First Draft

Cult of the cave crickets
An adventure for D&D 5e and Dungeon Crawl Classics

I started work on Cult of the Cave Crickets quite by accident after reading H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. In the story, an expedition of scientists and explorers set out to survey the vast wilderness Antarctica in the year 1930. Over the course of their travels much of the expedition meets an untimely fate at the hands of supernatural, and otherworldly horror. It reminded me of other such stories, both factual and fictional, as Into Thin Air, the tale of the Donner Party, and, most of all, Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. These stories each deal with a group of intrepid explorers who dare to tread where few, if any, have tread before. Each are waylaid by terrible storms and forced to survive in the worst of conditions.

At the Mountains of Madness takes this a step further in a very simple, straightforward way that H.P. Lovecraft is now known for: Add scary monsters.

I wanted to build on this core concept of a group of explorers in terrible weather and played with the idea of the PCs themselves being trapped in a storm and forced into the path of cosmic and otherworldly beings. Ultimately the base idea felt too constricting. The impetus to drive the story forward rested solely on survival. There is terrible weather, and terrible monsters. In a situation such as that, who wouldn’t strike out into the wilderness, brave the elements, and leave the monstrosities behind? Surely the chances of survival increase when you flee the killer beasts, no?

It became obvious early on that to motivate the players, the scenario would need to either completely trap them or give them a reason to press forward. Personally, I am not a fan of trapping the players; I don’t believe it creates good stories around the table. Players need agency and room to act creatively. If they are simply plucked up and placed into a situation they have no control over, you can bet they will find a way to control it and, barring that, may start to feel hopeless or frustrated at the constraints that bind them.

So, I’m not going to trap the party, which means I’ll need to give them a reason to press forward. A reason to engage with the adventure that they decide is worth their time. I worked through the motivations of a group of explorers surrounded by monsters that they could easily walk away from. Why would they stay? Scientific research? Treasure? The promise of adventure? The motivations I invented felt weak and uninspired. How was I to give the PCs motivation to press forward without trapping them? What would stop them from simply hightailing it after spotting the first mutant cave cricket or blob of sentient fungus?

The answer came when I realized that the interesting story to be told was not one of explorers, but of rescuers. Everyone knows the story of the Donner Party, and have read Shackleton’s incredible tale of survival. What of those back home? Those who knew they were missing and went looking? What if those kind souls found the remnants of the expeditions camp, lost and abandoned amidst the snow drifts? What if they discovered signs of struggle? The marks of alien beasts in the snow, hieroglyphic runes carved into the ice, and an otherworldly fungus creeping over the dead?

There’s a story. A motivation to press forward. The blizzard that trapped, and ultimately doomed the expedition, was just the first of their problems. Now the PCs have arrived. There is a mystery to be solved (what happened here?), a macabre scavenger hunt to be had (accounting for each missing explorer, living or dead), and a host of baddies just dripping at the mandibles for a snack.

It’s been a couple of months since I first had this idea, and realized it had legs beyond a simple 5-room dungeon I would run for my group. I slipped my notes into my long-term pile, and picked at it over the coming weeks, expanding the idea by answering a litany of questions and ideas. Why are the cave crickets mutants? Should there be some form of insanity, à la In the Mouth of Madness or Event Horizon (two incredible Sam Neil performances)? Why were the explorers in this uncharted land? How do the PCs learn of their plight? The questions ran on until I had a list longer than my arm.

So I buckled down and picked at every question, pulled on every thread, and found where each piece of the puzzle fit, until, finally, a first draft emerged from the clay.

It still has a long way to go, but first, playtesting with my group! There are many pleasures in life, but few compare to sitting down with your friends and trying to murder them. After that comes rewrites, more playtesting, sending it off to my editor, and working with a few talented artists to bring the adventure to life! With a bit of luck, this adventure may be kickstarted by the end of the year!

Stay tuned for how that all plays out, and, as always, stay weird!