The Bell Above Brackenwake

Saturday afternoon, Spike sat across from me at Twilight’s library table with my new dice between us. He had been looking at them for a minute, which was about how long I’d spent looking at the character sheet I’d made for him.

The sheet had boxes for a name, a talent, and a thing the character cared about. I had drawn a little shield beside the last one. It was a good shield. I had been pleased with it until Spike’s eyes stopped on the drawing.

Twilight had been sorting books at the other end of the room. She closed the one in her hooves and looked over. “I can find somewhere else to be, if you want the library to yourselves.”

Spike glanced at me. I slid the character sheet across the table. “I think the important thing is that this is Spike’s game, too.”

“Then I’ll give you the room.” Twilight set her book on a nearby shelf. “Have fun.”

She went through the door, leaving it open. Spike picked up the sheet.

“Do I have to use the shield?” He tapped it with one claw.

“Absolutely not.” I tried to make the answer sound as casual as it was. “That was my attempt at helpful decoration. It may have been an attempt too many.”

Spike turned the sheet over and examined the blank back. “Could my character be a dragon who draws maps?”

I had prepared a list of archetypes. The list was now doing a very good impression of a list I had not prepared. “Sure. What’s his name?”

“Kett.” Spike gripped a pencil and wrote the name down, carefully, in the first box. “And he’s good at climbing.”

“Maps and climbing. Got it.” I moved the shield out of the way, then turned to the notes I’d made. “The game’s set on a chain of islands called the Lorn Keys. Kett lives in a harbor town named Brackenwake. There’s a storm coming, and the town’s warning bell is stuck in its tower. If nobody gets it ringing, the boats outside the harbor won’t know the safe channel is closed.”

Spike leaned over the map I’d drawn. “Why is the bell stuck?”

“The gearing jammed when the tower shifted in a landslide.”

“Can the town fix it?”

“It’s too dangerous to climb the tower in the storm.” I heard the faint click of my prepared plot trying to snap into place. “That’s why Kett has to—”

Spike raised his pencil. “I mean, can the town help? People could hold a rope. Or bring tools.”

I looked at my map. I’d drawn the tower, the harbor, and a tiny figure at the bottom of a cliff. There were no townspeople anywhere. The adventure had been waiting for its hero to do everything alone.