Create the Meatgrinder

Each different dungeon should have an accompanying Meatgrinder table to represent a reactive Underworld.

The following page has a blank Meatgrinder template to fill out. Note that page 91 describes the function of the different Meatgrinder results. Here, we’ll talk through what the creative process looks like.

Torches gutter

The torches gutter (I-V) event is the base of the Meatgrinder table. It is an important tool to ensure that the guild moves quickly; tarry too long and be swallowed up by the hungry dark.

Most of the Underworld is lightless—pitch black. However, not all of it is: there are fields of glowing mushrooms and will o’ wisp haunted forests. When light is not a limited resource, you must consider how best to fill this slot on the Meatgrinder.

• You might simply say that entries I–V are “nothing happens.” This is slightly boring, but gives the guild a brief moment of respite. It creates a sense of safety in the Underworld.

• Adapting these rules for adventuring outside of the Underworld, you might convert torches gutter entries into hunger entries, prompting the need for each adventurer to eat one of their rations.

It’s best for the players to feel pressure on them as they travel. This forces them to make interesting choices (which is the point of the torches gutter result).

Curiosities

Curiosities (VI-X) allow you to create color for this section of the Underworld. You can use this entry to broadcast the dangers that the players will find in travel events or random encounters. For example, if there’s a man-eating manticore lurking in this dungeon, a curiosity might let you find manticore fewmets speckled with human bone fragments. This gives information to the players so they can make informed decisions .

Travel events

Travel events (XI-XV) represent the dull grinding down of the guild’s resources, such as:

• One random adventurer has a tax on their resources: rations are lost, armor is Notched, hermetic bottles are broken by a fall, etc.

• The guild must make a tough choice to move forward: go X and suffer Y, or go A and suffer B—or turn around.

• One or more adventurers must think up a solution or test fate to avoid some treacherous hazard. The classic example of this is a trap. See page 370 for a treatise on using traps in your game.

Random encounter

During a random encounter (XVI-XX), the guild comes upon a GM character or a group of GM characters. Most characters in the Underworld are not hostile by default; if there’s uncertainty, the GM should determine a random starting Disposition (p. 100).

It’s boring to write: “[Discard] number of goblins appear.” What are the goblins doing? Why are they there? Incorporate this creative work into the Meatgrinder entry. Don’t just have goblins “appear.” Have them be actively engaged in the business of dungeon delving.

Quest rumors

Lastly, quest rumors probably won’t actually change between the different levels of the Underworld: only their interpretation will change. Plan three to five steps that the guild will need to complete to achieve their quest. When you draw a XXI on the Meatgrinder, let some element local to the current dungeon level give a rumor as to the next step of the quest. Reveal to the players:

• A hazard they might face

• Where they’ll have to travel to

• An item or tool they’ll need

The Meatgrinder