Hi,

I'm moving off Substack and back to my blog. New posts will be sent here via Buttondown. Same content, better platform.

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What I'm Working On

Last week, I worked on the next piece of the 0.5 → 0.6 development of Beneath Ahknoor: Location Flashbacks, alongside the continued pass on Trappings.

These tools exist for a simple table truth: the dungeon should not feel like a set you return to. It should feel continuous. Personal. Costly. When the party comes back through a familiar threshold, the Keeper needs something sharper than "it looks the same."

There are places beneath Ahknoor that do not reset.

You leave. You return. The stone has been thinking.

A Location Flashback is not a memory. It is not lore. It is not an answer. It is the dungeon's marginalia: a brief, wrong annotation in the margin of the place you thought you knew.

How It Works

The procedure is always the same. On re-entry, the Keeper asks a single Location Question:

"What do you notice about this place that makes you realize you've changed since you were last here?"

The player answers in two beats only. Sensory first. Then one declarative sting.

"The prayer I carved into the wall is still here... but I can't read the script anymore. I've forgotten the words."

Then the level shifts, slightly. The corridor is longer. The exit is less obvious. Retreat is not clean anymore. No new threat. No clue. Just pressure. The Underworld edits the margin, and play continues.

Flashbacks are prompts delivered by the Keeper, but answered by the players. They reveal how the dungeon has changed you, not just what the dungeon remembers.

Trappings

Alongside this, Trappings remain the dungeon's breath: six ambient details per level to keep unnamed corridors coherent and claimed. Trappings set the stage. Moments interrupt and demand response.

Next Steps

I'm doing a deep pass through the existing levels and the new ones forming beneath them, threading Flashback questions and Trappings into the stone.

Little steps. Every day.

For Everyone on This List: Free IWTT Expansion

I'm creating a free expansion to It's Worse Than That! (both the PWYW sampler and the Winter 2025 zine). It's a bookmark-sized quick reference for adjudicating consequences at the table.

Everyone on this list gets it when it's ready. I'll send a link in March.

If You Want to Follow Along

Beneath Ahknoor - Free playtest available now. Paid expanded version (0.6) launches April 2026.
→ https://mountainfoot.itch.io/beneath-ahknoor

It's Worse Than That! - Winter 2025 - GM training scenarios for practicing consequences and Devil's Bargains.
→ https://mountainfoot.itch.io/its-worse-than-that-winter-2025

Thanks for reading.

Happy gaming.