Oubliettes

From The Domains of Dread

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. These tears, otherwise called 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 interior environments, likened to “dungeons” in vanilla Third Edition while 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 spawning new oubliettes, 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 predictable encounters, such as bounties.

The presence of an oubliette entrance may cause hostile AI-controlled entities to spawn in its immediate vicinity in the overland environment, reflecting its corruptive nature on the landscape. Likewise their presence increases the DC for any Fear, Horror and Delirium saves made inside them or in their midst.

Entering an oubliette transitions the character into its first interior which has 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 note which 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 plinths will not activate unless a minimum number of characters are met, particularly those meant for higher level characters and bigger party sizes. Activating the plinth creates a separate instance unique to that party, then transitions those characters inside.

Instances spawned sample the level range across the chosen party and averages it, scaling encounter difficulty roughly along these difficulty tiers:

  • T4: 3rd level to 6th level
  • T3: 6th level to 9th level
  • T2: 9th level to 11th level
  • T1: 11th level to 14th level
  • T0: 14th level

If the average falls out of the range assigned to that oubliette, the plinth fails to activate and no instance generates.

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 outside by the oubliette’s entrance.

Oubliettes are quasi-random, selecting from a number of layouts unique to that oubliette, per instance. Layout alterations may change the location or availability of certain puzzles, traps, containers and/or encounters. Generally, rooms and sets will be identical across the layouts where they appear, but their placement varies.

Resting is limited once inside an instance. This manifests as a rest quality penalty scaling with difficulty tier until imposing a -100% penalty, making successfully resting inside an instance difficult to impossible depending on the character and their rest equipment. T0 oubliettes do not allow for resting of any kind.

Game Masters may “possess” oubliettes at their leisure, assuming control of its inhabitants and the story presented to player characters. T0 oubliettes are exceptional in that a Game Master must always be present in order to activate the plinth. They are commonly reserved for dedicated events as such.

After an indeterminate amount of runs, the oubliette loses stability and fades away back into the Mists. The same oubliette may reject repeat entrances from characters subject to an internal cooldown, anywhere from 6 to 24 hours IRT depending on character level and oubliette difficulty tier.

Mist Effects

Mist Effects may take hold over the oubliette when an instance is created, indicated by a visual flair and flavor text upon entry. These effects are varied and consistent in their impact across oubliettes, for example imposing an elemental vulnerability to all entities or enforcing the vorpal weapon modifier against all living entities. These are likewise random and not guaranteed. More severe Mist Effects may occur in oubliettes of higher difficulty tiers. They affect all entities of whom fulfill their requirements, be they human- or AI-controlled, and last for the duration of the instance.

Rewards

Oubliettes are the primary source of lootable equipment which have Influenced modifiers and the reagents necessary to craft them. Every oubliette has a bespoke loot distribution table revolving around its fictional theme and any items specific to that oubliette. Items awarded in this fashion may be assumed to be duplicates spawned by the Mists rather than any genuine, historical article.

Characters receive storyline experience for completing an oubliette for the first time, and hostile experience for any completion after the first. There are also opportunities for further storyline experience if the oubliette was possessed by a Game Master at time of completion, as well as unique rewards.