Something in the Hole

Hellsborough Hole · Walkley Lane · Sheffield, S6

Three nights ago, a courier dropped something into the Hellsborough Hole — the dark pool beneath the road bridge where the Loxley runs slow and black under Walkley Lane. The rats have gone quiet. The cats aren’t coming back. You’ve been paid to retrieve a small oilcloth package before dawn, or at least find out what took them.

Field notes by Pip Rippon. Do not linger.

What’s inside

• One Dark Peak location: Hellsborough Hole, Walkley Lane, S6
• Three creatures from the Bestiary — the Hexikid, the Morivarid, and the Syncarid
• One page of reusable rules (OSR-adjacent, 2d6, no prep required)
• A 2d6 Encounter Table — 12 results, none of them reassuring
• Three endings: success, taken, absorbed
• Pip Rippon’s field notes throughout
• Ties into the Legend of the Loxley Kraken

Format: A5 PDF · 8 pages · Free

Never played a solo RPG before?

Here’s a complete example game. Follow this once and you’ll have it.

Step 1 — Make your character

Assign 3, 2, 1 to your three stats: Grit (physical), Wit (perception), Murk (resistance to dark matter). You also have 6 HP. That’s it.

For this example: Grit 1 · Wit 3 · Murk 2.

Step 2 — The goal

Walk from The Lane to The Bridge to The Hole, pick up the package, walk back to The Lane. Do it in 6 Encounter rolls or fewer. Every zone move triggers a roll.

Step 3 — Move to The Bridge

Roll 2d6. You roll 7. Result: “The murk shifts. Nothing happens. Add +1 to your next roll.” Safe. Note the +1.

Step 4 — Move to The Hole

Roll 2d6 plus the +1. You roll 5. Result: “Hexikid on the bridge. Roll Grit 7+ to stay upright.” You roll 8. Success with cost — you stay up but hit the rail and make a noise. Roll again. You roll 9. Clear passage. You’re at the Hole.

Step 5 — Pick up the package

Roll Wit 7+. You roll 8. You have it — but your foot slips. Roll the Encounter Table immediately. You roll 2. “It knows you’re there.” The Syncarid surfaces. It attacks your Murk, not your HP. Roll Murk 7+. You roll 11. You force it back under. Run.

Step 6 — Get back to The Lane

One Encounter roll left. You roll 11. A boot, still laced. Inside, 3 ¢hits. Grab the coins and keep moving. You step into The Lane. Done.

Five things to remember

1. Moving between zones = roll the Encounter Table.
2. The table tells you what happens — sometimes nothing, sometimes a creature.
3. Creature appears = roll 2d6 + Grit (physical) or + Murk (mental) to resist.
4. Hexikid and Morivarid damage HP. At 0 HP you’re dead.
5. Syncarid damages Murk. At 0 Murk you walk into the water and it feels warm.

The creatures

All three creatures in this adventure are in the Bestiary of The Dark Peak.

• The Hexikid — giant water beetle. Road-sleeper sized. Hard to see in the murk.
• The Morivarid — flying fish. Feeds on eyes and soft tissue. They come in threes.
• The Syncarid — ray. Mind feeder. At 0 Murk you walk into the water voluntarily.