We—can—stick—out—’unger, thirst, an’ weariness,
But—not—not—not—not the chronic sight of ’em —
Boot—boots—boots—boots—movin’ up an’ down again,
An’ there’s no discharge in the war!
– Rudyard Kipling, Boots

On the Road, 8-11 Abril 540

Hayastan as Alaric knows it. His travels in this post take him through hexes 0607, 0608, 0708, 0709, 0710, 0711, 0712, 0812, and 0813.

“Follow the river south,” the peddler had said, “And you’ll be in Yerevan in two days. There are plenty of villages along the way where you can spend the night. You’ll see Tapa Hill on the other side of the river when you’re halfway there.”

Limping and carrying Erich, the two days’ journey to Yerevan takes the party four days.

Encounter cards: 10H, 6C, D5, C9. No encounters – just as well really.

Beatrice has been quiet for a while when she suddenly pipes up.

“Alaric,” she says, quietly enough for the others not to hear, “What’s the punishment for owning a book of spells?”

“The book is burned,” Alaric says, “And the wizard too. Unless he’s rich or powerful enough to get the sentence commuted to exile.”

“Do you think the peddler knew what he was selling you?”

“Unlikely,” Alaric says, confidently. “Most of ’em can’t read.”

Yerevan, 12-18 Abril 540

Encounter cards: 7D, 9C, AH, 2C, 4S, JD, 10S. Neutral or friendly strangers on the third day, and treasure on the sixth. Hmmm… Let’s merge those on day six, it makes more sense to me if they are different sides of the same coin.

A week in Yerevan costs everyone 84 ducats; the Lads spend their time carousing and healing (another 50 ducats each), while Alaric and Beatrice conduct research (free), he into the location of Yerevan’s dungeon and she into the local underworld and how to join it.

On the sixth day, guardsmen in the livery of the Lord of Yerevan come knocking and invite the party to follow them to meet the Lord’s Privy Counsellor. Beatrice thinks they have come for her at first, but recovers her confidence when she notices they are more interested in Alaric.

“Privy Counsellor? Does that mean he gives the Lord advice on privies?” Beatrice asks saucily. One of the guardsmen suppresses a smile.

What’s the Lord of Yerevan like? Mythic 2E says Independent, Determined. The Counsellor is a character from an earlier campaign, so I know him already. How do the Lord and the Counsellor get on? Reaction test: 7, neutral.

The guardsmen are being polite, but that could change at any moment; no sense in provoking them, and Alaric is confident he can talk his way out of this.

“Lead on,” he says, and the guardsmen escort Alaric, Beatrice and Caspar to the Privy Counsellor’s chambers.

The Privy Counsellor is a bearded man in black robes and a silver skullcap; on either side of him stand a female warrior in chainmail and – the peddler who sold them the spellbook in Nurnuz, now dressed in a scarlet and gold version of the Counsellor’s robes, albeit one somewhat less splendid.

“Thank you, Captain, that will be all,” the Counsellor says, and the guardsmen withdraw.

“So,” he goes on, when he and Alaric are alone with their companions. “Alaric and company. What brings you to Yerevan?” His tone is that of a superior to someone decidedly inferior. “And do not dissemble, I know you are a sorcerer.”

“We seek treasures, great and small, Counsellor,” Alaric responds. “And knowledge. Since the Lord’s men are not already piling faggots around a stake, I suspect we are in the desirable position of being able to do something for you. May I ask what you require?”

“Clever, aren’t you? I like that. I have come to an arrangement with the Lord of Yerevan; he overlooks certain characteristics in exchange for a steady flow of gold and information. Of late, his needs for both have grown steadily larger, and my existing companions are insufficient for the work at hand. So, I offer you a choice; join my service, and prosper, or refuse, and burn at the stake.”

Beatrice can’t help laughing. “Same deal you offered me, Alaric!” she chortles.

“And you taught me the correct answer,” he agrees. “Very well, Counsellor, if those are my choices, I shall enter your service.”

“I thought you’d see the benefits. Ispitan, please assist these fellows in relocating into my wing of the palace. Once they’re settled in, we can discuss their first quest.”

“Yes, Privy Counsellor.”

Party Status

Episode: 11. Bennies: Alaric 0, Beatrice 0. Advances: 1. Rations: 2 each. Torches: 2 left. Wounds: Dieter permanently injured, Vigour d4.

Party wealth and gear: Alaric 1,136 gp, mage’s pack; Beatrice 1,266 gp, thief’s pack; the Lads 1,047 gp each, mercenary’s pack, full leather armour, medium shield, short spear, short sword. Party fund: 1,155 gp.

GM Notes

I think I’ve had my fill of dungeoneering for the moment, so I’ve interpreted events as giving the party a long-term patron as a source of quests and a place to stay – the latter gives me an excuse to experiment with the Fantasy Companion‘s Stronghold rules, while the former shifts the thrust of the campaign to the urban intrigue which I feel most comfortable running.

Let’s define the stronghold:

• Advantage. I roll a 4, Mentor. The law of conservation of NPCs dictates this is the Privy Counsellor.
• Complication. I roll a 1, Contested. A powerful rival wants the stronghold; oh, so that’s why the Lord suddenly needs more money and information. Looking at the map and the rules for Demons, I decide that’s either the Emir of Dvin or the King of Hayastan at Garni.
• Acquistion, or what the stronghold is and how the PCs get it. That’s in the post above.
• Upgrades. I want to keep the stronghold in step with the PCs, so it has one upgrade. I choose Guards to represent those of the Lord’s guards under the Privy Counsellor’s sway. By my usual rulings, the Lord has 6,000 subjects and 60 soldiers; that means 50 of the 60 have already been suborned by the Privy Counsellor. Oh, this is getting interesting.
• Encounter. Each time the stronghold is upgraded, one rolls for an encounter; 18, diplomatic mission. So now we know what the Privy Counsellor wants Alaric to do; whichever of the King or the Emir covets the stronghold, they must persuade the other one to help Yerevan.

I may have to abandon my rules of thumb for number of inhabitants and soldiers controlled by each warlord as I suspect they will become too restrictive soon. According to the SWADE Fantasy Companion, I should handwave the operating costs of the stronghold, but it says nothing about the PCs’ personal upkeep; it suits me that they should continue to pay that, so the need for gold drives them back into dungeons.

This feels like a chapter end, though, doesn’t it? So let’s park Alaric here and do something else for a while.

“I’m an ogre! You know, ‘grab your torch and pitchforks!'” – Shrek

The completed Urf Durfal dungeon, courtesy of Axebane’s Deck of Many Dungeons.

Near Urf Durfal, 7 Abril 540

With Alaric back at full mana and the rest of the team as good as they’re going to get this side of a greater healing spell, it’s back into the dungeon looking for the elusive 9,000 ducats. Caspar and Dieter are left to recuperate outside, watching over the team’s camp, while Erich, Franz and Gunter follow Alaric and Beatrice inside.

“Left or right?” asks Beatrice.

“Left didn’t go so well,” Alaric admits. “Let’s try right this time.”

The right-hand door leads west into a corridor 60′ long with two doors on the north wall. Gesturing for silence, Beatrice presses her ear to the door and listens. Gathering the others round, she whispers: “I don’t like it. There are at least three somethings in there talking, and they sound big. Really big.”

“Maybe later, then,” Alaric says. “On the way back.” Something tells him not to open that door, but for all he knows it could have the main treasure behind it.

The adjacent door is quiet, so they enter cautiously, but find nothing of interest; a table, some chairs, and a bed. The corridor draws them on past cracks in the floor and rubble from the ceiling into a small complex of three rooms; Beatrice pronounces all of these quiet, so they open each in turn, finding 100 ducats in a chest of drawers and – behind a locked door – the bones of an earlier adventurer, curled up away from another chest of drawers with 80 ducats and 600 silver pieces in a pile on the floor by them. Judging by the skeleton, its life was claimed by some unknown trap, long discharged and never reset.

“That’s something,” Beatrice sighs as they divide the coins between them, “But it’s not nine thousand, is it?”

With their torches half gone, they turn back. Alaric still has a bad feeling about the Something Room, so they return to where the fought the ghouls the day before. Luckily, no new monsters have come to investigate the corpse the ghouls were dining on, so they press on. The ghoul corridor rolls on past a pair of doors east and west, which are a store room and a sleeping area respectively – where the ghouls were living, judging by the mess and the stench – before opening up into a squarish room 40′ on a side, pillars down the east and west sides and a pleasingly large treasure chest at the far side.

“All perfectly safe!” calls Beatrice, stridently, and the five of them fall to stuffing 9,000 ducats into their backpacks.

It’s only when they turn back to the exit that they notice three large humanoids sporting hefty clubs and disturbing grins, blocking their way out. Cornered and with nowhere to run, Alaric fires bolt after overpowered bolt into their huge forms while the others charge forward, stabbing and slashing furiously. Luck is with them, and they kill two ogres and drive off the third, but Erich and Beatrice are both wounded. Beatrice is not so badly hurt as she appears at first; her scalp wound bleeds out of all proportion to its severity. Erich, however, is carried out; fortunately Alaric is able to stabilise him, but moving him will be difficult.

Surveying his battered companions, Alaric decides they need to put some distance between themselves and both the Grand Turk and the surviving ogre. Fashioning a makeshift stretcher from spears and cloaks, they trudge south, with Franz and Gunter carrying Erich, and Caspar, Dieter and Beatrice as walking wounded.

“I hope nobody tries to rob us,” Alaric mutters to Beatrice as they lead the way south. “We’d struggle to fight off a child with a stick at this point.”

“Yes,” agrees Beatrice. “I like it rough, but that was a bit too rough.”

Still, each is over a thousand ducats richer, if they can hold on to it. Beatrice has given Gazza some more shiny stones and costume jewellery in lieu of his share.

Next time: Overland to Yerevan…

Party Status

Episode: 10. Bennies: Alaric 0, Beatrice 0. Advances: 1. Rations: 6 each. Torches: 2 left. Wounds: Dieter permanently injured, Vigour d4.

Party wealth and gear: Alaric 1,220 gp, mage’s pack; Beatrice 1,350 gp, thief’s pack; the Lads 1,181 gp each, mercenary’s pack, full leather armour, medium shield, short spear, short sword. Party fund: 1,155 gp.

GM Notes

Since I knew the first room they came to had three ogres in it, I rolled reaction dice to see whether Alaric would go in or not. The dice came up ridiculously low, so even giving him a bonus for being curious and overconfident, he decided against it. Later, however, Beatrice rolled a critical failure for her Notice roll in the treasure chamber, and it seemed to me that should mean the ogres had heard her and followed the party. I think to justify this sort of thing in future, Beatrice’s next advance should be Danger Sense; she would’ve taken that last time if I’d thought of it.

In my holiday ‘study’, I have just enough room for a laptop and mouse, but I find myself flipping between umpteen open windows to run things as I don’t have room to spread out notes, dice and whatnot. So, partly through laziness but mostly through lack of space, I gave up on the idea of running the fight in detail and zoomed out to a Dangerous Quick Encounter, although I reasoned that ogres were nasty enough to warrant a -2 on all player-side rolls – they’re big, strong, Resilient and have Sweep, so they dish out damage fast and soak it up better than most. Alaric rolled a modified 11, Beatrice 2, Erich 1, Franz 12, and Gunter 7; Alaric used 3d6=9 power points so has nothing left for healing, and Beatrice used up her last Benny Soaking her Wound. There’s no better use for it than that.

Based on previous experience with parties who use Extras as henchmen, I’d expected to burn through Followers quite quickly, but Alaric’s lads have been rolling unexpectedly well to recover after fights; still, don’t get too attached to them.

“Forward, he cried, from the rear, and the front rank died…” – Pink Floyd, Us and Them

The dungeon so far, thanks to Axebane’s Deck of Many Dungeons…

Near Urf Durfal, 6 Abril 540

Late morning sees Alaric and company back at the dungeon nearest Urf Durfal, moving stealthily in case the Grand Turk’s men are in the area. Lighting a pair of torches, they descend into the entrance hall and take the east door. This leads to a hallway, 75′ long, with a side passage south halfway along it, smelling strongly of sulphur. At the junction, a set of thieves’ tools lies abandoned on the floor, perhaps dropped by someone as they ran. From what? There is no sign.

“Which way?” Caspar asks. After a moment’s thought, Alaric says, “Straight on,” without explaining why. In truth, he is guessing at random, but it does not do to say so. The corridor continues another 40′ or so before turning right, and right again, narrowing as it does so, and ending in a locked door. Beatrice has this open in a flash, despite it being a difficult lock, and the group find themselves in a room 25′ by 35′, standing on a dais occupied by bones and old pottery – smashing the latter reveals no treasure, sadly – with stairs on both north and south walls leading down perhaps the height of a man towards a pool at the far side, shimmering with a gentle blue glow.

Alaric strides forward confidently and scoops a generous handful to his mouth. “Gah,” he cries, “It burns!” He pulls out his waterskin, rinses his mouth and spits to clear it of whatever he has just drunk. Caspar rolls his eyes behind his leader’s back, but wisely keeps his opinions to himself.

“So, you don’t swallow then?” Beatrice asks, all innocence. He ignores her.

“Back to the side passage,” Alaric orders, and off they troop. Following this, they find the passage twists and turns, but their attention is distracted from the architecture when they notice a group of bulky humanoids with a charnel smell, moving surprisingly quickly. They look up from consuming the body of a man, and turn to attack.

The corridor is barely wide enough for two to fight side by side, lit by torches held by Alaric and Beatrice and the flare of Alaric’s magical bolts. It’s claws against short swords for almost a minute, with the guards’ shields giving them a much-needed edge. Alaric kills three of the enemy with magic, and almost Caspar as well when he fumbles a casting of the new and unfamiliar spell. The final ghoul is made of sterner stuff than the others and manages to incapacitate both Caspar and Dieter before Beatrice snatches up a fallen spear and skewers it. While Alaric stabilises the fallen, she works her way around the ghouls, finishing them all off.

“I think something’s broken,” Caspar says through gritted teeth. Dieter is very pale and lies unconscious.

“All right,” says Alaric. “Back outside where I can see what I’m doing. Caspar, can you walk? Good. Erich, help me carry Dieter. Beatrice, do you pick up the things we’ve dropped.” Silently, Alaric calls on the dark powers who serve him – or is it the other way around – to recharge his mana.

Once outside, he casts healing on both the wounded, healing Caspar completely and restoring Dieter to consciousness. However, there is something wrong with Dieter’s insides which is beyond Alaric’s powers to heal.

“Make camp,” he instructs. “We’re too hurt and fatigued to go any further today, over or underground. Tomorrow we’ll go back in; there’s 9,000 ducats in that dungeon, and I mean for it to be ours.”

Party Status

Episode: 9. Bennies: Alaric 0, Beatrice 1. Advances: 1. Rations: 7 each. Torches: 6 left. Wounds: None (the pool didn’t do enough damage to beat Alaric’s Toughness), but Dieter is Battered and his Vigour is permanently reduced one die type.

Party wealth and gear: Alaric 65 gp, mage’s pack; Beatrice 195 gp, thief’s pack; the Lads 26 gp each, mercenary’s pack, full leather armour, medium shield, short spear, short sword.

GM Notes

Those things are ghouls (Fantasy Companion p. 203), listed on the Axebane card as “one per PC” – since a Novice PC is generally worth a couple of Extras, I gave the party four ghouls; one per Wild Card and one per two Extras, rounded up. The fight lasted 10 turns, with a lot of extreme dice rolls, and burned through all the “GM” Bennies and all but one on the PC’s side, with Alaric’s last Benny going on more power points so he could cast healing on his minions. The group is in real danger now, with only one Benny left and three ‘sessions’ to go before the next recharge.

I’ve dropped the detailed record of dice rolls and tactical decisions this time to focus on the narrative; I’m still not sure how much of the game mechanics to include, or whether to put them here in the GM Notes section, or as commentary in the main body of the post.

“Heroes are made by fighting the dragon, but more graves are dug than heroes made.” – Dragonquest

Yerevan, Three Days Ago

“Ispitan.”

“Master Magus.”

“A new sorcerer has arrived in Hayastan. He is currently in Urf Durfal.”

“Has your magic revealed this?”

“That is not your concern.” In fact the Master Magus’ knowledge has more to do with gold ducats and carrier pigeons carefully spread amongst the local populace. “Go, and secretly find out his intentions; then hold him in place and report back. I must consider whether to recruit or destroy him. And Ispitan: Remember it is highly undesirable that the Grand Turk, or any other of the mortal powers, should learn of his existence, or ours. Highly undesirable. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Master Magus.”

“Then go.”

Nurnuz, 27 Mart 540 to 5 Abril 540

“This is risky,” Beatrice says to Caspar. “The Grand Turk’s men are only a couple of leagues away, and there aren’t many places we could’ve gone.”

Caspar shrugs. “Let’s worry about them if they turn up. Alaric needs time to heal.”

Alaric is healing, but slowly, and welcomes the distraction of a wandering peddler who has a book to sell and appears unaware of its actual value.

“He probably can’t read,” Beatrice notes, having handed over 15 of Alaric’s ducats for the tome, which Alaric soon realises is easily worth thrice that, for it contains spells. Trying to decode those keeps him quiet and sedentary for days. Beatrice frets, unable to practice her skills without risking arrest and loss of a hand; the soldiers carouse, as they tend to do when otherwise unoccupied, making friends; this proves useful when the Grand Turk’s men arrive unannounced, looking for foreigners, and are told some did come this way but took a boat south to Yerevan while one of Caspar’s drinking buddies alerts the party to stay hidden. Such are the advantages of paying over the odds for a place to sleep, and buying multiple rounds at the local tavern over the course of a week. It also seems that the inhabitants of Nurnuz are not especially loyal to the Grand Turk; villages like theirs change hands every few years, and who knows when they might need some generous friends with spears.

When Alaric is fully healed, the rest has done everyone good. Beatrice has been practicing with the soldiers between drinking sessions, they have been helping out on their new friends’ farms, and Alaric has learned much from his new book. An expensive stay, but overall it has been worthwhile.

None of them notice the peddler called Ispitan watching them carefully as they head back north towards the Urf Durfal dungeon. Once they are out of sight, he attaches a message to the leg of a carrier pigeon and sends it off to Yerevan.

Party Status

Episode: 8 – Bennies refresh, party gains an Advance. Bennies: Alaric 3, Beatrice 2. Advances: 1; Alaric takes New Powers (bolt and light), the Lads each take Str d8, and Beatrice takes Athletics d8 and Fighting d8. Rations: 8 each. Torches: 8 left. Wounds: None.

Party wealth and gear: Alaric 65 gp, mage’s pack; Beatrice 195 gp, thief’s pack; the Lads 26 gp each, mercenary’s pack, full leather armour, medium shield, short spear, short sword.

GM Notes

Let’s try moving the game mechanics down here, and focussing on the story in the main body of the post. Let me know in the comments if you have a preference.

The encounter cards for the first five days of healing were Club Ace, Heart 3, Spade 2, Joker – Club 7 and Club King, Heart 2. Lots of obstacles there, but no enemies. Mythic 2E plot twists: Hidden Reward for the Club Ace, Incapacitate Discover and Immediate Enhance for the Joker. I started to think someone was deliberately trying to put obstacles in Alaric’s way, and wondered who that might be; when I get around to using Warrior Heroes, I shall reuse some old characters from a few years ago, and this seemed like a good chance to start introducing them.

Alaric is now well outside the Golden Hour, so forced to resort to Natural Healing (SWADE p. 96). He heals one Wound, although it costs him his last Benny to do it; those Wound penalties are brutal.

Encounter cards for the second healing run: Spade Queen (enemy), Club 6, Club Ace (obstacle), Club 7, Heart 7. In Demons, the local warlord’s troops usually come looking for sorcerers, but fail to find them surprisingly often; above you see one possible explanation of that, and what I think is a reasonable use of the favour accrued from carousing (SWADE FC p. 77). Alaric rolls to heal again; d6w-1=8, success and a raise, and where was that when he needed it.

I had initially intended to pause Alaric here and switch to another campaign, but this doesn’t feel like a season finale, so let’s see what else is in that dungeon.

Hrun heaved, and managed to hook his fingers under the stone. “You find chokeapples under a chokeapple tree,” he said. “You find treasure under altars. Logic.” – Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic

Urf Durfal, 26 Mart 540

Encounter card: Ace of Clubs – Obstacle. Mythic 2E Plot Twist: Enter Legal

Beatrice is agitated when she bursts into the inn where the party are staying, interrupting the guards’ dice game and Alaric’s reading.

“Pack up,” she says in a tense tone. “The guard is coming for us. We don’t want to be here when they arrive.”

“What? Why?” asks Caspar.

“I didn’t stop to ask them! Come on, let’s go!”

“Is there anything you want to tell us, Beatrice?” Alaric enquires, suspecting illegal activity on her part.

“Yes! Pack up and let’s leave!”

Fortunately the party were already planning to leave today, so packing and leaving is fairly quick.

“To the dungeon,” Alaric says, once they are out of the innkeeper’s earshot. “If they knew where it was they would have ransacked it already. After that, let’s follow the river south. Villages all the way to Yerevan, I hear, and there’s the old dwarven iron mine in Tapa Hill, that’s probably worth a look.”

“Milord, they say something forced the dwarven clans out of the mines. Are you sure facing whatever that was is altogether wise?”

“Faint heart ne’er won fair lady, Caspar,” Alaric chides.

“With respect, milord, they’re none too partial to missing limbs and scar tissue either.”

Urf Durfal Dungeon, 26 Mart 540

Dungeon Entrance Card: Ace of Diamonds

Between Alaric’s research and Gazza’s directions, they locate the dungeon around midday and descend into it, with Alaric and Erich lighting torches. The entrance hall is roughly 12 yards square, with doors left, right and ahead. Dieter finds a pile of bones, and stirs it with his spear in the hope of finding something interesting. Erich stays his hand, shaking his head wordlessly.

“That one,” says Beatrice. “It’s the only one that’s locked. You lock doors to valuable things.”

“Or dangerous ones,” says Erich, but Beatrice is already applying her lockpicks to the door. (d8w = 14, success and two raises.) Beatrice is clearly pleased by how quickly and easily she has the door open, and beyond a corridor leads into darkness.

Next dungeon card: 7 of Spades.

A short corridor leads to another locked door; this one is more difficult, but Beatrice manages to get it open with the help of her lockpicks and some extremely unladylike language. It opens on rectangular room 10 yards or so on each side, with rows of columns flanking the middle and an altar at the far end. There’s crack in the floor, probably subsidence Alaric thinks, and piles of aging brick and lumber along one wall. On the floor in front of the altar is a pile of swords.

“Ooh! An altar!” Beatrice exults. “Bound to be treasure under that.”

Alaric and Dieter move forwards, confidently. Caspar narrows his eyes.

“Did one of those swords move?” he asks. Before anyone can reply, all seven of them are dancing in the air, thirsty for blood, and combat is joined.

Turn 1: Alaric and guards Ace of Hearts, Beatrice Ace of Spades, swords 9 of spades. Beatrice opts to Defend (+4 Parry). Alaric casts summon ally; d6w=3, spends Benny to roll again, d6w=4. The guards each pick a sword and attack it; 3d6 = 2, 2, 2 so they all miss. The attendant does likewise, rolling a 1. The party move back towards the door. The swords attack, rolling 5, 5, 7, 2, 5, hitting Alaric and Erich for d10+d12 damage each; 15 on Alaric (Shaken and two Wounds), 8 on Erich (Shaken). Alaric spends a second Benny to soak damage, and soaks one of the two Wounds.

Beatrice drops into a defensive crouch, focussed entirely on dodging and parrying, and that works for her. Alaric taps the tattoo on his left bicep and it detaches itself and expands to the size of a large man; it and the soldiers hack furiously at the swords, but all miss. The swords whirl around the party, and land a glancing blow on Erich, snaking past his shield, while wounding Alaric quite badly.

“We can’t win this,” Caspar shouts. “Back through the door! Like we practiced!”

Shouting and stamping to keep time, the group backs out of the room, and the swords follow.

Turn 2: Alaric Heart 9, Beatrice Club Jack, swords Spade 6. We got lucky.

Everyone bundles out through the door.

“Beatrice! Dieter! Close the door! Lock it if you can!” calls Caspar. While Caspar and Erich focus on protecting Alaric, the other two slam the doors. Dieter holds them closed by leaning on them while Beatrice tries to lock the door, to no avail (d8w=3, Benny reroll=critical failure).

“The lock’s broken!” Beatrice shouts over the noise of enthusiastic sword blades hacking at the door.

The swords are presumably there to protect the altar, will they follow Our Heroes? Mythic 2E (Unlikely): 86%, no.

“They seem to be quieting down in there,” Caspar notices.

Turn 3. Alaric Heart 10, Beatrice Diamond 3, swords Club 6.

“Back to the next door!” gasps Alaric, willing the summoned attendant to support him so as to free up the soldiers for combat. “Try to lock that!”

“I’ll hold the door with Dieter,” says Caspar, “long enough for the rest of you to get out. When you’re ready, we’ll run through the door, you close it and lock it. Clear?” Everyone nods. “Go!”

Having driven them out of the altar room, the swords are satisfied, and return to pile themselves on the floor. With an easier lock and less pressure (d8w=7) Beatrice is easily able to lock the second door, and uses her dagger to scratch on it DANGER DO NOT OPEN while Alaric tries to heal himself (d4w=critical failure), but only makes matters worse.

“Can’t you do anything with magic?” Beatrice asks. Alaric can, but had forgotten that was an option! He concentrates and tries to cast healing on himself (d6w -2 for Wounds = 3, failure, and I want to save the last Benny); nothing happens, the pain is too great for him to focus.

Caspar assesses the situation.

“Milord,” he decides, “You’re too badly injured for us to continue. We need to find somewhere to lay low and heal up.”

Alaric is in too much pain to argue. “Very well,” he says. “We can’t go back to Urf Durfal if the guard is looking for us. There’s a village called Nurnuz a few miles south of here, let’s try that. We can come back later.”

Party Status

Episode: 7. Bennies: Alaric 1, Beatrice 1. Advances: 0. Rations: 8 each. Torches: 8 left, 40 minutes into the current pair. Wounds: Alaric -2. Power Points: Alaric 7 of 10.

Party wealth and gear: Alaric 130 gp, mage’s pack; Beatrice 245 gp, thief’s pack; the Lads 126 gp each, mercenary’s pack, full leather armour, medium shield, short spear, short sword.

GM Notes

Well, that could’ve gone better.

I had to make another decision here, as the Deck of Many Dungeons rates locks with difficulties from very easy (which I decided was worth +2 on the Thievery roll) to very hard (-2), but this is the kind of thing any seasoned GM is used to doing on the fly. I decided the map layout – two rooms connected by a corridor – was simple enough not to bother showing you a map. Maybe next time, if you’re good.

Refreshing Bennies every four posts means I have to think about whether to use them or not, so that’s working. I need to think about how often to award them – Alaric drinking from the magic pool in the last dungeon invoked both his Hindrances so that was worth one, but he hasn’t done anything to deserve one here.

I used Ghost Blades in the SWADE Fantasy Companion (page 203) for the animated swords, and my usual two per Wild Card plus one per Extra. They turn out to be extremely nasty, and would’ve gone through that door like butter had they decided to pursue. I recommend them to the House.

“…when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full” – King James Bible, Exodus 16:3

Urf Durfal, 18-25 Mart 540

The party’s first goal in Urf Durfal is tooling up, so they do so. Alaric buys a mage’s pack (80 ducats), Beatrice a thief’s pack (65 ducats), and the others each take a mercenary’s pack (45 ducats), a medium shield (9 ducats), a leather cap (10 ducats) and leather leggings (20 ducats). Doing this inconspicuously and piecemeal takes them most of their first day, then they decide to spend a week in various activities. That’s eight days in total, costing them each 40 ducats.

Encounter card draws: Club 6, Diamond Queen, Club 4, Heart 5, Diamond 3, Club 5, Heart 4, Joker – this becomes Diamond King and Club 2. So, on days 2 and 8 the party learns of treasure, and on day 8 this is somehow connected with an obstacle. Since I don’t know what they might find in the dungeon, I take an idea from Gold & Glory’s solo rules; the “treasures” are both rumours which will each give a +1 bonus on some roll related to treasure in the dungeon.

Caspar and his men spend the week carousing, spending 50 ducats each on socialising, making friends in local restaurants and coffee shops (with a Mohammedan ruler, taverns as Caspar knows them are frowned upon). In this way they learn the local rumours about the previous ruler’s treasure, carefully hidden when he realised the Grand Turk was about to gain control; the previous ruler, they learn, took his secrets to the grave, falling in the fruitless defence of the town. Their new friends also promise to help them at need in carefully unspecified ways.

Alaric, meanwhile, busies himself in research, questioning Gazza closely about the dungeon nearest to Urf Durfal. Beatrice decides to earn herself some money, and uses her feminine wiles to insinuate herself into the research sessions, citing the need to understand the dungeon’s likely defences and prepare her toolkit accordingly. Successful use of her various skills confirms a theory she forms while watching the early sessions with Gazza; the imp has no real idea what items are worth, he simply likes shiny things. Armed with this information, she purchases a number of cheap baubles and trades them to Gazza for 100 ducats, to Alaric’s surprise and her own smug satisfaction. She declines to share any of her profits with the rest of the party, explaining that the others contributed nothing to the scheme.

Since Gazza reports this dungeon has a treasure haul of some 9,000 ducats, Alaric proposes that one share be set aside for the party’s common expenses, and despite Beatrice’s spirited arguments against this idea, it makes sense to the guardsmen.

Party Status

Episode: 6. Bennies: Alaric 3, Beatrice 2. Advances: 0. Rations: 9 each. Torches: 10 left.

Party wealth and gear: Alaric 130 gp, mage’s pack; Beatrice 245 gp, thief’s pack; the Lads 126 gp each, mercenary’s pack and better wargear.

GM Notes

Here, I explore the use of the Fantasy Companion‘s rules for Downtime (pages 77-78) and standard packs (pages 49-50). Packs have always seemed like a good idea to me, and Downtime works better than I expected from reading it, so I will continue to use it.

Turning to Demons, I note that local warlords dislike sorcerers intensely, so I figured that makes the town dangerous enough to be worth drawing encounter cards. I anticipated the Grand Turk’s men barging in to ask awkward questions about where the party acquired centuries-old ducats in mint condition, but the dice decreed otherwise, and who am I to argue with the dice?

“…we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life” ― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Alaric’s path in this post takes him through hexes 0109, 0209, 0309, 0408, 0407, 0508 and 0607.

Karuyyaryk, 16 Mart 540

Leaving Abaran the next morning, poorer by 35 ducats but richer in fleas, the party heads northeast.

Encounter card draw: Nine of spades, no encounter.

“Follow around the edge of the foothills towards the rising sun,” their host for the night had said, “And by nightfall you’ll see Karuyyaryk, on the river.”

In mid-afternoon, they’d seen two villages, one north and one southeast, both on the river.

“Which way?” Beatrice had asked, not yet being conditioned to the level of obedience the men-at-arms demonstrated.

“North, clearly,” Alaric had replied, with a confidence he felt but Beatrice mistrusted.

“How do you know?”

“Our host said follow the edge of the foothills,” he explained.

“Yes, but he didn’t mention the other village.” People are not good at giving directions without missing out salient details, and Beatrice strongly suspected their host had never been more than five miles from the village in his life, and was relying on partial information from another traveller, who may or may not have used this route.

“We go north,” Alaric said, ending the discussion. “Now we can afford it, we need to get proper equipment, and the nearest town of any size is Urf Durfal, which should be across the river from Karuyyaryk, according to Gazza.”

“Gazza teleports everywhere. I wonder what his sense of distance is like?”

“Probably not very good, but he’s been accurate on directions so far.”

Urf Durfal, 17 Mart 540

Next morning, the group exits Karuyyaryk, having confirmed their directions.

Encounter card: Ace of hearts – neutral or friendly NPCs. I wonder who they are? Mythic says this is a nervous, savvy character with a background of art, seclusion.

As the party approaches Urf Durfal, they hear a noise from a cave in a low hill overlooking the track; the noise of tools on stone. Beatrice sneaks on ahead and almost gives the man using the tools a heart attack when she asks what he’s doing. Once assured that the party won’t hurt him – he has nothing of value to them except possibly information, which is harder to extract from a corpse, at least this side of Alaric learning the zombie Power – he responds more calmly.

“This cave is a holy place,” he says. “God came to me in a vision, and instructed me to carve statues of the saints into the living rock!”

“Who are you working on at the moment?”

“Saint Gregory the Illuminator, who built the church at Echmiadzin!”

Alaric says: “We’re travelling to Urf Durfal, what can you tell us about it?”

“I lived there for many years,” the hermit replies, pausing as if searching his memory.

How about the ruler, what’s he like? That will set the tone of the city. Mythic 2E: Active, empathetic. And we already know from Demons that he takes bribes.

“It is ruled by the Grand Turk,” the hermit replies at length. “A Mohammedan. He is an energetic man, beloved of his people, but one such as I must pay taxes and bribes on a daily basis. I could avoid many of those by forswearing my own religion, but this I will not do. You are followers of the cross, like myself; if you have coin, well and good, but the punishment for theft is severe: loss of a hand.” Beatrice starts involuntarily, and the others look pointedly at her.

Getting the name of a suitable inn, the party press on, and make Urf Durfal just after midday, with the call to prayer ringing out from the minarets near the Grand Turk’s palace. The fee to cross the river uses up the last of Alaric’s original savings; now, they must start digging into the haul from the Abaran dungeon.

Next time: Downtime!

Party Status

Episode: 5. Bennies: Alaric 3, Beatrice 2. Advances: 0. Rations: 2 each. Torches: 10 left.

Party wealth: Everyone has 250 gp.

GM Notes

I’ve been feeling somewhat lethargic this week, and I see the tone of the game has followed suit.

You’ve seen the full map of Hayastan, the picture in this post shows what Alaric knows.

I’ve decided to use the combat strength listed for warlords in Demons as the population of their town in thousands, and say any other settlement has only a few hundred inhabitants. That means the Grand Turk of Urf Durfal rules a town of two thousand souls.

“Where it’s dark as a dungeon, damp as the dew, danger is double, pleasures are few.” – Johnny Cash, Dark as a Dungeon

Abaran Dungeon, 15 Mart 540

Dungeon card draw: 9 of hearts.

Down the east corridor…

Following the corridor past the point where they met the orcs, Our Heroes find themselves in another, wider corridor. At the end is a skeleton crumpled in front of a door; this proves to be unlocked, and beyond is what was once a bedroom, with the smashed remnants of a table and chair and a surprisingly intact bed.

“Nothing for us here,” says Beatrice after a short but thorough search.

The corridor continues, narrowing as it goes, and revealing two further doors. The closer of these opens onto another room, full of mostly-broken furniture. Beatrice is excited when she discovers an unbroken chest, still locked. Pulling lockpicks from her pouch, she soon has it open, and inside is a set of small, stoppered glass bottles.

Mythic 2E Object Meaning: Familiar, fragrant.

“Huh,” she says, opening a couple and smelling them cautiously. “Old perfume. I wouldn’t want to use it, but we might get a few coppers for the bottles.” She pockets them, intending to sell them as new at the next decent-sized settlement.

On, then, to the second door. This, too, is unlocked, and behind it lies a large pool, glowing an eerie lilac colour of its own accord. Alaric steps forward, and before Caspar can stop him, dips his hands in it and drinks, a cautious sip at first then a bigger gulp.

Unfortunately, Alaric has both Curiosity and Overconfidence, so I think he is probably going to try some. This is a bad idea as it’s a crapshoot what he’ll get; he gets lucky, rolling 10 on a d12 and thus gaining Advantage on initiative rolls for 3d6x10 = 90 minutes. I think that is a good match for the Level Headed Edge, so he now has that for an hour and a half.

“Are you sure that is altogether wise, milord?” Caspar asks, by which he means “That was a really stupid idea, but hey, you’re in charge.”

“Tastes a bit weird,” Alaric says, thinking out loud, “But doesn’t seem harmful.” He has no way of recognising its effect.

“Let me try some,” says Dieter, who is almost as bad, but he echoes Alaric’s opinion. “Bah. Probably been here centuries.”

“Don’t blame me if you get the runs,” says Caspar, ostensibly to Dieter but in fact to both of them.

“No more doors here,” says Beatrice.

“Back to the entrance hall then, we’ll try one of the others,” says Alaric.

Retracing their steps through the orc corridor, they meet something else; half-a-dozen goblins.

Mythic 2E Character Motivations: Intolerance Oppose. Well, it hardly seems there’s any need for a reaction check… Goblins are on SWADE p. 184.

“Goblins!” calls Caspar as he rounds the corner. Alaric’s speak languages has worn off, but there seems little need to translate; the lead goblin points, and howls something, and suddenly the corridor is full of goblins charging at them.

We have two sides queueing up in a five foot wide corridor, which looks like a long and not terribly interesting fight, so let’s resolve it with a Dangerous Quick Encounter (SWADE p. 134, for those of you following along at home). Alaric will roll on Spellcasting, the Soldiers on Fighting, and Beatrice also on Fighting, since I don’t see how she can bring Stealth into play and she has no missile weapons yet. Alaric rolls a 3, spends a Benny to reroll, and gets a 10. Beatrice rolls 4 and stands on that. The soldiers, in alphabetical order, roll 5, 4, and 4. Nobody actually fails, but everyone except Alaric suffers bumps and bruises and collects one level of Fatigue. What does that look like in the narrative?

Alaric summons his attendant and places it between Caspar and the lead goblin in the hope of whittling them down before he has to put his men at risk – magical energy grows back faster than followers and complains less about having to do it. Then he squeezes into the corner to let the others past – no point keeping a dog and barking yourself. Pushed from behind by the enthusiastic Dieter, Beatrice has no option but to slide past Alaric, purloining a shortsword from Dieter as she goes, leaving him with a spear.

Then it’s a flurry of stabbing and slashing in the semi-darkness, illuminated only by the flickering light of Alaric’s torch. There are several goblins on the floor before the others break and run, and Dieter finishes off the fallen. The party will never learn, now, that this is what the orcs fought previously, in the process of recovering a stolen idol from them, and that the goblins assumed the orcs and humans were working together.

“Everyone all right?” asks Alaric, and there are muttered replies to the effect of “It’s only a flesh wound” and “This had better be worth it.”

The first pair of torches are exhausted now, and the team light two more before returning to the entrance hall and turning south.

Dungeon card draw: 6 of hearts.

To the south is a corridor which narrows as it turns, and leads them to a locked door. Try as she might, Beatrice can’t get it open, so reluctantly the team goes back to the entrance hall and takes the only remaining exit – the west one.

Dungeon card draw: 10 of clubs. As this means there are no more exits to explore, I replace it with one of the kings; king of hearts. As these are intended to be small dungeons, I leave it at five cards, so this room contains the treasure rather than stairs down.

As much of the dungeon as the party has explored this time.

The final corridor leads to a set of double doors which open at a touch. Beyond is a vaguely rectangular room, 40′ by 50′, with columns along its north and south walls. At the far end a raised platform lies behind a pile of bones, and on it are some pottery jars and a chest.

“Oho,” says Beatrice. “What have we here?”

One of the jars has been smashed, and gold coins are spilling out. This is enough incentive for the party to smash all the others and pry the chest open.

SPI’s Demons dictates that the main treasure in the Abaran dungeon is 2,000 gold, so that’s what our heroes pick up. Since Gazza was also promised a share, that’s an easy sum; 250 gp each.

“I don’t like this,” says Caspar, as they fill their backpacks by turns. “Shouldn’t there be some sort of guardian, or a trap, or something?”

“Maybe the gold is cursed,” Erich suggests, in the spookiest voice he can manage.

“Nothing I can’t handle, I’m sure,” says Alaric, who is after all overconfident. “Come on, let’s get to the village and see what the others have managed to find. Before we head off, though, let’s rest a few minutes and I’ll take a look at those cuts and bruises.”

Bookkeeping

Episode: 4 – Bennies recharge. Bennies: Alaric 3, Beatrice 2. Advances: 0. Rations: 3 each. Torches: 10 left. Time in dungeon: 110 minutes, so 4 torches used (2 per hour). Party wealth: Everyone has 250 gp except Alaric, who has an additional 38.

GM Notes

I’m very pleased with the way Axebane’s Deck of Many Dungeons worked out. Extremely fast and easy to use, the only hiccup being that I needed to tweak the rolls for monsters.

The SWADE Fantasy Companion gives prices in ‘gold pieces’, and Demons (no longer in print) lists treasure in ducats, a common European gold coin until surprisingly recently. We could go down a rabbit hole about what an 11th century gold coin was actually worth and what it would actually buy, but that would not be fast, furious, or fun, so let’s not.

Credits: Dungeon tiles – Axebane’s Deck of Many Dungeons. Tokens – Fiery Dragon.

“The Orcs are in the Deep!” – JRR Tolkien, The Two Towers

At Caspar’s suggestion, they took the door on their left, which opened easily enough under the pressure of three burly shoulders. They found a corridor, and set off down it; Caspar in the lead, then Alaric, with Beatrice in the centre of the group and Dieter and Erich bringing up the rear. The corridor turned right, narrowing to half its original width, then left.

I draw a 3 of Spades for the next card, a corridor dogleg. The skull on the card indicates enemies are encountered, and a roll on the table printed next to the map segment tells me this is 2 orcs per PC.

As caspar turned the second corner, the light of his torch showed several hulking figures, with flickering shadows behind them which told of more following those they could see.

“I don’t know what those are,” Caspar says, “Some kind of goblin maybe? Can’t tell how many. Their swords are drawn.”

A reaction roll of 7 tells me the orcs have no particular attitude. What are they doing? I roll a Character Motivation using Mythic GM Emulator 2nd Edition and get “Justice Investment”. I also roll the leader’s personality and get “Obstinate Selfless”.

The orcs halt, uncertain who this man with a sword is, but he’s clearly not alone as they can see the flicker of more torches further back. Who knows how many more of them there are?

Alaric casts Speak Language on himself and Caspar (2 PP for 10 minutes of speech).

The orc leader steps forwards, scimitar dangling loosely in one hand.

“Let us pass,” he calls. “We carry a totem and would not risk it in combat.”

Caspar glances over his shoulder at Alaric, who leans around the corner and replies.

“We have nothing to gain by fighting. We will retreat into the entrance room, where there is room to pass.”

“Stand well back, then. And no tricks or surprises, or it will be the worse for you.”

“You may see two more of my men outside, don’t take that for an ambush, it isn’t.” Probably they’re not back from Abaran yet, but it’s an easy risk to avoid.

Alaric and company fall back into the entrance hall, and hug the opposite wall, trying not to look threatening. Seven orcs file warily past, two of them carrying a litter with some kind of stone effigy on it, but what significance it has or how the orcs came by it none of the humans can guess, and none of them cares enough to ask.

“Why didn’t they attack us?” Dieter asks.

“They’ve already been in at least one fight,” Caspar points out. “At least three were wounded, some badly, and one was carrying a couple of spare weapons.”

They retrace their steps along the corridor. By the time they’ve got back to where they came from, their first pair of torches are more than half gone.

Bookkeeping

Episode: 3. Bennies: Alaric 3, Beatrice 2. Advances: 0. Rations: 3 each. Torches: 12 unused, 2 with 40 minutes used.

This is the third post featuring Alaric and company (let’s not talk about the discussion with Gazza). I need to decide how often solo characters refresh Bennies and gain Advances; let’s say one post counts as an hour of a 4-hour session, and Advances are at the normal rate; this means Bennies refresh every 4 posts and the team gains Advances every 8.

They’re still on their first day but I’ll dock them a day’s rations for today. I am assuming that each time they move from one card to another, they use up 10 minutes of torchlight, so they’re now 40 minutes into their first torch; they probably have two lit.

GM Notes

One of my objectives for this year is to reduce the number of PDFs I carry around, and Axebane’s Deck of Many Dungeons looks like it will meet all my dungeon generation needs, which allows me to discard several other documents; all good in their own ways, but all just that little bit less easy to use than Axebane.

The first issue I came across is that the monster encounter tables require you to roll 1d6 plus the PCs’ level – presumably average party level, not total levels – and score at least a 7 to meet anything. Now, I could do a statistical analysis to work out what level a SWADE PC is, but I decided rolling 2d6 plus number of Advances is close enough and a lot less work.

The second issue is how many foes does (say) “2 Orcs per PC” equate to? Looking at the statblock for orcs (SWADE page 186), they are better armed, better armoured, and more highly skilled than the party. The guidelines on page 199 thus suggest a fair fight would be two enemies per Wild Card (2×2=4) and I guess at another one per Extra (3×1=3), giving me a total of 7 orcs.

Art credits: Dungeon – Axebane’s Deck of Many Dungeons. Tokens – Fiery Dragon.

“Hence the experienced soldier, once in motion, is never bewildered; once he has broken camp, he is never at a loss.” – Sun Tsu, The Art of War

I often want to advance Soldier Allies to Experienced Soldiers. This requires:

• Three Attribute Advances: Strength d8, Vigour d8, Smarts d6.
• Three skill Advances: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6. As they have Agility d6, Fighting and Shooting take a full advance each, but they will also have another skill at d4 as Stealth d6 only costs them half an Advance.

All of this takes them neatly to their first Veteran Advance; my usual Advance route is to take Strength d8, Fighting d8 and Shooting d8 in that order at Novice, then Vigour d8, Stealth d6 plus another skill at d4, and two Combat Edges at Seasoned, and finally Smarts d6 at the start of Veteran.

If one were building these guys like PCs, one would start them with four points of Hindrances and buy at least two Attribute uplifts at character creation, including Smarts d6 which would free up another two skill points, probably for an entirely new skill; then they’d reach the Experienced statblock by the middle of Seasoned. However, let’s stick to the Rules As Written for the moment.

If I were throwing together instant NPCs to roll out against a player group, the Extras would have no Edges and the same die type in all their combat traits; d6 for soldiers, d8 for experienced soldiers, and so on.

Why not try that? See how long it takes your players to notice, and once they notice, see whether they care. My guess is that so long as the NPCs’ leader is interesting, they won’t focus on the mooks at all.