In this scenario the party is trying to reach the fabled stables of the gods where they can acquire pegasus mounts.
GM: So according to the oracle you must go down the river for two days into the dead mires, and cut west across it to reach the foothills of the sacred mountains. Once there she has shown you a vision of a mountain peak and hidden cave that will lead you to where you seek.
The GM notes for his own purposes that in this pointcrawl they have to make 6 travel along the river, 2 in the dead mire, and then have to find the location of the mountain peak and from there reach the valley.
Chuck (Abraham): It's a shame Guy isn’t here this week, he normally handles all the logistics.
GM: You’ll manage, so did you buy all the gear you need?
Chuck (Abraham): Sure, we’ll pretend we did.
GM: Ok, so you leave the docks at Appleshire and head down river on this fine summer day.
Tom (Jack): Is it summer? I thought it was spring?
Julia (Brother Cadmus): It was, like 4 months ago when we last played
Tom (Jack): Did we jump ahead then? Should I do some sort of downtime?
Kim (Thaugo): Yes. In the email we got 2 weeks ago telling us to do that when we updated our characters to 2e.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Don’t worry, I didn’t do that yet either Tom.
The GM sighs and rolls dice for their first encounter. A d8, d6, and d4 using the content guide he bought and enjoys from neoclassicalgames.com.
2-4-2. A fording point, no adversaries, and an abandoned/sacked camp. The party is hoping to get pegasus steeds as part of their quest against Thorbard the Purifier, a zealot with a paramilitary force that is terrorizing these lands. Using the principle of implied context to link that to the players. The camp is the site of a massacre by Thorbard.
GM: As you drift down the river you come across a natural ford with signs of heavy traffic along the dirt roads leading up to it. You also see a trio of charred corpses tied to smouldering wooden stakes amidst broken merchant wagons and torn tents. A white banner of Thorbard is stabbed into the ground near the edge of the river.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): We should stop to give them a proper burial
Kim (Thaugo): No no no, this could be an ambush, or at the very least Thorbard’s men could still be nearby. Those stakes are still smoldering. I say we just keep on floating downriver.
Chuck (Abraham): I am with Kim, too early to get fucked over by a bad encounter now.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Tom?
Tom (Jack): Beaching the boat seems like a big risk because it takes awhile to get back on it and push off.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Ok, so we keep going downriver
The GM marks off 3 ticks (the travel speed for going downriver) as they have passed the encounter.
GM: So you set up camp for the night, I assume you are having a fire?
Kim (Thaugo): I say we don’t, we have hard rations and water from the river is the same stuff we’ve been drinking for weeks in Appleshire so we should be fine. It's also summer so it's not like the heat is a problem.
GM: This is living like a miser then, so no luck will be regained.
Kim (Thaugo): That's fine, we are still all full. Abraham can take first watch, I’ll take second since I have a night vision spell if needed, and who wants to take third?
Tom (Jack): I will
The GM nods and checks blank notes, but there was no opponent in the day's encounter so there is nothing to harass them at night.
GM: So day eventually breaks after a long night in the dark being bitten by mosquitoes and you pack up and push back down river I assume?
Chuck (Abraham): Do we need to make health checks?
GM: It's not particularly harsh terrain, so the checks here are every 3 days.
Chuck (Abraham): Noted
The GM rolls another set of dice on the river, 8-5-3. A fast moving straight, 16 bandits, and no special modifier. Using the implied context the bandits are marauders in the service of Thorbard, out to confiscate any material decadence that may be destroyed by fire or smelted into some useful item.
GM: As you are going down river you are rushing through a particularly fast moving straight when you see the drab black cloaks and wide brimmed hats of one of Thorbard’s enforcer patrols.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Wee-ooo wee-ooo, here come the prude police.
GM: They are most alarmed by Thaugo and are readying lassos to try and drag you to shore.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Can Jack navigate the boat out of their reach, closer to the other bank?
GM: Maybe, but in a fast moving straight that is going to be difficult, a strength check with a 5 penalty.
Tom (Jack): I don’t have my boat, I had to sell it for gear remember? I thought we were in someone else's boat.
Chuck (Abraham): I guess we’ve been walking along the bank this whole time then, not boating.
The GM sighs
GM: Ok, I guess there are a few more mancatchers and axes in addition to the ropes and torches then.
Tom (Jack): Are we on their side though?
GM: I guess its 50/50 then.
Tom (Jack): So a luck check then right?
GM: Sure
Tom (Jack): My luck die is a d8, I roll a 5. I guess we are on the other side of the river. I wave to them.
GM: They are definitely agitated and are planning something, they keep pointing at each other, the river and you.
Chuck (Abraham): They are definitely trying to find a way to get to us.
The GM makes a note to tick off three points towards the dead mire, and that the party is being pursued by 16 bandits.
GM: So you set up camp on the banks of the river near the edge of the dead mire, is there a fire tonight?
Chuck (Abraham): I say we forced march into the dead mire, they are going to ambush us at night.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): That will have us sleeping in a haunted pile of muck, tired, with no time to set up a proper camp site.
Kim (Thaugo): Yes, but without a warrior with us I trust our skills against whatever undead monster we are going to run into there than the combat we’ll face with those jerkwads ambushing our campsite at night.
Tom (Jack): I am sold, let’s move on.
GM: Ok, you will be exhausted and the bogs are much worse terrain, but let's see what happens.
The GM rolls an encounter for forced march into the dead mire, using the barrow bogs seed table. 3-4-2. The area is fairly open, though covered in leafy plants with a layer of wet and rotting plant matter. There are 5 friendly peat miners who will leave by nightfall (as they are within a day of the edge of the bog), and a navigational marker that will give a bonus to speed for the same reason. There is also a special result of there being a witch in a hut selling fake cures (she’s a fake witch).
GM: You head into a weed choked field of wet ground, you see a tall wooden signpost stuck in the ground with a thatch hut beside it. A group of dirt caked locals with mattocks and shovels are talking to an old woman. It looks like she is trying to peddle trinkets to them. That signpost looks like it should show you a route that will make it much easier to traverse the mire.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Sweet! Shelter, no need to worry about a camp. We can also make good time tomorrow following the path.
Chuck (Abraham): Terrible news, those locals are leaving the mire, and ten bucks says if they run into Thorbard’s goons they rat us out.
Tom (Jack): Even if we hide so they don’t find us, I don’t like the old cunning woman’s chances.
Kim (Thaugo): Look on the bright side, maybe she really is a witch.
Tom (Jack): So that she’d deserve it?
Kim (Thaugo): No, because she might kill a whole bunch of them.
Chuck (Abraham): Well, there is another option. We could probably dispatch five peasants pretty easily. Dead men tell no tales.
Kim (Thaugo): Sometimes they do, especially in a place called “the dead mire”. Maybe we don’t get haunted immediately. That is assuming the witch isn’t a real witch and doesn’t vapourize us for causing her trouble.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Ok, so let's go talk to her. If she is a witch we give her a heads up and see what she wants to do. If she is some poor herbalist then I think we try to stay here and set up a counter ambush for those goons. I don’t think we are going to be able to get past them, it's too late in the evening to keep running.
In a thrilling sequence that won’t be detailed here, the party learns the witch is but a charlatan and to her pleading for help they orchestrate a counter ambush that goes almost according to plan other than Thaugo taking two points of damage, everyone becoming reckless, and Jack losing all of his arrows. The GM also marks down that the party has moved one-third of a point through the dead mire. One and two-third points to go.
GM: Grezelda is thankful for saving her and tends to your wounds in her hut.
Tom (Jack): Who is Grezelda?
GM: The herbalist, sorry. You also have a hut to stay in for the remainder of the night so even though the Dead Mire is harsh terrain, you don’t need to roll a health check.
Chuck (Abraham): We forced marched today, and had a night conflict, so I say we keep our normal watches but sleep in and do a shorter bit of travel tomorrow to even out. With that signpost we should be able to still make it through the mire in a single day.
Kim (Thaugo): Sounds good.
GM: So you sleep in, and you are rewarded with cooked breakfast. Her provisions are low so she does need at least two days rations to add to the pot to feed you all.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): I put in a ration
Tom (Jack): Me too
GM: So this is a modest meal and you had the comfort of a shack so you all get one luck die back for the night.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): I get all my luck back due to my Providence power.
GM: There was a change in the edition..
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Do you care if I keep my character as a 1e Character?
GM: Not really no
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Great! full luck.
Kim (Thaugo): I am happy for my 3 luck points I just got back though.
GM: Ok, so you follow the signpost across the dead mire.
The GM rolls an encounter, 8-5-3. A vast floating bog mat with the odd shrub and pine tree. A few holes and weak in place. There is also a pool containing haunted bog mummies, and an ancient cairn.
GM: You are following the sign post trails as far as you can, but you have to leave it to keep west and come across an ancient stone cair in the middle of a vast floating bog mat, a lone sickly pine tree leans over it and you see a pool of water in front of it with something sparkling in the light.
Kim (Thaugo): Can we please not touch the obviously haunted trap?
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Yes, why would we want to have adventures during our fantasy adventure game. Let's instead start a business moving grain up and down the river to take advantage of minor price fluctuations.
Tom (Jack): Ug, not that again.
Chuck (Abraham): Normally I am all for stealing things from obvious traps, but we are trying to showcase how wilderness travel using the seed tables works not how traps or combat works.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): FINE. We just keep going.
The GM notes they travel 2/3rd of a point for their shorter travel plus one point for the signpost they followed so they are reaching the edge of the dead mire.
GM: As you reach the edge of the dead mire you see the foothills ahead of you. Do you want to forced march again?
Chuck (Abraham): Nope, we find a flat patch of ground and set up camp and have a fire. Cadmus can take Thaugo’s watch since Thaugo is injured.
Kim (Thaugo): We don’t have anything other than hard tack and blankets to sleep on so I think we’ll still be living miserably even with a fire and won’t regain luck.
GM: Everyone needs to make health checks for the day of travel through harsh terrain. This is your first check still so it's a health check +2.
The party rolls their checks, since they are all reckless.
Chuck (Abraham): I pass.
Tom (Jack): I pass
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Fail, I take a point of damage that bypasses luck.
Kim (Thaugo): I would have passed, but with the damage I took I fail and take another point of damage. This isn’t going well for me.
The GM pretends to check notes, but as there is no one following them and the bog mummies only animate if stolen from, the night is quiet.
GM: The night passes quietly, and with morning you can head into the foothills, where you will need to find the mountain peak of your vision.
The GM opens to the Foothills table from the content guide and looks at results that would let them find the cave entrance. A 4 is a route to a summit that lets them see the surrounding area; they could find the mountain they seek as their next encounter if they do that. The rare 8-6-4 is finding a hidden valley, so it would be perfect as them just stumbling on it. A result of a 1,2, and 3 (in any order) also means a cave is present. That would also work. So it's going to be some stumbling around.
The GM rolls the encounter: 2-4-4: The detritus from a past rock slide, 10 adventurers, and no special scenario. The GM decides the adventurers are 5 1st level characters and 5 porters. This is the wild frontier so he decides the first one is an oiled up barbarian from the cliche catalogue and tries counting up from there. An oiled up barbarian, pillaging marauder, preacher, religious official, and village chieftain. This is a local village’s heroes and some missionaries.
GM: So you are walking up along the slope of a mountain meandering through some prior rockslide, now overgrown with shrubs when you smell the smoke of a campfire. It smells like cooking meat as well.
Kim (Thaugo): Does the meat smell like pork by any chance?
The GM thinks about it, it could be boar. He secretly flips a coin. Heads, its boar.
GM: It does.
Kim (Thaugo): As much as I could go for some longpig, let's not waste time getting the party killed and eaten.
Chuck (Abraham): We can’t waste time when we don’t know where we are going. They might be able to give us directions, either willingly or in exchange for their life.
Kim (Thaugo): Unless they beat us.
Chuck (Abraham): I am not suggesting we just stroll up, I’ll sneak ahead and scout. If it looks dicey we bail and backtrack. If it looks safe we talk to them.
A stealth conflict ensues and Abraham is able to spy and report back. They approach and talk to the adventurers in a whole scene and, though the GM hadn’t thought this an option, it is likely a village chieftain would know local mountains and could pass on the information. With Brother Cadmus able to convince the religious official and preacher they are on a mission for the Holy Church, the Chieftain tells them what they want to know.
GM: So with that out of the way they do let you share their camp for the night, but they do not have spare tents so it has been a day of harsh travel. This is everyone’s second health check so its straight up +0.
Chuck (Abraham): I pass.
Tom (Jack): I fail and take a point of damage.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): Another failure, ouch.
Kim (Thaugo): Nat 20! I pass.
GM: They don’t try to kill anyone in your sleep, though they do keep watch with you. The night is otherwise quiet, but if you share some of your rations they share some of their meat and you can all roll a luck die to regain some luck points.
Kim (Thaugo): I roll less than my current total so I don’t change.
Chuck (Abraham): I am already higher than I can roll on one luck die.
Tom (Jack): And I am back to 8 luck now.
GM: So with that you head out to the mountain.
The GM rolls an encounter and prepares to change the results of the d8 because of the information they received from the locals. 5-3-2. There are a bunch of long abandoned log cabins that are starting to collapse, 5 wolves, and it's storming (bad weather).
GM: You are following the route given to you when it opens up in a horrendous thunderstorm, wolves begin to howl. But what luck! There is a pair of crumbling log cabins ahead that you can wait out the storm in.
Chuck (Abraham): I detect a trap
GM: Up to you, this weather is making the travel even worse, two health checks a day. That will be a -2 and -5 for your next two. Shelter might be your best bet.
Kim (Thaugo): Being trapped in a house with wolves outside doesn’t seem like the best idea.
Tom (Jack): I can shoot arrows from the window, we can probably take them.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): You ran out of arrows in the fight with the goons, remember?
Kim (Thaugo): I could use the Natural Affinity miracle to walk past the wolves.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): As much as I’d love to watch the wolves obey your devil power Season of the Witch style, that only protects you, not the rest of us. Let’s stay the night. You can chase them off with magic in the morning after we rest.
GM: Ok, that the plan?
Tom (Jack): I vote yes, anyone vote no?
No one says anything
GM: Ok, you take shelter in the crumbling log cabins. The place is a mess, blood stains on the walls and hooks on the rafters. There are a few pieces of rotting furniture and a simple stone hearth. Water pours from several spots in the ceiling.
Chuck (Abraham): We start a fire and collect rainwater to drink.
GM: You still need to make a health check for the travel thus far in the day, its at a -2.
There is a series of rolls, Cadmus, Jack, and Thaugo take damage.
Julia (Brother Cadmus): I know we are pretty much out of food, but I think we need to camp here an extra day. We have shelter and this will let us reset our health checks.
Chuck (Abraham): Lets see if we get murdered by ghosts or werewolves at night. I think Jack is the one to not take a watch, since he is the least useful against ghosts.
GM: Through the night there is just the sound of pouring water, and the slow burn of the fire. It's almost tolerable compared to the bog. The question is if people wander outside to use the loo.
Chuck (Abraham): Nope, we set up a designated corner
GM: That makes this back down to miserable living. If you could lose luck you would. The stench would be horrible.
Tom (Jack): Is there not like a bucket, bowl or other thing we can use as a chamber pot and throw it out the window?
GM: Probably actually, ya, that makes sense. So through the night you hear scratches at the door.
Chuck (Abraham): There are those wolves, does the door seem solid?
GM: Solid enough.
Chuck (Abraham): We are going to stay here an extra day to reset our health checks, lets hope they get bored.
GM: Ok.
The GM rolls a d6, deciding the wolves leave the next day on a 4,5 or 6. The roll is a 1.
GM: So you spend the next day after the storm mending clothing, napping, oiling weapons and the like. But you are always aware that the wolves are lingering outside. At least 4 or 5 of them.
Kim (Thaugo): We wait this night too, come morning we’ll make it to the cave though I’ll try to scare them off.
The GM rolls a d6 again, 2, the wolves are sticking about.
GM: So morning comes about, what do you do?
Kim (Thaugo): After making sure the wolves aren’t right outside, I step out and try to cast a Flaming Orb into the other cabin to both cause a loud explosion and get a good fire going. I make a casting check and succeed at power level 2. Boom. If these wolves are anything like my dog the sound of fireworks will have them randomly shitting on the ground. So hopefully a morale check.
GM: Makes sense, roll a d6.
Kim (Thaugo): 6, so if it's a standard morale check I roll again and get 3. Hopefully that is enough to panic these wolves. Everyone lets double time it, they will calm down after ten minutes or so.
GM: Ok you start racing towards the mountain that you see ahead, but sure enough the wolves start pursuing, the cave lies ahead.
Chuck (Abraham): As soon as we make it in I am pouring burning oil at the entrance.
A chase sequence and the accrual of stun occurs before the party makes it to the cave
GM: The wolves retreat from the burning oil, and you continue through the secret cave path and step out the other side overlooking your target. The Hidden Valley Ranch.
All of the players groan in unison.