The (Solo) Adventures of Solomon Kane

Solomon Kane rides along a well-travelled road in the county of Essex in South East England.  It is a warm July morn, the countryside is flat and verdant, populated with many towns, villages, and farming communities.

Though the scene is peaceful and pleasant, the land is racked by civil war and the threat of bloodshed and terror is never far away. By mid-morn, the Puritan rides into a small village, Mannigtree, where he intends to water his horse and pick up some supplies.

In the centre of the village a small crowd has gathered and the atmosphere is charged with aggression and menace. The villagers form a ring around two distinct groups facing off against one another. The first group are rough, dangerous looking militia types, incongruously led by a Puritan who is dressed in similar garb to Kane. The other group are Parliamentarian soldiers, also a dangerous looking bunch, led by a dashing young officer. Though he is too far away to hear what is being said, Kane can see the two groups are on the verge of attacking one another. Fury reddens visages as hands steal to to sword hilts and pistol grips.

Solomon Kane quickly dismounts. It is too late to stop the violence, so he must pitch in n one side or the other to finish it.

So the first question before starting the scenario is, Which side should Kane decide to ally with? The Puritan or the Officer.

Kane strode through the crowd and looked at the two groups, there was no time for deep reflection. Ordinarily his instinct would be to support a fellow Puritan, but the rag-tag mob with the man Kane found disconcerting. There was no time for debate, and he sides with the young Roundhead officer.

This is how I lay out the table for play. From right to left. The figures that will be used in the scenario, the different card decks, the game book, the Virtue game board, various counters, the various dice and the stat board.

The stat board shows the initial levels of three stats for Solomon Kane; these are Strength for use in fights; Clarity used for searching/exploring; and Compassion used when talking to others. These can add positives or negatives to the test depending on the level on the track. If at any time a stat level falls to 0, you lose. the final track is for Danger, this represents how the Darkness is closing in around Kane. If the level rises to10+ you lose. These stat levels can be effected by game play, and also by the drawing of positive or negative card results.

One other thing for people unfamiliar with the game, the green dice are “Luck” and can be used to discard a poor score, the white dice are “Mercy” and can be used to replay a normal die, and the stack of cards are “Blessing” which are generally very good things to have. When you possess any of these items they any on the “Cloud” and can be used during a Virtue turn.

The Virtue card has three permeant Activities on the card itself, and two additional Activity cards which are placed left and right. If these are used as Actions, they are removed and replaced by another Action card from your hand (two cards are help in hand during the game). A Virtue only had 8 cards to play with, two on the board, two in hand and four in a deck. When an Action card is removed, you replace it from your hand and draw cards from the deck to get back up to two. The discard deck is reshuffled if you run out.

Before commencing with the “narrative”, I decided to add a bit more about game play with each Chapter in the story. For people unfamiliar with Solomon Kane, the board game can be played in a number of different ways, Solo play being one of them. Cooperative play (up to 4 players) and Confrontation where one player takes the role of the “Good” side and one for the “Evil” side.

Play is based on dice to add a variable, elements of resource management with cards that enable players to make Actions, cards for the “evil” side which usually means a bad thing happening, and player pieces being manipulated by the respective Virtues (the GOOD side) or Darkness (the BAD side).

It sounds complex to begin with (and I made lots of mistakes initially!) but once the mechanics are understood, the game flows quite quickly.

Each story (or Act) usually has 10 Chapters or play steps. The story can end early if poor decisions, or fate (i.e. bad dice rolls or unlucky card effects) causes a premature disaster!

Final comment on the game is that all these elements mean that it is possible to replay the game with no guaranteed outcome, even if you know what you SHOULD do.

So, with that said, let’s see how Kane deals with the Witchfinder General.

This was a fun run through of the game.  I may have missed a couple of small things occasionally, but I don’t think anything would have made a difference.  I didn’t take many photos, but I plan to continue the adventures of Solomon Kane, and probably other stories would benefit from more illustrations of game play, although this wasn’t intended to be an actual “how to play”.  I wanted to use the game as a means of telling a tale.

Hope you enjoyed it.  More to come

“Great Gods”, he muttered as cold sweat formed on his body. “It is beyond all reason, and yet with mine own eyes I see it.  It is just as Gaston the Butcher said. Here lies a will that even from beyond the grave will rise up to wreak vengeance upon its murderer, or any who would rob it of that prize.  Yet God’s will is stronger still than black sorcery that gave unholy life to yon fleshless monster.”

Picking up a sturdy femur, Kane retires to his now empty chamber and used the bone to bar the door, while he dreamed the dreams of the righteous.

Kane dashed forward to the secret room, from whence the screams grew weaker. The inn keeper lies face down on the floor and on his back rides the shrieking skeleton of the sorcerer, its bones imbued with supernatural animation by a dread curse uttered even as its skull was cloven by the man it now enacts vengeance upon. Its bony fingers dig into the host’s neck, drawing blood as a short final squeal escapes his lips before he succumbs to the horror’s vengeance.

Kane leaps forward and strikes the brute off the host’s body with his rapier. The skeleton clatters against the wall and lands in a dry, rattling heap, a length of chain still attached to its ankle by a rusty shackle.  It rises and turns to face Kane and the icy fires of hell blaze in its empty sockets.

The fight begins in earnest. In the room the two combatants face each other. Kane draws on his last vestiges of faith and awaits the oncoming challenges with a stout heart.

Extending a skeletal finger, the remains of the sorcerer summons an orb of darkness.  For a moment it pulses with energy, before infusing the entire place with despair.

Armed with more than mere steel, Solomon’s faith saw his attack strike pure and true, and for a moment Kane swore he could here a bell ring.  The blow struck cleanly and the animated monstrosity stumbled momentarily, before regaining its footing. “One blow, with faith, the first of many”, thought Kane.

The demonic skeleton draws itself up and lunges at Kane without effect. Kane immediately reposts and with the last of his strength slices off the monstrosity’s head.

The final slash of his rapier passes true and level, an inch above the skeleton’s collar bone. With a hollow clatter, its cleft skull rolls back into the chamber whence it came and the rest of the bones tumble around Kane’s boots like a pile of macabre kindling. Kane checks on the landlord and finds him slumped against the wall of the secret room in a dark puddle of his own draining lifeblood, his face a terrible ashen blue.

The maniac stands partly in the doorway of the secret room, his weapon menacing Kane. Suddenly, he topples backwards and vanishes in the darkness; and at the same instant a vagrant gust of wind sweeps down the outer corridor and slams the door shut behind him.  The candle on the wall flickers and dies.  Kane’s groping hands sweep over the floor, finding his pistol and sword.  He straightens, facing the door where the maniac vanished.

He stands in utter darkness, his blood freezing, while a hideous muffled screaming emanates from the secret room, intermingled with the dry, grisly rattle of fleshless bones.  Dare the Puritan intervene or leave this maddened wretch to what was an undoubtedly just fate?

Straightening his shoulders, Kane fumbles with flint and tinder to relight the candle. In all conscience, the Puritan can not let the mad innkeeper die in such an unnatural and evil manner, no matter his crimes.

Sparks are struck and the wick flares, throwing chaotic shadows around the ramshackled room as the candle flickers frantically.

Kane rises, hands held out before him in surrender and lets the landlord babble his insane tale while he searches for an opening.

“Why should I spare any man?  Who lifted a hand to my aid when I lay in the village dungeons of Karlsruhe – and for a deed never proven?”

Kane made no answer. He knew of the worst excesses of those prisons far away.

“But I escaped!” the scream rose triumphantly, “and here I make war on all men … What has that?”

Did Kane see a flash of fear in those hideous eyes?

“Something happened to my brain, then.  I became as a wolf – a brother to these of the Black Forest to which I fled when I escaped.  They have feasted, my brothers, on all who lay in my tavern – all except this one who now clashes his bones, this magician from Russia.  Lest he come stalking back through the black shadows when night is over the world, and slay me – for who may slay the dead?”

“Who is this magician of whom you speak?” asked Kane quietly, hoping to encourage the landlord to continue his tale while the Englishman looked for a way to escape this trap.

“A sorcerer, unlucky enough to underestimate me. Dying he swore his very bones would weave a net of death for me. I shackled his corpse to the floor and now, deep in the night, I hear his bare skeleton clash and rattle as he seeks to be free, and I laugh! Ho ho! How he yeans to rise and stalk like old King Death alone these dark corridors when I sleep, to slay me in my bed!”

Kane’s mind thinks back to the secret room and the strong blow that L’Armon struck to shatter the chains binding the skeleton down.  What has he unsuspectingly released, he pondered.

Once again the landlord speaks up, “You were in that secret room, you and this dead fool!  Did he talk to you?” he asked while he kicks Solomon brutally to the side.

Kane stumbles backwards and slightly away from the landlord. He can feel the darkness closing in, but digs deep into his psyche to steel himself for the next few moments.  Everything could depend on keeping the man talking until some lucky opportunity arises.

Kane counts his blessings as he succeeds in keeping the irate tavern-keeper talking, as the bone rattling coming from the dark room intensifies.

The host’s insane eyes flame dangerously as he suspects Kane of some imagined treachery.  The Englishman continues to circle the room staying out of reach of the clever or knife while attempting to maintain some kind of conversation with this irrational man.

All is darkness in the secret room and Kane realises his end may be close. One desperate leap at the man seems to be the final choice, one leap of faith.

“Move not, Englishman!” screams the Landlord, “Your bones I shall leave in this secret room besides this one, to …”