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.

Eggeater's Shrine

Deep within the Jungle, there is a hidden place. Outsiders cannot find it, as it is hidden with a spell. Even to this day, uncountable years after it was long abandoned, it is still protected.

If you go looking for the Shrine in the jungle, you only have a 1 in 20 chance to find the Shrine each day spent exploring. However, you may increase this chance by +1 in 20 for each of the following events;

• Fight / Follow Snakes encountered in the jungle as per random encounter
• Spend a day looking for the Shrine in the jungle
• You are carrying the eggs of an intelligent creature; the Eggeater calls to them
• For each piece of literature or warning about the Cult you find that once worshiped here.

The Shrine itself is a circular ditch of dirt in the jungle floor. Despite how obvious it should be, especially from the air, the enchantment hides it- you can only reach the shrine through two tall, ancient trees with vines passing between them. Crossing under this archway, now you can reach the shrine. Once someone has visited the shrine at least once, they may find it again as if it was any other location.

Food and offerings for the giant snake are left out here on the dirt circle, with stomping the feet or playing the drums being traditional ways to wake up the great serpent for his next meal.

At the end of the small clearing is a black pit in the earth with a sloped floor. You can follow it down to go into a small dungeon made of dirt and loose stone pressed into the walls; the lair of the godling and its worshipers.

Rooms
[1] The Place for Wine
[2] Burrowers Room
[3] Dim Barracks
[4] Embalming Workshop
[5] Gem Chamber

Snake Stealth Mechanics
The big snake that lives in this dungeon has its own mechanics. It is a very heavy sleeper, but will wake up the same as any normal, mortal creature that dares to disturb it. The snake is used to small creatures clamoring over it- but it can sense if someone is doing something dangerous for it (like poison it) or digging through the pit at the back of the gem chamber. Any kobold, goblin, gnome, or halfling party member could climb over the snake- but the passage is too small to allow anyone larger back behind the creature.

If you make noise in a fight in the central hall (the place for wine), touch the snake, shout, or dig in the gem chamber- the snake will stir. When the snake is stirring, you must make a stealth check to move or do anything other then stand very still and quietly. After one exploration turn, the snake will fall back into its deep slumber and you are safe again. If two things that disturb the snake are happening at once, it will wake up. This means it is impossible to yell back to someone in the Gem Chamber if they start digging in the pit- at least without waking up the snake.

If Eggeater has just had a meal of a few adventurers or consumed an offering- it now takes two actions to stir the snake from deep sleep to stirring- meaning three total before it wakes. Whenever the snake is awoken, it investigates one source of noise or disturbance at random.

The Great Temple of Mozz

Standing over the enchanted fields and farrows, the great Temple of Mozz once was the crowning achievement of the last great people. The Mozz were bird men, with the powers of flight, who lived and worshiped closely with their powerful pantheon of Gods. All who saw the temple once were struck by its splendor, and the bird-men of Mozz showed it off to all beings of the earth, as a sign and symbol of their great strength. Now, it still stands, but in decay and ruin. The land surrounding it, once the land of plenty for the bird men, is now uninhabited and desolate; except for the enchanted stream from the temple's own feet.

The temple towers over the land. It is more akin to a temple complex or even a small city standing upright. Long cut slits along its height allowed for both light and Mozz to fly to and from the temple; as a window and door are one in the same to the bird men. Now, they are possible points of entry, but also peril, to those who wish to plunder this ancient tomb.

Yet even though the oldest elves have only the most vague and ancient of memories of the people of Mozz; there are tales of their great wealth and riches still stored within that temple. These stories inspire young adventurers to make the dangerous journey into the badlands towards the place where nobody dares go; to plunder the riches of the ancient temple. Even on approach one could be killed; the issuing forth of baleful light which slays even the most brave of adventurers. It is this peril most of all that inspires those to seek it; as it is said to come from the most sacred treasure at the core of the Great Temple of Mozz...

Resupply in Dungeon = Player Skill

At the core of dungeon crawlers, once the fantasy veneer is stripped away, is resource management. While overly obvious and reductive statements like this aren't really interesting, I think it's important to underline some concepts here. Let's talk about resources.

Light
Light is probably the most common "resource" that is associated with dungeon crawlers, and also very critical. It is easy to imagine that loss of light and all light-granting resources would just mean a TPK situation. Light is also very hard to reduce. You could imagine going on half rations for food to let them last a bit longer, but you can't really burn half a torch for less light- many games don't even have partial or low-light rules beyond other "you can see" or "you can't see". Light is also a very off or on resource in the fact that many fantasy races don't need light to see in darkness- comparatively few mechanics have in-universe methods of granting permanent, unlimited access to it. Comparatively few fantasy races have the ability of things like; don't need food or don't need arrows to shoot a bow or don't need to conserve hit points, etc.

The concept of light as a resource is often broken down into what the players can bring- namely Torches, Oil, and spells. Stranger forms of light resources- such as a racial ability to create light once p. day or a friendly torchbug companion that can glow to light up a room for you and so on go beyond the scope of this list.

Torches could be thought of as anything burnable. Potentially anything long and straight could be made as a torch or primitive torch. Real torches (as real candles) have specific methods of production; you can't just burn the end of a branch to make an effective torch. But this is fantasyland and it will work in a pinch.

Oil is more complex. Is it whale oil, plant oil, or magical fantasy oil? The concept to restore oil out of the bodies of slain monsters is a good one. Also; burning oil could make different smells- so a tribe of hobgoblins wouldn't notice your whale-oil-lamp but when they smell their chieftan burning to light your lantern then they'll get pissed. Oil is also in my opinion one of the most likely things you'll actually find in a traditional dungeon; any mineshaft or deep underground cave could have an oil drum or barrel left by the excavators or previous adventuring groups.

Light making spells is magic, and as such little rules of reality apply. Anything that can restore magic, or power from a patron of light/holy magic, or connection to the surface world for a druid, etc. could be used to restore light from a light spell. Another idea; a magical/holy light spell that gets dimmer the longer it goes on, but can be refreshed by brutal blood sacrifice of sentient beings. Imagine sacrificing bat people to Quetzalcoatl so you can search for more of that Aztec gold.

Rations & Feed
Food is the easiest thing to resupply in the dungeon; just eat monsters. Mushrooms are also around. Dungeon Meshi ran with this entire concept; it's good.

Feeding animals, especially herbivores (cave donkey?) is a bit harder and would require some supernatural elements. I like the Dwarf Fortress method of cave moss being good enough for surface dwelling herbivores to consume and survive on. In some parts of subterranian caverns it grows like a thick blanket. In smooth stone dungeon and generic mining tunnels? Not a lot of food or water here.

Of course- this only applies to traditional dungeons. Hex or city-crawls are brimming with opportunities for food- from foraging to hunting. Personal take- high towers or "vertical" dungeons like mountains have water being common, but food is more scarce. Then again, dungeons or deep caves should have more water, just less clean water, so unsure on this one.

Ammunition
Obviously spells and ammunition (either for actual guns or arrows and bolts) are a big part of the resource management. You typically have to have more risk to use a sword up close, but swords don't run out. (Equipment is also a resource too though- that's later).

Resupplying ammunition in dungeons requires some creativity. Personally, I'd allow skilled characters (dwarves) to identify nitrates in caves or soils to be used to make shitty black powder, and probably even stuff a gun barrel with little gravel flakes as an improvised form of ranged attack. Arrows are more complex, but you can probably imagine making arrows out of mushroom wood + underground birds for plummage, with arrow heads being easily reused. Ammunition made in dungeons is probably of pretty poor quality- the main cost here is time. Realistically speaking, unless you're spending multiple days or weeks in a dungeon, it wouldn't be worth the effort to try and hunt down all the materials you'd need to make arrows.

Ammunition is very easily recouped from intelligent enemies however; both their camps and patrols (goblins have shitty arrows, orcs have crossbows, drow have good arrows, bug people have bombs, and so on). It is probably one of the easier resources to recover if you aren't in a naturalist dungeon (cave) or an undead dungeon where everything is old and rotting away. If there are no intelligent monsters in the cave that use humanoid weapons, then you're screwed.

I'm also a big fan of magic rods as a type of "ranged magic weapon" to replace infinite use cantrips. They shoot magic blasts and are essentially a reskinned bow or sling for magic users. If you go with the lore of them being topped with a gem to be used as a power source, then this is a really easy method of resupply- just put a gem you got as treasure on the rod and each shot drains a certain amount of its value as the gem loses luster and eventually turns into a pebble if its all expended.

Spells
Spells are a tricky one. With such a massive part of the game balance being based on resource management, and Magic-Users being so reliant on spells- which are essentially their methods to solve problems at the cost of being very limited.

In some games, spells can be regained through studying your spellbook after either eight hours of rest (possible but difficult in most adventure situations / dungeons), or by studying your spellbook again after casting your magic dice/spell points, or what not. Further games have secondary mechanics- risk reward of casting extra spells past your "safe" limit but at the chance of screwing everything up. However, these methods of gaining extra spells do not count from resupplying in a dungeon itself.

The power gained by spells (instant problem solutions) can be "resupplied" in dungeons through finding scrolls, magic wands, or other magical loot in a dungeon itself. Chopping off a fetish from a defeated kobold shaman and being able to use his remaining spell he had prepared before you killed him is a fun concept- as is having yet unknown and unidentified spells scribbled on walls or stored in little glass balls. The only clue on what it does is a few random words- is it safe or will it blow you up?

Side note: "Spells" in the form of instant use solutions, not necessarily related to combat, are also somewhat "resupplied" by needing less of them over time. For example, you don't need to use Levitate to reach a high platform once you tie a rope around it and can now climb it easily.

Health & Cures
Health is one of the most important aspects to resource management. It is the primary "resource" of martial/fighter-type classes, and important to every character. Dungeons can't give back too easily, or else one of the biggest pressures for getting in and out is removed. Many rulesets allow for short or long rests to recover some amount of health, or using limited use spells or abilities like lay on hands to recover HP.

Other ideas; friendly NPCs in the dungeon that will heal you in exchange for something else. Healing potions are an easy one. Healing fountains stuck in the dungeon make a nice static location where healing can be done; but there has to be a good reason why you can't just bottle the water or swim in it- maybe mutations if you use it more and more. If a dungeon is built or famous for a famous treasure, you restore +1d8 HP or "Grit" just for touching it like a pure morale boost. This helps since it will almost always be guarded by the most dangerous monster.

As for first aid and medicine- I've already written a whole post about it.

Also; the concept of certain stats or your level being damaged (level drain) could be tied under health. Typically, these aren't easily cured in a dungeon and are instead related to the overall campaign and bed rest. An extra rule, like laying a ghost's physical remains to rest cures you of its level drain, might be a nice way to allow players to resupply in exchange for doing something difficult and karmic in universe. Curses get an extra bit- Arnold likes curses that you can cure by doing shit- make the dungeon harder for yourself to remove a penalty.

Equipment
Dungeons contain traps and situations that consume equipment- prybars break eventually, wooden doorwedges are thrown away, and your swords are eaten by rust monsters. Recovering equipment in a dungeon is simple; stealing it from the monsters and corpses here- perhaps even your own fallen party members. More recent corpses probably have better equipment, and anything you steal from monsters will be of poor quality, trapped/cursed, or both.

Creating new equipment or doing advanced repairs to serious damage is probably out of the scope of the timeframe and skill of the characters in a dungeon; but characters of a specific race or class might be able to do so. I like dwarves or gnomes, or those of magical artificer classes, being able to repair anything related to their professions in one exploration turn of downtime. Metal plates may also be stolen from various environmental pieces to patch yourself up; the classic wooden barrel lid as a shield. Why does nobody just use the armor that the animated suits of armor puppet around after you break them apart? That shit is expensive. Snailpeople can just put themselves into a new shell if they manage to find one- that's a good reason for adventuring.

Manpower / Numbers
People will die or become lost/run away as you explore the dungeon. This applies to player characters to a lesser extent, but is mostly related to your hirelings and followers. Link and lantern boys, porters, thralls, whatever- all of them perform useful labor that isn't realistic for a small party of individuals to do; like tear down barricades or haul giant gold bricks out of a dungeon. Some treasure may become totally unable to be recovered if you don't have enough people to carry it, but group size is self mitigating; too many hands means not enough coins, and larger groups tend to use up more resources and attract more wandering monsters.

Groups of people also have other advantages; taking turns on watch, being able to carry each other, etc. It's similar to Kenshi; if enough people get downed in that game and you can't carry them away is when situations quickly spiral out of control- as long as you have enough healthy and strong people to support the knocked out ones, you can remain as mobile as possible.

Manpower is hard to recover in a dungeon on purpose; fresh meat is found back in town, at the tavern, but there are some methods. The classic of finding an imprisoned or lost person in a dungeon to act as a replacement PC could just as easily work for a retainer. I also like the idea of pressing a random goblin or other mook to join your party and do dangerous or demeaning tasks- though this comes with the explicit cost of knowing they will betray you at the first opportunity. More honorable creatures, like orcs, may offer to aid you as a group in exchange for performing a task for them first.

Of course, all of the examples above are for replacing dead or lost party members with new ones, not bringing back old ones. Health is already covered above and resurrection magic tends to be too high of power and scope for being "resupplied" in a dungeon. However I could see very dangerous dungeons having "soul fountains" where the last dying breath of a person (trapped in a bottle of course) can be brought and they will be reborn within a time limit. Or a really haunted place having the ghost of the dead PC being able to be brought back- but they'll need a new, living body. Have them possess a random animal or monster for funsies.

Time
The one thing you can't get back. Time is a "resource" that (probably) can't be recovered in a dungeon at all, but thankfully isn't a problem in every dungeon. In this case, it's less "time" and moreso a time constraint mechanic. Toxic spores that get more dangerous the longer you inhale them, a dungeon slowly sinking into the mud that will soon be submerged in 1d4+2 days, or needing to get someone or something out of the dungeon very soon, else a catastrophic event will happen.

However, "time" as a resource could be returned either with super high level magics (timewarping? Rope trick?) and relating it to the fiction. I could see a campaign where killing high level cultists slows (but does not stop) the return of an elder deity, so taking a detour to search every cultist hideout becomes a valuable way to recover your "time".

Surprise
While only a vaguely resource in a quantifiable sense, the element of surprise could be a significant resource to a party when first exploring a location. If a location is heavily guarded or has at least one intelligent faction there; every time the party fights or is spotted it will be more and more clear that adventurers are coming to plunder or mess up their plans. In that regard surprise becomes like a resource; traded in when you fail stealth rolls, and making future encounters more difficult as enemies prepare for you.

Surprise cannot be recovered once directly lost, but it can be mitigated. Killing guards who spot you before they raise the alarm, covering your tracks with branches in the mud, or waiting a long time before returning to the dungeon to let their guard back down are all valid ways of regaining or preventing loss of surprise.

Confidence
This resource is totally meta- player attitude. Confidence is something that is a direct resource that is expended while a dungeon is explored, but isn't on your character sheet. In a way, the desire to take risks and explore is a resource that is slowly used up as other resources are lost- optimal and safe become more important and socially enforced as the party's position becomes more precarious.

Confidence and time (real life time) is highest when you begin a session- which usually includes a return to the dungeon. From here, the knowledge, mapping, and accumulated player power from progression acts as a sort of boost for confidence, until new areas are explored. People can only go so far before a cautious retreat is in order; especially if loaded with treasure. Winning battles and finding more treasure regains confidence, but also increases risk. If your dungeon is properly large, players may not even explore the whole thing once the cost to risk ratio of remaining treasure and acquired treasure becomes too costly to keep exploring!

This isn't a bad thing though; players not exploring an entire dungeon leads to a mystery and a more "realistic" mindset that treasure hunters would really have; once they've got the hoard, it isn't worth the time and effort to go scrabble for the last few gold coins. The unique values of OSR play make resources especially important and lead to gameplay that isn't just a set up and resolve using the most optimal combat methods your players know; it means the ability to be further invested in the fantasy space- any way players can use their own intelligence and skill to let them stay in the dungeon longer is a direct continuation of that idea.

The Healing System

This is the healing system. It was created to make healing a more active, full featured part of the game. Some complexity is involved, but none of it is present in combat. This system was created from the ground up to facilitate rulings over rules- and to give my Sage class something to do. Sages were the logical, thematic replacement to the generic robe wearing magic user for people who don't like traditional magic in TTRPG.

The original draft of this system was first made here.

Taking Damage

Instead of counting down hit points, count up instead. Normally in a game, a Fighter with 20 Hit Points maximum is considered at maximum life and totally healthy at 20, barely scratched at 19, on death's door at 1, and dead/dying/rolls on death & dismemberment at 0. Instead, flip it. The Fighter with 20 HP maximum is considered right as rain at 0, barely scratched at 1, almost dead at 19, and dead at 20. Imagine Hit Points as the “points worth of hits” you can take before you die- similar to using wounds or a damage tracker. This makes more sense to me anyway- Life or Health is usually used for values that count down, hits and wounds count up instead.

Whenever you take damage from a hit, the Dungeon Master will tell you what type of damage it was. Write a letter or symbol by the wound you just took. If you're close to going over, add up your hit points and see if you're at your maximum or above- in which case, you die.

Addition is faster then subtraction, so combat is not slowed down. The only potential problem with this system is that somebody could make an error and not notice they went over their Hit Points- but unlike a subtracting HP total, an earlier mistake won't mess you up for several rounds in advance. I'd write each injury individually, which gives you a nice little history of your misadventures, but you could run several running totals for each damage type if you like. You can also keep a total Hit Point counter to save time and easily tell when the next hit kills you.

In many ways, this system actually speeds up combat. Now you can tell instantly what wounds are killing you. It also helps for special powers or abilities- the character who is resistant to bludgeoning damage just writes half the value down on their sheet, instead of doing subtraction twice. The werewolf can regenerate 1d6 hit points every round- except the silver wounds, which are now separate from their hit point total so you won't get confused.

Healing

In order to heal damage, you must spend an exploration turn taking a short rest. Characters can tend their own wounds or the wounds of other characters. In-combat healing is no longer a thing, except through magic items and spells, which was how it worked normally to begin with.

In order to heal someone, you must apply an item, remedy, a technique, use your healing hands, or some other method to cure their injuries. This ties into resource management. Sages get to heal people the most- as classes advance, they get to use more healing items per downtime turn to treat their bigger injuries (since they have more Hit Points); Sages get to spend additional items based on their level. Every healing item heals an amount of Hit Points based on its quality or effectiveness of the treatment.

Note: This healing system isn't literally realistic. Of course, in real life the only way for the body to heal is through its own natural process. However, this healing system is meant to evoke a sort of mythological and fantastical world where a bowl of chicken noodle soup can actually cure a cold. Injuries may still cause pain or be reopened in the context of the universe, but in the game rules they're considered gone and healed once the treatment is applied.

For example; a default clean linen bandage restores 1d6 Hit Points. Your character can wrap up any wounds that cause bleeding or are deep cuts- sharp wounds mostly. Sword cuts, animal bites, sawblade traps and so on. However, say your party has run out of bandages, or had to dip them in oil and use them as a torch to see in the dungeon. Instead, your character can cut up a piece of clothing or the old tapestries hanging on the walls and use them as a makeshift bandage instead. These bandages are improvised and only heal 1d4 Hit Points instead. You will erase the result of the roll from the appropriate category- any excess healing over the damage type is lost and has no effect on other damage types. This makes healing fast- you can just erase any wounds you've taken instead of having to add back up your Hit Point total again and again.

The purpose of this healing system is threefold- it adds complexity and resource management as well as providing a platform for player creativity. Even a very basic circumstance can be roleplayed and given more complexity. One character has several large quills sticking out of their body from an encounter with a Quill Giant. They want to use bandages to cure their wounds; but the DM stops them. “The quills are still stuck in your flesh- you will need to pull them out, painfully, one by one. This means it will take TWO turns to apply the bandages.” Now the player has to decide if its worth spending the extra time to cure their injury, or move on. Of course, another player could be playing a Sage, a healer, with a high dexterity score, tweezers, and multiple arms. The DM allows them to pull out all the quills in the same span of time as it takes to apply the bandages, as they would be fast enough to do it.

The third reason is to apply a setting and theme through your damage types, remedy items, and healing process- the basic game mechanics selling the fictional space.

Damage Types

Most people know some basic first aid. In the fantasy world where monster attacks and sword fights are more common, people have some basic idea on how to cure themselves. However, mysteries can be a great a call to adventure to any, and a Sage may go on a journey to learn how to cure the wasting sickness that befell their village. Not all of these damage types and remedies may be known to the players- they may be hidden knowledge or found in secret tomes recovered from dungeons.

Every basic healing item removes 1d6 hit points of damage of its type.

Sharp damage from blades, claws, and arrows are cured by bandages.

Blunt damage from clubs, fists, and falls are cured by splints or casts.

Energy damage from fire, lightning, or acid is cured by ointment.

Cold damage from exposure and cold spells is cured by warming yourself up.

Miasma (Gas) damage from toxic fumes, choking winds, and fungal spores- cured by breathing “fresh vapors” and aromatic drugs.

Poison damage from venomous creatures or eating poison food. Cured by using emetic drugs that induce vomiting. Yes, even injected venom from a snake bite.

Terror damage from ghosts. This isn't just “fear”, but mortal terror that turns your hair white and can stop your heart. Cured by pacifying drugs.

Wasting damage from the touch of a mummy or having your blood drained by something. Cured by eating a hearty meal.

As you can see, all the damage types use a different first letter to make them easy to differentiate. If you're playing online, you could use different colors instead- useful for Roll20. If you want more ideas or to hear rambling nonsense about possible medical items or improvised medicine- read here.

Extra – What about Health Potions?

All health potions are “Potions of Healing”- no minor or major or grand or whatever. They restore all your damage, instantly. You can't use other healing methods to heal in combat. This may be too strong- but if you make Potions of Healing rarer it would be have the same impact. You can also make health potions that heal specific types of damage, or an amount of damage, if you want to fiddle with rules more. Personally I like the idea of specific cures that can be used in combat- like a rubber-blood potion that seals up all your bleeding wounds, or a potion of liquid warmth which cures your cold damage and stuff. Doing individual amounts like traditional d8 healing potions or healing spells would mean that different damage types would have to have a sort of set order, or letting the players pick what they are healing. I feel like this works too- drink the potion to cure internal damages, pour on the skin to cure cuts and bruises, etc. So it's not a huge stretch to let a healing potion heal whatever damage types you want.

I also wrote this concept up in this alchemy ruleset- but I also like the idea of cheap or weaker health potions with a short shelf life- tonics. The idea if players can make or produce them on an adventure, to fit with the theme of being a magical healer, and to give magical healing for in-combat stuff, but they expire and can't be saved adventure to adventure to prevent the problem of stockpiling too many (or by contrast- never using them because they want to save them until later).

Dirt Simple Megadungeons

Do you lack the creativity, skill, time, or talent to create a Megadungeon? Do you want a dungeon crawling experience that is epic in scale but without all the hard work? Then this rule is for you.

Instead of writing or making a full mega dungeon, write up and create vague “zones” instead. The zone may be each floor of the dungeon, or different areas on each floor. Perhaps the first floor of a megadungeon is an underground cavern that leads into an ancient crypt. The cavern and the tomb would both be one “zone” of the megadungeon. You describe them in open terms, sights and smells, and accompanying random tables, but you don't draw every room and corridor.

Every exploration hour, the players roll a 1d6 on the table. They find;

[1] Random Encounter

[2] Faction HQ or Monster Lair

[3] Hazard (Trap, Precarious movement, or dungeon “puzzle”)

[4] Landmark (Safe zone, unusual architecture, interesting tidbit)

[5] Snapshot or “Cut Away” Dungeon

[6] Stairs/Next Zone Passage

The reason why “hours” are used here is to make megadungeons feel big. Every turn for you is an in-game hour of exploring many side passages, large caverns, going through several transitional areas and sparsely populated dungeon hallways and side rooms. You might say these areas are smoothing over a more boring part of dungeon gameplay; retracing your steps, dealing with straggling monster encounters, climbing up and down walls that are not inherently dangerous; that sort of thing all rolled into an hour-long unit of time.

This means that you're still getting basically one encounter per hour. You also lose one torch every roll of this dice, indicated you've explored quite a lot of dungeon by then.

The “Snapshot” or “Cut Away” Dungeon is essentially where your players get traditional dungeon crawling among this otherwise abstract system. This snapshot is something the DM prepares in advance for each major area or place in the megadungeon. Essentially, a small to medium scale dungeon with several rooms, corridors, and tactical exploration and placement. The idea here is to concentrate your quality of dungeon making into these areas, so that you can have the “feel” of a megadungeon, without having to draw every single hallway and room.

6 Ways to do Boulder Traps

[1] The Classic

In this scenario, the character(s) activate the rolling boulder to release when they get close enough to it that it will build up speed faster then they can run, such as down a long incline. The ball may also roll along a flat, level floor if it stars up in a chamber above the main hall, enough to give it the momentum it needs to crush people. At the end of its path it may be deposited in a secondary chamber or niche, waiting for a monster or magical thing to reset the trap.

[2] The Path

In this scenario, the boulder is large enough and wide enough to be set at the end of a hallway or long room which is difficult for people to traverse. Such as in the example picture; tight walkways that the ball can travel over in a straight line, but people will have to follow a long and winding path, meaning there is no way to escape this except by hanging on to a ledge and letting the boulder roll over your hands. Could also be fit in a room filled with mud and just a few thin rails that the boulder rolls on. Essentially- the boulder rolls faster then traverse the room.

[3] No way Back

This trap is set up to gather speed but not actually to crush the adventurers. Instead, there is a side passage or door the adventurers can easily escape through that has a small tunnel. The ball then goes over a ledge or through a secret wall and falls into a chamber where it stops. This blocks the way back, thus meaning that the adventurers cannot follow their own route back through the dungeon- this serves as a method to cut them off from the familiar paths they've taken before.

[4] Fake Safety

The boulder trap in this scenario starts rolling towards the group, but with some speed or luck you can get through a side passage to safety. This side passage should only be through a very thin wall or on the end of a ledge that is impossible to climb the other direction. The ball rolls past them, but as they catch their breath from running away the boulder will come back, either smashing through a false wall or coming down a long and seemingly unconnected corridor. Hopefully, the targets of this trap will be caught unaware as they try to catch their breath. Secondly, this second fake safety chamber could have doors or hallways leading off that just lead to brick walls or don't actually exist, being illusions or tricks of the light, thus keeping them stuck in this hallway. Essentially, this boulder gets two passes to try and crush the people who activated it.

[5] Trap Niche

This method is much more cruel then the above, and would probably make people upset if you used it in an actual game. The boulder is on a slope but with perception and speed you can get out of the way into a small niche or side passage. However this niche or side passage is always a dead end; with the floor having a false bottom or secret depression that is activated shortly after the trap is sprun. The boulder stops rolling in that hole and essentially just traps whoever went into the side passage behind the rock. This could be anything from wasting several turns to destroy the boulder or pry it loose, to having the person inside suffocate after several hours or even starve to death over many weeks. I also like the idea of this trap letting you only “escape” it if you essentially reset it; you have to push the rock back up in to place and avoid triggering it to move past, since even if you unblock the side passage the main passage would be blocked.

[6] Fake Boulder

Finally, this trap subverts the entire boulder trap. From a distance, the boulder appears as a round object that will roll towards you and crush you, but it is actually a large piece of worked stone. It may have a chain or weight that, when activated, slowly moves towards the players. It can't go far though because the chain it is connected to instead pulls a new trap in motion- the sliding of the floor or a bunch of spikes come out or some other trap is activated down the line where people will run to avoid the rolling boulder that they think is coming. This also acts as a plug for the hallway as nobody can squeeze past the boulder; the space behind it could be empty or simply require you to activate the trap and let the “boulder” fall down far enough you can step around it to go past it.

[Bonus] The classic boulder trap is sometimes said to be flawed due to the ability to dive into a the corner of a square hallway in order to escape it. I do think this could be a legitimate tactic depending on the size of the hallway, but one way to fix it would be to have raised corners or filled in tracts running alongside the main path. You could even set this up to be secreative; have the corner space of the hallway near the floor filled with dirt, slanted edges to act as “drains” or pipes from further on down in the dungeon so pesky adventurers can't escape a crushing boulder.

Labyrinth Library

Floating Obscurer (3)

 Labyrinth Library

For OSR Adventures

Roll 1d20

Wrath is a special mechanic in the Labyrinth Library. Every time a party member damages or destroys a book OR gains Wrath as specified in each Encounter. The more Wrath the players gain, the darker and more dangerous the Library gets.

[1] Several books animate and fly from shelf to shelf, reorganizing themselves as needed. If you pick one of the books out of the air the party gains 1 Wrath.

[2] Cool Fountain sits in the middle of a small circular room of books. It is pure drinking water, but otherwise has no special properties.

<Wrath is 4 or Greater>

The Fountain is replaced with foul smelling green water. The water burns your tongue terribly and deals 1 point of Con damage if drunk.

[3] Book of Mouths. Magic book on a podium. The book is tied to the podium with a silver chain. Removing it from this chain will incur 1 Wrath. Each page has a mouth drawn upon it, which can come alive. Roll d6 for a random page;

1. Jolly Fat Woman's Mouth- Sings Opera. Loud enough to crack glass equipment or items, roll for random Encounter.
2. Beast's Mouth- Snarls and bites the reader, save or take 1d6 damage
3. Sorcerer's Mouth- The Sorcerer Mouth casts 'Charm Person' on whoever opens the book to this page, trying to get them to remove the book from the podium.
4. Snake's Mouth. Sounds like hissing to everyone in the party except the most dishonest. The snake mouth tells them about [4], but asks them not to share.
5. Baby Mouth. Laughs, party feels oddly relieved. Removes -1 Wrath.
6. Stitched up mouth. Depending on Wrath;
   (1 or less) Doesn't speak.
   (2-3) Makes dire prophecy
   (4 or more) Screams dealing 2d6 damage to party

[4] Ordinary looking bookshelf with a silver trim. There is a large red book on the shelf which has a hallowed out middle that holds a gold chain studded with rubies and sapphires. Worth 600 g.

[5] Leering faces peek out from between book shelves. The book shelves are pressed against the wall. While creepy they actually are quite talkative and will give the party directions.

<Wrath is 2 or Greater>

The faces will give directions but will always try to lead the party towards [6] or [7] either on the way to their destination or lying to claim it is their destination.

[6] Small Maze-like section of the library that seems eager to trap people within. It only takes 1 Turn to find your way back out of it, but trying to break through the white-paneled walls as a shortcut will gain the party +1 Wrath. No matter how many times the party smashes through the walls here they still only gain a single point of Wrath.

<Wrath is 2 or Greater>

Maze shifts its position and seems generally darker and more cluttered. Takes 1d4 turns to find yourself out.

<Wrath is 4 or Greater>
The maze has become bitch black and Dark creatures inhabit it. Roll 1d4 Darklings to attack every turn you are in this maze, takes 2d4 turns to find your way out.

Darklings (1HD, +1 AC, d6 shadow claws)

Darklings appear to have physical and solid shapes but defy any kind of description or sorting out. Light makes them recoil and if cornered somewhere they will simply die instead of being known. Light spells deal damage equal to caster level if used on the Darklings.

[7] Appears as a regular hallway but with a gigantic guillotine trap, that comes out between two shelves. The trap deals 1d8+1 damage; save vs traps/agility to avoid. Resets itself after 1 turn unless permanently disabled by a skilled person.

[8] Feasting Hall. Long table set in center of library, books piled to the sides to make room for past meals. Underneath the table about halfway down is a iron dagger bound with a strap to the underside of the great table. Within this dagger is a smaller golden dagger that can only be opened with a twisting motion. Worth 80 gold.

<3 Wrath or Greater>

Several friendly hobbits manage a nearby oven and offer meat pies to the player characters. The meat is very obviously rancid and possibly of human origin. If refused the Halflings will attack (stats as goblin, 1d6+1 Halflings)

[9] In the center of a small outlet in the Labyrinth lies the corpse of the old librarian. An elder human with a purple sash, ripped and torn by claws. On his body is a silver chain and 1d6x10 copper pieces in a burlap sack.

Looting his body does not incur Wrath, but burying him in the dirt outside the library or in [10] removes -1 Wrath from the party.

[10] Book-Trees. Floorboards of the library torn up to reveal dirt underneath, with large trees around the room. The trees are 'growing' books, with tiny unripened books being terribly misspelled and poorly paced penny dreadfuls, while fully ripe books fall off, revealing a random volume on matters such as philosophy, poetry, or natural sciences.

Any scholarly characters who examine the books and know of literature will notice that the books are not wholly original, but instead regrowth of ancient books once held within the library, as if growing to replace the damaged, destroyed and pilfered books of the library. Damage to the booktrees causes 1 immediate Wrath.

One tree has upon a branch a golden apple. You do not gain any Wrath for taking it, but it is high up.

<Wrath of 4 or more>

The book trees groan angrily at the party as they approach. If they don't leave immediately, the trees summon forth a random Encounter to attack.

[10] Spellbook Section. Several spellbooks lay behind a locked glass case. This can be opened either by the Minotaur Librarian or by conventional means. Smashing the glass also works, but incurs 1 Wrath.

The spellbooks within contain random 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd level spells, 1d6 of each level. Additionally there is a black book that contains 1d4 higher level spells, one of which includes Disintegrate or similar high level damage spell.

Included in this black book is instruction such the spell can be cast by using one lower spell slot category (and therefore cast by a less experienced magic user), but casting the spell this way deals 1 Constiution damage to the caster. This is not expressly told in the book.

<2 Wrath or Greater>

One of the books on the shelf is replaced with a Book Golem, which activates either when opened or removed from the shelf and ignored for a moment.

Book Golem (3 HD, +2 to Hit, 2 attacks, holds 2 paper swords; deals d4 damage, weak to fire)

The Book Golem unfolds from the book with the center of its chest being the opened book as sort of a breastplate. The paper that makes up its body is unnaturally thick and hard to injure, but it is as easy to light on fire as any book.

Killing or damaging the Golem does not incur any Wrath.

[11] Minotaur Librarian's Home. Large cottage built in some forgotten aisle of the library. Breaking into his house and/or stealing any of his things make him gain 2 Wrath, but ONLY for purposes of calculating his Wrath based abilities and mechanics.

The home is sparse but contains a few (1d6+1) engraved ivory drinking horns, worth 10 gold each. Additionally, the Minotaur's battle axe is here, which is a d10 great weapon.

[12] The Minotaur Librarian. He is browsing a random aisle of the library, nearly ignoring the party unless they make enough noise. He is scholarly, honorable and talkative and will discuss any books or academic subjects at length.

As long as the party does not anger him by breaking into his house, stealing his things or attacking him, and as long as they remain <4 Wrath points, he will be extremely helpful and even guide the players towards parts of the library or open locked doors for them.

He will not engage any of the monsters of the library and will instead pretend not to notice, refusing to comment on it if pressed.

<Wrath of 4 or Greater>
The Minotaur goes berserk and seeks to destroy the party. Add him to the wandering monster encounters from now on.

Minotaur Librarian (HD equal to number of party Wrath points. + to hit and AC equal to HD, d10 battleaxe damage once he retrieves it)

[13] Random desk that has a floating magic quill, writing on its own. Taking the quill or speaking in this area will anger the resident Whisperer Demon, who attacks the loudest person in the party.

The quill itself is magic and writes whatever is said to it, but anyone speaking overwrites the last thing it was told to write. It writes at normal writing speed and if broken ceases to work.

Whisperer Demon (1HD, +3 AC, invisible, d4 claw attack)

Nearly powerless demon that can only tempt people to sin by whispering things into their ears. Clerics get a +2 to turning attempts against this weak-willed demon.

Currently writing strongly-worded letters to the nearest king in an attempt to get him to cheat on his wife with the queen of the trolls. He can't find his way out of the dungeon and has messed up the letter so many times that he will attack anyone who breaks his concentration.

<Wrath of 4 or Greater>

The demon has become a much more powerful Tempter, gaining +1 HD and being able to cast Charm on party members.

[14] The Table of Contents. Large leather bound book on a stool. This book gives directions to the location of every single mundane and common book in the library. If the players have any subject in mind, they can follow the table of contents to find it and take it. This does not cover for 'rare' books or magic books, which are a separate category.

Additionally, if the table of contents is damaged or destroyed in the player's position, even by accident, 1 Wrath is gained.

[15] Fairytale escaped from a book. The area around the party shifts to reflect generic stories of knights and castles, talking animals, fairies, princesses and dragons, and so on. This still takes place in the Library, but books are stacked like castles, a gremlin is forced into a pink dress, etc.

The Fairytale will try to get the party members to play out a famous or silly tale that wastes 2d4 turns to play out fully, and will require at least one acting check (roll d20 + charisma bonus vs Fairytale health) to end.

Escaped Fairytale (3HD, can only deal d4 damage but can mess things up in other ways, noncorporeal- manipulates reality.)

You can end the Fairytale by either playing along or derailing the story so much and corrupting it that it gives up. Each time you do derail or mess up the story you deal 1d6+charisma bonus damage.

The Fairytale can summon a monster with 1HD once per turn and can move objects or items, as well as deal d4 damage from 'accidents' around you if you anger it.

<Wrath>

Add +1 to damage AND number of monsters it can summon at once per point of Wrath

[16] Gremlin-Stocker's hovel. Home of the gremlin book stockers, its just a nasty camp of old discarded metal and fabric.

The gremlins constantly hide and steal from each other, but always hide their valuables under their beds so they don't teach the other gremlins any new hiding places after they steal back stuff.

They have 2d10 copper coins and a golden key, one of which opens the Tome of Turmoil.

[17] Restricted Books, locked in a room behind an iron door. The keys to this case are only found on the Minotaur Librarian, and this is the one room he refuses to open for the party members. Sneaking in other ways is also possible. No matter how you enter this room the library rejects your presence here and you gain 1 Wrath.

Within this room are 2d6 tomes of great power but also treachery and darkness, each one of them is worth 1d6x100 gold if returned and sold on the open market. One of the book details the worst thing in the world, a monster so horrible that merely uttering its name will summon it. Another book teaches the exact secret and process of turning a necromancer into a lich.

The Tome of Turmoil is also in the room; locked with its own golden lock, and warns on the front cover to not open the book under any circumstances. (Check sub-table if opened)

[18] Pen Pals. Ghostly figures of people appear floating in and out of books, call to players to write about them.

Every line the player writes about the spirits, or giving the spirit a personality, appearance, or fictional life story and skills will make that part of the spirit's being from now on, and also drains 1d4 of a random stat from the writing player.

The spirits beg to be made more and more real by writing more and more. They promise to be helpful as well- following the players about and levitating their personal book. If denied too long they will wail and cause a random encounter.

The only way to destroy the spirits once written about is to either destroying their book (1 Wrath) or write the spirit's own personality or 'story' into a corner, which makes them cease to exist.

Additionally, if any party member dies before the book spirits are destroyed, or if a total of 20+ stat points are dumped into them, the spirits will combine into a real life person of random gender, race, age and class with some skills and traits in the written passages. Replacement PC

[19] Small wing of the library with extremely heavy and confusing books. Entire books are written in highly flowery and nonsensical script, often with ink-heavy childish doodles in the margins of the pages.

Each book is actually written with ink that is partially gold. Burning the books and sifting the ashes will find the gold in tiny flakes, or a chemical concoction made by an alchemist can congeal the ink into lumps of pure gold.

There are 20 volumes and each volume is worth about 5 gold coins worth in gold. Destroying the books inside the library will cause Wrath.

The only way for party members to identify the books as containing gold is to have some way to detect treasure, to learn about it in The History of the Library Labyrinthine (Restricted Book section) or to naturally deduce it from how the books are heavier then same sized books with regular ink.

[20] The Editor. Powerful Wizard who lives within the library, unable to leave due to predilection towards books and text. The Editor is insane and is looking for 'students' (Students of Iron) He is also known to cast permanent but minor transformation spells to the party's appearances or equipment if he thinks they are 'better that way', such as changing the fighter's fiery-red hair to become naturally blond, making the female characters bustier, straightening the old witch's crooked nose, etc.

Conjurer of the Pen Pals and seeking many of the unusual books in the library, as well as means to access the Restricted Section. Can also sense the party's Wrath level and will comment on it, warning them to leave if they reach 2-3 Wrath.

The Editor (3HD, varied stats, casts powerful spells, gains +1 to damage per party Wrath)

If threatened the Editor will typical transform into a paper dragon, which has +2 to hit and AC and has an 'ink' breath attack which sticks to everything and makes stealth impossible. Weak to fire. Can also turn into a bird or an ogre, casts Baleful Polymorph, turns people to stone etc.

Wandering Monsters

roll 1d6

(1) Ganglion Scholars (2HD, +2 AC, d6 claw damage or casts a hex that deals 1d4 damage to character Dexterity; causes swelling of joints)

Appearing; 1d4+1

Rail-thin creatures seemingly made of just bones and skin, with thick and hard lumps where their joints and hands are. Each one of them has a random number (1d4) eyes, that they use to read as many books at once.

They chatter among themselves about the latest news, poetry, and discoveries in the library in an unspeakable alien dialect. For this reason it is very easy to sneak up on them (+2 to sneaking)

<Wrath>
Each point of Wrath cause the ganglion scholars to deal +1 damage with claws and hex.

(2) Students of Iron (1 HD, +2 AC, +1 to hit, d6 rusted iron rods. Immune to transmutation spells, polymorphing, and paralysis)

Appearing; 2

Robed apprentices with faces that look covered in silver paint. Their face has actually been partially transformed into Iron, meaning they can no longer speak or express emotions.

They wordlessly gather books, materials, and fight a few other creatures of the library. As long as the players do not interfere, they are neutral, but they will attempt to take any MU characters spellbook or other books sought by the editor by force if they see it or overhear the party talking about it.

One of the students will have a golden face (+1 HD and AC) has the power to transform into a random magic creature. (25% of each; Werewolf, Succubus, Troll, Giant Bee)

<Wrath>
Each point of Wrath causes another student of Iron to appear. At 4 or Greater Wrath there will +1 additional golden faced students in each group.

(3) Floating Obscurer (2 HD, -2 AC, constant flight, has poison breath attack dealing d4 damage per round it is breathed in. Lasts 1 round)

Appearing; One

Fat, bulbous man with light green putrid skin. Wears a fluffy and feathery outfit that has lost almost all its color and shine due to age and decay. The man has has has eyes stitched shut, and seems to fumble around, but can see just fine even in dark places. It can often be seen rearranging books on the shelves while cackling to itself, messing them up. Also likes to punch any flying books out of the air, which flutter to the ground like injured birds. This is a sign one is near.

The Obscurer likes to throw books at the party and stay out of reach usually, but gets in close to use his breath attack since it dissipates so quickly. If injured will probably just fly over the shelves and retreat, laughing all the way.

<Wrath>

Each point of Wrath makes the Obscurer's gas last 1 round longer. At four or greater wrath, the Obscurer releases a cloud of his smoke on death.

(4) Stocker Gremlins (1 HD, stats as goblin but with d4 shivs and improvised weapons)

Appearing; 1d4

These Gremlins appear like small goblins or kobolds but furred. Surprisingly well kept, but very stupid. Cannot read, has a magical sense of where each book goes upon touching it.

The group of gremlins is tied via chain and collar to a large iron push-cart. They pick up books and return them to their proper place on the shelves, a job they despise. They do not attack party members unless insulted or if the party picks up any book in front of them and doesn't put it back; they can speak common (poorly) as well as snippets of other languages.

<Wrath>

Every Wrath causes the Gremlins to gain +1 HP and become more aggressive. At 4 or more Wrath, the gremlins have attached spikes to their cart and will try to ram it into anyone in their way.

(5) Book Worms (1HD, d6 bite, can burrow and curl up inside a book to avoid an attack)

Appearing; 1d6

White worms roughly the size of a cat. Some worms have tiny black markings on them that appear like words as camouflage, but the letters are just jumbled up gibberish. Tend to jump out of books that they use for nests and hiding places.

Killing the worms or their book nests does not count for gaining more Wrath, as the worms already ruined parts of the library.

<Wrath>

Add another 1d4 worms per each point of Wrath.

(6) Lantern Skeleton (1HD, d6 shortswords)

Appearing; 1d4

These generic skeletons have flames within their skulls and put light out from their eyes at an unnatural brightness and range.

If the party members already have light sources the skeletons will be aggressive, if they do not the skeletons will instead crowd around the party and simply try to illuminate things for them.

Helpful skeletons are often targeted by other monsters and traps of the Library. 50% chance one of the friendly skeletons likes the party so much that they will travel out of the Library with them and follow them anywhere they go, lighting the way and no longer becoming aggressive even if encountering lights brighter then his own.

<Wrath>

If at 4 Wrath or Greater, the skeletons will pretend to be friendly until the party need them most, and then will extinguish their own lights and become regular aggressive skeletons without light instead.

Tome of Turmoil

If the players open this Tome...

• Add +1d6 Wrath
• Chilling Scream is heard throughout the entire Library Labyrinth
• Conjure a random encounter at their immediate location, ambushed
• The Editor seeks to destroy them and take the tome for himself.
• All books carried by the party members have their words scrambled.

Note; Scrambled Books include MU books unless a Save vs Magic is made, which only protects their personal spellbook. Regular books can be unscrambled at a rate of one book per day of downtime, but spellbooks require one day per highest level of spell within that book.

Additionally, for a number of days equal to amount of Wrath they have when they leave the Library the party will be unable to enter any Libraries or private book collections of greater then 100 books or else they will be attacked by conjured monsters from the Library itself.

The book can be sold to dark Wizards for 10,000 gold or more, but it is rumored that within the books mysterious pages are the secrets to starting the apocalypse.