Oubliettes

One of the most mysterious ramifications from the Ruination of Darkon were the appearance of strange, liminal “tears” in reality spawned forth by the Mists of Death at random and containing no human whimsy. These tears, otherwise called sinkholes of evil or oubliettes, tempt countless adventurers to go aplomb in their depths where the barrier between the Dread Material and the greater Misty Plane is thinnest, whether for pursuit of bravery, secrets or simple, foolish prize.

Few survive intact.

Oubliettes in The Domains of Dread

Oubliettes are The Domains of Dread’s primary source for challenge in terms of handmade environments crafted to be mini-modules in their own right, likened to “dungeons” in vanilla Third Edition though taking design cues from more randomized genres such as roguelikes.

Every oubliette may spawn at a predetermined but random location somewhere in the overland environment. In certain cases a spawn location may go days IRT without having an oubliette spawn there as the system tries to cycle through different locations when deciding to spawn a new oubliette, rather than spawning the same oubliette at the same location on an easy to predict timer. Exploration of the overland environment is encouraged as guided by more predictable encounters, such as bounties.

Entering an oubliette transitions the character into its first interior which will have no hostile AI-controlled entities, serving as a “lobby” of sorts. In the center of this interior is a plinth snaked with blood briars. Flavor text unique to the contained oubliette serves to indicate what oubliette is engaged.

Interacting with the plinth while other characters surround its immediate vicinity indicates to the system that the interacting character intends to explore the oubliette with those in their party—some oubliettes will not activate unless a minimum number of characters are met, particularly those meant for higher level characters and bigger party sizes. Activating the oubliette creates a separate instance unique to that party, then transitions those characters inside.

Should a character be maimed and their body left inside the instance, they may be recovered in the “lobby” by interacting with a named tear in the Mists once all other members of their party have either completed the oubliette or been maimed themselves. In the case of total party wipes, their bodies will be left by the Mists outside the oubliette’s entrance.