Mystery & scenario design
Waxen Hollow
A useful product with a terrible cost.
- My contribution
- Adventure design, scenario writing, worldbuilding and encounter direction.
- Project
- Tabletop RPG adventure · Levels 1–2 · Prisma setting
The design goal
Make a village mystery investigable through several clue routes, and let a fragile first-level party gain an advantage by questioning, negotiating and preparing.
Let the ordinary object become evidence
The candles begin as a cheap convenience. Animal reactions, blue wax, shipping labels and a ledger progressively change what the party understands. Three clue paths lead through the forest, the kobolds and the candle trade, so the investigation can survive a failed check.
Separate social pressure from dungeon alert
Village Tension and the cave’s Alert Level are distinct tracks from 0 to 4. The party can gain or lose cooperation before entering the quarry, then change the occupants’ response through its actions inside. Negotiation and rescue sit alongside combat.
Resolve more than the villain
The ending records what happens to Krail, the kobolds, the candles and the evidence separately. Those decisions can affect passage into quarantined Vordanne, future allies and a criminal buyer. The standalone adventure retains its alternatives rather than imposing the outcome of the played campaign.
Work samples
Production context
An original Prisma adventure by Kirill Sakhin, developed with AI assistance. The English edition is an AI-assisted editorial translation of the authored source. Illustrations are existing AI-assisted book assets. This is a development publication, not a released commercial product.