EVOCATIVE MOMENTS

FOR SHADOWDARK AND OTHER osr GAMES

 EVOCATIVE MOMENTS FOR OSR PLAY
Words
Fenris-77 & Dan 11th What is this?
So what is this book you’re
Layout and Design holding? The Shadowdark
Fenris-77 rules suggest that every
trap should have a tell –
some evidence that a PC
could find that indexes the
presence of the trap. Other
games take this same idea
an expand it to monsters,
where the encounter table
might include various hints
and clues as to the
monster’s presence – howls
in the distance, a chill in
the air, things like that.
I call all of those things
telegraphing. This little
book is a collection of wee
evocative moments that
you can use to hint at
nearby badness of all sorts.
Telegraphing Badness is an
independent product published
These can be tied to
under the Shadowdark RPG encounter rolls, or simply
Third- Party License and is not tossed into the mix as
affiliated with The Arcane evocative moments, they
Library, LLC. Shadowdark RPG © work both ways.
Vector art courtesy of Freepik Each list is numbered so
that it also functions as a
Fonts: Strong Glasgow, Big Noodle random table.
Lettering, Montserrat.

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The foul things that lurk in the shadows do not pass
entirely unseen or unfelt. Often there are signs of their
passage or presence. Are your heroes wise enough to heed
the signs?

Big Un’s Demons & devils

Big folk like ogres, trolls, and Summoned from below and
hill giants. Stuff that tends to still stinking of brimstone
whack you over the head and madness.
and ask questions later.
1. You are struck by a sense of
1. Faint traces of footprints in intense wrongness
the dust. Very large
footprints 2. A smell of brimstone chokes
you
2. A breastplate lies discarded
on the floor, crushed almost 3. A magical circle has been
flat by a massive blow hastily drawn on the floor
here. In the middle is a pool
3. The smell of rank body of blood
odour makes you gag
4. Your torches flare red for a
4. Untidy piles of garbage and moment, then subside
bones litter the area
5. Verses painted on the wall
5. The edges of the doorframe in blood, something about
has been scratched all banishment
around by huge claws
6. Words you cannot decipher
6. A huge club, roughly bound painted in excrement on
in iron, broken in two the walls
7. Blood drops and gushes 7. A dessicated corpse sits
spatter the floor here, propped up against the
leading away into the wall, its arms crossed in
darkness front of its face and its
mouth open ina silent
8. Elegant relief carvings scream
crudely defaced by massive
hammer blows 8. The torn cover of a book lies
discarded in a corner. The
title is Fiends of the Pit

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 elementals humanoids
Beings of earth, wind, fire, The dark conceals all
and water. manner of foul beasts in
hideous variety.
1. Smoke wells up form the
very stones of the floor 1. Crude ochre glyphs painted
on the wall
2. The air becomes hot as a
forge and you stream sweat 2. A backpack, turned inside
out, trash scattered around
3. Rich scent of loam and
earth fill the area 3. Buttresses of wood, newly
hewn, support the ceiling
4. Scattered trial of mud, soil, here
and loose pebbles
4. A rank sleeping fur lies on
5. Smell of a thunderstorm the floor, carefully rolled
about to break and tied with rawhide
6. Air currents shift like a 5. Crude painting of a horned
living thing head daubed on the walls in
blood
7. Fog rolls gently in the
corners of the room 6. Sound of tramping feet and
clanking armour up ahead
8. Smell of saltwater and fish
7. You hear guttural voices
raised in anger
8. Smell of smoke and
roasting meat fills the air

The dark conceals all

Foul beasts manner of foul beasts in
1. Long parallel claw marks 5. Your boot squelches into a
high up on the wall huge, foul pile of shit
2. Human bones, cracked and 6. Low growling echoes from
gnawed, litter the floor. up ahead
3. Powerful animal musk fills 7. Smears of blood from a
your nostrils dragged kill
4. A door shredded by 8. The faint sound of
powerful claws something huge breathing
regularly

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 Gross crawlies scuttlers
If it scuttles on many legs or Small cavern dwelling
maybe on none, you’re in the nasties like Goblins, Kobolds,
right place and very short Bards.
1. Skittering sound of many 1. A short barricade has been
small feet sounds in the build across the hall
shadows around you
2. Half finished pit trap is
2. A skeleton, gleaming and being dug here. Crude picks
clean, lies on the floor and shovels lie discarded at
the bottom
3. A large sack lies discarded,
its bottom eaten through 3. Glyphs in paint paint adorn
the lower half of the wall
4. Carcasses of small insects
crackle and crunch under 4. A naked corpse, pierced by
you boots many small blades
5. A empty set of clothes lies 5. The sound sof many soft
crumpled on the floor, footfalls in the dark
soaked in blood and fiull of
small holes. 6. Several sets of yellow eyes
gleam in the torchlight
6. Cobwebs on the ceiling ahead, then vanish
have been disturbed by
something crawling 7. Faint, high-pitched yelling
through them up ahead
7. Loud chittering from above 8. The door ahead is bristling
you, then it stops full of short arrows with
ragged red fletching
8. The buzzing of wings
somewhere ahead

Scales, cold blood, pointy

reptilians fangs, all that and more.

1. A scattering of emerald 5. Sound of something large

scales on the floor and dry sliding over rough
stone
2. Cool animal musk wafts
towards you from up ahead 6. A sharp hiss sounds in the
darkness ahead
3. Dried and discarded scalely
skin 7. A small humanoid skeleton,
badly crushed
4. A large fang lies on the
floor, still bloody at the 8. Several leathery eggs,
stump recently hatched, in a pile of
dirt

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 Undead, dry Undead, wet
Yellowed bone, scraps of Gross, shambling, rotting,
rags, rusted armour, maybe sliding, sloughing, dripping,
an eldritch glow. corpses.

1. Rattling and clicking 1. Smeared bloody handprints

sounds bounce off the walls on the corridor wall

2. The scrape of metal 2. Gobbets of wet, red flesh

dragged slowly along a litter the floor
stone floor 3. The iron smell of fresh
3. Smell of dust and ages, with blood fills the air
a hint of something foul 4. The stench of rotting flesh
4. A feeling of sick dread oozes down the corridor like
a living thing
5. Collapsed pile of bones and
armour, far less dusty than 5. Human femur with obvious
its surroundings tooth marks scored deep
into the bone
6. Fluttering cobwebs move
without a breeze 6. Staggering, shuffling
footstepsin the dark
7. The clack of hard feet on
flagstone 7. Hiss of claws drawn slowly
along a stone surface
8. Smell of dust and winding
sheets lingers 8. A terrible wet moaning
from somewhere up ahead.

We aren’t talking about

Undead, ghostly sheets with eye holes cut out
1. Hints of movement flicker 5. A shadowy form flits across
at the edge of your vision, the corridor just outside the
but when you look nothing range of your torch
is there
6. Something is watching you,
2. A hasty scrawl on the wall you’re sure of it
reads they came through
the walls... 7. Your torch gutters and dims,
the flame turning green
3. You shiver with unexpected
icy cold 8. A faint ethereal moaning
sounds from the darkness
4. Your breath begins to fog
the air in front of you

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 Slimy, angry things that live
waterkin underwater
1. Air smells wet, damp, and 5. A severed arm floats in the
foul water. It looks ... chewed.
2. Splashes of water and what 6. Many bones line the water’s
might be footprints on the edge here
floor
7. A splash and a sqeal in the
3. A soft splash from up ahead darkness
4. Ripples come toward you 8. A clutch of translucent eggs
out of the dark attached to wet moss

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Some foes are so iconic, or so bloody strange, that they
deserve their own set of moments. Dan 11th from the
Arcane Library Discord took a poke at some entries from
the from the A section of the main rules, and I added some
of my own.

acolyte acolyte
ankheg
▶The sound of chanting ▶A quick skittering noise as
reaches your ears, you stumble over a large,
accompanied by the smell shed insect carapace
of incense and dust
▶Grinding sounds within the
▶You see a holy/unholy walls
symbol carved into the
stone ▶Smell of citronella and
mildew from writhing egg
sacks
angel
acolyte acolyte
ape
▶Pressure builds around you,
oppressively hot, your ears ▶Fur flashes between
ring, the smell of hot metal branches
and bleach take your breath
away ▶A branch snaps underfoot,
setting off a cacophonous
▶A dazzling light appears, a howling
figure is outlined within
▶Under the smell of dirt and
mulch, hot sweat permeates
angel Armour
acolyte
Animated the air

▶You hear grating metal on

metal creaking sounds from
acolyte
apprentice
beyond the torchlight
▶Shattered glass crunches
▶Light scratches cover the underfoot, the residue
floor here makes your boots smoke
▶Dried blood on the armour’s ▶Drying herbs hang from
weapon hooks, quills scratch on
parchment

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 acolyte
archmage acolyte
effriti
▶The air vibrates and your ▶Smell of nutmeg and ashes
skin crawls with static
▶Large footprints burnt into
▶Arcane symbols apeear and the floor
disappear on the walls
▶Globs of lava splashed on
▶Air is thick with pipesmoke the walls and floor, now
and brimstone
hardened to rock
▶Glimpse of flaming eyes in
the darkness ahead
acolyte
Azer ▶Badly slashed and burned
body
▶Deep distant voices sing in
time to rythmic hammering ▶Brass lantern lies discarded
on the floor, savagely
▶Wisps of coal smoke fill the crushed
air and the stones are black
with soot
acolyte
vampire
acolyte
sphinx ▶Sound of leathery wings
flapping in the darkness
▶Behind you you see an
identical group of crawlers ▶A cloud of low mist flows
doing exactly what you were aways from from, against
doing a minute ago the wind
▶A sense of confusion, like ▶The shadow of someone
you can’t remember the sneaking up on you, but no
answer to an important one is there
question
▶Dread seeps in, your hairs ▶Shards of splintered mirror
stand up, the sound of litter thje ground here
rumbling purring from up
ahead ▶Shadows seem to pulse and
flow as if alive
▶With each step the walls
seem to shift, crack, and ▶Measured, stately footfalls
reform echo from the stone flags
somewhere behind you
▶The scent of seared steak
and raspberries floats
toward you

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Not every adventure happens in the deep dark. Sometimes
you can get killed and eaten in the bright sunshine as well.
Monsters and other foes also leave signs of their presence
in the wilds.

mountains Hills & moors

Dizzying cliffs, perilous Rolling hills, sudden rock
narrow trails, unstable formations looming out of
fields of scree. Who the mist, possibly a barrow
wouldn’t want to fight in or two.
those conditions? 1. Heavy tracks on the hillside,
1. A flock of ravens burst sunk deep into the heather
startled into the air ahead 2. Rough sculpture made of
of you piled rocks and painted
2. A boulder crashes down on with a single red eye
the path, missing your head 3. Flickering shapes in the
by inches mist, just out of sight
3. Totem made of human 4. A coughing roar echoes
bone, flesh, and sinew, still across the hills
dripping blood
5. Campsite in a hidden fold of
4. Remains of a campsite in a ground, something horrible
cave with scattered, ruined bubbles in a cauldron
gear and several large
bloodstains 6. A carrion bird circling high
in the sky up ahead
5. An eerie howl floats on the
mountain wind 7. Tall black obelisk on a
barren hilltop with strange
6. Low growling and chuffing offering left at its base
from somewhere behind
you 8. A dead body floats face
down in an icy tarn, huge
7. Strange glyphs scratched gashes across its back
into a boulder
8. Remains of several
mountain goats, roughly
butchered, some with
visible bite marks

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 forest Swamps & fens
Shadows shift under cover Stinking, sticking mud,
of leaf and mold. Faces clouds of midges, sudden
leer out of scabrous sinkholes. Just another
twisted trunks. What fun! glorious day of adventure.
1. A spreading Yew festooned 1. The ground ahead is torn
with charms and talismans up and the grass flattened,
woven from branches and gouts of blood and gobbets
hair of flesh are everywhere
2. Deep claw marks furrowed 2. Eerie totem made from
in the bark high up a dessicated lizardman
massive trunk corpses and adorned with
delicate pink flowers
3. The sounds of the forest
suddenly go silent 3. Ripples lap against your
boots, but you see nothing
4. Fresh, dripping bundle of
meat tied high up in a tree 4. Something big makes the
tall grass sway violently
5. Tracks of many feet cross
the trail and head off into 5. That submerged log you
the trees were idly examining isn’t
there the next time you
6. A herd of deer burst out of look
the trees and flee past you,
a wild look in their eyes 6. Foul air - a mix of rotting
vegetation and suppurating
7. Something large crashes flesh
though the undergrowth
not far from the trail 7. A mist starts to roll in,
something moves within it
8. Scattered remains of a
horse litter the trail ahead, a 8. Huge footprints in the mud,
torn and bloody saddle off their edges crisp and recent
the one side

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 desert plains
Shimmering heat, endless Undulating grassland
dunes, raw red rock waves away into the
formations. It always looks distance, dotted here and
like something is moving there by low trees. In some
in your peripheral vision. places the grass grows
quite tall.
1. Are those heads bobbing
up over the top of that 1. Wide beaten down circle of
dune? Hard to tell... grass marks a recent
campfire. Human bones
2. A dust cloud billows on the litter the ashes
horizon. A large group or a
large beast? 2. Something big crests a rise
ahead of you, but its gone
3. Dead and dried corpses of before you can make it out
men and camels litter the
trail here. Bone polished by 3. A circle of spears, each
wind and sand gleams in adorned with a rotting
the sun skull, marks the edge of
someone’s territory
4. Mud at the edge of the
oasis has been trampled by 4. Large swathe of beaten
many feet and the water is grass marks the passage of
cloudy and foul many horses
5. A small drystone hut 5. A gully in a fold of land, its
crumbles in the desert bottom littered with goblin
wind. Inside, the remains of corpses
a hermit have been expertly
butchered 6. A massive herd of beasts
can be seen in the distance,
6. Detritus of a small camp, perhaps moving your way
the fire pit still warm
7. Grass here is tall, and when
7. A sand storm looms on the you stop moving, the sound
horizon. Why does it look so of swishing continues for a
red? second or two, then stops
8. A deserted caravanserai 8. Bones of some massive
squats by the side of the creature emerge from the
trail, tattered awnings ground here, ritual offering
flapping in the breeze litter the area

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13
Something the Shadowdark rules do not specifically
address is the chances of a trap going off when the trigger
conditions are met. This need not be automatic in every
case, and indeed early editions of D&D had traps going off
only on a 2 in 6 chance. Some of the moments below rely
on this idea that a trap isn’t automatically triggered.

Secret doors levers & buttons

Adjust as necessary for Change to adjust for
materials and specific environment.
surroundings.
1. One wall sconce is crooked
1. A fragment of cloth stuck 2. A carving on the mantle of
between two stones of the a bird seems very worn
wall
3. Larger gaps around one
2. An arc of faint scratches stone in the wall
lead away from the wall
4. In the middle of a
3. Lines in the dust show that featureless corridor, a panel
furniture is regularly moved
away from the wall of incricate carving
5. Several oddly coloured
4. Breeze from the direction of bricks in the wall
the wall makes your torch
gutter and dance 6. You hear a faint click when
you press on the wall here,
5. Scrap of parchment trapped but nothing else happens
between the floor and the
bottom of the wall 7. Several of the bas relief
carvings stick out further
6. A section of the wall here is than the rest
a different colour than the
rest 8. An iron bar sticks straight
out of the wall. There are
7. One section of the wall slots to move it either left or
seems sunken in
right.
8. Tracks in the dust lead up to
wall and then vanish

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 Pit traps Shooty-out stuff
Throw me the whip! The arrow in the knee
Throw me the idol! you’ve always wanted.
1. You hear a click as you put
your foot down 1. Skeleton on the floor, an
iron dart through its eye
2. There seems to be some socket
give in the part of the floor
you just stepped on, 2. Small darts litter the right-
hand side of the corridor
3. A trail of blood on the floor,
cut off in a straight line 3. Pattern of holes sunk at
head height along the wall
4. Scratches and scuffs along
a line of floor stones 4. Rotting leather hood,
pinned to the wall by an
5. A hat lies in the middle of arrow
the corridor, seemingly
abandoned 5. In the flickering torchlight
you see a slot in the wall at
6. Several flagstones stick up waist level
just a little higher than the
others 6. A gout of dried blood on the
floor, a trail of blood
7. A tuft of bloody hair sticks droplets leads away
up from between to
flagstones on the floor
8. A section of corridor
suspiciously free of debris

No one every looks up.

Things that fall Never. Use that.
1. A circular hole in the ceiling 5. Flattened helm lies
overhead abandoned
2. New wooden brances line a 6. The bricks of the ceiling
section of wall and ceiling ahead have been replaced
by a single large slab of
3. Floor is marred by chips and stone.
cracks
7. A goblin skeleton, badly
4. Skeletal leg on the floor, the crushed
long bones crushed to
powder 8. A pattern of large square
holes in the ceiling

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 Listening at doors ▶Deafening silence

▶Faint clacking ▶Small sound right on the other

side of the door
▶Murmurs in an unknown tongue
▶A muffled argument
▶Was that a footstep?
▶Drunken singing
▶Rattling of chains
▶Muttered chanting
▶Quiet sigh
▶A ringing gong
▶Scape of something dragged
▶Shuffling of slippered feet
▶Deep, regular breathing
▶Meaty sound of butchering
▶Liquid splats and plops
▶A quick hiss, then silence ▶Faint skittering

▶Clang of metal on stone ▶A crunch

▶Quiet crackle of a fire ▶Foetid sewer smell
▶Smell of smoke ▶Click of a key in a lock
▶Faint tang of iron ▶Scratching of quill on parchment
▶Rustle of cloth ▶Hobnailed boots on stone
▶Glug of pouring liquid ▶Slurping and chewing

Magical miscellany
▶Hair on you arms stands up
▶A spark of green static
▶The room spins around you
▶An icy chill races down your spine
▶Black soot covers the floor ▶Runes traced in silver
▶Sand vitrified by great heat ▶Glyphs daubed in blood
▶Intense forboding ▶Stubs of black wax candles
▶Visions of death and fire ▶Smell of ozone
▶A quick hiss, then silence ▶Sounds come as if under water
▶Clang of metal on stone ▶Gust of icy cold
▶Quiet crackle of a fire
▶Smell of flowers and honey
▶Smell of smoke
▶Faint chime
▶Faint tang of iron
▶Circle of salt and teeth
▶Rustle of cloth
▶Flickers in your peripheral vision
▶Warmth when there shouldn’t be
▶Everything looks wet, but isn’t

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