Regional Reconnaissance: The Seep (2024)

Background

A treacherous mud marsh located in the reaches beyond what most consider civilized. Fields of churning mud, the consistency of molasses, fatted on overflow from the Cini river and runoff from the Offerprings. Born from the privations of ash stained waters, the earth here has grown hungry – spitefully ravenous. It reaches out for any who would dare to tread its hateful mire, seeking to consume them. When a victim slips beneath the bubbling surface of the marsh it settles, temporarily satiated by the offering of flesh and soul. But like all gluttons this satisfaction is fleeting – a pause before the need for more resumes.

A frightful few wander the stretches of The Seep, the native Trawlers probing the depths with their bladed pole stilts, foraging for the sustenance and trinkets returned by the mire. They seek what meager meals they can manage and Chara, the energy dense fuel source now prized by the industrial powers of the Trench. The Seep maintains the most consistent production of the milky rocks, pulled individually from the clutches of the mud. Realizing this, the Fetterers have forced themselves in, burrowing into the marsh in search of the source of Chara, obsessed with controlling its distribution.

Normally a quiet if deadly backwater, The Seep stands primed to explode. Tensions grow daily as the unyielding weight of Fetterer oppression squeezes out the Trawlers. Violent clashes grow more common, and it’s only a matter of time before one or both move to exterminate the other. Neither can succeed, but the attempt would be devastating. The mud is ambivalent – it feeds either way.

Faction Table

Whenever an encounter prompts a roll on the faction table within this region, roll 2d6.

Faction Dynamic

• Fetterers: Far enough from society to allow for security, but close enough to make travel reasonable, The Seep is the Fetterer base of operations. Musa’s Well serves as the Fetterer hub and one of the only places to restock in this area of the world, at grossly inflated prices. When Chara was discovered to be an unparalleled source of energy generation, the Fetterers set about monopolizing its acquisition. They have no restrictions when it comes to dealing with anyone who stands in the way of their operations, especially Trawlers.
• Trawlers: the native inhabitants of The Seep. Generally simple people who mainly seek to continue their traditional ways of life, foraging for food and gathering Chara for their Wander Homes. Sometimes this requires a few sacrifices, but there always seem to be enough people around to make that a trivial matter. Now, with the increasing aggression shown by the Fetterers, the Trawlers have had to go to ground and resort to guerilla tactics to defend their way of life.
• Reclaimers: Seeing the unhindered exploitation displayed by the Fetterers, a cell of Reclaimers have taken up residence in The Seep. They seek to strike at Musa’s Well directly in the hopes of destabilizing Fetterer operations locally and abroad. They have also identified Musa’s Well as one of the likely locations where the Fungal Sun may be currently held, though they have no proof of this. They don’t have the numbers or resources to make a meaningful impact alone.
• Archive: During the initial diaspora of Archive agents across the Trench and establishment of the original Research Bunkers, the station in The Seep was on the forefront of practical discoveries when it suddenly went dark. All recovery teams sent to the station never returned. Eventually focus on the bunker got misplaced in the bureaucratic shuffle of the Archive’s knowledge hoarding, only recently being rediscovered. Now, with rekindled interest, members of the Archive are returning to the Seep in search of the lost Research Bunker and the rumored wonders contained within.

Region Dynamic

The Fetterers seek control of The Reap to monopolize the Chara belched forth by the mud. They have been severely encroaching on the Trawler foraging grounds and reducing the amount of Chara and food the Trawlers are able to gather. Tensions have been rising and violent clashes between the two groups have become common. The Fetterers seek to cow the Trawlers by whatever means necessary and are willing to pay to see it done. The Trawlers seek to rebuff the Fetterers and keep their current lifestyle alive; they mostly want to be left alone. Reclaimers are in the area to undermine the Fetterers and their exploitation of the region. The Archivists are searching for their lost bunker in the hopes of retrieving the research within.

Notable NPCs

Mel (Filth Savant): Confining herself to a mud caked hovel a stone’s throw from Musa’s Well, Mel (filthy, perpetually starving, plaintive) will beseech aid from any that are passing by. While most things in The Seep are covered in mud, Mel carries a particularly carefree attitude toward her disheveled appearance as her sole focus is on her hunger. Afflicted by an unknown but incurable malady, Mel no longer draws sustenance from normal food and instead subsists purely on prayer laden sap drawn from the Renderwood. Considered a potential hazard to their sacred site, The Trawlers chase Mel back to the relative safety of Musa’s Well whenever she ventures out to try to feed herself.

Wants: Sap drawn directly from the Renderwood’s taproot, will share her knowledge of the location of the Renderwood and how to reveal the Gnarlfen below.

Reward: Verminmancy Aphid (1 VP, Engaged): The caster coats a single surface in Engaged Range in a layer of sticky sap, making the surface tacky enough to lightly adhere a small object to it. Alternatively, the caster may throw a handful of this same sticky sap at a target in Short Range.

Cregory (Purple Seeker): Often encountered mumbling to himself about irreverent cancerian itineraries, Cregory (irritated, glum, rambling) can never tell if he’s early or late to intercept Baade’s wandering path. Due to the temporally unmoored nature of Purple Seekers, Cregory has a general idea of where Baade is at all times but has as of yet managed to align his timing with hers and instead finds himself in a perpetual race to keep up or backtrack in order to locate the meandering mudcrab.

Knows: That Baade is the carrier of the Shocktrooper’s Shinbones; the general direction of Baade at all times (2-in-6 chance of accurately predicting the time in which she’ll be in that general direction)
Wants: To intercept Baade’s path so he can fulfill the task of his order and caretake the Soldier Saint Relic she carries

Regional Map

Landmarks

Musa’s Well: The inverted tower stronghold of the Fetterers. A deep well storage complex, initially just the central core of what is now a corporate org chart of corridors, development chambers, storage facilities, meeting rooms, and debaucherous entertainment venues. New construction is near constant, as ever more storage is required to house the patents and inventions the Fetterers both purchase and discover. Few will ever see the light of day.

The tower is never complete, always growing one floor deeper to accommodate the never ending needs of the Fetterers. It has recently penetrated through into Hell – one of the few points of both access and egress. Denizens of Hell are familiar with this location, having had numerous meetings to negotiate for a direct pipeline of Chara. In the prison of his dream slumber, Archangel Samael has agreed to unfavorable terms. He may drive a harder bargain if awakened. Given exposure, any devils found lingering in the bottom floors or beyond Musa’s Well in Hell may be open to negotiating. Only Fetterers love deals more than devils.

The beating heart of the complex is the Chain Forgery, a smelting room that occupies one of the lower most floors. Here the Fungal Sun is kept, bound. The heat of its decomposition fuels the Fetterer’s forge, allowing them to smelt the chains of their contracts. Unbinding the Sun would allow it to extricate itself from Musa’s Well and return to the firmament of the foxfire void sky. This is one of the Reclaimers ultimate goals. If not freed, the Fungal Sun can be used to smelt most objects, either purifying non-forgeable goods or creating the purest form of metals smelted in its heart. A master smith could craft wonders in its sporous flesh.

An invitation to the complex is the easiest method of entry, but heists are not unheard of. Contract Corpses trawl the lavish, empty halls of the complex, continually patrolling against intruders. Any with a Mark of Affiliation are ignored, but all others are mobbed, dragged to stand before the Oligarch Syndicate for assessment. Those with some potential use may be offered a job rather than terminated. The Archive and Radium Crows desire many of the inventions present within the complex. The Reclaimers and Order of Lost Innocence would see it destroyed. Others may want for specific objects within.

Passchen: A whirlpool mud pit, slow spirals of viscous sludge winding their way down into oblivion. Stone slabs stand like coffin teeth around the rim, ready to accept any who slip between them. A great starving maw, desperately greedy for new morsels, no matter how many have been cast within.

A sacrificial site for the Trawlers. They hold ceremonies here to offer those captured to the mud in the hopes that the Chara harvest remains bountiful enough to keep their wandering homes alive. They prefer outsiders captured floundering in The Seep. Members of other Trawler homesteads work just as well in a pinch. Every family separately makes their own offerings – conflicts aren’t uncommon around the lip of the pit. More than one family has arrived to make sacrifices only to end up served to the ambivalent mud.

A one way portal into Hell, if you can survive the journey down. The muck moves slowly. Painfully. Slowly. Roll 1d6+2 to determine the number of rounds it takes to fully sink into the mire and be deposited at the Gates of Hell. Each round each character must make an Endurance/Agility/Bushcraft/Resolve check to avoid beginning to drown in mud. Each round the check is consecutively failed the character takes a cumulative +1 damage (1 damage on the first round, 2 on the second, 3 on the third, etc.). Succeeding on the check prevents the damage and resets the damage accumulation.

2d6-1 Trawlers are always present with 1d6 prisoners they are planning to offer to the mud. Roll to determine who the prisoners are:

Prisoner Table

The Reap: A wide tract of calm mud fields. Thick bubbles continually burst in wheezing gasps, masking most sounds (-2 modifier to Reconnoiter checks to detect the approach of others). The Trawlers stalk the mire, methodically sifting through the muck in search of Chara, baubles, and tubers.

A spider web of duckboards criss-crosses the territory, some of the only static solid ground in the region and the only agreed neutral territory amongst the Trawlers. While on the mud everyone is fair game. Whether for meat or sacrifice, clashes between rival Trawler patrols are a daily occurrence. It’s even worse for outsiders. Fetterers pilot technically advanced drag boats amongst the fray, towing sieve nets through the fields. They fire at most on sight, though they’re more likely to investigate those not on stilts. Fetterers take no issue with destroying the duckboards. Anything to keep the Trawlers fighting amongst themselves.

A bounty of treasures can be found here. Roll on the What’s in the Mud? table for each watch the party spends sifting through the mud. Also roll on the Regional Encounter Table. Resolve the encounter before the found treasure.

What’s in the Mud?

Lair of the Silt Lure (Hidden): The cesspit of the Stilt Lure, hidden in the deepest reaches of The Reap. Older Trawlers may be aware of its hidden mouth, beyond a stretch of broken stilts and half sunken boats. The mud in this section seems malignant, almost malicious in its hunger, roiling aggressively and tossing would be hunters into the fields of shattered debris that pock mark the area. Despite the dangers, silence lingers here. Even the normal moans of the bubbling mud fear to speak.

A single yawning mouth peeks above the mire, barely discernible amongst the shipwrecks – a single air hole for the beast that lurks beneath. The only point of entrance to the lair. The bulk of the room is the main chamber, a sleeping locale for the Stilt Lure (2-in-6 chance it’s in this room each time the party enters). If it is not present, it will arrive on a success in a roll of the Tension Pool in either the lair or the Archivist Bunker beyond, hunting for intruders. When it arrives the Stilt Lure simply births itself into the lair, emerging from the walls of the main chamber in a placenta of mud and gore, new trophies spasming into control by the nucleus.

Beyond the main entry, there is the molting chamber, where old limbs are shivered from the main body to make room for new. Heaps of hands, arms, and legs in varying states of decay, amassed and decomposing amongst the muck. This compost is invaluable, especially to those seeking natural cultivation, both Reclaimers and gardeners would pay dearly for such quality soil.

Finally, a refuse pit sits at the back of the chamber, the accumulated collection of bodies, silts, treasure, and other miscellany of The Seep hunted but not desired by the Stilt Lure are thrown here. The pile of detritus is immense, generations of discarded garbage thrown together and churned. A party can sift through the pile as a time consuming action to roll for a treasure, adding a die to the tension pool each time they choose to do so.

What’s in the Pile?

Hidden beneath the refuse mound is a small burrow, the secret entrance to the long lost Archivist Research Bunker of The Seep. Archivists would know this as the only way to enter the bunker, but otherwise this knowledge is unknown.

Archivist Research Bunker (Secret): A dilapidated concrete bunker, crumbling in both memory and form. Two wings spread off from the point of entrance – a narrow passage from the lair of the Stilt Lure. Successful rolls of the Tension Pool here also signify the return of the Stilt Lure to its lair. It always knows when someone new has entered.

The west wing focused on the research of Chara, determining the nature of the miracle fuel. Rooms and rooms of experiments line this section, all containing shattered fragments of Chara and various tools to measure its outputs. Most of the delicate equipment has degraded with age, but 1d3 more stable experiment tools have survived. Each set of tools occupies 2 inventory slots and is worth 1 Wealth to a buyer with scientific intent. Locating each one of these pieces is a time consuming endeavor. At the end of the wing is the culmination of the Archivist’s research here: A machine that creates Chara. An upright metal table large enough to fit a human with straps to restrain them is connected via tubes, pumps, and vials to a synthesis chamber. If a human is strapped into the machine, a roll of any Fuel Usage Die can be made to turn the machine on, drawing out the soul of the subject and concentrating it, yielding 1d3 slots of Chara in the synthesis chamber. This always kills the subject. Doing this is both loud and time consuming. The Archivists would pay dearly to be shown to this room. The Fetterers would want to control this machine, or see it destroyed if they can’t.

The east wing focused on the research of The Seep itself, specifically its hostile mud. A large chamber, sealed, is filled with samples of the babbling mud in terrariums. Forcing the door is both time consuming and loud. Each cell is labeled with the experiments performed on the mud. Numerous are cracked and empty, however the full terrariums still contain samples of Living Mud, valuable to the right buyer. 2d6 motes of Living Mud (as Creature, Small) skulk in the shadows here, starving and waiting for an opportune moment to strike. Engaging them is loud. Living chambers lie beyond the terrarium room, littered with detritus and another 1d6 motes of Living Mud hidden within the rooms. Some old but functional firearms (1d6, rolled at random or chosen by the referee) can be found in these rooms at half durability (rounded down). Searching the rooms is time consuming. At the termination of this wing is the head researcher’s office. Inside is a skeleton facing away from the door. The skeleton is missing both hands and is entirely decayed, save for the eyes, which still glisten iridescent. Being seen by the eyes alerts the Curator to the presence of the party. A shattered terrarium lies on the floor, A globule of Animate Hunger still comatose within. The experiment logs for the mud are in the office desk, a treasure either the Archivists or Reclaimers would pay dearly for. The logs say that grief is what animates the mud, the source of its endless hunger.

Wander Homes: The living residences of the native Trawlers. Bayou shanty homes that walk about on their poles, slowly traversing the fringes of The Seep in small herds. Each home is cared for generationally, handed down within a family to be tended to and offer its services. A member of the family bonded to a Wander Home can’t be hurt while within its walls. Further, each Home conveys its accumulated wisdom to those who reside in it, providing the knowledge of their forebearers and its own observations. Each family leaves a member within their home at all times, tending to its needs and stoking the hearth with the Chara the Wander Homes require to survive. If not fed Chara regularly a Wander Home will starve and die. Starving Homes have been known to go hunting, even going so far as to kill their bonded family for food. Beware an empty Wander Home.

The location and nature of the Wander Homes are a jealously guarded secret by the Trawlers, though rival homesteads may reveal the current location of an enemy’s Wander Homes. The death of a Wander Home, especially by violence, is cause for a blood feud which can never be forgiven.

The shells of dead Wander Homes litter The Seep, extended casualties of Trawler conflicts over the generations. Some whisper there may be a way to rekindle the bones of a long dead Wander Home, but the nature of this ritual are poorly understood. Reclaimers are the most likely to know its secrets, though getting them to reveal them may be difficult.

The party can take two watches worth of Travel actions while in The Reap to locate a random Wander Home. The Wander Home contains:

The Renderwood: A towering mangrove tree, the ancient bark is branded with prayer marks and occult symbology, some of the scars weep sticky red pitch as if freshly carved.

The branches of the tree are heavy with tied offerings, a collection of bells in every pitch imaginable to wind chimes to live cave birds crying while fluttering to escape their bondage. Normally cacophonous, the birds and chimes fall silent when anyone approaches, seemingly holding their breath. There is a keenly felt sense of being watched, the tree waiting to see if the visitors will render a tribute to the offerpit, an open pool of mud between the tree’s roots that pulses slightly in slow rhythm.

Referee’s Note: Players can make an offering to the Renderwood in the form of Wealth, Durability, or blood (HP), which must be thrown into the offerpit. Doing so causes the mud in the pit to roil wildly before withdrawing with a horrible sucking noise, revealing a passageway between the roots that leads to the subterranean Gnarlfen. Wealth or items given to the offerpit are irretrievable but HP can be healed normally.

Gnarlfen (Hidden): An opening between two buttress roots of the Renderwood leads to a dank passageway in the earth, heavy with the scent of wet soil and mildewed wood. Thick tap roots lurk beneath the calf deep water, trying to trip up an unwary foot, thin feeder roots hanging from the ceiling try to tangle themselves in hair, constantly needing to be pushed away. Lanterns, a necessity to fend off the dark, reveal the darting wakes of something long, sinuous, and startled that lives beneath the watery mud.

Referee’s Note: When the Gnarlfen is revealed through rendering unto the offerpit, begin a real world timer of 10 minutes per Wealth, Durability, or HP offered. The timer stacks, so if players sacrifice 2 Wealth and 1 HP, they’d receive a 30 minute timer to explore the Gnarlfen. The mud begins to rise after the allotted time has expired, the Tier 3 Elementalism codex is picked up, or the players pierce the Renderwood’s taproot. The mud rises per room traversed, getting deeper every time the players exit their current room. When the mud reaches thigh deep, the silt eels will begin attacking the party unless they were previously dealt with.

Baade’s Back: Although incredibly rare, there are persistent stories of travelers passing through The Seep that made camp on a hillock of dry land, only to wake up miles away from where they bedded down for the night. Having unknowingly fallen asleep on Baade’s shell, the travelers alternately curse or bless their luck, depending on the direction the giant mud-dwelling crab brought them. What they don’t know is that Badee carries a small lacquered box at all times, hidden beneath the mud and clutched tight against her carapace using one of her pincers. The box contains a long lost Soldier Saint Reliquary.

Referee’s Note: Baade (as Creature, Large, Armored Shell +4) is never aggressive but will defend the box readily if anyone tries to take it by force. Players might try to substitute an item of similar size, coming to the conclusion themselves or through a Rational check requiring 2+ successes to determine that Baade will likely allow the item to be switched out if done quickly enough.

Every time the party Travels to a Landmark location within The Seep there is a 1-in-6 chance that Baade’s Back will be present and accessible at the location. If the party rests on Baade’s Back, they will awake at a random Landmark or Wander Home in The Seep, roll on the table below.

Where Are We?

Soldier Saint Relic

Shocktrooper’s Shinbones
Soldier Saint Relic
Item (Dur. 3)
1 Slot

The paired tibia of a soldier that was always on the march. Innumerable tiny cracks along the bones evidence the owner suffered from shin splints.

The bearer of the shinbones is immune to any environmental effects that might knock them prone, such as grasping vines or falling rocks, in addition to having a +2 to Agility rolls to avoid being knocked prone by creatures. Furthermore, the bearer may throw the shinbones to the ground and expend one Durability, causing them to immediately expand the length of one Zone. While expanded in this manner, they can hold the weight of a single humanoid without collapsing. An individual walking across the makeshift platform can move freely without any impediment of the surface below, such as viscous mud or the drawbacks of a Cluttered Zone. The shinbones must be placed horizontally or up to a 45 degree angle, meaning they cannot be used as a makeshift vertical ladder.

“If ya get movin’ fast enough the barbs on the wire won’t see ya comin’. That’s why I never get hooked.”

Encounter Table

Whenever an encounter prompts a roll on the Encounter Table, roll 1d6. After resolving the encounter, replace the rolled result with one of the other results, and cycle the previous encounter into the pool to repopulate the table.

Cryptid
The Stilt Lure
A creature formed from a living mote of mud. The sapient muck seeks to shroud itself in a facsimile of life, arranging the arms and limbs of its prey around it’s sticky center. The hands it has stolen grip and pull the Stilt Lure through the mud, painstakingly hurtling it through the mires of The Seep. An easily dismissible folktale to outsiders, the native Trawlers are all too aware that the Stilt Lure is painfully real. They bestowed the beast its name based on how it hunts – bleeding out lone trawlers then using their bodies like rod puppets to draw in other groups, striking when they approach and have realized too late that their comrade is already missing their limbs. Now the phrase is oft repeated amongst the Trawlers from an early age: “Beware those that silently hail.”

Stats
HP: 14
NP: 3
Armor: 0

Attributes
Grit: 15
Finesse: 13
Logic: 3
Moxie: 3

Special:

• The Stilt Lure spends most of its time in the mud underground, preventing it from being targeted by attacks. The Stilt Lure can only be targeted by attacks on turns where it uses Strangle, Mud Splash, or Skewer unless the attack can target an enemy that is unseen or submerged.

Attacks:

1. Sink: The Stilt Lure grabs a target in Engaged Range from below, dragging them into the mud. Roll the attack with 6 Base Dice and Weapon Damage 0. On success the target is dragged into the mud and considered Grappled. Each round the target may make an Assault check to escape. On failure they take an accumulating 1 HP damage per round (round 1 = 1 HP; round 2 = 2 HP, round 3 = 3 HP, etc.) as they are suffocated by mud.
2. Strangle: The Stilt Lure detaches one of its limbs and hurls it at an enemy within Long Range. Roll the attack with 8 Base Dice and Attack Damage 1. Using this attack costs the Stilt Lure 1 HP, regardless of if the attack hits. If a target is hit by the attack, they must make an Assault check at the beginning of each of their turns, taking 1 HP damage on failure as the arm continues strangling them.
3. Mud Splash: The Stilt Lure breaches, throwing mud in a halo around itself at all targets within Medium Range. Roll the attack with 10 Base Dice and Attack damage 0. If the attack hits, all targets must make an Agility check or be blinded, making all checks requiring sight at a -3 modifier and giving all attacks made against them with a +3 modifier.
4. Sever: The Stilt Lure severs the limb of a target that is currently grappled in Engaged Range. Roll the attack with 6 Base dice and Attack Damage 3. On hit one of the target’s limbs is severed and they gain a Bleeding Usage Die. If an arm is severed the target makes all attacks with a -3 modifier. If a leg is severed the target can only move as a Slow Action.
5. Skewer: The Stilt Lure thrusts a rusted stilt blade into a target in Engaged Range. Roll the attack with 8 Base Dice and Attack Damage 1. On hit the target gains a Bleeding Usage Die.
6. Churn: The Stilt Lure drops its remaining limbs, using their writhing motion to cover its escape. This attack automatically succeeds and causes no damage. When the Stilt Lure uses this attack it loses 3 HP and can’t use this attack again for the remainder of the encounter. The limbs continue wriggling, stirring up the mud in all zones within Medium Range of the zone the attack was used in. Movement in these zones becomes a Slow Action, and anyone who begins a turn in any of these zones must make an Assault check with a -1 modifier or be grappled by the limbs.

Tactics: The Stilt Lure will attempt to bait prey in close using a previous kill on stilts, puppetting the corpse with surprisingly deft skill, preferring isolated targets. Once prey comes close the Lure will attempt to ambush, using Sink to first get a target in the mud. Once a target is trapped the Lure will use Sever to get the limb it desires then flee. If confronted the Lure will attempt to escape, using Mud Splash or Strangle to disorient and distract would be hunters. If cornered the Stilt Lure will use Skewer to dissuade further attacks. If cornered it will use Churn as a ditch effort to escape. The Stilt Lure will never engage in direct combat if it can be avoided, entirely preferring hit and run tactics to slowly bleed out prey, only caring about the limbs it can pilfer.

When slain the Stilt Lure drops its accumulated limbs, exposing the swollen, muddy core within. As its body loses structure, oozing into a puzzle of unremarkable muck, a globule of Animate Hunger remains, pacified.

That concludes our in depth look at the wilderness region, The Seep. Tune in next week for our ever present Lore24 documents as well as an upcoming Faction Dossier.

We actively encourage comments, questions, and feedback; we’re excited to be sharing our work and would love to chat about it with anyone who’s interested!