One of the joys of starting an episodic dungeon-crawling campaign is the complete absence of need to invest a lot of time in complex setting design. This is what I gave my players.
The region in which this bullshit takes place used to be a province of the Old Empire. It was never well-developed because reasons, but it did have some major resource extraction, some luxury crops that grew well there, and a bit of industry.
The Old Empire broke apart several centuries ago in the wake of an internal conflict whose specifics are largely unrecorded (or suppressed). Broadly speaking, most educated folk these days agree that the priests and the wizards were fighting for control of the imperial government and shit got out of hand. (This is also when we went from nine gods to the current seven.)
As large-scale collateral damage in that war, the province was isolated by magical cataclysms, natural (or “natural”) disasters, and reasons.
The PCs all come from an imperial splinter-state to the east. About a decade ago, a crew from Huntersford, a small mining city in the western hinterlands, found a passage under the mountains to the lost province.
Huntersford experienced a rapid boom as explorers, land speculators, and looters flooded into the area, hoping to get rich quick on the newly-rediscovered area. Shit went wrong quickly, though, as several outbreaks of disease and demonic possession nearly destroyed the city.
In response, the local duke appointed one of his lackeys as the baron of the far side of the mountain and charged him with offshoring the riff-raff. This resulted in the founding of Plainwoods, the aforementioned shithole gateway town at the western end of the Lost Highway. It’s easy to get to Plainwoods; much harder to get back east, as the ducal guard is constantly on the lookout for more problems being imported.
Plainwoods attracts a constant flow of desperate or idealistic folk willing to challenge the howling wilderness. The howling wilderness keeps Plainwoods from overflowing with those folk.
Currently, each of Plainwoods’ four taverns is the gathering spot for one crew of crawlers. You know. Adventurers. Looters. People like you.
I don’t expect Plainwoods to be the focus of adventuring, but I did want to exercise the random tables in Shadowdark’s core rulebook. So here it is. The town as a whole rolled chaotic alignment, with the individual districts shaking out rather perfectly. It’s almost as if my dice were listening.
The Slums (chaotic alignment)
It’s a place where the poorest of the poor live. Points of interest:
The Dog and Blade
A poor-quality tavern known for its exotic taxidermy collection. This may be an additional source of coin for the PCs.
Drinks menu
- barnacle grog (1 cp, DC 9 Constitution check or blind 1 hour)
- vinegary wine (5 cp, stains teeth purple, -1 Charisma 1 hour)
Food menu
- goat stew (3 cp)
- pickled eggs (4 cp)
- hearty broth (4 cp)
Criminal Safehouse
This safehouse moves around the slums frequently. It’s a common point of entry for PCs who are coming to the town because of criminal pursuits.
Witch Hovel
The abode of the ancient elven witch Hajnal.
Hajnal offers a quest which, when completed, will unlock the witch class (Cursed Scroll vol. 1) as a PC option.
The Low District (chaotic alignment)
A down-on-your-luck kind of place where down-on-their-luck kinds of people reside and, maybe, scrape out a living. Points of interest:
The Boar & Rat
A poor tavern which is often host to high-stakes gambling.
Drinks menu
- stale ale (5 cp, dulls the senses, -1 Wisdom 1 hour)
- clear spirits (1 sp, burns, ends 1 bad effect of another drink)
Food menu
- boiled cabbage (1 cp)
- cheese and bread (4 cp)
- roasted pigeon (4 cp)
The Rusty Candle
A poor tavern which is widely reputed to have an access point to ancient tunnels in its cellar. This almost certainly will lead to one or more delves.
Drinks menu
- stale ale (5 cp, dulls the senses, -1 Wisdom 1 hour)
- clear spirits (1 sp, burns, ends 1 bad effect of another drink)
Food menu
- goat stew (4 cp)
- roasted pigeon (4 cp)
- rat on a stick (1 cp)
Boot and Daughters
A standard brewer’s shop. Known to pay top coin for curios, especially rare liquors or anything related to the brewer’s or alchemist’s arts.
Warehouses
A standard brewer’s shop. Known to pay top coin for curios, especially rare liquors or anything related to the brewer’s or alchemist’s arts.
The Artisan District (lawful alignment)
It’s the place where people with trades live and work. If you get money, this is where you move to get out of the slums or the low district. If you lose money, they’ll move you back out just as quick. Points of interest:
Stocks/Gallows
Although the town hall isn’t in this district, its apparatus for criminal punishment is. Perhaps the baron thinks this is where it’ll be the most visible deterrent. Little does he know.
Temple of Madeera
A modest temple to Madeera the Covenant (lawful alignment). There’s no religious significance to Madeera having the only temple in town. One of her priests was one of the first successful crawlers to operate out of Plainwood, and he turned a large fortune into a small fortune building a temple to his goddess. Then he disappeared, but the temple is still here.
The Frog & Trident
A standard tavern, notable for the degree of hostility its patrons have toward non-regulars.
Drinks menu
- elvish brandy (5 sp, spiced, +1 Intelligence 1 hour)
- house ale (2 sp, crisp and clean, first mug is free)
- autumn mead (3 sp, floral, doubles effect of next drink)
Food menu
- pickled eggs (3 cp)
- raw flailfish (1 sp)
- grilled tiger eel (1 sp)
Crown & Coin
A wealthy tailor’s shop. There’s no way this town actually supports a high-end tailor. It’s an open secret that Crown & Coin is a front for fencing illicit goods.
The Market District
It’s the place where vital and not-so-vital commerce occurs. It’s also where the local government, such as it is and such as there is of it, is headquartered. Points of interest:
- Balthazar’s Imperial Gallery, brokers in ancient art and artifacts recovered from the wastes
- The Honest Compass, dealers in lore, information, and imperial-era records
- Scarre’s Smithcraft, tinsmithing front for black market dealings in dangerous magical items
- The Long Quill, scribe and messenger front for brokerage of illegal services
Character Creation
I’m going mostly by the book. Every player generates two PCs, then chooses one to be their active character. The other is placed in reserve, to be introduced when the active character dies or retires. This hopefully will reduce the amount of time anyone spends out of action during a session.
To start us off, I’m allowing the core book ancestries and classes, plus the bard and ranger classes that the developer released in PDF. I intend to have quests to unlock, at minimum, the Knight of St. Ydris, warlock, and witch from Cursed Scroll vol. 1, and am contemplating how to integrate the classes from volumes 2 and 3.
We’re using Forge for our VTT platform, so I built a stat-rolling macro in there. It’s 3d6 straight down the line, with an added “spare” of 5d6, keeping the highest 3 dice. The player can sub in the spare for any one stat. This allows a trifle more optimization, but very few PCs so far have been truly optimal. The current stable is:
- Hazel Ravenvale, halfling thief (reserve: Briella, elf ranger)
- Kais, human wizard (no reserve yet)
- Nubbin Stump, halfling fighter (reserve: Grungge, half-orc bard)
- Tulk, half-orc ranger (reserve: Nibs, goblin thief)
- Vraazox da Pryist, goblin priest (reserve: Mirena the Outcast, human priest)
- Ylva Fekyue, halfling bard (reserve: Revna Fekyue, halfling wizard)
We’ll see how long they last.