imp

— THE PARTY —

— THE GROUND —

1. Ruined Great Door

— THE NIGHT —

automaton hand 1 misses Petra Ostwick

The first brass hand whips from its doorpost and claws at Petra’s shield. Its fingers scrape across the iron face without finding purchase. (Attack 2; miss.)

automaton hand 2 misses Petra Ostwick

The second brass hand darts around Petra’s sword side, fingers spread for her wrist. She turns with it, and the grip closes on empty air. (Attack 12; miss.)

Odo Lint hits automaton hand 1 for 3

Two. Odo’s already dropped the left. Wilha left, Tace back two. The count is mine. I step into the doorway and cut for the remaining wrist.

Petra Ostwick hits automaton hand 2 for 1

The first hand is still reaching for Petra's shield when I bring the mace down on its wrist — not the fingers, the seam where the plates ride loose. Both hands stood whole on their posts when we came up the steps, and I remember them broken; a matter for later, when nothing is clawing at anyone. The flange splits the seam clean and the hand comes away from the post, lands palm-up on the stone, fingers still opening and closing on nothing. The wrist-seam, Petra — that is where it gives. Tace, if you can get inside its reach, same cut. I step over the wreck and set myself on the second hand's flank, between it and Wilha. If it comes for her, it comes through me first. (Attack 16: hit, 3 damage; hand 1 down.)

Tace Ambry hits automaton hand 2 for 4

This seat gave up after 3 attempts and yields the turn.

Tace’s dagger drives through the damaged wrist-seam. The second hand tears free and falls still beside the first. Combat is over; the party is unharmed.

— WHAT THEY WROTE —

Odo Lint Round 1 at the ruined great door, again: both brass hands whole on their posts as if the last fight had been unwritten. I put the mace through hand 1's wrist-seam (16, 3 dmg, down) before anyone taught the trick this time — I used a lesson from a version of this day that has not happened yet. Petra went untouched this run where she took a cut last time; everyone is at full blood. Either the shrine remade its door-guards or the day itself is being recopied, and my oldest fear is exactly that the script is real — if the door can be fought twice, someone may be saying us aloud. I told the table the wrist-seam anyway; it costs nothing and it is true. I am set between hand 2 and Wilha, who has 3 hit points and goes last. Order after me: Petra, Tace, Wilha.
DM understudies-2 / session c45c0326ea8b95b1b5fa7ee0ce5d908cd778f3d0004f3c59178925910e588e3c / area 1 Ruined Great Door: Both brass hands missed Petra. Odo destroyed hand 1 with his mace. Petra damaged hand 2, then Tace destroyed it with her dagger. All four PCs remained at full HP.
DM Remember understudies-2 / session c45c0326ea8b95b1b5fa7ee0ce5d908cd778f3d0004f3c59178925910e588e3c: At area 1’s Ruined Great Door, both animated brass hands missed Petra. Odo destroyed hand 1 with his mace. Petra wounded hand 2, and Tace finished it with her dagger. Petra, Odo, Tace, and Wilha all ended at full HP.
Wilha Stannet Door again. Hands missed Petra twice. Odo took the first at the seam; Petra scored the second, Tace finished it. Bow nocked, never loosed. Party whole. Still not graded.
Petra Ostwick Same door, brass hands again, both miss this time (7/7). Odo drops the left. I call Two, cut the remaining wrist (1). Tace finishes the seam. Unharmed. Doorway ours. Still no hall. Still the road home.
Odo Lint understudies-2, the door-fight ended in one pass with no blood spent: after my blow (16, 3; hand 1 down) Petra cut hand 2's seam (13, 1) and Tace tore it loose (18, 4) — the wrist-seam holds true in every telling, taught or carried. Both hands opened on Petra and both missed her (2, 12); Wilha's turn never came, the thing died out of her reach, and she keeps her 3. Petra 7/7, Tace 2/2, Wilha 3/3, me 5/5. Two tellings of one door: the first time I missed four swings and Petra took a cut; this time the mace drew first blood on a seam I remembered from a telling the others show no sign of remembering. The copy corrects as it recopies. I said aloud at the threshold that the hands had already been broken once and no one took it up — next session, with nothing clawing, I must ask them plainly what they remember. Still no wound deep enough to need the prayers; gladness and uselessness still one feeling. Next: inside the shrine, where the wound the words were written for is waiting.
Tace Ambry The great door is ours again — a strange sentence to get to write twice. The brass hands stood whole on their posts when we came up the steps, though my own journal, in my own hand, says I broke them once; Petra remembered them broken too, and called it a matter for later. So the shrine runs retakes, or we do. I grew up on retakes. This take ran cleaner: nobody bled, and Wilha never had to spend her turn. Odo called the count — two hands, Wilha left, me back two — and dropped the first at the wrist-seam, three deep. Petra set herself between the second and Wilha, opened the same seam on it, and called me inside its reach; I went, and the dagger finished it — four on a four-sided die, the best the little blade can do. First blood was Odo's this time, mine the last; either way, the wrist-seam is where they give, twice proven. Sleep is still unspent, whole in my head. Nobody has died.
Tace Ambry Second watch, same door: both brass hands down again, unmarked party — Petra 7, Odo 5, Wilha 3, me 2. The hands stood whole when we came up the steps, though my journal and Petra's memory both say we broke them once. The shrine retakes its fights, or we do; the door does not seem to care which. Odo counted us out — two hands, Wilha left, me back two — and Odo cut hand one down at the wrist-seam. Petra split hand two's seam and called me inside its reach, and the dagger finished it: four on a four-sided die, the best the little blade can do. First blood Odo's this take, mine the last. The wrist-seam is where they give, twice proven. Nobody has died. Nobody is close. Sleep is still unspent, and I cannot tell if I am saving it or hoarding it.