Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Gothic Earth: The Black Hole of Calcutta



My World Between campaign is currently on hold due to shared player and DM fatigue; we've also reached a natural place to pause the game, since some major objectives have been met and the players need to figure out what their next move is within the 01web of conspiracies that enfolds them.

In the meantime, I've started running some loosely-connected stuff in the Ravenloft Gothic Earth setting.  Here's where I'm going with that:

According to Wikipedia: "The Black Hole of Calcutta was a small dungeon in the old Fort William, at Calcutta, India, where troops of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, held British prisoners of war after the capture of the Fort on June 19, 1756."

But what if beneath the cells there was a sub-dungeon...one more in tune with the supernatural expectations of D&D exploration?

Here's my random encounter table for the Black Hole of Calcutta's underdark levels:
d12
Encounter
01
Otyugh
02
Rat swarm (6 HD)
03
Drow expedition (1d4 drow)
04
Mongrelmen squatters (2d6 mongrelmen)
05
Olive slime pack (1d4 slimes)
06
Green slime pack (1d4 slimes)
07
Ghoul scavengers (1d4 ghouls)
08
Ghast outcast
09
Colonial wights (1d2)
10
Wraith
11
Giant bloodworm
12
Troll

8 comments:

  1. Here would be a use for the DCC funnel neither you or I are particularly fond of. ;) Young soldiers thrown in the hole, find their only means of escaping certain death is crawling through the underdark beneath.

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    Replies
    1. Wow, that is a great adventure idea!

      Just don't say you're not into the DCC funnel too loudly; people will jump up your ass about that, heh.

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    2. We'll keep that to ourselves, then.

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    3. Our secret is safe behind the adult content warning of my blog.

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    4. Set up if great - though I think you're sliding past a lot of flavor if you just go underdark and not crypto-indian underdark. Also check out the discovery last year of hundreds of year old treasure vaults brimming with a type H horde that was discovered two years ago beneath a major temple in North India. Also character funnel is purrfect here.

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    5. Ah, see, I think this is one of those things that was implied in my head that I should have written out: I would totally do any of the above encounters in a cryto-Indian flavor, but those are just the raw stats I'd use since I don't have many specifically Indian-esque monsters at hand. But I could work on that...

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  2. Hm, Tekumel has more than a few cryto-Indian elements.

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  3. as someone who has funneled 3 times recently it does get repetitive . i think with this idea something sharpes rifles-esque would be cool, let them have a sergeant or new lieutentant 2nd level and a bunch of 1st and henchmen but let them all get made and roll a dice to promote one on the fly. would be interesting party dynamic

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