RR C1: The Grithian Abomination

The first rescue operation took a dark turn when our party discovered the creature that killed most of the lost expedition...

Preface

This one has been a long time coming. In an ideal world, I'd have already played through the entire campaign, but life loves to screw with any plans you make, so here we are with only one adventure played.

What an adventure it was though... The GEMulator dice wanted to help me as much as they could, but nothing could have prepared the player characters for the horror that awaited them.

This post is a summary of the major events during the adventure, but I also scanned all my written notes for you here, in case you want to see how I typically write down my sessions. Keep in mind that I used digital character sheets so some of the information is missing in the paper notes.

Written Notes Sample

The Quest

The aristocratic merchant faction Goldenford is currently financing a huge exploration effort of a newly discovered underground complex. The knowledge and riches already acquired prompt them to take ever more risks. Several expeditions have already been lost and never heard from again.

In order to save any survivors, and recover anything they might have uncovered, Goldenford is now sponsoring rescue operations led by young and ambitious noble Houses.

Yverose Honore is one such noble, and her expedition (see last post for details) is tasked with the rescue of a lost scouting expedition from House Pierre.

The Adventure

The calm before the storm

While setting out towards the western part of the complex, the PCs stumbled upon another expedition getting ready to leave. Apparently, the minor banking House Antoine had hired this mercenary band to do a combat patrol around a specific meeting place. Yverose wanted to find out more about their mission, but they rudely brushed her off and left into the tunnels. She pretended to ignore the offense, but carefully remembered their faces.

To avoid needless complications, the PCs waited a bit before setting out in the same direction. They slowly made their way through long and narrow tunnels, only seeing as far as their torches illuminated. Uneven steps echoed through the tunnel ahead of them, and they got ready for a fight. To their surprise, it was a seemingly wounded human, desperately pleading for help.

After a quick examination, the PCs see through his ruse and realize that he is an imposter. They tried to arrest him, but he managed to slip back into the dark tunnel network. Who was he working for and what was he trying to accomplish pretending to be a member of a lost expedition?

Nervously, the PCs continued deeper into the unexplored complex, when a stroke of luck had them stumble upon a hand-drawn map of some rooms seemingly further along the tunnels. One room was marked "Shelter", which was their first real clue as to the whereabouts of the lost Pierre expedition.

The Grithian Alchemists
The network of rooms depicted on the map was guarded by an elaborate room trap. A giant boulder, being held by a large statue, would roll down some stairs and crush anyone entering the room itself. Luckily, Philippe Dominique spots the danger and helps the rest of the party to avoid the trap. The remnants of a crushed corpse at the bottom of the stairs tell a less successful story for the Pierre expedition. The question is: who, or what, was able to reset the trap once it had been triggered?

The ranger, Edith Toussaint, stayed behind to guard the supplies on the cart, while the rest of the party delved deeper into the next rooms. The found signs of an abandoned Grithian research complex, but weren't able to determine what exactly they were researching down here. More importantly, why did they abandon it?

The room marked "Shelter" resembled a battlefield. Splinters of the barricaded door littered the floor, while rubble and dust coated everything else. Another crushed corpse at the back of the room told the story of a heroic last stand, probably intended to save his companions.

Unexpectedly, the ranger Edith Toussaint was looking for tracks in the next room. She had disobeyed the order to stay back with the supplies and pushed forward on her own. She admitted that she took the job because her sister was part of the Pierre expedition, and she was trying to rescue her. Her conscience didn't allow her to stay back while everyone else risked their lives.

Yverose Honore was aghast at the disobedience and reckless behavior, but decided to wait with any punishment until they were back in basecamp.

The Grithian Abomination
Charging towards the PCs, a screaming woman gestured wildly behind her. Another survivor ran closely behind her, and Edith immediately recognized her as her sister, Marie Denise. A bellowing roar announced the abhorrent monster that hunted them.

Art by Ablaise on DeviantArt

A gigantic ursine beast filled the tunnel almost completely, its matted fur barely covering the rotten flesh below. Each stride covered several meters and the PCs had no chance to flee as it was already upon them. Edith's sister was violently crushed beneath a single paw, the abomination barely slowing down its charge.

The House Honore expedition stood no chance. They valiantly tried to stand their ground, but nothing could stop the several tons of unliving matter. The combat was quick and merciless, each swing of the giant claws taking another life. Philippe managed to land a lucky strike, but he froze in horror as he saw the wound closing up again before his very eyes. It would be the last thing he ever saw.

Yverose Honore, her companions, and her noble House were doomed to become just another lost expedition. Total Party Kill.

The Campaign Turn

According to the 'wide' campaign scope, we randomly roll for an event for 1 local and 2 global factions. See the scanned PDF above for the full Campaign Turn Log sheet.

The first event explained a bit more about the Grithian Alchemists and their experiments down here. They purposely set their creations loose because they wanted to see how they would behave in a 'real' environment. Who knows how many more of these things are running around down here...

The second event fleshed out a bit of background between Goldenford and the Grithian Empire. After the Grithians lost their recent war against the Edrolum Kingdom, a humanitarian crisis has developed across their land. Goldenford offers their substantial wealth in an effort to aid and rebuild. What ulterior motives might they have?

The third event directly influenced the second adventure. The Chosen Hunters were being distracted and placated with Goldenfords gifts, so they wouldn't interfere with the exploration of the newly discovered underground complex. The ruse is starting to fail, and they have already sent a group of 'Peacekeepers' to prevent further exploration.

Downtime was skipped because none of the previous player characters survived the adventure.

Closing Thoughts

A very abrupt end to an otherwise 'easygoing' adventure. The dice generated an almost impossible challenge with the Grithian Abomination, but that's just how it goes sometimes. I'm still happy with how the story turned out because it felt natural and believable in the context of the setting.

You never know where the dice are going to take you, and that's exactly what I love so much about Solo RPGs. The third random event gives us an opportunity to change things up a bit, which is exactly what I'm going to do for the next adventure. I imagine a defensive combat scenario where Goldenford hires a mercenary band (the PCs) to intercept the Chosen Hunters Peacekeepers.

In terms of playing tools, I'm going to switch over to physical character sheets. FoundryVTT is a fantastic and powerful tool that feels like extreme overkill for such a simplistic ruleset. In general, I also prefer the analog playstyle more, but I sadly only own the PDF of Worlds Without Number, so I'm going to have to stick to some digital tools during my sessions.

Depending on the random adventure parameters, I might also try to use minis and 3d terrain for the battles. That's always fun, and I already have some Warcry minis in mind for the PCs and Peacekeepers.