TRAPPED

An introductory adventure for

By Intheheartofdarkness
This is an introductory adventure for Dragonbane. The players will create and learn the
rules during the adventure. They will just need an empty character sheet and a pencil. The
DM will learn and introduce the rules at the same time as the players. The creation
paragraphs are in red they are meant for the DM.

1. CREEPY DARKNESS

“The heroes open their eyes, it’s dark, damp and it smells like clay and rotten food. They
are hanging upside down, their few a few centimeters from the floor, they can almost
touch it with their head. They feel webs all around their body, it is sticky, but it seems
loose. They cannot see much. If it wasn’t thanks to a luminescent bunch of mushrooms
along the wall behind them, they would be in complete dark. They know they are not alone,
but they seemed to suffer from amnesia. They can hear coming from the darkness: suction
and mastication noises loud but far.”

Players can see only silhouettes of each other but if they wiggle, they will free themselves
and fall on the ground with no damage. They are a little bit dizzy. Once freed they can
finally see each other. If they inspect each other, they will notice 2 bites of the back of their
neck… spiders?
Now, the players can describe themselves. They chose or roll a KIN from the rules. They
can only describe themselves physically, they are wearing loincloth and bra cloth only,
they have no equipment yet and no name, just their KIN and their AGE. Fill up the
character sheets with the information about KIN, INNATE ABILITY, BASIC MOVEMENT.
They can also roll for their APPEARANCE on the appearance table if they wish (RB p.9-
13,24,25,29).

“The mushrooms do not provide much light, and they stop glowing once picked up from
the wall. During your fall, you felt that the ground was cover with debris: bones, broken
objects, tore up clothes.”
If they inspect the floor with their hands, they can get a Treasure card, they will find also a
MONOCLE (see handouts). The monocle will help one of them to see in the dark.
Encourage them to hold hands or stay close enough to each other to be able to follow the
one with the Monocle. Remind them about the noises so they will have to stay quiet and
talk low. Lead them to the corridor.

If they want to roll skills tests for Awareness or Sneaking etc. just use 10 as a base for now.

“You reach a bifurcation in the cave, on the left, the suction and the mastication noises are
louder, a foul stench is coming from that darkness. On the right side, it’s quiet…”
2. SLEEPING MONSTER

“The heroes reach a cave opening on their left, the corridor keeps going straight ahead. A
heavy breathing noise comes from the cave. You cannot see cocoons of humanoid shapes
hanging from the ceiling and in the middle of them a large cave spider: Sleeping.”

They will have to be sneaky or be ready to fight the spider (RB p.89) in the dark with no
weapon. They can roll a test of Sneaking at 10 with a bonus of 5 to keep moving in the
corridor.
3. BLIND LUCK

“You walk slowly and carefully by the cave entrance and reach a narrow passage, there’s a
drop, a hole, deep, maybe 4 to 5 meters long. The only way to the other is jumping or
climbing along the wall or going down the hole”.

Now, it’s time to roll for ATTRIBUTES. Explain what attributes are and how they are related
to skills. If they want to be good at a skill, they should have a lot in the corresponding
ATTRIBUTES. It’s also a good time to explain HEALTH POINTS, WILLPOWER POINTS and
secondary attributes: movement, run, jump, bonus to damage etc. Once they have their
ATTRIBUTES set, they can think about how to cross to the other side of the hole with only
one character being able to see (RB p.24,25, 43).

Scaling the wall to the other side of the hole gives a bonus of +5 to the ATHLETICS test
due to the cave surface that gives a lot of grip options. If they jump, no bonus unless the
one with the Monocle gives advice, in that case the character gets a boon for ATHLETICS.
If a player falls, the damage of falling is 1D6, the floor is full of rotten clothes, bones and
all kind of garbage. A good SPOT HIDDEN test will give the hero a TREASURE CARD.
4. MEMENTO

“After few meters, the passage turns right, and the heroes spot a flickering light ahead. It’s
quiet, the noises of suction and mastication are far behind now. They reach an opening: a
broke down wall opens to what seems to be a temple with 8 pillars leading to an altar on
the western wall. On the altar, a statue represents a Spider with a mark on its forehead.
The eyes are bright and illuminate the room. Everybody can see now. There’s a foul smell,
rotten bodies, there’s empty broken cocoons and bones everywhere. In a pile in the center
of the room, the heroes can see something precious, something important, something
that brings hope amid this darkness”.
Now have each player roll for their memento. Tell them how that object brings back their
memory and their confidence. Now they remember who they are. They can roll or chose
their PROFESSION and NAME now, set their trained skills, their equipment, HEROIC
ABILITY, SPELLS, and finally their weakness. You can teach about how weapon works,
inventory and abilities (RB p.13-28,35-39, 57-71).
“A flow of memory comes back to you. You remember the quest you accepted back home.
The travel, the weather, the hardship of survival, and the shelter of an inn: The BLACK
BOAR INN. You remember the dwarf bartender and his wife. The delicious meal and drink.
The old, mute, quiet warrior and his impressive mace smoking his pipe in a dark corner of
the Inn looking at the rain outside. You remember the peculiar taste of the rabbit
stew…and then the darkness.”

The heroes can now talk about how they met, if they are related, why they chose to work
together. The quest they accepted can be linked to another scenario (in my playtest I
always like it to the Croaking tower adventure or the Robber King castle adventure).

But Suddenly:
“You are talking to each other, remembering your life and adventure until now when
suddenly you hear something bubbling very loudly and from the garbage et the bone piles
from the floor comes out 2 abominations, flesh golem created by some dark evil magic. It
brings chills to your spines when the 2 creatures stand in front of you, ready to strike.”

Now it’s time to teach about the COMBAT SYSTEM, Initiative cards, actions, weapons,
conditions and cooperation (RB p.41-51).
“The abominations have been vanquished and you can now take a deep breath. This room
is evil. The SPIDER statue seems to look at you. Everything seems menacing here.”

You can give the players a STRETCH rest if they need it. You can now teach about the
TURN, STRETCH and SHIFT (RB p.7,52).
After the rest is finished, the hero hears a noise coming from the broken wall they came in
from. Several large creatures seem to scuttle towards them. It is scary and sounds big. If
they decide to wait to see, 3 spiders (2 large RB p.89 and 1 very large, p.89 Ferocity +1, HP
+12) come out of the broken wall. There’s only one way to escape. If they want to confront
the spiders, let them understand that they are very dangerous. Fire can keep the monster
away if necessary. They will have to run to find a safe place.

This is the perfect moment to teach about movement and ATHLETICS (RB p.43)
5. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE

“You rush down the darkness of the corridor in the east of the room. The passage leads
north to a dead end. You can see the spiders rushing behind you, the big one leading the
hunt, all seems lost”.
With a successful SPOT HIDDENT or AWARENESS, they find a lever that leads to small
room. Once inside the room, they can close the secret passage.
6. WELCOME TO THE DUNGEON

“The room is small and there’s a non lit torch on the wall. There’s a door leading north. You
can hear the spiders behind the passage trying to find a way to get in and finally giving up.”
They do not hear any sound coming from behind the door.
7. THE BUTCHERY

“A small brasero brings a faded orange light to the room. The floor has several stains, red,
dark, stains. You noticed human size cages, open and empty. There are chains on the
walls. You notice a door on the northeast corner, a cell door. On the east wall, you notice a
sturdy small table with a butcher block on top and a used dull blood-stained cleaver. This
seems to be the room where victims are killed, you think to yourselves. You have time to
investigate, a flesh abomination comes out from the bottom of one of the cages.
Initiative!!!”
It is up to you, if they are ready for another combat or if you feel like it is too much. The
idea is to make them leave this room as soon as possible.
 8. THE SACRIFICIAL ROOM

“The cell door opens to a small rectangular room covered in tapestry. On the north wall,
another statue of the spider creature with a mark stands. There’s a black marble table in
the center of the room. The tapestries represent large spiders eating humanoids. In front of
the statue lie a dwarf in a black robe, the head smashed on the ground, beside the altar,
there’s a dwarf woman also in a black robe with the chest smashed. You recognized the
bartender and his wife. The robes carry the same mark as the one on the statues. In the
Southeast corner, you see the dead body of an old warrior, holding a mace on his right
hand and crumbled piece of paper on his left hand.”
The paper is a letter (see handouts). If the players loot the corpses, they can recover a ring
and a mace. A successful SPOT HIDDEN test allows them to find a secret door behind the
southern tapestry.
9. THE PANTRY

“A well lit pantry appears before your eyes, but nothing look appetizing knowing that it can
be poisoned and after all the disgusting things you have witnessed. On the northeast
corner there’s a double wooden door.”
10. THE ESCAPE

“A large empty hallway leads to a set of stairs going up, going out of this hell, to light, to
freedom.”
This is the exit; it leads to the Inn. There’s a group of soldiers inspecting the Inn and looking
for people. You found out, that several people have disappear along this road and that
several travelers made suspicious remarks about the couple handling this Inn and their
food. It’s morning, you are hungry and tired. You can now eat and rest thanks to the
soldiers and continue your adventures onward.

If the players express going down to kill the spiders, they will be able to fight in room 2 and
11 for the large ones and on room 12 for the very large one. Every spider lair has one
TREASURE CARD, +1 for the lair of the very large SPIDER.
 11 And 12. YOU WANT SOME MORE???

“The spider lairs smell horribly, and the floor and walls are covered by a thick, sticky web.
GOOD LUCK!”
A successful test in PERSUATION will convince 5 soldiers to help them in the lairs. If they
kill the spiders, they rescue 1D6 humanoids adults and 1D4 humanoids children. They are
in coma due to the spider venom but with a good long rest and healing they will survive.

YOU CAN NOW AWARD the advancements marks for the adventure, teach about skills
and advancement following p.29.
AND now???
The players can decide to go onward with the original quest that lead them to rest at the
Inn, they can also follow the lead from the letter found on the body of the old soldier.

What about the mark on the spiders and the robes? You can make your own demonic cult
that will hunt the heroes for what they have done or link it to the cult of SATHMOG to
create a link with the DRAGON EMPEROR campaign. It’s all in your hands.
Thanks for reading!

FLESH Abomination
Ferocity 1 Size Normal Movement 4 ARMOR 0 HP 15
Skills All skills at 5
D6 ATTACK
1 The Flesh Abomination uses its nails like sharp knives. The attack inflicts 2D4 slashing damage.
2 The monster attempts to tear pieces of skin from its victim with its teeth. The attack does D6
piercing damage.
3 The creature vomits a long stream of blood affecting all individuals within a 6m radius. Heroes in
the vomit area must succeed at an AGILITY test to avoid being blinded for a turn.
4 The creature emits a putrid cloud around itself, suffocating its enemies. Any heroes adjacent to
the monster must succeed at a CON save or take 2D4 damage, ignoring armor.
5 The monster freezes and becomes a statue of flesh, it is immobilized, its body becomes hard as
stone. It temporarily receives an armor of 8. Any weapon that touches it loses 1D4 of
DURABILITY.
6 The creature swells and explodes. It loses all its HP. The explosion has an area of effect of 6m.
Characters in the explosion zone must succeed at an ATHLETICS Test, if the test is successful,
they only take half the damage (rounded up). The attack can be EVADE.
HANDOUTS