Getting Rid of Pests at The Shrine of Qriarae

A second recent campaign encounter scenario, prettied up for public consumption.  A few weeks ago, the party was seeking out a relic for the merchant clan they were trying to get back on the good side with.

I'd scribbled this shrine up previously, and modded it on the fly as the repository of said item. The party managed to subdue the bandits, and take care of the beetles before either caused more harm. Priest Erol got an advantage bonus on a spell as a reward, as well as the party finding the relic.

Hi!

The beetles were bespoke for the scenario, with a particularly hazardous ability due to their powerful pincer jaws. Fortunately (?), none of the beetles rolled well, so we didn't have any debilitating injuries... 

I refined the scenario a bit to make it usable at the table, with general ShadowDark stats and mechanics. The beetles have a bit of a timer component, with new hatchlings, as well as "Mama" finally breaking into the shrine proper. 

 Not much else to say on it - so will just share The Shrine of Qriarae with the world.

Tomorrow, the party gets nomadic.

Logging another Dyson joint - the Sunken Ruins

More slow progress transcribing and prettifying various maps and notes. In this case, a small stronghold ruins that the party discovered while tracking some stolen horses.

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Just another case of some unclaimed real estate becoming occupied. Although the party successfully assaulted the crumbling fortifications, the leader of the defenders sensed that they were in pursuit of the horses, and released them in exchange for no more deaths.

Many of the occupants and items were lined out in my rough table notes, and I expanded their story a bit for the final document.

This usable space was scribbled on...

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...and occupied by an extended family of zealous serpent-folk, with a leader convinced that he is a new prophet to their god. 

I AM YOUR PROPHET

Anyhow, the leader chose discretion over valor, allowing the PCs to retrieve their horses before more blood was shed. I'll post a full session writeup soon.

So check out who's squatting in Grimlil's Sunken Hold... (all ShadowDarked up).

Note: A couple of new spells were cribbed from “Forbidden Priest Spells for ShadowDark RPG” by C. Sella. Of course, now I can't find the original link to attribute the writer. I'm sharing the document here, but if anyone can point me to the original source, I'll update. 

"All in the Family" or, The Family that Prays Together, Stays Together...

... or something like that.

Here we have a family interred within their family tomb, which is also a shrine to their god, as well as a gateway for an avatar of that god to treat with them, other faithful followers, as well as those who may seek conversion and the gifts that act bears...

It took me a while to come up with what "lived" in the pool, until the phrase 'flayed god' came to me. Leaning heavily on the imagery of Xipe Totec, I went with it.

The OG Flayed God

Anyway, I'm not sure how this one turned out. It was an interesting presentation and content challenge. The adventure-bits themselves are basically one page, with lore, monster and spell descriptions, and other material taking up four pages... The spell Fear doesn't show up in B/X-OSE, with its first appearance in AD&D as a mage/illusionist spell. Likewise, Shadowdark has neither Fear or Remove/Cause Fear in its original edition. So those spells are included, and modified to fit the systems. I got lazy and didn't convert the family members and avatar to SD, but I think they are straightforward enough to run on the fly. Also, this can be approached as a delve, or potentially access to a resource, depending on how it plays out. 

Anyway, you can check in on the Viermetz family and their fleshless proselytizing here. 

Going to step into the Crumbling Keep of Khashmur with some other yahoos on Monday evening. Watch our hapless adventures here.

Bollixing Up the "Shrine of the Mother" by Tim Shorts

So Tim posted up this excellent little scenario on his Patreon. It includes a small hexcrawl, a novice deathcult, and halflings. Always good. I ganked the map of the "Shrine of Dedragoria" for a quick bar writeup:

work in progress

The map is a good space, essentially a five-room dungeon. A place to hide the McGuffin, a side passage, something causing some structural damage. I can work with this.

Stuck with the shrine idea, because it fits. And shrines need a relic. Preferably hidden away. So our heroes get assigned a simple snatch-and-grab by my campaign's favorite thieves' guild boss, Solange Fiorentino. 

Nothing to it.

Without further ado: The Shrine of Dhena

(Note: I realized that Tim used a map from a previously-posted set of small adventure/encounter area maps. Which are also part of my languishing Project Transcribe(tm). Curses.) 

Added for no reason whatsoever.

Update: Tim also uses this map for his "Unbalance the Scales" adventure. Here's his walkthrough of the adventure.

Foxtail Grotto, revised

After last week's shenanigans, I gave Foxtail Grotto a revision to (hopefully) improve usability and play. I revised descriptions to clarify placement of encounters, and added a small introduction on playing out the discovery of the pirate cove. Monster stats have been updated and consolidated at the end of the scenario, more consistent with my current format. I also bumped the format to two column, which I've been using and seems to read better. 

New and Improved!

And apropos of nothing, found this while image searching:

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Finally, some validation! I always knew that princess was up to something sketchy.... We knew all along the dragon was unfairly incriminated!

Lost and Found Adventure 2: "Dungeon 001" by Logen Nein

I really need to organize my files better.

So I was downloading a few free maps for later reference/inspiration when I found a folder containing a handful of maps that Logen Nein had posted up on the reddits. Most of these maps were from when he was first experimenting with mapping and posting them up for critique and use. I've cobbled together an encounter area using one of these maps before.

Hmm. What's this folder? Oh look, this map...

...and a half-finished dungeon-stocking exercise dated March 2023. Holy unfinished projects, Batman. Yes, one of many temporarily or permanently abandoned projects.

I'd come up with quite a few features and foes to occupy the space, but had never determined a theme or raison d'etre for the place.

The big-bad had been inspired by a post and illustration from Yuri Perkowski, one of the illustrators of Shadowdark and other RPG products. It occupied the space denoted as "22. Chimera-type monster, born of cataclysm, broken thing" on my map. 

And then it sat for two years.

Ok, let's print this thing out, figure out names and personalities for the placeholders left in the old document. Make some justification for the highlighted and "???" inserts. And what the hell do the four classical elements have to do with anything?

Two more days of scribbling and squinting, followed by rampant theft from Wikimedia Commons.

And a (hopefully) cohesive exploration space filled with hazards and discovery. I leaned heavily on my favorite spell supplement, Theorems & Thaumaturgy, as well as a couple of other favorite resources. 

Add a silly alliterative name, and let's post this thing. Statted per OSE/flexible old-school stuff, best for a mid-level party with a bit of resilience.

Welcome to Lysimachur's Elemental Error. Watch your step.

"The Remains Of A Most Unfortunate Party" - More Shorts Inspiration

Well, If I'm going to steal his maps, I might as well use the title he gives 'em.

Here's a good little space. Some finished rooms hidden within a cavern that open to a second, deeper cavern. And a good title, "The Remains of a Most Unfortunate Party." Well, knowing Tim, they were probably "unfortunate" in a rather grim and gristly way, so I figured I should try to honor that, at least. 

We explore the place for its novelty or its resources, perhaps.

And yes, as the PCs are poking around in here when they come across the remains of another party that clearly got in over their heads. From a tough foe that doesn't take any real damage from some of the normal go-to methods. This is perhaps a chance for some of the less martial or poorly-equipped members of the party to shine. We'll see.

Enjoy your visit, and don't trip over "The Remains of a Most Unfortunate Party." Enjoy the shiny foe.

Tim's Patron is here. Free membership tier available plus upgrades that include receiving print versions of adventures and NPC cards.

 

"Why is it Always the Spiders?" - The Map

Well, a couple of months ago, the party nearly met their match with a belligerent phase spider. So I figured I'd take the time to clean up and present the session notes for general consumption. I plan to do this with more of my locations and encounters from the campaign, since they might have some utility for folks, or at least a peek behind the curtains...

Anyway...

Original session prep notes

I had scattered treasure and magic items throughout the original, but the party only made it to the irregular room in the center of the map (essentially the 2nd room encountered) before being set upon by undead and the phase spider. In this writing, I came up with a justification and mechanic for the random magical treasure. And yes, the list of magical items includes a few items “donated” by the party. 

Our party was generally sixth level OSE PCs, although they were hampered by bad initiative rolls, as well as bad saves against the undead, allowing the spider to take advantage of her magic.

So here it is, all prettied up and given a cutesy name.

Download Me Here!

I can see a critter like this becoming an ongoing foil for a party, or perhaps a resource to negotiate for magical goods with, based on her propensity to collect sparkly sorcerous baubles...

Paying a Visit to the Temple of the Black Oracle: Revisiting a Tim Shorts Map

Tim recently shared out his "Temple of the Black Oracle" via his Patreon (Well, a year ago recently...) and I decided to put my own spin on the map, because that's what I do now and then.

It looked like a good space, and I stuck with the name, as it gave inspiration for who or what the oracle could be...

So after some scribbling in the margins, I cobbled it together as a one-page adventure. Good for generic Old-school play with a few low-level PCs. Bring your earplugs.

Download Me Here

And watch out for the toad.

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Just got my games approved for Dragonflight 45, a couple each of Shadowdark and OSE. So looking forward to rolling with folks both new and known.

Ok, now to try to get some sleep with the freedom exploding in the neighborhood while cuddling an unhappy greyhound.

Encounter Area - Lost and Found in the Woods

Well, as I do sometimes when we go out to one of our local watering holes, I take my notebook, and perhaps a couple of blank maps to scribble ideas on. After all, sometimes the muse is right beneath the surface...

Anyway, printed this out and thought it might make a good spot for a small encounter, maybe a rescue, maybe a fight...

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Let's see. Maybe gnolls? They could be keeping watch, take cover in the ruins and tower, fight smart. They'll have captives in the north room. And they haven't found the secret room, but there will be a scary undead there.

Hey. Waitaminute....

https://leicestersramble.blogspot.com/2023/05/returning-to-campaign.html

Damnit...

'Course, I never wrote it down, and couldn't find the particulars in my original notes, so ginned up a reasonable facsimile. 

FINE.

That's what a few years of one-shots and campaign gets you, I guess. 

A Manor, Lost and Found...

The D66 Table Test Dungeon: The Bowl of Gunnfried for Shadowdark

So I have written a number of D66 tables as a creative exercise. A few were themed on dungeon contents, and the final of these included, “things to get, things stopping you, and dungeon decorations.” So, since a couple of friends had put these tables to use, I figured that I should roll the dice and put it to the test, myself. 

"Bowl, roper, incense burners/braziers."

OK then. Let's do this. 

Grab a Dyson map. This one will do...

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Hmm. Ok, why not put a boss monster in the first room? ...

So here it is - The Bowl of Gunnfried - crafted up for Shadowdarky delvings. Estimated in the 3rd+ level of challenge, as long as there are a few magic weapons in the mix. Knowing PCs, they'll just dogpile every challenge....

This is the first time I've written specifically for the Shadowdark format - critter stats, etc. so critique is welcome.

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Owen's Mine: A Wayback Revision

I recently got a request to update a broken Drive link on a post from way back when - January 2015, to be precise: Owen's Mine - Four visions.

One of my earlier efforts at coming up with multiple scenarios for a single dungeon-space.

Original here

Anyway, with the passage of time, most of the embedded links were broken due to an SRD site going dark, and the scenarios had been presented as separate documents. 

So I found most of the originals on a hard drive and combined/cleaned up the format a bit. Don't worry, the content is generally unchanged from the originals, and still my usual bog-standard, barely literate dungeon-stocking. 

Download: Owen's Mine, 4½ Variations

Bad Water at Bishara Shrine: Another Shorts Adventure

Tim scribbled up a dungeon map using the random dungeon generator found in the Shadowdark rulebook. 

Yep, it's random. It almost makes sense, though. So I took it upon myself to make it make sense. Imposing order upon chaos, or something like that. Anyway, the diversion of the stream (which I am assuming to be subterranean) caught my eye and had to be the focal point and "cause" for the adventure. After all, water has been both the foundation and downfall of plenty of cities and civilizations. So if the water goes bad, it is a crisis, indeed. Especially when another crisis looms on the horizon...

Download: Bad Water at Bishira Shrine (estimated for 3-5th level party) (Updated 3/25 based on play, and minor edits)

While looking for imagery for this piece, I found this cute little guy:

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The caption reads: "Alleborith: a demon from The Testament of Solomon. While most demons have many powers to inflict horrid ills upon humans, Alleborith has only one: he can cause people to choke on fish bones. No angel is assigned to banish him, perhaps because of how minor & specific his power is." 

Use caution around that salmon dinner....

Itch.io Zungeon Jam 2025

It's been a while since I've participated in a Jam on itch.io. I mean, I bookmark them all the time... Anyway.

I saw this blog post linked on the OSR Discord and took a look. It seems to be aimed at folks who may be intimidated by the idea of producing an adventure for public consumption or even their own table. But I like the intention, and creating a random writing prompt is always a good seed. And nothing has ever stopped me from putting half-assed adventures out into the world before. Maybe I'll be an inspiration, or at least a warning.

Well, I took their instructions to heart. Quick and dirty? yes. Unpolished? certainly. Amateur? very. Per the blog post, yes, the initial stocking and notes took less than an hour, and each covered about notebook page. The randomly-generated graphic maps are the adventure map - nothing drawn or otherwise generated. A couple of pieces of publicly-available or AI (ugh) art. Two pages each. A couple of paragraphs of setting and adventure hooks, and six rooms each of things to find, interact with, and fight. 

Ok, with that, here they are in all their rough-shod glory:

Zungeon Entry #1: Lister's Laboratory

The party is tasked with rooting out the source of counterfeit gems (or strike a deal for their own machinations,,,). - Adventure for a few 1st level PCs of Old-School funny dice games. A 2-page mini-adventure written for the Zungeon Jam 2025.

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Zungeon #2: Merkhad's Mine Misery

When one of the ancient ones shows up promising riches, well, some things are too good to be true...  An adventure for a few 1st-2nd level PCs of Old-School funny dice games. A 2-page mini-adventure written for the Zungeon Jam 2025.

yes, I used AI...

Anyway, if you think you can do better, the Jam is running all year. Plenty of time to procrastinate.

"Brother Odom's Crypt" - An Encounter Area From Our Campaign

Last session, our band of miscreants came upon a tomb inhabited by an undead knight of an old order. They have encountered such undead warriors before, so delved in to see if they could recruit said knight to their cause. The knight, although handicapped, was willing to join. However, the party found that his soldiers had been corrupted by other organisms, and a fight was had. 

So sharing a slightly revised version of the quick encounter area that I sketched up for the party. 

As clearly shown...

The original map was drawn by prolific creator u/Raznag. I have a handful of his pieces, and this is the first one that got scribbled on. So we have a small, linear crypt with a mushroom-filled cavern. Perfect for a resting crusader and his corrupted colleagues.

Original map here

I made a quick "finished" dungeon from the session map. Elements of the scenario (deity, relic, and faction) are obviously from our campaign, but could be adjusted for your play. The "fungal wraiths" are co-opted from my "Banshee's Tower" adventure, which two of the players have helped to clear. Enjoy.

Welcome to Brother Odom's Crypt

The Sanctuary of Oies, or, Dwarves Behaving Badly...

Greetings, heroes!

Tim graciously posted up a spare map some time back, and like so many maps, it languishes in my notebook with many of its kin. But occasionally, the muse strikes, in some way, shape, or form. In the case of Tim's maps, it seems that, at least for the last few maps I've stocked, there are either dwarves in trouble, or causing trouble. So dwarves it is.

The project lived unto the working title of "dwarves behaving badly" until I could give it a proper title. Here, we have a temple to a dwarven earth god, abandoned after a ritual gone awry. But... Someone wants to unseal the doom that came to the temple. That happens. The PCs must stop said ritual, or potentially be in a World of Hurt (tm). The adventure is set up with a timer, so successfully stopping the unsealing of the second level will halt the escape. But, if the thing escapes and is defeated, there may well be reward in the deeper level of the temple.

I had a bit of fun with the boss monster. It was a name that came to me as I was brainstorming, and I made a critter to fit the name. I hope it's disturbing enough. 

The second level map was provided by Jackson, and fits the theme of the scenario well enough, as well as helps illustrate the introduction and worship of a new deity. 

The cover art images were discovered among the works of Jacques Collet, and illustrate our namesake dwarves behaving badly...

PWYW Here

Five Visits to the Temperance Stone

Another "four scenario" project that became five scenarios... Dyson threw out this five-room dungeon some time ago, and it lived in my map repository until I needed a fun project. 

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Again, it was meant to be a "four scenario" exercise, but I had a few spare area descriptions that made it an even five (not the first time this has happened). The rooms are described in a brief, tabular format without much elaboration. This is meant to be a location to be stumbled upon, or as a couple of the scenarios imply, perhaps a location where the party can visit to be granted healing or other gifts. And, of course, a couple are just nasty. Enjoy:) 

Download Me Here

A note on the art. The standing stone drawings in the document are by Scottish archeologist and naturalist Frederick Coles. As part of his position at the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland, Coles received support to survey and measure standing stone locations throughout Scotland. Through his career in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, he created one of the first catalogues of standing stone circles in the country. 

The bio notes that Coles would take his children along on these trips after his wife's death and would utilize them as field assistants. I'd just like to highlight this photograph of Coles and four of his children on one of his survey trips:

Based on the posture and expression of the young lady in the forefront, it's comforting to know that teen boredom and disdain has endured throughout the ages. "Daaaaddd! We go measure your stupid rocks every summer! Can't we go somewhere fun for a change?"

Anyway, have an enjoyable Easter weekend, for those celebrating the holiday. Looks to be a pleasant weekend here - hope to move around outside in one manner or another.

Also will be running a Deathbringer one-shot through Meetup this week, so printing out copies of the rules and figuring out which hole to send the erstwhile adventurers down. The usual campaign game will fire up again after the holiday. I'm sure that it will be a peaceful, uneventful session... ;)

Welcome to the Temple of Dynss, plus some lamentations on creativity

My "Village of Longtooth" post got a little traffic in the last couple of weeks, mostly because Shane mentioned on his blog that he was cribbing it for his new campaign. Much appreciated...

Anyway, I got a comment lamenting that people didn't seem to post up '5-minute maps' and similar creative bits as much anymore, especially since the G+ diaspora. I thought on this, as well. At the time, my mind was much more attuned to creating, so I could see a map like Shane's, or a piece of art that someone posted, save it, and immediately draft up a few notes of description for that piece. Then I'd toss it out into the world, and maybe someone would find it and use it. Who knows. But it was more about creating and sharing for me than any other impetus. 

Now, I have a folder full of maps and ephemera covered in notes that never seem to get transcribed, or some inspiring piece gets lost in the feed and never found again. Gotta fix that.

Which brings us to the Temple of Dynss. Grab a small encounter space, set the timer for an hour, and fill it. Then make sure it gets written up.

Dyson themed it as a lost temple now occupied by a giant lizard, so I took the lizard theme, but gave it the lizardfolk treatment. Old lost temple? They must be returning to it to cause some mischief of their own agenda. Somewhere, I wrote down the random phrases 'smoking ruin' and 'spirit snake' as spells for our main character, a shaman. Wasn't sure, but they sounded like spells that he'd have. I roughed out a plot, pulled some images from Wikimedia, and created some hows and whys. 

Check out this dapper guy
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(Although I didn't incorporate the image into the adventure, he's the inspiration for the shaman's guards)

So, an hour plus a few days later, we have our finished work. 

Welcome to the Temple of Dynss

An old temple/mausoleum, complete with a few modified monsters and undead, two new spells, and one new magic item.

Now to figure out how to grab the creative moments more often...

That said, as best as I can tell from my disorganized blog tags, I've written over a hundred adventures. Everything from a single-location encounter to large dungeons requiring multiple sessions (nothing in the mega-dungeon category, yet...). Several include four to five scenarios for a single map, so that adds a few more. Most are probably pretty bog-standard by most criteria, although I do let the mind out to play a bit more now and then... Anyway, they are all free, or at the most PWYW. I'm sure something will be suitable to drop into your table, or perhaps seed an idea of its own.

The Temple of Kalonius

Per my prior campaign journal, I created a temple/tomb for the players to raid and explore. The session was a good opportunity for playtesting the adventure, and I found some weaknesses in the face of my low-mid level party. 

The published version uses the creator's title for the deity, versus one from my campaign pantheon. The areas and foes are written for generic OSR play. Based on the playtest, I added a hazard and stiffened a few of the foes to increase the challenge if things come to blows, as well. 

It was a fun session, with some good problem-solving, hectic combat, and roleplaying. Along with the general chaos that is my group. Hopefully your table will have some fun with it, as well.

Download me here

Five Visits to Goldrun's Grotto

Howdy, neighbors!

A quick post to finally post up some original content that's not a play report.... 

I'm sadly negligent on creating. Again, the brain just ain't as obsessed at creativity as it used to be. Even looking at my production throughout the life of the blog shows a lessening of creativity and (perhaps) interesting stuff.

Enough woolgathering for the moment.

Jackson threw this map up at the beginning of the year:

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...it looked like a good space, with an open-air grotto, a couple of entrances, and a loop. Off I went.

And in the theme of attempting a bit of creativity, I wrote up multiple scenarios, in the mode of my "4 scenarios" adventure writeups. This time, I ended up with five. So you get a bonus. We got various flavors of undead, hermit beekeepers, a suspiscious naiad, blind cave fish, BATS!, and a couple of Permian amphibians. 

Have fun with them, as a scenario may fit as a one-shot, side adventure, or locale for some item or knowledge within your own game. 

PWYW here