SoloDark Pt. 8: The Ironwolf Treasure Vault
The Luckless finally return to the Demon Door to deal with the flaming imp and raid the remnants of the Ironwolf's treasury...or die trying.
Thanks for reading my solo Shadowdark game running The Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands. I aim to tell a story and pull the curtain back on how to run a solo TTRPG. I use footnotes for smaller rolls, mechanics, and comments, and italic blocks for larger stuff.
You can find all the prior posts here, and if you want to see more in the way of notes you can find my public Notion Notebook here.
Previously
The group had turned in Firean and Bareli and received a sizable bounty. They were loaded and ready to resupply and get back to the Shadowed Keep in high spirits. 48 hours later they had made 2 allies, started a full-blown bar fight (Strika still says the other guy started it), been banned from the Dancing Bear for 5 weeks, and finally gotten robbed. They were well equipped and flat broke.
Desperate for coin, and with few other options the group now named Luckless made their way back to the Shadowed Keep in the hope of finding a treasure hoard behind the Demon Door.
Seeing as the Luckless leveled up and gained an ally last time, I wanted to show a simple version of their new stats below. If you want more details check the Notion site.
Gol’shruck - Lv2 Fighter, AC 16/18, HP 12, S +4, D +1, C -2, I +0, W -2, Ch +1
Quibel - Lv2 Sage, AC 9, HP 9, S +1, D -2, C -2, I -1, W +2, Ch +1
Shiori - Lv 2 Witch, AC 9, HP 4, S -1, D +0, C -1, I +1, W -1, Ch +4
Strika - L2 2 Mage, AC 12, HP 8, S +3, D +2, C +1, I +4, W +0, Ch +1
Diam (their new ally) - Lv 3 Fighter, AC 14/15, HP 9, S +4, D +1, C -2, I +0, W -2, Ch +1
A Return to the Demon Door
The Luckless had spent the last few hours searching the bandit watch tower and were disappointed by how little they had found.1 Now they stood in the hallway leading to the demon door that had almost been their end a few days ago and put the finishing touches on their plan. Strika had cast detect magic and determined that the trap was still active despite the door remaining unlocked. If the entire trap reset, as they expected it did, the hallway would be consumed in a blast of fire and then the flaming demon would be summoned to finish them off. Fortunately, they had a plan to avoid the fire and get the jump on the creature.
So, yer’ tellin me this whole hallway filled with fire, and then some flying demon thing got summoned, and you all make it out alive huh?
That’s right.
And you’re sure this plan of yours will work this time?
Oh not, not at all…but it can’t be any worse than last time. - Diam & Strika discussing the hallway
Gol’shruk flattened himself against the wall beneath the carved demon’s head and pushed the door ever-so-slightly open while the other four members waited on the stairs. As expected a wave of fire filled the hallway before the familiar glow of the fire imp began to burn into existence. With the trap sprung the group leapt at the creature as soon as it was made whole. Gol’shruk and Diam struck it with their blades while Shiori and Strika blasted it with magic, but they found it to be much faster than expected2. Even as they cut the imp in two it uttered a profane scream with its dying breath and bathed both Gol’shruk and Diam in flame. The two were stable but injured and decided to press on rather than rest. They had to know what was on the other side of the demon’s door. What could be worth this amount of protection?3
Convinced there were more traps ahead Stika cast his spell of invisibility and slipped into the next room. His heart caught in his throat as only a few feet away from the door was a creature pulled from a nightmare. The skeletal remains of a 15-foot-long snake topped by a fanged human skull stared directly at him, the hollow eye sockets gleaming with a dim green light. It seemed improbably that the creature coild see him while invisible, but it was clearly a magic creature and you could never tell with those. He figured if it could see him, he’d be dead in just a few seconds.
The group was surprised when only a few moments after he had slipped inside the door, they heard Strika’s hushed voice nearby. He told them as quickly and succinctly as possible that an magically created monstrosity was on the other side of the door. He told them their best best was rush the creature and hope to destroy it before it had a chance to retaliate. The group nodded, took a brief moment to prepare, and Gol’shruk charged the door catching the creature off guard. With the element of surprise, they made short work of whatever the creature was, and avoided damage of any kind.4
With the last guardian defeated they set about searching the treasure vault for what they hoped would be a vast amount of wealth. There were four large chests in alcoves carved into the wall but unfortunately each chest was almost empty. It quickly became clear that the rumors about the Ironwolf family having spent most of their wealth were true. Even if they combined all the remaining treasure into one of the chests, it still wouldn't be half full. All told they found a small bag of silver and gold, a few gemstones, a solid iron shield emblazoned with the crest of the Ironwolf family, and an exceptionally crafted longsword. By far the most exciting thing they found (at least from Strika’s perspective) was the small spellbook that held half a dozen spells. After thoroughly searching the room to make sure there were no further secrets to be found they realized this truly was all that was left of the Ironwolf fortunes. While it was a fair amount of gold, it wasn't anything close to what they had hoped to find. It seemed that if they wanted to find more riches they would need to travel deeper into the dungeons below the keep.
Despite the value of the treasure being pretty minimal I wanted to at least give the sword and shield a chance to be more than just standard equipment since they are part of and exceptionally well guarded treasure. I ruled that the shield can be sundered twice. The book also says that the sword, “of high enough quality to be enchanted” so I made an oracle roll
Oracle: Is the sword enchanted? No, but…it is worth twice the value of a longsword.
The spell-book contains the following spells:
Tier 1 - Alarm, Charm person, Hold portal, Light
Tier 2 - Invisibility, Web
While Strika can't use these yet, several of them might have a huge impact once he gets the time to learn them.
The Luckless also got +2 XP for finding the treasure. This is between normal (1 XP) and fabulous (3 XP). The treasure itself is certainly only normal but SD describes says that fabulous also means well guarded, which this treasure certainly was, so I opted to split the difference and go with 2 XP
Well, they finally dealt the the creatures guarding the treasure vault but the remains of the Ironwolf fortune were far less than the group hoped for. At this point they’ve got about 150 gold to their name which is ok, but certainly not enough to warrant leaving the Keep and heading back to Dulwich. They will absolutely push further into the dungeon before going back to town.
I know this was a bit on the shorter side but I’m trying to work on making these about a 10 minute read and there isn’t another natural stopping point for a while. Not to spoil anything but once they action starts.
Oracle (d.Adv): Has someone shown up to loot the tower? No
+1 XP from minor treasure
I rolled a tie for the first round of initiative so ruled that everyone would go at the same time. This meant the creature would get an action even if killed in the first round, which it was.
I’m going to start listing a summarized result of combats after each one
Combat Result: 1 round, Gol’shruk -6hp (12/6), Diam -6hp (9/6)
Successful surprise roll. I decided to roll for surprise at a 4:6 rather than just give the Luckless a surprise round because the creature is clearly a creation that needs no sleep, and has a ability that makes it harder to surprise.
Combat Result: 1 round, no negative impact
Treasure table rolls making that moniker "Luckless" stick.