voterpg

This is an experiment in running a gamebook-style RPG adventure using the Fediverse voting system. Every day on schedule, I present the updated situation, up to 3 likely commands, and "Other (in replies)". Then I resolve the winning vote.

Schedule: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday mornings at midnight. Will be on hiatus until Thursday, Jan 2nd, 2020!

I'm using my new minimal RPG system, OneDieSix, which I'll put up the rules for soonish.

Table of Contents
Hero
Adventure 1: The Tomb
Post 01
Post 02
Post 03
Post 04
Post 05
Post 06
Post 07
Post 08
Post 09
Post 10
Post 11
Post 12
Post 13
Post 14
Post 15
Post 16
Post 17

Hero

Here's Hero's stats; they'll get a name, description, and backgrounds (voted for) if they live. Hero is a barbarian, with great strength and cat-like reflexes, but not much of a charmer.

  • STR: 4
  • END: 3
  • AGI: 3
  • DEX: 2
  • INT: 2
  • PRE: 1
  • Hits: 7 / 5
  • Mana: 3 /
  • Luck: 1 started 2
  • Started with: leather armor, a sword, 3 rations, 3 torches, 6 gold coins.
  • Current inventory: leather armor, a sword, 2 rations, 1 torch, 8 gold coins, 4 silver jewelry, fine dagger.
  • Torch: burning
  • Blessings:

Adventure 1: The Tomb

Post 01

post

Rooms: O

You stand above the dark entrance to a tomb, just where your treasure map showed it.

  1. Descend
  2. Search area -> #2
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 02

post

Rooms: O, A

Search area

You find a fallen obelisk in the brush, with the inscription:

"Final resting place of
General T'chack
Loyal Servant of Emperor I'kan
538 ~ 621
When waves rise, fire advances.
When winds blow, fire falls back."

Nothing else remains.

You descend dark stairs, pass splinters of a door, light a torch, and see a small chamber with passages South and East, choked with spiderwebs.

  1. South
  2. East -> #3
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 03

post

Rooms: A, G

East

Burning away some of the cobwebs, you reach a portcullis which is (improbable Strength roll, needs d6+4-5>=7, any roll fails) firmly lowered. Past it, you can see a chamber with doors South & East, and a faint humming sound and light from the part you can't see.

Approaching the South door & webs, skittering noises run a shiver up your spine, a Giant Spider emerges.

  1. Fight Aggressively
  2. Fight Defensively (25%)
  3. Run in Terror (50%) -> #4
  4. Other (in replies) (25%)

ask for an eight legged hug

Post 04

post

Rooms: A

Run in Terror

O mighty hero screams at a pitch that would shatter glass, runs back towards the stairs, but more skittering from up there turns you right around. Trying to dodge past the first spider, which now you can see is wolf-sized, black greasy hairs and fangs dripping with venomous ooze, needs opposed Agility rolls, your roll is d6+AGI 3, roll 4 = 7, its roll is d6+AGI 3, roll 3 = 6. You barely slide past it, get stuck into the southern webs, and start burning a path thru.

It's going to get a back attack, d6+STR 2, roll 5 = 7, damage d2=1, stopped by protection 1 from leathers, so no venom yet.

  1. Burn & bash thru the South door -> #5
  2. Turn and fight 3 Spiders
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 05

post

Rooms: A, B

Burn & bash thru the South door

Burning away the webs takes another round, and the first Spider tries to get thru your armor again, rolls 3 = 5, no hit. Next, you throw yourself into the mausoleum door, d6+STR 4, roll 2, burn a point of Luck for a reroll, roll 6 = 10, bursts open, and slams shut behind you just as the other two Spiders arrive for dinner.

Your torch is guttering out, but you light two braziers with the last flickers. A small chapel, there is an altar to each side, and a door South.

  1. Investigate the altars (75%) -> #6
  2. Check South door (25%)
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 06

post

Rooms: B

Investigate the altars

Each altar has a statue embedded in an alcove, and a donation basin with a coin-sized slot in the bottom. Left is the Queen of Darkness, patron of cruelty and winter sieges. Right is the Lord of Domination, patron of conquest and summer wars. Guardians like these are not quite gods, but more active in the world.

(if you want to tithe more, say so in replies)

  1. Tithe 1 Gold to the Queen (57%) -> #7
  2. Tithe 1 Gold to the Lord (14%)
  3. Check South door (29%)
  4. Other (in replies)

Post 07

post

Rooms: B, C

Tithe 1 Gold to the Queen

The coin rattles around the basin and into the slot, a darkness forms around the statue, and you hear, not quite a whisper in your mind, "Go forth and your foes will suffer, as his did". A click is heard from the South door, and it shifts slightly ajar.

The next room is dark and stretches out some distance. Lighting a new torch, you can see long niches along the walls, smell fresher air, and hear water rushing along.

  1. Check the niches
  2. Head straight through -> #8
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 08

post

Rooms: C

Head straight through

As you move through, you can see wrapped corpses and bone piles in the niches on both sides, a stone door NE a quarter way through, more niches & corpses, another door SE near the end. Finally two clay mastiff statues set beside stairs down through an arch, where the water sound is almost deafening.

  1. Down the stairs (66%) -> #9
  2. Check NE door (33%)
  3. Check SE door
  4. Other (in replies)

Post 09

post

Rooms: D

Down the stairs

The bottom of the stairs is damp, the sound of water unbearably loud. A wide, narrow room, where the entire far half is torn away by a fast-moving river going East to West.

Upriver, you can see bars, some kind of mechanism, and maybe more cave. Downriver, it rushes through a narrow, sharp tunnel. Neither way looks survivable.

Scraps of wood and old crates are pushed against the top walls, but there's nothing but rot in them now.

  1. Up, check NE door (66%) -> #10
  2. Up, check SE door (33%)
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 10

post

Rooms: C

Up, check NE door

With the graveyard feeling of every dead eye watching you, you head back up to the first stone door. Over the lintel is carved "A'TAR". The bolt is long rotted away, and now it swings open easily, and lets you into a small private tomb with stone coffin.

  1. Graverobbing time! -> #11
  2. Check the SE door
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 11

post

Rooms: C

Graverobbing time!

You lift up the coffin lid, shove it back and it thuds onto the floor. The dry rot stench fills the little room, and the corpse of a hefty warrior in old finery is almost wedged into the coffin. There's 2 gold coins on his eyes, 2 silver rings, a torc, and a necklace, and a fine dagger. He won't need them, and stuffing them all in your pack, you've made some profit!

You hear the sound of breaking stone, or maybe clay, from the main room, and see two dog-like shapes coming at you.

  1. Fight Aggressively
  2. Fight Defensively
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 12

post

Rooms: C

Fight neutrally (tied)

Running out of the tomb to have any space to fight, you are beset by two Draugwolves once hidden in clay statues.

Your attacks are normal, damage +1 from blessing. Their attacks are +1/+1 as long as there's 2 of them. You cleave one deeply (roll 6, 3), but not re-dead yet. They attack well (roll 5, 3), you take 3 hits.

Two more rounds and they both lie dead with no more damage to you. You eat a ration and heal 1 hit.

  1. SE door
  2. Other (in replies)

Post 13

post

Rooms: C

SE door

The stone door swivels out, revealing a small ledge, with a steep slope down into a large natural cave, North-South. The floor of the cave is smooth and almost clean. You can see and hear the river violently rush past just south of you, another steep slope up NE of you, and stairs up at the far N end.

  1. Down, check out the NE slope => #14
  2. Down, N stairs
  3. Other (in replies)

voterpg

Post 14

post

Rooms: E, G

Down, check out the NE slope

You skid down the side of the slope and are in the cave. You can just barely see another door E on the ledge up top, but there's no way you can climb up there yet. The N stairs are partially filled with rubble and crap at the bottom, but you can clamber up. The door is wedged shut but you can push it open, into the chamber you saw thru the portcullis.

  1. Check portcullis => #15
  2. Check glowing area
  3. Check E door
  4. Other (in replies)

Post 15

post

Rooms: A, G

Check portcullis

There's a crank wheel recessed into the wall here, presumably to raise the portcullis back to the entrance. One spider is still there, waiting stock-still for you to come be its dinner. The other two must still be around, but you can't see them.

  1. Check glowing area => #16
  2. Check E door
  3. Raise portcullis & get eaten
  4. Other (in replies)

Post 16

post

Rooms: G

Check glowing area

There's a control panel on the wall, with wind and water symbols, levers below them, and tiny firelight holes above, currently dark. A desk next to the panel has an empty bookstand and a logbook, which is decayed and all but unreadable, looks like last entry's from the last century.

  1. Pull Wind lever => #17
  2. Pull Water lever
  3. Other (in replies)

Post 17

post

Rooms: E, G

Pull Wind lever

The firelight over Wind goes on. A long metallic screeching noise, then a roaring wind and the whole room rumbles. Peering around the door, the long cave is being blasted through by a wind emitting from somewhere above you. Most of the rubble at the stairs is rolled down towards the river. Then it stops. The firelight over Wind goes off.

  1. Pull Water lever
  2. Other (in replies)