Sneak Peek: Dangers!
over 2 years ago
– Fri, Nov 10, 2023 at 06:56:01 AM
Fortuna favors the bold!
Joanne and Fyrn agreed that we should seek the emerald dragon for counsel, but before we could reach her lair, the loose rock gave way.
As I fell, I had three thoughts. “The people of Drope betrayed us.” “This is a dragon’s trap.” “I may never see my family again.”
The relief when we landed in a bed of spongy fungi, and not the toxic, spore-spewing kind… No, these fungi were on the edge of what I can best describe as a city of gold and diamond, spires, spines, and spikes, all penetrating upward.
We can see and hear no inhabitants. We can detect no signs of life at all, in fact, which tells me this cave has been sealed for generations. Maybe before the Great Descent, even. An Iprecean kingdom, maybe?
This could be the find of our lives, and even if it isn’t, with Kalm approaching it may act as sanctuary during the Kaos storm.
The World Below provides.
Dangers of the World Below
The World Below’s explorers have since their arrival attempted to catalogue and define the dangers they’ve encountered. From small, burrowing bugs to their enormous, devouring cousins. From alien assemblies of eyeballs and mouths to an entire civilization of arachnid humanoids. From caves filled with acidic mist and raging storms to deep, fast-flowing channels of magma. It seems impossible to chronicle every possible threat, yet still people try. You cannot survive unless you know your enemy.
Storyguides may use the pre-written antagonists presented in this chapter or construct their own using the Qualities and Antitheses available. The Storyguide should always be mindful of possible environmental threats to spring on the player characters, too. This chapter presents ways to make environmental threats more than something to just be escaped or survived. Interacting with one’s environment and mastering it is a way of turning a danger into an asset.
The World Below’s many monsters can be divided into categories of severity, ranging from Pests at the lowest end, followed by Blights — which might pose a problem for a new pack of explorers — and then Scourges. Scourges are the things that terrify communities and isolated outposts with impunity. Finally, Horrors make up the most eldritch and dangerous creatures in the Vast Underneath.
Note that while some creatures are capable of flight, wall walking, and swimming, it’s for the Storyguide to decide if the given antagonist has this capability and what actions they can perform during such a state.
Antagonist Templates
Antagonists use a simplified set of character details to allow the Storyguide to easily put one together and abstract what it’s doing. These simplified templates give a general sense of the power level of the antagonist and all the important information in condensed format. The antagonists’ dice pools indicate their general capabilities along with some important actions to which they apply.
Primary Pool: The antagonist’s primary pool is its large action pool. This should be between 6 for the weakest character to 12 for the strongest character. Assign two to three actions the antagonist is good at.
Secondary Pool: The antagonist’s secondary pool is what it is next best at. This should be 2 points lower than the primary pool. Assign two to three actions that fall in this category.
Desperation Pool: The desperation pool is for everything else. This should be half the primary pool, rounded down.
Enhancement: Antagonists have access to Enhancement on certain actions, just like characters. List what kinds of actions the character gains Enhancement on here, and how much. Weaker characters shouldn’t gain more than 1 or 2 Enhancement overall, and stronger characters shouldn’t have more than 5 or 6 Enhancement overall, and they should never have more than 3 Enhancement to any one action.
Defense: Antagonists do not roll for Defense. Instead, this number is a static number that serves as the difficulty to hit the antagonist. This should be 1 for the weakest antagonists, and no more than 3 for difficult antagonists.
Integrity: Antagonists similarly do not roll for Integrity against influence actions. Integrity should be against no more than 1 for weak antagonists or 3 for difficult antagonists.
Health: Antagonists have injuries, but not Injury Levels like the players’ characters. Otherwise, Health works the same way. An “easy to knock out” category only has 1 Health, while others range between 4-10. Above that, Armor, Qualities, or Advantages reflect the sturdiness of bigger monsters.
Armor: If the antagonist has armor, it is stated here. If the armor is magical or elemental in nature, it will be denoted as such.
Initiative: The antagonist’s Initiative score should be equal to its desperation pool.
Qualities: List any antagonist Qualities here.
Antitheses: List any antagonist Antitheses here.
Special: Some antagonists have unique perks to their Qualities and Antitheses or ad hoc rules to reinforce their identity.
Some Status Effects — and less commonly, Area Effects — may seem inappropriate for a given monster. How worthwhile is it to make a vermi feel
Crestfallen or describe them as a
Fabulist, for instance? With this in mind, consider your characters’ Theses, Syntheses, and Sorceries, as some are designed to affect humanoids with personalities and societies, while others are crafted to target monsters such as the ones in this chapter. It’s possible for a power to affect a creature in an unusual way, such as using the Rend the Sovereign Soul on an unthinking beast to make it flee briefly or succumb to a form of mental paralysis, though doing so is best discussed between the player and Storyguide instead of assumed.
Arachniida
My experience with arachniida never went beyond a solitary small one scuttling outside a crevice or the sight of webbing tapestries along the walls of the Illuneian Precipice. Settlers advised me to stay clear of those, and so I did. My luck changed when the ground beneath our caravan collapsed, and we fell inside the webs in the cave below. That day I discovered death runs on eight legs.
Thanks to the warning colors of their exoskeletons and their venom-dripping fangs, people know better than to disturb the arachniida, although caution only helps to a point: The many-legged creatures are often content to feed on less intelligent bugs but waste no occasion to attack prey that stumbles upon their nests or disturbs their webbings.
Arachniida range from smaller than a hand to as big as a cave, with a wicked intellect shining through their multiple eyes well beyond the dangerous cunning other predatory bugs possess. They communicate through an elaborate language Scarabs can learn to speak and demonstrate an unsettling attitude for problem-solving and the use of tools. Some gastrevores theorize arachniida are experiencing a rapid evolution due to the settlers’ invasion of their territory. The implication is that in a handful of generations they’ll become a menace nobody will be equipped to stop.
Template: Pest/Blight/Scourge/Horror
Drive: Weave. Feed. Reproduce.
Primary Pool: 6/8/10/12 (Weave Webs, Stealth)
Secondary Pool: 4/6/8/10 (Hit and Run, Bursts of Speed)
Desperation Pool: 3/4/5/6
Enhancements: 0/+1 Weave/+1 Weave, +1 Poison/+2 Weave, +1 Poison
Defense: 1/1/2/3
Integrity: 1/1/2/2
Health: 1/4/7/10
Armor: 0/1/2/3 (Adhesive)
Initiative: 5/6/7/8
Qualities: Natural Weapons (Bite, Stinger: Poison), Stable (Scourge+)
Antitheses: Devastating Blow (Scourge+) ×1, Entangle ×1, Pull (Blight+) ×2
Extra: 1 Power Advantage and 1 Speed Advantage (Horror)
Natural Weapons
The antagonist is a natural predator and has some form of natural weapon that it can always use even when unarmed. These weapons can never be disarmed. Each additional time this Quality is chosen, pick a tag to apply to the weapons from the following: Abyssal, Brutal, Deadly, Dreamcrafted, Electrified, Flaming, Ice, Kaos Touched, Long Range, Painful, Piercing, Poison, Reach, Returning, Shadow, Stunning, or Wrecking. If a natural weapon can be used at range, it’ll specify the range in brackets.
Stable
This antagonist is immune to the use of the Knockdown Trick and gains +1 Power Advantage against attempts to move them.
Devastating Blow
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Prerequisite: Scourge+
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Health: Half Health
-
Type: Reflexive (Melee)
The antagonist hits a character so hard that they immediately gain the Taken Out Status Effect. For example, a giant arachniida may swoop down and kidnap a character, while a Kaosist might pull down a cave roof on top of another.
Entangle
Through silky webs, lashing roots, shadowy tendrils, or other means, the antagonist can immobilize their opponents. The antagonist applies the Overgrowth Area Effect centered on itself out to medium range.
Pull
With fiery whip, web leash, gravitational clutch, or any other method, the antagonist drags its victim right into their grasp. The attacker is moved two range bands closer to the antagonist.
Chitters
Down here it’s either eat or get eaten, a way of survival that always made plenty of sense to me. That is, until I learned about the chitters. Chitters are… vurth, they’re all-consuming winged bugs, only as big as carts. The noise they make and their horrible, makiru-like faces make clear they’re anything but. They treat us like we treat mindless bugs, going as far as making deals with settlement leaders to protect people from enemies and predators in exchange for the right to harvest ripe livestock when they’re hungry. An offering only the foolish and the desperate accept, but it’s not like these tunnels lack either…
An oddity raising uncanny questions about the boundaries between settlers and insects, chitters keep more communities under their heel than sensible scholars like to imagine. Although it’s unclear whether they started as insects who evolved in response to the makiru expansion in the World Below or explorers who left behind their nature to become insectoid predators, chitters are clever, malicious, and lethal.
With thick skin and sharp mandibles, a chitter pack makes for a deadly treat, but the creatures feast and prosper thanks to their cunning more than their might. Chitters look for isolated settlements without allies, circle them while terrorizing the inhabitants with demonstrative assaults, and establish a gruesome ecosystem where the humanoids live as cattle for harvesting.
Chitters take care of their “herd,” happy to defend them from dangers and let people come and go as the necessities lives demand, but at the same time reserve themselves the right to slaughter anyone t. Whoever reveals the settlement’s secret or rebels is taken care of like a sick beast endangering its kin, while the chitters force the others to live in a nightmare where everyone prays to not be the next in line to feed their monstrous master.
Template: Pest/Blight
Drive: Surround a community, tend to it from afar, harvest mature prey.
Primary Pool: 6/8 (Close Combat, Stalk)
Secondary Pool: 4/6 (Coordination)
Desperation Pool: 3/4
Enhancements: +1 Stalk
Defense: 1/1
Integrity: 1/1
Health: 2/4
Armor: 1/1 (Light)
Initiative: 3/4
Qualities: Hive Coordination (Blight), Hive Mind, Natural Weapons (Chitin Spurs, Mandibles: Piercing)
Antitheses: Leap (Blight) ×2
Hive Mind
The antagonist shares an instinctive connection with other creatures in its hive. Provided it’s not separated from its peers at extreme range or greater, everything the creature sees or experiences gets shared across other members of the hive.
While this complicates all attempts to avoid detection, the shared information begins and ends with a given creature’s perspective. If characters flee or kill the creature who spotted them, the alerted reinforcements won’t demonstrate any prescient knowledge of their current position.
Hive Coordination
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Prerequisite: Scourge template or higher; Hive Mind.
Within the network of its hive, the antagonist plays a central role in the control and organization of the colony. Other creatures with the Hive Mind Quality in the Area gain a +1 Enhancement on all rolls when the antagonist is present. Multiple instances of this Quality within a scene don’t stack.
If all antagonists with Hive Coordination involved in a scene die, other members of the colony must roll their desperation pool. On a failure, they either flee or fail to recognize their peers as allies and attack them.
Leap
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Type: Reflexive (Any Attack)
The antagonist moves two range bands in a single bound, be it an impressive jump, an eldritch blink, or any other means of sudden movement. If this happens as a result of a ranged attack, the antagonist may use Leap to close the distance to the attacker.
Dragons
Dragons are a rare sight, but not one you’ll ever forget. Although their reptilian features and vast wings refuse to let the world forget their original majesty, dragons had to adapt to their subterranean home, as we all did. But how a body looks doesn’t define a dragon: their true heritage is power. Can you imagine how that feels? To be a living portent, to change the world with every breath? That’s what dragons are.
Among the mightiest creatures of the tunnels, dragons are presences no settlement can ignore. Be they merciless overlords, solitary monsters, or enigmatic hermits, dragons imbue the land around them with their own brand of power, drawn from Kaos and processed through the crucible of their being.
While their personalities vary, dragons are driven by pride, desire, and an aspiration to a magnificence lesser beings cannot comprehend. Their morality sometimes aligns to that of other creatures but exists in a different paradigm. A dragon can act as patron for a settlement while being a winged bearer of destruction for another, but each demands respect, if not outright worship, while plenty of dragons refuse to entertain conversation with non-dragons.
Although dragons consider the reminder a heinous offence, most of them are foreigners to the World Below. They have Dialectics of their own, although they consider those of others as disgusting aberrations. The land near a dragon’s lair takes after its master, changing according to the shape of their Dialectic.
-
Template: Horror
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Primary Pool: 12 (Destruction, Grandiose Shows of Power)
-
Secondary Pool: 10 (Scout the Lair, Wealth Accumulation)
-
Desperation Pool: 6
-
Enhancement: +1 Close Combat, +2 Impress, +2 Ranged Combat
-
Defense: 3
-
Integrity: 3
-
Health: 10
-
Armor: 3 (Kaos Forged)
-
Initiative: 6
-
Qualities: Attentive, Destructive Force, Frightening Presence, Natural Weapons (Claws: Brutal, Deadly, Piercing) (Fangs: Deadly, Piercing), Stable
-
Antitheses: Defensive Rebuke ×1, Devastating Blow ×1, Devour ×2, Push ×2, Trample ×2, Wave of Destruction (Varies Depending on Dragon) ×1
-
Extra: 1 Durability Advantage, 2 Power Advantage
Attentive
The antagonist is extraordinarily difficult to take by surprise. All actions to avoid its attention face a Major Complication. Failure to buy it off alerts the antagonist that something’s amiss despite not noticing the character and will investigate the general area. Additionally, attempts to evade its pursuit or lead it on a false trail are made at a +1 difficulty.
Destructive Force
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Prerequisite: Scourge+, 1+ Power Advantage
Due to its mass or sheer power, the antagonist devastates the environment with their blows. Their attacks gain access to the following combat Trick:
-
Demolition (2 successes): Rubble and debris fill the environment, applying the Demolished Area Effect to the scene as a Moderate Complication. This Trick can be purchased twice per action, in which case the Complication increases to Major. Any artificial structure or object in the Area is destroyed at Storyguide’s discretion.
Frightening Presence
Both people and animals see the antagonist as a dangerous threat not to be messed with, providing it 1 Social Advantage when intimidating others. Minor characters and Pests flee from the antagonists at its mere sight.
Defensive Rebuke
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Type: Reflexive (Any Attack)
Whether peaceful, awe-inspiring, or intimidating, the antagonist’s mere looks discourage people from hurting them. The attacking character refuses to attack the antagonist again this scene unless it attacks them first. If a character successfully buys off the Complication from this Antithesis, it cannot be used against them again this scene.
Devour
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Prerequisite: Blight+
-
Type: Reflexive (Melee)
The antagonist swallows their prey whole. While inside the antagonist’s belly, the target can only make an Athletics action against difficulty 1 for Blights, 2 for Scourges, and 3 for Horrors to escape. Failure to escape inflicts a single damage on the swallowed character. Each damage the antagonist suffers in the same turn lowers the difficulty to escape by 1, to a minimum of 1.
Most antagonists can devour only creatures of smaller size, but exceptions exist.
Push
The antagonist launches their opponent away, either through sheer force or mystical means. The attacker is moved two range bands away from the antagonist.
Trample
The antagonist charges at its opponents with violence. As part of a rush movement, the creature may purchase the Shockwave Trick for 1 hit. Unlike a normal rush, Trample can be used even if the antagonist starts at short or close range.
Wave of Destruction
-
Prerequisite: Scourge+
-
Type: Reflexive (Any Attack)
The antagonist unleashes a lethal attack across a wide area. Examples include a gold dragon’s fiery breath, an earth geoprocugalla’s seismic tremors, a Hypogean herald’s eldritch detonation, and a quaesitor’s disintegration ray. The antagonist deals 1 damage to all characters within medium range. Choose a single element when purchasing this Antithesis. Apply an appropriate Area Effect based on that element, such as Aflame for fire, Darkness for shadows, Flooding for water, Suffocating for air, Extreme Temperature (Cold) for ice, or Quaking for earth.
Haemexii
The haemexii fancy themselves a noble heritage, but you ask me, they’re nothing but a pestilence. Behind the doors of their blood-soaked citadels, deep darkward, they swarm upon their victims, draining them dry and then lapping at the drenched floor. I witnessed how flesh, chitin, and crystal rot away when receiving their curse, only for the matter to reshape itself in their nightmarish features. “Blood is life,” they chant, seeing us as a herd whose only purpose is to slake their crimson thirst.
Long ago, back before the Exodus, a darkward community made a terrible discovery. Digging deep, they found a slumbering god, wreathed in chthonic darkness. In that moment, the explorers made a decision. Some wonder whether an external influence revealed a secret — perhaps murmurs from the all-consuming Abyss — if only to explain what happened: each member of that civilization sunk their teeth into the sleeping god’s flesh and drunk deep, gorging themselves on divine essence. In a baptism of blood and death, the haemexii were born.
Haemexii exist somewhere between life and death, doomed to forever feast on other beings’ blood. Their dark curse changed them, a reminder of their blasphemous crimes: all haemexii resemble ravenous parasites, although the most powerful ones learn to mask their true nature. The curse carries forward even to those initiated in their secret society today. The promise of climbing through their ranks and eventually obtaining the blessing of their dark aristocracy spurns far too many to sacrifice everything they hold dear and leave their humanity behind.
The haemexii consider themselves supreme predators and dark demigods, seeing their need to feed on others as a divine right.
Qualities: Clingy (Aggressive), Natural Weapons (Bite: Poison), Unusual Anatomy, Vulnerability (Bright Light, Fire)
Antitheses: Consume ×2
Clingy
Whether through multiple limbs, an engulfing anatomy, or stranger features such gravitational powers or time magic, the antagonist locks their enemies into place with ease. The Break-Up Grapple, Overwhelm, and Disengage Tricks cost 1 additional hit to be purchased against antagonists with this Quality. This Quality has two versions: aggressive and defensive.
With the aggressive version, the Establish Grapple Trick is reduced to 0 hits.
With the defensive version, all Close Combat actions against the antagonist suffer a Minor Complication. Failure to buy it off results in the antagonist grappling the character.
The Quality can be picked multiple times to grant the antagonist both versions.
Unusual Anatomy
The antagonist’s biology demonstrates extraordinary resistance to all sorts of stress, to the point it’s questionable to define it as “living.” Increase the cost to purchase the Critical Trick by 1 hit for all non-spell altered attacks.
The Storyguide can also use this Quality to represent undead, artificial, or otherworldly creatures, choosing whether the antagonist ages and if it needs to breathe, sleep, or eat.
Vulnerability
Choose a sensation, behavior, substance, or source of damage. Each turn the creature is exposed to its vulnerability, it must roll its secondary pool as a reflexive action. On a failure, they either flee or are unable to act while their Defense lowers to 0. The antagonist suffers 1 additional damage from all attacks or hazards related to this vulnerability.
Consume
-
Type: Reflexive (Any Attack)
The antagonist consumes the Kaos inside its victims to sustain its own life. If it successfully hits in close combat, it can regain 1 point of Health by eating a generous handful of humanoid flesh. Antagonists express this Antithesis in different ways, such as devouring blood, brains, and souls.
If using this Antithesis would bring the antagonist’s Health above its maximum, the creature gains a +1 Enhancement on all rolls for the remainder of the scene, with successive instances raising it up to +3.
For Scourges and higher, Consume applies to all the antagonist’s ranged combat attacks as well. For Horrors, when the antagonist uses Consume on a target for the first time in a scene, it gains 1 Power Advantage.
Haemexii Warrior
While pages keep their masters’ homes in order and torment prisoners, warriors represent the bulk of the haemexii military force. Each wears the insignia of a dynastic house, ancient lineages almost as old as the haemexii themselves. Soon after the first nobles drained the dark gift from the sleeping god’s veins, they warred against each other in a furious war for supremacy. Broken alliances, betrayals, and vile strategies played prelude to countless battles, where warriors dutifully played their role.
Proud of their nature, haemexii warriors resemble humanoid spiders and assassin bugs. Their physical features suit combat well, but warriors train for the equivalent of entire mortal lives to fight and triumph for their dynasty. Their skills make them fearsome opponents, but warriors are so certain of their superiority they risk underestimating their foes.
Template: Blight
Drive: Exalt and defend the glory of their dynasty.
Primary Pool: 8 (Drain Blood, Combat)
Secondary Pool: 6 (Martial Discipline, Rally the Troops)
Desperation Pool: 4
Enhancements: +1 Combat
Defense: 1
Integrity: 1
Health: 6
Armor: 1 (Adhesive)
Initiative: 4
Qualities: Natural Weapons (Bite: Poison), Noxious Blood (Minor)
Antitheses: Beast Master ×2, Entangle (Medium Range) ×1, Leap ×2
Noxious Blood
Acid, lava, or another hazardous substance runs through the antagonist’s veins. When picking this Quality, select a Complication rating. Whenever characters strike the antagonist in close combat, they must buy off the Complication to not take 1 Injury.
Beastmaster
The antagonist can control beasts and vermin. As a simple action, it can focus on an animal inside medium range and roll its primary pool opposed by the target’s Integrity. On a success, the animal follows all the antagonist’s orders until the end of the scene to the best of its abilities, although it might still flee should characters scare it away.
Leap
-
Type: Reflexive (Any Attack)
The antagonist moves two range bands in a single bound, be it an impressive jump, an eldritch blink, or any other means of sudden movement. If this happens as a result of a ranged attack, the antagonist may use Leap to close the distance to the attacker.
Well Liches
What defines the Well Liches is power, pure and simple. Theirs isn’t a title one earns easily: All liches are the true masters of the Well, supreme rulers of Kaos. Anytime one decides to pursue their own mysterious goals outside the Well, their presence is enough to change the fate of settlements for generations. Yet, for all their might, never forget the truth they dread the most: they’re not invincible. Some have died in the past, when arrogance led them against horrors more terrible than them, but also by the hands of those who successfully rose against them. Their rule seems inescapable, closer as they are to gods than mere kings and queens, but the liches weren’t always there and the Well grants its blessings to anyone strong enough to claim them.
... and that's a pretty good sneak peek of the chapter! We'll get the full draft version - including the full write up for Well Liches - on Sunday when our final manuscript section becomes available for backers!
This campaign ends in FOUR DAYS! Please continue to share with your social circle and on your social media! Tomorrow, I'm going to review our pledge tiers and Add On options for those looking to join or wanting a refresher. As mentioned, on Sunday we'll have our final section from the draft manuscript so backers will be able to read the entire current version of the book before any pledges are processed or payments collected.
So join in if you haven't already!
#TheWorldBelowProvides
FINAL WEEK COUNTDOWN!
over 2 years ago
– Wed, Nov 08, 2023 at 11:28:45 AM
Drope. Somehow, the Obscura took us lower than Longdeep. This strange place of deep stone and Kaos rock, and its stranger inhabitants are watching us as if we’re contaminated with something. We assured them we haven’t been to the toxic surface, but at that point I just don’t know.
Joanne is prepared to leave by herself, and Fyrn is listless. I’ve given them both my honest feeling that the party that sticks together survives. For now, I think they believe me, but how much more can we take?
We should have never passed through that Kaos portal.
The Faceless priests tell me there’s an emerald dragon not far from Drope, though it respects the settlement’s boundaries. Is it reckless that I want to converse with this dragon and discover why it’s so placid? Maybe it could advise us on a way through this stratum?
Or maybe I’m ore-addled. I’ve been away from Telver’s Hearth for too long.
Hello Diggers!
We're officially in the Final Week Countdown for this Crowdfunding campaign! Over this final week I'll be sharing a handful of instruction and review-type posts about Reward Tiers & Add Ons, Stretch Goal reviews, and What Comes Next, so if you've got any process questions or are wondering about how the Kickstarter steps work, I'm hoping to clarify any remaining questions before we finish. Of course, if you're still wondering about something, please ask and I'll help as best I can.
Final Week Program
- Nov 10 - Sneak Peek: Dangers!
- Nov 11 - Pledge Tier & Add On Review
- Nov 12 - Manuscript Preview # 5 - Chapter 10 + Appendix
- Nov 13 - Stretch Goal Review
- Nov 14 - Final Day Checklist & What Comes Next
Recruiting New Backers
I know, this is something I've already said many times (and seem to say during every project!), but for this final week, you are officially an Underground Ambassador for this project. It's time to share your excitement for The World Below! Basically, we want to recruit as many interested backers as possible to form our own Community of Backers over this final week.
I know I end every update post with "Keep spreading the word! Invite others to join in!" - but what does that mean, and how do you do it?
Easy answer - don't stop talking about The World Below until 2:01 PM EST next Tuesday November 14th (when the campaign has ended). Yes, family and friends are tired of me talking about it. The end, that's all I can say. But what else have I got to talk about? And they've learned to tolerate me during a crowdfunding campaign. But here's the thing - there are others around who haven't heard or don't know about the campaign.
There are many groups that might love The World Below but haven't heard because they're not in the right cavern at this time! OSR fans who would love the difficult odds and survival aspect of the game. Community builders who would love the rules for the Kalm season and generational play! Ed Greenwood fans who remember the old articles in
Dragon magazine or the early days of the
Forgotten Realms.
World of Darkness fans who see some of the familiar themes that Matthew Dawkins is so fantastic at exploring.
Scarred Lands fans who may find many familiar names and ideas buried deep in
The World Below.
All groups that may not have founds this project as it's not their usual type of game. But all of these groups could find something within this manuscript, and join in the many more who love this latest upgrade to the Storypath system and the Onyx Path crew!
Anyway, I'm saying: please continue to spread the word and let's see if we can't make some new tunnels and reach some new communities!
Resources to Share
If you're inviting new backers, or if you are a new backer (hi new backers!), here are a few key resources to be aware of for this campaign.
Backers are able to review the (soon-to-be) complete manuscript for this book before the campaign closes and any pledges are processed. No need to wonder about which Paths to take or how sorceries work, no need to guess at the creatures that dwell in the deep darkness. Know what you're getting into by checking out the draft manuscript!
And, if you join now, as I've noted, we'll be posting the final Antagonists and Monster-focused chapter of the book next Sunday before we reach the finish line.
Writers and Developers Talk About The World Below
Not only can you read the draft manuscript for this book, you can get a peek behind the curtain and hear the writers talk about how it came together and their thought processes in creating the game!
The World Below Actual Plays
I love reading the manuscript and hearing the team talk about the game, but a great way to get a sense of the game is to sea and hear it in action! These Actual Plays showcase the gameplay and the setting of The World Below.
I mean, that's A LOT of people playing the game!
The Gentleman Gamer
And, finally, you can hear it right for the horse's mouth, as it were! Matthew Dawkins, developer of The World Below, gives overviews of much of the game in his guise as the Gentleman Gamer.
If you're trying to explain the game to someone, the easiest thing to do is just to send them that final link! I think all of these are great to watch for potential backers - BUT ALSO for current backers! In addition to reading the chapters, I've watched these videos and got a much better understanding of the system and setting. Great stuff!
ONYX PATH DISCUSSION CHANNELS
You may also be able to get further insight and possibly some in-depth conversation at these Onyx Path discussion zones:
Share the Links!
1) Don't forget to share a link to the campaign in any discussion you have (where appropriate) - and feel free to pass any of the long list of links above to those who may need more info (or, just point them to this post!)
2) Don't forget to tell us about any post or review or discussion you write! Come to the comments section and let us know so we can all go and contribute! I know I keep saying it, but really - these last days are key. Keep the enthusiasm high (hitting stretch goals certainly makes that easier!) and keep on inviting others to join in, either directly ("Come see...") or just by setting an example of your enthusiasm and interest.
Final Week
We've got one week to go, everyone! Thank you all so much for your support! We work together because it's the right thing to do, and because backers make it better! Let's finish strong! And let's continue exploring this new game together, sharing our feedback with the writers and delving into the draft manuscript, and let's see if we can't get another Stretch Goals before we review next Monday!
#TheWorldBelowProvides
Preview: Realms Charted and Terrible
over 2 years ago
– Thu, Nov 02, 2023 at 06:49:15 AM
Genrik doesn’t know where we are, but the ground is soft, the earth above our heads is more clay than rock, and torches are placed along this passage.
That’s right, torches!
I can’t see any sunflies and the lichen here is sparing. Could we be skyward? I’ve heard tell of the people of Mud Town and Tark, and how they produce their own sources of illumination… But I found a discarded, damaged tower hammer beneath one of them. Why would a weapon from Fortress be all the way up here?
Don’t be mistaken, I should be ashamed. If my theory is correct, we’re in exactly the wrong place. But if the Union has a guildhouse in the next settlement we find, what kind of reward might await us for finding a Kaos portal leading here?
The World Below may seem largely civilized, but this misapprehension is one cultivated through context. When you rely on written and spoken accounts of a vast, populated world, you develop the idea that help is never far away, that sanctuary exists just at the end of this tunnel, that the bottomless chasm can’t truly be bottomless, as you fall and keep falling. Traversing the World Below is a little like walking off the mapped tracks of a deep forest hike; you may well be close to other people just like you, but if they can’t see you or hear you, and if you don’t know which way leads back to safety and which way leads to deeper wilderness, you’re as hopeless at 500 meters from the road as you are from 500 kilometers.
The World Below is dangerous. It’s no small wonder that most people within it cling to their habitats like drowning sailors to floating debris, even as it slips from their fingers. Just because a cave, a trail of crystals, or signs of life indicate safety, doesn’t mean you’re ever truly free from danger.
The World Below is flexible. While numerous settlements — from the seemingly protective to the threateningly bizarre — are presented for the Storyguide and players to create their character Dawns and to use as the rest stops or end points of campaigns, their placement, accessibility, and permanency are for the Storyguide to decide. A subterranean city you reached a month ago may have been sealed off in the last Kalm, requiring fresh tunnels to access, or may have even shifted strata or wards. One of the most terrifying things is when the World Below convulses again, opening an old passage to a place long believed lost. How will that place have changed in the intervening years? Will its people be the same as they were before, perfectly preserved, or will dreadful changes have occurred during their isolation or movement through the World Below?
The Dawn communities and settlements from Chapter Two: Paths into the World Below are provided further elaboration, with some delving into the realms’ secrets and others receiving only hints of depth, allowing players and Storyguides to come up with the details themselves. Additionally, lost and forbidding places are given profile, as not every settlement is a welcome retreat from Kaos.
Agosby (pronounced “Ahg-oss-bee”)
“My vines are frayed, but soon they’ll grow again, and be stronger than ever!”
Identifiers: Agosbyr (common), Precarious (internal — lower class), Frayed (internal — at risk), New (internal — new settlers and merchants), Solid (internal — settlement mainstays, upper class), Chasmites (derogatory)
Popular Idioms and Idiosyncrasies:
Agosbyr enjoy idioms referring to drops, falls, and disappearances, as all are common to these people. They’re naturally suspicious of new arrivals in their settlement, as resources are low. Agosbyr names are often soft on the ear to begin, and uniformly end with “r’Agosbyr.”
“That one’s destined to drop.” (“They’re pushing herself too hard.” / “They’re going to get in a fight they can’t win.”)
“Would that I could fall as far as gold, at least.” (Common phrase when things are going bad and you’re looking for the upside.)
“Chasm beckons.” (“Time for work.” / “Death is near.”)
Agosbyr are a daredevil people, simply due to the placement of their settlement. One cannot dwell in the walls of a chasm without developing an affinity for deep drops and the risk of death. It’s a common ritual among Agosbyr to “let the young fall” via vines. The idea isn’t to kill or injure them, but to “drive the screams from their bodies.” The Agosbyr theory is, if you fall enough times, you’ll cease to fear the drop. Resultantly, Agosbyr chase increasingly dangerous experiences, producing many adventurers with short lifespans.
Agosby is ruled over by the Council of Bridges, a group of architects who claim membership in the Company of Artificers. Their primary focus is the stability of their settlement, as they’re fully aware an earth tremor could send the whole town collapsing to the bottom of the chasm. The question of moving on is never broached, however, because of the Vanyth Chasm’s rare properties. Namely, the darkness within the chasm is manipulable and can be harvested by experts who lacquer their body and equipment in its qualities, making shadow, deep stone, and Abyssal blades and armor. Some theorize the bottom of the Vanyth Chasm is a gateway between the Dark and the Abyss, making the shadows tangible in this way.
Story Hook: The Fall
The Council of Bridges is a meritocratic syndicate, and in theory, its membership holds no hereditary benefits. The theory’s called into question when this season’s council refuse to let their young drop into the Vanyth Chasm. They make claims such as “it’ll distract us from our work” and “it’s an antiquated, risky practice,” but it sounds to the majority of Agosbyr like “our children are more valuable than yours.”
For the first time since its establishment, the Council of Bridges is at risk of removal, and several replacements have reared their heads, including the Temple of the Benevolent Earth, who believe they can reinforce Agosby through faith and purging the unworthy elements (starting with the council) and a commune order of other guilds, where every Agosbyr receives representation other than artificer guilders.
Bura (pronounced “B-yer-ah”)
“Our wants are simple. We have no high ambition beyond survival and enriching ourselves during the short time we have available.”
Identifiers: Bura (common), Buranese (formal), Raiders (informal), Burald Buckets (derogatory)
Popular Idioms and Idiosyncrasies:
Bura have a habit of mixing up or dropping their words when intoxicated with burald and take poorly to having these errors pointed out. Therefore, an intoxicated Bura might say “Cave for us to get the time” instead of “It’s time for us to get to the cave.” Such language is confusing to anyone not familiar with Bura culture. Bura names are often hard sounding, leaning on hard a’s and i’s.
“Dunk my head.” (“I need an intoxicating dose of burald.”)
“They have spines of gold and lead.” (“These people are cowards.”)
“Magma burns, blades cut.” (“You’re stating the obvious.” / “We’re in a bad situation.”)
The Bura are friends to few but are tight with their own. The Bura live and die for each other. It’s suspected their loyalty is reinforced through a form of addiction: they all ingest a toxic mixture of ground emeralds, zinc, and Kaos rocks, the result of which is the highly potent burald drug (from where they get their name), which doubles up as an intense combat stimulant (which applies the Insensate Status Effect when imbibed, and certain Theses can improve to create other effects). Ignia — the Buranese War Queen — crafts batches of this intoxicant via her moving brewery, and her personal guard can’t help but enslave themselves to its properties.
Buranese raids and their destabilization of other communities unintentionally serves to strengthen the Well Liches, though Ignia may be more aware of this than her people. She’s effectively a magma Elemental at this point, physically altered and seeping along tunnels as a flow of hot, melted stone before taking humanoid form to scorch or incinerate anyone who dares oppose her people, as well as concoct potions.
Bura only share with others when a threat from outside is dire. This is typically a danger in the form of a monstrous raid or army, or a colossal ptera carving its way through the rock toward a settlement. While they’re content to scavenge the remains of a destroyed habitat, they’d rather be seen as heroes and paid for their efforts in saving others. And then, when the habitat is weakened but grateful, the Bura hold them up for even more.
Story Hook: Withdrawal
The emeralds are running low on the Bura’s current stratum. A temple to Fortuna employed a mining expedition to gouge out every emerald they could find and retrieve them for a holy ceremony and the crafting of gem flails, resulting in a vital ingredient for burald running dry.
Without a drug to sate their addiction, the Bura are even more aggressive than normal. A canny adventuring party would avoid them, but it’s not long before the raiders assault the temple or attack traders and messengers in the vain hope of finding the gems they seek. Assisting the Bura would no doubt win long-term allies in the roving community.
The Crystal City
“It is a time to swallow pride and venture forth for aid.”
Identifiers: Glitters (common), Regals (respectful), Unpolished (derogatory), False Gems (derogatory)
Popular Idioms and Idiosyncrasies:
Glitters possess a superiority complex when addressing those from other settlements, leading to common accusations of snootiness and arrogance. Glitters often remark on something good as “as a diamond” (or another precious mineral) and something bad as “like mud.” Glitter names always invoke precious stones, such as “of the Ruby” or “made-of-Jet.”
“I’m as keen as a diamond.” (“I’m very intelligent.” / “I’m enthusiastic.” / Sarcastically, “I don’t care.”)
“The most precious gems are the most delicate.” (“Protect the weak among you.”)
“Lapis!” (Common curse word.)
The Crystal City of today is a broken settlement built on bluffs atop alkaline falls. Many still live there, eking out an existence among the gems, but their spirit following an anarchist uprising that — while justified in tackling the long-embedded nobility’s corruption — left the settlement vulnerable to a mass darkling onslaught. The darklings abducted dozens of families, including the remnants of the ruling Jetta family. The Crystal City has always been a firmly familial place, with three ruling dynasties. With the Jetta family removed and politics unstable, the others can scarcely fill the void.
Many feel sure the Crystal City will soon collapse, for saviors are few and far between this far fadeward. Some adherents of the Well venture to the Crystal City, with the intention of revitalizing it as a massive cathedral to the source of all Kaotic power. Meanwhile, many of the Crystal City’s other noble houses have decided to migrate to the Obscura permanently, deciding that such temporal pursuits as rule over a ruined settlement are no longer worthy of their time or attention.
It’s a sad time for one of the World Below’s most opulent jewels.
Story Hook: Restoration Project
To restore the Crystal City to its former greatness would require scouring the darklings from all neighboring cave complexes (and those sundruds can hide well), recovering the abducted families, and installing a new government. Some have proposed that now’s the time for a more democratic form of rule, but the truth is, the Crystal City has only known autocracy and can barely survive a political revolution.
Though the Crystal City has its share of heroes, they look outside for a strong pack willing to preserve them. For all their dire need, they’re too afraid of losing what little they have to defend it themselves. No doubt they would reward any help with armfuls of jewels, were the settlement to stand tall once more.
Mud Town
“Weary feet shall wear no longer. Come, rest a while.”
Identifiers: Noroi (formal and archaic), Survivors (common and informal), Mud Towner (common), the Multitude (formal), Scum (derogatory)
Popular Idioms and Idiosyncrasies:
Noroi are an incredibly diverse bunch prone to all manner of linguistic and manneristic traits, but one thing holds true: solidarity among them is paramount. Terms such as “brother,” “sister,” “bratan,” and “kin” are common even where blood relations are absent, and any long-term inhabitant of Mud Town is welcome inside the home of another. Sanctuary comes first, even when hostilities between people exist. Noroi names are richly diverse, but they try to encourage ease of pronunciation.
“My kin, we greet a new day!” (Daily celebration of survival.)
“You are my sister, from now until forever.” (“I will die for you.”)
“A locked door is a cursed door.” (A common phrase indicating that sanctuary should always be given to those who need it.)
Mud Town is, to many of the World Below’s inhabitants, the most cosmopolitan, interesting, and welcoming settlements in the realm, sat amid bridged swamps and bubbling murky pools. To others, it’s the dirtiest, most overpopulated, and thief-riddled slum. Opinion is therefore split on Mud Town’s merits, but what it is, is a settlement where anyone can get lost, much arcana from Kaos portals can be found, and where quests are easy to acquire. Mud Town hospitality is no joke, as despite the cramped quarters in the Mud Town caves, it’s in the law that everyone is owed a bed, a meal, and friendship when needed. If a bed can’t be found on the ground, why, you could make one in the roots of the vast plant poking its tendrils through the ceiling.
Mud Town’s caves have remained solid for a long time, meaning people set up on top of each other, with huts stacked as high as the cave allows, and berths pressed into every tight corner of the confined area. The camaraderie that comes with it is sufficient to offset discomfort for most of the settlement’s people. The constantly blossoming flowers growing from the roots above Mud Town convey a sweet odor to the otherwise sticky air.
Companies of explorers commonly set forth from here, as it acts as a neutral waystation between the truly dangerous surface-approximate settlements and the more unknown realms below or further darkward, and has links to the Ferrous Road and Manyways Dark. Doing so requires avoiding ptera races in the tunnels surrounding Mud Town. Jockeying a ptera to championship is a feat many a Noroi aspires to, though the constant charging of colossal bugs results in a persistent rumble-to-drone-to-rumble sound throughout Mud Town’s environs.
Story Hook: Soft Drop
The central issue Mud Town faces is the soft earth surrounding it. It’s a boon in that it’s easy to gouge out chunks to form new habitats, but it’s a hindrance in that vermi burrow through the clay and chalk as if it were nothing. Therefore, when several huts and lodges collapse into drops that suddenly open beneath them, panic runs through Mud Town, followed by the solidarity for which it’s known, as packs of rescuers retrieve everyone who fell.
What’s curious, is the pits didn’t open up due to vermi tunneling. The graybeards of Mud Town are stupefied, as the ground seems to be giving way at irregular intervals, as if something is sucking the town downward, but no nesting or burrowing creatures have been discovered below. Worryingly, the descents are continuing, and though a plunge isn’t imminent, 200 meters darkward of Mud Town is an immense cave containing rivers of magma (the heat from which keeps Mud Town pleasantly temperate at most times).
Tekelau (pronounced “Tech-kel-law”)
Baeromyn Galandard, Oracastrian Explorer for Hire, discusses this wretched place.
Far to the darkward, yet not so far as Skullcrag, there’s a great natural cavern, a rift a day’s hard travel long, but twice that top to bottom. So, a great drop. It’s called the Scar for its looks, or the Wailing Place, for the eerie, echoing calls sometimes heard there, and magnified by the rift to travel far out through the caverns and passages of the surrounding Dark.
At about its midpoint, so far as any explorer can determine, the Scar is crossed by a rough but slender natural stone bridge. On one side of this crossing is a ledge that many passages of the wild Dark open out onto. On the other is but one tunnel, leading on from the Scar into a labyrinth of carved, smoothly cut passages and chambers that some have termed a “dungeon” but most now think is a long-abandoned city. Who or what dwelled there is forgotten, but there were a lot of them, and the passages and rooms argue that they were large.
Beyond the city is a lone large, straight corridor that runs on into the Dark a considerable way before opening out into its sole destination: Tekelau.
Very few have ever seen Tekelau and survived, but it is much discussed among the guilders, where most consider it the temple of a mysterious god venerated by the creatures known as tekeli-li and others. It’s said that some who’ve explored it have joined the ranks of these celebrants, but I am not one of them.
I have seen Tekelau, every corner and cranny, and returned repulsed and with no desire to return. I confess myself unsettled by the thought of others who returned to walk among us and may have been inwardly changed by their visit — a change that may one day manifest horribly. Watch your back.
So what can be found in Tekelau?
Large caverns, natural but smoothed by tool-work to have soften-roughed walls, ceilings, and floors that are neither smooth nor flat. Most of these chambers have an overall ovoid shape. They were sculpted to converge on a vast innermost cavern with a back wall that glows with natural radiances in the stone, an eerie mint-green-to-white endless subtle flickering or pulsing, a hue I’ve not seen elsewhere. This backlights the only features within the cavern, through which an endless gentle, cool breeze blows, of fresh air that comes from no visible source, but seemingly from the — solid, I checked — ceiling at one end of the chamber.
These features are three pairs: a row of thick, not-identical natural stone pillars, the smallest as thick across as six or seven large adult humans standing shoulder to shoulder at its narrowest point, each having a hollowed-out basin in the bedrock before it, basins stained dark with what I believe — and many others believe, too — is old, spilled-on-many-occasions blood.
On my visit, there were no creatures in the temple other than myself and my five companions; none of us knew the deity this holy place — for we could feel that it was such; there was an air of vast and silent brooding power, watching us at every moment, so strong that we spoke in hushed tones and moved with respect and care — and none of us were aware of what rituals were enacted here, let alone how to conduct one.
We saw only rock pillars and stained basins sculpted out of the solid stone floor before them, and no more.
Yet I have collected accounts from others who saw more, and although strong burald was used to loosen some tongues, and the others were of differing ages, backgrounds, and motivations, there was a remarkable degree of similarity among them.
They all described that sacrifices — living creatures slaughtered on the spot, sentient beings rather than pack or food animals or bugs — were made in the basins, and a chanting call was uttered as these beings died, and this caused the deity to manifest.
In any of the pillars that a sacrifice was made before, staring eyes of various sizes, and needle-fanged jaws, also of varying sizes, appeared, seeming to bulge forth from hiding deeper in the bedrock, and then “swim” around the surface of the stone, cruising about. The boldest explorers say they dared to touch the pillars and felt that they were temporarily elastic and yielding where such features were, and were moving toward, while remaining of normal hardness everywhere else.
As the chant went on, more and more eyes and jaws appeared, until the stone columns bulged irregularly and resembled gigantic pickles in shape, festooned with a random array of clustered eyes and jaws, all intermixed, of different sizes, and drifting around, the mouths biting hungrily at the air and even jutting out momentarily on snakelike “necks.”
The celebrants cried out praise and desires — calling out wants and needs they wanted the god to grant, interspersed with frequent supplications of “Be with me!” — for a time, as the pillars of solid rock writhed like things alive.
Until eventually and “inevitably” (that is, this happens every time the god manifests, according to several witnesses who saw this multiple times, though I must caution that these were the same informants whose sanity I doubted the most) one of these hungrily working mouths accidentally bites an eye. When this occurs, a shrill ululation of surprised and disgusted pain echoes about the cavern, all the pillar-eyes close, all of the roving-in-stone jaws will “chatter-clatter” and then snap shut, and then all of these features sink back into the stone and vanish utterly. For a time.
So far as I can tell from the confused and contradictory accounts of what follows manifestations, supplicants adulating in the temple then give of their own blood in rituals involving the basins and sacrificed creatures (and of eating organs raw from those creatures, and even carrying off severed fingers and toes, eyes and tongues for later private devotional uses).
And then they depart, but go forth infected in some manner. When strong hatred or the desire to kill or destroy rise within them thereafter, they can temporarily transform into the tentacled oozes known as tekeli-li, retaining their own skills, strengths, and hardiness but gaining the Antitheses of a tekeli-li.
I strongly suspect that tekeli-li worship at the temple often, but go off into the labyrinthine city and hide at the approach of non-tekeli-li, as if under orders to do so, in order that such intruders may reach the temple unimpeded. Some accounts shared with me even suggest they may lure or herd non-tekel-li to the holy inner cavern. They devour or otherwise remove sacrifices after non-tekeli-li depart, restoring the temple to readiness.
And for all I know — though this is mere unsupported conjecture on my part — they may breed, or bring forth eggs or young, or split apart to produce more tekeli-li (however such oozes produce new oozes of their kind; I know not) in or near the temple. They certainly receive guidance — direct orders? — from the god manifested in the pillars of the temple.
Story Hook: New Blood Needed
In strata well above Tekelau, motley adventurer-mercenaries conduct a rash of kidnapping raids on many caravans and settlements, assembling long, chained-together lines of captives. Which they lead deeper, heading for Tekelau and fighting off hungry predators along the way. Wandering merchants, miners, and explorers are all pounced on, out in the wild Dark, and added to the lengthening coffles of captives. Some sort of grand ritual is planned. Will it result in an eventual army of tekeli-li issuing forth to attack other settlements, high and low? Or will so many sacrifices be used in rituals that call on Kaos to “bring in” the god of the temple, or strange and unfamiliar monsters, from elsewhere, to raid the World Below at will?
Zilenz (pronounced “Z-eye-lens”)
“Ice is the purest of things. It can be melted, mined, consumed, worn, weaponized.”
Identifiers: Zilenzian (common), Silence (inaccurate), Ztoics (formal), Killjoys (derogatory)
Popular Idioms and Idiosyncrasies:
Zilenzians tend to be monks, and with that, possess a stoic bearing, exuding a quiet confidence in most of their actions. However, in private, the Zilenzians are a rowdy, entertaining bunch. No people are as prone to telling meandering, exciting stories of explorers and adventurers past than Zilenzians, perhaps as they store so many records in their monastery. Sadly, few get to see this side of them. Zilenzian names heavily incorporate the letter z in place of s.
“My fists fears nothing.” (“I will kill this creature.” / “My fists may fear nothing, but I sure as the Abyss do.”)
“Euphoria is a reward.” (“Delay your celebrations, for we have hard work ahead.”)
“This reminds me of the story of… I’m sorry, I forget myself.” (Common example of the duality with which many Zilenzians live, being storytellers and stoic monks.)
Zilenzians dedicate their lives to pilgrimage, learning, collection, storytelling, and pacifying hostile creatures, though they rarely kill. This manifold lifestyle means Zilenzians are a complicated people, as though they’re ostensibly a clutch of monks without a permanent monastery (they abandoned it after potent elemental spirits tore the place apart and occupied it), they each have their own role on the spectrum of Zilenzian edicts. Most Zilenzians focus primarily on their strength of body and building resistance to disease and poison.
For all the monks of Zilens fear other settlements for risk of infection, they have a marvelous affinity for large bugs and using them as mounts. Even ascetics need to hunt and eat, and the tunnels in the ice caverns are spacious enough for them to saddle up a beetle and go riding. It’s quite a sight to see a Zilenzian throwing javelins at prey from up high.
Story Hook: Reclaim Our Home
Zilenzians possess a martial bent, though it’s far from their main dedication. They are too few to reclaim the monastery of Zilens themselves, and so it’s fallen upon a handful of Zilenzians to travel the World Below and recruit trustworthy mercenaries (if that isn’t an oxymoron) to do so for them.
The snags are that the monks of Zilens are unwilling to get too close to their hires, and they’re not sharing how these elemental spirits came to occupy their monastery. Only one — a Plutonic monk named Pariz Zhadow-Tainted — is eager to fulfil the role of storyteller, and in so doing revealed to a pack in Oracaster that the abbot of Zilens was an impressive, but risk-prone Kaosist who opened a portal in the monastery’s heart, and that same abbot never left the monastery. Whether he’s still alive or not is as great a mystery as how to close the portal.
Well, I've removed Tekelau from my vacation list!
As always, this is just a small preview - a brief tour - of some of the locations described in
The World Below. Backer will receive much more on Tuesday, when we share our next manuscript preview. As always, anyone who supports this project will be able to read the entire draft manuscript before any pledges are processed or payments collected.
We're currently in the quiet part of the campaign - the smaller spaces of The World Below, with quieter echoes - but we are drawing ever closer to the end of the campaign. Please continue to share this campaign with your gamer friends and on your social media. Let's see if we can't unlock one more Stretch Goal before we start our final week countdown next week!
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