PRISON OF THE
WORM QUEEN
An Adventure for Electric Bastionland
Written by Chris McDowall, 2020
www.bastionland.com
How to use this Adventure
This adventure is written with the goal of being
accessible to use at the table with minimal
preparation time beforehand.
Each location has things that are immediately
noticeable listed as bullets. Nested bullets below
each item are details that require interaction to
reveal. For example:
The Training Room
• Battered old desk
• Some burning damage on top
• Drawers have all been ripped out and
smashed on the ground
• Scraps of paper in the smashed up
drawers show the name “Ratterly”
• Broken Mirror on the wall
• Some of the damage was fierce enough to
damage the wall behind it
Elements are painted largely in broad strokes, so fill
the blanks and improvise around them.
Don’t get hung up on finding the correct answer to
any queries you have, your ideas are the new canon.
If in doubt, remember the fundamentals of making a
call:
• Be Honest - Give enough information to allow
for an interesting choice. Don’t be afraid about
giving too much away, there’s enough mystery to
go around.
• Be Fair - Give warnings but follow through on
your word and make success and failure both
viable outcomes.
• Be Confident - However you decide to run
with a particular element of the adventure, be
bold with it! Describe places as if you’ve been
there yourself, embellish with details, and use
silly voices.
The group start £10,000 in debt as usual, but have
been given a solid lead that could pay off most of
this in a single job!
Following this lead has led to Dwamsgarden
where they have arranged to meet their contact, the
Wormgirls in Club DIRT.
DWAMSGARDEN
• Muddy ground with boardwalks connecting filthy buildings.
• Smell of damp cabbage.
• A thumping beat can be heard from the direction of Club DIRT
CLUB DIRT
(allotment/rave)
• Filthy people dancing on vegetable-beds to
pounding drum music
• Four young women and one old man talking
intently around a wobbly table in the corner.
• The four Wormgirls share a sort of
collective-consciousness and want to make
the whole world dirty so that everybody is
equal in service of the Worm Queen.
Imagine teenage goths but idolosing filth
instead of sullenness.
• The Queen has been taken by an
anonymous captor.The reward for her
recovery is £5000, plus whatever the Queen
herself decides to pay (they hint this will be
a VAST sum).They stress the importance
that she be treated appropriately for a
queen, but are vague on any details of her
specific nature beyond praising her.
• The Dirtseer (old man with worm-infested
eye sockets behind a blindfold) has scried
her location as being beneath in the
Underground, below Hog Hall.
• Before leaving, he insists that you take
one of three items to help in the job:
• Veg-Head in a Soundproof Bag.
Constantly screams.
• Worm-Spade:A heavy, sharpened
shovel (d6, Bulky).Anything chopped
off will regrow into a full being over
the next week, but they come out
super-weird.
• Grub-Nectar:A jar of slimy yellow
caviar. Normally slippery but sticks
to flesh like glue. Sweet-salty taste
will rouse anybody from
unconsciousness.
HOG HALL
The Master of Rolls: Gluttonous Mock Hedgehog
Judge (5hp, d8 Ivory Pistol)
The Staff are milling around.They are:

Sal the Mock Newt Butler (3hp, DEX 18, hates

• Hates all real animals, especially invertebrates.
• Always snacking from a pouch of slugs, one by
one: salting them, sniffing them, chewing them
and spitting them out.
• A generous host, but threatens to have you
dragged to Mock Court at the slightest
provocation before laughing it off as a joke.
• Allows entry to his cellar as long as you vow to
give him anything valuable you find below.
The Hall has treasures of its own.
• Three paintings of Master triumphing over
animals (£1k each)
Master and how badly he treats real animals. Has the
manner of an insincere sommelier)
Krusta the Mock Shrimp Cleaner (2hp, pushing
heavy prototype carpet-cleaner, just wants Sal to be
happy. Has the manner of an overly-servile waiter)
Musty the Mock Badger Bodyguard (6hp, STR
15, d8 Blast Windup-Shotgun, smells awful, fiercely
loyal to Master, has the manner of an overprotective
brother)
When the Master of Rolls comes down to the cellar
he will start sniffing the air frantically, before calming
himself. He now has the scent of the Worm Queen
and will secretly begin to plan his own expedition to
capture and eat her.

• Master’s Fine Clothes (six outfits worth £1k

each).

• The Cellar contains a dozen cases of fine wine

(£500 each) and winds down into a boarded-up
hatch to the Underground, specifically the Wet
Caves.
WET CAVES
• Rough natural rock with patches of algae

• Occasional puddles of filthy water

• Wooden supports prop up tunnels

1: Dank Pool

• Foul smelling pool of water

• Is actually well beyond 10ft deep

• Can be skirted around

• Water too murky to see to bottom

• Occasional bubbles

• Disturbing the water awakens a White

Crocodile (4hp, d8 jaws, flees to the
depths if hurt)

2: Sprawling Cavern • Stone Altar with a heavy wooden box

• Rough grey stone walls • Shoebox Sized

• Warm to the touch • Covered in wax, totally sealed

• Grey lizards (harmless) occasionally scurry • Faint screaming from within

across the surface
• Contains inert grey powder.
• Passageway North
• Reacts only to living touch, causing the
• Winds out of sight ash to whirl about in a screaming storm.
Eventually forms an...
• Crack in the South Wall
• Ash Wraith (3hp, ignores normal
• Can see that it leads through to a corridor, weapon attacks, d6 grabbing claws)
but needs to be blasted open.
• On Critical Damage it drains the
• Shoddy Wooden Ladder victim’s soul and returns to its box.
Those without a soul live on, but
• Breaks under any weight at all remove their CHA score,
automatically passing/failing CHA
• Leads to a crawl-space that provides saves as appropriate for a soulless
shortcut to 6 being.
3: Unstable Shack 6: Rickety Scaffolding

• Wooden doors on passageways to the S,W, E
• West: Locked.Too sturdy to kick down, but
other means would work.
• Makeshift walls and floors made from rotten
planks of wood.
• Bad drawings on the wall of a White Crocodile
and Machine-Monsters
• Rotten wooden platforms leading both
downwards and upwards.
• Collapse under any unsupported weight (d6
damage and DEX Save to avoid leg damage)
• Downward: Rough chute deeper
underground
• Upward: Glowing from roof of the cave

• Two bedrolls on the ground, empty food cans • 3 growths of highly explosive fungus (d6
blast)
• Long abandoned

4: Silver Ooze Cave

• Tight squeeze space.

• Narrow crack running across the floor.

• Silvery glint from inside.

• Chemical odour

• Disturbing it awakens the Silver Ooze

(5hp, ignores normal weapons, reshapes at
will, d10 slam/stab/constrict and absorb on
Critical Damage.Won’t leave its cave.)

5: Hidden Store Room

• Two Old Muskets (d8, bulky, break on a roll of

1)

• A longaxe (d8, bulky)

• A towering stash of canned food (sardines,

casserole, mushy peas)

• Hides a tiny jewellery box (modest

jewellery worth £200 total)

• A flimsy-looking chest marked “DIAMOND

STASH”

• Tiny shards of glass-like crystal around the

lock

• Break to release a toxic gas (d8 STR loss

from choking)
BLUE TUNNELS
• Concrete tunnels painted dark blue and studded with seashells

• Sand in larger chambers

• Star Lamps in the ceiling

Encounters are now active.

Roll d6 when the group advance, make noise, or
linger.

1: An Encounter immediately meets them.

2-3: Roll an Encounter and give a clue that it is

nearby.

4+: All Clear

1:The Terminus

• Concrete walls with faded posters of holiday

Encounters destinations.

1:ABYSS (see Level 3) bursting through a wall in a • Machine Terminal

hit and run attack.
2:Two Snail Drones (Sea Snails mounted on
monstrous mechanical bodies. 5hp,Armour 1, d8
lash, maintaining and decorating the halls in an ocean
theme to please ABYSS)
3: Dire Snail (10hp,Armour 2, d8 horns or glue
spray. Can shriek out to call for ABYSS)
4: Master of the Rolls hunting the Worm Queen
with Musky
5: Lost Wormgirl Scout (3hp, d8 Spike Rifle,
assortment of specialist lamps that she’s dying to try
out)
6:Alpha Rocklizard desperate for meat (8hp,
Armour 1, d6 Bite and d6 Tail Lash on two targets,
can phase in and out of rock)
• Appears dead.
• If stirred with an electric jolt,“BUNNY”
awakens. She is an optimistic but unhelpful
companion-machine, designed to look after
those forced to live in isolation.
2: Electric Hell
• Sparking wires and broken machinery
everywhere
• Can be navigated safely VERY SLOWLY.
Anybody rushing through takes d10 damage.
• Master switch in the centre of the room
deactivates the power, but also cuts all the
lights and kills BUNNY.
3: Night Beetle Nest
• Room walled off with a papery barrier
• Entirely taken over by a Night Beetle Hive,
which now fills the room
• The swarm (5hp, d6 bite, detachment. Each is
dog sized. Only wants to eat light sources)
4: Morgue
• Cold room with two rows of metal doors on
the south wall
• Each door lists a name and “KILLED BY
ABYSS”
• Walker Mack
• Fresh body, pistol (d6) and
military uniform
• “Angry One”
• Foul rotten corpse, nothing left
• “Sad One”
• Foul rotten corpse, a silver
worm-ring (worthless, but the
Wormgirls will pay up to £1k)
5:Waiting Haven
• Old fashioned leather seats and tables with
faded newspapers
5-6:The Stretch
This stretch of space is different each time the
group enters, as the Underground constantly shifts
beneath reality.When they traverse the stretch they
always meet one Encounter, which is rolled as
normal.
Roll d6 for the nature of the Stretch.
1: A spiral stairway down, impossible darkness on all
sides. If you press on it takes 30 minutes.
2: Well-maintained metal walkway over a seemingly
bottomless pit.
3: A railway tunnel.An automated shuttle arrives
after a moment. Its machine speaks through the PA
and gives safety advice before warning that ABYSS
will tear apart anybody trespassing.
4: A foul sewage-side path. Disturbing the water
awakens a Sludge Spirit (10hp, d8 Acid Smash,
wants to make you as ugly as they are)
5: A maze of steel boxes filled with electronics.
Damaging them alerts ABYSS but also halves his HP.
6: A vast abandoned warehouse, all stock rotten or
smashed.
6: Spare Parts Chapel
• A vast church-like room decorated with bones
• Bones are from whales and other large
marine creatures
• Set of Shark Jaws with a golden urn inside
• The jaws are inert, and the urn is worth
£2k to the right buyer
• Urn contains spare shark-teeth
• Huge display screen sits dormant
• Bloody spike on a thick cable sits below the
screen
• Plugging a machine or creature with this
spike causes their desires to be
projected onto the screen
7:The Aquarium
• Dimly lit room flanked by two large glass tanks
• One is an enclosure for pale sea snails that
are happily crawling around eating algae
• The other is empty, but much larger and
ornately decorated with colourful coral and
weeds
8: Security Checkpoint
• Two Snail Drones guard a set of downward
stairs
• They won’t let anybody through without a
good reason, and if in doubt they call for
ABYSS
• They’re currently bickering about whether
life was better in the ocean or here
9:The Gutting Room
• Stench of fish
• Twelve Snail Drones working away on metal
tables
• Cleaning up the corpse of several large fish,
carefully cleaning the bones and throwing
the meat aside.
ABYSS’ CHAMBER
Massive underground lake with a rocky outcrop, where the Worm Queen is stranded, unable to swim.
Star lamps studded into stalactites and hanging rock formations above (d12 damage if triggered to fall)
Roll to see what ABYSS is doing (unless already alerted):
1: Lying in ambush for you under the water
2-3: Arguing with the Worm Queen about something inane
4-6: Docked into his terminal, unaware of you
ABYSS - Whalebone Machine
Somewhere between a whale skeleton and a mecha.
STR 15, DEX 5, 8hp,Armour 2,Two Scything Bones
(d10 each) or Steam Spray (d6 Blast)
• Wants to bring the ocean to his domain
• Wants to use the Worm Queen as bait to catch
a worthy companion
• Can tether a victim with his Mind Hook (DEX
Save or Abyss takes control of one character,
performing one action before losing connection)
The Worm Queen
Anaconda-sized pink worm
STR 5, DEX 5, 2hp.
• Has two tiny arms just below her head, which
has a crown-like bony crest.
• Speaks like an elderly queen in a soft, barely
audible voice and expects to be treated with the
highest respect.
• Worms will follow her orders diligently, but she
smells delicious to anything that would eat
worms.
• If returned, she pays £5,000 in gems if treated
perfectly to her royal standards, but strikes off
£1,000 for even the most trivial slights.At the
very least she offers a pardon for all past crimes
against wormkind.