# Dungeon Remanifest: The Sunless Fane tags: #articles #game/rpg/ironsworn #game/rpg/shadowdark ![[Ironsworn (cover).jpg|400]] ![[ShadowDark - The Sunless Fane (cover).jpg|400]] Well, it seems that [*Chubby Funster*](https://x.com/ChubbyFunsterGC) (Greg Christopher, in his secret identity, hereafter CF) has in fact posted his one-page dungeon, one of the first he ever created for **[[ShadowDark]]**, the predecessor to a long and storied career writing for that particular game. I did promise that if he were to bring it back out and write up an analysis of the style he has developed, I would try and re-engineer it for use with **[[Ironsworn]]**.  Well, damn, doesn't look like I'm going to get out of this one. ## Things in Hand I'm going to go ahead and make the bold assumption that you haven't read anything I've written about **Ironsworn** on Grim Tokens, which, considering that you are reading this *on* Grim Tokens and are interested in Ironsworn, is probably only a 50-50 likelihood of being true. We're going to go with it anyway. Here are the things that you are going to need to have in order to play this version of the *Sunless Fane*: - **Ironsworn** - Perhaps unsurprisingly, you're going to want a copy of the core **Ironsworn** book to play. https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn Luckily for you, it's absolutely free, at least in PDF. If you haven't checked it out already, you're missing out on one of the best fiction-first tabletop RPG experiences out there. - **Ironsworn: Lodestar** - Not absolutely required for play, but Lodestar will make your life a lot easier by being the most up-to-date move reference and oracle set for the game. https://tomkinpress.com/products/ironsworn-lodestar-expanded-reference-guide What are oracles? They're random tables, a mix of inspirations and specific references. **Ironsworn** makes significant use of oracles during play. It also makes significant use of moves, which are really just the game mechanical hooks for figuring out when your character does something in the fiction and how that affects the mechanical environment. We'll get there, I promise. - **Ironsworn: Delve** - This is the only gamebook I'm going to assume that you've picked up, and technically it's not even needed for play as all of the oracles and moves are listed in **Lodestar**. **Delve** is a mechanical expansion for **Ironsworn**, which specifically talks about generating locations for exploration and exploitation, whether it be ancient ruins, deep caverns, mysterious woods, dreadful swamps, or sunless fanes. **Delve** is the book that explains how these locations are created, how you can populate them, and how you can resolve them. https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn-delve Do you have to actually own this text to play the game? No, definitely not. But you will certainly find it a lot easier to understand the choices I'm making and the mechanisms I'm referring to. As of the time of this writing, it's currently available for $12.50 USD in PDF, and if you're reading it later, hell, it might be on sale. You can never tell. - **The Sunless Fane** - All right, I'm not a complete dick. You should definitely pick up the entirety of **The Sunless Fane** as written by Mr. Christopher, which you can have again as of this moment for $4 on DriveThruRPG. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/430777/the-sunless-fane Note that I'm getting absolutely no kickback from providing these links. It just seems like a good idea to me because if I'm going to recontextualize somebody else's work, I might as well give them the opportunity to make a few bucks off of it. It's the gentlemanly thing to do. - **ShadowDark**: Do you need a copy of **ShadowDark** to properly understand and play what I'm about to lay out before you? https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark No, you don't. It actually wouldn't even be helpful to understand what's about to happen here. Giving it another read-through would probably be a good idea for me, but I'm a bold adventurer, so we're going to do this the hard way from memory. Luckily, there aren't a whole lot of things that are absolutely key to understanding what's going on in the scenario, which is a credit to the author as it stands on its own as a mechanical construct. If you want to go buy a copy, I certainly won't stop you. It's one of the best examples of the OSR take on old-school fantasy available. Plus, the layout is absolutely beautiful, and I would never attempt to rob you of that joy. ## Place and Time Rather than rewrite some extensive reference material, I will start by pointing you to my **[Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - D&D to Ironsworn](https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Ontogeny+Recap/Ontogeny+Recapitulates+Phylogeny/DND+to+Ironsworn/Ontogeny+Recapitulates+Phylogeny+-+DND+to+Ironsworn)** conversion articles, where I take on changing old-school **[[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D]]** to be compatible with very fiction-first, extremely modern **Ironsworn**. There are a host of things that are useful to know and think about in there, but in particular, I want to make reference to my **[World Design](https://grimtokens.garden/Articles/Ontogeny+Recap/Ontogeny+Recapitulates+Phylogeny/DND+to+Ironsworn/Ontogeny+Recapitulates+Phylogeny+-+World+Design)** article in specific. ![[Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - World Design#D&D Tenets]] *(One of the great things about **Obsidian** is I don't have to cut and paste. I can just reference the original blocks. Life is so much easier when you have technology.)* All of this is entirely compatible with the assumptions of **ShadowDark**, so you can just assume that all of the discussion of truths, setting, religion, beasts, and horrors that are given in that article are perfectly applicable here. I'll go ahead and pull out one more part of that particular setup because it's going to be somewhat important to talking about how and why the characters are going digging into a desecrated temple currently held by hobgoblins. ![[Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny - World Design#Defense]] We're going to make life easy on ourselves and assume that our protagonists, however many there are, have taken up the mantle of being free wardens, or in the more common parlance, *"adventuring party."* **Ironsworn** is very often specifically and particularly keyed to the motivations and desires of the characters. Part and parcel of being fiction-first is that the fiction is generated by the players, and that there very well may be no GM. That's half the place taken care of and some of the situation. Now we need to talk about where this could be, within the context of the Ironlands. CF doesn't actually talk much about what's going on outside of the dungeon itself. He wants it to be able to be dropped in wherever your adventurers happen to be playing, which is fair enough for the classic **ShadowDark** setup. I require a little more hook myself, so we'll look at the context we have available and make some decisions. As written, there are hobgoblins living in what is largely a wrecked ruin of a human temple, or at least what appears to be human. We don't seem to have any unearthly technology or particularly out-of-control magic items, though the selection of what there is doesn't seem to hold together in a way that suggests they should be here, but that's a different issue. For our purposes, I think we'll locate this particular temple on the north side of the Havens, almost in the Hinterlands. That is, the border of the settled area, but along the northern rugged hills. Clearly, the creators of this temple had no interest in regular contact with the outside world, but the scale suggests they weren't building it all on their own but rather employed some skilled laborers who came and left—or perhaps never left at all. ![[Ironsworn - Regions of the Ironlands (map, illo).webp|400]] It's worth briefly touching on time, not necessarily in terms of specifics, but in seasons of travel when roads are not maintained by the state and you're on the edges of comfortable civilization, which puts you at the mercy of weather. The Ironlands are effectively [Denmark](https://maps.app.goo.gl/6TRMFeAYqEQJkHXC6) in terms of ecology, so the difference between summer and winter is fairly stark. Thematically, given the presence of the undead, winter would be very appropriate and could easily play into why the protagonists are here without an easy excuse to simply leave. ## But, Why? This is a question I end up asking a lot when it comes to pre-made scenarios, and often I'm sadly disappointed by it, in part because the traditional architecture of pre-made scenarios is entirely separate from the world and experience of the characters at your table. Nothing that you have done, nothing that they've experienced, no part of your world is really connected to the reasons that the protagonists are pursuing something as dangerous and threatening as going into a dungeon or a delve. The motivations are shallow, and thus the experience is usually reduced to being as meaningful as a night of board gaming or disconnected wargame scenarios. That's not to say anything bad about board gaming.[^1] But one of the points of tabletop RPGs is often the continuity, the knowledge that what you're doing matters both to you as a player and to the character as a character within the fictional framing. How does that apply here? Well, CF admits that this is intended to be effectively a drop-in dungeon. It's not intended to have real connection or motivation for the protagonists. Personally, I think that's a little bit of a problem, but I absolutely would. On the positive side, this is one of the things that **Ironsworn** is particularly good at short-circuiting. Every delve requires a reason to go there, and the challenge rank of the delve represents that. It is not a strict representation of the difficulty of the experience but rather a pacing mechanism that represents how much time and how costly in resources getting what you came to get will be. That means that one of the characters acting as a protagonist is going to have to make a vow which involves them going into the Sunless Fane and doing something important. ### Taking the Vows This brings us neatly around to page 76 in **Ironsworn: Delve**.[^2] Conveniently, it is a checklist for setting up one-shot delves. There are nine steps: 1. *Envision an inciting incident.* 2. *Select the theme and domain.* 3. *Set up the site worksheet.* 4. *Create characters with the players.* 5. *Set the scene for the players.* 6. *Give the players an opportunity to describe how they ready themselves for the quest.* 7. *Fast-track the narrative to the start of the expedition by hand-waving the journey to the site.* 8. *As the characters delve the depths and explore a site, manage the pace and focus as appropriate to the time available.* 9. *When the locate your objective move is successfully triggered, the characters can also reach a milestone on their vow.* I have not so subtly been working our way through this checklist, just not necessarily in the given order. Perhaps now it's time to start putting this in a proper structure. ### Incitement to Riot We know where we are in a general sense and when we are. What kind of inciting incident could drag protagonists into this situation? What's the objective? Again, this is something that is completely absent from the original scenario. One assumes that the simple motivation for coin and increased power is sufficient for **ShadowDark** characters. I'm not sure I'm really completely on board with that. It is what it is. Let's play with that for a moment, though. One of my favorite assets that was added in **Delve** is Fortune Hunter. Essentially, it gives you a mechanical architecture for being completely mercenary. You could take it individually. You could just assume that everyone has it as a free asset if you want to make going out and building contracts up one of the core motivations of your group. But it is pretty awesome, since you can use your wealth resource to effectively add raw value to any move where a little coin could lubricate the experience. ![[Ironsworn - Assets - Fortune Hunter.webp|400]] That gets the old wheels turning. There's no point in being mercenary unless there's someone to pay you, though. I need to put together a quick town, which can be somewhere near the Sunless Fane and act as a place where the protagonists can pick up some sort of direction in order to go pop into a dangerous subterranean area. We have oracles for that. In fact, I can just randomly generate a nearby settlement and put together some sort of explanation on the fly. You can too. > [!info] **Settlement:** Stagkirk > > - **Description:** Mystical, Settled, Dense > - **First look:** Numerous grazing animals > - **Settlement trouble:** Urgent expedition > > Stagkirk is a surprisingly well-developed village for its remote location. As our protagonists ride up on the town, it's soon clear why: the rich soil deposited at the turn of a nearby river makes for excellent cattle grazing land, providing more meat and hide in one place than the Free Wardens may have seen in weeks. > > There is a certain ceremonial air about the village. Clearly, this was a place of ritual significance at one point. Now, however, the inhabitants seem particularly jumpy, eyeing the Wardens with a mixture of distrust and a strange hope. All of the things in the dotted list were randomly generated. The rest is just creative interpretation. The protagonists have a place to be, and we know from the original Sunless Fane that our delve site is the remains of an ancient temple of Vexitorus, the Narbonian god of the underworld. This will work just fine for our needs. It's not at odds with any of the established elements of our setting.[^3] This is the moment that we get to introduce one chunk of the original text. > [!quote] **The Sunless Fane**, p5 > This stairwell [leading down 40ft into the grassy hill under a stony overhang] was discovered by a hobgoblin warband a few months ago, packed with thick mud and chunks of stone. They excavated it and established a base of operations to raid nearby human settlements. They are aware of the dangers within and have built a makeshift wall of crates and barrels up against these doors… just in case. Who's getting raided? Stagkirk, of course. This is why they are in such dire need of an urgent expedition to go deal with the hobgoblins. Of course, that's not much of a motivation for going deeper into the delve. But one step at a time. After all, there's no motivation for characters to do things they don't know about yet. We're going to need someone for them to talk to in town. Luckily, there are oracles for that. > [!info] **Adda Jardi** > > - **Description:** Apathetic, Old, Intolerant > - **Goal:** Find redemption > - **Activity:** Disabling Deception > - **Disposition:** Cooperative > - **Motivations:** Command Truth, Charge Idea, Fortify Power > > The current headman of the village is old, grumpy, curmudgeon-y, and has little time to deal with fools. He enjoys the good grace of his Jarl, his three wives, his large herd, and the comfortable wealth it brings. Unfortunately for him, according to his lights, he also actually cares about the other inhabitants of town and the fact that they look up to him and expect him to look out for their best interests. > > While not necessarily the most pleasant person to deal with, he very much would like to have the hobgoblin depredations on their cattle to be ended with ruthless efficiency. To that end, he will happily engage the Free Wardens to go and end the threat. He'll even provide the impetus of a little extra coin in their pockets to do so. There you go. Someone to talk to with a little extra coin in their pocket, a bit of authority, and a reason to care about the outcome in a way that pushes the protagonists into engaging with it, either out of a sense of duty or a love of a little jingle in their pocket. Everybody wins. This brings us neatly around to the actual inciting incident, which is most likely them riding into town, noticing how skittish everyone is, and being curious enough to ask around. In the context of **Ironsworn**, this probably involves a *Gather Information* move, but absolutely nothing keeps them from being directly confronted by Jardi once it gets to him that there are wardens in town. > [!help] Alternate Incitement > Of course, nothing keeps us from making the kicker a lot more action-packed. It just requires that we change the time that the protagonists roll up to Stagkirk to be roughly the middle of the night. Not unusual for a bunch of people who keep all hours because there's always something going on. > > In this case, what's going on is literally cattle rustling by the hobgoblins who have crept down from the camp and are trying to quietly shuffle out some cows in the witch's hour from a ranch at the very border of town. Normally, no one would be around out here except perhaps the rancher's dog (now dead) or the rustlers themselves. > > The hobgoblins themselves are not mounted. Their intent is to drive the cattle into the hills north of their camp until they can break them down for more easily transported resources. A willful cow is a lot harder to keep moving than you would think. > > The protagonist can choose to engage in this however they will. Watch and wait silently. Immediately vow to not let this act of theft proceed. Decide it's in their best financial interest to step in and garner a little goodwill with the local ranchers. Whatever they do, it's not hard to deal with/slash scare off this particular bunch, which is really only a couple of [[#Hobgoblin Guards|Hobgoblin guards]] and a group of [[#Goblin Scut|goblin scuts]]. *Troublesome*, at worst. > > The hobgoblins are smart enough not to head straight back to camp if they're scared off, but they'll end up back there eventually. Probably with fair warning that there are Free Wardens in town. Odds are good that no matter when and where they show up, they are going to want to swear a vow to take care of the Hobgoblin issue and put a stop to their raiding. There's an opportunity here to do something fairly creative. Sure, you can set the challenge rating of the vow to be *troublesome* if you want this to be just a one-off sort of adventure for the players. However, if you want dealing with the Sunless Fane to be just one bit of something a little larger, you can make the challenge rank higher than that of the delve (by default, *dangerous*). If so, then completing the dungeon is just one more waypoint that you use to advance the progress track for the vow for dealing with the Hobgoblins. Make the overall vow *formidable*, for example, and you're looking at at least five advancements necessary before you can even really think about bringing things to a close. And you're probably going to want more like seven to nine. You've probably also noticed that we haven't even talked about the second part of the dungeon, the temple proper. There's a reason for that, because it requires a separate incitement—things that they discover when they go to ride the goblin underground encampment should indicate there is much more to the area, and that there's much more money to be had if that's their motivation. There also might be more threats to be found in the temple itself. ### Theme Park Domain It's time to pick the theme and domain for the Goblin Camp and the Temple of Vexitorus. Now we could have randomly generated these, but that's not necessary here. We have an idea of where we want to go. CF has provided us a lovely blueprint, but we do need to translate what we see into a more digestible set of oracles. Luckily, that's not terribly hard. #### The Hobgoblin Warband **Fortified Stronghold (Troublesome)** Just as always, we have to envision what it is that we want to make manifest. In this case, it's worth consulting the sunless fane itself. We are told that it is accessible only by a narrow stairwell that descends 40 feet beneath a natural stone overhang. That suggests to me that the whole thing is underground, perfectly reasonable for a place that used to be a full-bore temple to a god of the underworld. We choose *fortified* as the theme and stronghold as the domain (see page 76 in **Lodestar** for more details on the oracles that each of these imply). Fortified works well for us because it's full of features like camps and quarters, guarded locations, storage areas, training areas, and command centers, where a lot of the dangers on display are enemy forces. Likewise, the features that can come up in a **stronghold** are connecting passages, barracks, large halls, workshops or libraries, storage, courtyards—that sort of thing. Taken together, it provides a sort of living area in which the enemy can catch you out. When the protagonists actually enter this area and we begin exploring the delve properly, that's the time to look at pages 6 and 7 in **The Sunless Fane** for some guidance as to the sort of things that you might find. Obviously, things are not going to be organized in exactly the same way, but a little bit of inspiration goes a long way. A side effect of the difference in the way delves are generated from dynamic oracles versus statically pre-created scenario dungeons is that it could end up being a lot larger in the fiction. This is definitely not a drawback. One of the common complaints that we've all had when talking about pre-created scenarios is that the maps feel very small. Everything's crowded together. Given that we have a fictive palette to play in and aren't necessarily bound by a map with 10-foot squares, things can be as large as it feels right to be. This is just a *troublesome* delve at this point, however. It will be really easy to scare off the Hobgoblins from using it as a base of operation. It's just a few rooms they've really moved into as some temporary bed-down spots and a little bit of storage. They are more than happy to get out of there, wait a couple of weeks, and come back for their stuff—maybe to re-inhabit it and continue running raids if the overall problem is not solved. #### The Temple of Vexitorus **Haunted Hallowed Ruin (Formidable)** I decided to combine the two halves of the temple because it seemed a little bit silly to have one section for the undead and another for insects, in part because there's really not a lot for the insects to eat, and particularly not for the larger worms. Far better to intermingle these things, which means that they have more chances to escape out into the wider area. Taking our note from *the Sunless Fane* itself, this area is blocked off and doors are closed to keep the hobgoblins safe from incursion. But because we know an ecology actually needs ways to get food and water in and out, we know conceptually there's at least one exit that leads back along the river that runs down toward Stagkirk. There are probably some other small caves and collapsed areas which provide egress for the smaller insects and vermin. Should the protagonists start poking around here too aggressively, it's certainly possible they could create problems down the way as they stir up the undead and some of the larger fauna.[^4] The temple gets two themes because it seems appropriate to the situation. *Haunted* makes perfect sense as this is where we get tombs and burial sites, spilled blood, unnatural mists, messages from beyond the grave, and ghosts. Lots of underworld messaging. *Hallowed*, on the other hand, is specifically geared toward temples and altars, offerings, religious relics, consecrated ground, and gathering places. Taken together, the themes make sure that we are going to stick to the concept of a religious place that's been defiled by time and forgetfulness. The ruin domain gives us all the other stuff that we're looking for: crumbling corridors, collapsed architecture, broken statuary, temples to forgotten gods, blocked passages, ancient secrets. Technically, the entire delve should be a ruin, and there's an argument to be made that the Hobgoblin warband should have their camp defined as a ruin. But that's not what I wanted to do, so I didn't. It'll be fine. ### Site Sheets This is where we get to set up the site sheets, which are essentially a place to put the notes and references for each delve, along with a rough map as it gets explored. The most important part about it is the Denizen Matrix, which lists the things that you are likely to run into, without requiring that you fill it out entirely, because coming up with things on the spur of the moment is one of the great pleasures in **Ironsworn**. Because things are so easy to put together, there's no need to pre-plan everything out. Each of the Delve sites is going to have its own sheet and its own Denizen Matrix. While I'm at it, I'm also going to put together the denizen stats because it's fast, it's easy, and it's the right place to do it. #### Hobgoblin Camp - **Objective:** Drive the Hobgoblins out of the camp. - **Theme:** Fortified - **Domain:** Stronghold - **Rank:** Troublesome | Rarity (Roll) | Denizen | | ------------------- | --------------------------------- | | Very Common (01-27) | Goblin Scut (Troublesome) | | Common (28-41) | Hobgoblin Guards (Dangerous Pack) | | Common (42-55) | | | Common (56-69) | | | Uncommon (70-75) | Hobgoblin Warrior (Dangerous) | | Uncommon (76-81) | | | Uncommon (82-87) | Hobgoblin Sorcerer (Dangerous) | | Uncommon (88-93) | Hobgoblin Assassin (Dangerous) | | Rare (94-95) | Hobgoblin Chaplain (Formidable) | | Rare (96-97) | | | Rare (98-99) | Hob Warband Leader (Extreme) | | Unforseen (00) | | ##### Goblin Scut **Rank:** Troublesome (3 progress per harm; inflicts 1 harm) **Features:** - Gnarled fingers and toes - Long, lanky limbs - Unhinged muttering - Ragged tattered clothes **Drives:** - Hide from danger - Do as told - Abject cowardice **Tactics:** - Strike from ambush - Slip in behind - Flee and watch - Raise alarm Goblins are the lowest of the low in Hobgoblin society, and scuts are the bottom of even that hierarchy. They are the ones who scrub the floors, even if they're made out of dirt. They are the ones who sew the makeshift clothing—poorly. They are the ones who often do the cooking, which explains why it's so often inedible slop. The average goblin is about three feet tall, hunched and gnarled, looking like nothing so much as a child with exaggerated, pained features and long ears. Their muttering is constant, a litany of complaints that never seems to matter enough to them to do anything about. It's almost redundant to say how they engage in combat, because given the choice, they certainly won't, preferring to run away, to hide, and to scream at the top of their lungs. However, corner one in a group,[^5] and they can be absolutely vicious with aggressive swarm tactics intended to disorient and dismay the target, often just long enough to get away, but sometimes they're out for blood. ##### Hobgoblin Guards **Rank:** Dangerous (in packs of 3; 2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Long, lanky limbs - Short torso - Exaggerated human faces - Large, long ears - Excellent night vision **Drives:** - Protect the hobgoblin holdings - Do what they're told - Take what they want from others **Tactics:** - Attack at night or in the dark - Pain is more important than damage - Hit and run The common hobgoblin often gets stuck with the jobs it's too important to leave to mere goblins. Every hobgoblin warband needs guards, typically those standing watch or carrying spears in the name of a more powerful leader are simply biding their time, waiting for the opportunity to move up through "happenstance" or underhanded double-dealing. A hobgoblin stands slightly shorter than the average Ironlander but has a permanent hunch along with clear spine ridges, long gangly limbs, and a head that seems to hang a little too low between their shoulders, giving them a perpetual air of being put upon. Hobgoblin society is established on the basis of the strong will always take from the weak, and it is good and just that they do so. While it's difficult for them to cooperate in the main, they are easily motivated to come together in order to take things from those they consider to be more well-rewarded than themselves. The Hobgoblin guard is almost never found alone. Where you find one, there are three. ##### Hobgoblin Warrior **Rank:** Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Cunning, gimlet eyes - Pointier ears than baser hobgoblins - Well-honed weapons **Drives:** - Protect the warband - Take from others where and when they can - Pain is a higher calling **Tactics:** - Predate on the weakest - Slip in under your guard - Lunge edge-first The Hobgoblin warrior is a literal cut above. Stronger, straighter, and more deadly than those who find themselves to be mere guards. The warrior is what a guard aspires to become. They've taken fine weapons from those weaker than themselves and display them openly as a sign of their position and strength. A Hobgoblin warrior who appears physically frail or weak, yet displays his weapons openly, is a greater threat than the rest. The warriors often act as the heavy muscle for the warband, directing the guards and ignoring the scuts. When shenanigans need doing out in the world, there's usually a warrior behind it. ##### Hobgoblin Sorcerer **Rank:** Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Red-glowing beady eyes - Pale skin sloughing around pustules - A belt or sash festooned with "magical tokens" **Drives:** - Learn more magic - Torture and interrogate - Collect anything magical **Tactics:** - Cast spells of corruption and pain - Use potions - Hide in the rear Hobgoblins are not nearly as stupid as is commonly thought. They are by no means brilliant strategists or tacticians, but they have a base animal cunning that can be put to certain kinds of corruptive sorcery. As a result, those with an inclination can be extremely dangerous. Their lack of caution when handling raw power often leaves its mark on their flesh, burning, wounding, and warping their bodies when they inevitably exceed their limitations. They consider this a mark of success, and the more that one is twisted by exposure to failed magic, the more they consider that sorcerer to have a true calling. Needless to say, they are constantly in pain, constantly looking for ways to share that pain with others, and inevitably hungry for more exposure to magical items and environments. What they do not want is to be facing the sharp edge of a blade without someone or something to interpose. ##### Hobgoblin Assassin **Rank:** Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Hooded and cloaked - Large, nasty knives - More hunched than even the guards **Drives:** - Kill, kill, kill, kill - Hide, sneak, stealth - Avoid responsibility **Tactics:** - Step out of shadows - Poisoned knife under the rib - Silently fall from above - Come from any direction While the Hobgoblin warrior generally prefers a straight-on attack, the sorcerer prefers to stand in the back and weave his corruption, the assassin holds a special place, generally directly behind you with a knife in your spine. These hobgoblins have trained extensively in stealth and in attacking from hiding. The sorcerer often provides them with terrible poisons for their blades, and the assassins revel in the pleasure of applying them enthusiastically. They move silently, crawling on the slightest ledge to get the drop on their enemies, but are just as happy to hide underneath tables, chairs, or bridges and stab up at the unwary. They care nothing for inflicting pain in and of itself. Their interest is in death. The more, the better. Their preternatural distaste for responsibility is probably one of the few things that holds Hobgoblin society back from being more of a threat to the more civilized. ##### Hobgoblin Chaplain **Rank:** Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm) **Features:** - Long, straight, lean limbed - Dim green-glowing eyes - Covered with tattoos - Leather armor - Wicked maces **Drives:** - Offer sacrifice to the goblinoid gods - Smite the "unclean" despoilers - Keep the hobgoblins in line **Tactics:** - Occult prayers of oppression - Straight-up suicidal brutality - Lead from the front The Hobgoblin chaplain is a brutal creature, obsessed with the worship of goblinoid gods and maintaining the purity of holy places. Physically, they may be the most human-appearing of the hobgoblins, standing nearly straight and towering over most humans, albeit with a lean and stretched-out silhouette. Oft times, their affection for leather armor bulks out their outline, and their skill with flanged maces is whispered about around campfires by those who have survived the experience. They are found in holy and unholy places alike. Sometimes their purposes are eclectic, but never in battle, because it becomes immediately obvious that their purpose is simply to smite the unbelievers.[^6] ##### Hob Warband Leader **Rank:** Extreme (2 ticks per harm; inflicts 4 harm) **Features:** - Bulky, exaggerated musculature - Large, inhuman teeth - Boiled leather armor reinforced with brass **Drives:** - Beat down any opposition - Take whatever I want, whenever I want, now being best - Brutality *uber alles* **Tactics:** - Fanatical warriors - Stolid stony resilience - Murder, pure and simple The Hob Warband Leader is a brutal killing machine that exists only for murder and mayhem. Organizationally, he's not even the core responsible for planning their operations. That usually falls to a chaplain or sorcerer. Instead, the Warband Leader is the blunt instrument around which the rest of the group coheres and manifests as one of the most desirable weapons in the Ironlands. Among the Hobgoblins, he is the only one seen to wear reinforced armor with any sort of metal at all. Physically, he looms even over the chaplain, broader in the shoulder, wider of stance, more muscular in a way that tells any opponent immediately that there's only one way out, and it's through violence. If all he did was hit things until they fall down, he would be less of a threat. But he inspires fanaticism in members of the warband and directs his lessers into the face of the enemy. Truly, to come upon a Hob Warband Leader is unlucky.[^7] #### The Temple of Vexitorus - **Objective:** Plunder the Temple of Vexitorus. - **Theme:** Haunted, Hallowed - **Domain:** Ruin - **Rank:** Formidable | Rarity (Roll) | Denizen | | ------------------- | -------------------------------- | | Very Common (01-27) | Skeleton Protector (Troublesome) | | Common (28-41) | Skeletal Quartet (Dangerous) | | Common (42-54) | Scarab Swarm (Dangerous) | | Common (56-69) | Sacrificial Corpse (Formidable) | | Uncommon (70-75) | Skeletal Mage (Formidable) | | Uncommon (76-81) | Bat Swarm (Troublesome) | | Uncommon (82-87) | Red Worms (Formidable) | | Uncommon (88-93) | Black Ant Swarm (Dangerous) | | Rare (94-95) | Grey Ooze (Dangerous) | | Rare (96-97) | Shade Wight (Formidable) | | Rare (98-99) | | | Unforseen (00) | | > [!info]- On Denizen Selection > You've probably noticed that there is even more diversity of creature on this side than there was in the Hobgoblin camp, which makes perfect sense. Why wouldn't there be? This is an actual ecosystem that hasn't been cleaned out by the Hobgoblins trying to establish themselves a base camp. > > Things are weird over here, not the least reason being that it's an abandoned, forbidden temple to a god of the underworld. The real question at play is, *why are there so many goddamn bugs?* But we've already headed this question off at the pass by pointing out that there are several openings, which remain unknown by anyone (until now), allowing bugs to come in and out. > > A great question would be, "If the red worms are disturbed, won't they just go out and start looking for significant food and end up blundering into the town's grazing cattle as well?" And the answer is yes. Always leave yourself some seeds to come back and sow later. ##### Skeleton Protector **Rank:** Troublesome (3 progress per harm; inflicts 1 harm) **Features:** - Animated skeleton - Black, empty eyes - Decayed, decrepit weapons **Drives:** - Protect the sanctuary from infestation by humanoids - Go through the motions of life **Tactics:** - Never speak - Clumsy slow then deadly swift - Wait motionless All that remains of the cult of Vexitorus are the undead inheritors of the men and women they once were, bereft of tongues as well as flesh. They go through the motions of caring for the temple just as they have every day for hundreds of years. They sweep. They move piles of collapsed rubble from the middle of rooms to the edge, out of the way. They are unable to repair the damage they see proceeding around them, just as they are unable to repair the damage they see in one another. Silence was the watchword of the cult in life, and it remains so in death. Individually, the protectors are of little consequence and able to put up little in the way of fight. ##### Skeletal Quartet **Rank:** Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Animated skeletons - Perverse coordination - Obvious signs of wear on the bones **Drives:** - Protect the sanctuary from humanoids - Stand silent guard **Tactics:** - Herky-jerky swarm - Mindless aggression - Bodily re-assembly Before the death of the cult, some were trained to form small squads of defenders, trained in the secret meaning of the number four, which was a true sign of their God. They swore in life and death to protect the sanctuary from those who would defile it. Their very bones testify to the sheer amount of practice they received in life, wearing at the joints—a testimony to all of their training time. Now dead, they move in a strange synchronization when they choose to, as if they were moving through water one moment and suddenly lighter than air the next. While all skeletons have the ability to reassemble themselves given enough time, the Guardian Quartets often buy enough time for one another to reassemble at speed if downed. This becomes a war of attrition no living being can survive. ##### Scarab Swarm **Rank:** Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Black, glossy shells - Continuous high-pitched chittering - By the dozens **Drives:** - Feed - Lay eggs in the living **Tactics:** - The Swarm is the Life - Leave it alive - There are always more The black scarab swarm is not entirely unknown in the Ironlands, though their preference for cool, dry places in which to implant their eggs in living beings means their ecology is fairly restrictive. This is also why they tend to gravitate to places inhabited by the undead, who have the pleasant side effect of making recently dead things which are suitable for eating and for injuring living things and making them much weaker to a swarm attack and implantation. Those familiar with delving tombs and catacombs know to be concerned when they can hear the sound of a scarab swarm nearby. But the truly wise know the trouble starts when the chittering stops. Remember, the swarm wants you alive. ##### Sacrificial Corpse **Rank:** Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm) **Features:** - Ragged partially-decayed corpses - Missing limbs, organs - Low moans **Drives:** - Protect the sacred, both place and items - Pursue those who profane **Tactics:** - Slow, inexorable progress - Inhuman strength - Crushing blows The cult of Vexitorus promised its followers a way out of the underworld if they would allow themselves to be sacrificed in honor of the God. They never lied, but they never specified in what shape or form those who willingly gave themselves up for sacrifice would become. Perhaps in the days when the cult was living, their sacrifices stood in better stead. But now, all that remains are desiccated, shriveled husks, often missing limbs or showing the marks where their organs were removed for sacrifice. They stand ready to protect the temple and all within it. Should any of the grave goods be removed, they would pursue the one who did so unto the ends of the world. ##### Skeletal Mage **Rank:** Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm) **Features:** - Animated Skeleton - Hissing, sibilant speech - Corrupt auras **Drives:** - Drive interlopers from the temple - Give active worship to Vexitorus - Add living bones to themselves **Tactics:** - Command lesser skeletons - Raise fear as a miasma - Drain the life of the living The Skeletal Mage is the only example of a living skeleton which maintains the power of speech, though typically it's in languages long lost to mortal understanding. They are the remnant of the priests of Vexitorus, sustained beyond life by their worship of the God and truly terrified of what would happen should they stop in their ongoing adoration. They glimmer with the foul magics that they continue to employ to keep themselves even in this loose semblance of living. Some of them have taken on strange designs as they have harvested bones from those who have not yet joined the dead, fresh from their bleeding bodies, in order to augment themselves. They create a hideous menagerie in the pursuit of lengthening this horrible unlife. ##### Bat Swarm **Rank:** Troublesome (3 progress per harm; inflicts 1 harm) **Features:** - Dozens of black furry bats - Screeching chittering - Leathery wings **Drives:** - Eat insects - Avoid light - Protect the roost **Tactics:** - Fly and buffet - Tiny bites Swarms of bats inhabit the Ironlands from coast to coast and north to south. There are few caves which do not host at least one colony, which can number in the hundreds. Their only interest is in swarming out at night to feed on flying insects and returning come the morning to their roost, where they mate, raise their young, and set forth the next night. They have very little interest in attacking something or someone the size of a human being, though on occasion they will take a shot at a scarab swarm if they get too close or too invasive. ##### Red Worms **Rank:** Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm) **Features:** - Huge red worms - Triangular, blind head - Long, prehensile tongue **Drives:** - Rest undisturbed - Consume living flesh - Burrow into rubble **Tactics:** - Dig up out of debris - Trip and entangle - Snap hard The red worm is an enemy to all living things, including other insects and annelids. While enormous, they marshal their energy by remaining in a state of semi-suspended animation most of the time. Only when triggered by nearby motion will they leap from their burrows to consume whatever flesh is available in a frenzy of action. This is true of both warm-blooded and cold-blooded creatures, explaining the absence of other insects or worms in their living space. Because of their extremely slow long-term metabolisms, they have no inclination to pursue a potential food source because the pursuit would cost more energy than they would get by simply waiting for the next thing to come along. ##### Black Ant Swarm **Rank:** Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Thousands of little black ant-bodies - Hyper-cooperative to form living platforms - Eusocial **Drives:** - Search for easy prey - Search for a new hill location **Tactics:** - Cover the enemy in a carpet of bodies - Bite anything exposed The black ant swarms are not actual inhabitants of the temple. There are at least two hills located in tunnels which access the outside near the river. Neither of these hills are friendly to the other, and conflict between them is not unknown. Currently, one hill is looking to swarm and establish a new location, so there are reconnaissance elements moving into and through the temple in order to find an appropriate place to set up a new hill. The number of undead active in the temple makes it deeply unsuitable, but the ants don't know that yet. ##### Grey Ooze **Rank:** Dangerous (2 progress per harm; inflicts 2 harm) **Features:** - Gelatinous, iridescent slime - Clear, crystalline nucleus - Sticky surface **Drives:** - Encrust surfaces - Feed - Drawn to light **Tactics:** - Drop on things from above - Digest with acidic cytoplasm - Explode in acid on death A fully grown gray ooze can reach up to three feet in diameter. Luckily, they are both slow to grow and slow to reproduce, which they do by direct cellular mitosis. Some scholars have suggested that their phototropism comes from a very low-level conversion of sunlight into life energy. Those same scholars have a significant bounty out for the crystalline nuclei of gray oozes for the quality of their lensing. Gray oozes are well known for encrusting their living area with the dried remnants of their physical excrescence, leaving them coated in a resinous gray material, which itself conducts light. Typically, gray oozes can be found hanging from the ceiling of their choice of pit like an overlarge raindrop waiting for a living being of sufficient size to pass underneath, whereupon they simply let gravity take its course and begin to digest the hapless morsel. When attacked, oozes can actively damage weapons used against them with their acidic interior, and if killed, may explode violently, throwing acid in all directions. ##### Shade Wight **Rank:** Formidable (1 progress per harm; inflicts 3 harm) **Features:** - Faded charcoal skin - Dull, black, lidless eyes - Grubby bronze armor **Drives:** - Feed on life force - Protect the sanctuary - Seek death **Tactics:** - Intimidating growl - Shield of bronze - Immovable The shade wight was made from the sacrifice of those the cult considered to be the most vile of traitors, those who would turn their back on their ranks and attempt to leave. Instead of being freed by the God of the Underworld, they were treated in the least respectful way the cult could conceive: being burned alive, having been separated from the soothing darkness of the God of the Underworld in such a grievous way. Their damnation was to be forever bound to his service until such time their body could be entirely destroyed. No escape was possible then, and no escape is possible now, at least as far as anyone knows. Yet they still seek death whenever they can. Their touch is anathema to life, drawing away the years as others might sip a fine wine, and yet they despise themselves for the pleasure they take. ### Pre-Generated Characters It simply wouldn't do to have a starter scenario without at least a couple pre-generated characters available. Not that character creation in **Ironsworn** is slow or laborious in any way—quite the opposite. A good example with some convenient bonds and a little discussion never hurt anybody. #### Rhodri, Mercenary Free Warden - **Edge:** 2 - **Heart:** 1 - **Iron:** 3 - **Shadow:** 1 - **Wits:** 2 **Assets:** - *Fortune Hunter* - *Skirmisher* - *Infiltrator* ![[Ironsworn - Assets - Fortune Hunter.webp]] ![[Ironsworn - Assets - Skirmisher.png]] ![[Ironsworn - Assets - Infiltrator.png]] **Bonds:** - *Jarl Ohdri,* the lord who claims domain over Stagkirk - *Mattick,* childhood friend, earnest brewer, and Stagkirk resident - *Aida,* fellow Free Warden and jilted ex-lover **First look**: Haggard, Imposing **Personal Vow:** Take revenge on the bandit troupe he used to ride with. (Epic) **Description:** Some people have a natural, carefree, gentle demeanor about them. Unfortunately, this is not one of them. Rhodri is a tall, burly man with a constantly sour look and a thick, short spear shod in black iron slung across his shoulders as if he is constantly crucified. While he is a free warden, he has taken to "accepting donations" as compensation for pursuing the well-being of the communities he comes across. He hasn't descended to all-out banditry, but he's not above eking out a few more coins. It wouldn't be remiss to wonder if banditry was not something that he had some experience with before this free warden business. #### Katrin, Free Warden Mendicant Friar of Daemarkand - **Edge:** 3 - **Heart:** 2 - **Iron:** 1 - **Shadow:** 2 - **Wits:** 1 **Assets:** - *Devotant (Deity: Daemarkand, Linked: Edge)* - *Sighted* - *Slinger* ![[Ironsworn - Assets - Devotant.png]] ![[Ironsworn - Assets - Sighted.webp]] ![[Ironsworn - Assets - Slinger.png]] **Bonds:** - *Caldas,* Free Warden confessor and mentor - *Sibilia the Argent,* silver-haired witch - *Reese,* rancher on the outskirts of Stagkirk **Personal Vow:** Become the chosen avatar of Daemarkand. (Epic) **Description:** Katrin has had a storied life. One which was always devoted to the Church of Daemarkand, the God of Winds. Even as a child, she immersed herself in faithful devotion and submission before the temple in her small village. When she came of age, it was simply assumed that she would become a wandering friar ministering to the people of the Ironlands and helping to lead them in the fertility rituals so common to the lands in the foothills north of the settled areas. Her attunement to the winds and the whispers of Daermarkand led her in a slightly different direction in her second travel. She stumbled into a bit of an awkward situation with a witch and an angry village who blamed the sorceress for the spoilage of milk. They weren't entirely wrong. It was a witch, just not that witch. Sibilia and Katrin hunted down the malefactor and wrought the gods' justice. Thus began a very interesting calling to being a free warden, ministering to the laypeople, listening to the whispers of the wind, and dealing with monsters of all stripes. ## Exit to the Entrance And so we come to a close, with there being a good chance that I've written more in this coverage of the Sunless Fane than the *entire length* of the Sunless Fane. That's no criticism of the source, more a reflection on my absolute inability to do anything at less than an extreme. Though in my defense, I am not just laying the groundwork for a single dungeon, but providing a set of tools that you can use to pursue a whole campaign if you were so inclined. - What's going on with the Hobgoblins north of Stagkirk? - Is this a smaller piece of something considerably larger and more threatening? - How about the Narbonian god of the underworld, Vexitorus? - Is his cult still out there raising the dead and getting into shenanigans, or is this the last and final remnant of all that was made in his name? This could be the launching point for your own saga. And if it amuses you, I definitely say that you should go chase that story until you find where it fetches up. I'm pretty sure this is not the last you've heard of the campaign of *the Sunless Fane* here. Something is itching in the back of my head. Something wants to get out. Let's see what it is. [^1]: In fact, if that's the sort of experience you're looking for, let me encourage you to go check out **[[Five Leagues from the Borderlands]]** because it is going to be absolutely eye-opening in delivering that kind of experience within a much larger, more interesting campaign context. One could easily argue that the rearward-looking OSR slash old-school **D&D** adherents are really more looking toward an adventure wargame framework, but aren't ready to give up their old familiar mechanics. That is left as a discussion for another day. [^2]: Yes, I know. Nothing about this is absolutely required for you to have in front of you, but damn, if the stuff in **Delve** isn't incredibly convenient, useful, and helpful. Seriously, go pick it up. It's cheap compared to most of the things you buy anyway. [^3]: Who, you may well ask, were the Narbonians? That's an excellent question. I don't have an answer for you. Though, if the players get curious about it, that could be the impetus for an entirely new follow-up quest. Or perhaps that is something they would like to dictate into the nature of the world, and it would be perfectly appropriate for them to do so. [^4]: Whenever you can, when playing **Ironsworn**, think about ways that things can go sideways. You're going to need a good pile of complications because success with complications is a very common outcome of most of the moves. Thinking that you've finished your quest and making a progress check only to discover that you've achieved the immediate goal but something else has gone sideways along the way is also common enough that thinking ahead is a good plan. Releasing the undead into the wider world and threatening the town that you're based out of currently is a good complication. [^5]: Increase their rank by one if found in a small pack, and in a large pack, increase it by two. A *formidable* group of 20 Goblin Scuts is nothing to be sneezed at. [^6]: This does raise the obvious question: Is Vexitorus a goblinoid God of the Underworld, or is he a god which opposes one of the goblinoid gods? Discovering that could be an entirely separate line of pursuit. [^7]: I know what you're thinking. Why is an *extreme* rank creature in what is a starting scenario? Well, firstly, he's not guaranteed to show up. In fact, it's pretty unlikely that he's going to show up. If he does, the players will learn something very important very quickly, which is the value of prudence. Secondly, he exists so that they can come back at a later time and mix it up with him after they've gotten some experience under their belt. After all, challenge ranks are considered from the perspective of a given character. If you become significantly more powerful, then it makes sense for things that have already been established to be very difficult to become less so, even beyond the immediacy of your mechanical tools.