I sat in my hotel room tonight with the sad short delving life of Halk the Pretty eating at my soul. I couldn't let it rest. I rolled up a new character: Miss Greta the Ugly.
Greta was betrothed to Halk the Pretty. She knew that of all the trolls he could have had, she was the last he would want. When he ran off for the City of Gull several months ago, he claimed he was going to win his fortune then return. Greta didn't believe him. For months now she as sat in her cave stewing. She just knows that good for nothing pretty boy Halk is probably looking for a new trolless to share a cave with. So she has decided to go to Gull in search of him. If she finds him, oh is he in trouble. In fact. He is lucky that he is dead!
I rolled Greta up with the same method I used for Halk, 4d6 and drop the lowest die; however, I arraigned. I also stole a house rule from Cartomancer. I determined starting gold by rolling 3d6 and multiplying by my highest stat. The short life of Halk indicated to me that a starting character would need a few advantages. Is this cheating? I don't know. I don't care.
Miss Greta the Ugly
Kindred: Troll
Type: Warrior
ST: 42
INT: 14
LK: 15
CON: 48
DEX: 14
CHR: 8
SPD: 10
ADDS: Melee +35/Missile +37
Armor: Complete Mail (11 Hits doubled to 22)
Weapons: Doublebitted Ax (6d + 3 Adds), Common Spear (3d + 1 Add 40 yard range)
Trappings: Warm dry clothing and pack, 1 days rations
Gold: 3 gp
The wealth advantage was huge. I was able to buy some good armor for Greta and she has a massive damage wielding weapon. It was nice that I was able to buy her some sort of a missile weapon as well.
SPOILER ALERT, THE REST OF THIS POST GIVES AWAY DETAILS FROM THE SOLO ADVENTURE. YOU SHOULD NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WISH TO PLAY IT YOURSELF.
Text in [brackets] indicates directions and choices made in the solo adventure The City of Terrors.
Text in italics indicates crunchy rules stuff.
[115] Greta arrived in the City of Gull by the same method as Halk. Standing outside her hotel Greta tried to determine which way that cheating Halk would have gone. Asking about, she was told the Black Dragon Tavern was nearby. If she knew that scoundrel Halk, he was most likely looking for drink. She went there.
[109] At the Black Dragon, she saw it was the type of establishment that one could buy anything for the right price. She was glad that she only loaned Halk a pittance of gold; however, after buying armor, weapons and trappings for herself, she only had three lonely gold coins in her purse. A gentleman to her left offered to arm wrestle her for a wager.
[73] The gentleman offered to make it more interesting, or she could just make a wager. Greta was supremely confident in her arm wrestling capabilities and told him "Three gold is interesting enough.
[15] The man's name was d'lcsta. He was a formidable opponent.
Each opponent was to roll 2 dice and add in adds. Damage was subtracted from constitution, but the first one reduced to half constitution lost. Greta's half con was 24, d'lcsta's was 20. He had 31 adds, I had 35. No damage was soaked by armor. The combat lasted nine rounds and went back and forth.
d'lcsta was a worthy opponent! However, in the end, Greta won and collected her 3 gold, doubling her wealth.
[109] Greta decided it was time for a drink.
[22] At the bar were two orcs who had obviously had a few. They remarked upon Greta's heritage saying that she could no doubt trace her ancestors back to the four legged variety. Being ugly is old news to Greta. She'd heard much worse from the other trolls while growing up. She decided to ignore them.
[60] That was a bad choice. Greta didn't notice that they had drugged her drink and now she had to fight them!
Greta's constitution was reduced to half for the combat. The orcs had a combined MR of 80, giving them 9 dice and 40 adds to her 6 dice and 38 adds (she was attacking with her doublebitted ax). The combat lasted for 20 rounds. After 8 rounds, it was pretty obvious that they were too evenly matched. They were winning every round, but Greta's armor allowed her to soak 22 hits per round. They would have to roll exceptionally high to do any damage to her. I decided to use "Spite" damage. Each 6 rolled would do 1 point of damage regardless of armor. After 12 more rounds, Greta received 9 points of spite damage total, and eventually she defeated the orcs. On round 19, she did enough damage to reduce their MR to 29 (killing one orc). The next round, she easily defeated the remaining orc.
[6] The orcs put up a good long fight, but in the end, Greta was victorious. Searching the orcs she found a pouch of Wombat Venom.
[115] Greta left the Black Dragon Tavern and returned to her inn where she decided to sleep off the effects of the drug the orcs slipped into her drink and call it a night.
Greta survived and earned 129 Adventure Points! 49 for d'lcsta and 80 for the orcs. Plus she doubled her gold and now has some nifty Wombat Venom! She is hurting; once the effects of the drug wears off she will have a current constitution of 39.
The armor is a huge advangate, but I will definetly be using Spite damage for all of my combats from now on.
