Harn: AW Session Recap

Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of being a player in a one-shot set in Harn's Orbaal region using the  Apocalypse World rules. While I have been reading up on Harn for a while, this was my first chance to actually participate in a game set on Harn. I have never played core Apocalypse World before, but I have run Dungeon World several times, so I was familiar with the basic rules concepts.

The characters were:

Taebaal: the Valkhar
Bjaal: One of Taebaal's trusted men
Molvid: An extremely mercenary viking (Me)
Waede: A Jorin rebel against the Ivinian occupiers
Fester: A healer
Mycroft: An orphan who seems connected to Waede

Molvid's adventure started while out on a boar hunt with Taebaal and Bjaal. While walking in the woods, he came across Waede, Fester, and Mycroft standing over a dead body laying in the snow. They were armed and there was a crate of swords next to the body.

When questioned, they told Molvid that the dead man had jumped them and that the crate full of swords belonged to their attacker. When Molvid expressed doubt that a man carrying a crate could have jumped them, they bribed him to help them hide the body. Molvid, who had considerable experience hiding bodies, and was never one to pass up a paycheck, agreed. It turned out that they were not as good at hiding crates and were still trying to cover it up when Taebaal and Bjaal wandered into the clearing.

Suspicious, Taebaal asks Waede to talk to him privately. He tells Waede that it is very important that they find ways to stimulate the town's economy and that he is worried that Waede might be up to something that would hurt his chances of doing that. Waede assures him that he is not and promises to keep his eyes open for good business opportunities.

With Taeball and Ball preoccupied with Waede, Fester and Mycroft saw their chance to make off with the crate. They picked it up and headed back to town. Taebaal dismissed Waede (who also heads back to town), and comes back into the clearing. He orders Bjaal to search the clearing and Movie watched him with one foot resting on the body buried in the snow. Bjaal found nothing out of place and Taebaal, Bjaal, and Molvid head back to the hunt. The hunting party never finds any boar, but does manage to kill a good sized deer.

After stashing the weapons in town, Mycroft and Fester head back to the woods to get the body. They determine that they cannot fit it in the sack they have without chopping it up. At some point during this Fester decides to put a holy symbol around the corpse's neck, but accidentally uses the wrong one (I'll be honest, I did not know enough about the setting to follow this subtlety). When they try to start the job, the body starts moving and fighting back. The zombie grabbed Mycroft by the neck and started choking him. Fester tries to grab the holy symbol off of the zombies neck, but fails and it grabs him by the throat as well. Mycroft passes out from a lack of oxygen and Fester manages to yank the holy symbol off the zombies, which collapses into a heap.

Meanwhile, Taebaal, Bjaal, and Molvid have made their way back to town and are headed to the keep. As they walk through the square, they see Waede and Three-Fingered Pete (one of the NPC rebels) carrying the crate of swords. Pete drops his end of the box and takes off running, only to have Bjaal drop him with his enormous crossbow after only a few feet.

Waede runs into the nearby stables and steals a horse. Ball tries to shoot him as he rides off, but the horse bumps his arm and he shoots Taebaal by accident. Molvid, always looking for an opportunity to make a display, rushes over to check on Taebaal as Waede gets away. While checking Taebaal, Molvid calls for his crew to assemble.

Fester, recovered from being choked by a zombie, performs Touched By Death on Mycroft and inserts a message into the world's psychic maelstrom for Taebaal that the dead have risen. He then wakes Mycroft and heads back to town. The message wakes Taebaal up and, despite being injured, he calls for a security meeting in the keep. Once in his offices, he tells Bjaal and Molvid that he has been under pressure by the counsel to remarry after the death of his third wife and that this is difficult given the current state of his finances. He also tells us that he had a vision that the dead have risen and he thinks that Waede is at the center of this and recent rebel activity. He orders Bjaal to track down Waede and Molvid to take his men and comb the forest for undead.

Waede rides away from the keep into the village proper and ditches the horse and his cloak by giving them to a kid, who rides away wearing the cloak. He makes his way to the home of Talia, a baker who is sympathetic to the rebels, and a ruthless assassin herself. She agrees to hide him in the rafters of her home.

Meanwhile, Bjaal has taken several of Taebaal's men into the village to find Waede. As the enter town, they see a figure, that appears to be Waede, riding away on a horse. Bjaal shoots the horse, breaking the kids leg in the fall. Bjaal orders his men to start tossing the town and to burn Waede's house. Some of his men find and arrest Fester as they make their way through the village.

With Waede's house burning, Bjaal orders his man to ransack the nearby baker's shop. Waede hears this order and rolls out into the street. Seeing that he has no chance for escape, he calls out for the villagers to rise up and revolt against the tyranny of Taebaal's unjust rule. The villagers had already made plans that night and it is not a good time for them. Surrounded, Waede surrenders.

Molvid has moved his men into the woods to begin the search. Keenly aware of the tenuous hold he has over his crew of drunken, bloodthirsty, raiders, Molvid decides not to tell them that they are looking for undead. Instead, he tells them that they are looking for rebels or anything else unusual. It isn't long before they come across Mycroft preparing to burn the body in the clearing.

As they approach, Mycroft tells them that he is burning a zombie. Molvid, feeling his control of the situation slipping away, orders his men to spread out and search the clearing for other undead. Hrothgar, one of his men, protests, but Molvid manages to shout him down. While Molvid's men are searching the clearing, Mycroft has a vision of an old man in a cape kneeling in the snow. He believes that this old man is the source of the undead. Once the body is burned, Mycroft and Molvid return to the keep.

For the finale, everyone is assembled at the keep. Fester is tending to the Valkhar's wound when Molvid and Mycroft enter and announce that they have burned the undead. Wen questioned, Mycroft says that he got a look at the man who created the undead, but he got away. He does not think that the man will be making more undead anytime soon.

Satisfied that there is no imminent threat of undead invasion, Taebaal turns his attention to Waede, asking him what the destination for the weapons was.

Waede attempts to convince the Valkhar that he wasn't doing anything wrong and that he was just moving weapons from one storage place to another. Taebaal does not believe him and orders everyone but Waede to leave the room. Everyone but Fester waits in the Hal outside, he heads back into town to tend to the injured child. On his way out, he sees an old man in a white cloak approaching the keep.

Inside his offices, Taebaal offers to let Waede off the hook if he gives up his co-conspirators and cuts him in for 50% of whatever he makes. Waede agrees and gives up a few fishermen as being traitors. Taebaal announces that he needs to focus on the undead problem and dismisses Waede.

Out in the hall, the old man enters and Mycroft identifies him as the man who made the undead. Molvid, seeing a chance to prove his loyalty with little risk to himself, orders the old man to stop. The old man sneers and tells us that he is here to kill the Valkhar, but then names the previous Valkhar instead of Taebaal. Mycroft informs him that the man he is looking for is dead.

At this point, Taebaal enters the room and the old man points at him and says, "The responsibility has passed to you." He draws his sword and begins to approach the Valkhar while praying.

Bjaal tackles him and begins struggling with him for control of the sword. Mycroft, seeing that Bjaal is having trouble, tries to kick the sword, but winds up getting a deep slash in his leg. Molvid, seeing another opportunity, jumps between the struggle and the Vlkhar to "protect" him. Finally, Bjaal manages to get control of the sword, but gets stabbed in the process.

Once the old man is under control, Taebaal asks him what "responsibility" he is talking about. The old man says that the previous Valkhar took his Lyria from him. The characters recognize Lyria as the name of one of the previous Valkhar's wives who died during childbirth 10 years ago. The old man says that he was charged with protecting her.

Taebaal asks him how he can make it right and the old man tells him that he can die. Taebaal, recognizing the old man as a Lyranian priest, orders him killed. The old man warns that if he is killed, he will come back stronger. Molvid runs him through and he is given a viking funeral.

Three nights later, the dead rise and choke Taebaal in his keep. Molvid bravely runs away.