Home · Database · Expeditions · The Toll That Isn't

⚠️ Pre-alpha — built in public. Every figure on this page is read straight out of the shipped game code at build time, so it is exactly what the current build does — and the current build is early. Balance moves; when it does, this page moves with it.

Expeditions

The Toll That Isn't

Armed men at a crossroads collecting 'the new lord's toll'. There is no new lord. Their spears are real enough.

Entity ID
tax
Choices offered
3
Safest option
Pay and note the faces — 85% base
Riskiest option
Refuse, hands on hilts — 32% base
Can end the run early
Yes
Energy to mount a ranging
25 (three scenes per run)

Every choice, and exactly what it pays

The odds words are contracts, not atmosphere: safe is 85%, even is 55%, risky is 32%, and every one of those numbers is fixed and tested. Fortune then bends the roll by +4% per point, clamped at ±3 points, so a good early call buys slack later and two disasters make the rest of the road meaner. Nothing here is ever certain: the check is clamped to the 5%–95% band whatever your fortune.

The Toll That Isn't: the three roads out, with base odds and both outcomes.
ChoiceOddsBase chanceOn successOn failure
Pay and note the facessafe85%Food -20, Iron +60, Renown +2Food -50, Fortune -1
Refuse, hands on hiltsrisky32%Renown +4, Fortune +1Food -40, Renown +1, Fortune -2, the party turns back
Leave the road, cut aroundeven55%Food +50, Fortune +1Food -35, Fortune -1

What the chronicle records

Pay and note the faces (safe, 85%)

Success: You pay small, memorize well, and the true lord's captain pays a bounty for each face you can sketch. → Food -20, Iron +60, Renown +2

Failure: They want more than small. It stings, and the captain shrugs — 'everyone pays them, nobody sketches well.' → Food -50, Fortune -1

Refuse, hands on hilts (risky, 32%)

Success: Counting your party twice, they discover urgent business elsewhere. The next travelers pass free because of you. → Renown +4, Fortune +1

Failure: They don't blink. It goes to blades, briefly — you win the road and lose the day binding wounds. → Food -40, Renown +1, Fortune -2, the party turns back

Leave the road, cut around (even, 55%)

Success: A herder's track adds an hour and subtracts a robbery. His family sells you cheese that deserves a song. → Food +50, Fortune +1

Failure: The track dead-ends at a washout. Back to the road, where the toll has gone up out of spite. → Food -35, Fortune -1

Fortune, at this scene

The Toll That Isn't: the real chance of each choice once fortune is counted.
ChoiceFortune −3Fortune −1Fortune 0Fortune +1Fortune +3
Pay and note the faces73%81%85%89%95%
Refuse, hands on hilts20%28%32%36%44%
Leave the road, cut around43%51%55%59%67%

A ranging draws three scenes from the sixteen, deterministically from its seed, so this encounter can appear at any of the three stops. Guide: Mysteries of the Realm. Index: all 16 encounters · the whole database.

Other encounters: The Flooded Ford · A Watchfire Where None Should Be · The Barrow Door Stands Open · A Caravan in the Ditch · The Hermit's Toll · Wolves on the Kill · The Walking Septon · The Abandoned Quarry · An Uninvited Feast · The Cold Beacon · The Smugglers' Cache · A Singer with a Broken Lute · The Feral Orchard · The Mist That Doesn't Lift · The Night Something Fell

Every figure above is generated from the shipped game code — the same constants and formulas the running game uses — and regenerated whenever the balance changes. Nothing on this page is hand-typed.

Iron Realms is an original work of fantasy strategy. “Iron Realms” is a working project name, not necessarily the game’s final title. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any other game or franchise. The game's own lore, names, and artwork are original or used under CC0/CC-BY/OFL licences (see the in-game Credits). The community section also hosts unofficial fan tributes — quizzes and diversions made for fun, not part of the game — which reference other fictional worlds under their own labels; those are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to their respective rights holders. Pre-alpha, and built in public. Nothing is for sale. No purchases are available, no payment is accepted, and no money is taken. Any prices named anywhere on this site describe the intended model only, and the game will not accept payment until it is out of pre-alpha. Iron Realms is an early build under active development: features, balance, prices and the game's holdings and systems are conceptual, and may change, move or disappear between visits. Progress may be reset while the realm is being built. Treat anything you read here as a work in progress rather than a promise.