- This is a thirty foot by thirty foot room with polished stone walls, ceiling and floor. The room can be entered from the east and west through ten foot openings in the center of their respective walls. While the eastern entrance is built directly into the hall beyond, the western entrance is nothing by a large hole broken or blasted through wall. The damage is so ancient that there is no way to determine whether the hole was created from inside the room or from the outside.
- In years past, this room was used as a store room by an eccentric innkeeper whose basement lead to the staircase in room 1L. He primarily stored additional cooking and maintenance goods as well as items that he filched from his guests. The inn is long since gone, but the remnants of his stored goods still litter the room.
- Strewn about the floor a splinters of wood and shards of pottery. With a little effort, the players should surmise that fragments come from wooden boxes, barrels, and clay jars that were smashed open so that someone could get into their contents. Nothing remains of to indicate what the items might have been.
- In the northeast corner of the room, a family of small rats has made a nest under the debris. If the players spend an extended period searching the room or if the nest is disturbed specifically, the rats will become agitated and loudly flee from the room.
- At the center of the room, all of the debris in a two foot circle has been cleared away. In the middle of the cleared space sits a jawless, human skull. The skull itself is quite ordinary. The players will detect no traps and no magic upon it. Underneath the skull, the players will find four silver coins.
- As the room sits at the only junction between the western and eastern sections of the level, any traffic between the two sections must pass through here. There is a ten percent greater chance of random encounters occurring if the players linger in the room. If a random encounter occurs, there is a 50/50 chance of the encounter being drawn from either side of the level.
- Unexplored Worlds is my attempt to design an RPG campaign in the open. Since I have not rolled a d20 in anger in many years, this is my way to keep playing without actually playing. All posts are written to be system-agnostic, so please use whatever keeps your interest in your own games. Just let me know how it goes!
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
Even though I don't play PnP any more, I enjoy reading these posts.
ReplyDeleteBack when I used to GM I would alternate between very freeform sessions where I laid out a simple premise and let the players do what they felt they should do, and really structured content. Those freeform sessions, where players just imagine how their character would think and play it out, are the ones I really miss.
Yay, more Unexplored Worlds! I missed these.
ReplyDeleteThe four silver coins under the skull is my favorite part, it's a great combination of randomness and specificity.
@ Yeebo - It's been so long since I've run a campaign, I have very little idea how I would run it now. Back in the day, though, my games ended up being a little raidroady because the players flourished more with a lot of structure. At least, that what I told myself while I was railroading them through a plot.
ReplyDelete@ Blue Kae - Yeah, it's been too long. I just decided to write something that was totally mundane, but interesting at the same time.
An interesting Unexplored Worlds; glad to see another one. I feel a little like Indiana Jones picturing myself in this scenario.
ReplyDelete@ MMOGC - I have to admit that was one of the inspirations for this post. As well as the idea that someone had gone through the room and smashed everything in it Diablo-style.
ReplyDelete