Further Travels With Colostle

 Hi!

I've been continuing my solo rpg using Colostle with my character Edmond having set off to find the cause of the increase in Rook activity that is threatening the village of Brokhill. 

The first session saw him leaving Brokhill and meeting Gaspode the hunter who led him into an ambush in an abandoned bandit camp which saw Edmond wounded and left for dead by the dastardly villain. Edmond has recovered his senses, bound his wounds and tried to find out why Gaspode tried to kill him here and track down the cad whilst continuing his mission.

First he explores the abandoned camp and finds a massive stone door set into the side of a hill. It is covered in pictographs of an unknown but obviously ancient language and may lead to another roomland but it is securely locked with mighty cog locks and several of the pieces of the mechanism to open it are missing. 

Nearby he finds the slumped figure of a dead man, a crossbow bolt stuck out of his back. Examining the corpse, Edmond discovers that the bolt matches the one that Gaspode struck him with and clutched in the mans hand is a piece of parchment with what appears to be a partial translation of some of the pictographs. Nearby in the grass is a copper token bearing a mans face and unknown text.

This search saw Edmond find a clue that will aid him in his quest and the disturbance of the ancient doorway by persons unknown must have something to do with the Rooks becoming restless and attacking his home village.

Edmond finds a trail that appears to have been used recently and sets off intent on tracking down Gaspode and dealing with the murderer and hoping to find out more of the mans motives for drawing him to the site, only to try and kill him.

The trail leads Edmond further into Rook Country and eventually it enters a narrow gully between two hills. The gully is dark and cluttered with rubble, rusted junk and is quite possibly the perfect place to lay an ambush. Drawing his sword Edmond cautiously enters the gully, ears straining for any hint of an enemy and eyes scanning the gloomy passage. 

As Edmond nears the end of the gully, something gives under his foot and he dives forward just in time to avoid losing his head as a massive cog flies out of the wall and smashes into the other side of the passage, narrowly missing Edmond but showering him with pieces of stone and metal. Pulling himself to his feet he carefully examines the trap and finds it is intended to bring down a Rook rather than a human but who made it? Was it Gaspode and did he lead Edmond into a trap knowingly or is this the work of an unknown party? Edmond presses on out into Rook Country proper.

The trail he is following continues East and Edmond sees ruins cropping up amid the grass and scrubby trees that line the path and scattered here and there lie the unmoving forms of wrecked Rooks slowly being reclaimed by nature. Is this where Rooks come from or merely the site of some ancient battle?

Edmond presses on until he approaches a large archway that spans the road. The archway is obviously ancient and is slowly crumbling but it makes a suitable campsite as Edmond can see in the distance the ruins of some large and now forgotten city. Maybe in the morning he can explore it to see if he can find either Gaspode or some further clue to who lived here and an answer to the Rook assault.

The next morning Edmond approaches the city, its once great buildings largely tumbled and decaying but still oddly beautiful. There are no sign of its inhabitants who must have abandoned it aeons ago judging by the state of the structures but Edmond presses on until he reaches the cities centre. 

Here he finds a great marble temple in the shape of a great cog, its columns and facades decorated with countless pictographs which resemble those on the door he found at the site of the ambush.

 

Cautiously Edmond enters the temple and at its centre he finds a room bathed in sunlight and oddly untouched by the passing of untold centuries. Here he finds a small statue of a Rook. It is made from some sort of turquoise stone that he doesn't recognise but he decides to take it with him as The Order of the White Tower may be able to decipher the pictographs on it and he suspects that an expedition to the city will be made by the Order once he brings news of its discovery back to them.

As he leaves the temple, he freezes as in the distance he hears thunderous steps heading in his direction, the ruins surrounding him shake and the white birds which seem the cities only inhabitants rise shrieking from their perches to fly to safety above the city. 

What has Edmond done by removing the statue from the temple? Find out next week!

I must admit that following my initial post on Colostle I wasn't too enthused as it felt like it didn't have the sort of gaming experience that I was looking for but I've persevered and am starting to get into the swing of things and am really enjoying the experience.

Rather than being a more hack and slash affair that my Brutal Quest inspired RPG is, Colostle is turning into a slower moving exploration of the world by my adventurer who is trying to solve a mystery so there's not as much fighting going on but its still a really rewarding game to play once you get the hang of how it works and the process of putting together the journal with the little illustrations has been thoroughly enjoyable.

I'm now five encounters into the campaign and the next one will be interesting as I'm going to be meeting someone who will help me with my quest and have to deal with a colossal Rook to boot. Do I decide to fight it or hide?

Either which way, I'm looking forward to the next session and will post an update in a week or so once the journal entries have been completed and we shall see what Edmond gets up to. In the meantime, All the best!