Parker
The mines beneath the City were officially closed long ago when they ran dry, and when buildings began to collapse. The opening of the Underworld has filled them up with dungeon monsters and ignited a gang war over the remaining treasure.
CONNECTIONS IN THE MINES
Upright Odd to Upright Odd: Wide passage with sturdy supports, can walk standing up.
Upright Odd to Upright Even: Low passage requiring a crouch or crawl.
Upright Odd to Reversed Odd: Steep, almost vertical shaft with old rope for hauling buckets.
Upright Odd to Reversed Even: Full of limestone formations that have to be squeezed between.
Upright Even to Upright Even: Rickety wooden staircase over vertical shaft.
Upright Even to Reversed Odd: Heaped gravel and broken rocks fill most of the tunnel.
Upright Even to Reversed Even: Fragile wooden supports, half rotted away.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Odd: Collapsed passage, room to crawl.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Even: Neck deep (to humans) water.
Reversed Even to Reversed Even: Flooded sump requiring a short swim.
Upright Odd to Upright Even: Low passage requiring a crouch or crawl.
Upright Odd to Reversed Odd: Steep, almost vertical shaft with old rope for hauling buckets.
Upright Odd to Reversed Even: Full of limestone formations that have to be squeezed between.
Upright Even to Upright Even: Rickety wooden staircase over vertical shaft.
Upright Even to Reversed Odd: Heaped gravel and broken rocks fill most of the tunnel.
Upright Even to Reversed Even: Fragile wooden supports, half rotted away.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Odd: Collapsed passage, room to crawl.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Even: Neck deep (to humans) water.
Reversed Even to Reversed Even: Flooded sump requiring a short swim.
SPECIAL RULES FOR THE MINES
Separate The Magician and The World from the pack. Place them at opposite ends of the map. Mark the rooms adjacent both.
The Magician is the Dragon’s lair. Rooms adjacent to the lair are guarded by 1 to 4 Orcs (Minor Arcana suit). If they call for backup the Dragon can breathe fire into the room from his lair, saturating a beaten zone called out by his minions. Grab a random card from the Minor Arcana and play it as initiative for the Dragon. On that initiative count, the zone called out by the Orcs is saturated with dragonfire with an attack of value equal to the card.
The World is the Deep Dwarf outpost. If the Minor Arcana discard is even, rooms connected to the outpost are watched by a Canary, a shrunken and invisible Dwarven sentry. Whether watched or unwatched, these rooms have stone slabs balanced above the entrances which can be dropped by tapping on a resonant stone, sealing intruders inside so the main force from the outpost can finish them off.
The Magician is the Dragon’s lair. Rooms adjacent to the lair are guarded by 1 to 4 Orcs (Minor Arcana suit). If they call for backup the Dragon can breathe fire into the room from his lair, saturating a beaten zone called out by his minions. Grab a random card from the Minor Arcana and play it as initiative for the Dragon. On that initiative count, the zone called out by the Orcs is saturated with dragonfire with an attack of value equal to the card.
The World is the Deep Dwarf outpost. If the Minor Arcana discard is even, rooms connected to the outpost are watched by a Canary, a shrunken and invisible Dwarven sentry. Whether watched or unwatched, these rooms have stone slabs balanced above the entrances which can be dropped by tapping on a resonant stone, sealing intruders inside so the main force from the outpost can finish them off.
ROOMS IN THE MINES
I: Dragon lair. A huge natural cave with a high ceiling covered in clusters of dramatic stalactites. The Dragon lounges by a bonfire with his small pile of Treasures. If a fight breaks out he calls Orcs from adjacent rooms.
II: Orc raid camp. 1-4 Orcs (Minor Arcana suit) amid piled bones, accumulated in the chamber by periodic flooding. A few carved by the bored sentries. Small Change and a couple Books to pass the time. Room entrances beartrapped.
III: Abandoned mine-carts filled with rubble and ore. Some on rails, some tipped over spilling their contents across the floor. Oily-smelling water drips from the ceiling. A Giant Bat roosts here.
IV: Active minehead. An open face of rock, left mid-excavation, seams of glittering mineral wealth exposed by recent digging. Phosphorescent metals in the walls illuminate the room dimly.
V: Conical chamber filled with water, wide at the top and narrow at the base. Sturdy metal supports hold up the roof but the floor has caved in and flooded. Floating wooden boards held together with ropes form an unstable bridge.
VI: Old break room filled with bat guano. Scattered furniture, a few chairs and a table, decaying. Small Change and the remains of a tafl game on the table. Broken mirrors that once brought daylight down from the surface. Swarm of bats on the ceiling, Minor Arcana Discard Carcass Crawlers eating the filth.
VII: Old power source. Shaft with rushing water flowing over wheel into drain. Mechanical winch and drive shaft, rusted over and useless. Intact mirror from a system that once brought daylight down from the surface.
VIII: Steep ramp up to surface entrance hidden in City. Rails ripped up and a tipped-over minecart. Heaped dust and debris.
IX: Columned chamber. This artificial cave has support pillars which still gleam with precious metals. There’s wealth in there but extracting it without adding further supports will collapse the room, maybe the whole mine. A bright yellow warning sign, paint peeling, now illegible with age.
X: Geyser room. Swollen, wet wooden floorboards slumping toward a pool in the center of the room boils and bubbles. Periodically erupts, filling the chamber with superheated steam.
XI: Sifting room. Trays, power hammers, piledrivers, drills, tools for cracking rocks to separate ore from useless rock so the whole affair doesn’t have to be hauled up to the surface. Remains from a system of mirrors that once brought daylight down from the surface.
XII: Completely flooded room. Jagged tangle of old boards, metal railings and rocks make swimming hazardous with huge risk of getting stuck. A Treasure lost down here.
XIII: Old shrine left by miners. Underfolk and Orc ancestor idols together with Human effigies of The Devil, who the delvers believed held their fate in his hands when they went into the tunnels. Covered with graffiti from the current gang war, but neither side has smashed the other’s images.
XIV: Chamber full of shallow, metallic-smelling water heated from below, filling the air with steam. Touching the liquid deals Piercing wounds that can’t be healed until the extremophilic bacteria infesting the wound are cleansed by cold.
XV: Geode room. A huge stone egg full of jagged crystals. Footpaths broken and crudely sanded along floor. Signs of recent crystal extraction.
XVI: Duckboards laid across sucking mud. Step off the planks and begin sinking to your death. Lie flat to spread your weight out and “swim” to escape.
XVII: Big hole. Circular chamber with narrow ledges around seemingly bottomless pit. Railings half collapsed. Infested with slightly disgusting but essentially harmless life-forms; bacterial mats on the floor, snottites hanging from the ceiling.
XVIII: Rusted, rotted bridge over a cloudy pool of water. Skeletons visible below the surface, bones fused with the stone by slow mineral deposits.
XIX: Long sloping gallery, floor and ceiling at 45 degrees. Carven around the fossilized exoskeleton of a titanic water scorpion, embedded in the walls of the chamber. A few small pieces have been removed.
XX: Deep Dwarf listening post. Cramped chamber requiring full sized races to crouch, rough-hewn walls scored by picks but smoothed over by current fastidious Deep Dwarven occupants: Tiny Canary with huge ear trumpet for listening at walls, Breacher ready to open or close passages as necessary.
XXI: Deep Dwarf outpost. Entrances sealed with heavy rock doors and trapped with huge saw blades. Chimney shaped room with alcoves and staircases cut into the sides. Minor Arcana Discard Deep Dwarves here, including a Breacher. Stone beds, tables, benches. Vats of mushrooms, rat cages, barrels of plump helmet wine. Little anvil and crucible for weapon maintenance. Suits of Dwarven armor, weapons. A couple Treasures.
II: Orc raid camp. 1-4 Orcs (Minor Arcana suit) amid piled bones, accumulated in the chamber by periodic flooding. A few carved by the bored sentries. Small Change and a couple Books to pass the time. Room entrances beartrapped.
III: Abandoned mine-carts filled with rubble and ore. Some on rails, some tipped over spilling their contents across the floor. Oily-smelling water drips from the ceiling. A Giant Bat roosts here.
IV: Active minehead. An open face of rock, left mid-excavation, seams of glittering mineral wealth exposed by recent digging. Phosphorescent metals in the walls illuminate the room dimly.
V: Conical chamber filled with water, wide at the top and narrow at the base. Sturdy metal supports hold up the roof but the floor has caved in and flooded. Floating wooden boards held together with ropes form an unstable bridge.
VI: Old break room filled with bat guano. Scattered furniture, a few chairs and a table, decaying. Small Change and the remains of a tafl game on the table. Broken mirrors that once brought daylight down from the surface. Swarm of bats on the ceiling, Minor Arcana Discard Carcass Crawlers eating the filth.
VII: Old power source. Shaft with rushing water flowing over wheel into drain. Mechanical winch and drive shaft, rusted over and useless. Intact mirror from a system that once brought daylight down from the surface.
VIII: Steep ramp up to surface entrance hidden in City. Rails ripped up and a tipped-over minecart. Heaped dust and debris.
IX: Columned chamber. This artificial cave has support pillars which still gleam with precious metals. There’s wealth in there but extracting it without adding further supports will collapse the room, maybe the whole mine. A bright yellow warning sign, paint peeling, now illegible with age.
X: Geyser room. Swollen, wet wooden floorboards slumping toward a pool in the center of the room boils and bubbles. Periodically erupts, filling the chamber with superheated steam.
XI: Sifting room. Trays, power hammers, piledrivers, drills, tools for cracking rocks to separate ore from useless rock so the whole affair doesn’t have to be hauled up to the surface. Remains from a system of mirrors that once brought daylight down from the surface.
XII: Completely flooded room. Jagged tangle of old boards, metal railings and rocks make swimming hazardous with huge risk of getting stuck. A Treasure lost down here.
XIII: Old shrine left by miners. Underfolk and Orc ancestor idols together with Human effigies of The Devil, who the delvers believed held their fate in his hands when they went into the tunnels. Covered with graffiti from the current gang war, but neither side has smashed the other’s images.
XIV: Chamber full of shallow, metallic-smelling water heated from below, filling the air with steam. Touching the liquid deals Piercing wounds that can’t be healed until the extremophilic bacteria infesting the wound are cleansed by cold.
XV: Geode room. A huge stone egg full of jagged crystals. Footpaths broken and crudely sanded along floor. Signs of recent crystal extraction.
XVI: Duckboards laid across sucking mud. Step off the planks and begin sinking to your death. Lie flat to spread your weight out and “swim” to escape.
XVII: Big hole. Circular chamber with narrow ledges around seemingly bottomless pit. Railings half collapsed. Infested with slightly disgusting but essentially harmless life-forms; bacterial mats on the floor, snottites hanging from the ceiling.
XVIII: Rusted, rotted bridge over a cloudy pool of water. Skeletons visible below the surface, bones fused with the stone by slow mineral deposits.
XIX: Long sloping gallery, floor and ceiling at 45 degrees. Carven around the fossilized exoskeleton of a titanic water scorpion, embedded in the walls of the chamber. A few small pieces have been removed.
XX: Deep Dwarf listening post. Cramped chamber requiring full sized races to crouch, rough-hewn walls scored by picks but smoothed over by current fastidious Deep Dwarven occupants: Tiny Canary with huge ear trumpet for listening at walls, Breacher ready to open or close passages as necessary.
XXI: Deep Dwarf outpost. Entrances sealed with heavy rock doors and trapped with huge saw blades. Chimney shaped room with alcoves and staircases cut into the sides. Minor Arcana Discard Deep Dwarves here, including a Breacher. Stone beds, tables, benches. Vats of mushrooms, rat cages, barrels of plump helmet wine. Little anvil and crucible for weapon maintenance. Suits of Dwarven armor, weapons. A couple Treasures.
Olley
MEATGRINDER OF THE MINES
I: Torches Gutter
II: Torches Gutter
III: Torches Gutter
IV: Torches Gutter
V: Torches Gutter
VI: Sound of surface life filters down through a crack in the foundations of someone’s house.
VII: Cave swallows nest in the eaves.
VIII: Enough dust and debris to cause a sneezing fit.
IX: Room scorched and melted.
X: Wall scored with Underfolk mine sign pointing way to Deep Dwarf base.
XI: Tunnel marked with functional, lit lantern. Odd Dwarven transparent metal lamp, even Orc skull lamp.
XII: Carbon monoxide buildup weakens the Guild, draining one Resolve from everyone.
XIII: Rubble falls from the ceiling as something shifts overhead. Adventurers not wearing a helmet suffer a wound.
XIV: Part of the floor collapses, a foot-sized hole into the porous stone below that threatens a broken ankle.
XV: Dwarven cage trap falls from the ceiling with a clang, trapping an Adventurer. They can act freely while inside the cage but lifting it requires the efforts of the whole group.
XVI: Minor Aracana Discard Orcs, raiding. Half archers, half armed with hand weapons.
XVII: Giant Bat, looking for tasty fruit and small birds to eat.
XVIII: Dragon and 1-4 Orcs, making a show of force against the Dwarves.
XIX: Minor Arcana Discard Deep Dwarves, raiding. If even one is a Breacher, if odd one is a Canary scouting ahead of the slow moving and noisy armored grunts.
XX: Minor Arcana Discard Carcass Crawlers, looking for garbage or living prey.
XXI: Quest Rumor
II: Torches Gutter
III: Torches Gutter
IV: Torches Gutter
V: Torches Gutter
VI: Sound of surface life filters down through a crack in the foundations of someone’s house.
VII: Cave swallows nest in the eaves.
VIII: Enough dust and debris to cause a sneezing fit.
IX: Room scorched and melted.
X: Wall scored with Underfolk mine sign pointing way to Deep Dwarf base.
XI: Tunnel marked with functional, lit lantern. Odd Dwarven transparent metal lamp, even Orc skull lamp.
XII: Carbon monoxide buildup weakens the Guild, draining one Resolve from everyone.
XIII: Rubble falls from the ceiling as something shifts overhead. Adventurers not wearing a helmet suffer a wound.
XIV: Part of the floor collapses, a foot-sized hole into the porous stone below that threatens a broken ankle.
XV: Dwarven cage trap falls from the ceiling with a clang, trapping an Adventurer. They can act freely while inside the cage but lifting it requires the efforts of the whole group.
XVI: Minor Aracana Discard Orcs, raiding. Half archers, half armed with hand weapons.
XVII: Giant Bat, looking for tasty fruit and small birds to eat.
XVIII: Dragon and 1-4 Orcs, making a show of force against the Dwarves.
XIX: Minor Arcana Discard Deep Dwarves, raiding. If even one is a Breacher, if odd one is a Canary scouting ahead of the slow moving and noisy armored grunts.
XX: Minor Arcana Discard Carcass Crawlers, looking for garbage or living prey.
XXI: Quest Rumor
MONSTERS
CARCASS CRAWLER (Beast Minion)
Carcass Crawlers are like Griffons, a ubiquitous urban pest that showed up after the opening of the dungeon. These generalist omnivores happily eat rotten meat but have an inexplicable preference for living prey, which they paralyze and masticate still-living. They’re not hard to chase off but a serious threat to unattended children in filthy places, which could describe any slum in the City. Attempts at eradication backfired when the bounty set by municipal government induced people to deliberately breed them. And that was before some asshole wizard learned you could make paralytic poison from the tentacles.
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 3 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 1/1
Likes: Eating filth, Rolling in filth, Laying eggs in filth
Hates: Elves, Soap, Indigestible objects
Giant Bats were a plague even before the Undercity opened up. In a city of cathedrals and spires you constantly have to clean these things out of your belfries. They normally eat fruit and small birds but occasionally have been known to pick people up and drop them from high places. At least in the dungeon most chambers are too small for them to feed this way.
Attributes: Swords 4 | Pentacles 4 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 4/2
Likes: Weird Stinks, Fruit, Salt
Hates: Bright Light, Cats, Clean Water
This Orc warband works for the Dragon, the eldest and most powerful member of their warband. The greedy Wyrm still considers them its comrades and prioritizes force conservation over expending their lives carelessly. The impulsive Orcs try to follow directions but they didn’t sign up for combined arms warfare, guard duty and chopping up furniture for the Dragon’s bonfire. They want to loot and kill and spend their gold unwisely.
Attributes: Swords 1 | Pentacles 1 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 2/1
Likes: Drinking, Fighting, Fucking
Hates: Waiting, Hangovers, Missing out
Carcass Crawlers are like Griffons, a ubiquitous urban pest that showed up after the opening of the dungeon. These generalist omnivores happily eat rotten meat but have an inexplicable preference for living prey, which they paralyze and masticate still-living. They’re not hard to chase off but a serious threat to unattended children in filthy places, which could describe any slum in the City. Attempts at eradication backfired when the bounty set by municipal government induced people to deliberately breed them. And that was before some asshole wizard learned you could make paralytic poison from the tentacles.
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 3 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 1/1
Likes: Eating filth, Rolling in filth, Laying eggs in filth
Hates: Elves, Soap, Indigestible objects
- Notes
- Loathsome dung eater. The Carcass Crawler is immune to poison and disease.
- Lesser dooms
- Eat alive. As an action, the Carcass Crawler can spend any card to deal critical damage to a Paralyzed victim.
- Tentacle beard. The Carcass Crawler can Roughhouse to Stun a target. Stunned targets with no cards are Paralyzed.
- Greater dooms
- Burrow. While in heaped refuse, the Carcass Crawler can discard a Greater Doom to automatically disengage from all combatants by burrowing in the filth.
Giant Bats were a plague even before the Undercity opened up. In a city of cathedrals and spires you constantly have to clean these things out of your belfries. They normally eat fruit and small birds but occasionally have been known to pick people up and drop them from high places. At least in the dungeon most chambers are too small for them to feed this way.
Attributes: Swords 4 | Pentacles 4 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 4/2
Likes: Weird Stinks, Fruit, Salt
Hates: Bright Light, Cats, Clean Water
- Notes
- Echolocation. Bats can navigate and fight in complete darkness without penalty. If silenced or deafened the Bat is treated as Blind.
- Fleet. On its turn, the bat can Move 1 zone without spending a card
- Lesser Dooms
- Flight. If they have enough space, the Bat can fly as a Move action. While flying, it circles through the air. This keeps it out of melee engagement, though they’re still vulnerable to ranged weapons.
- While flying, it can make a fly-by attack. On the same turn as it makes a fly-by attack, the Bat can be targeted by melee attacks. This does not cause it to become engaged.
- Screech. Play a lesser doom card and compare its value to the Initiative of each character in the same zone. Adventurers this succeeds against are Stunned.
- Greater Dooms.
- Grab. When the Bat successfully Roughhouses, discard a greater doom card to grab the target. A grabbed target is Rooted and moves with the griffin.
- If the Bat is flying, it can drop its victim on a subsequent turn as a free action. The victim suffers fall damage (p. 96) based on the height of the room.
- The target can Recover from this effect, but suffer falling damage if they use this action while the Bat is flying.
- Attacks that miss the Bat hit the grabbed victim instead
This Orc warband works for the Dragon, the eldest and most powerful member of their warband. The greedy Wyrm still considers them its comrades and prioritizes force conservation over expending their lives carelessly. The impulsive Orcs try to follow directions but they didn’t sign up for combined arms warfare, guard duty and chopping up furniture for the Dragon’s bonfire. They want to loot and kill and spend their gold unwisely.
Attributes: Swords 1 | Pentacles 1 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 2/1
Likes: Drinking, Fighting, Fucking
Hates: Waiting, Hangovers, Missing out
- Notes
- Combined arms. Orcs equipped with a mix of melee and ranged weapons use two initiative cards, one for each group.
- Quicksilver blood. When a hand weapon deals damage to an Orc’s Health, notch that weapon.
- Greater dooms
- Pull up your socks. Discard a Greater Doom alongside a ranged attack to let the archers fire through friendly troops without penalty or risk of friendly fire.
WHAT YOU HEAR
There's not a lot of treasure in the Mines, and what's there is well guarded. Why bother visiting?
- The Deep Dwarves and the Big Dragon Gang are fighting over the remaining minerals in the mine, but mostly for prestige. They're City dwellers who never got to fight in the ancestral wars between their peoples. This is a game to them. Their friends and family don't agree. Someone's parents want their child brought home in one piece before something horrible happens.
- The Deep Dwarves keep captured dungeoneers as slaves. The Dragon keeps them as trophies if it doesn't just eat them. Rescue the captured adventurer.
- Stop these fools from destroying everything. If one faction gets uncontested control of the mine long enough to resume excavation of the remaining minerals, it opens a sinkhole that destroys a neighborhood of the City.
THE MAKING OF
Rules for using the builder here. I’ve taken a lot from EE for this project and this area is the most derivative yet. Good thing the book is Creative Commons. Parts of the Giant Bat block are by Lusunati on the discord.
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