Adventures in a Doomed World: Session 20

Temple of the earth god Grum, village of Wastow. 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

Our heroes are part way finished clearing the land surrounding the village of Keyham of monster lairs, but two areas remain: An area to the northwest and the ruins of Vathmang Temple, former home to a death cult.

The Adventure

The party sets off to the northwest of Keyham on this day at the tail end of the wet season and finds a swamp. They begin searching for monster tracks but while walking alongside a deep part of the watery bog they are ambushed by five crocodiles! Each hero will get a wisdom check to see if they're taken by surprise (Average: DC11).

Stilda: 11 -2 Wis penalty = 9. Failure!

Cyna: 12 +1 Wis bonus = 13. Success!

Helia: 5 +2 Wis bonus = 7. Failure!

Bryne: 15 -1 Wis penalty = 14. Success!

Stilda manages to dodge the one ambushing her but Helia receives a critical hit from hers. I've decided to spice things up by rolling on the critical hit tables for monsters now, not just for the heroes, so let's see what happens...

The crocodile bites through Helia's leather armour, cutting its effectiveness in half! She'll have to buy a new set back in Keyham. She takes 1HP of damage and her AC is now 8 instead of 7, equivalent to a padded gambeson.

The heroes fight back. Cyna stabs one with her pitchfork and then Bryne casts Sleep which works on all of them. They put their weapons through the brain of each beast to ensure they won't ambush any more travellers (375XP gained).

They search the swamp until they find a cave home to eight giant bats. If they find them during daytime they'll be asleep and can be ambushed by Helia, but if it's night they'll be active.

Is it day or night? (50/50)

Night.

They search all day until the sun goes down, then come across a cave filled with giant bats that have a wingspan of fifteen feet, flapping about the cave manically. The party moves in on them and the fight isn't much of a challenge for the heroes though Stilda is scratched and bitten a little. They kill seven of the bats and then the last one flies off out of the cave. They receive 650XP for the combat, mapping the swamp hex and clearing it. As it's night now they make camp in the swamp and travel back in the morning.

Thinking about it now, as they're on horses I should have had the crocodiles attack the horses rather than the heroes as the outcome might have been very different. I'll have to remember that next time they get ambushed in the wilderness.

Back in Keyham they are paid 25 gold pieces for clearing the giant bat lair. They agree that they're probably going to encounter the undead minions of the death cult of Vamang when they go to the ruined temple to the northwest, so it would be best to find a cleric hireling. The problem is there are no temples in Keyham as it's so small so they'll need to look elsewhere. Bryne says there'll definitely be one in Seethorpe, the town they need to go to in order to ask the scholar Thiri about the rune they found. That's a hundred miles away though, so Helia and Cyna ask around in the inn and marketplace to see if anyone has heard of any priests in the region.

Meanwhile Stilda and Bryne go to the market and restock their supplies. They also buy a new set of leather armour for Helia to replace the torn one and crossbows for Stilda and Cyna. They'll finally be able to fight at a distance if they need to. Bryne sells her shortbow and buys a sling as it weighs less and as a wizard she's limited to a 1D4 damage die anyway.

Helia and Cyna ask the inn patrons if anyone knows of a priest in the region (Average: DC11).

Helia: 14, no Cha bonus. Success!

Is there a temple in a nearby village? (Unlikely)

Yes.

Which of the three gods does it serve? (1D3)

Grum, whose domain is the earth.

How many miles away is it? (2D20)

26 miles.

In which direction? (Directional die)

East.

An old farmhand called Tom tells Helia there's an earth temple in a village called Wastow 26 miles east of here. The priesthood of Grum are known for their hardiness and strength in combat so one of them will probably accompany you into the ruins in exchange for a donation, he says. They buy him an ale (1 silver piece) and leave.

That would only be two days' ride if the land is flat so they waste no time and set off immediately. They cross the wasteland to the east but in the afternoon they are dismayed to find the ground turning into a soft wet bog. Yet another swamp! This slows them down so they have to camp overnight. 

In the morning they get on the move again. Soon a strange building looms up out of the swamp. Surrounded by a fallen-down wooden palisade, it is double the size of a village meeting hall with several towers built of some strange material that shimmers in many colours like mother of pearl. There are lots of windows in its walls, most smashed but some still containing intricately detailed abstract coloured glass designs.

"That's one of the old lizardfolk ruins" says Bryne.

"Don't be silly," replies Cyna, "They're all in Goza down south, not up here in Lond."

"They say that thousands of years ago, even before the First Scourge and the doom of the elves, the world was a lot warmer and the Goza Dominion stretched all the way up the continent. You can still see some of their buildings today out between the far villages."

Cyna looks unconvinced, and suggests that since they need to make camp again in the swamp they may as well set up here before it gets dark. The heroes enter through a gap in the old palisade and open the door to the large building. Inside it looks like some kind of smithing place, with many forges and smelters spread out in ordered rows. All of them look well beyond the possibility of repair. Unfortunately there are also seventeen troglodytes living here. They rush to pick up their primitive stone weapons.

The room is huge so the heroes decide to let the monsters come to them while they pick off as many as they can with their ranged weapons. There are two large piles of debris in the middle near the entrance and over by the west wall is a section of the floor that has fallen in and flooded with swampwater. There's a path between these large obstructions so the heroes try to position themselves in a place where the monsters will have to funnel themselves down that path while being shot.

The plan works but none of the heroes are able to hit any of the troglodytes, and a sneaky archer goes around the other side of the debris and shoots Bryne. When the troglodytes come within ten feet of the heroes their stench is immediately recognisable. They must pass a saving throw of DC11 or fight at -2 to attack bonus for the whole combat.

Stilda: 10. Failure!

Cyna: 10 +1 Con bonus = 11. Success!

Helia: 9. Failure!

Bryne: 4. Failure!

So only Cyna gets her full attack bonus for the rest of the fight - this could be tricky. Bryne casts Sleep which only manages to knock out three of them, before being shot again by the sneaky archer. Stilda and Cyna engage a troglodyte warrior and a normal troglodyte while two more try to rush Helia but she slashes cuts across both their bodies with her shortsword, killing them both. Bryne casts Magic Missile on the warrior, badly burning it.

Bryne gets shot again and then hit with a stone handaxe, cursing herself for not using the Magic Missile spell to kill the archer outright.

Cyna stabs one of the troglodytes deeply in the chest, killing it. Bryne darts away from the fight. She's out of sight of the first archer but now in the line of fire of another archer and a slinger. She slings a bullet at one of them but it misses by a mile - she's still put off by the disgusting stench of the monsters.

The fight continues with both sides fighting like mad. Bryne is hit by another arrow and then chopped in the side by a handaxe. Determined not to go down, she rips the arrow from her shoulder and throws it on the floor (Bryne has now spent her one defy death for this expedition).

Stilda hacks into the flesh of the troglodyte warrior in front of her, cutting it almost in half. It looks surprised for a moment then falls dead on the floor. She then starts moving closer to the archer and slinger that were targeting Bryne. Cyna sees Bryne almost get killed and lunges with her pitchfork at the one that did it, gashing its side. Bryne moves around Cyna, putting her between the ranged attackers and herself. This brings her dangerously close to another troglodyte so she zaps it with a bolt of energy, wounding it. Helia swings for a troglodyte but her sword flies out of her hand and clatters to the floor.

The ranged troglodytes can only see Stilda now. They both shoot at her but the projectiles clatter off her splintmail. Unfortunately Bryne has put herself in harms way - the original archer that shot her from the other side of the room can see her again. It shoots and just misses her! Now the one she just zapped gets a chance to go for her with its dagger... It stabs at her but she dodges out of the way at the last moment!

Stilda moves like lightning across the room, charging the archer that recently shot Bryne. She feints for its head so it raises its hands, then hacks into its belly, killing it. Cyna stabs and kills the one nearest her then positions herself between Bryne and another troglodyte warrior that has just arrived in the melee. Bryne points at another troglodyte and a green energy bolt shoots out of her finger and goes right through its face.

After witnessing the archer get almost disembowelled in front of it, the slinger screams and runs for the door. Helia reaches her sword and picks it up but while she does so she's hit in the back with a stone handaxe, wounding her badly.

The fight rages on, no more of the monsters willing to back down. Helia loses her focus for a moment and a troglodyte's axe hits her square in the chest, winding her (Critical hit! -1 attack penalty on her next turn).

Cyna sees this and marches over to the fight. She easily kills the two troglodytes that were attacking Helia. Helia then moves backwards to where Bryne is standing, away from the battle. Still winded, she shoots at the last troglodyte of that group, but misses. Bryne notices the three sleeping ones are starting to stir, so she aims carefully and shoots a bullet at one's head, piercing its brain.

The last surviving archer sees Stilda running towards it and begins moving backwards, shooting an arrow into her leg as it does so. Cyna slashes the last standing troglodyte, then it's hit by an arrow from Helia and killed. Bryne shoots another sleeping one, killing it too.

The last surviving sleeping troglodyte wakes up and sees its brothers nearly all lying dead around it. It fails a morale check and flees. Incredibly the archer wants to keep fighting! It keeps walking away from the heroes and shooting at Stilda as it goes. Everyone uses ranged weapons and misses it again and again, until finally Stilda and Cyna both hit it with crossbow bolts, putting it down.

What a fight! Again, those lair numbers in the Basic Fantasy rules are insane. We did it though! They receive 1555XP for the monsters killed and clearing this hex. Sadly after a dismal roll on the treasure table all they managed to find was a copper and lapis lazuli ring worth 100GP. Bryne claims it for herself as a memento of the battle that almost killed her, slipping it onto her finger.

Stilda has reached level 3! She gains 4HP bringing her maximum to 16, her attack bonus becomes +3 and she gains 1 point in a new trait, Tracking, since they've been doing a lot of it lately. Stilda bandages everyone's wounds and they make camp in the building and go to sleep.

The next day they ride east to Wastow. They head straight for the temple of Grum, the earth god. Entering the temple they find a large hall with rows of stones worn smooth by the bottoms of the congregation  and a stone altar on a stage made from stacking rocks on top of each other. Above them are nine stained glass windows with scenes representing Grum's domains: Mountains, deserts, justice, animals, crafting, toil, commerce, protection and wisdom.

Soon they are greeted by a priest, an elven woman named Dalla. She notices their bandages and offers to heal them for a donation of 10 gold pieces each. Stilda and Bryne haven't fully recovered so they pay 20GP for the service, and she casts the spell.

The heroes explain that they need to clear out the ruins of Vathmang Temple and they expect to find undead there since it was the home of a death cult. They ask if there is a priest in the temple willing to accompany them. Dalla says there is one: a human man named Aentheord.

Is Aentheord here and available? (Likely)

Yes, but he has a problem that he needs help with first.

Dalla explains that while Aenthord is here, she doesn't expect he'll be in the mood to travel to Keyham as he seems very troubled by something at the moment. They are welcome to speak to him however, and will find him working in the garden at the back of the building. The party follows her directions to the garden... We'll meet Aentheord in the next session.

My Thoughts

I recently spent a bit of time coming up with the three gods of Eilobar's pantheon, a trinity of earth, fire and water. It could be fun to make up some earthy spells for Aentheorn to use while he's with us. Something that was really nice is the image created by the AI Midjourney. The prompt I gave it included the fact it was a temple to an earth god with rock walls, and it had the idea of making an altar from stone, surrounded by stacked stones and rocks, so I incorporated that into the description. I strongly recommend using AI image generators in some way in your own campaigns.

I decided to stop before we speak to Aentheorn as this was quite a long session and I think he's about to give us some kind of village-based quest to do.