Broken Down
A Module For Wanderhome
Wanderhome is copyright of Possum Creek Games Inc. Broken Down is an independent production by
Andrew Aulenback and Eric Drew, borrowing a format by Elizabeth Rosenberg, and is not affiliated with
Possum Creek Games Inc. It is published under the Wanderhome Third Party License.
How to Use This Module
This module contains 1 location, a few kith, and a list of questions. It can be played with
or without a guide, though it was originally conceived as a guided module. Your group
can choose to use it as an adventure to resolve, a mystery to explore, or simply as an
environment to be amazed by and to pass through. It is meant to be just one part of the
greater journey you create.
If You Are A Guide
1. Get your party’s okay to deal with issues surrounding delays and broken technology.
Discuss everyone’s boundaries and comfort level.
2. Read through the module and decide what you think is going on here. Answer
the questions from the list, as many as you feel are necessary.
3. Decide what information you want to be openly available in advance, and what
information you want the players to work for.
4. Look up the natures for each location and make note of what they can do.
5. Fill the valley out with more kith, as you normally would.
6. Start guiding your players.
If You Are A Guideless Party
1. Discuss everyone’s boundaries and comfort level dealing with the issues of delays and
broken technology.
2. Read through the module together and let the mystery of it sink in.
3. Read the questions from the list and start thinking about them.
4. Look up the natures for each location and make note of what they can do.
5. Fill the valley out with more kith, as you normally would.
6. Ask your start of session questions, and reveal the mystery of what is going on in
this module through play.
The Story
Cherrywindle in Breathe is lovely and lazy, save for the many carters, peddlers,
postilions, and pilgrims that travel down the road and across the river here. The river,
too, is stronger and less lazy than it looks at the surface. There are no rapids here, no
gurgling rush, no dancing and laughing spray, but that is because the river here is deep,
the currents steady and strong. Even beaver and hippopotamus travelers are careful here,
knowing that this is no safe place to swim, despite the bugs flitting over the surface of the
placid-looking water.
Travel across the river, along this constantly busy road from farm to market, is smooth
and pleasant, the Cherrywindle Ferry easily lifting coach and wagon and pilgrim across
the flood, as it had for years uncounted. Until this week.
This week, something unthought, and unprepared for. Something worked against, but it
seems unsuccessfully.
The Cherrywindle Ferry … sank.
Time: It is currently Swarming (p. 212). You probably do not know anyone here.
Questions
➢ What happens when something you need breaks down?
➢ How much do you rely on machinery to do things?
➢ What happens when we put off repairs, even for good reason?
➢ How do we cooperate with each other to make things happen?
➢ What happens when foods cannot reach the market?
➢ How do you deal with being late?
➢ Who makes the things you need, and who carries them to you?
Locations and Kith
In order to minimize the amount of content duplicated from the Wanderhome core
book, the module either does things slightly differently from the book or lists page
numbers rather than copying bullet points over from the text.
Each location has a description rather than a list of aesthetic elements. To see what each
location can always do, look up the natures listed at the beginning of its description.
Rather than each kith having assigned traits and dealing with deciding what the kith
can do based on that, each kith has a proportional number of things they can always do
that are not quite like any specific trait included in the book.
The Location: Cherrywindle ferry
Natures: Road (p. 160), Bridge (p. 156), Island (p. 157)
Description: The Cherrywindle ferry is always busy, but especially so at this time of
year. The Cherrywindle River is broad, deep, and swift, but the ferry links the markets
that are a half-week’s travel on one side, with the farms and workshops that are a
half-week’s travel on the other. A pleasant little boat-house stands on one bank, with a
chimney poking out of the second story’s roof, where the large Cheerywindle family of
shrews, who own and run the ferry, live. Heavy pilings support the ramp that currently
leads not to the deck of the ferry barge, but simply to the surface of the river.
The Cheerywindle family is a large one, but their cozy home above the boathouse always
seems to have room, and after all, at almost every hour of the day and night, some of
them are out crewing the ferry in its chronic trips back and forth carrying foxes and
chickens and goods from shore to shore. Normally, at least. But not today.
Today all hands are trying to figure out how to find the ferry on the bottom of the river,
fetch it ashore, and repair whatever took it to the bottom, while the crowds on either
shore continue to grow, and to grow louder.
Folklore:
➢ The year that was too busy to pull the ferry ashore for mending.
➢ The waterstrider that raced down-stream.
➢ The goldfish daemon and its promise.
Small and Forgotten Gods:
Goodberry
Pronouns: she/her
Description: The river’s daughter, Goodberry, is one of the fish-headed daemons of the
Cherrywindle River, like those who came before her. She, as did those who came before
her, has a bargain that the river here will never flood its banks. In return, on every trip
across the river, the ferry drops one coin, one apple, or one other small offering
overboard, to disappear beneath the waves.
Goodberry can always:
● Find dropped gifts on the bottom.
● Know what is owed her.
● Make a bargain. They get a token if they accept, but like you, they must keep it.
● Plumb uncertain depths of meaning.
Kith:
Salomon Cheerywindle
Pronouns: he/him
Description: Not the matriarch of the family of shrews, and never one to pilot the ferry,
but one of the family’s most trusted carpenters, Salomon Cheerywindle warned for a year
that the barge needed to come out of the water for maintenance, but it was always too
busy to lose a few days.
Salomon can always:
● Say “Cheerywindle. Cherrywindle is the river. Yes, I know.”
● Look appraisingly at the craftsmanship.
● Spend a token to make something almost as good as new.
● Look to see what can be salvaged.
Meena Cheerywindle
Pronouns: she/her
Description: The matriarch of the family of shrews, Meena Cheerywindle reminisces
about the days when she used to captain the ferry barge, and manages the workings of her
clan in their duties.
Meena can always:
● Say “Cheerywindle. Cherrywindle is the river. Yes, I know.”
● Rap sharply on the table for attention.
● Say “Tsk.”
● Look at someone as though they are very young, no matter how old they are.
Bartlebus Finneus Marwhistle
Pronouns: he/him
Description: Bartlebus is a farmer, a rooster of wide girth, and late. He is well aware of
his being late. He measures his lateness by the condition of the load of peaches that he is
trying to get to market. As the peaches age, he gets louder. And other peddlers get
louder along with him.
Bartlebus can always:
● Look pointedly at his stationary wagon and grazing ladybug, while speaking.
● Clear his throat, and repeat what he said a moment ago.
● Ask how much longer this is going to take.
● Point out that he has been taking this ferry for years, and this has never happened to
him before.
.
Kith: Of people, there are especially shrews, foxes, and chickens. Of livestock there are
especially waterstriders, cargo beetles, and ladybugs.
