Adventures in a Doomed World: Session 17

The ragged cave-dwellers of the wasteland. Image by Midjourney.

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

Last time the party finished their quest against the goblin tribe that had overrun the hamlet of Laford by killing their chieftain. They found an amulet with a strange rune on it which they had previously seen painted on the wall in Mothric's lair. Could the two be connected in some way?

The Adventure

The heroes gathered up all the goblin chieftain's loot into their packs but as they were doing so they realised the right thing to do would be to offer it to the villagers of Laford. It was probably mostly stolen from their homes anyway. They set off back towards the hamlet. It's an uneventful journey other than the sight of a pack of amarollos on the plains. They look like armadillos but move around by rolling along extremely fast, flocking like birds.

When they reach Laford the miners and villagers are thrilled to hear of their victory and shocked when the heroes dump the entire haul of loot onto the ground in front of them. A lot of it is indeed theirs, but they insist on offering the heroes the ironhide potion and -

1D5x100 of the gold: 200

- 200 gold pieces. They gladly accept it along with a handful of rations and a bed for the night. The next morning they leave for Keyham, travelling northeast along the edge of the forest that divides the two settlements. In the afternoon they see a gang of four hobgoblins approaching them across the plains, and ready themselves for battle.

The two groups charge at each other. The hobgoblins have an archer that clambers up a rocky ridge to get a good spot to snipe from. It shoots at Bryne but misses. Helia shoots back and kills it with her last arrow. Once the three remaining ones are close enough Bryne casts Sleep, which knocks all three out, and they are easily dispatched by the heroes' blades. They loot 8.20GP, the weapons, and Helia finds 7 shortbow arrows in the archer's quiver.

Although it's still the wet season, the next day is unseasonally hot. The heroes are unaccustomed to the weather, and get sunstroke, forcing them to find shade under a copse of trees and rest for the day. The following day they cross some barren hills just to the west of Keyham. VathmangTemple stands here, partially buried by a landslide that came down from the hills hundreds of years ago, killing a sect of demon worshippers that gathered there. A lone goblin stands outside it but retreats into the ruin when it sees the party approach (morale failure).

Arriving home, they sell the weapons collected from the hobgoblins and restock their supplies. Bryne visits Yormath the wizard and shows him the goblin chieftain's amulet. He doesn't recognise the symbol on it but says he used to know an arcanist whose speciality was magical runes and ancient symbols. A dwarven man named Thiri, he gave up his magical studies after a numinous experience that called him to join the priesthood of the god Rhana. The last he heard of him, he was living in a temple in the town of Seethorpe, which lies roughly one hundred miles west of Keyham (3D10 miles in a random direction).

While the party is discussing what to do about this, a group of villagers approach them and introduce themselves as the new village council. They appointed themselves after the last mayor was killed in the Maze of Mothric. They tell the heroes that monster sightings have been occurring less often since Mothric's defeat, but travellers are still being chased and sometimes attacked near the village. They ask if the party could help them by finding any monster lairs in the surrounding areas and clearing them out. They are able to pay 25 gold pieces per six mile area (a hex). This will also net the PCs 100XP per hex cleared, and a 600XP bonus when the six hexes surrounding the village are cleared.

The heroes agree to this.

Is there a horse stables in Keyham? (Likely)

Yes.

They decide to buy horses to help them with the task. They'll also be useful when they make the long journey west to Seethorpe. Stilda thinks about the landscape around Keyham. They've found plains, the wasteland and the hills with Vathmang Temple. There'll probably be various monster lairs in the wilderness plus the temple is sure to be crawling with monsters and will have to be thoroughly cleared out.

They buy three riding horses at the stables and a pony for Helia (the halfling) for 265GP. They won't move much faster than the heroes would on foot but each one can carry up to 250 pounds in their saddlebags, and they'll allow the heroes to escape from most encounters if they want (as long as the enemies can't fly or move extremely fast).

Each one needs the following gear:

Bit and bridle: 1.50GP

Feed bag: 5GP

Horseshoes and shoeing: 1GP

Saddle blanket: 0.30GP

Saddle & saddlebags: 10GP

The horses will be expensive to feed: 1 silver piece per day. Let's hope the heroes can keep up with the maintenance costs. They buy enough feed for two weeks. The next day they leave the village and head southwest to the plains. They spend the day searching for signs of monster activity but find none. Stilda remembers her old companion Celomir the elf huntsman and wishes he were here. They reluctantly head back to the village to sleep but somehow get lost in the twilight and travel east by mistake. The grasslands turn into barren rocky ground with dead trees and they find themselves in the wasteland. They'll have to camp here tonight and will search it for monsters in the morning.

The next day they find tracks that look like those of a large dog-sized animal. They follow them to a cave and Helia attempts to creep up to the entrance and peek inside. Simple: DC 9.

Check: 9 +4 Adventuring Thief, +1 Dex bonus = 14

Success! 9XP. (I've decided to award XP equal to the DC when a character passes a check).

Inside the cave Helia sees five men and two women asleep on the ground. They look scrawny and malnourished, and wear rags. She finds no sign of the animals that made the tracks leading there, and goes back to tell the others. They approach the cave entrance together and Stilda calls out to the people inside (Reaction: Favourable).

They wake up and the two parties greet each other. Stilda asks what they're doing living in a cave in the wasteland, and if they're from Keyham.

"No, we're not from the village." a man says. "We don't get on well with others, so we prefer to live out here."

"But you're living in your own filth here, you don't even have beds or proper clothes. Why don't you come back with us to Keyham?" Stilda replies. Hard: DC 13.

Check: 10 -2 Cha penalty = 8

Failure!

"No, we'll just stay on here if you don't mind. We're self sufficient out here." He declines the request. The man has a nervous tic - his nose twitches repeatedly. Some of the other people are doing this too.

Bryne wonders what's going on here. Hard: DC 13.

Check: 9 +2 Lore, +2 Int bonus = 13

Success! 13XP.

Bryne suspects these people might not be who they appear to be. They have animal-like behaviour and there were animal tracks leading here. They could be in league with some monsters or possibly even be shapeshifters of some kind.

"Well," Bryne cuts in, "We've been hired to clear out the region so you can't stay here. You're going to have to leave now. Come on." Hard: DC 13.

11 -1 Dex penalty = 10

Failure.

"This is our home! You can't force us out!" One of the others shouts. "We're nowhere near the village, leave us be!" The others start raising their voices in agreement and the atmosphere turns sour. "Alright, what would it take for you to clear out of here?" Stilda asks them. "Name your price."

D100 on Immediate Desires table

22: Collecting a debt

Various rolls

Wealthy dwarf bachelour, subordinate, wrathful, within a day's ride.

"There's a dwarf in Keyham owes us money. We didn't always live like this, we used to be travelling merchants. We were going into business with him, the coaching inn trade. He was going to open a coaching inn in Keyham so we invested six hundred gold in it, but in the end he never did it and claimed the money'd been spent already and it was a legitimate loss.

But we know he never spent it on any business costs, he's just not giving it back. So you go and get our money back from him and we'll go off and buy some land with it, build ourselves a little shack."

The heroes agree to this. The man says the dwarf's name is Erdulf, and that he lives opposite the bakery in a house with a blue door. They ride back to Keyham and go straight to the house. Cyna doesn't understand why they didn't just beat up the shabby men and women and throw them out of the cave, but she trusts Stilda's judgment.

Is Erdulf at home? (Likely)

No, but the door is unlocked, so they walk in. None of them have the patience to wait all day for him to come home so they can listen to whatever sob story he tries to make up, so they start opening drawers and cupboards looking for the money.

Is the money in the house? (Likely)

No.

They spend a while searching until the whole place is more or less trashed, then realise they've wasted their time.

Does Erdulf return? (Likely)

No, but the oracle says "Illusion accident"

After thoroughly searching the whole house, Cyna leans against the kitchen wall and suddenly disappears. The others hear what sounds like a woman wearing a chainmail hauberk bouncing down a flight of wooden stairs followed by a loud crash. Bryne approaches the wall and puts her hand out and right through it - it's some kind of magical illusion hiding a secret cellar!

They walk through the fake wall and go downstairs where they find Cyna picking herself up. She's suffered 1HP of damage from the fall. Stilda lights her lamp, revealing a grimy cellar. The light reveals a treasure chest in one corner, so Helia approaches it.

Is the chest trapped? (Unlikely)

No, but it is locked. Simple: DC 9

Check: 8 +4 Adventuring Thief, +1 Dex bonus = 13

Success! 9XP.

Helia picks the lock easily and opens the chest. Inside is around a thousand gold pieces and several cheap-looking gems. Her eyes light up at the sight of it, but Stilda reminds her they're only here for the six hundred gold. She reluctantly counts it out which takes a while, and then they leave the cellar.

Does Erdulf return at this moment? (Unlikely)

No.

They leave Erdulf's house. It's getting late now so they return to their homes and call it a day.