True Darkness

True Darkness is more than the mere absence of light. It actively opposes light rather than just removing it.

True Darkness can also be a source of revelation. Ancient texts describe Darkness emanating from sources deep with the earth and radiating from distant black stars. The chroniclers tell of powerful civilizations and vast cities, deep in the twisting caves below the roots of the mountains, that are “lit” entirely with cold fires that dim and overpower the lights of explorers.

Even in our times, mages ply the the Darkness spell and alchemists have devised Dark Candles and Dark Lanterns that project pools of this anti-light.

Light and True Darkness obscure each other. Mechanically, this means weak Darkness will obscure dim light and reduce a brightly lit area to dimness.

A simple concept, but it has big implications for the world, and opens up a lot of fun possibilities for magic, traps & tricks.

Cave of the Creepers

Cannibal Humanoid Underground Dwellers 

I'll be starting a new campaign with some friends in a couple weeks. A few are new to D&D so I figured this was my chance to break out B2 Keep on the Borderlands, which I've never run before. 

Inspired by Dungeoncraft's "Caves of Carnage" series, I'm re-skinning some of the more pedestrian elements of the original to be a bit creepier and re-working the maps to be a little more dynamic. 

My goals is to keep the iconic bones of the original but put some fresh paint on the blander bits.

I'm starting with the Kobold Caves and importing most of Professor Dungeon Master's upgrades.

I added a couple paths on my map. For comparison: original, re-drawn by Dyson.

I'm hoping that this little dungeon will reinforce to my new players the importance of thinking strategically about their lights. 

The Situation

The Creepers (stats as Kobold): Naked, hunched, cannibal cave-dwellers. Stunted and misshapen by generations underground, they are individually puny so even a low-level adventurer can probably take a few. The runts are light-averse, but they’ll aggressively target light-bearers with missile weapons then swarm in the dark, bearing down their prey with their numbers and shanks made of sharpened bone.

• Lowlight Vision: Can see in light that would be too dim for a normal human to see anything.
• Light Averse: Will avoid being brightly lit if at all possible and will attack and defend at disadvantage in bright light.

If that light goes out...

Years ago: The Creepers crawled up from the bowels of the Underdark, drawn unconsciously by the emanations of the Warpstone obelisk (in Area 4).

Last year: An imperial commander, Captain Kurtzman was sent to clear the caves. Maddened by his investigation of the obelisk, he killed the creeper chief and rather than exterminating the nest, he turned on his own men and took over as petty god-king. His men’s bones and rotted remnants of their equipment can be found in Area 2.

Real cave, real cannibals

Ultra-Bastard D&D: Illumination

Over the Garden Wall

In Ultra-Bastard, tracking illumination is optional. Much of the time, decrementing torches and revealing the map a few squares at a time will be too administratively taxing, but often, particularly in classic dungeon-crawling, light is a major source of tension, constraint and fun. 

When tracking illumination matters: