Showing posts with label adventures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventures. Show all posts
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
This Took 15 Minutes. Try it.
The Land Of Xai
(assuming PCs sail the shortest route)
Day one
Dead calm sea (lose a day of movement)
Day two
Aquatic elf
Day three
Sealizard
Day four
Dead calm sea (lose a day of movement)
Day five
A medium-sized passing ship is sighted. What is it?
5 weird pirates (6th level) but accompanied by 8 crowmen.
Day six
Stranglekelp
Day seven
Clouds form and skies darken
Day eight
Bad weather--Make 8 control or piloting rolls to avoid damage to the ship. Failure results in...
Something caught in the rudder--someone needs to climb down there and get it. There are dire sharks.
(you land)
A crumbling aqueduct.
Ruin of an old castle.
Hill -- you can see 8 miles in every direction...
A vast dry sea, now a plain composed of fused fish bones, in the middle the source of this death
The Temple of the Bitter God (surrounded by mist)
A snake infested temple of an obscure faith based on the worship of burn victims
At first, the PCs will see eight towers. Each has about 4 defenders visible (there are actually 32 defenders total) and about 1 will arrive per round in the case of an alarm. Most of these devildwarves are cloned and are mounted on panthers. The outer walls are 12 feet tall and the towers extend 5 feet above them.
*Due to the condition of the walls, climb checks are at minus four.
*The lowest windows are 9 feet up.
*The initial volley from the towers in case of an unexpected attack will be crossbow fire. The second volley in case of a siege, an anticipated attack, or a small but persistent raiding party (like a bunch of PCs) will consist of flaming arrows or bolts.
*Additional security measures include:
A moat 100 feet across and a 48 foot curving causeway across it. A gatehouse with inner portcullises that cut off the gatehouse at both ends. A winding staircase 80 feet long in front of the front gate. A series of secondary walls--25 feet tall. There are 7 inner towers.
*Also:
This is a desolate area. The garrison is low on supplies. May trade or run outta arrows
It is ruled by two wizards...
The Butcher of Brides
male wizard (-Lvl 10-) Str: 11 Dex: 11 Int: 12 Wis: 9 Con: 10 Cha: 3
(Charisma 3? Wow. No wonder he lives in a lonely temple surrounded by devildwarves.)
Ferret. He has a ferret. Satine's dead PCs ferret(?).
The Numinous Conqueror of the Labyrinth
male mage (-Lvl 13-) Str: 12 Dex: 9 Int: 14 Wis: 9 Con: 10 Cha: 6
plays war games using miniaturized diseases
Their spell pool includes:
-New And Disturbing Limb, Otto's Irresistible Dance, Yoink! (one object transferred from target to caster)
Inside is The Blind Chamber, a maze:
Exits (clockwise from North) First exit: Accidentally/organically "trapped"--the architecture falls apart in a dangerous way when you attempt to open this door. Because recent fighting in the complex has fucked it up. Second exit:Doorless archway.
Inside: a cyclops and also: a scythe
and:
Annoying Knox Harrington-esque visitor (female sage) who just happens to be there when intruders show up (if they came in via b&e then assume the visitor's unconscious on the sofa or something) and who assumes the PCs are friends, family or employees of the homeowner and generally behaves like a hilarious rube to the best of the DMs ability.
Treasure:
a narwhal horn smoking pipe
a copper armband, inlaid with medium scorpion chitin.
This adventure courtesy of these Abulafia tables:
Sunday, November 6, 2011
I only killed one PC with this dungeon. Your turn...
Here kids, have a system-agnostic dungeon. This is the one the girls just escaped...
(Believe it or not, the obvious-if-you-just-look-at-the-map cunnilingual motif was an accident produced by randomly rolling monsters...)
Cathedral Of All Flesh Notes & Stats
This is an abandoned stone cathedral on a hill overlooking the edge of the rugged and inhospitable area known as The Bleak.
It is shaped like four enormous, many-eyed goats leaning together like sticks in a campfire, struggling toward the sky. The exterior is pitted and cracked.
Roughly rectangular rooms have been carved inside into what appears to be solid rock. There are no windows. The cathedral was built by devotees of Tittivila, Goddess of All Flesh before the church of the Insect God drove them from the Hackleth Isles during the War of Golems. The Insect Priests who dominate Hakleth have declared it a forbidden place.
Its appearance is so terrible that no-one who can see it clearly can approach within 30 yards--as such, it can only be approached blindly or at night.
A corrupt Tittivilan cult from the East--lead by the insane cleric, Pearl Viper, uses the Cathedral as a secret meeting place.
Each night of winter, she summons the Orth--an inscrutable extradimensional creature--into a sacred circle on the roof of the Cathedral and commands it to slay random inhabitants of Hakleth in the night. She is accompanied by her servant, Otto, an illusionist. The ritual begins each night at sundown and goes until to midnight, at which point the Orth is summoned and begins to seek victims.
The local authorities have installed a sentinel in a small watchtower--30' high--a few hundred yards from the hill, to keep an eye on both the Cathedral and the pass out of The Bleak. The sentinel is dutiful and carries a small telescope.
The cathedral is rumored to contain fabulous wealth. Also, naturalist Myria Essik of the Isle of Oth is offering 12000 gp to any party who can bring the Orth back to her alive and 4000 gp to anyone who can bring all of it back dead.
Plying the locals for information will reveal most of these things and uncover a rumor that one man claims to have driven if off with fire and another claims it was invulnerable to fire.
The adventure as written is suitable for a party of 3-5 adventurers levels 2-4, however it is easily scalable-there's no particular reason the foes couldn't be made more or less powerful.
-If a party should enter the Cathedral, be noticed, and then retreat, Viper will send Otto to follow them--and kill them if necessary. She will also then hire six mercenaries to protect her for the next week--five will attempt to seize control of the watchtower and one will roam the cathedral while she performs her rites each night.
-Note disabling the trap in room 17 requires simultaneously flipping the switches in rooms 10 and 4.
-Assume all nonhuman creatures attack and fight as typical fighters of a level equal to their hit dice. Any details not given here can be made up by the DM--for example how much of Pearl Viper's armor class is down to her talisman.
Orth (A tentacled thing from beyond) HD: 14 AC: 18 or 2 Speed: 3/4 human Intelligence: Animal
Attack: 5 tentacle attacks for d8 each. An unmodified "to hit" roll of 17 or above indicates the target is grappled and can be automatically bitten by the central maw for d8 points of damage the next round unless the target makes a successful escape roll on his or her next turn (using whatever your local mechanic for that is--assume the Orth's strength is 16 per tentacle).
Defense: All forms of attack damage the Orth, but the Orth will always be immune to the last form of attack it was successfully hurt with. For example: if it is attacked with steel, it will be hurt but then be immune to steel until it is attacked with (say) fire, in which case it will once again be vulnerable to steel but invulnerable to flame.
Pearl Viper (Cleric, level 6) HD: 6 AC: 19 or 1 (magic talisman + dexterity) Speed: human Intelligence: 15
Attack: Spiked chain for d6 or by spell. Her unusual spells include:
Choking Garment-Single target's clothes begin to choke him/her for d8 damage per round. Strength roll required to tear off collar. No save. Range: 20'
Defense:
-Prismatic Denial -Caster becomes immune to attack from anything of a chosen color and anyone wearing that color. Only one Prismatic Denial may be in effect on a given caster at any time.
-Runic Prisoner-Range: 20' Area of effect: 15' diameter circle Save allowed. Prevents targets from performing whatever their last action was until caster is slain. Attacking with an axe is considered different from attacking with a sword, for example, but running north is considered the same as running south. DMs judgment is required here.
-Note: Once per day, Viper may teleport without error within 200 feet by emerging from a shadow and then he may disappear into the same shadow and return from whence she came the next round after taking one action. You may fill the rest of her spell list with the number of spells appropriate to a cleric of her level in your system.
Otto (Wizard/Illusionist, level 5) HD: 5 AC: 17 or 3 (dex) Speed: human Intelligence: 16
Attack and defense: To keep things simple, just assume Otto has 2 spells, each of which he has prepared 3 times-- One allows him to create illusions that affect one person within 40' who saves at minus 2 and one that allows him to create illusions that affect everyone within a 40' radius--all of whom get an ordinary save. The illusions have visual and auditory components but he must save to maintain them if he takes damage. If you know your illusion rules backward and forward you can have the spells behave as they should in your system, if you don't assume, they otherwise behave as above and make judgment calls.
Lingua Necrotica (or Plague Tongues--rotting pale creatures 3-4 feet tall) HD: 3 AC: 16 or 4 Speed: human Intelligence: non-
Attack: Their touch does d4 damage and (failing a save) transmits an unspeakable disease. This malady causes the sufferer to be seized with the desire to lick the nearest living being. A successful grapple causes a network of thin yellow filaments to spouts from the sufferer's skin, attaching the plague victim to the unfortunate target of his or her affections. If left unbroken, these growths will eventually grow together into a viscid cocoon connecting and entombing both parties and transforming them--over the course of days--into a new cohort of lingua.
Clockwork Needlebirds (Small brass birds with syringes for heads) HD: 1 AC:15 or 5 Speed: 1.25 x human Intelligence: Animal
Attack: A successful "beak" attack does d4-1 damage and puts the target to sleep for d6 rounds if they fail to save. There is only enough juice for one full attack per bird. Subsequent attacks only do damage.
The Hive Demon (A creature entombed in ages past by the Insect Cult, to be awoken should the Cult of All Flesh return to the temple), if awoken, should be rolled on this table: http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/demonic-attribute-table.html The DM may roll this creature in advance but I recommend having a player roll during the game (to watch the creature take shape). The DM should keep the results of the ability rolls secret. Otherwise the creature should have the following stats:
HD: 12 AC: 0 or 20 Speed: human intelligence: 17
It will be wreathed in a halo of flies. It will be attempt to slay any living thing in its path other than a cleric of the Insect Cult.
Mercenaries (Hired by Pearl Viper if she becomes aware of the PCs-they are Level 4) HD: 4 AC: 18 or 2 (splint mail, shield, high dex) Speed: human Intelligence: 10
Attack: light crossbow, net or longsword
(Believe it or not, the obvious-if-you-just-look-at-the-map cunnilingual motif was an accident produced by randomly rolling monsters...)
Cathedral Of All Flesh Notes & Stats
This is an abandoned stone cathedral on a hill overlooking the edge of the rugged and inhospitable area known as The Bleak.
It is shaped like four enormous, many-eyed goats leaning together like sticks in a campfire, struggling toward the sky. The exterior is pitted and cracked.
Roughly rectangular rooms have been carved inside into what appears to be solid rock. There are no windows. The cathedral was built by devotees of Tittivila, Goddess of All Flesh before the church of the Insect God drove them from the Hackleth Isles during the War of Golems. The Insect Priests who dominate Hakleth have declared it a forbidden place.
Its appearance is so terrible that no-one who can see it clearly can approach within 30 yards--as such, it can only be approached blindly or at night.
A corrupt Tittivilan cult from the East--lead by the insane cleric, Pearl Viper, uses the Cathedral as a secret meeting place.
Each night of winter, she summons the Orth--an inscrutable extradimensional creature--into a sacred circle on the roof of the Cathedral and commands it to slay random inhabitants of Hakleth in the night. She is accompanied by her servant, Otto, an illusionist. The ritual begins each night at sundown and goes until to midnight, at which point the Orth is summoned and begins to seek victims.
The local authorities have installed a sentinel in a small watchtower--30' high--a few hundred yards from the hill, to keep an eye on both the Cathedral and the pass out of The Bleak. The sentinel is dutiful and carries a small telescope.
The cathedral is rumored to contain fabulous wealth. Also, naturalist Myria Essik of the Isle of Oth is offering 12000 gp to any party who can bring the Orth back to her alive and 4000 gp to anyone who can bring all of it back dead.
Plying the locals for information will reveal most of these things and uncover a rumor that one man claims to have driven if off with fire and another claims it was invulnerable to fire.
The adventure as written is suitable for a party of 3-5 adventurers levels 2-4, however it is easily scalable-there's no particular reason the foes couldn't be made more or less powerful.
-If a party should enter the Cathedral, be noticed, and then retreat, Viper will send Otto to follow them--and kill them if necessary. She will also then hire six mercenaries to protect her for the next week--five will attempt to seize control of the watchtower and one will roam the cathedral while she performs her rites each night.
-Note disabling the trap in room 17 requires simultaneously flipping the switches in rooms 10 and 4.
-Assume all nonhuman creatures attack and fight as typical fighters of a level equal to their hit dice. Any details not given here can be made up by the DM--for example how much of Pearl Viper's armor class is down to her talisman.
Orth (A tentacled thing from beyond) HD: 14 AC: 18 or 2 Speed: 3/4 human Intelligence: Animal
Attack: 5 tentacle attacks for d8 each. An unmodified "to hit" roll of 17 or above indicates the target is grappled and can be automatically bitten by the central maw for d8 points of damage the next round unless the target makes a successful escape roll on his or her next turn (using whatever your local mechanic for that is--assume the Orth's strength is 16 per tentacle).
Defense: All forms of attack damage the Orth, but the Orth will always be immune to the last form of attack it was successfully hurt with. For example: if it is attacked with steel, it will be hurt but then be immune to steel until it is attacked with (say) fire, in which case it will once again be vulnerable to steel but invulnerable to flame.
Pearl Viper (Cleric, level 6) HD: 6 AC: 19 or 1 (magic talisman + dexterity) Speed: human Intelligence: 15
Attack: Spiked chain for d6 or by spell. Her unusual spells include:
Choking Garment-Single target's clothes begin to choke him/her for d8 damage per round. Strength roll required to tear off collar. No save. Range: 20'
Defense:
-Prismatic Denial -Caster becomes immune to attack from anything of a chosen color and anyone wearing that color. Only one Prismatic Denial may be in effect on a given caster at any time.
-Runic Prisoner-Range: 20' Area of effect: 15' diameter circle Save allowed. Prevents targets from performing whatever their last action was until caster is slain. Attacking with an axe is considered different from attacking with a sword, for example, but running north is considered the same as running south. DMs judgment is required here.
-Note: Once per day, Viper may teleport without error within 200 feet by emerging from a shadow and then he may disappear into the same shadow and return from whence she came the next round after taking one action. You may fill the rest of her spell list with the number of spells appropriate to a cleric of her level in your system.
Otto (Wizard/Illusionist, level 5) HD: 5 AC: 17 or 3 (dex) Speed: human Intelligence: 16
Attack and defense: To keep things simple, just assume Otto has 2 spells, each of which he has prepared 3 times-- One allows him to create illusions that affect one person within 40' who saves at minus 2 and one that allows him to create illusions that affect everyone within a 40' radius--all of whom get an ordinary save. The illusions have visual and auditory components but he must save to maintain them if he takes damage. If you know your illusion rules backward and forward you can have the spells behave as they should in your system, if you don't assume, they otherwise behave as above and make judgment calls.
Lingua Necrotica (or Plague Tongues--rotting pale creatures 3-4 feet tall) HD: 3 AC: 16 or 4 Speed: human Intelligence: non-
Attack: Their touch does d4 damage and (failing a save) transmits an unspeakable disease. This malady causes the sufferer to be seized with the desire to lick the nearest living being. A successful grapple causes a network of thin yellow filaments to spouts from the sufferer's skin, attaching the plague victim to the unfortunate target of his or her affections. If left unbroken, these growths will eventually grow together into a viscid cocoon connecting and entombing both parties and transforming them--over the course of days--into a new cohort of lingua.
Clockwork Needlebirds (Small brass birds with syringes for heads) HD: 1 AC:15 or 5 Speed: 1.25 x human Intelligence: Animal
Attack: A successful "beak" attack does d4-1 damage and puts the target to sleep for d6 rounds if they fail to save. There is only enough juice for one full attack per bird. Subsequent attacks only do damage.
The Hive Demon (A creature entombed in ages past by the Insect Cult, to be awoken should the Cult of All Flesh return to the temple), if awoken, should be rolled on this table: http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/09/demonic-attribute-table.html The DM may roll this creature in advance but I recommend having a player roll during the game (to watch the creature take shape). The DM should keep the results of the ability rolls secret. Otherwise the creature should have the following stats:
HD: 12 AC: 0 or 20 Speed: human intelligence: 17
It will be wreathed in a halo of flies. It will be attempt to slay any living thing in its path other than a cleric of the Insect Cult.
Mercenaries (Hired by Pearl Viper if she becomes aware of the PCs-they are Level 4) HD: 4 AC: 18 or 2 (splint mail, shield, high dex) Speed: human Intelligence: 10
Attack: light crossbow, net or longsword
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Caves of Chaos Is A One-Page Dungeon
Click to enlarge.Don't get your suspenders twisted, copyright holder of record, this is just for educational purposes...
Y'all know how much I despise inefficiency. So I did this experiment to see exactly how much of the Caves of Chaos from the "classic" (translation: old) module Keep On The Borderlands I could fit on the map.
Answer: most of it.
The numbers refer to the number of each humanoid faction in that room--the color code on the right tells you which kind of monster it is.
If you've read the module even once, you can pretty much run any encounter in the caves using just this and the monster stats up to the point where the PCs start looting the dead (treasure is not listed).
Rooms where the room key gives some information not already on the map that's relevant in a fight are marked with a *. (Though generally this is not a lot of information--most of it is about as long as the notes that are written out in the margins of the map--"Gelatinous cube attacks if PCs are in room for more than 3 rnds and has treasure inside it" etc.. I just chose details that I could make fit.)
Room descriptions are obviously missing, but if you have any familiarity with the monsters involved you can pretty much make those up--there's a ton of filthy slimy guard rooms, the ones
with lots of guys in them are the common rooms and the ones with the bosses in them are fancy by local standards. The "independent" monsters live in bone strewn caves--shocking, I know. And if you can't figure out how to describe what the rooms where the evil priests and skeletons and altars over on the left look like, you should probably hang up your DMspurs forever.
One thing I forgot: locked doors. It'd be pretty easy to add a little "locked door" symbol to the map, though. If you have a spare half hour to scan the module and pop some on, I'm sure someone somewhere will be grateful.
(Another mistake I just noticed--for clarity's sake, the "orc head" note on the upper right should technically be orange, not red, but my screen's all screwy so I didn't notice 'til just now.)
Anyway, if I can do this in an hour-and-a-half using only the graphics program that came free with my mac to a dungeon that wasn't even designed to be "coded", the big companies should be able to get way more out of someone with, say, an actual graphic-design program and actual graphic-design degree and 8 whole hours to kill.
So remember: If you ever find yourself flipping back and forth when running a module even if it has absolutely nothing weird or complicated in it, it's because they're lazy.
It's Been 30 Years, They Still Haven't Done It. I Guess I Will.
Click to enlarge.(Unless you're running a PC in a "Keep On The Borderlands" campaign)
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Attempt To List & Employ All The Random Tables I Like
Random tables I use (New ones will be added to this post as they come up. ).
-This guy does a new d12 table every day, I'm not going to list them all but I am going to call him awesome
-Random busted goblin machine
-Assignment Generator
-Secret Santicore (incl. mutations, secret doors, traps, bandits, merchants, etc.)
-Dead humanoid's pockets
-Weird city encounters
-Creepy witch spells
-Dungeon origins
-Bizarre urban locations
-Wizard obsessions
-10 potions
-Potion mishaps
-Men at arms
-d30 Scrap Princess Mutations
-100 More of those
-Random islands
-Hex dressing
-Random Castle Shenanigans
-What are the wandering monsters up to?
-What are the goblins up to?
-Carcosa situations
-Magic Candles
-Magic Ropes
-Peddlers of the Deep Dark
-Chaos Patrons
-Creepy combat commentary
-Dungeon Motivation
-The D30 tables
-There are several we gave Gary Gygax for his birthday
-Elf village traits
-Original Warhammer Realms of Chaos Mutation Table
-Hack Vornheim Contest Winners: including Random Tavern Entertainment, What's in That Grave, Random Criminals , Rival Adventuring Parties, Creepy Idol, The Theater Amphisbaena and Rural Inn Tavern
-The Too-Many-Too-List-Here Fruits of My Own Unfortunate Addiction Now Handily Grouped Under One Tag
-C's awesome Tricks, Empty Rooms and Basic Trap Design
-100 Reasons PCs are together
-Mutant Future Gear
-Random level 1 gear
New:
-Random nonmagic scrolls
-Telecanter's 20 Random potions w/identifying details
______
So my PCs are sailing south toward the Goblin Empire. I am going to try to use as many of the random tables here as I can to figure out what will happen once they arrive there.
What I actually roll for my PCs next session will be in white so they don't espy upon it. Highlight it to see what I'm planning...
-Random islands
This'll be..roll roll...on an island with an old mine. I hate mines (in games--in real life I knew miners so I got to play in them as a kid and actually loved them. Whole other story.). But hey:
-gotta start somewhere, and
-it is, I'm told, dark as a dungeon down in the mine. Which is a start.
-Hex dressing
...in an area marked by a boulder with a face carved or naturally in it.
-Random Castle Shenanigans
...the castle has a strong ally--another house? a creature? wizard?
More to the point: there's a castle.
-What are the wandering monsters up to?
When the PCs arrive, monsters are returning to their lair with treasure
-What are the goblins up to?
This is the Goblin Empire after all...they arrrrre...
"Playing tenpins with a skull and some legbones."
So: oblivious to the goings-on of the wandering monsters.
-Carcosa situations
"At least half of the village is ill to some degree or another. Rumours abound that someone has been poisoning the well." This would be the goblins worrying.
-Magic Candles
Glory Glow (30'R, 4 turns)- each of these candles is tied to an alignment. All within the radius of the candle light of the same alignment are +2 to saving throws and attack rolls.
This treasure will show up. I'm gonna say allegiance to the same cause or god since I don't use alignment...
-Magic Ropes
More treasure:
"Weightless Rope: this rope simply has no weight of note (1 coins worth), a man could manage 500 feet of it before the volume of the rope becomes too unwieldy."
-Peddlers of the Deep Dark
This guy's down in the mine...oh a pair of peddlers: gnome(reroll fuck that) human (what are humans doing here?). The haulers of the stuff are albino cave-bronts, they have a magic candle (oh, that's where that came from) and glow grubs
-Chaos Patrons
This'll be for the owner of the castle. And the patron is the powerful ally...
follows Mabelode the Faceless (ah, thus the disturbing faceless face carved into the rock), Chaos gift: "Rise, my servant!" - The next time the character is reduced to 10% of his hit point total, all his hit points are immediately restored. Albino -4 con. Ok, so we have to figure out a way this isn't Elric.
-Creepy combat commentary
During combat this chaos-worshipping albino is....
A self-cheerleader: says "you can do it, there a lot of them but your poison will take care of that" and things like that. "Worry not, The Lord Who Has No Face will smite them all in the end!"
-Dungeon Motivation
"Family member of PC afflicted with disease that can only be cured with the waters from a sacred subterranean spring."
Which makes sense, as the PCs are delivering a family member to the goblins.
-The D30 tables...
This is from the city events table:
"The army/navy needs soldiers/sailors. Pressed into short term duty." Basically: the goblins are assaulting the chaos-worshipping albino. They need help.
-There are several we gave Gary Gygax for his birthday
This is one for finding the origin of wizards...
Created using fire and the bodies of d20 children who were sacrificed explicitly for the purpose. Found magic item of clothing via sheer luck.
And one for elementals, so the villain has a pal...
oversized ice/water elemental--intelligent and curious
-Elf village traits
Assume goblin civilization is built on the ruins of an elf civilization:
"Bomb shelter type bunker, actual village destroyed by orcs forty or fifty years ago, new village blueprint still under review by planning committee"
In the mean time, goblins moved in. The albino elf came above ground (from the mine) and instead of telling the other elves their home had been stolen, just established some kinda Chaos-worshipping tyranny over the goblins.
-Original Warhammer Realms of Chaos Mutation Table
Half brain-leaf plant. Ok a brain-leaf plant is a plant that makes you a zombie. In D&D that ecological niche is filled by the Yellow Musk Creeper zombie, and here in my campaign it is filled by the Violet Leopard Orchid Zombie. Which explains why our albino elf abandoned his or her fellows: s/he's half zombie creeping vine monster and probably turned them all into orchid zombies by now.
Now according to the table above they are returning to their lair with treasure. What treasure?
-Hack Vornheim Contest Winners: including Random Tavern Entertainment, What's in That Grave, Random Criminals , Rival Adventuring Parties, Creepy Idol, The Theater Amphisbaena and Rural Inn Tavern
So, in the plague-blighted goblin town beneath Faceless Rock...
A bard troupe retells PCs previous exploits, in...
The inn of the Yellow Dog (not "Hound"--I renamed it after a German grindcore label). The food is amazingly good, due to the fact that the cook is a captured fae creature. It will plead for rescue (removal of iron horseshoe over kitchen door) through messages in marbled fat on meat, steam rising from stew, etc.
PCs (especially Elves/Magic Users) are attacked by vicious bedbugs in their sleep. These will inflict 1 damage every third round, ignoring armor & clothing. Observant PCs will note a trail of them leading to the innkeeper’s room. If they force the door, they will discover the innkeeper lying in bed, his eyes glazed over, a stream of bedbugs scuttling in & out of his mouth.
A group of travelling players are putting on a performance in the village square, costumed as the PCs. They are performing an episode from their adventures, though misrepresented. If the deed was noble and valorous, it is depicted as treacherous , cowardly, and bloodthirsty, and vice-versa.
(This makes sense, the PCs fended some goblin pirates on the way here, no doubt the pirates have been sailing home claiming to have been attacked by hideous human witches.)
We have, Tuan The Forsaken whose brain's in a glass case, who is an extorter.
(His racket today is actually more just blackmail: he knows who the PCs are and will tell the fellow goblins if they don't pay up.)
A coffin is filled with blood and puss. Spills out onto players and starts to burn. (ummm...chaos magic, I guess)
There is a competing adventuring party in the form of: The Progeny of Lorbis Vul. Core members consist of 4-6 vat-grown male and female humanoids, with skin dyed in a range of colors from sky blue to Vermillion, and marked on their foreheads with a seemingly random number from III – XXV. They are physically perfect, athletic specimens except for one glaring, disturbing flaw on their respective arms. Not readily apparent. They are seeking the whereabouts of Lorbis Vul, a notorious sorcerer. For now, they pay their way by adventuring. in possession of an enchanted object or talisman, not readily apparent as such.
Other events in the Yellow Dog:
Satireveritas escapes.
Satirevertias is "a giant amphisbaena greets guests from a gilded cage, twin heads bantering suavely sibilant evil with a voice like wasp stings in honey. Their palindromic name is Satireveritas and they adore gossip and scandal – learning it, spreading it, instigating it. The serpent’s other priorities are general mischief and the seduction of beautiful women. Its not unpleasant musk pervades the room."
Daytime: auditions (for future goblin entertainments)
Nightime: "The Wise Man’s Journey To Hell"
Random NPC there: Mullen Poag, Stagehand/Roustabout
Agent of rival theatre here to spy and sabotage. (Of course PCs will think he's an agent of The Faceless Lord.)
Creepy idol (worshipped by our villain): limbless female torso w/severed phalluses giving birth to monsters. it gives birth to monsters once every 20 days, contains evil genie 2 wishes remain.
-The Too-Many-Too-List-Here Fruits of My Own Unfortunate Addiction Now Handily Grouped Under One Tag
Also:
d4 Othuagg baboons (drugged, dyed, crazed babboons used as shock troops by goblins) (+1d6 goblins) eating tiger fly scouts
Intercepted letter: To my most clever and unfortunate friend, Lord Vortullak of Spine, I send greetings from both myself and from your hilarious mother. This past season has been no doubt, a black joke perpetrated on this family by the omnipotent author of all things. I trust you received the map I sent earlier, for otherwise you would be entirely unable to read the words I now set down. Though I am indeed made weary by the strain of maintaining this deception, I see the necessity in it, as, I am certain, do you. You must destroy the four lunatics in Orgus Waarg. To do otherwise is to risk what little you have left. Your most humble servant, Natasha
P.S. Before this is over, I will have what's rightfully mine, no matter what you've been told.
(Question: is the villain this "Natasha" or is it "Lord Vortullak"? Let's assume the lunatics are the PCs and Orgus Waarg is the name of the town. This means Lord Vortullak is the villain and this mysterious Natasha is either off-screen or the name of the limbless idol he worships.)
No security measure per se, but the only valuables in the house appear to be in the bedroom along with a young and attractive NPC who's tied up and gagged. Sophisticated PCs may realize that s/he's not necessarily a prisoner.
(um..ok, Zak, whatever you say)
Villain characteristics: Aura of silence, Murders mice and eats them.
Ok, so Lord Vortullak sits there eating mice all day. And he--and all his orchid zombies--project an aura of silence. I really like that--the pale undead straggle forward and crack your bones and eat your brains all without making a sound. That's obviously how leopard orchid zombies work I guess.
Hex describing table tells me:
Weird landscape, damaged city, intelligent monsters, light rain, humans want help from PCs, anarchy, goblins, they speak in iambic triameter. "When I insult the king, The frogs erupt in song"
Random treasure: Level 8 spell scroll (Drunk reversal--no save). Small carved figurine or chess piece of one of the PCs, precise in every detail, 25-28mm tall. Purpose unknown. Actually the figurine is a spell scroll and it is the artifact the rival adventuring party carries.
A corpse:
Major local importer. Trade is all screwy until the power struggle to replace him/her is over--everything costs 3 times as much locally. (this is the blood and pus filled coffin. Obviously this death was not natural.)
An npc:
helpful frightened likes fried food --an herbalist. Probably the sneaky stage hand spy.
So, altogether: sick goblin village and PC's relative, plagued by silent undead revenge elves and chaos magic sent by a mouse-eating albino elf villain while beneath the faceless rock a tavern below boils over with escaped snakes and friendly spies.
-Assignment Generator
-Secret Santicore (incl. mutations, secret doors, traps, bandits, merchants, etc.)
-Dead humanoid's pockets
-Weird city encounters
-Creepy witch spells
-Dungeon origins
-Bizarre urban locations
-Wizard obsessions
-10 potions
-Potion mishaps
-Men at arms
-d30 Scrap Princess Mutations
-100 More of those
-Random islands
-Hex dressing
-Random Castle Shenanigans
-What are the wandering monsters up to?
-What are the goblins up to?
-Carcosa situations
-Magic Candles
-Magic Ropes
-Peddlers of the Deep Dark
-Chaos Patrons
-Creepy combat commentary
-Dungeon Motivation
-The D30 tables
-There are several we gave Gary Gygax for his birthday
-Elf village traits
-Original Warhammer Realms of Chaos Mutation Table
-Hack Vornheim Contest Winners: including Random Tavern Entertainment, What's in That Grave, Random Criminals , Rival Adventuring Parties, Creepy Idol, The Theater Amphisbaena and Rural Inn Tavern
-The Too-Many-Too-List-Here Fruits of My Own Unfortunate Addiction Now Handily Grouped Under One Tag
-C's awesome Tricks, Empty Rooms and Basic Trap Design
-100 Reasons PCs are together
-Mutant Future Gear
-Random level 1 gear
New:
-Random nonmagic scrolls
-Telecanter's 20 Random potions w/identifying details
______
So my PCs are sailing south toward the Goblin Empire. I am going to try to use as many of the random tables here as I can to figure out what will happen once they arrive there.
What I actually roll for my PCs next session will be in white so they don't espy upon it. Highlight it to see what I'm planning...
-Random islands
This'll be..roll roll...on an island with an old mine. I hate mines (in games--in real life I knew miners so I got to play in them as a kid and actually loved them. Whole other story.). But hey:
-gotta start somewhere, and
-it is, I'm told, dark as a dungeon down in the mine. Which is a start.
-Hex dressing
...in an area marked by a boulder with a face carved or naturally in it.
-Random Castle Shenanigans
...the castle has a strong ally--another house? a creature? wizard?
More to the point: there's a castle.
-What are the wandering monsters up to?
When the PCs arrive, monsters are returning to their lair with treasure
-What are the goblins up to?
This is the Goblin Empire after all...they arrrrre...
"Playing tenpins with a skull and some legbones."
So: oblivious to the goings-on of the wandering monsters.
-Carcosa situations
"At least half of the village is ill to some degree or another. Rumours abound that someone has been poisoning the well." This would be the goblins worrying.
-Magic Candles
Glory Glow (30'R, 4 turns)- each of these candles is tied to an alignment. All within the radius of the candle light of the same alignment are +2 to saving throws and attack rolls.
This treasure will show up. I'm gonna say allegiance to the same cause or god since I don't use alignment...
-Magic Ropes
More treasure:
"Weightless Rope: this rope simply has no weight of note (1 coins worth), a man could manage 500 feet of it before the volume of the rope becomes too unwieldy."
-Peddlers of the Deep Dark
This guy's down in the mine...oh a pair of peddlers: gnome(reroll fuck that) human (what are humans doing here?). The haulers of the stuff are albino cave-bronts, they have a magic candle (oh, that's where that came from) and glow grubs
-Chaos Patrons
This'll be for the owner of the castle. And the patron is the powerful ally...
follows Mabelode the Faceless (ah, thus the disturbing faceless face carved into the rock), Chaos gift: "Rise, my servant!" - The next time the character is reduced to 10% of his hit point total, all his hit points are immediately restored. Albino -4 con. Ok, so we have to figure out a way this isn't Elric.
-Creepy combat commentary
During combat this chaos-worshipping albino is....
A self-cheerleader: says "you can do it, there a lot of them but your poison will take care of that" and things like that. "Worry not, The Lord Who Has No Face will smite them all in the end!"
-Dungeon Motivation
"Family member of PC afflicted with disease that can only be cured with the waters from a sacred subterranean spring."
Which makes sense, as the PCs are delivering a family member to the goblins.
-The D30 tables...
This is from the city events table:
"The army/navy needs soldiers/sailors. Pressed into short term duty." Basically: the goblins are assaulting the chaos-worshipping albino. They need help.
-There are several we gave Gary Gygax for his birthday
This is one for finding the origin of wizards...
Created using fire and the bodies of d20 children who were sacrificed explicitly for the purpose. Found magic item of clothing via sheer luck.
And one for elementals, so the villain has a pal...
oversized ice/water elemental--intelligent and curious
-Elf village traits
Assume goblin civilization is built on the ruins of an elf civilization:
"Bomb shelter type bunker, actual village destroyed by orcs forty or fifty years ago, new village blueprint still under review by planning committee"
In the mean time, goblins moved in. The albino elf came above ground (from the mine) and instead of telling the other elves their home had been stolen, just established some kinda Chaos-worshipping tyranny over the goblins.
-Original Warhammer Realms of Chaos Mutation Table
Half brain-leaf plant. Ok a brain-leaf plant is a plant that makes you a zombie. In D&D that ecological niche is filled by the Yellow Musk Creeper zombie, and here in my campaign it is filled by the Violet Leopard Orchid Zombie. Which explains why our albino elf abandoned his or her fellows: s/he's half zombie creeping vine monster and probably turned them all into orchid zombies by now.
Now according to the table above they are returning to their lair with treasure. What treasure?
-Hack Vornheim Contest Winners: including Random Tavern Entertainment, What's in That Grave, Random Criminals , Rival Adventuring Parties, Creepy Idol, The Theater Amphisbaena and Rural Inn Tavern
So, in the plague-blighted goblin town beneath Faceless Rock...
A bard troupe retells PCs previous exploits, in...
The inn of the Yellow Dog (not "Hound"--I renamed it after a German grindcore label). The food is amazingly good, due to the fact that the cook is a captured fae creature. It will plead for rescue (removal of iron horseshoe over kitchen door) through messages in marbled fat on meat, steam rising from stew, etc.
PCs (especially Elves/Magic Users) are attacked by vicious bedbugs in their sleep. These will inflict 1 damage every third round, ignoring armor & clothing. Observant PCs will note a trail of them leading to the innkeeper’s room. If they force the door, they will discover the innkeeper lying in bed, his eyes glazed over, a stream of bedbugs scuttling in & out of his mouth.
A group of travelling players are putting on a performance in the village square, costumed as the PCs. They are performing an episode from their adventures, though misrepresented. If the deed was noble and valorous, it is depicted as treacherous , cowardly, and bloodthirsty, and vice-versa.
(This makes sense, the PCs fended some goblin pirates on the way here, no doubt the pirates have been sailing home claiming to have been attacked by hideous human witches.)
We have, Tuan The Forsaken whose brain's in a glass case, who is an extorter.
(His racket today is actually more just blackmail: he knows who the PCs are and will tell the fellow goblins if they don't pay up.)
A coffin is filled with blood and puss. Spills out onto players and starts to burn. (ummm...chaos magic, I guess)
There is a competing adventuring party in the form of: The Progeny of Lorbis Vul. Core members consist of 4-6 vat-grown male and female humanoids, with skin dyed in a range of colors from sky blue to Vermillion, and marked on their foreheads with a seemingly random number from III – XXV. They are physically perfect, athletic specimens except for one glaring, disturbing flaw on their respective arms. Not readily apparent. They are seeking the whereabouts of Lorbis Vul, a notorious sorcerer. For now, they pay their way by adventuring. in possession of an enchanted object or talisman, not readily apparent as such.
Other events in the Yellow Dog:
Satireveritas escapes.
Satirevertias is "a giant amphisbaena greets guests from a gilded cage, twin heads bantering suavely sibilant evil with a voice like wasp stings in honey. Their palindromic name is Satireveritas and they adore gossip and scandal – learning it, spreading it, instigating it. The serpent’s other priorities are general mischief and the seduction of beautiful women. Its not unpleasant musk pervades the room."
Daytime: auditions (for future goblin entertainments)
Nightime: "The Wise Man’s Journey To Hell"
Random NPC there: Mullen Poag, Stagehand/Roustabout
Agent of rival theatre here to spy and sabotage. (Of course PCs will think he's an agent of The Faceless Lord.)
Creepy idol (worshipped by our villain): limbless female torso w/severed phalluses giving birth to monsters. it gives birth to monsters once every 20 days, contains evil genie 2 wishes remain.
-The Too-Many-Too-List-Here Fruits of My Own Unfortunate Addiction Now Handily Grouped Under One Tag
Also:
d4 Othuagg baboons (drugged, dyed, crazed babboons used as shock troops by goblins) (+1d6 goblins) eating tiger fly scouts
Intercepted letter: To my most clever and unfortunate friend, Lord Vortullak of Spine, I send greetings from both myself and from your hilarious mother. This past season has been no doubt, a black joke perpetrated on this family by the omnipotent author of all things. I trust you received the map I sent earlier, for otherwise you would be entirely unable to read the words I now set down. Though I am indeed made weary by the strain of maintaining this deception, I see the necessity in it, as, I am certain, do you. You must destroy the four lunatics in Orgus Waarg. To do otherwise is to risk what little you have left. Your most humble servant, Natasha
P.S. Before this is over, I will have what's rightfully mine, no matter what you've been told.
(Question: is the villain this "Natasha" or is it "Lord Vortullak"? Let's assume the lunatics are the PCs and Orgus Waarg is the name of the town. This means Lord Vortullak is the villain and this mysterious Natasha is either off-screen or the name of the limbless idol he worships.)
No security measure per se, but the only valuables in the house appear to be in the bedroom along with a young and attractive NPC who's tied up and gagged. Sophisticated PCs may realize that s/he's not necessarily a prisoner.
(um..ok, Zak, whatever you say)
Villain characteristics: Aura of silence, Murders mice and eats them.
Ok, so Lord Vortullak sits there eating mice all day. And he--and all his orchid zombies--project an aura of silence. I really like that--the pale undead straggle forward and crack your bones and eat your brains all without making a sound. That's obviously how leopard orchid zombies work I guess.
Hex describing table tells me:
Weird landscape, damaged city, intelligent monsters, light rain, humans want help from PCs, anarchy, goblins, they speak in iambic triameter. "When I insult the king, The frogs erupt in song"
Random treasure: Level 8 spell scroll (Drunk reversal--no save). Small carved figurine or chess piece of one of the PCs, precise in every detail, 25-28mm tall. Purpose unknown. Actually the figurine is a spell scroll and it is the artifact the rival adventuring party carries.
A corpse:
Major local importer. Trade is all screwy until the power struggle to replace him/her is over--everything costs 3 times as much locally. (this is the blood and pus filled coffin. Obviously this death was not natural.)
An npc:
helpful frightened likes fried food --an herbalist. Probably the sneaky stage hand spy.
So, altogether: sick goblin village and PC's relative, plagued by silent undead revenge elves and chaos magic sent by a mouse-eating albino elf villain while beneath the faceless rock a tavern below boils over with escaped snakes and friendly spies.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
The Slaying Necklace - the module
UNHOLY ABOMINATION: GO!!!!!!I have fixed "The Slaying Stone"--the thoroughly uninspiring Type IV adventure I was whining about yesterday via the simple expedient of hybridizing it with The Emira's Necklace, a short adventure James Hutchings was kind enough to post today on his awesome blog.
All is well in the world! View it!!!!:
-Wolves and tower and other things from The Slaying Stone not mentioned below stay pretty much the same. Plot-dispensing NPC wants the necklace for the same reason she wanted the stone. It kills whoever wears it if they're in the town.
-Approaching the goblin town:
*Through the forest: roll once on the Emira's Necklace forest encounter chart (first two pages Emira's Necklace document) of. If the PCs aren't sneaky and make noise during this encounter, a goblin patrol (d4 goblins) will come out and investigate the noise.
*Over the river: there's a 4 foot wall with d4 goblin archer guards awake at any given moment on the far side of the 30' wide slow-moving, muddy river. There will be d12 guard awake or asleep total.
*The gatehouse: 20'x20'x10' tall rectangle. A steel cage between city walls. 2 guards. (Was that so hard, WOTC?)
-There's no "kobold slum". That area of the map is actually the miniature city from Emira's necklace, room 2. The goblins used evil magic to shrink the foes they could not subdue and built on top of them. It's a very extensive miniaturized city, with goblin buildings built on top of it (the tiny city just covers the streets--in some cases the residents have built onto the sides of the new goblin buildings). The kobold encounters that are supposed to happen here are basically the same, but with goblins.
-Each round the PCs fail to be sneaky in town roll d10 + the number of times the PCs have fucked up so far. Any number over 5 indicates that many goblins are prowling nearby. Doing what? We have a table for that.
-The goblin monster pens contain Hollow Mockeries as per Emira's Necklace room 4. The goblins ride them.
-A crawling armwyrm (like the giant arm in Emira's Necklace) replaces the chatty dragon in the hot springs. Its lair is like rooms 9 and 10 of Emira's Necklace, though the mouths speak goblin, not dwarvish. It has half of the necklace--the other half is in the temple.
-The temple is like room 11 in Emira's Necklace. The pillar has half the necklace. The priests are goblin priests. Attacking the temple head-on without stealth will bring d20 +6 goblins running from outside, though the door can be barred effectively for d4 rounds. The temple will need actual dimensions if the PCs are going to have a real fight here and have any real escape plan.
-Draw a town map or grab one off the web. It need to have a river border, a forest border, locations 1-9 from the original module, plus a place for encounters 9, 5, and 13. So that's 12 numbered locations inside the town. The mansion, temple, and library should be in the center of town and identifiable at a distance--decide what distance that is. I suggest a town of 30-60 total buildings.
-Rort the goblin is making a Search Engine--see Emira's Necklace, encounter 4.
-Room 7 from Emira's necklace is hybridized with the wererat encounter. The encounter will occur as described in Emira's necklace only the perps are also goblins and the victim's also a wererat. The wererat knows what the original knows.
-Room 8 from Emira's necklace is actually implanted in the center of the goblin mansion (encounter 12). The bubble pit fills most of the antechamber with only a thin ledge on the end. Hu-Jat is just a jumped-up max HD goblin with a human mayor's hat on that falls over his eyes (thus his name). He has no bullshit munchkin "rage drake"--just the monster in the bubble pit. Hitching a ride all the way up on a bubble leads to a bell tower.
-For any unlabelled building roll on Emira's Necklace wandering monster chart. A roll of 2 indicates the Severed Eyes Orc Clan only reskinned as rival adventurers or a different tribe of goblins. They fulfill the same purpose in the adventure. A roll of 3 or 4 can indicate either the skeletons and tiny ninjas from the Emira's Necklace or just a regular tradesgoblin's home, depending on the DM's gonzo level. Any result rolled a second time indicates a regular tradesgoblin's home.
-If tracked at any given moment the Clan are at a random place on the map (roll d2o--1-12 indicates they're in place 1-12, numbers above 12 indicate they're in some otherwise unremarkable random part of town).
-SORTED.
_____
Bonus:
*Add pig balloons to the town's defenses
*Roll d4 for goblin type:
1-White goblins: always say the opposite of what they mean, walk on the ceiling
2-Green goblins: technicolor weird-weapon-wielding Warhammer goblins.
3-Red goblins: d4 hp per die but each utters a first level spell "curse" when they die.
4-Black goblins: Walk around inside the skins of the humans they killed taking the town. The skins don't fit very well. The effect is grotesque. Inside they look like white goblins, only shiny black.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The "One More Idea" Method
Another experimental idea-generating method.You could use this for campaigns, hex-maps, cities, etc. I happen to need a lot of dungeons, so I'm going to use it for a dungeon in this case...
(Note: this worked pretty well so I might use the dungeon in this example, so if you're playing in my game in LA don't read it...)
Step One:
Start with a random or hastily-thrown-together dungeon (or city, or list of campaign elements, or hex-map locations or whatever).
I'm gonna use a random dungeon and I'm gonna populate it using the instadungeon tables...
(unlike the actual complete instadungeon rules, this method is slow, so if I'm taking the time here I might as well use a genuine dungeon rather than the flow-chart-like maps that the instadungeon method produces)
Key:
1 soldier-type monster riding brute
2 brute monster staked down
3 locked and trapped door
4 soldiers guarding weapons/treasure/boss
5 3d6 soldier-type monsters
6 locked door, pick-crusher trap
7 extra tough lock
8 major villain
9 sleeping soldier-type monsters (barracks)
10 1d4 soldier-type monsters
11 locked & trapped door
Step Two:
Run down the list of things you randomly or hastily generated and add one detail to each thing. It doesn't have to be an amazing detail, just some detail.
I'm going to start with the major villain in room 8. It's behind a secret door and a portcullis, so I'm going to decide it's a prisoner. It's creations/servants have risen up against it.
Then I'm moving out from there...the soldiers guarding it in 4 are...(looking for something I haven't used lately)...thornchildren (they're spiky botanical-monsters from Vornheim).
Now room 6 has a pick-crusher trap (I'll say it's the west door near the guards) since that technology seems a little beyond sentient roses I'll say the dungeon was built by someone other than them and they are infesting it...
Room 7 has an extra tough lock--I'm gonna say it's both locks to room 7 since that makes more sense. And the locks are tough because...they're choked and grown-over with pieces of dead thornchild.
Room 9's full of sleeping guards--thornchildren? No, let's say they're some monster that tends or "grows" them. It will come running if there's a ruckus in room 4.
Room 10--3 more thornchildren--what are they guarding in room 11?
Room 11--locked and trapped door...because there's treasure in here.
3 Ok, so let's say both these doors are locked and trapped.
1 & 2 have brute monsters. Why would they be in here? Probably experiments. Something that someone tending/creating thornchildren would also be interested in...ok, let's say they're gibbering mouthers. And the one being "ridden" is being experimented on by some sort of humunculus or other igor-ish assistant.
...And last we have room 5. It makes sense if this is the first room the PCs see, which means the locked door and the guards make sense and it means this dungeon is probably below ground as opposed to being a building. I'll also roll for how many guards the room has...
1 soldier-type monster riding brute g. mouther being experimented on by "igor"
2 brute monster staked down gibbering mouther
3 two locked and trapped doors
4 thornchildren guarding prisoner
5 3d6 soldier-type monsters first room 10 guards
6 locked door, pick-crusher trap built by original architect
7 extra tough locks grown over w/spiky vines
8 major villain--prisoner
9 sleeping soldier-type monsters (barracks) tends thornchildren
10 1d4 soldier-type monsters 3 thornchildren
11 locked & trapped door treasure
Step 3:
Repeat step two for each item, in order, until the dungeon is interesting to you.
1 soldier-type monster riding brute g. mouther being experimented on by "igor" room is full of chemicals/potions with bizarre effects
2 brute monster staked down gibbering mouther it is an aggregate of tortured souls
3 two locked and trapped doors room appears empty
4 thornchildren guarding prisoner can't tell humans apart, they identify their master using a creepy question
5 3d6 soldier-type monsters first room 10 guards the guards are animated objects of some kind
6 locked door, pick-crusher trap built by original architect the villain who is locked up in the prison
7 extra tough locks grown over w/spiky vines this room used to be the villain's bedroom
8 major villain--prisoner a succubus
9 sleeping soldier-type monsters (barracks) tends thornchildren leader of the revolt against the succubus
10 1d4 soldier-type monsters 3 thornchildren if all 3 sing simultaneously they generate a sleep spell
11 locked & trapped door treasure 4000 gp, some random items and the key to the prison
____________
1 soldier-type monster riding brute g. mouther being experimented on by "igor" room is full of chemicals/potions with bizarre effects "igor" is a small girl in velvet--an immature demon
2 brute monster staked down gibbering mouther it is an aggregate of tortured souls it is inside a thaumaturgic circle--like the other mouther, it will lash out at anything near it--including other monsters
3 two locked and trapped doors room appears empty room used to be a parlor of sorts, secret door is behind a painting. The painting is a disturbing-looking and semi-animated portrait of the succubus, however, so PCs, hopefully, will be scared to mess with it.
4 thornchildren guarding prisoner can't tell humans apart, they identify their master using a creepy question "What happened to your dear sister?""Baked in a pie and sold to starving salesmen!"(the gibbering mouthers say this, among other random phrases. this is the only phrase that could be a logical answer to this question. they also give other hints--make a list of 7-12 mouther phrases to read off in a babble--practice pretendign you just made it up so PCs don't know they're significant)
5 3d6 soldier-type monsters first room 10 guards the guards are animated objects of some kind they are little cherub statues that look like Falconet's cupid from the Louvre--only all are damaged in some way--wing cracked, arm handless, etc. They come in "hear no evil" "speak no evil" and "see no evil" varieties and can make you deaf, mute, or blind respectively--with a kiss. They also try to choke you by shoving their hands and feet in your mouth.
6 locked door, pick-crusher trap built by original architect the villain who is locked up in the prison actually, it's more of a finger-amputator than a pick-crusher. The fingers appear in a finger-sculpture in hallway between 7 and 3. All the traps are amputators of one sort or another. All the locks are large and ornate and obvious and look like locks on diaries.
7 extra tough locks grown over w/spiky vines this room used to be the villain's bedroom it's full of pyxides containing small, moaning "mouthers" in jars and is done in a predictable opulent-infernal-floral motif.
8 major villain--prisoner a succubus will appear to be a harmless female alchemist interested in exotic plants.
9 sleeping soldier-type monsters (barracks) tends thornchildren leader of the revolt against the succubus another immature demon--this one looks like a fetus
10 1d4 soldier-type monsters 3 thornchildren if all 3 sing simultaneously they generate a sleep spell this room is an elaborate, fountained bath, it is half full of black (soulless) blood, victims may drown in it. Will come back as soulless undead.
11 locked & trapped door treasure 4000 gp, some random items and the key to the prison this door (and all trapped doors in the dungeon) require singing a specific tune to get past. The mouthers sing all the tunes at one point or another. The amputation is not mechanical, it is magical--the first to touch a door without singing the appropriate song simply loses the limb in question,
And there it is. I think I might add a few more empty rooms to the final version (the instadungeon tends to overpopulate dungeons) and maybe a library with books on exotic horticulture, and maybe a torture garden...
Saturday, July 2, 2011
ThroneCrypt of The Afflicted Lord
Collage on paper 6"x9" or so. Click to enlarge. Here's a version of it labeled using the Vornheim font Andreas made for me...
I figure the Afflicted Lord (M) has been trapped down there for centuries on account of his own wickedness, cursed and slowly mutating yadda yadda, and the guy in location Q is some equally afflicted servant. I also figure following the (hard to see) dotted line from F down to G and H leads to the family crypt.Also: the pale yellow squares are ordinary doors and the blue squares are secret doors.
If you've got any ideas what else is going on in there, please let us know...
Monday, June 20, 2011
All Of The Free Adventures
Riddle me this:How awesome is James over at The Underdark Gazette?
This awesome:
James--question for you... How much of a pain in the ass would it be to throw together (or just help throw together) a list of all the free adventure modules that've been published over the last few years? Not every single product--full games and sourcebooks and rules can be left out, as well as things published as part of Fight On or Knockspell or Land of Nod--just the heavier-duty products. Lemme know
-zak
_______
Sure. Give me a few days to put it together and I'll send a list of the ones I know of and whatever else I can dig up.
Take care,
James
________
The Ward of Wereskalot.
The Courtyard of Gerald Red.
BF1 Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign.
The Red Crystal Caverns - A Megadungeon Sublevel @ Beyond the Black Gate.
James
________
Hi Zak,
Here you go! I didn't include setting supplements, but if you want those, or anything else, let me know. It's all fresh in my mind at the moment, so I could gather it together, pretty quick.
Take care,
James
From Jeff Rients
From R.C. Pinnell's Lulu Storefront
Prime Requisite Games
Basic Fantasy Modules
All accessible from this page. Modules listed as Completed and Playtest Edition are included.
BF2 Fortress, Tomb, and Tower: The Glain Campaign.
JN1 The Chaotic Caves.
AA1.1 Gold In The Hills.
AA1.2 Merilla's Magic Tower.
AA1.7 Deathcrypt of Khaldun.
Adventures at Rainbow Lodge. (Module written for children.)
The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming (free version).
Barrataria Games
Stuff from Michael Curtis (In the Equipment List section of The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope)
Stuff from Dyson Logos
Stuff From Sham (In his OD&D Stuff Section.)
Modules Published by Dragonsfoot
The Monastery of the Order of the Crimson Monks.
The Howling Hills.
Ruins of the White Watch.
The Banked Swamp.
Red Tam's Bones.
HM5 - Isensan's Secret.
The Mad Demigod's Castle.
HM4 - Pop goes the Meazel.
The Forgotten City of Al-Arin.
G4 - Sanctum of the Stone Giant Lord.
The Corrupt Crypt of Ilmater
HS1 - The Village of Rashtan.
HM3 - The Chaos Halls of Belzir.
The Assassins Of Abu-Dala.
L4 - Devilspawn
L4C - The Lendore Isle Companion.
The Devil's Bride.
HM2 - The Hunt for Istan.
HM1 - The Disappearance of Harold the Hedge Mage.
Stormcrows Gather.
Trident Rock.
Beneath Black Towen.
The Battle For Gib Rus.
The Battle For Gib Rus: Supplementary Documents.
Beneath The Darkshroud Peaks.
Where The Fallen Jarls Sleep.
Shrine Of The Oracle.
The Melford Murder.
Skein Of The Death Mother.
The Spider Farm.
Goblins Tooth II - Faces of Love.
Goblins Tooth I - Moonless Night.
High Atop Dragonmount I.
Horror of Spider Point.
Horror of Spider Point - Map Pack.
The Temple Diancecht.
Church Of The Poisoned Mind.
Fugitive (AJ1).
The Haunted Keep.
The Haunted Tower (GL0).
The Nameless Dungeon (GL1).
To Light the Shadows.
Vandar's Lost Home (AJ2).
Thulsa's Classic Conversions
All on this page. Mongoose's Conan d20 system.
HD2 The Shrine of the Black Ones.
HD3 The City of the Spider-God.
HS4 The Lost Caverns of Acheron.
The Temple of the Sun.
Into the Howling hills.
Stealing the Night Away.
Sword Against Thievery.
Quest of the Mist Golem.
Modules from the Delver's Dungeon
The Temple of the Sun.
Into the Howling hills.
Stealing the Night Away.
Sword Against Thievery.
Quest of the Mist Golem.
G-Man's Barbarians of Lemuria Adventures (In the Strange Stones blog Download Section.)
Mazes & Minotaurs
Others
Maladin's Encyclopedia Subterranica (not sure if this is completed yet, or not.)
Nashka's Lair (Downloads section of the Rended Press blog.)
Castle of the Mad Archmage (Downloads section of Greyhawk Grognard.)
Servants of Plague (Downloads section of Lawful Indifferent.)
Mega-Dungeon Levels (Downloads section of Tower of the Archmage.)
Swords & Wizardry Quick-start (In ChicagoWiz' Downloads Section.)
North Battlement Sector - A Terminal Space Adventure (in the Box widget.)
Starter Adventures. (Gothridge Manor.)
DMG Sample Level Stocking Project (Lands of Ara.)
Lairs Collection I.
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Anybody got any favorites? Post in the comments to help other people parse thru all this stuff.
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Anybody got any favorites? Post in the comments to help other people parse thru all this stuff.
