Let’s Try Of Blood & Clay! Part 3: Ruin
Let’s continue the adventure at the canal junction.
Maruzhan is following Velamira's plan, shoving her through the command post to hand her over to the Elythrians.
The worldshapers are singing in Logeion, saying the true name of things. This unsettles Maruzhan. I think this warrants a Willpower check, and it’s not looking good, as his WIL is only 2.
WIL (2) check, Standard: 2, 1 = Fail!
Divine Corruption increased by +1
The oppressive aura of the language of conquest weighs on Maruzhan. He staggers for a moment, the corners of his vision darkening. He mutters an oath under his breath, but apparently louder than he intended, because Velamira pokes him discreetly.
The Elythrians know they’re a Firstborn, so his faltering shouldn’t raise suspicions. But maybe I should leave that to the oracle.
Does that draw any attention to them? Yes.
Uh oh. Maybe they get suspicious because no Firstborn is supposed to enter this far without an escort.
As one of the Elythrian warriors looks at us, Velamira pretends to fight her bonds, whispering something about the central conduit. I understand and play along, cuffing her on the head and pushing her forward.
The warrior marches toward us, looking down on us. I cut loose Velamira’s wrists, then greet the Elythrian, saying she’s a high-value prisoner.
Before he can react, Velamira screams. She cut herself with a concealed blade and extend her bleeding palm toward the conduit.
The cursed blood of Qashur running through her veins instantly corrupts the sterile appliance, triggering a violent reaction.
The calcification explodes!
Fortitude (4) check, Standard: 6, 4, 4, 3 = Success!
Maruzhan covers his face against the overwhelming pressure, but he doesn’t miss a beat. With his long dagger in hand, he jumps toward the Elythrian warrior.
Was the warrior distracted by the explosion? Yes.
NIM (4) check, Standard: 6, 3, 1, 2 = Fail!
Maruzhan miscalculates the stab and it just grazes the enemy’s neck (1 damage). The warrior groans and draws his sword.
There was an Elythrian Warrior sheet that I could have used last time. My bad. He’s down to 7 HP.
Enemy attack (2d6): 3, 1 = no damage
NIM (4) Attack: 4, 2, 6, 1 = 2 damage (down to 5 HP)
The enemy swings his sword, but Maruzhan dodges and slashes at him.
Meanwhile, the explosion was the signal for Velamira’s warband. I’ll check if they storm in each turn, increasing the likelihood.
Does the warband storm in this turn? No.
Enemy attack (2d6): 6, 1 = 1 damage (Maruzhan’s HP down to 5)
NIM (4) Attack: 3, 2, 2, 2 = no damageDoes the warband storm in this turn (Likely, +1)? Yes.
The other Emmaruqi charge in, shouting and brandishing their weapons. Now it’s a full on skirmish.
After breaking the calcification, the river starts to surge. A torrent of water and mud burst into the junction. Maruzhan and the warrior attempt to keep footing on the slick floor.
Maruzhan NIM (4) check, Standard: 6, 6, 6, 1 = Success!
Elythrian Warrior NIM (3) check, Standard: 4, 4, 5 = Success!
We both hold our ground as others around us get into their own fights, some slipping and tumbling, others falling dead.
Both of us land a good slash on each other (-2 HP each). The water runs red.
Does Velamira join me? Yes, and...
A crimson blade spurts from the warrior neck and disappears. He crumples, revealing Velamira’s bloodied visage behind him as she pulls her blade back.
Maruzhan recovers +1 HP.
Let’s say our warband is being successful in dominating the site. Seeing the canal mechanism shattered and his guards falling, the leader, maybe a commander worldshaper, flees.
Maruzhan will try to pin her down with an arrow. He’s still holding a torch, by the way! He drops it, ruining it due to the water (-1 torch).
Let’s say this shot is Hard, requiring 3 successes:
NIM (4) check, Hard: 1, 1, 1, 4 = Fail!
Well, that sucked. The Elythrian commander retreats, probably joining her troops in the adjacent hex.
No matter, the junction is taken and the Emmaruqi are victorious!
The warband takes prisoners, finishes off remaining enemies, tends to the wounded, and fans out to deal with stragglers and secure the site.
Velamira thanks me and says I’m welcome there at anytime, but their work is far from over. They should prepare for another incursion at any moment, with so many Elythrians nearby.
Velamira says she’s usually stationed at a settlement d6 hexes away.
D6: 2
I’ll mark in on the map and generate it if I decide to visit it later.
She’s not unscathed, though. Mixing her blood with the Elythrian purity exposed her to excessive Divine Corruption. She’s developed a Corruption trait!
This is a good excuse to use this table. The results are so cool!
d20 Divine Corruption table: 6 = Cold Luminance. Your body emits a faint, cold blue light (out to 5 meters) equal to twilight. You can no longer benefit from natural darkness to hide, forfeiting sneaking bonuses in shadows.
Velamira lifts and investigates her arms for a while, mesmerized by the cold blue light they now emit. So much for a stealthy Emmaruqi.
Her shoulders droop, but she soon recovers. Not much to do about it now.
Told you the table was cool.
"You can hold your own with a blade, Maru," Velamira said. "But I see you still have much to learn."
Maruzhan gestured toward his bow. "I’m more comfortable from a distance."
"Aren’t we all. Pick up your dagger, let me show you a few things."
She’s going to teach me a Combat Maneuver! The book suggests learning them through adventuring, from NPCs or ancient scrolls, for instance. So let’s do it.
Combat Maneuver learned: Feint & Shift.
After an hour or so, Maruzhan felt confident using the new technique. Drenched in sweat, his throat felt dry, and a pang of thirst nags at him.
"Why do you think they want this place?" he asked Velamira to focus on something else.
"The place is connected to some ruins underground," she replied. "There might be relics down there."
Maruzhan’s interest was plain on his face. Velamira smiled. "Feel free to dive in, Maru. I can probably spare someone to go with you. See if anyone is willing."
I’ll spend the night to recover, then do some ruin crawling!
A Presence check will decide if anyone follows me. I’d go with Hard, but after helping the warband, they’re more willing to assist. Let’s make it Standard.
PRE (4) check, Standard: 6, 6, 5, 5 = Success!
Damn, great roll! A fellow Emmaruqi joins me. I’ll use the default stats from the Elythrian Warrior sheet.
The Ruins
First, we determine the Ruin size.
D6: 1 = Small Vault
2d4+2 = 7 Chambers
The UD for Turn Limit represents an escalating threat present in the Ruin, like roving creatures or some environmental hazard. We roll for it after every Dungeon Turn.
When the UD4 activates, the threat is triggered.
A Dungeon Turn represents one meaningful action in a chamber, like moving to a new room, searching, a quick rest, overcoming obstacles, etc.
There plenty of tables to deal with all that, but the heavy duty of procedures we decide by ourselves. It’s a rules-light, after all.
For instance, how many doors are there in the first chamber? Are they locked? Trapped?
We can hand wave all that, use our favorite procedures from other games or supplements, or simply use the oracle.
I light a torch and give it to my companion to carry. I want to use the bow, and he has a sword.
d10 Chamber Contents: 4 = Resource
I’m using the Spark Oracle for ideas.
Destroy, Burn + Wasteland, Sun
This could be a subterranean water source, right? Let’s go with that and move on to the action. I’ll Search the room.
d10 Ruin Loot: 6 = Ancient Currency & Raw Materials
2d6: 8 = 80 Shekels
Not bad! Shekels increased to 155.
That was a Dungeon Turn. Time for the UDs:
Torch UD8: 7, no change
Threat UD6: 6, no change
For the second Dungeon Turn, I’m moving into a new chamber.
Torch UD8: 7, no change
Threat UD6: 2, down to UD4
And that’s how it goes. It’s a really fun flow, and we can add more complexity to it if we feel like it. At the moment, for instance, I don’t want to deal with doors, so I’m just moving along.
In this second chamber, I found some historical features, which can serve as clues, and the Threat activated!
There are two tables for those, one for mechanical traps and another for environmental hazards. We can also roll for encounters, or even interpret Spark prompts.
I’m not sure if the Threat resets after triggered. That might be up to the player.
I’ll go with a mechanical trap:
d6: 2 = Bronze Spike Counterweight. A heavy stone block drops from the ceiling, driving pitted bronze spikes downward. NIM check to dodge. On a fail, takes 2D6 damage and is pinned beneath the weight.
NIM (4) check: 1, 3, 1, 4 = Fail!
Ok, so Alex mentioned he will nerf these traps since 2d6 is pretty brutal even by Blackoath standards. In the meantime, I reduced the damage to a d6.
Can you guess how much I rolled?
The stone block smashes Maruzhan into the floor, folding him like paper.
Those were a couple of shitty rolls, damn. However, this isn’t the end!
My health is exactly 0, giving me a +5 bonus to the roll. The Emmaruqi Kindred trait grants another +5.
Did my companion also fall into the trap? No!
Let’s see if he can pass an INT check. It requires 2 Successes at 5+.
INT (3) check, Standard (5+): 6, 5, 1 = Success!
That was extremely lucky. +15 to this roll guarantees recovery without a permanent wound.
d20+15: 19 = The character is in shock, but alive. They recover 1 Health, and must spend a week in bed to fully recover.
For fun, let’s see what would have happened on the Permanent Wound table:
d10: 8 = You have suffered a brain injury: -1 INT.
Ouch! We’ve dodged a bullet. In the head.
Well, Maruzhan will spend a week recovering, and that wraps this quick demonstration of Of Blood & Clay!
This is a fantastic iteration of a rules-light game by the crunchlord himself. It plays smoothly, with the right amount of structure and procedures for major actions and decisions while leaving room for emergent storytelling through tables for loot, traps, consequences, and combat and non-combat encounters.
There are also several different generators for things like settlements, random sites, resources and obstacles, and even a few pre-made Ruins with exclusive rewards, npcs, enemies, locations, hooks, and a bunch of mythological lore.
This little AP is but a fraction of what the game has to offer, and I really hope it sparked your interest.
Thanks for reading!
Of Blood & Clay will soon be available for sale. Until then, you should join the Blackoath Discord server!