The original arc finale. Johnny Blue and the werewolves enter into the other-space at the core of the Grove and confront a descent into the abyss. Even with enhanced physical powers and regeneration, will they be able to survive the final trial? Agent Johnny Blue also faces the fact that he might just very well have to tell the truth for once.
Category: Solo Campaigns Page 8 of 10
Intermission #6 Contents
- Trying out a New Token Paradigm
- Re-Introducing the Blue Delve Boys and Learning Rolls
- Background for the Lighthouse 6
- Meet the Lighthouse 6
- The Potential Others
Trying Out a New Token Paradigm
In previous The Bleak + The Pearl Intermission (#5) I talked about taking the main storyline and putting it on a semi-hiatus as a way to focus on some new characters, get back to a purer dungeon delving experience, and just slightly rest up from what had been a kind of intense story building learning experience. This week's post will combine some of the progress on that as I plan to (next week) launch into the first of these new delves.
A slightly minor aspect to this hiatus and soft- | hard- relaunch is that I wanted to go back to the days where I was using a homebrew virtual table top setup to explore the dungeon mixed with hand-rolled dice and both virtual and handwritten notes. While looking over my assets for this, I found a stack of tokens I had made using John Kapsalis art originally designed for or around Advanced Fighting Fantasy and while I love JK's art and look forward to using it again in any AFF endeavors into which I might dive, I also wanted to give a good strong think about the aesthetics of this new era.
To remind you, this is what my original set up looked like.
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| The Blue Delve Boys face off against a berserker cultist and three zombies. (Art by John Kapsalis, Dyson Logos, and Crypto Cartographer - arranged by Doug Bolden - used here for personal use but all rights are reserved by original creators). |
Dyson Logos (or other) map, JK art, a GIMP template using some token borders I found (after digging through my files, I am 98% sure I was using "Character Token Portrait Frames for VTT" by Crypto Cartographer at least as base), and then a few other pieces here or there. Monsters were freqently "close enough" selections. Characters were "close enough" with some matching more than others. I would use text boxes to mark changes on the map and would often use a fog layer to update the map as I went to show explored areas and such. Over time, it made a nice digital artifact. You can see an example at the top of my recap for the "The Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur" dungeon.
There are a couple of problems with the set-up that are not quite actual problem. The two biggest (outside of a potential rights thing and tracking down credits for multiple sources every screenshot I might share) are that the characters/monsters never quite fit my mental vision and each token tended to involve a multistep process. I had to dig through my dozens of JK token packs, find the one I wanted. Snip it out from the whole. Import it into GIMP. Possibly trim or mask out portions of it to make it pop out better. Pick a frame fitting whatever mood or need I felt worked best. Export that out into a PNG. Upload that into my VTT. Then, when another encounter would show up, either reuse a "close enough" token or start back over.
As I have explored more and more with tools and aids that I like, one thing I have come to use a lot for some of my element is the CC-BY 3.0 tokens/icons at games-icons.net. It takes a little bit of practice to get used to what tokens are or are not there. As you get used to their selection, though, you start to get generate some ideas about how you could creatively add them in. At least I do.
This lead me to a new sort of idea. Find some broad "iconic representations" of the characters—Grusk can be represented by his axe, Bloodlust, while Tom might be lockpicks—and then use the icon customize option to add in a few colors, cut a few pieces out, and generally make icons not really meant to be precise tokens to the characters but stand-in elements that allow me to keep up my own mental map of the characters while also being clear enough that I am not confused about who is who. For monsters, a few basic icons can do heavy lifting: basic corporeal undead types, insect types, cultist types, spirit types, demon types, etc. Then when I come across a gnoll I do not have to find a gnoll token that is roughly the right shape and equipment but instead I use the mid-level humanoid beastman generic token. Save the tokens in such a way that I keep the symbol name, the artist, and the rough representation in the file type.
Here is what the above scene would look like using these more generic tokens. I'll add in a "web spell" effect and a few more enemies to demonstrate.
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| Three zombies attack Grusk while an enraged berserker cultist attacks Inar. Three other cultists are being trapped in Rance's Web spell. Two dead cultists are in the previous room. (Map by Dyson Logos. Icons by Delapouite, Lorc, and GamerAce135 from games-icon.net [CC-BY 3.0]) |
While the old art definitely had its charm, I really like the "board-game aesthetic" of the new art. I also like how it frees me from trying to describe a scene with my token choices and instead gives me more freedom to represent a scene and encourages a bit of creativity with colors and themes. I also like adding the spell effects and such to better track the status of things, backed up by some text.
Re-Introducing the Blue Delve Boys and Learning Rolls
In that light, here are the Blue Delve Boys and their current tokens. These might change over time depending on factors but for now, here's what they look like.
As I was making up icons and working on the "Lighthouse 8" (see below) I came across a line in the Kelsey-made Bard write-up: "Add 1d6 to your learning rolls." I realized I did not know what that meant. I found out that I had been missing a whole mechanic that is exactly the sort of reason why I like to play Shadowdark. As I said in a recent post, Shadowdark tends to allow characters to have more fiction than other OSR and OSR-adjacent games. "Learning" is precisely what I am talking about. While the Carousing rules got a fair amount of discussion during the build up to SD's release, I found that I had overlooked it's first cousin. Instead, you can have your character attempt to learn a new skill or general knowledge during downtime instead. It is described as such on Page 91: "Learning enables you to do new actions or gives you advantage on certain checks." You work out what you want to learn and can learn with the GM, then start out making a INT DC18 check. The next time you try to learn it, you reduce that by one step—i.e., DC15, DC12, DC9, etc—until you learn it or give up trying.
Over the course of these months of adventure, there have been a fair amount of downtimes. If I was playing a more traditional campaign, maybe four-ish. With the more story-heavy style campaign, maybe eight-ish. I will cut that into the middle and say six downtimes for six months of playing. Maybe high, maybe low. I don't know. It's complicated.
There were two carousing checks. This leaves four attempts to learn.
Grusk and Tom are going to want to learn Bleak navigation for sure. Then, if they pass that, then Grusk would want to learn more about delving while Tom would learn hunting. Inar will first try for first aid. After that, he will try for sneaking around. It is not really allowed for him to learn the full thief ability kit but since halflings have a natural sneak and he is prone to trying to stay a bit back to help once people get injured, I figure this is kind of a extending of what he can already do [and I have never really used his halfing invisibility properly except maybe once]. Finally, Rance will definitely start out learning the Ancient language. After that, he will work on improving his "monster lore" abilities since he seems to have that inherent based on how I play. Finally, he will being working on learning how to operate and repair automatons based on Jonias's notes.
Let's see how this goes...
Making the Rolls and the Outcomes
Grusk, learning Bleak Survival (at -1 to INT): 7 vs DC18, 6 vs DC15, 13 vs DC12. Grusk (on the third attempt) gets Bleak Survival and advantages to rolls related to navigating and surviving the Bleak, including a broad sense of what level of Bleak they at.
Grusk, learning "Delving" (at -1 to INT): 9 vs DC18. Not yet, but he will continue.
Tom, learning Bleak Survival (at -2 to INT): 13 vs DC18, 3 vs DC 15, 3 vs DC 12, 10 vs DC9. Tom (on fourth attempt) gets Bleak Survival with the same as Grusk. No time to learn Hunting just yet, but that'll be next.
Inar, learning First Aid (at +1 to INT): 19 vs DC18. He gets it on first attempt. He will get ADV to first aid rolls while trying to stabilize others. I'll also say this can be used to generally do things like identify wounds, give a rough prognosis, identify poisons/diseases he might have some experience with. Generally the kind of stuff that might be helpful in a non-magical, non-specialized way.
Inar, learning Sneaking (at +1 to INT): 13 vs DC18, 9 vs DC15, 11 vs DC12. Next time he will be against DC9.
Rance, learning Ancient Language (at +3 to INT): 15 vs DC18. 20(!) vs DC15. Rance not only learns Ancient on his second attempt but we'll say he is good at it and gets ADV to reading Ancient Text.
Rance, improving Monster Lore (at +3 to INT): 14 vs DC18. 19 vs DC15. His final learning attempt nets him ADV to identifying monsters and will allow him to make deductions about Bleak altered creatures. He will next turn to using his Ancient Language skills to translating Jonias's notes about the automatons.
Background for the Lighthouse 6
Behind the scenes, I created the initial four heroes while learning Shadowdark and only spent a somewhat short while making them. I gave them only a thin backstory—they were in The Pearl, they were orphans raised at a monastery (which got the name "The Blue Delve" from somewhere, probably some random table), and one of them had nightmarish dreams of something going on in the Bleak—that picked up elements like a snowball rolling downhill. They quickly became the reason for the campaign and so had developed a kind of necessary plot armor. If one of them died, it would sort of be weird to continue the campaign as it was going. Part of the reason for the reset is to build up some other characters, personalities, explore some extended materials, and effectively remove the plot armor a bit. Things can get more tense as it goes.
In terms of The Bleak + The Pearl's world: 300-years ago, Jonias Grunkheart enlisted the lords and ladies of the four other Grunce leading families to enact an incomplete version of a great plan. This is the Lighthouse, a rebuilt Ancient technology that takes the energy of The Bleak and uses it against itself to push it back (while generating both visible light and also The Light, the neutral energy power source of all Ancient technology).
The Grunkhearts provided the technology and planning. The Mariuses provided materials and wealth from their shipping. The Bittermolds provided magical assistance and expertise on darker truths. The Harcurams provided legal and administrative support. The Mistameres provided physical strength to build the Lighthouse and protection for the workers constructing it.
After the Lighthouse was completed, and the Monolith carved underneath (more a monolith symbolically, implying all the people of Barthus were one), the families continued to rule Grunce (the Grunkheart family estate, semantically decayed from "The Grunkhearts' Land"). Other people from all over Grunce filled the city to the brim and other great houses from other cities were not content to be left out. Various power struggles occurred while the Lighthouse went from being well known technology to something increasingly forgotten, a background artifact shining light into the distance. The Grunkhearts remain with some power but other families have virtually pushed them out. Cal Grunkheart, nephew to the current ruler of the House, has taken on the goal of fixing and expanding the Lighthouse. The Mariuses have done marginally better but have given up their seafaring ways, focusing entirely on money trading. The Mistameres lost their family land and combined as a family with the Harcurams for form House Mysturam. And the strange, weird Bittermold House retreated into the Bleak and have largely vanished besides various small manors and estates all laying claim to the name.
[Doug's Note: Mistamere is a reference to the Frank Mentzer created dungeon found in the red box Basic Dungeons & Dragons because running that adventure was the first time I ever played a tabletop RPG and I thought it might be fun to convert to Shadowdark. The name remains Mentzer's though this family is quite different. Bittermold as a family name is a reference to Cursed Scroll #1 and was created by Kelsey Dionne. Unlike Mistamere which is 99% an original creation with a naming-shout-out, the Bittermolds are more directly influenced by their source and will soon show up when that module is run.]
Meet the Lighthouse 6
As our heroes have been risking it all to support Cal Grunkheart and the Lighthouse Keepers, Cal has come up with the plan of tasking his cousin Gryffin Grunkheart (possible future Lord Grunkheart) with gathering up members of each of the other five families to begin reclaiming Grunce and protecting the future of Barthus. Possibly even pushing The Bleak back and retaking the land.
The leader of the Lighthouse 6 is Gryffin Grunkheart, the middle son of Lady Moreena Grunkheart (and technically third in line of succession, including his mother). His family protests him entering The Bleak since this precludes him from fathering heirs but he considers Cal to be the true Grunkheart lineage. Served for time as a minor captain of the city guard before aggreeing to help the Blue Delve Boys to deliver an anti-magic cloak to The Pearl. Here he met Boris Loo and decided to dedicate his life to adventure. He is a Human Ranger. His shares the Grunkheart symbol of a Lighthouse as his personal crest with Cal. He is a loyal leader and often will risk his own safety to protect his crew.
[Doug's Note: Rangers were developed by Kelsey Dionne and released along with the Bard as a special supplement. Speaking of...]
Louis Harcuram is one of the few "true Harcurams" left. His branch of the family is much poorer and he was raised a fisherman before taking up performing and traveling as a minstrel. In the Sofron Desert, he met Ronick Mistamere and enjoyed the irony of partnering with a Mistamere due to the long family association. When he and Ronick received the call to join with Gryffin, they both took the chance and headed to Grunce. He is a Human Bard and his symbol is a lyre.
Ronick Mistamere is a Dragonborn Pit Fighter. Not all Mistameres agreed with the plan to merge and settle down running warehouses and stores. Those went west into the desert where they took any chance they could to reclaim the militant might of the Mistameres of old. Ronick's branch combined themselves with desert dragons and attempted to lay claim to the desert. Beaten, they instead settled for being mercenaries and pit fighters. Ronick's great strength and fearsome appearance (with bronze and lapis lazuli scales) earned him a fierce reputation, which was enhanced by Louis acting as hype man. The two are great friends and both look forward to working with Gryffin. His symbol is the skull of one of his desert dragon kin.
[Doug's Note: "Dragonborn ancestry" in this case is derived from Unatural Selection with breath (and electricity immunity) from the desert dragon as given in Shadowdark, itself. Pit Fighters are from Cursed Scrolls #2.]
Dhelia "Del" Marius is the maybe-mad descendent of infamous Mad Del Marius. While the Marius family has officially given up the family tradition of sailing the high seas, this new Del has reclaimed it in style. Sort of. She mostly just swept up a lot of other, better, sailors’ vomit and trash. Once the chance came to prove herself, she requested a boat from her distant cousin, Lady Varren Marius, who granted it because Lady Varen had already pledged to support Cal after the return of the family spear by the Blue Delve Boys. Del is a Human Swashbuckler and has her own ship thanks to her reluctant cousin. Del's symbol, and the name of her ship, are both "The Crossbow."
[Doug's Note: The Swashbuckler class being used here is from Letters from the Dark VI: Scallywags.]
Ada Bittermold is probably an actual Bittermold. The lost family had a complicated family tree involving humans, halflings, and less savory entries. Ada looks more human than most of the current members except for the fact that she has deer antlers and deer hooves and lower legs. Whether demonic or Bleak-touched is unknown by her at this time. She tries to offset this by dressing in bright colors to show she is friendly, but the overall effect combined with her odd sense of humor and weird moods makes her look more like a poisonous tree frog than anything else. She is a ??? Witch and her symbol is a deer's head with multicolor horns and eyes.
[Doug's Note: Originaly, she was going to be a Tiefling as outlined in Unnatural Selection but after I was working out how to make Boris (below) I decided to make her a bit more unique instead. 3/day she can talk to plants or fungus (though plants are not great conservationalists and mushrooms are worse). The Witch class being from Cursed Scrolls #1.]
Boris Loo is a Teen-aged, Bleak-Touched, Ninja Chelonian. He comes from a long line of gentle chelonian fisherfolk but his parent's vessel was swept off course and shipwrecked off the shores of Barthus. Forced to travel through The Bleak to reach safety, his mother gave birth to Boris only to find her son was different. Rather than the soft curve of the sea turtle's head, he had the head of a snapping turtle. What's more, he was less concerned with gentle fishing and self-taught himself the ways of "the ninja" even as his Bleak-induced mutations made themselves more and more evident. The family tried to hide him belowdecks to act as the ship's cook. Once the Loos helped Gryffin get to The Pearl, Boris met the young Grunkheart and immediately adopted himself as Gryffin's hyperactive younger brother. His symbol is his own face, wearing his traditional green mask which match's Gryffin's cloak.
[Doug's Note: Boris started out as gentle, turtle monk NPC meant to be additional backstory to the Blue Delve but I realized the potential TMNT joke and sought to figure out how to accomplish it with Shadowdark. He is the Chelonian ancestry from Unnatural Selection and then a reskinned version of the Ras-Godai class from Cursed Scroll #2. In his case, it is not the Black Lotus that gives him his powers, but being exposed The Bleak while still an unlaid egg. There has always been the potential for more Bleak-touched characters but I have not really worked on figuring that out until now with him and Ada.]
Gryffin and Louis have already showed up, albeit somewhat briefly, in the game. Technically, Gryffin was the start of the whole Grunkheart clan and the drama with the Lighthouse and is the one who introduced everyone to Cal, but the basic structure of the Lighthouse was already created before Cal and Gryffin were created.
The Potential Others
There are already four potential other characters to fill in gaps in any of the ten existing folks die, retire, etc. I won't delve too much into them (pun!) until it's a better time to bring them up but effectively:
- A Garfolk Thief who was found by Cal in the Monolith
- A Mycellan Priest who befriended the thief and joined him on his adventures
- A Forest Elf Ovate who met and formed a relationship with Rance after a night of carousing (currently spending some time working with the city guard)
- A Salamander Slayer who has dedicated his time after meeting Grusk to learning how to fight devils and demons.
Each of these are a shout out to a previous adventure or two and are mostly a thin sketch which can be built up if the need arises.
Johnny has made contact with the werewolf pack and it has gone exactly as poorly as he expected. However, his growing powers are intriguing to Macy Maron who increases her advances upon Johnny. He teams up with the werewolves to explore The Blue Sky Grove - the strange heart of The GLOW - and finds the mystery is worse than feared. A powerful adversary is attempting to bend all the rules.
Johnny Blue begins his mission to learn what is flagging the psychic threads involving a werewolf pack. Macy Maron and Barlow Hendrix - the dual heads of the pack - are dangerously heavy hitters and Johnny knows there will be trouble. He visits an old friend to try and gain an edge. This decision alters his entire life as old magic meets new and reforges a destiny for Agent Johnny Blue.
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| "Stairs, Steps, Old" by depaulus on Pixabay. Recolored by Doug Bolden. |
Previously, on The Bleak + The Pearl...
The four adventurers have explored the upper floors of Jonias Grunkheart's laboratory and have continued to make discoveries without context of Jonias's true purpose. A battle with servitor automatons pushed the group to its limits but they are rested, healed, and ready to to embark downstairs to make sense of the strange mysteries they have found.
About The Bleak + The Pearl
The Bleak (Barthus) and The Pearl (Silt) are large twin islands. Once home of an Ancient Empire that fueled its machines and miracles by tapping into the primal forces found upon each (Becoming and Being, respectively). Two thousand years after the fall of the Ancients, the Barthic Empire that grew up in its place (one of many over the years) faced its own cataclysm as The Bleak (the corrupted version of Becoming) spread like a disease. Those who stayed were subjected to rapid mutations and strange changes: their own bodies warped into monstrous forms as even the land lost its sanity.
Three hundreds later, four heroes—Grusk Obe (Half-Orc Fighter), Inar Gale (Halfling Cleric), Spotted Tom (Goblin Thief), and Rance Uffolt (Human Mage)—are on a journey across The Bleak, risking sanity and their own existence, to try and save The Lighthouse: the last great act of Jonias Grunkheart. A piece of reclaimed Ancient technology that can bring balance to the out of control forces.
Content Warning: Fantasy Violence, Occasional Body Horror...
This post is in MULTI-PHASE style. See the about page for this blog for more details. The system used to play this is ShadowDark by Kelsey Dionne and the Arcane Library with SoloDark (same) acting as the oracle.
Part 21 - Going Underground
{{ GAMEMASTER PHASE }}
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| (c) Dyson Logos. Mild Modifications by Doug Bolden. |
Jonias Grunkheart's Lab, Upper Basement
The upper floor of Jonias's lab is built on top of the remaining portions of Elizin Urnlight's old Everburning Forest research station. Jonias scavenged increasing portions of the tech and those are evident in the motif as well as in specific sections. The decor of the rooms lean more to white stone with blue lines and filtration system keep around 90% of the ash from building up here. Ceilings have (inactive) glowglobs attached to stylized conduits. Once the controls are activated in B3, these rooms will be lit. Various automaton, some of which are deactivated, are on pedastals.
Automatons on This Floor
All "minion" style encounters are automatons. Outside of the Viperian Ophid Class as noted below, the rest are 1-3: simple servitors, 4-5: basic servitors, 6: advanced servitors. Specifics to each can be determined as found. There is a 3:6 chance they are deactivated in the long years since the lab was last used. On a roll of 6, the internal working should be considered too worn down to work. Once B3 is activated, still check to see if automatons have worn down.
B1: Examination and Prep Room
While 2 (Transit Room) and 4 (Cleaning Room) have equipment to finish off and sort some fuelstone brought up from the mines below, B1 is the heart where fuelstone is fully sorted, trimmed, carved, and initially activated. On the section of the room are cart tracks leading up from the lower basement and through the ramp into the upper floors. On a raised platform, a series of tables with intricate equipment is visible. To the western side, the tables are closer together and the equipment is more primitive—roughly equivalent to some of Cal Grunkheart's equipment back in Grunce. As it tracks from west to east, the tables are "newer" (a relative turn since the newest one is over three centuries old) and more advanced. The last few tables built are quite advanced and on the lower tier of Ancient technology. Jonias spent decades learning more and all-in-all was a fast learner.
B2: Lower-Access Research Library
This was a library which housed some of the simpler, less-vital research books. There are four cases and each case has a 2:6 chance of having surviving texts. The more controlled air of this area is better at preserving the materials but it still remains dry and hot. If any surviving texts are found here, a INT DC24 roll (reduced by 3 per additional text and by an addiotional 3 if more than 1 week is spent in study) will help to bridge the gap between Ancient and Barthic languages.
B3: Control Station
Monitoring stations are in the north portion of the room. Glass screens which flash Ancient sigils while active are next to tubes and gears that provide other feedback. Through the locked doors (DC18 to open, but at disadvantage, key is downstairs) leads to stations with levers and gears to a) activate lights and life support; b) activate and control automatons; and c) activate and control the portal upstairs (in that order from west to east). The controls are written in Ancient but flipping the switch is somewhat obvious [just what it does, not so much]. INT DC18 to have a decent concept of what is happening if time is spent there.
B4: Scanning Room
This room was designed to scan security for the people who enter it. Two guard automatons (Viperian Class, 3:6 to still be powered) will activate if the doors are breached without the scan being done and the scan can only be done if the #a switch is activated in B3. The doors are not locked.
B5: Demonstration Theater
In the earliest days, the Temple/Theater upstairs was meant to be Jonias's place for demonstration. However, as the lower levels were excavated and built, it was turned into the portal room. This room took over as a place where Jonias could show fuelstone technology to guests. [We know from previous posts that the whole attempt to get more people to adopt the fuelstone tech was a flop so there is little chance of this room ever being properly used]. A few fancy seats look up on a stage where a table on par with the most advanced in B1 and a few podiums stand. These were the core of his "magic show."
B6: Second scan and security access to lower basement.
Both the north and south chambers contain more (currently inactive) equipment to scan visitors to check for access into the lower basement. Both doors are sealed with fuelstone tech and require STR DC24 to force open until B3 is activated (and then requires passing the scan of known people which accessible only in the floor below). Each door is guarded by another of the Viperian Ophid class automaton. Like all automatons on this level, there is an innate 3:6 chance for active status prior to the B3 switch. They will aggressively protect the doors if active.
Accessing the Lower Basement through the cart route
These shafts are narrow and steep. DEX DC18 to navigate them before activation of B3 (they are part of the automaton branch). Failure results in 1d6 damage. DEX DC15 to navigate once lights are on but failure results in 1d6 fall damage AND 1d6 damage from the fuelstone energy in the tracks. Furthermore, the carts are themselves primitive automatons (INT -2) who have a DC12 check to detect some disaster on the track.
[[ PLAYER PHASE ]]
The four have made their way over to the tool room and the large set of stairs there. Casting a light spell, Rance has his wand glowing and the four make their way carefully down the steps. Tom is leading with Grusk close behind. Inar is in the rear. Rance holds the light high from the middle.
The group stops as Grusk and Tom simultaneously let out a hissing noise from the bottom of the steps and Rance has to bend over to see what they see. Inar is too far back up to have a clear view so the halfling asks, "What is it?" [1]
"Couple of those snake golems that attacked us above. One of which is definitely turning to stare at us. The other seems...dead. Not moving," says Tom by way of explanation.
Grusk is already pulling out his magical axe, the blood-red-bladed Bloodlust, and with a shout runs forth into the room with the axe up. Then stops. The "golem" is not moving. Just watching.
"It's a trap, right?," asks Inar.
"It is always a trap," responds Rance, still crouching on the steps and watching, wand now fully aimed at the viperian ophid automatons.
Grusk walks forth and knocks on the automaton with his hand. Nothing occurs. [2]
Grusk looks back. "I'm going to chop it and wait to see what happens!"
"No, wait," calls Rance, the seer entering the chamber now with Inar following close behind. "The ones upstairs went on attack because we got near the swirly mirror thing. These are, well, trying to stop us from getting to the door? Tom?"
"Yeah," says Tom, thinking. The goblin checks out the door and spots no traps nor even obvious locking mechanism but when he goes to put a hand on it, the automaton quick whips its head to watch. Tom pulls his hand, back. "They are definitely stopping us from going through this door."
"So I chop it?," asks Grusk, still next to the automaton.
Rance again calls out for the half-orc to hold tight and examines the structure at the south of the room. A few inches higher than the rest it makes a step up into a rectangular platform filling the entire southern alcove. Then, in the middle of that, another smaller rectangular platform is again a few inches raised. At the corners of it are four pillars. They just appear to be more of the white stone prevelant in this layer of the lab. Except... "There is fuelstone laced in these pillars. And it attaches to those metal conduits making all the strange shapes, going over to that orb full of liquid, there. I think this area should be doing...something. Maybe this is helps us get past Hiss and Spit. Or we, you know..." [3]
The goblin answers the un-asked question, "I am for going back up and going down the tunnel with the railing." [4]
Rance responds, "I know what Grusk wants. What about you, Inar?"
Inar looks at the automatons uneasily. "I think it's worth at least a chance to see what the other way is about before we risk damaging anything." [5]
Rance looks at Grusk and the half-orc shrugs. Puts his axe down (but not back into its belt-hook) and backs away keeping an eye on the automaton. "Ok, then, up and over and let's see what we find."
They make their way back up to the previous floor and follow the tracks around and look down into the dark, steep path. "Why do we not have any rope?," asks Inar, giving it some thought.
The group goes back to the room at the top of the stairs that had various tools and gear stored. Everything there was in rough condition but in the side room with the strange armor and cloaks hanging on the wall, a good amount of rope was stored in the same material (and therefore has resisted the incessant burning). Sorting through the bits, they find hundreds of feet of rope and tie together about a hundred to start. Tom will go down first to test things out. Rance casts Light on a necklace Tom is wearing which is wrapped in a cloth so a dim glow shows the way. [6]
Tom's foot slips slighlty in the slightly-less-than-completely-dark tunnel but he regains his footing and continues down more carefully afterward. Getting to the bottom he glances around and then makes his way back up. "Biggish room, bigger than this. Some sort of tables with bits on. Like a jeweler's bench. Lots of these laying around." Tom hands over a fist-sized beetle made of metal and fuelstone. It is clear from the way the wings move that it once was a automaton but now is dead. It is unclear if it will get back to working agin. [7]
"Guess the little ones don't have as much...um...go?," speculates Inar as he pokes it with a finger, gasps, and then tosses it away from him like it was actively trying to bite him.
Grusk brings his boot down hard on it. "At least these are easy to crack. You said there were more?"
Tom and Rance stare at the needless destruction but Tom eventually nods. "It's a bit slippery with all the ash in the tunnel, but hold on to yourself."
The four start going down in the same order they were descending the stairs earlier. Grusk and Inar both nagivate it about as well as Tom, holding the rope. Only Rance slips and he slides down hard enough to smack his wizardly head into the floor. Inar says not a word as he casts Cure Wounds on Rance's bleeding scalp. [8]
Regrouping at the bottom, a chagrined Rance has been poking at exploring the tables up on a raised portion to the north of the room. There are a number of moving parts, things like that look like chisels, basins, and other bits that make only a rough bit of sense to the seer. "I think Tom was right. These are like jeweler's benches, only..."
"Only for really big jewels," Inar cuts in. "Like Brother Daniel might use to carve some of the statues and pillars back at the temple."
"Right, only...more sophisticated. Look, more of those conduits out of this strange metal attaching them to paths along the floor, up the walls, and then to another series of of those globes in the ceiling. And then they..." Rance jumps down to the main and floor and then moves back and forth along the exits to the room—there are two about equidistant in the south wall—they follow this one on the left-hand side. [9]
He almost absentmindedly follows the path while the other scrabble to catch up. As he is following the conduit lines and the strange, arcane path across the ceiling, Tom points out that there are more of the inactive lady bug automatons on the floor. "More bug golems." The room they are in is some sort of study. A few stone bookcases are covered in what was once books but now is mostly dessicated remains of books. A couple of volumes have weathered the passage of time enough to still be in roughly one piece, though. The goblin pokes Rance and has him come take a look. Rance flips through and shrugs. "Some of this is old Barthic. Some of this is...something else. I think this is Ancient. I can't really work with either but Cal probably will be thrilled. Rance places the books very carefully in his backpack. [10]
Moving south (again, the room had a pair of doorless hallways evenly spread to the south) the four find themselves in the strangest room yet. Roughly the size of the previous room, this has walls covered in strange glass sheets reflecting nothing, a variety of multi-colored crystals, and various tubes of different metal. In the floor, another automaton is in pieces. This one started out as more human but has since fallen and shattered. Taking note of the face of the automaton, Inar rushes over to it. [11]
"Grusk, you see this?"
"Yeah..."
"This face looks like Cal's!"
"Yeah..."
"Should we take it and show him?"
"Like, scare him with it?"
"No, you know, just show him!"
Grusk is clearly coming up with a plan. "No, I saw we convince him he is being haunted by himself. We'll have this looking out windows, following him..."
Moving on from that conversation and letting it fade, drift back to the other two. Tom is poking another dead ladybug automaton while Rance is scratching his beard.
"Rance, why are they so lifeless here when upstairs five separate golems tried to murder us?"
"I think it's the forest. Or, well, something in the forest." Seeing Tom's quizzical look, Rance continues. "Up there is ash and dust and fire everywhere. And you have multiple golems moving just fine. Down here, you have much less ash, much less heat, and..."
"...and the golems do not work. The same thing keep the forest out is keeping whatever lifespark these things need."
And now back to the other conversation, in which Grusk has laid out a seventeen-step plan to convince Cal that evil duplicates are stalking him, as Inar shouts back to Rance and Tom: "You should come see this, it's Cal's face on a golem. A Cal-lem if you will!" The halfling has been in high spirits, lately. Nearly dying a few times in a week really wakes you up, sometimes.
Walking over, Rance looks down at almost immediately catches on. "This is Jonias. Look, it is an older face that Cal's. There are some wrinkles and scars. The beard is much thicker. This is the great-great-great...well, you know. The old ancestor." [12]
This revelation makes Grusk and Inar both more excited as the plan shifts to convincing Cal he is being haunted by Jonias.
To the right and left of the back wall, doors are shut tight. Plaques on them are painted bright yellow and red text makes the letter stick out. Unfortunately, being in Ancient, no one here can tell what it means. "I think it's a warning."
Rance agrees and points out the arcane conduits split and go both right and left, here, behind those doors. "Warning or not, this is the way we are going." Rance and Tom go towards the door on the left when a loud clatter is heard behind the group. Something, more than one based on the noise, is making quite a bit of racket back there among the now mostly empty bookshelves.
"Tom," Grusk shouts, dropping the Jonias head in his own backpack, "You see to the doors, the rest of us will investigate whatever that is." [13]
{{ GAMEMASTER PHASE }}
There is one of the automatons match the type same as last time. The basic servitor automatons. Which is active. Rust Monsters have worked down into the lab and have been feeding off the automatons, at least the more traditional metal bits of them. This explains why some are completely collapsed and broken like the Jonias one and some of the ladybugs. Can the rust monsters feed off the strange metal in the conduits? 4 → No. That is safe. At least for now. Eventually they might start feeding on the lab, itself. The core metal which is a fuelstone alloy but things that need metal attachments is up for grabs. There are 3 rust monsters and they have been here for at least a couple of weeks and ended up sliding down the rail tunnel and haven't been able to get back up so they have been...hungry.
They were feeding on Pearl when Pearl activated and starting fighting back. A couple of rust monsters got smashed but Pearl is now heavily damaged.
Servitor Automaton (1, this one with a Pearl Marking): AC 16, HP 10, ATK 1 slam +0 (1d6), MV 1/2 near, S +3, D -2, C +4, I -3, W 01, Ch -4, AL N, LV 5
Rust Monster (3, well-fed but getting indigestion from some of the metal blends): AC 13, HP 19, ATK 2 claw +3 (1d6), MV near (climb), S +2, D +3, C +1, I-3, W +1, Ch -3, AL N, LV 4. Corrosive (Metal that touches the rust monster is destroyed on a d6 roll of 1-3).
The servitor has already taking 20 points of damage. Only one-arm remains functional and has one leg drags limply behind it.
[[ PLAYER PHASE ]]
Running into the worn down library, they see another of the weird golems from up top (the ones that look kind of like liveried servants), only this one has a different shaped head and a large pearl in its chest slot, chasing after some strange wolf-sized bugs with spazzing antennas and odd tails. "Rust monsters!," Rance shouts, recognizing them immediately. The Pearl-bearing servitor, moving oddly like its left leg has frozen up and its right arm is dangling loosely, goes to swing its left arm at one of the rust monsters and tilts forward and the falls over. The rust monsters turn around and leap upon it but it's clear that their strange tendrils—extending where mandibles would be on another beetle—are having trouble getting into any good feeding spots in Pearl's innards.
As Grusk steps forward to hit something, anything, with his axe, Inar holds him back. "Um, maybe let them get finished first. No need to fight both of them at the same time."
Unknown to the three watching this fight, Tom has gotten past the door quite handily and is now entering into the southern chamber. [14]
The rust monsters keep attacking the servitor automaton until they hit something vital. The spark goes out and Pearl collapses. Almost immediately, the rust monsters turn and antenna and tendrils are aimed straight at Grusk and Inar. The plate armor is the first non-weird metal these bugs have had for a minute. They are ready to eat. "Well," Grusk says as he trots forward to start the fight on his terms. Bloodlust slams down into the back of the nearest.
Inar rushes forward as support. He brings down The Crimson Star on the back of another one. Rance aims Acid Arrow at the third.
In the southern room, Tom flips the first switch and waits. Nothing obvious happens. [15]
The very hungry rust monsters are not deterred by a little bit of violence and two leap upon Grusk while the third goes for Inar. The rust monsters are crowding on top of both of them with one of the acidic tendrils hitting Grusk in the face. Likewise, Inar is getting burned while trying to find the creatures off. Grusk swings a bit wildly and gets Bloodlust into the same rust monster that Rance's Acid Arrow struck. The Arrow burns deeper and Magic Missiles fly into the same monster to do some minor damage against its shell.
In the southernmost room, Tom flips a second switch. Again, nothing obvious occurs. [16]
The rust monsters continue their attempt at a feeding frenzy. Grusk takes more of the burning hits against his face as he roars out in anger. Inar can hear a sizzling sound as the tendrils try to get into his armor but are stopped by the dragonsilk.
Grusk finishes chopping down the second while Inar gets a quite solid hit into the shell of the third. Behind them, Rance curses as purple sparks fly everywhere and his spellwords turn into strange chant.
Even more shocking, the lights in the room turns on and the lab starts coming to life. Loud gurgles erupt as water starts flowing through pipes in the walls. A breeze can be felt on the face of the adventurers once they stop to notice. A deep hum rumbles from all around. [17]
Grusk ignores the distraction as the remaining rust moster continues to try to eat him or his armor first. The creature can't get past the dragonsilk or there would be hells to pay. Inar has finally broken free from his opponent and has stepped back far enough the rust monster fighting him misses altogether.
Grusk swings around chops an antenna and some tendrils off his remaining opponent as Inar finally gets a good swing in and bashes the life out of the other. Behind them, Rance has managed to get his spells under control and the sparks have ceased flying.
Grusk and Inar run foward to the final rust monster and finish it off with a couple of quick blows. [18]
"What in blue blazes has Tom done?," Rance asks, looking up at the liquid filled globes now glowing with a warm light overhead.
The Effects of Reactiving the Lab
There are several effects that occur across the lab and beyond now that the lab has been turned back on. Let us start with the obvious ones.
The glow globes have reactivated. True enough, a few explode as a side effect of the many-years of disuse. The blue conduits of fluestone-infused copper start glowing the blue-green color of oxidized copper. These two things are the most obvious.
Slightly less obvious is that the air-purification system has reactivated. The water purification system downstairs also turns on and begins pumping water through the place. The combined effect will be a great reduction of smoke and ash over the new few hours. There will be drinkable water again with six hours.
The automatons, those still functional, are now waking back up. Some are confused about the long period of inactivity.
The lab upstairs has had a low level of naturally occuring Light-energy picked up from the forest itself. This is now concentrating. The lab is starting to repair itself and all the gears are turning on.
The portal no longer looks like a swirling mirrored image but more like an actual portal. It thrums and pulses. Jewels in its frame start to light up and blink to a strange timing.
The rail system reactivates and the carts are now monitoring the track for instructions.
Finally, least obvious of all, the Left Hand and Right Hand temples are slowly rewakening. The giant fingers bend slightly. This alters the flow of the immense Light-energy that has been building between then and directs some of that towards the lab. This shift in energy is felt by Uuld Alloces, the salamanders, and even the cultists. The forest is changing to fit the lab. Deep, deep below the earth, something else stirs, as well.
[[ PLAYER PHASE ]]
The four are together again, sitting in the room with the dismantled Jonias (head still in Grusk's backpack).
"Do you smell that?," Inar asks.
"What?," asks Grusk.
"The air, it's...cleaner."
Tom takes a deep sniff and sits upright. "You are right. I have smelled burning ash and woodsmoke for so long that I got used to it but this smells like...air."
Rance looks somewhere between worried and delighted. "When Sir Green Fingers here decided to flip the switches he seems to have turned the whole place back on. We have to tell Cal about this."
"But first," says Grunce, still injured from the fight after Inar's healing spell failed to take, "We need to get what we came here for. Whatever will allow us to go deeper into the Monolith." [19]
The half-orc stands, kicks a rust monster corpse, and then heads west from the library to keep exploring. Tom stops briefly to pry the pearl out of Pearl's chest but then follows suit. Inar and Rance do the same.
The room they enter into a relatively long passage is something like a twin to the "temple" above. It is a lavish place, especially in the glow of the orbs in the tall celing. A large stage takes up a lot of the room, stairs leading up. A table like a larger cousin to the ones they found earlier has a variety of even more advanced tools upon in it. Pedestals hold various odd objects under glass. A shining stone is in one. In another, an amber shows of a large beetle that might have been the inspiration for the ladybug automatons. Other pedestals hold items probably equally as rare, but more esoteric. Unfortunately, several of these have been knocked over and smashed by the rust monsters and the metals inside have been rusted away. [20]
On either side of the table are small stands. The one of the left is empty and a couple of smashed up rust monsters are dead nearby. On the right, though, another of the servitor automatons stares down at the adventurers entering into the room. This one has the same face as Pearl but a large Onyx is in its chest. It stares right at Tom and then leaps off the stage. Grusk gets in the way and breaks a good sized chunk of Onyx's head off in the first hit. Inar goes for a leg hit as Acid Arrow and another arrow from Tom all fly out to hit the servitor. Onyx tries to smash into Grusk but the half-orc deflects the first hit with his shield and the second with an armored arm. [21]
Onyx keeps raining heavy blows against Grusk and Grusk keeps deflecting them but the assault causes Grusk to miss. Inar shatters the leg of Onyx and even though Rance's acid arrow ceases to work, Tom shoots the automaton right above the gem and it ceases to function. Another dead automaton in a sea of them. [22]
"Is anyone else tired? I'm getting tired," says Grusk as he shoves Onyx's body back and uses a dagger to pry the heart-jewel out. Tossing it to Tom. The goblin is already up on the stage and gathering up whatever is valuable there. All these items are tossed in the bundle of holding.
Inar asks Rance, "Through the doors behind us, left, or right?"
Rance looks and notes the conduits are strongest to the south and makes his way to that door and opens it, carefully looking inside. Not seeing much he gestures for the others to follow. Tom hops down from the stage and goes first. The exhaustion, or the treasure, cause the goblin to make a rare misstep. He triggers a trap. As some of the seeming decoration turns out to be odd tentacle automatons, the goblin is already leaping backwards. The others, alerted by his actions, manage to get out of the way and avoid being snared in any of the grasping forms. Back in the stage room, they see the hall they were trying to get into blocked off by the tentacles. [23]
"Umm, let us try the right-hand door," says Tom. Unfortunately, though the goblin can see the sigils that activate the trap, he can see no way to actually disarm it. "We could run through, I guess? Or, you know, we take a running start and try to dive through?" [24]
Rance looks at everyone's tired faces. "I have a better idea. We head back up, take a breather. And we get some more rope."
A NOTE ON XP: Regaining the lab will be worth 3XP. The books to help Cal find out more about translation = 1xp. The other will translate to 3 more XP across the four found treasures (one for each golem + 1 for the two found on the stage). This gives them another 7XP total for this session.
== DOUG'S COMMENTARY ==
In the commentary of as-of-yet-unpublished The GLOW session, I mentioned that felt like my sessions tended to get cut short for this blog and that's half right. In reality, I often solo-play in bursts. Ten minutes one time, fifteen the next, two-and-half-hours the next day. Outside of the context of the blog, it is relatively easy for me to play for four or five hours total for a single "session" in those four to five bursts and still have the mindset and concepts of the session active in my head but with the blog I kind of need to reach a point where I can post things and I shift gears back and forth and lose track of things. Because of this, it is sometimes a bit easy to play for about half an hour, spend half an hour typing things up, and then post that instead of anything like the actual length of what I consider a "full session."
This one feels about right because I played it over the course of a single day and kept returning to it rather than trying to force it to a close. I got food cooked. Hung out with cats and the family. Then, finally got to a point that feels like a conceptual close and it is nice. I am not sure if it is obviously longer or shorter than other Bleak + Pearl posts but it feels more complete in itself.
I like the way the shifts of technology are building. The hints and foreshadowings of things. A few nice coincidences (the dead automatons, the rust monsters, the finding of rope, the traps) all added a good flavor to proceedings.
Double fumbles and Tom not succeeding in a thieving roll were both things that I could have lucked my way out of but sometimes you got to just let the dice speak.
As a final note, I am going to start adding a SOUNDTRACK NOTE to some of these. I listen to a lot of music while solo playing and thought it might be nice to share some of the music and sounds that help inspire some of the moods and ideas.
SOUNDTRACK NOTE: The albums being played during today's session were Dan J. Schulte's Shadows of the Underworld volumes 1 and 2. As released by Heimat Der Katastrophe (as albums 183 and 184). The entire HDK line is perfect for setting various moods and I needed something a bit otherwordly and dark but with a kind of OSR vibe.
== MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES ==
- 19 on the spell check. Room Contents Check: 1 → empty. The room is largely devoid of things except for the two previously mentioned viperian ophid automatons. 1 is currently active. As a note, since the concept of automaton is a but rusty for a group of more country boys, they will call them golems.
- Do the automatons consider such actions on themselves to be worthy of going into kill mode? 8 → No.
- Rance got a DC16+3=19 INT roll and while it would be impossible for him to guess the full details he at least is able to make some decent deductions.
- Would these guys have a concept of minecart railing? 14 → Yes.
- Rance will go with the party. Grusk says to smash through. Tom wants to investigate. {Grusk | Tom} → Inar sides with Tom, right now.
- Seriously, why did I forget to buy rope. I am normally of the whole 10' Pole and 200' of Rope school of adventuring. Well, live and learn. The equipment tool room does have rope through (18 on an oracle check) and they have 1d6x100' = 500 feet so a good amount. we've already established the tools/gear in the one room is decayed so we'll say there is some in the room with the extra-dimensional coats. Encounter check was negative. Light spell cast was positive.
- Treating this as a climb, Tom does it at advantage and gets a 19+3=22 check. Room Contents: 7 → Monster Mob. Automaton check brings back not only not activated but dead. These will be smaller, normally floating automatons that have all collapsed down. Using the Animals Table from Knave we get 09 → beetles. They look like little lady bugs.
- Grusk gets a nat 20 and nails it (no Luck Points open to regain, though). Inar gets a 19 total. Rance gets an 8. Takes 6 points of damage. Inar succeeds on a Cure Wounds so no problem. Did not test Tom because it feels pointless.
- INT check vs DC15 to see if Rance can follow the path to B3. Whiffed first time, spent a Karma and got a 19+3=22. He definitely susses it out after a minute. Encounter check again negative.
- Room Content check was coincidentally the exact same results. Mob monster but completely dead automaton. I figure I'll take that as a sign and consider this whole floor to be littered with a number of the ladybug automatons. There will power and repair station somewhere downstairs. Shelf check brought back two volumes but the check is still DC21 and Rance only gets an 11 total.
- Room Content 6 → NPC but Golem Activation 6 → completely dead. We potentially had a helper droid but all the these past the doors have been fried. Need a story reason for it. This, by the way, will be the Jonias automaton. Left to run things until the power faded.
- Advantage for Rance to figure it out. Gets a nat-20. Luck point lost earlier returns and Rance figures it out really well.
- Encounter check came up with a hit this time. Just went with the Tomb list because it matched the mood of this place. Got 41 → 1d6 corroded animated armors pursue 1d4 rust monsters. That seems fun considering the vibe.
- Servitor, then rust monsters, then characters. Servitor gets a nat-1. It feels a good time to work that into a full on fumble. Even at the advantage, though, only one hit gets through (for 3hp). Rance got a nat-20 to identify the rust monsters. PCs sit out their turn. Tom, in the other room, gets another nat-20 to get through the door. Since he has his own light source, he is going to enter and explore.
- Rust monsters, then PCs, then Pearl. Rust monsters surprisingly whiff a lot but get in two hits for 7 points of damage, finishing off Pearl precisely. The metal of the plate armor Grusk and Inar wears will be like a siren call. Because it is under the dragonsilk, we'll modify the chance of rust to 1:6. This will not include the shields which are outside of the dragonsilk robes. Grusk gets a hit for 9 (10hp remaining on A). Inar gets a hit for 4 (15 remaining on B). Rance succeeds at Acid Arrow and it does 2 (17 remaining on C). The eastern-most switch sends power to the portal upstairs which is not very obvious down here.
- {Grusk | Inar} → Grusk. Even with advantage, PCs go last this turn. One rust monster gets a hit on Grusk (5hp damage). The other one misses but hits between natural AC and the plate mail protection so we do a check versus the rust. It does not land and the armor resists. The other one gets a hit on Inar for 3hp. Grusk hits for another 9 (this is on C, though, since he's having to swing a bit wildly: 8hp remaining). Inar for 2hp vs B so 13hp remaining. Rance maintains Acid Arrow and gets Magic Missile off but both only do 1hp + 1hp = 2hp total and so C has 6hp remaining. The next switch turns on the automaton control system but since all the automatons in this area are completely drained and inoperable, it does nothing much that is obvious.
- Again, rust monsters win. Two get high hits on Grusk (bypassing armor altogether) for a combined 8hp damage. Inar gets hit in the platemail but the dragonsilk stops the attack from rusting the armor. Grusk does another 6hp to C, killing it. Inar gets a solid hit of 7hp on B (6hp remaining). And, um, in something that has never happened to me before, Rance double-fumbles his Magic Missile roll. Both d20s were a 1. That's too humorous to pass up with a Luck Point. He gets Spell Worm which means his spells are all burning out, one by one. Starting with Magic Missile this turn. Tom has gotten to the Turn It All On switch.
- Rust monsters always win init, apparently. Another hit on the armor of Grusk but again it resists due to the dragonsilk. Grusk gets 7hp damage so only 3hp remain on A. B is killed by 7hp damage from Inar. Rance gets 17+3=20 on his CON check so passes regaining control. To speed up the next round, the team wins init and both Grusk and Inar land hits on the rust monster, killing it.
- Skipping ahead a couple of rounds so the group can, well, regroup. Inar whiffed his Cure Wounds spell even with a luck point spent. Rance has re-upped his Light spell though the one on Tom's necklace has faded.
- Room Content 9 → Treasure (guarded by monster). Here is Onyx. The treasures are 70 → Large Green Scarab encased in amber (worth 75gp) + 66 Magnetic, iridescent chunk of meteorite (70gp). Onyx will be a bit attack-y. It senses Pearl's heart in Tom's possession.
- PCs win init. Gruk gets a heavy 11hp damage. Inar gets 3hp. Rance gets 2p. Tom gets 2hp. 18hp out of 30 are done before it acts. It misses both of its hits.
- Onyx wins. Misses both hits. Grusk misses. Inar gets 7hp damage. Rance drops the acid arrow. Tom does 5 points of damage. That is actually enough to finish it off.
- Room Content 3 → Trap. Large. Magical. Tom gets a 2 and a 4 so misses it even with advantage. Jonias likely would not build a truly deadly trap but let us come up with something interesting. Using Knave's Traps table I get 00 Wrapping + 07 Bending. Fuelstone tentacle automatons come down and DEX DC15 to avoid them. STR DC18 to bring free once caught. Tom makes it. Grusk makes it. Inar makes it with a nat-20. Rance makes it. They all avoid the tentacles but the way is blocked.
- Again, even with advantage, and knowing a trap is there, he misses understanding how to turn it off (getting 11+3=14, one shy of the DC15 needed).
== 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).
Opening art at the top of the post is "borrowed art" meant to be invocative rather than precise to illustrating the story. Image tools to generate some of the art is GIMP and Hex Kit (featuring the Lil Hex Pack and Strange BW Hex Pack).
Photo of the stairs down into the lab proper is "Stairs, Steps, Old Architecture" by depaulus on Pixababy. Recoloring is by me.
The map is from Dyson Logos's "Temple of the Worm" series. There will be some slight modification on the lower levels because those go on longer than I need (so a few passage-ways edited out in some way or just ignored). As usual, I just sort of take each room as I need and ignore some elements or add in elements not in the original.
Introducing both Lamarkian Order Agent Johnny Blue and the world of The GLOW in general, this is the first post in the entire The GLOW series. Johnny is tasked by the crime boss Amy Patel to protect a mini-disc that has something on it, but almost immediately the case starts taking strange turns. The GLOW is a place of strange magic and a perpetual glowing fog - called Soulburn - created in the aftermath of "The Harrowing": a spiritual-chemical process that generates power from the torture of spirits. Though set in the 90s, the energy and magic generated by the Harrowing has caused the region around the Gulf of Mexico to become rapidly advanced and prosperous and at odds with the rest of the world.
<< 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 ==
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- INT check 13+3 = 16 to pass a DC 15.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Rolled 3 encounter checks, all negative.
- DEX 19 + 3 = 22, passing the DC 18 difficulty.
== 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).
Opening art at the top of the post is "borrowed art" meant to be invocative rather than precise to illustrating the story. Image tools to generate some of the art is GIMP and Hex Kit (featuring the Lil Hex Pack and Strange BW Hex Pack).
Photo of statue is by Hans Linde on Pixabay. Modification by me.
The map is from Dyson Logos's "Temple of the Worm" series. There will be some slight modification on the lower levels because those go on longer than I need (so a few passage-ways edited out in some way or just ignored). As usual, I just sort of take each room as I see it so some of the drawn elements will not necessarily match my description.
A NOTE ABOUT SOME MISTAKES
It is clear I was a bit rusty on running ShadowDark combats after I went back and was checking off the notes. 1) The gnolls were suppose to be doing 1d6 damage, not 1d8. A few of the swingier parts of combat still might have gone pear-shaped but while it is likely that Inar would have been taken out it is very unlikely that Grusk would have also been knocked to 0HP. The gnolls had special spears. 2) There were several "misses" that probably should have been hits. Grusk gets a +8 to hit. He needed a 4+ to land. Inar needed a 8+. Tom needed 7+. I think I head in my head that they needed to roll a 10+ or so. 3) The enraged mechanic probably should have gone on another turn. Maybe not. 4) The gnolls should have had bows so it is likely early combat would have required the team to avoid arrows while breaking in, which also meant that the gnolls would have likely been more split by the first and second floors. All these things would have made for a different fight, one that required a bit more strategy but overall would have involved a stack less damage and scrambling.
The sum total of changes I will make, though, to balance out the fact that the battles was about twice as deadly as it should have been is to give 2 additional treasures and to rule that Tom's excellent roll to reseal the door means the party makes a recovery without the worry of a wandering monster.
The two additional treasures (for a 1-3 level monster are): a bundle of 5 red dragon scales (5gp each) and a cracked handheld mirror (8gp). I think both of those make sense as stuff that scavengers might have picked up in the debris of an everburning forest. The smaller treasures will be +1XP each. The statue, if retrieved, is +3 (it is a fuelstone prototype). The magic book would be +1XP but somewhat valuable.
Back to our regularly scheduled comedy of bad rolls and goofy GM errors.
"Tom, it's a fuelstone," Rance remarks while looking at the statue of a strange snake-human hybrid. Rance is going on the assumption that it is some sort of medusa offspring, possibly a local legend (and, alas, has failed to notice the tie into House Mistamere). [1]
The two of them are downstairs where they have been gathering bodies of gnolls, along with their particularly heavy and barbed spears and burying the best they can in the rubble. Both human and goblin are exhausted by this point. Upstairs, Grusk and Inar have been resting as best they can. Food, water, and time have worked magic but Rance has decided to wait until morning. Hence why they are take care of such tasks as honoring the dead and searching the area.
The fuelstone in reality is a viperian orphid and is an old symbol of House Mistamere. As a fuelstone prototype it would provide definite information for Cal Grunkheart and his Lighthouse Keepers. It is quite heavy even though it is only a third the size of the smallest fuelstone in the Monolith. [2]
The team left a camp with some retainers back a mile or so from the forest to help transport them home, so if they can get it there, Rance wants to keep it.
From upstairs, Grusk shouts, "Tom, come up here and check out this door!"
On the second (and currently top) floor of the tower, the general decay is even further along. The sulfur and ash of the forest slowly dissolving the 300-year-old tower back into rubble. Ash and burned out embers cling to the portion of the floor closest to the stairwell up to the long-gone third floor. The gnolls used this area only a little. However, to the west side, a surprisingly sturdy door is half buried by rubble and at a glance seems to be have been unopened (and therefore, unlike the rest of this tower, not thoroughly ransacked by the gnolls).
Grusk starts heavily moving some of the rubble and after a few minutes of sweat work, breaks through to the door itself. After watching Grusk sweat for that time, Tom goes up and starts working through the lock and manages to get it open despite the rust and decay on the metal. [3]
Downstairs, Inar has drifted over to where Rance is looking at the fuelstone. "Rance, can you feel the difference here, in this valley?"
"Which difference is that?"
"Like a weight has been lifted off of my back for the first time in years."
Rance stares over at his old friend [4] but gives the halfling a chance to continue.
"We were being raised as sacrifices. Some of our friends were sacrifices. Then you and Richarade escaped only he...well, anyhow, we met up with Tom and then Grusk and it was nice, you know. Having a place where people did not want us dead quite so hard. You had your dreams and we came here and I have been mildly panicked ever since. Wondering how many teeth I have. Wondering if my heart was turning blue or some such. [5]
"Only..," Inar trails off.
"Only we realize now that the Pearl also is changing us. Here we become something different. There we become more and more what we are. Evil cults become more evil. Powerful wizards become more powerful. Things changing into their truer forms which reshapes and warps them all the same."
"Exactly. We grew up becoming more halfling. More human. More orc. The old empire had people from all sorts working together. Over in The Pearl, the human-orc war is on the verge of starting. Halflings have gone to hiding in their various shires. We grew up thinking The Bleak was terrible but at least here people can change."
"Kind of forced to..."
"I know. I have been panicked about it until I woke up this morning, sore from all the fighting, and realized that my connection to Gede is stronger here than it has ever been. Not 'here' as in the Bleak, but here in this valley with the smell of sulfur and ash clogging my nose. I can feel HER right here...," Inar says as he taps his chest.
"What Cal calls The Light. This valley and this forest was where the Ancients discovered the principle. A balance between the two great engines of Being and Becoming."
Inar nods. "I think what I am trying to say that we cannot cling like Barnarcles on the edge of two great continents. The empire clearly had problems. But the people who fell from it, they need a chance. If Cal can get The Light solved, build up fuelstones to cover the land, we can fight back, make a new home."
Rance walks over to his friend and pats him on the back. "What are you going on about, I thought this was all settled?"
Inar responds, "I mean I think it is worth us fighting and risking death to give a chance for everyone to feel what I am feeling right now."
Tom comes downstairs carrying a book. "Looks magical, Rance, you should take a look." Tosses it to the Seer. It is indeed a grimoire with a handful of spells remaining legible inside.
"What else was up there?"
"Looked to be some sort of study or planning room. Maps and scrolls and books. Nearly all burned and broken. The air is harsh on paper and vellum alike. Doubt this tower will still be standing in another generation or two."
"About that," says Rance, "Looking at this fuelstone prototype I am thinking that we need to go and get the basecamp and bring them here. Maybe one of them can help shore up the tower. Inar says the Light here is strong enough to be felt and that's significant. This area is safer from The Bleak than even Grunce. What's more, according to Cal's map there was a mine down in this valley where they harvested the original fuelstones. There might be more of that ore down there. We need to start working on getting this valley safe. You know, besides all the burning trees..."
Another day is spent tracking back to the basecamp and moving men and horses into the tower. A few have some knowledge of repairing structures like this one and will get to work on it while the adventurers are heading deeper into the valley to find the workshop. [6]
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 four get to the floor of the valley covered in grime and sweat. It took them some time to make it down the path. [7] Looking back up the way they came, it is several hundred feet of rugged forest and rocky terrain. Some trees burn a gentle red flame that does no damage to the plant itself while pools of molten lava catch in a few pockets. Down here, the ground is very warm to the touch but the dragonsilk wrapped around the boots is doing wonders to prevent the heat from seeping too deeply, or too fast.
Looking at the map that Cal copied from them, Rance tries to predict their next moves. "Looking here, the next general landmark will be one of two shrines Jonias had constructed."
"What were the shrines for?" asks Grusk.
"Unknown. Some of his notes are pretty vague. On a practical side, it marks one end of the valley. Then, tracking along some miles, a full day's travel at least, we will find the twin shrine. Assuming the old road remains in any condition. That's when we head north towards the workshop."
The sky above is yellow and gray with smoke and steam but there is a definite sense of sunlight somewhere up there, illuminating everything in a strange orange tint.
"How long do you think it will take us to hit the next shrine?" asks Inar.
"Hard to say. If this was just a regular valley we could probably be there sometime after dark, pushing it a little. With this air and the chance of rough passage, could take us a couple of days pushing inward."
Grusk gives some thought. "Ok. We check out this shrine and get a slight rest, then we push on until we need to camp."
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 ==
- Mr. "I can identify a monster in the middle of battle with a Nat 20" critically failed this check. Off to a great start.
- Rolled 1d20 to see how many slots it would take to carry: 9.
- Rolled a 5 for pieces of rubble, requiring STR15. Took 8 attempts but got two crits along the way. Tom got through the DC18 lock on the first roll (because of course he did).
- Something not brought up much since the very beginning of this campaign is that Rance and Inar were both children raised in a offshoot Cult of Shune and had a fairly rough childhood. They escaped and ended up being brought into the Shrine of the Blue Grove and raised alongside Tom and Grusk.
- For a description of what the impact of prolonged exposure to The Bleak can cause, see Intermission 3: The Effects of Exposure to the Bleak and the Pearl.
- SoloDark, "Does anyone in the retainer camp know enough about repairing the tower to make a difference?" 12 --> Yes.
- Without being too precise, basically everyone failed at least one check, requiring two additional stops (so around 2.5 hours total, making it now close to midday of their first day into the valley proper). Tom and Rance both a critical success on the last check [which everyone passed], giving back two Luck Points and showing they are getting used to the atmosphere (+3 to their rolls). I made two encounter checks and both came up negative.
== DOUG'S NOTES ==
Going to end this one on the story note since 1) that will be more interesting than having them in a stone structure full of ash and dust and 2) the next stretch will almost definitely involve an encounter with the Salamanders. This one went a bit harder on exposition than I realized but it is nice to start pulling some threads together.
When this campaign started the essential plan was to do a series of dungeons generally leading up to some mishmash story stopping some cataclysm once the guys got strong enough. It quickly shifted towards the "cataclysm" being Grunce's Lighthouse failing. It took me something like two months to work out (in play) why that might be. The opposing energy of Being and Becoming will destroy the people whichever they choose. Only by restarting the Ancient's technology to harness that energy is there any chance that people will survive long enough to maybe set sail to other lands and rebuild.
The loss of Grunce would be a final nail against the last storehouse of knowledge of how to truly fight back. Except now, there is a potential other source. The birthplace of the the fuelstones that channeled new power to the Ancient machinery by harnessing alien technology left behind and fused with their own. The ability to create a Light which sustains instead of burns out the balance of energy around it.
== 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 Everburning Forest
In his youth, Jonias Grunkheart was fascinated by a strange stretch of land two days travel from the Grunkheart Manse. In old tongue, it was the Tarulukki Ran: the Valley of Sulfurous Smoke. In the distant past, before the Barthic Empire had largely pushed aside all Ancient Technology and buried it out of fear of a Third Cataclysm, the Ran had been the site of contact. This fact Jonias found in scrolls written in Pre-Barthic tongue that his family treasured above everything else.
Something, a creature of long eyes and many teeth, had arrived there. Seeking tarulang: now known as sulfur. The Ancients and the Outsider built an engine to pull great rivers of molten earth up to the surface and harvested from the destruction. The scrolls do not make it clear whether or not the outsider got what it needed. The next story takes place hundreds of years later. A young techno-priestess named Elizin Urnlight, attempted to save the everburning valley by settling the eruptions and by creating an entire ecosystem of flora and fauna that could survive the sulfurous atmosphere. The roots of the unburning trees helped to heal the stones and eventually the lava ceased to flow so freely.
Thus the place of fiery death became Tarulukki Ran, a place where the air was harsh to breath and the heat was unbearable to many, but a place where life could grow.
As Jonias grew older and had begun gathering the great families into the new city of Grunce, forming the Pentarchy to fight back, he knew their final stand would be brief without a weapon against the Bleak. The rumors had been ignored for too long and the amount of soil left free from the spreading darkness decreased by the day.
He went into the now nearly forgotten Ran and built up a network to tap into Elizin's network of lines and conduits of power, barely understanding the science he used but desperate to harness it to his own ends. At the spot where the machine had once been planted to cleave the earth into fire, Jonias built a workshop. He believed there was a source of primal Light, there, a energy left over from the Outsider, which could be harnessed and elevated and magnified. The same light that Elizin Urnlight had used.
There he met an outcast Efreeti named Uuld Alloces and made a pact with the creature of fire. He would leave the valley to Uuld with the old technology still potent enough to keep the Bleak out.
After a tense decade where the Pentarch was under siege not only by the growing number of refugees and the Bleak-filled monstrosities beginning to increase in frequency, but by other great houses from now destroyed cities who demanded their own right to rule. At a time in which the five core families were on the cusp of losing Grunce, Jonias managed his last great miracle. Five fuel stones carved from the rocks of the Everburning Forest to channel a form of Elizin Urnlight's forgotten technology into a singular source: the Lighthouse.
Where the Light shines over the city that was once the Grunkheart Manse, the Bleak cannot encroach.
While two days ride away, the Ran still sits in acrid yellow smoke and things entangled in that ancient magic seek a way to leave. The very mystical technology that gave hopes to the last bastion of a crumbling empire weakened the original version of the techno-priestess's great salvation. Different things crawl there, now, things that might grow in power if the Bleak can find a way in...
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
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).
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 ==
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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).
- Spent all the Karma trying to Inar stabilized. He has one more turn to live.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- Reaction roll was a 5, so pretty hostile. Grobnir missed with a 2 but still did DEX rolls to see who stays mounted.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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
The adventure was on the cusp of turning into a fetch quest so I cut it a bit "early." Early in the sense that originally it was going to have them get to the site of the massacre, possibly fight some undead related to the site, and have their adventure there. Instead, we met some goofy gargoyles and a sad old cyclops. When I first started and had either a planned gargoyle fight or more traditional cyclops fight, the general scope was a bit more OSR-ish. I am not exactly an OSR guy though so as I started weaving bits of the more jelly-like grass and the way it changes people, I just let the prep-is-play aspect take over.
Grobnir's design (a jelly-ish red cyclops that is slightly old and bloated looking) is a nod to a monster you fight in Saga Emerald Beyond that is slightly based on the old "slime"/Sensei character model from the Gameboy era of the series. Picture this but taller and redder... (image credit: Romancing Saga Re;Universe, it's the S-style of Sensei).
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.
Anyhow, once I got to the fight with a cyclops and had the weird backstory for a couple of sessions about the strange changes, the kind of key/central quest took a backseat to just doing some world building. After Grobnir's death, I could have worked out another session's worth of adventure but I figured let's skip ahead. This was meant to be a quick "get something so you don't burn to death" before we get to the start of a meta/arc shift once they learn more about what actually is happening with The Light.
Next time we will level up the characters to 4, have them take on the Everburning Forest (or at least start to...) and then after that we will be getting the truth of the Monolith, finishing the fuelstones, and juggling the whole thing with the growing civil war in the last great bastion of society. Where it is unlikely that even House Grunkheart is completely innocent (though Cal is 100% a good guy...the rest of his family, maybe not so much).
Note: The "Eye" at the top of this (though modified in my "SoloDark" style) is from Insspirito on Pixabay. There's a lot of good vector style art there.