Layers of Unreality

By Josh Hittie

Ostrichmonkey Games

Touchstones

• The Backrooms creepypasta

• I’m Calling - Tennis
• Possibly in Michigan (1983)
• Liminal Horror: Voidcrawl Procedure
• The Stygian Library

Layers of Unreality is an independent production

by Ostrichmonkey Games and is not affiliated with
Goblin Archives LLC. It is published under the
Liminal Horror Third Party License.

Liminal Horror is copyright by Goblin Archives LLC.

content
The spaces between
Backgrounds 2
Zones 4
Depth 5
Exploring the Skein 7
Skein Fallout 10

Weaving the skein

Room Tables 12
Zone Tables 16
Depth Tables 22
Tangles 27
Creatures 31
 The Spaces
Between
The Skein exists between the spaces of reality
as an amorphous, fluid, warping, and twisting
plane of semi-existence. The Skein is an
uncanny funhouse mirror dimension formed
and shaped by strange hands. The Skein is a
parasitic reality, siphoning off energy and
thought from the shared dreamspace of
humanity. The Skein doesn’t exist at all, you
cannot find it. The Skein is all that exists with
the waking world merely a comforting dream.

The Skein welcomes you.

The Skein takes on the appearance of human-

made places. Boring and mundane locations
that have been twisted and warped into the
uncanny. All the hallmarks of being man-
made, yet subtly hostile to human existence.

You have stumbled into the endless rooms of

the Skein. Perhaps you were looking for
someone or something, maybe ending up here
was completely accidental. Whatever reason
you have for being here, you need to leave.
Leave before the Skein sinks its hooks into
you, reforming you into a new shape.

Using the SKEIN

Layers of Unreality can be used as a
standalone procedural adventure for a new
Liminal Horror campaign, or used as a
location-crawl for an existing Liminal Horror
game, with the PCs slipping into the Skein for
a brief time. You can also chop this all up into
pieces and sprinkle it throughout whatever
game, system, or adventure you can think of.

Layers of Unreality centers on the method of

generating the ever-expanding Skein, and the
procedures for exploring, and maybe even
escaping. It is suited for an emergent style of
gameplay. Allow the Skein to seed its ideas
into your game, and wait to see what
monstrous results begin to germinate.

1

Backgrounds
The following Backgrounds can be
used during character creation
following the rules laid out in The
Bureau.
Terminally Online: You’ve been an
enthusiast of dark and scary
stories spread through the web for
years. You shouldn’t have opened
that link. You shouldn’t have
followed those strange directions.
You shouldn’t be here.
• Take: Panasonic RR-DR60
recorder, backpack (+2 inventory),
tactical flashlight (d6)
Wrong Turn: It was supposed to be
just a quick trip, and you thought it
was weird when there was a new
doorway on your way out of your
apartment. You should have
trusted your gut.
• Take: house keys, cellphone (low
battery), grocery list
Amateur Sleuth: Following up on a
set of suspicious missing persons
cases led you down a rabbit hole
you never imagined possible. Torn
between finding closure and your
instincts screaming at you to turn
around, you soldier onward.
• Take: taser (d6), leather jacket (1
armor), charged power bank
Urbex Junkie: The old factory had
been long abandoned and far too
tempting to pass up. It was
practically untouched, just waiting
for you to enter.
• Take: headlamp, EDC multitool,
climbing rope
Mirror Twin: You are from
somewhere else. A stranger trying
to blend into a world you do not
belong in.
• Take: shears (d6, bloody), lighter,
odd mask
Video Influencer: Subs have been
on a steady decline. You need
something fresh, something big!
This livestream will be your
magnum opus. Assuming you can
make it out in one piece.
• Take: selfie camera rig, mobile
hotspot (tenuous connection),
laptop
Liminal Resonant: Something
within the Skein touched you,
drawing out your latent psychic
powers. Once you set foot into the
spaces between, it was like waking
up from a long, hazy, dream.
• Take: occult journal, dream
memento (+1 stability), 1 magic
spell
Desperate Seeker: You lost
someone to the Skein but no one
believed you. After years of
searching, you’ve finally found your
first real lead.
• Take: handgun (d6), photo of
loved one, flare
Corridor Addict: The Skein nearly
took everything from you, but you
escaped. Or did you? You kept
thinking, dreaming, of this place. It
refuses to let you go. But this time,
you came prepared.
• Take: Armored Vest (+1 armor),
sawed off shotgun (d6 blast,
bulky), 1 Skein Fallout
Naive Piranesi: Like a moth to a
flame, you were pulled here by
unknown forces. Something within
the Skein wants you to find it, to
never leave, to play a part in
something greater.
• Take: Strange knife (d6), ball of
red twine, broken pocket watch
(+1 stability)
2
 The SKEIN
The Skein is the backstage of
reality. Liminal spaces given
ominous shape. They cling to
the underside of reality like
parasitic barnacles,
occasionally burrowing their
way through, opening up
trapdoors for the hapless or
foolhardy to fall through.
Unraveling The
knots
Entering the Skein on
purpose is rare, but not
impossible. There are arcane
rituals of old and dangerous
procedures that push the
human mind to their limit,
that can unlock access to
the Skein. Sometimes the
Skein may open itself up to
an individual, seeking them
out for some inscrutable,
larger purpose.
Uncanny
Spaces
The Rooms
Rooms are the base units of the Skein.
They are individual spaces chained
together to create the endless expanse
of the Skein. The deeper into the Skein
you go, the stranger and more
dangerous the Rooms become. Some
Rooms may appear to have a function
or purpose, but it is always obscured
behind a strange logic. This nearness to
the familiar amplifies the uncanniness
that suffuses the Skein.
Rooms can be more than just
rectangles. They can contain internal
twists, turns, passages, corners, niches,
archways and more. The Skein takes
Rooms, that which is superficially
familiar and understandable, and twists
it into something alien and haunting.
When entering a new Room, roll to 1d6
determine its type, 1d6 to determine
how many doors or passages are
present in the Room, and 1d6 to
determine what encounter is present.

D6 Entrances to the skein

Perform an ancient, bloody, arcane ritual. A sacrifice
1 is demanded.

Complete a strange and pointed puzzle-cube that

2 opens a doorway to the beyond.

Ingest tailor-made psychotropics, altering your

3 perception of reality.

Within a sensory deprivation tank, allow your mind

4 to open to new, strange ways to perceive reality.

Follow your nightmare deeper into dream right

5 before you wake up.

Become truly lost, grinding yourself far from home

6 and all that is familiar and known.

3
 Zones
The Skein is broadly broken up
into six types of Zones. When
exploring the Skein, PCs are
typically moving between
multiple Rooms all within the
same Zone. Zones are
ecosystems within the Skein,
with their own sets of unique
encounters and oftentimes
unwritten rules. The Zone that a
Room is located in influences
the kinds of items that might be
found within that Room, as well
as its general aesthetic. A
Cavern found within the Offices
will feel very different from a
Cavern found within the Pools.
1. The Offices
The Offices are endless rows of
cubicles. Flickering CRT
computer screens cast a harsh
glow. The soft chitterings of a
distant fax machine interrupt
the silence. The low drone of the
air conditioning coming from
above the slightly crumbling
drop-ceilings.
2. The Halls
The Halls are endless, stuffy
hallways. All the places that
would normally take you
somewhere else instead twist
and turn offering no relief.
Empty rooms that feel as though
they should be filled. Fading
wallpaper, threadbare carpet,
and stiff metal chairs placed as
though someone just left.
3. The Pools
The Pools are humid, tile
covered, and chlorine suffused.
Water laps at rounded concrete
edges. A loud splash from
somewhere in the distance. The
water is deep, the floors slick,
and the air is heavy.
4. The Lobby
The Lobby is a darkened blend
of every single front reception,
theater concession, airport,
hotel lobby, or museum
welcome desk. It is a place that
should be welcoming, but is
afflicted with uncanny stillness
and an air of unease.
5. The Machine
The Machine is infected with
industrial fractals. It is rust and
steel, sharp edges and burning
haze. Rooms within the Machine
are hostile, not out of
malevolence, but out of perfect
inhospitality. Something hints at
a greater greater purpose for the
mechanisms within.
6. The House
The House is sinister. Its rooms
take the forms of something so
familiar, but twists them ever so
slightly to make it all feel wrong.
Half-memories resurface,
triggered by familiar scents and
sounds, but cast a dark shadow.
4
 Depth
Progressing through Rooms and
Zones forces PCs deeper and
deeper into the Skein. Descending
through the Skein progressively
increases the party’s Depth as
outlined in Exploring the Skein:
Moving Forward (pg. 7).
Each new Room encountered
increases the depth by 1d6, and
entering a new Zone increases the
depth by 2d6. The deeper into the
Skein the PCs progress, the more
dangerously surreal the
environments become and the
more difficult it will be to return to
their entrance.
Photic Depths
Depths 0-10
The Photic Depths are nearly
indistinguishable from the real
world in terms of the rules of
reality. Light, gravity, temperature
all behave nearly as expected. Time
has a bad habit of seeming to pass
too slowly or too quickly. Though it
is far, far, easier to get lost than
one might think.
Mesopelagic Depths
Depths 11-25
Strange glitches of perception and
confusing layouts characterize the
Mesopelagic Zone, as the alien
nature of the Skein becomes more
obvious. Objects repeat
themselves out of the corner of
your vision and movement briefly
appears to happen at lower frame
rates.
Bathyal depths
Depths 26-50
Scale and distance begin to lose
meaning as it becomes more and
more difficult to judge how far you
have traveled. The air is almost
always still, static, not merely
unmoving, but arrested. There is an
omnipresent sense of déjà vu and
being watched that scrapes gently
at the back of the mind.
Abyssal Depths
Depths 51-100
Here, the laws of physics begin to
rapidly deteriorate. Light and their
sources become completely
detached, with shadows moving
along their own independent track
of causality. Sound travels just
before it is made. A creeping
darkness crowds at the edges of
one’s vision as hazy tendrils that at
times seem to beckon or guide.
Hadal depths
Depths 100+
An impossible nightmare for the
human mind. Not malicious, not
evil, merely truly incomprehensible.
It is possible to move through the
Hadal Depths, but every step
further will continue to warp the
body and mind.
Every other Room encountered
within the Hadal Zone requires a
Stress Roll.
5
Hollow depths

6

Exploring
the Skein
When PCs enter the Skein, the first
Room is generated at Depth Zero.
To create a Room;
• Roll a Zone if no Zone is known.
• Roll a Room Type.
• Roll 1-2 Zone and/or Depth
Details.
• Roll 1d6 to determine how many
doors there are.
• Roll for a Room Encounter.
Time spent exploring the Skein is
divided into abstract turns. During
a turn, the PCs together can
choose to Move Forward, Pause,
Travel Backward, or Locate an Exit.
Moving
Forward
There are three main ways that the
PCs can continue traveling through
the Skein.
Go Deeper
Progress to a new nearby Room
through available passages,
preserving continuity and adding
+1d6 depth to the total. The odds
of entering a new Zone starts at
10%. Increase this chance by 10%
for every Room encountered within
the same Zone.
Break Through
Force your way into a new Room,
through wood, drywall, cement,
glass, bone, or meat. Add +2d6
depth to the total. When breaking
through there is a 67% chance of
entering a new Zone.
There is 33% chance of the break
sealing up behind the PCs,
breaking continuity.
Escape
Quickly flee to a new location,
attempting to escape an
encounter. Escaping always ends in
a new Zone, breaking continuity,
and adding +2d10 Depth.
pausing
When PCs Pause, they take the
time to do something within the
current Room.
Explore the Room
When PCs want to spend time
exploring the Room, roll on the
Room Encounter Table to
determine if any encounter
happens. Exploring a Room might
result in scavenging supplies,
finding some sort of clue.
Rest and Recover
PCs may attempt to recover. Roll
on the Rest Encounter Table.
Rest Encounter Table (1d6):
1-3: Recover HP as per Healing
rules. PCs may attempt a CTRL
Save to recover 1d4 points of
Ability loss.
4-5: Something enters the Room.
You have moments to act. Roll a
Creature Encounter, but the PCs
have the upper hand.
6: Your attempt at resting is
suddenly interrupted. Roll a
Creature Encounter that caught
the PCs by surprise.
7
Something Else
The previous options are not
exhaustive. If PCs choose to
remain in place for a specific
purpose, explore that purpose. If
appropriate, the GM may roll to see
if there is an encounter.
Traveling
Backward
PCs can retrace their steps to a
previous room so long as
continuity between the target
location and the current location
has been maintained. Once
continuity has been broken, the
only ways to return to a previous
location is for it to randomly
emerge from the table results, or
through other player-devised
methods such as;
• Cobbling together odd bits of
technology, which always
behaves in strange ways within
the Skein.
• Conducting an arcane ritual
which requires a strong anchor
to the previous location.
• Following a local guide. Hopefully
they are trustworthy.
While backtracking through
previous Rooms, only empty Rooms
require a new encounter roll and
Depth is not increased.
Locating
Exits
If continuity has been maintained
with the original entrance, PCs may
attempt to backtrack all the way
back to the entrance, escaping the
Skein. If continuity has been
broken, a new exit must be
located.
Whenever a new Room is
encountered there is a chance that
an exit is nearby.
• At depth 0, there is a 1% chance
that one of the next 1d6 rooms
will contain an exit.
• Increase the Exit Chance by 1%
for every 1 additional Room
encountered.
• Increase the Exit Chance by 5%
for every new Zone encountered.
• Increase the Exit Chance by 5%
for every Tangle encountered.
• Decrease the Exit Chance by 1%
for every 2 Skein Fallouts the
PCs have in total.
It is possible to summon an exit
within the Skein. To do so is a
dangerous and unpredictable
undertaking. The method is
different for every group and every
manifestation of the Skein. If PCs
wish to attempt to summon an
exit, the GM should draw
inspiration from the current
journey through the Skein to craft a
unique challenge.
If a repeat Room and Zone
combination is ever rolled, it is
treated as the same location
emerging from the chaos of the
Skein. This allows the PCs to
potentially restore previously lost
continuity of travel.
8
 Survival in the
Skein
While within the Skein, time passes unreliably, and
hunger and thirst come and go in waves. It takes twice
the usual amount of time for a PC to become
deprived. Those desperate for supplies can attempt to
scavenge for food or water in a Room, but anything
that originated within the Skein runs the risk of
introducing its corruption into those who consume it.

Mapping the Skein

While the Skein does not conform to normal
cartographic logic, it is possible, and recommended to
keep track of the many Rooms visited. Whether
through a detailed, grid-based map, or a simple series
of connected points, keeping track of where you have
been may prove useful when needing to escape the
ever-tightening web of the Skein.

Corruption
As PCs descend through the Skein, they will be
changed.

When a PC must take a Stress Fallout, they can roll on

or select from the Skein Fallout options in addition to
any other Fallout options in play.

9
Skein fallouts
Spiral Awakening: The ways in which you perceive reality
1 rearrange. It is confusing, disorienting, but opens up new sensory
paths untread by humans until now.

Oneiric Annealing: A strange dreamlike energy ripples just above

2 your skin. Your sense of touch is numbed. Gain +1 Armor.

Ariadne’s Gift: Inky, map-like markings trace a wandering path

3 across your skin. The deeper into the Skein you descend, the more
the markings spread. Gain +1 Stability.
Umbral Exoskeleton: Dark shadows coil around your limbs and
4 joints, reinforcing them, allowing you to push them past their
natural limits. Roll 1d4 and add it to your STR (max 18).
Cosmic Trepanation: Small holes appear in your skull, opening not
5 to your brain, but a roiling void. The Skein whispers to you. Roll 1d4
and add it to your CTRL (max 18).
Red and Wet: Your body takes on a raw appearance. Muscle flexing
6 beneath nearly translucent, sheening skin. Veins and arteries
exposed like writhing snakes. Gain +1 HP.
Wallflower: Your skin takes on the patterns of the Skein. Fading
7 wallpapers, bare concrete, painted cinder block, worn carpets. Roll
1d4 and add it to your DEX (max 18).
Peep Hole: You have developed a strange intuition while within the
Skein. Before entering a new Room, you may peer through the
8 metaphysical keyhole to get a rough sense of what lies on the
other side. Each time you do this, take 1d4 Stress.
Hammer Space: Your digestive system has become entangled with
the Skein. During a quick rest, you can regurgitate a single item
9 you could reasonably hold inside your body. Anyone witnessing this
must take 1d4 Stress.
Hollow Face: The flesh, bones, and muscles of your face becomes
10 blank and malleable. During a quick rest you can reshape your face
into a new one.

10
11
Room types
Cavern: Massive in scale, nearly impossibly so, this Room
1 stretches out in all directions. Caverns at deeper Zones have a
habit of exhibiting their own microclimate effects.

Plummet: The focal point of this Room is dangerous verticality.

2 Endless concrete stairwells, lethal falls, spidering catwalks.
Don’t look down.

Tunnels: Winding hallways and labyrinthine passages. Tunnels

3 are characterized by their claustrophobia inducing spaces.

Threshold: A liminal space within a liminal space. Thresholds are

4 meant to be passed through, but don’t let that lull you into a
false sense of security. You are never alone in the Skein.

Altar: Within an Altar there is a central focus: an idol, an

5 offering, a trap, a gift. It waits for you to take it.

Warren: Strange debris and reality’s flotsam, litters the space.

6 Warrens are treacherous and dense, hiding secrets deep within
the detritus.

Room Encounters
Nothing: This Room is free from a specific encounter.
1 You are safe for now.

Room Moment: A clue, portent, warning, foreshadowing, or

2 strange detail that speaks of future danger. On the next
encounter roll, a Zone Encounter happens on a 2-6.

Room Horror: You witness something uncanny and horrific.

3 Gain 1d4 Stress.

4-6 Zone Encounter

12
Cavern Moments
A massive shadow clouds the
1 far wall as something in the
distance grows closer
An unnatural gust of wind
2 carries a foul scent
Distant scraping echoes from
3 the far end of the room
The light sources are spread far
4 apart, creating pockets of
darkness
The room appears to be rapidly
5 expanding as you move through
it
The furniture and decor in this
room is repeated over and over
6 and over and over and over
and…
Plummet Moments
The not-so-solid ground
1 underfoot slowly slants toward
the edge.
A single distant point of light
2 appears far overhead; it is
watching.
From far below, something
3 rumbles: the plate tectonics of
the universe.
The way ahead is terrifyingly
4 narrow and precarious.
Light sources swing low, like
5 pendulums hanging from far up
in the darkness.
Faint footsteps from beneath
6 you; something is mirroring your
steps on the underside.
13
Cavern Horrors
The titanic remains of some
1
creature seemingly fused with
the floor. You must pass through
them to continue.
All sound echoes
cacophonously, it bores through
2 skulls and scrapes away at the
senses.
Stricken by sudden agoraphobia,
3 the room zooms away from your
grasp.
All light is suddenly snuffed out
4 as something gigantic lumbers
close.
The room takes on a mouth-like
terroir: the floor beneath you
5 like a tongue, the distant walls
as teeth.
A dark cloud follows from
6 above, as time passes it grows
more swollen; gravid.
Plummet Horrors
Impossibly long arms reach
1 upwards from the darkness,
grabbing at the nearest ledge.
The darkness races upward,
2 rapidly approaching from
behind.
The walkway shakes violently,
3 as though invisible hands were
shaking it back and forth.
Massive gaps in the ground
4 suddenly open up, catching the
unawares on the very edge.
Swinging and ensnaring
meathooks, suspended from
5 dangling chains, drop down
from the darkness above.
A sudden onset of sharp,
6 vertigo makes the scant ground
beneath you swim.
tunnel moments
The walls gently sigh a hot
1 exhalation from all directions
Moving through this room is
2 like crawling through chilled,
cramped, air ducts.
Scratches left behind on the
3 wall, as though something were
marking a path
A heavily notated map is
4 pinned to the wall, most routes
crossed off with ragged X’s.
A bell chimes from around a
5 nearby corner, welcoming your
approach.
A long, red thread winds
6 through the room, tangling its
way around your feet.
Threshold moments
The old floral wallpaper flakes
1 off with the faintest touch,
smelling of mildew and despair.
Steps sink too deep into the
2 worn, yellowed carpets: like
stepping on overripe fruit.
A faint, acrid yet sickly sweet
scent suffuses the air: all too
3 close to the scent of decay and
fear.
The sound of a door quickly
slamming as you enter this
4 room; something just made a
hasty exit.
An electronic sign hangs on a
nearby wall, it reads “Now
5 Serving Order #1,030,589”. It
slowly ticks over to
“#1,030,590”.
An open window looks out
onto an identical room with an
6 open window that looks out
onto an identical room with an
open window…
14
tunnel horrors
The materials of this room are
1 wet, fleshy, and peristaltic to
the touch.
The walls move closer,
2 squeezing and constricting like
a massive serpent.
The room seems to be
3 repeating itself, looping like a
suddenly inescapable circle.
What was once a solid wall
4 opens up into a gaping,
gnashing, bloodied mouth
5
A hot, wet, red liquid drips
from above.
A strange cracking comes from
behind the walls, as though the
6 room were stretching out its
bones.
Threshold Horrors
Slits open up in the walls
1 revealing countless bloodshot
eyes.
A faceless man appears at the
2 edge of your vision, growing
closer when you look away.
The crackle of a radio
broadcasts from somewhere
3 nearby: the singer wears the
voice of someone you know.
The room is arranged like a
waiting room. A stack of
4 magazines illustrate the party
dying through horrific, violent,
accidents.
One wall is taken up by a
massive mirror. Slowly, a hand
5 presses against it from the
other side.
Streaks of gore trail around a
nearly pitch black corner. From
6 the shadows come the soft
sounds of chewing.
Altar Moments
A polygonal computing device
1
sits atop a metal stand: its
chassis is made from age-
yellowed textured plastic.
A red bakelite phone rings. Its
2 ringing grows louder the longer
it goes unanswered.
A mounted camcorder stands
3 on a tripod, red light blinking on.
A ring of wooden chairs
4 encircles seemingly empty
space.
A phantom chorus sings low,
5 sinister, aharmonic notes.
A leatherbound book sits open
6
on a stand. A pen sits next to it,
waiting for you to write the
ending
Warren Moments
A dusty fog sweeps through the
1 room, obscuring the
surroundings.
Rusty conduit and rebar
2 penetrate through the walls,
floors, and ceilings.
Dense spider-web covers the
3 room all sticky, clinging, and
ensnaring.
The light shifts, making it
4 appear as though the shadows
are reaching out.
Strands of red mycelia web their
5 way across the walls and hang
in dense mats from the ceiling.
Rubble fills the room. A variety
of shattered bricks, concrete,
6 and burned wood, as though
plucked from a multitude of
disaster sites.
15
Altar Horrors
An unblinking eye floats
1 suspended in the perfect center
of the room.
A human body, cleanly, but
completely, butchered, is
2 draped lovingly over a single
chair.
The shards of a shattered mirror
lay in a sharp pile on the floor
3 reveal reflections of
outstretched invisible hands.
Embraced in the arms of
skeleton arms sitting on the
4 floor is a framed picture of one
of the PCs.
A wooden door stands open in
5 the center of the room. A hand
beckon from within
A hole in the floor leads deep,
6 deep into the Skein. It is shaped
exactly like one of the PCs.
Warren Horrors
Mannequin parts litter the room.
1 They slowly creep to life,
crawling toward each other.
Piles of staticky TV sets show
your recent actions from all
2 angles. Cables crawl into the
darkness.
Like writhing beads of moisture,
3 small, white, eyeless worms
drop from the walls.
The hair stands up on the back
4 of your neck, a primal reaction
to a nearby, hidden predator.
Strands of nearly invisible
webbing that sheens a sickly
5 color dangle like lure from the
low ceiling.
A thick, acrid and foul smelling
6 sludge begins to seep up from
the floor.
Office encounters
Faceless office drones mill
1 about, mannequin-like and
swaying gently.

CRT screens flash garbled

Office Drones
2 messages across their
screens. + 1 HP, 10 STR, 10
A dot-matrix printer noisily DEX, 10 CTRL
3 grumbles to life, spitting out
a cryptic warning.
+ Listless limbs
(d6)
A wall taken up entirely with
4 employee of the month
pictures; all of one PC

The intercom system

Custodians
whispers the name of one PC,
5 summoning them to the + 2 HP, 10 STR, 10
manager’s office DEX, 12 CTRL
The lights suddenly blink out. + Chemical
6 The working day is over and
the Custodians emerge.
cleaning supplies
(d6 Stress)
Creature
7-10 Encounter

11-12 depth Encounter

Office details
1 Exposed fluorescent tube lighting flickers overhead.
2 The constant clicking and whining of a dying disk drive.
A low murmur of invisible office workers from all
3 directions.
A nearby water cooler gurgles, the liquid inside red and
4 viscous.

5 Windows look out onto blank, stark concrete walls.

All the clocks in the room spin too slowly, too quickly,
6 mesmerizingly out of sync.

16
hall encounters
A shadow projected on the wall passes causally
1 by, but there is nothing around to have cast it.

A lone phone booth stands off to the side. The

2 phone swings slowly back and forth, a faint voice
emanating from the speaker.

The low wail of a tornado siren blares through the

3 entire space. The light shifts to a sickly green.

A flashing stop light hangs from the ceiling. Its

4 colors only seem to affect mundane humans, not
denizens of the Skein.

A reception desk sits in the middle of the room.

5 From behind it, a bodiless voice asks in a
susserating tone, “Welcome. May I help you?”

The lights flash a sickly, emergency red as an

6 alarm sounds sharply from within the room.

7-10 Creature Encounter

11-12 depth Encounter

Hall details
1 The air is stale and unmoving, both cloying and musty.

2 Faded floral wallpaper, the corners slowly peeling.

Faint dark stains on dull, worn carpet that slowly grow

3 larger.

4 The temperature is slightly too warm, the air too dry.

Doors have hazy-glass inserts, blurred movement can be

5 seen behind them

There is no direct light here, only a strange, sourceless

6 ambiance.

17
pool encounters
The water of the pools
suddenly retreats,
exposing the hard cement
1 bottoms. The roar of the
approaching tidal wave
overtakes all other sounds.
The water begins to spill
over the edge of the pool
2 and continues to steadily
rise.
pool details
A diving board slowly wags
back and forth, as though
1 something just jumped from
it.
The light reflects lazily off
the surface of the water,
2 casting a faint glow across
the walls.
The air is thick with humidity

Far beneath the blue

surface, the dark shape of
3 some shadowy leviathan
stirs.
All movement is slowed as
the phantom whistling of a
4 lifeguard breaks the
silence.
3 and the burning chemical
tang of chlorine.
Further doorways and
4 passages can be seen far
beneath the waters.
The water winds like a lazy
5 river beneath walls that
obscure the way forward.

The humidity that clings to From nearby, the sudden

the air begins to grow 6 sound of a large splash.
5 dangerously stifling.
Steam rises from the pool,
obscuring vision.

Captivating, enthralling
singing burbles up from
6 beneath the surface,
followed by gently
beckoning hands .

Creature
7-10 Encounter
depth
11-12 Encounter

18
lobby encounters
Faceless bellboys attempt to take your luggage
1 and items from you.

A desk attendant with blank white eyes beckons

2 you forward to sign the guestbook.

Behind an empty reception desk, a large map is

3 framed on the wall. It is difficult to look at for
too long, but very familiar.

A light illuminates the inside of a nearby coat-

4 check. Rows of fresh skins and hides hang from
the racks inside.

A tour group of shadows crowd the room, waiting

5 for the guide to arrive.

A worn sign reads “Lost & Found” above a waist-

6 high door. From behind the door comes the
sound of something rooting around inside.

7-10 Creature Encounter

11-12 depth Encounter

lobby details
1 Harsh geometric wallpaper that moves when you stare at it.

A yellowed, glass ashtray holds a single still smoldering

2 cigarette.

Red velvet ropes create a tangled queue line. A sign says

3 “No Cutting”.

Comfortable furniture, upholstered in suspiciously flesh-

4 toned leather, is arranged tastefully through the room

Freshly waxed floors of dark marble gleam in the soft,

5 diffused light.

All doors present in the room are marked with “Employees

6 Only Beyond This Point”.

19
Machine
encounters
Whizzing conveyor belts
carpet the floor, snatching
up the unaware and
1 shepherding them toward
sharp toothed, gnashing,
industrial shredders.

Emerging from the walls

and ceiling, exposed wiring
and conduits spark and
2 snake, taking on a life of
their own as they attempt
to tangle around limbs.

A strange assembly line

winds through the room,
3 slowly shuffling along and
assembling pulsing cubes
of meat.

Like unblinking eyes from

above, searchlights slowly
4 scan back and forth over
the exposed room.

Large metal cylinders,

attached to a tangle of
tubing and machinery hiss Machine details
5 open, revealing near Large ventilation ducts
perfect copies of several
of the PCs.
1 protrude from nearly every
surface.
Touching the surfaces in Exposed and underfoot,
this room imparts a dark
2 confusing arrays of heavy gears
6 stain that clings to flesh,
and slowly starts to
grind and whir.

spread across the body. Rust coats nearly every surface,

Creature
3 making already sharp edges
almost serrated with corrosion.
7-10 Encounter A constant cacophonous
depth 4 clanging seems to come from
11-12 Encounter
every direction.

The air is saturated with the

5 scent of machinery oil and
heavy chemical fumes.

Piercing slashes of metal

6 scraping on metal cut through
the silence intermittently.

20
house encounters
Heaping and overflowing plates of grotesque
1 meats are artfully arranged across a long dining
room table. Placemats are set expectantly.

From up a set of stairs, a familiar, parental voice

2 sternly calls out the full name of one of the PCs.

A doorbell rings loudly through the room.

3 Something that almost sounds like a dog barks in
response.

A large grandfather clock looms amid the

shadows, ticking loudly. Instead of telling time,
4 its ornate face appears to be acting as a
countdown.

A door in the distance slams suddenly, followed

5 by a short, piercing shriek, low laughter, and a
soft whisper in your ear.

A dark, moldering stain creeps down worn

6 drywall. As it spreads, it seems to be forming a
familiar portrait.

7-10 Creature Encounter

11-12 depth Encounter

house details
A soft, melodic humming comes from somewhere deeper in
1 the room.

2 Familiar wallpaper from a childhood home adorn the walls.

The room feels like an unfinished basement; full of damp

3 and mildew.

4 The smell of burning food wafts through the air.

It feels as though any occupants of the room left suddenly,

5 only moments before.

The room is carpeted with luxuriously dense, dark crimson

6 carpet and matching ornate wallpaper.

21
Photic Details
Spoken words are ever so
1 slightly muffled, as though by an
invisible mask.
Hastily scrawled coded
2 markings are written off in the
corner of the room.
Dead leaves rustle in an unseen
3 breeze, as though just swept in
through an open door.
Each door in the room has a
4 threadbare welcome mat in
front of it.
Faint light creeps in from
5 windows that refuse to open.
Muddy footprints track a
6 panicked path throughout the
room.
Mesopelagic
details
Cast shadows move slightly out
1 of sync from their source.
Chromatic aberrations plague
2 the periphery of vision.
Large streaks and splashes of
3 blood splatter decorate the
walls of this room.
Everything has a fuzzy, noisy
texture over it. As if someone
4 applied a texture overlay to
reality.
The dense, curving, organic
patterns of the carpet in this
5 room slowly move in spiraling
rotations.
Shadows spread extra long
across the walls, taking on
6 sharper, more predatory
silhouettes.
22
Photic encounters
A few wandering Freshly
Lost (page 31), they have a
1-2 useful tool the PCs might
need.
Worn supplies and nearly
expired rations are
3-4 haphazardly strewn across
the room and flecked with
blood.
A friendly appearing NPC,
secretly a particularly
5-6 daring solo Doppelganger
(pg. 31) that wishes to
replace one of the PCs.
mesopelagic
encounters
A singular black cat walks
past the PCs. It seems to
follow them between
1-2 rooms, growing a larger
and larger cheshire-esque
grin the deeper it follows
the PC into the Skein.
All the other doors in this
room have been nailed
shut with wooden boards.
3-4 Whichever room is entered
next, roll two Creature
Encounters.
A small pack of 1d4
Grinning Dogs emerges
from around a corner,
5-6 quietly surrounding the
PCs. They do not appear
immediately hostile. Yet.
bathyal Details
Solid, sturdy objects suddenly
1 have an uncomfortably fleshy
give to them.
Half-formed, shadowy
2 silhouettes watch you from the
darkened corners of the room.
The room is decorated with
arsenic-green floral wallpapers
3 that exude a sweet yet acrid
scent.
All surfaces take on the same
4 texture of crumbling drop-
ceiling tiles.
The air is sharp and pricking. A
5 buzzing scent close to ozone is
nearly overwhelming.
The silhouette of a human-
shaped form hides in plain
sight; In the shape of a piece of
6 furniture, in the shadows of a
doorframe, in the cutout of the
wainscoting.
bathyal
encounters
The lights are suddenly
snuffed out, and a
scrabbling noise is heard
1-2
around the PCs. When the
lights flicker back on, each
PC has had a black X
marked somewhere on
their body.
The shadows start to
rearrange memories and
thoughts, elevating distrust
3-4 and paranoia. Stress is
doubled for the next 1d6
Rooms.
A fist-sized mechanical
beetle drops down from
the ceiling, latching onto
5-6 the back of the neck of one
PC, and injecting them in
the spine. CTRL Save or
gain a Skein Fallout.

Abyssal details
The temperature and climate of the room seems to shift with every
1 other step: freezing cold to blisteringly hot in mere moments.

Gravity behaves irregularly: sometimes it briefly lets go before clinging

2 to you even tighter.

Walls become floors, floors become ceilings as the directionality of

3 everything in the room is reshuffled.

Perception and causality are out of sync. Movement and action appear
4 to happen just before the thought to do so forms.

Sound and scents are accompanied with a synthesia-like swirl of dark,

5 menacing colors.

The smell of fresh, wet earth permeates the room, as though

6 something just crawled its way out of the soil.

23
abyssal encounters
The air ripples and parts, the room
shakes and rumbles. The current
1-2 room is cut in half as a massive
fissure opens up, plunging deep into
the heart of the Skein.

Void Caller sings the song of

3-4 emptiness. CTRL Save or become
infected with the Void.

All objects within the room dissolve

into biting, black worms. Save as the
5-6 worms try to burrow into exposed
flesh. Stress.

hadal Details
Light and color streaks like
1 melting paint dripping through a
kaleidoscope.
Sound becomes semi-tangible,
truth and lies emerging from the
2 vibrations more clearly than
before.
Movement conjures technicolor
3 eddies and riffles through the
air.
The seams of reality bulge and
4 fray as the viscera of the
universe starts to seep in.
Senses blend together, touch,
5 sight, smell, taste, it all
becomes one.
The void whispers and caresses
6 you lovingly. You are so close,
just a few more steps.
hadal encounters
The Eye, that which is the
unending watcher, reveals
1-2 itself to the PCs. It readies
its silent judgment.
The red, wet, sinews of
reality become visible to
all. They vibrate with a high
3-4 pitched thrum. They are so
exposed, vulnerable, and
tempting.
The PCs find an entrance
to the Executive Suite. This
is where the Powers That
5-6 Be hold their board
meetings. You were not
invited.

24
25
26
 Tangles in the skein
At depths 10 and below, it is possible to stumble into special, anchored
locations within the Skein called Tangles. These locations tend not to
take on characteristics of the current Zone, instead harboring their own
special properties.

Some of these Tangles may serve specific purposes or hold unique

dangers. Others are curiosities full of haunting potential.

Tangles can be encountered whenever the GM chooses, but to randomly

determine if the next Room is a Tangle, roll 1d100+Depth. On results of
80 and higher, the next Room is a Tangle. Just like normal Rooms, roll
1d6 to determine how many doors are located in the Tangle.

Roll 1d66 to determine which Tangle is encountered.

tangles
The room is filled nearly to the brim with clear pneumatic tubes that
disappear into the floor, walls, and ceiling. Packages, letters, and
11 stranger items whiz through the tubing at dangerous speeds. Some
tubes seem just large enough for a person to squeeze into.

The still and empty waiting room of the local DMV. You did not bring
12 all the required forms.

A massive mechanical boiler system takes up the majority of this

13 room. Heat and steam radiate off of it, as it glows with a thrumming
red light, as though it were the heart of some great beast.

This room has walls that are covered in grasping, mechanical arms.
14 They gesticulate desperately if any PC draws close. STR save or be
caught by the arms.

The room is carpeted in a dense mat of writhing, vermilion cilia.

15 Walking through it is deeply uncomfortable. Take 1d6 Stress.

The room features a cozy conversation pit with comfortable, reclined

chairs. While sitting in these chairs and looking, the ceiling fades away,
16 revealing a night sky filled with blinking stars. Stars that are drawing
closer, and closer. Each stargazer takes 1d6 Stress.

The interior of a large, hazily lit roller skating rink. Classic tunes pump
21 through a staticky sound system. A small horde of 2d10 Warped Lost
lazily skate laps around the day-glo rink.

A massive bronze orrery, studded with precious stones, depicts an

unknown night sky. If the PCs can work the mechanisms, they may be
22 able to use the orrery to help map the Skein. If successful, the odds
of an exit occurring increases by 15%.

27
 The walls of this room are filled with rows and rows of hyper realistic
23 masks of all shapes, forms, and beings, including replicas of the PCs own
faces. Taking and wearing one of the masks grants a new face.

The central nexus of a series of artificial tunnels dug through multiple

rooms. Entering the tunnels allows the PCs to enter a new Zone without
24 increasing depth. Roll twice for the next set of encounters and combine
the results.

A large, polished black granite monolith looms in the center of

this otherwise empty and blank room. Touching the monolith
25 incurs 1d6 Stress, but also imparts the use of one new spell as
per the Liminal Horror magic rules.
A cramped security room, covered in flickering CRT screens
showing off countless rooms within the Skein. Some are
26 recognizable as rooms the PCs have already encountered, others
are brand new. Any beings that are currently following or hunting
the PCs are visible on the screens.

A prepared operating theater. Sterile surgical lamps and an array

of surgical tools, attached to jointed metal limbs, hang above an
31 empty operating table. If a PC lays down on the table, they may
replace one of their Stress Fallouts with a new one.

Entering this room is like stepping foot into a dark, fetid forest. The
canopy is thick and obscuring, no sky is visible though it is clearly night.
In the distance a hunting horn sounds.
The Hunter
32 • 10 HP, 1 Armor, 18 STR, 16 DEX, 12 CTRL
• Greatbow (d8)
• To pursue prey to the ends of existence. Nothing save its own
destruction will stop the Hunter for long.

This room is endless sky. Stepping through the door sends the PCs
33 plummeting into freefall. At irregular intervals doors to elsewhere within
the Skein whip past. Exiting this room adds 1d100 Depth.

Along an interior beach, salty waves lap against the mildewing carpet.
34 Chairs sit halfway submerged in the tides. The water fades out into the
distance. There is not telling how far this ocean goes.

A maypole stands in the center of this room, cutting into the

ceiling above. Flower petals dust the floor, while the lengthy
35 multicolored ribbons hang invitingly. Any PC that takes hold of one
of the ribbons must make a DEX Save or be drawn up into the
ceiling into a new Room.
This room contains only one other door, marked with an Exit sign. It
remains stubbornly locked and resistant to batterings. Is this truly an
36 escape? Or perhaps a trap that leads ever deeper into the heart of the
Skein?

28
 This room is an identical copy of one of the PC’s childhood
bedrooms. Ability loss can be recovered as if it were HP while
41 resting in the bedroom. Something shifts from beneath the bed,
and rattles faintly from within the closet.

The room is dominated by brutalist walls and buttresses of

concrete. The light is sourceless, low, and a deep thrumming red.
42 On a raised altar-like slab rests a massive stone sarcophagus. It is
undecorated and dangerously cold to the touch.

The interior of a soaring gothic cathedral constructed from a

strange, night-black stone. The cathedral is empty, save for the
43 stone statues that line the pews. At the pulpit, a tall statue of a
priest, with eyes chiseled out, stands offering communion.

A massive fungal fruiting body towers up from the floor, spreading

upwards to the ceiling. Handmade paper charms are strung around
its trunk-like stipe. Soft, fist-sized nodules hang from mycelial
strands. Eating one of the meaty nodules grants the following
Skein Fallout;
44
Fungal Mind: Your mind is connected to the paranatural mycelial
network. During a moment of rest, you may take 1d4 Stress to send
your consciousness through the mycelial network, experiencing the
sensory inputs at a location where the network has taken root.

A cuboidal room of smooth, modernistic metal surfaces. Slight

seams in the walls, floor, and ceiling hide devices of ingenious,
45 bloody torment. Deadly traps that wait to spring to life and test
anyone who enters this experimental chamber.

The door opens up to absolute, static, perfect, pitch black

46 darkness. The darkness hungrily swallows up all light sources. The
darkness is enthralling, urging all to enter into its embrace.

The front desk of a small, slightly rundown motel. All the shades
are drawn, and nearby a display is overstuffed with pamphlets of
51 tourist locations. A room key waits on the desk. The key unlocks
one of the nearby room doors, which can take the PCs back to one
previously revisited room, potentially restoring continuity.

This room takes on the form of a closed pizza and children’s

entertainment funzone. The air is tinged with the scent of greasy
pizza and cleaning chemicals. On a worn stage, stands three
shutdown mascot animatronics. As the PCs enter the room, a faint
gleam can be seen in their unblinking eyes.
52 Funzone animatronics
• 8 HP, 2 Armor, 16 STR, 10 DEX, 12 CTRL
• Musical Instruments, Crushing Limbs (d8)
• To ensure every customer has a FunZone FunTime!

29
 A small corner of the Super Sargasso Sea. A cosmological
junkyard filled with detritus from all periods of history. With
53 enough effort, PCs can try to locate and scavenge useful items
from within the precariously towering heaps of junk.

A medium sized white room with a soft, warm light. Sound is

muted, absorbed by the soft, plush carpets. In the center of the
room are several large creche-like incubators attached to tubes
54 that feed into a central machine. Within the incubators, many-
winged and many-eyed figures can be seen gestating,
murmuring strange hymns.

The floor is coated in a dark, sticky substance. The air is

clogging and humid. In the center of the room is the remains of
a massive cocoon. It gapes open, ragged and wet, like a wound,
55 still warm to the touch. Whatever freshly emerged from this
cocoon cannot be far away. From the darkness, comes the
sound of fluttering wings.

A large, wall-sized mirror is the focal point of this room. Looking

directly into the mirror requires a CTRL save or a dangerous
56 secret about the PC will be revealed. If there are no secrets to
be revealed, the mirror creates a false secret instead.

A massive, cavernous, seemingly endless room dominated by

titanic stone columns that stretch upwards into the darkness.
61 These columns may be the very foundation upon which the
Skein is woven.

The Skein has encountered an error. Roll again and combine the
62-66 rooms into a single twisted amalgam.

30
 Creatures of the skein
Use the following table for determining Creature Encounters.

Long-fingers
6 HP, 1 Armor, 10 STR, 14 DEX, 12 CTRL

1 Pointed Fingers (D6)

Covered in a dark, dripping liquid, its many-jointed fingers dart from the
shadows.

To feed on hot and vibrant living flesh.

The Lost
4 HP, 12 STR, 10 DEX, 14 CTRL

• Hands, limbs, teeth, broken tools (D6)

• Victims of the Skein left to wander its endless rooms for far too long.
Usually travel in small groups. Roll to determine what kind of Lost.
2 1-3: Fresh: still desperately clinging to morsels of mundanity, they
might be reasoned with

4-5: Warped: their bodies are warped nearly beyond recognition after
spending too much time in the depths

6: Possessed: puppeted by other beings from deep within the Skein.

Critical Damage: A fragment of the Skein lodges itself within the
target.

The Observer
8 HP, 11 STR, 13 DEX, 18 CTRL

• Claws (D6), Ceaseless Gaze (D6 Stress)

3 • Cloaked in worn rags with an almost animal-like body form. Its face is a
blank, radiant disc.

• To catalog the entirety of the Skein.

• Can move to new Rooms without the need for openings.

31
 Doppelgangers
3 HP, 1 Armor, 10 STR, 10 DEX, 12 CTRL

• They tend to travel in groups as perfect copies of the PCs. If a Mirror

4 Twin is present, they lack a Doppelganger.

• To isolate the unwary. To slide unnoticed into place. To be freed from

the Skein.

• Critical Damage: Quickly swaps places with the target. Who is the real
one now?

That Which Follows

8 HP, 3 Armor, 16 STR, 12 DEX, 14 CTRL

5 • Massive serrated cleaver (D8)

• A manifestation of the PCs' perfect fears. Once encountered, it dogs the

PCs forever. Wherever they are, it is slowly, steadily, gaining.

• To endlessly pursue. To manifest true fear.

the Spider with Human Hands

4 HP, 1 Armor, 12 STR, 12 DEX, 10 CTRL

6 • Soft, pale hands (D4, D6 Stress)

• A wretched, spindly, spider-like thing. At the end of each of its many

limbs is a soft, cold, human hand.

• To reach and grasp at the things that live in the light.

Smiling Dogs
4 HP, 1 Armor, 12 STR, 12 DEX, 10 CTRL
7 • Teeth (D4, D4 Stress)

• A medium-sized mutt with an uncanny grin of human teeth.

• To watch. To unnerve. To bite.

32
 Haunted Doll
3 HP, 2 Armor, 13 STR, 11 DEX, 12 CTRL

• Lies still and waiting. When moving, its limbs articulate with too many
8 joints.

• To delight in spreading fear.

• Critical Damage: The spirit that possesses the doll will haunt the PC
after the doll-body is destroyed.

Doppelgangers
5 HP, 3 Armor, 12 STR, 12 DEX, 12 CTRL

• Beams of strange light (D8)

9
• A slightly ovoid, seamless, matte metallic disc that hovers at head-
height.

• Its behavior is inscrutable and esoteric. It may be observing, recording,

but to who or what does it report to?

33
 Meat swarm
10 4 HP, 2 Armor, 14 STR, 10 DEX, 12 CTRL

• Slam (D6)

d6 Shape Sound Behavior

1 Sphere Screaming Hovering

2 Cube Squelching Pulsating

3 Pyramidal Whispering Swelling

4 Torus Moaning Shivering

5 Icosohedron Weeping Humming

6 Klein Bottle Clicking Searching

d6 Feature Goal
1 Covered in eyes To assimilate

2 Bleeding profusely To consume

3 Filled with teeth To convert

4 Secreting acids To follow

5 Silky to the touch To bond

6 Covered in cilia To germinate

34
 Unwoven delves
Record your delve into the Skein here.

notes

denizens
rooms
Layers of
unreality

Welcome to the Skein

Explore the endless threads of
the Skein in a procedurally
driven liminal dungeon crawl
compatible with Liminal
Horror, or any other modular
horror tabletop role-playing
game.

Face the horrors and

hauntings of reality’s
backstage. Delve deep,
become changed. Escape if
you can.

OSTRI�MONKEY
GAMES