My purchasing of the Tunnels & Trolls Adventurers Compendium (sic) also brought to my attention the (mostly) free online T&T fanzine TrollsZine, which includes solo adventures as part of its content. I have therefore acquired an assortment of issues in order to find out if their solos are any more survivable than most.
The solo in issue 1 is Tom Grimshaw’s The Blood War at Saxon, a title which appears a poor fit for the basic premise. While the adventure is set in a place called Saxon, ‘blood war’ seems a rather strong term for a long-standing dispute over the ownership of a field, and the plot has more to do with exploring an ancient tomb than participating in armed conflict between the two families who claim that the field is theirs.
This tomb lies beneath the field in question, and was only recently revealed, following a storm. The locals believe it to contain evidence linking the land to one family’s ancestors, and as none of those involved in the feud can be relied upon to accurately report back on what may be found within, the villagers have engaged the services of an outsider to seek the proof that should settle the matter. Which is where I come in.
I’m
tempted to scrap the character I generate, as over half the stats are below
average, but as regards innate combat adds, he’s actually better off than the
sample character in the rulebook, so I’ll give him a go. It’s not as if he
could fare much worse than some others I’ve played.
Strength 14
Intelligence 5
Luck 11
Constitution 7
Dexterity 8
Charisma 5
Speed 3
His starting funds are reasonable, enabling me to equip him with the best sword
he can handle (that low Dexterity limiting his options) and reasonable armour.
The villagers provide me with a lantern, and I descend into the tomb, avoiding loose stones and misplaced commas. On the wall is a worn stone plaque, which I might be able to read if I succeeded at a Saving Roll on Intelligence, but I roll so poorly that I’d fail even if my character weren’t so dull-witted.
Passages lead to east and west, and I see that the eastern turning leads to a door, so I head for that. The door opens into an ornately decorated chamber, with carvings that might be writing on the walls. As I step into the room, the door slams shut behind me, and will not budge when I try to reopen it.
A mysterious light appears in the middle of the chamber. Figuring that my character is dim enough to try touching it, I reach out a hand. The light burns me (and on this occasion I’m glad to roll a low number, as I take minimal damage), then fades away. I hear ominous laughter, see a door to the north that I don’t think was there when I entered the room, and observe a superfluous ‘and’ in the text as I move towards the newly-revealed exit.
I step out into what is referred to as a T-junction, though as it only has passages running north and west, I think it’s more of a corner with a door set into one wall. The light of the lantern reveals nothing in either direction, but west would lead back towards the entrance, so I proceed north.
Before long I reach another junction, again offering me a choice of continuing north or turning west. A door is visible to the north, while to the west I ‘can only corridor’. I hope TrollsZine has obtained the services of a decent proofreader at some point since issue 1 came out, because the sloppy writing here is very distracting.
I’m starting to wonder if this is the kind of adventure in which it’s fairly easy to proceed directly to the endgame, but the finale can only be survived with the aid of assorted plot tokens acquired by taking detours along the way. Consequently, on this occasion I head west, winding up at a crossroads. Going south is not an option, as it would take me back to the entrance (via a corridor that didn't exist when I came in). East would mean going back the way I came, and section number recognition tells me that approaching that junction from this direction will not open up the way south from it (or even give any mention of its existence). That leaves north or west.
I’ll try west again. This leads to evidence of careless playtesting, as the section to which I am directed describes me leaving a room and reaching what must be another of those ‘corner with a door’ T-junctions. The more of this adventure I read, the more I appreciate the Proteus 2 approach to charting subterranean tunnel complexes – yes, having different sections to describe the same junction depending on the direction from which you approach it can get confusing, but at least it avoids continuity errors and doesn’t omit details.
Anyway, I can return to the crossroads or I can head north to what is currently a door. Might as well go somewhere I haven’t yet been. Beyond the door is a chamber containing cobwebs and a stone coffin, with another door leading further north. The coffin may contain something that will help me in my quest. Or possibly something undead that will kill me within seconds, but that’s the adventuring life for you. Let’s see if I can even open the thing…
Randomness occurs. The fall of the die determines that I see a heap of gold inside, but when I reach for it, the lid falls shut, injuring me, and jamming so as to become impossible to reopen. Displeased, I have no choice but to leave via the door to the north. Beyond it, directions suddenly turn from compass points to left/right, but if Mr Grimshaw has been paying any attention to what he was writing, the passage beyond leads me east to a door in the north wall.
This door seems to be sealed, and I guess that it leads to the crypt I was sent to find. The only way to get past it appears to be brute force, and even with Strength being my best attribute, the odds of my succeeding at the Saving Roll aren’t great. Somewhere in the odds of one in six, though T&T’s ‘doubles reroll and add’ mechanic almost always makes probabilities that bit fuzzier than in most gaming systems.
What I roll isn’t an automatic failure, but it is still a failure. Thus, I find myself unable to open the door, and must trek back through the tunnels until I reach the exit, report my inability to resolve the ongoing dispute, and leave this part of the world in shame, never to return.
Still a better outcome than in most of the T&T solos I've played here.
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