GLoGtober #17: Bird

In accordance with the post-a-day challenge by SunderedWorldDM, whose dreams bore the Orbseeker and whose deeds send the world shuddering. 

Also influnced by Archon's notes on depthcrawls, and Hadestown.

Hey Little Songbird:
a depthcrawl into Hell

You're descending the long tunnel to Hell. Maybe you don't know why why you're going, or you're going for some noble reason, or you're going for gold. You have enough food for a weeklong journey, but who knows if there's even an end to this road of dust and sin. Roll a d4 to learn why the party is heading on:

d4 reasons to go

1. You are vagrants, and the end of the road is the promise of work.
2. Long ago, you voyaged together in a grand quest. Now, you're chasing one member's lost love because there's nothing else for you.
3. You have been hired to assess the working conditions in Hell.
4. You are divine, but minor, beings. You were created by a god to save the goddess of growth and rebirth from the Underworld, and have no context for history or human nature.

Roll a d6 to see what landmarks you pass as you follow the iron road that day. On future rolls, add +1 depth. Each depth adds 1 to your roll. Each day, roll three d6s for your encounter.

Landmarks

1. train station. Train bulls march about and club anyone they suspect might want to hitch a ride.
2. wishing well. Red-gold coins from hell are left here to make it seem like a prosperous place.
3. flophouse
4. deep ravine, no bridge
5. workhouse/hospital. Give you food as long as you want if you'll only agree to be sterilized. Doctors keep kidnapping drifters to lobotomize them
6. Iron road cuts across telephone wires. Leads to a town of people taught to fear strangers.
7. A hanging tree
8. bombed-out trenches, the iron road sometimes over ten feet above the reduced countryside
9. sweatshop
10. moaning river of poisonous, sorrowful waters. A ferryman demands cash to get you across.
11. the very last church
12. forest of trees shaped like wretched bodies, with red-black sap
13. The way forward is filled with metal thorns, slick with blood. Only the iron road is clear, but if you're on the road when the train comes...
14. a stone arch with faded script. Something, something, hope.
15. A wall of iron and concrete. Demons checking papers. You've arrived.

Encounters

1. someone who cares about you, begging you not to go
2. preacher
3. no encounter
4. Farmer's hateful dog
5. Angry mob
6. no encounter
7. stalked by a gollum in their sunday best
8. Pack of wild dogs
9. no encounter
10. grifter-priest
11. posse of 2d4 lawmen, skinless
12. no encounter
13. 1d10+10 escaped sinners, intent to rob and run
14. someone who you cared about, begging you to take them away
15. balor bossing around abused industrial workers
16. 1d6+4 paladins of a good god (if one exists), on a mission of mercy to eliminate every soul they find to spare them the pain of Hell.
17. the devil at the crossroads
18. Cerberus
19. a giant, floating golden eye that shoots draining beams, but mostly stares. Full of bog mummies that shoot out the back of it when surrounded.
20. yourselves, aged and torn. Will attack as soon as they recognize you