<< GAME MASTER PHASE >>

First, the matter of treasure and XP

10 Cultists, 2 Senior Cultists, 2 Horned Devils, and 2 Viperian Automatons later and we have not really adjusted for any treasure, boons, or such. ShadowDark page 117 suggests "Per treasure find, each group should gain about 10x their average party level in gold." Neither the devils nor the automatons would have treasure, per se, but the cultist should have something worth looting. The salamanders did not care for any trinkets they could find so left with their three resurrected members (and their two recent dead). The four adventurers though, should gain something. I have been remiss in giving proper monetary reward to anything they do so I am going to be a bit OSR about this and side on the "too much":

• The human cultists had a variety of coins. Let's say 2d6x10 gold and 2d10x10 silver for 80 gold and 100 silver worth of coins. 

• The one senior cultist had the gem of devil summoning (which broke) but the other had (from the level 4 treasure tables...): Copper flask etched with an owl worth 30gp. 

• The automatons had no treasure on them personally but do they have parts worth anything? 15 --> Yes, but... it is worth 2d20 gold if the party can find someone wanting to buy it [plot twist, they are just going to give it to free to Cal so I won't even roll]. 50% chance of other treasure in that room... 64% so yes and the treasure is A Clockwork Dragon Doll (45gp). Is it functional? 8 --> No. So it is basically worthless and is likely only worth around 45sp instead [and will get left behind]. 

That is 3xp each from the treasure (roughly coming out to be 20gp and  25sp each, plus the flask). The gears from the automatons they will give away. The clockwork dragon will get left. However, in boons it is a different story. There were four rough challenges in the Everburning Forest. 

• The forest itself (all the dragonsilk sidequests and such)

• The salamanders who are one of the dominate rulers (strong but somewhat constrained in their area)

• The cultists who are another (weaker, but covering a wider space)

• Uuld Alloces who is the third (and perhaps most powerful, though commands the least space)

The friendship with the salamanders and Uuld Alloces constitutes a pretty major boon. They will get 4xp from this total. Not only does this give them a combined access to around half the valley but it also involves a being who personally knew Jonias Grunkheart.

This gives each of the adventurers 7xp for the past 3 sessions.

Now, The "Upper Floors"

Ground Floor

Upper Floor

Some Notes/Reminders

Rooms 1-9 were described (at least in brief) in part 18 - Entering the Lab. 10 (and parts of 19) were described in 19 - Fighting the Cultists. The reason the numbering jumps around is because the encounters with the salamanders, and the fight with the cultists, had the rooms entered into a non-standard order. I could have pre-numbered all the rooms but I did not because the nature of solo-play means I had no idea if rooms would even be visited.

A final note (for this section): the ground floor has a bit "blanked out" with a red spray. As said in the credits, a few pieces of the OG map will be excluded in this playthrough just to trim it for time. That was originally a series of secret passages that does not quite fit the flow, here.

For now, we will start with the rooms that are already defined from the above posts and go from there.

>> PLAYER PHASE <<

In the aftermath of the battle, the chat with the efreeti, and the leaving of the salamanders; the constant background noise of crackling wood and bubbling pools is practically silence. The adventurers have spent some time gathering up the bodies of the cultists, stripping them of anything valuable (not a whole lot, but a fair number of coins and one of the older cultists has a flask of some unknown liquor (no one is in a rush to drink it). Afterwards, the bodies were drug to the nearest pool of lava and tossed in while Tom and Rance spent some time hiding the tracks. Just in case any other cultists try to find out what happened to their buddies. All in all, the lab remained quiet in the meantime. [1]

The front door (bashed open at least twice and left generally open to the elements who knows how many times) is a harder repair. "Good enough to shut" will have to do for the time being. [2]

These basic repairs done, the quattro take time to eat, rest up a bit, and generally get their bearings before giving the lab a fuller search. They broadly agree to spread out a bit and search these top three floors since they got to see quite a bit of them before and during the fight. Tom and Grusk will take the vestibule. Rance and Inar will go and search "the theater" and its odd portal. 

While examining the ancient runes and bas reliefs in the pillars, and cleaning some of the ash out of them so that Rance can make a better catalog of them later, Tom comes across a switch on one and activates it, spinning a chunk of an outer layer away and exposing a...thing, inside. Once it might have represented something, but Tom mostly sees it as a misshapen hunk of gold. Which it mostly is. [3]

For now, Grusk and Tom leave the once-statues in place and turn their attention to the door in the east.

In the theater, Inar has found a mostly rusted out clockwork dragon. He plays with it a bit. The rails lead to the base of a "stage" (though the cart is not currently here, though a few odds and ends are scattered on the floor. Quill tips, bits of random guff. Like someone was packing in a hurry. On the stage is Rance who is examining the strange mirror like contraption and it's slowly swirling, warping image. 

"It's a portal," Rance says, grasping the basic idea behind fairly quickly. [4] Of course, any more complicated ideas behind it are going to take a lot more time to study. 

"This is where Grusk would say something like, 'Gale, want to make 5 gold pieces?'," Inar jokes and Rance agrees. 

"Yeah, and then would possibly just walk through himself to see what it is only..."

"Yeah?"

"Only...it feels off. I don't think this was activated by us being here which means it could have been running for 300 years. Like some strange beast sleeping."

"How do we wake it up?"

"I do not know. There are various notches and stones in the frame itself, and there are those...pipes? The ones attached to the...um, gears? In the wall?" Rance makes a broad gesture pointing out the really obvious but completely undecipherable mechanisms along the walls. "Those. I guess." [5]

From across the vestibule, they hear Grusk shout and Tom cry out in pain, and take off running. 

<< GAME MASTER PHASE >>

This section of two rooms was not initially mapped out. A lot of the ground floor is dedicated to prep of bringing and treating fuelstone. However, rooms #11 and #12 are a bit outside of that path. For #12 the SoloDark prompt pair was 20 Push 22 Obstacle + 04 Prevent 60 Trick. 

#12 will be an old meeting room, a place where some of the retainers up above who handled some basic work [what few there were] might mingle with the [again, few] who worked downstairs in the lab proper. Jonias did not work alone but he also was fairly solitary in this endeavor. As he became more focused on his final goal, this was kind of a place for him to talk and convince folks to stick with him. Did they stick with him? 2 --> No. Eventually, folks stopped trust him. The tricks being prevented and obstacles being pushed were their own complaints to him. By the end, it was just him, Uuld, and the automatons. 

To finish this out, #11 will be servant's quarters and a food prep area. #12 also served as a makeshift dining area when there people to eat. 

The room numbers are already weird so let's keep it going!

#12 The Meeting Room

In the era of Jonias building this lab and planning for it to be something of a meeting place for likeminded folks to gather and discuss the war against The Bleak, this room was something of a heart to the place. A place for people to meet and discuss the inner workings of the lab and its findings, but also a place for people from all tiers of the project to meet and eat and gather. 

A large stone table in an l-shape dominates the center of the room and smaller stone tables are in the southeast corner of the room. What chairs and other furniture were here have mostly given way in the hot, dry air. 

Two of the gaps in the north wall and a gap in the south wall has plinths with statues representing various Grunkheart personalities. These statues are actually automatons. At the time, Jonias meant them to be symbolic of the Grunkeart family serving the people. Now, they are in a similar mode as others in the base: guarding territory. Without the deactivation amulets (downstairs), they have a 2:6 chance of activating each round and attacking once either door to the meeting room is open. 

These serving automatons will be based off stone golems but reduced to LVL 5 as an encounter. 

++ Glitching Serving Automatons (3)

AC 16, HP 30, ATK 2 slam +4 (1d8), MV 1/2 near, S +3, D -2, C +4, I -3, W 01, Ch -4, AL N, LV 5

Each has a gemstone worth 30gp (each a different color sapphire: red, blue, green) to represent the Grunkheart family heart. 

#11 The Kitchen and Servant's Quarters

This area is largely decayed. Cracks in the outer wall have exposed the bunkbeds and simple furniture to lots of damage. Nothing of value remains in the rubble. The kitchen utensils have largely rusted and wasted away, with the water tanks going empty. What food left behind has rotted and dried to dust in the centuries since this place was last used.

>> PLAYER PHASE <<

Grusk pushes open the door and pushes his torch in first while Tom crouches down with his bow drawn. Lucifer's Breath has already been activated today so its glow has dulled to barely visible and his stash of arrows is running low (less than a full quiver remaining) but there have been at least a few surprises for the group in this lab. In the distance, the pair can hear Rance and Inar discussing...something. 

The room before them is largely dominated by a large stone table. The wall has remains of paintings, tapestries, and other notices but time has not been good to the decorations. Only a few scraps remain and it would require a lot of imagination to see the paintings for what they were: more of Jonias's vision. 

Entering into the room, dry and cracking wood scatters as the two adventurer's feet sweep along the floor. There is no hint of the smells of food or the presence of good cheer. This is now simply a room saved from some degree of decay by being sealed.  

Tom looks to a pair of statues on the north wall while Grusk makes his way to the south version of the same. Tom points to the gems in the chests of the statues and lets out a light cough with a clear intention. Grusk shrugs and then shines his torch light under the table. Not seeing any opponents and a mostly empty room, the half-orc is already starting to move on the next room. 

"Wait, wait, I can get this..." the goblin starts, realizing he is about to be the dark but also starting to get the red sapphire loose, when he realizes the blue-gemmed statue has turned to "look" at him and by sound, the green-gemmed one south is doing the same. Tom leaps back onto the table and shouts Grusk's name. 

All three statues are approaching the goblin on the table, moving slowly but deliberately. 

Grusk, holding the torch in his off hand, rushes in and brings Bloodlust down on the shoulder on the blue-gemmed statue but feels the blade bounce off roughly. These things are way tougher than he realized. In turn, the blue-gemmed statue turns and starts swinging wildly at the half-orc but is clearly still stiff and needing repairs to be at full functionality. 

"GET IN HERE!" Grusk shouts as he tries to work out how to get Tom down from the table and to safety. Behind the blue-gemmed statue, the other are pounding heavy fists into the stone of the table, sending up chunks and debris as cracks start to form on its surface. [6]

Blue punches Grusk in the gut but the half-orc shrugs it off and returns the favor. The blood red axe blade actually bites into the fuelstone body even if the damage is mostly minimal. Unfortunately for Tom, the red-gemmed statue manages to grab hold of one of his legs and tosses the goblin bodily into the wall, dropping him. The green golem gets to Tom before he can get back up and smashes the goblin head into the same wall, which takes Tom out. [7]

Inar runs into the room and sees Tom collapsed near the door. He casts Cure Wounds on the goblin and watches some of the wounds heal and hears some cracked bones knit back together. He then grabs Tom under the armpits and starts pulling the goblin back towards the door. Rance, caught off guard, summons forth an acid arrow while nearly whiffing it but has it cast into the back of one of the two on their way towards Grusk. It sinks in, but barely so. That statue turns around slowly starts approaching. 

Across the room, Blue is taking wide swipes at Grusk but the half-orc is keeping up. "I need LIGHT!" [8]

Green catches up to Inar right as the halfing is pulling his friend to the door but one swing misses entirely and the other glances off the armor and actually helps Inar to launch out into the wider space. Rance, keeping up his mental connection with the arrow, also flings out a magic missile into the golem's torso. These two are much heartier hits but the stone automaton does not slow down (well, it does, because its natural state of being is pretty much "slowed down"). 

Across the room, Grusk is warding off another attack when his arm is struck by Blue. He sees that Red is close by and begins backing out of the room so only one can fight him at a time. He embeds his axe in the golem's face and looks around for a place to the torch down safely. Noting a small shelf near the door, he shoves it there so he can pull his shield up. [9]

Tom comes up firing and lands an arrow in the body of the strange green-gemmed machine. Rance stumbles the acid arrow but does toss a magic missile and Inar slams the Crimson Star into the back of the thing. It is showing heavy cracks from all the damage. The damaged, "enraged" machine swings its torso around striking Rance and knocking the wizard back into the floor. The sound of a rib snapping can be heard. The other hand strikes Inar's armor but the halfling holds firm. 

On the other side, Grusk has almost hacked into the body of the Blue-gemmed statue and rendered non-functional, taking a punch to the face himself. The Red-gemmed statue is punching the wall, trying to collapse the door frame. [10]

Inar continues to bring his magical mace down on the green-gemmed statue with Tom landing an arrow directly through it's eyes. The statue stops moving and, after a few seconds, falls over. Rance gets back to his feet, breathing hard. 

Grusk keeps chopping away at Blue and likewise, that automaton ceases to function. The half-orc takes a step back, knowing that Red is still moving. It is not long before the sound of punching uptakes as the red-gemmed one starts punching through the still body of its companion. [11]

Tom runs into the room and sees the red-gemmed statue trying to punch the body of the blue-gemmed one out of the way. Tom shoots an arrow that misses (17 arrows remaining). Inar heals Rance as the seer runs up beside Tom and casts acid arrow. It hits the automaton in the back. After another pointless punch into Blue, Red turns around and starts lurching across the room towards the other three. [12]

Tom and Rance, reading the room, start running around the table to try and lure the automaton while they use long range fire. Tom lands another shot and Rance is able to keep up the magic barrage. Inar pulls shield and sets up position in the doorway. Despite their quick footed actions, though, the red-gemmed horror, eyes focusing on Rance, twitches for a second and then fully leaps over the table, landing between Rance and Tom. Rance bounces back, avoiding a hit, as Red starts chasing him around. 

Outside of the room, Grusk is aware of the change of plans and so leans back and kicks Blue down and out of the door and runs in himself. [13]

Red catches the fleeing wizard with one hand and punches him in the back as Rance cries out. This drops Rance's concentration as Rance speaks the words of the Misty Step spell and phases out of the automaton's reach. Tom keeps up the arrow shots while Inar rushes in to flow it down and smashes against its legs. Grusk leaps up on the table to and catch it by surprise and brings down his axe on the statue's head. [14]

Grusk misses as the statue turns around to face him, again, giving Inar the chance to smash the legs once more. They break off and the whole statue falls over into pieces. 

Catching their breath, the halfling manages to keep his focus in place long enough to heal both the human and the half-orc. The group debates for a minute whether to continue or to rest and once Rance points out that the seeing the fire-elemental, meeting the salamanders, fighting the one set of automatons, fighting the cultists, and then fighting these things was all in one day, they agree to rest. [15]

Night in the Everburning Forest is strange. The daylight is largely obscured by smoke while the night is almost entirely skipped by the orange and red glow that suffuses the place. On the ground floor of the lab, the light only comes through in places where cracks in the walls allow it. Rather than put up with the "nightless" aspect, the group decides to pull into the theater and pull the locking doors back shut behind them. The condition is in here is much better than the rest of the ground floor which suggests that nothing has been able to disturb this room for a long time. The night passes without incident. [16]

<< GAME MASTER PHASE >>

A super quick summation of the upstairs rooms. 

#17 is going to be the main suite of "upscale" rooms. Almost entirely unused. 

#14 is a smoking lounge. #15 is the water closet. #16 is the way up to the roof. 

#13 is 24 Block 23 Doubt: a display room of many wonders. There are a few things in the display cases. The only thing of value is a strange hatchling creature encased in a translucent stone (a find found in the mines). An ancient style trap attached to a mechanical blade is here. DC18 to disconnect. The exact value of this treasure would be unknown. 

#18 is a large room sort of like a large ballroom. The lack of other interest in the project meant it was never used so it stands as a strangely liminal space. Dark without windows, sealed enough from dust and smoke that overall it is good condition. 

#19 is the room that houses the special telescope. Again, the practical worth of this is immense but getting it out of the housing would require great effort and it would be...all the inventory slots. Think large Victorian style telescope with a domed roof overhead (though in this case, the roof is a large sturdier and harder to open without the proper mechanism. 

Did just three "room" rolls and besides the fire beetles in #4 there was 2 "empties" and 1 treasure protected by a trap. So the area is fairly empty. 

>> PLAYER PHASE <<

The adventurers spend the next morning crawling over the upper floors of the lab to make sure everything is secure. In a room of unknown purpose, to them, they find a whole nest of fire beetles just crawling around and doing fire beetle things. Even Grusk is feeling a bit less bloodthirsty today and so they seal the door back up, and pile some of the broken pieces of automaton in front of it. 

"Good luck, little buddies," says Inar. 

They find a room full of some sort of...armor. They cannot tell the purpose of it. And tools. In many ways, the fighting was the easy part. This is a place full of riddles with most of the answers burned away by the constant march of smoke damage and time. 

Upstairs, it is more of the same. Empty rooms. Lost plans. One room is the size of an entire house and is completely empty of all but stone. More bedrooms. Unused (presumably). A room with water pipes so bone dry it is hard to know if there was ever water in the room. 

The only two things of interest found is first the large telescope on the roof which sees through smoke like it is not there (and sees stars despite a murky sun above the smoke layer suggesting it is daytime outside of the valley). 

Secondly, there is a room that was passed through with the salamanders that is full of several display cases, mostly empty. Not all, though. Some have strange relics from the time of Jonias. The final days of the Barthic Empire. Exactly the sort of rubble that the salamander ruffians would not have even noted. One piece, though, is a strange relic of somewhere else. A creature in translucent rock like a carved egg. Tom works out the trap [17] and takes the relic out. Rance is not sure what it might be. Tom adds it to his bundle of holding (along with the three gems from the statue). 

After this, they realize it is time to go down into the underbody of the lab. With the exception of the "temple" (Inar's choice of words) or "theater" (Rance's choice), very little up here has any real indication of being the the proper workshop. Meaning things are only going to get more exciting for them as they head downstairs. 

"Time to find what else Jonias has in store for us..."

== DOUG'S NOTES AND COMMENTS ==

Starting this one, I was thinking that the fire beetles were going to be an interesting set piece to play with and then found out that ShadowDark does not have stats for those. I figured I could bring over the Basic Fantasy version with minimal tweaks only that version mentions (on page 68) "They are normally timid but will fight if cornered." The boys have shown, at least in part because of their worship of Gede, that they do not tend to fight animals unless is to protect themselves. Heck, they often try not fighting even people who attack them unless it goes south. In a session where they had more space to chew up on this, there might have been more description of them trying to empty out the beetles, but the other fight went a bit more punchy than I expected.

I made the automatons to be a kind of quick fight and in that way such things go it involved a lot of strategy and moving pieces. It was fun, no complaints, but I thought there was a non-zero chance the way the rolls were going that Tom might be the first actual death in the game. Inar, who has tended to be comic relief for most the series, got some great rolls in. 

This one does represent a mood-shift that I am on board with. The last few sessions (maybe even last dozen sessions) have been building up Jonias Grunkheart as a noble man of legend. This one represents something like the reality of that. Jonias was a legend but one who was a bit driven and needed people to sign on. The other houses were turning against him (except for the original other four of Grunce). He eventually faded from public eye, his great work on partially done. There is evidence all the way back to the development of the Monolith that he had plans for this even-bigger project that few ever excepted fully. 

Cal, in many ways, stands to be perhaps the better version of Jonias since he is all about building up a team that works together rather than relying on nobility. 

It's too natural of a place to end this here, before they start downstairs, so I will. 

By the way, the gems were +1 XP and the thing upstairs as +1XP. 

Bonus by the way, this is the first time I am moving away from the OG style of section breaks and just using HTML. With the changes to the color scheme hopefully this works just as well with feed readers as it does with people reading in the blog. 

== MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES ==

1. 19+3+1 = 23 INT check meaning it would take DC23 INT to spot the fact that the tracks were covered up. 3 wandering monster checks during this passing of time and all were negative.
2. 6+3 = 9 DEX check. It won't be too hard for someone to punch through if they wish but it will at least cut down on the ash and embers wafting in.
3. 19+3 = 22 to pass the check to find the secret compartments. 12-2 = 10 to fail the DC 15 check to realize these were the original models of the full fuelstone statues in the monolith.
4. INT check 13+3 = 16 to pass a DC 15. 
5. Is there some sort of control mechanism in the room to operate the mirror portal? 18 --> Yes. Using Knave 2nd and the "Mechanisms" table on page 17, got 91 Vacuum Pumps 65 Rack + Pinion. That's enough to get a good "aetherpunk" picture of the place. Is the clockwork dragon somehow related to the working of the entire room? 10 --> Twist. 72 Contain 76 Anger + 28 Expand 75 Dream. So..."yes" but yes in the sense that Jonias's frustration on getting the technology right was channeled into the construction the dragon to figure out certain Ancient building techniques. We'll give Inar a INT 15 (at disadvantage) check to see if he notices...and no, he does not. For now, the dragon is getting left behind. 
6. Took two rounds before they activated. Tom whiffed the first check to get the gem loose but had figured out the latch right as they were activating. PCs got first go with initiative and Tom used it to leap back up on the table to put some space between him. Grusk is not able to equip his shield while holding the torch. He whiffs his attack. The golem whiffs its attack. The two (green and red) going for Tom have a massive table to navigate and they are not the quickest so they are slamming fists down at disadvantage to hit him (and are missing, tearing chunks of the table in the process). The table holds but each time it will have a greater chance of collapsing. 
7. Golems win init. Blue gets a weak hit in on Grusk. Red, even at disadvantage, gets two hits on Tom leaving him with only 2hp. Is the Green on the opposite side of the table? 8 --> No. Green gets a final hit in on Tom. Tom has 4+3 turns to make his death save. Grusk does get a weakish hit of 6 points of damage against Blue, though. Rance and Inar are in route and will be here next turn. 
8. PCs win. Grusk gets another hit in for another 7 points of damage. Inar casts Cure Wounds and gets a 17 to cast. Tom is healed up by 11 points and Inar starts dragging the goblin back out of the area. Rance has to spend two luck points but gets Acid Arrow shot into the back of Green for a single point of damage. Red and Green were slowly making their way across to fight Grusk. Red continues to do so, but Green is turning around and will be coming back across. Blue fails to do any damage to Grusk.
9. Green hits low and fails to do any damage. Inar succeeds in a DC 12 STR check to pull himself and Tom out of the room. Rance maintains concentration on the acid arrow (5 points) and gets a magic missile cast (4 points) for a total of 10 points of damage to green. Red is still moving around the table and will join Blue next round. Grusk backs up to use the door so that only one statue can swing at him at a time. Blue gets another 4 points of damage on Grusk. Grusk, in turn, gets 9 points of damage (21 total). Blue is largely broken. 
10. PCs go first. Tom hits for 2. Rance fails his concentration check but does get another magic missile off for for 4 (16 points total). Inar burns off the team's last luck point to get a hit but gets a crit (easy come, easy go). 2d6+2 = 7 points of damage (23 points of total). Green hits Rance for 9hp damage and sends the wizard tumbling. Then, on the back swing once again glances off of Inar's armor. Grusk gets another 8 points of damage on Blue (29 points of damage, leaving it barely functional). Grusk takes 4 more points of damage and is definitely starting to feel it. Can the Red one hit past the doorway? 7 --> No, but...it's going to try and punch through the wall itself. 
11. PCs win init. Inar spends the last luck point (again) and hits in 5 points of while Tom lands another arrow and finishes off the Green-gemmed one. Rance makes a DC 12 Dex check to get back to his feet. Grusk crushes the main mechanism of Blue and then starts backing up, letting Blue's broken body act as a blockade Red has to navigate and buying him some time to prep. Red fails to punch through Blue 6+3 = 9 does not pass the DC 12 check to move the body. 
12. PCs win init. Inar heals Rance back up to full. Tom runs into the door frame and fires a shot into Red's back but misses. Rance casts acid arrow and lands for 2hp. Grusk holds the line and waits. Red continues to punch through the body of Blue and still does not get through. 
13. PCs win init. Tom and Rance run into the room and keep the large table in between. Inar stands in the door. Red is locked into Rance for now. Tom hits for 3 points of damage. Rance keeps up the arrow and adds a magic missile again (this time for 7 points of damage: 12 points total done). In checking to see if they stay distant, they roll an 18 (for Rance) and an 20 for Tom. They are keeping the table precisely in between themselves and the automaton which is tracking Rance. In a surprising move it leaps over the table (18 - 2 = 16) and comes down in between the two heroes [but does not score high enough to cancel out their maneuvering. Grusk gets WIS 15+1 = 16 to be aware that the tides have changed and now he has to punch through Blue. He kicks the blue automaton aside and will enter the conflict next turn. 
14. Red wins init. Both attacks hit Rance (7 total damage). Rance drops his concentration and casts Misty Step to phase out of the room back into the vestibule behind Inar. Tom gets the hit for 4 points of damage. Inar gets a swing in for 4 points of damage (20 total, now). Grusk gets a nat 20 leaping up over the table to cut the distance down. Attack will be at advantage and hits. For 6.
15. PCs win. Grusk misses. Inar hits and shatters the legs of the creature. It topples, broken. Inar passes both of his Cure Wounds tests and heals both Rance and Grusk back up. Chance encounter check was negative. Nothing outside was attracted by the sound of clashing. 
16. Rolled 3 encounter checks, all negative. 
17. DEX 19 + 3 = 22, passing the DC 18 difficulty.

Descending into the Valley of the Everburning Forest

A couple of miles past the tower to the south, the terrain drops of fairly steeply and goes into the forest proper. The air is more foul, the heat more noticeable, and it is regular to find patches of everburning wood takes off as the primary vegetation. Any plants that are not resistant to fire will eventually catch fire after this point. 

Tracking down the switch backs into the valley requires a DC12 CON roll every half hour. A failure means a rest is required (of another half hour). It takes three such checks on the way down and five on the way up. As the body gets increasingly used to the harsh atmosphere, it becomes easier. One day of exposure drops the check to DC9. A second day drops the check altogether. However, a failed check without the subsequent rest will result in a cumulative -1 penalty to all physical rolls until a full rest is made. Any spells, items, or so forth that provide pure air will avoid the penalty but also prevent the ability to grow more accustomed to the atmosphere. 

At the bottom of these switch backs is the first of the "shrines" built by Jonias.

The First Shrine

What was the purpose of the Shrine? SoloDark prompts: 65 "Confront" 54 "Spirit" + 08 "Resist" 87 "Help". Taking the second pair in a slightly different path (rather than "resisting help," more "helping to resist"), these shrines are something like buffers at the end of a road Jonias created that builds up a kind of energy loop from one side of the valley to the other. It creates a sort of barrier that both keeps the elemental spirits of the land from escaping but also helps to strengthen the energy inside the valley. 

Each shrine is a place of rest and towering over them are massive fuelstones, larger than the ones in the Monolith by far. Each shrine has one, looking together like a pair of cupped hands: left at the west shrine and right at the east shrine. Sparkles of The Light crackle along the fingers. Neo-Ancient technology, like the type that Jonias built in the Monolith, runs in the shrine even centuries later powered by this energy loop. 

SoloDark, are they able to turned or moved in any way? 1: Critically no. These things are massive and they and the shrine are made out of one huge chunk of fuelstone. How Jonias got it here is unknown.

SoloDark, did Jonias get it here? 10. 71 "Scatter" 14 "Light + 70 "Win" 99 "Shelter". So, yes. Jonias at some point in time (after The Lighthouse by technology levels) was able to harness Ancient technology to perform miracles at a level similar to the ancients. This means something else occurred to stop him from taking The Lighthouse to further extremes. OR that the Lighthouse has untapped potential. Maybe both.

SoloDark, did Jonias plan for this valley to become an extreme haven against the Bleak? 20. Critically yes. Grunce was a temporary stopgap. The Everburning forest was the ultimate goal. Why did it fail? Did it actually fail? Good thing the adventurers are going towards the library, eh? 

== MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES ==

The Everburning Forest

The Everburning Forest is a place of feral magic where a great working has destabilized natural order and given forth to great energies. In the core, a hole to another place has allowed strange creatures to come forth.  At that place, a group of people long twisted and broken by exposure to the nearly toxic air and high heat have dedicated themselves to the worship of Them. Placating Them so They will be content with a small grove. [Worlds Without Number (WWN): Ruins Tag --> Feral Magic + Wilderness Tag --> Devil's Grove]. 

The Tower

At the top of the valley there stands a tower once used by Jonias Grunkheart to store supplies while he struggled through the rough air and heat. 30' by 60' at the base and rising four stories in the sulfurous, it was much more a wayfinder than a defense of any strength. In the three hundred years since, the top two floors have been eaten away and collapsed into the path. 

At its base, two paths stretch. One east along the side of the valley and one south down into the depths. The east-most path quickly splits with a north trail going to one of the crags and peaks surrounding the valley while the trail continuing east goes to mines used by Jonias once to harness the mystically-infused stone used to carve the fuel stones. 

The tower is currently home to a group of nine gnolls who have been gathering old equipment and junk from the tower. 

Gnoll

AC 12 (leather), HP 10, ATK 1
spear (close/near) +1 (1d6), MV near, S
+1, D +1, C +1, I -1, W +0, Ch -1, AL
C, LV 2 

Rage. 1/day, immune to morale
checks, +1d4 damage (3 rounds).

The gnolls know the way through the path to the south but do not go far into the valley to avoid conflict with the Salamanders and the other things which live in the valley. 

The most recent find by the gnolls is a strange statue of a viperian orphid that has been buried under rubble. It is made out of the same stuff as the fuelstones and represents an early draft worked out by Jonias: a symbol of House Mistamere before the design was perfected and the four statues of the non-Grunkheart houses were replaced by replicas of Pentarch leaders (the fifth, the Cyclops, is carved like a large version of Jonias with a single eye looking up into the base of the Lighthouse, the only non-human variation). 

The tower has otherwise long been ransacked by the gnoll tribe and mostly filled with their own refuse and junk. However, in the second floor is a locked door (DC18 DEX to open) which has been closed off by collapsed rubble (DC15 STR to move one of the pieces of 1d6 rubble). Inside, most of the books and notes used by Jonias have been long destroyed by the climate but one magical book, a Tome of Dead Words remains. 

Tome of Dead Words

Contains each of the following scrolls: create undead, magic circle, protection from evil, and speak with the dead. Can also cast Turn Undead but on fumble draws undead to attack the holder. 

[ShadowSpark (ShS) Treasure 8 and Dungeon Encounter Card 41. Increased number of gnolls to better fit party size and altered the powers of the Tome slightly to make using it more a threat]. 

[Doug's Note: In the interim since episode 14, the quartet have gained and had made dragonsilk cloaks, boots, and gloves. These will get advantage on saves versus fire and will (in notebooking terms) make it where "incidental" checks versus heat are not required. I was not going to make those, anyhow, so there you go.]

"Krs'kal'k SHEBAK!" shouts the voice from the tower and the four adventurers come to a stop. 

"You would think we could sneak into a lake of fire without so much hassle," quips the shortest of the four, the Halfling Inar Gale. Invoker of Gede. Jokester. And a person who decided around six months ago that the adventurer life might not be for him. 

"It is the little things, Inar, we should cherish them. By the way, do you recognize the language?" The person asking the question is Rance Uffolt, the Seer. Human and walking encyclopedia for the group. Also the person who's apocalyptic dreams lead the group to a city called Grunce and got them involved with protecting the last major stronghold of civilization in the Bleak.

"No, you?"

"Yes. Bugger. Goblin. Guess I'm doing the talking, then. Umm, Binoshi chok? Akka NObak?" After a minute, screams and angry shouts can be heard inside as rocks and rubble are flung, ineffectively, at the adventurers. [1]

"And what did you say, Uffolt?" asks Grusk Obe, half-orc Barbarian. Many assume he is the group leader, including him. He at least makes it his business to be the group's big brother.

"They asked us to leave and to go away. I said that we were not worried about them and would pass by the tower. Roughly speaking."

"Roughly," says Spotted Tom, the fourth and final member. A goblin Outlaw. One half of the Inar + Tom comedy duo. Also the moral compass of the group. 

"I kept my sentences short just in case but it was something like 'We stay, Nevermind Tower' which really is ripe for misinterpretation now that I say it out loud."

Tom looks at the others and says, "We can ignore them mostly. If they had bows and arrows I am pretty sure they would have already shot us."

"I don't like having enemies at my back, Tom." Grusk is friendly enough but there's a reason he carries an axe called Bloodlust. 

The group talks a minute and with the exception of Tom decides that having folks potentially stalking them or gathering reinforcements or somehow blocking off an exit would be a bad idea, so now they make plans for attack. [2]

"Uffolt, watch our heads, shoot anyone who tries to brain us with your magical sparkles," says Grusk before slamming bodily (and painfully) into the rubble to knock through the door. Inar and Tom help. Only a minor dent is made. Inside, they can hear the creatures' voices tracking downstairs. "So much for a quick entry," says Tom. [3]

It takes a surprisingly long time for the group to bust their way inside with Grusk finally punching through (and pushing back two gnolls were keeping the door shut). He lands inside as Tom and Inar pull and push bits out of the way to get a more even shot. [4]

Grusk erases one of the gnolls behind the door from existence with a single chop while one of the others gets a glancing stab against Grusk's side. Inar rushes in to help while Tom and Rance prepare for long distance fire the next turn. [5]

Grusk returns the favor by removing his stabber's head from its shoulders and pressing deeper into the fray. Inar and Tom miss their shots while Rance's magic missile catches a third. The enraged gnolls have come to some consensus to focus on the halfling and one of them manages to stab Inar deeply in the guts. [6]

A very angry Grusk fails to connect as Tom's arrows and Inar's swings go a bit wild. Two more stabs catch Inar who collapses. Grusk barely notices that he, too, has been hit. An acid arrow flies out and strikes the already injure gnoll. [7]

Grusk drops his shield and shoulders aside all but one spear thrust and he brings his now double-handed axe deep into the chest of the gnoll who struck down Inar. Tom whispers the activation word to his bow, Lucifer's Breath, and the arrow flying out catches fire as it strikes another gnoll. Rance keeps the acid arrow burning inside his victim as he follows up with a magic missile and another gnoll falls. With four gnolls down and another one injured, the five remaining Enrage and press forth with the attack. [8]

Grusks whittles the remaining down to four with another heavy blow while Tom puts another arrow into his target and drops that count to three. Rance dives in to start tending to Inar as the bleeding Halfling is at the edge of death. The gnolls are being pushed back by Grusk and are unable to get him with their spears. [9]

One of the remaining three gnolls gets a hefty stab into Grusk's chest while both the half-orc and goblin fail to keep up their tally. Rance stops the bleeding and starts pulling Inar back through the door to safety. [10]

Grusk's delaying tactics have cost him dearly as the half-orc hits the ground himself. Rance shoots off another acid arrow which is especially potent as it slams into the chest of the one the remaining gnolls. Tom tracks the same target and lets' loose another flaming arrow. With only two left alive, the remaining two gnolls push past the Seer and Outlaw and start fleeing into the forest. [11]

Rance runs in and rips off Grusk's platemail and staunches the blood flow. 

Tom enters pulling Inar back inside and begins rapidly building the ersatz door he helped tear down just a few minutes ago [12] . Rance is covered in the blood of his friends and surrounded by dead bodies. The Seer had just managed to keep his friends alive. 

The goblin sniffs, upset but as always hiding his anger behind a joke, "I told you attacking was a bad idea." 

== MECHANIC NOTES ==

1. Unless I am missing it, Gnolls don't have a language specified. I rolled a 15 on an INT check for Rance (+3 for 18) so I figured it's a language he does know. Goblin being one of them. Unfortunately, with Rance's -2 and a reaction roll of 4... this means the Gnolls are going to be extremely hostile. 
2. Vote Dice. Gave everyone but Grusk a d6. Grusk got a d8. Rolls 4+ were for attack. 3 to 4 with Tom being the only vote no. SoloDark, Is the door still intact (disadvantage)? No. How intact is the not-intact door? 1d6 --> 5. So the gnolls have piled bits of the long corroded door and rubble up in a way to make a door. STR15 with 4 total success to get through it. Otherwise DEX15 to get up to the second floor windows in anything like a successful fashion with gnolls jabbing spears. 6 of the gnolls (just rolled a d8) are on the second floor, leaving only 3 at the bottom. However, this will change depending on sneaky the characters are.
3. Only one success on the first round of rolls. SoloDark, "Do the gnolls start running downstairs?" 18. So yes. In 2 turns all 9 will be on the bottom floor.
4. Took 4 turns which gave the gnolls plenty of time to prepare. Grusk ended on a nat 20, so he is a bit more in control. The others will have issues joining in on this turn of the battle. 
5. Grusk gets a crit. With Bloodlust, that's a minimum of more HP than a Gnoll has. All the gnolls missed but one who got 2 points of damage. 
6. Another crit by Grusk. A crit by Rance. Misses for both Inar and Tom. All gnolls chose Inar as a target and one of them got a critical (!) hit for 14 points of damage. Inar is very hurt. 
7. Inar takes another critical hit (only 2 doing 2 damage this time) but then a regular hit that drops him to 0. Only Rance's Acid Arrow hits and it only does 1hp damage (leaving that gnoll with 4). 
8. Grusk will be AC16 but do more damage. Tom has 5 rounds with his bonus. Inar has 3 rounds to stabilize (failed the first time). 
9. Spent all the Karma trying to Inar stabilized. He has one more turn to live. 
10. This is the last round of the gnoll's enrage. They do make their morale check, though, and will keep pushing the fight the next round. Rance makes the stabilize roll (finally). Tom and Grusk miss but one gnoll gets the hit with the +4 damage. Grusk is ALSO hurting. 
11. Grusk is downed and only has one round to go. Rance is going to have to get to him. Luckily Rance's own critical hit gives him a slightly better chance to stabilize the orc. 
12. Got a WIS 16 so tearing it down will require a STR 16, etc. 

== DOUG'S NOTES ==

Considering the last fight (versus the technically more dangerous cyclops) went really well it seems the tides needed to change. Two downed heroes kept alive at the very last second in both cases. Since the group will need to regroup and next time will pick up with a few checks for random encounters (which will be bad) while the other work on protecting their friends. This is the closest this campaign has gotten to new characters. 

Current plan is to have the The Bleak & The Pearl posts go into a weekly cycle. Sunday's at 5pm, my time zone. 

== CREDITS ==

This campaign is played primarily using Shadowdark and SoloDark, both by Arcane Library and Kelsey Dionne (et al).

Additional sources include a variety of things for tables, especially Knave 2nd Edition and Maze Rats (both by Ben Milton), Random Realities by Cezar Capacle, Universal NPC Emulator by Zach Best, and various pieces from Worlds without Number and Scarlet Heroes (both by Kevin Crawford).

The illustrations are created by me using GIMP and Hex Kit (featuring the Lil Hex Pack and Strange BW Hex Pack). The sources of the images I edit to make the "two color" splashes range from personal photographs to Pixabay Stock Art to a few old pieces generated by ChatGPT/Dall-E (though I am planning to generate no new AI content for this blog due to a lot of reasons).

The lifecycle of your average cyclops is barely studied by civilized folks because your average cyclops is prone to tossing large rocks (see also: large sheep, small boats, horses) at any one who gets close enough to ask where do cyclops babies come from. The answer is essentially the obvious one. Despite being very solitary, despite being very territorial, cyclopes are born the same way as you and I. Just more aggressively. There are certain species of large cat that roam the Pearl that have a similar mating cycle. A temporary truce, of sorts, is established to allow for procedures.

Unlike big cats, the typical cyclops mating ritual involves a gift of a few sheep, a few barely missed boulder throws, and a loud argument about who should approach first. At some point, the offspring are deemed old enough to be interfering with the mother's territory and more large boulders and shouting tends to commence. However, sibling groups can occasionally tolerate each other a shade better and so the distance between them can be reckoned in miles rather than counties. 

Grobnir was the oldest Fronk of his generation and in the early years of Encroachment he got along fair enough with his three brothers in a valley large enough that they never, technically, needed to see one another. At least until Almot Fronk, the youngest, lost a sheep and crossed over Grobnir's territory for a few hours. The resulting argument among all the sibling caused Grobnir to become so enraged he left the region and kept walking the Southern Plains until he found a great wide grassy area he could call his own. Attempts at cultivating the region by the Barthic Empire had failed, there was no important trade routes to be had, here, and a few fishing villages miles and miles to the East were no problem in that there was no game to lure hunters to attempt Grobnir's ire. 

As the Encroachment and the horrors broke the back of his people, Grobnir flourished by simply fading into the ecosystem. His sheep were nearly wild. His habits were largely ascetic. He was happy to spend days just lounging in the grass and occasionally wondering where everyone else had gone. Over time, the grass changed. Slowly enough he barely noticed. Over time, the sheep that fed from the grass changed. He noticed this, noticed that his sheep's wool was now more like brambles and vines than fur. But so it goes. 

And he, who fed from the sheep, also changed. This he definitely noticed, though the Grobnir Fronk who lives now in a large stretch of the Southern Plains is not exactly the same as the one who came from the west all those years ago. He is already twice as old as the age most cyclopes live. His strangely smooth skin has a deep red color. His head is now hairless. And, perhaps most damning for any cyclops in history, the ultimate insult for his entire kind: 

Grobnir Fronk has a second eye. 

The second is small, human-sized and slightly below and to the right (his right) of his true eye. Unlike his normal eye, this second one does not sleep. It watches. It plans. Grobnir will wake up from an exhausted rest and find he has been gathering stones into strange shapes. Planting odd seeds. Cutting bulbs from his sheep. Why is he doing these things? He never knows. He senses his second eye knows, but he does not talk to the second eye. 

He is afraid what it might answer back.

"So, what you are saying..."

"Yes."

"Is that you want us to take out a cyclops."

"Yes."

"That has killed a couple of your...um...tribe." 

"Our clutch, yes."

"So you can eat some sheep?"

"Right!"

"And then you will help us find where a group of people were killed by another group of people...nearby."

"Not that nearby. But, yes."

With that, the gargoyles start giggling slightly and acting excitedly. Rance and Tom have been trying to talk to them after initial negotiations with Rance and Grusk ended with one of the gargoyles, one that looks a bit like sulphur and seems to be called "Sully", coughed and shot out a magic missile that struck Grusk in the arm. 

Inar's one attempt at communication ended when he asked the clutch of gargoyles why they were out in a massive flat space space as opposed to somewhere where there were buildings and ledges to which they could cling. He was told by the gargoyle that seems to be in charge, one seemingly made out of meteoric iron and called "Hansam," that such questions were racist and besides they were perched, on a hill, pointing to the slight rise in the ground where everyone currently was. After this, Inar has gone back to his bunk and keeps staring at his teeth in a mirror. The poor halfling has become convinced that his teeth are changing shape. Maybe they are.

"Alright," says Rance before turning to Tom. The goblin merely shrugs. Turning to the half-orc still nursing his slightly wounded arm while staring at Sully. "Alright?"

"Yeah," says Grusk starting to pull his armor on. "Alright. Let's go kill a one-eye."

Hansam does not comment on this. The clutch is over there excitedly discussing their favorite recipes for mutton. 

Grobnir Fronk, the Cyclops

Grobnir's second eye means he can never be surprised. He is a very strange, very old cyclops. His eating of Encroached animals has sped up his own Encroachment, changing his body to a more jelly like appearance. This had led to an overall decrease in stats though an increase in intelligence.

AC 11 (leather), HP 35, ATK 2 great club +5 (2d6) or 1 rock (far) +4 (1d10), MV double near, S +4,D -1, C +0, I +3, W +3, Ch -3, AL C, LV 7

Second Sight: Cannot be surprised. Hydrophobia: Grobnir's strange gelatinous body breaks down when exposed to water. It will swell up and eventually rupture. 

Grobnir's Sheep

Strange creatures like large sheep whose wool is more vine like that wool like. Attempting to hit the sheep can result in weapons and limbs getting tangled into the "wool". Flesh and wool are almost like brittle plant matter and so can catch fire. 

AC 12 (from tangled vine-like wool), HP 12, ATK 1 bite +0 (1d4) or 1 ram +3 (1d8), MV near, S +3, D +0, C +3, I -2,W +1, Ch -3, AL N, LV 2

Tangled Wool: Any melee attack against them has a 1:6 chance of getting caught up in the strange vine-like wool. Sensitive to Fire: Fire does double damage to the creatures that are about half-plant. 

The boulder falls down in the early morning light, scattering the four adventurers and their horses as they pull back. Rance and Tom from the saddle while Grusk and Inar manage to stay on. [1]

"Ok, that one would have hurt. Wait...is he asleep?" Rance asks as they see Grobnir propped up on a pile of stones. His right hand is moving around to grab another stone from the pile. Little do they know the strange Bleak eye is piloting the body right now. It will take the very elderly cyclops some time to wake up. [2]

Grusk roars and rides hard to face the cyclops head on. Tom drops behind the boulder (not big enough to hide a human but enough to hide a goblin). Inar rides forward behind Grusk while Rance works on reining in horse. Another boulder comes crashing down near Grusk and his horse while Tom gets an arrow off (that goes wide). Rance's horse runs off in the confusion. Inar casts Holy Weapon on his Mace.[3]

Another boulder tossed, this one for the goblin. While Tom has good cover the rock smashes into the one he is behind and shards of stones bite into the goblin. Tom manages to get his shot off all the same and sees it sink into the strange red flesh. The war horses near the gap and both Grusk and Inar land blows. The axe, Bloodlust, bites deep in the right arm while Inar brings his magically enhanced mace down against the knee. Grobnir wakes up dazed and confused and something starts to happen. A chunk of his head begins trying to tear away. [4]

The cyclops comes up swinging both arms as a sizeable thing pulls out of its head. One arm slams Grusk hard in the chest plate, crunching ribs but the half-orc stays on. The other fist flies over the halfing's head as the nimble priest leaps from the pony to hide in the blue grass. Grusk returns the hit after very nearly slipping but buries Bloodlust deep in the chest of the cyclops as Rance holds the magical arrow steady. The old cyclops collapses as the strange creature wallows on the ground. Grusk pulls Bloodlust out and chops into it before dumping oil on it and setting it aflame. [5]

Taking a few deep breaths, everyone is looking around and checking out their friends. 

"What in the Bleak was that about?" Grusk asks, staring down at Other Grobnir. Looking at the strange corpse of a creature so utterly changed, Grusk begins gathering up stones and piling on top. The others join in, and by the time the sun is fully up, Grobnir has been laid to rest. 

An examination of the area around him finds plenty of junk stored over his many years including obvious loot taken from others that were attacked by the odd, sad creature. [6]

A few days later...

Imari Denish stares at Rance and Cal from across the small den in the back of his shop, a more cozy place than the first time. Cups of tea are being held by the trio. "Well, has the deed been done?"

Rance answers, "Yes. Well, we turned over what we found at the site. It was mostly picked clean but a lucky find of a sword of Marr's distinct red steel along with a bit of a map in crude hand showing someone had mapped out the route. We gave it over to Neuman assistant and Neuman himself came out to verify some details. We did not mention you, only that we had heard 'rumors.'" 

"I do not hear shouts or riots in the street." 

"I cannot answer that. Maybe they are saving that for a more opportune time. Or maybe the Free Merchants are too afraid of House Marr to fight. Or maybe..."

"Or maybe," Cal finishes the thought for Rance, "They are going to treat the death of a trade route as another commodity. No rebellion in exchange for juicy pickings of official Marr business." 

"Maybe," says the old elf before gesturing to the old human behind him to hand over two reams of dragonsilk. "A deal is a deal even if there is less blood in the street than I would have hoped."

"You believe, us, then?" asks Rance

"Of course! I had Stanford here," gesturing to the old servant, "lace all three of our drinks with a Potion of Absolute Honesty."

"Wait, did you?" 

"I drank the tea, too," cackles the old elf, his gray eyes dark and deep and all the rumors of him being once one of the best assassins in the Barthic Empire seem reasonable. "I must be telling the truth."

With the completion of this and getting the dragonsilk, that will be another 3XP and it will take our four adventurers to 4th level. We will work out those details in a brief intermission before going on the Everburning Forest.

MECHANICAL NOTES

1. Reaction roll was a 5, so pretty hostile. Grobnir missed with a 2 but still did DEX rolls to see who stays mounted. 
2. Checking to see what Grobnir might want now that he has transitions quite a bit into "something else," got Acquire Crime + Capture Help. The "Other Grobnir" is trying to find some sort of different host. "Can the Other Grobnir take over another sentient body?" 13 ==> Yes, but... it is most compatible with other cyclopes so it is looking for a host to travel to where it can spread. Sort of a strange cordyceps type infection. "Is Grobnir resisting?" 3 ==> No, but... he is too fragile and old to resist but has long lost the ability. 
3. The party will need a turn on horseback to close the distance. The Other Grobnir gets another boulder off with hits a 13+4 = 17 but we'll subtract 2 because Grusk is in motion. So it still misses. Rance gets a 2 on getting his horse. Tom shoots for the cyclops and misses.
4. Grobnir wins initiative. The boulder hits for 15+4. Even with cover, it's a hit. it does 4 points of damage. Even with the moving penalty, Grusk gets his hit (15+7-2 vs 11). It sinks in for 8 points of damage. Inar doesn't hit initially so spends a luck token to get a high enough roll. It hits for 6. Rance shoots off an acid arrow and gets a nat 20 (giving back the luck token and doubling the damage). As long as this is sustained, it is for 2d6. The first round it does 6 points of damage. Tom manages to hit this time for 3. All told that is 23 points of damage versus Grobnir's 35. The "Other Grobnir" will attempt to "escape" next time since it failed its morale check. Will Grobnir try to help the Other Grobnir? Yes, but... he won't understand so instead will try shielding it with his body. 
5. Grobnir wins init again and gets two swings. The first connects with Grusk for 6 points of damage. Grusk makes his save to stay on his horse. Inar is going to use his "go invisible" halfling ability to avoid being seen by the creature. Grusk misses his first roll but spends a luck token to succeed. With Rance keeping up the focus, this does enough damage to kill Grobnir. "Does Other Grobnir survive for long outside of a host?" 9 ==> No, but... it will try immediately to find another. Grusk uses his Grit: DEX to stay far enough back to pour out the oil (gets an 18 on the roll). 
6. They find a gold censer shaped like an angel [70gp], a potion of polymorph [200gp], and a potion of healing [150gp]. This grants them 3xp each. 
7. Using Random Realities to generate the sort of clues found: 5, 4 ==> went with sword icon + 1, 1 ==> After a moment, I think the one that looks kind of like a quill makes most sense.

DOUG'S NOTES

That's not exactly what I was going for but I figured its best to establish why The Bleak is such a bad thing. It is shifting reality. Once we get to the Deeps, it will be even more so. The party is basically cursing themselves by carrying out their quest but by helping Grunce they are buying other people a chance to live more freely again. 

Doors to either side are locked and require DC18 DEX to open.

This is a 40' by 30' research library with a 20' by 10' alcove along the south wall storing many important texts about the running of the Monolith and about experiments towards fighting the Bleak. [SoloDark (SoD): 99 Rest 16 Information + 73 Assist 41 Danger]. The books are still in generally good condition, partially because of defense system installed which was also once an assistant used in running the complex.

In the center of the room is a strange stone automaton (the Grunkheart Golem, aka "The Librarian") connected to the floor with four rotating wheels that spin upon a central axis. The top wheel has four mouths and four ears and four eyes and can answer questions as well as communicate. The eyes reflect the mode/mood: red = attack, blue = processing, green = librarian, black = off. They are currently in red mode. The Librarian is waiting for a passcode to back into its processing and helpful state.

The second wheel down has 3 long and articulated arms capable of reaching 15' out from the center. They are equidistant around the wheel and each arm can strike for 1d10+2 damage. They hands attached (with seven digits) are capable of retrieving books from the shelves as well (but not the more restricted alcove). 

The third wheel has four orbs which extend out on thin arms if needed. Red casts Hold Person. Blue casts Telekinesis. Green casts Protection from Energy. Orange casts Wall of Force. 

The fourth wheel, closest to the ground, has enough space that it can rise up and slam down. The bookshelves are designed to absorb this impact. 

The Grunkheart Golem (The Librarian)

AC 18, HP 40, ATK 3 slam +8 (1d10+2) and 1 slow, MV none, S +6, D +0, C +6, I +3, W +0, Ch -2, AL L, LV 8 Golem. Immune to damage from fire, cold, electricity, or non-magical sources. The bottom wheel's "pound" causes all targets in near to require DC15 CON or speed halved 1d4 rds. For the four orbs, spells are at +2 to cast.

Three questions about the current state of The Librarian (SoD Oracle):

• Is it still fully functional as its original function? 17 ==> Yes, but... requires repair.
• Does the House Grunkheart still have the password required? 4 ==> No. This requires a trip to somewhere else.
• Will it be mindlessly aggressive? 5 ==> No, but... it will defend the library.

The strangest door off the main Artery, as Rance calls it, was once brightly colored and still retains some elements of its glory after all these years of water and weathering. It is better sealed than the others, giving no indication of cracks or taint, still resisting mold and decay. The front has a series of interlocking wheels that make up some sort of opening mechanism the adventurers have not seen before. Despite time spent listening, no one has heard any sound from inside. 

On the door, in very faint letters, are markings in a complicated language that neither Rance nor Tom recognize. Terk mentions that some of the oldest books in the library in the Lighthouse use this text and Cal has been trying to decipher it. Progress is being made but more about the language is lost than found. Tom's theory is that was a secret code for the five families to communicate about the construction of this place. [1]

Now that the other avenues are starting to get explored, Grunce wants to knows what is behind the door and tasks Tom with getting opening while everyone re-kits after backing away from the large crocodile's lair. 

It eventually takes Tom, Rance, Nelf, and Terk some time to figure it out before the proper arrangement of wheels is made and the door releases with a deep hiss as the space beyond depressurizes. The siblings pull back and stare at the adventurers. 

"You're up, bigun!" Tom calls to Grunce who stands, takes a breath, grips his axe, and pushes the door open. The room beyond is a library. An extensive one. Rance almost forgets himself and goes to walk in but Grunce pushes him back. "Watch it, Uffolt, this place is full of surprises." 

One such surprise is in the middle of the room. A...structure. Like some primitive totem full of strange angles and shapes. Four wheels of differing sizes have been stacked on top of each other. The bottom one thick and heavy. The top one smaller and covered in strange carvings that look like a parody of the human face. Another one near the bottom with four orbs and a fourth, above this, wider than the others by a notch, with long...appendages. 

As the door is pushed open and Grusk is standing there holding the others back, the thing begins to "wake up" as some of the shapes in the primitive face start to glow red. The long appendages stretch out just a bit and start to resemble complex arms like those of some strange giant bug trying to imitate a human. The wheel with the four orbs starts to spend faster and faster while the heavier wheel on the bottom lifts up. 

In on time at all the thing seems to be fully "on" and one of the shapes in the face-parody starts barking in an unknown language: "ERIYL TOROL....ERIYL TOROL!" [2]

Grusk, entering the room, shouts back: "Yes, yes, Eriyl Toural." Then stops as the "four orbs" disk stops and points the red orb at him...which flares and then turns off... before spinning back around to the Blue orb and Grusk flies back past the door and slams into the others. The half-orc manages to twist with the movement and prevent anyone from suffering more than embarrassment. [3]

The door slams back shut and moments later, when reopened, Grusk finds himself running into an invisible wall. Despite the "barrier", the calls of "ERIYL TOROL!" are followed by "FARON IX!"

"Well, this is a funny thing," says Inar. 

***

Rance and Tom sit around with Cal Grunkheart around the oversized stone table on the second floor of the Lighthouse. Outside, the sounds of Grunce night can be heard in the distance. Yet another festival being thrown by Mayor Marr to distract the people from the encroaching darkness threatening to devour the town. The drunk calls and loud shouts as the city folk let their worries free. 

Gryffin Grunkheart and Father Marnit enter the room. The young guard officer tosses an old scroll on the table in the direction of Cal. 

"Here, cous, this is what mother gave me." 

Gryff, a junior member of the officers of the Grunce guard, is Cal's cousin and middle son of the Lady Moreena Grunkheart, current matriarch of the House. Once the party had returned to the Lighthouse and told Cal about the strange door and the even stranger contraption inside, Call summoned Gryffin to talk Lady Grunkheart to find out if the current House library has any note about the commands or passwords to control the machine. 

The library in the Monolith potentially will answer all the questions the Keepers have about saving the light. [4]

Unfortunately, Lady Grunkheart was unable to find anything conclusive about how to get past "The Librarian," so the team has to take a different approach. Hence the scroll that Gryffin tossed to Cal. It is a map. A few miles northwest of Grunce is the Everburning Forest, a place of thick trees and constant smoke from fissures deep beneath the ground. Somewhere in there, and the map shows roughly wear, was Jonias Grunkheart's old workshop where he studied and puzzled at pre-Barthic technology that later formed the basis of the Lighthouse and the Monolith. [5]

Cal looks over it and then hands it to Rance. Rance and Tom look over it and then call in the other two who had been playing cards in the next room with several Keepers. 

"Pack your bags, boys, we're going on a walkabout." 

MECHANICAL NOTES

1. Is the language an actual secret code? 9 ==> No, but... it is an old Barthic language that was largely lost by the time of the construction. Not secret, per se, but something from the past. Jonias was tapping into some old technology/lore when he built this place. 
2. Just rolled 4 times on Random Realities to generate some syllables. Probably won't try and make any functional degree of Grunkheart's language.
3. The Librarian failed it's Hold Person spell but managed to get the Telekinesis off. Grusk made his DEX save to prevent from damaging himself and the others. The Librarian gets the Wall of Force spell to seal off the room. 
4. I'll save any rolls related to that fact once they figure out how to get past the Librarian or ending up fighting and destroying it though the thing hits like an absolute truck.
5. Is the map easy to read? 9 ==> No, but... it shows enough details to get them roughly to the spot once they actually explore. 

DOUG'S NOTES

Tried my best to create (in GIMP) a rough sketch of The Grunkheart Golem. I think it works ok. I want to start working in more and more of my own illustrations to this even though I absolutely suck at it. 

Once I got a "boss monster" in a room right off the main "artery" I had a slight problem about what kind of "boss" would be around 30' away from action that has already taken place and not yet involved. I decided it would either be a cool, higher powered undead, or some thing more "magi-tech". I basically flipped a coin and then got to work making a weird golem that turned increasingly weird. I went from wanting it to be a "fight" to something that could be worked deeper into the lore. I spent half the time of this session doing a very prep-is-play format. 

From here we will try out the first hexcrawl of the series which is kind of exciting for me. It will be a bit more of a "point crawl" than hex crawl but I have ideas. 

The name "Everburning Forest" was because I just used a quick "generate a site name" and it was "Immortal Fire" or some such and I wanted to "bleak" it up. There's been a building towards the classic trope of age-of-technology becomes age-of-magic and I am down for it.

With something like an hour of writing and designing some the backstory, the actual play here is at a minimum but so it goes. The GM-Doug + Player-Doug aspect offers opportunities like that.

CREDITS AND RESOURCES

This game is played using Shadowdark and SoloDark, both by Arcane Library and Kelsey Dionne (et al). The map in this delve is "The Halls of Amon-Gorloth II" by Dyson Logos with added annotations and colors by me. 

The page of the Voynich Manuscript (an inspiration for the strange pre-Barthic language that will be featured in this next bit) was taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica and has the caption: "Botanical or pharmaceutical illustration, Voynich manuscript (page 99 verso), 16th century; in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University." 

Other resources used in this campaign are

• Knave 2nd Edition by Ben Milton
• Random Realities by Cezar Capacle
• The Monster Overhaul by Skerples
• Bestial Ecosystem Created by Monster Inhabitation by Courtney C. Campbell and others.
• The Book of Random Tables: Dungeons, The Great Book of Random Tables, and The Great Book of Random Tables: Quests by Matt & Erin Davids. 
• The Solo Adventurer's Toolkit One & Two by Paul Bimler
• GM's Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing by Raging Swan Press.

The illustrations for this delve are a mix of elements from the game/map as credited above, Pixabay stock art (often used more for effect than precision), elements made by me, modifications of maps using Gimp, and various pieces generated using ChatGPT4o [or some combination of multiple of these things]. 

Roughly 80' corridor. [ShD, Room Contents = 1, Empty]. There are two alcoves showing very old and decayed artwork. Just visible with some effort [SoD, Are any details still presently visible? 19, Yes, but...] (on the left) is a shows a bright scene of dragon flies flying in the foreground while in the background a wave of darkness destroys the land [Random Realities (RR): 5,1 --> image element of dragon fly + wave]. The second (on the right) shows a obelisk with a light floating over it while all around darkness presses in [RR, 4,5 --> obelisk + lightbulb]. These are the paintings of Jonias Grunkheart showing off his early understanding of the Bleak pressing in on Grunce and the whole of the Empire. 

Rance Uffolt looks around the room in clear excitement. "Ah, this is very useful. This looks like one of the rooms that was originally used to...INAR, no!" The latter shout to try and discourage the halfling shaman from pulling a pipe out of the wall. Inar Gale looks back a bit sheepishly and then pat the sensitive equipment a couple of times to show no harm done (and to hide the fact that he had pulled it slightly out of alignment).

A 50' by 70' room with open archways on either side. The room's original purpose was for [SoD ==> 78 Sacrifice 62 Pain +  14 Assemble 35 Asset] training purposes. Soldier's would gather here to train and stay in physical shape. In the chance the town had evacuated into the complex, this is where they would have maintained some physical discipline. Now the training dummies are rotted and sagging and the gear is largely decayed. 

The sound of water can be heard trickling to the south. 

The room inhabited by a Giant Spinder (ShD, Room Content --> 5, Solo Monster. Spinder was rolled on the random creation table and given two mutations). The creature looks like a cross between a large spider and a porcupine. It can shoot spines from its back up to distance near. Each spine is poisonous but due the projectile state the DC to resist poison is CON 9. On a natural roll of 1-3 on a d20, the spinder has its last ready spine though it can still attempt close range attack. They hunt their pray by hiding along ceilings and getting a sneak attack. 

(Note: the Spinder is currently sleeping [ShD Random Encounters: 12 --> Sleeping].)

Giant Spinder 

AC15, HP25, ATK 2 Spines (ranged, near, on nat 3:20, it is out) +7 (1d6 + poison), MV near (climb), S +4, D +1, C +2, I-2, W +1, Ch -2, AL N, LV 7.  

Poison. DC 9 CON or paralyzed 1d2 hours.

Sensitive to Sound. The spinders many spines act to pick up sounds and can aim at targets not facing it (making it dangerous even to approach from behind) but this also means that loud sounds can confuse or disrupt the creature. It needs to make a D12 WIS check to avoid. 

Tom sees the dead body of a gar folk warrior on the floor. Desiccated with several large spines sticking out of its back. The goblin raises a fist in the air and signals the others to hold. Looking inside, he can sense something is wrong but not make out exactly what. [5]

DOUG'S NOTES

CREDITS AND RESOURCES

This game is played using Shadowdark and SoloDark, both by Arcane Library and Kelsey Dionne (et al). The map in this delve is "The Halls of Amon-Gorloth II" by Dyson Logos with added annotations and colors by me.

Other resources used in this campaign are
Knave 2nd Edition by Ben Milton
Random Realities by Cezar Capacle
The Monster Overhaul by Skerples
Bestial Ecosystem Created by Monster Inhabitation by Courtney C. Campbell and others.
The Book of Random Tables: Dungeons, The Great Book of Random Tables, and The Great Book of Random Tables: Quests by Matt & Erin Davids.
The Solo Adventurer's Toolkit One & Two by Paul Bimler
GM's Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing by Raging Swan Press.
The illustrations for this delve are a mix of elements from the game/map as credited above, Pixabay stock art (often used more for effect than precision), elements made by me, modifications of maps using Gimp, and various pieces generated using ChatGPT4o [or some combination of multiple of these things].

 [The Unknown Fish Army and Getting Back]

I used random dice to determine that there were 16 gar folk warriors as part of this tribe (with 16 non-warriors + Garoshen, the tribal leader). The group has already fought and beaten 10 of them, leaving only 6 more warriors + the chief. However, the group does not know how many warriors there are, etc, so opinions vary. Grusk (half-orc warrior) wants to push the fight. Rance (human wizard) is ok with pushing the fight AFTER the group prepares again. Inar (halfling cleric) spends a lot of time trying to not get into fights. Tom (goblin thief) is a bit in-between. Partially because Tom knows that now they are really taking the fight back to the gar folk, that they might slaughter the tribe and Tom has always tended towards trying peace first and not just, like Inar just to avoid the work. Despite it going badly for the group and then them managing to crawl out of hole (in Tom's case, literally) Tom will rarely choose the killing of everyone until he is pushed into that corner: which by going back they will be. 

Part 10 - Drying Off Just to Get Wet Again

A quarter hour later...

The group readies their weapons and Grusk shoves open the door. Expecting to be facing down several gar folk warriors they are surprised to see the leader sitting, seemingly alone. His throne a structure of bone and driftwood surrounded by moss and mold as years of debris and detritus have turned to mush in the years since he has taken this place. 

Between the group and the throne a pool of water so dark and stagnant it looks close to reflective in the sunlight filtered into the room from some cracks and holes above. Another way to Grunce is here. 

The rot and decay of the gar folk's daily life is strong. Nearly overpowering, though the group of adventurers have tried to get used to it. 

Grusk pushes Inar forward and the portly halfling priest tries his best in common and then in primordial, but alas it is clear that the gar folk do not speak the language of the surface dwellers. Inar then tries to gesture and point back towards the surface but the gar king just glowers at them and waves them to come closer. 

Tom shakes his head "no" and barks in primordial not to trust, that something is up. 

At this, Garoshen screams out something in Merran tongue and the water in the pool erupts at 6 of the warriors leap up and attack the heroes. [10]

The first one to reach the line of heroes is completely cut down by Grusk while Tom's arrow (and Inar's hammer) fail to hit their marks. Rance gets a magic missile off to wound another. The charging hoard slams into Grusk and Inar as the two fend of bites and tridents and Grusk takes some deep scratches but luckily stays ahead of the hits. 

Rance picks up a sound from near the throne and notices a shimmering light surrounded Garoshen. "They have a mage!" 

As the frontal assault continues, Grusk and Inar hold their ground with Grusk managing to drop another one (and Inar continuing to miss). Tom changes tactics and shoots an arrow at Garoshen himself and is satisfied to see the arrow sink past the glowing magic armor. Rance takes Tom's lead and launches a magic missile at the gar fish leader. For now, though, Garoshen refuses to be prodded from his throne and the "mage" on the other side. 

Starting to back the fish folk up, Grusk and Inar team up on a third and drop it next to the other corpses while Tom and Rance keep pressing their advantage of attacking Garoshen until finally the gar folk leader screeches some words and flings down his trident, causing the others to do the same. From behind steps a scrawny half-fed gar folk who looks like they have been the target of neglect and abuse for some time. 

The next hour goes smoother than Tom could have hoped. A large chamber to the north of the throne room held a number of gar folk and their young. With Garoshen and his mage talking to them, they manage to gather up these scragglers and slump up the slope into daylight before disappearing into the water of the channel. The four heroes prevent violence between the groups from breaking out, not letting any of the Marius guards overstep. At one point, Grusk even helps carry a couple of gar folk youth up the steep slope (despite being covered in the blood of their fellow tribesmen, something the gar folk do not take too angrily...bloody fights is a way of their life). 

After this, the team finds a lot of cleaning up with need to be done, eventually. In Garoshen's throne room, they find a number of small trinkets. Tom is more excited by a small leather pouch in the area behind the throne, where the gar mage must have slept. "It's a bag of holding!" [11]

MECHANICAL NOTES

1. On the way back up had a couple of designated rooms/areas to check and a random monster check. Rolled a random encounter and got another crocodile. Grusk and it went toe to toe with Grusk killing it but taking 3hp damage. "Did it have eggs?" came back with an 18, yes. So he pocketed them for food. The major hazard was "entrapping terrain". Considering it is at the bottom of a stair well where water was designed to flow down...it's mud and muck. Everyone rolled a STR test get through it (Inar and Tom failed) and then a DEX test to see if the dropped anything. Only  person that did was Rance but he rolled a 1 so I rolled twice on his pack and both items were rations. How the wizard dropped ALL of his food I have no idea, silly man. 
2. Will the gar folk push the offensive? 6, No. Have some of the Marius retainers gone down to see how the heroes are doing? 3 on disadvantage, so no...but they are contemplating abandoning their post. 
3. Made an "open" INT roll with Rance. Got an 11 total so passed DC9 but did not hit DC12. I'll say that it's a weak hit. The team can come back this way with his prep but will need some luck to do it with speed. DC12 DEX rolls to pass without getting stuck again. 
4. Had previously rolled that the tunnel entrance is above the line. 
5. "Will House Marius go along with the plan?" Yes, but... 
6. Everyone else passed with flying colors but it took Rance 4 rolls to get out which triggered enough time that a wandering monster showed up. Got a random monster. Went with making a new one. PL-3 so fairly weak. I'll say level 1 with some disadvantages. These are STEALTH SLIMES. +1 to hit. 4hp but take double damage from most attacks. They are HARD to see unless you pass a DC15 WIS check or spray the area with something that shows them. Quick and fragile. They most do piecemeal damage (1d4) but will swarm presumably weak enemies and kill them in the confusion. There are 5 here. Since Rance just took 7 damage on turn 1...wellllll....
7. Tom passed his check. Other three failed. Grusk made the check to pull out Rance and throw him. "Are slimes still on Rance?" No, but... Rance did pass a DC15 check to hold on to the staff with the light spell, though.
8. Poor man failed another "get out of dodge" roll and took 2 HP damage which left him at 0hp. Inar had to burn a luck token to get the healing off. I'm not going to punish the wizard even more for now. 
9. Bless is very...itself, eh? What a spell...anyhow, I compressed all the rolls and checks until they are entering into the chamber to stop it from being a paragraph or two of them just wandering and passing by Ollazelle again, etc. 
10. "Are the warriors with Garoshen?" 10, a twist. 29 Waste, 34 Science. 36 Surprise, 35 Asset. Ummmmmm...without overly complicating this I am going to say he sets a trap and has a "wasted mage". Rolling on the table for a couple of spells I get Floating Disk and Mage Armor. Yeah, that feels wasted alright. For the trap I thought it might be nice to roll on the "rivers and coast" encounter table and see if I could more widely apply it got 54: a weighted and barbed net launches out of the silt and sand...so the plan is try and taunt them forward towards a net the gar folk have set up. 
11. After Garoshen failed his morale check I went ahead and sped up the aftermath. They have the rest of the gar folk leave. I did check (once) to see if they would go, at advantage on the oracle and got "yes". Dropped the game a bit out of "real time" for the resolution so I don't end up spending another hour working out the logistics. The team helps get the gar folk out and keeps them safe but insists they leave. They found 3 trinkets (some silver spikes, a random holy symbol) but I'll just skip ahead and give them 80 gold. They also got a bag of holding which is pretty significant. Having cleared out one of the major threats, I'm granting them +7XP total for the treasure and the "boon" of being able to solve this problem and making the area safer without having to resort to going against their principles. 

DOUG'S NOTES