Death in the Dark

I have been running a Basic Fantasy RPG campaign since June of 2021. It’s been a blast—and our last session was, for me, a high point.

Last year the party headed out of their homeland and travelled through a mountain pass into “The Northlands.” These are lands with not centralized government, each settlement has their own rules and the way things works there created some friction for the group. The first town labelled them “bygones ¹.” After a year of adventuring in the Northlands, four months in game time, the party has been through a lot. They met trans-dimensional elves, released an imprisoned God, got sucked into coffee smuggling, stumbled upon an invasion, and then had to deal with the God they’d released so the trans-dimensional elves would stay and help fight off the invasion. They’ve been busy.

For the last two months, a couple of weeks in game time, the party has been on a mission to return South to their homeland with a warning about the invasion. The problem is, it’s the middle of Winter in the game so travel through the pass is impossible.

Instead, the group found an ancient path under the mountains, where a lost city was rumored to exist. On the path they found the remnants of an army which had fought in the “Chaos War,” still at their posts after centuries. They also reached the lost city of Araseth, set in a huge cavern with a roof that created a glow like the dusk, but without the harsh shadows cast by a setting Sun. The central cavern was cultivated, and even had some sickly grain fields, though their “cattle” were giant grasshoppers.

In Araseth the party discovered that Shaccath, the goddess of chaos, had been growing in popularity over the last twenty years among the disaffected population. The goddess of life which the party served, Anaris, was all but abandoned. The timing of Shaccath’s ascension troubled the party’s cleric, as both Anaris and Shaccath were supposed to haven been asleep at the time–locked in a slumber through which even their names were forgotten. Anaris had only revealed herself in the past year, which meant Shaccath had been active for much longer than they knew.

Troubled by this revelation, and dodging assassins sent by the local priest of Shaccath, the party left the city and travelled to the Southern Reach, hoping to find a way home ².

Their path, however, was blocked by “The Expanse of the Abyss.” From what they could glean by the few people in town who would talk about, as well as from the lone elf who stood watch over it, The Expanse contained a trapped bit of the chaos through which the world was made ³. This trapped chaos was also the reason why all magic works in the world–divine and arcane ⁴. The Expanse’s power makes it dangerous to use magic near it, as so much energy flows there spells can go sideways in bad ways ⁵. The way The Expanse was described, by the one person who would speak about it, was that it wanted to “swallow her.” When the party arrived they understood. Looking into it is like looking into space itself, its very presence leaves a person disoriented.

The party managed to befriend the lone elf sentry, who had a habit of arguing with himself, and he revealed that he’d managed to cross The Expanse soon after the bridge across it had been destroyed ⁶. He wouldn’t say much about what he’d discovered, only saying there was death on the other side ⁷. After some convincing, the elf showed him the means by which he crossed the expanse, a floating vessel similar to a hot air balloon. This consisted of a rusted metal platform, connected by chains to a tear drop shaped canopy floating above it–but it wasn’t hot air which kept the canopy aloft. Instead, the fabric and wooden cover ⁸ held a mass of floating rocks in place to provide lift. The elf explained there was a natural air current which would push the vessel toward the other side, taking about two hours. Before the party departed the elf handed them three bottles of “preventative antidote,” a protection from the creatures who hunted above the expanse ⁹. Then the party left, half traveling on the platform and half on top the canopy in case they were attacked. There was a ladder between the levels.

The group didn’t have to wait long to find out why the potions were necessary. About half way into the trip they were attacked by a mated pair of wyverns–one of which attacked the canvas containing the rocks and the other attacked the people on the platform. A hole was torn into the canvas, necessitating a patch, and battle was joined.

The next round the wyvern attacking the platform was seriously wounded, and was unable to hit the characters, but the party members up top didn’t fare as well. Most of their attacks missed, as the group was on unsteady ground ¹⁰. When the wyvern then passed over the defenders it attacked with its tail. A poison tail. There were two dwarfs and one elf confronting the beast, and the elf had taken one of the potions, so there was a good chance whoever was hit would fight off the poison ¹¹. I rolled to see who would be attacked, and the tale struck the elf–who failed his saving throw. In BFRPG poison is typically “save or die,” Jeffery the Great was struck down.

I tend to avoid save or die poison as creature attacks because it seems so anti-climatic ¹². So as I was planning the encounter I determined that anyone struck down by the tail would get one final action that would be epic*.* As the poison coursed through Jeffery the Great’s veins he could feel himself slipping into death. His heart raced, his vision blurred, the air burned–but suddenly he experienced a moment of clarity and moved. The stricken elf ignited his sword with flame and reached out to grab the wyvern’s tail as it pulled away, grasping on to the same spike which had dealt him the fatal blow. The wyvern felt the hitchhiker’s presence and attempted to flick him off, but ended up causing him to sail toward the creature. As the character flew in an arc toward the beast’s shoulder blades the chaotic nature of The Expanse latched on to the magic of his sword and infused Jeffery the Great with the very power used to shape the world. As he soared toward his end, a blue halo surrounded him and his flame shifted from orange to blue-white. Swinging down, the power exploded and he cleaved the beast in two. Jeffery the Great landed in the midst of the downed creature, looked at his friends, and collapsed into death.

The party didn’t know what to do, and most of the players were in such a state of shock they were not registering that Jeffery the Great was dead. And, indeed, the elf was dead. This didn’t necessarily mean the end of the character, as resurrection magic does exist in this world, but doing so would entail taking on a quest–and with the looming invasion I’d expected the group to be faced with a dilemma. Could afford to take the side trip when the fate of their home was at stake?

But the player running the party’s cleric, Gibeon Starfall, had been paying attention to the environment and did something I did not expect. Gibeon knew Jeffery the Great was beyond his healing abilities, but since he was in the middle of magic’s source in the world, he got the idea to open himself up to its power in order to call his friend back. I couldn’t let such a creative use of the environment be unrewarded so I ruled that I would allow him to make the attempt. But he would be subject to the general mishap rules which existed in The Expanse and, whether the gambit worked or not, exposing himself to that much primal energy would take a toll. Even attempting it would send the character down one level. The player agreed and, after a high stakes roll, Jeffery the Great breathed again ¹³!

The party completed their journey, and reached the southern rim of The Expanse. Now we have to see if Jeffery the Great has been changed by what happened to him. Only time will tell.

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