400 independent bathrooms

final spirit forge moratorium

I found my binder of notes for the Spirit Forge project mentioned here and here). Riddles, a job board, an explanation of how upgrades work, some magic item ideas, and a project-specific monster manual. There are some things I'm proud of in here, but more importantly, some things you might find useful. I think a rogue-like elfgame is bound to work someday. Surely.

Let's begin!

First, some riddles. I'm a big riddle fan. I have used a few in games before, and these were just leftovers.

Pronounced as one letter, but written as three,
Only two letters are found within me.
Alone or with partner, and brown, blue, or grey,
From either direction, the same either way.
What am I?

Welcome friends on any road,
we share the weight of any load.
On my own, I'm not worth taking.
I do my best work after breaking.
What am I?

Alright, now to the meat of the post. Inspired by the video game Hades, I had intended the Spirit Forge to be played in "runs," using characters generated from an initially limited but ever-expanding pool of options, and trying to get as far as possible before inevitably dying and starting again. To this end, I imagined a "job board" of in-game achievements to strive for, which would "unlock" new content for the character-generation side of things.

So, a recap of the setting: An evil dragon forces players to go into the Forge, to get the magic treasures. A cottage industry of adventurers (the coalition) pops up around this dungeon, growing in response to player achievements. The treasures each have a guardian, their previous Seeker, who must be defeated in order to get the treasure. (All three bosses in a run need to be defeated, or you don't get any of the treasures.)

Finally, the character-generation rules are simplified somewhat and cut down: You get a race and a background, and at the beginning the only race is dwarf and the only backgrounds are Sniper (+C to damage rolls further than 5ft away), Brawler (+C to damage rolls within 5ft), and Collector (start with C coins). (C here is the Coalition Bonus, which starts at 1 and can be increased by completing certain jobs on the board, as you'll see.) You also get either medium armor and shield proficiency or 2 skill proficiencies, and you get simple weapon proficiency and light armor proficiency. You get one weapon that can reshape to become any weapon, and one armor that can do the same but for armor/shield. You are allowed to trade items around. You do not have any additional starting gear.

For hit dice, I was going to have you roll on this table to generate a number of results equal to the number of players, and draft them or something.

1-2: d6
3-8: d8
9-11: d10
12: d12

But that's a bit silly I think. Moving on...

Job Board

There are additionally some jobs that aren't revealed until they're completed. I only wrote one and a half:

Shrine Mysteries Board

Rebellion Board

Alright, so what about these Gratitude Crystals? They are produced by dwarfs. A dwarf can create one each week or something. They give them away as thank-you gifts only. You can't steal them because they literally produce them when they're feeling grateful. Here's what they do. You eat a Gratitude Crystal to improve one of the following powers that you have:

For some reason I crossed out Channel Divinity, Rage, Indomitable and Action Surge from my list.

The treasures! I wanted these all to have character-backstory-type hooks attached to them, so players could easily choose which ones to pursue in the early stages when they had next to zero context for what was going on. I gave them each a different form factor just to keep things interesting, and to serve as inspiration for designing the story. Here's the notes:

The SWORD OF PERFECTION gives you the ability to forgive yourself, to overcome fear, to reject unwanted narratives, and to control your urges. Its bearer, the evil dragon, drove it through his own heart and became a mortal man.
The CHALICE OF FREEDOM gives you the ability to escape your sentence, to repay a debt, to rise above your station, and to overthrow your oppressors. Its bearer drank the blood of her vampiric enemies and reclaimed her homeland on the dark side of the earth.
The CASKET OF REVELATION gives you the ability to unearth the past, to know your place in all of this, to discover why, and to see through deception. Its bearer, IOUN, dwells inside it like a corpse, awaiting something only she knows about.
The NAILS OF REVERSAL give you the ability to fix your mistakes, to bring back the dead, to go back to the way things were, and to right your wrongs. Its bearer used them to construct the Forge, to make up for having let the treasures fall into the wrong hands long ago.
The CHAINS OF INFLUENCE give you the ability to open their eyes, to change how we do things, to save your reputation, and to unite your people. Its bearer used them to enforce a mass censorship of history, leading to the state of things in the elflands today.
The LANTERN OF FINALITY gives you the ability to defeat your enemy once and for all, to break a curse, and to put an end to this. Its bearer is roaming the Forge, destroying it from within.

Bestiary!!!!!! Abbreviated, because honestly fuck 5e stat blocks.

Morgora, the Dragon. Legendary Resistance: 3 swirling clouds of gratitude crystals. Fights as a grappling brawler dwarf unless sword is removed. Removes sword at half HP.
Sword of Perfection: STR 15 to remove, CHA 15 or be controlled by sword (i don't know what this was meant to imply). +3 sword. Stats as an ancient red dragon.

Astrid, the Purifier. LR: 3 holy symbols. Stats as a beholder I think? Vampire regeneration, and eye rays are replaced with this: Charm, Bite, Tentacle, Mist Form, Children of Night (summon bats), Insect Plague, Blood Curse (max HP reduction and heal), Fear, Sacred Flame, and Momentary Control (Astrid reverts to humanity. Makes a CHA 20 each time she would act, and if she succeeds three times the fight is over and she's just a normal woman).
Chalice of Freedom: 10ft antimagic field around it.

IOUN, the Witness. LR: None? Ravages of Time: First turn, CON 17 or take 6 thunder damage and be deafened. Second turn, take 6 acid damage. Third turn, DEX 17 or take 30 lightning damage. Fourth turn, IOUN speaks a password, but it's difficult to hear through the 6-damage hail (Perception check). This password is for a locked door in some earlier area, which you'll only be able to open on a later run. Fifth turn, IOUN asks a question, the answer of which is found in an earlier area but is randomized. If no answer is given, or a wrong answer is given, she blasts +11, 20 damage. Sixth turn, another question.
Casket of Revelation: Adamantine box, AC 23, 18 HP, damage threshold 10, resistant to all damage. IOUN is blinded and has full cover inside it. You can open it with a STR 16. The android is relatively fragile and only attacks by asking questions.

Sigurd, the Thief. LR: 3 glowing runic tattoos. Speed 40, Cunning Action, Stealth +7. Multiattack 2. +8, 15ft or 5ft. Reduce speed by half, put a nail in the target's space even on a miss. Reaction: When a visible enemy gets within 15ft, attack as above. If it hits, attack again.
Legendary actions: (1) Arc Bolt: Target within 5ft of a nail makes DEX 14 or takes 10 lightning. (2) Wall of Shadow: Between two nails, an illusion for one turn. (3) Wall of Iron: Real wall, AC 15, 30 HP.
Nails of Reversal: Any time Sigurd would take damage, he teleports to the last nail he placed if possible, consuming it. This can evade the damage.

Claira, the Conduit. LR: 3 thorned halos. Celestial, fly 90. (Stats as archon maybe?) Multiattack 2. +8, 30ft, 7 + 18 radiant. Target is bound by chain until either broken or Claira releases as a bonus action. Binding disables one power (Claira's choice).
Chains of Influence: AC 19, HP 5. Claira can always make more.
Legendary actions: (1) Lift: Pull a bound target up off the floor. (2) Crusader's Mantle spell. (3) Mass Dispel using Charisma (+5).

Kathra, the Fury. LR: 3 floating skulls. Half plate.
Feed on Weakness: When anyone within 20ft fails a save, Kathra gains 10 temp HP as a reaction.
Possession: As a ghost. Violate Form: Bonus action, possessed target does freaky The Exorcist stuff, WIS 13 or be frightened.
Misty Step spell at will. 3/day Finger of Death (16).
Blighted Blade: +8, 8 slashing and CON 19 or poisoned.
Lantern of Finality: Burning Hands at will. Destroys anything killed by it utterly.
Legendary actions: (1) Blighted Blade. (2) Lantern. (3) Fear spell.
Lantern: AC 24, HP 24, blows up for 9 fire if destroyed. Lantern's bearer can make a new one by repeating the explosion???

Doomkow. Aka stench cow from the Monster Manual or whatever. This one also destroys supplies (aka food and water) in its aura.

Scarecrow. Per MM.

Vampire. Small time version. Hide as bonus action in darkness, 2 attacks at +6, one grapples and the other bites if you're grappled. Blood Curse, as Astrid, triggers at half health.

Crocodile.

Sabre-toothed Tiger.

Wooly Mammoth. These beasties are all for the Revelation level btw.

Hoard Guard. Adds d4 to allies like a walking Bless spell. Parry. Usually has a dog.

Guard Dog. Fear of [element]: Makes WIS save when taking damage or becomes frightened. Element randomized each run. IOUN knows.

Hydra. Elemental weakness rerolled like the dog.

Killer Projection. As banshee.

Rebel Fighter. Either Grapple (+3), Axes (+3, two weapon fighting), Tamer (DC 11 with +0 bonus to control a plant or beast), or Stones (+1, 20/60). If dwarfs, adv vs poison. If elfs, adv vs charm.

Enchanter. 4th level Charm Person, 1/day Geas, Fireball, Invisibility, Tongues. A negotiator.

Herbalist's Servant. Man-eating plant. 1/day, 30ft aroma, WIS 11 charm poison.

City Police. Immune to Acid Splash, Poison Spray, Shocking Grasp spells. Is a plant pretending to be a construct.

Darktrapper. As cloaker, but walks on four legs and is a plant. The phantasms are poison hallucinations.

Warplant. As shambling mound, but with randomized elemental absorption. If it eats a magic weapon or armor, it gets its powers.

Finally, here's the link to the encounter... tables? I wrote? And here's the link to the spreadsheet where it randomizes the random elements, including all the ones I mentioned in this post like dog weaknesses and robot passwords. I don't exactly recall how it all works but it should be pretty self-explanatory I hope.

Needless to say, I don't ever intend to actually run this thing, but I put so much work into it that I figured I might as well put it somewhere for people to see and pick apart for scraps. Candidly, I think the best parts are the job board, the backgrounds, and the dead-simple setup of "a dragon is making you go in here, if you get strong enough in here you can fight the dragon." I also think the challenge of getting out of the Forge without actually winning adds a fun element of sequence-breaking chaos that I'm happy to tacitly encourage. There's WAY too much unrelated weirdness going on otherwise, to the extent that it's probably impossible to understand as a player. This is a common issue with things I write, I find. Oh well!