XAS IRKALLA

ROLE-PLAYING GAME
DEMO
written & illustrated by
james vail

The game rules within this book are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0

Copyright © 2018 James Vail. All rights reserved. No part of this book, other than the text of the game rules, may be reproduced in any form or by 
any means without the written permission of James Vail.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Please respect copyright law.
U nder grey skies, an ancient, decayed planet quakes from the effects
of sorcery, where at night the land itself becomes a nightmarish death
trap, scavengers struggle to survive against abhorrent creatures in surreal
labyrinths, wilderness villages of alien species and cannibal tribes fight
against the armies that come to take their psychic young, and sorcerers
enslave thousands to tend to their bodies while they dream of paradises in
dimensions beyond. This is the world of Irkalla, a world of suffering that
all its denizens wish to escape. Survival must be earned here, and death
can be found at every opportunity.

THE GAME
Xas Irkalla is a challenging, unforgiving, and brutal game. You will have
to play carefully if you wish to survive. Respect your surroundings, the
world does not care about you.

THE STORY
The player characters are all from different universes, and each watched as
their universe was ripped apart. They then found themselves in an
interdimensional labyrinth, though their minds have become amnesiatic
of its details. After escaping the labyrinth, they found only a grey desert
beneath dark clouds and ashes. After nearly a day of travel in the lifeless
wasteland, they were ambushed and captured by a band of tribal hunters.
The sample scenario, Crawling Among the Wretched, continues from
there.

THE RULES
This demo presents a condensed version of the core rules for Xas Irkalla,
specifically designed for use with the sample scenario later in this book.

THE CHARACTERS
Aside from communicating telepathically with each other, characters do
not have any abilities beyond what a normal, realistic, human being is
capable of. In this demo, it is strongly recommended for all player
characters to be human, unless playing through the sample scenario as
part of an ongoing campaign with characters from the core rulebook.
 How toPlay
T o play Xas Irkalla, you will need some pencils, a character sheet for
each player, and ten-sided dice (d10s), which these rules refer to simply as
“dice.”
O YOUR CHARACTER O
In Xas Irkalla, you play as an Endling, a survivor from another world,
brought into Irkalla by a psychic who died there. This dead psychic,
referred to as the Eye Upon the Throne, lives on within the Endling's
subconscious. At first, your memories are those of the Endling, but some
things within Irkalla will be strangely familiar to you as the Eye Upon the
Throne recognizes them. Each player character is connected to the others
via telepathic bonds, strong enough to share thoughts, emotions, and
pain. These bonds were formed by the Eyes Upon the Throne while they
were enslaved together, forced to suffer psychic nightmares.
STRESS AND DOOM
The core states of your character are their Stress and Doom scores.

Your Stress is your chance of failure when acting. You start the game
with 3 Stress, and you cannot reduce your Stress below 3. Also, you
cannot increase your Stress beyond 9. Each Stress point you would gain
above 9 instead causes you to gain 5 Doom.

Your Doom is your percentage chance of dying when you fail in a life-
or-death situation. You start the game with 10 Doom, and you cannot
reduce your Doom below 10.

There is no way to remove Stress or Doom in this demo.

SPECIALTIES
Your character also has various specialties, words that describe them as
well as their skills and experiences, and which let them perform better in
relevant situations. You start the game with five specialties related to your
character’s background, which can apply to a broad range of situations
but provide very little bonus. As you play the game, you will learn new
specialties that provide a greater bonus, but apply to a narrowed range of
situations.
 O SKILL TESTS O
Whenever you try to overcome an obstacle, avoid danger, or attempt
something dangerous, you must make a skill test:
1.  Choose to roll one, two, or three dice.
2.  If you roll a 1 on any number of dice, you gain 1 Stress per die you
rolled.
3.  Your highest rolled die, plus the rank of one relevant specialty (if you
decide to use it), is your result.
For example, if you roll 7, 1, and 1, you gain 3 Stress, and 7 is your result.
The outcome of your action depends on your result:
• Complete Success: Result is 10 or more. You succeed and do what you
intended.
• Partial Success: Result is less than 10, but not below your Stress. You
succeed but suffer a minor consequence, determined by the GM.
• Disaster: Result is less than your Stress. You fail and suffer a severe
consequence, determined by the GM.

CRITICAL SUCCESS AND GAINING SPECIALTIES

If you roll a 10 on any of the dice without rolling a 1, you get a critical
success.
Through this experience, you learn a new specialty. It’s one rank higher,
more specific than the specialty you just used, and related to the action
you just performed. For example, if you added Mountains (+1) to your
skill test, you might say you gain Mountain Climbing (+2). However, if
you did not use a specialty on your skill test, you do not gain a new
specialty.
You can learn up to 5 specialties of each rank, up to the maximum rank of
+5.
CRITICAL FAILURE AND DEATH
Whenever you roll a disaster in a life-or-death situation, you get a
critical failure and must make a death roll: roll two dice, one at a time.
The first die is the tens digit of the result, and the second is the ones
digit.
If the result of your death roll is less than or equal to your Doom, your
character dies and you must make a new character.
In the final moment of your character's death, like an entire lifetime
flashing before one's eyes, eons of time exist in another dimension—the
dimension of your new character. This new character, also an Endling
from another world, feels deja vu with the memories of the past character,
having the same Eye Upon the Throne that connects the character to the
group. However, a deep fear of the past character’s death is rooted in the
Eye Upon the Throne.
Your new character has a Death Fear related to the past character’s cause
of death. Whenever your new character encounters something similar to
a death fear, you suffer Disadvantage. Death fears transfer from every past
character—after suffering many deaths, the Eye Upon the Throne would
have many death fears.
 ADVANTAGE AND DISADVANTAGE
In situations where success is assured but not without risk, the GM may
apply Advantage to your skill test. This improves a disaster to a partial
success, and improves a partial success to a complete success.
In situations where your action is particularly difficult—such as attacking
in complete darkness, or running with an injured leg—you or the GM
may apply Disadvantage to your skill test. This decreases a partial success
to a disaster, and a complete success to a partial success.

O PSYCHOSIS O
Each time your Stress would exceed 9, you instead gain 5 Doom and
begin to suffer from Psychosis. You can gain multiples of 5 Doom if you
gain multiple Stress at once.
While suffering Psychosis, you lose contact with reality, so you cannot
use any of your specialties.

O INJURIES O
As a consequence from a skill test, the GM may decide that you take an
injury, requiring you to roll a die and add its result to your Doom.
If you suffer a mortal injury by rolling a disaster on a skill test, you must
also make a death roll after adding to your Doom. Describe your injuries
as gruesomely as possible, and write them down. If you have an injury
that is relevant to a skill test, you suffer Disadvantage.
Characters with specialties that imply medical or curative abilities could
help treat injuries, such as by splinting broken legs, cauterizing bleeding
wounds, or neutralizing poison. This can remove Disadvantage, but this
does not remove Doom.
O ITEMS O
The fundamental statistic of any item is its Quality of 1 to 5, determined
by the GM, where 1 is poor and 5 is legendary.
When rolling a skill test, you can use a relevant item to add +1 to your
highest rolled die. If you are not adding a specialty, you can instead add
the item’s Quality to your highest rolled die, but critical success on this
test will not earn you a new specialty.
When wearing armor, the amount of Doom you gain from an injury is
reduced by the armor’s Quality, as long as it makes sense in the situation.
 Combat
When any player character is attacked, combat begins. Each round of
combat is broken down into an offense turn and a defense turn, starting
with the offense turn.
You begin combat with a dice pool of 3 dice. Each time you make a skill
test in combat, you must spend dice from your dice pool, rolling only the
spent dice on your skill test. You regain 1 die at the start of the defense
turn, and 1 die at the start of the offense turn.
Your dice pool cannot grow beyond 3 dice.
On the offense turn, you and the other players may attempt any actions
in any order, as long as you still have dice, though each player is limited
to one attack with each weapon wielded. The offense turn ends when all
the players have no dice or decide not to roll any more.
On the defense turn, each enemy may perform a move action and an
attack action. You and the other players may only perform defend actions,
prompted by an enemy’s attack action.

O ACTION TYPES O
MOVE
Unless you're moving through an area where an enemy is ready to attack,
movement typically does not require a skill test, but you must spend dice
as if you were rolling a skill test, just to represent the time it takes to
perform the action. Distance is undefined.
ATTACK
You can attack once with each weapon you wield per offense turn.
Shields count as weapons. An attack is a skill test, meaning all other rules
regarding skill tests apply, and it is strongly encouraged for the GM to use
minor and severe consequences when describing the outcome of
disastrous or partially successful character attacks..
DEFEND
When an enemy attacks you, you make a skill test to defend, whether to
dodge, block, parry, use cover, or avoid damage by any other means.
Enemies do not roll skill tests, you receive injuries based on your defend
test result, as follows:
• Complete Success: No injury
• Partial Success: Injury, gain 1d10 Doom
• Disaster: Mortal Injury, gain 1d10 Doom and make a Death Roll
If you cannot or choose not to roll to defend, you are undefended.
• Undefended: Mortal Injury, gain 2d10 Doom and make a Death Roll
O ENEMIES O
Enemies have a starting Doom based on their difficulty. An enemy gains
1d10 Doom when characters successfully attack them, and makes a death
roll when a character attacks them with complete success.
• Normal: 70 Doom
• Challenging: 50 Doom
• Hard: 25 Doom
• Deadly: 10 Doom
• Extreme: 5 Doom
 O EXAMPLE COMBAT O
A creature bursts from an egg sac in front of Vokter, lurching forward
with an open maw of jagged teeth, biting at him. Vokter tries to dodge
out of the way and makes a skill test, using his rank 1 specialty,
"Desperate", to add +1 to his result. Vokter rolls a Disaster, and the
creature inflicts a mortal injury to Vokter. He gains 1d10 Doom and
makes a Death Roll. He survives, and describes the injury being a chunk
of flesh torn from the inside of his forearm, revealing the bone and
spewing blood everywhere.
Now that an enemy has performed a hostile action, the GM informs the
players that combat has begun, and they are each limited to a pool of 3
dice. It is now the Offense turn, and players may describe any actions
they want to attempt.
Vokter pulls out his axe and swings it at the creature, choosing to roll 2
dice from his pool, leaving him with 1 die. He rolls a Disaster, and the
GM describes how Vokter swings, and the poor quality axe-head flies off
the handle, leaving Vokter with only the wooden handle.
The other player character, Lisereth, spends a die to move across the room
toward the creature, and then attack with her spear, rolling her remaining
2 dice on the skill test to attack. She rolls a partial success. The GM adds
1d10 Doom to the creature, and describes how the spear becomes stuck in
the creature's thick slimy skin and can’t easily be pulled out.
The GM checks with Vokter to see if he wants to take another action
with his remaining die, but Vokter decides to keep it and end the Offense
turn.
The GM informs the players it is now the Defense turn, and both players
get 1 die back to their pool, Vokter having 2 dice now, and Lisereth
having 1. The creature attacks Lisereth this time, and Lisereth tries to
dodge out of the way, rolling a skill test with her only die. She rolls a
Partial Success, gaining 1d10 Doom, and describes the injury as a bite on
her right shoulder.
It is once again the Offense turn, and players each regain 1 die to their
pool. Lisereth only has 1 die, and decides to keep it for the Defense turn.
Vokter has 3 dice, and decides to try to stab the creature in the eye with
his wooden axe handle. He rolls all 3 dice, using his rank 1 specialty,
"Brutal", to get a +1 to the result. He ends up gaining 3 Stress by rolling a
1, but still gets a complete success with his highest rolled die.
The GM adds 1d10 Doom to the creature, and makes a Death roll. The
creature fails the Death roll, and the GM describes how the axe handle
goes into the creature's eye socket, bursting through the eyeball and
cracking through the skull, hitting the brain and causing the creature to
spasm and go limp.
 Character Creation
Characters are created in two parts: background and details. After that, just name and
describe your character.

Part 1: Background
To determine your character’s background, roll one die on each of the following tables.
Record each rolled word as a rank-1 specialty on your character sheet.

Some backgrounds may be difficult to conceptualize as specialties, but there is more to it than the
word itself. For example, the word “volcanic” might be difficult to conceptualize as a specialty, but
the word has a broad meaning, representing the environment where the character is most comfortable
and relating to the character’s background. Volcanic would certainly apply anytime the character is
traversing a volcanic environment, but you could still use a broader application. Say, if your
character is facing a source of intense heat, you could describe how your character is accustomed to
intense heat.

People describes the type of culture or society your Environment represents where
character comes from. your character is most
D10 People comfortable.
1 Barbaric: Uncivilized or vulgar D10 Environment
2 Nomadic: Travel, trade, herding 1 Wasteland
3 Scholarly: Scientific and studious 2 Volcanic
4 Communal: Helpful of each other 3 City
5 Depraved: Immoral and abusive 4 Mountains
6 Grim: Lifeless, melancholic, somber 5 Grassland
7 Desperate: Determined, struggling, starving 6 Forest
8 Outcast: Exiled, despised, bullied, stigmatized 7 Jungle
9 Wild: Hunting, gathering 8 Swamp
10 Industrious: Hard-working, productive 9 Ocean
10 Subterranean
Past describes the most prominent memories that shaped your character’s personality.
D10 Past
1 Brutal: Your memories are of a harsh past surrounded by violence.
2 Wretched: You have been unfortunate in life, and your memories are miserable.
3 Privileged: You have been entitled the majority of your life, with few existential
struggles.
4 Disciplined: Your past was very strict, and you’ve been confined for the majority
of it.
5 Horrific: You are haunted by at least one traumatic experience that cannot be
forgotten.
6 Gentle: You have had a peaceful life of relaxation and tranquility.
7 Merry: You have had a lighthearted life filled with festivity and happiness.
8 Solitary: You were almost always alone, either by choice or circumstance.
9 Cultured: You have explored many cultures, and learned how to interact with
strangers.
10 Adventurous: Your life has been extreme, and your memories are of thrilling
moments.
Identity describes your character’s natural calling and Sentiment represents what your
role. character is passionate about,
D10 Identity whether a religious belief, hobby,
1 Merchant, Shopkeeper, Trader, or Salesperson profession, ideal, or something
2 Outlaw, Bandit, Thief, Raider, or Gangster else.
3 Healer, Physician, Witch Doctor, or Shaman D10 Sentiment
4 Artisan, Artist, Inventor, or Scientist 1 Warfare
5 Soldier, Warrior, Guard, or Knight 2 Astronomy
6 Spy, Emissary, Agent, or Detective 3 Beasts
7 Farmer, Peasant, Horticulturist, or Gatherer 4 Elements
8 Bard, Entertainer, Scribe, or Sage 5 Nature
9 Hunter, Assassin, Naturalist, or Explorer 6 Ancestors
10 Noble, Ruler, Chieftain, or Aristocrat 7 Sexuality
8 Greed
9 Justice
10 Wisdom

Part 2: Details
To flesh out your character’s details, roll one die on each of the following tables. These
details have no rules implications.

D10 Technology
1 Primitive: Stone Age, Hunter-Gatherer, Tribal Villages
2 Archaic: Agriculture, Monoliths, Early Civilization
3 Classical: Bronze, Iron, Crude Machinery, Advanced Architecture
4 Medieval: Feudalism, Dark Ages, Crusades, Steel
5 Renaissance: Age of Discovery, Exploration and Colonization, Baroque Art, Crude
Firearms
6 Industrial: Industrial Revolution, Steam Technology, Factories, Airships, Trains,
Guns
7 Nuclear: Fossil Fuel Pollution, Plastics, Radios, Tanks, Jet Aircraft, Automobiles
8 Cyber: Personal Devices, Advanced Communication Networks, Drones, Robotics
9 Interplanetary: Orbital Space Stations, Interplanetary Travel, Space Mining,
Cryosleep
10 Interstellar: Wormholes, Warp Drives, Energy Weapons, Capital Ships

D10 Physical Feature D10 Fashion Preference

1 Scar(s) 1 Concealing
2 Tattoo(s) 2 Seductive
3 Body Paint 3 Offensive
4 Deformity 4 Simple
5 Intricate Hairstyle 5 Trendy
6 Jewelry Piercing(s) 6 Gaudy
7 Skin Pattern 7 Form-Fitting
8 Implant(s) 8 Regal
9 Missing Body Part(s) 9 Practical
10 Strange Growth(s) 10 Unclad
Crawling Among the Wretched
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS INTENDED SOLELY 
FOR THE GAME MASTER. PLAYERS, DO NOT READ FURTHER.

T he scenario begins with the characters being held captive by tribal

warriors after only a short time in Irkalla, not yet witness to its horrific nights.
The scenario generally takes 1 to 2 hours to finish. Players that respect the
fictional world and play carefully can survive. Players that play haphazardly
will most likely have characters die. If the characters are all killed or knocked
unconscious, known as a total party kill, the scenario as written is over.
Otherwise, if at least one character survives, dead characters reincarnate into
new characters. The dead character’s blood turns to black liquid and grows
into vines that take humanoid form, eventually peeling away to reveal the
new character. Reincarnation should only take place outside of combat, and
when there is no immediate threat.

Before running this scenario, it is important to read through it in its entirety

and form a strong image in your mind of the different areas, scenes, and
inhabitants. There are many places where the player characters could end up
dead or in serious danger because of their choices. It is important to allow this
to happen, and to make decisions for the inhabitants of the scenario based on
how they would realistically act. It is also important to ask for Skill Tests
whenever a player attempts to do something with their character that could
logically result in a minor or severe consequence. This is the key to running
the Strain system successfully: always think of minor and severe
consequences, and call for Skill Tests whenever you have them in mind. The
Strain system builds tension on its own, as long as Skill Tests are being rolled
frequently enough and consequences are logically related to the action being
attempted.

Example Consequences:
Minor
Enemy performs an action
Environment becomes more dangerous
Receive an injury (either by accident or external force)
Weapon requires attention(reload, unjam, gets stuck in object, etc.)
Equipment becomes damaged, lowering quality by 1
Lose time, or become slowed
Situation becomes worse for another character
The same approach can’t be taken again
Cause damage to object(s) in the environment

Severe
Receive a mortal injury
Separation from group
Run out of ammo
Break/lose an item
Alert the enemy
 The Prisoner Chamber
The characters wake up, weakened and sore, to a cold, pitch black, stone chamber.
-Cold, dark stone  Rough cords bind their wrists together behind their backs. The sounds from other
chamber beings breathing, sniveling, swallowing, shuffling, echo off the walls. None of the
other beings speak a recognizable language. The stench of urine, sweat, and feces is
nauseating.
-Two ash-painted 
tribesmen enter  The player characters, when they speak, are able to understand each other in their
with water and  minds, despite having no understanding of each other’s language. They speak
telepathically, but lack the development in their nervous system to communicate
meat solely through telepathy, they must speak aloud to activate their “psychic muscle”.

-The prisoners are  The sound of a mechanical metal “clinking” can be heard, and torchlight enters the
chamber from behind an iron doorway being pushed open. The other prisoners can
forced to eat in  be seen. There are 3 prisoners in addition to the player characters. Two boys with
front of the guards light skin and brown hair, one still pre-pubescent, the other entering puberty age.
There is a middle-aged male human with dark skin, dreadlocked hair, and a long
beard. He is missing his two legs, with blackened, charred wounds at the two stumps
-One of the  beneath his hip.
prisoners, a young 
Two large and muscled male humans enter the chamber dressed in loincloths and
boy, vomits up the  painted in white ashen mud with wild black hair. One carries a torch and wooden
meat cudgel, the other carries a clay pot. The one with the pot sets down the pot in the
center of the chamber, spilling some of the water out of it. He then takes off a
woven cord slung over his shoulder, slabs of meat tied to it. He tosses the string of
-The boy is kicked  meat onto the floor, and gestures with his hands to his mouth, yelling “gahka!” at
by one of the  the prisoners.
guards, his older 
If no action is taken by the players, the ash-painted guard with his hands free
brother tries to  violently drags the dark skinned prisoner to the center of the chamber and forces his
intervene but has  face into the meat like a dog being told to eat. The two children crawl to the center
of the chamber to eat. If the player characters do not also crawl to eat, they are
his skull bashed in  forced to.
by the other 
guard’s cudgel The two guards watch as the group of prisoners eat and drink from the clay pot.

The Brothers
-The young boy  Of the two boy prisoners, the younger one is unable to stomach the meat and
and his dead  vomits shortly into the meal. The guard kicks the boy away from the meat like an
abused animal. The boy wretches further. The older boy, protective of the younger,
brother are  rushes to help and to try to keep the guard at bay. As the guard grabs the younger
dragged out of the  boy, the older bites the guard’s arm. The other guard slams his cudgel into the boy’s
chamber, the iron  skull. The boy goes limp. The bitten guard yells angrily at the other. They then
drag both of the boys out of the chamber, one a corpse, the other paralyzed in
door to the  shock. As the guards leave the chamber, they fail to close the iron door behind them.
chamber is left 
ENEMY STATS
open. Guard: (challenging) 50 Doom
If the guard is not trying to kill you, failing a Death roll against a guard has a chance of
only knocking you unconscious. Make another Death roll to find out. A second failure does
mean death.
 Escape
With the iron door left open, the opportunity to escape presents itself. Outside the -Hallway of three 
chamber, a hallway flanked by 3 other iron doors is illuminated by torch light
prison cells
shining from behind the iron doors, each ajar with a pair of tribesmen watching over
the prisoners eating within.
-Other prison cells 
Attacking the tribesmen here would likely result in character death, and trying to
get the prisoners to join the effort is futile unless victory appears certain. Sneaking
have tribesmen 
through the hallway should not require a skill test, unless the characters attempt forcing prisoners 
something more than moving quietly. Closing the iron doors would prevent anyone to eat
from escaping the chambers, as they cannot be opened from the inside.

The Flesh Chamber

At the end of the hallway, a dark chamber only barely reflecting the torchlight from -Chamber at end 
the hallway. The fresh carcass of the older brother lies lifelessly on the floor, blood of hallway
still seeping from his caved-in skull, coagulating in his brown hair, and dripping
onto the floor. The chamber is stained with dark spills, and decorated with trinkets
of human body parts. Necklaces of ears, teeth earrings, eyeball amulets, sewn pockets -Older brother's 
of human skin, the flesh from faces stretched onto and between wooden branches. corpse on the floor
Large clay pots are filled with discarded bone shards and desiccated strips of flesh.

If the players search for weaponry, they may find sharpened and carved femurs, -Clay pots
functioning like shanks, or sharpened jawbones lodged into wooden sticks,
functioning like handaxes. Each weapon is quality 2, there are enough for the
characters to have one of each. The jawbones are able to cut through the cords of
-Items crafted of 
woven hair that bind the characters’ hands. bone and flesh
Bloodshed
On the far end of the chamber, the guard that killed the boy enters through a -Guard that killed 
wooden door, carrying a torch. It is possible for the characters to hide themselves the boy enters 
behind large clay pots. Any surprise attack against the guard is rolled with
from door on far 
Advantage. If the guard survives the initial attack against him, he yells loud enough
to attract the attention of the six tribesmen from the prisoner chambers, who will side of chamber
approach to attack the characters, if those tribesmen were not already dealt with.
Each of the guards has a bone, carved like a key, that is able to unlock any of the
doors in this adventure.
-Door leads to 
stone staircase
The wooden door leads to an ascending stone stairwell with no source of light. At
the top of the stairs: a locked wooden door that the bone key will open.

ENEMY STATS
Guard: (challenging) 50 Doom
If the guard is not trying to kill you, failing a Death roll against a guard has a chance of
only knocking you unconscious. Make another Death roll to find out. A second failure does
mean death.
 The Main Hall
Through the wooden door at the top of the stairs is a large stone audience hall with
-Large audience  vaulted ceilings. Pictographic writings are scrawled upon the walls in white clay
hall pigment. The pelts and skulls of antlered, predatory-toothed beasts decorate the
rusted remnants of torture devices bolted to the walls.

-White clay  A massive closed iron portcullis dominates the opposite wall, with a gatehouse above
pictographs it. A figure can be seen standing in the gatehouse. An alcove is in the wall opposite
the gatehouse, above the door the characters are coming from.

-Animal hides and  A shrine in the center of the hall is adorned with human skulls, old tapestries, rotting
intestines, and animal horns. Standing in front of the shrine is a shamanic figure,
skulls decorate old  dressed in baggy leather robes, sewn with scalps and eyes and teeth to create the
iron torture  image of some otherworldly spirit.
devices The child taken from the jail cell is held onto the shrine by the guard that took him.
The shamanic figure performs a ritual, chanting “inta sora kor ora” while plunging
-Shrine of skulls,  wooden stakes into the boy’s wrists and feet, crucifying him onto the shrine. The
shaman shouts to the alcove above, crying “Kintasolagh!” in beseeching tones and
gore and horns in  further utterings.
center of hall
A dark figure moves in the alcove, it speaks from above with a strange voice as if
inhaling through its vocal chord, uttering words that carry the feeling of power:
-The young boy is  “fon kis karna goke!” The shaman and tribesman kneel and lower their heads, as if
being crucified on  in worship. The dark figure continues, “inta sora gahka belagh.” The two
worshippers then rise and begin carving the boy with intricate symbols using
the shrine obsidian knives.

Interrupting the Sacrifice

-Shaman and  If the characters attempt to interrupt the ritual, they will have to fight the shaman,
guard perform  the guard, and Kintasolagh, the dark creature from the alcove. The tribal warrior in
ritual chant to  the gatehouse will also take notice, and begin shooting arrows at the characters. The
characters are extremely unlikely to survive combat here.
Kintasolagh
Passage out of the hall
There are two locked wooden doors that flank the hall, each equidistant from the
-Kintasolagh, the  door the characters are coming from. It is possible for the characters to sneak to these
dark creature, is in  doors and open them with the bone key, without being noticed.
an alcove above ENEMY STATS
Guard: (challenging) 50 Doom
If the guard is not trying to kill you, failing a Death roll against a guard has a chance of
-Guard overlooks  only knocking you unconscious. Make another Death roll to find out. A second failure does
iron portcullis on  mean death.
far end of hall Shaman: (normal) 70 Doom
The shaman is not a warrior, he spouts curses upon you. He can cause one character to have
Disadvantage on all rolls for the remainder of combat. He can also deplete the entire dice
-Two wooden  pool of one character during each Defend turn.
doors flank the 
Tribal Warrior: (hard) 25 Doom
hall, leading to  Melee attacks from the tribal warrior are made against every character within weapon range.
staircases Opponents have Disadvantage when trying to dodge the tribal warrior’s ranged attacks.

Kintasolagh: (extreme) 5 Doom

During the Defend turn, Kintasolagh is able to attack four times, once with each claw and
talon.
 The Sleeping Chambers
Through either of the iron doors, an ascending stone staircase leads to a hallway
-Hall of iron- with iron barred windows on one side, facing the outside of the structure, and iron-
barred prison cells barred prison cells on the other side. Inside each of the prison cells is a sleeping
family of the tribe, outfitted with various crafting equipment such as looms and
pottery kilns. Wind blows through the windows, carrying the echoing cacophony
-Prison cells are  of bestial noises and terrible shrieks of the outside world. It is night outside, though
homes for tribal  no stars can be seen, only the faint glow of a moon from behind thick clouds.
families, they 
The Wearer of Skin
sleep inside Through one of the windows, further down the hallway, a thin pale figure climbs
in. It looks like a skeleton wearing the skin of a human, no meat beneath it, the
-Windows reveal a  skin’s face sliding off to one side of the skull, as if the skin does not fit correctly over
the skeleton. The figure sneaks towards one of the cells, peering in, making no
nightscape of  sound, and does not notice the characters unless they make noise.
horrid sounds
There is another locked wooden door next to the stairs that leads to the alcove of the
black winged creature.
-Wearer of Skin 
crawls through a  If the characters try to fight the Wearer of Skin, it wakes the tribesmen of the
nearest cell. Each person of the tribe has a bone key able to open their cell door. The
window bone key the characters possess can also open these cell doors. The tribes people are
hostile to the characters, but won't leave their cell to fight, instead using spears to
-Tribesmen will  stab between the iron bars to attack the characters. They won't try to fight the
Wearer of Skin unless they are forced to defend themselves. The Wearer of Skin
not leave their  cannot get into any of the cells as long as they are locked.
prison cells, using 
spears If the characters try running past the Wearer of Skin, the hallway leads around a
corner to an iron door at the gatehouse.

-Door past Wearer  For dramatic purposes, the Wearer of Skin is encountered in whichever sleeping
chambers the characters go into first.
of Skin leads to 
The Gate House  ENEMY STATS
Tribal Warrior: (hard) 25 Doom
Melee attacks from the tribal warrior are made against every character within weapon range.
-Door in opposite  Opponents have Disadvantage when trying to dodge the tribal warrior’s ranged attacks.
direction leads to 
Alcove of the  Wearer of Skin: (deadly) 10 Doom
When within melee range, a void energy within the Wearer of Skin can be sensed - gravity
Black-Winged  shifts around it, light is bent, the world warps.
Creature When the Wearer of Skin is injured, acidic black blood sprays on everyone nearby. Any
Doom the Wearer of Skin gains from melee attacks is also inflicted upon its attacker.

ENEMY STATS (for next page)
Kintasolagh: (extreme) 5 Doom
During the Defend turn, Kintasolagh is able to attack four times, once with each claw and
talon.
Those who join her are attached to the strange growth formed from her bile.
She will pursue her prey and fight to the death.
 Alcove of the Black Winged Creature
The buzzing of flies, the humid hot air, the stench of something rotten. The ground
and walls are covered in a squishy material, the texture of flesh. A sucking, slurping -Humid, foul air
noise can be heard from somewhere in the room, gurgling. Dim light from the
Main Hall shines through the open wall. This was once the warden's quarters. 
-Buzzing of flies
The characters see the figure, covered in black hair, the eyeshine of its eight white
orbs peering into the light, they see its leathery wings, its humanoid posture.
-Squishy, fleshy 
The black winged creature speaks telepathically to the characters: “Don’t worry, I
won’t hurt you. I am one of you.” texture
The creature’s disposition is non-threatening, with a sadness about her, and she
introduces herself as Kintasolagh, explaining that she was torn away from her -Sucking, slurping, 
homeworld, a world of fungal growths. She fought for her survival through the gurgling
ashen wastelands of this world, and found this abandoned prison, making it her
home. The only food she could find was the local tribes people. She hunted them
when she needed to eat. Eventually, they tracked her to this prison and tried to kill -Kintasolagh and 
her. Several attempts were made, and each time she was able to fight them off, her story
killing at least one hunter, who would then serve as her next meal. The elder shaman
of the tribe told them to instead bring sacrificial offerings to her, either of their own
tribe or of neighboring tribes. They began worshipping her, sharing their catches -Invitation to join 
with her, and gradually they moved into the prison to protect themselves from the
outside world.
her council
“You are like me, alone in an alien world. Tomorrow we will feast on the child in
the hall, and we will entertain each other with stories of our respective pasts. We are -Her "council" are 
safe from the outside world. Stay here with me. Join my council.” paralyzed beings 
In the growths of flesh covering the walls, it becomes apparent that there are dozens in the organic 
of living beings trapped within, fused to the flesh-growth, their strange and growth
tormented heads exposed, drooling through paralyzed faces, fear in their eyes.
 The Gate House
Locked iron doors flank both sides of the gate house, each one an entrance from the
-Above the  sleeping chambers. Inside the gate house is a lone tribesman armed with a cudgel,
portcullis of the  bow and arrows. An open window faces the main hall, and an iron barred window
Main Hall faces the entrance of the prison. Through the iron barred window, pale figures can
faintly be seen in the moonlight, climbing on the outside walls of the prison, and the
awful noises of the night landscape can be heard. In the center, there is a winch
-Two iron doors  attached to two large iron chains that descend through a hole in the floor, which
flank the gate  opens and closes the portcullis.

house, leading to  Combat with the lone tribesman is unlikely to be avoided if the characters want to
The Sleeping  take control of the winch. However, it is possible for one character to operate the
winch while the others fight the tribesman, so killing the tribesman is not required if
Chambers the characters wish only to open the portcullis.

If the characters open the portcullis before waiting until dawn, strange figures enter
-Lone tribal  the main hall from outside the prison; the Tortured Ones, apparitions of captive
warrior victims from the old prison long ago, still bound in head cages, heretic's forks,
yokes, chains and other torture devices.

-Open window  If the characters kill the tribesman, they are able to hunker down in the gate house
overlooking Main  until dawn, which would allow them to escape without having to fight through the
creatures of the night.
Audience Hall
If other members of the tribe are aware of the characters’ presence in the gate house,
they will try to open the doors to the gate house and kill or recapture the characters,
-Iron-barred  some even climb in through the window facing the main hall. The iron doors open
window  inwards, so the characters can try to keep the doors closed with what strength they
have.
overlooking 
entrance of prison Ending the Scenario
If the characters decide to hold out until dawn, it is not recommended to play out
the minutiae of surviving the night, instead narrate the outcome. If the characters
-Pale figures climb  try to escape during the night, they will have to somehow deal with the
on walls outside encroaching tide of Tortured Ones, either by sneaking past them or fighting their
way through. At dawn, the Tortured Ones turn to dust.

-Winch controls  Night Escape

portcullis below If the characters manage to get out of the prison while it is still night-time, the
scenario should end with a description of vomiting orifices, writhing rock
formations, black tentacles, bubbling fungal growths, strange figures, and the
-Opening  monstrous cries and howls from untold horrors existing in the darkness.
portcullis allows 
Dawn Escape
tortured ones to  If the characters wait until dawn before leaving, the scenario should end with a
enter from outside description of a grey wasteland shrouded by gloomy skies, falling with ashes, and the
horizon obscured by foggy clouds of dust.

-Tortured ones,  ENEMY STATS

apparitions of  Tribal Warrior: (hard) 25 Doom
Melee attacks from the tribal warrior are made against every character within weapon range.
prison torture  Opponents have Disadvantage when trying to dodge the tribal warrior’s ranged attacks.
victims from long  Tortured One: (deadly) 10 Doom
ago Any Doom the tortured one gains from melee attacks is also inflicted upon its attacker.