Week 3: The Deep Warrens

Earthquakes have been happening a lot in Cascadia ever since the Hearthstone shattered. A stranger to the village arrives with a warning! There’s a villain harming the earth from deep inside a nearby cave system in the mountains, called the Deep Warrens. If they’re not stopped, the damage could destroy all of Cascadia!

Advance Preparation

You will need props or a plan to handle a few of this weeks adventures:

• A number of colored bands to mark objectives in games.
• Ideally, you’ll be able to dig or have access to a pit in the ground for a character to be trapped. If this isn't possible, the scenario can be easily be acted out as improv.
• A printout or hand-copied version of the Dwarven message from Belna (see Day 2 for download).
• You will also need to have a rock to play the part of the Dwarven Hearthstone. This can definitely be picked up on the fly, but keep an eye out for a cool one.

Non Playable Characters (NPCs)

These are the NPCs that may be encountered in this story. They are ordered from most to least screentime in the narrative.

• Belna
• Cinna
• Ral
• Sable

Day One Morning

The first game of the day establishes teams of four. Choose one of the options below:

Forehead Dots

Trackers all get a colored mark on their forehead while their eyes are closed. Mark four Trackers in each color, and choose randomly, as these will be future teams. The "dots" can be masking tape, a post-it, or even washable marker.

When you're done, Trackers open their eyes. They must now sort themselves into teams in complete silence, using only non-verbal communication to find their color matches.

OR

Hide and Seek Out Your Team

Half the Trackers hide within specified boundaries. After 30 seconds head start, send the other half out in search. When the seekers find someone, they both head back to group up, and are now teammates!

In the second round, play this in pairs to end with teams of four. Team Camp time this morning should include time for journaling and character creation.

At the beginning of Morning Adventures, lead the group to the Village area and introduce yourself as their Guide.

“Welcome to the Village! This is the nearest community of humans in Cascadia and your home for the next week. The Village was mostly destroyed last week by natural disasters when the Hearthstone was stolen, but things are mostly better now we have it back… in pieces. You’ve all been summoned from local areas to help investigate if, and how, a Hearthstone can heal."

Explain the basics of Hearthstone lore. You can also make up your own identity and Guild affiliation, so long as you're a native to the Village. Your current assignment is leading the effort to mend the Hearthstone.

Next, introduce Trackers to an NPC, Indigo. They're a friendly and charming Ranger with a pet osprey, Scree, which nips at their ears as they try to talk. Play Scree for laughs when you can!

Indigo explains that, because of the natural disasters in the area, they need to check everything's location for the Village's reference. Could you help them by mapping things out?

Map Area Around Village

You may play the guide as well as Indigo while helping the Trackers set up their camps. Remember to include Indigo’s falcon, Scree, for some comedy! After the area has been arranged, Indigo will express his appreciation for your help with this project. As thanks, he offers to teach you how to stick fight.

Stick Fighting

Once the Trackers seem to have the basics, announce a rumbling in the earth! Oh no, maybe the natural disasters aren't over?

Day One Afternoon

Afternoon Adventures begin with the Guide sharing intriguing news with the Trackers: the Village is abuzz, because during your training, a dwarven elder came through town! This is a rare occurrence, the first time in decades such an ancient dwarf has visited a human camp.

• Here’s what you can tell them, cobbled together from the villagers’ gossip:
• They think the dwarf was a woman, but she has a pretty magnificent beard
• Nobody speaks Dwarvish except Sable (a ranger who’s on the hunt)
• The dwarf seemed to need help
• The dwarf left about 20 minutes ago, and seemed to be following (choose an animal type to track)

Teach the Trackers’ teams to move through the wilderness and the basics of tracking. Following this animal will lead you towards the dwarf, after which you can hopefully find out what she needs!

Tracking Game of Choice

You finally come across the dwarf… who’s at the bottom of a pit that opened up during the earthquake! She’s clearly in distress. If you have any Trackers with a Dwarven origin, you may note that she's using some strong language.
Rescue Game - This can be a realistic rescue from a pit trap if an appropriate site is found. If not, this game may include foraging and crafting cordage to make a rope, then an improv challenge to pull the dwarf to safety.

The dwarven woman is very grateful! She’s able to gesture to herself and communicate her name: Belna. If there are any Trackers with a dwarven origin culture, they can try and speak to her, but with limited success (i.e. they can get the nouns underlined below).

Belna is saying help, pointing in the direction of mountains. She’s frightened of something!

As the Guide, you can note that those mountains contain a cave system where most local dwarves live. Maybe something is wrong at the dwarven settlement?

Day Two Morning

Before the day begins, print Belna's message and Dwarven cipher and plant a bandana in the area the Trackers will be searching for Sable later in the morning.

Message from Belna, written in Old Dwarvish.

Dwarven cipher.

Start the day with a Pure Play Game of Choice.

Start the Morning Adventures in the Village with Belna. She seems to feel better from her fall, but is still insistent on communicating her message. She writes something down in Dwarven, which is essentially a cipher. Trackers with Dwarven origins can be given the translation for all vowels.

Indigo offers to watch Belna so you can go find Sable, the ranger who speaks Dwarven fluently. Teams break up to comb the nearby woods for the bandana you hid to represent her position.

Belna's message with vowels translated.

Searching or Tracking Game of Choice

After everyone is grouped up at Sable’s location, she can introduce herself properly:

“You all’d better have a good reason for disturbing my hunt! Catching food is a matter of life and death for our Village, you know. Speaking of which, I haven’t seen any of you around before. If you say you’re one of us and want a favor from me? You’d better prove you’re worth it.”

Survival Game of Choice

Sable admits, you have the skills valued by the Village, and she did hear there would be newcomers. She’ll take a look at the message from Belna and do her best to translate. However, Belna’s language is the oldest and least accessible form of Dwarven, and there are a few symbols she doesn’t recognize. Trackers must finish piecing together the message to fully learn Belna’s predicament:

“Dwarves of the Deep Warrens need help! Stranger draining the mountain’s spirit, our spirit.”

Sable is surprised and alarmed to read this. She wants to return to the Village with you to meet and talk to Belna in person. Though grudgingly, she can tell you the following information about the Deep Warrens:

• It’s a chain of small mountains with a deep, interconnected cave system underneath
• It has long been the home of the dwarves, though they long ago they had to cease mining and pursue lifestyles that cause less pain to the earth
• There are rumors that the underground caves are haunted by the ghosts of ancient dwarven miners

Sable thinks those rumors are probably right. Return to the Village to digest this info, and also lunch.

Day Two Afternoon

Lead the Trackers in Stick Combat as a warm-up for Afternoon Adventures.

Sable meets you after your combat practice. She has been doing her best to communicate with Belna and suggests you all get geared up to head to the Deep Warrens. It sounds like the ancient dwarves' plight is more dire than the Village's right now.!

Sable has the following facts for the Trackers (from Belna):

• The life spirit of all dwarves is tied to their mountain homes. The ailing mountain is harming the dwarves who live there.
• A mysterious young mage is using some kind of magic to draw energy from the mountain.
• The mountain mems are angry

Trackers may take some time to pack and prepare their gear for travel. Sable cautions to approach the mountains quietly and respectfully to avoid tangling with the mountain mems.

Traversing and Improv Game: Enter the Mountain

Hike to the top of the highest hill or available incline. From this vantage point, designate a low point in the distance as the entrance to the caves. As the Trackers travel downwards, describe what they are seeing:

"The terrain underfoot becomes rocky and uneven. You see, up ahead, the mouth of the cave is only a few feet high. We'll have to crawl to get inside. The rocks around you are cool and moist to the touch as you make into into the first cave. The afternoon sun shines a bar of light into the chamber, but when it stops, complete darkness takes over."

When everyone has crawled inside the area cast as the Cave, the ground begins to shake underfoot. It's another earthquake! Guide the Trackers' improv of the scenario with prompts such as the following:

• Rocks begin to fall around the entrance. Get back from it!
• The floor rumbles violently, shaking your whole body.
• Drop down and protect your head!
• Pebbles and dirt rain down on your back and heads.
• The sunlight is fully blocked out, leaving us in complete darkness.

The entrance to the cave is impassibly caved in. Trackers are trapped in the cave system with mems, mages and who knows what else. Worse, everyone without dwarven origin will have to start tomorrow wearing blindfolds!

Day Three Morning

“If any of you have second thoughts about exploring haunted mountain caves… it may be too late. The darkness around you is complete, hiding the stalactites dripping cold water onto your head. We should get away from this cave-in, in case there's another earthquake!"

Begin the day with a Blindfolded Game of Choice. The object of this game, from a roleplaying view, will be to find your way out of the entrance cavern and into the tunnels.

The Morning Adventures begins inside the tunnel complex of the Deep Warrens. You've lit torches (in roleplay, unless fire starting is kosher) and everyone can remove blindfolds. Start with some place-setting meditation to get everyone in the proper frame of mind.

“Sit in a circle and close your eyes. Take a deep breath in, hold it… and release. The darkness and rocky walls crowd in around you. It’s wet and very cool, and all you can hear is the drips of water falling from the ceiling and echoes of any noise you and your teammates’ make. As your breathing finds a rhythm, you feel the rhythm of the mountain around you. It pulses like an irregular heartbeat. You can feel the wrongness of the energy in here. Maybe it’s the restless spirits of dwarven miners, or maybe it’s the pain of the mountain itself, tunneled into and mined of its life-blood."

Determine the boundaries of play and have the teams break apart to investigate their surroundings. Suggest they move slowly, map the location, and make note of anything strange they see. Ensure everyone knows the sound of a game-over signal which you can call out.

Exploration Game of Choice

Group everyone up after the exploration and mapping. You can sense a low rumbling in the earth again. Is it another earthquake? The rumbling turns into a rhythmic pounding, and you realize it's something worse than an earthquake: it's a powerful, towering rock creature called a Saxum Brute! It roars and lumbers forward to attack. We’ll need to stop it or evade it, and quick!

Pure Play Game of Choice to Evade

Stick Combat Game of Choice to Fight (the Brute retreats, Trackers don't ultimately harm it)

Once free of the Saxum Brute, lead the Trackers to an area that will represent the villain’s main lab. Describe the cavernous chamber as covered in ancient, rusted tech and scribbled notes and diagrams. There is a locked journal, which is labeled, "property of Cinna". Most eye-catching, however, is a human-sized glass tank almost completely filled glowing green energy.

Just before the break, footsteps can be heard from another tunnel. They're headed straight for the Trackers!

Day Three Afternoon

Pick up right before the source of the footsteps is revealed. All Trackers should be in hiding places while you narrate or act out the following scene:

“A cloaked figure with a large wooden staff walks into the chamber. Tendrils of ancient, gnarled roots snatch at him, but he slams his stick to the stone floor, sending them scurrying away as if in fear. The top of the staff glints, and you realize the top is set with the Village’s Hearthstone! The figure pushes back the hood to reveal the face of a young man. This must be Cinna!"

Cinna storms into the lair and complains about how dark it is in the Deep Warrens. He points the Hearthstone staff out to the glowing green energy, and the amount decreases in the tank decreases slightly. The torches flare brighter... revealing your positions!

"What's this? How did you all get here?! You'd better not have touched my research!"

Fight with Cinna

During this fight, designate four targets: Cinna and three incomplete robots, which spark and rise jerkily from the ground to face the Trackers. Cinna has two abilities:

1. An attack with bright green magic which stops one Whisker from each team attacking this round
2. Using some energy from the tank, he casts a shield over himself and one of his robot minions

Trackers have the following goals for each round:

1. Pathfinders choose which (unshielded) target to focus.
2. Cloaks block Cinna's attack on the team by hitting the Cinna target with a projectile (if successful, no one loses a round)
3. Whiskers attack the target designated by the Pathfinder with sticks or foam swords

Each robot takes 12-20 hits to take down. When two are defeated, Cinna will only be able to shield himself. When all three robots are down, Trackers have won the battle!

As Cinna calls you out, the mountain begins to groan and rumble. It’s angry that Cinna called it his domain! Cinna lunges for you as the debris begins to fall from the rattling ceiling. Lead the Trackers back towards the pick-up area, roleplaying Cinna's pursuit and the cave collapsing you!

Cave Escape Improv

As you close in on your destination, Cinna calls out that there's not time to make it to the exit. Describe the torrential rumbling as the surrounding area is filled with rubble. We’re now even more trapped than before! And what’s more… Cinna is trapped with us!