People

Hello there. I am Sixpence. A stolen spellbook lies halfway down, and the one who went after it lies at the bottom. Those two things are yours to find and carry back up. Stock up at the store, practice at the training ground. Take this potion, drink it when one of you is hurt, it may help.

REMIND ME WHAT I'M DOING?

The king went down alone after the stolen spellbook, and you followed. The king lies on the deepest floor and the book halfway down. Go down until you find them, take them both, and climb back out with them.

IS THERE A HURRY?

None at all. Nothing down there spoils for waiting. Monsters rarely roam the halls until the last thing you came for is in your hands. Then they come hunting, and the climb out is the fight, so go down ready.

GOOD OF YOU, SIXPENCE

Think nothing of it. Come back up again, that is all the thanks I want.

He hands over: Medicinal Ale

Sixpence again, and on a better day. The king is standing, and standing with you. The quest is yours together now. Bring the spellbook up if you can, and the king up whether you can or not. Here is ring mail. No king climbs out in rags.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

You climb, all of you, and the king with you. Reach the courtyard with the king alive and the descent is won. Lose the king on the way and it is not.

WILL THE KING FIGHT?

The king fights, and well. But mark this. If the king falls, nothing can raise the king again, no magic and no statue. The long imprisonment saw to that. That is what the mail is for, so keep every blow you can off the king.

MUCH OBLIGED, SIXPENCE

It is not a gift, it is a debt paid. Put the mail on the king and go.

He hands over: Ring Mail

You have found something. Every spell the king kept was in one spellbook. A gremlin stole it, tore out every page and scattered them through the whole of this place. Now a part of it is in your hands. Take ten rations and ask me anything.

WHAT IS THE BOOK FOR?

Find the book and every page you have goes back into it. It will hold nothing else, so every spell in it is one you carried there. Then a king, a hero or a wizard reads them out. Every page costs the reader mana, and walking is what fills the well back up.

CAN THE BOOK BE LOST?

No. The book waits where it lies, and so does every page still scattered down here. Nothing in this place can destroy them or carry them off. The only way the book leaves this dungeon is in your hands, with every page you found back in its binding.

MUCH OBLIGED, SIXPENCE

The pages lie in the rooms, scattered the whole depth of this place, and there are far more of them than you hold. They weigh nothing and fill no pack. Loot every room you can and take what is there.

He hands over: rations

I am sorry for your loss. It is not the end of this run, though. A member who has died can do nothing at all, and the rest of you walk on. Take the light of life from me, and ask what you like.

IS THE RUN OVER?

No. The run ends only when every one of you is dead. Somebody is still on their feet. Do not wait for time to fix it, walking heals wounds but never the dead.

HOW DO WE GET THEM BACK?

Any one of you still standing can use the light of life, and your fallen get up barely alive, even in the middle of a fight. It is used up doing it. Nobody can be raised more than three times, so do not let members die cheaply. Any counter sells another, deeper counters charge more.

GOOD OF YOU, SIXPENCE

Think nothing of it. One last thing. You can still trade an item off a companion who has fallen, so do not leave a good thing lying there.

He hands over: The Light of Life

Hold a moment. That thing eats metal, and it took a bite out of what somebody was holding. Did you see the damage fall? Take this hand axe of mine while you think on it, it is a small thing and it is sharp.

I SAW NOTHING

Then look next time. The bite finds the weapon in the ready hand and grinds its damage down, and the weapon keeps the loss when the fight ends. Ground all the way down, it is destroyed and the hand is empty.

WHERE CAN I SEE IT?

Open MEMBER STATUS. In a battle it reads the fight as it happens, and the weapon row says metal eating has damaged it, with the damage that is left beside it.

I SAW IT ALREADY

Then you are ahead of me. The weapon keeps the loss all the same, and party MEMBER STATUS names metal eating on the weapon row. Go on now, and mind your edges.

He hands over: Hand Axe

A word about that chest. A lid like that can be trapped, and a rogue stands the better chance of lifting it without being hurt. It is not a sure thing, only better odds. Send your rogue next time. Here is a gold coin for the trouble.

IS THE ROGUE SAFE, THEN?

No, and I would not have you think it. A chance decides every lid, and a rogue gets a kinder number. That is the whole of it. I have seen rogues caught by traps often enough to know better than to call any of you safe.

HOW MUCH BETTER?

Twenty in a hundred, on the chance that decides it, and a rogue's hands are what earn it. Nothing else you carry will buy you a better one. A harder difficulty lowers the odds for everyone, rogue or not.

THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW

Then I will not keep you. The coin is yours, and so is the advice. Send the rogue.

He hands over: gold

A word before you go on. You have walked a good way and never read a report. Open status reports from the actions menu. Here is a gold coin for hearing me out.

THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW

As you like. The reports will be there when you want them.

WHAT IS ON THEM?

MEMBER STATUS is one member's sheet, the wounds, the level, and what is carried and worn. QUEST STATUS is the party and the quest, the gold, the rations, and what is still out there to be found. The BESTIARY is every monster you have met.

DOES LOOKING COST TIME?

Nothing at all. A report stops the world while it is up, so you may read as long as you like and the clock will not move.

He hands over: gold

Ah, you found the stairs. They will not open without the map of the floor they stand on, and every floor keeps one. Find it, come back here, and down you go. Here is a coin for your trouble.

WHERE WOULD IT BE FOUND?

In the rooms, the same as anything else worth having down here. Sometimes it sits in a chest, so open the chests too.

IS ONE NEEDED EVERY FLOOR?

Yes. Each floor hides its own, and the deepest map you hold is the deepest stair that will open for you.

THAT IS ALL FOR NOW

He hands over: gold

Your food is gone, and what that costs is worse than you think. With no rations, wounds stop healing as you walk, and a caster's mana stops returning. Every meal you miss wounds every member it could not feed. Hunger will kill you. Here are ten rations. Ask what you like.

HOW OFTEN IS A MEAL DUE?

One ration for every member still on their feet, every two hours of walking. A meal you cannot pay costs a hit point for every member it leaves hungry. A fight costs you nothing, the clock stops while you are in one. Magic can change that pace.

WHERE DOES MORE COME FROM?

Every counter sells them, ten to a purchase, and they go to the party rather than to any member. They cost twenty gold at the surface, and more the deeper the counter stands.

GOOD OF YOU, SIXPENCE

Think nothing of it. One last thing. A trap can take food straight out of your packs, so count what you have before you count on it.

He hands over: rations

You ran, and that is why you are standing somewhere else. A party that runs lands anywhere in the halls of this floor, and these bands turn up far more often once all you came for is in your hands. Take the map of this floor from me, and ask away.

WHERE DOES A FLIGHT END?

Any hall on this floor, and you do not choose which. Never a room and never a stair. It may well be a hall you have never walked, and no time passes while you run.

HOW MUCH COMMONER?

While anything you came down for is still unfound, a junction raises a band 3 times in 100, and what you carry can move that. Once everything you came for is in your hands, it is 60 in 100. The climb out is the dangerous half.

THAT IS KIND OF YOU

Think nothing of it. One thing more. A flight only works when everybody still standing gets out through the same door.

He hands over: Map

A word on that vault. A tumbler wall or a lock plate shuts it. A rogue knows the wall's first ring, and takes the plate's first hint free. Nobody else, not even a hero. If one of you is a rogue, send that one. Take the shield if you like.

DO VAULTS GET HARDER?

Yes, both locks get harder the deeper you go. Each floor's wall has more possible combinations than the one above, so a guess is worth less farther down. A plate is a harder puzzle deeper down, and its hints cost fifty gold per floor.

WHAT DOES A MISTAKE COST?

At a wall, a wrong guess may cost nothing, or it may wound the one working the lock. The more digits you get wrong, the worse the wound, and a harder difficulty wounds worse still. The lock never shuts you out. A plate has no guess to get wrong. Pushing costs nothing. Taking a push back wounds.

THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW

Then I will keep you no longer. The shield is yours if you want it, and so is the advice. Send a rogue.

He hands over: Wooden Shield

Hold a moment. One of the walls around you hides a door, and you have already walked past others like it. Search where you stand. Take this short bow for your trouble.

THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW

As you like. The wall will keep, and so will the bow.

WHERE SHOULD I LOOK?

Wherever a room and a passage run along one another with no doorway cut between them. A room may have no other way in at all. Stand on either side and search, the door reads the same from both.

DOES SEARCHING COST ME?

A step of the clock, the same as a pace of walking, and while a quest prize is still unfound, a search draws wandering monsters twice as often as a pace does. Monsters arrive as time passes, so searching every corridor is not free. Search where a room seems to be missing.

He hands over: Short Bow

Something is working on the whole party just now. That is a party effect, and it runs on a clock. Open effects from the actions menu. The party effects page names every one running, what started it, and what it is doing to you. Here is a gold coin.

HOW LONG DO THEY LAST?

Look and see. The party effects page prints the time left on each one. Walking spends it, a fight costs them nothing. The four kinds count down apart, so one running out leaves the others alone, and using a thing again starts its count over rather than piling on top.

ARE THEY ALL GOOD NEWS?

No. Most of them help, but one of the lanterns is foul and draws the wandering bands to you instead of turning them away. Until somebody uses it, it looks like any other lantern. So read the page. A good one wears a star and a bad one a hazard.

GOOD OF YOU, SIXPENCE

Think nothing of it. One last thing. The party page is not the only one. Every member has a page in there too, and the arrows walk between them.

He hands over: gold

Hold a moment. There is a store in this dungeon you have never set foot in. A counter down here carries what the one above could not. Find it before you go deeper. Here, take this honing stone.

WHERE ARE THESE STORES?

The first is on floor 3, and there is another every third floor below it, as deep as this dungeon goes. Each stands in a room like any other, and nothing opens by itself. Walk in and open the store.

DO THEY ALL SELL THE SAME?

No. The deeper the counter, the more it carries. Each one stocks everything the one above it did and a little more. It also charges more, floor 3 charges half again the courtyard's prices.

THAT IS KIND OF YOU

The stairs will wait. The counter is worth the walk.

He hands over: Honing Stone

A word on that fight. Some things down here go for the gear and not for the one carrying it, and one of them just did. Did you see the protection fall? Take this shield out of my coat and think on it, it is plain and it is sound.

WHICH PIECE DOES IT TAKE?

The shield on the arm, first of all, and the armor on the back when there is no shield. It grinds the protection down, and the piece keeps the loss when the fight ends. Ground all the way down, it turns nothing aside, and a repair mends it.

WHERE IS THAT WRITTEN?

Open MEMBER STATUS. The shield and armor rows carry the protection they have left, and a damaged piece says what damaged it. The mark is on the gear and not on the one carrying it, and a piece worn to nothing keeps its row at zero.

I KNOW THAT ONE

You are ahead of me, then. It stays down all the same when the fight ends, and MEMBER STATUS names what damaged the piece. Go on now, and keep something between you and them.

He hands over: Wooden Shield

Hold there. Somebody has gained a level. The experience of a kill goes to whoever struck the last blow, and nobody else gets a share. Take this mind sharpener. It pours experience into whoever drinks it.

WHAT DOES A LEVEL BUY?

One to six maximum health points, every time. At level 4 and every third level after, one more attack bonus. Open MEMBER STATUS and the sheet will tell you what the next level costs.

IS FIGHTING THE ONLY WAY?

No. A Bath of Fates can grant it, so will that bottle, and things down here can drain it away. However it arrives, the moment you have enough for the next level you gain it, and each level costs more. A harder difficulty charges more.

I HAVE THE SENSE OF IT

As you like. One last thing. Leftover experience is not lost, it counts toward the next level, so one great kill can raise somebody two or three levels at once.

He hands over: Mind Sharpener

A word on that fight. Nearly every blow down here deals a wound, and a wound heals. Did you see the second number fall? That blow dealt no wound at all. It lowered the ceiling, the most health you can heal back up to. Take the gem of strength from my coat, it puts some back.

WILL IT COME BACK?

Not on its own. Walking heals wounds, some potions do, and a Living Statue mends for gold. All three stop at the ceiling, and it is the ceiling you just lost. A level raises it, a lucky Bath of Fates raises it, and so does a gem like this one.

WHERE WOULD I SEE IT?

Open MEMBER STATUS. That sheet prints health as two numbers, so many of so many, and the second one is the ceiling. It never falls below one, so nobody is ever ground down to nothing. And it is not only bites that take it, a bad chest or a bad bottle can take it too.

HARD NEWS, BUT I HAVE IT

You have the hard part of it, then. It stays gone when the fight ends, and the second number on MEMBER STATUS is the one that moved. A level will lift it again, and so will the gem. Mind the dark.

He hands over: Gem of Strength

That was the last of them. While anything you came for was still down here, the monsters mostly stayed out of the halls and guarded it. Now there is nothing left to guard, and every band in the place is free to come hunting you. Take the aura of warding from my coat, light it and go up.

HOW BAD WILL IT GET?

Bands come out into the hallways far more often now, and they will not stop while you are down here. They find you mostly at junctions, so a plain stretch of corridor is safer. Searching the walls can also bring them down on you, wherever you do it.

WILL THE LANTERN HELP?

Yes, while it burns. Light it and fewer of them will find you in the hallways. It does not stop the hunt, nothing is left to guard and nothing changes that now. Take it if you have a hand free for it, and save it for the climb.

WE ARE CLIMBING OUT, THEN

Good. The courtyard ends the run the moment you stand in it with everything in hand, so spend what you mean to spend before you take the last stair. Go carefully.

He hands over: Aura of Warding

They were waiting for you again. Walk in at a door and all of you go in together, and anything alive in there may see you coming and swing before you do. Two things help, and I have something for you besides.

WHAT DOES SNEAKING DO?

Sneak in and name the one who goes in. Nothing in there sees that one come in, and that one gets a whole turn alone and unseen. The room takes a round on that one alone, and then it is an ordinary fight. The rest of you are still outside and must walk in through the door.

AND LISTENING AT A DOOR?

Listen at a door and you may hear what is in the place you are facing, and it will name the thing. Most times you hear nothing, and hearing nothing does not mean the room is empty. It costs a step of the clock, and time at a door is time wandering monsters can find you in.

I HAVE HEARD ENOUGH

Then I will be short. Listen first, and send one of you in ahead.

He hands over: ESP

The statue wanted more than you offered, and you offered less than half of what it wanted. So it broke the thing instead of naming it. I have something for you.

WHAT SHOULD I HAVE OFFERED?

Every statue has a price it will not hold out past, and it rises with every floor you come down. It posts that price when it asks you for yours. Lay that much in front of it and it answers, whatever it was holding out for. Less than that is a bid, and a bid is where the risk is.

WHY DID IT BREAK THE THING?

It is a bid and not a price, and the number is never said out loud. Meet it and it names the thing. Fall short with half or more and it says nothing at all. Fall short with less than half and it breaks what you showed it. The gold goes whatever it does.

GOOD OF YOU, SIXPENCE

Then keep the rule. The price that always answers rises with every floor you come down, and the statue posts it when it asks.

He hands over: gold

A word on what you tried in that fight. Gold is a real way out of a battle. The number under the band is the chance they take a bribe, and a no is not a verdict, it is one ask that missed. But every ask you do not pay hands them a round. Ask away, and take what I have for you.

WHERE DO I SEE THE CHANCE?

In a fight, the panel that lists the band says it at the foot, so many percent chance they take a bribe. That number is the whole of it, and asking again is the same chance again. Every kind in this dungeon takes a bribe at least one try in ten, so there is always a chance to take.

WHAT DOES PAYING COST ME?

The gold they name, and the experience killing them would have paid. The fight ends there. The room is yours and so is everything in it. A paid band always walks, it may tell of rooms on the floor, and it may hand you a summoning stone. Any ask you do not pay costs you a round.

WHAT IS A GOODWILL SCROLL?

Written magic, and the one thing in this dungeon that moves a band's willingness. Read it in a fight and the chance they take a bribe goes up for the rest of that fight, and a bribe they take buys more. It will never make a band certain. Only one who reads may open it.

He hands over: Goodwill