The Undermaw: A Blocky Dungeon Gamebook

The Everlantern above Coalhollow has burned gold for a hundred years, and tonight it went out. The gleamcore that feeds it slipped loose and dropped down the Undermaw, the square black pit at the edge of town. Your friend Nib went down after it and hasn’t climbed back up. So you’re going down too.

This is a gamebook. You read a bit of the story, then you choose what to do next, and the story bends around your choice. There’s no wrong way to read it and no dice to roll. Just you, the dark, and a lot of decisions.

How you play

Every choice sticks. Grab a torch and the deep dark stops biting. Take the wrong step on a crumbling stair and you’ll feel it in your health. The little readout at the top of the player keeps track of three things:

• Health — your hearts. Take a knock and you lose one. Rest, eat, or drink and you get some back. Run low and the smart move is to climb out while you still can.
• Grit — how brave and steady you’ve grown. Brave, clever choices build it up, and near the end it decides which paths open to you.
• Your gear — a torch, a coil of rope, and, if you’re lucky and bold, the gleamcore itself.

The tunnels branch three ways off the first crossing, and you can explore them in any order you like. What you find, who you help, and how you treat the shy little gloamlings in the dark all change how the story ends.

Four ways it can end

The Undermaw has four different endings, and the one you reach is up to you. Bring the light home a hero. Make friends in the deep and share it. Outsmart the great stone Deepwarden without ever raising a fist. Or climb back to the surface empty-handed but safe, ready to try again another day. Retreating isn’t losing down here. Coming home in one piece is its own kind of brave.

Your progress saves right in your browser, so you can stop and pick up where you left off, or hit restart and dig a whole new path. Ready? Grab your bootlaces. The pit is waiting.