The Lamplighters' Company
“To hold back the deep with tallow and grit.”
Old money and good standing with the Order. Devout and careful adventurers come to you first, and the sisters remember your kindness.
A grim guild-strategy game
Lamp & Rope
Into the Hollow
There is a town with a darkness at its heart. Eighty years ago its cathedral sank into the earth with three hundred souls inside. Beneath it lie older things. You choose who goes down.
Trailer
Not everyone makes it out
One delver's story. Ruadh Dunmore came for what lies below.
The game
Run the chapter. Send the party. Bury the dead.
You are not the hero. You hold one of the two charters licensed to send adventurers into the Pit, and every life you spend is a name on the notice board.
A town that lives without you
Woodcutters fell trees and haul timber. The smith and the tailor make gear to order. A supply wagon comes every other day and a travelling caravan pitches outside the walls with rarer goods. Adventurers walk in by the north road, find a bed, spend their pay and sign with whichever chapter offers the better contract.
As the town prospers, houses grow storeys and dormers, and new ones go up when it runs out of beds.
Press-turn battles
Hit a weakness or land a critical and the foe goes Down, and you get One More action. Pass it to a bonded ally with a Hand-off. Knock every foe down and the whole party piles in with an All-Out Rush.
With foes on the floor you can parley instead. They might pay to be left alone, give up a weakness, or refuse to speak. Every weakness you find goes into your chapter's Bestiary Ledger for good.
Death is permanent
The fallen stay where they fell, marked by a skull on the shaft, until another party goes down and brings the body home. The town announces every death on the notice board.
A grave is kept open until the body comes home.
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Choose who goes down
Pick parties of one to three, set retreat orders and the floor to reach, then follow the descent room by room on the floor map.
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As hands-on as you like
Leave fights to play out on their own, step in only when it matters, or command every turn.
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Train and equip
Teach cross-calling skills at the Old Keep, drill stats at the mercenary camp, and commission gear from the smith and the tailor.
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A real economy
Sell relics to the pawnbroker, buy waystone charts from the mapmaker, take loans from the bank, and pay the town its tithe.
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A rival chapter
The other charter competes for the same recruits and the same depths, and it can be cautious, greedy or glory-hungry.
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Build it yourself
Start from the ready-made town, or lay out the walled town building by building in the editor before the first day dawns.
Screenshots
Soot, bone and candlelight
The Deep
Four ages buried under one town
Twenty floors, each a branching map of rooms with a guardian at the bottom. Every age has its own foes, its own treasures, and its own rule.
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Age I · Floors 1–5
The Sunken Cathedral
Flooded naves, fallen bells and drowned choir stalls. Crypt crawlers, wax penitents and censer wraiths.
Great guardian: Saint Aubrel
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Age II · Floors 6–10
The Temple of the Sworn Threshold
Rule: Oaths. Swear to stand fast, abstain from greed or shield the weak. Keep it and be blessed; break it and be cursed.
Great guardian: The Bronze Colossus
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Age III · Floors 11–15
The House of the Weighed Heart
Rule: Judgement. Every relic you carry tips the Scales of Greed, and the guardians grow stronger for it.
Great guardian: The Weigher of Hearts
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Age IV · Floors 16–20 · Coming
The Sunless Primeval
Fern-jungles under a glowing cavern roof, amber megaliths and tar pits. Something large walks there.
In development
Choose your charter
Two chapters, one Pit
The Rook & Rope
“What the dark keeps, we fetch.”
Gravediggers and fences turned chapter. The greedy and the desperate sign with you, and the pawnbroker pays you well.
Eight callings
- SellswordFrontline cleaver
- ShieldbearerBastion and bodyguard
- Pit-DiverSkirmisher and trap-breaker
- Crossbow HunterBackline marksman
- Tomb-RobberCrits, bleeds and loot
- LamplighterHealer and warder
- Hedge-WitchHexes and elements
- Bone-ReaderLife-drain and parley
Every adventurer also has a temperament. The cowardly turn back early and the glory-hungry won't retreat, while the greedy go looking for treasure rooms.
Questions
Before you go down
What kind of game is this?
A dark-fantasy strategy and management game. You run one of two adventurers' chapters in Hollowell, a town built around a bottomless pit. You hire delvers, set contracts and retreat orders, send parties down into four buried ages and watch them fight press-turn battles. Death is permanent.
Where can I play it?
In your web browser on a desktop or laptop. There is nothing to download or install. Just press Play.
Do I control the adventurers directly?
You choose how involved to be. You can leave fights to play out on their own, or take command of every turn. Between descents the adventurers live their own lives in town: they shop, train, drink, and sign with whoever offers the better contract.
Is death really permanent?
Yes. A delver who falls stays where they fell until another party brings the body home. Their grave is kept open until then.
How is my progress saved?
The game saves automatically in your browser's local storage, so you can close the tab and carry on later on the same device and browser.
Does the game use AI to run its characters?
No. The town, the adventurers, the economy and every fight are driven by the game's own deterministic simulation rules.
The ladder is waiting
Take up the charter, light the lamp and pick the first party to go down.
Play Lamp & Rope