Beats Antique

Just discovered this group....they've got some great, eclectic stuff. Here's a sample.



And from Egyptic: (Warning! Belly dancing ahead!)

At Last! Arms of Legend, Vikings of Legend and Arcania of Legend

It took my local game store owner many months, but she finally got in physical copies of three new Legend books for me. Yay! I can stop being bitter about game distributors for a short period.

Vikings of Legend is a thick and digest edition reprint of the very same book for RQII, and I acquired it purely for the sake of completionism and also because its so snug and portable...but so far I don't think anything has changed between this edition and the nice RQII blue leather gold-embossed edition I already have. It's $25 which is a slight change, of course. I would love to run a mini campaign using this book....but as it is, its at least a good read and you can steal from it for any number of Viking campaigns. I am interested in contrasting it with the forthcoming BRP Mythic Iceland.

Arms of Legend has been vexing me because I read a review some time ago that pointed out how they had mucked up the weapons again (creating inconsistencies once more) and now that I have it I can't find where this happened. Either I suck at finding errata when I try to actively spot it, or the print version was done from a corrected final edition...the review in question was based on a digital copy a couple days after release, after all. So yeah....I guess I'll just say, "book looks good, doesn't look like it has the problems I thought it did. Or I can't find them, not sure which."

Anyway, regardless of the trepidation this book (or its predecessor) established about copious volumes of errata, its nice to have a Legend tome with some updated enchantment, craft, mount, travel and equipment rules.

The best of the three that came in was Arcania of Legend: Blood Magic, which is the first truly new product for Legend and was (I think) the last slated RQII book that didn't get released before the RQII line was shaken up into what it is now with the termination of the license.

Blood Magic is impressive, its a new idea on how to conduct spell casting through sanguine dedication and sacrifice, it's full of interesting concepts and it is exactly the kind of thing that both Legend and BRP need more of; both systems have so far suffered a bit from the churn of recycled products (as good as it was to get The Magic Book for BRP, that was still just a revision of the Magic monograph, which in turn was a reprint of RQ3's Magic book from the mid 80's....)

Blood Magic also reminded me why I love the entirety of the D100 system family with a quote from the Golden Bough on page 7. I don't think I'm being snobbish or elitist when I say that I find a genuine measure of respect for a game that recognizes its roots in myth and legend in such a fashion. I'll take a quote from Sir James George Frazer any day over a reference to the latest video game (much as I like video games, I've got three copies of the Golden Bough: one given to me as a gift on my 14th birthday, one I beat to death in college, and a copy I snagged just for some current era reading fun during the Borders' going-out-of-business sales last year).

The Penguin Edition I snagged at Borders for about $5

Anyway, just more fuel for the fire encouraging me to find a way to utterly and completely defect to the BRP/Legend/CoC family of games. I miss my youth, when I just played everything under the sun.....but with age comes this realization that time is preciously short, better to focus on those things you like best.

Update: Realms of Chirak for Legend may be first...also, Mindthings

Just a short update. I've been working on Realms of Chirak for Pathfinder but in doing so I revived my focus on the Legend-compatible edition (formerly the Runequest compatible edition that wouldn't see print since there was no OGL...but now there is....so yeah!)

It's much, much closer to completion than the Pathfinder edition...maybe 90% complete, and all that's left are some specific details. I've been working on this particular conversion for a very long time, so its not surprising. This edition is especially robust, too, as it contains cult/order/guild details for all of the various demiurges, avatars, quasi-deities and other weird factions of Chirak, along with rules of progression and specific details tailored to each one. It also takes advantage of the fact that, since Legend is OGL, I can blend a bit....tieflings can appear officially in Chirak as they rightfully must (although I'm tempted to call them by their title of cambion, the alternate, more traditional name from folklore for demon blooded folk).

So...I guess which one sees print/availability first will depend heavily on which one I focus more on and actually complete. We shall see!

Pathfinder has an edge in that its always easier to write for the game I am currently running, but that doesn't really work here since I'm only running games in PF right now for my two other settings (Lingusia and Enzada). But, I am writing a lot of BRP-related material right now in anticipation of future games (or just for fun, as on Friday) and of course Legend is basically just BRP's slightly younger, hipper cousin who does well in all the sports classes even if he only gets passing grades in English (heh)....

And now for some music! I bring you today Mindthings!

Royalty Free Music - Stock Music Library | Jamendo PRO

Tales from the Watchers of the Sullen Vigil - A New Setting for BRP and T&T

Download Today's Article Here!

Tales from the Watchers of the Sullen Vigil

This adventure setting commemorates the appearance of an entirely new world, set in the haunted lands of Sarvaelen. I had originally planned to make this exclusively a T&T setting, and I designed T&T character stats and everything for it which can be found at the bottom of the article, but I couldn’t resist a chance at working out the campaign background for BRP, which I am really getting into these days. Thus, I present the material in a dual-statted format!


BRP Characters should start off as Heroic Level adventurers. This setting relies on sanity rules, so make sure you have some! I am not including more complicating optional rules like hit locations and such, so you can add them to suit to taste.

We’ll see where it takes us…key influences for this setting will be the pulps of yore and the sort of dark, Lovecraftian horror as it was envisioned by Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Karl Edward Wagner and others.

Part One: Background and Gazetteer

Background
The Watchers of the Sullen Vigil are an order of knights who patrol the desert expanse west of Aeronost, ever watchful of the ancient evil that once boiled like a dark plague from the westerlands of Camrinal. None have tried to venture deeply into the deserts of that forsaken land in decades, fearful of the plagues, monsters and worse that are said to now inhabit that derelict kingdom. Still, the watchers do occasionally encounter a fell beast which has found its way out of the wastes to threaten the caravans that skirt the desert’s edge, and once in a while they spot an ominous looking ruin, sometimes a simple structure, other times something more sinister, lurking at the edge of the horizon. When they notice these things, the watch will sometimes send the boldest among them to investigate, to put down any threat that may lurk within. Sometimes, however, they like to contract out…

Recently in the crossroads town of Aelghast the watchers posted notification that they sought out any daring adventurers or mercenaries willing to investigate a mysterious complex which had been spotted not twenty miles in to the ever-blowing sand dunes of Camrinal. The notice says little, other than that such adventurers would be provided food and lodging at the Watch Tower of the Sullen Vigil, and a sum of 500 gold pieces for the proper survey and clearing of the structure, with suitable proof of the deed.

The Watch Tower is located ten miles west of Aelghast, directly against the edge of the great dunelands beyond which mark the territory of Camrinal. The eldest watcher and commander of the order is Sir Dalin Tanare, a man in his mid sixties with an injured knee who remains remarkably healthy for his age and condition.

Dalin will brief any interested souls as to the problem. Apparently, the curious ruin, a long, ruinous temple entrance to what appears to be a vast building completely buried beneath the sands was exposed during a recent sandstorm. No record of a building from old maps of Camrinal during the time when it was a living land suggests such a building existed. He wants to know what it is, and he wants any monstrous infestation purged. Two weeks ago he sent eight young agents of the watch to do the deed. None returned, though a subsequent scouting party found evidence of the expedition horses and squires devoured and strewn about the desert sands in front of the complex. The scouts returned, shaken to the core by the inhumanity of what they had witnessed. The scouts reported that a strange, unnerving whispering sound like many inhuman voices arose from the entrance to the temple, and they feared for their lives at the sound of it.

Dalin explains that whatever loot in the old temple lies within is theirs for the taking, but his coffers offer 500 gold to the troupe in payment for surveying and clearing out the ruin. If they can’t complete the deed, he will still pay them 200 gold for word on what lies within….if they survive the encounter!

With that, the adventurers are offered bunks in the commons area of the tower, fresh meals, and access to what resources as can be provided (up to 150 gold pieces worth of gear, weapons and armor taken from the tower’s stores and armory as needed; no magical items are available).

Dalin Tanare, Commander of the Sullen Watch
Human knight
STR 18, CON 21, SIZ 14, DEX 10, INT 15, APP 17, POW 12 EDU 14; DB +1D4 HP 17 MW 8
Sanity 41 (Max 60) Madness Threshold 8
Notable Skills: Insight 45%, Listen 50%, Spot 60%, Track 45%, Climb 50%, Dodge 64%, Ride 80%, Sword 90%, Axe 85%, Bow 45%, 1H Spear 80%, Shield 65%
Weapons: Scimitar (1D8+1+1D4), 4 javelins (1D6+1D2)
Armor: Scale (6 AP) plus Target Shield (15 AP/HP)
Wealth: about 50 gold pieces on his person, but the watch coffers contain 6,800 gold in funds.
Special: Dalin keeps a holy relic around his neck, a Reliquary of Saint Trimerene which holds a vial of her sacred blood. Supposedly placing a drop on the lips of a dead man will return him to life. This is true (and there are about 50 drops’ worth in the vial) but such a man must immediately make a Sanity Check or return with 3ED6 sanity loss, maddened (roll on the longer temporary insanity table), acting like a psychotic lunatic. Success means he or she returns, but with a blank memory of his or her past, and no memory of what transpired in death (does not affect skills, only memories of life events).

Typical Knight of the Sullen Watch
Human knight
STR 16, CON 15, SIZ 12, DEX 13, INT 11, APP 14, POW 10 EDU 10; DB +1D4 HP 13 MW 6
Sanity 50 (Max 50) Madness Threshold 10
Notable Skills: Listen 45%, Spot 50%, Track 40%, Climb 60%, Dodge 50%, Ride 65%, Sword 50%, Axe 45%, Bow 50%, 1H Spear 60%, Shield 60%
Weapons: Scimitar (1D8+1+1D4), 4 javelins (1D6+1D2)
Armor: Scale (6 AP) plus Target Shield (15 AP/HP)
Wealth: 3D6X5 SP and 2D6 GP each

Source

Gazetteer of the Region:

This town is located ten miles from the edge of the desert wastes. It is a free town, belonging to no principality or king, answering instead to the local governor, the elected halfling Charaden Grimes. Grimes is a scrupulous banker and he insures the town does not suffer for want, taking advantage of the confluence of roads at the town to encourage traders to stop and sell wares before moving on. In so doing, they tend to bring a fair amount of currency in from the caravaneers, their guards and servants. All told, Aelghast has a population of about 1,500 individuals, of which more than a third are wee folk (halflings and leprechauns), as the original township was founded near the local hillside enclave of Burgester, which remains now as a burrough of the town.



Aside from the halflings and leprechauns, the town has two other notable populations: there is a small but distinct population of ghuls, the haunted once-human folk of Camrinal who survived the devastation of their land two centuries ago when the Great Old War of Mages took place, and the naga of Sydaris, the exiled clan of serpentfolk who were forced inland centuries ago by the Empire of Kadatha when chieftain Yazzad Sydaris stood up against the Living Goddess during that same war.


There are perhaps 100 naga in the region, all adapted to desert survival but dwelling in the subterranean hotsprings just a mile south of Aelghast proper. The naga have maintained friendly relations with the humans and halflings of old Burgester, and tolerated the influx of caravans and traders after the new routes sprang up for overland trade with the rise of the young kingdom of Aerenost rose to power several decades ago, uniting the torn land for the first time since the war.


In contrast, there are perhaps 200 or more ghuls in Aelghast, and they are forced to dwell in a shanty on the outskirts of town, as the little folk distrust them. The ghuls migrated here from the desert three decades ago, following their leader, a tall, gaunt and deathly man of their kind named Galios. Galios convinced the leader of the Watch at that time to permit his people passage out of the deserts, and that they were harmless kin. The watch has kept a close eye on them ever since, and the halflings have tolerated them, but they remain second class citizens and are not allowed to own property in the area. Still, the ghuls seem content to dwell in Aelghast’s shantytown, a place still far superior to their old domain in the desert, apparently. There are rumors, of course, that they have constructed a network of catacombs beneath the north hill graveyard on the outskirts of town and occasional accusations of tomb robbing are cast about, but usually nothing comes of it. The ghuls, for their part, provide cheap labor and work hard to earn their keep.


Ghul Stats
STR 3D6, CON 3D6+3, SIZ 2D6+6, DEX 2D6+6, INT 2D6+6, APP 2D6, POW 3D6 EDU 3D6
Attacks: Claws (1D4+DB) or Bite (1D3+DB); Ghul bites can cause a Potency 12 vs. CON sickness in those bitten, as they develop debilitating nausea within 1D6 minutes of receiving such a bite. The effect last 1d6X20 minutes.
Cannibals: Ghuls are known cannibals. The ghuls of Aelghast restrain themselves, and feed only on their own (so far as anyone knows) and the dead (suspected but not proven; they are very careful to avoid being caught). Any ghul that feeds off of living kindred flesh recovers 1D6 HPs for the meal. This can be done once per day.
Half-Dead Immortals: Ghuls don’t age. They look like zombies, with rotting skin and bones visible, clearly not being quite “alive” yet not dead, either. They are immune to the effects of disease.
Seen Too Much: Ghuls have already experienced some amazing horrors in their time. When a ghuls suffers sanity loss, if the loss is not equal to or greater than his madness threshold, then he loses no sanity at all. Conversely, if it meets or exceeds his madness threshold then he loses all of the sanity points rolled, not the difference. Ghuls also start with one permanent mental disorder (roll randomly or choose).

Note: Regular ghouls prowl the wastelands, too. They are truly undead beings, however, driven utterly mad by their state of existence. The civilized ghuls that are descended from the survivors of Camrinal regard the more conventional ghouls as “ferals.” Most humans can't tell the difference if they don't give the ghuls time to talk and prove their sanity, first. It is also unknown of the undead ghouls are simply normal ghuls who have at last succumbed to madness, or if they are more distantly related.

Only in Aelghast are ghuls tolerated to walk among the truly living...

The Lucky Starling

One of Aelghast’s most famous establishments is the Lucky Starling, a tavern and wayfarer’s inn run by the leprechaun Skipner Faust. Skipner likes to show off the cage with his “lucky starling” in the aviary-like interior of the tavern, as he claims the starling is actually a manifestation of the pagan deity Wishara, the goddess of luck, which has let him capture her due to his entrancingly good looks (so he says). The tavern itself remains a popular spot for merchants and adventurers to reside at while passing through.


Skipner Faust
Leprechaun Innkeeper and Wizard
STR 6, CON 16, SIZ 5, DEX 22, INT 20, APP 16, POW 18, MPs 18; DB -1D6 HP 10 MW 5
Sanity 87 (Max 90) Madness Threshold 17
Notable Skills: Bargain 95%, Etiquette 75%, Fast Talk 75%, Perform 65%, Persuade 75%, Craft (Brewing) 85%, Sleight of Hand 50%, Appraise 75%, Gaming 70%, Knowledge (birds) 100%, Insight 75%, Listen 85%, Sense 50%, Spot 75%, Dodge 95%, Stealth 90%, Daggers 50%
Weapons: Ice Pick (dagger, 1D4-1D6)
Armor: Soft Leather (1 AP)
Mage Spells: Blast 75%, Change 50%, Control 75%, Diminish 50%, Dispel 50%, Enhance 60%, Heal 75%, Illusion 80%, Invisibility (racial ability) 100%, Teleport 50%
Wealth: 32,500 gold pieces carefully hidden away beneath the inn, at the rear of an ancient tomb-catacomb he discovered years ago, guarded by traps.


The lands of Sarvaelen don’t have a lot of leprechauns, and Skipner Faust is far and away the nicest of the bunch; most leprechauns are cruel, greedy and malevolent beings, dark fey that serve the unseelie court and will acquire treasure with manic fervor and at any cost. Skipner is a rare exception to the breed (most of the time…)

To experience some weeeeird search results do an image search for "leprechaun warrior" on google. Ohhhhkay then.

The Whisperman Mine

Aelghast’s most popular local product is from the Whisperman Mine just nine miles northwest of the town, a mining colony which has operated for years. Dalton Whisperman is a burly dwarf known for his penchant for smelling out precious metals in the earth, and he’s been mining this area for decades now. Some suspect his mines have gone deep enough to tunnel into the subterranean caverns that are said to riddle the ground beneath the deserts, for as the story goes when the mages of Camrinal released their ultimate war magic, it not only destroyed their enemies and their own kingdom, but it cracked the very earth, leaving it a hollowed expanse. No one knows the truth of this, though, but there is thought to be some truth to such statements every time Whisperman and his crew come into town with a fresh haul of iron ore, silver or better….despite their wealth, the haunted looks of his men suggest that they have seen much beneath the sands that they would rather not.


Dalton Whisperman
Dwarf Explorer and Miner
STR 19, CON 20, SIZ 8, DEX 13, INT 13, APP 15, POW 15 EDU 13; DB +1D4 HP 14 MW 7
Sanity 64 (Max 75) Madness Threshold 12
Notable Skills: Bargain 75%, Command 50%, Craft (Mining) 85%, Demolition 75%, Repair 50%, Listen 45%, Spot 60%, Track 50%, Climb 75%, Dodge 35%, Ride 35%, Sword 50%, Axe 75%, Shield 65%
Spells: Blast 75%, Command 50%
Weapons: Great Pickaxe (2D6+2+1D4); flintlock pistol (1D6+1)
Armor: cuirboille hard leather (2 AP)
Wealth: depends on whether he’s struck a motherload or not, but he usually carries 2,500 gold around to do upkeep and pay his men.

 

Next Friday: The Temple of the Whispering Doom in Detail!


Tunnels & Trolls Conversion Notes:


This campaign region is written for use with fresh T&T characters, but can serve as an adventure point for characters of any level. The rules assume 7.5 edition mechanics but can work just fine with 5th edition. Since I introduced the concept of a Defense Score last column, I will include the Defense value (including any armor) with any creature stats if you would like to try it out.

Dalin Tanare, Commander of the Sullen Watch
Human knight (level 3 warrior)
STR 22, CON 30, DEX 10, INT 15, LK 14, CHR 17, WIZ 10 SPD 6; +9 Adds (and +3 damage for level)
Talents: Desert Tactics +18, Horsemanship 15, Seneschal 21 Armored Defense: 37
Weapons: Scimitar (4 dice); 4 javelins (2 dice); Armor: scale maile (8 hitsX2) plus target shield (4 hitsX2)
Wealth: about 50 gold pieces on his person, but the watch coffers contain 6,800 gold in funds.
Special: Dalin keeps a holy relic around his neck, a Reliquary of Saint Trimerene which holds a vial of her sacred blood. Supposedly placing a drop on the lips of a dead man will return him to life. This is true (and there are about 50 drops’ worth in the vial) but such a man must immediatel make a level 5 save vs. INT or CHA (better of the two) or return maddened, acting like a psychotic lunatic. Success means he or she returns, but with a blank memory of his or her past, and no memory of what transpired in death.

Typical Knight of the Sullen Watch
Human knight (level 1 warrior)
STR 16, CON 15, DEX 13, INT 11, LK 11, CHR 14, WIZ 10 SPD 12; +5 Adds (and +1 damage for level)
Talents: Scouting (Dex+1D6) or Horsemanship (Dex+1D6) Armored Defense: 33
Weapons: Scimitar (4 dice); 4 javelins (2 dice); Armor: scale mail (8 hitsX2) plus target shield (4 hitsX2)
Wealth: 3D6X5 SP and 2D6 GP each

Ghul Stats
STR X1, CON X2, DEX X1.5, INT X1, LK X0.67, CHR X0.5, WIZ X1 SPD X1
Cannibals: Ghuls are known cannibals. The ghuls of Aelghast restrain themselves, and feed only on their own (so far as anyone knows) and the dead (suspected but not proven; they are very careful to avoid being caught). Any ghul that feeds off of living kindred flesh recovers 1D6 CON for the meal. This can be done once per day.
Half-Dead Immortals: Ghuls don’t age. They look like zombies, with rotting skin and bones visible, clearly not being quite “alive” yet not dead, either. They are immune to the effects of disease.

Typical Ghul Citizen: STR 10, CON 20, DEX 15, INT 11, LK 7, CHR 6, WIZ 10, SPD 10; +1 adds
Typical Ghul Warrior: STR 16, CON 24, DEX 16, INT 9, LK 7, CHR 5, WIZ 9, SPD 11; +6 adds
Typical Ghul Rogue: STR 12, CON 20, DEX 20, INT 13, LK 16, CHR 8, WIZ 12, SPD 13; +13 adds
Typical Ghul Wizard: STR 8, CON 16, DEX 18, INT 18, LK 12, CHR 7, WIZ 18, SPD 12; +5 adds

Skipner Faust
Leprechaun innkeeper (Level 2 Wizard)
STR 6, CON 16, DEX 22, INT 20, LK 24, CHR 16, WIZ 12 SPD 18; +11 Adds (lower for being a citizen)
Talents: Brewmaster 26, Bird-Whisperer 22 Armored Defense: 19
Spells: All level 1 spells, plus Whammy, Spirit Mastery, Mirage and Poor Baby; also Hidey Hole (innate)
Weapons: Ice Pick (1+2); Armor: soft leather (5 hits)
Wealth: 32,500 gold pieces carefully hidden away beneath the inn, at the rear of an ancient tomb-catacomb he discovered years ago, guarded by traps.

Dalton Whisperman
Dwarf explorer (level 2 rogue)
STR 38, CON 40, DEX 13, INT 13, LK 22, CHR 15, WIZ 8 SPD 11; +37 Adds
Talents: Roguery 28, Mining 18 Armored Defense: 47
Spells: Take That You Fiend, That’s a Natty Beard, Oh There It Is, Oh Go Away
Weapons: Pickaxe (3 dice); wheellock dagg (5+15); Armor: cuirboille (7 hits)
Wealth: depends on whether he’s struck a motherload or not, but he usually carries 2,500 gold around to do upkeep and pay his men.



All contents except artwork are Copyright 2012 by Nicholas Torbin Bergquist, all rights reserved. Tunnels & Trolls is trademarked and copyrighted by Ken St. Andre and produced by Flying buffalo. Basic Roleplaying is trademarked and copyrighted by Chaosium.

The Alignment Issue

We have a paladin in the Wednesday night game, first time in a while I've had one in play, and the player (Brien) is a great and rules-savvy guy who has also run an archer-focused paladin in my Saturday game in the past. It was an interesting session last night as a fair portion of the decision-making process in the course the night was dictated by detect evil: the catch-all through the ages for determining who you should and shouldn't attack in D&D. Arguably, its presence in last night's game could be used as the sole defining factor in an arbitrary third party observer trying to determine what game we were playing (barring any Pathfinder titles on the covers of the books) simply because so far as I'm aware, no other RPG on the market that isn't emulating D&D provides for a black/white bad guy detection system that is unerring and offers no saves.

The session brought up two thoughts for me: first, I wonder to what extent alignment-based spells, detections and processes are integral to D&D in its overall feel and nature. I wonder this because I only have one campaign in which evil and good are regarded as absolutes in the cosmology, for which a detection spell can be used to unerringly determine the right choice of action for or against someone based on how their alignment reads (the Lingusia campaign).

My other two campaigns, Chirak and Enzada, deliberately eschew morality as black/white in favor of morality as subjective and not defined by any divine powers. In Chirak good and evil is defined purely by choice of action in regards to the social contract to which even the gods are restricted. In Enzada, morality as an absolute is unknown....some beliefs say it is determinate and objective, others say not at all, and a few skew towards the more Mythos-esque notion that morality is a clever ruse for frail human minds trying to cope with a universe that treats them in the way we might treat the bacterium in our guts.

A side effect of campaigns like this is that alignment-based magic really mucks things up. It's never fit well in Chirak, which I realize is one of the many reasons Runequest or D&D 4th edition works better for that setting; 4E cleverly retained alignments while cutting away all the objective-morality-defining spells and magic that created so very many plot-derailing story issues in prior editions. Enzada, as I learned last night, can support such, but it raises weird questions like, "if a paladin detects evil, sees that a gang of dire corby chicks are all radiating evil, but its because they're basically tiny amoral survivalists who don't know any better and are living in a eat-or-be-eaten world, then are they really evil in a sense that the paladin is looking for, and even if so, is there such a thing as irredeemable evil that the paladin can assertively act on regardless of any potential for good a creature might potentially exhibit?" Or put another way: were the dire corby chicks destined to always be evil? Hint: 39 of 40 dire chicks became pot roast last night. The tough one is being mentored by the tengu ranger in the party, who was trying to defend them.

On the one hand, its great to see this stuff as part of a storyline, and it got the entire party in a ruckus as they split down the line about a gang of dire corby slaves and their chicks. Where they clearly foes to be slain because magic does not lie, or were they simply unfortunate victims of circumstance who did not know any better? Part of the group acted at least partially because there is a strong implicit encouragment in 3rd edition (and Pathfinder) mechanics that one can magically define a creature's nature in an absolute sense. But the truth is that there was no reason one couldn't imagine that the dire corbies weren't simply victims in their own right, potentially redeemable, who had not as yet committed any evil acts. It was a tough call!

My Saturday group tends to look at things like detect evil not as it is normally defined but instead as "looking for evil intent." Which is an important semantic difference. Ironically that groups games in the Warlords of Lingusia setting, where evil is an absolute, and the entire cosmos is factionally divided between order and chaos in a strongly "Moorcok meets Zoroaster" manner. But....well, it works well the way we do it, because we don't get derailed on the plot by PCs arbitrarily attacking everything that radiates evil, basically. Instead what matters is "do they intend to do evil to us or those we protect?" instead.

So anyway, this has led me to thinking about how 4th edition really did get it right by cutting out alignment-based detection and effects. In doing so, it effectively removed one of the biggest "plot bypass" mechanics in the game system, and opened up the system to new ways of thinking and presenting fantasy worlds outside of the very much traditional alignment-defined-universal-morality format.

On the other hand, the paladin from 1st through 3rd edition and Pathfinder really is an interesting reversal on the Ring of Gyges tale, except instead of Gyges having a ring that makes him invisible and effectively immune from persecution for his ability to get away with crimes, he instead gains a ring (power) to determine with absolute certainty in the eyes of his faith who is and isn't an enemy to be slain. That's a powerful tool....in the real world, its an "ability" achieved through blind faith and unquestioning patriotism, but just imagine if the wrong person gained a device that could, perhaps on a genetic level, but with a mere glance, immediately brand you a criminal, deviant or otherwise objectively evil individual for whom rights suddenly were irrelevant. D&D's paladins are a thought exercise of the first order on this concept, and just how potent and deadly a social device it could become (and unfortunately in the real world too many people don't need a ring or a power to think they can objectively judge those around them).

I don't know...maybe I've read too many philosophy texts, but I've never been comfortable with any absolute presentation of morality in role playing games except in specific circumstances where it is important to the underlying structure of the setting. D&D has a weird issue, as its many decades of use have left it a tool that has been used in a vastly diverse number of ways to create a nigh infinite number of possible fantasy realms and interpretations of such...and yet its raw, purist core still operates on some very specific defaults that are currently being enshrined by some players as the One True Way, including weird notions like dungeons as a game focus, alignment as an absolute necessity, and some more recent phenomena like the utter requirement that the game maintain implicit balance to insure everyone feels special when they are playing (which is not in and of itself a bad goal, but the concept of balance is confounded with the idea of combat balance, rather than the idea of plot/story/adventuring balance, which are three entirely different yet equally important things).

But, I have rambled too much! This diabtribe must end.

Zaidan's Blight

I worked out this campaign outline a while ago and never ended up going anywhere with it. It's fairly setting neutral, but it is situated in the Warlords of Lingusia campaign (and could just as easily work in any era of the campaign). Enjoy...



Zaidan’s Blight


Suitable for a party of 2-3rd level adventurers (or some very foolish 1st level adventurers!)

Deep in the Halale Wilderness, along the edge of Mitra’s Woods lies the remote barony of Osterman. Here in the town of Gray’s Retreat a hardy folk live, skirting constant danger for the local profits from a very prosperous mining operation as well as a local timber mill.

The town of Gray’s Retreat wasn’t always such a prosperous location. As the story goes, Lord Gray Osterman in his youth forged out in to the wilds, far away from the comfort of the provinces of Octzel proper, skirting the very edge of Mitra’s Woods to seek his fame and fortune. With him was a small company of loyal soldiers and allies who believed in the young baron’s cause.

The troop of men led by Osterman eventually happened upon a lush region of hills and woodlands in Halale, where they settled for a time, while the baron and his advisors decided upon a course of action. The stone in the region was plentiful and useful for construction, there was no end to the harvestable wood and a nearby river provided fresh water. It was clear to the baron that this was an ideal location to build his remote keep and establish a name for himself.

Only Osterman’s eldest advisor, the seneschal Grimark, suggested otherwise, pointing out how dangerous the region was and how close the hills were to the ominous Mitra’s Woods. The baron paid no heed, though, for the old terrors and mysteries of the land were largely unknown to him and his men.

For months the baron and his men labored to build a keep, and a small settlement of his loyal soldiers and soon their families began to spring up around it. During the first new moon of the third month however, a small army of monstrous beings descended from the hills upon the settlement and attacked, burning houses and pillaging in the night. Dozens of people were killed or kidnapped, and though Gray’s men mounted a strong defense and drove the beasts away, the damage had been done.

With morale at a new low and many suspecting that the seneschal was right, Osterman took a squad of his best soldiers in to the deep woods of the hills to follow the trail of their attackers to its source. He eventually happened upon an ancient castle, overlooking a hill riddled with shallow caverns and an occasional, deeper warren that appeared to delve deep in to the earth. They happened upon a small tribe of orcs and engaged in a brief skirmish, after which prisoners were taken and an interrogation of one of the captured warriors revealed that the hill was called Zaidan’s Blight, and it was shunned even by the orcs in the region. \

“Zaidan dwells here,” the orc said in his crude mastery of the human tongue. “Zaidan is evil, in a way my people find disturbing.” This news left Gray and his men with a new determination. He let the orc go, and told him he would demand peace from the orc and his tribe if he braved Zaidan’s Blight and put an end to the evil. The orc agreed.

What happened when Zaidan and his men journeyed up the hill and smashed their way through the ancient gate to enter the courtyard of the ruined castle, none can say. All that is known is that Gray Osterman and his men spent three days inside, and when they at last emerged, half of them were dead and all had a haunted look about them. Gray returned to the settlement and resumed building, stating only that the evil was gone, for as long as he lived. About this he was right; the settlement prospered, and turned in to a thriving township named Gray’s Retreat after rich gold veins were discovered. Soon the young barony was recognized by the King of Octzel, and the baron and his family became very wealthy and important, even in so remote a location.

The story of Gray’s Retreat and its early years is known to all locals. Recently, sixty years after the incidents which happened in those first months, Lord Osterman came down with a terrible illness that ate away at him and in months he went from a strong 85 year old man who had lived a full life to a hollow shell. He at last perished, and a funeral was held the next day, with his body interred in the fresh family mausoleum, blessed by the local priest of Death, the Nameless One to insure safe passage to the afterlife. All seemed well, and his immediate heir, his son Davin Osterman, who had already been participating in managing the barony stepped up to the task in a public ceremony two days after the funeral. Davin was already an older man at age 60, being the eldest son, and he was no longer in much condition to fight, though he had a son and daughter who handled such affairs for him.

Eight days after his burial, a new raid took the township by surprise. In the middle of the night an army of monstrosities, including chimeric creatures ridden by mihidr trolls as well as ground forces consisting of wolven and goblins descended upon the town and attacked. When the monsters were at last driven away, it was determined that several dozen townspeople had been killed or kidnapped once more, and even stranger, the Osterman family Crypt had been smashed open and the body of Lord Gray Osterman had been stolen away! This blashphemy drove Davin Osterman mad with rage, and he rode off in to the deeps of the woods, where his father had gone so long ago to find the mysterious hill and castle known as Zaidan’s Blight. He and his force of one hundred men were never seen or heard from again.

Now Erik Osterman, son of Davin, has been forced to step up to the mantle of baron while his father is absent and possibly dead. On the day the PCs begin the adventure with their arrival in town, a strange messenger from the hills appears. The misshapen goblin bears a scroll, from which he reads a new proclamation.

“Lord Zaidan has claimed the soul of Gray Osterman, lord and Baron of these lands!” The goblin cackles. “Per his agreement with the late Lord Osterman, all of the lands under his lord’s barony are now Zaidan’s to claim. Let any who would oppose his great and evil master step forth, to be struck down at his convenience!” The cackling goblin will then toss the scroll down and try to make good an escape, certain that the humans of the town will try to kill, capture or enslave him.

Thus does the adventure of Zaidan’s Blight begin, with Erik Osterman declaring a great reward to the first hero who puts down the threat of Zaidan once and for all, and possibly deliver’s his father’s and grandfather’s bodies back to him, for he has no hope his father yet lives.

MMO Monday Update

Just a brief update. Last time I took some time to talk (i.e. complain) about MMOs I was mostly happy to play a little WoW and that the kid seemed to enjoy sitting on my lap while I did so. That lasted about a weekend, as it turned out (playing WoW, that is; kid still loves watching whatever I play....he's also into grabbing the controller whenever its close enough). So I rapidly burned out. I just can't enjoy the game anymore, I have reached the point of no return, total saturation apparently. That, and I have conceded that while I like some of what Cataclysm brought to the table, in the end I really miss the game's feel, flavor, and amazingly enough slightly harder difficulty from the days of 2005. For some reason WoW feels dumbed down to an almost ridiculous level these days. If we were talking cooking, WOW is like an E-Z Bake Oven. (This may not be true for endgame content.....but I'm a ultra-slow leveler who likes the 1-84 process to actually be a fun challenge as well and not just a speedbump on my way to raiding. I hate raiding.)

I don't want my MMOs to be too hard, or too party-focused.....but I do want to feel like there's an effort at plot, pacing and just a smidgeon of system mastery. Blizzard has gradually stripped almost all of that out of WOW. And now I'm hearing ugly rumors from people that the beta for Mists of Pandaria is turning out to be a huge disappointment. As my wife put it, playing MoP only made her want to go play Guild Wars: Factions, instead. Not a ringing endorsement.

Aside from realizing my time with WoW is officially over (I even deleted it), I tried Champions again and found that Perfect World's attempt to merge accounts had made a mess of mine. Once I got it sorted out I found that they had apparently added Champions' version of a random dungeon finder, which was cool, but for some reason I found the game tedious and exhausting this time around. Moreover, I found the game itself continued to run processes in the background even after I'd closed it out. Steam says I played continuously for four days straight. I don't know if this is glitchy programming or something sneaky...and now that Champions is part of the Perfect World fold I'll believe either option (never loaded a PW game that didn't act weird). So I deleted it and moved on.



DDO was up next. I want to get back into DDO, but the tedium and grind is preventing me from caring. I could level up still more of my 20 characters to past level 10, or I could play one of my two existing level 10 or level 12 characters and see how many eons it takes to get to level 20 in time for the forthcoming highly nonsensical "Drow fuck up the prime material plane" plotlines in which only the heroes of Eberron can save the Forgotten Realms or something....I mean, it's the kind of lore blending that induces headaches in anyone who even remotely cares (I don't even care and it causes me a headache in the same way I hate poorly done what-if alternate history fiction). So when a game causes physical pain at the sight of a mere loading screen, time to move on. But I'm not deleting DDO yet. I want to play....I just want to feel like there's a chance I'll see some new content I can actually get to experience some day.



So anyway, I accidentally got into Rift and am now really, really hooked on that game. I also accidentally fired up Star Wars: The Old Republic again with the free game time being extended right now to lapsed players and am being reminded of how amazingly well done it is. I want to resub to SWTOR, just trying to balance my free time issue with it is the only issue.

Rift, however, is exactly what I needed at this time, it turns out, and I love the game's backstory and premise, featuring two philosophically opposed groups facing a common menace, but unable to reconcile their methods of dealing with that threat. I love the rift concept itself and how it works, I love the graphics, I love the amazingly flexible and not at all dumbed down soulshard system for class combinations and the fact that I can run two different fighters who don't even feel like the same class as a result. I also love the rogues, which are much more fun than any other rogues I've seen in fantasy MMOs (barring DDO's amazing rogues, but, well....D&D rogues, of course they'll be fun!)

So anyway, my Tuesday news isn't really much more than: guess I'll be taking a bit of a break from the single player games to focus on Rift and possibly SWTOR for a while. This ought hold me over until Guild Wars 2 arrives in June, at least!

Pathfinder: The Saturday Chronology

In the realm of D&D-esque games that sometimes have a D20 stamped on them or an OSR reference therein, it appears that I have finally and irrevocably surrendered to Pathfinder. I've got my weekly Wednesday night game going (which has gone gonzo and the group now runs two alternating adventuring parties....lets just say there was too much plot for just one group and leave it at that!) and of course my now closing in on three years long Pathfinder Saturday group. There comes a time when I realize, "well dang, this is the only fantasy RPG with D&D-like themes I'm running right now," that maybe I should hand it the prize.

Now, this has no bearing on Traveller (the other game I am running Saturdays), nor does it affect plans for the near future with Mutant Epoch or BRP/Magic World. Those are decidedly not D&D-likes or D20 variants. But it does mean that I think I can pat myself on the back. I stuck to my new year's resolution and by golly we're four months in and I have not fallen off the wagon.

To celebrate, I am going to print a brief summary of the campaign chronology for the ongoing Saturday group. It's not heavy on specifics, and it is mostly use as a quick recap or an intro for new players on "what has come before." So, here you go:

Current Crew of the Ship With No Name:

 The crew changes a lot, but the following characters have remained consistent throughout the tale:
Captain Salmut, ratfolk swashbuckler
Horus, human monk
Reyvan, elvish monk
Pennywhistle, Halfling bard
Jerro, human sorcerer
A medley of NPC sailors and henchmen as well as rotating and new players flesh out the mix.

The Warlords of Lingusia: Tales of the Ship With No Name
The campaign opened with the tale of our intrepid adventurers on their unnamed brigantine warship. They had returned to Port Sadrys, their home, after some absence out adventuring. On arrival, they thwarted a pirate assault by Golmadran privateers and drove them out of the harbor.

The group spent a bit of time in port before being hired to escort a group of religious pilgrims ot the Temple of the Red God, thirty miles east in the mountains near the city of Senempar, home of the ratfolk captain Salmut. After some adventures in the mountains they arrive.

Senempar is a sprawling, cosmopolitan city in the mountains dominated by several humanoid races, and was founded centuries ago near the Monastery of Ashuar during the Plague Years, when the undead plague of the Shadow Gods ran amok across the world.

The adventurers spent some time in Senempar before taking leave. During their time here they pursued a shape shifting beast that favored the form of a giant slug and was murdering drunks in the night, they assisted the temple of the Red God on some errands and then turned on the temple when they realized that the ancient artifact they were to deliver to the Tomb of the Red God in the eastern Tomblands was actually a device that might awaken a deity which was aligned with chaos and sought the destruction of mankind through dreams, and they got involved in the local criminal guilds, attempting to set up an extortion racket by which they would play one guild off another and make money off of it.

Eventually the group left Senempar and journeyed south, taking with them the mysterious Key of the Red God, the artifact that would awaken the ancient deity of nightmares, to find a way to dispose of it. They were also escorting an ashtarth dark elf woman who intended to marry a high ranking noble in Golmadras to the south, but who needed protection from a former suitor who had been turned into a drider scorpion man.

The adventurers headed south along the Nyarlith Straights to the Inner Sea, and along the way cultist fishmen (skum) of the chaos lord called the Kraken attacked the ship. They were then accosted by shadow demons while in a southern Octzellan harbor, and subsequently journeyed eastward to a Golmadran Port. At the port they were confronted by the drider who pursued them for his former bride, but one of the crew, a mixed-breed dark elf woman, convinced the drider to forget her and left with him. The patron drow was able to continue on to her arranged marriage and settled her debts with the adventurers then.

No sooner had they settled into port and resolved the matter than did the Kraken itself manifest to take vengeance upon them. As the Kraken descended to destroy the city, the seraph Aion, agent of the god of time (Huuarl) manifested and spirited the entire crew of adventurers and their unnamed ship back in time nearly 1,600 years, with an urgent mission: they had to stop an ancient prophecy from coming true, one which would ultimately see to the unbinding of twelve ancient chaos gods called the Skaeddrath, of which the Kraken was but one. When the twelve are freed by this prophecy, Aion explained, they would begin to awaken from their perpetual slumber and escape into the world to wreak untold havoc.

The adventurers were told by Aion to seek out the man who started it all: a priest and scholar studying an ancient ruin in the High Plateau near the Octzellan city of Dagger Falls to the west. As a final act of assistance Aion teleported the entire ship to a small lake near the edge of the ruins, where the adventurers could seek out this scholar and stop him. Aion gave them the Hourglass of Huuarl, a sacred relic, to aid them. The rat captain abused it a lot.

The time in the ruins was fraught with danger and mystery, and at first the scholar and his assistants appeared to be innocently discovering the relics of an ancient cult in the ruins, while the scholar wrote down the mysterious language he was translating, but in time it was revealed he was receiving messages to translate in his dreams, from an ancient entity that was trapped beneath the plateau, one of the chaos gods. At last when his treachery was revealed as a true cultist of the Kraken seeking to do the bidding of this god through its dreams, the adventurers confronted him and defeated the chaos beast he summoned to stop them.

After destroying the scholar’s book and insuring that the prophecy would never be written and so could not come to pass, the adventurers traveled to a nearby ancient cave where a hidden temple of time to the god Huuarl could be found. The angelic Aion manifested after the hourglass relic summoned him and informed them that the timeline had been changed, and the Kraken and its ilk were no longer certain to destroy the world in the current era. When asked, the adventurers chose to return to the future, their present, and Aion did so, repairing their damaged vessel (it was shattered when it hit the shallow lake) and setting them in the grand lake off Dagger Falls nearby.

The heroes returned to the present, where they began to find subtle changes. Octzel as a kingdom was no longer a wasteland of small baronies fighting against the monsters and the foreign invaders of Zatacan, but was united into three kingdoms, of which they were now in the domain of southern Pheralin.

The group became embroiled in a mystery in the city of Drakhan, where murders with a demonic influence were happening. They discovered that someone had unleashed a powerful ancient demon, the cambion half-demon bastard son of the ancient northern giants (Balor himself).

The group traveled to a monastery and while defending the monks from rampaging cyclopses learned that the taint of the demons may stem back to an ancient elvish city which once existed in the middle of the northern Halale Wilderness, near a sacred tree. They traveled to these ruins and discovered that the sacred tree had been corrupted long ago in whatever conflict destroyed the surrounding city. A series of adventures led to the revelation of the demon himself, and his subsequent banishment, as well as the restoration of the Sacred Heart of the Tree, which purged the region of this evil influence.

The group returned to Drakhan and spent a bit more time there before journeying to Pheralan, capitol of the kingdom, just south along the river delta from Drakhan. There they met with Queen of the land and learned that her son had been missing for over a year, and a dignitary from the distant eastern city of Carapus in the Sea of Amech region had just arrived, bearing the sword of her son which he said had been recovered from the wreckage of his ship, and though no body was present, he felt news of this matter had to be delivered to the Queen.

The queen asked the adventurers to accompany the ambassador as well as her own agent, named Biramon Black, agent of the queen, to go to Carapus and recover her son, alive or dead. She provided them with rare resurrection scrolls to insure he came back alive if possible. The group accepted.

A lengthy journey north from the Inner Sea to the Nyarlith Straight, then eastward through the Baldric Gulf along the shores of the Northern Hyrkanian Kingdoms was fraught with various minor dangers, but the group stopped for a time in the city of Eor’nin to repair and resupply before journeying into the Sea of Amech region.

While in Eor’nin, they picked up a priest and paladin and became involved in the investigation of a haunting at the local museum of antiquities sponsored by Eor’nin’s king. The haunting was actually from a Hettanar Warlord’s sarcophagus that had somehow become a portal to a mysterious demiplane which abutted with the Far Realm. The adventurers were trapped (sort of) here for sometime before they sealed the portal to the Far Realm and escaped, haunting purged.

The group eventually found their way in the Sea of Amech region, dealt with trollish piracy and captured a trollish war galleon filled with an ancient, evil idol of the mysterious troll god Tsthaqqua. They were close to Carapus at last when they witnessed an island rise from the sea, beckoning with naked elf maidens on its shore. So naturally they dropped anchor and rowed to the mysterious isle.

Here they discovered an ancient island of somehow artificial construction that could submerge at the will of an ancient abolethic demiurge named Seredath. The aboleth had an obsession for kythien elvish women, whom more than a hundred were kept on the island for reasons unknown. While there the adventurers discovered that local ape men and kobolds worshipped two local beast lords, a massive girallon and a giant tyrannosaurus rex. They also encountered the terrible volcanic “fire god,” a volcanic dragon, which the monks smacked down in about eighteen seconds while Captain Salmut lopped its head off.

The group found the crater at the center of the island and an ancient abolethic city within. They had taken refuge inside one of the buildings with the elvish women they sought to rescue when the island submerged once more. Now traveling like a mile wide submersible beneath the Sea of Amech, the group made their way through the maze of the city until they reached what the elvish woman called “The Great Machine.” Aquatic Giants , skum and other evil agents of the aboleth operated this machine that appeared to be powered by the spirits of the elvish women, who were drained like batteries in the machine.

The group tried to get to the center of the machine for sabotage but discovered that it was also apparently a tether to multiple planar rifts, one of which opened up into a fragment of a shattered plane which was once the Great Cog of the Modron of old. They acquired two relic modrons while fighting the corrupted machine-monsters of this planar fragment before making it safely back.

The group reached a point where they had alerted the denizens of the island to their presence, and Seredath’s watchdog, a terrible shoggoth, began pursuit. The group took refuge in a bathysphere which they learned to operate and make a quick escape. Now free of the island, the group found themselves deep beneath the Sea of Amech, near one of many ancient ruins from the pre-deluge era of old.

Finding a cavern within the submerged ruins along a great and ancient mountain, they discovered an ancient hollow that contained what seemed at first to be an ancient monument and tomb to a forgotten king or god. They determined it was a monument, commemorating an ancient victory when the avatar Avokta of the lost war god Vishannu destroyed the ancient lizard man empire of Codam, and imprisoned their dark god Orcus within a demonic soul gem. The group, while battling various evil entities, uncovered the soul gem.

Some time ago the rat captain Salmut had found two weapons. One was a shadow blade that wa tethered to the demiplane of shadow and reflected the ancient spirit of the lost god of that realm named Avarath, slain by the Shadow Pantheon of Unarak who usurped his realm. The other was forged from the bones of chaos gods and was a tether to the Far Realm. It was during this inopportune moment that the ratfolk captain used the blades to forge a portal to the Far Realm where it could not quickly be closed, and the means of getting to that portal was sealed off. This insured that the army of the star-faring Neh-Thagglu brain collectors now had a permanent passage to the earthly realm of Lingusia.

The group also encountered the missing prince while exploring the aquatic hollow, as the prince and his surviving compatriots (including a psionic warrior of great skill) had been delving into the subterranean realm looking for a lost artifact to the god of knowledge, Nistur, whom the prince believed could be revived if one took up the mantle of the artifact and became an avatar of this fallen god from the old empire. Instead, it was revealed to be a trick, and the voice which compelled the prince was that of Orcus and his demonic minions seeking escape. The group fought the demons which manifested with the prince’s possession and also freed the prince momentarily from Orcus’s control.

The group eventually left by way of a teleport established with their tiefling sorcerer on board their still unnamed ship. They resumed their journey to the city of Carapus.

At last reaching Carapus, the group held court with the queen, the ambassador, the prince and the dignitaries of the realm which included the naga of the sunken citadel of the coast, which had now had a tentative alliance with the surface dwellers for a while now. It quickly became problematic as it turned out the prince had engaged in an affair with the queen of Carapus, her daughter, and the naga queen. The warlord naga king took great umbrage at this reveal and challenged them all to a duel, but wa defeated.

The group spent several weeks in Carapus, with the monk Horace staying to found an orphanage in a city that very much needed it. The psionic warrior Galvado began investigating the connections revealed through a series of adventures of mind flayers that belonged to a mysterious Guild of the Spheres and seemed to have gained some trust from them. The other adventurers got embroiled in stopping a slavery ring and the group also earned the ire of a guild of war mages who did not like the influence the group was having on the city political scene.

The naga warlord eventually struck and took the prince hostage in revenge for the prince’s indiscretions, and held him for an outrageous ransom. The group attained underwater spells and journeyed to the sunken city of the naga, where they found a back way in, gained some Locathah allies, and assaulted the inner citadel.


While in the ruinous dungeons beneath the citadel the group accidentally awoke a vampiric priest lord of Set named Ollaram. As it turns out there was a guardian spirit servant of the goddess Phonatas present, an entity which resided there in a ruined shrine to the goddess to suppress the vampiric avatar from awakening. This spirit channeled the essence of the goddess, who made a pact of assistance with the bard Pennywhistle, granting him a divine bowl by which he could commune with her, and ask a favor of her in times of dire need.

Meanwhile, the less scrupulous side of the party found a portal to the Nine Hells in the bowels of the ruins, and somebody thought this was a good time to get rid of the Demonic Soul Gem in which Orcus’s spirit was trapped, so they threw it in. This led to a large explosion and much confusion. The group retreated to the locathah village, where they mended themselves for a day or so.

When they returned to the citadel of the naga, it was clear an undead plague had been unleashed by an Orcus who had been freed from his soul gem. The group eventually found and rescued the prince from a slavering horde of fresh vampires after securing the aid of an ancient reef dragon, and they then made good their escape.

Captain Salmut was asked on his return to Carapus to next investigate a ship which had been wrecked in battle that contained the remains of a powerful ancestor of a local noble. The group also got wind of rumors that the island kingdom of Kadantania was preparing to set sail to attack Carapus in a bid to expand its power base. They opted to pursue the wrecked ship.

The group sailed to the region in question, and along the way were accosted by giant froghemoths that emerged from the Vyrindian Isles. They discovered these beasts had been made by a witch woman who used these transformed sailors from the wreck to guard an ancient temple. The group saved two fo three transformed sailors, the made their way to the coast where they found the wrecked ship.

The ship was surrounded by undead, but they survived. The adventurers found the crate with the remains, but the canopic jars within had been stolen. The sorcerer Jerro took the ornamental rune in silver that protected the crate for a talisman, however.

The tracks led past an ancient half-dome with a tower in the jungle, inside of which an ancient clockwork golem acted as caretaker for a forgotten temple of the old gods. The trolls protected the temple from entry but the adventurers fought their way in. For their reward they were recognized as divine emissaries and allowed to access the lower temple. There, the monk Reyvan communicated with the high god of the old empire’s pantheon, Naril, and learned that the ancient artifact he had come into possession of, a gauntlet-like weapon called the Star of Naril, was the weapon of the chosen avatar of the god, and it would let him find the lost island of Sol’Dranir where Naril’s temple of light could be found. The island had been clouded by agents of the Shadow Pantheon long ago, for the temple of the god of the sun and man was the greatest threat to Unarak and his cronies. Naril’s spirit charged Reyhvan with going to the temple and freeing it from the shadow’s grasp.

They also learned that eastward in the mountains was a great excavation underway by the troll queen, who had stolen the relics of the dead saint-avatar they had been sent to recover. Her vanity led the troll queen to seek out a means to abolish her race’s impurity and seek perfect beauty by use of the saint’s otherworldly power. The adventurers are also charged with recovering these artifacts.

The adventurers entered the second temple of the demiurge of knowledge, Warenos, and successfully petitioned the living demiurge for an audience in the Weirding Realm (the feywild). There they gained access to his copious body of knowledge, and also discovered an agent of Orcus that had been trailing them, a creature that could not hide in the fey realm. After destroying the demon, Warenos provided them with copious advice and urged them to seek out more answers in the domain of the troll queen.

The group left the temple after some more antics, and did indeed proceed to scout out the vast excavation site unearthing the ancient temple of the trolls. They learned several important bits of information, including the fact that lizard men had an encampment there with diplomats seeking to open relations with the troll queen, a weird race of invisible winged monkeys plagued the ratkin captain Salmut, and that most of the labor force were demihuman slaves including humans, orcs, dwarves, some elves and Halflings. The worst news was that the troll queen Sytaria was sacrificing children and Halflings to the dark god Tsathoquaa at the top of the temple each night to perform rituals to improve her beauty (though precisely how much a troll woman could benefit from this was ill defined). She was using the canopic jars of the solar avatar in this deed as well, a heinous act.


The group took action that night, assaulting the height of the temple in a furious battle to free children and Halflings while defeating the troll guards and priests, as well as a massive troll abomination that was the temple guardian. The fight was brutal, but they recovered the jars and captured the queen in the process. Pennywhistle the bard then called upon his gift from the goddess Phonatas, beseeching her to intervene.

The goddess did indeed intervene. It was revealed that the trolls were actually a corrupted fey race of proto-elves from twenty thousand or more years ago, the first of whom had been lured to an ancient pool where the whispering voice of Tsathoquaa came in dreams and tempted them with immortality and power in exchange for undying devotion. When the first Endreti fey accepted this offer, she became a troll, and she was charged with luring or capturing her kin and bringing them to the pool for conversion. Thus did Tsathoquaa create the first endreti trolls. The current troll queen harbored a racial memory of that lost age, being a direct descendent of the first troll queen.

Phonatas channeled holy energy through the spirit of her bardic champion, and purged the temple and the trolls completely of Tsathoquaa’s influence. Within moments the trolls were stricken and carbonized as if burned to cinders, but from their husks emerged the true elf-like endreti fey that existed deep within, lost for eons. The troll kingdom was wiped out in moments. The temple itself was swallowed up by the earth, to insure the Skaeddrath did not awaken.

The adventurers stayed for some time to assist the newborn endreti fey in re-establishing their culture and keeping some control, as their evil and corrupt forms had been utterly purged. The slaves were freed, and efforts to return them to their proper lands enacted. The temple to the west was properly secured and offered to the newfound endreti fey as a place to restore worship of the gods of order. But at last they had to leave, faced with the task of returning the canopic jars of the avatar-saint of Naril.

By now the group had determined that they had a magical sextant and the Star of Naril, two devices that would let them find the shadow-shrouded isle of Sol’Dranir, where the ancient Temple of the Star Mount could be found, the proper resting place of the sun god’s avatars, and the conduit of his ancient power. The Shadow Pantheon had long suppressed the dominion of Naril, and they decided to head to this isle in the northern straights off the lands of Covarte and put this matter to right once and for all.

Along the way they found evidence that the Kadantanian Empire, emboldened by the return of Orcus as their chief deity, were now cutting a swathe of conquering destruction through the Amechian kingdoms. Covarte’s entire naval fleet was decimated, and a surviving ship was found horribly corrupted by demonic necromancy. The group pressed on, avoiding distraction, until they at last arrived at the shadow-shrouded realm of Sol’Dranir, made visible by the use of the magical artifacts.

The group fought off a wave of shadow demons as they transited into the demiplane where the isle had been displaced, and at last made a beachhead on the eastern shores, just south of another ancient temple, this one to Unarak himself. They encountered an expatriate shadow demon who identified himself as a true follower of the old shadow gods Avarath and Penumbros, and he offered to serve as a guide. The group forged their way through the dense, swampy wooded inland toward the great mountain chain at the center of the isle. Along the way they encountered other-dimensional undead demons (devourers) that floated in the woods, and befriended a tribe of indigenous lizard men who had been living here since long before the island was displaced into the realm of shadow. The lizard men had a shaman who said the adventurers’ arrival was prophecied, and that their best hope for penetrating the dangers of the mountains was by traveling under them….

And this is where the campaign currently rests.

To be continued, every other Saturday!

The troll queen before her transformation

The Realms of Chirak: Pathfinder Edition on the way

Just a short note for Saturday: I've resumed development of the Pathfinder edition of The Realms of Chirak. It's about 80% complete right now, and the main hold up since I last worked on this project was finding the time and energy to work on stat blocks for monsters and NPCs in the tome. Right now I have about half of that complete, and all of the incidental conversions (races, locations, feats, items) done. Given that I had a mostly complete 3.5 edition of the Chirak document complete a few years ago pre-4E arrival, this isn't as difficult as it might sound, but making sure its a proper conversion (and not a sloppy port) is the goal here.

Also, I'm taking this opportunity to clean up the editing errors and mistakes that crept through the 4E version of the document (and if there's any peeve you have about the prior edition, let me know so I can fix it, too!) and I am also updating several sections to include new and updated material. The Espanea and Kasdalan sections will get beefed up, for example, and I am debating how much of my copious Sabiri content to expand upon (if I put it all in then Sabiri will show as the single most well-defined section in the book, not that there's anything wrong with that). I am also considering adding in new and expanded content detailing the Xoxtocharit and the regions to the east of the Sea of Chirak area that were completely undetailed in the prior edition.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun to work with Chirak again (I mean, I haven't even run a new scenario or campaign in this setting since late last year!), and I am getting into the spirit of the Pathfinder design process. I have to concede, the Bestiary monster design mechanics in Pathfinder do try hard to make it a bit easier than it was in the 3.5 days (ever so slightly, but even a little bit counts).

With any luck, I'll have the Pathfinder edition out the door sometime in May.

Defense Scores and Alternate Combat Ideas in T&T

Age of Conan Art Found Here


For all the years that I've played T&T, the combat system is the one feature that is both elegant in its ease of use yet infuriating in its effect. In T&T combat at its most basic is very abstracted: each side has a dice pool plus "adds" that are rolled and totalled together and compared to their opponent's total. This can be done individually or as a group. The higher total wins, and the opposition takes damage equal to the difference. Recent editions of T&T added a spite damage rule; natural "6s" rolled always deal 1 point of damage to the opposition, regardless of success or who's got armor. Creatures can also activate certain special powers with enough spite dice in a roll.

The problem I've experienced with the core T&T combat system is that you really only have two normal states the vast majority of the time: one side is about to crush the other, or both sides are about to stalemate and begin a lengthy process of rolling with marginal successes that do little or nothing to either side. In fact, the spite damage rule was one solution to help resolve stalemates and insure that damage on both sides (that actually got through) was reflected. Another rules was to rely on saving throws to perform stunts in combat, potentially deadly maneuvers that let you bypass the attacker's HPT (hit point total, what they roll on dice plus adds) entirely and deliver your own HPT in total. The downside was typically that failing your stunt reversed rolls: taking the ful HPT from the enemy (almost always a fatal result in T&T for squishy PCs).

In 1986 I worked out a combat mechanic that was fairly elaborate by T&T standards, relied on saves as a primary resolution mechanic, and incorporated parries and other features. It was more complex, closer in spirit to Runequest 2 (which I was also into at the time) and not really that suited in retrospect to the core theme of T&T, which is best summed up with the acronym for KISS (keep it simple, stupid).

So as I've been working with T&T again, lately, thinking of ways to have speedy yet more dynamic combat while still making it fun (and avoiding too many instant death scenarios), it occured to me that there might be a way to modify the core T&T combat mechanic in a manner which preserves the process of rolling HPT while also making for more exotic and interesting battles. Basically, T&T needs a Defense Score mechanic.

The Defense Score replaces one's HPT when it comes time to trade blows and see who wins. It works with the current system, substituting only when it comes time to compare attack rolls, and you keep spite damage in this system. You can even keep stunts and maneuvers (and you should!) as still another option for PCs to take advantage of.

The Defense Score is equal to a character's adds plus 1 point per die rolled in battle. This reflect the fact that the character is dodging, parrying and positioning with his or her weapon. The Defense Score also has the Armored Defense, which is the same score above plus armor hits added in (double that for warriors, of course). The normal Defense Score is used when a character's armor is somehow bypassed; the Armored Defense Score is more normal, and is simply a quick way of calculating the total defense that will stop most attacks (since armor hits would do this anyway).

When you engage in combat, this system's chief caveat is that combat must be one-on-one, so it discards group rolls. Everyone rolls separately, although multiple characters can oppose the same defender.

Initiative: In this system, initiative matters, and the GM can decide to let players go in order of SPD scores, or let them roll 2D6+SPD for variable initiative (DARO applies here). You can keep initiative from round to round, or let them re-roll at the start of each turn. I reccommend re-rolling at the start of each turn, as the person who goes first gets an advantage in deciding if they want to add some of their HPT to additional defense. As always, ranged attacks and spells get called first, followed by melee.

Attack: When you roll your attack, you compare it to the defenders Armored Defense (or unarmored if you have an attack that will bypass armor). You can always try for an aimed shot that bypasses armor (see below). If your HPT is higher than your foe's Defense, then all damage dealt (plus any spite damage) is now calculated. Since Total Defense normally includes armor that means you can assume all damage dealt goes straight to your foe's CON score.

Monsters with MRs calculate Defense the same way as adventurers. So an MR 44 orc with 5 dice plus 22 adds has a Total Defense of 27. Note that defense will go down slightly as the monster's dice (but not adds, in 7.5 edition) drop, so if he's reduced to MR 21 his total is now 3 dice plus 22 adds, and his defense is now 25.

Flanking: If you can get a foe in a poor position for defense, such as by flanking him so two or more attackers have him surrounded, then the defender is now at a disadvantage. In such a situation the defender can only rely on his normal (armored) Defense Score and any bonus from HPT must be divided between attackers. Any points from his HPT placed in defense must be applied to one or more of the defenders, distributed until used up. So for example, Mog the troll with MR 80 has 9 dice plus 40 adds and a Defense of 49. He rolls 73 for his HPT on his round, and decides to take 20 of that for defense, leaving his attack at 53; he hits and decimates one foe, but two hobbs slide in and flank him! His 20 point bonus to defense can be applied to one of them, split in half for both, or any combination that totals 20 for purposes of deflecting multiple attacks. He decides to go with a Defense of 64 for the hobb in front and a Defense of 54 for the one in back. This rule reflects the problem of divided attention. Some creatures like hydras and shoggoths may be totally immune to flanking effects, thanks to multiple eyes and limbs to react to flanking foes.

Active Defense: When you roll your HPT, you can choose to allot up to all of it to your defense (which would mean you get no attack), adding it to your total Defense Score. This reflects greater effort to protect yourself in a fight. Creatures can do the same. If you haven't gone for the turn yet, you can't do this; your foe has gotten the drop on you.

Fighting Two or More Opponents: a fighter working against multiple opponents may break his HPT up as he sees fit against multiple foes (Bjorn has 6 dice plus 34 adds, rolls 21, getting a HPT of 55; he's facing off two goblins, so he divides his attack total as 27 and 28 against the two repsectively, for example).

Bypassing Armor: an attacker can try to bypass armor to land a decisive blow. To do so, he needs to make a saving throw on either STR or DEX (GM can determine based on whether the attempt is brute force to cut through armor entirely or finesse to find the exposed chink) vs. a special level based on the Total Defense of the foe. This level is equal to ten divided by the Total Defense, rounded up. So a total defense of 11-20 is a level 2 save; 21-30 is level 3, 31-40 is level 4 and so forth. The idea is that very tough opponents are very difficult nuts to crack. When a character tries to bypass armor this way he can never enhance his Total Defense with HPT, as he is too focused on his strike to devote time to defense.

Fighting With Two Weapons: A character can fight with two weapons. The minimum requirement is a STR and DEX equal to 1.5 times the combined average requirement of both weapons being wielded, and this cannot be done with any weapon that normally requires two hands. Under this system, HPT is rolled as usual, but only adding the characters personal adds once. For example: a character with two weapons, one of which requires STR 9 DEX 11 and the other requires STR 11 and DEX 10 would need a STR 13 and DEX 14 to meet minimum requirements to dual-wield.



Sample Combat

Asterus is a human fighter, level 1, with the following stats: STR 18, DEX 12, CON 15, INT 8, LK 10, SPD 13, CHA 12. He has +7 adds. He fights with a broadsword (3 dice +4 adds) and is wearing leather armor (6 hits, but he's a fighter so he takes 12 with hit). He gets +1 to damage dealt for being a fighter. He has a Total Defense of 26, including his armor.

Marcanos is an orc guard who didn't know he was guarding the wrong tunnel today. He's MR 32, so he rolls 4 dice +16 adds, and a Total Defense of 20. We roll a SPD for him quickly, getting 16....fast bugger!

The GM starts with initiative. Both opponents are aware of each other; Marcanos was sitting back in his chair looking at the latest issue of "Pigpen Quarterly" when he looks up and sees a frothing mad human warrior charging down the tunnel toward him....

Marcanos rolls 2D6, gets a 4 and 4, which adds and rolls over for another 1 and 3, totalling 12 plus his SPD of 16 for a 28 initiative! Asterus rolls a 2 and 5, adding to his SPD of  13 for a 20 initiative....as he closes, he realizes that the orc has had a chance to brace for his charge.....

Marcanos got initiative so he goes first. He's drawn his sword and strikes, rolling a total of 4D6 (getting 6, 6, 5, 4) plus 16, getting a nice HPT of 37. That's two spite damage as well. The human's Total Defense is 26, and he didn't have time to add to his defense, so Marcanos just dealt a telling blow that cuts through armor for 8 total damage (6 plus the 2 spite damage). Asterus now has a CON of 7 and is hurting.

Asterus retaliates. He realizes his frothing madman act didn't cow the orc so he goes for a quick, decisive killing blow, rolling his 3 dice (3, 5, 5) plus 12 adds for a 27 HPT. Marcanos was so busy trying to attack his foe he didn't bother to add to his defense, so his Total Defense is only 20. 7 points of damage get through, reducing the orc's MR to 25 (which reduces his dice+adds to 3+16 and his Defense is now 19). He backs off, a series of vicious cuts stabing through his thick orcish hide.

The two warriors circle one another, ready to strike once more....round two! This time Asterus gets a 6+6 on his initiative, which adds and rolls over (rule of TARO) for a 4 and 5, totalling an initiative of 34. The orc rolls 3 and 4, totalling initiative 23. Asterus lunges in!

Asterus goes all out, no extra defense. He rolls his 3 dice (5, 2, 1) and gets a HPT of 20. The orc can't parry but this attack only barely penetrates his thick hide and his passive defense, dealing 1 point of damage. Marcanos now has a MR of 24.

Marcanos retaliates, rolling his 3 dice (since he's now wounded) for a 5, 4, 6. His HPT is 31, a clear hard strike! Apparently as Asterus lunged in with a glancing blow Marcanos got lucky and a decisive blow to the stomach impaled the human, who takes 5 more damage plus 1 spite damage. Asterus only has 1 CON left, and he's bleeding like a stuck pig.

Asterus realizes he's in deep, and may not live through the next exchange. He decides to go all out, sacrificing his defense for a crippling strike that shatters the orcs defenses. The GM lets out a weary sigh and says sure, but let's roll inititive first...

Marcanos rolls 6 and 3 for initiative, toalling 22. The orc rolls 2 and 4 for initiative, totalling 22.... A tie! They act simultaneously.

Asterus attempts to bypass armor, and needs to make a level 2 save on STR (for the orc's 19 defense). This technically means he needs a 7 or better on 2D6, since he's pretty strong. He rolls a 4 and a 3...success!!!! He immediately delivers his full HPT to the orc, rolling 3D6 plus 12 for a total of 24. The orc reels....an dies! But not before getting his own blow in, as they acted on the same round. The orc delivers a wopping 6, 6, and 2 plus his 16 adds for a total of 30 HPT and 2 spite damage. That's 6 more damage that Asterus takes even as he drops the orc....Asterus is only exhuberant in his triumph long enough to realize that the orc has gutted him at the same time that he laid the monster low. They both slump down together in death.

A few hours later a gang of kobolds running a Rat on a Stick Kiosk arrive on the scene and realize that the only thing better than tasty rat on a stick is Mystery Meat on a Stick....




Next Week: A New Sandbox Campaign Setting for Tunnels & Trolls, Tales from the Watchers of the Sullen Vigil


All contents except artwork are Copyright 2012 by Nicholas Torbin Bergquist, all rights reserved. Tunnels & Trolls is trademarked and copyrighted by Ken St. Andre and produced by Flying buffalo.