Return to Cataclysm
Return to Cataclysm (RtC) is an OSE Megadungeon that takes place in a giant obsidian wizard's tower in a world of ruin. RtC has some lore about the world as a whole, but has been kept brief to allow for player flexibility with backgrounds and for the tower to be placed into other worlds with minimal modifications.
This module will cover the tower itself and the village around it. The village of Grimrest is a ruin that is a challenge for lower-level characters, but the main adventure is within the 30-floor Cataclysm Tower. The tower increases in difficulty as you explore the higher floors or basement levels. Each floor has its own themes, lore and uses for its hidden overlord.
This is very much a GM tool.
The section below jumps right into spoilers!
If you want to play this, then stop reading!
Lore Overview
Thousands of years ago, a powerful wizard, Alistair Mortayne, turned up at a small village called Grimrest offering to protect them if they helped him build a tower. They agreed, and over the years, the tower grew, and the wizard fell in love and had a family. This all went well for a while, but powerful magics attract those who wish to steal from you. Soon, wizards would attack the tower and village, which led to an arms race. The more powerful the tower got, the more powerful people wanted its secrets.
This is when Alistair changed. Alistair was incredibly powerful, and yet still people were dying, even his family started to pass away, and he was powerless to stop it. Through schemes and meddling with powers beyond his world, he managed to create a magical device The Heart of the Tower, that would use the power of the soul to power his tower and the defences within. Anyone who would die within the tower would add to this power rather than going to their destined afterlife.
He eventually decided to invite the villagers inside the tower to protect them more easily. They, however, turned against him, saying that he was the cause of the attacks and destruction. So Alistair killed them all, using this massive increase of power to grow his tower magically. Those who stayed loyal got to keep working within the tower.
This mass murder caused many of Alistair's family to flee, causing him to fall deeper into despair and madness. The final straw was the death of his wife in childbirth. This led him to explore various forms of magic to prevent death, and eventually, he raised himself as an immortal lich.
The World Today
It has been only a few centuries since the great dying. City-states and tribes claw their way back in a harsh "Medieval Wild West". In the north, a knight-magician named Sir Christoph has discovered a strange obsidian tower and set up a camp a few hours away. The land watches, breath held, for what will happen when someone finally knocks
Above the Table
I'm Reece, a nerd from the UK who, unfortunately, got sick with Long Covid and was no longer able to work. I all of a sudden had a considerable amount of free time and wanted to work towards creating something on a larger scale. I was lucky enough to play a few games of Halls of Arden Vulgaris in the Old School Table-Time discord group and fell in love with the idea of a megadungeon. This inspired me to create RtC in the moments of clarity I had with my illness.
I've since run this megadungeon for over a year with friends and have decided to make a website to showcase this setting, one to hopefully inspire others to run this dungeon, but also to learn new skills for my hopeful return to work as my health hopefully gets better.
Please play this setting or even take inspiration from its rooms; it's been a joy to create and play with my friends.