CREATING A VAULT

The Vaults of Vaarn are subterranean ruins that riddle the blue desert. Crucially, these Vaults will always contain Exotica, the far-future treasures the PCs are searching for; therefore, the GM is advised to create one such location before the campaign begins.

Follow these steps to begin drafting a Vault.

1. Roll a d20 to determine the basics: the entrance type, tunnel type, and original function of the Vault. This will form the base for your inspiration.
2. Next, list five ideas for rooms, but don’t map them yet. Just picture five locations that might be found in the Vault you’re creating. If you can’t think of anything or need fresh ideas, roll on both Room Feature lists below, and combine the two features.
3. Attach hazards to the second and fourth rooms in the list. These may flow logically from the room features you rolled; alternatively use the Hazards table below to generate ideas. Some hazards should be immediately obvious, while others might be more insidious.
4. Attach an item of Exotica to the fifth room using the d100 table provided. These items are the goal of a vault-raiding expedition, so make sure they’re challenging to reach, but obtainable if the characters persevere.
5. You now have five rooms for exploration. Sketch out a map of how they connect to one another. Think about doors, but also consider elevator shafts, staircases, teleporters, air vents, drainage systems, and other passageways. Make sure most rooms have at least two exits.
6. Add an NPC into the Vault for the players to talk with. This could be a forgotten prisoner, an AI, a sentient ant colony, another scavenger, or anyone from the NPC table. They don’t have to be friendly, but think about why they’re in the Vault, and what they might want from the PCs.
7. Write up an encounter table. This is a list of d8 active creatures or phenomena that may be found as you move around the Vault. Think about the encounters that would emerge logically from the details you have created so far; one of them could be the NPC you created in step 6. Use the Bestiary for ideas if you are stuck. As the PCs explore, roll a d6 each time they enter a location or make a loud noise. If you roll a 1, roll on the encounter table. You can find some generic, unthemed encounter tables below.
8. With a map, an encounter table, and a reward for the PCs, you are now ready to play! If you want a larger Vault, return to step 2 and begin adding more ideas for rooms. Make sure to keep adding Exotica as the Vault grows in size. A party of four PCs will need to find four Exotica to reach level 2 and eight to reach level 3, so ensure it is possible for your players to advance if they are bold and clever.

Vault Basics

d20	Vault Entrance	Tunnels	Original Purpose
1	Steel Blast Doors	Half-Flooded	Fallout Shelter
2	Back of Tiny Cave	Filled with Blue Sand	Transport Network
3	Enormous Crater	Dusty and Silent	Bioweapon Research
4	Narrow Fissure in Cliff	Crystal-encrusted	Time Paradox Research
5	Through Old Sewer	Blood Red Walls	Language Virus Research
6	Atop Mountain	Decorated Tiles	Geothermal Power Station
7	Opens At Full Moon	Fire-Damaged	Nuclear Power Station
8	Scrawled With Runes	Winding and Narrow	Hypergeometry Research
9	Functioning Lift	Descend Into The Urth	Deep Core Mining
10	Broken Lift	Somehow Absorb Sound	Military Command Post
11	Functioning Escalator	Lightless and Dank	Titan AI Memory Banks
12	Broken Escalator	Spiralling, Strange	Titan AI Cooling System
13	Ruined Train Tunnel	Lit with Bioluminous Moss	Seed Bank
14	Beneath Toxic Water	Surprisingly Clean	Interrogation Chambers
15	Air Filtration Vent	Full of Ancient Corpses	Synth Production
16	Infested with Bats	Incredibly Cold	Illicit Cloning Facility
17	Barricaded from Inside	Enormous and Echoing	Spy Network Base
18	Below an Arcology	Battle Damaged	Recycling Plant
19	Below a Settlement	White and Sterile	Hidden Reservoir
20	Below a Ruin	Filled with Garbage	Autarch’s Hideout

Room Features and Hazards

d20	Room Feature A	Room Feature B	Sample Hazards
1	Banks of syntax engines	Corpses in hazmat suits	Carnivorous Fungus
2	Filled with blue sand	Flickering broken viewscreens	Ancient chaingun turret
3	Littered with plastic	Speaker plays discordant music	Rigged with proximity mines
4	Tangled gas ducts	Weeping source of water	Toxic gas leak
5	Erratic sparking arrays	Blast-proof door	Radioactive waste
6	Grim silent engines	Conference table	Faulty elevator
7	Lattice of Memory Crystal	Exercise equipment	Crazed guard synths
8	Enigmatic books	Sleeping nooks	Hypergeometric rift
9	Preserved foodstuffs	Corpse seared by laser fire	Magnetized ceiling
10	Home to bat colony	Dead synth	Unstable floors
11	Scrawled with graffiti	Weapon lockers	Laser grid trap
12	Functional vending machine	Single mummified corpse	Flooded room; electric cable
13	Overgrown with pink moss	Campfire left by other vault raiders	Overzealous janitor synths
14	Vats of esoteric chemicals	Bloodstained laboratory equipment	Sharp, self-replicating crystals
15	Abandoned dining set	Warning in ancient language	Capricious AI overseer
16	Echoing bottomless shaft	Crazed web of wires	Cannibal descendant of original inhabitants
17	Gleaming forcefield projector	Warning in ancient language	Mind-slaving hypnoscreens
18	Ancient insect hive	Colossal dead mollusk	Vault sacred to Faa nomads; intruders killed
19	Choked with dead vines	Hovering polychrome spheres	Vault is Lair for Monster
20	Sentient, immobile machine	Humming teleportation gate	Vault is Bandit Hideout

Generic Vault Encounter Tables

d8	Depth 1	Depth 2	Depth 3	Depth 4	Depth 5
1	3d6 Blue Baboons	Battle Boar	d6 Battle Boars	d4 Cacogen Pseudo-giants	d8 Cacogen Pseudo-giants
2	d8 Greenguard	d6 Cacklemaw	d8 Cacklemaw + War Mama	d6 Walking Wombs	d8 Lambent Lynx
3	Harlequin Serpent	d6 Lizard Lions	Subtle Stalker	Leopard Worm	Argent Shepherd
4	3d6 Pthalho-jackals	d8 Faa Nomads	d6 Hiveymen	d4 Hollow Maidens	Alzabo
5	d6 Grey Crickets	d6 Planeyfolk	Lithling Scholar	d4 Glass Tigers	d6 Glass Tigers
6	d6 Quill-Spiders	d10 Bandits	d6 Memory Eaters	Regenerator	d6 Regenerators
7	d6 Stumbling Drones	d6 Tiger-flies	Behemoth Toad	d6 Behemoth Toads	Chromavore
8	2d6 Yurlings	Giant Azure Scorpion	d4 Giant Azure Scorpions	Xanthous Mycopmorph	Amaranthine Death-Worm