Let’s Play Amarath (Dragonbane)! The Chaos Rebellion Part 3
Let’s continue our adventure in Amarath.
I started this one by filling in the plot nodes for the Plot Unfolding Machine. It works like the Threads and Characters lists for Mythic. You roll a d10 on it when the GME calls for it.
Game or World Elements
1-2: Weather hazard
3-4: Chaos anomalyPotential Problems
1-2: Chaos marauders
3-4: Personality (some problem that makes the party at odds due to different opinions)Useful Findings
1-2: Safe place
3-4: Potential recruitPending Questions
I honestly couldn’t think of any for now, but I might add some later.
Scene 2
The party explores the base behind the waterfall.
d10 Modified Proposal: 3 = Add some trouble, or bad news
Focus: Enemy/Danger
d6 Intensity: 2 = Small
Is someone guarding the entrance? Yes.
Are they awake? Yes.
Are they inside? Yes,Disruption = Make the location less favorable
I’m rolling an extra d10 with the oracle. A roll of 1 or 2 causes a Disruption.
Behind the shimmering waterfall, the trio’s eyes struggled to adjust, when a voice barked from the gloom.
“Stop. Drop your weapons or I’ll shoot.”
Fenris stepped forward, his voice full of false confidence. “You’re outnumbered, fool. Sigrid Skycleave’s rebels are right behind us. Surrender and you might live”.
Bluffing (10): 20, Demon!
The guard hesitated, his silhouette jittering. “Damn it. Fine, come on in. I’m unarmed.”
Fenris moved toward him. A crossbow snapped, and a bolt buried itself in Fenris’s shoulder. The champion grunted, stumbling back as the guard turned and vanished into the darkness.
2d6: 7 - 4 = 3 damage dealt
“Coward!” Fenris hissed, wrenching the bolt from his flesh.
Astra raised a hand, whispering a word of power. A sphere of light sprouted from his palm illuminating the base.
“Reinforcements will be coming,” Luna said, her eyes on the retreating footsteps. “We have to move.”
The fleeing guard is going to be this site’s THREAT. It starts at 1, increasing with time, Demon rolls, events, etc.
Fleshing out the site
d20 site type: Containment area
d6 size: 3 = 8 rooms (minimum)
d6 Danger/Threat: 6 = Deadly/6 Threat (activates on a 6).
Event check after every 1 Stretch.
Astra casts Light (-1 WP) and they march inside.
Room 1
Threat 1/6
d4 details: 3
Detail 1: Environment = Dung/urine
Detail 2: Specific dressing = Evidence of the contained
Detail 3: Environment = Cold breeze
Room contents: Empty
Exits: 1
The cave swallowed the daylight as the trio went in, until Astra illuminated the surroundings with his magic. A cold breeze drifted through the narrow passage, carrying the bitter smell of old urine. Fenris wrinkled his nose.
Astra ran a hand along the rough wall. Thick iron rings had been bolted into the stone, each attached to lengths of broken chain. Some links had snapped clean apart, while others looked as though they had been hacked through in haste.
Rollin on GUM for more details.
Evil intentions table: Sabotage own faction
How? Redirect, Threat
Is it alive? No.
More than one? Yes.
The chamber opened ahead of them. Bodies lay scattered across the floor.
Some had died with weapons drawn. Others had fallen on their knees, their throats slit. Dark blood had pooled between the flagstones.
Investigating the bodies and wounds
Astra, Healing (14): 18, fail
Luna, Healing (14): 2, success
Luna crouched beside one of the dead. The man’s armor had the same crimson sigil as the marauders outside, but his had been pierced repeatedly by blades matching their own. “This is strange. It’s like they killed each other in here.”
Astra, Awareness (14): 3, success
Astra slowly shook his head, then inspected the far wall. A fresh trail of blood disappeared beneath a door, marked by scratches. Heavy chains hung from its frame, bent as if something had fought to break free. “Apparently it was an execution,” Astra said. “Who, or what, were they keeping here?”
Can Astra detect any lingering magic? Strong no.
Luna observed the corpses. There were too many wounds for an execution alone. There were signs of a fight.
Whatever had been imprisoned here was gone. Maybe they would find more clues.
Navigating a room takes 1/3 of a Stretch. I’m also Scavenging the area, which doesn’t take any time when done only once.
d10 Scavenge: 6 = Itemd6 Item: 1 = Key
Luna spotted something sparkling under Astra’s Light spell. She reached for it and found a small brass key. She put it in her pocket. It could be useful.
Room 2
Threat 1/6
Details: 4 = Restraints/manacles, Urn/Jar, Rotting vegetation, Barrels/chests Contents: Empty Exits: 1
The cold breeze brushed them as they moved along. Heavy iron manacles and leather restraints were bolted directly into the walls. Shattered and overturned jars lay nearby, their contents spilled on the floor.
Heaps of violet moss and rotting mushrooms, warped by Chaos in festering mats over the discarded gear of whatever occupied these walls.
“I can’t tell if this is a prison or butcher shop,” Luna said. “They are running some kind of experiment.”
Astra, Awareness (14): 6, success
d10 Clue (SUM): 1 = Informally written notes, or a journal
d10 Discovery: 10 = Main strength or resources
Focus: Chant/Rite
I’m interpreting this as documents with the trials and errors regarding the experiments. It will give me a Boon in rolls related to that.
Astra pushed aside a cluster of stalks and dead vegetation. “There’s something here,” he said, pointing to a heavy iron-bound chest hidden in the corner.
Luna’s brass key slid perfectly into the lock. As the lid opened, she found a beaten logbook inside. The pages were filled with alchemical scrawlings detailing the agonizing process of turning marauder soldiers into chosen mutants.
“So this is no base,” Fenris said, “it’s a damn laboratory of horrors. We should read that more carefully and try to understand these things.”
Room 3
Threat 2/6
Details: 3 = observation window; over/fire pit; painting/frescoesContents: Trap = Imitate/create; Alarm/EnemyExits: 2 exits Luna and Astra try to detect the trap (Spot Hidden 14, Boon): 15, 17 = fail, trap activated I’ll rule this a Desolate Shadow forming from the ‘oven’ and an alarm bringing enemies. The Shadow will imitate someone’s form. Random character: Fenris Threat 3/6
The trio stepped cautiously into the room. Astra’s flickering light illuminated walls covered in disturbing frescoes that depicted the “ascension” of men into monsters. They were so focused on the observation window embedded in the far wall that Luna didn’t feel the floor tile sink beneath her boot.
Instead of flames, the massive stone oven in the corner exhaled a dark magical cloud. The particles swirled and coalesced into the center of the room, forming the translucent silhouette of a Desolate Shadow. To their horror, the spirit mirrored the exact form of Fenris, an undulating shadow mocking the wolfkin.
The room flared with a crimson glow as the observation window ignited and a chime reverberated through the vents.
Fenris snarled. “It’s a signal! Ready yourselves, they’re coming.”
Two Chaos marauders burst through the side entrance, their eyes wide with bloodlust.
The first one didn’t hesitate. She lunged at Astra with a heavy two-handed axe. Still reeling from the disorientation of his arrival in Marauder Hills, the void elf was too slow. The blade bit deep into his shoulder with a sickening crunch, sending Astra crashing to the flagstones. He lay still, the light from his spell guttering out as his breathing ceased.
Fenris roared in defiance, swinging his weapon at the other marauder, but in his eagerness, he missed. Before he could recover, the shadowy duplicate of himself pulsed with a wave of pure dread. The air turned cold like a grave. Luna gritted her teeth and held her ground, her training as a voidstalker shielding her mind, but Fenris broke.
The cosmic champion saw his own twisted reflection and something inside him shattered. Overcome by panic, Fenris dropped his guard and fled the room in a fit of utter terror as Luna simply watched, refusing to believe. “Fenris, get it together!” she tried as his frantic footsteps echoed away.
Left alone in the darkness, she put her bow away and drew a short sword. She moved to defend the fallen Astra, but the other marauder swung, his broadsword fast and devastating in the gloom.
Luna tried to dive clear, but the weapon caught her in the neck.
The last thing she saw were Astra’s eyes. They were still and opaque with a few glistening dots, reflecting the Storm of Stars, the home he would never return to.
Her head hung by a thread of flesh and sinew as she was hammered against the wall.
That small party of rebels lay broken and scattered before the shadow of Chaos. Not the first, and certainly not the last.
Fenris, consumed by madness, grief, and shame, was never seen again. Some claimed to have spotted him last by a cave, turned into a forlorn knave, a shell of his former self. Tormented by the souls he absorbed, he tried desperately to remember the names of those he abandoned in the darkness.
In Amarath, the tug of war between Chaos and order was eternal, but for Astra, Luna, and Fenris, the struggle had ended.
They had set out to free the hills, but instead became more bones for a realm lacking mercy or glory.
Notes
Daaaaamn, this was rough! Before anything, here are the battle rolls:
Initiative: Marauder B > Fenris > Desolate Shadow > Marauder 1 > Astra > Luna
Marauder B hits Astra, who fails to Evade.
2d10+d4 two-handed axe damage: 17, Astra has fallen!
Fenris misses marauder A.
Desolate Shadow, d6 move table: 5 = Dread!
Luna passes her check, but Fenris fails, even after pushing.
d8 Fear effect: 8 = Wild Panic. Fenris flees in utter terror.
Marauder B attacks Luna and hits a Dragon, dealing double damage. To Evade, Luna needs a Dragon as well.
Luna, Evade: 14 4d6+d4 damage: 18
Luna has fallen. The party is no more.
Yeah, Dragonbane is deadly, and I rolled terribly. I have a hard time playing games where running is part of the main strategy, which is why I avoid OSR (at least I hear/read that’s a big part of it).
I should probably have just bolted, but I didn’t really have the chance, did I?
I think this is the second end of campaign by death I’ve had since starting The Lone Bard. The first one was in the one-page weird west Dead Man’s Promise.
I’d love to read or watch someone else’s playthrough of Amarath to see how they fare. The game has some dreadful enemies with huge amounts of HP and damage reduction hahah. I need more experience with it.
I really liked my (short) time with it, and will return to it sometime.
Thank you for reading!
Materials used:
Amarath | Dragonbane | Triple-O | Unfolding Machines | Just One Dragon
Support the creators.