I’m just going to warn you up front, this doesn’t end well.
So after leveling up my characters and learning the whereabouts of the World Breaker Shard from Gorum at the end of the last adventure, Brock the dwarf and Archmaster Aodan head once more into the Breach.
With the information obtained from Gorum, Ingolfr Stone Gaze can now see clearly that the Shard is being worn as a medallion by a nefarious demon priest named Arioch. You have to track him down and take the Shard from around his neck.
The first waypoint is simply called “Stone Maw”. The description given simply says that it is an entryway leading underground that has been hewn from stone to resemble a mouth with large teeth. Ingolfr says that he thinks there is blood on the teeth, but he can’t be sure.
I decided that this could be a trap. So I simply made a 50/50 roll to determine that. On a D20 roll, over ten and it is, under ten and it isn’t. I rolled a twenty, a demon. So yes.
Then I made Aodan perform a SPOT HIDDEN check. He rolled a thirteen. Fourteen is his ability level, so he barely passed it. Then they both had to pass SNEAKING checks, which they did, Aodan by one. I figured because it was a demon roll on the initial check to see if there even was a trap, that the trap would be particularly nasty, like it would close on them and cut their HP in half or something if they failed an EVADE check, but they didn’t set it off so it didn’t happen. I also would have given them a boon on the SNEAKING checks because they knew the trap was there but they also didn’t need that.
The threat die turned to five, because I figured it would have been slow going to locate the trap and sneak past it. This threat event has to do with the underground passageways filling with magma and destabilizing, creating potential hazards.
The second waypoint was unknown, so I rolled on the environment tables and came up with the following: a lofty bridge, a mechanical whirring noise, and cracked terrain.
I thought about this and decided to make it a drawbridge they were crossing and someone decided to raise the bridge. That would explain the whirring sound. The cracking of the earth would simply be that the bridge hadn’t been raised in a long time.
So this meant that they were going to fall. I made the height of the “lofty bridge” 10 meters. In the rulebook, there is a somewhat convoluted method of calculating fall damage which involves halving the height of the fall, then rolling that many D6s for damage, rounded down. But a successful ACROBATICS check halves the numbers of D6s, rounded up.
So a fall of ten meters could actually kill both Brock and Aodan, but almost unbelievably they both passed ACROBATICS checks (Aodan’s base skill in ACROBATICS is only 5). So they both blunted the impact of the ground. Brock received -7 damage and Aodan received -6. I had them make a stretch rest and Brock regained all his HP and Aodan +4.
The threat dice turned to four.
The third waypoint was also blank, so I rolled on the environment tables and came up with the following: towering statues, slimy surfaces, mystical light, and singing skulls.
I didn’t know what to make of the mystical light, other than that they weren’t plunged into total darkness, and the singing skulls I just ignored, because I immediately decided that they were going to climb the statues to get back up to the other side.
I had Brock go first. I made him pass an ACROBATICS check, and actually gave him a bane on the roll because of the “slime”, but he passed. Then I made him pass another ACROBATICS check to jump from the statue to the ground, which carried the possibility of falling again, but he also passed this check.
Aodan wasn’t so lucky. I decided to have him cast Pillar on himself, a spell that raises the target up three meters off the ground on a pillar of earth. I did this to give him a leg up on the climbing part and thought that this would defeat the bane I would have to give him on the ACROBATICS check because of the slime. But you also have to pass an ACROBATICS check to stay atop the pillar of earth, according to the spell’s description, which Aodan failed. Then he fell. So I had him make another ACROBATICS check to halve the damage and he succeeded, and only received 1HP damage.
Then I just had him try to climb the statue with a bane on his roll and he failed that ACROBATICS check.
Because there is a threat event with the possibility of the caverns filling up with lava, I didn’t think we had much time to keep messing around with trying to get Aodan to climb out of a low pit.
Fortunately, it occurred to me that if there was a drawbridge, there would have to be rope or chain of some kind to pull the bridge up, and if Brock could get that, he could lower it to Aodan to pull him up.
So I invented a scenario where two goblins were manning the drawbridge and Brock was going to make a sneak attack and he wasn’t going to receive the bane on the roll per usual because the goblins would have to assume he was dead or at the bottom of the pit. He passed the SNEAKING check and dealt 2D6 damage to one of the goblins, which turned out to be 11. The goblin goes down.
Brock has the heroic ability of Army of One, which allows him to attack twice per turn, but when he turned to attack the other goblin and make his attack roll, he rolled a twenty. A demon roll. This means a misshap happens.
There is a table in the rulebook where you roll to see what happens on a demon roll in melee combat. I rolled a four, which means that I loose my weapon “D3+3” meters away. I don’t know what a D3 is and think this is actually a typo. So I rolled a D4 instead and came up with 1, so a total of 4 meters away. It also says that it takes up an action to pick the weapon up.
So the Goblin rolls and comes up with 6 damage, reduced to 5 because Brock is wearing leather armor. This halves his HP.
It is important to point out that Goblins are not treated as monsters by the rules, they are NPCs. This means that they have to make attack rolls and can miss on their attacks. Regular monster attacks always hit in Dragonbane. Don’t know why this is.
I have to use Brock’s next turn to move to the axe and pick it up. He then misses on his second attack. Not good.
But the goblin misses on his attack roll as well! Dodged a bullet there.
Brock has the initiative on the next round and hits on both his attacks, for 7 and 6 damage respectively. The second goblin collapses.
So now I figure Brock can use his axe to free up the rope or chain (doesn’t matter) from the drawbridge. He has the MASTER CARPENTER heroic ability after all. But I just made him pass a basic strength test to see if he succeeded, which he did. But I deducted a few durability points from his axe because I thought it was probably damaged somewhat by being used in this way as a work tool and not a weapon. Durability matters when parrying attacks.
Brock is able to haul Aodan up, but not until Aodan passed a strength test to see if he could hold on that long, which he did.
So this took a great longwhile and the threat dice should probably turn to two, but I just let it go all the way to one, because the very next waypoint just so happened to be another bridge called “Fool’s Crossing” that has flowing magma below the bridge. So I just let the event happen. The caves are filling up with magma.
I gave Brock and Aodan a stretch rest to recover HP, because time no longer really matters as much
On this waypoint, in the given description, it says that there is a bridge and on either side are opposing forces, a band of orcs and a band of demon cultists. The orcs are on your side.
The orcs are attacking a barrier the demon cultists have erected but are being repelled by seemingly magical means.
That’s it. It’s up to you to figure this out.
Aodan doesn’t know Dispel, which would cancel out any magical spell I think on an opposed roll. I just had to assume that there was a way over the barrier.
So I had them make a PERSUASION check with the orcs on their side to let them help in exchange for safe passage afterwards. The check succeeded and they joined forces.
The plan was for Aodan to cast Pillar, and then for the target to leap over the barrier.
Brock led the way and passed the ACROBATICS check to stay on the pillar. I didn’t have him make another to jump down, feeling that he would just make it (although I forgot about fall damage in the heat of the moment).
So he lands and immediately attacks the first demon cultist he sees and takes him out with his dual attack rolls. Then I have everyone draw initiative.
I didn’t have them draw initiative before because they weren’t in battle yet. Now they are. Maybe I should have just used the rules for sneak attacks, but that would have required a SNEAKING roll and that’s not what they were doing. I just thought it would be a surprise that they managed to get over the barrier.
So anyway, battle commences. Aodan has the initiative now, and I’m having him work as a team with the orcs on the other side, so he casts Pillar again and the orc chieftain (I just assumed the leader would go first) passes the ACROBATICS check and makes it over the barrier. I had to guess what his ability scores would be so I just gave him Brock’s. I assumed he would be at least as acrobatic as a dwarf.
But his movement is used up and the nearby cultist is already dead.
Now it’s the demon cultists’ turn.
I had to improvise for them, because oddly there is no information given in either the official rulebook’s bestiary nor the expansion stand alone bestiary for Demon Cultists. There’s no stat block anywhere. So I just gave them a 50/50 chance on their attack rolls and 2D6 damage rolls. There are three left.
The first one attacks the chief, hits, and rolls for 9 damage which is reduced to 5 because of chainmail.
The next one does -4 damage to Brock.
The next one misses.
Aodan has the initiative on the next round too, but the orc falls off the pillar and doesn’t make it across.
The chief is up next with his dual scimitars, but misses!
Next is Brock, and wouldn’t you know it, he rolls a demon again. I rolled a three on the table and it says his weapon gets stuck and he has to use an action and pass a strength check to get it out. Because he gets two attacks, I was able to get his weapon unstuck with a passed strength check, but now his turns were over and he hadn’t done any damage to the cultists.
Back to the demon cultists. The first one misses.
The second one hits. Brock is down.
Third one misses the chief.
Cultists draw the initiative on the next round. They all go after the chief.
First one does 3 damage.
Second one does 6 damage.
Third does 5 damage.
Cheif’s turn. Rolls a demon. Loses his scimitars 5 meters away.
Then Aodan’s turn. Orc fails the ACROBATICS check again and doesn’t get over the barrier.
Cultist’s draw the initiative again on the next round.
But their attack rolls are bad. First one does 1HP damage to chief, 2nd one misses, and third only does 1HP damage.
The chief has 4HP left. He moves over to retrieve his weapons and picks them up, which takes his action.
Aodon can’t get the orc over again.
Chief draws initiative on the next round and he hits with his dual scimitars for 19 total damage and totally shreds a demon cultist.
I ended the fight here by making the remaining two demon cultists flee. I did this because it seems like a lot of TTRPG rulebooks I’ve read say that when an enemies’ forces are reduced by half, they tend to flee. I don’t think that Dragonbane explicitly states this, although it might somewhere, but I think it’s a good rule of thumb. And if you just saw your friend taken out brutally on one turn by dual scimitars you’d probably run too.
With no one manning the barrier, it fails, and the orcs and Aodan cross over the bridge.
Aodan makes a HEALING check and revives Brock. They both take a stretch rest to regain HP. Then they move to the next waypoint.
This one is called “Shadowed Courtyard”. It says there is a well in the middle of the courtyard that you have to escape into, but there are “scores” of demon cultists beyond the courtyard wall.
I didn’t really see a conflict here unless you make them pass a SNEAKING test so that they weren’t spotted while climbing into the well.
Wouldn’t you know it, Brock rolled a demon on his check.
Because bad things are supposed to happen when you roll a demon, I brought out four demon cultists to fight them around the well. The cultists drew the initiative.
First one does only 1HP damage to Brock, but the second one does 9. Brock is down again.
The other two demon cultist approach Aodan but are two far away to get to him.
Aodan is going to cast Gust of Wind to knock his enemies back, but it fails!
The cultists have the initiative on the next round. The first one misses Aodan, the second one rolls a demon and looses his weapon, the third misses and the fourth misses!
They do have him surrounded though.
Aodan has the initiative now and casts Gust of Wind. It hits all the demon cultists for 3HP damage and pushes them away 3 meters. This is important, because after he backs up using his movement, only two of the cultists can reach him on the next round.
Aodan draws the initiative again on the next round and I was going to have him cast fireball at the nearest demon cultist…but he misses.
The first nearest demon cultist catches up to him and only does 1HP damage.
But the second…
TPK…
~
I enjoyed this mission. It required some creative thinking on my part to figure out ways to get Brock and Aodan through these waypoints and I had to really dig into their characters and the rules in order to do so in a satisfying way.
Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out the way I wanted.
I will say, as a criticism of the game, and this is coming from someone who really likes Dragonbane and would recommend it, but I think it is a real detriment that there is no stat block for Demon Cultists, considering that they have featured in both of these adventures. That seems like a real oversight. I might have failed simply because I didn’t know how to balance the encounters correctly. I can’t imagine trying to fight all of these cultists with just one character. I couldn’t beat them with two.
I might try again with a new character, but I am done with “The Cultist’s Warren”. There were two more waypoints after the Shadowed Courtyard, and as it was, it took me two game sessions of a couple hours each to make it that far. I’m not doing it again. The next one is called “The Mage’s Refuge”, and I might just start there. Or do something else entirely.
Thanks for reading!