Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Continuing from part 6, Faris is still at a deserted church, hoping the large spiders were the worst thing she’d have to deal with.

I explored further, finding the door to a crypt and a collection of statues. Recognizing the flame from the book on the altar, I selected that one and set it on the pressure plate below them, which opened the door. I tried to be careful in the cold, dark hallway, but I felt the floor shift under me as I triggered a trap. I drove through the tunnel as an arrow grazed me, several others thwapping through where I had been moments before.

I crept carefully into the next room, then made the mistake of picking up a magical cup. I shoved it in my pack quickly, before it could drain any of my energy. I opened a pair of tombs in the next chamber, hoping for gold, and was attacked by two skeletons. The next room was blissfully free of surprise, a mere hallway with statues.

Finally, at the end of the maze of rooms and corridors, I reached the tombs, apparently of West Haven’s founders. There was more black ooze, like I had seen on the bell, and one of the tombs was slightly open. I paused to drink another healing potion, knowing the route out could be just as dangerous as the route in had been.

That was a fortunate choice. As I turned to leave, the tombs slid open and four black-slime encased figures clambered out. I destroyed two of them easily, but the others got close enough to claw and bite me. It’s awfully strange when a skeleton bites, you can see all the teeth clearly as they latch on. With all of them dead – again – I checked their corpses, finding a beautiful broach. As I was about to leave, I noticed a glowing ring on one of the corpses. I cleaned off the slime and slid it onto my finger for safekeeping.

There were noises coming from the hallway: shuffling feet, clanging weapons, and incoherent groaning. It sounded like more than I could handle on my own, so I booked it out of the crypt, slamming the door behind me, and kept going until I was outside. Having spent the entire night in the church, I booked myself a bed at the inn again to catch up on sleep.

After some rest, I reported back to Rufus on the dangers inside the church. He decided to send in some knights and a cleric, and paid me the agreed-upon amount for the job and the one person I had rescued. He also let me know that Victor Fellmont wanted to meet with me.

The adventure continues in the city of West Haven, where as Faris seeks employment after spending most of her hard-earned coin in part 5.

The next morning, I sought out Rufus regarding the job opportunity he had mentioned. He provided some background information, including those giant rats I had encountered, and sent me to investigate a shut-down church. My goal was to finds its missing clergy, with a reward of five gold for each, and five for the task itself. He refused to give me an advance on the payment.

I decided to seek some help for this job, visiting a local guild hall to see if anybody with suitable skills was available. Perhaps if I had continued gambling, I could have afforded one of those fine companions. Instead I continued on my own, approaching the church at dusk. I tried picking a lock to get in, but again, it’s not on of my strong points, so I smashed down the door instead.

The place was creepy – poorly lit and cold, and something brushed my leg soon after entering. I reached for a weapon and realized I was stuck in a large spider web. I tried to untangle myself, then tried wrenching free, and finally just grabbed a torch and burned the webbing.

I hoped all of this webbing was from one spider, but immediately noticed three as they swarmed me. I killed two, and the third scrambled away after biting me. Even the stairs were covered in webbing, and there was a dead half-elf stuck to the stairwell wall in a web sack. There were more sacks upstairs, I cut them all down, hoping to find someone still alive. Most had desiccated corpses, except for one dwarf who was so weak, I had to carry him outside. I stomped all over the spider eggs I found in another sack.

Stomping disturbed another batch of spiders, they seemed to come in threes. I shot two before they got close, but the third one bit me. I climbed up to the bell tower, which seemed to have no spiders, despite an abundance of webs and another desiccated corpse. The bell was coated in black slime that shimmered in the moonlight. Another massive spider crawled out of the bell. I shot it multiple times, evading its attacks, but it kept coming and blocked the stairwell. With no other option, I climbed out the window onto the roof. Well, jumped a bit, fell a bit… the drop was farther than I expected, and a little on the painful side.

And the spider followed me out! It smashed me with those massive legs and bit me, but I managed to kill the beast. With the beast dead, I climbed back into the church, hoping to find some survivors. I found a worship room with a small altar and offering table, with rotting food except for an apple I tucked away, along with a bottle of aged wine, and a healing potion I quaffed immediately. I also noticed a large religious tome, with the church’s symbol on it.

Having discuss the Quest calendar mechanics last week, the Quest continues where part 4 left off.

As we approached the city, an idiot guard accused me of having kidnapped Victor Fellmont, and attacked me as we were entering! We managed to slip past him after he stabbed me with his spear. Fellmont was soundly chastised by his fater, then I was sent to meet Rufus Saltworth, his head guard, for my payment. I talked him into a bit extra for my troubles, and he offered to hire me to deal with other unusual activity in the city.

As I wandered the city, heading back to the inn, Luc scurried under my cloak as an eagle swooped down at us. He landed on a nearby lamp post, staring at me with a look that said “You’re mine now.” It was not dissimilar from how Luc adopted me. I carefully reached out and touched his head, and the name “Richard” flashed through my thoughts.

He followed me as I wandered through town, picking up some meal rations, getting my bow and arrows fortified, and finally sitting down to a nice meal at the Thirsty Devil Tavern. As I was strolling back towards the inn I stayed at previously, some idiot stabbed me and stole my coin purse. The joke was on him though, I only had four gold pieces left. (I’d better find another job quickly!) Well, except it meant I was empty-handed when I passed some beggars a few minutes later.

I saw a guy pick a merchant’s pocket, then turn around and buy food. Hesitantly, I approached and asked him to return the money. He shouted at me and stormed off, dropping some coins in the process. Then I checked the job board again. The choices were… interesting.

I picked up a job as a chef’s assistant. The title was misleading, all I had to do was taste the terrible food. I threw up all over the kitchen, but earned some coin in the process. Then I tried to find out who was stealing pies – from a better cook, obviously. No luck there. I founded it out by going after rats in someone’s basement, which paid nicely.

Having replenished my coin, I stopped at the Thirsty Devil Tavern again for a drink. There was a table with a game of King’s Cards, so I joined for a bit. I walked away with almost double my starting purse, to a round of groans because I quit while I was ahead. As I was leaving, one of the other players was accused of cheating, which started a brawl. Having no interest in the fight, I scurried out of the way, grabbing a few coins from the floor as I headed to the door. Somebody must have hit me, I woke up under a table during the clean up, just as the city guard arrived and started arresting people. I slipped out the side door before they could grab me. Then I strolled back in the front door and booked a room for the night.

I realized I haven’t talked about the mechanics for the Quest calendar. There are days where you make choices and others, like the main combat situations, where you’re just rolling dice. The back of the previous day’s page has instructions on how to resolve any dice rolls or choices you make.

Attack rolls in combat use a 20-sided die (d20), the character’s attack score (mine is currently +4), any weapon bonuses, and any special skills you choose to use (my companion weasel will add a +2 to an attack once a day). A successful hit results in a damage roll, which I currently have at 2 6-sided dice (2d6). A successful hit and enough damage will usually prevent the opponent from hitting back. (They offered a set of mini-dice as an add-on to the Kickstarter, in case the buyer didn’t have the appropriate dice. Or just needed to compulsively add to a dice collection.)

There are days when you pick from a selection of choices, which allows the various character classes to pick something best suited to their skillset, such as dealing with the grate in part 1. That day offered three choices: pick the lock (using dexterity), force open the lock (using strength), or smash the lock (just a damage roll). My character has a higher dexterity than strength, so I tried that first. If that had failed (like when I dealt with a lock in part 4), I could have tried one of the other options.

The dice roll resolutions are typically two or three ranges… either a basic pass/fail situation (failing tends to incur damage); or pass (great job, no damage type situation), pass (with some damage) or fail (without damage or with less damage than the next level of failing), and fail with damage.

For example, while descending the ladder in part 1, I wrote: “As I climbed down, I was hit by an overwhelming stench. Sad to say, I lost my lunch on that ladder, and lost my grip as well.“

This was a roll against my Constitution, which was a -2. I rolled badly enough on a d20 that my total fell into the “5 or less” result, which resulted in vomiting and falling off the ladder, reducing my health by 2. At the time, my starting health was 10.

There are also exploration pages, either during an adventure (the caves where Fellmont was being held) or between adventures (shopping and such in the city), where a map is presented and you decide which route to take or locations to visit. During the adventure, the extra risk of exploring further brings the possibility of additional treasure.

Of course, the character has to level up at some point, and this is handled by either updating the original character page, or printing out the appropriate level from the Sundial Games character sheet page. The level sheets account for every bit of leveling up except which attributes you want to increase this time. And they have mechanics for resurrection in case of character death.

All in all, they did a nice job of setting up a little daily entertainment while giving the players some choice in how they reach the grand finale.

I’m enjoying this so much, I’ve already ordered the 2022 Quest Calendar on Kickstarter. My adventure continues where part 3 left off.

Three tunnels branched in the cave. One smelled foul, perhaps their equivalent of a latrine, and another was littered with bones. I choose the tunnel with light from a distant fire, thinking if Fellmont was still alive, he’d be with the goblins. I surprised a goblin, but tripped and missed my shot. It managed to hit me with a sword, then ran off. I snuck further in until I saw a rope bridge, with a single goblin guarding it. I tried to sneak past, but he must have heard me, since he flung an axe my direction.

Further in, I found another band of goblins, noticing them first by the stench. We fought, two of them hit me before fleeing. I only hit one of those two, but killed their big friend, which I suppose scared them off. I paused to heal myself, figuring I was going to run into those guys – or their friends – again.

There were a surprising number of distinct rooms in those caves. I decided to minimize the number I actually entered, listening at the entrances or peeking in to see if they were lit. The stench from some was terrible. The goblins steal food and let it rot. It’s as absurd as leaving those dead horses and feeding people to the wolves.

The only excuse for tripping on that wire was the darkness in the caves. I avoided most of the falling boulders that it triggered. As luck would have it, I found Victor Fellmont in the next room, locked behind wood and bone bars. I failed to pick the lock, so I tried to force it open. No luck there either. I finally just picked up a rock and broke it.

The noise attracted the biggest goblin I had seen yet, along with his pets – another wolf and a bugbear. I got a lucky shot on the wolf, killing it instantly, then engaged directly with the bugbear. We both got some hits in, then Luc helped me finish him off, scurrying between his feet to distract him. His mace was too heavy for me, but the bugbear’s shield – presumably stolen from some deceased traveler – was perfect.

As long as I was looting the bodies, I decided to check the room too, finding a locked trunk. I searched for a key, then gave up and picked the lock. The bugbear had a decent stash of coins and a health potion that I tucked away. Then we snuck out of the caves, getting a good distance away before setting up camp for the night. Victor used a bit of magic to start our fire, and I took the opportunity to ask what had happened to him. It turns out he was apprenticed to the missing court wizard, Godwin the Great, and suspected him to be a traitor, so he set out to find him or related proof.

I was startled awake the next morning by giant bearfrogs attacking our camp. Luc and I took out most of them, but one rammed into me pretty hard before retreating into the water. I quickly packed up the camp, retracing the route back to West Haven. We did pause en route to cook a rabbit I caught, and never ran out of fresh water.