YSYP Cottonmouth Ashcan (GLÅUGUST 2026 #5)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #5 is from a list by Doc - "Cottonmouth your pet system so it is synonymous with one of your settings. Here is what Cottonmouth is and here is one way you could do that"

For this I am attempting to crank over the entire system for Your Sector, Your Problem. It gnaws at me but I think the attempt to Cottonmouth it might force it to a useful place. You could probably retool the guts of this to be a minion-running mechanic for any domain level game. The 'cottonmouth' aspect of it is that the gears and gubbins are all just set up for the 'telling of the tale' debriefing which is happening in world (assuming you survive).

Four things happen during a cycle of play
1. You learn what problems you have in your sector, as per the name
2. You throw your assets at the threat, hopefully suitable ones against your various threats
3. Resolve the problems (or fail to)
4. Recover and maintain your assets - and then debrief on how the whole mission cycle played out.

Phase 1 - for this ashcan your problem is going to be selected with three rolls d12+8 off this d20 sector defense assets table to get three problems.

Phase 2 - you have your starter set of assets - three d20 rolls on the table and assign them against whichever problem you like. Each of your players draws two standard playing cards.
Ace, 2 = Exhaustion
3, 4 = Panic & miscommunication
5+ Hearts = Xeno-shock
5+ Diamonds = Inexplicable Physics
5+ Clubs = Bureaucracy & Bad Planning
5+ Spades = Gear Failure

Phase 3 - Decide whether or not to get involved, add a d6 if a player deploys with an asset and risks death. Roll off between problem and asset.
+4 success, no upkeep
+0 success, upkeep (draw 1)
-4 success, high upkeep (draw 2)
-5 or lower, failure, high upkeep (draw 2)

At this point draw cards from a standard deck for each asset as required by the rolls.

Phase 4 - upkeep - each character can get involved with an asset and play one of their cards. Multiple characters can go after one asset. If the total value of their cards (Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13) is greater than card on the asset, take that card of the asset. Then tell the story of how it all played out, framed as your debriefing to the rest of the characters after everything has been resolved. That debrief has to include
What the asset is
The problem (card on the asset being targetted)
What caused the problem (the threat that put the cards there)
The character(s) involved in fixing the problem.

Do this for all assets. With luck, you have cards in hand that total more than the cards on your assets - just tell the tale of how you fixed it.

If the total of the characters cards do not exceed the value of the problems, characters can roll a save for that category (e.g. Inexplicable Physics) modified by the gap between the cards you have and the problem. Fail and take d6 points distributed across your Grit, Guile and Charm stats.Make the save with disadvantage if you play a card of a different type as the problem.

However that plays out, you still must tell the tale as a debriefing as above with the added element of:
How the character got beaten up doing it
Any remaining problems on the asset

Any assets that go into the next round with cards on them, they lose a dice from what they roll per card remaining.

Characters in this conceptualisation have 3d6 stats (Grit, Guile, Charm) and saves that base of those stats, modified by their 'career' tied either to humans, aliens or terrain, affecting people or stuff. Players could eat a few 'I have no cards, I get stuck in' at d6 damage a pop but not over the long haul.

Design notes

Key revelation, thanks to the in-house testing team, is not to frame this as 'grading roleplaying' but more as assembling the elements that have to be incorporated into an 'upkeep vignette' somewhat like a small round of 'Once Upon a Time'. I think it captures the fun of 'minion running' and the chaos involved in explaining why this xenoarchaeologist (holder of the right cards) was able to fix the BOGEYMAN cybertanks Gear Failure problem caused by their scrap with the Dubious Alien Mercenaries.

I like this better as a 'just tell the tale' rather than 'you must 'win' a roleplaying encounter'. Is this properly Cottonmouthed? Barely - I think in making it a 'talk through how you fixed it' it adheres to the in-world concept of your are troubleshooters dealing with wild things and debriefing your fellows at a particularly bizarre set of .

Portalfreaks (GLÅUGUST 2026 #4)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #4 is from a list by Semiurge - "Some roadfreaks for a passage that isn't a road - canalfreaks, hyperlanefreaks, portalfreaks, etc."

I have a deep and abiding love of 'sliders' type portal-of-the-week campaigns - my two best Planescape campaigns were of this type - so the archetype of weird sods bampfing into a place through some random mystic doorway and then thundering around like bulls in china-shops is one I think can bring joy and novelty to any campaign.

These are the folk that know about and live at the interstices of all the portal networks. They hang around bars and bazaars in Sigil, the City of Glass, Waterdeep, crossroads like that. You get a different bunches working different angles - one around shipping, some around the magical component trade - but the one that most folk think about when someone spits "portalfreaks" are the scouts - the fast riders, the smash-and-grab folk.

The best of them are the absolutely fundamental base layer of the information-broking shadow war, the whole information-is-power part of the economy of Sigil and the outer planes. They are the source of first-hand information, free-lance long-range military scouts. They go and look at stuff, count noses and blades and they come back, nice-and-easy, in and out. In contrast with the spies and all the people who try to shake stuff out of people, they go and eyeball the things you just cannot hide like a giant floating ship or a mustering devil legion.

The nature of engaging these portalfreaks is someone asks a question and then first there is work to get a sense of where might those answers be? Once you know where to look then you want to figure out what kind of portalfreak you want - who matches to the task? They should be one who can get the portal keys, who can get to the locations, knows the routes to do the runs, maybe stealth experts, or maybe something fundamental to their nature like celestials who aren't going to die on contact with the heavens, or tieflings that aren't going to perish in the hells. Everything can be overcome with sufficiently powerful magic of course, but magic costs and why pay for that guys shiny bangle when that guy over there just won't burst into flames on arrival in the first place?

The portalfreaks tend to come in two flavours - the break-and-entry folk who get in anywhere, and eyeball things that are hidden then run off with your secrets - and the all-terrain, survive anywhere scouts that just out-endure whatever conditions they face to witness things that are out in the inhospitable open. Those tend to be experts and surveying ground and counting noses. Some of them run a circuit, selling what they see, others keep their ear to the ground and follow trouble.

The culture of these portalfreaks is very much hung up on having all of the gear. Everything is on you because you're gonna go to a place where there is nothing. Belts and buckles and pouches and bandoliers of absolutely everything strung around them together with a big backpack or mount and pack-mount pairs. One of the big aesthetic choices across most portalfreaks is riding howlers. All of them absolutely swear is the optimal choice but lack any sort of means to support this and say why beyond that a howler is such an ornery mean beast that things just can't really get much worse so you've got that a known quantity.

Another thing that about portalfreaks is the trail of tchotchkes they leave behind. Ranging from that kind of trade a shiny rock for a pair of buttons, weird swap-meet stuff, up to waves of minor kleptomania, they are known for their trail of minor bits and pieces. This has grown out of original practices for disguising what the key to the local portal is. If roses off a nearby bush kept going missing, for instance, people could figure out that roses were probably the key to the portal. If, however, there is a complete mess it is very difficult for anyone to peg any one thing as the portal key, and so it became basic operational security for early common portal scout, before the freaky fully evolved.

d6 Portalfreaks

1. A muscle-sorcerer disguising themselves as a standard fighter; leans hard into 'desert nomad' archetypal appearance.
2. A paladin of a god of knowledge, grizzled and battered with a giant goat mount, viewing it as their divine duty to pry secrets from the hands of evil-doers.
3. A ex-celestial legionairre, never adapted to settled life, continues to tramp about the plains observing things, prides themselves on being able to out-tough anything.
4. Howler-mounted, swivel-eyed wizard, in ragged cloak and battered hat. Jittery when not on the move, impatient to get your question, get their payment and get back on the Great Wheel.
5. Goblin duo, battered old shaman, bundled up in a beastfur, escorted by a weathered warrior only slightly younger, mounted on worgs. Sneaky, subtle and happy to take any gig.
6. Tiefling with a spray of horns, mounted on a howler, both cloaked in reptile skin. Very still and watchful, charming in conversation, prone to slipping away when not directly observed.

The (at least) nine cultures of play (GLÅUGUST 2026 #3)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #3 is from a list by Purple - "Futility of categorization."

I have been gathering the various '... but also!' cultures of play people have articulated since Retired Adventurer wrote their touchstone post. In addition to those original six, we can add 'Optimizer' culture from Flourite Guillotine, Jeu d'Atmosphere from Taskerland and 'Common Sense Culture' from Elmcat.

My personal framing for this - as in why are some of these not the same thing - is that the culture expresses itself as why do folk sit to table. Trying to be very succinct about this we get:
Classic - play to get deeper into the dungeon / take on greater challenges
Trad (short for "traditional") - play to hear the DMs grand story
Nordic Larp - play to live the character
Story Games - play to collectively tell the story
The OSR ("Old School Renaissance / Revival") - play for the interesting decisions
OC / Neo-trad - play to actualise your characters story
Optimizer - play to "work the rules hard"
Games of Atmosphere - play to immerse in the world
Common Sense Culture - play to get the adventure done

And here is where we return to our topic of "Futility of categorization" in that there is almost certainly finer grades of distinction within Nordic LARP and Storygames - I am sure if I played more of either of those I would be able to offer thoughts on how they should be broken down.

This culture of play intersects with the preferences of the players at your table - take Matt Colvilles 9 Types of Players for just one example. Thow in the GNS model or whatever you like to try and articulate the type of fun your are having and things start to get really complicated.

Much like the exercise of trying to say how many communities are within the OSR is near-futile but expressing that there *are* multiple communities within it is useful; trying to nail down a definitive all encompassing categorisation is going to be very hard and of dubious use, but it is still useful to recognise that different groups sit to table with very different objectives in mind.

d12 books of the ruin-infested swamplands (GLÅUGUST 2026 #2)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #2 is from a list by Prime - "Books as treasure. No spellbooks."

A list of books that were scattered throughout the Hexcrawl25 campaign:

1. Ruins of the Wild Woods - tree art, frontispiece changes, haunted by a druid
2. Torments of the Blade Dungeon - traps and devices catalog
3. A Guide to Toad Licking - swamp-alchemy and herbalism guide
4. Unamed folio of beasts - bound in hellhound hide, smoulders
5. Ohlinbella Esoterica - magical theory primer from regional capital, wizard-focussed for human lifetimes
6. Primer of college of Cyuendreil - magical theory of leylines and planar boundaries, written with elven lifetimes in mind
7. Great Tales of Lhirogref - collected stories of the goblin realm of Lhirogref, the 'first people'
8. Marda's Grimoire - travelogue of the region written by a roving curiousity seeker
9. Eternal Compendium - bronze coffer filled with scrolls, encyclopedia from centuries ago
10. Zigli's Parchments - Yew-bound book, written in Abyssal, personal memoir of a time-travelling wizard
11. Fey Pages of Certa - book bound in light-spotted dark fuzzy hide, opens only by starlight, practical Spellcraft guidance
12. Great Red Book - cartographic survey from the time of the elven invasion, mostly sought because the maps are marked with now-lost dwarven sites from the time

Of these, the Great Red Book and the Pages of Certa drove adventure - the Red Book by pointing to sites for treasure and the Scrolls of Certa being used to line up boosts to spells.

Zigli turned up a bit in the background but their parchments were never actually found.

Near Offshore Ruins (GLÅUGUST 2026 #1)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2026, challenge #1 is from a list by Phlox - "Water Levels."

Inspired by the submerged megalithic structures of Sein Island I was thinking about near offshore ruins and the adventure potential thereof.

I talked a bit in the past about who is about in d20 Aquatic powers and dwellers of the deep and some of the things on the deep sea bed including interactions with the underdark in d12 Settlements of the Undercoast but for this one I wanted to think a bit about shallow-water structures, ones that might once - or recently - have been above surface, or are emerging now due to sea level shifts. All this supposes a shallow depth gradient - any place where you have a sea-cliff like drop off, that much sea going away is an apocalypse scenario harsher that what I am thinking of.

Setting aside how things become above/below water - a myriad of natural or magical effects and disasters could be responsible. Assume that a change in sea level is affecting only the sunlit zone that goes down 1/8 of a mile - the sea-level shift of our world across the last ice age caused only 1/12 miles difference.

Some possible thoughts on what we might end up with on a patch of seabed that was once above the surface:
1. Recently happened - a peninsula sunk, a recent glacier collapse or sea level rise - leaving a structure with potential air pockets within. This would be similar to a flooded dungeon but with some added adventure in getting down there and getting the plunder out.
2. Long ago but known to be rich - last remants of old power still remain - some warded buildings, undead or constructs still roam about the seafloor. There are hazards that can be overcome by using the submerged status and a mix of looted flooded bits and untouched dry bits with residual dangers.
3. Ancient origin and a site for underwater conflict - long flooded, nothing remains but the sturdiest of structural parts and it is just exotic terrain for an underwater fight.

IRL we have our example above of Sein Island and Doggerland - sea levels rising flood out old structure built by land dwellers - 'sunken realms.'

Running this the other way, where the seas retreat and we find structures emerging from the seas - we would have all of the above, once submerged and now re-arisen through some other disaster and accessible - perhaps for a limited time - complete with novel hazards or merely those rooted in long neglect.

Where origins of structures start to get interesting are:
1. Aquatic groups who might have been building there and now abandon their structures as the seas withdraw
2. Groups perfectly happy living in and out of water - storm giants
3. Groups who can live out of water but would not be happy about it - sahuagin and tritons

Sunlight zoners like merfolk, merrow, aquatic elves and locathah would have built structures designed for swimming through which will be awkward to navigate out of water

Monster lairs may be exposed that are challenging hazards to access even before intentional hazards are factored in - aboleth, kraken - where their one time masters abandon them due to inability to operate out of water.

Other monster lairs such as those of Ixitxachitl or illithids might be abandoned because they have no desire to dwell in the light - they could remain and become nocturnal but they find themselves confined to their homes by the hateful glare of the baleful daystar.

Some other highly magical entities like marids and beholders, while capable of operating out of the water would typically have no desire to remain because water is their preferred habitat.

One would assume all around will be devastated kelp forests and dying coral reefs within which maybe the dwellings of things like water nympths, undines or the like - my impression is that few of them would leave much trace.

Structures inhabited by the undead might rise from the depths and be among the least affected

Communities of tortles, lizardfolk and other semi-aquatic groups might find their nice safe flooded cave entrance is no longer so and decide to abandon the place or remain and become drylanders

Storm giants are notably happy above and below the waves but their new shallow-land holdings would be very aesthetically displeasing being neither high mountain or submerged any more and could be found either abandoned or inhabited by a very irritated resident.

Pressure-points for domain-level faction (GLoGmas 25 for Dom)

I got Dom of 'Infernal Pact' for GLoGmas; taking their own understanding of it as "writing something inspired by [someones blogpost] I think" I found something inspiring tucked on the back of their "adding in domain play after the fact" posts (parts 1 and 2).

The conclusions on Infernal Pact - that adding in a 'Domain play' layer has benefits and you can do that by thinking about factions - had a couple of questions that boil down to a checklist for gameable domain-scale factions:
- what factions?
- what resources are they using, where are their military assets deployed
- what are they worrying about?
- where are their weak-spots for a group of ne'er-do-wells to cause maximum damage

You can combine this with lots of other generators to help create the faction but you then need to confirm that you have those points of interaction clear as those are the handles on which the players will grab. Even if you do not nail them down to the map using An Echo, Resounding or Birthright or similar, you can get a good sense of who and what is in play.

This is also a good tool to re-tension a setting after maybe players have been off doing things for a while, checking who remains active, who may have been harmed or helped by the players actions and taking it from there. After the players have been in action for a while, they will have attention of some factions, have moved away from the spheres of concern of others, so an exercise like this is good for a mid-campaign check for where the adventures ahead might lie.

Another really good point made is how to see PC's - as a powerful asset across most of the spectrum who is much quicker than most other domain level actors - so they can stick their fingers in a lot of pies and put their thumbs on lots of scales.

Test Case

Using my Hexcrawl25 campaign as a template, let us run the slide-rule over that. I have been using 'dweller faction' as the hook for each hex, so let us see if these can be batched up along the lines of who gets

First we have some distant, stronger actors influencing the locality through a small fraction of their force, and then groups with local strength; the list below is first three 'big, far' factions and then three locals:
- the loyalist goliaths of the Hissing Valley
- the kirianshalee goliaths of the Meandering Mountains
- marchlords
- goblins
- nascent kingdom of Ashley
- harpy coven and their swamp-magician allies

The two goliath groups are head-to-head with each other and the Kingdom of Ashley is the players own faction so the three players in the region that are 'rivals/threats' are the goblins, the harpy coven and the marchlords.

Looking at these three big and small factions as a test of the Dom's questions;

Paladin of Gravity (GLÅUGUST 2025 #6)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2025, challenge #6 is from a list of their own - "Paladin of an unorthodox Law" - the law here is gravity, these paladins it's wardens.

Paladin of Gravity

A - Ripples in the gravity well
B - Gravitic Nudge
C - Slip the Grasp
D - Time lens

Increment Higgness +1 per template.

Should a Paladin of Gravity find themselves aboard a Spelljammer, any of the below can be applied to the ship if desired.

A Paladin of Gravity, if conscious, no longer takes fall damage if they choose not to. They still leave a crater if they fall far enough.

Ripples in the gravity well - gain awareness of the interplay of the local gravity plane - perceive all as it thrums against the gravity plane. The paladin gains tremorsense and true-sight to a range of Higgness * 30'. They can also take a minute to unerringly know direction relative to the planetary center and the local system gravity center.

Gravitic Nudge - Command local gravity. Summon meteors, slow foes or cause structural damage of d6 * Higgness per day. AC against missiles improves by Higgness.

Slip the Grasp - Gravity releases its most faithful servants. You can move Higgness * 30' per round, along, up or down any surface.

Time lens - Subtly scrunch gravity to warp time just when you need it; reroll any attack, save or ability check. Do this Higgness times per day.

Commission for the ethical sourcing of construct souls (GLÅUGUST 2025 #5)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2025, challenge #5 is from a list by Archon - "Minor social movement" - we discuss below the Comission for the Ethical Sourcing of Construct Souls.

The recent arrival of 'brassbones' - also known as warforged elsewhere in the multiverse - has caused some debate among the artificers and clergy of Krarland and other parts. Before them everything was clear.

Everyone knew that a wizards staff does not have a soul, that a homonculus was just an extension of a wizards self and that familiars were just sparks of the feywild, mirrors to a wizards will.

For the longest time everyone knew that constructs like enchanted broomsticks, talking clocks and dancing chairs and the like were just clever tools, extensions of the wizards hands.

But once the constructs grew more and more versatile, and clearly were be-souled as they could ask and care about questions like 'did they have souls' then the troubling question arose of where were these souls coming from?

Were souls from the great cycle now being incarnated in metal forms - the artificers workbench standing in for the mothers womb? Or were these new souls being drawn from some source attuned to metal, wood and stone? Were these dwarves in different forms?

A quiet sense of unease spread among the temples and workshops, a sense that while the need to know the answer to the question is not yet critically necessary, something of potentially great import was being meddled with blindly. With a feeling that it might become very important to be clear on the answer suddenly and without warning, the commission for the ethical sourcing of construct souls was founded.

The commission can be a vehicle for introducing NPCs with a specialty in information-gathering or any arcanist or clergy. It could also be a vehicle for NPCs to know one another if necessary - or a reason why given NPCs are distracted.

The first 6 of the below can be placed anywhere - such as a dungeon - the Commissioners were either seeking privacy to discuss the matter or gathering information in this out of the way place.

d8 Things Commissioners Might be Encountered Doing
1. Complicated auguries - a group of otherwise perfectly respectable and upstanding clerics acting really suspiciously because they are worried the very existence of brassbones is disrupting some natural cycle with terrible consequences but they do not want to start a panic. Yet.
2. Interrogation of summoned fiends - a masterclass in dread summoning by some morally-grey conjurers supported by every forbidden tome ever confiscated by the major temples. The fiends trying to figure out why they are being asked these questions, how rich could this new vein of souls be. Conjurers trying to find excuses to use and possibly memorize tricks from these books they never get access to. Clerics trying to block both but wring useful answers from the fiends.
3. Attempted necromancy on a smashed brassbones - necromancers with a grim group of death clerics carefully studying what kinds of things raise brassbone corpses and how different they might be.
4. Comparative soul analysis - brassbones and volunteer civilians being brought on a tour of spiritually null, isolated, hallowed and desecrated places to witness and record their relative reactions.
5. Crowd sourcing ancient legends in 'old folk' communities - sages touring dwellings of the long lived - elves, giants, dragons, etc - and asking them about their ancient legends for any similar happening before.
6. A mixed group of arcanists, clerics and other interested parties attempting to collate various notes from all the above efforts into some sort of order - currently it is a mess of chalk scribbles, tacked up notes and lengths of red string with people standing within it pointing and arguing.
(Outside the dungeon)
7. An incredibly over-engineered hospital offer free treatment for any injured brassbones - hugely overstaffed, with far too many high level clerics present for the small handful of damaged brassbones. The place is festooned with divination magics.
8. Incredibly over-engineered temple to craft gods - brassbones being assembled amidst an array of divination devices, meditating acolytes and other things meant to give some indication of where the soul entered the new form from.

2d12 Debutante Ball Encounters (GLÅUGUST 2025 #4)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2025, challenge #4 is from a list by Gokun - "Debutante ball encounter table".

Below a list of folk present at a debutante ball - could be another noble event - in standard fairy-tale high fantasy. Lifted straight from current events of my menagerie-world campaign. The below is light on the obvious villains because those will be specific to your game/campaign - the encounter list below gives you all the plausible background folk to make the world feel real, weighted for 2d12 probability curve.

Also - avoid my mistake - if there is someone who you need the players to meet then do not put them on the random encounter table, no matter how probable the placing. Decide a trigger and have them turn up otherwise you could end up with your players rolling like demons and getting everything except the one encounter you need. This is a variant of 'don't gate the vital clues behind a skill roll'. In particular because these are social encounters, there is a risk of time running away as people interact with these NPCs - which may be something you are happy to have happen, just be aware of it.

2d12 Attendees of the Ball
2. Very old 'elf' holding court, font of lore, arbiter of etiquette, has slightly strange bunch of hangers-on - very conservative in mannerisms but an otherwise diverse group, very pale, no reflection.
3. Lady in black, immaculate gown subtly dripping with jewelled embroidery, excellent listener, delighted to share gossip, only slightest hint of sulphur trailing them hints at infernal origin, here watching over investments
4. Uncomfortable looking outdoorsy type, fine but obviously unfamiliar outfit highlights astonishing physique, here as a reward for monster-slaying, wishing they got gold instead
5. Starry eyed youth, dazzled and delighted, here as reward for assassinating particularly nasty cult leader by infiltrating their fortress
6. Ancient court wizard, here from long tradition, has met or is aware of most people, here so their glamoured-up entourage can play at high society for a night
7. Distant arch-fey relative of the Duchess, patroness of one of the debutantes, here to make a big splash of granting her blessing
8. Proper, slightly stuffy monster-slayer heir to major noble house, here out of duty, wants to be out on the hunt earning a name of his own. Taciturn, unless about monsters and killing them
9. Scion of the smiths guildmaster, already an established reputation as a fashion setter, patron of crafts and advocate for trade. Bulldozer direct wrapped in perfect manners
10. Trailing end of the current generation of the ruling house, knows everyone, dislikes the spotlight, jittery because they are aware of the dangers here but not very dangerous themselves
11. Minor nobility in from the country, more people in this room than settlements she grew up in, overwhelmed, completely focussed on not causing a mess
12. Trade guild minor scion, has been to many of these for his siblings, excited to see long-absent cousins, viewing it all as a big family get-together
13. Scion of an old pre-conquest minor house, social butterfly, knows everyone including most servants, her people have lived here since time immemorial, this room was her families once
14. First generation of newly established mage-house, excellent student of magic, uncomfortable in crowds, trying to be what his parents hope
15. Almost too-old member of a ruined minor house recently restored to the Duchess favour and sponsored by her. Perfectly mannered, aware she is a single slip from social abyss
16. Bored younger sibling, thinks whole thing a waste of their time, they have a whole year until they do it themselves, mostly interested in brashly chasing pretty folk, adeptly avoids increasingly frustrated guardians
17. Last years debutante, returning to support sibling with charming spouse on their arm, judgemental of anything non traditional, keen to soak up the experience without the stress of being its focus
18. Sibling of the Duke, recently back from border skirmishes, renowned war-hero, very interested in potential useable talent, trailed by grim looking body-guard, long-suffering spouse
19. Duchess, graciously hosting, full fey-ancestry glamours on display, seeking a perfectly pleasant and orderly introduction to society for everyone, standards up-held and all, entourage of secretary, ladies in waiting, favoured companions
20. Perfectly dressed if understated thief, polite and mannerly, happy to take invitations to dance, excellent listener, all to prolong time scouting nice jewels
21. Immaculately turned out, suave seducer- seeking a romantic tryst they can lever to their advantage, quickly moves on from bad prospects
22. Somewhat battered but appropriately attired avenger, wary and watchful, seeks one who has wronged them, ready for violence
23. Ambassador from afar, smooth, like an excellent butler, will be fascinated with PCs stories, happy to direct them towards folk that might help
24. Duke master of spies, formally dressed as member of minor nobility, older society members get quiet around them, mostly watching for threats

Combine this table of people with my previous d20 Odd events at a nobles ball if you just want a handful of things to spice up a ball where you know the main 'plot' already or add the Masquerade as social depth-crawl structure to both of those to make it a whole thing in and of itself.

God-whale refinery (GLÅUGUST 2025 #3)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2025, challenge #3 is from a list by Vayra - "wizard tower dungeon (must have a gimmick)"

This is a wizards tower in a giant, animated hermit-crab-like nautilus shell. Stands on what looks like too-few legs above a miasma of crackling haze, more legs go in than it stands upon below. The surroundings are lit by irregular flares of burning discharge running down the shell. A dreadful smell of grease and offal surrounds it. Within a cabal of mid-tier wizards boot-strapping their artificer expertise and elbow grease to take down their old master.

All rooms are stages of a process and extraction chain for god-flesh wrenched from an colossal extradimensional being captured in some of the towers claws that protrude beyond sight. Everything shakes and shudders in its death-throes.

Everything here is hazardous, the crew/workers will freak out at people acting dangerously but are mostly too occupied with not dying themselves to actually care if people are moving through, as long as they are authorised. Authorisation checks can be as limited as a glance to confirm appropriate protective oil-skins and a purposeful walk.

Locations

Wells and Un-wells (GLÅUGUST 2025 #2)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2025, challenge #2 is from a list by deus ex parabola - "Selection of interesting wells, wishing or non-wishing". In the finest of tradition, these were drafted on the back of an envelope on a train with an odd guy staring at me.

Unusual water sources.

1. drawing on a cracked open insectfolk ruin - occassionally contaminated with honey-like nectars
2. runoff from an ice-elemental cooling system at the arcane university, inexplicable ice-chunks that look like melting scales
3. distillery condensate from a dwarven subterranean facility; mildly alcoholic
4. tapping a great root; faint taste of sap
5. well created by a giants blow - shattering the rocks below; brought water from tight rocks but now draw is exceeding inflow as people congregate
6. a bizarre system of a belt made of bear pelt running down into a filthy well with the rising, soaked pelt having water squeezed out with wringers. Tastes bad - both pelt and filth leaving trace tastes - but safe enough to drink
7. dwarven venturi jet pump - on a high wind day this dwarven windmill pumps water back down to a cunning venturi nozzle at the bottom of the well and lifts more water back out. Originally designed to combine with a now-missing wind-powered set of trip hammers and forge bellows, it is now a booster-pumped well that is dry (jammed with machinery) on a still day or a torrent on a windy day
8. furious air elemental imprisoned down-well throws off bubbles that reduce the density of the water column and allow the well to lift.
9. a pump operated by skeletons turning a windlass - incredibly squeaky, skeletons hiss and snarl at any who come close but only attack if the pump is interfered with
10. collosal archimedes screw descends huge distance down a 30 degree bore. Distant snarls and roars echoe up the bore and the screw occassionally shakes from impacts.
11. well is an opening into the top of a cavern containing under-sea. Buckets are lowered a very, very long way, sometimes come up with a fish
12. something lives down the well and trades water for things like feathers and leaves. Can be heard chirping happily when buckets with offerings are lowered.
13. beetle shell continuously sheened with condensate that drips into a pan beneath
14. well stands alone within a fetid swamp with a complex curved roof - a seethingly hot gem within the well sets steam rising that runs down the roof to a ring trough that surrounds the well. Gruesome smell of burning marsh mud surrounds it
15. shattered remnant of a wizards tower; twisted apparatus surround a borehole, blue flames leap continuously from the blackened stones of the tower but beneath the water is clear
16. partially buried giant ice-block, frozen around a trapped ice elemental. Hack off some ice.
17. well is a bowl where a salt-crystal thread is being constantly spun by invisible fingers; once all the salt is spun out, invisible hands toss the water and refill the bowl from the nearby sea - snatch the bowl before it is thrown to get the fresh water
18. barnacle encrusted artificers tower, the grumbling machine within sifting tiny grains of gold from huge volumes of seawater - sifts out everything in fact - with fresh water being dumped out by a pipe into what is now an anomalous garden
19. badly resealed portal to the elemental plane of water has flooded the basement of a wizards tower. Only slightly tastes of mold and reagents.
20. shattered tower of a once-mighty aboleth jitters between this reality and other times, occassionally passing through when this place was/is/will be a lake complete with thunderclap of displaced air/water and great splosh as the towers volume of water is displaced to here.

Big guns for big monsters (GLÅUGUST 2025 #1)

Taking on The Nothic's Eye GLÅUGUST 2025, challenge #1 is from a list by Halfalcon - "He Wields A Gun."

Here we talk about the three main schools of magical firearms extant in menagerie world:
- blunderbus-types
- masterworks
- enchantment-powered

All of these are generally in competition with 'cheap' bows and crossbows or 'easy' magic.

While all looking somewhat similar there are three different things happening
- first are the blunderbus or cannon types which are strongly built vessels for whatever magical explosives and shot you can get your hands on. The oomph comes from what you can stuff inside, not the vessel itself, though it may have some enchantments to keep it from exploding in your hands. This is the punt-gun stuffed full of dragonbone powder, casting a fistful of freshly enchanted magic stones at a foe.
- the second are weapons which are designed to be deadly even without magics - wonders of mastercraft, deploying such exotic metals and cunning techniques that to many they may as well be magical and then enhanced still further by precisely applied enchantments. One of these would be a long-rifle with optics of true-sight and carefully measured cartridges enchanted by obsesssive artificer mages. We include here things like railguns, bio-weapons like deathspitters or non-chemically propelled slug-throwers.
- lastly are things that produce similar effects of ruining your day at a distance when the thing is activated whether casting a shot at speed but do this through some fundamentally magical force such as a portal from a storm on the plane of air or through throwing balefire, encapsulated oozes or other such gruesomeness.

Examples of each to be found in the field:

#1 - Dwarven troll-gun (also known as a tunnel-gun); sturdy, typically octagonal stylings around the outside. Cunning grips make it intuitive to aim, adding +1 to hit out to 60'. This example is found in the hands of a minotaur who is using an extra-smoky black-powder that obscures a 30' cone for 3 rounds after firing and bone-chips and teeth from previous victims, which cause wounds that require a constitution save before healing.

#2 - First-ones dragon-rifle; big, large bore, breach-breaking, recoil-suppressed gun with a bipod - designed so a sturdy orc can fire it from (standing) wolf-back or a half dozen goblins can move it as a field team. Said orc wanting to show off will have bandoliers of hand-etched shells across their chest, roll-up carry-cases of charges, tools and optics slung from their saddle. Goblins operating this will likely have two to carry the weapon and another each for the shells, charges, tools and optics. Quick to reload in case the dragon fails to obligingly die with the first shot. Armour penetrating, stuns on impact. Each one a priceless masterwork, each cartridge the price of a good mount.

#3 Forge-clan lightning-thrower; looks like a crossbow with a hexagonal arrangement of rods pointing forward and a reel. Throws lightning from bottles of the stuff screwed onto the top. At short-range, against metallic things, just pull the trigger. For longer ranges or multiple targets, there is a small onboard harpoon that tows a cable to the target. Typically 6 flasks of lightning can be clipped in, choose how many to use with each shot using the insulated knob. Wear the insulated gloves while using. Do not let sweat drip onto it. Blinding to all present when it fires. Ignites flammables. Lightning bottles thrown into water will discharge affecting anyone touching the water. Do not bend the prongs. Do not tangle the reel. Recharging lightning bottles can be done by flying a kite in a storm.

Riftling (Beholder Bandwagon)

Observing the Beholder Bandwagon I was suddenly struck by inspiration - the bandwagon so far has Lantern Heads by Garamondia, Three "Beholders" from The Nothic's Eye or A New Direction by Occultronics.

What remains when you dissolve in proto-matter?

Beholders are horrifically dangerous, barely a form of life one can interact with, almost but not-quite a revenant - subject to ordeals that would drive others to claw back from the veil of death.

They are a coalescence of planar rifts, formed when a wizard that ventures beyond their talents into the deep ethereal partly dissolves into the corrosive ur-stuff there. Where such a thing happens the flailings for escape cause splits and rifts like a very large fly tearing itself loose from a spiders web and dragging web and all back out with them. Where those sufficiently strong-willed arcanists manage to struggle their way off the deep ethereal back to the material plane, they are warped beyond all recognition by the journey.

Said to be named from a famed declaration of 'behold!' where an archmage cast a rival into the deep ethereal to such a fate.

A beholder is a coruscating confluence of planar rifts around a central knot of proto-matter from the deep ethereal. Impressions of maw or eyes are just splits in the boundary of their hide that allow darker or brighter views of other planes to be seen. The core elemental planes are too solid and real to be caught up in such a creature so the writhing tentacle-like rifts that flail about it are typically fissures to the para- and quasi- elemental planes - salt, dust, ash, vacuum, ice, ooze, magma, smoke, lightning, radiance, steam and minerals - casting dreadful effects from those planes at things that annoy it.

Sometimes the struggles of a beholder wrench themselves in two, each half of the shattered entity becoming a beholder in its own right. Beholders who have been on the prime material for a while can settle down to merely very twitchy and paranoid; enough that they might converse before lashing out at someone they encounter. Mostly they assume everything is out to get them and act accordingly.

Beholder (Riftling)

Meeples for the Win (GLoGtober 7 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #2 is from a list by TheFirstGokun - "Physical Game Pieces."

I do quite a lot of cafe gaming and my big space saver has been using meeples for combats - does not quite give the square-by-square tactical detail of standard grid combat but 4/5 times it does everything you need - where are the clusters of bad guys, who is on what bit of terrain, who is near who.

I got these four bags from the In-House Testing Team one winter and they have proved remarkably useful. I have settled in on the stars and little circular things (right side) as the usual NPCs/monsters, the middle-right bag of meeples and houses as PCs and allies, and the mid-left bag tended to be the ships for Spelljammer combat.

Given that these are smaller than most dice they work really well by letting you have a whole battle-space on a single sheet of A4 - which in turn means you can use a piece of stiff card in a plastic-pocket plus dry-erase markers as an easily portable reusable battlemat.

All of which then fits neatly into a bag.

This does not support people bringing their Heroforge 28mm minis to table and I fully recognise that there is a chunky wow-factor to being able to haul out your custom 3D-printed bad guys and have your players squinting trying to figure out is that a standard beholder or some sort of other tentacly horror. The wear and tear on my shoulder and pocket book implied by aquiring and hauling around such a collection is a sufficiently high threshold that I am going to stick with my faithful meeples.

Hardbitten veterans, every one of those little blocks, earned their place in Valhalla multiple times over by now.

Strange Stones from Weird Aeons (GLoGtober 6 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #6 is from my own list - "Secrets of the Stones."

Inspired by Onion Souls idea of Magical accretion and the multiple OSR weird time epochs collected on Coins and Scrolls I was thinking about what kind of strange geology is lying around in the gameworld.

Things are plenty strange already in the real world - I have seen this burning earth with my own eyes.

So these strange deep time periods are all well and good but what actual remnants and extrusions from those times can be stumbled upon?

d10 strange rock formations from weird aeons
1. Shock planes - remnants of particularly outrageous continental drifting during the Turbozoic era, these incredibly hard, thin sheets rise high above the landscape and are extremely damage resistant
2. Fossil supercomputer - intricate circuitry from sublimbed organic supercomputers of the Svahbavan Glaciation - carefully transmutation spellwork might get you a tiny fragment of a once-godlike entity
3. Compacted stars - remnants of sloppy creationeering, discarded stars look like big geodes until they crack and suddenly you have a sun at your feet with all the problems that implies
4. Cathedral channels - remnants of holy mounds, allowing wind to blow through them will randomly cast a divine spell on a random valid target near by
5. Purging Sprite soot - a thin layer, scraped up can be blown or pasted onto things to shatter magical effects
6. Astrogenocene coal - coal-analogue from high energy biosphere - igniting, striking or otherwise disturbing in this lower-energy world causes it to chill, rust, rot and otherwise soak the energy from surrounds
7. World-eater seacucumber - looks like a fossil, is just biding its time, do not get it wet.
8. Serpentis Iradium layer - traces of the sorcerous war that made the God Serpent never have been. Exposure sickens lizard folk or other scaly-kind.
9. First necro-layer - limestone-like crushed bones of the first total victory by necromancers. Anyone foolish enough to carve or cast this into some mobile form will find they are still active
10. Rogue colours - a trapped pocket of colors from the early Great Funkadelican era, releasing long-gone hues on the world once more

Settlement morale check (GLoGtober 5 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #2 is from a list by Phlox - "A procedure relating to a city."

Maybe useful as a mechanism to implement 'things fall apart' adventures like "Recruiters" from Well of Worlds or other siege or high tension situations.

You could use this with or linked to a chaos index or other kind of doom clock.

Proceedure
- roll morale check for the settlement
- apply any adjustments due to events
- apply consequences of morale check result

Intention is that people should be able to feel if the city is on edge and know if they spend their time causing chaos or calming things down will it likely achieve the desired effect

Initial morale score for a settlement should tie to scale - it is hard to shift the attitude of a big metropolis but easier to do it for a thorp.

Settlement	Pop	Morale
Thorp	50	5
Hamlet	240	6
Village	650	7
Small town	1450	8
Large town	3500	9
Small city	8500	10
Large city	18500	11
Metropolis	25000	12

Target is roll under on 2d6 - a little Thorp without anything to reassure it is going to be very jittery.

High morale just means cohesive, tending towards 'business as usual' - it does not mean nice, noble, or any other positive connotation.

Stuff getting weird imposes a morale check, nothing notable happens recently? No morale check. Sleepy thorp remains sleepy.

Where a settlement fails its morale check, cohesiveness breaks down temporarily, there may be panic, riots, looting and whatever response from authorities those warrant. Anything that requires processes or trade becomes hard as things shut and people are busy tending to their own affairs. Anything that prospers in chaos like heists, revolution or the like will go more easily.

Things that move the needle for a morale check at a settlement:

You get -1 to the roll for:
- Grand speeches or other crowd-interactions that were seen at least 10% of the population
- Nearby threats defeated of HD = 10% of population
- Recovery of treasure nearby equal to 100gp per population
- Arrival or emergence of popular public figure

You get +1 to the roll for:
- Sightings of threats of HD = 10% of population
- Death within the settlement of 5% of population
- Great magical workings, without clear benevolent intent
- Unexpected death of significant public figure (popular or notorious)
- Significant damage (e.g. fire)

You need to do a lot to shake a metropolis into chaos, conversely small settlements hang together only because nothing is threatening them - likely they will pack up and head for the hills if anything scary comes their way.

What dwells within the dwarf roads (GLoGtober 4 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #4 is from a list by Shadowfray - "Infrastructure & Logistics." - with special thanks to Walfalcon for unsticking my writers block with their own post on the topic. For my contribution we return to the Dwarf Roads and the things you find down there.

Long ago, during the Membrane Wars, the dwarves retreated from the Last Star and built the under-roads in a frenzy to reconnect their scattered holdings as their previous airship-empire failed beneath the tainted light. Their alchemical-botanic mastery was turned to wringing fuels from the blood of the earth and they ground out the under-roads then fought the cult of the Last Star to a standstill in the dark.

The roads are now long abandoned, ancient defences still lurk and automata still roam but some things have made their home and some brave venturers traverse the paths once more. Few are good to meet.

Whatever else is found, there are usually dazzler walls - they make shadows leap and dance confusingly to the light of a normal flame but even unlit they are glaringly irritating to those with darkvision rapidly inducing headaches and making anything requiring vision exhausting and difficult.

Traps
1. Bulwark doors - Most renowned aspect of the Dwarf roads - known as Gnashing Doors for their fail-closed multiple redundancies
2. Darkness cascade - stinging chill showers of liquid darkness, typically matched with slopes and spiked pits
3. Lightning Arcs - discharging along dazzler walls in blinding torrents
4. Turret traps - throwing a variety of poisons, incendiaries, and caustics
5. Mellified beast release - honey-bottled monsters in arcane stasis, released. Basilisks a favourite
Hazards
6 - Maintenance golem - ever-burning elemental core heat the great rock-scrapers it has used to shore up the tunnels these past millenium
7 - Haunted train - a near intact war-borer train - too intact for the dead crew will rise to defend their charge
8 - Hypnotic archives - missing interface psychadelics might be found and information gleaned
9 - Unstable magazine - alchemical fire, night bombs, seeker swords - lethal things stored uncarefully by soldiers under pressure
10 - Breached fuel unit - dripping caustic and flamable pools, clouds of noxious gas fill the local area
Monstrous residents
11 - Weretoads - loners, often heard long before seen croaking low-wave messages along the roads
12 - Crocodile cultists - pale, trogoldyte forms, highly territorial of their glorious depths
13 - Dwarven shades - death has not released them from their dutiful defence
14 - Giant spiders - keeping the giant flies down
15 - Myconids - inheritors of the dwarves deep-botanical endowment
Intruders
16 - Humanoid raiding team - soldiers of one of the realms above, trying to outflank their foes from beneath
17 - Questing adventurers - pursuing something or someone that has fled here
18 - Blockade runners - smugglers trying to worm their way past surface hostilities and customs barriers
19 - Treasure Seekers - trying to search out some last forgotten coin
20 - Dwarven Reconquistadors - reclaiming their ancient birthright

We have visited these roads before with Small god: Lady Deephome (GLoGtober 2 '23).

Other references:
The Last Star - Bearded Devil
Jungle Dwarves of Forgotten Gorzu - Lizardman Diaries

Hidden depth of domain encounters (GLoGtober 3 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #2 is from a list by Vivanter - "An encounter table for domain-level play."

So for this I thought of the many things that would crop up in domain play and thought I would have another go at a universal chart. For a domain level game, the problems scale up but the boons also change. For me domain level means 'so big, the king needs to send ...' either the cavalry or the tax wagons because it makes a difference on the scale of hundreds to thousands of people. The problems, if left unattended would threaten the viability of the realm itself. The type of stuff even high level adventurers would get out of bed for.

I blocked things out into a couple of groups
Catastrophes - big, rare things going very wrong in the deep wilds
Bad Times - things that hit 'civilization'
Critters - all the usual sorts of monsters but more of them or bigger.
Pesky Humans - people, either the neighbours or outlaws, being the nuisance
Civil Matters - things happening in the towns and cities
Stars Align - other peoples magical fantasy nonsense happening to you and your realm

Then blocked out a hidden depths table with the first four blocks and filled it out to a potential d30 roll with the last group.

You could run this as a chaos clock - switching 6d4 > 4d6 > 3d8 > 2d12 > d24 > d30 as things get weirder.

Score	Roll	Group	Event
2	d4d20	Stars Align	Treasure hoard uncovered
2	d4d20	Catastrophe	Major volcano
3	d4d20	Catastrophe	Fey incursion
4	d4d20	Catastrophe	Plague
5	2d12	Bad Times	Terrible Weather -
6	2d12	Bad Times	Crop Failures - peasants on the move
7	3d8	Critters	Minor monster tribe
8	3d8	Critters	Beast herds
9	3d8	Critters	Bountiful harvest
10	3d8	Critters	Insect swarms
11	4d6	Pesky Humans	Cult outbreak
12	4d6	Pesky Humans	Banditry
13	4d6	Pesky Humans	Herdbeast rustling
14	6d4	Civil Matters	Festival
15	6d4	Civil Matters	New construction
16	6d4	Civil Matters	Trade fair
17	6d4	Civil Matters	Crimewave
18	6d4	Civil Matters	Riots
19	4d6	Pesky Humans	Raiders
20	4d6	Pesky Humans	Siege
21	3d8	Critters	Big Scary Individual Monster
22	2d12	Bad Times	General Revolt
23	2d12	Bad Times	Plague
24	d4d20	Catastrophe	Divine incursion
25	d30	Stars Align	Lost secrets unearthed
26	d30	Stars Align	A mighty warrior arises
27	d30	Stars Align	Blood War Incursion
28	d30	Stars Align	A craft falls to earth
29	d30	Stars Align	Titans War breaks out (giants, dragons, etc)
30	d30	Stars Align	An archmage takes up a new goal

Patrons Seeking Adventurers (GLoGtober 2 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #2 is from a list by CommonUse - "Patrons: their source of power/wealth and their goals in using the party."

Practical Patrons, their natures and what they seek from their hirelings
1. Sithulf - whiter-than-white, the clergy of Bahamut, support through the church, needs deniable catspaws but if things are done by the book, they can drop the hammer on anything proved
2. Mallory - keen long-haul traders, breathless explorer, demands good notes, provides good briefings, can find or fence anything
3. Master of University - classic wizard, wrong species, lots of weird help to hand out, bound imps, consumable magic
4. Ragnbjorl - delvers into beyond, hunters of eldritch monsters for profit, seek gutsy, ask-no-questions types, support subcontractors, tend towards wild victory parties
5. Rynskald - ancient house, guardian of hazards, dangerous deeds, well paid, good intel, operational support, bloody handed defenders of the realm, everything is expendable
6. Kalfyra - minor members of the ruling house, odd hobbyists, sketchy briefings, official support, shows appreciation through lands and titles.
7. Hentlebrock - minor lordly deeds, local political power, fixers for the common folk, often seek classic adventurers for typical quests
8. Pillars - bordermarch lords, monster expertise, local guides, often seek rescue assistance for lost travellers or cut off settlements
9. Mhysanor - glitteringly wealthy coastal lords, sleek and polished, seek spy-hunters and capables to stalk magical foes on their home terrain
10. Kordites - disorganised church, motivated, messianic, supported by living saint, temple network plus mythic overlap, has prophetic visions to be handled
11. Sellal - river-baron, trade-taxers, covert actors, connections to the seelie courts, seeks sneaks and spies
12. Crown - the realm, ultimate but distant authority, officially their writ is law, lots of support until there isn't, quests often wrong on the details
13. Mysmys - Orthodox Church of Tiamat, guided by oracles, seeks contract killers, ruin delvers and hoard plunderers
14. Alchemists Guild - makers of warforged, tomb-divers and tower-raiders, pay well, need deniable
15. Chiming Zam - smuggling boss, network everywhere, needs discrete, cunning folk to help shift cargos quietly
16. Drizero - looks like a dragon cult, is the local lord, sponsors ruin diving
17. Uncargicks - wealthy smiths guild, pays top coin, needs muscle for clearing mines, path-breaking, caravan escort
18. Thenya Palace - city rulers, the local law, lots of odds and ends the palace guard cannot deal with, mostly message runs or ruin exploration
19. Gray Wasp - sorcerers collective, continuous demand for wierd and exotic fetch errands
20. Garzidh - military stronghold, excellent equipment, henchmen support, steady mercenary work keeping supply routes open

Bonus Eldritch Patrons seen in-world
1. Queen of the Terror Birds - recently dug up after long aeons underground, gleefully seeks to restore avian dominion
2. Last Star - the Special light
3. Ezbotha - your local hag, runs a very charming bathhouse
4. Master of Tongues - gruesome plucker of the strands of fate

Dungeon Cities (GLoGtober 1 '24)

Taking on Glass Candles GLoGtober '24, challenge #1 is from a list by Walfalcon - "A city where you can dungeon crawl."

The key difference between a 'lost city' and a standard dungeon to my mind is that there are a bunch of factions/peoples present who are just living normal lives to a relatively sophisticated standard - it is just that the distance to very dangerous neighbours and deadly ruins is measured in minutes walking rather than days of hiking.

I am using 'Lost Conchordia' from my home campaign for my model here - the city of the Titans, predating giant-kind, from the time of Amman ruling supreme, before the Ordning. I had it lost beneath a glacier but this also works for buried under sand or silt, engulfed by volcanic ash or any other number of cataclysms that would fill the streets and spaces of a city with something solid.

Intent is that your standard urban location toolkit would be used, whatever that is, then layer on these tables below to capture the 'buried city' flavour.

Conchordia beneath ice.

d6 room types
1. dug out of ice
2. old room as was
3. adapted room
4. non-dwelling space but big enough to be room
5. rubble/ruin still navigable
6. bubble/crevasse or other naturally occuring gap

In Conchordia, the original inhabitants were mostly gone but for a very few remnants - automata, undead, moving statues, etc. Things of course had moved into the space over the long run of time - both beasts and people finding spaces to live within the old city. Finally there are other non-dwellers - both welcome visitors and unwelcome intruders that might happen to be there.

d20 things encountered
1-2. original inhabitant
3-8. beastie moved in
9-17. recent dweller
18-20. intruder/adventurer

My suggestion for cities where you dungeon crawl is to set the range on attitude tables as equivalent to cities, and have monsters encountered be both more savvy around humans - like urban bears, crows and coyotes - habituated to people, not man-eaters, and perhaps more of a nuisance, less of a direct threat. Going about your daily business is a little more risky however with things falling on you or out from under you and the poorly ventilated buried nature of the whole place.

d6 background hazards the locals cope with daily
1. rickety walk ways over plunges
2. low door lintels
3. bad food
4. sleep-ruining noise
5. random collapses
6. bad air
7. disease
8. getting lost and disorientation

This would also come into play during any chases.