City of the Scorpion God

“Deep in a forsaken desert, weeks away from this life-giving river, lies a ruined city of yore. It was destroyed by our people in the ancient times, for the city was dedicated to a foul god of scorpions. Yet even after all these centuries, the scorpion cult persists. They hide in the deserts and plot doom to all civilization. Now they have struck our beautiful city and stolen my daughter. The cult will take her to their ruined city and sacrifice her to their false god under the next full moon!”

“Go forth, bring back my daughter and I will pay you her weight in silver, this I vow in name of the Great Serpent.”

City of the Scorpion God is a Sword & Sorcery adventure, where a ragtag group of mercenaries explore a ruined city surrounded by a forsaken desert. They must face fanatical cultists, overgrown scorpions and eldritch threats to save the taken child. The scenario is a miniature sandbox, where the players explore an entire ruined city on their own terms.

The scenario is for three to five players, lasting 4-8 hours. The adventure includes several maps and eight premade characters.

City of the Scorpion God aims towards dark, atmospheric and quickly changing adventure in the spirit of pulp fiction author Robert E. Howard. For me, Sword & Sorcery is all about flawed protagonists dealing with the fantastic with mostly mundane tools. Often the fantastic is dark in nature, coming close to the existential horror of Cthulhu mythos.

The Game Master running the scenario should aim for a gritty atmosphere. The characters can perform outstanding feats, such as defeat a huge scorpion monster in combat, but it is not a thing done lightly. There should be a feeling of mortal peril and high stakes. The world is not black and white, but different tones of gray.

Keywords: Sword & Sorcery, exploration, ancient ruins, monsters, possible player versus player conflict.

This scenario is designed for the Fail Forward RPG System. You can easily convert it for a RPG system of your choice. You can download Fail Forward RPG here: https://nuclear-saints.itch.io/fail-forward