Glimmermark, the first year

Last week we had the 26th session of my Glimmermark Labyrinth Lord game, which makes for a game about every 2 weeks on average since I started in July 2024.

Unfortunately sometimes it’s just not possible to find enough people to play, even if I offered the game as an open table game. We decided early on that we play with at least 2 players around, although we had a few times when we decided to just go ahead with just one. Unfortunately it can be quite frustrating to me as the DM to carve out one evening a week for the game, and then it turns out nobody shows up. On the other hand the last few months I have been feeling under the weather, so I wasn’t all too broken up when we cancelled the last few sessions. Only these last two weeks I am getting back into the grove I had before.

Unlike other games I run (Shadowrun…) this particular game does not demand too much work week to week, and it wasn’t intended to. This is a simple dungeon and wilderness crawl game with no larger story threads… that is, the players have yet to pick up on some threads that I laid out… based on the Keep in the Borderlands, with additional dungeons scattered all around.

For what it’s worth my experience in here is informing my house rules, which I want to roll out at one point soon, to use in my game. Still, these are mechanically so close to house-ruled Labyrinth Lord that the switch should be easy.

Here’s a few developments from the campaign.

• the players are in general experienced dungeon crawlers, even if their characters aren’t, which means some of the encounters turn out to be much less deadly than I expected them to be. If you have experience with LL or at least other DnD retroclones you tend to expect certain things, like monster behavior. This is ok, but I do wonder what a group of complete neophytes would make of the same environment
  • In particular the use of the Splintering Shield rules makes for some markedly less deadly game than what I expected in the beginning. So far no player character and only 4 NPC retainers have died during the ventures into the dungeons. Management of the shields as basically extra lives has become an essential part of the resource management in the game.
• I planned to have multiple groups have adventure in the same region and have their exploits influence what the others encountered. I didn’t yet branch out though. I think maybe I should run some con games with people to get into that.
• Goblins have turned out to be more important than I thought, slowly establishing themselves as a faction in charge of the ruins of Castle Dyson (that is, the top levels of Dyson’s Delve). So far there was a single additional character class which was, appropriately, the goblin. Not that the PCs aren’t ready to kill any goblins that aren’t directly involved with them.
• The Caves of Cha… ehm, The Stygian Caves have been taken over mostly by hobgoblins who now have basically driven out the orcs (with the help of the PCs) and kobolds (despite help from the PCs). The goblins in the caves were previously killed by the PCs or migrated to Castle Dyson, where they then were killed by the PCs. The goblins now in charge of Castle Dyson do not know this, they were originally cut off from the goblins on the upper levels.
• Encounter tables and reaction checks make for interesting worldbuilding. Sometimes stuff becomes important to the game that you didn’t even think about before. I think it’s really these unexpected developments that make the game for me as a DM, this moment when the campaign world takes on a life of its own and goes in a way I didn’t even expect

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[Glimmermark] The Wild Hunt

There are no Glimmermark games for the next two weeks. Which means there also are no expeditions into the wilderness or the local dungeons as we are running on a 1:1 campaign time scale, with every week in real life being about a week in the game.
But why is that?

I mean, why is that for the people in the Glimmermark?

It turns out going out is just not something people do in the Mark, because it’s just too dangerous out there. Evil-doers are about when the nights are the cold and long. But worse, there are those who hunt these evil-doers, and who is an evil-doer or might just be someone with the wrong smell is up for debate. The days between Winter solstice and the first day of the next month is when the Wild Hunt scours the land.
Mind you, NOT the end of the year, as the year in the Glimmermark starts in the height of summer (because I started the campaign on the 1st of July…).

What’s a Wild Hunt anyway?

The Wild Hunt is a common motif in the folklore of various western, northern, and eastern European cultures (and maybe even India). How and when it happens is different, but most often it takes place in the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, although it likely is older than Christianity in these parts, and likely was supposed to be in the days after the winter solstice. Wild Hunts typically involve a chase or hunt lead by a mythological figure, accompanied by other spirits, both of humans, dogs, and other animals, and other mythological figures.

The Wild Hunt was introduced into DnD in the Celtic Mythos section of Deities & Demigods in 1980, and as with many interpretations of the myth for DnD, it was the fantasy-Celtic one of Cerunnos and it’s fey-based origins that stuck with the game even to 5th edition and Pathfinder. And it’s not a bad interpretation, but as someone who actually grew up with the local German folktales of the Wild Hunt this limitation always irked me a bit. I mean, it even claims that only Celtic areas (areas with Druids) would have the Wild Hunt.

Anyway, the stories about the Wild Hunt seem to be most abundant in Germanic countries, and if you want to dive deeper into the topic I can recommend Jürgen Hubert’s website, as he has translated a lot of even rather obscure German folklore into English.

Days of the Hunt

People in the Glimmermark will celebrate the winter solstice with drinks and bonfires to light the night. It is quite the sight, as all over the dark landscape fires light up, both in human and non-human settlements. But there is a reason for it, because the day after gods and spirits call to the hunt. If you stay indoors at night you might hear the hounds of the hunt bark in the sky. If you go out at night… well, then you might become the game…

The wild hunt is a supernatural event that takes place once a year for twelve days, from the day after the winter solstice, to the beginning of the new year. Any encounter rolled in the wilderness at night will be with a Wild Hunt, either predetermined, or chosen by rolling on the table below.

People have different stories who actually is leading the hunt, but that all depends on what area they are in. There seems to be an ancient compact that allows gods and other entities to hunt their game in these days, and only if their quarry is abroad. It is possible for multiple wild hunts to meet, and sometimes stories about this have been told, but unless the gods involved have a deep enmity against one another they seem to prefer leaving each other in peace at this time.

Who is hunted also is a different matter. Some hunters seem to be fine with assuming everyone out at night in the deepest winter is up to no good, while others differentiate between the living and the dead, specific tribes, or other, more oblique criteria.
There is always a Master of the Hunt, but who that is will determine who else might be in the hunt.

Except for the hounds. They always are there (at least 1d20 of them), dark and fearsome, and able to track a target for hundreds of miles. Stories tell they are the spirits of dogs whose death was unjust. (A similar story is told about the steeds)
Bystanders might be affected. Anyone gazing at this phenomenon too long will be affected by this as well (Save vs. Spell) and might be inclined to join the host on it’s way. Anyone meeting the gaze of the host too long will be suspected of challenging them. The recommended behavior is to fall on the ground and avert your gaze.

1d10 Masters of the Hunt

1. The Horned One
Stag-headed, shadowy, and fiery-eyed this master of the hunt often shows up in areas where druids hold sway. It is not quite clear what, if anything, this hunter is. A hunting party will consist of the entity, 2d20 hounds of the dark hunt, and only rarely 25% chance also other stag-headed individuals of lower HD. They will hunt down any clerics performing blood sacrifice and necromancers. They will specifically target ones that are level 12 or higher, but they will notice the stench of blood and decay from any practitioner.

2. The Lord of Frenzy
One-eyed and riding an eight-legged horse, this being will show up in a large group, with 1d12 Valkyries, and 2d20 spectral warriors who died a straw death. They will hunt down giants and dragons, and those warriors who are slain in battle are immediately carried off by the valkyries.

3. The Old Ruler
A spectral king or queen from ancient times will rise together with 1d12 of his finest knights, to drive all invaders off the land. There are few places where people have been living uninterrupted for a long time so the chance for even a local to escape their depredations is only about 50%.

4. The Fey
A fey lord or lady of great renown has called to the hunt and will ride out with 1d10 fae warriors and 1d20 faerie goblins. What their goals are seems almost indeterminable, but they seem to slay those with CHA under 7, and abduct those with CHA of 17 or 18 if they can.

5. The Lone Hunter
A spectral undead figure in black, only accompanied by a pack of wolf-like black hounds. This used to be a skilled hunter (at least level 9) who had sinned against his chosen deity and now is tasked to hunt down evil-doers during the 12 days. The hunter will not speak, but will be able to communicate with simple gestures. If players help them reach their allotment of quarries they might be released of this bond and gift them an appropriate treasure.

6. The Pale Rider
A spectral party lead by a skeletal rider on a white horse and about 2d20 skeletal warriors. These collect the souls of the dead or those who should be dead to join them into their ride.

7. The Dragon Slayer
A hunting party of ancient looking warriors lead by a single figure with bare chest and head, hunting for any dragons, wyverns, or other larger serpent-like creatures they can find. Meaningful help in their fight can provide them with a minor treasure from the dragon’s hoard.

8. The White Host
A shining white host of 2d100 spirits on spectral horses lead by a cleric in silver armor flies over the sky. Any undead affected by their radiance will be turned/destroyed as if affected by a level 9 cleric.

9. The Wild Huntress
A host of mostly female warriors lead by a beautiful huntress in leathers and furs. Their quarry are

10. The Devil
Or at least A devil. This being will ride out with 1d10 fiends in attendance. It’s quarry are oath-breakers, but they will gladly take along anyone they meet. Unlike the other hunts they do not generally fly, and have no problem entering settlements (but they stay clear of sanctified holy places)

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[Labyrinth Lord] Goblin (Character Class)

Goblin (Character Class)
Req.: DEX 9 and CON 9
Prime Reqs: STR and DEX
HD: 1d8 (as monster HD)
Max Level: 6
Fighting: As equivalent monster HD
Saves: As Fighter

Goblin Level Progression

A goblin usually is slightly smaller than a hobbit, commonly with red or yellow eyes that can flicker red in
the dark. Their skin colour ranges from pale greenish-yellow through any shade of orange to a deep red, but giving all that many descriptions is quite futile, as their distant faerie-blood often shows in a variety of physical features.
Goblin culture is tribal, often leading a lifestyle of raiding for anything including food, weapons, and slaves.
Though often experienced as crude and ugly in appearance by those more “civilized”, goblins are as
intelligent as dwarves and humans, and capable of quite remarkable workmanship, if they find the time.
Due to their short height, goblins cannot use two-handed weapons or longbows, but can use any other
weapon or armor. They gain the same benefits of being hard to hit by larger creatures that hobbits and dwarves gain.

They must have at least 13 in one or the other prime requisite in order to receive the +5% to experience and a STR and DEX of 13 to receive the +10% bonus.

As goblins spend most of their time underground, they have darkvision up to 90ft. but they suffer a –1 penalty to all rolls when in full sunlight. Goblins possess fangs they can use to bite for 1d6 damage when weapons are not at hand.

They speak their own language and the common tongue, many also knowing dwarf, orc, and elf languages.
Due to a historically close relationship with one another they receive +1 on reaction rolls when encountering or training wolves, wargs, or other lupines.

Reaching 6th Level: Goblins who reach this level can set up their own goblin kingdom. A goblin
king/queen always has 2d6 loyal bodyguards of at least 3rd level. All goblins in the presence of their goblin king/queen have a morale score of 9.

Note: I first published this in my campaign newsletter

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[Glimmermark] Learning Magic in the Glimmermark

Learning Magic in the Glimmermark
When I started to plan for the Glimmermark one of my main ideas was to make it even more Vancian, instead of getting rid of the Vancianess like many people would prefer to. Magic needs to be rare, mystical, and hard to get. Magic effects need to be dangerous and closely guarded. Magic is something that you can work for yourself, but you also need to put the work in.

Sidenote no. 1: the draft of my house rules is also using the Cleric who gains (limited) spells from the gods, and an OSRified warlock class that gains an even more limited amount of powers directly from a patron. The magic user, be it witch, wizard, or however they call themselves, does not rely on other beings to weave their magic. They can be more versatile and much more powerful than the other two spellcasting classes. But they have to work for it.

Spells are rare in the Glimmermark since the old Empire fell, and often are closely guarded secrets to whoever possesses them. Most magic users will be able to speak about the various spell effects that are known to mankind at length (it’s a common topic for classes in guilds and chantries), but most of them will never have seen anything beyond a 3rd level spell, maybe a 4th level spell in action.
The 1st level spells from the spell list can be bought, either as scrolls from any magician willing to part with them (at 100gp per spell, or in the copy of a grimoire containing 1-3 spells from a guild or the occasional trader or collector (at 500gp per contained spell). Guilds normally have all the 1st level spells at hand.
To actually learn the spell, i.e. copy it into their own spellbook in a usable manner, a simple intelligence check needs to be done. If it fails the magic user needs to wait until they are more experienced (i.e. they have reached the next level) to try again.
Spells of 2nd level are harder to get, although they sometimes can be bought as scrolls for 300gp a piece, or in grimoires costing 1000gp per 2nd level spell. There is a 50% chance that a guild has any specific 2nd level spell from the main spell list. (see below)
Spells from 3rd level on are basically never sold outright. Even attempting to buy one their owners often demand additional tasks or services from interested buyers. Notably many guilds will teach a single of their higher level spells for free to members in good standing who have reached the appropriate level of magic (that is, if the guild in question has such a spell and not all of them do), and any further ones only to people who perform an appropriate service to the guild.

Sidenote no.2: in my rules you cannot prepare more than one copy of the same spell at once.

Learning spells from MU’s spellbooks: spellbooks are the private notes regarding a spell and might have idiosyncrasies. Learning a spell from them needs a Int -3 check (to a minimum of 2)
Learning from a Master: a master teaching a specific spell helps with learning it. If this option is available the Int check is +2 (to a maximum of 19)

Magic Guilds and Covens
There currently are no proper magic schools and universities in the Glimmermark. There are local guilds though that do offer specific services for members. Guilds are professional organizations that are trying to protect the local professionals (i.e. wizards) from outside talent muscling in. Places where they hold sway normally have the use of magic banned by anyone but the members of the guild. (that is to say, there are allowances made for the use of lower level spells in most cases)
Covens on the other hand are more secretive, often more rural and spread over a larger area, but will work roughly the same. Unlike guilds they do not advertise, but their services are equivalent.

A Guild normally has all the 1st level spells, a selection of 2nd level spells (50% chance of any given), and a progressively lower chance of higher level spells (20% for 3rd, 10 % for 4th, 5% for 5th, 1% for 6th). These are the spells the guild officially holds, often provided as trades or journeyman pieces. The individual members of the guild might hold more they have found by individual research.

Sidenote no. 3: yes, spells go to level 6. Spells of higher level are clearly fabulation

Spiegelheim Guild of Spellweavers
Spiegelheim is the largest city in the Glimmermark (just barely though as it is right at the edge of the region, located at the south end of Spiegel lake). The guild is a rather quiet affair, with the most active part being their chantry, i.e. their magic school. Most students at the school will never become proper magic users and mostly attend it to gain the academic background needed to work as scribes, merchants, accountants, or some other clerk position in the rest of the Glimmermark (the scribe in Castle Aberwacht is an alumni). Despite it’s pretensions to be a full Wizards Guild it mostly works as a non-magic school. More serious students have to search for further education in other parts. At any point during the day there are 10 students (lvl0) and 1-3 masters (MU5+) here. The guild sells scrolls and basic potions to non-members. Any teaching or research demands membership in good standing though (500gp per year, but includes the right for room, board, and a private workspace)

Can teach [spell list used is from Lanyrinth Lord]:

1st level: all
2nd: Arcane Lock, Continual Light, Detect Evil, ESP, Knock, Levitate, Locate Object, Mirror Image, Phantasmal Force
3rd: Hold Person, Water Breathing
4th: Dimension Door
5th: Feeblemind

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I wonder if I really need to do a session report all the time. Maybe I am going to make this a short regular thing where I am going to go through all the sessions each month and just briefly run down who played, what happened, who died, and what notable things they got.

Session 2 had them delve into Castle Dyson again, at first somewhat hindered by a pack of wild dogs that decided to make a feast out of the goblins they left lying around the week before…

(ohhh, I need to define them better, I see it now, it’s a special breed of dogs that came after most humans left the area after the fall of the Empire… They are called Glimmerdogs, and clearly they are hardy enough to survive in the horrendous wilderness of the Glimmermark)

… but they were quickly shooed away, and made no problems, full of goblin meat as they were.

Below they started to investigate the other direction than last time when they killed the local goblins, managed to hide away when some more goblins came by, despoiled a gravesite, and fought a group of half-formed skeletons.

In the end they came away with quite a lot of treasure.

Session 3 started similar, only they noticed someone had at least moved the goblin bodies to the side. They delved a bit further into the first level, despoiled some more graves, tried to find some treasure, fough a rather hardy zombie/mummy hidden in a sarcophagus, and then decided to explore deeper into an opening of a cave system where they found another exit, and a group of easily killed giant rats. There also was a some hissing sound when they tried to go a different direction, but that they left alone for now. They left through the lower exit, with rather less spoils altogether (mostly a bunch of copper and silver coins), although they gained their first magic weapon from the one undead they fought.

We were using mipui for mapping, which was fine, even though it was a bit fiddly. Dyson’s maps are a bit difficult to map at the best of times, and this one had a natural cave system with dimensions that were simply not easy to describe and/or depict in mipui. In the end it worked, but it took somewhat longer than it could have.

One of the things I find nice about the games on the Grenzland server is that they are generally time-limited to just two hours, which fits much better with an adult’s life than a lot of games that go longer, but just need more time commitment. In comparison to the standard 3-4 hours of my Shadowrun game these games are much less draining for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I love roleplaying, and I like DMing, but a normal roleplaying session is emotionally exhausting for me. This particular style of gaming is much less so.

Alex’ Reports for Session 2 and Session 3

Open Table: If you are interested in a very basic OSR-game, this game is intended as an open table, and iI try to have one session each week on Tuesday (sometimes Wednesday), so maybe sign up for it on the Grenzland Discord server or our IRC network. Games are German or English, 120minuts, and take place at 8.15pm

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/07/25/labyrinth-lord-glimmermark-open-table-dysons-delve-session-2-and-3/

[Labyrinth Lord] Tomb of the Serpent Kings Session 1 (also MapTool)

A while ago I started playing with some people on an online server. That was about the time when I decided that I should maybe be playing more often than just GMing. Unfortunately life intervenes a lot, and lately there haven’t been that many games in the main campaign to keep me busy. I am also co-DMing a Shadowrun game lately, so there’s that, but I am missing the OSR fantasy fare. So I decided to run a game on the server, specifically with MapTool, which I have been hovering around for a while, but never actually used. In fact I never used a proper VTT to play, so this would be a first.

I decided to use Tomb of the Serpent Kings for it because it’s nicely done and available for free, and I already had it played before, and Labyrinth Lord as a game system because that has been my basic system for a while (yeah, I never updated to OSE even though I use some of the material for it).

Game Report

The group consisted of 2 elves (Damion and Eltariel) and a MU (Frondo) with his torchbearer/muscle (Big Boris). They originally were rustled up by the local bailiff to apprehend the bandit Wild Man Roberts and his two not-so-merry-men, who were seen digging somewhere at a hillside a short way off.
The bandits were easily located inside a hole they opened in the hillside. This turned out to be a hallway going into the dark, with the bandits lying dead just a short way in. Having determined they were done in by a simple poison trap in the ceiling they decided to investigate a bit further (and do some not-graverobbing) when they encountered sarcophagi with clay statues of snake-men inside. Inside the statues were small amounts of treasure and snake skeletons (turning it to actual graverobbing). Also poison gas.
A large door at the end of the hallway was trapped by a mechanism, which they devised to disable with various methods, giving them access to a larger room with three wooden coffins. Soon enough those turned out to have skeletons of snake-like beings inside that started attacking the newly minted graverobbers. Unfortunately a series of good attacks cost the life of two of the party (both elves), and the unlife of two snakes, while Frondo and his torchbearer took off almost immediately.
Out of sight of the skeleton the two decided to rearm the trap outside and trigger it after baiting the last skeleton into it’s area. The giant stone hammer coming out of the ceiling took care of the last opponent.
Frondo returned to give his companions a proper burial (and loot their bodies), then turned back to civilization to collect the bounty on the bandits.

Notes regarding MapTool

• MapTool worked great until it didn’t. At the end we had some issues when two of us got disconnected while the others still could see things move around. I think I should have restarted the server in that case, but as it was in the very end of the 2-hour time slot we just played out the rest without it.
• MapTool now has a function (marked as experimental) that allows to create a server and connect to it directly from other clients. No more futzing around with port forwarding in this case. Unfortunately maybe not as stable as it could be (see above). Still, the lack of such a function was one of the reasons I did not use the software before, as it would have been too much work to get it running with my network setup. Now that problem is gone, it literally has become a matter of creating a server, having players connect (they are prompted for a PIN), and their computers downloading the media files from my computer.
• Speaking of media files, MapTool allows to use media files from the players computers to use in the game. Those are also added to the campaign file automatically. In fact it even allows to run a remote server where the campaign file is stored, I just haven’t been able to try that one yet. But other than that? Want to have a new token? Drop a picture in the related TokenTool, make a suitable token, then just add it in a folder and use it as you will. Nice.
• I do find the use of MapTool surprisingly convenient. There are a few things that one can’t do in the tool (e.g. animated maps would be nice, but can’t be done in the current architecture), and some stuff that can be done but needs to be configured properly (no one has bothered to create a script framework for OSR games yet it seems), but I have a lot of options to show the players exactly what I want them to see. Still there are a few things that I still have to figure out.
• The dynamic lighting in the dungeon is of course the star of the show. One can add a vision blocking layer and have PCs walk through the dungeon and have them see whatever it is that they have a) lit and b) what they can see. This can make for some interesting tactical gaming where some monster or character can see some things, but cannot see others. I noticed that it also takes a lot of mental strain from me as a DM as I don’t need to track either light or walking order in this case.
• The other thing that helps a lot is the way one can organize a scenario here. Players can generally see 3 layers on the screen: tokens, objects, and background, and they can interact only with the first one. Another hidden layer is present, but is only available to DMs. This is useful, as it allows you to drop information (e.g. attached to a numbered token) at the appropriate places, and just call it up by going over it on the token layer. As it’s hidden it is not actually visible for players, and you can have your whole adventure in there, slowly following along as the PCs explore. Incredibly useful.
• That said, there was an annoying issue with players moving tokens over specific (invisible to them) GM tokens with information, and me not being able to access them then. I think this might have a button that allows DMs to get a hold of tokens under others. but if it has I haven’t found it yet.
• Not every part of the lighting system is perfect though. I still can’t make head nor tails out of elevations and depressions. I don’t quite know what to think about them. They don’t update in ways that I would expect from either. I would for example depressions with a light source inside expect to be lit inside, but they aren’t. The lighting system also takes a little to register someone has updated settings. More than once we got stuck in a place with a newly lit lantern not lighting anything because we didn’t move.
• Doors are one of the things I will have to get into more. It is possible to create movable doors, but how is still a bit of a mystery to me.

Notes regarding Labyrinth Lord

• we were playing by the book, but that might have been a mistake. The game might need to become a bit less deadly, so next time we should use the splintering shield rules, a death and dismemberment chart, and some rule about helmets I should first figure out (stock LL doesn’t seem to have a bonus for helmets
• one house rule I already used for XP is XP for exploration: every new room discovered/mapped gives 50xp
• I do wonder if I should have used Labyrinth Lord or maybe have gone even more minimal with White Box Fantasy.

Notes regarding Tomb of the Serpent Kings

• I already played this one with another online group at the beginning of the pandemic. Unfortunately that didn’t last long, and we never managed to get to some of the more interesting parts of the dungeon.

Note: I did post a previous version of this article on the campaignwiki.org newsnet forum.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/04/17/labyrinth-lord-tomb-of-the-serpent-kings-session-1-also-maptool/

The question what happens to us after death has been one that has been asked and answered many times ever since we started to think and noticed that sometimes when you bash someone hard enough they don’t get up again.

But… what if they would?

You know, when we look away? When we don’t see them?!

And roleplaying games have touched on this. A lot. A real lot. In fact so much that whole settings and game systems have been written about nothing but what happens to people after they die.

The question what happens to us after death also has been one of these inherent fears that have plagued humanity, well, I guess before we were even properly human.

So remember that thing you bashed and it didn’t get up again? That shadow over there, doesn’t it look like that thing?!

It was a post by I cast light that inspired me to think about some rules for what actually happens when someone is left for dead in the dungeon or wherever. That post is most likely a lot better than what I come up with, but it doesn’t quite fit what I want in my game. It’s a bit too deterministic.

There’s some pretty brilliant parts in it though. The head of a wizard becoming a floating proto-beholder? Chef’s kiss.

Anyway. The dungeon is a dangerous area. Quite deadly even. The wilderness also is a dangerous place. Sometimes people don’t come back.

That’s the good news.

Because sometimes they do come back.

My comrade/hireling just died, what do I do now?

Well, call dibs on their belongings/adhere to the will they left. But if you know what’s good for you take care of them.

• give them a proper burial. This involves getting their body out of wherever you are. Yes, that means carrying less loot. You heard me.
• give them an emergency burial. Ideally have someone bless the grave. That should do it. Otherwise there’s about a 50% chance it won’t take. It still has a chance to get desecrated in a dungeon or wilderness, so don’t count on it.
• put their body in a circle of salt. That won’t hold forever though, depending on moisture and other environmental effects that could break down after a week to ten years.
• yeah, don’t think about desecrating the body. That’s only going to make it worse.

But what’s the big deal? you ask. Well, I will tell you what’s the big deal. If someone dies in the shadowy places of the world… they might come back. It really depends how they feel about you, and that mostly means that every little grudge they have about you turns to hatred. Took the last donut and left the bard with none? That’s gonna haunt you. Literally.

I mean, how did you think all those places got so many undead?

Unless given a proper burial PCs and named NPCs that were lost in the dungeon have a chance to return to unlife. I want to give some 50% chance or so, but seriously, if you have the chance to use an old PC as an undead monster, would you not use it?

They will otherwise rise as an undead creature of same HD as their previous level. If their body was destroyed during their adventure they will of course rise as a spirit or possess a convenient other body/appendage/curse a magic item. If their soul for some reason was destroyed/eaten/removed or if they died without any grudges some other thing will take possession of their body. Whatever it is, there now is an undead enemy with a grudge.

In any case, they will be absolutely inimical to the characters that left them in the dungeon (if you use alignment they will now be chaotic or evil). They might otherwise be filled with the usual feelings their creature type has for the living. Largely hatred and hunger that is.

Or maybe they just hate the living.

The referee is encouraged to come up with appropriate undead, but the revenant should have the same HD range as the lost character. Level 0 NPCs will become lantern ghosts, skeletons, or similar. Higher level characters might end up as ghouls, wights, or even wraith. They might also have additional equipment or abilities based on the previous character’s.

Bonus: new characters might start with a higher rank/level than normal, if they take on a Quest (like the spell) regarding such a revenant. This is of course DM’s fiat, but a e.g. cleric sworn to slay her uncle’s revenant, or maybe a character out for revenge against a now undead murderhobo, might start with level 2 or 3.

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