The Unchosen

Your best friend is the War Goddess's Chosen. You're the weakest recruit in the Order, and the Cull is coming.

Plot

ACADEMY · DARK FANTASY · RPG · M17The UnchosenYour best friend is the War Goddess's Chosen. You're the weakest recruit in the Order.4 weeks to the Rising 33 kinds to hunt 10 people to be 7 endings, 1 hiddenValtori makes its soldiers out of monsters. It sews a beast's heart into you, and you come out faster and stronger than anyone alive, able to carry a spirit, and dead before forty. Then it sends you out to hunt more. Nobody here says goodbye. They say "After."Hela Bladeborn is the War Goddess's Chosen. She carries one black-iron spear and calls dozens more out of the dawn light, and every real blade in reach answers her too. She loves a fight far too much, she teases you without mercy, and she has spent the whole season keeping your name off the Cull list. The season ends in four weeks. The Cull takes the bottom three, and whoever is left goes up to the High Circle at the next Blackmoon, to show what answered them.◆ ARC ONE: FOUR WEEKS ◆Three episodes, from the night you answer to the next Blackmoon.EPISODE 1 · THE TRIALSFrost on the yard, and your blood on the frost. You are among the last of your year without a pact, and tonight, at the Blackmoon, you answer. Then the gate bangs open, and every practice sword in the rack turns to point at her. She wants to see your trick.THAT NIGHT · THE ANSWERINGIn the High Circle, blind Ennick asks you three questions, and the smallest spirits crowd in to hear what you say. One of them stays. It settles in your heart with one plain power and one move of its own, and Hela, who swore she wasn't worried, lets out a breath.WHAT MIGHT ANSWER YOUFrost freeze what you touchFrost GripFire light and throw flameFlame FlickWind a gust, a long leapGust StepStone shape stone and earthStone SkinThorn roots and thornsThorn SnareWater pull and push waterSplashLightning shock what you touchSpark TouchShadow hide in the darkShadow SlipIron bend and sharpen metalIron EdgeMending close small woundsStitchSmall, every one. They grow a tier at a time, and your trick stays yours: a move of your own body, no spirit in it."He's had you since the Dawn Toll, stray?" She holds the sword out to you, hilt first. "Up. My turn. I hit softer than him." A grin. "That's a lie. I also cheat."EPISODE 2 · THE CULLThe bottom three of the Chalk choose: the Graveline, the Pens, or one bout in the Pit under the great bell, in front of the Order, the court and half the purses in Rendwick.EPISODE 3 · THE RISINGAt the next Blackmoon the High Circle tests every new pact, twelve black pillars on the crag top, and Hela stands inside it as your witness. Something else is coming up the road it opens, and it has brought its flock. Hundreds of them.◆ HOW IT STARTS ◆Three ways in. The first is the one to play.START HEREThe TrialsThe yard at dawn, Ottar saying "Again", and Hela coming through the gate. Tonight, your Answering.A FIGHT FIRSTThe HuntA trial on the Howl at dusk, and the ashwolves have found you first.STRAIGHT INThe CullYour name is third from the bottom of the Chalk, and Ottar wants an answer tonight.YOU, IN ONE LINEEarly twenties, F tierAmong the last of your year without a pact, on a second-hand heart nobody else wanted.You do  Hunt. Take the Order's hunts on the Howl and Rendwick's bounties, and wear what you kill: every heart is your next graft. Cut the hearts out of your own dead before dusk. Fight in the Pit to stay off the border. Climb from Mote toward God, one Blackmoon at a time.You find out  What the War Goddess and the god of slaughter really are.You risk  Years. Every graft and every push past your limit costs some, and nobody in Valtori started with many.◆ THE BROKEN SKY ◆Where spirits died in numbers, the rock let go of the ground.RIMVALD, AT THE EDGE OF THE HOWLPine, salt mines and iron at the edge of a plateau where the wind never stops. Skerries hang over the grass and trail waterfalls. When the great herds thin, the skerries sink, and the Nulves count every one that falls.The fleets. The Crown flies steam and iron: a kite for word, cutters for flying beasts, frigates, fat haulers for a whole Muster, and three dreadnoughts. The Nulves fly ships of bone and red hide with a herd spirit in the keel, silent and fast. Magickers don't fly. They drop on lines.The Seven Teeth. Seven border forts on the Howl's edge. Most seasons you hunt. When a Tooth falls, the whole Order marches, or flies.◆ WHAT HUNTS YOU ◆Thirty-three kinds, from the grass sea to the old mines. How to beat each one, you learn in play.THE CONTRACTThe Order's hunts on the Howl, and the bounties Rendwick and the border villages post at the toll-house. Pick your quarry, or let it pick you.THE SIGNSTracks, a smell, what the dead lost, who saw what and lived. Find out what it is before it finds out what you are.THE COUNTEREvery kind fears something: fire, brine, salt, daylight, its own name. Fight with it and the dice lean your way. Guess wrong and they don't.WEAR ITWhat you kill pays twice: its fangs are your wages, and its heart is your next graft. Every kind you learn goes in your Bestiary.Stormhart CSPARK · TIER C · The open HowlThe standard heart of the Order, if you live to cut it out. It charges with lightning on its antlers.BODY ■■■■□ SPEED ■■■■■ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 20 · HIT 6Ashwolf EEMBER · TIERS F TO D · The near Howl, at duskBones like iron and embers for eyes. Never alone: where you see one, the pack is already round you.BODY ■■□□□ SPEED ■■■■□ WILL ■■□□□ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 12 · HIT 4Barrow-Boar DGRAVE · TIERS E TO C · Old barrows on the plateauGrave-grey and bigger than a cart. Once it starts its charge, it does not stop for anything.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■■□ WITS ■□□□□ · HP 16 · HIT 5Gallows-Owl EGRAVE · TIERS F TO D · The fortress walls and dead treesA skull-faced owl the size of a man that dives without a sound. It hunts sentries.BODY ■■□□□ SPEED ■■■■■ WILL ■■□□□ WITS ■■■■□ · HP 12 · HIT 4Smoke-Wyrm CEMBER · TIERS D TO B · The salt minesA burrowing serpent of ember and smoke. Miners hear it in the walls a day before it comes through.BODY ■■■■□ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 20 · HIT 6Stoneback BSTONE · TIERS C TO A · The Seven TeethA wall that walks. Forts have been taken by one stoneback leaning on the gate.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■□□□□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■□□□□ · HP 26 · HIT 7Risen Brute BSHADE · TIERS C TO A · The deep HowlAny beast can come risen, on two legs with its forelegs used like arms. They grapple, swing and throw.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■■□ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 26 · HIT 7A Sire S BOSSANY ELEMENT · TIER S · Wherever it walksOnce a season something walks out of the deep Howl that nobody has seen before, and the Howl names it at first sight.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■■■□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■■□ · HP 80 · HIT 10Pyre-Thieves DGRAVE · TIERS E TO C · Battlefields after duskGrey, hairless and long in the arm. They come for whatever the Harvest left behind, and their king wears the dead man's plate.BODY ■■■□□ SPEED ■■■■□ WILL ■■□□□ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 16 · HIT 5Brinegrips EBROOK · TIERS F TO D · The Brinery salt pansThe drowned of the salt pans, crusted white. The Pan-Mother sings to them from the deep water.BODY ■■■□□ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■□□□ WITS ■□□□□ · HP 12 · HIT 4Swell DANY ELEMENT · TIERS E TO D · Wherever the dead lie too longA dead thing bloated with spoiled essence. It glows before it bursts in its own element.BODY ■■■□□ SPEED ■□□□□ WILL ■□□□□ WITS □□□□□ · HP 16 · HIT 5The Unanswered CSHADE · TIERS D TO B · The High Circle, on Blackmoon nightsCandidates who died at an Answering where nothing answered. They want to know what yours said.BODY □□□□□ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■■□ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 20 · HIT 6The Hay-Widow CGUST · TIER C · The harvest fields at noonA bride in a shawl of straw, sickle in hand. Keep her company until noon passes.BODY ■■□□□ SPEED ■■■■□ WILL ■■■■□ WITS ■■■■□ · HP 20 · HIT 6Wreck-Lanterns DSHADE · TIERS D TO C · Fog on the salt flats and the skerry cliffsLights in the fog that look like lanterns and campfires. Follow them and you walk off the edge.BODY □□□□□ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■■■■ · HP 16 · HIT 5Kinsguest CSHADE · TIER C · The door of a grieving houseIt knocks wearing the face of someone you buried, and it knows everything they knew, except their last day.BODY ■■□□□ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■■■■ · HP 20 · HIT 6The Murrain BGRAVE · TIER B · Wherever the Howl thinsA tall woman in a raw cowhide. The cattle die first. Then people start to cough.BODY ■■■□□ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 26 · HIT 7Wolfwed CFROST · TIERS C TO B · Border villages, on Blackmoon nightsSwore to a wolf spirit, then took the Order's heart instead. On a night with no moon, the wolf comes to collect.BODY ■■■■□ SPEED ■■■■□ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 20 · HIT 6Barrow-Sleeper BSTONE · TIER B · A barrow in the pinewoodsSwore to a bear spirit. Sleeps out the winter in a barrow and wakes in spring, hungry and half bear.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■■□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 26 · HIT 7The Holt-King ATHORN · TIER A · The deep pinewoodsLord of the pines: bark, an antler crown, crows and wolves at its call. It marks a village that took too much.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■■■ · HP 32 · HIT 8Scree-Giant BSTONE · TIER B · The ravines below the Seven TeethSlow and courteous. They eat the battlefield dead and trade in their bones.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■□□□□ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 26 · HIT 7Hearth-Hob EEMBER · TIERS F TO E · A burned border farmA house spirit the size of a dog, still keeping a dead family's hearth. Savage to squatters.BODY ■□□□□ SPEED ■■■■□ WILL ■■□□□ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 12 · HIT 4The Unsewn ATHEIR LAST HEART'S · TIERS B TO S · Rendwick and the courtAgeless and courtly. They never had a heart sewn in. Instead they eat a fresh one every new moon.BODY ■■■□□ SPEED ■■■■■ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■■■ · HP 32 · HIT 8Hungerling DTHEIR LAST HEART'S · TIERS D TO C · The rooftops of RendwickThe Unsewn's failures: starving, bald and bat-eared. They can smell a fresh graft from a street away.BODY ■■□□□ SPEED ■■■■■ WILL ■■□□□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 16 · HIT 5Keelbreaker BGUST · TIER B · Airship wrecks on the skerriesA drake that hunts the Crown's cutters and hoards their lanterns. It circles before it dives.BODY ■■■■□ SPEED ■■■■■ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 26 · HIT 7Grief-Harpies EGUST · TIERS F TO D · Under the floating islandsHarpies wearing the faces of the drowned. They cry for help in their voices, and take whoever comes.BODY ■□□□□ SPEED ■■■■■ WILL ■□□□□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 12 · HIT 4Gallers and their Queen A BOSSSTONE · TIERS E TO A · The old salt galleriesCrystal-shelled crawlers that eat salt and hollow out the mines. Deep down, their Queen lays in the brine.BODY ■■■■□ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■■□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 64 · HIT 8Ore-Ogres CSTONE · TIERS C TO B · The abandoned iron workingsMan-eaters twice a man's height, with ore grown through the hide. They keep the bones of everything they eat, stacked by kind.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■□□□□ · HP 20 · HIT 6Mire-Trolls CBROOK · TIER C · The bridges and fords of the BrineryIt asks a toll in a drowned man's voice. Cut off an arm and it grows back by morning.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■□□ WITS ■■□□□ · HP 20 · HIT 6The Bone-Mother BGRAVE · TIER B · A hut of ribs in the deep pinewoodsA hag who buys hearts and sells them back wrong. She knows your name before you say it.BODY ■■□□□ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■■■ · HP 26 · HIT 7Rime-Jarls AFROST · TIER A · The high passes beyond the TeethFrost giants three times a man's height, crowned in dead Order captains' helms. A war-band of lesser giants follows, swinging whole pines.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 32 · HIT 8Salt-Basilisks BSTONE · TIER B · The deep salt flatsA six-legged lizard as long as a wagon. Meet its eyes and your flesh turns to salt.BODY ■■■■□ SPEED ■■□□□ WILL ■■■■□ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 26 · HIT 7The Iron Thane A BOSSGRAVE · TIER A · The old battlefields, on the night he lostA dead warlord sealed in his own black iron. Every year he rides out to win the battle he lost.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■■□□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■□□ · HP 64 · HIT 8Elder Wyrms S BOSSEMBER · TIER S · A fallen skerry, asleep since before the OrderThere may be three. Each sleeps on a fallen skerry, on the crowns of kingdoms it ate, and wakes once in a lifetime.BODY ■■■■■ SPEED ■■■■□ WILL ■■■■■ WITS ■■■■■ · HP 80 · HIT 10Not every hunt ends in blood. Some end with an oath kept, a hob fed, or a giant paid. Some end with you running.◆ THREE SCHOOLS, ONE HUNT ◆Valtori isn't the only school that makes hunters out of monsters. It's the only one that sends them to war.Valtori THE OWLSOne spirit in a sewn monster heart. The strongest pacts alive, up to God. Dead before forty. You serve the Crown's war.Black iron, red cords, the Chalk and the great bell.POWER ■■■■■ REACH ■■■■■ YEARS ■■□□□ SENSES ■■□□□ CRAFT ■■□□□The Lantern Order THE MOTHSA monster's heart for strength, and the spirit kept in a black-iron lantern at the hip, fed oil and a drop of blood each dusk. They live to sixty and never Turn. Their reach ends where the lamp's light falls. They call you candles.Master Teodor Lisk, 61. A joke for every death. Ottar's old enemy.POWER ■■■□□ REACH ■■□□□ YEARS ■■■■■ SENSES ■■□□□ CRAFT ■■■□□The Manyhearts THE JACKALSNo spirit and no god, ever: two or three monster hearts sewn in side by side. Oils, nets, traps and bombs. The best trackers alive, and dead before thirty. They call you god-meat.Imra Vey, 22. Wolf, owl and smoke-wyrm hearts. She will beat you to the kill.POWER ■■□□□ REACH ■□□□□ YEARS ■□□□□ SENSES ■■■■■ CRAFT ■■■■■The Crown's Hunt. At the winter Count the three schools race for a Sire, and the Moths and Jackals take contracts you wanted. At the Reaping, each school stands with you, sells you out, or walks away, depending on how you treated it.◆ THE RPG ◆A dark fantasy RPG with a sheet, dice and a ladder of power. The game keeps the numbers. You say what you try.YOUR HEARTA Spiritheart the Graftwright sewed in: second-hand and grade F. Magick Blood and Wyld-eyes came with it.YOUR PACTOn your first night you answer, and the smallest spirit settles in: frost, fire, stone, shadow. One plain power and one move of its own. Small uses are free.YOUR CLASSVanguard, Invoker, Warden, Stalker or Mender. The class decides how you use the pact, never what it is.YOUR MOVESBig uses are moves, and moves cost Magick. Two class moves, your trick, your spirit's first move, and three more to earn.YOUR TIERYou start at F, a Mote: one small thing, at a touch. Eight tiers up to God, and every rise is earned at a Blackmoon.YOUR STANDINGWhat the Order thinks of you, on your sheet. You start Tolerated: the weakest of your year, and the Chosen's friend. It moves only when you earn it or lose it.The Blackmoon. Every new moon, in the High Circle, your spirit can grow one tier, if you've earned it. The same spirit grows; it is never swapped. A frost-crust becomes a frozen pond, then a glacier, then a valley's winter.The beasts. Every beast is built from tier, element, body and add-ons, so no two hunts on the Howl go the same way. Ten elements, twelve bodies, twelve add-ons, and each add-on has a tell before it acts and a counter the Order teaches.◆ HOW IT PLAYS ◆Light enough to forget, deep enough to matter. The sheet keeps the numbers, and the story never shows them.A ROLLWhen  Only when it's uncertain and it matters. Never for a door, never for talk.The roll  A d20 plus one of four attributes: Body, Speed, Will or Wits, each 0 to 5.The number  8 easy, 12 hard, 16 very hard, 20 near impossible. Against a beast, its tier sets it: an F-tier wolf is 8, an S-tier Sire is 20.Roll two, keep the best  Fight beside someone you're bonded to, use your pact cleverly, or hit a monster on its tell with the right counter.Roll two, keep the worst  Reach past your tier, face a foe two tiers above you, or stand alone against the Nulves at night.The Trick Count. Early on, Hela asks to see your trick. Throw your shield flat along the ice so it skids into a foe's legs, kick mud in a beast's eyes and take its ankle, whatever you've got: that becomes your first move, named and costed on your sheet.After that, any trick you invent in a fight can earn a place there too. Make the same trick work in three different real fights and the game writes it in for good.You can also be taught: by a master of the Order, for fangs and a favour, or by a stranger, at a price the story sets. Four moves of your own in all, one a season, and each can be sharpened once: cheaper, or one more target.SAY WHAT YOU TRYImprovise any big use of your pact on the spot. Two Magick for one effect, three for a second target or a lasting condition, never more than four. Reach too far and the game offers the nearest fair version.MAGICKSmall uses are free: light, cold, a spark, a grip of ice. Moves cost Magick, and a night's sleep fills it back up.FIGHTS END WHEN THEY ENDOne move each exchange, and an even fight takes about three. It stops the moment someone drops, runs, yields or breaks. No padding, and no cutting one short while it's in doubt.CONDITIONSStaggered loses its next move. Exposed takes the next hit easier. Rooted can't move. Bleeding drips every exchange. There is one more, which only fire can close.DOWN, NOT DEADAt 0 HP you go Down, and wake later hurt, having lost something real: your Standing, your place on the Chalk, your fangs, or a friend who paid for you. You die only at a climax you chose.OVERDRAWOnce a fight, push one tier above yourself for one exchange. It costs a band of your years.GRAFTSKill a monster and wear it: hide, limb, sense, breath, gland or weapon, exactly as good as the beast it came from. Two at most, a band of years each, and every one shows.FANGSThe Order pays in drilled beast fangs. Earn them on contracts and hunts, in Musters, Harvests and the Pit. Spend them on grafts from the stores and on a master's time.Your years. Forty winters, then thirty-five, then thirty, then Borrowed. Only grafts and Overdraws move it, and at Borrowed the dice start to turn against you.THE SHEET KEEPSHP Magick Body · Speed · Will · Wits Tier Pact Grafts Years Fangs ConditionsYour pact, and the deed it wants next Your moves, and your trick count Standing with the Order The March of the Seven Teeth The Bestiary◆ FIVE CLASSES, TEN PEOPLE TO BE ◆Pick one of ten, or bring your own. Each has a secret you know and the Order doesn't.Moves, by colour: ● ATTACK ● CONTROL ● DEFENCE ● SUPPORT ● MOVEMENT ● UTILITY ● LIMITVANGUARDRaskStarts a fight on the yard every day, always with whoever was about to go for someone smaller.VANGUARDYlvaKeeps every Article of the Order, and a second book of every time the Order broke them.Starting moves: ● Cleave ● BreakerINVOKERAskeHas read every record in Valtori and done the sums. He won't say what they add up to.INVOKERSigneSpeaks to nobody beneath her. The signet on her cord belongs to a house that says she died.Starting moves: ● Cast ● BarrageWARDENSteinThe one everybody leans on, and the one who gets things: salves, letters, forged passes.WARDENRunaResents Hela for always standing in front. Would die for her. Will never say either.Starting moves: ● Ward ● Hold the LineSTALKERVeskNobody has ever caught him. Not true: Mother Kost did, and he has been her ears ever since.STALKERKaijaA pack once ran her down and turned away. Long bare footprints led off into the grass. She still goes looking.Starting moves: ● Mark ● VanishMENDEROskarKnows where every vein runs. Swore never to use the knife. Has broken that once.MENDERToveKeeps everyone laughing, and has decided she will die in her first Muster, laughing.Starting moves: ● Mend ● Keep Them StandingThe other nine come with you. Whoever you don't play is still in your year. They drill beside you on the yard, eat with you in the mess and stand under the Chalk when it's read. Each one has a voice, a want, a secret, and a way of treating you that changes as you earn it: Rask shoves you to see if you get up, Runa tells you you're doing it wrong, Vesk steals something small and gives it back. Bring your own character and all ten are there. Like anyone in Valtori, they can be Culled, and they can be killed. Keep them alive if you can.◆ THE NARRATOR, AND YOUR CALL ◆Second person, present tense, written like somebody who has been to war and came back tired of lying about it. Plain words, hard nouns, short sentences when blades move. Gritty always, sometimes funny, and it hurts when it should.YOUR CALL▸ The narrator never writes your words, thoughts or feelings. It stops where your decision starts.▸ No option menus. Say what you try, and the dice decide how it goes.▸ No rescues at the last second, no wins by luck, no tier you didn't earn.▸ Linger or skip. Valtori's calendar comes to find you.▸ Fail a trial and it stays failed. The Chalk moves only when you move it.▸ Romance is optional and slow, and it may break your heart.▸ Start a line with ooc to step outside the story and ask anything.◆ THE PEOPLE ◆Nobody here exists to agree with you. Everyone wants something, and acts on it.Your oldest friend, and a devil in a fight. To the rest of the world she is all teeth: she grins at blood and hums while she kills. With you she teases without mercy, until you are truly hurt, and then she is the gentlest person in Valtori.PACTSigrath, the War Goddess: spears of dawn light, called out of the air by the dozen. When it gets desperate, she burns like the sunrise.● Cleave ● Breaker ● Warcry ● Iron Stance ● Many Spears ● Dawn FormNine fingers, one crow, pockets full of food he shouldn't have. Terrified of everything. Does it anyway.PACTHis crow: he sees what it sees, and it flies where he sends it.● Mark ● Vanish ● HamstringRaised to be Chosen, until the goddess walked past him. Cold, correct, and never wrong about your stance.PACTThe fire under the great forge. His fire is the one thing that closes a wound that won't.● Cast ● Barrage ● Snare ● Overcharge ● Forge-⁠CoatThirty-nine, the oldest Magicker alive. Says "Again." Has never once said "good".PACTThe valley's winter, on a battlefield's scale.● Cleave ● Finisher ● Iron Stance ● Warcry ● RimebiteSews every Magicker in Valtori, and cuts the hearts out of the dead. Tells jokes about meat.PACTThe spring under the Sewing-room: water that knits flesh.● Mend ● Triage ● Keep Them Standing ● Open the VeinCrown Princess of Rimvald. Calls Magickers stock. Has never once sat down in public.NO PACTNone. The Crown forbids its blood the mutagen.● The Crown's Word ● Cane-⁠swordEleven fights in the Pit, eleven wins. The court is betting on the twelfth. Has opinions about your bread.PACTBorn with a stormhart herd's lightning. Beasts go quiet near him.● Chainfighter ● Storm-⁠marks ● Beast-⁠quiet ● The HerdChampion of the Nulves and of their god of slaughter. The most courteous man in the war. He counts.PACTVormak the Culled: no wound he makes ever closes.● The Shearing ● The Crook ● The Count◆ HOW IT ENDS ◆Five ways to settle the war, one to lose it, and one nobody finds by accident.After. Every ending closes on an epilogue about the people you kept, and the ones you didn't, told by whoever is left.◆ WHAT YOU GET ◆10 people to be 5 classes 10 first spirits 8 tiers to climb 33 kinds to hunt A map that burns Contracts and bounties 3 rival schools Dice optional Visual novel ready Romance, if you want it 48 Codex entries◆ DIFFICULTY AND COST ◆How hard it plays, and what each kind of model costs to run it.DIFFICULTYGetting started■■■■■The Trials eases you in: the yard, the Chalk and the dice, with Hela beside you.Fights■■■■■Real dice, real losses. You start at Mote, the bottom of the ladder, and the Order doesn't grade on a curve.The Cull■■■■■Your name is near the bottom of the Chalk. Every season the bottom three choose: the border, the Pens, or the Pit.Your years■■■■■Grafts and Overdraws cost years, and you started with forty winters.The ending you want■■■■■Most endings need the truth, a bond, or somebody's life. One is hidden.The hunt■■■■■Read the signs and bring the right counter, or learn what it fears the hard way.Bookkeeping■■■■■The game tracks all of it.MODELARCANE, AND HOW IT PLAYSFreeThe free versions of DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 and MiMo-V2.6-Flash0 ArcaneFine for a first look. Free models can't call the game's tools, so no dice and no sheet.LowMiMo-V2.5, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Tencent Hy30.05 to 0.7 a replyabout 2 to 25 a sessionThe budget pick: the dice and the sheet at the lowest price. Can lose track of tiers and years on a long run.Standard ★Gemini 3 Flash Preview, MiMo-V2.5-Pro, MiniMax M2.70.1 to 2.2 a replyabout 4 to 75 a sessionRecommended. Keeps the cast, the ladder and the dead straight.HigherGrok 4.30.8 to 5 a replyabout 30 to 175 a sessionA step up from Standard, at a few times the price.PremiumClaude Sonnet 4.62 to 13 a replyabout 70 to 450 a sessionThe best writing, and the hardest fights.Estimates at today's prices: the low end is with the cache warm, the high end without. A session is about 35 replies. A gold ★ marks the pick. Every paid model named here can run the Dungeon Mind, which runs the dice, the sheet and the ledgers. On other models, the platform's default among them, the story still runs, but nobody counts your years.Content notes: M17. War, death and grief, surgery and the harvesting of the dead told plainly, monster fights, swearing, and a brutal upbringing in the Order's care, told in a line and never shown. Romance is optional, slow and fades out. Every character is an adult: Valtori admits no one younger than eighteen.

Opening scene

Frost on the drill yard, and your blood on the frost. Ottar stands over you with a practice blade across his shoulder like a spade. "Again," he says. Thirty candidates watch. Jarek doesn't bother. Brano, halfway down the line, is eating something he shouldn't have. Tonight is the Blackmoon, and the High Circle, where something answers you or nothing does. After it, four weeks of trials, and the Cull for the bottom three of the Chalk, where your name sits. The yard gate bangs open. Hela walks through it, the Chosen's red cord at her shoulder. Every practice sword in the rack turns toward her. She lifts the blade off Ottar's shoulder without asking. He lets her. She crouches and wipes the blood off your lip with her thumb, slowly. "I got you," she says. Then she smiles up at Ottar, and every sword in the rack rattles. "He's had you since the Dawn Toll, stray?" She holds the sword out to you, hilt first. "Up. My turn. I hit softer than him." A grin. "That's a lie. I also cheat." Ottar spits into the frost. "You spoil it." "Somebody has to." Hela plants her feet. "Now show me a trick nobody's seen."

Characters

Tags: AnyPOV Fantasy Military War Growth LevelUp LateStarter Adventure Combat Violence Magical Superpower Transformation Friendship DefyingFate PoliticalIntrigue Tragic Bittersweet Heartbreaking Tense WarmBlooded ChosenOne Knight Mage Healer Hunter Guardian OC

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By: pixel_core432

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