The Town of Viremont existed long before The Depths. A quiet village of people tending fields and animals, trading only when needed with nearby towns. But mostly self sufficient.
It wasn’t until one dreaded night when the moon shone at its fullest, and the night lasted longest that the town and landscape around it were wracked with tremors and earthquakes. An unholy deafening, scream tore across the landscape, waking the remaining inhabitants that hadn’t already been by the tremors. None knew what to think of it, and the town psychic claimed the end of the world was nigh.
As the sun rose the next morning, the townsfolk were uncertain quite what had gone on, as no buildings had toppled or been damaged and the livestock in their pens nearest to the village seemed unperturbed.
The Shepherd’s son was the first to discover that all was not as it seemed after the night’s chaos. Taking their flock out to graze, he found himself sucked into a chest deep puddle of water, and the ground all around sodden, sinking well past the shins to walk around. His flock all becoming stuck and unable to move. His flock’s favourite pasture was now a fen.
Before long, playing children discovered the cleft amongst the rocks that had appeared amidst the trees. This clearing they would often frolic and play amongst. Curious, the children climbed in and down into the cavernous tunnels, that had appeared in their play space.
Minutes turned to Hours, and as dusk set in, a panicked set of parents raced into the copse to find their children. Only to find a hat and pair of shoes left piled up in front of the cavernous opening.
Organising local fathers and men to make their way in to retrieve the children, they delved. Packing lightly only a handful of torches and rope, assuming the tunnels didn’t go far.
Hours passed and no return, Hours became a day, became multiple, became weeks... The men and children were never seen of again. A cloud of sorrow fell upon the town of Viremont. A request was made to the nearby towns and to the Capital for any adventurers or brave folk who might attempt the delve. And so began the town’s newest and to this day boom in business, travel and intrigue, hosting any adventurers who were brave enough to delve, in their taverns.
As adventurers delved deeper and deeper returning with news, the caverns split into tunnels and those tunnels branched deeper into the earth. What gave this place its nickname was the stone “well” that was found. Inside this enormous carved and built stone column that descended infinitely deep into the earth could barely be seen floors, ledges and walkways crossing through and across it. Stairs leading further down.
A torch was dropped from the edge, and disappeared from sight, without a sound of impact at the bottom. None know just how deep this column or well goes. Hence forth the dungeon became known as “The Depths”
Despite it being decades later, the people of Viremont still offer up a reward for bringing the children and men back from The Depths. In the hopes closure may be brought to the town and their families.
Now the town of Viremont stands bustling with tourists and adventurers aiming to conqueror the dungeon, making a name for themselves and raising a fortune in looted goods.
So why are you here? The Depths are a treacherous dungeon and not all who enter may return. But all who do, do so for one reason or another. Be it personal glory, money, or a sense of justice for lost children in the hopes to retrieve them.
This setting primer was something that came to me in a fevered dream in the midst of the work day that I knew I just had to put pen to paper for.
Taking inspiration from Media like Sword Art Online's first arc, Dungeon Meshi, Dan Machi. Flavour sprinklings of Bleak Falls Barrows from Skyrim and Dark Souls 3. As well as the classic old fantasy style dungeon crawlers from AD&D and OSR.
I wanted a Dungeon Crawler setting that still allowed space for some story to be told and Role Playing had, without it being an infinite supply and loot grind.
Systems to play can range from D&D 5e to OSR, Shadowdark, Torch bearer. Heck leaning into a doom and gloom tongue in cheek you could slot this setting over the Mork Borg rules and have some fun with it too.
