It’s midterm season and your party of brave student-adventurers is finally desperate enough to attend office hours. You meet one of the professors of Soul Studies in their office, but they are very busy. They require a task of you before they will adjust your grades and graciously permit you to pass their course.
Which professor do you need help from? Roll a six-sided die (1d6).
1-2. The Esoteric Professor of Occult Astrography. Begin in the Belltower office (3).
They wear a long lab coat stained by a thousand experiments and never look up from their telescope. They have tenure. Couldn’t care less about student life.
3-4. The Liturgical Professor of Exorcism and Insorcism. Begin in the Chapel office (9).
She’s a priest and will perform weddings for the party if needed. That’s it.
5-6. The Infernal Professor of Ethics and Contract Law. Begin in the Wealth and Hellness office (1).
He’s a devil and wants everything in writing. Will provide extra help in exchange for parts of your soul.
What task do they ask of you? Roll 1d6.
1-2. Disrupt a rival professor’s lecture before they can demonstrate their latest theory.
3-4. Steal a set of rare books, the <i>Encyclopedia Tyrannica</i>, from the library.
5-6. Collect 10 souls (bodies optional). Bring them to a lab room. Await further instruction.
Rooms
1.Wealth and Hellness: Bleak despite motivational posters. In exchange for 1 part of your soul, the staff will do one of the following after a 1d6 hour wait.
- Restore you to full health
- Cure a Soul Mutation
- Refer you to a specialist
The Infernal Professor works in the office. One-way slide to Soul Storage hidden beneath the professor’s desk.
2.Library: A maze of bookshelves, desks, and stressed studying students. Can navigate if character knows Dewey decimal system; otherwise need a Librarian’s help. Librarians will shush anything louder than a whisper three times, then attack viciously. Will skip the warnings for anyone trying to remove rare books or with late fees.
3. Belltower: Tall and erudite, rung when the department is in peril. 1d6 Lost Souls float around it, trying to add more to their number. No railings on a thin staircase. Astrography Professor’s office is found at the top.
4.Tutorial Labs: Sterile laboratories, cabinets full of science. All connected by vent system large enough for people (or other things) to crawl through.
4a. Cages of Lab Horrors lie open. One is still trapped. 1d4 more unseen, waiting in ambush.
4b. Experimental Soul Weaponry lab. Soul Gun: 1d6 damage, Charisma save versus soul loss on hit. Hell Gun: Sends ensouled targets to hell on hit. Firing the gun is a sin which dooms the wielder to damnation.
4c. Micro Rapture Laboratory: recreates the conditions of the end of days to test theories of bodily resurrection
5.Lecture Hall: Packed with students. A professor (roll for which) is demonstrating their Resurrection Machine. Won’t let anyone leave once they’ve entered until the lecture concludes. They have removed the soul of one undergrad “volunteer” and will put the soul back in. This takes 30 minutes of lecture, and the process will turn the “volunteer” into a hostile Doppelganger. Secret door at top of the hall leads down to Soul Storage.
Today’s Menu
“Meat” “Loaf”: Works as improvised weapon. Deals 1d8 damage.
Coffee: Scalding. Acidic. Melts through wood.
Boomberry Pie: Explodes on impact. Starts fires.
Cookies: To die for. Universally accepted as currency in department.
6.Student Cafe: A food fight between 1d20 Undergrads is underway. Players will be caught in the crossfire.
7.Heart House: A fleshy, soulless chamber. A huge, beating, dripping heart hangs overhead. Killing the heart turns off the electricity for the whole department. Drinking the heart’s blood restores 1 health but causes 1 Soul Mutation.
8.Chapel: Only those with a complete soul can enter. Seemingly non-denominational; fountains of holy water. Home to the Liturgical Professor’s office.
9.Soul Storage: Dim and cold, jars of souls and soul pieces are stacked on tall, easily toppled shelves. A one-way slide leads here from Wealth and Hellness. Drink a flask of soul fluid, regain 1 part of your soul and gain a soul mutation.
Whenever players enter a new room, roll 1d6. On a 5 or 6, there is a random wandering monster in addition to whatever’s going on.
Monsters
Undergrad: 3 Health, 11 Armor, 1d6 damage bookbag. Roam in packs of 1d6.
Professor: 20 Health, 11 Armor. 1d8 thrown book.
- Liturgical Professor’s attacks deal +1 damage per missing piece of Soul.
- Infernal Professor’s attacks inflict temporary Soul mutations.
- Esoteric Professor, on death, summons black hole that consumes all in 50 foot’ radius.
Book Golem: 15 Health, 13 Armor. Slams twice for d6 damage. When you hit it, make a Wisdom save. On failure, speech only understood by other academics. 10’ tall. Attacks silently.
Lab Horror: 13 Health, 13 Armor, 1d8 bite, save vs grab, save vs soul loss. Hard to describe. Sees souls through walls, crawls through vents
Librarian: 10 Health, 11 Armor, 1d4 ruler, shushes violently (save vs fear), reads code of conduct aloud (Intelligence save vs sleep)
Doppelganger: 7 Health, 12 Armor, 1d6 dagger. A soulless construct who imitates students. Allergic to art.
- Lost Soul: 4 Health, 11 Armor, 1d4 attack steals soul and inflicts 1 soul mutation. A floating almost-person, looking for all its parts.
When you lose a piece of your Soul, lose one of the following at random.
- Technology: You can’t use tools
- Language: You can’t speak, read, or write
- Magic: You cannot use or be affected by magic
- Skill: You can’t use non-magical abilities
- Hope: You can’t help anyone but yourself
- Community: Nobody will help you
Once you lose all 6, you die.
Soul Mutations (1d12)
- Magical effects don’t end on you.
- Animals can’t see you.
- Every change you make in the world (e.g. picking a lock) is undone an hour later.
- Water burns you, take 1d6 damage on contact.
- When in a circle like a ring of salt or small objects, you can’t leave.
- You can’t break promises.
- Your blood is visible through walls.
- You turn into a small bird at night.
- When you kill someone, you possess them.
- Teleport 50 feetin a random direction when injured.
- Your thoughts are audible.
- Sink into the ground when not moving.
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