ODND Evil Priest Solo Hexcrawl!

Haxos Pt. 2

Welcome back!

I’m still feeling out the best way to write up my actual plays, and then realized, like most things, they don’t need a rigid rule.

Especially when solo, a lot is going on, so I’ve decided to sort of write the report and what’s happening behind the scenes at the same time, and hopefully keep it enjoyable as well.

I’ve also realized if I get too far ahead in my actual plays without posting, I just get overwhelmed and don’t post - I’ll try to keep this one up to date if you all enjoy these. Sound off, it helps me decide what to post next!

Session Two:

Haxos fathoms via the ancient characters on the map he recovered from Akal’Beryth is to Hex 2704, a huge ruined keep in what’s now a lake.

I decide to wait to determine its significance until I learn more about the world and its religion and history.

Clues for another time - in my experience, worldbuilding is best left outside of “session time,” otherwise I can wind up spending all my free time allotted to the gaming session on obscure deity names etc.

Many folks in the solo gaming sphere often repeat the phrase “prep is play,” but I’ve come to disagree. Prep is prep - and, while enjoyable, is certainly not the same as play. Much like reading Keep on the Borderlands and enjoying spinning up scenarios and thinking about the maps is very pleasurable to me…playing it would be playing it.

Currently, Haxos has been tasked to travel near the capital of Thalin, the city of Grav - a perilous 12 hex journey from his current location in his master’s stronghold.

He does not wish to go by the Wyern Gate again, as he fears the power of its denizens. Last game it was determined this insane place is the home to a neutral 10th level fighter named Antares and his shapeshifter wyvern-rider knight companions. Also, giants.

Gonna give that one a wide berth.

His other options are far to the east, through the forestlands of Sylvannar, a grim prospect, or attempting the eastern valleys of the Vyr Peaks…perhaps even more dangerous.

That valley runs 40 odd miles to the Temple Keep of Preia. The valley is patrolled by heroes from that place, which is ruled by a lawful cleric - the priest-king Daiveth. Generating this place really felt like a major nemesis for Haxos’ master, and probably one of the reasons our faction isn’t as powerful as it seems it once was.

The servants of law and light are too numerous in these regions now. Going west around the Vyr Peaks would take him many, many days journey out of his way.

Haxos opts to travel east, along the foothills of the Vyr, into the Sylvannar, and from thence, south, until reaching the city of Grav.

My crawling rules determine that this is going to take some time - encounters aren’t too sketchy out on the plains, but once inside the forest, I’m throwing 3d6 per hex with encounters on any 6.

Discovery of a village on the way to the woods and some random low percentage rolls determine this place is chaotic, and the villagers, mostly herders, are still worshipers of the ancient gods of chaos and death. Haxos takes the opportunity to do a nice little ceremony for them.

At this point, I decide on rolls of 6 on a d6 mean a village is chaotic, and possibly supportive of Haxos’ mission. In this case, I treat the place like a hireling, and roll for its Loyalty rating, should I need to ask a favor or cow them into submission. With Haxos’ CHA of 14, I get a +1 to this roll, and throwing 3d6get a 9 - so this village has a loyalty of 10. I’ll use this for d20 roll under checks, and this number also determines if there’s a morale adjustment if (more like WHEN) these peasants do battle for me.

That system decided, I get a guide for the first 2 hexes of woodlands from this one horse town, and head into the sylvan realms.

I roll twice on the encounter table while in the village to determine what creatures they have rumors about and come up with Dryad and Treant.

I change the flavor to Dreadh and Tree-daemon, deciding that dryads will be some kind of weird nature witch, and the Tree-daemon are sort of like grim ents who *might* be in service to the lawful cleric guy, since I rolled treants as part of his retinue. I’ll make it make sense later. Onward!

In brief - the woods are a wild time. I’m using the extended reaction chart from Mentzer for added options. I encounter…dryads and treants!!!

The dryads are pretty cool - there’s a “lair” of them nearby, but my reaction rolls are impeccable and so long as I don’t want to make problems, they let me out of their grove.

The treants jump me somewhere in the southern edge of the forest. There’s 4. And there’s 15 nearby (some kinda f*ckin’ ENTMOOT?!!) and Haxos FLEES LIKE HELL. Evasion rolls are solid even with my encumbered limited movement - treants have a shit move because they are busy slow talking and all that.

Haxos makes it out of the woods.

The next bit is lots and lots of rolls and “roleplaying,” done as d6 throws and notations in my journal.

The city of Grav is some kind of hardcore military settlement with ancestor worshiping warriors wearing dog-skins as the ruling class. It is hyper lawful and built into the mountains, with big terraced farms down the hills into the valley below, much of which is cultivated for fruit for wine - which the place is famous for.

It doesn’t sound like Haxos’ kind of place so I roll a 2d4 for villages in the area, get 5, and roll nothing but “Lawful” for their alignments…except one, the smallest village, on Lake Ereth.

Haxos immediately goes there, subverts the local cult who make animal offerings to a fake deity in a cave complex because the local “priest” has them all duped. A cause wounds spell does two things: kills this charlatan and gives Haxos the belief of the populace, and he immediately begins training an underling, Saemeth, and two fighters, Lyr and Kalen.

Another cult across the lake are some kind of nature cult worshiping a huge bear, Haxos decides they gotta go, and assaults the cave with his new followers as well as two archers hired from another village.

The fight goes pretty well at first, then turns bad, Kalen gets killed (RIP, we hardly knew ya), but the evil gang manages to take out the priest, the two surviving cultists (of 8!) surrender, and we smoke the bear for good measure.

Haxos immediately dispatches both archers, because…he’s evil as hell, and also doesn’t want them talking about what happened here, and also because he doesn’t want to share treasure or experience points and ALSO…because he’s worried if anyone hears about him and this little evil village these dog-warriors are gonna march down from the city and stomp him out - or worse, send some heroes to do it.

The new cult takes over both the main caves, and sets up the new one for training and for the real evil stuff to go down (and maybe to build a proper temple to the forces of darkness not so close to the village), and Haxos continues the education of his new followers that were tough enough to survive the battle.

More coin is obtained, and Haxos starts thinking about pursuing the mystery of the map from Akal’beryth…

At session end, he’s gained another level and is now officially a Priest of Umbra.

This session got me thinking a lot about alignment, and the idea of what powers Haxos worships, and what the religion of these lawful peoples looks like and decided that the Old Empire was chaotic and worshiped dark powers of chaos and death and night, and that these dog-skin warriors and their cult of the hero are probably related to the people who conquered it.

World-building ideas ensue, which I’ll share some of next time.

Hope you enjoyed this look at the ongoing story of Haxos - feel free to ask me anything in the comments!

Keep your blades sharp!!!

CG