Session Report - Island of the Blue Giants - 04 Feb 2017

Characters:
Peregrine, the pilgrim
Poseidon, the merman
Batman, the flyer
Jim, the gemcutter

Beastmaster, the animal trainer
Will, the smith
Kerhs, the half-orc
Litoli, the cave-woman

Sid "Vicious," the sage
Johnny "Rotten," the spy
Siouxsie, the nomad
Nico, the spy



A dozen humans found themselves standing in a misty hollow, the ground studded with boulders before them. Each could remember an earlier life as a professional, of one sort or another, but none could recall quite how they'd gotten to that spot. Beastmaster was a bit surprised to find his old mule and hound replaced by a deer-shaped pack-rabbit and a dog-like guard-weasel, and Souixsie was certain she used to have a horse instead of a riding pea-hen.

The group investigated the field, saw that the boulders were moss-covered and ancient, and that several were carved with faces. The faces were human-like, but with wide alert eyes, and ears that looked like spiny fish fins. Spending a little more time, they heard running water coming from the west, saw through a break in the clouds circling humanoid flyers in the sky to the northeast, and later heard the sound of marching musicians approaching from the south. Litloi wanted to secure a safe water source, and Poseidon agreed. Batman felt curious about the flyers, but agreed to follow his new-found friends.

Walking for awhile through the morning fog, the group eventually saw the source of the sound, a flowing river, with dozens of canals and irrigation ditches branching off from it, and a walled town near the water. At first, they thought the town had a low wall, with dozens of the inhabitants' faces visible above it. They saw that the canals and ditches were in extremely regular rows and straight lines with right angles connecting them, while each building seemed to be a unique structure with an assortment of towers and extensions. As they got closer, they realized the wall was human-height, and the inhabitants were at least 8' tall.

They began walking around the outside of the wall, looking for a gate, when one of the beings called down to them. The giant said they looked strange, too short to be Cadjula, their bottoms to small to be Nif, and asked them if they wanted to come in. The group agreed, and the giant used a wooden crane to lower a platform and then raise them up over the wall.

On the left: a typical Bo-al

The giant told the group that their name was Athern, and that their people were called Bo-al. Athern seemed to be guessing every time they called one of the humans "young man" or "young woman," and when asked, explained that they knew the other islanders had genders, but there was nothing like that among the Bo-al. A little more questioning revealed that the Bo-al are a town of architects, engineers, and builders, who spend a lot of their time drawing blueprints, improving their homes, and tinkering with this and that. Athern admitted that they were only looking over the wall because they were thinking of doing a little gardening. When asked where the group could secure some food or employment, Athern mentioned that everyone in town had been worrying about their greatest builder, Trondo, who'd been missing "for days and days," ever since finishing their new house. There would certainly be a find party if Trondo came outside! (Or a fine funeral if Trondo's body were discovered!) Athern explained that it would be terribly rude for any of the Bo-al to enter Trondo's house without permission, but that if some "wild animals" happened to get inside, well, there was nothing the townspeople could do to prevent it. Athern led them to the two story structure, pointed to the observatory on the roof, and then knocked on the door, holding it just ajar to call in to Trondo. "Are you there, my friend? I hope that no wild animals sneak into your house while I'm calling on you!" The group took their cue and hurried inside.

They found themselves in a great two-story foyer, with a balcony ringing the room on the second story. Light from high windows filtered in, but Krehs felt good to be indoors during the day. They saw a wide staircase on the far wall, accessible only from the balcony, a pair of hallways on the right (one on the ground floor and one overhead on the balcony), and a pair of spiral staircases in the corners leading up to the loft. They also quickly noticed that eight short skinny humanoids, with curvy limbs and pointy joints were standing on the railing of the balcony, yelling at them in gobbledygook, and brandishing rocks that looked like smashed paving stones from the floor.

A foyer guardian

Jim started to offer that they should try to reason with the creatures, but he was over-ruled by Litoli's split-second decision to pitch her stone spear, stabbing one through the chest and pinning it to the wall, killing it instantly. A chaotic few rounds of combat followed, with several of group beginning to rush for the spiral staircases, and others using missiles against the creatures. One creature hit Johnny "Rotten" hard enough to knock him over (although he survived the blow,) while another overbalanced and fell off the balcony. Sid "Vicious" and Nico threatened the fallen creature with their daggers, but it was Peregrine who killed it with his staff. He felt guilty for a moment, and then felt a divine inspiration to kill more monsters and ran upstairs too. Batman and Siouxsie threw a javelin and lance upstairs, but only Batman got a hit that way. Peregrine beat down one of the creatures on the balcony, only to be killed when it punched him with a rock in its fist. Siouxsie got revenge by shooting the killer with an arrow, and Poseidon and Beastmaster worked together to mop up. Poseidon tore one of the creatures to shreds with his trident, and Beastmaster took out the final two, siccing his guard-weasel on one and gutting the other with his knife. Jim and Nico spent most of the fight hiding under the balcony, where the creatures couldn't reach them.

Retrieving their weapons afterwards, the group noticed that the bodies turned flat, then into shadows, then disappeared completely. After the confusion cleared, they realized that everyone who had run up the right staircase ended up on the left side of the balcony, while those who'd gone up the left were now standing on the right. They also noticed eight abstract sculptures around the balcony. They looked like nothing but jagged irregular shapes, but their shadows had the same silhouettes as the creatures they just fought. Litoli and Krehs tried toppling a couple of the statues, but couldn't get them to tip. Will had more luck with a solid hammer strike that broke one in half. The group wondered if Trondo would be mad that they killed his guards and broke his statue, but then Nico pointed out that the creatures killed one of them too. She said that the death of one of their friends seemed like a pretty high price to pay just to get to go to a party, and went back to the front door to find Athern. They were gone, of course, with nothing but the usual town bustle in the distance. Dejected, she returned to the others, and Poseidon, feeling high on his victory, began striding confidently up the wide staircase.

At the top of the stairs, they found a room lined with built-in bookshelves, the books all Bo-al sized, 3' high and heavy by human standards. They began calling out for Trondo, and a book flopped itself off the shelf, and a half-dozen illustrated outlines of Bo-al emerged from the book. The illustrations were suprised to hear that Trondo was missing, and (after a really bad reaction roll) became agitated that "wild animals are in Trondo's house!" and started attacking. Poseidon was ready, again shredding one of his foes to tatters with his trident, the illustration turning to torn paper as it died. Jim used his magnifying lens to focus the light coming in from a high window, setting one illustration ablaze. Three others failed to distance themselves, and died too as the fire spread. Beastmaster's guard weasel tore the last one apart with its teeth, before licking its lips to get the taste of paper out of its mouth. Litoli quickly slammed the book shut, convinced that here suspicions of all writing were well-founded.

The group headed upstairs and into a sitting room. At first, the parlor with its couch and chairs and coffee table looked normal, but moving off the stairs, it quickly became clear that all the furniture had only three legs, and all the drawings hung on the wall had triangular frames, the sketches of the other buildings in town shown in extreme perspective. Several group members searched the room, but all they found was another three-legged footstool under the sofa. Jim felt there was something badly wrong with the space in the room, and insisted that they keep moving.

Up the stairs, they entered a room with a gravel floor, a model of the house in the center of the room, the ceiling hung with stone fish on barely visible strings. Poseidon liked the room, although he couldn't recognize any of the fish. Jim felt nervous again, and suggested they take the door to the right.

The group next entered a room with a large white circle surrounded by runes drawn on the carpet. Looking about, they quickly noticed that the 20' ceiling overhead had a circular pond immediately over the circle, with dozens of potted plants sitting on the ceiling as well. As they approached the circle, a demon appeared within. The monster (which we randomly generated on the spot) looked like a humanoid wasp with fish fins for her hands and feet and gills on her neck. She introduced herself as *the smell of salt-water* and a queen of the Nif. One by one, the group members dropped to one knee to pay homage, and Batman introduced himself: "I'm Batman." The demon told them they could ask her questions. They learned that Trondo was in the house, in two places, both ahead of them and behind, and that like anyone whose in two places at once, no, he's wasn't at all fine. They learned that the demon didn't care about Trondo, but that what she did care about was the Nif, who live in the desert to the east, and that if the group did a favor for the Nif, she would do a favor for them. Nico tried to ask who killed Trondo, but the demon said she'd answered enough questions, and disappeared.

Poseidon wanted to get a closer look at the pond, and stood on Will's shoulders. As he got up, and his head crossed the vertical center-line of the room, he became dizzy and disoriented, feeling like he was about to fall upwards. He managed not to lose his balance, but realized he'd need to get most of his body-weight above the center to actually transfer to the other side.

The group seemed to decide that Trondo had been beheaded or cut in half. They debated simply leaving with the news, but decided they needed to return with part or all of the body to be sure to get the really nice funeral they'd been promised. Sid "Vicious" led the way down the center of the next wide hall, and about a third of the way through, found himself nearly swept off his feet, but just managed to jump back in time. Litoli tried to carefully control her fall up, and took a nasty spill, but landed with nothing more than some shin splints and a bloody elbow. She asked the others to catch her when she walked back toward them, expecting to fall back to the floor, but remained standing on the ceiling. Poseidon suggested that the others should join her by returning to the pool room so that the water would break their fall.

They all went back through, with Litoli passing through a door on the ceiling, but when she approached the pool, a creature rose up out of it. This creature appeared to be a mermaid with compound insect eyes and large bee wings. She introduced herself as Ussa, and warned Litoli not to listen to the demon in the circle below her, saying that the demon lies about everything. Ussa claimed that Trondo was not dead, but was simply in the library. She also claimed that Athern was the one who built the house, and was also inside now somewhere. However, when asked to point to the library, she pointed back down the hall the group had just come through. Litoli felt suspicious, and asked the others to stay put for a minute. She crossed the hall, then entered a room where, on the ceiling with her, were the lifeless bodies of a dozen Bo-al all sitting in chairs. Litoli slammed the door and ran back to her friends. Ussa continued to insist that her Trondo was alive and well, and began inviting Litoli to join her in the pool. "I like you Litoli. You seem so nice. You'll like it in my pool with me." Litoli began to suspect that not everything Ussa said was true, and elected not to get into the water. She rolled up the room's 25' wide carpet, and used it as a bridge back down the floor, as Ussa began screaming that her friends were liars, that they're all wild animals, and they'd be much happier if they came up to be in her pool. The group quickly retreated back to the gravel-covered aquarium room.

Unsure of what was true, or how much of what they'd heard had been lies, or even who to trust, the group returned to the library, and Trondo was still not there. They debated whether Athern was the real architect here, or was responsible from Trondo's death, but then couldn't decide what they'd gain by sending humans in to find them. They spent an hour searching the library before finding a book in a language they could read, where an inscription on the front page said (in the same language) "Property of Trondo." The rest of the books were all floorplans, equations, and other engineering texts, all in a variety of unreadable scripts. Sid "Vicious" kept the book to read later. They decided there was no way Trondo planted a single book in Athern's library, and decided to trust the demon and look for the other part of their body where she said it would be. They returned to the triangular room, then the large aquarium room, and then went upstairs to find another sitting room with a small model aquarium on a table in the middle of the room. Looking around, first Poseidon and later Beastmaster stared too deeply into the fishtank and then vanished. They found themselves back in the large aquarium room, now filled with water, and the fish all alive and swimming. They also sensed a sinister presence in there with them, and both hurried out and back into the sitting room with their friends. Unfortunately, they realized they'd become intangible. The building itself seemed solid to them, but they couldn't touch their friends or the furniture.

Sid led the way from the sitting room into what turned out to be a clothes closet, then through to a bedroom. There, Poseidon and Beastmaster met the ghost of Trondo, looking ethereal and translucent even to them. (To the others, the ghost was nearly invisible and inaudible.) Trondo explained that they'd simply died of old age. After finishing the house, they'd gone to sleep in a chair in the room where Litoli found so many bodies, and then woken up dead in bed, a ghost. They were sticking around as a ghost now, because they wanted time to enjoy the house they'd spent so much time building. They authorized Athern to come inside to collect the body, and claimed to have some paperwork on file with a lawyer and in the town bank to handle the eventual disposal of the property. When asked about the dozen bodies, Trondo exclaimed, "Oh dear, it must have duplicated!" About the aquarium, "Oh the fish are harmless, although I hope my snail is okay. It might have gotten hungry!" The two personalities in the hall? "The one in the circle is alright. She's good conversation when she visits. But I wish I'd never installed that damn pool. You can't trust a thing that faerie says!" And last, of course, what's in the triangle room, Trondo? "Triangles!" Of course. Good night, Trondo.

The group thought they had enough information, and agreed that they'd skip the celebration they'd been promised if it would force them to go into any more Bo-al houses. My friends also decided to pause for the night before preparing to leave the house next session.



(Attentive readers may recognize this as The Alexandrian's Halls of the Mad Mage, with a bit of re-skinning. With 11 characters still alive, I'm a little worried I made the guardians a bit too weak, although they players were also quite cautious, and have so far managed to avoid some of the most dangerous areas of the house. The remaining foyer guardians might also be more dangerous on the way out, now that they can throw pieces of a broken statue. I'm also a little worried that not enough cool stuff has happened, but I think the book and the intangibility have promise to help make the characters unique. I also liked how the random appearance of the demon suggested an obvious faction alliance - to one of the factions Athern mentioned earlier, no less - and let me point my players toward another of the humanoid species on the island. Resolving the intangibility problem might also involve appealing to another faction for help.)



Gains:
a promise of a very nice funeral from the Bo-al
a promise of a favor in exchange for aiding the Nif from a wasp/fish demon
an oversized Bo-al architectural treatise

Losses:
Peregrine
Poseidon's and Beastmaster's solidity (hopefully temporarily?)

Kills:
8 shadow-puppet guardians
6 illustrated librarians
the faerie's dreams of luring the group into her pool

XP:
2 for fighting the puppets
1 for fighting the librarians
1 for encountering the reverse-gravity trap
2 for conversing profitably with the demon *the smell of salt water*
2 for conversing non-fatally the faerie Ussa
1 for searching the library
1 for the ethereal trap
2 for finding and conversing with Trondo

(I may try to particularize this a little bit, based on individual actions. I may also decide to give out Luck bonuses for the magnifying glass trick, and for negotiating with the demon.)

Campaigns I Want to Run - Reskinning Isle of the Unknown & Pars Fortuna

Since the holidays, I've been wanting to referee my own game again, and for the last couple months I've been mulling what kind of campaign to run.

Part of me has been tempted to run a reskinned version of Geoffrey McKinney's Isle of the Unknown. The isle is a tempting target for reskinning. McKinney has divided his island into 6 kinds of hexes - towns (of which there are relatively few), clerics, magic users, monsters, statues, and nature. This straightforward categorization makes it easy for you to keep the same map, and swap out one type of hex for another of your choosing.

The simple way to do this would be to make the swap-outs solely on the basis of the categories. The more complex way would be to note some detail from each original hex, and make sure that the replacement reflects or resembles that detail.

My original plan for re-skinning the island was to replace the towns with the lairs of the islands apex monsters (more on that below), replace both clerics and magic users with the villages of various humanoids, replace statues with ruins (and the statues that animate with active dungeons), and replace McKinney's natural sites with ones that gave the place a new feel.

Gloomtrain considered a similar prospect, and published a series of posts proposing an "Isle of the Undead" that replaced monster hexes with vampires, replaced clerics with undead-hunting crusaders, replaced magic users with necromancers, replaced statues with graveyards, and replaced nature with horticulture. After considering the project in some detail, he seems to have abandoned it, for much the same reason I'm thinking of giving up my re-skin.

I've considered the project in a bit of detail myself, trying to imagine how to replace the original isle's features with reflected counterparts. But there are some problems with map that make it difficult to use this way. First of all, I think it's simply too big. Filling every hex of that space with something interesting stretches the imagination, and seems to have pushed McKinney's random monster generator to its limits. There are over 80 statues on McKinney's Isle, which in my planned version, translates into a lot of ruins and live dungeons. And while the 42 clerics and magic users more or less matches the number of humanoid villages I've settled on, I want a more social game, with a denser population, on an island perhaps ½ or ⅔ the size of the original.

Secondly, I think I want slightly more logic in the placement of the settlements and ruins. I believe that McKinney determined each hex's contents randomly. The result is that several of the supposedly hermetical magic users live right next to a town, or in a virtual community alongside several clerics. You also see some of the weakest monsters in the island right beside the most deadly. And in general, I don't get the sense that traveling further from town, or deeper into the center, brings you closer to danger. Danger and safety appear to be scattered randomly. I think I prefer a little more order than that. As much as I like the idea of a simple re-skin, I don't want this to be the rock that I break my ship on.

So what I'm thinking about instead is drawing my own island map. I want the outline to resemble the Isle of the Unknown in its general shape, and I hope to draw inspiration from at least a few of McKinney's hexes to pay tribute to his book as a source of inspiration. (Although since I hope to referee my first session on Saturday, I might have to start with only a very partial map of the few hexes the players are likely to encounter right away.

I've also been wanting for awhile now to use Land of Nod's Pars Fortuna to populate a campaign setting. I like the idea of a "non-core" game, where nothing from the "core rules" of whatever system is used, and the setting is filled with people, magic, and monsters that were originally supplemental or peripheral. (I'll probably post about "non-core" gaming again another time. Also coincidentally enough, John Stater reports that he's been thinking about revising Pars Fortuna recently, an idea he possibly started toying with around the same time I started thinking of using it, over the holidays.)

So my plan for the humanoid villages would be to use Pars Fortuna's twelve race-as-classes as the twelve main humanoid factions on the island. These humanoids include large, genderless blue architects, flying psychic koalas, and multi-tentacled alien plant sages. They mostly get along, although there are a few that make very bad neighbors.

The players would all have human characters, although humans are unknown on the island (at least as far as the humanoids are concerned.) I intend to use Dungeon Crawl Classics as my rule-set, although I'm thinking of using Zenopus Archives' OD&D-style human backgrounds in places of DCC's starting occupation list. The human characters would have memories related to their previous lives and backgrounds, but no memory of how they got to the island.

Characters could meet and befriend the local humanoids, explore the weird nature, discover (and kill?) bizarre monsters, find and explore dungeons, meddle in the balance of power between the twelve factions, or try to learn more about the mysteries of the island.

Incidentally, my version would be called the "Island of the Blue Giants" (although those architects I mentioned would insist that the island isn't named for them, and should be called the "Island of the Blue Dragons," after its true masters.) Who are those masters? I mentioned wanting a hex category for boss-monster lairs. Those aren't really "lairs" so much as they are cities seemingly grown from skyscraper-tall crystals somehow coaxed to rise up from beneath the earth.

And who lives in those cities? Every humanoid on the island knows.

The blue Draagans.

Pseudo-Preview of BPBM4

Stormlord Publishing has just released the fourth issue of their Black Powder Black Magic zine. I proofread the issue, and I also wrote up a list of familiars more suitable to a Weird West or other American setting. The familiars below aren’t on that list, but they do fit nicely on the end of it, and they give you some idea of what the other alternative familiars look like.

Lawful familiars
21 Pigeon (caster can "home in" on route out of dungeon or back to town)
22 Groundhog (caster knows coming day's weather each morning)
23 Child-sized scarecrow (opponents are -2 Morale)
24 Fey school-teacher wearing glasses and elbow-patched tweed jacket, never speaks, communicates using writing slate (caster can attempt to read any unknown language as a Lawful Thief of the same level)

Neutral familiars
21 Mockingbird (caster is able to speak 1 additional language)
22 Armadillo (caster is proficient with shields, suffers no spellcheck penalty from carrying a shield, and can shield-bash as a Dwarf)
23 Tumbleweed (caster can withdraw from melee combat without opening themselves up to a free attack)
24 Fey woodcutter wearing plaid shirt, carrying axe (+1 to attack and damage against plants and fungi)

Chaotic familiars
21 Black swan (once per day, caster may reroll any natural 7, and once per day, caster may also reroll any natural 13)
22 Giant maggot, transforms into giant black housefly during combat ("skin crawling" feeling alerts the caster to the presence of disguises and shapeshifters)
23 Giant mosquito (bite attack deals 1d4 damage and heals 1 hp)
24 Miniature black stagecoach with large glass windows revealing interior casket (+1 AC and +1 to saving throws vs. the undead)

DCC Spells I Want to Cast - Spores of the Basidirond

Below is my write-up for the 2nd level patron spell for Mycetes-Thrax. This spell is based on the effects of a famous second-tier monster from the world's most popular roleplaying game. Spores of the Basidirond is probably weaker than the 1st level spell Sleep, but in many ways, this isn't a spell you cast when you merely want to incapacitate your enemy - this is a spell you cast when you want to unleash total chaos.


SPORES OF THE BASIDIROND

Level: 2 (Mycetes-Thrax)
Range: 10' per CL
Duration: Permanent until save (or 1 turn per required save)
Casting time: 1 action
Save: Will vs. spell check

General: The caster releases airborne fungal spores and an alluring fragrance. Everyone who inhales the spores experience powerful hallucinations, which show them an alternate and dangerous world, and which compel them to take action to protect themselves from the nightmarish scenarios the hallucinations place them in. Creatures who inhale the spores can make an immediate saving throw to resist the effects, and may repeat this save on their initiative each round, but are trapped in their hallucination until they succeed. In general, everyone who is affected by the spores at one time sees the same terrible visions (except in the case of a critical success or a result of 34+.)

Any target who rolls a natural 20 on their saving throw is immediately freed from any remaining effects of the spell. Any target who rolls a natural 1 on their saving throw is rendered permanently insane, and continues to perceive their current hallucination as their only reality for the rest of their life.

Truly mindless being and creatures who don't need to breathe are immune to this spell (this includes most plants, fungi, slimes, constructs, and un-dead.) Anyone who is protected by a gas mask or other breathing apparatus is also immune.

Outside of immediate combat, the judge should assume that afflicted creatures succeed 1 saving throw per turn, rather than continuously rolling to determine the exact timing. (However, the judge is encouraged to check once for each target to see if they go permanently insane.)

On a critical success, the range of the spell and the possible number of targets are both doubled. In addition, each target of the spell rolls individually to determine their specific hallucination.

Roll 1d16 to determine the nature of the hallucination (and the target's reaction to it:)

(1) The floor has becoming a shifting desert, swallowing everything like quicksand. (Drop prone and attempt to swim to stay above-ground.)
(2) Every light in the room grows to blinding brilliance. (Close your eyes tight and drop any light source.)
(3) The floor has become a gulping, viscous swamp. (Take off your boots and armor to escape from drowning in the mud.)
(4) Every light in room explodes in flames, everything is burning. (Drop prone and attempt to extinguish the fire, pour any liquids you have onto yourself.)
(5) Your body is melting into puddle. (Attempt to hold your skin in place, press your flesh back into its proper shape.)
(6) The floor is blazing hot, melting into lava. (Hop from foot to foot, jump onto any flat surface above ground level.)
(7) Your body has shrunk to size of an insect or mouse. (Stare up at everything towering overhead, attempt to hide underneath smallest object you can find.)
(8) Your friends are all dead, their corpses fall to floor. (Run away screaming.)
(9) The floor is covered in millions of swarming, biting insects. (Attack the floor with your melee weapons.)
(10) The room is filled to brim with ocean water. (Hold your breath, attempt to swim to the ceiling, climb up any available vertical surface.)
(11) Your friends are all dead, but their lifeless yet animate bodies turn to attack you. (Attack your friends with most powerful attack.)
(12) Your clothes are filled with biting fleas and bedbugs. (Strip off your armor and clothing.)
(13) The ceiling is covered in thousands of swarming, screaming bats. (Attack the ceiling with your missile weapons.)
(14) Your back is covered with blood-drinking leeches. (Tear off your pack and anything worn on your torso and attack them.)
(15) The objects you hold in your hands are turning into biting, constricting snakes. (Drop or throw away what you're holding, leap backward to get away.)
(16) The ceiling is collapsing in a cave-in, debris rains down from overhead. (Drop prone and attempt to take cover underneath any sheltering objects.)

Manifestation: Roll 1d8: (1) shafts of light pour out of the caster's mouth an eyes, illuminating dancing motes in Brownian motion, accompanied by the smell of old books; (2) what looks like snow or white ash falls from the ceiling, accompanied by the smell and crackle of burning wood; (3) fish-like gills open on the caster's neck, revealing mushroom gills in the openings, the smell of saltwater fills the air as the gills appear to breathe; (4) thousands of puffballs sprout from the floor, releasing a miasma of dust and the smell of chalk; (5) the caster breathes billows of smoke from her nose and mouth, the scent of incense mixes with tobacco; (6) a sad, simple melody plays, as on a child's music box, there is a patter of rain, the air fills with mist and petrichor; (7) spiraling clouds of gold flecks waft away from the caster with every movement, and every mind present remembers the scent of of perfume; (8) there's a loud pop and the air fills with brightly colored paper confetti, the sound of party horns, and the aroma of a baking oven.

Misfire: Roll 1d4: (1) The caster is afflicted by 1 random hallucination for 1 round; (2) the caster is afflicted by different hallucinations each round for 1d3+1 rounds; (3) the caster and 1d3+1 of her allies are afflicted 1 random hallucination for 1 round; (4) the caster and 1d3+1 of her allies are afflicted by different hallucinations each round for 1d3+1 rounds.

1    Failure! Lost, misfire, and patron taint.

2-11    Failure, lost.

12-13    Failure, but spell is not lost.

14-15    One target of the caster's choice is afflicted by a single hallucination until it succeeds a saving throw.

16-19    Up to 1d3 targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by a single hallucination until they succeed a saving throw.

20-21    Up to CL number of targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by a single hallucination until they succeed a saving throw.

22-25    Up to CL number of targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by hallucinations, which change each other round until they succeed a saving throw.

26-29    Up to CL number of targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by hallucinations, which change each round until they succeed 1d3 saving throws.

30-31    All possible targets within range are afflicted by hallucinations (unless explicitly excluded by the caster.) Targets experience a single hallucination until they succeed a saving throw. Additionally, up to CL number of targets are afflicted by hallucinations that change each round until they succeed 1d3 saving throws.

32-33    All possible targets within range are afflicted by hallucinations (unless explicitly excluded by the caster.) Hallucinations change each round until they succeed a saving throw. Additionally, up to CL number of targets are afflicted by hallucinations that change each round until they succeed CL number of saving throws.

34+    All possible targets within 30' per CL are afflicted by hallucinations (unless explicitly excluded by the caster.) Each target rolls individually to determine their specific hallucination. Hallucinations change each round until targets succeed CL number of saving throws.

Expeditions in Urutsk

SESSION 7

After paying off Anjalik's creditors, the group decided to head over to the space-port, which Anjalik identified as the largest center of civilization in the area. On the walk over, Anjalik explained a bit about how the Vrun (the largest local human population) now lived in the remains of an earlier and much more glorious civilization founded by their ancestors. She attributed this preference to the Vrun's generally obedient and literal-minded personalities. Slunk and Merope eventually came to understand that Star Port used to be a working dockyard for metal ships that came from the sky (like the Wrecked Ship,) but that it had been innumerable generations since anyone on Urutsk had the ability to fly between the stars. The Vrun now saw a return to their ancestor's former glory as a kind of species-level or civilizational project. The Star Port itself had been transformed into a major city, with old working buildings being repurposed into homes, government offices, and bazaars.

Upon arriving at Star Port, Anjalik offered to help the pair get "credit bracelets" that would track their finances, and to introduce them to some of the guilds and "caste-clans" that organized employment throughout the Port. Anjalik revealed that she herself was a member of both the "Free Scouts" and the "Red Blade" guilds, and offered to vouch for her new friends if they wanted to join. Merope decided to get inducted into the Free Scouts, and also gained a contact with the "Scout Services" who said they planned to keep an eye on her. Slunk was interested in the "Esoteric Order of Starry Wisdom," and found that the guild was quite interested in learning more about his travel between dimensions, and about the Red Cube that had brought him to Urutsk.

It was soon time for Anjalik to return to Trade Tower, but Slunk and Merope gifted her with a sliver chopstick-like wand she could use to create an illusion of black skulls, spiders, and bats. Anjalik was very pleased, and tucked the wand into her hair before departing.

Slunk and Merope explored a bit, including touring a bazaar inside a huge lobby-like room. They found that anything left over from the past was incredibly popular with the Vrun, in particular "Ancient Grains" granola bars.

The pair first visited the Esoteric Order of Starry Wisdom's guild headquarters, where Slunk shared more of his story and was invited to browse some of the guild's spell books. (Which resulted in both silt-blooded Slunk and ice-blooded Merope selecting spells from Wizards of the Coast's free Elemental Evil Player's Companion.)

Next they visited the base of the Free Scouts, who threw Merope an induction party that involved drinking a cloudy white hallucinogenic liquor. Merope drank deep from the ceremonial cup, and entered a dream trance where she described a "shining obelisk on the edge of the waters" and then pinned a marker to a map, revealing the location of the spot she had envisioned. This session drew to a close with Merope drifting into a stupor, while the Scouts around her raved about the accuracy and potency of her vision, and made preparations for her to travel to her dream site.


SESSION 8

Merope awoke the next morning with a splitting headache, and found the Free Scouts still eager for her to initiate herself to their order by completing her dream quest. She and Slunk decided to hire a couple of mercenaries to join them, and after asking around a bit, settled on Lairnos (a proud young woman armed with a bow) and Vard (a slightly pudgy, devious looking man with a pair of knives.) They explained their plan to travel through the jungle to the Ancient site.

The group set out into Urutsk's jungle again, following the trail the Free Scouts had plotted to the location of Merope's dream site. Relatively early on, they were ambushed by a pair of brightly colored humans, one with orange skin and one with green. The green-skinned human was shorter, and reminded Slunk of the cannibal he'd met in the jungle. Merope, Slunk, and Lairnos quickly defeated the highwaymen, and realized that Vard had disappeared during the fight. They called out for him a few times, and he came loping back from the brush. He claimed that he'd been circling around to attack the bandits from behind, but had fallen in some quicksand. Merope and Slunk felt skeptical of Vard's story, but left him with Lairnos while they followed the trail he pointed out to them. A few minutes later, they found a pit of quicksand, seemingly vindicating Vard's story, although the friends considered him to be much more probationary than Lairnos.

They continued traveling, but were intercepted again, this time by a giant white scorpion, at least 30' tall. This was obviously an alien monster, and it reminded both Merope and Slunk of the robotic centipede they'd fought on the wrecked ship. The scorpion towered over them and both incredibly dangerous and heavily armored. Slunk and Merope quickly agreed that they couldn't hope to prevail in test of sheer strength, and that they'd have to out-think the alien with strategy. Unfortunately, the monster seemed to have some kind of psychic powers that let it anticipate and foil any plans the group made. Vard quickly gave up any pretense of loyalty, and openly ran for his life. Lairnos offered to retrieve or kill the cowardly man, but Merope and Slunk urged her to stay and help defeat the scorpion.

Finding themselves unable to penetrate the beast's armor with most of their attacks, Merope and Slunk hit upon a risky strategy of incapacitating it, by turning the ground beneath its feet to mud and then freezing it in place. This plan required both to spend dearly of their elemental blood, weakening them further, and the strategy failed with the monster danced out of reach just as the ground froze where it had been standing. In a last desperate attempt to stay alive, all three moved underneath the monster's belly, out of reach of its great claws and stinging tail. This last idea finally bought them victory, as they attacked the relatively vulnerable belly of the creature, while staying out of reach of its worst reprisals. A lucky break as Merope fired magical missiles at the monster allowed her to hit it with critical accuracy, and when combined with her mutant vision that let her see the microscopic weaknesses in things, the magical damage was too much for the beast to survive. Merope, Slunk, and Lairnos emerged shivering and on the brink of death from beneath the carcass just before it collapsed to the ground.

Merope tasted some of the alien meat, and believed that if she continued tasting unusual dishes, she might learn some resistance to dangerous substances. Slunk got Lairnos to help him carve huge flank steaks out of the beast, planning to offer them to the Esoteric Order, or sell them to the highest bidder back in the Star Port. Too weak and too tired to continue on their journey, the trio returned back to the city, wondering what had become of the traitor Vard.


SESSION 9

Merope and Slunk didn't think much of their battle with the alien scorpion. It was a setback on their journey to the Shining Obelisk by Crystal Waters, certainly. It was yet more proof of how dangerous and untamed the wilds were here on the alien world of Urutsk. And perhaps, it was a relief to come away alive after their second encounter with one of the conquering aliens who had devastated human civilization here.

But to Lairnos, the battle was a revelation. She had just survived a battle that she should not have walked away from, against an alien enemy that no one who wasn't part of a guard battalion should have defeated. Her employers, although strange, were obviously much more competent than they appeared to be. These foreigners, who seemed ignorant of the Vrun and the Star Port itself, who seemed not to fully understand the importance of their victory, also must know more than they seemed to, maybe know more or different things than the Vrun themselves.

When Merope and Slunk went to market to resupply and hire more mercenaries, they found that rumors of their victory had spread across the Star Port overnight, fueled by Lairnos telling enthusiastic tales over drinks at the bar and by shoppers encountering the startling proof in the form of Slunk's discount scorpion steaks appearing alongside the other wares in the marketplace. Much quicker than they expected, the pair hired "Inky" (a heavily tattooed assassin type,) "Blinky" (a nervous fellow,) and Clyde (big, dumb Clyde.) Although they were nervous about whether or not Lairnos would rejoin them after the disaster the day before, they found her absolutely eager to resume the quest.

The newly enlarged group of adventurers set out on the same trail as the day before, following the route Merope had mapped on her dream quest. Near the site of their first ambush, they found a rusted out antique air car. The car was covered in vines, and inside, they saw the duplicitous Vard, looking pale and bloated like a corpse. The dead bodies of the orange and green assassins lay in the back seat, and Vard, despite being dead, also appeared to be moving and attempting to exit the car. The group doused the vehicle in lamp oil and setting it on fire.

Continuing on their way, they eventually came to the site of their battle the day before. The white shell of the scorpion was there, and the ground nearby was littered with the corpses of dead animals, all scavengers and predators that must have come to taste the alien meat. Slunk felt a little nervous about having wholesaled so much of the meat to the Star Port merchants, but their newest hires were simply staring in awe. "See, I told you," Lairnos whispered to the others, as she recounted the fight again for a breathless Inky, Blinky, and Clyde. Merope and Slunk began to appreciate that their exploits were having an effect on the local balance of power, and that the consequence-free life of the itinerant treasure-seeker might not be what was in store for them.

The group continued following the trail in Merope's mind, blazing a new path through the jungle. By evening, they arrived in clearing filled with ruined buildings and curling vines. They also spotted a large, slow-moving herbivore munching contentedly at the vines, and a jaguar-like predator stalking it. The predator looked annoyed when the group entered the clearing, and broke off its hunt to get away from the humans. Approaching the herbivore, the adventurers realized it was mildly psychic and mildly (very mildly) intelligent. "Nummy!" the herbivore said to them all telepathically, and nodded at and pantomimed eating a particular berry, "Nummy nums!" Merope decided to try one of the berries, and Lairnos followed her lead. Both discovered that the nummy berry made everything else around them smell and taste delicious. (And Slunk discovered that the berry had an intoxicating effect, seemingly reducing the intelligence of anyone who ate it. He tried to communicate this fact to Merope, but found her temporarily too impaired to understand.) Merope and Lairnos gorged themselves on rations, vines, and other local greenery, all while conversing with the contented herbivore. Slunk decided that the nummy berry might make an excellent cash-crop. He collected samples of the berry, vines, and roots, planning to start a garden back in the Star Port, and hoping to sell the berries as some kind of (expensive) novelty appetizer.

The herbivore appeared somewhat menacing to Slunk ...

With his partner mentally out of commission, Slunk took charge for the rest of the night. He ordered Inky, Blinky, and Clyde to help make a camp on one of the ruined rooftops, hopefully out of reach of the predator they saw earlier, or any other hunters in the clearing. He also led the three new mercenaries on a sweep of their surroundings. They encountered another campsite, with a burned out fire and other signs of habitation, but all the campers were dead. The corpses appeared to belong to a party of treasure hunters, dressed much like the mercenaries from Star Port, but heavily mutated. The dead adventurers looked as pale and bloated and Vard had, and were surrounded by more vines like Vard's air car had been. Slunk felt the back of neck prickle, and had the distinct sensation that someone was watching him. He thought that it wasn't somebody present, but rather some kind of magic user with some sort of remote viewing or scrying technique. Slunk and the others quickly burned the dead bodies, and fled the abandoned campsite, making sure to cut down the vines around the side of their building to avoid being overwhelmed by plant life in their sleep. He tried to explain what he'd seen to Merope, but found her too stupefied to communicate with effectively, and tried to keep watch while meditating, feeling the sinister watching sensation again in the night.

... but looked much friendlier to Merope.

Mechanics I Want to Use - Cover Fire

I wanted a Mighty Deed of Arms to try to recreate a common scene in gunfights (at least on television and in movies) - both sides crouching down behind cover, popping up for a moment to return fire, before immediately ducking down again. Occasionally, someone uses this situation to try to sneak off to a flanking position and hit the other side where they're not shielded. Other times, the exchange of gunfire is covering someone's getaway.

Because guns are so deadly, and no one is really wearing effective armor, the first thing anyone in a gunfight seems to do is look for something to hide behind, and then both sides trade shots while looking for some kind of advantage or way to break the stalemate. (Often the fights seem to end when the heroes on one side manage to take down the villains on the other by hitting the bad guys right as they're emerging to let off another volley.)

So my goal here is to simulate that kind of gunfight. Both sides are hiding and unable to really hit each other until something changes. Both sides are laying down cover fire to prevent the other side from getting the upper hand. When someone is laying down effective cover, it's impossible for anyone on the other side to approach or out-flank them, unless they're very sneaky, or can find an alternate route. The only people in danger of being shot are the ones creating the cover. Cover fire is also not automatically symmetrical. If one side has more shooters, it's easier for them to control the situation. It's also possible to get out-gunned, so if one side has bigger or better guns, they're probably going to dominate the scene.

At the same time, I did try to keep the rules as simple as possible, while still allowing (and encouraging!) the above scenarios to play out. Hopefully what I've written makes intuitive sense when you think about the kind of gunfight it's meant to simulate.

I'm playing in a "weird West" themed game some weekend with Stormlord Publishing, so hopefully I'll get a chance to see how this works out in actual play. The one change I'd consider making would be that even the shooter can only be targeted by a return of cover fire (or perhaps by any Might Deed) rather than allowing them to be targeted by ordinary attacks. I'm concerned that would slow things down too much though, so I'm going to leave the opponent's options more flexible, unless playtesting shows that it doesn't work the way I hope it will as written.


Weapon-Specific Deed - Cover Fire (Firearm)

The shooter protects her allies by using her own gunfire to shield them from attack. Cover fire is typically used when the shooter and her allies are hiding behind cover, and when their enemies are in a similar position. By firing at a single opponent, the shooter can pin down her enemies to their position, prevent return fire from harming her allies, and even cover her friends retreat from the situation, allowing them to either escape or reposition themselves for the next phase of combat.

Unlike other Mighty Deeds, cover fire is not intended to hit an opponent, but to prevent them from moving by hitting close enough to them to force them to protect themselves. As a result, the shooter must hit AC 10 instead of her opponent's actual Armor Class. Larger or smaller opponents might be easier or harder to cover, respectively. Rolls of natural 20 (or other critical hits) deal damage to the target as normal.

When creating cover against an opponent without a missile weapon, the shooter receives a flat +2 bonus to her Deed Die. When attempting cover fire against an opponent who's using a firearm or other missile weapon, the shooter may receive a bonus based on the following factors:

Rate of fire: The shooter receives a +1 bonus to her Deed Die for each missile she can fire per round in excess of her opponent.
Damage die: The shooter receives a +1 bonus to her Deed Die for each 1d of damage her weapon deals in excess of her opponent.

Because the protection offered by cover fire is only effective after the shooter has attempted her Deed, she can choose to apply this bonus to her Initiative instead of her Deed Die.

An armed opponent with a superior weapon can choose either to impose a penalty on the shooter, or to receive a bonus when they return cover fire of their own.

(For example, a shooter armed with a single-shot pistol that deals 1d6 damage gets a +2 bonus to her Deed Die against an unarmed opponent, a +0 bonus against an opponent with the same weapon, and a -4 penalty against an opponent armed with a gun that fires two shots for 1d12 damage each per round. If that opponent chose to return cover fire instead, the shooter would take no penalty, but her opponent would receive a +4 bonus to their Deed Die.)


3 The shooter provides limited cover to her allies. A single targeted opponent cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round.

4 The shooter provides limited cover to her allies. A single targeted opponent cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. Or, the shooter can nullify a single opponent's Cover Fire deed result of 3.

5 The shooter provides complete cover to her allies. Opponents cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. A single ally can retreat this round while retaining this protection. Or, the shooter can nullify a single opponent's Cover Fire deed result of 4 or less.

6 The shooter provides complete cover to her allies. Opponents cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. A single ally can retreat this round while retaining this protection. Or, the shooter can nullify a single opponent's Cover Fire deed result of 5 or less.

7 The shooter provides complete cover to her allies. Opponents cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. Up to two allies can retreat this round while retaining this protection. Or, the shooter can nullify any number of opponents' Cover Fire deeds whose results total at least 1 less than her Deed result. (So on a result of 7, the shooter could nullify a single result of 6, or two results of 3.)


Notes: Opponents who are not directly targeted by cover fire can still attempt to advance by using the Hide in Shadows skill, or by taking a route that leaves them out of sight behind physical cover the entire time. However, an opponent who is directly targeted by the shooter cannot advance.

The description of this deed assumes that both sides in the combat will begin exchanging cover fire from behind actual protective cover. However, at the judge's discretion, an exposed shooter may be permitted to use this deed, or an exposed opponent may be forced into retreat instead of just being blocked from advancing.

The description also assumes that the shooter will be using a firearm instead of a sling or bow. Skilled NPCs from societies that favor such weapons might be able to use them to lay down cover fire. At the judge's discretion, a player character quest for the ability to provide cover using an arrow or stone.

Rhythmic Gymnastic Vivimancy

A recent dispatch from the Gray Lady has given me the idea that a select group of bards from the College of Rhythmic Gymnastics might use their performances to alter the life-cycle and their own biology.

When such bards are inducted into the mystery of life magic, they replace the entire 5e spell-list with Vivimancer spell-list from The City of Iron's Complete Vivimancer (or from Theorems & Thaumaturgy.) I will leave it (for now) for interested players and judges to decide for themselves how to link these spells to the bard's apparatuses.

Seen below, a high-level bard uses the ball apparatus to cast impregnate (reversed.)

"How to stop your period" by Xaviera Lopez