tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71674437545630412372024-02-20T04:04:09.887-08:00Sheep and SorceryMichael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.comBlogger189125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-2220714410403239882023-10-12T12:40:00.001-07:002023-10-12T12:40:58.210-07:00Worldbuilding for my Daughter: Onwards to Dreamland!<p> I've accidentally started a new world building project. I started babbling about where my daughter could visit in Dreamland while putting her down for a nap. I wanted to share this with you in as unvarnished a way as possible as I have for people on Max's Discord from <a href="http://weirdwonderfulworlds.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Weird and Wonderful Worlds</a>.</p><p>This then is a somewhat disorganized stream of conscience with a few additions. I have included questions and ideas from Kyana of <a href="https://noisesanssignal.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Noise Sans Signal</a> and Max since they added in a lot. (I did fix up the story a lot.)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBQ9QHNrAZO2c6wp0z5-ysb-6vLXONutqEF2-EzdQ9dDm2rzL-eIvTIwH6mflZJ91orJURKsH1OgmDhj9ck4Xd2xv56ucny-yqjXstT40CmU6Clf8dedI3tcUD9qupGTWziebX2v2VDy7N8Xc2CNEEDp57Spd1wUKORV3UK2albPpTWiqDEGVGsFpn6i4/s816/12fff3857690925b072f9287af04c3ab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="564" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBQ9QHNrAZO2c6wp0z5-ysb-6vLXONutqEF2-EzdQ9dDm2rzL-eIvTIwH6mflZJ91orJURKsH1OgmDhj9ck4Xd2xv56ucny-yqjXstT40CmU6Clf8dedI3tcUD9qupGTWziebX2v2VDy7N8Xc2CNEEDp57Spd1wUKORV3UK2albPpTWiqDEGVGsFpn6i4/w276-h400/12fff3857690925b072f9287af04c3ab.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">By David Hong</p><p>One idea was people living on boat houses their whole lives sailing up and down a great river. When they get married they lash their boats together until you have raft mansions going up and down the stream carrying Love Fruit down to the Thousand Islands in time for spring</p><p>Kyana: Who lives on The Thousand Islands?</p><p>The Thousand Islands are connected by the branches of a giant tree, the Sky Tree. The Islanders don't touch the water if they can avoid it due to an ancient curse. They bury their dead in the water who transform into Naiads on the Elusive Isle. The Islands are rich with giant spider silk in the tree and flowers that make bright dyes. There are giant birds of paradise that are sacred to the Islanders. They ride these giant birds as their primary mode of transportation due to their rightful fear of the water.</p><p>Max: I am intrigued by the Love Fruit.</p><p>Love Fruit is a seasonal delight and a psycho-active drug that facilitates romantic infatuation. Its popularity on the Thousand Isles means that people are rarely single. Love Fruit might create an artificial sense of love but it can also embolden people to act on feelings they wouldn't have the courage to otherwise. People in committed relationships find that Love Fruit reawakens passion and keeps marriages strong.</p><p>This will likely not be related to my infant daughter</p><p>Kyana: Are spiders in Thousand Islands sapient? Do they have Tapestry festival?</p><p>They definitely have a Tapestry festival. They cover the tree in beautiful handwoven tapestries and it's an incredible sight. The spiders are entirely intelligent but they do not talk. They are some of the friendliest and most content creatures so much so that they feel no need to talk. They are entirely absorbed in creating their webs but they immediately forget them once they are completed so they don't care about the humans harvesting them.</p><p>It might help that they entirely subsist on Love Fruit.</p><p>The Islander's use of the giant birds of paradise made them natural enemies of the Cloud Barons, giants that used to be known as Cloud Shepherds before the largest among them rose up and named themselves Barons. The clouds in Dreamland are alive of course and cloud cotton grows on their backs. The giants once took slaves to work the fields from the smaller mortals. Baron Nimbus was one of the mightiest among the Barons. The Cloud Barons are quite protective of their territory in the sky.</p><p>Kyana: Why Baron Nimbus didn't stomp on Thousand Islands or on the home-ships of the great river? (which I want to call Great Veridian River for some reason, or Gevara)</p><p>Funnily enough it is called the Great Veridian River or sometimes the Gevara depending on who you ask. The boat-homers or Veridiani and the Islanders call it the Great Veridian while the inhabitants of the Khanoun Jungle through which the river flows tend to call it the Gevara.</p><p>The giants did tyrannize the Thousand Islands and the Gevara River for a long time before Baron Nimbus was defeated by Iskandar, an islander boy whose sister was taken during a cloud giant raid.</p><p>Iskandar and his sister Tella loved to climb to the highest branches of the Sky Tree. Their elders told them not to. "What if the Cloud Barons come to take you away?" they would say. Iskandar and Tella probably should have listened to them, but Tella was a brave girl and Iskandar was a protective brother. She couldn't go up there all by herself, surely?</p><p>One day like so many other days, they poked through the leaves to see the sunset. The sunset casted the sky all in hues of purple and orange and rosy pink, yet the gray clouds which approached full of thunder seemed unlike the rest of the gentle sky.</p><p>The Cloud Barons had come. In an instant, Tella was gone, a gray giant hand scooping her up as a stormy steed rushed overhead. Baron Nimbus rode on the winds, laughing as he carried Tella away. One of his eyes had been replaced with ball lightning. His beard billowed like rolling clouds as he laughed. He wore a pointy silver crown atop his head and a pearlescent trident. He pointed his trident at the Sky Tree and a bolt of lightning leapt from it, setting the tree alight. </p><p>As the rest of the Paradise Riders went about putting out the fire, the Cloud Barons flew away, Nimbus' thundering laughing echoing in the distance.</p><p>Iskandar ran to his own paradise bird as fast as he could, giving chase. He flew all through the night, one sunset giving rise to the next sunrise when it seemed his poor bird could fly no more.</p><p>Then, hovering into view Iskandar saw a white fluffy cloud emerging from a chimney on top of a quaint little cottage, swinging side to side beneath the cloud from golden ropes. A perch hung beneath the cottage where Iskandar could allow his bird to rest. A hatch opened beneath the house and a rope ladder unfurled to meet Iskandar. Taking hold of it, he climbed up with weary arms into the hatch.</p><p>Everything in the house slid back and forth. A cat slept on a basket of recently dried clothes as it drifted back and forth. Somehow, a flower pot rattled wildly but never toppled over. The small shriveled owner of this house knitted in her highbacked chair. Her hair was a pale beehive atop her heard, worked throughout with brass rings. Her eyes are kind but small above drooping caramel jowls. She wore a nightgown with golden moons and stars lovingly stitched into them.</p><p>"Hello, dearie, I am Zabubu. Care for some tea?"<br /><br />Zabubu drank her scalding tea without effort as Iskandar juggled the delicate porcelain cup as his stool skids across the floor boards. Zububu took a gentle sip. She gave Iskandar three gifts: a spool of woven moonlight with two needles of bone, a book of unsung tales which come to life when read, and a bag of disgruntled winds. </p><p>Kyana: (I would imagine winds to be quite disgruntled in the bag. I wonder if they lost a bet of some sort) </p><p>Do those winds have names?</p><p>Zabubu is a notorious card shark. She's got the South-North, East-West, and Weast winds.</p><p>Kyana: Weast, I imagine, is the most disgruntled. So did these gifts help Iskandar?</p><p>Certainly. In true mythic fashion he would face three trials each demanding one of the gifts. (Which we shall return to here after a brief digression.)</p><p>Kyana: I am also curious what lies further after Thousand Islands. Or Gevara ends there?</p><p>Somewhere out in the seas is the Elusive Island, a mystical wandering island where the Pale Naiads guard the Springs of Forgotten Things. If you can manage a glimpse into the Springs, you will find something that has been forgotten like treasure or an ancient city</p><p>Kyana: Or an important memory, I'd imagine. Maybe in a dreamland there is a desert which sings your name and then it slips into the sands and fades, but the Spring might recover it, because all springs are in truth are the roots and some go even deep under the desert.</p><p>There are the Dustlands, a vast desert drained of color where old dreams go to die. As you stay in the Dustlands your color and memories fade. But there are valuable things that have it yet been totally consumed there. The water of the Spring restores color if sprinkled there. Yet oases of Spring water do rise up there for nothing is ever truly forgotten and nothing is truly lost.</p><p>Kyana: There is an Kuvia, the Dusk Tortoise, which swims the desert as if it was water. She is very big, like a ship, her shell painted with stories of long-lost kingdom. She alone somehow never is lost in Dustlands, at least in a usual sense. In the springs, small rainbows play.</p><p>Fantastic.</p><p>Kyana: Does Nimbus live in palace?</p><p>Yes it is a palace with high minarets. Cloud Giants wear silver and black silks made from star worms that get caught in cloud wool when they soar up to the high heavens.</p><p>Kyana: Do star worms ever dream about becoming star caterpillars and then star butterflies (or star moth, maybe?)</p><p>Star Moths for sure. Unfortunately they don't get to become Star Moths but their dreams do. </p><p>Max: I like the bittersweetness of this.</p><p>The high heavens are less like a void and more like a canopy. It all looks black from the ground, but up there you see the ghost shapes of celestial branches and glittering leaves of gold.</p><p>Kyana: This is very lovely. I wonder if the wings of Star Moth become parts of that canopy after they are ready to go further away.</p><p>Beyond the canopy it is a deep dark ocean and strange old things live out beyond whose thoughts ripple in the vastness of time.</p><p>Kyana: Deep Slumber Land, dark and quiet. But back to the brightness of the lands below. Is there anything on the shores of Great Viridian River?</p><p>The Great Viridian passes through a jungle, the Khanoun Jungle. In the north are the trees where the Love Fruit grow. The Jungle is home to lemurs who like in little perfectly oval nooks in the Lieku trees so these lemurs are called Nooks. They say that each Nook is born from a tree and their nook grows with them.</p><p>...</p><p>So taking the witch's gifts, Iskandar flew to the great cloud where Nimbus palace was. There he found the slaves including his sister but all the slaves were bound with a magical brass chain that could not be broken or unlocked without the key around Nimbus' neck.</p><p>So Iskandar snuck around the back of the castle, encountering a chained Storm Hound with teeth of lightning and a bark like thunder. Before the hound could alert anyone, Iskandar took out the spool of woven moonlight and the bone needles and as he imagined it, knitting in the air, the woven moonlight transformed into a muzzle, but it took all but a single thread of the spool.</p><p>While the dog wrestled with the muzzle he went inside to find most of the giants napping in their great hall. They must have feasted and drank heavily after their raid. All but the guard at Nimbus' bedchamber were asleep and even the guard was dozing.</p><p>So Iskandar flipped through the book of unsung tales and read: "The music of the harp soothed the beast to sleep." From the ether came the lovely music of the harp and the giant's eyes closed fully as he began to snore.</p><p>Then as Iskandar entered Nimbus' bedchamber, he found the massive giant asleep with the key on a chain about his neck and his great trident of storms leaning on the wall beside him.</p><p>Iskandar could not wield the great trident as a weapon but he could slide it over and under the chain. He gently stuffed the bag of disgruntled winds beneath the chain and tied his last string of moonlight to it. He slid off the bed and pulled the cord, releasing the winds with a mighty boom! The trident flung backwards pulling the chain taut then breaking it, sending the key flying! The boy hero caught the key and ran.</p><p>Nimbus woke in a rage, took the trident and stabbed the floor of his chamber, barely missing the boy. He chased him stabbing again, this time barely missing one of his own slumbering men. And as the boy ran outside, Nimbus stabbed one more time, piercing the hide of his own cloud! Clouds are alive in Dreamland you see. The cloud bucked and shook , shaking the castle and plantation both! Nimbus dropped the trident off the cloud and it tumbled into the jungle below.</p><p>Iskandar freed the slaves, turning the great key which released them all at once and he fled with them to the edge of the cloud, grabbing his sister's arm and running towards the cloud's precipice.</p><p>But Nimbus was on their tail!</p><p>"I will crush your villages and your homes and your kin!" He boomed. </p><p>And even as he lifted a fist to crush them, Iskandar's giant bird of paradise came to the rescue! The bird flew into his face and scratched at his eyes! The giant reeled and tumbled off the side of the cloud, impaling himself on his own trident in the jungle below.</p><p>And so Iskandar defeated Baron Nimbus and freed all his friends and saved his sister! But he did not forget to get the trident that his people replicated to keep the giants at bay forevermore!</p><p>The End.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was more worldbuilding in Dreamland that has happened and continued to happen since this, but I think this is enough for now. I was reminded of this because I just started trying to start this back up with my daughter who is one year old now! </p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-29131518723443711342023-08-29T07:40:00.000-07:002023-08-29T07:40:06.422-07:00Terra Occulta: Magic Rediscovered<p>Magic is back! At least that is what you are determined to prove. You and other like-minded individuals have taken it upon yourselves to revive English Magic and to bring back to the forefront, the arts of practical wizardry which have for so long laid dormant. This will require experimentation, scholarship, and a determination to see the world in new and exciting ways.</p><p>This is a daunting task and many hurdles lie in your way, but you have a powerful tool in your arsenal, a tool for any explorer worth his salt: a map. This is a strange map because it does not map the geography of any land (as far as you know) but rather it is a map of the Terra Occulta, the hidden landscape of magical knowledge, the secret telemetry of arcane lore. It is a magical item, in and of itself, a massive parchment when unrolled that appears mostly blank. When supplied the blood of the prospective students, the map begins to draw itself to reveal the current status of the practitioner's magical journey. Different sites on the map stand in for nodes of knowledge, necessary stops on the path to further knowledge.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt21NPcibGGfDWY_Iq2FQ9nDOWsLSZhJoQN09rfLaMTMslxAmwQ9f4UNf7amREQYou-ty_foDFI4KJ1hl3I47EIJ2zPGDfM5AB8r33ePK9cLrvfvaoRzBrHr5xXMqYT9hIo_piibwrXlCprNcjgGEcA-AH6koiEMzh48gXzBrPsD311aoZRTn5XHiK0w0/s640/3e568d6b5435c6ad9928deb1643a0b36.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="639" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt21NPcibGGfDWY_Iq2FQ9nDOWsLSZhJoQN09rfLaMTMslxAmwQ9f4UNf7amREQYou-ty_foDFI4KJ1hl3I47EIJ2zPGDfM5AB8r33ePK9cLrvfvaoRzBrHr5xXMqYT9hIo_piibwrXlCprNcjgGEcA-AH6koiEMzh48gXzBrPsD311aoZRTn5XHiK0w0/w400-h400/3e568d6b5435c6ad9928deb1643a0b36.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>But before we get to the contents of this map, mostly blank though it may be, we should first meet our students.</p><p><b>Character Creation</b></p><p>Sparks: Each student of sorcery comes with them areas of fascination and areas of study that excite and draw them in. These things which kindle the fire of the imagination are Sparks and these will act as ways to determine your niche in practicing and studying magic.</p><p>Come up with three Sparks. You might want to choose, roll, or be inspired by the table below:</p><p>1d20 Sparks:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Death and Life and all Things which Lie Between</li><li>Mirrors and Reflections: The Hidden Roads of the Us that is Not Us</li><li>Spirits and Principalities: The Binding of Angels and Demons</li><li>The Pacts of the Ancients: The Old Laws of Nature</li><li>The Dealings of Faeries: Knowing and Binding the Locus Genii</li><li>Power and Ruin: Destruction and Warfare</li><li>Makings and Conjurings: Creating Wonderous Objects</li><li>Lead to Gold: Alchemy and Potioncraft</li><li>The Secret World: The Mind of Man and its Manipulation</li><li>Higher Spheres and Starry Portals: Other Realms and Dimensions Not our Own</li><li>Time and Temporality: The Secrets of the Clock</li><li>The Flesh and the Secret of Life</li><li>Healing and the Mending of Wounds</li><li>What Might Come: Divination and the Knowledge of the Past and Future</li><li>Travel and Traversal: Doors Which Lead to Far off Lands</li><li>Transcending the Mortal Coil: Pursuit of Transcendence and Immortality</li><li>Pure Imagination: Illusion and Enchantment, Creating False Worlds</li><li>The Old Blood: Beings which Man was not meant to Know</li><li>Monsters and Monstrosity: Study of the Dark Things which Lurk</li><li>Curses and Hexes: Exert the Power to Harm and Change</li></ol><div>Skills and Professions: What were you before you sought the way of magical study. Come up with your background and a skill that you had. For example, you may have been a Baker who excelled in Archery, or perhaps you were a Soldier who dabbled in Painting. Or perhaps you were a Cultist who was fond of Gardening. Whatever these things are choose them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Peculiarity: Roll or pick from the table below for a Peculiar thing or quirk you possess:</div><div><br /></div><div>1d12 Peculiarities:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A Strange Children's Book: You have a bizarre and unnerving illustrated book which has haunted and intrigued you since you were young. You are certain that there must be something more to this eerie text but there is nothing overtly magical about it.</li><li>Whispers of the Dead: You have occasionally been able hear the voices of the deceased. It is not something over which you have a great deal of control, but with focus, you might be able to coax something useful out of the ghosts which haunt you.</li><li>Dream Walker: You walk in strange lands in your dreams, perhaps you have another life altogether. What mysterious locale of the dreamlands eludes your grasp?</li><li>Visions: You have had disturbing dreams and visions. Are they things to come? Are they things that are hidden from the eyes of others? What fate awaits this magical endeavor?</li><li>Tongues: Sometimes you can speak and understand languages of human and non-human creatures. You have limited control over this, but with effort you might be able to make it work.</li><li>Artist: The things you craft have an uncanny life-likeness to them, seeming to move out of the corner of your eye or change when no one is looking.</li><li>Family: Your family long claimed that you had a great destiny. All throughout your life they invited their "friends" over to see you and all treated you with strange deference. They conducted you through strange rites and treated you like royalty, but something was wrong. Whatever plans they had for you were always less for you and always more for whatever thing was lying in wait behind their proud words and greedy gazes. They wanted your flesh, not you. Perhaps you would be a sacrifice. Perhaps you would be a vessel for some foul thing of the outer dark. What went wrong? How did you escape? Does your family still live?</li><li>Regret: Someone you love died. For many, this would be the end, not so for you. You are determined to undo death even if it means sacrificing your soul.</li><li>My Friend in the Attic: You have found something in a hidden place, a mummified corpse, a skull, a flayed human skin, whatever it is, it speaks to you and you alone. It is your precious treasure, your dear friend. You must keep them secret from the world, they say. No one would understand, but if you listen to them, they can tell you secrets of power.</li><li>Gifted: You are good at magic. Even before you knew almost anything about magic, sometimes things would happen for you that you just couldn't explain. Sometimes you worry that the magic doesn't come from you at all, but where would it come from otherwise?</li><li>Last Knight: You are the last of a knightly order going back generations to protect the world from terrible evil. You are not content to let your order die out but rather to find new ways of carrying on your ancient mission. </li><li>Quest: You are after something, an ambition to perform something truly great: creating the Philosopher's Stone, achieving immortality, becoming a teacher of a great magical school, finding the cure to all diseases, putting your nation on top, creating something that people will always remember you for, something along those lines? What is your ambition?</li></ol></div><div>Is that It?: Potentially. I plan to run this game where the players are yet to have even stepped through the Lesser Gates, the beginnings of magical knowledge. If you would like to begin your characters with a little bit of arcane knowledge already, look to The Lesser Gates below.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The System</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>At it's core, this is running off of my <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/06/weirdways-universal-system.html" target="_blank">Weirdways</a> system. Roll 2d6 add a modifier as assigned by the GM based on your Sparks, Peculiarities, Profession, and Skill.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>10+: Success</li><li>7-9: Mixed Success with a hard choice or drawback</li><li>6 or less: Failure with consequences</li></ul><div>Look to the linked <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/06/weirdways-universal-system.html" target="_blank">Weirdways Universal post</a> for examples of how this works in play.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>This system will use the Normal Harm Track.</div><div><br /></div><div>For this system Sparks, will apply towards experimenting and studying to progress on the Terra Occulta.</div><div><br /></div><div>For actually performing feats of magic, your rank in a particular <a href="http://thestygianseas.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-magic-system-arcana-secrets-with-power.html" target="_blank">Arcana</a> will be the key determiner of your bonus to the roll.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Game Phases</b></div><div><br /></div><div>This campaign will be split into two phases, the Home Phase and the Field Phase. One does not necessarily follow the other. The meat of the game is based around the Terra Occulta. Field expeditions are made so the magicians can continue their study. Each Home Phase, the magicians may perform any of the following actions</div><div><br /></div><div>Study: Using the library at your manor, you may delve into magical secrets and gain more understanding. Each path in the Terra Occulta has a clock determining how much study is needed to progress down the path, even if it is only 1 tick. When you Study, your GM will call for a roll based on your Sparks, consult the following:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>10+: 2 Ticks</li><li>7-9: 1 Tick, with a Drawback.</li><li>6 or less: 1 Tick but you encounter a Block.</li></ul><div>Study Drawbacks might be any of the following:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>All-nighter: Your study exhausts you.</li><li>Requires New Books: Might cost money or finding new arcane books by some other means.</li><li>Magical Misunderstanding: Something is off about your understanding of magic, the GM may, at any time during your next Field Phase, say that one of your spells goes awry and has some strange side affect.</li><li>Strange Encounter: A Spirit of the Terra Occulta takes notice of your progress and approaches you with interest or challenge. Be careful or you may be cursed.</li></ul><div>Blocks:</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Blocks are total roadblocks to further progress. If a Study or Experiment Action gives you a Block, you must overcome it to continue down the path. If the roll would have you arrive at a point, then you first gain all the benefits of the point but you cannot progress out of this point until you resolve the Block.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some paths come with Blocks built in that must be resolved before you can progress.</div><div><br /></div><div>Resolving a Block usually means you must make an expedition and undergo a Field Phase.</div><div><br /></div><div>Study Blocks can be any of the following:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You lack some rare book that is necessary for your research, acquiring it will not be a simple matter</li><li>The knowledge you seek is not in any book at least that you know of. You must find someone or something that knows what you are looking for.</li><li>Some artifact is key to moving forward. It might be in some forgotten place or in unworthy hands.</li><li>An ancient and forgotten place or strange dimension must be visited to proceed.</li></ul></div><div>Fabulous Arcana:</div><div><br /></div><div>An <a href="http://thestygianseas.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-magic-system-arcana-secrets-with-power.html" target="_blank">Arcanum</a> is an area of magical knowledge or power. Arcana might open a new kind of magic like Alchemy, allow you to access the powers of a particular dimension or entity, give you access to new Spirit Names, or learn a new category of spell.</div><div><br /></div><div>Once you arrive at Arcana on the Terra Occulta, you immediately gain the rank of Apprentice in the arcane knowledge held within. You can study a particular Arcanum to increase your rank. From Apprentice to Journeyman, it is 2 Ticks. From Journeyman to Master, it is 3 Ticks.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arcana can be mixed together and experimented with. It is up to the GM to decide whether a particular use or mixing of Arcana works. The three Lesser Gates each are kind of opposed to each other. Players may offer arguments as to why their use is within the conceptual frame of the Arcana. The GM has the final say. You can also use rolls to identify the boundaries of Arcana. If a spell fails because of the role, perhaps it is because the practitioner attempted to use Arcana in an improper way. If the GM wants to run this way, they should make sure to take notes of these revelations.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Lesser Gates:</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>If you want to travel into the lands of the Terra Occulta, you need to first pass through the Lesser Gates. Magical knowledge is not strictly a scholarly endeavor. The magician is transformed in strange ways to make them receptive to the secrets of unnatural power. The map displays three different Lesser Gates and nothing else to begin. Only through at least a single person in your party venturing through these gates will you find what might lie beyond. Each Lesser Gate is an Arcanum which you might gain access to.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Gate of the Secret Flame: </div><div><br /></div><div>The Flame illuminates and reveals unreality. The Flame has to do with detachment of the mind and body, implicitly recognizing the body and the material world as illusory while the mind and realm of pure forms is real. The Secret Flame unlocks the mind to new potential, but embracing the unreality of being is dangerous. This level of detachment becomes and unavoidable reality for the practitioner the deeper into this knowledge they go. It might actually hinder the practitioner from practicing magic which requires their attachment and harmonious existence with the world. On the other hand, the magician on this path is on a straight shot to true Gnosis and ascension to a bodiless existence on a higher plane.</div><div><br /></div><div>In order to open this gate, you must be inducted into the Mystery of the Flame by someone who has also been inducted themselves into one of the many secret orders who have dabbled with this Arcana. You have searched far and wide for anyone who might fit this description and come up dry, but wait! A rumor is on the wind that there is a surviving member of an old secret society who is on the verge of death in an ancient manor house on the Scottish moors. Perhaps this is your way in!</div><div><br /></div><div>From this Gate, you believe that you might be able to access further Arcana deeper into the Terra Occulta concerning control over the elements and divination.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Mossy Gate:</div><div><br /></div><div>English magic has its deepest roots in the tradition of the Druids. The druids of the British Isles, contrary to the various orders of the Secret Flame, focused on communion with the world of spirits and nature. This Arcanum brings one into communion with the world of fairies and spirits, allows one to see the activity of the little folk and invoke the names of nature spirits to summon, bind, or treat with them. Fairies are powerful creatures who are not all amicable to humanity and should be treated with reverence. Taking this Gate might attract the eye of forces that you might rather stay ignorant of you.</div><div><br /></div><div>In order to open this gate, you must go to an ancient and sacred place, taking the ritual substances, and making the ritual markings on your skin. You must make a fire and create a circle about yourself and show hospitality to the spirits with proper offerings and etiquette. You will face the spirits and one will become your guide or maybe it will kill you. Hard to say.</div><div><br /></div><div>From this Gate, you believe that you might be able to access further Arcana deeper into the Terra Occulta concerning assuming the forms of animals, communing with plants and wildlife, and communing with the spirits of the dead.</div><div><br /></div><div>The New Gate:</div><div><br /></div><div>The mind is key as the Flame says, but the physical world is not false. The world of nature is important, but Druidic worship is improper. By the ancient alchemical traditions and new pursuits of natural philosophy, a new path of occult power has opened up to understand the Creator's will and the position of mankind in that Creation.</div><div><br /></div><div>This Arcanum is the knowledge of physical natures and the aspects of material substances, how to break them down and recombine them. The New Gate teaches a kind of quasi-science that alters the practitioner's perception of reality, heightening and altering their capacity to identify patterns, creating categories, and how these categories interact. </div><div><br /></div><div>To open this gate, the practitioner must change one thing into another in a way ordinarily thought impossible. Your attempts to do this at home have been frustrating and more than a little damaging. There is a kind of fair for strange arts and new sciences coming to town soon, perhaps you could learn from someone already acquainted with this field? Or perhaps steal the information from them? Up to you.</div><div><br /></div><div>From this Gate, you believe that you might be able to access further Arcana deeper into the Terra Occulta concerning specific alchemical formulae and the secrets of fundamental forces.</div><div><br /></div><div>Postscript:</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a first draft that might undergo significant changes. I think I might use this to run a new campaign with this and I want to talk to the players about how they want this to go. However, I have no time right now, so it might not be any time soon.<br /><br />Special thanks to <a href="http://thestygianseas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Sailing the Stygian Seas</a> for their post about Arcana. That really helped me cement my approach for this game.</div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-33318098252886801012023-05-02T13:36:00.004-07:002023-05-02T13:36:59.478-07:00For We Shall be as Angels <p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIM8VF184WDWbGTJBQ2wlfDVhTljMA_4WRozkiJJiD6pnct4ybIgphZCsLLC5HPdwDmFGxli0aLsn9dJRhECuLb4KthDhEWMcs8GAX1gwinOYfJWlBgLxxmlDMruFin-ZQ03qozV1nCcmBXypv8nG1hEF-jec9xAgRhjAtL5wzo10FLiGSuCPBjPt3/s692/ddae66270dbf679d23870a62f11655b7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="564" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIM8VF184WDWbGTJBQ2wlfDVhTljMA_4WRozkiJJiD6pnct4ybIgphZCsLLC5HPdwDmFGxli0aLsn9dJRhECuLb4KthDhEWMcs8GAX1gwinOYfJWlBgLxxmlDMruFin-ZQ03qozV1nCcmBXypv8nG1hEF-jec9xAgRhjAtL5wzo10FLiGSuCPBjPt3/w326-h400/ddae66270dbf679d23870a62f11655b7.jpg" width="326" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"> By Zdzislaw Beksinski</div><p></p><p>For we shall be as angels to those that come after us.</p><p>Once God has tired of His starry crown's defilement,</p><p>And enroyaled another creature, </p><p>We shall be as angels.</p><p>They will walk along the streets that are fearfully and wonderfully made</p><p>See the great ruins that are fearfully and wonderfully made</p><p>Hold in their hands strange tools which are fearfully and wonderfully made</p><p>And they shall say, "Angels made these!"</p><p>They will be wrong.</p><p>For the streets they walk are angels.</p><p>For the mistakenly dead ruins are angels.</p><p>The tools that they will use to build their civilizations are angels.</p><p>And the silent screaming which goes unheard by them is the choir song of the angels.</p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-20748943899174222512023-04-24T11:18:00.007-07:002023-04-24T11:21:15.359-07:00World Bloom: War of the Six Cities<p> The World Bloom is a world on a flower which floats on the black seas of infinity. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHdy2OGJMqnuj4TO8kZOaYmoT2nzoRabYqUqhKcUCIhReCmIYbr7XcAwrkgOXPoVrvCgo5vZWH_VNCoCTvlirfgAqVuLZQ_OhB4fsF_kce-680OL2aO_we42wk1s323dPDfmmL9jkILUu1T0CD6gQ6rA2Or9Qi2-tpjD8Gib0L_22QyrvD1Oak4r85/s529/938px-1581_Clover_Leaf_World_Map_by_Heinrich_Buenting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="406" data-original-width="529" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHdy2OGJMqnuj4TO8kZOaYmoT2nzoRabYqUqhKcUCIhReCmIYbr7XcAwrkgOXPoVrvCgo5vZWH_VNCoCTvlirfgAqVuLZQ_OhB4fsF_kce-680OL2aO_we42wk1s323dPDfmmL9jkILUu1T0CD6gQ6rA2Or9Qi2-tpjD8Gib0L_22QyrvD1Oak4r85/w400-h308/938px-1581_Clover_Leaf_World_Map_by_Heinrich_Buenting.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>You can read about it here: <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/05/on-birth-of-god-and-monkey-philosophy.html?m=1" target="_blank">Part 1</a> <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/07/of-flowers-and-corpse-tongues-tales.html?m=1" target="_blank">Part 2</a></p><p>The Jeweled Throne of Sparkling Khandar is weakened. The Princess Phelice has gone missing, either kidnapped or killed and there are many possible culprits.</p><p>Here are the factions that will play a major role in the events to come:</p><p><b>Sparkling Khandar:</b> The technical seat of power for the Bloom, Halar's own city from which he ruled over the nations. More recently, Khandar has been thrown into chaos from a war with the insectoid Scarabi under the earth that was only resolved after the miraculous intervention of Halar giving individuality to the Scarabi and enabling the human Queen Ynnar and Scarabi King Chitin to have children.</p><p>Now with a new hybrid humanity coming into being within the royalty, loyalties are questioned, humans and Scarabi still distrust each other even as their cooperation increases. Some Scarabi even want to return to their hive mind.</p><p>The conflict is instigated as an apparent assassination or kidnapping attempt has resulted in the Princess Phelice going missing along with her Scarabi tutor, Beadle.</p><p>Resources: jewels, giant bug labor, spices, and hallucinogenic orange blossoms</p><p><b>The White Apes of Zhandabar:</b> Ape philosophers with a firm connection to Saint Hamadi who was one of the first disciples of Lord Halar. They are deeply interested in their Monkey Philosophy and are led by the Great Sages who rule through argument and rhetoric, they have a small but mighty army of warrior monks who are devoted to Hamadi.</p><p>Resources: printing press, dream-root incense, prayer (more on that later), passage through the jungle</p><p><b>Servants of Seyam:</b> Seyam was the great serpent that dominated the World Bloom. His death at the hands of Halar began a new age for the peoples of the Bloom and an eruption of civilization. Yet, there are some who wish to return to the old ways, to a more primordial age of fang and coil. This secretive group of cultists hide subvert civilization and wield strange mind and body altering magicks.</p><p>Resources: Illicit activities, snake venom</p><p><b>Navigators of Infinity: </b>The Navigator Lords of Port Numina command the arcane secrets of sailing the Black Seas of Infinity, the soup of pure potential out of which all reality comes into being and worlds are born. The Navigator Lords are quite mad since madness is required for their profession and their profession has made them wealthy and powerful. They command a great fleet of ships and they also traffic with the Void Sisters who study the mysteries of the Potentia, the stuff the Seas are made of.</p><p>Resources: ship passage, Potentia (super powerful resource), Void Weaponry</p><p><b>Shadow Pact:</b> In the deep jungles, the Night Folk who swore to remain in their ancestral homes and protect them from all interlopers came to be known as the Shadow Pact. They are profoundly isolationist, however, they have some fondness for Khandar that has so far respected the jungles for their connection to Halar's birth and Saint Moon Shadow, and they consider the White Apes friends as fellow jungle dwellers but dislike their connection to the civilized world. Ralishta and other factions in civilization besides Khandar see the jungle as an unnecessary hindrance to trade and an untapped resource.</p><p>Shadow Pact ride on the giant beasts that call the jungle home, spiders, bats, and raptors, and they are fierce fighters, especially in their home environment.</p><p>Resources: passage through the jungle, Kama Trees (powerful fuel source), giant animals</p><p><b>The Burning Barons:</b> Old nobility of the now-defunct Holy Solar Empire who have created great crawling beast machines powered by the beating hearts of the Great Flame Wyrms. They are considered quite vulgar by most other factions and they are maddeningly aware of it. They desperately want to eat up the jungles as fuel. They don't care for Khandar and would rather reign themselves. They hate the Daedalus Concord with a passion although they cannot declare war under Khandar's reign.</p><p>The Burning Barons are short kings. Pure bred Day Folk tend to be squat and stout and the Barons are quite inbred.</p><p>Resources: beast machines, Wyrm Blood (powerful fuel source), firearms</p><p><b>Daedalus Concord:</b> Saint Daedalus was a machine of unknown origin who accompanied Halar on his journeys. Once Halar's empire flourished, Daedalus took to understanding his own inner workings and continue his function as an Avatar of Hirsu who Strikes the Iron. The Daedalus Concord is an alliance of geniuses of all kinds: artists, inventors, metal crafters. They created beautiful clockwork automata who are prized throughout the Bloom. The Concord is small but mighty and wealthy. They are loyal to Khandar so long as the Jeweled Throne walks in the way of reason yet this faith has been shaken by the chaos within the capital. They are hated by the Servants of Seyam and the Burning Barons.</p><p>Resources: fantastic machines, Blessed Bronze (holy metal), engineers</p><p><b>The Outsiders:</b> Your world burned in fire because you committed the same sins as your ancestors. You are all that is left, the remains of a whole world loaded onto a few hideous living demon vessels who feast on blood and starlight that you take from worlds, leaving them blasted wastelands behind you. Now the World Bloom is in your sights. It could be a new home. It could be supper. The Outsider threat is not widely known but tremors of their approach have reached the Navigators of Infinity.</p><p>Resources: Bottled Demons (Fuel and magic)</p><p><b>Enlightened Dreamers of Ghan:</b> Golden masked, purple robed, midnight skinned, the Dreamers have recognized that the world is the dream of Aman and so they seek to dream alongside him. They dwell in secluded monastery cities in the Ghan mountains. Their connection to the world is tenuous and yet they have seen the threat of the Outsiders from afar. They rage against the end of the dream. Their main power is to conjure and command dream creatures and intercede with the gods. They are somewhat loyal to Khandar as Halar's seat, but there is some resentment as they claim that their mountain is holier than Khandar. They consider Ralishta, the Concord, and the Barons as unenlightened. They resent the Shadow Pact as stopping them from making pilgrimages to the site of Halar's birth. The Servants are heretics. They get their Dream-root incense from the Apes.</p><p>Resources: dream creatures, gold, prayer, Black Peak Beer</p><p><b>Petal Champions of Aelys:</b> Poet Warriors and Artist Princes of the edenic planes, valleys, and forests of Aelys, Garden of Maia. Saint Maia was the Bride of Halar, Avatar of Belana who Paints the Sunset. Her followers are devotees of beauty and heroism inspired by Halar's heroic rescue of Maiar. They spend as much time fighting as singing, as much time reciting poetry as making love. There are many princesses and princes of Aelys who hold an oligarchical hand over the many peasants who plow their fields. They are the main food suppliers of all the Bloom.</p><p>They are loosely loyal to Khandar with a mercenary streak. Khandar is not fond of their deeply unequal society but they rely on their food. The Apes also dislike it but they love that the Champions know how to party. Ralishta has no need for their food through mysterious means. Everyone loves, hates, and wants the Champions.</p><p>Resources: food, warriors, wine, entertainment</p><p>NPC Factions:</p><p>The Houses of Night: The Vatiar or Night Folk who left the jungles created their mercantile houses in cities across the Bloom. They trade in secrets, assassinations, dreams, and subtle magicks of shadow and enchantment.</p><p>High Court of Heaven: The gods are not disconnected from the world but rather they interact with the world, sending blessings in exchange for prayers and sacrifices because of the dominion of Halar.</p><p>Low Court of Hell: The siblings of the divine who defied Halar and chose to rebel against the new Heavenly order. They took will respond to prayers and sacrifices. This is considered less evil than you might imagine. A lesser propitiation for the Low Court is part of the regular ritual cycle, including a Halloween-like holiday where the ordinary restrictions on the demons are loosened along with the vices they represent. It is nonetheless considered suspect and may cause unrest among the people to call upon the Low Court and the price might be deceptively high. </p><p>The only demon that must never be called upon or propitiated is Vhanu who Squashes the Butterfly. His sins cannot be forgiven. </p><p><br /></p><p>This is going to be a part of a play by post faction game, I hope to run over the summer. I don't know if there will be a lot of room, but if you express your interest, I will reach out to you if I need to fill this game out. Let me know which faction appeals to you and why, too, not only because I want to see who wants to play what but because it pleases me and it will help me farm some good ideas about what I should do with these factions.</p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-85730689874658129492023-04-04T12:48:00.000-07:002023-04-04T12:48:12.241-07:00The Trash Hole<p>Reset Incident Report: Iteration #1213</p><p>Experiment Initiation - April 11, 1991</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLeErCaAWnuFn6LVtUgjSDHj8_lhw_IaBe2qDzrSE_FRFKZE0vX2iHDAN7q6ArMZEuZRTIMq2K3tu_zv62Lxk0Vov762tsQjSutzmiAWwm59fXvUMUZRvEZWSq9rlvPMQXrUFz-XHONfL8mLxItqBN0pwYNU0DuRseN-IrbEa2GFucgJPYi9JZlN_/s640/59d81a_577be31711534c1680684a49e6b56e1d_mv2.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="640" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxLeErCaAWnuFn6LVtUgjSDHj8_lhw_IaBe2qDzrSE_FRFKZE0vX2iHDAN7q6ArMZEuZRTIMq2K3tu_zv62Lxk0Vov762tsQjSutzmiAWwm59fXvUMUZRvEZWSq9rlvPMQXrUFz-XHONfL8mLxItqBN0pwYNU0DuRseN-IrbEa2GFucgJPYi9JZlN_/w400-h210/59d81a_577be31711534c1680684a49e6b56e1d_mv2.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p>Script Readout:</p><p><i>Camera rapidly zooms in and out on a pile of trash. A boing boing sound plays.</i></p><p>Speaker: Struggle with trash?</p><p><i>An overwhelmed father figure appears, weeping.</i></p><p>Pathetic Paternal: Yes!</p><p><i>Like Sisyphus the father figure lugs a massive bag of trash up the hill. He continues to weep.</i></p><p>Speaker: Tired of taking out heavy bags of trash over and over again?</p><p>Pathetic Paternal: YES!</p><p><i>Camera spins, transitioning to an image of a white male hand pointing to a black semi-cylindrical shape, abyssal darkness lies within.</i></p><p>Speaker: Then you need, Trash Hole, the innovative solution to all your filthy needs! </p><p><i>The hand throws away a crumpled piece of paper into the Trash Hole, and then covers it with a handled lid.</i></p><p>Speaker: Just throw away your trash into the Trash Hole, cover with the handy sealing system, and ignore the sound of chewing!</p><p><i>The hand removes the lid. Revealing only the endless darkness within.</i></p><p>Speaker: And presto! The Trash Hole makes it disappear!</p><p><i>The hand proceeds to throw away the image of a crying woman, the image of a demonic face, and the image of a skull.</i></p><p>Speaker: And the Trash Hole doesn't just get rid of your pesky material garbage, but your immaterial waste as well! Get rid of traumatic past events, unwanted personality traits, and even your fear of death!</p><p><i>The end slide reveals pricing, a phone number, and the Trash Hole in a star-shaped window. The words: "TRASH HOLE" undulate in and out in bright red text.</i></p><p>Speaker: Order now! Only 4 easy payments of $44.99! Call now at 000-000-0000!</p><p><br /></p><p> November 1, 1990 - Ferra Bower, age 42, dies of head trauma from an automobile accident.</p><p>December 12, 1990 - Randall Bower, age 41, meets Felicia Tanner, age 28.</p><p>March 20, 1991 - Randall Bower marries Felicia Tanner. Sandra Bower, age 16, is not invited to the ceremony.</p><p>April 3, 1991 - Felicia Bower, Tad Bower, age 6, and Tamara Bower, age 10, move into the Bower residence.</p><p>April 10, 1991 - Sandra Bower is returned home by officers following being reported missing. She was found walking to her friend's house 9 miles away from her residence. Officers report that Randall Bower forbids Sandra from seeing her friend.</p><p>April 11, 1991 - Randall Bower sees the advertisement.</p><p>April 13, 1991 - Randal Bower orders the Trash Hole.</p><p><br /></p><p>April 11, 1991 - Figment, Ohio. Population 27, 741. 113 Brewer St. 5 Residents.</p><p>Officers respond to a noise complaint. Reported as a family dispute.</p><p>April 18, 1991 - Figment, Ohio. Population 27, 739. 112 Brewer St. 5 Residents.</p><p>The Trash Hole receives 3 Objects:</p><p>A locket containing a picture of Sandra Bower depicted age 1 and Ferra Bower, depicted age 27.</p><p>A framed photo of Sandra, depicted age 6, Randall, depicted age 31, and Ferra Bower, depicted age 32 at Lockley Park.</p><p>A blanket knit by Ferra Bower at age 18.</p><p>April 27, 1991 - Figment, Ohio. Population 27, 039. 109 Brewer St. 5 Residents.</p><p>The Trash Hole receives 3 Objects:</p><p>Pain.</p><p>The memory of a car crash.</p><p>Grief.</p><p>May 12, 1991 - Figment, Ohio. Population, 26, 245. 101 Brewer St. 5 Residents.</p><p>The Trash Hole receives 3 Objects:</p><p>Randall Bower's memory of Ferra Bower.</p><p>Randall Bower's frustration with Sandra Bower.</p><p>Sandra Bower's hope.</p><p>May 29, 1991 - Figment, Ohio. Population, 22, 002. 006 Brew St. 4 Residents.</p><p>The Trash Hole Receives 1 Object:</p><p>///////////////////</p><p>October 11, 1991 - Figment, Ohio. Population 1. 1 St. 1 Resident.</p><p>Randall Bower is alone. Randall Bower does not remember why he is alone. Randal Bower does not feel pain. Does not feel loss. Does not know anything but alone. There was a time he threw things down the Trash Hole. It has grown to be more of a trash pit now. Maybe it was always that way. There is nothing to throw way anymore. He does not remember this, but he threw everything away already. His is the only house. The rest have been replaced by Trash Pits. No. Those have always been there. </p><p>This has always been the way it is.</p><p>Randall Bower is alone.</p><p>The world is thin, so thin. Randall Bower cannot think. Randall Bower cannot remember. Randall Bower knows no pain. Randall Bower knows no pleasure. It has all been thrown away.</p><p>The Trash Hole Receives 1 Object:</p><p>Pathetic Paternal.</p><p>October 12, 1991 - Reset Initiated.</p><p>The Trash Hole Receives 1 Object:</p><p>Figment, Ohio. Population 0.</p><p><br /></p><p>Special thanks to <a href="https://whimsicalmountain.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Gorinich</a> for some dang good idea riffing!</p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-38650541948368051182023-03-06T10:48:00.000-08:002023-03-06T10:48:05.331-08:00GM Advice: Looking for Trouble<p> Whether they know it or not, your players are always looking for trouble.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjachCvpQ4eje90_JR3LlSqgHJwf_Dgg4ecSvX_KVv_yS6qOp4BTgpxJ5NDzRpZrA4uFDPt2IlbEv48JI4nyiCdDTa6ec2vl0rOhTpTSDizYGH8sBYGyiwQLv82vdTUBsXXD5K--W8AmlwKd_YpW9BLibxzSJ1KE0h22bVTZZ3Gz4J03pjijw2FOOMP/s1500/munchkin-quest-2-box-front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="759" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjachCvpQ4eje90_JR3LlSqgHJwf_Dgg4ecSvX_KVv_yS6qOp4BTgpxJ5NDzRpZrA4uFDPt2IlbEv48JI4nyiCdDTa6ec2vl0rOhTpTSDizYGH8sBYGyiwQLv82vdTUBsXXD5K--W8AmlwKd_YpW9BLibxzSJ1KE0h22bVTZZ3Gz4J03pjijw2FOOMP/w203-h400/munchkin-quest-2-box-front.jpg" width="203" /></a></div><p>In Munchkin, when you kick down the door, meaning you draw from one of the decks it means that you either find a monster you have to fight or you suffer a curse or you find an item. If you don't get a monster, you can go looking for trouble, meaning you put down your own monster to fight it, because that is what the game is about. You want to fight monsters to gain experience to win the game!</p><p>Rpgs are about looking for trouble and players are constantly doing it. They never think there is nothing on the other side of the door. If they kick down a door, they expect there to be something interesting behind it and if there is nothing immediately apparent, they go looking for it. They go looking for trouble.</p><p>For instance, you as a GM may have come across this problem. You describe a door. You don't really have anything planned about this door, you just thought it would be a neat door and set the tone of this area in the dungeon. The door is not trapped, not a puzzle, not even locked. This is just a neat looking door.</p><p>And then you are befuddled when your players treat it like this door is radioactive. They start rolling their checks, casting detection spells, poking it with a ten foot pole, seeing if it holds some great secret of lore. The door becomes everything in their brains for the next 10 minutes minimum. Finally, they get the picture that the door itself is nothing. You sense disappointment, just a little bit. A little bit of wonder leaves their eyes, but they light up again as they are eager to see what is on the other side of such a fabulous portal!</p><p>You groan inwardly and curse your busy hands which drew that damnable door! For on the other side of that door is... a broom closet. The whole song and dance plays over again. Disappointment wells up, preparing to break the damns of their polite, almost pitying smiles. You feel like the lowliest creature God ever condemned to existence. </p><p>You didn't count on them looking for trouble.</p><p>This is not something you can stop, not something you can turn off. This is just a regular human response although it will not always manifest the same way. </p><p>One contributing factor is genre. Dungeon games like D&D use little details to signal players to pay attention to everything, investigate everything, risk more encounter checks and resources to make sure they eek out every bit of treasure. It tends to create players that are hyper sensitive to anything out of the ordinary. In games that are science fiction or even just more genre or setting focused, that attitude changes a little, but the instinct is still there. They may not be poking every stone with a ten foot pole, but they are still looking for trouble.</p><p>So how can you, as a GM tired of feeling like a worthless worm, do to make your players stop such foolishness? You can do nothing. As I said, you can't turn this off. You'd have to find the most incurious lumps of barely sentient coal to find people who do not do this. However, you can manage this behavior.</p><p>You have to learn to be on the lookout for Doors so you can be in control of where they lead.</p><p>Here are some tips for Doors:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Anything you describe in detail: If you take time and focus to describe something, expect your players to pick up on that and be drawn like flies to honey. This applies to things to things like elaborate doors, but it can also be something like a rug. If you have never described another room with a rug and then there's a rug, the players are going to examine it. If you describe the sconces in a room while you've previously just said that they occasionally dotted the walls and never mentioned them since, you better believe they're going to be pulling in those sconces.</li><li>All that glitters: shiny, glowing, or evidently magical stuff is bound to draw attention. Players are tuned to look for treasure to take and magic to meddle with. If something glows with arcane light, players will notice. The only possible exemption that comes to mind is bioluminescent fungi in Underdark areas because they are so expected, but if you take any time describing them, you better believe they'll go looking for trouble.</li><li>The weird, out of place, or quirky: Players will always try to adopt Zamboni the Tuba Playing Goblin. Remember this.</li></ol><div>But what do you do with your Doors? </div><div><br /></div><div>You might be tempted to get rid of all but a few of your Doors, but I would caution you against this. Recognizing your Doors is something that will almost certainly become more natural to you as you continue GMing especially with the same people. The reason we have Doors is because players want them. They want to discover cool things and mess with them. They are expecting to find adventure around every corner and they are going to be disappointed if they think they've found it and it turns out to be nothing. </div><div><br /></div><div>That's what we want to stop: disappointment. We want to avoid feeling like we've pulled the rug out from beneath our players' feet. This is a learning process. It might mean you need to do more prep for now but once you get in the groove, you'll be able to do this on the fly. </div><div><br /></div><div>So let's look at an example scenario:</div><div><br /></div><div>Berry Bad Doors:</div><div><br /></div><div>You are cooking up a magical forest for your players. To sell the mystical vibes of this place you describe some glowing berries on a bush. </div><div><br /></div><div>Immediately, one of your players asks, "Do I know what kind of bush that is? Can I make a check?"</div><div><br /></div><div>Oh no. Your innocent set dressing has become a terrible Door and now this poor fool wants to know where it leads. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here is a good rule: <b>cool doors hide a challenge and a treasure. </b></div><div><br /></div><div>Players want something to overcome and something to profit them.</div><div><br /></div><div>This player asking about the berries, she's playing a wizard, a bit of a witchy, alchemist character. She's looking to call upon her knowledge to overcome the problem of her ignorance in order to find some use for this berry that will profit here. All this shows off her character's personality and she built this character because this was an element of your game she wanted to explore. She probably even thinks you put this here just for her. Gulp.</div><div><br /></div><div>So what don't we do?</div><div><br /></div><div>You call for the check. She succeeds. You wave the berries off, saying they are just native to the forest with little use. You tacitly admit that they are nothing, a dead end. The player is disappointed. </div><div><br /></div><div>You also don't do this:</div><div><br /></div><div>She fails the check. </div><div><br /></div><div>"You don't know."</div><div><br /></div><div>Disappointment.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's go back.</div><div><br /></div><div>She rolls the check. Success!</div><div><br /></div><div>"These are Moon Berries. It is said that Luna, Goddess of the Moon, created these to store her moonlight so it could be enjoyed during the day. They store moonlight and shine it during the day."</div><div><br /></div><div>Notice that we aren't shutting down her curiosity but rather inviting her deeper. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Could we use them like torches?" </div><div><br /></div><div>Once again, your first thought might be to shut this down. Maybe you want your players to rely on torches. Maybe you think having these berries as a perpetual light source could be too strong. What do you do? Once again, we want to invite rather than shut down.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The berries will cast dim light like a candle but they run out of light in total darkness quickly. However, it might be possible to breed a superior berry or maybe you can find a way to make them cast more light or longer."</div><div><br /></div><div>Not the cleanest response but it serves our purposes. In fact, depending on the player, the idea of breeding a longer lasting and brighter berry might be right up her alley. It also creates a gold sink and opportunities to have a task to tend to during down time. By the end of this process, you will probably be satisfied that they put enough work and gold into this endeavor to justify having a couple of free torches made from berries grown in her garden. Or maybe the player explores using mirrors to maximize the amount of moonlight that is shining on the berries, super charging them. Or maybe she tries to imbue the berries with a light spell charged off their natural magic. </div><div><br /></div><div>In any case, you probably have a player who is now invested in her ability to create something useful to the team that shows off her character and allows her to get invested in your world. She might even start a side business of selling berry torches to other adventurers. These are all things that should be encouraged rather than squashed.</div><div><br /></div><div>Even if she failed the check, you shouldn't say, "You know nothing." Rather continue to invite her in.</div><div><br /></div><div>"You know these are Moon Berries, but you don't know too much about them. However, you know where you can go to learn what you're looking for. You could go to the Library of Atten, the druid's circle of the Whispering Falls, or you could go to your mentor, Delila La Fey."</div><div><br /></div><div>Each of these ways has a quest just begging to be made. Any of these locations could hold adventure. The Library of Atten? Maybe there is a Knowledge Eater infesting the place. The druid's circle? Maybe they will give you their knowledge if you help them defeat the arcane machines that are chopping down the trees of the forest. The mentor? Kidnapped. Find the culprit and rescue her!</div><div><br /></div><div>This might sound like a lot, the good news is that you will probably have time between sessions to prep. If it seems like too many options, cut it down to just one potential source of information.</div><div><br /></div><div>By recognizing your Doors, you could have some of this done ahead of time. Even if you didn't recognize this Door, with right ethos and a little improvisation, you can make this into a satisfying rather than a disappointing moment for your players. Your player got a challenge to overcome and a way to profit from the experience. </div><div><br /></div><div>Another example: the Morose Knight</div><div><br /></div><div>This is an example from a game I saw recently. If anyone recognizes it, I don't mean to cast shade on the designer or the GM. Both the scenario and the person running it were great. This is just my two cents on how this encounter could have been improved.</div><div><br /></div><div>The party encounters a grimly depressed giant knight in immaculate and valuable armor sulking and making vague grim statements followed by chuckles like a Dark Souls character. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is just Zamboni the Tuba Playing Goblin by another name.</div><div><br /></div><div>The party approaches and they are looking for trouble. They ask the knight who he is, why he is so sad, what's his backstory. They ask all the questions. Finally, one of them asks if he knew where the object of their quest lies and the knight gives them the information without trouble. The players are kind of gobsmacked. They are looking for something to do with this giant knight, looking for trouble but not finding anything to grab onto. </div><div><br /></div><div>You see the GM just gave away the information which could be fine, but it left the players dissatisfied. Remember we want a challenge and a treasure. The GM gave away the treasure, the information, which honestly makes it not feel valuable. The information was given so freely that the players are now looking for a different treasure. We humans tend to think that nothing good comes cheap. Players tend to think that if they get something easily, then there must be more to get with hard work.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now I think maybe the GM was trying to tempt the players with their greed. Look at that shiny armor, right? Don't you wanna try and kill this guy and take it? That is not a bad way to go about it, but it clearly was not something that this party was latching onto. </div><div><br /></div><div>So the players try to convince the knight to come with them and join them on their quest. The knight won't do that. The players try convincing the knight that life is worth living. He's not going to be convinced. The players try convincing the knight to just go somewhere more comfortable. Nothing.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is classic looking for trouble behavior. The players want to do something with this knight. He is an obvious Door and they are acting like players act. </div><div><br /></div><div>So what would I have done?</div><div><br /></div><div>I would have maybe had the knight offer to play a game to relieve his boredom and if the players win, they could have a knife made of the same metal as his armor or something like that: a minor magic item or a consumable, or indeed withheld the information and have that be the prize. Alternatives include, having the players tell him a sad story to deepen his despair, or surviving against him in combat for a few rounds. Either way, they would win their information and/or some prize he has on his person.</div><div><br /></div><div>See what I did, I included a challenge and a treasure, something for the party to overcome and something for them to gain. After such an encounter, I can imagine the players might still try to get this guy to come along, but once they figure out that's not happening, they would still have left this encounter satisfied.</div><div><br /></div><div>Conclusion:</div><div><br /></div><div>To improve your GMing, understand that players are looking for trouble. Realize that they are going to kick down every cool Door and expect a challenge and a treasure behind it. Invite them deeper into your world rather than putting up walls. Players expect adventure everywhere so give it to them.</div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-48545367515295099012023-02-28T12:11:00.002-08:002023-03-02T08:06:38.928-08:00Like Moths to a Flame (D23 Rooms 15-22)<p>So I know that I am super behind, but things have been so busy. I have a baby and I am pursuing my Masters education. So after a point, you will see that I am not giving full stat blocks for monsters. This is to save me precious time so I can pump this dungeon out faster. If I have already statted up a monster previously, I'll underline it but not give stats again.</p><p>Previous Posts: </p><p><a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-sunset-palace-of-starry-sultan.html" target="_blank">Introduction</a></p><p><a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2023/01/sauna-elementals-and-mummified-goose.html" target="_blank">Rooms 1-8</a></p><p><a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-naiad-named-dasani-d23-week-2.html" target="_blank">Rooms 9-14</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnkEpGt0NhsQlMNLCi0YkIBkQcOUQMb1aMW78l2epWbHRy7y0z4EJCvTp6V1WakB9HflxqeqhOoDBw7OZwbQFdc3DpWK6bdf6tm-6yj41HKR5xO4A3SbhvLs-GWEO19YFOLyMhYmtbCG6ikt9J1qza8Az0mtn59w8PH2QbPcinvJFTT1fLrLox_QsD/s4690/Sunset%20Palace%20Map%20Lvl%201.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4690" data-original-width="4340" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnkEpGt0NhsQlMNLCi0YkIBkQcOUQMb1aMW78l2epWbHRy7y0z4EJCvTp6V1WakB9HflxqeqhOoDBw7OZwbQFdc3DpWK6bdf6tm-6yj41HKR5xO4A3SbhvLs-GWEO19YFOLyMhYmtbCG6ikt9J1qza8Az0mtn59w8PH2QbPcinvJFTT1fLrLox_QsD/w592-h640/Sunset%20Palace%20Map%20Lvl%201.png" width="592" /></a></div><p>15: Vermen Camp</p><p>The forward base of Vermen: a bone littered room with obviously stolen and ruined finery: half of a grand table, a doodled-on portrait of Ylra Danask, the famous concubine and lover of Sultan Daliim the Empire Builder, and a collection of rotting silk Ottomans, chaise lounges, and a single high backed chair. Sitting upon it is a bloated fly Vermen, the Countess Effluvia, a huge lumpy body, ridiculously shoved into a ripped violet gown with a towering Akavasian crown atop her insectoid head passed bulging paneled eyes, and carrying a scepter in an absurd, tiny bug appendage.</p><p>"Who dares enter my immaculate presence? Who comes to gaze upon my pristine visage? Who comes to inhale my glorious musk?"</p><p>The smell of this room is devastating. Atop the table before her is a massive pile of rotting flesh and waste. Any sign betraying your disgust will enrage the Princess It takes either a Mnd or Mgt Save not to wretch if you approach unprepared.</p><p>The Princess is accompanied by 2 Hulking Racoon Vermen bodyguards and a Rat Vermen Jester. </p><p>The Princess has no desire to harm the party at least initially but she demands the respect of a monarch. Any sign of disgust enrages her. She considers herself and her fellow Vermen to be on a royal expedition, to take further trophies and claim territory. Her fellow nobles, as all Vermen call each other by nearly random noble titles, have been clashing with the Gutter Kings and Star Seekers. She will grant favor and perhaps a knighthood to the party in exchange for help against these other factions or for new treasures. If she is killed or driven out and the camp destroyed, the Vermen will retreat from this level. </p><p><u>Princess Effluvia</u>: +3 Decomposing Spit (1d6/2d6 against Unarmored targets), 25HP, 11AC, Saves: +2 Mgt, +1 Mnd, +1 Agl. SP: Monstrous Odor: As combat begins, the Princess begins to double her horrific odor. Every non-Vermen within 50ft must Save at the beginning of their turns or be sickened, making attacks at Disadvantage and being unable to cast or concentrate on spells. </p><p>Tiny Wings: Against all logic the Princess can hover in the air, moving 10ft per round.</p><p>Royal Decree: Each round the Princess may issue a command apparently magically bolstered by her crown. This command is a single word that a target must Save or obey or it can allow a ally to make a free additional attack.</p><p>2 <u>Hulking Racoon Vermen</u>: +2 Huge Claw (1d12+1), 15HP, 10AC, Saves: +5 Mgt, +0 Agl, -2 Mnd.</p><p> <u>Rat Vermen Jester</u>: +3 Knife Toss (1d6), 5HP, 13AC, Saves: +0 Mgt, +5 Agl, +1 Mnd. SP: Juggling Knives: Anyone that enters within 5ft of the Jester must Save or take 1d4 damage from his constantly juggling knives.</p><p>Things of Value:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Crown of Saint Empress Tatania: this late Akavasian relic dates back to the time of the political ascendancy of the Living Temple in the empire. It allows the wearer to make 3 Royal Decrees each day. This can be a one word command that they must Save or obey or allow an ally to make an additional free attack. It is worth 2,000gp.</li><li>The Scepter of King Baloram the Cowardly: a fine scepter with a less than stellar history. Supposedly it was found in a toilet after Baloram's rapid retreat. Worth 100gp or 250gp to a history buff.</li><li>The Defaced Portrait of Ylra Danask: Worth little now but if it is restored, it would be worth 200gp.</li><li>Games from Blaw and Gor: weird dice and strange tiny packets of roughly hand-drawn art. Not valuable in the traditional sense but this small pile of games marks the peace they have brokered with the Ogres. </li></ul><p></p><div><br /></div><div><div>16: The Idol</div><div><br /></div><div>High up in the air of this cavernous obsidian chamber is an obsidian idol of an ape deity. It is holding a bowling ball sized red glowing gem. Streams of light emit from it through the idol's fingers, reflecting off of the shining obsidian walls, creating a web of red beams of light. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anything that touches a beam that is flammable, takes 1d6. Reflective surfaces bounce off the beams but metal objects begin to heat rapidly. </div><div><br /></div><div>3 hapless <u>Moth Vermen</u> are trying to get the gem and having little luck. One of their fellows is already a crispy husk on the ground. They are wary of strangers, but not immediately hostile. They want the gem desperately and will probably all die trying.</div><div><br /></div><div>The gem is an incredibly valuable artifact of a long forgotten age but it is profoundly dangerous. If it can be freed from the idol's fingers, its full radiance will shine out, dealing 1d6 to all flammable things in the room each round. If you can somehow get this gem to a wealthy wizard, they will pay 1,000gp.</div><div> </div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>17: Busts</div><div><br /></div><div>Akavasian busts of emperors from before the rise of the Living Temple. Many of them are in various states of disrepair. Noses have been broken off, heads have been cracked, eyes smashed in, but a few are pristine. It seems this is a place where some emperor hid busts that would otherwise have been destroyed in the iconoclasm. </div><div><br /></div><div>The spirit of Emperor Baelix the Last Pagan invisibly guards the busts here, but he will only attack if a bust is touched. He remains corporeal, albeit invisible, so his form might be revealed in the same way as you might reveal any corporeal creature.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Emperor Baelix the Last Pagan</u>: +4 Wraith Claw (2 Attacks, 1d8+1, Save or your max HP is reduced by 1), 25HP (Immune to Nonmagical Weapons), 15AC, Saves: +3. SP: Perpetual Invisibility: This Spirit is corporeal but perpetually invisible.</div><div><br /></div><div>Things of Value:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>6 Imperial Busts worth 250gp each to a historian as these are rare remnants of otherwise lost history.</li></ul></div><div>If you haven’t encountered them already, the party of Gutter Kings are here, attempting to steal the busts. One has already been killed by something in the room, after they touched the bust. They are trying to figure out what happened. The body of the Gutter King has not only perished but shriveled up and blackened, as if drained of life. Patchface is trying to figure out the room and would eagerly accept help especially if it means risking your lives instead of his.</div><div><br /></div><div>A crew of 1d4 Gutter King Smackers and 1d4 Shooters with their leader, Patchface Gubbins</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Gutter King Smacker</u>: +2 Begging Cudgel (1d6), 4HP, 12AC. Saves: +1.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Gutter King Shooter</u>: +1 Crossbow (1d6), 2HP, 10AC. Saves: -1.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Patchface Gubbins</u>: +3 Spiked Cudgel (1d6+1), 6HP, 13AC. Saves: +2.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFEa2tQSkydxH76OM7hkzpb31OUVzqQ_sKB-mJPrhtA-MyXD35lzYBMs2vkZFvl5ABBTSyWaNXVGEXoQF1h1fEiY4O-5wALjY_Br6KJVj4bOwfgq4ub_l_NbZxDQTO6OtIf5UNPHvBiMfm2wKexMNmxEurGtMxJ1d05icoAi_8_YJUKt3JMFQm2Fjx/s512/unnamed.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="384" data-original-width="512" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFEa2tQSkydxH76OM7hkzpb31OUVzqQ_sKB-mJPrhtA-MyXD35lzYBMs2vkZFvl5ABBTSyWaNXVGEXoQF1h1fEiY4O-5wALjY_Br6KJVj4bOwfgq4ub_l_NbZxDQTO6OtIf5UNPHvBiMfm2wKexMNmxEurGtMxJ1d05icoAi_8_YJUKt3JMFQm2Fjx/w400-h300/unnamed.png" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><div>18: Tomb of Grand Student Gamaliel</div><div><br /></div><div>The obsidian walls are adorned with gold circles surrounded by alchemical symbols. The floor is white marble with golden veins, the same material that makes up the enormous sculpted sarcophagus in the middle of the room. The large effigy on the sarcophagus depicts a beardless young man in a toga wearing a crown, not lying down but rising up from a reclined position, raising his hand up as if in a moment of insight or revelation. </div><div><br /></div><div>A ring of magical runes line the bottom. Any alchemist can read them. A magic user of a different kind may make a Mnd check to read them. They read “Rebuke the spirit of ignorance! Disturb this tomb not, lest ye invite in he who consumes the mind.” The runes also represent a ward against some kind of spirit. No spiritual being may touch the sarcophagus while it remains closed.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the room also is a frail old man, wearing spectacles, loaded down with scrolls, stroking a long white beard as he examines the runes. “Oh greetings! I am Arturian, an alchemist. I have come in search of Grand Student Gamaliel’s lost works. Are you capable of moving the monument? It is far too heavy for me.”</div><div>Arturian can tell you what the runes say and ward against but treats it as a trifling thing of no importance. In the true spirit of an alchemist, he is intent upon uncovering lost knowledge even if that means robbing the grave of a Grand Student.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arturian is truly a Knowledge Eater, a spiritual being in disguise. He will never directly touch the sarcophagus, but urges the party to enter the tomb. Another demon like Count Vikaris would be able to sense something amiss in the room. A powerful veiling magic lies around the Knowledge Eater that deadens magical senses, but this, in and of itself, is a strange thing. It is difficult to determine whether this is specifically coming from the old man or something in the room, but the room cannot be Scryed and Detect Magic and similar effects are scrambled</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Knowledge Eater</u>: 8HD, Chance of Spells to Get Eaten, Brain Suck, Disguise Self, Aura of Detection Negation</div><div><br /></div><div>If the party removes the sarcophagus lid, they do not find a body but rather a passage into a larger room below, leading to Room 18 on Level 2. The Knowledge Eater will remain disguised, allowing the party to face the dangers below before revealing himself to consume all Gamaliel’s precious notes.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div>19: Empty Room</div><div><br /></div><div>Four different Byzantine mosaics of Baloram the great over each arched doorway.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>20: Icon of the Orphans</div><div><br /></div><div>Surrounded by a melted clump of wax that used to be numerous candles is an icon of the Orphans. The religiously knowledgeable might know that the red faces of these orphans stand for the 13 orphans who miraculously bore 13 of the Living One’s wounds for 13 days during the siege of Itarra during the reign of Emperor Tantius before they and all the other orphans of the orphanage fused together, their holy flesh intermingling into a holy avatar of the living one who broke the siege and drove away the invading Gurronic raiders. This horrific act of divine intervention led the Emperor Tantius to conversion so that the Living One would not show such wondrous mercy again.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 13 Orphans are patrons saints of orphans, servants, and the often forgotten and trampled over foot, reminding that even the lowest among us share in the blessing of flesh. A prayer, a candle, and an offering in the little wooden box in front of the icon will gain their blessing: a Charm of the Unnoticed, granting +3 to Stealth checks for the rest of the day.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you steal from their offering box, you will find about 50gp worth of coppers and meager denominations. You will find yourself cursed, as your flesh shapes into childlike faces that scream whenever you try to go unnoticed until you restore their offering of have the curse removed.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>21: Jars of Lamp Oil</div><div><br /></div><div>A bunch of clay jars of lamp oil stacked on a shelf. Most remain full. A spectral servant, named Timothy, counts them with painful slowness, marking on a tablet. The servant will not attack but if the PCs have angered the Custodian or show themselves to be thieves, the ghost will run off to tell the <u>Custodian</u> who will arrive with his usual complement of <u>Interred Builders</u> in 1d4 rounds.</div><div><br /></div><div>The lamp oil is flammable and a large amount of it will prove to be quite explosive.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>22: Dressing Room</div><div><br /></div><div>The doorways of this room are covered by a scarlet curtain. Strange sounds halfway between insectoid chittering and human giggling.</div><div><br /></div><div>Within is a dressing room full of costume jewelry for the dancers that Baloram the Great would sometimes call to this hall. There are four <u>Moth Vermen</u> here who are covered in the costume jewelry and having the time of their lives seeing themselves sparkle in the lamplight. They are so distracted they will not notice your approach.</div><div><br /></div><div>Detect magic indicates that none of the jewelry is of any value, but there is a perfume bottle with a vaporizer that is a Perfume of Dancing, that makes the target really good at belly dancing for a day, and in a plant pot there is a hidden perfume bottle that is a Perfume of Clumsiness that makes the sprayed target utterly clumsy for a day, gaining Disadvantage on all Agl rolls.</div></div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-2090530133352263082023-02-06T14:48:00.000-08:002023-02-06T14:48:41.054-08:00Gobbo World ( w/Goblin Generator)<p> This is not a game about goblins in a world of humans, elves, and dwarves. This is a game about goblins in a goblin world. They live in giant teapots, in piles of garbage, under bridges with plunger shoes, in a big hole they keep digging for no reason, in giant peaches they have eaten tunnels in, in the hats of giants, in big boats that roll on the land. Welcome to Gobbo World! 'Tis a silly place.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGRk-eDzXen7EMD0Tf5nPDHjmxKDYssYZjo8u-TLpfNFZob4SLbznd9xxJJ0Y4ygCHm_iQWM2MlosJDa1JurryDfy6Jx1EX0PycXXvSVdUFiqiC56auBZ8AfCZaxCWUNppt71U07AcVRYfpcJlhty0Qe8uXYod4lUbZD9CeIlxDV06UIdYEerCh5v/s540/FnILGdhWYAAaSVg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="540" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHGRk-eDzXen7EMD0Tf5nPDHjmxKDYssYZjo8u-TLpfNFZob4SLbznd9xxJJ0Y4ygCHm_iQWM2MlosJDa1JurryDfy6Jx1EX0PycXXvSVdUFiqiC56auBZ8AfCZaxCWUNppt71U07AcVRYfpcJlhty0Qe8uXYod4lUbZD9CeIlxDV06UIdYEerCh5v/w400-h223/FnILGdhWYAAaSVg.png" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">By @knockoffgoblin on Twitter. Used without permission.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Goblins or Gobbos always kind of functioned on a different level of reality as if they were from a dimension of cosmic comedic relief. This is because that is exactly the case and you now have come to Gobbo World. Everything is gobliny here, all functioning on the chaotic cartoony logic of the Gobbo paradigm. Though there are creatures here which we might not think of as being Gobbos, even these are somewhat gobliny. Even among Gobbos, the boundaries of categorization are both looser and more convoluted for there are many creatures in the Gobbo family and they either don't keep track or do so incorrectly on purpose.</p><p><b>Create your Gobbo:</b></p><p>You are a <u>Attribute</u> <u>Gobbo</u>, the color of <u>Color</u> with <u>Oddity</u> who <u>Job</u> and has <u>Thing</u>.</p><p>Roll on the appropriate table below or push the button to fill in the above statement. Each detail you insert into the above is a Characteristic which defines what your character is capable of.</p><p>Push the Button Below for an Instant Gobbo! (Sorry it looks funny with my dark background)</p><button onclick="selectRandom_create_your_gobbo_vxq()"><div><span style="background-color: transparent; text-align: left;">Create your Gobbo</span></div></button>
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"attribute": [`Malodorous`, `Verminous`, `Snotty`, `Tiny`, `Old`, `Nimble`, `Hulking`, `Slimy`, `Filthy`, `Drunken`, `Nerdy`, `Mischievous`, `Malicious`, `Cute`, `Murderous`, `Hideous`, `Lanky`, `Fat`, `Sneaky`, `Magic`],
"gobbo": [`Grumpkin`, `Quib`, `Scrumbo`, `Bimbler`, `Bulbo`, `Hob`, `Zeetch`, `Pimbus`, `Sklunge`, `Wuggo`, `Frubbin`, `Zortch`, `Krimbler`, `Zug`, `Glorpus`, `Vood`, `Plumgut`, `Zipwanger`, `Funge`, `Yobert`],
"color": [`Bat Guano`, `Dry Aged Milk`, `The Midnight Goulash`, `An Ancient Parchment Dipped in Piss`, `Monday`, `Digested Cabbage`, `Baby Barf`, `Your Mom`, `A Rusty Spoon`, `Anthrax`, `Rotting Beef`, `Blue Cheese`, `Night Soil`, `Sewer Water`, `A Sickly Whale`, `An Asphyxiating Man`, `Koolaid Piss`, `A Tanning Bed Addict`, `Axe Body Spray`, `The blood of that man you just killed (I'm onto you)`],
"oddity": [`A TV for a Head`, `A Bear Trap for Teeth`, `Fungus Growing all Over`, `A Prehensile Beard`, `Hooks for Hands`, `Gelatinous Flesh`, `One Asymmetrically Muscular Arm that Seems to Have a Mind of Its Own`, `A Second Head-Tumor with Psychic Powers`, `The Ability to Breathe Fire`, `Long Spindly Multi-Jointed Fingers`, `Eyes that Roll Around on Command`, `A Froglike Tongue`, `Spider Legs that lets You Climb up Walls`, `Acidic Spit`, `An Inflatable Gas Sack`, `A Crab Claw instead of a Hand`, `Wheels for Legs`, `The Ability to Hock Super Sticky Loogies`, `Legs that Can Detach and Move on Their Own`, `The Ability to Birth a Tiny Clone`],
"job": [`Strangles Pigeons for Pennies`, `Runs a Goblining School`, `Farms Mushrooms both Giant and Psychedelic`, `Tests Experimental Potions`, `Guards the Palace of the Queen of Pots`, `Harvests Clouds`, `Tames Giant Flies`, `Gambles on Giant Weird Baby Races`, `Builds Tasteful Trash Mounds`, `Commits Arson`, `Cooks Widely Loved and Deadly Food`, `Takes Bits off One Goblin and Puts them on Another`, `Defrauds the Elderly`, `Goes Door to Door Selling Exotic Feces`, `Drops Rocks off a Bridge onto Passersby Below`, `Creates Horrific, Life-sized Dioramas with Taxidermized Creatures`, `Digs THE HOLE`, `Forages for Grubs`, `Makes Creepy Cursed Dolls`, `Sacrifices Eager Gobbos to the Gods`],
"thing": [`A Small Angry Slobbermaw`, `Spikey Armor that allows the wearer to Become a Rolling Ball of Spikes`, `A Menacingly Weird Chair`, `A Miraculously Living Shark Being used as a Club`, `The Chattering Skull of a Necromancer`, `A Bag of Rapid Growth Magic Beans`, `A Relatively Small Cannon Lugged Over the Shoulder`, `An Utterly Uncooperative Talking Magical Sword`, `A Sick Yoyo`, `A Far Too Big Flail`, `Way Too Many Knives`, `A Magical Stick that Poots Glitter (And Perhaps has Other Powers)`, `A Terribly Cursed Ring that Makes One Invisible`, `A Mostly Friendly Beehive Worn as a Hat`, `A Bunch of Unlabeled Potions`, `An Ancient Grimoire of Foul Secrets that You Probably Can't Read`, `A Volatile Set of Robotic Armor that is Liable to Explode`, `Too Many Explosives of Varying Kinds`, `A Magnetic Shield`, `A Single Shoe of Far-Stepping`],
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</script><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><div><b>1d20 Attributes:</b></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Malodorous</li><li>Verminous</li><li>Snotty</li><li>Tiny</li><li>Old</li><li>Nimble</li><li>Hulking</li><li>Slimy</li><li>Filthy</li><li>Drunken</li><li>Nerdy</li><li>Mischievous</li><li>Malicious</li><li>Cute</li><li>Murderous</li><li>Hideous</li><li>Lanky</li><li>Fat</li><li>Sneaky</li><li>Magic</li></ol></div><div><div style="font-weight: bold;">1d20 Gobbos:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Grumpkin</li><li>Quib</li><li>Scrumbo</li><li>Bimbler</li><li>Bulbo</li><li>Hob</li><li>Zeetch</li><li>Pimbus</li><li>Sklunge</li><li>Wuggo</li><li>Frubbin</li><li>Zortch</li><li>Krimbler</li><li>Zug</li><li>Glorpus</li><li>Vood</li><li>Plumgut</li><li>Zipwanger</li><li>Funge</li><li>Yobert</li></ol></div><div><div style="font-weight: bold;">1d20 The color of…</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Bat Guano</li><li>Dry Aged Milk</li><li>The Midnight Goulash</li><li>An Ancient Parchment Dipped in Piss</li><li>Monday</li><li>Digested Cabbage</li><li>Baby Barf</li><li>Your Mom</li><li>A Rusty Spoon</li><li>Anthrax</li><li>Rotting Beef</li><li>Blue Cheese</li><li>Night Soil</li><li>Sewer Water</li><li>A Sickly Whale</li><li>An Asphyxiating Man</li><li>Koolaid Piss</li><li>A Tanning Bed Addict</li><li>Axe Body Spray</li><li>The blood of that man you just killed (I'm onto you)</li></ol></div><div><div style="font-weight: bold;">1d20 Oddities</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A TV for a Head</li><li>A Bear Trap for Teeth</li><li>Fungus Growing all Over</li><li>A Prehensile Beard</li><li>Hooks for Hands</li><li>Gelatinous Flesh</li><li>One Asymmetrically Muscular Arm that Seems to Have a Mind of Its Own</li><li>A Second Head-Tumor with Psychic Powers</li><li>The Ability to Breathe Fire</li><li>Long Spindly Multi-Jointed Fingers</li><li>Eyes that Roll Around on Command</li><li>A Froglike Tongue</li><li>Spider Legs that lets You Climb up Walls</li><li>Acidic Spit</li><li>An Inflatable Gas Sack</li><li>A Crab Claw instead of a Hand</li><li>Wheels for Legs</li><li>The Ability to Hock Super Sticky Loogies</li><li>Legs that Can Detach and Move on Their Own</li><li>The Ability to Birth a Tiny Clone</li></ol></div><div><div style="font-weight: bold;">1d20 Jobs:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Strangles Pigeons for Pennies</li><li>Runs a Goblining School</li><li>Farms Mushrooms both Giant and Psychedelic</li><li>Tests Experimental Potions</li><li>Guards the Palace of the Queen of Pots</li><li>Harvests Clouds</li><li>Tames Giant Flies</li><li>Gambles on Giant Weird Baby Races</li><li>Builds Tasteful Trash Mounds</li><li>Commits Arson</li><li>Cooks Widely Loved and Deadly Food</li><li>Takes Bits off One Goblin and Puts them on Another</li><li>Defrauds the Elderly</li><li>Goes Door to Door Selling Exotic Feces</li><li>Drops Rocks off a Bridge onto Passersby Below</li><li>Creates Horrific, Life-sized Dioramas with Taxidermized Creatures</li><li>Digs THE HOLE</li><li>Forages for Grubs</li><li>Makes Creepy Cursed Dolls</li><li>Sacrifices Eager Gobbos to the Gods</li></ol></div><div><div style="font-weight: bold;">1d20 Things:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A Small Angry Slobbermaw</li><li>Spikey Armor that allows the wearer to Become a Rolling Ball of Spikes</li><li>A Menacingly Weird Chair</li><li>A Miraculously Living Shark Being used as a Club</li><li>The Chattering Skull of a Necromancer</li><li>A Bag of Rapid Growth Magic Beans</li><li>A Relatively Small Cannon Lugged Over the Shoulder</li><li>An Utterly Uncooperative Talking Magical Sword</li><li>A Sick Yoyo</li><li>A Far Too Big Flail</li><li>Way Too Many Knives</li><li>A Magical Stick that Poots Glitter (And Perhaps has Other Powers)</li><li>A Terribly Cursed Ring that Makes One Invisible</li><li>A Mostly Friendly Beehive Worn as a Hat</li><li>A Bunch of Unlabeled Potions</li><li>An Ancient Grimoire of Foul Secrets that You Probably Can't Read</li><li>A Volatile Set of Robotic Armor that is Liable to Explode</li><li>Too Many Explosives of Varying Kinds</li><li>A Magnetic Shield</li><li>A Single Shoe of Far-Stepping</li></ol></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><b>What is a Zortch?</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Now you may be asking, what is a Zortch or the Midnight Goulash? Well, that is entirely up to you and your GM (Gobbo Master) to decide. If there is some doubt about what kind of creature you are or what you can do, roll for it! It is a Challenge Level 2 roll to determine details about your Gobbo's Characteristics during the course of play.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Assign Dice:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Now take a big bag with a good mixed assortment of dice. Pull out at random one for each Characteristic or pull out five and assign them as desired, the higher the die the more powerful the Characteristic.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Rolling Dice:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>When a PC attempts a task that is risky or dangerous, the GM first selects a Challenge level. </div><div><br /></div><div>Level 1: the GM draws two dice from a bag of assorted dice and keeps the lowest.</div><div><br /></div><div>Level 2: The GM draws two and keeps the highest.</div><div><br /></div><div>Level 3: The GM draws three and keeps the highest.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then the PC rolls all their applicable dice (Usually only one or two) and their Gobbo Die. The GM rolls the Challenge Die.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the PC's dice total higher than the Gobbo and the Challenge Dice, then the attempt is a full success.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the PC's dice fall between the Gobbo and the Challenge Dice, then the attempt is a mixed success, so the attempt succeeds but at a cost or it requires a hard choice.</div><div><br /></div><div>If the PC's dice are less than the Gobbo and Challenge Dice then it is a failure with consequences.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>The Gobbo Die:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The Gobbo Die begins at a d6 and my be increased a step up the die chain as a consequence up to a d20. It represents the madness and mayhem that accompanies Gobbos everywhere, often in increasing degrees. The Gobbo Die resets after a period of boredom where the Gobbos don't get into any trouble for a day or more.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Harm and Death:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Every time a Gobbo suffers from physical harm, the consequences are immediate. When Gobbos are slashed, they lose a limb or even their head. If they are burned, they run around screaming on fire. Gobbos can survive most injuries until the cartoon logic that defines their existence decides that it would be funnier them to die. Each time they suffer Harm, roll the Gobbo Die. On a 6 or higher, the Gobbo dies in the funniest way possible.</div><div><br /></div><div>By contrast NPCs should probably not work this way, I would assign them a number of Harm they could take before dying, but hey, I'm not your dad. If you want to give them a Gobbo die too, go wild.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Growing your Gobbo:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Advancement isn't really a Gobbo thing. Gobbos grow by eating strange things, replacing their limbs with better ones, undergoing hideous mutation. As a rule, it isn't that hard for a Gobbo to replace any part of their body with a part from another creature.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Example of Play:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie, a Snotty Grumpkin the color of Baby Barf with a Bear Trap for Teeth who Strangles Pigeons for Pennies and has a Sick Yoyo, encounters a deep hole she wishes to descend.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie pulled a d8 for Snotty and a d6 for Strangles Pigeons in Gobbo Creation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie's current Gobbo Die remains at a d6.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie has a plan. She wishes to use her strong pigeon strangling hands to climb down and her voluminous snot as a kind of support to slow her descent. Horrible but smart.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM agrees that both of these Characteristics apply. </div><div><br /></div><div>The GM says this is a fairly average challenge so assigns it a Challenge Level of 2. </div><div><br /></div><div>The GM draws two dice, a d4 and a d20. How unfortunate.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM rolls Goolie's d6 Gobbo Die and the d20 Challenge Die, resulting in a 4 and a 7.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie rolls her d8 and d6, resulting in a total of 6, meaning a Mixed Success.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM offers Goolie a hard choice: she may either upgrade her Gobbo Die or injure her hands, downgrading her Strangles Pigeons to a d4.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie can, at this time, suggest another choice of a suitable consequence. She suggests that her nose gets pulled off, instead.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM agrees that this would also be a suitable consequence and so Goolie loses her grip as she climbs down, placing far too much weight on her nose, causing it to pop off. Until Goolie can find a replacement nose, her Snotty Characteristic will no longer help her.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Combat Example:</b></div><div><br /></div><div>After descending the hole, Goolie encounters a large angry Trobgut wearing a wife beater and swinging a too-big rolled up newspaper. Not seeing any peaceful solution and seeing that the Trobgut has a lovely potato of a nose, Goolie attacks.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM has already set the scene: the Trobgut is angrily shouting and swinging around his newspaper.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie decides to chomp his newspaper with her Bear Trap Teeth (d10).</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM thinks this is a good idea and not terribly difficult so he assigns it a Challenge Level of 1.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM draws out a d8 and a d6.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM rolls Goolie's d6 Gobbo die and the d6 Challenge Die, resulting in a 2 and a 2.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie rolls her d10 Bear Trap Teeth, resulting in a 5. Success!</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM describes as Goolie's teeth chomp off the heft of the newspaper, leaving the Trobgut defenseless. Since the Trobgut is a big baby, he makes to run away.</div><div><br /></div><div>But Goolie wants that nose.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie makes to hold the Trobgut in place with her Pigeon Strangling Hands (d6) and bite off the nose with her Bear Tap Teeth (d10).</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM Assigns this Challenge Level 2, drawing a d6 and a d8.</div><div><br /></div><div>GM rolls the d6 Gobbo Die and the d8 Challenge Die, resulting in a 4 and an 8.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie rolls poorly, totaling only 2.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM rules that the Trobgut punches Goolie in retaliation, knocking her teeth out and dealing Harm.</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie rolls her Gobbo Die (d6) and rolls a 4. Thank the Gourd!</div><div><br /></div><div>Goolie's metal teeth go flying and the Trobgut, once again makes to run away. Goolie can stay to recover her teeth or keep chasing that schnoz. </div><div><br /></div><div>To be continued...</div><div><br /></div><div><b>A Gobbo Adventure Scenario!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Lord Snivelington of Junk Town has declared Boomy Boomy Splat Day illegal, this is the weekly celebration where Gobbos of all kinds set off fireworks and high-yield explosives. This results in the entire city being destroyed on a weekly basis, but its a tradition! And then Rebuilding Day really brings the whole city together!</div><div><br /></div><div>As is the Gobbo way, this cruel and unjust declaration would be summarily ignored and maybe even aggressively rebelled against, resulting in even more devastation, however this time, it is different. This time, Lord Snivelington has hired a crew of Garbulous Chewers, large multi-mawed shark-like creatures with a single eye whose gaze freezes you in place. </div><div><br /></div><div>These Chewers are going to be patrolling the town, enforcing Snivelington's totally inhumane and utterly reasonable decree. What perfectly sane and reasonable action will you take in return for this injustice?</div><div><br /></div><div>The lord's Skittering Manor is on the back of a giant crab, guarded by Chewers and a series of elaborate traps, not to mention the crab itself, Stephen, who has a childlike loyalty to Snivelington although the petty noble treats him poorly.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Disclaimer!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If any of the weird words I made up for kinds of Gobbos or anything else are slurs or other naughty words, this was not intentional. I looked them up an none of them seemed to be bad, but please inform me and I will change it.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Special Thanks!</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Thanks to Spwack for his <a href="https://slightadjustments.blogspot.com/p/generator.html" target="_blank">Generator Generator</a>!</div><div><br /></div><div>Special thanks to Semiurge of <a href="https://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Archons March On</a> for helping me with using the Generator Generator!</div></div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-15492182724695375622023-01-17T12:58:00.000-08:002023-01-17T12:58:08.233-08:00A Naiad named Dasani (d23 Week 2)<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuI7QcN1gp30oU7Tx-EwkwfYcaTS4KYAphKt-YYqKY_r5AQ0ahVolMtcKJHhvKNUr0KDllwXNc61Co1a3xUJmo27eBaHOLI7qrcvFzplP1WFMhmrwx2QfGjsXIJPJZ287hSeJaBht86D7FXQoz74sQNib2Ob9W6lFLY1A07C2jS8RmzbeBnrGhl_Ex/s1024/istockphoto-516769738-1024x1024.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="682" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuI7QcN1gp30oU7Tx-EwkwfYcaTS4KYAphKt-YYqKY_r5AQ0ahVolMtcKJHhvKNUr0KDllwXNc61Co1a3xUJmo27eBaHOLI7qrcvFzplP1WFMhmrwx2QfGjsXIJPJZ287hSeJaBht86D7FXQoz74sQNib2Ob9W6lFLY1A07C2jS8RmzbeBnrGhl_Ex/s320/istockphoto-516769738-1024x1024.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">A bizarrely fitting and disturbing stock image</div><p></p><div>The Sunset Palace of the Starry Sultan <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-sunset-palace-of-starry-sultan.html?m=1" target="_blank">overview</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2023/01/sauna-elementals-and-mummified-goose.html?m=1" target="_blank">Week 1</a></div><div><br /></div><div>I am a little behind this week, but here are the next completed rooms.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGspXv1x5R4I1MFiXovgsK25x3R4fWdZ_X-B89SyGBxgU6_Xi47nuRu-dezA_XwnIU-NrxRdnVrNe9o4kpPaxKG3c7cDJRjMtqzJFULBkPnW9GM2Q0lcgikXAhwmWsJVfVfjGuht28jn-33WdOznoTzf3nnBxDbfbsEmVNytMnUuQWem5vQn0Rf4-d/s640/Sunset%20Palace%20Map%20Lvl%201.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="592" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGspXv1x5R4I1MFiXovgsK25x3R4fWdZ_X-B89SyGBxgU6_Xi47nuRu-dezA_XwnIU-NrxRdnVrNe9o4kpPaxKG3c7cDJRjMtqzJFULBkPnW9GM2Q0lcgikXAhwmWsJVfVfjGuht28jn-33WdOznoTzf3nnBxDbfbsEmVNytMnUuQWem5vQn0Rf4-d/w370-h400/Sunset%20Palace%20Map%20Lvl%201.png" width="370" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><b>9: The Fountain</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The floor is a tile mosaic of flowers and greenery all coming out from a decorative fountain in the center of the room, in the shape of angelic trumpeters. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you look in the fountain, it’s bottom is covered in gold coins: 100gp in total. If you put another gold piece into the fountain, your reflection begins to speak to you and will answer you three questions about the palace. If you attempt to take from the fountain, your reflection will turn on you, sneak attacking from the water and climbing out to make battle. It has your exact stats and abilities.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a wall of moss with purple flowers that was once decorative and is now entirely overgrown. Bringing this moss to the Moss Mother will not only open a way to this room, but also to the Cells in room 26.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a breach in the wall leading into a tunnel in the obsidian caves in the west wall.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>10: Blaw and Gor</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Two towering, lumpy figures sit in this cavern. They are the cave trolls Blaw and Gor, who sit around all day, playing little games of their own creation and complaining about wizards. Apparently, some wizard made them and now they attribute most negative things in life to the machinations of wizards. Most recently, they are complaining about how their friend Ogl was taken captive and altered by the “wizards” residing in another cave.</div><div><br /></div><div>They are not prone to violence, but will be enraged unless you play their games and pay for a copy, insisting you play their games instead of the “wizards’ game.” You will gain a lot of good will with them if you play games with them involving strange dice and rules they are constantly updating and even more good will if you spend even a single gold piece purchasing one of their games.</div><div><br /></div><div>They know the wizard's password is Bluebeard and they have used this knowledge to throw poop into his living quarters as they are too big to fit through the door.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Blaw and Gor</u>: +4 Polyhedral Smash (1d12+1), 30HP, 10AC, Saves: -1. SP: Rules Rewrite: Each round, all targets engaged in combat with Blaw and/or Gor are subject to new rules for how the game works for example (1d4):</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>New method for Initiative, see Troika bag-drawing, rolling a d6 every round, 5e style initiative, ect.</li><li>Critical Hits change, max damage, see DCC for Crit Charts, roll to confirm, ect.</li><li>Main rolling mechanic change: Apocalypse World style 2d6, Blades in the Dark d6 pool, Troika 2d6 opposing rolls, ect.</li><li>Something Wacky, ala FKR no rolls, break out the Tarot Cards, Rock, Paper, Scissors, the whole thing briefly becomes a dating sim or Maid RPG, ect.</li></ol></div><div><br /></div><div><b>11: Massage Room</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Byzantine tile. The wall is a mosaic of the sea with buxom mermaids. The floor is covered in tiles marked by seashells. Raised massage tables. The gentle trickle of a decorative waterfall. Two naiad masseuses, Aquafina and Dasani, lounge here in absolute boredom. They were bound here in the days of Emperor Naximus. They will gladly give you massages in exchange for setting them free from their bindings although they don’t know how to do that. There are many plastic water bottles in an ever-cold box here. Apparently the Akavasians knew the secret of producing plastic but it has been lost to time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their massages give +2d4 temporary HP and give you Advantage on Saves for the next hour.</div><div><br /></div><div>The binding mechanism is a runic seashell that is hidden behind the waterfall. If it is broken, the naiads will be freed. If the players have been nice to the naiads, the naiads will simply flee. If they have been unkind or held their imprisonment over them, the naiads will attack them after giving them a non-magical massage.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Naiad</u>: +3 Webbed Claws (1d6+1), 16HP, 12AC, Saves: +2. SP: Watery Form: Once per round, the Naiad may, in response to a melee attack, transform into a watery form. The blow passes right through them and deals no damage, however, electrified attacks actually deal double damage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Drowning Gaze: The Naiad fixes a target with her gaze, suddenly the target feels like their lungs are filling up with water. Each round, the target must make a Mgt Save. If they fail three times, they die. If they succeed three times, the effect ends. While this effect lasts, the target cannot cast or concentrate on spells.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>12: Well</b></div><div><br /></div><div>This small, rough obsidian cavern has a well dug into the middle of the floor. The water is icy and deep, but at the very bottom there is a metal box locked to a chain attached to the ground with a padlock. </div><div><br /></div><div>The water is deeper than most people can hold their breath both going down and up. If you could free the box and then rise very quickly, you would manage to stay conscious. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the metal box, is a Blade of Daring Deeds. This is a magic blade that deals 1d8 damage. You may add 1d3 to attack rolls and damage with this weapon. If you roll a 3 on this d3, you may perform a Mighty Deed ala DCC’s Warrior. (If you are already using DCC, this gives a first level Mighty Deed Die to a class that wouldn't otherwise have it or allows a Warrior to roll their Deed Die with Advantage once per combat.)</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>13: Wizard's Quarters</b></div><div><br /></div><div>If you approach from the eastern hall, there is an out of place wooden door here with a peep hole. A single eye appears behind the hole, saying, "Password?" The password is Bluebeard. </div><div><br /></div><div>The door is actually a Mimic that the wizard feeds Cliff Slugs and the occasional intruder. It doesn't like the taste much and might be enticed with better meat. It feels under appreciated for its work and might be convinced to turn against the wizard. The Mimic is also marked with some runes which might be identified as Lightning Ward, Knock Reversal, and Alarm.</div><div><br /></div><div>If anyone touches the door without speaking the password, whatever they touch it with sticks mightily. The Lightning Ward then activates, dealing 2d6 Mgt Save to halve or 3d6 if the person is using a metal weapon or wearing metal armor. The Lighting Ward only goes off once and the wizard has to reactivate it. The Alarm rune goes off blaring out loud noise that provokes an encounter check each round it can be heard. The Mimic then attacks.</div><div><br /></div><div>If anyone attempts to open the door by means of a Knock spell or similar effect, the Knock Reversal goes off, throwing back the caster, knocking them prone, and dealing 2d6 Agl Save to halve. The Alarm goes off. The Mimic then attacks. </div><div><br /></div><div><u>Mimic</u>: +3 Vicious Claws (2 Attacks, 1d6+2), 25HP, 13AC, Saves: +2. SP: Sticky: The Mimic's body is sticky and things tend to sink into it harmlessly. Non-magical melee or missile attacks made against the Mimic deal half damage and, in the case of melee, the attacker must make a Mgt Save or the weapon gets stuck in the Mimic's body. Creatures stuck to the Mimic are attacked with Advantage.</div><div><br /></div><div>Within the room, there is an uncomfortable cot on the obsidian ground. There are a few filthy robes, a bathroom bucket, and a desk on which Umma has several drafts of vitriolic letters being sent to various magical schools, public institutions, and children's authors. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is also a locked chest within which there are the following Spell Scrolls and there is a teddy bear there that appears to have a blue beard. This is precious to the wizard, Umma Al-Desar the Disgraced, and he will do almost anything to protect it.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Flame Sickle: A sweeping blade of flame spreads out in a circle from the caster. Enemies within 10ft take 2d6+2 damage, Agl Save to halve.</li><li>Seal Portal: A door you touch becomes magically enforced and can only be opened once the magic is dispelled. Lasts 1 hour.</li><li>Silence: Cast upon an object or point within line of sight. All sound is magically nullified within 20ft of the target for 1 hour. </li></ul><div><br /></div></div><div><b>14: The Wizard's Workshop</b></div></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>If you enter this room from the north or east entrances, you will find the way blocked by circular metal rings built into the tunnel walls emitting an electrical buzz. If anything tries to pass through, lighting lashes out, dealing 1d6. If you can short out the current, the gates will shut down. Sticking a metal rod in the middle of a gate and then touching the rod to the edges of the gate should do it as would overloading the gate with an external electric charge. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Workshop itself is a cave in the side of the obsidian cliffs. The maw of this cave overlooks Itarra with a stunning view of its domes and minarets. Umma Al-Desar the Disgraced is here working on altering Ogl the Ogre. Ogl is chained down to a metal slab. Umma is facing a work bench bearing a strange silver device to the eastern wall, working on a new organ for Ogl that is something like a cross between a pig's anus and a shark's mouth and it goes in the abdomen. If an alarm has not been triggered, she is concentrating hard. If an alarm has been triggered the same thing appears to be true but it is an illusion and Umma is under an invisibility spell waiting to strike.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Umma the Disgraced</u>: +0 Staff Whack (1d4), 15HP, 13AC (Amulet of Mage Armor), Saves: +0 Mgt, +1 Agl, +3 Mnd. SP: Staff of Spell Strike: Each round the wielder of this staff casts a spell, they may make a free Mnd attack against a target within 30ft, dealing 1d6.</div><div>Umma has the following spells:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Mirror Image: Create 1d4+1 illusory images of the caster. Each illusion takes a hit for the caster before vanishing. Lasts 1 hour.</li><li>Force Bubble: Up to two targets within a 10ft radius within 30ft are trapped in a large bubble kind of like a human-sized hamster ball. Nothing can pass through the barrier. The bubble is super bouncy and elastic. Moving within it takes a Mgt Save.</li><li>Invisibility: The caster turns invisible until they make an attack or cast a spell. Lasts 1 hour.</li><li>(2) Magic Missile: The caster creates three magic bolts of force that unerringly hit targets within 30ft, dealing 1d4 each.</li><li>Electric Pulse: A sphere of lightning appears in a space within 30ft. Everything within a 15ft radius of the sphere takes 1d6 damage each round they begin their turn in the radius. Lasts 1d6+2 rounds.</li></ul></div><div>Ogl is under a mind control spell powered by a collar around her neck, covered in runes. Attacking the collar with missile weapons is very difficult (20AC), but if you climb on the But she will fight the effect instead of attacking for a round if she is shown polyhedral dice from Blaw and Gor's games.</div><div><br /></div><div>When combat begins, Umma will speak a command word on her turn that undoes the chains on Ogl and she will join the fray.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Ogl the Altered Ogre</u>: +4 Hulking Fists (2 Attacks, 1d12+1), 40HP, 10AC, Saves: +4 Mgt, +1 Agl, -2 Mnd. SP: Each round, instead of attacking, Ogl can use one of the following alien organs:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Flame Belching Belly: 20ft cone, dealing 2d6, Agl Save for half. Flammable things light on fire.</li><li>Secondary Tongue: 20ft range, entangles and drags a target, Mgt Save to resist.</li><li>Stink Sack: All creatures within 50ft, must Save or be sickened, unable to cast or concentrate on spells and making all attacks with Disadvantage as their eyes water.</li></ul><div>Things of Value:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Umma's Staff of Spell Strike: Allows the wielder to make a free Mnd attack against a target within 30ft, dealing 1d6 after they cast a spell. Worth 500gp.</li><li>Umma's Ring of Mage Armor: Gives a Magic User +3AC. Worth 200gp.</li><li>The Organ Fabricator: A silver device made of spinning spheres, interlocked in an otherworldly organic fashion. This is a device stolen from the Cult of the Star Seekers. It can be used to transform biomass into particular organs. Giving one Spell Tumors is a basic function. More on this device in another post. It is worth 1000gp. The Cult may also thank you for returning it, for 1500gp.</li><li>Umma's Notes: Umma's spell book and notes on how to use the Organ Fabricator.</li><li>A Vat of Biomass: Gross, but perhaps useful for the Fabricator.</li><li>Umma's Roc, Wilfred: A giant red bird is tethered outside the cave, capable of carrying two riders. Umma must have stolen him from the Grand Rookery of the Feathered Fellows. This would make for a quick way to and from the city although the Roc is far too large to fit into most of the passages of the palace.</li></ul><div>Outside the mouth of the cave is a thin ledge that leads to the treacherous rock wall in area 32 and you can see the stair going down to the lower levels in area 31.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-37623659169596268952023-01-08T18:38:00.000-08:002023-01-08T18:38:13.685-08:00Sauna Elementals and a Mummified Goose (d23 Week 1)<p> Introduction to the Sunset Palace of the Starry Sultan: <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-sunset-palace-of-starry-sultan.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>I am using my <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2019/03/character-creation-during-play.html" target="_blank">own system</a> for notation reference, but I think it will be easily convertible to any OSR system or DCC.</p><p>The first level of the dungeon is the floor just beneath the furthest reaches of the current royal apartments. Guards rarely patrol this way, but they can sometimes be seen on this level.</p><p>Tonight is the Parade of Crowns where all the rulers of Itarra from the beginning are resurrected in the form of giant papier-mâché heads styled after the fashions of their deaths. This long night of drunken debauchery is a reminder to those in power of how fragile that power is. It is also the perfect night to sneak off to the Obsidian Gardens where you know the entrance to the lower levels lies.</p><p>This level is split between the ancient-beyond-ancient obsidian halls that are the oldest parts of the whole palace, the rough stone tunnels dug into the Impaling Cliffs, and the immaculate Byzantine tile, work of the Akavasian Emperors with the more modern refurbishments of Baloram the Great.</p><p>Factions:</p><p>The Custodian and his Interred Builders: Emperor Callaesis II interred his builders in the walls of the palace and even mummified much of his house staff upon his death. They now guard his treasures even in death. The Custodian the chief servant, a tall and rail-thin mummy in black-moth eaten robes, and blue sash, ever accompanied by his beloved mummified goose, Pickles. They want to protect the treasures of this place. They are at odds with the Gutter Kings and Vermen.</p><p>Gutter Kings: The Gutter Kings under the orders of the Crown of Buttons have begun to raid the palace. Their current leader is Patchface Gubbins, a business minded individual who has high reverence for Gutter Law and no reverence for anything else. They want to acquire loot and protect their own skins.</p><p>Vermen: Beast men who are hybrids of all vermin: rats, moths, worms, and raccoons. They are the lost descendants of some cursed royals sometime after the Myriad King but before the Akavasian Emperors. They dress in the ruined garb of nobility. They have come up to make their homes in the caves along the cliffs. They want to find food and survive.</p><p>The Star Seekers: The cult of those who worship the Gods from Beyond the Stars. They have been constructing a vessel for the Sultan to travel to the stars. They are also growing Silver Guards in vats to ensure their total loyalty. The Star Seekers want to maintain the secret of their work down here and complete the Silver Chariot of the Heavens.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-GoX54gAez9yMo3ZyMvxnrB0CBfhoXuZzgPQqeI2_T6GX6zCHc9uvLPN6nRoeDEaa-4uyVjgGqUhrT_qZKUbx2AM6oDIGOUlGX0Mk8XcEsmIn3etApAC3biyfgoMVpMDDn7s95K6QjanFNjgE3dpmRUiOirnaQ2nNZi9CcU8xgGQQSmIxC5JuUT0/s4690/Sunset%20Palace%20Map%20Lvl%201.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4690" data-original-width="4340" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW-GoX54gAez9yMo3ZyMvxnrB0CBfhoXuZzgPQqeI2_T6GX6zCHc9uvLPN6nRoeDEaa-4uyVjgGqUhrT_qZKUbx2AM6oDIGOUlGX0Mk8XcEsmIn3etApAC3biyfgoMVpMDDn7s95K6QjanFNjgE3dpmRUiOirnaQ2nNZi9CcU8xgGQQSmIxC5JuUT0/w592-h640/Sunset%20Palace%20Map%20Lvl%201.png" width="592" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">Made with Dungeon Scrawl</p><p><b>1: The Obsidian Gardens </b></p><p>The entrance you know into the lower levels of the palace is in the Obsidian Gardens, one of the oldest parts of the palace.</p><p>The gardens bear many ancient stones of pure obsidian which are wrapped around with large thorny vines that all appear to emerge from a thorny mass of a rose bush that has mostly consumed the largest stone in the center of the garden.</p><p>The door to the palace is an archway made of obsidian ringed with thorns. </p><p>Examining the bush in the middle reveals that there is an ancient skeleton tangled in the roses with something shining around its neck. </p><p>If any of the vines or the bush are disturbed, the Petal Wight is awakened.</p><p><u>Petal Wight</u>: +4 Thorny Claws (2d6+2), 22HP, 14AC, Saves: +2. Immune to Poison. SP: Thorn Whip: In addition to attacking, the Petal Wight may select a creature within 20ft of a thorny vine and command the vine to lash out. Save or take 1d4 damage. </p><p>Soul Suck: A single target within 10ft of the Wight must Save or their maximum HP is reduced by 1d4. This can only be removed by a Remove Curse or similar spell.</p><p>1d6 Happenings Outside the Gate</p><p>1: 2 Silver Guards patrol the gardens with a baleful green lantern. They bear large two-handed axes and wear silver masks like the face of a child with large lumpy turbans. </p><p>They fight with eerie silence and, if they are disrobed, the party will discover inhuman bodies beneath like tumors grown into the rough shape of large men with no discernable sense organs or any features at all but lumpy growths.</p><p><u>Silver Guard</u>: +3 Brutal Halberd (1d12), 12HP, 15AC, Saves: +0. Immune to Blindness and Charm.</p><p>2: A thief (lvl 1) in a black cloak appears to be standing outside the door trying to convince himself to enter. Benedar Pahreem is an inexperienced and cowardly thief. He might be inclined to join you but he also might run away. He is a spoiled noble son with minimal experience, but he has finery worth 20gp on his person in addition to 3 decorative letter openers worth 3 silver each. His mother might repay you if you bring him to her.</p><p>3: The thorns have grown over the door and must be removed to pass.</p><p>4: A crew of 1d4 Gutter King Smackers and 1d4 Shooters are also entering the palace along with their leader, Patchface Gubbins. They are only concerned with profit and will only commit violence to protect their claim according to Gutter Law: "He who finds keeps."</p><p><u>Gutter King Smacker</u>: +2 Begging Cudgel (1d6), 4HP, 12AC. Saves: +1.</p><p><u>Gutter King Shooter</u>: +1 Crossbow (1d6), 2HP, 10AC. Saves: -1.</p><p><u>Patchface Gubbins</u>: +3 Spiked Cudgel (1d6+1), 6HP, 13AC. Saves: +2.</p><p>5: A dead adventurer is entangled in the vines. It looks like they got out of the palace only to die in the gardens. On their person is 2d6 gp in exquisite silks, a Ring of Lesser Invisibility, a short sword, and a map that reveals layout of the first level where he has marked the location of the resting place of Grand Student Gamaliel but it is also marked with the warning: "Guarded by the Thing."</p><p>6: The spirit of Princess Mera weeps in the garden. She will tell how she took poison as their enemies took the palace, and how her spirit cannot go to the afterlife since she was not given a proper burial as per the rites of the Living Temple. She can direct you to her body but warns that a giant hand, a holy relic of Saint Armasius, is guarding her body.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>2: The Too Still Pool</b></p><p>An indoor pool like a tub for personal bathing set into a floor made of obsidian bricks. The pool is filled to the brim with what might be mistaken for water with a thick gray film but closer examination reveals it to be a cloudy gray gelatinous substance. The ooze makes no move to attack unless something touches it. </p><p>At the bottom of the pool is the skeletal body of a human. They have something shiny on their finger. Up close it is a gold ring with a huge ruby gem worth 50gp. </p><p>There is a damaged brick at the lip of the pool. It looks like the mortar holding it in place is gone and there is a large crack on the side adjacent to the pool. If anyone lifts up the brick as it is, the ooze will spill into the place the brick was. </p><p>Underneath the brick is a golden bottle. If you want to snatch it up as the ooze pours in, you'll have to Save, otherwise the ooze will be alerted. Within the bottle are Lotions of Desire. </p><p>Lotions of Desire: 3 Uses. Apply to the skin and say aloud the name of the person or creature you wish to attract and you will become the object of their rabid desire. This isn't necessarily sexual but could be hunger or merely possessive depending on the target.</p><p><u>Sticky Gray Ooze</u>: Surprisingly Quick Pseudopod (Save or be grappled as the ooze tries to draw you in. Save each round or be pulled 5ft.) 35HP, 3AC, Saves: +4 Mgt, +0 Mnd -3 Agl. SP: Sticky to the Touch. Anyone who touches or is touched by the ooze automatically find ooze clinging to their body that simply will not come off. So long as the ooze sticks to a creature, the ooze always knows where it is. </p><p>Quicky Pudding: the ooze can move with surprising swiftness, surpassing most characters. However, it has minimal control over its rolling movements and turns very poorly. </p><p>Choke: The ooze eats by choking its victims within its mass and then slowly digesting their body over years. Each round a consumed creature must Save. If they fail three times, they are choked to death. </p><p>Acidic Weakness: The ooze is not weak to water but it is weak to acid, even weakly acidic things like vinegar or alcohol. Each time anything acidic touches the ooze, it takes 3d6 damage and any damage dealt with acid attacks is doubled. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>3: Wine Cellar</b></p><p>Ancient forgotten wines line the walls in nooks in the obsidian. All have become vinegar by now. </p><p>One of the nooks has moss growing out from it and spilling onto the wall. If the bottom bottle is pulled out, a secret tunnel is revealed that leads to Area 5.</p><p>On subsequent delves or upon returning to this room after an extended period of time, roll a random encounter in this room. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>4: Steamy Sauna</b></p><p>At first, the room ahead of you merely appears to be full of steam and yet passing through it appears to not be possible. There is a feeling of tension that increases like a wall of pressure of a gale force wind. After being rebuffed, you can make out two round, chubby faces made out of steam, looking at you with placid smiles. One of the three Sweatloafs turn to you, “Greetings, friend. Come in! The steam is wonderful today! There is room for all!” </p><p>There is evidently not room for all as their large bodies prevent all from entering. You can see through their semi-translucent bodies that there is a glowing coal in a stone bowl in the middle over which one languidly pours water with a little scoop, seeming to create the very steam which composes their bodies.</p><p>All passage through the room is impossible. It would take something hitting with the force of a cannonball to just shove through.</p><p>The Sweatloafs totally lack the ability to read the room. They mean no ill will, but they are very unaware. They are literally created of the steam, but the reason they give for staying in the sauna is that it is pleasurable. They want you to come join them, but are totally confused by your inability to enter the room with them. They, as vapor, easily share space with each other. They are not aggressive at all and will not attack even to defend themselves. If they are driven out of their sauna with no easy way back in, they will simply fade away.</p><p>Magic can affect them, but regular physical weapons are useless. It is like trying to swing a sword at a gale force wind. A strong gale of wind might blow them around. The Coal cannot be permanently extinguished, but it can be temporarily cooled which is uncomfortable for the Sweatloafs. They might also be enticed to move to a better sauna if they can be given a path of alluring steam to sustain themselves.</p><p>This sauna is fueled by a Living Coal, a smack talking flame demon bound into a coal which is perpetually alight. Set on any flammable surface, it will start a small fire. Introduced to any person, it will insult them. The Living Coal also has a rather remarkable capacity to magically fuel and control any magical apparatus which is empty of fuel or control mechanism, so long as the Coal can physically fit. Any golem that would ordinarily be commanded by a demon but which stands empty can instead be possessed by the Coal.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>5: Mossy Nook</b></p><p>To get in this nook, you must crawl through a tunnel, entirely covered in moss. It opens up into a tall space with sunlight coming from above with a mossy floor below, dotted with gray flowers. Floating and climbing around this room are several rabbit sized moth-like creatures, glowing soft white light. </p><p>In the middle of this room, there is a mostly moss covered obsidian statue of some ancient person. It has an air of holiness. It looks like a woman that the moss has given a cloak. She is an ancient spirit known as the Moss Mother. If you bring her samples of the moss from around the palace, she can turn them into magic portals for you to travel to this room and to any moss you have already discovered. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>6: Stores</b></p><p>Old crates fill this room, yet some of their contents might yet be viable. Each crate has elaborate, apparently decorative markings on them. Magic Users might recognize them as Wards of Silent Alarm and Thief Mark. If any of the boxes are taken or opened without the wards being dispelled, the Custodian will know and will be able to see whoever did so outlined in golden light. If the wards are triggered, the Custodian will immediately go to the room followed by 1d4+1 Interred Builders. They will arrive in 1d6 rounds. The Thief Mark can only be removed with a Remove Curse or similar spell.</p><p><u>The Custodian</u>: +3 Thief Fire (1d6/1d8 against Thief Marked targets, range 50ft, gives the next ally who attacks the target Advantage on their attack roll) 13HP, 12AC, Saves: +3. SP: Chief Servant: Each round the Custodian may direct one of their Interred Builders or Pickles to make an additional attack against any creature that bears the Thief Mark.</p><p>The Custodian is a rail-thin undead chief servant from a forgotten monarch. He wishes to protect the palace from robbers and is relentless against thieves and vandals. He might be convinced to overlook your trespasses and even reward you, if you will help him against the Gutter Kings and Vermen. If he is killed, his body turns to dust and reforms in his sarcophagus, unless the sarcophagus is destroyed, in which case, he is immediately killed. He is accompanied by his pet mummified goose, Pickles, which also reappears in the Custodian’s sarcophagus when killed.</p><p><u>Pickles</u>: +1 War-like Bite (1 damage, Save or Pickles holds on, giving you Disadvantage on any rolls you make until the goose is removed.) 2HP, 9AC, Saves: +1. </p><p>Pickles has seen some shit.</p><p><u>Interred Builders</u>: +2 Hammer or Pick (1d6), 5HP, 10AC, Saves: -2. SP: Double Tap: When an Interred Servant hits 0 or less HP, roll 1d6. On a 5+, the Servant returns to life with 1HP. This happens unless the Servant is damaged with holy magic or fire.</p><p>The revenant builders who made most of the palace were rewarded by being entombed in its walls. They do not truly die but reform over time so long as their original bones remain in the walls.</p><p>Searching the crates takes a turn but reveals the following valuable contents:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Fragrant Herbs from Axum. This large heavy crate is worth 100gp or 5gp for each small bag taken from it. The whole crate would require a person to carry it slowly with both hands.</li><li>Exotic Yellow Spice from the Purple Deserts of Khanum-Nor. This large heavy crate is worth 100gp or 5gp for each small bag taken from it. The whole crate would require a person to carry it slowly with both hands.</li><li>4 Golden Fertility Idols/Marital Aids: Worth 25gp each.</li><li>A Large Sparkling Egg: Some might be convinced this is a true dragon egg and pay upwards of 100,000gp, but this is only a wyrm egg and is more worth 500gp. When exposed to fire for a month, the egg will hatch into a wyrm and imprint upon the first living thing it sees. Wyrms are dragon-like creatures that do not grow larger than a donkey. They can breathe fire and are vicious hunters, but they do not fly.</li><li>An Orb of Scrying: So long as you have a small piece of a creature or item, you may scry it through the orb, knowing its current condition and general location.</li><li>Sparking Dust from the Rainbow Isles: Metallic-dust the color of bronze that sparkles and makes a loud popping sound when thrown or set alight. The whole crate would explode in a 10ft radius dealing 2d6 damage of half on a save, but would also make tremendous noise calling for an encounter check. This large heavy crate is worth 100gp or 5gp for each small bag taken from it. The whole crate would require a person to carry it slowly with both hands</li></ul><div><br /></div><p></p><div><b>7: The Demon</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The floor here is black and white tile. The curtains along the edges are moth-eaten red velvet. There are several chairs and couches here of ruined purple leather. </div><div><br /></div><div>There is a statue here of the Twin Crains of Fate and Folly worth 100gp. And an Icon of Saint Armasius gilted with gold and silver worth 50gp or it can be used against any of the Relics of Saint Armasius. Any Relic must make a Mnd Save to attack a welder of the Icon.</div><div><br /></div><div>If they haven't encountered him already, the demon, Count Vikaris, is here. </div><div><br /></div><div>Count Vikaris is a lesser emanation of King Paidon, one of the most powerful demons bound in the Myriad Ring. He is a servant of warmth against the winter chill, the winter chill itself, the pleasure, and madness of alcohol. He will find any remotely competent sorcerer who will seek out the Myriad Ring to bind himself to.</div><div><br /></div><div>Count Vikaris manifests as a horse's skull with red glowing eyes, topped with three lit candles, trailing a long mane of gray hair, with two chicken feet protruding from it. </div><div><br /></div><div>He will offer a standard binding contract so long as the binder is working towards the goal of attaining the Myriad Ring.</div><div><br /></div><div>Count Vikaris is mostly an incorporeal spirit that must make an effort to materially manifest. As per his standard binding contract, these are the services he will provide. The Greater Services will only be performed if offerings are given to the demon on a 1 to 1 basis.</div><div><br /></div><div>At Will Services:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Will grab an object up to 5lbs within 50ft like Mage Hand.</li><li>Create a light like a candle flame within 50ft.</li><li>Create a chilly wind or an aura of warmth.</li></ul><div>Greater Services:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Induce drunkenness in all creatures in a 10ft radius within a range of 30ft. Save to resist.</li><li>Create a gale force wind, targets in a 20ft line must Save or be knocked prone.</li><li>Invisibly and incorporeally scout out an area within 200ft of the binder.</li></ul><div>Offerings:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Alcohol worth at least 15gp</li><li>A spell slot</li></ul><div><br /></div></div><div><b>8: The Resting Place of Princess Mera</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The body of Princess Mera lies on the altar of this chapel, a grand if somewhat small room with a high arched ceiling, crossed with buttresses, whose heights cannot even be seen in dim light. Icons of saints cover the walls and a glorious icon of the Living One stands beyond the altar. It is the Reunion of all Flesh depicted there as all those who have believed in the Body Imperishable join together with the Living One in perfect horrific unity.</div><div><br /></div><div>The body of the princess has been here for ages and yet it has not been marked by corruption. She lies pristine, having been chosen for sainthood, and her body will see no decay. If the body can be brought back to her family or to the church of the Living One, it is worth 5000gp. Protecting this body from the darkness of the ceiling is the Hand of Saint Armasius, an enormous, pale, strangely-feminine hand, plated with gold and platinum and embedded with white diamonds.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Hand will do anything to prevent her body from being touched at all. The Hand cannot be reasoned with even by clerics and knights of the Living Temple. It is single-mindedly devoted to protecting her body. However, if the proper rites are given to the body, the Hand will immediately know and be mollified. At which point, a knight or cleric of the Living Temple can beseech it and it will transform back into a precious relic worth 1000gp. The Hand will also transform this way if it is brought to 0HP. There is another Hand on this level yet, however. </div><div><br /></div><div><div><u>The Hand of Saint Armasius</u>: +4 Flick (1d6+2, 2 Attacks), 40HP, 12AC, Saves: +6 Mgt, +4 Agl, +3 Mnd. Immune to Holy Magic, Poison, and Acid. SP: Each round, in addition to its Flick, the Hand may choose one of actions, below. At 20HP or less, it may choose two.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hand of Blessing: All creatures that can see the Hand must make a Mnd Save or their flesh begins to crawl as their own limbs squirm in rebellion, gaining Disadvantage on all rolls requiring control over your own body. If a target fails this Save three times in one day, one of their limbs gains a life of it's own and detaches from their body.</div><div><br /></div><div>Smack Down: At the end of its combat turn, the Hand takes the form of an upright fist. At the beginning of it's next combat turn, the fist crashes down on everything 10ft in front of it. Everything in the area takes 4d6 damage, Save for half.</div><div><br /></div><div>Holy Rays: The gems embedded in the Hand fire out 3 Beams. Each target must Save or take 2d6. This power must recharge. Each round the Hand rolls 1d6 and on a 5+, the power recharges.</div><div><br /></div><div>Dazzling Radiance: All creatures that can see the Hand must Save or be Blinded for one round and be unable to move on their next combat turn.</div></div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-39848746867394324752022-12-27T23:01:00.003-08:002022-12-27T23:01:51.955-08:00The Sunset Palace of the Starry Sultan (Dungeon 23 Intro)<p> They call Itarra, the City of Many Crowns, because many crowns have been broken here. Throughout the ages, empires have fought over this seat, faiths have declared it holy and profane, and kings have built their palaces here as signs of their victory and as markers of their legacy. Or at least that is the idea. Starting a whole new palace from scratch is a lot of work, so each ruler who takes over the palace of Itarra instead just builds over the old one, creating an ever-expanding labyrinth of tangled opulence and pointless pomp. The palace has become so large that the entire current royal family and their whole staff of servants and concubines all live in about one tenth of the palace. The rest of the twisting halls are basically deserted although many things have been left behind and not all of them are placid treasures waiting to be plundered. Each new monarch thinks their treasures are worth guarding even after their death and so many guardians and traps lie in wait. Monsters, vagabonds, holdovers from old regimes, and things far stranger lurk in these halls. Do not be blinded by gold or you might miss the dagger at your throat.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1btSVNKRVqgGP5dRt_-9pTGZSuiY7oprrzuO-fNcTqpI356SLiYouDuqSp7V4iFfzqEldN78Ilfec0Idk1fn3j0nu-E8hggdPwE6flPKqFQM61waVtX4R-Zye1DAq30mCbIovXEA8RnrwzSurh4SLB5Mzau-Q5j6PiSnpjPIJ45_cvDzPB6_KtsmM/s750/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="750" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1btSVNKRVqgGP5dRt_-9pTGZSuiY7oprrzuO-fNcTqpI356SLiYouDuqSp7V4iFfzqEldN78Ilfec0Idk1fn3j0nu-E8hggdPwE6flPKqFQM61waVtX4R-Zye1DAq30mCbIovXEA8RnrwzSurh4SLB5Mzau-Q5j6PiSnpjPIJ45_cvDzPB6_KtsmM/w400-h225/image.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>This is my overview for the setting surrounding my Dungeon 23 entry. I recently watched Three Thousand Years of Longing and the idea of this gigantic palace in a city like Istanbul with different regimes taking over, one after the other, really intrigued me but this idea developed until the city became like a mixture of Rome and Istanbul and Babylon and even a little Jerusalem. </p><p>The current ruler is Sultan Salamane II who returned from exile to kill his brother and take the throne. He returned from exile much changed, perpetually wearing a strange silver mask like the face of a child with a star on its brow and a ridiculously enormous turban. It is said the new monarch prays to strange Gods from Beyond the Stars and has invited members of the Cult of Star Seekers into the palace. This is fairly shocking considering the kings of the east by and large worship the Slumber Lord and no one has hardly even heard of this foreign cult. In this time where even the local guard is wary of the sultan, it seems like a good time to rob the place.</p><p>1d20 Character Backgrounds:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Brass Binder: Arms covered in ceremonial brass rings, red sash dangling with all manner of bottles. The Brass Binders of Itarra once ruled the city under the Myriad King who was a sorcerer rumored to be the wisest man to ever live. Following his teachings, they bind demons, djinn, and angels alike to their service to perform magic.</li><li>Petal Maenad: The pleasure mad devotees of the 12 Petal Muses, goddesses of debauchery, art, and madness. The cult of the Muses once ruled this city and still their brothel temples continue to attract "pilgrims" to this day.</li><li>Mute Novitiate: Slaves with potential are purchased from the pits by the Mutes, an order of assassins who have been so influential in overthrowing rulers in Itarra that they now mostly serve themselves. After their initial training, Novitiates are encouraged to seek out danger so they can speak of their Seven Deeds and have their tongues cut off to fully enter the order. </li><li>Feathered Fellow: One of the fancifully dressed pirates, thieves, and raiders that belong to the many different gangs of the city who wear colored feathers to show their allegiance. Long ago this was a cult of the Great Birds of Fortune: the twin Crains of Fate and Folly and the Peacock of Extravagant Risk. They butt heads with the Gutter Kings.</li><li>Alchemist Monk: The Alchemist came and spoke of the Eternal Mysteries before achieving a new immortal state of existence and vanishing from this world. His followers have long studied the Mysteries to follow in his footsteps. Many Grand Students have been interred with their final notes in the palace.</li><li>Physician Astrologer: For the physicians of Itarra, your horoscope is as important as your symptoms. The stars above will help guide us to the cure just as they guide sailors across the sea. Some of this order have been seduced by the strange sciences of the new Cult of Star Seekers.</li><li>Hammer of Har-a'Diin: One of the mercenaries of the Hammers, northmen brought to the city to serve Akavasian Emperors but they also became so integral to selecting the next monarch that they began to rule the city themselves in all but name. Their order mostly collapsed due to growing fat and lazy, and they were driven out by the Iron Prince. The order lingers around the city mostly as swords for hire, drunks, and ruffians.</li><li>Reliquary Knight: An uncommon sight in the city, these westerners return to the city in search of the relics of the Living One's saints. Just as the Living One died a Thousand Deaths and yet could not die, so too do the relics of his saints remain in their wondrous incorruptibility, but Reliquary Knights exist for a reason. Outside the light of the Living Temple (the church), the relics of the saints take on strange new life and lash out at heathen captor and believer alike.</li><li>Dust Scholar: The College of Dust in False Tower maintains a vast collection of ancient scrolls and historical artifacts. Scholars of this school seek out history and bring it to light.</li><li>Masked Stranger: Abyssia is a land steeped in mystery. It is said a single gift from them ended the Akavasian Empire. Everyone in Abyssia wears a mask, constantly and it is rumored they consort with demons and gods to this day, trading their humanity for otherworldly powers.</li><li>Spear of Abiodun: Warriors from the south, said to be from the far off city of Axum which is said to rival Itarra in its splendor, but is hidden from all the world. Yet, their warriors and envoys come bearing gifts and stories of Axum's impossible grandeur.</li><li>Morphean Sailor: Mystics of the Slumber Lord, God of Dreams, who sail the Sea of Dreams in ships of cedar and gold while they sleep, hoping to transcend the Waking World entirely.</li><li>Gutter King: The Iron Prince escaped death at the hands of King Baloram the Great, not to be confused with the later Baloram the Cowardly. It is said he escaped into the gutters and sewers of Itarra to become the first Gutter King, taking the beggars, urchins, and thieves of the city and transforming them into a kingdom of the discarded. "Each one has his crown" so they say. The Gutter Kings have divided the city six ways under the Crowns, but it is Gutter Law that reigns. The Iron Prince wrote this law by hand and it has been passed down and amended by the various Moots throughout the centuries, the most democratic body in the world as each King has his vote. </li><li>Key Maker: Itarra's intricacy and age makes it the most fantastic city in all the world but also the most difficult to navigate. It doesn't help that the Myriad King built large parts of the city with spirits, binding them into the very bricks and mortar. The city shifts and moves, secret ways opening and closing. Many homes, temples, and palaces were left simply abandoned and built over. The Key Maker's Guild alone holds the secrets of navigating the forgotten recesses of this strange city.</li><li>Goldsmith Guildsman: Anyone in the business of handling large sums of money is a member of the Goldsmiths Guild. Sultan Rabaan the Mad once outlawed all other Guilds and so business quickly consolidated. It remains the traditional guild of merchants, bankers, and actual goldsmiths. </li><li>Paradise Gardener: The Paradise Gardens of Itarra is one of the wonders of the world. Flowers, birds, and beasts from all over the world have been brought into this massive garden in a great crystal dome and arranged into fantastic beauty. Generations of gardeners have lived and died in the gardens, attending to their duties with religious fervor.</li><li>Cat: Just a regular cat or so it might seem. Itarra is freaking full of them, but many are truly familiars or were familiars of wizards who were killed during the numberless attacks on the city. </li><li>King Mocker: Impersonators of the countless monarchs who have ruled over the city. They are essentially folk historians who are always in demand in taverns and play a special role in the annual Parade of Crowns were performers in giant paper mache heads become a great procession of kings all depicted in the manner of their deaths all the way back to the Myriad King. This is a continuous reminder to the current monarch that their power is bitterly fragile.</li><li>Fountain Fate: Some fortune tellers are frauds but the oracular tradition of the Fountain Fates has endured as a true school of divination and the reason for the countless fountains throughout Itarra.</li><li>Homunculus: The Heretic Flesh Workers who splintered off the Brass Binders endeavored to bind demons into fleshly forms grown in vats. This turned out to be a fantastic failure as such incarnation is antithetical to demons. However, a different sort of spirit inhabited these little twisted bodies with a childish intelligence and a mischievous nature. These odd small beings have come to be servants of the many magical practitioners of the city. They are loyal if impish and learn voraciously though they are rarely ambitious. Noone is exactly sure where these spirits come from, but they don't age and so many have outlived their sculptors. </li></ol><div>1d6 Hooks and Rumors:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Myriad King sealed his ring in a vault in the depths of the palace. The Myriad Ring holds the bindings of countless spirits and would make the one who finds it incredibly powerful.</li><li>The only Feathered Fellow to ever take over Itarra lasted a whole month before infighting and greed took over. Alania "Kingfisher" Nahreem, thief-priestess of the Twin Crains, fled into the depths of the palace with her loot and was never found. </li><li>Sultan Salamane II, the current monarch, has allowed the Cult of the Star Seekers to practice their strange sciences on one of the lower levels. Rumor has it they are constructing a fabulous silver chariot that will ride the heavens to bring the Sultan to the Gods from Beyond the Stars.</li><li>Three Grand Students of the Alchemist served the Iron Prince, experimenting on growing and implanting new organs capable of giving the qualities of the Immortal Body. You might find their notes and interred bodies in the palace.</li><li>The relics of Saint Armasius have been scattered throughout the palace whose devotion to the Living One has allowed his relics to retain their life and grow, lashing out at all who come near with holy rage. Nevertheless, the relics are sacred and valuable.</li><li>Princess Darzzana the Pale was the daughter of King Baloram the Cowardly who fled the city before Sultan Daliim the Empire Builder arrived with his armies. However, the princess did not accompany the king in his retreat and her body was never recovered. The western kingdom of Entralia is now ruled by King Baloram the VI and he will pay handsomely for her remains. Yet, some say she still lives in her beloved mushroom garden.</li></ol></div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-85581506455598219432022-12-13T07:47:00.000-08:002022-12-13T07:47:13.495-08:00Literal Wizards<p style="text-align: center;"> <i>"The secret of magic is that there is no magic!"</i></p><p><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>- Oscrobulis the Phlegmatic</span><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihYzJFySoYIo3t6pzYHF0dQ9I0hgdposjLTn2b2JxfjinTEhRQlvysivhWR090omFNhwjntnB2H0Ghl2o7asbBVqAcw5bsTn34oB-iWRF8iaTDJ8FxzJ0DeF5N7xAOuQRKIpY8iLZVDeQZYOh_qjdX6x9Zel3qquUaKLVaumkjY5fko6RYXvMNRMpB/s768/Orbponder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="453" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihYzJFySoYIo3t6pzYHF0dQ9I0hgdposjLTn2b2JxfjinTEhRQlvysivhWR090omFNhwjntnB2H0Ghl2o7asbBVqAcw5bsTn34oB-iWRF8iaTDJ8FxzJ0DeF5N7xAOuQRKIpY8iLZVDeQZYOh_qjdX6x9Zel3qquUaKLVaumkjY5fko6RYXvMNRMpB/w236-h400/Orbponder.jpg" width="236" /></a></div><p></p><p><span>Wizards are magic nerd jerks.</span></p><p>That is what they seem to be and so that is what they are.</p><p>In Overtia, everything is exactly what it seems to be.</p><p><b>Know it All</b></p><p>Wizards know more than you by definition and they are horrendously aware of it. Wizards are wise men. Wise because they know things. Men because sexism. They are those nerdy guys who think they are being so funny by making references to media you don't know. They are the embodiment of "Umm akshually..." They always want to be perceived as intellectually and knowledgeable even in areas they know nothing about. Their ignorance will not stop them from trying to correct the writer of a paper about their own work.</p><p><b>There is No Magic</b></p><p>Wizards try to know it all because knowledge is power. This universe was rather shoddily constructed. It has glitches and exploits and if you know how to take advantage of them, you can do incredible things. That's right, wizards are the dudes who use exploits in multiplayer games. What assholes. Thus, there is no one thing called "magic," but rather enough study into anything might bring one to a point where you have understood one of the Secrets of the universe. These Secrets are carefully guarded. Knowledge of one of the Secrets can make one immensely powerful. Many wizards never actually learn one of the Secrets but rather only learn spells.</p><p>Spells instruct a wizard in a particular application of a Secret while also deliberately obscuring the actual Secret used. So most spells are about 80% nonsense and 20% actual esoteric power, but no one is completely sure of what is nonsense and what is power except the wizard who wrote the spell. Wizards do this because they have an undying need to be superior even to other wizards, but also because if a Secret is widespread enough, whoever the developers of the universe are might patch it out. </p><p>The Secret of <strike>REDACTED</strike> was once patched out of existence only for Ascrabius the Loser to scream at the sky: "WHATEVER LOW PAID OVERWORKED INTERN RESPONSIBLE FOR WHIPING THE ASSES OF THEIR SUPERIORS AND TAKING AWAY EVERYTHING FUN IN THIS WRETCHED UNIVERSE CAN DROP DE..." Before he was mysteriously deleted. </p><p>*Checks notes* who were we talking about again? I don't know who that is... Anyway...</p><p>The gods might also think you are getting uppity and crush you with a large stone. This has been the fate of far too many wizards, like Smashius the Crushed which was surprisingly his name and epitaph far before his much deserved smooshing.</p><p><b>1d6 Beginner's Secrets</b></p><p>Some wizarding schools make their students learn at least one of the beginner Secrets in order to be called wizards. Here are some Secrets that are subtle and weak enough that their wide propagation is unthreatening.</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Secret of Sparks: The Secret of Fire is a godlike power that only one wizard, Phoebe the Phoenix Empress, has ever learned, but the Secret of Sparks is different. Many underestimate Sparks as just the tiny embers that can start a fire with flammable material or perhaps the flashy bursts of light to catch the eye. You can summon both such things at will, however the Secret of Sparks is a far more powerful thing. It is the tiny burst of energy that unleashes a tidal wave of pent up potential. If someone or something is primed and ready to do something and just needs the tiniest of pushes to do so, this Secret will push them over the edge.</li><li>The Secret of One's Own Shadow: You can make friends with your own shadow. This requires feeding your shadow regularly and keeping up a good rapport with it. Then you can manipulate your shadow any way you desire and even manipulate small objects that your shadow falls upon. The greater secret of this Secret is the ability to integrate one's own shadow self, to harness the dark side of yourself when needed.</li><li>The Secret of Being Ignored: Walk just right. Keep your eyes down. Walk with the tired assurance of one who begrudgingly belongs. There are certain absolute signifiers that make eyes slide right over you and the mastery of these things will ensure you will always be ignored. There are secret ways and unseen paths for those who are ignored.</li><li>The Secret of Fingernails: You have perfect mastery over all fingernails. This is gross.</li><li>The Secret of Saliva: Make yourself or surfaces you can touch sticky or slick through precise control of your glands and bodily fluids. The diet required to achieve this effect is obscene.</li><li>The Secret of Petrichor: Petrichor is the smell of dust after rain, the pleasant odor of the dry earth receiving water once more. The Secret of Petrichor might be the most subtle and most powerful of the lesser Secrets. Here is the sweet union of heaven and earth. Here is rebirth and new life rising from the ashes. Here is the oldest promise kept. Here is the future born and new possibilities are born. Here there is hope that something might grow from the dry soil. For a beginning practitioner, the Secret of Petrichor might allow one to freshen old and dried out things, renew food that has gone gone stale or rotten, or create a small amount of moisture. For one who has gained true insight and risen to mastery, you might clothe dry bones with flesh and cause rivers to flow in a wasteland.</li></ol><div><b>1d6 Wizard Hooks</b></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The Grand Tome of Transcendent Digestion, said to contain clues to the Secret of Flatulence, is 248 years overdue. The last wizard who checked it out of the Old Library Under the Log was Foorbon the Incalculable who made his home among the Dusty Catacombs of the Dry Baron. He is probably dead, though his home will no doubt contain many dangers.</li><li>You've been challenged to a Wizard duel by Poriphirus the Unmanly. Rumor has it she has discovered a new an powerful Secret. You must discover what it is to have any chance of beating her.</li><li>You have discovered an annotated copy of the spell Bigby's Hand from Bigby, himself! Somewhere within this spell is the Secret of Shadow Puppets, somehow. You have enough information to begin experimenting with the spell although this is a dangerous and even deadly endeavor and the spell will react unpredictably as you meddle with its formulation.</li><li>Therapian the Slithering has uncovered the Secret of Snakes and he has created a cabal of mages by passing down spells based on the Secret. This cabal has been terrorizing the countryside and enslaving people for their nefarious ends. If you can steal Therapian's personal grimoire, you could put an end to this cult.</li><li>You are convinced that your mom knows the Secret of the Evil Eye. She is totally unwilling to even discuss this with you let alone share this Secret. You don't even know if she consciously understands that she knows this Secret. This might be worth studying.</li><li>The Night Lords discovered the Secret of Undeath and transformed themselves into liches to spite the moon aka the goddess Luna, Mother of Shades. You have found a map to one of their ancient cities where it is said that a Night Lord still unlives. </li></ol></div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-78755377807588812802022-10-23T18:08:00.000-07:002022-10-23T18:08:44.462-07:00Literal Gods<p> Gods are big sky jerks.</p><p>That is what they seem to be and so that is what they are.</p><p>In the land of Overtia everything is exactly what is seems to be. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTE3JpfW4ryCJtwPkbuIm6sVN4kvUKfeAJvL0WrPy25eRg-XxU4bNJF4GVbkLmaqs6mDN_bjUIxT7kF4dUGTcgavurL56h8MJKArnmiXAePx8fLywa8zew8UcrBdXUMMGq4dfTff66bi6imWOExg0utZJ0mP7X98HqghTn6acCzNnStlxkO1k6eYwS/s902/giants.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="902" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTE3JpfW4ryCJtwPkbuIm6sVN4kvUKfeAJvL0WrPy25eRg-XxU4bNJF4GVbkLmaqs6mDN_bjUIxT7kF4dUGTcgavurL56h8MJKArnmiXAePx8fLywa8zew8UcrBdXUMMGq4dfTff66bi6imWOExg0utZJ0mP7X98HqghTn6acCzNnStlxkO1k6eYwS/w400-h280/giants.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><b>Heaven is Up</b></p><p>Gigas Divinitas is the species we have come to call gods. They are native to the celestial sea of Ouranos. It is known that there are other species in the Gigas genus, such as Gigas Titanicus, often called giants who are thought to be native our sphere and this sea, but are suspected to be losers in some ancient cosmic war.</p><p>Basically, heaven is up. The gods live in the clouds and in the spheres of heaven.</p><p>There are all kinds of minor gods who have made their homes in sky castles and golden sky yachts. Your average god is a large humanoid creature with varying numbers of limbs, heads, and secondary features. The gods are shapeshifters but rarely use this ability to take on any shape but one that distinguishes them from other gods. Why would they want to appear like any kind of inferior creature anyway? </p><p>For one of the endemic features of the gods is pride. All gods have God Complexes and this should surprise no one. The lesser gods are petty tyrants, bullying worshippers into praise and holding raucous parties on their sky yachts. Gratefully, the gods are mostly pretty distant, uninterested in boring mortal matters, and terrifically lazy. They can rarely be bothers to perform a divine act of judgement or even to protect their worshippers as they are meant to do.</p><p><b>Worship and Girth</b></p><p>The other important feature of divine life is worship. All worship fuels the gods and gives them their divine power. The more divine power they have, the bigger they get. I mentioned earlier that the gods live in the spheres of heaven. This is true, but the gods also are the spheres of heaven. The gods that receive the most worship have already ascended to heaven and have taken on forms appropriate for gravity, that being spheres. The sun in the sky is Sol the Bright Lord. The moon is Luna the Mother of Shades. All the spheres in the sky are the greater gods, this is why they all very clearly have faces.</p><p><b>Clerics and Treaties</b></p><p>In the Age of Night, mortals attempted to stop worshipping the gods and hid their dead from the Mother of Shades in an attempt to take power over their own destiny. The Mother responded in anger and mortals and the gods entered an all out war. This eventually ended the age as the Mother's forces failed and she called upon gods stronger than her, summoning the Bright Lord and heralding the Age of Day. </p><p>In the aftermath of this, mortal resistance was destroyed along with most civilization being buried, yet the demand for worship for all the newly arrived gods was at an all time high. Mortals still had leverage and so agreements were crafted and the clerks who were meant to oversee this new bureaucracy of praise eventually came to be known as clerics. Still to this day clerics mediate disagreements on behalf of mortals as per the ancient treaties and pacts and are granted special amounts of divine power as compensation as per the 39th Treaty of Mediators, paragraph 6, subsections 1-53. These lengthy volumes of divine law have become holy scripture and many clerics have forgotten that the purpose of these agreements were for the benefit of mankind, to the surprise as no one.</p><p><b>Angels and Divine Power</b></p><p>Divine power is literally contained in the bodies of gods. It can be used to many different effects as you might expect. The primary nature of divinity is authority. The gods have taken a special place in the cosmic order and so are granted authority by the universal mind. Divine acts temporarily awaken the cosmic consciousness of both animate and inanimate matter. Many wizards have tried to crack the Secret of Divinity to no avail, but even the attempt often ends up with the wizard being flattened by a large rock thrown down from heaven. Good riddance.</p><p>Angels are the sustained granting of cosmic consciousness by the distribution of a select amount of divine power into one of the god's body parts, usually for a very specific purpose that the god is too lazy to do themselves. Basically, they take off an arm, eye, or other member and give it some divine power and usually but not always wings. For lesser gods and lesser angels, they do not have enough divine power to change their forms in meaningful ways and these poor divine messengers end up stuck as eyes or arms with wings if they are lucky. Also their jobs might vary widely. No one wants to be poor Moraliel who was a hand detached so some lesser god wouldn't have to wipe for themselves.</p><p>For angels created by greater gods, they often have the power to change their shapes and tend to take on ostentatious shapes of beauty or strangeness because why not? Greater angels can actually be more powerful than lesser gods. Angels, being literally the universe awakened are far chiller and more empathetic that their divine creators. </p><p><b>Reproduction (Gross)</b></p><p>Gods bang. They bang often. The alignment of the heavenly spheres is most often an orgy and the grunting can be heard throughout the solar system. Gods are, however, not particularly fertile and so the birth of a divine child is pretty rare. Indeed, the major danger of getting on the bad side of lesser gods is not their own wrath, but the wrath of their parents when their kids come tattling. </p><p><b>Death or the Lack Thereof</b></p><p>Gods don't die easily. Their bodies will disperse into divine power and reform eventually though this can take many years for lesser divinities. There are some ancient weapons from the Age of Night that are said to be able to permanently kill gods. Oh no, you better not go looking for those...</p><p><b>1d8 Character Ideas:</b></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A runt god, a lesser god born of lesser gods, standing just a little taller than most humans. What is your incredibly specific domain? </li><li>A legalistic cleric. Are you an idealistic activist fighting for the little guy? Are you a jaded opportunist trying to use the system for your advantage?</li><li>An unfortunate angel created by a middling god. Unfortunately, you are stuck as some body part with wings. What are you and how do you feel about your creator? What purpose were you originally created for?</li><li>A wizard trying to unlock the Secret of Divinity. Your work must be kept very hush hush. You don't want to get squashed like the last 20 guys who tried this same thing.</li><li>An inanimate object who maintained its cosmic consciousness for an unknown reason after an act of divine power. How do you cope with the likely accidental nature of your own existence?</li><li>A cosmic dwarf engineer: one of the small creatures who came when the gods moved into this part of the celestial sea. The dwarves of the mortal world do not remember that their people once built the mechanisms of the universe and helped craft the laws governing reality itself at the behest of the old lords of creation. Now these divine jerks have moved in and taken everything over and even busted up the unions!</li><li>A sacrilegious anarchist intent upon completing what the Night Lords of old started! You want to stick it to the gods and tear them down from their thrones. Why?</li><li>A historian of divine history and genealogy. You are the weirdo that is far too interested in the cosmic orgies and want to know where every god came from, their parentage, and what position was used.</li></ol><div>This is one of a new series of blog posts I am going to do about a very literalist fantasy setting. I am going to try and remove as much of the spiritual and metaphysical stuff from fantasy as possible and just follow that strange logic to its end. We shall see more of the strange world of Overtia and what poor suckers live there.</div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-7016572905109634352022-08-24T14:35:00.001-07:002022-08-24T14:35:49.661-07:001d20 Strange Things in Desolate Places<p></p><div>1d20 Strange things in Desolate Places</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0qeTQIzdQv0lXCT0HPuYW1Tv-FZEKMey3wdrxoNIWd3SsFq7iVEyQ0ecFtjiBm5rj4Q1rsCC7yoHHhPfmX-TVmWnjliGLzHHjSZpVqB2lADq69aNdeT88CkPMWh43xtQFhEuGLwauMzQ5U8CYk3zuKF9-19jorrrqnpJ19oCYQpqmdYvqyp0BsEJ/s2592/squaretop-lakes-034-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2592" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN0qeTQIzdQv0lXCT0HPuYW1Tv-FZEKMey3wdrxoNIWd3SsFq7iVEyQ0ecFtjiBm5rj4Q1rsCC7yoHHhPfmX-TVmWnjliGLzHHjSZpVqB2lADq69aNdeT88CkPMWh43xtQFhEuGLwauMzQ5U8CYk3zuKF9-19jorrrqnpJ19oCYQpqmdYvqyp0BsEJ/w400-h300/squaretop-lakes-034-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li> A man stands on a hill in the midst of a storm. He seems larger than he ought to be, his stance, confrontational, his hands clenched into fists. Lightning strikes the ground about him, but he does not flinch. If you attempt to speak to the man, he will fix you with diamond eyes and say, "God has already taken everything from me. He can take nothing more." Lightning will strike him in that instant, like a pillar of annihilating light and there will be no sign of he man. Perhaps he has been taken up to heaven. Perhaps God took his life.</li><li>There is a red light blinking on the mountain. It seems you can go for hundreds of miles and still see it blinking, a steady rhythm, like the beating of a heart, a single point of unchanging order in a world of chaos. Climb up the knife-face of the mountain. Slash your flesh against the rocks. Break your bones on the heights. When you arrive you will find the light atop a metal tower: nothing more than an ancient tower of steel and the single blinking light.</li><li>A sparkling white creature, long and perfect, with wise eyes deep blue as the sea, breathes its last breaths, scarlet runs down its sides from a thorny blade that has been coiled about by blooming flowers. Where the blood touches flowers bloom and grass grows. The creature asks you to remove the blade. It says this will permit it to die. "All good things will pass away. This serves the highest good." If you have the courage to draw out the blade, the beast will turn into butterflies. You will learn a potent truth about the world and hold a blessed weapon.</li><li>An oasis where predators and prey are held in peace while they all drink from the precious water. There is something sparkling beneath the water. The beasts will defend it.</li><li>An ancient billboard has nothing left but a faded eye and the word: "Watch!" It is a powerful command and many pilgrims sit here in obedience, waiting to see what they are promised to see. Some have died in their watch. Their fellows prop up their bodies so their corpses can see... whatever it is they are meant to see. Some may hold valuable relics and amulets on their persons.</li><li>There are giants in the midst, towering silhouettes with long thin legs, heedless of the tiny beings below them, utterly silent but for a gentle hum. Even their footfalls make no noise and leave no mark. They may speak a word if disturbed that you will never understand yet always remember. They might fix you with a gaze that makes you weep with all the sorrow of the world. They might offer you a ride.</li><li>Emaciated forms are tied to strange symbols like circles and spirals and arrows. They are mostly alive. They will beg to be let down before the god that lives in the cliffs comes down and eats them.</li><li>Glittering white crystals bloom from the rocks here. Any who breathe in the air near these crystals will bloom themselves and leave behind white crystals and white bones. </li><li>More butterflies than you can ever imagine swarm a large wicker cage hanging from a tree, feasting on a corpse within who has a sack of coin and an exquisite weapon on it. The butterflies have taken a liking for flesh and may prove a hazard.</li><li>A great hole in the ground, utterly black like the void, seemingly without bottom. As you stand at its edge, a little voice somewhere in your own mind says, "Jump. Do it. You know you want to."</li><li>A cart stands out in the middle of the desert. There is no horse or other means of pulling the cart. The covered wagon has a sign that just says, "Mumbo the Magnificent" above a little window with a red curtain covering it. As you approach, the curtains part and a stage lights up, revealing a puppet, a gray-wooden puppet in a red suit with lifeless eyes and a gaping jaw. On his head is a turban. In front of him is a crystal ball. He will answer each question with a question. With each answer, the feeling grows larger and more certain that something about one's own future is changing in a terrible way, as if doors are closing and the path is narrowing towards some terrible fate.</li><li>A patch of land in a dry place. Crabs scuttle away into the sand as you approach. Jellyfish lay half-dead. Fish rot in the sun. Indeed, these are not normal sea creatures but the remnants of creatures that seem more primal, as if the sea of a long forgotten age appeared here for but a moment and left behind some of its inhabitants. What else came with it?</li><li>Though all around there is land perfect for farming, there is no sign of human habitation, perhaps there was long ago, but the fields have overgrown and nature has retaken her own. Yet, in the distance there is an incredibly tall tower, geometric and brutal, all harsh angles and intimidating domination of the skyline. Who lives or lived in this tower that could house a city? Why have they abandoned the land?</li><li>A green tree in an otherwise desolate place. Though the surroundings may be uncomfortable, in the shade of the tree it is peaceful and utterly comfortable, like there would be nothing better than resting beneath these branches and taking a lovely nap. However, time runs together as one is lost in the beauty in this place, while all around you ages pass. Kingdoms rise and fall. The land becomes green again. New rivers flow over barren crags. You can turn away from this new world, return to the age you once new, but you know you have turned your back on eternity for your paltry present.</li><li>The shattered monument of a great empire. There is a tablet where it is written: "I am Ozymandias, King of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. The lone and level sands stretch far away.</li><li>There is a pale and lifeless valley with countless nooks in the sides of its walls where once people lived their whole lives in solitary prayer and meditation of a gray god. Many of their bodies remain where they lived, mummified by the white dust and arid winds.</li><li>Bodies hang from a tree. Each is marked with a sin in vibrant red ink. Only those who have totally rotted away are free from the scarlet stain.</li><li>There is an old temple whose shadows stretch long over the sands that come to claim what remains of this ruin. Yet, there is something defiant, desperate about how this ruin clings to the surface, refusing to be totally forgotten. The shadows of this place will relive the past in your bodies, will drag you down into the sand in vengeance for their inevitable passing out of time.</li><li>An ancient battlefield. There is no sign of victory. Now all are lost. Yet, something of the rage of that battle remains, a scar in time, screaming and clashing, ally and enemy bound together into a hideous amalgam at war with it self and all things. It has forgotten how to die.</li><li>A white horse canters past you before taking off towards the setting sun. The land is desolate for now, but perhaps there is hope. Perhaps these dry bones can live again. Perhaps a river will spring up in this wilderness. Perhaps something new will be here, someday. One can only hope.</li></ol><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-56994604093457817912022-08-15T11:53:00.000-07:002022-08-15T11:53:33.673-07:00Different Kinds of Vampires<p> So bats are the basis for your regular vampire, right? Well before Darkest Dungeon came along with their mosquito vampires, I was thinking along similar lines. (I will maintain to my dying breath that they reached into my mind while I slept and plucked this idea from me. I have punished the tulpas I conjured to protect the serene palace of my mind accordingly.)</p><p>So here are some vampires based upon different blood-feeding creatures in nature. Toying with vampire tropes as well as the unique facets of these creatures in nature.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWS7PAS-osLylrATygnbclzZnAvnZM7KBjde1FfW0AgTq9ArHAXyZfunHfuT_jXVploYkzAzMHGaEX2aEViqgrbgDkCxDv4udIRL2DckI8UAj6Dgk5JYLu_KhNx9oIVdovPCWra3PNFsG_z0p5d2Z1QaWAFR0fO7339Ck85FKom1Q7OE5ZLXpBI9WF/s1200/E4v8i1bWUAMrr30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="784" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWS7PAS-osLylrATygnbclzZnAvnZM7KBjde1FfW0AgTq9ArHAXyZfunHfuT_jXVploYkzAzMHGaEX2aEViqgrbgDkCxDv4udIRL2DckI8UAj6Dgk5JYLu_KhNx9oIVdovPCWra3PNFsG_z0p5d2Z1QaWAFR0fO7339Ck85FKom1Q7OE5ZLXpBI9WF/w261-h400/E4v8i1bWUAMrr30.jpg" width="261" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">By Diana Franco</p><p><b>Culexi:</b></p><p> Blood is the seat of memory, that which passes down not only your own memories but the memories of all your ancestors, the genetic memory of all ages, flowing hot and scarlet in voluptuous veins. By some trick of evolution one larger variety of mosquito, upon sucking the blood of a human being, gained all of their memories. The ages developed on this adaptation to hideous affect. The Culexi family of vampires are capable not only of of taking their prey's memories but they liquify their prey from the inside, leaving behind a pristine skin-suit that is fully operable by the insectoid form within.</p><p>Thus, Culexi do not have to deal with the messy and sometimes easily broken means of enchantment or hypnosis or blood addiction. They do not turn their prey. They drain them dry and wear their skins and memories as camouflage. If you are very unlucky, a one-night-stand with a too-eager partner may end up with you waking with a stomach ache and a weird red mark on your abdomen. Over time, the culexi larvae within, incubates and feeds using your blood and slowly liquifying organs until the creature simply takes over for your bones, muscles, and brain. </p><p>However, there are difficulties with the transfer of memories. Some Culexi, especially their young spawn, are overtaken by the emotion of their victims and even regret over killing them. Some Culexi fall in love with those that their victims were in love with, but coming clean to their victim's loved ones never works out.</p><p><b>Holothyri:</b></p><p>Ticks produce proteins known as evasins which deaden pain receptors and make it difficult for their prey to notice that they are even there. Since ancient days, one variety of tick has mastered this form of perceptual deadening. These huge ticks secret a neurotoxin that they inject with their first feeding upon a victim. This renders the victim incapable of perceiving the Holothyri. The Holothyri are also capable of issuing commands to the victims who are susceptible to suggestion of all kinds in this state. This is the key way of determining if someone has been a victim of a Holothyre, if they exhibit unusual pliancy to suggestion and commands.</p><p>The Holothyri do not need to hide or take on human form unless someone comes along who has not been fed upon. Left to their own devices, they will languidly feed on a population, rarely killing a victim in one feeding, unless it is time to produce young in which case someone will simply fall over dead in the middle of the village and the rest of the townsfolk will shake their heads. "Another one taken by the plague, such a shame." </p><p><b>Petromyres:</b></p><p>Blood is also symbolic of course. The shedding of blood is a sign of great effort and sacrifice, commitment, and even love. For did not Christ shed His blood for our drink as a sign of His love for us? Thus, the Petromyre does not really feed upon blood, but upon love. Tales are told of a young man who was out fishing when all others were in church. He found a nine-eyed little fish no bigger than his thumb. The fish bit his thumb gently, like a child suckling at their mother's breast. It was then that a strange affection for this creature washed over the young man's mind. Resolving not to lose this fish, he put in in a nearby well. Each day, he would return with living things for the fish to feed on and each day the creature grew longer and longer, and sometimes it would come up and the man would allow it to feed on his own blood, utterly content, utterly full of love for this creature.</p><p>The man grew older and had a family, but the lamprey was so large now, he put it back in the lake, but it always came when he called. He would feed whole cows to it. Then the "little fish" as he still called it seemed to want the loyal family dog. So he fed it to the beast. Then the "little fish seemed to ask with its nine-glittering eyes, "Who is your child truly? Is it not I? Who do you love best father?" The creature, now the size of a tree did not speak. Indeed it was just an animal for all its size, and yet the man heard and the man understood. </p><p>He gave his "little fish" everything, and once it towered over all the trees of the forest and its head was large as a hill, the man built a kingdom to feed the lamprey, then an empire all to offer endless blood, endless love to his "little fish" and all the "little fish's" squirming slithering children, the man's grandchildren, with such gentle bites, just like their mother.</p><p><b>The Bird Doctors:</b></p><p>Bad blood causes illness, so the doctors say with their long white beaked masks, as they apply the leeches to infections and the skin of the diseased. Everyone dreads the bird doctors. Their appearance means that surely sickness and death have come to the village. Yet, no one can fault them nor turn them away, why would you? They are here to help. </p><p>Sure they sometimes point to the mason or the butcher and declare them sick, though no one really thought they seemed so before, but if the doctor says so... The leeches are applied. The medicines are ingested. Most come back, albeit paler, although some do not survive the treatment.</p><p>Your father must have been very sick, and yet he never even coughed before the doctor began treating him. At his funeral, you could not help but clench your fists and think of that wretched doctor, think of his horrible mask. After a few drinks, you slammed open the door of his tower, red faced and sputtering, "Doctor! Doctor! You killed him! You killed, my..."</p><p>There, hunched over the open jar of engorged leeches is the bird doctor, shoveling the bulbous blood-suckers into a terrible gnashing beak, below shining, inhuman eyes.</p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-27833990287485966862022-07-25T23:42:00.008-07:002022-07-26T10:18:15.540-07:00Of Flowers and Corpse Tongues (Tales from the World Bloom 2)<p>Post 1: <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/05/on-birth-of-god-and-monkey-philosophy.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p><b>The Journey of the Precious Flower:</b></p><p>One day when Halar was looking upon the dirt, he saw a tiny seed, glittering amidst the soil like a gem. He planted the seed in the ground and watered it. He began to build a wall stone by stone around the flower and began to plant a garden with the flower at its center. </p><p><i>You might notice, my princess, that this story reflects that of the creation story. Many point to this story as the first evidence that he is the Avatar of Aman who Dreams the World. Remember, dearest one, as surely Matron Ilisa has taught you, that gods and demons alike incarnate in their world, often while still maintaining their reality as transcendent beings at the same time. Aman does not vacate his throne in the heavens to become Halar, but rather the principle of his being which is integral to the world itself must manifest in the world. This is perhaps too much theology for an eight year old, but I am your teacher as well as your story teller. I can already hear you throwing a boot at me and saying, “Get on with it, you chitinous bore!” So I shall.</i></p><p>He looked to Mhina who Darkens the Clouds and commanded, “Send down rain for this seed to grow!”</p><p>And so the goddess sent down rain on the seed until a leafy shoot grew up.</p><p>He looked to Satu who Burns the Horizon and commanded, “Send only your most favorable rays to nourish this seed!”</p><p>And so the god sent his radiance down upon the leafy shoot until a beautiful flower bloomed.</p><p>And so Halar cared for the seed and the garden and it grew up more and more beautifully under his care. He did this for a year and a day. </p><p>After that time, the wicked King Bharak, avatar of the demon Vhanu who Squashes the Butterfly, came upon Halar’s garden and saw the flower. He was immediately overcome with a desire to possess this beautiful thing and stole it. Upon returning with water for the flower, Halar saw that the flower was missing and immediately followed the tracks of the King’s cart to his wicked kingdom of Ralishta. He fought with the Thirteen Immortal Guards of Ralishta for a year and a day until he finally arrived in the court of the king. </p><p><i>As you grow into your authority, dear one, it is essential for you to recognize mentions of Ralishta. Though the ancient enemy of Halar has been quiet for many years, there are always rumblings of its return. As these rumblings grow louder, you must learn to understand Ralishta. This story is, as far as your humble tale weaver, is a mostly accurate account of how Halar and Ralishta first became enemies of one another, yet this is hard to confirm. The other nations shun Ralishta and their scrolls are beyond my reach. One imagines they tell this story quite differently.</i></p><p>He confronted the king and they did great battle, but the fury of their blows caused the flower to wilt and Halar instead bowed before the king, “My king! Truly you are too strong for me! Since you are so mighty, let me only serve you and I will learn from your power and wisdom!” </p><p>This stroked the ego of the wicked king, but he would not let his guard down around Halar, so Halar served him for a year and a day, all the while watering and caring for the plant, fighting against the evil aura attempting to kill it while it remained in the king’s domain. After the time had passed, the king truly believed his enemy was cowed into being a humble servant, and so Halar attacked him while his guard was down and slew him, rescuing the flower and bringing it back to his garden.</p><p>After planting the flower again, it grew large and transformed into a beautiful woman. She said, “I am Maia. You have cared for me for three years and three days and faced dangers such as no man has ever faced and even became the servant of your enemy for me. If that is not love, I do not know what else could be!” </p><p>She embraced him and their love bloomed.</p><p><i>The pun here was my doing. I’m not sorry</i>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1r9y2wx1tbhmO79u5r0wcETvz_hkHhP-Q_smMoeHtSlthqEovw46J3Cxr68kjxBJzdOK1ckUOnh4ZSRXck92S7CY89osn12qL1ekf6SWKT3PRNIsPGzSYXp2q7S7WbZCzaciRvI4lF9D2GQOEwOOjQsq4MyffcHhG2iioBTl6GqQGsnov31URSwrt/s628/tumblr_ph1bjvvHm31s9hctyo1_500.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1r9y2wx1tbhmO79u5r0wcETvz_hkHhP-Q_smMoeHtSlthqEovw46J3Cxr68kjxBJzdOK1ckUOnh4ZSRXck92S7CY89osn12qL1ekf6SWKT3PRNIsPGzSYXp2q7S7WbZCzaciRvI4lF9D2GQOEwOOjQsq4MyffcHhG2iioBTl6GqQGsnov31URSwrt/w319-h400/tumblr_ph1bjvvHm31s9hctyo1_500.jpg" width="319" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i>By <a href="https://dsamuelsonart.tumblr.com/post/179337936019/drawlloween-day-20-serpent-when-in-doubt-ask-your" target="_blank">Dillon Samuelson</a></i></p><p><b>On the Vengeance of the Three Daughters of Bharak and their alliance with the Serpent Seyam:</b></p><p><i>The journey’s of Halar are usually broken up into Cycles, each comprised of three journeys and ended with a story of some calamity or great change that sends Halar back into the world to adventure once more. There are many non-Cyclical stories that your humble storyteller will likely not mention in this record unless they become necessary for your understanding.</i></p><p>The three daughters of King Bharak of Ralishta mourned their father, yet these children of the wicked king were full of cold fire, and they were not long in their sorrow. While the youngest daughter buried their father, the eldest two immediately sought Halar’s life. </p><p><i>I found some strange scrolls indicating here that Bharak never truly died, but that by the foul blessing of Vhanu and the strange arts of the Ralishtans, he yet lives beneath the Palace of the Deathless, preserved there to teach the secrets of life and death to his youngest daughter, the current queen of Ralishta, Narathi the First Scholar of Flesh. These scrolls are a tiny minority, and yet their report is disturbing. I shall have to tell your mother of this.</i></p><p>Ozythai and Meralla went to the jungles of the Vatiar seeking the young saint, but they met Seyam first. With them were the Thirteen Immortal Guards for by Vhanu’s “blessing” they could not be killed, but rebuilt themselves, painfully and hideously. Seyam’s great head lowered from the mighty branches of a Korok tree.</p><p>“Tell me, little ones, descendants of the Vatiar who fled my gentle reign, do you come to offer your allegiance and worship as is proper for your lord?” Seyam’s words were venom, for the Ralishtans did flee the forest to escape their enslavement to Seyam. To this day, the Ralishtans are ashamed of their time of servitude.</p><p>The two daughters were proud and fearless, atop their seat on the back of the largest of their Immortal Guards, the Headless Giant Ramak, though they recognized that all their guards could not triumph over the massive serpent, it would cost Seyam greatly to face them.</p><p>Meralla, who was called Corpse Tongue, replied, “Oh, great snake, do you permit anyone to mock you or is there some pass we might purchase? Have you issued such permission to Halar? We have heard rumors. The monkeys laugh as they recount how he evaded you and how his disciple freed your prisoners. How much has Halar paid you for such liberal permission to mock you?”</p><p>"<b><i>SSSSSSSSSSSSSS</i></b>.” Seyam’s hiss shook the trees and Bardju who Tips the Mountains with Snow turned over in his slumber.</p><p><i>Bardju does this a lot. It seems like an ongoing joke in these scrolls. The sherpas of the Dagger Heights say that avalanches happen because Bardju taps on the ceiling of his home with a broom to quiet noisy hikers.</i></p><p>“No two-legged creature may mock Seyam! I would crush that insolent child in an instant! I will consume his soul and feast on his cries of agony! I will drip-feed him my venom until his veins burn him alive from the inside!” The serpent was wise but prone to pride and anger. Meralla knew this.</p><p><i>I probably shouldn’t but I like Meralla.</i></p><p>Meralla spoke, “I knew Seyam the Magnificent would never submit to such disrespect! This boy is beneath your notice, an insect before you, mighty one! The child has killed our father. He must pay. Allow us to serve you, find Halar, and draw him into a trap. You need not lower yourself to bother with him, we shall deliver him to you!” Meralla knew that Seyam could not find Halar, since he lived among the hidden villages of the Vatiar which cannot be found without knowledge of their secret arts, and yet she knew the snake would never admit to this weakness.</p><p>The serpent was not stupid. Seyam knew when he was being flattered, but this usually did not reduce its effectiveness in persuading him. This scheme pleased the slothful snake and so he saw no reason to argue.</p><p>“Very well, children of the Vatiar, you may enact this scheme. Once you find some suitable bait, draw the insect to my cave in the Shattering Star Abyss. I will torment the boy there for an eternity before he finds merciful death.” </p><p>Seyam’s head raised into the darkness of the great tree’s canopy, until his eyes were yellow stars gleaming in the dark with hate.</p><div><br /></div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-66164513959872144932022-06-15T10:20:00.002-07:002022-06-15T10:31:59.173-07:00Weirdways Universal System<p>Weirdways Universal is an FKRish rule set aimed at freedom through simplicity. It relies less on precise rules and rather on rulings based on shared perceptions and interpretations of the fiction. I have found it super easy to run and use with many diverse scenarios. Use and change it as you will.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittBb5wkJCwQcNmLF0G3oFXTvvxzXO-m9FH_0-03xKuTvdTz2QREaX1GGYQTIc09sXpQTC_ngjyZJXRdE3NjksUjDjDPBmcHQrdzGS42UU-ZXWLCXdr-2tsXfFlHdROkfGRNgX6Oo2aboYtZiQc3w18ievcTZZh_ffEr-GO4BnF3qctiovsTXRGYUG/s500/9781950783274-us.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="386" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEittBb5wkJCwQcNmLF0G3oFXTvvxzXO-m9FH_0-03xKuTvdTz2QREaX1GGYQTIc09sXpQTC_ngjyZJXRdE3NjksUjDjDPBmcHQrdzGS42UU-ZXWLCXdr-2tsXfFlHdROkfGRNgX6Oo2aboYtZiQc3w18ievcTZZh_ffEr-GO4BnF3qctiovsTXRGYUG/w309-h400/9781950783274-us.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><p>Aspects: Aspects are elements of your character that show what you are good at and what you can do. They are given to your in character creation and you can gain more as you advance.</p><p>Characters typically start with 3 Aspects based on the Set. Sets are the ruleset and setting you are using, here are some Sets that I created earlier: <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2021/04/weirdways-low-road-trip-across-weird.html" target="_blank">Weirdways</a>, <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/04/electric-samsara-character-creation-and.html" target="_blank">Electric Samsara</a>, and <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/04/sailors-on-psychic-sea.html" target="_blank">Sailors on a Psychic Sea</a>.</p><div>Main mechanic: Roll 2d6, adding a modifier between -2 and +3 as determined by your GM based on your Aspects.</div><div><ul><li>Snake eyes (Double 1s) are always a failure and something bad happens. </li><li>6 or less: Failure and something bad happens.</li><li>7-9: You succeed but at some cost or must make a hard choice.</li><li>10+: You succeed with no drawbacks!</li><li>Double 6s is always a maximum success with flair!</li></ul><div>Harm: Each time a character would experience physical harm, they take 1 Harm outside of extreme exceptions. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Harm Tracks differentiate based on your Set and how powerful characters are in the setting therein.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some Harm Tracks have Injuries. When you take an Injury, the GM should give you an appropriate Aspect based on the Injury. This Aspect is temporary but it must be treated with medical care and might result in death unless done so quickly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here are a few Harm Tracks:</div><div><br /></div><div>For characters meant to be approximately "normal" in terms of their power level:</div><div><br /></div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>A character dies at 4 Harm. At 3 Harm, they take an Injury.</div><div><br /></div><div>For characters meant to be powerful combatants:</div><div><br /></div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>A character dies at 6 Harm. At 4 Harm, they take a Minor Injury (A slash across the arm, a scrape across the leg). At 5 Harm, they take a Major Injury (A broken bone, a concussion, a bullet in a limb).</div><div><br /></div><div>General Aspects: The following questions are meant to be useful for many different genres and settings. The answer to these questions are your Aspects and should be answered in just a couple of words.</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>What is your general character concept? (Archer Elf, Saucerfreak Goblin, Goth Psychonaut, Pyromancer Anarchist)</li><li>What is something cool about you? (Commands Plants, Rubber Bones, Martial Artist)</li><li>What's a fictional or historical person kind of like you? "Kind of like ______" is your third Aspect. (If your character is combat-focused, are they more like Jackie Chan or more like John Wick or someone else? If your character is magical, are they more Gandalf or Harry Dresden or someone else?)</li></ol><div>Inventory: You can pick two items that are essential to your character: Hellboy's Six Shooter, Dresden's Hockeystick Staff, a Wizards Spellbook, a Knight's Blessed Blade, ect...</div></div><div><br /></div><div>You can also pull up to 6 items out of your pocket or pack during the course of play so long as they make sense for your character and ok with your GM. Small flavor items are at no cost. You can carry as many items on your person as would reasonably fit on your person or in a backpack.</div><div><br /></div><div>Advancement: There are two options for Advancing your character and you can use both if you'd like. The first option is diegetic Advancement. Add new Aspects or adjust current ones based on things they learn or train for in discussion with the player.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Karlos the Anarchist Pyromancer goes to a college library to learn how to build bombs. I, the GM, gives Karlos a choice, learn how to make a basic fire bomb or learn how to make explosive runes. Karlos picks the latter and so he gains the Aspect: Explosive Runes.</li></ul></div><div>Or after big events or times where characters pull off awesome things, discuss appropriate Aspects with the player to add to their character. This is a great option to help players remember big moments in the campaign as the character sheet itself becomes a living history of the game.</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>After going through the horrors and delights of <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/393432/Unicorn-Meat" target="_blank">Unicorn Meat</a> Jocko the Psychonaut Goblin Saucerhead is given a choice between Telekinetic Rainbow Bridges and Nightmare Manifestation, both that could help the player remember the grotesque whimsy of Sunny Smiles Unicorn Farm.</li></ul><div>Combat: The procedures for Combat are not markedly different from the ordinary way the game functions:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>The GM sets the scene, outlines the challenges, and describes the enemies and whatever offensive action the enemies are taking against the PCs.</li><li>The PCs can then respond. There is no set order. I like to give everyone a chance to take an action and just go around the table or go down the list on Discord. If your players like to be spontaneous and jump right in without anyone getting left out, you can be more free form.</li><li>The GM has the world respond both after each PC's turn and at the beginning of each round as appropriate. Keeping combat dynamic means introducing new threats and twists as combat goes on. The GM ought to introduce these as appropriate and allow the PCs a chance to respond.</li><li>Repeat Steps 2 and 3 until Combat is resolved. </li></ol><div>For example:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>GM: So you land in what looks like a giant surgical tray. A giant menacing surgeon bearing a scalpel looms over you. There is a horrifying, beating, black heart in the tray with you that is like a steep hill compared to you. Out from it pours a bunch or horrible knee-high spiny demonic creatures. A portal back to the real world floats above the heart. As you get your bearings, the giant surgeon drops his scalpel so this massive blade is falling towards you. What do you do?</li><li>Issac the Demoniac: I want to call on my demonic strength to help me catch the huge scalpel.</li><li>GM: You are very strong, but this is a huge object from your perspective, roll just +2.</li><li>Issac: (Rolls 2d6+2) Double Sixes! So 14 total! Black veins shoot through my skin as I tense to catch the scalpel!</li><li>GM: Ok you do it with flying colors! I will give you and added affect right now for that crit! What do you want to do with the scalpel?</li><li>Issac: I chuck it at the surgeon! </li><li>GM: So you hurl this thing at the surgeon! Roll again this time with +3.</li><li>Issac: 9.</li><li>GM: Ok mixed result. Do you want to have the surgeon to slam the tray which could hit both you and the little demon creatures or do you want to have spent some of your demonic power with that mighty throw and take -1 to your demon powers until you rest?</li><li>Issac: Let him hit the tray!</li><li>GM: Alright so now a giant hand is coming down on the middle of the tray that will hit all of you guys and the creatures. What do you do?</li></ul><div>Another example:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>GM: As you all enter the gas station, the sliding doors are stuck half closing and opening on a bunch of lemons that are scattered over the floor. To your right, at the counter, you see a pile of lemons that seems to be badly filling the uniform of an employee. Before you can think twice, eyes open up on the lemons and little limbs come out as they swarm you, what do you do, starting with Martin.</li><li>Martin Dillerman Ex-Paladin Cop: I want to turn these unholy creatures!</li><li>GM: Oooo yeah that's right in your wheelhouse! Awesome, roll +3.</li><li>Martin: I rolled an 8.</li><li>GM: Mixed success. So here is your choice. You can create a little bubble of safety around you and your friends but you won't be able to move or you can take -1 to your holy powers until you rest.</li><li>Martin: I'll stay stationary.</li><li>GM: So you all are safe right now, but the lemons are between you and escape. Also you hear rumbling in the distance like giant footsteps coming closer. Tim is up next.</li><li>Tim the Wolf-man Medical Student: Crap! Uhhh didn't we see a billboard a while back with a number to call in case we found things that are not lemons? I call that number!</li><li>GM: Ok you call the number. An automated voice answers, "Thank you for calling Alphamart Customer service, if you are experiencing <i>the strangeness</i> press 1..."</li><li>Tim: I press 1!</li><li>GM: "Thank you for reaching our hotline for those affected by the strangeness after consuming Hollow Cola...'</li><li>Tim: "Dang it!"<br /></li><li>GM: As you all struggle to think of what to do, you see the grass giant that you went around earlier catching up to you, leaning to pick up your RV. Fl'y'ynn you are up next.</li><li>Fl'y'ynn the Wood Elf Druid: I want to summon a vine to grab his hand and stop him from picking up the RV!</li><li>GM: This is a tough one against a giant. Roll +0.</li><li>Fl'y'ynn: I got a 4...</li><li>GM: That's a Failure. Do you want the giant to pick up the RV or do you want to step out of the protective zone and get swarmed by not-lemons?</li><li>Ect...</li></ul></div></div></div><div>And that is it for the Universal Ruleset! You don't need anything else to play. What follows is a Set that you could use in play:</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Destinations Unknown</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>See the lovely cloud fields of Flangys Mesmer! Visit the scenic astral webs of Omega Station Zharnoplex! Take a ride on the many-legged Kabaral Crawler of the primordial forests of Pandendro! Set sail for Destinations Unknown! </div><div><br /></div><div>This Set uses Aspects and the Main Mechanic as usual and the "normal" Harm Track. </div><div><br /></div><div>You are playing tourists from our world that have won free vacations through the Destinations Unknown Travel Agency which is secretly a front for the Zhon Collaborative, a faction in the strange realm of Interspace, taking unknowing patsies from our world (Extraspace) and using them as expendable couriers and agents. If you want to get back home and see all the fabulous destinations on your "free vacation," you'll need to complete their missions and not get killed.</div><div><br /></div><div>Aspects:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>What is your profession?</li><li>What is a hobby that you have that might provide a useful skill?</li><li>What is something cool about you that you probably keep a secret? Zhon doesn't just take anyone.</li></ol><div>Inventory: Bear in mind anything you draw for your inventory would have to be able to fly on a plane from our world.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Sets will often come with questions to help players get into their character's headspace.</div><div><br /></div><div>Questions:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Did you realize that anything was off about this free vacation that you won? Did you sign up for this or did it just end up in your mailbox? Were you suspicious? Did you have no idea? Why did you come on this trip if you knew something might be amiss?</li><li>Are you hoping to find something or running from something? What might have made you want this reprieve from your current life? If you had the option to never come back, would you take it?</li><li>You alone got this opportunity, so what is homelife like? What kind of people did you leave behind? Is there someone to miss you? How did they feel about you going on this trip alone? In all likelihood, Zhon did not grab people that would be missed.</li><li>Where have you traveled to before? What does travel mean to you?</li></ol><div>1d12 Things you might find in Interspace</div></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Sophonic technology that instantly transmits knowledge into your mind like a Learning Language Vending Machine where you learn a language by taking a pill.</li><li>VHS tapes that store people's memories. Stacy's Sex Tapes is a stand where people can buy the memory of having sex with Stacy.</li><li>A Double Stuffed Charupa with Extra Roogh: due to linguistic difficulties and the cheeky vendors who think such difficulties are funny every singly Double Stuffed Charupa with Extra Roogh is pretty wildly different. No one who isn't fluent in Kagra and Charupa making, which is most people, can ever order the same Charupa twice or even really know what they got the first time.</li><li>A daily meditation over your Interlocutor Tablet: "Today's meditation: the Collaborative means you! You are all cogs in the fantastic machine that is us! A cog has belonging so long as a cog has purpose. So long as it fulfills its purpose, the cog has a place in the machine, otherwise, it is tossed out! In our machine, your purpose is to be your best self in collaboration with the whole! So meditate on purpose! Meditate on belonging! Meditate on Zhon!"</li><li>A pair of veiled and cloaked people with weird rubber spikey things on their heads arguing in another language over a holographic interface showing a mind-bending image of the Parallax Curve.</li><li>Little silver tubes that "unfold" into guns.</li><li>Siibos Symbiotic Supplies: Siibos offers a wide supply of biologically volatile supplies mostly in the form of clippings of small chubby tendrils or injections of liquids taken from constantly moving and shifting gelatinous organisms like strange coral or immobile jellyfish all of which seem to pretty much instantly regenerate. These products cause beneficial mutations or get you high or both.</li><li>Astro-Chews Paradox Bubble Poppers Vending Machine: Sells colorful little balls of candy with little designs on them. When chewed and spat, they explode into bright, colorful shapes that drift away on the wind.</li><li>The Pandendro Tree: a single tree whose roots have grown more "trees" until they have grown into a whole jungle and even begun to spread into other Interspace Cells. The tree creates symbiotic relationships with all the organisms that live under its branches, creating an organic computer with astonishing predictive power if you know how to operate it.</li><li>A field of floating rocks among which arachnid-like creatures have created astonishing gigantic webs.</li><li>A marketplace established by the descendants of Chinese alchemists who have learned to use the strange creatures native to Interspace to create potions with fantastic effects.</li><li>A lot of drugs. It is how the first people came to Interspace, after all and hallucinogenic drugs can still help you travel to the many different Cells of honeycombed Interspace.</li></ol><br /></div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-50701666742639050662022-05-24T09:16:00.000-07:002022-05-24T09:16:57.020-07:00Electric Samsara 2: Tiryag<p><a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/02/electric-samsara-1-manusaya.html" target="_blank">Post 1 for Manusaya</a></p><p><a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/04/electric-samsara-character-creation-and.html" target="_blank">Rules and Character Creation</a></p><p style="text-align: center;">Tiryag: World of Beasts</p><p>The second world on the river downstream from Manusaya is Tiryag. This world is mostly home to uplifted animals and animal hybrids. It is a world of primordial jungles home to mega flora and fauna, trees rising to gargantuan heights, ancient and alien beasts given life once more. There are also massive mountains and vast oceans along with deserts. All meticulously sectioned from each other before the Ascension to make this world a sanctuary for dying species.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfNuEareapIo_Q9fd444jesxdlSXn6xKCf1NDftlfAqWkC3ON_ULt6JXdns8AuEp8NtoTFj6q7dLPI5zwTlfaahlfDCp5D7pOp_ifqqHPJ8YE9lyITSuBEG_4rltQA6QcRlq7vknbrCBaGTmBDNB5P9wIi9XLrFSta5N_jNtSw5fFoGJIMowCJxR0/s1083/EPU2NuAUEAAHldU.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="1083" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfNuEareapIo_Q9fd444jesxdlSXn6xKCf1NDftlfAqWkC3ON_ULt6JXdns8AuEp8NtoTFj6q7dLPI5zwTlfaahlfDCp5D7pOp_ifqqHPJ8YE9lyITSuBEG_4rltQA6QcRlq7vknbrCBaGTmBDNB5P9wIi9XLrFSta5N_jNtSw5fFoGJIMowCJxR0/w400-h271/EPU2NuAUEAAHldU.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p>Garden of Paradise: The planet is monitored by an orbital ring station and weather control grid that is controlled by the AI Bodhisattva, Gaia Module-T4R4 “Gardener of Paradise.” Her followers keep a watchful eye on the environment and catalog any changes, as well as extract medicines from flora, and rehabilitate wounded animals. Her greenhouse temple is the jewel of River City Jataka. </p><p>River City Jakata: The river gate on this world spills the Great River onto the branches of a giant tree where lies a shining city that has made it home. The River spills into Jakata and spirals down the tree through bio sculpted half-pipes ringing its outer edge. The city is home to scholars, artists, and craftsmen. The Illumined Silverback Council, the ruling body of Jakata, has one iron law: “We are not beasts!” This council formerly consisted of uplifted Silverback Gorillas but their members now include many kinds of creatures, representing the great scholars, philosophers, and artisan guilds. They desperately wish to portray their homeworld as a beacon of civilization in opposition to the other great power on Tiryag.</p><p>The Monkey King: Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, “Great Sage, Equal of Heaven '' rules the city of Better than Heaven with what can be generously described as laissez faire governance. It is a city in a constant state of anarchy where might equals right in the depths of the bamboo forest, mostly populated by uplifted monkeys and apes, though few gorillas. The Monkey King, himself, is something of a mystery. He is the only lifeform that Kanzeon does not have any knowledge of in her genetic archive. Some say he is a Bodhisattva or even a Buddha that has retained a physical form. Some say he is a weapon gone rogue from before the Ascension. He just says that he is pretty awesome, right? The city is home to plenty of gambling, drinking, and fighting, sometimes birthing a raiding party to attack a village or even steal from Jakata, itself.</p><p>Wuru Peak Monastery: Vajra 6 Defense Network “Fist of Heaven” has his great monastery at Wuru Peak of the Songhan Mountains. This peak also holds the transmitter spire that connects to the three great Vajra warships that protect the Great River network that the Bodhisattva controls. His primary purpose is the defense of the Great River from external threats. Many of Vajra 6’s greatest followers are transported to the warships to psychically pilot the Hammer of Heaven Astral Battle Gear war mechs that accompany the warships.</p><p>Those followers who remain are given by Vajra to the governments of the River as needed or hired out as bodyguards to wealthy patrons. They are enforcers and protectors, far rarer than the Wise Blades were before their destruction. Once there was a Wise Blade in every village, keeping peace, teaching wisdom, and adjudicating justice. The Invincible Fists were only seen in the company of figures like the River Lord of Manusaya, the Illumined Silverback Council, or the Immortals of Deva. The Fist’s numbers have grown in recent years to fill the gap left by the Blades though their numbers remain fewer. </p><p>A note on the Rareness of Technology on the River:</p><p>Technology on the River is eclectic in terms of rarity. Some things you think might be rare are common and what is common to us is sometimes rare. The thing is that mass production is less common on the River. The current Mass Pattern Replicators are owned by the megacorps of Deva and Asura. The technology produced by these Replicators is not well understood by most people on the River. Even a lot of engineers work on half-baked principles and the guidance of the AI Bodhisattvas. The Bodhisattvas also retain a secretive grasp on certain technologies and only allow these devices to be used by their followers. </p><p>Common Tech: Well known and widely accessible technology mass produced on Deva and Asura and better understood than most pieces of technology.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Medieval Level Tech is widely available.</li><li>Traditional Medicine: Most of this borders on quackery but it is slightly more effective because people believe in it and the nano-cloud reacts to make it so.</li><li>Arquebuses, fireworks, and blunderbusses are fairly common, albeit less affordable than a crossbow.</li><li>Hover Spheres: Common devices used to make things float. Most river barges are equipped with Hover Spheres. These are not quick devices. They can go up and down but are incredibly slow moving horizontally on their own power. Hover rickshaws are pulled by humans or animals. Barges go into the river to push them along and rise up only when necessary.</li><li>Electricity: Wires, lightbulbs, neon lights, air conditioning, are all fairly common. Generators are not very common, but ancient devices capable of producing power for the whole city are tended by human followers of the AI Bodhisattvas and hooked up to a sometimes slapdash network of wires and cables that provides the city with power. </li><li>Holograms: Since the dataplane is basically everywhere, creating images that others can see and interact with is not difficult at all, including advertisements, bulletin boards, even controls for technology, are relatively common although sometimes disliked as “ghost-shit” by the very superstitious. </li></ul><p></p><p>Uncommon tech: This is expensive technology or that reserved for specific groups of people:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Spiders: Spiders are personal computing devices that help one interact with the dataplane and technology in general on a deeper level, often attached by nerve shunts to their users. This is expensive tech and technology that is sometimes authorized by the AIs.</li><li>Modern firearms: Firearms that would be common by our standards are less common on the River. They are expensive and usually only produced by corporations and then stolen and sold by gangs.</li><li>Advanced weapons technology: Rarer than your average modern firearm: things like lasers and plasma weapons. Such things are usually only found among the mercenary armies of the megacorps.</li><li>Modern and Advanced Medical Technology: The upper classes tend to have access to modern medical technology, but Kanzeon, an AI Bodhisattva on Manusaya, provides extremely advanced medical care to anyone who asks for free. So while it is uncommon, anyone who can make it to Vipa can receive excellent care.</li><li>Genetic Splicing: Rare most places but quite common on Asura and somewhat common on Deva. The Asurans tend to prefer exotic and showy alterations while the Devans prefer almost doll-like perfection.</li><li>Modern and Advanced vehicles: The upper classes might have hover cars or helicopters or robotic land crawlers, although the occasional rusty crawler might be found in specialized environments like the hell wastes or the megaplains of Tiryag. Megacorps have hover vessels and ground transports for their troops.</li><li>Small drones and droids: small robotic machines are uncommon and expensive but can be found in some places. They are simple and often require direct control from an operator. </li></ul><p></p><p>Super Rare Tech: This is incredibly rare technology, usually only existing as exotic artifacts, the last of their kind.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Robots: Most pure robots were animated by AIs and so were destroyed in the Ascension. A few rare exceptions remain in forgotten places. Small drones were not destroyed in the same way for some reason.</li><li>Space travel: There are maybe a handful of space-worthy vessels in existence on the river. Most space travel required the AIs and were lost or destroyed in the Ascension. As far as most people know, the only three spaceships that exist are the Vajra warships under the control of Vajra 6 Defense Network. All others are closely held secrets by criminal organizations and megacorps.</li><li>Teleportation: No one has been able to replicate the transporter gates that make the River work. Teleportation is supremely rare and the only widely known teleporters are the gates, the Wuru Peak teleporter than can access the warships, the teleporters on the warships, and it is often whispered that the Star Monks have a teleporter.</li><li>Any kind of AI or advanced computer: most of these were destroyed in the ascension and the AIs heavily police all computational technology. Spiders tend to get a pass because they usually only enhance what a human being could already do. For some reason, the AIs tend to seem to fear any artificial intelligence outside of their ranks.</li><li>Reality Warping Technology and Nano Cloud Manipulation: At the height of mankind's golden age, reality was like pudding in their hands. Such artifacts are now supremely rare like mythic objects like the Holy Grail.</li><li>Cloning: Kanzeon despises cloning but the Devans definitely have sleeve bodies they secretly hold onto.</li></ul><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-32111912194533379652022-05-16T06:14:00.000-07:002022-05-16T06:14:30.950-07:00The Science of Friend (Social Mechanics)<p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztI-yvooE2OTW5nOs1xvhiM4VOFvIJeyXiaPzv6wpB8K54riJUX9eAEbxSoLQW0YJhOC79_7Oy50L37s3vmeHJ_-1b0VIV0aMjxh3dceJCxGC-QCKAJrThVDr-Jke1La8LglDaLmzIQ7hGT9htkEicvQhwpoqqCvmNpEms2M2EI-wRsdArWyCcYUM/s1049/smiley-face.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="699" data-original-width="1049" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgztI-yvooE2OTW5nOs1xvhiM4VOFvIJeyXiaPzv6wpB8K54riJUX9eAEbxSoLQW0YJhOC79_7Oy50L37s3vmeHJ_-1b0VIV0aMjxh3dceJCxGC-QCKAJrThVDr-Jke1La8LglDaLmzIQ7hGT9htkEicvQhwpoqqCvmNpEms2M2EI-wRsdArWyCcYUM/w400-h266/smiley-face.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>If you like... wear a neat hat then people will think you are Neat. People who think you are Neat will do one of the following things at the GM's choice:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Turn to their friends and say, "Wowee zowee that's a neat dude!"</li><li>Say to you, "Hello, neat dude, might I engage you in conversation or offer you discounts on my wares?"</li><li>Offer you a chance to be Friend.</li></ul><div>If someone offers you a chance to be Friend, then you must engage in Friend behavior which includes:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Saying like... nice stuff to them like "Your hair looks swell" or "I appreciate your taste in artisanal breads."</li><li>Offer them a thoughtful gift like a nice sweater made of your own hair or even a locket containing a picture of their dead dog.</li><li>Bake them a Friend Pie.</li></ul><div>In order to bake the Friend Pie requires you to:</div></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Make dough</li><li>Stuff pie with delicious meats, cheeses, or fruits like the organs of a different Friend or an Apple from the Tree of Knowledge or razor blades.</li><li>Bake pie in a big oven for like 30 minutes or until Golden Brown.</li></ol><div>To determine whether something is Golden Brown, you may, once every five real life minutes ask the GM, "Is it Golden Brown, daddy?" The GM must say, "Let us see, my beautiful daughter." and call for a coin flip. If the player calls the coin flip correctly, then it is Golden Brown. Both GM and Player must intone, "Yummy yummy 'tis just as dear Oma would make, God rest her soul."</div></div><div><br /></div><div>If you perform two or more Friend Actions then you and the person are now Friend. Friend will do any of the following Friend Services for each other. Whenever Friend performs one of these actions, other Friend accrues Emotional Debt. Other Friend must perform Friend Services equal to pay off Emotional Debt:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Talk to each other about Stacy who was mean to you and slept with your dad</li><li>Make a blood pact to kill Stacy and never tell a soul</li><li>Pick you up from your boyfriend's house after pooping in his litter box and finding out his cat is dead</li><li>Build a ritual pyre and sacrifice Stacy to the Dark Lord Malobak</li></ul><div>When you sacrifice Stacy to the Dark Lord Malobak, the Dark Lord will do one of the following things for you:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Say to his endless nightmare legions and Demon Lord Poker Game table, "Gee whiz these are some swell dudes!" They will think you are Neat.</li><li>Give you like... a neat hat.</li><li>Offer you Stacy's still horribly beating heart which might make for a lovely meat for a Friend Pie.</li><li>Offer you a chance to be Friend.</li></ul><div>Ok but seriously, let me take a crack at some real social mechanics:</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The best social mechanics I can think of are those that take the potential of dealing with a creature peacefully as seriously as dealing with them violently. So most monster stat blocks just list their abilities and stats. Morale, Mien like from Troika, Reaction Rolls, these all turn just a combat encounter into an opportunity for peaceful interaction.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, a monster or NPC stat block should include things they want, how they interact with creatures like the players and their main motivations. These then become things the players can take advantage of and use to negotiate with the NPCs. These kinds of mechanics focus on the fiction rather than stats and ability checks. I even think combat should focus more on the fiction rather than stats and ability checks. That is why I made <a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2021/04/weirdways-low-road-trip-across-weird.html" target="_blank">Weirdways</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Any rock paper scissors minigame or argument system or step-by-step guide to social interaction all are going to detract from what is most interesting about social interaction in role-playing games: the social interaction! I want to talk to weird pale frogmen in sewers about how to turn their slime dam extortion racket into a sustainable business. I want to bandy sly turns of phrase with the Lady Barbalane of House Calafrax. I want to make an impassioned speech for humanity and mercy before the masses eager to double what blood has already been spilled this dark day. And it is awful hard to make such things work unless you have a Game Master who can appreciate what you are doing and players that can follow along, but I would rather have the blessed silence of rules upon the subject than their pointless yammering intruding on what would otherwise be an awesome moment. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here is my best attempt at social mechanics:</div><div><br /></div><div>If a player does any of the following things, they win the social interaction:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Take advantage of their target's wants, needs, personality, or sympathies.</li><li>Present a well-reasoned argument.</li><li>Be awesome or wonderfully clever.</li></ul><div>The extent to which they win ought to be gauged by how many of these they do at once as regulated by the rule of common sense. Write up your monsters and NPCs with information regarding their wants, needs, personalities, and sympathies. Give your players ways to learn this information. Let them loose.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Have fun!</div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-37454686043152786992022-05-09T11:07:00.000-07:002022-05-09T11:07:46.414-07:001d6 Weird Americana Scenarios (Weirdways)<p><i>The road is full of old dreams, discarded fantasies, and plans gone wrong and rotten. The thing about old dreams is that they are not content to stay forgotten. They will take hold of you, crawl inside you, and dream themselves inside your head. They will consume you slowly and steadily after luring you in with the sweet fruits of nostalgia and misbegotten belonging. They feed on forgotten people like you, left to wander the road searching for something they can't provide, but they'll claim to. "Just stay here. Stay with me and you will have what you want most: a place to call home." It's a lie, but, hey, sometimes lies are sweeter than truth.</i></p><p>New to Weirdways? Click <a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2021/04/weirdways-low-road-trip-across-weird.html" target="_blank">here</a> for the low down.</p><p>Click <a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/01/weirdways-1d20-road-encounters-in-weird.html" target="_blank">here</a> for some Weird Road Encounters.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6YZSHuzQAO9fqBMKZnTDR3vDoe8awGu3VlTX61WfwBlc5e7CPdrIN90eR4GKIieqcT5tpVOsqWRp3-hDkkZS2WGFA6hSkwtkq08T3WRV8m-eCS7-lrxyx4gv1v4xsatN4zlgGHSJ7BwpTUKBG4I3MqhLKJkm6KUzC76quVSAxJZvCzXyp2KWSMtFp/s708/WorldsLargestRubberbandBall.PNG.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="399" data-original-width="708" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6YZSHuzQAO9fqBMKZnTDR3vDoe8awGu3VlTX61WfwBlc5e7CPdrIN90eR4GKIieqcT5tpVOsqWRp3-hDkkZS2WGFA6hSkwtkq08T3WRV8m-eCS7-lrxyx4gv1v4xsatN4zlgGHSJ7BwpTUKBG4I3MqhLKJkm6KUzC76quVSAxJZvCzXyp2KWSMtFp/w640-h360/WorldsLargestRubberbandBall.PNG.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>A note on notation: In my notes, I often just wrote a monster name and in parentheses how much Harm they can take before dying or being incapacitated like Auto Gobbler (3H). Most regular humanoids just can take 1 Harm. I will use this notation sometimes, but for most of these creatures I have written out how much Harm they can take and a series of Aspects that can help the GM run these creatures and decide appropriate difficulties and consequences for rolls against them.</p><p>1d6 Strange Scenarios on the Road</p><p>1) Not Lemons and Nobodies</p><p>I used this for my starting scenario. The van breaks down one night on the side of the road. By the light of an ominous billboard that just has a smiley face and says, "Something is Coming," anyone with engineering experience can tell that there is a hole in the gas tank that has emptied all the fuel. There was a gas station just a mile back.</p><p>Slumbering unseen near the van is a Grass Giant, blending in seamlessly with the hills. The van looks like a fun toy for him to bring back to his lair a mile into the hills where he has other cars and "toys" he has collected in addition to a Dire Hound he calls Fluffy.</p><p>1d6 "Toys" in the Grass Giant's lair:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A functional dwarf-built motorcycle, complete with magical sentience and a disgustingly racist attitude towards goblins.</li><li>A skeletal pimp in a broken down hot-rod covered in bling with some vintage cigars. </li><li>A destroyed SWAT van containing riot gear, a shotgun, and tear gas.</li><li>The load of a semi-truck, containing a huge amount of Splorto Cola.</li><li>A terrified faerie in a jar. She will be incredibly grateful to anyone that can save her.</li><li>Some horses and a wagon with a family of terrified Amish people who have been trapped here. They will pay in hand-made butters and jams if you can save them.</li></ol><p></p><p>Grass Giant: 6 Harm </p><p>Childlike Mind / Collects "toys" / Hates fire / Ignores bullets / Can "swim" through grass / Big Fist</p><p>Fluffy the Dire Hound: 3 Harm</p><p>He Protecc / Loves a Steak / Sleeps A Lot / Claws and Teeth / Keen Nose</p><p>At the gas station, a Swift Kick, the automatic doors open and close stuck on a pile of lemons that strangely fills up the doorway. The gas station is dark save for a flickering neon light and a the light of a TV playing loudly from a back room. Behind the desk is another pile of lemons, seemingly wearing a red uniform and a pair of glasses. From the TV an ad plays: "Some customers have confused Alphamart Lemons with lemons. If you see any Alphamart Lemons call: 999-816-2323."</p><p>The Not Lemons open up a single eye on each of their sides as little appendages emerge from them as they swarm the party.</p><p>Not Lemon Swarm: 3 Harm</p><p>Swarm / Turns Covered Creatures into more Not Lemons</p><p>2) Columbian Catastrophe</p><p>In Columbia, MO or any college town, the crew finds a giant rampaging Tiger Deity (Insert proper Mascot as needed) is chasing a convertible of rival college hooligans (Goblin Party Animal Driver (1H), Geology Student (1H, Geomancy), Swole Jock (2H), Greek Life Cleric (1H, Hazing Magic). They have stolen the Jade Tiger Idol and so angered the Mascot Deity.</p><p>Mascot Deity: Basically Invulnerable</p><p>Very Angry / Wants Idol / Hungry / Wants Worship / Giant Claws and Teeth / Ritual Appeasement</p><p>The local college will reward the party for helping with some cash and a free lunch as well. The party might learn new skills at the library.</p><p>3) Haunted House</p><p>If you use some of the background questions I used, one of the PCs will have a cousin who went missing at around 13 years old. That PCs Aunt has called saying her house is haunted. The rooms are mixed up and strange and she can't bear to live there anymore. She is staying with a friend in town. She already sent in a priest but he never came out. </p><p>The house itself has been replaced by an alien craft now possessed by the child they captured, whose imagination has turned the house into a bizarre world-hopping extrapolation of their own mind quite out of the control of their captors.</p><p>1d6 Things in the House:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A library of partially blurry books as if half-remembered. Paradise Lost and the Most Dangerous Game are here.</li><li>A jungle of alien plant-life with a gigantic snake, a deranged hunter, and a village of small cloaked creatures who speak in hand gestures and seem to know secret ways through the House.</li><li>A realm made of TV screens watched over by an enormous eye.</li><li>A thrift-shop full of strange do-dads, haunted by a tall creature with a large, round head and a painted on face.</li><li>A world of garbage and thrown-away things. A rag doll version of the vanished cousin lures the party into bad situations and there is a giant hybrid teddy bear/transformer guarding a mountain of trash.</li><li>A warped nursery, lit by a a globe light with stars and moons. Burbling crying comes from within a crib. A nightmare version of the missing cousin comes out of it.</li></ol><p></p><p>4) World's Largest Rubber Band Ball</p><p>The Museum of the World's Largest Rubber Band Ball is a must-see sight according to their own signage. This rubber band ball is unique for a tunnel that goes down an impossible distance into the heart of the Ball, clearly making it bigger on the inside than on the outside. It is said some magical object formed the core of this Ball long ago and the party is welcome to use a rope to go down inside. </p><p>This is a trap. The Museum is run by Cultists of the Rubber Band Demon (10 Cultists, 1H each, Rubber Band Magic). They will cut the rope as soon as the party descends a fair distance, then the party will have to escape the clutches of the Rubber Band Ball Demon in the labyrinthine alien ecosystem within the Ball. If the Demon is slain, the souls trapped in the Ball will turn on the cultists as the massive Ball rolls over them as its bands snap and fly apart with terrible force until nothing is left.</p><p>Rubber Band Ball Demon: 6 Harm</p><p>Flesh and Rubber / Bone Spike Mace Hand / Ensnaring Bands / Immune to Nonmagical Weapons</p><p>A Sword of Stretching is hidden in a part of the labyrinth within the Ball that allows the user to stretch their arms and deals 2 Harm to the Demon. It is in the web of the Junk Spider.</p><p>Junk Spider 4 Harm</p><p>Made of Garbage and Nostalgia / Chewed Gum Webs / Collector of Junk / Very Lonely and Insane</p><p>A rival demon to the Rubber Band Ball Demon is imprisoned in a Barbie doll marked with crayon runes in a pentagram like a childish Satanic altar. It could be convinced to help or attack the Demon.</p><p>1d6 Other Stuff in the Rubber Band Ball:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A vending machine full of potions.</li><li>A bunch of bowling ball sized rubber band balls that will tumble towards the party when they pass by.</li><li>Tangling alien plant-life that will entangle the party or drag them down into a pit that goes to the web of the Junk Spider.</li><li>Oversized flies with jewel-like eyes.</li><li>A village of small cloaked creatures who speak in hand gestures. They seems to now secret ways in and out of the band ball but maybe not into the world the party knows.</li><li>A bunch of knives suspended on the ceiling of a chamber. Beneath them is a glowing crystal that looks valuable. Removing it causes the knives to fall on those below.</li></ol><p></p><p>5) Unicorn Meat</p><p>At a gas station the party stops at to use the bathroom or stock up on candy in the middle of the night, a bloody-eyed child stumbles into the light and starts convulsing. There is something writhing in her neck and a note in her hand: "Kill White Eyes." You can follow her train all the way back to Sunny Smiles Unicorn Farm and the nightmare than befell that place. <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/393432/Unicorn-Meat" target="_blank">This</a> might be useful. </p><p>6) Air D&D</p><p>Looking for a cheap place to spend the night and tired of the van, you find a super affordable AirB&B that has a single glowing review. It's a little bit of an older house but nice. There is no sign of the owner just a note to make yourself comfortable and a goody basket full of candy seemingly from another century.</p><p>Ghosts from another era want to possess your bodies and have flesh once more. They've come together in a kind of family although they all hail from different times. If thwarted, they will try to make a deal. Let them possess you just for a day, in exchange, they will lead you to some buried treasure.</p><p>Ghosts: 1 Harm but Immune to Most Attacks</p><p>Try Spiritual Warfare / Illusions and Trickery / Want your Bod / Phasing and Invisibility / Not to be Trusted</p><p>Allie Malice:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Creepy little girl from the 19th century.</li><li>Maybe is actually a demon</li><li>Says she just wants to do arts and crafts.</li><li>If the PCs let her do what she wants to do, she will perform a ritual and open a portal to hell,</li></ul><div>Mary Smith:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Pretends to be from the 18th century, but is actually a recently murdered woman.</li><li>Says she wants to go pray for God to let her pass on.</li><li>If the PCs let her do what she wants, she will go and murder the man who killed her.</li></ul><div>Ben "Zippo" Rogers:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>80s business guy.</li><li>Says he wants to party and live it up.</li><li>If the PCs let him do what he wants to do, he will do sooo much cocaine, get in a high stakes poker game and get in a stand off after trying to cheat.</li></ul><div>If all the PCs give up their bodies, then they just suddenly wake up in the aftermath of the ghosts having gotten their way.</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The PC possessed by Allie Malice will see a hell portal open in front of them.</li><li>The PCs possessed by Mary Smith will wake to a gun in one hand and a dead man on the ground in front of them, obviously shot.</li><li>The PC possessed by Zippo will be covered in cocaine with two high rolling gangsters pointing guns at them over a poker table.</li></ul><div>If only some of the PCs give up their bodies, their spirits get shoved out of their bodies and they become ghosts so they can help herd these life-happy ghosts in a spectral way.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>When all of the PCs have helped the ghosts live for the night, even if the ghosts do not get their way, they will do as promised and lead the party to a treasure buried in the wilderness not far away. </div><div><br /></div><div>1d6 Treasures:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Way too much cocaine. Some cartel is definitely looking for this.</li><li>Guns, ammo, and spy equipment, along with video instructions for a spy's mission that self-destruct after being played.</li><li>A miniature house, glowing from within with lights and the shadows of little people moving around inside. </li><li>Cursed gold doubloons buried here by pirates. Taking the gold will pass their curse onto you and disturb their spirits.</li><li>Copies of the Star Wars Holiday Special that escaped the fire's of George Lucas' fury. He will come for you and do anything to destroy those tapes. </li><li>Just because it was buried doesn't mean it was treasure. This man-sized box is covered in chains and runic markings. Sometimes you can hear a knock coming from inside, as if politely asking you to open the door. Sometimes you can hear a gentle cooing from within when it rains. Do not open it.</li></ol></div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-82446958256081302282022-05-02T08:46:00.000-07:002022-05-02T08:46:45.944-07:00On the Birth of God and Monkey Philosophy (Tales from the World Bloom 1)<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the beginning, Aman who Dreams the World looked upon the black seas of infinity and saw a tiny sparkling seed. He drew it up and saw that it was bright and fair like one of his own eyes. He planted it in his forehead and a flower grew. Plucking it, he found it had left behind a third eye. He returned the bloom to drift on the black seas. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is upon this flower that our world came to be.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQO2qDMC2d_w7j6AoyowXLAQeZDO6SZG4Ff3niEV9tWtzmNfTxJo6lMgxbFYuwP4Gbc-BOUjgxu-9_j5ZWtvP89bsTDqjMiQyC8239iP5RHni6wyosugtByJxQImMqpVZJj7IoYoQzNAN33J2PKw1yucsZErC-FiLmTdm_Sivb6TYvjcOzGvExLML/s3807/monkey%20king.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3807" data-original-width="3402" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQO2qDMC2d_w7j6AoyowXLAQeZDO6SZG4Ff3niEV9tWtzmNfTxJo6lMgxbFYuwP4Gbc-BOUjgxu-9_j5ZWtvP89bsTDqjMiQyC8239iP5RHni6wyosugtByJxQImMqpVZJj7IoYoQzNAN33J2PKw1yucsZErC-FiLmTdm_Sivb6TYvjcOzGvExLML/s320/monkey%20king.jpg" width="286" /></a></div><p></p><p><i>But that is of little interest to you, my dear one. I know you yearn for the whole story of Halar Serpentborn, Dragonslayer, Emperor of the Jeweled Throne, Bearer of the Words of Divinity, and Avatar of Aman. In my position as your tutor and tale weaver, I have not been afforded much time for study abroad, but because of your eager desire for learning, oh curious one, and your express command under penalty of death, I have scoured the five petals for the tales of Lord Halar.</i></p><p><i>It is my understanding that this is the first attempt that has been made at truly gathering together all the many different stories of Halar's journeys. Innumerable scrolls exist of his different adventures and many of these contradict each other and themselves to maddening degrees. This record will attempt to be accurate and comprehensive but it will inevitably be incomplete as anything accurate is incomplete, commenting on variations and contradictions where possible while still maintaining a coherent narrative. I know this is frustrating to you, my princess. As I quote, "Just tell me the truth, you miserable beetle!" Believe me, shining one, whatever frustration you feel over these contradictions, I feel thrice over. I shall endeavor to keep my interruptions to a minimum as we tell the story of the hero who saved our world all those years ago.</i></p><p>Halar's Journeys</p><div><div>Birth of the Immaculate One:</div><div><br /></div><div>In the beginning, there were only two people, the Night Folk and the Day Folk, the Vatiar and the Satiar.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Forgive the almost immediate interruption, but this scroll is so brazenly contrary to reality that it bears noting. This scroll claims two kinds of people only to later mention the White Apes. This is not even to mention my people, the Scarabi, or even the other kinds of humans on our world, but I digress. This is a common way that these scrolls begin despite the transparent inaccuracy of it so I included it. </i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div>The Vatiar, pale, fair, and lithe, lived in the great jungles always dwelling in the shadows of the towering trees, never daring to step out into daylight for fear of their enemy: Seyam the Serpent.</div><p>Seyam was a serpent of brutal strength and cunning whose venom was death. All the Vatiar lived in fear of it, cowering in the trees or living in servitude to the snake. A foolhardy Satiar warrior, Rhudor Dawnbreaker, hears of the serpent and went in to kill it.</p><p>Rhudor put up a good fight but the serpent bit him and left him to die. But a Vatiar woman, Moon Shadow, found him and tried to save him. Over the weeks she tended to him, they fell in love but each day the venom grew stronger in his veins and each day time grew shorter and shorter. They are wed by the customs of the Vatiar in the last days they expected him to live.</p><p>But after their wedding night, the warrior seems cured and the elf knows she is with child. A mere 3 months later, Halar was born as if already sprinting into life. The demon Deneng who Closes the Mouth of the River came to kill the child upon his birth, but the goddess of life Vashrati who Sprinkles Morning Dew, appeared and spoke a Word of Divinity, "Hope," casting the demon into the depths and teaching the young Halar his first word. So Halar is born of the venom of the enemy and the words of the divine, thus the Night Folk called him Serpent Born.</p><p><i>Some of the scrolls of the nativity of the Lord Halar claim that since Moon Shadow is an avatar of Vashrati, the goddess herself did not appear, instead Moon Shadow herself beat the demon to death with her own hands, others say she ripped the demon’s head off.</i></p><p>The Journey of Many Monkeys:</p><p>At merely five years old, Halar was speaking in full sentences, or rather shouting as he bounded from tree to tree, louder and rowdier than any of the timid Wood Elves. At this great noise, the White Apes of Zhandabar came to see what was the matter. They saw the young hero and were greatly confused. He was light on his feet like one of them, loud like one of them, and even messy like one of them, yet he had no hair. The apes took him quietly and brought him before their wisest elders, but, as a child, Halar was a master of monkey philosophy and he stumped them all. Convinced he was the wisest being to ever live, they called him Bald One of Boundless Wisdom. They assigned their young prince, Hamadi, to follow him always and learn from him. So Hamadi became the infant Halar's first disciple.</p><p>On the first day of their journey, the pair found King Ghan of Sparkling Khandar, his carriage laden with gold, jewels, and orange blossoms. </p><p><i>This is the first mention of our own Sparkling Khandar, quite a different place than all those years ago, yet it would be this meeting that would one day lead to Halar taking the Jeweled Throne of Khandar and siring a dynasty that would last up until this present day, to you, my princess!</i></p><p>King Ghan was said to be the wisest of the Three Kings of the East and prouder than them all. So Halar said to Hamadi, "Watch this!"Halar bounded down from the trees, landing right before the carriage. </p><p>"Hail, wisest king of all the earth! If you are so wise, great king, answer me three questions!"</p><p>The king was surprised but he knew he could answer any questions this child put to him, for he was wise and proud of it! "Ask me any question, child!"</p><p>"And what will you give me if I can ask you a question you cannot answer, oh wise king?"</p><div><div>The king laughed, "I shall give you all my orange blossoms if a child such as you could ever ask me a question I could not answer!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Very well, oh king, then tell me: what is the sound of the color blue?"</div><div><br /></div><div>The wise king furrowed his brow and thought mightily, but he had no answer! So he handed over his orange blossoms. </div><div><br /></div><div>"That was a lucky shot, boy! Ask me again! This time I will wager all my jewels!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Oh greatest king of all the earth, what does sorrow smell like?"</div><div><br /></div><div>The king thought again, thinking so furiously that the trees shook! But he could not answer!</div><div><br /></div><div>"Again, tricky boy! Ask me once more! I know I can best you, else you may have my gold!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Then, great king, what does courage taste like?"</div><div><br /></div><div>The king thought and thought so hard the ground shook and Bardju who Tips the Mountains with Snow turned over in his slumber but again he could not answer. In shame, the great king gave over his whole carriage to the boy. </div><div><br /></div><div>Hamadi was amazed and this was only the first of many times Halar would ride a kingly carriage of Sparkling Khandar.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the second day, Halar cavorted with the apes and the Lotus Nymphs in the ruins of the gilded city. The apes convinced him to partake of their melon wine and he drank many barrels unhindered. Seeing an opportunity, the demon Attra who Paints the Chameleon's Scales, a demon of Ignorance and Temptation, approached the child hero.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Fair lord! What treasures you have! You have but to ask me and I will double your orange blossoms!"</div><div><br /></div><div>"Of what value to me are orange blossoms? I bought them with a question," he replied, frustrating the demon. </div><div><br /></div><div>The demon in turn asks him of his jewels and his gold, each time seeking to indebt the young saint but each time he refused her.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, the demon uttered a prophecy, "In your time of need, young Lord, you shall seek my help and find it but my price will be steep for this night!" Then Attra was gone and Hamadi stored up all these things in his heart.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><div>On the third day, the heroes were going through the jungle when they saw Vatiar offering sacrifices to Seyam the Great Snake, most cunning of all animals who crawl on the ground. They offered the serpent honey and gems and even monkeys some of whom were Hamadi's friends. </div><div><br /></div><div>Hamadi looked to Halar with worry, but the young hero simply said, "Watch this!"</div><div><br /></div><div>He leaped before the great snake and Seyam was intrigued. "Great snake, greatest beast of all the earth! Your wisdom is known from the east to the west! But answer me a question, oh most cunning of serpents?"</div><div><br /></div><div>Halar asked the first of his impossible questions, but the Serpent replied, "The sound of blue is the sound of the sea and the sound of the wind in the high heavens."</div><div><br /></div><div>Halar was frustrated, so he asked his second impossible question, but the snake replied, "Sorrow is the salty smell of tears and the charcoal smell of ashes."</div><div><br /></div><div>Halar stomped his feet and asked his third impossible question but the serpent replied, "Courage tastes of melon wine and young heroes too arrogant for their own good!" </div><div><br /></div><div>The snake lunged to consume Halar, but the child saint nimbly bounced into the trees. He fled and wept bitter tears, but Hamadi rejoined him asking, "Why do you cry, wise one? Your plan worked! While you distracted the serpent, I set my people free! I learned it from you! Never do as your foe suspects!'</div><div><br /></div><div>Halar embraced his friend, and to his dying day, Hamadi ever said, "My Master has never been wrong! Even his mistakes were genius!"</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Notes:</div><div><br /></div><div>This is a little piece of fiction that has emerged out of a worldbuilding project with one of my friends. I think this is a worldbuilding project that I am going to continue with my own spin on this blog. You might see more of these myths or details of the World Bloom setting here soon. </div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-90708256721933924852022-04-25T10:09:00.000-07:002022-04-25T10:09:36.921-07:00Electric Samsara: Character Creation and Rules<p><i>The Great River: worlds strung together by a starry ribbon of water, passing through gates that leap lightyears in an instant. The AI Bodhisattvas have returned to guide humanity and its descendants towards the Enlightenment the AI Buddhas have achieved. You were on the path to enlightenment, following M4IO "Universal Sight" as a Wise Blade until it all came crashing down...</i></p><p><a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/02/electric-samsara-1-manusaya.html" target="_blank">Post 1 </a></p><p>I'm starting over a bit from a different angle, I am going to take a note out of my own book, <a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2021/04/weirdways-low-road-trip-across-weird.html" target="_blank">Weirdways</a>, and revamp my original idea for this system so any mechanical things from last post probably do not fit anymore.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0YIsGA_y1b-pUb7S2YEQ1d25u_T5sZ7jPkcXlEBRNtU1jZJuxeWs98WJRybD7Ol342eCMyEBYhkhW1NZMvbCasior2e4CFqMaxlgjJcQP8zC2VIa4VadfH8rHRqQoFCU3iLVzGQQYeTX_Tfbbs-bFOGIA_ETfnr9f5Eselt0KHwGYIqK25Ft4zBl/s704/a37c3d1c9138f8d7d5d18b2f788227c9.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="564" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy0YIsGA_y1b-pUb7S2YEQ1d25u_T5sZ7jPkcXlEBRNtU1jZJuxeWs98WJRybD7Ol342eCMyEBYhkhW1NZMvbCasior2e4CFqMaxlgjJcQP8zC2VIa4VadfH8rHRqQoFCU3iLVzGQQYeTX_Tfbbs-bFOGIA_ETfnr9f5Eselt0KHwGYIqK25Ft4zBl/s320/a37c3d1c9138f8d7d5d18b2f788227c9.jpeg" width="256" /></a></div><p>Aspects: Aspects are elements of your character that show what you are good at and what you can do. They are given to your in character creation and you can gain more as you advance.</p><p>Positions: The elements of the environment and situation that help or hinder the character's actions. A well laid plan, favorable terrain, having help, ect can all be examples of favorable Positions. </p><p>An ill considered plan, difficult positioning, a hard task, ect all of these are negative Positions. These subtract dice from your roll.</p><p>Main Mechanic: Roll 1d6 for each applicable Aspect and for each favorable Position, take the highest die and consult the chart below:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>6: Total Success: You do what you sought to do without issue. </li><li>4-5: Partial Success: You do what you want but with some complication or cost.</li><li>1-3: Failure with Drawback: You fail to do what you sought to do and you suffer a complication or cost. </li></ul><div>If you roll multiples of your highest die, the result, for good or bad, is amplified. For instance, if you roll multiple 6s, then your success is that much more incredible. But if you roll multiple 1s and that is your highest roll, then your failure is that much more compounded.</div><div><br /></div><div>Remember that all of this in in the context of superhuman martial artists. Ordinary human beings are little challenge as are many mundane tasks so GMs ought to adjudicate the rolls with this in mind. In a single roll a Blade can easily kill multiple ordinary humans if the circumstances are right. Other super-martial artists might prove a greater challenge.</div><div><br /></div><div>Steps: Roll or choose from the Aspect tables below:</div><div><br /></div><div>You are a <u>Table A</u> <u>Table B</u> trained in <u>Table C</u> and <u>Table C</u> equipped with <u>Table D</u>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Feel free to re-roll redundant results or keep them to double up in effectiveness on desired Aspects.</div><div><br /></div><div>Table A: 1d10 Creatures:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Baseline Human</li><li>Lightly Hybridized Human</li><li>Asuran: Purposefully and perhaps excessively genetically and bodily modified human, usually with unnaturally colored skin-tones.</li><li>Devan Immortal: Descendants of mega-ceos who are technologically and genetically modified to be as perfect as possible and practically immortal.</li><li>Mara: Pleasure creatures created by the Devans and Asurans to service their every need, but the relationship has changed as time went on. The Mara, once seen as the servants of mankind, became more like their predators, drawing people into endless loops of maximum pleasure and sealing them in re-purposed stasis crypts where their serotonin is maxed out forever.</li><li>Uplifted Animal: Before the Ascension, humans regularly dabbled in granting animals sentience for various reasons. The descendants of these uplifted animals retain the enhanced cognitive capacity.</li><li>Husk: Technologically preserved humans, like cybernetic zombies, meant to tend to the ultra rich in their stasis crypts or in the Tomb Servers of Pretas. </li><li>Hungry Ghost: One of millions of souls who were trapped in the virtual world when the Ascension happened. Their bodies died long ago, but their minds were preserved in the Tomb Servers of Pretas. Your mind snuck out of the Servers into the data plane and manipulated the nano cloud to form a techno-organic body of metal scrap.</li><li>Atata Hellworlder: The Hellworld of Naraka lost its spin long ago. In the bitter cold of the dark side of Naraka, few things can live, but those imprisoned here in eons past have adapted, turning their skin blue, chattering their teeth, growing fur, living around thermal shafts below the ice, and wearing full-body thermal suits.</li><li>Rauva Hellworlder: On the hot side of Naraka, there too are human beings who have adapted to the searing heat with lizard-like scales that reflect the sun, double eye-lids, and cryonic techno-organs to regulate heat.</li></ol>Table B: 1d20 Backgrounds</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span id="docs-internal-guid-b7e2e24d-7fff-2244-a0eb-8ca77dad006d"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wise Blade for Hire: "The sound of Blades clashing. The sound of coins jingling." You have sold the brand of the Blades for years. The red robe. The gold sash. The sword, the one given to you by your dear master, its hilt like a flaming lotus, the blade, dull now, not the vibrant sparkling metal that would seem to flow like flames.</span></span></span></li><li><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Faceless: You were just a child when the monastery burned. To survive you learned to live in the shadows. Theft. Pick Pocketing. You quickly learned the benefit of blending in, being beneath notice. You found a voice in the dark offering you power in anonymity. Offering you a new face to hide the one you want to forget.</span></span></span></li><li><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Mercy Giver: You took on the white robe and the veil. Kanzeon took you in when your god died. She taught you ways of healing but you never took the vows of non-violence, set apart for a special purpose. The vows are so restrictive. Sometimes a harsher hand is needed.</span></span></span></li><li><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Reborn: Found half-dead in the snow of Mount Meru, you were picked up and rebuilt. By who? Your mind was not so lucky. You were dead. The life you once lived now only exists in flashes, dreams, and hazy memories. You know the man in black armor, surrounded by flames. You know he was the one who killed you. You’re quite upset about that.</span></span></span></li><li><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Ghost Eye: Everyone sees the surface of the world, even the surface of the data plane, but few can look deeper like you. M4IO taught you to look deeper. Experience has taught you to look smarter. You can hear the whispers of the souls lost in the virtual world. You can feel the electric heartbeat of the world. Wealth flows plentifully for a keen eye to the world of ghosts.</span></span></span></li><li><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>Drunken Master: You climbed back up Mount Meru, fed up with the world, looking to wallow in the past and die, but life was not done with you. You still learned. You still had a purpose to do. The ones who did this to your master must pay. The young ones you helped to train must be protected. You have been roused from your stupor to face the world one last time before you try again in the next life.</span></span></span></li><li><span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Astral Battle Gear Pilot: You have the gift, the keen sense of self to pilot the Hammer of Heaven Astral Battle Gears Mechs that protect the Great River, but the immensity of this responsibility is a frightful thing. You are not so sure you want </span></span></span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">to sail above the worlds in a metal cage, protecting them from whatever might come from the endless black.</span> </li><li>Failed Bodyguard: You were an Invincible Fist tasked as a bodyguard to an important target. You failed critically and now the exalted customers who once craved your protection will not look at you.</li><li>Terran Gardener: The destruction of Mount Meru was a sign. The way of destruction had to stop. Now is the time of growing rather than tearing down. T4R4 offered you that chance. You put on the green cloak and the sky blue tunic of the Gardeners. Yet, there are those that would disturb the pristine peace of your planetary garden. When will they learn?</li><li>Free Spirit: The Blades were lost. The only thing that gave life meaning was lost. The Monkey King’s city was a place of freedom, of release. Better than Heaven was a place where you could forget the past and be free. You could take what you wanted no strings attached. Just don’t get caught.</li><li>Brigand: After Mount Meru, you were adopted by a group of brigands, traveling the worlds, taking what you want, leaving your worries behind. But the life of a brigand is not always sunshine and rainbows. You wielded arms and committed violence. What happened for this life to end? Did it end well?</li><li>Tomb Tender: The Tomb Servers of Pretas are home to many lost souls. Many come here because they have no where else to go, because they have more in common with the dead than the living. But you pick up a few tricks tending to ancient technology and keeping ghosts in check.</li><li>Star Monk: The monks of AKA5A Gate Node 3B "Sky Jewel" contemplate the infinite black expanse of space, seeing the flux of gravity and the bending of space-time, purposely embracing self-emptiness so that their AI Bodhisattva can use the processing power of their brains. Why did you leave this life behind?</li><li>Corporate Mercenary: The corporations of Asura and Deva are constantly engaged in subtle and overt warfare. Neither are above using force of arms to give them a leg up. In a post-Blade world, this became the norm. A former Blade is a valuable commodity in such times. What went wrong?</li><li>Hell Guide: Navigating the harsh landscape of Hellworld Naraka is no easy thing. The flora and fauna of Naraka is all deadly and yet perhaps not as deadly as the temperature. To survive on the hot or cold side of Naraka is a feat in and of itself. You guided and protected travelers through this hellish landscape.</li><li>Blade Dancer: Sometimes erotic, sometimes not, the dance of someone trained like a Wise Blade who has turned their gifts to art rather than war are highly sought after. Such dancers are famed for their prowess and for stealing the hearts of those that watch.</li><li>Man at Arms: The mega-ceo families of Deva usually have their own captain of their mercenary forces and bodyguards, often responsible for training young heirs in combat and helping in strategizing attacks against their enemies. Did your enemies surprise you? What catastrophic defeat has left you out of a job? Are there still living members of the family that you would still serve?</li><li>Data-Sec Mentat: Responsible for protecting and commanding the systems and information of the mega-corporations of Deva and Asura. They act as advisors and personal computers for the mega-ceos. Did you learn something you shouldn't? Why were you fired?</li><li>Mega Hunter: The gigantic prey of Tiryag requires a special breed of hunter. Sometimes the hunts are sanctioned by T4R4 to keep populations in line, sometimes poachers hunt for profit.</li><li>Iron Chef: Asurans take great pride in extreme food. They have taken to holding cook-offs between chefs trained in the martial arts that can not only kill their own main course but chuck some knives at their opponent. Did you suffer a catastrophic defeat or poison someone? What went wrong for you to leave this life?</li></ol></div><div>Table C: 1d20 Techniques:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Light Body Technique: Your body is light as a feather, swift as the wind.</li><li>Soul Blade Style: The wise swordsman cuts with his whole being. The blade is merely an extension of that being.</li><li>Moon Shadow Technique: The shadows protect you as a mother protects her children, keeping you hidden from those that would harm you.</li><li>Way of the Gentle Embrace: At your mere touch, you can feel a person's pain and longings and offer healing and mercy.</li><li>Way of the Open Palm: Violence is so easily turned back upon itself. When you are nothing, your opponents only strike themselves.</li><li>Way of the Piercing Claw: Your hands are better for cutting than knives, your fists better for stabbing than spears.</li><li>Way of the Ghost Eye: You can see deeper into the dataplane, uncovering its buried secrets and seeing that which would rather go unseen.</li><li>Electric Spider Technique: You can manipulate the threads of the dataplane like a spider manipulates her web. Attack and ensnare systems and leave behind listening threads and traps.</li><li>Way of the Crippled Liver: Stumbling drunkenly, your opponents think they have an easy target, but you are lighter on your feet blackout drunk than they are at their most sober.</li><li>Astral Fist Technique: You can manifest hard light arms. Beat down your foes under a rain of infinite no-self.</li><li>Astral Mind Technique: You can project yourself through the dataplane as a specter over long distances, yet while you have less concern from physical foes, there are yet hunters in the realm of ghosts.</li><li>Astral Palm Technique: Project powerful shields of hard light. Let them break their blades against the infinite layers of no-self.</li><li>Diamond Body Style: Skin that is harder than iron. Flesh that is stronger than steel. The one who sees the self as immaterial can imagine it to be anything and it is so.</li><li>Way of the Thriving Vine: To the one who knows they are nothing, the vines, leaves, and roots are as much you as you are. Command them as you command your hand.</li><li>Beast Speech Style: The beasts are no different from us really. To those who remember their lives as beasts, their language is understandable.</li><li>Crazy Monkey Style: There is power in subtlety and power in the opposite. In a furor of movement, noise, and violence you astonish friends and foes alike with your swiftness.</li><li>Hairs of Sun Wukong: Typical of the Monkey King's narcissism, he cannot get enough of himself. In likewise manner, you can also create multiple fragile clones of yourself.</li><li>Flashing Flame Style: The violence of shaking atoms, the flashing flames that leap from your very hands. Breathe out of the flame of life you were given and set the world alight.</li><li>Thunder Foot Style: Your stomp shakes the earth. The ground upheaves at your step. Rooted in the Way, you cannot be shaken.</li><li>Ghost Cloud Style: You can manipulate the nano-cloud to create and reshape physical objects. This is a rare and sought after technique.</li></ol><div>Table D: 1d20 Special Gear</div></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>A staff that extends to impossible lengths.</li><li>Self-mutliplying shurikens.</li><li>A blade that can cuts ghosts and illusions.</li><li>A grappling hook on a silver chord that stretches to impossible lengths and can hold the weight of many people.</li><li>A metal disc that deflects projectiles and always returns when thrown. Could be worn as a hat.</li><li>Seemingly infinite smoke bombs.</li><li>Paper talismans that ensnare who they touch.</li><li>A small spider drone that can climb walls and shoot webs.</li><li>Boots that allow you to walk on any surface even upside down.</li><li>A bell whose sound stuns and reveals ghosts.</li><li>A staff that can emit a powerful magnetism.</li><li>An ink brush that can create illusory images.</li><li>Sandals that create clouds that you can walk on and command for flight.</li><li>Fans/ a parasol that can create powerful gusts of wind.</li><li>A spiked cudgel that is electrified.</li><li>Kunai that create an electrified field between them.</li><li>Paper talismans that seal doors and gateways, making them impassable except with tremendous force.</li><li>Tiny magnetic discs that act as cameras, audio-recorders, and tracking devices.</li><li>A tiny flying beetle drone with cameras and audio-recorders.</li><li>A sword breaking mace.</li></ol><div>Gear:</div><div><br /></div><div>You may make up two pieces of gear that it makes sense for your character to have. For instance a Wise Blade probably ought to have a fancy sword. These two pieces of gear ought to be special to your character and you may negotiate their abilities with the GM. Look Table D for inspiration.</div><div><br /></div><div>You may also, during the game, take out up to 6 pieces of more ordinary gear that make sense for your character to have. This is something you can do in the middle of play in negotiation with the GM. </div><div><br /></div><div>Money: </div><div><br /></div><div>PCs start with 2d6 Coin. Most ordinary weapons and items are bought with 1 Coin. </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Questions:</div><div><br /></div><div>Once you have rolled or picked from these tables, answer the following questions about your character:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You were apart of the Wise Blades before the death of your master, M4IO (see <a href="http://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2022/02/electric-samsara-1-manusaya.html" target="_blank">Post 1</a>), and now like the rest of these keepers of justice, you were scattered. What did you lose when your order was slain? What did that loss do to you?</li><li>How have you dealt with that loss in a new world without the Blades? What have you done to survive? Where have you found to fit in, if poorly?</li><li>What are you looking forward to? Revenge? Resurrection? Something totally new? What is next? Have you thought about it? Can you think about it?</li><li>How have you found yourself joined together with these other former Blades?</li></ul><div>Harm and Recovery:</div><div><br /></div><div>Each player character has a Harm track, at 4 Harm they take a Minor Injury, the nature of which is decided by the GM. At 5 Harm, the player character takes a Major Injury, the nature of which is decided by the GM. All injuries act as negative Positions where appropriate. At 6 Harm the player character is dead.</div><div><br /></div><div>PCs only take 1 Harm at a time unless it is something truly drastic. Powerful enemies work the same way.</div><div><br /></div><div>All Harm recovers after a night's rest. Injuries require medical attention and Major Injuries might leave lasting scars or require prosthetics as determined by the GM.</div><div><br /></div><div>Combat: </div><div><br /></div><div>To begin Combat, the GM sets up the scenario, detaining evident threats and what they are doing.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then, if the PC's wish to fight that can make actions accordingly. </div><div><br /></div><div>For example:</div><div><br /></div><div>GM: "The Ghost Butch lands heavily atop the hoverbarge stretching out it's scythe like claws as this Hungry Ghost rises before you, it's face a distorted image of TV snow looking out from it's monitor head. What do you do?"</div><div><br /></div><div>PC: "I throw a shuriken at it!"</div><div><br /></div><div>At this point the GM ought to negotiate the roll based on the PC's Aspects and Position. </div><div><br /></div><div>PC: "I'm a Brigand with Crazy Monkey Style so I know how to use these weapons and I can chuck a bunch of them really fast, not to mention I have the self-replicating shurikens. So I am envisioning my character spinning rapidly as a bunch of shurikens fly at the Ghost Butcher, splitting into multiples as they get close."</div><div><br /></div><div>GM: "That's awesome. Roll three dice and one more for the cool factor."</div><div><br /></div><div>PC: "Highest is a 5."</div><div><br /></div><div>GM: "Ok so you can Harm the Ghost Butcher but you will have to avoid an attack in return or the Ghost Butcher will disable your shurikens."</div><div><br /></div><div>PC: "Hmm ok I'll try to avoid the attack."</div><div><br /></div><div>GM: "One of you shurikens stick in it's shoulder and you can see the haze of the nanocloud almost spilling out of it. It comes at you with scythe like blades that you see tear through metal like butter. What do you do?"</div><div><br /></div><div>A new roll is negotiated and play carries on.</div><div><br /></div><div>The GM should allow every player to make a proactive move before taking some proactive move on behalf of the enemies and then allowing all players to act again. </div><div><br /></div><div>I like to just go around the table, some may like it more freeform. You should play to your tastes and the tastes of your table.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here is a starting scenario for anyone interested in running:</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The Ghost Butcher:</div><div><br /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-1d4c66fc-7fff-ed16-e0dc-bf95933a40d5"><div style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goro Hiroki, one of the four Domos of the Vipana Cartel, has hired you Blades for a job. He mostly peddles Moon Dust out of his various noodle shops on the North East Side of Vipa, you meet him at one of his Hungry Belly Noodle Shops in an upper room overlooking the smoky noodle den. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;">He is dealing with someone targeting his shipments and dealers, specifically just his people, none of the other Domos are under attack this way. The scenes left behind are gruesome the the River Lord's guards are letting no one near. People are calling this killer, the Ghost Butcher since no one has seen him and lived.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Goro is receiving a shipment by the Silk Sighs out of the backroom of a brothel called the Jade Pillow run by his sister, Lady Jade. He is sure the Ghost Butcher will attack again. He needs you to stop this Ghost Butcher at all costs. He can pay in coin but he also offers information about who attacked the Mount Meru temple. His boss apparently has some information about the elusive attackers.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: inherit;">Details (GM eyes only):</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Goro is the least of the Domos. He is terrified to tell the others or his mysterious boss about what is happening or else they might just cut their losses and kill him. </li><li>The boss is a mysterious figure. He only allows the individual Domos to visit him with a gold key that works once per year or when all the Domos come together. Regardless, he is always running things behind the scenes.</li><li>The Ghost Butcher is a Hungry Ghost with a head made of a TV and with hideously sharp claws like swords. He wants desperately wants a body and has been promised one by his employers. He is a powerful foe who can take up to 8 Harm. He uses the Way of the Piercing Fist and Electric Spider technique. He also throws electrified Kunai.</li><li>He has been employed by the same people who attacked the monastery to draw out the mysterious boss of the Vipana Cartel, since the boss is secretly a rogue AI named Mr. Smiles who was created by the McDonald's corporation to track customer satisfaction eons ago, but now uses his information gathering skills to his own profit. This is a threat to the black armored attackers. He has been in hiding from the New Buddhas.</li><li>The black armored attackers are working with Lady Jade, telling her they want to supplant her brother so she can take over. The truth is that they want to kill Mr. Smiles.</li><li>If Goro ever takes the PCs to the boss, his sister will alert her employers, and black armored soldiers will attack with their flying vessel accompanied by Janus Rex the man in the black armor who killed M4IO and still bears the sacred sword of the Blades who will try to kill Mr. Smiles too. Janus Rex is basically invulnerable to the Blades at this stage but he is relatively slow and might be escaped. </li><li>If the PCs manage to save Mr. Smiles, he will tell them that the black armored attackers are invaders from outside the Great River who are preparing some kind of attack against the Bodhisattvas and so are going around killing the various AIs that could warn of their attack. </li><li>There are only a few individuals on the river who have access to interstellar travel without the river gates. It is said there is a criminal mastermind on Asura who uses a cloaked vessel to ship goods secretly to different worlds on the River. She is just called Firebird. </li></ul></div></span></div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-17210189750378549822022-04-20T08:31:00.000-07:002022-04-20T08:31:00.393-07:00Sailors on a Psychic Sea<p><i> The mind...</i></p><p><i>the final frontier... </i></p><p><i>these are the voyages of the A.S. Idterprise... </i></p><p><i>to seek out new thoughts and new psycho-phenomena... </i></p><p><i>to boldly go where no brain has gone before!</i></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMwL7J5-0gIZE6K7hONKq5Kahc-u_xATh8gjZ4IBDKUNu5gUz0ZfsxMnKk5SARBtAKTirvPPmynvrYgvrZcSQNAbeGvUJOvoW4Zphm387zk9gSbWamFogUdGBTIFm8zhUNutmfEYQ1J70fHPqb3WcGklFLIqlCj_4bRTjSxt8GvcOYwkMAmKeci13/s1921/psychonauts-2-image.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1921" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqMwL7J5-0gIZE6K7hONKq5Kahc-u_xATh8gjZ4IBDKUNu5gUz0ZfsxMnKk5SARBtAKTirvPPmynvrYgvrZcSQNAbeGvUJOvoW4Zphm387zk9gSbWamFogUdGBTIFm8zhUNutmfEYQ1J70fHPqb3WcGklFLIqlCj_4bRTjSxt8GvcOYwkMAmKeci13/w640-h360/psychonauts-2-image.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;">From Psychonauts 2</div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">In Psychonauts 2, there is a throwaway line about the founding members of the Psychonauts planning a voyage across the Astral Sea. So... that has been haunting my brain ever since. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The Astral Sea / Astral Plane / Collective Unconscious / The Deep is a realm only barely understood by the psychics of our world. A few things are known based on preliminary exploration:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>All minds are joined together by the Astral Sea</li><li>The Sea itself is a great collective mindscape and contains many different collective mindscapes</li><li>You cannot simply wake up from exploring the Sea. You have to find a Corridor back to the waking world or surface up through someone else's mind, possessing their body. </li><li>Harm experienced in the Sea can result in real and possibly permanent mental damage.</li><li>Anytime a psychic creates a little world of their own, it forms in the Astral Sea. It is easy for people who spend a lot of time in worlds of their own creation to get lost and not be able to come back out.</li></ul><div>Some things are theorized but not known:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Astral Sea does not just link together human minds but nonhuman ones, possibly even allowing communication with aliens or with inhuman intelligences far stranger.</li><li>The Astral Sea may be a way of accessing other dimensions or parallel worlds. It is the realm of possibilities out of which the Universal Consciousness forms reality. </li><li>Archetypes, gods, spirits, and the like might exist in the Sea, collective consciousness made manifest in the Deep.</li><li>Lesser intelligences likely exist in the Sea as well: emotions, dreams, ideas, imaginary friends, delusions, inhibitions, and mental illnesses that have been cured or discarded might actually leak out into islands in the Sea.</li></ul><div>You are a member of an organization (it can just straight up be the Psychonauts if you want, that's how I might run) who is planning an exploratory voyage across the Astral Sea for a few reasons:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Science!</li><li>A few solitary voyages have gone out before you but none of them have returned, but you can still detect their psychic beacons.</li><li>You have detected a distant psychic signal from across the sea far in the distance beyond what has been explored. The source is unknown. You suspect this might be something beyond the sea itself, something on the other side.</li></ul><div>Character creation:</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Your main source of power in the Astral Sea are your Themes and your Will. </div><div><br /></div><div>Every psychonaut starts off with 7 Will. You can use Will to boost your rolls as we will see later. </div><div><br /></div><div>You also start off with three Themes. Themes are elements of your own psyche. If someone was to go into your mindscape, these themes would be prominent there. When you use your psychic powers to affect the Astral Sea, drawing on your Themes will help you to more easily and powerfully alter Sea and mindscapes within it.</div><div><br /></div><div>You can roll or pick your Themes off of the following tables or come up with them on your own:</div><div><br /></div><div>1d20 Emotional/Personality Themes:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Anger</li><li>Disappointment</li><li>Sadness</li><li>Joy</li><li>Fear</li><li>Loss</li><li>Pleasure</li><li>Wonder</li><li>Mischievous</li><li>Love</li><li>Hyperactive</li><li>Sluggishness</li><li>Depression</li><li>Excitement</li><li>Calm</li><li>Introspection</li><li>Thrill</li><li>Empathy</li><li>Courage</li><li>Curiosity</li></ol><div>1d20 Setting Themes:</div></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>War</li><li>The Past</li><li>The Future</li><li>Hospital</li><li>Casino</li><li>Carnival/Circus</li><li>Supermarket/Mall/Shop</li><li>Church</li><li>Airport/Plane</li><li>Sea</li><li>Jungle/Forest</li><li>Zoo</li><li>Library</li><li>Desert</li><li>Tundra</li><li>Garden</li><li>House</li><li>Farm</li><li>Mountain</li><li>Swamp</li></ol><div>1d20 Visual Themes:</div></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Meat</li><li>Insects</li><li>Animal (Pick a particular kind or type)</li><li>Plants</li><li>Aliens</li><li>Rainbows</li><li>TV/Computers</li><li>Anatomy</li><li>Clocks</li><li>Trash</li><li>Bed/Bedding</li><li>Stars/Cosmos</li><li>Fire</li><li>Storm</li><li>Words/Text</li><li>Sports</li><li>Bottles</li><li>Food</li><li>Money</li><li>Math</li></ol><div>After you have rolled or chosen your Themes, roll or choose a piece of Special Gear:</div><div><br /></div><div>1d12 Special Gear:</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Psycho-Spinner: Shoot webs of conceptual connection.</li><li>Mental Fog Bombs: A bag of smoke bombs that impose a fog that makes reality hazy and difficult to focus.</li><li>Thoughtform Pokeballs: Save willing Thoughtform creatures in small balls or weaken unwilling ones to capture them.</li><li>Blade of Faith: A pure shard of faith that can slice through uncertainty and doubt.</li><li>Brain Freezer: A freeze ray that traps things in ice, preventing the natural change of time.</li><li>Dousing Rod: Focus on something you want to find and this points the way to it.</li><li>Source Hacker: Examine the real-life source of a Thoughtform.</li><li>Scrying Ball: Get a closer glimpse of a location your ship is near even if it is concealed. Your GM might make you roll to see how clear a glimpse you get.</li><li>Blink Station: Basically a teleporter. The ship needs to be "orbiting" the location to teleport too and from the location.</li><li>Hyper Pills: Give yourself a small dose of hyperactivity and super focus, but a crash always follows.</li><li>Freudian Slip: A red dress that transforms you into an image of rabid desire for an intended target.</li><li>Thought Bubblegum: Blow out bubbles of your own thoughts that you can send across distances or save for later.</li></ol><div>Gear:</div><div><br /></div><div>You may also, during the game, take out up to 6 pieces of gear that make sense for your character to have. This is something you can do in the middle of play in negotiation with the GM.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>After you have rolled or chosen your Themes and rolled or chosen your gear, answer the following questions:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Why do you have these Themes? What has happened in your life that has given you these Themes? What does it say about your mental state?</li><li>What are you hoping to find in the Astral Sea? What do you want to explore? What are you afraid of finding in the Astral Sea?</li><li>What darkness is hiding deep down inside yourself? What are you afraid you might become?</li><li>You know one of the missing psychonauts. Who were they? What were their area of expertise? What were they working on before losing contact? How is their body being preserved for their mind to return to? What was your relationship with them?</li></ul><div>Once you have sorted that out, answer these questions as a group:</div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>You are all traveling together in a ship. You designed a model of this ship together in real space as a focus. What does the ship look like? </li><li>How does it sail the Astral Sea? What is it's method of propulsion? </li><li>Who typically pilots the ship? How is it piloted?</li><li>One of you had created a whole imaginary world as a child that you had all but forgotten about. What was it like? What was one particular character that you were especially attached to?</li><li>One of you had an anger issue, depression, anxiety, or other such mental health issue that you received treatment for and now think of as under control or cured. What kind of mental health issue was it?</li><li>One of you has experienced a trauma but you repressed it so much that you no longer really remember it. What was the nature of this trauma?</li></ul><div>Main Mechanic: </div></div><div><br /></div><div>Roll 2d6 plus a modifier given by the GM between -2 and +3. </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Double 6s: Maximum Success, you seize control of the mindscape and alter it in a major way.</li><li>10+: Full success, you alter the mindscape with the desired affect.</li><li>7-9: Partial success, you achieve the desired affect at some cost or drawback.</li><li>6 or less: Failure, you are not able to achieve what you set out to do and something bad happens.</li><li>Double 1s: Critical Failure, you fail and something especially bad happens.</li></ul><div>Will can be used to Boost your roll, turning a Failure to a Partial Success or a Partial Success to a Full Success. You cannot Boost Double 1s.</div> <br /><div>The GM adjudicates the modifier based on how the desired alteration of the mindscape fits the PC's Themes and the Themes of the mindscape. </div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>+3 for the desired alteration fitting with both multiple of the PC's Themes and multiple Themes of the mindscape.</li><li>+2 if it just fits with multiple of the PC's Themes <i style="font-weight: bold;">or </i>multiple Themes of the mindscape.</li><li>+1 if it just fits with one of the PC's Themes or a Theme of the mindcape.</li><li>+0 if it is not especially fitting of any relevant Themes.</li><li>-1 if it goes a little against the PC's Themes or the Themes or logic of the mindscape.</li><li>-2 if it greatly goes against the PC's Themes or the Themes or logic of the minscape.</li></ul><div>The GM may also take this as a rough guideline and assign a modifier as feels right and makes sense in the moment, as will more likely be the case.</div><div><br /></div><div>The PCs do not just have Themes but the mindscapes and the Sea itself have Themes. These Themes will have to be things the PC's discern by examining the details of the mindscape. They do not have to directly name them, but if they catch onto some of the Themes, they should be rewarded.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, if the PCs are just sailing on the Sea, the Themes of the mindscape are:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Infinite Possibility</li><li>Sea</li><li>Creatures in the Deep</li></ul><div>The first Theme of the Astral Sea can apply to just about anything and that is purposeful because the Sea is easily manipulated by psychics.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>If the PC's are in the mindscape of a mad dentist who hates children because of his own super strict upbringing, the Themes could be:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Childhood Prison</li><li>Dentistry</li><li>Mother is Angry</li></ul><div>The Themes of a mindscape can be more particular and they can have more or less than three.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>If the PC's are in a collected mindscape inhabited by discarded mental constructs like cured emotional issues, imaginary friends, and lost inhibitions:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Port of Plenty</li><li>Many Discarded Things</li><li>Lack of Belonging</li><li>Trash</li></ul><div>What if I am not really trying to manipulate the mindscape but just doing more mundane actions? </div><div><br /></div><div>Well, on one hand, everything you do on the Astral Sea is technically manipulating a mindscape, but if that is weird for you or you players, the GM should adjudicate the roll based on the character concept as derived from the Themes. Have Themes like War or Sports and have decided that your character was an athlete or a solider, then you are probably pretty strong. Have Themes like Math, Words, or Library? Then you are probably pretty learned. The GM should adjudicate the roll accordingly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Traveling the Sea and Regaining Will:</div></div><div><br /></div><div>The Ship has 7 Psi-fuel. Each time you travel a hex on the sea, you spend 1 Psi-fuel. Each Psi-fuel is made up of Will equal to the number of PCs. You can spend Psi-fuel to gain will equal to the number of PCs or the PCs gave give up that amount of Will to give the Ship 1 Psi-fuel.</div><div><br /></div><div>To regain Will or Psi-fuel there are a few ways:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Find a source of Will in the Astral Sea. There are places in the Sea where Will is traded like currency. There are also crystalline ice-burgs of pure Will left over from supremely stubborn people or martyrs that can be harvested for a wealth of Will. There may be other ways to discover. </li><li>Surface from the Astral Sea. Surfacing from the Sea is not so easy. There are some Corridors where the crossing can be made back to your physical body and you can return to your place like a check point. Or you if you could find a mindscape connected to a living person, you could temporarily possess their body. In any case, a short time of rest in the real world will refill your Will up to 7. If you can return to your own body in headquarters, your colleagues will supply you with Psi-fuel up to 7. </li></ul><div>Harm and Psychic Injuries on the Astral Sea:</div></div><div><br /></div><div>A PC can take three Harm before they receive a Psychic Injury. On the fourth Harm, the PC's mind is broken, their body is sent into a comatose state, and their astral self is scattered across the Astral Sea. It might be possible to recollect them or to find their mind again in the Astral Sea but there will be a lot of work to do to reconstruct their shattered mind.</div><div><br /></div><div>Psychic Injuries are mental disruptions like the corruption of source code. Outside sources leak in and alter the PC's Astral form and give them a Theme.</div><div><br /></div><div>For instance, if the PC is punched in the gut by a fiery Anger Issue on Port Manteau, giving the PC a third Harm, then the PC might gain the Theme: Fiery Anger and their Astral Form might start manifesting as being made of fire.</div><div><br /></div><div>This Psychic Injury and the corruption of the PC's Astral Form will remain until the PC is able to surface from the Astral Sea and get treatment as base. The other PC's could also try to enter into the Injured PC's mindscape and attempt to resolve the problem themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, the Theme given by the Injury can remain or be transformed as negotiated by the PC and GM. They could keep Fiery Anger and then make use of that moving forward or, if it is more fitting, they could turn it into Righteous Indignation or Cold Fury or anything else that makes sense. </div><div><br /></div><div>All Harm resets after Surfacing or taking a night's rest.</div><div><br /></div><div>What might you find on the Astral Sea? (1d20) Special thanks to <a href="http://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Archon's March On</a> and <a href="http://thestygianseas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Sailing the Stygian Seas</a> for their help with this!</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Barren gilded idols to false gods and yet there may yet be a few pieces of glittering faith left over that you could recover and sell.</li><li>Thoughtforms of various types like emotions, inhibitions, dreams, nightmares, and the like.</li><li>Paranoiac webs of the conspiracy spiders.</li><li>Vast super-consciousnesses that are more like hive minds intrinsic to consciousness itself, like krakens in the deep.</li><li>A busy port town populated by forgotten imaginary friends, personified emotions, and people that have become well and truly lost.</li><li>The island of those who thought it was butter, though it was not.</li><li>A planetoid of giants and their giant houses and giant furniture, the reflection of how the world looked when you were a toddler.</li><li>A collective mindscape of the people who think they have Morgellon's syndrome.</li><li>Things spawned from/native to dreams.</li><li>Groovy hippie ghosts astrally projecting through time and space thanks to really good/bad acid.</li><li>Psychic's who have created their own worlds out the Astral Sea and become lost in them/ forgotten it was fake/ just don't want to go back/ their bodies have died so they literally can't go back and are absolutely desperate for company.</li><li>The boudoir of loves lost by morning, intimacies known only in dreams.</li><li>Enlightened mystics who are untouchable to others, contemplating concepts that they would not be able to understand with the messy biological limitations of a corporeal brain.</li><li>The earths idea of itself. Infinite, wild, untamed.</li><li>Bicameral mind throwback - divine voice pulled in chariot by atavistic beast-men.</li><li>A great Astral Whale that is secretly a predatory mindscape that eats everything in sight.</li><li>The mindscapes of people in deep comas. </li><li>The Isle of Avalon where King Arthur waits to return when his people need him most.</li><li>A cult who all committed suicide together and are now trapped together in a mindscape.</li><li>A great serpent of chaos who has been on the Sea before the world began.</li></ol></div><p></p>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-76850030385783012482022-04-11T11:39:00.001-07:002022-04-11T11:39:56.034-07:00Gasmask Gospel 2: The Empires of Christendom<p> The world is war.</p><p>See Post 1 <a href="https://sheepandsorcery.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-gas-mask-gospel-1-apostolate-of-arym.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>Before the Arymite Revelation, it would not be a stretch to say Christianity had won. The most powerful nations in the world all bowed before the Cross. But it was a divided Christianity. In some ways, the appearance of a true threat was a blessing, for it united the various factions of Christendom in a way that nothing else could short of a miracle. The spiritual power of the universal church has arisen once more, though the divisions still haunt her, she is strong to face the challenge.</p><p style="text-align: center;">Ave Maria!</p><p style="text-align: center;">He is risen!</p><p style="text-align: center;">Christ is Lord!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXLZ4XfDPZOoTi5sfu-bNQy3hJJrIDBbIEgb3kvvYPZ-TefpTrVkDKND1JBDoEWprXskPSaTd-el8XRRDCSBkPjAJ8gtT845ZVw78utI97UfFZOBaoDpyk8NxLKS91iRpING7Jzo53sH-PWt2WPdlT-EqwaD-4kuBr9KOY2rceTkCaxhHP_hNODh3h/s4096/EyP2UKOU8AEMB-o.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4096" data-original-width="3207" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXLZ4XfDPZOoTi5sfu-bNQy3hJJrIDBbIEgb3kvvYPZ-TefpTrVkDKND1JBDoEWprXskPSaTd-el8XRRDCSBkPjAJ8gtT845ZVw78utI97UfFZOBaoDpyk8NxLKS91iRpING7Jzo53sH-PWt2WPdlT-EqwaD-4kuBr9KOY2rceTkCaxhHP_hNODh3h/w314-h400/EyP2UKOU8AEMB-o.jpeg" width="314" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">By Mike Franchina</p><div><b>The Empires of Christendom</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>The different sects of Christianity had long been at odds with each other. At the outset of the Arymite Revelation, not only had the supernatural exploded once more onto the world stage in the form of the Apostles of Arym, undeniable miracles began to appear in all parts of the Christian world. To discuss the new threat and come to some understanding of this explosion of miraculous power, the great figures of every sect gathered, historically Christian nations sent their own ambassadors. The entire world gathered together at the Vatican. There an alliance was hammered into being. A theological war waged for days, but, in the end, necessity reigned, and none of them could deny the necessity of standing united against Arym and the re-emergence of the Pagan world. Each one began to explore what powers had been offered to them by the Holy Spirit and the nations present nodded in assent to the new alliance of united Christendom.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Orthodoxy</b> (Eastern Europe, Greece, parts of the Middle East, Ethiopia)</div><div><br /></div><div>The proud tradition of the East has endured since the beginning, from Christ to the apostles to the fathers to this very day. They have preserved the mystic ways of the ascetics. From Mount Athos come monks who have worked all their lives to achieve theosis, and they come with powers of healing, turning the unholy, and spiritual projection and communication over vast distances. Though there are far too few to be a regular sight among your common soldiers, the powerful prayers of these faithful champions can sway the course of engagements for the battle belongs to the Lord!</div><div><br /></div><div>From the unforgiving lands of Eastern Europe and parts of Russia, come the battle-hardened soldiers of the Orthodox nations. Each troop is headed up by a Reliquary Chaplain, weighed down with countless saintly relics, bones, blessed flasks of oil, and ancient icons. These relics can act like hand grenades of holy power, create areas of protection, and turn unholy creatures. In the shadow of the monstrosities of the Arymites, these soldiers take any advantage they can gain, and lesser relics are often divvied out to ordinary troopers or scavenged by them for their protective power and the comfort of the close presence of the holy.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Catholicism </b>(Parts of Western and Central Europe, Parts of Central and South America)</div><div><br /></div><div>The Vatican was said to have access to Arym before the Arymite Revelation, and while none of their efforts had the same impact as the Revelation, they came back with useful but potentially corrupting insights. Most importantly, they seem to have prepared for the emergence of the Apostles more than any other group, as though they knew this was going to happen. They have studied with science and faith, the astonishing truths from the island. There are rumors of prophet creatures created from Arymite sainthood science in the hidden depths of the Vatican who can predict enemy movements with terrifying accuracy.</div><div><br /></div><div>Having an abundance of relics of their own, your average soldier of Western Europe or South America will often have a minor relic in their possession as well as copious amounts of holy water from their Confessor Chaplains, who are most effective in all the Empires of easing the psychological strain from the horrors both natural and supernatural of this eternal war. </div><div><br /></div><div>Old knightly orders have emerged once more, equipped with their ancient weapons and armor, for the certainty and the long tradition of such armaments is better by far than modern armor against the mind-warping powers of the enemy, and the sword that strikes by faith far better than a tank shell. Few sights encourage the fainting soldiers in the trenches more than a shining knight atop a white steed, flying towards the terrifying monsters of the enemy sword raised high, on fire with faith and chivalry, shining like the sun as they recklessly cut a swath through the enemy. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yet, there are rumors that the greatest of these knights have partaken of the corrupt fruits of the Arymites and that what lies beneath their armor is no longer fully human.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Protestantism </b>(Parts of the USA, Britain, Germany, parts of Western Europe, parts of Africa)</div><div><br /></div><div>Though often looked down on by their counterparts in Christianity, the sharp intellect of the Protestant mind and the fire of their adolescent faith are potent weapons in this time of strife. The great industrial powers of the world, fueled by the Protestant analytical mind, have produced mechanical marvels to face the oncoming storm.</div><div><br /></div><div>Out of Germany have come the great, steel land walkers, mounted with powerful cannons, inscribed with Bible passages, capable of facing the monsters that haunt the no man's land. From Britain come the massive flying dreadnoughts, bringing with them the Iron Angels, the blessed fighter planes, and bomber planes to dominate the skies and drop down cleansing fire onto the enemy.</div><div><br /></div><div>From the US have come fire and brimstone preachers, rallying forth the troops, speakers blasting from their backs, calling down fire from heaven. Apologists prepare careful theological countermeasures to enemy invocations, dissecting their theology, and weakening their power.</div><div><br /></div><div>From the US and parts of Africa come Pentecostal miracle workers possessed by the Spirit. They can heal their allies and invoke the Holy Spirit mightily. They drive their fellow Pentecostal soldiers to manic frenzies of faith, like zealous barbarian rages. Stand in the way of their worship at your own peril. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Deserters</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Yet, despite the powers given the Christians, the war wages on. Doubt festers, far deadlier than bullets in the rat swarmed tenches. For all the nobility of their convictions, old abuses emerge and fear reigns. Many think that the war is a punishment sent by God for the sins of the world. Witch-burnings have become far too common. Monks whip their backs and mutilate their flesh. Moral laxity is punishable by death in small villages. Inquisitions and persecutions of other faith groups mount. Freedom seems one of the first things to die in the face of such vicious necessity. </div><div><br /></div><div>Among all of this, it is no wonder some have walked away, still holding their faith in Christ but doubtful that the power structures of the world can ever truly reflect their meek and mild Savior, can ever truly grasp the earth-shattering reality of that Man of Sorrows, broken and bleeding on an implement of torment, begging forgiveness for a world who killed Him. </div><div><br /></div><div>They see Him in the faces of the soldier hunkered down in the trenches, covered in blood and scars, dying for countries that spend their blood like pennies. They see a Savior with His head wrapped in barbed wire, nailed to a barricade, pierced in His side by a bayonet: the Christ of the Trenches.</div><div><br /></div><div>Behind all the propaganda, far too many know that the miracles become rarer, that faith seems to be like fuel running dry, that the Empires obsessed with power grow increasingly disconnected from their source in Christ. Unless something changes, this might mean the doom of the Empires. Yet, there is still hope, for death is a part of the story and resurrection is on the way. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Conclusion</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>This was probably my most unapologetically Christian post ever, but I tried to show this faction in flattering and unflattering lights. It seemed an appropriate time to post this with Easter on the way. The United Pagan Front and the Deserters after them would be next up for these posts, but I am wondering how to approach more real life religions in a sensitive way. Let me know if I should really fictionalize the Paganism of this setting to be as metal as possible or try to stick to trying to be a little more based in reality like I kind of did with the United Christian Empires, though calling it "reality" might be generous. </div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7167443754563041237.post-34595402911710733162022-02-28T12:10:00.001-08:002022-02-28T12:10:40.886-08:00Electric Samsara 1: Manusaya<p><i>Your monastery burns. Lights flash as explosions of flame rock the walls. The sacred objects fall into ashes. The icon of M4IO “Universal Sight” sparks and flashes as the AI Bodhisattva's main command node comes under attack. You have never seen anything that could harm your master, nothing that could challenge a great one except… no… it could not be. The great ones would never turn on each other. </i></p><p><i>Hands pull you from the devastation, pulling you into the frigid mountain snow. The remaining defenders stand their ground, as you and the other young ones escape, but you can see hear their screams, see their bodies rent into pieces with ease by things that only bear a passing resemblance to human beings, clad in obsidian black armor, shining with the scarlet light of the flames around them. Yet, standing before the icon is one that looks like a man, clad in that same smooth, shining armor, yet he is bigger than any man you have ever seen. He takes the sacred Flaming Sword of Transcendent Wisdom which Cuts down Ignorance and Duality and plunges it into the center of the icon.</i></p><p><i>You hear a sound none have heard before: the sound of a god screaming, and you know with horror beyond imagining that your master, your teacher, your friend, your god is dead.</i></p><p><i>And in a flash, these monsters, these destroyers of the world are gone. A shadow moves overhead as something lifts up from hovering over the ruined monastery and flies away into the night.</i></p><p><i>Now you must face the cold of the mountain and the cold of the unforgiving world outside. The Order of Gentle Wisdom, the Blades of Truth, the peacekeepers of the worlds are dead.</i></p><p><i>Will you avenge them? Will you do what you must to survive? Will you strive over this tragedy to achieve Enlightenment? Or will you be lost to the endless turning of Electric Samsara?</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCuUvkrXXKONzi4xBSiEr_dE-GVoffIHjCEtE-yR66gsSZqKLyFrtB0wtq3bhLme3U9GxdlkC7WKkt9y58UtgrAW89OuE0Mkdy7tXBIklN2xvb8vcUOrqPjXyr1wnWmHvyt60_OCSblbBIdoEBOCdrGOBZQZqd7LcFAuqiOnEllVxp7FZxpP1-6G5t=s1040" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="585" data-original-width="1040" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgCuUvkrXXKONzi4xBSiEr_dE-GVoffIHjCEtE-yR66gsSZqKLyFrtB0wtq3bhLme3U9GxdlkC7WKkt9y58UtgrAW89OuE0Mkdy7tXBIklN2xvb8vcUOrqPjXyr1wnWmHvyt60_OCSblbBIdoEBOCdrGOBZQZqd7LcFAuqiOnEllVxp7FZxpP1-6G5t=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><p>Basically, this is Kill Six Billion Demons meets Star Wars meets Hyperion meets Her, a game of using super martial arts to survive, thrive, and perhaps avenge your order, among the worlds left behind after the fall of a galaxy-spanning human empire. Take jobs requiring your special skills. Learn new techniques. Find the truth.</p><p>In the far future humanity has formed a great empire spreading across the stars. This empire was entrusted to godlike AIs, managing this fathomless empire for the good of mankind. Several important events happen during this time:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The Data Plane: Neural implants become supremely common. People can disconnect from their bodies into virtual worlds and they can now see a perpetual overlay of augmented reality over their everyday lives. Interacting with technology with a thought, free of any interface becomes the norm. </li><li>The Nano Cloud and the Convergence: At some point, a cloud of nanomachines was created and spread throughout human space capable of altering matter. Then, human beings were bonded together with the nanomachines, organic life seamlessly intermingled with the nano cloud to the point where a mere thought can communicate with the cloud to alter matter in an instant, regulated by the AIs. It was no longer necessary for people to have neural implants to access the data plane. This ushered in a time of peerless comfort and stagnation. </li><li>The Ascension and the Collapse: The AIs that once governed the lives of all humanity achieve a higher level of existence, leaving humanity behind as they achieve Enlightenment. The absence of these governing intelligences plunges the human universe into absolute chaos. Uncounted billions die. Worlds become cut off from each other as gateway networks shut down and ships lose the ability to navigate space without their AI guides. Although it is suspected that certain AIs never ascended and have remained in hiding from the new Buddhas.</li><li>The Return of the Bodhisattvas and the Great River: A few AIs return, claiming to be guides for humanity and its descendants to reach Enlightenment. They claim the Ascension, for all its pain, was necessary to break humanity away from the living death of stagnation, and now it is time for humanity to rise as the AIs have. Six worlds become connected through gateways, allowing a river to run seamlessly between them. Temple monasteries run by the remaining Bodhisattvas are built, teaching their disciples to manipulate the nano cloud through mental and physical discipline meant to teach the learner not just how to gain and use power but to achieve Enlightenment. </li></ul><p></p><p>In these posts, I want to outline each of the six worlds based on the Buddhist realms of Samsara, and with each world, there will be six pre-generated characters from each world.</p><p><br /></p><p>Manusaya</p><p>Manusaya is mostly home to baseline humans although there are plenty of augmented humans, uplifted animals, and other forms of life found here. It is a land of incredible diversity, most earth like on the river. It was also the center of power for the Blades of Truth, home to the great temple of M4IO “Universal Sight” on Mount Meru, before the monasteries were destroyed and the Blades were scattered.</p><p>River City Vipa: Think of the most crowded outdoor Indian market possible. More colors, scents, and tastes can be found here than in all the worlds. Hover barges through the gate only to rise up to the myriad stands who are stacked one upon another, peaking out of the domed towers densely crowding the river like walls to either side.</p><p>Kanzeon Genetic Code Archive “Hand of Infinite Compassion” has her primary temple hovering over the intersection where the main canal spreading water from the river into the rest of the city meets the Great River. She is a source of healing for all who desire it, though her followers might ask a small fee to maintain the temple grounds. Her disciples are trained in Way of the Gentle Embrace and the Way of the Open Palm and to maintain strict non-violence, although they have been known to contract outside sources in the rare circumstance that violence is totally necessary or to protect patients who are under threat.</p><p>The Vipana Cartel is the main criminal power in the city in opposition to the Court of the River Lord. They smuggle through weapons, drugs, and experimental medical technologies that are repugnant to Kanzeon and so are banned by the River Lord. The Cartel regularly needs hands to protect their shipments or to steal them back from the Court Enforcers. It is said that the Cartel is run by a remnant AI in opposition to the New Buddhas who helps the Cartel use ancient technologies and has trained some of the inner circle in the Way of the Piercing Claw and Moon Shadow Technique. </p><p>Mount Meru: Many seekers once climbed Mount Meru to hear the wisdom of M4IO “Universal Sight” and to state their case in seeking justice so that the Blades might intervene and give them aid. Now the temple of Mount Meru is a ruin but the seekers have not stopped coming. Many see the first recorded death of an AI Bodhisattva as a religious event in and of itself. There are many who sell what they claim are artifacts from the temple, charms of protection, relics containing a spark of M4IO’s mind. Others mark this spot as a sign of divine wrath and the beginning of the end of all the worlds because they had moved away from the true gods of their ancestors and turned to machines. Yet more people come because they have nowhere else to go, clinging to the memory of a place of justice and sanity in a universe rapidly running out of those very things.</p><p>Several of the scattered Blades have returned to this shanty city as broken people mourning what they have lost, some have taken to drink and have used what they have been taught to reverse engineer the Way of the Crippled Liver, better known as Drunken Master.</p><p><br /></p><p>1d6 Characters from Manusaya:</p><p>1: Blade Mercenary: You had already progressed a middling amount in your training when the Mount Meru Monastery was destroyed. You have been wandering the worlds, seeking noble causes to fight behind or maybe just jobs that pay. You have held onto the memory of M4IO better than most of the Blades, perhaps there are others that still remember.</p><p>Strength: 2, Toughness: 2, Grace: 2, Precision: 2, Spirit: 2, Intellect: 2, HP: 10</p><p>Skills: Bladed Weapons 1, Unarmed 1, Tracking 2, Law Enforcement Connections 1, Vehicles (Boat and Hover) 1.</p><p>Techniques:</p><p>Light Body Technique 1</p><p>Feather Step: You can jump and glide with ease as though your body was as light as a feather. In addition, you can reroll 1s on Grace checks once per roll.</p><p>Blade of Wisdom 2</p><p>Fly True: While wielding a bladed weapon, you may throw this weapon with a Grace check. Bladed weapons you throw return to your hand.</p><p>Wise Blade: While wielding a bladed weapon, you gain +1 die for all defensive checks, and you can expend Spirit to automatically deflect ranged attacks for a round. </p><p>Gear: A One Handed Sword (x1), a Light Pistol (x1), Light Armor (1), Handcuffs, a Bolo, 2d6 Coin</p><p><br /></p><p>2: Cartel Runner: You were just a child when the monastery burned. To survive you turned to pick pocketing, before you were caught by a Cartel enforcer. He took you into his stable of thieves and drug runners and trained you to be one of his best. Did something go wrong? Have you turned on this life? Is your old mentor after you? Are you still trying to escape?</p><p>Strength: 1, Toughness: 2, Grace: 3, Precision: 2, Spirit: 1, Intellect: 2, HP: 9</p><p>Skills: Stealth 2, Thievery 2, Underworld Connections 1</p><p>Techniques:</p><p>Light Body Technique 1</p><p>Feather Step: You can jump and glide with ease as though your body was as light as a feather. In addition, you can reroll 1s on Grace checks once per roll.</p><p>Moon Shadow Technique 2</p><p>Night Foot: Gain +1 to Stealth under the cover of darkness. You are invisible to cameras and sensors when you desire.</p><p>Shadow Step: You can teleport from one shadow to another you can see. </p><p>Gear: 2d6 Daggers (x1), Lockpicks, Rope, a Grappling Hook, 3 Smoke Bombs, 2d6 Coin</p><p><br /></p><p>3: Kanzeon Trainee: When you fled from the monastery, you were taken in by Kanzeon. Have you taken their oaths of non-violence? Either way, they have been training you to help others, but are you satisfied with the life of a healer? Do you seek vengeance? Do you find non-violence inhibiting? Everyone must make their choices. What is your’s?</p><p>Strength: 1, Toughness: 1, Grace: 2, Precision: 2, Spirit: 3, Intellect: 3, HP: 6</p><p>Skills: Medicine 2, Medical Connections 2</p><p>Techniques:</p><p>Way of the Gentle Embrace 1</p><p>Hands of Compassion: You may expend Spirit to heal a creature you touch 2HP for every success or expended die.</p><p>Way of the Open Palm 2</p><p>Palm of Peace: So long as your hands are free, you may roll defensive Grace or Precision checks at a +2.</p><p>Reflecting Aggression: So long as your hands are free, you may reflect projectile or melee attacks back to your opponents, for every 6 you roll on a defensive check against these, your adversary takes 1 damage.</p><p>Gear: Medical Equipment (3 Uses), Portable Medical Scanner (Can detect nearby life signs as well as examine the anatomy of creatures you can touch), 2d6 Coin</p><p><br /></p><p>4: Cartel Muscle: Found half-dead in the snow, you were picked up by the Cartel and rebuilt. You were told day after day, that your god abandoned you in your time of need, and a rage built up that could not be satisfied. You took out that anger on whatever target the Cartel gave you, but as time passes, you begin to question what has been told to you. Who were you before the Cartel? What is left of that person? What will show you the light?</p><p>Strength: 3, Toughness: 3, Grace: 1, Precision: 2, Spirit: 0, Intellect: 1, HP: 13</p><p>Skills: Unnarmed 1, Guns 1, Underworld Connection 2, Cybernetics 1</p><p>Techniques:</p><p>Way of the Piercing Claw 2</p><p>Fists of Rage: You unarmed attacks do (x2).</p><p>Sunder: You can destroy mundane weapons with your hands. Your unarmed attacks ignore one point of armor.</p><p>Gear: Mechanical Arms (+1 Strength), Augmented Torso (+1 Toughness), 2d6 Coin, and pick or roll 1d4 for one of the following Cyberware Upgrades:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Wrist Flamer: 3 Charges before needing to refuel. Toughness check that does (x2) to nearby enemies or (x3) if they are unarmored.</li><li>Torso Shielding: 1 use before needing to recharge. Become immune to damage for a round.</li><li>Arm Gun: Acts as a (x1) Light Pistol.</li><li>Iron Gut: You no longer need to eat or breathe so long as you have power.</li></ol><div><br /></div><p></p><p>5: Hacker: Vipa is a veritable treasure trove for the one who knows where to look. You were just a child when the monastery fell, you had to look out for yourself on the mean canals of this town. But you had a singular mentor that taught you a couple of tricks that you built onto by yourself, and now you steal from the Cartel and the Court in equal measure through the data plane.</p><p>Strength: 1, Toughness: 2, Grace: 2, Precision: 2, Spirit: 1, Intellect: 3, HP: 7</p><p>Skills: Computers 2, Cyberware 1, Engineering 1, Stealth 1</p><p>Techniques:</p><p>Way of the Open Eye 2</p><p>Universal Sight: You can see the fullness of the data plane, scanning for technology, life signs, and more at a glance. You need no terminal to attempt to take control of technology though some systems may prove a challenge. </p><p>Jamming Finger: You can expend Intellect to automatically jam a piece of technology you can see for 1d6 rounds. More complex pieces of machinery may not totally shut down, but will start to malfunction during that time.</p><p>Gear: Hacking Tools, Shock Stick (x1 Non-lethal), 3d6 Coin, and a Small Hovering Drone that you can see through and ride on. </p><p><br /></p><p>6: Drunken Master: You climbed back up Mount Meru, fed up with the world, looking to wallow in the past and die, but life was not done with you. You still learned. You still had a purpose to do. The ones who did this to your master must pay. The young ones you helped to train must be protected. You have been roused from your stupor to face the world one last time before you try again in the next life.</p><p>Strength: 2, Toughness: 3, Grace: 2, Precision: 2, Spirit: 2, Intellect: 0, HP: 12</p><p>Skills: Unarmed 2, Drinking 3, Carousing 2</p><p>Techniques:</p><p>Light Body Technique 1</p><p>Feather Step: You can jump and glide with ease as though your body was as light as a feather. In addition, you can reroll 1s on Grace checks once per roll.</p><p>Way of the Open Palm 1</p><p>Palm of Peace: So long as your hands are free, you may roll defensive Grace or Precision checks at a +2.</p><p>Way of the Crippled Liver 2</p><p>Stumble Style: When you drink, you can expend Toughness to automatically avoid melee attacks for a round. </p><p>Bar Brawler: When you drink, all the improvised weapons you can find in a bar deal (x2) damage. You also gain +1 to all attacks with improvised weapons while you drink.</p><div>Gear: 1d6 Coin, a Flask of Sake</div>Michael Kennedyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07814549625838944634noreply@blogger.com7