Hollow Hike - Realm 3: Crypt of Undeath

"Even ash dreams of Fire." Aliana dives into the Crypt where White Reverend Gadomir entombed his congregation in eternal vigil.

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

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I leveled up twice after the last boss fight, using 21 souls. I increased strength for a total of 5 and HP for a total of 5.
By the way, I messed up the FP last time. Characters are supposed to start with 3, not 1.

Aliana Lv:5
HP:5 FP:3 Strength:5(d6)

Powers (cost 1 FP):
- Heal 1 HP

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

Current souls: 8

Realm Creation
Crypt of Undeath
Realm Number (RN) 3

Bonfire bonus: roll 2d6, choose one result = 5+3
I chose 3 = Hidden Cache - gain a random Item (resets with Bonfire up to [RN] times).
Roll d6 for item: 3 = Hexer's Seal (raises a die's value by 1 point)

Roll d6 for encounters: 2
Encounters: 3 + RN = 5

Roll 2d6 for each encounter
1st 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

Trap
[RN + 1] HP: 4
[RN] Strength: 3+2 (Ambush)
No souls drop

2nd encounter: 5+4 = a secret
Roll d6 for secret: 2 = Lost Soul - gain [RN] souls
3 souls

3rd encounter: 3+4 = foe with a quality
Roll d6 for quality: 2 = Enduring (+2 HP)

Foe:
[RN + 1] HP: 6 (Enduring)
[RN] Strength: 3
[RN] Souls drop: 3

4th encounter: 6+3 = a secret
Roll d6 for secret: 6 = Jolly Co-operation - summon a friendly NPC who helps you until death or rest; they are Level 1 and have a random Class

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+4
5) Volatile: deals 1 damage for each die showing 1
4) Brutal: if Hollow has no successes in a round, deals 10 extra damage

White Reverend Gadomir
HP: 8
Strength: 4
15 souls

Behind the grand altar, Aliana found the concealed entrance to the Crypt of Undeath, where White Reverend Gadomir dwelled. She picked up a torch from a sconce and descended the steps.

White Reverend Gadomir used to be the keeper of souls and arbiter of the dead. He considered Fire the ultimate purifier to refine fallen souls for their destined purpose. He took Solomon’s refusal to kindle as a betrayal of the duty to the dead.

Fearing the end of Fire, he embraced the cold.

Hollowed clerics and unliving custodians wandered the Crypt of Undeath, trapped by Ashen Lord Gadomir the Preserver.

The air grew frosty as Aliana crept in. A vicious, thick darkness greeted her, weighing her limbs, freezing her bones, and cracking her spirit. She shivered, breathing in quick gasps, not daring to blink. Her torch did not illuminate even one step ahead, so she advanced in a slow, careful pace.

Hollows with less purpose would certainly fall before the oppressive gloom, and as Aliana advanced, she tripped and almost fell on the still bodies of fallen clerics, kept in existence by the Preserver, but completely broken.

Something crumpled and rustled under her foot. She jumped back, but noticed it was a burned piece of paper.

—the Age of Ash. Fire will fade, as will falsehood, sacrifice, and endless war.

I have let it burn long enough. Now, I let it end.

If it shall return, it will not be my doing. Let the world decide. Our—

A page from Solomon’s diary. It solidified the decision that turned his disciples against him, deeming him The Apostate. Aliana reflected on the passage as she put it away.

The light of a Bonfire ahead injected determination into Aliana. She stumbled forward until a moan made her stop. A club, not unlike hers, swished just a hair from her nose as an undead cleric attacked. His white vestments pierced the engulfing darkness like a wraith.

“You reek of Fire,” he croaked. “Be still. There is no fear in death.”

Aliana parried the next assault and smashed his temple. It would be a matter of time before he recovered, so she went on to rest at the Bonfire.

Fire Keeper Cain appeared. “Splendid work, Aliana the Dethroner, Breaker of Crowns, Bane of Ashes. The Covenant endures through your actions.”

He simply extended his hand, and Aliana parted with Mother Moira’s Divine Fragment. Cain absorbed it, then heaved a sigh that was half pleasure, half exertion.

“This darkness feels alive,” Cain said. “Unlike the feeble, cursed things trapped in eternal service under Gadomir’s chilling power. As the Ashen Lords failed to kindle the Fire, Gadomir turned to forbidden rituals to honor the fallen. He confined souls in undeath, an unholy gift that requires no cleansing.”

His voice echoed in the expanse. “End his corruption, Aliana. Let him know that not all clerics are bound to his will.”

Cain disappeared. Aliana felt alone and insignificant before the abyss ahead of her. With dread corroding her soul, she left the comforting bliss of the Bonfire and pushed forward.

The path lay with forsaken servants, unable to rest, and also people who ventured inside. Some of them moaned, their voices carried away into the darkness, while others stared blankly at nothing. Endlessly. Her stomach churned at the thought of joining their ranks. Would that be her fate if she died in the Crypt, left to the Preserver’s madness?

Her faint torch cast a shine on a hollow’s palm, as if an offering. She reached for it and retrieved an item.

Hexer’s Seal

A seal etched by deserters of The Ember Covenant who abandoned the doctrine in favor of power. They desecrated the gift of Fire and created the Black Flame, harnessing its properties into enchantments.

When the King in Cinders branded the deserters as Hexers, Inquisitor Wulfred hunted them down. Few escaped the might of his maul.

Aliana wormed her way through tombs and the unliving patrolling the area, carrying clubs or embalming tools. A tiny dot glowed in the distance, increasing as she went down the slanted passage. The light came from the entrance of a massive tomb framed by alabaster statues and lined with funeral masks. The cold bit harder into her.

Inside, a circular chamber flared with the fire of hundreds of candles. They flickered as Aliana entered and discarded her torch, casting dancing shadows in a frenzy. Despite that, it emanated a freezing energy, making Aliana chatter her teeth.

Atop a raised dais stood White Reverend Gadomir, holding his immense censer mace. A small congregation of clerics surrounded him, trapped in a timeless vigil.

The Ashen Lord turned to Aliana, his face obscured by a hood. His gaze, even from the shadows, pierced her with condemnation. “An echo of the Apostate’s weakness,” he rasped in a voice like tombstones grinding together. “You and many other clerics turned your back on me, stumbling in a half-life of hollowing. But I found perfection in death. Death endures.”

He seemed to glide in the air toward Aliana, his censer mace spilling clouds of ash and ice.

Aliana dodged under it and prepared for a counter, but a cleric clubbed her back. She reeled, attacking him, but Gadomir was already on her. She retreated, looking for an opening. Gadomir moved quickly, and when she would find a window, the clerics covered him.

Her body felt heavier as the cold increased, taking a toll on her reflexes. Aliana misjudged a strike, and the censer mace crashed into her ribs. She gasped for air and collapsed on her knees, clutching her stomach, while Gadomir raised his weapon. “Time has made you soft. Mere ash. I will harden you with permanence.”

His mace whistled down.

Steel rang with a flash of sparks and ice.

A greatsword trembled, locked against the censer mace, holding it away from Aliana’s face. Lirian of Cador clutched the weapon with shoulders tensed and jaw set.

“Even ash dreams of fire, Reverend,” Lirian said. Her boots scratched the floor as she pushed back.

Aliana suppressed her surprise and rolled behind Gadomir, bludgeoning his knees, making him stagger. Leaving him occupied with Lirian, she easily dispatched the undead clerics one by one.

As Lirian’s and Gadomir’s weapons clanged like bells tolling, Aliana used the Hexer’s Seal. The whispers of a thousand defiant prayers swirled in her head, wishing the world to burn.

They overwhelmed the Ashen Lord with a synchronized assault, stepping in and evading away, slashing and clubbing, until Gadomir dropped his censer mace.

“Go on,” he said, “kindle your lie, hollows. The dead will not envy you for it.”

With a twin strike, Aliana and Lirian put an end to Ashen Lord Gadomir the Preserver. A miserable wail seemed to seep from the entire Crypt as the undead broke from endless servitude.

ASHEN LORD VANQUISHED

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

Aliana's strength: 5 = 5d6
Lirian's strength: 2 = 2d6
Boss's strength: 4

3+5+5+4+2
4+2 (4 damage dealt, 1 damage taken)
4+4+1+1+5
3+1
I use Hexer's Seal to change a 1 to a 2)
(3 damage dealt, 3 damage taken [Volatile])
I use Sunlight Drink x3, +3 HP (current 4/5)
5+3+1+4+6 (3 damage dealt)
Boss dies

The world reverberated. The fall of the last Ashen Lord carried an unsettling resonance that shook Aliana’s soul. She limped, still cradling her ribs, and picked up the third Divine Fragment.

White Reverend Gadomir’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 who sought to entomb the world in eternity, believing he could freeze all terrors.

As pieces of their time together flooded her mind, Aliana embraced Lirian, showing her gratitude to the knight.

“It is good to see you as well after so long, friend.” Lirian smiled, taking her in. “You have changed the world. People call you Dethroner.”

Aliana dismissed it with a wave. She noticed a passage behind the dais that led to the surface, but she had to address Lirian first.

“What ails you, friend?”

Aliana dropped her head and handed the tarnished badge she had found among Moira’s sacrifices. Lirian took it and deflated. The circles under her eyes looked larger and darker; her body seemed gaunt, loose under her clothes.

“I thank you for trying,” Lirian murmured. “For giving me an answer to my quest. Now, please go. I wish to mourn my little brother.”

She sank onto the dais and sobbed. Aliana could see the light in her gaze dimming, so she turned and left the Crypt.

She healed herself and sipped her Sunlight Drink. Battered, hurting, and weeping, she reached the Bonfire leading into the Sanctified District, but did not rest. Aliana would keep the memories of her dear friend in her heart for a while longer.

That was the curse of hollowing: only their main purpose remained strong in their mind. Anything else eventually faded.

She felt a presence behind her. The Divine Fragment floated from her pocket and into Cain’s hand. He absorbed it without ceremony.

“I could not imagine it would work so well, Aliana. Your obedience is commendable. But you are not meant to rule.”

Fire Keeper Cain radiated an incandescent light that frightened Aliana. She did not understand.

“You are too pure, even for a cleric. But your devotion could be dangerous, if ignited. Devotion is the fuel to the Fire, is it not? Solomon’s weakness turned him into a servant, no longer a master. When he abandoned his divine burden, he lost faith. We all did. And faith, once lost, cannot be recovered. Not in the same thing.”

Cain’s eyes burned with resolve. “If the King in Cinders would not fulfill his role, then someone else would, with enough doubts whispered in their ears, gently at first, then urgently. I had but to step aside as they slayed him. Then I burned the diary where he wrote his lies of surrender.”

Aliana approached, uncertain, questioning him.

“A Fire Keeper should quietly accept the end of Fire? I think not. But the Ashen Lords proved even worse than the Apostate’s inaction, fragmenting the shards, spreading their corrupt ideologies, crippled by fear and madness.”

The world reverberated again. Cain became larger and brighter. Brilliant lines of fire crisscrossed his body. “I will be what none of them could. No more fragments. I am the whole.”

A crown of flames combusted into the air and settled on his head. “Like many others, you walked the path I have carved, Aliana. You, however, completed it. And now I will end it.”

Cain pointed a smoldering finger at Aliana. “I revoke your purpose. You have no goal anymore, understand? You are done. Forsaken. Hollow.”

With a gesture of his hand, an inferno engulfed Aliana. Her world became fire, blinding and roaring, swallowing even her screams.

Notes

I changed things a bit. The story was getting kind of repetitive, so this time I created the entire realm upfront and only included the die rolls for the boss battle.

I also decided to wrap it on the next chapter. You’re supposed to kill 4 Ashen Lords to then face the King in Cinders, but I think this is enough to tell this story.

Thank you very much for reading. All feedback is welcome!

See you in the finale.