Far from the light of day, only reachable after more than a day of spelunking, lies the Cave of Crying. It has its name from the wails of children that come out of it from time to time. They echo in a vast crevice right before its opening, a crevice so wide and deep that the PC´s light will not be able to reach its other end or buttom. It is part of the Veins of Earth. The entry may be reached via a ledge that leads to it. It is sometimes about two yards wide, sometimes as narrow as two feet. The latter is a welcome obstacle against any intruders by the monster whose lair gave the cave it names: a Trogloraptor.

For those who are not aware of what the Veins of the Earth or a Trogloraptor are: the following mini-dungeon (in 2 parts) is about a child-stealing, parent-eating monster spider and its lair, full of dead or dying children. The “heroes” of the Veins are crazed, often starving and potentially cannibalistic adventurers whose sanity and motivations is even more questionable than that of “regular” LotFP player characters. If this and the implications included in this give you a knot in your stomaching and/or an angst-born numb feeling, you do not wish to continue.

Final Disclaimer: this is not “official” or “cannon” in regard to the Veins. I am not affiliated with Patrick Stuart, and my work may be a horrible use of the Veins´ very own Trogloraptor (p.143). I made some abilities up on a “need-to-have” basis. Personally, I think it will be good as a bid of fodder or quick one-evening session for the Veins (I did not play tested it yet). The map is a modified version of Dyson Logo´s the Skittering Caves.

How do the characters become aware of the Cave of Crying? Why should they bother to go inside?

#1: The characters hear the horrible echoes of a child´s screams as it is eaten alive by the Trogloraptor, and they do not happen to be soulless monsters (yet).

#2: They find a trail of child fingers and toes (that the Trogloraptor left behind for the parents, which are WAY behind the characters) and decide to investigate: either out of curiosity or the hunger that gnaws away at them so much that they REALLY do not care anymore what they may eat as long as it does not mean a(nother) inter-party-kill.

#3: A Knotsman (p.73) hired them. The Trogloraptor crossed a line by stealing one of THEIR children. They already had send Weeping Knights after it, but they did not return. It is more convenient for the Knotsmen as a whole to send outlandish adventurers after the Trogloraptor than to risk more of their own (who are, after all, some other Knotsman´s children). They want the beast DEAD. If the PC are able to bring any missed Knotsmen back alive, the better.

#4: The Aelf-Adal (p.156) hired them to steal living(!) children from the Trogloraptor. They could have done this themselves, but why doing so if a few trinkets (light, food, some baubles) motivate somebody else to enter a situation that is likely to give them nightmares in the aftermath…?

#5: The characters are all from the world above and have never been in the Veins before. Their attempt to rescue the lately kidnapped children on their parents behalf will lead them down there. The Trogloraptor is not pleased with the situation. This is not what it had planned…

#6: The characters ARE the parents of the lately kidnapped children (as well as -their- brothers/sisters or eldest sons/daughters). This works best with a “character level ZERO; funnel style” approach.

The way to the Crevice

The Crevice (which is not named, to make it easier to add it to a given Veins´ World) should be at least six hours of travel away from the character´s current position (much more if they are not in the Veins, see above). As the Trogloraptor is described as having “the size of an affordable car”, most of the route should lead through rather comfortable or large shafts, tunnels and caves. It is up to the GM to include a few dangerous climbs and/or other encounters and obstacles. The travel should only be free of encounters with other dangerous Veins´ dwellers, as the Trogloraptor will have picked an isolated spot of the underworld for its own lair. Having the PC encounter old and rotting human bones (adult, child or both) should be fine: after all, the Trogloratpor usually plans its prey to be exhausted BEFORE it can reach its nest, and may devour it on the spot instead of wrapping it up and tugging it along “for later”.

The Ledge to the Cave Opening

Two things need to be emphasized about it: it is narrow to the point of being dangerous at different section, and it takes quiet some time (perhaps two or three turns) till the entry to the Cave of Cries comes into sight. If the characters are smart enough to check the surface of the crevice wall below them, they will see lots and lots of thick silky strands (the Trogloratpors “webbing lines”), about 10´feet below. These become important in the final. If the characters want to deal with them AND have the means to (fire, something to reach so deep and the time to melt away the thick strands foot by foot), they deserve to “sabotage” this plot point.

About the Map and the Cave of Cries in General

The characters will have to enter the cave (which truly is a set of sub caves) from the west. The exits to the east open into another vast cave, the wall of which is nearly vertical. The floor is out of sight (and a drop would be deadly) while the ceiling is about 20´ above. This is the Trogloraptors “exit route”, it has covered the walls with a lot of sticky, thick strands to assist it in climbing and to hinder any would-be pursuers.

The inside of the caves have been mostly formed by water that pooled up in it or streamed through (before the chasms left and right cut all of the water off). Their surfaces are thereby smooth. The central tunnel (leading right through from west to east) has a diameter between three and almost 10 yards at its largest point (its opening into the northern part is about two yards wide. Take this for scale). The only exceptions to this rule of thumb are the passage that leads out of the main tunnel into the norther part (it 2 yards wide but 6 yard high, with a cross section akin to a 0) and the small passage in the last part of the main tunnel that leads into the southern part (one yard in diameter).

The “steps” on the map are changes in level (large = upper end // small = lower end) that are equal to slopes (not much of a problem outside of an encounter/combat situation). The other elevation lines are 80 degree and (if not noted otherwise) end about 2/3 of the height of the tunnel or cave. The “webbing lines” are exactly that: a cluster of thick, sticky strands that criss-cross the path and block it entirely. The Troglodyte may part them with one pair of limbs and slip through before letting go again (which has them snap back), but characters will have to cut through them: this takes one round with a suiting bladed weapon (but reduces its damage by one till 3 rounds were spend cleaning the blade), two rounds with a minor bladed weapon or three rounds with any other tool. Burning (or better: melting) through them with fire takes only 1 round. The small “bulges” on the map are cocoons in which the Trogloraptor keeps its prey (see the different entries for the description of their content). Opening them up takes as much time as it does to by-pass a web barrier. Melting them away with fire deals damage to what is inside. The webbing is so thick that it is impossible to tell what is inside each cocoon before it has been opened.

The Trogloraptor and You

This 3 HD monster is no thread for any group of armed and armored adventures in a stand-up fight. Luckily, next to none of what I just wrote fits the situation of the encounter. The Trogloraptor is cunning, in its own lair and will rather play a cat-and-mouse game with any intruders instead of facing them head on. The characters will have traveled through the Veins to reach this position: they wil be exhausted and unlikely to wear heavy armor/gear (or be even more exhausted).

It will deliberately make noise while it moves around in plain sight of the intruders, only to have an extra element of surprise once it sneaks back in without making a sound (see below).

Due to its long limbs, it may attack an opponent from up to 10´away, and thereby gets an attack long before the opponent may strike.

It will wait behind webbing and attack those that step through or try to cut through from the other side (blind attack), and remains out of range for melee counter attack (as long as the webbing blogs the way).

It will move backwards at half speed when the enemy closes in, still able to part webbing behind it to slip through (see above). It will !NEVER! Enter area 09 while there are intruders in its lair, as it knows that it would be trapped there.

If pressed or wounded, it will turn round and run to one of the eastern exits once there is some webbing between it and the intruders. At first, it will wait ABOVE the opening it left through to grab anyone cutting through the webbing in an attempt to THROW a pursuer into the chasm (grapple). If nobody appears or the attempt fails, it will move up along the wall and out of sight, before it tries to get back in again through a different entry.

If it has lost more than half of its hit points, the Trogloraptor will retreat and literaly throw the two children on its back at the intruders. Afterwards it will flee through one of the eastern exists and not try to enter its lair again before a turn has passed. Afterwards, it will still try to avoid the characters in its lair, but when it is empty it will follow them outside. There, it will move along the sharp slope down into the chasm, and about 6 feet below the end of the ledge where the PC are on. From this point on, it will try to grab a character to pull him or her over the edge UNLESS it takes another hit. If this happens and it is still alive, the hit will cost it one of its hook-finger limbs and it will give up for good.

Next stop: Key locations in the Lair of the Childrobber