Garden District- Shindig Street

The richest part of Garden. Wealthy, high class, every street you peek down you'll see several movie and radio stars, giddy socialites and young promising business men. It is ruled by the hides-in-plain-sight group; the Sequin Society. To even get on this street is a challenge, as it requires either a golden membership card (without an escort, the elite can take guests if chaperoned) or a hefty bribe to the guards stationed at the entrances to the area- both of which are very expensive and ensure that only the wealthiest can enter. The street is also one of the nicest and well illuminated places in Garden, with booths offering free samples, street performers, and businesses with open doors and high quality good for sale. The nightlife here is second to none, with entertainment, dining, and the best brothel in the city. Movie stars walk the street and rub elbows with executives. If you want to get to know someone powerful and influential in the city, this is the place.

The street itself is arranged along a central canal, which offers gondola rides to those too tired to walk. Stinking motors of public transport are discouraged, and while hovering cars are allowed, only luxurious and well maintained cars are accepted. Cars with a visible scratch or dent are given a traffic violation ticket every single night from the roving bands of community enforcers until the owner gets the message and replaces it with a nicer one. If your paint color is especially egregious and out of season, you might also be given a ticket for "surface level damage along the entire length of the vehicle". 

The other curious thing about Shindig Street noticed by first time visitors? The lack of advertisements. Most commercial areas of Garden are like an otherworldly Kabukichō or Las Vegas; a buffet of lights and signs in every language imaginable. Here, the streets are clean and decorated- calming yellow lights that are directly contrary to the attention grabbing instruments of business. Shindig Street is no less capitalistic as any other part of Garden; this place just has different rules. You are told to knock three times on the blue door on the ground floor of the unmarked building overhanging the canal- and then you are brought into the most exclusive and high-quality gun shop in the entire city. If your business can't survive on the word of mouth of the rich and powerful, then the rich and powerful believe you shouldn't be here.

Residents
Shindig Street is described perfectly by one word; Cosmopolitan. It is an incredibly diverse, multi-ethnic, surprisingly welcoming part of the city. However, it is not multi-cultural. Everyone here is expected to behave a certain way; and attain and keep a certain level of wealth. They don't care much about what you are, as long as you have the money to play with the trust-fund kids, investors, tycoons, and bank-breaking highest class alien escorts one can imagine.

The above properly describes the visible residents of the district. In fact, the entire street seems to be very low in population, comfortable, with groups of friends, couples, and loners walking the glittering lamp-lit canal. But for every one of those, there are three invisible people here as well. Servants, engineers, bodyguards- snipers watching from nearby rooftops to protect the mob boss's daughter as she takes an innocent stroll with her very rich friends. The milkman and courier coming out of a hatch in the ground- an arm leaving its package before returning back underneath- so out of the way as to not even be seen except for the briefest flash. While Shindig Street is for the rich and powerful, anything that needs to be done by someone of a lower class is done so in the most unobtrusive way possible. The rumors of rich men having a family of servants living in the walls of their mansions are mostly exaggerated- they'll just employ one of them to come live in their walls instead!

While the cosmopolitan upper class of Shindig Street is incredibly diverse, the lower class is actually less so. While the roots of this "tradition" were started by one incredibly wealthy old telephone magnate many years ago, it spread to the entire upper class and became ubiquitous. While bodyguards, butlers, and escorts may come from many places and cultures to become another colorful accessory to the rich and famous; the basic canal workers, painters, repairmen, and all manner of basic laborers of Shindig Street are of one race exclusively; the mouthless Imnar. This alien race cannot speak, and exclusivity communicate through sign language and writing on their home world- they feed off certain wavelenghts of light which cannot be found anywhere in Garden except the underground light-farms beneath the Shindig. Any new immigrant to Garden from their world will find themselves quietly rushed here- to serve the interest of the rich and powerful in silent service. They are not treated poorly either- the night laborers of this district have a higher average salary and more luxuries then most in Garden, but their presence in the city is funneled here- a secret society underneath another secret society.

But as for the true ruling power on Shindig Street- one only look to the Sequin Society.

Notable Characters - Roll 1d4
[1] Lady Ghostie - 3 HP, 1d4+1 Pocket Pistol, 1d4+2 Little Knife
Incredibly pale, paper-white thin starling. She has big black almond shaped eye, like an alien. She's a movie star, and everyone is surprised that she is actually that white, just like in the pictures. People are also surprised that her bubbly ditz personality and high pitched voice are also faked for the camera. She's incredibly vicious and will kill to get what she wants. Probably the most archetypal member of the Sequin Society.

She's also a bit of a talent scout. If your character is also monochrome, or if she just likes the look of you, you'll probably get invited to be an extra in her next Talkie. It is highly advised you attend and accept the small but fair paycheck. If you don't, you shouldn't come back to Shindig Street.

[2] Powerman - 10 HP, 1d6 Fists, 1d6+1 "Justice Calls" Backup Pistol
Superhero. Star of a very popular black and white movie of the same name; really pushed the envelope of special effects in the movie industry. Due to very specific wording on the acting contract, now required to play the character in real life. Forever. Stays on Shindig Street to avoid the occasional monster or aggressive violent gang assault; will play up small favors and helping ladies across the street as the only heroics he can handle. Despite this cowardice; is actually superhuman and had a few procedures done to make them extremely tough and capable of bunching through solid metal.

Having a bit of money trouble; especially considering the fancy diet they require with all their special alien organ implants giving them superhuman strength and toughness. The royalties are good, but the studio is dragging its feet on making a sequel. If you can somehow arrange it with the big movie studios, you'd have a superbeing in your debt!

[3] Tulok'Tul'Vul - 4 HP, 1d6-1 Snappy Pistol, +1 Psychic Resistance
Musician and amateur fortune teller. Makes most of his money on the stock market and selling his (totally real) psychic predictions about the future of the stock market as opposed to his shitty music. Convinced he's a big shot when his fortune is dwarfed by most of the casual walkers on the boardwalk. Will take any insult on the chin with a laugh and an offer to buy you a drink- except his music- in which case you're getting challenged to a duel.

His attended by a high-class Valet with him at all times. The Valet works directly for Kev Zapir, relaying the occasional ramblings of Tulok during his worst episodes to his boss, in the event that sacred prophecy slips out between the dividend returns of the construction companies and pig farmer magnate declarations of quarterly profits.

[4] The Madame - 6 HP, 1d8+2 Heavy Rifle (not carried), +1 Armored Fur Coat
She's purple, short, pudgy, and refined in every way, even when she swears. Something about her persona is just warm and inviting, and it isn't for sure or a trick either. One of the kindest and most open people among the Sequin Society, she's been around long enough to protect herself and those she cares about. Way too short and fat to be a big starlet, she instead manages talent and owns several extremely important businesses in relation to the movie business, like the teamsters and film production companies, giving her incredible influence.

She also used to hunt people down on a private game reserve with a high-powered rifle for money, but that was a long time ago. She's moved on from that, promise.

Notable Gang - Valets
Manpower- 2
Holdings- The Tip Jar (+1), High Class Hovercars (+2), Blackmail (+2)

The high class individuals of Shindig Street will claim up and down that no gangs can gain a foothold in this district. It's too posh, too clean, too exclusive. Despite their own secret society operating more or less in the same fashion. But for the most part, they're right. No street gangs or dredges of desperate criminals harass individuals walking down the opulent streets nor charge protection money to the exclusive few who qualify to run shops here. It's very disarming for those who keep their sidearm close in all other parts of the city.

But there is one exception to this; the Valets. While most of the servants and underclass of this district of the city are made up of the illusive Imnar, the valets are much more out and about. Acting as the chauffeurs, bag-boys, and other well dressed servants of high society; the valets are always ready to serve when anyone snaps their fingers; the universal sign of an aristocrat needing something. Over many years, this group of lowly servants have banded together in a sort of strange work union, pushing out individual servants, butlers, and even adventuring parties trying their best to make-good with the snobby high class residents of this district. Those who try to muscle in to this territory seem to find themselves losing friends and opportunities, the best parking places for their clients taken away just in the nick of time, their bags and belongings mishandled, until they either give a generous tip from an outstretched white-gloved hand or get with the program.

While almost always found alone and with violence being the last resort, the Valets own quite a strangehold on the high class service among the boujee hotels and walkways overlooking the scenic canal in the heart of this district. Their leader is Kev Zapir, a short and unassuming middle aged human with a clean haircut and even cleaner eyebrows. As the most popular valet of several of the cities higher level clients, he was gifted the ability to use their (very) expensive cars at his own use as long as the residents have no need of them on a visit; which they rarely do. Destroying these would be a massive blow to his credibility, and saddle him with debts that even the entire valet union couldn't possibly hope to repay.

Notable Location - The Red Theater
Angular art deco exterior, a well kept facade of a Tulorian fruit orchard stands out front, with a small curved path leading to the inside of the archway into the most important cultural hotspot in the entire city. Movies dominate here; and they are all first shown in this very theater. Exclusive to the extreme, even the paparazzi and beggars outside have to pass a certain license threshold just to stand along the main pathway, kept clear to the shining stars of Garden's culture.

Within, gifts and special announcements are given out with extreme focus and intention. You might see a woman receive a yellow bouquet of flowers and swallow nervously, before a servant pops out from behind a boiler to give her a bouquet of blue flowers; showing she has protection from a third party. Later, when dinner's appetizers arrive, a pile of bladefish eggs are presented to her plate, pointing towards the center. She excuses herself to leave and makes way to her vehicle, only for her hovercar to launch itself hundreds of feet into the air and come screaming down flattening some poor apartment building somewhere else in the city. What you just witnesses was a typical execution of the Sequin Society; a merciless war fought with big ceramic smiles and sidelong glances. This is their headquarters.

While mostly populated by rich and famous movie stars, anyone high up in the art world or their financiers can find themselves among their numbers. They show up to every new movie's first showing, having long social codes and guidelines that can only be learned from experience and decades of in-jokes and intentions, completely inscrutable to outsiders. If one of them wants to make an emergency meeting, then they need to release a new film. The theaters all over the cities are flabbergasted that people will waste millions on shoving up trash black & white films like this; but in their world, it makes perfect sense. The house is rife with assassination and secrecy. Any aspiring Sweeps can find themselves here; tasked with guarding, following, or assassinating members of the society even as they duck and dive in the secret side rooms and underground service tunnels deep beneath the city which all seem to crisscross right over this exact location.

Random Encounters on Shindig Street - 1d10

[1] Two extremely annoying young floozies walk in your path ahead of you. They walk just slow enough to slow your progress and would waste a lot of time (two turns) to just sit and wait for them to go far enough ahead, but just fast enough that overtaking them isn't easy without running and causing you to get weird looks and glances. They are constantly giggling and babbling on but ignore all polite social cues to be quiet or tone it down, and will act like YOU are the problem if you speak up about them. Just really, really annoying.

You either politely wait for them to get out of your hair or take 2 points of stress/temp-HP damage from dealing with them. 

[2] An Imnar pops out from a manhole, behind a dusty alleyway door, or from underneath a large car and opens fire at you with an SMG. He seems to be aiming high; his attack roll is made at -6 so you only get hit if you're an especially big target or very unlucky. Then, he'll attempt to run away and disappear if he manages to get out of sight.

If you catch him, he'll surrender immediately and attempt to communicate (not through spoken word) that he was simply told to try and scare you away from Shindig street by somebody rich and powerful. Either roll on the Notable Characters table (d4) to see who it was or tie it in with another dangerous NPC who has already had beef with the party before.

[3] Old irrelevant actor falls on his knees and begs you for help- he's saying that if he doesn't get some clout in this district soon he'll get killed by the Sequin Society! People are staring. It's one thing to upset them, it's another thing entirely to upset them in public. It's probably too late for this guy and it'd be best to avoid associating with him, but if you do manage to get him out of the district safely he'll be very grateful and give you his gold pass to enter Shindig Street freely, as well as giving you the location of the Valets room filled with secrets stolen from actors (Blackmail +2 can be removed in one fail swoop; for irony it's literally in a room full of dirty laundry).

[4] Well dressed street merchant tries to sell you something gaudy. But right before you push him away, somebody notices it's something from their homeworld. Like a fresh can of Coca-Cola or a pinch of black sugar salt from the hills of Xander. You just have to have it. It's expensive, but buying it gives you something that grounds you in the otherwise wild and alien city (recover a point of stress or HP).

[5] Two alien dogs, a long pink skinny one with three eyes and a short and stumpy green one with the generic antennae on its head both break loose from their handler. Naturally, the handler is (rightfully) concerned that he'll be killed if he can't get the dogs back. If you ask their names, you'll get a hint as to where each one went once they split up. If you collect both safe and sound, you'll receive an invitation to the next big movie screening for a Talkie; even the hors d'oeuvres are basically a roll on the treasure table. If you back the green one into a corner it'll spray acid at you at 2d4.

[6] You are approached by a sleazy looking man looking to invest in real estate and a peer-to-peer payment network. If you do not threaten him with violence immediately, he'll have you at the nearest restaurant, wined and dined, after having scammed you out of 20% of your current carried cash and fitting you with the (very large) bill. He's actually a low level psychic with certain mind control abilities, and will steer well clear of the party if you have psychic resistant members or psychic blanks. While he's not physically dangerous, any restaurant you end up at will have a professional hit squad on call to deal with dine-and-dashers.

[7] Confused looking old man dressed in a gi walking about. His body is lean and he practically floats when he moves, and knows kung fu. He tells you he's from the GOOD version of this setting, and is curious how he exactly got lost in this shitty version of it. If you fight him hand to hand he will absolutely kick your ass, but he can't do anything against bullets and will die like anybody else.

If you help him start a martial arts school or get him a leading role in an action movie he'll give you some pointers- permanent +1 to all hand to hand combat damage and you can ignore a point of armor on hand to hand attacks from body-weapon-strengthening techniques.

[8] Young Starlet approaches one member of your party; whoever has the nicest and longest hair, fluffiest fur, or most attractive feathers. She offers to pay you a large sum to have it shaved or plucked for her next outfit. If you refuse, you'll be followed for the next 2d6 weeks by shadowy figures, and if you're ever in a really wakened state a highly trained Collector will appear to take the offending material from you by force.

Collector- (8 HP, +1 Armor, 1d8+1 Pepperbox Gun, 1d4+1 scalpel, those hands at +1 to all attacks, Psychic Blank)
Shadowy man in a trenchcoat and wide-brimmed hat. Patches on elbows and knees. Looks like a private eye, but less noble and more sketchy. Seems immune to having his mind read, and is almost unnaturally dedicated in collecting whatever item he has been tasked with. If you look hard enough in the city archives, you can find a way to call him(?) to yourself, to which he will retrieve any one item for you, for an unusual price you may not be willing to part with.

[9] Roll on General Gang Table.

[10] Roll on General Encounters Table. 

Random complaints about Magic Systems since this post was too long for r/magicbuilding

1) Magic is a purely genetic or "superpower"-like ability that is manifested wholly from the body/person using it.

For me, magic needs to have some component of spiritual or mental acuity to use it. I don't have a problem with magic being heavily tied to a person's bloodline, even if it's "unfair" in the world its in like if it's only available to superhuman elves or spirits or whatever, but magic where humans can just wave their hands and simply can do it or can't doesn't feel magical to me, it feels more like a superpower. You need to have some component of at least mentally imagining the spell or willing it into existence somehow. I also like to self insert in most fantasy worlds I read or interact with (don't we all) and I much prefer magic being the result of hard work or at least special knowledge.

2) Magic that mixes symbolic and pseudo-scientific aspects.

Regardless of if a magic system is soft or hard; I dislike when magic systems mix these two aspects. If you want to make magic the result of different varieties of magical or elemental energy that is collected in crystals to power magitech machinery, that's fine. If you want to make magic more folkloric and/or occult and base it on symbolic methods; like making a voodoo doll that looks like someone to harm them remotely or nailing an iron horseshoe to your doorway to keep fairies away that's fine too. But don't tell me there are mystic curses that can only be broken with true love's first kiss AND you're a red wizard with 250 MP practicing your 2nd level fireball spell.

3) Magic "Schools" or categories that have inconsistent naming conventions

This one is probably the worst and most nitpicky of all; but I very much dislike magic systems where they have a sort of order to their spell schools. White magic, black magic, gray magic; ok that's cool, don't suddenly add in "charms" or "illusion" magic to that list, it completely ruins it. Same as systems that will inexplicably have elemental magic and then throw in mind-control or psychic phenomena as a category. No, if you're going to have a category that breaks the rules like that, you need to fit it into the existent naming scheme like letting elemental magic also affect people's moods and body humors or start over. The worst part is its not even the effects or spells, just the naming scheme. I have zero problem with Elder Scrolls magic schools as they exist in the game but having every spell school follow this naming convention of "AlteraTION, DestrucTION, RestoraTION," and then tossing in "Mysticism" or "Illusion" irks me.

4) Magic incantations that don't mean anything

Now obviously they mean "something" in the world-space when spoken aloud, you can't expect every creator or author to create an entire conlang just for this, but what I mean by this is if a magic system uses magic incantations that inevitably boil down to saying things like "water, form, towards target" in word form I get annoyed. Once again this is often abstracted but if its a magic system based on words and "you can't lie in this ancient language so whatever you say has to become true" or it's "imposing your will on reality" via speech then what needs to be said needs to be intelligible. I've come to enjoy magic incantations just spoken in plain English/whatever language the story is written in as being more evocative anyway; calling upon supernatural forces or commanding inanimate objects to obey and they suddenly spring to life is so much better then some keywords in some made-up gibberish language.

5) Sorcerers = Inherited Magic & Wizards = Learned Magic

This is literally just an annoyance I have with the naming convention once again; and only D&D in specific. The most famous Sorcerers in pop culture and fiction (named Sorcerer)? King Solomon, Dr. Strange, and Mickey Mouse (Sorcerer's Apprentice)- All had to learn or gain their powers through magic items. The most famous Wizards in fiction? Merlin, Harry Potter, Gandalf- all inherited or belonging to a magical bloodline. Once again, this is 100% down to taste, I just hate how D&D has created this connotation when if anything it should be the opposite. At least "Witch" can always mean a hearth caster!

6) Everything "magic" comes from the "Wizard class"

Not literally video games again, but if everything magical or supernatural in a world has to come from a magic using catch-all term or type of individual; it sucks all the suspense and intrigue out of the world for me. Magic swords should be crafted by the most skilled and experienced blacksmiths of the land; not "enchanted" in some process by some magical wizard guy. Once again this is down to flavor, and more scientific magic systems get a pass on this by necessity, but everything cool being made by the special snowflake Wizard-type is boring to me.

7) Magic is defined as an energy field + real world physics on top

This was described by other comments on this post better; but basically I really hate when fantasy magic is defined as a sort of magical energy field that can be turned off or on, "Anti-Magic Shell", etc. These things suck all the mysticism and spiritual aspects out of magic. You can have magic be weaker in certain places, or certain materials be resistant to it, but this should be because of a great lodestone or fallen star that disrupts the subtle "weave" that surrounds all living things, NOT an attempt to crease over a soft magic system with a hard-magic system explanation.

8) We don't see enough of it / Only brought out for the "cool" moments

Final complaint; magic systems that don't let us get any fun stuff out of it. Yes, I know this sounds a bit hypocritical from some of the stuff above, but if I get invested in a world, story, or game; I really want to at least get a taste of the magic. If it's a Lovecraftian style magic world with great costs and dangers for using magic, I get it, but in an attempt to not spoil the flavor with overexposure, many creativities make magic too rare, special, or plot-important to actually absorb and enjoy. Let me see how magic users use magic to rid themselves of annoying daily tasks or how low-powered magic stuff is sometimes used for entertainment or to play pranks on people. Let me steep myself in the unreal world. People are people even if they're elves; so you KNOW somebody is going to use these fantastic powers for something boring, something mean, or something kinky. It's inevitable and, if anything, a sign of good writing. It's a part of the world, so let me experience it in your world.

Deadlock Character Design is neat + Tabletop Class Specializations via Abilities

So I've been playing Deadlock recently. Played it a bunch last year and playing it a bit more now that more characters have been added and it's been getting some decent updates. While the game at its core is a hyper-competitive MOBA mixed with MOVEMENT SHOOTER elements, and is as such even more repellent to the casual gaming audience who only sometimes plays only competitive games like me, I DO quite appreciate the design of many of its heroes.

Deadlock's heroes all have their own gimmicks and niche, but one thing I appreciate is that many heroes have a "balanced" kit.

Teamwork Focused TTRPG Classes
The idea here is to steal a MOBA or Deadlock style active abilities and shift them for TTRPG classes. So each class would have three abilities in this simple example, one focused on offense, survival or escape, and healing/support of teammates. This would be in addition to attack, move, using items, etc.

Whenever you level up, in addition to your hit points and to-hit bonuses, you get to increase the Y value of one ability, forcing you to specialize in your niche of support rogue, or offensive fighter, etc.

Fighter
Power Strike- The classic. You swing your sword, but harder. You must declare this move before you make your attack roll; which is modified by Y-3 (this means you actually get a higher chance to hit with enough investment, what of it?) and on hit you deal damage +Y. Each time you use this, reduce your Y by -1 until you take a short rest to recoup your strength.

Second Wind- Instead of attacking, you can spend your round breathing in deep and restoring some of your endurance and strength. You restore 1d6+Y Hit Points, usable once per day.

Defender- Whenever adjacent to an attacked ally, you can step in the way of the attack and have the enemy try to hit you thru your AC instead of your ally. Whenever you do this, you can increase your AC by +(1/2)Y.

Rogue
Cheap Shot- If you attack a target upon whom you have some advantage; such as the target being blinded, you being behind them, the target is tripped, etc. You automatically deal maximum damage on a hit and add an additional +Yx2 damage.

Evasion- Instead of attacking, you can spend your round dodging enemy attacks. You ran tumble (move-thru) and force enemies to use their prepared attacks or attacks of opportunity on you. You can do this a number of times or squares equal to Y, but enemies still get a chance to hit you using your normal AC or saving throw chance. You can increase your AC when performing this action by +(1/2)Y.

Distract- Whenever you are adjacent to an enemy, you may choose to distract them instead of attacking. Each adjacent enemy gets a negative of Y to their To-Hit modifier. Whenever you move-thru or tumble past an enemy, they also receive this negative for the round.
Note- Instead of directly healing allies, the Rogue distracts enemies. This could be like a bard issuing taunts and making fun of the enemies, a thief-acrobat tumbling past them and tying their shoes together, maybe a monk hitting pressure points, etc.

Mage
Empower Spell- By taking an extra round to incant a magic word, you can increase the Spell-Level of a Spell you cast by one, up to a maximum of Y.

Jinx- Select an enemy within view and gesture at them, hitting them with a minor curse. If they perform a specific action you dictate on the next round (such as "attack me"), they take Y damage automatically. This manifests as bad luck, something breaking, random sparks jumping at them from a nearby fire, etc. All enemies hit with a Jinx always know what action they are forbidden from taking and can choose to do something else to avoid triggering the Jinx. You can also only forbid one specific action with a Jinx, so "advancing towards me" could be a Jinx, but "moving at all" can't be.

Power Ward- Blocks (Y-1) Spell-Levels worth of spells targeted at you or any party member. Once you activate the ward, it requires constant concentration to maintain and you cannot perform any other action then keeping the ward up. Once the ward is broken thru, or your concentration is broken, you must prepare to cast the ward again by studying your spellbook as per any Spell. 

Cleric
Burning Light- Creates a light source equal in luminosity/radius to Yx5 in ft or squares. Deals one damage per round to all undead or evil beings illuminated by it. Lasts Y rounds.

Desperate Plea- Instantly heals one person by (1/2)Y Hit-Points. Instant as in instant. Can be done even if the Cleric is stunned, immobilized, turned away, blinded, etc. They just have to pray and believe, and it happens. Usable once per day.

Blessing of Protection- Gives a party member +1 to AC and Saves for Y rounds. Takes a round to bless them, but otherwise no limit. Blessing someone again with this just refreshes the duration.

Chain Gang's Main Drain

The Emperor is building a new canal. Maybe it's going to be full of his favorite fish; a pond next to his new palace. Or perhaps it's a massive rice farm, or maybe it's a network for fast travel and commerce within the heart of the empire. For whatever reason, a massive pit is being dug and slowly lined with wet stones. To accomplish this huge undertaking, hundreds of strong farmers, random criminals, and outlaws were shoved into this huge pit to finish the work. The pit is a straight drop, far too tall to climb out, with guards stationed every so often to make sure nobody is trying to escape. They are paid in sweet wine and bread, but at least they were promised a satchel of silver each when they were done. There's no telling if this will ever materialize, but at least it helps with the morale.

You are not one of them. You're down their drain.

Chain Gang's Main Drain
The center of the massive drained canal is a ditch that leads to a hole. The hole is many meters deep, only letting in enough light to barely illuminate the bottom. This is a drainage ditch and well dug to keep the canal from flooding too quickly, but the earth was too soft and it broke into a space beneath. The walls are way too wet to climb, and even getting a ladder down the tight hole would be difficult, if the chain gang even had one. You're stuck down here.

The Chain Gang has no way to get you out, but they still have need of you. Partially, just to have someone to look down on. The guards are lorded over by the Emperor, they chain gang are lorded over by the gaurds, and you're lorded over by them. Fair?

For doing tasks for them, the Chain Gangers can give you food, usually just scraps, and precious wine, which is one of your only ways of getting clean drinking water. They can also spare some of their tools, pickaxes to move stones and shovels to sift dirt, which you can use as weapons; but if too many goes missing or lost the guards will likely punish the Chain Gang very harshly, so they'll want them back for each inspection. They accomplish this by sending down a bucket on a string, along with other supplies, but it's too small and weak to send one of you back up, of course. Being down the drain does have its advantages though; the guards don't know you exist, and as such, you aren't getting beaten or forced to work. But where as the chain gang are going to be brought out of the pit when the job is done, and they swear they'll try to get you out, the architects overseeing the project have no obligation to figure out a solution to your problem, and the dig is on a tight schedule as is...

The Chain Gang's Quests
Every three days, the Chain Gangers will collectively have a task for you to complete. Their attitude is cordial, but they aren't going to share their rations if you don't help them, and they know you can't do much about it if they do stiff you your reward. The reward will be;

1. Exactly enough rations for everyone down the hole, with no extra for lunch breaks, healing (well fed bonuses), or monster bait, for the next three days. If the Chain Gang had a few bad days, assume a few smaller or missing rations this time.
   
2. One tool. This can be a rough shovel (1d3 blunt), a trowel (1d2, but can be used in grapple or sneak attacks like a dagger), a sharpened pickaxe (two handed, 1d6 piercing), or a long pole used for moving stones (1d4 quarterstaff, attack at disadvantage in cramped space, could be made into a spear or broken apart for a few torches). If it's a bad day, you get a random one instead of the tool you wanted.
   
3. Two pieces of driftwood and soiled linens that can be used as a torch OR a few leather straps that broke off from from scaffold or from moving heavy stones. (Two or more straps can be used to make basic armor as leather, or wrapped around your arms and legs for +1 temporary AC) If you don't ask for one in particular, they'll just give you a random choice.
4. One wineskin. The Chain Gang all get one every other three days, so they rotate who gives it up for you. First thing to go during bad days.
   

The wine is enough to get one person drunk or can be shared among three people. It's enough to wet your tongue enough to cast spells or can restore one Hit-Point if you chug the whole thing like a health potion. If anything bad happens on the surface (somebody escaped & the guards crack down, it rains, it's a church day and everyone is still forced to work, a mason loses their tools and the chain gangers are searched for contraband, etc.) then the wine always goes.

If you do a task for them, they'll give you all of the above as your reward. If you do an extra task or a really good job, they'll give you an extra pick of anything on the list; except for the wine.

There is also a one in six chance each day the Chain Gang steals something from a higher up like a mason (an actual valuable worker) or an architect who had to step into the pit for a moment. The Chain Gang is spiteful enough to want to pawn these off on you in lieu of one of your normal rewards just to inconvenience those above them, but will never send you down anything actually valuable like coin or a proper weapon. This special reward can only be taken on these days, and is randomly;

1. Length of rope or small bit of iron chain (1d3 improvised weapon). You can also break down the bucket for this if you really need it, but then you'll have no way to trade for items.
2. Mason chisel (1d4 improvised dagger) OR Mason's chalk
   
3. Parchment and paper taken from architects or stolen letters (you can use these to draw a map)
4. Axe Head that fell from a woodcutter and was lost in the mud when they were clearing space for the canal. (No handle, but could be made into a d6 axe)
5. Animal fat and grease from the kitchen tents (can be used as fuel, ointment, or smeared over something to make it bait for a monster). If you're a weirdo you can ask for specific organs or animal bones instead; like if you need them to cast a spell or something.
   
6. Guard's Cuirass (as chainmail). They would 100% keep this themselves but is too hard to hide and anyone caught with it would 100% be killed. Expect the next three days in a row to be 'bad days', since a guard either died or just got demoted.
   

In order to determine what task the Chain Gangers give you, roll on this table. If you roll a 11 or 12, then this is a bonus task that is secretly given by someone among the Chain Gang, whispered down and separate from the rest of the group. Roll again. They can drop something on the reward table extra; but it's rarely worth the added risk.

Chain Gang Task Table - Roll 1d12
[1] Teach us a new song, funny hole people! (Entertain them and humiliate yourself, 1d2 chance they get drunk and forget to give you your reward later)

[2] Stop the weird spiders that come up the hole from drinking our blood when we sleep.

[3] One of us dropped a silver wedding ring down the hole a few days ago, find it and bring it back up! And don't you dare keep it for yourself! It couldn't have gone far... right?

[4] The men are starved for something besides crusty stale bread. We want you to bring us an animal that we can eat from below; nothing unsavory or rotten, no nasty bugs, ye shits.

[5] We want to get high. Go bring us those little mushrooms, with the black caps and yellow spot? They only grow down below. The smaller and brighter the spots, the stronger.

[6] Our camp has a pet, a funny little monkey. He got loose from his rope and climbed down the hole; please bring him back! ALIVE!

[7] Bring us the precious ore; silver or gold! We can hide it from the guard.

[8] One of the architects said the canal floor is unstable. Go down there and put up some supports or whatever and prevent the next sinkhole!

[9] Don't you hear that horrible, stinking sobbing? There's a ghost down there of someone who fell in and died. Go get their remains so we can put them to rest and end the haunting.

[10] We heard there are Orcs down there. Please make sure there aren't any orcs down there. If there are any, can you like, make them go away? Please no Orcs.

[11] I am a worshiper of the ones beneath. Take this (cursed) talisman to the deepest place in that well; I will know when your task is complete. He will speak to me in my dreams.

[12] I was an apprentice alchemist before I was press-ganged. I have no interest in slaving away in this hole; especially how dangerous it is. Send me up a bucket full of the fulminate, those dull gray stones? And I'll reward you. (He will die in the escape attempt, one bad week after. But after this happens, you learn of their explosive properties).

This setup allows you to do a few interesting things. The core idea is that the players are trapped in an unequal relationship with people who are also trapped, and yet somehow a bunch of indentured servants are better off and better equipped then you are. I imagine this would probably work better as a level 0 funnel or a starter "dungeon" adventure. It also allows new characters and hirelings to literally be dropped in on your head; anyone who falls down the pit isn't going to get back up very easily, and the Chain Gang doesn't want to tell anyone in authority about the pit because it could be a method for them to escape their work, so anyone who falls down is stuck with you. I like the idea of an especially annoying guy accidentally falling down the pit while piss drunk and now having to work with the people whose hole he was just pissing down a few minutes ago.

With the canal eventually being finished and later flooded, there is also an implied time pressure. I don't have an exact time scale thought out for this, but it should be at least a few weeks, but probably less then a month. The idea here is the players need to find a way to escape in addition to keeping themselves alive and exploring the dangerous "drain". It's a classic overarching goal to their short term goals of survival and getting along with the workers above. You could probably shorten this down to a single session or two, but I like the idea of amassing a bunch of adventuring gear from scraps and trash; which is an element you lose if this is just the classic "party captured and has to escape with limited resources vibe"

The Drain
[1] The Hole
You're at the bottom of this. It's about as tight as a generic well, but opens up greatly near the bottom, where it broke into some natural underground area. Water trickles here constantly, but the sunlight and noise from the chain gang above keep most of the creatures at bay. Somehow smells worse then the deeper parts of the drain. While here and during the day make no wandering monster checks, at night, roll only a 1d4 on the wandering monsters table if you camp here.

The Hole has a tunnel that leads to two places, the tunnels at [2] and Cragger's Drog at [5], which is the reason exploration is so perilous.

[2] Mud Tunnels
Soft walls, damp, water is ankle high. Confusing mess of corridors that mostly lead to dead ends, except for the path to [3] & [4]. The first time you travel through this area, lose an exploration turn from navigation.

[3] The Descent
Steep rocky slope leading downwards. Slippery when wet; if you're encumbered and have a negative dexterity modifier, you will slip and fall back down, needing either a rope or less weight to make your way back up. Creatures from the deeper levels will not chase you past this point.

[4] The High Point
Circular chamber that's located somewhere in the cliffs and normal flat ground above the canal. The air here feels fresher and less heavy, indicated some air flow (it's coming in through the soil). Dwarves can easily tell this area is above the rest of the Drain in altitude. Only one way in and out, so it's probably the safest place to sleep.

[5] Cragger's Drop
The drain slopes down from the entrance to this point; there is a constant sound of crashing water. Hard but not impossible to safely climb down without tools. Two pickaxes and a strong arm (+1) Strength could get up and down pretty easily. If you have a negative Constitution modifier, the cold water will exhaust you too much to climb the rough edges.

The bottom of the drop is a bit of mostly safe and flat ground surrounding [6], with branching paths leading off to the other areas.

[6] Sharp & Pointy Pit
The place where all the metal weapons and tools flowed last time it rained heavy. Acts like a pit trap if you fall in (probably instant death), but you could lure a monster to fall in here instead. You can also search this place all you want, you won't find the wedding ring here. You can also dig out a sword (1d6) or spear (1d6) out of the crack if you spend an hour, have some rope, and have at least one character risk falling in to reach for it. 

There is also a precarious small sack hanging from the tip of an upturned spear, half ripped, just barely hanging on until it falls into the irretrievable abyss below. Mage Hand could pull it up but that's boring; make someone risk their life for the husk of a bread loaf (inedible) and 1d6 silver coins within.

If you throw the (cursed) talisman down this hole the man who gave you the tasked would be pleased and give you a reward; but over the next three nights you are plagued by nightmares and end up permanently cursed; feeling as though the deep longs for your destruction. (-1 to AC and Saving Throws whenever you're underground. Only people who directly voted for or had a hand in throwing the amulet down here end up cursed, and you could break the curse by retrieving it (lol) and putting it in the Deep Place [20] where it belongs.

[7] Trembler's Nest
Weird little bipedal, subterranean owls. They can only shake and huddle together in a corner for defense. Scrawny but can be consumed for food. Their legs and lower body are absolutely hideously scarred with tiny bite marks from their blood being drained over and over.

Their eggs are a dull green and vibrate worryingly when you hold them. If you throw them they explode like a grenade and deal 1d3 damage in an acidic yolk explosion. 1d6 Tremblers and 1d6 eggs can be found here. They aren't smart enough to leave if you come back, so you can find another egg every week or so if you don't eat them.

[8] Giant's Hand
There is a giant hand poking out of the wall lengthwise along this tunnel. You can squeeze past it easily as long as you aren't carrying something really big or have way too many weapons that might scratch it. No amount of noise will "wake" it up. However touching or attacking it will, causing it to lash out. It's stuck in the wall and can only attack by a big sweep (10 damage but spread evenly among all characters in the tunnel) or by grabbing and crushing someone it can feel (save and be grabbed, everyone has to attack it to let go, one round later it crushes dealing 2d6 unavoidable damage). It has 6 HD.

Also after killing the hand or if you dig the wall nearby you'll find it isn't actually attached to a giant and just kinda grew here attached to a wall with flesh colored webbing.

You can also totally chop up the hand if you have an axe and feed it to the Chain-Gangers but after one day they'll get sick and blame you for it (three bad days after).

[9] Moss Chamber
Large open space with shaggy moss that crunches like grass underneath. At exactly midnight, the Tremblers from [7] come here to forage for tiny worms and scrabbling cave-crabs. You could try harvesting the moss for something to burn or trade but it's too wet down here and would never dry properly. Underneath a shelf of discolored moss is a vein of fulminate, which you can extract. The moss acts as an excellent cushion to avoid flaming sparks from igniting the vein and also an excellent sound absorber for when you accidentally make it explode and kill everyone in the party.

An Elf or Druid could tell that the discolored moss must be growing on an unusual mineral. Otherwise you'd just have to investigate until you learn that's where it is.

[10] Blood Pool
Mysterious cave side chamber with a floor that funnels inwards to a pool of still blood. Along the outside edges are the desiccated corpses of several lanky owls, some worms, and a pixie. Vampires or weirdos could drink it and tell there is some human in it, but it's probably a mix of multiple. Actually where the blood drinking spiders lay their eggs. If you cause any ripples in the blood pool they hatch early in anticipation of their next meal.

Stat as a 2 HD Swarm (takes only 1 damage maximum from attacks, takes normal damage from AoE or fire). Deals 1d8 damage per round and always automatically hit without needing an attack roll (they crawl under your armor). The adult spiders are significantly less aggressive then this honestly, at least they wait until you're asleep.

[11] Roid Rat Feeding Ground
Weird rust-colored smears against a smooth rock floor. Little black turds indicate this is a place rats cross often from burrows and cracks in the walls. You could try to hunt these, but it's not worth it. There is a 1 in 3 chance any given hour 1d2 rats come out from their hiding places here.

Look like little albino kangaroo rats. They seem strangely docile, even when approached or after being caught in a trap. The moment they are cornered or handled however, they freak out, turn red, and triple in size. Like a goblin but with Strength modifier of +3. Attack by stomping your toes into paste; if you try to grab one it's thrashing can break your fingers. 1+1 HD creature with decent mobility since they jump around (eye level height). They always fight to death, and the meat is especially gamey and shitty like they burnt out everything they had just to spite you in their rage.

[12] Mysterious Tunnels
Winding upward tunnels carved into the stone, too smooth for tools. Could be a giant worm, but feels too intentional. Just big enough for a man to crawl through on hands and knees, half movement speed. Sharp rocks scraps your hands and knees unless if you have good quality clothes or leather straps to protect yourselves with (deals 1 nonlethal damage for a full journey up).

Follow the tunnels is painstakingly slow and takes at least two hours to crawl up them, but when you do you'll find a secret passage to [2]. It's significantly slower then taking the other path down, but large creatures certainly could not follow you up.

[13] Clutch Roots
Roots from some mysterious plant far above poke through the roof here. If touched directly (any character with a big hat or anyone really tall), the roots suddenly extend downward and try to wrap around and squeeze whatever touched them, needing an axe to be cut free. Using any improvised tool will dull it or have other roots grab it as well just to make things worse. As long as only one person gets trapped at a time, it's manageable.

Roots chopped down still retain the ability to squeeze but less aggressively. If fed with water they could be kept alive longer and made more docile; clever parties could wrap a fighter in these for some decent armor (as chainmail, but inflexible so treat your Dex as -1 while wearing). They only live for a week with constant watering, but if brought into the sunlight they sprout new small shoots and become living armor you can keep for as long as you want, immune to rust monsters, and grows back any damage it sustains. If the character wearing the armor dies from Dragonbreath or a Fire Spell however then the armor dies for good.

If you hold up a torch or lantern to look above at the roots and get a better look, you'll see the ceiling sparkle. There is a vein of gold from the rock the roots hang down from. Fire would work but the smoke would fill up this and surrounding chambers and be lethal.

[14] Mimic
Small side chamber which has a totally normal, clean treasure chest sitting in the corner. It's not dirty or rotten from the moisture at all. It is obviously a mimic. There are bones next to it for fucks sake. Stats as mimic. If you kill the mimic, you'll find a very traumatized monkey inside clutching a silver key belonging to the foreman above. (It opens the Chain-Gang's chains).

Also if you avoid the mimic entirely or come back here after dealing with it you'll notice a single mushroom leading you to the mushroom patch [15] in case you missed it. The mushroom is random and if plucked gives one dose, roll 1d6 on the Mushroom table below.

[15] Mushroom Patch
Cute little mushroom patch in the corner of this cavern, fed by a trickling of stalactites above. There seems to be a small glow around the shrooms even though none of them seem to be enchanting; it's actually the water that seems very lightly magical. There is enough mushrooms of each kind for a group (party sized) of people to be able to use them.

These are the Mushrooms you can find in the patch and their effects (Roll 1d6 for random)

1. White with Yellow Spots- Constipation for one day, then painful excretion.
2. All White- Edible and quite good (enough for 6-8 rations but don't grow back if they're all plucked)
3. White with Red Spots- Poison. Can be smeared on a weapon to deal +1 damage for a day, if eaten deals 1d6 damage instead.
4. Black with Red Spots- No noticeable effects. Vampires think you taste funny.
5. All Black- Giga Poison, but thankfully taste horrendous (you can't stomach eating one, but would be lethal if you did)
6. Black with Yellow Spots- Gets you high. As long as one party member remains sober, they can keep everyone in line. If everyone in the party tries one, you all black out in bliss and then wake up in a random place in the Drain (roll 1d20). There's one really small and brightly colored one hiding among the stalks, which only the party member most likely to want to stay sober will see.
   

Also, a Pixie lives here, making a living off some ambient dumb fae magic. There's a little house you can only see if you have Mage Sight (or are a Gnome). If you knock on the door and are polite the pixie will come out and ask you if you've seen its mother/daughter/significant other/whatever relationships pixies have. If you confirm the dead Pixie in the blood pool spider nest [10] then the Pixie here will be sad but will offer to enchant a weapon (+1) or a party member (+1 max HP). That's about the limit of her powers unfortunately.

[16] Tar Pits
Most of this chamber is dominated by large sloped pits with bubbling tar from deep beneath the earth. Anyone who is thrown into one will almost certainly get sucked in and drown. The air here smells terrible. You could use the tar as a glue or throw in trash to get rid of it but that about is the limit of its usefulness.

Halfway slid down a tar pit; you'll find a small, humble silver wedding ring here. If you touch the tar trying to grab the ring directly it will take a turn for someone to pull you out and a lot of cussing and noise (random encounter roll). If you fail any roll associated with getting the ring, it slides into the tar and is lost forever.

[17] Carved Dinosaur Skull
Huge open-mouth dinosaur skull acts as a cool entrance to the remaining areas [18], [19], and [20]. If you strike the cracked tooth with a blunt weapon the skull will snap shut blocked off access to the deepest areas (or trapping you inside). Digging around the skull would be almost as hard as trying to chip your way through it.

If a Necromancer or sufficiently skilled Magic-User inspects the carvings they can learn a random 1st or 2nd level Necromancy spell. If you use a different magic system, +1 to Dinosaur spells or whatever.

[18] Sad Little Corner
There's a sad little dead body in the corner of a stone chamber, desiccated to bones and tatters. Just looking at it makes you feel sad. If you get close, you must make a morale check or start openly weeping, which gives you -2 to your attack rolls if you get into a fight right after this. Somebody has to succeed a morale check to inspect or move the body. The body contains a small silver blade carved with a moon crest; increase your damage with offensive spells by +1.

If you pick up the body and give it a proper burial somewhere nice (The Moss Chamber or the Mushroom Patch), you'll put the spirit to rest. All Wandering Encounter rolls of 1 are treated as safe instead. If you dispose of the body somewhere shitty like the tar pits or loot it without a burial you'll enrage the spirit instead.

[19] Rubble Ditch
Shallow incline that leads to a wall completely caved in and filled with rubble. Nearby on flat stone ground are the signs of weapons being sharpened, some casually tossed aside bones, and some smashed gambling dice after a losing game. All sure signs of Orcs. They seem to be gone now; back to the subterranean kingdoms from whence they came when there was nothing to plunder and no reason to guard this hole when a cave-in would suffice.

[20] The Black Altar
At the deepest point in the Drain is a black altar coated with slime and moss, hanging from the sides, black tar seeping in from the ceiling in slow droplets, black water bubbles around its base. All light sources are dimmer and darker in this room; torches become candles and candles become matchsticks. If you took the amulet from the cultist Chain-Ganger, you can put it here to properly complete their request and please their Gods. If you are suffering from a Curse, you get an extra saving throw to break it.

You can also drink from the black water below the Altar to pledge yourself to the Ones Beneath. From then on, you will feel a calling to the dark places of the world, and feel uncomfortable in the sunlight. If you choose to follow these new Gods and their whisperings you could unlock new powers stemming from the dark and cthonic, but your alignment shifts towards Chaos. Pledging yourself to these Gods allows you to drink this water as a healing tonic like a health potion. For Clerics of existing Gods or lawful character; this water burns their skin like Unholy Water. The bubbling water loses all special properties when taken above ground.

If you disrespect or desecrate this altar in some way, you will anger the Ones Beneath. Add +1 to all wandering encounter rolls while you remain in the Drain.

Wandering Encounters (Roll 1d6)
[1] Crying Ghost Girl (1 HD, +4 AC, Ethereal, Undead)
Doesn't attack and has no morale. You see the girl as a translucent blue-colored specter holding her face in her hands floating along, quietly sobbing. It's a ghost so she can't be hurt by normal weapons. Anyone who hears the ghost directly feels sad, and receives a negative -1 to their next Saving Throw or until they are cheered up. Any Turn Undead action causes her to disappear.

If you anger the spirit of the girl, the ghost will instead appear with a red color and the spirit attacks with tears streaming down its face. It gains +1 HD and deals 1d8+1 damage with her incorporeal hands, which cause lacerations to appear on your flesh as if from nothing. She will also give off a banshee scream once per time she is encountered where all your party members are stunned for one round and have to make another Wandering Monster encounter roll to see what the noise brought.

[2] Blood Drinking Spiders (1 HD, +2 AC, Bloodsucking attack 1d4+1)
Morale: 8
Number Appearing: 2d4+1

The adult version of the Blood Drinking Spiders, about as big as a housecat. They aren't especially aggressive, especially after feeding. After making a successful attack, the individual spider makes a morale check to run away and go spit the blood up in their blood pool spawning nest at [10]. The spiders heal 1 hit point each time they successfully drink blood from someone. They aren't very smart and will bite straight into metal shin guards or boots if you have them, causing their mouthparts to break and making them totally harmless.

[3] Roid Rat (1+1 HD, +2 AC, Stomp Attack 1d6 damage)
Morale: 7 or Fight Until Death
Number Appearing: 1d2

Strangely calm and docile albino cave dwelling rat. Doesn't have any interest in fighting and will run away if you make loud noise, but corner one or grab one and prepare for it to roid out and attack. Described in more detail at [11].

[4] Long Man (3 HD, +2 AC, Stomp Attack 1d6+1, Bite Attack 1d10+1 casts Web when at half HP)
Morale: 14
Number Appearing: Just one

Looks like a pale creepily elongated human man with no genitals. You get the feeling its something nameless and promethean. It doesn't bleed, and instead has some strange skin-colored goo inside of its body that leaks out in sticky strands. When it takes enough damage this spurts out over everyone close enough covering them in it and slowing their movement. Prefers to attack with legs that are as long as you are tall even though it has to unnaturally crouch down in these tunnels given its too tall for them.

It can also unhinge its jaw and open its mouth very wide to bite with big flat teeth; but it only does this against someone totally immobilized by its Webbing or something trying to grapple it up close. The first one of these you encounter will be missing a hand.

[5] Giant Mud Wasp (2 HD, +6 AC, Stinger Attack 1d6+1, Mild Poison causes nausea, calls reinforcements)
Morale: 16
Number Appearing: 1d2 and then way more

They can't see you and get disadvantage to attack you if you're covered in a good amount of mud or tar, but seriously, don't fight these. Won't chase you down since they're too busy scrapping in the mud to build a nest or whatever it is they do.

[6] Chain-Ghoul (2+1 HD, +4 AC, Chain whip attack 1d4+1, Chain wrapped claws at 1d6, Undead)
Morale: N/A
Number Appearing: 1d4

Body of a Chain-Ganger executed or fallen into the well and left to rot. Their corpse is puppeted by animated chains they are still bound by; they move around like Doctor Octopus from Spiderman. They attack with broken bits of chain and smack you with their claws that are wrapped in chains for more impact and are fierce. If multiple Chain-Ghouls are encountered at once, they are encountered chained together, and get slower for each one felled as the others have to drag its corpse around.

While I don't use Ghoul to mean D&Dism Ghoul Ghouls if you insist on giving them the D&D Ghoul paralysis thing then make it wrap people hit by it in chains if they fail the save instead since it's cooler.

If you spend a combat round unlocking their manacle using the Foreman's silver key [14] the ghouls instantly go limp and cease their undeath as their spirits are free. This roll requires you to either keep the ghouls still for one round, or have someone use a Slight-Of-Hand or Rogue skill to actually get the key in there.

[7] Dark Dwellers (5 HD, +4 AC, +2 To-Hit, 2d6 tentacle attack which entangle on any roll of 6, corrosive blood returns 1d2 damage blunt weapon attacks, pass thru matter, light sensitivity)
Morale: 17
Number Appearing: 2d4

Hulking and misshapen black figures from the unnamed places beneath the earth. Seem to be made of black tar and shadow. Attack with tentacles that spawn from random places on their body making their attacks difficult to deflect or dodge. When hit with blunt weapons or fists the struck body part bubbles up and then pops, releasing bubbling black water that burns (identical to [20]) your skin from its heat and corrosive shadow. Whenever their tentacles deal a maximum damage roll on either die, they entangle them in some tentacles. If one die rolls 6, they are partially entangled and can't move but can still fight back, if both roll a 6, they are totally entangled and can't do anything unless cut free.

The Dark Dwellers are agents of the Ones Beneath and have no interest in feeding or killing the party members for sport. Instead, they will attempt to kill whoever desecrated the sacred altar, or those aligned with the forces of the Sky or Light (Clerics of Sky Gods are hated almost as much as those who desecrate the altar). They're clever and won't fight endlessly; instead trying to wrap the offender up in their tentacles and then sink into the floor with them in tow never to be heard from again.

While extremely strong, the Dark Dwellers are weak to light. Torches and lanterns cause them to flinch back and attack at -2 to whoever holds them. Anything that produces light (glowing sword, firefly lantern, torch, etc.) deals damage either equal to a 1d6 sword OR deals +1 bonus damage, whichever is stronger. Intended to be a party wipe unless you have some amazing light sources (like a Light spell, or Flare, or a flask of sunlight or something) to even the odds.

Possible Outcomes
Because there is no direct end goal the main driving force for the party will be to find a way to escape the drain while playing nice with their unreliable and unhelpful superiors in the form of the chain-gangers, who are in turn enslaved by someone above them.

Possible methods to escape the Drain as written here are;

• Do enough favors to be lifted out of the hole by the Chain-Gang (only works for small characters; maybe the pixie can shrink you?) You'd still have to escape the ditch and guards afterwards
  
• Intentionally cause a cave-in which could open a way out onto the surface. Obviously, this has its own risks. I like to imagine monster hunters and the guards will come out to any open sink holes to make sure nothing crawled out to stalk the King's woods; would include outlaws like you or maybe they assume you're escaped Chain-Gangers.
  
• Survive in the drain long enough for the work to be completed and the water let into the canal. If this happens you'll be swept away into the great below and die unless you set up camp in the high point [4]. It will take at least a few days for the water to settle, and then you can swim up out of the hole if you can hold your breath long enough and remember the way. There won't be any guards waiting for you because nobody is expecting a bunch of outlaws to surface in a giant farming irrigation canal.
• Break open the rock wall at [19] and enter the Underdark. Not technically escaping to the surface but you're bound to find another way back up eventually. This would either take explosives (the fulminate) or several days of hard labor. You'd still need to supply this work with food from the Chain-Gangers and new tools. Assume 1d2 tools break per day while digging through the stone, everyone working on it needs double rations, and it takes ~250 man hours to complete (three strong men working twelve hours a day a week could clear it, add an extra hour of work completed per strength modifier or if you have extra tools)
  
• Align yourself with the Ones Beneath. While this would help you survive or do do other tasks or missions, I imagine having enough favor with them or one night before the whole cave floods you get a premonition that you can safely enter the tar pits at [16] to be sucked away to some other subterranean realm or the Underdark. If you haven't pledged your soul to the Ones Beneath and are just tagging along to the party then make a save or die. I think the idea of one party member being the chosen mud messiah only for half of party to die when they try their stupid plan to trust the dark gods who hate the sun.
  

Note: Only after writing this did I realize that I wrote a similar set up for the Massacre at Slave Creek which featured similar factions. I actually think this works out better because this adventure almost perfectly fits into the next if the Chain-Gang manages to escape or rise up against their captors, or if the players exacerbating the tensions so badly the guards begin a massacre to kick off those events.

Alien Biomass Severity Warning System

You ever have a dream where you get so mad at the sheer incompetence or stupidity on display that you halfway wake up and think about ways to fix it? I just had that.

I was dreaming that a new unidentified bunch of goop that clung to the ground appeared at a coastal city. It was pink to skin colored, and was thought to be alien, appearing along the beach and ocean-front caves. The news made a big deal about how they don't know how it spreads, if it's dangerous, or what it feeds on, when there was a VERY OBVIOUS shadowy indentations just underneath the biomass that were human shaped. I took the picture off the website and opened it in mspaint or photoshop and outlined the shadowy bits that poked out from the smooth biomass floor, and very obviously got human silhouettes, the dark spots where the nose or elbows poke out from people stuck in various poses underneath the carpet of alien flesh, very obviously being fed upon.

I was so outraged by sheer incompetence of the media for not noticing something this obvious that I halfway woke up, thinking about how to better spread the information or give an early warning system for a rapidly spreading alien biomass across the surface of the planet. I had a very simple solution; we'll go with the types of media we already know. As such, this is a 3 step warning system; the alien biomass is defined by whichever it is most similar to; Blob, Creep, or The Thing.

3) Blob
If the biomass falls under blob rules, then it can open up or is heavily acidic, meaning anyone who touches it can be broken down or melted into its mass. This is the least dangerous of the three despite still being incredibly dangerous. In this case, simple containment measures like extreme heat or cold, fire, chemicals, or whatever else could be used to try and keep it contained.

2) Creep
Like Starcraft's Zerg creep, the goop hive stuff Xenomorphs use from aliens, or that one SCP, this biomass version is living tissue that supports other structures or alien encouragement. This one could still open up or absorb people who touch it, but it's differentiated because now it can also support other structures or creatures; such as spawning tentacles to attack low flying aircraft or creating short lived creatures who can expand its influence or go capture humans to add to its biomass collective. It may also be a part of a natural alien ecosystem or be a tool for terraformation, causing more damage to the natural world in addition to just eating everything it touches.

1) The Thing
Obviously, if we're going by the Thing Rules, then this is the worst and most dangerous one. Thing rules are similar to Creep biomass, able to create new living things or morph itself, but with the addition of being universal across all living things and is able to create its own life forms or split into pieces that are long lived and not reliant on the creep's biomass to sustain its life functions. If the alien biomass follows Thing rules, then all bets are off. It might be able to take over biological things it touches, copy life forms, roll up into a ball and become a giant monster, split its pieces apart, etc. Obviously if this was actually unleashed anywhere on Earth it is highly likely it would just destroy the whole world and assimilate anything without anyone able to do anything anyway, which is why it's the highest on the warning system, you're totally fucked on this level, but at least you have something a little more accurate.

Tony Hawk should have been the last Smash-Pass Fighter and your KNOW I'm right

Alright we got Sora, which is like fine or whatever, but I feel like we had a big missed opportunity in Smash Ultimate. With the final roster all set in stone years ago; there isn't much to add or complain about. After all, it's unlikely a new Smash game is coming out any time soon and even if it does it likely won't have every character. Ultimate was the last hurrah, and the last time we experienced Sakurai time; the endless speculation and fan arguing. Smash was a once in a life time event, and it was fun while it lasted, but it's sadly time to move on.

But something I've thought about over the last few years? The final Smash Fighter really should have been Tony Hawk. No I'm not kidding. Really think about it for a minute.

Now of course, it's important to remember this is all pie in the sky stuff. Anyone can wish for any fighter for Smash, since it's a crossover game. But Smash fighters tend to have a few restrictions or areas of impact. So typically the game has to be at least somewhat famous, representative of a genre or series, or add to unique and interesting gameplay.

While being primarily based on Nintendo IPs, Smash is kind of meant to be a museum of gaming as a whole, at least in the time when it was created. You have the entire indie and PC gaming scene represented with Minecraft Steve, you have JRPGs like Square's FF and Dragonquest representation, you have casual gamers represented, and then you have crowd pleasers and fan favorites like Banjo and K Rool. But you know what Smash really doesn't have representation for? Sports Games. Sports games represent an absolutely massive portion of the gaming market. But just making a generic "football man" or something doesn't work, it needs to be a real person, even if it's one of Smash's rules not to include those. Besides; what of the gameplay implications? With Steve Smash proved they can take even the most boring and basic characters and give them a fun and interesting moveset; but how would you do that for a Sports character? Wii-Fit is kind of the closest, but I view that as a different genre, more of the casual gamer or "game as application" type then a Sports game. 

Tony Hawk straddles this line between Sports but also arcadey and action-oriented the best. You can instantly see his moveset potential. Using different tricks to slide around the stage, grinding on edges and hitting opponents with sick kickflips and the Superman. You could even see him having a unique mechanic like a combo meter that builds up and multiplies his damage the longer he goes without falling down or getting hit, stringing together multiple hits and good movement for insane damage potential.

Of course, practical concerns make this less likely. Activision apparently put Tony's name into insane licensing hell, hence the 'Tony Hawk's existential nightmare" meme. But if we're handwaving that concern, then what about the music? The Tony Hawk games are some of the most iconic music of the era, alt-rock, punk, grunge, and various other genres that make up that comfy 90s and 00s rebellious nostalgia. Just imagine beating people up in Smash Bros to Superman or Bus Driver's Imaginary Places. It doesn't really fit other music tracks in the game, which are strictly video gamey or more orchestral.

As for the Stage? It's gotta be New Jersey. You've got stage hazards with toxic dumps, halfpipes in drained swimming pools, and more. Maybe it could be a transforming map, with you switching between the New Jersey slums, to the inside of the Warehouse, to a professional skate park with lights and everything to fit the narrative of Tony Hawk's Underground, which is more what this representation is based on, though the entire series is rife with alt-colors and costumes for Tony Hawk as a character.

We could see the other skaters from around that time and the various stars of Jackass, another massive well of nostalgia for Smash fans, as alt-colors. Or just outfits inspired by them, similar to how other Smash Fighters have alts meant to show off other characters even if they can't have them in the game directly.

Finally; I want to talk about the WTF factor. Yeah, Tony would be a WTF pick, and I think one of Smash's rules is "no real world people" in the first place, but I think if we ignored that for this concept it would be the perfect capstone for Smash. Representing Sports games, bridging the gap to the real world, and finally being UNEXPECTED. One of my favorite Fighters that came with Smash ultimate was Piranha Plant, because nobody expected it. It's clear that things you don't expect are a huge part of Smash hype and the culture that came with the game, even if those days are long since passed. It's just a fantasy, but I love the idea. Maybe just because I hate Kingdom Hearts beyond belief. Anyway, Merry Christmas.

Everybody's Halflings

Just think about it logically

The name "Halfling" raises some confusion. For most, the simple fact that Haflings are about half as tall as a human is enough, but is there some other meaning? In truth, Halflings are not their own race, nor are they a phenomena unique to humans. Halflings are basically, half people. It's fantasy dwarfism; having nothing to do with actual real life little people, of course. But in this case; they are "half" a person.

Scholars disagree what this means exactly. They have a soul, a physical body, and a mind- mostly capable of beings of any given race; but they aren't "all there". They tend to see things a bit simpler- more like children. They're a bundle of simple stereotypes and drives- based on the race that spawned them. The reason Halflings are so laid back, love to live in rolling green farms, smoke weed and drink ale all day while the rest of the world passes them by is because they are only halfway to humans- the great longing to find the secrets of the universe, the search for passion and meaning- absent. Only the bare minimum of cultures. Wholesome, fulfilling, but simple.

But why do only humans seem to have these "Halflings" associated with them? Well, that's not actually true. Every race does.

Elves have halflings, they are called Gnomes.

Orcs have Goblins.

Dragonborn halflings are Kobolds. You may ask where dragons fit into this, and that's simple, dragonborn are actually Halflings of them. So Kobolds are half of a half, which is why are objectively not people and it's okay to break into their warrens and kill them for their shiny stuff.

Dwarves don't have halflings because dwarves are already halflings. Think about it; they basically act as stereotypes already, only caring about beer, mining, and forging with silly accents? Dwarves are the Halflings of the ancient great progenitor race of Giants, who once forged weapons for the Gods; now made silly and gold obsessed with cave-driven evolutionary adaptation. Also explains why they don't have darkvision; Giants live on the surface.

Sometimes the process works in reverse, at least in terms of size. The Halflings of Hyenas are actually Gnolls, which sounds weird until you consider how stupid and one-note Gnolls tend to be compared to the advanced social systems of hyena packs. Just look at the success rate of hyenas; they clearly have more going on upstairs then a fucking gnoll.

Drow have halflings too, and those are those weird little dark imp looking darkling creepy crawly gollum looking things you see sometimes in media but doesn't really have a specific overarching name but are totally common enough to be a fantasy race.

Ents have dryads. (Or those could be Halflings of trees?)

And those little magical pixie/fairy type creatures you can catch in jars and are generally helpful and nice? Those are the Halflings of the True Fae. The "halfing" aspect of them shaved off all of the extremely dangerous subtly and depth to what the Fae are like. They just give gifts and helpful little spells instead of actually ruining your whole family line while "helping" you with a problem.

What about Ogres? They tend to be pretty humanoid, just bigger. Are they doublelings? No, they're halflings too. Just of something way bigger and way, way worse.