Paper Cult, Wasp Vault

The Paper Cult thought they were incredibly lucky to find an abandonned paper wasp nest to call home. They’re not so lucky anymore.

This is my submission for the Paper Cult forum 1st anniversary jam. It is a really cool modern forum for the kind of long thoughtful discussion microblogging apps had killed off for so long¹. It’s been pretty fun so far, even if I am terrible at getting involved, and I have been waiting for an excuse to make something pocket-mod sized.

As far as dungeon writing goes it is also an excuse to make something without pressuring myself for it to be good. So this has not been playtested or laid out on a computer². This is raw unfiltered Danny Fist - so that you all may understand my wife’s suffering. I even did little doodles just to make Mr Squiggle proud.

For those alergic to printing and folding things I have included the dungeon below. Though I would question why you hate fun so much.

Paper Cult, Wasp Vault

Encounter Table

1. 2 cultists carrying freshly written scrolls.
2. 1d4 undead wasps emerge from the paper walls
3. 2 undead wasps carrying a half dead cultist to their queen

Map

1

Behind a heavy wooden door inset into the thick paper walls, a room lit by ethereal light. In the center stands…

The Door Guardian 12 HP, 1 Armor, 14 STR, 11 DEX, 12 WIL, nibbed spear (d10)

• Clad in origami armor, immovable, man of few words.
• Only lets members of the cult in.
• Fire destroys his armor

2

Walls are inscribed with text of all languages extolling the virtue of paper. The floor in the center of the room is damp and pulpy. Walking across the center of the room causes the floor to give way. DEX save or land on the pen nibs in the pit trap below (d6).

3

Shelves packed with scrolls cover the walls. The scrolls, upon inspection are rare (200gp), with a 1 in 6 chance the scroll taken is a spell scroll. In the center of the room is an illuminated manuscript of the cult’s holy text (1000gp).

4

Bunk room, where the cult uses the wasp-comb for sleep. Looking into the combs reveals wasp corpses buried in the walls, and a passage to 6. There is a 2 in 6 chance the wasps return to life.

Undead Wasp 2 HP, 8 STR, 12 DEX, 3 WIL, Undead sting (d6)

• Hive mind, both literal and pun wise.
• Smash the head or you’ll be seeing ‘em again in minutes
• Crit: Infected and deprived will be zombie in 1d4 days if not treated

5

Copper distilling equipment for creating magic ink from the rare midnight mushroom. Ink can be used to make spell books and scrolls. Currently there is enough ink to make one spell book. The equipment itself is bulky.

6

A fetid nest almost filled with the undead husk of a wasp queen. Her mandible can approximate common speech and her limbs clutch a fist sized gem glowing with necromantic energy. Destroying the gem un-undeads the wasps.

Lich-Wasp Queen 16 HP, 10 STR, 6 DEX, 15 WIL, Queen’s sting (d8 + d8)

• Can cast: Comprehend, Phobia, Raise Dead
• Crit: Instant anaphylaxis target takes d8 STR damage.

1. Seriously if I see another thread instead of a blog or forum post again I will have to go back in time and start blowing up data centers. ↩︎

2. Other than typing up the text and the map obviously. I’m not so much of a monster as to expose you to that much of my hand writing. ↩︎