Classic Fantasy: Mistamere (Episode 3)

If you missed episode 1 or episode 2 then you might want to read those first.

As a quick preface to Episode 3 of my solo adventures into Mistamere using Mythras Classic Fantasy, it’s worth mentioning how I am resolving matters that require the decision of a Dungeon Master. In short, I’m using the Gamemaster’s Apprentice deck of cards that form part of the ALONe solo system.

You can read more about how I use those cards in previous articles, such as Playing ALONe With Traveller.

Into Mistamere Castle

The double doors to the castle were ajar. Itomas crept forward and, peering through the gap while attuning his hearing to the room, tried to determine if there were any threats within.

Itomas rolls his Perception skill and scores 56 against his 43% chance.

First DM Question: “Have the fleeing Kobolds returned to their lair?” Seems like good odds. Turning over the card, the answer is “Yes”. Don’t need to worry about those just yet then. I’ll just be referring to the location text if the characters enter – Itomas has no idea what’s in there, so I prefer not to look up the text until I’ve committed to a decision.

“Seems quiet and I can’t see anything other than broken stonework on the floor,” Itomas whispered.

Having got the nod from the others, he pushed on the 20’ wide doors a little more to make a gap wide enough even for Bjorn. The big man was first through, followed by Itomas and then Sven.

A narrow beam of light streamed in from outside, perhaps 5’ wide, from where the door was open. Otherwise the room was in shadows and felt cooler than the warm day outside. The room was perhaps 30’ by 40’ and the floor was littered with broken splinters of what might once have been furniture mixed in with fallen stone from the cracked ceiling and walls. Door frames to both the east and west stood open, the doors long since lost. In front of Bjorn, in the centre of the north wall, stood a third door – although this was complete and closed.

While Bjorn and Sven stood, wary and looking around, Itomas worked on lighting his lantern. The hooded design threw forward a beam of light 5 feet wide and as much as 30 feet in length.

As the lantern oil burns for 2 hours, we need to track time in the adventure as we go. I use a simple tally of ten minute intervals on my scrap paper.

Bjorn bent to the ground and scanned the floor, looking east and west.

He’s looking for tracks, but comes up empty with 56 against his Track skill of 49%.

“Too many footprints and marks to be sure of anything here,” he muttered. Sven shrugged and pointed towards the eastern doorway. Itomas shifted the light in that direction and moved forward.

Peering into the room, the outline of the area looked perhaps 30’ square. There was a fireplace in the north wall and the remains of what looked like four chairs and a small table in the middle. Stepping forward carefully, Itomas could also see an exit on the far side of the room, leading east – another empty door frame.

“You two search the room, I’ll take a look at that fireplace,” said Itomas.

Searching takes 1 minute per 5’ square space, so it’ll take the two big men 9 minutes to search the room. This allows Itomas time to perform a detailed search of the fireplace and chimney. Each rolls against their Perception skill; I’m giving them all a one-step bonus – raising their skill chance by half again – because the two in the room can easily see what they’re doing, while Itomas has three times as much time. Bjorn is hopelessly rubbish at this, but Sven succeeds; Itomas also succeeds.

“Nothing around here,” said Bjorn as he looked under the table.

“There’s a pillow in the corner,” replied Sven as he ripped it open. Nothing but feathers fell out.

A sharp intake of breath from Itomas got their attention. Peering over his shoulder, they could see the Dwarf was on his knees and slowly removing a loose brick from the back wall of the fireplace. Behind it was a small bundle of cloth which Itomas gently lifted out. Unwrapping it, he smiled as he looked at the ornate silver dagger in his hands.

“Not bad for five minutes work, eh?”

Sliding the blade’s scabbard into his belt, Itomas stood.

“Finders, keepers. Right?”

Sven grunted. Bjorn chuckled.

Delving Further

The doorway to the east, again without a door, looked inviting. The three men clustered around the lantern Itomas was holding and peered inside.

The room was similarly around 30 feet square and a doorway could be seen on the far side of the room, in the northern wall. Apart from a small path between the two doors, the room was largely filled with boxes of various sizes.

Bjorn stepped forward to inspect the nearest box. Going to open it, knife in hand, he was surprised when it moved all too easily: pushing at it and then picking it up, he discovered the box was empty. Shaking it, nothing rattled and no movement could be detected inside. Putting it aside, Bjorn similarly inspected the larger box beneath: empty too.

“Check that door,” whispered Itomas to Sven.

As the cleric walked over to the door, his nose wrinkled at the smell of something foul.

“I think something died over here,” he reported, “Smells foul.”

It was too dark to see through the door, however, while Itomas was directing the lantern beam over the boxes. Bjorn was lifting each and placing it to one side, systematically checking them; each was empty.

I’m going to play out the search with no die rolls, just checking off another 10 minutes of time. By the way, the GM was asked, “Does Sven notice anything unusual?” as he walked over and the card came up “YES!”

Only one box, a large one in the south-eastern corner of the room, seems to have anything of interest. Bjorn had shoved on it but it was too heavy to push very far.

Sven decided to come over and watch over the big man as he pried open the lid. Itomas was behind and to one side, holding the lantern so the two men could see.

“Careful.”

Bjorn looked at the dwarf and grinned. Sliding the edge of his axe under the lid, he cracked open the box and threw open the lid.

The smell made Bjorn almost retch – a fetid stench of rotting flesh – and then a look of horror crossed his face as a humanoid figure stood up and lashed out with a metal sword blade.

Combat time! I’m not going to detail the fight as before (because you know how fights work if you’ve read the previous articles) but I will report anything unusual. Bjorn is possibly surprised – after all, this is a zombie in a box. I give him a Willpower check to avoid it, but he fails: he’ll be at -10 to Initiative, flat-footed until his turn, and unable to take offensive actions for the first round. Eek!

Initiative rolls yield: Sven 19; Itomas 12; Zombie 9; Bjorn 8.

Thinking quickly, Sven opened up his guard to show the beast his holy symbol that dangled from his neck, and shouted, “In the name of the Gods, begone!”

Sven is trying to turn undead. He can do this at up to 75 feet range by making an opposed Channel skill check against the creature’s Willpower. Sven’s Channel is 51% and he rolls 13 – yay! The Zombie’s Willpower is 34% and it rolls 20. Hmph – the turn fails because the creature rolled higher.

The eyes of the creature, empty and lifeless, stared at Bjorn and the blade continued its arc towards him. Sven realised that the Gods were not going to allow him that easy a day.

Itomas, lantern in his off-hand, slashed out with the broadsword but the blade went high as he failed to compensate for the lamp’s weight. At length, the zombie’s blade crashed into Bjorn’s chest – a largely uncoordinated slash that raked across the man’s scale armour but crushed muscle and bone beneath. Bjorn yelled in pain and fell back as the creature’s lunge drove him away. Gathering his wits, the big man readied his axe and eyed the beast carefully.

Stepping forward, Sven swung his hammer at the creature who tried to block the strike with the sword. Hammer smote steel blade and neither prevailed. Itomas, caught off guard by Sven’s ferocious strike, missed with his own stabbing thrust.

The zombie lashed out at the cleric but the box must have been too confining because it overreached and Sven caught the blade on his shield with ease.

The zombie rolled 99 which is a fumble. I chose that Sven would parry, which gains him two special effects.

Throwing the shield wide, Sven saw the creature’s blade come out of its hand and skitter across the room some 5 feet away. The foul beast was clearly overextended and would need time to recover its posture. Bjorn rejoined the fight with a few quick steps forward.

Seeing the advantage, Sven threw himself at the creature a third time. The hammer struck – smack into the head, cracking the skull and spraying thick black ichor across the cleric’s armour.

The zombie has been reduced to zero hit points in the head, but it’s unaffected by Serious Wounds. Sven will need to reduce the head or the chest to -6 hit points to destroy the zombie.

Gathering his breath, and realising that he had the initiative, Sven attacked again… but missed. Itomas, seeing an opportunity, slashed up with his broadsword and hit the creature’s undefended head for a second time – the blade entering below the chin and sliding up into the brain cavity. The magic that bound the creature to unlife was at that moment broken, and the zombie collapsed back into the box.

GM question: “Does the fight draw attention from other nearby creatures?” Answer: “Yes”.

Turning to look for the sword, Sven sees the figure of another zombie in the doorway to the north. Looking beyond, he can see two more shuffling forward too.

“In the name of the Gods,” he shouted with holy symbol in hand, “Go back!”

Sven rolls 47 under his Channel skill of 51%. The zombies roll 36 against their Willpower of 34% – they fail! Sven rolls 1d6+1 to see how many zombies are affected – rolling 4; as the zombies are Intensity 2, two of them are affected directly. Given that Sven gained one special effect, however, he chooses Extra Turning to roll an additional 1d6+1, scoring 8. All three zombies are turned!

The holy symbol glowed with light and the zombies in the doorway recoiled… and then withdrew.

“That was intense,” muttered Itomas.

Catching Some Breath

At length, the heroes backtracked to the entry room for a breather. Looking over Bjorn’s chest wound, Sven called upon the healing blessings of the Gods and restored the man’s bruised body to full fitness; he couldn’t do so much against the man’s bruised ego, however. Meanwhile, Itomas sneaked back for a search of the box that contained the zombie, but came up empty-handed.

“Shall we try the other direction? Don’t much fancy those zombies again,” Itomas asked.

With a nod, the three men picked themselves up and decided to head west.