ICOTALEOfficial
Adventure & puzzles · d20 rulebook
The Jade Idol
- 1–4 players
- Difficulty 2 of 3
- Not recommended under 10
- Available in: Français, English, Español, Deutsch, Italiano
1935. The temple of Qotal opens once a generation, for the length of one storm. Inside: the jade idol, a thousand traps, and a door that seals at the last drop of rain.
The rulebook at a glance
- d20 + attribute
- 4 attributes
- Torches
Choose an adventure
- One-shot
The Night of the Storm
1 session · riddles, traps, race against the storm
Cost: 1 Die for the whole table
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By the Icotale team
The world
- PlaceThe Temple of QotalA pyramid swallowed by the jungle, whose stone door only opens during the storm, once in a generation.
- PlaceThe Hall of a Hundred StepsA monumental staircase where one step in ten sings when you set foot on it. Wrong notes wake up the flagstones.
- PlaceThe Stone GardenAn underground greenhouse where jade orchids grow without sunlight. Something prunes them.
- PlaceThe Keller CampModern tents at the foot of the temple: a generator, crates of dynamite, and a mining company flag.
- CharacterVictor KellerIndustrialist and collector, with a catalogue smile. He funds digs the way other people go shopping, dynamite included.
- CharacterItzelThe last guardian of the temple, eighty years old, with a sizing-up gaze. She sells fruit in the village and knows very well what strangers are looking for.
The rulebook
Resolving actions
- Roll 1d20 and add the attribute's modifier: 11 or more succeeds at a normal action, 14 at a risky action, 17 at a crazy one.
- A natural 20 also reveals a secret of the temple; a natural 1 sets off the nearest trap — you get out of it, but you lose time.
Initiative : 1d20 + Instinct modifier
Attributes
- Agility AGI
- Rolling under a slab, leaping over a gap, running faster than a boulder.
- Lore LOR
- Reading glyphs, knowing the legends, spotting the detail that's off.
- Nerve NRV
- Disarming, holding the torch steady, not letting go of the rope.
- Instinct INS
- Sensing the trapped flagstone, guessing the right lever, being wary at the right moment.
Special rules
- Torches
- The group shares a supply of torches. Each large hall explored uses one up; in the dark, every roll needs 14 at least. The temple hides a few for the clever ones.
- Eureka
- Once per session and per character, call out "eureka" before a Lore or Instinct roll: you roll two d20 and keep the best, but you have to explain your reasoning out loud.
- The storm
- The temple is only open while the storm lasts. When the Storyteller announces that the rain is easing, there are three scenes left before the door closes for a generation.
Character creation
Roll 4 dice with 6 faces per attribute, keep the 3 best · 2 rerolls allowed4d6kh3
Origins
- Fresh from the lecture halls
- Degrees, Latin and clean hands — for now; +1 to Lore.
- Raised on dig sites
- Learned to dig before learning to read; +1 to Nerve.
- Jungle guide
- Knows the forest, its sounds and its silences; +1 to Instinct.
Vocations
- Archaeologist
- A notebook full of glyphs and a theory to prove.
- Cat burglar
- Left the circus, kept the trapeze in their arms.
- Reporter
- Their camera is as good as proof, their flash as good as a distraction.
- Mechanic
- If it can be put together, it can be taken apart. Traps too.
Derived values
- Hit points
- 8 + Nerve modifier
- Defense
- 10 + Agility modifier
- Initiative
- 1d20 + Instinct modifier
Starting equipment
- A coil of rope
- A sketchbook
- Torch ×3
Veils
Topics kept off screen: the Narrator never shows or describes them.
- snakes
- claustrophobia