Loresmyth sent out a preliminary PDF of their Dangerous Destinations book. I took it for a quick spin just to see how the basic mechanics work. So here are my die rolls and what they mean. The dice range from a d4 to a D20 depending on the table.
Theme
Rolled a 13, which is a grief theme, something with deep emotional pain.
Previous Presence
A 16 indicates this is a "creature territory", so that is perhaps the main part of the dangerous destination.
Continued Presence
A roll of 10 says this creature is still present, and co-exists with everything around it.
Destination Type
A 6 indicates this is an outpost, which then leads us to the outpost chapter to see just what sort of outpost this is.
Kind
A 5 says this is an observational outpost, watching the locals.
Importance
4 indicates this is not a particularly important outpost.
Size
A 1 indicates that this not particularly important outpost is also tiny, as in perhaps a single building or even smaller, such as a room in an inn.
Condition
A roll of 3 indicates that this tiny, unimportant outpost is also in poor condition
Equipment
Despite being tiny, unimportant and in bad shape, the equipment roll of 9 indicates at least they keep their equipment in good order!
Current Inhabitants
1 indicates that these are the original inhabitants, so our observers have been here a while.
Disclipine
They are also well ordered with a roll of 6 - no slackers present.
Environment
Rolling an 11 we are in an urban environment.
Danger
9 shows an intelligent monster, which means we then turn to the intelligent monster section.
Motivation
Our intelligent monster is waiting with a roll of a 7. Why is he / she / it paused? What is it waiting for?
Success
With a roll of 2 this monster is frustrated. Maybe because of all the waiting.
Kinship
A roll of 9 indicates that this particular monster is very divergent from the rest of their kind. They are a walking / crawling / slithering / flying / whatever antithesis of the rest of their species.
Age
A roll of 1 means we have a baby! A baby what though? And why by itself?
Size
A 2 indicates this divergent baby creature is also a runt - perhaps that is the primary divergence.
Local awareness
A 9 shows the locals are well aware of our baby runt creature.
Local Reaction
3 indicates out locals understood what the creature was trying to do. and they did whatever it was.
Local Coexistence
With a 6, there is some sort of symbiotic relationship: both the creature and the locals have benefited. Perhaps even the environment has also benefited.
Pulling it All Together
So what does all this mean? As I am working in Windemere (and apparently I have multiple spellings for this particular trading post on the Ocean Trade Route), let us stick this tiny outpost in one of the ancient buildings in the town directly. Our observers have taken over a small building near the north wall and gate. The building was already falling apart when they moved in, all 5 of them. Fortunately there are 6 bedrooms in what used to be an officers barracks back when Windemere was an outpost for Tavonu. They have been here a couple years now, and keep getting funding via a trade caravan that comes from the neighboring kingdom of Afguilla. As to what they are observing: there is a stunted baby gelatinous cube (yes, I wandered through a few monster books and while technically a gelatinous cube as no intelligence, this stunted smaller cube somehow is intelligent. We'll just go with that). This cube, whom one of the observers has nicknamed Geoffry Gelatin, moves through the caverns near the remains of the road that goes through the mountains. Normally cubes are about 10 feet on a side, this one is 1/4 the size. In The Fantasy Trip system it is a 1 hex creature (and how handy I have that size die). He actually cleans up the dungeons: the remains of animals who have died there no longer decay but are eaten. Some of the locals, noticing our observers have been going regularly to the caves, accompanied them and observed baby Geoffry going about his (her? its?) business, avoiding the people who crept into the caves.
Now, we started with grief, and noted that Geoffry is frustrated with waiting, yet the locals seem to understand that it is somehow missing whatever parental unit it came from, and may be searching. But, as a rule gelatinous cubes are non-intelligent, this mutant off-spring is going to never be able to find his parent cube. Let the pathos spring forth.
So how do the locals benefit? Well, if there is a death sentence perhaps they could get Geoffry to eat the remains, and so there are no burial plots. Visitors to Windemere, should they wander by the graveyard will notice there are no prisoner plots. Of course, some places burn dead prisoners, so that is not so unusual. But those caverns are conspicuously clear of dead animals, so larger predators seem to stay clear as well.
To make this dangerous, some of the locals may not like having a gelatinous cube wandering about: think of the children if they should go play in the cave! Perhaps they want to send the adventurers up to kill Geoffry. Can our cube even communicate? Perhaps he is acidic enough and has been making etchings and can spell things out if they pay attention to their surroundings.
And why are there observers? Because the neighboring king wants to weaponize Geoffry: if it could be trained to attack the enemy at night, think of the terror, death and destruction a tamed gelatinous cube could cause!
Adventure hooks
- there is a reward to clear out the caverns from the menacing gelatinous cube. Note that the observers are probably against this sort of thing, so may present some protection for Geoffry.
- the observers hire the adventurers to protect Geoffry from a small mob that is going to hunt down and kill the monster
- while exploring the caverns, the adventurers notice crude writing etched into the floors, along with images of a small cube and a large cube. Where are you? seems to be the common refrain
- hired by the king to retrieve Geoffry and take him to the kingdom. What could go wrong transporting a 5 foot gelatinous cube, assuming they can even capture it (not that cubes move all that fast, but how do you hold on to it?)
- the wizard that accidently created Geoffry finally realized that his spell really misfired and is searching for Geoffry and needs seasoned adventurers to help with the hunt.
- Geoffry somehow has a magical power stone inside (or some other magical artifact). Do you have to kill it to get it out?
And we could always use the classic Star Trek Devil in the Dark episode to get a feel for how this could play out. Except now we have the child instead of the mother.
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