SoloDark Pt. 3: The Bandit Queen
This is the third post for my solo Shadowdark game running The Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands. I use italics for oracle rolls, mechanics, and explanations.
You can find the first post here, the prior post here, and if you want to see more in the way of notes, you can find my public Notion Notebook here.
I would LOVE questions and insights so please leave those in the comments if you have any.
Previously
Initial investigation of the Shadowed Keep had turned up nothing and due to Strika’s poor attitude and decorum the group was severely low on funds. Fortunately, Shiori had kicked the fever she picked up from the weather and the group was ready to make its next trip to the keep.
Shadowed Keep
The second journey through the woods to the Shadowed Keep proved to be uneventful, and once again both the group and Munnin saw no signs of life inside the keep. Munnin did however, find something else of interest and returned to Shiori to tell her that he had spotted a small mischief of goblins not far from where the group was currently surveying the Keep. Hoping to get the jump on them, Gol’shruk began to sneak closer to the goblins and Quibel turned invisible and followed behind.
Oracle: Do we see signs of inhabitants? No
Oracle (w/ Adv): Does Munnin see signs of inhabitants? No
Then the random encounter check came up with this result:
Goblins: Six Blood Moon warriors search for bandits to kill and loot. Emboldened by their numbers, they attack from ambush, if they get the chance.
It seems like the group will finally get some action. In an attempt to find a middle ground between the adventure and SD rules I decided to only roll for distance (Far). The encounter already gives us what they are doing and their attitude. I also decided to make a simple random check to see if the group spotted them as both sides are lying in ambush. Our group got very lucky by spotting them first.
Once in position, the group struck, though their surprise had far less of an impact than they had hoped. [Goblins can’t be surprised in SD]. Gol’shruk leapt into the mischief of goblins and easily decapitated the goblin closest to him, but he was not prepared for their counterattack. The goblins reacted swiftly and viciously, and in a few moments Gol’shruk found himself lacerated by their daggers and bleeding out on the forest floor.
With Gol’shruk dying, Shiori and Strika exchanged salvos with the goblins while Quibel continued her attacks invisibly and the fight was over almost as soon as it started. The exchange had been fast and brutal, both Gol’shruk and Strika lay dying, Strika having been pierced by 3 of the goblin’s arrows. Acting quickly, Shiori and Quibel stabilized their two unconscious allies and looted what they could from the goblins (including a very peculiar large blue egg) before deciding what they needed to do next. Unfortunately, the decision was about to be made for them.
It was a brutal combat as ShadowDark is wont to be, the goblins all got initiative in a group so just pummeled Gol’shruk and rolled really well the entire time, including succeeding on their Moral check to just run.
Oracle (w/ d.Adv): Did we avoid the bandit’s attention during the fight? NO! (Nat 1)
I’m going to play this as the bandits had already seen the goblins so when the group engaged, they moved in to find out what was going on. By the time the fight had concluded the group was already surrounded.
One of the reasons the bandits didn’t simply attack is due to the adventure itself. There is a section that goes over the timeline of the adventure and lists events that happen based on the number of days that have passed and the character triggered events. One of these is that the bandits try to negotiate getting the characters to help them kill the goblins in the dungeons if they spot them.
Captives
Almost as soon as Shiori and Quibel had the chance to catch their breath, they discovered they had been surrounded by bandits. With little choice in the matter, they were escorted to the edge of keep walls where a muscular, attractive half-elf stared down at them, her eyes a mix of malevolence, boredom and opportunity. Shiori quickly recognized her as the “Bandit Queen” Firean Maiethil, one of the bandits they had been hunting for. She shot a withering glance at Muninn as he had spent two days scouting a keep clearly full of bandits without spotting signs of them.
The group's situation quickly became clear when Firean offered Shiori and Quibel a choice. The group could fight for the bandits and help defeat the goblins in the dungeon below the keep, or they could die right here, right now. All three of the ladies knew there wasn’t really a choice to be made; the group surrendered and turned over their gear and the loot they had just recovered.
"Fight for me, clear out the dungeon, and perhaps you'll earn your lives and a shred of my respect. Resist, and you'll regret it.” - Firean Maiethil
Would someone mind terribly carrying our two friends here? My friend and I are rather exhausted from not dying and these two couldn’t be bothered to avoid the daggers and arrows that came their way. - Shiori
I decided to be more “aggressive” than the book suggests since the bandits did find them at a severe disadvantage. I asked myself what I would do if I was running the game for others and it was clear that I wouldn’t have a Bandit Queen offer them a job, she would offer them a chance to spare their life (and probably betray them later but we’ll have to see).
The group found themselves stripped of their possessions and imprisoned in a cell beneath the keep’s watchtower along with two other prisoners manacled to the wall, a male dwarf and a half-dead male goblin. Given their recent experiences with goblins, and that this one looked beaten so bad he was barely breathing, Shiori and Quibel tried talking to the dwarf and learned his name was Reithic. A warrior and new purveyor of dwarven weapons and armor, he had been captured while traveling the road between Kingsfell and Dulwich. He swore he would get his revenge on the bandits for his capture and the loss of his goods. He also told the ladies that the goblin didn’t seem to speak common as the bandits had been beating him mercilessly for more than a few days trying to get information from him with no success.
Oracle (w/ d.Adv): Would Quibel try to aid & talk to the goblin? No
I rolled an attitude check for Reithic and even with his -2 we got an 11…and this is why we make Shiori and not Strika talk to people.
Oracle: Would Reithic tell the group he spoke Goblin? No
I didn’t make as many Oracle checks in this section because it was easy to “put on my GM hat” since the adventure gives you exceptionally good, short descriptions and motivations for NPCs. An example here is Reithic, the book says:
Reithic Yurgirn (LN male dwarf fighter 1) lusts for revenge against the brigands. He is a trader of dwarven weapons and armor and is grateful to adventurers setting him free.
When I flip to his full stat block, I even get a little more
Background: A skilled warrior, Reithic is trying to carve out a career as a purveyor of fine dwarven weapons and armor. The bandits captured him during his first attempt at a trader’s life.
Personality: Gruff and quick to anger, Reithic craves vengeance. He loudly asserts his desire to kill Yar.
Mannerisms: Reithic roars challenges in battle.
This makes it super easy to answer the “why is he captured” question. I don’t really need/want to roll for it because it makes so much sense that he was captured on the road between two towns.
I swear on my honor as a dwarven craftsman, I’ll gut these bandits to the last. Aye, I’ll whet my new blades on their blood and break their bones on my shields. They’ll soon wish they’d left Reithic Yurgin well enough alone! - Reithic
Shiori and Quibel told Reithic of their battle with the goblins, their subsequent capture, as well as their plans to work with the bandits until they could escape or turn on them, and they promised to keep Reithic in mind. In turn Reithic informed them of what he knew of the bandits’ forces. There were roughly 16 total bandits, though they were not often all here. This number included their leader Firean, her lieutenant Cullen, and the half-orc cook Bareli (the second of the bandits the group was looking to capture. The gruff dwarf had been paying far more attention during his captivity than he let on.
Oracle: Was Reithic able to learn anything during his capture? Yes
Oracle: Does he know the size of the bandit forces? Yes! (Nat 20)
Eventually one of the bandits brought food down for all the captives, apart from the goblin, and with little else to do the group decided to get the rest they could, to prepare for whatever came tomorrow.
Oracle (w/ d.Adv): Does the bandit have the cell keys on him? No. It seemed unlikely but if he did, Shiori might have been able to hypnotize him with her spells and break out.
Several hours after nightfall the group was awoken by shouts and goblins shrieking from the courtyard above them. Worry quickly set in for the ladies knew that if the goblins overran the watchtower while they were held prisoner, this would be their last night alive. Fortunately, though they were still in prison, they raucous died down after some time and the rest of the night passed uneventfully.
Prepping a Dungeon
Before the characters actually get in the dungeon I thought I'd talk through my process for dungeon crawling using a pre-written adventure. I'm hoping that by discussing it upfront, it will lead to less interruptions during the narrative, and a more seamless reading experience.
There are many many ways to do this if you are running a map from scratch for your solo game and not using a pre-written dungeon. Maybe I’ll do a post about those sometime but I'm not going talk through them here. This is just about how I run pre-written dungeons while playing solo.
First, I review the general description of the dungeon in the adventure if they list one (and boy does this adventure do an amazing job here) just to get a feel for what this dungeon is like. I then check to see if the adventure spells out any specific random encounter tables (it does). I don’t dig into those too deeply because I like a little bit of a surprise when I have an encounter, I'm really just checking to make sure that there is one. I will still always use the system's rules for generating a random encounter over the adventure’s but once a random encounter is triggered I will use the tables listed in the adventure for what happens, with any modifications needed (I really want all random encounters to feel impactful and I find that’s not always the case).
For monsters, I take a look at their stat block in the adventure and normally use the closest available thing in ShadowDark. If they just seem very different it's pretty easy to convert from b/x to ShadowDark anyway (here is a great resource if you’re looking for help).
Mapping is where I imagine I'm a bit different than many solo players. I'm not a purely analog solo player and actually enjoy using digital tools if they help, I also really like uncovering a map as I go. There's sort of something very satisfying about seeing a dungeon unfold as you go. The best way I've found to accomplish this is to drop the map in Owlbear Rodeo, apply fog to the whole map, reveal the starting room, and then disable the fog preview. From there I can reveal each room as the characters explore it. This is super easy to do in our rodeo and if this is not the experience you're looking for I'd highly recommend you just do what works for you, but if you're a solo player still trying to capture the feel of exploring and revealing a map you may want to give this style a try.
Because I am using a map it's worth pointing out that I'm not super concerned about character positioning on the map. I just treat the group like they're moving together, let them all take actions and then advance the turn tracker one turn (to keep track of light and encounters). The only point of the map is to slowly reveal it room by room.
With all that out of the way let's get back to our very unlucky group.
Into the Donjon
The morning was a bit awkward as Quibel had to explain to a confused Gol’shruk and Strika why they woke up in a prison cell without any of their equipment, and would be working for the bandits they had been trying to capture. While everyone was a bit shocked and frustrated by what had happened, Quibel pointed at that, at least for now, there was really nothing they could do. The bandits wanted the goblins in the nearby dungeon gone, and the group didn't want to die. For the time being at least, it seemed the group had new employers.
I know we’re all in a cell right now, and we don’t have any of our stuff, and they even took our treasure but look on the bright side. We finally managed to find the bandits! And also, you aren’t dead. - Quibel
Not long after the sun rose the group found themselves escorted from their cell to the front of the dilapidated building on the far side of the keep’s courtyard. It was here that the characters were given their gear back, though not their treasure, and told that the Goblins came from somewhere below the building before them. Cullen, the brooding human bandit lieutenant, explained that they hadn’t ventured into the goblin’s realm for some time, and that somewhere in the building before them was the home of several giant spiders. Cullen reminded the group of their predicament and that guards would be waiting outside the building should they try to escape. With arrows pointed at their backs the group moved to enter The Ruined Donjon.
If you die in there, that's your problem. Just don't fail. Come back with results, or don’t come back at all. - Cullen (and his dog Fang)
On this first foray into the dungeon I didn’t feel that rolling an oracle check to see if the bandits guarded them with enough people was warranted. They just would. Maybe on subsequent trips I will but for now the narrative seems to be leading in a clear direction.
The description of the donjon says that many of the rooms are dim light, but that those without windows aren’t. Since this is ShadowDark I always want light to be a concern, I want to try and strike a balance in this dungeon. To do that I think I keep the dungeon danger level at Unsafe (check for random encounters every 3 rounds) and that if the torches go out it doesn’t become “total darkness” and the danger level moves to Risky. You’ll probably also see less of my rolls while dungeon crawling unless they lead to something interesting.
The group decided to do an initial sweep of the building before checking into any room in depth. They knew there were spiders large enough to worry an encampment of bandits so they wanted to deal with that first. . The ruined building was largely empty except for the debris and refuse of whatever had accumulated over the years. The wooden floors were partially deteriorated, the musky scent of animals lingered in the air, and spilled blood from long ago splashed across the walls in some places. Despite the gloom of ancient ruins the initial sweep of the building was uneventful, until they reached the chained doors.
Every time I rolled a few Oracle checks to see if they spotted the signs of various smaller creatures (snake, rats etc) nesting in the building and got a bunch of No’s
Oracle: Do we hear sounds from the room with chained doors? Yes but…decided this meant we “could” so I had Quibel make a Wis check and he got a 15, so yep.
They knew that a door with that had been chained shut was never a good sign, so they decided to take their time to investigate this one. They didn’t see any tracks leading into the room and no traps in front of the door so Quibel pressed her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything from inside. It was faint, but in the tomb-like silence of the ruined halls a slow scratching sound reached Quibel’s ears. She motioned for the group to be as silent as possible and focused all her attention on the other side of the door. A few moments later she heard the sound again, a practically silent scratch, like a blade brushing stone.
Wanting more information, Quibel decided to take the risk and enter the room, invisibly of course. Gol’shruk was able to remove the chain wrapped around the door handles without making too much noise, then Quibel turned invisible and slipped inside the room. Inside she discovered a nightmare; the long abandoned great hall was littered with countless bones, both old and new, and the armor of those who died here. The vaulted ceiling disappeared in a mass of cobwebs with half a dozen humanoid figures cocooned in webbing. Then she saw them, at the very edge of the darkness loomed two massive arachnids larger than a horse with fangs the size of swords. Quibel had found the spider's lair.
Good luck, and be safe my friend. Call out and we will be by your side in but a moment. My Saint Terragnis guide you.
And Quibel, if you haven’t returned in 2 minutes, we’re coming in after you. - Gol’shruk
This group is shaping up to be very unlucky, from arguing with townsfolk to getting captured by bandits, things seem to be going from bad to worse for them. Hopefully they can turn things around and not just all die in their next fight. If they can survive that then hopefully they can come up with a plan to escape (or murder?) the bandits. At least now they know where the giant spiders are and didn’t get ambushed by them so maybe things are looking up.
I know there was a lot of “how to” around setting up the dungeon crawl experience but I’m hoping it was helpful to someone. Plus, by getting it out of the way up front I think the narrative experience in the dungeon will be better.
Im playing solo Shadowdark - Citadel of the crimson minotaur on Fantasy grounds vtt. Maps are great and so is light tool they have. Really enjoying following your adventures.