The Continued Seek of Sanrath [solo TRPG play report]

The WHO

• Sanrath, lv1 fighting dwarf, hammer + plate [AC1, 6hp, 600xp]
• Xakhaz, lv1 human channeller, leather + sling, spell: hold portal «wary hero» [AC3, 4hp]

Last session, Sanrath was beset by bandits as he was travelling alone and they feared a doppelganger. What better way to prove against shapeshifters than by travelling in groups? Thus, Sanrath tempted Xakhaz with stories of arcane archaeology.

DUNGENERATED

There’s something in the solo water these days. Skullboy has just started season two of DELVERS and there’s excellent content from Castle Grief

The WHAT

• enter mausoleum — “I don’t recognise this place” — that’s because I’m randomly generating each delve heheh — except that you DO recognise it, because against all odds I pulled the exact same starting room. From here on out, I’ll lock these two opening rooms in as a pair.
• contents 3: monster. CUR for undead, beast, weird: it’s undead. Are they recent? Yes — this must be the remains of the bandit team from last time
• No surprise on either side and the two teams are 70FT apart, which is enough for a couple of rounds of attack volleys from our party — in the first round Sanrath hits with a headshot, taking one of the zombies out; in the second round Xakhaz does the very same. They search the bodies and salvage 4gp in coinage
• from here, west into a flowstone cavern (flowstone = fantasy concrete)
• then north to a room with shallow bridges — contents 6: trap! CUR for maim, capture, alarm: it’s alarm. The party briefly explore the room and set off the alarm! CUR for monster type again: it’s beast. From above, a slavering tombwoerm sluices from its borehole. Initiative is a tie, ie. simultaneous. However, Xakhaz’ spell is a flighty sort who wants to save the day and so he looses hold portal, sealing over the borehole as the woerm drops out. The worm has a save to avoid being trapped, but gets caught halfway out and the party makes short work of shooting tombwoerms in a puckered ceiling.
• next west, to an old cairn. Where once there was treasure, now there is none
• back to the shallow bridges then north to a sharp turn — contents 3: monster; CUR: undead, again recent; how many? NINE?! The party manage to avoid being seen and decide to make their way safely away the way they came

1:6 chance for new developments in each room they return to — none come up

• from the bridged junction to the north, to some genuine graves. There’s minor treasure here — 160gp of dwarfen grave goods. Sanrath recovers them. They belong in a museum, for his culture’s sake.
• back to the bridges, then east to a vast dwarfen memorial; it’s enough to move even the stoic Sanrath. Not for long though, as they climb up a cliff at the back into a naturally bored tunnel, following that east then south. No idea what made these tunnels — for they are impossibly old in their cyclopean anonymitie
• south to some priestly chambers where they recover 9gp of religious miscellany
• once more south — this time to a treasure card!

I’m ruling these are where the major treasures are. It’s also too much of a letdown to have the other contents be the result of a single roll, so I roll twice and combine.

• Today it’s a 2 and a 3: empty and monster. What makes most sense from this point? We’ve just been through priestly rooms and we know there’s ancient undead in this complex, so clearly this must be the location of an undead priest.
• The priest is determined to be intelligent so I also roll reaction and he’s curious. Interested to see one of his kind working with a chaos wizzerd (Xakhaz will end up in a very bad place decades down the line — if you can tell me where and why, you win a prizes!) but also here to protect the dragon-dwarf statue, he’s willing to trade the statue for a favour
• As a token of his willingness, he gives over artefacts worth 360gp and asks that the party investigates the truth of the profesy he’s been meditating upon —

The Wary Traveller Migrates

I generated this the same way I tend to generate most rumours, but phrased it more mysticallye — adjective (as reaction roll), noun (as one of my standard oracles), verb (as room contents)

• Sanrath and Xakhaz are stumped and the undead priest explains: the Wary Traveller is the name of a constellation, and here migrates doesn’t mean moves but instead changes or alters
• They agree to help and leave with their spoils — and complete lack of wounds!

The WHEWARDS

• Bested 4HD of monsters = 400xp
• Gained 533gp of treasure = 5330xp
• Hit major milestone = 1000xp

That’s 3365xp each, enough to level both party members:

• Sanrath, lv2 fighting dwarf, hammer + plate [AC1, 11hp, 3965xp]
• Xakhaz, lv2 human channeller, leather + sling, spell: hold portal «wary hero» [AC3, 5hp, 3365xp]

That’s a tantalising 35xp to level three ha!