Marmoris Carcerem - Chapel Tower

 So couple of weeks ago I got infatuated with the idea of taking Kindap the Archpriest and using it instead as a downwards going spire of a prison complex rather than a high tower of an archpriest's palace.

Around the same time, if not a bit before, a friend of mine was showing interest in dipping their toes to a more OSR styled game so I was also looking for something to run as a little introduction to the style.

Ideas ruminate and I ended up realising I was already building up the "Inverted Kidnap the Archpriest" inside my head not long after.
And if I was already taking the maps from KtA, I might as well staple on some bits and pieces from other modules as well. One suggestion I really liked was taking some choice lairs from Caves of Chaos and stapling them on to the sides of the downwards spire as additional prison wings.
And of course if I was already inverting KtA, the premise could also be swapped onto it's head. Instead of kidnapping an archpriest, what if the PCs are there to rescue some specific person from this prison complex.

It's just Fear & Hunger, isn't it? Especially with the style I tend to run my games, leaning towards more horror-y aesthetics and presentation of locales.

I needed some illustration or the post looks barren, haven't used this one yet iirc

As such, I've been slowly working on keying out rooms and modifying the stitched together maps to better fit my needs for roughly two weeks. Last saturday I got to run the first session of this mess too!
Always a lot of fun to run stuff that I've built together myself as opposed to just bridging gaps between numerous published modules in an open sandbox.

Now that the rambling is out of the way, here's the section of the dungeon the players mostly cleared in that first session so I can even say it's playtested for the most part!

Marble Cage - Chapel

Two storey tower adorning one of the four corners of the hefty walls surrounding the Marble Cage.

Random Encounters: Check every 2 turns

Area Boss: Self-Mummified priest

Where is the Priest headed:

1. Pyre outside chapel, burning more books

2. Common cell (8), collect more bodies for her flies

3. Underground Shrine, to commune with God (yet unkeyed location)

4. Relic Hall, to inspect the sacred text (53)

5. Headed to party's location

6. Lair (44)

Random Encounters: The way this works is it keeps the boss monsters roaming around the place, potentially creating opporturnities for encounters with them. Fighting might not be advised.

1 - 3. Area Boss (roll to see where they going next)

4 - 5. Random Monster (appears from somewhere)

6. Random Boss from different area (roll to see where they going next)

42 | Entrance

Timeworn wooden double doors, barrable from the inside. Faint smell of incense & something going bad.  Heavy marble pillars. Large censer-like metal orbs hanging by chains from ceiling, chains attached to an overlook (47) above.

43 | Altarside

Stench of death and near-deafening buzzing of flies. Stained silver candle stands. Marble steps lead up to altar covered in candles. The back wall behind altar is covered in numerous tumour-like hives oozing red-black liquid (honey). Six robed figures prostrating in front of the stairs (each with a polished metal spike cracking the back of their head open, in severe state of rot).

- Silver holy symbol clutched in the arms of each priest

44 | Crypt & Wall Fountain

Smell sweet enough to feel at the back of your throat. Heavy marble pillars. Lit torch scones.  Modest sized wall-fountain & pool full of blackened-red honey. Entire back wall covered in slowly dripping blackened-red honey.

- Black Honey heals for 1hp per handful

- Start receiving the total amount healed during single day as ramping up damage on following days (day 1 - 1dmg / day 2 - 2dmg / day 3 - 3dmg etc etc.)

45 | Chapel Cells

Row of confessionals, painted wooden doors defaced with carved symbols.

From left to right:

1. 3d6 cut open and composing corpses covered in ashen dirt, white bell-flowers growing from them like on flowerbeds.

2. Barrable from outside. Walls scribbled full of incomprehensible passages and symbols, In the middle of the back wall a palm-sized symbol sticks out amids the scribbles.

- Looking upon the symbol causes nausea -> Save vs Magic or vomit out the contents of your stomach, taking 1 damage and an entire dungeon turn doing so.
- Studying the symbols and scribbles for a dungeon turn reveals this to be notes about some sort of ritual.

- Spending an hour studying the ritual reveals the spell Summon.

3. Single bible, pages from other books glued onto it's pages with black-red honey.

4. Barrable from outside.

5. Empty.

6. Barred from outside, peephole hacked into the door covered in dark red sticky residue. Three prisoners, mouths peeled of skin and crawling with flies.

- Tell that their insides feel like they're burning, says they have been fed strange stuff that tastes like ash and honey.

46 | Library

Scattered books, piles of tomes, fallen bookshelves, torn pages & loose papers with strange symbols. Tome glued together with red-black honey laying open on a lectern. Several books have been glued shut with black-red honey. Others have their contents altered by gluing pages from yet other books inside them.

- Tome on lectern is full of rambling gibberish and symbols, open on a page reading: "Anointed with life, a body submerges in nectar. Spirit trapped in viscous balm does not ascend. What returns is no longer just sum of it's parts. This is but one of the paths a man may walk to leave mortality behind."

- 3 cleric prayer scrolls mixed in with the papers: Sacrifice, Sanctuary, Insect Plague

47 | Overlook

Body with it's back flayed open, dozens of flies crawling on it.

48 | Balcony

Ornate wooden door with stained window panelling, locked but easily forced.

Self-Mummified Priest
HD: 5✝ / AC: 18 / Honeyed Touch @ +5 -> 1d6+2 dmg. | Damage from touch does not heal

- Sloppy, sticky footprints. Accompanied by buzzing of flies.

- Long priestly robes with ashen sash. Sticky black-red handprints.

- Sunken features, translucent skin clinging onto cheeckbones and hollow eyesockets. Once a woman, now a walking festering wound.

Priest's Key - Around her neck.

Supernatural: Only tracks hits dealing 6+ damage, after receiving equal to or more such hits than HD it crumbles into honeyd jerky.

Spells:

Drown in Ashes (F&M p. 114)

Duration: Permanent | Range: 0 | Area of Effect: 50ft radius | Save: Vs Breath

A wave of ash, 1m (3ft) high, fills the area of effect. 

Any living being with it's head below the surface must save Vs Breath or be buried, taking d4 choking damage per round untill they do save.

Dungeon Dilemma - Medusa Curse

 So these kind of small detached encounters or dilemmas are something I've been wanting to see made for a while now after I thought one up and never really shared it other than in a passing conversation on discord.
Now however I had come up with a second one too ad instead of just leaving these bouncing around inside my head I thought I'd write one of them down in an attempt to start a small trend in the blogosphere that I could then harvest the cream of the crop from since surely other people have bunch of interesting ideas to throw into the pile too.

Thus I present to you:

Medusa Curse

A relatively simple prison that can be dropped within a dungeon or temple or shrine or whatever your adventurers likely are going to be delving, constructed with sacrifices of eight individuals to bind a monster/villain/whatever to a place.

Setup:

• 3x3 grid of 15' by 15' rectangular rooms, each linking up to their adjacent ones and each separated by heavy curtains rather than doors.
• Each outer room has a statue of a mage/priest/whoever were the ones to seal the bad thing here.
• These statues each are facing in towards the middle room.
• Statues in corner rooms have a 50/50 chance of looking towards either of the doorways leading in.
• In the middle of the middle room stands a statue of <insert whatever ancient evil was sealed here>, bound up and with a hood or a sack of some kind covering their/it's entire face.

How it works:

The statues are a result of a "medusa curse", an affliction which transfers from one person to another through sight, mimicking the way a medusa's gaze works.
When something roughly the size of or larger than the affliction's current host enters within the host's line of sight the curse will begin transferring to it's new victim, un-cursing it's current host in the process.

• Treat this in the same way you treat regular petrification in your games, except additionally if somebody gets afflicted by it the "statue" they got it from is now un-petrified.
• Yes, this means halflings and dwarves are safe if you decide all the outer "statues" are human sized.

Mixing things up:

Something to consider is how would other denizens of whatever dungeon you drop this into have interacted with it in the past.

Are there perhaps petrified adventurers frozen in weird poses in the first few rooms with the original "statues" missing from those rooms? Did the evil that was sealed here get freed and is now roaming the dungeon, luring it back here and tricking it to get re-petrified being a potential way to deal with it?

What if instead of something immesurably evil being sealed here, it's evil cultists that have sealed an angel or a hero of old in this place?

[Secret Santicorn 2022] Encounters, NPCs & Monsters for Crawling Through Shopping Malls

Secret Santicorn was here again and this time I was around to slip my name into it as well.
For those not familiar, Secret Santicorn is a secret santa type event in the OSR-sphere where people gather around to toss blogpost prompts into a pool which then gets randomised around with the hopes that everyone gets a prompt they did not enter in themselves.
For me, I was given the following prompt:

"Encounter(s), monsters, or NPCs for a (potentially horror-themed) game set in a giant 80s/90s nostalgia-inspired shopping mall (maybe like https://sameissharkinjapanese.blogspot.com/2021/03/mall-rats-monsters-of-megamall.html or https://sameissharkinjapanese.blogspot.com/2021/03/mall-rats-more-monsters.html or just do your own thing)"

I've taken a look through the provided blogposts and tried flipping through the Mall Rats rules to get a grasp on the tone and how monster statblocks and checks work and while I have to admit the setup may not be my usual cup of tea I shall try to make something up.

------------
Later Note(s): I ended up writing these things with B/X style stats in the end as I am more familiar with that and can more easily feel out things in that framework.

This is me pushing this post out after remembering it three months into 2023 since I don't want to keep the post hanging for another god-only-knows-how-many-months if I were to again delay posting this until it is completely finished.
Hope this is to your liking!
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Encounters

1. Mannequin Pile
• Mannequins. Mannequins atop mannequins atop mannequins.
  They're piled high all the way up to the third floor of the mall in this open space.
  Most of them broken, shattered from a fall from somewhere in the upper floors, this pile looks like somebody has been hauling every single mannequin in the entire mall to here and thrown them into a pile.
• Looking at the pile more closely, all of the mannequins have their limbs broken in a deliberate manner.
• Dragging sounds from the third floor, somebody chucks another mannequin down onto the pile.
• This results in moans and groans from the pile, the mannequins are in pain.
2. Distorted Music
• Suddenly the lights explode on, amplified by spotlights that someone has hung off of the railings of upper floors of the mall all over. A distorted and worn out track starts to blast all over the mall out of speakers that were thought long dead.
• (Linking Park ran through a some sort of distortion filter would fit perfectly here, the more "emo" you can go with it the better. I recently ran into this which fits the bill perfectly: Rouri404 - Open Water)
• Thinking about it logically, there are only so many places in the mall where all of this could be controlled from.
3. Dark Hallway (of roaches)
• A cramped side alley cutting past collapsed bits of the mall appears completely impervious to any attempts to light it. Flashlight reveal nothing but slight movement and weirdly shining darkness.
• In reality the entire way is covered in thousands of small black cockroaches.
• Tossing something into the darkness will make the entire path explode into action as the cockroaches scramble out of the way, potentially deciding that the shortest path out of there is by rushing past/over the PCs
4. Morse-Code Elevator
5. Explosion of Glass Windows
• Sudden near-harmonic crackle of shattering and falling glass.
• With barely time to react, the PCs find themselves caught in a rain of sharp pieces of glass as something causes the remaining glass ceiling windows of the mall above them to shatter violently.
6. Lost Child Announcement

Monsters

1. Giant Rat
• Large as a cat, on top of being a cowardly pack animal, giant rats have adapted to the mall life perfectly.
  They make nests inside walls and pop out to dig for trash and the occasional unfortunate urban explorer that they'll then drag into their cramped tunnels. Hungrily eating their catch while waiting for the other members of their colony to come back with more food.
• HD 1 / HP 4 / AC 14 / ML 5 
• +1 to hit Bite @ 1d4 damage
• Regroup: A rat will run away and come back from unexpected angle with an additional rat in 1d4 turns.
• This can quickly turn into exponentially more and more rats appearing until the swarm decides that it's strong enough to take on their prey.
2. Furbies
• Somehow it all began with the furbies. Maybe it was something to do with the experimental life-like AI, a wish of a child upon a falling star, or some secret government operation, but the end result is what we are living in right now.
  These little gremlins get absolutely everywhere, know no bounds of personal space and have a knack for causing accidents all around them.
• HD 1 / HP 3 / AC 14 / ML 12
• Noncombative: Furbies themselves have no way to defend themselves or to directly cause harm to anyone.
• Freak Accidents: For whatever reason, reality seems to bend itself towards accidents and catastrophes around furbies in a true Final Destination manner, the little gremlins needs but be near humans and the effect kicks in.
  The more furbies there are nearby the stronger the effect, thus when they hit the shelves of stores in droves the results were devastating.
3. Roaming Salesman
• Nobody knows where they are still crawling out of, but sometimes you can run into them in the abandoned malls. A perfectly cut suit, accentuated with a tie and a salesman's smile with a box of samples to show for the potential customers as they step into view from behind a corner and start their pitch.
• HD 1 / HP 5 / AC 12 / ML 6
• +1 to hit Suitcase with product samples @ 1d6 damage
• Dear Customer: The salesmen never start out as hostile when encountered and will try to defuse any potentially violent situations. Their only goal being to sell whatever product they are representing to anyone they come across.
• Turn to walk away from one, and they'll simply jog along you while still keeping on with their pitch.
• Shut a door on one, and they'll raise their voice just enough to be heard through it.
• Threaten one with violence and they'll back away courteously while still sneaking in remarks about how owning their product would avoid this whole situation.
• You Need One of These: The salesman is trying to get you to purchase a...
• New electric vacuum - Near-complete silence, no more annoying hoovering sounds that scare your pets and wake up your spouse!
• Portable mini fridge - Take your perishables with you on that picnic without a worry of them going bad on the way!
• Flat LCD television - None of those bulky boxes, a picture frame for your moving picture needs to hang on a wall!
• Small emergency radio - Doesn't even need batteries, just crank it up like this!
• Anti-eavesdropping walkie-talkies - Each comes with their own earbuds!
• <Something useful the PCs have been looking for, commercialised to hell and back>
4. Pizza Dough "Slime"
• A terror risen from dumpster of a local pizza place! The dough never stopped rising, it now bubbles and flows onward looking for more flour and water to add to it's expanding mass, and boy it can hear all that red water circulating inside you!
• HD 2 / HP 9 / AC 12 / ML 9
• +2 to hit Lunge @ 1d6 damage, then grapple as it pulls you inside to add to it's mass.
• Ever Expanding: Whenever the dough kills something be it a rat, living furby or a mall explorer it absorbs it and gains another Hit Die and additional +1 to hit.
• Kneaded Body: The dough is immune to most conventional weaponry. Both blunt and sharp implements will simply strike into it and get stuck.
• It's make does however make it weak to fire and heat, baking it's doughy body into pleasant smelling crisp which not only make it able to be harmed but also makes it very difficult for the dough to move around.
5. Mannequin
6. Other Mall Explorers

NPCs

1. Mall Santa
• Dirty man clad in even dirtier santa outfit, complete with the fake beard that is now stained gray rather than the jolly white.
  The rats are his friends, much to the puzzlement of everyone who has caught a glimpse of him skulking between the staff rooms and the liquor store.
• Unaccustomed to human contact, the drunkard acts like a caveman around others.
• Running on booze, the fastest way to this man's heart is through a bottle of liquor raised on his lips.
  That is all that it takes to convince him for almost anything, that is how deep his addiction runs.
• He knows about the rats and he knows how to trick them. Nobody else knows how he does it, but he has often been spotted talking to rats or treating them like one would a loyal pet dog.
2. Shaken Janitor
• He's barricaded himself inside the camera room, watched it go down all the way from when the furbies first drew blood to the mall getting abandoned and the rats settling in.
• Trapped in the camera room, the only exit is a ventilation shaft he crawls into to sneak to nearby shops when he finds himself starving.
• Too cowardly to try to make a run out of here, he probably couldn't function in normal society anymore after surviving off of tap water, skittles and whatever has been left in the nearby chinese restaurant's kitchen.
• If befriended, he still has access to any functioning security cameras around the mall and can provide information on several locations and what roughly to expect over there.
3. Way Too Accurate Magic 8-Ball
• It sits on a small "altar" made of trash inside a toy shop
• Shake it and ask a question, the 8-Ball will answer elaborately although it only knows of this mall as it's entire world.
  It feels almost like having a conversation with someone, or maybe you too have been cramped inside a mall for too long.
4. Squatter Jim
• He comes and goes as he pleases, having constructed his own quarters and entrances to the mall. Sometimes he brings treasures to the outside with him to trade, a couple of times he's crawled out of there all bloody and beaten, needing to rely on the good will of the people to get himself fixed up, but this is where he lives.
• Knows a couple of secret and relatively safe exits and entrances around the mall.
• Protective of his home, doesn't like mall crawlers creeping around too close to where he has his hidden dwelling.
• Will trade information, treasures and anything else he might need for items useful in everyday life.
  Toothpaste, bandages, books, batteries, maybe even a new flashlight.
5. Urban Explorer
• Trapped, injured, and probably rat food if not something worse unless somebody finds him soon.
• He will cry out if he hears you, as he fears for his life and can't dig himself free from the rubble that fell on him.
  
• This will naturally alert anything else close by, but he's been getting panicked and desperate.
• He was carrying a pack of tools and gear on him that may still be of use even after his passing.
• If rescued, he will inevitably slow you down.
  Should you manage to rescue him and get him outside, he will be indebted and do his utmost to reward you.
6. Stray Cat
• Roughed dirty fur and attitude for days, pick her up and get your face clawed.
• Can be found in and around shortcuts and hiding spots inside the mall, this stray cat has it's own safe highways that cut through the mall and allow her to go where she pleases and when she pleases.
• She'll bring over small "gifts" that she finds in the abandoned mall, making sure to drop them so as to not get caught or petted without her explicit consent.

Musical Inspiration:
KEYGEN CHURCH - ░█░█░░█░█░█░

Dead Fader - Kaiman's Head

SILENT POETS - Asylums For The Feeling

Rouri404 - Open Water

Harvest Festival - Weird village festival funhouse

So if you know me and the type of games I tend to run, you'll know that I rarely run anything that's straight up classical adventure with clear cut enemies and treasures. 
I am not sure why, but when making up stuff myself I tend to lean towards creating situations where it won't be too obvious who the "bad guy" is, and violence will often times be something that has to be initiated from the player side unless they find themselves at the unfortunate end of a reaction roll or take certain types of approaches to things.

Now, because I know that one of my sandbox groups will in their next session take a long travel that we'll for the most part be skipping over both due to the part of the world they're travelling through being still largely not developed by their GM as well as to get to the next cool thing they'll be poking their noses into, I thought "hey, why not add a little event for the travel?" and came up with this small village that they'll be stopping by for rest during their journey that just so happens to be holding their annual harvest festival the night that the PCs are staying in the village.

I also thought that it's been ages since I've really posted anything here apart from the occasional session reports, so why not try to make this something that I could even share with people. Then the thought went further, "I've not tried making a zine or a pdf of any sort before, how hard could it be?", and now a full day later of working on it I've managed to push the village and it's weird festival into a presentable pdf form.

I thus present to you, Harvest Festival - A Weird Funhouse Festival to include into your games when you need something to give the backwater village(s) a bit more flavour. Inside you will find ten interesting or weird sights to see at the festival as well as it'se ritualistic highlight, with the whole village oozing with loose threads for a creative GM to spin maybe even whole adventures around.

Click the picture to open the module:

Click it - it's a cool module and it's free