I decided I could run myself through my planned next game (which may be a ways off for the Fantasy Trip group as they are even more paranoid than we are about getting sick. Both our families have immuno-compromised spouses and we need to be careful). So, first thing is start grabbing tiles and set up room #1. After putting together a close enough approximation, I realize without walls it is a bit harder to imagine this as a room. Of course, that may be because I am anticipating some walls to show up at some point from a Kickstarter, Ramparts. And while I have some fantasy doors (which you can barely see in this picture I think) I have no fantasy floors yet, so it is more of a grate to be able to hold that door. Of course, I also have doors showing up that will better match. But I digress.
So the party is dropping into room number one, a 20 foot drop from the shifting sands above. The room is described as:
The entrance is through a hole in the ceiling, dropping down about 20 feet to the sand covered floor below. The 6 sided room has a closed door to the south and an open door to the east. Sand is piled up under the hole and you can see footprints in the sand going to the east door. The room is cool and dusty, with the whispery sound of the air over the hole in the roof in the adventurers ears. The walls and ceiling have frescoes of human, animal and magical figures cavorting about. Remains of what appear to be kneeling benches are crumbled against one wall. Small alcoves on the northwest wall are empty except for one with a gold statue of a cockatrice. For statue, 4D/INT to notice trap, 2D with detect trap skill. Normal save roll against poison needles that will do 1d6 damage. For the frescoes, INT roll vs 4D, 2D if they have history or priest skills to recognize that these are from the local pantheon but are representing what looks to be gods and goddesses amongst regular beings. Amongst them is a animal goddess.
In reading part of this out loud, I think I need to make the room a bit more spooky (of course I am writing this on Halloween, the power just flickered [fortunately I my computer system is on battery backup so no disruption there!] so perhaps some of that is creeping in!). I need a short but better way of the initial impression of the room. Something more like:
You drop to the sand-covered floor, faint moonlight shining against the pile of sand beneath the hole in the ceiling 20' above. The air is cooler and you hear the whisper of the desert winds above you. Your torches give frescoes on the walls the appearance of life as the shadows flicker across paintings of humans, animals and magical creatures cavorting about. Against the walls are the rotting remains of benches, and you can see the glint of what appears to be a small gold statue in a niche on the wall.
That does seems a bit better maybe. The room otherwise is pretty barren, just the one trap, and nothing to signify any connection to anything other than those frescoes. I am also going to use a picture from one of the artists I patronize on Patreon, CCJ Ellis. She does Welsh mythical art among other things, and has some really cool stuff. I think this image is another good way of looking at Tona, the Goddess of Lesser Creatures.
Which does help, especially if I go through the Death Test again! But other than that 1 trap next to the gold cockatrice statue, there is nothing much going on in this room. Should there be more? A random treasure? I'll probably leave this as is as other rooms do have a lot more, and this room has been open for a bit at least to the desert above. However, I think there does need to be a more active encounter, more of one of those nuisance creatures. So maybe a small number of scorpions or spiders. Nothing to hurt anyone with armor, but an active enemy to get things warmed up.
So our master thief eyes the gold statue, and manages to do well on her roll to avoid the trap. So she now has one gold statue. I probably need to establish a cost, but when I play this, unless the character has assess value, they will only know that it is a small gold statue.
And that is as far as I really got: took longer for the set up and finding doodads for scatter terrain. In fact, I forgot my cheap rocks and may add them as well. Hopefully tomorrow I can go through more rooms.
Anyway, this adventure is pulling things in from a few Kickstarter zines, a couple of my Patreon feeds, and my own imagination as well as all the Fantasy Trip stuff I managed accumulate. I am going to rewrite that 1st paragraph as above though. The revised version seems more evocative.
More info on Tona here.
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