Shadowdark Scenario by The Department of Unusual Observations
The Abyssal Drill is a 12-page Shadowdark-compatible micro-module steeped in cosmic mystery, subterranean horror, and pulp exploration.
What’s Inside?
An atmospheric adventure that begins with a stalled world-piercing drill and spirals into strange depths, vanished crew, and things that were never meant to be found.
- Nine key locations: The Crew’s Quarters, The Sleep Chambers, Control Room, Armory, Medical Center, Maintenance, Loading Bay, Laboratory, and the Reactor Core
- Characters with secrets: Varric “Stall” Emberlane, a thrill-chasing pilot, Thane Bristlehelm, a cowardly councilman, Marda Coalpot, the rough-tongued cook, Grum Ironsleeve, a grizzled prospector, Odrik the Artificer, the quiet rune-tech, and Unit 12R “Rivet” the glitching automaton
- Plot seeds & mysteries: missing crew members, sabotage within the expedition, ancient things entombed beneath the crust, strange signals from the deep, and the question no one wants to answer—why did the drill stop?
- Encounters tables to keep every descent unpredictable with false alarms, drill malfunctions, hidden crew, and tense moments.
- Cinematic suggestions to help GMs run tense pulp scenes
- Stat blocks for subterranean horrors: Dwellers, The Swarm, Burrowers, the Mimic, and the terrifying Brood Mother all creeping up from the lightless depths.
Who is this for?
- Shadowdark & OSR Players
- Fans of pulp sci-fi and subterranean horror
- DMs who like big adventures in small packages
- People who love strange micro-settings
This isn’t just another dungeon crawl. The Abyssal Drill was designed to feel like uncovering a lost pulp paperback — strange, dangerous, and filled with the wonder of the unknown.
Every page is packed with usable material: locations, encounters, tables, treasures, and mysteries designed to make the descent feel tense and unpredictable.
It’s system-light, OSR-friendly, and tuned perfectly for Shadowdark RPG, but easily adaptable to science-fiction systems like Mothership or any fantasy game that dares to dig too deep.
The Abyssal Drill is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.
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