I stand astride a precipice – in my dream
the sounds and smells assault my senses and red-raw throat stings from sea-salt steam.
Reach, reach, screech and scream,
rough fingers scrabble against the crystalline air and briny tears suck the last moisture from my raisin eyes.
I take a step. I grasp my prize.
I clutch my trophy as I pass into saline skies.
On the northern edge of town, where the waves of the ocean give way to endless waves of desert sand, lies a great acrid pit. The Kohlmari Salt Mine was once a prosperous source of income for the region. When the Kohlmari Corporation stopped work in the mines, the income of the town evaporated overnight. Now three years later, a prominent young investor from the nearby city of Éllowen has come to town looking to restart the mine and get the salt flowing again. He’s hired your team to clear out the mines of any squatters or vermin. Additionally, he has offered to pay handsomely if you can find any reason that the Kohlmari Corporation stopped work in the first place.
Theme: Salt
This set leans heavily into salted, cured, dried, crystalline imagery. Every surface is rough and jagged, the creatures are sunken and thirsty, and even the air is dry enough to make your eyes sting and your throat red-raw. Iron and steel may rust before your very eyes in the deepest saline depths.
Used under CC-BY-SA license
Set Name: The Desiccated Depths
Set Goal: Retrieve evidence of the terror lurking in the depths of the pit.
Description: The Kohlmari Salt Mine is a multi-leveled and well-connected series of tunnels. Minecart tracks lead up and down the twisting caverns, and abandoned and rusted mining equipment lines every room. A hot, dry, saline wind blows from deep within the mine, baffling every rational explanation for its existence.
Moments
- Just touching the rough wall slices through your thick gloves, creating a gash that sears with unbearable pain.
- A glittering stalactite falls from the distant ceiling, shattering into billions of floating crystals.
- Jagged and parched howls echo from somewhere deep within the mine. More coyotes, or something fouler?
- Rivulets of tiny crystals stream down the wall, almost appearing as water droplets cascading down a hidden stream.
- A pickaxe is stuck half in the wall, its handle turned to dust and the blade rusted to nearly nothing. Bleeding veins of red iron contamination flow down the wall from the axe’s wound.
- A shaft of light comes down through a crack in the ceiling. Motes of floating dust, blown by the winds, create linear patterns as they blow through the beam.
| Props | Traps | Treasures |
|---|---|---|
| The Entryway Sunlight bounces in infinite fractal patterns between the walls’ crystal facets, imbuing the whole room with a strange sourceless light. Storage racks of a strange metal, long since stripped of any valuables, line the southern wall and the mine’s entrance looms dark at the far end. | -A trio of dehydrated wolves, scared and desperate, have made this entryway their home. -Some of the security systems on the storage racks still activate, creating a short lived alarm blast that may alert other denizens | -In the piles of broken and rusted mining equipment, a few implements still seem useable enough. -A hulking automaton lies inactive and rusted in a corner. Could it be restarted, or is it only good for scrap parts?* |
| The Upper Levels Winding and twisting passages lead deeper under the desert. The unexplained dry winds pull the moisture from your skin, mouth and eyes. Dozens of mining carts lie scattered and abandoned, and could be repaired for quick mobility about the mine. | -Some cart tracks have been rusted away or covered by stalagmites, and occasional crashes are inevitable. -The howling winds carry enough salt to scrape away skin and flesh, sandblasting the bones beneath to a clean polish. | -Bodies of the poor miners who were left behind still carry tokens of their past lives. These tokens and bodies may be extremely valuable to the families who lost their loved ones. |
| A Refuge In one of the back tunnels and hidden behind a loose boulder is a secluded room protected from the harsh winds. In the center of the small room is a pool of faintly glowing blue water. The water seems to be resistant to the salt, and won’t be absorbed by it. | -The spirit of the pool has a mind of its own, and desires company and safety. -Skeletons of previous miners lie at the bottom of the pool, obscured by the blue glow. | -Drinking of the pool can grant temporary armor against the saline effects of the mine -The spirit of the pool may leave to inhabit an automaton or other worthy vessel if persuaded. |
| The Egg Deep in the mine, deeper than is wise to travel, a crack in the tunnel floor leads down into an opening within the rock. The hot, dry winds stream from the crack into the rest of the mine. The crack opens into a 100 foot diameter geode of enormous salt crystals, each nearly fifteen feet long. | -The geode is the original prison of the Salrog, see below. – The air is so saline at this depth that metal and iron are constantly being corroded away without proper protection. | -The very center of the geode is a brightly glowing pink crystal; the Saline Heart. This dangerous magical artifact is the leftover relic of a failed ritual, and is causing the terrible winds and animating the Salrog. |
* Note – Players may want to use the automaton as a mech to fight the Salrog. While the suit is currently non-operational, bringing the suit to the glowing pool in The Refuge may serve as a means of reinvigorating it. You can incorporate this into your game using Darren Brockes’ Mecha in Trophy Gold rules from the Gauntlet Blog, replacing the Trees with the glowing pool in your descriptions.
The Salrog
Endurance 12
A hulking, fifteen-foot at the shoulder quadrupedal beast of calcified fur, saline deposits and exposed bone. Its hyaenid skeleton leers mummified and stiff; each of its joints breaking through inches of accumulated salt with every motion.
- Behaviors
- Scratching and gnawing frustratedly at the crystalline walls
- Joints rotate in impossible directions with stuttering and jerking movements
- Endlessly seeking out water to quench an infinite thirst
- Broken bones jut at awkward angles; poorly repaired by crystalline structures
- Motes of floating salt settle and grow crystals on the exposed bones and skin
- Crashes through boulders of solid salt, which accumulate back on the monster’s flesh
- Defenses
- Desiccating: Wounds caused by the Salrog will not bleed normally. Instead, the blood crystallizes into a solid stream of iron-red dust. Any creatures that die in the Salrog’s presence are drained of any fluids and instantly calcified.
- Calcific Joints: The Salrog’s joints and bones are primarily composed of salt crystals. As such, the creature will break its own joints and fold itself inside out to change direction with incredible speed.
- Weaknesses
- A reanimated automaton from the entryway is large enough to adequately take on the Salrog
- Easily distracted by water or liquids
- Will break its own bones to pursue its goals through small or tight spaces.
This page is part of the One Set Dungeons series by Sam Zimmerman and is © Typhos Games. The text of this page is available to use under the CC-BY-SA 4.0 License. Trophy™ is a trademark of Hedgemaze Press. The trademark and “Designed for Trophy” Logo are © Hedgemaze Press, and are used with permission.
