SoloDark: Pelor's Quest ep72

-/-- 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 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. 

https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 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 Rideout 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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Usually accustomed to delving the depths, scouring the desert, surviving the wasteland, or facing the dragon alone.

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This time, we have teamed up to bring you a created collection of the best, highest quality, most dramatic, and diceyest solo roleplay podcasts in the world.

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There are dozens of us. So if you're looking for your next solo roleplaying adventure, roll over to solo roleplayersnetwork.com, sample, and subscribe to something that takes your fancy.

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And discover your new favorite solo roleplaying podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

See you there. Now, the somber hills. You crossed wild country before. But the sombers in 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 Large is safe because of yours. But this ride, this is the hardest thing you're faced yet. The world itself. Listen when I speak. Trust that I'll get you to the liar in one piece. After that, well, Abaron will tell us what comes next. Mound up. The sombers ain't waiting.

SPEAKER_04 2:09

Welcome back to season two of Paylor'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 Rollohy. Otherwise, having said that, let's get on with this show. She is hungry. So very hungry. This is the season to feed. Last episode was very much a case of uninvited host as opposed to uninvited guest. The party of five travelers, plus their nine mounts, entered the abandoned mine at the old quarry northeast of Red Larch. But not strictly abandoned. Two teenagers, one a slightly older lad named Sal, and one, a girl of about Nat's age, named Winnie, are sheltering here, having lost all of their belongings. Exactly how and why they came here, the party has yet to learn. Because, under the threat of winter wolves, they are making preparations while seeking to take care of a fever-ridden winnie and keeping a weather eye on a rather untrustworthy seeming cell. Let's pick up with Drum and his ranger mentor, Garrick. Drum can see that Garrick is well prepared to set up makeshift traps. The old ranger is careful not to create such deadfalls that the mine will collapse. There are more warning rock cairns, ready to topple and triggered with piggin strings and old sheets of leather. The aim is, no matter how carefully any intruder steps, something will be knocked over. To represent this, we make an advantage survival check for Garrick. The best role is a 15, so with Garrick's wisdom bonus that's a DC 18 superior to success. Garrick works fast and comfortably aware that for a winter wolf, the distance between the entrance and the cavern where the campfire has been made is a very short distance indeed. Two torches are being used, but as they have to be jammed into the ancient timbers of the mine added, they are not providing an enormous amount of light. The worst of those is a ten. Drum gets a plus one for his ranger abilities and plus three for dexterity. So it's a hit. Here's the damage. Very nice. To decide which wolf it was crept close to the light, I'm going to roll a d10, assigning one to four for the lightly wounded wolf, five or six for the heavily wounded wolf, seven, eight, nine for the alpha, and only a ten for the pack pitch, whose survival is most crucial. It is the lightly wounded wolf as a roll of four. From being lightly wounded, he drops to being heavily wounded. Not limping away condition like his pack mate, but not in great shape. Move it, Drum, back to the campfire. Garrick roars, grabbing up his bow and a torch and sprinting. The urgency in Garrick's behavior clearly communicates itself to Trump and the two rush back. Initiative. As the two rangers rush to the campfire, they find all four of their companions, plus the injured girl, right there. All staring up in alarm at their sudden reappearance. I think we've bought some time. Oh it's a good shot, lad. Garrett congratulates. And the two, nevertheless, keep their bows ready. Arrows level at the entrance. Can you look around for hoops in the mine? Not a great time, eh? Okay. Uh Lucinda. Better get your bow.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Alright. If they come in, I can list them from that side entrance. I'll just take up position over there, right, Greg?

SPEAKER_00 8:41

Alright. No need to put yourself in the line of cold breath. I'll get me as much cover as I can. We might need to move the horses back.

SPEAKER_04 8:51

Alright, I'll see to that. Sakeb calls and then sell. Make yourself useful. Help me with the horses. Winnie, girl, I think we need to get you a bit of clothing to start with. I'm going to bring you over to the Itana, it's alright. Stay with me. Nat's plan is to put some decent clothes on her to get that body temperature up. She hops up, goes to the saddlebags, pitches her own clothes with a pang of regret, for they are better than the ones she's wearing, goes back to the girl, and hooking the girl's arm over her neck and shoulder, helps her stagger over to the side tunnel. Lucinda, feeling a slight twinge of guilt, letting Tiny Nat do that work, walks over to the campfire and gathers the two blankets, and then brings them back. Then, without saying anything to either of the two girls, she resumes her waiting stance with a short bow. As the half orc watches, she sees Garrick slipping inside layers of those dingy old burlap sacks that she helped bring back. He begins to look mostly like a boulder. As you might well imagine, Sal has zero animal handling ability, so Sakeb is making his animal handling at normal ability. 11. Marginal, his wisdom helps, making it past the DC-12 mark. So it's a slow process as he shifts the animals pair by pair or in threes back away even further from the campfire. There is another wisdom perception check in this case from Saki 13. Yes, that is going to be DC-15. He mutters very quietly to Garrick. It's far too cold.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Reckon I have an idea about that, Garrick grumbles quietly. This is not the time though.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Get yourself a weapon. In answer, Sakeb taps Goblin Grief's pommel, reassuring himself that it's to hand. He heads over to the pile of belongings, fishes out his shield, and cinches it in place. Alright, here is a check for Drum to find useful fungi or lichen as he searches a little further north, or that is away from the entrance. He rolls another Nat 20. I was going to make a time check against the wolves' incursion, but I think it's safe to say that Drum has found some useful ingredients and is headed back by the time the wolves get to the main cavern. They register the smell of both horse and man and rush in intent on getting their breath weapon away. Their immediate targets are Garek, slightly under some cover of sacking, Sal, caught out in the open, Sakheeb with shield up, and potentially Drum, having just arrived back to the campfire to begin preparing a poultice. Therefore, there are four deck saves to avoid full damage from cold breath. Sakeb is going to use his luck token to contribute to Garrick, who made a poor roll. Much better. All four potential targets make it, but the bad news is four walls piling in all with cold breath is going to amass a lot of damage to Harv. It's possible though that only three got off their breath since Lucinda and Garrett were both taking what we would call in 5e a ready action. That is, they're waiting in ambush. Here's Garrett's shot, and he would aim for the pack alpha. Adequate, it's a hit. Damage of a minimum. That's just going to make the pack alpha angry. Here is Lucinda's shortbow. Misses completely. The four exposed or somewhat exposed. Take 22 cult damage each. And I'm sorry to say, if you had a twinge of sympathy for Sail, spare it now. For that is more than his maximum hit points, let alone his reduced exhausted hit points. Initiatives. Character 6 balls 5. The pack alpha, struck slightly by an arrow, feels its rage swelling, and with an angry snarl, overrules the pack bitch's warning. It charges home even as the alpha snarls, is an answering snarl from off to the right flank, and Lucinda leaps at it, sword and axe flashing. She rolls a 19 for the hand axe and uses her luck token to get a 12 with her short sword. The pack alpha takes 13 damage and moves from slightly wounded to in trouble. As an alpha, it's unusually robust, but now it has only six hit points left. Garrett is fairly sure the wolves haven't realized where he loosed from and looses this time at the weakest looking wolf. It's a hit just for near maximum damage. That wolf is dead. As for Drum, he shifts easily to a kneeling longbow position, and here's his shot. It's a miss. Seeing Lucinda charge forward, Sakeb does likewise. He has marginally more ground to cover than Lucinda since she was coming in from the side exit and he was coming in from near the rear exit, but he still reaches the pack alpha and he delivers a crushing blow from Goblin Grief, slaying the pack alpha. Behind the lines, Natalie draws her magic dagger and creeps to look out of the side exit. It's the wolf's bound. And we begin with a morale check. With a natural one, they go blood mad and bent on avenging their pack alpha. The two remaining, the pack pitch and the heavily wounded Brother Wolf, attack. On a five or six, they attack Garrett. On a three or four, they attack Sakim. On a one or two, they attack Lucinda. Pack Pitch attacks Lucinda, Brother Wolf. Attacks Sakhi as the Pack Pitch's attack on Lucinda. It's a clean miss. Here is Brother Wolf's attack on Sakheeb. That is a very good roll. A 13 added to the wolf's plus five is definitely getting past Sakib's armor. It delivers a crushing 8 hit points damage to Sakheeb. Sakeb faints from the shock of the bite, and he has only moments to live. If he cannot be revived quickly, he's permanently dead. Strangely, the fire, having momentarily been driven down to embers by the cold breath, flares up brightly as though it is joining in a prayer of life for Sakeb. Initiatives. It is a good shot. The severely wounded Pack Brother breathes its last. Garrick leaps from cover and rushes to either assist Sakeeb or join in battle against the Pack Pitch alongside Lucinda. Here's Garrick's attack. A great hit, minimum damage. So a lot depends on Lucinda's sneak attack damage. Now that Garrick is in the fight with her, flanking the pack pitch. So first, let's deal with Lucinda's two weapon attacks. They are terrible, but we have luck tokens to ban. Burning through two tokens, she manages a solid hit. She can deliver quite a lot of damage. That's a total of 14 damage. Added to Garrick's minimal, it leaves the pack bitch with five hit points remaining. It's her bound. She is now alone and desperately needs to preserve the pack's bloodline. Here's her wisdom save. It's a 15. That's what she needed. She disengages and it makes a hasty departure. If she's extremely unlucky, she will be hit either by Drum's farewell arrow or Garrick's Deadfall. She is hit by one or other of those. High is Deadfall, low is arrow. It's an arrow. Drum may of course miss, as he will be loosing with disadvantage. Here's his departing shot. No, his worst is an 11 with his plus five, that's plenty. But it's almost minimum damage. She limps away with two remaining hit points.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

How's the priest? How's the lad?

SPEAKER_04 18:35

Help me get him over to the fire. I think his arm might be broken. Here's a medicine check from Drum with assistance from Lisinda. DC 11. So not terrible. Enough to stabilize the young priest, but perhaps not really enough to tell whether or not the arm is fractured, or simply really badly bruised. Garrick, of course, has stooped to see what has happened to Sal.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

If those wolves had simply grabbed the body and left. I guess we wouldn't have stopped them, he wonders. Well, one more frozen body in a mine is neither here nor there. That doesn't seem right, Trum objects.

SPEAKER_04 19:17

He might have kin once when he's properly awake. We can ask her what a story is. We've got a spare pack horse. We can bring the body out.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

You're too soft hearted, lad. He was no good. I could tell that at a glance. Still, your decision. If carrying him seems to interfere with the party's survival, I'll overrule you.

SPEAKER_04 19:41

As he speaks fairly casually and carelessly, perhaps, Garrick is going through the routine tasks of making sure none of the wolves are lying doggo and dragging their massive carcasses off into a convenient position for any butchering that might need to be done. He pauses, looking up closely.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

Zakib suspected something, and I know what it was. We got off pretty lucky. Best not tell us to Winnie. That was brown mould. It would have sucked the life from Sal, even if we hadn't arrived. The ice breath of the wolves killed it dead.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

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