SoloDark: Pelor's Quest ep69

-/-- 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.

https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm John from Tale of the Manticore. Robin from Stories from the First Watch.

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PJ from A Wasteland Story in the Solo Roleplayers Podcast.

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Simon from Legend of the Bones.

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Brian Rideau from Swords Against Madness.

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Carl from The Lone Adventurer. And I'm Trevor from Your Story Will Be Different. And with our solo role-playing audio, narrative, actual play, drama powers combined, we are the Solo Roleplayers Podcast Network.

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SPEAKER_02 0:59

See you there. Now, the somber hills. You've crossed wild country before. You fought things most folk wouldn't believe. But the Sumbers and Winter, that's a different kind of trial. Trails vanish, landmarks shift. A clear sky can turn to a white wall in the time it takes to draw breath. You've all done well, more than well. Red Larch is safe because of yours. But this ride is as the hardest thing you've faced yet. The world itself, cold and uncaring. Stay close, listen when I speak, and trust that I'll get you to Beliard in one piece. After that, well tell us what comes next. Mound up, the sombers ain't waiting.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

Welcome back to season two of Palo's Quest, a solo dark adventure. 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 protagons 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 Rolli. Otherwise, having said that, let's get on with this show. As we move to the next morning, we take stock of the mounts the party and Garrick will be traveling with. The party has six ponies. Each of those ponies can carry twelve Shadow Dark slots, aside from a rider. Garrick has access to three Hardy mounts. I would rate them as horses, suitable for crossing the Sumbers in winter. He makes it clear to the party that he will be mostly afoot, and that two of the horses are there mostly as pack mounts. But he takes a cue from the party's own wisdom in keeping all of the mounts saddled with spare saddle, and he makes sure that he has two saddles, one on his main mount and one on his switchover mount.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Welcome, Zaki. You have come to make offering.

SPEAKER_04 4:10

Yes, Holy Mother. Things went well at the dungeon, but they could have gone better.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

The shrine is as ever open. Perhaps last night would have been better, but the dawn also offers a new fortune.

SPEAKER_04 4:37

Sakeb is ready with his coin offering. It's early. The others have hardly stirred. During the night, he felt a spark urging him to head out to Taimora's shrine in the Temple of All Faiths. But it was cold and he was pretty snug. Now he lays the five gold coin down. And a roll in Nat 20, Taimora accepts the offering, the coins vanished. And in meta terms, Sakeb will not only have advantage for his next prayer, he gains a luck token to begin the journey. Sakib is secretly delighted. It seems that his decision has paid off. My thanks, Holy Mother. I would say that Taimur has smiled upon me. Wish me luck. We're heading into the Sumbers, bound for Belayad. But please don't pass that on. That's between me and you and Tamura. Alright? Of course. She smiles.

SPEAKER_03 6:00

Your affairs are your own. Smiling towards you.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

And as Sakib returns to the inn and heads around to the stables to check whether the others are up, and if they're up, whether or not they are gearing up the ponies, we'll do a little bit of accounting. The party is refilled, if you like, with arrows, food, drink that can be heated over a campfire, and all other supplies. In terms of usage die, they're a D20 with everything. They carry their cash. There's no point leaving it behind at the inn. They may need it to negotiate with brigands, trolls, or even a dragon on the way through the hills. And Meliad is a town of sorts, and so they may need to purchase extra gear there. Even as Sakib prides himself on getting out of bed early enough to get to the temple before his comrades are stirring. Garek and Thiessa leave each other's embrace and prepare the journey. There is food, preservatives, and extra clothing and supplies of that type to be ready. A considerable amount of time later. And very reluctantly, and not without a let's just snuggle back again and make a morning stand, also leave their private chamber. The only thing that really gets them out of the chamber is the arrival of the boots, Perry, read about the ears, and obviously knowing he's interrupting. But he's been bribed by Lucinda, who has lost patience waiting. And he bursts in bearing two mugs of hot drink. They have no choice but to get dressed and scramble out. Ah, here they are now. Licinda says, pretending innocence, as the pair arrive, last of all, at the stables.

SPEAKER_02 8:51

Now we're all here, Garrett grumbles. A reminder our course is the large path. Northeast. We'll ride small and quiet so the hills don't notice us. Let's be about it.

SPEAKER_04 9:17

It is winter, and the weather as they head towards the summers is pretty adequate. Not optimal, but certainly not the blizzard that they had to contend with at other times. Those of the inn staff that know of their business, file out to wish them well on their way out of Red Larch. As we are once again in Shadow Dark travel mode, I'll be making a D6 encounter check each eighth of the day, with one being a negative encounter and a six being a positive encounter. Most of them hard and fellow across a small creek which trains north to the south and outside the common land into the wild. The road is most supplied by quarriers, but at this season they expect to meet no one, and no one is whom they meet as I roll a three for the first watch. The second watch takes them in to the low hills of the Sumbers. As they hit the line of the hills, Garrick has a seasoned word for them.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Keep your hoods tight. The wind off these ridges cuts sideways knocked down. You'll feel it in the teeth first.

SPEAKER_04 11:16

And as he promised, as the trail begins winding and becomes snow covered, Garrick dismounts and begins scouting rather than leading at a fairly rapid pace. Behind him, the half dozen ponies are feeling their oats, literally, and move briskly along, enjoying the weather to date. Garrick's three mounts are also in fine fettle. Here's the next encounter check. No encounter. In what passes for a pleasant nook formed by a fold back in the trail, Garrick calls a halt for breakfast. They have a chance to enjoy the flasks of drink and chew some rations. Garrick points to a dark line visible not far away.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Step there and you'll be waist deep before you know it.

SPEAKER_04 12:35

This is not really news to Drum in particular, but useful information to Natalie and Lucinda, who hadn't spent quite such a amount of time in high passes as Drum's training had afforded him. Before he sets off again, Garrett continues.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Look at the rocks beneath it. Oh, and if the wind dies all at once, brace yourselves. It means something big is blocking it. What has favored us so far? We might be able to make camp in an old quarry. The most of the year there's a lake. Still, be careful.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

Here's the third watch encounter check. It's a one. That's an encounter. One of the most useful functions I've found co-pilot to have is quickly building encounter tables for particular areas. You can argue with co-pilot as long as you're clearly able to frame what you're asking for, switch out individual encounter types and adjust it quite easily. It's like having a friend who's co-writing an adventure with you. A friend who tends to agree with everything you say and also be very, very bad at math. What I've done for the Sumbers in winter is explain to Copilot where I think the geography lies if it were the modern world. And Copilot has picked up the Bear Tooth range as being equivalent. And by using that, it's possible for me to go back to real weather charts if I want to for the time of year. And it's possible for Copilot to create reasonably simulationist encounter checks such as snow squalls and frozen ice. In this particular case, however, the encounter roll suits April 2026's Fae theme. As the five riders proceed across the winding trail, a cloud of brilliant white motes floats up. At first, none of the riders realizes its significance.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Then Garrick yells, Ride like the devil is behind you. These are Faye. They'll drain your life. Ride on fast.

SPEAKER_04 15:53

He runs back, grabbing spear bridles and running as fast as the ponies can travel. Here are advantage ride checks. All four are successful, although it has to be said Natalie only scrapes through. However, I would rate her DC twelve ride check adequate. I'm not going to penalize her any more than that. The moats, which, as Garrick has informed them, are Faye, drain hit points from both riders and ridden mounts. But thanks to the successful riding checks, they are left behind. As they rein their mounts in to a more sedate trot, Sakib realizes that he should have given some thought as to what kind of spell would have protected him. Very likely protection from evil would have done the job. But he was too busy holding on to the reins and making sure that the spare ponies were safe to be thinking about any spellings. He mentally kicks himself. He is, after all, the shield of the party, and he can't rely on Garrick throughout his entire career. This is just one journey.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

That's got us a little closer to our night's rest. A little earlier than I expected.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Garrick rumbles as he checks over the mounts to see if any gear has come loose.

SPEAKER_02 17:49

And then see that stone marker. The old quarry is not far away.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

A blessing in disguise then, Drum says, trying to ease the tension.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

That's true, young drum. These ridges cut the sun off even earlier than in Red Larch. A few more minutes.

SPEAKER_04 18:21

So saying, Garrick begins leading the way again, no longer leading a bridle ram. Within minutes though, Garrick pauses and turns back. He points to tracks that Drum too has seen.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Oh, tracks moving fast. Something spooked them. Keep your guard up.

SPEAKER_04 18:52

And then, as the first white grey shapes slip between ridge lines and through ravines, to begin surrounding the party, he adds.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Let's try to get our backs to a ravine wall.

SPEAKER_04 19:19

Now thank you so much for listening. Ratings and reviews are much appreciated. For those keen to find out like-minded creators, check out solo role playersnetwork.com. It's a treasure trove of solo roleplay stuff. For those keen to get in touch with me, you can contact me through soloplayersnetwork.com or at Larryman Plays on Mastodon. Or you can email me direct at LarrymanPlays at gmail.com. That's Larry with two Rs and Man with two N's. Larryman Plays all one word at gmail dot com. Thanks again and catch you later.