Rollohi-chapter4-episode10

-/-- Welcome to SoloBickering, the podcast where I—an aging Kiwi with too many dice and not enough players—explore solo TTRPGs, variant rules, and the occasional philosophical meltdown. Today, we journey into the world of Rollohi: a PG-rated realm of fantasy, where a party of eight attempts to survive the wilds. I hope it becomes a full drama, with discovery, treasure, and arguments I lose with myself. Whether you’re here for the rules, the roleplay, or just the bickering—there’s always something brewing in SoloBickering.

--/-- A chill episode until the party's path is suddenly redirected: it's war!

Script: https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com/2026/06/rollohi-ch410-script.html

--/--Background sounds attribution: Joel Steudler: www.joelsteudlermusic.com

May 2026, includes a specific warning about mature content.

Intro music acknowledgment: Thanks to ADMFreeMusic: https://pixabay.com/users/admfreemusic-34079374/

April2026 plug for SRPN

https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com

Transcript

0:51

Despite unpleasant noises of marsh scavengers dealing with the bodies of the several and even one might say many buccaneers that are still slain and not floating in the water, the night passes without event. The rescued fairymen finish their celebrations as drink overcomes them all, and get a good, well deserved rest. Among the adventurous there is time for reflection, plenty of time given to counting out the loot and recounting it and dividing it, and discussing the possibilities of selling the jewellery or leaving it as is, and of course rest. Natural healing is a D three for they are in a place of safety behind the low rampart of the Buccaneers Fort with a watch kept. With morning prayers comes the staff of healing. So as not to bore you with a great deal of D six rolling, everyone returns to maximum health except for Eren, who's on thirteen, well below her maximum, and Santu, who's on sixteen. That sixteen is only two hit points down on his maximum of eighteen, so he is not doing too badly at all. Let's take a look at the weather. It should remain fair. No, it doesn't remain fair, but a roll on the Cohen scale gets me a sixteen. That's still extremely good for a spring day. The issue then might be wind direction. That's not too bad. It's a stiff breeze carrying the ferry away from the north and west of the lake directly towards Lake Town. But that's not the plan. The ferry is two ferryman short, so let's give two characters a roll on their strength. One of those is an O two, the other is an eighteen, so eleven of the twelve available slots are working correctly, and so we'll say that after a unnecessary amount of delay and struggling against the prevailing wind, after an hour of slow sweep work, the villa is in sight. Seed attempts to contain her greed and nervousness. Yes, she rolls an O five on her wisdom, and maintains her composure, just shuffling from foot to foot and fingering her ear taking knife. She's absolutely sure that the Signor's men will have been out, collecting any ears they can find, and I'm afraid she is quite correct. As it will prove over the first half of the day, Seed and whoever is hunting with her, presumably Pod, will only add three more ears of all of the buccaneers that they downed in the previous day's battle for a total of twenty four. Lest this be held against the Seigneur, we'll remind our listeners that the Signur made it a general proclamation upon the wall, so that all of his men at arms, lesser retainers, and sheltering village folk would be brave enough to sortie out with knives and swords. However, I don't know what kind of report Justawake might have made back to the Seigneur. I know the Seigneur is friendly at the moment towards the adventurers. Has the report of Justawake changed his opinion in a negative way? Yes, but just by one reaction point. And so we can take a min out approach to the reaction that the adventurers receive, bearing in mind that this is far from the first time they've met with the seigneur. So we're just going to roll 1d6 and add five to the result. I get the worst possible for a total of six. The Seigneur greets the adventuring party as they lead their mounts with baggage laden off the ferry. But his greeting is cool. As one of the two learned members of the party might put it. Trust not in the gratitude of princes. We shall give Xantu and Ingel a chance to move that reaction up in a positive way. With charisma checks. Those are really good. Well I'm not saying they're natural ones, but Ingel rolls a seven on his twelve, and Xantu rolls a nine on his eleven. I suppose in terms of summing up the total reaction, we've changed the yes but of the turning the Signeur against the group to the no but, where the Signeur is cool but cooperative. One of the main points that Engel has been aiming for is the villa as a resupply point. It will be troublesome if as they explore the avenues into the plateau or around it, they need to return to Laketown every single time to resupply. Not so much in terms of they themselves, but their mounts. And I think the implication is they'll have to pay their way. Is this Seneur a greedy man? four. Yes, but within the confines of his rank. Has word of the fabulous wealth of the buccaneers leadership reached his ears? three. No, but rumours are beginning to grow. Total number of days of hospitality before they've worn out their welcome. four Right, I think we'll invest a day of that, as particularly Erin and to a lesser extent Xantu rest up. Explaining that both their frontline fighters received a severe wound during the tussle with the Buccaneers, Engel ensures that the Seigneur and his staff are at least acknowledging their overnight stay. The next question on my mind is whether the party wishes to return to Lake Town at all. Certainly the ferrymen do. They need to complete the morning rituals for the two lost ferrymen, and of course, recruit a couple more. But I feel like there's a very good chance that the rest of the party don't and wish to simply get on with exploration. The only question in my mind is whether they want to bank the enormous amount of loot they now have with Lake Town. And that's before addressing any particular strategic needs the senior has. So, just to begin framing things, we're going to roll a D6 oracle for each member of the party, taking Seed Pod as one and leaving out Xantu and Erin, who definitely just want to rest here. Shall the main objective of the party be to return to Laketown as soon as possible? Engel no, Jack yes, Xantu emphatically no, Seed Pod no, and Kylie no but Well that is a very clear indication that the party, regardless of the thoughts of one or two members about banking the jewellery and coin that they now hold, will be to remain here and begin scouting as soon as possible. However, in the meantime, and given a full day in which to gather further intel from Lake Town and the vicinity, has new word arrived with the Seigneur? Five. Yes, that will most certainly change the demands of the Seigneur to the adventuring party. For the news of the Buccaneers' attack has signalled the commencement of all out war with the Chaos Lords. Has New Jay been attacked? four. Yes, but raids upon the Baron's Tower and the like not an all out assault. Has the trail west been cut? Yes, and we can presume that both the Hanging Valley, which supplies good water to occupying forces and hidden springs, are now in the hands of the Chaos Lord. What rank is the messenger representative of six being the most high king and one being local peasantry? three. The Council of New Jay itself has appealed in all haste and urgency for Sakor. The following day, let's have a quick check-in of Eren's natural healing and check whether Xantu has healed one or two or more points. Eren has as good a healing as she could expect, so that is back to sixteen of twenty three, and Xantu is fully healed. The staff of healing for Eren. Six points. At twenty two of twenty three hit points, Erin is feeling as though her ribs are still a little tender, but pretty much recovered. She can sit the saddle of even a war horse in reasonable comfort. Now given that he has no idea whether the Chaos Lords are in league with foul beings in the plateau, and given the fact that there are still some buccaneer scum washed away to the south of the lake, there is no way that the Signeur will send his retinue with the adventurers. In fact, my question is does the Signur retire to Lake Town in safety? Yes, but he leaves a bastion force in his villa to hold it if possible. Has it been told to fight to the last man? No, therefore it will have some secretly moored good quality rowing vessels just below the villa height so that the defenders can slip down to the boats and away. And so during the second day, preparations are made in haste to not just bring the adventuring party and their mounts to Lake Town, but the Signor and his inner family and retinue. It will be a crowded voyage. Encounter on the lake. two. No. Is the hobgoblin mage now in league with the Chaos Lords? three. No, but he's monitoring things. And therefore we can assume that the Bugbear leadership is also aware. But we perhaps shouldn't assume that. We actually do not know if the hobgoblin mage is directly in league with the bugbear regent. I will also ask at this stage, although I may well regret it, is one of the level eleven Chaos Dwarves directly in charge of operations near New Jay? No, but the last of their living lieutenants, a halfling level four, is in charge. That's an ideal kind of operator for guerrilla operations. Interdiction of communications. Is a chaos dwarf in Hidden Springs? No. It would seem that the Chaos Dwarf Lords are back further to the east, perhaps recruiting or perhaps investigating the Whisperwood for chances of treasure or other advantage to be had. That's probably too much information compared to what I need to be operating the adventurers, but so be it. I'm gonna step away from the mic and find out the halfling's name and gender. He's a mature male halfling, whose name is Udsi U D C E Y. Sounds fairly Turkish, but that would be a different pronunciation. If it was English, we could make a pun like you'd see me if I wanted to you too. Now that I've got Udzi rolled up, we can say that this very normal charisma he has four direct retainers, the rest will be hirelings. And I will choose to end my roll-ups there, otherwise I'll begin to get ideas on what the party should do in order to thwart Udzi and his lot. I think we can move on to Lake Town. Presence of the Senior there is, of course, a little beyond normal news. He routinely travels through there. He does not own the town, but of course the town council prefers to stay in his good graces. As a result, a favorable deal is in prospect as the party turns over its banking needs to the council. They are a factor times more wealthy than they ever have been, now boasting over forty-eight thousand gold coin worth of jewellery, perhaps, is the principal item, but other things as well. That is not to count their magic weapons and armour. Keeping that bonus of plus one from their dealings with the seigneur, therefore, let's make a retainer hiring roll. As the party, at least at first, still has that momentum of looking towards the plateau and a successful exploration expedition of its several tunnels. Roll again. Six roll again. Nine. Offer accepted. I think next session we'll see the party with its mounts and a crew of retainers, perhaps mounted on hobs or perhaps afoot, setting out not to the west as they intended in a scouting expedition, but east and south, to find out where these villainous scouts and irregular forces call them bandits might be found, and who is leading them. So by the time we get to next episode, Erin will be in full health, and we shall go now to the recruitment scene. Engel and Umbert, the latter taking notes, are seated in their private room at the Gilded Lantern. They've been interviewing a steady stream of sturdy townsfolk and less savoury cutthroat types. Engel's good sense weeds out the chaotic types. Umbert records their experience so far in their lives, and the two make marginal notes, shall we say, for the potential recruit to spend a little time with one or other specialist at the party's disposal, be it Xantu, Kylie, or Seed. For all of the potential recruits, the pitch is the same. We're offering standard fighting wages. If you come with a mount, you'll receive extra. If you come with your own armor and shield and weapon, you'll receive extra. If we have to pay for your gear, you receive the minimum. We offer a small compensatory bounty if you die in battle for your loved ones. You can register your will at the town here before you go. Yes, it will be dangerous. Once we've ascertained your potential specialty, you'll spend little time with one of our three specialists who are waiting to grill you a little further and put you to the test to see if you're up to our standards. Our last retainers died because they weren't ready. We don't want the same thing to happen to you. We will, despite my saying that we won't pay any particular attention to the prospective hires at this stage, just stop by to look at one particular young man. He's old enough to be a young squire, and he gives his name as Enani. He is, in fact, the Seigneur's oldest son, and he hasn't told his father of his daring plan to masquerade as a commoner and learn the trade with the adventurous. The interview over, Umbert begins soaking up some very badly damaged parchment that he's been using. Beck was a remarkably clumsy young man, Ingle, he says, his voice rather harsh. Yes, he was, but strong, intelligent, willing. Didn't seem that he'd pick quarrels. And his equipment was quite good, if you see what I'm getting at. Yes, and although he made a good job of disguising it, I think he's more educated than the common herd. I'd say perhaps the son of one of the town councillors of good family anyway. But you know, if boys of that stripe are not to adventure, we probably none of us would be adventurers. Well speak for yourself, Ingle But very much Dul sound like you. I, on the other hand, got where I am today through pure hard work and smarts. Yes, Ingel says neutrally, deciding not to point out that that meant that Umbert was naming himself an uncouth curmudgeon. Well I would think Kylie will put him through the sword swinging pieces or whatever it is those fighter types do, he says breezily. We'll see. Enoni was it? I think that was what I wrote down before he spilt the entire ink pot over the parchment. Yes, uh I'll start again. Enoni Male Youth says he has his own equipment could possibly bring a sword. There. He blots the new piece of parchment, still muttering under his breath. A thought strikes him, because although I can imagine, Umbert is no slouch in the thinking department. You know, Ingel, it will be best if we got through the test in lightning quick time. I don't want to jinx us, but there's a good chance that we'd be commissioned off to something even more dangerous if we stay around longer. I don't fancy taking all those giant ants or going into a dead dungeon with no loot just because the old guys are getting tired. And as the two men gently bicker over whether Umbert has just raised a death flag or merely a doom flag, the session ends.