TEXT:  
  
   
  The Ghost Houses of Phylinecra
  is a Pocket Dungeon, published in 2019, 
  written and designed by Shel Kahn.
  This dungeon would not have existed without 
  the advice and  assistance of Ruth Tillman. 
  Beta-read by Samantha Day, Steve Dempsey, 
  Greg Stolze
  Typeset in Volkhov, printed in Canada. 
  Index:
  Content Note
        pg  2
  Creating your Village of Phylinecra
       pg 3
  Phylinecra - The Village's Past
       pg 5
  Building the Village
       pg 8
  Using the Maps
     pg 11
  Beginning the Action
     pg 14
  The Red Caves
     pg 19
  Using the Pool
    pg 20
  The Goddess
    pg 23
  The Ethereal Scavengers
     pg 27
  Ethereal Scavenger Types
    pg 30
    Ethereal Worms
    pg 30
    Ethereal Scuttlers
    pg 32
    Ethereal Ropers
    pg 34
    Ethereal Gliders
    pg 36
  The Crystals
    pg 38
  Inside the Crystals
    pg 39
  The Goddess' Heart
    pg 40
  The Rescued People from the Caves
    pg 42
  The Ghost Houses
    pg 43
  Killing the Goddess
    pg 44
  Keeper of the Goddess' Heart
    pg 46
  Final Choices
    pg 48
   
  
  1
  The Ghost Houses of 
  Phylinecra
  
  2
  Content Note:
  This game is both a dungeon delve and a 
  storygame-inspired investigation into grief, loss, 
  and mortality. Please, before you start play, 
  make sure you discuss safety and consent with 
  your players. This adventure will be the most 
  powerful, exciting and moving if everyone at 
  the table is comfortable, safe, and able to buy in 
  equally.
  Easily googlable methods like the X-Card, 
  Lines & Veils or other safety tools can add a lot of 
  comfort 
  to 
  the 
  table 
  mood, 
  but 
  most 
  importantly, please clarify that player comfort 
  is paramount to this whole experience. If you 
  are GMing, please also assess your own comfort 
  as you play - you are a player as well! 
  If things get too heavy, I, the author, will be 
  relieved to hear that you paused, reapproached 
  and found mutual common ground narratively. 
  Now, for the adventure!
  
  3
  Creating your Village of Phylinecra - 
  and your Adventurers
  As you begin character creation, share all 
  of this setting and set-up information with 
  your players.
  Before this adventure begins, the Village of 
  Phylinecra has suffered a devastating flood.
  Adventurers are members of, or are familiar 
  with this village - they may be neighbours, 
  relatives 
  of 
  residents, 
  frequent 
  visitors 
  - 
  players’ choice. They could have been there for 
  the flood and been lucky to survive, or they 
  could have shown up after hearing about the 
  flood and been horrified.
  If they were present for the flood, this is their 
  understanding of what happened:
  A flood came, the water rising first 
  suddenly, a torrent pushing down the river, 
  wiping away almost a third of the village’s 
  population; and then slowly, bringing 
  disease and worse from farther upstream. 
  People had to flee until the waters receded, 
  and when they came back, their homes 
  were in disarray, their gardens and 
  infrastructure destroyed, the beauty of the 
  town just washed away by the water. And 
  while they were slowly rebuilding their 
  homes, making the village livable again, 
  they mourned without focus. 
  Then, after about a week of living back in 
  their village, rich red crystal growths 
  began to erupt from the ground, grabbing 
  survivors’ treasured mementos of their lost 
  loved ones. Most people were too stunned 
  to try and prevent it - they watched the 
  
  4
  uncanny crystalline arm creep up and 
  surround the memento, then retreat back 
  down into the ground. Many returned to their 
  homes to find a shallow hole in the ground 
  below where that memento once stood.
  Those who tried to fight the crystal as it 
  emerged instead became encased in it, and 
  it grew around them to fill the shape of 
  their house - the house as it was before the 
  flood, that is. So even if walls or roofs were 
  missing, the glittering red form fills in the 
  spaces as they once were. Inside these new 
  faceted houses, those encased seem to go 
  into a deep sleep.
  After this surreal invasion, the village is 
  not just rebuilding from the flood and the 
  loss of lives, it now holds what people are 
  referring to as the Ghost Houses, each with 
  a once-living human sarcophagied in stasis 
  inside. Some of the surviving residents 
  chose to flee this additional horror, and the 
  few that remain have noticed that in the 
  crystal of the ghost houses, a strange 
  woman is reflected as if she is walking the 
  town constantly, but she is not visible or 
  detectable with the usual senses.
  If adventurers were absent for the flood itself, 
  they may have received word that things have 
  gone awry at home, or at least heard news of the 
  disaster, and when they arrive, the few residents 
  still on site can fill them in on what happened. 
  
  5
  As the players start to consider who their 
  adventurers are, share with them this 
  information about the village itself.
  Phylinecra - The Village’s Past
  This village was founded as a creative 
  retreat, home to a large artistic collective. 
  Even after generations, this village’s diverse 
  roots still show in the faces, the 
  architectural styles, the fashion and the art. 
  Each family built a house that combined 
  private living space with public gathering 
  space - workshops, forges, studios, cafes and 
  more, creating a tradition of exchanges of 
  visits. The houses stand near the banks of a 
  river, in which lies The Blessed Isle, a 
  preternaturally beautiful island with a 
  reflecting pool in the centre, where the 
  village created their graveyard. 
  This isn’t a field of buried corpses, but 
  instead a beautiful collection of shrines to 
  those lost, where people may bring artwork 
  and plants to leave as tributes and enact 
  musical and poetic grieving rituals. These 
  surround the reflecting pool. Once a year at 
  most, this large pond washes small pieces 
  of a pristine, sparkling pink crystal to its 
  shores. These crystals exude a kind of 
  gentle, calm comfort - while being 
  immensely hard and near indestructible. 
  Some folks collect them as blessings from 
  the Goddess - residents might decorate 
  their hearths or place them above 
  doorways for good luck; other folks trade 
  them as building supplies or tools. 
  
  6
  The village has been there for many 
  generations now; but the rumours of how it 
  was founded revolve around the Blessed 
  Isle. The official story is that a group of 
  young bards, artists, theatre folk and such 
  were travelling from town to town to 
  perform for folks, and came across this 
  beautiful island; upon spending the night 
  there, each dreamt of a beautiful Goddess 
  who draped them in flowers and sang sad, 
  enchanting songs to them, and so they 
  decided to settle down and found their own 
  village nearby. 
  In less official records, folks tell tale of a 
  member of the troop who fell in love with 
  the Goddess, and refused to leave the 
  island. They drowned in the reflecting pool, 
  and the community, devastated, set up 
  homes nearby so they could honour their 
  companion’s death, and built a shrine at 
  which to mourn them on the island itself.
  
  7
  Here are some leading questions to help 
  feed these details about the town’s past to 
  the players:
  • What did your family do with the finger-
  sized crystal your relative found when 
  they set up a shrine on the island for a 
  lost friend? 
  • What is your favourite secret spot on the 
  Blessed Isle?
  • Have you ever seen a vision of the Goddess?
  • Who do you think fell in love with the 
  Goddess?
  • What kind of fish do you catch in the river?
  • What trade did your neighbour take up to 
  honour the artistic ancestry of the village?
  • What have you most recently contributed 
  to the shrines? For who? Why?
  • How often does your family group 
  practice the grieving rituals? Do you join 
  them? Do you go alone?
  • What type of community space did you 
  run out of your home before the flood?
  
  8
  Building the Village
  Players and the GM flesh out the village’s 
  residents together - the town of Phylinecra 
  is different each time you play. 
  First, get the players to create their characters, 
  remembering to tie them to the town in some 
  way, and then encourage them to create friendly 
  histories with each other through asking each 
  player to answer one or two of these leading 
  questions - share the whole list and let players 
  opt-in via one or two rounds around the table, 
  making sure that everyone is the answer to at least 
  one or two other players’ questions.
  Record these answers on the Player Character 
  Bonds Handout so everyone can see them.
  1. Who here defended you once?
  2. Who here believed you when no one else did?
  3. Who here knows a secret from your 
  childhood?
  4. Who here encouraged you during a 
  rough time?
  5. Who here took you in when you had to 
  leave your prior home?
  6. Who here have you thought of yourself 
  as mentor to?
  7. Who here have you always kept in 
  touch with?
  8. Who here are you keeping a secret for?
  9. Who here gave you a cherished gift?
  10. Who here was well thought of by your 
  family?
  11. Who here do you work well with?
  
  9
  Once they’re a tight-knit group of friends, ask 
  each player the following questions to create a 
  few NPCs - if you have a smaller group of 
  players, encourage them to generate new NPCs 
  for each answer; if you have a group of five or 
  more players, it’s okay if there’s some overlap.
  1. Who did you spend the most time with in 
  Phylinecra? Why?
  2. Who did you find the most frustrating in 
  town? Why?
  3. Who were you most worried about when 
  the flood happened? Why?
  4. Who most recently gave you a gift? Why?
  5. Who were you emotionally closest to in 
  town? Why?
  As players take their turns, encourage them 
  to tie these people together into a town - who was 
  mayor, or blacksmith, or nurse, or teacher, who 
  managed trade and who gardened? Who was 
  whose family, or friend, or enemy?
  Write down the answers for each of the players, 
  then work together as a group to assign 
  consequences as such:
  Of each player’s answers to 1 through 4, 
  two have either died in the flood or fled the 
  town, one is sick and due to be taken out of 
  town tonight with a caravan to find better 
  medical care, and one is alive and healthy 
  and staying in town trying to fix things 
  back up as best they can. Roll 1D4 to figure 
  this out randomly, or assign these roles as 
  feels meaningful to everyone at the table.
  NPC #5 for each of the players was alive and 
  well, but suddenly today was locked into a 
  ghost house, peaceful and frozen into the 
  crystal form. 
  
  10
  Use the Player Character’s NPCs and Griefs 
  handouts to make a list of the answers for 
  each player and record their status as well.
  Ask each player what part of the loss after the 
  flood their character is having the hardest time 
  accepting - ask them to be small and specific. Some 
  examples could be: feeling unable to believe 
  they'll never eat lunch together again, or hold 
  someone's hand, or sit on the hill and watch the 
  sunset over the river and the beautiful little town. 
  Get them to write these down.
  GM, make sure to write these sensations down 
  as well, at the bottom of the Player Character’s 
  NPCs and Griefs handout, because they are 
  going to come up again in future.
  If the adventurers were on site to see the 
  ghost houses form, ask them to narrate where 
  they were when it happened. Did they watch 
  their loved one (#5 from the questionnaire 
  above) become encased? Did they fight the 
  unbreakable crystal? Did they lose anything 
  else to the formation? Or did they hear it 
  happen from across town?
  If they arrived after these houses formed, ask 
  them what they did when they realized their 
  loved one was locked inside?
  Ask them when or how they realized that they 
  couldn't break these house shaped sarcophagi on 
  their own. What or who convinced them to give 
  up - at least for now?
  
  11
  Using the Maps
  This adventure comes with two maps - a town 
  map and a cave map. As the GM, you need to 
  know how these maps interact with each other - 
  but don’t share that info just yet! Let your players 
  figure that out on their own using the 
  structural clues you build here. Right now, only 
  share the larger town map with the players.
  On the town map you’ll see buildings. Ahead in 
  the book are the numbered maps for reference; if 
  you’ve got the larger paper maps or fabric maps 
  you’ll notice the buildings aren’t numbered, but 
  the roofs are different tones or colours. 
  If you have 3 or less players, you need 3 houses 
  to be ghost houses. Mark these so you can all 
  find and remember them. On the fabric map, 
  use the light blue houses, #’s 2, 9 and 27 as your 
  Ghost Houses; if you have 4 players, use the 
  green houses, #’s 4, 8, 14 and 25; if you have 5 
  players, use the orange houses, #s 3, 6, 10, 20 and 
  23; if you have 6 or more players, use the pink 
  houses, #s 1, 5, 12, 13, 17 and 22. 
  Do not put a ghost house on any of the dark blue 
  houses - these do not line up with the caves below. 
  The community centre is #29 - it’s small but it’s 
  still in good shape thanks to strong brickwork.
  Refer to the numbered Cave map in the rules, 
  but don’t share it with your players. When the 
  time comes, let them explore the blank Cave map. 
  When your adventurers explore the caves, place 
  the markers for the vertical pillars in places 
  where they correspond with the ghost houses - 
  use the numbered maps here to line things up, but 
  again, don’t show the numbers to the players! 
  
  12
  
  13
  
  14
  Beginning the Action
  Whether adventurers have arrived to find 
  these ghost houses, or were there to watch them 
  form, they are called to join the remaining 
  townsfolk for an early dinner in one of the 
  remaining safe buildings, a simple and small 
  performance hall/community centre. It has 
  now been converted into a group refuge, 
  complete with cots for those sick from the flood 
  waters, or left without roofs to sleep under, 
  along with a communal kitchen, and a large 
  hearth around which to gather and talk. 
  There's a group meal happening, as folks drift in 
  from their day spent cleaning up the town. An 
  intense NPC named Marko, on of the community’s 
  younger adults, comes into the kitchen room in a 
  frenzied state, clutching a fistful of small flowers, 
  and he proclaims excitedly that the blessed pool is 
  purifying the island! 
  Despite the destruction and mess, he had 
  gone there to build a shrine for his lost sibling, 
  and he found new growth! And he proudly 
  holds forth a fist-sized dark pink crystal, the 
  largest anyone has ever seen arrive on the 
  island, announcing that their Goddess has not 
  abandoned them in their time of need.
  Adventurers who have spent any time with 
  the ghost houses realize - or are finally forced to 
  admit - that this crystal matches the crystals 
  that encased their friends.
  
  15
  Marko pulled this specimen from the edge of 
  the blessed pool, and tells them it gave him a 
  vision: through it he could see their beloved 
  Goddess was walking amongst the houses.
  An adventurer who steps outside to try this 
  catches a glimpse of a figure moving towards 
  the island, between the houses.
  If 
  the 
  adventurers 
  aren't 
  immediately 
  running to the island, have one of the NPCs 
  curse the Goddess, whose blessed crystals have 
  stolen more from an already wounded town.
  This is a blasphemous thing to say, but the 
  crystals do match, and NPCs may begin to 
  wonder if she can be reasoned with. Marko is 
  appalled and begs everyone to come to the 
  island, to see what he saw, to know she still 
  cares for Phylinecra.
  The sick folks stay back, as do a few people to 
  care for them - so use your NPC list you generated 
  with the players to populate a little convoy of the 
  healthy 
  survivors 
  who 
  accompany 
  the 
  adventurers and Marko to the island.
  Walking through the town as the sun is 
  setting, adventurers get the feeling that they 
  can see the Goddess - or someone - glowing in 
  the reflections of the ghost houses’ facets, as if 
  walking with them. If they use Marko’s fist-
  sized crystal to see, they might see her walking 
  ahead, or just behind houses - never clearly 
  standing still in front of them.
  
  16
  The closer to the river, the more destroyed the 
  town is. Buildings have been flattened, or picked up 
  and moved by the torrent, and the ground is still 
  soaked. The smell of stagnant water slowly 
  draining from cellars and basements is rank. 
  Bodies have been cleared from the wreckage - 
  those folks could find - but everything stinks of 
  decay. Adventurers have to pick their path 
  carefully through muddy patches full of wreckage.
  Along the way they may find: 
  • Miraculously intact small keepsakes like 
  cameos or small waterlogged portrait 
  paintings, jewellery or spectacles from 
  loved ones lost
  • Damp but serviceable household tools 
  such as hammers and chisels, shovels or 
  garden hoes
  • Small, pink blessed crystals, still in the 
  decorative nets from which they were 
  hung for good luck
  Looking 
  through 
  any 
  crystal 
  allows 
  an 
  adventurer to catch glimpses of the Goddess, but 
  no one can get a good look at her.
  As they approach the island, adventurers see 
  how high the river still is. Marko points out that 
  the stone bridge is mostly whole though, and 
  only under a half a foot of water. 
  Traversing this half submerged, semi-
  intact structure requires dexterity tests, 
  with folks at risk of falling into the water 
  and needing to roll a strength or athletics 
  test to swim safely to shore before taking 
  one-off poisoning damage from the 
  contaminated water. Adventurers can help 
  one another or help NPCs get safely across 
  this unsteady pathway. 
  
  17
  The island at first looks as destroyed as the 
  mainland - huge trees were uprooted, and the 
  remains of generations of mourning shrines 
  are spread in a swath across the mud of the 
  island. But even from the shore, adventurers 
  can see the spring green of new growth and 
  when they approach the blessed pool they see it 
  is radiating lines of beautiful new plant life - 
  flowers, clover, ferns, moss, all starting to work 
  through the muck and gunk and debris of the 
  flood damage.
  The scent of the new growth is heady and 
  sweet as the party approach the pool. If anyone 
  examines the new plants thoroughly, they see 
  each has grown up from a broken piece of a shrine 
  as if that painted stone or shard of coloured glass 
  was a seed. These resemble natural flowers, but 
  something strange has placed them here.
  Marko runs to the pool and declares proof 
  that the Goddess still loves them. He stares 
  adoringly into the water, and an adventurer can 
  roll to discern that he is definitely whispering 
  to a person he clearly sees in the pool itself. If 
  the party is still at a distance, Marko kneels 
  beside the water and plunges his arms in, and 
  an ethereal pair of arms reaches up from the 
  water to pull him down into the pool. If folks are 
  close enough to be able to try and prevent that, 
  instead this happens: Marko suddenly leaps in, 
  and observant eyes may notice ethereal arms 
  reach up from the water to catch him.
  
  18
  NPCs that came along for the ride are 
  horrified at what Marko has done - it is 
  blasphemous to dive into the sacred pool - but 
  then he doesn't come back up. And their debate 
  turns to if, or who, should dive in to rescue him.
  Adventurers who approach the pool see a 
  perfectly calm surface mirroring the darkening 
  sky and their peering faces; then, just before 
  they would turn their head away, they see a 
  blurred and shifting face of a woman - the 
  Goddess. Her mouth opens in silent song; ask 
  for wisdom or constitution oriented rolls from 
  whoever sees her. Successes mean adventurers 
  are able to resist reaching out to her, middling 
  results are haunted by regret as they resist, and 
  failures feel themselves pulled into the pool, 
  though to onlookers they seem to dive or jump 
  in. NPCs may have seen spectral hands 
  reaching for all of the adventurers, and if any 
  adventurers are still on the shore, they see that 
  the NPCs are now terrified and turn to flee back 
  over the submerged bridge.
  Again, any arms-reach distance or closer 
  examination of the pool leads to a constitution 
  or wisdom save to avoid being lured into the 
  water, but adventurers can also choose to jump in 
  on their own accord. Adventurers who look 
  through a crystal at the pool see a strange glow 
  where the water is, which seems to seep into the 
  ground around it. Detect magic detects magic in 
  the pool, the crystals, the flowers - but strange, old 
  magic, not the contemporary stuff.
  To free their friends in the ghost houses, to 
  find and save Marko, the adventurers need to 
  jump or fall into the pool. Encourage them to do so.
  
  19
  The Red Caves
  The 
  first 
  adventurer 
  to 
  dive 
  in 
  finds 
  themselves 
  surfacing 
  in 
  a 
  dark 
  room. 
  Swimming to the edge of an identically sized 
  pool as the one they dove into, they notice that 
  the floor of the room feels like facets of crystal, 
  hard but thankfully not too sharp. If they do not 
  immediately light a torch, especially if they 
  have dark vision, they realize the walls have a 
  low, dim, red glow to them. If they light a torch, 
  or magical light source, they discover that the 
  walls and ceiling are also faceted crystals, 
  which now sparkle in the artificial light and 
  look less red and more pink and purple. 
  Slightly slower, as if time is stretched out 
  here, but still in the order in which they dove in, 
  the adventurers emerge from the pool into this 
  dark room. 
  There is initially no sign of Marko. Calling 
  out for him sends the adventurers’ voices 
  echoing down long crystalline hallways. A 
  strange resonance in the walls responds to the 
  voices, turning the echoes into an eerie, sad 
  singsong refrain for a moment.
  If adventurers break out any small crystal 
  fragments to look at things, they discover that 
  they have all turned an opaque red in this 
  realm. 
  When the adventurers go forth to explore, 
  this is what they find.
  GM, spread out the cave map now, the one 
  without numbers, and make note of where 
  the pillars go, with markers or tokens or 
  such.
  
  20
  This first room is ovoid in shape, with a large 
  opening to a split hallway. The walls appear as 
  if they were once perfectly smooth crystal, but 
  flaws have formed where smaller, more faceted 
  and textural portions of crystal have grown, 
  warping the pristine ovoid shape - these line up 
  with the cross-hatched and lighter portions of 
  the cave walls on the map. The pool takes up the 
  center of the room, as large as it was on the 
  other side, its waters dark and deep.
  Using the Pool
  Adventurers can return to the surface 
  world through the pool if they are holding 
  crystals, by diving as deep as possible. Use 
  a strength or constitution-related check to 
  see if they manage to push their own limits. 
  They can retry if necessary; if they fail the 
  rolls badly they may take some damage 
  from holding their breath or from the 
  effects of water pressure, such as 
  temporary or permanent deafness and 
  dizziness.
  The crossroad of narrow hallways has similar 
  smooth-with-flaws walls on almost all sides 
  except the center shape - this wall is made of 
  crystals with enormous facets, that feel thicker 
  and sharper than the structure of the outer walls.
  There's a lot to find in the red caves. Let the 
  players use the un-numbered map to choose where 
  they explore and scatter these finds throughout:
  There are patches in the walls, floor and ceiling 
  of that smaller, more faceted crystal; a geologist 
  would call them newer or younger crystals. 
  
  21
  What initially seemed to be walls with bigger, 
  sharper crystals turns out to be some enormous 
  rounded shape that's occupying the huge 
  central cavern. It has a slow rhythmic vibration 
  coming 
  from 
  it, 
  that 
  vibrates 
  in 
  the 
  adventurers’ bones.
  The larger hallways are mostly made of 
  smooth crystal, but there are also narrow, 
  round passageways connecting them, and these 
  smaller ones are lined entirely with the small, 
  sharp crystals.
  Throughout the caverns are several floor-to-
  ceiling pillars of sharp, faceted crystal. There 
  are objects floating within them, and all of 
  them glow faintly, which is especially visible if 
  the artificial light is extinguished, turning the 
  red crystal orange, pink or blue. 
  These contain and are powered by the objects 
  stolen from the Ghost Houses - GMs, line these up 
  on your cave map with the houses you chose on the 
  town map.
  There are three or four other mounds of 
  crystal on the floors, some about 4 x 4’, some 
  slightly larger or slightly smaller. The smallest 
  is a 2 x 3 x 4' pillar and unsettlingly, the crystal 
  of it is still growing and thickening - which is 
  why the adventurers can tell that there is a 
  person in there, though they are becoming 
  increasingly 
  obscured. 
  This 
  crystal 
  seems 
  impossible 
  to 
  damage 
  with 
  the 
  usual 
  equipment - it's diamond hard and has strong 
  magic resistance - and there's a definite risk of 
  damaging the person inside. Adventurers can 
  deduce that that person is Marko.
  
  22
  Encased in crystal in the floor, ceiling or 
  walls, are small keepsakes - the sorts of things 
  usually placed at shrines, these small objects 
  are clearly recent acquisitions by the crystal 
  caves - they are objects from people who died in 
  the flood. 
  Adventurers who examine the walls closely 
  realize there is something very, very unsettling 
  on the other side of them - not earth, but a dark 
  void, or possibly impossibly dark water. And 
  shapes, 
  moving 
  around 
  and 
  occasionally 
  attacking or gnawing or grinding at the thick 
  red crystal. They're really difficult to make out 
  or detect - all they can see clearly are the 
  various sizes of teeth that scrape and crunch 
  and gnaw at the crystal. And those teeth come 
  in all different sizes. They don't seem to belong 
  to creatures anyone has seen before. 
  Should adventurers start to bemoan their fate, 
  first they will notice that the walls echo their 
  distress more than anything else. When they 
  grieve or express frustration, the walls start to 
  hum with the vibration of their voices, and if 
  they continue despite the humming, their 
  sadness summons The Goddess.
  
  23
  The Goddess
  She appears as an 8’ tall feminine, humanoid 
  shape, but anyone with any magical lore 
  immediately mistrusts the image they see. 
  Each adventurer sees in her reminders of those 
  cherished things they told the GM they were 
  having trouble accepting the loss of - whether it 
  is the colours of her drapery, a scent of flowers, 
  a distressingly familiar smile on lips that don't 
  seem quite human. Her face is mostly obscured 
  - one adventurer may see a warm and friendly 
  eye, another the crook of an eyebrow, a third 
  may take comfort in a kind and caring mouth. 
  Her garb is not consistent from viewer to 
  viewer; there are ceremonial headdresses, veils, 
  gowns, cloaks, scarves - many drawn from the 
  religious 
  or 
  spiritual 
  experience 
  of 
  the 
  adventurer looking at her. Each person sees two 
  arms, but what they are doing changes - 
  sometimes they hold candles, or censers, or 
  gesture occultly, or hold flowers, or wave 
  through an unfelt breeze, again, often in ways 
  specific to the spiritual context of the observer. 
  Her hair changes by observer, but often seems 
  to drift faintly in whatever ritual or formal or 
  religious arrangement it appears in, as if an 
  unfelt, invisible breeze moves it. 
  
  24
  Ask the players some of these leading 
  questions to describe her and force 
  inconsistencies.
  • Whose eyes do hers remind you of?
  • When did you last see a headdress like 
  hers? What did it look like?
  • You see a different headdress - what 
  strikes you as impossible about the one 
  you look upon?
  • You can’t see her eyes, but she has an old 
  friend’s smile on her lips - whose?
  • Her hands hold a ritual object you’ve only 
  ever heard rumours about - what does it 
  look like?
  • Her hands reach out in a familiar gesture 
  to you - what does it mean?
  • Her robes are covered with ancient 
  patterns you read about once - where are 
  they from?
  • The flowers falling from her arms remind 
  you of ceremonies from your childhood - 
  what can you recall of them?
  
  25
  
  26
  When she appears summoned by distress or 
  sadness, she solemnly walks directly to that 
  adventurer. They feel themselves immersed in 
  that grief moment they can't accept yet; and 
  then from somewhere beneath folds of fabric 
  two additional arms extend, and she'll take the 
  adventurer's hands in these. They feel an 
  immense sense of peace and need to make a 
  charisma or emotional intelligence based roll to 
  notice what she is doing to their hands - she is 
  encasing them in growing crystal.
  She has a total of eight arms, so two 
  additional pairs of arms can emerge to take the 
  hands, or touch the face, or hold the shoulders of 
  whoever is near her. 
  These arms also defend her from attack by 
  quickly summoning crystal gauntlets that can 
  parry most blows.
  She does not attack beyond soothing the 
  adventurers with encasement in crystal.
  An adventurer who catches it quickly is 
  easily able to withdraw from her grasp, but 
  removing the crystal from their body takes a 
  strength, constitution or related roll and if 
  they fail, they realize that pushing through 
  will cause them injury. This injury scales to 
  the extent of crystal coverage.
  If adventurers flee, she does not pursue 
  quickly, but as long as they remain in audible 
  distress she inexorably approaches. She cannot fit 
  down the narrow rough hallways though and 
  adventurers can recuperate and calm down in 
  there safely.
  
  27
  If adventurers try to talk to her, she responds 
  to them only in solemn, caring platitudes:
  • Everything will be okay.
  • They wouldn’t want you to be sad.
  • I’m sorry you have to go through this.
  • They’re in a better place now.
  • Just let the pain out.
  • You have to be strong.
  • Try to focus on the time you had together.
  • Everything happens for a reason.
  • Life never gives us more than we can handle.
  • Time heals all wounds.
  • Don't upset everyone else.
  Her humanoid form does not take damage or 
  track 
  HP. Adventurers might be able to 
  determine from magical knowledge that her 
  form is a projection from a protected bodily 
  synecdoche, a smaller part of herself hidden 
  away somewhere.
  The Ethereal Scavengers
  If adventurers stay or return to calmness in 
  the caves they will also come across the 
  Goddess outside of combat, busy with a small 
  hole in the wall. She ignores the adventurers as 
  she repairs the damage the walls have taken 
  from being eroded and chewed by vague forms 
  beyond the crystal. If adventurers distract the 
  Goddess in this moment, a small creature from 
  the outside might make its way in. 
  
  28
  Any of these ethereal forms that get in go right 
  for the large interior shape at the centre of the 
  cave and gnaw at its crystal surface. The hole that 
  they leave in the outside wall has a faint and 
  unsettling suction to it - adventurers who spend 
  time examining it feel their hp ticking away one at a 
  time, like losing blood, but no pain. It is a Soul Void. 
  Adventurers who push their way out into it lose 
  HP at an increased rate, and find themselves 
  suspended in a strange aether, full of writhing 
  and incorporeal ethereal scavengers. They need 
  help to re-enter the caves.
  The Goddess aggressively and desperately 
  pushes to reseal the central shape first, and 
  then use her crystals to encase the ethereal 
  creature and push it back out the hole in the 
  wall, and only then seal the hole. She uses 
  strength checks against adventurers, she goes 
  silent, she ignores their distress, and she uses 
  crystal to restrain and move anyone who is 
  aggressively in her way as she does all this.
  Adventurers notice the resealed hole in the 
  wall is malformed and fragile - the crystals are 
  smaller, they bulge out into the void, and the 
  eldritch forms focus on the newest crystals with 
  their attacks. While these new crystals still 
  blunt or destroy weapons used on them, they do 
  seem to take damage in a way the smoother 
  walls and such don't.
  If several ethereal scavengers get through the 
  gap and the Goddess is actively attacking them, 
  they 
  might 
  in 
  their 
  distress 
  attack 
  the 
  adventurers, but they are by far most interested 
  in that huge protected shape in the middle. If 
  adventurers do choose to fight them, though, 
  they then defend themselves and seek to suck the 
  adventurers’ souls.
  
  29
  These ethereal creatures have physical form 
  here in the caves - they can be attacked with 
  melee weapons, ranged weapons and magic. 
  They also do physical damage here - all four 
  types have uncannily hard teeth, with the 
  Gliders doing damage averaging out to about half 
  of the strongest adventurer’s HP, and the Ropers, 
  Scuttlers and Worms doing less damage but being 
  more nimble and quicker to attack.
  They can definitely be killed. The Goddess also 
  attacks any ethereal scavengers that come in to 
  her caves, though, and works each round to 
  encase them in crystal so she can force them 
  back out through the wall. 
  If adventurers DO kill one of these ethereal 
  scavengers, the Goddess will stop worrying 
  about it and focus on other things around the 
  caves again, including the adventurers’ distress. 
  The scavenger’s corpse sort of deflates, and 
  only the hard crystal-chewing parts remain. 
  These Ethereal Scavengers come in a few 
  types, but have some standard vulnerabilities: 
  They are all vulnerable to magic and fire, and 
  have resistance to ice and invulnerability to 
  poison. When dead, all their soft bits deflate 
  and degrade incredibly quickly.
  All Ethereal Scavengers possess the ability to 
  suck souls, and reduce health steadily as long as 
  they are in contact with their victims. 
  All Ethereal Scavengers focus their attention 
  and soul-sucking on adventurers who have 
  fallen prone over adventurers who are actively 
  defending themselves. All Ethereal Scavengers 
  defend themselves if attacked.
  
  30
  Ethereal Scavenger Types:
  Ethereal Worms
  Essentially arm-length, 10” wide 
  polychete worms - segmented worms 
  with myriad legs, blind heads and five-
  part mouths, each part tipped with a 
  wedge-shaped bone-hard tooth. Their 
  segments have small solid shell parts on 
  top, but mostly these are soft and 
  wiggly. 
  Attacks: biting, wrapping and 
  squeezing, soul-sucking. 
  • Bites are blunt but strong, and if they 
  are not shaken off they can grind 
  through armor.
  
  31
  • The worms wrap their segmented 
  bodies around an adventurer’s arm or 
  face and squeeze, requiring a second 
  adventurer to remove them before 
  they start to suffocate or crush their 
  victim.
  • If they hold on to a victim for two 
  rounds, they begin sucking out their 
  soul, extracting 1/10th of their total 
  health each round.
  Vulnerabilities: the soft underside of the 
  worms are vulnerable to bludgeoning, 
  slicing and stabbing weapons; on their 
  shell side they are very difficult to harm 
  with melee weaponry. 
  The worms have pretty limited health. 
  Budget one round of successful hits 
  from the party per worm for a satisfying 
  fight.
  
  32
  Ethereal Scuttlers
  Essentially grizzly bear sized, asymmetrical 
  crabs. Their shells are made of incredibly 
  hard material, with gaps exposing their 
  softer innards at the segments.
  Attacks: grabbing, snapping, smashing, 
  soul sucking
  • Grabbing adventurers with their 
  biggest pincers is their first instinct - 
  their claws are blunt but strong and 
  someone will have to damage the claw 
  or arm to get them to let go. 
  • All of their pincers, large and small, 
  can snap at the adventurers in small, 
  quick movements. These aren't how 
  the Scuttlers get ahold of anyone, but 
  these snaps can be quite painful if 
  they make contact.
  • If the largest pincers have been 
  injured, instead of trying to grab an 
  adventurer, the Scuttlers try instead to 
  smash at them with the injured large 
  pincers, doing significant 
  bludgeoning damage.
  • Soul sucking - after one round grabbed 
  by a Scuttler, adventurers have their 
  souls sucked, the smallest pincers 
  grabbing at their exhaled breath and 
  pulling out 1/10th of their total health 
  worth of soul per round
  
  33
  Vulnerabilities: stabbing weapons, 
  magic, being flipped over
  • The Scuttlers’ thick shells are almost 
  impenetrable, but their joints are 
  vulnerable to stabbing and slicing 
  from accurate adventurers.
  • These are especially vulnerable to 
  magic, particularly fire, which makes 
  them bubble at their joints and take 
  1.5x damage
  • While the small pincers are quick and 
  dexterous, overall the Scuttlers are 
  clumsy and slow and can be easily 
  escaped if they are flipped upside 
  down and left on their backs.
  Health: Scuttlers are robust for their size 
  and would take two successful hits from 
  each party member to defeat.
  
  34
  Ethereal Ropers
  Essentially six foot long lampreys, about 
  the thickness of the average human 
  thigh, slippery and squishy and 
  muscular, with jawless mouths lined 
  with multiple rows of dull, hard, 
  grinding teeth.
  Attacks: latching on, wrapping and 
  squeezing, whipping, soul sucking
  • Ropers’ main move is to latch on to 
  their victims with a horrible 
  combination of suction from their 
  jawless mouths and grip from their 
  dull, incredibly hard teeth. They aim 
  for any surface large enough for their 
  mouths to attach like a vaccuum, and 
  have to suffer damage to be convinced 
  to let go.
  
  35
  • Whether in combination with latching 
  on or as a stand in until they can find 
  a good grip, ropers also wrap 
  themselves around victims’ heads, 
  torsos or legs. They can do a decent 
  bludgeoning attack by squeezing if 
  allowed to stay wrapped, but can be 
  removed by another adventurer 
  grabbing them from the tail end, or by 
  doing damage to them.
  • Ropers can also whip with the tail half 
  of their body, which moves at an 
  incredible speed. The whip functions 
  like slashing damage to any of its 
  victims.
  • If they can keep their mouth on a 
  victim for one full round, ropers begin 
  sucking out their soul, extracting 
  1/10th of their total ealth each round.
  Vulnerabilities: largely undefended, 
  ropers are especially vulnerable to 
  bludgeoning, slicing and stabbing 
  weapons; damage increases if done near 
  their mouth end. 
  Health: the ropers have a decent amount 
  of health, despite their vulnerabilities. 
  Budget two rounds of successful hits 
  from the party per roper.
  
  36
  Ethereal Gliders
  Essentially enormous sleeper sharks, 
  these 18’ (half as long as a school bus) 
  ethereal scavengers have an unstable 
  shape that reminds adventurers of 
  sharks. Their form tends to shift as they 
  move, as if their face and jaws were 
  trailing a curtain shaped like a shark in 
  some invisible current. Their 24” wide 
  jaws are the real problem - they have 
  many rows of small, sharp, incredibly 
  hard teeth, surrounded by firm muscles 
  and wrapped in uncannily slippery skin. 
  That said, they do not move fast from 
  place to place and can be avoided if 
  adventurers pay attention to their 
  location. 
  Attacks: these gliders are simple 
  creatures - their attacks are: biting, 
  holding on, and soul-sucking.
  • Biting consists of the glider doing just 
  that - biting its victim. They can 
  absolutely get their mouths around 
  arms, legs and heads if they choose to, 
  and do a combo of piercing and 
  bludgeoning damage (whichever is 
  more effective) on whoever they have 
  bitten.
  • Gliders hold on when they bite unless 
  they take damage, which only 
  registers if it is damage to their head 
  and jaw area - their wispy, ethereal 
  bodies do not seem to notice or sustain 
  damage.
  • If they can keep their mouth on a 
  victim for one full round, ropers begin 
  sucking out their soul, extracting 1/5th 
  of their health each round.
  
  37
  Vulnerabilities: Gliders are not 
  vulnerable to much, and only rate 
  damage dealt to their heads and jaws. 
  Slashing damage slides right off them; 
  piercing and bludgeoning damage are 
  the most effective. Magic attacks must 
  be aimed at the head or jaw to do 
  damage. That said, they travel very 
  slowly. Adventurers who avoid them and 
  don’t deal them damage for 4 rounds can 
  lose their interest completely.
  Health: gliders have a lot of health - 
  budget three rounds of successful party 
  attacks to give the appropriate effect.
  
  38
  The Crystals
  The Crystals are immensely hard, but can be 
  broken or degraded in these ways:
  • By being hit with another equally hard crystal.
  • Sometimes by being hit with mundane 
  tools and weapons:
  • All crystals destroy mundane weapons 
  in a few hits, but newer, more fragile 
  crystals also take damage from them.
  • Crystals pass some damage on through to 
  whatever they contain.
  • By having their magic drained, blocked or 
  countered through spells. This weakens 
  the crystal and allows mundane weapons 
  to be more effective.
  • By the crystal-chewing parts of Ethereal 
  Scavengers. These can be attached to 
  weapons or used as hand-held tools to 
  effectively grind down the crystal without 
  damaging what’s inside. 
  Adventurers successfully breaching the outer 
  crystal walls or the large central shape 
  immediately attracts 
  the 
  attention of the 
  Goddess, who makes her way at a good speed 
  over to them.
  
  39
  Inside the Crystals 
  There are human-sized mounds of crystal 
  throughout the cave, and if these are opened 
  gently they contain seemingly sleeping people. 
  The freshest or newest of these contains Marko. 
  If they are opened roughly, the people inside 
  WILL take damage - be sure to communicate this 
  clearly to the players so their adventurers can 
  make conscious choices and not kill the people 
  they’re rescuing. 
  The pillars of crystal attached to the floor and 
  ceiling contain more shrine-sized keepsakes - a 
  small portrait, a cameo, a hand-made knife, etc. 
  These are the objects the ghost houses’ victims 
  were trying to rescue from the crystal that 
  pushed up through the floor of their houses and 
  then encased them. Removing these from their 
  crystal pillars visibly weakens the pillars. But 
  don’t forget, it’s possible for the adventurers to 
  remove these roughly and damage the objects. 
  The Goddess show up as soon as one of these is 
  breached as well.
  The shrine objects in the walls are not too 
  deep and can be removed as well, but attacking 
  the walls can summon the Goddess.
  
  40
  The Goddess’ Heart
  The large central mound is deeper encased in 
  crystal than anything else - it’s thick, it takes 
  time to remove, and as soon as it’s breached, 
  even with only the smallest hole, the Goddess 
  comes to stop them. 
  If they hold her off and persist, though, as they 
  breach the crystal casing, she gets stranger. The 
  trappings of grief structures start to fall away, the 
  censers and robes and formal hats start to change, 
  and as the interior is exposed, she becomes more 
  consistent in the eyes of the adventurers. 
  As the adventurers chip away at the thick 
  crystal coating they become convinced they see a 
  person inside, and something else...
  When they open it up enough to clearly see the 
  interior of the crystal shell, the Goddess no 
  longer looks human, but like a draped ethereal 
  being, ten-limbed, with long hair that swims 
  around her robes. Her face is vaguely humanoid, 
  with two eyes and a mouth, and someone has 
  painted it. There are dry flowers falling from her 
  robes. Her eyes are actually closed.
  She can also make conversation now - instead 
  of spouting platitudes, she is able to engage in 
  dialogue, though much like someone just on the 
  edge of sleep. Her language is clipped, a little 
  awkward, like she is translating herself into a 
  language she’s not familiar with.
  The Goddess expresses distress that they are 
  uncovering this thing, which she refers to as 
  herself, but can be reassured that they mean no 
  harm. When adventurers mention the person 
  they see inside, she seems to remember, and 
  maybe regret, something. If they let her think 
  about this, they will be able to convince her to let 
  
  41
  them unearth what is inside without further 
  violence.
  They find inside it a huge heart - the size of a 
  four-poster bed. It is as much made of flesh as the 
  ethereal scavengers - a strange, unusual flesh. 
  Pressed against it, hugging it, is another sleeping 
  person, an older woman in very out of date 
  clothes. The huge heart is beating - but slowly, 
  immensely slowly, and with only the smallest 
  movement. If anyone checks her pulse, the old 
  woman's heart is beating in time with the large 
  one while she is pressed against it.
  If adventurers go to peel the old woman off the 
  heart, they hear the Goddess protest - she no 
  longer fights them, but she weeps and with 
  conversation and magical lore the adventurers 
  may realize that this old woman is somehow 
  fused to the heart, keeping the Goddess alive. The 
  Goddess tells the adventurers that she was laid to 
  rest here, but this woman came to her and gave 
  her a new purpose. She doesn't know who she is 
  or what will happen without that purpose. She 
  seems a little scared of laying back to rest.
  She can't tell them much about her life before 
  being laid to rest. She drops hints of being a 
  springtime Goddess - someone who made the 
  flowers grow, caused the mountains to crystallize 
  into beautiful forms, called the moon to sing to 
  the sea - and she also drops hints that she is 
  impossibly ancient.
  Someone with an expertise in magical lore may 
  place her as an ancient Goddess and may pick up 
  on the funeral garb she wears - the face paint, 
  dried flowers - and could conclude that they are 
  standing in her grave. Only her physical heart 
  remains; the rest of her has long decayed, 
  despite her crystal defenses. 
  
  42
  The Rescued People from the Caves
  Each 
  person 
  extracted 
  from 
  a 
  crystal 
  sarcophagus is asleep, unwakeable, while in the 
  cave. They can be safely carried, and if they are 
  given a piece of crystal and accompanied by 
  someone with a piece of crystal, they can be 
  taken back through the pool to the other side, 
  where they wake up. 
  In the cave adventurers can rescue Marko, as 
  well as two or three other folks found in crystal 
  casing around the red caves. These three other 
  folks are in dated clothing, and are from the 
  near or more distant past - though all were 
  villagers here in Phylinecra in their lifetimes. 
  Pull one of these people from a player's character's 
  family history - a lost great aunt or mysterious 
  great grandparent or such. 
  They each came to the caves in the same way: 
  after a tragic loss - the death of someone they 
  cared deeply about - and in their distress they 
  were drawn to the sacred pool and found 
  themselves facing the Goddess in the water. 
  Pulled into her cave, their distress only 
  magnified and she encased them in the 
  calming, immutable crystal.
  
  43
  The Ghost Houses
  There are a few ways to approach the ghost 
  houses; if adventurers go to the surface and 
  attempt to chip away at the crystal of the 
  houses without weakening the Goddess or the 
  pillars at all, they see it grow back faster than 
  they can destroy it.
  If they remove the objects from the pillars 
  they can climb the holes that lead up through 
  the void and then the soil into the houses and 
  return them to the hands of the person encased 
  in the crystal. At that point the crystal house 
  starts to weaken, threading through with flaws 
  and cracks, and can be destroyed with melee 
  weapons. Whoever climbed up the hole will be 
  unable to re-enter the Goddess’ caves through 
  the hole as soon as the object is replaced - the 
  hole closes, and the connection to the void and 
  the Goddess’s cave disappears, and all they find 
  at the bottom if they fight through the crystal is 
  hard soil and stone. They must be smashed out 
  of the ghost house along with the sleeper. 
  
  44
  Killing the Goddess
  Adventurers may choose to rescue the woman 
  holding the Goddess’s heart, despite the 
  Goddess’s unhappiness with that plan. The 
  Goddess won’t physically stop them at this 
  point - she’s lost, unsure of what she is 
  supposed to be doing, and adventurers can 
  point out that she’s doomed this woman to an 
  uncanny eternal sleep as long as she’s holding 
  that heart. Adventurers might also see from her 
  sleeping face and dreamy conversation that the 
  Goddess has also doomed herself to an uncanny 
  eternal sleep. Adventurers might also be 
  disinterested in her plight after the things that 
  have happened to their friends and family. 
  Either way, she’s done fighting them once her 
  heart is exposed, and they can pull the sleeping 
  woman off it without any physical intervention.
  When they pull the old woman off, the heart 
  stops beating. It was a low, deep, impossibly 
  slow sound, but then it stops. And the caves feel 
  suddenly colder, and the grinding of the 
  ethereal scavengers grows stronger, grating on 
  everyone’s ears. 
  The Goddess grows faint, flickering again 
  insubstantially, but this time not between 
  shapes the adventurers are familiar with - now 
  she is shifting between her eight-armed form 
  and things much stranger: images that seem 
  like they are tree roots, but made of crystal; 
  clouds, but of small flowers; a rainfall of seeds 
  and beetles, and things stranger still. She walks 
  over to her heart, now bare and still, and lays 
  her own arms - or tree branches - or glittering 
  rivers - on its cold surface, and envelops it in 
  her image. A sense of her old self re-emerges, 
  her 
  original scale 
  suddenly 
  apparent 
  as 
  
  45
  ethereal and flickering rivers, rain, clouds, 
  seeds, leaves, pollen, beetles, birds and other 
  springtime memories start to form a strange 
  anatomy, filling the caverns. As she settles in, a 
  ringing sound moves through the crystal 
  architecture, and a river of flaws, faint hairline 
  cracks and instabilities moves out from the 
  heart, throughout the entirety of the caves.
  At the same time, the grinding of the ethereal 
  scavengers strikes a strange rhythm, as they all 
  work in unison to reenter the now undefended 
  cavern. When they do, the first rush of them 
  move to consume the heart, but those who can’t 
  access it approach any soul they can find - 
  whether a living adventurer, anyone still 
  encased in crystal sarcophagi, or even a 
  memorial 
  object 
  encased 
  in 
  the 
  walls. 
  Adventurers need to grab crystal shards, rescue 
  anyone they haven’t already, and escape the 
  crumbling caverns to the pool as quickly as 
  possible, fighting off ethereal scavengers along 
  the way. 
  If the Goddess is laid to rest before the ghost 
  houses are dealt with, they will be weakened 
  and flawed when adventurers approach them to 
  dismantle them after their escape from the 
  caves. 
  
  46
  Keeper of the Goddess’s Heart
  Once taken off the heart, the sleeping 
  woman’s own heartbeat slowly speeds up, 
  reaching a natural sleeping rate after a few 
  minutes, and her face brightens slightly. She 
  wakes up when taken through the pool back to 
  the surface world. Her name was Sorna Omarn, 
  and she was part of the group, hundreds of 
  years ago, of nomadic performers who chose 
  this place to build themselves a permanent 
  home.
  Once woken, she is weak and frail and tired, 
  but she has not aged, and she seems relieved 
  and also sad to be up on the surface again. She 
  confirms the rumoured tale of someone who 
  sought the Goddess, and tells a story of a spring 
  Goddess who was still bringing gorgeous 
  weather, gorgeous wilderness and more to the 
  area. 
  Sorna met her when she was sitting beside the 
  pool, eager to settle down but grieving the life 
  they were leaving behind. The Goddess appeared 
  to her and gave her comfort, almost as if 
  responding to Sorna’s emotional state, appearing 
  in fashions that reminded her of the places she’d 
  traveled and the people she’d known, and Sorna 
  became obsessed, eventually diving into the pool 
  to join the Goddess. She found her in a soil cave, 
  an ethereal image that flickered to look like 
  whatever 
  Sorna 
  was 
  missing, 
  and 
  Sorna 
  eventually realized that she was living in a cave 
  with a ghost, or nearly a ghost.
  Her new sadness upset the Goddess further, 
  and the first crystals formed in her attempt to 
  comfort Sorna. As Sorna realized that her 
  presence and emotional demands were actually 
  what was now keeping this ghost here, she felt 
  
  47
  guilty and cruel, and when she fell upon the 
  Goddess’ heart to try and comfort the Goddess, 
  her 
  sadness 
  grew 
  into 
  the 
  crystals 
  the 
  enveloped 
  them 
  both. 
   
  Freed 
  now, 
  she 
  remembers strange, springtime dreams while 
  she slept under the comfort of the crystals, and 
  she certainly mourns the Goddess.
  
  48
  Final Choices
  Depending on your adventurers' actions, 
  there may or may not be a Goddess still under 
  the Blessed Isle; adventurers have to decide 
  what they tell the other townsfolk. If they go 
  back to the community centre without having 
  seen anyone since they fell in the pond, folks 
  will be awed that they are alive. Townsfolk are 
  excited and then disappointed that those they 
  rescued aren’t the recently lost folks, but there’s 
  beds and hot food for them all. 
  If they do explain things to the other 
  townsfolk, they’ll be asked a few questions:
  • Is it over?
  • Is it safe to stay here?
  • Is it our fault?
  • Should we build the Goddess a shrine?
  
   
  
   
  The Ghost Houses of Phylinecra is a 
  story-heavy, system-agnostic 
  dungeon crawl.
  The town of Phylinecra has suffered a terrible 
  fate at the hands of a torrential flood, but as the 
  townsfolk try to rebuild and restart in the 
  aftermath, they find their home invaded and 
  their loved ones encased by ghostly crystalline 
  forms of the houses they lost.
  Solving this mystery will take adventurers to 
  the Blessed Isle and into the Red Caves to face 
  the Goddess in her own territory. Will they find 
  the connections between her world and theirs? 
  Can they untangle this haunting mystery?
  This is a Pocket Dungeon, designed to launch 
  a campaign or run smoothly as a one-shot.
  Learn more about all the other Pocket 
  Dungeons at pocketdungeons.portablecity.net
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Goblin Laws of Gaming (GLOG) (osr)/Dungeons _ Modules/The Ghost Houses of Phylinecra/The Ghost Houses of Phylinecra Web File.pdf