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Beneath Ahknoor

A megadungeon you discover, not follow Beneath Ahknoor is a fantasy roleplaying game about delving into a living dungeon. No pre-written map. No fixed solutions. You and your table create the megadungeon collaboratively as you explore it. Every expedition deeper reveals new connections, hidden factions, and fragments of ancient truth. But the dungeon is not neutral ground. Every time you go deeper, the dungeon erodes your self. "A glass eye sits in the hollow where the stone eye used to be." — Session chronicle, Beneath Ahknoor playtest What makes this different Most dungeon crawlers ask: "Can you survive the monsters and traps?" Beneath Ahknoor asks: "What are you willing to become to reach the bottom?" The game combines OSR-style delving (resource management, lethal stakes, procedural exploration) with Carved from Brindlewood mechanics (collaborative mystery-building, player-driven narration, evolving discoveries). You're not following a pre-written adventure. You're uncovering a dungeon that reveals itself through play. Clues build into theories. Theories drive your next delve. The megadungeon becomes what you make of it. Ancient powers to claim. Factions to navigate. Secrets that reshape what you thought you knew. The adventure is real. So is the price. How it plays Play centers on repeated expeditions into Ahknoor. Between delves, you return to Limbross, the frontier town above. There you realize the cost you've incurred, replenish what you can, and prepare for the next descent. During delves, you push deeper, gather clues, and face what you find. Combat is possible, but rarely the safest answer. Survival depends on understanding what you're facing, not just hitting it harder. The dungeon offers power, knowledge, artifacts. It demands memory, identity, connections to the surface. You decide what you're willing to trade. Characters change. The dungeon changes them. Whether that transformation is worth what you gain is the question you're here to answer. Follow the Development I'm documenting the design process as BA evolves from playtest to full release. Playtest in Progress Two campaigns are running concurrently. One with narrative-game-literate players; one with players grounded in 5e and OSR. The same dungeon. Different sessions. Follow the chronicles. These are the sessions the game is generating. The paid expanded version launches Summer 2026. This game is built for Carved from Brindlewood, a mystery system created by Jason Cordova. Beneath Ahknoor is an independent production and is not affiliated with The Gauntlet.More from Foot of the Mountain Adventures If you want to practice the skills Beneath Ahknoor requires: It's Worse Than That! - GM training for Carved from Brindlewood PWYW with paid volumes available Practice making consequences matter. Each scenario teaches you to escalate tension, offer Devil's Bargains, and improvise under pressure. The skills translate directly to running BA: knowing when to push, when to let players choose their cost, and how to make every decision feel weighted.