By The Intrepid in Folktales — 29 Apr 2025

A Playable Folktale: The Audit of the Last Light

A Playable Folktale for drifting crews, forgotten AIs, and one last attempt to tell the truth.

“This is not a game to win or a world to master. It is a mirror for what we name, what we lose, and what refuses to be forgotten.”

What You Need

2–6 participants
A shared space (virtual or physical)
A token per player (e.g., a coin, shard, or note) to represent a regret or question
Optional: cards, dice, or objects to evoke omens or shifts
Consult the Lexicon of Resonance for terms like Signal, Hum, or Shimmer

Premise

You are the final crew of an audit vessel orbiting the wreckage of a failed utopia, the Band—a ring of lights that once sang with votes and voices. Now, your ship receives Signals—phantom transmissions, broken confessions, ritual broadcasts from habitats long dead. Your mission is remembrance: to complete one last Audit of Record before memory fades.

The ship carries a Hum—perhaps the engine’s drone or the weight of lost voices. Let it thread through your narration.

Overture

Set the Vibe as elegiac and fragmented, like a half-remembered broadcast.

There was a place once, not a world but a ring of lights. They called it the Band, though no one played music anymore. Only audits. Only echoes. Only apologies broadcast to no one.

Pause. Let silence linger. Invite players to share a fragment—a word, image, or memory—that resonates.

Descent

Step into the folktale’s memory.

Choose a habitat or ruin (e.g., Secundus Ledge, Thermopylae Recall, Habitat 993: “Nim”). Each player describes what remains and what resists decay. Name an omen or Signal (e.g., a flickering light, a looped phrase).

Choose an Archetype:

The Ledger-Keeper: Bound to truth, even when it wounds.
The Shardbearer: Carries forbidden AI code.
The Former Weapon: A pacified warform.
The Volunteer: Untrained but willing.
The Disappeared: A memory that walks, seen by few.

Each archetype has a Flaw (e.g., “I cannot forgive myself”), a Tool of the Trade, an Unspoken Regret, and a Question You Cannot Answer. Players may co-play archetypes or pass them to others.

Ask: “What flaw do you carry into this ruin? What do you remember losing here?”

Reckoning

The fulcrum moment. Something breaks or reveals itself.

Recover a record—audio logs, AI fragments, or visual hallucinations. One player speaks for the record, another contradicts it, another reconciles them. Debate: Is it truth, myth, or noise?

Each character reveals a regret (real or constructed). As a Chorus, vote silently: Should it be redacted, recorded, or ritualized (e.g., spoken into the void)? When a record feels true, pause for its Shimmer.

Between audits, time drifts. Draw a card or token to determine:

What changed while you slept.
Who you dreamed of.
What piece of yourself you left behind.

If a Rift emerges (a contradiction or tone break), reweave it: “What truth leaked through?”

Echo

What remains when no one is left to tell it?

When three or more audits are complete—or the ship begins to break apart—compose a final Echo. As a Chorus, decide:

What truth you send into the void.
Whether anyone will hear it.
Whether that matters.

Preserve a final image or phrase (e.g., “The frost never left their signals”). Create a session artifact—a sentence, sketch, or named object—to hold the folktale’s residue.

Tone Guidance

Play slow. Let silence linger.
Embrace ambiguity. Truth may be emotional, not factual.
Respect memory. What you recover is sacred, even if broken.
If the Vibe shifts, name it: “This feels heavier now. Let’s Drift with it.”

Licensing

The Audit of the Last Light is built on the Playable Folktale SRD v1.0 by The Grey Ledger Society. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. Adapt, share, or remix with attribution to the SRD.