Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Oh, that's a good one. I'll try and give you a quick five rooms in the next few hours.
OSR Shadowdark - A few beginner's questions
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Here's my quickie take on it.
This dungeon is set in the base of a desert cliff with no sources of fresh water within a day's journey.
Columned entrance - The desert sands have blown up around each column and are largely undisturbed. Rangers or those with an appropriate background can make a DC 12 roll to spot that snakes have crawled through this sand recently.
Great hall - The body of a desert traveler lays sprawled by the pool room entrance. The blown sand around his body is unmarked. Their body has become desiccated and mummified in the dry desert climate. Someone with an appropriate background can make a DC 12 roll to determine that he died of dehydration several weeks ago. He has ordinary traveler's equipment, but no weapons or anything else to mark him as anything but a simple traveler. There is no sign of any mount or companions he may have had.
Stone statues of animal headed gods -- an ibis, a jackal and an alligator -- stand in the middle of the room. They are cleverly carved and appear to be watching visitors, but are actually mundane. The walls are covered with surprisingly bright frescos of life in the long-vanished river-centric desert empire.
Pool room - This water is fresh and cool and is fed by an underground aquifer. Multiple skeletons (one for every two party members) lay at the bottom of this six foot deep pool, among rusted armor and weapons and treasures that have spilled out of ruined pouches. Anyone who reaches into the pool -- either for a drink of freshwater or in attempt to get the treasure -- is attacked by the skeletons, who attempt to hold intruders under the water, drowning them. (DC 12 Strength check.) Their swords and armor are rusty, but still functional for combat. They will not pursue anyone out of the pool chamber and return to the water if intruders into the pool flee the room. There is one treasure from the Treasure 0-3 table on the bottom of the pool for every party member. (Reroll the ones that don't make sense for being on the bottom of a pool.)
Inner chamber - The remains of a giant scorpion fill this room. A pair of cobras lurk within the hollows of its long-dead and dried-out body and will attack anyone who investigates it.
Round hall - The winds passing through the halls make this room sound eerily like a mournful cry from somewhere in the long chamber. Or is it the wind?
The long chamber - The middle section of this chamber - the curved area -- has previously been scorched with flame. Written on the floor, in an ancient language, is a prayer to a sun god, asking for mercy. Anyone who says the word "mercy" disables the fire trap for one minute. Otherwise, those stepping into the curved area suffer a blast of 1d10 fire damage. Although the language is ancient, it's taught to priests, wizards and scholars, who can figure out how to pronounce it with a DC 9 Intelligence check.
In the far section of the complex, the strange shade of a jackal-headed figure wanders back and forth, reenacting the things it did in life, including priestly duties and preparing the bodies of the dead in this inner portion of the temple. Although the figure is incorporeal, it wears very real gold jewelry worth 120 gold pieces. It is not hostile, but if attacked, transforms into a scarab swarm and attacks all within its chamber. It will not follow intruders as far as the trapped section of the room. It reforms into the jackal-headed figure once combat ends.
This dungeon is set in the base of a desert cliff with no sources of fresh water within a day's journey.
Columned entrance - The desert sands have blown up around each column and are largely undisturbed. Rangers or those with an appropriate background can make a DC 12 roll to spot that snakes have crawled through this sand recently.
Great hall - The body of a desert traveler lays sprawled by the pool room entrance. The blown sand around his body is unmarked. Their body has become desiccated and mummified in the dry desert climate. Someone with an appropriate background can make a DC 12 roll to determine that he died of dehydration several weeks ago. He has ordinary traveler's equipment, but no weapons or anything else to mark him as anything but a simple traveler. There is no sign of any mount or companions he may have had.
Stone statues of animal headed gods -- an ibis, a jackal and an alligator -- stand in the middle of the room. They are cleverly carved and appear to be watching visitors, but are actually mundane. The walls are covered with surprisingly bright frescos of life in the long-vanished river-centric desert empire.
Pool room - This water is fresh and cool and is fed by an underground aquifer. Multiple skeletons (one for every two party members) lay at the bottom of this six foot deep pool, among rusted armor and weapons and treasures that have spilled out of ruined pouches. Anyone who reaches into the pool -- either for a drink of freshwater or in attempt to get the treasure -- is attacked by the skeletons, who attempt to hold intruders under the water, drowning them. (DC 12 Strength check.) Their swords and armor are rusty, but still functional for combat. They will not pursue anyone out of the pool chamber and return to the water if intruders into the pool flee the room. There is one treasure from the Treasure 0-3 table on the bottom of the pool for every party member. (Reroll the ones that don't make sense for being on the bottom of a pool.)
Inner chamber - The remains of a giant scorpion fill this room. A pair of cobras lurk within the hollows of its long-dead and dried-out body and will attack anyone who investigates it.
Round hall - The winds passing through the halls make this room sound eerily like a mournful cry from somewhere in the long chamber. Or is it the wind?
The long chamber - The middle section of this chamber - the curved area -- has previously been scorched with flame. Written on the floor, in an ancient language, is a prayer to a sun god, asking for mercy. Anyone who says the word "mercy" disables the fire trap for one minute. Otherwise, those stepping into the curved area suffer a blast of 1d10 fire damage. Although the language is ancient, it's taught to priests, wizards and scholars, who can figure out how to pronounce it with a DC 9 Intelligence check.
In the far section of the complex, the strange shade of a jackal-headed figure wanders back and forth, reenacting the things it did in life, including priestly duties and preparing the bodies of the dead in this inner portion of the temple. Although the figure is incorporeal, it wears very real gold jewelry worth 120 gold pieces. It is not hostile, but if attacked, transforms into a scarab swarm and attacks all within its chamber. It will not follow intruders as far as the trapped section of the room. It reforms into the jackal-headed figure once combat ends.
Nikosandros
Golden Procrastinator
Thanks! I love the atmosphere. I'll run this for sure, either for the session I talked about in the OP or in a future one.
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Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
Glad you liked it. Friday afternoon work was busier than anticipated, but once I had the idea of skeletons trying to drown PCs in the pool, I knew I wanted to get it down.
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Nikosandros
Golden Procrastinator
A couple of weeks ago I ran (with a few modifications) the adventure that Whizbang kindly provided and great fun was had. We might pick the game up again this Fall.
A few casual notes on Shadowdark from a beginner's perspective.
1) The simplicity and tight focus of the game design was much appreciated.
2) Always on initiative in general worked, but we had a few "awkward" moments. I know that one is supposed to be flexible about the implementation, but a little more experience will probably prove useful.
3) Real time torches where loved by everyone.
4) It seems to me that spellcasting stats can be quite important. A fighter can keep trying to hit, but once you fail to cast a spell it is gone for the day.
5) I love that the encumbrance system is strict and simple, but it lead to a few "fiddly" situations with characters swapping items back and forth.
A few casual notes on Shadowdark from a beginner's perspective.
1) The simplicity and tight focus of the game design was much appreciated.
2) Always on initiative in general worked, but we had a few "awkward" moments. I know that one is supposed to be flexible about the implementation, but a little more experience will probably prove useful.
3) Real time torches where loved by everyone.
4) It seems to me that spellcasting stats can be quite important. A fighter can keep trying to hit, but once you fail to cast a spell it is gone for the day.
5) I love that the encumbrance system is strict and simple, but it lead to a few "fiddly" situations with characters swapping items back and forth.
DarkCrisis
Reeks of Jedi
Casters also need scrolls and wands for when their main spells fail them. Much like in AD&D!
Speaking of torches. I plan to get a little tea light to have next to whomever has the torch and it switched on/off when in use.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I'm glad the adventure worked out!
The adventure I ran on Saturday had a low wisdom priest character, created using the ShadowDarklings.net generator, and he lost his cure wounds spell the first time he cast it. If your spellcaster has a negative spellcasting modifier, I suggest not ordering any HeroForge miniatures of them.
The adventure I ran on Saturday had a low wisdom priest character, created using the ShadowDarklings.net generator, and he lost his cure wounds spell the first time he cast it. If your spellcaster has a negative spellcasting modifier, I suggest not ordering any HeroForge miniatures of them.
Bill Zebub
“It’s probably Matt Mercer’s fault.”
And thanks to straight stat rolling and flat-ish power curves, it's reasonably likely that your Wizard will not be terrible with a staff or dagger.
J.Quondam
CR 1/8
(Sorry to necro this, but I figured a newb question would be appropriate here without starting a whole new thread...)
Question about stat checks.
I understand rolling against DCs, eg, "DC 15 CON check." But sometimes the rules say simply to roll a stat check without giving a DC. For example (pg 85):
Thanks!
Question about stat checks.
I understand rolling against DCs, eg, "DC 15 CON check." But sometimes the rules say simply to roll a stat check without giving a DC. For example (pg 85):
In this, does "Make a CON check each round" mean DM picks a DC to make a CON roll against, or is there some notion of "CON check" without an explicit DC that I'm missing somewhere?
Thanks!
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I read it as picking an appropriate difficulty level (look on the inside front cover for that chart) and rolling.
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