One of My Other Campaigns
The Bleak and the Pearl is one my other two main campaigns I am running solo. It is uses the
SoloDark rules addon to
ShadowDark. The slight tweak/experiment to this campaign is to divide into delve sessions like this one that use
SoloDark to handle the general oracle and settings and then civilization sessions that will use Mythic GME 2. This gives an interesting variety of play. All the big threads and characters and such are handled in town, while the delves are simpler.
I started the campaign before I started the blog and originally the idea was that this blog would cover it but I never got around to doing the "full" recap (being only a single delve session and a single civilization session). Rather than type up multiple pages of stuff I played a few weeks ago, I will instead just bring up the main beats as they go, but let's start with these three quick pieces:
The Bleak and the Pearl
300 years ago, the Barthic Federation was a grand collective of Human, Dwarf, Elf, Goblin, and Halfling kingdoms spread across the island continent of Barthus. The twin to Barthus was primitive and unbroken Silt: a place full of great beasts and massive wilderness. Outside of a few mining and limber towns, Silt was mostly ignored by the Barthic people, left to the Orcs who managed to tame some of the wilder reaches. At least until the Darkness came. It spread and devoured Barthus, corrupting and mutating the land.
As the Federations was pushed further south and east, the decision finally came to cross the Gray Channel en masse and to try and make a new country in Silt.
Now, three centuries later, the once great Barthic Federation are a series of city states spread along both sides of the Gray Channel. Civilization is crushed between the primal wilds of Silt and the devouring darkness of old Barthus. In common language, these two continents are now better known as The Bleak (Barthus) and The Pearl (Silt).
The Blue Grove Boys
Four orphans raised by The Blue Grove, a Pearl temple of Gede in the Cerulean Forest, have crossed the Gray Channel lead by the apocalyptic dreams of Rance, a Human Wizard. He and Inar (Halfing Cleric) were rescued by the Grove from a cult dedicated to the Dark Lady (possibly probably some incarnation of Shune but I'm keeping it vague right now). They were raised alongside Grusk (Half-Orc Fighter, who had been beaten and abused as a sorcerer's apprentice) and Tom (Goblin Thief, abandoned as a baby at the Grove).
Driven by Rance's dreams, they feel themselves pulled into a quest to stop the unknown upcoming catastrophe. They have found and recovered a strange cloak that drives the wearer mad while also shielding the user from magical scrying. Though they are unsure why they were led to this cloak (currently being housed and protected in the Grove's chambers), they still trust in the power of Rance. They have lately come to the city of Grunce.
[Doug's Note: All of them are currently level 2]
Cal Grunkheart, The Lighthouse Keepers, and Grunce's Troubles
The city of Grunce was the site the last major work of the then crumbling Barthic Federation. Five great families came together and powered the Lighthouse through now-unknown means. The Lighthouse's light drives back the Darkness and makes a barrier of safe passage for those seeking a life in the Pearl. This places Grunce as the greatest city left in the Bleak: a trading ground, a port of call, and a haven. Unfortunately, the Lighthouse is starting to flicker and threatens to collapse.
Cal Grunkheart - a descendent of Jonias Grunkheart who founded Grunce and the Lighthouse - is trying to find a way to preserve the Light and to restore his family to power. He befriends the Grove orphans and the two groups - Lighthouse Keepers and the Grove Boys - are now working together to solve the mysteries of the Lighthouse.
Cal has found there are tunnels underneath Grunce which act as a battery to power the Light. However, the Keepers have only gotten to the first fuel stone and have been able to go deeper due to the infestation of the tunnels. Years ago, when these five families had the tunnels constructed, they created a grid using five items of power. Now, as the Darkness presses in, these five items of power must be restored to the fuel stones to recharge them once more.
While all this is going on, two great houses of Grunce - The Marrs and the Allociuses - are fighting with each other and with the Free Merchants' Guild to gain the upper hand in the city. All three are ok with stopping the Lighthouse keepers because such catastrophe can be blamed on the other two.
The first fuel stone found by the Keepers is missing the Diadem of Del Marius. In his lifetime, Mad Marius turned his old family estate into a Citadel full of strange treasures and traps. His diadem was left inside and must be retrieved.
The Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur, Part 1
Since you can read the whole adventure as part of the free Shadowdark Quickstart and Kelsey Dionne has made an overview video about The Lost Citadel on Youtube, I am not going to dive too deeply into the mechanics or layout of the dungeon. You can also get a glimpse of the map, above. Instead, I'll focus on a few highlights.
The Labyrinth
The team starts out in the Labyrinth, opting for the smaller side entrance than the the main front one. Early on, they meandered back and forth (I used 4d6 to have a kind of vote mechanic to determine direction). Once they became aware they were meandering back and forth, Tom light a torch and used it like charcoal to mark the places they have already been.
Towards the end of this section, a Cave Creeper waited around the final turn into the main Citadel. During that fight, Inar was paralyzed and two of the characters took decent injuries. They retreated back into the room you can see a bit north west of the letter "L" and camped down for 8 hours. They did discover some of the burial jars. Rance told them to touch nothing but Grusk pocketed some gold before coming across the small dolls and deciding it might not be worth it.
Brell, the Ochre Jelly, and the Door
They made their way into the room full of murals and found Brell knocked out on the floor. Inar went over and tended to the beastmen's rooms but Brell's reaction roll was very, very negative so he lunged forward to slash at the halfling before Grusk chopped him down in a single blow.
They did find the secret door and the hidden cache here, but opted instead of go west first. Here they stumbled upon the ochre jelly (who once again targeted Inar, because the poor halfling is having it rough) though the team kept the upper hand for all of this fight. Rance realized the jelly was splitting as Grusk chopped into it so they went into a more careful attack and were able to defeat it.
They examined the door with the sun engraved upon it, and Tom twice tried to pick the lock. Failing both times they noticed the door getting hotter and glowing brighter so decided to leave it alone.
The Beastman Slaughter
They tracked back to the secret door and opened it up to find a surprised young beastman inside. Hoping he hadn't noticed the sound of them scrapping with Brell right outside the door [note: oracle said no] they again let Inar take point and try and befriend them. Through guttural primordial, they make something of a curious peace and the team goes to meet Rogarth, the beastman leader. He praises them for making it past the dragons outside [Doug's note: the beastmen are convinced the outside world is full of dragons hunting them, so do not leave] while also lamenting the terrors of the Scarlet Minotaur.
[I made an oracle check here to see if Rogarth was really going to work with the team and got a 1 which is SoloDark terms means "extreme no". Not only is going to betray them, he is going to do so right now.]
The beastmen have been spreading out for an attack. The plan is to knock the team out and use them to trap the minotaur (it is not a good plan). Tom, noticing the beastmen getting ready to leap [Goblins can't be surprised] gives a shout but the beastmen win initiative and....proceed to have the worst attack rolls I have ever rolled. Rance and Grusk take a couple of minor hits. Rance, still very much ok, casts Sleep and knocks everyone, including the other members of his team, out. He wakes up the other three adventurers who proceed to slaughter the hapless tribe. Gede is a faith of tooth and claw, after all.
While gathering up the bodies and thinking up a plan of what to do with them, the beastmen from the lookout room have snuck in and one downs Rance with a stab to the back. The quick fight goes about as well for these two beastmen as it did before. Rance manages to crawl back up to 1hp and the team go around and spike the doors while gathering up materials from the beastmen layer to make a fire and campout for the second time.
The Minotaur Sleeps (and Dies)!
Doug, here. So...the next encounter starts with a simple question: what time is it? The team has been in the citadel for hours. They have made two camps and done a lot of wandering. I decide to roll a simple "clock" oracle: d12 + d2 for the hour and am/pm. I get 3am. This leads me to ask a simple question: is the minotaur asleep? A 20 shows up on the oracle: exceptional yes.
The team is aware of the minotaur from the beastmen. They have been listening and clearly heard the bullman smash stuff around, punch pillars, shout out taunts, and so forth in the courtyard. But now it is quiet, and Tom is a decent thief. Tom goes out, finds out the minotaur is asleep, and comes up with a plan. The rest take off armor and jangly bits. They creep out, and surround the minotaur and get ready to Murder on the Minos Express him. Here's my ruling: each gets one attack, at advantage. They have to land the attack (minotaur does have armor on, and it's night time even it if it is not pitch black due to moon and starlight). A hit is treated as critical. Tom gets backstab AND critical bonuses. After this, they will be in the thick of it and I was already planning to have them dash back into the secret area and try and use beastman bodies as traps and barriers.
They rolled a combined total of 36hp of damage! They kill the main boss of the dungeon in a single series of blows without there being an actual combat.
This made me think really hard. Was it FAIR? Frankly, yes. One of my main adages of solo roleplaying is treat yourself as if you were a player at your own table. Outside of outright breaking of the rules, what things would you do for another player to make sure they were having a fun time playing their character? The time of day was a fluke. The "is a minotaur asleep" was kind of a fluke baked off the first one but it makes sense that this raging beast must pass out some time. All the rest is how I would play out a combat against a sleeping foe. Actually, that's not true, Normally we would just rule, outside of dragons, that the attack was insta-death. I gave the minotaur a chance.
Remember that: soloplay is about exploring your own fun and finding what sparks joy for you both as the GM-stand-in as well as the player. Knocking out a room full of beastmen with an indiscriminate Sleep spell and killing the main boss who was taking a deep nap are both things I would allow for other players if they gave it a shot and it made sense. I have a feeling that other solo players might have felt it was required to make the fight harder than that. It is not required.
After killing the minotaur, Grusk takes Bloodlust and starts using it. Grusk does notice the crushed skulls on the bull statue and wants to give it a try but the rest of the team deeply outvote him and stop him. They find some treasure and then try out doors. After finding doors back to places they have already been, they set out to the northeast.
They leave the beastman lair as is, more or less. With some doors spiked and the last shut and hidden. That will be their new camping spot as long as they remain in the citadel.
The Darkmantles and Their First Bull Statue
After navigating a few bits of tunnels, they stumble upon 4 chittering darkmantles. Rance sees no need to fight these animals who are just trying to protect their lair so sleeps the lot. The team goes past and ends up finding their first of the bull statue rooms.
Rance gets a deep inkling not to go into the room [Doug Note: DC check INT 15 to note the grooves in the floor and the statue + smashup against the opposing wall]. Tom decides to use his smaller goblin frame to inch against the wall and get close. He crawls up the stature [DC 12 Dex] and notices the Emerald attached to it might be a trigger [DC 18 INT...rolled NAT 20 for both of these]. As the statue operates, Tom clings to the back and starts trying to pry the emerald out. Grusk tries to leap out and help his friend but gets walloped. Tom shouts at the rest to stay back as the statue smashes into wall. Tom holds on and keeps trying to pry the emerald out, eventually getting it out and turning the statue off.
The End of Session 1
Which brings us to the end of session 1. The team are now outside the room with the colored pillars and next time will feature them trying to work that out. They have been battered and bruised multiple times but have managed to think ahead of the curve and keep taking elements out. They still have not found the Diadem of Del Marius (which is behind the sun door) but they do have something of a stronghold. Of course, let's see if the Ettercaps go any better than the beastmen. And let's see if Grusk ends up getting cursed with all this trying to push his luck.
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