HESTIAN DELVING inspired by the solo ttrpg Delve by Blackwellwriter
To start: create and describe the entrance or another room you're starting from. Pick a direction to head in.
♥ = health and stamina, deduct one when either a dangerous event occurs or strenuous effort is required. These refresh by the next day.
1 ♥ for civs and stage 1 powered guests 2 ♥ for Hestia and stage 2 powered guests 3 ♥ for Super Hestia and stage 3 powered guests 4 ♥ for Eternal Hestia, stage 4 powered guests, and Mauvians
Add an extra ♥ to Hestia if she transcends
Roll 2d10. Rolling double causes a related flashback (current limit: once every other day).
You roll a 2
You find a natural barrier, but something tells you there might be something not far behind it if you forced a way through. Choose to either ignore this area and go back or break through the barrier. Roll 1d4 to see the results
1: a natural element of the world shows you its dangerous side by bursting through the hole you've made! While you manage to survive, nearby chambers may be damaged or rendered inaccessible as a result. (-1♥)
2: you enter a tomb or some other chamber used to house/honor the dead. (-1♥)
3: you find treasure! Kinda! The chamber is either full of impressive valuables that crumble at your touch, or contains one damaged but salvageable piece of treasure to take back and potentially have restored. (-1♥)
4: you find the den of some kind of creature, long gone, but its traces still remain. (-1♥)
You roll a 3
Roll 1d4 to determine the size of the chamber (1-4 units). Then choose which venue of the Arts you find there.
You find a gallery of art. You walk into a library. You discover on what seems to be a theatre of sorts. You uncover a large amount of, upon inspection, appears to be musical instruments.
You roll a 4
The path continues. Nothing happens.
You roll a 5
Choose which type of area you find here.
You almost miss a hidden marketplace entrance. You come across a street of store fronts. You find what might've been a small sort of pharmacy or apothecary's hut. You enter a place where wealth was kept.
You roll a 6
Choose which type of area you find here.
You find what looks like a set of personal chambers. But the contents look a little different. Possibly someone from another world? You enter a large, impressive looking area. It has an official look to it. Further inspection makes it seem like a possible embassy. You find a large market area. Here and there you notice things that don't quite match with what you've seen from the rest of this world. You look around and find indications that some sort of violent conflict had occurred.
You roll a 7
Choose which type of area you find here.
The furniture of this chamber looks a lot smaller than what you've seen so far. Are those toys? There's a series of rooms with indications that it may have been a school of some kind. This chamber opens up into a large place that looks made for fun or leisure. Possibly a park.
You roll an 8
The path continues. Nothing happens.
You roll a 9
Choose which type of area you find here.
There's a nearly complete set of something on a table. It looks a little like a game. A huge space that contains a large, open area and rows of stands. A sports arena? The chamber holds a lot of items that remind you of high school gym class. A fairly dangerous looking area stretched before you, but you notice a few signs that people might have challenged this area for fun.
You roll a 10
The path continues. Nothing happens.
You roll an 11
The floor gives way and... Roll 1d4 to see the results
1: ...you plunge into some sort of substance. (-1♥ depending on substance)
2: ...you're trapped inside what looks like some kind of jail cell. (-1♥)
3: ...you hit the floor below and that one gives way too. (-1♥)
4: ...you fall into some kind of trap, over a thousand years old, but apparently it still works just fine. (-2♥)
You roll a 12
You enter a massive area. Choose what awaits.
A gigantic statue of someone. A huge plaque. A towering monument. A skeleton that more than rivals that of Earth's dinosaurs.
You roll a 13
Choose which type of area you find here.
A broken wall reveals an area that looks like it belonged to a much more primitive time. The items in this area don't look quite as advanced as the rest of the world, perhaps an age before the last one? The entrance to this chamber is difficult to get through to and it definitely costs you to get inside, but within you find what might've been the pinnacle of technology for this civilization. (-2♥)
You roll a 14
The path continues. Nothing happens.
You roll a 15
Choose which type of area you find here.
You stumble upon an ancient crime scene. A series of environmental puzzles await you. Roll 1d4.
[1] Great success! You gain a small treasure with ease. [2] Moderate success! You gain a small treasure after some struggle. (-1♥) [3] Moderate failure. You don't get anything even after all that. (-1♥) [4] Great failure! You struggled to even survive and didn't even get a t-shirt for it. (-2♥)
Did this very ominous, very hidden chamber belong did a cult? What stands before you is one of the world's great secrets. Not that you know that fact. Or even understand what you're seeing. (-1♥ depending on how this secret was protected)
You roll a 16
The path continues. Nothing happens.
You roll a 17
Choose which type of area you find here.
You find a pair tokens, separate but matching. You find a photo, painting, or sculpture of someone who was ridiculously good looking. In fact, you find them all over the place. (This person's visage will now show up in every room roll divisible by 5.) Are these the remains of a wedding ceremony? Scrawled or carved on a wall, you notice some kind of graffiti. Somethings really are just universal.
You roll a 18
Choose which type of area you find here.
You notice several small sets of bones that must have belonged to an animal. You see a structure that might have been some sort of insect colony or hive. You find some sort of new plant life you hadn't seen here before, struggling and barely there. Maybe you came just in time. You reach out to inspect something that looks organic and find yourself mildly poisoned. (-1♥)
You roll a 19
The path continues. Nothing happens.
You roll a 20
Choose which type of area you find here.
You step into a large area and see signs of some sort of festival or celebration. You start to see signs of what might've been a holiday. (These signs will now show up in every room roll divisible by 6.) You find what might be a church or temple. You stumble upon an area dedicated to warning/reminding the populace of their Great Enemy.
It’d been seven months since Hestia had been able to return to her world. The constant itchy feeling of having something important to do and not being able to even touch it had haunted her through the fall and winter. It left her restless and prone to the odd daze, especially in school. She was getting behind now, just as Miss Mindy was sprinting ahead, and the new semester had come with some reshuffling. Classrooms that had gotten used to the two of them together as a weird little couple now had to adjust to only dealing with one, who was definitely grumpy about it.
Everything built up to feeling bad enough that Emily did the previously unthinkable: she asked for a vacation. Alone.
Immediately upon arriving at the DC airport, she called Miss Mindy, insisted that everything was fine and helped the other girl navigate her way to the supplies closet that held the extra toothbrushes. She told herself that the uncertain pause on the other end was actually just Miss Mindy solving some homework problems as they said farewell.
What followed was another big round of supplies shopping, enough to last a week and then even more to stockpile for later. Finally, it was time to go back, to clean and fix and to tend.
It wasn’t until hours into the first day, calm and satisfied enough to really focus on something, that she noticed a door with stairs that went down. And down.
lizbot
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lizbot rolled 1 4-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-4)
lizbot
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2023 8:56 pm
The stone stairs eventually lead to a large, fairly intact hallway. There were several standing torches, and with a now practiced snap of her fingers, she reached up and lit one and then the other. The hall on the right looked fairly clear, and the one on the left was...well it was a stone wall. INot even a building wall, it was just plain stone. like a cave. In fact, there probably wasn't an actual left hallway. Unless...
It may have taken the rest of the night and most of Hestia's energy but eventually she did manage to open up the way, energized by an increased sense that there was something beyond the wall.
And there was!
The first thing noticed was the smell. And then the tiny delicate bones that were scattered along the floor full of...stalagmites? Noticing the bones that were clearly part of a wing structure she told herself those were definitely stalagmites.
Quote:
"I can hear them pooping," the girl whispered to another temple initiate as they walked past a stone wall.
"That's just their screeching," he reassured her even as he shuddered and wrinkled his nose right along with her. Their shaved heads made the exaggerated expressions extra hideous in the torchlight.
"They screech when they poop."
Slowly backing up, Hestia spend the rest of the night rearranging rubble to fill in the "entrance" she'd just made.
Another day, another chance to tend. Hestia felt her heart settling as her body once again adjusted into the graceful, steady motion of wiping and sweeping. Normally she would avoid thinking about how leaving these flames unattended here made it more difficult to stay focused on tending Mindy there, but as she worked, her mind naturally flowed with that worry, washing past the jagged emotional edges of it.
The problem wasn't with here or there. The problem was in the sudden uncertainty and how she dealt with it.
By the time she had finished, Hestia hadn't found a solution but she knew there had to be one. She felt calm in the idea that she'd get there, to right where she needed to be once the path was clear enough.
And on the topic of paths...
lizbot
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lizbot
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2023 9:33 pm
Descending down to that hallway once again, Hestia did herself a favor and took the actual way on the right. Not far from the entrance there was a tidy marble doorway that opened into a surprisingly well-intact room. Lighting the torches, she was greeted by the sight of hundred and hundreds of little drawers, built into the wall. Each was neatly labeled in a script she couldn't read.
Sliding the nearest drawer open, she leaned in close to see some kind of dried herb that still held enough potency to emit a soft fragrance, though not enough sturdiness to withstand her barest touch. Looking down into the dust that now filled the box, Hestia sighed and carefully slid it back into place.
Gently peeking into several more, she managed to not disturb the other herbs and was that an insect? Was that something's tiny entrails preserved in oil? With a pained look, she soon decided that this room was probably an important place for science or, less cool, medicine.
Moving on, Hestia wondered if everything down here involved...parts. Thankfully, the next room was just that, a room. It looked a little like a dorm bedroom, but the colors and decorations here didn't match anything else she'd seen here so far, and weren't part of the scattered impressions and glimpses into the past she'd received.
It was more colorful for one thing, and full of soft forms and drapey fabrics. It smelled a bit different too. The room had a second door that, with some effort, opened to the previous one.
Exiting, she moved on to the next chamber only to find a set of stairs that once again went down and down and down. Lighting several sconces along the way, she was eventually met with both the next floor down and an abrupt vastness of dark. It took a lot longer than she would have thought to finally find what the area held, not because it was small, but because there wasn't nearly enough light to illuminate the towering statue.
After considering it for a moment, Hestia decided to seek out and light any torches still standing in the massive chamber. It took awhile, but eventually she managed to gain enough light to get a neck aching view of the whole statue.
It was surprisingly...soft, in its draping robes, and open gesture, the long veil sweeping down its back. The face, sadly, was mostly destroyed. Here and there she noticed stones pieces on the floor. A broken nose. An open eye, staring silently up at her.
Something about the broken and vaguely implied facial features felt a little familiar, but she shrugged it off. Almost everything on her homeworld felt a little familiar.
She gazed up at the statue's missing face and wondered if it could be repaired.
Returning to the foot of the stairs, Hestia gave the statue one last look over her shoulder before taking a nearby exit. The corridor was pretty plain, with broken stone here and there. Overall, this undercity was turning out to be a lot more intact than the topside.
Whatever had led to the destruction of Hestia was likely a surface level event.
Eventually the corridor led to even more corridor. Lighting sconces along the way, Hestia thought they may have designed this as sort of a grand procession toward the massive statue. A way to force people to anticipate what was waiting for them.
A little distracted as she ventured further, Hestia nearly lost her footing as the floor gave way to a cliff. Or at least, a fairly deep pit. Lighting up the area along the edge, she saw pillars here and there, enough to create several jumping paths across the room. on each one, there was the familiar shape of a shallow basin.
"Huh," she hummed to herself, pleased. This was some kind of obstacle course or test, wasn't it? To get to the statue. She'd reached it the easy way the first time, maybe for those who couldn't cross here.
Lightly jumping to the nearest pillar, she lit the basin with a smug little smile.
Arriving on the other end, she saw a set of stairs, partially collapsed but still usable. Peering into the new hall, Hestia noticed that what was left of the furniture was rather small. Rows of short simple beds, cracked cubbies, and tattered blankets made her assume it was some kind of dorm.
About to move on, her foot hit something that, for once, wasn't a chunk of marble. Lifting it up to the torchlight, the girl inspected what looked like a particularly weird and kind of ugly cow plush. After a quiet moment, her gaze softened imperceptibly. Tucking it into her apron, Hestia began to pick up the room.
It'd been a long day, and this was a decent enough place to take a rest before moving on. Better than the previous few chambers at least.
There were two exits from the dormitory, one going up and one going left. Feeling the urge to get back to the topside and tend to her fires, Hestia decided to climb up.
lizbot
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lizbot rolled 1 4-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-4)
lizbot
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Posted: Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:10 pm
3-11-12
Up was not the right way. Up was the bad way.
When Hestia woke up the next day, a little less bruised and battered than when she'd passed out, the first thing that greeted her was the giant marble boulder that had crashed into the wall next to her.
Well. maybe not crashed so much as settled into the groove specifically made for it. This was clearly not a one and done trap. It was meant for repeated use. The spears had also retracted into the walls, but the flame spouts were still going. They were the first flames she's seen here that weren't lit by her own hand (beside that one, which she didn't want to think about).
Despite dangers and damage cause to her, Hestia had the odd feeling that this room was...cheerful. Not to her, of course. but someone had laughed a lot here.
The prior day was a near waste of trudging back to the surface and recovering, though tending to the flames had gone a long way toward soothing any ruffled feathers. The next time Hestia stepped down into the undercity, she did so with sharp eyes and ready feet, not wanting to be caught unprepared by some ancient's fun idea of hostile design.
Her attempt to be extra observant quickly paid off in revealing trap door she'd missed before. Lifting it up, Hestia inspected the ladder leading downward and decided it was both sturdy enough and unlikely to try to kill her by some other means.
It was hard to tell at first glance what the huge chamber was for, orderly slabs of rock provided...beds? For some kind of patchy moss. Plucking it a bit of dried brown fluff, Hestia noted a layer of vibrant red fuzz underneath. Moving to the next marble bed, she noted more of the same. In the corner, several crates were full of the dry brown stuff.
Pocketing some of both the red and the brown, she then took a lot of pictures of the room with her phone. Maybe Algol would be able to help her figure out what the stuff was for, and if the room was made for growing it or if it had taken over the room after the world's destruction.
At the end of the chamber she noticed another door that opened to a narrower, but extremely tall area. It took awhile to light up, but it was well worth the effort. Sculptures and benches lined the walls, along with more of the previous mosses. The plants had clearly gone wild and was mostly dead, but underneath there was a sense of design to them, along with slight variations in hue that hinted at a once more colorful existence.
Thin sets of stairs and ladders climbed the walls, and it was while climbing up on such set, that Hestia heard the faint but unmistakable sound of water. Just a tiny trickle, but the senshi felt a thrill run through her at the confirmation that this world still held water.
