Shadowdark Goes Underground With “Dwellers in the Deep” Cursed Scroll

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Shadowdark is about to get even more shadowy and dark, thanks to the recently released Cursed Scroll 5: Dwellers in the Deep. This latest expansion introduces the sprawling subterranean realm of Morzomotha, an Underdark-style setting complete with new monsters, classes, spells, locations and a complete high-level adventure.

This latest Cursed Scroll is currently only available as a PDF to backers of the recent Shadowdark: Western Reaches Kickstarter, so if you missed out on the campaign you may have to wait a few more months to get your hands on it. Below, we fire up our torches and delve deep into all the details.

What’s included in “Shadowdark: Dwellers in the Deep”?

Dwellers in the Deep is a 68-page Cursed Scroll supplement for Shadowdark that functions as a campaign setting and player guide, in addition to featuring a brand new adventure. Despite it’s small size, it packs a ton of content, including:

New Character Classes

This latest Cursed Scroll introduces two new classes, both designed for the endless darkness of Morzomotha but flexible enough to drop into just about any Shadowdark campaign.

The Delver class is a hardened underground explorer built for hostile terrain and long expeditions. They excel at survival, scavenging and underground navigation Their abilities include Scavenger (which gives them a chance to reclaim the final use of a consumable item instead of losing it), Trailblazer (which grants advantage on climbing, swimming, foraging, understanding unknown languages and avoiding natural hazards), and Trusty Gear (which allows the Delver to specialize in a specific weapon or tool, gaining scaling bonuses as they level).

The Wyrdling class is touched by abyssal forces which literally reshape their mind and body. They gain access to mutation-style talents that reflect their unnatural evolution. Key abilities include Corruption (which grants randomized transformative powers), Hideous Biology (allowing them to squeeze through impossibly narrow cracks), and a horrifying Pseudopod weapon that can grow stronger and more grotesque over time. Wyrdlings also face numerous mutations, which can range growing gills and sprouting barbs to thickening their skin and regainining hit points by devouring humanoid flesh.

New Spells

Dwellers in the Deep also introduces 16 new chaotic Wizard spells, all of which lean heavily into corruption, domination, decay, and psychological torment.

Tier 1 spells include Blight (which turns nearby earth to lifeless ash and boosts your spellcasting checks), Eyebite (damages a creature and prevents it from seeing you briefly), Mischief (compels a low-level humanoid to sabotage its allies) and Protection From Good (imposes disadvantage on lawful creatures attacking the target and can expel possessing entities).

Tier 2 spells include Envenom (turns a drink into deadly poison), Phantoms (forces a morale check for a terrifying illusion), Wither (drains life and amplifies the next damage the target takes) and Wrack (overwhelms a creature with agony, potentially preventing it from acting).

At Tier 3, wizards gain access to more manipulative and reality-bending magic, such as Betrayal (forces a creature to turn on its allies), Defile (corrupts the land and causes lower-tier spells to critically succeed), Mazzim’s Mesmerism (freezes low-level humanoids in mind-numbing stupor) and Unlife (animates a humanoid skull with lingering personality and memory).

Tier 4 features devastating control spells, including Dismember (which systematically tears limbs from a target) and Dominate (which subjugates a creature’s will entirely), while Tier 5 wizards can cast Feeblemind (reducing INT and CHA to 1 for days) and Subjugate (extending control spells for an entire year).

A New Underdark-Inspired Campaign Setting

Most of Cursed Scroll 5 is dedicated to Morzomotha, the first fully realized subterranean campaign setting for Shadowdark. Heavily inspired by the Underdark from Dungeons & Dragons, it’s an endless labyrinth of caverns, ink-black seas, fungal forests, abyssal cities and imprisoned gods. Like previous Curse Scrolls, the book offers up a complete sandbox setting, along with hex travel rules, encounter tables, rumors and dozens of keyed locations.

Standout locations include the Nightbound Sea, where a Lost god slumbers beneath crushing black waters; Grizzenghast, a lightless city filled with gray-skinned demons; a mind-bending labyrinthine known as the Spiral, and Ralk’s Chimney, a perilous multi-day climb back to the surface. Travel itself becomes part of the horror, with characters suffering Charisma damage from prolonged exposure to the depths and risking the onset of The Chittering, a creeping madness that draws predators like blood in the water.

The setting is further reinforced by new monsters, factional tensions between deep ones, duergar slavers, brain eaters and demons, as well as rumors that hint at lost artifacts and forbidden knowledge. It’s remarkable how much worldbuilding is packed into a compact zine format and in just a few dozen pages, Morzomotha feels capable of going toe-to-toe with any Underdark campaign setting book produced by Wizards of the Coast.

A New Adventure

The back half of Cursed Scroll 5 features a full 8th-level adventure entitled The Ghoulish Library of Leng. It’s a two-level dungeon crawl set within a towering fortress located above a subterranean ravine. The Library is run by mysterious beings who catalog and weaponize the deepest fears of mortal creatures. It’s filled with strange set pieces, including twisted angels, time distortions, cursed mirrors, alchemy labs and tomes that can literally rewrite reality itself.

What makes the adventure especially compelling is its layered faction play. Prisoners seek escape, sentient books whisper for rescue, deep ones simmer with resentment, and the head Librarian Xenoxes pursues cold, methodical research into mortal fear. There are are also multiple entrances, secret passages and twisted new monsters, with everything from a giant four-eyed demon frog to dragon-sized death moths.

When will “Cursed Scroll 5: Dwellers in the Deep” be available to the general public?

Currently, the new Cursed Scroll is only available as a PDF to backers of the Shadowdark: Western Reaches Kickstarter, where it was delivered as part of the campaign’s digital rewards. There is currently no public release date for non-backers, and the zine is not yet available for purchase on The Arcane Library’s website.

That being said, based on what we’ve seen with previously published Cursed Scrolls (which are usually released several months after crowdfunding fulfillment) it’s likely that Dwellers in the Deep will be available to non-backers in both print and PDF formats sometime in mid 2026.

Final Thoughts

The Underdark is such an iconic part of D&D and the OSR, that it’s surprising that Shadowdark hasn’t tackled it before. This new Cursed Scroll, however, seeks to remedy that, offering enough content to fuel a lifetime worth of campaigns in the lightless depths of Morzomotha. It’s an expansion that truly lives up to the name Shadowdark.

You can learn more about past and upcoming Cursed Scrolls on the Arcane Library website.