Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #3

Solo GURPS: Alas Mirayra, Session #3

Let's continue the journey of Alas Miraya, the still not-very-healthy fire elf bloodrager.

Session #1 - link.

Session #2 - link.

Scene 5

Setup: Alas makes camp and rests for two days (while he has enough food).

CF: 4 (The previous scene was in the character's control).

Character List: Alas Mirayra, Yaryam, Sana Mirayra, Eldrin Phiwarin, Vaeril Entoris.

Thread List: Obtain a thunder wolf pelt; Avenge Yaryam's murderers.

Chaos Roll: Normal Scene.

First things first, Alas only has 7 trail rations left, and he's still at 0/12 HP. Two days of rest call for two HT rolls. I get 13 and 5, so Alas only recovers 1 HP. Better than nothing! The plan is to recover at least 4 HP to not be reeling from the wounds. It is safe to assume that the one leftover trail ration is enough to feed the SM-3 Yaryam from two days. Without food, Alas will have to forage. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 16: Wilderness Adventures is a great book about all things about surviving in the wilderness even outside the dungeon fantasy genre. Alas could try gathering, hunting, or fishing. As we remember, he's a big fan of fishing, so let's see if there is a body of water or a stream nearby.

Fate Question: Is there a place to fish nearby?

Fate Check Modifiers: No.

Fate Check Result: No and a random event.

Event Focus: NPC Negative. (Only Yaryam is present, so it will affect her negatively).

Event Meaning (Action): Ambush Rumor.

Event Meaning (Description): Enormously Horrible.

Mythic tables aren't giving me a break, are they? Apparently, some enormous horrible creature ambushes her, and the creature is a subject of local rumors. (Alas rolls against Area Knowledge (Hortamil)-11 and gets 13, so he's not aware of the rumor). I've looked through the creatures appropriate for this biome and that fit the description (keep in mind that Yaryam is SM-3, so an SM+0 creature is enormous for her) and for whom I can quickly get the stats, and made the following list:

    1. Aranea.

    2. Krenshar.

    3. Monstrous Spider (Large).

    4. Corrupted Wolf.

I roll a d4 and get a 3.

Running out of food, Alas took Yaryam for a walk to find a pond or a brook to fish. He was doing his best to listen to running water or waterborne birds, but have not found anything suitable for fishing. (Rolling against Hearing-8, got 11). Being hard of hearing, Alas did not even notice how Yaryam walked right into a large web and got stuck. The spider tries to bite the webbed gen (Rolling against 13, got 4. That's a critical hit, no active defense is allowed. I roll on the critical hit table and get "Normal damage only". The spider rolls 1d-3 cutting damage and gets a 3. That's 4 points of injury. Yaryam only has 2 HP, so it not only is a major wound, it also brings her down to -1xHP, triggering first a knockout check, then a death check. Her HT is 10. I roll HT thrice and get 11, 9, and 13. That means she gets stunned, does not lose consciousness, but dies. Well, rest in piece, I'll cross you off the NPC list and the thread list].

Alas keeps walking (rolling against Hearing-8, got 11), unaware of the grave situation. Let's roll against the general Perception now, as Alas should probably notice the absence of his companion soon. (Rolling against Per-12, got a 5). Yes, Alas does notice something is off. He turns his head and notices a human-sized spider nibbling on a tiny gen stuck in its web. Sure, he spent with Yaryam only two days and didn't get to know her better, but she still was his companion. The first impulse was to draw a bow (a Ready maneuver). The distance to the spider is 8 yards, because Alas walked for two seconds at Yaryam's walking pace before noticing her absence. The spider notices the new threat and Aims with his web (the maximum range is 10 yards, so it can shoot this far). Alas readies an arrow (he does not have the Fast-Draw skill, unfortunately). The spider launches his web at Alas. (Roll against 11 (12 + 3 (Acc) - 4 (range)), gets a 7. Alas tries a feverish (-1 FP) dodge and drop, ruining his Aim. (Roll against 9, as he's still reeling from the wounds, gets a 10. Damn.) The elf now is entangled in a ST 11 web.

Alas tries to break free. This is a Quick Contest of ST. (He rolls 11, the web rolls 11). Alas succeeds! But he's still on the ground. The spider runs forward 5 yards, shortening the distance between it and the prey to 3 yards. Alas changes posture to kneeling. The spider does a Move and Attack, trying to bite Alas' torso. (Spider rolls against 9, gets a 9. Alas' effective Dodge value would be 2 in this situation - it's impossible to dodge. The spider rolls 1d-3 cutting damage and gets -1, which translates to the minumum of 1 damage. Luckily, Alas has DR 2, so the mandibles do not penetrate the armor). The mandibles clench around Alas' torso, but fail to penetrate the armor. But at least this made the spider understand that it should find a softer spot to bite into.

Now let's test Alas' impulsiveness. Smashing the spider with the bow is suboptimal, but impulsive. Taking out the axe is a longer action. (Roll against Impulsiveness-12, get a 7). Alas subdues the desire to smash the spider with the bow, stands up, drops the bow, and readies the axe in a two-handed grip. The spider tries to bite the arm that is only partially armored. He makes an All-Out Determined attack, rolling against 15 (13 - 2 arm + 4 AoA), and gets a 9. Alas tries a feverish retreating parry (7 + 1 + 2 = 10), and gets a 13. Now, we roll 1d and see if the armored part was hit. We get a 2 and that is not 5 which corresponds to upper arms. The spider rolls 1d-3 cutting damage and gets a 0, which translates to 1 point of injury. This is enough to bring Alas to 0/12 HP. The spider also is poisonous, so Alas has to roll against HT-2, but gets a 16. The poison deals 1d-1 toxic damage (2, in our case), bringing Alas down to -2/12 HP. This is 3 total damage in the space of a single second, which is not enough to trigger a Berserk roll. Alas rolls against HT to stay conscious, gets a 17. And, I guess, gets devoured by the spider.

Conclusion

Honestly, I was not expecting Alas to survive this long, considering the fact that he first had to fight against a gunslinger bandit and then had some fights at negative HP. In spite of that, I've had a lot of fun writing all this out, and I got to try out some rules that never came up in my games before, so I consider this a success. I'll try a sci-fi solo game next time.