Landfall delves · Magehold Fairwinds Wiki

Landfall#

A party of up to four goes down on foot into a dungeon, a ruin, a wreck, a trial or a town. Rooms come in many shapes: a cell holds only two of the party (the rest wait next door), a tunnel is single file, and caverns and great halls have a gallery above the floor reached by ladders.

Line of sight: a caster aims only into a room someone can see: one a living member of the party stands in, the tunnel right beside them while the lantern burns (or in daylight), the rooms next to a Chiropteran who stands still and listens, or a room a scouting device shows. Lupines smell what sleeps in a room, which is not the same as seeing it. Enemies follow the same rule: their casters strike only where one of their own can see you. Strike a guardian from outside its hall and it comes out to find you.

Rooms may hold something to deal with, put to you as a choice once the room is quiet: a trapped passage, a prisoner who talks, a wall of names, something asleep, a strange machine, someone lost, a delver's chart. Some ways on are shut by a sealed door, a water door, a vault, a broken bridge or a flood: select one crewmate beside it to see what they can do.

Zoom and look around as in battle: the mouse wheel (or a pinch) zooms toward the pointer, and zoomed in you drag the bare rock (or hold the middle button) to pan; a drag that starts in a room draws a selection box to choose a group of the party, even while others are chosen. While aiming, a drag from anywhere pans and only a click casts. + − zoom and 0 (or Fit, above the bottom bar) goes back to the whole of what the party knows. Fitted, the view follows the party as the map grows; zoomed in, it stays where you put it.

Line of sight

Down here a caster can only aim a spell into a room somebody can see: one where a living member of the party stands, the tunnel right beside them while the lantern burns, or the rooms next to a Chiropteran who stands still and listens. While you aim, the rooms you can see are outlined and the rest are veiled. Enemies follow the same rule. A scouting device (periscope, clockwork beetle, far-sight lens) shows you a room without walking in.

Scouting devices

Someone in the party carries a scouting device: select them and use it on a room. The periscope looks into the next room along, the clockwork beetle walks to a room and shows it and its neighbors, the far-sight lens holds one room in sight until you leave. A room in sight wears an open eye; your casters can aim into it, and you see what waits there before anyone walks in.

Scouting devices#

Gnomish kit for seeing what you should not: the Folding Periscope (cheap, no cost to use), the Clockwork Beetle (two trips a delve or a battle) and the Far-sight Lens (holds one room for as long as you like). Tinkers and ports sell them, a Tinker's Bench builds them, and delvers find them below.

On a landfall they let your casters aim into rooms nobody stands in, and show what waits there. In battle, aimed at an enemy room, they show who is in it without the Lookout; the beetle and the lens show their mages' mana and spell charge too, and the lens shows where those spells are aimed. The Lookout's Look inside shows the whole ship at once, but only for a while (always at level 3); a device keeps its room whatever the Lookout does. Worn aboard, a far-sight lens lets the Lookout see one waypoint further on the chart.

Kinds of delve#

Dungeon

The Postern Stair, The Guard Hall, The Long Gallery, The Armory, The Crypt Walk, The Pillared Hall, The Well Room, The Old Kitchens, The Broken Floor, The Floodgate Stair, The Lamp Passage, The Quiet Room, The Watching Hall, The Lord's Cellar, The Vault, The Reliquary, The Plate Room, The Cells, The Oubliette, A Dry Alcove, The Old Chapel, The Binding Chamber

Ruin

The Porter's Lodge, The Lecture Hall, The Model Room, The Proving Ground, The Cloister, The Orrery Floor, The Refectory, The Scriptorium, The Dean's Stair, The Drowned Lab, The Still Room, The Hall of Founders, The Archive, The Master's Study, The Instrument Store, The Map Room, The Porter's Cell, A Reading Nook, The Boathouse, The Keeper's Hall

Wreck

The Top Deck, The Gun Deck, The Mess, The Orlop, The Forward Hold, The Cable Tier, The Broken Deck, The Lamp Store, The Bilge, The Figurehead, The Crystal Store, The Captain's Cabin, The After Hold, The Paymaster's Room, The Brig, The Sick Bay, The Chart Room, The Vault

Cistern

Into the Quiet, The Roots, The Pipe Hall, The Tenders' Walk, The Drowned Gallery, The Last Valve, The Surveyor's Mark, The Dry Landing, The Heart

Aerie

The Landing Ledge, The Wind Ledge, The Feather Hall, The Drum Floor, The Shelter Stone, The Elders' Height

Town

The Dock Steps, The Fish Market, Tanner's Row, The Bell and Anchor, The Rope Walk, The Thugs' Den, The Counting Yard

Chamber encounters#

A trapped passage

The floor of this passage is laid in loose slabs, and one of them has a brass lip. The lord's people did not want visitors.

Disarm it: Safe, and quick in the right hands.
Pick your way through, one at a time: Even odds it goes off anyway.
Run past it: It will go off, but late: each of you in here has an even chance of being caught.

A prisoner who talks

A man in a hanging cage, thin as a rail, who has clearly been waiting for someone to talk to. "Get me down," he says, "and I will tell you where the lord keeps his plate. And what guards it."

Free them, for what they know: Every room of the place, what sleeps in it and where the traps are. They may not go quietly.
Free them, for their stash: They buy their way out with what they hid.
Leave them where they are: Nothing lost, nothing gained.

A wall of names

A wall of the lord's servants' names, cut one under another by different hands over a long time. The last is only half cut.

Read the names aloud: Everyone steadies: +10% health and +10 mana.
Cut your ship's name under theirs: Pacifies wild creatures and stops dark ambushes for the rest of the delve (bandits, guards, and the boss will still fight).
Take the oil from the lamp: +2 rooms of lantern light.

Something asleep

A bound guardian hangs in the middle of the hall, turning slowly, asleep in whatever way such things sleep. It is lying over the lord's old tithe chests.

Creep past, and perhaps lift what it is lying on: Every moment someone is in here it stirs; fighting next door or a heavy tread stirs it faster. Light feet (Vulpines, Avians, Lupines, Chiropterans) help.
Strike while it sleeps: Everyone in here gets a free blow before it knows what is happening, and it is slow to its feet.
Back out quietly: Leave it for now (you can return later).

A strange machine

A gnomish lift-engine, long idle, bolted into the rock beside a shaft that goes up into the dark. One gauge is still twitching.

Tune the mechanism: Someone who knows gears opens it up properly.
Pull the lever: Something will happen.
Leave it ticking: Nothing lost, nothing gained.

Someone lost

A small boy is hiding behind the barrels, and he will not come out for anyone who looks like a tough.

Bring them out with you: Somebody will be glad of it, if the party gets out.
Point them toward daylight: They go on their own. You hope they make it.

A delver's chart

A dead lantern, and pinned under it a delver's chart of these halls: torn, penciled over, and very much used.

Study it here: Every room of the place, and where the traps are.
Keep it to sell: Collectors pay for these.

Obstacles#

A sealed door. A Stonefist, a stone mage or a Shaper can open it; anyone can force it, loudly.
A water door. A water or ice mage can open it; anyone can push through, at a cost.
Rubble. A Stonefist, a stone mage or a Shaper can clear it; anyone can dig.
A broken bridge. Anyone can lay planks across (slow); an Avian flies a line over, an air mage throws a Sky Disk, or someone jumps it and risks the fall.
A flooded passage. A Lutrine swims it, a water or ice mage opens a way, anyone can find the floodgate and drain it (slow), or hold their breath.
A vault door. A gnome or a Clockwork Hand cracks the dials; a Stonefist, a stone mage or a Shaper breaks it; anyone can force it, loudly.