Borough Bound

Muc-Mhara 03 - Into the Trench

Added 2022-05-25 16:23:34 +0000 UTC

Find what you seek

Hello all, and welcome back to Muc-Mhara! In this newest release, we finally enter into the Trench of the Lost, a strange part of the city filled with massive heaps of lost treasures, trash, and traps. This is certainly one of the most unusual maps we've released so far, and there's a lot to discover here. Let's dive in!

Borough Guide

This document gives you an overview of the Trench of the Lost, featuring useful tables of trinkets to roll on, a variety of scavenger NPCs to throw at your players, and a list of some of the best practices (and pitfalls) of digging through the heaps of lost goodies. In fact, one of the NPCs might look a little out of place in Muc-Mhara... have we seen folks like Kativan elsewhere in the multiverse?

Next, we meet the always scheming Pàdraig the Loss Broker, a strange caterpillar fella who might be of some use in recovering your lost items. I know some of you are probably figuring out how to actually run a "my players came to Muc-Mhara to find something" quest, so we've got a bit of guidance for ya in here. Please note that the next release will feature additional information about the finding stuff in the trench.

Maps

Unlike our typical release order, this map slots in directly beneath map 02, the shallow enclave. Our map release schedule will wind around a bit snake-like for Muc-Mhara to replicate the order in which players are likely to explore the city.

As you can see, this is far from a typical map for us! In lieu of boulevards of homes, most of Muc-Mhara 03 consists of sunken trash. There are homes here (some sea fae don't mind living underneath a layer of ever-replenishing "treasure"), but most of this map is dedicated to the endless heaps of accumulated stuff known as the Trench of the Lost. In the southeast of map, you'll find the diving bell in which Pàdraig makes his home, and bounding the map are tall cliffs that will be hard to traverse thanks to the unfloating waters.

Patrons at the Chief Courier tier also gain access to the "interior" of the trash heap, where clever scavengers have dug out and fortified useful tunnels to quickly traverse the Trench, or just hang out in style. I don't know about you, but I really want to run an "underwater/underground trash heap battle" soon.

Music

It would be a real missed opportunity to not release some spooky atmospheric music for this strange trash heap. "The Trench of the Lost" is perfect for moody exploration sessions, a seeming inevitability as your players pick their way through the refuse. An intense variant is also provided for when they need to stave off rival scavengers, or duke it out with villainous fae.

Plus, surprise! We've got another bonus track for you. "Seek the Seas" is a jazzy, relaxing, almost meditative piece to accompany chiller moments in Muc-Mhara. Perhaps you spend half a session chit-chatting with Pàdraig, or maybe your players just need to unwind and consume hallucinogens in peace.

Claspid Mini | Collaboration with Paper Forge

Muc-Mhara is filled with so many unique creatures, and we thought it would be a real letdown if we weren't able to get art for a good chunk of them. As such, we enlisted the help of our long-time collaborators Paper Forge to help bring some of the underwater oddities to life. First on the list is the claspid, a sort of obsessive cephalopod who helps to keep the pathways of the Trench clean and clear.

Paper Forge is unrivaled in the realm of character art, paper minis, and VTT tokens. The whole BB team has worked with Paper Forge innumerable times over the years, and this duo really is the best at making simple, usable assets for use in both in-person sessions or virtual tabletops. Please go check out their Patreon.