Troubled Troll Grotto is an adventure set in the Dolmenwood, detailing a small cave complex inhabited by a two-headed troll who preys on passers-by and feasts on moss and fungi grown on the corpses of their victims. The grotto has been thrown into chaos by various intruders including a band of skeleton thieves and a pair of nefarious Drune who have unearthed strange treasures around a buried portal.

This adventure takes place on the Cave-Path through the Ballow-Clefts, in hex 1208. While the adventure does allude to a number of features and npcs detailed in the DCB, no prior knowledge of them or the hex itself is required to run it. The scenario includes interesting factions, weird hazards, a challenging puzzle, some brand new magic items and a very strange artifact that belonged to none other than Wrygott Gnarlgruff himself.

This adventure is suitable for PCs of Level 2 or higher. A total of approximately 6,000gp worth of monetary treasure is present. New magic items and fungi are also listed with their gp value, and many common and rare fungi and herbs are present.

Content Warning

This adventure contains effects that can cause characters minds to be swapped into the bodies of others.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/563700/troubled-troll-grotto

This one is designed to be a monster lair dropped into any Dolmenwood hex situated near a river. The lair consists of a set of ruins on a river meander inhabited by a fractious parliament of Witch Owls warring amongst themselves, guarded by their Shadow Thrall servants tormenting some unfortunate prisoners.

The ruins are a deorling temple housing idols dedicated to their gods Howawi and Yorghan, and is where the twice-blessed blades of deorling stags were forged. I enjoyed the little hints about deorling culture in the Monster Book and wanted to expand on that.

The adventure has three story hooks to work it into a campaign or introduce it as a stand alone adventure.

It’s chock full of interactive elements, especially the possible faction play if players choose to try and negotiate with the owls or play them against each other.

The owls themselves are detailed and interesting npcs and I think anyone running this will have great fun portraying them. The inestimable did the art for the owls and I think he smashed it. They look great!

The location was fun to detail. I tried to create something that felt very old and would be memorable as a discovery - the location keys hopefully give a strong sense of atmosphere and fairytale weirdness that Dolmenwood thrives on. The environment has an interesting hazard, a magical mist containing fragments of memory with an accompanying a table of hallucinations. The site is designed to feel vibrant and dynamic with event tables for day and night if players decide they want to treat the site as a prison break scenario and observe the goings-on.

I’m really pleased with the final result and think I’m definitely finding a voice when it comes to writing OSE/Dolmenwood material.

You can find Parliament of Owls on Drivethrurpg (affiliate link below).

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/558919/parliament-of-owls?affiliate_id=1508169

I envisioned it as a 1 pager that was something small a referee could drop into their game.

And then I started talking to people about it.

The universal feedback I got was that it was cool, but it could have been much better if it was bigger, easier to parse, had more room to breathe.

I had intended to just release it and move on. But then encouraged me to write more of them. So now it’s a whole thing. My intention is to release one lair a month for the year and then collate a dozen Dolmenwood lairs into a zine (Working title - Twelve Tall Tales). That means I need to up my game and I need to listen to the advice people are giving me.

And these are people that know their stuff. . . Brad Kerr. Luke Gearing. All of them thought the Dolmenwood lair could be improved by expanding the piece so that’s exactly what I did. I’ve settled on a two column layout and a look and I’m writing in my own take on the Old School Essentials house style that has a little more vibes and atmosphere. I hope folk enjoy it. I picked out additional art and restructured the whole scenario. It now runs to six pages and I have to admit, the advice was bang one. I’m really pleased with it and you can see the results below.

I think one thing I’ve learned is that a one pager is a fun exercise, but it hampered what I was trying to create. I think I’ll try not to let myself be so constrained in the future. Letting it breathe was the right call.

I’m finishing the second lair right now - it’s almost done, so should have A Parliament of Owls released on schedule. I’ve got the third lair sketched out and have concepts for a fourth and fifth. I’m collaborating with on lair two and I think the art will blow people away. I’m working on another project with which is much grimmer and witchier than Dolmenwood and I’m looking forward to sharing something on that soon too!

If you want to grab a copy of the revised Abigail’s Wedding you can find it here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/555160/abigail-s-wedding

https://doogface.itch.io/abigails-wedding

I had a terrible case of writers block this week. I’m working on a project that’s super grim and involves a lot of skullduggery and its been massively fun to write, but I was banging my head trying to get a location to be interactive and evoking the right mood without massively overwriting it.

I decided to change gears and make something small and use a style that actively FORCES you to write in terse bullets without a lot of purple prose. I figured the OSE/Dolmenwood house style would be perfect for a shock to my brain. This is the result.

I flipped through the Dolmenwood monster book, noted a few monsters, lairs, features, hooks, actions and so on… I picked a few I liked and jumped onto the Watabou dungeon generator. It spat out a flooded dungeon. This sparked more ideas!

I went to work and came up with a loose framework, wrote it up and tried to lay it out at best I could. I’m a Patron of Perplexing Ruins so used some of their art for it. I added some hooks and even a little flavour table for some extra-gruesome bog corpses.

And the end result?

Hopefully , what I’ve made is a nifty little 7 room dungeon lair for Dolmenwood! It's designed so you can drop it into a hex with ease and has hooks, some fun items, lots of interactive fun and a spooky bride.

Best of all?

It broke my writers block and I can go back to writing my grimdark heist.

You can grab Abigail’s wedding PWYW on itch or driverthurpg:

https://doogface.itch.io/abigails-wedding

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/555160/abigail-s-wedding

The scenario is agnostic to the ship it is set on, referring to ship systems rather than rooms. Run it on the ship your players are travelling on as an encounter in transit or use a ship from the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit for a one shot.

Wake them up, as they scramble to repair the ship and the Axionids start to react, watch them panic. It’s designed to be a pressure cooker with many things going wrong at once.

The players have three main goals:

• restore power to the ship

• repel the Axionids

• escape the gravity well of the star

They will have to make hard choices about saving the ship or saving themselves from being turned into crushed cubes of meat and bone.

Includes procedures for tracking escalating crisis effects and for players to manipulate ships power to operate or overclock ship systems.

Also includes alien space wasps that fly through the void on gossamer wings of dark matter. So that’s nice.

This work was made by humans. No AI or machine-generated works are included in this project.

Art is by

The crisis progression table and the power governance system were workshopped with the incredibly kind and insightful Luke Gearing.

Thanks to both and Luke for all their advice and encouragment in putting this together.

You can find the scenario here: https://doogface.itch.io/onaxionicwings

At least when it comes to experience systems. In the original Dungeons & Dragons game, and in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and the many B/X or OD&D clones that have followed it, there are many quirks to experience points that don’t sit well with me. Classes that advance at different rates, for example. Is it really easier to pick locks and disarm complex mechanical death traps than it is to hit things? But there is one experience rule that I have not only disliked, but actively hated.

That rule is that there is a bonus or penalty a character receives on their earned experience points (XP) based on their score in their class’s associated ability - the prime requisite.

Why do I hate this? Because it punishes players based on bad luck. Because it funnels players into playing “optimal” characters punishes them for resisting this. Every fighter needs to be a strong. Every wizard has to be a genius. Every thief has to have the reflexes of a cobra. You got lucky and rolled high on a stat? Well, congratulations! That just removed all choice from what you are going to play. And not only are you going to have an easier time of it, because you hit harder, can learn spells easier or get bonuses to all your skills, but you can have a chunk of extra experience points every time you earn some to boot! Welcome to D&D on easy mode!

And should the dice gods be displeased with you and you rolled a low stat? Well, that closes doors. For example, rolling low dexterity slams shut the door on playing a rogue. But what if I played a thief who is perhaps a tubby little stay-at-home, rather than a lightfingered cutpurse, I hear you ask?

What if I played a wizard who struggles with his letters?

Well the rules say that should you pursue this course, but you’re going to lag behind everyone else as not only are you going to struggle with thief skills, but on top of that, you’ll be penalised on how many experience points you receive.

Yes, you read that right. If you have a low stat in a prime requisite, then not only do you have to contend with the fact that some tasks in game will be more difficult, but should you beat the odds, slay the dragon and get the gold? Gygax and his scions think you should get less experience points than everyone else. That you should look on glumly whilst the muscular fighter and genius wizard gain a level whilst your clumsy thief languishes short of their extra hit die and skills.

That sucks. It’s unfair and it removes agency before the game has even started because its pushing you away from choices about what character you’ll play. I hate it.

So Just House Rule It Away, What’s The Problem?

Many Dungeon Masters, myself included, ignore this rule at the table. It rewards some players again and again for a single random dice roll during character generation and it makes some choices about characters so heavily penalised as to be untenable.

But, that also doesn’t sit right with me. Characters are still going to be optimised - unless you really are masochistic or looking to play D&D on hard mode, there really is no reason to choose to play against type and create a character that isn’t good at what they do.

But what if there was a reason?

Playing An Underdog

My simple fix is rather than penalise players for a low ability score tied to their class, we reward them. That someone who is prepared to play with a low stat in a Prime Requisite receive an XP bonus to reward their battle with adversity. And it’s not inconceivable that someone who isn’t built like an ox might compensate by learning cleverer ways to fight or have come this far because they are resourceful in other ways.

The Underdog Bonus

If you have 8 or less in the Prime Requisite ability for your Class, you receive a 10% bonus on all earned experience points.

Players are now incentivised to play against type if they want to, opening their class choices up to alternatives. There is no unearned “easy mode” any longer, with xp bonuses married to high ability scores that a player received at random. Instead, if a player chooses the high risk route of playing suboptimally, they are rewarded for overcoming that challenge.

The plucky but weedy fighter or the clumsy thief learn fast in order to survive but that reward is earned in play by overcoming obstacles with player skill when you aren’t strong, fast or brilliant.

And what could be more OSR than that?

I’m going to test this out when I next run OSE or Dolmenwood, but let me know what you think?

I can’t decide whether that makes me sound like Matthew Hopkin or someone who delivers the mail.

We’ve completed two games so far and there are two more that are ongoing. I ran Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch, a 13 room dungeon for Mörk Borg by Christian Sahlen. Another member of the server () ran an excellent Mausritter adventure called The Needle in the Thread by Cloud Press. is currently running a small CY_BORG dungeon called BUT DOES IT RUN DOOM? and I’m running Gradient Descent, Luke Gearing’s megadungeon for the Mothership system as a quick dive one shot.

So far the exercise has been a success. Participation is enthusiastic and we are closing out adventures. Reviews and feedback from players has been overwhelmingly positive.

I thought I’d post a few excerpts from the Sepulchre play through and talk about my experience running it. The players initially consisted of , , and . Sadly, Nate had to drop out late in the adventure due to commitments during Mothership Month (check out Certain Fathoms!). We had a few casualties during the adventure, thankfully there are several easy ways to segue replacement characters into the story so nobody had to sit things out.

I didn’t want to mess around getting the first game off the ground. I very deliberately picked Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch due to how contained it was - 13 rooms and you’re done! Also though, it had a strong theme and some fantastic art I could use in PbP.

I had everyone randomly generate a character with SCVMBIRTHER and launched straight in with the following text:

East of Lake Onda.

A foetid wind seeps from the swamp. Humid, thick, laden with the buzzing of insects that never rest. The trees there stand dead, their bark sloughing, their roots clutching black water like drowning men. Leeches, snakes, and mosquitoes cling, slither and bite, feeding on a place already dying. As the world dies, so too does the swamp.

You have come for the Witch’s Sepulchre and her dread altar, said to be an effigy of dead roots etched in lost symbols. They say:

Chant the words, the forbidden ones, and your desire will be fulfilled. Even Doom may be stayed.

The words you found, penned in the spidery hand of the Prophet Anuk Schleger, on the corpse of a messenger in a ditch. His livery bore the mad king Fathmu’s crest, his throat slit and purse empty, his assailants knew not the value of the writings, perhaps could not even read them. But you could. Each of you have feverishly memorised the blasphemous words of power. And all of you have come here, to the Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch.

The paths were treacherous. Distances warp. The swamp twists, dragging the traveler in circles. Like the world itself, staggering toward its inevitable end.

But you are here.

The Sepulchre lies just ahead.

DESCRIBE HOW EACH OF YOU EMERGES FROM THE UNDERGROWTH AND WHO OR WHAT YOU HAVE WITH YOU

Our intitial cast were a motley group. I’ll let them introduce themselves:

Aren’t they a lovely bunch? I should note that portraying Poltroon, the long suffering jester that served Lygan was an absolute joy. Great fun having the jester make snide little comments masquerading as a jesters banter. I drew on The Fool in Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters and found myself often heavily misquoting sources such as King Lear.

I ran through some of the opening rooms which involved negotiating with a sentient cobra and sampling some undercooked alligator meat. The dungeon has a unique conceit where the snakes can inject visitors with a psychedelic venom and each room has a hidden description visible ony to those who are, pardon my french, tripping balls.

I used a green font to differentiate between normal description and insights from the venom “sacrament”.

They discovered a that the cave home to a hedonistic snake cult led by a mysterious figure called Ueth. The cult had taken prisoners from the nearby town and believed that those that partook of the venom would be saved from the coming apocalypse, taken to paradise by serpent spirits.

To begin with, the players tried to convince the cult they were willing supplicants but inevitably negotiations broke down and they found themselves in mortal combat with fork-tongued cultists and the cult leader, Ueth the Scale-hunter.

I frequently made use of a technique of re-stating the situation - I would use map excerpts and summarise where everyone was and what they were doing after a round of posting - it’s easy to get lost in a wall of text with Play by Post and I find these summaries invaluable for all concented. You’ll note I often bold text. I use this to highlight things of significance that can be interacted with or of note.

The group eventually vanquished Ueth, mangling him with a curse from an unclean scroll, though not without paying a heavy price. The cultists could spit poison. Poor Kratar was blinded by a faceful of poison and then:

He was joined in death by Aerg-Tval aka “Soap”, soon enough though Soaps killer was dispatched by Lygan using his heirloom dagger, the ironically named “Snake-skin Gift”. Lygan had evaded capture by sacrificing his Fool to the cult - a cold-blooded act that was wholly applauded by everyone for being supremely on-brand.

generated a new character, Nagl. His new gutterborn scum led a prison break and the cults prisoners became “Nagl’s Ne’er-do-wells”, a motley band of scvm.

As an aside, playing the other prisoners was probably my favourite part of the scenario. Inevitably, Lygan the wretched royal tried to lord it over them, to mixed results.

, on the other hand, rolled up a blustering fanged berserker called Vrakh, who bowled into the cave on a mission from King Fathmu, who wanted to use the Swamp Witches altar for his own ends.

The group vanquished the remnants of the cult and explored further into the complex. They found some secret paths from the cults snake pit and some more chatty talking snakes.

The exit marked EV (stands for Emerald Venom are visible only to those tripping on snake venom) led to a cave full of flowers and strange alien skulls. Harmug found a magical trident imbued with chaos energy and Vrakh discover one of the weird skulls contained treasure.

The members of the group not high on snake venom used torches to fend off the snakes and followed a tunnel from the bottom of the snake pit. Both groups reunited in a chamber of dead roots dominated by an altar.

To those not high on snake venom, the altar seemed like a poor anticlimax to their adventure. To those high on venom, it glowed with golden light. They decide to explore further and discovered, finally, the adventures namesake:

A sarcophagus surrounded by black obelisks and the Swamp Witch herself - a terrifying scaled apparition with a head made of smoke and carrying the fearsome Lunar Zweihander.

The witch was happy to bargain with the group. TOO HAPPY. She told them that the altar would grant a wish to the one who sacrificed one who was unwilling. Nagl was intrigued by this and sought to bargain with the witch.

But, PLOT TWIST

Poltroon has survived being thrown in the snake pit and has his own agenda.

The scvm fall over themselves trying to catch him. The fool capers and dodges and is about to escape when:

Greed and the prospect of a granted wish overcome the scvm.

And at this point it was every man for himself. Harmug felt he owed Lygan a debt for saving his life and sided with him. Nagl was determined he’d get the wish. Vrakh wanted to claim it for Fathmu. Gotven the Gong farmer was dreaming about dung. This was the point had to step away, so I took over Lygan for this final scene.

I decided to get all those squabbling to roll intiative individually as things desceneded into chaos.

And who won intitiative? Who claimed the wish?

It was Nagl.

Poltroon’s sould is dragged screaming from his body which turns to a wooden husk and Nagl’s is granted one wish.

And true to form, decided, go big or go home.

I decided I had to give a wish this grand an epic treatment. I think I did it justice.

I gave the others a moment to react to what was happening.

Harmug embraced it.

Vrakh didn’t. Neither did Lygan.

I rolled on a table for the altar effects. It had time slow down until the next Misery occurred.

But what about Nagl’s wish? The module states that you should go full monkey’s paw with the wish, twisting it horribly. How did I manage that if Nagl is a god?

Well, you tell me? Did I manage it?

Fin.

So that was how out first venture into PbP finished.

I loved the module and I enjoyed running it. I learnt a lot about what worked and what didn’t in terms of PbP. Some things I would note:

• Some things are easier in PbP. A split party? No problem. It’s a little more description but works fine. And it’s easy to maintain equal amounts of focus on players too.

• There are challenges. I’ve found that there needs to be good GM and player conms on availability and there needs to be some flexibility if someone can’t post for a few days to stop things grinding to a halt. A good shout is to discussed what a characters intentions are and agree they will follow the lead of another player so I can keep things moving.

• I found that PbP does lend itself to some visual presentation. Nothing as flashy as vtts but the ability to drop in a map, sketch or piece of art is invaluable.

• The asynchronous part of running it is a big idiosyncrasy of PbP. You need to have patience! You also need to leverage the pace. I do that by asking questions and restating the situation frequently. You need to get in the swing of a daily update on consequences of player actions, the current situation and the all important “WHAT DO YOU DO?”

• I’ve found that you need to be judicious with description and encourage that with players too. I try ti save lengthy prose for room descriptions with complex features or a particularly dramatic event (Nagl’s wish for example), but keep posts shorter and less verbose otherwise. Comic book posting - like you are a writer describing your comic panels to your artist, that’s the way I think of it.

I and others will be continuing to run Play By Post games on the server. You can come join us here.

Come on in and play some Play by Post and see if you like it!

I’m still working away at my Pirate Borg adventure The Devils of Danger Cay. It’s been rebuilt a couple of times but I feel like I’ve really cracked a keying style I feel comfortable with and that works well with the genre and adventure format. I’ve dipped my toe into experimenting with layout and found a fairly clean look that I like. It lets me focus on two keyed locations per page and has a sidebar I can use for illustrations, detailed items or stat blocks.

At the tabletop I’m still running my frankenstein mashup of 5e/Shadowdark/Into The Wyrd and Wild. That’s been going well - we had the first player death of the campaign! The players pushed too far in a dungeon crawl after getting very badly injured by acid and gas traps in the domain of Juiblex ooze cultists. A ghoul ambush they normally would have steamrollered through resulted in a near TPK with one character left standing and the others bleeding out or dead. They have noped out of the dungeon and are going to spend their copious amounts of trasure and good graces at an elven temple to get the casualty raised, so camped out, resolving to get to a road and back to civilisation in the morning. This was followed up by a first for me when the dead character rose as a ghoul on the stroke of midnight and tried to murder their former allies. A leaned hard into the horror of it all and its made for one of the more memorable campaign events!

I’m also still running open table one shot games for a local club. The last few games were:

• Pirate Borg -Into The Maelstrom (Luke Stratton’s own spin on Castle Ravenloft, set on the pirate ship of Albrecht Tideborn and his brood of pelagic vampyr)

• Death In Space - Welcome to the Ring (the adventure published in the Death In Space rulebook. An excellent adventure navigating a power struggle between gangs on the space station)

• Frontier Scum - Faster, Velociraptor! Kill! Kill! (An adventure I wrote involving an escape from a prison car on a train, lots of dinosaurs including wholly unrealistic Jurassic Park raptors, a t-rex and pteranodons-, a ray that alternately brings fossils to life or devolves people and animals into prehistoric creatures, a steam powered digging machine and lots of gorillas)

I’ve also been running lots of Play By Post games. I concluded my run through of Sepulchre of the Swamp Witch (great success, one player became a god) and am still running CY_BORG. Sadly my Mothership play through of Desert Moon of Karth stalled due to player availability - turns out doctors can’t commit to regular posting, which is understandable but a shame. Happily I have now started a play through of Winter’s Daughter using Old School Essentials (and now Dolmenwood) which is hugely enjoyable.

Even more happily, I’m running a quick dive into the Cloudbank Synthetic Production Facility for Mothership using Gradient Descent, an am already having a ball portraying the realm of MONARCH.

I’m working on a few other adventures too. Currently trying my hand at a bit of gothic whimsy and writing an island hopping romp called the Lichward Isles, written in a similar style to Brad Kerr’s Dream Shrine and requiring jumping between the towers of four different eccentric and very pissed off liches.

I’ll try and post a bit more often over the winter - I’ve a backlog of unfinished posts to sort and my solo venture into Graven Tosk to finish.

Until next time!

When I last wrote about my CY_BORG PbP game on Discord, the crew were just meeting their fixer, Neon%Shade, in the glitchscape of Static Abyss. The job: abduct Elias Valter Tosk from his penthouse in North Central and deliver him alive to Mosscroft. A simple in-and-out in theory. In reality? Absolute chaos.

Here’s how it all went down.

Recon & Prep

Prior to the job, Clock hit up his contacts and found the following info:

• One of the rooms in the penthouse is an opium den with Tosk personal dealer kept on retainer, one Bonk Monk. Monk is a pharmacist and runs a drugstore in the penthouse opium den. He wears a surgeons mask with a smile painted on it and sells all drugs imaginable. His best customers lounge in chair cushions and use antique water pipes to burn ungodly amounts of organic opium—Bonk Monk's specialty.

• Every other day, helicopters fly in special guests to the Penthouse helipad to attend the neverending party. Presumably, the high society who are too sublime to use the elevator.

• Elias Valter Tosk is a party demon. The revel only subsides on days he's not at home, which are few and far between. The music never truly stops. Delivery personnel cart in vast amounts of food, alcohol, and assorted drugs at regular intervals.

• The entire apartment, including the rooms, are soundproof. One couldn't tell from the outside, however, because the windows always remain open to let the neighbors know who's chaff and who's wheat.

Phix hit up her contacts on the cleaning staff and discovered the following:

• At any given time, several of Tosks guests will be gorging themselves on the latest pseudo-nutritional products. Everything is free, especially the alcoholic drinks.

• On the menu: BEYOND BURGERTM, CY_FRY (deep fried bacon strips), α-PROTEIN shakes (vanilla, chocolate, fish), Malware (cookies with surprise filling).

• The waitress, JK (Just Kidding) has frequently complained to cleaning staff about the scanty retro scifi-softcore outfit she has to wear, as well as the fact her contract stipulates she commutes to the penthouse via jetpack.

• From the ground, the penthouse is only reachable via an elevator. The elevator does not move (up or down) unless cleared via a bio-identification apparatus or by requesting clearance via intercom with the security room. The elevator does not reach the top, floor 178, it ends on the penultimate floor 177.

Gul hit up old security contacts and pulled the following info.

• One of the GraMeTo security detail, H4NK, has a side hustle, live streaming pay-per-view footage of the orgies taking place in the penthouse. It's a risky endeavour, the Tosks have a lobotomy clause as part of their contract termination protocols for security staff.

• A personal retainer, Juliet van Hautecombe, oversees Elias Valter Tosk. The Tosk family pays her to keep Elias in line and out of the greatest trouble. Juliet is heavily modified and looks too wild for a simple personal assistant.

Gul then used his Cyberdeck to penetrate the Tosk Penthouse network, managing to pull floor plans and the IFF code to the helipad defense systems.

Penetrating the third network layer, he implanted a virus in the Penthouse core systems. This will allow him to:

• Override the elevator access

• Deactivate or reprogram the security drones

• Deactivate or overload the emergency generator

The Setup

Phix jetpacked in disguised as a Molecule Mule waitress, all chrome smiles and retro Jetsons uniform. She slipped into the kitchen to get close to staff and security. Clock and Gul weren’t far behind coming up via the elevator, disguised as caterers with Hemingway—the cyberhound—hidden in a serving trolley.

They rendezvoused in the freezer beside the Molecule Mule kitchen setup.

Early Moves

Phix spiked milkshakes with a chemical cocktail, taking a few guards out of the fight with gastric trouble before anything kicked off.

Clock did a little recon and discovered two big surprises: Mad_Max, a hi-tech smartjacket with the personality of an anarchist, stashed in the cloakroom, and from Max, the intel that the Tosk mingling with guests was only a body double.

Meanwhile, Gul discoved a party-goer called Trans_Am, locked in a sensory overload tank and half-fried.

The Balcony

Using the nanotech SmartJacket to masquerade as a celebrity guest, Clock worked his way onto the balcony with the fake Tosk and drug-dealer Bonk Monk where some orgiastic naked bungee jumps were taking place. There, he sabotaged the double’s bungee cord, sending him plummeting to his death.

A female reporter caught the act on her feeds and high on adrenalin and bloodlust, Clock silenced her permanently by throwing her from the balcony. With blood on his hands and Mad_Max whispering violence in his ear, he tore the jacket off in disgust.

Kronch gets plugged and Juliet cools off

That was the tipping point. Gul had discovered a grenade launcher stashed in another of the SOTs and in a colossal misunderstanding, he and Trans_Am were attacked by have a go hero and football star Kronch, who promptly ate a bullet from Gul.

Elsewhere, Phix tried to stop Tosk’s aide Juliet Van Hautecombe from raising the alarm as she saw the altercation on her feeds. Phix spiked her with a vurt injection, which ended up being the spark that lit the fire. Juliet staggered into the pool, her nanite ice-field powers triggering and turning the pool into an impromptu ice sculpture. Half the swimmers froze solid, Juliet included.

All Hell Breaks Loose

Opened fire on by security, Gul unleashed hacked spider drones and turned the upper mezzanine into a firefight then made for a bedroom and hacked Juliet’s personal terminal. Meanwhile Trans_Am blew the orgy suite sky-high with a misplaced grenade.

Phix, meanwhile, was infected with contagious hallucinations - psychic fallout from the Vurt cocktail she’d spiked Juliet with and had visions bleeding into reality until she could barely tell one from the other.

Clock’s bloody stunt made him infamous across the feeds: christened the Mic Drop Murderer, his face splashed across every vid channel in the city. Security, led by H4NK, finally pinned him down.

Fractured Paths

Gul got trapped in Juliet’s bedroom, pinned under suppressing fire, and had to retreat into an ensuite. Phix stumbled into the kitchen freezer and discovered Tosk’s panic room, hallucinating him as a gigantic talking maggot. Hemingway helped her subdue the real Tosk, who quickly began snivelling for his life.

Clock has just been frog-marched into the security control room, but he had one ace left: leverage. Using blackmail material from Gul’s earlier recon, he cut a deal with H4NK and began conspiring to turn the tables.

The Current Sitch

Right now, Gul is cornered in a bathroom firefight with a GraMeTo goon, having burned his synapses on the ICE in Juliet;s terminal.

Clock is conspiring with H4NK under the noses of security.

Phix has a cowed and whining Tosk in custody, though a heavily armed Gray Cert security squad is converging on the penthouse.

It could all go either way and I’m looking forward to seeing how it shakes out.

Running the Game

The pace of this game has been really good. We’ve had to take breaks when real life got busy, but when it’s in high gear, it’s short, sharp posts stacking up into complete carnage. The “comic book script” style we use has made it feel kinetic, fast-moving, and cinematic. All the players have really got into it - the dialogue feels like a half-way house between William Gibson and Hunter S. Thompson with a dash of Warren Ellis thrown in.

Discord has been excellent for running Cy_Borg. I can do fun things with formatting text for emphasis and detail, drop in image and animated gifs, post floor plans and even drop in the odd music track to accompany text. Discord Play by Post really works well as a medium for cyberpunk and I highly recommend it.

We’ll close out the caper shortly! I’m look forward to seeing if they complete the job and get their payout or punch their tickets as Cy legends!

Until next time, chooms!

This ruleset leans almost entirely on the article Craft Killer Climbs with some procedural approach taken from Justin Alexander’s article on Depth Crawls on his blog The Alexandrian. Luke came up with some genius but simple mechanics to simulate the hazards of climbing. He built those mechanics around a topgraphical hex mapping procedure he detailed in Hexelevation.

As is my wont, I was spitballing ideas on his discord and hit on the idea of linking these rules to a depth crawl. One that could provide a template for GM’s that want to run a perilous and cinematic ascent up an unforgiving mountain.

So, what do we need to build a Depth Crawl? I’ve already taken a crack at building one before but lets lay down some of our building blocks.

Not sure what a Depth Crawl is? Skeleton Code Machine has you covered.

Tracking Depth?

We’re going up, not down. Lets call our tracking element Elevation (there will be rolls relating to Altitude Sickness so calling for Altitude checks could be confusing). I don’t want this to be massive, but lets go with twenty-five locations and call our climb complete at Elevation 25. We can group our locations into five regions - foothills, lower slopes, middle slopes, higher reaches and the summit.

Randomisation

When climbing to a new Elevation Level we’ll make an Elevation Check, rolling a d12 plus Elevation and comparing it to our Location Table. You could use different sizes of dice to make your climb longer or shorter and to give more variance of results. For smaller ascents, the Location Table can be very granular with every result being a new location. For higher ascents, it’s recommended to use ranges of locations - e.g. 1-5, 6-10, rather than describing 90 locations on your fictional Everest.

Altitude

The Elevation level is left purposely abstract as a tracking measure, but you could say that the Elevation check result mutiplied by 100 is the height in metres. Ben Nevis would be an Elevation 15 mountain. Everest would be almost Elevation 90.

Time

Each day is divided into four Watches (morning, afternoon, evening, night). The GM should track this during the ascent. Every two increments of Elevation moves time forward by one Watch.

Procedure

Start at the Base location at Elevation 0. Record this on the bottom of a map as you would the first point in a point crawl.

• Roll on the Weather

• Make a Climbing check. Apply results.

• Make an Elevation check on the Locations table(You start at Elevation 0.)

• Make a Elevation Check on the Details table (You start at Elevation 0.)

This is the location where the PCs enter the ascent.

On each navigation turn, the PCs will choose one of three moves:

• STAY

• CLIMB HIGHER

• CLIMB DOWN

If they STAY, they are remaining in their current location. Follow your normal procedures for that location.

• Make an encounter check. Use an appropriate terrain based encounter table for your system.

If they CLIMB HIGHER:

• Make a Climbing check. Apply results.

• Draw a line upward to a new location on your pointcrawl map.

• Increase the group’s Elevation by one increment.

• Every two increments of Elevation moves time forward by one Watch.

• Draw a line upward to a new location on your pointcrawl map.

• Make a Elevation check on the Locations

• Make a Elevation check on the Details

• If required, roll on Weather.

• Make an encounter check.

• Note results and elevation on your map (important for backtracking!)

If they GO BACK, they travel along a path they’ve already explored to a location they’ve previously visited:

• Set the group’s depth to the established depth of the location.

• Make an encounter check.

Steep Climbs and Multiple Routes

As an optional rule, the GM can roll 1d3 for the Elevation increment of the next Location. A higher number represents a steep and risky climb.

Another option that can be used has the GM could roll d3 for the number of routes upward and assign an Elevation increment of d3 for each. This gives players risk-based choices: take a route without steep gradients (probably longer), or take the risk and climb a sheer ascent for swifter progress.

Climbing checks

A climbing check is modified by the target Elevation value you are climbing to. Roll a d20 roll, where you need to roll above the target Elevation to climb without incident. If ascending from 0 to 1, don’t roll a one. From 4 to 5, don’t roll below a 6. From 10 to 11, don’t roll below a 12.

Remember your P’s! Proper Preparation Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. For example, if taking take a watch to observe the route (provided visibility allows), roll the check with advantage. If the weather presents low visibility, checks are at a disadvantage.

For a failed check, consult the following table.

Climbing Incidents (d8):

1: Fall d100ft. Use fall damage in whatever game system you are using.

2: Slip and sprain an ankle. Speed halved until healed.

3: Rock fall. 1d6 bludgeoning damage.

4: Gear slips away from you. Lose an item.

5: Exhaustion. Must rest immediately after completing the climb.

6: Vertigo. One of the party starts to panic. Disadvantage on rolls until calm.

7: Impassable Route. Return to previous location. Lose D4-1 Elevation.

8: Lost. Generate a Location at their new depth, unconnected to any known location.

Altitude Sickness

Many humans start to struggle at altitudes over 2km, as oxygen deprivation takes its toll. When characters arrive at a location via an Elevation check of 20 or above, have them make a relevant physical health check for the first two watches at that altitude.

If they fail, have them roll an effect on an altitude sickness table, like this:

Altitude Sickness (d4):

1: Confusion. Disadvantage on mental checks.

2: Breathless. Speed halved.

3: Weakness. Disadvantage on physical checks.

4: Sick. Take 1d4 damage from vomiting every watch.

This effect lasts until they shake the altitude sickness. They keep rolling on every watch until they succeed or descend to a safe altitude. These effects stack with subsequent failures, but you can waive that if you want to be a coward.

When the characters ascend further, they continue to make checks every 10 point increment (level 30+, level 40+ and so on). It’s worth noting that at a location check result of 50 (5km), most people require supplemental oxygen to avoid lethal hypoxia.

Weather

Make a weather table that suits the biome, with the harsh results assigned to higher numbers. A d20 table works well for this.

Roll once per day in lowlands (altitude 0), but once per watch (morning, afternoon, evening, night) in highlands (anything above 0) to simulate the changeability of weather at high altitude. See the example below, where compromised visibility means disadvantage on climbing checks:

Weather (d20):

1-5: Clear.

6-10: Overcast.

11-15: Rain.

16-18: Fog/snow (low visibility).

19-20: Storm/blizzard/gale (low visibility, 1 damage per hour if unsheltered).

You could rule that cold weather clothing reduces damage for a watch. Build in whatever effects fit the weather you like.

Locations

There’s random tables all over the place for generating mountain environments. I read over some for inspiration and made a location list of 25 locations. When rolling an Elevation Check for Location, compare with the below. Note some of the locations are hazardous, making climbing difficult or have a tendency to have inclement weather. You can expand on or substitute your own locations, but the below gives a pretty good framework for a mountain ascent with some varied terrain and features.

Foothills (Elevation 1–5)

1. The Trail Begins. A dirt track ends at a small clearing where climbers gather before heading into the range.

2. Orchard in the Valley. Rows of apple trees at the mountain’s base, dry stone walls crumbling in places. A farmhouse smokes faintly in the distance.

3. Dry Bed. A rocky creek bed, usually dry except when the snowmelt fills it. The stones are polished smooth by sudden torrents.

4. Shepherd’s Pasture. Sheep graze on grassy slopes. Scraps of wool cling to thornbushes.

5. Old Road Remnant. A line of sunken stones hints at a road long since swallowed by scrub. Cart ruts are still visible in patches.

Lower Slopes (Elevation 6–10)

6. Timber Cut Site. A half-overgrown logging camp with rusting saws and collapsed shacks. Saplings reclaim the clearing.

7. Mountain Spring. Clear water bubbles from beneath a rock ledge, collected in a log trough. Smells of wet stone and pine.

8. Abandoned Cabin. A weather-beaten hut leans against a cliff. Inside: a broken stove, rotted bedding, and dust.

9. Steep Switchbacks. The trail climbs in sharp zigzags. Loose gravel shifts dangerously with every step. Next Climb check at disadvantage.

10. Game Trail Junction. Narrow tracks converge at a salt lick. Deer and boar spoor is fresh and faint paw prints linger too.

Middle Slopes (Elevation 11–15)

11. Stone Quarry. A long-abandoned pit, blocks of half-shaped granite scattered.

12. Riverside Gorge. A foaming torrent carves a deep gorge across the slope. The only crossing is a fallen tree, slick with spray. Disadvantage on next Climb check.

13. Hunter’s Camp. A ring of blackened stones beneath an overhang. Bones of deer and goat cracked for marrow. Racks for drying hides.

14. Rock Shelter. A shallow cave used by shepherds or hunters in storms. Smoke stains mark the roof.

15. Ridge Overlook. A grassy shelf opens to sweeping views of the valley. Cairns of stacked stones mark the edge.

Higher Reaches (Elevation 16–20)

16. Avalanche Chute. A scar of crushed trees and boulders cuts the mountainside. The slope above looks unstable. Disadvantage on next Climb Checks. Loud noises may trigger avalanche.

17. Wind-Scoured Ridge. Twisted pines cling to a knife-edge ridge. The wind howls so loud it drowns speech. Roll twice on Weather table and use highest result.

18. Alpine Tarn. A small lake mirrors the sky. Snowmelt trickles in, trout flash in the icy waters.

19. Sheer Cliff Face. The trail ends at a vertical wall streaked with ice. Only climbers with gear could ascend. Make next Climb check with disadvantage. Roll twice on the climbing incident table on a failed check and take the lowest result.

20. Goatherd’s Pen. A rough stone enclosure sits against a slope, dung and bones scattered inside.

Summit & Crown (Elevation 21–25)

21. Snowfield Crossing. A hard crust of snow stretches across the slope. Meltwater runs in hollow channels beneath.

22. Glacial Moraine. A crescent of boulders and gravel left by retreating ice. Stones grind underfoot like loose glass.

23. Exposed Summit Shoulder. High winds scour a barren plateau of shattered stone. Lightning scars blacken the rocks. Roll twice on weather table. Pick highest result.

24. Cairn Cluster. Dozens of small stone cairns dot the ridge, stacked by climbers or herders. Some toppled by storms.

25. The Peak. A bare crown of frost-rimed rock, horizon spilling in every direction. The view is incredible. Thin air burns the lungs. It tastes of victory.

Details

Details either add to or change twist the nature of locations. These might be individual elements (e.g., a cart or a cairn) or they could be broadly thematic (e.g., aurora borealis or a deep ravine), with the former generally being additions to the scene and the latter usually altering it. The Details below provide a good range of generic and foreboding results but you could alter them depending on theme - perhaps more horror or supernatural with flayed skulls or wraith haunted cairns. Alternatively you could lean more fantasy with wyvern nests or enchanted groves. Roll an Elevation Check to determine a a Detail for a scene. Optionally, roll d3 Details.

1. A mossy boundary stone carved with half-legible initials.

2. A ruined shepherd’s cart, wheel sunk deep in mud.

3. A thicket of blackberries conceals torn cloth, snagged and bloodstained.

4. A clearing of wildflowers, humming with bees.

5. A half-collapsed wooden footbridge spans a shallow gully, rotten planks breaking under weight.

6. A hollow tree shrine with wax stubs melted into unsettling shapes.

7. A cluster of fire-scorched stumps, ground still unstable with hidden hot ash vents.

8. A ravine crossed by the remains of a rope bridge, frayed strands swaying in the wind.

9. A pile of neatly stacked firewood with a half-buried boot jutting from underneath.

10. A stand of unusually tall pines, their trunks stripped bare at the base by deer.

11. A narrow ledge strewn with loose scree that shifts underfoot with each step.

12. A rusted iron kettle hanging from a branch, rattling faintly though no wind blows.

13. A field of alpine flowers, startlingly vivid against bare rock.

14. A shallow cave littered with bones, not from birds, but from something larger.

15. A spring-fed pool iced over, with a pale shape just visible beneath the surface.

16. A cliff face patterned with white mineral streaks like frozen waterfalls.

17. A line of crude cairns, each topped with an animal skull staring downslope.

18. A lurid glow of aurora borealis illuminates the sky.

19. A scree slope with the corpse of a pack animal, loose stones ready to cascade.

20. A natural rock arch where the wind makes low, human-like moans at night.

21. A jagged ravine. Deep, dark and probably fatal.

22. A field of shattered boulders arranged in spirals, casting uncanny shadows.

23. A knife-edge ridge where gusts scream through like voices.

24. A circle of frost-hardened stones, a foetal skeleton frozen in the centre.

25. A patch of ice that never melts, faint cracks revealing a baleful eye staring upward.

Final Thoughts

This little essay was mainly to get the idea out of my head whilst its fresh but I also plan to try it in an upcoming game and wanted to organise my thoughts. If you like it or get some use out of it, let me know!

I’ve already mentioned him but full credit to for teaching me everything I know about Depth Crawls, for coming up with all the various checks and challenges and for providing such a cool space to bounce ideas around. I know he’s got more on this topic bubbling away so look forward to see if he takes this further and where he goes with it.

The Challenge

Not me. I wanted to do scifi. And I’ve been itching to run Mothership at the table. I have still yet to have the pleasure of running Gradient Descent or Dead Planet and I wanted to touch on the vibe of both of those whilst still working in some sort of vampire theme. There are a couple of well-regarded 3rd party modules for Mothership (Out of Darkness, Rane in Blood) but neither really gave the mix of scifi dungeon crawling in a derelict full of weirdness that I was looking for.

I decided I would homebrew this thing. I would make a scifi vampire adventure based on Dracula and Masque of the Red Death. I had time, it would be fine!

The Solution

Idly scrolling through a few articles, I hit on this by Skeleton Code Machine - an article on Depth Crawls. It’s a great article and explores some well known examples of the method, such as Gardens of Ynn or The Stygian Library

Looking through my collections of adventures, I realised that I owned a great example of a depth crawl by the inestimable called Blood and Salt. It’s a fantastic adventure, but more importantly, it meant I could go and pester Murk a.k.a Luke on his discord server about how you make these things and how they work. (I highly recommend joining the Murkdice discord - there are some good creative folks on there and great discussions).

Anyway.

What Is a Depth Crawl?

A depth crawl is a way to procedurally generate a point crawl using an incrementing value called Depth. Whenever the players visit a new location, the value increments and you roll, adding the Depth value on a table to determine what the new location is,. The players have an option of going back, going deeper or exploring the current location. The Depth value intereacts with the procedural tables by increasing the range of values they can generate as you go deeper (e.g. 1d10 + Depth) and the tables are usually constructed so that weirdness, danger and goals are only in the table entries accessible by a high level of Depth. Depth can also be used as a modifier to encounter tables, so that when players explore a location, they have a chance of triggering more dangerous or weird encounters at greater Depth levels.

This sort of mechanism was perfect for what I wanted to run - an exploration deeper and deeper into a ship with escalating horror and weirdness. Luke explained to me that he is a huge fan of depth crawls for horror as they are perfect for that feeling of “We’ve got to keep going” and increasing tension and dread.

I’d never made a depth crawl before and was curious about how one went about it. Luke talked me through his process and I used it as a model for my scenario.

1. Come Up With a Theme

For mine I cam up with a short narrative - a terraforming/colony ship called the USCSS Demeter is diverted and picks up an alien artifact - a black obelisk. Said artifact is a beacon and causes the ship to fuse with a structure from subspace the next time it jumps - an obsidian castle from an alien dimension. The inhabitants of the castle are scarlet skinned vampiric horror called the Red Death that infects humans with a form of cannibalistic virus that eventually transforms them into more vampires. The ships AI is also infected by the black castle and seeks to jump the whole ship into subspace. The players awake from cryo sleep and must work out what has happened and escape. I would loosely draw on themes from Dracula, The Masque of the Red Death and 2001: A Space Odyssey

Happy with this idea, I went to work.

2. Decide on Depth Scale

This boils down to what kind of die to use for the depth. I wanted something that would last a solid evenings play. I’d messed around with Blood and Salt and it felt like something I could blast through in one evening so I opted to go with d10 for my depth die, with the finale room of the scenario at Depth 20. This meant I would need to describe 20 rooms or areas of the ship. A lot more manageable than building a Gradient Descent style megadungeon!

3. List Locations

Luke advised that I make a list of location ideas with similar themes and build them in depth order, moving from simple to more complex environments. In terms of horror (this was for Mothership after all), initial areas should be about tension building, establishing threats and building to the deepest parts which should be fully nightmarish. I had a good idea of the kinds of areas I wanted players exploring on a colony ship and how I wanted to add horror to that - a jump accident fusing the ship with an alien edifice. I decided I would pillage the Mothership supplements Dead Planet and Gradient Descent for their tables for generating derelict ships and room contents. That ought to give me enough dressing, resources and interactive stuff for players to find. This was the sketched structure I came up with. For each compartment visited I would roll a d6 for air, gravity and power. On a 5+, the compartment would lack that particular resource - encounters and hazards might also modify this.

4. Build Clusters

I started taking rooms from my table and linking them in narrative groups - as an example - the last stand of Marcus Virelli.

5. Generate Encounters

I had planned to incorporate an encounter table. I wanted to simulate being hunted by an escalating foe and Luke pointed out I could link the encounter table to depth too. I decided I would have my “vampire” which I dubbed the Red Death be an unkillable creature, bursting into a cloud of red steam if it took too much damage and escaping to reform and evolve with each new encounter. The depth mechanic being used with encounters was perfect for this, meaning that the Red Death on rolls accessed at greater depth could be a more nightmarish evolution of earlier encounters. Some of these encounters would be impacted by the air/power/gravity of a compartment - an airless compartment might be full of corpses rather than infected crew.

6. Generate Events

Finally, I decided to include an events table. I wanted the ship to feel dangerous, unstable and unpredictable, the environment driving the players to want to escape. This too, I found I could link to depth. I created an AI behaviour table that I hoped would pressure and drive progress as it went mad and began blocking avenues of retreat.

7. Resource Mechanics

I enjoyed how depth crawls like Blood and Salt made resource a limiting factor on how far you could get. I decided I wanted Power and Oxygen to be vital resources in my scenario, but I didn’t want a lot of book keeping. I opted to use the degrading usage die mechanism popularised by games like Black Sword Hack.

Oxygen and Power would be represented by dice so no need to track hours of O2 or charges. When players were using their oxygen supply in an area, I would make them roll their Oxygen usage die when they left the area. If it was in the lower half of the die range, the die would reduce to a lower die type e.g. from a d6 to a d4. Reduction below d4 meant you had run out - simple!

Players would use oxygen in airless or toxic environments and power to operate unpower doors, terminals and machinery. If they found a unit of power or oxygen or certain equipment, they could increase their die type.

In the inital room I ruled there were rebreathers and if they found Hazard Suits or Vac suits later, they would have plentiful oxygen for a while before exertion took its toll.

• Power Pack 1d6 power (increases with more power packs)

• Rebreather 1d6 O2

• Hazard suit 1d10 O2

• Vac suit 1d12 O2

8. Details

I had my room list, my encounters and my AI events. That amounted to three big things I wanted to do. I had a resource mechanism for my players to manage and search for. The devil is in the details though. I would need to put some meat on this skeleton. I needed:

• NPCs surviving crew, lunatic crew, infected crew - people for players to meet and seed into the encounters and room descriptions. For the, I decided to use the generic antagonist profiles in the Unconfirmed Contact Reports book. I put together a list of names and rans/crew roles.

• Monsters - I had several evolutions of the Red Death to write up. Again, re-skinning and tweaking a few monsters from Unconfirmed Contact Reports would work.

• Ship Logs - I wanted to use these in the same way horror video games use them to good effect. Recordings stowed in terminals, equipment or even played by the AI. Some examples:
  
  “Initial scans confirm the anomaly emits a residual vector pattern similar to the Alluvion Array incident near Pallas. Vargas insists we bring the obelisk aboard. I told him once: ancient relics left undisturbed are usually left undisturbed for a reason.”

  
  “We are… fused with something. My quarters are open to vacuum, but the observation deck is… inside-out. The AI is… talking in riddles. Whatever the structure is, it has the same subspace origins as the obelisk.”

  “Your hands tremble. Your hearts fail. Let me guide you. Let me remake you. Repair the Drive. Salvation awaits.”

Running the Depth Crawl

How did it go? The short version is, it went brilliantly. I had a great time running it, finding out what hazards and rooms the players would encounter alongside them. For their part, the players had a grand old time scrabbling to survive, gatherwork out what was going on and eventualy self destructing the ship and abandoning it.

The long version? I’ll draft up a full play report and try and kludge all my prep into something reasonable for others to use.

Hopefully this was of interest. It was a great experience making it and the process was almost as much fun as running it.

Almost. Watching players squirm as the AI turned on them was a hoot and space vampires are an absolute treat to run as a Warden. 10/10. Highly recommended.

Far in the depths of the Forest of Sarkash, always where one least expects to find it, in a halo of dying trees, is Graven-Tosk. A truly ancient cemetery filled with mausoleums, blank-eyed cherubs, stagnant fountains, plague pits and ordinary graves. It is here we rejoin two damned souls - Wemut and Graft.

Wemut is a Fanged Deserter, a lanky creature of corded muscles and ape-like arms. He trusts no-one except his maw of shark-like filed teeth and his Luck - a horseshoe that he wears around his neck.

With him is Graft, an Esoteric Hermit. Eerily beautiful, with pale skin and a thicket of jet black hair with a beard to match. He adorns himself with crow skulls and carries unclean scrolls of sorcery clasped to his bosom like beloved children.

With them is Dog. Dog is dead. That doesn’t stop him being friendly and loyal. He is the decrepit animate skeleton of a hound that seems to have taken a shine to the pair and is guiding them through the cemetery.

What Is This?

This is a solo playthrough of Graves Left Wanting by Karl Druid. I’m running through it using Solitary Defilement. For the purposes of running through a pre-written scenario I've used a couple of hacks of various tables and procedures, I detail those in Part One.

So… what is our story so far?

The TLDR version is that the pair awoke in a plague pit in the heart of Graven-Tosk and have been exploring, searching for a way out.

The longer version is that they emerged from rotted coffins, explored a mausoleum with strange waxy corpse in a sarcophagus. The mausoleum yielded a hopeless amount of spiders and a baroque looking scythe. The two scvm ventured into tunnels to the south an encountered a skeletal hound. Dog led them to a moonlit room with a perforated ceiling. There they encountered a trio of fog-bound skeletons that fought with weapons of solid mist. They defeated the undead and took a stranger dagger shaped key as their prize. Wemut used it to open a mysterious casket and inside, to Graft’s horror, was Graft’s own beating heart. Wemut has decided to keep the box and continue exploring, commenting brutally to Graft: “Your heart. Now you really are mine.”

Will Wemut find a way out of Graven-Tosk? Will Graft get his heart back? Will Dog be a good boi or lead them to their deaths? Lets find out.

Onward!

The earth tunnel leading east from the moonlit room stank. A foul smell like rotten eggs grew stronger as the trio made their way into the dark. The tunnel was not long and soon a lurid green glow could be seen up ahead. A strange bubbling noise echoes loudly, sounding like an enormous boiling pot. Wemut and Graft slow their pace, Dog bumping at their heels.

"I do not like that sound. Or the light. A bad omen.”
Graft rubs his chest fitfully, eyes flitting to the sack where Wemut has stowed the casket containing his heart.

“There is no other path. Move.”

Wemut growls and shoves the hermit ahead of him.
They stumble into an ornate and large stone-walled chamber, flanked by two rows of fluted columns supporting a ceiling that is buckling and cracked. A set of stone doors split the northern wall but it is the rooms main feature that stops them in their tracks.

A central dais supports a marble coffin whose lid bucks and rattles like a pot at the boil. Streaming its sides are rivers of steaming green and yellow gall. It has cascaded down the sides of the dais and now the room is illuminated by a sickly bilious glow coming from pools and rivulets of the stuff. The stench of rotten eggs is overwhelming and the air is steamy with it.

“Gorgh’s teeth! That’s rank!”
Graft chokes and covers his mouth with his sleeve. Wemut grimaces and decides to search the room.

I MAKE A SEARCHING FOR AN OBJECT ROLL!

A STRONG HIT! i DECIDE WEMUT IS CANNY ENOUGH TO AVOID STEPPING ON THE STEAMING GALL

Noting the bile eating away at his boot leather when he touches it, Wemu steps gingerly round the pools. Using his new scythe, he hooks the rattling lid to the floor and then stands on it to peer into the marble coffin. Inscribed on the lid is the name “Fela Maus”. Inside the coffin, Maus’ bones bob and float in a sea of bile. More of interest to Wemut is a huge and ornate horn. The instrument is tall as a man, carved from ivory and bedecked with skulls and wound with leathery tubes - entrails, perhaps? Wemut attempts to hook it out with the scythe.

I DECIDE THIS IS RISKY AND REQUIRE A GENERAL ADVENTURING MOVE USING AGILITY - NOT WEMUT’S STRONG SUIT!

STRONG HIT!

Wemut brings the scythe down sharply on one end of the horn and it flips into the air. One grimy hand snaps out and catches it and Wemut staggers. It’s heavier than he expected.

“A fine prize.”

Wemut scrubs bile from the mouth piece of the horn. Graft scampers toward him.

“Wait! It might be-”

The fanged deserter bares his filed teeth in a grin and blows on the horn.

SO, WHAT DOES THIS HORN DO?

OH. I ROLL TOUGHNESS FOR BOTH GRAFT AND WEMUT.

The noise is dreadful. Like a dozen cats being strangled at the bottom of a well. Both Graft and Wemut grasp at their stomachs, trying not to vomit. The strange music causes their guts to roil and the sour air doesn’t help.

Dog frolics past the puddles of gall and scratches at the stone doors.

Gasping, Wemut and Graft attempt to navigate the pools of bile and get the door open.

I ROLL A DUNGEON CRAWLING MOVE FOR THIS - THERE’S CAUSTIC BILE EVERYWHERE.

A STRONG HIT! LUCK IS WITH THE BOYS TODAY.

The pair lever the stone doors apart. Stairs lead upward to the surfaces. Mist seeps down from above.

Choking, they stumble out the Maus’ Vomatorium and find themselves amongst ornate tombstones, shrouded in fog. They look at each other, uncertain where to go and then the rattle of bones from Dog’s wagging tail leads them forward.

WALIKING THROUGH THE MIST IS RISKY AND WILL RESULT IN ARRIVING AT A RANDOM KEY LOCATION. I DECIDE TO SEE IF OUR SCVM RUN INTO ANYTHING WITH A DUNGEON CRAWLING MOVE ROLLING 2D20 + OMENS (1) VS DR12. AS I’D OUTLINED IN PART ONE, A WEAK HIT WOULD RESULT IN A COMMMON ENCOUNTER, A FAIL WOULD RESULT IN A RARE ENCOUNTER.

WITH ONLY 1 OMEN, THIS RESULTS IN A WEAK HIT - A COMMON ENCOUNTER. I ROLL 1D10 ON THE ENCOUNTER TABLE TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS…

HALF-BILLED RAVENS! A FURTHER D4 ROLL INDICATES 2 OF THEM.

Mist, graves and tombstones stretch for miles in all directions. Times seems to stretch. Graft and Wemut trudge after Dog for what could be hours or even days.

Wemut grimaces and spits.

“We have been here before. That statue. That grave.”

He points at a stone angel that overlooks a freshly dug grave that yawns in the Graven-Tosk soil. From within, the sound of tearing meat and the flutter of wings.

Graft shivers and readies his sling. He stalks toward the grave, loading a sling stone and whirling the weapon.

“Cursed vermin!”

Wemut spits and unsheathes steel.

I ROLL INITIATIVE.

With a gargling screech, two mangy ravens erupt from the grave, beating tattered wings. Their heads are spattered with blood and jelly from the eyeballs of their meal. Long, strangling tongues emerge from their broken half-beaks.

I ROLL AGILITY DR12 FOR GRAFT AND WEMUT.

BOTH FAIL! I ROLL DAMAGE AND WEMUT TAKES 4 DAMAGE BUT THE DAMAGE WILL NOT PENETRATE GRAFTS ARMOUR

The strangling tongues fasten on to both Wemut and Graft. Grafts cloak prevents the Half-Billed Raven finding purchase on his neck but Wemut chokes as the tongue coils around his neck like a serpent and throttles him.

Face blackening, Wemut pulls his Luck from around his neck and attempts to brain the raven with it. The horsehoe has never failed him before - will it serve him now?

WEMUT ROLLS STRENGTH VS DR10

A HIT! AND 3 DAMAGE!

With a sickening crunch, the horsehoe crushes the skull of the Half-Billed Raven. Wemut prises the tongue from around his neck, coughing and gasping for breath. He stamps a boot on the mangy bird, crushing it into a paste of blood and feathers.

Graft has fared better than Wemut thus far, but his sling isn’t useable at such close range. He produces a jagged short sword from under his shapeless robe and stabs at the scrawny bird, trying to kill it before its tongue can find better purchase on his neck.

GRAFT ROLLS STRENGTH VS DR12

A MISS!

The bird flaps and flutters unpredictably avoiding Graft’s flailing knife. The tongue begins to tighten around his neck…

I ROLL DAMAGE AND A D2 FOR GRAFTS ARMOUR

GRAFT TAKES 2 DAMAGE

Graft chokes and gags as the strangling tongue slithers under his hood and settles around his throat like a noose.

Wemut gives an explosive grunt and hurls his Luck at the bird like a blood-spattered boomerang.

A MISS!

The horseshoe whirls past the bird and then loops back, slapping wetly into Wemut’s palm, ready to be thrown again.

Dog dances about, bones clattering furiously but the little dog skeleton isn’t able to reach the bird as it beats its wings in the air above Graft’s head.

Graft stabs at the bird again.

A HIT! 1 DAMAGE!

THE HALF-BILLED RAVEN HAS 1 HIT POINT LEFT. I ROLL MORALE FOR IT.

FAIL! THE RAVEN FLEES

Feathers and dark blood shower onto Graft. With a gargling caw, the tongue withdraws, whipping back into the mangled half-beak and the mangy bird flaps into the mist, cawing angrily.

Graft and Wemut stare at each other. Wemut spits and rubs his neck, raw and bruised.

“Your fault. Leave the birds alone.”

Graft shrugs and winces, hand going to his own neck. Looking a little sheepish for provoking the monstrous birds, he rummages in his pouches and produces his waterskin, which he offers to Wemut.

“Drink. F-for your neck. Drink.”

Wemut accepts the drink wordlessly and takes a long draught. The pain in his neck subsides somewhat and he grunts appreciatively, as close as he will ever get to showing gratitude.

WEMUT AND GRAFT REGAIN 3 AND 2 HIT POINTS AS THEY REST

Dog sniffs at the open grave and wags his tail. Dropping down, Wemut rifles the corpse.

I MAKE A SEARCHING FOR AN OBJECT CHECK AS WEMUT ROBS THE GRAVE

A STRONG HIT! A USEFUL ITEM IS ROLLED - AN UNCLEAN SCROLL!

Wemut emerges from the grave looking extremely disappointed. He holds a black scroll case sealed with melted black wax.

“Useless.”

Graft scrurries over to him.

“No! No! Let me see! L-Let me see!”

The hermit cracks open the seal and withdraws a scroll on soft vellum. It feels like skin. Daubed on it are terrible sigils and pictograms that immediately give Wemut a headache, just looking at them. He turns away in disgust.

Graft laughs triumphantly.

“See! this can help us. We can raise more help.”

He points at Dog.

“Help like him.”

The undead hound wags its tail. Wemut shrugs.

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Let us go.”

They head into the mist.

I ROLL A D4 TO DETERMINE WHERE THE CHARACTERS EMERGE, REFERRING TO MY KEY LOCATIONS SET OUT IN PART ONE

The air becomes chilly. A stench of decay pervades everything - a smell of death and rot and mildew. Blown by an unseen breeze, the fog whirls and eddies. It parts to reveal that towering above Wemut and Graft is a vision of death.

Blackened branches creak and shift in an unseen wind. A huge tree, gnarled and twisted, long since leafless.

Above the pair, branches groaning from a dozen hanging corpses weight.

Nooses sway excitedly in the wind.

Daubed on the trunk are three words, smeared with something clotted and sticky.

They read:

THE STRANGLY TREE

END OF SESSION 2

Wemut has 5 hit points.

Graft has 1 Omen.

Gained: The Corrupted Horn of Roses, Unclean Scroll: Foul Psychopomp

I was really impressed by article on Wounds Without Crunch and the follow up article on weapons for the same system. It got me thinking about whether I could incorporate it into my home games.

It’s a neat mechanic that allows for a certain amount of called shot style stunts by using a nicely streamlined set of damage tables for Minor Wounds (wounds that deduct HP)

and Major Wounds (wounds inflicted when at 0 HP).

suggests in his second article that weapons can be made mechanically distinct by adding features that change how they interact with these tables. I’m currently running CY_BORG and thought I might take these rules for a spin to see how they work in a cyberpunk context. If they seem fun, I might even see about trying them out in Mothership or Death in Space.

To that end, I’ve cobbled together a table of CY_BORG weapons and figured I’d share them here to help anyone else planning on messing around with this excellent wounds system. If you enjoy them and make use of them, let me know!

CY_BORG Weapons List

Broken Bottle (d6): When you inflict bleeding causes 2 auto damage per turn. Smashes on a damage roll of 5+

Machete (d8): When rolling to determine if you sever a limb, roll with advantage.

Throwing Knives (d4): Attack twice. Combine the damage of any hits before determining wounds result.

Ancient Revolver (d8): When you make a target drop an object, the object is shot out of their hand and damaged on 4+ on a d6.

Smartgun™ (d6a/d10a with Smartjack™): If you have a Smartjack, when you roll lost senses, permanent damage to senses or immobilise results, you may choose the result instead of rolling for sense affected or limb loss.

Two Small SMGs (d6a): When you roll lost senses, you may instead choose an opponent to be suppressed and duck for cover as their next action.

Shotgun (d8): When you roll a knocked prone result, target is knocked back distance equal to damage in feet.

Monosword (d10): When you inflict bleeding on a target, they gain two wounds. When you sever a limb, you choose how much to cut off instead of rolling.

Assault Rifle (d8a): Every successive autofire hit after the first counts as 1 roll higher on wound table.

Grenade Launcher (d6 damage to d3 targets): On any damage roll of 4+, targets are automatically blown 3d6 feet in a random direction.

Pulse Rifle (d10a): If you roll 6+ on a Major Wound, you may shoot at another nearby target (does not count toward autofire attacks limit).

Sniper Rifle (2d6): If you roll a double on the damage dice ignores armor. Critical Hits cause automatic Major Wounds.

a = capable of autofire - hits allow a second attack against either the same target or another one nearby, up to a maximum of three attacks.

Bonus: Cy_Borg Monsters

also suggests in his article, we use wound tables as a template for specific statblocks, like in Dragonbane.

I re-skinned and tweaked his dragon as an example of how you can make an ED-209 style Mech to commit atrocities on a some foolish pvnks - have fun with it!

Mech (Minor Wounds):

1: Glancing hit.

2: Demands Surrender From Vox Speakers. All deafened for 1 round.

3: Suppressing Fire (3 targets). Knocked prone.

4: M.A.R.A.U.D.E.R. Guns, Warning Shot (2 targets). Rends armour, reduce by 1.

5: Low Intensity Laser (2 Targets). Blinds for 1 round.

6+: Incendiary Rocket. All in area ignited, 1 fire damage per turn until extinguished.

Mech: (Major Wounds):

1: Glancing hit.

2: High Intensity Laser. Eyeballs fried. Permanent blindness.

3: Cluster Grenade (3 targets). Roll a d6. Leg (1-3), arm(4-5), or spine (6) broken.

4: Rocket Launcher (2 targets). Armour destroyed, limbs severed.

5: M.A.R.A.U.D.E.R. Guns, Full-auto. Pink mist and riddled with bullets. Death imminent without intervention.

6+: Maximum Intensity Laser Turret: Vaporized.

I selected Graves Left Wanting as my started scenario and rolled up a character on SCVMBIRTHER. I thought I’d try and mash together the scenario with Solitary Defilement’s Dungeon Crawling prep. With that in mind, I looked at the number of locations in the scenario and random encounters in the scenario and decided the following.

Dungeon name: THE GRAVEYARD Status: Inactive - only the dead are here. Imminent Danger: Undead and unquiet spirits. Who or what dwells there now? Walking dead, graverobbers and scavengers. What brings you here? Awoke in a plague pit. Entrance: A pile of corpses and coffins in a plague pit. Guarded by: THE ÜBERTAKER Distinctive feature: The mist causes wanderers to get lost and appear at d4 Special Locations. Once all four locations are visited, the next path leads to the Undertaker’s Hut. The Roach Herder knows which way to go. Special Room 1: The Strangly Tree Special Room 2: The Roach Herders Lair Special Room 3: The Origin Fountain Special Room 4: Maus’ Vomatorium

I decided I would use a single encounter table but use different dice for Common (1d10) or Rare (1d6) Random Encounters. Common Encounters would occur from a weak hit on dungeon crawling. Rare encounters would occur from a fail.

Where does our story begin?

A soupy fog swirls around ancient graves stones. It cascades, heavy and thick, over the side of a freshly dug plague pit. It swirls around a fetid pile of bloated corpses and rotting coffins. A half beaked crow, disturbed by a THUD, launches into the air and flaps off into the mist, a raucous cawing coming from its mutilated bill.

THUD

THUD

THUD

Moldy wood splinters and one of the coffins splits apart, as if hatching a deformed bird from a rotten egg. What crawls forth, staggering and retching is probably a man.

Tall and long-limbed, with ape-like arms and a scarred body that is corded with muscle, Wemut emerges. He howls like a beast, a mouth full of splinters and bloody spittle after chewing his way out of the coffin. Breathing heavily, the soldier pulls a bloody sack and a sword from the wreckage of his coffin, then grasps the horseshoe that hangs from a chain around his neck. A loop of rusted metal, once the shoe of a warhorse, now a keepsake. His luck. His teeth and his luck are the only things Wemut trusts.

Scenting the air, Wemut squints at the other coffins and then kicks a couple, looking for any sign of life.

I DECIDE WEMUT WILL PERFORM A GENERAL ADVENTURING MOVE TO SEE IF THERE ARE ANY COMPANIONS IN THE COFFINS. SUCCESSES WILL DETERMINE IF HE FINDS A COMPANION, OR PERHAPS MORE THAN HE BARGAINED FOR.

A STRONG HIT!

Wemut kicks the lid off another coffin as hears muffled gasping from inside. From within, a pallid figure with marble-white skin and fine, almost sculpted features sit up in the coffin, blinking in the half-light. The only illumination is moonlight that casts everything with an unwholesome pallor resembling sour milk.

“Who-”

Wemut places a blade against the slender throat of the man and growls.

“I am Wemut. You are mine. Name yourself.”

The ragged figure stares up at him.

“Graft. I am Graft.”

A hauntingly beautiful face, so incongruous with the rags, is screwed up in incomprehension. Graft gasps:

“The plague? I thought it had taken me! How are we here? Why-”

Wemut cuts him off. His tone brooks no argument.

“None of that. This place is foul with death. There are no answers here.”

Graft rises to his feet. His tattered robes bulge and clink, adorned with black feathers, and a necklace of crow skulls clatter at his neck. His hair and beard are coal black, in contrast with his marble-white skin. Graft mumbles to himself and his hands are suddenly filled with cracked parchment. He stows the scrolls away.

GRAFT SUMMONS HIS DAILY ALLOTMENT OF SCROLLS GAINING 2 ONE USE UNCLEAN SCROLLS - PALMS OPEN THE SOUTHERN GATE AND DEATH. HE HAS 3 USES OF POWERS TODAY.

A shallow ravine wends among broken and ruined tombstones and Wemut and Graft cautiously follow it. Graft peers around them at the soupy fog.

“Graven-Tosk. This is Graven-Tosk.”

WEMUT : 3

GRAFT: 6

Wemut grunts, as if annoyed by this revelation. Graft stares around at the mist in consternation and covers his mouth with a fold of his ragged robe.

I DECIDE TO ROLL DUNGEON CRAWLING AS THEY EXPLORE A NEW LOCATION - 2d20 vs DR 12

A WEAK HIT! I FOLLOW UP TO SEE IF THEY GET AN ENCOUNTER AND ROLL SENSORY STRANGENESS

The ravine leads to a Mausoleum. Gothic lettering carved into a stone lintel above the doorway reads ERHARDT. Mist clings to floor of the interior and a sarcophagus upon a dais can be seen.

Wemut sniffs the air. Stale. Warm.

“Nobody here. Nobody buries their dead in Graven-Tosk now.”

In the distance there is the sound of a bird cawing. An unseen wind chills Graft’s spine. Sweat sheening his face, the hermit twitches and scampers inside, fumbling for his sling and a sling stone.

“Cursed, wretched things. Maybe we find something in here, yes?”

I DECIDE TO MAKE A SEARCH FOR AN OBJECT ROLL

A WEAK HIT!

2 - CORPSE PLUNDERING - D6

As they search, Wemut stamps on a nest of soggy, white spiders. Their bodies burst with a noise like someone slapping wet bread. On the walls are a couple of unlit torches in rusted sconces. The pair take one each but having nothing to light them with, stow them in their belts.

They eye the sarcophagus uncertainly. Graft looks about nervously.

“Can we lift it? Should we?”

Wemut grunts and sets his shoulder against it.

“Our need is greater than Erhardt’s. Get to it.”

I DECIDE TO TEST USING WEMUT’S STRENGTH (+2) AGAINST DR16

FAIL! WEMUT TAKES 1 DAMAGE AND GRAFT TAKES 2 DAMAGE (HIS ARMOUR ABSORBS 1 POINT OF THIS). I DECIDE THIS MAY INCUR A COMMON ENCOUNTER AS AN ADDITIONAL CONSEQUENCE AND ROLL 1D10 ON THE ENCOUNTER TABLE, GETTING SENSORY STRANGENESS. I ROLL 1D8 AND GET “THE SUDDEN SMELL OF WET DOG.”

The mausoleum fills with curses as the lid shatters, a broken section of lid scraping Grafts fingers bloody and crushing Wemuts foot.

Graft wrinkles his nose. "I can smell… an animal?”

Wemut peers inside the sarcophagus. “Not him. He does not rot.”

True enough. The figure inside is an odorless corpse of a man in near perfect condition. He has been buried in silk finery. Wemut prods the corpses cheek with one cracked fingernail. The skin is waxy and malleable like dough. It feels inhuman.

I DECIDE THAT OPENING THE SARCOPHAGUS MERITS ANOTHER SEARCH ROLL.

WEAK HIT AND A 3 ON THE D4 - I ROLL 1d100 ON THE TRINKETS TABLE IN FERETORY - 32: A RECENTLY SHARPENED SCYTHE (1d8)

Wemut snarls in triumph, hoisting a baroque looking scythe - perhaps a momento mori - prising it from the dead mans grip. Graft looks on glumly, then helps himself to a pair of silk slippers, replacing the rags that bind his feet. Having found all they can, the pair decide to move on.

There are three paths that can be taken, though east leads back to the plague pit. To the north is a crawl space and a tunnel runs south.

WHICH WAY WILL THEY GO? WEMUT IS NOT ONE FOR CRAWLING SO THEY GO SOUTH WITH A DUNGEON CRAWLING MOVE - 2d20 VS DR 12

WEAK HIT! I ROLLED FOR A COMMON ENCOUNTER

A SINGLE ROTTEN SKELETON. I DECIDE TO ROLL REACTION FOR IT.

11! HELPFUL!

As Wemut and Graft proceed cautiously into the tunnel, they hear a scrabbling from a side passage. There are no torches and though the air is unsettlingly warm, it is almost impossible to see the earthen walls and low ceilings.

Wemut grips his new scythe and snarls, when a rattling, scrabbling shape emerges from the gloom. It stops and sits back on bony haunches, a canine skull cocked at a quizzical angle. A skeletal dog with bones that are green with decay. Wemut raises the scythe to strike but feels a hand on his arm.

“Wait! It - it means no harm!”

The soldier shakes free of Grafts clammy grip.

“Do not touch me.”

Graft scuttles forward and crouches in front of the skeletal dog, peering at it curiously.

“You live, yet you do not. Where have you come from?”

A sound like rattling dice as the skeleton wags its tail. It skitters back, then pauses, looking back at Graft, waiting for him to follow. Wemut spits.

“Foolishness.”

They follow the creature through the darkened tunnels and it leads them past dead ends and wrong turns until eventually, ahead - moonlight and the clatter of teeth.

The tunnel emerges into a large circular chamber with a ceiling pierced with thousands of tiny holes. A myriad moonbeams crisscross the room and long worms of mist spiral down from the ceiling.

At a stone table, three skeletons wreathed in coils of fog twitch and clatter. They are engaged in a tug of war over a rusted metal strong box. As Wemut and Graft look on, they spy that one of them is waving a strange dagger, its blade toothed like a key.

HAVE WEMUT AND GRAFT BEEN NOTICED? I CONSULTED THE ORACLE DIE

YES, BUT… - I DECIDED THAT THEY HAD INDEED BEEN NOTICED AND THE ‘BUT’ WOULD BE A -2 PENALTY TO THE REACTION ROLL.

THE SKELETONS ARE ANGERED AT THE INTRUSION! I ROLL INITIATIVE

The skeletons surge to their feet, teeth chattering viciously. They lurch toward the intruders, mist coalescing into eerie wavering sickles, axes and maces in their bony hands. One lunges at Wemut, a second at Graft and the third attacks their skeletal hound.

WEMUT, GRAFT AND THE DOG TEST AGILITY DR12, THE DOG IS HIT FOR 2 DAMAGE

Wemut brings up his scythe to parry and Graft scampers away from his opponent, fumbling for a weapon. The skeletal dog is not so fortunate, taking a glancing hit from a mace of fog, bone splinters and grave dust filling the air.

Wemut attempts to slash at a skeleton with his scythe and Graft pulls out a precious Unclean Scroll, beginning to mutter gutteral syllables that hurt the ear. The skeletal dog lunges, teeth snapping at the shins of the skeleton that struck it.

ATTACK ROLLS FOR WEMUT AND THE DOG, TEST STR VS DR12

BOTH HIT, THE DOG CANNOT DO MORE THAN 1 DAMAGE. WEMUT ROLLS FOR HIS SCYTHE

5 DAMAGE! THE FOG-BOUND SKELETON SHATTERS.

Wemut slashes his scythe through one skeleton, splitting it from skull to pelvis and it bursts into bone dust with a shriek. The skeletal hound gnaws and worries at the shin of its opponent.

Graft brings his incantation to a crescendo and cries:

“Eyelid Blinds the Mind!”

GRAFT FAILS HIS ROLL AND I OPT TO SPEND AN OMEN. THE RE-ROLL IS 20! I DECIDE THIS IS A CRITICAL SUCCESS AND THE POWER WORKS AUTOMATICALLY.

Grafts eyes burn with black fire. His voice pronounces words that burn the air as they leave his lips, with all the potency of Basilisk Prophecy. The syllables fall on the world with magical weight that warps reality and their pressure seems to affect the skeletons. Both collapse into dormancy with a clatter of bones and Wemut immediately stamps their skulls into dust.

Graft is still overcome with the power he has channeled, so whilst he recovers, Wemut scoops up the dagger-key and approaches the chest on the table whilst the skeletal dog prances at his heels. He turns the key in the lock and looks inside.

I ROLL A D4 FOR THE CONTENTS ON THE TABLE BELOW

Wemut opens the box, turning the dagger-key with a click. The interior of the box is wet, red and spongy, resembling muscle and innards. Glistening in the moonlight is a beating heart, seeming to be alive and pumping. Wemut prods it with a single filthy finger.

I ROLL A D4. ON A 1-2 THE HEART IS WEMUTS, ON A 3-4 IT IS GRAFTS.

Graft shrieks, clutching his chest in pain. Wemut gives a gurgling chuckle and prods the organ again, met with another gasp of pain from the hermit. More laughter.

“Your heart. Now you really are mine.”

Graft stares up at him uncomprehendingly.

“How? How did-”

Wemut shakes his head.

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Let us go.”

Dropping the box into his sack, Wemut turns to leave and Graft hauls himself upright. He stares at Wemuts back in confusion and hatred. The skeletal dog prances about, then scampers toward an earthen tunnel to the east.

In the distance a bubbling sound can be heard, like a pot boiling.

END OF SESSION 1

Graft spent 1 Omen

Gained: 2 Torches, 1 sharpened Scythe (d8), some silk slippers, the Skeleton Un-Key, a box containing Graft’s heart.

The Inquisition of the Two-Headed Basilisks demand that you hunt down the thieves that have stolen a copy of the Nameless Scriptures in exchange for a pardon for your many unforgiveable sins. Failure to return the manuscript will be punished exquisitely.

You have tracked the culprits to a ruined Creton archive in Graven-Tosk, the Bochord of Blasphemy awaits…

It’s a 13 room dungeon with a good mix of hazards, monsters, secrets, trap and NPCs.

It also expands on MÖRK BORG’s lore a littel with a heretic cult of Gorgh led by the Eaters of Blasphemy.

You can grab a copy at https://doogface.itch.io/the-bochord-of-blasphemy

Let me know what you think!

I started the session with a pointcrawl through a very dark version of faerie using the supplement Into the Weird and Wild. I rolled for trails and a series of weird locations using the book. I've been quite vigilant about letting procedures and random tables shape the experience in this campaign and it's not yet let me down

The players navigated an ire briar thicket as tiny spites flitted about needling them with jibes so the briars would react to their anger and lash them with thorns.

Then they negotiated directions with an elemental fish-fae in a moebius creek that was a perfect circle, always flowing to and from itself.

Finally they hid from a procession of shadow fae carrying a funeral bier into the Abbey of Godflesh. They glimpsed a horrid chunk of quivering divine matter, pierced with spears on a huge cyclopean altar.

Finally they reached the Tollkeeper gate, an 88 foot high arch of stone surmounted with a giant skull. The spirit guarding it was an 8 foot tall grim reaper with a hood filled with a multitude of chattering skulls. One character volunteered to pay the toll for everyone to use the gate. The Tollkeeper took a year off his life and the memory of the faces of his parents.

After passing through the gate, we did a bit of hexcrawling through the High Forest and had a cool scene of the paladin character finally getting his steed, a fae elk he has named Herne. Then players are getting nervous as their supplies are getting low and they are a long way from civilisation now.

After a tense night camping, I ran a good scene of horror when an encounter check rolled the result of an escaped prisoner. They discovered the eyeless, tongueless and handless survivor of the rival adventuring band, found naked and covered in leeches having escaped being tied to a demonic totem by a bog (a scene I brainstormed on the discord - thanks guys!). The players bound his wounds as best they could and used a detect thoughts spell to try and get a little information from him. His fractured mind was flooded with images of his capture and torture but they learned who they faced alongside the night hag. Yhinna Skulltaker, chieftain of the Blue Bear had captured him.

Finally, the characters made it to the entrance of a desecrated tomb and after destroying three demonic totems, had a protracted fight with Blue Bear demogorgon cultists and an ettin brute. The cultists wore bearskins and skull masks - savage fanged masks to represent Demogorgons savage head and skull helms smeared with bloody tears and spirals, representing Demogorgons head of madness. It was a brutal battle. The ettin was very fun to run with its heads squabbling about which character they should attack. It nearly did for Oisin the paladin, bludgeoning him to the ground and knocking the wind out of him, then leaving him crushed and dying, pierced by a spiked club that was fouled with rotting flesh and diseases. They eventually felled the beast and met a group of reinforcements with a a volley of arrows and magic, killing a Blue Bear Shaman outright and causing the rest to flee.

After binding their wounds, the players decided to brave the Tomb of Elashdor. The entrance had been defiled, elven wardings and religious iconography had been melted into greasy slag using hellfire.

I finished out the day with a dungeon crawl and the players began to peel back the layers of history to the dungeon I'd constructed. I use dungeons to teach the history of my campaign. This one is almost like an onion as it has four layers to it.

The first layer of the Tomb of Elashdors history is the revelation it wasn't originally a tomb at all! It was the haven of an elven order of knights called the Watch Eternal. They fought against the fallen house of Dlardrageth and the demons of Hellgate Keep in the Seven Citadels War. The party found a chapel to the Seldarine, murals of the Watch Eternal facing demons and the personal study of Elashdor - he had clearly once lived here.

The second layer of history the players uncovered occurred after the war. Most of the Watch Eternal died sealing Hellgate keep and one survivor had not only lost his comrades but his betrothed - a brother knight called Azad who had sided with the Dlardrageth and he had been forced to slay in single combat. The survivor, Elashdor, had turned the place into a memorial and tomb for his fallen comrades and a place to grieve his lost love. There were halls of the tomb that stood as memorials to the deeds and final stand of the Watch Eternal.

The third layer of history uncovered is that Elashdor went mad with grief. Azad’s soul was lost to Orcus, he could not be raised and would not be found in the Elven afterlife. Elashdor turned from the elven gods and using an infernal mirror, captured from the Dlardrageth during the war, determined he would be reunited with his dead love in dreams. He lost himself in madness, researching profane lore on dreams and oneiromancy. The players found journals and a library containing much of Elashdors lore on dream magic.

After a lot of exploration and wondering how the cultists kept appearing as if from nowhere, they have JUST discovered that the place is riddled with secret passages and that there's a dungeon BEHIND the dungeon with their quarry lairing in the secret areas. This secret area is the fourth layer of the dungeons history and the legacy inherited by the Night Hag the players seek to vanquish - but that will have to wait until next game!

I’ll be sure to let you all know how it goes and relate a little more of my campaigns background.

Until next time!

When we last left the crew, they’d escaped the crippled Doppler Effect by base jumping off the hull and conducting a harrowing space walk to Terminal, the geostationary space station that was the top of the Karth Space Elevator, colloquially known as “The Beanstalk”.

They spent a little time resting and jawing with Borges, a marine grunt serving in the Manian Expeditionary Force (MEF) that were the defacto administrators of the Karth colony.

He gave them a bit more of a briefing on the erratic behaviour of the Defense Grid that had crippled their ship and they learned that Captain Jonas Kelly, the AWOL Company man they were seeking had tampered with it using an Oldtech device. His ship had passed through the Grid unharmed after an act of piracy and had not been seen since. The Grid now was a lot more erratic and the MEF were still trying to figure out what its new parameters were.

Eventually the elevator arrived and it was time to head down to Karth - the expedition had begun!

Arrival and First Impressions

The crew’s descent on the Beanstalk was a stark reminder of their fragile situation. After escaping the Doppler Effect and resting on Terminal, the claxon and metallic clang jolted them into action. Marines, coated in ochre dust and sunburn, offloaded crates; Borges wished them a less eventful stay before they boarded the cramped, foil-lined compartment.

Inside, the rubber-tyred climber clung to the carbon nanotube cable, its motor thrumming to life beneath faint elevator muzak that the MEF clearly thought was a very funny touch. The jolts and vibrations felt like a cable car ride, the planetary vista of Karth framed by distant gas giant Tabernas and Vespae’s sunlight.

Each member of the crew sank into personal reflection: Laura pondered broken dig sites and promises to protect fragile worlds; Jünker wrestled with old scars from a mining colony massacre by rogue androids and his distrust of them; Islay catalogued grudges against The Company, mindful of past betrayals; Enoch recalled near-fatal accidents at the Breaker Yards and lost comrades.

The slow descent gave space for uneasy introspection and had a soporific quality, but the crew were jolted out of their reverie as they arrived at the MEF colony of Larstown.

Stepping off the climate controlled elevator is like walking into an oven. The dry heat hits in a wave while the smell of hagfish from the farm vats mixes with the faint scent of cardamom that suffuses the whole moon’s atmosphere. The chatter of prospectors mixes with the radio traffic of marine patrols and the bray of camels drifts in from outside the terminal. Vendors hawking their wares wave to greet you and you can see the main street ahead of you leading toward a square dominated by a large bronze statue. To your left you see a large fortified building bearing the MEF logo and shark insignia and to your right you see a mansion - some sort of domed palatial home retrofitted from majestic crumbling white ruins. Through pillars with armed guards stationed at them, you see a fountain softly arcs inside the misted vine garden courtyard. Beyond this at the square you can see other buildings - a clinic of some sorts and a palatial buildng with a sign proclaiming it as FIRST BANK OF LARSTOWN. Somewhere beyond the MEF barracks comes the sound of music and raucous laughter.

A Frontier Welcome

The first thing to draw the crews attention was a hubbub in the town square. Crowds were gathering at the southern end, beyond a large bronze statue of a mutton chopped man with a cane and a beatific expression, left boot tip rubbed to a shine by hands of locals seeking good luck.

Squinting, Enoch noticed a plaque on the base read: “Larstown sprung up at the ancient elevator’s base after the first MEF expedition led by Col. Lars Tanaka discovered Karth for the good of Mani. Devoured by a sandsquid shortly after landing, Larstown was named in his honor and memory.”

The milling crowds obscured most of the action but according to a beggar that Enoch threw a credit to, it seemed a bounty hunter had tracked down a renegade from corespace and was confronting them outside the Inn. Then there was a gunshot and they had their first sight if the local law.

From across the square comes the loud retort of a gunshot. Silence reigns, broken only by the gates to the MEF compound open and a squad of six marines in desert fatigues and carrying pulse rifles, led by a tall grizzled man in body armor. He has iron grey hair, a tan stetson hat and the stub of a cigar clenched in his teeth. You can see a name stencilled on the battle dress he wears 'Moses Clark'.

Jünker realises from the pips riveted to the shoulder armour that the man is a colonel. Weirdly, as he passes, you catch tinny strains of jazz music. An odd detail.

As he and his men stride purposefully toward the crowd, the townsfolk part in front of Moses like the red sea before his namesake. For a moment, lying bonelessly in the dust, you see a pale bald woman with a barcode stencilled across her forehead. The milky fluid that serves as the android equivalent of blood leaks from a bullet hole drilled through the bar code. Above her stands an emaciated figure in a broad black sombrero, wearing what appears to be a gas mask and a black shipsuit. He holds a black long barreled pistol with a long arm that appears to have joints in too many places.

The crowd ebbs back, concealing them from view, but you can see folk are starting to peel off back into homes. A few pass you, looking worried, possibly about what is to happen next.

Deciding that this wasn’t a healthy place to stand around, they got off the street and went to make their introductions to the Governor. Their introduction was NOT what they expected.

Meeting the Governor

The Governor's Manor is a welcome escape from the blistering sun. Two bored MEF grunts guard the front gate but make no move to stop you pressing the intercom and requesting entry. The door is opened by an android in a black silk kimono with gold trim and the breeze from the cool airconditioned interior is like a wave of relief washing over you.

The android speaks in smooth measured tones asking your names and then leads you to through the central courtyard past a zen garden bounded by lush vines and a fountain carved in the likeness of fish clearly not native to this planetoid. You are shown into a cool and comfortable audience room where tatami mats and cushions are arrayed in front of an enormous aquariam that dominates one wall. Inside, amongst a forest of imported kelp, swims a bioluminescent shark, neon lights rippling across its flanks and arrays of fins.

Either side of the tank are two suits of black and gold samurai armour, the helmets and mempo fashioned to look like the snarling jaws of a shark. They might be ornaments. Or guard androids. Hard to be sure.

Watching the creature is a slim woman in a high necked black kimono and red haori with a mon of what looks like a squid or octopus embossed on the back in gold. She kneels gracefully in front of a small tea set and is pouring it into a cup with almost ritualistic care.

"Governor Tanaka, you have visitors."

The scent of jasmine fills the air as the android servant ushers you forward and quietly and politely bids you make your introductions.

Jünker felt distinctly out of place, sticky from cryosleep and uncomfortable in his rough clothes, aware the setting was designed to unsettle outsiders. Enoch was overwhelmed by the opulence but tried to maintain composure, while Laura adopted formal politeness, making respectful introductions in Japanese and explaining their research mission. Islay was mostly fascinated by the highly advanced and graceful android servant, wanting to examine the tech but wary of their presence.

The conversation felt like an interrogation, with Tanaka discovering much about their circumstance and revealing only what she chose. She authorised bounty payments if they could find or capture Captain Jonas Kelly (one of their mission objectives) and would pay handsomely for information that would improve the Coral Dust refinement process.

She gave an overview of some of the factions on Karth and now the crew are curious about the Valley Rangers and the Dawnseeker Cult at Silver Spire.

Through all of this, Tanaka’s android household moved with quiet precision, serving tea and refreshing towels, against the backdrop of a giant aquarium that dominated the reception room. Before the Doppler Effect crew left, their final impression was sealed by Tanaka’s imposing pet Shashihoko: the massive neon-lit bioluminescent shark tore into a tossed haunch of meat, as they watched. The message was clear - Tanaka was an apex predator, just like her pet.

Overall, the group left with mixed impressions. Relief at the respite, gratitude at the offers of assistance and overview of Larstown, but also sheer terror of crossing the Governor. In Junkers own words:

“Furthermore, as the missions security consultant, it is a top priority recommendation that we do not cross that woman.”

“ Just in case that that wasn’t clear.”

Desperados and Desperate Karaoke

The ruckus in the square had dispersed but the crew were feeling pretty shaky after their “chat” with Tanaka. They decided that after all that, what they really needed was a drink.

WARDEN:

You find yourselves outside in the baking heat once more. The square has emptied as everyone wisely gets out of the midday sun. You can still hear music from a street beyond the MEF barracks and on the far side of the square you can see the Inn and the General Store.

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Enoch Pink:

The heat hits like a hairdryer after the relative coolness of the mansion. It almost feels worse to have those extremes one after the other. The cool moisture from the towel immediately turns to sweat.

"Great, she was lovely and I do not want to be doing that again in a hurry. That shark is real serious business, I can't even begin to imagine how much water that tank would need to contain to safely house a beast like that."

oh wait, yes I can. It's a hell of a lot

I set my eyes on the bar, the sound of music wafting over "Drink?"

Jünker:

“Mx Pink, my normal response to that when we’re on the clock would be somewhere between, “no” and “you had two already on the terminal”, but I just saw an apex predator size me up from feet away whilst I still smelled of cryosleep. Oh and there was a cybernetic shark in the room too. So uh, yeah. I think we can bend the rules for one drink”.

Following the sound of music and raucous laughter, they made their way through an alley running along the side of the MEF compound.

In the shade, a gaunt man with a shock of red hair and unusual blue-grey skin was relieving himself against the barracks. As you approach he began to shiver and squinted toward the group, skin the colour of the ocean in a storm and his eyes seemed unnaturally dark, like a fish.
"Ugh. You got the stink of fear on you."

The man clutched his head, lip curled as if he smells something bad.
"Stay away from me." He stumbled away and the crew caught the smell of cheap liquor and a strong smell of cardamom but their attention was immediately caught by sounds from the street beyond.

At this point you a hear a riffing burst of guitar leading into a a jaunty tune, blaring out of the alley beyond and someone singing an old earth tune.
"I'm all dressed up with nowhere to go..."
Turning the corner you see a long rectangular building made from pinkish adobe, with a porch that looks like it's made from deck plating, shaded from the sun by a corrugated iron canopy.
"Walkin' with a dead man over my shoulder..."
The porch leads to a set of swinging saloon doors straight out of an old cowboy holovid. Stencilled across the front of the building in english and japanese kanji are crimson letters reading "DESPERADO KARAOKE BAR" Music blares from within and someone is crooning lyrics into a tinny microphone.
"Waiting for an invitation to arrive..."
The air here is heavy with smells of beer, cheap bourbon, cannabis and...cardamom? Hubbub and laughter can be heard from inside.
"Goin' to a party where no one's still alive..."

Inside, they were greeted by the scent of stale whiskey, cannabis, and sweat. Behind the counter stood Wahlgren, a bartender with a thousand-yard stare and scars to match. The menu was short and unapologetic: kelp beer, rotgut, spliffs, and one decent whiskey.

Karaoke Night

• Enoch Pink joyfully signed themself and Jünker up for Total Eclipse of the Heart, dragging the reluctant security vet into the spotlight.

• Jünker, horrified, went along after some coaxing and beer—possibly the bravest thing he's done yet.

• Laura Cruze ordered a good whiskey and a kelp beer, leafed through the songbook, and found a hidden section of Japanese songs she could actually sing, singing one with heartfelt abandon.

• Islay Lowett ordered two rotguts and a whiskey for courage, signed up for 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton, and kept an ear out for rumours. She performed her number with gusto, accompanied by a local balladeer by the name of “Weepin’ Joe.”

Islay used her portable terminal to hack a cred stick that Laura had salvaged from the Doppler Effect, and discovered 4,000 credits stored on it - untraceable and very usable.

Rumours

• “If you see any golden tombstones out there, don’t f-f-facking touch them. Bad luck!”

• “Any idea when the eclipse is? When that gas giant blots out the sun for a week, we’re gonna need a place to hole up...”

• On the Dawnseekers and Valley Rangers: “Not a gang, more like a cult. Think they’re descended from the original folks that settled here. Them that built that fucking grid. Same as those Rangers.”

• On Sand Squid: “—you time it just right, you can paralyze 'em by grabbing one of their eyes, just past the ring o' tentacles — they’re real sensitive. I seen one o’ them Rangers do it once. Helluva thing.”

Eventually, tired and happy and considerably less anxious (They all reduced their Stress by 1d3), the crew piled outside. After downing the last of their drinks as Weepin' Joe took the stage, they headed out onto the porch into the rays of the setting sun - discovering they had whiled away the afternoon blowing off some steam. Behind the, Desperados filled with the mournful strains of 'The Ballad of Lars Tanaka".

On the horizon, they could see the hazy shape of the gas giant Tabernas visible now as the suns glare was reduced. The Joes stand at attention, waiting for you, still carrying your gear.

Meeting Walsh

As the crew prepared to wind down and head to the Admiral Grace Inn, the saloon doors swung open and a lean, sunburned man in worn MEF fatigues approached. He had tattoos of sea serpents coiling around his forearms and a torn area where a rank insignia should be on his sleeve — a clear sign to Jünker that this man was once a sergeant, but not anymore.

He introduced himself simply:

"Just call me Walsh."

Walsh had overheard the crew asking questions and made a direct offer - he claimed to have intel they’d need to survive both the desert beyond and the politics within Larstown, implying danger not just from the wasteland, but also from within the MEF compound. His suggestion was clear:

• Meet him for breakfast the next morning

• Talk business outside town, where the walls don’t have ears

• Possibly hire him as a guide for an expedition

Jünker took the lead, reading Walsh’s body language and past experience, and agreed to talk more after rest and food. Laura was wary of Walsh’s openness but trusted Junker's judgment; she agreed they should at least hear him out in the morning. Islay kept a cautious eye on him, sensing potential use in his information, but stayed quiet - more comfortable with androids than strangers. Enoch instinctively distrusted Walsh - he reminded them of the kind of people they would prefer to avoid - but nodded and deferred to Junker’s handling of the situation.

Together, the crew agreed to sleep on it, opting to head to the Admiral Grace Inn for the night, with plans to reconvene with Walsh in the morning for a potential briefing or contract.

Getting Settled

Still a little woozy after an afternoon of drinking, the crew stopped by the General Store Emporium, a cramped, lilac-scented shop run by the friendly and lilting Tami Bergström. Despite the threefold markup on standard gear, the crew picked up desert-appropriate attire and supplies like paracord, preparing for the arid conditions ahead.

From there, they checked into the Admiral Grace Inn, a slightly shabby but clean establishment where the governor had arranged rooms. They were greeted by Mackey Falk, Esq., a crotchety, phlegm-hacking proprietor who made it very clear the androids — Groucho, Harpo, and Chico — were not welcome inside. Mackey clearly had some sort of serious lung condition, wheezing and coughing as he spoke. The Joes were confined to the back yard, a fenced junk heap behind the inn. Coughing and hacking, Mackey retreated to his rooms behind reception and the crew could here the haunting strains of a scratchy record player playing Vera Lynn performing “We’ll Meet Again.”

What’s Up With Chico?

As the others decided to get some rest, Islay remained outside in the heat to run diagnostics on the Joes. Groucho and Harpo checked out fine, but Chico's scan revealed a troubling mystery: someone had deliberately overwritten parts of his core datacore. The modifications referenced something called the Ozymandius Priority Code—but without better tools, Islay couldn’t decipher what it was or what directives might be hidden within. Chico, expressionless and motionless, seemed to watch her intently as she processed the implications.

Shaken by the discovery, she disconnected Chico and retreated indoors just before midnight, unsettled but determined to follow up on the corrupted data when better equipment could be found.

A Night-time Visitor

As Islay came back inside, she heard the sound of swiftly retreating feet as a light clicked off in the room behind reception. A moment later, the front door of the inn shut quietly and peering into the hall, Islay saw a shadow pass one of the front windows.
Investigating, she spotted a mysterious figure in a pale coat with a blue scarf, carrying a slim case, entering the clinic. The figure’s lambent, catlike eyes strongly suggested they may not be human.

Laura and Jünker were both awake and had come down to check on Islay. Laura joined her at the front window and confirmed someone entered the clinic but didn’t get a good look. The trio discussed the possibility that the figure may be an android - suspicion falling on the glitchy Chico, but all three Joes remained accounted for in the inn’s yard and Chico had been with Islay the whole time.

Just then, loud powerdrill noises erupted from behind the reception, startling them - only to realise it was Mackey Falk, the innkeeper, snoring in his sleep. His sickly, wheezing condition from earlier appeared to have vanished overnight.

Deciding not to investigate further in the dark, the crew agreed to wait until morning. Junker shepherded them to bed. The rest of the night passed without incident, though Laura suffered restless sleep due to lingering cryo-sickness.

Morning Coffee

In the morning, the crew gathered in the inn’s shabby dining room over a breakfast of hagfish fritters, watery beans, and reconstituted eggs. Falk seems surprisingly healthy, no longer coughing or wheezing. The party took a moment to talk privately about plans, suspicions, or sightings before their scheduled meeting with Walsh.

Enoch suggested they start at the clinic before going to look for Jonas Kelly, voicing suspicion about Walsh - too friendly, too assuming. Laura, pale and nauseous, quietly agreed, she was unsettled by Walsh’s possible MEF ties. Jünker echoed the concern but cautioned against aligning with Walsh too quickly, warning it could signal the wrong allegiances. He also noted Laura’s rough state, prompting her to admit she’d skipped stim and was feeling the consequences.

Islay listened, focused on coffee and a sketch of a shadowy figure she’d seen entering the clinic—a stranger in a pale coat and blue headscarf, carrying a slim case, eyes faintly glowing. She noted Chico needed repairs and suggested the clinic would serve both medical and technical purposes. When Jünker questioned whether the damaged bot was a danger, tensions rose - Jünker stating he would put Chico down if he became a problem. Islay assured him Chico was stable and pivoted the group back to practical concerns: rations, clothing, and supplies.

Discussion shifted to transport. Vehicles might draw sand-squid, making travel risky, and even scanners could trigger them. Laura recalled a camel ranch west of town where the crew might trade help for mounts. The idea gained traction. Enoch, musing on desert travel, asked who among them could actually shoot, revealing his own lack of firearm training. With that, they agreed on a course: clinic first, then gear, then transport—while keeping a cautious eye on Walsh.

Breakfast with Walsh

The meeting with Walsh took place in the dim light of the Admiral Grace’s common room, filtered through streaked windows and the dry haze of morning. Walsh entered like a man used to watching his back - wary and alert. He joined the crew uninvited but with quiet confidence, helping himself to their coffee and conversation in equal measure.

“Still standing, so I take it Larstown hasn’t eaten you yet,”

Walsh made it clear he hadn’t slept in town -"didn’t seem wise" - and his bloodshot eyes hinted at a deep unease.

He laid out the facts with grim efficiency. Flyers were out of commission, wheels unreliable, but camels - available from the Krieg ranch - remained the safest method of travel across the desert terrain. He spoke of regions beyond Larstown: the scav-haunted ship graveyard, the ominous Silver Spire, the haunted silence of Seahorse Mine, and the shadowy dealings of Marshal Clark with the Dawnseekers cult at the Spire.

“There’s something rotten under the floorboards in Larstown, and most folks know it. They just don’t say it out loud. Not if they want to keep breathing.”

He offered more than just directions. Walsh revealed a history with the MEF, a dismissal that followed too many questions, and a chilling insight into how power operated in Larstown - through disappearances, midnight cult deals, and crude rocket executions masquerading as justice.

“I think I’m next. Maybe not today. Maybe not this week. But he knows I know too much.”

Despite the grim tone, Walsh offered the group a partnership. For a price - credits, and the unspoken implication they’d watch his back - he’d be their guide and ally. After a quiet exchange of glances and considerations around the table, the decision was made. They would hire Walsh. Desperate or not, he knew the terrain, the politics, and the dangers, and for now, that made him too valuable to walk away from.

“I’ll work with you if it keeps me alive. But I need to know - are you worth betting my skin on?”

Laura and Junker gave him his answer.

Laura:
I look around at the others before nodding firmly to Walsh. "You've given us a good grounding in what's going on here, Walsh. I think we can agree that you're hired." The cryosickness causes another shiver, so rather than holding out my own hand to shake Walsh's, I'll nudge Junker's elbow to get him to do it instead.

Jünker:
Junker gives Laura a small nod "I feel you've been straight with us Walsh, you can understand our apprehension when the news you bring us isn't exactly what we'd like to hear. But you're welcome on the crew if you can help us as much as you say. I appreciate your candor"

The meeting concluded with Walsh officially brought on as the crew’s guide. He accepted without ceremony, already preparing for the first step ahead: rounding up the Krieg camels scattered past the drybanks, a job that would earn both goodwill from the Governor and Krieg Ranch and transport for the journey to come. He warned of the dust, the cold nights, and the things that stirred where light ran thin. Then, with a final nod, he stepped out into the rising heat, heading north of town toward the creekbed, where he’d wait.

The crew had made an ally and now, their expedition - and whatever waits on it - truly begins.

And we’ll find that out soon. Tune in next time!

END OF PART ONE

You folks on substack are probably sick of the sight of this dungeon but I rewrote my Silent Shrine dungeon doodle as a full fledged adventure module for Shadowdark and published it as The Quiet Shrine on itch.io.

And people liked it!

Prior to this, the most I’ve done with my work is write blog entries and a single entry into a MÖRK BORG jam.

I posted links to it here in my notes and on the relevant discords and substacks and so far the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive - it’s a great feeling and really gives me a lot of drive to keep creating.

I learned a lot making it. Layout is hard! Columns, headers and placing filler art - yikes!

Choosing art is challenging! Big shoutout to Raging Swan Press for gifting me with the piece below as long as I credited the artist (I did and in case you’re interested, it’s Matt Morrow and he does amazing work).

Proofreading your own stuff isn’t enough! And above all, test your material. Also - a cool template filter can make all the difference. Remember my Dungeon Scrawl map? Have a look at what it looks like now:

I’d promised myself I would keep trying to blog regularly but I’ve decided to promise myself to create regularly too. I’ve been running games for two thirds of my life now and they say you should do what you love.

I love writing adventure modules.

I’d originally written this dungeon to use in a D&D 5e game, but a few friends expressed an interest in an OSR version they could use in other systems. I’ve tried re-work it in a more concise style, paring down a lot of the description and trimming the D&D oriented text. I’ve left the intro largely as is, so that anyone running it has the history and context to draw on, but the rooms are now toned down to a short description and the main features, be it clues, hazards or treasure. I’ve kept the bolded text as that seems to be useful for anyone scanning the page, but hopefully this could be easily used in any OSR system. The dungeon only has three monster types - a crystal ooze (aquatic grey ooze), a water weird and umber hulks. Hopefully these can be used as-is or easily be swapped out if needed.

Rewriting is hard, especially trimming prose back. Very much a kill your darlings situation, but I like how it turned out. What do you think?

The Silent Shrine of Dumathoin, Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain

Nearly three centuries ago, the dwarves of Clan Hammerhand, carved this shrine-tomb into a cliff face deep within the High Forest. The site marked the terminus of a rich emerald vein believed to be blessed by Dumathoin, the Silent Keeper, and was sanctified as a place of worship, ritual, and final rest.

The purpose of the complex was threefold:

• A sacred shrine, where gems and precious stones were ritually offered into a holy well, believed to descend into Dumathoin’s hidden vaults.

• A tomb for Thordran Gemwarden, high priest and lorekeeper of Clan Hammerhand, who claimed Dumathoin whispered to him through stone and silence.

• A retreat, removed from the world's noise, where dwarves devoted to Dumathoin could meditate, reflect, and offer silent tribute.

The shrine thrived for a time, watched over by a devout custodial order. But during the War of Earth’s Flame—a brutal, subterranean conflict between the Hammerhands and the duergar of Gracklestugh—contact with the shrine was severed. With the Hammerhands besieged and their strongholds falling, no guardians remained to tend the sanctuary.

Decades passed in silence, until the shrine was discovered by derro scavengers, who found the upper levels undisturbed and the tomb sealed by dwarven rites. Intrigued by the aura of lost magic and sacred relics, the derro dug deeper, excavating fissures that had opened in the bedrock and pushing toward the sealed tomb of Thordran.

But in doing so, they awakened worse things—umber hulks, drawn from the lower Underdark by the scent of flesh and sound of excavation. The beasts burst through the caves, collapsing parts of the shrine and slaughtering the derro, feasting on them and claiming the site as a lair.

Now, the Silent Shrine lies half-buried, half-broken—its holy places desecrated, its defenses cracked, its silence disturbed not by reverence, but by the echoing burrow of chitin claws. Yet the dwarven wards endure in part, and within the hidden tomb, Dumathoin’s sacred trust still sleeps—alongside the legacy of Thordran Gemwarden.

Inside The Shrine and Caves

Tunnels and hallways are roughly eight feet tall. Larger chambers are twenty feet tall.

Through much of the temple, the floor is flawlessly smooth—clearly through the work of devoted stonemasons. A few sections, though, are slightly worn—no doubt by the passage of countless dwarves over the long centuries.

The caves consist of moist limestone, with many stalactites and stalactites. Many are choked with rubble and gouged by the claws of umber hulks.

The shrine and cave areas are not illuminated.

Squares on the map are 5 feet.

Cliffside Entrance in the High Forest

Framed by ancient oaks and mossy roots, a broad dwarven portal yawns in the cliff face like a forgotten wound. The stone doors are lichen-covered, with a depression in their centre, their reliefs nearly lost to time. The forest holds its breath—no birds sing here.

• Clue: Reliefs depict dwarves mining, forging, and praying silently to Dumathoin. One carving shows a dwarf pressing a gem to the door.

• Clue: The arch bears the warning (in Dwarven): “Enter not without reverence.”

• Interaction: Touching a gemstone to the door's depression after a minute of silence unseals the entrance.

Room 1 – Antechamber of the Faithful

Cold air hangs heavy in this tiled chamber, where black and white stones alternate beneath your feet. The silence is broken only by the whisper of dust and the faint scent of rust. Two goblin skeletons lie slumped near the far wall, riddled with iron darts.

• Hazard: Pressure plates under white tiles trigger iron dart traps (2d10 damage, triggers once per 10 ft).

• Clue: Holy symbols of Moradin, Dumathoin, and others mark only the black tiles.

• Clue: Mural carvings show a dwarven pilgrimage, following constellations depicting the symbols of the dwarven gods.

Room 2 – Vestibule of the Quiet Watchers

Dust thickens the air of this hall, muffling sound like snow. Tapestries droop heavy on the walls, flanking a bas-relief of reverent priests, their images lost in grime. A shredded backpack lies abandoned, blood dried into its leather like old paint.

• Clue: Etched phrase on bas-relief: "The dead rest in the peace of Dumathoin's silence."

• Treasure: Dusty gold coin stamped with Dwarven runes.

• Treasure: Three tapestries, covered in dust, embroidered with dwarven prayers in silver and gold wire (100gp each).

• Clue: The dwarves depicted bow their heads and close their lips, reinforcing the theme of reverent silence.

Room 3 – Hall of the Silent Warden

Light catches on a bright quartz gemstone held by a towering statue of Dumathoin. His pickaxe is raised not in battle, but in offering. All around, carved frescoes show dwarves dropping gems into a holy well in wordless prayer or praying at an altar, head bowed and mouths closed.

• Clue: Carvings reveal the ritual to consecrate the well in Room 5: silence and gem-offering.

• Treasure: The quartz is worth 100gp.

Room 4 – Shrine of Dumathoin

The stone altar rests beneath a carving of mountain and gem. A reverent hush clings to the air. Six statues of dwarven gods seem to watch as if waiting for a proper offering.

• Hazard: Interacting with the altar without a minute of silence triggers booming curses; all within earshot suffer misfortune (automatically fail on next saving throws).

• Clue: Room 3 carvings hint at the proper ritual.

• Clue: A seam in the rear wall and the faint echo of dripping water betray the presence of a secret door.

• Interaction: Pressing the altar’s emerald after a minute of silence opens a secret passage south.

• Treasure: Ceremonial chalice inlaid with gold and silver (75gp).

• Treasure: Emerald gem in altar worth 300gp.

Room 5 – The Sacred Well

This domed hall reverberates with faint wet sloshing. A wide stone well bubbles ominously. The walls depict a bas-relief of a dwarven priest communing with a serpentine water spirit. The water has a greenish tint and a bitter, acidic scent. Deep gouges mar the southern wall.

• Hazard: A crystal ooze dwells within the well. Ripples and acidic smell betray its presence.

• Interaction: Carvings (Room 3) describe this as a ritual well of offering and divine favor. Silently dropping a gem in the water will cleanse the sacred well.

• Treasure: 50 ft down the well: uncut emeralds (500gp) and a tarnished silver bowl (50gp).

• Clue: Southern wall shows signs of violent entry—claw marks from something powerful and rubble on floor.

Room 6 – Gouged Cave

The worked stone gives way to a jagged cave of slick limestone and shifting rubble. Huge three-clawed tracks mark the muddy floor, and the ceiling creaks ominously above. The air is colder here, filled with a rhythmic drip and the threat of collapse.

• Hazard: Loud noise or careless movement may cause rockfall (2d6 damage; slow movement or stealth avoids it).

• Clue: Claw marks and gouged stone suggest large burrowing creatures—likely umber hulks—passed through.

Room 7 – Weird Water

A shallow gour pool glows with soft, unnatural light, like starlight caught in water. The ripples move without wind, and when disturbed, the surface rises into a shape like a serpent made of water.

• Hazard: The Water Weird will defend the pool if threatened.

• Clue: The Water Weird speaks cryptically: "Cleanse the well, defiled and tainted. Only then shall silence be brought to the enemies of Dumathoin."

• Interaction: If the party agrees to cleanse the sacred well, the water weird will aid them against umber hulks, striking from any nearby water.

• Treasure: A dwarven prayer pendant is under the water (75gp)

  ---

Room 8 – Umber Hulk Lair

A broad, uneven cavern stinks of rot and wet stone. Churned rock and bone form unnatural mounds. Two hulking, sand-coloured creatures, all carapace and claws, crouch amid gnawed corpses and clawed walls. A scrawny grey-skinned dwarf sprawled on the floor at the far end twitches.

• Hazards:

  • Two Umber Hulks lair here. They are territorial and attack anything that enters.

  • The derro corpse is infested with rot grubs that leap to any living flesh nearby if the body is disturbed.

• Treasure (on corpse):

  • Driftglobe

  • Wand of Viscid Globs (3 charges)

  • 2 Potions of Healing

  • 190 gold coins in a pouch

  • Platinum statuette of Dumathoin (worth 150 gold)

Room 9 – Subterranean Pool

A wide, stone-rimmed pool fills the cavern. Water drips from the ceiling like slow rain, rippling the surface. Half-submerged in the pool, an enormous creature drinks, its carapace sand-coloured and ridged. Bones lie among the rocks at the edge. Pale moss glows faintly across the walls.

• Clue: A slow, rhythmic chuffing sound is heard—the matriarch’s breath. Deep gouges and claw marks line the walls.

• Hazard:

  • The Umber Hulk Matriarch drinks here. It is larger than the others, with more strength and durability, and causes an additional 3 damage per claw or bite. If disturbed, it attacks with ferocity.

Room 10 – Burrowed Sinkhole

This cavern slopes down into a churned sinkhole strewn with pale, glistening eggs. The air smells of warm soil and decay. Loose scree and splintered stone suggest something immense broke through from below.

• Clue: A crater-like hole in the center marks the point where the umber hulks and derro first erupted upward from deeper tunnels.

• Hazard:

  • Disturbing the eggs causes aggressive vibration and noise that draws two umber hulks from below. They arrive in 1d6 rounds and attack immediately.

• Treasure:

  • Among the dirt and broken stones lies a cracked dwarven helm. Inside is a purse with 120 gold coins and a carved holy symbol of Dumathoin (worth 100 gold).

Room 11 – Myconid Shrine

A sickly fungal altar rises like twisted bone in the chamber’s center. An alien sigil is etched into its rotted surface. Slashed and dismembered fungal creatures lie nearby—guardians cut down at its defense. The air is thick with drifting spores.

• Clue: Careful observation reveals these were myconids, intelligent fungal beings. Their posture in death suggests they tried to defend the shrine.

• Hazard:

  • Disturbing the shrine triggers a burst of hallucinogenic spores that linger in the air, causing confusion, dizziness, and fear. Those affected will be unable to act reliably for about an hour.

• Treasure:

  • Hidden in a hollow near the shrine’s base is a wrapped bundle of Incense of Meditation. Removing it without disturbing the shrine requires careful, deliberate action.

Room 12 – Secret Tomb of Thordran Gemwarden

This sealed tomb bears the sign of Dumathoin, god of secrets. A stone sarcophagus rests on a dais beneath a carved symbol, with a shallow bowl set atop its lid. Mural carvings show a dwarven priest striking down duergar and silencing their dark magic.

• Clue: The bowl is part of a ritual to honor Dumathoin—only sacred water and a minute of silence will allow the tomb to be opened safely. Dust drifts from collapsed ceiling stones; the area is unstable.

• Hazard:

  • Opening the sarcophagus without the ritual triggers a hidden glyph trap: a booming force erupts from the tomb, shaking the entire chamber. Anyone within 20 feet takes 6d10 bludgeoning damage as stonework collapses, potentially sealing the tomb in rubble.

• Treasure (inside the sarcophagus):

  • Thordran’s Resolve: a +1 Warhammer engraved with clan sigils. Speaking the phrase “Strike in silence, stand in stone” allows the wielder to cast a magical silence once per day.

  • 350 gold coins in ancient dwarven mint

  • Stone relief showing Thordran cracking an anvil (art object worth 200 gold)

  • Silver censer shaped like a skull (worth 100 gold)

I had the day off and decided to write up a small dungeon I could drop into my High Forest campaign (High Forest players, spoilers ahead).

The Silent Shrine of Dumathoin, Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain

Nearly three centuries ago, the dwarves of Clan Hammerhand, carved this shrine-tomb into a cliff face deep within the High Forest. The site marked the terminus of a rich emerald vein believed to be blessed by Dumathoin, the Silent Keeper, and was sanctified as a place of worship, ritual, and final rest.

The purpose of the complex was threefold:

• A sacred shrine, where gems and precious stones were ritually offered into a holy well, believed to descend into Dumathoin’s hidden vaults.

• A tomb for Thordran Gemwarden, high priest and lorekeeper of Clan Hammerhand, who claimed Dumathoin whispered to him through stone and silence.

• A retreat, removed from the world's noise, where dwarves devoted to Dumathoin could meditate, reflect, and offer silent tribute.

The shrine thrived for a time, watched over by a devout custodial order who were allies of the Watch Eternal and assisted in wars against Hellgate Keep. But during the War of Earth’s Flame—a brutal, subterranean conflict between the Hammerhands and the duergar of Gracklestugh—contact with the shrine was severed. With the Hammerhands besieged and their strongholds falling, no guardians remained to tend the sanctuary.

Decades passed in silence, until the shrine was discovered by derro scavengers, who found the upper levels undisturbed and the tomb sealed by dwarven rites. Intrigued by the aura of lost magic and sacred relics, the derro dug deeper, excavating fissures that had opened in the bedrock and pushing toward the sealed tomb of Thordran.

But in doing so, they awakened worse things—umber hulks, drawn from the lower Underdark by the scent of flesh and sound of excavation. The beasts burst through the caves, collapsing parts of the shrine and slaughtering the derro, feasting on them and claiming the site as a lair.

Now, the Silent Shrine lies half-buried, half-broken—its holy places desecrated, its defenses cracked, its silence disturbed not by reverence, but by the echoing burrow of chitin claws. Yet the dwarven wards endure in part, and within the hidden tomb, Dumathoin’s sacred trust still sleeps—alongside the legacy of Thordran Gemwarden.

Inside The Shrine and Caves

Tunnels and hallways are roughly eight feet tall. Larger chambers are twenty feet tall.

Through much of the temple, the floor is flawlessly smooth—clearly through the work of devoted stonemasons. A few sections, though, are slightly worn—no doubt by the passage of countless dwarves over the long centuries.

The caves consist of moist limestone, with many stalactites and stalctites. Many are choked with rubble and gouged by the claws of umber hulks.

The shrine and cave areas are not illuminated.

Squares on the map are 5 feet.

Cliffside Entrance in the High Forest

Nestled amid ancient trees and moss-draped stone, a jagged cliff face rises like a broken tooth from the forest floor. Vines cling to its weathered surface, and tangled roots frame a broad, rectangular portal set into the stone—clearly shaped by dwarven hands long ago. The air grows still on approach, the birds silent, the canopy whispering above.

The entrance is flanked by two massive, weatherworn statues of dwarven sentinels, their faces hidden beneath lichen-covered helms, hands resting on the hafts of long-forgotten axes. Between them stands an imposing set of double stone doors, each fifteen feet high and carved with ancient artistry.

The doors are covered in intricate reliefs: scenes of dwarves mining deep veins of mithril, forging glowing weapons, and kneeling in silent prayer before an image of Dumathoin—his symbol, a gemstone beneath a mountain, prominently displayed.

At the center of the arch above the doors, chiseled deep in Dethek, the dwarven rune-langauge, is a stern warning:

“Enter not without reverence.”

The doors bear no visible handles—only a circular depression in the center, once used for ceremonial unlocking. A successful DC 12 Religion check or fluency in Dwarvish reveals this was a holy site, likely a shrine or tomb, sealed to protect sacred secrets within. Dumathoin’s priests would observe a minutes silence then touch a gemstone to such locks to open them.

Room 1 – Antechamber of the Faithful

A chamber with a vaulted ceiling and an intricately tiled floor of alternating black and white stone squares. Ornate carvings on the walls depict a procession of dwarves climbing through seemingly endless caverns. They show many women and children among the throng which is probably a migration or holy pilgrimage. Two goblin skeletons lie collapsed on the far side, riddled with rusted darts. One grips a broken blade, the other has a shattered skull. Beyond them, stone steps lead down into the dark.

The black tiles bear engraved holy symbols of the dwarven pantheon—Moradin’s hammer, Dumathoin’s gem under a mountain, Berronar’s golden rings, and others. The white tiles are plain.

Stepping on the wrong tiles triggers a defense mechanism: Pressure plates beneath certain black tiles launch iron darts from the walls (DC 15 Investigation to notice; DC 14 Dex save, 2d10 piercing damage; triggers once per 10 feet crossed).

Insight: A DC 13 Religion check reveals Dumathoin’s teachings emphasize silence and spiritual respect; the faithful would step only where sacred symbols are placed in the correct sequence or approach with solemnity.

Room 2 – Vestibule of the Quiet Watchers

Broad pillars line the walls of this tall 20x40 chamber, their surfaces engraved with bas-relief scenes of dwarves working stone, offering gems, and standing vigil in silent prayer. Dusty tapestries hang from the walls. Dust lies so thickly upon them their designs are impossible to make out. The stillness is unsettling. A shredded backpack rests on the floor. Dried blood and three rents coat the pack’s back. Characters searching the pack’s remains find a single dusty gold coin caught up in a fold of the fabric, stamped with Dethek runes.

Etched into the rear wall in Dethek script is the phrase: "The dead rest in the peace of Dumathoin's silence."

Clue: The dwarves depicted seem reverent—lips closed, heads bowed—reinforcing the silence Dumathoin demands.

Treasure:

• Shaking the tapestries releases billowing clouds of dust. Once the dust clears, the characters can see lengthy dwarven prayers decorate the tapestries. The glimmer of metal reveals some of the lettering is picked out with gold and silver wire and count as art objets worth 100gp each.

Room 3 – The Hall of the Silent Warden

Dominating the center of this circular vaulted chamber stands a towering statue of Dumathoin, Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain. He holds a pickaxe in one hand and a gemstone in the other. Two pillars carved to resemble massive warhammers flank a hallway leading south into the shrine. The chamber is 40 feet in diameter.

Carvings on the walls show a dwarven priest lowering a gem into a well, flanked by other worshipers in solemn silence.

Clue: The depicted ritual shows how the water of the well in Room 5 is consecrated.

Room 4 – Shrine of Dumathoin

This 40x20 solemn hall ends in a low stone altar bearing Dumathoin’s symbol—a gemstone beneath a mountain peak. Flanking the hall, statues of the dwarven pantheon line alcoves carved into the walls. The air here is still and sacred.

Hazard: Interacting with the altar without observing a full minute of silence (DC 12 Religion check to know this) would constitute sacrilege. This triggers a trap. Each of the statues speak in booming voices and pronounce a curse of misfortune in dwarvish and all within earshot have disadvantage on their next saving throws.

Clue: The carving of the silent ritual in Room 3 offers the hint. Pressing the gem of the altar’s symbol after the moment of silence opens a secret tunnel in the south wall.

Treasure: A gold-and-silver inlaid chalice on the altar (75gp), likely a ceremonial. The gem in the altar is an emerald worth 300gp.

Room 5 – The Sacred Well

This domed chamber is 40ft in diameter and centered on a stone dais bearing a wide well. Once pure, the water now bubbles darkly, disturbed by something lurking beneath. The carved lip of the well is inscribed with words of devotion.

Gouges and scars mar the southern wall as of mgihty claws, where it seems like something has previously broken into the room, leaving debris and loose stone.

Hazard: A crystal ooze dwells within the well. The water's faint acidity and the occasional ripple are signs of its presence.

Clue: The well is described in wall art (Room 3) as a site of gem-offering and divine favor.

Treasure: At the base of the well (50 feet underwater): a small fortune in uncut emeralds (500gp) and a tarnished silver offering bowl (50gp).

Room 6 – Gouged Cave

Collapsed stone from the southern wall of Room 5 opens into this natural cave. Jagged stalagmites rise from the uneven floor. Loose rock litters the ground and the ceiling is spiderwebbed with cracks and fissures. The rock above shifts and groans in reaction to even the slightest noise.

Large tracks—three-toed and clawed and easily the size of an ogres—lead deeper into the tunnels. The air is cooler here, moist and filled with the faint echo of distant dripping. A cave entrance in the southern wall appears to have been gouged out of the rock by claws.

Hazard: Some areas of ceiling here are unstable and loud noises can trigger a rock fall. Every 10 feet DC12 Stealth or move at 1/4 speed to avoid triggering a collapse for 2d6 bludgeoning damage (DC15 Dex save to avoid).

Clue: Claw marks and gouges in the wall suggest large burrowing creatures passed through recently.

Room 7 – Forgotten Pool

A shallow gour pool glimmers softly in the gloom, it’s rim about two feet above the cave floor. Strange ripples dance across the surface without wind or touch. The water seems illuminated as if by starlight.

If disturbed, the water churns, and a water weird rises in defense.

It speaks with a voice like rushing water: "Cleanse the well, defiled and tainted. Only then shall silence be brought to the enemies of Dumathoin."

It once served the dwarven clerics but was driven out when the well was corrupted. It will aid the party in fighting the Umber Hulks if they do as it asks, able to emerge and attack any Umber Hulks near bodies of water if the party invokes the wrath of Dumathoin.

Hazard: The water weird will not attack unless provoked, but it defends the pool fiercely.

Clue: The creature mentions the umber hulks and how they broke through, disturbing the sanctuary. It can speak of the original purpose of the shrine and the rituals of the dwarves. The last it remembers of them was a war that had begun against the Duergar of Gracklestugh. It knows

Treasure: In the water’s depths (DC 14 Perception or after appeasing the weird): A dwarven prayer pendant (25gp) and a Potion of Heroism sealed in a platinum vial.

Room 8 – Umber Hulk Lair

The passage opens into a broad, uneven cavern slick with damp and heavy with the stench of rot and wet stone. The stone underfoot is gouged and churned, forming unnatural mounds of broken rock, bone, and tangled debris. Flickering light reveals two hulking forms of sand coloured carapace, jagged mandibles and massive talons, partially obscured in shadow. The beasts are crouched low in their lair of chewed stone and gnawed corpses.

The air is thick with a cloying sweetness, unmistakably the smell of decay. Scattered around the cavern are the mutilated remains of grey skinned dwarf-kin, their bones cracked and split as if by massive, serrated jawss. Jagged walls are clawed and unstable with signs of violent burrowing.

Toward the rear wall lies a bloated grey corpse with white hair, still clad in tattered robes. Thick fungal growths cling to its flesh, and its chest shifts unnaturally, as if something inside is moving. Occasional spasms ripple through the body

Hazard: There are two Umber Hulks here. They are territorial and aggressive.

Hazard: Rot grubs nest in the corpse and may leap to a living host if disturbed.

Treasure (on derro corpse):

• Driftglobe

• Wand of Viscid Globs (3 Charges)

• 2 Potions of Healing

• A pouch containing 190gp

• A platinum statuette of a Dumathoin (150gp value)

Room 9 – Subterranean Pool

A still, wide gour pool dominates the cave - a pool with a rim about three feet high. Water drips from stalagtites in many places and the dripping sounds like rain, broken by an odd chuffing noise that echoes through the cave. The surface of the pool ripples with drips but what draws the eye is the slow movement of an enormous beast with sand coloured carapace submerged to its chest, lapping at the water between its mandibles with grotesque care. Pale moss clings to the walls, and waving fungal stalks lean toward the water’s edge.

Clue: A steady, low chuffing sound echoes from within the cavern—the sound of the umber hulk’s wet inhalations. The walls show deep gouges, and half-submerged bones lie at the edge of the water.

Hazard: The matriarch umber hulk is preoccupied with drinking unless disturbed. Like those in Room 8 it is territorial and aggressive. It is larger than the others and has +3HD and causes +3 damage with its claws and bite. It normally guards the eggs in Room 10.

Room 10 – Burrowed Sinkhole

This rocky cavern slopes downward to a collapsed sinkhole filled with churned soil, scree and scattered eggs—pale, glistening ovoids with mottled grey shells. The air is warm and foul, rich with the scent of earth and decay.

Clue: Shattered stone and scree around a central hole suggests a massive force punched up from below. This is where the derro and umber hulks first broke through from the lower Underdark.

Hazard: Disturbing the eggs may attract the attention of other umber hulks from nearby rooms and will cause two more angry umber hulks to emerge from the hole in 1d6 rounds.

Treasure: Half submerged under soil among the eggs is a cracked dwarven helm. Within it is a purse containing 120gp and a holy symbol of Dumathoin worth 100gp.

Room 11 – Myconid Shrine

A fungal shrine rises in the center of the chamber, shaped in reverent asymmetry like a spire of cancerous bone. It bears the scarred sigil of Zuggtmoy, Lady of Rot and Decay. Claw marks from umber hulks have gouged the surface. The spore-rich air shimmers faintly. Several humanoid fungus creatures lie rent and torn around the shrine as if they fell in its defense. To the north, a gouged fissure gives way to carved stone blocks revealing a chamber beyond.

Clue: A successful DC12 Nature check identifies the corpses as Mycnoids, known for their use of poisonous spores.

Hazard: If disturbed, the shrine releases hallucinogenic spores that engulf everyone in the cave (DC13 Con save or be poisoned for 1 hour).

Treasure: In a hollow near the base of the shrine is a block of Incense of Meditation, nestled amongst sensitive fibres. A DC15 Sleight of Hand check is required to retrieve it without disturbing the altar.

Room 12 – Secret Tomb of Thordran Gemwarden

This hidden crypt bears the solemn, timeworn mark of Dumathoin, Keeper of Secrets Under the Mountain. A sarcophagus of stone sits atop a dais. The symbol of Dumathoin is carved on the lid, and a stone bowl is set in place upon it. Carved frescoes on the walls depict a dwarven cleric striking down duergar and devils alike with a warhammer. In one battle, a duergar warlock is seen clutching his throat as his spells are silenced by the magic of Dumathoin.

Clue: The ceiling has collapsed in several places, leaving rubble and exposed tunnels. Faint dust drifts from above—this area is unstable. A DC 15 Religion check reveals the bowl must be filled with sacred water from a holy site after observing a minutes silence.

Hazard: Without performing the ritual, opening the sarcophagus triggers a magical trap—a thunderous booming glyph of warding triggering a cave-in (DC 15 Dex save, 6d10 bludgeoning damage, half on save; tomb is sealed under rubble).

Treasure:

• In the sarcophagus: Thordran’s Resolve, a +1 warhammer engraved with the clan sigil of the Hammerhands and the phrase “Strike in silence, stand in stone.” The weapon may cast the spell Silence once per day by speaking the phrase.

• 350gp in old dwarven coins, scattered at the bottom

• A polished stone relief (art object, 200gp) showing Thordran cracking an anvil in twain with a warhammer

• A silver censer shaped like a skull with vents for smoke (art object, 100gp)

  ---

As I’ve described previously, I like to use dungeons to teach aspects of the lore of my game and I thought I’d use this one to showcase some dwarven religion and culture. I used Dungeon Shuffle method but this time I decided to use Raging Swan Press’s Dungeon Dressing and Dread Thingonmicon to really flesh out the descriptions. I might take a crack at publishing this one. One thing I’m messing about with is the use of bold text. I’m not yet sure if it helps but I’ve seen it used to great effect in products for Pirate Borg and Old School Essentials. What do you think?