Update 3: Shadows in the Ice
EJ: Welcome back to Winterstrike! We’re now solidly in the early game, where we’ll be drawing random cards until we develop a strong enough faction allegiance to advance to the midgame. As I’m composing this update in Notepad, we may get through more than three of them this time, especially as we will shortly be getting a lot of repeats. This is one of the things I like less about Winterstrike; there aren’t quite enough storylets for each stage of the game to not get a bit repetitive. But you guys will get to skip over a lot of that.
Indeed, the first card we draw today is one we’ve seen before:
A children’s game
A small group of children are playing a game with dice, and brittle dolls, and a circle stamped into the snow.
EJ: Thanks to our encounter with the would-be thief earlier, a new option is open to us now:
The children’s laughter cheers you, and you have an extra trifle in your pockets that they might appreciate on this cold afternoon. [You need 1 x Evanescent Treat (you have 1)]
As you distribute the candies, you spot a foxfolk man in a long dark coat watching you warily from a nearby balcony. After a moment, he seems to decide you mean the children no harm, but he continues to watch as long as you are there. The children, for their part, are busy swapping candies based on their flavor: honey-rose, grape-of-glory, comet-apple.
You’ve lost 1 x Evanescent Treat (new total 0).
EJ: Foxfolk are mentioned occasionally in this game, but we don’t get a lot of information on what their deal is and if we’re actually talking anthropomorphic foxes or what. From some of Lee’s other work I’ve gotten the impression he’s fond of gumiho, which may be an influence here. Anyway, next card!
A moment’s birdsong
The ironbird has been flitting in and out of your company, but now, as you pass beneath an arch curtained with sheets of blue-pale ice, you hear it singing a tinsel melody that scratches at your memory.
Perhaps the music is a message of some sort, if you listen more closely.
More than the fact of its music-making, the marks the ironbird leaves in its wake intrigue you.
If the creature wants your attention, you are all too happy to give it. You lead it to a quiet side street, obscured by a snow of crazed pixels from some malfunctioning video display and masses of twisted metal, and speak lowly and reassuringly to it.
The ironbird might be looking for a very direct form of sustenance. And it’s not like a little blood loss will hurt you.
Playing this option will cost 5 Nex and earn you 10x Ironbird’s Regard. An Ironbird’s Regard of 10 or more will open an additional option towards the end of the game.
EJ: As with the spaceship, none of these options requires stats or resources, so feel free to let me know what you’d like to see. For now, we’ll go with the first option:
The song skirls up and down, down and up, as faithless as the wind. But you swear that you’ve heard it before, in some crevice of your childhood. It takes you a little longer to realize that the percussive sounds that the ironbird is actually making and the melody that you’re hearing in your head do not match up.
You now have 1 x Dubious Omen.
EJ: Our next card is new as well:
A run-in with a delegation of thorns
It’s only natural that you should approach them cautiously. Meaning that they shouldn’t see you at all. Who knows what you’ll learn? (A chancy challenge – Your Finesse quality gives you a 60% chance of success)
Why not join the feast? You are confident of your ability to charm the revelers with the fact of your presence.
Playing this option will get you 20x Brittle Rumor. [THIS BRANCH IS NOW FREE TO PLAY]
From your glimpses of them, the revelers are are [sic] eclectic in their dress and habits. It shouldn’t be too difficult to walk among them and put your deft fingers to work. (A very chancy challenge – Your Finesse quality gives you a 50% chance of success)
The glint from a star-dagger warns you that someone is coming out to challenge you. Easy enough to slip away, but sometimes a moment’s dispute is good for warming the blood. (A tough challenge – Your Force quality gives you a 40% chance of success)
EJ: We’ll take the easier Finesse challenge for now:
You forgot to account for the way the pervasive ice reflects everything, wrapping the world in subtle mirrors. One of the revelers spots the shadow of your passage and calls out a greeting, or more likely a challenge. You retreat before he can force you into a confrontation.
Finesse 3 failed in a challenge!
Finesse has increased to 4!
EJ: … and still fail. But hey, at least we gained a point in the stat! Next up is another new card, unfortunately one more geared towards currying favor with the Circle of Bullets (we haven’t seen any of the Architects of Ink ones yet).
Gunfire games
This used to be a outdoors theater for pixel puppeteers. At the moment, however, two people—undoubtedly members of the notorious Circle of Bullets—are using it for a duel while several people watch.
This game intrigues you. One of the watchers, a youth who fairly thrums with nervous energy, might make an appropriate opponent for a newcomer. (A high-risk challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 30% chance of success)
If you’re going to involve yourself in the duels, you want to make sure you have a worthy opponent. One of the men carries himself with the air of a seasoned fighter. He’s the one you are determined to approach.
Playing this option will get you 3x Caught in the Circle of Bullets and 10x Oddment of Honor. [THIS BRANCH IS NOW FREE TO PLAY]
The sport of dueling has never sat well with you. Time for a little mischief. (A chancy challenge – Your Finesse quality gives you a 60% chance of success)
Some people are here watching, despite the dangers in such an endeavor, but no one seems to have noticed a woman trying to make her way out of the area. A bullet sings over her head and she cringes. You’d like to get her to safety.
EJ: Dueling is another thing Lee seems fascinated by; it figures heavily in his Machineries of Empire series, albeit there it’s with magical swords. Anyway, I think that after failing that last challenge, Rosal deserves a little break, so instead of throwing them at the chancy Finesse challenge again, I’m going to take the last option:
Hurriedly, you make your way to the woman and escort her to shelter behind a wall. She smiles tremulously at you before heading off toward something resembling safety.
You now have 1 x Oddment of Honor.
EJ: If we had any Ice this would also have removed some. Speaking of which…
Shadows in the iceA single column stands in what used to be a gathering square of some sort; its fellows lie fallen, with rubble in the shapes of withered flowers. A pane of ice descends at an angle from the side of the column.
The ironbird seems especially interested in the ice. You wonder what has drawn its eye.
You don’t need your companion’s interest to see that there are shapes within the ice. Ill-defined shadows, growing better-defined even as you watch. [LOCKED – You need Ice 5]
It’s cold here. Very cold. But you don’t find that uncongenial.
Playing this option will get you 20x Dubious Omen. [THIS BRANCH IS NOW FREE TO PLAY] [LOCKED – You need Ice 15]
EJ: There’s only one thing we can do here, so…
If you squint you can almost see shadows in the ice, but they take no form that you recognize. You could almost swear that the ironbird’s wire-scratch song is causing tiny crystals of frost to accrete on the pane’s surface, however.
You’ve gained 1 x Dubious Omen (new total 2).
EJ: This next one’s kind of an interesting card for the way we’ve been playing so far:
An invitation to duelThe Circle wishes to extend to you an opportunity to duel.
It’s no secret that the Ocular Guard disapproves strongly of the Circle’s duels. You could report the matter to them.
You don’t wish to duel at this time—wrong phase of the moon, wrong time of the year, something—but you indicate your interest in observing one, so you know how things work. (A high-risk challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 30% chance of success)
The opponent who wishes to challenge you is a dark-skinned woman. Her eyes hold the light of devastated moons. (An almost impossible challenge – Your Resolve quality gives you a 10% chance of success) [LOCKED – You need Resolve 2 (you have 1); You need 5 x Oddment of Honor (you have 1)]
EJ: So far, most cards we’ve seen have had options that check several different skills, but this one’s all Resolve. We do have the out of narking on the duelists, but we’re not trying to cultivate a relationship with the Ocular Guard, so let’s take a wild risk:
Success!
The Circle approves your interest and arranges for you to witness an exchange of gunfire between two men, one flamboyant in red—if it weren’t for the fact of human blood, it would be hard to believe the color still existed in Iria—and the other in shades of green-black. The former uses a gun that flashes red-gold, the latter a plain affair that flings shockmetal bullets. You are given to understand that only senior duelists have the privilege of using their own weapons.
The man in red proves the victor. It is over very quickly, although you have to admire that bit of tricky shooting through a crumpled railing.
The duelmaster, a graying swanfolk woman, approves of your interest in the Circle’s customs. “Only the habits of the duel matter,” she tells you, “when everything else in the world goes awry.”
Resolve has increased to 3!
You succeeded in a Resolve challenge! (Risky challenges mean you learn more.)
You now have 1 x Spark of Camaraderie.
EJ: … Oh hey, I wasn’t expecting that one to work. This is good, though, because while this game definitely expects you to focus on a single high stat, it’s best not to totally neglect the others.
And I think I should probably call it here. I had been hoping to draw the spaceship card again so I could pick up the Shipshard Mirror as requested by Draconis, or to draw anything related to the Architects of Ink at all, please, but the RNG gods decided it was not to be. Before we go, let’s take a quick look at Rosal’s current stats:
Our story stats haven’t changed, but we do have some additions to our inventory:
2 x Dubious Omen: Sometimes the universe likes to mutter to itself. Sometimes you can’t help overhearing.
1 x Spark of Camaraderie: A candle-moment’s warmth in a frozen city.
1 x Oddment of Honor: You impressed someone with your adherence to a code. Perhaps not your own, but a code.
EJ: We also still have the Petaled Key, 1 x Memory of Far-Flung Stars, 1 x Fleeting Merriment, and of course the ironbird.
On which subject, I also have a question for you all to loosely guide Rosal’s choices as we continue:
- We should trust it implicitly.
- We should be cautious; try to learn more, but not let our guard down.
- We should try to get rid of it as soon as possible.