XAXA RIVER VALLEY 1: CRATER RUN

Welcome to the first recap in a new DND campaign. Xaxa River Valley uses OSE with some simple homebrew rules for wasteland travel/survival. It's set in a bronze-age world  heavily inspired by both Dark Sun & Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. Everything is bathed in a red sunlight, rich as wine. Desert wastelands stretch for miles and all manner of dangers roam the sands. For more info, check out Xaxa River Valley.

Solar priests and fire magi have drained it over millennia. The bloated thing will gutter out for good any day now. Then all will be left to crawl in the dark.

There were five players; I had each of them roll 1d6 to determine how many weeks until the sun dies. They then told me their results in secret, so only I would know the true day of darkness.

Let's begin.

Pern is a river village, built up of a dozen mud-brick huts and a simple trading post. It acts as a safe haven for travelers and merchants alike, stopping along their way south to Torance. The people of Pern harvest reeds and papyrus from the river. There isn’t much vegetation beyond struggling flax fields or the occasional grey-leafed palm.

The village elders of Pern gathered our party & dubbed them the most able-bodied in the village. They were tasked with investigating a rumbling earthquake in the hills north of Pern for the promise of silver.

We had five PCs for this session:

Redhawk - FIGHTER 1

Dog-Hide Kobek - FIGHTER 1

Endri Mortas - FIGHTER 1

Murazir the Alchemist - MAGI 1

Altair - THIEF 1

After loading up a pair of donkeys with as much water as they could carry, the party set out northwards from Pern.

There were two days of uneventful travel and they reached the machine in the hills. It was a relic of ancient war, buried underground and only half-revealed. The earth seemed to burn up from the inside. Scorch marks near the site suggested a great blast shot in from across the eastern wastes.

Radiation surrounded the titan in a visible ring. Murazir the Alchemist knew of an herb, the bitter worm root, which would allow resistance to the invisible fire. Such a root could be found buried below sun-bleached desert bones.

Someone made his lore check to recall any local wasteland graveyards. Five days east over Xaxa River was a stretch of cracked earth and pock-marked land called Crater Run. Redhawk knew of this place and spoke of giant hunting birds that guarded one particular crater littered with the bones of many dead.

The party briefly considered finding gnoll victims across from Pern, but decided to pursue Crater Run instead. They camped on the outskirts of the half-buried war-machine and set out at first light.

On the third day, as they were cresting a dune, the sound of bleating was closely followed by the sight of a camel desperately trying to escape a starving lion. Saddlebags trailed in the sand behind the camel, barely clinging to its bouncing hump.

Dog-Hide Kobek slid down his back, dune sands spraying, then took off at a sprint and tackled the starving lion head on. The pair tumbled, falling downhill in a heap. Panicking, the camel veered off to the north, Endri Mortas chasing close behind. Murazir prepared a lasso with his rope as Redhawk pulled a hand-axe and charged into the melee with the lion. He rolled a critical hit as his tomahawk sank into the lion’s flank.

The starving cat lashed out at both Kobek and Redhawk, but they deftly dodged. Kobek got his polearm ‘round the throat of the lion, tugging it back to expose the soft underbelly. His dog, Rosh, leapt at the cat and killed it dead. What a fight!

Meanwhile, Endri made a leap to stop the camel and failed, tumbling into the sand. It is a good thing, then, that Murazir’s rope flew true. The loop caught ‘round the camel’s ankle and he tugged the beast down. Inside the saddlebags they found a few days of water, not to mention the camel itself! A fine day indeed.

On the fourth day, while the party was camped ‘round a fire, some creature in the open desert bounded on all fours to meet them. As the little ghoul got closer, they could see too-little grey skin stretched over too-much bone. His fingers, lips, and teeth were stained with soot as he smiled at them from the edge of firelight. This was Blackfinger. The party was ready to fight, but Blackfinger proved to be a friendly creature, if not slightly deranged. He explained that he was an Ash-Eater ghoul, and was seeking a solar priest to serve. Such priests bore sun-focusing machines that could often burn enemies to irradiated ash. Ash-Eaters like Blackfinger would trail behind a solar priest, consuming left-behind remains and serving their master dutifully.

The party did not know any solar priests, but convinced Blackfinger to join them for Crater Run after feeding him ash from the campfire. Onward they went.

On the fifth day, they reached the boneyard. The land stretched out under them, smattered with craters big and small. Overlooking it all was a crumbling castle built atop a sandstone bluff. This was once the hold of a long-dead conqueror king. It is said that the monarch of Castle Crater was a roc-breeder, and that the wicked birds roosting in the ruined castle were the remnant of his experiments.

One such bird they could see even now, a great shadow encircling the crumbled keep. Not wishing to take any chances, the party convinced Blackfinger to go on ahead and begin extracting bitter worm root from the sun-baked earth. The wretched creature nodded graciously and bounded off towards the crater, climbing up over the ridge and sliding down into the boneyard. It wasn’t long before the roc was drawn by the movements, but by then it was too late for Blackfinger. The ash-eater ghoul didn’t see the bird coming; in a single swoop, it lifted Blackfinger into the air and tore him in two. Luckily, this bought the party 1d4 (2) rounds as the roc returned to Castle Crater to consume its ashy treat.

With haste, the men rushed into the crater and began frantically digging. Redhawk stayed back with the pack animals, and as the roc came back for another pass, he made a snap-decision to cut a donkey loose and sent it off on a northward trajectory. We rolled to see if this distraction was enough… a success! The giant bird came in, wrapped its talons around the donkey’s back, and lifted it through the air back to the castle. This gave the party enough time to gather the remaining root required. They scrambled back up and over the crater’s edge moments before the bird returned, but by then, they were long gone.

It was another five days back to the unearthed war-machine. On the third day, as they were crossing Xaxa River, three wise men from the north met them in the open wastes. The travelers shared a camp together, and the wise men explained they were astronomers from a far land, on their way to Torance to utilize a star-seeing machine called a telescope. They spoke of a thing in the sky, hidden behind the dying sun, hungrily waiting for the day of eternal darkness… an ill-begotten omen, indeed. While they were preoccupied with tea, Altair the thief snuck over to the astronomer’s camels and rifled through their saddlebags. He successfully lifted some coin and a pair of enchanted boots which allowed levitation at-will! The party decided to leave before first light and continued on their way west.

After several more days, with no signs of danger, they reached the war-machine once more. I awarded each player 500XP, and that’s where we ended session 1.

This was such a fun game! We only played for about 2.5 hours but it was packed. OSE’s simplicity really helps the game move and lets a lot happen in a short amount of time. We’re planning on playing in the coming couple weeks, so stay tuned for the next part. Thanks for reading!