The following scenario was procedurally generated using the random tables in the MÖRK BORG rulebook.In the untamed wilds of Tveland
Weather: Soup-thick mist
Noble child said to see dark visions
Blood-Countess ANTHELIA of Tveland falls severely ill
Name: The Dark Den
Inactive, because Misery was fulfilled,
4:1 For five days and five nights mothers flesh shall be the cloak of demons.
5 rooms
- Leaning
- Smoke-filled
- Bloodied beds
- Full of debris
- Utterly silent
A black pearl. If dropped in darkness it rolls towards the nearest exit to day.
The Dark Den
Anthelia, the eternally young countess of desolate frost-barren plains of KERGÜS, has fallen severely ill. She lies stricken in Allians, the city of black glass in the North.
Alia, the child seer of Allians, has had a vision of doom.
Now she requires the NETHER-PEARL - an orb of obsidian said to be crafted in the pits of HELL.
The solution - send foolish relic hunters to retrieve this Nether Pearl.
What does the Nether Peal have to do with the illness of Anthelia and the fate of Allians?
DO YOU PRETEND TO UNDERSTAND
THE MYSTERIES OF PROPHETS, FOOL?
The NETHER-PEARL is located in a vault called the DARK DEN in the cellar beneath an ancient abandoned stave Church.
There it was protected for centuries by holy guardians.
Many relic hunters tried to steal it.
Those who were caught were punished - their young children or grandchildren were taken from them and bound within porcelain dolls.
The cruel dolls were put on display where they would die of starvation to serve as a warning to others.
The entrance to the vault is a secret ladder beneath the altar.
Surface Level
An old abandoned stave church, now inhabited by 1d8 starving steppe wolves.
HP 8, Morale 10, Tough skin -d2, Bite d6
Anyone searching around the altar must make a DR 14 Agility test or fall through the rotted floor for 1d6 damage.
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The Dark Den Basement
1. Entrance: Investigating the altar in the church above causes the floor to collapse. Everyone standing near the altar must make a DR 14 Agility test or take 1d6 damage.
2. The Procedure Room: in this room, children were encased into porcelain dolls. In the center of the room is a table with child-sized restraints. Along the south edge of the room are eight glass gars filled with pickled babies. Along the north wall are two tables with saws, hooks, knives, and other surgical tools.
3. Eerie Silence: this room is bare save for four bloody skeletons on the floor. No sound can exist within the room. The skeletons remain inert until two or more characters enter the room.
Shortsword d4 or Knife d4
Bony knuckles d2
Special Skulks about, impossibly soundless. Attacks by surprise.
Can mimic voices to lure victims, but can only repeat what it has heard. Attacks on them with piercing weapons are DR14. Any strike doing 5 or more damage destroys the skeleton completely.
4. Spare Doll Parts Storage: 1d4 porcelain dolls heads worth 20s each.
5. Magical Fire: Anyone who opens the door must make a DR 12 Toughness test or take 1d6 damage. Closing the door requires a DR 12 Strength test. If the door is not closed at the end of the round, the fire spreads into half of the adjoining room. Anyone exposed to the fire must make a DR 12 Toughness test or take 1d6 damage. The fire continues to spread through open doors at a rate of one room every two rounds until contained.
6. Blood Stained Beds: One porcelain doll lurks in the shadowy corner. Another hides beneath one of the beds.
Claws/piercing bite d4
7. Rift to the Nether Realm: Guarded by d4+2 porcelain dolls.
The rift is ten feet deep. At the bottom is raging hellfire and hundreds of clawed hands reaching and grasping.
Jumping across the rift requires a DR 12 Agility Test. Failing a test results in falling into the rift to be grabbed by clawed hands. The hands claw and scratch until the victim escapes. The victim cannot escape until the hands grabbing them have taken 7 HP in damage.
Claw d2 + special
Special: Anyone bitten tests Toughness DR8 or dies within two days before rising as a zombie if not cured.
The Nether Pearl: an orb of black glass. The bearer controls all undead they can see. The pearl cures the zombie curse. The bearer can heal themselves by draining hit points from others. The target must make a DR 8 Toughness test to resist drain or lose 1d4 hit points which, in turn, heal the bearer.
Play Report
My Friday group consisted of:
- Niduk the Lesser, Heretical Priest from the thief-tunnels of Graven-Tosk.
- Niduk the Other, Gutterborn Scum who escaped from a Tveland Orphanarium.
- Ray the Dog, companion to Niduk.
- Grittr the Varg, Fanged Deserter raised by wolves in the wilds of Bergen Chrypt, bearer of a tongue-shaped dagger known as Notung.
- Geoffrey, Occult Herbmaster raised a little witch in a cottage in Galgenbeck, bearer of the magical Gourmand's Cutlery which allowed the bearer to eat any material.
- Therg, Gutterborn Scum raised by rats in the gutters of Grift. She carried a bag containing the teeth of dead wizards as well as the sharpened teeth of her former companion, Keftar.
We had previously played Rot Black Sludge in the MÖRK BORG rule book, as well as Bloat by Greg Saunders.
After receiving the mission from the creepy Alia, the group traveled south to the abandoned village.
Grittr strode forward, ahead of the others, in an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate the wolves. Two wolves ran forward and attacked him. They were soon dispatched.
I allowed Grittr to make a DR 16 Presence test against the wolves. On a success, one of the wolves would flee.
Ray the Dog had 1d8 hit points - I rolled 8 - and a bit attack using Niduk's Presence for 1d6. He was essentially a free ranged attack. Thanks to several critical hits, that dog later became the MVP, doing more damage than the rest of the party combined.
The party moved into the church. Grittr managed to successfully intimidate two of the wolves into fleeing. The other two attacked. Therg used his caltrops to deter the remaining outside wolves from reentering the church. Once the two wolves inside were defeated, they investigated the altar. Some of them fell through, the others used the ladder to join them.
Grittr lit a lantern and led the way into the operation room.
Grittr opened the door to the north and entered the room of silence. The skeletons attacked and he retreated to the operation room so that the others could attack the skeletons from range.
To Grittr's surprise, the skeletons closed the door.
Grittr finally wrenched the door open and the others fought the skeletons - often resorting to throwing jars filled with pickled babies.
Best quote of the game: “Anyone got any extra pickled babies? I’m out!”
I never thought I’d run a game where glass jars containing pickled babies and severed limbs were used as weapons.
They retreated to the operating room and went around to the room of blood-stained beds.
There they saw a creepy porcelain doll lurking in the corner. Several members of the party were frozen in fear as the doll attacked. Once they overcame the fear, they were able to defeat the doll. Grittr overturned the beds and found another doll which was soon defeated.
My players complained to me that I was going to give them nightmares.
The party decided to take a short rest in this room.
Once rested they opened the north door and went into the chamber of the Nether-Pearl, torn asunder by gaping rifts in the floor.
The party became bogged down in the south-west corner of the chamber as wave after wave of creepy porcelain dolls climbed across the ceiling to drop on them. Many of them defeated by Ray the dog.
Niduk the Other tried to leap across the rift but failed, falling into the grasp of the clutching hands from the Nether-Realm. The others made ranged attacks until he was free.
He allowed Grittr to toss him. Grittr instead shoved him hard and Niduk once again fell into the rift.
Once freed, Niduk tried again to leap. He made it across and took the Nether-Pearl, deftly replacing it with a bag of sand and rocks of equal weight.
He could feel the power of the pearl. The clutching hands from the Nether-Realm held their palms up to carry him safely across the rift. He saw his companions as convenient sources of healing life energy.
He put the pearl into his backpack and led the way out.
Unbeknownst to Niduk, Therg had secretly lifted the pearl as he walked past. She put the pearl into the bag of teeth.
The bag began to grow and boil until she could no longer hold it. She dropped it and the pearl rolled, trailing teeth like iron filings aligned to a magnet. The fleshy interior bodies of nearby porcelain dolls were drawn around the pearl, absorbing the teeth.
The mass of flesh and teeth took a vaguely dwarf-like humanoid form, misshapen, malformed, with too many teeth growing out of its swollen gums and chin and face. The misshapen creature then vomited forth the Nether-Pearl, which was retrieved once again by Niduk. The voice of her dead friend Keftar cried out from the twisted mouth of the revived thing, "What did you do? Therg, what did you do?"
Keftar had been Grittr's player's character in an earlier game. He did a great job roleplaying the resurrected creature who shared his mind with several dead wizards.
Therg begged the misshapen Keftar for forgiveness. Keftar was insatiably hungry for human meat - a desire to add more mass. Geoffrey bestowed upon Keftar the Gourmand's Cutlery and said, "Here, eat up!"
At that, we called it a night. They returned the pearl to Alia and got their reward - 3d10 silver each. In addition, each player rolled for what they found after a thorough looting of the cellar - another 3d10 silver, two unclean scrolls - Death and Telekinesis, and a sacred scroll - Grace of a Dead Saint.
Map for use in VTTs
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