The Strongman
The day wears on…
Pits of bubbling mud dot the bog, the stinking marsh gas rising to the sky. We watch our step, skirting the worst of them, lest we slip and become yet another ingredient in the Mire’s eternal cauldron.
Our luck runs out when we come to a particularly large pond. Someone has slung a decrepit bridge across the bog, only for age to wear a great hole in the planks’ centre. As we eye the tattered bridge warily, a voice calls to us. A muscled man wearing a builder’s apron grins at us from the bridge’s far side.
“Ho! What holds you? Think you little of my bridge?” When we explain to the man our misgivings, he guffaws — a great, booming laugh that echoes uneasily over the bog. “Putrid weakness! That gap is but a small one! Will none of you lay down your bodies for your fellows?”
The Challenge
The Strongman urges us to bridge the gap with our own bodies. Travellers must compete for his favour by outlasting their fellows in a contest of strength.
Set a stopwatch for one minute.
All travellers prepare a plank position.
Travellers count down from three. On the count of zero, start the stopwatch. All travellers must now attempt to hold a plank for as long as possible.
If a traveller prefers, rather than hold a plank, they may instead opt to predict which traveller will win.
When the last traveller fails, stop the stopwatch. That traveller wins.
Success. If the time on the stopwatch exceeds one minute, the Challenge is passed.
Failure. If all travellers are eliminated before one minute passes, the Challenge is failed.
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If the Challenge is passed, the last traveller to be eliminated receives the Blessing of the Strongman.
If the Challenge is failed, the party suffers the Curse of the Strongman. If this is the party's third Curse, click here.
If any travellers correctly predicted the winner, the predicting traveller may gain an additional Item: a CROWBAR. Find an object in the room to represent your new Item.
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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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————Breathing heavily, we make it to the other side. Now closer, we see that the man’s eyes are veiled and blind, his bulging muscles wasted. “Weaklings…” he whispers. Then he is gone.