Adventures in a Doomed World: Session 8

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

We left our heroes as they were about to return to Keyham after a successful delve into the Tunnels of Mothric.

The Adventure

Pushing the wheelbarrow they found outside the dungeon, they set off for Keyham (this will take one day longer than usual due to the wheelbarrow). After camping in the ruined village overnight they discover the rope they brought has sunk into the boggy ground, making it unusable.

The wheelbarrow is hard to manuevre in the swamp. It rains making the ground so muddy they are stranded for another day.

Finally they arrive home. They make 88.80GP from selling their loot. They buy more rope, three bedrolls and splintmail armour for Stilda. They throw her bloody old apron in the bin. They stock up on rations and head out again.

The journey to the dungeon is uneventful, but they enjoy the rest their bedrolls provide. Annoyingly they find a flock of stirges outside the entrance. There are twentythree of them! Let's use those fray dice!

The fight is long and difficult, with the heroes missing the birds again and again while being pecked nonstop.

After a hideous pecking, Celomir attempts to defy death.

Defy death: 1D4 damage die.

4.

The stirges surround him, pecking his entire body until he is reduced to mincemeat.

Meanwhile a stirge bites through a muscle in Stilda's arm (critical hit), applying a -1 penalty to her attacks.

Geoffrey is badly pecked and attempts to defy death.

Defy death: 1D4 damage die.

1.

He survives!

Geoffrey and Stilda continue hacking away but eventually Geoffrey goes down like Celomir.

Stilda kills more stirges but there are still fifteen left. She makes a run for the door to the Tunnels. The stirges chase her but can't hit her before she jumps inside, slamming the door behind her.

What a catastrophe... She decides to heal her wounds and rest in one of the bunkrooms near the entrance, then see if the stirges are still there. She bandages up her wounded arm, eats a ration then goes to sleep in the bunkbed. Luckily no wandering monsters disturb her rest.

In the BFRPG Hexcrawl Adventures supplement, if a character sees a party member die they gain 100XP but have to make a saving throw vs paralysis or gain a fear of the thing that killed them. This will make them freeze up for one round if they ever see that monster again. This effect can stack, so Stilda needs to make two saving throws. As we've overlaid the Scarlet Heroes rules, we'll go with its system of the difficulty being 9 + the hit dice of the thing that caused it (Stirges have 1HD).

Saving throw: 10 on 2D8 +0 Constitution bonus, +1 character level

13. Success!

Saving throw: 10 on 2D8 +0 Constitution bonus, +1 character level

14. Success!

She wakes up, her arm much better but still wounded. She decides to stay here until she's fully healed or a pack of monsters gets her. At least she killed five of the stirges.

Three days later she's healed up with no monsters to be seen. Surely the stirges have had their feast and left by now? She peeks outside.

Are the stirges gone? (Almost certain)

Yes.

Stilda takes her friends' gear. Their bodies have been mostly eaten along with their rations. Celomir's leather armour has been pecked apart and is covered in gore, so she leaves it there and starts her lonely journey back to Keyham to inform the other three survivors of the Maze.

On her way back, when she reaches the wasteland near Keyham another old dead tree falls down but she manages to avoid it, like Geoffrey did previously.

When she arrives home Stilda meets Bryne, Ames and Symath in the Fool and Tankard Inn. They discuss starting some kind of adventurer's guild in Keyham, using Stilda's old barber shop as a temporary base and trying to attract some foolhardy youngsters who may want to join them in future. Symath volunteers to take on the project, so Bryne and Ames get ready to leave with Stilda after she gives them some gear and they visit the market and leatherworker.

Ames's experience as a not-so-honest beggar lends itself to being a THIEF. Former hermit Bryne lived in the wasteland outside the village, where the mysteries of the aether revealed themselves to her.

Ames, human male thief

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 18 (+3)

Constitution: 13 (+1)

Intelligence: 13 (+1)

Wisdom: 4 (-2)

Charisma: 11

Hit Points: 5

Weapon: Shortsword, shortbow, dagger

Fray Die: 1D6

Armour Class: 7 (Leather armour)

Traits: Hide (3), Pick Lock (3), Disable Trap (2)

Age: 42

Background: Beggar

Appearance: Delicate looking, with a tattoo that says "Barbara"

Personality: Jolly.

Bryne, human female wizard

Strength: 15 (+1)

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 17 (2)

Wisdom: 8 (-1)

Charisma: 8 (-1)

Hit Points: 4

Weapon: Donkey's jawbone (1D4 damage)

Fray Die: 1D4

Armour Class: 9 ( Hermit rags)

Traits: Spellcraft (3), Lore (2)

Age: 25

Background: Hermit

Appearance: Scrawny, with dark skin

Personality: Savage when provoked. Very attached to the donkey's jawbone she uses as a weapon.

With everyone stocked up, Stilda decides to take the pair monster hunting in the wilderness before heading to the Tunnels, to give them a bit of combat experience. They head northeast from the village into the nearby forest. Waking up after a day's travel they see eight fire beetles approaching their camp. Luckily these don't breathe fire, they're called that because they have a gland on their head that produces a fiery glow (which remains for 1D6 days as a light source if it's removed). Their reaction is favourable, so they walk past the heroes, ignoring them. Stilda decides their hardened carapaces will prove too hard to crack for her companions.

Heading east, they come upon a small ruined temple hidden in the trees. This is a feature rolled using the Scarlet Heroes exploration rules, so I'm going to use that to generate it (different to the Tunnels of Mothric).

Being local to the area, the heroes recognise this as the Temple of Zon, built hundreds of years ago in the Golden Age by a cult worshipping some forgotten god called Zon. It was the site of a massacre when the cultists performed a mass sacrifice to their evil master. It is currently riddled with burrows - which I take to mean infested by some kind of creatures that normally live underground, so I'll roll on the caves table for any encounters.

We've rolled up a temple with the above description. It will have twelve locations within it. I rolled on the threat table and got 9 - equal to the PC's level. I'm not sure what that means so we'll see what happens. I'll roll all the rooms first but without their contents. This will help me draw the map which is useful for battle tactics.

They enter through the huge main doors of the temple and find themselves in an outdoor courtyard which served as a large cemetary for the cult. A large set of doors are in the north wall opposite with two more doors on both east and west walls. The place is deserted.

They take the first east door. It opens into a long corridor with many doors on either side. It looks to be the cells where the acolytes lived. They search the cells but they are empty.

Going back outside they try the next door on the east wall. It's a small guard post. In a desk drawer here they find 10GP. We'll carry on exploring next time.

My Thoughts

This was the first time using the Scarlet Heroes rules for dungeon generation. It's interesting, it definitely produces fewer monsters, but there are lots of different dungeon types possible with many different rooms specific to each type. I think for the next dungeon we find I might make a combination of both systems since I really like the BFRPG Hexcrawl Supplement method.