LAST LIGHT — The Ashen Testament

All six core classes use their ability generation, HP, silver, starting armor restrictions, and omen dice. Each has a curated signature loadout rather than the full random gift table: Scum gets Escaping Fate, the Hermit gets Speaker of Truths, Royalty gets an ancestral blade and jester, the Priest gets a stolen mitre and an extra sacred scroll. Classless characters keep the best three of four dice for Strength and Agility.

Roll d20 + ability against the difficulty rating. Melee uses Strength; ranged attacks use Presence; defense uses Agility. Armor absorbs damage but hinders Agility. Carrying over 8 + Strength items adds 2 DR to Strength and Agility. Critical attacks double damage and reduce armor; fumbles break weapons. A defense critical grants a counterattack; a fumble doubles incoming damage and reduces armor. Enemies may flee at low HP. Parley makes a once-per-fight 2d6 reaction check; 9+ ends the fight peacefully.

Declare an omen before an attack: lower DR by 4, maximize damage, reroll a failed attack, or neutralize a fumble. Arm a ward to spend an omen on the next incoming hit and reduce it by d6. These declared triggers adapt the tabletop’s freely timed omens. Camping replenishes an empty omen reserve. Scum retains each omen on a 50% roll.

All twenty named scrolls have playable effects. Daily uses are Presence + d4, minimum zero. Test Presence DR12: success spends a use; failure costs d2 HP and blocks casting for an hour. Natural 1 triggers an arcane catastrophe. Medium/heavy armor and a zweihänder block powers; Priests can wear medium armor. Deserters cannot read scrolls. The Rituals panel explains each effect.

Free-form magic is adapted to this adventure. Talking to the dead reveals the current adventure's central secret; animals find food once per chamber; telekinesis helps a search; flight helps an Agility test. Durations, summons, confusion, command, resurrection, and area spells are simplified for fixed scenes and a single foe. Catastrophes record scars and selected immediate consequences; they do not simulate every tabletop outcome literally. Temporary invisibility and HP expire when changing chambers.

Herbmasters brew d4 doses from two randomly selected decoctions each dawn. Old doses expire. All eight types are usable. Enemy-directed decoctions use an unmodified creature test. Delivery is automatic and costs a combat turn.

At 0 HP you may be broken; below 0, you die. Tend broken allies between fights; surviving companions help automatically. Medicine heals d6 HP and cures infection. Catch your breath once per room for d4 HP; camp for d6, consuming a ration. Infection prevents rest healing and deals d6 damage each dawn. After two foodless days, starvation deals d4 per day. Water is abstracted. Broken injuries use simplified treatment; scars record wounds without limb penalties.

Promises, rescued people, the reliquary, and forbidden knowledge change the ending. Vesper values mercy and uses medicine when wounded; Maw values profit and attacks with his teeth. Trust changes their dialogue. Speak with them in each chamber. Victory improves surviving characters: HP, shifting abilities, and possible loot.

The calendar die is chosen at creation. A 1 at dawn brings a misery; seven end the world. If no one is conscious or every human is dead, the expedition ends. Choose from four authored adventures; a continuing campaign, human GM mode, full random class gifts, complete bestiary, and equipment catalogue remain future work.