My Adventures in the Land of Thea - Part 1

Thea was a land ravaged by a long darkness after the Cosmic Tree was burned. After more than a century shrouded in darkness, the sun had once again risen. Along with it rose small pockets of life, protected from the darkness by the power of their patron gods. These were the stories from one such pocket, a small human village by the name of Ostoya; a group of gatherers under the protection of Mokosh.

We started out with ten villagers, splitting into two groups. We had four in the village of Ostoya: the gatherers Pakoslava, Bedgost, and Veroslav; and the craftsman Zoska. The other six were in our gathering party, creatively named "Expedition 1": the hunter Bolebor, the warriors Bogumila and Snovit, the gatherers Bratumila and Sobierbor, and finally the craftsman Bratomir. We also had six young children in the village, who would hopefully grow up some days and help the rebuilding of Thea.

In the immediate area surrounding our village, there were a few sources of firewood, and a single source of meat. Both of which were absolutely critical to our survivals, so we tasked our gatherers to make sure we have them stocked. Adjacent to our village was a nest of spiders and two ruins, with potential for both adventure and treasures.

The primary task for our small expedition was to scout the land, clear out the dangers before they could potentially harm our budding village and the children there. Secondly, we tasked the expedition with finding raw resources so we could construct tools and a magical well at the village. Being connected to our patron God Mokosh, the well would supply us with a small amount of random resources every turn.

With that in mind, we went to look into the closest ruin, hoping to find both resources and equipment, and ran straight into an Utopiec and three Warped Snakes laying in wait.

Combats in the world of Thea were both random and deterministic at the same time. Because there were no formations as such, each encounter resulted in our party being randomly split into two groups: the melee group and the tactic (i.e. support) group. Each side then took turn placing characters, represented by cards, into the battle field. Afterward, damages were done in a deterministic manner.

Back to our very first encounter with the water demons, our expedition was split evenly into three melee and three support members. Given our beginner lucks, the split was in our favor, and we managed to kill off the oppositions without taking any casualties. After the fight, we searched the buildings and found a sword along with a fair bit of raw resources. For all our troubles, we gained two experience points and a research point. The new sword turned out to be slightly better than one we had as well. We were well on our way to fight back the Darkness and its minions.

Embolden by our early success, we went ahead and search the second ruin, finding only a training sword. Then we doubled back to the nest of spiders, where we tried to hunt them instead of fighting them head-on (many encounters in Thea could be resolved in many different ways if the party had the right combinations of skills). Most of the alternatives (talking, sneaking, hunting, poisoning, etc.) carried a less severe penalty if the party failed to win.

After a just a few discoveries and short battles, we gained enough experiences for everyone to gain a level and continued to explore the land. As luck would have it, the expedition found small patches of medicinal herbs growing in the hollows of a spider infested tree. Still feeling confidence after the earlier successes, we decided to gather all the herbs instead of just the easier patches, and ran into a Spider Queen.

This proved to be a much tougher fight than the party had expected. While we were victorious at the end, three of our members were wounded. While the wound to Bratumila was superficial, the wounds to Bogumila and Bratomir were not. They were both at death's door and were unable to go any further. We had to camp and hope that the field medics were able to keep them alive.

Luckily, the herbs we gathered indeed had good healing properties, and no one died during the first night, and the second, and the third. The whole group finally breathed a collective sigh of relief as everyone was nursed back to health. We then broke camp and adventured on, only with a much healthier dose of respects to the dangers that Thea possessed.

In the mean time, back in Ostoya, one of the children grew up. Seeing how much medicine had recently saved the life of Bogumila and Bratomir, Bolko decided to become our first medic. After clearing out yet another spiders' nest and collecting a bit more local resources, our first expedition came home to drop off their findings as well as picking up Bolko to help with their adventures.

The now seven-strong first expedition soldiered on, encountering small challenges while scouting out more of the surrounding area until they chanced upon a mysterious contraption. After going through an intellect challenge, they recovered a map to a Goblin village to the south and proceeded to head that way.

One night, while camping to gather exotic fruits and seaweeds, the first expedition found a hidden stash of treasures. Not satisfied with taking the substantial treasures from the stash, the group decided to stay and fight its guardians, which turned out to be a group of four wild boars. Again, due to inexperience, the fight proved to be much more difficult than it first appeared to be. Bogumila, Snovit, and Sobierbor were severely injured, barely hanging on to their life. Bolko would have his hand full that day. On the positive note, the experiences and knowledge gained from that fight allowed us to unlock the secret of building our very own Smithy.

Working tirelessly throughout the night, Bolko tried to save as many as he could, but his efforts were simply not enough. Bogumila perished during the night, and our expedition lost one of its warriors. She was the first of ours to die in this hostile land we called home, and most likely not the last. For that tragic event, we gained an experience point. We distributed her equipment among the group and stay camped so our wounded could heal.

As much as they mourned the death of Bogumila, the group knew they must move on. Once everyone was once again healthy, the expedition moved on, eventually encountered another ruin and was ambushed by a skeleton and four hulking rats. That fight saw Bolko, our only medic, slightly injured.