Mythic Ynn Soloplay 1
Intro
Hello! This is my second soloplay experiment on this blog. This time around, we’re going to explore the Gardens of Ynn as we follow a young noble woman in search of the power to resurrect her dead husband.
The big goal for this campaign is to test the Mythic Game Master Emulator. For those who who don’t know, It’s essentially a tool for generating new ideas to keep your soloplay moving, with its own oracle and a whole structure based around setting up scenes. We’re also going to be using Whitehack as our main system once again, because I like it. As always, this isn’t meant to be an explainer of any of the aforementioned systems or tools, so I won’t go too deeply into how they work.
Lets hope this character lives past a few sessions!
Scene 1: Opening the Door
A woman with Fiery Hair stands in front of her garden’s wall. She is young, yet her eyes show the wear of many sleepless nights. In her hand is a stick of chalk and an old tattered book.
This is the Lady Hartgrieve, and this tale is her journey through the mystical Gardens of Ynn.
Hartgrieve: It can’t be this simple… but if it is, I can’t afford to wait.
The woman begins to sketch out the outline of a door into her garden wall. She draws slowly, as if she’s afraid. Or, as if she’s stalling…
This is the first time we’ll consult the Mythic Fate Chart table. My question is this: Has the Lady recruited anyone else to her cause? I think it’s likely, though her pride might play a factor.
Using the fate chart, we find the the odds in our chaos factor’s column and the row of our odds. At a CF of 5 and likely odds, the answer is yes on anything below a 65 on a d100, and no on anything above. Let’s roll: 66. It’s a doubles, which would proc a random event if it was at or below or Chaos factor of 5.
The answer is no: she’s doing this alone.
The woman finishes her sketch of the door, complete with doorknob and keyhole. She stands back and flips pages until she reaches her bookmark. Then, she scrawls upon the door a phrase.
Ynn, By Way of the Hartgrieve Estate.
Nothing happens.
Hartgrieve: Well, that was uneventful.
Hiding her disappointment, the woman goes back into her home for a spot of tea. She comes back and nearly drops her cup in shock: on her garden wall is a door! She approaches it and puts her hand on the door.
Taking a breath, she prepares herself for the journey ahead. In her mind, she pictures the one person who made her come this far. The person for whom she learned her arts. The person she was prepared to enter an alien world for. Her deceased husband, Jeb.
The adventure begins. First, we’re going to do the last step in Mythic’s game loop, end of scene bookkeeping.
Edit list elements: Nothing has really happened in this scene, but I’ve still got some elements to add. First, I’m adding the Gardens of Ynn itself and Jeb as characters on the character list. Adding characters to lists is helpful for later, when we roll for different types of random events and scenes. I’m going to add “bring back Jeb” into the top of the threads list.
Then, we decide whether or not the Chaos Factor should go up or down. If the character is mostly in control, it lowers by 1, making fate questions lean towards yes and more stable. If they weren’t, it’s raised by one, doing the opposite. In this case, I’m just not going to change it since not much happened, to keep the game interesting.
Scene 2: To Ynn We Go
Mythic basically starts a scene with a test against the chaos factor. First, we establish an expected scene — just what we think is going to happen. THen, we roll to see if that scene is either altered, changed, or interrupted by a new scene.
Before that, We’re going to start generating our Gardens, to inform our first scene. This is as easy as rolling a d20+depth for both location and detail. As this is our first garden, we’re at a depth of 0. We also roll a d20 for an event, but I think in this case we’ll do that in the middle of scene.
So, rolling for our first garden: Empty Kennels.
Our expected scene, thus, is that Lady Hartgrieve walks into this garden and explores it, noting that it’s empty. We then roll a d10 to test whether or not mythic makes some changes: a 4, below the chaos factor and even, giving us an interrupt scene. Something interrupts her step through those doors…
We then turn to Mythic’s Random Encounter System, which amounts to rolling for an event focus and rolling on some spark tables, and then interpreting our results.
Random event: NPC Positive, and our words are Heal Battle. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense on the face of it, since we only have two NPCs on the list; one of them is dead and the other are the gardens. Typically, Mythic has the “I Dunno” rule where you just drop the event if nothing comes to mind. Instead, I’m going to change this to an Altered Scene, because I think I can play off these meaning words pretty well once we’re in the Gardens.
She steps through the door and meets her first garden. It is not what she expected. Before her lay the burnt remains of huts and cages. There are no sounds. Even the flowers that pervade every garden in this strange world are muted in color. She wonders if she’s making a mistake. She could leave. He would not fault her for it. Yet, she refuses to give up here.
Lady Hartgrieve steps through this strange new world. It doesn’t take a whole lot of investigating to realize that there was some battle here. I wonder how long ago, so why don’t we consult the Fate Chart? Was this done recently?
Our Answer: 88, so no. I’d say that this place was destroyed long ago, yet it seems that none of the Garden’s wildlife have decided to repopulate the area. Yet, we did roll “Heal” as a word, too…
There’s something still remaining here. After all, these gardens are magic. Hartgrieve hears its soft whimpering just before it moving on to the next gardens.
Lady Hartgrieve: Why, you poor thing. Where are you?
She searches the ruins the ruins and comes across some sort of creature, a creature she’s never seen before. A fox which the book describes as having the “scintillating colors of a kingfisher”. It’s trapped under long burnt log, and it’s desperately hungry. It snaps at her when she tries to help it.
Hartgrieve: Now now, That's going to get you nowhere. Here, I’ll brew you something to drink, you must be thirsty.
Hargrieve is a wise! This was probably obvious given that she’s trained herself in the magical arts. Her prepared miracle, concoct potion, is perfect for this scenario! I think she’s going to brew up a quick potion to calm the fox and allow her to save it. She can worry about feeding it afterwards.
Being that this is a fairly simple potion that isn’t going to have very drastic effects, I’ll make it simple and call it a 2hp spell, after triangulating it’s effect with her vocation as a witch. She also has some witch’s tools, which will reduce it down to 1. Paying the cost, she spends some time brewing up a calming drink.
The blue fox calms down enough to allow itself to be freed, though it’s still hungry.
Hartgrieve: How long have you been trapped, poor thing?
Lady Hartgrieve notes the intelligence in its eyes. I’m going to have her roll some sort of check to perhaps befriend this creature, at least for now. I think my choices are Willpower or Charisma, but I typically tie charisma more towards interacting with people rather than animals. I don’t think being a witch is very impactful here, so it’ll be a straight roll. Her Willpower is 15! She has a pretty good chance of making it…
1! In Whitehack, quality of success is determined by blackjack logic, highest it can be without going over the number means the best quality of success. There’s no hard metrics, it’s something for the GM to parse. A 1 is not great according to this logic, but it’ll do.
The Fox does not allow Hartgrieve to pet it, but it’ll stick around for a little while without trying to eat her. It’s not particularly loyal, but that could change if she gets it some food.
She reckons that it’s time to move on, now.
End of Scene Bookkeeping: I’m going to add the fox to our character list. In threads, I have something about the battlefield and a thread for getting this fox some food.
Because Hartgrieve was in control for most of this scene, we’ll reduce the chaos factor by 1, to 4.
Blue Fox
HD: 2, DH: 2, AV 12, SV 7, D6 damage.Lastly, we can either stay on this depth level, go deeper, or go backwards. There’s no reason to retreat yes, so we’ll go deeper!
Scene 3: Fountains and Cheesecake
Ynn Roll: Burned Fountain Court Interesting, we’re keeping on the destroyed aesthetic. The expected Scene is probably Hartgrieve interacting with the fountain, but let’s test it.
Scene Test: 10, which means the expected scene plays out.
The pair enter this new garden and immediately take in the desolation. This garden is devoid of life and covered in a layer of ash. The only thing left unburned is a fountain in the center of the garden. Hartgrieve approaches and takes note of the coins at the bottom.
Hartgrieve: So much destruction… this fountain must be something truly magical. Little Fox, do you know whose done this?
The fox gives a knowing look, but alas, it cannot speak.
Hartgrieve: Well, then I’ll toss a coin in and see what happens.
I see no reason for Hartgrieve to not have a coin on her. She does so, and I’ll roll a d10 on Garden of Ynn’s table to determine what the benefits are.
I roll… a 7! That’s +1 willpower!
Lady Hartgrieve feels the swell of her soul expanding, making her magical prowess even more powerful.
Hartgrieve(thinking): How long does this last?
She doesn’t know, but we know that it’s permanent. Because she’s been interacting with this area, I’ll roll a random event here. That’s a D20: 3, “Something turns up; it is hostile”. I then roll for a daytime encounter, d20+depth. I’m also going to roll for surprise, and Hartgrieve will be surprised on a 1 or 2 on a d6: 5, no surprise.
Hartgrieve realizes that the fox is growling. She doesn’t see anything at first, but she hears it; whatever it is, it makes an awful glooping sound, like dropping a freshly baked pudding. Finally, she sees the creature from around the corner. It is a great big… cheesecake? She has just encountered an Ambulatory Pudding!
Hartgrieve:… what?
Hartgrieve notices its sadistic intent, as all cheesecakes possess. Normally, she would run. However, the fox next to her is very, very hungry. Would the fox want to run? I’ll roll for it, calling it unlikely: 44! That’s both a no, and a random event! I’ve rolled a lot of doubles in this session…
We start like before, with a focus roll: 75, PC negative. I’ll also roll for some meaning: Succeed and Reassurance. Hmmm.
These would normally be good things, but I think in the situation, Lady Hartgrieve feels a little too reassured. The Fox is particularly hungry, and what harm could a little cheesecake do?
She draws her pistol —
Hartgrieve: It’s time for dessert, fox!
and fires!
She rolls her attack: 12, a miss against her AV of 10! She clicks her tongue as she pulls out her saber and combat begins.
Combat against the Pudding
First, we’ve got to figure out a range. I’ll call it… 1d6 X 10 feet away. I roll a 2, so this combat starts with the pudding well within range of closing the gap.
I’ve also gotta stat up this pudding. It’s got 2 HD and 20HP in the book, so I’ll have to give it some extra HP to make it fit Whitehack’s Paradigm. It’s also got AC as leather, which… I don’t think a walking cake has any armor, so I won’t give it a DF. It’s got an engulf ability, which we’ll give it as a keyword and as a +1 to its attack.
Ambulatory Pudding (cheesecake) HD 2+10, AV 12, DF 0, SV 7, D6+1, Engulf
Rolling it’s hp: 15. The fox… 11!
Finally, Initiative for both sides. I’m just going to do side based initiative here, for ease:
Pudding: 1
Hartgrieve and fox: 2
Round 1
The blue fox moves forward and swipes: 1, a hit! It deals 4 damage.
Lady Hartgrieve moves forward and will also try and slash this thing with her saber. She remembers learning the basics of the saber upon first entering the nobility. Hopefully, it serves her well.
She attacks: 8! only 1 damage, but that’s a decent 5 damage round for our team.
It’s the puddings turn… and it’ll target a random opponent. 1-3 is the fox, 4-6 is Hartgrieve: 2, it targets the fox.
rolling its attack: 7, a clean hit. I roll for its damage! That’s 7 damage towards the fox as it tries to crush the animal under its weight. I’ll also invoke its engulf keyword: since it hit, the fox will have to save or take an additional d6. I think this costs 2hp for the pudding.
The blue fox saves against 7: 10. A failure! It’s got a good chance of dying on this roll… 3! It drops down to a measly 1hp. The tides are turning quickly.
Round 2
Our heroes roll a 5, the pudding rolls a two. I’m going to roll a morale check for the fox. It’s hungry, but not stupid. In Whitehack, we treat these like attribute checks, though animals do not have attributes. I’ll call this a morale of 8, since Fox are clever but generally shifty. I roll: 14, this fox is out of here!
Hartgrieve is left with a hard choice: she can either run with the fox now, or stay and fight. If she runs, we’ll use Ynn’s rules, and she’ll go down to a random depth and have to find her way back. She’s aware of the risks; if she does not make it back to her door in 24 hours, she may be trapped in the gardens forever.
I’m going to make the judgement call that she runs. She knows that she’s inexperienced and that she won’t be able to take this creature alone. If she loses track of the fox, she’s lost her only potential ally so far…
We’ll call that the end of the scene. The pudding is too slow to chase them, so we don’t need to worry about a chase. The big concern is where we’re going to end up.They go 1d4-1 deeper into the gardens.
I roll a 4, so they’re 4 levels down, but they have no idea. Interesting…
I’m adding a new thread called “lost”. No new characters have to be added this time around. Since everything went to shit, I’m going to set their CF back to 5.
As she follows the fox deeper into the garden, Lady Hartgrieve finally starts to wonder whether or not she’s bitten off more than she could chew. If she dies in these alien gardens, she would never again see her husband.
End
Welp, that was the first session down. I think mythic played quite an interesting role in setting up new threads and laying ontop of Gardens. Hopefully, Lady Hartgrieve finds some allies soon, or she might not last very long…