Desert Citadel of the Blasphemous Reaper - An Into the Odd Solo Actual Play, Part 2
Welcome back to our Into the Odd solo actual play, Desert Citadel of the Blasphemous Reaper! I'm glad to see this get such a great reception! Let's jump straight into it!
---
Pressure Point: 9, In Room 3
Lucien trudges onward with
Helene in tow, not one to back down when there are more valuables to be found.
Still, the incident with the woman has made him cautious. There is no telling
what could be found in this place.
Wandering into the next room
(Room 4), they peek in to see what they can find.
In this room, there is a chest.
But is that it? Let’s ask the oracle. Is the room safe? A 10, No but. I roll on
the spark tables in Alone in the Odd and get Persecute Truth. I feel that means
there is a cultist there. Because cultists are always fun.
There, in the midst of the room,
stands a singular figure in a dark robe, along with a chest. Lucien turns to
Helene and says, “By the one true god, Helene, turns out this Citadel wasn’t as
empty as we figured. Everyone and their pet rat is in here. Oh well.”
Helene grunts back. Lucien takes
that as agreement.
Lucien edges out around the
corner and calls to the person, “Hail stranger. We mean you no harm or
disfavor. We are mere travelers here.”
Let’s see how this person
reacts. In this game, that is a Will save from the main PC. Lucien has taken
Will damage already so this might not go well.
Will Save - A 15, which is well
above Lucien’s current Willpower of 6.
The person lowers their hood and
stares into Lucien’s eyes. “Welcome to the Citadel of the Blasphemous Reaper.
Have you come to forfeit your life to the Reaper who will one day take the
whole world into his embrace?”
“No. I have not. We have come to
see what we can find here. But thank you for the offer. Say, what is in that
chest behind you?”
The man laughs lowly, “Would you
like to find out? There is only one way to see.”
Dark Cultist
STR 10, Dex 12, Will 17, 10hp
This Dark Cultist has been
driven insane by decades of service to the Blasphemous Reaper. Driven to find
new bodies to feed to his master, the cultist has been gifted powers that mere
mortals could only dream of.
Dark Blast - Will Save. On a
success, a blast of dark energy flows forth, surrounding and damaging the
target. D8 Damage.
Reap - Dex Save. On a success,
dark claws grow from the cultist's hands and rake their enemy.
Never meeting a problem that
didn’t get easier with a musket shot through it, Lucien raises his musket and
points it at the centre of the man, he takes a breath and gently pulls the
trigger.
|
|
 The cultist... |
Attack (D8) - 5 Damage - Cultist
HP5
The bullet smacks into the cultist but it just smiles and starts walking toward
the adventurers.
Helene, as brave as always steps in front of the cultist with sword raised.
Attack (D6) - 2 Damage - Cultist HP3
Slashing hard, a deep crimson line appears on the robe of the man, blood
dripping on the floor as he continues. He reaches out with his hands to Helene,
they have grown into dark cruel claws.
Helen Dex Save - 4, under 10. She dodges the attack.
Helen deftly jumps out of the way as the claws rake the area she was just at.
Then the cultist locks eyes with Lucien and for Lucien, everything goes black.
Lucien Will Save - Nat 1! under 6 - Lucien resists the attack
Lucien squeezes his eyes and shakes his head. When he opens them the darkness
is gone. By instinct, he has already loaded his musket for another shot.
Attack (D8) - 6 Damage - Cultist HP0, -1 Strength (9)
Critical Save - Strength -17 over 10. Dead
Aiming carefully, Lucien points the musket at the cultist and fires. A large
hole appears in the head of the man and he drops to the ground. Dead…
Lucien walks over to the man,
with the hole still smoldering in his chest. Using the barrel of his musket,
Lucien pokes the body and detects no movement.
“Well, he’s not getting back up,
I reckon. Let’s see what he was guarding.”
Stepping over the body, Lucien
approaches a chest. Opening it, Lucien glints against the shine of a jewel.
Quite a large one, in fact, installed on top of an ornate staff.
“Hey! Helene, what a steal! We
will be eating steak and eggs for a year with the haul from this place. Now,
just one more room it looks like and we can call it quits.”
Helene vigorously shakes her
head no. Lucien frowns, “What Helene? Scared of what we can find in here? Don’t
want to try our luck?”
Let’s test it. Does Lucien leave
the dungeon or demand they continue to the last unexplored area? I’ll roll a
D20 against the pressure point score of 9. Under a 9 and he decides to leave. A
5! Lucien decides that he has had enough and they high-tail it out of there.
Probably a safe move because the last room had a very nasty soul-sucking spider
in it (the room with the star).
Helene shakes her head again.
“Right, right. Three fights are
enough for one dungeon, I guess. Let’s get the hell out of here before we end
up dead or like one of those crazy people. Let’s shake a leg here.”
Lucien and Helene head back to
town to sell their goods. The Ornate staff goes for a pretty penny (D10
Guilders) 9 guilders, but he decides to keep the Orb of Anchoring. Lucien gives
Helene 1 Guilder as her share of the booty.
They spend the night in the small, shabby desert
town, drinking and carousing until the next day. And then they do it again.
---
Advancement: Because Lucien has
survived an expedition, he will Advance. I roll a D20 and if it's higher than
my current stat, I add one.
A 1 for strength, nope, won’t
improve it for him.
A 6 for Dex, no good.
A 17 for Willpower! It goes up
to 1.
And a D6 to improve HP. A 1. Not
a great advancement for Lucien.
And I’ll do the same for Helene.
Her strength improves to 12, and her HP goes up 4 points. As she is now a
professional, she will require 20% of loot from an expedition.
And that is it for Desert
Citadel of the Blasphemous Reaper! A bit anticlimactic, but it’s an OSR game,
and in those games, you need to be a lot more careful than in other games. All
in all, I had a great time. How did you like it? Let me know in the comments,
on Twitter, or my substack!
As always, thanks for reading!
Lucien Status
Advancement: Professional
HP: 4/4
Strength: 10/10
Dexterity: 11/11
Willpower: 11/11
Items: Musket (D8 B), Protective
Gloves, Unknown Key
Tyrant’s Rod - Order a target to
drop, fall, flee, or halt, unless the target passes a Will Text
Orb of Anchoring - Anyone who
touches it will be unable to move or drop the orb. But they will not age or hunger.
When the Orb is removed, age will catch up to them in an instant.
Ornate staff with a gem in it
Money: 9 Guilder, 11 Schilling
Helene Status
Advancement: Professional (20% of the loot).
HP: 5/5
Strength: 12/12
Dexterity: 10/10
Willpower: 11/11
Items: Sword (D6), Torch
Money: 2 Guilder, 11 Schilling
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