SoloDark: Pelor's Quest ep63

--/-- Welcome to SoloBickering! It's a solo rpg, which means I roll dice generate a story and decide outcomes, and lose arguments with myself as I portray the exploits of my adventurers. 

--/-- Join me on a journey into the game world I play face to face in, and it may sound vaguely familiar to you. Like many another DM I stitch my world together from any bits and pieces I fancy, adding them into a standard setting, Faerun's Sword Coast.  

--/-- AI and NSFW: For this possibly brief adventure the stars are young and moderately hot, and I'll be using CoPilot AI to buff my romance bar, because I'm useless at romance, and for side situations that need social interactions. Some of the situations the young protagonists find themselves in may turn out to be NSFW. I won't be deliberately aiming for that, but oracles are what they are. So if on either account you take an ethical stand against those, skip this episode and listen in to Rollohi, my other SoloBickering output. 

--/-- And having said that, let's get the game started. 

 --/--Music from Pixabay with thanks to: daynightmorning, Good_B-Music, JefWakeUp, LudoSoundX, makesoundmusic, Playsound, teodholina, and White_Records

--/--Selected tracks from "Ancient Realms" by Joel Steudler Music.

--/--The adventure *the Lurker Beneath Red Larch* by MT Black: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/184581/the-lurker-beneath-red-larch-adventure
--/--MT Black's 5e Vol i collection: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/198501/complete-adventures-of-m-t-black-vol-i

https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Two days. Yes, that is reasonable. The breach will not widen in that time. And now that I have the scroll, I can't really afford to linger here myself. Every hour I delay is an hour the valley loses. But two days? Two days is the time I would have spent traveling with the survivors. I can give you that. If you strike at the threat beneath the red light and return in two days, I'll be ready waiting for you, gladly. But no more than that. After two days, I will ride to Beliard with you or without you.

Speaker 1 0:45

Join me on a journey into the game world I play face-to-face in. Like many another DM, I stitch my world together from any bits and pieces I fancy, adding them into a standard setting, Faerun's Sword Coast. For this venture, the stars are young and moderately hot, and I'll be using Copilot AI here and there to buff my romance bar because I'm useless at romance, and for side situations that don't really need tools. Some of the situations the young protags find themselves in may turn out to be NSFW. And if you're uncomfortable on either of those two scores, skip this and head over to the world of Rollohi. Otherwise, having said that, let's get on with this show.

Recap

Speaker 1 1:49

And it ended when all four of them were ready and able to spring into action. And I felt a little guilty about that because I felt that one good round of damage would finish the mouther. But sometimes that's not the best way to finish an episode. So I left the party hanging, and we're going to pick up with those actions.

Action

Speaker 1 2:22

Not today, Monster! Saqib hisses as he fends off the last series of latch attack and prepares to bring Goblin Grief into action. But even before he does, Drum drops his longbow, draws Shatter spike, and leaps forward, splitting a cluster of gibbering mouths with a single slice. He rolls a 17 to hit, which is well over 20 all toll, and a 4 plus 1 damage, 5 total. Saqib's attack is a 13 plus 5 is 18, and he rolls a total of 6 damage with his plus 1 longsword, Goblin Grief. But that's not all. Behind them, Nat, a little frustrated with the inability to see what her arrows are doing, hurls a blade. She's at plus two to hit. She rolls a 14 for a total of 16, and her d4 is a three damage. The blade sinks into a cluster of mouths, pinning them sharp. Locinda drops into a low stance, runs forward across the puddle, and attacks with both torch and short sword. A terribly risky move, but her blood is up. The short sword's attack is a total of 13 and a plus one, with Locinda's bonus to damage as well. That's a total of five damage. And the torch. She rolled a 12 for 3. The short sword cleaves through a massive eyes. The torch stears a patch of bubbling flesh. The total damage this one round is more than the mouther began with. It is obliterated. Shatterspike opens it, Goblin Grief carves it, Locinda's torch sears it, Natalie's blade pins it. The creature convulses, its mass bubbling and collapsing inward. Mouths scream, then melt. Eyes burst like blisters, the floor stops rolling. The walls stop flexing. The entire chamber exhales. A long, wet, shuddering sigh. And the mouther collapses into a puddle of inert grey sludge. Finally, the whispers have stopped. And they begin to feel that the stone has become stone again. I'm going to rule that the area abandoned by the Mouther is still unstable. But it may be the site that the Tymora priestess hinted to Nat would produce a treasure to help her beloved. Let's ask the Oracle. I roll, yes but, 13 on the Oracle, so instead, it's probably some remnant of the original party's thief. Or perhaps it's not as amazing as Nat was hoping. Let's make a Shadow Dark Treasure Roll on the 0-3 power range. 39. Hmm. Pair of Elf-forged short swords. Maybe instead I'll use one of the final loot list MT Black set at the end. Let's have a look. A hat of disguise. That may be more likely for a level 1 thief. It's a question of likelihood and balance, I think. Nat is underpowered. Twin short swords of Elven make might help power her up as she hits level 6 soon. But on the other hand, Shadow Dark is not really two weapon use friendly. Locinda being an honorable exception, I have to say. The Hat of Disguise is perfect for a thief. A low-level thief, though. And it also really suits Nat's personality and toolkit. And if we think that Tymora may have a sense of humor, perhaps that's what the priestess was thinking of. I'm going to go with the Hat of Disguise.

Looting

Speaker 1 6:44

The chamber is quiet now, but not still beneath Saqib's boots twitches once, like a dying muscle. Then slackens. The air is thick with a smell of brine and old blood.

Speaker 1 7:08

Locinda is now on her 3rd torch. She plants that in a crack in the wall, letting its light spill across the warped stone. The shadows stretch in odd directions, as if reluctant to return to their proper places. Shatterspike seems to be more visible than it would normally be in the outside world. Drum senses a sentience in the blade, as though it is aware.

Speaker 2 7:52

Spread out, he murmurs, careful where you step.

Speaker 1 7:52

As they move deeper into the warped zone, the stone underfoot still feels very wrong. Nat keeps close to Locinda, her eyes darting at every ripple of shadow. Saqib kneels near a patch of stone that looks sunken as though something heavy once lay there for a long time. He brushes aside a thin layer of grey residue. Beneath it is a faint outline, the shape of a body curled in on itself.

Speaker 5 8:26

Someone died here, Saqib says quietly, before we arrived.

Speaker 2 8:32

No bones, Drum grumps.

Speaker 5 8:34

Creature consume them, Saqib replies, but not everything.

Speaker 1 8:42

Illumined in the glim torchlight is fabric. Nat spots it first. There! She darts forward, brushing away the grey sludge. What emerges is a small, elegant hat of soft, dark felt, untouched by decay. It looks almost mundane, except for the faint shimmer that dances across its surface when the torchlight hits it just right. Some sort of glamour.

Speaker 1 9:11

A relic of illusion magic, Saqib guesses. I think that might have belonged to the thief. And the hat shifts in her hands subtly, as though it's trying to match her style. She thinks back to the words of the Tymora priestess. Not the treasure she expected, but perhaps the treasure she needs.

Speaker 4 9:41

I think this was meant for me.

Speaker 1 9:46

And Tymora somewhere flips a coin.

Exploration

Speaker 1 9:49

The torch hasn't given much help as to what might lie beyond the aberrant ground. Locinda gets an uneasy feeling as she plays the torch beyond that now slowly recomposing ground, and then raises it higher to see if she can get a different angle. Is that a Y junction? It's very hard to say. The walls don't seem to be quite solid. Drum ventures slightly west, and Shatterspike clatters into solid wall. He focuses his senses. And as I roll a four, feels quite confused.

Speaker 2 10:45

Okay, I'm not sure what's going on, but that's not a way west. That's a solid wall. Or at least Shatterspike's telling me a solid wall.

Speaker 5 10:55

What do you mean by telling you?

Speaker 2 10:57

I'm getting a feeling that the sword knows something. Maybe uh it's feeling a pull from beyond into its uh other plane, as the ranger was saying.

Speaker 1 11:12

Saqib also makes a wisdom check, and he too feels confused. Let's see how Locinda's feeling. Equally confused. Nat with her hands on the hat is the only one who makes a good WIS save, and her advice is practical.

Speaker 3 11:31

Things are still settling down. Remember, Drum? When we killed that... well, when we helped the curse breakers kill that monster tree, things were still going on, and it wasn't for half a day that you could feel the land again. I think we should pull back for now. And remember, we were saying that we'd have a go at that broken ground to the north if we got the chance. Let's... let's pull back north.

Back-exploration

Speaker 3 12:06 Speaker 1 12:07

This is such good advice that reluctant as they are to simply abandon the exploration at this stage, given that they don't know how extensive these tunnels are, the other three do follow Nat's advice. Locinda guides the party back to the north through the slightly treacherous maze of the puffballs to the edge of the area, broken up by the Ankheg's eruption. I roll that there is an encounter here, but given that they have beaten the mature Ankhegs, this must be an immature ankheg. As the party gains a good view of that broken ground, Drum pauses. Hold. A faint scratching sound comes from beneath the loose soil. Soft, irregular, like something small trying to dig its way up. The ground bulges. A terrier-sized bug-like creature, alike to those monsters that were defeated at such effort, bursts through the dirt with a wet chirp. Mandibles clicking experimentally. Its carapace is pale and soft, still forming. Its strange alien eyes reflect the torch light, and it seems confused. Locinda raises her blade. Saqib lifts a cautionary hand. It's just a hatchling. The creature chitters, takes a hesitant step toward the warmth of the torch, and then recoils as Drum taps the ground with his boot. It spits a tiny bead of acid, that sizzles harmlessly on a rock. Cute in a horrible way, Nat snorts. The hatchling, overwhelmed by light and noise, burrows back into earth with a frightened squeal, vanishing into a shallow tunnel. The party breathes a collective sigh of relief. And then they look at one another. The real thought hits them. Where there's a hatchling, there are eggs. Drum watches the spot for a long moment, bow half-raised, and then lowers it slowly.

Speaker 2 14:48

That wasn't a wanderer. That was a nestling.

Speaker 1 14:55

Locinda squats and lets the torchlight spill across the churned earth, getting different angles. Eggs are... worth a fortune, Natalie muses. Sakeb nods, though his expression is cautious. And dangerous, he cautions.

Speaker 2 15:16

The adults we killed were feeding here. The nest can't be far down.

Speaker 3 15:20

We've got time, Locinda muses. Not hours, but time.

Speaker 4 15:27

And we're not leaving money in the ground? Nat grins.

Speaker 4 15:32

Saqib sighs, but he's already thinking through the practicalities.

Speaker 5 15:38

Very well, but you mentioned that we could have time to pull out. I think... I think we'll... I think we'll go back to the stables and get our gear. After all, he chuckles, we paid a lot of money for that shovel and pick.

Speaker 1 16:00

Once again using the edges of that anchor area, they cautiously navigate back through the throat and to their original assembly area. Then it's just a matter of climbing up the iron spike rungs and brushing any remaining dirt off quickly so that they don't look too much like escaped villains and heading out back to the stables.

Socialising

Speaker 1 16:34

Here's a town-based encounter check: I get a six, a positive encounter. A little boringly, it's simply Owaine who has now realized where they've gone and just wants to know a lot of detail about their adventures down there.

Speaker 4 16:50

Let's make a trade, Nat suggests pleasantly. Where would we go to sell some valuable eggs of a monster that we fought down in the dungeon?

Speaker 6 17:04

By an odd coincidence, I know a great deal more about Red Larch than you do, young lady. I would say you could try at the same wagon yard you dropped the caravan wagons off to, but there is another place. Because the best purchases of items found in dungeons are often nobles, although as with pretensions to mount the steps to nobility. The bathhouse is strangely enough the best clearing house for gossip and beating and connecting. I tell you what, I'd be willing to work on commission.

Speaker 1 17:58

It takes a fair bit of to and fro to elicit from Owaine exactly what he has in mind and how that would work. But by the time they get to the stables, Owaine's role is established as someone who will attempt to sell the eggs extracted from the ground on commission, using his contact at the bathhouse for information as to who specifically might offer the best price. This will give them a potentially much better deal than just selling it off to the lawn safe journeys, the wagon yard. And my apologies for not role-playing all of that out. I don't see any great merit in listening to the Bard explain all of this in many more words than I have done so. And so as the four adventurers and Owaine turn into the stable yard to fetch their tools, we will leave them there and continue next episode with them attempting to safely dig out a number of ankheg eggs.