Arath Session 4

The hex crawl beginneth.
 
Using the map, I’m going to have him slide into the DMs of the desert at hex G20 and move in a straight line across hexes to Ubek’s Oasis, crossing 9 hexes in the interim. Let’s come up with some rules for hex crawling…
 
The core rules have no overland travel rules. Moving across desert is rough terrain; I think that he can cover two hexes per day as a reasonable expectation (unless he stops and does some exploring for an extended period of time).
 
It is likely (1-9 in 12) that there is something of interest in each hex. If so, the chances of a second thing decrease one step on my matrix (a second is possible, a third is unlikely, a fourth and beyond is very unlikely each). My order of checking (each at possible) will be creature(s), weather (like a sand storm), landmark (like a ruin, a set of bones), and then start asking for random things.
 
Day One
 
G20. Nothing of interest. He crosses 6 miles of sand and waste with little challenge. It is now early afternoon. He pauses, has a meal, drinks some water, and makes sure to get out of the sunlight for a bit (under his cloak for a bit).
 
F19. Natural 1. Followed by another natural 1. As he breaks camp and crosses into the second hex, a creature encounter happens. Is it a monster? No. Is it other species? Yep. Humans? Yes. Friendly? No. Openly hostile? No. Okay. Are they nomads? Yes. Is there more than one? Nope. Is it a mysterious traveler of the desert wastes with some kind of cryptic or supernatural bent? No. Last survivor of something? Yes. Coming from Shadowed Obelisk? No. Ruins of Vas Anok? No. Ubek’s Tomb? No. Hmf. Somewhere on the map? Yes. Okay, back to asking about specific locales. Sea of Glass? No. Ubek’s Oasis? No. Hazrak’s Tower? No. Um. Seriously. Almost out of places. Ruined Temple of Aluh Tehar? Natural 1. Okay. This guy was a pilgrim on a religious journey to the Temple of Aluh Tehar, but he and his order arrived to find the temple had been taken by (checks dice again) a demon? No. Dragon? No (too bad – I’ll get a dragon in here somewhere). Undead master? No. Chimera? No. Naga and snakes? That would be very deserty. Nope. Hag? No. Efreeti? 2. Yep. An ancient efreeti has been released from its prison, and has taken over the temple, filling it with fiery foes.
 
Okay, I’m going to say that this is the story that the guy tells. I’m also going to say it’s probable that the guy is really a bandit and his group of thieves accidentally set loose the Efreeti. I’ll have have Arath check mind at -1 edge to see if he surmises that. Hm. A 12 and a 7. He has suspicions, but nothing concrete. He decides to keep things close to the vest. He says that there is a dwarf caravan a day east of here headed north along the road, and he offers the traveler two days of food and water and wishes him well. That works. They part.
Okay – is this guy a thief instead? 11. No. He was telling the truth. Wow. An honest person in the world. Who’d have thought (certainly not me). Presumably, this guy sets off and meets the dwarves and then joins the temple and learns old gallan and has his balls removed. Good for him.
 
My dice decide that is enough encounters for one day.
 
I didn’t have rules for overnight. It is possible that something approaches overnight. Aw, heck, it’s likely. It’s the desert of despairing souls. I can almost guarantee despairing souls. Would the dwarves have told him about that? Maybe. Maybe they didn’t want to scare him. Natural 1. Oh. There are despairing souls. He checks mind for desert lore with the +1 edge he’s getting, and yep- they told him. Keep a fire lit and your sword at the ready was their advice. Do not travel. Oh, snap. He’d be carrying kindling. This had to be part of what the dwarves gave him, right? Or torches. That’s more likely (and easier to carry). A torch burns for 6 hours, so he will need two per night to get through a full night of darkness. So the ten he has should be sufficient.
 
The good news is that nothing else comes out at night. The bad news is that the shadelings do. Every hour, it is possible that (how to determine this randomly with d12)… 1 to 12 seems like a wide range. I mean, at least 1, as many as 6. Half a d12? That works. That many shadelings appear and attack. Check level with +1 edge to have the torchlight push them back.   
 
10 pm. Within an hour of nightfall, 4 shadelings approach. That was quick. He tries to use the torch to push them back, but they cannot resist the hunger for human blood, and they attack. Initiative. The shadelings win. A piece of lore while I’m thinking of it – these shadelings are able to break the ‘stay within 120’ of the body’ rule, because their bodies have all been entombed beneath the Shadowed Obelisk – because that contains a portal into the shadow lands, and the remains of a thousand and one dead men line the passages. Great. They are doomed to roam the desert each night. 8 claw attacks come his way; 2 hit for 1 damage, and 1 hits for 2. Arath botches his armor check (not impressed by this chainmail so far) and suffers 4 hits. He’s already down to 8. He attacks… and misses.
Round 2: Exact same outcome; three claws hit, one for 2 damage. This time the armor holds up (suffers 3 hits, down to 5). Arath drinks a potion of healing while attacking. The potion negates his +1 edge, but he still hits one. He is at 10 hits, and is down to 3 shadelings to fight.
Round 3: Fewer attacks, worse outcome. Three claws hit, and two are natural 12s for 3 damage each. His armor works once, so he suffers 1, 2, and 3 hits, for a total of 6. He’s down to 4 hits remaining. He attacks while drinking his second healing potion. He misses, but uses his luck to get another shot at it and manages to hit one and destroy it. He’s at 9 hits now after using his second healing potion.
Round 4: His fortune turns. All four claw attacks miss, but he also misses. I’ll take a stalemate at this point.
Round 5: One claw hits for 1, but he misses again. He’s down to 8 hits.
Round 6: Four claws miss, but the sword does not. 1 shadeling remains.
Round 7: A claw hits for 1, but a sword hits for a natural 12. Advantage sword. Four Shadelings are destroyed, but Arath is at 7 hits and without healing.
 
And that was only the first hour. Ugh.
 
11 pm. Natural 1. More shadelings. Seriously? Only 2 this time (whew). I decide it is possible that he rested long enough to recover a hit, and he did. He’s at 8 hits. Initiative. Arath wins, and immediately clocks one. The other misses twice. Round 2: He takes out the second one. Whew. Rest time.
 
Midnight. The good news? He recovered another hit and is at 8. The bad news? 6 shadelings have arrived. Okay… a few things… these are incorporeal spirits (wow – I spelled incorporeal right on the first try! Go me), so they don’t provide much resistance when you hit them. I think it’s reasonable to have Arath sacrifice one edge to be able to attack several at once. He’s taking big swings and hitting as many as he can at once. That’s a good trade off… and then he can maybe use luck to get a really good roll. I’ll say that if he hits it’s one, but with an 11 he hits two, and with a 12 he hits 3. That’s a good compromise on losing the +1 attack edge. Initiative. Arath rolls a 3 but wins anyway!
Round 1: He rolls a natural 1 on the attack, and immediately uses that luck – and gets a natural 12! Right off the bat (heh. Bat. Because he’s swinging his sword like one), he destroys 3 of them. That is HUGE. Only 3 remain. They’d check initiative, but these are mindless undead. So they tend not to get discouraged. It’s not like things can get any worse for them. All six claws hit (and two of those were with 9s, so they were close).
Round 2: 5 on the attack, so nothing. I’m missing that edge now… I could always go back to it, but I’ll stick with this for now. 2 claws hit, and Arath is down to 6 hits remaining.
Round 3: Last try on the big swings before returning to normal +1 edge attacks… and got a 3. Poop. Only 1 claw hits, but it’s with a 12 for 3 damage. Successful armor checks reduces that to 2, so Arath is at 4 hits remaining. This is starting to look particularly bleak for him. It’s only midnight…
Round 4: He is back to single attacks with +1 edge, and he destroys 1. Again, 1 claw hits, but it’s with a 12. Failed armor check. He’s at 1 hit. Why do I feel like this campaign is already almost over? Oh, I know. Because this campaign is already almost over…
Round 5: Arath misses. A claw hits with a 12. That would be that.
 
And thus ends Arath’s adventures in the desert. Okay. I’m going to say that it’s really, really, really unlikely that there is a deux ex machina that steps in to save him. I want there to be, but also feel like if I do that, then the peril he was in doesn’t really count. Like, it only matters if there’s a real chance of not surviving. He didn’t survive. However, there is a 1 in 12 chance that fate intervenes and saves him in some way.
 
I roll a 1. No lie. I had Mary verify that. Arath lives to fight another day. Now, I just have to figure out how that happened… oh, and he killed 12 shadelings, so that’s 12 XP which brings him to 39 total.