Starting Place
A new character chooses a starting location. That point establishes the first expedition and becomes part of the character's region history.
The region map records terrain, rivers, settlements, quest sites, and discovered places. It is separate from the map used inside a dungeon.
A new character chooses a starting location. That point establishes the first expedition and becomes part of the character's region history.
Historical beasts and artifacts can exist before their markers are known. Loyal NPCs and other discoveries can reveal where to look.
Travelling through an external exit can create a new connected destination. Returning through that link leads back to the same place.
Travel range begins at thirty and increases by thirty for each food ration carried. Water and impassable terrain can still block an otherwise reachable destination.
External exits open the region map. A Road Sign also opens it when placed above ground. Ordinary travel requires traversable ground and enough range, while adjacent hexes remain reachable.
The terrain or settlement at the destination influences the kind of dungeon created there: cities and towns, villages and camps, towers, mines, laboratories, northern wilds, northern forests, and ordinary wilderness all draw from different decks.
Combine three Portal fragments over three crafting turns to make an Ancient Portal. Place it and interact to choose any mapped hex, including water. It works underground as well as above ground, needs no food rations, and adds no journey time. The portal remains at its origin for reuse. No return portal appears at your destination.
Rations extend reach. A longer route can open valuable places but also separates the expedition from known supplies and shelter.
Quests provide direction, but progress is often discovered through conversation, events, and actions rather than a single marked objective.
A quest establishes a destination, title, scale, and story. Its events can appear within the dungeon it creates.
The journal records accepted work, revealed locations, and useful facts learned from the world.
Events present choices. Requirements, possessions, prior knowledge, and earlier decisions can change which options are available.
The Undead Acolyte stays in the Chapel after the ritual and offers optional preparations without a deadline. Acceptance gives a Map and 20 experience once. Establish a safe indoor claim, report back, then install a working Hooded Wall Lamp to earn his Sacrificial Dagger once. Existing qualifying claims and lamps count.
His next errands ask for Bloodroots, a fragment guarded by a Fragment Sentinel, and a final fragment held by the stronger Ancient Portal Warden. Return to the Chapel between stages. Combat reports require the recorded defeat and two, then three, carried fragments. Keep your claim active and its lamp working. Journal notes explain the controls; supplies, construction, and crafting follow the ordinary rules.
Moving to another room has a 20% chance to bring a short interlude, and interludes come at least 3 turns apart. An interlude speaks to what has just happened when it can: a kill, a craft or masterwork, a fresh injury, a new level, a nearby grave, a companion at your side, hunger, thirst, or a long quiet stretch. Some belong only to certain dungeons or depths, and the same interlude does not return while it is one of the last three.
Most interludes are only told. Some change comfort for a few turns, shift piety, grant experience, or write a lasting note into the journal. Some are remembered by the place itself, and a later visit to the same room, by the same character or a later one in that dungeon, can recall them.
The Journal tab keeps a Memories section with the 40 most recent moments of the character's story, newest first. Passing sounds from nearby rooms are heard but never kept.
Completing a contract, helping with an NPC's practical need, or abandoning accepted work can become word of mouth. Friendly NPCs pass these memories when they meet, changing how the listener regards that player and sometimes replacing their next greeting with an acknowledgement of the source.
Some consequences wait for time to pass. Others wait for a specific action, place, object, or discovery.
Timelines can wait for turns or watch for a particular act before opening the next event.
The generated history of the region can place notable beasts and artifacts near later expeditions.
Learning where a hidden site lies makes its marker visible. The site already existed; the character now knows where to seek it.