Mysteries of Toulouse Adventure 3: The Fane of Tartarus

 Welcome to another installment of my Grimme Perils TTRPG campaign, Mysteries of Toulouse. 

Adventure 3 began with Isaac, Finnian, and Rothgar planning their sojourn to the evil temple that the three swore a blood oath to cleanse near the end of the previous adventure. 

Finnian, Isaac, and Rothgar (painted by me).

In one of the Chantry's quiet studies, the barbarian priest* Rothgar finally mustered the will to utter the foul place's name, the Fane of Tartarus. 

My buddy and ever-reliable play-test partner Stu joined me for this Session, making it a Co-op affair, which I love. We decided to roll for a few Meaning words using the One-Page Mythic GM emulator to give us some clues as to what the temple's theme might be, and thus help us name it. We ended up rolling three times and we got: "warm", "conflict", and "good". After batting a few ideas back ad forth, we decided the evil temple was devoted to the darkest aspects of death and the Underworld, and its war against life. 

* Since I knew Stu was joining for this Session, I decided it would be cool and useful to make Rothgar a kind of martial priest for his clan, so we built him as such. Here is Rothgar's character sheet: 

We forgot to roll his Unattainable Desire, but we'll remedy that! 

 His resources depleted from the events of the previous afternoon, Isaac asked his Chantry hosts if they might replenish his store of Spell Components, and they readily agreed. Noticing his injuries, they also offered him one of their legendary healing balms. These kindnesses, coupled with a good night's rest, left our trio of adventurers hale and hearty by morning. However, Isaac was a bit nervous as he was unable to get his hands on any alcohol. It seemed much of the Chantry was a "dry" domicile. 

Down 8 of his 16 Health, I asked Mythic if the Chantry would cough up any healing resources for their newest member. I got an Exceptional Yes, so Isaac got a potion and rolled a result of 4 restored Health. Coupled with a full night's rest in a place of comfort, he healed his remaining 4 lost Health. Remembering Isaac had a Quirk of Addiction, I asked Mythic if he could obtain some booze from the Chantry, and I got an Exceptional No, making me declare the place a dry haven for serious magical pursuits.  

 The Fane of Tartarus was some twenty miles away, so the trio of adventurers left Toulouse at dawn. While the first two hours of their trip passed uneventfully, the trio came upon a wagon beset by vile Zombie marauders! The foul undead were feasting on the unfortunate travelers, and Isaac, Rothgar, and Finnian sprang into action to challenge this threat. 

The scene of carnage and the battle is joined! 

We asked One-Page Mythic for more details about this wagon and we got "valuable" and "change". We decided it was a Money Changer's wagon, and when we asked if there were any survivors we could rescue, we got a "No". Of course, the obvious potential value of anything left over in the wagon spurred us into action. 

While it seemed no survivors remained, the trio threw themselves into the fray. There were likely valuables within that wagon, and these undead marauders could just as easily menace some other travelers. They had to be dealt with! 

Seizing the initiative! 

 

 Grimme Perils features a card-based initiative system that makes each round of combat unpredictable and unique. You never know how the order of battle will shake out from round to round. This also makes it ideal for solo / Co-op play. We knew that the unique way Zombies work in GP meant we would need to jump on them quickly or we would get overwhelmed. A single Zombie is weak (Threat 0), but any Round that begins with 2+ Zombies in play means another automatically spawns a Short distance away rom a random PC! The 1st round was lucky; my Magus, Isaac, got a 2 and acted first. Knowing the danger, I used the multi-target rules and a Luck point and blasted 2 Zombies at once, taking one out completely, and damaging the other. But that still left 3 on the the board, and things would quickly go pear-shaped after that! 

After an early burst of excellent luck and ferocious fighting, more Zombies began to appear, and the trio knew that they would quickly find themselves  surrounded if they did not make a hasty retreat. 

Our trio retreats! 

The battle started to turn against us with a series of bad die rolls, including Finnian suffering 3 damage from a nasty Zombie bite. Stu and I realized that the constantly re-spawning Zombies would sap our resources and overwhelm us. We had to run away. Zombies are slow, so we easily outdistanced them. We still had an evil temple to cleanse! 

 After escaping the marauding Zombies, the trio soon got back on track by way of the Old Forest. They soon came upon an unexpected person hiding in a clearing not far into the woods. She identified herself as Trillby Cottonwark, a well-to-do merchant who was traveling with her retinue and a wagon of valuables when they were set upon by Zombies. They had found a survivor after all! 

We asked One-Page Mythic if we ran into anything else on the way to the Temple, and we got a Yes. We asked if it was hostile and got a No. Stu and I thought it might be cool if it was a survivor from the attack. We used the UNE NPC generator to give us some details on this person and we got "shrewd, dignified, and outcast". We also randomly determined this person was a woman. Knave 2E gave us the name Trillby Cottonwark. We reasoned that she was trader and money-changer forced to leave the City of Lights due to a dispute over some bad loans she had made. 

Trillby decided to accompany the party, rather than remain alone in the wilderness.  After making camp for the night, the adventurers' rest was disturbed by a mad ox that barreled through the camp. Luckily no one was harmed.   

We askd Mythic if the night passed without incident and got a No. We turned to the Perilous Wilds random tables and rolled a wild Ox! Since our watchman was awake, everyone only had to roll 7+ DEX checks to avoid harm, and we all did just that--even Trillby! 

Approaching the vile temple, the party could see its foreboding entrance partially hidden among the rocks of a craggy cliff face. They wondered what awaited them within. Rothgar had told them that some ongoing dark ritual was taking place there. This knowledge had come to him in a dream, perhaps a warning from his god, Yegora, the Sky King. They would worry about just how to halt it once they located it. 

We asked Mythic if halting the dark rite would be hard (9+). Mythic came back with  a No, so the counter rite would be easier (7+). This would be Rothgar's job. Isaac and Finnian would take on any guardians, and Trillby would just try to stay out of trouble.

To get to the main ritual area, the adventurers would have to traverse some natural caves that ran off of the main entrance to the complex. It was in these passages where they fought their first daemonic Thrall. They were luckily able to overwhelm him with numbers before he could hurt them. 

Laminated passages I have had so long I forget their origin!

 

 Enemies in GP are rated by their Threat Level, ranging from 0 (weak) to mighty (5). But GP is a gritty game. The earlier Zombie encounter proves that even heroes can be overwhelmed and taken down by high numbers of weak foes. This lone Thrall was Threat 1.  

 After defeating the Thrall, the quartet quickly found the main ritual chamber, a vast, stone-wrought Fane dedicated to worshipping the worst aspects of Lady Death. 

They could hear the vile chanting as they approached. 

 With Trillby waiting in the antechamber, the trio of adventurers tried a stealthy approach to the main ritual area, but ultimately failed as they closed in. The ritual guardians were coming for them! 

GP's initiative system at work! 

We asked Mythic for Meaning on this evil ritual, and we got "light" and "cold', so we decided that this priestess was working to summon a daemon of blinding cold--an Ice Devil! We set a die timer countdown from D6 + 1. We rolled a 4, so with the +1 we had 5 Rounds to stop this ritual before it reached its crescendo. We also decided that so long as the priestess didn't do anything else during her turn, the countdown die would automatically go down by 1. Rothgar's counter ritual efforts would move it back up 1 per Result he scored. 

 As the battle seesawed back and forth, the adventurers slowly whittled the Cultists down to just one remaining, but the Priestess had another Thrall as her bodyguard, and his power impacted the fight in evil's favor. Toward the end, a battered Finnian had to engage this Thrall to give Isaac a shot at using his sorcerous powers against the Priestess. 

Finnian has just 1 Health left at this point!

GP features fast, deadly, and tactical combat. When Isaac found himself locked in melee with the Thrall, he couldn't just disengage without suffering a free attack, and he was already at half Health from a previous attack by a Cultist. Enter a badly injured Finnian. With only 1 Health left from his starting 9 (he is just a Companion, not a full PC), he still threw himself at the Thrall. In a 2 on 1 situation, characters with a numerical advantage can leave a combat without suffering a free attack. So Finnian freed Isaac up to slow the ritual down by attacking the Priestess. 

 The Priestess continued her dark chanting as the battles around her raged, and Rothgar found himself stuck fighting the last Cultist, limiting his ability to counter the ritual's progress. From the back of the temple hall, Trillby watched in horror, perhaps sensing the moment of truth hurtling toward them all. Was it suddenly colder in the temple? Could she see a rime of frost forming on the stones around her? She took a halting step forward. Could she summon the courage to act?

Something deep inside her stirred, and as she rushed forward, she uttered a hushed prayer to Minerva to grant her luck. 

Trillby acts! Finnian falls! Isaac stands torn!

 

So much happened during the last two rounds of the battle! Stu and I had forgotten about Trillby, and things were looking bleak. Then I saw her model at the back of the temple and it made me want to ask Mythic if she could sense the urgency and somehow steel her courage to act. We said that having no martial skills and just being a normal person made it Nearly Impossible. Getting a Yes would require a roll of 15 or lower, and Stu rolled an 11! Trillby charged the Cultist and freed Rothgar up to counter the ritual with an amazing roll. Meanwhile, the Thrall had felled Finnian, and the companion's Death Check went poorly, bringing him to the brink of death. You can see how Death Checks work on page 2 of our rules brief, here.  

As Rothgar confounded the ritual once and for all, Isaac lashed out at the oncoming Thrall, slaying him with a sorcerous Bolt. The priestess cursed them both, saying, "I, Kelvana the Thrice-Damned, name you both foul-spawn! When next we meet, it will be on your final days on this world!"

Finnian breathes his last!

The joy of ending the ritual and driving off Kelvana was short-lived as Finnian also had to make a critical Death Check. Already at -8 Health, he needed to make a 10+ CON check, or at least fail it by only 1, to remain alive long enough for one of the PCs to render aid to him. Rolling double 2s, he failed and passed on to the next world. But amidst the sadness of Finnian's loss, there was triumph too. And a new potential arch-enemy was revealed, as we rolled the Priestess' name and came up with Kelvana the Thrice Damned. Along with that Trillby Cottonwark became a friend and ally born in battle. 

With a bitter mix of sadness and joy the three bore Finnian's wrapped body back to Toulouse on a hastily constructed litter. Their foe had escaped and promised vengeance, but for now, doom had been averted, and wounds both physical and spiritual would need tending. That would be enough for now. 

Thanks for reading! 

--Scott