Snakes Sewers

The Sewers

The city sewers were once a engenering masterpiece with small dedicated chapels to the patron gods of Architecture and Health but with the centuries people forgot the old craft and used a lot of guess work to do repairs and the sewers became more and more baroque and labyrinthine. Things were still working well until rats took over the sewers and nearly caused the evacuation of the city. To handle the rats the city priests summoned snakes into the sewers. The snakes saved the city but now the sewers are infested with holy snakes.

Sewers encounters (2d6)

2. Something from below (something crawled from a dungeon or the underdark) 

3. Ghoul rats carrier (Large ghoul (+1HD) carrying 2d4 giants rats)  

4. Cultists (d8 worshipers of the (d6): 1.Sewers, 2.Rats, 3.Snakes, 4.Disease, 5.Filth, 6.Ancestors)

5. Sewer Scums (2d6 bandits who use the sewers to raid city locations) 

6. Snakes Catchers (roll on the Rat Catcher Guild table)

7. Snakes (d6): 1.Giant Python, 2-4.Pit vipers, 5-6 Sea snakes) 

8. Sewer Urchins (d6 sewer kids using the sewers as a hideout)

9.  Poor and sick people making a pilgrimage to one of the old sewer chapels

10. Morlocks (roll on the Morlocks Clan table)  

11. Old Slither (a giant Python +2HD, old: bad sight -2 to hit)
12. Something from above (nobles, soldiers or crusaders from the city)

The Snakes Catchers Guild
This official guild is in charge of controlling the snakes population of the sewers. Since they have been summoned, the snakes are considered as holy and the guild must follow religious protocols to catch them (or sometimes kill them). The guild have chapters houses built on the streets and sewers levels. Player characters need a hard to obtain guild permit to legally kill snakes if not they will be judged by the city priests. The guild will inform the city guards but don't make arrest themselves.

Snakes catcher are usually level 2 rogues but some of them are fighters or clerics, they wear leather armors, masks filled with herbs to fight off the sewers odors and carry d4 doses of anti venom.

Snakes Catchers Guild encounters (d20)
Snakes Catchers work in pair, roll a profession for each.

1. Snake Handler (trained to wrestle live snakes) 
2. Rat Skinner (craft leather armors) 
3. Flute Maker (craft flutes used to communicate in the sewers) 
4. Tracker (trained to track snakes and other creatures)
5. Snake Cook (snake oil and meat are considered as blessed) 
6. Bones Roller (can cast divination spells using snake and rats bones)
7. Cartographer (map the sewers) 
8. Tatoo Artist (make the guild's tattoo that show rank and affiliation) 
9. Poison Sucker (can neutralize or craft poison, craft healing balms) 
10. Trapper (craft snake traps and other kind of traps ) 
11. Rat Hunter (capture rats to use as bait, food and leather) 
12. Lantern Maker (craft waterproof lanterns) 
13. Old Dog (wardog, resistant to poison)  
14. Snake Priest (can summon snakes, in charge of the religious protocols) 
15. Tunnel Fighter (fighter, specialist in tunnel fighting)
16. Warden (guardian of the local sewer guild house) 
17. Rookie (new recruit in training) 
18. Whistler (use a large pet to hunt (d6): 1.mongoose, 2.badger, 3.hedgehog, 4.bobcat, 5.dog, 6.wolverine ) 
19. Snake Vestal (cleric, immune to snakes poison, can cast charm snakes) 
20. Cursed One (did a unholy snake kill, cursed with rat features) 

The Morlocks Clan
A clan of morlocks connected their tunnels to the sewers. They are descendants of the the ancestors of the original sewer engineers and think that the gods built the sewers. They are matrilineal and are more scavengers than hunters or warriors. They eat the dead as they waste no meat but don't actively hunt humanoids. Captured humanoids are used as slaves but can eventually be adopted by the clan by mariage. The clan  transport and protect a ancient machine made of gears that they keep oiled as a form of religion. City people who venture in the sewers call them ghosts because of their pale skin.

Morlocks encounters consist of a group of d6 morlocks + 1 morlock with a random role.

Morlocks Clan encounters (d20)

1. Trader (know a archaic form of common) 
2. Old One (venerated as a living ancestor) 
3. Meat Gatherer (scavenge meat from beasts and humanoids) 
4. Childlings (playful, like to scream as a game) 
5. Machine Priest (worship machines, know some mechanical rituals) 
6. Stone Carver (carve the history of the clan on stones) 
7. Wild One (act like a wild beast, agressive but also curious) 
8. Matron (+1HD, respected) 
9. Sick One (strong (+1DMG) but dying) 
10. Watcher (sentinel, protect the clan) 
11. Mushroom Farmer (craft poison) 
12. Flesh Eater (can cast divination spells by eating flesh) 
13. White Ape (pet animal) 
14. Digger (use crude tools to dig tunnels, wise) 
15. Healer (use mushrooms to cure disease and treat poison) 
16. Brute (aggressive bully, warlike) 
17. Tunnel Speaker (pathfinder, expert at navigating tunnels) 
18. Stone Breaker (craft stone weapons, have a +1 stone weapon) 
19. Bones Carrier (carry the bones of ancestors or worthy foes, wear body paint) 
20. Howler (howl to intimidate foes or to communicate through tunnel echoes) 

The Snakes
The snakes are not as holy as the priests says but some actually are and killing them can trigger a curse. These holy snakes are blessed with cryptic scales patterns that look like runes. A snake is considered holy when one of their HD roll it maximum hit points value.

Snake curses (d8)

1. Rat head
2. Rat paws and whiskers
3. Rat eyes and whiskers
4. Rat ears and whiskers
5. Rat teeth and whiskers
6. Rat tail  and whiskers 
7. Shed skin once by game session, take d6 turns 
8. Vulnerability to poison (save at -2) 
9. Snake tongue (impede speak) 
10. Scaly skin  
11. Snakes hairs (uncooperative) 
12. Nightmares of strangulation that reduce rest

• Rat features inflict a penalty point to reaction tests with snakes
• Snake features grant a bonus point to reaction tests with snakes and grant a blessing (as per the spell) upon removal of the curse.  
• To remove a curse, someone must visit a sewer chapel and receive a divine quest. 

Snake, Giant Python MV 90’ (30’), AC 6, HD 5, #AT 2 (bite, constrict), DM 1d4/2d8, THAC0: 15, SV F3, ML 8, XP 350
Snake, Pit Viper MV 90’ (30’), AC 6, HD 2, #AT 1 (bite), DM 1d4 + poison, THAC0: 18, SV F1, ML 7, XP 38
Snake, Sea MV 90’ (30’), AC 6, HD 3, #AT 1 (bite), DM 1 + poison, THAC0: 17, SV F2, ML 7, XP 65

Mole folk of the Undersoil

I posted a drawing of a armored mole princess on G+ and I jammed a bit with Arturs Leitans, Benjamin Baugh, Daniel Lofton and Ray Otus on the mole folks.


The Mole Folk live in the Undersoil, the upper level of the underworld, a breathing underground world, communicating with the surface world and teeming with life. In contrast the Underdark is a cold and dead place, mole folks rarely venture there.

Princess Margery Scroffus Whiskerworm, in her royal family armor, ready to hunt tasty giant bugs or to defend the kingdom’s burrows.
"I can smell em!"

Mole folk wizards are star-nosed moles, they smell and feel the aetheric dirtways, the spiritflows, and the timbre and texture of local reality. Starnose wizard have long drooping nose tendrils, almost down to their feet. Apprentice have little nubby ones, as they have just started growing in, as they gain experience, their sense organs get bigger and their eyes, already small, slowly fade back into their fur.

"I am Ergo the Molenificent, short in stature, tall in power, narrow of vision, and wide of purpose."
"Taste of the fermented worm juice, let it open your nose to the dirt around you. There! Feel the tremor and reach toward it. Open your inner eimer."
"Follow your nose, my apprentice. All dirt is one dirt, all tunnels connect, the darkness arrives before the light, the darkness is already there. Light locks us to a place and time, it defines and limits. You will learn to as all deepseekers do never to trust light. Now, spread out your noise and feel for the way home. It is not far, not really. It is a close as the dark all around us."

A Starnose wizard digging out a spell from the aetheric dirtway:

The principal enemies of the mole folk are invasive rather than predatory, they reproduce so fast that they keep expanding into mole territory. And moles, generally pacifists, have to find clever ways to turn them back. Confusion spells, earthworks, traps, etc.

"Listen, young mole warriors, if you happen upon a cicada burrow do not crack the seal. Our shamans track their cycles and prepare for them. While an early awakening of a cicada swarm is not directly harmful to molefolk, being unprepared for their song disrupts our dirt senses. And the swarm, as always, attracts predators."

Invasive factions

The cold worms have taken over the mind of the kobolds’ clans leaders and the kobolds are becoming more and more aggressive and invasive. The kobolds use war insects, the moles consider these insects as a delicacy but now they are often infected with parasite worms. The kobolds also hire hard boiled troglodytes mercenaries and made dark pacts with the voles, ever the cowardly jealous enemy of moles.

The starnosed wizard can use their aetheric senses to detect the presence of the worms, some suspect that the voles started the worm infestation with a corrupted gift, hoping to use the kobolds against the moles.

The blind Molerat tribes also often invade the mole folk’s territory, always mining and digging new tunnels. Each tribe is protected from the worms by a creepy hive mind totem spirit. They speak with one voice, the same, monotone.

Neutral factions

Tarantulan merchants, carrying their wares on their backs, famous for their bolts of silk cloth dyed by the roots, berries, and insect organs they chew and mix when pulling silk before putting it on their looms. The tarantulans remain neutral, seeking to sell their wares rather than engage in conflicts. They are a gregarious folk though, and always happy to sit and sip anise tea and gossip about what they've learned in their wanderings.

Shovel nose wyrms, thes giant sentient snakes are like dragons. This is always bad news when a female lay her eggs nearby.

The hagmoles... fear their ways. There are voices, wispers from the deeps, the cold dead realm of silence and stone. They promise power, they promise knowledge, secret and forgotten and forbidden. Some moles stray, abandoning the warmth of the homesoil, root and grub, and the company of their fellows. They delve deeply. They grow thin, for little lives in the deep dark that is fit to eat. They grow cold. They hunger. These hagmoles can nor endure the warmth of the high deeps, but creep about below, whispering promises, offering power, favors, secrets.

"Your mole-crew erupts into a huge tunnel that continues into the lower underground, out of the range of your tremorsense. What monstrosity could have made this?"

Guillaume Jentey drew a cute jeweler who carved a gem for Princess Margery Scroffus Whiskerworm.

Giant snake stealing some bits of cookies

I finished one of the left over illustrations I did for Pack World. The snake was too small to be a mount but I guess its just a baby giant snake. 

Snake Priestess of the Slough Skin Cult.

Snake Cultist

Magical instructions