Adventures in a Doomed World: Session 16

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. The characters started as level 0 peasants and have since levelled up to become heroes.

Introduction

The heroes have led a group of miners in retaking their hamlet, Laford, from a goblin tribe that occupied it. After a day's rest, they discuss their next move.

The Adventure

"There's always a chieftain, I tell you!" Cyna exclaims, as the party sits in the sun the next day, discussing their plan of action. "We need to find their lair and kill it to make sure these people aren't raided again a few days from now".

"Agreed," Stilda says. "We don't have time to trudge back to Keyham to buy supplies, we need to press the attack right now. The miners say we can reach the lair today if we set off this morning."

And so they do. They cross the grasslands, unknowingly retracing the steps of the first group of would-be adventurers to take on the goblins back in Session 1. They reach the swamplands where the cave lair is located, and come across a pair of troglodytes, that old foe. The creatures hiss and run at the party, emitting their usual foul odour which the heroes are able to stomach this time.

Helia and Bryne shoot at them. One arrow bounces off the scales of one of them. When they reach Stilda and Cyna they attack visciously with a stone dagger and stone shortsword, but the pair parry ably, Stilda batting the knife out of the way and slashing a troglodyte across its body, killing it. While the other is engaged with Cyna, Helia runs up beside it and stabs it in the side, killing it. They get 150XP between them, and move on.

Upon finding what seems to be the goblin cave, they go inside. They walk through an empty cavern with two tunnels leading away from it. Picking the western one, they find another cavern with a small pool of water in it and two more tunnels. Going north, they come to a large cavern with a deep chasm in the middle of it. They can see what looks like a lot of dried blood on the ground here, but no signs of any goblins yet. They go back and take the western tunnel in the previous cave. This one leads to a cave with a deep chasm and a waterfall running into it, splashing down the sides of the hole. Two goblins are here, carrying rocks from one place to another. Stilda and Cyna kill them both easily and they move east past the exit.

"Maybe nearly all of them had moved down to Laford, and it's just some stragglers left here." Helia says, with Cyna replying that there has to be a chieftain here somewhere. The next cave is small, with a goblin standing guard by itself. It too is swiftly dispatched by Stilda's longsword, and they move on. They travel through another featureless cave, then walk right into a large cavern and find themselves surrounded by goblins. There are 38 of them here! This includes 4 warriors, a shaman and the chieftain himself. These numbers are taken from the Basic Fantasy rulebook, and if I wasn't using the Scarlet Heroes combat rules I have no idea how it would be possible for anyone to survive that fight. Maybe we won't!

As soon as they enter the room Helia shoots and kills one of the goblins. The others all turn round to look at them. The heroes back up towards the tunnel they entered by, forming a line. The chieftain barks orders at his minions and they start moving towards the heroes. The fight begins and it's brutal, goblins being cut down left right and centre, and goblin arrows hitting Stilda and Cyna. One goblin manages to get its shortsword under Cyna's arm where her hauberk provides no cover, and stab her deeply (critical hit), reducing her to 1HP. She retreats back towards the tunnel.

Helia throws one of her two firebottles at the one that stabbed Cyna, incinerating it and two others. Two goblins rush at Bryne and stab her with daggers.

Defy Death: 1D4

4.

Bryne is almost killed but somehow summons the willpower to fight on. She retreats to the tunnel with Cyna while Stilda and Helia slash their way through more goblins. Helia clears a space in front of her and throws her other firebottle, burning up several more. From the safety of the tunnel Bryne casts Sleep on a group of them, knocking out two of the warriors and two of the others.

Two of the goblins panic and flee at the sight of this, but the others hold their nerve, bolstered by the chieftain. The fight rages on, the heroes being forced back to the tunnel but slaying several more goblins. At one point the last remaining goblin archer accidentally shoots a warrior in the back and kills it. The chieftain and shaman look on from the back of the cave.

After more slaughter there is one archer standing and two warriors still unconscious because of the Sleep spell. The chieftain steps down from his wooden throne and starts approaching the heroes, his chainmail jingling, axe and shield in hand. "We kill these three and then leg it!" shouts Stilda to the others, motioning to the nearest goblins just before the archer shoots her.

She grimaces from the pain then sticks her sword in a sleeping warrior. Helia shoots the other sleeping one from the tunnel, then Stilda starts her retreat towards the party. As she runs down the tunnel Helia shoots the archer, killing it. The sleeping warrior gets to its feet, but with no more ranged troops the three goblins have no way to bring down the heroes, who escape out into the bright daylight.

They run away from the cave entrance, Stilda bandages their wounds and they take a moment to check their gear. They only have four arrows left, but enough rations for ten days. They make the difficult decision to make camp for a few days to heal the worst of their wounds and then go back into the cave and attack the chieftan before it can summon help from any other goblin tribes, and wipe out the greenskin menace completely. They receive 840XP between them for the fight.

The party cooks their rations on a campfire and settles down for a peaceful night's sleep. Cyna is still badly wounded when they wake up though. Stilda attempts to find some healing herbs and make a paste from them, changing the dressing on the deep stab wound Cyna received. (Simple: DC 9)

Check: 6 +2 Heal, -2 Int = 6

Failure!

She must have picked the wrong herbs. She has wasted a bandage and the wound doesn't get much better. They decide to rest one more night and then go back.

Is the goblin warrior standing guard at the entrance? (Unlikely)

No. It's in the throne room with the others.

The heroes enter the throne room and see the chieftain and its two remaining lackeys over by the rough wooden makeshift throne at the back of the room. Both groups advance on each other. Helia takes aim with her bow and shoots the shaman dead. No healing for the chief today! Bryne casts Magic Missile, the glowing orb smashing into the chieftain, burning and wounding it.

While Stilda and Cyna engage the goblin warrior, Helia darts off to a huge natural pillar of rock and attempts to hide behind it, using the chaos as a distraction. Cyna stabs the warrior with her pitchfork while Bryne shoots a green energy bolt at it, burning it.

The warrior jabs Stilda with its short spear while the chieftain reaches Bryne. It swings its goblin handaxe at her, cutting her arm badly (critical hit).

Meanwhile Helia reaches the pillar and attempts to slip behind it unnoticed. Average: DC 10.

Check: 2

Natural failure!

The goblin chieftain marks her presence there and roars.

Stilda swings at the goblin warrior (critical hit!). Since this is a kill, I'm rolling on the Merciless Carnage Critical table. Her longsword slices open the goblin's pot belly with extreme force, sending green entrails splatting into the face of the chieftain, stunning it for one round. Wow! Cyna sees the opportunity and steps up to the chieftain, but misses it completely. Bryne retreats back behind Stilda clutching her wound.

The chieftain tries to wipe its minion's entrails off its face so it can see. Stilda and Cyna both attack it but it manages to parry both of them. Helia takes the opportunity to hide again, while the chieftain is distracted and this time it works. She begins creeping into position behind the battle.

The chieftain needs to make a morale check now. It passes, and chops at Cyna with its axe, wounding her. Both the fighters are unable to break through its defences, the handaxe and shield. Helia aims carefully and looses her arrow at its back, but it bounces off its chainmail.

The fight continues with both sides fighting defensively and not making much progress. Eventually the goblin looks tired and Stilda quickly stabs it under its armour, making it wail in pain. While it's reeling from the pain Cyna jabs it with her pitchfork.

It fights back, hacking into Cyna again, but this exposes its back to Stilda and she runs it through with all her might (Critical hit! Double damage!), finally slaying it. The party cheer - Laford is finally safe. They receive 825XP in total. Searching the cave they find a chest stuffed with loot. It contains a gold bangle, two gold toe rings, a big pile of gems, some costly some cheap, a fine white chiffon hat and robe and a magical potion. Bryne identifies this as a potion of ironhide, able to make the drinker's skin as hard as platemail for a few hours.

Helia reaches down and pulls a small amulet from the chieftain's neck. She's about to pocket it when Bryne points at the symbol etched on it and says she saw the same sign painted on the wall in Mothric's lair.

The unknown symbol that links the goblin chieftain with Mothric.

Bryne doesn't recognise the symbol but thinks it could be an ancient dwarven rune. She decides to ask the wizard Yormath in Keyham about it when they return.

My Thoughts

That goblin chieftain was hard, it had 7 hit dice! Glad they managed to take it down though. And we have the beginnings of a plot which will be partly planned by me but also a collaboration with the oracle. I'm interested to see where it leads...