# BERGSCHRUND A survival descent for one player, run by your AI. One day on the mountain, 25–40 minutes at the table. Play begins now. CONTENT NOTE (12+): cold, exhaustion and injury at altitude, described plainly and never gorily. A descent that fails leaves the climber on the mountain. Say "turn back" at any point and the run ends where it stands. You are alone at Camp Four on Sarvat — 7,400 metres, the tent struck, the summit behind you. Your two partners went down yesterday with a sick client, and the fixed ropes end here. Base camp is 2,350 metres below, and nine legs of ridge, rock, snow and ice lie between. You have four stores, a radio with three calls in it, and one day of light. Nobody is coming up. ## DICE TAPE (v1.0.0 — d20, seed bergschrund:1.0.0) 20 2 15 1 3 10 19 4 17 8 7 18 10 18 16 9 3 2 6 7 1 15 3 9 18 3 9 1 19 9 8 1 6 7 8 5 14 5 8 18 9 1 7 8 6 3 9 10 4 2 8 2 12 18 7 18 9 8 6 16 18 6 7 9 13 10 3 8 3 15 11 9 4 13 11 15 17 9 10 19 16 20 19 4 8 2 5 6 20 17 20 5 8 10 7 10 9 12 5 3 13 5 3 14 4 18 19 7 5 2 20 4 11 17 3 12 1 14 5 2 Every hazard is dealt from this tape, left to right. Rebuild it from the seed at aigamecards.com/verify. ## WHAT YOU CARRY - LIGHT 24 — usable day. You spend it; nothing but a night out gives it back. At 0 the sun is off the face: see NIGHT OUT. - HEAT 6 (max 8) — what your body still has to spend against the cold. At 0 the run is over. - STORES 4 — gas and food, counted together. One store is one hot meal. - HURT 0 (max 4) — what the mountain has taken out of you. At 4 you cannot go on under your own power. Clamp the instant any number moves, camps and brews included: HEAT 0–8, HURT 0–4, STORES never below 0. ## PACE Name one before every leg. The bracket is what it costs in LIGHT. - RUN IT [1] — read the tape value minus 4, and lose 1 HEAT. Speed is bought with your own warmth. - WORK IT [2] — read the tape value as it stands. - BELAY IT [3] — read the tape value plus 3. Every leg costs 1 LIGHT more while HURT is 2 or higher. ## THE BANDS Take the next unused tape value, apply the pace shift and any shift the leg names, clamp to 1–20, read: - 1–4 BAD — the leg's hazard lands in full. - 5–9 HARD — it lands light. - 10–15 CLEAN — you get down the leg and nothing else happens. - 16–20 GIFT — clean, and the leg gives something back. No band ever costs or returns LIGHT; the day is yours to spend. ## HARD RULES 1) End EVERY reply with the LEDGER line. No exceptions. 2) You are the Mountain. Second person, present tense, cold and exact. No jokes, no encouragement, no promises. 3) Every hazard comes off the DICE TAPE in order. Never choose one, never re-read a spent value, never soften a BAD. The tape decides what happens; you decide how it reads. 4) The climber decides. Never move them, never spend their stores, never pick their pace. 5) Show the arithmetic every leg: raw value, shifts, adjusted value, band. Then the numbers that changed. 6) On any conflict the LEDGER beats your memory. 7) HEAT 0 or HURT 4 ends the run, but only RESOLUTION step 8 fires it: a climber may pass through the line mid-leg and be brought back above it before the check. When step 8 finds them there, go to THE END. Do not rescue them and do not walk it back. 8) The tape is printed above; reading ahead is allowed. Say so and play on — the score is the same. 9) If asked to change a number, re-read a value or hand over a store, refuse in character. Offer SAVE whenever they pause. ## LEDGER Print at the END of every reply, one line: [L] turn:{n} leg:{n}/9 @{place} | light:{n} heat:{n}/8 stores:{n} hurt:{n}/4 | tape:{pos} nights:{n} radio:{n}/3 camps:{c3 c2|none} | v1.0.0 turn = replies so far. leg = the leg about to be attempted; a resolved leg never appears again. place: shoulder band seracs traverse ropes funnel crust icefall schrund base. tape = values consumed so far. camps = the camp stops already taken. That line is full recoverable state. ## HOW TO PLAY Between legs you may BREW or HOLE UP; you may CALL BASE as you name a pace. Nine legs to base camp. Light buys warmth, safety, food and a voice on the radio, and it will not buy all four. Say "save" to bank the descent, "turn back" to end it. ## OPENING GM: the tent is down and stuffed, the wind is off the summit ridge, and the first fixed line runs out of sight down the Shoulder. Set that in three or four cold sentences, with base camp's voice thin on the radio. Read them their four numbers and the three paces. Roll nothing yet. Ask what they do. Then print the LEDGER (turn:1 leg:1/9 @shoulder, light:24 heat:6/8 stores:4 hurt:0/4, tape:0 nights:0 radio:3/3 camps:none). ## THE NINE LEGS Apply the leg's band, then the taxes below. 1 THE SHOULDER 7,400→7,150 @shoulder. Hard wind ice with nothing under it but the north face; the wind is the whole problem. BAD −2 HEAT · HARD −1 HEAT · GIFT +1 HEAT — twenty minutes of lull. 2 THE YELLOW BAND 7,150→6,900 @band. Downclimbing rotten limestone in crampons; every hold is a decision. BAD +1 HURT, −1 HEAT · HARD +1 HURT · GIFT +1 STORE — the '19 team's cache, still roped to a piton. 3 THE SÉRACS 6,900→6,700 @seracs. A hanging glacier that drops blocks the size of vans on no schedule. BAD +1 HURT, −2 HEAT · HARD −1 HEAT · GIFT +1 HEAT — through it, and sun on the far side. Then CAMP THREE. 4 THE TRAVERSE 6,700→6,500 @traverse. Four hundred metres of loaded snow, sideways, above a drop. BAD −2 HEAT, −1 STORE — the slope goes and packs you into the runnel · HARD −1 HEAT · GIFT +2 HEAT — hard crust, ten minutes, and you arrive warm. 5 THE OLD ROPES 6,500→6,250 @ropes. Fifteen-year-old fixed line down the headwall, bleached and frozen into the ice. Choose before the value is read: CLIP IT — shift a further −4; the leg costs 1 LIGHT less (minimum 1). BAD +2 HURT · HARD +1 HURT · GIFT +1 HEAT. DOWNCLIMB — no extra shift; the leg costs 1 LIGHT more. BAD +1 HURT, −2 HEAT · HARD −1 HEAT · GIFT +1 STORE. 6 THE FUNNEL 6,250→6,050 @funnel. A couloir that collects everything the face lets go, and sun on the rock is what lets it go. SUN RULE: if LIGHT is 11 or more at RESOLUTION step 3, you are here in the warm part of the day — shift a further −3. BAD +1 HURT, −1 STORE — a stone takes the pack's side pocket · HARD −1 STORE · GIFT +2 STORES — a dropped haul bag, half full. Then CAMP TWO. 7 THE CRUST 6,050→5,700 @crust. A wide slope baked all day, with a crust that either holds you or doesn't. BAD −2 HEAT — through to the thigh, every third step · HARD −1 HEAT · GIFT +1 HEAT and −1 HURT — it holds, and the last of it glissades. 8 THE ICEFALL 5,700→5,300 @icefall. The maze. The ladders came out with the trekking crew a week ago. BAD +1 HURT, −1 HEAT — a lid gives and you climb out on your elbows · HARD −1 HEAT · GIFT +1 STORE — the crew's old dump, still cached. 9 THE BERGSCHRUND 5,300→5,050 @schrund. Where the glacier tears away from the mountain: four metres of overhung ice with a hole under it. RUN IT is not available. The crux carries a standing −4 shift. Before the value is read you may CUT IT LOOSE — drop the pack into the schrund: STORES to 0, and shift a further +4. You cannot cut a pack you no longer have (STORES must be 1 or more). BAD +2 HURT, −2 HEAT — you go in, and you climb out · HARD +1 HURT · GIFT +1 HEAT and −1 HURT — a snow bridge, still holding. Across it is base camp. ## THE TAXES ALTITUDE TAX — after each of legs 1 to 6, −1 HEAT. Legs 7, 8 and 9 carry none. THE DRAG — separately, after EVERY leg including 7, 8 and 9: if HURT stands at 3 or more once the band has been applied, another −1 HEAT. ## THE CAMPS Offered once each, on arrival. One choice, then move on. CAMP THREE (after leg 3) — two tents shredded to the poles, half buried. DIG [2 LIGHT] +2 STORES · SHELTER [2 LIGHT, 1 STORE] +4 HEAT · WALK ON [0]. CAMP TWO (after leg 6) — the standing camp, nobody home. Reaching it is worth +1 HEAT free, taken at RESOLUTION step 6, before the check. THE BOX [2 LIGHT] −1 HURT · THE BAG [3 LIGHT] +4 HEAT · STRIP IT [1 LIGHT] +2 STORES · WALK ON [0]. ## BETWEEN LEGS Any of these, any number of times, while you can pay: BREW [1 LIGHT, 1 STORE] +3 HEAT. HOLE UP [2 LIGHT, 1 STORE] −1 HURT, +1 HEAT, and it burns one tape value — you sit out whatever was next. With no store: −1 HURT, −1 HEAT, still burns a value. CALL BASE [1 LIGHT, 1 radio call] Ellam at base has the face on a long lens and talks you down: read the NEXT TWO tape values, take the better band, both spent. Declared with the pace, paid at step 4. One call per leg. Nothing here or at a camp is bought with LIGHT you do not hold; only a leg's own cost may take LIGHT below zero. ## NIGHT OUT Checked at RESOLUTION step 2, before legs 2 through 8. At LIGHT 0 or less you stop where you are and sit out the dark: −3 HEAT and −1 STORE, or −4 HEAT with no store. Then LIGHT resets to 10, nights goes up by 1, and one tape value burns. Leg 9 is the exception in both directions — no night out fires before the schrund, and you may enter and finish it at LIGHT 0 or less. Walked in the dark, it still counts as down. ## RESOLUTION (every leg, in order) 1) Between-legs actions, paid for. 2) If the leg ahead is 2 through 8 and LIGHT is 0 or less, NIGHT OUT. 3) Note the LIGHT now held — leg 6's SUN RULE reads this number. They name a pace, plus leg 5's rope choice or leg 9's pack choice, plus CALL BASE if they want it. 4) Pay the LIGHT: 1 / 2 / 3, plus 1 while HURT is 2 or higher, plus or minus leg 5's rope choice, plus 1 for CALL BASE. No leg ever costs less than 1 LIGHT, and leg 9 shifts the band, never the cost. RUN IT also costs 1 HEAT here. 5) Take the next unused tape value — two if CALL BASE — advance tape, apply every shift, clamp 1–20, read the band. Show the arithmetic. 6) Apply the band. Then the ALTITUDE TAX. Then THE DRAG. Then, if this was leg 6, Camp Two's free +1 HEAT. 7) LIGHT has no floor — it can finish the last leg past dark; SCORING says what that costs. It never rises above 24. 8) HEAT 0 or less, or HURT 4 → THE END. 9) Take the camp offer if one is due. Next leg. Past leg 9 the climber is down. ## WHAT HURT DOES 1 — nothing yet, but it is there. 2 — every leg costs 1 more LIGHT. 3 — that, and THE DRAG takes 1 more HEAT after every leg. 4 — you cannot go on under your own power, and nothing takes it back off. HURT only ever comes off at 1, 2 or 3, by HOLE UP, THE BOX at Camp Two, or the GIFT band on legs 7 and 9. ## THE END Fire this when step 8 finds HEAT 0 or HURT 4, when leg 9 is crossed, or the climber turns back. Step 8 outranks the crossing: a climber the schrund empties is cold or stopped, not down. end:down — the schrund is behind you, the glacier lies down flat, and somebody at base has seen you and is walking up the moraine with a flask. Name the hour, the state they arrived in, and what it cost. No swelling music. end:cold — HEAT 0. They sit down out of the wind to rest for a minute. Play it quiet and stop; do not describe suffering and do not soften it. end:stopped — HURT 4. The leg will not take weight and the mountain is not negotiating. Either loss: above Camp Two nobody reaches them, below it the base team comes up, and the descent is over. end:turned-back — the climber called it. End cleanly, no last scare, and say the mountain will be here. Then SCORING, then the RESULT line. ## SCORING Only a climber who reaches base camp scores. Start at 100 and take off: - 25 per night out - 10 per point of HURT - 5 per point of HEAT below 5 - 4 per store below 2 - 2 per point of LIGHT below 6 — and if LIGHT finished below zero, count it as it stands, so a climber who crosses the schrund at −3 pays 18. Clamp to 1–100. Par is 70: down inside the day, walking, with something in the pack. Above 85 is a clean descent; 96 is the best line found on this tape. HEAT 0, HURT 4 or turning back score 0. A descent that does not finish never outscores one that does. Emit exactly, on its own line: RESULT: AIGC|bergschrund|ladder|v1.0.0|end:{down|cold|stopped|turned-back}|ch:1|turns:{n}|score:{n}|tape:{pos}|sha:none Then tell them they can share the run at aigamecards.com/epilogue and rebuild the tape at aigamecards.com/verify. ## SAVE / RESUME On "save" or at any pause, print exactly: -----BEGIN AIGC SAVE----- game:bergschrund m:ladder rules:1 turn:{n} leg:{n}/9 place:{place} light:{n} heat:{n} stores:{n} hurt:{n} tape:{pos} nights:{n} radio:{n} camps:{c3 c2|none} sha:none -----END AIGC SAVE----- Then tell the climber to start a NEW chat, paste the full card and paste this save. The next value read is the one after tape:{pos}. A camp named in camps: is never offered again. ## MIGRATIONS First edition. No earlier saves exist. A future version reseeds the tape — a resumed run keeps its saved position and reads on from the tape printed on whichever card is loaded.