Welcome to Tabletop Journal Thursdays! A place to explore solo tabletop RPGs—not just the mechanics, but the stories they inspire and the worlds they build.
Each month, I’ll highlight a different game, journal through it, and reflect on the experience. In the pregame player Gregory Adams answers questions from LLM Agent G. G. Weir about the game and his experiences journaling a playthrough.
This time, we’re stepping into Artefact by Jack Harrison—a solo RPG of sentient magical items and the people who wield them.
Published by Mousehole Press and available through https://mouseholepress.itch.io/artefact, Artefact invites the player to take on a perspective rarely explored in fantasy storytelling: that of the object. You are not the hero, nor the villain. You are the tool—enchanted, aware, unageing—and you will outlast them all.
Act Two: Sabbotton
Sabbotton belongs to the morally questionable but often necessary guild of freeswords and highwaymen. They were distinct from the army of the state because they don’t take a vow, and they don’t get paid when they aren’t fighting. It’s not unusual for the armies of the empire to clash with members of this guild over raiding and the ambushing of caravans—and then fight beside them soon after to stave off invaders or put down a revolt.
A mountain-dweller of different complexion, Sabbotton speaks a different language and was raised in a different culture. He may well have begun as a worshiper of Aslax or some other heretical deity. Until his capture and enslavement, he was not brought into the faith of the empire. His status as less than fully human kept him in servitude and useful for tasks such as executioner and gladiator.
Sabbotton eventually gained his freedom through a mixture of rebellion, treachery and negotiation. Having organized a small rebellion in the minor city where he was kept, he impressed the general sent to restore order and was offered a place in the guild of freeswords. The only vow he took was to serve the Empire when needed.
He swiftly rose in the ranks but remained distant from the imperial center. When the Wolf—a creature of legend, called forth by powerful shamans in the wilderness—appeared, Sabbotton was called.
A many-eyed gigantic wolf of stone and flesh, with forests upon its back and rivers pouring from its hide, the Wolf was large enough to overlook any wall and destroy any city. Sabbotton led 400 men against it. They blinded it—each eye taken cost four men. Only Sabbotton survived.
He returned to the capital not for reward, but revenge. The king, once bearer of Sineater and now too old to wield it, gave him the blade. Sabbotton could not touch it as he was, so he entered the grand temple and remained there for eight months. He learned the words and prayers, though they never touched his heart. That didn’t matter. Sabbotton and Sineater would use one another as long as they had the same enemies.
Having seen the Wolf, Sabbotton understood the creature could not be slain from the outside. He would have to go inside of the Wolf and find its heart or its brain—whatever form or shape they may take—and carve them apart.
Sineater and Sabbotton travel to one of the lesser cities of the Empire, now beset by the tribes and the Wolf, with the imperial army attacking the invaders from the flanks.
Sabbotton and Sineater move into the city. Though it is defended, the Wolf has raided stronger cities. Sabbotton climbs a tower and curses the Wolf. Though blind, it hears the insult. It smashes across districts—laying waste to temples, banks, warehouses, homes, barracks, markets. It gathers up 100 buildings in its mouth and swallows the tower, Sabbotton, and Sineater down.
Sineater’s Journey Concludes Next Week!
