Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Everspark Part Four

Read the previous session here.

This session will look at a Spark for Cypress’s overall quest inside Murkspire. They are here for The Nightveil Stone, so I’ve written up the NACHOS for it below.

N – The Nightveil Stone
A – After each successful action or favorable event 
C – Starting after the third advance
H – Cypress escapes with the Nightveil Stone
O – Skragz’s Fangguard locks up Cypress and his allies
S – None

Because Cypress made it into Murkspire, he can add one step to this Spark. I will not check until I mark the third advance.

The Nightveil Stone – 1/5

I want to know the situation as Cypress, Hulde, and Demis enter the main tower of Murkspire.

Sigil Roll: Motion, Path

Cypress becomes quickly overwhelmed by the noise and movement inside the tower. The goblins are having a fete. Revelry and debauchery abound. Tankards of goblin brew are being handed out, groups stomp out their traditional dances, and one is swinging from a chandelier. Cypress spots the massive stairway that would lead to where the treasury is located (if the crude map is right). Cypress pulls up his hood and tells the others to do the same, keep their heads down, and work their way to those stairs.

Skill check: 2 – Lose Mood

Cypress is almost to the stairway. Hulde taps him on the shoulder, and he turns around to see Demis caught up in the energy. The Bloomwalker is extremely empathetic and immersed in the room’s energy. Cypress exchanges a look with his Gnomish comrade. This is going to be difficult, isn’t it?

N – Demis Partying
A – After each successful action or favorable event 
C – After each advance
H – Demis regains their senses and rejoins the other two
O – Cypress and his companions are discovered by the goblins.
S – None
Demis Partying – 0/5

Cypress is a few steps up the stairway and scans the crowd. There are several Drawbacks here: Cypress is Capybarian, so he has to conceal his face, he’s unprepared, and he’s outnumbered. I think whatever I roll will be one tier lower. Cypress attempts to dance across the floor to grab Demis and get them over to the stairs.

Skill check: 15 > 10

Cypress succeeds in shaking a little sense into his leafy comrade. Demis quietly apologizes and makes his way over to the stairs. The glowing-eyed rat from the sewers is following them along the wooden beams that crisscross the ceiling. Whoever sees through its eyes will know everything these three are doing.

The Nightveil Stone – 2/5 – Crossing through the hall without being caught by all the goblins is a notable success.

Once up the staircase, Cypress is unsure exactly which way the vault is. The crude map has a large arrow and the word “Vawlt” scribbled above it. It could be anywhere on this floor of Murkspire. Cypress takes a breath and starts looking for something that would indicate which direction to take.

Skill check: 11

Cypress hears chatter down one hallway and sneaks a peek. There’s the vault! However, a group of goblins has broken into already. Three toss gold and artifacts into bags while another oversees the operation, watching and barking orders.

The Nightveil Stone – 3/5 – rolled 4, Spark still open

Cypress can’t pursue direct conflict when he doesn’t have to be a Strategist. He whispers to Demis and Hulde that they will be holding back and following these goblins when they leave to determine if they are just common thieves or something else. After a few more minutes, the thieves tie up their sacks and go through a door into the library. Cypress waits for a beat, and he follows. There’s no one in here nor any other doors. He asks Demis to spread out their roots and see where the hidden passage is.

Skill check: 13

A draft is detected from a seam between some stones. A simple push and slide away to reveal a tunnel. No goblins, though. “After them!” proclaims Cypress. Hulde grips her thunder gun tight, and Demis lopes forward on his long tree trunk legs. They rush down the tunnel, hoping to catch up with the goblin thieves.

Skill check: 17

A goblin feels his legs tackled and crashes to the stony ground, his sack of stolen treasure clattering out. The other goblin thieves and their leader whip their heads around to see a thunder gun aimed at them by a gnome, a Bloomwalker wielding a glowing spear, and a Capybarian holding a flaming flail. “Hand over the Nightveil Stone or else!” Cypress declares.

The Nightveil Stone – 4/5 – rolled 5, Spark closed

The goblins are in such shock and fear they hold out their sacks, unsure which one got the stone these three are looking for. Their leader grits his teeth, hoping Cypress isn’t after the stash. He’s not; the Strategist quickly finds the Nightveil Stone.

The Nightveil Stone is an oblong shard of deep black crystal, roughly the size of a man’s fist, with veins of dim, violet light pulsing beneath its surface. It is unnaturally cold in Cypress’s paw. The stone’s surface is smooth yet marred by faint, shifting patterns—like ink dissolving in water—that never settle into a fixed shape. There’s no time to waste, and Cypress pushes past the goblins, his allies following. They come to the end of the secret tunnel and find a boat tied up that the goblin thieves must have left as their getaway. It becomes our heroes’ escape.

Cypress hopes they can reach the Whispering Mountains before Qazid Icebreath arrives there. Demis shapes his hands into makeshift oars, rowing much faster than Cypress or Hulde could. Hulde looks disappointed she didn’t get a chance to open fire on those goblins. Maybe another day. Cypress’s mind is focused on getting to Kingshold fast. He hopes to show the Fae King Lugal Apogee the Nightveil Stone will convince him to muster the troops and send them with Cypress into the Whispering Mountains.

From the peak of Murkspire, the rat with the glowing eyes watches, and somewhere far away, its master plots their next move.

Read the next chapter here