A Slight Mea Culpa Regarding Maps
One of the experiments introduced in this specific adventure was to use a map taken from the source and then render it in GIMP to track movement of the characters and such. This is in contrast to much of the previous Bleak + Pearl where a lot of movement and action was treated as theater-of-mind.
However, when finally reopening the files for this one, I realized the map prior to the sea nymph scene had not been saved. Or, possibly, it had been saved and was later overwritten. It is a relatively short fix, in principle, likely not taking more than half an hour to rebuild a map that is mostly like the one would have been with a few minor alterations in placement, torchlight, and so forth.
Instead of doing that, I am going to finish out this adventure mostly theater of mind. If we get to a complicated battle I might move over some pieces just for that, but I’ll return to the older style. Which I somewhat prefer because it protects other content creators’ intellectual property more while still maintaining visual elements that can be shared in snippets.
After it is wrapped up, possibly in this episode, I will be able to ascertain which method I preferred more.
Previously, on The Bleak + The Pearl
After navigating a potentially tricky situation involving a hungry, sleepwalking troll the Lighthouse 6 pushed forth. They have been joined by Bernark, a thief and vagabond, who has taken to following the group in exchange for saving his life. The adventurers have met a trio of sea nymphs and thanks to Boris and Louis’s charms, made the start of a friendship. The nymphs have disclosed the location of the mantle. Unfortunately, a group of bloodthirsty Nords, already responsible for death in the sea caves, have it. Now, Gryffin must tackle this new foe and several questions about how capable is his team when a real fight shows up?
About The Bleak + The Pearl
The once great empire of Barthus has fallen as a corrupting force called The Bleak spreads from shore to shore. Pockets of humanity remain, and the greatest of these is the city of Grunce, long protected these three centuries by a Lighthouse designed to absorb The Bleak and use its own energy against it. However, the Lighthouse is waning. A group of four heroes risk life and sanity going further and further into the Bleak-ravaged Barthus to solve the mystery of ancient technology and stop The Bleak once and for all.
Joining them (in the second season) is a group of six new heroes who trying to help to complete the fuelstones to power the Lighthouse. These heroes represent the great houses that originally started the light all those years ago. Only, the great houses are not what they once were and the Lighthouse Six are little more than burnouts and vagabonds.
Content Warning: Fantasy levels of violence. Some strong moments of body horror. Some drinking. Some smoking. Language pretty tame but it’s a possibility. Mostly the violence and the weird horror, really.
See more at the Bleak + Pearl campaign page.
This post is in the standard Doug Alone post style. See Anatomy of a Post for more details.
Attribution for the tools and materials used—including the splash art—can be found in the Credits below along with some details.
The Bleak and The Pearl, Part 26: Facing Tough Choices.
Setting the Scene, e26s1.
Room 12 has three points of interest [page 57 of Cursed Scroll 3]:
- The river leading to the outside [East] and back to the Sea Nymphs’ Den [West],
- A Nord riverboat with supplies, and
- A Sea Nymph named Ryleen. The Nords, lead by Garatha, killed her sister (the sister’s revenant was fought in part 23).
I knew there was a sea nymph in the room based on the slight peak-ahead in the previous session. However, now that I am in the room I see that Ryleen is more apt to stay out of the way. She longs for revenge but it mentions nothing about what she might do to facilitate it.
Let’s go to SoloDark, then: Will Ryleen aid the adventurers in confronting Garatha? → 18 → Yes and very close to the max yes.
Now a question of light: Have the Nords left any sources of light in this part of the cave? → 20 → Exceptional Yes. They fear the dark. Lanterns hang from the wall and give brightness.
We will add +2 Rounds to the previous ending to represent the shifting through the water into the cave.
We will also make everyone make a DC12 CON “save” to resist the cold effects of the water [-Boris and -Ronick sense both have tougher hide]. Note: If Bernack does not make his save, I’m going to skip having him come, since it could kill him.
DATE PLAYED: 2025-10-06
Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 41.
Torchlight Remaining: n/a.
Revenge Is Best Served Cold
Before we get to the scene itself (and man, it is taking some time this time, eh?), let’s get those saves out of the way:
- Gryffin (+0) → 13 → No damage.
- Ronick → auto-pass.
- Boris → auto-pass.
- Louis (+1) → 5 → Fails, takes 2 damage.
- Del (+0) → 6 → Fails, takes 2 damage.
- Bernark (-1) → 10-1=9 → he would Fail. So he’ll stay behind.
- Ada will stay with him. She has a torch with 4 more rounds remaining.
The team therefore is Gryffin, Ronick, Boris, Louis, Del, and Sea Nymphs.
Let’s go ahead and check, with any of the other Sea Nymphs join in on this, since Myreen is presumably not their sister but they might be willing to try with strangers? (Disadvantage) → 15, 7 → No, But… let’s do a SoloDark check to see what sort of aid they might give if not direct → 51 Ignite 69 Exploration + 74 Take 53 Honor.
The other three nymphs will help take the rowboat back towards their den and at least one will stay to help guide the adventurers if the adventurers will need to flee.
Gryffin surfaces from the frigid water to a shockingly bright room. Rather than an unlit cavern, and his team at the mercy of three nymphs to find their way, they are instead in a a naturally occurring chamber. Some small stalactites clinging to the surface like bats have managed to survive centuries of assault by the ocean water. Older structures look scarred and worn, suggesting this area might have once been more protected from the elements.
Not all that far away, a few dozen meters at most, the sound of the sea can be heard. Though if daylight or moonlight is trying to reach where they are, it is drowned out by brightly lit lanterns hung from the wall. A rowboat, big enough for a raiding party, thumps rhythmically against the stony shore. The waves impacting this underwater stream.
Louis, Boris, Ronick, and Del pull themselves out of the water beside him. Louis and Del show definite signs of pain from the cold swim. If it impacted either Boris or Ronick, they show no sign. Del’s teeth chatter and she nods and try look unfazed. Louis, on the other hand, communicates his displeasure with a wide look.
Besides the chattering of teeth, the team is moving as quietly as possible.
Room 11: Garatha’s Camp is only a around five meters south of their current location. Whispers would be fine but anything else will need some degree of stealth. Let’s do a SoloDark check. Is Garatha’s team clearly audible to the South? → 16 → Yes.
Gryffin feels a tap on his ankle and turns to see one of the nymphs, the oldest one who seems to be the leader, pointing to the row boat. She makes a gesture like snapping a twig. Then points to the rope. He nods and goes over to take stock of how thick the rope is before waiting for the thump thump pattern to match his swing as he slices down.
I’m going to treat a successful hit as passing the stealth aspect. Gryffin has +2STR. Let’s say it has AC10 and HP3. Ah, a 1. Ok, going to spend a Luck Token and reroll. Hah, a 2. You know what, the dice have spoken. Things are about to speed up quite a bit.
Unfortunately, as his sword comes down the boat rocks sideways and the blade strikes the hull. The sound of metal on wood is obvious. He waits, tense, to see how the other room reacts.
Garatha has the highest WIS so we’ll check for at Advantage. I’ll set it to DC12 to definitely decipher what happened, but greater than DC9 means she has heard the noise → 2 & 6! She didn’t hear it at all. My word.
Gryffin will get another slice, this time at Advantage, himself → 6, 15 → 15+3 → 4hp damage. He cuts the rope.
He feels the others barely breathe as he prompts the sea nymph to hold the boat steady. His next slice finds true and the boat is unmoored. One of the others, the one he thinks of as being the stern middle sister, grabs the boat’s rope and dives back underwater. Starts pulling it after her back towards the way they came.
Considering how focused the Nords must be, I’ll have Manit roll for stealth against DC12 at Advantage → 9,1 → 9+3 → 12. Success.
The boat silently drifts around the corner into the darkness and is gone.
Now the thinnest, and seemily youngest, approaches. Only she is not alone. With her is a fourth sea nymph. They are talking in their whale-song voice. Nude like the other, and also encompassing a wild beauty, this one has slid more to the wild. Her features radiate a loss of care, down to her fine seaweed hair which moves almost on its own, betraying a lack of stillness to her frame.
Gryffin doubts she is shivering from the cold.
Boris leans to listen in and respond. He comes towards Gryffin and explains. Her name is Ryleen and her sister was killed by the people to the South. She had been working up the courage to try and strike back but could not see a way to succeed. Once Pareem, the “young” one, told her the group was planning on engaging with the “mean people,” she has offered to help. Assuming blood is paid with blood.
Gryffin lets out a puff of air at this. He had considered that getting the mantle back from bandits would likely be trouble, but had harbored a plan to negotiate with them. Taking the boat made sense. Give the Mantle and they could get their boat back. Only fight if necessary.
Does the fact that this other group have the blood on a creature as generally noble and reasonable as the sea nymphs they have met change the rules? He honestly does not know. He would definitely be comfortable with punishing them for their actions. Even, perhaps, stranding them to the sea nymphs’ fury. Actually joining in on the fray?
Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 42.
Torchlight Remaining: n/a.
Wandering monster check → 1 → positive. However, if the encounter isn’t logical to their surroundings, this mean it is going to hit the Nords to the south.
2. A tidal surge. That’s actually pretty bad for the team. However, since it’s one of about maybe 3 that can actually impact them, let’s go for it.
- Gryffin gets 20+4 → easily makes it. Gains a Luck token and I’ll say can save one other person.
- Louis gets ANOTHER 20. Already maxed on Luck Tokens so we now have two people free to protect others. In fact, the other three members.
- Del gets 18+2 = 20. She’s fine.
- Ronick gets 15-1 = 14. Fine.
- Boris gets 15+2 = 17. Fine.
As for Ada and Bernack. This is one of the few that can also impact them:
- Ada gets 12+2 = 14. She’s fine.
- Bernark gets 19. I’d have to double check his stats but he doesn’t have -7DEX so he’s fine.
Is the Nords’ light source something this would extinguish? → Yes, but… → it has happened to them before so they keep something nearby to help. We’ll say 1d3 rounds → 3 rounds for them to be back up fully lit.
Wait, I should check for them as well, because it can do something interesting, here.
- Garatha: 7+1. No. She takes 1 point of damage and is pulled back into the room as the water flows back out. [9hp remaining]
- Harl: 11+1. He makes it and holds on. [10hp remaining]
- Torm: 19+1. Makes it. [10hp]
- Stenhilde: 7+1. 1hp damage and is pulled along with Garatha. [9hp]
- Ogden: 10+1. 1hp damage and is pulled into the room. [9hp]
A large surge of water suddenly floods the caves and Gryffin finds himself nimbly leaping up to one of the old, salt-scarred stalagmites. Louis does the same, around a meter away. Boris, Del, and Ronick are less graceful but all of them dance with the flow of the water and avoid the worst parts of it.
The nymphs laugh at the deluge and their laughter is very nearly indistinguishable from the sounds of waves lapping against the rocks.
South of them, shouts in Nordic are heard. The water has washed down into wherever their targets are staying. It seems to have caused distress. The exact nature of the distress is made clear when the water starts flowing out and three people are drug along with it. Two women and a man.
Gryffin realizes his time to act is absolutely right now. He holds up his sword and makes a shrug towards the others.
Boris is the first to join in, leaping towards the nearest Nord.
{Gar, Sten, Og} → Stenhilde.
Because the heroes handled the rolls so well and the Nords did not, the heroes will get Advantage for the first two turns and the Nords get no chance to act this first turn. Remember, on the fourth turn, the other two will join in.
In this case, Boris gets a 15+2 = 17 versus 10.
Does this count as unaware? → 5 → No, but… Stenhilde will see the chelonian enough to not take triple damage but we’ll give him +2hp damage to make up for that loss. 1d6+2 = 8. She’s down to a single hp.
It’s one of the two women. Gryffin sees the razor chain streak down and she barely gets an arm up to just slightly deflect the blow from being a killing stroke. As it is, her arm is mangled beyond repair.
Ronick, following the Chelonian’s lead, begins his attack.
{Gar, Sten, Og} → Garatha.
This is more just a big attack. Heh, both dice were 18. Impressive, but mechanically useless. As it is he hits and gets 8+2 = 10 points of damage. He kills Garatha.
I want to point out that the dice decided who was closest to whom and this next sentence I am about to type does not reflect any deep seated issues…
His great sword comes down on the other woman and with a single stroke takes her head clean off her shoulders. His bronze-blue scales shimmer with the fury.
Gryffin thinks back to his previous worries and realizes that he needs to slow down the killing before he can even debate the morality of his and his team’s actions. He makes a go for the man, currently slipping over the edge into the water, and tries to grab him.
I’m going to keep him on Advantage here. But Ogden is presumably heavy. Let’s say DC15 versus Gryffin’s +2 → 18+2 = 20. He pulls Odgen back up.
Del will get her crossbow on Ogden and Louis will help Boris cover Stenhilde.
He gets ahold of the Nord and pulls the man back up out of the water just in time for his captor to spot the redheaded woman’s head fall into the water as the other screams in rage as her own arm is tangled in Boris’s razor chain. Gryffin forces the man to turn his head and see Del’s crossbow aimed at him.
I don’t like playing my antagonists as stupid fodder but I want Ogden to give me a personal morale check. This is partially just to establish how “to the death” this group of Nords might be.
2+0 = 2. He is extremely demoralized. Whatever weapon he is carrying he drops and let’s it wash away.
Stenhilde, which I am assuming is a woman but no clue, is at 1hp. I’ll give her a roll also → 13+0. She tries to keep fighting. Does she attack the obviously surrendering Ogden? (Disadvantage) → 16 + 10 → a twist. Ok, the twist is 44 Link 05 Vice + 30 Capture 57 Failure.
Let’s use Knave for this. In the second edition, on page 37, is an Ingredients table. Rolling twice we get 04 Belladonna + 32 Hemlock. Ohh. I was going to say it was some sort of narcotic or drug that is used that she might take to kill herself but instead she just takes poison. Ok.
We’ll give Louis a chance to act. DC15 DEX to stop her. I’ll say the surprise cancels out and not at Advantage for this one. 20. He does grab it. Neat.
Boris’s captive gets her feet under her and quickly pulls something from her belt and goes to shove it into her mouth before Louis slaps it away and gets his sword up to discourage her from going any further. She still has obvious fight in her, though, and shouts something in Nord down the hall to where the others are.
Boris is still fighting the ring. Going to do individual initiative to see how this goes. DEX or WIS, whichever is higher.
- Stenhilde → 5+1 = 6.
- Gryffin → 16+4 = 20.
- Ronick → 6-1 = 5.
- Louis → 10+0 = 10.
- Boris → 3+1 = 4.
- Del → 18+2 = 20.
Since Gryffin has the highest base DEX, I’ll say he goes marginally first. He shouts at Boris to not kill her. However, she is clearly trying to get her axe out to attack Boris. Del is going to take the shot. Changing targets will negate the Advantage. 7+2 is not enough.
Louis goes next and goes to grab her axe. Opposed DEX with Louis being at Advantage. 14+2 vs 5+1. Louis gets the axe.
Ronick is going to hold back at this point. Gryffin said to hold. Louis is grappling the axe. She is very injured.
With all this, let’s give Boris ADV to resist the ring vs DC12 (he practically worships Gryffin). This time I’ll roll CHA. Boris has…+1. Double 9. I’ll spend a Luck token. 15, 16. He does resist and manages to not kill Stenhilde. He has broken from the ring.
Instead, he’s going to do a DEX (+1) vs DC15 maneuver. 1, 17. He does it. Stenhilde is trapped and unable to move.
Switching gears, she yanks at her great axe and is clearly planning to try and take Boris to the grave with her. Gryffin shouts at Boris to not kill the woman while Del is already firing her crossbow. The bolt misses.
Louis leaps behind the Nord and grabs her axe and holds it down.
Boris, watching this, seems to struggle with something internally before letting go of his razor chain and then, as the Nord falls back at the loss of tension, sweeps under her and pins her down.
Gryffin shouts, “Good job!,” to the team.
So…I kind of forgot about Ryleen. Not that have needed her.
Which of the warriors killed her sister (note: it says one of Garatha’s warriors so presumably not Garatha)? {Sten, Og, Torm, Harl} → Harl.
Ryleen comes to the surface, holding the first killed Nord’s head. She glances at the redheaded woman’s face and then tosses the head into the water. She looks at the other two captives and hisses, but shakes her scaled head no.
To the south, the sound of other Nords coming can be heard. The fight will continue. Gryffin is tied up with the bald man in his arms. Boris has pinned down the very injured woman. This leaves Del, Louis, Ronick, and Ryleen to fight.
At this point, I have explored about half of the caverns. There possibly are other Nords to deal with. In fact, it’s hard to not see Room 10: Nord Guards. However, playing this solo where reality kind of pops into being as it is explored unless I want to read absolutely everything, Let me ask:
Are Harl and Torm alone? → 14. Yes. The other guards are possibly too far away or dealing with their own issues related to the earlier Tidal Surge.
Technically, half the party is taken out. Let’s give Harl and Torm each a moral check upon seeing the situation. We know that Ogden gave in right away and Stenhilde refused, so it could go either way.
- Harl → 11 → he will give up.
- Torm → 9 → he will also give up.
This scene has gone on for a very long time so I’ll wrap the scene up here. Well, with one last thing.
Does Ryleen attack Harl immediately? (Advantage) → 13 → Yes, but… only a single attack. If it does not kill him she stops there.
Let’s just give it to her → 20! That’s double damage. She gets 3+2 = 5. Takes him to half HP.
Two more Nord men run into the chamber and, upon seeing what happened to their number, each raise their arms in a sign of surrender. If the woman is anything to go by, they might be faking, but the adventurers hold their blades.
Ryleen, though, runs forward and slashes her claws across one of the men’s face. Blood flies out and he cries out in pain.
“I think that’s the one,” Boris says.
Setting the Scene, e26s2.
There has been a pretty sizeable gap of days between I played the first scene which is mostly ok because that was a pretty sizeable scene that likely “solved” this adventure.
Let’s do a series of tests to see what has solved:
- Are there other members of Garatha’s Party at large? (Disadvantage) → 7, 8 → No, but…others enter if such shows up on random encounter check.
- Is Ryleen satisfied with her amount of justice? → 5 → No, but… she maybe doesn’t feel capable of going further.
I think that’s sufficient for now. We’ll use a couple of rolls on Knave‘s “Room Details” to see where the Nords had stashed the Mantel. 23 Clothing → 16 Buckler + 69 Repairs. There are a couple of old shields that have been damaged from their delve they have stacked up over the mantel.
Did the bucklers get disturbed by the tidal surge? (Advantage) → 2, 5 → No, but… there has been some bits of flotsam added but they are strapped down to hide the prize.
Does any of the Nords know the value of what they have? → 13 → Yes, but… they can tell it is valuable but they do not it is an ancient piece of technology.
All told, I think that’s enough. The rest we can play out in scene.
Also, even though the lanterns are lit already, I am just going to start the timer once the part takes one down. We’ll say that Del is holding it since she do more one handed action.
DATE PLAYED: 2025-10-13.
Day 3 (Airwen 23). ROUND 44.
Torchlight Remaining: 10, from Lantern [Del].
Obtaining the Mantle
“Ok, where is it?,” Louis asks.
This is to the man who said his name was Torm. Of the four Nord warriors in their custody, he is the only one uninjured. The woman, Stenhilde, has lost a lot of blood and will not make it much longer with medical attention. Ogden, the bald man who is being escorted by Gryffin, seems outsized in his pain compared to the injuries. The last, Harl, is bleeding profusely from where Ryleen’s claws raked his face. Ronick is pushing him. Ryleen has, for now, gone back to the water.
Louis would not like to know what she is feeling right now. Here is the man that killed her sister but she feels unable to finish her revenge. Ronick would quickly kill the guy if she so much as asked, but Gryffin is obviously trying to figure out their plan.
For Louis’s sake, he’d rather just let Ronick or the sea nymphs finish the Nord but he realizes it is cowardly of him.
Does Torm just point it out? → 2 → No.
The Nord is relearning his fighting spirit because he shakes his head and tries to play either mum or dumb. Same difference.
“Gryffin?,” Louis asks.
“Poke him with your sword or sing him a sword. We need to get back to Ada before too much longer.”
“Well, you heard the man, which would you prefer? I tell you what. My buddy Ronick, there, is really good at cutting pieces off of you. How about he pokes you with his sword and I sing him a song to cheer him up?”
“Sounds good to me,” the rough voice of Ronick can be heard from behind.
This is just sort of rolling for the sake of rolling but I want to. +4 CHA and I’ll give him advantage. 2,5 → 5 + 4 = 9. They are being pissy.
Torm shakes his head and Stenhilde lets out a glurging laugh. Sounds like she’s starting to choke on her own blood and enjoying the show.
Gryffin shakes his head and tells Del, the only person not currently holding on to a Nord, to go and search.
She “knows” it is in the room so again at Advantage. She has WIS of +0. We’ll say DC12. She gets 5, 15 → 15 + 0 → success.
This will rap up the round and put us at Round 45. I’ll do an encounter check → 6. No encounter. Light drops to 9.
“I got it, boss.” Del smiles as she holds up up a few old bucklers which shows the large fuelstone piece made to look like a mantle to be worn around a statue of Elude, the once ruler of House Harucam. It is sizeable and heavy. Not a problem for folks like Ronick, but maybe a problem if they are trying to also escort a group of half-injured enemy combatants.
“What do we do about them?,” Boris asks the group, realizing the problem.
“We’re not murderers, Boris,” Gryffin explains.
“I can be,” Ronick joins in, “And they definitely are.”
“What do you four have to say, then?” Gryffin is addressing the prisoners.
I really have no idea what I want them to say so let’s do a SoloDark prompt and try and make sense of it:
62 Give 29 Discovery + 12 Disagree 37 Wisdom
They offer up information they have found while searching for the treasure. But they also argue about doing so.
Ok, let’s generate a possible hook for a follow-up adventure. I assume this discovery will be in the Isles. Let’s divide the Isles of Andrik map up into 8 rough cut pieces like so…
And then roll a d8, reading across the top and then across the bottom → 2. There are sea nymphs there in that section.
Is this to do with the Sea Nymphs? → 8 → No. So something else is in that area.
Let’s use the Dungeon Name generator from SoloDark: 16 Abbey 53 of the Arachnid 07 Elephant. Well, that sounds absolutely awful. I like it. Some ancient being. A wooly mammoth meets tarantula offspring. Sure, sure.
Instead of calling “Arachnid Elephant” let’s give the entity a name. I’ll just roll a couple of prompts and snatch some letters → 67 Secure 74 Essence + 51 Ignite 12 Time. ESS GN IM Cur + Gnimescar. The Abbey of Gnimescar which has a legend of a large wooly spider.
“If you let us go,” says Harl with his bloodied face, “we’ll tell you about the Abbey of Gnimescar. Garatha found it. It was…”
“Shut up, you traitor!,” spits Stenhilde and yanks against Boris’s grip.
I’m actually going to have Boris do a DEX DC15 to see if he can hold her without her taking that last HP of damage since she has taken so much damage at this point: 18 + 1. He does.
The chelonian manages to get his other arm around her waist in a way that does not re-open any wounds. After a few seconds of struggling, she gives up and lets herself remain captured.
“Why would we care about this Gnimescar?,” Gryffin asks.
Ok, why? Back to SoloDark prompts: 98 Uncover 92 Barrier + 41 Advance 66 Knowledge. Holy hell. Let’s go.
“You are interested in that,” Harl says, pointing to the Mantle, “And we only picked it up because it is said the Abbey has more material just like it. Whatever it is.”
It takes Gryffin only a few seconds to do the mental math. “Let them go,” he says to his team. Then, to Harl, “Give us the map or information. I am done playing any games.”
The others listen and release the Nords. Harl gives the…
{map | information} → map
…map to Gryffin who checks over it. He’ll have to check with a local but it seems mostly legit, if a bit water stained.
“You can leave. We’ll have your boat brought back around. We will not protect you from your sins if the other creatures of these caves disagree. If we see you following us, plotting any kind of trap, or any other thing, we will kill you. Do you understand?”
The four released prisoners nod.
“Come on, then, let’s get them back to their boat.”
Leaving the Caves
I think, to a degree, we have entered the end point of interesting story for half a second. Gryffin is going to be focused on getting back out of the caves as soon as possible with the Mantle and the map. This new information adds a bit of haste and plans I had to possibly keep exploring have shifted.
First, they will take another Round [Round 47] to go back into the previous room. They will ask Ryleen to get the boat. Will she? → 17 → Yes, but… she will not come up with the Nords still there.
Does Gryffin reason this out? DC CHA12 → 19+0 → pass. Yes. He tells the Nords to wait.
Round 48 is getting back to the sea nymph den. 5, no encounters.
Here they pick up Ada, Bernack, and request the sea nymphs take the boat back? Do they? → 14 → Yes.
BONUS QUESTION: Do they get their revenge on the injured and beaten Nords? → 6. No. For whatever reason, they are ok with the Nords just leaving. Maybe they are afraid more death will attract more attention from the outside.
BONUS BONUS QUESTION: Do Harl and the others actually plan to let Gryffin take the map without any kind of retribution? (Advantage since they lost Morale checks) → 4, 12 → Yes. They are essentially done with the story.
Moving on. It’ll take around 3 rounds for them to move out at a fair rate of speed and leave, so one more encounter check: 2. No.
With that they are free of the caves and heading back to the Marius Crossbow.
At some point, Boris will toss the ring. It could be worth some GP but now free of it, the more happy-go-lucky weirdo would not want someone else to be tempted by it. It’ll sink into some pool of water or stream along the way.
Calculating XP
They had 7XP. They have found the Mantle and now have a map to a site of Ancient tech. These two things combined are worth at least 4XP. This means they are collectively at at least 11XP and are now Level 2.
I’ll start the next session with them leveling up.
I’ll also ask the question about if Bernack is going to stay. AND, we’ll look at Gryffin’s wanting to get a healer which might actually happen first.
DOUG’S COMMENTARY
I wasn’t sure how this one was going to go but having two “plot twists” of sorts made it go a lot different than any previous mental model.
This is the second time in this one adventure where a random encounter has changed what might be a tense standoff between two groups of people. The first was when the bats attacked the bandits. The second time was the tidal surge. It has meant that the combat since the early encounters with the spider and the undead has mostly been a kind of combat of the mind. I have on complaints.
Coming up with the idea of an Ancient site which maybe explains why the Isles are free of the Bleak is a nice bit of lore. I like the idea of doing a more extended hex crawl in the region.
I feel like a lot of this dungeon was ran a bit oddly but I am also proud of most of the outcomes. It feels like we learned a lot about the six new characters — well, 5 new, Gryffin has been there before — and it will be interesting to see how certain patterns change now that they are level 2.
I am also glad that Boris finally broke free of the ring.
CREDITS
At its core, the Bleak + The Pearl is a ShadowDark (by Kelsey Dionne and Arcane Library) and SoloDark game. More information is available at The Arcane Library.
This session is played using materials from Cursed Scroll #3: Midnight Sun including the Sea Caves map used for the main adventure, the text from the “Hoard of the Sea Wolf King” adventure, and the Isles of Andrek used for the hex crawl. “The Hoard of the Sea Wolf King” and all maps used in it are by Kelsey Dionne. Used here for personal use. The hex crawl, including Valthis (etc), are also creations of Dionne. The hex map cartography is by Cameron Maas.
Tokens are from Game-Icons.Net‘s various artists and used here through CC-BY 3.0.
Other sources that have been used in this campaign include (those in bold are especially well used):
- Zach Best’s Universal NPC Emulator.
- Paul Bimler’s The Solo Adventurer’s Toolkit One & Two.
- Cezar Capacle’s Random Realities.
- Atelier Clandestin’s Sandbox Generator.
- Kevin Crawford’s Worlds Without Number and Scarlet Heroes.
- Xane & Bunnie Daniels’ (et al) Unnatural Selection.
- Matt Davis and dicegeeks’ Books of Random Tables. Various ones but especially the The Great Book [Fantasy] and Quests series.
- Various maps by Dyson Logos.
- Ben Milton’s Knave, 2nd Edition.
- Chris Powell’s Letters from the Dark series of supplements.
- Raging Swan Press’s GM Miscellany series, especially Dungeon Dressing and Wilderness Dressing.
- Skerples’ The Monster Overhaul.
ART CREDIT AND EXPLANATION
The splash art is “Ein Wikingerüberfall” by Ferdinand Leeke.
The river landing: Photo by 𝕡𝕒𝕨𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕤 on Unsplash. The photo is of the Saalfeld Fairy Grottoes according to the photographer. Which seems fitting.
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