The Tragedy of Talent Draff
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
In Part 1, we met Talent Draff, the disgraced scion of a crime empire who waylaid a rival transport hoping to get back in his father’s good graces - only to find some very uncommon cargo inside.
In Part 2, Talent learned the body in the transport was a dead Draff spy who had uncovered something about the rival Renk family in one of their warehouses.
In Part 3, Talent broke into the warehouse and stole a safe from the manager’s office, only to find it sealed with an arcane lock. With no choice but to return to his old network of contacts, he brought it to Blinker the Tinker, who told him that it could only be opened with a magical tool. He’d heard where such a tool could be found: in the catacombs underneath the city, where a powerful wizard was entombed with all his treasures.
Scene: In the Gutter
My expectation is that this next sequence will start with Talent dropping into the sewers to search out the wizard’s tomb, but first I have to test the scene - and the higher the Chaos Factor gets, the more likely it is Mythic could throw a twist at me.
Testing the Expected Scene
Current Chaos Factor: 6
Result: 5 under 6 = Altered Scene
Scene Adjustment Table: 5 “Remove an Object”
This time, rather than removing an object from the location, I think I’m going to remove an object from Talent.
Talent explores the cisterns and sluices of the sewer system, looking for a way into the catacombs that lie beneath it. He pushes his way through to older and older sections, where the stones and cracked and crumbling, and suddenly the floor underneath him gives way. He falls into a fetid stream of filth with a sickening crack. Gingerly, he stands up and checks himself for broken bones, but finds none; just a broken spear. He tosses the pieces into the muck and readies his bow for whatever threats are waiting here.
Speaking of threats, let’s jump right into that.
Mythic Fate Question: Are there any creatures in the room?
Odds: Very Likely
Current Chaos Factor: 6
Results: 01 under 85 = Exceptional Yes
I made a table of six common creatures I might encounter here, planning to roll a D6 for any encounters; with the Exceptional Yes, I think I’ll roll twice.
Giant Rat
Stirge
Giant Centipede
Swarm of Rats
Swarm of Bats
Crocodile
Result: 6, 6
Yikes, double sixes.
As Talent scans the tunnel he’s fallen into, he immediately sees that it’s much older than the rest of the sewer system; these must be the catacombs he was looking for. He takes a few steps upstream in the knee-deep filth when he notices something floating on the surface about 30 feet ahead. No, not floating; rising. And it has eyes. Then another rises to the surface next to it. Two crocodiles.
Talent reaches down into the much with a grimace, looking for the broken pieces of his spear, a loose brice, driftwood – anything he can use as a melee weapon if these crocs decide to rush him.
Mythic Fate Question: Is there something here Talent can use as a weapon?
Odds: 50/50
Current Chaos Factor: 6
Results: 49 under 65 = Yes
I don’t think that’s good enough for a shiny Vorpal blade, but probably an improvised club.
There’s a moldy piece of excrement-slick wood floating nearby, and Talent reaches for it without making any sudden moves.
Initiative
Crocodiles: 1
Talent: 6
While the crocodiles are still some distance away, Talent is going to cast his first spell of this adventure: Fire Bolt, a cantrip he has access to as a tiefling thanks to his Fiendish Legacy.
Talent Round 1
Ranged Spell Attack (Fire Bolt)
Attack Roll 10 vs AC 12
Talent forms a sign with the fingers of his free hand, mutters a few guttural syllables, and hurls a mote of fire at the crocodile – but it fizzles out next to the creature in a plume of acrid smoke.
Before Talent’s turn ends, he’s going to use his full 30 feet of movement to back away downstream, putting some space between himself and the crocs.
Crocs’ turn. I’m going to ask a fate question about their behavior: Are they hungry? If yes, I think they’ll chase after Talent; if not, they’ll just sort of stand their ground. There’s probably only so far Talent can back up in this tunnel.
Mythic Fate Question: Are the crocs hungry?
Odds: 50/50
Current Chaos Factor: 6
Results: 30 under 65 = Yes
Eager to capitalize on the prey that fell into their laps, the crocodiles slither forward.
Croc #1 Round 1
Melee Attack (Bite)
Attack Roll 1 vs AC 16
Croc #2 Round 1
Melee Attack (Bite)
Attack Roll 23 vs AC 16
Damage: 7 piercing + grappled
It’s a thrashing confusion of roiling effluence as the crocs swim up to Talent on both sides. Talent dodges the first bite, which brings him directly into the jaws of the second.
I think Talent is kind of up shit creek here, literally and figuratively. He could use his action to try and escape the grapple, but then he’d incur opportunity attacks if he tried to move away - and couldn’t get far enough away to avoid an attack on the crocs’ next turn anyway. I’m not sure he can hit hard enough to take out this croc, either, especially since he’s attacking at disadvantage.
Well, going back to Talent’s background traits of wanting power and facing any challenge, I think he’d rather die fighting than running, so he’s going to Hunter’s Mark the croc who’s holding him for a damage boost and try to attack with his club.
Talent Round 2
Bonus Action: Hunter’s Mark (Croc #2)
Melee Attack (Club)
Attack Roll 8 vs AC 12
Talent flails wildly, bringing the club down at the crocodile but hitting only sewage.
Croc #1 is not willing to give up this whole meal to croc #2, so he makes a bite attack on Talent’s flailing form, with advantage.
Croc #1 Round 2
Melee Attack with advantage (Bite)
Attack Roll 20 vs AC 16
Damage: 7 piercing + grappled
Talent goes down to 0 hit points and into Death Save territory. Oh, he’s also grappled again by this croc. So now he’s held in both their jaws and being literally torn to pieces.
Croc #2 Round 2
Melee Attack with advantage (Bite)
Attack Roll 19 vs AC 16
Talent Death Saves
0 successes
2 failures
The crocodiles begin a vicious tug of war with the tiefling’s body. The club slips out of his fingers and consciousness slips away from him.
That hit from croc #2 counts as 2 failed death saves, since it’s a melee attack and Talent is unconscious.
Talent’s turn. I wonder where his mind goes at this point? Probably back to his failure to defend his family’s territory, the mistake that got him exiled out into the country. If he had been more like his siblings, a little less rash, a little more hesitant to jump into things, could he have prevented this?
With his last conscious thoughts, Talent hopes that Blinker lets Mordai know he made it back to the city. The ultimate indignity would be for his family to think that he ran away from his problems, rather than back towards them.
Jumping into this sewer is likely the last mistake Talent will ever make. But at least he’s doing it in the city he loves.
Talent Round 3
Death Save
Result: 18 over 10 = success
1 success
2 failures
The crocodiles chow down on dinner.
Croc #1 Round 3
Melee Attack with advantage (Bite)
Attack Roll 20 vs AC 16
Talent Death Saves
1 success
4 failures
That’s two more failures, and the last of Talent’s life leaks out of him into the muck.
The crocodiles tear Talent into equal pieces and enjoy the best meal they’ve had in ages.
Talent is dead.
So ends the story of Talent Draff, the level 1 tiefling ranger who leapt when he should have looked.
Final Thoughts
Was this a successful attempt at solo roleplaying with Mythic 2e and D&D 5e? I think so! Even if Talent didn’t succeed, I think I learned a lot about the Mythic system and what solo roleplaying can look like.
I’m glad I leaned into the randomness for everything from the get-go. Mythic does have variant rules and strategies for playing an existing module, and I have many many D&D 5e modules, but it was both challenging and exciting to start from scratch. There’s enough mystery to the character backgrounds and the Mythic tables that figuring out Talent’s character and the first scene came pretty naturally.
I’d say the same thing about interpreting the elements tables for details in the scenes. The results can have such varied meanings - often acting as nouns, verbs or adjectives - that they can spark a number of interpretations. There are obvious interpretations, and less obvious ones. I’m particularly proud of coming up with the important cargo being a body from “Natural” and “Unpleasant,” her identity being a spy from “Scout” and “Planner,” and the building next to the warehouse being under construction from “Loud” and “Temporary.” I could have interpreted these in a lot of different ways, but these all fit with the “criminal underworld” story I was telling - and they were all total surprises to me.
There are a couple of things I might think about differently going forward. I was disappointed to not get any random events or interrupt scenes, which could have really thrown me for a loop - I think some of the most surprising and interesting twists were from the “Exceptional Yes,” “Exceptional No” and “Altered Scenes.” I didn’t have to roll on the “Threads” or “Characters” lists once, which makes all the bookkeeping at the end of each scene seem kind of pointless. The solution there, I guess, is just to ask more Fate Questions. In the system’s rules, the more Fate Questions you ask, the more likely you are to trigger Random Events, and the more likely it is that the Chaos Factor will go up - which in turn makes those random events and interrupted/altered scenes more likely.
I might also think a little more about balancing the play so that not every encounter is life and death. Don’t get me wrong, I like the fact that combat feels really dangerous, and I’m totally find with a character dying; but D&D is designed for parties of three or four characters, and that becomes really clear when your character can die in one or two hits.
Ultimately I think Talent kind of ended up in the bed he made for himself. I/he could have made different decisions at any number of points. He could have said “Hell with it” and stuck with the original plan of defacing the Renks’ shipment. He could have brought the information about Philomena back to his father and asked for help to figure out the Renks’ plans. On a basic “how I usually play D&D” level, he could have gone shopping when he got back to the city (who doesn’t love a shopping session?) and gotten some better equipment so he wouldn’t be torn to bits by crocodiles. But I think I played pretty close to the character as he was built; Talent was so blinded by ambition and his need to prove himself that he thought he could do it all on his own, and that’s what did him in.
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