What Lies Beneath

About the adventure

Time is going missing, strange portals are opening up, things from other worlds are stumbling into ours, and all the while war rages in the background. It’s hard to say exactly when the reports of missing time started to appear. At first it was a merchant a few days late to a market, then a family gone on vacation for a few too many weeks or a guard patrol who claimed to walk the city perimeter in mere minutes. Then it was larger incidents, a small village in the south that woke from a frozen state to molding food and browning leaves where just moments before were hot meals and a warm summer sun. A port town would be missing shipments that should’ve come through months ago and to have the sailors turn up sure they’d only been on the sea a few days. As the incidents grew larger and more frequent, people became aware that they were not individual incidents, that this was part of a larger pattern. But how do you figure out where your time has gone when you weren’t aware it was missing in the first place? A gathering of the world’s brightest minds was called to Bascor in mid-Autumn last year for a Mind Summit to puzzle through these strange events. They never did reach a solution. When the doors were opened, none of the attendees were anywhere to be found. Shortly after the summit, the rifts started to appear. Strange creatures made of shadow would emerge from shimmering portals, devouring anything in their path before returning from where they came. A few patrols have been sent through the rifts, but none have returned. With tensions rising and fear in the air, civil war broke out in Bascor, splitting the nation in two. Across the continent, suspicions are high and several countries have closed their borders. This is the situation you find yourselves in. The world is more dangerous than ever and there’s no one to answer the fears of the people. It’s been two years since the Mind Summit and no one is any closer to getting an answer to the world’s burning question: what will happen next?

Additional Details

How to prepare

For session 0 just bring yourself, any books you have (not a requirement, I also have most things available as handouts in the game page for easy copy-pasting), and a willingness to learn more about some of the custom rulesets I have!

What I provide

I've got a few PDF handouts of the world info, but I also have it all updated on the game page, so you can look at it online or offline whenever you need!

Gameplay details

I run games that are incredibly heavy on roleplay and character choice. I want the world to feel real, so at lower levels your choices might not make as much of an impact as you would like but as you gain power and recognition, the choices you makes start to impact the world itself. I also like to make combat an option but not always a requirement. There will be some fights that are unavoidable but if the whole party wants to avoid a confrontation? You will most likely be able to skirt around combat with the right amount of stealth, charm, or other various tactics. Players start at a lower level - usually between 2 and 4 - and tend to progress fairly quickly up until about level 7 or 8, where the time gets a bit longer in between each level up.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

(none)

How will character creation work

I prefer to create characters with the players after you've had a bit of an introduction to the world. I use a bit of homebrew, so it's good to see what your options are first I feel before diving headlong into character creation.

Players can expect

• Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.
• Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.
• If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.