Classic Fantasy: Mistamere (Episode 4)

Having been ill during the recent school holiday and busy in recent weeks, it’s been nice to sit down today and be free to have another session with Mythras Classic Fantasy in Mistamere.

In the week that also saw the release of the free to download .PDF 32-page Mythras Imperative rules, you really have no remaining excuse for not giving this game a go yourself.

If you’ve not yet caught the earlier episodes, I’d suggest it’s best to read those first.

When Last We Saw Our Heroes…

Having entered the ruined Castle Mistamere, the three heroes explored east of the entry chamber and came face-to-face with zombies. Having defeated the undead, with some small difficulty, they retired back to the entry room and had a few moments of rest.

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. Itomas sneaked back for a search of the box that contained the zombie, but came up empty-handed.

Our heroes have decided to explore westwards…

Probing Eastward…

Taking up his lantern and re-lighting the wick, Itomas moves to the south side of the open doorway east. Sven moves to the north side of the doorway (which has no door remaining) and Bjorn stands ready to move in first, standing between the others.

Peering in, they see that the room is 30 feet square and has another doorway on the far eastern side, opposite their entry point. The remains of three chairs and two small tables can be seen, as can a fireplace in the middle of the north wall. Bjorn moves in first, debris crunching under foot as he cautiously moves to the other side. Behind him comes Itomas and then Sven.

“Let me check the fireplace,” says Itomas, “found some goodies in the other room.”

Sven nods and starts to scan the wreckage for interesting items while he waits.

Looking up the chimney, Itomas sees that it’s clogged with old timbers. Thinking better of it, and fearing a general collapse of the chimney if he pokes around too much, Itomas shakes his head and joins Sven.

For Sven’s search of the wreckage, I roll his Perception skill and score 38 under his 40 chance. Success!

“Hey, Itomas,” Sven whispers, “come over here. What do you make of that?”

He points to something silver glinting under the wooden table top in front of him. Itomas carefully lifts the table lid and, underneath, reveals something interesting. Three old silver teaspoons sit next to an old canvas bag. Pocketing the spoons, Itomas picks up the bag.

“Feels light,” he comments as he opens the bag. Inside he finds dried peas. With a shrug, Itomas hands them to Sven.

“Perhaps they are magic peas,” says Sven.

Itomas’ laughter echoes throughout the room.

“Sshhh! Idiot!”

Further West…

“There’s boxes in this room,” whispers Bjorn from the west doorway.

Padding over, Itomas peers in and brings the lantern up to spread more light. Another 30 feet square room with a doorway in the north wall can be seen. The room is filled with boxes and crates of many shapes and sizes, looking a lot like a storage area.

“Wonder if there’s a zombie in one of those boxes too,” says Bjorn.

“Hope not,” says Itomas.

Sven joins the pair, having stashed the peas for inspection later, and peers in. Moving slowly, Bjorn decides to try the first box by pushing it. It doesn’t budge. Intrigued, the big man tries to pry open the lid but it appears unwilling to break open.

“Odd,” says Bjorn, “it’s so heavy it won’t move but there are no seams to get leverage with. It’s like these are just meant to look like boxes.”

Itomas joins Bjorn and raps his dagger against the side of the box, making an audibly empty sound.

“Who’s there?” says a voice from the corner of the room, “Is Bargle with you?”

Itomas looks at Bjorn, who in turn looks at Sven. Bjorn shrugs, confused.

“Erm, hello. We’re visitors from the village. We mean no harm,” says Sven.

“Oh – well, nevermind then,” came the reply.

“Well,” Sven says, “we were wondering if you could tell us when you last saw him?”

No answer came the stern reply.

“Hello?”

Perhaps a minute passes in silence as the trio listen. With a shrug, Itomas walks towards the north door.

“Come on, this place gives me the willies,” he says.

North Door…

Moving through the door, Itomas sees a small 10 feet by 30 feet room that has a doorway in the east wall, again without a door. A dusty old hat box can be seen lying on the floor in the northeast corner.

Bending over the box and then crouching to see better, Itomas notes that it is tied with a string and has a large bow knot on top.

Itomas is going to open the box but to help decide if he will pull on string or cut it, I decide to draw from the GM Apprentice Deck. Does Itomas pull the string? Odds seem about even, and I draw “Yes”.

Pulling on the string, Itomas unties the bow. As he does so, however, he notices a strange sticky substance comes off the string onto his hand.

Itomas isn’t wearing gloves, so the contact poison on the string affects him. He must test his resistance to the potency of the poison. The poison is old and weaker than might be expected, so I assign it a 50% potency; Itomas’ Endurance is 36%, although his Poison Resistance trait makes his roll 1 step easier (adding ½ his skill to the chance) and raises his skill to 54%. Poison roll is 87, Itomas rolls 99. Eek! Itomas has rolled a fumble! I decide to use one of his Luck Points to cheat fate and re-roll. The new score is 49 – a success! Itomas resists the poison!

“What the… crap! Better wipe this stuff off,” mutters Itomas. Taking out some old clothing from his bag, he wipes off the ichor before proceeding with the box. The other two stand nearby, watching quietly.

At length, Itomas opens the hat box. A woman’s red hat, now faded and mouldy, is in the box. Itomas gently lifts it out of the box, cautious but curious to see what’s underneath. Peering back into the box, he sees a shiny hatpin. Lifting it out, he notes that it’s made of a shiny silver-like metal but is not silver. Inspecting it he smiles as he realises that it’s made of platinum – a prize indeed! That should fetch a nice price at market. Itomas pockets the pin and then puts the hat back in the box.

“All mouldy, that hat,” he says to the others, “Not worth anything, really. Shall we?”

Itomas points to the door in the east wall. Sven moves forward to investigate.

Delving Further…

The room is 30 feet by 40 feet and has empty doorways in the east and west walls. There is a large fireplace in the south wall. The room was obviously once a fine bedroom but the once-rich furnishings – the canopy bed, plush chairs, tables and rugs – are now tattered, mouldy and worthless. That said, somehow the mouldy bed looks very comfortable…

There is an enchantment on this room. Sven is first in the room but it affects the first two to enter, and I need to decide if that’s Itomas or Bjorn – a simple d6 roll sorts it out: 1-3 Itomas, 4-6 Bjorn – I roll 3. Sven and Itomas must resist a strong compulsion to go and lie on the bed. This is a resistance using Willpower against the Magnitude x10% of the magical enchantment; I decide it’s 60%.

Sven rolls 82 against his 60% Willpower; the enchantment scores 59. Sven fails. I spend a Luck Point to re-roll and score 88. Damn.

Itomas resists Arcane effects at one step easier, boosting his Willpower from 34% to 51%. He rolls 31 while the enchantment rolls 08. Because Itomas rolled higher while both he and the enchantment succeeded, he shakes off the effect.

Sven walks to the bed, lies down and is instantly asleep. Itomas feels a strong compulsion to follow but then, with a shrug of mental energy, stops himself. Bjorn, walking in behind the others, looks at Sven and then turns to Itomas.

“What’s that about?”

“I think he’s been touched by fey magic,” replies Itomas.

The two walk to the bed and Bjorn pokes Sven’s sleeping body.

“He’s not waking,” says the big man.

“No, but’s he’s breathing.”

As a player, I know the fable behind this trap. I decide that the fable exists in the world too, but wonder if the two characters have heard it. Turning over another card, I ask, “Has either Itomas or Bjorn heard the tale?” Seems like even odds to me. “Yes.”

“Hang on,” says Bjorn, “didn’t Sven pick up some peas earlier?”

Rummaging through the sleeping man’s backpack, Bjorn turns up the bag of dried peas. Taking out a single pea, he lifts the mouldy mattress and places it underneath. Then he waits.

A minute or so passes and then, slowly, Sven wakes.

“What happened?”

“Magic, I think,” replies Bjorn, “Bloody magical joke, seems to me.”
As Sven gets up his back twinges with pain.

The side-effect of the enchantment is to inflict two levels of fatigue on the victim. Sven is Tired until he can rest for 1.5 hours (3 hours divided by his Healing Rate of 2).

Searching the room, the party finds no treasure. They decide to take stock before choosing their next steps – westwards through the northwest door, or eastwards?

“I’m really starting to hate this place,” mutters Sven.