The Lovers
The day wears on…
The day’s journey is both fruitful and uneventful. As the light begins to fail, we pass a tree marked with a lovers’ etching. Cut into the bark of a silvered birch, high above the ground, is a simple inscription: ‘M & Z’.
As we gaze up at the carving, we are enraptured for reasons we cannot describe. Our thoughts fall to lovers from our own past — ours, and others’ too. But the memories we reach for are strange and distorted, as if seen through a curved lens. Suddenly, we struggle to picture faces that we once knew as well as our own.
The Challenge
The carving compels you to recall lovers you once knew.
Set a timer for 90 seconds.
Spread all the cards from the deck face down on the table.
Clockwise starting with the Reader, travellers take turns turning over two cards one at a time.
If the numbers on both cards match, they place the pair in front of them. If the numbers do not match, the traveller must turn the cards face-down once more.
The next traveller then takes their turn.
Play continues until two pairs are found, or until the timer expires.
HELP FROM AN ITEM
If any traveller carries a LOCKET, they may take an extra turn. This extra turn can be taken after the timer ends, if it ends first.
Success. If two pairs are found, the Challenge is passed.
Failure. If two pairs are not found by the time the timer expires, the Challenge is failed.
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————If the Challenge is passed and two different travellers each won a single pair, these two travellers may choose to win the Blessing of the Lovers jointly. If they make this choice, those travellers must pool their Blessings and Bargains together for the rest of the game, or until they lose the Lovers’ Blessing. Their destinies are thereafter intertwined; while they continue to play encounters separately, they have one combined number value, and any effects that would affect one of them instead affects both. Alternatively, if the same traveller wins both pairs, that traveller alone wins the Blessing of the Lovers.
If the Challenge is failed, all travellers suffer the Curse of the Lovers. If this is the party's third Curse, click here.
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Blessings and Bargains symbolise the support of a spirit of the Elder Wood. Both offer protection against death for the traveller who wins them.
Blessings: When a spirit is pleased, it might grant its special protection to a particular traveller. Spirits who have bestowed a member of the party with their Blessing travel invisibly with them and will help to protect them when they reach the Heart of the Wood.
Travellers who win a Blessing should place the Blessing behind their Character Card so that the spirit's name and number are still visible.
Bargains: Sometimes, instead of granting its Blessing to a traveller, a spirit might instead offer a conditional protection called a Bargain. Bargains symbolise a trade between spirit and traveller; the spirit protects the traveller, but its influence affects the traveller's behaviour. The traveller must obey the Bargain rules written on the spirit's card so long as they possess the Bargain. In return, the spirit will convert its Bargain to a Blessing in the Heart of the Wood, thus helping the traveller survive.
Travellers who win a Bargain should place the Bargain card face-up to one side of their Character Card, so that they can read the card's Bargain rules.
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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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————Soon the etching is far behind us, lost among the trees. As darkness draws in, we shake our loved ones from our heads. It is once more just us and the Wood.
Reform the deck before continuing.