Chapter 5: No More Heroes

Session 5 of my solo Cairn campaign

Setting up the session

Welcome back to my solo Cairn campaign!

Last session, Reed and his criminal companions recovered in Fort Greymist.

This session opens in the bailey where Reed, Ash, Cliff, and Steeleye prepare for their eastward trek, through the wilderness, to Gideon’s Reach.

The journey will be long for Reed and the others: 6 watches (6 rolls on the Wilderness Event table) with a 3/6 chance of getting lost every time we move. And more rain. Everyone suffers +1 fatigue.

Part I

The morning was grey and threatening to storm again. The swamps seemed to have eaten their fill, according to Cliff, who had been watching the crawling vines all night.

“As a snake, it is” he said, spitting through the scars on his mouth. “It gorges and then basks. If we’re breaking for The Reach, now’s the chance.” He sniffed at a brick of half-blue cheese twice before packing it in his rucksack anyway.

Reed didn’t trust that assessment. He trusted Cliff and his companions even less. But he had no choice, in truth. He couldn’t get to The Reach alone — not in this state.

Steeleye was staring at him again. His grey eyes fixed on the blades and weak points in Reed’s armor. Those were folks you had to watch for, Reed knew. Those were the ones who knew how to fight and how not to fight too.

“Ash told me what you did,” Reed said. He met Steeleye’s gaze and approached him slowly. He thought of offering the old man his hand but decided to keep it on the pommel of his sword instead. “That you pulled me from that…thing.”

“Cliff. Not me. I wanted to leave you for dead.”

“You don’t like me much, then, do you?”

Game notes

Oracle: Does Steeleye mislike Reed? Yes, but…

Spark Table: Why does Steeleye mislike Reed? Haunting & Madness

To me, that means he’s had a long past with The Marchguard. I looked over his character sheet again for more inspiration. Part of his random generation included a charm he carries with him — a bleached twig, gifted to him by a raven messenger in a dream. This feels witchy enough to have drawn some attention from The Marchguard.

Oracle: Are The Marchguard witch hunters? No

Oracle: Have they fought witches in the past? Yes, but…

Spark Table: Why don’t The Marchguard hunt witches anymore? Bloody & Madness

With that, I had enough to understand Steeleye a little more. But I didn’t think he’d say it.

Steeleye grunted in response. He pinched a totem hanging from his leather cord necklace and muttered a prayer before turning his back on Reed. He shouldered his quiver and crossbow and then shouldered past Reed. The old man trudged through the mud, over the dormant vines weaving over the ground, and out toward the broken gate.

“I’m packed. Let’s move”

Ash rolled up mostly clean gauze into tight spools and stuffed them into a feed sack he found in the empty stalls. “He’s not fond of The Marchguard.”

“I gathered that,” Reed said. “Because he’s an old prick or because we locked him up?” Reed could sympathize. It wasn’t long ago he’d been in those dungeons. And he had to take the oath before he saw the light of day again. From one jail to another, he thought.

“Because you all killed his wife and kids.” Ash shouldered his pack and brushed past Reed to follow after Steeleye.

Cliff followed after him and slapped Reed on the shoulder too hard. “Rain won’t wait for us. Get your kit and get on.”

Part II

Game notes

Watch 1: the party moved one hex east toward The Reach, forcing a roll to see if they got lost - they did.

This meant they had to take an action to scout ahead and find a path.

Fortunately, Cliff knew this place well as a rill runner.

The storm ripped open the sky; after hours of rain, the swamps drowned the land. The path transformed into a misty, muddy lake.

“We’re lost,” Reed spit. No one else could deny it. It was a question of how long they’d been wandering blind now.

Steeleye slumped under a low-hanging pine stabbing up from a gorse-bedded islet. He let his pack fall from his shoulders onto the dry needles below the twisted branches. He sipped at his waterskin and offered it to Ash. Ash took a pull and passed it to Cliff. Cliff drank more than his share and then offered it back to Steeleye.

Reed went without, drinking from his kettlehelm instead.

“We need to find shelter,” he hollered. The rain and wind muted almost everything in the woods. Reed didn’t like that either. If someone followed them — if the snally gaster found them, they’d never hear it coming.

“I’m not staying out here in the dark with the snally gaster about,” Cliff said. “The water drains out somewhere. I’ll scout ahead and find a rill we can follow.”

Ash stomped through the knee-deep flood and reset his pack on his back.

“I’ll come too,” he yelled over the rain.

“Fine, but if you rabbit on me, I’ll come back to haunt you.”

They all laughed a mirthless chuckle. All save Steeleye.

“I’ll stay here with him,” he said, nodding at Reed. He glared at him from under the dry tree while Reed sat under a waterfall. “In case he rabbits.”

“I’m not going anywhere old man.”

Cliff scoffed and moved ahead, downhill. Ash lingered behind for a moment. “Try not to kill each other, while we’re gone, eh?”

Reed smiled. Steeleye did not.

Game notes

I wasn’t sure what Cliff and Ash might find ahead, so I rolled a hazard die: sign

Unsure what kind of sign they might find, I rolled on my spark table…

Spark Table: What manner of sign did Cliff find? Blade & Lake.

I had already rolled this result when I made my hex map initially. That’s what generated the Lake of the Bladeborne on my map, so I interepreted that to mean Cliff and Ash found a rill that drains into that same lake.

Having found that, they could regroup and continue on their path with a proper trail to follow.

That lowered the number of watches by 1 - praise Perun.

The path was dry downhill, where all the rain had a place to drain. The rill ripped the face of the hill away as it ran out to a stream.

Downhill, Cliff and Ash kept the bank below the canopy of pines as they followed the water downstream a ways.

“This is the Fireeye,” Cliff laughed. “It runs downstream to the Lake of The Bladborne. We can follow it and then route around the lake to The Reach.”

Ash rang out his hair like a wet rag. “Lovely. Let’s get back before those two kill each other.”

Watch 2: with the stream to guide them, the men had a much easier path to follow, avoiding getting lost.

This triggered another roll of the hazard die to see what happens next: Discovery.

Spark Table: What do Reed and the others discover? Surreal & Threshold.

To me, that was similar to the cut scene from chapter 4, so I asked the oracle…

Oracle: Do they discover Veles and his “children?” Yes

— Is it warband? Extreme no.

— Are they thralls? Yes.

…then it occured to me, and probably later than it did for Reed…

— Are the thralls the missing garrison? Yes

Gods below…

Part III

Cliff stooped and bid the others to halt with a silent, raised fist. Reed waited and watched Cliff clamber over a rise, closer to the stream. After a beat, he bid the others come see for themselves.

Three longships sailed upstream. Oarmen plowed the black water to the beat of a barrel drum.

On the leadship, a coweled man with a skull-faced mask handled the tiller with a calm ease.

The men on the oars were Marchguard - chained to their benches and whipped by a woman wearing a crown of antlers.

They rowed upstream, drawing closer to the men revealing their horrible state like a nightmare forming on the shores of sleep.

There was something…off about the thralls. Surreal. Dreamy. They were all silent under faceless hoods. Each was painted with a bloody stag rune. The milky light misbehaved around them, avoiding the pitch-painted edges of their axes and spears.

Reed was fixated — stuck. He had to make a choice.

Game notes

Reed is oathbound to serve and protect his fellow Marchguard — it’s a solemn fraternity of warriors. BUT attacking the whole garrison and these witches is a painfully stupid thing for him to do.

With enough time wasted getting lost, dithering, and creeping up on the approaching ships, I added +2 Doom dice to the pool and rolled an oracle:

Oracle: Do the hooded men spot Reed and the others? Extreme yes

To me, that means they were spotted because someone signaled to them. I rolled a d4 to learn who — Steeleye — and decided he’d make Reed’s decision for him — and the others.

Reed stooped and brooded. The ships drew closer, and he would have to decide soon what — if anything — he could do for his fallen companions. Even if that meant putting them down for their own good.

The others were restless.

“We ought to leave,” Steeleye said.

“We should have never come this way,” Ash said. He was already backing away from the shingle like a crab.

Cliff waited and watched beside Reed. “What do you want to do?” he asked.

“I’m just thinking.”

Steeleye set his bow. “You’re thinking of going after them, aren’t you?”

“I’m just thinking” Reed insisted.

They drew closer, close enough to see them right on. Close enough for Reed to recognize Dolf and Gret even under the hood.

That’s when Steeleye loosed the bolt.

It darted through the trees, over the water like a buzzing insect, and broke apart on a blossom of arcane light. The witch waved her hands in the air and the ethereal light fell away in a shower of sparks. The drums stopped. Then they started up again. The hooded men roared, howling horrible prayers as the skull-faced man tilled the ship toward the bank.

They were coming.

Game notes

Hooded Men are tough, strange enemies in the core rulebook. There were so many of them, too, that I made them a Detachment. Big damage output, with minimal damage intake.

Reed and his companions were in big trouble.

To start, I gave a morale check to everyone. They all passed — barely — except for Reed for who scored, of course, a critical success.

Brave. But stupid.

They weren’t totally without advantage though. They had the high ground, room to move, and 5 bolts between them to soften up the raiders before they reached the shore.

I gave them a DEX save with advantage to keep the initiative and began the combat.

Here we go…

Reed was going to kill Steeleye for this. But it would have to wait. The raiders were coming on fast.

He ordered the others into rank — just as if they were Marchguard on the wall — and timed the shots so the bolts landed together.

One volley. A man caught a bolt in his hooded face and fell onto the deck of the ship.

Another volley. The bolts struck shields and decking. And that was all that would do for now.

Still they came. Two score. Some already leaping over the gunwales into the shallows to take the riverbank

Game notes

Time to break — an ordered retreat uphill. DEX save for everyone — passed!

Combat added +1 Doom as the heroes fled into the forested hills.

Cresting the hill, they stopped to catch their breath.

Ash doubled over, nearly vomiting. Cliff leaned on the tree, scanning downhill to watch the raiders coming on still.

“They’re coming, we need to hide.”

Reed gripped Steeleye by the tunic and slammed against a tree. “You’ve gotten us all killed, you idiot! Why’d you do that?”

Game notes

I wasn’t certain why Steeleye took the shot. Maybe be was over confident. Maybe he knew them. For now, I went with a spark table.

Spark Table: Why did Steeleye take the shot? Bloody & Loam.

I wasn’t sure what that meant just yet, but there wasn’t time to decide. Sympathizing with Reed, it didn’t matter if they were all about to die

The time they took to escape added +1 Doom die for a total of 4, triggering a roll…Disaster.

This could only mean our heroes are spotted and surrounded by the hooded men.

A horn blasted from the ships three times.

“They’ve seen us” Cliff barked.

“They’re coming from the south too!” Steeleye said, turning back to the center.

“What do we do?” Ash scanned about and up and below, and Reed thought the boy might climb a tree or flap his arms like a bird to escape. Or worse, he’d surrender.

“Hide,” Reed said.

Game notes

Hiding seemed unlikely, but desparate times…

DEX save to hide: everyone fails except Steeleye. Leave it to the hunter.

Something interesting happened here: in a group of players, we tend to stick together and fight together, if for no other reason than to keep the game going. I’m playing solo, though, and with some pretty rotten souls in the group.

Oracle: Does Steeleye take the chance to flee and leave the others? Yes

DEX save for Steeleye to retreat — NAT 20 — absolute disaster for him. So bad, in fact, I set that scene aside to save for later. For now, the others had to fight for their lives.

They failed to keep initiative this time, likely agast at Steeleyes’ cowardice (cunning?)

“Fucking coward!” Reed howled, incredulous. Steeleye fled — darted downhill through the brush and scrub faster than an old man should be able to move. Reed would kill that man. If it was the last thing he did, he’d find him and kill him. Carve out his heart and offer it to Morana as payment for enough life to murder Steeleye.

But he was trapped. The hooded men were on them in a torrent of iron and blood. He broke from cover and drove into the melee with his blade. Hacking and slashing. Cutting one down, then another. All his former friends. All his crazed enemies now.

He threw down bodies in a fugue of blood-misted hysteria. Each corpse he made weakened his guard. Notched edges of axes and spears cut past his sword and through his gambeson.

To his left, Cliff knifed one of them under the chin, ripping away the blade in a fountain of gore. But another stormed the rear where Ash was supposed to be. Cliff screeched and then whimpered as the spear stabbed through his guts and blood spewed from his mouth.

He fell in a heap and Ash ran to his side in time to catch an axe in his face. It split his head open from crown to clavicle.

Reed wheeled round and cut down the axeman just as the one with a spear carved past him. The spear tip tangled up in Reed’s cloak, giving him time to snap it off with a heavy downward stroke from his elbow.

Reed windmilled his sword around and took off the spearman’s head.

Then the arrows started to fall.

Reed felt them pierce his back and drive him to his knees. The wind fled his lungs, already filling with blood. It was all over now, he knew. He prayed to the gods — any gods, that he’d find a way out of this somehow.

Game notes

The combat was short and bloody for Ash and Cliff — they both failed their STR saves and went down quick.

But Reed passed his with a NAT 1 — a perfect save and defiant final moment as he summoned the strength to rise once more and enter the fray one last time.

I love OSR.

Reed stumbled through the mound of corpses he made, struggling to rise to his feet again before the next wave came. He could hear the arrows whistling through the trees again, the war drums downhill spurring the warband onward.

Cliff was sputtering blood, struggling to breathe with Ash’s bisected corpse toppled on him. Steeleye was gone — who knew where, the coward.

There were no more heroes. Reed had lost his companions. He’d killed whatever was left of his garrison. He was all that was left now.

The horn blew again and the hooded men surged the hill once more.

Reed fought well.

And then he fell.

Ending the session

So ended the saga of Reed.

OSR-style games are often lethal and stupid decisions (and dumb luck) can be the difference between victory and making a new character. That’s the thrill of this style of play for me, though. Hard decisions with real consquences that you can’t magic your way out of.

But this story isn’t over.

Steeleye — the rotten, yellow-bellied coward that he is — escaped (kind of) with a NAT 20. We’ll see what that turns into in the next chapter.

For now, the last Marchguard in Greymist rests.

And so does his story.