Shadowdark Thracia 21
Date Played: 11/09/2026
Players:
Xaayr - Iniquitous
Ham - Apontius
Zitdrik - Matt
Skand - Revolter
Recap:
The party made their way through the jungle amidst a light drizzle, arriving at the sinkhole by the lake around noon. Seeing their rope was still secure they made their descent that way again.
Checking out the northern door of the entrance room they discovered a long hallway leading into darkness. However that darkness was encroaching on them and whispered hateful things in ancient Thracian. The party decided against going down that hallway.
Choosing instead to explore Poseidon’s temple, they investigated the statue to the east of the pillars. Seeing there were skid marks on the floor behind it, they investigated the wall. Ham saw there was in fact a secret door behind, along with a trigger and a red glass shard.
Using a 10’ pole Ham hit the trigger and saw the statue slam into the wall. It did not move back. Investigating the red glass shard, Ham and Skand determined it would require blue light to shine into it so the door would open.
Investigating the statues in the room below the stairs, they found that the statue at the north end of the room was half-submerged in glowing blue water. They used the water in a flask to shine it on the red shard in the other room and opened the secret door behind the statue. However the statue was blocking access.
Ham wanted to use the trigger again, however Skand and ZitDrik investigated the pillars in the room and saw they were peppered with dart holes. Xaayr chose to be brave and hid in a corner, guarded by his shield, then used the pole to activate the trigger. The darts got him despite his efforts to protect himself, though he survived his wounds.
Ham then investigated the revealed corridor but it was here that the party’s light went out. While ZitDrik refilled his lantern, a lone lizardman mercenary approached the party, named Threx. He was friendly and offered healing herb to Xaayr. He answered some questions regarding the lizardmen and their activity in the Caverns (this group were mostly new to the area). He then offered to follow them as a helping hand for the area though admitted he knew nothing of the secret access behind the statue.
Moving into that cramped corridor, the party discovered a room full of hot brass pipes all coming out of a central brass pillar. There was evidence that someone was camping out here, though the occupant was not present. Moving through the room was dangerous due to the hot pipes. Xaayr stumbled while crossing and took serious burns. Skand rescued him from the hot pipes and ZitDrik was able to stabilize him at the other end.
Moving on, they discovered a storage room used by the lizardfolk and a manned guardpost. Threx ensured they did not meet the party with hostility but asked that the party not venture further into the room they were guarding. Out of respect for boundaries the party did not cross further. Instead they ventured down some stairs and found a room with a central pillar of water and 8 escape pods that could be used to launch up the pillar.
Feeling it was worth the risk, and eager to make it back to town, the party used two of the escape pods to get off this level. The pods took them up into the river on level 2 of Thracia, however the pods were caught in the giant spiderweb downstream. After the party emerged they battled the giant black widow and defeated it without taking any serious damage. They then poked a spider sac hanging from the ceiling and were attacked by a swarm of the widow’s offspring crawling down the 10’ pole. ZitDrik tossed the pole into the river, dealing with that problem.
Using the friendly relations with the lizardfolk on this floor the party made their way out of the dungeon. However, on level 1 they caught the attention of the Immortal Cult as they were trying to leave.
The party made it back to Minos before evening.
4XP gained this session. 2XP for the pod discovery. 2XP for killing the spider.
Thoughts:
Good straightforward session.
This was a party mostly of newcomers, but it was great to see them engaged and picking up on the goals of last session’s delve. It also helped that this was a sub-floor of Thracia yet undiscovered.
For context, this is floor 2A from the Goodman Games release of Caverns of Thracia. It is a new addition to the dungeon that was not part of Jaquays’ original design. I like that it feels separate, but still connected, and fleshes out the lizard faction a bit more. The Poseidon temple and aquatic theme is neat as well. Lot of water on this floor, which is great for putting torches at risk.
Like Thracia, it’s full of traps, though there are encounters here that feel particularly DCC in spirit, though the players did not see them. As some may read this blog, I won’t detail them here.
I will say there are some glaring errors in the keying, especially when describing connections to other floors. One area connects to a room number does not exist in any key. I can try and infer based on the description, but it is not obvious which room this should be.
In fact, I think every time another room is referenced in this floor’s key, the room number is mislabelled. That’s shoddy stuff and extremely unhelpful. I can only wonder as to why these mistakes keep happening on this floor in particular, but my guess is that the keying on other floors was not finalised when this first got drafted and it was never addressed in revisions.
Labels aside, I liked this sub-level enough to at least include it as part of the greater dungeon. It’s especially nice to connect it with the hex-crawl.