Saturday 30 April 2016

1 Flaurmont 1000AC - That sinking feeling

Leaving the kitchen with full bellies, Broneslav and Baik headed northwards. They passed the large bronze double doors on their right and returned to a short corridor that ran northwards from the main passage. There were four doors off this passage, two on each side. Broneslav checked the first door on the right, opening it carefully. He recognised the room he entered because a huge explosion had taken place in it, and there was a hole in the wall leading through to the stairs they had climbed.

"Hey, Baik," he exclaimed, "looks like the floors here must be sloping or something, because we climbed those stairs but we're still on the same floor."

Returning to the corridor, he opened the first door on the left. Shelves filled with dusty jars and bottles lined the walls of this room. A strong smell permeated the place and left the heroes feeling queasy and red eyes glittered from the back of the room. Suddenly the owners of the red eyes chittered forwards. Giant rats! Broneslav stumbled backwards swinging wildly, but failed to hurt any of them. In doing so, he knocked Baik off balance, making him smash jars on the walls instead of rats. Although his armour fended most of them off, one rat managed to bite him hard in the leg [1 DAM]. Baik too managed to fend off most of the rats, but still received a vicious bite on the hand [1 DAM]. [Can't believe Broneslav rolled so badly on both attack and Fray Die!] Recovering slightly, Broneslav crushed a rat under foot, but that did not stop him getting bitten again [1 DAM]. Baik smashed a rat with his mace, but got bitten again for his troubles [1 DAM]. Now fully recovered from his initial discomfiture, Broneslav laid into the rats, slicing two in half with one blow and crushing a third. Determined not to be outdone, Baik crushed two more rats. The remaining rat ran for it before either Broneslav or Baik could do anything about it. Retreating into the blasted room opposite, they shut the door and bandaged their newest wounds [Both recovered 2hp]. Bandaged up once more they opened the last door up the corridor to find an empty room.
Returning to the bronze double doors, they pushed open one side and slipped into a corridor lined with incredibly life-like statues in running positions with their hands outstretched. They are made of what appears to be platinum. Moving past these statues, Broneslav pushed through a pair of bronze doors, and led the way into a circular room at the end of the corridor. Statues stood in it on three sides around a well in the centre of the room. Faint murmurings and moanings could be heard like the quiet susuration of a gentle wind among the pines. Looking down the well, Broneslav could see something glowing and blue. On the wall of the room, were written the words 'PAH' and 'NWAD'. Nonsense words, but he decided to try something.

"Pah," he said out loud.

Baik looked at him oddly. Then a glowing blue disc was visible at the top of the well. Broneslav nodded to himself.

"Nwad," he declared.

The disc floated downwards out of sight once more. Looking down the well, it could be seen floating in the distance below.

"Pah," he said again, and soon the disc was once more floating in the room.

"Come on," he said to Baik, and led the way to the smallest of the statues in the corridor.
Together they picked it up, surprised that it weighed little more than a normal person, despite apparently being made of precious metal.

"We'll have to come back for these once we've rescued Merisa and Sylva. I bet they're worth a fortune."

He and Baik lifted the statue onto the blue disc which supported its weight easily.

"Nwad,"

The disc floated down. The statue could be seen still on it when the disc had stopped descending.

"So, Baik. We going to try that, or are are we going to check out the rest of this area first?"

Character
Broneslav Torenescu (S16, D14, C15, I12, W10, Ch14, F1, HP 9, AC4, Sword 1d8+3, Bow 1d8)
Human (Traladaran)

Traits:
Torenescu Family Member 1
Hunter 1
Keen Vision 1
Good Education 1
Empathy with Animals 1

Goal: Prove that he is an adult following the Shearing Ceremony
Goal: Slay a red dragon
Quest: Deliver a parcel to Merisa in Gray Mountain Village
Quest: Rescue Sylva and Merisa
Quest: Undo the greater evil under Kota-Hutan Temple

Allies
Baik Telor (HD 4, AC 4, ATK +5, DAM 1d8+1)
Stats include Mace+1

Roll of Honour
Alki (Level 2 Elven warrior brutally slain while helpless by the Rahib)

Saturday 23 April 2016

1 Flaurmont 1000AC - Getting Catty

"Where now?" Asked Baik.
"Let's try through that door to the south," said Broneslav, opening the door and stepping out into a corridor.
The pair scouted the corridor quickly and saw that it joined up with the octagonal room they had previously entered through. The corridor ended to the south at some stairs whose upper level had been destroyed when the mountain fell on the temple. Retracing their steps, the two heroes pushed open the first door they came to. Inside was a well-stocked kitchen.
"No point wasting good food," announced Broneslav whose stomach rumbled at the prospect of something other than the preserved foods he had in his pack. Very soon, he and Baik were tucking into a cheese, ham and bread, following the soldier's dictum that you should eat whenever you get the chance. Or was that sleep? Broneslav was not sure, but eating when you had the chance certainly sounded right to him.
As he stuffed his mouth with more cheese, he heard a noise at the door. He grabbed his sword and shield as it swung open. An Elven woman entered, a black panther at her side. Broneslav recognised her from the descriptions he had been given. This was Merisa, one of the missing Elven maids.
"Ho there, Merisa. I am Broneslav. I am here to rescue you."
The woman yelled a command to her panther, which attacked immediately. It's claws raked Broneslav's arm, tearing bloody gashes down it and his already tattered shirt [2 DAM]. Baik stepped in and hammered the panther hard in the side with his new mace [2 DAM]. Merisa gestured at the two men and spoke a mystical word. Broneslav slumped to the floor where he stood, but Baik remained standing. The panther turned on him and clawed his leg [1 DAM]. In return, Baik crushed its skull with his mace [2 DAM]. On seeing this Merisa fled. Baik was torn. To pursue the woman or to take care of his rescuer. He turned to Broneslav and shook him. Broneslav awoke from the sleep spell quickly.

"Follow me," said Baik, "She ran away."
They raced to the door, but found it locked tight. By the time the pair had smashed the door down, she was long gone. They stopped and returned the kitchen, where they bandaged their wounds, and got ready to continue their quest.

Character
Broneslav Torenescu (S16, D14, C15, I12, W10, Ch14, F1, HP 9, AC4, Sword 1d8+3, Bow 1d8)
Human (Traladaran)

Traits:
Torenescu Family Member 1
Hunter 1
Keen Vision 1
Good Education 1
Empathy with Animals 1

Goal: Prove that he is an adult following the Shearing Ceremony
Goal: Slay a red dragon
Quest: Deliver a parcel to Merisa in Gray Mountain Village
Quest: Rescue Sylva and Merisa
Quest: Undo the greater evil under Kota-Hutan Temple

Allies
Baik Telor (HD 4, AC 4, ATK +5, DAM 1d8+1)
Stats include Mace+1

Roll of Honour
Alki (Level 2 Elven warrior brutally slain while helpless by the Rahib)

Saturday 16 April 2016

1 Flaurmont 1000AC - Blasted Rooms and Orcs

Broneslav took the lead. He levered the door open and looked through. A corridor extended a short distance ahead of him and then turned to the right. There the intrepid duo saw a wooden door to one side and stairs rising gently to the east. Listening at the door, he heard nothing. He slammed it open and beheld in the flickering light of his torch a room lined with racks containing bottles. Upon examination, they were all from the Wizard of Wines Winery. These were called Red Dragon Crush, and had a serial number on the bottom of the label, just like the last lot of wine he had found. This one read 331422-W. Broneslav thought it odd that the numbers on this label and the previous label did not match. His experience growing up in a merchant family told him that they should follow the same format. However, the reason why did not escaped him.
I've decided to only show the part of the map traversed in this session because it's easier for me to edit. The whole map will appear later. See the previous session for the adjoining map.
On, up the stairs. At the corner, the stairs rose to the south but they were covered in blackened rubble. A hole gaped in the wall to one side and he could see into a room beyond. Climbing through, he stood in a room whose contents had been destroyed in a massive blast, the same one, he presumed, that had made the hole in the wall. Doors led out of the room, but Broneslav decided to check the end of the stairs first. It ended in a blank wall with a poorly disguised secret door. He pushed it open and emerged into a small room. Five humanoid creatures spun round as he opened the door. Orcs! He yelled, and charged. His sword cleaved one orc's head from its shoulders, before thrusting through the heart of a second. A third was laid low by a swipe of his shield. Meanwhile Baik struggled to attack a fourth one. As the last two orcs gathered their wits, Broneslav slammed one in its face with his shield and sliced wildly with his sword at the other. Both crumpled to the floor.
"What was that, Baik? I thought you were a warrior," he grumbled as he cleaned his blade.
Baik had the good grace to look shamefaced at his pitiful performance. He muttered something unintelligible that managed to sound both apologetic and obscene at the same time.
"Come on, let's see what they were up to," he said aloud, "There's a chest over there."
The chest contained three bottles of the Red Dragon Crush wine, some coins and a mace.
"Hey," said Broneslav, "This mace feels nicely balanced. Maybe you'll do better with this."
Baik gave him a sour look, but took it anyway and declared himself satisfied with its balance and weight.
"So, which way now, oh mighty leader?"

Character
Broneslav Torenescu (S16, D14, C15, I12, W10, Ch14, F1, HP 9, AC4, Sword 1d8+3, Bow 1d8)
Human (Traladaran)

Traits:
Torenescu Family Member 1
Hunter 1
Keen Vision 1
Good Education 1
Empathy with Animals 1

Goal: Prove that he is an adult following the Shearing Ceremony
Goal: Slay a red dragon
Quest: Deliver a parcel to Merisa in Gray Mountain Village
Quest: Rescue Sylva and Merisa
Quest: Undo the greater evil under Kota-Hutan Temple

Allies
Baik Telor (HD 4, AC 4, ATK +5, DAM 1d8+1)
Stats include Mace+1

Roll of Honour
Alki (Level 2 Elven warrior brutally slain while helpless by the Rahib)

Sunday 10 April 2016

1 Flaurmont AC - Deeper into the tower

Note: This is a continuation of my solo adventures using Scarlet Heroes and the Basic D&D modules. The plan is to work my way through one of the paths of  B1-9 In Search of Adventure and see if my character can survive to the end. I have a couple of friends back home who have been playing this module with me using Scarlet Heroes. They are following a different path through it. Sadly I'm not home enough to run adventures for them at the moment, but they are still ahead of my character Broneslav in the timeline. It will be interesting to see if I can get both in sync, so that they can hear about Broneslav's exploits, and perhaps one group's actions will have an effect on who and what the other group can do or meets. There are three paths through this adventure, with sidetracks and plenty of room to just mess everything up for the DM. I think it would be awesome to be running the adventure  for three groups and actually make the world seem like it were more alive and less focused on the PCs.

For rules, I'm using Scarlet Heroes as the core engine, but cannibalising the Basic D&D rule book for spells and experience system. I've nothing against the Scarlet Heroes spells but they do not fit the background of my game. The Scarlet Heroes experience system is too deterministic for my liking. Scenarios are likely to take a fair while to complete, and I want to see my character inching towards new levels as the game plays out.

So, it's been over a year since I last posted anything from this, and it is likely that this series will continue to be irregular, although hopefully not that irregular. I've added a full character sheet for Broneslav as a page now and I have the modules and rules as pdfs, because I am travelling a lot and want to keep the amount of paperwork I need to a minimum. If you want to catch up on Broneslav's adventures or see what went before this post, click HERE.

The doors creaked open, revealing a huge chamber with alcoves set in the east and west walls. The chamber was empty but rotting, red curtains hung across it part way down. Beyond the curtains was a room lit by a brazier that burned with a blue light. On a platform across the top end of the room was a throne with a lectern beside it and three stone coffins arranged in a triangular pattern.

The book on the lectern was in very good condition. It must have had a preservation spell cast on it. When he opened it, the book suddenly spoke, "Receive the tale of years." Inside, though, the pages were blank. Then the book spoke again. It recited some bad poetry about the mage Elyas imprisoning the three witches, but being killed in the process. The poem mentioned a black opal, like the one now in Broneslav's possession, and said that it was the key to vanquishing the witches forever. In the meantime, their souls and bodies were kept imprisoned by Elyas' magic, until they can take over the bodies of young maidens and walk once more in the world. So, that explained the need to kidnap the maidens, but only two had been taken. "Well," thought Broneslav, "I'll not give them time to get a third". Perhaps the coffins contained a key to it. There were three coffins and two were sealed by lead, so they might relate to the witches.

Broneslav and Baik lifted the lid from the coffin nearest the lectern. As the lid tumbled to the floor, a skeleton clad in rusting mail armour and and rotting furs leapt from it, sword in hand. His sword did nothing to it, but a blow from Broneslav's shield shattered its bones and it crumpled to dust, while Baik just stood and gawped, too surprised to move.

The next coffin was tougher to open, but the pair were better prepared. Nothing leapt out and they beheld a skeleton dressed in a deep blue robe within this one. Broneslav smashed its skull just in case, and found a small compartment under the skull containing 100gp. The third coffin was the resting place of a skeleton in a red dress. He smashed its skull too, just in case. None of the coffins contained any clues about what to do next, meaning that Broneslav would just have to guess where to go next. He presumed that these were the coffins of the witches, although it seemed a bit strange that they could have been buried here by the wizard, if they had also killed him. Perhaps something was not quite right about the story.

There appeared to be no way out of this room, so they retraced their steps back to the octagonal room and headed eastwards. There was something odd about the wall to his left as they entered the passageway (Average task check with bonus for Keen Vision). Checking the wall, he soon opened a secret door. Beyond the door were stairs going down. A secret door probably meant something worth checking out, so the pair decided to see where the stairs led before returning to investigate the passages and doors that they could see ahead of them.

Broneslav led the way. As soon as he stepped onto the stairs, they suddenly slid together and he found himself tumbling down them, unable to stop. Baik, at the top of the stairs, had stopped just in time. Broneslav landed in a room at the bottom with a large pillar in its centre. Just ahead of him was a large gelatinous cube. The remains of some hapless creature were visible within it. As it oozed towards Broneslav, he yelled for Baik to join him and sliced quickly  at it, shearing off a substantial chunk. Dodging backwards as the creature oozed quickly towards him, he sliced again and the creature suddenly collapsed as if deflated. At that point Baik joined him.

The stairs remained resolutely slippery and in a slide form, so the pair could not climb back up. There were no obvious doors out of this room. But, the creature must have got in somehow, and there must be a way for anyone entering this room to leave it, so he searched carefully for secret doors. Between them Broneslav and Baik found two doors. One in the central pillar and one in the east wall. They opened the central one first.

The secret door opened into a small vault. A chest sat at the far side away from the door. Broneslav stepped carefully into the room and only narrowly avoided getting his skull split by an axe blade that scythed down from the ceiling and began to swing from above the chest to the door. Timing his next move carefully, Broneslav dived into the vault and along the wall. He got to the chest without further harm. Seeing nothing amiss, he dragged the chest carefully to the door while keeping low to avoid the swinging axe blade. The chest was light enough that he was able to shove it to Baik outside, but then he misjudged his dive out, and the axe took a chunk out of his shoulder. He was really going to need some new clothes after this rescue was over. His clothes were looking tattered and torn. They were certainly beyond repair now.

With the chest safely outside the range of the axe blade, Baik and Broneslav were able to open it and gaze upon a pile of copper and gold, and three bottles labeled Wizard of Wines Winery Superb Wine. Each label had the same serial number (3132-N) listed on it. Broneslav knew nothing about wine, so this meant nothing to him. With these treasures divided between them and packed away, Baik and Broneslav were ready to open the secret door to the east.

Character
Broneslav Torenescu (S16, D14, C15, I12, W10, Ch14, F1, HP 9, AC4, Sword 1d8+3, Bow 1d8)
Human (Traladaran)
XPs: 1332

Traits:
Torenescu Family Member 1
Hunter 1
Keen Vision 1
Good Education 1
Empathy with Animals 1

Goal: Prove that he is an adult following the Shearing Ceremony
Goal: Slay a red dragon
Quest: Deliver a parcel to Merisa in Gray Mountain Village
Quest: Rescue Sylva and Merisa
Quest: Undo the greater evil under Kota-Hutan Temple

Allies
Baik Telor (HD 4, AC 4, ATK +4, DAM 1d8)

Roll of Honour
Alki (Level 2 Elven warrior brutally slain while helpless by the Rahib)