The Adventures of a Kobalos

[Jubal]

I ran some solo tests of Hetairos recently!

The first two were uneventful, which is to say that the test subjects died fast. The first was a philosopher, who discovered a nest of promethean golems, ran away from that into a shrine to Hecate the witch-goddess, and then ultimately ended up running into a snake pit, surviving the snakes but being punched to death by a promethean who'd fallen in as well. The second, an Atlantean, walked straight into the lair of the Nemean Lion on his first turn. It ate him.

Then came the kobalos (essentially the game's rogue archetype, with a sneak ability and the ability to gain bonus money from kills). My Kobalos (who I named Spritchis, or more accurately Σπριτχις), thus set out on what was to become a long and thoroughly epic solo journey through the underworld.

Things started as inauspiciously as ever, finding a spawn point for minions, the most weak/generic enemies (though like all things in this game, dangerous in numbers). He then continued exploring, killing a couple of them, and running into a snake pit on the other side of the Styx. Fortunately, this meant there was a snake pit between him and the minions, which definitely reduced their numbers as they tried to clamber through. Even better, on the other side of the pit there was a fountain of healing, which are always useful things to have.

Further exploration revealed a shrine to the Olympians, from which Spritchis headed south... and came across a giant. And of course ran away into small tunnels that the giant couldn't get through. A game of cat and mouse then ensued, in which the kobold and the giant (monsters being allowed to explore if they don't have a way to get to the player) explored much of the east of the map, turning up yet more temples in a sort of sacred region. The chase ended when I, trapped in a safe but ultimately dead-end tunnel, re-read the rules for the giant and realised that I could actually pay him to stop bothering me, which he did, and headed off home.

Spritchis then took a break from exploring to head down to the healing spring, which meant fighting a few enemy minions but ultimately let him get back to full health. At this point he went down to investigate around the giant's lair (now once more plus giant, but the giant had been suitably remunerated not to worry). It turned out that the giant lived right next to a polis (town) which I named Laestria. This incidentally gave the giant a new target to beat up, as long as there were enough other enemies to do so; he sat outside and waited for the minions to find their way through. Spritchis became a citizen of Laestria, and hired a hoplite guard called Eurios. Some more exploration occurred during the siege; Spritchis fortunately managed to only take moderate damage from a (potentially deadly) poison arrow trap that guarded the cavern south of Laestria. The first assault was a resounding victory for the defenders, and left a very wounded giant. Before the second assault, Spritchis and Eurios found their way to yet another nearby polis, which I named Eutheria. Finally, enough minions got past the snakes and the second battled for Laestria occurred. With the kobalos and the hoplite helping, the giant and minions were once again thoroughly beaten and all were slain.

The siege of Laestria, given the kobalos special ability of gaining coin for each point of kleos gained, turned out to be extremely lucrative. Two more hoplites - Polycarphos and Thrymnos - were hired, and this small warband set out to explore the mostly unknown west of the map. There, after some exploring, they found an ancient library of forgotten tomes. It turned out to be near to a fountain of healing... and a shrine to Hecate. As much as the core east of the map was full of olympian shrines, the west turned out to be the realm of unholy ones. Realising how dangerous this was, the warband headed south (finding a great forge on the way) and then back across the Styx to Eutheria & Laestria, where they hired a man with a pickaxe; the only solution was to cave the unholy shrine in. To avoid Eutheria being swamped, Eurios was left there with a bow and periodically shot minions to keep the enemy's numbers too low to attack.

The monsters of Hecate were now roaming the tunnels and were tough to beat as the team fought their way north and then west to the shrine; one or two battles with the lampades saw the warband go mad and damage one another in the confusion. Eventually, however, Terranos the hoplite/miner was brought to the fateful spot and expertly brought the roof crashing down. After this point things got somewhat easier, though there were still dangers ahead. Further exploration revealed a more southerly library... which somehow also had a shrine of Hecate next to it. This time the ending was not so happy; Terranos heroically managed the cave-in, but died in the process. Thrymnos, too, died exploring that southern region of the tunnels, triggering a poison arrow trap and dying instantly. The two remaining members of the party retreated back to Eutheria to regroup. More hires were made, helped by the income from fighting the monsters of Hecate (and from more than one treasure hoard found over time): Gabras replaced Terranos as the group's miner, and Caros as the additional hoplite. This group moved out again, and found yet another shrine to Hecate (which Gabras caved in more or less instantly... and also two more settlements, Alcepolis and a manor settlement of Talma.

The latter became the new goal (aka taking it over by defeating the current lord of the manor): Eurios was summoned, and the whole warband assaulted the manor and won. This meant a regular source of income was available. The victory was tinged with a tragic aftermath, though, as Eurios (now on a ridiculous 30 kleos mostly from shooting minions regularly) was killed crossing the styx by a minion whilst travelling back to Eutheria. With his newfound wealth,Spritchis decided that it was time to finally rid the tunnels of enemies and assume leadership over the poleis. Initially, a build-up of minons that threatened Eutheria had to be dealt with - two new archers were hired, Milos and Allos, and that battle was won; Milos then stayed to guard Eutheria, and Allos did the same for Alcepolis, whilst Polycarphos led a fruitless expedition to explore some more westward tunnels. The political battles lay ahead though. This required each poleis to accept Spritchis separately as leader; Alcepolis did so first, mostly through sheer luck.

An expedition was then finally outfitted to go and destroy the long-running minion spawn point, led by Polycarphos whilst Spritchis gained money from his manor at Talma to further his political campaign. This too was successful with ease, but with the sad death of Gabras along the way. Eutheria took considerably more time to persuade to Spritchis' cause, and eventually Polycarphos, Milos, and Allos all becoming citizens in order to help swing the vote (indeed at one point Polycarphos was submitted as a candidate for the city's leadership, though that failed miserably). Laestria fairly soon afterwards accepted the inevitable: now with two more bodyguards (named Hoplos and Hoplon) Spritchis was de facto ruler of a small state. There was little left to do; a small amount more exploration revealed a northern manor called Tasarnia which was brought swiftly to heel.

After all the time and effort, the game, despite having been played with no win conditions or expectation of survival, was firmly won. Spritchis, Archon of Alecpolis, Eutheria, and Laestria, lord of Talma and Tasarnia, Lord Protector of the realms of Hades, was very firmly in control. Long may he be remembered!


I actually had notes for the middle of the campaign if you want to see what the turn by turn outcomes were like.

Spoiler

Got out of snake pit, found spring, healed, found tunnel
Minion clambers through snake pit on final attempt
Found shrine, successful prayer to Ares
1 minion killed by snakes
Minion killed, 2 small tunnels found
Minion clambers through snake pit on final attempt
Giant's lair found
Minion killed by snakes, giant finds hoard & small tunnel
Minion killed, more tunnels found
Minion killed by snakes, giant finds many empty caverns & gets to shrine
Finds second shrine, hoard of 3 coins
Minion killed by snakes, Giant finds dead ends
More tunnels and third shrine found
Snakes kill minion, giant moves round for a different approach
Hidey hole tunnel found
Minion clambers through snake pit on final attempt, giant finds way through
Comes out and pays giant off
Minion clambers through snake pit on final attempt, giant heads home
More tunnels found
Snakes kill minion, giant keeps going home
Dead ends
Minion succeeds at pit on first attempt, giant gets home, minion does 1 dmg then gets killed by player
S bound
Minion killed by player, minion killed by snakes
More tunnels and dead ends
Minion does 2dmg then gets killed, minion killed by snakes
Player (on 3hp) heads for spring
Minion stuck in pit but alive
At spring, 1x heal
2 minions each do 1dmg & die to player
2x heal
Minion stuck in pit
2x heal
Minion dies to player, minion dies to snakes
2x heal
Minion stuck in pit
Find rock, move off E
Minion escapes, next minion stuck in pit
Cavern found
Minion escapes, next minion stuck in pit. 4 minions on board for first time!
Southward
Minion killed by snakes, minion scrambles out of pit
Claims hoard (5 gold), takes 3dmg from poison arrow trap
Minion goes perfectly through snake pit, all 5 now on board
Minion killed, Laestria discovered (and giant thus has a target again...), become citizen of Laestria, hire hoplite
Minion stuck in pit, giant & 1 minion outside Laestria
Small exploration finds rockface, return to Laestria, buy axe
Assault! Defeat for the attackers, both minions die & giant loses 6hp. Minion gets through pit.
Eutheria discovered
Minion stuck in pit
Return to Laestria
Assault II: Giantic boogaloo. All attackers slain!

Pt II
2 hoplites hired, part to Eutheria
Minion out of pit,minion through pit
Shade pit found, 1 dmg to player
Minion killed by warband, 2 minions scramble through pit
3 minions killed, empty cavern found
Minion moves to warband
Warband kills minion, moves toward minion base
Minion spawns and is killed
Minion killed by warband, exploration around minion base, mostly rock
Minion spawns and is killed
Further exploration, more rock
Minion fights well but is killed by warband
Great library found
Minion moves towards warband
Hoard of 11 gold found, shrine of Hecate found
Witch spawns, witch & minion defeated
Heading S, more tunnels found
Lampad spawns, moves to warband
Fight! Both hoplites affected by light, one fights well anyway so the battle is narrowly won; more exploration, great forge found
Minion attacks Kobalos & Thrymnos, dies. Lampad spawns
Route back to Styx found, warband starts heading for Eutheria
Another Lampad spawns. Enemies on the move!
Band heads for Eutheria
Witch spawns, minion killed
Home to Laestria! Hire a hoplite w/pickaxe
Monsters starting to swarm Eutheria
Buy bow for Thrymnos & Eurios; they go to Eutheria, Thrymnos shoots 2 minions. Terranos opens a tunnel to get to the spring faster, Kobalos and Polycarphos go & +1hp regain
Witch scrambles pit & is killed at the spring. 2 minions also climb through and attack the pair, but Kob & Pol roll a perfect 12 to their 4. New witch & minion spawned.
+2 health regain. PC & Terr attack minion outside Laestria, fail to imprison. Thrymnos, despite being maddened by the light, shoots two lampades
Witch spawns, monsters move
Exploration, Eurios shoots a minion
More monsters move
Eurios shoots Lampad, Thrymnos shoots minion, team moves to outside Eutheria. Buy spare pickaxe in Eutheria
Mormo spawns, minion & witch killed by team.
Team moves N, killing witch, Eurios stays in Eutheria
Witch spawns, 2 minions killed.
Team moves up styx
New witch
Team kills minion & witch, Eurios shoots witch
Lampad attacks: all but Polyc fail their checks, Lampad wins combat 3 to -2
All fail checks except Terranos, team narrowly defeats the Lampad. Discovery of new magic spring, but decision made to cave the shrine of Hecate in anyway. Terranos rolls a full success!
Minion attacks Ter and PC and is killed
Thrym survives finding shades, Mormo killed by Eurios, more exploration
Minion heads s
Minion does 2dmg to Kob before being taken down

[Phoenixguard09]

I hadn't seen this before mate, but this is a seriously epic tale. I'm thinking I may illustrate it in some way for the book.

[Jubal]

It took several hours of play - I've still got the map, actually, I can photograph it maybe?

[Phoenixguard09]

Yeah man, definitely.