The Forgotten
The day wears on…
The sodden ground stretches in seemingly every direction. Towards midday, we notice stones jutting from the water to either side: cairns, half-dissembled by time and rot. These are the grave markers of some unknown souls, lost to the Mire’s hunger.
Stopping to rest, we examine one of them. Many of the stones are carved with a strange, horned face, grinning and mischievous. Some forgotten god, perhaps?
As we examine the deity’s grinning smile, it seems to command us, deep in our minds. “Remember,” it whispers. “Remember my servants, who died in this place…”
The Challenge
The Forgotten challenges you to remember those who perished here.
Do not shuffle the deck.
As a party, scan through all the cards in the deck so that you know roughly what cards are there.
Then, WITHOUT SHUFFLING, place the deck back facedown. You may not look at the deck again.
Clockwise starting with the Reader, travellers now take it in turns to try and remember the cards in the pile, following this order: suit, value, name. Play goes thus:
The Reader goes first by declaring — from memory — the suit of the top card. The Reader then flips over the top card. If the Reader’s declaration was correct, place the correctly-declared card to one side. This card is ‘won’. If the Reader’s declaration was incorrect, discard the wrongly-declared card.
Play then continues to the left. If the Reader’s declaration was correct, then the second traveller must declare the value of the second card before flipping it over. If the Reader’s declaration was wrong, the second traveller must once again try to declare the suit. As before, if the declaration is correct, the card is won; if the declaration is wrong, discard the card.
Once a value has been successfully declared, travellers must then declare the name of a card before flipping.
Once a card’s name has been successfully declared, the cycle starts again from suit to name.
Play continues in this pattern (suit/value/name) until the entire deck is depleted.
Success. If the travellers successfully declare six cards before the deck runs out, the Challenge is passed.
Failure. If the travellers correctly declare fewer than six cards before the deck runs out, the Challenge is failed.
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If the Challenge was passed, the last traveller to make a successful declaration wins the Blessing of the Forgotten.
If the Challenge was failed, all travellers suffer the Curse of the Forgotten. If this is the party's third Curse, click here.
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When a spirit is displeased by the party, it will lay its Curse upon them. Curses have dire consequences. The more Curses a party gathers, the more lives will be claimed in the Heart of the Wood. Furthermore, if a party incurs three Curses, the Wood's spirits will reject them and they will be forced to flee for their lives, ending the game.
When you incur a Curse, place it in a designated area of the table so that all travellers are aware of it.
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————As we walk on, the grave markers grow sparser. Eventually, we see no more. But we hear the voice at our backs, an ever-present whisper.
“Remember my servants, who died in this place…”
Re-form the deck before continuing.