Eclipse at Xoltepec: A D&D 5E Beastiary of the Professor

Eclipse at Xoltepec

Professor Dudley Proose went looking for Xoltepec with eleven men, three animals and a rumour about a temple that respectable maps had chosen not to acknowledge. The men left as soon as they saw it, while the Professor stayed and entered just as the eclipse began.

When the stone door closed behind him, something inside the masonry informed him that Xoltepec would not open while the sun was eaten. Every reliable table said a total eclipse should last only a few minutes, but this one held until dawn, leaving every exit sealed and every open stair leading further down.

Professor Proose took out his notebook and began to descend.

Eclipse at Xoltepec is the record of what he found: a 123-page D&D 5E bestiary featuring fifty creatures across seven explored floors of an ancient temple, with Challenge Ratings ranging from CR 1/8 to CR 18. The book can be used as a collection of unusual creatures or run as the same continuous descent the Professor survived over the course of one very unreasonable eclipse.

The Temple Is Not Empty

The useful thing to understand about Xoltepec is that very little inside it behaves like a conventional monster. Its inhabitants still count, guard, tend, record and follow duties that have survived long after the people who created them disappeared.

A knotted cord still keeps its tally. A carved serpent still expects the proper greeting. Across all fifty tenants, each creature has its own place, behaviour and rules, which players can often understand before reaching for a weapon.

Every entry combines full D&D 5E statistics with Professor Proose’s field notes on what he encountered, what he learned and what it cost him. The Professor even receives his own CR 1/8 stat block, largely protected by good tweed and considerably less protected by good judgement.

Xoltepec Has Rules

Professor Proose treats Xoltepec as both a natural history and a survival guide, because the temple becomes much easier to navigate once the party stops treating every encounter like a fight.

Most tenants are bound to their own floors, and nearly all of them expect some form of tribute. Small objects, information, time or other forms of payment can often get the party further than violence, provided they understand what each creature actually wants.

That is one of the central ideas behind the descent: the creatures are dangerous, but they are not arbitrary. Paying attention to behaviour, surroundings and the Professor’s notes can matter just as much as a strong stat block.

Seven Floors Down

The book follows Professor Proose through Xoltepec in the same order he experienced it, with each floor introducing its own inhabitants, customs and increasingly difficult arrangements. The descent begins with smaller threats near the temple entrance and gradually leads toward creatures reaching CR 18 in the lower levels.

For the Gamesmaster, the seven floors form one continuous descent under the eclipse. For anyone looking for individual encounters, the fifty creatures can also be used separately, with their behaviour and context already built into each entry.

A Few of the Tenants

For the Game Master

Xoltepec is already structured as a continuous descent, so the Game Master does not need to turn fifty separate creature entries into an adventure from scratch. The party moves from floor to floor under the eclipse as the Challenge Ratings rise, while the book provides the rules, tribute system and encounter logic that hold the temple together.

The result is a mix of exploration, social encounters, dangerous creatures and situations where understanding what is happening can matter just as much as dealing damage. The eclipse keeps pressure on the entire descent, because the sun should have returned long before it actually does.

What Is Inside

Eclipse at Xoltepec is a complete 123-page D&D 5E volume covering the seven interior floors Professor Proose managed to catalogue. It contains fifty original creatures from CR 1/8 to CR 18, with full game statistics, field observations, encounter behaviour and the Professor's own account of how each meeting went.

The Professor's post-expedition inventory records seven floors catalogued, fifty species described, sixty-six objects given as tribute, two lost boots, one lost pair of spectacles and no lost teeth, though he objects to any attempt to discuss the margin involved.

His watch recorded an eclipse lasting eleven hours and forty minutes. The watch was examined afterward. It was working perfectly.

Pledge Tiers

€9 - Digital Edition 

The complete 123-page PDF with all fifty creatures, seven floors of Xoltepec, full stat blocks, field notes, Game Master guidance and the tribute system that ties the descent together.

€14 - Print Edition + PDF

A physical softcover copy of Eclipse at Xoltepec together with the complete digital edition, containing the same fifty tenants, seven explored floors, field notes and game material.

Delivery & Fulfilment

Xoltepec was not especially eager to let Professor Proose leave, but getting this book to its readers should be considerably less complicated. The practical side of the matter has once again been entrusted to DriveThruRPG, so your rewards can make their way to you without requiring tribute, negotiation, or a descent through seven temple floors.

PDF Edition. You will receive an email from DriveThruRPG with a link to claim and download the complete 123-page digital edition approximately two weeks after the campaign ends.

Print Edition. The softcover edition will be produced through DriveThruRPG’s Print-On-Demand system and is expected to be ready approximately 1 to 2 months after the campaign ends. Backers who selected a print reward will receive an email with a link to place their order through DriveThruRPG.

Before the Door Opens

By the time Professor Proose finally saw daylight again, he had spent almost twelve hours inside Xoltepec and come out with fewer possessions, more notes and a much clearer understanding of the temple’s rules.

Eclipse at Xoltepec is that record: fifty creatures, seven floors and one long descent through a place that has been keeping its own accounts for centuries.

The Professor has no immediate plans to return. Two terraces still remain above the door.

His present note on the matter is brief: not this year.