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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. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to any other game or franchise, and “Iron Realms” is a working project name rather than necessarily the final title. Its 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 name other fictional worlds under their own labels and are likewise not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to their rights holders. Pre-alpha, built in public. Nothing is for sale. No payment is accepted, and any price named here describes the intended model only. This is an early build — features, balance and prices are conceptual and may change or disappear between visits, and progress may be reset. Treat anything here as work in progress rather than a promise. Every page here is recorded: a first-party cookie, your IP address, your device and where you came from, and — when you are signed in — your account, are logged for site analytics; see what we record and why.