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Best Left Buried - Spoils of The Gorgon Coast (v1) (2020)
Best Left Buried - Spoils of The Gorgon Coast (v1) (2020)
Best Left Buried - Spoils of The Gorgon Coast (v1) (2020)
Cox 1
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2
Spoils of
the
Gorgon Coast
Published By
SoulMuppet Publishing
Writing
Brian Richmond, www.goatmangoblet.com
Art
Ben Brown, @IllustratorBB
Editing
Jarrett Crader
Fiona Geist
Zachary Cox
Project By
Zachary Cox
3
Part One: Regarding this Book
Introduction
ALL THAT ONCE WAS IN ANCIENT TAUROCHTALIA is broken: its
slave‑haunted port, colosseum of atrocities and once vaunted people. By hubris
alone, the Empire of Blackened Horns fell; the impossible accomplished not by
mortal man’s hateful hand but the overreach of decadent nobility brought low by
petulant children wishing to take the Blackened Throne for themselves. Over 300
years, the Gorgon’s Coast regressed into a monster-haunted backwater—spoken of
with venom-laced words by those of fearless Maigne and dour Jerrod.
In the modern age’s waning days, ill-tidings emerge from the empire’s long rotten
corpse: Inheritors—claimants to the Blackened Throne of Ancient Taurochtalia—
seek mercenaries, freeblades, and Cryptdiggers to plunder the ruins of tarnished
antiquity and combat their rivals.
The Cult of Chalices offers indulgences and anointment to those walking this
path of reclamation, for the Empire’s rebirth is nascent. If the shores are choked
with dead and the meadows run fallow with charnel horrors—such is the price of
ambition—even if it leaves them rulers of ruin, inbred butchers upon stolen palatial
thrones, liege lords over the dead and damned.
Such is life on the Gorgon Coast since ancient days where men cowered in cliff-side
caves fearing monsters to Ancient Taurochtalia’s hedonistic heights where such
beasts were bedded in malevolent menageries. For all the land’s natural marvel and
beauty it is afforded only violence and man’s capacity for cruelty.
What is this?
Spoils of the Gorgon Coast allows the owner to create their own version of the titular region
as a hex-crawl campaign. There is no true or canonical Gorgon Coast. Your version can be a
monster-infested war zone or a curiously peaceful region of enlightenment. This is a toolbox,
make what you desire.
4
How do I, the DOOMSAYER
DOOMSAYER,, prepare a campaign?
To use this book you also need a standard array of roleplaying dice (D4, D6, D8, D10, D12,
D20) or access to an online dice roller. You also need paper for drawing on. A hex-grid is
recommended but choose the scale yourself.
With these materials in hand consider the following while preparing the campaign map—
suggestions for campaign use spotlighting the War of Inheritance.
I. Taurochtalia and the Ashen City as presented on pg 6 and pg 9 respectively are intended
to be located at the Gorgon Coast’s center, bordering the sea.
II. Hexes bordering the sea should be Shores or Cliffs. With Cliffs consider using the
secondary Coast randomizers to determine features at their base.
III. Bordering sea-side hexes are Meadows containing Cities and Hamlets.
IV. Given the hostility between City-States place them sparingly. A struggle between at
least three City-States is suggested with at least two Hamlets to occupy and oppress.
V. South, beyond the Meadows, the ground becomes rockier and Valleys are abundant.
VI. Past the Valleys are Mountains—placed immediately or used with Cliffs or Meadows
buffering between the Valley and Mountain hexes.
VII. Ruins derived from a biome specific table or the Ruins section. Place at your leisure.
You do not need to generate all details or even the entire map to start. The material on pg 6 is
sufficient to begin play.
5
Part Two: Fallen Taurocthalia
6
Fallen Taurocthalia: City
Carved into the Gorgon Coast’s jagged cliffs is Fallen Taurochtalia: derelict throne of
a former imperial power. Waves crash upon colossal shattered harbor chains while
foreign soldiers disembark from ships, casting grim reflections upon the sea. Freeblades,
mercenaries, sellswords all walk the broken city’s frescoed plazas, scowled at for trespassing
by ancient Imperators’ carved facades.
7
The Upper City
The Upper City, built upon stone terraces further inland, though still vaunted. Vacated by
natives since the Dogaressa’s Rebellion sealed the Palace of the Blackened Horns in baleful
ritual. Mercenary captains, crime lords and wayward conquerors infest the ruined villas and
sacked manor halls, plying Inheritors from neighboring city-states for favors and contracts.
8
The Ashen City (Ruins)
Ash purged Ancient Taurochtalia, smothering inhabitants in their beds and choking them
in the streets, petrifying their agonized grimaces of horror. Like a crashing tidal wave
it arrived in the outer civilian districts long before the Mountain’s lava ran aground and
buried those fleeing. The Palace of Blackened Horns rises above this Ashen City, a tarnished
crown atop a petrified land of the dead.
The Ashen City is arduous travel and peace is often bought by assistance against mutual
foes. To determine random encounters in the Ashen City roll a d6. An even roll indicates
a Non-Hostile Random Encounter. An odd roll indicates a Hostile Random Encounter. A
careful party may, at the Doomsayer’s discretion, travel the Ashen City without incident.
9
Factions on the Gorgon Coast
Within Fallen Taurochtalia many factions vie for power and control. All manner of warriors
and preachers, be they templars of the Cult, mercenaries of the Dog-Men or wandering
monster hunters, know allies are found within this fallen capital.
The Dog-Men
The First Imperator’s loyal bondsmen were strong of back and mighty of arm, and there was such fear
of usurpation if they were able to show their power in guileful cunning. The Imperator fed monster
blood to those he could keep loyal through word alone and to his loyal bondsmen: the blood of dogs.
The typical Dog-Man of any gender is generally 8’ tall and weighs several hundred pounds. They
are universally hirsute, broad of features and build, with cataracted eyes which register darkness in
shades of azure. Having lost station in Ancient Taurocthalia’s waning days, most live as simple hunters
and mountain guides. Those seeking to honor their lineage hire themselves into Inheritors’ service,
exchanging freedom for command’s comfortable yoke.
10
The Inheritors
Blooded by the ancient Imperators and the monsters they broke upon humanity’s altars, an Inheritor
is a man-made-monstrous or a monster-made-mannish. Mere generations from achieving profane
apotheosis: a lineage worthy of inheriting this monster-haunted world. They hate one another only
slightly more than the bulk of humanity—long told of their beatific mien and divine right in all they
do. Long dwelling in wealth’s hedonistic luxury befitting ancient imperial bloodlines, few are ever
dissuaded from this thinking.
The Inheritors hold every Gorgon Coast city-state and seldom cooperate with one another—only one of
them may sit upon the Blackened Throne. Lessening their ambitions for unity’s sake would only be for
skullduggery and betrayal. Each Inheritor outfits their forces differently but with uniform garishness.
11
Part Three: The Land of Rivals
The Gorgon Coast has a tarnished beauty, still clinging to imperial power’s halcyon days. A
balmy and pleasant region of rolling meadows, steep valleys, treacherous cliffs and towering
mountains, the scent of lemons and lavender wafts from outlying hamlets’ steppe farms.
This beauty was birthed in blood so long ago that many live humble lives of ignorance.
The Cliffs
The Gorgon Coast’s infamous natural barriers: treacherous rocky cliffs formed by receding
antediluvian floodwaters.
12
[D10] Cliff, Foraged Goods [D10] Cliff, Scavenged Goods
1 Abundant wild saffron. 1 Dirt encrusted mattock.
2 White grass pea. 2 Rusty climbing pitons.
3 Hearty wild red garlic. 3 30’ of frayed rope.
4 Flowering fennel. 4 Tiny ceramic bull figurine.
5 Unblemished melograno apples. 5 Ancient, inhuman bone fragments.
6 Overly-waxed prickly pears. 6 Sanguine-stained clay cup.
7 Shiny cracked geode. 7 Jagged manticore spine pugio.
8 Hearty ginger roots. 8 Age-worn banner of an ancient Imperator.
9 Dandelions as far as the eye can see. 9 Defaced statuette of a gorgon.
10 Unlucky but trusting goat. 10 Body of a petrified traveller.
13
The Coasts
Ancient shorelines lapped by primordial seas. The First Imperator’s conquering host landed
here from beyond the mist-shrouded horizon.
14
[D6] Coast, Ruin Site [D6] Coast, Ruin Allure
1 Cracked, shattered hull of a wrecked ship. ...a swarm of seagulls gather, attracted by
1
the promise of fresh meat.
Massive crag of coral clutching through
2 ...eerily silent: all that can be heard is the
the beach like an angry hand.
2 lapping of waves, and even that seems
Half-drowned, toppled shrine,
3 orchestrated.
pre‑Chalice and alien.
...shallows filled with flopping fish that
Deep coastal cave illuminated faintly by 3
4 struggle for air.
abyssal ocean life.
...a comfortable, dizzying singing floats
Long abandoned lighthouse nearly 4
upon the air.
5 collapsed by bitter winds and ancient
tides. 5 ...colorful, hypnotic flowering corals bloom.
Fog-shrouded harbor, waterlogged and ...utterly slick with brine: an errant step
6
splintering. 6 reveals isopods and other bottomfeeders
feasting upon the muck.
6 A Leviathan of Old lurks in the shallows, scanning the coastline for a meal.
15
The Meadows
Pastoral lavender fields, heirloom orchards, and rolling hills provide scenes rivaling any
artist’s craft—delicate places, easily put to the torch.
16
[D6] Meadow, Ruin Site
1 An abandoned farm’s desiccated ruins...
2 A road station’s burnt remains...
3 A burial mound of grass-coated stones...
4 A deep rocky crag hidden by the wilderness...
5 A copse of swirled bark trees surrounding a shimmering pond...
6 A labyrinthine cairn of foreign stones...
5 Errant Peers of the Ordo Parasitium ride by in wildflower crowns gathering aromatic herbs.
A Patrician’s Hunting Party (including a Dog-Man and House Guards) hunting Skull-faced
6
Swine—or anything larger if given a tip.
17
The Mountains
Jealous rock seeking to spite the heaven and spare foreigners the indignity of dying within
the Inheritors’ realm. The southernmost towering, volcanic mountains have long obscured
the Coast.
18
[D6] Mountain, Ruin Site
1 A ramshackle vertical mine shaft entrance...
2 A long forgotten abbey carved into the rock..
3 A weather-beaten, abandoned watch tower...
4 A derelict Chalice shrine...
5 A copse of tall, perfect, petrified wood...
6 A deep cave, akin to a scowling maw, littered with petrified bodies...
1 Cult of the Chalices’ Pilgrims ascend the mountain seeking hidden purity.
A mountainside Dissident Choir heretic seeks those unafflicted by Chalice propaganda for
2
company.
Ordo Mourner-Stigmata members—unarmored while undergoing a proving—climb, bleeding
3
from their hands and eyes.
An Ashen Dead swarm meanders seeking blood to soothe their souls. Consumed by their
4
hunger, they ignore their surroundings.
5 A lone Basilisk Knight brandishes a scroll, asking for any intrusion’s justification.
19
The Valleys
Carved from the earth, the lifeblood of fledgling civilization and ancient wilderness.
20
[D6] Valley, Ruin Site
1 Abandoned star fortress of Ancient Taurochtalia...
2 Village razed to embers not long ago...
3 Deep ravine leading into darkness and the mythic underworld...
4 Tarnished palatial estate of an ancient Imperator...
5 Copse of tall, gnarled trees, their forms like dryads in agony...
6 Flooded cavern entrance riddled with strange echoes...
1 A band of Highwaymen enforce a road tax on anyone they think they can coerce.
Cadre of Dog-Men roam the valley seeking to make a home here and engage in their sacred
2
hunts.
Hunters and Gatherers wander the valley, insular, isolationist, and mistrustful of anyone but
3
their kin.
4 A sibling pair of Horned Torchbearers terrorize those beholding them in the wild.
A great army of Coastal Wild Dogs have assembled: they smell war on the wind and wish to
5
take territory for their own.
6 A group of Mercenaries on orders to kill anyone discovering their presence.
21
The Ruins
Invariably local folklore believes these places are cursed or haunted and, allegedly, contain
ancient wealth too easily spoiled outside these dessicated halls.
22
[D10] Common Treasures, the Ruins [D10] Rare Treasures, the Ruins
1 Petrified ashen loaf cake. Fine sandals, gold thread embellishments
1
depict wings on the heels.
2 Amphora of spoiled oils.
2 Calmly reposing Leviathan statuette.
3 Horned pikeman statuette.
3 A famed fighter’s ivory cestus wrappings.
4 Crude, red, polished stone bauble.
4 Ancient athletic competition medallion.
5 Ivory patrician family portrait.
5 Talisman necklace depicting ocean scenes.
6 Old bone dice.
6 Bowl of gilded durian fruits.
7 Sanguine religious robes.
7 Ancient, forever pure, honeyed beer cask.
8 Harpy feather mantle.
8 Laurel wreath of ruby-eyed silver serpents.
9 Bronze chalice.
Cackling chorus mask representing the
10 Whale-shaped drinking cup. 9
jubilant and blooded.
10 A Colosseum heel’s horrid bronze helmet.
23
The Hamlets
The hamlets of the Gorgon Coast are affixed to neighboring city-states, with whom they
trade and owe fealty.
[D50]
Names, [D50]
Names, [D10] Hamlet, Appearance
Hamlet Hamlet Colorful painted stone houses, cramped so that their
1
1 Aixle 26 Llusteres outward beauty disguises any interior issues.
2 Alurode 27 Malapanet Winding maze of cobblestone streets and brick houses, a
2
near labyrinthe of lesser urban living.
3 Aondae 28 Manchalleres
Tiers of stone buildings and broad streets— the large
4 Baggino 29 Melossia 3
central market has seen better days.
5 Basilimanc 30 Merze Wooden homes and private gardens within toppled stone
4
6 Basnika 31 Molioccia walls.
Well-trimmed lawns and sun-bleached white stone houses
7 Calgunote 32 Mollerie 5
in the ancient Taurochtalian style.
8 Carnnieux 33 Murolaccia
White-and-blue style houses glimmer in the sunlight—any
6
9 Caronotta 34 Murolocio imperfection is all too easily seen.
10 Cascatta 35 Osovilla Columned stone buildings from antiquity stand in stark
7
contrast to ramshackle wooden homes of newer occupants.
11 Casemuro 36 Paesino
Derelict and mouldering homes, all raised of foundation
12 Cettiponce 37 Pavas 8
as if expecting floodwaters.
13 Cogarra 38 Rovanno Half-timbered buildings with decorative blue brickwork
9
14 Corremo 39 Sadaques and iron wrought fences.
Clay and wood structures, within the belly of a ruined
15 Ecceseile 40 Sinigoa 10
fortress of antiquity.
16 Einanotta 41 Tagana
17 Ephosa 42 Tellos
18 Fedetuga 43 Tencavanda
19 Fedevio 44 Testarano
20 Gandalus 45 Tiosedo
21 Grigilia 46 Toffana
22 Haussinotta 47 Triotibes
23 Jucara 48 Verccicia
24 Lambocci 49 Viona
25 Lindelocio 50 Vocce
[D50] Names, City- [D50] Names, City- [D50] Titles, City- [D50] Titles, City-State
State State State
1 Aigonakkale 26 Lonzesco Ancestral Hold
1 26 Forlorn Arena
of the Blooded
2 Almerazio 27 Luccandria
Ancestral
2 27 Fortress of the Dog-Men
3 Ameruggia 28 Masomarca Sepulcher
26
[D8] City-State, Appearance [D8] City-State, Feature
Great marble buildings of resplendent Great stone fountains depicting the
1
stonework and azure-tiled roofs. 1 judging Imperators of Old featured in
A labyrinthe of winding stone streets the city plazas.
2 and tall gothic buildings with imposing Many canals, fed by reservoirs, allow for
2
grotesques. barge and gondola travel.
Once an Imperator's palace, expanded Noted palatial collegium of the Ten
3 3
outward into a city-state. Sages of Ancient Taurochtalia.
Domed stone buildings, cobblestone Splendorous ruby-tinted cathedral of the
4
4 ditchways, and ancient monster lairs Cult of Chalices.
turned holy sites of the Cult of Chalices. Ancient stone abbey of the Cult of
5
White stone constructed upon a tall round Chalices's faithful.
5 hill with columned architecture and Military academy of many renown
petrified gardens. 6 victories, built in homage to Ancient
Half-ruined, its ancient stonework toppled Taurocthalia's martial culture.
6 and broken. Wooden architecture built An odeum of ostentatious acoustic
with regal aesthetics. 7 engineering and lavish, nearly
Built upon high foundations of stone, with hedonistic comforts.
7 all its buildings run more narrow than Vineyard of local nobility, who process
broad. 8 only the finest grapes to be found on the
The envy of its peers, with brightly Gorgon Coast.
8 painted buildings, colorful markets, and
polished whitestone plaza and walkways.
27
[D6] City-State, Authority Feature [D6] City-State, Authority Fashion
...with many enemies in this city who’d 1 A coiled hydra spaulder with tassets.
1
pay for their destruction.
2 Fur-lined mantles of black satin and velvet.
...gloryhounding fool, often performing
2 Satin suits in gaudy colors, with holes all
reckless acts. 3
over.
...addicted to alchemical poultices
3 4 Elaborate feather-lined doublets.
available only now in rival city-states.
...have seen the world beyond the Coast Purplish vesta with floral patterns and
4 and think all foreigners are ignorant 5
yellow trim.
dogs.
6 Brightly colored long gowns over black garb.
...fears what will come if the Inheritor
5
they serve gains the Blackened Throne.
...bedraggled by nightmares of blood red
6
skies and a sea of churning teeth.
28
[D10] City-State, Easy Spoils [D10] City-State, Plundered Treasures
1 Black marble bust of a gladiator. 1 Full-sized sculpture of an Inheritor.
Patrician's impressionistic family 2 Throne of rosewood and leather.
2
painting.
Ancient blackware chalice, stained red
3 Set of gold and emerald wedding bands. 3
within.
Layered patrician clothing with gold 4 Locked lacquer wood chest of coinage.
4
thread.
5 Red-plumed decorative helmet.
5 Pair of inherited silver xiphos swords.
Grand tapestry of the First Imperator
Elaborate tapestry of a Chalice 6
6 blooding the Dog-Men.
drowning monsters.
Set of sanguine-tinted religious
7 Gilded house chalice of bronze and ruby. 7
vestments.
8 Set of grimacing stone chorial masks. The kintsugi marble urn of a fallen
8
Imperator.
9 Fine blue clay jar of pedigree leeches.
9 Fasces of golden rods and silvered edge.
10 Relief sculpture of a Basilisk hunt.
Hidden child of an Inheritor, a hostage
10
worth a king's ransom.
29
The Inheritors & their Palaces
These palaces are splendorous things, the envy of the civilized world—hedonistic displays of
wealth beyond measure and luxury without restraint.
30
[D6] Inheritor, Lordly Weapon
1 Silver rapier, its blade a swirling corkscrew of hydras ending in a petty azure jeweled point.
Great bastard sword, wavy like a tongue of flame, embellished with menacing eyes and fangs
2
upon the fuller.
Fasces, wrapped in the petrified arms of ancient enemies and double-bitted with silvered
3
edges.
Mazzatello hammer, carved to appear in the likeness of an ivory chalice, a glass orb of
4
sanguine sloshing at its head.
5 Golden sceptre crowned with the leathery preserved head of a blind Gorgon.
Pike forged in ancient proving rites by the Dog-Men—allegedly drew first blood upon a Hydra
6
in the elder days.
31
[D6] Inheritor’s Henchmen, Form
A cabal of lesser Degenerated Spawn, the Inheritor’s personal project was fruitless save for
1
these malformed dregs.
The Inheritor's Degenerate Spawn children— their blood imbalanced and form too bestial. A
2
subject of frequent abuse.
A gharial-faced Inheritor, a Denied Heir; castrated and mutilated for seemingly Basilisk-type
3
blood impurities.
The Inheritor's spouse, a Denied Heir, battered and informed they will never have what their
4
blood should permit.
5 A Templar of the Knights Basilisk, sealed in petrified armor and hateful as the day is long.
A mutilated Gorgon—her form scarified, serpents throttled, and eyes gouged out by the
6
Inheritor's cruel hand.
32
[D10] Palace, Storehouse Goods [D10] Palace, Other Assets
1 Bottle of blessed ancient hydra sanguine. Old mare, monster-blooded but left to
1
rot.
2 Wheel of maggot-topped buttery cheese.
Pack of chubby, flat-faced coastal wild
Iron cask of soft goat-cow mixed milk 2
3 dogs; ill-bred and kindly.
cheese.
Crude cauldron of fermented rotgut
4 Wax globe of creamy blue cheese. 3
rum.
5 Rack of munitions grade pikes. 4 Bundle of iron-reinforced torches.
6 Crate of broad arming swords. 5 60' coil of fine horsehair rope.
Barrel of highly explosive blasting 6 Hammer and chisel of a sculptor.
7
powder.
Exquisite silver alembic and a set of odd
Wax-sealed barrel of highly incendiary 7
8 glass flasks.
blasting powder.
Drafting compass and set of magnifying
Well-decorated pavisse of a previous 8
9 lenses embellished in gold.
palace guard captain.
Several hundred pounds of fine wooden
Crate of rough heater shields, crudely 9
10 timbers.
painted.
10 Extravagant personal pleasure barge.
33
The Aftermath
War is cruel and war is bitter—what it does to the world only time
heals. A battle’s aftermath rips the earth asunder infesting it with
dead—true as it is anywhere else.
34
[D10] Aftermath, Appearance [D10] State of the Dead
Wilderness is stained red as if blood had Mutilated, hard to recognize friend from
1 1
saturated the morning dew. foe.
Corpses have been strewn about in pits, Utterly eviscerated, pulped and gashed
2 2
fires set to desecrate the dead. meat.
A long trench has been dug deep, the Dismembered, their limbs ripped and
3 3
dead piled in and only partially buried. bashed to bloody broken stumps.
Fallen horses have toppled and kicked Dead from various wounds but all have
4
4 deep pits of mud, crushing mortal riders had their throats deeply slit.
to a visceral pulp. Heads of many infantrymen and a few
Ground has been bombarded into a burnt 5 officers have had their skulls caved in
5
out crater. through the face.
Earth has been salted, and charred, torn Pale and limp, without rigor and
6 6
up into a quagmire of rocks and root. without blood. Utterly exsanguinated.
Fallen timbers and splintered woods give Charred, utterly burnt black, their
7 easy perch to a horde of carrion birds who 7 bones fused in agonized rictus by some
are setting in for a long feast. ghastly heat.
Endless stench of rot makes marching Lingering in great mangled piles of
8 8
through this territory a dizzying affair. pulped meat and spilled organs.
Barricade of civilian corpses congests the Left to rot in the sun, their flesh bloating
9
9 path through the wilderness, unfortunate and baked by the heat of the day.
bystanders torn asunder. Somehow skinless, their meat redder
10
Earth is gore-soaked, tattered with than red. Dripping to the touch.
rippling organs and squamous
10
musculature. From a certain angle it looks
almost alive.
36
[D10] Potential Insurgents
1 Group of reckless youths, yearning for a future now denied.
2 Would-be scholars, too clever for their own good.
3 Denounced Authority, hopeful to rally loyalists.
4 Former soldiers among the locals, too old for the front.
5 Wayward knight, horrified by such pointless brutality.
6 Political prisoner of the former Authority, unwilling to accept their good fortune.
7 Pillar of the community, thrust into a position of power without their consent.
8 Noble of a lesser house, knowing they may ascend if they can beat back the conquerors.
9 Parasite leper, unwilling to see others suffer similar abuses they've undergone.
10 Local chalice-bearer, unable to comprehend this fall from power.
Wartime Encounters
Man’s cruelty to man ensures once a war commences, scouts, spies, and great war hosts
begin ripping the Coast asunder pursuing plunder and power.
37
Part Four: To the Plunderers...
The Inheritors in their terrible hubris, each seek to raise a war host shaming the magnitude
of their ancestors’. Heralds and bribes spread across the known world, bidding for any
freeblade or Cryptdigger worth their silver to come to the Gorgon Coast and fight under
their banners. Those who fight for the Inheritor seizing the Blackened Throne are held in the
annals of history as triumphant damned only comforted with filthy lucre.
Cryptdigger Companies
Being a company Cryptdigger is being a peer to many a strange mercenary plundering the
earth’s dark places. For sake of color and flavor, fifty unique companies are provided to flesh
out the casts and antagonistic freeblades hired to fight upon the Gorgon Coast. They possess
a special piece of gear displaying their affiliation to those wise in the ways of war.
If you are seeking to use a company for the player character group to operate under, the
listed specialized gear listed below can replace the silver coin in Best Left Buried’s core rules.
39
Company Modus Operandi
[D6] Cryptdigger Company Modus Operandi
Reconnaissance
1 Scout ahead of the war party, gather information regarding potential battlefields, make
contacts and assets of city-states authority, discreetly eliminate enemy field agents.
Cavalry
2 Route enemy forces, scout on horseback, perform charges, and corral non-combatants during
settlement raids.
Kill-Team
3 Perform abductions, assassinations, poisonings, and all manner of illicit wartime acts executed
with brutal efficiency on behalf of the war party.
Acquisitions
4 Establish supply lines, gather wealth for the war chest, and establish black market connections
to feed and pay the war party.
Artillery
5 Make use of the company’s guns, artillery, and engineered weapons of war to maximize enemy
casualties.
Skirmisher
6 Engage in urban warfare, dishonorable combat, and scouting within enemy held territory with
sufficient skill to dispatch any discovering them.
40
[D6] General Kill-Team Equipment [D6] Additional Kill-Team Equipment
1 Vicious trench knife. 1 Trophy net for severed heads.
2 Flask of fire oil. 2 Sinister flaying knife.
3 Dark sack-cloth hood. 3 Blackened iron prybar.
4 Jar of war paint. 4 Iron phial of laudanum.
5 Phial of flesh-burning acid. 5 Bottle of sweet rum.
6 Weighted iron truncheon. 6 Bag of caltrops.
41
Jobs by Modus Operandi
Depending on how a company operates they specialize in particular jobs over others.
When generating orders roll on their company modus operandi’s appropriate table and then
determine a job complication.
42
[D6] Typical Acquisitions Orders [D6] Typical Acquisitions Complications
1 Establish useful black market contacts. 1 Do not let your manipulations be known.
Ensure trade relations with outlying 2 Use violence only as a last resort.
2
settlements.
You must do this quickly, before things
3 Plunder a known Crypt for wealth. 3
become unfavorable.
Deliver treasure from the wilderness to 4 Enemy reconnaissance may be on to you.
4
command headquarters.
5 You have a limited budget to see this done.
5 Attend to morale issues in the field.
Enemy disinformation may be at play—be
Gather information on the flow of 6
6 cautious.
resources.
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At Camp & At Rest
Comfort in wartime is best and often only found with commiserating peers around a
campfire. Humanity can be reclaimed in moments of respite, though those truly undone by
the horrors of war and this foreign land’s atrocities find little clemency in their slumbers.
[D6] What do you dream of when things have gone astray and you’ve lost your grip?
You feel the flames crackling your flesh from beneath. Impaled upon a roasting spit, you cannot
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scream. Your friends watch you, slavering with hunger.
An itch upon your face leads to deep gouging wounds filled with parasites. You pull apart your
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flesh, mangling yourself into a weeping corpse.
You find yourself upon a table, divine entities and eldritch abominations watching you. They
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ordain your doom—you awaken to hear the echo of their laughter.
You crack open the skull of your love and peel their scalp with your teeth. You drink away all
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the lies of hope they once fed you.
The world is red as raw flesh, your skin is stone and teeth, your eyes thrum. The doom of an
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age is nascent and rising.
You are unable to move. Your body bloats, fat with slithering worms, more and more until they
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begin to pour out of every orifice and pore.
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[D6] Tense Scenes at the Cryptdigger Camp
Letter from home, a spouse took another lover. Someone laughs, perhaps unintentionally. A
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single unkind word will lead to a brawl.
Some Cryptdiggers walk towards the camp later than curfew, covered in filth. They buried
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some peers today, barely adults. They bring a chill of mortality with them.
Arguing, loud. Screaming, really. Blame is cast for the death of someone who could've survived
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the day if only someone had gone against orders. Nobody feels good about this.
Someone discovers the body of a friend, having taken their own life. A simple note left behind.
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A chill of hopelessness grips the camp.
Someone injured is given written command that they're needed in the field to perform a
5 job they cannot do given their injuries. They plead for someone to take the job, growing
increasingly furious at the idiocy of it all.
Someone comes undone at camp, the weight of the world crashing upon them. They react with
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violence, thrashing and howling.
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Part Five: A Legacy of Blood
War, conquest, and endless bloodletting have long controlled the dwellers of the Gorgon
Coast’s fates. Whether in Ancient Taurochtalia or modern Inheritor courts, blood alone
turns the wheel of history and those unwilling to spill such sanguine are crushed invariably
beneath war’s careless treads.
Bone Raptors
Carrion birds the size of a mule with their wings outstretched, plumed in macabre blacks and whites.
Eyes like a dying sun. They crack open bones to sup at the marrow.
Skull-faced Swine
Violent, bold, and corpulent. A white wen grows over their face—a fleshy, sagging second “skull”
obscuring their vision and driving them to further violence. The true natives and truer inheritors of the
region—neither petrifying foes or time culls their numbers.
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Rock Serpent
Large enough to constrict a horse and venomous enough to rend metal with mere vapors. The Cult
of Chalices claims these serpents are the primordial hydra’s get, its body made weak such that heads
could no longer replicate from the stump, forcing flight into the wilds.
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The Cult of Chalices
Founded in ancient days emulating the First Imperator, the Cult of Chalices holds dominion
over the Gorgon Coast and its various city-states. They slake their thirst on monstrous blood
and seek to mantle an Inheritor with the Blackened Throne to enact apocalyptic rites.
Chalice Aspirant
Flagellants and zealots, a Chalice Aspirant seeks to ascend among the Chanters of the choir becoming a
Chalice-Bearer proper. Their minds are warped by scripture and chalice offerings.
Blood of the Godsman, the Holy Song of War, Sacred Gift (Battle Frenzy)
Chalice-Bearer
The Cult of Chalices upper echelon, clergy who drank deeply of the blood of the loyal, sworn, and
monstrous. Those glimpsing terrible truths in these inebriated states are inducted into the Cult’s dark
ambitions—learning terrible spells and aligning their ambitions with apocalyptic texts.
Blood of the Godsmen, the Holy Song of War, Rousing Sermon, Concoctionist
Chalice Chanter
Though nearly all among the Gorgon Coast hold the chant on their tongues, a Chalice Chanter devotes
themself to the song of thrumming blood and ancient ambition.
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Peer of the Ordo Mourner-Stigmata
Questing knights seeking the blood of monsters despite the burdens of anemia and, in many cases,
hemophilia. Utterly loyal and as zealous in the hunt as rabid dogs, peers of the Ordo Mourner-Stigmata
suffer none who deny the Chalice, least of all when it is theirs to offer.
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The Inheritor’s Court
The courts of the Gorgon Coast’s palaces are held by those of ancient, sacred,
monster‑infected blood. Such wretched nobles have wide families—siblings and scions
broken or made loyal lest usurpation end a dynasty before it once again sits upon the
Blackened Throne.
Denied Heir
An heir denied an Inheritor’s ambitions is unable to continue the bloodline: by choice, desire, love, or
foul fortune. Most serve as heralds and lesser commanders, their familial loyalty assured by hefty sums
of continued wealth.
Degenerate Spawn
Those deemed Degenerate Spawn’s blood—unfortunately—are rendered obsolescent by the family
birthing a purer vessel. Some still serve loyally though most fall into hedonism and seclusion.
Dog-Men
Loyal to the Inheritors due to ancestral fealty and their own fading as a culture, Dog-Men often seek a
place in an Inheritor’s court so they may lead a warhost reclaiming a sense of glory. Muscled like beasts
and lacking purpose, these martial paragons seek a proving and warrior’s death.
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The Inheritor
Scion of Ancient Taurochtalia’s Imperator, an Inheritor knows the world owes them more than they
have. Ego in a vaguely human frame, a wretched emulation of their progenitors, and only in monstrous
apotheosis will they sit the Blackened Throne.
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Monstrous Foes
The Gorgon Coast, like most of the world, is a monster-haunted wilderland. Despite
Imperators, conquerors, tyrants and knights best efforts, the region’s primeval horrors are
not so easily quelled. With war on the horizon and a new race for the Blackened Throne,
dark things creep from the earth’s shrouded corners, watching and awaiting the coming age.
Ashen Dead
They arose, petrified, calcified, and illuminated by the ever-immolating pain of their souls’
conflagration before their time. Ashen Dead lurk the fallen places, victims of calamity and bleak rite
like nearly crumbled statues gouting magmatic blood, and shuffling in agonized mien. Blood can
momentarily cool their baleful fire and they seek to bathe in it, as if still Chalice-faithful in death.
Basilisk Spawn
Sinful, mutated, and rivaling horses in size, these sadistic creatures seeking to amuse themselves until
they might usurp that which spawned them. Their eyes are maddened, wild with denied ambitions.
Benthic Crawler
The sea’s ebb and flow upon the Gorgon Coast reveals all too
often that best left to antiquity: mangled amalgamations of
primeval beasts and rotted acrid ambergris masses animated
by globs of slime which wash so strangely ashore.
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Gorgon
They were born of a curse: their beauty so great and destructive the Gods bid they destroy all they
beheld. The First Imperator brutalized Gorgons, made crowns from their serpentine locks and
devoured their hearts. The Cult of Chalices maintains later Imperators took Gorgons as concubines,
blinding them with searing irons. They are a broken sisterhood made uglier by man’s actions.
Harpy
For a period in Ancient Taurochtalia, harpies were glutted deeply in all their carnal desires, allowing
them to enjoy passive positions within the Cult of Chalices and the Imperator’s courts. Since its fall they
have regressed to starved, bestial instincts.
Flying, Flesh-Gorging
Siren’s Song (Listeners make a Grip Check. Failure results in a trance, leaving them open to the
Harpy.)
Horned Torchbearer
Seldom spoken of Horned Torchbearers are an interbreeding of Imperator scions and Dog-Men, drunk
deep on chalices of bull’s blood. Those not condemned to the arenas were hidden away in convents and
underground labyrinths. Only in moments of great horror and shame does a human soul light behind
their eyes.
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Leviathan of Old
The seas lapping upon the Gorgon Coast never receded at the hateful hand of humanity’s civilized
conquests. The monsters dwelling within were kept native and numerous with ill intent. Long necked,
fang-filled mouths, and of innumerable other permutations, they are a throwback to primeval darkness
and a mariner’s blight.
Manticore
Churlish, hateful, a tiger with drake’s wings and a man’s face, coated in spines terminating like a scythe
upon its tail. Old indignities are not forgotten, generations after the collapse. They desire to flense and
consume men for their ancient crimes.
Slimefeaster
A drowned Inheritor order—a fallen house pledged to something
darker beneath the sea. Corrupt, obsolescent, devoid of ambition to
take the Throne. They desire revenge against old enemies’ servants
and consume bile and ambergris washed up on the coast.
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The Basilisk
It appeared in an instant, bursting from the southern mountains and devastating the Imperators’
kingdom. The Basilisk is the sum of humanity’s sins and ambitions manifesting within a pit-dwelling,
draconic horror. It possesses a cruelty befitting a man of means and seeks crowns and treasure desirous
to festoon itself with assurance of its worth. Its eyes pierce the soul and render impurity to stone. Its
fangs rend flesh and steel asunder without effort. Its breath is calamity, an agony of endless torporeal
torment, killing in moments that feel like decades.
It delights in theft and corruption and is culpable for the Coast’s parasite leprosy and an Inheritor
strain devastating antiquity’s palatial halls. Such is its greed that no two Basilisks may exist—its spawn
writhe in emulation of its imperious form.
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Appendix: Names, Titles, and Food
What follows are a collection of listings for names, titles, meals and the quality thereof
which can add to campaigns set upon the Gorgon Coast or in regions of equivalent theme.
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Surnames in the Gorgon Coast
[D50] Vaunted Surnames [D50] Vaunted Surnames [D50] Common Surnames [D50] Common Surnames
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Titles on the Gorgon Coast
[D50] Vaunted Titles [D50] Vaunted Titles [D50] Low Titles [D50] Low Titles
the Ender of of Seven Bastards
1 of Baleful Portent 26 1 26 the Hound
Bloodlines Born
2 of Beatific Mien 27 the Gorgon Crowned 2 of the Ashen City 27 the Inventor
3 of Devout Silver 28 the Hand of Virtue 3 of the Assembly 28 the Islander
of the Blackened the Heir of Blackened 4 of the Bullcutters 29 the Jailer of Men
4 29
Horns Horns
of the Cult of
5 of the Blooded Chalice 30 the Heir of Chalices 5 30 the Keytaker
Chalices
6 of the Dog-Men 31 the Imperator Reborn 6 of the Plaza 31 the Lay Scholar
of the Dogaressa's 7 of the Sallow Sea 32 the Legalist
7 32 the Inheritor Apparent
Guard
8 the Apostate 33 the Man-Snatcher
8 of the Knights Basilisk 33 the Iron Despot
9 the Basilisk's Clutch 34 the Merciless
9 of the Lararium 34 the Mercurial
10 the Bloodied 35 the Monk
of the Old Senate the Mourner in
10 35
House Exaltation 11 the Bravo's Blade 36 the Morose
of the Ordo Mourner-
11 36 the Old Master 12 the Busker 37 the Noosed
Stigmata
12 of the Ordo Parasitium 37 the Patrician 13 the Consumed 38 the Paidogogos
13 of the Palace of Man 38 the Patron of Patrons 14 the Crucified 39 the Penitent One
14 of the Ten Sages 39 the Penitent One 15 the Cutpurse 40 the Perfidious
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Food of the Gorgon Coast
[D10] Vegetable Meals [D10] Freeblade Rations
1 Garlic braised carrots. 1 Salt-dried beef patty.
2 Scorched sweet purple onion. 2 Jellied fish paste.
3 Parched chickpeas. 3 Thrice-baked hard biscuit.
4 Baked yellow onions with mushrooms. 4 Salt-cured pork belly.
5 Fennel and cabbage soup. 5 Condensed powdered fudge.
6 Red beans and sauteed cardoons. 6 Sliced turnips in black lump sauce.
7 Artichoke fritters. 7 Herb-encrusted offal.
8 Pan-roasted broccoli raab. 8 Milled oats and wheat powder.
9 Yellow pepper with tomato and basil. 9 Fermented chicken backs.
10 Green beans with zucchini flowers. 10 Sleeve of salted crackers.
[D10] Quality of Food [D10] Quality of Food [D10] Quality of Drink [D10] Quality of Drink
1 Pestilent. 6 Adequate. 1 Festering. 6 Well-made.
2 Rotten. 7 Well-seasoned. 2 Nauseating. 7 Refreshing.
3 Nasty. 8 Rich. 3 Acrid. 8 Superb.
4 Gross. 9 Exquisite. 4 Unpleasant. 9 Splendid.
5 Bland. 10 Divine. 5 Enjoyable. 10 Magnificent.
[D10] Breads of the Coast [D10] Fish Meals [D10] Meat Meals
1 Elderflower flatbread. 1 Sweet dough fried anchovies. 1 Boar's liver on coarse bread.
2 Chickpea flatbread. 2 White pepper prawns. 2 Sausage-stuffed zucchini flowers.
3 Heavy spelt bread. 3 Fried shrimp in sage. 3 Batter-wrapped boar sausage.
4 Chestnut flour polenta. 4 Salt cod in chestnut soup. 4 Mushroom-stuffed turkey neck.
5 Potato croquette. 5 Crumb-stuffed cuttlefish. 5 Lambs liver frittata.
6 Sweet lard cake loaf. 6 Baked lobster with plums. 6 Buttered pheasant terrine.
7 Bull's blood biscuits. 7 Fish-and-mussel stew. Braised chicken with meadow
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mushroom.
8 Coarse meadow bread. 8 Baked swordfish shanks.
8 Cold oil pigeon pot roast.
9 Garlic and almond loaf. 9 Stockfish with pomello.
9 Sausage-stuffed goose.
10 Dense twelve-nut bread. 10 Cracked sea star soup.
10 Deviled quail-on-the-bone.
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Gaze upon the legacy of despoiling wars and
monstrous pride, of vile-blooded heritage and
terrible ruination.
SPOILS OF THE GORGON COAST is a procedural generation toolbox
for the fantasy horror game Best Left Buried. The random tables within
present Doomsayers with the tools to randomly generate their own version
of the Gorgon Coast, a picturesque region of Lendal beset once again by
war. Throughout the lands are the ruined vestiges of a former imperial
power, Ancient Taurochtalia, cast down in ash and strife!
Now long-forgotten in the wider world, the former power struggles for
new prominence in the clutches of its sinister Inheritors: former imperial
nobility whose obsession with monstrous eugenics brought about
their empire's collapse. The Inheritors gather armies of Freeblades and
Cryptdiggers alike to plunder the wreckage of old and plunge the Gorgon
Coast into a war of a succession for its blackened throne.
Included alongside a massive array of random tables detailing the various
biomes and settlements of the region are stats for 27 brand new monsters,
tables to expand the idea of Cryptdigger companies and a host of factions
vying for power within the region.
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