Afraid of Encounters

Afraid of Play Reports - Zedeck Siew's Lorn Song of the Bachelor (Session 1)

Afraid of Play Reports is a series of blogposts where I write play reports of the campaign that I have finished or currently running. I name it that way because I keep on procrastinating on writing play reports. I will write my GM thoughts/comments in italic.

Cover of Lorn Song of the Bachelor A gorgeous cover by Nadhir Nor, whom I had the pleasure to meet last year at Bangkok Illustration Fair.

Foreword

I started my amateur Tabletop RPG design/writing/creation journey back in July 2020. I wrote a D&D 5e adventure with my then partner, now wife, Cita, as the artist. Soon after that I began hearing that there are other Southeast Asian creators out there making cool stuff, whether it was for D&D 5e or other games. The one that caught my attention the most was Zedeck Siew from Malaysia.

During that time, I bought his adventure, Lorn Song of the Bachelor, a 48 page module published by Hydra Cooperative. It's a riverine and dungeon crawl adventure inspired by crocodile stories from Sarawak/Borneo/Kalimantan. It was unlike anything I had read before. The cover and art by Nadhir Nor hooked me upon first glance. Then I got to read it, and in that moment I felt Zedeck's writing was evocative, fresh, different.

The adventure feels close to home. I feel a shared kinship to the themes that are in it. Colonialism and Exploitation. Not to mention the vibe, atmosphere, aesthetic, and lore that I am familiar with, especially since Malaysia and Indonesia are like siblings in Southeast Asia.

Lorn Song of the Bachelor inspires me. Zedeck Siew inspires me. And that was my first encounter with the Old School Renaissance (OSR).

All of that happened back in 2020. I was unaware of this "OSR" thing. And when I did my research, my first impression was it looked old and weird. Especially weird, since Mork Borg was the brand new thing. I didn't get it. I had no idea how to run such thing, nor convert the adventure to D&D 5e. So I never got to run it, until now.

It took me 6 years to run Lorn Song of the Bachelor. I even used this "OSR" thing! It finally made sense! After I ended the first session, I felt emotional because of the journey it took me to finally run this adventure. And it's a long story.

So what's the point of this foreword? I don't know. But I guess I'm sharing my personal experience and my love for this hobby. Sharing how this hobby has affected me in so many levels. I never thought that a piece of small fiction had such a profound impact to me as a Tabletop RPG hobbyist. For that, I am thankful.

Now, the play report.

Play Report

I ran the first session of Lorn Song of the Bachelor last week, 10th of January, 2026.

The premise:

Weeds trail the water. The sandbar just off the shore shifts. A reptile rumble, a splash. Now a gaping maw. A roar. Claws splintering wood. The boat capsizes. You are in the river, now.

He is the Bachelor: a pale crocodile, as long as five men lying end to end. He swallows hunters, families, trading skiffs. Prospectors fear to go out. Witches mutter. They say he causes landslips. They say he is a god, a curse -- an old, old sin, staining the river. They say he has been killed, before.

He is pulling you under.

I ran this adventure using Cairn 2e. We played mostly in Bahasa Indonesia for immersion, something that I only do when I run Southeast Asian adventures. I used the conversion from the Cairn website by Goobernuts, creator of Mangayaw.

The players and their characters:

The Bachelor Doodle The Bachelor. Doodle by one of my players, Wicak.

They were heading to the Village of the Gleaming Fins, with their own personal hooks. They had been traveling by boat for four days, with a Gleaming Fin Warrior accompanying them. He was wary of The Bachelor, a huge white crocodile who had been terrorizing the the river. He told them of the the Song of Vung Si Vung, a warrior whose wife was murdered and failed at his revenge, then brought back to life by the spirits as a white crocodile.

My thoughts: The Song of Vung Si Vung wasn't supposed to be mentioned by anyone other than a witch at the village. I honestly forgot about this. I do think that it still makes sense for another villager to know about this, because The Bachelor had been terrorizing the river for generations and a legend around it would have developed.

It was a humid day when they had their first encounter. Five Gleaming Fin Warriors were stopping six Company Henchmen, accusing them of illegal logging in a restricted part of the Gleaming Fins territory. The dreaming agaru tree's logs make powerful incense, and each log worth five times its weight in gold. The Henchmen aimed their firearm towards the Warriors, claiming that they were permitted to harvest the woods in that are.

The adventurers tried to ease the tension. Yet it was too late. The chaos enraged The Bachelor, who wrecked the Warriors' and Company's boats. The water was filled with blood and limbs of the dead. Those who survived tried to get to the shore and to the adventurers' boats. But the surviving Henchmen were eventually killed by most of the party, despite the warnings from Waragi. As for The Bachelor, it went back into the water.

The Bacehlor and Waragi doodle The Bachelor came out of the water, and Waragi screamed. Another doodle by Wicak.

They arrived at the village early in the morning, after walking all across the river shore to avoid The Bachelor's wrath if they travelled by boat. But the Chief, Vartu Si Vartu, wanted to meet them after hearing what happened. They met him at the Chief's Longhouse and saw what The Bachelor had done to him. The Chief lost his arm when it encountered the white crocodile.

The adventurers then shared their concerns (and interests) regarding The Bachelor. Despite knowing the threat of such creature, Vartu came to the conclusion that the creature might be divine and cannot be killed. So he proposed to find a way to empower The Bachelor, turning it to some kind of a deity, and asking his help to get rid of The Company.

Some of the adventurers found it puzzling, because from what they know the Gleaming Fins don't worship anything else other than the Great Mother, the Harvest Dancer, and the Thirteen Spirits. They think that Vartu wants to control The Bachelor. The Chief suggested to talk with the village witch, Sati Wa Sati, who might know more about The Bachelor and its powers. But before that, they rested.

Waragi accompanied Komar who came home to check on his wife who has been in a coma ever since The Bachelor attacked her. Komar's tears streamed down his cheeks as he stood by his wife, unconscious on their bed. His parents-in-law explained that Sinta was working at a spice farm when she was attacked. Komar swore that he would kill The Bachelor.

While the others rested at the guesthouse provided by the Chief, Cahaya eyed The Company's Office by the village jetty. He saw a tall bespectacled man whose blonde hair was combed to the back. While the man was smoking in front of the office, Cahaya approached him. Mahivir Sanna Krau was his name, a high ranking officer of The Company. He had heard of what The Bachelor's attack that happened yesterday, but he didn't know Cahaya killed his men. So the foreigner offered him a reward to kill The Bachelor, who is a bane to The Company's operation. Cahaya said he will consider it.

But Cahaya's hatred towards the colonizers was strong. He found a vantage point to shoot his fire arrow into the window of Mahivir's office. The arrow landed right outside instead, falling into the water. But before he was able to shoot another arrow, a Gleaming Fin Warrior saw him, telling him to come down. He decided to go back to the guesthouse to avoid trouble.

My thoughts: I asked Habib to roll the die of fate/luck for this and he rolled low. Hence why the arrow didn't go through the window.

They gathered together in the afternoon to talk to Auntie Sati at her house. She was chopping an eel's head when they met her, her whole house was filled with a smoke from an incense. They asked her about The Bachelor, how he became unkillable. The witch reminded them about the Song of Vung Si Vung, and how she believed it to be true, not a legend.

Sati Wa Sati believed that the Thirteen, nature spirits worshipped by the Gleaming Fins, were the ones who turned Vung Si Vung into a white crocodile. Therefore, any mystery behind The Bachelor may be answered by the Thirteen. One of them, The Bone Uncle, is said to reside north of the village. The witch also suggested that the adventurers try to find a way to depower The Bachelor, instead of killing or controlling The Bachelor.

Maln used this opportunity to ask about the Crocodile Cult, to Sati dismay due to the Gleaming Fins' taboo of animal worship. But after some convincing, the witch mentioned that there were rumors of warriors who sailed upriver to meet appease the crocodile.

My thoughts: The module doesn't say whether animal worship is a taboo. But I want to make it so that those who try to worship The Bachelor is deemed as a heretic. Also, I believe I could've made Sati to be more interactive with her "lore drop".

Rusdi asked Sati what she knew about the Old Ruin, wanting to find the Catfish Matron. The Old Ruin, one of the remains of the Monkey Empire, is apparently a place where the Bachelor might be residing.

All clues lead upriver, where they will uncover more truth about The Bachelor.

Afterthoughts

We finished the session at the 4 hour mark. The longest session I've played in a long time. The OSR challenge/problem were frontloaded at the beginning when The Bachelor attacked, and the rest of the session is more of information gathering. Lots of roleplay moments.

I had actually wanted to hack some rules/mechanics from either Block, Dodge, Parry or Mythic Bastionland, especially the combat stuff. But after an insightful discussion with the good people in the Cairn server, I decided not to hack it. I imagine that the encounter with The Bachelor would play out differently if I had included those hacks into the game. I'm glad of my decision.

Overall, My players and I love the session. They really love the world, the lore, and the colonialism & exploitation themes that are ingrained in the adventure.

We will only play once a month. Or twice, depending on everyone's availability.

One thing's for sure, I cannot wait to run the next session.

Extra: Hooks for Lorn Song of the Bachelor!

I made these hooks for my players so the adventure can feel more personal. Roll 1d6:

  1. You have heard tales of The Bachelor. You have come here to hunt it to prove your worth.
  2. You have returned to the Gleaming Fins from your sojourn. Someone dear to you had been attacked by The Bachelor.
  3. The agaru incense trade is disrupted by the Bachelor. The Company has sent you to the Gleaming Fins to protect their interest there.
  4. The ruins of the Monkey Empire can be found near the Gleaming Fins. You want to uncover its secrets and treasures.
  5. Words have spread of a white crocodile being worshipped in the Gleaming Fins. You are curious what boon it might grant to its worshippers.
  6. You peed on the river and got bitten by a catfish that latched onto your crotch. Now you heed the call of its matron who resides somewhere in the Old Ruin.