The Bleak and The Pearl [SoloDark] Part 16 - Healing Up and Moving Out

A NOTE ABOUT SOME MISTAKES

It is clear I was a bit rusty on running ShadowDark combats after I went back and was checking off the notes. 1) The gnolls were suppose to be doing 1d6 damage, not 1d8. A few of the swingier parts of combat still might have gone pear-shaped but while it is likely that Inar would have been taken out it is very unlikely that Grusk would have also been knocked to 0HP. The gnolls had special spears. 2) There were several "misses" that probably should have been hits. Grusk gets a +8 to hit. He needed a 4+ to land. Inar needed a 8+. Tom needed 7+. I think I head in my head that they needed to roll a 10+ or so. 3) The enraged mechanic probably should have gone on another turn. Maybe not. 4) The gnolls should have had bows so it is likely early combat would have required the team to avoid arrows while breaking in, which also meant that the gnolls would have likely been more split by the first and second floors. All these things would have made for a different fight, one that required a bit more strategy but overall would have involved a stack less damage and scrambling.

The sum total of changes I will make, though, to balance out the fact that the battles was about twice as deadly as it should have been is to give 2 additional treasures and to rule that Tom's excellent roll to reseal the door means the party makes a recovery without the worry of a wandering monster. 

The two additional treasures (for a 1-3 level monster are): a bundle of 5 red dragon scales (5gp each) and a cracked handheld mirror (8gp). I think both of those make sense as stuff that scavengers might have picked up in the debris of an everburning forest. The smaller treasures will be +1XP each. The statue, if retrieved, is +3 (it is a fuelstone prototype). The magic book would be +1XP but somewhat valuable. 

Back to our regularly scheduled comedy of bad rolls and goofy GM errors.

"Tom, it's a fuelstone," Rance remarks while looking at the statue of a strange snake-human hybrid. Rance is going on the assumption that it is some sort of medusa offspring, possibly a local legend (and, alas, has failed to notice the tie into House Mistamere). [1]

The two of them are downstairs where they have been gathering bodies of gnolls, along with their particularly heavy and barbed spears and burying the best they can in the rubble. Both human and goblin are exhausted by this point. Upstairs, Grusk and Inar have been resting as best they can. Food, water, and time have worked magic but Rance has decided to wait until morning. Hence why they are take care of such tasks as honoring the dead and searching the area. 

The fuelstone in reality is a viperian orphid and is an old symbol of House Mistamere. As a fuelstone prototype it would provide definite information for Cal Grunkheart and his Lighthouse Keepers. It is quite heavy even though it is only a third the size of the smallest fuelstone in the Monolith. [2]

The team left a camp with some retainers back a mile or so from the forest to help transport them home, so if they can get it there, Rance wants to keep it. 

From upstairs, Grusk shouts, "Tom, come up here and check out this door!" 

On the second (and currently top) floor of the tower, the general decay is even further along. The sulfur and ash of the forest slowly dissolving the 300-year-old tower back into rubble. Ash and burned out embers cling to the portion of the floor closest to the stairwell up to the long-gone third floor. The gnolls used this area only a little. However, to the west side, a surprisingly sturdy door is half buried by rubble and at a glance seems to be have been unopened (and therefore, unlike the rest of this tower, not thoroughly ransacked by the gnolls). 

Grusk starts heavily moving some of the rubble and after a few minutes of sweat work, breaks through to the door itself. After watching Grusk sweat for that time, Tom goes up and starts working through the lock and manages to get it open despite the rust and decay on the metal. [3]

Downstairs, Inar has drifted over to where Rance is looking at the fuelstone. "Rance, can you feel the difference here, in this valley?" 

"Which difference is that?"

"Like a weight has been lifted off of my back for the first time in years." 

Rance stares over at his old friend [4] but gives the halfling a chance to continue.

"We were being raised as sacrifices. Some of our friends were sacrifices. Then you and Richarade escaped only he...well, anyhow, we met up with Tom and then Grusk and it was nice,  you know. Having a place where people did not want us dead quite so hard. You had your dreams and we came here and I have been mildly panicked ever since. Wondering how many teeth I have. Wondering if my heart was turning blue or some such. [5]

"Only..," Inar trails off. 

"Only we realize now that the Pearl also is changing us. Here we become something different. There we become more and more what we are. Evil cults become more evil. Powerful wizards become more powerful. Things changing into their truer forms which reshapes and warps them all the same."

"Exactly. We grew up becoming more halfling. More human. More orc. The old empire had people from all sorts working together. Over in The Pearl, the human-orc war is on the verge of starting. Halflings have gone to hiding in their various shires. We grew up thinking The Bleak was terrible but at least here people can change."

"Kind of forced to..."

"I know. I have been panicked about it until I woke up this morning, sore from all the fighting, and realized that my connection to Gede is stronger here than it has ever been. Not 'here' as in the Bleak, but here in this valley with the smell of sulfur and ash clogging my nose. I can feel HER right here...," Inar says as he taps his chest. 

"What Cal calls The Light. This valley and this forest was where the Ancients discovered the principle. A balance between the two great engines of Being and Becoming." 

Inar nods. "I think what I am trying to say that we cannot cling like Barnarcles on the edge of two great continents. The empire clearly had problems. But the people who fell from it, they need a chance. If Cal can get The Light solved, build up fuelstones to cover the land, we can fight back, make a new home."

Rance walks over to his friend and pats him on the back. "What are you going on about, I thought this was all settled?"

Inar responds, "I mean I think it is worth us fighting and risking death to give a chance for everyone to feel what I am feeling right now."

Tom comes downstairs carrying a book. "Looks magical, Rance, you should take a look." Tosses it to the Seer. It is indeed a grimoire with a handful of spells remaining legible inside. 

"What else was up there?" 

"Looked to be some sort of study or planning room. Maps and scrolls and books. Nearly all burned and broken. The air is harsh on paper and vellum alike. Doubt this tower will still be standing in another generation or two." 

"About that," says Rance, "Looking at this fuelstone prototype I am thinking that we need to go and get the basecamp and bring them here. Maybe one of them can help shore up the tower. Inar says the Light here is strong enough to be felt and that's significant. This area is safer from The Bleak than even Grunce. What's more, according to Cal's map there was a mine down in this valley where they harvested the original fuelstones. There might be more of that ore down there. We need to start working on getting this valley safe. You know, besides all the burning trees..."

Another day is spent tracking back to the basecamp and moving men and horses into the tower. A few have some knowledge of repairing structures like this one and will get to work on it while the adventurers are heading deeper into the valley to find the workshop. [6]

Descending into the Valley of the Everburning Forest

A couple of miles past the tower to the south, the terrain drops of fairly steeply and goes into the forest proper. The air is more foul, the heat more noticeable, and it is regular to find patches of everburning wood takes off as the primary vegetation. Any plants that are not resistant to fire will eventually catch fire after this point. 

Tracking down the switch backs into the valley requires a DC12 CON roll every half hour. A failure means a rest is required (of another half hour). It takes three such checks on the way down and five on the way up. As the body gets increasingly used to the harsh atmosphere, it becomes easier. One day of exposure drops the check to DC9. A second day drops the check altogether. However, a failed check without the subsequent rest will result in a cumulative -1 penalty to all physical rolls until a full rest is made. Any spells, items, or so forth that provide pure air will avoid the penalty but also prevent the ability to grow more accustomed to the atmosphere. 

At the bottom of these switch backs is the first of the "shrines" built by Jonias.

The four get to the floor of the valley covered in grime and sweat. It took them some time to make it down the path. [7] Looking back up the way they came, it is several hundred feet of rugged forest and rocky terrain. Some trees burn a gentle red flame that does no damage to the plant itself while pools of molten lava catch in a few pockets. Down here, the ground is very warm to the touch but the dragonsilk wrapped around the boots is doing wonders to prevent the heat from seeping too deeply, or too fast. 

Looking at the map that Cal copied from them, Rance tries to predict their next moves. "Looking here, the next general landmark will be one of two shrines Jonias had constructed."

"What were the shrines for?" asks Grusk.

"Unknown. Some of his notes are pretty vague. On a practical side, it marks one end of the valley. Then, tracking along some miles, a full day's travel at least, we will find the twin shrine. Assuming the old road remains in any condition. That's when we head north towards the workshop." 

The sky above is yellow and gray with smoke and steam but there is a definite sense of sunlight somewhere up there, illuminating everything in a strange orange tint. 

"How long do you think it will take us to hit the next shrine?" asks Inar. 

"Hard to say. If this was just a regular valley we could probably be there sometime after dark, pushing it a little. With this air and the chance of rough passage, could take us a couple of days pushing inward." 

Grusk gives some thought. "Ok. We check out this shrine and get a slight rest, then we push on until we need to camp."

The First Shrine

What was the purpose of the Shrine? SoloDark prompts: 65 "Confront" 54 "Spirit" + 08 "Resist" 87 "Help". Taking the second pair in a slightly different path (rather than "resisting help," more "helping to resist"), these shrines are something like buffers at the end of a road Jonias created that builds up a kind of energy loop from one side of the valley to the other. It creates a sort of barrier that both keeps the elemental spirits of the land from escaping but also helps to strengthen the energy inside the valley. 

Each shrine is a place of rest and towering over them are massive fuelstones, larger than the ones in the Monolith by far. Each shrine has one, looking together like a pair of cupped hands: left at the west shrine and right at the east shrine. Sparkles of The Light crackle along the fingers. Neo-Ancient technology, like the type that Jonias built in the Monolith, runs in the shrine even centuries later powered by this energy loop. 

SoloDark, are they able to turned or moved in any way? 1: Critically no. These things are massive and they and the shrine are made out of one huge chunk of fuelstone. How Jonias got it here is unknown.

SoloDark, did Jonias get it here? 10. 71 "Scatter" 14 "Light + 70 "Win" 99 "Shelter". So, yes. Jonias at some point in time (after The Lighthouse by technology levels) was able to harness Ancient technology to perform miracles at a level similar to the ancients. This means something else occurred to stop him from taking The Lighthouse to further extremes. OR that the Lighthouse has untapped potential. Maybe both.

SoloDark, did Jonias plan for this valley to become an extreme haven against the Bleak? 20. Critically yes. Grunce was a temporary stopgap. The Everburning forest was the ultimate goal. Why did it fail? Did it actually fail? Good thing the adventurers are going towards the library, eh? 

== MECHANICAL AND STORY NOTES ==

1. Mr. "I can identify a monster in the middle of battle with a Nat 20" critically failed this check. Off to a great start.
2. Rolled 1d20 to see how many slots it would take to carry: 9. 
3. Rolled a 5 for pieces of rubble, requiring STR15. Took 8 attempts but got two crits along the way. Tom got through the DC18 lock on the first roll (because of course he did). 
4. Something not brought up much since the very beginning of this campaign is that Rance and Inar were both children raised in a offshoot Cult of Shune and had a fairly rough childhood. They escaped and ended up being brought into the Shrine of the Blue Grove and raised alongside Tom and Grusk.
5. For a description of what the impact of prolonged exposure to The Bleak can cause, see Intermission 3: The Effects of Exposure to the Bleak and the Pearl. 
6. SoloDark, "Does anyone in the retainer camp know enough about repairing the tower to make a difference?" 12 --> Yes. 
7. Without being too precise, basically everyone failed at least one check, requiring two additional stops (so around 2.5 hours total, making it now close to midday of their first day into the valley proper). Tom and Rance both a critical success on the last check [which everyone passed], giving back two Luck Points and showing they are getting used to the atmosphere (+3 to their rolls). I made two encounter checks and both came up negative. 

== DOUG'S NOTES ==

Going to end this one on the story note since 1) that will be more interesting than having them in a stone structure full of ash and dust and 2) the next stretch will almost definitely involve an encounter with the Salamanders. This one went a bit harder on exposition than I realized but it is nice to start pulling some threads together. 

When this campaign started the essential plan was to do a series of dungeons generally leading up to some mishmash story stopping some cataclysm once the guys got strong enough. It quickly shifted towards the "cataclysm" being Grunce's Lighthouse failing. It took me something like two months to work out (in play) why that might be. The opposing energy of Being and Becoming will destroy the people whichever they choose. Only by restarting the Ancient's technology to harness that energy is there any chance that people will survive long enough to maybe set sail to other lands and rebuild. 

The loss of Grunce would be a final nail against the last storehouse of knowledge of how to truly fight back. Except now, there is a potential other source. The birthplace of the the fuelstones that channeled new power to the Ancient machinery by harnessing alien technology left behind and fused with their own. The ability to create a Light which sustains instead of burns out the balance of energy around it. 

== CREDITS ==

This campaign is played primarily using Shadowdark and SoloDark, both by Arcane Library and Kelsey Dionne (et al).

Additional sources include a variety of things for tables, especially Knave 2nd Edition and Maze Rats (both by Ben Milton), Random Realities by Cezar Capacle, Universal NPC Emulator by Zach Best, and various pieces from Worlds without Number and Scarlet Heroes (both by Kevin Crawford).

The illustrations are created by me using GIMP and Hex Kit (featuring the Lil Hex Pack and Strange BW Hex Pack). The sources of the images I edit to make the "two color" splashes range from personal photographs to Pixabay Stock Art to a few old pieces generated by ChatGPT/Dall-E (though I am planning to generate no new AI content for this blog due to a lot of reasons).