Tag Archives: Rethinking

Mages and the Hats that Cover Them

August 11, 2012 1:22 am / 4 Comments /

Magic users have a fetish for hats. With all that chaos gas in your head, you’d wear one too, lest the sun cause your head to explode!

Mages

As I posted previously, magic users (I will use the shorter “mages” from this point on) are outcasts, victims of a memetic disease that has caused chaotic energy to build up in their brain. Their only relief is casting spells, which release that energy, and they all crave new formulae to recite to get that release. Since spell research is a lost art, they search the world for rare spells or resort to cannibalism to gain their rival’s knowledge. All this while avoiding the wrath of organized churches, zealous clerics and superstitious villagers.

What are mages like, then?

Masters of Disguise

Any mage who has lasted longer than a few years has learned how to pass for normal when required. They pick up on local customs, details, clothing trends and accents. In LotFP terms, they would all have at least a 2 in 6 skill at disguise and mimic.

Social Animals

A lone mage is a rare mage, but they do exist. Most mages seek out their own kind for mutual protection. A dozen first level mages will stand stronger against a mob of villagers much better than one. Some mage communities also have real-world occupations such as caravans, acting troupes or mercenaries. There are many that do not try to pass for anything but what they are. They live in borderlands, travel at night and generally try not to bring the wrath of the local lord upon them. Many of these are extended families or clans, who pass on the curse to their children.

Frenemies

Mage communities are both rivals and codependents. They might war against one another for years yet observe a truce during large gatherings. They identify their clan or lineage by their dress, which is usually expressed as a choice of hat or decoration thereof.

Customs

In western Europe-themed games, mages share a common set of customs that have been passed down ‘because’.

A fleeing mage is entitled to sanctuary from pursuing non-mages if he asks for it. He must leave once the danger has passed and his safety is guaranteed for two days. If he stays past the day the danger has passed, he does so of his own will and his safety is not assured. If the leader of a community offers hospitality, however, a visiting mage may not be harmed under any circumstances while that leader is still in charge.

A mage is not obligated to go out of his way to rescue another mage or to block pursuers. If a mage saves another’s life, the rescued mage owes him a brain-debt, which means the rescuer is entitled to his brains should he die before they part company. Some interpret this as a right to rescue then eat another mage’s brains right away.

Magic communities have their own courts and codes of behavior. It is important for a visiting mage to learn the local rules, especially when it comes to casting and duel etiquette. In some communities, teaching someone a spell is the equivalent of marrying them. So watch out how you interact with the locals.

Introductions

Mages often introduce themselves to one another by repeating the phrase of the read magic spell they first learned. Often this becomes a special name used among other mages and which regular folk cannot pronouce or understand. If a mage wants to impress, she might list certain spells she knows (which reveals ‘level’ and therefore status). Mages also like to point out identifying characteristics of their hats.

An example of a mage introducing himself to a band of strange mages:

I am Sakura, also known by the seed syllables ‘marak-tah-lem’. I am a master of the ball of fire that reduces my enemies and their kin to ashes! You will notice my red turban, which is the customary hat of my people, who hail from across the Kraken’s sea. It has a blue jewel in the center, which represents my having attained the sixth level of mental calm and focus. The observant will also know me by how tightly it is wrapped, which is necessary to contain the power within my skull. Should you ever try to unwrap it and cut your way to my brains, you would find scorpions and many other surprises between its folds!

Men with Hats

Which brings us to hats. Most people in the world wear hats, but mages wear HATS. The more outlandish, the better. The more foreign, the better. Hats are used to signify attainment, identify clan or community membership, hold spell components, small items and even traps for the unwary. A hatless mage is a vulnerable mage. Two mages removing their hats to one another is an act of intimacy, either friendly or romantic. It signifies deep trust. Tipping the hat is a way of showing deep respect. Touching a single finger to the hat is a common way to greet another mage for the first time. It is a symbolic tipping of the hat and denotes polite respect.

Mages who must pass in civilization have more modest hats, usually following the local style (although they will be as nice as the mage can afford and perhaps a bit ostentatious). These normal hats are scorned by the magic communities of the borderlands as ‘small hats’.  Bareheads have managed to grow gravity-defying hair that can also be used for storage. Wigheads wear white wigs in the local fashion and use their wigs as others use their hats.

 

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The Big Magic User Post

August 10, 2012 1:42 pm / 6 Comments /

So here’s some stuff you can use to make magic users more interesting. Some of this stuff is an elaboration on others’ ideas (“Brains” for example). These can be applied to many first-edition games.

Magic Users

Its origin is lost to time. Its study crumbled with empires past. But the mantra that opens the door of chaos in the mind survives. Called the ‘first spell’, by those who repeat it, the mantra pulls chaotic vapors from space and fill the mind of someone who hears it. The pressure from these vapors must be released and the only safe way is through repeating the first spell or other spells that were preserved through oral tradition or discovered in ruined libraries.

You somehow heard this first spell and its song was stuck in your head. Now you spend your days mumbling to yourself as you search the world for new spells to clear the vapors from your skull.

Read Magic

Magic Users can all read magic at will. “Read Magic” is the first spell. It is long enough and complicated enough to function as a rudimentary language. Magic Users can communicate basic ideas in this “mage’s cant.”

Magic Users can detect magic in the immediate area by concentrating for 1 minute and sniffing, listening and looking. Magic can be detected on a specific item or person only by touch.

Brains

The brain of a magic user contains all the memorized spells that are ready to cast. If the magic user is killed by a blow to the head, there is a 50 percent chance for each spell that it will go off on the spot. If the spell requires a target, a random bystander is the target. If it requires touch, then consider any loose brain matter to be a touch.

If a magic user is killed but the head is undamaged, his or her brains can be eaten by another magic user, who permanently learns any spell of the levels he or she can cast. Any spells above allowed levels can be cast once, as per a scroll, but cannot be memorized for later use. A magic user’s brain can be dried out and used by anyone as a ‘spell grenade’ or ground into a powder and mixed with wine as a potion of that spell.

Spell Research, Spellbooks, Scrolls

The art of creating new spells was lost millenia ago. There are a few hundred known spells and variations on spells. All of them were found in libraries, caves, old books, etched in the skin of snakes and in the songs of rare birds.
Unearthing a new spell is, therefore, a major accomplishment for a magic user and something that will forment both admiration and jealousy in his peers. The newfound spell is usually named in honor of its discover, even if his peers futher honor him by hunting him for his brain.
Spells can be written into books and scrolls using any alphabet. A spellbook can be a normal book, a painting, a tattoo, etched on the skin of a familiar or written in tiny letters on an everyday object. A magic user never reveals to anyone what his book is unless absolutely necessary.
When a spell is written on a scroll, any magic user can copy it into her book or it can be cast, even if it is on a spell level higher than allowed for that character. Any other class can also cast a spell from a scroll, but there is a 20 percent chance of backfiring (roll on a mishaps table) and a 20 percent chance per level that the character will be infected with the magic meme and become a magic user permenantly. GMs can decide to switch the player’s class on the spot, secretly or give the option of declaring the character an insane NPC.
Magic Users re-memorize their spells on a daily basis. Some do so by studying their spell book in private. Others might hum a cycle of tunes strumming an instrument. In all cases, they need uninterrupted time.

Spell Components

Spell components are things such as berries, grasses, liquids, small items of various sorts that can be used to supplement the power of a spell. They are consumed in the casting. The magic user is entitled to an OPTIONAL second roll for damage, to hit, on a table and so forth if she doesn’t like how the first one turned out. There is no guarantee the second roll will be better, but it becomes the official roll if the first is not taken. Lists of components and the spells they compliment are almost as sought after as undiscovered spells.

Chaos Number

Magic Users have a chaos number. It starts at 0 when they begin as 1st level.
Whenever they cast a spell, their chaos number goes up by the level number of the spell.
A magic missile spell is a first level spell, so that would raise the number by 1.
This number continues to go up as he casts spells until there is a chaos effect.
Every time a Magic User rests to study and relearn his spells, he must roll a d100. If the result is under his chaos number, there is a chaos effect.
If there is a chaos effect, the player rolls 1d10 and adds that to his chaos number. He tells the GM the resulting number.
The GM will look at a table and determine what happens, if anything. There may or may not be anything to tell the player…
The mage’s chaos number is reset to 0.

(I will post some examples of chaos number tables soon).

Hunted

Magic users have been hunted for centuries in most parts of the world. They live as outcasts either alone or in travelling communities. They have their own customs and laws (or at least expectations). Most magic users travel incognito when in civilized lands. For the purposes of adventuring, clerics and mages are usually at odds but for the purposes of having an enjoyable night of gaming should not be directly at one another’s throats or extorting one another for healing or help.

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Initiate Paladin Spell Revised

July 14, 2012 10:42 am / Leave a Comment /

I’ve significantly altered the Initiate Paladin spell I posted earlier this week.  I’ve altered that version and also posted it below.

  • Any PC who is not chaotic can be initiated (this is, again the LotFP version which pits Law vs Chaos as Gods vs. Magic). They do have to belong to the deity’s faith, but they do not have to change their alignment if it’s neutral.
  • Paladins do not need to remain chaste or refrain from evil acts provided those restrictions are not placed on him by the god or the initiating cleric. Of course, there should be plenty of taboos just to add flavor tot he situation, but we can leave those up to each DM and player.
  • Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do my last round of revision before the post published. I hope this spell is interesting to you. I have reposted it below.

Initiate Paladin

Cleric Level 5

Duration: See below

Range: 0

Bestows paladinhood, and an attendant quest, on a follower of the cleric’s faith. This spell may be cast on any classed or non-classed character who is not aligned with chaos or arcane magic in any way (magic-users and elves are therefore excluded). The paladin retains all the skills and abilities of his current race and class, but has some additional benefits and restrictions placed on him.

Paladinhood comes with a difficult quest that must be followed tenaciously until completed. Any delay of more than a week reduces the paladin’s level by 1 per day until he or she corrects course and pursues the quest, although it is permissible to pursue the quest indirectly in some cases. Recouping from injuries does not count as sidetracking, nor does performing other duties for the cleric.

The cleric who casts this spell has vouched for the paladin’s worthiness in the eyes of the deity. Failure of the paladin, barring death in its pursuit, reflects on the cleric’s reputation and standing in the congregation and church hierarchy. The GM should consider a number of consequences for the paladin failing, disgracing the faith, etc. and only tell the player a few of them. Examples could include a quest of penance, loss of spells, etc.

The spell ends immediately on completion of the quest.

Requirements and Restrictions

The paladin must be or become a follower of the cleric’s faith and must faithfully follow the rules of that faith in order to retain the benefits of the spell. This includes such things as observing holy days, dietary restrictions, etc.

The paladin must follow the directions and instructions of the casting cleric or the god directly. If someone higher in church hierarchy gives a conflicting order, the paladin must refuse.

The paladin must conspicuously wear the symbol of his faith on his or her garb, unless sent on a quest requiring undercover work. In that case, some symbol (tattoo, jewelry) must be secretly worn.

The paladin cannot forsake or repudiate his deity while a paladin. Doing so means instant immolation and death.

The paladin must give away all treasure aside from armor, shield, weapons, holy books and survival gear. If a paladin needs material goods in order to accomplish the quest, this does not countermand that.

This last rule may be revoked on a case by case basis depending on the quest’s requirements. All money and other treasure earned by the paladin must go to the church or the truly needy.

A paladin may not use arcane magic items of any sort.

Alternate rules:

  • After a third stint as a paladin is completed, the character is a permanent paladin with no specific quest.
  • While a paladin, the character does not level in his/her original class but levels as a cleric starting at 0 XP, gaining hit points and additional cleric spells beginning at level 2. If the level in the character’s main class is equalled, the PC must choose whether to become a permanent paladin. At that point, they would need to change their alignment to lawful if necessary and never level in their original class, but as a cleric. They would keep all the skills and abilities of their previous class.

Benefits

+2 HP/level at the time the spell is cast.

Once per day, a paladin may cast the following cleric spells:

Detect Evil (Chaos)

Sanctuary (on self only)

Bless (on self only, 8 points to add to rolls as per the LoTFP version of this spell)

Cure Light Wounds

Turn Undead (in LotFP this is a spell. In other B/X type games, make this an ability as a cleric has but useable once per day)

Once per week, a paladin may cast Cure Disease and Dispel Magic.

The cleric may consult with the GM to determine alternative spells to add or substitute for these, depending on the nature and domain of the deity.

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The Prophet: An Option for LotFP and B/X Clerics

July 11, 2012 9:51 am / Leave a Comment /

When a cleric is the first of his faith, what would his relationship with his deity be like? This option gives the cleric charm-like powers of conversion and awards XP for building shrines and temples. This is a revision of an earlier post on optional clerical abilities. You can add these two abilities to specific clerics in your campaign or to all of them (if you wanted to have a campaign with strong competition amongst faiths).

Mithras and the Bull: This fresco from the mithraeum at Marino, Italy (third century) shows the tauroctony and the celestial lining of Mithras’ cape.

The Prophet

You were the first to dine with the Sun on midsummer’s day. As you feasted together on the sacrificial bull, the Sun Father gave you the mysteries of communing with the planets though sacred feasting. He initiated you as the first Friend of the Sun and commanded you to spread the mysteries to foreign lands, forsaking your home for now, but to return someday as a conqueror. Father Sun granted you the Voice that lets you perform miracles. 

As a prophet, you are the lone cleric of your faith. You must spread the word as quickly as possible ensure your deity is worshipped in the event you die while adventuring. You can convert others with your powerful oratory, which works similarly to a mage’s charm spell. These converts will become the basis of your congregation when you are ready to establish your own stronghold or abbey. Until you reach name level, you are rewarded with experience points for building smaller shrines and places of worship. Gamewise, this should function similarly to the magical research a mage performs between adventures.

Converting the Unenlightened

You are gifted with the ability to convert others to your fledgling faith through powerful oratory. Although strictly non-magical, your power of persuasion functions exactly as the charm spells magic users employ. Wisdom and Charisma bonuses both apply to your attempts to convert others.

Converting a single person is possible at level 1, converting a monster comes at level 4. Mass Conversion of people is possible at level 6 and mass converting monsters begins at level 9. Converts’ spiritual allegiance is to the god or philosophy you represent and you are the focus of this new faith. This is mechanically simialr to a magic user’s charm spell, so read about your edition’s version of that spell to understand how it works. If a saving throw is successful, you will no longer hold the convert in a charm-like influence. You will still be respected and revered, unless the convert make a 20+ on his saving throw, in which case your faith has lost the convert completely.

Building Shrines

You also get XP from building shrines and small chapels, exactly as magical research works for magic users. Discuss your planned shrine with your GM. Describe the shrine, its purpose, miraculous properties, the artwork and craftsmanship you want, etc. The GM will then assign the cost and time necessary to create this shrine, as well as the reward you will receive. Be aware that if your shrine is desecrated within one year of dedication, you will lose the XP gained immediately and might even fall in level. So it is important to factor in the costs of upkeep and protection, or to hide the shrine well from unbelievers.

If you and the GM can establish an equivalent magical item (if your game has standardized magic items) then it would be easy to establish the XP reward as that which you would get for obtaining it via combat or its coin value if you were to buy it locally.

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LotFP and B/X Cleric Option: Defender of the Faith

July 5, 2012 1:55 pm / Leave a Comment /

Last month I posted some ideas for conversions, shrine building, etc. as a way to give clerics more to do than heal and turn undead. Here I’ve done a bit of revising and present a cleric option that can be swapped in for regular clerics, offered as an option. Some of it is mechanical, some is flavor and all of it can be tinkered with. This cleric class is based on the LotFP Grindhouse rules (free rules pdf available here), but easily applies to any B/X or AD&D game.

Defender of the Faith

The Defender of the Faith is based on the cleric found in your system’s rulebook. You will find a high charisma score nearly as helpful as high wisdom.

You were once a pious monk or seminary student until your prayers started manifesting as minor miracles. You were immediately assigned to a new order where you trained in warfare, interrogation and oratory. You learned the signs and the heresies of the heathen faiths. Now, as initiated cleric of your order, you are sent into the world to maintain proper order and devotion in the Church, for as it is in the faith, so it is in the world.

Add one point to any of these skills on your character sheet to reflect your training: preaching, interrogation, cryptography, command.

Holy Warrior

You attack at +2 to hit when fighting clerics, soldiers or other enemies who represent any other faith, provided the conflict is about faith. There is no bonus for merely attacking those who are non-believers. Your GM will let you know when this applies.

Congregational Support

In addition to any abilities you have as a cleric in the system you play in, you can call on resources in any community where there is a congregation:

Sanctuary

When visiting a community with a church, abbey or cathedral you may request lodging on church grounds for up to one week for youself and a small party of companions (provided none of them are obviously prohibited by the rules of your faith).

Offering Plate

Provided the head clergy of the congregation is not a higher level Cleric (or PC-class Priest) OR if the head clergy grants permission, you may call on the local congregation for monetary support. To do this, you must deliver a sermon, perform a ceremony, give a teaching or other service in front of the congregation. You make a roll vs your preaching skill plus your Charisma modifier and your Wisdom modifier.*

If you pass the check, you get the full amount on the table below. If you fail the check, you get half.  If there is a critical fail, you get nothing and may not attempt this again in this or the four nearest communities for two months (and do so at a -2 penalty per critical failure in the region).

Community Economic Level Offering
Very Poor 1d6 x CHA/2**
Poor 1d6 x CHA**
Middle Class 1d10 x CHA
Rich d20 x CHA
Filthy Rich d100 x CHA

*If you are not using LOtFP, make an ability check (or similar roll depending on your game) vs. Charisma with your WISDOM modifier added. I say make a charisma check as this is the more important skill in this situation.

**at least half the offering will be in livestock, food or other non-monetary form.

Faithful Servants

You may recruit (your level + d4) hirelings of first level skill who will serve you for up to a week without pay and without a share of treasure. At the end of that week, roll vs. your command skill level to have them stay another week (up to two weeks). If they have been treated well, they may be kept on as regular hirelings provided this does not exceed your hireling limits.

Witch Hunt

If there is a clear emergency involving matters of faith, you can raise a mob. First, you must make a successful skill roll vs. preaching or command, adding your charisma modifiers. You will identify in your speech who the target of the mob is, what they must do (don’t expect them to not injure or kill the target) and what doctrinal reason you have for condemning them (it need to be that logical).

If you succeed, you may raise up a mob of (d10+CHA score) 0-level fighters armed with farm implements, tools and the ocassional longsword (10% of mob). If you fail, your mob will be half that size. If the local head clergy publicly endorses you in this, add 1d10 to the number in the mob. If the local clergy publicly disagrees, the size of the mob is reduced by half (so a failed skill check plus local clergy opposition means 1/4 size).

This mob will obey your commands even at the peril of their own lives. They are fanatically in your service until you die, the target of the mob dies, or the mob is somehow convinced you are tricking them (example: they see  you show mercy to the target, catch you behaving in a way antithetical to your faith, etc.). A mob will die out ofter three hours if the target is not encountered.

The Fine Print

You are married to the church and as such you must remain celibate. As far as the faithful are concerned, you are a pious and rightious holy man, who will be treated with the utmost respect by the faithful. When no one is looking, you are expected to do whatever is necessary to carry out your orders. You may be called on to kill, lead an army, extract confessions from the wicked and other less palatable duties.

Your GM will have you keep track of a faith influence number, which determines the likelihood of finding a temple or chapel in remote areas or foreign cities. Be sure to keep this on your character sheet.

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Bonus XP for Clerics: Building Shrines and Growing the Flock

June 8, 2012 11:18 am / 6 Comments /

I was thinking clerics should have some sort of incentive to convert others to her faith. Specifically, I was thinking that a cleric who begins the game as the founder and prophet of her faith should get XP for converts and for building and sanctifying shrines.

Convert Person and Mass Convert

Perhaps she gets XP equivalent to slaying a monster of equal level to a convert. Would that be enough? Instead of a difficult mechanic, look up your edition’s version of charm person and mass charm, scratch out charm and write in convert. Instead of adding it to the cleric’s spell list, make it a once-per-month ability and make it non-magical. Convert is possible at level 1, Convert Monster at level 4, Mass Convert Person at level 7 and Mass Convert Monster at level 9. Converts’ spiritual allegiance is to the god or philosophy or whatever they have been converted to and the cleric is seen at the focus of this new faith. Have the convert make a periodic saving throw as if for a charm spell. If they make it, then they are no longer ‘charmed’ by the cleric, but still regard her highly. Their charmedness has converted to their new god or faith.  Faith can certainly be lost in stressful or calamitous situations, but there’s no need for a mechanic for that unless the GM wants to allow a saving throw vs the conversion when some tragedy strikes.

Converting Stannis’ wife was a start. Converting Stannis was a coup.

Shrines and Holy Places/Fixtures

Building a shrine or holy fixture like a stupa is a major undertaking. In the interests of not coming up with yet another system, use the magical enchanting or research rules of your favorite edition. The cleric declares the magical item equivalent or spell research equivalent of this shrine. When completed, she gets the value of that magical item in XP or the monetary cost of the research aspects of shrine and all its components as XP, provided she hires guards and provides for its upkeep in advance for at least a year. The upkeep costs do not convert to XP. If the shrine is lost, the XP value is immediately taken and could lead to a loss of level similar in effect to a level drain.

Thoughts?

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Rethinking Mermaids

April 9, 2012 6:02 am / 7 Comments /

scrapprincess  said:

I am in desperate need of a table of various magic princess mermaids

Well you came to the right place, ScrapPrincess. Mermaids are indeed very magical and very princessy.

I don’t know if it’s a chaos thing or a cthonic thing or whatever it is that made vampires, but  it seems that every once in awhile a fish is born incomplete. When one of these fish happens upon a humanoid, it swallows them. While the victim is in the fish’s belly, things start to get squishy and jelly-like. Tendrils grown out of each creature and entangle the insides of the other.

After some time, the human torso begins to emerge from the fish’s mouth and an act of eating has become a symbiosis that has now become a single creature. The fish head remains–the eyes on the side of where the human hips would be still function, the gills of the fish are still breathing (although the whole mechanism works differently as the mouth is sealed at the bottom of the human torso. I promise to let you know how should I ever get one on my dissection table). The human mouth is responsible for breathing air and eating, which is something of a challenge in some cases. Other changes can happen to the human head and torso and I have described some of these below.

I would expect that the majority of mer-creatures would be men, as men are sailors and therefore far more likely to be swallowed be one of these strange fishes. But I have never seen nor heard of a ‘mermale’. Perhaps men are more to the appetite of eating for these fish, while the female is the only sex capable of this merger. There are tales of mermaids falling in love with sailors and rugged sea captains, but I doubt these are true as land-dwellers tell most of these tales. I would not be surprised, however, if mermaids who have a stronger connection to their human side were to fixate on men in general or even particular men who remind them of their human past and of the comforts of human society.

[A table follows these I made up]

“Angie Angler”

Although no one has seen her in her native habitat and lived to tell about it, on two occasions, fishing boats have hauled up a mermaid described as a finned woman with a large mouth with dagger-like teeth, black eyes and a ‘fishing rod’ protruding from her head. This rod was tipped with some sort of magical light, which she could dangle about and flash in patterns that mesmerized the fishermen who found her. I suspect this rod has some sort of magical charm properties, for when she managed to wrest free and escape over the side of the boat, half a dozen crew dove in after her, never to be seen again. (Treat as 6 HD shark with mass charm person, hypnosis and light spell powers, activated at will). She is called “Angie Angler” among the fishermen and the bards of port towns.

Queen Manta

I have heard several accounts of this Queen of the Reef, whose home is somewhere in the Chaos Isles and she seems to be the most intelligent and perhaps most human-like of all mermaids. Her torso is black-skinned and beauteous. Her tail is that of a large manta ray, which is a kite-shaped fish found in the southern seas. She is known to command the allegiance of sea creatures and natives of those isles, although through charm or fear I cannot say. She wields a trident that is said to control the weather and the tides. (Treat as a high level druidess with a magical trident that has weather control properties and which summons giant water elementals.)

Saurys

This not a single mermaid but many tiny mermaids. Of all the mermaids described herein, this is the only I have seen for myself. I was a passenger on a sailing vessel off the shores of Argnac when a large school of these small fish surfaced around our ship. In her excitement, one of my fellow passengers, who I will not name to protect her family, learned too far over the railing to see this school. She ended up overboard and before any of us could attempt a rescue (even by magical means) she was consumed by the school of fish before our very eyes!

There being nothing we could do, we continued on our way, those of us passengers of good class comforting her mother in her time of grief. Within two days, however, we were again visited by a school of saury. The woman’s mother had to be restrained and locked into her quarters, lest she jump overboard herself. All the time, she insisted her daughter was calling her name. When I had secured her door and made my way back top, I brought out a spyglass device and trained it on the fish below. To my surprise, I saw perhaps two score fish among this school with a bare, fare-skinned human torso and long, golden hair. Two compatriots also saw this with my spyglass. Although it is not the strangest thing I saw on that voyage, it was the most chilling. (Treat as water-based pixies with the song of a siren. One typical humanoid devoured by these saury yields 60 saury mermaids).

Princess Portia (Dunkleosteus)

I believe this is one of the few mermaid princesses that was actually a princess. She was aboard a ship that sank approximately two centuries back, en route to a wedding with a prince of Argyle. She has the body of a very bony and primitive fish. As she herself was a tall woman, from head to fin I would guess her about thirty four feet long. She has an enormous appetite and is a top predator. Her skull is about twice the size it should be and her mouth is quite deviated from the human norm. She has no teeth, but a hard bony jaw that opens to almost three feet wide. When she is not hungry, which is rare, she can manage to carry on a conversation and if you are knowledgeable about the politics and court gossip of her time she might be, if not a friend then at least less likely to think of you as lunch when the conversation is over. (Treat as 10 HG giant fish with 12 INT and 11 CHA).

The Jellied Woman

I cannot say for certain that this creature was the same phenomenon as a mermaid, but two captains have described to me a large sea medusa with several living but separated parts of an elfin woman contained in its disc area. The head was speaking, but even those with a knowledge of the elvish tongue were unable to make any sense out of random statements. Reportedly, all about the ship were unable to communicate for a full day after encountering this creature, despite being able to speak and hear normally in other respects. This creature was in the center of a large sea medusa bloom. (Treat as giant jellyfish with stinging and paralyzing toxins on tentacles. At will, creature can cast a spell that undoes a man’s ability to speak and understand language, save at -4.)

Siren

I hesitate to pass on this story, as I find it highly suspect, but I should perhaps mention it as an example of the sort of tales one must sort through when evaluating the tails seamen will tell of their travels in order to find useful information. Supposedly there is, in the seas between the Screaming Straits and the Western Coast of Millas Minor, a mermaid who attempts to entrap sailors for matrimonial purposes. She is described as a beautiful mermaid of the kind depicted in mythological bestiaries of land-locked nations–that is, a beautiful woman with the tail of a fish below her hip. She sings and banters with sailors until some unfortunate soul cannot resist and dives overboard for a kiss.

Supposedly, once the sailor has kissed her, he is hers and her spell over the others is broken, revealing her true form, which is described as a porcine pink fish with small piglet eyes and a doughy body and face. This mermaid takes her new groom below to his matrimonial doom. The same sailors who report these stories also tell of legged fishes walking along land in the Screaming Straits, which they call the children of the siren. (Treat as siren or succubus as desired).

Roll 1d20 for each column Torso Fish Magical Effect
1 Human Commoner Catfish/River Fish Temporary Dispell Magic 50′ radius
2 Human Aristocrat Starfish Causes Fear of Water
3 Human Mage Shark, Great White Water Breathing 50′ Radius
4 Human Cleric Shark, Whale Summon Minor Water Elemental
5 Human Assassin Shark, other Summon Major Water Elemental
6 Human Slave Lamprey Summon d100 sea creatures
7 Elf Spellsword Moray Charm Person (Mass)
8 Elf Priestess Manta Cure Disease
9 Elf Sorceress Barracuda Create Food (summons food dishes)
10 Elf Dancer Pirhanna (School of Mermaids) Purify/Desalinate Water (drinks and spits out)
11 Dwarfess Saury (School) Powerful Phantasm Spells
12 Drowess Squid or Octopus Geas/Quest
13 Sea Priestess Jellyfish Curse
14 Sea Druidess Deep Sea Lumenescent Fish Control Weather
15 Human Entertainer Ancient Fish (Coelocanth, Placoderm) Knows/Controls Portal to Other Planes
16 Human Courtesan Lobster or Crab Cause Disease
17 Human Captain’s Wife Monkfish Love Enchantments
18 Human Girl Parrotfish/Triggerfish Druidic Spellcasting
19 Hobbitess Stonefish Mage Spellcasting
20 Orcess That Alien Fish thing in Alien 4 Same powers as genie

 

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Rethinking Zombies: Skaarsport Zombies

December 5, 2011 4:09 pm / 1 Comment /

Here’s the zombies I used in my minicon a few weeks back. I used LotFP Grindhouse and Vornheim. These undead were loose in a very large city and the players were all returning veterans of overseas wars at about fifth level.

The important bits:

  • As they age, they fall apart. They lose one or more body parts every few days. This sort of calculation is of course impractical when you have 40 of them coming at you, but if it’s just 3-5 it’s just a few quick rolls (table at bottom of post). So I’d run a mb of zombies as half-max HP zombies until one is targeted or steps up to attack on its own. Then I’d do a few rolls.
  • These zombies heads explode if they are ‘headshot.’ I think I allowed head targeting with a -3 penalty to hit per 10 feet away. Natural 20′s were always headshots.
  • At zero HP, these zombies regenerate HP to all damage unless a remove curse has been cast. Only damage caused by healing spells, fire or headshots could not regenerate. Cure disease would turn the zombie into a still corpse.

Fresh human zombie:

Move: normal human but +1 to encumbrance

AC 12 unless armored

(This is LOTFP AC, since I used LOTFP. 12 is normal human. Lower is worse.)

HP 10

Attack as FTR 3

Damage = 1d6 or weapon

Regenerates +1 HP/round unless burned or healed. Even if ‘killed’.

If the head is destroyed, an explosion of brain pressure causes 1d4 to all adjacent creatures.

Might be blind or deaf depending on body condition.

Curing wounds > Max HP points returns them to normal corpse. (no revive)

Cure disease automatically returns them to corpse state.

Remove curse means they do not revive after 0 HP.

Communicates with others via screams, morse code taps. Communication limited to simple information like ‘fresh meat here’ or ‘run! fire!’.

2+ days old

Same as above except:

+1 disability

Melee and Missile AC 9

8 HP

+1 encumbrance

Less rational, less likely to work as team, loses track of what it is doing and wanders off aimlessly (fails on 1d6)

 

4+ days old

+1 disability

Melee and Missile AC 7

Can no longer climb.

6 HP

+2 encumbrance

Less rational (1-2 on d6)

 

Week old +

+1 disability (3 total) at 1 week and +1 per week thereafter

Melee and Missile AC 6

Attack does 1d4

4 HP

Less rational (1-3 on d6)

Adjustments: per 100 lbs of human, age slower by half.

 

Zombie Disability Chart

Roll Disabled
1 Eyes
2 Ears
3 Mouth
4 Nose
5 Left Arm
6 Right Arm
7 Left Leg
8 Right Leg

 

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Rethinking Elves 3 – Elves as an infection

July 14, 2011 7:22 am / 6 Comments /

Elves aren’t born. Not as elves, but as humans. They turn into elves when a true elf puts a spore in them. Spores are organs that grow in the back of their throats, much like tonsils. When they get too large, say grape or walnut sized, the true elf needs to spit them out.
The spores have legs and for about a week they can move up to half a mile away before they die. They crawl down the throats of unsuspecting humans and implant themselves in the stomach. Over the course of the next eighteen months, an elf will grow in their torso and abdomen. This elf will copy the host’s features, memories and personality. The host will start to lose those qualities, grow sick, lose appetite and hair. When the elf copy is ready, it will literally molt the human body off itself.
The resulting elf is not the same person (or spirit) but a copy of its memories and personality (depending of course on the metaphysics you use for your campaign). They are shorter because they can’t grow to full height (always wondered why, didn’t you?).
Elves do live forever, barring accident or misadvanture, but they can’y hold more memories than a human. After a few hundred years, an elf will probably not remember that she was ever human. The fragments of that life that remain will eventually fade and might be interpreted as dreams. Elves as a whole are ignorant of their origins.
This is why they are so keen on composing songs and writing books, to preserve what they can. Their rich culture is an amalgam of millennia worth of human culture, as remembered and recorded by elves and then read and reinterpreted by elves who don’t remember it anymore. The errors in interpretation trend toward the prevailing elven culture of the region and over time, it all skews into a very idiosyncratic synthesized culture that could easily be mistaken for something borne of its own.
What about these true elves that spread spores? They are the real elves. The ones we know are really sort of half. The DM should decide how they should look. They could resemble the gray aliens, or the ur-elf to out-elf all elves, or they could be some sort of yuggoth in the bottom of a well. Best not to reveal them if you don’t have to.
You can also play with this for other fairie species in addition to or in place of elves. Dryads or nymphs could come from the fruit of a certain tree, or sprites and pixies could be spore-infected halflings or gnomes.
With apologies to vampires, Alien, Chtorr and any other sci-fi or fantasy creature or trope this closely resembles.

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Rethinking Undead 3: Mummies

June 13, 2011 4:56 am / Leave a Comment /

Mummies are preserved corpses found in extreme climates.

While some are not the result of intentional preservation, this post will only discuss mummies that have been preserved on purpose.

When someone dies, a mummy can be preserved by removing the organs, drying the body in Natron and wrapping it. Natron is very rare and its sources are guarded jealously. Moisture and exposure to the air will cause the mummy to decay, but undisturbed they will stay in excellent condition for thousands of years. In cases where Natron is not available, salt can also be used.

Depending on the culture, a priest or mage may attend to this process, chanting, casting spells and/or performing ceremonies. No matter the culture, the purpose of this process is to allow the soul to make a journey to an afterlife (good or bad).

Mummies need not be wrapped.

Mummy corpses are valued for their healing properties. An ounce of ground mummy corpse in water is the equivalent of a potion of extra healing. Mummy corpses weigh about 40 pounds, which make them incredibly valuable.

Mummies are often buried with pickled or dried organs hidden nearby. These were meant to serve the spirit in the afterlife. A pickled mummy liver can cure the most deadly poisons if eaten. The brain will either impart knowledge of the past or create a temporary connection to the mummy’s spirit in the afterlife (whichever serves the DM’s purposes). Other body parts are rumored imbue various benefits such as fertility, vigor (+1 CON) and charisma (+1 for eating the tongue of a chief or king).

Most of the remaining unplundered mummies (in my world at least) are of the undead sort. These souls did not make it to their destination for some reason. Perhaps the stars were not favorable at the time of death, the gods deemed the deceased unworthy or perhaps a priest sabotaged the process. Often such souls or spirits are not aware that they were rejected at the gates, or even that they are dead. The body has taken to wandering the gravesite or nearby environs.

The undead mummy’s soul might be trapped in a nearby object. In some cultures, the soul is placed via clerical spell in a piece of jewelry, a weapon or a mummified slave’s body or pet. In cases like this, the mummy is not dead until the soul’s container is destroyed. These containers can be dangerous—destroying an undead mummy’s body then wearing its soul amulet out of ignorance will lead to possession, for example.

Mummies have the same intelligence and personality they had in life, although the centuries in between may drive the soul mad if the tomb has been disrupted often. Activity awakens a mummy and that makes them angry and prone to attack. Whether their motives are malevolent, misunderstood or unknowable is up to the DM.

Mummies bodies have HD appropriate to their station in life and the magical/clerical capabilities of their culture. The more magic or prayers involved, or the more sacrificed slaves and animals buried with the mummy will raise its HD. An honored pharaoh’s mummy will have 10 HD or more, while the mummy of a northern barbarian chief might have 2 HD.

While the physical damage dealt by an undead mummy is not that great, its touch drains a level (a saving throw might be allowed to instead lose 1 point of CON for a year). Some mummies have other powers sometimes including: spell casting, weapon use, cause disease, cause blindness/deadness or teleporting others to afterlife plane.

If the mummy’s soul is in its body, destroying the body will destroy the soul and the mummy is gone forever. The remaining corpse might not heal the same as a regular mummy corpse. There may be strange side effects.

If the mummy’s soul is housed outside the body, the body cannot be destroyed. It might retreat or temporarily turn to dust, but it will reassembled within a day if the soul’s container is not found and destroyed via blessing, dispelling or other means.

When using a mummy in your campaign, consider removing some of the cliche trappings such as the wrappings or the Egyptian trappings (unless they are appropriate). You certainly never need to use the word ‘mummy’. It’s entirely possible that without the wrappings, they’ll think it some other generic brand of undead.

The idea of mummies bodies having curative powers is based on history. People actually believed this.

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