Se7en Sagas

Zelik has just told Roderic that he knew more than he admitted. Roderic hasn’t denied it. The reed beds sigh around them. The corpse is still. The relic weighs on Zelik’s hip like a stone dropped in deep water.

Zelik reads people. That is what he does. He will read Roderic now, before trusting him with another word.

As an action, Zelik studies Roderic carefully, his posture, his hands, his eyes, trying to determine what this man knows, what he fears, and where his loyalty actually sits.

No one’s integrity is in any danger, Zelik is only trying to assert Roderick’s posture, so no Effort spend is needed; I draw:

DRAW:

• Answer: Maybe — and one you did not trust steps to your side
• Difficulty Rating: 7
• Event: Rain begins to fall softly and masks your footsteps
• Descriptor: Lantern light flickers against wet stone
• Item: A lantern with a flickering blue flame
• Emotion: Tormented
• Wild Card: Warhorse refuses to cross an unseen line
• Supernatural: Ghostly procession crosses the road ahead

INTERPRETING THE CARD:

The Answer says Maybe, and one you did not trust steps to your side. Roderic is not an enemy. He moves closer. But the Maybe means this alignment is incomplete, uncertain, conditional.

The Emotion is Tormented. Whatever this man carries, it is not simple.

The Event — rain falling softly, masking footsteps — suggests the world is quietly shifting in Zelik’s favour without anyone choosing it.

The Wild Card — a warhorse refusing to cross an unseen line — I fold into the scene as atmosphere. Something nearby is already asserting a boundary.

The Supernatural procession I note in my journal as a future omen, not yet played.

WHAT HAPPENED — interpreted from the cards:

Roderic does not confess. He does not explain. But when I say nothing and simply watch him, something in his posture changes. He takes one step closer. The Maybe of the Answer means I cannot fully trust this, but the step is real.

The rain begins. Soft, steady, tapping the reeds around us. I notice a lantern behind him burning with a flame that is the wrong colour, too blue, too still for the wet air around it.

His face is tormented. That is what the card gives me and that is what I read. Not guilty, not calculating. Tormented, which is a different and more interesting thing. Whatever sits between Roderic and this chapel and this relic, it has been sitting there a long time.

He has not told me anything. But he has stepped to my side. And the warhorse somewhere on the causeway ahead has planted its feet at a line no rider can see.

I have no idea where this will take me, but I know the future is in the cards – literally.

Be sure to follow next time for Zelik’s mythic chivalry adventures.

March is your’s truly’s birthday, so I’m offering a special 20% discount on all Se7en Sagas’ titles on DriveThruRpg, all through the month. If you end up buying anything, for which I’ll be forever grateful, be sure to leave a comment, a review, or a rating, as that helps me reach a wider audience.

I’m putting the finishing touches on the layout of Blood of the Irminsul, a folk horror adventure for Durandal. Expect political tension alongside horrific sites and incomprehensible ancient beings; I’m hoping to release it before March ends. And I’m slowly writing the Durandal mega-campaign, hopefully to be released before the year ends. My plans for releasing a new title or short adventure each month were way too ambitious.

That said… What is The Scar City? The city remembers differently.

Best,
-Rui