Arguing with the Olm: Anatomy of a Negotiation

01 Aug, 2026

This is a shortish post about a moment that happened today in my ongoing Veins of the Earth campaign (set in 1980s Thailand, using Liminal Horror) and a principle I'm beginning to think is very useful for OSR GM-ing. I'm sure other people have had this insight (it's not particularly difficult to stumble upon) but developing it for myself has helped me discover what I consider some good GM-ing practices.

Here's the principle: Always give the players at least two options. One option is a gamble: they can gain everything, lose everything, or something in between, entirely based on chance. The other is certain: they give up something they don't want to give up, taking a guaranteed sacrifice in exchange for assurance that they won't experience the worst possible outcome. Leverage, fictional positioning, all that jazz can either make the odds on the gamble better or make the certain sacrifice less severe; but in most cases, a dilemma is more interesting than a clear victory or defeat.

Here's how this shook out in play: Our PCs, Gram, Mabel, and Blaze (and a GMPC as backup, Amphon) have entered the Veins of the Earth which were discovered beneath a shopping mall in Bangkok in 1986. One of their first encounters was with a group of blind, cannibalistic salamander-people called Olm. Though the Olm are somewhat monstrous, they are fairly peaceful and reasonable, and the first Olm capable of communicating with them in a language they understood, named Dancer-Liar-Memory, was asked to lead them through Olm territory. On their short journey, they learned about Olm culture, including their belief in a kind of digestive reincarnation: one's memories, experiences, and skills are absorbed by whatever eats you, and so it is important that Olm are "recycled" back into the collective at the end of their lives. I included several subtle signs that if they went down this road, the PCs would eventually end up being "recycled" themselves, but they didn't pick up on these signposts.

Instead, they eagerly rushed into the zone of the Veins containing the Grand Sump of the Olm, their largest settlement. When they were greeted by an envoy for this settlement, Rust-Cold-Egg, they were asked what the Olm could do to make them more comfortable before they were feasted on, which naturally led to a very tense conversation. Here's a blow-by-blow of how I adjudicated this:

1. Rust-Cold-Egg (an NPC, played by me) is confused why these travelers, who seem to understand and respect the Olm's culture, would object to being devoured and having their experiences and skills assimilated into the Olm's civilization.
2. Gram (a PC) argues that the Olm would be better served giving the PCs some time to grow old, gain more experiences and skills, and come back when they're old so they can be feasted on then.
3. I considered this a compelling argument since it's made in terms that the Olm would understand and appreciate. I also rolled a Positive reaction for Rust-Cold-Egg, and decided he was willing to make a compromise. Of course, I was not going to let the PCs get everything they want with no risk, especially since they got into this situation by trusting a bunch of gleeful cannibals. Rust-Cold-Egg requested one of their number to be left behind as a kind of hostage or ward who would be educated in the ways of the Olm and treated as an honored guest until the end of their life, where they would be eaten. This way, even if the others reneged, the Olm would still get something, and having a hostage might convince one of the others to come back and swap places. I thought this was a reasonable request for Rust, but expected the PCs to reject this offer.
4. The PCs deliberated and decided to try a different approach. Gram grabbed a grenade from Amphon (who had a plethora of military gear) and said that he would destroy their own bodies and potentially some of the Olms' if the Olm didn't let the party go. The grenade acts as leverage, but this new tack sets the PCs in opposition to the Olms' goals. I had Rust call Gram's bluff and present him with a machete. If he was willing to cut off a piece of his body and leave it with the Olm (mechanically, a 1d6 permanent stat decrease), they would believe that he might blow himself up. Otherwise, they had no reason to believe Gram would do it or even that he had an actual weapon (remember the Olm are blind and don't know much about human military technology). I actually expected the PCs to make this sacrifice, which would have enabled them to travel safely through the Olm's territory although their relationship would certainly be a bit stonier.
5. The PCs decide even this is an unacceptable compromise, and Rust orders an attack. I decided Dancer-Liar-Memory, the closest Olm to the PCs and their erstwhile tour guide, should do something rash and rolled for whether he would aid or hinder the PCs:¹ he ended up aiding them. I adjudicated that a Caving roll (a derived stat I made up for this game) would be necessary to flee, though they could roll twice and take the better result due to Dancer's intervention.
6. Mabel, another PC, meanwhile, quickly throws out a flashbang from Amphon's belt, in an attempt to deafen the Olm. I ruled that this had a chance of backfiring: PCs that passed a STR save would escape without needing to roll for fleeing, while those that failed would be injured and make a worse roll due to their impairment. Mabel, Gram, and Blaze fled while Amphon, ears bleeding from the flashbang, was grabbed and began to be devoured. Gram threw his grenade to end her life swiftly, thus detonating the other explosives on her belt and blowing many of the Olm away.
7. In the end, the players arguably ended up in a much worse position than any of the sacrifices that were offered to them. They still lost a party member, in addition to a lot of their useful equipment. They managed to save Dancer-Liar-Memory, but if any of the other Olm survived the explosion (which I still haven't calculated), the party will have a significantly tougher time navigating the Veins. And even if none of the Olm survive, the effect of others waking up and discovering the carnage will have knock-on effects on the campaign.

This isn't a bad thing: it's very exciting and made for a great session. Gram's player actually said that one of the things he liked was that it felt like the conversation could only have gone one way, not from a railroading perspective, but because the Olm's idea of morality is so alien to our human intuition that a mutually-beneficial resolution was impossible. The Olm are one of my favorite parts of Veins of the Earth, and I'm glad I was able to communicate that alien-ness and the sense of discomfort that arises from meeting someone who will eat you only if they like you.

Footnotes