The Mystery of Grimrock: A System-agnostic Solo RPG

Table of Contents

Every Story has a Beginning…

Since this is a Solo RPG adventure, you begin with an adventurer, a character to experience and shape the story to come.

What are they like? Courageous or Cautious? Inspiring or Insightful?

You need to add your character’s motivations, thoughts, and actions, and as you play, you will also add significant plot points, for this is a shadow of an adventure. A framework. Use your favorite game rules, emulators and oracles, and, “Play to find out.” That idea should be your guide for each “page” of this adventure.

I may describe a scene, but you need to fill in all the details. For instance, if you enter a house, you can use tables, oracles, or your imagination to decide what you find there: trinkets? helpful potion? a goblin rummaging through the pantry? While some descriptions are sparse, add to it and make this game your own.

While this story has a BBEG (or, at least, implies it), you will need to decide how you want to play that. Want a game with combat, then choose an RPG and an appropriate monster from your manual. Want to deal with the Big Bad with magic, again, that part is up to you. For an even more combat-heavy experience, you can sprinkle monsters anywhere you’d like, but I have flavor suggestions for both mythical monsters and a more horror-oriented theme.

This story begins with your character, alone on an island called Grimrock. You will need to summarize or play to this point to answer the following questions:

  • Was Grimrock your original destination or are you surprised to find yourself here?
  • Why are you going to the village on the Island of Grimrock?
  • Why are you now alone? Ship-wrecked and you survived? How?
  • You know Ullaya, a old woman there who lived in the village. How do you know her?

To hide spoilers, I deliver the content in pieces. At some point, this can reminisce of an annoying text adventure game. To releave that sort of pain, you can jump around on the links from the Village Map, but I suggest doing that once you’ve explore the Village.

One last piece of advice. When playing, if a description doesn’t include “something” doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Feel free to add color and content… make it your game.

When you are ready, you will begin at on the shore with a small village perched on the hill.

The Village of Grimrock

While some places narratively lead to other places, use this map as a table of contents.

The Map

While the numbered links can give spoilers, the links are descriptions based on outward appearance and information your character would probably know.

  1. The Shore … you would begin here.
  2. The path to The Guardian
  3. A large house
  4. Three modest workshops and storage buildings
  5. The Boar Rock
  6. The large long building, typical village Longhouse
  7. Stately, ornate building that looks like a Shrine
  8. Small house tucked underneath some trees
  9. A body laying in the open
  10. Farmhouse
  11. The Cobbler
  12. Tanning House
  13. A Large House
  14. Small creek
  15. Marshy pond
  16. Grotto in the forest
  17. House
  18. Great Tree
  19. House
  20. House
  21. House
  22. House
  23. House
  24. Houses
  25. House
  26. Small House covered with talismans
  27. South Woods

Shoreline

With damp clothes and salt in your mouth, you find yourself on a rocky shore, littered with wood and debris.

The remnants of two docks jut into the surf, one of them almost obliterated. The planks, while not new, did not weather away. “What caused the destruction?” you wonder.

A raven calling out from a tree, breaks the silence of the surf, and you realize, docks have boats, and boats have people, but this shore is barren of both.

Buildings from a village poke from trees at the top of a cliff. A worn path switches back and forth up the hill. Perhaps everyone is up there having a celebration in their Longhouse, leaving the fishing for another day.

Among the debris, you notice a chest has washed up on the shore.

Can you open the chest?

Inside the chest is a figurine, made of a green, almost translucent rock, intricately carved.

Do you know about its manufacture? Or do you know about its purpose?

The rock is jade, and rare for this land. It must have come from a distant place, and valuable. What would it be doing here on this remote island of the world?

This is a powerful talisman. Who would request such foreign magics, and what do they protect?

Note: As mentioned in the introduction, this adventure is a framework, and you will want to answer all the questions left out of the brief description. Feel free to “play to find out” what you have, find and encounter. The question about opening the chest isn’t rhetorical. Would you your character could easily open the chest? Then click the link to find out what is inside. Do you think the chest is locked, but the lock is rusty from the marine air, and a Strength Check could tell you if you open it with your strength? Then roll the dice before clicking the link. Do you think the lock is strong, but you could pick it if you found something to help? Then maybe you need to roll a number of dice …

You’ll find choices like that, and they all begin with If you … or Can you … While this adventure is open-ended, you, as a player, decide if, how and when you should get that information.

Guardian

Wolf Guardian

The path up the hill is well worn, with carefully placed steps at the steepest parts, and loose rocks removed. Halfway along, as the pounding surf begins fade below sound of the stiff breeze in your ears, you see a Standing Stone, facing the sea. Once, the etched carvings sported bright colored paint, but the letters have begun to wither. On the sea-side of the rock is a carving of a wolf, its head reared, giving off a warning to hostile forces from the sea.

Can you read the writing on the Stone?

The letters read like a spell to release the Spirit of the Wolf from inside this rock:

Oh, Volfur, my Wolf Brother
    Come to my aid when I call your name!
Warn us in time of need,
    When the Raider ride the waves.

Note: If your character is illiterate, or you want Grimrock to be a place of an unknown people, then you probably can’t read it. If you want a lot of magic, you could roll against your character’s magic aptitude, like an Arcana skill check in D&D, and if you succeed, then you could click the link, otherwise, you wouldn’t until you became more attuned to this land.

Alright… enough of these notes, I think you understand this game.

You can continue up the hill to the village, or return down to the shore.

The Village Streets

Village Street: Seaside Section

At the top of hill, you can barely hear the pounding of the surf on the shore down below, but the salty breeze blows a little stronger. You see a dozen wood buildings on either side of a well-worn path…almost a “street.” From the sea side, the buildings nearest you are:

  • A building on your right, that could be a home.
  • Next to it on the right, is the Village Longhouse, the community center.
  • In front of the Longhouse, is a Standing Stone, ornately carved.
  • Beyond the Longhouse, is a square building that could be a shrine.
  • Three buildings on your left could be workshops.

You can travel further down the “street”, return to , or if you are familiar with the Village, go to the map.

Village Street: Midsection

Further from the sea, and the incessant wind, you can hear a babbling brook cross this “street”. Further on, you see some houses:

Out in the open, between the houses, seems to be a dead body covered in something white.

You can go to the creek to continue up the “street”, or go down the “street” towards the sea, or if you are familiar with the Village, go to the map.

Village Street: Creekside Section

A creek emerges from the forest and winds around a giant, wide-branched tree. The creek separates the larger houses near the Longhouse from three, sparsely placed empty cottages:

  • Empty Cottage, #17 … tbd
  • Empty Cottage, #19
  • Empty Cottage, #20

You can continue up the “path” towards more houses in the forest, or cross the creek to go back down the “street” towards the sea, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Village Street: Forest Section

  • Empty Cottage, #21 … tbd
  • Empty Cottage, #22
  • Empty Cottage, #23
  • Empty Cottages, #24
  • Empty Cottage, #25
  • Small hut almost invisible in the forest

You can return down the “street”, or wander into , or if you are familiar with the Village, go to the map.

Shrine

Shrine Entrance

This large, square building with a shallow pitched roof and typical to the village, it has no windows.

Do you remember the joyous celebrations your town’s shrine? This one is silent, and breeze from the sea is all you hear. The door, stained dark, is simple, but the handle is ornate and well made for such a small village. You jump when you hear a raven call from a nearby tree.

The door won’t open. You notice a wedge pushed from under the door from the inside.

If you can figure out how to open the door, you can enter, or you can look at other buildings.

First View of the Shrine

When you manage to open the door, your greeted with a foul, stale air. The building appears to be one large, dark room. You see a large stone table, an empty altar, in the center of this square building. Four wood pillars in each corner supporting the building are carved to resemble warriors:

  • This one, to the left of the door in the Southwest corner has a forked beard, holding an axe, and staring upwards.
  • The one to the right of the door, in the Southeast corner, sports a fancy, carved helmet. He looks down, while resting on his sword.
  • The warrior in the Northeast corner across the table, holds a spear in one hand, and a horn in the other.
  • The warrior in the Northwest corner holds aloft a sword, and peers out from behind an ornate shield.

You can almost hear your grandfather singing an old song he used to sing to you as a child:

Four warriors guard the great gods’ chest
Bound by duty beyond death’s call
Listen to their songs of great deeds done
And bear witness to their final notes

For every duty at last must end
Every song at last is sung
In the eternal peace of Hel’s embrace.
Ever silence after the bell has rung.

Each of the four walls has burnished copper plaques inscribed with runes almost hiding in the shadows near the rafters.

Oh, and there is a person slumped on the floor.

You can leave to investigate other buildings.

The Shrine Plaques

On the North Wall:

North Plaque

Can you read this plaque?

Allfather spear flies over the battlefield
As do Hugin and Munin his raven spies

On the East Wall:

East Plaque

Can you read this plaque?

The Shieldbearer stands vanguard at rainbow bridge
Her horn and her boar heard in all the nine worlds

On the South Wall:

South Plaque

Can you read this plaque?

The Stormlord wields his hammer
Behind a chariot of two rams / Behind his boar chariot

On the West Wall:

West Plaque

Can you read this plaque?

The salmon return to the Wildmother
The birch sways when she flies by.

Do you want to return to this room’s description or investigate the person slumped on the floor?

Ullaya

You see a body buried in ice crystals; a hard shell you can’t break. She’s an older woman with long gray hair, arms covered in unfamiliar tattoo designs that peek from between the frost. Looking closer, you recognize her as Ullaya.

You can’t tell how long she has been here, but how is it the ice hasn’t melted? Nothing else in the room has these strange cold crystals… just Ullaya.

You notice an ornate staff on the ground nearby, as if she dropped it when she fell.

Do you want to return to this room’s description, investigate the plaques on the walls, or leave the Shrine to investigate other buildings.

Rendering the Veil

When you pick up the staff, your vision narrows as the color fades from the world. The wooden walls of the Shrine meld into a grove of trees as you hear otherworldly whispers on a breathless wind.

The table, before empty, now has four glowing circles in the center, “a spiritual residue,” you think to yourself.

Ullaya looks animated beneath the armor of black ice. You see her opened eyes looking around. She also looks younger.

She speaks in an ethereal voice:

Hello? Hello? I heard the veil rend, so someone must be here.
Can you hear me, can you help?

Do you go closer to Ullaya?

As you kneel closer, you see her eyes look your way, as she whispers, “You came. I knew you would find the way. The Fates have prepared your path. You have the gift. My staff will help you … to rend the veil and see what is hidden. The Spirit World.

“You are in danger. Beware the Frost. She hasn’t notice your arrival. You must reset the ward, by returning the gods to their place on the altar. To do this, seek our sacred beasts, and follow their steps. Listen to the spirits of the land. Listen to the dead sing.

“The Frost tricked my people. They believed the lies. They disassembled the ward. Weakening the power of the gods.”

You try to speak, to ask more questions, but you find you have no voice in this world.

Do you take and keep the staff? If so, does it do more than allow you to see into the Spirit World?

Note: In a real GM-lead adventure, character actions and events alter the scenes, but in this adventure framework, you will need to make those changes for your game. To help, some of the scenes have additional descriptions based on events. The events are yours to determine.

Do you want to return to this room’s description, investigate the plaques on the walls, or leave the Shrine to investigate other buildings.

Longhouse

A typical longhouse, where much of the community would gather nightly for food, music and social bonding. What isn’t typical is how empty and quiet. A large iron cauldron swings in a hearth, suspended over coals for the daily soup.

You notice:

  • The most noticeable feature of the room is a beautiful tapestry, showing four warriors fighting a large monster, probably a troll. In the ornate border, you can see a horse, a common motif in village tapestries.
  • The long table has two plates, with mostly eaten food. The food hasn’t turned yet.
  • The embers in the hearth are still warm, as is the soup…
  • On one side of the room are boxes and crates and some bedrolls

Questions:

  • Do you find anything of practical use here?
  • Wealth, weapons or supplies?
  • Is there a tapestry hung that tells a story of the people of this village?

And here I promised I wouldn’t interrupt the story line with fourth-wall-breaking notes…

You can leave to investigate other buildings.

Houses and Cottages

First House

This house, like the entire street, is quiet.

Opening the door, shows a dark room. The bed mattresses, as the rest, is a mess.

Perhaps the owners left in a hurry.

Workshops

These three well cared buildings, contain the village’s energies of tools and provisions.

First building
A carpentry with wood, boards and wood-working tools.
Second building
A smithy with a cold forge, metal and half-finished tools, hooks and weapons
Third building
The fish smoker and storage … but you could tell that before you opened the heavy door. The stock is bursting and ready for winter. No one took much before leaving.

You can leave to return to the “street”, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Small House under Trees

Large trees shadow this small house. Talismans hang from every beam warding off the evil spirits.

The house is quiet.

Inside the house seems empty, and like many others, messy. While the owner may have taken some belongings before leaving, the house is still cluttered. The rafters are full of drying herbs.

You can leave to return to the “street”, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Farm House

The lintel over the front door is carved with acorns and oak leaves.

The house, like the others, is quiet, and seems empty. The door easily opens and the inside looks (and smells) more like a shed than a house. Rows of garlic and onions dry from the rafters above, and baskets clog the tables.

Do you hear some scuffling noises behind some boxes in the back?

You can leave to return to the “street”, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Cobbler House

A single boot props open the door to this empty house. You see several workbenches and tables, as well as cobbling tools and shoes, but most things are orderly and clean… except for a small table, near the door, that has been tipped and fallen, its contents of shoes and a roll of leather strewn to the floor.

You can leave to return to the “street”, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Tanner House

Two hides, both of deer, dry on stretchers while leaning against this house. It too, is quiet, and opening the door of wood covered in leather, reveals an empty building filled only with the strong smells of a tanner.

You can leave to return to the “street”, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Behind the Large House

A small shelter made a gathered sticks looks like the haphazard construction of children. The ground is littered with wooden toys, including a doll of reed grasses. The bark of a tree has simple scratches of crude letters and beginning of a carving of… perhaps a bird.

Growing along the row of trees are tuber plants that should be harvested soon.

You can leave to return to the “street”, or go inside the house, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Inside a Large House

From the outside, the house is quiet, and opening the door reveals an empty house, full of furniture. You can see a loft at both ends with beds. The long table with almost a dozen chairs sits in the center of the house. A large family, or is this place an overflow of the Longhouse?

You can leave to return to the “street”, or wander behind the house, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around to the map.

Ullaya’s Dwelling

Tucked behind a small copse of trees, is a small cottage. A talisman dangles from all four corners of the house, swaying gently in the breeze coming up a cliff from the sea below. Through the trees, in the distance across the sea, a storm may be brewing.

Lifting a wood latch doesn’t open the door, and you need to bump it a bit with your shoulder. Must be the moist, salty breeze warping the wood.

Inside is small, dark and empty. While sparsely furnished, the room is cluttered with herbs, feathers and animal bones. Along with tables and makeshift shelves, a small bed lies in one corner, a loom in another.

Against another wall on a table, is a lidless, rectangular box with runes and symbols carved in the bottom.

Vision Box

Can you read the writings inside the box?

Runes have i carved in this vessel, runes to see, runes to find.
Water and sacred yarrow plant reveal the vision meant to see.

You can leave to return to the “street”, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump around the map.

Other Locations

Stone Pillar

Near the entrance to the Longhouse is a short, stone pillar with ornate carvings, and some carved writing. The paint isn’t faded.

Are you familiar with this people’s culture? Otherwise, do you want to study the carvings?

Since you are not familiar with the stories of the people in the village, you are not sure what to make of the carvings on the Stone. It depicts a man holding something in the air, maybe a club. The chariot, pulled by two animals, maybe goats or rams. Is that his foot sticking out of the bottom of the chariot, or does it mean something else?

Since you are familiar with the stories of this people, you can tell the carvings show the Stormbringer, flying in his chariot pulled by his two rams, Tannisgris and Tannisjóstr. He holds his hammer aloft in the air, but what it strange, is that the Stone clearly shows his foot below the chariot, as if he punched a hole through the bottom of his chariot. You are now sure about this part of the story.

Can you read the writings on the stone?

The letters, written in an arc along the periphery of the Stone read:

“I awaken to the storm. Then I awaken the lightning. Only Tannisgris is faster.”

You can step up to the door of the Shrine, or you can look at other buildings.

Great Tree

You see a huge tree on the far side of the creek. Its roots plunge along the creek, making it difficult to cross. The village “street” is now just a well-worn path, that skirts the roots at the smoothest locations. You notice old, tattered ropes swaying in some of the branches, and the trunk has a section, carved with the images of two ravens … one offering some object or food to the other (it is a bit worn to tell), and the other raven looking forward.

You are startled out of your staring by the cawing of an actual raven on one of the branches. It gracefully flies down to a lower branch, and if it wants to get a better look at you.

You can investigate some of the other houses nearby, or continue up the “path” towards more houses in the forest, or go back down the “street” towards the sea, or if you are familiar with the Village, jump to the map.

Dead Body covered in Frost

A dead warrior, his armor and body encased in ice crystals. His sword, still in one hand, lies in the grass. The frost can’t be removed or broken, and with nothing else frozen, clearly this was the work of magics.

Do you activate the shaman’s staff you found in the Shrine?

Once again your vision narrows as the color fades from the world. The man, beneath his shield of ice is singing. The tune is familiar as you seem to recognize the notes, but not the lyrics:

A ram is not as strong as bull
  With eyes and mind that scorch
To rend the gate, you pull
  With a gift of a torch

Again you try to speak, to ask questions where he learned this song, but you have no voice in this Spirit World.

You can investigate some of the other houses nearby, or you can go to the creek to continue up the “street”, or go down the “street” towards the sea. If you are familiar with the Village, go to the map.

Forest Creek

The air, humid from moss-covered trees, is pungent from unseen flowers, as you wade through the tall grass. A small river, more like a creek, flows from the forested hills north of the village, over rocks making almost musical notes. The entire scene, pastoral and beautiful, seems to cover another reality.

Did you take the Shaman’s staff from the Shrine?

As your vision narrows and the color fades from the world, you see ghostly, glowing figures of salmon swimming upstream.

You can follow the creek deeper into the forest, or you can return to the Village.

Marshy Pond

As the trees part, you see a large pond. At the South end, the water flows over a makeshift dam, the ground littered with the bodies of salmon. Some dead, but some continue to struggle to leap the dam into the pond beyond.

Did you take the Shaman’s staff from the Shrine?

As your vision narrows and the color fades from the world, you see ghostly, glowing figures of salmon swimming in a large circle at the base of the dam.

You can follow the creek North, deeper into the forest or follow it down towards the Village.

Northern Forest

The creek emerges from an idyllic, tree-covered grotto. The air, humid and sweet, is a bit warm. While the sounds of birds and insects are quite loud here, you feel that you could sit on a nearby log and rest a bit. Maybe even take a nap with all the wandering, and the perilous night you endured.

Did you help the salmon and activate the Shaman’s staff from the Shrine?

As your vision narrows and the color fades from the world, the sounds of birds and insects also fade into silence. You see a single apparition of a salmon swim along the creek, but this time, almost at eye level. It stops, and starts to yip, not quite like a dog, but not quite like a bird either.

From behind a large tree, a person emerges. Her head, crowned with antlers, her ears, like a wolf, her face, more like a cat. Her striped tail whips back and forth as she approaches the flying fish.

“This human has a question,” the fish says. “The human is worthy of an answer.”

The tall Spirit of the Forest looks down at you with quizzical eyes, and says,

“Welcome Shaman, to the Woods of the Wildmother. What questions do you have, and what aide do you need?”

How do you respond? What questions do you ask? Play to find out what answers you get.

Do you take a nap, instead?

As your eyes close, you quickly dream of a forest teaming with animals dancing around a campfire. They are joined by a large person. Her head, crowned with antlers, her ears, like a wolf, her face, more like a cat. Her striped tail whips back and forth as she joins the animals in their dance.

The drumming and dancing suddenly stops, and the host of animals all turn to look at you, spying from your log perch. The Person slowly walks over to you, and says, “Why are you here?”

How do you respond? What questions do you ask? Play to find out what answers you get.

You can follow the creek back to the Marshy Pond, or if you are familiar with the area, jump around to the map.

Southern Forest

The creek becomes louder, drowning out the calls of the birds in the trees. Then the creek, and the trees, abruptly stop at the edge of a steep cliff. The water cascades down toward the shore of the sea.

Between the sound of the surf and the babbling of the creek, you hear a crack of a stick broken underfoot…

Play to find out.

Scaling down the steep cliff to the sea seems more work, and just returning to the Village, and following the path. If you are familiar with the area, jump directly to location on the map.

Auxiliary Support

Mythical Monster Suggestions

In this version of this Adventure, I do purposely do not scatter monsters. Add them if that is the sort of adventure you want. You could encounter fantastical minions of the BBEG (Big Bag Evil Guy). These could be:

Nisse
Are short people with white beards and conical hats, that can be nice or mischievous. Not sure why they would be wondering about the Village (and they could be just as scared of the BBEG) as you.
Goblin
Could be your standard D&D/Pathfinder version of borderline malevolent, but tamable. Scouts for the BBEG?
Mare
Haunts and hunts the Village at night. The original stories talked of these monsters, that could shape-shift into animals, sitting on a person’s chest as they slept, slowly killing them.
Draugar
(singular draugr) were hideous creatures that looked like decaying bodies and possessed superhuman strength. They smelled strongly of decaying bodies. They had the ability to increase their size.

Also in this version of the Adventure, I do not introduce the evil behind the horrors you find in the village. My goal is for you to Play to Find out what is causing the issue. The BBEG is a frosty, intelligent creature, probably encountered in the forest South of the Village … but maybe you want to have the Village be full of clues and the BBEG further away. When you feel it is time, let it arrive … probably behind you.

What is the BBEG? Well, perhaps you might want to take inspiration from any of these:

Winter Hag
has been terrorizing the hunters, picking them off one by one, until it has grown bold, and stalks victims of the Village at night.
Frost Troll
(I like Skyrim's version) that is highly magical, but also misplaced. Why are some of its victims encased in magical frost?

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Horror Monster Suggestions

This village is full of ghosts, but that doesn’t mean, the bodies are necessarily lifeless.

  • Zombies.

    Seem obvious, and every RPG has them in their manual.

  • Bonewalkers.

    From Shawn Tomkin’s Ironsworn:

    Bonewalkers are human remains given unnatural life. The source of the dark energy that animates them is a mystery. Some say it is the will of dark gods. Some say an ancient evil permeates this land and seeps into porous bones of the dead. Or, perhaps it is the work of corrupt mystics.

    Bonewalkers usually roam the location of their final resting place—a burial site, a cursed battlefield, or a settlement blighted by disease or violence. Nothing remains of their previous selves. They are soulless monsters driven only to destroy the living.

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