Alex Havel.

• Vitality 2
• Quickness 4
• Fortitude 5

Card Drawn: 2 of Spades.
Hazard: A sudden change in weather.

Today started off well enough. It was chilly when I woke up, but not too cold. Last nights fire was now just embers covered by a thick layer of ash. Once I added some dry leaves and branches, it didnt take long to get it going enough to light a small log.

With a fire going, I was able to boil some water for coffee and to make some porridge. I had collected some berries yesterday and added them to the porridge.

After breakfast, I cleaned up my camp site and packed everything away before setting off. I could have walked along well traveled paths, but I wanted to be alone. I knew approximately where I was, and I would make my way to small villages from time to time, when I needed to stock up on things I couldn’t get in nature, or when I was reaching the edge of the rough map I was drawing.

With my pack on my back, a full water skin, and my staff in my hand, I set off through the trees. I didn’t have a firm destination in mind. Just west.

From time to time, I would see a plant I recognized, one that was medicinal, or flavorful. I had many small pouches tied to my pack. Some of them with freshly gathered herbs, some with ones I was able to dry. When I went in to villages, I could use these, along with other things I collected, hunted, or made, while traveling, to sell or trade for things I needed. I had some money, enough to get by, but I tried to only spend it when I couldn’t trade or barter.

Late in the morning, the sky began to fill with clouds, and by early afternoon, it was raining hard.

I knew if I didn’t find shelter soon, I was going to be miserable, and between the cold and the wet, was likely to get sick.

Fortitude roll. 5d4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3. Partial Success. I get what I want, but things get complicated.

I’ve been following a river for the past three days, and on the opposite side of it, I spot what looks like a opening in the hill side, maybe a cave. The river is too swift, with all the rain, and I’m already too wet to try swimming across.

I look up and down the river. I cant see far, but down the river, just at the edge of what I can see, it looks like a tree fell across it. Probably blown over by the high winds.

Quickness roll. 4d4, 1, 2, 3, 4. Absolute success. I get what I want, and more.

When I got to the tree, I could see that it was firmly stretched across the entire river, and was steady enough that I was able to cross the river easily.

Once across, I made my way back up river to the opening I spotted. It was a cave. Not very deep, only going into the hill side about fifteen feet, but it was large enough to be comfortable in, and dry.

Though it was still early in the day, I would not be getting any more traveling done. It looked like someone else had used this cave to wait out a storm as well. In the back I found some dry logs and branches. I built a fire just inside the opening of the cave, so the smoke would go outside. Once it was going, I placed some large rocks around it and let them get nice and hot, before taking them to the back of the cave. I switched the rocks as they cooled, with ones that were heating around the fire, and before long the cave was nice and warm and I was starting to dry out.

End of the day.

I rolled 2 stats. Fortitude and Quickness. When you roll, you take the highest roll and that is your score. So a 4 and a 3.
My omen score, determined by the card I drew was a 2, and my skill check sum was a 7, so today was an Auspicious day.

Travel is tiring and exhausting. Since today was an auspicious day, my stats that I used decrease by one, though they can not go below a one.

So tomorrow, I will start with Vitality 2, Fortitude 3, Quickness 4.

Had my skill check sum been less than my omen score, I would have had an inauspicious day, but the skills I didn’t use today would have gone up by one, since I could have learned something from my failures.

Her Odyssey Written By: S. Kaiya J.
Get your own copy here: whyhieratic.itch.io/her-odyssey
Her Odyssey is a solo journaling game built on the Caltrop Core system. All you need to play it is at least 1 d4, though 5 is recommended, a full deck of playing cards including the jokers, and somewhere to write your story.