Within the Shared World of Blemish & surroundings, we have the Delve or Die!, Hool Marsh, and my own Wonky Business campaign. Now a new campaign was kicked off by the creator of the world: His so-called Mini-Campaign.

We have to quickly go through some Delve or Die! History in order to place the Mini-Campaign in a narrative context.

The initial idea of the “Delve or Die!” sessions was that DM’s theory that character generation is just lost time that could be better spent exploring dungeons. Therefore there was a ready-made party roster that stayed constant, one fighter, one magic user, one cleric, one thief, one porter carrying a lantern, and one abstracted set of shared equipment, so nobody had to think about encumbrance. All the main functions of the adventuring party were filled by more or less faceless minis, regardless of who was playing, or how many players were present.

Then these playing pieces were put either into a dungeon or into a landscape and go along the path in front of them, solve puzzles or fight enemies as they came on a linear adventure path.

Dimension Hopping

This particular party was going to see a change, though: It had been transferred to an alternative dimension by a dragon, had to retrieve a McGuffin for him from three annoying brats of worms and a small army of fleas…

…and in thanks for the return of his McGuffin, the dragon transferred the party up onto another mountain where they found some loot in lieu of payment.

New rules, a playtest

Now, mid-stride if you will, they were changed: We rolled their stats and gave them personal equipment etc., going by the rules set of Holmes & Clark. With the added bonus of having the designer of the rules, Aron Clark, on hand as a player to help us clear up questions about the new rules set, should any arise.

We built our party — I picked the Thief and called him “Stealer” — rolled 4 hit points and thanks to the more generous dice size (3d10x10) and some luck at the roll (10, 9, 10), 290 gold pieces as starting funds. Way more than any sensible adventurer needs. Plus we still had the party equipment from the pre-adventure dragon-railroad, and a big chest full of loot.

And once the whole party was outfitted, we set off.

Up the mountain

We were camping near a little river in the snow when a little fairy and an imp showed up and yelled at us to come with them, in different directions.

Both creatures claimed to be friends with the dragon from the earlier McGuffin adventure — and they were warning us of a terrible storm. We should quickly come with either A or B to be safe.

We had no particular emotional connection with the dragon (he just forced us to do his bidding, we did not think highly of him) and no clue why he even would send anyone to guide us to a cave instead of simply tranferring us somewhere else, or why he even cared? He did not seem very considerate so far. For all we know both of those supposed “friends” of the dragon were frauds and liars.

(A recurring phenomenon when the DM presents us with quest givers. As players, we always find them untrustworthy, to say the least…)

Anyway, we picked the fairy because what the imp said did not add up.

Now we got a very fancyful description of our way:

As the adventurers race up the snowy mountainside, the biting cold wind stings their faces and whips through their clothing, urging them onward with an urgency born of survival. The sky above is a swirling mass of dark, roiling clouds, heralding the approach of a heavy storm. Snowflakes begin to fall more heavily, thick and fast, rapidly transforming the landscape into a white, frosty expanse. Breathing comes in ragged gasps, visible as puffs of steam in the frigid air. Footsteps are a desperate scramble on the slippery, uneven ground, the snow crunching and giving way beneath their boots. Behind, the chilling sound that echoes off the cliffs and mingles with the howling wind. The creatures are relentless, their silhouettes occasionally visible through the trees.

And even before we reached the cover of the next snowy trees, the attack came.
We had no idea who it was and why they attacked us (maybe our chest full of loot?), but that is the way of the wilderness. Sometimes you just get attacked.

The combat was unique because in the rules set of Holmes & Clark there are two actions per round, and players are relatively free to choose how to combine these actions.

It took us a bit to find our footing with those, but once we got into the swing of things it went very well. I as a thief had the option to shoot twice per round as long as I did not move. That did not go well for long, though, because the advancing hobgoblins had wild cats with them, and they were fast, so I had to retreat at some point, and that meant one shot only.

Luckily I didn’t even get hit the whole time, even though I decided to focus on shooting rather than hiding behind the trees. Sometimes the dice gods favour the reckless.

Looking forward to the next session, although there are some issues with the oldest enemy of roleplaying: Scheduling!!

Found this scheduling image on pinterest.
The header image is by Maria Orlova on pexels.

More adventures in the Shared World around Blemish