The Dark Contracts | A Level 1-2 Shadowdark RPG Adventure
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This adventure was part of the Shadowdark Independent Game Jam hosted by Baron de Ropp from the wonderful Dungeon Masterpiece YouTube channel.
Merlin’s brain is in a jar. Excalibur is broken. Arthur dealt with dark powers.
Welcome to the weird and wild one-shot for Shadowdark RPG characters levels 1-2. This adventure twists aspects of the Arthurian Legend into a deadly, fantasy dungeon crawl.
Hold up. Merlin? Excalibur? King Arthur?! In Shadowdark? Yes! Well, sort of. For a time now, I’ve wanted to write an adventure in which King Arthur acquired his power through more sinister means—dark contracts with devils or demons.
In this adventure, you’ll explore a small dungeon where the king from a faraway land dealt with dark powers. The adventure itself never names Arthur, Merlin, Excalibur, or other references directly. I chose to obscure them to add a bit of mystery and abstract the fantasy a bit.
The dungeon is simple. It includes a handful of fantastic locations, magic items, boons, and even a table to “roll 1d8 for chaos.” If you want to learn what happened to the king, you can. Or you can just get in, get the treasure, and get out. But the adventure sows a few seeds for furthering the narrative if your party wishes.
It was a delight writing this adventure for use with the Shadowdark RPG.
Get it today
You can download your own copy for free (or choose to toss a few coins to your Witcher) at the following:
Game on.