The Bleak + The Pearl, Intermission 8a: Leveling Up (again)

The first part of a two part intermission setting up the next steps for Gryffin’s “Lighthouse 6” [which is currently 7]. Building up Bernark into a level 1 character followed by leveling up the rest of the party.

I have a few details to work out before the next round of adventure:

• We need more to shift Bernark Sigmond to a level 1 character. After giving it some thought, I am thinking of making him essentially a *custom* class: “The Survivor.”
• I am going to flip a coin, essentially, about how to handle the fact that I handled the Oath that Gryffin took incorrectly.
• Everyone but Gryffin (and Bernark) is going up to level 2.
• [more behind the scenes] Shifting my character sheets over to the fillable PDFs.
• Working out the adventure concepts coming up next.

Since it will be nice to have a specific link to act as a kind of proto-module, I’m going to do that last one in Intermission 8B.

The rest I can do below.

Bernark Sigmond, The Survivor

Bernark is a terrible character, stats-wise:

• STR 9(-1)
• DEX 9(-1)
• CON 9(-1)
• INT 9(-1)
• WIS 5(-3)
• CHA 11(0)

If a player at my table rolled him, I’d give them full options to reroll. However, I think it would be funnier to make him something special. A character with terrible stats that has somehow survived the odds stacked against him and has avoided combat, etc, multiple times.

I’m calling it the Thieving Survivor. It goes something like this:

Base Class = Thief

From the thief class he gets Weapons, Armor, Hit Points, and Thievery. He is a bandit, after all, just a bad one. Unlucky, but somehow able to survive his bad luck.

Backstab removed, becomes Second Guess

Rather than Backstab, he gets a unique ability: “Second Guess.” Once per day (in game), if he fails a roll he attempts and that failure would result in harm, disruption of plans, etc: I can say that he thought better of it. Like he was simply playing out the scenario in his head. Mechanically, this means for him, I can roll first and then decide on whether or not I am doing that action.

It has to be an actual roll he is trying, and failing. This does not negate rolls that target him and does not override environmental effects where the roll is required to avoid it.

If he goes to disarm a trap, and fails, then Second Guess counts to avoid triggering the trap. If he is diving out of the way of a raging minotaur, and fails, he is simply no longer diving out of the way. Minotaur is still raging.

This is a play off the moment in the game where he failed to survive the freezing water and so I argued he would never have risked it.

+ Lucky (from Chubby Funster)

This is from Chubby Funster’s ShadowDark Player Compansion, page 32. Part of the Explorer class.

Lucky: You gain a +2 bonus when rolling a death timer or using a luck token. You can also hold up to 2 luck tokens at one time. Rolls to stabilize you are made vs DC 9.

In terms of SoloDark, this means that scenes involving him will have a bonus Luck Token. However, the +2 will only be usable when the roll directly involves Bernark.

New Survivor Talents

2d6	Effect
2	Additional +2 to Death Timer
3-5	+1 use of Second Guess/Day
6-9	+2 to DEX or CHA
10-11	+1 to FLEE or STEALTH
12	Choose or +2 points to distribute

Bringing Bernark to Level 1 Thieving Survivor

Ok, now that that’s in place, let’s go ahead and get him finished. His talent is going to be [rolls dice] > 9 > +2 DEX. That brings him up to 11 which is a 0. See, he’s surviving already.

HP for Level 1 will be 4-1 = 3. 200% improvement!

We’ll say he picks up Leather Armor (AC11) and a short sword that he will most likely never use except while running away. He’ll get a crossbow. He’ll also get the standard “Crawler’s Kit” from the Crossbow.

Also, his title will remain “Unlucky Bastard” and his Deity will remain “Any that will listen” until he’s dead or retired.

The basic idea is to make a character heavily inspired by Beni Gabor from The Mummy. A bit of a team mascot that is not really trustworthy and at some point his luck is going to run out.

The Oath Problem

When I was setting up the oath between Gryffin and Signe, it was with a slight glitch. I had just put a kind of random timer on it (something like some months later). Turns out the oath is supposed to be fulfilled before the character reaches the next level [Cursed Scroll #3, page 22]. The team might struggle heavily to do this and I probably wouldn’t have done such a thing if I had paid better attention.

STILL, solo play is about running with your mistakes a bit. Let’s put it to a SoloDark check.

Ok, I am fine with that. We’ll stick to the original plan. It is currently Airwen, he has until Pygnode. Karsgald will launch his war parties after the end of harvest in Autumn. This will bring about ruin.

Why will it bring ruin? We know the Abbey of Gnimescar has Ancient Technology. Most logical answer is that Karsgald plans to sack it and this will somehow reduce protections from the Bleak. Currently, the Bleak has issues flowing over water but the increased in ice in winter might negate this protection.

Makes sense to me! I am just winging it.

Leveling Up the Others

Now for the five who hit level 2.

NOTE: I AM ABOUT TO SCREW UP

I didn’t notice until I had updated everyone and was wrapping up this post, but they weren’t supposed to get Level Feats until level 3. It just slipped my mind because I was thinking of Gryffin approaching level 3 and then went back to level 2 everyone else.

I thought about going back and rewriting this post and editing the character sheets but nah, not right now. 5 of them are from ancient noble families, three are mutations.

Essentially, what I’m saying is that rather than go through and untangle all the glitches, I’ll leave it alone for now. It overpowers them just slightly but this is a goofier story than the main-line adventures anyhow, so I’m not too deeply disturbed.

Louis Harcuram, Level 2 Human Bard [Storyteller]

Louis’s level 2 Feat is 11: Reduce Perform by DC3 each. This gives DC9 to Inspire which might be dumb powerful. DC12 to Fascinate.

HP is 2+1 = +3. Brings his total to 10.

Ronick Mistamere, Level 2 Dragonborn Pit Fighter [Underdog]

That’s a mouthful. Pit Fighter is from Cursed Scroll #2. Dragonborn is from Unnatural Selection.

His level Feat is 5, he gets another +1 to melee damage. This brings him up to +2. 1d12+2 is feckin’ rough.

HP is 5+1 = +6. This brings his total up to 15.

Dhelia “Del” Marius, Level 2 Human Swashbuckler [Vigilante]

Swashbuckler is from Letters from the Dark #6.

Her level Feat is 6. She can get +2 to either STR, DEX, or CHA. I feel like her signature remains her crossbow [she named her family ship after it]. We’ll give her +2 DEX. Bringing her up to 16 and +3.

She gets +5 HP for 13 total. Lucky!

Ada Bittermold, Level 2 Swampling Witch [Whisperer]

Witch is from Cursed Scroll #1. Swampling is a custom ancestry that shows the Bleak’s impact on the Bittermolds. She can talk to plants and fungi 3x a Day.

Her feat is 11 = she can learn additional spell (she only has Tier 1 available). She currently has Eyebite, Shadowdance, and Willow Man. To these, let’s add Fog. She also gets another spell (Tier 1). We’ll go for Oak, Ash, Thorn.

She gets +2hp for 6 total.

Boris Loo, Level 2 Teenaged Bleak-Touched Totally a Ninja Chelonian

The OG meme character for this campaign. His ancestry is a modified Chelonian from Unnatural Selection. His class is modified from Ras-Godai from Cursed Scroll #2.

His level Feat is 8. He gets +2 to either STR or DEX. I’ll go for bringing his DEX up to 15/+2.

He gets +5hp to bring his total up to 11.

Downtime in Valthis?

The team was heading back to the town of Valthis. Let’s ask something…

I’ll say the answer is yes for stuff like carousing but not learning.

Carousing it is! The only that one makes sense for the area would be the 100gp. BUT, they do have Louis, so the get +1d6. So everyone rolls 1d8 + 1d6 + 1. Let’s goooo…

• Gryffin > 15 > He wakes up in Signe’s long house with a relic of hers [he won’t keep it, but good for him]. +6XP.
• Louis > 11 > He performed a prank on a corrupt merchant. One of the Valthis locals is an ally now [we can figure this next session]. +5XP
• Ronick > 9 > By [Talent] he beat a local in a [arm-wrestling contest]. That person is now an [ally]. +5XP
• Del > 13 > Pulled a heist from a nearby sorcerer’s tower. That tracks. She gets +6XP and treasure: 94 = Egg of Cockatrice (100gp)
• Ada > 6 > A thief(‘s guilde) stole 1/4 of her money. Poor Ada. She lost a whopping 3gp and gained 4XP.
• Boris > 13 > looks like he was with Del when they robbed the tower [I might need to add this backstory as well]. He gets a 84 = Cracked Emerald (60gp) and +5XP.
• Bernark > 6 > Looks like he also got by the thief(‘s guild). He has no money, though. +4XP it is!

So next time we need to figure out the aftermath of Gryffin’s entanglement with Signe, the allies for Louis and Ronick, the tower that Boris and Del hit up, and what thief hit up Ada and Bernark.

The Cargo Hold of The Crossbow

For now the cargo hold looks like this:

• Pearl (40gp)
• 400 gp [-100gp for Carousing]
• 500 sp
• 2 golden goblets set with sapphires (50 gp each)
• a silk-and-gold tapestry of armored St. Terragnis looking skyward (100 gp)
• 6 bejeweled holy symbols of the Four Lords (15 gp each)
• 2 tomes with lavish ink drawings that each contain one spell scroll (protection from evil, light).

The Wand of Wisdom will be left at Valthis. The Ring of Ramlaat was tossed into the water. Most other stuff is pretty standard kit carried by the folks.

NEXT TIME

Intermission 8B will be me working out the next adventure. Then, Part 27 will start out dealing with the “day after the party” in Valthis and start moving towards that adventure.

Credits

The image to represent The Isles: Photo by Jonatan Pie on Unsplash.