hospital or whatever). These solutions, however, are not part of the Madness story but stories developed from it.

Development

Easily the Victim may become the Unfortunate in a Falling Prey of Cruelty/Misfortune, with the Madman as the Master of Misfortune.

If it recovers, the Madman may develop the story in Erroneous Judgement.

If the Madness is long term, finding the cure could require a Daring Enterprise and when the cure is applied it could be Recovery of a lost one (the Madman)

If the Madness is permanent, this can be mixed with the effects of Loss of Loved Ones

Rivalry

This is combines the 14th and 24th Dramatic Situations of Polti, the 14th setting the rivals in a Superior/Inferior relationship and the 24th with a kinship relationship between them. Its Elements are

• Preferred rival
• Rejected rival
• Object of rivalry

Plot: the Object of rivalry chooses the Preferred rival over the Rejected rival
Again, the Object may (and often) be a person.

Preferred Rival

The Preferred Rival may think:

• That Object is definitely its, and that Rejected Rival rivalry has already disappeared: for a story to be it has to be wrong at least in one of those assumptions.
• That Object is definitely its but that Rejected Rival is still trying to get it.
• That its possession of Object is not that sure, but at least Rejected Rival thinks it is.
• That its possession of Object is not that sure and that Rejected Rival knows it. Both Object and Rejected Rival may have provoked that situation.

PCs as Preferred

You can plan what happens according to what the PCs do.

• If the PCs trusts both the Object and the Rival, they are wrong in one or both those assumptions. They need to discover the situation and then choose how to take care of it.
• If the PCs trust only the Object, they are probably already thinking about what to do with Rejected Rival. You can let them be right about Rejected Rival, surprise them if Rejected Rival is actually innocent or surprise them more if Object is what they should have been more vigilant with.
• If the PCs trust only the Rival, then they need to think what they do with the Object. They may be right with Object and in that case it's not much different if they were wrong with Rejected Rival or if a new Rival has appeared. If they are wrong about Object the discovery should come after they already did something to spoil things.
• If the PCs don't trust either, for each of those assumptions they are right they'll have to take care of it. If they are wrong on both, again the discovery should come after they screw things.

Rejected Rival

The Rejected Rival may have accepted the Object's choice or otherwise.

PCs as Rejected

Again, you planned depending on what they do

• If they still try to get the Object, the Object may denounce them to the Preferred Rival and provoke a confrontation. The Object may remain silent, but the Preferred Rival realize it on its own. Finally, the PCs may have get the Object without letting react the Preferred Rival.
• If they have accepted their loss, the Preferred Rival may think they haven't and act accordingly, so that PCs have to convince it. Other possibility is that the Object is unsure of its choice and lets the PCs think they can have it again. The PCs may start trying to get it again (like in the first possibility) or ignore it, in which case the Object may deceive the Preferred Rival into thinking they are acting against it.

Object of Rivalry

The Object of Rivalry may be whatever but an actual object. It may be the love of a woman, the loyalty of a servitor, the favor of a king, the trust of a mentor...

The Object has been given to the Preferred Rival, but as we already saw, it still has several possibilities:

• It is sure of its choice, leaving the story to develop from the Rivals' actions.
• It is unsure of its choice, trying to get the Rejected Rival to try to get the Object again.
• It is unsure of its choice, and tried and fail getting the Rejected Rival against the Preferred Rival, so it is trying to manipulate the Preferred Rival into thinking it has something to worry about.

If the PCs are the Object

Again, you have to plan according with what they do.

• If they do nothing, and the Preferred tries taking care of the Rejected, the may discover it and be against it, bringing the conflict, or let it. In that case, the Preferred may fail horribly (dying, for instance)
• If they do nothing and the Rejected tries to get them, they may denounce it to the Preferred or try to take care of it themselves.
• If they try to get again the attention of the Rejected they may be successful and getting the Preferred to fight the Rejected again, or they can fail. Then they can choose to deceive the Preferred or stay put. Or the Preferred may think they are not trustworthy and lose whatever they got by being the Object of the story

Development

From the Rejected Rival the story may mix with Ambition. From the Preferred Rival it can mix with Enigma. In both cases it can be mixed with Conspiracy (with or without adultery if the Object is a spouse)

The Rejected Rival may Sacrifice something both if it tries to get the Object (sacrifices the relationship with the Preferred Rival) or doesn't (sacrifices his own desires)

If the Preferred Rival thinks the Rejected Rival is misbehaving it can develop the story in Pursuit, Vengeance or Madness, which in turn could result in Erroneous Judgement.

If the Object is a spouse the story can easily mix with Obstacles to Love or develop into Crimes of Love or Discovery of Dishonor of a Loved One.

Vengeance

Polti considers Vengeance to be two different situations (3th and 4th) depending on whether the Avenger and Criminal are kinship or are not. Its Elements are

• Criminal
• Avenger

Plot: the Avenger punishes the Criminal

What was the crime? Murder, injury, insult, property damage; attempt of one of the previous.
Was the crime real, perceived, accidental?

Upon who was committed the crime? In Polti's 4th Dramatic Situation the victim was a relative of both Elements, although it is not needed because the need to vengeance is complicated just by the kinship relationship between the Elements.
Upon who is the punishment going to be committed? If the Criminal is not within reach, the Avenger may destroy its properties or take revenge upon the Criminal's family or friends or even everyone in a group the Criminal belongs to, like a deceived woman taking revenge upon every men because of the betrayal of one.

This situation is too short and simple to be a story by itself, it's more probably to be the cause of an story or the culmination of one.

Criminal

Is it the real culprit? 

PCs as Criminal

The PCs are punished in this story, so it is only a matter of seeing what the punishment is and what are the PCs going to react.

Avenger

Remember that the Avenger needs not to move because of personal reasons, but dutiful or professional ones.

PCs as Avenger

What are going to be the consequences of whatever the PCs decide to do to the Criminal?

Development

From the Avenger's point of view, this is often the end of a plot line, but it can develop into Erroneous Judgement if it realizes it was wrong. If then it does nothing to repair the damage, another investigator may appear and develop the story in a Remorse. Even if the Avenger don't realize the error, the new investigator poses the Enigma of whether the Criminal was really guilty.

From the Criminal's perspective, if it lives, this develops into Falling Prey of Cruelty/Misfortune.

Fatal Imprudence

Here I combine Polti’s dramatic situations 17th (Fatal Imprudence) and 19th (Slaying of Kin Unrecognized) because in the 19th’s case it’s usually an imprudence what brings about the death of kin. In other cases it’s ignorance or madness, and that would be in Madness stories.
Elements

• Imprudent
• Victim OR Object lost
• (Optional) Counselor, who opposes the imprudence
• (Optional) Instigator, who brings about the imprudence.

Plot: the Imprudent, by neglect or ignorance, loses the Object lost or wrongs the Victim
Imprudence can mix with a lot of other kind of stories to complicate the plot. For instance, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio is a Counselor to Romeo, speaking against his love to Juliet, daughter of his family's enemies.
The force of the story is that the PCs can see the imprudence of the Imprudent. Since the Imprudent is unconscious, an imprudent PC would lose that impact, so PCs should not be part of the Imprudent.

Imprudent

The imprudent somehow ignores the bad consequences its actions could have, not because he wouldn't care for the consequences, but because it doesn't believe there is a real risk.

Another trait of the imprudent is that it is unconscious of its own imprudence, so the PCs are not being in this Element in a Imprudence story, although their imprudence may be the reason of other kind of stories.

Victim or Object Lost

The Object can be whatever, as always: person, feelings, actual objects.

PCs as Victim

The PCs should have time to see the imprudence and react in whatever way they want to feel there was something the could have done.

Counselor

A Counselor is an optional Element which tries to avoid the imprudence.

PCs as Counselor

PCs need to worry about the possible consequences of carry on the imprudence, maybe because they worry about the damage, maybe because they worry about the imprudent. If the imprudent is challenging a power above its own they should be worried about the imprudent's health; if the Imprudent is playing with the darkest magic, they may worry about what summoned demons could do to town.

The PCs need not know who is the Imprudent. While the Imprudence story is happening it can mix with an Enigma in which the PCs need to learn who the Imprudent is to stop it.

Instigator

The Instigator is another optional Element which tries to being about the imprudence

PCs as Instigator

The instigator is active, not reactive, so you can't plan for that. The most you can do is to introduce the PCs to a NPC easy to manipulate, and let the PCs imagine how to use it to their ends.

Development

A Fatal Imprudence against somebody may develop into a Pursuit, Vengeance.

If another one is blamed, then it can develop into a Remorse story.

The consequences of the Imprudence may bring Remorse or require Sacrifice to atone for.

Deliverance

This is the 2nd Dramatic Situation of Polti. Its Elements are

• Unfortunate
• Threatener
• Rescuer

Plot: Threatener is going to damage Unfortunate but an unexpected Rescuer saves the Unfortunate.
The Threatener has more power than the Unfortunate but either less than Rescuer OR less than Rescuer and Unfortunate together. Otherwise, the Rescue won't take place.

Unfortunate

Does the unfortunate deserves the deliverance?

PCs as Unfortunate

If PCs are the Unfortunate then the Rescuer needs their help to stop the Threatener. Otherwise, they would only be witnesses and no player likes that.

Threatener

Is the Threatener in his right?

PCs as Threatener

By rescuing the Unfortunate, the Rescuer thwarts the PCs plans and will probably become their enemy, so it's a way of revealing to them a new recurring enemy.
If the Rescuer has a strong positive bond with the PCs - a relative, a mentor - it can be a complication. Maybe the PCs need to prove the Unfortunates guilty to the Rescue, etc (thus becoming a Supplication)

Rescuer

The Rescuer needs to know about the Threatener's plans and want to stop them.
Also, it needs to be able to stop them, either by itself or with the Unfortunate's help.

PCs as Rescuer

The point of Rescue is that Rescuer acts spontaneously. If it needs to be asked, then it is the Power in a Supplication story.
If the PCs needs the Unfortunate's help to defeat the Threatener, how are they going to get it?

Development

A would-be Rescuer that fails may bring Disaster upon both the Unfortunate and/or itself.

The very rescue may be a Daring Enterprise.

The Threatener may pursue the Rescuer from now on (Pursuit), ask others for help against it (Supplication) or conspire against it (Conspiracy)

The Rescue may be mixed with Sacrifice if there's some price to be paid.

If a Supplication's Intercessor doesn't get the Power's help, it can become a Rescuer despite the negative decision.

Supplication

This is the 1st Dramatic Situation of Polti. Its Elements are

• A Persecutor: somebody who wants to damage the Suppliant
• A Suppliant asking for help
• a Power in authority whose decision is doubtful

Plot: the Persecutor accuses the suppliant of wrongdoing, the Suppliant asks the Power for help, and the Power has to choose.
The point of this kind of story is that no one knows who the Power is going to help.
The Suppliant may deserve what the Persecutor wants to do to it.

Persecutor

The Persecutor is at least as powerful as the Suppliant, and wants to inflict some kind of damage on it.

If the Persecutor is more or less as powerful as the Suppliant, it needs the Power's help too.

If the Persecutor is more powerful than the Suppliant, but less than Suppliant and Power together, it needs the Power's inaction or to inflict the damage before the Power chooses.

If the Persecutor were more powerful than Suppliant and Power together, it doesn't need to worry about Power's choice.
What is going to do the Persecutor to get the Power's favor? Is it going to wait for the Power's decision? For how long?

PCs as Persecutor

Plan what will happen if the PCs inflict the damage upon the Suppliant before the Power can choose. Some Powers can be relieved they didn't need to choose, some may be offended that their authority was ignored, some may be secretly relieved but publicly offended.

Suppliant

The Suppliant needs the Power's help to avoid the damage the Persecutor wants to inflict to it.

The Suppliant needs the Power's help because it is less powerful than the Persecutor, but the Power and the Suppliant together (or the Power by itself) are more powerful.

The Suppliant may be divided between the Persecuted - the actual Persecutor's target - and the Intercessor - the one that asks the Power for help.

What is going to do the Suppliant to get the Power's favor? Is it putting together a B plan?

PCs as Suppliant

Often, the PCs try to solve their problems by themselves, specially in RPGs with balanced combats, since they get use to get only what they can manage. For they to want to ask for help

• They need to know they need help
• They need to know who to ask for help, and to trust they'll get it
• They need to want to ask for help

If they don't know they need help or who to ask to, this story won't happen and it will become a Disaster, Vengeance or whatever it was supposed to be avoided.
If they don't want to ask for help, either you get an Intercessor to ask for help for them, or you acknowledge their will and let this become a Sacrifice, in which they sacrifice themselves for the ideal of self-reliance.

Power in authority

If it is less powerful than the Persecutor, the Power can be susceptible to threats or fear from it.

What can influence the Power’s decision?
Is the Power partial to either side or is it really neutral?

The Power and the Persecutor can be in the same element: As Persecutor, it has trapped the Suppliant and can finally have its way with it, but then the Suppliant asks for mercy, tries to deceive it, to convince the Persecutor it doesn’t deserve the punishment. The Persecutor has trapped the Suppliant, its father's murderer, and it's going to finally take revenge, but then the Suppliant claims to have been framed, and now the Persecutor doubts
If the Suppliant is divided, the Intercessor is who asks the Persecutor to stop its hand. The Persecutor has trapped the Suppliant, its father's murderer, and it's going to finally take revenge, but then the Suppliant's own children try to stop it.

PCs as Power

You need to make the PCs worry about the decision and making them doubt. Whose right? What are the consequences of helping either?
They need to be able to stop the Persecutor if they want to (either by themselves or with the Suppliant's help)
They need to doubt about the Suppliant.

Development

Both the Persecutor and the Suppliant may be getting what they need to escape/punish in case the Power decides against them or while it doubts (Daring Enterprise)

A turned down Persecutor may start a Conspiracy against the Power.

If the Power denies its help to the Suppliant, this story develops into Vengeance, Disaster or Falling Prey to Cruelty/Misfortune. Actually, if the Power decides against the Persecutor and this is more powerful, it may develop into a Disaster when the Persecutor turns its armies against Power and Suppliant.

If the Suppliant is denied by the Power, it may start a new Pursuit.

There may be a Sacrifice required should the Power help the Suppliant.

If the Persecutor is too powerful, the decision can mix with a Fatal Imprudence should the Power be partial to the Suppliant.

Disaster

This is the 6th Dramatic Situation of Polti.

• Vanquished power
• Victorious enemy OR Messenger

Plot: Vanquished power falls from its place after being defeated by Victorious enemy OR being informed of such defeat by Messenger.
The point of Disaster is that it changes the world of the Elements. It can be big scale, like the fall of a kingdom, or small like a divorce.
The intensity increases when the disaster in unexpected: the kingdom seemed to be winning the war, the enemies seemed weaker, the spouses seem to be all right.

Vanquished Power

The Vanquished Power has to adapt its life to its new circumstances. It's a reactive element.

PCs as Vanquished Power

If the PCs couldn't avoid the Disaster, this story is going to make them feel desire of revenge, and that means they need somebody to take revenge upon. In literature is all right to get an earthquake or a volcano eruption, destroy a city and show what the characters feel and do while mourning their loss. In an RPG, though, is better to have a NPC to blame - otherwise, the players could blame it on the GM - so the disaster should be an unexpected defeat.

The PCs need not to have being fighting against the Enemy. While the party was recovering an ancient artifact, their recurring enemy attacked the town they grew up and torched it. When the players return, they see a few survivors, mostly children or old people, and adult dead bodies. They cry, speaking about the forces of their enemy. The PCs need first to take care of their people, and then track their enemy and take revenge for its actions.

If the PCs could have avoided the Disaster, this story is of the consequences of their failure. In that case the try to avoid the disaster was in the past sessions. Maybe the first sessions were clues for them to start preparing action and they didn't or didn't get them, but they need to had chances to avoid the damage to not feel unjustly beaten.

Victorious Enemy

In some disasters you can have a Victorious Enemy, somebody to blame, to take revenge on, to hate, all that.

PCs as Victorious Enemy

The point of Disaster is that the PCs care for the people affected by the disaster, so how are you going to make them care about the negative consequences they brought while winning, without making them feel remorse? Maybe if those consequences are not purely because of the PCs. The PCs are mercenaries hired by a count in a war against a neighbor. After the main battle, the army marches over the loser's lands, pillaging, butchering and raping civilians. The PCs are horrified they brought this upon innocents and try for it not to happen, but there are too many cases for them to stop them all.

In any case, the Victorious Enemy is who brings the great damage over others, and not many players will feel right doing that.

Messenger

Both a defeat and a natural disaster may need a messenger to really get the Disaster feeling, although both may be their own messenger. 

The Messenger talks about the Disaster, but with it comes the chance to avoid a greater damage. If a city has fallen or an army has been defeated, the Messenger can alert home and let them evacuate before the Victorious Enemy arrives.

If it was a natural disaster, then the loss needs to affect the people the Messenger talks to. A king sent his army to a quick campaign. However, a plague killed most of it, only a few soldiers (Messenger) were not affected, able to return and tell about the loss of almost all the army. Now that the king has no army, neighboring kingdoms may attack them. Maybe the king just came back from a negotiation with one of those kingdoms. A negotiation that wasn't good and that only the implicit threat of the king's army stopped the ambition of the neighboring king.

Development

A Disaster naturally develops into a Falling Prey of Cruelty/Misfortune story, with the Vanquished Power being the Unfortunate and, if there is a Victorious Power, it becomes the Master.

If the PCs are in the losing end, maybe there's no need to play such story if they want to go straight to Ambition, Obtaining, Daring Enterprise or Conspiracy.

Maybe a Sacrifice is required for the situation not to worsen. For instance, a enemy army may have taken the PCs fortress, but they are willing to forgive the PCs' subjects if they surrender and publicly give up any right they had to it.

Pursuit

This is based on the 5th Dramatic Situation of Polti, but he considered the elements to be Fugitive and Punishment.

• Fugitive
• Persecutor

Plot: The Fugitive flees the Persecutor

What was the crime? Murder, injury, insult, property damage; attempt of any of those.
Was it real, perceived, accidental, erroneous…?
It doesn't needs to be perceived as crime by the Persecutor, but by the Fugitive. A teen has gotten pregnant and rides from home, thinking her father is going to make her abort, the father pursues her, not because he intends to force her one way or the other, but because he loves her.

Upon who was committed the crime?
Upon who is the punishment going to be committed? For the Fugitive to flee, the Persecutor must want to punish the Fugitive, but it may decide after some time that it will take revenge upon others, giving the story a time limit.

Fugitive

Since it flees, it doesn't want to face the Persecutor. This could be because of fear (the Persecutor is more powerful), embarrassment (the Persecutor is the Fugitive's own father, pursuing by duty) or whatever reason.

The Fugitive does not need to know personally who is pursuing, only to believe that somebody is.

PCs as Fugitive

If the PCs are fleeing, you know it because that's what they did the last session. What I mean is that, in a conflict between PCs and NPCs, you never know if the PCs are going to flee or to fight, and often what you can foresee is the fighting, so in last session the PCs found they bit more than they could chew, and chose the best part of valor.

Now you can plan a pursuit story, probably using it for them to look for a conclusion.

Persecutor

The Persecutor is not only pursuing, but probably mixing other plots, like Enigma, to track the Fugitive.

PCs as Persecutor

Besides the PCs needing a reason to pursue the Fugitive, this case doesn't need much more work.

Development

If the Fugitive is caught, the story develops into Vengeance or maybe Supplication if the Fugitive asks the Persecutor for mercy.

The Fugitive may be fleeing to gain time and solve an Enigma, like who was the real culprit, or getting what he needs to definitely escape the Persecutor (Daring Enterprise, Obtaining or Conspiracy).

Conspiracy

This combines the 8th Dramatic Situation of Polti (that includes Power and Conspirator) and situations 15th and 25th (Adultery and Adultery with murderous intentions) The case of adultery is that the conspirators are the adulterers and the role of "Power" is the deceived spouse. To keep things generic, though, we state the elements as

• Power
• Conspirator

Plot: the Power is plotted against by the Conspirator

Polti's 13th Dramatic Situation (Enmity of Kin) includes conspiracy and mutual conspiracy. The conspiracy of one Hating element against the Hated element is just this case. Several elements conspiring one against each other is a conspiracy in which the PCs are going to be simultaneously as Power and Conspirators.

Power

The Power is mostly ignorant of what the Conspirator does until real damage starts happening. Then it is a race against time, trying to find and end the conspiracy before the Power is vanquished.

PCs as Power

The effects of the conspiracy have to begin slowly. At first only a few things seem to be against them, but there have to be enough clues for them to think those "accidents" are connected.

Even in that case the plot becomes more of an Enigma than a Conspiracy.

Conspirator

The Conspirator believes the Power is to be defeated. To keep secrecy, to know who to trust and who not to are the main points for its point of view in the story.

The damage made needs to have a further goal, like preparing the Power for a deposition or maybe to convince it that it's best for it to go away.

PCs as Conspirator

The PCs need to want to oppose the Power but must not be powerful enough to do it in the open.

Development

The result of a Conspiracy may be a Disaster for the unsuccessful part, develop into Pursuit or Vengeance

Enigma

This is the 11th Dramatic Situation of Polti. Elements:

• Interrogator
• Seeker

Plot: the Interrogator poses a problem to the Seeker

The 8th and 13th Dramatic Situations of Polti include this element when they're developed. 8th is Conspiracy, and from the point of view of the element conspired against, there is the Enigma of who is trying to make it suffer.
The 13th (Enmity of Kin) can be either a conspiracy from one kinsman to another or several reciprocal conspiracies. In the first case, the conspired against is living an Enigma as well as the Conspiracy of its own.

Interrogator

The Interrogator does not need to be known and often isn't. In crime investigations, the Interrogator is the culprit. In cases like that, the Interrogator's identity, motives, etc are the very enigma.

If the Interrogator is known then either it doesn't know the solution or it can't be forced to reveal it. If the sphinx poses a problem to the PCs, they need reasons not to beat the sphinx until it says the answer. If the woman a PC loves poses a riddle as condition to marry him, they won't force her, although the PC could get frustrated with her and stop wooing her. 

PCs as Interrogator

The Enigma story is about solving the enigma, so PCs are in the receiving end. Written from the point of view of the NPCs, the PCs actions could be an enigma, but the PCs are not the ones living it, so it's not a RPG story.

Seeker, PCs as Seeker

Since PCs shouldn't be the Interrogator, this is all about the PCs.

The Seeker needs access to clues to solve the enigma. In a lot of classical games this was linked to roll successes and/or correct interpretations, which often ended in PCs unable to solve the case. To avoid this, consider first several ways to get to the same discovery, to minimize the probability of PCs losing it completely. Second, consider what 13th Age calls "Fail Forward"; that means that a failed roll doesn't mean nothing happens, but

• The PCs get the information, but there are additional complications: the adversaries know of them, takes measures to learn their strength and make resolution or combat more likely or dangerous
• The PCs get three facts about the information, one of them is true, the other two are false.

Development

The solution of the Enigma may reveal the culprit of some crime, developing into a Pursuit or a Vengeance.

If the Enigma consisted in where is something the PCs are looking form, it had an underlying Ambition that now can really take place.

Sacrifice

Polti uses his Dramatic Situations 20th to 23th to Sacrifice stories. The Elements are:

• Hero
• Object sacrificed
• (Optional) Creditor: the Element to which the Object is sacrificed

Plot: the Hero sacrifices the Object sacrificed
In Polti's 20th Situation the reason of sacrifice is an Ideal, a Kinsman in 21th and a Passion in 22th. The Object sacrificed is a Loved one in 23th, unspecified in the rest.

Hero

Despite the name, it doesn't need to be good, just the person who makes the sacrifice. A man in love with a vampire that demands him to leave his family forever is the Hero Element, without being "good". A father who sacrifices a son because his god told him so isn't good either, but it is the Hero Element in this story.

PCs as Hero

Sacrifice is usually something the PCs are going to decide by themselves. If a sacrifice is forced upon them, you need to provide them with somebody to blame (besides you), just like other stories in which they are suffering because of the story. For instance, a villain can force them to sacrifice a town (by leaving it unprotected) to get the Horn of Fate.

For the story to be a sacrifice, the PCs need to know their actions can have dire consequences. The destruction of that town shouldn't come as a surprise.

Object of sacrifice

As always, the Object can be a person, an actual object, a feeling or whatever. A Hero can sacrifice the trust of its lover because it has to keep an oath.

PCs as Object

If the PCs are an Object they have been sacrificed by somebody who didn't wanted to, and it's important that the PCs have enough information to know that. That doesn't mean they should be forgiving or understanding, but they need to know why they were sacrificed, either before they take revenge or after. A story that starts with them in prison, betrayed by an old ally, only for them to escape, prepare revenge, kill the traitor and only then, with his traitor's last breath, learn it did that because the real villain threatened with the town's destruction can be a good story.

If that villain then destroys the town, making the PCs feel responsible and angry about having been used as currency and planning a new revenge, it's more satisfying.

Creditor

The Creditor is an optional Element in this stories: when Peter sacrifices Betty's trust to keep his oath, the trust is not sacrificed to anyone or anything; if Abraham had sacrificed Isaac to god, god would have been the creditor.

PCs as Creditor

For the story to feel as Sacrifice the PCs needs to care about the Object sacrificed but somehow about the Hero too, even if it a complicated relationship, it should not be purely of hate or enmity. It can happen, but won't feel like they are receiving a sacrifice.

Development

If the Sacrifice is dire enough, it can develop for the Hero in Falling Prey of Cruelty/Misfortune.

If whatever was sacrificed may be taken back it develop into Ambition or be mixed with it, developing into Daring Enterprise.

The Sacrifice may be the price paid for a Supplication, Deliverance or Conspiracy to be successful. Actually, other Dramatic Situations like Obtaining or Daring Enterprise may require Sacrifices.

Obtaining

This is the 12th Dramatic Situation of Polti. There can be two sets of elements:
First possibility

• Solicitor 
• Adversary who is refusing

Second possibility

• An Arbitrator 
• Opposing Parties

First Plot: The Solicitor is at odds with the Adversary who refuses to give the Solicitor an object in the Adversary’s possession
Second Plot: The Arbitrator decides who gets an object desired by opposing Parties

As with other Dramatic Situations, the Object can be an actual object, a person, a concept or whatever the parties desire.

If taken by force or bold action this would be a story about Daring Enterprise. Instead, the object must be taken through other methods, usually eloquence, diplomacy and negotiation. This implies that something makes force an undesirable situation. In the case of a Solicitor against an Adversary may be

• that the Solicitor doesn't know where the object is, although this could be solved as an Enigma
• that the Adversary is too powerful to be overpowered by the Solicitor
• that the Adversary is part of the object. To gain a woman's love despite her initial rejections would be an example of Obtaining.

If there are several opposing parties, to try to get the object by force may get the enmity or resistance of all of them.

Solicitor and Opposing Parties

They don't have the object but are trying to get it.

None have the power to claim the object for them. If the had it, then it would be a Daring Enterprise story.

The Solicitor or each Opposing Party needs to convince the Adversary/Arbitrator, in possession of the object, to give it to the Element.

PCs as Solicitor or one of the Opposing Parties

Besides getting an NPC to hire the PCs to obtain the object, this story can be planned if you already know what the PCs want.

An NPC hiring the PCs needs motives not to go by himself, to trust the abilities and honesty of the PCs and to want the object.

Adversary/Arbitrator

What can convince the Adversary/Arbitrator to give the object?

PCs as Adversary/Arbitrator

The PCs must have something that NPCs want.

Development

If the PCs have to get the Object and they are successful others may still want it and try to get them (Daring Enterprise with the PCs as Adversary, or maybe Conspiracy with the PCs as Power)

If the PCs are Arbitrator, a NPC who didn't got the Object may still want it and be the PCs' ally, trusting them with those desires (Ambition). A denied Solicitor may consider the Arbitrator responsible and take Vengeance upon it.

While the negotiations take place, a Solicitor may plan a Daring Enterprise to get the Object whatever the Adversary/Arbitrator wants or in case it denies him.

The Object may go missing while the negotiation is taking place and the PCs need to know who took it (Enigma) or maybe they know who did and pursues it (Pursuit)

If the PCs are the adversary, by releasing the Object it could be a Sacrifice.

Daring Enterprise

Daring Enterprise is Polti's 9th Dramatic Situation, but here it is mixed with others because they only change on the moral point of view. Abduction, his 10th Dramatic Situation, is a Daring Enterprise in which the Leader is the abductor, the Object is the person abducted and the Adversary is the guardian of the abducted.
The Elements are

• A Leader
• An Object that the Leader wants to get
• An Adversary who protects the Object

Plot: the Leader takes the Object from the Adversary by overpowering it

This plot is about risk, about the Leader going beyond the restraints of what others think possible to get its goal.

The Object

The Object can be an actual object, a person, a concept (freedom), to conquer a place...

As Object is mostly a passive element in the story, so PCs should not be part of it.

If the Object is a person it could be part of the Adversary or be willing to be taken (or none). In abducting the son of a general, the son is Object and probably an Adversary too; the general is only an Adversary

The Adversary

The Adversary is the union of the different obstacles that getting the Object could have.

• The current owners of the Object
• A difficult place the Leader has to go through (a fairy forest; a labyrinth; enemy territory)
• Any obstacle in the path (fingerprint locks; magic wards; walls)

PCs as Adversary

The PCs need to know that somebody wants the object. Otherwise, the Leader would take the object before they can react.

If the Leader successfully takes the Object from the PCs, the next story could be another Daring Enterprise in which the PCs are the Leader, wanting to recover the Object from the previous Leader, now Adversary.

The Leader

The Leader either has the idea by itself or is challenged.

Matho had the idea of robbing the sacred veil of Carthago

Salammbô was challenged by Matho to recover the sacred veil from him

Deruchette (not an Element) challenged Gilliat to recover the engine of her father's ship

PCs as Leader

You can plan the Object and Adversary and then issue a challenge to the PCs. The risk is that the PCs don't care enough for the Object to accept the challenge.

If the PCs told you what they want with enough time, you can plan what they have to go against to get it and it's like a challenge they issued to themselves.

Example: Preparations for War

The Object is to get the armies ready.

• Get resources to prepare or resist a siege
• Get the people out of the open and behind walls
• Raise the moral of the own army

There can be several Adversary who hamper those efforts

• Pacifists or afraid allied kings, who prefer to remain neutral
• Kings doubting between which side they should choose. 
• Kings' counselors advising neutrality or choosing the other side

The scale can be smaller, like preparing a battle or an ambush. The smaller the scale, the shorter the story.

Example: War 

The smaller scale would be a battle or a combat, although the smaller the scale, the shorter the story.

The Object is to win the war.

The Adversary is the enemy.

Example: Rob/Recover the Object

Also, it can be reversed into Recover a robbed Object

Prometheus (Leader) took the fire (Object) from the gods (Adversary)

Matho (Leader) steals the sacred veil of Carthage (Object) from Salammbô's army camp (Adversary)

Salammbô (Leader) recovers the sacred veil (Object) from Matho (Adversary)

Example: Adventures

The discovery of America

The Labors of Hercules

Gilliat is in love with Deruchette, who declared that she would marry whoever recover his father's sank ship's engine, so Gilliat gets a ship of his own to go and recover the thing.

Development

After being robbed of the Object - or maybe just because of the try - the Adversary can pursue the Leader (Pursuit) or try to get back the Object (another Daring Enterprise)
If the Enterprise goes wrong it can have consequences so dire that the story develops into Disaster.
The Daring Enterprise often makes the Leader known to the Adversary, so it is not usual for it to develop into an Enigma, but it could be. For instance, even when the PCs, as Adversary, know who took the Object, the may need to prove it before taking action and getting the evidence qualifies as Enigma.