Weird Opera

Faces of Pretomournon:The Dwarf with the Eye-patch

2014-02-20T17:12:00.001+01:00

Ibbo

A strange-looking creature, small and stocky, but broad and strong. Maybe it's a small man, or maybe a large gnome. Maybe it's a member of an unknown race from a distant corner of Seralin, or even from one of the other moons of Anderove. Anyway, the creature calls itself a “dwarf”.

Dwarves are not native to the Weird opera world, but then, Ibbo is not from this world. He comes from a distant planet located in another universe, where immortals rule over an eternal empire. Ibbo double-crossed one of them, and had to run for his life.

Following an ancient map, Ibbo found his way into a strange multi-dimensional castle, in which he quickly became lost. Wandering through the castle’s many rooms and corridors, the strangeness and horrors he encountered almost drove him mad. Chased by a swarm of vargouilles, he sought refuge in what appeared to be a chapel. It was there he was contacted by Arak-Kur-Mortahn, The Death Titan, a demonic destroyer of worlds traveling from world to world in his ship of the lost. Ibbo vowed to serve the Lord of Twist and The Death Titan provided a portal key that would activate one of the many magical portals out of the castle. Ibbo ended up on Seralin, where he resides to this day.

The dwarf has dull gray skin and wears shiny black leather armor. He wears an eye-patch over his left eye, making him look like a pirate, shaves his head bald, and wears his graying beard short. He speaks with a deep voice that could be described as “fatherly”, or as “disturbing”.

Pretomournon’s inhabitants don’t notice, but Ibbo has the surly attitude of a typical dwarf; stoic and stern, dour and humorless. In addition, he’s very foul-tempered and mean. He fully intends to help the Lords of Misrule to destroy this world and many others after that. Even though Ibbo’s the Disciple of the 5^th Lord of Misrule, he’s happy to let another demon bring about the Apocalypse. It’s for this reason he helps the jester Quinzel to summon her master, Padat The Fall. That, and the girl is easy to take advantage of when she’s in one of her depressive moods.

If not working to cause the end of the world, Ibbo indulges in his hobbies: robbery, theft, murder and tax evasion. Not too long ago he stole a chest of magical weapons from smuggler Vithimiris Reizensteijn, with the help of a key provided by key maker Frederika Gvene. He sold the weapons for a large sum of money to the amazon Demostratia. However, Gvene talked under pressure, and now Reizensteijn has offered a substantial award for "the dwarf with the eye-patch".

Ibbo: AL C; MV 12; AC 6 (studded leather, Dex); Male Dwarf 9; hp 59; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+5 (dwarven thrower war hammer, Str) or 2d6+10 when thrown, or by weapon +2; S 16, D 13, C 16, I 15, W 10, Ch 15; M 6; items: amulet vs. crystal balls and ESP; XP 2,400.

Ibbo has all the special qualities of the dwarf class.

Location: The lighthouse in the harbor, Quinzel’s apartment in the River District, or committing a crime somewhere else in the city.

See also: Demostratia, Frederika Gvene, Quinzel, Vithimiris Reizensteijn.

Note: Arak-Kur-Mortahn, The Death Titan appears in the one-page dungeon Ship of the Lost.

Stationery Vermin

2014-02-02T13:31:00.000+01:00

There are lots of monsters said to be the result of magical experiments, and so are the creatures known as stationery vermin. It seems plausible indeed that these pests were an invention of an office working mage, cleric, or clerk who was tired of misplacing his scissors or pencils. Whatever the truth, now stationery vermin are breeding, and have become a nuisance in any office environment.

Stationery vermin are small creatures, about the size of rats. Each has a piece of office supplies for a head: scissors, a stapler, a pencil, etc. They can be either bipedal and quadrupedal, and there are species that are bird-like and can fly. Apparently, these shapes are independent of the type of stationery – there are both running and flying scissorheads, for example.

Stationery vermin can be trained to follow orders.

Stationary Vermin (2d12): AL N; MV 150’ (50’), (birdlike vermin have 180’ (60’) flying); AC 7; HD 1-2 hp; #AT 1 (bite); Dmg 1; Save Human0; M 5; XP 6. In addition, every type of stationery has a special attack or ability, as given below.

Eraserhead. Erase: At will, the eraserhead can erase magical writing as the 1^st-level magic-user spell.

Glue-Tubehead. Glue: The glue-tubehead can cover any surface with a sticky substance. Creatures touching the glue cannot mow, unless a Str-check is made. If the check is unsuccessful other actions to free oneself can be taken (for example, taking of ones boots or gloves).

Pencilhead: Illusory script: Once per day, the pencilhead can disguise it’s writing as per the 3^rd-level illusionist spell illusory script.

Scissorhead: Cut: The attacks of the scissorhead do 1d6 damage.

Staplerhead: Staples: The attacks of a staplerhead do 1d4 damage.

Tape-Dispenserhead. Constriction: if the tape-dispenserhead’s attack hits, its target’s legs are constricted, making it impossible to walk without falling (1d4 dmg).

Variant: Hit Dice by Race

2014-01-18T20:05:00.000+01:00

This variant is inspired by the way Hit Dice work in OD&D.

The kind of die a character rolls for hit points is determined by his race, not his class. The table below shows the Hit Dice for the most common races:

Race	Hit Die
Dwarf	d8
Elf	d6
Gnome	d6
Half-elf	d8
Halfling	d6
Half-ogre	d10
Half-orc	d8
Human	d8

For the races of the Weird Opera world they are:

Race	Hit Die
Botanoid	d6
Gnome	d6
Morlock	d8
Neanderthal	d10
Nine-Lives Cat	d8
Paragon	d6
Pig	d10
Porcine	d8
Human	d8

One die is rolled at first level, but further dice are not rolled at every level of experience. A character’s class determines at which level he gains another Hit Die. For example, a cleric gains his second Hit Die at 2^nd level, but doesn’t get his third Hit Die until level 4. A magic-user gets a Hit Die every other level.

At levels at which a class doesn’t get a full Hit Die, he gains a flat number of hit points, usually 1 or 2. The following table shows the Hit Die progression for the four main classes:

Level	Cleric	Fighter	Magic-user	Thief
1	1	1	1	1
2	2	2	(+1 hp)	(+2 hp)
3	(+2 hp)	3	2	2
4	3	4	(+2 hp)	3
5	4	5	3	(+4 hp)
6	(+4 hp)	6	(+3 hp)	4
7	5	7	4	5
8	6	8	(+4 hp)	(+6 hp)
9	(+6 hp)	9	5	6
10	7	(+3 hp)	(+5 hp)	7
11	8	(+6 hp)	6	(+8 hp)
12	(+8 hp)	(+9 hp)	(+6 hp)	8
13	9	(+12 hp)	7	9
14	(+10 hp)	(+15 hp)	(+7 hp)	(+10 hp)
15	(+12 hp)	(+18 hp)	8	10
16	(+14 hp)	(+21 hp)	(+8 hp)	(+12 hp)
17	(+16 hp)	(+24 hp)	9	(+14 hp)
18	(+18 hp)	(+27 hp)	(+9 hp)	(+16 hp)
19	(+20 hp)	(+30 hp)	10	(+18 hp)
20	(+22 hp)	(+33 hp)	(+10 hp)	(+20 hp)

Further Notes:

* Fighters gain one Hit Die type greater than normal for his race. For example, a human fighter would uses d10 for Hit Dice.

* Paladins and rangers use the fighter progression, but don’t get the greater die type.

* Druids and monks use the cleric progression.

* Illusionists and spelldancers use the magic-user progression.

* Assassins use the thief progression.

New Race: Nine-Lives Cat

2014-01-10T16:33:00.001+01:00

Nine-Lives Cats

Requirements: INT 9

Ability Modifiers: DEX +1, WIS -1

Nine-lives cats are a race of intelligent shape-changing felines. They are not lycanthropes, and can transform at will. They can assume two shapes: that of a cat and that of a single unique human. Unlike lycanthropes, they do not have a bipedal cat form.

The human form is that of an attractive young woman or, less frequently, a young man. Like normal humans they are very diverse in appearance. They are virtually undetectable from a normal human, except for the pointy, fur-covered cat’s ears that are also visible in this shape. The cat’s ears are easily hidden beneath a hat or cap.

Nine-lives cats have infravision of 120 feet. In addition to their alignment language, common, elvish, and halfling they can speak to normal cats and felines, including big cats like tigers and lions.

Changing from one form to the other costs one round. Armor and equipment do not transform with the character, and his or her cat shape cannot use any weapons, armor or other equipment. A spellcaster in cat form may cast spells, but cannot handle any material components or use magic items.

The cat form is 1’-2’ tall. It has AC 6, Move 120’, and 3 attacks: 2 claws and 1 bite, each doing 1d2 damage. It has a number of d4 hp equal to the character’s level, but may not have more hit points than the human form. Wounds taken in one form carry over in the other. The nine-lives cat dies when the hp of her current form reach 0. However, the cat has nine lives, and if she has any lives left, she’s raised in 1d6 x 10 minutes as per the raise dead spell. If her nine lives are used, she’s dead for good. A dead nine-lives cat cannot be raised, except with a wish, that can give the character a new cycle of nine lives.

Nine-lives cats may select from the following classes, with the indicated level limits.

NINE-LIVES CAT CLASSES AVAILABLE
Class	Level Limit
Assassin	9
Fighter	12
Magic-User	U
Spelldancer	U
Thief	10

Nine-lives cat thieves receive the following bonuses and penalties to thief abilities:

NINE-LIVES CAT THIEF SKILL ADJUSTMENTS
Skill	Adjustment
Pick Locks	-5%
Pick Pockets	+5%
Move Silently	+7%
Hide in Shadows	+10%
Hear Noise	+1*
*Nine-lives cats receive a better dice range for hearing noises. For example, 1^st level nine-lives cat thieves hear noises on a 1-3, and at 9th level it is 1-5. Hear noise may never be better than 1-5.

2013: A Quick Review

2013-12-31T18:01:00.000+01:00

In almost six hours it will be 2014 in my little corner of the world. So there’s still time for me to do a review of 2013!

The year didn’t start well for me, with me being ill and having trouble doing things I really enjoyed – like blogging. In July I came back to this blog and started writing Three Sad Wizards. Most of the posts I made in July and August were about this module. I really like how it turned out and, judging from reactions I got, other people do as well.

In September I completed the 30 Day Challenge. Not all questions on the list were interesting, but I tried to make something of every post, and most of the time I succeeded. And after a year of not being able to blog, this did feel as a real victory.

I also started a series inspired by the Planescape book Uncaged Faces of Sigil. I did six entries in the series Faces of Pretomournon. So far I’m pleased with how the series is turning out, but I think the entries may be a bit too long. Faces of Pretomournon will return in the new year.

In October I wrote my most popular post from this year: Orc Babies. It was a commentary on D&D Next’s “story elements”, that threaten to be completely uninspired and boring. To put money where my mouth is, I showed how I do orc babies in my campaign. Apparently, people liked that.

In November I participated in NaNoWriMo. I hoped I could continue blogging, but that proved to be unrealistic. However, I did write 50K words on my novel that is now almost finished.

So what will 2014 bring?

I’m writing a module called Lost Library of the Death Speakers, which is on hold until I figure out a way to make it less boring. I’m also outlining Valkyries vs. Amazons, an module which can be summed up as Female Fighters in Unreasonable Armor – the Module. However, I also have my Nanowrimo novel to finish, so it may take a while before I have time for it.

I’m also writing the DSA game, a clone of the first edition of Germany’s most popular roleplaying game. So far, I have most of character creation, about half of combat, and a lot of spells done. Still a lot to do though, so it will take time.

Happy new year to everyone, and see you next year!

The Wild Hunt

2013-12-25T15:17:00.000+01:00

Every winter solstice, the Wild Hunt rides from Castle Woden. A group of riders with black faces, a large pack of huge black hounds, and numerous spirits or fairy beings, in pursuit of a single mortal being. The Hunt rides over ancient paths and roads, now long gone. If they encounter a farm, a village, or another building in their way , it’s burned to the ground.

Master of the Hunt is the Dark Huntsman, demon-like figure with antlers and a leather mask covering the entirety of his face. He rides either a black horse, or a white one, depending if the Hunt hunts a guilty soul, or an innocent.

Some years (40% chance) Frau Hulda, the snow maker, rides in front of the Hunt in her chariot. If she’s with the Hunt, a terrible storm rages over the land, felling trees, destroying blowing down wooden structures like fences and barns, and sometimes making casualties.

People encountering the Hunt should avert their eyes or risk being swept up by it. Characters who see it must save vs. spells or become part of the Hunt. The fate of such a person varies wildly. Some join the Hunt as hunters, following the Master’s orders, even if they go against their alignment. They will be released after the quarry has been caught and the Hunt is over.

Others are not so lucky. Characters with WIS 7 or lower will join the Hunt as one of its black hounds. The unlucky character will start running on all four and turn into a huge dog. A smaller white puppy will stay behind in his place. After the Hunt is over, the black hounds evaporate and the persons are lost in the spirit world for a year. If his family takes good care of the white pup, the character will be released next winter solstice.

Beautiful young girls and boys (CHA 15 or above) will be kidnapped by the riders and taken back to Castle Woden, never to be seen again.

The Wild Hunt often rides through its quarry’s home town, destroying the village in the process. To prevent the village from being burned down, villages often cast out girls into the forest, hoping the Hunt’s designated prey is among them. These girls are often taken into the homes of gnomes or witches in the forest. Some of them are lost for good or are found the next day frozen to death. Most of them return to the village safely, with no memory of what happened to them that night.

The Hunt’s quarry is usually a girl, often guilty but sometimes innocent. She can always hear the hounds coming closer, and is under the influence of a fear spell during the hunt. The Hunt is over when it captures its prey and shreds it to pieces.

However, deep in the woods is an unnamed stone circle, overgrown and hardly recognizable as such. The bones of the Master of the Hunt are buried there. If the prey manages to reach the circle she’s save. The Dark Huntsman cannot enter the circle, and will release the prey. She will never be hunted again by the Wild Hunt in her life.

The Hunt can be fought, but it can never be destroyed. When the Dark Huntsman and his hounds are killed in combat, their bodies will disappear, only to reappear the next night. If their prey is still alive, the Hunt continues.

The Dark Huntsman: AL N; MV 180’ (60’); AC 2; HD 15; hp 80; #AT 2; Dmg 1d6+6 (spear +3 ); Save F15; M 10; XP 1900. The Huntsman usually attacks with his spear +3. He may also steer his horse to trample an opponent, for 4d6 damage.

Frau Hulda: AL C; MV 120’ (40’); AC 3; HD 12; hp 72; #AT 3 (2 claws, 1 bite) ; Dmg 2d6 (claw) or 1d8 (bite); Save M12; Special: Spells; M 10; XP 2000. Frau Hulda specializes in spells concerning the weather. She can ride her chariot over victims, for 3d10 of damage.

Hounds (3d4): AL C; MV 120’ (40’); AC 4; HD 6; hp 25 each; #AT 1 (bite); Dmg 1d6; Save F6; M 9; XP 570. The Hounds of the Hunt can cause fear in any mortal being.

Call Forth the Wild Hunt

Level: Druid 4

Duration: up to 10 days (see below)

Range: 0

This specialized ritual should be cast in the ten days between the winter solstice and the new year in the stone circle where the Dark Hunter was buried. The spell costs thirty minutes to cast, and requires an item belonging to the intended victim. Once the ritual is complete, the ghost of the Hunter will appear and listen to the caster’s reasons to call the Hunt on someone. No matter if the reasons for doing so are just or not, the spell compels the Hunt to obey and pursue the quarry designated by the spellcaster.

Review: Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary

2013-12-18T14:23:00.001+01:00

Adventures Dark and Deep is Joseph Bloch’s thought experiment made real: “What if Gary Gygax had been allowed to go through with his plans for a second edition of the world’s most popular role-playing game?’

The result is an AD&D variant vastly superior to the original: it’s better written, has better art, and has more options for players to try out. The game is a magnificent achievement, and raises the bar for OSR products. The game’s Players Manual and the Game Masters Toolkit are both great, but the best book, and also the one easiest usable with other OSR games, is the Bestiary.

It’s 457 pages hold over 900, monsters, animals, and other creatures. It includes all creatures from the SRD, a great number of monsters from other OGL sources like the Complete Tome of Horrors, and some original creatures as well. So we have seen most of these monsters before in other sources. The original creatures are mostly new expressions of old ideas that don’t have an OGL version yet (for example, the Fairy Courts).

So what makes this book so good? It has everything. It’s got all the basics covered, and a lot of the extras as well. For the first time, everything’s in one book. If you’re like me, you don’t want to have to reference multiple monster books and magazine issues to stock a dungeon. As a result most of the monsters encountered in my campaigns were from the 2^nd Edition Monstrous Manual, formerly my go-to monster book.

Is there something I don’t like about the book?

Some of the art is great, but some of the art relies too much on tracing it’s reference, instead of referencing it. What’s worst, the design of the book is very basic. Some of the art doesn’t get the space it needs and falls a bit cramped, other pieces are printed too large and falls a bit flat. Tellingly, there’s no designer or art director credited. However, I acknowledge the achievement of having that much art in a small OSR publication.

The cover of my copy is a bit blurred, and some of the black-and-white art inside is a bit pixelated, making me think the printer worked from low resolution images. My copies of the Players Manual and the Game Masters Toolkit do not have these flaws.

All-in-all, the Bestiary is the best monster book currently available for any system. If you play any old school variant of D&D, you should check it out. If you play AD&D, you should take a look at the rest of the Adventures Dark and Deep rules as well.

Morale

Here’s a small issue I came upon when using the Bestiary for an B/X module. In the Bestiary, Morale is given as an adjustment on morale checks , which in Adventures Dark and Deep are rolled on 1d20. This is an improvement over AD&D’s percentile system, but it makes it harder to use with B/X, which uses 2d6, or 2^nd Edition AD&D, which uses 2d10. So I made a conversion chart:

Morale Conversion
ADD	AD&D	2^nd Edition	BX or BECMI
-10	0%	Unreliable (2)	2
-9	5%	Unreliable (2-4)	2-3
-8	10%	Unsteady (5)	3
-7	15%	Unsteady (6)	4
-6	20%	Unsteady (7)	4
-5	25%	Average (8)	5
-4	30%	Average (8)	5
-3	35%	Average (9)	6
-2	40%	Average (9)	6
-1	45%	Average (10)	6
0	50%	Steady (11)	7
+1	55%	Steady (11)	7
+2	60%	Steady (12)	7
+3	65%	Steady (12)	7
+4	70%	Elite (13)	8
+5	75%	Elite (13)	8
+6	80%	Elite (14)	8
+7	85%	Champion (15)	9
+8	90%	Champion (16)	10
+9	95%	Fanatic (17-18)	10-11
+10	100%	Fearless (19-20)	11-12

Check Out This Awesome Blog List

2013-12-06T12:52:00.001+01:00

+Charles Akins has compiled an impressive list of OSR related blogs. Each blog gets a short description what it's about and how frequently it's updated. For example, my blog is:

A fun, meandering blog that tends focus on most everything related to the hobby. Inventive and clever. A good place to start in the archives is Orc Babies and you'll know the tenor of this blog from the get go. Updates: Dark since October 30, 2013.

Inventive and clever. Yes, that made my day.

The list is already the most complete overview of the OSR blog-o-sphere, and Charles is updating it with blogs from the comments. It is a great resource to discover new blogs to read.

Check it out!

November: Nanowrimo & The DSA Game

2013-10-30T13:29:00.001+01:00

This november, like every november for the past seven years, I'll be participating in National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo for short). The goal is to write a novel of 50,000 words in one month. So far, I've "won" 3 times and "lost" three times, so my chance of completing the challenge this year is about 50%. In years I didn't complete 50K of words, I still wrote 20K - 30K, so it's still a boost for my writing, and so far I've completed three-and-a-half novels this way.

This year, I'm also writing a game. To be precise, I'll be writing a clone of the 1st edition of Das Schwarze Auge. I'm including both the Basic Set and the Expansion Set, so it will be pretty complete, and despite the bad rep the game has in some circles, it will actually be pretty good. (And it will be nice to have a version of the rules without Ulrich Kiesow's childish writing voice).

For this blog, it means posting will be light next month. Hopefully, I can manage to post at least once a week.

Spells of the Identity Mage

2013-10-26T21:17:00.000+02:00

Dr. Stirma Dijke is a research scientist working at the College for Psychology and Philosophy of Pretomournon University. Her specialty is identity, especially it’s changeability and instability. She conducts horrible experiments in which she regularly wipes subjects’ memories, forces new identities upon them, and generally makes them ripe for the asylum. Here’s two of the spells she uses.

Change Identity

Level: Magic-user 5

Duration: Permanent

Range: 25 ft. +5 ft./2 levels

The change identity spell lets a mage change a single other person’s unique sense of self. It can fully change the mental make-up of a person: his mental abilities, his personality, his class, etc. Although it can change physical attributes like the character’s race and sex, it’s a mental change, For example, a male human who’s changed into a female dwarf sees and feels female and dwarf in all respects, but she still looks exactly the same as before.

For every level the caster has above 6^th, he may change one of the following things. So a 9^th-level mage may change three things, a 10^th-level mage may change four things, etc.

- The victim’s Intelligence score. Re-roll with 3d6.

- The victim’s Wisdom score. Re-roll with 3d6.

- The victim’s Charisma score. Re-roll with 3d6.

- The victim’s class. The caster picks the new class. The victim stays the same level as before.

- The victim’s race. The caster picks the new race. This is a mental change only.

- The victim’s sex. The victim becomes a member of the opposite sex. This is a mental change only.

- The victim’s sexual identity.

Incognito

Level: Magic-user 6

Duration: Variable

Range: 0

This spell makes all people in the world forget who the caster is. For the duration of the spell, not even his best friends will recognize him. He will be a complete stranger, although some people may think he looks a bit familiar. When the caster tells a person who he really is (“It’s me… Argus.”), that person will suddenly see who he really is.

To determine the precise duration and effect of the incognito spell, the caster makes a Charisma check. Because characters with higher Charisma are more memorable, it’s better to fail this check than it is to succeed with it.

Normally, the magic of the spell keeps working after the spell duration has ended: people who meet the caster while the spell is in effect will keep on remembering the stranger. However, on a very successful Charisma check they will retroactively remember his true identity.

Cha check	Duration	Effect
Fails	1 week	Caster is completely forgotten
Succeeds within 5 points of Cha score	2 days	Caster is forgotten, but some may wonder why he looks familiar
Succeeds with more than 5 points lower than Cha score	1 day	Caster is forgotten, some may wonder why he looks familiar, and he will retroactively be remembered after the duration has passed.

Faces of Pretomournon: The Amazon

2013-10-23T21:39:00.001+02:00

Demostratia

The Knights of the Ark are champions of Neutrality, trying to keep the balance between Law and Chaos. It is the largest knighthood on the world of Seralin, and consists entirely of women. As often happens in such large organizations there are different movements within the order, that explain the ideologies of the order differently and want to implement its objectives in different ways.

One of the largest groups within the Knights are the Amazons. Amazons believe that the balance between Law and Chaos can be best accomplished by fighting against the natural course of things (which contains of both order and entropy). One of the ways they do that is bringing the dead back to life (with the raise dead spell). The revived dead become beimana, or cheaters, and are taken out of the wheel of reincarnation. They can never reincarnate again.

In Pretomournon’s Ruined Tower District stands "The Unaligned School for Young Women", led by its headmistress Demostratia, knight of the Ark and Amazon. The pupils at the school are all between twelve and sixteen years. They’re trained to be squires to knights of the Ark, and eventually after an internship will receive a full knighthood. All the girls are beimana, meaning they have been dead and were resurrected by an Ark knight, after which they were transferred to the girl school in Pretomournon.

Demostratia was born on the knights’ ark Utnapishtim. As a young girl she was one of the most promising squires, and she was fully knighted at the young age of fifteen. In the decade that followed Demostratia accomplished many successful missions, and she rose steadily through the ranks of the Guild. However, when she observed the knights’ "end justifies the means" philosophy in action on several of her missions, she grew more and more dissatisfied with the Guild's lessons. Her loss of faith successfully hiding, Demostratia was offered the position of headmistress of The Unaligned School. She took it eagerly, and she left for Pretomournon.

Her superiors do not know that in Pretomournon Demostratia joined La Révolution, the Guild that believes people should be able to choose their own leaders. The entire staff of the school consists of revolutionaries. In addition to classes about the knight’s code and philosophy about Order, Neutrality, and Chaos, students also get lessons in political science, guerrilla tactics, setting traps, assassination, and alchemical bomb making. When the students graduate they are not only knights, but also terrorists. Demostratia's goal is nothing less than to overthrow the leaders of the Knights of the Ark itself.

To arm her pupils, Demostratia purchased a chest of magic weapons the dwarf Ibbo. This chest was stolen by Ibbo from the warehouse of Vithimiris Reizensteijn. Reizensteijn is outraged by the theft and has offered a reward for "the dwarf with the eye-patch", but doesn’t know that the weapons are now in the hands of the revolutionary amazons.

Running the school does not go in its entirety without any problems. The gang of The Basher Brothers visited the school a few times to suggest “in a friendly but firm way" to the headmistress to move. After some inquiries here and there Demostratia found out The Temple wants to draw a magical rune in streets, and that the school is in the way. Demostratia is not going to move the school, and so far she has managed to resist the pigs. The Bashers, not used to knights who aren’t intimidated, have yet to find a way to clear the school.

Another problem presents itself in the guise of the young scoundrel which is known as "The Romanticist". This romantic rogue visits the school regularly at night to “honor” some of the older girls with a visit. Naturally Demostratia and her staff do not want this, but they suffer the disadvantage of girls taught to turn against authority: time after time the girls help the Romanticist to hide or to get away. So far, Demostratia failed to catch the young man.

However, she did catch the thief Esbern. Demostratia caught the handsome thief when he tried to rob her office. He begged her not to hand him over to the authorities. Demostratia agreed, on condition Esbern did a number of jobs for her. Since then, an unusual relationship developed between the two, in which both are attracted to each other, but neither wants a love affair with the other.

Demostratia: AL N; MV 12; AC -1 (banded mail +1, shield +2, Dex); Human Female Fighter 6/Thief 4; hp 44; #AT 2; Dmg 1d8+5 (long sword +3, Str) or by weapon +2; S 17, D 15, C 14, I 13, W 10, Ch 14; M 8; items: helm of telepathy; XP 2400.

Thief Skills: PL 31, FRT 23, PP 37, MS 37, CW 90, HS 27, HN 1-3.

Location: The Unaligned School for Girls in the Ruined Tower District.

See also: The Basher Brothers, Esbern, Ibbo, The Romanticist, Vithimiris Reizensteijn, Sylgya.

Orc Babies

2013-10-16T13:21:00.002+02:00

I’ve seen a lot of discussion about Mearls’ 5E articles and the rules-side of the game, but there’s been hardly any conversation about James Wyatt’s “Wandering Monsters” column. There should be, because it’s terrible. In the column, Wyatt discusses monsters, and their role in the D&D game and world. The results are often uninspired, or they come completely out of the blue.

Apparently, the goal is to create monster concepts that can include both the AD&D/3E version of a monster, and the 4E version. Sounds good, but the result is often a wishy-washy, watered down monster. I’m no fan of the changes 4E made to some of the monsters, but at least there were concepts behind them (even if they were weak concepts). For example, the much-lamented Devil Succubus was a dumb idea, but at least it was a Devil. In 5E, the Succubus will be nothing. They’re watering down the concept even more. Furthermore, Wyatt’s articles make for dry reading, and that doesn’t bode well for the 5E Monster Manual.

Last week’s article, “You Got Science In My Fantasy” touches upon a topic I’ve been meaning to write about:

Orc Babies

Let’s get one thing straight: no orc is a “non-combatant”. The idea that encountering orc babies is an interesting “moral dilemma” or “philosophical discussion” is an often repeated adventurer legend that’s not true. It's up there with "Bree-yark means I surrender" and "Succubi are great kissers".

Orc babies are vicious, nasty little critters: balls of fur with razor-sharp teeth, an unrelenting hunger for fresh meat, and the ability to jump from the floor straight on a man’s face.

Orc Baby (2d8): AL C; MV 15; AC 10; HD 1d4 hp; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4 (bite); M 10; XP 6.

Jaws of Steel: An orc baby attacks the unarmored parts of their opponents (bare arms, face). If its bite attack succeeds, it stays attached to its opponent and does 1d4 damage automatically each round. To detach an orc baby the opponent must make a Str check.

Picture Post: The RPG Art of Bryan Talbot

2013-10-08T16:21:00.000+02:00

In 1982, British comic book artist Bryan Talbot produced some very atmospheric illustrations for the German roleplaying game Das Schwarze Auge. It occurred to me that, since it was never translated into English, few people outside Germany, the Netherlands, Italy or France are familiar with them. So I made this post.

Talbot is best known for The Adventures of Luther Arkwright, and has provided art for Judge Dredd, Batman the Dark Knight, and Sandman, among other things. In 1982 he produced 100 illustrations for German roleplaying game Das Schwarze Auge. (As I have written HERE, DSA was my first RPG.)

For a whole generation of German and Dutch gamers, his atmospheric black-and-white illustrations were the first introduction to what a fantasy world looked like.

It looked like this:

Clicking the pictures makes them bigger.

The city of Havena has seen better days.

This is from the 2nd, censored edition. Originally, the girl's dress was torn and the goblin was touching her in an inappropriate way.

Surprising the goblin.

There are many illustrations of rooms in this book. This is one of the more interesting.

This demon from the mirror has the same stats as the hero.

DSA's kobolds were a big inspiration for my take on gnomes in the Weird Opera world.

A family of orcs.

Talbot drew this map of the game world before there even was a setting. It informed the shape the campaign setting would take.

There's a secret door hidden in this painting. See if you can deduce how to open it.

Goblin.

Orc.

Ogre.

Troll.

Dragon.

Vampire bats.

Faces of Pretomournon: The Pigs

2013-10-05T14:55:00.000+02:00

The Basher Brothers

If you want to have someone killed, the best place to go to is the Secret Masters Guild. But sometimes you do not want someone dead immediately. Maybe you want him beat up? Threaten him? Collect money he owes you? Break his legs? Then you can contact the Basher Brothers.

The pigs Ale, Vodka and Gin - their father named them - began their careers as bodyguards in service of the rich moneylender Garrelt Cristofoletto. Cristofoletto always used pigs as bodyguards - and still does - because he thinks that they look "tough". The brothers Ale and Vodka Basher guarded the moneylender for almost five years. During that time they often performed special "chores" for him. For example, when someone refused to pay, the brothers paid the debtor a visit to advise him to pay quickly (and when a large sum was involved, maybe break a leg or two). Ale and Wodka often took their teenage sister Gin with them on these jobs, in order to teach her “the ropes”.

When the new tax system was introduced, it paid Cristofoletto better to dismiss his bodyguards and take on freelancers. Of course he hired Ale and Vodka Basher right away, but the two pigs suddenly found themselves forced to start a company. However, Vodka saw an opportunity to expand their business. Gin began approaching new customers. There appeared to be a large market for Brute Force, and soon they got so many commissions that they had to hire personnel.

Now the Basher Brothers (and the Basher sister) are at the head of the largest mercenary guild in Pretomournon. All members of the gang are pigs, about as many bears as sows. Ale and Vodka no longer work as bodyguards - they leave that to the pigs in their service.

Ale, the oldest brother, is the largest, the strongest, and the dumbest of the siblings. Since he no longer does mercenary work, he behaves as if he's better than the staff - many of whom are former friends of his. Ale's an Executive Board Member of the mercenary guild, but actually he’s nothing more than a glorified guard of his younger brother and sister. He is especially protective of Gin, and he makes it very dangerous for would-be suitors to come near his sister.

Vodka, the middle sibling, is only slightly smarter than his older brother, but not by much. Vodka pictures himself as a real businessman. He dresses like a wealthy merchant, smokes big cigars, and travels through the city in his own rickshaw, pulled by one of his servants. But beneath that stylish exterior he remains the low-class gangster from the River District. He is vulgar, has terrible manners and a banal sense of humor.

Gin is the Basher sister. She's smarter than her brothers and therefore takes care of administration, human resources, and client contacts. But make no mistake, even though she’s smart, Gin is as vicious and violent as her brothers, and strong enough to beat almost every thug in the city in a one-on-one fight - except for Ale.

The Basher Brothers have many clients. In addition to providing Cristofoletto's protection, they work for Vithimiris ReizenSteyn, on whose behalf they threaten the art dealer Fern, for Carter Don, who hired them to clear the orphanage of the Amazon Demostratia, and for the magician Laumones of Rozeren, for whom they try to keep the rogue only known as "The Romanticist" away from his daughter Abigail. In all three of these jobs the Bashers aren’t very successful, and it looks like there’s room for competition in the thugging market. So far, however, no one has dared to compete with Ale, Vodka and Gin.

Ale Basher: AL N; MV 12; AC 6 (studded leather +1); Pig Male Fighter7; hp 49; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+3 (mace +1, Str) or 1d4+2 (bite, Str) or by weapon +2; S 17, D 10, C 16, I 5, W 9, Ch 7; M 11; XP 790.

Vodka Basher: AL N; MV 12; AC 6 (unarmored); Pig Male Thief 9; hp 43; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4+1 (silver dagger, Str) or 1d4+1 (bite, Str) or by weapon +1; S 15, D 11, C 15, I 7, W 10, Ch 8; M 9; special: backstab (2d4+2 dmg), thief abilities; items: gloves of swimming and climbing; XP 1700.

Gin Basher: AL N; MV 12; AC 5 (unarmored, Dex); Pig Female Fighter 5; hp 40; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+1 (mace, Str) or 1d4+1 (bite, Str) or by weapon +1; S 15, D 13, C 13, I 12, W 10, Ch 11; M 9; XP 350.

Pig Thugs of the Basher Guild: AL N; MV 12; AC 8 (leather); Pig Fighter 2; hp 10; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+1 (mace, Str) or 1d4+1 (bite, Str) or by weapon +1; M 10; XP 29.

All have normal abilities of a pig, as described HERE.

Location: The Basher siblings can be found in their office in the Money District, or in the barracks of their mercenaries in the River District.

See also: Garrelt Cristofoletto, Demostratia, Carter Don, Fern, Vithimiris Reizensteijn, The Romanticist, Laumones Van Rozeren.

D&D 30: I Made It, and What Now?

2013-10-02T14:41:00.001+02:00

So I completed the 30 day challenge this Monday – precisely on schedule. I managed to post every day, and I didn’t skip days, so I didn’t need to catch up.

I had a fun time telling stories about my favorite PC, NPC, and events from previous campaigns. I play D&D in one form or another for almost 25 years, and it was nice to reminiscent about successful games in the past. Looking back, I saw we had some awesome campaigns.

I think everyone agrees the list is a bit dry and repetitive, but all-in-all most questions are good subjects to blog about. The only questions I couldn’t answer satisfactory where the two dice questions, and the one about energy. I endured the repetitive days of monster questions by drawing each monster. They became my favorite questions on the list. Making an illustration takes a lot more time than writing a post does, but I ended up with some nice drawings.

I really liked reading the posts of the other participants. Everyone’s posts were different from each other, making some nice surprises, or “oh, that’s cool”-moments. Although, I didn’t understand the answers on day 6 (favorite deity). Tyr? Chauntea? Where’s Vecna, or Tharizdun?

The most boring thing about the challenge were the people complaining about the challenge. Of course everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but I don’t understand the need for macho posturing and silly insults. Oh well, it’s over now.

What’s Next For This Blog?

“Faces of Pretomournon” has begun, and three of the NPCs are posted. I’ll keep posting the write-ups about one every weekend, but with 30 NPCs, that will take a long time. Maybe, if I manage to get ahead, I can speed up posting a bit.

Further, I’m still writing “Lost Library of the Deathspeakers”. To be honest, the 30 day challenge took a lot of time away from writing the module, but I’m now returning to it, and thanks to the challenge there’s a gibbering mouther in it. I’ll post some things like new spells, books, and magic items from the adventure on the blog.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 30 – Best DM I’ve Had

2013-09-30T11:55:00.003+02:00

Last day!

It’s impossible to name the best DM out of the DMs I’ve had. They all were very different, and they all had good moments.

My cousin Rutger was my first DM. Actually, we always ran our campaigns together. We would take turns DMing and playing. Sometimes we would prepare our own separate adventures, but more often we would prepare for the game together, and decide who would DM two minutes before we began.

My friend Alex was my DM for most of my time at art academy. Alex was a big horror fan, and read a lot of Stephen King. He was attracted to Ravenloft, and ran adventures in that setting exclusively .

Being both an art student and a horror fan, it’s no surprise Alex was very good at building atmosphere. His Ravenloft game often went beyond the gothic horror the setting usually provides, and our PCs encountered scary dreams, serial killers, and a rusty petrol station from another time. He often used out-of-game elements like music and lightning in his game

My friend Martijn was a believer in The One Way: the DM providing the railroad and the player’s staying in character as much as possible. His favorite setting was Al-Qadim, and for the most part he ran published adventures. I have written about those before (here and here), because I’ve used them for my own Al-Qadim campaign as well, and sometimes I could see he had difficulty making the adventures work. That’s not to say he was a bad DM, it was the adventure’s fault. He was especially good at using props: clay amulets, handwritten documents, that sort of thing.

Martijn was running his Al-Qadim campaign when 3^rd Edition came out, and converted the campaign to the new rules. In hindsight, the shift from a more story-oriented game to a more combat-oriented game was very clear. The story elements were still there in 3^rd, of course, but because the characters had more combat-oriented abilities and the fights took a bit longer, there was definitely more combat in the game than before.

My brother Jorrit DMed Dark Sun for a bit, decided he didn’t want to play AD&D anymore, played and ran a lot of games in the Storyteller system, and came back with 3^rd Edition. When 4E came out we started a campaign together, each of us running adventures in turn, but he quickly decided 4E wasn’t for him and left our group. Now he mostly plays Pathfinder.

I’ve played in two of Jorrit’s campaign: the Banewarrens campaign and his Castle Greyhawk campaign. Both had the same faults, pretending to be large megadungeons but really being 3.5 adventure paths. However, both have enough fun set-pieces, and Jorrit is especially good at those. He was also good at managing a big rule-set like 3.5 and Pathfinder.

So all of the DMs I’ve had were the best in some aspects. It’s interesting to note all of them were especially good at things I don’t do in my games. I don’t use music, and my games are more about ideas than about atmosphere. I hardly use any props, and while I’ve had long miniature combats in my 4E game, of course, I’m not really that good at the tactical side of the game. Maybe it’s because I’m not very good at those things that I admire their skill with them.

Faces of Pretomournon: The Priestess

2013-09-29T14:30:00.000+02:00

Amariza

The Cathedral of Clouds in Pretomournon is the largest cathedral in the world. It’s home to nearly a hundred small orders, all of which are members of The Temple, the global organization for waning religions. The cathedral is a wonder to behold: a huge structure of more than 500 feet high, made of large grey stones, with gates big as titans, sixteen bell towers touching the sky, and guarded by terrible gargoyles patrolling the walls.

Inside there is plenty to see, hear and experience as well. The floor is inlaid with the sacred symbols of a thousand gods. High stained-glass windows display scenes out of the stories of Deucalion, who saved mankind and wildlife by building the ark Utnapishtim, of Rystespyt, who teached humanity to speak and write, and of Crow, who slayed The Chimera Out Of Nowhere.

Each god has its own shrine – the greater gods a chapel - and each shrine shows the power and greatness of its god. The water in the font of Elgar, god of Patrionism, heals all who drink from it, as long as he or she demonstrates to know the full text of the national anthem, including the lesser known fourth stanza. The dead husk of the Lord of Apathy, hanging on iron chains suspended from the ceiling, promises to prophesize for those who sacrifice a finger. The statue of the Invisible Queen will make everyone with pure hatred and darkness in his or her heart beautiful in appearance.

Despite all these wonders, the Cathedral is rarely visited, and there are hardly any people other than priests and tourists. One of those priests is Amariza, priestess of Muizi, goddess of memory.

At first sight, her shuffling gait and stooped posture remind one of an older person, but once she starts talking and laughing, it becomes clear immediately that she is younger. Amariza is in her early ‘30s and small of stature. She wears her dark blond hair pinned up in a bun and she always wears the light blue robe of office. A cloud of about 10 dragonflies – insects sacred to the goddess Muizi – circles her constantly. When starting a conversation, she always asks people the same question: "Do you remember Muizi?"

Amariza grew up in Heugenis, a small village in the northeastern part of the Mournful Kingdom. All residents of Heugenis worship the goddess Muizi, and from an early age Amariza knew that she wanted to dedicate her life to serving her goddess. The priest Pascer took her on as an acolyte at the age of twenty, and inaugurated her into the mysteries of the faith. She learned to talk to dragonflies, to read and interpret signs in the collective memory of humanity, and how to cast some spells. Once her training was complete, the disadvantage of living and working in a small town like Heugenis became clear: the shrine to Muizi was small, and could be managed easily by one person. Amariza stayed on as Pascer’s assistant much longer than normal for an acolyte, but eventually it became clear she had to find her own path to walk. Therefore, Amariza decided to leave her home village to travel to the capital, where the largest and most important shrine to Muizi was located in the Cathedral of the Clouds.

Amariza’s idea was to join the priestly order of Muizi. However, as she arrived in Pretomournon, to her dismay she discovered that no such order existed in the city. The shrine in the cathedral was abandoned and no one – not even the leadership of The Temple – knew about the shrine’s goddess. Amariza was shocked to learn that no one knew about Muizi.

When Amariza learned more about the religious and philosophical schools in the city, she came to the conclusion that the majority of the population had forgotten the gods. And, as the new high priestess of memory, she felt it was here duty to do something about it.

With the help of a young nun named Trudi, she obtained from the library of The Temple an obscure ritual that calls a god into the material world. Amariza wants to use this ritual to summon Muizi. She believes when the goddess of memory walks in the world, people will remember again.

The ritual requires an enormous magical symbol drawn on the ground, covering an area of half a city quarter. Although there’s enough space in the ruined part of Pretomournon to make this half-mile-wide sign, the ruins in the outer circle of the city are not quite uninhabited. Therefore, Amariza hired the “fixer” Carter Don to ensure that the necessary area is clear, and the people who live there are paid to move.

Although Amariza is a sweet woman, she is very naive and gullible. She truly believes Carter Don uses the money she pays – almost her entire salary as a High Priestess of The Temple – to compensate people for leaving their homes, and she has no idea of his true methods. She has no suspicion of her confidant Trudi's true identity either, and has no clue about the real objective of the summoning ritual: to bring about the Apocalypse.

Amariza: AL N; MV 12; AC 9 (unarmored); Human Female Mage 1; hp 4; #AT 1; Dmg 1d4 (dagger) or by weapon; S 11, D 10, C 13, I 14, W 9, Ch 14; M 6; Items: medallion of thoughts; XP 13.

Spells: Amariza can memorize two 1^st level spells, or one of 2^nd level. Favorite spells are amnesia, augury, and know alignment.

Faultless Memory: As a priestess of Muiri, goddess of memory, Amariza never forgets anything. She can recall anything she has heard.

Sacred Dragonflies: Amariza always has 1d6+6 dragonflies flying around her. If Amariza is attacked, the dragonflies will fight as an 2 HD insect swarm with a number of hit points equal to the number of dragonflies.

Dragonflies (1d6+6): AL N; MV 3, fly 6; AC 7; HD 2; hp 1 per dragonfly; #AT 1; Dmg 2 hp (bite); Save as human0; M 11; XP 29.

Location: In the Cathedral of Clouds during work hours, or in her small home in the Priests’ Quarter.

See also: Carter Don, Quinzel, Sylgya.

Note: Because the cleric class doesn’t exist in the Weird Opera world, Amariza is a mage. If you want to use her in a more traditional game, make her a cleric of intermediate level. Give her faultless memory as a granted power instead of turning undead, or give her both.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 29 – What is the number you always seem to roll on a d20?

2013-09-29T11:07:00.000+02:00

Okay, the maker of this list truly was out of ideas at this point. Thank God the challenge is over tomorrow. We wouldn’t want him to suffer for much longer.

How am I going to answer this? 3? 4? I always seem to roll low when I want to roll high, and I always seem to roll high when I want to roll low, but I think everyone has that problem.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 28 – A Character I Will Never Play Again

2013-09-28T11:39:00.001+02:00

I’m with Christopher Eccleston on this one: when I stop playing a character, I never go back to playing it, even if it would be for a 50^th anniversary celebration.

Usually, when me and my group end a campaign, we start up something else entirely. For example, now I’m playing Vampire. If we go back to D&D we’ll probably start at 1^st level, so previous characters are often too experienced. Also, there are many different character concepts, and returning to the same character means I can't play them.

I do use favorite previous PCs as NPC in new campaigns regularly. Sometimes they’re given a new name, appearance, and role so the players don’t recognize him or her. At other times, the character is pretty much the same. I like to have some continuity between my campaign worlds, even if they're not really in the same universe. For example, Quinzel is the character I played in my brother's Greyhawk campaign, Saldoran Gorst is from my Dromenon campaign, and Kata from an old 2nd Edition campaign all exist in the Weird Opera world in one form of the other.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 27 – A Character I Want To Play In The Future

2013-09-27T13:17:00.000+02:00

I’ve been DMing for most of the past 6 years, and before that I played an Ice Witch and a bard/jester. I haven’t played a thief in about ten years! And it is my favorite class! So for my next character (not my Next character, mind you) I’ll probably roll up a thief. To be more precise, I’ll play her:

Her name is Blasphemy Battleship (now where would I have gotten that name?), and only steals so she can provide for her poor, sick mother.

Or so she says...

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 26 – My Favorite Non-Magic Item

2013-09-26T21:25:00.001+02:00

As we approach the end of the 30 day challenge, the questions become more and more dull. The imagination of whoever wrote these questions didn’t reach very far. Oh well, we knew that going in.

Anyway, my favorite non-magical items are books. Of course, there are many magical books, tomes, librams and manuals in the game, but regular books can be just as much fun.

Spellbooks: Can be found in adventures when the bad guy is a mage, or when adventuring in a library. Found spellbooks are the most common source of spells for PC mages to add to their own spellbooks. For the DM, they’re also the best way to introduce new spells into the campaign.

Exposition: Books are a good way to fill in your players about certain aspects of your campaign world, or, if you’re into that kind of thing, the plot of the adventure. For this kind of books handouts can be nice, representing interesting pages in the book and detailing one of the campaign world’s forgotten legends, or pages from the vampire’s diary.

Traps: Books make great traps, because when PCs find a book, they’ll want to read it. Any book kan be firetrapped or inscribed with a sepia snake sigil. The adventure “Ex Libris” from Dungeon Adventures # 29 had Abishai devils imprisoned in its books that were freed when a book was read. The letters on a page can be an entity existing of ideas, that jumps into the reader’s mind as a parasite, or they could be a spell that casts itself.

Mythos Tomes: Books that slowly drive you mad while you try to decipher the mad ramblings of the writer are always a favorite. These books are somewhere between a spellbook and exposition. Realms of Crawling Chaos from Goblinoid Games has a good system for reading Mythos Tomes and learning spells from them. And the Madness rules from Call of Cthulhu are actually in the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana, which means they’re available through the OGL.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 25 – My Favorite Magic Item

2013-09-25T13:07:00.000+02:00

My favorite magic item is the wand of wonder. There’s a number of items of random magic in the game (bag of tricks, deck of many things, etc.) but none of them strike me as whimsical as the wand of wonder. The wand has a nice balance between effects: they are funny (turning permanently purple), useless (grass grows), damaging (a 6d6 fireball), and useful (invisibility).

I use the wand often. Recently, I gave the apprentice mage Lessie in Three Sad Wizards a variant wand of wonder. For her wand I removed the more damaging effects to make it less deadly and more humorous. Quinzel from Faces of Pretomournon has a wand of wonder as well.

Why WotC thought they needed to change the wand into a rod of wonder is beyond me. Just another case of fixing things that aren’t broke. Wand or rod, this magic item is always fun.

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 24 – Favorite energy type

2013-09-24T09:39:00.001+02:00

Gosh, finally an interesting question on this list! I love energy types, they’re my favorite part of the game! I can’t imagine how we ever managed without them. I mean, when a fire giant that is immune to fire is attacked with a torch, does he get damage? How do you know if the torch is doing fire damage? Leaving it to the DM seems unfair and untrustworthy. Fortunately, energy types were introduced in 3^rd Edition, and 4E made them even better! And I'm liking what I've seen so far in Next.

Anyway, my favorite energy: I ‘m a big fan of Necrotic energy and Radiant energy. Necrotic comes from the negative energy plane, and Radiant comes from the positive energy plane, but the designers were smart enough not to call these energy types “positive energy” and “negative energy”. That would have been stupid. “Necrotic” sounds much awesomerer!

However, the very best energy and my true favorite is Fire energy, because it can set things on fire and burn things. Now that’s what I call awesome!

D&D 30 Day Challenge: Day 23 – Least Favorite Monster Overall

2013-09-23T15:58:00.000+02:00

I’ve said I dislike dragons. But I dislike dragonborn even more. I hate them.

Excuse me for ranting a bit.

To me, they personify lack of imagination and making everything boring that was cool. They make the fantastical outright mundane, and that’s never a good thing. The existence of dragonborn severely undermines the mythology of dragons. Apparently, WotC wants to make dragons truly legendary. Well, if people see dragon creatures in the streets every day, that just isn’t going to work.

Dragonmen were around in the game before 4E. In order of most interesting to least: Dragonlance had draconians, born out of corrupted eggs stolen from metallic dragons. There were different kinds of draconians, and they were pretty cool. For example, the Aurak draconian would explode when it reached 0 hp, and another one turned to stone, trapping his attacker’s sword. Dark Sun had the Dray, a race created by an undead dragon king, and the Forgotten Realms had Dragonkin, barbarian dragonmen under the control of the Cult of the Dragon.

So it might have been a good idea for 4E to combine them into one dragonkin race. But did the designers make them barbarians created by an undead dragon king, born from corrupted dragon eggs who explode upon death? No, they made them boring paladins.

I hate dragonborn.

Faces of Pretomournon: The Jester

2013-09-22T16:35:00.000+02:00

Quinzel

Quinzel is a jester who is rapidly making a name for herself in the city. She started her career in the Comedy Dungeon, a club where the less fortunate come to listen to jokes about the upper class. When she climbed the stage, the innocent looking blonde immediately charmed the audience. To everyone's surprise this little girl told the most coarse, rude, and vulgar jokes. Her performances were an instant hit, and soon Madame Cherisse came knocking on Quinzel’s door.

Now she regularly performs at the Palais Cherisse, on the leading stage in the city. Quinzel ’s performances here are attended by the same high class men she makes jokes about. On her first night, Madame Charisse tried to have Quinzel adjust her repertoire, and eliminate some jokes about important customers. But Quinzel would have none of it. She stepped onto the stage and began with a joke about Garrelt Cristofoletto, who sat less than 10 yards away with a courtesan on his lap. The whole room held his breath, but Cristofoletto took it all in good fun and began to laugh. The ice was broken, and since then Quinzel can say and do whatever she wants when she’s on stage. No matter how far she goes, she comes away with anything.

This is mainly because of how she looks. Quinzel is small in stature, unruly blond hair and big blue eyes. Although she’s in her early twenties, she can look as if she’s anywhere between 15 and 30 years, depending on how she wants herself to present. With her hair loose and without her jester makeup, Quinzel is practically unrecognizable, and she makes good use of this in executing her mistress’ plans.

See, Quinzel is the Disciple of Padat, The Fall, the 8^th Lord of Misrule. This demonic entity will destroy the world of Seralin by collapsing it into the gas giant Anderove. To do so, it must first reach the world and enter it.

Quinzel is originally from another world. Padat has plucked her from another world called Oerth to achieve the end of Seralin. Now, Quinzel is working to call her mistress to this world.

She does so by using the resources of The Temple. Disguised as a young nun named Trudi, Quinzel has won the trust of Amariza, a priestess of Muizi, goddess of Memory. Amariza is very upset about the advancing humanotheism and atheism in Pretomournon and decided something had to be done. Thanks to Trudi she came into possession of a ritual which will bring her goddess into the world. Of course, the ritual Trudi/Quinzel has provided will not call Muizi, but Padat, The Fall.

It should be clear by now that Quinzel is insane. Traveling between worlds and seeing what lies behind Reality has made her certifiable nuts. At night she has horrible nightmares, at daytime she has regular fits of crying. On days when she is not performing sometimes she fills sketchbooks with drawings of the hideous monsters from her dreams, and she plays haunting melodies on her flute that make listeners either sad or terrified.

However, there are few who ever see this side of Quinzel: for almost everyone she is the cheerful, provocative, mischievous jester who tells rude jokes. Ibbo, himself the Disciple of Arak-Kur-Mortahn, The Death Titan, 5th Lord of Misrule, knows who she is and assists her sometimes - even though he would prefer his own master to destroy the world. Madame Cherisse sees Quinzel’s depression and anxiety behind the scenes of her performances, but she’s unable to bond with the young woman. She has instructed a number of her spies to keep an eye on Quinzel, but so far none of them has found out she’s the servant of an Apocalypse Demon.

Quinzel: AL C; MV 12; AC 4 (manifesting leather armor +2, Dex); Human Female Jester 8; hp 29; #AT 1; Dmg 1d6+1 (short sword +1) or by weapon +2; S 9, D 14, C 12, I 15, W 13, Ch 15; M 10; items: wand of wonder; XP 1560.

Spells: Quinzel cast spells as a 4^th level Mage.

Manifesting armor: Quinzel usually goes about her business unarmored. The armor instantly manifests automatically when she is attacked. If she wants to, she can also summon the armor.

Location: At The Comedy Dungeon or the Palais Cherisse performing, in the Cathedral of Clouds (as Trudi), or in her apartment in the River District.

See also: Amariza, Madame Cherisse, Garrelt Cristofoletto, Ibbo.

Sources: I use my own version, but there are many good Jester classes on the web. Depending on which system you use, you can try one of the following versions:

- Swords & Wizardry and OD&D compatible games: http://swcompanion.wdfiles.com/local--files/resources/jester (obviously, Quinzel isn’t immune to insanity).

- Labyrinth Lord and B/X compatible games: http://labyrinthinelore.weebly.com/uploads/6/0/8/4/6084555/jester.pdf (obviously, Quinzel isn’t immune to insanity).

- For OSRIC and AD&D compatible games: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/files/pdf/FootprintsNo12.pdf

- For Basic Fantasy: http://basicfantasy.org/download.cgi/BF-Jesters-Supplement-r2.pdf