Voadam
Legend
Dungeon Crawl Classics #83: The Chained Coffin (Compiled 2nd Printing)
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Undead: Dead tissue exposed to the spoil’s power animates, becoming a bizarre and unique form of undead creature.
Spoil Effect on Living Subjects.
Ghost: ?
Phantom: ?
Hant: Transparent spirits that emit a frigid aura of air, the “Hants” in the Deep Hollows are the un-dead spirits of the original inhabitants of the valleys. Slain in the lunar catastrophe that destroyed Luhsaal and decimated their civilization, some still cling to their homeland in the afterlife, attempting to drive away those who would settle in their wake.
Non-Corporeal Undead, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Animated Corn Husk Doll: Once the PCs acquire Shuyr Rilla’s holy symbol from the well and begin moving through the corn field (area 1-8), each doll becomes possessed by a fragment of Hobb undead energy and they attack the party.
Spoil Dwarf: This cave is a spoil, one of the residual deposits of Hsaalian magic that survived the destruction of the Luhsaal (see The Chained Coffin Companion p. 2). The decaying lunar sorcery has strange effects on persons and objects exposed to its radiance, and the dwarves here are no exception.
Originally a band of prospectors, these six dwarves found the gold vein in area 1-8, but were discovered in turn by Shange before they could make much progress mining it. Shange, still seeking to understand the spoil’s power, killed the dwarves but restrained himself from drinking their blood. Instead he left their corpses inside the spoil and was amused when they arose with a semblance of life.
Haggard-seeming dwarves with ebon eyes and gaunt appearance, spoiled dwarves bear the wounds that killed them. Animated in a grim semblance of life by the spoil, these undead miners can strike with their tools to break the limbs of opponents.
The spoil’s magic maintains the un-dead dwarves’ animated state and they cannot move more than 50’ away from area 1-9.
Skeleton of Unknown Origin: Birthed from the bones of a dead something from long ago, the skeletal creature is intent on destroying all life it encounters. Perhaps if it is defeated, clues to what the creature was and where it came from can be discovered amongst its old bones.
Hobb Phantom: The uneasy spirits of the Hobb clan are trapped in Sour Spring Hollow, hungry and hateful.
Ghost of Moonricket Bridge: ?
Ancient Zombie: A handful of miners perished while dumping spoil, falling into the pit and being crushed by the rocks. The Hsaal cared little for their minions and the bodies of the unfortunates were left to rot among the stones, buried beneath impromptu cairns of added debris. There, in the darkness, their spirits have lingered, growing ever hateful. Anyone meddling in their domain attracts the spirits who reanimate their desiccated remains.
Pansy Roane, Ghost: In time, the serpent-men’s demands grew and ultimately Pansy and her unborn child paid the price for Wade’s pride and avarice.
When Wade Roane killed his wife, he concealed her body in this root cellar, walling up the corpse behind the old stone walls. Interred in this crude grave, Pansy’s ghost has been unable to rest and only the discovery of its body and subsequent burial in a churchyard will end its un-dead existence.
Back in my Granny’s time, there t’was a couple that ran the grist mill on Pigsaw Creek. They t’were Pansy and Wade Roane, happy a pair as you ken. Pansy t’was kindling a young ‘en, tis said, and ol’ Wade t’was happy as a hog in slop at the thought of being a proud poppa. But tragedy, as it t’will do here in the hills, well it paid a visit to ‘em.
The spring thaw swelled the creeks and rivers that year, and the Pigsaw overflowed its banks. Pansy t’was coming back to the mill from temple and it’s said she misstepped along the creek banks and fell into the swollen waters. No one saw Pansy go in, but they a’heard her screams all the way back in town. That t’was the last time anyone heard from Pansy … alive anyway.
Breath. Breath. At long last, I have breath to speak. Breath to tell my tale and utter the secrets my husband wished hidden. Breath to declare his shame and his blasphemy. Breath to warn the living of a horror that lurks among them unnoticed.
Wade was a petty man, a cowardly man. He concerned himself more with what strangers thought of his fortunes than what I, his own wife, did. When the mill began to fail, Wade grew frantic, fearful he’d be seen as a failure by the people of Holler Hollow. That is what doomed him … and me.
Something met with Wade in the old caves under our lands. A creature from another, older time. A thing that should have crawled, yet walked like a man. That creature promised Wade a fortune in return for unspeakable service. My craven husband agreed all too readily, sealing the fate of both his wife and unborn child. He murdered me at the behest of that creature and sealed my bones in the root cellar’s wall.
Soul Owl: These owls are soul fragments of Shange’s victims, trapped between life and death by the mixed power of the blooddrinker’s curse and the lingering magic of the spoil in area 1-9.
Zugun: Although triumphant, Boak paid a heavy toll for his victory. The mighty forces unleashed during the battle destroyed the site, foiling Boak’s transformation. Furious at being thwarted yet again (albeit indirectly) by Justicia, Boak enacted a horrific revenge on Zugun. Boak imprisoned the cleric in a coffin of orichalcum and bound the casket with chains of adamantine. The coffin, empowered by Chaos, preserved the dying cleric in a state that was not life, death or un-death, but a weird mixture of all three.
“Once a man, but now I do not know. I should have died long ago, but this coffin is now my prison and my preserver. I hope that I’m whatever goodness remains of a man, once his mortal clay is no more.”
Ox-Headed Barrow Bones: ?
Human/Serpent Hybrid Barrow Bones: ?
Squire Grady, Lingering Spirit: This cabin was the home of Squire Grady, a stubborn Shudfolk farmer who, despite the warnings of others, laid claim to a cursed plot of land in the Deep Hollows. Squire Grady, cantankerous and unyielding as the mountains themselves, refused to be driven off by the ghosts who haunt the land and even in death refuses to relinquish his claim.
Spoil Effect on Living Subjects
1d10 Spoil’s Effect
1 Imparts a random form of corruption. Roll 1d6: 1-3) use Table 5-3: Minor Corruption (DCC RPG p. 116) to determine effect; 4-5) use Table 5-4: Major Corruption (DCC RPG p. 118) to determine effect; 6) use Table 5-5: Greater Corruption (DCC RPG p. 119) to determine effect.
2 Causes a sorcerous wasting disease similar to mummy rot.
3 Imparts the ability to cast a random 1st-level spell once per day. Subject uses a d16 to determine the spellcheck of this incantation.
4 Drains magical power, turning enchanted objects mundane or stealing spells from a caster’s mind.
5 Permanently transforms the subject into a monster, either one chosen randomly from the DCC RPG rulebook or other source, or a unique creature of the judge’s creation.
6 Drives the subject insane, warping his mind with malicious thoughts to commit unspeakable crimes.
7 Creates a communication conduit between the subject and an entity outside the physical world. The party at the other end of this conduit may be pleased to speak with the subject, perhaps even agreeing to act as the affected soul’s patron or be angered by such brazen contact and seek the individual’s destruction.
8 Cloaks the subject in a permanent mystical field that amplifies his prowess or protects him from harm. Subject gains a +1 bonus to a randomly determined ability, spell, saving throw, natural armor class, or other characteristic of the judge’s choosing.
9 Slays the subject outright then revives him as an un-dead creature 1d4 days later unless the body is destroyed.
10 Sends the subject to another time and/or place. Possible destinations include the dim past during the height of either the Hsaal or serpent-men’s dominance, the Court of Chaos, the time pad in the Vault of Zepes Null-Eleven, or a certain purple planet…
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Undead: Dead tissue exposed to the spoil’s power animates, becoming a bizarre and unique form of undead creature.
Spoil Effect on Living Subjects.
Ghost: ?
Phantom: ?
Hant: Transparent spirits that emit a frigid aura of air, the “Hants” in the Deep Hollows are the un-dead spirits of the original inhabitants of the valleys. Slain in the lunar catastrophe that destroyed Luhsaal and decimated their civilization, some still cling to their homeland in the afterlife, attempting to drive away those who would settle in their wake.
Non-Corporeal Undead, Incorporeal Undead: ?
Animated Corn Husk Doll: Once the PCs acquire Shuyr Rilla’s holy symbol from the well and begin moving through the corn field (area 1-8), each doll becomes possessed by a fragment of Hobb undead energy and they attack the party.
Spoil Dwarf: This cave is a spoil, one of the residual deposits of Hsaalian magic that survived the destruction of the Luhsaal (see The Chained Coffin Companion p. 2). The decaying lunar sorcery has strange effects on persons and objects exposed to its radiance, and the dwarves here are no exception.
Originally a band of prospectors, these six dwarves found the gold vein in area 1-8, but were discovered in turn by Shange before they could make much progress mining it. Shange, still seeking to understand the spoil’s power, killed the dwarves but restrained himself from drinking their blood. Instead he left their corpses inside the spoil and was amused when they arose with a semblance of life.
Haggard-seeming dwarves with ebon eyes and gaunt appearance, spoiled dwarves bear the wounds that killed them. Animated in a grim semblance of life by the spoil, these undead miners can strike with their tools to break the limbs of opponents.
The spoil’s magic maintains the un-dead dwarves’ animated state and they cannot move more than 50’ away from area 1-9.
Skeleton of Unknown Origin: Birthed from the bones of a dead something from long ago, the skeletal creature is intent on destroying all life it encounters. Perhaps if it is defeated, clues to what the creature was and where it came from can be discovered amongst its old bones.
Hobb Phantom: The uneasy spirits of the Hobb clan are trapped in Sour Spring Hollow, hungry and hateful.
Ghost of Moonricket Bridge: ?
Ancient Zombie: A handful of miners perished while dumping spoil, falling into the pit and being crushed by the rocks. The Hsaal cared little for their minions and the bodies of the unfortunates were left to rot among the stones, buried beneath impromptu cairns of added debris. There, in the darkness, their spirits have lingered, growing ever hateful. Anyone meddling in their domain attracts the spirits who reanimate their desiccated remains.
Pansy Roane, Ghost: In time, the serpent-men’s demands grew and ultimately Pansy and her unborn child paid the price for Wade’s pride and avarice.
When Wade Roane killed his wife, he concealed her body in this root cellar, walling up the corpse behind the old stone walls. Interred in this crude grave, Pansy’s ghost has been unable to rest and only the discovery of its body and subsequent burial in a churchyard will end its un-dead existence.
Back in my Granny’s time, there t’was a couple that ran the grist mill on Pigsaw Creek. They t’were Pansy and Wade Roane, happy a pair as you ken. Pansy t’was kindling a young ‘en, tis said, and ol’ Wade t’was happy as a hog in slop at the thought of being a proud poppa. But tragedy, as it t’will do here in the hills, well it paid a visit to ‘em.
The spring thaw swelled the creeks and rivers that year, and the Pigsaw overflowed its banks. Pansy t’was coming back to the mill from temple and it’s said she misstepped along the creek banks and fell into the swollen waters. No one saw Pansy go in, but they a’heard her screams all the way back in town. That t’was the last time anyone heard from Pansy … alive anyway.
Breath. Breath. At long last, I have breath to speak. Breath to tell my tale and utter the secrets my husband wished hidden. Breath to declare his shame and his blasphemy. Breath to warn the living of a horror that lurks among them unnoticed.
Wade was a petty man, a cowardly man. He concerned himself more with what strangers thought of his fortunes than what I, his own wife, did. When the mill began to fail, Wade grew frantic, fearful he’d be seen as a failure by the people of Holler Hollow. That is what doomed him … and me.
Something met with Wade in the old caves under our lands. A creature from another, older time. A thing that should have crawled, yet walked like a man. That creature promised Wade a fortune in return for unspeakable service. My craven husband agreed all too readily, sealing the fate of both his wife and unborn child. He murdered me at the behest of that creature and sealed my bones in the root cellar’s wall.
Soul Owl: These owls are soul fragments of Shange’s victims, trapped between life and death by the mixed power of the blooddrinker’s curse and the lingering magic of the spoil in area 1-9.
Zugun: Although triumphant, Boak paid a heavy toll for his victory. The mighty forces unleashed during the battle destroyed the site, foiling Boak’s transformation. Furious at being thwarted yet again (albeit indirectly) by Justicia, Boak enacted a horrific revenge on Zugun. Boak imprisoned the cleric in a coffin of orichalcum and bound the casket with chains of adamantine. The coffin, empowered by Chaos, preserved the dying cleric in a state that was not life, death or un-death, but a weird mixture of all three.
“Once a man, but now I do not know. I should have died long ago, but this coffin is now my prison and my preserver. I hope that I’m whatever goodness remains of a man, once his mortal clay is no more.”
Ox-Headed Barrow Bones: ?
Human/Serpent Hybrid Barrow Bones: ?
Squire Grady, Lingering Spirit: This cabin was the home of Squire Grady, a stubborn Shudfolk farmer who, despite the warnings of others, laid claim to a cursed plot of land in the Deep Hollows. Squire Grady, cantankerous and unyielding as the mountains themselves, refused to be driven off by the ghosts who haunt the land and even in death refuses to relinquish his claim.
Spoil Effect on Living Subjects
1d10 Spoil’s Effect
1 Imparts a random form of corruption. Roll 1d6: 1-3) use Table 5-3: Minor Corruption (DCC RPG p. 116) to determine effect; 4-5) use Table 5-4: Major Corruption (DCC RPG p. 118) to determine effect; 6) use Table 5-5: Greater Corruption (DCC RPG p. 119) to determine effect.
2 Causes a sorcerous wasting disease similar to mummy rot.
3 Imparts the ability to cast a random 1st-level spell once per day. Subject uses a d16 to determine the spellcheck of this incantation.
4 Drains magical power, turning enchanted objects mundane or stealing spells from a caster’s mind.
5 Permanently transforms the subject into a monster, either one chosen randomly from the DCC RPG rulebook or other source, or a unique creature of the judge’s creation.
6 Drives the subject insane, warping his mind with malicious thoughts to commit unspeakable crimes.
7 Creates a communication conduit between the subject and an entity outside the physical world. The party at the other end of this conduit may be pleased to speak with the subject, perhaps even agreeing to act as the affected soul’s patron or be angered by such brazen contact and seek the individual’s destruction.
8 Cloaks the subject in a permanent mystical field that amplifies his prowess or protects him from harm. Subject gains a +1 bonus to a randomly determined ability, spell, saving throw, natural armor class, or other characteristic of the judge’s choosing.
9 Slays the subject outright then revives him as an un-dead creature 1d4 days later unless the body is destroyed.
10 Sends the subject to another time and/or place. Possible destinations include the dim past during the height of either the Hsaal or serpent-men’s dominance, the Court of Chaos, the time pad in the Vault of Zepes Null-Eleven, or a certain purple planet…
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