EXPLORATION BENEATH THE URTH

The fabled vaults of Vaarn – ah! Those tech-tombs that glimmer with tantalising shards of the Long Ago, tablescraps of the gods gone to rot in the recesses of the Urth! Concrete caverns, open doorways like blind idiot eyes, supercoolant lagoons in which lounge creatures of utmost malice and depravity! I have walked silent halls where the dust of the ancient world lay waist-deep, descended past mute mining juggernauts into the caverns they bored in Urth’s dark mantle and deeper still into that womb of night, abyss of horror and wonder, what we of the blue desert dream of as we lie in our tents beneath a firmament of fading stars.

Vaults

The eponymous vaults of Vaarn are the underground spaces that riddle the blue desert. They are known as the cradles of monsters, and the hiding spaces of fabulous Exotica. They are the primary crucible of the game’s action, in which the PCs test their wits and strength against the denizens of the depths. 

Exploration Turns

The time spent exploring vaults or other adventure sites is abstracted into Exploration Turns. During a single Exploration Turn, the PCs can:

• Travel from one location to another.
• Search the location they are in.
• Take a Short Rest.
• Conduct any other action that seems appropriate, such as excavating a grave, hacking an ancient computer system, damming a stream, etc. Especially time-consuming actions require multiple exploration turns.

Running and Fleeing

Running through a vault allows PCs to traverse ten locations in a single Exploration Turn. However, the Referee will describe only scattered impressions of the locations, without detail. Any traps are triggered automatically and encounters always surprise the PCs.

Encounters 

Each Exploration Turn, the Referee checks for encounters by rolling d6 and consulting the table below. If the PCs are over-encumbered or making lots of noise, the Referee may roll 2 or even 3d6 and take the lowest single result. 

Doors

Listening outside a closed door takes one Exploration Turn. The PCs can only get vague information about the room by listening, such as whether it contains living creatures.

Stuck or locked doors can usually be forced open. Explosives or sustained gunfire break down doors instantly, at the cost of an Encounter roll. Forcing a door open with brute strength takes 10 Exploration Turns, minus the PC’s STR bonus (minimum 1 Exploration Turn). Some doors may not be opened without special tools like keycards.

Hidden and Secret Features

Vault locations are described in hierarchies of  available information. Each location will have some obvious features: qualities and points of interest that the PCs can easily see without needing to search for them, such as brooding statues, waterfalls, or gleaming computer consoles. However, some locations will contain hidden and secret features as well. 

Hidden features are concealed from view, but not otherwise obscure. They will always be discovered by spending an Exploration Turn searching the location: a switch behind a curtain or a golden orb submerged in a murky pool are two examples. 

Secret features can only be discovered by engaging with the vault as a whole and describing specific PC actions rather than a generic search. Sometimes they may require knowledge from elsewhere in the vault to find, such as a door which only opens when a specific statue is prayed to. Secret features cannot be uncovered by declaring a generic search, rolling dice, or attempting ‘perception checks’, but by engaging with the fiction of the location. Searching the room may (at the Referee’s discretion) unearth a hint to the presence of a secret feature, such as a draft of air in a room containing a secret door, and so on.

Light and Darkness

Vaarn’s vaults are mostly lightless, their glowglobes having long since burnt out. PCs need a source of illumination, whether an electric torch or a fluorescent chunk of fungus. Without light the PCs are travelling blind: they take three exploration turns to move from one location to another, and cannot effectively search an unlit location. Encounters always surprise the party. Ranged attacks cannot be made without light, and melee attacks have DIS. 

Resting Underground

Vaults are inherently dangerous places, and it is inadvisable to camp there. If the PCs are engaged in an extended delve and insist on taking a Long Rest in a vault, they must find a secure campsite in a room with easily barred entrances. If they fail to do so they have a 3-in-6 chance to be surprised during the night by an encounter. 

Escaping the Vault

Sometimes you just need to leave. If things are going really poorly and the players want to get back to the surface right now, have each PC roll d20 and consult the table below.

d20	ESCAPE RESULT
1	Trapped! The PC is stuck somewhere in the Vault, and must be rescued next session.
2	Grievously Wounded! Roll d20 with DIS on the Wounds table (p.xx)
3	Wounded! Roll d20 on the Wounds table (p.xx)
4	Lost an item! Roll d20 to discover which item slot is affected.
5-9	Got lost! Consume one food or water ration and roll on this table again.
10-15	Skin of your teeth! You make it back to the surface but lose half your current HP.
16-20	Escape! You made it to the surface.