The Tomb of Golden Ghosts

The tutorial dungeon for His Majesty the Worm. Rooms 101-117; see tomb of golden ghosts meatgrinder for its Meatgrinder table.

The corridors are dark and shaped from natural limestone caverns unless otherwise noted. You can hear a river churning in the north. Smells of damp earth.

The Gamemaster’s map is below. The players’ map is on page 389.

Tomb of Golden Ghosts Meatgrinder

101 – Entrance

The entrance to the tomb yields to two hallways, one going north and one going east. A ruined door, twisted off of its hinges, lies on the ground.

There is a mural of a sorcerer observing the night sky via a reflecting pool on the west wall of the northern tunnel, immediately past the entrance.

• If investigated, the mural hides a hidden latch that opens a secret door to 112.

• The brain spiders are unaware of this secret door.

Broadcast secrets through pattern recognition

The recurring pattern of murals hiding hidden doors provides contextual clues for players. If they search one mural and find a hidden door, they might guess that they all have hidden doors.

102 – Scriptorium

A small room. Each wall holds crumbling bookshelves, laden with ancient, moldering scrolls. A moldy smell.

• The scrolls are very fragile. Unless opened carefully and in the right environments, they crack and fall to dust.

• Antiquarians in the City prize these scrolls at a rate of 10–100g per scroll, but they require special care to transport.

• If opened carefully, these scrolls detail the business of rule for those in the royal family sealed within this tomb. For the most part, this consists of enumerating taxes and gifts collected.

• If thoroughly investigated, one scroll case is found in good condition. It reads “Do not open unless special occasion” in an ancient form of Vetus.

• If opened, the scroll will start to detail everything that happens to the opener, minute by minute. The scroll can become infinitely long.

• The scroll will continue to chronicle and grow unless destroyed.

103 – Antechamber of centipedes

An oblong room. The ground is churned and soft here. There is a putrid smell.

• If the guild enters this room, 3 dire centipedes emerge from the ground. They won’t let adventurers pass, but won’t pursue the guild unless antagonized. The stats for dire centipedes are on page 387.

104 – A corpse

A stinking corpse, mostly eaten, slumped in the corner. A torn pack lies near the body.

• The corpse belongs to an unlucky adventurer. It has been mostly devoured by the dire centipedes.

• If the pack is investigated, the only thing of value intact is the Alchemical Treatise of Francis Stewbrew , a book partially detailing the alchemical reagents of this level of the Underworld.

Writing creature stats

As you place creatures and characters in your dungeon rooms or on your Meatgrinder table, you’ll also write down their stats in your notes in case they run afoul the players’ guild. Appendix C covers creature creation in detail, but here’s a quick recap.

To write a creature’s stats, you can either:

• Use one of the example creatures from Appendix C; rebrand if necessary

• Combine a theme and threat, then rekajigger to suit your needs

• Make one up, whole cloth

For this dungeon, we’re using the slime and the brain spiders from Appendix C. We’ll give the brain spiders the Sorcery doom from the Strategist template, too, because we’re not afraid to change “official” rules. For the puppet-mummies, we’ll rebrand the zombie stats. For centipedes, we’ll make a new creature by combining the beast theme (Appendix C, p. 247) and minion threat (Appendix C, p. 250).

The stats for all creatures used in this dungeon are on page 386.

105 – Hall of Solemnity

A long hall held up by a central line of mighty stone columns chiseled from the living stone.

The northern wall has crumbled away, revealing a large, natural cavern (113).

Silvery webs cover a 30’ stretch of hallway at its eastern end.

• Brain spider webs are solid for both tangible and intangible creatures. These webs keep the golden ghosts from 106 and 107 from passing.

• If you destroy the webs, the ghosts are free to wander.

• (It is possible a ghost has previously slipped past the webs, if one is encountered through a Meatgrinder result.)

• The ghosts could, theoretically, also escape through the secret door in the mural in 116 if it was opened.

106 – Burial chambers

The hallway bends around into a semi-circular shape. There is a mural on the northeastern wall of an astronomer pointing in alarm towards a comet.

Note: The ghosts in 107 are free to move throughout the entire burial chambers—rooms 106, 107, and 108—and will hinder the progress of anybody they hear exploring these rooms.

• There is a secret door in the mural that leads to 116. This door cannot be opened from this room, only from the other side.

Not everything needs stats

You can use wraith stats (Appendix C, p. 284) for the ghosts, but not every creature needs a way to be defeated in the Challenge Phase. Just because it has a mythological name—a will o’ wisp, a unicorn, an undine, whatever—doesn’t mean you need to trap it inside a stat block to provide a way to hit it with imaginary swords. Some creatures are better handled narratively, like you would handle a shop keeper or a falling rock.

107 – The looted tomb

A circular chamber holding seven empty stone sarcophagi. The lids of these coffins are cast off, broken, onto the ground.

This chamber is haunted by seven semi-transparent golden ghosts. They are wearing golden spectral togas and weeping golden tears. They cluster around the adventurers, never touching, but making wild gesticulations with their golden hands.

• The ghosts are eager to communicate their distress to you, but they are mute. (Actually play charades with the players. It’s fun.)

• The ghosts demand the return of seven death masks (six in 111, one in 117).

• If appeased, the ghosts will return to the sleep of death.

• If freed and unappeased, the ghosts’ wrath will grow terrible. Do not treat freed ghosts as enemies to be fought: treat them as a natural disaster.

• The sarcophagi are empty.

Symbolism

For our playtest games, we use the implied setting hinted at in the kith and kin descriptions (chapter 4). This meant using the motif of the Tripartite (p. 54) and their astrological symbols. Using recurring symbolism allows players to slowly connect the dots in lore. If the players do not understand how to solve a puzzle on their first visit to a particular dungeon level, they might have an epiphany later and return.

108 – Tripartite statue

A three-sided, gold-plated stone statue stands in a niche in the wall: one side depicts a maiden, one a pregnant woman, and one a crone. The three heads share a single silver crown, decorated with thorn-covered antlers. A desiccated corpse lays at the statue’s feet. The corpse partially obscures a pedestal with three astrological symbols: a sun, a moon, and a star. These are set on tracks and look like they can be rotated.

• The corpse belongs to an unlucky adventurer who sprung the trap. The body has been aged 1,000 years, like a bog mummy, but his clothes and gear are modern.

• The crown can obviously be removed. If it is removed before solving the statue’s puzzle, the trap activates.

• Trap: If the statue’s trap is activated, rays blast forth from the statue’s six eyes. Anybody standing within sight of the statue will be aged 1,000 years. This instantly kills any non-fay, who are immune.

-- Adventurers must test Pentacles to dive out of sight of the activated statue’s aging beams.

-- Because the Dwimmercraft talent can only target things you can see, attempting to use Dwimmercraft to pull the crown off will still suffer the statue’s attack.

• The trap can be disarmed by lining up the astrological signs on the pedestal with the appropriate statue face.

• The astrological symbols must be rotated to correspond thus: Maiden with the Sun, Mother with the Moon, Crone with the Star. In this position, the crown can be safely removed.

• If worn, the crown is obviously magical. The wearer immediately gains a new sense: moonsight. They can see the Earth from the perspective of the moon (like a satellite image). In a dungeon-crawling sense, this power is useless. However, many City factions would pay any price to gain this artifact.

• The ghosts will actively try to prevent anyone from interacting with this statue. If the ghosts’ death masks (see room 107) are returned to the ghosts, they will return to sacred sleep, allowing the guild to deactivate the trap and claim the treasure.

109 – Guard room of the puppet-mummies

This long room is about 10’ wide and 30’ long. The room’s north section crumbles away into a river.

• As the guild enters, a number of puppet-mummies equal to the number of adventurers jerkily attack. Puppet-mummy stats are on page 387.

• Kodi Dove-devourer is controlling the puppet-mummies from behind an illusory wall.

• Adventurers with second sight active can see Kodi through the illusion; otherwise, his machinations are unseen.

• The puppet-mummies will attack the guild as they enter, but physically can’t leave the room (because they are controlled by web rigging).

• Attacking the puppet-mummies from outside the room with missile weapons causes Kodi to reveal himself, cursing that his brilliant plan was foiled. Kodi then uses his illusions to make his getaway.

• A dire catfish named “Big Cheese” lives in this section of the river. He spits back anything you throw into the river.

Interpreting the Meatgrinder

What do you do when you get a Meatgrinder event that feels weird for the guild’s current room? All Meatgrinder events need a little interpretation and narrative massaging by the Game Master. With some imagination, you can harmonize the Meatgrinder and the room’s contents with grace.

For example, what happens if you draw the Meatgrinder event XVI (puppet-mummies) for 109? Double mummies?! In this case, simply declare that the two groups are one and the same: just say that there are [adventurer] number puppet-mummies here.

110 – Trapped hallway

A curving hallway, with three short flights of stairs towards 111. The door to 111 is blocked with a large boulder tied to the ceiling with silvery webs. Several thin, silvery webs criss-cross the path between the second and third set of stairs on the passage leading to the door.

• Trap: If the web tripwires are broken, the boulder rapidly tumbles down the stairs, bursts into 109, and slams into the wall.

• If the guild is in the hallway when this happens, each adventurer must test Pentacles to avoid a Critical wound.

• The adventurer in the first rank of the marching order (and thus closest to the boulder) has disfavor on this test. The adventurer in the last rank (farthest from the boulder) has favor.

• The boulder completely blocks the door from 110 to 111. The only way past the boulder is to trigger the trap (but hopefully from a distance), or through the secret door in 112.

111 – The spiders’ treasure

A large treasure chest sits in the middle of the room. On the southern wall, a faded mural of a weeping woman with a moon-like halo.

• The chest is locked. The key to this chest is in 117. If unlocked or picked, the chest contains:

• 1260 gold (stolen from other guilds)

• 6 golden death masks, worth 50g each (stolen from 107)

• 20 jeweled scarabs, worth 5g each (stolen from 107)

-- The ghosts acknowledge (non-verbally) that the scarabs are theirs, but do not need them back to be at rest and will give them to the guild as compensation for their help.

• If investigated, the mural hides a hidden latch that opens a secret door to 112. The spiders are unaware of this secret door.

Note: Six death masks are in the chest in 111. One death mask is in Kodi Dove-devourer’s nest in 117. The golden ghosts won’t be appeased until all seven death masks are returned to them.

112 – The hidden sanctum

This room is dusty and undisturbed. A thin trickle of water dribbles from the ceiling into a puddle.

A mural on the north wall displays a naked green-skinned man reaching up to snatch one of two flying silvery women from the sky.

• If investigated, the mural on the north wall hides a secret door that connects to the mural in 111.

Moss covers the west wall. A large pale snail is grazing on the moss.

• If observed, the snail brightens in color while eating the moss.

• If any adventurer eats the moss, they find it surprisingly good—almost like green onions. There’s only enough for one meal, but it counts as a ration that grants the Heal effect (p. 12).

A mural on the east wall displays a stern-looking woman crowned with a corona (like the Statue of Liberty) castigating a green-skinned man with a rod.

• If investigated, the mural on the east wall hides a secret door that connects to the mural in 101.

• Because these doors are still secret, this room is safe (for now).

Landmark, hidden, secret

The snail is a good example of the different levels of information given to players as they explore (p. 183). At first, there’s nothing to indicate that the moss has any beneficial properties. If a player asks about the snail, the GM can drop a hint that the snail is brightening and looking healthier by eating the moss (hidden information). Then, if the players take an action to investigate the moss (by eating it, or otherwise), they gain the moss’s benefits (secret information).

113 – The pit of bones

A sprawling, shadowy natural cavern. Uneven flooring, dripping with stalactites, covered in puddles. A narrow crevasse 50’ deep runs like a wound through this cavern. A foul stench emanates from the pit.

• A slime lives in the pit, feeding on discarded garbage. It will attack any who investigates. It will also attack anyone tarrying in this room for more than one watch. Slime stats are on page 388.

114 – Magical laboratory and star-child

The brain spider’s laboratory—a writing desk, shelves of reagents, ingredients, and arcane tools.

Arrestingly, in the corner of the room there is a large glass tank with a giant baby floating inside it. The baby sheds a steady, silvery light, which illuminates the laboratory. The baby appears asleep and utterly inhuman.

• The giant baby is a star-child. It fell to earth entirely by accident. It is currently hibernating.

• If the players try to wake up the star-child, it cracks open an eye, forms a mudra with one hand, and sings an “OHM” that reverberates through their bones. When this happens, draw a random maleficence (see Appendix A, p. 202). The star-child then goes back to sleep.

-- The star-child only causes environmental maleficence effects; if an effect would target a player specifically, draw again.

• The star-child is an immortal, ineffable being. The players probably don’t have a way to meaningfully harm it or talk to it. (Other factions in the Underworld might, however.)

• The components for the spells Portable Hole, Woodweave, and Sleep are kept in the laboratory (see Appendix A).

• If either of the brain spiders are encountered here (by way of the Meatgrinder), they will fight to the death to protect the star-child.

Setting prices on treasure

There’s no set amount of gold a guild should get per Crawl, nor any solid scheme for setting prices on treasure. Guesstimate your prices. Put lots of treasure behind traps to incentivize exploration. See “How much treasure?” on page 182.

115 – The Book Worm

A small closet. A dire centipede who calls herself “Book Worm” lives here. She ate so many scrolls (from 102) she has become sentient. Book Worm only speaks Vetus.

• Book Worm is generally amiable but a terrible nerd.

• If you talk to her, she provides the following rumors:

• Glaura Glossolalia has some magic god child egg that she’s currently trying to hatch through magic. She thinks this will make her immortal. (Partially true)

• The statue in 108 killed an adventurer with eye beams. Don’t try to mess with it! (True)

• If given a new book, she will tell the guild her best rumor: There are hidden doors in the murals. (True)

116 – Glaura’s nest

A spacious room covered in webs. A clutch of eggs the size of basket balls is plastered to the cavern walls by sticky, white webs. The southern wall has a dilapidated mural, the contents of which are too damaged to discern.

• These are the private quarters of Glaura Glossalalia. Glaura’s stats are on page 386.

• Unless otherwise encountered, Glaura Glossalalia is here when this room is first explored. If the minor arcana discard pile has a face card showing, both Kodi and Glaura are here. If Kodi is not currently in the room, he will rush to Glaura’s aid at any sound of commotion.

• The mural hides a hidden latch that opens a secret door to 106. The spiders are unaware of this secret door.

117 – Kodi’s nest

A spacious room covered in webs. A few fat sacks of webs hang from the ceiling here.

• These are the private quarters of Kodi Dove-devourer. Kodi’s stats are on page 386.

• Unless otherwise encountered, Kodi Dove-devourer is here when this room is first explored. If the minor arcana discard pile has a face card showing, both Kodi and Glaura are here. If Glaura is not currently in the room, she will rush to Kodi’s aid at any sound of commotion.

• If the hanging web nets are searched, they contain: 54 gold, a key to the chest in room 111, lamp oil, a flagon of fine brandy, a golden death mask (worth 50g, looted from 107), and an orcish golden goat idol worth 15g.

Denizens of the Tomb

Brain Spiders

Kodi Dove-devourer (room 117)

Kodi believes that whatever he holds in his webs belongs to him, and he seeks to cover the entire Underworld in his net. He is particularly large for a brain spider, but remains nimble for his size. Ambitious and greedy, but not particularly competent.

Likes: Goats (thinks they’re neat), Drugs, Banjo Music

Dislikes: Goblins (thinks they’re gross), Being Looked Down On—Especially by Nobility

Glaura Glossolalia (room 116)

Glaura is sorcerously-inclined and obsessed with the star-child. She believes that if she can put the star-child into one of her eggs, she will ascend into godhood. (She is mostly wrong about her methods to achieve this.) She feels like she does most of the work in her relationship. (She is mostly right about this.)

Likes: Crude Jokes, Ribald Songs

Dislikes: Mythric Priests (staunchly atheist)

Brain spider tactics

• Make players waste cards by attacking illusions.

• Use the Web greater doom if you know you can hit.

• Use Tactics to Avoid or Move as an interrupt action.

• Because you can use multiple interrupt actions on the same turn, you can both Avoid and Move at the same time to escape if the going gets tough (as long as you have enough cards).

Both brain spiders have the following statistics:

Attributes: Swords 1 | Pentacles 4 | Cups 2 | Wands 3

Health/Defense: 3/3 Notes

• Squishy. Brain spiders are immune to bludgeoning and smashing weapons such as hammers and maces.

• Telepathic. The brain spider speaks telepathically. They can communicate with anyone, regardless of the languages they speak.

Lesser dooms

• Great Leap. The brain spider can jump 2 zones when Dashing. When doing so, they clear any intervening obstacles (avoiding pits, hazardous terrain, adventurers blocking the way, etc.).

• Wall Crawling. The brain spider can effortlessly climb on walls. If a brain spider Moves onto a wall, it can avoid the adventurers and leave the area (unless the adventurers have some way to keep up).

Greater dooms

• Sorcery. The brain spiders can cast spells using the rules in Appendix A. They both have the component for a seven-faceted prism to cast the Illusion spell (Appendix A, p. 218). Cast spells by playing a lesser doom Speak Incantations action and discarding a greater doom card instead of spending Resolve. Each additional greater doom card discarded counts as an additional +1 Resolve.

• Tactics. Discard a greater doom card to turn a standard Challenge Action into an interrupt (p. 114).

• Web. When the brain spider Attacks, discard a greater doom card to cast a web on a single target. If successful, the Attack deals no damage but the target is completely wrapped in webs. They can free one limb at a time using the Recover action and are Rooted until all limbs have been freed.

Dire centipedes (room 103)

Deep-sea gigantism is the phenomenon wherein isopods and squids grow terrifyingly large in the deepest parts of the ocean. The effect is even worse in the Underworld, where centipedes can grow as large as crocodiles.

Likes: Soft Earth, Easy Sources of Food

Hates: Fire

Dire centipede tactics

• Gang up on the adventurer with the lowest Initiative.

• Play high cards for Initiative.

• Use Trample to attack characters with facedown defensive cards.

Dire centipedes have the statistics of beast minions.

Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 0 | Wands 0

Health/Defense: 2/0

Notes

• Fleet. On its turn, a centipede can Move 1 zone without spending a card.

Lesser dooms

• Trample. On an unsuccessful Attack, a centipede may use their Attack action against a second target in the same zone.

Puppet-mummies (room 109)

Mummified corpses, rigged up and given jerky motion by the webs of the brain spiders. Not actually undead creatures, merely a diabolical machination.

Puppet-mummy tactics

• Gang up on the adventurer with the lowest Initiative.

• Roughhouse to disarm adventurers.

• Use miscellaneous actions to kick disarmed weapons or torches into the river.

Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 0 | Wands 0

Health/Defense: 1/0

Notes

• Marionette Corpses. Puppet-mummies are not undead; they are just corpses animated by webs. They are neither affected by things that would affect the living (poisons, illusions) or the undead (necromantic spells).

Greater dooms

• Last Grasp. When the puppet-mummy would take a Wound, discard a greater doom instead. The puppet-mummy takes no Wound, but one of its limbs is severed. The limb continues to attack independently. This adds a new enemy to combat. This action does not count against the one card per turn limit.

• The severed limb has the same Initiative as the puppet-mummy. The severed limb can suffer 1 Wound before it stops moving. The severed limb cannot use the Last Gasp action.

Slime (room 113)

Slimes are like amoebas at a macroscale. Though they may look like translucent trash bags, their insides are actually crushing muscles. Anything that a slime engulfs is quickly eviscerated.

Likes: Warmth, Movement, Dead Corpses to Crush and Digest

Hates: Elephants (no one knows why), Salt, Fire

Slime tactics

• Attack adventurers carrying a light source.

• Play high cards for Initiative.

• Roughhouse to engulf adventurers, then Grind.

Attributes: Swords X | Pentacles X | Cups 0 | Wands 0

Health/Defense: 6/0

** Slimes have Swords and Pentacles ratings equal to their current Health.*

Notes

• Acidic. Weapons that damage a slime are automatically Notched.

• Impermeable Membrane. Slimes are immune to slashing weapons (like swords) and crushing weapons (like hammers). They take damage as normal from sharp, piercing attacks (like from arrows, daggers, or spears).

• Salt Reactive. If an adventurer has salt in hand, they can attempt to throw it onto a slime. This is treated as an Attack that inflicts 2 Wounds to the slime on a

success.

• Shapeless Body. Slimes are immune to being Displaced, Rooted, or Tripped.

Lesser dooms

• Protoplasmic Attack. On a successful Roughhouse, the target is engulfed. The target is Rooted, moving with the slime. Additionally, at the beginning of their turn, the target automatically takes 1 Wound, and all worn gear and items on their belt are Notched. The target must test Swords to try and escape; this uses the rules for the Test Fate action (p. 120).

Greater dooms

• Grind. Discard a greater doom card to automatically deal 1 Wound to all creatures currently engulfed. This does not count against the one card per turn limit.

• Regenerate. Discard a greater doom card to Heal the slime. This power cannot be used if salt has been spread on it this turn. This does not count against the one card per turn limit.

The guild’s map of the Tomb of Golden Ghosts