Silas, Truth-Seeker Steps into Darkness
Part #1 in The Reckoning of Silas, Truth-Seeker, a Ker Nethalas (Gravebound Edition) story
The character creation and preparations are over—it’s time to get started in The Reckoning of Silas, Truth-Seeker…
If you want to read the process of creating Silas, or how I chiselled out his backstory, then you can do so via these links.
Somehow, Silas didn’t die at his execution. His lifeless body was thrown through the inky black hole that descended into the depths of Ker Nethalas. He landed on a huge pile of dead bodies—and somehow survived!
The sheer mass of the dead beneath me must have cushioned the fall—a grim mattress of Silvercrest victims saving the one man who swore to tear them down. A harsh, breathless laugh escapes my cracked lips, echoing hollowly in the vast cavern. I survived.
The Gravebound Edition STRONGLY suggests we start with the mini-adventure, Stepping into Darkness, which is helpfully provided towards the end of the book.
I have no idea what I’m doing yet, and do want to actually survive for a while in this godforsaken hovel, so I’ll take this as my “tutorial level.”
We have a few initial dice tolls which reflect the fact that we almost died!
We take d6 damage. I roll a 1, reducing my Toughness to 34.
We suffer d4 sanity loss. It’s another one! I mark my sanity down to 12.
We are (unsurprisingly) exhausted. Our exhaustion rises from 0 to 1.
Before we get moving, we need to roll for an Overseer. Each “domain” (the sub-areas from which the endless realm of Ker Nethalas is made up) has an Overseer (the “final boss” basically). It’s a d10 roll. We roll 6, and it’s the gentleman below:
The Infernal Tormentor is a malevolent entity of raging flames and smouldering fury that stands as an embodiment of the infernal planes. With an ever-shifting form that mirrors the intensity of its inner fire, this Overseer scorches the battlefield with searing fire-based assaults, conjuring molten projectiles that rain down upon foes. Its unbridled fury allows it to unleash devastating melee strikes that cleave through armour and courage alike.
If we survive that long, he’s the guy we need to annihilate in the final room. To clarify, we can simply avoid the Overseer… BUT we need to kill him to acquire the Amulet, which grants us a third Mastery.
And we do really want that amulet, which is why we made it one of our Personal Goals during Character Creation…
Finally, we roll for the Overseer Influence. I roll “Magebane”, which means that not only the Overseer, but also all his subjects in the domain have +10 Magic Resistance. Silas isn’t a magic user, so that’s probably about the best result I could have rolled!
OK, so Stepping into Darkness is a ready-drawn map, with rooms, corridors and doors already in place, so we don’t need to worry about procedurally generating them as we go. We also have a smaller, less lethal monster table.
There’s nothing much in the Corpse Pile room other than a few well-fed rats gnawing on dead bodies and, more usefully, a torch with enough wick left for the next ten rooms. Light is super-important, so that’s a great find!
Onwards We Travel…
We slip through the crack in the wall into the adjoining room, which appears to be a guard room. There are broken-down weapon racks with rusted weapons and armour for us to scavenge. There is a dagger, a club and a spear to choose from. I don’t see anything here to say I can only pick one, so I’ll tuck the dagger into my belt, tether the spear to my back and grab the club with my left hand. I can also roll once on the random armour table. A couple of rolls later, and I have a shield in my right hand.
There’s nothing else here—but I remember now that I didn’t reduce my light tracker or roll the tension die. So I’ll do that now. The light drops from ten to nine, and the Tension Die is a d8. We roll a three, so nothing happens (we would drop to a d6 on a roll of 1 or 2)
It’s time to leave the Guard Room and head down the stairs…
As Silas squeezes through the breach (and into Room III: Another Unfortunate Soul), the reality of Ker Nethalas becomes even grimmer. We roll the Tension again—it’s a six, so nothing happens. And we reduce the Light Track to eight.
In the centre of this cold chamber lies the relatively recent corpse of another survivor who wasn’t as lucky as you. Searching the body is safe and yields essential survival resources: 2x Cooking Ingredients and 10x Crafting Supplies.
Unlike the first two rooms, Room III is not guaranteed to be empty. We must check whether anything is lurking near the corpse. It’s a simple d20 roll. Roll ten or higher, and there is a combat encounter; anything under 10 means there is nothing hostile to be found in this room.
We roll a seven. There is nothing waiting around to feast upon us… Silas finds himself in a moment of eerie silence.
Even though the corpse provided automatic items, the rules allow us to perform one Scavenge check per room to see if anything else is hidden in the corners. Also, let’s not forget that, because Silas has the Tracker mastery, we have Advantage on this roll!
It’s no brainer—let’s scavenge! With a roll of 82, Silas’s Tracker mastery allows us to apply Advantage, reading the result as 28 (placing the lesser digit in the tens place).
Unfortunately, even with Advantage, a 28 is higher than Silas’s Scavenging Skill of 20, meaning the search is a Failure. We find nothing of use hidden in the corners of Room III. On the positive, since the roll was not doubles, we do not trigger a “Noisy Search”
Silas now leaves the remains of the fallen survivor behind and heads through the door toward the next room.
The Altar to the Unknown Goddess
As you enter, we find ourselves before an altar dedicated to a mysterious, unrecognisable goddess. She holds a bowl containing the remains of ancient paper prayers, and the altar surface is thick with solid wax from centuries of melted candles.
Lightsource: Our torch now has 7 rooms remaining.
Tension Dice: We roll a five and nothing happens
We manage to scavenge D4 Candles from the altar that are still usable. We roll a FOUR! That’s four candles (only people of a certain vintage, based in the UK, will likely understand the cultural reference…)
Oh, go on then if you insist…
With these safely tucked into his pack, Silas can continue exploring another 40 rooms with enough light. We scribble out our number seven and write 47…
I rolled a 9 on the d20 for our combat check. Since a result of 10 or higher is required to trigger an encounter, Silas finds the Altar Room undisturbed by enemies…
Silas leaves the silent vigil of the goddess at the Altar and steps into Room V, The Scholars’ Study. The air here is thick with the scent of mouldy parchment and ancient dust. Silas’s current torch now has 6 rooms of light remaining. The Tension Die comes up with five and remains at a D8.
Silas peers through the wreckage of fallen shelves, rolls his d20 Combat Die and hits 14. Our good fortune couldn’t last forever. We have triggered combat!
“Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones”
First, we’ll need to determine what horrors we must face. I grab a d20 and roll 14. It’s Skeletal Horrors!
The Skeletal Horrors possess the Frightening trait, requiring a Resolve check (vs 20) to avoid losing 2 Sanity. Silas rolled an 11. This is a Critical Success (doubles below the skill score). Silas displays Unwavering Will. Not only does he avoid Sanity loss, but he recovers D4+1 Sanity (up to his maximum of 13). Silas rolls a two—his Sanity is now back at its maximum of 13. Cool!
Initiative is an opposed check between Silas’s Perception (40) and the Horrors’ Mind (20). Remember: because Silas is a Tracker, he has Advantage on this check. We roll a 37. With Advantage (reading the lesser digit as the tens place), the result remains 37. Since 37 is less than 40, it’s a success! The Horrors roll a 48, which is a failure. Since Silas succeeded and his opponents failed, Silas wins the Initiative and acts first for the remainder of this combat…
Silas grips his Club and raises his Shield as he steps toward the first rattling horror. Since Silas won the Initiative and has the "upper hand" this turn, he gains a bonus to his combat Skill.
SMASH! With an attack roll of 55, Silas has scored a Critical Strike!
In Ker Nethalas, rolling doubles that are equal to or lower than our Skill score result in a Critical Success. Since Silas’s attack Skill with his Club is 80 (base 60+10 initiative+10 from Simple Trait), our roll of 55 is a spectacular success! A Critical Strike automatically wins the combat confrontation, regardless of the opponent's defence roll, unless the opponent also rolls a Critical Success (he did not; he rolled 78)
Next, we roll for hit location, and roll a 17, which means we smash the first horror’s arm. Damage is a d6 and, unfortunately, it’s only a one—although our attack roll being a double makes that two damage.
The Skeletal Horror is momentarily stunned as the club smashes into its arm. It now has six of its eight health remaining.
And that’s my first round…. I’ve now got two Skeletal Horrors shambling towards me…
There’s a LOT going on with Combat!
This post is getting a bit long for me, so I’ll cut to the chase and say that I finished the combat encounter off-camera.
As the echoes of rattling bone fade, leaving Silas standing alone. He recovers 3 Toughness immediately after the fight—and because of his Abyssal Reaver mastery, Silas gains 1 Temporary Toughness for winning the encounter
After the use of his shield, Silas rolls a D6 Integrity Check. He rolls 5, so the shield remains intact. He earns 30 XP for defeating the horrors
And we have loot! Silas pockets 3 Attunement Crystals, which are guaranteed loot from Room 5 in this introductory scenario.
Thoughts? The combat in Ker Nethalas has an awful lot going on. I got bogged down in writing stuff down and checking rules, but hopefully that will fall into place when I get the hang of it… I hope so anyway!
We’ll wrap it there for this first episode. We’ve explored five rooms and are maybe one-third of the way through this domain if we are going to explore every nook and cranny (as the rules encourage us to do)… or halfway through if we blast through the numbered rooms to get to the end.
I think we’ll be exploring every nook and cranny!
Hope you enjoyed this opening salvo in Ker Nethalas: Gravebound Edition. It’s going to be a weekly series, so I’ll see you again sometime next week.
I love this game! That was a lot of fun to read, I'm enjoying the way you write and describe everything. Looking forward to your next installment!
Great first gameplay session!