Solo Black Powder and Brimstone: The Enemy Within - Episode 1

--/-- Welcome to a Black Powder and Brimstone Solo attempt at The Enemy Within. BPnP, by Benjamin Tobitt, is a 3rd-party creation of the Mork Borg family of RPG rules. 

--/-- Mature content warning: content refers both to the original WFRP campaign and to the more hellish world of BPnP. Listener discretion is advised.

--/-- Introductory: Tod Weiss confronts some unpleasantness, and finds a disturbing likeness among the dead.

--/-- SFX by Dragon Studio and Freesound_Community, both on Pixabay.

--/-- Background music "Ravaged Lands" from Tabletop Audio

https://larrymannplayssolobickering.blogspot.com

Transcript

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This podcast is rated F filthy. Ha! Filthy! Ha ha ha. My name is Todd Weiss. Yes, I'm aware of the irony. Now, are we going to keep jawing or shall we start killing each other? It seems my words are a mistake. Had I simply stood waiting. Great sword at the ready, they might have backed off. As it is, one of these filthy blasphemies has a messer. The other two, knives. Gibbering with glee, they sit upon me. Block, block. The two knives, but the messa gets past. A deep wound, ruining my fine clothes. But now it's my turn. The great sword licks out and then, in its full fury, whirls around my head and takes the heads of all of these filthy mutations. Welcome, dear listener, to my pellet cleanser. Solo, black powder, and brimstone. One of the Milkberry family, the original rules written by Benjamin Tobit, and this being an unholy mashup of the BP and P, Wolfrup, Sweihander, Solo Borg, and my own house rules. In case the disclaimer at the front of the show did not warn you, this is not a PG show. Chaos, depravity, and unspeakable vileness stalk the roads and cities of the now decayed empire. Black Powder and Brimstone is a D-20 roll high set in a fantasy renaissance, very much in the style of warhammer. And inspired by this, I shall try to follow the plot of the enemy within. And here I will add special props to Red Moon roleplaying. This classy group of actual players has covered The Enemy Within. And their treatment of this allowed me to follow the chaotic jumble that the republished PDF of the campaign is made up of. I truly do not expect any of my solo heroes to last very long. But for what it's worth, let me explain some of the basic roles. I've rolled up Todd Vice, a great disorder, or Zyhand. The characters have four attributes: strength, toughness, agility, and presence. Since this is a truly solo, solo role-playing game, I felt free to rearrange the 3d6 roles to best flavor my picture of Todd. A big man, not too quick on his feet, very tough. At the end of the process, I have plus two strength, plus two toughness, and minus one agility, minus one presence. I'm also fortunate on my gold roll. Rolling to the maximum. And after spending a little on some plate-lined goldlets, which is equivalent to light armor, and a couple of different purposed daggers. I have 98 gold coins. My head points are nearly at the max, eleven. And that is excellent news for a house rule, which I have just demonstrated, but I'll walk you through it. Allows me to spin those headpoints as a dramatic reserve to take out large numbers of MOOCs. Todd is almost always going to be last to swing the weapon, and so that D2 armor will be very important. And the confrontation that the flashback will now explain that Todd was not able to beat the mutants to the punish. They operate as what's called a detachment. Having identified the weapons that they're using, the character rolls the normal defense roll, which is a difficult rating or DR12 on a D20. Relatively difficult with a character that has minus one to agility. Since defense was failed, a dice for the same number of combatants, a D3, is rolled, and that number are successful attacks. And sadly, a roll of three. Each weapon does damage. Again, since this is a solo solo game, the armor rating of the character, a D2, is taken off each of those weapons. As we imagine the sword itself and the armoured gauntlets are taking a lot of the impact of the clubs, then the attack is made. Here, beefy Todd Vice has a significant advantage with a plus two. But in this case, my first roll was pretty bad. I spend what's known as Devil's Luck in BPNP to re-roll. The re-roll D20 is much better. With that, even the minimum damage from Azvihander will probably kill a weak mutant. And here the next house roll comes into play, burning one extra hit point per extra enemy. They are simply declared dead. At the end of the exchange, Tod is down to four of eleven hit points. But the road is clear. Let's rejoin him. As I walk back to the coach, effusive praise is heaped on me by all that sundry. Well, except for that sniveling chemist student or whatever he is. It makes no difference. Highborn like the Lady Isolde, or lowborn like the drunken coachman. The Empire is rotten from top to bottom. We're all more or less just blood-filled ticks waiting to be purged or burned off. They seem to be waiting for me to clamber back on. Patiently, I explain that there seems to be some kind of wreckage and bodies just yonder. And would anyone else care to investigate with me? Timidly, the lady's maid. The one I had my eye on last night. I think it's Jana. Offers to hold a link for me. But her lady scolds her down, of course. Philippe, I'm sure I've seen him somewhere before. In a company somewhere. Certainly not mine. That company. His bones long gone, rotted away. Looks as though he could help, but can't be bothered. He rolls a coin across his fingers. At last, and ungraciously down their eyes. The two coachmen volunteer to hand me down a lantern that will help in the shadow that's already gathering. To explain how I come to be walking alone. Up the road in the gathering twilight. To investigate what could be more stinking mutants, I need to go back a little. Not to last night, when I stayed at the inn, the coach and horses that would be, where I took passage with this particular coach. But half an hour ago, when the coach was affrighted by a lone mutant eating what was obviously a human arm. No sooner had it turned than it rushed the coach, gibbering like the blasphemous mark of chaos it was. Well, full of a coachman lost control of the horses. They snapped their lead, hit it off, dragging him with them. I heard that damn gambler Philippe gasp and say, Rolf? And I knew I had to take the matter up with him later, if we lived. In the meantime, standing right up atop the coach, I sliced the thing's head off. The introductory module Blood on the Road treats this particular mutant, Ralph Hertzus, as somewhat above the cut of a regular mutant. It's easy to identify this in the BP and P lore as a night folk, a kind of ghoul. With six hit points is no guarantee that a single cut will kill it. The module provides various cases and situations, but as it happens, the sole character, Todd Weiss, scores a Nat 20 on his own defence on the off chance that it's needed since Rolf is scripted as going for the remaining coachman, and then scores a dirty 20 on his attack. I make the decision to immediately spend that Nat 20 token on gaining extra damage, a feature that as Vihander allows. That boosts the combined role of a D10 and extra dice to enough to kill that particular mutant. However, the horses and one of the coachmen, Holtz by name, have all vanished from the scene, and those in the coach are safe, for the other coachman has managed to apply the brake, but potentially isolated and trapped. Come, Philippe, I gesture. You've seen service? Let's have a look at the damage yonder. With another look at the wretched dead thing, Philippe dismounts, and Rapier Drawn paces slightly behind me down the road. Sure enough, the creature was gnawing away at the arm of a human. A coachman by the look of it. At some stage, the poor fellow has been taken down by a crossbow bottle. That thing then, and I say as much to Philippe, was simply a night scavenger as can be found in these parts. He nods, not looking convinced. You think there'd be more ahead? I ask. He shakes his head, undecided. But he points at the road ahead. Looking at the obvious, it's clear that the coach that the coachman sat at probably the very one that left the coaching inn last night and carried on down the road. Telling me he'll let the others know. Philippe heads back to the marooned coach. And I follow the tracks. And there, I meet those three jolly fellows my story began with. There had been a moment of comedy, as a scream, possibly a horse's scream, came from the trees, and the other coachman comes running back. Philippe, taking fright, sprints back to the coach, knees high, feet flapping the road in his panic. Lady Issault is screaming for her mates and her bodyguard to save her. But there doesn't seem to be any immediate danger. I walk on down the road and find that the screams come from a wounded mutant, one trapped under a fallen couch. Two more mutants are feasting upon the dead. And one looking like the leader is playing with a crossbow. That's when I make my full mistake of challenging them. The leader stands and looks at me with what could have been human eyes. And it's only by the clear light of the last twilight moon that I see his skin is scaled. It looks like he's been getting together a pretty little collection. And so, assuming that he can be reasoned with, I tell him to step away, and he, much to my surprise, tells me that this is none of my business and for me to be off. Me! Ha! That's when I make my fool of a challenge, and it all goes downhill quickly. Now, having caught you up, let's carry on to where I'm now walking to investigate the wrecked carriage, with a lantern in my hand, which I'll have to drop if I really need to use my sword. I get a nasty shock, let me tell you, as I look at the best dressed of the corpses. Damn if his face isn't exactly like mine, or near enough, in the lantern light. And then, horses' hooves are drumming on the road up ahead. And I have a feeling the devil has just shattered my porridge. The music background for this cast comes from tabletop audio. Sound effects from the Dragon Studio and the Free Sound Community. Both Pixabay resources. My thanks to all of you.