Age of Wonders, Issue 3 Reflections

On April 19, 2025April 26, 2025 By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying4 Comments

Apparently, I like ending these issues of Age of Wonders on cliffhangers, because Issue 3 left us right in the middle of the hairiest (both literally and figuratively) situation our new party has encountered to date. What’s going to happen in Issue 4? I honestly have no idea, but it’s going to be a wild one.

Before we move on to Tatter and her ratfolk horde, however, let’s pause and reflect on all things Age of Wonders. I’m still very much finding my way with this solo-play-emergent-serial-fiction thing, and these pauses are proving to be a vital part of my process, a chance to pull my head up from my keyboard and dice tray, pondering changes to either my approach or story.

Suffice it to say, I’m happy right now and don’t have a lot of tweaks to make. I’m about to learn a lot from Issue 4 and however this temple scene unfolds. I suspect that my next Reflections post will be meaty as a result. Still, here are my musings on the solo game experience to date, using published material as a safety net, and building epic scenes with an eye towards my post-Issue 6 level-up. Enjoy!

Solo Play: So Far So Good

This week I received my months-delayed Kickstarter copy of Evolved, which as you may recall is a superhero game system using Dungeon Crawl Classics as a base. Since superheroes represent my favorite genre and DCC is my favorite game system, there’s a very good chance that if Evolved had met its original release schedule that I would be playing it instead of Crusaders. So, in some ways, this week is a good test of my resolve to stick with Crusaders instead of changing the system in the background to my shiny new toy (although, to be fair, Evolved is likely a system that requires a full reboot since character creation is woven into the stories it tells). Indeed, I know myself well enough that I haven’t even cracked open my chunky, 500-page Evolved rulebook for fear of becoming severely distracted from the rest of my life. When I finally succumb, I suspect my mind will ignite.

Thankfully, nine installments into this experiment and I’m feeling fine about my selection of Crusaders. Last time I mentioned some of the limitations that I see inherent within a simplified system, and those issues still exist. But I like the variant rules that I’ve added to the game. I am also benefiting from the simplified rules system, which allows me to spin up a bonkers scene like the Temple of the Rat God on the fly and with relatively little stress. Creating characters is still a delight, and the recent combat with the Bronze Armor was both tense and cinematic. As long as I’m able to keep a coherent plot while maintaining my focus on nonstop supers-on-supers action, Crusaders is likely to serve my needs. If I ever start wanting to spend more time on interpersonal scenes or other noncombat endeavors (like exploration, hazards, and chases), I’ll likely be frustrated. For now, though, the tool is fitting the job.

Since I’m extoling what’s going well, I’ll also say that I’m absolutely loving the three-installments-per-issue-then-reflections format and equally enjoying switching the point-of-view character each installment. It’s a pace that feels sustainable even while juggling a full-time, travel-heavy job, and moving between voices allows me to live in each protagonist’s brain for a week at a time. I’m not sure what happens if I decide to add another PC into the mix, but I’ll cross that bridge if and when I get there. For now, let’s just make sure our party survives their sojourn into the ratfolk warrens.

Speaking of which…

Published Material as Safety Net

When I played DCC solo for six months, I relied heavily on published adventures, first Portal Under the Stars and then Doom of the Savage Kings. That experiment was focused on learning the game system and fully stretching my gaming legs with some of their most popular adventure modules. Since that time, I’ve GMed several DCC games for groups and have fantasized about running a longer campaign sometime. When I do so, I’ll likely start with published material and then allow the story to morph and evolve into plots intimately tied to the characters’ lives and choices. At the time, though, I was glad to stick closely to the material as written by legends Joseph Goodman and Harley Stroh.

My Crusaders game differs from that first solo play experience in two key ways. First, I am now playing within a homebrewed world and a fantasy-superhero mash-up. There simply is no published material set in Age of Wonders, so anything I would try to use would require heavy modification anyway. Second, as I’ve said repeatedly, Crusaders is a simpler game to learn and master, and is inherently a comics-combat simulator. The goal of Crusaders is to make cool set pieces and have your imaginary actions figures bash against each other, with mechanics underlying it that are easy to pick up. As a result, when I began this experiment, I decided that I would make the story completely emergent and not constrained by published material.

Very quickly, of course, I changed my approach. I found that a blank canvas was a source of stress and inhibiting my ability to set goals and milestones in the story (to be clear: this is a problem with me, not with emergent storytelling). I scanned through my endless shelves of published adventures across many game systems, plucked a few modules that sounded sorta kinda close to my current story, and read through them. For those guessing at home, I used the map in No Small Crimes in Lankhmar as the basis for Sammy Suttar’s home (also, Sammy’s name), and have been relying loosely on Rats of Ilthmar for Issues 3 and 4. The Lankhmar setting, it turns out, is an excellent font of ideas for the urban adventuring of Oakton.

What I have unexpectedly enjoyed is peeking at these published adventures for maps and encounter ideas, without being in any way bound by their story beats. In No Small Crimes (spoiler alert!), the entire conceit of the adventure is that the PCs are shrunk to small size in an abandoned house. In Rats, the PCs are infiltrating a cult to a rat god in which humans are dressed like rats, and the temple is above ground. Most of each published adventure has little to do with what’s happening in Age of Wonders, but is still there to help provide inspiration and handholds when I need them. It’s been awesome; my approach so far has provided me with a creative safety net without constraining my ability to push the protagonists into increasingly wild situations. The result is at best an homage to the published material, and often unrecognizable. I’m excited to maintain my “sort of based on this but not really” approach in the future.

The Current Situation: Where Do We Go From Here?

The scene within the temple is my most ambitious one to date. A whole room full of ratfolk, with two different kinds of lieutenants, and the dastardly villain behind it all. The PCs are hopelessly outnumbered, and if this situation becomes a stand-up fight I’m reasonably sure that they will lose. But can they flee when Maly has gone into the crowd on some scheme plotted by her animal companion Destiny? I’m excited to find out, since I genuinely have no idea how this scene will play out. It could be an enormous brawl that ends with the heroes captured, or it could equally become a mad dash through the ratfolk tunnels towards the surface world, or any other number of outcomes.

My explicit goal is to “wrap up” the ratfolk story somehow by the end of Issue 6, if not before. As a result of last week’s installment, I’m exactly halfway there. My gut tells me that I need to start pointing the PCs towards resolution immediately, yet keep an open mind about side stories or unexpected twists. This enormous temple scene could be the last time we see the ratfolk for now… maybe they manage to take out Tatter and make nice with the remaining populace, for example. But I’m guessing we haven’t come to the end. The fun will be in finding out, and if the ratfolk plot somehow does find a suitable tie-off point, I have a number of smaller subplots with each character to fill out that first “trade paperback” of six issues.

Finally, let’s continue to pour some love into Roland Brown from drawhaus.com, who continues to create amazing covers for these Age of Wonders issues. This time we got an action shot of Destiny versus Bronze Armor, and next issue features Tatter! Thank you, Roland!

If you’re enjoying the story or have suggestions, drop me a comment below or feel free to email me at jaycms@yahoo.com.

Next Time: Can our heroes escape the temple? [with game notes]

Age of Wonders, Issue 3c: Temple of the Rat God

On April 12, 2025April 19, 2025 By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction1 Comment

Kami’s first thought upon glimpsing the scene beyond the curtain was that all her companions were soon going to die. Even, she suspected, the great cat Destiny. Probably not Kami herself, because she was not certain she could die any longer. Yet all the rest were doomed.

Alone, the primitive, stunted ratfolk were not particularly dangerous, much like rats themselves. Yet, also like commonplace rats, it seemed they were rarely alone.

The group had moved warily and quietly through a tunnel, following Destiny’s lead, to where the panther said the ratfolk were gathered. They’d reached a wide opening, blocked by not one but two tattered blankets arrayed side by side. Though so far Emah’s torch had been their only light in the underground warrens, surprisingly light flickered from behind the edges of the cloth. Not only light, though… Beyond the doorway they could hear the chittering and squeaking of what sounded like dozens of ratfolk. Perhaps more. The smell here was almost overpowering as well, like wet animals and feces crawling into her nose and down her throat. She stopped breathing, something she only recently realized she could do. The implications of not needing to breathe unnerved her, but it was—like so many other events from recent weeks—something left contemplated for a later time.

As they pushed the cloth gently aside, the group was confronted by an enormous chamber, perhaps fifty or more strides across and deep, and half that high. The walls of the place were packed hard, almost sculpted, and great wooden scaffolding was arrayed to support the ceiling and walls. Four wooden pillars, severed tree trunks with carved markings of some kind across their entire length, stood sentinel from floor to ceiling, giving the place the feeling of a temple or grand amphitheater. It was difficult to tell whether the ratfolk horde had found this place and built their warren around it, or whether this vast space had been their most ambitious work. Either way, it was an impressive gathering hall, especially so deep below the surface.

Against the wall to their left sat a raised, earthen dais, and atop it was a large wooden carving like the one they’d seen in the ratfolk bedchamber: A naked man with the head and tail of a rat. The statue stood fully twice as high as Kami, roughly hewn but impressive still in its menace and power. At the statue’s base stood a ratfolk in tattered robes, waving its furred and clawed hands rhythmically as it chittered. Two torches had been thrust into the earth on either side of the robed creature. Between them, at the ratfolk’s feet, sat the bejeweled box Kami had seen in Sami Suttar’s home. The torchlight caused the gems and gold to glitter hypnotically, casting dancing shadows all around the vast chamber.

Filling the chamber from the base of the dais throughout the rest of the room was a horde of ratfolk, arms raised and chittering in unison with the figure on the stage. A handful of other robed figures stood swaying closest the dais, and behind them amassed creatures like the ones they’d fought and killed several times the past day—each the size of a child, hunched and furred, with rat-like heads and beady eyes, claws tipping their long fingers and toes. They wore stained scraps of clothing, none alike. Finally, littered at the perimeter of the crowd, were several of the more hulking creatures like the one that had tackled Maly outside of the jail the previous day. Everything about these other ratfolk was stronger, larger, and more savage, almost like comparing a wolf to a domesticated dog. Unlike everyone else in the room, these rat-brutes prowled the crowd, black eyes overlooking their shorter brethren and scanning the chamber.

In all, it was a dizzying and overwhelming scene. Kami would not have been surprised to discover that a hundred in all of the creatures were in this chamber, this temple to some rat god far below Oakton. She could not even begin to fathom what it all meant, or what ritual or rite the robed priest atop the dais was performing. Kami wondered, in a brief flicker, what lay in the opened bejeweled box that she could not see, and why these primitive creatures had been so willing to die to obtain it.

Then she had no time to consider anything but survival.

The nearest large, savage ratfolk whipped its head towards them as they gathered beyond the curtained doorway. Then, with a snarl, it leapt at Emah. The Kaleen warrior raised her sword in a flash, intercepting the attack and sidestepping. Meanwhile, the ratfolk nearest them turned away from the chanting upon the dais and began chittering excitedly, pointing and moving closer to them.

“What!?” Maly whispered harshly, though no one had spoken. Kami guessed that the woman was once again having a one-sided conversation with the great, black cat. “You’re crazy! Okay. Okay! Just… Keep them safe and I’ll be back!”

Then, to Kami’s shock and horror, the pale-skinned woman dove into the onrushing crowd, tumbling and disappearing within the horde.

She had no time to ask what the fool mercenary was thinking or to help. Instead, at the speed of thought her arms lengthened wide. Like a mother embracing her oncoming children, Kami’s arms enfolded three of the nearest creatures, then closed tight. She could feel their small, furred bodies crack in her grip. They shrieked and shuddered briefly before falling still, and Kami dropped them to the dirt floor.

Near her, Emah pulled a blood-slicked blade from the side of the hulking ratfolk that had been grappling with her, its body now lifeless. The panther Destiny was savaging two of the smaller creatures, one already dead in its jaws and another squirming weakly beneath its claws.

That was fast, Kami thought proudly. The other ratfolk near them had their backs turned still, swaying and chittering and focused on the dais. Perhaps we can all survive this room, after all. If we can stay silent back here, we can make a plan. But… where is Maly?

Her eyes scanned the crowd, amazed that she could miss the Stone Islander amidst a sea of small, furred ratfolk. Kami thought that perhaps she spied a jostle of movement in the weak, flickering light, rats chittering in surprise as they were pushed aside. But before she could be sure, the robed figure on the dais stopped its swaying. Its dark, beady eyes focused on the back of the crowd, where Kami, Emah and the panther stood, and pointed a clawed finger. More loudly than it had been chanting, the figure chittered something defiant and sharp.

The entire crowd turned as one to regard them.

“Well… shit,” Emah gulped.

Next: Issue 3 Reflections!

Age of Wonders, Issue 3c: Temple of the Rat God [with game notes]

On April 12, 2025April 19, 2025 By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying2 Comments

Alone, the primitive, stunted ratfolk were not particularly dangerous, much like rats themselves. Yet, also like commonplace rats, it seemed they were rarely alone.

Then she had no time to consider anything but survival.

If Kami hadn’t fumbled her attempt to deal with the sentries in the last installment, the party would have had some time to formulate a plan against this bizarre and bonkers scene. Instead, the ratfolk looked briefly for the intruders and, not finding them, doubled their guard during this sacred ritual. So, unfortunately, for Kami and her companions, they now must react instead of plan.

First, let’s get organized. In the chamber there are roughly 60 ratfolk worshippers that I’ll arrange into 10 mobs of 6 each, and each with a 10 Fight score. I’ll say there are 6 total lieutenants with the same stats as the one they fought outside the jail way back in Issue 1b: Physique 12 Prowess 12 Alertness 14 Psyche 10. There are also 4 new types of lieutenants, ratfolk priests: Physique 9 Prowess 10 Alertness 14 Psyche 15 with a “spell” that acts like Psychic Attack.

The ratfolk up on stage is a Rank 1 Villain, who I’ll call Tatter, the High Priest. Time to make another NPC!

Origin: I’m pretty open to who this high priest is, so let’s just roll on my variant tables and see what happens. I roll 85 or 58, which is either a non-powered Spy/Assassin/Thief/Guide or a Wyrding – Power Endowment. The latter makes more sense to me. This is a ratfolk that was granted otherworldly power by the recent Wyrding and thus became the high priest of this society.

In this specific scene, I’m not too worried about Tatter’s history vis a vis the ICONS Origins tool, but I’ll do a couple of rolls here. Tatter is female, relatively young, social ratfolk who values herself and her friends more than anything else. Okay, interesting… so she’s a bit like a “child avatar,” a normal ratfolk teenager equivalent who was granted power and thrust into the role of high priest. I don’t know if that will matter in the story, but it’s fun.

Powers: As a Rank 1 character, Tatter gets 3 Power rolls. They are:

Roll 1: 33, which is choose or invent my own!

Roll 2: 41 or 14, which is Flight, Armor, Psychic Sense, Emotion Control, Fire Mastery, Energy Blast, Detective or Acrobat.

Roll 3: 21 or 12, which is Energy Blast, Armor, Mind Control, Emotion Control, Energy Blast, Alchemist, or Acrobat.

The ones that most stood out to me given Tatter’s role and station were Mind Control and Emotion Control, so I’m going to focus my attention there. I’ll use the first and third role for Mind Control with an Improvement: Collective Mind Control. She can basically make people (and even crowds with a united purpose, like the ratfolk horde) do what she wants. I’ll use the second roll, then, for Emotion Control. I’ll say that she can induce emotions with the same parameters as her Mind Control powers.

Attributes & Motivation: As a Rank 1 Villain, she gets 10 Attribute points to spend, same as our PCs. I’ll give her the array of Physique 10, Prowess 10, Alertness 14, Psyche 16. This also means that her Vitality is 30 (Physique x3). Motivation-wise, I’m not going to overthink this and just call her a Leader. Why are the ratfolk doing all this stuff from the previous installments? The answer seems to be because Tatter is making them do it. This also means that taking Tatter out will dramatically change the crowd’s attitudes.

Here’s Tatter’s character sheet:

Okay, despite the fumble I’m not crazy enough to kick off a combat with all these forces at once. Instead, I’m going to say that the room is focused on Tatter and her ritual, and only the closest guards will sense the PCs and act against them. For now, I’ll say that’s 1 brute-lieutenant and 1 mob of 6 ratfolk. The savage brute will attack, and the mob will use their action to alert more of the audience. At the end of each turn, I’ll make an Alertness roll to see if Tatter notices what’s happening (at which point all hell will break loose).

Initiative-wise, then, we have for Round 1:

Maly (Alertness 15)
Brute Lieutenant 1 (14)
Kami & Emah (each 13)
Destiny (12)
Ratfolk mob 1 (10)

The party absolutely does not have to make this an epic, large brawl, and fleeing is absolutely an option. Let’s see how this goes…

Maly will get instruction from Destiny (what’s the plan? Stay tuned!) and try and move before the action really begins. She’ll roll Prowess against the first mob, but not to attack and instead to move through them. With her Prowess of 13 and the mob’s Fight of 10, that’s a 65% chance of success. She rolls 58 and makes her way into the crowd. I’ll say one more success next round and she can be at the dais relatively unmolested.

The brute lieutenant has a choice between attacking Emah and Kami. I roll odds and it’s Emah. With her sword, Emah can defend melee attacks with a Prowess of 20 versus the brute’s score of 12. That’s a 90% chance of success and she rolls 15, parrying the attack easily.

Now’s the big decision: Do Emah and Kami run or fight or do something else? Hm. Let’s bust out the Mythic GM Emulator and insert some randomness into the action! Normally I’d do this for NPCs but I am curious how this might play with my PCs. I’ll roll twice on the Character Actions table: I get “Normal” and “Messy.” That leads me to believe that they’ll follow their normal tendencies, which for Emah will be to stay and fight for her friend and for Kami is to end the mission (which means exterminating the ratfolk) and free herself of her contract. For both, this will certainly get messy.

I’ll roll attacks for Emah (80% chance to hit the brute: 58. Hit and killed!), Kami (50% to hit the mob: 11. Critical hit! I’ll say she not only does her 30 damage, crushing half of the rats in one go, but manages to do so quickly and quietly), and Destiny (60% versus the mob: 13. Hit! 17 damage).

The first ratfolk mob only has 2 members left, one very injured. And, because of Kami’s crit, I’ll say the action doesn’t alert nearby lieutenants and mobs. The party might get some time to plan, after all! The only obstacle is Tatter, who gets an Alertness roll to see if she spots the activity in the back of the temple on her own, since she’s the only one facing them. I’ll give it a Hard difficulty in Round 1, dropping in difficulty each round. With her Alertness of 14, that’s a 45% chance: I roll 01. Oh boy. She definitely notices. Yikes.

Then, to Kami’s shock and horror, the pale-skinned woman dove into the onrushing crowd, tumbling and disappearing within the horde.

The entire crowd turned as one to regard them.

“Well… shit,” Emah gulped.

Next: Issue 3 Reflections!

Age of Wonders, Issue 3b: Into the Warrens

On April 5, 2025April 12, 2025 By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction1 Comment

“You must be joking,” Maly said, crossing her arms and frowning. “We are not going down there.”

She, Emah, and Kami stood huddled in a musty, stone-walled cellar of the house that was once Sami Suttar’s, at a lonely cul-de-sac in the Coins. Torchlight from a short and portly City Watch guard revealed wooden shelves that had been emptied of whatever they once held, all except a few empty boxes and frayed, decaying sacks. Patches of pallid mushrooms sprouted on the earthen floor.

And there, against the western wall, was a ragged hole that looked as if it had been gnawed and clawed open from beyond.

Behind them, the liquid shadow that was Maly’s giant cat companion rumbled a low growl. The nearby Watchman yelped and moved as far as he could away from the beast. Emah couldn’t blame him. Destiny the… panther, Maly had called him? Everything about the panther’s presence spoke of a dangerous predator.

“No, I’m not scared,” Maly whispered harshly over her shoulder. “I’m just being practical. That is a deathtrap. Look how small the hole is! Emah, tell him.”

Emah sighed and immediately regretted it. Her entire torso was a quilt of bruises, and Maly had said perhaps her ribs had broken from the ancient bronze armor’s immense blow. Breathing at all hurt, but anything more sent spines of agony coursing through her. She winced and said through gritted teeth. “It’s small,” she agreed. “But the rats look like they made it big enough to go two abreast and carry whatever it is they stole upstairs. We’ll have to crouch, but we can fit.”

“Oh, well that’s just…” Maly threw up her hands in frustration. “Why do we care what they stole, again? Can’t we just wait for them here? Lay a trap or something?”

“They’re not returning,” Kami said evenly. The woman had said little since Emah had risen, though she’d asked after Emah’s health tenderly enough. Emah thought that Kami must be feeling vulnerable after having revealed her otherworldly powers and strength. Certainly, Maly had given Kami a wide berth, like she would spontaneously burst into flames at any moment. The three of them were overdue to have a long talk, and soon. That is, assuming they survived the, as Maly called it, deathtrap before them. “They stole what they wanted.”

“We’re not going after the box they stole,” Emah clarified for Maly. “Our contract is to ensure we exterminate the ratfolk or keep them from entering Oakton. This hole leads to wherever their warren is. At least that’s the theory.”

“Emah,” Maly pleaded. “You don’t follow a bear back to its cave.”

“You do if you’re trying to kill it,” Emah shrugged, and winced with pain. No more shrugging either, she scolded herself. “And what do you know of hunting bears, anyway? You’ve never left the city.”

“It’s an expression,” Maly pouted.

“One you made up,” Emah chuckled, and then told herself definitely no more chuckling. Fire blossomed in her chest and side.

“I will go first,” Kami said grimly, and took a step forward.

“No wait,” Maly held up her hands. “Destiny says he’ll go first.”

The panther stalked forward, and they parted to give him access to the hole. His yellow eyes glinted in the torchlight.

“Watchman,” Emah said to the man at the far end of the cellar. “I assume we are going alone?”

The man’s eyes were wide on his sweaty face. “We– we’ll guard the house, ma’am. Unless… unless you need us?”

She remembered Sergeant Mewa and his handsome face and strong arms. He had been a capable warrior, and intelligent, and he and his two Watchmen had been torn apart by the rats. She had been in bed when they’d taken his body away, so she hadn’t even paid her respects. A wave of sadness for a man she hardly knew washed over her, a regret of lost potential of someone she would have liked to know better. This terrified man before her was everything Mewa was not, and she could see no value in him accompanying them. Indeed, it seemed Inspector Calenta had assigned her greenest and least capable members to the house while she dealt with whatever else was happening in the city.

“No,” she told the man. “But give me your torch.”

He almost stumbled forward to comply. By the time Emah had turned with the wooden tool in her grip, the panther had disappeared.

Maly whimpered. “He says it’s all clear and that we should follow.”

“Let’s get this done,” Kami said, and ducked her way into the savage, black gash in the wall. Emah stooped after her, holding the torch in front of her. A long, earthen tunnel ran down and away in the darkness. “Stay close, Maly. We’ve got this.”

She moved forward, her ribs flaring with pain with every step, following the ratfolk to their lair.

Emah wasn’t certain how much time had passed in the tunnels beneath Oakton. The place was an immense warren worthy of any rat’s nest, an intricate series of passages dug through hard-packed earth in all directions. It smelled of fur and feces, a subtle but ever-present stench that had Emah feel unclean. As they proceeded, it became clear that the ratfolk had been able to access points all across Oakton. In addition, there were either many more of the creatures than any of them had suspected or they had been tunneling beneath the town for a long, long time. Perhaps both. Yet despite frequent droppings, discarded or broken tools, and remnants of food, they had neither heard nor seen the ratfolk yet.

Destiny the panther had assured Maly that he could find their way back when their task was done, or at least that’s what Maly informed them that he’s said. Yet even without the great cat’s tracking senses, it would not have been difficult to navigate the maze of tunnels in a general way. To get to Oakton, take a tunnel sloping upwards.

To find the true home of the ratfolk, go down.

They did not speak overly much while exploring the black tunnels. Maly relayed Destiny’s reports from ahead, that he was following the strongest scents, and now and again Emah and her friend would banter about the terrifying press of darkness all around them to keep one another sane. Kami never participated in these conversations, which usually was the reason they all fell silent. Their recent employer seemed tense, angry, and relentlessly focused on completing their mission. Emah was reminded again that, if they all survived this contract and were going to continue associating with the brothel-owner, they would need to have a serious discussion to build trust.

Every step sent a stab of pain into Emah’s side, and the relentlessness of it meant that her entire body ached. She proceeded forward as best she could, keeping eyes scanning the torchlit shadows and ears questing for any sounds but their footsteps and ragged breathing. The lack of ratfolk was an eerie thing, and their absence sat in Emah’s stomach uneasily.

Suddenly, Maly froze. Kami and Emah stuttered to a halt behind her.

“What is it?” Emah whispered.

Maly held up a hand, as if listening, but Emah heard only silence.

“Destiny says there are rats ahead,” Maly breathed quietly. “Sentries.”

“Okay,” Emah nodded, transferring the torch to her free hand and quietly unsheathing her blade. “We should…”

“I’m not afraid of them,” Kami growled, and strode forward, past her startled companions.

“Kami, wait!” Maly whispered urgently, but it was too late. The woman had already disappeared around a bend. There was a squeak of alarm and another of pain, and then Emah was there, sword out front. One crumpled ratfolk lay at Kami’s feat.

“Curse these creatures! One got away!” Kami grunted in frustration.

The panther growled, and Maly nodded in response. “That was dumb,” she snapped, and Kami blinked in surprise. “You want the whole army of them on top of us? We could have done this silently.”

“I thought–” the Kaizukan woman began, and then shook her head, exhaling forcefully through her nose. “You’re right. I apologize.” She looked at Emah briefly and said, almost demurely. “What do we do now?”

“It went to sound an alarm, I assume,” Emah said through the throbbing pain in her side. “But the fact that there are guards means we’re close to something. Let’s hurry and see if we can find a place to hide. If not, we fight.”

The panther huffed and began loping forward. The others followed, though running in a crouch was agony for Emah’s battered side. For the next stretch of time—it could have been minutes, it could have been a full bell, she couldn’t be sure through her near-blinding pain—they weaved through even larger tunnels, the ground hard-packed and well-trod. Echoing from nearby passages and around curves they heard the telltale chittering and squeaking of ratfolk, and Maly told them breathlessly that the panther smelled the things everywhere.

Eventually, they found that they had been largely circling a central destination of some kind, complete with tattered, mismatched cloth and burlap flaps as doors. Perhaps it was the topmost section of a larger living area, or perhaps the barricades were meant to distinguish the warren from other traveling passages beyond. Regardless, Destiny led them past several of the doorways and to a passageway blocked by a long woolen cloak that what looked like it had once belonged to an Oaktowner. The large black beast pushed its way past the cloak and the other followed, into an empty chamber beyond.

“He says there are older smells here, nothing new,” Maly whispered, her face slick with sweat in the torchlight. “It’s as good a hiding place as we’re likely to find.”

“I was… rash,” Kami said. Unlike Maly and Emah, she neither seemed out of breath nor sweating. “I should not have charged those sentries in the darkness without help.”

“We all agree,” Emah gasped, and sat, back against one earthen wall, trying to catch her breath and find respite from the pain. “Don’t do it again. We need each other alive.”

They were in a modestly sized space, but it was certainly a chamber instead of a tunnel. Roughly square, with several sleeping pallets made of straw, scraps of clothing, and various trash. A low, battered table was its only furnishing, and atop the table was a curious, crude statue made of wood that nevertheless distinctly appeared to be a naked man with a rat’s head and tail. If Emah were to guess, it looked like an idol of some kind. Did these ratfolk worship a rat… god? The idea made her uncomfortable, for it meant a level of intelligence that she hadn’t attributed to them. Perhaps extermination wasn’t the aim here, but diplomacy instead? Her mind whirled, thoughts scattered by stabs of pain.

“What is this place?” she said in quiet wonder. “What are these creatures?”

No one answered.

Emah squeezed her eyes tight, her breathing shallow. Her ribs hurt terribly. Her thoughts were a jumble. Would she die down here?

Unbidden an image of her mother appeared in her mind, face strong and smiling. Her mother’s natural countenance was intimidating in its seriousness, like a predator. But when she smiled, those white teeth contrasting with the dark chocolate of her skin, well… the whole world lit up, her father used to say. Emah couldn’t remember the sound of her laugh, though the image of the smile was enough in this moment to lift her spirits. She fixed her mother’s happy portrait in her mind, focused on it while walling away the pain into a smaller and smaller space, until the little package of pain was a fraction the size of her mother’s countenance. Then, like a portrait on a wall, she tucked the pain behind the image, blocking it from view. For one long, even breath she stared at her mother’s dark eyes, her full lips, drawing strength. No, she decided. She would not die down here, in these rat warrens away from the sun and her father.

She exhaled and opened her eyes. Maly and Kami looked at her, concerned, while the panther prowled at the far end of the room near another tattered cloth.

“You okay?” Maly mouthed, eyes wide.

Emah nodded. With only a small grunt she stood. “Let’s go and do our job,” she whispered, and realized that she had not sheathed her mother’s sword. The blade shone in the torchlight, flashing like the smile in her image. She grinned.

Destiny pushed through the cloth hanging and the others followed. Beyond was a passageway, branching left and right.

“Which way?” Emah asked Maly.

The woman cocked her head. “He says the rat smell is strongest to the left. And…” her whispered voice trailed off and she swallowed.

“What is it?” Kami said, her face narrowed with suspicion.

“And he says there are a lot of them.”

“Are they coming towards us?” Emah asked, eyes searching the small living space for a defensible position.

Maly paused, waiting for the answer, and then shook her head.

“You didn’t want to have them all swarm us,” Kami hissed through clenched teeth. Her tone suggested that she did not like speaking of her own mistakes, but Emah did appreciate that she asked the next question before acting independently. “Do we go crush them now or flee?”

Emah looked from the Kaizukan woman to her friend’s wide-eyed face to the black mass of the panther. She sighed.

“Let’s go see what they’re up to,” Emah said.

Next: So many rats!

Age of Wonders, Issue 3b: Into the Warrens [with game notes]

On April 5, 2025April 12, 2025 By MagicJMSIn Age of Wonders, Fantasy Fiction, Superhero Fiction, Superhero Gaming, Tabletop Roleplaying1 Comment

“You must be joking,” Maly said, crossing her arms and frowning. “We are not going down there.”

And there, against the western wall, was a ragged hole that looked as if it had been gnawed and clawed open from beyond.

“No, I’m not scared,” Maly whispered harshly over her shoulder. “I’m just being practical. That is a deathtrap. Look how small the hole is! Emah, tell him.”

“Oh, well that’s just…” Maly threw up her hands in frustration. “Why do we care what they stole, again? Can’t we just wait for them here? Lay a trap or something?”

“Emah,” Maly pleaded. “You don’t follow a bear back to its cave.”

“It’s an expression,” Maly pouted.

“One you made up,” Emah chuckled, and then told herself definitely no more chuckling. Fire blossomed in her chest and side.

“I will go first,” Kami said grimly, and took a step forward.

“No wait,” Maly held up her hands. “Destiny says he’ll go first.”

The panther stalked forward, and they parted to give him access to the hole. His yellow eyes glinted in the torchlight.

“Watchman,” Emah said to the man at the far end of the cellar. “I assume we are going alone?”

The man’s eyes were wide on his sweaty face. “We– we’ll guard the house, ma’am. Unless… unless you need us?”

“No,” she told the man. “But give me your torch.”

He almost stumbled forward to comply. By the time Emah had turned with the wooden tool in her grip, the panther had disappeared.

Maly whimpered. “He says it’s all clear and that we should follow.”

She moved forward, her ribs flaring with pain with every step, following the ratfolk to their lair.

[It’s been a while since I’ve made a roll, so let’s see how well they make their way through the rat’s maze. Crusaders doesn’t use skill rolls, per se, but it seems to me that an Alertness roll will help determine the party’s general sense of being lost. I’ll have Destiny do the honors, since he is taking the lead. Destiny’s Alertness is 12, which I’ll pit against a Standard difficulty value of 10. That gives the panther a 60% chance of success to find his way to something valuable, and doubles below that number will be a critical success. Likewise, any doubles above 60 will be bad news. The roll is… 22! Critical success! Destiny leads them right to where they want to be, and without incident.]

To find the true home of the ratfolk, go down.

Suddenly, Maly froze. Kami and Emah stuttered to a halt behind her.

“What is it?” Emah whispered.

Maly held up a hand, as if listening, but Emah heard only silence.

“Destiny says there are rats ahead,” Maly breathed quietly. “Sentries.”

Two ratfolk guards are patrolling the outside of the place the party will want to infiltrate. Rolling a full combat with two thugs feels unnecessary, but the question is how quickly and quietly the heroes can deal with the guards before they raise an alarm. I’ll take the lowest Prowess, which is Kami’s at 10, and do a roll against, again, a Standard difficulty rating of 10. I trust Emah, Destiny, and Maly to be stealthy, so it will be Kami’s skill that will determine the outcome, giving the overall success rate at 50%.

Kami rolls a 77, which is a critical failure. Ouch. Not only will she fail to deal with the sentries quietly, but one will escape to put the party on an active clock.