Empire of Dirt

The great worm Letun rules over the underworld with iron fist and squiggly body. She protects the surface dwellers from the pesky mole people, in exchange for nothing but the dirt which she inhabits. However, when rumors spread that the ground beneath the town was rich with bitkojn, a mining company bought the surrounding land and began tearing away at it. Is there any hope for the town’s inhabitants, trapped between a mining operation and a dark place?

• Letun (HD 15, AC 6, Mv. 6): The empress of dirt. Like other purple worms, Letun swallows up her target on an attack roll 20% (4 pips) over the minimum score required. Her victim will die in 1 hour, and is fully digested in 2 hours. She is intelligent and can speak.

The Glabers

When humans first ate of the fruit of knowledge, their eyes were opened to the world around them. They cast their eyes upon the sky and saw the heavenly hosts, and they saw wild beasts in the fields and fish in the waters. Then they looked upon themselves and realized they were naked. They were ashamed and dressed themselves.

The glabers never opened their eyes and never knew shame. They live where the sun never shines, below the ground in great halls of dirt and roots. They live naked and unashamed, free associates under the authority of one glaber queen and her 1-6 concubines with whom she reproduces.

• Fast Worker (HD 1/2, AC 7, MV 9, No. 40-400): Focus on building nests digging tunnels in search of eutubers, which are like large yams.
• Strong Worker (HD 1, AC 6, MV 6, No. 20-200): Protect nests and fast workers from intruders.
• Concubine (HD 4, AC 5, MV 9, No. 1-6): The mates of the queen, basically dripping with reproductive hormones.
• Queen (HD 6, AC 4, MV 6): The head honcha herself, the queen of the tunnels and all who inhabit them.

There is also an usurper queen, producing illegal hormones in order to attract her own mates and workers (1/10 the number of workers, and 1-3 concubines). The rebels appreciate gifts of weapons and potions of oistros, which is contraband under the true queen’s regime. The official state, on the other hand, appreciates weapons and food (especially root vegetables like yams, potatoes, or eutubers). Gold is still the main currency. The human mining operation encroaches on the glabers’ own eutuber mines, and so some workers choose to find food on the surface instead.

The glabers are, unfortunately, one of Letun’s favorite foods. Prior to the invasion, the great worm was the singular enemy of glaberian society. With more glabers running around on the surface and with the underworld disturbed by human intervention, this particular relationship is now less certain.

Stevenson Mining Company

Gold is so 1971. What’s hip now is bitkojn, a hypothetical precious metal said to exist under the surface of the New World. The existence of bitkojn is the premise of the burgeoning world economy. When the New World was surveyed, plots of land were scored according to their bitkojn potential (based on factors such as latitude, climate, star signs, and plate tectonics). Deeds to these plots were given to the dispossessed peasants of the Old World to compensate them for their lost ancestral lands, and it would not be long before these deeds would be cut up to use in transactions. Eventually, such bitkojn receipts became the predominant currency (where 1 lb of bitkojn is equal in value to 10 gold pieces, coincidentally).

The Stevenson Mining Company is a large firm that purchased many such valued plots of land in hopes of making up their investments with true bitkojn, recovered at last from the earth’s depths. Our little town here was deemed very valuable, such that the company bought up whatever land they could in the area. The forests were cleared out and the ground was excavated, exposing the ancient hidden tunnels of Letun and the glabers. It was really good for the economy, creating jobs and produce and what not.

The glaber fast workers have their strong workers, and likewise the Stevenson Mining Company workers (obviously ill-equipped to defend themselves against the forces of the underworld) have their guardians. They don’t take kindly to trespassers, whether glaber or human or worm. Besides accompanying the miners and patrolling the tunnels, they serve as de facto police officers of the town or, rather, the general property and interests of the Stevenson Mining Company. Treat as bandits on foot (HD 1, AC 6 if melee 7 if ranged, Mv. 12).

The Land

Four hexes:

1. The Town: Kind of depressing. You can buy tunneling and outdoorsy supplies, at least. There’s an underground (figurative) sword show in the basement (literal) of the tavern; payments are made in bouillon.
2. The Tunnels: The bitkojn mines, the glaber halls, and the worm holes are interconnected like a royal family tree. The surface looks like swiss cheese, so don’t worry about which hole you go into.
3. The Temple: A decrepit temple dedicated to Letun, abandoned since the property was bought by the mining company. Probably full of useless gold and dormant eggs.
4. The Tulips: An outdoor marketplace in a tulip field. There’s a soup convention taking place, where the winner of the contest receives a title to land thought to contain 1,000 pounds of bitkojn.

Arrange to taste. I’d probably wait to develop a specific location until after talking with my friends about where they want their characters to go first, in a setup session or something. That being said…

Character Setup

I think it’d be funny if characters started off with gold pieces or whatever like usual, but ‘realized’ that it’s no good in this part of the world. I wrote d6 reasons for moving to the continent for a previous game, and they work just as well here:

1. You left your old job, and wanted to start over someplace new.
2. Your old down was abandoned due to a demonic infestation. Spooky!
3. Your land was taken and your people scattered.
4. You left your (d3) 1. Ma and Pa, 2. Ma and Ma, or 3. Pa and Pa to make your own living.
5. You were told by a voice to wander until you found a white rabbit, and then to move there.
6. You don’t have anything else going on, so you’re looking for direction.

What I’d like to do, if I had time, would be to make maybe a slightly more involved table like the 3d6 one in Tunnel Goons which serves both as a character background generator, a random ability generator, and a starting item generator. I just think that’s kinda fun, so long as it’s not restricting or overbearing. I made one a long time ago, for nothing in particular (and being influenced by the previous table):

d6: Who raised you?

1. Ma/Pa and Ma/Pa on the farm.
2. Wild buckeroos on the plains.
3. Pirates on the high seas.
4. Star-crossed adventurers.
5. The Nanny.
6. 7 or more Tommyknockers.

d6: How did you spend your early years?

1. Sought lost treasure.
2. Acquired an education.
3. Traveled to and fro.
4. Sweated in the mines.
5. Ran errands.
6. Served in the forces.

d6: What is your situation now?

1. Indebted to a dragon.
2. Exiled for sedition.
3. Lost and recently found.
4. Pursuing fortune.
5. Displaced by a fairy.
6. Bringing light to darkness.

It’s silly enough to work?