You wake in a cave, with amnesia. While you explore, you slowly discover who you are, and how you became lost. The broken and dangerous cave system reveals part of a temple to a lawful good goddess that befell a calamity. As pieces of your memory return, you realize that you must race against time to help your mentor battle an ancient evil. But, for now, you are alone and Lost in the Dark.
Can’t get the group together, but want to play 5th Edition? Grab some dice and get ready to escape mysterious caves in over 200 pages of solo 5E adventure. We’ve created a complete adventure from character generation to your first boss battle. Suitable for new players who might not have a regular group to play.
I was recently given a copy of this book to have a look at.
This of course made me bust out some dice, print out a 5e character sheet and give the game a go. I should point out the book does contain a character sheet you can use to play the game, I just tend to not use them so as not to damage the book. It’s a thing I have had since the old days of Lone Wolf, and Fighting Fantasy books.
My character sheet is mostly empty because you start the game not knowing anything about yourself, and will fill in more details as you progress.
Act 2 – The Buried Temple.
After going through the doors I arrived at an entrance that was stacked high with boxes, and pools of blood, with bloody tracks going off into a hallway. As any sensible person would do when finding themselves in a blood soaked room full of boxes, I looted the place. Most the box’s were full of rubbish, but I did manage to find a healers kit which may come in handy.
Moving into the hall way I came across multiple doors, and a grate blocking access to a room that looked like a workshop. Now as we all know, workshop have things in them, and I like things. So I picked the lock on the grate and accessed the room, finding a dead body of the forge master, which for some reason triggered more of my memory to return, namely what class of person I am.
Yes, I got to pick a class, and gain the class benefits. I could be a Paladin, a Warrior, a Wizard, or a Rogue. I did not really have the STR/CON stats to make it as a warrior, and my INT/WIS were not really good enough to be a wizard, so I had to pick between Paladin or Rogue. Since Act 1 saw me mostly being a murder hobo thief, I figured I was not really a holy person so selected Thief. I therefore gained the rogue abilities, found leather armour and some nice daggers and returned to the hallway.
The first door I entered was to a dining hall, but entering caused the roof to start collapsing, luckily i was able to roll high on my save and dive into the kitchen before being flattened by the roof. unfortunately I then failed my investigation roll and found nothing at all of use in the kitchen (nat 1 ftw).
The second door led to a flooded lavatorium, it seemed to be flooded because a grate in the floor was blocked and sealed. Channeling my inner Mario I smashed open that grate to let the water out. Well that was my plan, it turned out the grate was actually trapping a mechanical killer spider inside that decided to attack me for no reason. I put my new daggers and stealth attack to use and kill that techno-spider. It did get me a key and a crystal shard (I get the feeling these shards may be useful).
After two bad choices I figured, why not try the basement. Nothing bad ever happens in the basement… right? Going down I find the basement also waterlogged, with wet clawed tracks leading into the boiler room, which my magic amulet (that I killed the goblin for) told me to be silent and avoid. So listening to the advice of the amulet I checked out the Infirmary, which was empty bar for a locked door. Since I am now a rogue, with thieves tools, the skill to use them, and a high skill in slight of hands I unlocked the door to discover the Apothecary and a dead gnome. I did not kill this one, I found him dead. Several successful Investigation and Perception tests later, I now had a load of looted items and an antidote.
Before leaving the basement, I decided not to listen to the magic amulet, after all how good could it be? the original owner was carrying it in his mouth. So I entered the boiler-room. and walked right into a nasty Bone Shard Monster. channeling my best Vax with Stealth, Dagger, Dagger, Dagger I killed the monster and gained a +1 to any ability (INT). I also found a nice +1 Short Sword. There may have been some damage done to myself, but the +1 sword was worth it, and hey I did find that healers kit earlier.
Going back up I continued further along the hall, fixing mirrors as I moved to spread the light around. I popped into a Chapter House which helped me remember more of my past, before making a noise which attracted another robotic guardian which I had to kill. I did find a locked cupboard, and was able to unlock it using the key I found earlier, and looted.
Going further along I found nothing thanks to a failed Perception and Investigation checks, entering a Chapel I failed to have anything to leave as an offering, nor find anything useful. I really need to try and get my Investigation skill higher.
Entering the Knave my way forward is blocked by fallen rubble from the roof. I did find some holy water, and a broken robotic temple defender. The defender was missing some crystals, and I just happened to have looted, I mean found more than enough of these while exploring. I quickly fixed the robot using the instructions I found in Act 1, and the crystals I have been collecting. The robot then dug a way out for me allowing me to escape to… ACT 3.