Chương 20: Keep-away

The carriage rolled on. Outside, Foxhill could be heard humming loudly into the wind. It took Jordan a second to realize—with unexpected delight—that the tune was Canyon's portion from last night's jam session. The Pathfinder must have really liked that chorus, and Jordan couldn't blame him.

"Focus." Inside, the passengers had started on an improvisation of an entirely different sort.

"Tell me more about how these ability checks present. What have you passed or failed so far?"

"Well, there was this one time I tried really hard to refuse someone's generous offer of help, and failed. Long story," Jordan added upon seeing the twitch of Canyon's eyes.

"One time I helped a girl overcome some self-esteem issues… well, maybe 'overcome' is a strong word. Had a nice healthy conversation with her, anyway. Then right after that, I failed to convince a Ranger to go against his imperial orders."

"You… seem to have led an interesting life, Mr Gatekeeper. Perhaps I ought to Chronicle you, after all."

"Tell me about it. All that happened in the first two days, mind you." Canyon's eyebrows disappeared from the rectangle.

"The first two days of…?"

"Of… me being here in Featherift." Jordan had almost said'showing up inside Vesselia'. That was a conversation he wasn't quite ready for.

"Of course," Canyon said, though her eyebrows stayed up a while longer.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, I…" Jordan stopped himself again. Going by chronological order, he would've come up on his encounter with Canyon herself—how he'd sweet-talked her into a ride share. He thought it best to omit this detail, for obvious reasons.

"I, er, convinced Foxhill to play his fiddle. Bet you didn't think there was any funny business behind that! Then the latest check was a failure. Trying to jump on that Grandelope." Canyon frowned.

"What of the other failure?"

"Hm?"

"You said you'd failed two checks in a row, leading to imminent escalation. What was the other failure?"

"Oh." Jordan blushed as he mumbled the answer, "It happened when I was digging for the Gland just now. I got super grossed out and almost gave up. Thought I could hold it together, but evidently not." Canyon made no comment. Jordan wasn't sure if he was grateful for that or not. He watched as his companion put a hand to the approximate location of her chin, apparently deep in thought.

"It seems to me these checks present themselves when you're at a crossroads of sorts. The easy though not necessarily satisfying solution versus the more difficult yet potentially more rewarding challenge. Would you say that's accurate?"

"Yeah."

"And that reward has to be significant. Whether it be retaining your sense of pride, helping a friend in need, or just wanting to hear some good music… you must really want that potential outcome in order for it to be worth a check. Agree?"

"Yes. Completely." Jordan was genuinely impressed by how quickly and succinctly Canyon had gotten to the heart of the matter.

"Interesting. Perhaps the mechanism isn't as simple as I'd initially assumed." Canyon then appeared to freeze. Another half a minute or so passed in silence, then…

"What we need is to manufacture a scenario with a strongly desired outcome. Then insert an obstacle that could be tackled in multiple ways, with at least one such option being difficult enough to warrant testing one of your attributes. Does that make sense?"

"Sure, but how do we do that exactly?"

"We've got all this time on the road. Let us figure it out together. And let us start simple. What do you, Jordan, want more than anything else in the world right now?"

"A shower."

"Understandable, but clearly unfeasible for our purpose. Name something else."

"Wait, you know what a shower —uh, never mind. Hmm, something else. I guess I wouldn't mind an overworld map? Or maybe a quest marker to point me to the next sensible source of mana."

"You speak with peculiar combinations of words. Perhaps you aren't exactly lying about being a Westerner. I wouldn't pretend to know what a'quest marker' is, but—" Canyon bent to rummage in her luggage. After a moment, she produced a rolled-up scroll, mounted in decorative silk.

"—I do happen to have this map of Stormvast, charted by the great cartographer Horst Rampart back during the Grandroot Dynasty. It's something of a family heirloom, but I am willing to part with it in the interest of this… experiment."

"Really? But that's so generous."

"My reward for the generosity is an interesting topic of study. It's a small price to pay for a Chronicler on the road. Now, do you want it or not?" A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"You're, what, just going to give it to me?"

"Why don't you try and find out?" Jordan reached for the scroll, but Canyon snatched it back. He tried to stretch his arm, only for her to pull it back further. He then straightened in his seat and tried again. Same result.

"I see what this is," he said softly, even as a sly smile crept onto his face.

"How badly do you want the map, Jordan?" Canyon's expression was unreadable, but Jordan thought he could hear a reflection of the same smile.

"You'll have to try harder than that." Jordan did try, though it quickly became clear that 'harder' wasn't the solution. Canyon sat to his right, which made things awkward with his right arm in a sling. He had to all but stand up in the cabin to extend his reach. The task was, surprisingly enough, physically demanding. After several more fruitless attempts, Jordan found himself panting slightly and sweating into his tunic. Although… that might've had more to do with the cabin itself having grown warmer.

As for Canyon, she merely held the scroll above her head, eyes serene inside their rectangle. Strength DC 13: failure Zhurong:"Stop faffing about and apply yourself! This should be as taking candied hawthorn from a babe!" Charisma DC 13: success N üwa: "I bid you ignore the meathead, lordlet. I shudder to imagine what they mean by 'apply yourself' in this context." Canyon has offered up her map of Stormvast, but only if you can snatch it from her person. Will you …

1) Go back to talking things out like you had been a minute ago. You know, like adults. Save that keep-away nonsense for the next time you're over at your cousin's and playing with their kids. 2) [Dexterity DC 8 (Easy)] You've got this idea. A trick you can pull off only in your current state. Could be dumb. Definitely childish. But you've just got to try it out. [Favorable: DEX modifier (+2). Your clumsy attempts so far have lulled Canyon into a false sense of security (Advantage).] [Adverse: [Doom Spiral (Lv. 1)] (-1). You've tried candied hawthorn before, and gotta say, you're not a fan (-1).] Well, Canyon's method had worked. What had started as fairly innocuous small talk had somehow evolved into an ability check. Now, it was up to Jordan to stick the landing. 2) Try a sleight of arm. Dexterity DC 8 Rolls (Advantage): 1, 3 Final: 3 Result: failure Incredible. Even with the [Advantage] on his side, Jordan only managed to roll a nat 1 and yet another 3.

If he didn't believe in curses before, he might have to start now. As for the sleight of arm… Jordan began by reaching up for the scroll. Canyon brought it down to her waist, even as a soft giggle escaped her scarf. Jordan followed with an exaggerated zigzag motion, taking away the upward escape route, herding the scroll to Canyon's left side… Which just so happened to be next to Jordan's right, injured arm. With one decisive movement, he ripped his arm out of its sling and made a grab for the scroll. He got it!

His trickery—his sheer stupidity—had caught the keeper-awayer completely off guard. But the sudden force of the movement had also caught himself off balance. Jordan fell forward— into Canyon. He stopped himself just in time, by slamming his free hand onto the cabin door. Outside, Foxhill stopped his humming.

"You kids alright in there?"" Yes!" the 'kids' shouted in unison, their faces inches away from each other. Then they both giggled at the same time, which quickly turned into full-blown laughter. Or it would have, were it not for—" Ow!" Jordan jumped back in a flash and looked at his right arm in alarm. His worst fears were confirmed. Somewhere between all the zigzagging, sling-ditching, and nearly-fall-into-each-other-ing, the union of his bones had come undone.

The forearm looked to be unnaturally bent—broken anew.

"Ah, fuck," Jordan swore in fluent Earthling. The pain was already bad, and it would get worse soon.

"This is the result of yet another failed roll."

"You failed the check? Was it very difficult, then?" Jordan shook his head.

"Nah, just really shitty luck. I guess this means my [Doom Spiral] is only going to get worse… and to be honest, I kind of deserve it." Affliction escalated. [Doom Spiral (Lv. 1) -> (Lv. 2)]: (-2) penalty to all rolls until the Affliction is cured. Cure one stack of [Doom Spiral] by succeeding on three consecutive rolls. Three consecutive rolls per stack, which meant Jordan was at minimum six successes away from curing the Affliction altogether. He had to wonder if he'd ever be rid of this damn thing. Careful …

unless you want to 'doom spiral' for real. The system wasn't done. On this occasion, it seemed to be in an especially punishing mood. Affliction incurred. [The Curse of Threes]: Some traditions believe that everyone has their personal unlucky number. Well, today's your lucky day, because you've just found yours! Automatically fail any ability check where you roll a 3. Cure the affliction by rolling any number other than 3 on three consecutive checks. Just wonderful.

Jordan couldn't imagine how this day could get any worse. Oh, but it could and it did. Starting with the angry, throbbing pain in his freshly re-broken— CANYON of AMBER LAKE cast: Set Bone. … The pain went away. Jordan bulged his eyes in astonishment as he first looked at his arm—perfectly straight once more—then at Canyon, whose otherwise serene eyes now shone with twinkling embers.

"I [Copied] Foxhill's spell when he cast it on you earlier. I thought… just in case. And it turns out I was right."

"But how? The log didn't show anything! Do you… have some kind of Feat that lets you stealth- cast your spells?" By way of answer, Canyon brought an index finger to the scarf that covered her lips.

"I suppose you now know something about me, too."