Esoteric Enterprises - Underworld Vault

I really liked the Vaults from the roguelike Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. The enemies have cool abilities that disrupt the usual player tactics and force them to prioritize threats in novel ways. I had a scrapped post about adapting some of them to tabletop games, and that became this custom area for Esoteric Enterprises.

The biggest flaw with this adaptation is that it's not very interesting unless the players deliberately break the rules, and then it might be too dangerous to be worthwhile. Too scary for low power characters, not worth the effort for tougher ones.

Google docs version here

GENERATING AN UNDERWORLD VAULT

Separate your dice out, with D4s and D6s in one pile, and everything else in the other pile.

Toss a couple D4s or D6s at the edge of the map for each connection to the rest of the underworld. These are the public facing rooms

Toss the rest of your dice inside the perimeter formed by the public rooms. These are the inner vaults.

CONNECTIONS
Doors between rooms whose value is 6 or lower are ordinary wooden doors, which can be easily opened or battered down.

Doors between rooms 7 and up are reinforced steel. Vault inhabitants can move between them freely, but they’re locked to the players. If it matters, roll a D4 to see what a vault door is secured by.

1. Retinal Scanner
2. Fingerprint Scanner
3. Voice Print Scanner
4. Keypad Lock

With a dungeon turn’s worth of work, vault doors can be hacked with a Technology roll, or forced with Vandalism. The latter sets off an alarm.

VAULT VISITORS
Rooms numbered 1 through 6 are often visited by inhabitants of the occult underworld. Choose a random faction or roll on the Weirdos (page 184), Mundane Explorers (184), Religious Sorts (184), Petty Criminals (185) or Inhabitants of the Undercity (187) table to see who’s doing their banking.

VAULT INHABITANTS

Tall, four fingered humanoids with soft bodies, long limbs, midnight black eyes, and wide, toothy mouths.

The vault has a total of 6D6 VAULT GUARDS, 2D4 VAULT SENTINELS, 2D4 VAULT KEEPERS, and 2D4 VAULT WARDENS.

In off-limits areas, there’s a 1 in 6 chance every turn of encountering a patrol. Up this by 1 if the players are being loud (such as by starting a gunfight), and 1 if they have previously raised the alarm. Setting off an alarm always brings a patrol. A patrol has 2D4 VAULT GUARDS and a 50% chance each of a KEEPER, SENTINEL and WARDEN.

It takes the defenders D6 dungeon turns to adapt to clever tricks. If the players use gas, they procure masks. If they have Protection From Weapons, the guards get magic revolvers. If the players bring heavy firepower, they tool up with automatic rifles (+1, d10 damage, covering fire) and shotguns (d12 damage)

VAULT GUARD
Polite, friendly muscle, always happy. They wear Kevlar over a collared shirt and gray tie. The backbone of the vaults’ defense.
3 flesh (1 dice), 6 grit (2 dice). AC 14 (stab vest). Saves 16+. STR and WIS 13
Nightstick (+2, d8+1 damage) or Taser (+1, d6 damage, save vs stunning or lose next action) or Pistol (+1, d8 damage)

VAULT SENTINEL
Short, foul mouthed sergeants. They wear Kevlar over a collared shirt and blue tie. and a bulky earpiece connected to a radio on their chest rig. They summon reinforcements when there’s trouble.
3 flesh (1 dice), 6 grit (2 dice). AC 14 (stab vest). Saves 16+. STR and WIS 13
Nightstick (+2, d8+1 damage) or Taser (+1, d6 damage, save vs stunning or lose next action) or Pistol (+1, d8 damage)
Each round, 3 in 6 chance of teleporting in that many vault personnel from elsewhere in the vault. Yes, this can bring in other sentinels.

VAULT KEEPER
Heavyset, soft spoken bruisers. They wear Kevlar over a collared shirt and green tie. They protect other vaulters by bolstering their defenses, healing them, and taking bullets for them.
8 flesh (1 dice), 18 grit (3 dice). AC 14 (bullet-proof vest). Saves 10+. CON and WIS 13
Nightstick (+2, d8+1 damage) or Taser (+1, d6 damage, save vs stunning or lose next action) or Pistol (+1, d8 damage)
3 in 6 chance to cast Cure Wounds or Shield
Can step in the way of attacks that would hit other vault personnel, taking the damage in their place

VAULT WARDEN
Loud mouthed and excitable security experts. They wear Kevlar over a collared shirt and red tie. They protect the vaults by sealing doors on intruders, stopping them from advancing or escaping.
3 flesh (1 dice), 6 grit (2 dice). AC 14 (stab vest). Saves 16+. STR and WIS 13
Nightstick (+2, d8+1 damage) or Taser (+1, d6 damage, save vs stunning or lose next action) or Pistol (+1, d8 damage)
3 in 6 chance to cast Hold Portal or Knock (Inverse of Hold Portal, opens stuck doors)

VAULT SERVICES

The vault is an active bank for the occult underground. Player characters can make use of the financial services it offers.

Players can store their money in the vault. Such deposits are free, insured, but earn no interest.

Players can store items in the safe deposit boxes, paying a rate of 1 dollar per week per inventory slot worth of items. If payment lapses, the bank notifies the player and holds the items for up to a month before auctioning them off.

Players can take out loans to finance adventuring or criminal activities. Interest on loans accrues at 1% per week, and a minimum of 5% of the total amount is due each week as payment. Roll a D4 to see what the vault does to deadbeats

1. Random curse (page 130) that goes away when payment is made
2. 2D6 armed repo men (treat as Mobsters, page 191) take your possessions as collateral
3. 2D6 repo men deliver a surprise beating (they stop attacking when they inflict a Horrible Wound - treat lethal results as the next lowest non-lethal result)
4. Bank raises your Legal Heat with the cops by 5 for each week of missed payment

CHAMBERS IN UNDERWORLD VAULTS

1: A waiting room. Couches, small tables with out of date magazines, a water cooler and a coffee machine. False windows with lights and portraits of cityscapes and pastoral scenes. A counter on the wall shows the next number to be served. Guarded by a pair of VAULT GUARDS. A suited Vault Inhabitant (treat as USELESS CIVILIAN, page 191) periodically comes out and invites someone inside.

2: A teller’s counter. Marble walls and floors. Velvet ropes form a zig zag waiting area in front of the windows. A big analogue clock on the wall is frozen at D12 hours, D60 minutes. Guarded by a pair of VAULT GUARDS. Customers are served at four windows by Vault Inhabitants (treat as USELESS CIVILIANS, page 191), who activate the silent alarm at the first sign of trouble.

3: A set of cubicles and offices. Visitors must wipe off their muddy shoes before stepping onto the dull office carpet. Low level bankers at outdated computers explain savings plans, negotiate loans, or offer rates on safe deposit boxes to clients. Guarded by a pair of VAULT GUARDS, who search visitors and confiscate weapons before entry. Three Vault Inhabitants (treat as USELESS CIVILIANS, page 191) provide financial services, and activate the silent alarm at the first sign of trouble.

4: A bank of ATMs. The machines have primitive cathode ray tube displays and big mechanical keyboards for buttons, with a mix of familiar Latin (or Cyrilic, or whatever you use) characters, and shapes not found in any earthly language.

5: An atrium. Topiaries, flowers and bonsai trees. A decorative fountain. Benches. A skylight in the ceiling - actually a matte painting enchanted with a Light spell.

6: A cafe. 50/50 chance of an independent store, or a long lost franchise of a national chain. Serves acceptable coffee, edible donuts, and surprisingly good bagels. Three vault baristas (treat as USELESS CIVILIAN, page 191) tend the coffee machines, registers and ovens.

7: A living space for the vault inhabitants. If the alarm has not been raised, there are D6-1 in here, unarmed. A little kitchen with a fridge and sink, a bathroom and shower, and nest boxes for sleeping and egg laying. D4 vault eggs worth $1,000 each, but carrying them raises the encounter chance by 1.

8: A climate controlled book storage room. Fill it with random grimoires (pages 140-141). Opening the shelves without a Stealth or Technology roll raises the alarm.

9: A safe deposit box for a random underworld faction. The faction’s die size determines the total value of the stored items. A D4 has $4,000, a D20 has $20,000, etc. The boxes can be opened with Vandalism, but without a Stealth or Technology roll this raises the alarm.

10: An office with financial records. D6 vault accountants (USELESS CIVILIANS, Page 191) work at computers here, tracking ownership of the bank’s stored wealth. A Technology roll could alter financial records to make the PCs owners of substantial wealth (D100 times $1,000), but only if they aren’t caught altering the records.

11: A room filled with artifacts. Roll up a few Magic Items (page 139) and Magic Weapons (page 138), and choose a couple items from pages 143-147.

12: A room filled with hard currency. $20,000 of money, in blocks of $1,000. Opening the bins without a Stealth or Technology test sets off the alarm.

13: A room filled with drugs. Roll a few times on the Random Narcotics table (page 142). 2D6 encumbrance slots total, each worth $500.

14: A security room. Occupied by D6 VAULT GUARDS and a random vault officer. The weapon racks hold D4 shotguns and D4 automatic rifles, each worth $600. The primitive control console has a security override that opens all the doors in the vault, if it can be located with a successful Technology roll. There’s also a switch that shuts off any active alarms.

15: A count room. 2D6 Goblins (page 208) tabulating a total of $10,000 in paper money, coins and specie.

16: A gemology room. Rock tumblers, lathes, powerful microscopes. 2D6 Svartalfr (page 209) examine precious stones. The hoard has three inventory slots worth of valuable jewels, each worth $5,000, mixed in with twenty slots of shiny rocks. It takes an expert or a Forensics roll to pick the diamonds out of the rough.

17: A room filled with works of art. 2D6 paintings worth $500 each, D6 statues worth $1,500 each that take up two inventory slots. One statue that looks like the others, but is actually a Concrete Nymph (page 222), another which is a Stone Guardian (page 204).

18: A room filled with riches. 2D6 inventory slots of valuables, each worth $1,000. Amid the riches are D4 mimics (page 222). They all attack when the first one bites.

19: A conference room for high profile clients. A projector and a little fridge with bottles of water. A big polished table made from a rock with a cool fossil inside - eurypterids and trilobites fighting. It would be worth $10,000 if extracted, but it doesn’t even fit through the doors.

20: A room under construction. A Chthonicist (page 192), a Maintenance Golem (page 204) and D4 Repair Crew (page 191) carve out stone, install electrical systems and smooth walls and floors.

Other: A Dragon (page 227) guards a hoard of $50,000 in gold.