(Shadowdark solo/GM-less) The Breath of Blight

Deep within the mist-choked valley, the earth prepares for its sacred, once-in-five-years exhalation, a great gust of subterranean breath that the mountain villages revere as an omen of feast or famine. But this year, the stars wept poison. A crystalline prison vessel has torn through the night sky and shattered across the ancient pilgrimage stones, disgorging a cosmic parasite. A sprawling, sentient mycelium now infest the chasm, grafting muscle to bone and turning beast and devout pilgrim alike into fused, chittering abominations. Ancient relics and gold lie scattered in the dark, but every glittering coin is ripe with contagion. To save the valley, you must burn your fortunes to ash, or let greed sow the seeds of an enduring plague! The Breath of Blight is a mini-adventure I put together for solo play (or GM-less play) using the Shadowdark TTRPG system. It’s meant to be perfect for times when you can’t get the full group together, want to test out a new character build, or maybe use it as part of a West Marches-style campaign (still working out the details on that last one). I built this dungeon using the dungeon generation tools from the Shadowdark core book , along with ideas from Index Card RPG , Knave 2.0 , and Delve . This adventure was also heavily inspired by my current love of Mothership 1E. Instead of referencing Shadowdark bestiary and items I created my own to match the horror vibe.  I kind of threw the kitchen sink in with this one :). My goal was to make the adventure feel like a connected, intentional experience, not just a jumble of random stuff (though I do love the chaos of random tables sometimes!). The mini-adventure can be printed on letter-sized paper (front and back). Hope you enjoy it! If you try it out, I’d really love to hear what you think. I’m planning to create more of these soon!