Drothorn in Peril

One hex = six miles

My solo Exemplars & Eidolons campaign continues. The warrior Freblun is making his way across the Drundorn Hills to the temple of the evil deity Madathak. In the underground depths of the temple he hopes to find the Jewel of Athaya, a powerful healing artifact, which he will take back to the town of Bruld. The Jewel will safeguard the town against an oncoming outbreak of the plague, which is slowly advancing towards the town along the trade routes to the north.

Freblun is a fourth level warrior with six Facts and five Gifts. In his previous adventure in the Drundorn Hills he defeated hill giants and a mysterious sorceress, but lost his adventuring companion Zagzir, an artificial reptilian warrior from the planet Morteko.

What’s the weather like? Pleasantly sunny.

Freblun wakes up in the hill giants’ cave. Dim sunlight and distant birdsong penetrates the silent gloom. Outside the Drundorn Hills are basking in the warmth of a pleasant summer morning; it is not so oppressively hot as it was yesterday. He has a quick breakfast of rations and wine, cooking his food in the giants’ fireplace. Then he saddles up his horse and leaves the cave, travelling southeast along the north bank of the Trossal River. The hills, densely forested with oak woods, loom up around him with no signs of habitation.

Beyond Lenthir

One hex = six miles

I completed this adventure back in March but I’ve had to buy a new computer and accessories, which has been a huge hassle. Anyway, here is the latest adventure of my solo Exemplars & Eidolons campaign. The hero Freblun is making his way towards the temple of the evil deity Madathak in the Drundorn Hills. He hopes to retrieve the Jewel of Athaya, a powerful healing artifact that has been lost in the underground temple, and so preserve the town of Bruld from the deadly plague that is advancing along the trade routes. On his way through the Drundorn Hills he is searching for anything that may help him in his quest.

Freblun is a fourth level warrior with the following Facts:

• He survived the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and is experienced in dungeon exploration.
• Before he came to Bruld and explored the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower, he rescued a wizard named Ubrevod from a band of orcs in the Drundorn Hills. Ubrevod counts him as an ally.
• He is capable of feats of great strength.
• He is renowned in the Drenroth Wilds as he is the only person known to have returned alive from the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and from the interior of the burial mound of Lenthir.
• He destroyed the shrine of Madathak in Bruld; he has gained resistance to Madathak and his servitors. This Fact can be applied to all checks and saving throws involving Madathak and the cultists and monsters who serve him.
• He has a grim countenance, the result of his battle scars and experience in fighting. This Fact can be used in Charisma checks where appropriate.

He has the following Gifts:

• Cloud of Steel: a Fray die of 1 can be rerolled.
• Hardy Vigour: when performing first aid on himself Freblun heals 4 hit points of damage instead of 2. He also gains 1 extra point of healing from all other sources.
• The Defy Death ability from Scarlet Heroes. This Gift replaces the Nine Live Gift from Exemplars & Eidolons (which can only be used once). In Scarlet Heroes Defy Death can be used to overcome an obstacle as well as to avoid certain death. In this campaign it will only be used if Freblun’s life is in immediate danger, or if there is absolutely no way that the adventure can proceed without it being used.
• Titanic Blow: Freblun can commit an Effort point to double the damage inflicted by a Fray die or a melee or ranged attack. This may be done after the dice are rolled. The Effort point remains committed until the fight is over.
• Force of Destiny: Freblun can commit an Effort point to automatically succeed at a failed saving throw. The Effort remains committed until he can sleep.

King Othtar’s Shield

One hex = six miles

My solo Exemplars & Eidolons campaign continues. In this adventure the warrior Freblun returns to the burial mound in the village of Lenthir to retrieve King Othtar’s magical shield. Freblun is a third level warrior with the following Facts:

• He survived the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and is experienced in dungeon exploration.
• Before he came to Bruld and explored the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower, he rescued a wizard named Ubrevod from a band of orcs in the Drundorn Hills. Ubrevod counts him as an ally.
• He is capable of feats of great strength.
• He  is renowned in the Drenroth Wilds as he is the only person to have returned alive from the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and from the interior of the burial mound of Lenthir.
• He destroyed the shrine of Madathak in Bruld; he has gained resistance to Madathak and his servitors. This Fact can be applied to all checks and saving throws involving Madathak and the cultists and monsters who serve him.

He has the following Gifts:

• Cloud of Steel: a Fray die roll of 1 can be rerolled.
• Hardy Vigour: when performing first aid on himself Freblun heals 4 hit points of damage instead of 2. He also gains 1 extra point of healing from all other sources.
• The Defy Death ability from Scarlet Heroes. This Gift replaces the Nine Lives Gift from Exemplars & Eidolons (which may only be used once). In Scarlet Heroes Defy Death can be used to overcome an obstacle as well as to avoid certain death. In this campaign it will only be used if Freblun’s life is in immediate danger, or if there is absolutely no way that the adventure can proceed without it being used.
• Titanic Blow: Freblun can commit an Effort point to double the damage inflicted by a Fray die or a melee or ranged attack. This may be done after the dice are rolled. The Effort point remains committed until the fight is over.

The Shadow over Bruld

One hex = six miles

For various reasons I haven’t found any time for gaming these past few months. I’ve been studying in my online medical transcription course and working on my house. I’ve also been learning to draw; I’ve joined an art group and I’ve been earning a bit of money as an art model. This adventure, the third instalment of my solo Exemplars & Eidolons campaign, includes my first attempts at illustration. I mostly used The Location Crafter (from Word Mill) and Sophia Brandt’s Miso RPG to randomly generate the adventure during play.

Freblun, the hero of the campaign, is a second level warrior with the following Facts:

• He survived the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and is experienced in dungeon exploration.
• Before he came to Bruld and explored the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower, he rescued a wizard named Ubrevod from a band of orcs in the Drundorn Hills. Ubrevod counts him as an ally.
• He is capable of feats of great strength.
• He is renowned in the Drenroth Wilds as he is the only person to have returned alive from the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and from the interior of the burial mound of Lenthir.

He has the following Gifts:

• Cloud of Steel: a Fray die roll of 1 can be rerolled.
• Hardy Vigour: when performing first aid on himself Freblun heals 4 hit points of damage instead of 2. He also gains 1 extra point of healing from all other sources.
• The Defy Death ability from Scarlet Heroes. This Gift replaces the Nine Lives Gift from Exemplars & Eidolons (which may only be used once). In Scarlet Heroes Defy Death can used to overcome an obstacle as well as to avoid certain death. In this campaign it will only be used if Freblun’s life is in immediate danger, or if there is absolutely no way that the adventure can proceed without it being used.
• Titanic Blow: Freblun can commit an Effort point to double the damage inflicted by a Fray die or a melee or ranged attack. This may be done after the dice are rolled. The Effort point remains committed until the fight is over.

The Successor of Drenroth

One hex = six miles

My solo Exemplars & Eidolons campaign continues. In this adventure the warrior Freblun returns to explore the interior of the ancient burial mound in the village of Lenthir, a place that he briefly ventured into in his previous adventure. I used The Location Crafter from Word Mill to generate the interior of the burial mound during play.

Freblun is a second level warrior with the following Facts:

• He survived the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and is experienced in dungeon exploration.
• Before he came to Bruld and explored the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower, he rescued a wizard named Ubrevod from a band of orcs in the Drundorn Hills. Ubrevod counts him as an ally.
• He is capable of feats of great strength.
• He is renowned in the Drenroth Wilds as he is the only person to have returned alive from the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower and from the interior of the burial mound of Lenthir.

He has the following Gifts:

• Cloud of Steel: a Fray die roll of 1 can be rerolled.
• Hardy Vigour: when performing first aid on himself Freblun heals 4 hit points of damage instead of 2. He also gains 1 extra point of healing from all other sources.
• Nine Lives: when Freblun is killed, he somehow evades his fate. This Gift can only be used once before being lost, after which I will replace it with the Defy Death ability from Scarlet Heroes.
• Titanic Blow: Freblun can commit an Effort point to double the damage inflicted by a Fray die or a melee or ranged attack. This may be done after the dice are rolled. The Effort point remains committed until the fight is over.

The Burial Mound of Lenthir

One hex = six miles

I haven’t posted anything since June because my time has been taken up by a long and fruitless search for online work. Recently I’ve started studying in an online course in medical transcription, and I’m now returning to a campaign which has been shelved for over three years. This is the sequel to The Dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower – Final Expedition.

I’ve decided to convert the campaign from Labyrinth Lord to another system, Exemplars & Eidolons, which is a free game from Sine Nomine Publishing. Exemplars & Eidolons is from the same publisher as Scarlet Heroes and it uses many of the same mechanics such as the Fray die. The game is concerned with playing a hero of exceptional power. This makes Exemplars & Eidolons ideal for a campaign based on the adventures of a lone hero, in this case the warrior Freblun who was the only survivor of the final adventure in the dungeon of Gevdrin’s Tower.

This campaign takes place in my own setting of the Drenroth Wilds. I’ve added rivers and a village to the map, but most of the locations will be generated randomly during play using Rory’s Story Cubes and other tools. For this session I used the following tools:

• Rory’s Story Cubes (the basic set, the Voyages set, the Enchanted set, and the Mythic set).
• The d30 Sandbox Companion from New Big Dragon.
• The Village Generator from Nordic Weasel Games.

The Necropolis of the Urorda

One hex = six miles

For this solo adventure, played using the Swords & Six-Siders rules, I didn’t use my usual tools for randomly generating a dungeon during play. Instead I used The Location Crafter from Word Mill for the same purpose. The Location Crafter was the ideal tool for generating this very specific part of the Unknown Catacombs during play.

During their previous expedition into the Unknown Catacombs the adventurers met the demi-nymph Nenevir. They agreed to help her find her sister Aeleora who has been captured by the wizard Odrosorin. Nenevir told them that the Catacombs had been built by the ancient Urorda people who once lived in the Wild Hills.

Accompanied by Nenevir the adventurers came to a cave (27) with the underground River of the Undead flowing through it. Entranced by the music played by an undead boatman, the halfling thief Gartho Silverknife got into his boat and was taken away up the river. The myrmidon Xarfolo was killed by a wraith summoned by the boatman. The warrior Kroand destroyed the wraith with his magical halberd, and then he, Durikida and Tayen returned to the town of Yost. This adventure is concerned with Gartho, who is in very desperate straits and has only one hit point left.

Nenevir and the River of the Undead

One hex = six miles

Living with spondylosis

This year I was aiming to make a post at least once a month, but I’ve been experiencing pain in my neck and left arm, and tingling and numbness in my left hand. I’ve had an MRI scan done which has determined that I have cervical spondylosis (arthritis of the neck), which includes compression of a nerve root. It has been painful for me to type and even doing my laundry has been painful as I use a Ball mobile washer to wash my clothes manually. I’ve been using arthritis cream and taking ibuprofen tablets, which has eased the pain a bit, and I’m now in the mood to do some more solo gaming.

Solo gaming tools

This is another solo dungeon delve set in my own campaign setting of Drolthon, played using the Swords & Six-Siders rules. I used the following tools:

• Sophia Brandt’s Miso game, a minimalist solo RPG available for free on her blog.
• The Dungeon Generator Version 4.1 available for free on the Tabletop Diversions blog (modified to include caves).
• Rory’s Story Cubes (the basic set, the Voyages set, and the Mythic set).
• The D30 version of DungeonWords from Risus Monkey.
• The random letters table from Fernewelt (a set of rules for story gaming).
• The Idea Generator.
• My own set of random tables.

The cleric class and traps come from the Swords & Six-Siders Companion, and the Wizardawn website is a handy source for adding new monsters to a Swords & Six-Siders game.

Fantasy Name Generators

Another very useful website is Fantasy Name Generators, run by a gamer named Emily. I’ve found it a great resource for coming up with new names, both for this campaign and for all of my solo campaigns. The website has also provided me with inspiration for creating my own names. Emily is also involved with Eden Reforestation Projects which is very worthwhile environmental cause. See her website for more details.

Tonior and Ekvenin

One hex = six miles

In addition to playing another solo dungeon delve using the Swords & Six-Siders rules, I’ve developed my own setting of Drolthon, a small region in which I intend to do some solo wilderness exploring. For the dungeon delve I used the following tools during play:

• Sophia Brandt’s Miso game, a minimalist solo RPG available for free on her blog.
• The Dungeon Generator Version 4.1 available for free on the Tabletop Diversions blog (modified to include caves).
• Rory’s Story Cubes (the basic set, the Voyages set, and the Mythic set).
• The D30 version of DungeonWords from Risus Monkey.
• My own set of random tables.

For this delve I decided to do something different when the adventurers entered an empty chamber or cave.  I used the random letters table from Fernewelt, a set of rules for story gaming which unfortunately is no longer available online. The table allows you to generate three random letters by making six rolls with two six-sided dice. You can then use these three letters to generate elements for the game. For example, you could interpret GRD as meaning green dragon. I also used the Idea Generator which generates random words and images.

The Wizardawn website is also a handy source for adding new monsters to a Swords & Six-Siders game.