Running on Empty & Put to the Torch
If I start this GM Log with the same ‘Oof it’s been a while, eh?’ It’s a bit of an understatement! I’m sorry this comes many months late. The best intentions sometimes aren’t enough to keep a passion project going. But I am picking it up, hopefully for the long term. I know listening to an unreliable podcast isn’t the best, but I hope my health will permit me to be stable enough so that it’s not a concern anymore. So let’s dive into it, yeah?
Setting
Narrator
In episode 9 Running on Empty, we have one last poem by the Vodyanoy before his death. This time I chose a very poignant piece titled " A Song on the End of the World " by Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish poet to which I changed very few words. In episode 10, we have a return of the Unnamed, the first commentator. They seem pleased by the Barovians’ victory but their goals remain unclear.
A Song on the End of the World
On the day the world ends
A bee circles a clover,
A fisherman mends a glimmering net.
Happy (porpoises) SEALS jump in the sea,
By the rainspout young sparrows are playing
And (the snake) MOTHER is gold-skinned as it should always be.
On the day the world ends
Women walk through the fields under their umbrellas,
A drunkard grows sleepy at the edge of a lawn,
Vegetable peddlers shout in the street
And a yellow-sailed boat comes nearer the island,
The voice of a violin lasts in the air
And leads into a starry night.
And those who expected lightning and thunder
Are disappointed.
And those who expected signs and archangels’ trumps
Do not believe it is happening now.
As long as the sun and the moon are above,
As long as the bumblebee visits a rose,
As long as rosy infants are born
No one believes it is happening now.
Only a white-haired old man, who would be a prophet
Yet is not a prophet, for he’s much too busy,
Repeats while he (binds his tomatoes) COUNTS THE STARS:
There will be no other end of the world,
There will be no other end of the world.
Location on the Map
To help you follow along, here’s a visual aid to help situate the action. The sinking of the Asperity happened at about 18 miles away from Vatyr. After the fight with the Vodyanoy, the party travelled 10 miles towards the shore.
Mechanics
Traveling Speed
Traveling over ice and having one character with exhaustion level 2 (speed halved) slowed the party to a dangerous level. In regular conditions, the Player’s Handbook (PHB) tells us you can travel 24 miles in a day. In difficult conditions, however, “you move at half speed in difficult terrain – moving 1 foot in difficult terrain costs 2 feet of speed – so you can cover half the normal distance in a minute, an hour, a day. (PHB p.182)” I reduced the speed furthermore because they are traveling on ice without proper equipment. The players found me rough, but I am being generous, considering.
The module Icewind Dale Rime of the Frostmaiden offers much more punishing set of rules for an icy campaign: ½ a mile per hour with snowshoes (vs 3 miles in normal conditions). Once the party reaches the shore, I get into more details about traveling speed for the rest of the campaign.
Game of Thrones Tent
Faced with quite a difficult problem, I was proud of the solution my players came up with. Would a Game of Thrones tent work in real life? Meh, probably not for a group of 4. Most likely, even with all their torches put into a campfire, someone would have lost toes or fingers at the very least. But D&D is not about being realistic and sometimes you must go for the Rule of Cool. I did not even ask for an ability check at that point. I simply asked to spend 18 torches and that was it. I had hounded them for a few sessions by that point and they were squeezed dry. They still came up with a decent plan. Rewarding players’ ingenuity sometimes is simply having nothing go wrong for them.
Sleeping Conditions & Hit Dice Regeneration
That said, the party did go to bed without food and in horrible conditions. Over the years, along with my other added mechanics for the gritty realism setting, I’ve added a sleeping conditions system. It goes in tandem with my Mental Health in Gritty Realism which I am happy to finally share with you all today. Sleeping in poor conditions for over 3 consecutive nights will trigger CON saves. After sleeping in bad conditions for 5 consecutive nights, on top of the CON saves, Sanity saving throws must also be made to avoid Stress points.
I also handle Hit Dice differently than in a regular setting. To mirror a slower health regeneration, the dice are always rolled after a long rest instead of health replenished to full. After a long rest, only up to half Hit Dice can be regenerated.
If you want to have a look at the set of rules, here they are:
Mental Health in Gritty Realism
Quality of Sleep in Gritty Realism
Hit Die Regeneration in Gritty Realism
I owe a HUGE thanks to Eddie Liu, Daryl Mandryk & Kiki Moch Rizki for allowing me to use their absolutely amazing artwork for my Gritty Realism project. I put a lot of work into visuals and I could never achieve something of this level on my own. Please check their other work, totally worth your time.
The Vodyanoy Stat Block
And final point to this GM Log is the Vodyanoy stat block. If you want to add it to one of your games, here’s the beast. Please do let me know if you do, I’m super interested to hear how it went. (You can either save the image or click on the link to get a PDF version.)
