Dark Horrors Hidden Places

1st Edition

Created by Dave Valderhaug

@rev_annihilator

http://darkhorrorshidden.blogspot.co.uk/

for

Gorebite Games 2014

There was a worldwide tremor. Many places sunk beneath the earth. The tunnels &
sink holes were closed and barricaded. Only those in power know why.

The world is shattered. Where once stood streets and entire cities now lies rubble.
The sadistic among the population have taken to the underground in order to torture
and torment the poor and weak.

In this world the lawful and the wealthy require the services of the bold and
adventurous, to fix their issues and recover their possessions.
 CHARACTER CREATION

First decide what class you will be creating. Look up the table below and find out your starting
statistic and write it on your character sheet.

Roll 4 d6 and discard the lowest. Do this 5 times then allocate each result to one of your remaining
Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom & Charisma statistics.

HEALTH POINTS, ARMOUR CLASS & MOXY

HP = Strength + Constitution – 10
e.g.: STR 14 + CON 13 = HP 17

AC = (DEX + CON) – 5 (divided by 2) + Armour bonus.

e.g.: DEX 15 + CON 12 = 27, -5 = 22, divide by 2 = 11, + bonus of +2 = 13

MOXY = 1d4

Always round numbers down

LIFE SKILLS

Choose 4 skills from the life skills chart, try to keep them relevant to your character.

CLASSES, STARTING STAT & BONUS

Class Starting Stat Bonus

Brute STR 15 +1 CON, +1 Damage
Arcanist WIS 15 +1 INT, +2 Weird skill rolls
Scoundrel DEX 15 +1 CHAR, +1 Light weapon damage
Pistoleer DEX 15 +1 INT, +1 Gun Damage
Engineer INT 15 + 1 STR, +2 Smart skill rolls
 WEAPON LIST

Each non magikal character starts with 2 weapons. Either 2 light or medium, a light and medium or
a light and heavy.

Light weapons cause 1d4 damage, medium 1d6 and heavy 1d8.

Magikal characters start with either one light or one medium weapon.

LIGHT 1d4 £/S/d MEDIUM 1d6 £/S/d HEAVY 1d8 £/S/d

Dagger -/10/- Electro Rapier 2/-/- Steam Axe 3/-/-
Scalpel -/5/- Six Shooter 1/30/- Jack Hammer 2/10/-
Knuckleduster -/8/- Gas Rifle 3/5/- Bolt Repeater 4/-/-
Needle Gun 1/10/- Crossbow 1/10/- Slug Gun 3/20/-

ARMOUR LIST

Armour lets us decide what AC bonus we get. Only characters with STR equal or greater than 14
can wear heavy armour.

LIGHT +0 AC £/S/d MEDIUM +1 AC £/S/d HEAVY +2 AC £/S/d

Cloth -/10/- Leather -/50/- Ceramic 3/-/-
Silk -/20/- Light Steel 1/50/- Steel 2/-/-
Cotton -/8/-
Tweed -/20/-

LIFE SKILL LIST

Violence Sneaky Smart Weird

Brawler Stealth Book worm Arcane Sense
Intimidating Steal Identify Item Divination
Breach Trickery Repair Parapsychology
Targeting Stalk Traps Cryptozoology
Explosives Forgery Architecture Zen
Blades Disguise Cartography Magik Resistance

VIOLENCE

Brawler: A dab hand in a bare knuckle fight or with the use of blunt instruments. Receive a +2 to
attack rolls and a +2 to AC whilst in hand to hand combat.

Intimidating: Your reputation precedes you, and tales of your brutality strike fear into the common
and wealthy alike. +2 to charisma during any attempt to intimidate.

Breach: Locked door? What are they? You are skilled in the forcing of doors and gain +2 to
strength when attempting to break them down. You also gain initiative when breaching a room.

Targeting: After so much target practice your aim is true. Gain a +2 to dexterity when using ranged
weapons.
Explosives: If it can go BOOM you know about it. Creating and disarming gain a +2 to INT or
DEX depending on which is being used with explosives.

Blades: Stabbing, slashing and slicing. Yup you are great at all that. Gain a +2 to all attack rolls
whilst using a bladed weapon.

SNEAKY

Stealth: Shadows, silence and surprise gain +2 to DEX rolls when being stealthy

Steal: Pick pocketing and general theft gain a +2 to DEX when stealing stuff

Trickery: Distraction and confusion and misleading. gain +2 to required stats when doing these
things

Stalk: Tracking and stalking in either nature or urban settings is your thing. Gain a +2 to DEX/INT
when stalking a person or creature

Forgery: Official papers, identification etc. You can spot a fake and you can create a fake. Make an
INT roll to check for success.

Disguise: Blending in to a crowd or social scene is second nature to you gain a +2 to WIS/INT
when rolling for disguise.

SMART

Book worm: You are well read and if its in a book there is a good chance you have read about it.
Roll against INT to check.

Identify Item: Items carry marks and tell tale signs of its creation and its use. You may make an
INT roll to attempt to identify an object.

Repair: Tinkering and an empathy with machines gains you the ability to attempt to fix things by
making an INT roll.
Traps: An expert in snares, pits and triggers you can identify and disarm any trap on a successful
INT roll. Failure triggers the trap. If you have the required items you may also set traps without
rolling.

Architecture: Having studied building and their construction, you can find the tell tale signs of
passages and other hidden rooms or weak points. Using an INT roll you may check for anything
regarding the structure of a building.

Cartography: You can make a roll against your INT to make sense of rough or nonsensical maps.

WEIRD

Arcane Sense: Using a WIS roll you can try to sense arcane energy.

Divination: Using a WIS roll you can check to gain a sense of what's around the corner for you and
your party. On a successful roll the GM must give you a response by stating a feeling you get from
the area ahead.

Parapsychology: You have studied spirits and the unexplained gain a +2 in combat against
anything spectral.

Cryptozoology: Your study of the creatures that have been spewing forth from the underground
gives you a +1 in combat with them.

Zen: Once per game day you may meditate to recharge your MOXY roll a d4 and add that number.
You CAN go over your original MOXY score.

Magik Resistance: When being attacked by arcane energy you may use a WIS roll to avoid
damage.
 MAGIC LIST

If you are an Arcanist choose 3 spells from the list below, or create your own. Next choose which is
your light spell, medium and heavy spell.
Magik is cast using a successful roll on your WIS instead of your targets AC.

Spell Damage / Healing Duration

Light 1d4 1 turn
Medium 1d6 2 turns
Heavy 1d8 3 turns

Utility Damage Healing

Paralyse (Ranged) Freeze target
Stone Shield (Touch) + dice AC
Sleep (Touch) Target sleeps
Arcane unlock (Touch) Unlock
locks
Telekinesis (Ranged) Move
objects
Smog of war (Touch) Hide +
dice AC
Arcane shot (Ranged) Life steal (Touch) choose who
receives the health.
Plague swarm (Ranged) Life Ether (Ranged)
Firestorm (Ranged) -
Mind rot (Ranged/Touch) -
Tesla Blast (Range) -
Shock Grasp (Touch) -
 THE RULES
HOW TO DO ANYTHING

Tell the GM what you want to do. Jointly decide which statistic best represents your action, and
whether it is something that falls in with your life skills.
Roll a d20, if you roll equal or less than your chosen stat you succeed. If above you fail. 1 is a
critical success and 20 is a critical fail.

COMBAT

Everyone rolls a d20 and the results will show who has initiative in combat. Highest first.

Choose a target & weapon, roll a d20. If you roll above the targets AC you hit. If you roll equal to
or below the target AC you fail to hit.
If you succeed then roll the dice related to your chosen weapon. This number is the damage caused
to the target.

MOXY

You may spend a moxy point to boost any of your rolls. Roles related to doing things gain a -2
boost, and rolls related to combat receive a +2. This includes rolls to hit and rolls to damage.
You may also sacrifice a moxy point to permanently increase a single stat by 1 point.

LEVELLING UP

Once your GM feels you have done enough to level up, choose 2 stats and increase them by 1
permanently. If you are a magikal character you can increase one stat and add one more spell to
your list. Roll a d3 (1d6 1-2, 3-4, 5-6) to find out if it is light medium or heavy.

All characters HP will increase by 2 each level.

CURRENCY

Money is dealt with in pounds, shillings and pence.

THE CREATURES
 Gorebite Games

The purge of

PORTLAND
ROAD
an adventure for
dark horrors hidden places

By Dave Valderhaug
 INTRODUCTION

These are troubled times, that is for sure. Creatures spill forth from the underground infrastructure,
wreaking havoc on the population of our fine city.

So far we have managed to keep a lid on the situation at Portland Road station, however we fear it
cannot be contained much longer.

We the Lords of Westminster issue this letter to the bold and noble adventurers guilds, in a hope
that we may end this recent outbreak.

The usual reward is to be expected.

The players will take the roles of paid adventurers, hired by the local government to eradicate the
trouble brewing in Portland Road station.

This is a level 1 adventure and as such only lower level creatures will be used.

Treat this as a standard dungeon crawl. Get in, kill monsters, grab loot and get paid.

THE SETUP

The party meet at the service entrance of the Portland Road underground station. This is their first
job together so introductions would be expected.

The party is met at the gates by Police Constable Harold Hedges. He has been standing watch here
for several hours, and has been told of the parties permission to access the station. Harold has a key
for the party, which will open the main door in the tunnel below. He will advise the party to return
to him when the job is done.

The service entrance leads down a tight spiral staircase into a tunnel that runs parallel to the main
tracks.

The tunnel stretches into the dark lit only at the entrance by 2 gas lanterns. The faint image of a
large iron door is just visible beyond the light.

The next section is basic tunnel exploration and creature encounters. The tunnels are dark so a form
of light will be required. Light will however alert some creatures.

All the walls are smooth cold stone with a slightly slippy feel, with some sections growing an odd
mold.

This mold, if collected can be sold to the local scientists for £5 per jar. It is not dangerous however
it does contain a strange substance that science will be interested in.

There are 2 main rooms in this adventure. The horde of lost baggage and the portal room.

The players will find 1d8 items of use and 1d20 x 10 in Pounds (Money) in the baggage room.

The main threat is in the portal room. There the party will meet Dr Laymond Krow, a discredited
scientist who escaped justice by taking his fowl experiments underground.
1. Entrance to the tunnels. All the walls are smooth cold stone with a slightly slippy feel, with
some sections growing an odd mold.

This mold, if collected can be sold to the local scientists for £5 per jar. It is not dangerous
however it does contain a strange substance that science will be interested in.

(a) Locked iron door, opened using the key from Harold Hedges.

2. Maintenance room. (b) Unlocked wooden door. The room is around 15 foot square with
lockers lining the northern wall and various tools and cleaning equipment along the south
wall. A lithograph of a young lady lifting her skirt just above her knee is crudely affixed to
the eastern wall beside the eastern exit.

Inside there is a lone Banshee.

If the room is searched successfully the party will find the remains of a Duellist stuffed
inside a locker. In his pocket is a piece of paper that says 5428.

3. Baggage Horde. A large room with a strange rotting smell. The walls are painted an off
shade of white with rust stains falling in equal intervals along them.

In the centre is a large pile of what looks like luggage and clothing.

There are 2 Devourers here rummaging through the pile.

If searched the players will find 1d8 items of use and 1d20 x 10 in Pounds (Money).

4. Creature nest. This 15 foot square room is lined with broken tiles. There are puddles of a
strange substance in the lower south western corner. (Again if collected is worth £10 per
jar).

There is an iron door that is slightly ajar on the eastern wall.

As the party enter they startle a Tar king who has been busy fondling two devils sisters.

5. Portal Room. A large room lined with steel plate. The door (f) opens into a fenced of
corridor leading to a wall with a circular mural (g) on it. (The mural depicts some strange
symbols pertaining to a vortex portal between worlds).

Halfway along the fence breaks at a gate. It looks like a pen (c) for holding animals. There is
a second gate on the pen leading to a makeshift laboratory (e).

Various medical tools lay on blood stained tables and there are books and papers strewn all
over the place.

Along the southern wall there is a raised platform with a narrow staircase (a) leading up to a
steel box or room (b).

The Doctor has been opening a portal in the room in order to study the creatures that spew
forth into this realm. He is protected by two Duellists and a chained Razormaw.
 The portal is operated by a contraption housed inside the same locked steel room
(combination 5428) as the Doctor. The Razormaw is chained to the wall and the Duellists
are standing guard at the bottom of the stairway.

The doctor will begin to power up the portal around about the time the party break through
the first gate or otherwise enter the main room. It will spawn 1 d4 Devourers every 4 turns.

There is a hole punched through the northern wall (d) that leads to the main tracks. This
needs sealed somehow in case more creatures escape into the station.
Inside the steel box/room the doctor has a stash of dynamite, enough to destroy the portal if
needed or collapse the tunnel to the tracks.

6. Main underground tracks. These tracks lead north to the public platform and south into
darkness. A train passes every 6 turns and may kill the party if they are stupid enough to get
hit.

After the Dr has been dealt with (dead or alive) and the tunnel collapsed the party should return to
the surface and check in with the constable. He will advise his superiors and the players shall be
paid by the guild (GM decides how much). They may also sell items they found via the guild
artefact fence.