To learn the Shadowdark RPG system, I used the random tables in the rulebook to create a village, buildings, NPCs, and other points of interest. A half-orc named Zara in the Drunken Eel tavern told the group of her brother Kroll, imprisoned below the town hall for blackmailing the leader of the artisan’s guild. She sent us to force him to confess to his crimes in order to avoid the hangman’s noose.
Fortunately for our party, the Wise Anvil, a shop in the market district that secretly houses cult rituals in the basement actually sits on top of ruins of a previous society that can provide access to the prisons, if you’re willing to risk the dangers that lurk below.
Not long after entering the ruins complex, an Ochre Jelly hiding in some collapsed rubble glommed onto the foot of our dwarven fighter, Scorn. We managed to chop the creature into a few smaller chunks, but its tentacles proved too powerful for the untrained group of adventurers, and now they lie in repose in a ruin beneath the city.
Honestly, while the adventure ended almost as soon as it began, it was a ton of fun creating the scenario and town. I am going to fully flesh out the ruins beneath the city and turn it into a one page dungeon or a one shot with the hopes of turning the city, this adventure, and another adventure I wrote previously into a little Shadowdark zine. The system is quite brutal, but rewards cautious and creative play. I love the dark tones of the fiction it creates- very Diablo II or Witcher type fantasy. I don’t have time to play again now, but it won’t be long before a team is sent after the bodies of this group.
Stuff Cam Wrote 