>The LIONS of TELL ARN< a Bronze Age Megadungeon for Shadowdark
West of Lambsblood, a burial mound towers above the fells. Within, dark secrets and treasures. But beware the rising shadow... the Lion of Tell Arn!
$15.00
/ Session
Details
4 players following this game
Weekly / Sunday - 12:00 PM UTC
Session Duration / 3 hours
0 / 5 Seats Filled
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About the adventure
Welcome to >The LIONS of TELL ARN<. In this Shadowdark campaign, your party will plumb the depths of Tell Arn, a massive, old-school megadungeon in the Bronze Age-inspired land of Lost Hyrkossia. Traverse the surrounding wilds, the nearby village of Lambsblood, and the distant city of Kurhan to gather allies and supplies. As you do, you'll navigate incensed blood rites, far-seeing bell priests, taciturn goatherds, a guilt-wracked aging King, and a land seething with legends and mysteries. In this game, you will... ♌︎ Navigate wonderful, complex, and terrifying factions that surround and suffuse the dungeon. ♌︎ Evade the jaws of the Lion of Tell Arn! ♌︎ Make your way around and through deadly traps in pitch darkness. ♌︎ Use your creativity to surmount impossible puzzles and delve deeper and deeper into the Tell. ♌︎ Unearth and use, or let lie, wondrous weapons and terrible treasures. ♌︎ Sneak, fight, talk, or puzzle your way through lethal, fast-paced combat encounters. ♌︎ Confront the ghosts of epic wars and ancient, long-gone empires. ♌︎ Embroil yourselves in a centuries-long saga that threatens the land itself. ♌︎ Get through it all by the skin of your teeth...or not. Tell Arn and the surrounding region evoke the majesty of Bronze Age epic poetry and the grandeur of modern classics like The Book of the New Sun and Shadow of the Colossus. This ain't your standard medieval fantasy, folks. If you've never played an OLD-school dungeon crawler before, this is an awesome place to cut your teeth. Lost Hyrkossia is an OSR setting stuffed with fantastic adventures, The Lions of Tell Arn being just one, written by Nikoline for B/X D&D and adapted here for the Shadowdark RPG.
Game style
Dungeon Crawl
Sandbox / Open World
Roleplay Heavy
Puzzle / Mystery Focused
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(3)
1 year on StartPlaying
Highly rated for: Rule of Cool, Inclusive, World Builder
About me
I'm Nick! I'm originally from the US, but I've lived and worked in China for about a decade. I love tabletop games in all shapes and sizes, and I've been playing and GMing for about 20 years. After years of playing D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1E and some time away from the table in college, I reconnected with the game through 5th Edition in 2017. Since then, I've pivoted into a constellation of new systems like Shadowdark, Dolmenwood, Mothership, Mythic Bastionland, and Legend in the Mist. These games reminded me of learning to play at twelve around my friend's kitchen table, or huddled late at night in bed, poring over a rulebook and dreaming of adventures. Now, those systems inform much of the way I run games. I split my time between old-school dungeon crawlers (like Shadowdark and Knave), rules-light, flavor-heavy systems (like Cairn, Mothership, and Mythic Bastionland) and narrative-first games (like Legend in the Mist and Stonetop.) I'm always looking to try new systems, meet new players, and suit the table to the group playing it. Introducing people to new games, suiting my GMing to diverse playstyles, responding to creativity, and fueling improvisational play are my favorite things to do. My table is LGBTQ+ Safe, Anti-Hate, Beginner-Friendly, and Deadly as Hell. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🏴☠️ Come roll dice sometime!
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
Pre-generated characters or character creation assistance is available for players new to RPGs or the Shadowdark system. Experienced players can create their own first-level characters using the Shadowdark Core Rulebook, Cursed Scroll 2 (Red Sands), and Cursed Scroll 6 (City of Masks). Character Generation Rules Roll 3d6 in order for stats. If no stat exceeds 14, reroll the lowest stat until it is 14 or higher. Swap any two stats you choose. Create a first-level character with base gold. Roll talents randomly.
What to expect
Preparing for the session
You'll receive links to a Discord Server and a Player Survey. 1) Join our Discord Server and ping me that you're joining the game. 2a) Complete a Player Survey (the first time you join an adventure). 2b) Hop on a free, 20-minute onboarding call with Nick. 3) Create a character, ask for help making one, or ask for pre-mades to choose from. 4) Roll a Hyrkossi story hook (provided on Discord) 5) Be sure you have a working webcam and a clear microphone connection.
What Nick Mac brings to the table
The characters and the world they inhabit are the center of the story we'll tell together. While some characters MIGHT die, their deaths will form a central part of our story's weft. My goal is to foreground immersion and joy in shared storytelling and roleplay. In Shadowdark, combat is often intense, lethal, and avoidable with careful, clever play. I love crafting puzzles that let you marshal creativity and collaboration beyond your character sheets. Our narrative will be emergent, driven by choices you make during the adventure and rolls of the dice, not by predetermined plots or character backstories. Ambient music comes from a shared YouTube stream. I will spoil you with NPC voices. Be prepared to be ✨immersed✨!
Homebrew rules
Each player gets a luck token at the start of each session. Each player can have no more than two luck tokens at a time. Don't roll for HP at first level; take the max.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Nick Mac creates a safe table
I will send a link to a Player Survey with questions to help me better understand your preferred playstyle. I'll also set up a 20-minute onboarding call with you to get to know you better, make sure we're a good fit, chat campaign and characters, and plan the best game I can for you. I sometimes also run a free, brief Session 0 to discuss the game's themes, agree on the game's goals, and get to know one another. Since this game has horror elements and is therefore designed to immerse players in delectable feelings of fear and dread, we use the X card during play; you are encouraged to ask for a pause, to step away, and to check in with one another verbally mid-game to ensure fun and good times for all. After particularly atmospheric or stressful moments, I offer space to come up for air and decompress. I do the same at the end of every session. Lastly, be ready for ample shots of levity and humor at dark and stressful times.
Content warnings
Safety tools used