This is a ‘LitRPG experience’ (aka solo journaling adventure actual-play) using the “Shift of Fate: Escape From Evermorph” rules.
- Player/Writer: Arthur P. Dutton
- Game Played: 6/21 & 22/2026
- Characters: Thiovar Adra, Abbess Tibota, Avowyn
- Goal: Enter at B5, journey to D5, and return to B5 within the allotted time
{You may want to read Thiovar’s First Adventure in Evermorph if you haven’t already, but it is not required reading to enjoy this LitRPG experience. Since Thiovar is returning to the dungeon, you may want to know that he explored the following tiles, at least in part, during his first adventure: F5, E2, A2, C5, B8, F9, D2, E5, C4, B6}
Thiovar’s legend grew as the man who escaped a strange, fantastic dungeon. That’s what happens to quiet rangers when they befriend bards! Even the most terse and melancholy heroes need friends to confide in. As the legend spread, the world saw less and less of the ranger. Eventually, he retreated to the woods entirely.
He tried to live a hermit’s life in his forest, but the Rangers at the Watch would not let him be. He had been counted among their number, before they were corrupted. They came for him, their former ally. The Pale Eye, the new secret masters of the Watch, sought to keep the knowledge of the strange dungeon for themselves, alone. The legend of Thiovar’s escape had revealed too much already and they feared he had discovered more secrets unrevealed in the tales.
The Rangers of the Watch set a trap for Thiovar, which he easily escaped. He caught those fools in a trap of his own and left them twirling in the tree branches. Thiovar knew he couldn’t run and hide forever. He sought his old friend in the city, the bard—Barathamew. Now drunk and fat, he was no longer a fit companion for adventure. When Thiovar told the bard of his woes, Barathamew felt regret for what his tales had wrought. The debt he felt sobered him up and he used his contacts to find help for his old friend.
The Pale Eye is opposed by the heroes of the Golden Well. One of their number, Abbess Tibota, a priestess of the Mother Fair, still thought well of Thiovar’s bard despite his years of wayward drunkenness. She took them into her chapel’s lair in secret. Tibota listened to the tale, but stopped the ranger before too long to send for another to hear the telling. She bid them rest and the sisters brought them mead and meat. Soon they slept.
A sorcerer woke them with a start, his booming voice a warning and a test. The bard stood, shakily, and bowed low. The ranger sat up in his bed and gave barely a nod.
The sorcerer said, “Avonyn is my name, Dipper of the Golden Well.”
Even Thiovar, a woodsman long a stranger to the city, knew that name. The sorcerer’s legend was at least equal to his own. The sorcerer, the Abbess, the ranger, and the bard spent the night and morn ‘til noon learning what the ranger knew from his brief sojourn to the shifting dungeon. He and Barathamew now knew to call it the ‘Evermorph’.
{Author’s Note: Please indulge me as I wrote most of the rest in (sloppy, inconsistent) meter during the journaling of the game and chose to preserve that in this ‘polished’ narrative.}
Eager was the sage and cautious the diviner,
"You've told us much we did not know,
but far more is yet concealed.
To Her I'll pray what’s left of the day
and long into the night.
In the morning I will know if we should dare
the Evermorph or stand here for a fight!”
“One thing I do not know, and know none who do,
is how to start that quest if the Mother guides us to,”
said Thiovar in despair.
“The Golden Well has shown me where to enter in.
It is not far, but it is not the way you went,”
said Avowyn,
"Yet your hard-won lore and eyes for signs
are needed again for this descent."
When morning came, they met by the altar
to await the priestess and hear the Mother's will.
She came up with the sun in armor gleaming
gold and bright, the dungeon to be won!
Beneath the reliquary of the city's saint,
that the order of the Mother kept,
there was a pool of dark water
sealed there to protect.
Avowyn spoke words on it
and the pool glimmered in the gloom.
The bard said, "Now I bid you grace and speed and memory
for the tale that I must write whence you return!"
"Your silence I expect for a fortnight,"
the sorcerer threatened,
"And if you touch either pipe or bottle
they'll not loosen your lips
but seal them tight!”
The bard paled at the curse
and wept,
but nodded his consent.
“Thanks to you, my friend, we have this chance or else these three adventurers would not have met,” Tibota touched the bard’s cheek as they parted.
The three heroes waded into the pool.
[The lettering on tile ‘B5’ is set upright, setting the compass’s ‘north’ point for the adventure. B-tiles have blocked doors/paths.]
When the water covered them, the world spun round and they rose in a clear pool lit by glowing stones around the ceiling.
Two doors and four stairs led from the pool. Beyond them lay ruin and foul wastes in all directions, except the passage south.
[B5 to F6: Final roll result after one free reroll was a 3 and a 4. I spent one Insight to change the 3 to a 4 for doubles. I kept one 4 as the round treasure and the other as an F-Tile Success treasure. F-tiles have treasure protected by spirits.]
{From here on, the die roll result shown is always after the free re-roll (if taken) and listed as both numbers separated by a comma, e.g., “Rolled 3, 4”.}
The abbess said, "I know the way.”
Up stairs south with branching paths,
a chamber stretching wide.
They climbed into a misty light.
“Who enters my holy armory?"
It was the saint Eridius!
Abbess Tibota knelt to him
and said his prayer aloud.
The spirit answered, “Take these gifts,”
and vanished in a cloud,
the armory revealed.
The shield he’d won in Evermorph
still shone bright steel,
but Thiovar's sword was dull
with rust and age.
He took a sword with a curved blade
and a helm of leather
made with chain inlaid.
The sorcerer, a chest plate found,
and the priestess a belt
of scales to girdle round
her Armor of the Dame.
[F6 To A1: Rolled 5, 6. One Insight for 5, 5 (but I missed that this was a letter hazard!). Kept a 5 as a round treasure. A-tiles are attacks.]
Thiovar heard the footsteps before the Pale Eye thralls attacked. The three were braced as from all sides the madmen came. They slew twice their number, Thiovar’s sword and the Abbess’s spiked chain did lively work through Avowyn’s enchantments. The sorcerer took a necklace from their leader, eyeing it.
[A1 to E3: Rolled 3, 2. One Insight for 3, 3. E-tiles have eerie magic.]
In the next chamber south,
Thiovar showed Avonyn the signs
and runes that did appear.
Tibota listened, but soon revealed
that she sensed an eerie magic near.
The ranger read the signs
and the sorcerer agreed
that they should cross the bridge
ahead northwest.
But the Abbess stopped to pray
and the mirror trap of the bridge
was made clear to her.
It led to nowhere and returned.
They turned back to another path
and on, dismayed as the signs
they saw before were gone.
[E3 To B1: Rolled 3, 4. Used a treasure for 4, 4. Kept a 4 as the round treasure. B-tiles are blocked.]
They found a strange, small room with a raised dais like the one Thiovar had seen before. In that chamber, he found the runes again and studied them with Avowyn.
“This tells me more than you, for your skill of wood and stream does not grant you wisdom of the arcane.” He took the necklace of the cultist and placed it in a depression in the stone and turned. A path south once barred now opened true and the company made haste.
[B1 to F8: Rolled 2, 3. Changed 2 to 5 with treasure for a total of 8. Kept 3 as an F-tile success treasure.]
The south way led to a hewn passage that was similar to the cave Thiovar escaped during his last visit. But this cave seemed firm and wound in different ways. In the depths they found some fallen knights, their heads removed, and on them the symbol of the Father Lost. Abbess Tibota wept over them, brothers to her sisters in the divine. She searched the corpses for items she could return to kin and stake. Amongst their packs she found a rope bound up with copper threads and kept it for their quest.
South they kept their course
and climbed out of the caves.
One last look the priestess
spared for kindred graves.
[F8 to C7: Rolled 6, 3. Used treasure to change 6 to 4, 4+3 = 7 to match the tile number. C-tiles have creatures.]
Again this place seemed familiar to Thiovar,
a larger room with a dais and beast prowling below.
But there were more exits here and the beast
was lower and more cruel.
A scorpion of giant size scurried at them
and struck Avowyn with its tail.
The plate of the saint protected him!
Thiovar swung his sword, but a pincher caught it firm.
At an impasse where it expected easy prey,
the scorpion was vexed.
Tibota sang the Mother’s hymn of grace
and the giant menace took a passage of retreat.
[C7 to F1: Rolled 3, 4. Used treasure for 4, 4. Kept a 4 as the F-tile success treasure.]
{On the transition from C7 to F1, I crossed onto the opposite face of the Evermorph cube from where I started. I kept ‘north’ in a consistent direction from the direction of travel, but it is now pointing the opposite direction from the north arrow on B5 in 3D space.}
South, ever south the signs led.
They came upon a treasure room
with four obelisks
set with four riddles.
Thiovar read the riddles and saw
no reason to their rhymes.
Avowyn said, "Wrench not your heads,
this one is mine!
Lady I may need your rope,
It may be magic thread."
The mage connected each plinth
with the rope following a path
only he could know.
When it was done,
the ropes and pillars glowed.
Then all the treasure disappeared
save three jade daggers
inlaid with wood.
Each took one, an omen
and a blessing to their crew.
They ascended south from the deceptive room and this time Thiovar knew, from gut and rune, that they’d finally turn to morning’s light after this challenge was complete.
[F1 to D6: Rolled 6, 4. Decided to take damage rather than expend limited resources. D-tiles have devices and traps.]
Seeing the way clear, Thiovar implored
Avowyn not to tarry. The sorcerer said
he had to know what was beyond
the door marked with the Pale Eye.
He entered there and a dart shot forth
into his unprotected thigh.
Avowyn reeled and the Abbess healed,
but the wound still paled.
"Its curse needs more than hurried prayer;
A poultice and much rest."
"We've not the time," Avowyn gritted
through his teeth. Thiovar bound tight
the wound and gave Avowyn his arm
to lean on as they turned east.
[D6 to D5: Letter hazard moving between same-letter tiles, immediate health loss (occurs before the roll for the tile).]
As Thiovar helped Avowyn,
Abbess Tibota led them.
Then she fell.
The sorcerer bid the ranger 'go'
and stood on his own.
Thiovar caught her up and
placed her in his arms.
She still awoke but blood
was on her palms.
A wound she'd hid
and could not heal
from the daggers of the Thralls.
[Roll for D5 (after letter hazard resolved): Rolled 1, 2. Used treasure to change 1 to 3, 3+2 = 5 to match the tile number. D-tiles have devices or traps.]
Avowyn gained strength at sight of the room.
It was a wide passage west to east
and along its walls were runes
and wheels and strange designs.
"This is the place we had need to find.
And in this place if the arcane, and divine
grant us, we’ll prevail,"
Avowyn declared as he turned back
to the company, lying on the stone.
Still tending Tibora's wound, Thiovar seemed lost,
"I know not this room, in fact, I've known none of them
and we've paid the cost."
"Three rooms of six in center spokes
you told to me.
You knew them not for what they were,
but your keen eyes and detail-care
gave me clues to see what arcane lore
might yet reveal
and I theorized this room would be
where we are now.”
"Well Dipper, you should have told me
of your true purpose
as a fellow of the fold,"
said Tibota through tears of pain,
“Keep not your tongue now
that we’re on the precipice!"
“True fair, true daughter. Even I fear
to live up to my legend
and kept my counsel to my own,”
Avowyn sighed, "Let's give up folly then
and add good Thiovar formally to our fold.”
The sorcerer explained that Evermorph
was under the Pale Eye's control,
but here they could unmake that spell,
at great risk to themselves.
"We take the chance and trust as friends,"
Thiovar declared. As they gripped their jade
daggers to their chests in solemn vow,
they healed enough to soldier on
and risk the room’s travails.
With careful study, now all three,
they found five traps and broke them all
and then unlatched the wheels
and unleashed the Evermorph
upon both friends and foes.
[D5 to D2: Letter hazard, immediate health loss.]
{I initially missed the rotation induced by this third health loss, but caught it when I took the next hit and rotated the cube at that point.}
"The circular tunnel!
I've been this way before!"
Thiovar placed hand on stone
before Avowyn could warn.
A red light glowed in a rune
and burnt the ranger's hand.
[Roll for D2: 1, 2. Insight spend to change to 2, 2. D-tiles have devices or traps.]
The chamber that taught Thiovar
to read the runes
finally collected its fee.
But from the glow of the fiery rune,
faint lines appeared
around the central column.
Avowyn followed them and learned
another thing about
the dungeon's functioning
and could cleary see
which runes were trapped
and which paths collapsed,
at least within
some tens of feet.
And following them back
through the cave
that Thiovar had long
since braved,
they turned north
through a door,
unlatched.
[D2 to C3: Letter hazard. C-tiles have creatures.]
"And now the Evermorph obscures
what we just thought it laid bare.
I know not this path, it's new to me,"
did Thiovar declare.
And as he marveled at the change
he failed his charge and Tibota
felt the bane.
A door unseen
as the ranger traced the runes,
and from it sprung a spider
keen to feast upon
the Abbess’s wound.
The sting was sudden, deep
and the priestess struggled
not to weep
as her dagger stabbed the foe.
The webber spun and swung
and the passage where they stood
came undone
and shifted to the west.
The way they came by the spider's nest
behind them now was replaced
by a darkened passageway.
On they pressed for soon
their quest would lead them
clear and free.
{As noted above, I missed the rotation required for the previous wound and rotated on this wound to make up for it.}
[Roll for C3: 3, 4. Used treasure for 4, 4.]
To a wide hall they came
and found the symbol of the eye
most pale
and portents of the enemy
yet to face.
This training ground was defiled
with sweat and bloody trace
of darts like the one
that had pierced Avowyn.
Footsteps on a narrow stair
sped them down a passage west
and into a maze of chambers.
[C3 to D4: Letter hazard.]
In haste and stealth, the abbess fell.
Thiovar forestalled her fall,
to make soft the sound,
And wrenched an ankle.
Through pain he held his tongue.
And, for a moment, thought he'd won
silence for them all.
They heard fresh shouts.
The servants of the Pale Eye
said, “Someone turns
where our masters earned,
Evermorph is masterless again
and it might spurn
us all for what we've done!”
[Roll for D4: 1, 2. Failure and the Pale Eye’s curse for two damage!]
After those fateful words were said,
the Pale Eye glared above their heads
and froze them where they stood.
The voice came onwards
from the training room,
their fate was doom,
but Tibota whispered, "Mother's Grace.”
A terrible cost she paid
a streak of her hair grayed
as her goddess touched
the Evermorph.
The hallway lurched and the corrupted rangers vanished as their world turned, one crushed to death within the breach.
{I delayed the first rotation from the wound above to this point in the narration for dramatic effect! The next rotation shifts the previous training hall back into position, but our heroes are through the next door by that point.}
Through false rooms and halls they moved
with grace, the Mother with them still.
West their course,
with some remorse,
as Evermorph was sure to make them spill.
[D4 To C5: Letter hazard.]
And shift again the dungeon did,
but now they felt the signs
like the dungeon’s denizens
and kept their feet.
Distracted from the effort, Tibota was unaware
as a spider dropped onto her armor
and snuck between the greaves.
It bit her full and she struck the plate,
crushing it to death.
Avowyn, when shown the wound,
said “Now you have been marked.
The spiders come, I know not how,
but Evermorph is their home
and they traverse where we cannot.
Our vigilance and care must double
with the hour."
[Roll for C5: 4, 3. Used treasure for 4, 4. C-tiles have creatures.]
They fought a bold retreat
as spiders kept their heat
and abbess seemed to fade
from the venom of two bites.
Then she laid a hand upon the belt
from the good saint's armory
and purged and free of poison
she swung her chain and spiders three
she killed with every swing.
As they rushed away,
Thiovar arrested their retreat,
"I know this place and
up ahead is the mirrored room
that haunts my sleep.”
The spiders fled or dead,
Avowyn now paused and said,
"We can adjust the path but once,
if we all think it wise."
The friends agreed
and the sorcerer found
hidden levers freed
and spun off the mirrored room instead.
{I used the once-per-game ‘Chosen Rotation’ power to avoid another Letter Hazard. Fortunately, C-4 is a tile that Thiovar explored his first time in Evermorph, so there was a narrative reason for it as well. I would have lost any treasure by taking this action, but I had already spent it all!}
[C5 to E2: Roll 2, 3.]
{I was out of treasures and this was turn #15, which means that treasure could not be used from this point on (if there were any left). I had a few ‘Insight’ remaining, but decided to save them for the end game.}
The signs led them to a closed door. As Tibota reached for it, Thiovar cried, “Hold!” Again he knew the place and told them of the shadow trapped in a circular room beyond the door.
"Years have passed
and shadows cast
where others fall.
Some thrall or creature
sure has passed
this hall?"
Avowyn would not delay
and pressed past
through the door.
"Now curse the name of Adra!
Most of all the ranger-son
of fallen line of fey
and mortal ball!"
The Shadow cried
when it espied
Thiovar through the door.
His soul was shook,
but the sorcerer took
the grievous blow
as the shadow low
charged through him and
was gone.
The room shook round
as dungeon ground
on gear unseen
and dire.
The candles’ flames
held by shadow's bane
now spent and died.
The abbess glowed
from sainted belt
and all around was dimly seen,
enough to keep their course
now south they went
or so went Evermorph.
[E2 to A2: Roll 4, 5. Used Insight for 5, 5. A-tiles are attacks.]
{With B5 in sight down a long corridor, I couldn’t risk the next wound which would have rotated the party out of reach of B5 with only a few rounds remaining!}
A wide door led
to wider hall
and ahead they did see
the pool of their escape.
Here werewolves thralled
to Pale Eye lords
ambushed the three.
"Hidden mirrors, up high!"
Thiovar shouted to Avowyn.
As he and Tibota held back the beasts,
he prayed his friend could use the knowledge
of his first passage here to their relief.
From above flew an army of bats,
with blood dripping from their fangs.
The werewolves fled and cowered
fearing vampires, their hated kin.
The company seized that chance and flew
past them to the pool of escape within.
[A2 to B5: Letter hazard.]
Avowyn was first to clear the threshold and took the first arrow from the fallen rangers guarding the pool. It pierced his arm. As he wailed, the werewolves howled and pursued. The illusion of the bats had ‘snapped’ and as Thiovar and Tibota turned to face the wicked foes, Evermorph delivered a blessing onto them and the corridor behind was gone. The howls of wolves echoed as the walls shook.
{Now the party has reached their final objective with one round left to spare! (You have to return by Round 18 to win.) The rest of the rounds are played out as final combat on this last tile.}
[Roll for B5: 2, 2!]
Abbess Tibota spun and stepped in front of the Well Dipper, taking arrows to her armor, while Thiovar patched Avowyn and stood him back up.
Their arrows spent, the Pale company drew blades and fell on them. But now the three heroes were smiling merrily to see the pool so near.
[Roll for Round 18: 1, 1]
An enchantress of Pale Eye revealed herself across the waters blue and cast the eye on them. But the abbess laughed and showed the sign of Mother’s Love and the curse rebounded to smite the enemy.
[Roll for Round 19: 4, 1: 1+4 = 5 for the tile number, but 1 draws the Pale Eye!]
The enchantress drew a wicked blade,
gray-black with dripping ichor,
and then she slew the nearest thrall
who gurgled his own end.
The Pale Eye again
beseeched the friends
and brought Thiovar to one knee.
And Avonyn was casting then
and lost the spell
as a quick blow fell
upon that mage’s brow.
The room spun round
and deafening sound,
here at a center well.
Evermorph
would set a course
at the outcome of this din.
[Roll for Round 20 (final round): 4, 2. Used insight to change the 4 to a 3, 3+2 = 5 to match tile number.]
From Thiovar, Avowyn had learned
to control the dungeon's turns,
so too did the ranger
pupil under him.
He saw a light
like morning bright
and threw the dart
that had once missed
the sorcerer's heart
and the Pale Eye foes
fell back in rows,
as Evemorph did spin.
Grabbing abbess and mage,
Thiovar dove through the pool
and out of Evermorph!
Now Avowyn and Tibota
tend the harrowing dungeon
to ensure it can't be used
for darker ends.
And Thiovar went back to the woods,
but not as a hermit without friends.
He hunts the traitor rangers now
to keep the forest, while others keep the tower.
And Barathamew, the bard of little note,
keeps chronicle and kitchen for my friend.
The END
(Will Thiovar return?)
If you want to know more about the playing and writing of the game, read this companion post!
Part of the journey on the Evermorph Dungeon cube.
My completed “Shift of Fate” booklet.
(I missed marking the final wound, but I had two more to spare!)
A page from the journal written during play.
Attribution:
Maps © Evermorph Studios (https://evermorphstudios.com)
Maps created with Dungeon Scrawl (https://dungeonscrawl.com) — used under CC BY 4.0 license.
Arthur P. Dutton 
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