Martin
The Wastes are a place where negative energy intrudes into the dungeon from the plane of death and undead. Superficially they’re not all that different from the rest of the Undercity. The Devils help set them apart.
Upright Odd to Upright Odd: High walled, narrow, open to the sky.
Upright Odd to Upright Even: Dirty water, ankle deep. Ceiling.
Upright Odd to Reversed Odd: Crawling with mixed worms and insects. Low ceiling.
Upright Odd to Reversed Even: Broken glass. Low ceiling.
Upright Even to Upright Even: Floors, walls and ceilings are tombstones.
Upright Even to Reversed Odd: Small circular hole shaped like the mouth of a devil.
Upright Even to Reversed Even: Small circular hole shaped like the mouth of a devil. Bites down when crawled through.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Odd: Heavy stone slab. Not locked but must be levered open.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Even: High walled, wide, open to the sky, very deep pit below.
Reversed Even to Reversed Even: Door covered in runes of curses. Whoever opens it suffers a Malediction (pg 207)
Upright Odd to Upright Even: Dirty water, ankle deep. Ceiling.
Upright Odd to Reversed Odd: Crawling with mixed worms and insects. Low ceiling.
Upright Odd to Reversed Even: Broken glass. Low ceiling.
Upright Even to Upright Even: Floors, walls and ceilings are tombstones.
Upright Even to Reversed Odd: Small circular hole shaped like the mouth of a devil.
Upright Even to Reversed Even: Small circular hole shaped like the mouth of a devil. Bites down when crawled through.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Odd: Heavy stone slab. Not locked but must be levered open.
Reversed Odd to Reversed Even: High walled, wide, open to the sky, very deep pit below.
Reversed Even to Reversed Even: Door covered in runes of curses. Whoever opens it suffers a Malediction (pg 207)
SPECIAL RULES FOR THE WASTES
Some rooms in the Wastes have open ceilings. The “sky” above such rooms is a whirling expanse of dark clouds. It’s possible to climb up the high stone walls. Standing on the walls it’s possible to skip to other rooms of the maze. Climbing out of the hole provokes a murder of Harpies who descend from the clouds to hound the Guild back down into the rooms.
Rooms I,IX, XII and XXI have structures over them that are visible from atop the walls.
Rooms I,IX, XII and XXI have structures over them that are visible from atop the walls.
Bosch
ROOMS IN THE WASTES
I: In a dark chamber with a sloped roof, an Oni (as Ogre) sits naked under a dead banyan tree. She directs the Guild according to what sins they have committed. Killing, stealing, lying, drinking, basically every adventurer has done something worthy of Punishment. If they act contrite she lets them self-direct to the appropriate room. If they don’t seem trustworthy she picks up her club and “escorts” them.
If killed she reappears under the tree the next time the Guild visits.
II: Punishment: Burning sands. Large, roofless desert with no stones or plants. The sand grows hotter as the Guild travels across until it’s hot enough to scorch leather and heat metal to burning. Bring something to sleep on and it’s possible to camp here without a fire or tent.
III: Punishment: Frozen wastes. Large, roofless plain of ice. Mounds that look like boulders or statues are actually frozen corpses. Crossing the room without dawdling chills characters not wearing winter clothing to the bone. Until they warm up, the next instance of damage they take is Critical. An extended stay in the room is fatal to unprotected adventurers. If chipped out of the ice, each corpsicle in the room yields Small Change.
IV: Punishment: Iron maiden. The rusty metal walls, floor and ceiling of this room are full of holes. Enormous spikes shoot out of the holes and skewer anyone who touches the surfaces. The only safe spot an iron statue of an enormous sloth at the center of the room, which adventurers can cling to without being stabbed.
V: Punishment: Suicide forest. Trees festooned with nooses under an open sky. Heaped layer of guano on the chamber floor. This is the one area where Harpies harass the Guild even if they don’t climb the walls.
VI: Punishment: Lake of larva. Vast, roofless pool of, foul smelling slime. Maggots with human faces burrow in the vile ooze. A dozen Imps fish for these tasty bugs from rickety platforms of bone and pilings of stolen tomb rock.
VII: Punishment: Isolation cell. Thick darkness swallows all sound and light. Flame does not illuminate this space. Only touch allows characters to travel together. The floor is studded with pits, deep enough to shatter legs on a fall. Without an enhanced sense of direction it’s impossible to tell where you’re going. Adventurers moving through the chamber emerge at a random exit passage from the room. If the group gets separated everyone goes through a random door.
VIII: Punishment: Lake of fire. Roofless chamber with sea of lava. High, narrow columns form stepping stones over the pit. Zaqqum trees grow out of the flames, drooping under the weight of fruit shaped like human heads (the juice of which boils on contact with the stomach lining). Falling in the lava is instantly fatal for characters without protection from fire. Getting close merely inflicts Piercing Wounds from convection.
IX: Domed cathedral. Huge hermaphroditic Baphomet sculpture cast in bronze. High stained glass windows show pleasures of the Wastes enjoyed by devils at the expense of slaves. On a lectern before the statue is a book:
devilry
Osman Gryphes
Vetus, Small handwritten journal with ink sketches
A lurid reverse demonology book about how to serve devils, written by a mage who “apprenticed” himself to the spirits of the wastes to learn their likes, dislikes, and abilities.
X: Tower of silence. Circular tiered pit with corpses (mostly bones) chained in rings. Channels let effluvial grime drain from rotting bodies into central pit. If a body is left here the Harpies excarnate it. One body is haunted by the Wraith that once animated it.
XI: Sarcophagus pile. A heap of stone coffins fills the open room, traversing it requires climbing over the heap. Each coffin holds a Zombie adventurer, buried with whatever Small Change they had when they died. The undead begin thrashing around in their stone boxes when the Guild gets halfway through the room, squirming out from under the lids. The real hazard is not the monsters but fighting amid the treacherous terrain.
XII: The little ossuary. Dome-roofed room with shelves of stacked bones arranged to make art. Enormous upright sarcophagus in the center of the room holds a Skeleton in a suit of plate armor.
XIII: Danse macabre. Skeletons posed in diorama of life with brass wires, dressed in cheap colorful clothing. A couple articles of Small Change can be pried from their boney fists and a Book from the skeleton sitting and reading. None of them come to life.
XIV: Natural cave full of stalactites, stalagmites, snottites and other rock formations Bones and broken chains. Stench of rot, sound of something large dragging itself. A Zombie Dragon guards a piece of Treasure and strewn Small Change from the mostly eaten corpses lying around the room. The beast is stuck here, too large to leave. It belches miasma and tries to grab visitors through doors.
XV: Wrath’s armory. A courtyard with weapons bristling from every surface. Bardiches and falchions and arming swords and falcatas and maces and godendags and javelins and bearded axes and cruciform pikes and crossbows and longbows and recurve bows and compound bows and plumbata and whip swords and dao and shell studded clubs and fire hardened spears. Wrath perches atop the quillons of a giant stiletto dagger driven point down into the floor.
The ambient weapons are drawn to open wounds, anyone with a notched talent or the injured condition is at risk. The blades slide slowly along the ground, rattling ominously. They pick up speed, flying toward the target and skewering them.
XVI: Envy’s inferior gallery. A small ballroom with shabby furniture, low ceiling, and scribbled drawings of an Orangutan beating up a one eyed head. Envy flaps around here seething at Pride.
Amid the Small Change is the Ankle Chain of Envy. When cards are dealt for a Challenge Phase round, the Chain’s wearer may switch one card from their hand with the DM. Cards stolen from the DM can be used for any action on the user’s turn, or unsuited minor actions.
XVII: Gluttony’s table. A one room restaurant, kitchen and abattoir with dangling meat and heaped dirty dishes. Gluttony hacks away at the meat, cooks and serves it to himself. He wines and dines visitors and turns violent when the “moochers” refuse his deal after eating at his table. All he food is illusory and disappears if removed from the room.
XVIII: Greed’s vault. A shabby wooden room with a sagging ceiling. In the center is an indestructible shiny black cube, large enough for the entire Guild to stand up in. A thick door in the side hangs open and several Treasures glitter inside.
If anyone enters the vault the door slams shut. It closes with enough force to shear metal and break bones, making it almost impossible to prop open. The pile inside is “sticky” and resists attempts to be moved. Touch it with a pole and the pole is yanked into the pile. Grab it with Dwimmercraft and the mage is yanked toward the door as though the spell was reflected onto them. If someone gets trapped in the vault, Greed emerges from the treasure pile. He won’t unlock the door until they make a deal with him. If he dies it stays shut.
XIX: Lust’s boudoir. An elegantly decorated brothel. The walls look like marble but are actually slimy white clay. The sheets look like silk but are actually paper which sticks to your skin with the slightest drop of moisture. The ceiling scrollwork is actually mold. The “gold” is painted lead. [Adventurer] Lusts slither and slide amid the furnishings. The only “treasure” here is a cursed chastity belt.
XX: Sloth’s terrarium. Glass roof. Big bushes with leaves like cabbages shelter small deformed animals. The giant snail Sloth slowly grazes at the greenery with its club-shaped radula.
Lost in the slime and muck trails left by the Devil is the Choker of Sloth. On a Test of Fate or when taking a Challenge Action, the wearer may search the Minor Arcana discard pile and pick any card to use. They become Exhausted and cannot use the power again until they clear the exhaustion.
XXI: Pride’s gallery. Huge, well lit room with a high ceiling. Furniture heaped randomly, petrified Adventurers posed like sculptures, portraits and murals on the wall depicting an enormous one eyed head ruling the City. Lots of mirrors, smashed. Pride floats around here solipsistically gibbering to itself.
Amid the hoarded objects are a Book, a Treasure and the Crown of Pride. The Crown boosts all attributes by 1 while the wearer is first in marching order. In combat, if they act first in initiative order, they may draw an additional card from the Minor Arcana. In either case the jewels set in the crown glitter in even minimal light, making stealth impossible and alerting everyone that the wearer is important. If Pride is still alive when you put it down he hunts you down.
If killed she reappears under the tree the next time the Guild visits.
II: Punishment: Burning sands. Large, roofless desert with no stones or plants. The sand grows hotter as the Guild travels across until it’s hot enough to scorch leather and heat metal to burning. Bring something to sleep on and it’s possible to camp here without a fire or tent.
III: Punishment: Frozen wastes. Large, roofless plain of ice. Mounds that look like boulders or statues are actually frozen corpses. Crossing the room without dawdling chills characters not wearing winter clothing to the bone. Until they warm up, the next instance of damage they take is Critical. An extended stay in the room is fatal to unprotected adventurers. If chipped out of the ice, each corpsicle in the room yields Small Change.
IV: Punishment: Iron maiden. The rusty metal walls, floor and ceiling of this room are full of holes. Enormous spikes shoot out of the holes and skewer anyone who touches the surfaces. The only safe spot an iron statue of an enormous sloth at the center of the room, which adventurers can cling to without being stabbed.
V: Punishment: Suicide forest. Trees festooned with nooses under an open sky. Heaped layer of guano on the chamber floor. This is the one area where Harpies harass the Guild even if they don’t climb the walls.
VI: Punishment: Lake of larva. Vast, roofless pool of, foul smelling slime. Maggots with human faces burrow in the vile ooze. A dozen Imps fish for these tasty bugs from rickety platforms of bone and pilings of stolen tomb rock.
VII: Punishment: Isolation cell. Thick darkness swallows all sound and light. Flame does not illuminate this space. Only touch allows characters to travel together. The floor is studded with pits, deep enough to shatter legs on a fall. Without an enhanced sense of direction it’s impossible to tell where you’re going. Adventurers moving through the chamber emerge at a random exit passage from the room. If the group gets separated everyone goes through a random door.
VIII: Punishment: Lake of fire. Roofless chamber with sea of lava. High, narrow columns form stepping stones over the pit. Zaqqum trees grow out of the flames, drooping under the weight of fruit shaped like human heads (the juice of which boils on contact with the stomach lining). Falling in the lava is instantly fatal for characters without protection from fire. Getting close merely inflicts Piercing Wounds from convection.
IX: Domed cathedral. Huge hermaphroditic Baphomet sculpture cast in bronze. High stained glass windows show pleasures of the Wastes enjoyed by devils at the expense of slaves. On a lectern before the statue is a book:
devilry
Osman Gryphes
Vetus, Small handwritten journal with ink sketches
A lurid reverse demonology book about how to serve devils, written by a mage who “apprenticed” himself to the spirits of the wastes to learn their likes, dislikes, and abilities.
X: Tower of silence. Circular tiered pit with corpses (mostly bones) chained in rings. Channels let effluvial grime drain from rotting bodies into central pit. If a body is left here the Harpies excarnate it. One body is haunted by the Wraith that once animated it.
XI: Sarcophagus pile. A heap of stone coffins fills the open room, traversing it requires climbing over the heap. Each coffin holds a Zombie adventurer, buried with whatever Small Change they had when they died. The undead begin thrashing around in their stone boxes when the Guild gets halfway through the room, squirming out from under the lids. The real hazard is not the monsters but fighting amid the treacherous terrain.
XII: The little ossuary. Dome-roofed room with shelves of stacked bones arranged to make art. Enormous upright sarcophagus in the center of the room holds a Skeleton in a suit of plate armor.
XIII: Danse macabre. Skeletons posed in diorama of life with brass wires, dressed in cheap colorful clothing. A couple articles of Small Change can be pried from their boney fists and a Book from the skeleton sitting and reading. None of them come to life.
XIV: Natural cave full of stalactites, stalagmites, snottites and other rock formations Bones and broken chains. Stench of rot, sound of something large dragging itself. A Zombie Dragon guards a piece of Treasure and strewn Small Change from the mostly eaten corpses lying around the room. The beast is stuck here, too large to leave. It belches miasma and tries to grab visitors through doors.
XV: Wrath’s armory. A courtyard with weapons bristling from every surface. Bardiches and falchions and arming swords and falcatas and maces and godendags and javelins and bearded axes and cruciform pikes and crossbows and longbows and recurve bows and compound bows and plumbata and whip swords and dao and shell studded clubs and fire hardened spears. Wrath perches atop the quillons of a giant stiletto dagger driven point down into the floor.
The ambient weapons are drawn to open wounds, anyone with a notched talent or the injured condition is at risk. The blades slide slowly along the ground, rattling ominously. They pick up speed, flying toward the target and skewering them.
XVI: Envy’s inferior gallery. A small ballroom with shabby furniture, low ceiling, and scribbled drawings of an Orangutan beating up a one eyed head. Envy flaps around here seething at Pride.
Amid the Small Change is the Ankle Chain of Envy. When cards are dealt for a Challenge Phase round, the Chain’s wearer may switch one card from their hand with the DM. Cards stolen from the DM can be used for any action on the user’s turn, or unsuited minor actions.
XVII: Gluttony’s table. A one room restaurant, kitchen and abattoir with dangling meat and heaped dirty dishes. Gluttony hacks away at the meat, cooks and serves it to himself. He wines and dines visitors and turns violent when the “moochers” refuse his deal after eating at his table. All he food is illusory and disappears if removed from the room.
XVIII: Greed’s vault. A shabby wooden room with a sagging ceiling. In the center is an indestructible shiny black cube, large enough for the entire Guild to stand up in. A thick door in the side hangs open and several Treasures glitter inside.
If anyone enters the vault the door slams shut. It closes with enough force to shear metal and break bones, making it almost impossible to prop open. The pile inside is “sticky” and resists attempts to be moved. Touch it with a pole and the pole is yanked into the pile. Grab it with Dwimmercraft and the mage is yanked toward the door as though the spell was reflected onto them. If someone gets trapped in the vault, Greed emerges from the treasure pile. He won’t unlock the door until they make a deal with him. If he dies it stays shut.
XIX: Lust’s boudoir. An elegantly decorated brothel. The walls look like marble but are actually slimy white clay. The sheets look like silk but are actually paper which sticks to your skin with the slightest drop of moisture. The ceiling scrollwork is actually mold. The “gold” is painted lead. [Adventurer] Lusts slither and slide amid the furnishings. The only “treasure” here is a cursed chastity belt.
XX: Sloth’s terrarium. Glass roof. Big bushes with leaves like cabbages shelter small deformed animals. The giant snail Sloth slowly grazes at the greenery with its club-shaped radula.
Lost in the slime and muck trails left by the Devil is the Choker of Sloth. On a Test of Fate or when taking a Challenge Action, the wearer may search the Minor Arcana discard pile and pick any card to use. They become Exhausted and cannot use the power again until they clear the exhaustion.
XXI: Pride’s gallery. Huge, well lit room with a high ceiling. Furniture heaped randomly, petrified Adventurers posed like sculptures, portraits and murals on the wall depicting an enormous one eyed head ruling the City. Lots of mirrors, smashed. Pride floats around here solipsistically gibbering to itself.
Amid the hoarded objects are a Book, a Treasure and the Crown of Pride. The Crown boosts all attributes by 1 while the wearer is first in marching order. In combat, if they act first in initiative order, they may draw an additional card from the Minor Arcana. In either case the jewels set in the crown glitter in even minimal light, making stealth impossible and alerting everyone that the wearer is important. If Pride is still alive when you put it down he hunts you down.
Von Stuck
MEATGRINDER OF THE WASTES
I: Torches gutter.
II: Torches gutter.
III: Torches gutter.
IV: Torches gutter.
V: Torches gutter.
VI: Sound of laughter and screams.
VII: Triplicate copy of a notarized contract between a Devil and a figure from your City.
VIII: Reek of rotting gardenias.
IX: Wall painted with beautiful nature scene.
X: Floor strewn with bone meal and grave dirt.
XI: Billowing cloud of ashes and cremains.
XII: A group of adventurers in poor shape run through a gap in the wall that shines with bright light. The portal leads to the City but closes soon.
XIII: An awful wave of necromantic energy passes over the Guild. Everyone ages one year.
XIV: A fissure opens in the ground, dividing the Guild in two. A wall of flame emits forth, preventing movement by non-immune characters. The wall of flame gradually hardens into solid basalt, permanently dividing the chamber.
XV: An item is missing from an Adventurer’s pack. In its place is a scribbled note left by an Imp: If you want your [thing] back, come to [random room]
XVI: Oni (as Ogre), looking for Adventurers to escort to their eternal reward. If they’ve already fought her she’s accompanied by [Minor Arcana Discard] Imps.
XVII: A Psychopomp flutters down to offer the Guild information about the dungeon in exchange for treats. If they refuse his offer he shrieks to draw in other monsters.
XVIII: Horde of [Minor Arcana Discard] Zombies, shambling.
XIX: 1 to 4 Ghouls, check the suit of the Minor Arcana discard for how many.
XX: A Wraith haunting the dark.
XXI: Quest rumor.
II: Torches gutter.
III: Torches gutter.
IV: Torches gutter.
V: Torches gutter.
VI: Sound of laughter and screams.
VII: Triplicate copy of a notarized contract between a Devil and a figure from your City.
VIII: Reek of rotting gardenias.
IX: Wall painted with beautiful nature scene.
X: Floor strewn with bone meal and grave dirt.
XI: Billowing cloud of ashes and cremains.
XII: A group of adventurers in poor shape run through a gap in the wall that shines with bright light. The portal leads to the City but closes soon.
XIII: An awful wave of necromantic energy passes over the Guild. Everyone ages one year.
XIV: A fissure opens in the ground, dividing the Guild in two. A wall of flame emits forth, preventing movement by non-immune characters. The wall of flame gradually hardens into solid basalt, permanently dividing the chamber.
XV: An item is missing from an Adventurer’s pack. In its place is a scribbled note left by an Imp: If you want your [thing] back, come to [random room]
XVI: Oni (as Ogre), looking for Adventurers to escort to their eternal reward. If they’ve already fought her she’s accompanied by [Minor Arcana Discard] Imps.
XVII: A Psychopomp flutters down to offer the Guild information about the dungeon in exchange for treats. If they refuse his offer he shrieks to draw in other monsters.
XVIII: Horde of [Minor Arcana Discard] Zombies, shambling.
XIX: 1 to 4 Ghouls, check the suit of the Minor Arcana discard for how many.
XX: A Wraith haunting the dark.
XXI: Quest rumor.
De Morgan
MONSTERS OF THE WASTES
GREED (Spirit Minion)
A vulture-headed man. Naked, starving, dangling a fistful of silver coins from the end of a staff. Endlessly calculating profits and losses, will interrupt you or itself mid-sentence to announce the meteoric rise or catastrophic fall of its portfolio.
Greed offers material comfort, insurance against financial ruin after a bad delve. If you make a deal with Greed you get the top tier upkeep free forever during the City phase, healing everything and buying whatever items you want. In exchange you can’t take any City Action except Banking.
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 3 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 2/1
Likes: Making deals, being owed things, the taste of money
Hates: Sore losers, lead (tastes awful), spending money
Lust wants you to fuck it, and it’ll be whoever you need to be in both appearance and personality. Catty, airheaded, whip-smart, stoic… An affectless fuck machine with a granite cock, a bratty sub, a giant woman… Lust’s ability to mimic human (or Orc, or Underfolk, or Elf) imperfection is a superbly baited trap. It’s exactly your type, but just enough of a pain in the ass that you don’t feel like it’s too good to be true.
If you take Lust’s deal, erase all Bonds from your character sheet. You get a single Bond with Lust that recharges automatically after each Camp action. You cannot form new Bonds.
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 0 | Wands 3
Health/Defense: 2/1
Likes: Sucking, fucking, homewrecking
Hates: Being ignored, fungus (makes the Devil sneeze), horseshoes (instant turn off)
A vulture-headed man. Naked, starving, dangling a fistful of silver coins from the end of a staff. Endlessly calculating profits and losses, will interrupt you or itself mid-sentence to announce the meteoric rise or catastrophic fall of its portfolio.
Greed offers material comfort, insurance against financial ruin after a bad delve. If you make a deal with Greed you get the top tier upkeep free forever during the City phase, healing everything and buying whatever items you want. In exchange you can’t take any City Action except Banking.
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 3 | Wands 0
Health/Defense: 2/1
Likes: Making deals, being owed things, the taste of money
Hates: Sore losers, lead (tastes awful), spending money
- Lesser dooms
- Token bribe. Greed can take a Cups action vs a target’s initiative. On a pass the victim gains gold pieces equal to the value of the card, but cannot take hostile action against the Devil that round.
- Wealthdrain. Greed can take a Cups action vs a target’s initiative to destroy coins from their inventory equal to the played card. If the adventurer has no coins, destroy a treasure. If they have no treasure they take damage.
- Greater dooms
- Coin shaving. Discard a Greater Doom and reduce Greed’s health or defense by 1. Spawn a new Greed at full health and defense.
Lust wants you to fuck it, and it’ll be whoever you need to be in both appearance and personality. Catty, airheaded, whip-smart, stoic… An affectless fuck machine with a granite cock, a bratty sub, a giant woman… Lust’s ability to mimic human (or Orc, or Underfolk, or Elf) imperfection is a superbly baited trap. It’s exactly your type, but just enough of a pain in the ass that you don’t feel like it’s too good to be true.
If you take Lust’s deal, erase all Bonds from your character sheet. You get a single Bond with Lust that recharges automatically after each Camp action. You cannot form new Bonds.
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 0 | Wands 3
Health/Defense: 2/1
Likes: Sucking, fucking, homewrecking
Hates: Being ignored, fungus (makes the Devil sneeze), horseshoes (instant turn off)
- Notes
- Transform. Lust is a shapeshifter. It can focus on a single adventurer and assume a form to entrap that person.
- Lust’s stats do not change, nor do they gain new abilities.
- Whichever adventurer Lust is focused on loses a point of Resolve every time they attack it.
- Greater dooms
- All stripped down. Play a Greater Doom vs the initiative of an adventurer to notch a piece of armor they’re wearing.
Utagawa
THE MAKING OF
Rules for using the builder here. Now that I've got it all down, three things that would be cool
- One builder that's entirely hell/devil themed, and a separate builder for the undead that includes necromancy and vampires.
- A generic Cultist/Devil Worshiper stat block with a cool minion power for all seven Devils. A smaller group of Rival Adventurer types with more powerful abilities.
- A reason to fight multiple Devils at once, like a treasure that summons Lust, Pride, Sloth, Greed, Envy and Wrath to defend it (Pride doesn't play well with others).
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