Solo USR play report - The Halls of the Mountain Chief

This evening I played a quick solo game of USR with the Mythic GM engine. I decided to go classic fantasy and rolled up a Soldier called Barron Skylord, a mountain-dweller from a small mining village. The mountains are a dangerous place and every year a new group of village children are trained self-defence and survival skills by heading into a special training zone within the mountains. However, one soldier took a group of boys in to the mountain two days ago and has not returned. Because of this, Barron decided to venture into the mountain to find out what had happened to them.

To begin with, everything seemed normal, but as he descended into the tunnel Barron soon realised that something was very wrong. The usually naturally-carved rock had been artificially crafted by someone. Using his Mountain Lore specialism, Barron deduced that goblins had moved into the area over the past year and had carved out their own home here. As he continued, he noticed blood splatters which pointed to a sign of a struggle. He came across two doors to the east and west and decided to investigate. One was obviously a living area, with tables, chairs and food. There was also a curious fountain spitting out what Barron realised was a healing elixir, but he couldn't find a container to fill with it. The other room was bare, so he continued into the goblin dungeon.

Eventually he came to more doors. He listened up against one and heard the sound of voices squabbling. They soon stopped when a human voice spoke up. Barron kicked the door down and faced down two goblins. He quickly dispatched them and found a weary traveller shackled to the wall, who he released. The traveller was thankful but eager to leave this wretched place. Barron told him to drink from the fountain before leaving to get his strength back. But it seemed that the fight drew the attention of the off-duty goblin guard in the opposite room, who was now stood at the door, mouth agape. Barron simply told him that if he didn't spill the beans about what happened to the group of children, the goblin would end up like his friends. After a successful interrogation roll, the goblin told him that they had been taken to the cells near the great hall but the instructor had been killed. In a fit of rage, Barron decapitated the goblin (the instructor was a good friend of his).

Further exploration led to a statue holding a shimmering talisman. He took the trinket, but the statue grabbed him, spun round and threw him down a hole into a room full of spikes, badly injuring him. He limped up a spiral staircase and opened a door to find he was face-to-face with a Mountain Ogre. After a difficult battle where Barron was severely worn down, the ogre was slain. The next room contained a cell full of children, so he broke the lock after several attempts and freed the children. He then stormed through a door and entered the great stone hall of the goblin chief, who, along with three other goblin guards, fought against Barron. It was going well for our hero to begin with, landing some good hits on the adept chief, but the creatures ended up surrounding and getting the better of him. Barron fell beneath black, crude blades. It is unknown whether the children managed to escape.

So it turned out to be a tough dungeon and it claimed the life of my hero, who couldn't seem to catch a break. Funnily enough, it was a simple goblin guard who managed to whittle down Barron's health, with only d6 Action. I'll be doing another report soon, but probably not another fantasy one.