Harry Clarke Project - Pit & Pendulum, Cloak & Dagger

Piteous Cloak - The Piteous Cloak is an ebon-dark garment made from countless strips of black fabric, hung like a cape around the shoulders, fastened with an tarnished silver brooch in the likeness of a rat. The Cloak is black like brimstone, black like night. The floor-length strips do not hang limp, are never still, but move instead as though underwater, as though they float and flow about the wearer as she moves.

The Cloak will act to defend its owner if she is accosted, first wrapping around the assailant to bind and gag them, holding them helpless and immobile, then tightening to crush and strangle them for d6 damage per round, unless they can resist the prodigious strength of its covetous grasp. The grip of the Cloak is like a clutching fist, wringing the lifeblood out of its victims like water from a damp cloth. Anyone slain by the Cloak is pulled into the darkness of its folds and consumed utterly, so that not one trace of them remains, not one single bone nor stain of blood.

The Cloak's owner can disrobe and leave it in her sanctum as a guardian. In poor light it seems to blend with the shadows, and easily surprises the unwary visitant.

To befriend the Cloak is to become its new owner, but this requires appeasing the spirit of the rat that dwells within its tarnished brooch. The rat spirit feels affection for its owner and does not share its loyalty promiscuously, but it can be won over in the usual manner of mollifying hostile spirits, provided that, during these negotiations, it is given a fresh corpse to ingest each time it requires additional appeasement to persuade.
 
The Cloak never forgets an old master, however, and can never be compelled to harm one, even to protect its current owner. There is a 1-in-6 chance that any magician encountered in the same environs where the Cloak was discovered is one such former owner.
 

  
Pendulous Dagger - The Pendulous Dagger is a weapon of uncommon hostility. It appears as a masterpiece quality dagger, etched with filigrees of silver and inlaid with whorls of gilt. It is most notable for its tip, for instead of narrowing to a point, it suddenly flares out like a paper fan to become a wickedly sharp crescent moon.

When wielded in close quarters, and struck with critical acuity, the Dagger momentarily lengthens to become an executioner's blade, and will lop off the head of any target unable to save themselves from this death stroke.

When thrown underhand, it transforms again, becoming a pendulum that swings from the ceiling toward its target, dealing d12 damage on a successful blow. Regardless of the outcome of this swipe, its backswing may hit or miss independently, and deals an additional d12 damage if it strikes. Unless its master aimed either attack with fumbling clumsiness, the Dagger will unerringly return to her hand after it swings back. (Though if her aim failed her so critically, she will likewise be forced to dodge the pendulum's sweep.)


Both these items are apt to be discovered within the dungeon acting as hazards to travail the unwary wanderer. To escape the Piteous Cloak is, as ever, akin to saving oneself from paralysis, while to dodge the Pendulous Dagger's sweep is like unto being saved from a wand or a stave. Any perceptive soul who questions if these wonders might be taken as treasure should be answered in the affirmative; otherwise, someone versed in the lore of artifice or the art of trapmaking who inspects either object more generally may roll to realize that they are removable, transportable, and valuable.


This post is in response to Cavegirl's Harry Clarke Community Project, and it's licensed CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Harry Clark Project - Vainglorious Proboscid

The Vainglorious Proboscid

Armor Class: As unarmored
Hit Dice: 4
Move: As human
Attacks: 1 abducting grasp (special) or 2 claws (d4) or 1 diseased bite (d8 + special)
No Appearing: 1
Morale: 6
Treasure: an exquisite but delicate masterpiece mirror, roll 1d6: 1 hand mirror worth 50 gp, 2-4 vanity mirror worth 500 gp, or 5-6 full length looking glass worth 5000 gp.
Alignment: Chaotic
 

 
Appearing inside the mirror, the Vainglorious Proboscid adopts the face of the first person to look into the glass. It is a jealous, vicious creature, and desirous to usurp its counterpart's place in our world and overtake her position amongst her comrades. Its first attack is to seize its counterpart and drag her into the Mirror Realm, before stepping out to fill her shoes. (A successful save against paralysis prevents this transfer.) Canny observers may discern the disguised Proboscid by its overweening self-regard, insatiable hunger for flattery, and its absence of a reflection. If provoked to anger, its annelid forequarters will also become visible, though the semblance of its hindquarters to the visage of its captive remains uncanny.

Once discovered, the Vainglorious Proboscid may fight with claws or retreat back into the Mirror Realm, for it is cowardly and sinful. Its return there displaces its captive back into her compatriots arms. Otherwise, negotiations with another Mirror resident might be needed to secure her retrieval. If slain and its countenance not thoroughly defaced, the Proboscid can endure its apparent demise in its vermiform. The Proboscid will reserve its disease-causing bite for its captive (who is sure to be infected) and for she who pierces its disguise or dispatches its mortal form.

When treating with the residents of the Mirror Realm, a human ambassador is likely to find a Vainglorious Proboscid as her counterparty, though by treaty and tradition, ambassadorial Proboscids will always wear the face of another. (Though still perhaps one known to its interlocutor.)
  
   
Probosciforous Sickness - This supernatural malady is transmitted through the infected bite of the Vainglorious Proboscid. After a night of incubation, the victim awakens to discover that her nose has become superannuated and transformed into a listless and torporous leech. Aside from the social difficulties posed by this nasal deformation, the afflicted cannot regain vigor through her normal regimen of slumber and toilette without imbibing at least a goblet of human blood.

There is also a 1-in-6 chance each week spent in civilization, and each night spent in the dungeon, that the victim has been waylaid and abducted by a Vainglorious Proboscid, seizing on her illness as an alibi to excuse away its undisguised appearance.

The sickness can be cured by the application of a spell to remove curses or cure diseases, provided that it is cast by one also versed and trained in spells of illusion, or else medicines may be procured through trade with the Mirror Realm.
 
 
This post is in response to Cavegirl's Harry Clarke Community Project, and it's licensed CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Public Domain Art - Warwick Gobels "Folk-Tales of Bengal"

More art from Warwick Gobel. This time images from Lal Behari Day's Folk-Tales of Bengal.
   

She rushed out of the palace
and came to the upper world.

     

The Suo queen went to the door
with a handful of rice.

     

The prince revived,
and, walking about,
saw a human figure near the gate.

   

She took up the jewel in her hand,
left the palace,
and successfully reached the upper world.

     

He rushed out of his hiding-place
and killed the serpent.

     

Instead of sweetmeats,
about a score of demons.

     

At the door of which stood a lady of exquisite beauty.

     

In a trice she woke up,
sat up in bed,
and eyeing the stranger,
inquired who he was.

     

The girl of the Wall-Amirah.

     

On a sudden,
an elephant, gorgeously caparisoned,
shot across his path.

     

They then set out on their journey.

     

A monstrous bird comes out,
apparently from the castle.

     

Hundreds of peacocks of gorgeous plumes
came to the embankment to eat the khai.

     

You would adorn the palace
of the mightiest sovereign.

     

He saw a beautiful woman
coming out of the palace.

     

Husband, take up all this large quantity of gold
and these precious stones.

     

They ran away in great fear,
leaving behind them the money and jewels.

     

The camel-driver alighted,
tied the camel to the tree on the spot,
and began smoking.

     

How is it that you have returned so soon?

     

At dawn he used to cull flowers in the forest.

     

The Brahman's wife had occasion to go to the tank,
and as she went she brushed by a Sankchinni.

     

The moment the first stroke was given,
a great many ghosts rushed toward the Brahman.

     

The lady, king, and hiraman
all reached the king's capital safe and sound.

     

What princess ever puts
only one ruby in her hair?

     

Coming up to the surface,
they climbed into the boat.

     

The jackal opened his bundle of betel-leaves,
put some into his mouth,
and began chewing them.

     

A bright light,
like that of the moon,
was seen shining on his forehead.

     

The six queens
tried to comfort him.

     

Now, barber,
I am going to destroy you.
Who will protect you?

     

They approached
a magnificent pile of buildings.

     

Thus the princess
was deserted.

     

When she got out of the water,
what a change was seen in her!

     

Public Domain Photos - Ansel Adams' photos of Manzanar Detention Center

The Library of Congress has a collection of Ansel Adams' photos of the Manzanar War Relocation Detention Center in California.
 
In the photos below, you can see the sign at the entrance to the detention center, a view of the center from the street, and a line of people waiting for lunch.
 

"Manzanar Detention Center" from Library of Congress

 

"Manzanar street scene, spring" from Library of Congress

 

"Mess line, noon" from Library of Congress

 
 
While they were interned, the people who lived here did what people do everywhere, wherever they live, wherever they have a community. They played games, like bridge and American football and volleyball.
 

"Bridge game" from Library of Congress

 

"Football practice" from Library of Congress

 

"Volleyball" from Library of Congress

 
 
The operated a press to report on their own local news within the center. They visited a museum exhibit of photographs of their own internment.
 

"Reading paper in front of office" from Library of Congress

 

"Manzanar museum, Ansel Adams exhibit" from Library of Congress

 
 
Older children attended high school classes, classes on science, classes on dressmaking.
 

"Science lecture" from Library of Congress

 

"Dressmaking class" from Library of Congress

 
 
Younger children in the internment center attended their own school, and Sunday school. They learned informally from the interned adults. They took calisthenics classes. Children without parents, without families, were taken care of by a nurse in an orphanage within the detention center.
 

"School children" from Library of Congress

 

"Children at Sunday school class" from Library of Congress

 

"Group of children" from Library of Congress

 

"Calisthenics" from Library of Congress

 

"Orphanage nurse" from Library of Congress

 
 
At least a third of the photos Adams took inside Manzanar were individual portraits. About three hundred of his photos are held by the Library of Congress. What I've shared here is only a very small sample of the collection.

Public Domain Art - Warwick Goble's "Indian Myths and Legends"

Warwick Goble is one of my favorite public domain artists.  These illustrations are from Donald Alexander MacKenzie's Indian Myths and Legends.
   

"Sita finds Rama among lotus blooms"

   

"Shantanu meets the Goddess Ganga"

   

"Arjuna and the river nymph"

   

"The ordeal of Queen Draupadi"

   

"The return of the heroes slain in battle"

   

"Damayanti and the swan"

   

"Damayanti chooses a husband"

   

"Rama spurns the demon lover"