A Short Little Dungeon Crawl
Mork Borg, Solitary Defilement and ShadowClink
Wemut woke, chained to a pillar in a hall filled with pillars and other vagrants chained, such as he.
“Fuck,” he said.
Name: Wemut
Things he had before: Backpack for 7 normal sized items, 4 torches, Lard, 70s, Waterskin, 3 days worth of food, Sword d6, Heavy armor (plate) -d6 dmg. Tier 3, DR+4 Agility tests, defence is DR+2
+0 Agility, +2 Strength, +0 Toughness, +0 Presence
2HP
2 Omens
He is wasteful and nihilistic, with a staring manic gaze, who likes to make jewelry from the teeth of the dead, and cursed to share the nightmares of others.
Days passed with little change. Sometimes a torturer would come in and whip one of those chained up. Wemut felt himself grow weaker, until finally his bonds slipped loose off his thin wrists.
-1 HP. -1 to all Stats until a Long Rest.
Current: 1 HP. -1 Agility, +1 Strength, -1 Toughness, -1 Presence
Rubbing his wrists, he notes two entrances to the hall, one to the east and one to the west. He took the western exit.
He came to a dark entry way, bumping into a bumbling man with glasses and a white coat, indicating a doctor of some kind. “Oh my, are you alright young man?” he asked, looking Wemut up and down.
“Help me,” Wemut gasped.
The doctor looked back the way he’d come. “Turn back. Don’t go that way, there are…others performing some ritual. Try the other way!”
Wemut listened, returning to the hall of pillars and heading east.
A man wielding a whip emerged, gave Wemut a look, before moving on.
Wemut thanked his luck and kept moving, entering a Deep Cavern. He noted the remains of some beast or man, finding a big enough bone he could use as an improvised weapon, should he need to. There were two exits from here. He took a moment to rest, (+1 HP, back to 2) before moving on.
He came to the Lockup.
A guard slumbered by a fireplace, and Wemut’s equipment locked in a cage, the keys dangling from the guards belt, enticingly. Instead of trying to sneak the keys and unlock it without the guard noticing, Wemut decided to steal the guard’s sword instead.
1d20 - 1 vs DC 12 = 17 → Success!
Wemut hacked at the guard with the sword.
The guard awoke in pain, trying to grab and bash Wemut with his hands.
Wemut stepped back out of range, before thrusting the blade forward, but missed.
The guard clocked Wemut in the head with a fist.
Wemut looked stunned for a moment, before swinging his sword and splitting the guard’s stomach open.
The guard collapsed and died.
Wemut took a moment, hands on knees, gasping for breath. “That was close,” he said.
Wemut did 3 dmg on his initial attack, minus 1 for the guard’s armor. The guard now has 2 HP.
Guard wakes up and wins initiative. Swings at Wemut. Misses.
Wemut swings with his sword. Misses.
The Guard hits with his next attack, dealing d2 (2) damage, which would have taken Wemut to 0. Wemut spends an Omen to reduce the damage by 1d6. Unfortunately rolls a 1, so still takes 1 dmg, down to 1 HP.
Wemut swings again, spending another Omen to reduce the DR by 4, down to 8. Hits. Deals 5 dmg and kills the guard.
Wemut grabbed the keys and unlocked the cage, retrieving his items. He put on the armor and ate some of his food, feeling much better.
With no exits from the lock up, he returned to the Deep Cavern and headed for the other exit, finding the Torture Chamber.
A man wearing a human-leather coat turned and looked at Wemut, as a tortured figure hung on a rack behind him. The man wielded a branding rod, gave Wemut a smile, and turned back to the figure, pressing the branding iron against the figure’s flesh. The figure cried out.
Wemut noted two exits and hurriedly took one, coming to a large chamber surrounding an Acrid Pit. A path clung to the wall and led around the pit to two other exits. Within the pit, Wemut noticed an Unclean Scroll, guarded by a Wraith angrily flitting from side to side within the pit.
Wemut ran to one of the exits, not wanting to face such a creature. The stench from the next room forced him to cover his nose as he entered, coming from corpses piled high. A giant fleshrat followed by a smaller one emerged from the corpse pile, flashing their teeth. Luckily, they turned back and continued gorging on human flesh, ignoring Wemut’s presence.
He shivered and made for one of the two exits.
He came into an Excavated Zoo, with a series of cages holding animals and monsters, braying and snarling. Many of the cages were open and the creatures were attacking each other.
Wemut retreated back to the flesh pit and took the other exit.
Within was a Ruined Crypt. A large chamber with multiple opened tombs, mostly destroyed and turned to rubble. A strange creature stood in the center. It was humanoid, with ash-gray skin and a scorpion tail. It seemed interested in Wemut, moving close but not angry or hostile.
Wemut’s sword suddenly swung at his throat, but he managed to hold it at bay. With a roar, he swung it at the creature, who seemed surprised. He cut into it and it collapsed, dead. There was no exit from here, so Wemut retreated, back through the flesh pile, and then to the Acrid Pit, taking the other exit.
He heard rushing water beneath him and saw a small chamber with a manhole cover, likely leading to sewers and a way out of this hell hole.
Unfortunately, someone was waiting. The Lord High Executioner hefted his great axe and stared through the eye holes of his black, silken hood. He looked angry. He came at Wemut, swinging.
Wemut ducked the axe and swung his sword.
The Executioner spun out of the way, before returning with another swing of his axe. The axe slammed into Wemut’s chest, knocking him to the ground.
Wemut lay in a pool of his own blood, gasping, choking, hands grasping for the hilt of his sword.
The Executioner raised his axe once more…
Thus, we come to the end of Wemut’s story, my first foray into Mork Borg. I used Mork Bork (barebones edition), Solitary Defilement and the solo mini-dungeon “ShadowClink” that comes with Solitary Defilement.
It was fun! It is rare for me to play a d20 game, so that was different. I enjoy the ultra-grim-dark setting so that was great. Solitary Defilement provides a framework similar to Ironsworn, with rolling 2d20’s, leading to Strong/Weak hits or Misses, and Moves for Undertaking a Journey or Exploring a Dungeon. It references Feretory quite a bit, which I did not use, but also shares some other free resources that can be used instead.
Solitary Defilement did have an interesting dungeon-creation system. You roll as you explore the dungeon, with lower rolls resulting in generic rooms that you determine the details of randomly, while high rolls get you to ‘special rooms’ with treasures, bosses and the like. I like this for pre-made dungeons the solo-player can go through, as you can discover the special rooms as you go, but for creating your own dungeon, this still leaves you with figuring out what those special rooms would be, which then leaves you with knowing what’s coming up in the dungeon before you explore it...
While I had fun, I don’t see myself continuing with Mork Borg solo. As awesome as the setting is, I find it difficult to grasp. It’s incredibly vague, which I could see as a bonus but for me, I just don’t have enough to go off of, if that makes sense. It’s interesting because one could also describe Kal Arath as very vague, but I have no issue with solo-ing that. I guess to me, Kal Arath feels like more of a blank slate for me to explore/create as I go, where as Mork Borg feels more like its own specific setting that just doesn’t provide me with enough details to get a hold of. After looking online, it seems more of a me problem. I probably just need to shift my mindset and approach the Mork Borg setting as more of a blank slate and I could likely get into it more.
For those who enjoy solo-ing Mork Borg, I’m curious of your thoughts. Tell me a tale of your character, your setting. What resources do you use? How do you determine what your character does, where they go?
As for Niv Lova, work continues on the playtest document. I’m up to version 5.1 with updates/changes/edits. I’ve added a bunch of tables, adjusted some things, added optional rules, etc. I appreciate any and all who’ve taken a look.
Thanks to Andrew Wylde, BuddhaRandom, and Eric, for being paid subscribers. A reminder paid subscribers will receive the final pdf version of Niv Lova, free of charge, when it’s available.
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Hopefully your post will inspire others to begin their own creative project, whatever form it takes!
I am in the process of putting the finishing touches on supplement to Kal-Arath. It is a setting with an Arabian Nights vibe called Al-Rathak. It is a 3rd Party independent creation, and Silver Nightingale is making the art (which I think you will enjoy). Take a look at it my play-through on my Substack at https://bookwizard999.substack.com/p/al-rathak-tales-of-the-crescent-kingdom
Great write up! I also find Mork Borg to be a strange one. I have Solo-played twice, more recently running 2 characters through a pamphlet dungeon called Holy Femurs. They started with decent HP and I had them level up near the halfway point and they managed to make it through. I don't see myself revisiting those characters. I have definitely spent more time playing Death in Space and Cy-Borg.