Reforging a chronicle

Reforge takes a chronicle you've already generated and re-runs the downstream pipeline phases on a provider of your choice (Gemini by default) — without re-running the whole thing from the transcript. It lives in the Tome of Lore tab, under Saved Chronicles.

Why it exists

This one came out of a specific annoyance. A run would produce a genuinely good chronicle — the prose was right, the names were right, the whole thing read well — and then the quotes list would come back half-empty because the model had quietly declined to repeat anything rude. Which, at a table where the funniest line of the night is rarely printable, meant losing the best bits.

Re-running the entire pipeline to fix the last phase is a waste of forty minutes and a chunk of API credit, so Reforge keeps the part that worked and redoes the rest somewhere more suitable:

• Run the grounding + chronicle on whichever model writes the best prose.
• Then reforge the quotes / jests / gore and the condensed recap on a model that's better at picking out memorable, in-character, and dark lines.

It's also the recovery tool when the later phases failed outright — for example when running on a Claude Code subscription, where the audit and extras phases are the most likely to be declined or to exhaust your usage window.

What you can do per run

Reforge is a guided, three-step panel:

1. Choose a chronicle — pick one from your Saved Chronicles library, or paste / upload a chronicle file (optionally with its grounded transcript). The panel shows what the source carries (chronicle, grounded transcript, DM Q&A), which determines what's available below.
2. Choose what to produce:
   • Chronicle — Keep existing (default) or Rewrite on Gemini. Rewriting needs the grounded transcript; it regenerates the prose, applies the selected narrator voice, and improves the distinction between a player describing their character's actions and the character speaking in character.
   • Extras (quotes / jests / gore) — and where to read them from:
     • Grounded transcript — most thorough (verbatim table dialogue), higher token cost.
     • Chronicle prose — cheaper, but limited to what the narrative preserved.
   • Condensed recap — a tightened retelling plus catch-up bullets, in the selected voice.
   • Voice — any installed Persona (or the default Bard) for the rewritten chronicle and condense.
3. Review & run — a plain-language summary of exactly what will happen, then a progress bar. The result is saved as a new entry in Saved Chronicles — your original is never overwritten, so you can compare or keep both.

Companion: refusal markers + targeted repair

When a run is on a provider that declines a chunk and the in-run fallback can't recover it, that chunk is marked in the output (a visible banner + a hidden tag) and recorded. A Review & Repair Refusals panel on the finished chronicle lets you re-process just those marked chunks on another provider and splice the results back in — no full re-run needed. Reforge handles "redo a whole phase elsewhere"; repair handles "fix the specific chunks that were declined".

Tips

• Cost: extracting extras from the grounded transcript reads far more text than reading the chronicle prose. If you're cost-sensitive, use the chronicle source; if you want every verbatim line, use the transcript.
• Quotes / jests / gore favour quality over quantity — a few sharp entries, and dark / edgy / explicit lines are kept (that's the table's authentic voice), not padded lists.
• Reforge from the library is the lowest-friction path, since the grounded transcript and DM Q&A are stored alongside each saved chronicle.