Basic Fantasy 4e Solo Play - The Adventures of Mount Chanticleer, Day 1-2

During the past few months, I had been extremely busy with work, but I finally had some time to sit down and do some solo gaming.

I've been trying out Basic Fantasy 4e, and its been a blast. The speed at which things can be resolved is sweet, and the opportunities for high level play seem endless.

For the adventure I used a combination of  AA1 - Adventure Anthology One, and JN1 - Chaotic Caves modules found completely free on the Basic Fantasy website.

This is a quick summary of a solo session of a party of 8 adventurers who banded together out of the blue in search for fame and fortune. 

I won't go too much into detail of each character, but may do so in future blog posts. This is just a summary of their exploits in 2 days. And yes, unfortunately 1 character died, but goes to show how gloriously lethal the game is which resonates with my principle - losing is fun.

 

The party - Mount Chanticleer

The party is formed by Edric the Fighter a fighting man who bands with fellows he met in the tavern in the bucolic town of Wittlestead, forming the party named Mount Chanticleer, after seeing a rooster cry atop a mountain during sunrise. All characters were randomly generated and specific inventories were purchased based on each of their starting gold. Illustrations by me.

	Edric the Fighter, a fighting man equipped with spear, shield and mail
	Zimul the Fighter, a fighting man well equipped with spear, shield and mail
	Northain the Fighter, a female ranger with spear, shortbow and mail. She was the richest and probably from some noble family as she was the only one who could afford both armor, bow and a close combat weapon.
	Algust the Fighter, an almost bankrupt female archer with only a shortbow and no armor
	Simbul the Thief, a female thief with shortbow and dagger and no armor
	Milvaeus the Thief, a female thief with a sling and dagger and no armor
	Calahac the Cleric, a female cleric. She is probably the smartest and gifted with 13 INT and 16 WIS. She knows Elvish on top of Common. She had no armor but had a shield and mace
	Yrkhasmos the Magic User, a female Magic User with walking staff.  She knew the spell Sleep.

Due to the lightness of Algust's kit and her being a fighting woman, she was assigned as porter who was in charge of taking care of the loot.

 

Day 1, 10:00 - Wilderness

The 8 adventurers set off in search of lizardmen reportedly raiding travellers. However they instead encountered 5 hobgoblins whom they slew and found a map indicating the location of their lair.

After the battle, Algust kept one of the scimitars of the hobgoblins for herself as she didn't have any close combat weapon.

Deciding to explore the lair, the party decided to head there.

 

Day 1, 18:00 - Goblin Lair

There, they found an abandoned dwarven mine and slew the 2 goblin guards who were napping. 

They found a large pit which Simbul managed to cross by shuffling across a narrow edge. along the wall. She then found a lever which closed up the pit - likely a dwarven defense mechanism.

Thereafter they were at a fork seeing a room to the west and to the east where they saw large stone doors.

They decided to explore west first and found a large pit with mechanisms at the ceiling with ropes leading deep down into darkness.

Zimul threw down a torch to see the bottom. It struck an elevator platform 20' below partly hanging from the rope and they saw a Tentacle worm which wormed out of the hole to attack.

Despite being attacked several times by tentacles, Edric, Zimul and Calahac, who led the charge managed to resist its paralytic appendages.

With their combined attacks, they slew the worm and uncovered a huge hoard of gold and gems in its belly.

They then proceeded east to explore  past the stone doors. Carefully opening it, they see hobgoblins driving many goblins in a mine far from the door. They are completely unaware and they manage to sneak past deeper into the cavern north.

Following the cavern, they catch a group of 5 goblins resting, unaware of the party's approach. The party leapt to ambush them, surprising the goblins.

Despite this, Edric and Zimul fumbled their attacks many times, causing the goblins to close in on Milvaeus, stabbing her to death. However, they party eventually emerged victorious.

Calahac did some rites for Milvaeus and put her body at a safe corner to bury later.

Expecting greater resistance, they move in deeper into the cave and catch the leaders of the goblins unaware - the hobgoblins - Xikek the Loud, his bodyguard Snerk and the shaman Yuliak.

Like before Edric and Zimul tried to flank Snerk, but they didn't manage to land hits at all. Calahac tried to help but also failed to punch through his armor. 

Simbul takes down Yuliak with a headshot with her shortbow, while Algust badly wounded Xikek with an arrow to the shoulder.

Yrkhasmos tried to put Xikek to sleep, but Xikek managed to resist. 

Pressing their advantage, Xikek was bloodied with the missiles of Algust and Simbul and was at the brink of death.

Both hobgoblins tried a last ditch effort to hurt the party, but unfortunately their attacks all missed.

Xikek was turned into a mangled mess by Calahac whose mace dealt the full 1d8 = 8 damage.

Snerk was impaled from behind by Northain's two-handed backstab with the spear.

They found a treasure chest which Simbul managed to discover a trap on, but failed to disarm. Zimul decided to risk it, opening the chest, and thankfully it just grazed him.

Inside they discovered a huge hoard of gold and 2 healing potions.

Looting the bodies, they also found Xikek's Ring of Protection +1.

 

Day 1, 20:00 - Wilderness

They then managed to sneak out of the lair unnoticed with Milvaeus' body and made camp some distance away by 20:00. Thankfully - the night was uneventful.

 

Day 2, 06:00 - Wilderness

They decided to head back to town to sell off the loot to bury Milvaeus and recover from their wounds.

On the way back, they encountered a single orc, and slew him, discovering a map of an orc stronghold in a ruined castle. They agree to check out the castle when they have recovered from this adventure.

 

Day 2, 10:00 - Wittlestead

They quickly arrive at Wittlestead by 10 AM. Calahac does the proper rites of funeral for Milvaeus and buries her in the local cemetery.

They sell off all the loot (except for Xikek's spellbook which Yrkhasmos claimed, potions - which were given to Edric and Zimul as they were the vanguard, and the Ring of Protection which Edric claimed) for over 2000 gold pieces to a travelling merchant.

 Full loot list

Inside a Large Sack:

• 4 scimitars (40gp)
• 3 daggers
• 419 gold nuggets (419 gp)
• 2026 cp
• 1968 sp
• 948 gp
• 1 Chlorastrolite (50gp) 
• 1 Amethyst (10gp)
• 1 Rhodonite (500 gp)
• 1 diamond (50gp)
• 5 daggers (10gp)
• Xikek's Halberd (9gp)
• Snerk's Mace (6gp)
• Yuliak's Spellbook (25gp) (magic missle, sleep, read magic)
• Ring of Protection +1
• 2 potions of healing

Dividing the gold from the sale, they drank to Milvaeus' sacrifice with the leftover silver and copper. 

All the fighters and clerics purchased Plate mail from the local smithy and Simbul got herself some studded armor.

They decided to rest from the injuries they gained from the adventure and reconvene again a week later to explore the ruined castle.

Meanwhile, Edric searched for a replacement for Milvaeus.