THE LOST CITY
Writer:
Dominic Covey
Editor:
Chris Davis
Additional Editing
: Charles Rice, John Shaw
Cover Art:
V. Shane
Interior Art
: V. Shane, Tony Parker
Maps:
Dominic Covey
Layout
: Chris Davis
Playtesters:
Kevin Milhoan “Caoster”, Mladen Spasic,
Sergey Kushch, Percy Snyder, Will Nichols, Alex Kashyrin,
Chris Covey, Jake Schwab, Mike Guild, Andrew Ma, Murat
Beydere, and John Shaw.
DarwinRPG.com
Darwin’s World is heavily supported by its oficial web site,
www.DarwinRPG.com. At DarwinRPG.com you will ind
many resources such as maps, gazetteers, character sheets, as
well as products only sold via the web.
The ‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are Trademarks
owned by Wizards of the Coast and are used according to the
terms of the d20 System License version 1.0a. A copy of this
License can be found at www.wizards.com. Portions of this
work are derived from the d20 System Reference Document.
Dungeons & Dragons(R) and Wizards of the Coast(R) are
Registered Trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, and are used
with Permission.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE LOST CITY 2
ADVENTURE BACKGROUND 2
LONG-TERM CONSIDERATIONS 3
A HISTORY OF THE “LOST CITY” 4
BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA 4
RECENT HISTORY 4
NUCLEAR DETONATIONS AND QUAKES 5
FALSE LEGENDS 5
GENERAL OVERVIEW OF THE RIFT 6
RUINS OF BAKERSFIELD
BUBBLE CAR SKYWAY
22
GREAT UNDERGROUND LAKE
22
POWER STATION
23
STADIUM
23
FLOODED QUARTER
29
INDUSTRIAL QUARTER
29
CAVES
31
LAGOON
33
WATERFALLS
33
6
BOMB SHELTERS
34
ASHLANDS
6
DESOLATE RUIN
35
INTRODUCTION
6
RUINED STORE
36
UPPER CAVERNS
7
RUINED CITY LIBRARY
36
ANCIENT BRIDGE
14
CITY POLICE STATION
36
LOST COLONY
14
VIOLET FUNGUS
37
MAIN STREET
14
ABANDONED BUILDING?
37
JUNKYARD
15
UNDERGROUND RIVER
37
SLAVERS STOCKADE
19
PUBLIC PARKING
38
HOTEL
22
ENDING THE ADVENTURE
38
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A Darwin’s World Adventure v1.1
The legendary “Sunken City” can be seen by travelers along the
Cartel routes from far away, resting at the bottom of the Great
Rift Valley like a cemetery of broken headstones and collapsed
skyscrapers. The rift swallowed up the city when it first
opened during the Fall, sucked down to the valley bed below in
a matter of violent hours. They say the end for the millions
living there was like the fall of Pompeii, happening so quickly
that no one within was able to escape alive.
Though flattened ruins of the old city surround the Rift
crack here, the Sunken City’s heart sits at the bottom of a
ravine branch nearly a mile wide, along the eastern side of
the valley, where jagged cliffs rise straight up for nearly 100
or so feet – the deepest point of the fault line. It is this
that mainly keeps travelers and scavs from descending into the
tempting ruins to scavenge, for there has never been found a
safe way down to the valley floor where the Sunken City lies.
Now and again, traders coming up and down the trails will
sometimes speak of strange noises echoing from the sunken ruins
in the valley below, as well as sightings of strange, short-lived
lights among the darkened ruins.
- From “Bixby’s World Almanac”, a post-Fall survival guide
published in the Free City of Styx
THE LOST CITY
ADVENTURE BACKGROUND
The Lost City is the irst fully developed “campaign”
adventure and location sourcebook for the post-
apocalyptic role-playing game, Darwin’s World. It is
certainly a true “stand-alone” adventure, though the
game master can certainly add on, alter, or expand on
the encounter areas detailed within.
A party of four to six characters of level 1-3 should
be able to meet and deal with the initial dangers of
the Lost City, but later dangers will require characters
of much greater levels. The very nature of the city
permits characters to carve out a niche or base of
operations; permitting a protracted campaign to
explore the city and encounter its bizarre troglodilian
peoples.
The Lost City details in full the legendary “Sunken
City”, formerly Bakersield, California, as described
briely in the Darwin’s World Gazetteer, at the foot of
the Great Rift Valley. The term, “Lost City”, is used
synonymously with the previously used term, “Sunken
City”.
The plot of The Lost City is a rather luid one,
presenting one of the fabled locations of Darwin’s
World in a free form, encounter-area format. In
effect, this is a sourcebook meant to provide the GM
with as much information about the Sunken City
location (as described in the Gazetteer) as possible.
This will allow the player characters to explore
the lost caverns and discover hidden communities,
adventure locations, and treasure caches, all at their
own pace and whimsy. Such a free-form permits
characters to visit again and again, withdraw for
healing and recuperation, and face dangers according
to their own device.
Getting the characters involved in the affairs of The
Lost City is ultimately up to the game’s arbitrator,
simply because the methods of introducing the
adventure will depend on the current point at which
the PCs are at in their ongoing campaign. Some
suggested hooks include:
Black Gold.
The Cartel traders, powerful oil
merchants, regularly ply the trade routes north and
south throughout the Sierra Gehenna region. They
2
have long observed from the ridge of the Rift the
ashen ruins of the old cities below – Bakersield
included. In recent months, they have come to
believe that the area of the Lost City used to be
extremely rich in oil facilities from before the Fall.
While keeping a low proile to prevent tipping off
a horde of oil prospectors or outside competitors,
they have begun an effort to move scouts into the
region. These small parties are attempting to ind
a way down into the Rift, into the devastated ruins
of Bakersield, and if possible, to locate any lost
reserves of oil still among the rubble or buried in
the valley. The PCs could be members of one such
small, discreet Cartel expedition assembled for the
task (or perhaps they simply learn of the Cartel’s
secret, either by ambushing a Cartel party or coming
across the corpses of a previous expedition with
papers revealing their efforts in the area). Either
way, once the valley loor is found to be deserted,
they locate the caverns to the Lost City and naturally
pursue their mission there...
Desperation.
The characters, thirsting and
starving to death in an ill-fated foray into the Great
Rift Valley, stumble upon the Entrance Cave while
on their last legs. Taking shelter, they discover that
the caves lead deeper into the mountain, revealing
the Lost City beyond. Motivated by a need to ind
supplies, they are captured (or ind on their own)
the Slavers of Skull Blackthorn and strike a deal
with him. If they clear the city of major threats,
he will provide them with enough food and water
(and directions) to get them to the nearest civilized
settlement on the outside.
Heroism.
The characters are part of a small
community that relies on the regular water shipments
of Water Merchants. One month, the Water
Merchants fail to come through with the shipment,
claiming that their men were waylaid by raiders while
passing along the edge of the Great Rift near the ruins
of the legendary “Sunken City”. Many of his men
were taken as slaves by raiders led by a igure that
paints his face “like a skull”. The Water Merchants
promise to reward the PCs’ community with
double
their regular shipment if the PCs can ind and return
the caravan’s entire water supply, as well as deal with
whoever is responsible. The Merchants would also
like their men returned, alive if possible.
Greed.
The characters ind an ancient map that
shows an unidentiiable route heading into what is
now the Great Rift Valley. Following the fragmented
map, they discover a trail that leads down into the
canyon and into the haunted ruins below. Searching
the valley loor they uncover the Entrance Cave and
decide to explore. What they ind is the fabled Lost
City!
the Great Rift), the City is a
massive,
sprawling locale
with a number of secret spots, hidden dangers, and
lost rewards waiting to be uncovered. Characters will
likely have to return to the surface on more than one
occasion for new supplies and healing, or to recruit
new companions to replace those lost in the City.
In addition to numerous forays, it may be important
to continued exploration of the Lost City for the
player characters to make friendly contact with at
least one of the communities in the cavern of the
Lost City. Of communities, there are some six or
seven separate groups dwelling either in the Lost
City or the Upper Caverns leading to it (these include
the underlings, slavers, two groups of apemen,
plantmen, mongoliants, and of course, the ghouls).
Making friends is not easy, and generally a task
will be required (such as eradicating a neighboring
community) before the PCs can join or share in that
community’s hospitality.
The beneits, however, may prove priceless; a
community may not only provide healing and shelter,
but also further adventure hooks. For instance,
perhaps by befriending the Slavers the PCs are asked
to help eradicate, once and for all, the Ghouls. Or,
sent to spy on the superiorly armed Mongoliants to
upset their power and permit the Slavers to take total
control of the City.
Other considerations should not be overlooked,
however. Groups coming and going from the City
are going to raise suspicions and concerns among the
remaining communities. Communities that survive
one raid will certainly fortify and prepare for the next
(consider ambushes and concealed traps along routes
PCs are known to take through the City). Other
communities, hearing gunshots and battle, will realize
one community is weak – and may begin a campaign
to swing the balance of power over to their side...
The Lost City is a living setting, in which the
various factions vie regularly for control. There is a
fragile balance here between the major groups, all of
whom are prepared to make war should some outside
party unwittingly upset the symmetry...
SUGGESTED COURSE
The Lost City also has varying degrees of dangers,
which the referee should be well aware of before
beginning play. A few communities in the City are
far weaker than others, and a poorly equipped, low-
level, or simply unaware party stumbling upon one
of the toughest communities after easily defeating a
weaker one are in for a BIG surprise.
The game’s referee needs to be aware of the party’s
limitations, weaknesses, and strengths alike. The
Lost City is set up with weaker groups nearest the
entrance caverns (in the Upper Caverns and on the
northern edge of the City cavern), with more dificult
encounter areas towards the far side. While this
seems self-explanatory and easy to regulate, players
often ind ways to wander off-course and into water
well over their heads.
LONG-TERM CONSIDERATIONS
The Lost City is deinitely meant to be a campaign
setting in its own right. Though limited in size and
volume by its very properties (sunk to the bottom of
3
Here is a suggested list of communities and the
general level characters should be when confronting
them:
came, and all-out war inevitably broke out on a mass
scale, the missiles delivered their packages on target.
Amidst the other iery strikes that swept the cities
and burned the land, these huge warheads narrowed
in on their targets from the outer atmosphere, falling
straight down to inish the job at speeds beyond
imagining.
When each ground-penetrating warhead sunk into
the earth and exploded, it released an unbelievably
powerful nuclear blast, sending massive shocks
through the crust for scores of miles. These shocks
were suficient not only to shift and displace the
entire crust around the point of impact, but sent 8.0 to
9.0 earthquakes all across the nearest fault lines - in
turn creating catastrophic tremors, subversions, and
collapses that spread out like a spider-web of growing
intensity from the detonation point. In some cases,
these tremors continued for weeks, even months, long
after the people they intended to kill were dead.
Bakersield was a magniicent domed metropolis
(not unlike many cities encapsulated in domes to
protect from the diminishing ozone layer) that was
swallowed almost whole in a matter of minutes when
one such bomb exploded just miles away. The San
Andreas Fault line, which the city literally sat upon,
suddenly opened up, here and all along the fault, and
the entire metropolis sunk down in a giant sinkhole.
Millions of tons of earth, displaced by the rupture,
fell back in on the city destroying almost everything
that hadn’t collapsed in the earth-shaking quake.
The only parts of the city to survive were those
that once lay beneath the domes. Like the doomed
citizens of ancient Pompeii, the inhabitants were
sealed in by the cataclysm and met their ultimate
fates in a cold, unforgiving darkness.
Although the Lost City suffered tremendous
damage from its fall through the earth (the actual
city streets are now almost ifty to seventy feet
below their former level), and most of the buildings
are in complete ruins, it is a strange, macabre,
and fascinating sight - a unique sight to be sure.
Concealed beneath the earth in a large cavern, it
would make the perfect base of operations for a small
community...
Community Location(s) Suggested Level
Apemen U5, U6 1
st
- 3
rd
Underlings U8 - U10 2
nd
- 5
th
Plantmen Area 4 2
nd
- 5
th
Apemen Area 13 2
nd
– 5
th
Slavers Area 5 4
th
– 6
th
Ghouls Area 12 5
th
– 8
th
Mongoliants Area 10 7
th
– 11
th
As you can see, a beginning party entering the Upper
Caverns will meet low to moderate dangers, but
once they are into the Lost City itself they could
potentially wander into
very
bad places (the Ghoul
quarter, for instance). Characters should be given the
chance to retreat, regroup, recuperate, and advance in
level between forays against the various communities
– this will permit the party to meet the next and
increasing threats as they progress in the City.
A HISTORY OF THE “LOST CITY”
BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA
Once upon a time, the caverns and caves that
comprise the Lost City were, in fact,
above
ground!
Once a thriving metropolis lying under
the cool shadow of the towering Sierra Mountains
of California, the irst colossal strikes against U.S.
territory during the Apocalyptic War made this great
city one of thousands of its initial victims. Though
this would seem no different than the countless other
population centers destroyed in the War, the bizarre
nature of the weapons used to strike the cities of
central California make its story exceptional.
Super-yield nuclear weapons (100+ megatons),
devised secretly by the Great Enemy during the
degenerating Years of Entropy, were used to bombard
the United States in conjunction with clusters of
other more moderate-sized nukes during the Fall.
These colossal weapons were deliberately targeted
at several key tectonic hotspots on the American
continent, in the hopes of causing plate movements
to cause more damage on an even greater scale. The
concept was simple and sound, as demonstrated
by the provocation of violent aftershocks in the
wake of underground nuclear testing during the late
1940s and early 1950s. Explosion beneath the earth
could create a force felt hundreds of miles away,
disrupting underground pipelines, electronics (such as
subterranean iber-optics), etc.
The San Andreas Fault was a prime target for these
weapons (though certainly, other fault lines on the
North American continent were likewise singled-
out for these special strikes). When the Fall inally
RECENT HISTORY
And that is exactly what has taken place. A few years
past, a group of slavers - brutally raiding various
small communities above ground in the California
deserts - were at long last repelled in a great battle by
the combined force of several tribal villages. Routed,
these slavers led to the Great Rift, descending into its
forbidden depths near the Sunken City to escape total
destruction at the hands of the savages who had risen
against their reign of tyranny. By total accident these
raiders stumbled upon a series of small damp caverns
leading beneath the valley loor into darkness. Their
leader, Skull Blackthorn, thought the caves might
lead to a fresh underground source of water, giving
them a place to rest and recuperate before moving on.
4
What they found, however, proved to be something
beyond their wildest dreams.
Blackthorn and his men explored the caverns,
inding the Lost City as it lay in the main cavern.
Although some of his men led him on the spot
(fearing retribution by the spirits of the Ancients
for violating this “city of the dead”), Blackthorn,
probably drawn more by greed than curiosity, decided
to make the city his
base
.
And it was a perfect base; within striking distance
of the surface, Blackthorn and his slavers were able
to continue their business of raiding and desert piracy,
retreating to the Rift and their hideout whenever
resistance was mounted. No large group was ever
able to track them into the Rift, and those scattered
few who did entirely overlooked the small cave
opening (thinking it too small for the large slaver
party to hide out in).
Blackthorn and his slavers, while having operated
in the caverns for some time, have remained mainly
on the northeast side of the Lost City cavern, only
moving in and out of their fortiied stronghold
and into the upper caverns as the need dictates.
Blackthorn has been aware for some time of strange
noises, cries, and distant eerie lights among the ruins
of the sunken domes - but has yet to fully investigate
these.
It is thus obvious to Blackthorn and his men
that they are not entirely in control of this fantastic
hideout, and that they were not the irst inhabitants
here either. Recently, slavers have begun to go
missing; some claim that they are dragged away at
night while on watch, or were lured away by strange
lights, or simply deserted, fearing whatever it is that
actually lives out there in the ruins.
Blackthorn is determined, one way or another, to
both ind out what dangers lurk in the sunken Lost
City, and to bring the entire underground city under
his domination. If he can get the PCs to do the dirty
work for him ... so much the better.
NUCLEAR DETONATIONS AND QUAKES
The missiles/bombs mentioned in the text were
perhaps the zenith of the pre-war enemy’s arsenal (in
terms of massive potential for destruction), and were
among the primary reasons for the subtle reshaping
of the world and a re-direction of lost rivers and
streams; in addition to the localized effects they
created upon impact (often creating shallow valleys
and lattening entire urban networks), the earth was
reshaped over the years just trying to cope with their
lasting impression - the very same “massive plate
movements, earthquakes, and climactic changes”
described in the Darwin’s World timeline.
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