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• Mar 25, 2026

  Let's Play Hell's Rebels!: Adventure 1, Scene 04

  Another scene in my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.

  [GM] Intro

  In our last scene, our heroes officially decided to reform the Silver Ravens, and decided their first mission is to check out the abandoned Raven hideout under the Fair Fortune Livery. In this scene, we’ll see how that goes.

  No interrupt checks today, because I don’t wanna.

  This scene will cover the first half of the Livery delve.

  [GM] Mythic Bookkeeping

  The Chaos Factor for the last scene was 5, and I want to keep it at 5 even though the last scene was peaceful.

  Let’s add the Three-Legged Devil tavern as a “character”. I don’t think it ever comes up again in the default campaign, but it might here! If it comes up on a roll, it could either about the location itself or about the people associated with it.

  We can also close the “Reunite!” thread, as that happened last scene.

  So here are our lists.

  Chaos Factor: 5

  Threads

  • The Path **
  • Find Shensen (Rosalia, Arcturus)
  • Contacting Ms. Docur (Jania)
  • Get Organized (Jade)

  Characters

  • The Dottari
  • The Chelish Citizens Group
  • The Red Jills
  • The Asmodeans
  • The Three-Legged Devil

  Delving the Livery counts as following The Path.

  [Player] Shopping!

  The livery is clear across town, so our heroes agree to stop on the way to do some shopping. I’m not going to roleplay the shopkeeper here. Let’s keep it abstract. They agree to use the money they just got from Rexus to buy extra gear for the Livery expedition. That’s $750 in coins (1 gold, 17 silver, 10 copper), plus a ring worth $750.

  First of all, Jania will try to sell the ring. Like everyone else in the party she’s of Average wealth, so she can sell it for 40% of its value. Haggling is a Quick Contest of her Merchant vs. 15, which ends up a tie! This means the price doesn’t change, and the ring is sold for $300. That leaves the party with a $1050 budget.

  • 3 glow vials: $90, neg. Carried by Arthur, Rosalia, and Jade.
  • Hand mirror: $15, 0.5kg. Carried by Jania.
  • 2 doses of visibility dust: $100 total, 0.5kg. each. Carried by Rosalia and Arthur.
  • 5 minor healing potions, 1 for each $600 total, 0.25kg each.
  • 1 paut, for Urist. $135, 0.25kg

  They agree to split the remaining $110 equally, getting $22 each (1 silver, 2 coppers). Jade also gets the blessed papers.

  [GM] I'm not gonna make the shopping into a separate Mythic scene. The
  following scene will be different from what's in the book, and I think
  we can count that as an "altered" scene even though I planned the
  differences myself.
  

  [Player] The Fair Fortune Livery

  It’s mid-afternoon when the party arrives at the Fair Fortune livery. Jade remembers the original Ravens talking about how it used to be a slaughterhouse, but was rebuilt under new direction. She remembers thinking that was nice, but the place is abandoned and in disrepair now. They never brought her to this particular hideout. It was fairly minor and probably not kid-friendly.

  The livery is now a ruined stable, precariously leaning to the right. Its frontal double doors are ajar despite being chained, and there’s a significant gap that could allow the PCs to squeeze through. That’s exactly what they do, for as soon as they get close to the building they hear the sounds of fighting!

  [GM] I determine that squeezing past the front doors requires an unmodified
  DX roll, and all of the party succeeds.
  

  Inside, the group finds a small pack of dogs viciously attacking a band of small creatures that look like upright possums. The “possums” wear clothing stitched from rags and carry small and crude weapons, putting up a spirited but ultimately doomed defense.

  The party advances to help! As soon as the dogs see a bunch of people larger than they are approaching, they run away, passing through smaller gaps in the walls.

  The possums look warily at the newcomers, not yet knowing what to make of them. Jade can see the fight was hard on them, as two lie dead on the ground, and the remaining three are quite tense. She sheathes her sword and raises her hand, proclaiming they come in peace. The rest of the group follows her lead on this.

  [GM] Reaction roll time! I want the grimples to be peaceful, but let's make
  things a bit more random.
  
  Let's say the possums react at -2 due to their stress. That's barely an
  obstacle to Jade, who still has a net +7 reaction bonus. The grimples'
  leader does consider himself a knight of sorts. The result is 15, a Good
  reaction.
  

  The … possum-people?… seem reasonably convinced that the party means no harm. The one who seems to be their leader steps forward, sheating his makeshift sword. He introduces himself as King Godric, leader of a small community of grimples who has recently arrived at this “land” to try and make a home here. He speaks as though the crumbling livery is a bounteous kingdom, causing Rosalia to remark that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Godric enthusiastically agrees with this and says he’s glad to meet a kindred spirit.

  Godric apologizes for being so bold, but he would like to know if the group is interested in helping his people one more time. The dogs were not the only threat they had been facing. There is a region of his underground kingdom from which only a single explorer has managed to return, half-dead and half-mad, describing terrible demons of enormous size! Ever since then, mobs of terrible monsters have emerged to raid his capital, and he fears they might not last much longer. The dogs were yet another disaster heaped on top of his unlucky people.

  The group has a little private discussion. It seems that this “underground kingdom” might be the old hideout, and they would have to deal with whatever is down there regardless. So, Jade thinks, they might as well agree to help.

  Jade returns to “negotiations”, and mentions they came here looking for ancient documents. The grimples never found anything like that in the part of the “kingdom” they inhabit, but Godric hastily adds that the group is free to keep any treasure they find from the “cursed lands”, should they agree to help. Not seeing a reason to refuse, they agree.

  Godric produces a key and goes to unlock the gate to the old killing floor, saying the entrance to his territory is through a trapdoor beyond. While he does this, Jania spots something shiny near the ceiling and proceeds to levitate towards it. It’s a signet ring hanging from a nail! She doesn’t recognize the heraldry on it, but it’s made of platinum and worth a pretty penny.

  [GM] $2500, to be exact. Jania succeeded at the Perception roll to spot the
  ring and the Merchant -4 roll to assess its value. She's also down 1 FP from
  the levitation spell.
  

  [Player] Down Below

  Guided by the grimples, the party makes their way to the basement of the ruin, through a trapdoor on what used to be a workroom. They descend to a former equipment storage agrea, which is now a moldy, rusty, stinky mess. Godric and his fellow grimples appear to not notice the smell, though the party certainly does.

  It’s here that the PCs activate their light vials. Jade, Rosalia, and Arcturus tie one each to their wrists using the string that comes with the vials, holding them aloft like torches.

  From the storage cubicle they cross a doorway to a larger hall that seems to have been used to butcher recently slain animals. It’s a small village, with many tiny tents pitched over the sawdust floor. There are about twenty grimples in here all told, though Godric’s party seem to be the only combatants. The smell is not much better.

  To the east there’s a large, rusty grate, with a hallway visible beyond it’s. Godric describes that as the “threshold” to the “cursed land”. Before he lets the party through, the village has a short impromptu ceremony to pay homage to the brave heroes who have agreed to help them. “Though they are of the tallfolk, their hearts are as honorable as any grimple’s!”

  After that, he opens the gate using the same key as before, and the delve is on.

  [GM] So far we've neatly skipped a lot of the filler fights, but now we got
  to the main event of this delve.
  

  [Player] Polluted Cistern

  Beyond the gate, there is a set of stairs leading down. The environment here looks much more like a street than a basement. Rosalia remembers that some decades ago the city’s “street level” was raised to help control flooding, and the old streets became a mix of sewers and other underground tunnels.

  The party finishes going down the stairs and opens a pair of double doors to find a huge pool of stinky brown sludge. The few patches of wall and ceiling near it that still retain their plaster are covered in evil-looking writing, and the two demons splashing around near the margin only make it all look more sinister. They don’t look the talkative type - as soon as they spot the PC’s lights, they turn and growl, looking like very angry human-sized balls of excrement.

  GM: It's two lemures. We also have three rats waiting in the wings for an
  extra surprise. These would have been a separate, previous fight in the
  original adventure. I'm throwing them in here, to bring the fight's
  challenge closer to the PC's power level. Anyway, this is where we enter
  combat mode.
  

  The party steps forward to the edge of the pool to wait for the lemures to close in, and they spot the rats nearby right away. The animals are used to being ignored by the lemures and they’re eager to bite into some fresh meat, so they charge in and try to bite the heroes, to little effect.

  The battle takes 5 rounds total. In the first two, Jade shows how useful her sword skills are by slaying one of the lemures and two of the rats, and one of those with a parry instead of an attack. The rules for parrying unarmed attack with weapons can be nasty. Urist kills a rat too. The rest of the party manages to stay mostly untouched, save for a small rat bite on Rosalia, but they have trouble bypassing enemy defenses. That’s some rotten luck on the part of Arcturus, as he should definitely have the skills to do that.

  For the last three rounds we only have a single lemure left, but the fight becomes a slog as the entire party proceeds to roll badly. Urist suffers a critical failure that unreadies his weapon. Rosalia suffers one that sends her saber flying off. And to cap it off the lemure manages to grab Jania and grievously injure her with a bite before Arctururs can finally dispatch it.

  Witht he fight ended, Jania is both in pain from the demons’ claw wounds and faintly horrified that the thing got its stink all over her. Urist can at least solve the first problem with a Major Healing spell, but the second will have to wait until they’re done with this place.

  The cleric also identifies the evil runes scribbled on the walls as a failed attempt to open a portal to Hell. They might have worked briefly in the past, which is how these two lemures got here, but they’ve been inert and useless for a long time now.

  The party resumes exploration of the underground street, finding that it leads north. They move that way.

  [GM] Session Notes

  Even though we’re not through the dungeon yet, I’m going to introduce a scene break here, because I’m going to need some significant GM work for the next bit.

  I actually took a three-month break between round 4 and 5. I stopped because I was out of time, but between other distractions and a slighty feeling of annoyance at my PCs’ performance it took me that long to return to it.

  In Scene 05, we should finish this delve.

• Mar 21, 2026

  Let's Play Hell's Rebels! Adventure 01, Scene 03

  Another scene in my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.

  [GM] Intro

  With the Fights in Tight Spaces experiment done and a success, we need to get our party back together so we can continue our adventure. My initial impulse is to just say they weren’t all that far away from each other, so they could all meet up shortly after the fights. Then Rexus would talk to them as written.

  But let’s first say if Mythic something funny to say about this. I roll 1d10 and get a 10, so nothing unexpected happens, since our chaos factor is 5.

  Chaos Factor: 5

  Threads

  • The Path *
  • Find Shensen (Rosalia, Arcturus)
  • Contacting Ms. Docur (Jania)
  • Reunite!
  • Get Organized (Jade)

  Character

  • The Dottari
  • The Chelish Citizens Group
  • The Red Jills
  • The Asmodeans
  • Rexus Victocora

  [Player] Scene 03: A New Friend in Need

  After the riot started, Thrune’s officials used communication magic to call a larger force of dottari to the region around Aria Park. They’re coordinating to “contain” the protesters in the area and prevent them from escaping, so that the guards can properly brutalize/arrest the whole lot. A small host of CCG thugs and other opportunists have arrived along with them, intent on getting their violence on. The guards let them into the cordon because they think it’s funny.

  Most of the group ran into these opportunists, but Arthur and Jania ran into the actual cordon, and poked a hole in it by defeating the dottari who attacked them. The rest of the group soon discovers that breach is the only way out, so they all end up meeting near that point as they escape. The dottari eventually close off the exit, but by then all of the PCs plus a good number of protesters have managed to escape.

  Urist is glad they met up again, because he recognized Jade! She’s all grown up and badass now, but her description still matches pretty closely with that of the child who several of his order’s documents said was often seen with the Ravens when they were out in public. From her story and actions, he’s sure that she will be willing to help him.

  He’s had some time to talk to Rexus while on the run, so Rexus knows he’s a friend of the family. They’ve already agreed to go to the nearby Three-Legged Devil tavern to talk, so he proposes that to the group as well. His primary argument is that it will be a nice place to wait out the tumult, and Rexus mentions he wants to talk to them about an important matter as well.

  The group agrees. Almost all of them are interested in this important matter. Jania isn’t, not particularly, but she isn’t about to argue the point when she could be having a drink on someone else’s dime instead.

  [GM] Is the tavern full? It's the middle of the day but other people might
  have had the same idea to shelter there. 50/50. Result is 63: No.
  

  The tavern is open but nearly empty at this time of day. Only a few customers sit there. Some bits of conversation reach Rosalia’s ears - people complaining about Thrune and wondering what the racket is near the park.

  The group pushes a couple of tables together away from the other customers, orders some drinks, and begins to talk. This is where Rexus explains his story and makes his impassoned plea for the party to join him in rebellion.

  Jade is immediately all in on this, as are Rosalia and Urist. Arthur likes the idea, but is open about being in town to find a missing friend, and that he might leave to pursue that goal if he finds a lead. Jania is less open, since she figures she can’t tell these people about the not-thieve’s-guild right away. She just says her circumstances are similar to Arthur’s instead.

  In my head this kinda starts a trend of Arthur thinking the two of them are much more alike than they are in reality. He gets even happier when the other three promise to help if at all possible. What a brave band of souls this is! Fighting for justice! “Like some kind of league!”, adds Rosalia. She probably realizes Jania is a little more selfish than the others but hey, but she won’t pass an opportunity to have a litte fun and break the fourth wall.

  Rexus gives details about his history, telling them how he was contacted by Laria Longroad a few days back and how he discovered that his mother Portia was an Archivist. He shows them her letter, which points them to the ancient hideout under the Fair Fortune Livery.

  Urist shows his own letter - it was hidden amongst his belongings when he left on that Archivist expedition, and it asked him to stand by Rexus and protect his life should something happen with Portia. Not long after a dire presentment caused him to speed his return to Kintargo.

  With the party committing themselves to rebellion for the long haul, Jade reveals herself to them as the lost Sixth Raven, and vows to see Thrune deposed. Rosalia and Arthur have those little stars of fascination in their eyes; Urist would too except he already knows; and Jania is a bit more calculating but mostly in a non-treacherous way. The Sixth Raven is just about the best asset you can have if your goal is to oppose Thrune.

  Everyone is now set to bring the Silver Ravens back. “That’s a much better name than Justice League!”, says Rosalia.

  Laria Longroad gave Rexus a box of valuables left to him by his mother, and he gifts most of them to the party. That’s $750 in coins (1 gold, 17 silver, 10 copper), a signet ring worth another $750, two sheets of Blessed Paper, and a folded silk undershirt enchanted with Fortify 1.

  If he had all of that on him, no wonder the CCG singled him out for a mugging!

  [Player] OOC: Loot distribution

  The shirt gives DR 1 to the body, is worth $470 and weights 0.1kg. Jania gets it because she needs armor. Only $120 of that is “mundane” value, so she’s not gonna turn it into a Power Item.

  [GM] Scene Notes

  Looks like the book named a bookstore with a secure backroom as the place where this discussion happened, but I wasn’t looking closely when I played through this and moved the discussion to a tavern instead. I’ll let it stand, as there wasn’t much difference from the original. And this is indeed the authentic experience of having me as a GM!

  My original plan for the next scene was to transplant the underground level of the Fair Fortune Livery under the Salix Salt Works. The party would then go straight from the riot to the Long Roads Coffee House, and from there do both the Prisoners of Salt raid and the document recovery delve.

  Mechanically, it works, but story-wise there are a couple of wrinkles here. The Salt Works are located on the docks outside the walls, which is a really bad place for a Silver Ravens hideout. And the livery ruins are located all the way across Kintargo, in a place that’s really inconvenient for a salt factory. Plus I think the demons in the basement would probably manage to make themselves known to the assholes running the factory, even if said assholes are not competent enough to notice by themselves.

  So I’m gonna run the Livery next, with the same kind of changes I made in a PBP attempt, and Prisoners of Salt later on.

  [GM] Treasure Conversion Notes

  I imagine Pathfinder wants this to be the reward associated with the Aria Park riot and his rescue scene. The money and signet ring are fine, following the wealth conversion guidelines I wrote, but the knife and the Bracers of Armor from the original treasure are a bit weirder.

  All devils in Pathfinder 1 have a degree of supernatural resistance that can be bypassed with silver weapons. The dagger in the original reward is mean to be the first such weapon the PCs get in the campaign, and would let them fight the devils that appear under the Livery a bit more easily.

  In our game, that won’t work, as there’s no universal silver weakness. If I want to give them a short-term boost, I’ll need something different. How about “Blessed Papers”, Bloodborne-style? Rub this against your weapon’s striking surface (a Ready action), and it gains the Holy property for a minute. $400, negligible weight, consumable. Of course, Fire Paper and Lightning Paper also exist and have the same stats. A large silver knife is $800, so we give them two sheets of Blessed Paper.

  The Bracers of Armor +1 are meant to give a small defensive boost to wizards, monks, and other unarmored characters. They give +1 to AC but don’t stack with armor. As a player I’d want Jania to have them, as she’s the least-armored party member.

  There’s actually an equivalent item in GURPS DF6, the Bracers of Force, but they’re a bit too heavy for Jania. So I’m going to replace them with a light silk undershirt enchanted with Fortify +1. So that’s gonna provide 1 DR to the torso, and it can be worn under regular clothing. The enchantment is $1000 for a full suit, but only $350 for armor that covers only the body. Total value $470, weight 0.4lbs/0.2kg.

• Mar 19, 2026

  Hell's Rebels Bestiary: Tar Devil Guard

  Part of the Bestiary for my solo Hell’s Rebels game.

  Like the Dark Adept from the previous post, the Tar Devil Guard is inspired by the D&D 4th Edition monster from the Iron Circle entry in Threats to the Nentir Vale. Both of them appear in the same encounter on Scene 02.

  The Lore

  Tar Devils are humanoid demons with pinkish skin, and the usual horns, hooves and tails that people associated with the denizens of Hell. They got the name from the fact that they constantly secrete a hot, stinky, tar-like substance from their skin. They’re sadistic bullies who love acting as muscle for infernal higher-ups and mortal summoners. Even minor infernalists like Dark Adepts find them surprisingly easy to summon because of this.

  Tar Devils can show up using a large variety of weapons, dependent on the individual’s preferences, and they’re also very creative when it comes to using their secreted tar as a weapon. This one uses a khopesh to hook and cut enemies, and can manipulate its tar to form a net.

  Tar Devils are Worthies.

  The Numbers

  ST 14; DX 12; IQ 10; HT 12;

  Dodge 10; Parry 11U (khopesh); 11 (Wrestling);

  DR 3 (13 vs. Fire);

  HP 14; Will 10; Per 10; FP 12;

  Speed 6.00; Move 6;

  • Khopesh Strike (14): 2d+1 cut; Reach 1.
  • Khopesh Hook (14): 1d control; Reach 1.
  • Wrestling Grab (14): 1d+1 control (one-handed) or 1d+3 control (two-handed); Reach C.
  • Hot Tar Net (14): 1d control plus linked 1 burn; Reach 1-2. Costs 2 FP to form. Treat as a melee net.
  • Hot Reek (-): 1 burn to whoever enters or starts their turn in close combat with the devil, or grappled by its net.

  Class: Demon.

  Relevant Traits: Fragile (Unnatural).

  Equipment: Infernal Khopesh (disappears when the devil is defeated).

  Encounters and Tactics

  Tar Devils are most likely to be found as summoned minions. They lack the esoteric resistances and weaknesses of more powerful demons, but they still have a resistance to fire and the same protections that apply to all monsters of the Demon class.

  Tar Devil Guards, specifically, are very grabby. They like to entangle victims in their burning tar nets and speed their deaths along with blows from their weapons. The net works like a grapple with the listed control damage and reach, and that reach means the demon’s allies can attack an entangled target too without fear of hitting the Tar Devil itself.

  The tar net falls apart when someone escapes it, and must be summoned again for another attack. Tar Devil Guards who want to save on FP might prefer to move to hooking enemies with the khopesh or even wrestling them the old fashioned way instead.

  Notes and Impressions

  The version presented here is a little more elaborate and faithful to the D&D original than the one I used on Scene 02. That one couldn’t summon a net. They found themselves outmatched by the PCs in the fight, but we’re starting to see what I consider to be the minimum skill level an enemy should have to properly face a starting delver.

  Their grabby tactics should crumble pretty fast against someone like a Wrestler, but any PCs who lack protection against grappling might find them more dangerous than they look.

• Mar 18, 2026

  Hell's Rebels Bestiary: Asmodean Dark Adept

  Part of the Bestiary for my solo Hell’s Rebels game.

  In Scene 02 of the adventure, I decided to introduce a few new monsters. The party split up, and the encounter tables dictated one of the sub-groups was going to have to face “Asmodeans”. Instead of looking towards the Pathfinder stats the adventure gave this, I decided to be a little weirder and import a couple of interesting opponents from Threats to the Nentir Vale. More specifically, those from the Iron Circle entry.

  It makes sense: the Iron Circle are a bunch of fascist mercenaries, and Iron Circle Guards would look nearly identical to dottari when converted to GURPS, so why not use the other stat blocks there as inspiration?

  The first of the entries I swiped is the Iron Circle Dark Adept, which appears below. The other one is the Tar Devil Guard, which will appear in the next post.

  Asmodean Dark Adept

  A cultist of Asmodeus specializing in magic that restrains and burns. Some are attached to the Church of Asmodeus itself, while others might be employed by the dottari as magical support or even be independents out to do some evil on their own, like the guy from Scene 02.

  Adepts are usually Worthies.

  The Numbers

  ST 11; DX 12; IQ 13; HT 12;

  Dodge 9; Parry 10 (shortsword);

  DR 1 (body);

  HP 11; Will 13; Per 13; FP 12+5;

  Speed 6.00; Move 6; SM 0.

  • Shortsword (14): 1d+1 cut or 1d imp; Reach 1.
  • Dark Tendrils (15): Regular vs. ST; Concentration; Cost 5; 1d+4 control; See Fantastic Dungeon Grappling p. 6.
  • Flaming Weapon (15): Regular; 1 minute; Cost 3/1; +2 burning follow-up to target melee weapon. DF: Spells p. 31.

  Class: Mundane.

  Relevant Traits: Weapon Channeling.

  Equipment: Padded vest (light cloth, DR 1, covers torso); Short sword (works as a wand, 5 FP power item); unholy symbol.

  Encounters and Tactics

  Dark Adepts are support casters found alongside whoever it is that hired them, and/or whatever demons they managed to call up. They’ll buff their allied muscle with Flaming Weapon, and then cast Dark Tentrils to hold a PC down for a beating. When forced to fight, they’ll try to cast Flaming Weapon on their own sword before engaging.

  Notes and Impressions

  Instead of using the full Dungeon Fantasy magic system here, I wrote down the adept’s magical abilities in the same format as its attacks, and only added stuff that would be immediately relevant to the fight.

  The adept’s magical “power trait” is left unspecified. It could be either Magery or Power Investiture (Unholy). Both types of adept exist and are out there.

  Weapon Channeling is a perk I detailed waaaay back when in my post about the Dragon’s Dogma Mystic Knight.

  To make them stronger, aside from the obvious “make number bigger” measures, you can give them additional spells or custom magical attacks that follow the same themes: a) fire, b) causing pain or c) depriving others of freedom. More lavish power items also let them keep casting for longer, and double as extra loot for the PCs.

• Mar 17, 2026

  Let's Play Hell's Rebels! Adventure 01, Scene 02

  This is the second scene in my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign. A long time passed between me completing the previous scene and writing up this one, but you’re seeing it published right after it since all the scenes were written long before their publication.

  [GM] Long time no see!

  I’m writing this post a full year after finishing the one for Scene 01! There are a lot of reasons for this large delay. For the first little while after I finished writing the Aria Park scene, I was just so dang satisfied with myself I didn’t feel the need to play more just yet. You don’t know how long I had that scene stuck in my head, and it was so nice to finally game it out.

  After I started thinking about what to do next, I pretty soon ran into a major creative block stemming from a lack of battle maps. It kinda affected me when I was running stuff for other people over Roll20 too.

  I can make lines on a blank canvas, but I’m not an artist, and stacking up my squiggles against the ready-made maps I also used made me very self-conscious. I finally broke through that by finding a tool that would let me draw decent-looking maps.

  No, it’s not AI, and if you thought it was I’m disappointed in you. I just decided to spend some money on a copy of Dungeondraft once I found out it runs just fine on Linux. It has a huge library of textures and placeables that let me make pretty spiffy maps by hand. Sure, they’ll end up a bit standardized, but that’s still way better than my squiggles. It only uses square grids but I can export the images without a grid and let Foundry handle the hexes.

  That gave me lots of ideas right away, but it was a relatively recent development. About two weeks ago as of this writing, I guess? I’ve been using some of my leisure time to implement those ideas, and to read Mythic Second Edition to see if I get any more.

  Turns out I don’t quite need Mythic yet, there’s a cool thing I want to do. But let’s get the Mythic part over with anyway.

  [GM] Mythic Bookkeeping

  We can consider the whole Aria Park protest and riot to be our first scene. Chaos Factor started at 5, as standard, but there was pretty much no way it wasn’t going up to 6 here, no matter how the scene played out. So it’s 6 at the start of this scene.

  Our current list of threads is:

  • The Path
  • Find Shensen (Rosalia, Arcturus)
  • Contacting Ms. Docur (Jania)
  • Find Rexus (Urist)
  • Get Organized (Jade)

  The Path is our “main story quest” as written in the books and modified by me when I’m wearing the GM hat. The others are each PC’s individual goals. Some can be solved in a fairly short time, others are more medium-or-long term unless we run into some amazing twists.

  I’m going to add an asterisk to a thread whenever it’s advanced but not removed. The Path is going to get a lot of them, but it will be nice to remind ourselves of the progress we make in the others too.

  Our list of characters is:

  • The Dottari
  • The Chelish Citizens Group
  • The Red Jills
  • The Asmodeans

  There are a lot more people who might appear in the adventure but these are the groups who are in the original random encounter tables. They’ll do for now.

  [GM] Scene 02: Fights in Tight Spaces

  The original adventure transitioned PCs directly from the riot to another combat scene where they fought some CCG thugs and rescued Rexus. I’m going do something a little different. Let’s say I decided to alter the scene on my own, in Mythic terms.

  Our group didn’t stick together as they escaped - they got out at different times and split up in the generalized chaos! The riot is dispersed but there’s still some confusion in the surrounding area. Bystanders who weren’t near the park find themselves having to flee alongside those who were, as opportunists roam around looking for people to rob and fascists roam around looking for people to arrest. Our heroes have to fight a bit more before they’re 100% clear.

  I’ve prepared three different maps, all of them fairly “tight”, with a total size of 8 x 8 spaces and several obstructions that render them even more restricted. I’ll split our heroes into three distinct groups (2/2/1) and put them into each map alongside a randomly rolled encounter group that should contain between 1.5x-2x the number of “actions” available to them. At this stage the enemies are likely to be fairly weak but their numeric advantage will pose a challenge.

  Whoever ends up alone will also find Rexus in the map.

  Our Groups

  My expectation would be that Jade and Rosalia are together because Jade followed Rosalia out. Jania and Arcturus are together by pure chance, and then Urist is alone and finds Rexus. That’s his goal, and he would have seen him from far away in the riot. Mythic, is that how things shake out¹? I get an Exceptional Yes, which in this case isn’t any different from a normal Yes.

  • Group 1: Jade & Rosalia.
  • Group 2: Arcturus & Jania
  • Group 3: Urist (and Rexus!)

  Our Maps

  Group 3 is getting the Alley map, because it makes sense that Rexus would be cornered there. Group 1 gets (roll roll) the Crossing map, and Group 3 the Tavern map.

  Our Opposition

  Urist is getting 5 CCG thugs as opposition. They’re pretty weak individually but so is Rexus and there’s a lot of them. That’s the same situation as in the book. I’m rolling to see which of the remaining entries on the Characters list faces each of the other groups.

  (roll roll)

  Group 2 is getting dottari. Three should do it.

  Group 1 is getting Asmodeans. The entry for them in the Adventure One random encounter table has a group composed of a cultist (Cleric 3), and a Redactor (Monk 1). I’ll use a spellcaster inspired by the Iron Circle Dark Adept from Threats ot the Nentir Vale, and use a couple of Tar Devils from the same place instead of the monk. Can’t make it too easy for one of our best fighters.

  [Player] Group 1: Jade & Rosalia, Crossing, vs. Asmodeans

  

  Our scene is set in an urban crossroad with an abandoned cart and a big box of produce taking up space in the center. Rosalia and Jade are also in the center, separated by the clutter and surrounded by enemies. A tar devil approaches from the north, another one from the south, and a hooded cultist from the west.

  The PCs still have their weapons in hand, having just left the scene of the riot. The enemies are all ready too, since they were hunting “heretics” in this area.

  Rosalia goes first and uses her Song of Humiliation to stun the Dark Adept, saving the day right there by preventing him from casting his Dartk Tendrils spell. Jade engages the Tar Devil closest to her and wounds his leg, though not quite enough to cripple it.

  The adept soon recovers and begins fencing with Rosalia, and the other tar devil decides to go deal with the bigger threat and converges on Jade. The bard manages to poke the adept for a bit of damage, and he decides to step back and finally cast his big spell on her. Rosalia is grappled by shadow tendrils that erupt from the ground!

  Fortunately, the adept’s careless movement puts him close to Jade, who has just finished dispatching the first tar devil and is within stepping distance of the adept’s back. She stabs him, and that’s that. Adept down, Rosalia released.

  The two PCs have little trouble dispatching the remaining devil after that, with Rosalia stunning him and Jade finishing the job with a decapitating slash. Now stained by tarry ichor, the two continue their escape.

  Analysis

  The fight took 4 rounds overall and the “tight spaces” effect was keenly felt.

  Player: The PCs were positioned such that an enemy facing one of them risked exposing their back to the other, which was pretty good! However, Rosalia could have made better use of her Song of Humiliation, instead of trying to stab the adept while Jade dealt with the tar devils alone. Still, stunning the dark adept for that first turn deactivated a major threat early on, as neither PC had great defenses against his Dark Tendrils spell.

  GM: It was pretty hard dealing with the PC’s positioning. The Dark Adept should probably have kept trying to cast Dark Tendrils after he recovered from the initial stun. I was a bit too lenient here. The Tar Devils were also not a huge threat without their net attack from TNV, but I think this was okay because this is not supposed to be a deadly fight for the PCs. I’ll add that in the future.

  [Player] Group 2: Arcturus & Jania, Tavern, vs. Dottari

  

  In the picture above we see a narrow street in front of a tavern, cluttered by tables and chairs. Jania and Art are in the center, back to back, with a dottario coming in from the west and two others from the east.

  Arcturus does not have his knife in hand, but Jania has her cane. The dottari begin armed. This map is considerably more open than the Crossing, and this time it’s the dottari who have the advantage of positioning.

  Arcturus starts the proceedings by performing a Heroic Charge on the single dottari to the left. He grabs him good. The other two close in on Jania, who tries but fails to feint one of them.

  Arcturus is pretty deadly against a single opponent he can grab, but that leaves him vulnerable to other enemies. Fortunately he manages to slam the grappled dottari to the ground and deal enough damage to take him out, allowing him to turn to the others and get ready to defend himself. I played this as a Rapid Strike with another Wrestling grab to increase control points, and then spending all of those points on a single attack I resolved as a punch. That was 5d crushing!

  Jania finds her cane does little to the guards through their armor, and Arcturus has some trouble grabbing the next one. He critically fails while defending against one of them, which lets him get bonked for 6 injury and makes him lose his balance until his next turn. Jania also gets bonked, and even a minimal damage roll takes half her HP away.

  The tide turns on the next round, however, as Arcturus critically succeeds on a defense and causes the attacking guard to drop his mace! He then proceeds to grab him and carry him away from his buddy, finishing him off in the next couple of turns with a control-enhanced stab while Jania keeps the last guard busy.

  Then Arcturus grabs the last guard and it’s time for Jania to have her revenge, as she steps behind the restrained dottario and uses her cane for a “backstab” (a Telegraphic and Determined All-Out-Attack to the skull with a Mighty Blows FP expenditure for extra damage). That causes a whopping 32 injury to the guard, more than enough to finish him off.

  Analysis

  This time the PCs had the positioning disadvantage. They took out the left flank of the pincer early, but the two remaining dottari were still effective at achieving superior positions here. Luckily for Arcturus, a character is only defenseless against attackers who start their turns on the character’s back hex. As it was, he had to defend against several “flanking” attacks from dottari, but luckily he managed them all. He also shows how luck is still a factor even for a PC that has combat skills as high as he does.

  Altogether whis was a much more harrowing fight for our heroes even though dottari are less dangerous than tar devils.

  [Player] Group 3: Urist & Rexus, Alley, vs. CCG Thugs

  

  I didn’t take a VTT screenshot for this one, so here’s the base map instead. We’re in a dead end alley at the end of a narrow street.

  This one starts with Rexus cornered in the alley’s dead end, Urist at the mouth of the alley to the west, and 5 CCG thugs between them. I don’t have a character sheet for Rexus, as I don’t intend to make him a player character. He’s got a cane, Smallsword-14, damage 1d crushing, Parry 10F, Dodge 8, HP 10, and a couple hundred points in scholarly skills not useful for combat.

  The thugs are still minions, and go down to any blow that deals at least 1 injury. Rexus can hold his own against them for a few turns if he focuses on defense, but Urist has no crowd control spells. He decides to spend a second casting Armor 3 on himself before charging into melee. This will save his life.

  Two of the thugs keep focusing on Rexus, while the other three run to engage the new threat. Despite the enemy’s relative weakness, this turns out to be the longest fight of the three! The thugs roll terribly to hit with only skill-10, but they roll really well for their active defenses throughout most of the fight. So Urist has some real trouble hitting them with his axe swings or shield bashes.

  At some point I switch to attacking with Rexus, but the again the minions suddenly turn into geniuses when it’s time to make a defense roll. Rexus’ defenses, on the other hand, are now unboosted, which means he gets hit a few times. Thankfully, the damage rolls are low and he loses only 4HP total.

  Urist also fails some defense rolls, but his Armor spell means he only suffers a couple of points of injury even with the enemies rolling super well. Then he rolls a critical failure and drops his shield! Convinced he has enough armor to withstand the assault, the dwarf moves to making All-Out-Attacks (Double) with his axe, but even so it takes around three more turns until he finally manages to hit all the enemies surrounding him and finish the fight. By the time he does, Rexus has finished his side of it as well, aided by some timely critical failures on the part of the thugs.

  Analysis

  I had an inkling this would be a challenging fight but even so it ended up being a lot more eventful than I expected. It taught me that buffing spells matter, and that even minions can be a bother when they stick around long enough (thanks to a streak of good defense rolls). That left us with a 2.5:1 ration of enemy to PC actions for most of the fight. Individually Urist was quite a bit better than a thug, but if it wasn’t for the Armor spell he’d have been worn down by their numbers.

  [GM] More Mythic Bokkeeping

  Despite a few surprising rolls, the group did well in these fights, so Chaos Factor goes back down to 5.

  We can consider Urist’s “Find Rexus” goal complete, of course. The original adventure gives XP for saving him, so the whole group gets 1 point. We can replace it with a “Reunite” thread - it’s not necessarily a goal of the characters, but it’s a goal of mine. Rescuing Rexus also advances The Path.

  Our list of characters remains more or less the same. It’s just enemies for now, as anyone who could be an ally is laying low at the moment.

  Chaos Factor: 5

  Threads

  • The Path *
  • Find Shensen (Rosalia, Arcturus)
  • Contacting Ms. Docur (Jania)
  • Reunite!
  • Get Organized (Jade)

  Character

  • The Dottari
  • The Chelish Citizens Group
  • The Red Jills
  • The Asmodeans
  • Rexus Victocora

  1. Odds are 50/50 at Chaos 6, so actual chances are 13/65/94. I roll a 10. ↩

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