Hollow Hike - Realm 1: Sanctified District

Aliana starts her journey pursuing Inquisitor Wulfred

Hollow Hike is available at https://rollforthings.itch.io/hollow-hike

Index

Session 0: Prologue + review

Realm 1: Sanctified District

Realm 2: Defiled Church

Realm 3: Crypt of Undeath

Finale: The King in Cinders

Realm Creation
Sanctified District
Realm Number (RN) 1

Roll d6 for encounters: 4
Encounters: 4 + RN = 5

Roll 2d6 for each encounter
1st encounter: 6+6 = two basic foes

Basic foe:
[RN + 1] HP: 2
[RN] Strength: 1
[RN] Souls drop: 1

Aliana marched into the Sanctified District, where the remnants of the Ember Covenant sprawled, decayed but not gone, like a stubborn corpse. Abandoned houses and ruined constructions perched on either side of the wide street. Blood smears shone when the sun pierced the heavy clouds.

Mail and steel clinked as two men walked down the street to meet her.

“Not much dogs of the Covenant left,” one of them said, eying her up and down. “And a cleric, besides. Your faithless king is long gone, woman. Lord Wulfred saw to that.”

Inquisitor Wulfred, twisted in his dogma to the point of betrayal. Declared Solomon’s refusal a weakness and struck the first blow. For that, he would be the first to fall.

The guard on the right spoke. “To refuse the Fire is to betray humanity. So who was the traitor, really? Was the world supposed to kneel and accept an Age of Ash? Look what it is doing to us. Ruin and hollowing.”

Aliana drew her cudgel as they unsheathed their swords.

“Perhaps your hollowing is beyond reach, if you think it a rebellion, and not holy deliverance.”

He slashed, and her martial training took over. She dodged, but her body still struggled against the lingering inertia. The blade bit into her arm. Aliana clubbed the attacker and parried the other. The first guard crumpled, and she rained blows upon his face until it became a mess of bone and gore.

The remaining enemy lunged, thrusting his weapon at large. Aliana feinted a sideway blow before elbowing him. A sickening crunch echoed, followed by a spray of blood. She gripped her wooden club with both hands and shattered his skull.

Battle rolls (Furtive Grasp rules: only the hollow rolls dice; 4+ is a success for attack and defense)

Aliana’s strength: 2 = 2d6
Each enemy has 1 strength
5+2 (1 damage dealt, 1 damage taken. I need 2 successes to avoid damage from 2 enemies)
6+1 (1 damage dealt, one enemy dead, now I only need 1 success)
4+3 (1 damage dealt)
6+2 (1 damage dealt, enemy dead)

Current HP: 3/4
Current FP: 1/1
Current souls: 2

How dared they justify Inquisitor Wulfred’s betrayal? How dared they question the King in Cinders who gave his life to tend to the fire for the sake of everyone else?

Aliana strode on through the deteriorated city.

Roll 2d6 for encounter
2nd encounter: 3+2 = basic foe

Basic foe:
[RN + 1] HP: 2
[RN] Strength: 1
[RN] Souls drop: 1

The crumbling dwellings multiplied as she advanced, half-charred skeletons of buildings that the fires did not bother finishing. Rats scurried in the shadows, squeaking and scratching.

Aliana felt rather than noticed movement in the alley by her side. Her surprise gave way to action as she jumped back, but the blade still ripped across her shoulder. She distanced herself and drank from the Sunlight flask.

The attacking hollow, hungry for souls, flesh, or simply mad, tried again with the dagger, but had lost his chance.

Aliana hammered his biceps and left him wide open for a riposte. She struck his stomach, making him double over, then followed with an upward swing that put him out of his misery.

Battle rolls (Furtive Grasp rules: only the player rolls dice; 4+ is a success for attack and defense)

Aliana’s strength: 2 = 2d6
Enemy has 1 strength
3+2 (1 damage taken)
Used Sunlight Drink, +1 HP
5+4 (2 damage dealt, enemy dead)

Current HP: 3/4
Current FP: 1/1
Current souls: 3

That would be the unjust legacy of King Solomon: hollows, despair, and decadence.

Roll 2d6 for encounter
3rd encounter: 2+1 = trap (counts as basic foe with the Ambush Quality, “dies” in one round, drops no souls)

Ambush Quality: +2 strength the first time is encountered

Basic foe:
[RN + 1] HP: 2
[RN] Strength: 1+2 (Ambush)
No souls drop

Aliana noticed something glinting by the entrance of a tattered watchtower. The weak sunlight reflected on the blackened iron bands of a wooden chest. Some item, equipment, or relic could help her on the journey.

Approaching the chest, she reached for the lid, but its hinges shot open, revealing sharp teeth and an oversized purple tongue. The lid clamped down on her arm, chomping and chewing, as wiry arms and legs grew out of the wood.

Aliana screamed and smashed the mimic with her cudgel again and again, warping the wood and breaking rivets, but the monstrosity would not let go. It gained on her arm, reaching her shoulder, making her feel faint with blood loss and excruciating pain.

She screamed and hit it until the hellish mouth gave. The chest fell apart, its frame warped and dangling like a discarded puppet.

Aliana fell back, remembering the healing incantation the Covenant had taught her. She cast it on her mangled limb. It was enough to keep her alive and not go mad from the agony.

Battle rolls (Furtive Grasp rules: only the player rolls dice; 4+ is a success for attack and defense)

Aliana’s strength: 2 = 2d6
Enemy has 3 strength
3+3 (3 damage taken)
My HP would reach 0, but by the Furtive Grasp rules, I can use an item or power at any point during battle. I use Heal.

Enemy dies
Current HP: 1/4
Current FP: 0/1
Current souls: 3

Panting, with dark spots on her vision and blood in her mouth, Aliana opted for the renewal of the bonfire.

At this point, I decided to return to the bonfire to heal and level up. I didn’t use the Furtive Ash as I could simply walk back.
Afterward, I have go back fighting or fleeing each encounter again. I fought to gain some souls, but will skip it in the story.

Level up cost: Current Level x 3 souls
To Level 2 = 3 souls
Choose what to increase between HP, FP, or Strength, or pick another class power
I increased strength for a total of 3

Aliana Lv:2
HP:4 FP:1 Strength:3(d6)

Powers (cost 1 FP)
- Heal 1 HP

Items (use and discard)
- Sunlight Drink (Heal 1 HP / recharges at bonfire / RN uses)
- Furtive Ash (return to bonfire)

Current souls: 3

Her body restored and her purpose reinforced, Aliana went back to the watchtower. There was no sign of new wretched mimics.

Roll 2d6 for encounter
4th encounter: 4+2 = basic foe

Basic foe:
[RN + 1] HP: 2
[RN] Strength: 1
[RN] Souls drop: 1

Another wandering guard charged at Aliana, stopping when he noticed she was a cleric.

“Faith in the Apostate? To still wear those blasphemous garments… You would see the end of Fire?” He shook his head, pondering, as if lost in thought. “To break the cycle, like Solomon intended… I wonder if it was not heresy, but grace.”

Aliana noticed the light dimming in the guard’s eyes as the hollowing finally consumed him. She moved before he could attack. The final blow was more an act of mercy than violence.

And she wondered if she would receive the same courtesy one day.

Battle rolls (Furtive Grasp rules: only the player rolls dice; 4+ is a success for attack and defense)

Aliana’s strength: 3 = 3d6
Enemy has 1 strength
4+4+6 (3 damage dealt)
Enemy dies

Current HP: 4/4
Current FP: 1/1
Current souls: 4

He dropped something after falling. A scribbled note, as if torn from a diary, smudged with soot, burned at the edges.

The Fire is considered to grant life, but that is a mistake. It consumes life to prolong its own flickering glory. I am not a savior, but a sacrifice, burning for a fleeting lie.

And the world is now addicted to the lie, blind to the cost. My own Covenant deems me a heretic, forgetting that before the Fire, there was stillness. Peace, rather than death. All the

The entry ended at the scorched edges of the paper. Aliana fought back tears as she cradled the note. That was a page from Solomon’s diary, believed to be destroyed after his slaying. Somehow, it survived and circulated.

She put it away with care and moved on to confront the first betrayer.

5th encounter: last encounter is a boss.
Boss stats are basic foe +1 Strength, 2 Qualities, and double HP. Drops RNx5 souls.

Roll d6 for each Quality: 5+6
5) Volatile: deals 1 damage for each die showing 1
6) Kindled: random class power + RN FP

Roll d6 for class power: 1
Reroll up to 2 dice

Inquisitor Wulfred
HP: 4
FP: 1
Strength: 2
5 souls

Power (cost 1 FP)
-Reroll up to 2 dice

The silhouette of the church of The Ember Covenant ascended against the gray sky, a hulking fist reminding all in its shadow of the order’s unwavering judgment. And none better to enforce it than the Ashen Lord that paced before its archway entrance.

Inquisitor Wulfred became so dogmatic in the doctrine that righteousness turned into fanaticism. If an ideal twists its apostles against its originator, then it has been corrupted.

The self-crowned Ashen Lord dragged his immense maul behind him, leaving a criss-cross of jagged stone around. The grotesque weapon absorbed sunlight and vomited a malevolent darkness aura. His heavy armor appeared to be fashioned from the same solidified shadow, impossibly heavy plates creaking and groaning with every step. An unholy visage of warped devotion.

But Aliana burned with the flames of retribution that would cleanse the abomination.

His featureless helmet turned to her. “I see the Fire Keepers kept busy, the meddling snakes. Always scheming their own little games.”

“What can a hollow do against a Lord?” Wulfred stomped closer, his maul thudding the ground. As he approached, the Divine Ember within him pulsed like a heart, making Aliana anxious. “You are but a blasphemy, a rotten proof of his lack of faith. A sacramental failure.”

He propped the maul on his shoulder. “You are merely ash in waiting. Meet your apostate king, hollow.”

The maul became a blur that slammed into Aliana. She rolled away as the colossal weapon pulverized the floor, grunting at the gravel shot at her face. With honed precision, she unleashed a series of blows as Wulfred lay open, aiming for his joints, the wood resonating against the black metal.

Growling, the Ashen Lord lifted a knee and stomped the ground, unbalancing Aliana. The maul howled in the air and crashed against her ribs with a crack. Aliana yelped as she soared and crashed down like a rag doll, breathless. Gasping and retching, she quickly cast the healing spell. It did little, but kept her in the fight.

Inquisitor Wulfred closed the distance, swinging with raging might. Careless, overconfident.

Aliana ducked beneath the swing and aimed for his hand. Strikes fast as lightning twisted his arm with a metallic shriek. The maul clunked to the ground. Another sequence of pummels sent the betrayer to his knees.

Kneeling for the king; kneeling for the reckoning.

He looked up at Aliana. “The Fire fades and true faith dims. No life, no purpose, no self, just… flesh. And now ash.”

The Divine Ember had denied him death and hollowing, but his devotion to doctrine led to a broken zealotry. And now to oblivion.

Aliana squeezed the cudgel with both hands and hammered it down on his helmet. Inquisitor Wulfred collapsed in a clatter of steel beside his corrupted maul. Silent. Dethroned.

ASHEN LORD VANQUISHED

Battle rolls (Furtive Grasp rules: only the player rolls dice; 4+ is a success for attack and defense)

Aliana’s strength: 3 = 3d6
Boss’s strength: 2
4+6+6 (Wulfred uses his power: rerolls 2 die)
4+4+1 (2 damage dealt, 2 damage taken [Volatile])
I drink the Sunlight Flask, +1 HP (current 3/4)
5+3+1 (1 damage dealt, 2 damage taken [Volatile]
I use Heal, +1 HP (current 2/4, FP 0)
6+1+1 (Player deals damage first)
Boss dies

Current HP: 2/4
Current FP: 0/1
Current souls: 9

The world reverberated. The deep echoes of the Ashen Lord’s demise swept reality with a frigid chill, contrasting against the warmth of the Divine Ember. Aliana shivered in pain and despair as her fingers tightened around the shattered fragment.

Inquisitor Wulfred’s Fragment

A precious shard, radiating the faint warmth of divinity, yet tainted with the ghost of a broken Covenant.

The Divine Ember is a vestige of the old gods subjugated by Solomon ages past.

Resonates with the last remnant of the Ashen Lord whose maul struck first and, in one crushing strike, crippled the King in Cinders.

She held it close to her chest, a dear remembrance and an anchor before the convulsion surging across the land. She braced herself as the impact of her actions slowly faded.

---

Notes

Well, this got extremely long, but hopefully not boring.

I really enjoyed the gameplay loop of rolling for an encounter, determining the enemy, and moving on. The level up mechanic is also pretty nice as it allows you to grind to your heart’s content.

I think I won’t post the entire Realm next time. Seeing as they will only increase in size (encounters for a realm are RN + 1d6, so the minimum amount for Realm 2 are 3 encounters, and possibly 8!).

Now that the main mechanics were demonstrated, the writing—and the reading, more importantly—will benefit from a condensed approach. I’ll post rolls for necessary and different interactions.

Of course, if you have any feedback, that would be extremely appreciated.