Beyond the Wall and other Adventures, the village of Barley - NPC's

To go along with the village description I have added a list of the NPC's who live there.  This is not an exhaustive list nor is each NPC yet fully fleshed out and I will continue to expand upon them as I go along,

Beyond the Wall and other Adventures, the village of Barley - A list of the characters

I have created 5 characters for this new solo campaign, they have all been rolled up using playbooks published by Flatland Games, I think its says a lot about the design of the game that although they come from very different backgrounds it is easy to find a common bond between them all.

Character list

Beyond the Wall and other Adventures, the village of Barley

 Population - 120 souls

The Village

With its fairy tale castle and a church adorned with tall spires, its small cottages and outlying crofts, Barley is a picturesque little place being so named because of the large amount of barley grown in the farm land around the village. 

d100 random verb table for when you need a prompt.

This is a very simple table for generating verbs for use in solo or co-op games.  You simply roll d100 and use the corresponding verb as a prompt to get an idea as to what may be going on in the scene you are playing

Chivalry & Sorcery 5e Solo, Campaign Notes and Character Sheets

 Keep Track With Evernote.

I have been busy setting up a C&S 5e campaign which I hope to be able to dip in and out of eventually.  I am struggling a little with the games mechanics and found myself floundering trying to keep track of it all to the point where giving up seemed like the best option.  Then I found Evernotes and that energized me again.

Evernote has been around for a while but I had never used it, nor thought of using it to keep track of the campaign, I wish now I had found it sooner.  It is so easy to use and I even found templates for keeping track of Locations, Campaign Notes, DM notes, Characters and NPC's, whilst these templates are geared towards D&D 5e, all bar the Character and NPC templates are good for a whole host of RPGS, C&S being one.

Solo 'Through Sunken Lands RPG', a Tilly and Moonwane adventure, session 6

 

Prolegomenon

In the last session we learned that the Southern Lands have been invaded by men of chaos or children of chaos as they are called in the Through Sunken Lands rule book, it describes them as  degenerate and twisted individuals, often crippled by rampant mutation and madness.

Solo 'Through Sunken Lands RPG', a Tilly and Moonwane adventure, session 5

 

Prolegomenon

It shall be when ink rain falls, two friends witness the beginning and trigger the rise of doom.

Prepping for the next part of the adventure so as to give me the illusion that I am organized and know what I am doing has taken a little bit of time, also it will be useful to remind myself of where I am at with this adventure before I get lost with it all.

Lets start with my two PC's, 

• Tilly, a Licenced Thief from Jundarr, the impossible city, ran foul of the Merchants Guild in my first adventure and it turns out the Jundarr Thieves Guild are not happy with her either. 
• Moonwane, a Cosmic Champion aligned to the Balance, (Neutral),  was brought by an old Priest to Jundarr.  He was told to wait for Tilly at the Temple and then bring her to the Southern Lands. He now has been adopted by a black and white winged cat called whiskers (yes I pulled whiskers straight out of Michael Moorcock's  Corum books).

Tilly and Moonwane, (called Moon for short), are now in the city port of the Empire of Trackless Sands.

Now for the NPC introduced in this adventure, 

• Whiskers, the little black and white winged cat, (stats given in the last session report), has attached itself to Moonwane but we don't know why or where the cat came from.
• Jerhi Yarll, captain of the White Serpent Galley Ship.  He is for now out of the adventure so I will not need to detail him but I will keep a record of him for future adventures.
• Karloak, the mysterious old hermit whilst at the same time the mysterious old priest.  He seems to be different things to different people.  Moon was supposed to bring Tilly to the Southern Lands to meet up with him but so far that has not happened.  I need to find out not only where this mysterious NPC is but also who or what he is and his reason for wanting Tilly and Moon to come to the Southern Lands to meet him/
• Farhad, (meaning helper), a young first level mage apparently sent by Karloak to meet Tilly and Moon and guide them to him.  Although Farhad is an NPC I will roll up his stats as per the character generation rules.

            Name Farhad        Alignment Neutral  Class Mage      Level  1  Base Attack Bonus 0  Initiative 1

            Strength 9   Dexterity 11    Constitution 8    Intelligence 15    Wisdom 12    Charisma 14

 

            Armour Class 10    Fortune Points 3    Hit Points 6

            Sense Magic, Cantrips - Hand of Will, Mage Light,  Spells - From the Brink, Great Endurance,                 Ritual - Mage Armour

                Languages, Common Jundarr, local Empire language

                Weapons, Dagger
                Trait - Very Helpful

                Skills -Cooking, bargaining.

At the top of this section I have written a little prophecy which was generated randomly but seemed to be applicable to the game, I also have have a desire to introduce a threat pack, I have in mind one I will adapted from Beyond the Wall, I will come to that in a while but now lets get to the adventures.

Tools used in the session and other stuff.

We will be using the following toolkit for this session,

Through Sunken Lands and other adventures RPG

Zathrum 2.2 GM emulator

UNE for any NPS that may come up
Randomlists.com for a few verbs if I need a hint to work out what is going on.

In the last session Tilly and Moonwane were met by a lad with information about Karloak, we now know him to be Farhad a 1st level mage.  

East along the Empires Shores.

The end of the first day in the Empire of Trackless Sands

Farhad takes Tilly and Moonwane to a small hostel, there he tells them what he knows of Karloak which is very little except that he is to take them east along the shores of the Trackless Sands to the village of Nayzil, about four days ride away from the great port.  Once there they are to await Karloak.  He hands a small locked trinket box which Karloak gave him, it is locked and there is no key but he says Karloak told him Tilly did not need a key to open such a box.

I ask the oracle if Tilly is able to pick the lock, roll d20 = 15, so Yes (in order to).

Tilly studies the lock and the box for a while, in order to open it she needs to use her thieves tools but she quickly picks the lock inside is a large number of silvers (350 in fact) and a note from Karloak which simply says use the monies wisely, buy supplies, transport and weapons, it confirms Farhads story finally warns them of coming storm and a battle ahead.

Tilly pushes the note to Moon, "we could just take the money and head back to Jundar".

Moon reads the note, "you'd be dead within a week Tilly if you head back there, I for one would rather take my chances with the old Priest, or Karloak as you both call him"

Tilly pushes her chair back and stands up, reaching out to take the box and the money "oh well! dromedaries for each of us it is then, I have no doubt young Farhad there knows just where to get three, I am off to my room".

Moon snatches away the box before Tilly can get to it "I will look after the money Tilly, thank you, lets all retire and we can start the journey in the morning"

Tilly glares at Moon "nice to be trusted, fine, until the morning then", she storms of to her room.

The Second Day

I roll on the Theme table in Zathrum 2.2. to see if anything will happen today and rolling my d20 I get 12 = 'News', so at some point in the day the group will get some news related to whats going on.

I also want to see if they have an encounter in the City, I use Zathrum 2.2 again, this time the probability table, rolling d20 gets me 9 so 45% change of an encounter.  I roll my %dice and get 48, so there is no encounter whilst they are in the city.

Finally I roll a d6 to see how many hours they spend in the city before heading eastwards, roll = 6 so they will be leaving the city in around 6 hours or early afternoon.

The following morning the three are up and about early, Tilly seems to be in a much better mood than the previous evening, Moonwane is keen to get moving and Farhad says he knows where he can pick up three camels for the journey, he also suggests stocking up on water and provisions.

Farhad takes them all to a animal market where he haggles over the price of three scruffy looking camels and tack, the seller wants 240 silvers for the three, Farhad tries to haggle to get the price down.

I allow Farhad to make a charisma roll, allowing him to also use his bargaining skill to give him a +2, meaning he needs to roll 16 or less on d 20 to get the price of the camels down. He rolls 10, so he haggles the price of the camels down to 200 silvers.

Having paid for the camels the trio set off to purchase further items to help them on their journey,

Large Tent (big enough for them all 40 silvers

Various pots and pans to cook with    5 silvers

Waterskins each holding 5 pints x 6   3 silvers  (cost 5 coppers each)

5 days rations each @ 2 coppers       3 silvers

2 days iron rations each                    3 silvers  (cost 5 coppers per day)

1 weeks feed for each camel              1 silver 

In addition they purchased 100 ft of rope, a large sack and a spare set of peasants clothing each for a total of 8 silvers , that totals up at 263 silvers adding an additional 7 silvers for their rooms and meals, that means out of the 350 silvers in the small box given by Karloak they have 80 left, not including the 24 silvers Tilly still has and the 16 silvers Moonwane now has. 

Having got themselves set up with camels and tent and food for a few days, Farhad leads them out of the city on the road east along the sea.  He tells the that they are five days from the place Karloak told him to lead them to, he assumes that is where they are to meet the old Priest but he is not sure, he just knows that Karloak will contact them when they arrive there.

My party are walking down the coast road and I roll to see if they have an encounter before they set up camp for the night.  I use the encounter table in Further Afield, encounter chance on roads id 2 in 6, I roll 2 on d6 so there is an encounter.  Rolling to see what that encounter is I get  a 3 on a d6, so Fellow Travellers.  To find out who the travellers are I keep it simple using the three suggested in Further Afield, roll d6, 1/2 = pedlars, 3/4 = refugees, 5/6 = fellow adventures, I roll a 5.

I make a charisma check, Farhad has a charisma of 14 so I roll against his and get 12, so they pass the charisma check and have a friendly encounter.

I ask the oracle if the adventures have any news for my party, roll d20 = 15, 'Yes (in order to).

To get an idea as to what news they have I get two random verbs, I get 'trap' and 'continue'.

Two hours out of the city, the party meet a group of dishevelled fellow adventures heading towards the city, they are on foot and look in need of water.  Farhad offers them some from his waterskin which they gladly accept and strike up a conversation.  They tell my group that they were looking for the tomb of Agellar on the desert planes of Aganderis, they found only creatures of chaos, indeed in order to get safely back to the city they have had to keep off the road, Men twisted and deformed by chaos roam the lands, that these foul creatures are moving west, heading toward the city itself.  they add that if my party continue along the road, they will be walking into a chaos beast trap.

Thanking the adventuring party for their advice, Tilly, Moonwane, Farhad and party decided to continue along the road, Farhad has heard nothing, neither news nor roumor about chaos men until this moment, he suggest the adventures are suffering from heat exhaustion and talking nonsense.  

As night draws close and the air begins to cool, my party set up camp just of the road.  I roll for an evening encounter, this time giving just a 1 in 6 chance, rolling a 1, another encounter then.

I decided to roll d6, 1/2 Children of Chaos (1d4_4 of them), 3.4 Soldiers (1d6_4), 5.6 Merchants

Rolling the dice I get a 4, so we encounter 7 soldiers.

I roll a further charisma check to see if the party get a friendly reaction from the soldiers, roll d 20 =3 so yes, the soldiers are friendly

The party find a good place to make camp, setting up their tent and feed their camels, Farhad then begins making a stew, no sooner has he got the fire going and the pot simmering away than a group of soldiers appear from the south.  They look tired, exhausted and some have wounds and injuries.  Farhad offers to add more vegetables to the stew and feed the soldiers, they readily accept, in return they are able to brew up a dark amber tea like brew and offer it to my party.  They say they are from a village 3 days south which has been attacked by foul deformed men of chaos, they overran the village and spared non, the soldiers only manged to escape and are now on their way to the city to get help from the Emperor.

They talk for most of the night, eventually Tilly, Moon and Farhad turn in, a little black and white winged cat keeps watch perched on top of the tent.  The night passes without further incident, in the morning, the soldiers are gone.

Moonwane wants to go south to investigate the village but Tilly and Farhad disagree and want to to continue east to find Karloak, they get their way, and the party set of east along the coast road.

And that where I will end this session, are our heros heading into danger, seems that way, we will find out soon,

Adventure on!

Solo 'Through Sunken Lands RPG', a Tilly and Moonwane adventure, session 4

 Prolegomenon

Session 4 of my Through Sunken Lands solo adventure with Tilly and Moonwane almost didn't happen.

In session three, Tilly and Moon found themselves in a basement, my initial idea was that the basement would be empty, they would exit the basement into the main part of a large Jundarr house and have to deal with a few cultists in various rooms.  Straight away the oracle changed that and I found myself in a situation where my two characters, surrounded by 8 cultists, would have been quickly overpowered.  I stopped, rewound and started again, 

This second attempt went very much the same way, I got to a point very quickly where Tilly and Moonwane, surrounded by a sorcerer and undead, looked trapped and finished, when I tried to get them out of their predicament, it all just seemed too improbable, even for swords and sorcery.  

In attempt number three, I just got them to bash a fairly week eldritch fellow until he was no more and then leg it with the dead NPC's sword to catch their boat south and move the adventure on.  It left me felling less than satisfied and I had an inclination to abandon Tilly, the Sunken Lands and Jundarr, get a different game going.

I have done a bit of work on the background for a Chivalry & Sorcery campaign I really want to play as well as a lot of work on Beyond the Wall RPG which I intend to go back to once I have finished adventuring with Tilly and Moonwane and I realised that I perceived those two games to be more interesting, more exciting, than the current Through Sunken Lands game, in my mind I had already moved on from this adventure which had only just got going, all my energy was being channeled into the next game(s) causing the current one to fail.

I could for sure, abandon Through Sunken Lands, move on to Beyond the Wall but it would happen that after a couple of sessions of that game Chivalry & Sorcery would be more interesting , then DnD would and so on and so on, there would be a strong chance I would never finish a solo adventure ever.

I mention this because I am sure I am not the only one who suffers from this strange affliction.  I have had to force myself to put Beyond the Wall and Chivalry & Sorcery to one side, to spend a bit of time prepping the current game because I do want to be fair to Tilly and Moon and I do want to see what happens to them.  At some point the game will come to a natural end and when that time comes I will get that satisfaction of having actually completed a game.

At some point I will do a more in-depth post on why the next game always seem more exciting than the one I am currently playing but now, lets get on with the adventure!

Tools used in the session and other stuff.

We will be using the following toolkit for the game,

Through Sunken Lands and other adventures RPG

Zathrum 2.2 GM emulator

UNE for any NPS that may come up
Randomlists.com for a few verbs if I need a hint to work out what is going on.

This is a slight change from the previous sessions, I am dropping MUNE and using Zathrum 2.2 for my GM emulator (you can find Zathrum 2.2 here), also Zathrum has some tables for NPC creation so I may use them in addition to UNE if needed.

The first part of this session in the sea journey from Jundarr to the great city port of the Empire of  Trackless Sands.  Through Sunken Lands has rules for sea travel which I will use to determine if anything happens during their voyage. 

I know from previous sessions that Tilly and Moon are heading to the Empire to meet or find the old Priest and at some point during this session I should find out what the reason for this is.

A journey across the Hundred Seas.

Moonwane opened his eyes. he could feel the ship moving, hear the oars and they propelled the boat out of the Jundarr docks.  Still tired he at least felt a little better for his nights rest.  Realising Tilly was not in the cabin he roused himself from his sleepiness and stepped out into the cool breezy morning air.

Tilly is stood alone looking back towards Jundarr as the White Serpent, (as the ship is namrd),  slowly makes its way towards the open sea.  She feels partly relived that she is leaving but a part of her wonders if she will ever see the impossible city again.  She feels the presence of someone standing at her side, "morning" says Moonwane.

Looking at the map of the Sunken Lands I find that there is a scale of about 450 miles per inch, from Jundarr to where I put the port city of the Empire of Trackless Sands is about 2.5 inches, so something like 1100 to 1200 miles, a fair distance by Galley.

Beyond the Wall, Further Afield says that ships on open water can travel 8 hexes per day or about 80 miles, which means that it will take the White Serpent about 14 days to make the voyage.

Through Sunken Lands gives rules for sea journeys.  I am going to use the rules for montage travel so the captain of the White Serpent will need to make a wisdom check to see if the ship gets to its destination without incident .  A two week voyage is classed as a 'medium' or 'moderate' journey.  I am going to give the ships captain a name, Jerhi Yarll, (add that to my NPC list), and a  Wisdom of 14.  I will give him the skill of sailing and assume this is a regular trip for him and his crew so he knows the route very well, so +4 to his wisdom check, meaning he need to roll 18 or less on ad20 to pass.

He rolls a 2, so its all been plain sailing and rowing, they arrive at the port 14 days later without any problems.

As the city port of the Empire of Trackless Sands comes into view a commotion breaks out on the ships upper deck.

I roll on Zathrums theme table to see if I can find out what the issue is, I roll 17 which gives me Animal.

I decided to roll 1d4 to see what the animal is 1=bird, 2=cat, 3= serpent or snake, 4= dog.  I roll 2, cat. I shamelessly pinch 'Whiskers' the winged cat from the Corum novels as the creature causing the commotion. 

The Black & White winged cat.

This cat is highly intelligent, I have given it ability scores as it will be played as an NPC and ally to either Tilly or Moonwane.

STR: 3  DEX: 18  CON: 10   INT: 17  WIS: 14  CHA:15

AC:  12  HP 6

Attack - +1 to hit, claws x 2 1d4 -1
Skills Dodge, Fly, Move Quietly, Track.

can understand most languages but can only speak cat.

Tilly and Moonwane rush out of their cabin to see what the problem is, the little winged cat is flying at each of the crew members straight at their face, stopping for a fleeting moment, if anyone tries to hit the strange feline it seems to momentarily disappear only to reappear above the head of someone else, it seems to be making a nuisance of itself rather that trying to harm anyone.  As soon as it spots Tilly and Moon it heads straight for them both.

I use the Probability table in Zathrum to see which of the two the winged cat goes to, rolling d 20 I get 9, So a 45% chance its Tilly, rolling d 100 I get 58, so the cat flies straight to Moonwane.

The little cat heads straight for Moonwane, stopping just in front of the fighters face.  it seems to give Moon a look of recognition, Moon tries to shoo the creature away but it refuses to leave him and settles on Moons back, rubbing it head against his whilst purring, a few of the crew move menacingly towards Moon, Tilly and the cat.

Tilly draws her dagger, "looks like you have a new friend Moon, I do hope your friendship lasts more than the next 5 minutes".  Moon stands his ground against the oncoming crew.

"Before I work out how many crew are heading towards Moon and Tilly, I ask the oracle if they attack my duo and the cat, roll d20 = 1, so "No (on the contrary).

Moon puts his hand on his sword pommel, before he can draw his sword, the advancing crew begin to back away from him.  Jerhi Yarll steps between them and Moon and Tilly, "we will have no trouble on this ship, back to your posts the lot of you", the captain turns to Moon, "I suggest you take yourself and your pet to your cabin and keep the little critter in there, we will be in port in 3 hours, I want no more trouble from that creature or you, hear me?"

"Its not my Pe...", Tilly grabs Moonwane before he can finish his sentence and pulls him towards their cabin.  The little winged cat purrs even louder.  "looks like your stuck with the cat Moon" Tilly laughs, Moonwane grunts in response but he realises its the first time he has seen Tilly laugh is many a moon.

Arriving at the port city of the Empire of Trackless Sand.

Having sat in their cabin for what seemed like an eternity, in actual fact it was no more than four hours, the White Serpent finally docks.  Both Tilly and Moonwane are blown away by the beauty of this city, its walls, ramparts and towers bleached white by the burning sun stand formidable in their splendour, the mighty stepped pyramid, palace of the god-king and his greatest temple, rises above all the other buildings, dominating the city.  The port is a hive of activity, merchant ships loading and unloading, mighty war ships and their warrior crews preparing to patrol the southern seas.  Nearby markets and bazaars selling every thing imaginable, the air heady with the smell of spices and incense,  the noise of traders and their customers drowns out all other sounds.  To Tilly this is a dream, as she steps ashore she is intoxicated by the splendour of this almost alien place. 

Moon, with his new friend wrapped tightly around his neck and shoulders, brings Tilly back to earth "Its getting late in the day, we should find someplace to spend the night and work out what to do next".

Tilly looks at her companion, "What do you mean 'what to do next' I though we were to meet up with the old priest, I though you knew what comes next".

"No" Moonwane answers "I was just told to bring you here, I have no idea what we do. in fact I rather hoped you did".

Tilly turns her head away from Moonwane, "Great!", she mutters to herself.

I roll on Zathrums Theme again to get an idea for what will happen next, initially I roll 17 again, animal, but I decided I have already done that, so I roll again, 12 this time which is News.  So I reason that there will be some news about or from the old Priest.  I ask the oracle if someone has news for them, rolling 18, yes (surprisingly).  I roll on Zathrums NPC table , rolling 20 which is special.  I decided that they are approached by someone who has news for them.

As the pair walk away from the port towards the centre of the city, they are approached by a young lad dressed in local clothing, "Excuse me, excuse me, your are from Jundarr", he speaks in the common Jundarr language, "I was told to look for the man with the winged cat and his friend, I have news for you".

I ask the oracle if the NPC knows the name of  Tilly or Moon, roll d20 = 6, No (in order to)

I ask the oracle if he knows the name of the priest, roll d20  = 13, Yes (but).

Tilly tells the boy to go away, she does not trust him, she can spot a street urchin when she sees one, the lad persists, "please, I have information, news, the man told me to tell you his name if you did not believe me (in order to), he said you would know him as Karloak" (but).

Tilly stops in her tracks, grabs the lad by his arms, "Karloak, you were sent by Karloak?".

"Yes, by the way, you are hurting my arms", Tilly loosens her grip.

"Who is Karloak?", Moonwane asks Tilly, but its the young lad that replies, "he said you would know him just as the old priest".

Tilly, a little shocked, asks the lad what news he has for them, "first let me take you to a hostel I know", he replies, "I can get you food, rooms and then I will tell you what I was told to do".

Next time, session 5.

I will leave my adventures there for now while I plan the next session.  I now have my two adventures, a flying cat and a young lad both of whome will stick around as I think Tilly and Moon will need a little assistance in the coming adventures.  In session 5 I will describe the new addition to the group and find out what Karloak has told him to tell Tilly and Moon.  I suspect they will find themselves wandering through the Empire of Trackless Sands but we will fine out for sure soon.

Adventure on!