I am a good dog

My name is Blue.

I am a border collie.

Fetch my Blade by Kelly Tran and Ethan Yen is a solo journaling rpg in which you play the beloved companion of a retired warrior. 

After an old enemy appears to challenge your master, you’re given the command: “Fetch my blade.” And then you’re off on a series of encounters that test your training. By the end, your perception of your master is changed. To what degree or with what consequences is a matter of how the dice land. 

My character, Blue, is a border collie like my current dog, Alfred. But whereas Alfred is a totally fierce boy, I chose to make Blue friendly, like my now gone companion, Rio, a Labrador of the friendliest sort. 

Blue is also named after the titular dog in John Graves’s wonderful gut-punch of a book, Blue and Some Other Dogs. 

TLDR: Love the concept. Love the game play. Love the story.

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Stats

Trait score = 4

Training = Performance. My master trained me to perform tricks and entertain the community. She says it’s important to laugh to keep from crying.

Tricks = Sit + Spin

• Sit: you may Unquestion a Truth.
• Spin: Change the Trait you are using for an Encounter roll after seeing your roll

Background

My master’s name is Marion. I believe I chose her. 

I come from a long line of working dogs. But that’s not what Marion wanted from me. When she approached the shepherd who was selling me and my siblings, I jumped into Marion’s arms, licked her eye, and made her laugh. Now, she teaches me tricks, and I continue to make her laugh.

I love to walk through the barley fields and prairies of our small valley. 

Three Truths about my master:

• My master walks alone every day. 
• My master buys one item from every stall at the market on feast days. 
• My master plays the flute in the evenings.

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The Quest Begins

1. Depart: Site of Challenge

While walking with my master through the East prairie, a bright-clothed Stranger approaches. They walk with swagger, and they do not hide the rapier sheathed at their side. Their left hand rests on the pommel, one finger tapping a rhythm. Marion stops abruptly and sands with her legs wide. I think she is anticipating something. 

When the Stranger reaches us, they whisper “Times up.”

There’s something menacing about their posture and smile. I don’t like it. I know Marion would want me to be relaxed, but something deep inside me snaps. I utter a low growl, and I mean it. 

Encounter roll using Fierce = 1 = a Failure

Marion slaps her thigh and yells, “No!”

I’m not sure if she is chastising me or responding to the Stranger. I shuffle backwards in shame nonetheless. 

Then, calmly but firmly she says, “My time is not done here, and I will not give up.”

She looks to me and motions homeward with her chin.

I must fetch her blade.

Resolution: Question a Truth + Trait score increase

Question a Truth:

• My master walks alone every day?
  • Does Marion meet other strangers on her solitary walks?

Trait = 5

Time = 3

2. Depart: Site of Significance

I follow a different path home through the gray fields. My master and I never walk here. I smell strange scents coming from the fields, but Marion always calls me away from exploring. Today, I must take the trail through the gray fields. 

I trot along and the smells grow thick. What I thought were branches are actually bones. There is a glint of metal to my right and a rotted banner to my left. This must have been a place of great violence. I wonder why the bodies weren’t buried. We’re only a few miles from the compound, meaning that these bodies could be someone’s sisters or cousins. 

My pace slows a bit, and I see a shield with the sign of my master’s family.

Encounter roll using Friendly = 3 = a success

I tread softly, but swiftly through the battlefield. I fear I have seen too much and I do not want to linger.

Resolution: gain time

Time = 2

3. Depart: Site of Connection 

As I enter the compound, Tania the baker is squatting on his doorstep. We pass his shop most days and my master is sure to buy a sweet roll. Tania always slips me a crust or nub of cheese. I always raise a paw in thanks, and I believe this brings him joy. 

Though my master is not with me, Tania still calls out my name. I bound over, bow to my friend, and await my treat.

Encounter roll using Friendly + Training = 2d6 = 4 + 2 = a success

Seeing Tania the baker reminds me there is goodwill here in the commune. But now I wonder who Tania may have lost in that battle. 

Resolution: gain time

Time = 2

4. Obtain: Site of Protection

Though the familiar smells of home should comfort me, I am now truly nervous. Marion and I do not often go to the lake behind the house. That is where she has hidden her blade. Though its waters are always still, there is a restlessness about it. I do not understand why it must be kept here, but there is much I do not understand.

I approach the shore boldly yet with a light step and high head. When I am near its grassy edge, I bark three times. And when the spirit of the lake appears, I show my most dazzling performance. 

Marion said that the spirit will know if the request is motivated by bloodlust or vengeance. Anyone who desires to use the blade to do violence will be stopped. My performance will prove to the spirit that I am worthy of claiming Marion’s blade because I do not want to use it.

Marion told me not to fear, so I will not.

Encounter roll using Friendly + Training = 2d6 = 6 + 1 = a success

I have never performed so well. Marion’s soft commands echo in my mind as I spin to the left, then to the right. Next I walk on two legs and paw the air. 

The spirit surges up from the water with a long, wet bundle, and then dives back underwater, leaving not a ripple.

Resolution: gain time

Time = 2

5. Obtain: Site of Protection

The bundle unravels revealing Marion’s scimitar: a weapon made of black glass with silver filigree. It is in pristine condition and dry, despite having been submerged in the lake. It must have been cared for. And I know it must also be enchanted, though I never suspected Marion of wielding magic.

As I hold it in my mouth, I feel its power. A presence meets my mind demanding to know my connection to Marion.

Was my last performance not proof enough? So I lay the weapon gently on the ground and bow to it as I bow to my master every morning when she rises. 

Encounter roll using Friendly + Training = 2d6 = 2 + 3 = 2 successes

The blade seems amused at my gesture. It says to me, “I’m glad Marion has you. She was much happier before she met me. Perhaps you bring a smile to her face, as I only brought her pain. Oh, don’t think she didn’t know what she was doing, though. 

Resolution: Question a Truth + gain time

Question a Truth: 

• My master buys one item from every stall at the market on feast days? 
  • Thinking of the gray fields and my encounter with Tania the baker, I start to wonder about Marion’s relationship to the commune. How can someone who has wielded a blade with this power live so peacefully in this small village?

Time = 1

6. Obtain: Site of Protection

As I travel back through the compound, the blade speaks again, but not in the same voice. The sound has the quality of overlapping voices, like the whispers of lingering souls. 

I hate it. They are afraid and angry and mean. 

My hackles are up, I want to drop the blade and shake away the voices. 

Encounter roll using Fierce = 2 = a failure

I try to shake the voices out of my head, but I only manage to whip the blade around, slicing at my foreleg and side. With a yelp I drop the blade and bark frantically at it.

But I snap out of it quickly. I am a good dog, and I must return to my master.

Resolution: Question a Truth + Trait score increase [already maxed]

Question a Truth:

• My master plays the flute in the evenings?
  • Why are Marion’s songs so mournful?

Time = 3

7. Return: Site of Connection

Tania, the baker, sees me run through the center of the compound carrying the blade. He yells and other folks begin to take notice of me. I know that villagers do not openly bear arms inside the walls of the compound. 

The whispers from the blade grow stronger as the shouts from the villagers grow louder. I thought these people were my friends, but now they shout at me as if I were an encroaching enemy. My master was right to hide this blade away.

Encounter roll = automatic failure [all Truths are questioned] ; -1 to Trait)

Still carrying the blade, I move on, feeling remorse that I am on a mission and must ignore Tania and the others. 

Resolution: New Unquestioned Truth + Trait score decrease

New Unquestioned Truth:

• My master walks alone every day. 
• My master walks alone each day because she has no friends here.

Trait = 4

Time = 3

8. Return: Site of Significance

Something is different as I approach the gray fields. The voices in the blade go silent, and I watch as ghostly shapes emerge from the ground. 

I am a good dog, raised to bring joy to my master, I am inadequate in the face of such death and terror. 

Encounter roll using Friendly = 2 = success

But I must put on a brave face. I attempt to move boldly and quickly. As I near the edge of the gray fields, I hear the blade chuckle. “Your heart may turn to iron, too. But life is like glass,” it says.

Trick = Sit: You may Unquesiton a Truth

New Unquestioned Truth:

• My master buys one item from every stall at the market on feast days. 
• My master buys items from each of the vendors out of guilt. What I first took as generosity and good humor, is actually a strange form of silent repentance. Marion was involved in the deaths of the people in this field many years ago, and now she has devised a meagre form of recompense.

Resolution: gain time

Time = 2

Time total = 18

9. Return: Site of Challenge

My master is still standing as approach the East prairie. I bound forward, present the blade, and lay down. 

Special Encounter roll = Friendly + Training (+1d for 1 Truth that is questioned) = 3d6 = 4 + 4 = 4

Resolution: three Friendly successes + Resolve a Truth

I realize why my master plays mournful songs on her flute in the evenings. She is ashamed of her violent past and for all the death that she brought on. I realize this now as Marion and the Stranger face off. 

Marion begins humming a low tune that I recognise. But then she abruptly breaks off, sighs heavily, and pirouettes to the left and right, slashing her glass blade through the air so hungrily that the blade itself seems to pick up the melody of the song.

The Stranger repeats the same dance-like movement, their blade also echoing Marion’s melody. Or am I only imagining that. 

The Stranger smiles a toothy smile. “Yes, you still have it in you, I believe.” 

“I do not want to,” Marion replies.

“Then that is why you will stay, and I will leave. Your penance amuses me. It also suits me. Our patron may require your service again. But, you see, I do not believe we need a broken soldier. I will tell her this much.”

“So stay. Live your pitiful life amongst the family you betrayed.” 

I hear Marion’s teeth grinding. She nods at the Stranger and the two turn away from each other simultaneously and with no other words.

Marion calls me to her side and we begin walking the familiar path home.

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Hey, you wanna play now, don’t you! Pick up a digital copy of Fetch my Blade.

Featured Image: “Sheep Dog Sleeping” by Edwin (Henry) Landseer at the Yale Center for British Art via Wikimedia Commons.