Here is a custom d100 Encounter Table designed for the subterranean depths beneath a Victorious campaign. It bridges the gap between the historical, soot-stained Victorian Underground (sewers, tube tunnels, catacombs) and the cosmic horror, primeval dangers of the deep Underdark (caverns, forgotten civilizations, and hollow-earth fringes).
Use this table when your heroes descend into the shadows beneath London, Paris, or the hollowed-out depths of the island of Ricca.
d100 Subterranean Encounter Table
01–20: The Municipal Shadows (Sewers, Cellars, & Tube Tunnels)
01–02: A pack of 2d6 Gutter-Ghouls fighting over a discarded brass pocket watch.
03–04: A gas lamp flickers out, revealing a localized pockets of Choke-Damp gas. A Constitution SIEGE Check (CC 13) is required to avoid suffocation.
05–06: A secret meeting of the London Tosser’s Guild—scavengers who know the secret paths but intensely distrust surface-dwellers.
07–08: A rogue, steam-powered Automated Mail-Cart barreling down an abandoned pneumatic tube track at breakneck speed.
09–10: An illegal Underground Bare-Knuckle Boxing Match attended by corrupt aristocrats and low-life street gangs.
11–12: A brick wall gives way, exposing an unmapped Plague Pit from 1665; the air here is thick with a miasma that induces hallucinatory terrors.
13–14: The Mudlark King—a delusional, mutated hermit covered in river-sludge who demands a "toll" of shiny trinkets or copper coins to pass.
15–16: A massive, pulsing knot of Flesh-Eating Brick-Mould covering a gateway. It reacts violently to the heat of open lanterns.
17–18: 1d4 Penny Dreadful Cultists painting blasphemous, cosmic symbols on the brickwork with phosphorescent slime.
19–20: A burst water main floods the tunnel with freezing Thames water, forcing a Dexterity SIEGE Check to avoid being swept into a lower cistern.
21–40: The Industrial Abyss (Foundries, Vaults, & Smuggling Routes)
21–22: A massive, iron-reinforced vault door belonging to the Bank of England, vibrating with the sound of clockwork defenses on the other side.
23–24: 1d6 Riccan Zealots smuggling heavy crates of experimental black-powder weapons through a forgotten cellar network.
25–26: A malfunctioning Pneumatic Drill-Platform left running by a deceased engineering crew; it is dangerously close to breaching a gas main.
27–28: An illegal Opium Den built into an abandoned railway arch, populated by sleeping patrons whose dreams are being harvested by a minor entity.
29–30: A sudden, deafening rumble as a Metropolitan Line Passenger Train roars past just inches away through a thin brick partition.
31–32: 1d3 Clockwork Scrappers—primitive, autonomous mechanical spiders designed to clear debris, now hunting for scrap metal (and heroes' gear).
33–34: A hidden laboratory belonging to a Mad Vivisectionist, filled with jars of glowing, chem-preserved organs that still twitch.
35–36: A soot-stained Chime-Boy (child laborer) who claims he was separated from his chimney-sweeping crew three days ago by "the whispering walls."
37–38: A massive pool of bubbling, boiling Industrial Effluent from a surface chemical plant. The fumes act as a mild paralytic poison.
39–40: A forgotten Chartist Weapons Cache from 1848, containing rusty rifles, radical pamphlets, and a highly unstable crate of early nitroglycerin.
41–60: The Borderlands (Deep Catacombs & Basalt Fissures)
41–42: A natural fault line where the brickwork ends and jagged, volcanic basalt begins. The smell of brimstone is thick.
43–44: A colossal, calcified Prehistoric Fossil embedded in the limestone wall that appears to have human-like tool marks cut into its skull.
45–46: 1d4 Subterranean Morlocks tracking the heroes from the high ledges, waiting to drop heavy stalactites on their heads.
47–48: A beautiful, glowing forest of Phosphorescent Fungi that hums with a low psychic frequency, soothing all who enter into a deep, lethal sleep.
49–50: A sudden Tectonic Shift or minor earthquake that blocks the path behind the heroes with tons of jagged rubble.
51–52: A subterranean river of rust-red water. Swimming or wading through it requires a Strength SIEGE Check due to the heavy undercurrent.
53–54: A nomadic enclave of Blind Troglodytes who trade rare, deep-earth gems for surface salt and textile fabrics.
55–56: An ancient Roman Mithraeum (temple) perfectly preserved deep underground, its bull-slaying altar stained with suspiciously fresh blood.
57–58: A cavern ceiling completely covered in thousands of Vampiric Leech-Bats that are easily disturbed by bright light or loud noises.
59–60: A massive, yawning chasm spanned only by a rotting, rope-and-plank bridge dating back to the Middle Ages.
61–80: The Deep Underdark (The Realm of Alien Horrors & Forgotten Gods)
61–62: A scouting party of 1d3 Deep-Ones ascending from an abyssal lake, seeking surface captives for sacrifices.
63–64: A localized anomaly where Gravity Flips or distorts, causing loose gravel—and unwary heroes—to fall upward toward the ceiling.
65–66: A crystalline cavern filled with Echo-Quartz that mirrors and magnifies the heroes' private thoughts, broadcasting them as deafening whispers.
67–68: The Obsidian Pillar—a monolithic spire of black glass that radiates an intense psychic static, dampening all magical or psychic Super Powers by 2 Ranks.
69–70: A predatory Chthonian Worm chewing its way through the rock, leaving behind a tunnel lined with valuable but highly toxic ore.
71–72: A ruined outpost of an Elder Race, constructed from non-Euclidean angles that hurt the eyes to look at directly (Intelligence SIEGE Check or temporary sanity loss).
73–74: A lingering cloud of Void-Dust that eats away at leather, cloth, and organic matter, destroying standard clothing and backpacks in 1d4 rounds.
75–76: 1d4 Faceless Stalkers—amorphous shapechangers that mimic the appearance of the heroes' surface allies to lure them into traps.
77–78: A subterranean sea of cold, black oil. Something massive and multi-tentacled ripples just beneath the surface.
79–80: An ancient, entombed Gargantuan Skeleton that faintly glows with a sickly green radiation, causing sickness to those who linger near it.
81–100: The Claws of the Tyrant (Riccan Territory & Grand Plots)
81–82: A massive, vibrating steel conduit carrying Geothermal Power from the deep crust up to The Claw’s secret surface facilities.
83–84: 1d4 Mind-Controlled Royal Marines patrolling a deep tunnel, their eyes glassy and vacant as they obey telepathic commands.
85–86: The sudden appearance of a Giant Boring Vehicle grinding through the rock walls ahead, dropping off a strike team of 2d6 fanatical minions.
87–88: A localized broadcasting node for the Hypnotic Hum. All heroes must make a Wisdom SIEGE Check (CC 15) or suffer a temporary -2 penalty to all attributes due to splitting headaches.
89–90: A testing ground for a Shrinking Ray Trap; a pressure plate triggers a beam that threatens to reduce a hero to 6 inches tall for 1d6 hours.
91–92: A chamber containing a Born-Again Machine prototype, sparking with wild, dangerous electrical arcs as it attempts to reanimate a dead horror.
93–94: A massive underground penal colony where hundreds of enslaved surface-dwellers are forced to mine Lunar Glass under the whips of overseers.
95–96: A direct telepathic projection of The Claw himself, appearing as a spectral, 20-foot-tall green head to mock the heroes or offer them a terms of surrender.
97–98: A cavern containing a massive Doomsday Engine designed to cause a volcanic eruption directly beneath a major surface capital. It is 1d10 minutes away from activation.
99–100: The True Abyss. The tunnel opens directly into the hollow interior of the world, revealing a pitch-black inner sea beneath a dying, subterranean sun.
