Dark Continent Redux: The Decision

Dark Continent Redux

A Fantasy Core Adventure

© Jerry Harris 2016

Published here as Open Game Content.

(This link will take you to the Fantasy Core Playtest Rules.)

Dark Continent Index

Interior Index

Inner Station Index

The Decision

1 XP for the Characters deciding to join the fight immediately, by whatever means necessary.

At first sight of Inner Station, the Characters can see the Keep and a ship at a dock on fire.  The town is clearly under major attack.  Ship’s Captain Maddox, is a brave man, but not stupid.  After the attack at the village, the Captain has had enough combat for the day.  He’s going to turn the boat around and go back downriver and hope for the best.

This may be something of a turning point in the adventure.  The Captain cannot be bribed or talked into going in, and the crew will follow his lead.  Mind control or magic used on the Captain will be met with suspicion by the crew.  If the group uses force, the crew will fight, though only as long as the Captain is able to fight, and then they will abandon ship.  They’ll jump overboard and make for shore.  The native rowers will continue on course until the ship is hit by fire or runs aground, at which point, they desert.

[I don’t want to under-sell this moment.  This is the Players’ Kobayashi Maru test.  There is no good solution here.  Do not let them deliberate over this for more than a minute.  This should be a high-pressure situation.]   

The Characters by themselves should be able to steer the ship in to port (or rather into the port, likely crashing the ship) from where they are, if needed.  There are no lifeboats or canoes aboard.  Swimming, especially with armor and gear, will be highly impractical.  If the group can fly or teleport, good for them.

If the party decides to go back up river and debark on shore further away from the battle (the Captain will insist on at least a mile), the town falls.  The party will run into Possessed Native patrols that are looking for survivors on the way back.  When they arrive, the town is overrun with Possessed Natives.  The Colonists are either all dead or been carried away as captives.  There is no one to save there, though the Characters could easily track them into the jungle and try to rescue somebody (but they’ll have to do so quickly, otherwise the Possessed Natives will simply disappear into the jungle).  The dragon will still be resting at the Keep and Commonwealth reinforcements will arrive around sundown. 

[Note: There are several possible encounters in town.  There’s no prescribed path, in spite of the listed order, and not every encounter has to be interacted with.  Some improvisation will be required.  The encounters are written in a somewhat cinematic fashion (things happen when the Characters show up).  If this is distasteful to your sensibilities, just set a turn countdown for when certain actions happen, such as the Temple being captured, whether the Characters are there or not.

I’d say that the Dock encounter is crucial, since that’s the bulk of the enemy forces.  Other encounters will likely just disperse if that attack is foiled if the Characters do not engage them.  There should be some consequences for not making an effort though.]