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  • Mar 27, 2026

    Let's Play Hell's Rebels: Adventure 1, Scene 05

    Intro

    Our last scene was the first half of a small dungeon delve. The party arrived at the Fair Fortune Livery after some shopping, negotiated with the small grimple community living in its ruined basement, and learned of “foul demons” inhabiting a “cursed land” next door to them.

    They accessed a section of old buried city streets, and fought two lemures and some giant rats who made their homes there. Then they resumed exploring the underground area in search of the Silver Raven hideout.

    [GM] Mythic Bookkeeping

    The fight was actually a bit more chaotic than I anticipated. The opposition was kinda weak but that last lemure took a lot of killing and managed to inflict some damage before it was taken down. Let’s increase the Chaos Factor to 6.

    Let’s also add the Livery Grimples as “characters”. In the default campaign they were enemies to be exterminated, but here they’re peaceful and might come up again.

    Threads

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

    Characters

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

    Our PCs are progressing along The Path by continuing to delve the livery. This next scene is meant to cover the rest of the delve, ending when they leave the dungeon.

    I roll a d10 and come up with a 7, which means there are no surprise alterations here.

    [GM] Preparation Work

    Time to plan what’s ahead. First of all: do I even want to include Blosodriette here?

    She’s CR 4, and appears at a time when Pathfinder 1e PCs would be level 1. She has unreasonably high Stealth, at-will Invisibility, and her contract is disguised with an illusion spell the PCs can’t pierce at this level. She also has a wand of Acid Arrow with 9 charges, which could make short work of a level 1 party.

    So clearly the book means for her to stay hidden, follow the PCs to their new hideout, and engage in sabotage during the back half of the adventure. The PCs are only meant to find her shortly before the end of the adventure, when their higher level and better gear makes fighting her a more reasonable proposition.

    However, her sabotage is super annoying to deal with when playing solo. And our PCs are already powerful enough to take her on, and even to detect her presence right here. So I think I’ll let that happen, and run the fight here.

    Blosodriette

    We start with the stats for a Hrogn from the Nordlond Bestiary, which is equivalent to the D&D imp. We then replace the claw attack with a Stinger (a piercing Striker). And we add some rogue stuff and items on top of that.

    [Author] I'm going to post a Bestiary entry for her too, as usual.

    ST 6; DX 12; IQ 12; HT 11;

    Dodge 11; SM -3

    DR 2;

    HP 6; Will 12; Per 12; FP –;

    Speed 8.00; Move 8 (Flight Move 5).

    • Stinger (12): 1d-3 pi + 1d toxic follow-up. Roll HT-2 or become nauseated for 1d minutes. Reach C.

      • Stinger Backstab (12): 1d+2 pi + 1d toxic follow-up. Roll HT-2 or become nauseated for 1d minutes. Reach C. Only on unaware targets who don’t get a defense roll.

    • Tiny Blowpipe (12): Acc 1, Range 6. 1 pi + 1d toxic follow-up. Roll HT-2 or become nauseated for 1d minutes.

    • Lesser Wand of Explosive Fireball (12): Acc 1, Range 25/50, 1d burn ex.

    Relevant Traits: Invisibility (selective), Injury Reduction 2 (non-magic damage), No Blood, No Neck, No Vitals, Backstabber 10.

    Gear: Tiny blowpipe, 10 envenomed darts, Pipes of the Sewers, Lesser Wand of Explosive Fireball with 10 charges (worth $1600).

    Blosodriette’s Loot

    • The “Tiny Blowpipe” is like the blowpipe on Adventurers, but with a max range of ST instead of STx4. It’s worthless and not suitable for PC use.

    • The Lesser Wand of Explosive Fireball replaces the Wand of Acid Arrow from the book. Per DF Magic Items 1, it’d be worth $9600 with the full 60 charges, so it’s only worth $1600 with 10. It’s a short baton. $1600, 0.25kg.

    • Pipes of the Sewers: A set of pipes ($40, 0.5kg) enchanted with Beast Summoning (Rats) ($8000) and Rat Control ($4000). I’m using the price for Vermin Control here because it’s only a single animal type instead of the more general categories. Playing the pipes summons a rat swarm and casts Rat Control on it (two separate spellcasting rolls at power 15 each). It works once per day (+$680). This is a bardic item, and Bardic Talent applies to the rolls instead of Power Investiture (Druidic). It requires the appropriate Musical Instrument skill. The spells only last for as long as the song continues. $12720, 0.5kg.

    • Gold-and-platinum signet ring worn as an armband ($1500), embroidered silk scarf worn as a wrap ($400).

    Additional Loot In The Room

    First Crate:

    • A pouch with a dozen pearls worth $1000 each. (total $12000)
    • A Balanced Pistol, from Pyramid #3/36: Acc 2, Range 75/450, Weight 1.5/0.005, RoF 1, Shots 1(20), damage 2d-1 pi+. $1000, 1.5kg.
    • A Balanced Silver-Coated Dwarven Mace: +1 to skill, sw+3 cr, reach 1, Parry 0. $550, 2.5kg.
    • A suit of Light Leather armor with a Fortify +1 enchantment. $1150, 9kg.

    The second crate has a locked iron box. DR 6, HP 18, unmodified Lockpicking test to open. Inside is:

    • Charged Universal Scroll of Hide Emotions (1 hour duration): $200, neg.
    • Charged Universal Scroll of Hide Thoughts (30 mins duration): $500, neg.
    • Charged Universal Scroll of Scryguard (10 hour duration): $300, neg.
    • Charged Universal Scroll of Light Thread (10 minute duration): $200, neg.
    • The documents which are the goal of this whole delve.

    The third crate has six Silver Raven Figurines of Wondrous Power. These can turn to life-sized mechanical ravens on command. The user can then use it like a D&D Animal Messenger. This means they can mentally imprint a location on the raven and have it carry a letter there, waiting for a specified amount of time and allowing the letter to be removed during that wait. Then it returns, possibly bearing a response.

    [Player] The Old Hideout

    Mechanically, we’re going with this procedure for the exploration, and I think it’s fair to say this includes Urist’s Detect Evil rolls. Me-The-Player would definitely argue for that with Me-The-GM.

    The party arrives at the old hideout on their second exploration turn, take in the ruined ambience, and decide to spend another exploration turn searching the place. This is a no-brainer, really. So we get to make some Perception rolls for them.

    • Jania spots the nest in the corner, and notes it seems to have been recently used by a tiny humanoid creature.

    • Rosalia notices the three boxes of Stuff.

    • Urist’s Detect Evil power finds that there’s a demon in the area, but none of the others can find anything with their mundane senses.

    Blosodriette is invisible and trying to be silent. I’m giving her Stealth 15, and no one could beat that with their Hearing rolls. However I do think the clues the party did find would make Jania cast See Invisible, and I want to say that’d let them spot her because she’d be relying on her invisibility to stay hidden.

    [GM] Call it a +10 modifier to Jania's Perception because the imp is now in
plain sight for her. With the bonus, Jania succeeds by 14 while B only
succeeds by 7.

    Jania spots the imp and calls it out. Blosodriette freaks out, startled and angry at life, and begins to fight. Let’s say she recognizes Jade, since she was definitely around when the Ravens were active!

    No surprise, but only Jania can see the imp currently. The creature opens by launching a fireball from her wand at the party, but she misses, causing the projectile to hit a nearby wall and explode. Everyone is startled but no one is hurt.

    Jania casts another See Invisible spell on Urist, which leaves her low on fatigue. The priest begins charging a Sunbolt spell.

    Rosalia, meanwhile, figures that even though she can’t see Blosodriette the imp should be able to hear her just fine, so she begins her own string of insults as a Song of Humiliation, and manages to stun her target!

    [GM] There is a penalty for not being able to see the target, but Rosalia
won the Quick Contest anyway.

    The party’s melee fighters have a rough idea of where Blosodrtiette is and begin closing in on her position while she struggles and fails to recover from her mental stun. Urist lets his Sunbolt fly and slightly singes the imp, and then Arcturus ends the fight by grabbing at the flapping and cursing sounds and getting a good hold on the creature.

    Blosodriette cannot possibly escape Arthur’s grasp, so this is when I go out of combat time. Frustrated, the imp just shouts for them to kill her already so she can go back home after a century trapped in this cesspit. Before anyone can reason whether this is really a good idea or not, Arthur wrings her like a wet rag and that’s that. She disappears in a puff of sulfur, leaving her gear behind.

    The imp will pop up back in Hell, and though she’s in for a bad time down there for her “failure” she will still inform some higher-powered fiends about how the Sixth Raven is back, thus giving us a reason for more exciting Monsters of the Day.

    Our heroes get to loot B’s gear and the three boxes described above now. Jania has no problem opening the locked box. She identifies that the stylish suit of leather armor inside one of the boxes is magical, and while she can’t feel any magic from the silvered mace next to it she figures there must be something special about it. And the pearls, oh the pearls. Jania and Rosalia get little gold pieces in their eyes as they realize how much these must be worth.

    The silver raven figurines also ping as magical, and bear further analysis. There’s some magic mixed in with the big pile of documents too, but they’re not gonna sift through that right now. After Urist confirms none of this stuff is evil, they decide to carry everything out in its boxes and distribute later. B’s gear goes into the iron box for later sorting as well.

    Victory Celebration

    When the party emerges from the old hideout, they’re hailed as heroes by the grimples. A few of them bring out tiny improvised musical instruments for a celebration, which fascinates Rosalia enough that the decides to gift them the tiny pipes. They do get a bit scared when that summons a swarm of mundane rats who start dancing to the tune, but in the end the grimples are even more grateful for the party’s generosity.

    Their leader pledges to help the party in the future, should they need it, and explains how to leave a letter at a place on the surface where they will check for it.

    With that done, they set out on the long walk to the Long Roads Coffee House. It takes about 90 minutes.

    [GM] Rewards

    The party gets a total of 3 character points:

    • 1 for fully clearing the Livery.
    • 1 total for the battles inside.
    • 1 for retrieving a “quest item” (the documents).

    For treasure, they get the $2500 platinum ring found in scene 4, and everything listed in this post except for the Pipes of the Sewers. Rosalia gave that away to the grimples. Yes, it’s really expensive, I know.

    We’ll distribute the treasure in the next scene, after the party arrives at the Long Roads Coffee House.

  • Mar 26, 2026

    Hell's Rebels Bestiary: Lemure

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

    Lemures first appear in the big fight during Adventure 01, Scene 04.

    The Lore

    Sometimes also known as “orts”, these things look like vaguely humanoid clumps of fetid slime. They’re the demonic equivalent of zombies, about as smart and even filthier. Lemures are used as cheap labor by stronger demons, which they are compelled to obey. Lacking orders, they tend to mill around aimlessly and attack any living creatures they can sense, fighting to the death.

    The Numbers

    ST 13; DX 12; IQ 8; HT 12;

    Dodge 9; Parry 10 (Unarmed)

    DR 3 (13 vs. Fire); Control Resistance 1

    Speed 6.00; Move 5;

    • Slimy Claw Or Bite (15): 1d+1 cutting; Reach C.
    • Slimy Grab (14): 1d+1 control; Reach C.

    Class: Demon.

    Relevant Traits: Foulness (GURPS DF Monsters 5, p. 14); No Brain; No Vitals; Doesn’t Sleep; Doesn’t Eat or Drink; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards; Automaton.

    Notes and Impressions

    Lemures fulfill the exact same monster niche as zombies but they’re a bit tougher and are demons instead of undead, so they’re vulnerable to a slightly different set of abilities. Other than that, there’s not much to see here.

  • 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.

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