it was expanded by an invading army in a sapping operation.
2
the city above is a hub for chthonian mystery cults who use the underground for their rites and temples.
3
its builders incorporated the existing cave network below the city.
4
it’s built through the ruins of a previous city which was ruined and sunk beneath the earth.
5
it was constructed by a team of golems who never received the order to stop constructing it.
6
it was originally intended to be a supersized alchemical apparatus to extract the fundamentum profundus.
D6
Something you’ll probably want to avoid in this sewer is
1
the clans of albino crocodile-folk.
2
the swarms of rats that have learned to hollow out the space between skin and bone to puppeteer bodies as their own.
3
the grimy naiads corrupted by dumped pollution.
4
corrupted memetic organisms dumped from the Akashic Records.
5
man-eating giant eels that lurk in the pipes.
6
a cabal of sorcerous newt-things who plot to overthrow the dominion of all things furred, feathered, and scaled.
D6
Something you might want to enter this sewer for regardless is
1
its infamous black market which sells the most vehemently forbidden materials above and below the earth.
2
the hoard of a prolific cat burglar who challenged any would-be successor to find it shortly before being hanged on the gallows.
3
an interplanar gateway to the Mudtropolis of Goblinkind.
4
artifacts discarded by the gods themselves at the dawn of creation, which obey different conventions than everything else.
5
sewer-hippos, which can be loyal and terrifying war-beasts if raised from infancy.
6
a legendary chamber that is said to erase anything that enters it from the memory of the rest of the world.
D6
Some other people you might encounter in this sewer are
1
tosher-gangs in scrap-wood gondolas, scrubbing the muck for dumped valuables.
2
the toiling, literal underclass of a culture long-fallen, unwilling to stop their menial work for fear their masters will return.
3
terrified indigents, and the aristocratic youths in oiled leathers hunting them for amusement.
4
unwashed aspiring Diogeneses.
5
smugglers moving high-value, highly illegal product through where the law fears to tread.
6
blighted ascetics who believe that the sewer is the ideal representation of the befoulment that is the fallen world of matter.
D6
The depths of this sewer slop into
1
the temple of a god of filth.
2
a fortress of duergar, who use the waste in their biofuel reactors.
3
the underworld of an extinct religion, very upset to have dropping droppings soil their idyllic afterlife.
4
an otyugh mega-hive.
5
a bottomless pit, a hole to a negatory void-world.
6
a hell which has a local monopoly on the souls of usurers. They’ve put the fecal cornucopia to awful use in their torments.
D6
A disease you might catch from this sewer’s uncleanliness is
1
reverse pica, which compels you to get other creatures to eat you and your belongings.
2
terminal detonationitis, which causes your corpse to explode 1d6 rounds after you die.
3
miasmic dissolution, which lets you temporarily transform into a poisonous mist. Every time you do there is an increasing chance you lose your mind and won’t be able to change back though.
4
loam disease, which softens your flesh and weakens your immune system’s response to plants. If special care is not taken you’ll soon become covered in blood-sucking weeds.
5
cloud-gout, which makes your head and extremities swell with lighter-than-air gas. Floating up too high will cause the swollen parts to burst and distribute infectious droplets on the wind.
6
rending parasitosis, which causes your fingers to extend into bony claws infested with parasites. Any wound dealt by the claws will be full of these parasites’ young.
is bound with a cover made from human teeth and nails.
2
was inked with the discoloured blood of inhuman beasts.
3
is a mere fragment of a greater work, all that could be preserved from a purge.
4
is, or has become, a living creature. Its pages pulse with a faint heartbeat, and absorb unwary worms for sustenance.
5
has synaesthetic text, words that are smelled or felt more than read.
6
changes its exact wording each time it’s read.
7
always appears in the dreams of those who’ve read it before, where it remains perfectly legible.
8
will pluck at the strings of fate to place itself in the possession of ambitious sorts if it’s sealed away for too long.
9
is a glass puzzlebox which projects its text when a light is shone through it. Rearranging it reveals another segment of text.
10
has increasingly deranged marginalia scribbled in a dozen different hands in its open spaces.
11
makes you speak its words aloud as you read it, someone else’s voice coming from your throat.
12
appears to be written in gibberish until you add your signature to the many that fill its otherwise blank front page.
13
glows with a sickly light, so that it is legible even in total darkness.
14
seems fated to injure its readers. One can scarcely turn a page without getting a papercut.
15
has a section of actual human spine as its spine.
16
is fireproof, and can only be read in full by immolating it.
17
causes its reader’s eyes to bleed. Reading it too much
inflicts blindness, as readers become unable to see anything but the
grimoire.
18
is a stack of clay tablets. There’s more tablets in the
stack than it seems there should be based on its size and weight, and
any tablets removed or destroyed inexplicably return to the stack.
19
heals any damage done to it, leaving a mottled scar.
20
is written in a code that takes sustained effort to crack. Without this effort, it seems to be a mundane cookbook.
D20
This grimoire was written
1
by a doomed poet who dove deep into a mystery cult for inspiration.
2
by a scholar who claimed to have tapped into the Akashic Records, where all knowledge is stored.
3
by a popular medium while in a trance, shortly before their mysterious disappearance.
4
by a priest who became obsessed with dubious apocrypha.
5
by an unknown authour. It simply appeared in history one day.
6
by an entire village, one page to a person, before they walked together into the night, never to be seen again.
7
by a thousand deranged monkeys.
8
by the head doctor of an asylum, based on the rantings of their patients.
9
by the hands of an infamous thief, after they were cut off as punishment.
10
by a historian based on their collated research on several lost civilizations.
11
by a child who claimed to have been inspired by their imaginary friend.
12
some time in the future. What you might find of it now is an imperfect, backwards copy anticipating its own original.
13
shamefully, by a secret heresiarch.
14
apparently long before any other example of written language.
15
by a self-proclaimed prophet who claimed to have received its text in a god-granted vision.
16
by a hermit best known for throwing their feces at visitors.
17
by a jaded noble who brought ruin to their estate in pursuit of limit-experiences.
18
by a professor and their closest students, who barricaded their university and slaughtered the rest of the inhabitants.
19
as a bowdlerization of a yet more dreadful tome.
20
by the hands of the true creator of the world, allegedly.
D20
The lore which this grimoire contains
1
is rituals to summon demons, though not to control or banish them.
2
is how to mix potions which induce mutation.
3
is the secret names of angels, which allow them to be bound against their will.
4
is the location of a dormant undead army and the means to command it.
5
is how to open portals to inchoate realms beyond the conventional cosmos.
6
is knowledge of how to enslave human souls to animate fell golems.
7
is rituals to transform oneself into a kind of intelligent undead: a vampire, a ghoul, a lich, and stranger sorts besides.
8
is a tragically flawed ritual to resurrect the dead.
9
is spells to cook together living things into hybrid monsters.
10
is rites to commune with a banished and vengeful divinity.
11
is a rite to shuck one’s own dooms, curses, and misfortunes onto a more innocent scapegoat.
12
describes how to slip one’s soul away from just punishment in the hereafter, or damn another to far worse than they deserve.
13
is rituals to transfer your mind into another’s body,
consuming their self in the process, or to splinter off pieces of your
mind to fester and infect another’s.
14
is how to call up plagues, but not how to cure them.
15
is the method to create a sphere of annihilation.
16
can be used to immanentize the eschaton.
17
is knowledge of how to remove human organs and replace them with empowering alien substitutes.
18
is how to steal life-force from others to enhance and extend one’s own.
19
is charms to bend the minds of others.
20
is how to steal and pervert divine magic.
D20
This grimoire was forbidden
1
so that its temptation to prospective seekers would be increased.
2
not for the lore it contained, but rather for its satirical preface which offended a political leader.
3
because hidden in its text is a memetic weapon that drives readers mad.
4
because its cover forms a seal that unleashes a malign spirit while it is open.
5
because it’s a failed attempt at a phylactery, and so its writer(s)’s ghost(s) can haunt anyone who’s read it.
6
because it was used to facilitate an atrocity.
7
due to the blasphemous ideas its text promulgates.
8
because none of its lore is accurate, and is in fact a trick for an even darker purpose.
9
because reading it is a spiritual hazard that dooms one’s soul to a truly unfortunate afterlife.
10
because it’s proof of the limits of safe, sane magic.
11
because of the machinations of a sorcerer who thought it plagiarized their own work.
12
because it was once the key element in a plot to hasten the apocalypse.
13
because the lore it contains could destabilize the natural order of things.
14
because prophecy held that great evil would follow if it were not kept out of sight of perusing eyes.
15
because the gods have a habit of smiting indiscriminately around it.
16
by a tyrant who didn’t want anyone else to be able to tap its power.
17
due to popular demand.
18
because as it’s read it refines and expands on itself by reading in turn the minds of its readers.
19
because the publishing house that owns the rights to it gets violently litigious if there’s any chance it might be copied.
20
as an excuse to seize it for an authority’s use.
D20
This grimoire might be found
1
locked up in the archives of a scholastic monastery.
2
in the hoard of a dragon who gathers knowledge rather than gold.
3
in a parasitic, paradimensional library that siphons the collection and readers of other libraries.
4
in the study of a libertine aristocrat.
5
as the centrepiece of a mystery cult.
6
in a sealed chest in a mermaid’s sea-cave, looted from a shipwreck.
7
chained to the wrist of a cenobite-censor.
8
within the wooden shell of a filing-golem.
9
in the possession of a cult transcribing it onto woodblocks for printing and widespread distribution.
10
through a map encoded in an occultist’s notes.
11
clutched in a dead wizard’s desiccated claws.
12
in the lab of a researcher trying to extract insights palatable to conventional magical practice.
13
in a revolutionary’s hideout, as a weapon of last resort.
14
as the heirloom of a clan of backwoods hedge-witches.
15
in a tower on a barren island, its garrison all dead of simultaneous suicide.
16
sorted among mundane codexes by a senile bureaucrat.
17
locked in a safe in an inquisitor’s office.
18
in the possession of an orphan being groomed by a loose familiar to become an obedient archmage.
19
in a decrepit sanctum, guarded by a vampire awaiting the return of their master’s reincarnation to claim it.
a brandistock, cunningly designed so that if it is twisted just right it will shoot out its blade like an arrow.
2
an arquebus with an axe-head affixed to its stock for desperate close combat.
3
a broadsword and buckler. Both have seen more combat than the warrior has, and wear it in their scars.
4
a steel-shod club.
5
a poleaxe with a head shaped like a grinning skull.
6
a pike with a gilded tip.
7
a serrated scimitar.
8
a morning star with its head shaped to resemble a hedgehog.
9
A sabre and its scabbard, which is sturdy enough to be used as a bludgeon and parrying tool.
10
a partizan adorned with bloodstained feathers.
11
a brace of pistols and a pair of daggers.
12
a wavy flammenschwert.
13
a tower shield painted with a roaring lion, and a long flail that can strike around it.
14
a composite bow. They’ve notched vulgar insults into the shafts of all their arrows.
15
a spear and kite shield. The spear bears a notch for
everyone it’s killed, the shield for every time it’s saved the warrior’s
life.
16
a halberd with a bird’s nest impaled on its point.
17
a glaive elaborated decorated to resemble a wickedly thorned rose.
18
a rapier and a long knife.
19
a sling with lead shot, and a seax for when the enemy gets close.
20
a warhammer. Its head is shaped like an anvil.
D20
This warrior fights in
1
clanking old half-plate.
2
a corroded coat of chains.
3
iron scale-mail molded to look like a pangolin’s armour.
4
treated textiles tough enough to offer some protection, dyed in abstract patterns.
5
mismatched pieces of armour taken off a dozen different bodies on a dozen different battlefields.
6
rattling, ill-fitted lorica segmentata.
7
roughly-stitched, muddy hides from animals large and small, furry and scaly.
8
a breastplate polished to a bright sheen, and poofy brocaded silk sleeves.
9
plates of shell and chitin pried from the flanks of man-eating war-beasts.
10
a shredded mail hauberk with arrowheads inextricably stuck in its rings.
11
a burgonet, jackboots, and boiled leather.
12
splinted steel vambraces and greaves, a rusty coat of plates.
13
an enamelled crimson cuirass.
14
barding meant for a horse, hammered out to fit them.
15
lacquered lamellar.
16
a cloak reinforced with light metal plates, with chains wrapped around their forearms to help parry.
17
leather trousers, hobnailed boots, and woad war-paint.
18
an Almain rivet with a couple missing and dented plates.
19
mirror armour, its central chest disc molded to resemble an open palm.
20
a brigandine coat, its cloth soiled and torn.
D20
This warrior fights for
1
a queen long dead, a country that no longer exists.
2
the ecstatic trance they enter in the heat of battle, unmatched by any other pleasure they’ve experienced.
3
revenge against the whole of the world.
4
just enough pay to get them high.
5
the fulfilment of their unconscious deathwish, so that they may join their fallen comrades.
6
the perfection of their technique, so that they may teach the next generation of warriors.
7
the only god who ever answered their prayers, a bloody and rapacious thing.
8
no other reason than it comes easily to them.
9
the chance to stare into someone’s eyes as they die.
10
an escape from the bonds of civilized society.
11
an outlet for their sublimated frustrations.
12
a plot of land they dream of retiring to.
13
the chance to find an old enemy on the battlefield and finish their feud.
14
the sake of accumulating sin to join their damned love in the hereafter.
15
a fiery and uncompromising faith.
16
the approval of a father no longer able to grant it.
17
accolades and trophies.
18
the funds to found a warrior’s paradise.
19
the satiation of a curse which demands they spill ten
drops of guilty blood for every drop of innocent blood they’ve taken, or
else suffer unimaginably as their veins smoulder from within.
20
the naked truth they believe to be revealed in life-or-death situations.
D20
This warrior stands out on the battlefield
1
for their obstinate ferocity. They have never retreated from a battle without being dragged by their companions.
2
for their blood-curdling war-shouts.
3
for their calm and clear sight even in the thickest fog of war.
4
for the elegant execution of their enemies.
5
for the technical precision of their fighting.
6
for their graceful, dance-like movements.
7
for their unpredictable speed.
8
for their brutal strength.
9
for their numb resistance to pain and wounds.
10
for their disrespect to fallen opponents.
11
because they seek out the strongest-seeming foes to fight.
12
because of their towering height and abnormal reach.
13
for the nigh-impassable wall that is their guard.
14
for their opportunistic hit-and-run tactics.
15
for their impeccable observation of proper battlefield decorum, and fair treatment of prisoners.
16
for the way their charismatic presence lends their fellows courage.
17
because of the sweet scent of the perfume they douse themself with before every battle.
18
for the way they can predict their opponents and plan ten moves in advance.
19
for the sheer dumb luck they must have to survive their own clumsiness.
20
for their dirty tricks and unflappable wit.
D20
When this warrior cries out in their sleep they are reliving
1
the moment they squandered an entire campaign’s worth of pay on an ill-advised gamble.
2
the beatings they suffered at the hands of their mentor.
3
when they had to hide among the reeking dead and were trampled beneath them all the same.
4
a duel they lost by their overconfidence, and survived only due to cowardice.
5
a campaign they marched for so long they forgot the smell of home.
6
a rout so total that more were killed by the weight of their fleeing comrades than were on the blades of the enemy.
7
a combat fought in tunnels so close you couldn’t swing a sword.
8
a battle fought within fading firelight, those at the sputtering edge picked off by blind enemies.
9
an ambush when they were caught wading waist-deep through mud.
10
a terrible trip they suffered because of the hallucinogenic venom smeared along an enemy’s weapon.
11
the moment they realized they were going to live and die by the sword.
12
a fight against a monster no mortal weapons could scratch.
13
the moment they received a wound whose scar still aches even all these years later.
14
the turning point of a battle when those they thought were steadfast allies betrayed them.
15
a time they thought they’d found peace fell into chaos once more.
16
the loss of their dear love while they were away on campaign.
17
the long sickness that wasted away their hard-earned strength.
18
the civil schism that turned them against their brother.
19
when a priest cursed the warrior with their last breath.
20
the moment they sold out their comrades who planned to desert their army.
The four faces of the sun (dawn, noon, dusk, and
night), passing between their rites in time with the day. Eclipses bring
much consternation and heretical squabbling to them.
2
A god who takes the form of a snail, and teaches the
ways of comfort and stress-free living. While meditating, the priests
let colourful snails with soporific slime crawl over them.
3
A sacred fire ensconced in a forge at the center of
their temple. Through it, metal and flesh alike might be reforged into
finer forms.
4
A god that lives within a giant discarded snakeskin. It
has power over wisdom, the past, parenthood, and all other things that
are lost with the old.
5
The concept of motion itself. Their temple is festooned with waterwheels and whirligigs.
6
A heavy executioner’s blade that took 999 lives at a
king’s behest before taking that king’s head as well, considering it an
avatar of death-as-the-great-equalizer. Aging priests consider it a
great honour to die by its stroke.
7
A coin-god who embodies not wealth or greed but simply
the coin itself, a far-ranging medium of exchange laden with symbols of
nation and authority. They collect all sorts of coins, and punish
clippers and counterfeiters cruelly.
8
The collective will of all living things. In this will
humanity’s complex and contradictory desires are believed to be
outweighed by simple ones for food, safety, and perpetuation.
9
A living saint who was able to save thousands in a recent famine by regurgitating an endless supply of rice gruel.
10
A god of gaps, which exists in ignorance and absence.
At the heart of their temple is a cave where no light has ever shone,
where their god is said to rest.
11
The perfection of mathematics. Their temple is built according to sacred geometrical principles.
12
A hot spring, the fumes of which grant ecstatic
visions. Many priests proudly bear the burns of overindulgence in these
scalding revelations. Much of their temple is dedicated to housing and
feeding the holy monkeys who bathe in the spring.
13
A miraculously immortal dog who eternally guards its master’s grave (which their temple was built around).
14
The muse of dance. All the priests are expert dancers and host balls to preach their doctrine.
15
The piled bones of a race of horned demigods who ushered in a golden age long ago.
16
Riddling trickster spirits that conceal potent lessons in oblique pranks.
17
A divine serpent who both lives in and is all storms.
The mystery of this serpent is that it contains both violent and
nurturing ideals.
18
The original language, supposed to exist before war and
strife and the division of humanity. The priests gather tomes and
tongues to reverse-engineer it from myriad scraps.
19
A vast, impenetrable pantheon of impossible forces and
deities: the Blind Omniscience, the Obscurant Lantern, the Suffocating
Breath, and the Edgeless Sharp, to name a few.
20
A gnarled tree covered in eyes that weep analgesic sap.
The priests administer the sap in their rites, and consume so much of
it themselves their tears become red and constant.
D20
These priests wear:
1
Very tall hats that trail emblazoned banners from their tops.
2
Nearly-identical masks. The happier the expression on the mask, the higher the standing of the priest wearing it.
3
Sashes embroidered with mandalas.
4
Tattoos that depict their central myths on their skin.
5
Bells according to the vows they’ve sworn. The more their vows isolate them from common humanity, the deeper their bells toll.
6
Pages of scripture dangling from their earrings.
7
”Swords of the spirit” at their side. These swords are
bladeless (or have an invisible, spiritual blade as the priests claim)
and are used for gestural rituals and exorcisms.
8
Blessed cilices which they must not remove at any time.
9
Antique outfits that were in style when their faith was founded.
10
Delicate manacles around their wrists to symbolize their dedication to their faith.
11
Rainbow turbans.
12
Crystal brooches carved in the shape of a key object of their religion.
13
Live, hallowed herbs grown in soil tucked into pockets in their robes.
14
A silver hoop they’re gifted for every year of service.
15
Tabards stitched with hymns.
16
A vial containing the ashes of prior generations of priests.
17
Nothing but body paint most of the time, as going skyclad is an important part of their rites.
18
Alternating black and white lacquer on their teeth and nails.
19
Eye medallions on their forehead and the back of their head.
20
Outfits which must be made of animal fibres above the waist, and plant fibres below.
D20
These priests’ faith:
1
Is a cynical front they use to gain temporal power and worldly rewards.
2
Is sanitized for the general public. The truth behind it is darker than it seems.
3
Is casual, not taken overly seriously.
4
Has been challenged lately, the priests themselves split between doubters and those who’ve doubled down.
5
Is rife with shibboleths, circles of initiation, and similar tactics to exclude the untruly devoted.
6
Is innocent and unquestioning.
7
Is zealous, keen to challenge rival faiths and earthly authorities.
8
Is fuelled by fear of the consequences of disobedience.
9
Started as a splinter sect of a larger religion.
10
Is focused more on performing the right practices rather than holding the right beliefs.
11
Is informal and unhierarchical. The priests are outnumbered by lay practitioners.
12
Requires them and their congregation to observe strict guest rights.
13
Is under continuous revision and renewal due to the weight it places on charismatic prophets and spontaneous inspiration.
14
Is ordered by a set of commandments which each priest must memorize and carry on their person in some form.
15
Is a revival and reconstruction of a once-extinct religion.
16
Is built upon an older and more widespread tradition of taboos and superstition.
17
Is dogmatic, permitting no deviation from ancient interpretations.
18
Is syncretic, incorporating pieces of many other faiths as they’re encountered.
19
Is intellectualized, with a rich scholastic tradition.
20
Is fanatical. They’re very insistent missionaries, and avenge any slight against their faith threefold.
D20
These priests’ congregation:
1
Has a contingent of trend-setting nobles using them as the flavour of the week.
2
Is composed of beggars, pickpockets, prostitutes, and similar sorts disregarded by other priesthoods.
3
Is made of a single rich patron and that patron’s household.
4
Is a single extensive clan, from which the priests themselves are recruited. It’s an ethnic religion.
5
Is made of urban tradesmen and professionals.
6
Is segregated by the astrological sign they were born under.
7
Come more to jeer at the priests than share in their worship.
8
Is made up of bohemians, outsider artists, and other mild rebels.
9
Is made up entirely of slaves and serfs, as due to an
obscure but unbreakable tenet they believe humans are unworthy of
worshipping the divine. Only a human who’s become chattel is suitably
humbled to approach it.
10
Smoke entheogens in a huge shared hookah to come closer to the divine together.
11
Is made of impoverished or disgraced nobles who cling to its tradition.
12
Are mummified and interred in the temple crypt in praying poses after death.
13
Are drawn to the priests by otherworldly dreams.
14
Are forbidden from eating unmilled seeds.
15
Place great stock in the babbling of the very young and the very old.
16
Are taught an arcane language known only to the faithful.
17
Is composed of sailors and traveling merchants who find stability in their faith.
18
Is mostly bureaucrats looking to make connections and further their careers.
19
Is mostly made up of a warrior society who attribute their success in battle to the priests’ blessing.
20
Buy entrance to their temple with blood drawn by cats’ claws.
D20
These priests want:
1
To see a prominent critic of theirs silenced.
2
To commission the construction of a grand new idol.
3
A neutral arbitrator to decide between interpretations of an omen they’ve received.
4
To hire rough sorts to reclaim a lost bastion of their faith.
5
To stop whoever or whatever has been picking them off one by one.
6
To find out why their usual methods of working magic haven’t been working lately.
7
To have a stolen artifact of their founder retrieved.
8
To be freed from the persecution they’re suffering under.
9
An outsider to contrive the events of a prophecy that will lead to the birth of their messiah.
10
A cell of schismatics to be rooted out and brought back into the fold.
11
One of their number who’s been imprisoned for disturbing the common peace with aggressive preaching to be broken out of jail.
12
To put together an impressive festival to drum up donations.
13
The skull of their recently deceased leader to be left
in the hidden sanction of a rival priesthood as a sign of their own
superiority.
14
A monster that’s been plaguing the countryside to be captured and sacrificed as a display of their faith’s power.
15
A good home to be found for the bastard child of one of their members.
16
To have a contest of mysteries that is to be held before the king be rigged in their favour.
17
A demon particularly opposed to their faith to be
banished back from whence it came for the embarrassments it’s visited
upon them.
18
A spy in their congregation who’s been stealing their mystic secrets to sell to other temples to be brought to justice.
19
Someone expendable to undergo a dangerous dream-quest to ascertain the wishes of that which they hold to be divine.
20
A wraith haunting a building near their temple to be caught and bound as their guardian spirit.
