The Bleak and The Pearl (SoloDark): Part 4, The Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur Delve 2

 

This week's dive into The Bleak & The Pearl starts out with our four Blue Grove Boys facing a room with four sets of pillars, each in a vibrant hue, and a burned-to-a-crisp ettercap! As last time, I'll focus more on a highlight recap rather going into super specific, step-by-step decisions. I will also talk about how I changed up some things (especially towards the end) to make the vibe more B&P specific. If you ran this yourself, some details will clash with what you see. 

- The Four Pillars and the Six Bowls - 

The upper right (most north-east on the map) room is our starting spot this time. In it are four pairs of pillars: red, blue, green, and purple. Unbeknownst to our boys, each one has a negative effect [fire, drowning, etc]. They do have the burned corpse of an ettercap in front of them (which they may not even really recognize as a specific ancestry as opposed to just "burned out humanoid body"). And then a long, relatively empty room in a place where long empty rooms have things like The Scarlet Minotaurs and bull statues ready to pounce. 

DC15 check passes and Rance is sure there is *some* magic here but cannot really place it. Tom gets a success in to check for traps roll (there is no traditional trap, which he notes). So...the team gets into a bit of a debate about checking this room out further. After a couple of quick debates, Grusk decides he is going to risk it and starts walking past the first set of pillars, which the game says will set flammable stuff you are carrying on fire...

A quick note about my "Vote Dice" mechanic

Part of the way I run this game is to use a kind of vote-dice style oracle. The basic way is to choose a die (from the traditional pool) to represent each character's general willingness: d4 means they do not want to do it while d10 means they want to do it a lot. 1-3 is a no. 4+ is a yes. A 1 means a hard no (that dice is frozen if it goes into follow up decisions about this topic) while a 6+ tends to be a hard yes (ditto). The default die is a d6. d10s are basically only used when someone is absolutely sure (and that someone, in this campaign, is almost always Grusk). The intended swing is d4, d6, and d8. 

A lot of the crawling and how they approach certain rooms is based on a series of these with a bit of a back and forth. The general "triggers" for each character are:

• Grusk (Half-Orc Fighter) likes physical challenges, tests of might, and generally like be aggressive and pushing his limits. He does not like letting people go and will chase down people who start fights and then flee. He is not necessarily prone to starting fights but is absolutely ok with keeping them going. All that being said, he is very practically minded about the team and tries to shield the other people as best he can through brute force.
• Inar (Halfling Priest of Gede) likes playfulness, pranks, and general silliness. Prone to talk and ramble first and deal with the considerations going forward. Does not like risks. Takes the shortest possible path to get things done but concedes the shortest path is sometimes taking a long way around an obvious threat. Will always try to charm people (his CHA of 14 is the highest in the team by several points). Kind of a terrible priest in a lot of ways but a decent friend.
• Tom (Goblin Thief) feels compelled to help others. Likes challenging his own prowess. Sometimes goes for the longer way around if he thinks it will be more fun. Has no qualms about taking risks if it seems interesting. Likes taking charge when it comes to certain puzzles and traps. Will absolutely risk his neck to try and save people, especially people in captivity, but will not always stick around if the people refuse to help themselves. He thinks things should be fair. 
• Rance (Human Wizard) is the most cowardly of the group, but also the most dedicated to the cause. The others are generally following his lead. He tends to go slowly, think things through. Is really good at sensing the bad-stuff about to happen (in his defense, the bad stuff usually happens to him). Once the goal is in sight, will nearly never diverge from the course. Almost always at the back of the group but also shouting lots of information and ideas. 

When first started the campaign, I used dice to see if they would chase down an escaping cultist, if they would try and stop and save prisoners, if they would try and explore a side area. The above descriptions are basically making sense of those first couple of sessions worth of dice rolls. As it keeps going, it helps me to decide the set up for future dice rolls. After a few more sessions, it will likely be obvious for a lot of actions which character would do what. I'll still use the dice to decide which path down tunnels they take.

Oh, if there is no consensus after 2-3 rolls, then I just default to the above. Grusk might push his luck with Tom backing him up while Inar hangs back, laughing, and prepping the healing magic and Rance is lecturing everyone about being foolish. 

Back to...

- The Four Pillars and the Six Bowls (part 2) - 

[Doug's Note: At this point, I make an oracle roll: "Do rations burn?" I know his torches will catch fire. Most of his other stuff is made of metal, though. The only one I was not sure about was...rations. They are a kind of fuzzy concept in Shadowdark. And I got a 10: a twist. Now what in the hell would this twist be? I thought about maybe salt somehow negating the pillars. I though about maybe something in there catches fire earlier and acts as a warning. I went to the SoloDark oracle and got 69,62: "Flee Pain". Here's how I run with it: Grusk can see the body of the ettercap. He can feel the hairs on his arms start to heat up as starts to cross the pillars. He can even hear some of the food in his pack start to sizzle and suddenly he thinks, "Why burn good food?" and turns around. Because like the others, Grusk has this sort of non-specific connection to destiny that is driving the campaign forward but in his case, Grusk mostly hears it as a kind of hunger. He might be willing risk the quest to prove he is not scared but he is not willing to waste food in the meantime.] 

He takes a torch (starting to be a fairly precious resource after this much continuous delving) and tosses it past the pillars and watches it burn it. Then they leave with Rance chiding the entire crew about not listening. 

After this, the team makes their way into a room with a six bowls on six black plinths and basically just go: "Nah". Tom pokes one. Everyone braces. Nothing happens. They are ready to keep going.

- The Beastmen and the Bugs in the Bathhouse - 

[Doug's Note: Here comes a fun coincidence. Right as I enter into the bath house (rough center of the east portion of the map) I get a wandering monster roll for 2d4 Beastmen arguing over centipedes to eat. Now, in the room, there's a mechanic that if you unplug the basins that scarabs might come out. I rule that the beastmen aren't arguing over centipedes, they are actually "farming" the scarabs. This is a task they are not great at: there are half devoured and desiccated beastmen corpses in the room. As the team enters, though, they witness the argument where a leader type is lecturing the others for not holding the sack correctly while taunting scarabs to come out and then I played out a combat sequence with the beastmen, five in total, bashing the scarabs.]

The team is in a bath house with six basins and a large statue of a snakewoman up on a raised dais. As they enter though, they see a group of arguing beastmen coordinating...something. They hold back as the beastmen thump on one of the basins and then yank back a drain plug and admit a stream of angry scarab bugs into the room. The beastmen start walloping the scarabs and clearly have an upper hand...this time. 

After the beastmen down the scarabs and start scooping them up into the sack the leader turns and sees the team standing there in the door way and screams that these folks are here to steal the food. A fight breaks out that goes...ok. Grusk takes a few hard hits. Doug learns that Magic Missile is always cast at advantage (neat!). Healing spells get used. Eventually the beastmen are downed and the team search the room. Tom can clearly hear the scarabs in the pipes and absolutely ignores pulling at any more plugs. But the snakewoman statue intrigues him. He does not find any traps related to it so he pulls on it and barely dodges get scorched by scalding hot spa water. He lets it run for a few minutes and notes the water is clear. It smells of sulphur and old iron pipes but it it is safe to consume. It might be worth noting if the team is stuck here for another day. 

- The First of the Marius Dead and the Key - 

[Doug's Note: Here is my little retcon at this point. Since this is not merely a random dungeon but one related to the meta-quest of this campaign, I decide that the red armor of the skeleton of this room is actually a known "signature" of House Marius. I go back to that door with the sun symbol and decide that the door's symbol is a sun either setting or rising over a body of water: the sigil of Mad Del Marius. However, while asking if this corpse might be the actual Del Marius I do an oracle roll at disadvantage and get a second twist. This time the oracle comes back 100, 45: release ambush. Rather than a fight with some random enemies I rule there is a psychic backlash as you approach the corpse and the robes. This is why none of the various factions in the citadel have ever just snatched the spear or the clothing.]

The team comes to a room largely empty except for a skeleton pinned to the wall by a spear with four ceremonial robes on the wall nearby. This skeleton of a soldier or person clearly marked as of House Marius. However, as they approach the body (and the robes beside it), a wave of psychic energy washes over them. Grusk and Rance manage to make their DC15 saving throughs but Tom and Inar go down. All four are assaulted by images of the spreading Darkness and the symbol of the sun trying to burn through. 

After a couple of rounds, the unconscious pair wake back up and the team tries, again, to search the area and find the the key marked with the same sun-over-water symbol as before. At this point they debate (see "Vote Dice" above) and clearly decide to fast track back towards the door. 

- The Return to the Sun Door and Face to Face with Del Marius - 

This part was mostly bookkeeping with the exception of the darkmantles the team had put to sleep before. This time around the 'mantles are more amiable but Rance's attempt at a second sleep spell fails. Instead, the team tries to just gently walk past the beasts. However, the 'mantles eventually become agitated by Rance's twitchiness and attack. 

Darkness takes out Rance's lantern and the first round goes a bit south with lots of whiffs while Rance struggles to get the lantern relit. Once they have light, the team manages to kill a couple of 'mantles and the others flee off down the hall. 

After this, the team finishes the somewhat long loop back to the door and try the key. Seeing another of these ceremonial skeletons, this time sitting in a throne, they go very slowly. Grusk and Tom offer to approach and once more Grusk overcomes the psychic blast while Tom once more crashes to the floor (this time for 5 rounds). 

This is no mere corpse. This is Mad Del Marius himself. Sitting on the house throne, wearing the Marius Diadem, and holding one of the family's legacy weapons (+1, prevents surprise). This is the answer to the decline of House Marius: Del and at least one other member [head canon, I'm going to say his youngest son] sacrificed themselves to become a barrier to power and protect the diadem. Over time, the citadel became overran with beastmen and ettercaps and the careful balance gave way. 

Grusk takes the spear in the skeleton's hands and brings it with him. He wants to use it to try and show the remaining House Marius members what went down. The Lighthouse needs allies and this might be a rallying cry. 

While this is going on, Rance investigates the pillars in the room and realizes that they depict the lighthouse and the five fuelstones. They knew there was an "eye" related to House Grunkheart, a mask from House Bittermold, a mantle from House Harucam, and this diadem. Now they know that House Mistamere's focus object was a lens. Rance makes note of the missing portions and the team decides it is time to go home. [Doug's Note: people might have spotted a couple of clues in the names, above]. 

- Wrapping Up and in Praise of Kelsey - 

That basically wraps up this adventure. There were a few wandering monster checks (nothing happened) and some rolls to sell of gear and such. All four hit level 3 at the end so there was a bit of bookkeeping to pick new spells (Inar got Bless, Rance got Acid Arrow) and some new talents (Grusk is better at wearing Plate Mail, Tom is better at landing attacks). 

The next delve will be the tunnels under Grunce and the returning of the diadem. Before that will be a short "civilization vignette" to figure out how Marius reacts, to see how the power struggles in town are going, and so forth. 

It is funny to look at the map and realize the team missed around half the dungeon. Maybe more. The only ettercap they met was the one dead one. They had no run ins with the undead. All that being said, hats off to Kelsey Dionne for this adventure. There is a lot to digest here but a lot of the rooms have something worth doing. Stuff like figuring out the pillars or finding out about what to do with the the bowls is the right amount of game-y, I think. I cannot imagine running this anything less than 8-10 hours, but it should be a good time (maybe not the labyrinth, but most of the rest has *something* to do).