Labyrinth Lord Solo Adventure 1

This week I'll bring you a recap of my first successful solo RPG adventure, unlike my first attempt.

 

This time I decided to use Labyrinth Lord as my system of choice, because it's currently the most likely ruleset I'd like to use in my own sandbox/open table game, if I ever get to have one - although my preference in this regard changes pretty frequently.

 

For the adventure, since I decided to keep using a single character following Black Streams: Solo Heroes's rules, I chose the small dungeon included in that pdf, The Yellow Toad God's Well. It took me about three sessions of 1 to 2 hours each to complete it, mostly because I discovered I like to write down everything that happens almost as if it was a journaling game, as you're about to read, and I didn't want to rush it, I wanted to use this as a chance to relax and unwind.

 

I'll start by writing down character creation, and then proceed with the recap of the three sessions: good read! 

TRIGGER WARNING: This adventure presents violence against children already from its introduction. If it's something that makes you uncomfortable, feel free to not read my recap.

 

 

 

First of all I generated the ability scores, and remembering last time I decided to give my solo hero a bit of an edge, but not too much; so I rolled 4d6 and dropped the lowest for each stat, but kept them in the order I rolled, with these results:

 

 STR 12 DEX 14 CON 13 INT 14 WIS 15 CHA 12

 

which are definitely an improvement from last time. I also decided to have max HP at 1st level, to hopefully resist a bit more.

Despite Wisdom being the highest stat, I decided I wanted to play an Elf this time, Darien, giving me 7 HP and one spell, which I chose to be Sleep.

For starting gold I rolled 130gp, which I used to buy a longsword (10), chainmail armor (70*), a backpack (2), a week of rations (3,5), a bedroll (1sp, or 0,1gp), a 3m* -or 10ft- pole (0,2), 15m of rope (1), a waterskin (1) 12 iron spikes (1), 8 torches (0,3) and flint and steel (2); the total was 92,1gp, which I rounded down to 92 for easier bookkeeping, leaving Darien with 38gp and about 43kg of stuff to carry. Pretty encumbered, moving only 3m per round in combat (although I doubled that speed almost immediately by leaving something, as you'll see in a moment); in the future this Elf should consider hiring a retainer.

 

*I'm using a mix of the English version of Labyrinth Lord, which I have in pdf, and the Italian one, which I have in print as you can see in the picture above: to my European brain, using the metric system feels easier. The weird thing is that almost everything translates perfectly, prices included, except the armor, which for some reason is more than doubled to 150 in the Italian version. I decided to keep the English prices and the metric system to keep things smooth.

 

THE YELLOW TOAD GOD'S WELL

 

 Darien heard about a village that was recently (for an Elf - it happened 5 years ago) destroyed by mercenaries, and its tales of a god in a well who received lots of treasure in exchange for their protection until the day this pact suddenly ceased to exist. He doesn't care about gold and jewels, he'll be happy to give those to the neighbouring villagers, some of which were related to the slain people - as long as he can solve the mistery...and maybe find some spells or magical knowledge for himself.

He reaches the rubble and ruins which used to be the village and, as instructed, reaches the well and plants a spike near the top, attaching the rope to it and descending slowly, to also have a way out. Once he gets to the bottom he swings himself a bit to try to get as close to dry land as possible, knowing his metal armor would make it difficult to swim. [DEX check: Nat 1!] A perfect jump lets him avoid the water altogether; good, as he thought he saw something moving down there. He then lights a torch and sees two paths, left and right, ahead of him. [Odds left/evens right on a d20: 4] He decides to try the passage on his right, and moves cautiously, keeping his eyes open.

After a few minutes he reaches another fork in the road and [20! even] decides to keep going right, until he gets to a flooded room of standing water. He throws a rock into it and it seems to be shallow enough to walk through and devoid of life. To be safe, since he sees the tunnel continuing after it on the left, he decides to hug the left wall to cross it.

Once he gets about halfway through the floor suddenly seems to collapse! He starts sliding [Save vs Paralysis: 6, fail!] and loses his balance! [Defy death 1d4: 2, means 1 damage] but somehow, clawing his way out, manages to reach the other end of the pool, hurt but still alive. Darien takes a moment to catch his breath, but then he has no choice but to light another torch and continue.

A few minutes later he reaches a bigger room, whose floor is gouged by long scratches; there are three ways to go, but the markings clearly indicate the most used path is the one in front of him.

It might be a mistake, but Darien decides to meet a god.

He proceeds cautiously [50% chance of the god being asleep, 1-3 on 1d6: 3] and, as he gets closer to the end of the tunnel, he hears a loud snoring. As he gets to the room, he can see a hideously corpulent blend of man and toad, six feet tall and covered with warts that pulse with caustic filth sleeping in the middle of the room, and a pile of treasure against the far wall. He tries to go around the "god" towards the treasure [DEX check: 15, barely fail], but the moment he starts moving a squelch echoes through the cavern as he steps on something slimy he'd rather not know the exact nature of.

The toad god croaks as he wakes up 'Who are you, mortal and why do you disturb the slumber of a god?'

Darien slowly backs a bit to keep some distandce, keeping his hand and mind ready to cast his Sleep spell if needed, knowing unsheating his sword would be a declaration of war; maybe a fight was still avoidable.

'I have been instructed by the fine folk who live not far from the village above to learn what happened to their deity; you see, since this village got destroyed five years ago, they were wondering if anything had happened to you.'

'Mhm, I see, That's why they stopped sending offerings then. Five years, you say? That would explain my hunger. Do you happen to have any offering for me?'

'I am afraid not, almighty. I do see many of them behind you, though.'

'That pile of garbage? I can't eat those! But I'll make you an offer, since I am a generous god: somewhere in this caves there should be the last child they sent me...five years ago, if you're telling me the truth! But she's still here, protected by somem kind of weird magic. Bring her to me and I'll let you have that "treasure". All of it.'

Darien took a moment to reply, shocked by the revelation. 'You mean...that the offerings...were children? And you...ate them?'

'Well, some of them. Others were used in some experiments, you'd say. None of your business, anyway. Will you bring me that child or not?'

Darien has heard enough. He puts his hand up and mutters one word: 'Fa'nye.' The so-called god falls to the ground without a moan: the Sleep spell is always reliable. Darien unsheats his longsword as he walks towards the unconscious abomination and slays it in silence.

He then proceeds to check the treasure pile in hope of finding something useful: his quest has just turned into a rescue mission, but Fal'nir knows what else lurks in these caves. He finds a pile of coins, a half-dozen gems, a potion and a magic scroll. He puts everything in his backpack and heads back; there will be time for estimates and counting back in town. He also finds a worn silk rope, which can be useful for getting out.

Back to the previous intersection, Darien can now choose left or right [6, even] and picks right once again, into a slimy, snaking tunnel; his torch lights up some weird, crude carvings on the wall, and his attention focuses on those [Surprise check: 3, no], but not so much as to prevent him from noticing the four lumps of slime that suddenly rear up from the floor to attack.

His magic depleted for the day, Darien once again unsheats his blade and studies his enemies: soft and toad-ale bodies, clawed, webbed fingers and the heads...better not to focus on those.

[Initiative: 3+1 Darien, 1 Toadspawns] Darien is ready: he swings his sword and [7, miss!]...he looked at their faces, bad idea [Fray die: 6! 2 damage], but he manages to hit two of them on the backswing, which fall to the ground lifeless. The two remaining ones lunge towards him [8 and 3, both miss], but Darien is ready and avoids them [Init.: 2+1 Darien, 1 enemies], getting himself in a good position for his next attack [Nat 1...Fray: 1, no damage], but the enemies merged with the slime on the floor, avoiding him [4 and 7, both miss] but putting themselves in a bad position to retaliate.

[Init.: 1+1 Darien, 2 enemies] The creatures jump off the floor towards Darien as his sword tries to meet them [Darien: 3, miss, Fray: 2, 1 damage / Enemies: 18 and 16, both hit for 2 and 3: 2 damage total]: one of them dies in mid-air, but Darien can feel their claws rip the flesh off his arm.

[Init: 4+1 Darien, 6 enemy / Morale check: 8, pass] The last enemy tries to scratch Darien again [14, barely miss], but he backs off just enough before [15, hit for 1, no damage, Fray: 5, 1 damage] slamming it into the ground with the flat of the blade and stabbing it, ending the combat.

Darien takes a moment to catch his breath and bind the wound on his arm [healing the 2 damage he just took], and while doing so he notices a tanished silver necklace around the neck of one of the creatures; he decides to take it back to the villagers, maybe they'll know who it belonged to.

Ready to continue, Darien reaches a cave whose floor is covered in almost a meter of water, forcing him to wade it slowly; after a few minutes shrieks break the silence [Surprise: 2, yes] as three children-sized ghosts appear and lunge at him [1, 6, 15: 1 hit for 2, 1 damage], one of them managing to bite him.

[Init.: 5+1 Darien, 6 enemies, and because it makes sense in the story h'd prefer not to fight these particular ghosts I'm ruling he can try to turn them even if he's not a cleric] Darien looks at the ghosts with pity and says 'The abomination that felled you is no more! Go now, and may your souls find rest!'  

[2d6 to turn, need 7: 9!] The spirits stop as they were getting ready to hit him again, their grins turning into smiles as they slowly dissipate.

Once again, Darien takes a moment to bind the wound [healing the last 1 damage] and has to decide which way to go: straight, left or right. [He's looking for the child, he'll eventually need to go right anyway, so I'll choose this time] So far going right has worked, for the most part, so he'll choose it again.

After about 12 meters the short tunnel opens into a small cave with a turn on the left after a few meters, which he notices because as soon as he enters a small figure wimpers and runs to hide before he can properly see it. Unsure whether it's a new threat or the missing kid, Darien, torch in one hand and longsword in the other, slowly advances.

After making the turn he discovers that the cave basically ends there and that the fleeing creature is indeed the child the "god" was talking about: a young girl, maybe thirtheen years old, worringly thin and clearly not used to seeing bright lights anymore, since she lets out a scream and covers her eyes once Darien's torch gets closer to her.

'Hey, hey, it's okay, I'm not here to hurt you' he says, while bending down and keeping the torch a bit farther - although still clutching his sword, because the possibility of a trap was not excluded yet.

'Are...are you...another trick?' she asks, her hands now clutching her knees and her unnaturally wide eyes scrutinizing Darien.

'A trick? I...no, I can assure you I'm real.'

'They always say that...they want to bring me to the monster.'

'The monster? You mean the big slimy man?' She nods energically.

'Well, I bring good news...oh, you haven't told me your name yet.'

'Fei-lan.'

'Nice to meet you, Fei-lan. I am Darien, and as I was saying, I have good news for you: I have slain the monster. You're safe now.'

She doesn't seem to react. 'Oh. That's a new one.'

Darien is startled for a moment, but it's clear at this point that the girl isn't sure of what is real and what isn't. Understandable, since according to the creature she must have been trapped down there for five years. He is immersed in these thoughts when he suddenly feels a warm sensation irradiating from the leg that was injured in the sinkhole. He immediately jumps up, but it was Fei-lan: her touch healed the wound. [She cast Cure light wounds, restoring the 1 HP he was missing] 

Magic powers. That might explain how she survived so long.

She retreats against the wall after Darien's sudden movement, but he tries to calm her again. 'Sorry, you surprised me. Thank you. Now, as I said, the big monster is no more, and while the cave is not entirely safe yet, I'm sure I can get you out of here without a scratch. Shall we go?' and he extends a hand towards her.

She slowly shakes her head. 'I've gone out many times, but I always woke up back here. I'm done trying.'

'But this time it's different. This time the monster is dead; and you have me.'

[The module says she can't be convinced, but I'll leave it to a CHA check to decide: 10, pass!]

Fei-lan stares Darien intensely for a moment, then hesitantly takes his hand and gets up. 'One more try, why not.'

She knows that the tunnel to the right from the cave leads straight to the pool where Darien first entered the area, and the rope he left is still there; the problem is getting to it, since it's in the middle of the pool and Darien is in heavy armor. But he already has an idea: he ties the rope he found in the monster's hoard around Fei-lan and tells her to swim to the one leading out and hold on to it as hard as she can, then pulls himself to her using the rope.

The moment he enters the water he feels the sensation of dozens of small, unseen hands clinging to him, but Fei-lan reassures him with a chuckle that it's just little harmless fishes. It's nice to hear her laugh.

It takes some time, but they manage to get out and return to the neighboring village where his quest started [one last die roll: is there a relative of Fei-lan? 1-3 on 1d6: 3!] and he chooses to give the gold and jewels to Fei-lan's  relative, to make sure she recovers and can live a nice life [he still retrieved them, so they still count for XP], keeping for himself only the potion and the scroll [Potion of Healing and Scroll of Read Languages].

 

XP: 6x50 (gems) + 400 [coins] + 135 [toad-god] + 100 [necklace] + 40 [Toadspawns] + 30 [ghosts], all divided by 4: 251,25

 

THE END 

 

This is all for this week, see you next Sunday for my next post!

 

May your dice never betray you,

Kirhon