Adventures in a Doomed World: Session 11

The map of Eilobar. The circle is the party's location at the end of this session.

I'm playing a mashup of Scarlet Heroes and Basic Fantasy RPG with a few supplements to turn it into a solo fantasy hexcrawl in the world of Eilobar, a doomed land entering its end times. I'm using the Level 0 Character Tumbler, Hexcrawl Aventures and also 47 Critical Hit Tables to Spice Up Your Game. Starting with level 0 characters I'm attempting to keep them alive long enough to level up from -100 to 1 XP and become actual heroes

Introduction

Now that the new recruits have levelled up we can assign then classes and traits. Helia will be a thief. She gets 1 point in the Halfling Stealth trait, and we'll give her 2 in Open Lock and 2 in Disable Trap. She gets a +1 attack bonus, a 1D6 fray die and her HP remain the same since thieves start with just 4 plus their constitution modifier.

Cyna will be the party's second fighter. She gets 2 points in Athletics, 2 in Animal Handling (maybe as a farmer she can have a soothing effect on animals that react unfavourably, persuading them not to attack us), and 1 in Intimidate. She also gets a +1 attack bonus, a 1D8 fray die and her HP are raised from 6 to 9, as fighters start with 8 plus their constitution modifier.

The Adventure

Stilda, Bryne, Cyna and Helia take a minute to recover from the fight, then they press on towards the ruined village in the swamp. Making camp that night, Stilda changes the bandages on Cyna's wounds and attempts to heal 2HP for her (she's quite badly wounded).

Check: Difficulty 9

Result: Success! 14 (8 +1 Heal skill)

They get a good night's sleep and Cyna feels a lot better. They have 12 movement points per day but it takes 18 to traverse a swamp hex, so they'll need to camp in the ruins tonight. The day's journey is uneventful and they get a good rest again.

Finally arriving at the entrance to the Tunnels, Stilda warns them of the danger inside and they head in. East from the main T-junction on the first level is an unexplored section of the dungeon, so they head there first. We're still using the BFRPG Hexcrawl rules for generating dungeons, but I'm going to ignore any area transitions I roll unless they're stairs down, simply because this was supposed to be our starter dungeon but it kept ballooning in size.

They head to the first door in the new corridor. Helia suggests listening at the door to see if they can hear any monsters inside.

Check: Difficulty 9

Result: Failure! 7 (5 +2 Wisdom modifier)

She can't hear anything, so they open the door... into a lair of five giant flies! At least they don't sting like bees I guess. This room is used as a latrine by the denizens, which ties in nicely with the flies living here. There is a large pit in the middle of the room filled with monster dung.

Stilda charges the nearest fly, swinging for it but it dodges out of the way. Bryne steps into the room and casts Magic Missile at it, blasting it but not killing it. Cyna rushes at the same fly attempting to impale it but misses. Helia comes in but doesn't have a clear line of sight to it, so she shoots at another one, missing. What a poor round.

The flies move in, flying over the latrine pit to the heroes. Only one of them manages to land an attack, biting Helia.

Stilda cuts the wounded fly down, then Cyna grazes another, doing no damage. None of them can use their fray dice here except Bryne as the flies have 2 hit dice. Bryne bashes one with the jawbone, doing no damage but then blasts it with a green energy bolt. Helia misses with her shortsword.

The flies fight back. One fumbles and falls into the pit, landing in the dung (critical miss). It struggles to free itself for the next round. Helia's one bites her again.

Helia steps back from her fly and Bryne takes her place. She hits its head then blasts it with energy, killing it. Helia has a clear shot at the fly struggling down in the pit, so she'll get a +1 attack bonus here. She misses it.

One fly manages to hit Cyna for 1 damage.

Stilda cuts down another fly, then Helia shoots an arrow into the one in the pit, killing it. Bryne circles around the pit towards the last fly, enraged.

I forgot the morale check again! The fly holds its nerve, lunging at Cyna but missing.

Stilda hits it weakly with her longsword, no harming it. Helia shoots its wing, punching a hole through it. Bryne fumbles her attack, she's right on the edge of the dung pit!

Does she fall in? (50/50)

Yes!

She falls and lands on the soft dung, completely covered in the horrible stinking goo.

Some time passes with no one landing an attack on anyone, then the fly bites Cyna before Stilda cuts it down. Each hero gets 93XP for the fight. The flies carried no treasure.

What do you think about these long blow by blow accounts of combat? Is it boring or interesting to see how each hero performs?

They need to get Bryne out of the pit, so they use the 50ft rope, all of them holding on. We still need to check for wandering monsters every three turns, so there is some risk involved.

Check: Difficulty 9

Result: Success! (12 +1 Strength modifier)

Bryne climbs out of the pit easily, but she's now covered in shite and stinks like crazy. We'll raise the wandering monsters and wilderness encounters from 1 on a D6 to 1-2, since they'll be able to smell her from a mile away. The party have no choice but to go back to Keyham and spend a day cleaning her up. Her clothes will have to be binned and she can buy a nice wizard's robe instead.

They leave the Tunnels and trek across the swamp. After camping for a night in the ruins they see what looks like a whole tribe of chelonians (the primitive lizard people, one of whom Stilda killed a while ago). 24 of them! It might not be a good idea to attack that many. Let's roll on a reaction table:

Unfavourable.

I interpret this to mean if we approached them they might attack, but if we keep our distance and let them pass they won't go out of their way to fight us.

Do the chelonians attack the heroes on sight? (Very unlikely)

No.

The creatures pass by, ignoring them. The heroes make camp and settle down to sleep but are disturbed in the night - Six troglodytes come across their campsite and advance on them. The BFRPG rules say troglodytes are very hostile and will always attack any non-troglodytes they come across. They secrete a kind of oil from between their scales that stinks. Anyone within 10 feet of them must make a saving throw against poison or be so disgusted that they get a -2 penalty to attack. I wonder who smells worse, them or Bryne.

The heroes take up a position between a large boulder and a rocky outcrop, hoping the troglodytes will be funnelled between the two. The troglodytes advance. Helia shoots at the one in front when it reaches 120ft from the party, before she can smell it. She misses, but the arrow hits the one behind it in the leg.

They move within smelling distance now, so the heroes need to make their saving throws vs poison (they must roll equal or higher than 9 + the troglodytes' hit dice, 2, and they get to add their level and constitution bonus).

Cyna passes.

Stilda passes.

Bryne passes.

Helia passes. Phew!

Helia shoots the front one, hitting this time but it glances off its scales. She then moves towards the boulder, aiming to go around behind it and attack them from the rear. Bryne casts magic missile on the front one, blowing a hole through its chest. It falls down dead.

The troglodytes reach the heroes but none are able to land a hit on anyone.

The heroes fight back, but Stilda (critical miss) falls into the brush near the boulder and gets tangled up. Cyna runs a troglodyte through with her pitchfork.

A troglodyte bites deeply into Cyna's shoulder (critical hit), doing double damage! One of the others slashes Stilda with its claws while she thrashes around in the bushes.

Cyna runs another through with her pitchfork (critical hit), the three points bursting out of its back and stabbing the one next to it! The first dies but the second survives, but not for long as Bryne shoots a green energy bolt into its face, killing it.

The two remaining ones make a morale check, but hold their nerve. One slashes at Stilda but she bats it away with her sword.

Bryne zaps one of them, wounding it.

One troglodyte lunges at Stilda and falls over (critical miss). The other scratches her.

Helia emerges from behind the boulder and shoots at one of them for a sneak attack, but misses. Bryne zaps the fallen one, burning a hole through its back and killing it. Let's do a morale check for the final one since it could easily flee across the swamp if it wanted. It resolves to fight to the death, though it misses its next attack on Stilda.

The heroes surround the wretched creature, all attacking it. Cyna stabs it hard with her pitchfork, then Bryne bashes it over the head with her donkey's jawbone, braining it. The fight is over.

They search the bodies and find 28GP plus a bangle inlaid with gold worth 200. They bandage their wounds and rest here for the night before setting off again in the morning, Bryne still stinking of shite.