2 Yarthmont - Onwards

I'm back in the mood for some solo RPG action using Scarlet Heroes. It's been five years since last I posted about my character Broneslav's adventures. I find myself in the mood to continue now, so here we are. I love the Scarlet Heroes game system but have no interest in the background included with the rules. For nostalgia's sake, my adventures all take place in the D&D world of Mystara and I started the campaign with the Basic D&D adventures. This is what we played when I first got D&D and the pull of the nostalgia is too strong. 

I tend to play a bit fast and loose with conversion from D&D to Scarlet Heroes, but I am planning to try to codify things better this time around. Ideally, this will mean pages on the blog recording how I have converted spells and monsters to try to keep things consistent. I guess we shall see how well that works out and how long I manage to keep going with it.

There is a separate page on this blog for my character sheet. It represents the point that the character has reached in my game. I schedule posts to appear one per week for as long as my enthusiasm holds up, so the character sheet represents the situation at the end of the last scheduled post, and not the situation at the time of the visible posts. 

Previously on Broneslav's adventures

Broneslav was travelling through the desert when he got separated from the caravan he was with by a  violent sandstorm. As he tried to find his way to civilisation, he stumbled upon the lost city of Cynidicea. He entered the city in search of food and water ...

You can catch up with his adventures here.

We return you to the action

Broneslav left the room. The corridor ahead of him offered a choice of turning left or turning right. There were doors visible along its length. He looked to the left. It appeared to be a dead end with no doors in it. To his right, there were doors on the right hand side of the corridor. Treading carefully, he moved towards the first door. As he advanced up the corridor, something glittered golden in the light of his torch towards the end. He decided to investigate this first.

As he moved up the corridor his torch soon revealed a golden statue of a bearded man wielding a lightning bolt. He thought he recognised it from somewhere, but was not sure. Looking more closely, he realised it was actually a wooden statue, but painted gold.

Broneslav moved back to the first door he had passed. Listening at it, he could hear voices from within. Carefully, sword in hand, Broneslav opened the door. The men within looked up quickly. Broneslav had time to notice that each wore a golden mask depicting the same person as the statue. Then there was a shout as each of the mail-clad men grabbed their weapons and charged at him (I rolled for their reaction to Broneslav and got a very poor one. sigh. New dice, you know. Got to break them in before they roll properly). He ran the first of them through with his sword, before slamming the second against the wall, snapping his neck. Then they were upon him. He fended off a flurry of blows from the men, reversed his parry into a cut that nearly took one man's head off, and bounced another's head off his shield rim. The final man tried a slice to Broneslav's leg which he dodged easily. Behind him he could hear the noise of more men approaching.

Broneslav stepped in close to the man and felled him with a blow to the head before turning to parry a blow from one of the newcomers and then cutting that man down too. There were five more, well, four more now, of the men in the plain blue robes and golden masks. Behind them was a man who was obviously a commander. His clothes and mask were clearly of better quality. These new attackers closed on Broneslav. A slice to the arm got past his guard (1 DAM) but he blocked the other blows with his shield. A backhand cut and a face smash with his shield felled two more of the men, and he pressed his advantage, pushing them back to the door of the room, even as he blocked their blows. This cost him another cut to the arm (1 DAM), but he still managed to kill another of his attackers. Only two remained. Their leader was a good swordsman and cut him again, this time on the leg (1 DAM). Broneslav redoubled his efforts and slew the last of the swordsmen, before cutting the leader across his chest.

Suddenly, the leader turned and ran towards the statue. He dived into the room beside it. Broneslav chased hard after the man. Breathing hard, he reached the room just in time to see a trapdoor closing as the leader dived down through it. Broneslav paused. He could give chase into the unknown, or he could take stock of his situation and plan his advance. He opted for the latter choice.

The Lost City, Tier 2

The room he now found himself in was like the previous one, with bunk beds lining the walls and small chests at the end of each. Broneslav weighed the trapdoor down with a chest and pushed one of the beds over the top of it for good measure. Then he bandaged his wounds (+2 HP). At this rate, he would run out of bandages! A search of the rooms found water and food aplenty. Broneslav was able to slake his thirst properly for the first time in ages. He filled his waterskin and filled his backpack with food. He also swapped his filthy tunic for a clean blue one from one of the chests at the foot of a bed. Taking his cue from the men he had just been attacked by, he put on one of the golden masks, while stashing the others in his pack. Perhaps he could get a chance to speak to the men before they attacked him next time.

With the tier cleared and the unfortunate misunderstanding between these mysterious and incredibly pale men resolved to their detriment, Broneslav is faced with a choice. He can return to the surface with the supplies he has now found, or he can venture deeper into the pyramid in the hope of finding aid.