Let’s not pussyfoot around. In the battle with the Nightwight last week, our fighter Maelen fell to zero hit points. Sarin has fled, but the question remains: Is Maelen dead?
Here is a paragraph straight from the Tales of Argosa rulebook: “After the fight or encounter, if the character’s body is recovered and inspected, the PC makes a Death save: a roll equal to or under check vs 10 + Con mod or Will mod (whichever is higher, ignore negatives, Reroll available). … On a success, the character is Dying (below). On a failure, or if the body cannot be recovered, the adventurer really is dead and gone. Shed a tear, frown as the party loots the still warm corpse, then ask the GM about taking over a hireling, playing the monsters, or dropping in a new PC.”
So, the stakes are clear. Maelen’s 10 + Con mod and Will scores are the same. She’ll need an 11 or under on d20, which is a 55% chance of survival. She rolls a 13! Thankfully, she has one Reroll left. Here goes… 10! Maelen is officially alive, but Dying (and also has no more Rerolls). Now Alric and Vessa can attempt to Stabilize her.
In a moment of regret, I realize that none of the PCs have bandages. But then I look in the rulebook and see that a Healer’s Kit is actually Rare gear, so my regret is short lived. Besides, bandages won’t help Maelen. Because the attack that took her down was Sarin’s eerie grab, stabilizing her condition is not a matter of staunching bleeding or counteracting poison. Instead, I’m going to let both remaining PCs try an Intelligence(Apothecary) check since both have that skill. A success means that Maelen is stabilized, and a Great Success means she’ll be conscious at 1 hp. Vessa rolls a 12, which fails by 1. Alric, meanwhile, rolls a 10! An 8 would have been a Great Success, but at least Maelen will continue in the party.
Except for the small matter of Draining 1 level. There aren’t explicit rules in Tales for how to handle Drain, but I assume it means rolling a character back to the previous level’s stats. How do I do that for a Level 1 character, however? To answer this question, I went to the Low Fantasy Gaming Discord to ask. Answers ranged from “dead” to “give them 1d4 hit points with no abilities.” I might have done that last one if Maelen was conscious, but instead I’ll go with another common answer from the Discord (including from Tales creator Stephen Grodzicki, who it turns out is awesome): The PC remains in a coma / unconscious until Downtime can restore the level. That is ROUGH for poor ‘ol Maelen and the party, but better than dead!
Now that the dread Death Save is done, I’ll handle a few other housekeeping items. After the harrowing ambush by Sarin and his Lanternless, I’m moving the Mythic Chaos Factor up to 7—Vessa and Alric are alone in a tomb without their best fighter, and they know the Night Captain is wounded but still out there somewhere. I’ll also award all PCs 2 xp for that fight, plus 1 for Alric successfully doing research (and stabilizing Maelen). Now Alric and Vessa are at 7 xp and Maelen 5. Finally, I’ll update my Mythic Threads and Characters lists for future random event rolls.
IX.
Frostmere 16, Hearthday, Year 731.
“What are you waiting for? Help her!” Vessa blurted. Tears streaked her cheeks as she sat by helplessly. The stone floor bruised her knees and the cut on her arm burned, but none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was her friend.
Maelen lay sprawled on her back, arms splayed as if after a night of carousing. Bloody drool trickled from the corner of her mouth and down to one ear. Maelen’s skin looked ashen and sallow, her closed eyes sunken. For some reason, most disturbing to Vessa was the wide lock upon Maelen’s head that had turned a dull gray amidst her otherwise black hair. What had Sarin done to her? She couldn’t die and leave Vessa all alone. And yet, Maelen’s desperate and hopeless scream would haunt her dreams for years to come. How could she still be alive after the Nightwight’s dread touch? Was Vessa doomed to witness all the Larkhands’ deaths but never join them? Was she… alone? New tears blurred her vision.
The scribe hadn’t answered her. He had a hand on each side of Maelen’s head, above each ear, and he was murmuring something, eyes closed. Vessa wanted to throw him off her friend and beat the boy senseless, but she knew on some level that he was trying to help. Had he banished Sarin’s darkness, or had the magic disappeared when the Nightwight vanished? Vessa could have sworn she’d seen Alric, as the blackness had dissipated like lingering smoke, with eyes closed and murmuring just as he was doing now. Could he use magic, this lamed, ink-fingered scribe?
Suddenly, Maelen inhaled once, sharp and deep, her back arching. Then she exhaled with a moan and stilled. Alric’s eyes fluttered open and he looked down, releasing her head and frowning.
“I… I’ve done all I can,” he said weakly. He sounded… uncertain. Fragile. “She lives, for now. But I’m no healer, and don’t truly understand what’s hap–”
Before she realized she was doing it, Vessa lunged at Alric and fiercely embraced him. It was awkward with them both on their knees, and they almost toppled over. He stiffened, and then hesitantly returned the hug, patting her back with one hand.
Vessa released him without a word, sniffled loudly, and set to caretaking Maelen. She wiped the drool from her face, cut the shirt from the tracker she’d killed and used it to wrap Maelen’s hip where she’d taken a sword wound, and then pushed her friend’s bedroll beneath her unconscious head. Tatter, still nestled in a belt pouch, appeared unharmed. She left him there, hoping his presence might comfort Maelen. That done, she used yet more Lanternless shirt to bind her arm wound, then went about carefully extinguishing two of the torches to extend their chances at retaining light. When she felt satisfied, she looked up to find Alric’s back to her. He was studying the black, basalt door at the back of the room.
She stood, limbs protesting, and approached him. “This torch won’t last much longer,” she said into the silence. “And the other two won’t either. We need to get ourselves and Maelen out of here.”
“Mmm,” Alric said thoughtfully, his voice his own again. “And yet, wouldn’t Maelen want us to see what the Lodge has been hiding, all these many years? I can almost hear her berating us for not opening the door.”
She cocked her head. “For all we know, a whole host of silent zombies will spill out of that door.”
“I doubt it,” he said, turning to regard her. “The knights Meren and Edran had volunteered to guard this place for eternity. I don’t imagine that there is another company of noble warriors waiting beyond. The documents in this room are fascinating, but it’s not why Thornmere Hold was built.”
“What do you think is there, then?” she asked. Her stubbled scalp was still novel and startling, and she found herself rubbing a palm across it, watching him.
“I… don’t know, honestly,” he exhaled. “But I can sense… something. Some sort of power.”
“Which could be something that will tear our limbs off…” Vessa said with a smirk.
She had meant it as a joke, but he scoffed with irritation. “Aren’t you a thief?” he said, mouth twisting. “Don’t you want treasure? There is something important in there.”
The palm rubbing across her scalp stilled and she regarded the man before her. He leaned on his staff with both hands, knuckles white as they clutched the wood. His dark eyes almost pleaded with her, though they darted around, never lingering on one thing overly long. He was terrified, this young scribe, and yet desperate to see what lay beyond the heavy black door. Vessa considered for a moment whether Alric had known all along what lay in Thornmere Hold and had withheld it from them but quickly discarded the idea. It was the mystery beyond that door that was battering at him.
“Fine,” she shrugged a shoulder.
In a previous installment, I’d already rolled the skill checks needed for Vessa to successfully unlock the vault door and bypass its trap. I had also, when first encountering Thornmere Hold, rolled that a Major Magical Item was the big prize at the end of the mini-dungeon. Now it’s time to figure out exactly what is in this precious vault, and what the Inkbinders Lodge wanted locked away.
First, a Fate question: Is there more than just the Major Magical Item in the vault? I’ll give this a “Likely” rating, which at Chaos Factor 7 means there is a 85% chance of the answer being yes. I roll 56. Yep! In that case, I’m going to use the Lair rules in Tales, and I’ll use Sarin’s 4 HD as the basis for it. With that in mind, I’ll need to roll the total number of coins, plus some other loot. Fun!
On coins, I roll 89 cp, 400 sp, and 65 gp. That’s a lot of money, and probably more than Alric and Vessa will be able to carry. For the Loot A table, I roll a gold-gilded lantern with a Calvenor seal on it, worth 60 sp. There is a 50% chance of a Loot B item and I roll 34, so yes. Then I roll that it’s a scroll, which is perfect for the Lodge. What sort of scroll? I roll on the Spells table and get… Mend Flesh! A healing scroll! That’s great. Now the Trinket & Curios table: “A varnished case containing a string of garlic, two wooden stakes, and a silver holy symbol” for that last one, I’ll say it’s a symbol of the Argenoak, honoring the Rootmother. Well that is now going on the potential Threads list. Vampires!
One final step before the big kahuna, let’s roll 2 Minor Magical Items: I roll another scroll, this time Wings of the Raven King, giving the party access to flight. And… ohhhh… a Spellbook! How many spells are contained? I roll a 9 on a d10, which means it’s an Old Magic Grimoire! Oh my goodness… this is amazing. Rather than roll a d12 on the table, I’m going to limit the options and say this is a book of Orthuun, the Blind Sovereign, and want the spell to be appropriate for a demonic god of nothingness. Five of the twelve fit my purpose, so rolling a d6 (ignoring 6): I roll a 3, which is Ray of Unmaking. No need to describe what this does yet, as it will take Alric a lot of Downtime to uncover the mysteries here. Suffice it to say, though, conscious or not, Alric’s magic is coming from Orthuun as a patron, which fits right into the narrative I have up to this point.
Dizzy with story possibility, let’s finally roll on the Major Magical Item in this vault. First, a word on Major Magical Items in Tales of Argosa: Each item is rare, unique, virtually impossible to destroy, and:
“When an adventurer first acquires a Major Magical Item, they gain access to its first power. The precise way in which they become aware of this is left to the referee to decide, but might include innate understanding, research, intrinsic clues such as lightning flickering about the head of the Storm Spear coupled with trial and error, and so on.
As a character levels up however, they become more attuned to the item, unlocking further powers as their sorcerous connection with the object grows. Unless the GM determines otherwise, with each new level the adventurer unlocks a further power, until all powers have been unlocked.
In addition to specific powers, Major Magical Items may have other properties as noted in the last row under Special, which may apply at different times.”
Excited yet? Me too! I roll Yûlnvorg The Bonebreaker, a preternaturally heavy, spiked mace with a bound leather grip. What does it doooooo, though?! Let’s just say that, at least initially, a) if Maelen wakes up, and b) rolls a natural 20, good things will happen and bones will break. In addition, the wielder is particularly resistant to Dark & Dangerous Magic rolls. Huzzah!
This is all thrilling. However, there is one more roll to make: Does the vault contain a monster, as Vessa feared? I’ll Consult the Bones here: The Twins of Fate say Yes/Nil, the Hammer of Judgment says Yes, and the Fortune die says Skull. Well, that’s very clear. Yes, there is something here, either guarding the treasure or simply trapped and wishing the party harm. Hoo boy.
I’ll quickly make a custom random table to see what it might be that fits with my idea: That something has been trapped in here and over the last century been corrupted by the magic in the vault (particularly the Grimoire of Orthuun). I roll a Giant Spider, which I’ll reflavor into something awful. It is a 2+2 HD creature, so let’s roll hit points: 12. Finally, let’s check its Reaction roll: Cautious. Small blessing, then: It won’t immediately drop on the first person in the vault.
Here goes nothing…
Before Sarin and his Lanternless had arrived, Vessa had worked out how to slip past the arcane seal on the vault door without triggering whatever would happen if opened. She’d also already unlocked the two wheel-locks, untrapped, with her tools. As a result, it took her remarkably little time to open the large, black door before her. She barked clipped instructions for Alric on the position of the dwindling torch, and, thanks to a series of fingertip presses in a complex pattern she’d worked out based on the slight wear of the inlaid bronze. The seal hissed like escaping steam, rotated with a click, and pulsed once with a sickly green light before fading.
Then silence.
The dying flame of the torch was almost entirely gone. She lit a second torch from the first just before it died, the new flame sputtering weakly. Alric took it, but it already burned with a desperate flicker.
“We don’t have much time,” she said. “Let’s see what’s inside.”
Legs straining, she leaned forward and pushed the central wheel lock. There was a crack as the seal of the vault door broke free from its frame, but the door swung open easily and without incident.
“By the Herald,” Alric whispered in awe. He stepped forward, torch held aloft.
It was a small room, perhaps five or six strides across each side, with the same high ceiling as the previous chamber. Flickering light showed three iron-bound wooden chests upon the stone floor and a fourth, smaller than the others but entirely iron, lay nestled in a corner. Upon the wall, displayed by two iron hooks, hung a large, spiked mace that was entirely black and unlike anything Vessa had seen before. A fancy gilded lantern hung from a hook near the door, but upon inspection it contained no oil with which to light it. She did spy, however, the detailed, inscribed emblem of the stag upon the lantern, a symbol of the Princehold of Calvenor, not Oakton or one of its guilds. She didn’t know why a symbol of the Princehold hung here, so far from the Tower of Public Record, but she’d seen that stag stamped on royal warrants before, and if the lantern’s filigree was real gold… the lantern itself might be worth more than Alric was paying them for this job.
Her lips tugged into a grin. Alric had been correct to push them to open the vault door. She guessed that at least one of those chests contained coins. There could be ancient artifacts here. Magical trinkets. The contents of this place might even pay off her and Maelen’s debt to the Latchkey Circle!
“We don’t have much light left,” Vessa said, clapping Alric on the shoulder and stepping into the center of the room. “Let’s see what we can carry, and we’ll come back for the–”
She paused. Alric stood still and unmoving, staring up and wide-eyed. She followed his gaze.
The ceiling was vaulted with stone ribs, like the previous one, meant to prevent collapse. Yet here, strung across the space above was something like spiderwebs, though appearing jet black in the fading light.
Clinging to those dark webs was an enormous spider. Its massive, bloated body looked as large as a person and covered in chitinous black plates, the smooth surface reflecting the torchlight below. Perhaps most unnerving, unlike a spider it had absolutely no eyes… just a black, shiny ball for a head, bristling with mandibles. At first Vessa thought it was a desiccated husk, until one long limb twitched, cracking the webbing as it moved.
Without consciously deciding, Vessa was backing up, moving as silently as she’d been trained to do. Alric hesitated a heartbeat, then did likewise. Once they both had exited beyond the vault door, the scribe stumbled and backpedaled with a gasp.
Whether it was the sudden sound, movement, or a chance at freedom, the enormous eyeless spider dropped to the stone floor. It bobbed once on its long, shiny black legs, and then it advanced without sound.
Am I confident that our two adventurers can defeat a giant spider without Maelen? No, no I’m not. But here we are, and it’s Round 1. Vessa will start off our initiative, and succeeds with a 12. She will move to the tracker Fenn’s body and retrieve his shortbow and arrows, which she’d likely set aside when stripping him of his shirt. I’ll say that’s her full turn.
Even if Alric had offensive spells, he’s used his one spell to dispel Sarin’s darkness. He’s a brave and impulsive lad, so I guess he’ll do what he’s done before and try and bash the thing with his staff. The spider has a 13 AC, and he rolls an 11.
Because he’s right in front of it, the spider will attempt to bite and poison Alric. His AC is a lowly 10, but even with a +2 to hit it rolls a 6! Whew.
Let’s move to Round 2. Alric’s turn to roll initiative, and he rolls a 5! That gives him a chance to try and swing again with the staff. Unfortunately, his attack roll of 10 isn’t enough to hit. What about Vessa? With a bow she has a +3 total to hit. She rolls 16 total and hits for a max 6 damage! The spider’s hit points are halved.
First, a morale roll now that the spider has lost half its hp. It rolls a 7, under its 10 Will score and so will continue to fight. However, will it attack the seemingly harmless Alric or this new threat? I’ll roll evens/odds: Evens, so sticks with Alric. The giant spider this time rolls a 16 and hits. It rolls 2+2=4 damage, bringing Alric’s hit points to 9. More importantly, he now needs to make a Luck(Con) save against its poison (what’s the poison? I roll: 1d6 Will loss). Alric rolls a 5! In this case, I’ll say a success negates the effect (the other option is halving it, but I’m worried enough as it is). That success reduces his Luck score to 9.
As always, I’m going to take some creative license when describing the above turns. In this case, I’m also going to reorder some of the actions.
Vessa dashed towards the room’s entrance. When she’d stripped him of the shirt she’d used to bind both her and Maelen’s wounds, she’d placed the tracker’s bow and quiver of arrows aside. Vessa was a competent shot with a bow, though she generally disliked the feel of wearing them on long journeys and the labor involved in maintaining the bowstring. She had no desire to engage the enormous black spider in melee, however.
By the time she’d raised the bow and nocked an arrow, the creature loomed over Alric, two long legs raised like it was going to embrace him. Once again, she found herself impressed at the young scribe’s moxy. He held the dwindling torch in front of him, swinging it back and forth and yelling to keep it away. As she pulled back the arrow’s feathers to her ear and aimed, however, the spider lunged forward, its head descending near Alric’s shoulder. He cried out and she loosed. The arrow buried itself in the thing’s bloated body and it jumped off Alric as if shocked. It didn’t make a single sound, however, just like the zombies. Whatever magic was corrupting the creatures in Thornmere Hold, it seemed to rob its victims of their eyes and voices. The effect was wholly unnerving.
Round 3! Back to Vessa’s turn to roll initiative. She rolls a 2 and succeeds, and will indeed loose a second bow shot. This time she rolls a Nat-19! Amazing! She rolls a 1d10 damage: 8! The spider is dead, with no need to roll on the Missile Trauma table. Wow, combat in Tales of Argosa is fast, brutal, and fun.
With that battle (+1 xp, given to Vessa and Alric) and loot (+2 xp, given to all three), Alric and Vessa have 10 xp and will achieve level 2 when and if they can find time for a Long Rest! Maelen sits at 7 xp, so will have to climb out of her Nightwight-induced coma to catch up a bit. Again, assuming all of them make it out of Thornmere Hold and back to Oakton alive.
With practiced grace, Vessa pulled a second arrow from the quiver lying on the floor at her knee. From the crouch she readied another shot. The giant, shining spider reared up again, raising its two front legs over Alric’s stagging form, torch faltering and almost out, and Vessa fired.
The arrow punched through the black shell of its head, and the spider reared violently. Its limbs curled as if in pain, then it collapsed in a heap, twitching once more before going still.
Only Alric’s shuddering gasps and the hammering of Vessa’s heart broke the silence in Thornmere Hold.
Next: Unlit Procession [with game notes]
My Hero Brain 
Pingback: ToC08: The Night Captain [with game notes] – My Hero Brain
Pingback: ToC09: The Black Vault – My Hero Brain
Pingback: ToC08: The Night Captain – My Hero Brain
Thank goodness Maelan survived! Some sweeeet loot in that vault :DD
LikeLike
So sweet! I have a feeling that the Grimoire and mace might be the object of their own adventures…
And yes, it took me 3 days to muster up the courage to make Maelen’s Death Save roll. Thank goodness for Rerolls!
LikeLike