His meditations were interrupted as the the temple doors flew open. Mitchell spun around, his hand instinctively falling to flail that rested next to him. He noticed two orc women, both armored with a variety of weapons attached to their backs, arms, and legs.
Rising to his feet, he approached the two. "This is a place of peace. What do you want?"
"Sorry about that," came a voice behind them, and the two orcs stepped aside as a halfling woman appeared. "Sutha and Ovak don't know their own strengths."
Mitchell looked back and forth from the two orcs to the woman who stood at their waist level. "So they're with you?"
"They're my friends," the halfling answered. "I'm Kithre." Her eyes moved to his flail. "I'm guessing you have some experience in combat."
"I serve Athena," Mitchell answered. "Why are you here?"
"You help us kill," said Ovak.
"You help us if we hurt," added Sutha.
"In other words," said Kithre, "we need a healer for our group. Are you interested in joining our little adventure?" She glanced around. "I can promise you a cut that you can contribute to your temple."
"Actually this temple serves multiple faiths," he answered. For some reason, this tiny person, with such an enormous spirit to her, unnerved him in ways he couldn't describe. "But I would prefer money to help those in this town who need it more."
"Absolutely. Meet us at the gates tomorrow at sunrise." Kithre started to leave but then turned back. "I hope you don't mind enclosed spaces."
This year marks the first time since the 90s where I got to play Dungeons and Dragons again, having gotten the 5e rules earlier this year. since I'm not able to join and gaming groups though, I've used Mythic to play the role of Dungeon Master.
I've also learned that Mythic has rules for Dungeon Crawls, so I'm going to use that for my game. So, in short, I'll use D&D for stats and monsters, and Mythic for the adventure and possibly dice rolls.
House Rules:
While I like a lot of changes between D&D 3e and 5e (I never played 4 so I have no opinion on it), I did tweak a few things, especially for NPCs:
Fighters - Instead of gaining an Archtype, fighters will instead gain an additional Die for rolling damage. For example, 1d6 becomes 2d6, 1d10 becomes 2d10, and 2d4 becomes 3d4. This will increase every few levels to give Fighters a chance to do more damage.
Casters - Wizards, warlocks, etc. do not keep track of spell slots. Instead, they roll on the Fate Chart, adding their spellcasting ability and subtracting the spell's level. Failure means a minor backlash, suffering -1 Rank Shift until a short rest. Critical failure means a -3 RS until a long rest, assuming the caster survives the backlash.
Clerics - Clerics do not suffer critical failures for spells. However, they do roll to Turn Undead, and those can cause critical failures. Critical successes though can cause dead guys to go boom.
My usual main character, a human wizard, is sitting this one out because he's better at above-ground adventures. Instead, I'm using Kithre, my halfling warlock (Level 3). When she was younger, bandits burned down her village. After escaping, she encountered a forest spirit and made a pact to go after those who harm the forest in return for access to magic. Since it's what she wanted anyway, she gladly agreed. Kithre is normally kind and charming, but if she loses her cool, she tends to act impulsively, and in extreme manners.
. Joining her are:
- Ovak: Orc Fighter 1. While not loving fighting itself, she does love the feeling of defeating evil while improving her skills. She's also shown bursts of wisdom from time to time.
- Sutha: Orc Rogue 1 and Ovak's sister. Sutha hates bloodshed, but she hates seeing innocents harmed even more. But she does love exploring and, knowing someone would need to disarm traps and open locks, she began to learn the trade. Still, don't expect her to be a push-over. Sutha is fully capable of slicing up foes who threaten her.
- Mitchell: Human Cleric 1. Mitchell worships Athena and tries to be a good follower. He tends to me honest and humble though he's still working on the fearless part. Even when he lunges into a fight, he'll be fighting the panic inside the entire time.
And now for the adventure. I don't yet have a big enough table for my minis so I just sketched the dungeon as I went. I'm using Mythic's One Page Location Crafter for the exploration part, along with Mythic's Dungeon Crawl rules.
I chose a Cavern for the dungeon because I wanted something simple. rolling for Story, I got Source of Monsters attacking nearby town.
The four walked down the road as the sun rose into the sky.
"So why exactly are we going into this cave?" Mitchell asked.
Kithre sighed. "I told you already."
"That was last night," he replied. "Just pretend someone is reading this and they missed our most recent conversation." (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)
"Fine." The halfling pointed to the hills in the distance. "The nearby villages have reported attacks by a bunch of monsters. We're going to investigate and possibly find a little treasure."
"But of course, we're going to help the people in the villages, right?" he asked.
"Yes, definitely," Kithre replied. "The treasure if just an added bonus."
"No one should live in fear of monsters," Ovak spoke up.
"We're finding out why they do," Sutha added.
Region Descriptors: "Set in Mountain," "Warm and Moist."
I know, I said Hill, but close enough.
They reached the cave opening. As they took their first few steps in, they nearly slipped walking through puddles. The air felt humid, like a summer afternoon following a rain storm. After a minute or two of walking, the passageway opened into a large room.
I'm going with a small cavern for this first game. This means I start with 3 Progress Points.
For my Descriptors, I got:
-Encounter: Atmosphere, Protected; Swarm of Centipedes (I drew from D&D Encounter Cards).
-Location: Stolen Portal.
-Expected, Return.
Entering a large room, the four noticed the remains of tables and chairs. As they picked one up, though they jumped back as countless centipedes emerged from rubble, leaping onto them.
I'm using the Clash rules, with D&D stats for this fight. This is how I worked the Clash:
-Sometimes, I'll roll everyone together, picking the strongest based on the type of fight and adding 1 Rank Shift for each additional person.
-For Damage, I use 1 RS for each 1d of Damage, plus any modifiers.
-For Toughness, I use either Armor Class (for Physical attacks) or Saving Throws (for special attacks).
-For determining Toughness when rolling for Incapacity, I'll use Hit Dice, +1-3 RS depending on the circumstances.
I already made the rolls offline, so here's a summary:
-The Swarm wins the first Clash, with all heroes suffering -1RS.
-The heroes with the second Clash, causing the swarm to roll for Incapacity. They failed.
The stolen portal part sounds intriguing, but it's too early to actually find a portal, so I'll just have them find a clue instead. For the Return part, I see that as an alternate route for later.
"Get them off!" Mitchell screamed, frantically smashing anything that got close to him with his flail.. "Get them off!"
Sutha and Ovak swung their swords, cutting down the many bugs. Kithre launched a magical bolt of energy at the ground, causing the bugs to scatter.
Once the room cleared, Mitchell tended to the group helping to ease any bites they may have suffered in the fight. "Everyone okay now?"
Sutha bent down, examining one of the squashed centipedes. "This is strange."
Kithre joined her. "What is it?"
Sutha pointed. "Black-striped centipedes. We've seen them before, when Uncle took us exploring as children."
Ovak frowned. "But it took us several days to walk to that land."
Kithre looked up. "So how'd they get here?" She stood and glanced around the room. "There's a passage across from where we came in and another off to the side."
Mitchell shrugged. "It's up to you."
Sutha looked back and forth between the two paths. I say we keep going straight ahead. That way, if we have to flee, it's a straight path."
Kithre nodded. "Straight ahead it is."
Progress Points increase to 4.
Next, I rolled on the Dungeon Connector table. Originally, I got "Expected." however, as this is the beginning of the dungeon, I have no clue what to expect. The second time, I got, "Same." Yeah, that's helpful. A third roll revealed, "Downward Slope." I went with that.
The passage inclined downward in a straight line as the four traveled it. Reaching the end, they stepped into another room.
For this room, I rolled:
-Location: Average, Clean.
-Object: Average, Important.
-Object: Enclosed, Multiple.
This sounds like a Puzzle to me. I rolled for a Puzzle and got something about magic.
The four found themselves in a room and had to pause because it looked like a the type of room you'd find in a mansion. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all smooth and clean. On the walls were sketches of life-sized windows with bizarre writing next to them.
As the reached the center of the room, however, they heard a whoosh sound and were surrounded by what appeared to be prison bars but glowed yellow.
Mitchell reached out but Kithre stopped him. "Be careful. Those could burn you."
(Q) Are the beams dangerous? (Very Likely) No.
Grunting, Ovak reached out and grabbed the bars, but nothing happened. She tried pulling on them but they didn't budge. "No burn, but no move either."
Kithre reached out and touched one bar with her finger, feeling a crackle of energy. "Interesting."
"Can you get past them?" Mitchell asked.
(Q) Is the Difficulty +1? (Likely) No.
Okay, so 50/50.
I'll use Kithre's magical skill, which is +6.
(Challenge) Does Kithre succeed? (Certain) Yes.
Taking a step back, she held up her hands and concentrated. A glow appeared from her hands and touched the bars. A moment later, they vanished. Opening her eyes, she smiled. "That wasn't so bad."
There's nothing else in the room, so they moved on.
Progress Points increase to 5.
Connector: Simple Tunnel.
Next Room:
-Expected, Exit.
-Encounter: Guide, Bizarre: Giant Poisonous Snake.
-Negative: Open, Stolen.
Entering an all-too-familiar cave, with a tall ceiling, the four noticed an opening in the ceiling that they could reach by climbing on some fallen rocks. Near a passageway on the far side of the room, they noticed what looked like a window in the wall, similar to the drawings in the previous room. As they approached, they heard a hiss as a snake appeared, slithering through the window towards them.
In this Clash, the snake won the first round, poisoning Mitchell and Sutha. But the heroes held their ground, with Ovak slicing the creature in two. Unfortunately, in the fight, the window shattered like a mirror, with its pieces crumbling to dust on the ground. With no other clues and with two of their group injured, Kithre decided they should use the opening to escape the cave for now.
Once the exited the cave and saw where on the hill they stood, they took note of their location and headed to the nearest village to tend to their wounds and rest for the moment.
The opening could also be where the monsters emerged from when attacking the villages. This mystery will be one they'll return to in the future. For now, it seemed like a good place to stop for the session. So the heroes found clues that someone got their hands on a kind of magical portal, allowing them to summon monsters from different locations.
Next time, maybe they'll learn more.
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