The Unliving Delve
Fiend · Crown of Sloth
T5d12Sovereign
Not a creature in the conventional sense but a living section of dungeon - approximately 200 by 200 feet - whose walls shift, corridors rearrange, and floors tilt. Faces of absorbed victims appear as relief carvings in the stone, frozen in expressions of peaceful acceptance.
Tier 5 · Role Sovereign · Pool Vigor 7 / Vitality 30 · AC 14 · ATK +8 · Save DC 19 · Dmg d12
| Stat | Score | Mod | Die |
|---|---|---|---|
| Body | 22 | +6 | d12 |
| Mind | 8 | -1 | -d3 |
| Sense | 20 | +5 | d10 |
| Heart | 14 | +2 | d4 |
| Cunning | 16 | +3 | d6 |
| Fate | 20 | +5 | d10 |
Passives
Living Architecture
The Delve IS the dungeon: attacks must target its walls and floors. Each time it loses 2 Vitality, one section dies and goes static, its doors and corridors frozen open.
Absorption
A creature that dies inside the Delve is pulled into the stone, its face appearing as a relief carving, and the Delve regains 1 Vigor. The absorbed cannot be recovered until the Delve is killed.
Maneuvers
Crushing Walls
The walls of one 30 ft section grind inward. Everyone inside makes a Body save (DC 19): failure takes 5 damage, success takes 1 Vigor damage.
Declarations
Declared in the enemy tactical window and resolved at the start of its next turn. Any Vitality it loses first forces the disruption roll: on a 1 the telegraph is lost.
Entomb
The stone flows up around one creature touching a wall or floor. Body save (DC 19) or the target takes 5 damage and is restrained in the wall (save ends); on a success, 1 Vigor damage as the stone grasps and slides off.
Reactions
Shifting Corridors
When a creature moves more than 30 ft in one turn, the corridor ahead rearranges. Cunning save (DC 19) or the creature arrives somewhere it did not intend, usually deeper in.
Tactics
GM tactics
The Unliving Delve does not fight like a creature - it fights like a building. It closes its corridors first, then lets Shifting Corridors turn every route of escape deeper in. It crushes those who resist and absorbs those who fall. It targets the most determined escapee with Entomb. The faces in the walls smile because they stopped struggling, and it was easier than they expected.
Running it
Rules
- Shield of Tier + Heart mod over a Vitality pool of 10 + 4 x Tier. Full Vigor at combat start; at the start of its turn it rolls 5 exploding d4s and regains 1 Vigor per 4. Dead at 0 Vigor and 0 Vitality.
- A hit rolls d12. A crit rolls two: 2d12.
- Crits on a natural 17+ (Cunning 16).
- Two or three attacks in a normal turn: multiattack is the threat scaler, and one swing a round makes it a mook.
- Sovereign: 2 Sovereign Actions a round, spent after other combatants' turns, on top of its attacks.
- Any Vitality lost while a telegraph is pending forces its disruption roll; on a 1 the telegraph is lost.
- Never checks morale: it fights to 0 Vitality or to the exit written into its lowest phase.
- NPCs never take wounds.