[Campaign Graveyard] The Gates

Funny story: the dice mechanic for Dungeonteller was adapted from an abortive campaign setting called The Gates I worked on a couple of years ago. Think of "The Third Man" meets "Three Kings" meets old-school D&D. Here's some flavor text, with no context provided.

 

Zeke was the last to enter the old firebase. The demons were close behind, dozens of little misshapen horrors, like a Bosch nightmare. The sandbag walls and razor wire wouldn’t keep them out for long. As the others cast wide-eyed glances around the place, Zeke methodically assessed its defenses. There were harrows everywhere, frozen in their final moments, their flesh crystallized into something resembling polished granite. “Kimi, what’s that freakin’ lizard that turns your ass to stone?” Zeke asked.

“Basilisk,” she said. The harrows’ clothing and gear was apparently exempt from whatever had petrified them – jackets and shirts hung in tatters, tactical vests hung heavily from their torsos. A cigar dangled improbably from the ossified mouth of one of the officers. Zeke’s eyes lit on the thing he was looking for – the company firepower. It was an M60, belt fed, on a bipod mount. Too bad one of those poor stoned mooks still had his hand wrapped around the stock. He checked the ammo in the belt – it was holy, each jacket stamped with a cross and a quote from scripture. Most soldiers of God carried blessed slugs. Two sharp smacks from a small boulder shattered the harrow’s fingers. Kimi and Julien dragged the statue-like corpse away, and Zeke pulled back the bolt on the machine gun and said a prayer, hoping it would work. He sighted down the barrel, pulled the trigger, and walked the hail of slugs into the advancing mob, sowing lead across the surface of their freakish bodies. Black smoke, then flame, spouted from their wounds, as the holy slugs seared their infernal flesh.