Adventures in a Doomed World: Session 27

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

Introduction

Stilda, Cyna and Bryne are on their way to the town of Seethorpe to meet the dwarven scholar Thiri so they can ask him about the strange rune they've found in two unconnected monster lairs. Along the way they've recruited two potential heroes: Ellyn, a maidservant and Bando, a retired mariner. They're also escorting a lost noblewoman named Lady Eudocia Gerd. She was heading to Seethorpe to buy a painting from a famous artist there but got separated from her guide in the swamp.

The Adventure

The party makes camp in the swamp after the encounter with the pit vipers. For some reason they forgot to buy bedrolls for Bando and Ellyn. There's a bedroll on Oppo the horse that Lady Eudocia is riding on but she lost hers when she lost her guide, so they'll have to find some soft ground to sleep on and unfortunately suffer a -1 penalty to any attacks, checks and saving throws they make until they can get a good night's sleep.

After an uneventful night they set off again, still in the swamp. The area is teeming with life, and soon enough they see a scaly blue lizard the size of a large dog stalking through the water towards them. Does Bryne recognise this monster?

Bryne makes a check (Difficulty 11: 9 + the creature's hit dice)

12 +2 Int +3 Lore = 17. Success! 5 XP (2D4)

"Careful, that's a shocker lizard!" Bryne shouts. "It can stun you, and in this water the shock'll likely spread to all of us."

"Spread out," Stilda says. "My lady, you ride off to a safe distance." She adds to Lady Eudocia. They wade through the stagnant water towards the lizard and switch to their ranged weapons. There's a rocky ridge sticking up out of the water to their left so Cyna tries to climb it to get a better shot at the beast.

Cyna makes a check (Difficulty 9)

6 -1 Dex +3 Athletics = 8. Failure!

She makes it half way up but then falls taking 3 HP damage (1D4).

Stilda shoots at the lizard with her crossbow but misses. Cyna tries to climb the rockface again.

Cyna makes a check (Difficulty 9)

8 -1 Dex +3 Athletics = 10. Success! 3 XP (3D4)

She scrambles quickly up the rock and stands atop it. Running along the top towards the lizard, she shoots down at it but misses. Next Stilda shoots again and hits it in its flank, but it still continues swimming towards them. They keep shooting, and Stilda hits it again but the bolt glances off its scaly hide. Finally Bryne gets close enough to it to use her sling and her magic. She throws a stone from her sling which hits the lizard in the face, stunning it, and then follows up with a green bolt of magic that blasts it backwards and kills it (100 XP).

Stilda bandages some cuts Cyna received in her fall, bringing her back up to 17 out of 18 HP. They trudge on through the swamp, coming to a hilly area later in the afternoon. The sun is beating down on them, and Cyna opens her pack to discover nine days' worth of rations have spoiled in the heat. They only have enough food to last them the rest of the day!

Settling down for the night, they enjoy the last of their food and discuss plans for foraging the next day. None of them are any good at it, but they'll all do their best and hopefully with six of them scrounging around they'll find some edible roots or maybe a hare or two.

Stilda makes a check (Difficulty 12)

8 -2 Int = 6. Failure!

Cyna makes a check (Difficulty 12)

8. Failure!

Bryne makes a check (Difficulty 12)

3 +2 Int +3 Lore = 8. Failure!

Bando makes a check (Difficulty 12)

14 -1 Fatigue = 13. Success! 2 XP (1D4)

Ellyn makes a check (Difficulty 12)

5 +1 Int -1 Fatigue = 5. Failure!

Lady Eudocia makes a check (Difficulty 12)

3. Failure!

Bando returns from his foraging expedition carrying some wild turnips he found. They're small and bitter, but roasted over the campfire they're just about edible. The heroes enviously watch the horses eating their feed, then turn in for the night.

The next day they travel westward up and down the hills. Another foraging trip is required though. This time Bryne, Ellyn and Eudocia return with more wild turnips. Yippee! Bryne receives 4 XP (2D4. It's D4 x their level). Ellyn receives 3 XP even though she's level zero, we're being kind to her. The hills continue west as far as they can see, so when the sun goes down they make camp and eat their turnips. The next day is exactly the same, and they eat the last of the turnips.

The day after that they enter a lightly wooded region. It should be easier to forage for food here due to all the vegetation. The difficulty of the check is 10 instead of 12. This time Bryne, Bando and Ellyn return with some edible roots and a hare that Bryne managed to stun with her sling and then brain with her donkey's jawbone. They receive 6, 1 and 4 XP respectively.

Arriving at the top of a hill the next day, the heroes look down and see what looks like a pack of large wild dogs roaming the valley down below. The animals seem to have caught the party's scent - the pack turns as one and starts to climb the hill. As they get closer the heroes realise they're not dogs but giant rats. Fifteen of the buggers!

There's no way to avoid a fight, so the heroes dismount the horses. Lady Eudocia rides away to watch from a distance since she has no weapon and wouldn't be much use with her one hit die. The two groups charge at each other at speed. A large boulder blocks their line of sight so Stilda and Cyna can't shoot their crossbows yet.

As soon as one comes into view Cyna shoots and kills it. Then the rats break against the boulder and flow around it like a brown furry river. Stilda and Cyna keep shooting into the mass of bodies while Bryne casts a Sleep spell which knocks out three of them.

With the rats almost upon them the fighters sling their crossbows over their backs and draw their melee weapons. Bryne whirls her sling around her head but it flies out of her hand (fumble).

A rat charges at Bando and tries to bite his leg but luckily its teeth don't penetrate his worn out old trousers. Another charges at Stilda but trips over its tail at the last minute, sprawling on the ground (fumble). Another bites Ellyn's leg but like Bando's trousers her ragged dress protects her. One crawls through the brush to Cyna's right and bites her knee, drawing blood for 4 damage.

Bando runs around a large rock where one rat has broken off from the others and clumsily waves his cutlass at it. He gashes it from its neck to its back and it falls down, bleeding out (2 damage). He got his first kill! Stilda fights back against the three that are surrounding her, slashing expertly with her longsword. The blade flashes three times and three rats die, her fray die coming into play for a total of 3 damage. Ellyn tries to bring her wrought iron carpet beater down on another's head but her tiredness from not sleeping well gets the better of her and she misses. Cyna quickly stabs three rats with her pitchfork for 3 damage, killing them all. Bryne is still retrieving her lost sling.

An enraged rat bites Ellyn's thigh for 1 damage while two more crawl through some brambles towards Bryne. Another loses its nerve and flees.

Cyna overextends her pitchfork at the rat in front of her and falls onto the ground (fumble), so Ellyn steps up with her carpet beater but misses again. Bryne sees the two crawling through the bramble patch and kills one with her sling before firing a green bolt of energy at the other, blasting it in the face and killing it (2 damage).

The final rat holds its nerve. It's clearly mad, diseased and doesn't care about its own safety. It leaps at the prone Cyna but she rolls out of the way at the last moment.

Bando approaches it, emboldened by his earlier kill. He brings his cutlass down on its head. The blade digs into its brain and slays it instantly (1 damage). The heroes walk over to the three sleeping rats and impale them on their weapons. For killing fourteen of the fifteen rats (the other is running away down the hill) they receive 140 XP. Cyna and Ellyn were bitten which unfortunately means they need to roll a saving through or catch a disease, which we'll call vermin fever. The difficulty is 9 + a giant rat's HD, so 10 in total.

Ellyn makes a saving throw (Difficulty 10)

4 +1 Con -1 Fatigue = 4. Failure!

Cyna makes a saving throw (Difficulty 10)

7 +1 Con = 8. Failure!

They'll both start to show symptoms of vermin fever in 3D6 hours. After that they'll lose 1 constitution per hour and get a saving throw each time to fight off the disease. If their constitution reaches zero... they'll die.