The Stygian Depths - Lost Temple of Xibalba

The Stygian Depths, Lost Temple of Xibalba is a supplement for ShadowSea, providing rules for adventures into the dungeons located deep in the heart of the underground world. This PDF version of the game includes the Stygian Depths rulebook, which has everything needed to play, map tiles, game cards and creature markers. The cards, tiles and markers are all provided at 300 DPI for printing.

The main entrance to the Stygian Depths is through the sunken city of Xibalba, located in Blood Reef on the coasts of the Shadow Sea. Many of the ziggurat pyramids in Xibalba are partially submerged and the structures at the top have doorways that allow adventurers to reach the horrors below. There, serpentine monstrosities and their hideous demonic servants guard magical artifacts and golden treasures while plotting their return to power. Warbands from any of the forces of  ShadowSea or DeepWars may enter into the Stygian Depths in search of gold and ancient magical items, as well as for the glowing crystals that power all ether technology. The only restriction is that warbands need to have Amphibious models in the party, as fully marine ones will not be able to navigate the dry parts of the dungeon.

Adventures in the deep caverns are played on the tabletop using “tiles” to represent stretches of tunnels and rooms. The tiles are arranged by drawing cards that show which rooms are to appear, so games can be played solo or cooperatively with another player. The ultimate goal of a game session is to complete a Quest Scenario, a narrative adventure with a special chamber at the end of the adventure that contains glittering treasures but is protected by challenging enemies and deadly environments.

There are multiple Quest Scenarios that warbands may attempt, each of which has a special Quest Chamber, a larger floor tile with a unique layout. Players may also build their own layouts for competitive battles, having each player start in different sections of the map. The competing players then try to recover as much loot as possible while surviving the dangers of the temple.  

The main ShadowSea rulebook is not required to play The Stygian Depths as all the necessary rules for the scenery and creatures are included in this book. However, players should have the main rulebook as reference for any spell lists and special item effects used by the adventuring warband that are not included here. The game rules are based upon the Song of Blades and Heroes (SOBH) ruleset by Ganesha Games and are designed for fast play with plenty of heroic action and arcane magic, resolved with a few rolls of 6-sided dice.  

The whole set comes as a zip file with the rulebook, map tiles, cards and markers.

The rulebook comes as a full-color PDF file with 52 pages of dungeon exploration, with 79 pages of cards, map tiles, markers and counters. ShadowSea is based on the award-winning Song of Blades and Heroes ruleset.