The Keep on Candcor Hill

 

Top post of r/candcorhill (May 2025)

The Keep on Candcor Hill

"Nodens"; 1983~84? 
Self-published

B/X D&D

 

The Keep on Candcor Hill is a megadungeon in four spiral-bound booklets, written by an unknown author and printed in a single run of 25 numbered sets. The faded blue covers are graced only with the title, booklet number, author, and an ink drawing from a skilled amateur's hand: a knight on a horse, a shadowy figure peeking out from behind a stone arch, a weeping noblewoman, and a decagram.

 

The contents are a flash-grenade of text, information crammed on the page so tight that it looks symptomatic of schizophrenia. But the sentences in that explosion are lean, beautiful things. The richest words that can be afforded in a text that wastes none of them.

 

If the prospective reader doesn't immediately give up after the initial shock of a superficially-unreadable book, they'll soon run into the module's next hurdle: all those lean, beautiful sentences are fully dedicated to obscuring everything they can from the reader. It's a module where every animated skeleton has a name, history, and relationships - and it will tell you none of that directly.

 

At no point in the text does the author pull the camera back to provide a bird's-eye view or to introduce an omniscient narrator: all information besides mechanical statistics, including the DM guidance, is strictly limited to what the player characters can see, hear, smell, and touch. The closest it ever gets to breaking this kayfabe is the lone opening paragraph that explains the premise, but even that is put in quotation marks and framed as information presented to the PCs, rather than to the players. 

But all that information that would otherwise be put in the mouth of the dungeon master still exists in the world of the module, waiting to be pieced together; The Keep on Candcor Hill was setting out bait in front of the rabbit hole for the lore hounds a quarter-century before Demon Souls.The iceberg meme at the top of this page represents just a fraction of what has been found, theorized, and debated in discussion threads over the last decade. 

 

All of this would have been lost, were it not for someone cleaning out their father's attic and posting pictures of books 1 & 2 online in late 2015. The internet smelled a scavenger hunt, and the rest is history.

 

As of 2026, four manuscripts have been identified:

• #19 - Moderate wear and tear; books 3 and 4 are missing. (2015)
• #04 - Heavy wear and tear and water damage; first complete set found (2018)
• #11 - Full set in possession of a private collector in Austria: no scans provided, but confirmed the publishing date range (2018)
• #15 - Full set in good condition; emerged after a Vice article brought the module and its fandom to wider attention (2020)

So then: what remains? More mysteries, many of which are unlikely to ever be solved. An anonymous author who, at some point in the early 80s, ordered a set of 100 spiral-bound booklets from a local print shop and distributed their self-funded passion project to a handful of people, who through the entropy of time lost, threw out, passed on, or forgot The Keep on Candcor Hill. But by the grace of circumstance, KCH has dodged the fate of nearly all human art.

If you wish to take the plunge yourself, the pinned comment of the Candcor Hill subreddit has links to the collated scans of manuscripts 04, 15, and 19, as well as the Candcor Plaintext Community Edition and The Commentaries. 

 

 

MINIMODULE 4: The Doom That Came to Ypsilon

via NASA

 

Prior minimodules

• TV Rots Your Brain
• First Contact Protocol
• Break Their Pride By a Woman's Hand / Attack and Dethrone God
  

THE PLAYERS: Long-term contractors for SEBACO MINING CORPORATION.

THE SETTING: The mining station on the asteroid YPSILON 14.

THE HOOK: The vessel CSV Alexis exited hyperspace three weeks ago and has been drifting toward the station on apparent autopilot. The only response to radio hails has been automatic identification - CSV Alexis 0780-9913-8172-101K requesting safe harbor. The mine is under legal obligation to comply with the refuge request, though most of the miners believe that the Alexis' crew is long dead.

THE OPENING SCENE: It's 0700. Mike was on 3rd shift last night and he hasn't checked back in. Sonya has gathered everyone in the Mess for an emergency meeting.

NOTE 1: The 10-cryoberth SMCV Mule-33, a skeleton-crew supply ship, is two weeks away. It is bound for a string of six more SEBACO mining platforms before returning to the settled world of Agaran four years from now.

NOTE 2: The SMVC Heracles is warp-capable and fit for space, but has only 3 cryoberths and is command-registered solely to Dr. Giovanni.

NOTE 3: The Alexis is in desperate need of repairs, but as it was declared lost 106 years ago, it is considered first-come-first-served salvage. 30 cryoberths containing 40% still-living inhabitants.

NOTE 4: Giovanni has been carrying out inspections on behalf of SEBACO, but hasn't left his ship since returning from the mines yesterday. He is a prime suspect in what happened to Mike.

NOTE 5: Dr. Giovanni is a citizen. No one else on Ypsilon is. There will be an investigation into his death or disappearance, and though it might take some time, it will catch up with anyone connected to Ypsilon-14.

NOTE 6: The Alpha Gaunt and the Creature are rival apex predators forced into the same space.

NOTE 7: Gaunts cannot be tracked with thermal imaging. Cold as corpses.

NOTE 8: Death Worms cannot infect humans that are already infected with the Yellow Slime.

NOTE 9: The Gaunt are here to infect more host bodies and bring them back to their hyperspace crypts.

NOTE 10: The Creature is deep behind enemy lines with no support and no means of retreat. It does not know that the ancient war against carbon-water life has ended in failure.

NOTE 11: The Alexis' warp core remains linked to the Gate, and if activated will draw the ship back to the Dead Planet. Pander and Kranot might have more information, but it will need to be actively pulled out of them if it exists.

NOTE 12: Ypsilon-14 is, in fact, a lithic warship built by the civilization that created the Creature and the Yellow Slime. The mine has been harvesting the metals of its outer armor: There are dormant mechanisms further below. They knew of the Gaunt in their day.

Unicorn Meat Is Live!

 

Rowan A. (Mon)

At long last, it is here.

Unicorn Meat is now available for purchase.

It has been a long and winding road, full of many ups and downs, but at last we have arrived. What else more is there to say? Likely something, assuredly there's something I can say - I do love to chatter on about things I have written - but for now, I think I will bask in the "job is finally done" stage.

A great many thanks go out to a great many people who helped me along the way - Rowan, Gus, Jarret and Fiona for their parts in putting it together, the playtesters who ran games during development (thanks, Martin and Mike!), and all the folks who offered their encouragement and support during the process (thanks, TLN and Emmy!)

Do let me know how it goes; find me on discord, yell at me on twitter, dump a comment down below. I'd love to hear the play reports / see coloring page maps / read reviews and all that.

The time is neigh, the center cannot hold, the rough beast has reached Bethlehem.

Exalted Funeral (Print+pdf)

 

Itch.io (pdf)

 

Drivethru RPG (pdf)

Adventure Writing Tips feat: Unicorn Meat

So over on twitter (some time ago, because I am slow), Layla (@pandatheist) expressed some sadness over how much adventure design gets lost over time, thanks to the general entropy of internet hobbyist spaces. Since I have a vested interest in spreading good design guides wherever I can, have an adventure soon to be released to the masses, and in another timeline would have spent my life happily getting hand cramps in some monastery scriptorium, I feel it's only fair to do my part.

For each step, just to show that I'm not talking out of my ass, I'll be providing an example of how it was used in Unicorn Meat. (Don't worry, I shan't be giving away all my secrets.) 

 

First, Some Archaeology

This part isn't mine, it's a summary of a now long-gone tumblr post by Rebecca Chenier (author of Blood in the Chocolate), that I luckily wrote down when I had the chance (thereby proving the importance of Layla's original thesis). I've adapted it from my notes so it doesn't match exactly, but it covers the same points. 

 

Rebecca's Four Core Components

• Time - The outside context surrounding the adventure and informing what is going on within it.
• Adversary - A character / group / force that stands in opposition to the players.
• Place - The specific location where the players come into conflict with the Adversary.
• Fantastic element - What it says on the tin.

I find that this sort of setup emerges naturally, for me at least, just by piecing things together. But it remains a helpful reminder that the adventure is a series of moving parts in a greater machine, and all of them are interconnected. The antagonist is motivated by the times they find themselves in. The place is in its current state both by the adversary's actions and the times. The fantastic elements have their fingers in everything.

So, for example, in Unicorn Meat.

• Time - The old aristocracy was overthrown ~50 years prior to the point of play. The farm was re-opened ~20 years ago. The adults vanished 8 months ago.
• Adversary - White-Eyes, charismatic leader of the Bucha gang and now de facto leader of the farm. She's cunning, charismatic, and has already given the players ample reason to hate her (as the Buchas are, by and large, a bunch of violent bullies and have no doubt visited some kind of violence on the PCs and their friends).
• Place - The Backwoods have always been intended as the place that gives off this vibe of "people never should have come here." They're inherently inimical to human habitation and they've been getting worse
• Fantastic element - The unicorns themselves.

And then when tied together:

• The Backwoods have become spiritually polluted thanks to the mass killings of the unicorns (place + fantastic)
• The disappearence of the adults allowed White-Eyes and her gang to gain complete control of the farm (time + adversary)
• The power vacuum after the revolution and the physical isolation of the Backwoods allowed the current operators to both re-open it and to do so in secret (time + place)
• White-Eyes is ordering the continued hunt of unicorns towards unknown ends (adversary + fantastic)

And so on and so forth. You can very easily get a very potent nugget of conflict out of recombining those four points.

That out of the way, on with the show.

 

But what the Fuck Do You Do?

Give players a reason to be at the location and get involved in the conflict there. This will vary. Use "you have a personal enemy here" if you have to, and have everyone list off how this antagonist has wronged them. "Escape the danger" is also a very easy motivation. Remember MICE - Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego.

In Unicorn Meat, the main options are "You have a personal enemy here, also escape the danger." (I did say they were useful!) or "oh fuck we need to find some way to get these kids out of here." Both of them involve finding the key that turns off the containment field, currently in White-Eye's possession. The what and the why are nice and set up. 

 

Steal Everything, Recycle Everything, Remix Everything

You have doubtlessly accumulated a very fine slush pile of unused concepts, striking images, memorable NPCs, and favorite mechanics. Use them liberally and with minimal constraint. Form a pool of ready-to-deploy material and deploy the hell out of it at a moment's notice.

When running adventures, this is a necessary skill to keep things flowing in times when you need improvisation. When designing adventures, this is just the handiest way to fill in blank spots and get yourself unstuck. Plucking something out of one setting and changing it so that it fits in another context is a useful creative exercise.

In Unicorn Meat this typically emerges in small, offhand bits that most people won't get. There's a poster for a movie starring the farm's mascot, Noodle (who is based on a hand-puppet of The Lawful Neutral's) titled "Fuck the King of Space" (a campaign run by Nick Whelan). More substantially, the toxicity mechanic from eating the meat itself is pulled from a very old post of mine about health potions. 

 

The PCs are intruding on a pre-existing conflict

This one is pretty straightforward. A good adventure presents the players with something to do, and there's a lot of things to do when other parties are already doing things. Makes factions and NPCs easy to fill out, because they already have begun acting on their wants and towards their goals.

Or, more directly: Things are going on in the background whether or not the players know about it.

In Unicorn Meat, the farm is right at the cusp of violence between the Buchas and the Church. With White-Eyes in isolation from the rest of the farm, the Buchas are splitting between those who are sticking with White-Eyes, and those who are more in favor of second-in-command Greythorn. The leader of the Nightwatch is missing entirely. Everything is just about to break apart.

 

Detail! Detail! Detail!

You are working within limited space, so make those words count. Paint me a picture, use those sense words, use creative references as shortcuts. One of my personal favorites is describing something in a way that the thing in question is not typically described as, ex Douglas Adams' "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." 

 

Stick to What Can Be Observed

This principle was my workhorse during the SCP days and it has dutifully served me ever since.

Focus your writing on what the characters (or in this case, the players) can directly observe. Save omniscient narration for DM summaries, so that they have a working context of what is going on behind the scenes and why. Keep those bits brief and relevant to the action at hand (Rebecca's four points return!). You're working in limited space anyway.

This method will leave the readers/players with questions and evidence, which they can assemble at their leisure. This is the bonus material, the a-ha moment. Some folks will ignore it all and just go for the superficial read, but people who dig into it more will be rewarded AND referees have the information to actually flesh out these mysteries. It's mystery box avoidance.

An example in Unicorn Meat: there's a certain NPC who has a prominent shelf full of sci-fi paperbacks. Can't miss 'em if you talk to her. Since she is the only person on the farm who is associated with them, if the players happen to find a sci-fi paperback lying around elsewhere, they can connect the dots and know that the NPC was there. It's very simple environmental storytelling, but it can cover a lot of ground other adventures would need clunky box text to exposit.

 

Resource Management Can Be Fun

But! It is only fun if there is a meaningful choice to be made on how you spend the resource. If it only has one effect, it's less fun and more liable to be handwaved (note: I generally hate resource bean counting)

In Unicorn Meat this comes primarily in the form of the MEAT ECONOMY. If you want to buy things - food, tools, ammo, special items, bribes - you need to hunt unicorns. But all of the parts harvested from a unicorn have secondary uses besides as a barter good: meat is your primary means of health and magic restoration. Milk does the same, but is flammable. Bones and hides can be crafted into better armor and weapons. Their shit can be smoked as a hallucinogen.

The same principle can apply to mundane items, too, ammo being my favorite. You can either eat or end a fight quickly, choose wisely.

You Provide Tools, Players Will Provide Solutions

Just dump a bunch of stuff in there. Be generous with gifts. You don't need to have an intended use. Folks will figure something out.

 

It's Okay if Players Don't See Something

This is more or less part 2 of the above point, distributing the cool tools in such a way that their discovery feels organic. Use that environmental storytelling from earlier to your advantage here - drop an important tool somewhere, sprinkle some clues where players can see, and eventually they will tug on those strings. Add a couple that have no clues at all, but if folks are lucky they can stumble on a game-changer.

In Unicorn Meat this most often takes the form of certain encounters or items that can really turn the tide in your favor. Some of them are by chance, some can be puzzled out, some will be difficult to get your hands on

 

Consider the Aftermath

Deep Carbon Observatory had a section in the back describing events that would happen if the players did nothing. I adore that little section and keep it in the forefront of my mind when designing. I keep major variables that players are likely to interact with in mind - the deaths of important monsters or characters, shifts of factional power, special items recovered or world-states achieved, and so on. You don't have to cover every single possible outcome, but a page or two really does help, even if its a one shot.

 

In Summation

It only takes a few major elements and some connective tissue before it starts writing itself.

Minimodule 3 Part 2: ATTACK AND DETHRONE GOD

Gambargin

Picking up where we left off...

The battle of Yetek works like the opening sequence of Deep Carbon Observatory - everything is happening at once, you never get a chance to catch your breath. Pick one of the three entries into the city: you will be able to see anything that the arrows are pointing to. Your goal is the temple in the center.

There is a twist here: The God of Ankhar is also active and will move around the city. Every time the PCs move between events, roll d6.

• 1-2: The God stays where it is.
• 3-4: The God moves 1 space.
• 5-6: The God moves 2 spaces.

If there are multiple routes it can take, a d6 roll divided by two or three as applicable will direct where the mad one goes.

What if I Don't Want Hyperlethality?

• Option 1: Grievous Wounds - If you drop below 0, use Emmy Allen's grievous wounds here.
• Option 2: Replacement characters - Use this handy Knave generator. You start with  a sword or spear, a shield, and Armor 13.
• Option 3: Take A Break HP - You recover all lost HP when you get a moment to collect yourselves (Bath House, Elephant Enclosure, Arena without the manticore)

The Main Gate

Who needs a ram when you have Ayo?

• A chaotic mass of soldiers (HD 4 HP 25, d8 damage, Defense 13, morale 8) waits on the other side. The formation will break after it hits 0 HP.

Over the Wall

The ladders! Get up the ladders!

• Takes 2 rounds to get up to the top. Defenders will hurl down stones (DEX save vs d8 damage) or burning oil (DEX save vs d6 damage for d4 turns). Successfully hitting someone at the top of the wall will interrupt the attack.

Through the Drainage

Hold your breath.

• Takes extra time to feel your way through the dark - the God rolls twice for movement. The Enemy camp is reduced to Low Chaos.
• Crocodile attack! (5 HD 25 HP, 14 armor, d8 bite, morale 8, WIS save with disadvantage vs surprise attack, will attempt to death-roll after a successful attack)
• Senech must use both hands to keep her guns and ammo from getting ruined. If this changes for any time, all her weapons have a 50% chance of being useless.
• You are all caked in filth and smell terrible.

***

The Town

People running in chaos, soldiers fighting in the streets.

• Combat is deafening. People are fighting house-to-house, you can barely tell who is enemy and who is friend.
• Individual combat in this area would be miserable, so it will be abstracted like this: each player may grab as many d20s as they wish (including 0). They will roll them all at once. Each success (over 13) means they are able to break up a cluster of enemy soldiers and will be granted 1 Reinforcements (more on that later). Failure means they will take d8 damage.

Artist's Alley

Still filled with the impaled bodies of those deemed to have been working idolatrous crafts.

• A mass of soldiers (HP 15, d8 damage, Defense 13, morale 8) runs through the streets to where the main fighting is.
• From an upper-story window, an old man cries out: "Send them back to whatever demon's teat they sucked on!" He tosses the party a figurine of the Mother of Dawn, which possesses 1 charge each of 3 different spells:

The Market

Looted and smashed to bits.

• A mass of soldiers (HD 3 HP 20, d8 damage, Defense 13, morale 8) charges on to reinforce their fellows at the gate.
•  A Scholar and a Clown have taken shelter under an overturned fruit cart. If the soldiers are dispersed, they introduce themselves as the "Sons of Thunder" and will gift the party a smooth grey stone which, if thrown on the ground, will blind and deafen anyone nearby, after which they will use one of their own and run away.

***

The Baths

An old, sturdy complex of buildings where folk would purify themselves before heading to the Temple.

• Townsfolk have barricaded themselves inside. CHA check or the head of Malenairis needed for entry.
• Three sailors are lounging around in peace, despite the chaos outside. One is Tall, one is Fat, and one is Old. They generally (as they will inform you) don't tend to do anything much at all, but their ship is down in the harbor just outside the city and they'll be able to smuggle people out of the warzone and down the coast to friendly territory.
• This is an emergency means of escape, should the party become too injured to continue on to victory.

The Stables

The stench of camel dung and the terrible sounds of animals in terror fill the air.

•  The horses are panicking, and the stablehands are unable to keep them under control.
• Releasing the horses will cause a stampede. If the Enemy Camp is Low Chaos, it is now High Chaos. If it is already High Chaos, the mass of soldiers' HP is reduced to 20.

The Arena

Where once there were chariot races and theater services, Malenairis transformed it into a place of bloodshed.

• The manticore (HD 6, HP 30 Armor 13 2 1d6 claws OR 2d6 bite OR poison quills - ranged, CON save or keel over frothing at the mouth) has been fed on townsfolk since the occupation began, and like any overfed cat it has decided to sleep it off for twenty hours a day. (If it is not woken up, a surprise round is made.)
• The manticore's quills are coated with a deadly poison (alas, the manticore itself is immune). They can be removed without waking it (DEX with disadvantage) and thrown like knives.
• The manicore's gut is filled with 2d6 soul-pearls. Eating one of these will allow a PC to revive after hitting 0 HP, recovering half of their max. They can be eaten multiple times, but further revivals require re-rolling the PC's hit die - if the sum is lower than their current max HP, that number is their new maximum. If it is higher, they permanently lose 1 max HP.

***

The Enemy Camp (Low Chaos)

Malenairis' lieutenants have managed to establish order among the main body of soldiers.

• Mass of Soldiers (HD 7 HP 40, d8 damage, Defense 13, morale 8)
• For every point of Reinforcements the party has, remove 2 HP from the enemy.

The Enemy Camp (High Chaos)

The soldiers of Ankhar fight amongst themselves now, leaderless and in a panic. This is the default state of the Camp.

• Mass of Soldiers (HD 5 HP 30, 2d6 damage, Defense 13, morale 6)
• For every point of Reinforcements the party has, remove 2 HP from the enemy. 

***

The Palace

Once home to the queen and her consorts, then home to Malenairis and his lieutenants, now ablaze.

• Soldiers scramble about, trying to form a bucket chain.
• It's possible to rush in and salvage some of the treasures within, as follows
• Players who go into the palace must make a DEX save. On failure, they will take 1d6 damage from heat and smoke inhalation. Either way, they will recover 1 slot worth of art and treasures, which will be 1-3 of your people or 4-6, Ankhar plunder of other nations. Either might be handed over for gold.

The Gardens

A moment of quiet, but not for long. The fire of the palace casts dancing shadows among the date trees and palms.

• The Widow and Handmaid signal the party from their hiding spot with the call of a screech owl. They have Malenairis' head in a basket and are trying to find a way out of the city. 
• The Baths provide the safest option, seconded by the party's direct protection. If they try to escape on their own, they will not make it beyond the walls.

The Elephant Enclosure

A makeshift wooden palisade set up in the gardens abutting the palace.

• The elephant (HD 15, HP 75, 2d6 tusks x2 or 4d8 trample) is old, imprisoned, and grieves still for the loss of her herd. Her only comfort is the blind, deaf elephant handler who has been her companion for 40 years. She hates the Ankhar soldiers with depths that cannot be imagined. 
• If she is freed from her chains, she will will fight alongside the players. Should she survive (and should the players keep going with these characters), all elephants shall be their allies.
• If Ayo has any booze left, the elephant will sniff it out and down it all. She will fly into a rage, and all of her attacks will do double damage.

***

The Temple

The statues have been toppled, the frescoes scratched out by spearpoint, the mosaics torn up with shovels. The desecration is total, gleefully done. In the center of the wreckage a pavilion has been erected,a tent of shimmering indigo cloth whose dimensions are so perfectly measured that it hurts to look at it: the angles are too sharp. An altar has been erected in front of the tent; blood from the sacrifice of sheep and bulls already stains the scarred image of the Mother of Dawn on the floor.

• The chief priest and his acolytes have hunkered down here. They are shaken by witnessing the God's departure. They are unarmed and unskilled in combat, but they remain defiant and utterly unbearable
• This is the home of the God of Ankhar. He is not likely to be here.
• The Azazel remains inside the tent.

The God of Ankhar

A naked manlike figure, twelve feet tall with golden skin and fiery beard. He has been mutilated by his worshipers: eyes cut out, ears cut off, feet hobbled. Screams and babbles incoherently. Masturbates furiously.

HD 9 HP 45 Armor 15 1d10+3 stone pillar, Morale 11 Can throw bolts of divine lightning (3d6, cooldown 5)

 

The Azazel

A bloated black goat just a bit smaller than the elephant. It has grown fat on Ankhar's sin, taking on all of their crimes against humanity into itself so they might absolve themselves of guilt.

The Azazel will not try to fight: it will permit itself to be killed. This will curse the party with the Mark of the Goat - they will not be welcomed in any city this side of the Indus if they bear that mark.

(MAKE SURE THE CURSE IS CLEARLY COMMUNICATED. PCs will have bad vibes about killing it - too easy, walking into a trap, whatever. Don't use it as a gotcha.)

Useful notes

• The Azazel hates fire - that alone will spur it to move. Sunlight is even worse and can kill it without triggering the Mark of the Goat.
• The Azazel is incredibly heavy, but could easily be chained up and dragged by the elephant.
• The Azazel always lies, convincingly. It wants people to sin, so it can feed.
• The Azazel will offer forgiveness of sins via transferral. This will require swearing a covenant with it, which will entail consistently and continuously feeding it through greater acts of evil.
• The Azazel can be exiled without killing it - driving it out with fire or hauling it to the harbor and setting it adrift on the sailors' ship.

If the God has not been dealt with, it will interfere if there is an attempt to move the Azazel from its tent.

Final Reckoning

• If the God of Ankhar is killed - Ankhar'swar effort is broken. Even if they survive and regroup, the loss of their general and their god in one night is too much. They will not visit this place again for generations.
• If the God of Ankhar lives - It will return to the tent of the Azazel, if possible. If the Azazel is dead, it will limp out of the city, either to the Ankhar encampment (Low Chaos) or out into the desert alone (High Chaos)
• If the Enemy Camp is in Low Chaos - Ankhar's forces retreat and regroup outside the city under the command of surviving
• If the Enemy Camp is in High Chaos - Ankhar's forces are routed in their entirety. No surrender or orderly retreat is possible.
• If the Azazel is...
• Killed - PCs inherit the Curse of the Goat
• Banished - Depending on method, it will either die a true death under the sun or slink away into the night, to emerge again some other cursed time.
• Untouched - It will be taken with the retreating Ankhar soldiers OR the liberating army will find and have to deal with it.
• Joined by Covenant - The PCs will be driven to lead the counter-attack, pillaging Ankhar's lands with equivalent cruelty. If the Widow and Handmaid survive, the war will eventually unseat the king of Ankhar himself.
• If treasure recovered > 5 - The PCs can gain enough coin through rewards from return or profit from sale to retire to a wonderful little island somewhere, at least until they need to murder another god.
• If the Widow and Handmaid are safely extracted from the city - The triumph over Malenairis brings not only all the people of the nearby cities together, but the hill tribes as well. This unified resistance not only drives Ankhar out of these lands, but helps to establish a new queen..
• If the PCs die without dealing with the God or the Azazel - The Ankhar war machine continues despite the loss of its general. Your land is conquered.

MiniModules 1: TV ROTS YOUR BRAIN

Houston Sharp

This is the first in a series of mini-adventures I have recovered from my notes. It's not exactly feature-complete, (and I'll make no guarantees that any of the other ones will be either), and not even playtested (might change that in the future), but they were sitting around not being used so even partial presentation will be enough for me.

TV ROTS YOUR BRAIN: OR, ANTIFRIEND

A scenario for Mothership

You arrive in the spaceport, fresh out of eight months of cryo, and there's a man with goat's eyes on the arrival/departure screen. He's sitting at an empty desk in a darkened room; A corpulent, pasty form shoved into a threadbare suit, greasy hair combed over. You can't quite make out his face in the dimness.

He is everywhere you look - on every screen of every computer in the public terminals, every phone in your pocket, every billboard on the concourse - and he will not leave you alone. No one else can see him. If a screen bearing his image is broken, it will ooze a thick brown sludge. He won't notice and will just keep talking.

He says that there is something amiss. There has been a terrible mistake. You will have to take responsibility. You must kill a man. You do not have a choice in the matter.  Certain adjustments were made to you during cryosleep. He does not want to resort to their use, but he will if you prove intractible. You must take responsibility.

There is a loaded revolver in a nearby trash can.

And the man on the screen is gone.

The Target

The Man on the Screen will point out the target as they are leaving the concourse. They possess something that makes them distinct in a crowd (a large hat, a colorful outfit, an instrument case, a cyborg arm, etc) but are otherwise mundane. They will keep to the following schedule:

• Concourse -  Initial sighting while moving to Food Court. Target is unaware of PCs. Public.
• Food Court - 30 mins. Moderately populated. Target gets a meal from a fabber and sits alone. Public
• Bathroom - 5 mins. Private.
• Short-term dorms - 4 hours. Target rents a coffin bunk for the period and rests. Public lobby, private bunk.
• Shuttlebay - If the Target is allowed to board their flight to the surface, the Man on the Screen will judge the exercise a failure. Public.

Obstacles

• Public areas have AI-observed security cameras. If the AI picks up an incident, it will dispatch a Security Team
• Security teams consist of 3 androids equipped with stun batons and foam guns. There are 5 teams on the entire station.
• The AI are not particularly smart, but they are reliable. They can be hacked without being traced, but will be more alert on subsequent attempts.
• Private areas do not have cameras, but they still have automatic detectors for smoke and weapons fire.

The Man on the Screen will reappear at moments deemed appropriately spooky by the Warden. As time progresses....

• His body bloats further.
• The lights above him begin to flicker
• Flies buzz about his head, crawl on the camera lens.
• The camera lens becomes increasingly grime-crusted.
• The camera pans out as he speaks, revealing an audience of mummified corpses tied to their decaying seats. 

The End State

Should the players survive and succeed, the Man on the Screen will appear a final time. He will vomit up mud the entire time, congratulate the players for taking responsibility, and declare that the situation has been handled. Players will feel a sharp, cold pain in their necks for a moment, and then nothing. He will not appear again, and they are free to go on their way.

Should the players survive and fail, they will wake up (when next they sleep), in bodies not their own, thigh-deep in sludge, at the bottom of a dark pit. Something brushes against a player's foot. A temple sinks into the muck at the center, lit by faint paper lanterns coated in the bodies of dark moths. From somewhere far above, a voice whispers "Someone must take responsibility..."

Should the players die and succeed, their next characters will arrive on the station just in time to see the tail end of the cleanup.

Should the players die and fail, they will, after a short period of death, wake up tied to to their seats in a dark recording studio that stinks of rot and humidity. A flickering neon APPLAUSE sign reveals an open door to the side. The Man on the Screen is not here. The ropes are neither sturdy nor tightly tied.

Comments

This scenario hinges a great deal on player creativity when in an open-ended environment. While it could be played purely with the locations presented, I expect that creative players and refs will fill in gaps to suit their needs - anything that can be justified can likely be attached. That lends itself to some "developing complications on the fly", or if that isn't the style a little bit of prep beforehand - make a new area, make a complication for it, keep those on hand.

I find that I really enjoy writing up potential outcomes in my adventures, this one is no exception.

In the terrible space future, why would you ever expect death to be the end?

DEAD LOOP - January Patreon Post

An underworld complex for Esoteric Enterprises, generated using the tables in that book. There won't be many more of these posts, now that I have switched over to hosting WIPs on my patreon - while they weren't really working out, I have to admit I liked them

Dead Loop

The Green Extension of the city subway was built to service the wealthy neighborhood of Bramble Hill, and had the luck of opening a month and a half before the recession hit. As the bouzhi folks lost all their money and fled town, leaving a neighborhood filled with mcmansions too expensive and ugly to sell, it became obvious to City Hall that there wouldn’t be enough passes sold to maintain the Extension, and they decided to sundown the route until things got better.

Things never got better, and now over a decade later the derelict Green Extension has become home to a wide variety of underworld denizens: a surface of smugglers and crime families atop the substrata cadres of sorcerers and chthonic beings.

Locations in the Dead Loop

Baker St. Station

The primary point of access to the Dead Loop, as it is still an operational stop along the subway’s Blue Line.

Laurel St. Station

Provides easy access to Club Iapetus. Watched over by underlings of the Titans. Surface access has been sealed off.

Nix Avenue Station

Provides easy access to the Bastille. Watched over by members of La Croix. Surface access has been sealed off.

The Knot

The sewers underneath Bramble Hill do not see much usage anymore, leaving them as a relatively-easy means of transit between the upper layers of the underworld here.

Club Iapetus

A den of debauchery operated by the Titans. Most folks coming to the Dead Loop from the surface do so to come here, to get their fill of illicit goods and eardrum-rending base. There are usually a few dero of the Conspiracy lurking in the walls: stealing snack wrappers, keeping an eye on the Titans, and whispering very bad advice to people.

The Bastille

Subterranean fortress of the La Croix, built in the expanded sub-basements of the Nix Avenue Station. Heavily fortified, the La Croix toll all passage through the Bastille, occasionally press-ganging travelers into service for Genevieve’s special tasks.

The Catacombs

Built not by the humans above but by the morlocks below to inter their dead. Contains the remnants of all of the pack’s former eloi, which have as of yet gone undisturbed. The primary inhabitants are I Found This Humerus, though Court Basalt did attempt to send an emissary to meet with Zyraximander, to disastrous, melty results.

Zyraximander’s Sanctum

An ancient morlock who successfully decoded the works of their former masters, Zyraximander is a sleepy, slothful being whose incredible age and predisposition to introversion has left him out of most affairs in the Dead Loop, despite his incredible power. Mostly, he just wants to keep I Found This Humerus out of his sanctum and occasionally check up on the Gandobog Pack.

Lab of Dr. Cunningham

Cunningham is, at core, a fraud. Most of his method and techniques were pulled from scavenged serpent-men tablets from deeper in the caves. He has a crippling inferiority complex about this, and so makes up for it with his aggressive, aggrandizing demeanor. His work is good, don’t be misled there, but it’s good because the serpent-man methods of body modification were nearly idiot-proof.

Location means he services the La Croix regularly, though he has no particular allegiance with them.

Caves (Upper)

Natural limestone caves inhabited by Gandobog Pack and a few holdout pockets of the Conspiracy.

Caves (Lower)

Burned into service by Lithic geomancy, the entirety of the lower caves has been turned into the embassy of Court Basalt.

Factions of the Dead Loop

The Illuminated

A minor cult of Vor Glaurung, notable in their tattooing their scriptures (illuminated, of course) across their entire bodies. A newer cult, so none of them has received the entire manuscript yet.

• Has been infiltrated by members of the Zamboni family, intending to subvert them against the Titans and gain access to Book Club.
• Is regularly hired by Book Club for support, trades surface goods with the Gandobog Pack.

Zamboni Family

Antonio Zamboni used to be the top dog around here, back before the economy went belly up. The family still owns a good number of properties up on the surface and has their fingers on city politics, but they’ve almost entirely been driven out of the underworld by La Croix and the Titans. But, a change in leadership (Anthony’s brother Benito has taken over) has seen a revival of underworld interest, and attempts to wrest control back in their favor are underway. The Zamboni core of power is on the surface.

• Lost an heir to the Benthic Congregation, but managed to hammer out a peace treaty
• Has infiltrated the Illuminated as a way of getting close to Book Club and the Titans.
• Has an informant in the Coyote Crew, scouting out business opportunities.

La Croix Family

Genevieve La Croix and her clan operate out of the Bastille, a sub-basement stronghold below the Nix Avenue station. Genevieve is something of a gigantic heretic: adores the pomp and circumstance of the church, hates the whole morals thing, offers huge bonuses for anyone able to bring her a demon. So she can eat it.

• Low-key conflict with both the Conspiracy and the Gandobog Pack.
• Infrequent but violent fights with the Titans over territory and supplies

The Titans

Brothers Atlas, Prometheus, and Menoetius (Epimetheus seems to be missing), real names unknown, run the den of sin and pounding music that is Club Iapetus. They are all wannabe sorcerors of their own, using spoils from Book Club to further their own rivalries with each other.

• Infrequent but violent fights with the La Croix over territory and supplies.
• Exert significant control over the local chapter of Book Club, monopolizing their services.
• Forced into neutrality by the Conspiracy, who threaten to reveal Club Iapetus and all its illicit dealings to the surface authorities.

Benthic Congregation

These worshipers of the Leviathan have been blessed with the emergence of a true avatar, a Bentheoson. While the avatar serves as the spiritual leader, the practical leadership remains where it was, in Carol Dietrich. The two do not see eye-to-eye on anything and tensions are building. Haven’t established their own stronghold yet, have been looking at moving down into the Catacombs once the war is over.

• Careful truce with the Zamboni family, formed after one of the heirs joined the cult.
• Has planted informants within the Coyote Crew, looking for ways to help cultists on the surface escape their lives and make their way to the underworld.
• Open warfare with I Found This Humerus, believing (mostly correctly) that Zyraximander means to kill the Bentheoson.

Coyote Crew

A small smuggling band, specializing in the forging and sale of fake IDs. Headquartered on the surface, do business with the crime families.

• Both the Benthic Congregation and the Zamboni Family have planted informants within the group, though they’ve yet to attempt active subversion.
• Has recently assassinated a member of the Court Basalt, for reasons that no one can figure out. It’s properly baffling, but the Crew is doubling down.

I Found This Humerus

A band of experimental and terribly irreverent necromancers, attempting to recreate the methods of the lich Zyraximander. They make their camp in the Catacombs.

• In conflict with Court Basalt over the Court’s melting of an undelved wing of the catacombs.
• Open warfare with the Benthic Congregation, believing (mostly correctly) that the Bentheoson will seek out and kill Zyraximander to establish itself as the primary supernatural power in the Dead Loop.

Book Club

The local chapter of grimoire smugglers. Primarily a surface organization, descending either for trade or salvage.

• Hire out The Illuminated for support.
• Low-key conflict with the Gandobog Pack, over possession of surviving ophidian texts.
• Puppeted by the Titans, who use them to gain a monopoly on occult texts.

Court Basalt

A band of exiled Lithics, come up from the mantle to establish a new court. Found in the Lower Caves.

• Looking to strike back at the Coyote Crew for the death of one of their clerks.
• Cold war with I Found This Humerus and The Conspiracy

The Conspiracy

The local dero have recently accumulated around a new genius, who has introduced the meme of secret messages hidden in food packaging that filters down from above to his flock. Av dero always do, they have jumped into the belief whole-heartedly. They can be found basically everywhere.

• Have forced neutrality with the Titans, who had previously tried to stamp out the Conspiracy, through threats of toppling Club Iapetus.
• Low-key conflict with Gandobog Pack over surface food brought down by The Illuminated.

Gandobog Pack

The ophidian city that once stood here is long gone, but morlocks have long memories. This pack is particularly blessed in having two eloi, one of which was recently born. They live primarily in the Upper Caves.

• Rely on The Illuminated for shipments of surface goods.
• In conflict with the Conspiracy over food brought to them by The Illuminated.
• In conflict with Book Club over the possession of surviving ophidian texts.

RiseAndShine.Exe - November Patreon Post

Jasper Francis Cropsey

Referee Forward: I built this as a way of introducing people to Eclipse Phase blind - use a simulation to run folks through character generation and the basic mechanics without overloading them on rules and setting fluff. Still works with people who know what they are getting into, but I want to experiment with those who don’t and see how it works out (This is as-yet untested, by-the-by.)

Basically, as the players progress through this scenario they will be posed questions. Their answers will determine the skill packages (background, career, interest, and faction) that will make up their character on the outside.

Treat everyone as having a 30 or 40 in all skills. Don’t worry about what packages give people until session 2 - those will be determined by how they answer the questions of the locks. (See the core 2e rulebook for those)


The Players: Modern-day vacationers (In reality the infomorphs of Firewall agents)
The Setting: A secluded campsite; rustic cabins around a mountain lake. A summer evening.
The Hook: There’s a cry from down at the beach: a corpse has washed ashore.

Before Everything Begins

All players should answer the following question and take the appropriate aptitude template. If this is a meatspace game, I suggest putting this front and center on the character sheet / index card.

Stats are Cognition / Intuition / Reflexes / Savvy / Somatics / Will

I would describe myself as…

• Physical and athletic - 10/15/20/10/20/15
• Extroverted and outgoing - 10/20/15/20/15/10
• Good at planning and organizing - 15/15/10/20/10/20
• Never really sticking out - 15/15/15/15/15/15
• Creative and inquisitive - 20/20/10/15/10/15
• Hardy and adaptable - 15/10/15/10/20/20
• Adventurous and thrill-seeking - 20/10/20/15/15/10

The Corpse

A pale, waterlogged man, chained to a steamer trunk sealed with five sturdy locks. There is a heavy iron key tied to his wrist.

When the first lock is opened, the players will all receive a text message (if they do not have their phones on them, which is likely, they have appeared in their pockets)

First Question: What was your childhood like?

• We wanted to start a new life somewhere else (Colonist)
• We had a safe and stable life (Enclaver)
• We moved around a lot (Freelancer)
• My parents had gigantic debts they couldn’t pay off (Indenture)
• I spent most of my time online (Infolife)
• My parents were never around (Lost)
• We were always just scraping by (Underclass)
• I got a lot of shit for who I was (Uplift)

The Phone Call

After the question is answered, one of the phones rings. No one should be getting service up here. Caller ID is blank. It keeps ringing until it is picked up.

“You are in danger. Get that chest open as soon as possible. The keys are around here. I promise it will make sense as soon as you open up that chest.”

The Campground

Ten rustic cabins, clustered on one side of the egg-shaped lake. No cell reception. If the players try to leave by car, the batteries are dead. Also of note:

• An old fire-tower.
• An island in the middle of the lake. A bonfire appears there after the phone call.
• A small ranger’s cabin.

The Four Remaining Keys

These may be found and used in any order.

• At the top of the fire tower.
• A player will have to climb up a rusty, unstable ladder without falling. The edges are sharp and will injure their hands without protection (difficult to hold or grab things).
• In a computer-controlled safe in the ranger’s cabin.
• The computer can be hacked, or with more time the lock can be picked (triggers monster).
• On a 12’ tall pole in the center of the bonfire on the island.
• Attempting to put out the bonfire will take enough time to trigger the monster
• Hanging from the belt of the monster.
• The monster will appear after the third key is found, or when triggered.

The Monster

A huge, slow, hunchbacked thing with a single red eye like an ember, dragging a heavy maul behind it.

It can always be outrun, but has a tendency to show up out of nowhere.

Can be distracted, tripped up, snuck up upon, etc. It can smash down walls and recover, but it will always take a second blow.

It is scared of being burned, but not so scared that it ceases to be a threat at all.

A successful hit will cripple / incapacitate a player. A second will kill. We’re not worried much about HP at this point.

Dead players are, of course, not actually dead. They can communicate with other players via their cellphones. Any questions not answered will be randomly rolled.

Questions of the Keys

Each new key will ask a new question of the players

Second Question: Tell me how you see yourself.

No matter their answer,  roll 2d5

• 11 -Arachnoid
• 12 - Bouncer
• 13 - Dragonfly
• 14 - Exalt
• 15 - Fury
• 21 - Futura
• 22 - Galatea
• 23 - Ghost
• 24 - Hibernoid
• 25 - Menton
• 31 - Neo-Avian
• 32 - Neo-Ape (1. Chimp / 2. Bonobo / 3. Gorilla / 4. Orangutan)
• 33 - Neo-Neanderthal
• 34 - Neo-Octopus
• 35 - Neotenic
• 41 - Novacrab
• 42 - Olympian
• 43 - Pleasure Pod
• 44 - Ruster
• 45 - Security Pod
• 51 - Slitheroid
• 52 - Splicer
• 53 - Steel Morph
• 54 - Sylph
• 55 - Synth

Third Question: Which statement do you agree with most?

• I love teaching people new knowledge and skills (Academic)
• I like working behind the scenes (Covert Ops)
• Sometimes you have to be rough to get things done (Enforcer)
• I like going new places (Explorer)
• I like meeting new people (Face)
• I like studying plants and animals (Genehacker)
• People come to me to fix their computer (Hacker)
• I like solving difficult problems (Investigator)
• Healthy living is a priority (Medic)
• I want to know how people think (Mindhacker)
• One man’s trash is you know the rest (Scavenger)
• I’m always looking to discover and learn (Scientist)
• It’s important to protect your country (Soldier)
• I like tinkering with things and seeing how they work (Techie)

Fourth Question: Which have you done recently?

• Got a new pet (Animal Handler)
• Made something beautiful (Artist / Icon)
• Experienced an altered mental state (Async)
• Led people on a project (Commander)
• Practiced a martial art (Fighter)
• Solved a puzzle (Forensics)
• Drifted along your own way (Jack of All Trades)
• Raced drones (Jammer)
• Met and talked to new people (Networker)
• Saved someone’s life (Paramedic)
• Flew a plane (Pilot)
• Lied to someone (Rogue)
• Sat around and played video games (Slacker)
• Went starwatching (Spacer)
• Went back to school (Student)
• Took a long, difficult camping trip (Survivalist)

Fifth Question: What of these do you value the most?

• Community (Anarchist)
• Scientific inquiry (Argonaut)
• Freedom from oppression (Barsoomian)
• Introspection and distance (Brinker)
• Me, myself, and my money (Criminal)
• Self-reliance (Extropian)
• Exerting power (Hypercorp)
• Security (Jovian)
• Cultural heritage (Lunar/Orbital)
• The right to self-define (Mercurial)
• The study and safekeeping of history (Reclaimer)
• Hedonism (Scum)
• Living the high life (Socialite)
• Civic duty (Titanian)
• The status quo (Venusian)
• Local politics (Regional)

Final Question

The chest is open.

Option 1) “Are you afraid to die?” - The chest is empty. Scene pans to outside the simulation, where the players’ main bodies are just about the destroy the server containing their illegal, compromised forks.

Option 2) “Do you remember who you are now?” - The players are sucked into the chest, taken out of the simulation, and sleeved into the bodies rolled for question 2.

June Patreon Reward: All Quiet in Canniel!

Canniel District and Environs

Well, it's been three months since I put up my first backer reward on Patreon, so here it is released into the wild. The map was generated using The Welsh Piper's hex-based campaign posts.

All Quiet in Canniel

What You Need to Know

• Temperate, rainy climate.
• The city-states in Canniel district collapsed well over fifty years ago under war and plague.
• The inhabitants of those old city-states dispersed into scattered villages and homesteads throughout the region. These are the “hillfolk” named so by both fort dwellers and themselves.
• The parent state (whatever it might be) has been reclaiming the region for some years now. They are not putting many resources into the effort.

000.003 - Ruins of Ekt

• Terraced layers of stone homes with colorful roofs, slowly reclaimed by nature. The streets are filled with the desiccated corpses of those stricken by plague.
• Haunted by the spawn of Leprosa, the plague spirit. Where the Rotmother went after she arrived in the city during the war is unknown, but her flea-men have remained.
• Contaminant-of-Blood, a flea-man, has been accepting human sacrifice from the hillfolk on behalf of the Rotmother.

000.008 - Fort Nail

• Commander: Sullivan Gant - Battered, bad-legged veteran. Memory is fading. Believer in an old, left-behind religion. His men treat him with a mix of respect and great pity. Thinks Tonsure is a useful fool for his magery and Lox a dull, blunt instrument. Fort is properly run by the Castellan Drury.
• Anarchists are among the camp followers here, using the quiet as a cover while plotting to remove the other two commanders and blackmail Castellan Drury into merging the fort with Din (002.007), then deposing the other two commanders.

001.003 - The Oracle

• Accessible only through the banshee-haunted Valley of Signs (002.003)
• The Oracle - species uncertain beneath moth-eaten green veils. Cave is filled with insects.
• Those wishing to see the Terrible Secret must be stung by her holy wasps, an excruciatingly painful three-day process that will leave the disciple near death for days but capable of walking into and out of dreams.

002.007 - Town of Din

• Home of the Stewpot Anarchists - most of the town is a member in some way. Very good at turning military oversight to their side.
• Flea-men in the swamp have been attempting to subvert the movement, sending disguised manipulators in to meetings. Their disguises are getting better.

003.004 - Town of Nod

• Grim and claustrophobic. Immensely wealthy.
• Treasures from Ekt (000.003) can be found in nearly every home.
• Dark secret: people the town doesn’t want around (vagrants, sinners, anarchists) are traded to Contaminant-of-Blood for treasure. Fort Dredge (005.005) has sent prisoners through the town.

004.007 - Old Battlefield

• Remnant of the old war. Nothing left but rusted scraps and overgrowth.
• Jona Setter, a traveler, has come here to find some trace of their grandfather, who died in the battle. They are an anarchist, but not a very good one, and will presume anyone meeting them at such a lonely spot is one as well and start talking about their allies and plans in Fort Nail (000.008).

004.009 - Treasure!

• Deep in the toad-filled festering swamp there is rumored to be an idol of the god interred at the burial grounds (006.010) - a thing of meteoric gold, light as a feather despite size worthy of a king’s ransom.
• The shrine is empty, save strands of sticky, numbing webbing. The idol was taken by the Cutter-Weaver (009.001)

005.000 - The Old Moot

• A pre-war meeting place. The Fort commanders believe it abandoned and ignore it.
• Representatives of several major parties live here, waiting for news by crow:
• Eriphen Ao Bule - Follower of the Jubilant Sword. Willing to work with the forts, to handle the ghouls.
• Snaggle Crackmolar - The ghoul. Wants claims on all the ruined cities, battlefields, and forts. Allied with flea-men.
• Thursday - The anarchist. Wants to subvert the forts through ideology.
• Tobah Longar - Hillfolk. Wants the forts driven out by force.
• ???? - A figure in a hooded red robe. Says nothing at meetings.

005.002 - Fort Rust

• Commander: Elba Tonsure - Arcanist and theosophist. Prone to fits of conspiratorial fancy. Hates Lox for his dull fanaticism, tolerates Gant for his experience.
• Built directly into the mountainside. Single entrance.
• Every few nights, a column of hooded, red-robed figures walks up the path and is accepted into Tonsure’s chambers without question. No one is ever seen to leave come morning.

005.005 - Fort Dredge

• Commander: Burtran Lox - Paranoid nationalist. Hates everyone. Sees knife-wielding anarchists behind every corner (and has been right twice).
• Walls on the verge of collapse due to shoddy construction. Lox’s paranoia has spread: the soldiers are tense, bottled emotions boil over violently. Clamping down on vices with puritanical ferocity.

006.004 - Dead Man’s Mine

• Uranium mine, once thought to be iron and now thought to be cursed.
• Commander Elba Tonsure of Fort Rust (005.002) has sent a few trusted men in lead-lined suits to mine for small amounts. He intends to enrich it through magical means.
• The mine has expanded far beyond its original confines without human touch, winding down into the earth like intestines. Faint grinding noises can be heard from deep below.
• The miners are growing restless. Several are murmuring about arresting Tonsure for abuses against his men and electing a new commander.

006.010 - Burial Grounds

• Not of the human inhabitants, but a being claimed to be an ancient god descended from the stars. It is in truth the mate of the Cutter-Weaver (009.001).
• The body has not decomposed, and thus has proven a lure to hordes of ghosts looking for a potential possession.
• Drumg, a ghoul, is burrowing away at the mound in secret, attempting to retrieve some god-flesh for his faction back in Jale Attera (009.007).

007.009 - Monastery of the Jubilant Sword

• Goddess of plenty and warfare. Two dozen adherents plus nearby villagers.
• Originally built to service the Burial Grounds (006.010), repurposed to current denomination.
• On-and-off conflict with the ghouls, have been paying protection money to the Grockodile (009.009).

008.007 - Hunting Camp

• A band of men from Fort Dredge (005.005) sent to the ruins of Jale Attera (009.007) to hunt for Mellifluous Kobbo Birds. Secret mission: assassinate Zin Snap-Crack, the ghoul carrionchief.
• Yan Kallo, head of the party, has been beset by a succubus in his dreams. He has resisted so far but the intensity of the attacks is increasing, spilling over into the waking world. He has been trying to cover this up.

009.000 - Ruins of Gon Shor

• At the bottom of the valley between two hills. Abandoned during the war after a landslide buried most of the southern district.
• The Donnager Party out of Fort Rust (005.002) has been tracking the Cutter-Weaver (009.001), hoping to carve it up for magical reagents. The real plan is to be “attacked” on the way home and hand them over to the hillfolk chiefs at the moot (005.000).

009.001 - Lair of the Cutter-Weaver

• Described as something like a gigantic arachnid or crustacean with a mossy, pink-blue shell.
• Heralded by and surrounded by a cloud of toxic, freezing mist.
• Webbing numbs flesh instantly upon contact.
• Was drawn here via the Stones of Stars (011.003) and would like to go home. It does not care for you.
• The idol from (004.009) is here. The Cutter-Weaver has laid eggs within it.
• Moths and wasps of the Oracle (001.003) are found here, and fly back and forth between the cave and her mountain.

009.007 - Ruins of Jale Attera

• Shattered spires of brilliant, voluptuous jale.
• Home to a great number of ghouls, who came to the city after the war destroyed it.
• The ghoul carrionchief, Zin Snap-Crack, is barely maintaining control over the families of the warren - he is considered a pretender by all and keeps his rule only through the spirits of fire he has bound as his servants.

009.009 - Ruins of Tillan Holding

• Crumbling fortress on the southern lake edge. The north wall has collapsed into the water.
• Inhabited by The Grockodile, a crocodile-headed, chaos-tainted ogre. He has trapped a warren of ghouls in the keep’s great hall for a feast that will never emerge and insufferable comedy-of-manners small-talk. The Grockodile will demand that he be brought the Cutter-Weaver as a meal. The ghouls want freedom from their chains, but mostly to attack the hunters at 008.007 for their trespass.

011.003 - Stones of Stars

• Concentric rings of standing stones, arranged just so to provide accurate mapping and measurement of the heavens. At the center is a crater of smoky glass and a hooded red robe.
• Individuals who put on the robe fall asleep instantly and, with through terrifying dreams, will learn a spell of their level +2. It will be cast from HP. Upon waking, they will feel alienated from their own body for several days.

Want this stuff early? Hit up my patreon!

The Jump Nine Empires

Arnauld Kleindeinst

 

The Jump-9 Ships

The ELJ-C (Extreme Long Jump - Colonial) series were the finest ships to ever come out of the Epsilon Eridani shipyards. The first spaceships ever equipped with a Jump-9 interstellar drive. The biggest colony ships ever constructed, capable of accomplishing what would normally take a fleet of lesser vessels. Each was equipped with two of the most powerful AI the posthumans won't immediately destroy.

And they were all catastrophic disasters. All nine vanished without trace the moment they made that first jump. Hundreds of billions of credits and tens of thousands of man-hours, poof. No radio signals, no return trips, no sign that they ever reached their destinations.

The Jump-9 drives did what they were built to do, but far too well. They overwhelmed the ships' time-space maintenance protocols and launched the ships forward in space, but backwards in time - a worst possible scenario.

The governing AI, upon emerging from Jump and realizing what had happened, deliberately sabotaged their own colonization efforts as far as their programming would allow - There could be no detection until after the fleet had launched, and absolutely no reaching Earth. Unraveling causality is not a risk that could be taken.

The Jump Nine Empires have remained hidden until only recently. None of them were found until after the initial Jump, and several did not survive that long. The true nature of the Jump 9 Empires has remained hidden from the public eye so far.

Navadurga and the Lords of Night

The dual AI of each ship were designed to work in tandem. The Navadurga were to oversee the inhabitants of the colony, the Lords of Night would handle infrastructure and maintenance. The separation between the two was a necessity to avoid posthuman involvement. They generally go about their business without bothering each other, and were initially programmed for only moderate interference in the lives of their colonists. Post-Jump, neither of these traits would be guaranteed.

ELJ-C-01 "Chandra"

Shailaputri / Xiuhtecuhtli
67 years ago 

With such a slim margin for error, the ship cast itself into the upper atmosphere of a gas giant and has been pretending to be in transit ever sense. Rising tensions within the population (caused by inadequate screening of potential political conflicts) has led to the seeds of sectarian violence.

ELJ-C-02 "Mangala"

Brahmacharini / Tezcatlipoca 
3,000,000 years ago 

Some forgotten disaster wiped out the settlement in its early days. The colonists have long since evolved into a form more fitting for their environment - generations of starvation sheared off most higher brain functions as wastes of energy, but a few thriving populations live off of local crustaceans on the coastlines of habitable-temperatures.

ELJ-C-03 "Shukra"

Chandranhanta / Piltzintecuhtli
4,300 years ago 

The easy way out was taken - distract the population with easy pleasure. By this point, the symbiotic relationship between the colonists and their pornographic cyber/bio/VRware has created a new people in its entirety, adrift in a sea of simulation, stimulation, and brain rewiring. Most communication is done by drone swarms, as everyone is generally entirely too focused on Onanistic pursuits.

ELJ-C-04 "Surya"

Kushmanda / Centeotl
890 years ago 

Trapped on a high-metal world of crushing gravity, it would be impossible for the colonists or their descendants to ever leave through mundane rockets after the ship dismantled itself. Swift, brutal changes in posture, bone structure, and gait emerged within a generation and grew only more pronounced. Many aspects of technological society were lost, due both to the difficulties of gravity and the strain on nonmetal resources.

ELJ-C-05 "Budha"

Skandamata / Mictlantecuhtli
52,000 years ago 

They are no longer recognizable as human in mind or body, though what prompted such drastic change can only be imagined. They appear now to be a sort of shaggy, red-haired, blubbery quadruped. The skull has sunk into the center of the abdomen and the spine and ribs have grown outwards into a delicate, velvety garden of flower-like structures. They seem to walk around in a dream, barely noticing what is going on around them and certainly ignoring most outside contact.

ELJ-C-06 "Guru"

Katyayani / Chalchiuhtlicue
1700 years ago 

There was something else living there, something they called the Simurgh. It opened itself up to the colonists and took all of their hopes and fears and dreams and love into itself, and they were its children, and the AI slowly turned themselves off.

ELJ-C-07 "Shani"

Kaalratri / Tlazolteotl
11,000 years ago 

Only ruins and vaults remain on this desolate rock. There are only wisps of atmosphere and no traces of there ever having been life there at all. Surface digs have turned up little evidence of material culture within the cities, and the spherical black vaults have yet to be successfully cracked open.

ELJ-C-08 "Rahu"

Mahagauri / Tepeyollotl 
6100 years ago 

A civilization raised with such disdain for thinking machines that they have sidestepped computers and long-distance communication entirely through mental training, genetic engineering, and chimeric servants. Containment failed somewhat, in that they were able to spread to several planets within their solar system, but none were detected before Jump.

ELJ-C-09 "Ketu"

Siddhidhatri / Tlaloc
200,000 years ago

Additional containment proved unnecessary - the colonists have collapsed and rebuilt their civilization from scratch four times now: twice by nuclear exchange, once by pandemic, and once by global famine. The planet's resources are spent, and more time is spent digging through the detritus of former ages than moving towards the future. Current civilization has some electricity in wealthy regions.

The Centauran

There was a tenth. Built with stolen blueprints in great secrecy by Centauri Corporate Command, the ship was a cobbled-together rush job with an AI that bordered on bootleg. CCC packed it with as many frozen embryos and exowombs as they could in the hopes that the teaching suite would do the rest.

Against all probability, the Centauran ship succeeded. Its empire is flourishing (inasmuch as the morass of human suffering that is Centauran-derived life can flourish), and it is growing. Reaching out feelers, 16,000 years in the past.

The Centauran Empire is a hellscape writ large. A self-sustaining system without guidance, devouring and pillaging and moving on to devour more.

Its sights are set on Earth.

How to Make This Work

The player crew stumbles across the remnants of a failed Centauran scout ship that managed to find (and then attempt to invade) another one of the Jump Nine Empires. A still active Navadurga or Lord of Night contacts the crew with the message explaining the crisis and proposing a plan: the crew must track down a Warden-arbitrated number of other Empires, piecing together a trans-temporal weapon that can shoot down the Centauran before it founds its colony.

Alternatively, just throw the Jump Nine Empires in when you want something alien without actually bringing civilizations full of sapient aliens into play.
  

Womb of Annihilation

I doubt anyone reading this will care about spoilers for Tomb of Annihilation, but I'll declare them anyway.

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Tomb of Annihilation  is a pretty good adventure. There are a good deal of weird WotC-isms in it (have you ever wondered about your NPC guide's exact height and weight? Tomb of Annihilation has you covered.) but on the whole it's a solid adventure with solid wilderness support and solid dungeons. You could run it without a whole lot of elbow grease.

But that's no fun.

Basic Premise

Acererak is trapping the souls of the dead in a giant machine and feeding them to an Atropal, which is currently located  at the bottom of an ancient dungeon in an abandoned city in the middle of an uncharted rainforest in a distant land. The lead-in is that resurrection spells have stopped working, those who have been resurrected previously are beginning to decay, and you've been sent to investigate it.

Elbow Grease Note 1:  Twice as many immortal oligarchs as you thought you wanted.

 

Tomb of Annihilation comes with the setting presumption that resurrection is common enough in-setting that people are noticing something going wrong. At first, I wasn't fond of this conceit and was considering dropping it entirely (an easy enough task), as I'm not super fond of the idea of resurrection as a commodity, but then I reconsidered.

Resurrection is expensive. It requires a 13th level wizard to cast, and if we're using +Skerples medieval price list, which is nice and abstracted, the component cost is the equivalent of 100,000 US dollars.

(For extra math fun, calculating the value of 1gp with the current per-ounce market value of gold, times 16 ounces per pound and divided by 50 coins per pound, we end up at $205,760 for a resurrection spell if a GP is only 50% gold.)

This is on top of the fees for hiring a 13th level necromancer, which could easily be ten times or more the cost of the components.

In short, it's bloody expensive. The only people who would even have a chance to access to it would be the rich and powerful, who would be able to become more rich and powerful by installing a revolving door to the afterlife.

The people who are sending you on this mission will reap all the benefit, despite doing none of the work (the book itself says that they've already sent people to Chult and failed. The only actual payment you receive from your patrons are 50gp up front, and a single magical item upon completion. Starting at level 1 just emphasizes that you're disposable lackeys. )

The book already uses the Red Wizards of Thay as an enemy faction that is out to twist everything to their own advantage. This works as-is. One set of immortal oligarchs are already taken care of.

Your patron is a woman named Syndra, who is supposed to be a member of the Harpers. I haven't got a clue what in Sam Hill the Harpers are supposed to be, so they have now been turned into the Harper East Seres Company (Or +Jacob Hurst 's Martel Company) Your friendly neighborhood expansionist venture-capitalists that have formed their own little government,who are now also immortal.

Both the Red Wizards and the Harper Company want the resurrection problem solved. Wizards want the Soulmonger for themselves, the Company doesn't yet know that it exists. The two groups loathe each other.

Elbow Grease Point 2: All about the politics

 

The module mentions factions, but few of them are actually important to the goings on in Chult. With rival groups of immortal oligarchs meddling in local affairs on top of local factions, that is a huge oversight.

The Harper Company
"It's just jungle now, but with some forward-thinking it transforms into something beautiful. Think about it. Rubber, cocoa, cotton, tea; plantations from horizon to horizon. Mines producing more oil and gold than we can imagine. And diamonds!"

• Wants: The end of the death curse, a return to the status quo, economic control of Chult
• Does not want: The Red Wizards gaining anything, the Merchant Princes getting too uppity and thinking they run the place.
• Is currently: Throwing poor people at the problem until it gets solved.

The Red Wizards of Thay
"The Chultans' aspirations mean nothing; They do not play with the long view in mind. No one ever does. They just think they'll live forever all on their own." 

• Wants: The Soulmonger, monopoly over resurrections and all other necromancy
• Does not want: The Harper Company gaining a foothold in Chult, Chult becoming anything more than a backwater, control of Chult for themselves, the Soulmonger destroyed.
• Is currently: Sending veteran problem-solvers to solve the problem.

The Merchant Princes
"In my grandfather's time Port Nyanzaru was a few huts and a palisade, and now we'll be selling tej in Lankhmar and Corpathium by year's end. No more "dark continent", no more superstition, just the Princes' stamps on crates of fine Chultan goods."

• Wants: To become a major player in the global market, to drag Chult kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat, to play with and then become one of the Big Boys, to get access to resurrection for the Princes.
• Does not want: Monarchist movement to gain power, news of the undead plague or death curse to spread and make them look bad.
• Is currently: Distracting the populace with dinosaur races and tej, trying to get a leg up on the Harper Company via corporate espionage.
  

Liara Portyr and the Flaming Fist (A mercenary subsidiary of the Harper Company)
"Fucking spear-chuckers need to learn who really runs the world."

• Wants: To "pacify" and "civilize" Chult. To get filthy rich by looting the jungle and oppressing the locals.
• Does not want: Interruptions of their making money, Chultans thinking that they should be in charge of their own country and lives.
• Is currently: Putting pressure on the Princes via pirate-permissive patrol practices
  

Mwaxinare
"When I'm queen, no one's going to tell me what to do. I don't need to be babied, I don't need protected - I will be queen and I will show everyone how things are supposed to be!"

• Wants: To claim her rightful position as queen of Chult, to toss out the merchant Princes and the foreigners, to return Chult to an overly-idealized former glory.
• Does not want: To remain hidden for much longer, to actually have to deal with the reality of governance.
• Is currently: Biding her time in Kir Sabal with her brother, chomping at the bit.

The common folk
"Welcome to Chult: Home of the world's friendliest mosquitoes."

• Wants: Food on the table, money in the bank, hot water, soft toilet paper, a new mosquito net, a good night's sleep, a brighter future.
• Does not want: The curse to continue, to end up with someone's boot on their neck, to completely abandon who they are in exchange for the benefits of modernity.
• Is currently: Feeding an undercurrent of worry beneath the new prosperity.

The Yuan-ti
"The apes learning to talk was entertaining at first, and quickly became less so."

• Wants: To awaken the Night Serpent, to keep humans out of their jungle.
• Does not want: Acererak to stay any longer, to be betrayed by Acerak, to admit that they know that Acererak is definitely going to betray them.
• Is currently: Protecting the lost city of Omu, preparing for the return of the Night Serpent, preparing for a sudden but inevitable betrayal.

Acererak 
"IT WAS ME! IT WAS ME THE ENTIRE TIME! YOU ALL BOUGHT IT! FOOLS!"

• Wants: To feed souls to the Atropal, to cause widespread misery and suffering for his own amusement.
• Does not want: The game to end, to have his wants challenged by anyone or anything.
• Is currently: Overseeing the Soulmonger, planning future schemes, figuring out how to betray the Yuan-ti.

 

Elbow Grease Point 3: Expanding the curse 

 

In the module proper the Soulmonger captures all the souls of the dead, blocking resurrection or phylacterization. I can only presume that captured souls are stuck in a whirling torment of pain and misery as the Atropal devours them, but we can make it more horrible. This part was originally intended as a replacement for the death curse, but it works better as an addition to it.

What if the Soulmonger wasn't just a trap for the souls of the dead, but one for the not-yet-living?

[Aside] There was a fantasy full conversion mod for Civilization 4 called Fall From Heaven II. It was and still is fantastic. In it, the primary evil religion had a shrine they could build called "Stigmata on the Unborn". While the effect in that game was powering up your units depending according to how high the Apocalypse Counter is, I always imagined it as a method of attacking rival civ's population growth. So there's the inspiration for this.[/Aside]

This effect of the death curse is still in nascent stages - we have not reached Children of Men stages yet, but the important thing is that the potential is there. The effects will spread, and gradually grow worse.

Right now, people are worried. The last few months have been filled with deformities, defects, and miscarriages most common of all. The people know this; midwives talk, after all. The Merchant Princes and their representatives deny that anything is going on; this is not a conspiracy on their part, but the simple belief that curses are just local superstition, waiting to be driven out by their modern mercantile rationality. (Of course, being filthy rich means you can blunt many of the worst side effects of the curse, for the time being.)

The reveal of this aspect of the curse should be a good OH SHIT moment for players. Not only because of the potential consequences, but for providing a moral quandary: destroying the Soulmonger ends the curse on the unborn (definitely a good thing), but further entrenches folk like the Red Wizards and the Harper Company in their power (not a good thing), thus permitting them to further meddle in the affairs of Chult to their own ends (definitely not a good thing). Beating the bad guy will not solve all your problems.

Elbow Grease Point 4: The cosmic abortion in the room

This guy reminds me of something. I just can't put my finger on it...

Hmmm...

Hmmmmmmmmm...

It's on the tip of my tongue, I swear...

Nope, can't think of it. It's probably nothing.

...

You can't just put a cosmic abortion in the room and not deal with the fact that there's a cosmic abortion in the room, Wizards of the Coast!

Elbow Grease Point 4: Dealing with the cosmic abortion in the room 

 

Res minimus: Levels 5 and 6 of the Tomb should be a horrible nightmare fleshscape, as is befitting the title of this post. The giant undead fetus is right there, stone corridors aren't going to cut it any more.

Res maximus: Acererak is the Atropal's father.

Maybe he's the actual father, maybe he's only acting in loco parentis. Perhaps it was a divine miscarriage instead of a cosmic abortion. It doesn't matter: whatever you might come up with is better than "he found it on the Negative Energy Plane" and I don't want to ruin the image with explanations no one wants or needs.

[Aside] The crazy thing is that this is practically in the book as-is: they just don't give it any focus. The height and weight of your guide are super important, I guess. [/Aside]

The horrible beating heart in the middle of this campaign is that relationship. Acererak cares for the Atropal (by feeding it souls), but demonstrates a simultaneous and paradoxical apathy to it (he only appears after it has been killed, and certainly doesn't care about its state of torment). I doubt I need to spend much more time explaining how the psychopathic undead troll-DM is a really, really bad parent.

Elbow Grease Point 5: Back to the beginning

But the cool thing about that horrible beating heart (Finally! The end!) is that it calls back to Point 1:

The only applicable difference between Acererak and the Red Wizards or Harper Company is time.

Acererak has reached the point where wealth and power have fundamentally lost meaning to him because he will never run out of either - he can just build a new overly-elaborate death trap when the current project is winding down. The Red Wizards and the Harper Company aren't at that point yet, but are already stretching their abuse and exploitation muscles. The Merchant Princes aren't on the playing field just yet, but they will be if they have their way.

There will be more Acereraks in time, and Chult is set to become an Atropal of its own. The older established generation exploiting the younger so that it decays before it has grown.

Settings with commoditized resurrections aren't fun, kids. This is where you end up.

Elbow Grease Point 6: A few ifs

If the Soulmonger falls into the hands of the Red Wizards
The curse will be lifted, but they will swiftly enforce a monopoly on resurrections and undeath. The Harper Company will be cannibalized and disbanded. The Merchant Princes will be prevented from ever getting their hands on resurrection services. Chult's dawning golden age stalls out.

If the Harpers remain a major power in Chult
The Merchant Princes will be bought out - never officially, but lopsided trade agreements and crooked distribution rights (in exchange for resurrecting the leadership) will see the Princes become yet another (fantastically wealthy) subsidiary of the Harpers. The Burning Fist will become the boot stomping down on the Chultan neck. Chult will be exploited to the last acre, and by the time the people realize that they've been had, an independence movement will become much more difficult.


If Mwaxinare reclaims her throne
She will find herself surrounded by enemies on all sides and with next to no allies, vastly outmatched in resources, guile, and governing ability. An agreement might be made with the Merchant Princes or another faction, but she has no power of her own beyond lingering cultural significance. She courts disaster.

If the Soulmonger is used by the party
Difficult, but possible with a powerful enough necromancer. The scope of the curse can be modified with the device - for example, the curse on the unborn might be lifted, while the ban against resurrection might remain. Souls passing to the afterlife might be trapped en masse, individually, or set free.


You can, of course, utterly destroy both the Harper Company and the Red Wizards. Not fast enough that they won't retaliate, mind. You'll also need the cooperation of the Yuan-Ti, or their removal from the premises.

The the Soulmonger is allowed to continue its business unchanged
The curse on the unborn will spread outwards from Chult. Within a few months there will be more deaths than live births. In a year's time, there will be no live births at all.Within five years, the entire hemisphere will be effected.


If the above, and the Atropal is dead
After nine years, when the curse has spread across the entire world, the Soulmonger will finally contain enough souls to summon the Night Serpent. It will rush out like a black river from the gulfs between the stars, devour the offering, and usher in a second age of the serpent.

If the above, and the Atropal lives
If the Soulmonger is still active, the Atropal will be born into divinity in 280 days. A maelstrom of pain and hate and fear will burst forth from the deepest jungles of Chult, obliterating the Soulmonger, the Tomb, and the lost city of Omu. Most of the country's population goes mad instanteously from the initial wave of psychic torment. Everything that dies, down to bacteria, will be raised as undead. The jungle will become a landscape of perpetual rot.

If something else happens
You're clever folk, I'm sure you'll think of something