THE ZINE OF ZINES is a one-sheet zine companion to The Lost Bay Podcast episodes. Each issue expands on the themes of the corresponding episode, with, texts, thoughts and cool links.
TLB Podcast #5 with guest Anna Blackwell, designer of the solo TTRPG Delve, caver, and more, will be live on Wednesday, June 2.
Until then you can get THE ZINE OF ZINES - ISSUE 1 for free on itchio down here (or consider buying it, to support the podcast). Four A5 pages about caves and night, with a lot of cool links and threads about Malls, and the Hollow Earth, and Dwarf Fortress, and non TTRPG zines + a SECRET FILM + an Anna Blackwell story, adventure sparks, and various TLB info.
And you can also subscribe to the podcast channel and get notified as soon as the episode is live (and listen to the awesome previous episodes) here:
THE STORY OF BURNT RICHES
by Anna Blackwell
(a map, and a chronicle of a Delve game)
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Our goal was simple; find a Void Crystal and give it to the Under-King for untold riches. No easy task but one that would guide our hold as we struck the earth on this new site. The remains of an extinct volcano known as Lava’s Death.
The ground on the surface was fertile and supported a thriving human village near the volcano’s caldera but we were more interested in its roots. We set up the essentials first, a forge for traps, a barracks for our new recruits that hadn’t the discipline to stand guard all day.
At first the hold was forgiving, soft stone gave way to jewels. We built a mushroom farm to better support ourselves as our initial supplies dwindled. We dug deeper and came to a tragic realisation. The volcano wasn’t as extinct as the Geographer’s Guild had claimed. A dozen miners wiped out by a volcanic river and our route blocked. We tried instead to go round and encountered poisonous gas.
With hope wearing thin, we vowed we’d make one more attempt at digging deep and by Oleyrn’s beard did it pay off. A magma shaft led straight into the bowels of the earth, we’d be able to construct an elevator and lower our brave miners down in record time. And the old saying “don’t give up at the first broken pick” proved true again and again as we discovered an underground forest and crystal cavern right atop one another. We would have the wood we needed in a manner of months while the crystals proved to be the incentive needed for clerics, mages, and our greater plans.
While the wood matured and dried, our scouting miners dug into the walls of the shaft, hoping to find more riches but instead we found darkness.
A temple to a crowned spider god, nameless to those who cannot read their web like script. A cleric from the empire was called for in the hopes she would be able to determine if such a blasphemous idol was a threat. Thankfully it seems as if the temple was somewhat benign, merely temporarily infecting our builders with strange ideas. The library constructed so that our newly hired mage could research the temple had spider shaped chairs, the books were kept on a rope web, and we even found Tavia, our architect, trying to make silk wrapped training dummies to hang from the ceiling.
Our other scouting miners seemed to be having more luck on the other side of the shaft as they discovered what could only be described as a wishing well. A deep well surrounded by glittering lights and fairy doors. We can’t blame them for chucking a good few coins in with hopes of love or riches. However, the well was not as it seemed, or it was and someone made a very stupid wish. As the last coin hit the water deep below, it started to overflow like a blocked toilet. Foul swamp water, biting insects, and a great warty toad emerged from the well. The brackish water flowed out and into the depths of the shaft creating a constant foul waterfall upon which the occasional black toad could be seen falling.
We have decided to leave it be for the time being.
Our mage has studied the writings on the statue and translated a spell found etched on one of the pillars so now we have cats. Lots of cats emerging from what they lovingly refer to as a “pawrtal”.
Digging deeper we faced our first fight. A mad dwarf known as Fasi The Hermit, a sculptor who has kept himself alive by replacing his failing form with exquisitely carved marble. His marble skin was tough and while our mage and cleric fought well, holding him long enough for the cats to escape, the hermit made it past. Where his marble flesh was broken, organs made of jewels and stone could be seen underneath. Our soldiers met him in the forge but his skin turned aside every other strike and soon he had made it to the entrance where only our honoured guard remained. They fought to the last till only Raevis the Stout remained.
He has taken Fasi’s face as a trophy, affixing the marble mask to his helmet.
Near defenceless, we retrofitted the mad hermit’s giant statue into a trap for any creature that tries to rise from his lair. We could not have expected what we found.
An ancient rage tahr, a cave goat that the hermit must have been nurturing for centuries. The giant creature was strong enough to break stone apart, it could throw its spikes through iron doors. The giant stone hand of our trap statue was little more than a pat on the head to a creature so powerful.
Raevis alone guarded the entrance as the rest of us fled. The sound of the great beast tearing its way through our hold will forever haunt me. As I chronicle this I remember hearing the rage tahr come to a halt on the other side of the great gates as Tavia instructed us to destroy the keystone and collapse the entryway. It recognised Fasi’s face and for a while Raevis cleverly held the beast at bay.
May all the gods have mercy on us for trapping him inside.
