Adventures in a Doomed World: Session 21

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 party has arrived in Wastow hoping to speak to Aentheord, a cleric for hire who might be able to help them clear the undead out of Vathmang Temple. As Dalla mentioned, Aentheord will ask the party for help with his own problem first. We're going to run it as an urban adventure according to the Scarlet Heroes rules.

The Adventure

Stilda, Cyna, Helia and Bryne leave the Temple of Grum through a side door that leads into the well tended garden. They spot a sunburnt man in his forties turning over the flowerbeds with a hoe and discover that this is Aentheord.

"Aye, I've heard of Vathmang Temple." He says, "The cult there angered Grum by meddling with the natural order of life and death. Grum themself caused the landslide that put an end to that rabble's foul ways."

"Then perhaps you'd be willing to finish your god's work by helping us banish any of their minions that might still haunt the place?" Says Bryne.

I roll on the action and theme oracles in Ironsworn and get:

Defeat superstition.

He sighs and replies,

"Before I agree to help you I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for your help with something. Someone in Wastow has been leaving occult makings around the village, hiding them in strange places. Each time I find one I destroy it and bless the place in the name of Grum, but more appear overnight."

"Hold on," Stilda interrupts, "What do you mean, 'occult makings'?"

"Sometimes it's demonic symbols drawn on the walls of houses that bring bad luck, sometimes it's little shrines with blood on them, occasionally a dead bird. I've read about this kind of thing in the holy books, it's associated with demon worship, all that stuff we were supposed to have got rid of centuries ago.

Anyway, I clear up these shrines and symbols wherever I find them but then more spring up the next day. It's almost like whoever's doing it knows what I'm up to and is having fun with me. I need to find out if there's some kind of demon worshipper operating in Wastow but I have my clerical duties here so I can't just go off investigating every day."

"We'll help you. Do you have any idea where we should start looking?" Stilda asks.

"Well if you have a walk around the village and look in all the nooks and crannies you're bound to find one of them sooner or later."

Suddenly Bryne reaches into her robe and brings out the amulet taken from the goblin king. "Did any of the symbols look like this?" She asks. Aentheorn looks at the design etched on the amulet and says, "No, I've never seen that one. I don't know what that is."

They agree to help Aentheorn, and start looking for signs of demon worship right away.

Investigation Scene

Wastow is a larger settlement than Keyham. The party decide that rather than splitting up they should search for the shrines and symbols together. First they go to the market square and browse the stalls, making small talk with the traders and locals but also looking for anything out of the ordinary.

In Scarlet Heroes, to complete an investigation scene the player needs to pass a check of DC9 + half the threat of the adventure/quest. This adventure's threat is 3. Since we have four heroes which is a lot for SH, I'm going to allow the character with the highest ability or trait to do the roll rather than giving all four of them a chance at it - that would make it too easy.

Helia makes a check of DC10

9 +2 Wis bonus = 11 (11 XP)

Success!

Helia searches behind the stalls and finds a small circle of salt with what looks like a burnt corpse of a sparrow in the middle. There is a tiny scrap of bright purple fabric snagged on a nail sticking out of the wooden frame of the market stall, so she takes it.

At the end of the first scene I roll 1D10. If it's a 1 the foe (the demon worshippers) will also gain a victory point. That number increases with each scene that passes.

1 clue gained (1). Party gains 1 victory point (1).

Foe gains 1 victory point (1).

The first to make it to 10 points wins the adventure.

Investigation Scene

The heroes take the scrap of fabric to a weaver's stall and ask about it. The weaver says she uses that fabric to make outfits for the waitresses of the local inn, The Weary Wench. No one else wears it, so it must be from one of the waitresses there.

Cyna comes up with a plan. She'll go to The Weary Wench and get a job as a waitress. Then she'll be able to make friends with the other staff and not only find out which of them tore their clothes on the nail but also befriend them and get some useful information. The others aren't too keen on such a long winded plan, but they don't have any better ideas.

First she goes to a clothing stall and buys a common brown dress for 1 gold piece, changes into it behind the stalls and stores her gear and weapons in her horse's saddlebags. The others take the horses to the stables, paying 8 silver pieces for the day and then slowly walk to The Weary Wench, being sure to arrive well after Cyna. They buy two bottles of cheap wine and some lunch for each of them (5 silver pieces).

Meanwhile Cyna arrives at the inn where business is booming, and asks about work.

Do they need an extra waitress? (Likely)

Yes.

The innkeeper is a man called Erelm. He takes Cyna into a storeroom and gives her a brief job interview.

Cyna makes a check of DC10.

10 +1 Cha bonus = 11

Success! (11 XP)

Having done bar work in Keyham already, Cyna is hired on the spot. Erelm says he'll have one of the others buy a standard issue purple dress for her tomorrow. She spends the rest of the afternoon and evening serving customers and chatting to the other waitresses, then goes to bed in a common room shared by the non-local waitresses. The other heroes rent rooms for 6 silver pieces in total.

1 clue gained (2). Party gains 1 victory point (2).

Investigation Scene

The next day Cyna has learned that the owner of the torn dress is a foreign waitress called Thyrna. She recently arrived in Wastow having travelled across the sea from the Western Empire, a nearby country formed when The Great Empire fell to civil war and split into pieces.

She tries to casually bring up the burnt offering as if she knows what it means.

Cyna makes a check of DC10.

10 +1 Cha bonus = 11

Success! (11 XP)

"I used to do some of that myself back in my hometown." Cyna says, offhandedly.

"Oh yeah?" Thyrna replies, "I might introduce you to my friends sometime... If you play your cards right."

The other heroes are still renting their rooms and hanging out at the inn, drinking. Cyna serves them some more cheap wine and suggests Helia might want to shadow Thyrna to see if she does anything suspicious after hours. The heroes pay for their rooms, food and drink, and for their horses to remain at the stables, fed and watered (1.90GP).

1 clue gained (3). Party gains 1 victory point (3).

Foe gains 1 victory point (2).

Investigation Scene

That night Helia leaves the inn and follows Thyrna.

Helia makes a check of DC10.

9 +1 Dex bonus, +6 Adventuring Thief trait = 16

Success! (10 XP)

She creeps after her in the dark streets and observes her from outside her rented cottage. It seems she shares it with a man and a woman. She can't hear what they're saying but their accents sound Western Imperial like Thyrna's.

1 clue gained (4). Party gains 1 victory point (4).

Foe gains 1 victory point (3).

Investigation Scene

Helia hides outside the cottage all night until the man goes to work. She watches him to find out where he works during the day. He turns out to be a labourer working on a local building site. She goes back to the inn, tells the others and goes to sleep for the rest of the day.

Stilda takes over watching Thyrna's housemate while he works. At lunchtime he leaves the site carrying a pot of paint and a brush, so she follows him to an alley where he begins painting a white circle on the back wall of a house.

"Oi, stop right there!" Stilda shouts at him. The man scowls at her, drops the paintbrush and walks towards her, rolling up his sleeves. She decides not to draw her sword, hoping to beat some information out of him.

The man sees Stilda approaching dressed in her scalemail with her longsword at her hip and suffers a morale failure, and tries to flee. Stilda runs after him and punches him in the back of the head, knocking him  out for a moment (25 XP).

She slaps him to wake him up and demands to know what he and Thyrna are doing, telling him they've seen the evidence of demon worship around Wastow. He says his name is Omitu and claims he's just doing what he's told by "the others". He's terrified of being killed if they find out he's talked, but tells Stilda if she wants to see what's really going on in Wastow she should visit the cellar of The Weary Wench at midnight tonight. He then struggles free from her grip and runs back to the building site.

Stilda goes back to the inn and tells the others. Bryne points out that the inn has a trapdoor outside for taking delivery of kegs, and it might be a good way of getting into the cellar after closing time. They pay their daily expenses for themselves and the horses (1.90GP), and wait for midnight. Helia wakes up in the evening and they explain the plan to her.

1 clue gained (5). Party gains 1 victory point (5).

The party spends a clue to get an action scene.

Action Scene

At midnight the party goes out to the trapdoor by the inn.

Is the trapdoor locked? (Likely)

No, but there is a man guarding it.

This could be tricky. Helia can probably sneak up on the man in the dark but she doesn't want to murder a Wastow commoner unprovoked. She decides to cut 2 feet of rope from the 50 foot rope they're carrying and hook it over his head then pull him down (she's a halfling) and choke him until he loses consciousness. This sneak attack will be quite hard so she'll only get a +3 attack bonus for it instead of her usual +4.

Helia approaches him stealthily (DC10).

12 +1 Dex bonus, +6 Adventuring Thief trait = 19

Success! (10 XP)

She tries to slip the rope around his neck and choke him (Sneak attack).

2 +1 Str bonus, +5 Attack bonus +8 AC = 16

Failure!

The man sees her at the last moment and draws a small mace, shouting expletives at her. He brings his mace down, bashing her shoulder.

Helia draws her shortsword but doesn't have time to make an attack. Bryne looses a bullet from her sling and it hits the man in the forehead, drawing blood. He collapses to the ground. Helia checks him - he's dead (25 XP). As the fight was so short no one has heard anything or come out of their homes, so they quickly open the trapdoor and all jump in.

Down below they are confronted with a shocking scene. In the centre of the cellar between the stacks of ale kegs ten men and women are standing in rows, wearing hooded red robes. They are facing another robed man who stands in front of a goat, and holds a dagger in front of him. They are all chanting but stop and draw daggers from beneath their robes, ready to fight.

Stilda and Cyna advance towards them. Helia shoots at one and the arrow goes straight through the man's neck and into the man behind him, killing them both. Bryne casts sleep on the large group and six of them fall to the floor unconscious. The two remaining cultists look to their leader in fear, but he drops his dagger and pulls out a wicked looking chain with a sharp hook on the end and marches up to Cyna, swinging it around in circles. When he reaches her he lets the hook fly towards her and it cuts her arm. The two other cultists attack Cyna and Stilda but both easily parry their daggers.

Stilda stabs one of them, killing the man. Cyna jabs at the leader with her pitchfork but he tangles it in his chain, pulling it aside. Helia shoots the other cultist in the stomach and he falls to the floor writhing in pain before lying still. Bryne casts Magic Missile at the leader and it passes through his body leaving a wide hole in his chest, killing him instantly (225 XP).

"Helia, go to the temple and tell Aentheord and Dalla about this. Bring them here." Stilda says. "We'll tie up these sleeping ones and wait for you to return." Helia does as she's told, returning ten minutes later with the two sleepy-looking priests. The six surviving cultists turn out to be locals to Wastow.

Are Thyrna and Omitu among them? (50/50)

Omitu is but Thyrna isn't.

Is Thyrna among the dead bodies? (50/50)

No.

Cyna grabs Omitu and demands to know everything: are there more cultists active in Wastow? Who are they? (DC10)

9 +1 Cha bonus, +1 Intimidate = 11.

Success!

Omitu tells her he and Thyrna arrived in Lond by boat from the West Empire some weeks ago with the remnants of their group, a demon-worshipping sect that was forced from their home by the local town guards. Their leader's name is Jovia and she can be found in a cavern on the shore of Black Boar Lake. (I've decided to cut the length of this adventure since reaching 10 victory points would need several more scenes).

Dalla says Black Boar Lake is twelve miles to the south and it does have a cavern on the northern shore. The heroes volunteer to go there in the morning and deal with the demon cult, putting an end to the problems in Wastow. The priests agree and go to wake up the innkeeper Erelm and let him know what happened in his cellar, and next time we'll make the journey to the lake and take on the rest of the cult.