19 January 2015
Destination One Page Dungeon
The One Page Dungeon Contest for 2015 is on, and there will be a prize of $500 for the first place winner. The deadline is 30 April 2015. Read about the 2015 contest and don't forget to use #1pdc when discussing the topic in social media. Good luck and game on.
10 January 2015
Year's Beginning
Welcome to the year 2015, wherein I seek to fulfill my promise to update Applied Phantasticality with greater regularity. I previously alluded to several projects I would attempt to finish this year. Now I shall unveil the nature of those projects.
Project #1: My Swords & Wizardry White Box variant (the title of which will be revealed when it is ready to be released into the wild). This is simply a codification of the rules I currently prefer to use when I run anything related to Dungeons & Dragons. Whereas I used to run a hybrid of Basic/Expert D&D and 1st edition AD&D, I now prefer a system that is closer to how I have always actually run D&D, which is a lot closer to OD&D. The difference now is that I have embraced the unified saving throw and ascending armor class of Swords & Wizardry. I can't leave well enough alone, of course, which is why I need to present my version of the Original Game with all of my house rules properly integrated. This will make things easier for players and referees alike.
Project #2: Cargoes & Castaways. This is my role-playing game of 19th Century fantastic survival adventure inspired by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Ray Harryhausen. I originally designed it as my entry for the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day contest, but Blogger had trouble presenting something so large even after I broke it into chapters, so I deleted the posts with the intention of releasing it at a later date as a PDF. I still intend to do this, but the rules need to be revised, playtested, and revised again. Once I do that, I'll release it. If I can find appropriate illustrations, I might even make it available on Lulu as a print-on-demand book.
Project #3: My Empire of the Petal Throne-to-Swords & Wizardry White Box conversion. I hope to do this quickly so I can run it this year as part of the Tékumél anniversary. I'll probably release the rules before they have been playtested in order to get as wide a range of responses as possible. Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get a chance to play some games set in Tékumél at BASHCon or Origins this year. I don't even care which system is used. [Edit: Incidentally, literally none of this came to pass, and now I am relieved it didn't. (23 March 2022)]
Project #4: One Page Dungeon Contest? Maybe...
Those are my Big Four OSR projects for 2015. I have other gaming projects in the works, but they are mostly outside the scope of this Web log.
31 December 2014
Year's End
Well, the year has ended with a sigh for Applied Phantasticality (and my other Web logs for that matter). Moving to another city, working longer hours, and actively gaming with other beings in person has resulted in a bit of neglect here. May the coming year find me far more productive in all of my writing endeavors including those that are related to gaming.
In 2015, I hope to run events at two conventions, coordinate up to four different gaming groups that will meet with varying regularity, finish work on at least three of my projects, restore my domain sites, and resume regular Web log updates.
Meanwhile, I am awaiting the arrival of three new publications: The Excellent Travelling Volume (#1), A Red & Pleasant Land, and Wonders & Wickedness. Recently, I received The Dungeon Dozen and Swords & Wizardry White Box. As you may surmise, these days I am interested in minimizing rules and maximizing whimsy.
Happy New Year to all of you, and remember to game on!
In 2015, I hope to run events at two conventions, coordinate up to four different gaming groups that will meet with varying regularity, finish work on at least three of my projects, restore my domain sites, and resume regular Web log updates.
Meanwhile, I am awaiting the arrival of three new publications: The Excellent Travelling Volume (#1), A Red & Pleasant Land, and Wonders & Wickedness. Recently, I received The Dungeon Dozen and Swords & Wizardry White Box. As you may surmise, these days I am interested in minimizing rules and maximizing whimsy.
Happy New Year to all of you, and remember to game on!
14 October 2014
Session Report 2014-08-10
SETTING: Some Dread Land
CAST:
Fiona, 1st level Human Fighter (Pirate) and her hen, Frederique
Volka, 1st level Halfling Fighter (Hunter) and her hawk, Artemisia
Daedriin, 1st level Halfling Thief (Specialist)
Tilly, 1st level Elf Cleric
Potato, 1st level Dwarf Magic-User
Session IV
Closing the door on the ominous starry void, Tilly invoked the sacred power to detect evil, not having heard Daedriin's opinion (colorfully expressed) that it would be nigh useless in surroundings as steeped in evil as the tower. Indeed, it revealed that the very stones of the floor, ceiling, and walls around them were soaked with evil.
Having decided to return to the doorway to what was presumably the top floor of the tower, the party headed back in the direction of the spiral staircase leading up to the ground floor. Returning to the kitchen, they realized there was a corridor to the west they hadn't explored, and thought they'd better explore it in case the ghouls Tilly had turned were lurking there. No sooner did they start toward it than Tilly sensed burning evil in the shape of a man approaching them from the dark corridor, beyond the light of Daedriin's lantern. Tilly told the rest of the party what she detected, and they prepared to meet their adversary. Soon a man in mail armor — and a surcoat matching that of the warhorse they found outside the tower — stepped into the light. His expression was that of a horror-stricken victim, but the party wasn't fooled and greeted him with harpoon, dagger, hand axe, rock, and arrow. By the time he was close enough to strike them, he was a bludgeoned, hacked pin cushion of his former former self. Tilly performed a quick ritual to put his soul to rest, and Fiona searched the corpse, finding only an empty scabbard, clothes, boots, and armor. Fiona removed her scale armor in favor of the superior mail armor (although it was a little too large for her).
Continuing down the corridor, they found that it ended in a circular room. The floor was littered with human skeletons. Tilly could sense no evil emanations from the bones themselves (surprisingly), so Daedriin inspected them more closely. They appeared to have been human... once. Every bone was strangely distorted or twisted. The skulls appeared to have been stretched and warped as if they were made of dough, but they were as solid as any normal skull. Daedriin found nothing else of interest, Tilly prayed over the remains, and the party resumed their hike to the top floor.
They made their way without incident to the floor above the ground floor, and looked in at the sitting room. Satisfied that it was safe, they looked in again at the library and the bedroom. They library was as they had left it: with a pile of crystals where the living statue had been shattered. The bedroom, too, had been undisturbed by anyone but them. They decided this might be their best and only hope for the possibility of rest in a locked, windowless tower, so they locked the door and tried to sleep, taking turns keeping watch (and using candles to measure the passage of time). As disturbed as they were by their situation, they were also exhausted, in pain, and in an amazingly comfortable bed, so they were able to get some much needed rest. After an appropriate interval, the awoke. Tilly prayed for a light healing spell, and Potato memorized the spell of magic missiles. Tilly then healed Fiona's wounds, which greatly relieved everyone in the party. Girding themselves again for whatever might lie ahead, they exited the bedroom, crossed the sitting room, and proceeded up the staircase.
At the next floor, they looked in at the chart room, entered, and opened the door to the laboratory. Finding nothing out of the ordinary (and no ghouls), they looked up at the ceiling of the chart room before they left. The ceiling dissolved and revealed a seascape of saffron-colored waves under a yellow sky with red and orange clouds. Above the sea there was a haze of glistening gold and orange particles. The party marvelled for a moment and then exited to resume their ascent up the stairs.
Standing once again before an arched doorway of impenetrable darkness, Daedriin poked his head in, but could see nothing. (Again, Potato felt that strange psychic twinge.) He held his lantern through the doorway, and the light it cast instantly changed to blue. Ahead, as before, stood the pale pillar with its steps spiraling around it. The pillar extended above and below. Apart from the pillar, he could see nothing. Turning his head to look back through the doorway, it was illuminated by the party's torchlight, and his comrades were perfectly visible, but nothing else could be seen. It appeared to be a doorway floating in a void, with no connection to any architecture. Turning his head forward, Daedriin knelt to touch what he hoped would be a floor, and felt a smooth, hard surface like obsidian. He stepped onto it, was satisfied that nothing ill befell him, and briskly made his way to the steps of the pillar. It supported him. The rest of the party quickly made their way to join him. (Potato felt a sensation like that of passing through a giant bubble.) Tilly's nostrils stung from the stench of sulphur, but the rest of the party didn't seem to notice it much. Everything around her emanated evil. Daedriin looked back at the doorway again, but it was now indiscernable from the surrounding darkness.
"Does somebody want to carry me on their back?" Potato asked.
No one volunteered.
The individual steps that wound around the pillar were unconnected to anything but the pillar itself, and there was no railing, so the ascent was precarious. The blue light from the lantern and the torch illuminated only the party and the strange staircase. The darkness felt close and oppressive. Presently, they thought they saw a deeper darkness flowing around them as if in invisible channels or tubes. Potato extended a finger and touched what appeared to be an artery floating near him. He felt a slight resistance, but his finger passed through it. His finger was coated with a black substance.
Volka: "You are not going to taste that."
Potato: "Can I lick it?"
Despite not tasting it, Potato ascertained that it was ichor, the lifeblood of supernatural beings. Excited by its potential uses, he borrowed a waterskin from Daedriin and filled it with the demonic fluid.
A few steps higher, and the party could hear a slow, rhythmic sussurus growing louder as they went. Above, they could see two enormous, sooty, blackened bags, expanding and contracting in time with the wheezing sussurus. Lungs! As if to confirm an unspoken thought that they had hoped was not true, one of the adventurers exclaimed, "We're inside a creature!" The party was not heartened by the realization. There was a discussion about whether to return to the tower proper, but Daedriin informed them that it would be impossible to find the doorway again. They decided to continue upwards.
A few steps higher still and they could hear a loud, rhythmic beat that sounded like huge stone blocks being pushed back and forth. Soon they saw its source: a titanic heart made of blocks of basalt, pulsating like a giant three-dimensional puzzle with a sound like a controlled avalanche. The party stiffened its resolve and continued upward past the thing.
They emerged at last in a spacious cavern. Daedriin touched the floor before stepping on it. It was smooth yet grainy in texture and it was as solid as rock. The party climbed into the chamber and looked around. Along half the chamber's perimeter they saw a single row of stalactites and stalagmites. "Teeth!" Daerdiin exclaimed. "We're in its mouth!" The party was eager to exit as quickly as possible, but the only other opening they found was in the ceiling away from the "teeth." Fiona held Volka's 10' pole up to the hole to let Volka and Daedriin climb up to it, and they in turn lowered a rope for Fiona, Potato, and Tilly. The five then made their way through a tortuous tunnel that twisted both horizontally and vertically until they found themselves in another cavern.
For the first time since walking through the eerie doorway, they could see light of a color other than blue. A yellowish orange radiance filled the chamber, pouring forth from two huge, almond-shaped windows in the opposite wall. Potato ran toward the windows and gazed through one of them. He saw a vast sea of fire. From time to time he could see fountains of lava spurting like blood. Red light etched the sooty black clouds that filled the sky. "We're in Hell!" Potato wailed. Daedriin approached and stuck his head through the window, looking around at the structure they were inside. They were in the body of an enormous demonic form perched on the edge of a very tall cliff overlooking the sea of fire. Part of its body appeared to be fused with the cliff. Investigating the rest of the chamber, all they found was a grayish dome protruding downward from the center of the ceiling. Its lowest point was about 15' high. Fiona poked at it with Volka's 10' pole. It seemed to have the consistency of gelatin, although it was opaque. Daedriin shot an arrow at it. It passed through easily, leaving no trace. Daedriin shot a flaming arrow through it. Again, it passed through, leaving no trace. (On each occasion, Potato felt a psychic ping.) The party briefly argued about whether they should try to retrace their steps back to the doorway or climb through the windows. Potato emphatically rejected any suggestion that they venture outside, refusing to venture into what was obviously Hell. At last they decided to continue investigating the weird reverse dome in the ceiling. Fiona, with help, held the 10' pole up and Daedriin climbed up it until he could touch the dome. He poked his finger in it and held it there. Potato could sense — almost as if he were both hearing it and feeling it — a sustained vibration like that made by a tuning fork. Daedriin withdrew his finger and the psychic tone that only Potato was aware of ended. Potato informed the party of what had just occurred, but Daedriin shrugged and poked his head through.
Daedriin could see a square room, approximately 40' by 40', constructed of stone, with a hole in its ceiling through which normal daylight shone. From his worm's eye view he could see a few stone edifices. On the walls there were charts with mystical symbols written on them. He pulled his head down to report what he had seen, then popped his head back inside and pushed his hands through. When his hands were in the room, he touched the floor. It was solid. He lifted his body inside and stood on the solid stone floor. There was no trace of the gray gelatinous substance. (What Potato experienced when Daedriin disappeared through the dome was a psychic "Pop!") The rest of the party followed him into the dome through a series of tricky maneuvers until they were all inside the room. They speculated that they were once again in the tower.
Looking around, they determined that this must be the summoning room. One of the stone edifices was a lectern, upon which lay a book. Nearby, they saw a stone pedestal upon which rested a large gem. Before the lectern, there was a stone altar with a lower trough that narrowed to a channel leading to a circle with a pentagram in the center of the room. There were candles positioned at the pentagram's points, but they were cold. Embedded in the floor within the magic circle was a strange metallic rock about the size of a melon. Fragments of stone littered the floor surrounding the rock.
Potato scurried toward the book. It was a large volume bound in scaled hide. On its cover was the image of a crocodile devouring the sun. "We found it!" Potato shouted. He wanted to open it and read it, but the book had a locked clasp, and the lock was decorated with mystical sigils. Potato knew that the power to unlock it was beyond his ken. Now that they had the book, they reasoned that they could just take it and hand it over to Tayzhen, but there was the nagging question of the scroll they were supposed to deliver to Syrifex, whom they still hadn't met. That reminded them that they hadn't determined how they would exit the summoning room, since the way they entered was apparently a one-way portal. They found the door and Daedriin checked to see if it was booby-trapped. He wasn't sure, but they opened it anyway and hoped for the best. Beyond, they saw a spiral staircase leading downward. Closing it again, they searched the room for any clues of Syrifex's whereabouts.
Fiona, however, was most interested in the rock embedded in the floor within the magic circle. Looking at it closely, it appeared to have been a molten metal that had cooled. It was covered with bubbles. It resembled iron, but it was oddly unlike iron in some undefinable way. She speculated that it was probably very valuable and that it wouldn't be right to leave it there. Tilly, despite her intolerance of coming into contact with iron, touched it. She did not suffer the pain that elves usually feel, but she experienced a kaleidoscope of rings of fire and whirling planets and stars. Frightened, she quickly stepped away from the rock and warned the others about what she had seen. Daedriin smiled and placed both hands on the rock.
Immediately Daedriin felt as if he were falling through a kaleidoscope of celestial bodies and rings of fire, until at least he stood on the edge of an enormous cliff under a coal black sky, looking through the eyes of another at an endless ocean of fire. Periodically he saw arms outstretched in anguish from the fiery waves and heard piteous moans amidst the roar of the flames, and it gladdened him greatly. He was disconcerted, however, when he felt himself being pulled away from this enjoyable scenery. He tried to resist, but the pull was strong, and the comforting warmth and glow receded, to be replaced by an increasing coldness. He hurtled through an inky void until at last a blueish green sphere appeared before him, growing larger. In a flash he found himself in an impossibly small place, cold and gray. He was confined in an invisible prison. A small being, a soul encased in mortal flesh, stood with a bloody dagger and a corpse on an altar before it. It was shouting an incantation, but before it could finish, he felt something strike the back of his head. The pain was excruciating. By the time the worst of it subsided, he was no longer confined in a circle within the room. He was the room, and the tower itself, and the rooms and passages beneath it. He could observe nearly everything at the same time, but the being that had sought to enslave him was gone.
Daedriin removed his hands from the rock. He told the party that this was apparently the brain of a demon that Syrifex had summoned, and that something had gone wrong and it was now fused with the tower. The rock was too well lodged into the stone floor to remove easily, so he tried to pry it out with Volka's pole, but he couldn't budge it. Then he remembered he had a crowbar. As soon as he started to pry it, the floor swelled beneath their feet, receding when he stopped. "Brace yourselves, everyone," Daedriin warned his comrades. They followed his advice to the best of their ability, and Daedriin tried again, giving a mighty heave-ho. The floor buckled violently beneath them, causing two of the party to be knocked off their feet, banging their heads on the floor. Daedriin dislodged the rock, and the floor receded immediately. Tilly looked around. The floors, walls, and ceiling no longer emanated evil, nor did the rock itself. She touched it. It didn't affect her. Daedriin stashed the now demon-free lump of meteoric iron in his backpack.
With that bit of drama over, Volka inspected the gem on the stone pedestal. It was an unusually large amethyst of exquisite cut, with a word she couldn't read inscribed on one facet. Potato took a look at it. It bore the word "NAZDREL." They also noticed a tiny human figure inside the amethyst. He had a short, dark beard and wore a robe and a metal skullcap. In fact, he resembled the description of Syrifex that Jilsen the Tax Collector had given them. Volka seized the amethyst and interrogated the figure within it.
"Can you hear me?"
The figure nodded.
"What is your name?"
The figure answered, but they couldn't hear him.
Volka turned to Potato, hiding her mouth and told him they needed to know whether he could hear them or was just reading their lips. She repeated the question, "Can you hear me?"
The figure did not respond.
"So, you were lying! See how you like this, little human!"
Volka shook the amethyst and the figure tumbled inside the gem. When she saw that shaking the amethyst had an effect on the figure, her eyes glowed with wicked delight.
"I have my own human now! Truly a wonderful toy!" she said triumphantly to the others.
There was a moment of awkwardness as the rest of the party looked with embarrassment at Fiona.
Volka continued her interrogation of the gem's prisoner, and whenever he was uncooperative, she shook the gem with glee. By this method, the party learned that the figure claimed to be Syrifex and he wished to be freed. Daedriin suggested crushing the gem to release him, but Syrifex made known to them in the strongest terms that he preferred them to recite the word inscribed on the gem.
The party decided they should first find their way outside the tower before freeing Syrifex (and potentially placing themselves at his mercy), so they exited the summoning room via the door to the spiral staircase, descended to the reception room, and tried the door, knowing that it demonstrated strange properties upon their entry. It opened as normal doors do. Happily, they rushed out of the tower, noticing that the octagonal patch of brittle grass surrounding the tower was now the normal yellowish brown of dead grass instead of its former purplish gray. Not stopping until they were standing on normal green grass, Tilly looked for the warhorse they had seen grazing there. It was not far off, and approached when it saw them. Now that its owner was known to be with his maker, the horse's future was discussed. It was initially dubbed Harvey, but after some consideration they decided to name him (for it was a he) Princeton. Daedriin informed the party that a warhorse typically fetches a very high price, but Princeton demonstrated an unparalleled devotion to Tilly. For the moment, Princeton would remain with the party.
Returning to the matter of Syrifex, the gem was placed on the ground, the party stood back, and the name "NAZDREL" was spoken aloud. Syrifex stood before them in a flash! He thanked the party for freeing him, and as they conversed, Volka crept with the intent of surreptitiously snatching the gem that had been his jail. Perhaps unconsciously, Syrifex stepped on the gem, foiling her plan. Seeing that Syrifex intended them no immediate harm, Potato presented the scroll Tayzhen had hired them to deliver. Syrifex accepted it and opened it curiously, wondering aloud what his former student wished to communicate, a student whose personality had changed so dramatically and who had left so abruptly. About to say more, his eyes fell on the writing and he paused. The party waited expectantly for him to continue, but he had turned pale as marble and uttered not another syllable, for he had turned to marble. The man was now a statue, and the scroll fell from his inanimate fingers.
The party was stunned by this turn of events. First things first, they decided it would be unwise to leave a petrified wizard standing in the field, so with great effort they moved him back inside the tower and closed the door, hoping they would never be connected with his fate.
Next things next, they deliberated what to do with the book they had been hired to retrieve. Potato argued that they ought to keep up their end of the bargain, give the book to Tayzhen, their employer, and accept the payment of gold that was their due. Daedriin argued that they had already accrued treasure far exceeding the value of their promised payment, and the rest of the party distrusted putting what was surely a powerful and evil book (that could apparently sway the morals of any who read it) in the hands of a treacherous sorcerer who would so callously turn his former teacher to stone. The party (despite Potato's reservations) decided that instead of taking the book to Tayzhen, they would go in the opposite direction, north towards the tower of Kal-Dokk, with the intent of preventing him from undertaking the dangerous summoning that the previously sane Syrifex had meant to warn him against.
Almost forgetting that they had promised Tilsen the Tax Collector that they would free him from his cell once they had rid the tower of undead threats and found a way out, the adventurers went back inside to retrieve him. They briefly considered going back to the cellar to liberate some of the bottles of rare wine, but had second thoughts and decided they should waste no time in returning to the village of Safe End. To their profound surprise, they found that it was active with normal village life. Villagers were tending gardens, carrying water from the well, and airing out their cottages. Down the road, they could see more villagers returning, often with livestock bearing floral wreaths indicative of prizes won.
"The villagers really had gone to a fair!" the adventurers exclaimed incredulously more than once. The kind old lady had spoken truthfully!
They visited the Trinarian church and the priest was overjoyed that they had returned safely and that the aura of evil had left the land. He also confirmed that he had seen not one, but two shooting stars fall from the sky recently, both to the north (in the direction of the towers of Syrifex and Kal-Dokk). He and the rest of the village opened their arms to the party and provided them with food, shelter, and medical aid with no thought of recompense. Tilly, however, donated the gold pieces she had found in Princeton's saddlebag to the church, for which the priest was very surprised and grateful.
Gains: Suit of mail armor, waterskin filled with ichor, lump of meteoric iron, large amethyst, book bound in crocodile hide (the Object of the Quest), a warhorse named Princeton
Kills: One ghoul (formerly a human knight).
Losses: None.
[Edit: The third from the last paragraph was revised to include a missing detail.]
[This campaign uses the silver standard. 10 c.p. = 1 s.p.; 20 s.p. = 1 g.p.]
[The system used for this session was Swords & Wizardry White Box with a helping of house rules and a dash of Lamentations of the Flame Princess.]
[The session report format is inspired by Patrick Wetmore's session recaps in Henchman Abuse.]
ALSO SEE:
CAST:
Fiona, 1st level Human Fighter (Pirate) and her hen, Frederique
Volka, 1st level Halfling Fighter (Hunter) and her hawk, Artemisia
Daedriin, 1st level Halfling Thief (Specialist)
Tilly, 1st level Elf Cleric
Potato, 1st level Dwarf Magic-User
Session IV
Closing the door on the ominous starry void, Tilly invoked the sacred power to detect evil, not having heard Daedriin's opinion (colorfully expressed) that it would be nigh useless in surroundings as steeped in evil as the tower. Indeed, it revealed that the very stones of the floor, ceiling, and walls around them were soaked with evil.
Having decided to return to the doorway to what was presumably the top floor of the tower, the party headed back in the direction of the spiral staircase leading up to the ground floor. Returning to the kitchen, they realized there was a corridor to the west they hadn't explored, and thought they'd better explore it in case the ghouls Tilly had turned were lurking there. No sooner did they start toward it than Tilly sensed burning evil in the shape of a man approaching them from the dark corridor, beyond the light of Daedriin's lantern. Tilly told the rest of the party what she detected, and they prepared to meet their adversary. Soon a man in mail armor — and a surcoat matching that of the warhorse they found outside the tower — stepped into the light. His expression was that of a horror-stricken victim, but the party wasn't fooled and greeted him with harpoon, dagger, hand axe, rock, and arrow. By the time he was close enough to strike them, he was a bludgeoned, hacked pin cushion of his former former self. Tilly performed a quick ritual to put his soul to rest, and Fiona searched the corpse, finding only an empty scabbard, clothes, boots, and armor. Fiona removed her scale armor in favor of the superior mail armor (although it was a little too large for her).
Continuing down the corridor, they found that it ended in a circular room. The floor was littered with human skeletons. Tilly could sense no evil emanations from the bones themselves (surprisingly), so Daedriin inspected them more closely. They appeared to have been human... once. Every bone was strangely distorted or twisted. The skulls appeared to have been stretched and warped as if they were made of dough, but they were as solid as any normal skull. Daedriin found nothing else of interest, Tilly prayed over the remains, and the party resumed their hike to the top floor.
They made their way without incident to the floor above the ground floor, and looked in at the sitting room. Satisfied that it was safe, they looked in again at the library and the bedroom. They library was as they had left it: with a pile of crystals where the living statue had been shattered. The bedroom, too, had been undisturbed by anyone but them. They decided this might be their best and only hope for the possibility of rest in a locked, windowless tower, so they locked the door and tried to sleep, taking turns keeping watch (and using candles to measure the passage of time). As disturbed as they were by their situation, they were also exhausted, in pain, and in an amazingly comfortable bed, so they were able to get some much needed rest. After an appropriate interval, the awoke. Tilly prayed for a light healing spell, and Potato memorized the spell of magic missiles. Tilly then healed Fiona's wounds, which greatly relieved everyone in the party. Girding themselves again for whatever might lie ahead, they exited the bedroom, crossed the sitting room, and proceeded up the staircase.
At the next floor, they looked in at the chart room, entered, and opened the door to the laboratory. Finding nothing out of the ordinary (and no ghouls), they looked up at the ceiling of the chart room before they left. The ceiling dissolved and revealed a seascape of saffron-colored waves under a yellow sky with red and orange clouds. Above the sea there was a haze of glistening gold and orange particles. The party marvelled for a moment and then exited to resume their ascent up the stairs.
Standing once again before an arched doorway of impenetrable darkness, Daedriin poked his head in, but could see nothing. (Again, Potato felt that strange psychic twinge.) He held his lantern through the doorway, and the light it cast instantly changed to blue. Ahead, as before, stood the pale pillar with its steps spiraling around it. The pillar extended above and below. Apart from the pillar, he could see nothing. Turning his head to look back through the doorway, it was illuminated by the party's torchlight, and his comrades were perfectly visible, but nothing else could be seen. It appeared to be a doorway floating in a void, with no connection to any architecture. Turning his head forward, Daedriin knelt to touch what he hoped would be a floor, and felt a smooth, hard surface like obsidian. He stepped onto it, was satisfied that nothing ill befell him, and briskly made his way to the steps of the pillar. It supported him. The rest of the party quickly made their way to join him. (Potato felt a sensation like that of passing through a giant bubble.) Tilly's nostrils stung from the stench of sulphur, but the rest of the party didn't seem to notice it much. Everything around her emanated evil. Daedriin looked back at the doorway again, but it was now indiscernable from the surrounding darkness.
"Does somebody want to carry me on their back?" Potato asked.
No one volunteered.
The individual steps that wound around the pillar were unconnected to anything but the pillar itself, and there was no railing, so the ascent was precarious. The blue light from the lantern and the torch illuminated only the party and the strange staircase. The darkness felt close and oppressive. Presently, they thought they saw a deeper darkness flowing around them as if in invisible channels or tubes. Potato extended a finger and touched what appeared to be an artery floating near him. He felt a slight resistance, but his finger passed through it. His finger was coated with a black substance.
Volka: "You are not going to taste that."
Potato: "Can I lick it?"
Despite not tasting it, Potato ascertained that it was ichor, the lifeblood of supernatural beings. Excited by its potential uses, he borrowed a waterskin from Daedriin and filled it with the demonic fluid.
A few steps higher, and the party could hear a slow, rhythmic sussurus growing louder as they went. Above, they could see two enormous, sooty, blackened bags, expanding and contracting in time with the wheezing sussurus. Lungs! As if to confirm an unspoken thought that they had hoped was not true, one of the adventurers exclaimed, "We're inside a creature!" The party was not heartened by the realization. There was a discussion about whether to return to the tower proper, but Daedriin informed them that it would be impossible to find the doorway again. They decided to continue upwards.
A few steps higher still and they could hear a loud, rhythmic beat that sounded like huge stone blocks being pushed back and forth. Soon they saw its source: a titanic heart made of blocks of basalt, pulsating like a giant three-dimensional puzzle with a sound like a controlled avalanche. The party stiffened its resolve and continued upward past the thing.
They emerged at last in a spacious cavern. Daedriin touched the floor before stepping on it. It was smooth yet grainy in texture and it was as solid as rock. The party climbed into the chamber and looked around. Along half the chamber's perimeter they saw a single row of stalactites and stalagmites. "Teeth!" Daerdiin exclaimed. "We're in its mouth!" The party was eager to exit as quickly as possible, but the only other opening they found was in the ceiling away from the "teeth." Fiona held Volka's 10' pole up to the hole to let Volka and Daedriin climb up to it, and they in turn lowered a rope for Fiona, Potato, and Tilly. The five then made their way through a tortuous tunnel that twisted both horizontally and vertically until they found themselves in another cavern.
For the first time since walking through the eerie doorway, they could see light of a color other than blue. A yellowish orange radiance filled the chamber, pouring forth from two huge, almond-shaped windows in the opposite wall. Potato ran toward the windows and gazed through one of them. He saw a vast sea of fire. From time to time he could see fountains of lava spurting like blood. Red light etched the sooty black clouds that filled the sky. "We're in Hell!" Potato wailed. Daedriin approached and stuck his head through the window, looking around at the structure they were inside. They were in the body of an enormous demonic form perched on the edge of a very tall cliff overlooking the sea of fire. Part of its body appeared to be fused with the cliff. Investigating the rest of the chamber, all they found was a grayish dome protruding downward from the center of the ceiling. Its lowest point was about 15' high. Fiona poked at it with Volka's 10' pole. It seemed to have the consistency of gelatin, although it was opaque. Daedriin shot an arrow at it. It passed through easily, leaving no trace. Daedriin shot a flaming arrow through it. Again, it passed through, leaving no trace. (On each occasion, Potato felt a psychic ping.) The party briefly argued about whether they should try to retrace their steps back to the doorway or climb through the windows. Potato emphatically rejected any suggestion that they venture outside, refusing to venture into what was obviously Hell. At last they decided to continue investigating the weird reverse dome in the ceiling. Fiona, with help, held the 10' pole up and Daedriin climbed up it until he could touch the dome. He poked his finger in it and held it there. Potato could sense — almost as if he were both hearing it and feeling it — a sustained vibration like that made by a tuning fork. Daedriin withdrew his finger and the psychic tone that only Potato was aware of ended. Potato informed the party of what had just occurred, but Daedriin shrugged and poked his head through.
Daedriin could see a square room, approximately 40' by 40', constructed of stone, with a hole in its ceiling through which normal daylight shone. From his worm's eye view he could see a few stone edifices. On the walls there were charts with mystical symbols written on them. He pulled his head down to report what he had seen, then popped his head back inside and pushed his hands through. When his hands were in the room, he touched the floor. It was solid. He lifted his body inside and stood on the solid stone floor. There was no trace of the gray gelatinous substance. (What Potato experienced when Daedriin disappeared through the dome was a psychic "Pop!") The rest of the party followed him into the dome through a series of tricky maneuvers until they were all inside the room. They speculated that they were once again in the tower.
Looking around, they determined that this must be the summoning room. One of the stone edifices was a lectern, upon which lay a book. Nearby, they saw a stone pedestal upon which rested a large gem. Before the lectern, there was a stone altar with a lower trough that narrowed to a channel leading to a circle with a pentagram in the center of the room. There were candles positioned at the pentagram's points, but they were cold. Embedded in the floor within the magic circle was a strange metallic rock about the size of a melon. Fragments of stone littered the floor surrounding the rock.
Potato scurried toward the book. It was a large volume bound in scaled hide. On its cover was the image of a crocodile devouring the sun. "We found it!" Potato shouted. He wanted to open it and read it, but the book had a locked clasp, and the lock was decorated with mystical sigils. Potato knew that the power to unlock it was beyond his ken. Now that they had the book, they reasoned that they could just take it and hand it over to Tayzhen, but there was the nagging question of the scroll they were supposed to deliver to Syrifex, whom they still hadn't met. That reminded them that they hadn't determined how they would exit the summoning room, since the way they entered was apparently a one-way portal. They found the door and Daedriin checked to see if it was booby-trapped. He wasn't sure, but they opened it anyway and hoped for the best. Beyond, they saw a spiral staircase leading downward. Closing it again, they searched the room for any clues of Syrifex's whereabouts.
Fiona, however, was most interested in the rock embedded in the floor within the magic circle. Looking at it closely, it appeared to have been a molten metal that had cooled. It was covered with bubbles. It resembled iron, but it was oddly unlike iron in some undefinable way. She speculated that it was probably very valuable and that it wouldn't be right to leave it there. Tilly, despite her intolerance of coming into contact with iron, touched it. She did not suffer the pain that elves usually feel, but she experienced a kaleidoscope of rings of fire and whirling planets and stars. Frightened, she quickly stepped away from the rock and warned the others about what she had seen. Daedriin smiled and placed both hands on the rock.
Immediately Daedriin felt as if he were falling through a kaleidoscope of celestial bodies and rings of fire, until at least he stood on the edge of an enormous cliff under a coal black sky, looking through the eyes of another at an endless ocean of fire. Periodically he saw arms outstretched in anguish from the fiery waves and heard piteous moans amidst the roar of the flames, and it gladdened him greatly. He was disconcerted, however, when he felt himself being pulled away from this enjoyable scenery. He tried to resist, but the pull was strong, and the comforting warmth and glow receded, to be replaced by an increasing coldness. He hurtled through an inky void until at last a blueish green sphere appeared before him, growing larger. In a flash he found himself in an impossibly small place, cold and gray. He was confined in an invisible prison. A small being, a soul encased in mortal flesh, stood with a bloody dagger and a corpse on an altar before it. It was shouting an incantation, but before it could finish, he felt something strike the back of his head. The pain was excruciating. By the time the worst of it subsided, he was no longer confined in a circle within the room. He was the room, and the tower itself, and the rooms and passages beneath it. He could observe nearly everything at the same time, but the being that had sought to enslave him was gone.
Daedriin removed his hands from the rock. He told the party that this was apparently the brain of a demon that Syrifex had summoned, and that something had gone wrong and it was now fused with the tower. The rock was too well lodged into the stone floor to remove easily, so he tried to pry it out with Volka's pole, but he couldn't budge it. Then he remembered he had a crowbar. As soon as he started to pry it, the floor swelled beneath their feet, receding when he stopped. "Brace yourselves, everyone," Daedriin warned his comrades. They followed his advice to the best of their ability, and Daedriin tried again, giving a mighty heave-ho. The floor buckled violently beneath them, causing two of the party to be knocked off their feet, banging their heads on the floor. Daedriin dislodged the rock, and the floor receded immediately. Tilly looked around. The floors, walls, and ceiling no longer emanated evil, nor did the rock itself. She touched it. It didn't affect her. Daedriin stashed the now demon-free lump of meteoric iron in his backpack.
With that bit of drama over, Volka inspected the gem on the stone pedestal. It was an unusually large amethyst of exquisite cut, with a word she couldn't read inscribed on one facet. Potato took a look at it. It bore the word "NAZDREL." They also noticed a tiny human figure inside the amethyst. He had a short, dark beard and wore a robe and a metal skullcap. In fact, he resembled the description of Syrifex that Jilsen the Tax Collector had given them. Volka seized the amethyst and interrogated the figure within it.
"Can you hear me?"
The figure nodded.
"What is your name?"
The figure answered, but they couldn't hear him.
Volka turned to Potato, hiding her mouth and told him they needed to know whether he could hear them or was just reading their lips. She repeated the question, "Can you hear me?"
The figure did not respond.
"So, you were lying! See how you like this, little human!"
Volka shook the amethyst and the figure tumbled inside the gem. When she saw that shaking the amethyst had an effect on the figure, her eyes glowed with wicked delight.
"I have my own human now! Truly a wonderful toy!" she said triumphantly to the others.
There was a moment of awkwardness as the rest of the party looked with embarrassment at Fiona.
Volka continued her interrogation of the gem's prisoner, and whenever he was uncooperative, she shook the gem with glee. By this method, the party learned that the figure claimed to be Syrifex and he wished to be freed. Daedriin suggested crushing the gem to release him, but Syrifex made known to them in the strongest terms that he preferred them to recite the word inscribed on the gem.
The party decided they should first find their way outside the tower before freeing Syrifex (and potentially placing themselves at his mercy), so they exited the summoning room via the door to the spiral staircase, descended to the reception room, and tried the door, knowing that it demonstrated strange properties upon their entry. It opened as normal doors do. Happily, they rushed out of the tower, noticing that the octagonal patch of brittle grass surrounding the tower was now the normal yellowish brown of dead grass instead of its former purplish gray. Not stopping until they were standing on normal green grass, Tilly looked for the warhorse they had seen grazing there. It was not far off, and approached when it saw them. Now that its owner was known to be with his maker, the horse's future was discussed. It was initially dubbed Harvey, but after some consideration they decided to name him (for it was a he) Princeton. Daedriin informed the party that a warhorse typically fetches a very high price, but Princeton demonstrated an unparalleled devotion to Tilly. For the moment, Princeton would remain with the party.
Returning to the matter of Syrifex, the gem was placed on the ground, the party stood back, and the name "NAZDREL" was spoken aloud. Syrifex stood before them in a flash! He thanked the party for freeing him, and as they conversed, Volka crept with the intent of surreptitiously snatching the gem that had been his jail. Perhaps unconsciously, Syrifex stepped on the gem, foiling her plan. Seeing that Syrifex intended them no immediate harm, Potato presented the scroll Tayzhen had hired them to deliver. Syrifex accepted it and opened it curiously, wondering aloud what his former student wished to communicate, a student whose personality had changed so dramatically and who had left so abruptly. About to say more, his eyes fell on the writing and he paused. The party waited expectantly for him to continue, but he had turned pale as marble and uttered not another syllable, for he had turned to marble. The man was now a statue, and the scroll fell from his inanimate fingers.
The party was stunned by this turn of events. First things first, they decided it would be unwise to leave a petrified wizard standing in the field, so with great effort they moved him back inside the tower and closed the door, hoping they would never be connected with his fate.
Next things next, they deliberated what to do with the book they had been hired to retrieve. Potato argued that they ought to keep up their end of the bargain, give the book to Tayzhen, their employer, and accept the payment of gold that was their due. Daedriin argued that they had already accrued treasure far exceeding the value of their promised payment, and the rest of the party distrusted putting what was surely a powerful and evil book (that could apparently sway the morals of any who read it) in the hands of a treacherous sorcerer who would so callously turn his former teacher to stone. The party (despite Potato's reservations) decided that instead of taking the book to Tayzhen, they would go in the opposite direction, north towards the tower of Kal-Dokk, with the intent of preventing him from undertaking the dangerous summoning that the previously sane Syrifex had meant to warn him against.
Almost forgetting that they had promised Tilsen the Tax Collector that they would free him from his cell once they had rid the tower of undead threats and found a way out, the adventurers went back inside to retrieve him. They briefly considered going back to the cellar to liberate some of the bottles of rare wine, but had second thoughts and decided they should waste no time in returning to the village of Safe End. To their profound surprise, they found that it was active with normal village life. Villagers were tending gardens, carrying water from the well, and airing out their cottages. Down the road, they could see more villagers returning, often with livestock bearing floral wreaths indicative of prizes won.
"The villagers really had gone to a fair!" the adventurers exclaimed incredulously more than once. The kind old lady had spoken truthfully!
They visited the Trinarian church and the priest was overjoyed that they had returned safely and that the aura of evil had left the land. He also confirmed that he had seen not one, but two shooting stars fall from the sky recently, both to the north (in the direction of the towers of Syrifex and Kal-Dokk). He and the rest of the village opened their arms to the party and provided them with food, shelter, and medical aid with no thought of recompense. Tilly, however, donated the gold pieces she had found in Princeton's saddlebag to the church, for which the priest was very surprised and grateful.
Gains: Suit of mail armor, waterskin filled with ichor, lump of meteoric iron, large amethyst, book bound in crocodile hide (the Object of the Quest), a warhorse named Princeton
Kills: One ghoul (formerly a human knight).
Losses: None.
[Edit: The third from the last paragraph was revised to include a missing detail.]
[This campaign uses the silver standard. 10 c.p. = 1 s.p.; 20 s.p. = 1 g.p.]
[The system used for this session was Swords & Wizardry White Box with a helping of house rules and a dash of Lamentations of the Flame Princess.]
[The session report format is inspired by Patrick Wetmore's session recaps in Henchman Abuse.]
ALSO SEE:
30 September 2014
Convention GMing Self Pep Talk
Now that I have a stable gaming group and the potential for at least one more group, I feel more comfortable jumping back into the convention gaming scene. Conventions I will likely attend in 2015 are BASHCon and Origins. Conventions I might be able to attend are Gary Con and, if I go to Portland, whatever they hold in Portland. Conventions I would like to attend, but probably can't are Dragon Con and Gen Con.
Games I want to run in the aforementioned conventions are OD&D/Swords & Wizardry White Box, Fudge, and Mazes & Minotaurs. Games I want to play are too numerous to mention (or play), but include all of the above plus Empire of the Petal Throne, Call of Cthulhu, Tunnels & Trolls, Gangbusters, and Traveller (Classic), not to mention all the board games and war games I'm itching to play.
Time to prepare some adventures...
Games I want to run in the aforementioned conventions are OD&D/Swords & Wizardry White Box, Fudge, and Mazes & Minotaurs. Games I want to play are too numerous to mention (or play), but include all of the above plus Empire of the Petal Throne, Call of Cthulhu, Tunnels & Trolls, Gangbusters, and Traveller (Classic), not to mention all the board games and war games I'm itching to play.
Time to prepare some adventures...
07 August 2014
Meowing Magic-Users
I was recently reminded of my first exposure to a gamer colloquialism not used by anyone in my own gaming group.* I heard it in the 1980s when I was attending NOWSCon, a small gaming convention held by the Northern Ohio Wargaming Society. I was playing in the first round of an RPGA-sanctioned event, and the DM said something about a "mew." He mentioned it several times, which invariably left the players exchanging befuddled glances, until one of us asked, "What is a 'mew'?" He appeared to be quite shocked at the question and answered, "A mew! A magic-user of course!" At this the whole group said "Ohhh!" in unison, and I said, "Oh, you mean an 'm-u'" (which we always pronounced as two distinct letters: "M.U.") Normally, we just said "magic-user" — it never really seemed like the sort of word that needed to be abbreviated or initialized. If anything, we tended to favor longer, more flavorful descriptions. Each to his or her own, I guess.
- [mew] or [myu]
- A pronunciation of the abbreviation "m-u" for "magic-user" in earlier editions of Dungeons & Dragons.
* My recollection was spurred by reading something in Google+ in which a magic-user was referred to as a "MOO." This is new to me and I don't know whether it is an acronym or yet another alternative pronunciation of "m-u."
[Edited from an article originally posted in Fudgery.net/fudgerylog.]
06 August 2014
Back to the Module and Other Sayings
Gamers, like most hobbyists, have their own jargon. They also have their own colloquialisms. Most of the gamer colloquialisms with which I am familiar are related to Dungeons & Dragons, so instead of recording them in Creative Reckoning (where I am transferring most of my old Fudgerylog articles), I thought they would be more at home here in Applied Phantasticality.
In any event, some of the [Old School] gamer colloquialisms that spring to my mind are:
[Edited from an article originally posted here in Fudgerylog.]
In any event, some of the [Old School] gamer colloquialisms that spring to my mind are:
- back to the module
- A statement made by the DM or a player to signify an end to the players' out-of-character chit-chat and a resumption of active gaming, usually made emphatically: "Back to the module..."
- In role-playing games other than Dungeons & Dragons usually rendered as back to the adventure, back to the scenario, or back to the story.
- blown out of existence or B.O.E.
- Eradicated beyond all hope of resurrection, as in, "Would you like to have your character blown out of existence?"; inspired by the sphere of annihilation described in the Dungeon Master's Guide of 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
[Edited from an article originally posted here in Fudgerylog.]
31 July 2014
Session Report 2014-07-29
SETTING: Some Dread Land
CAST:
Potato, 1st level Dwarf Magic-User
Tilly, 1st level Elf Cleric
Daedriin, 1st level Halfling Thief (Specialist)
Volka, 1st level Halfling Fighter (Hunter) and her hawk, Artemisia
Fiona, 1st level Human Fighter (Pirate) and her hen, Frederique
Session III
The party, upon leaving the chart room, had scarcely taken a step up the spiral staircase when they heard furtive footsteps coming from below. Tilly passed the torch down the line to Potato who was in the rear. Potato and Fiona saw a young boy of about eight enter the radius of their torchlight. He was wearing a maroon tunic with astrological symbols embroidered in gold thread. It was open to his chest where they could see he was wounded. He appeared traumatized. Potato greeted him with excessive gusto, which caused the boy to retreat, so Fiona, being the only human in the party, was pushed forward to deal with the child. Fiona approached non-threateningly and lured the child back into the light, moving as if to comfort him, but as soon as she extended a hand of friendship, he seized her arm with unnatural strength and clawed viciously at it. She felt an unholy iciness from his touch, and noticed that his skin had a deathly pallor. His eyes looked crazed, and he licked his lips as his clawed hands shredded her skin. Fiona swung her hand axe and split his skull, striking him down. Tilly immediately blessed the corpse in the hope of preventing it from rising again and to give its soul peace. Fiona inspected the corpse without touching it. The tunic was its only garment. The wound in its chest was deep and probably made with a dagger. Potato ascribed no meaningful significance to the order of the symbols on the tunic, but acknowledged that they were typical decoration for the clothing of a wizard's apprentice. Volka speculated that the apprentice had been sacrificed in a ritual.
Before the party could proceed, they heard footsteps again from below. The footsteps were heavier than before, made by multiple individuals, and they were running. The party braced itself for an attack. A tall man wearing the clothes and hat of a cook burst upon them, his eyes crazed like the boy's and his clawed hands raised to rip out the nearest throat. Fiona threw her hand axe, lodging it in his skull. His body fell backwards down the stairs, just as two others squeezed past him on either side. They were men in the garb of servants, with the same look of homicidal insanity and the same deathly pallor. Fiona and Potato wounded them, but they were unfazed and clawed the pirate and the dwarf mage viciously. This time Fiona was unable to resist the icy horror that filled her veins and she stood immobilized. Potato likewise succumbed to the paralyzing terror. The ghouls did not pause to feast on their victims, but immediately marked their next targets and prepared to pounce. In the mêlée, the remaining ambulatory party members vanquished their undead foes.
Two paralyzed party members was an inconvenience, but the remaining members decided to continue up the staircase. Daedriin tied ropes to Fiona and Potato and dragged them up the staircase by means of his truly formidable strength (even by human standards). Potato feared the possibility of brain damage resulting from this mode of transportation, but was incapable of voicing a protest. The staircase ended at an arched doorway. Tilly, once again in possession of the torch, noticed that its light did not illuminate anything beyond the doorway. It was impenetrably dark. Taking a chance, she stepped halfway through the doorway with her torch raised before her. (Potato immediately recognized a familiar sensation, like a vibration on the surface of reality, but was unable to communicate this information.) The light shed by her torch was now blue rather than yellow, but it illuminated nothing in the darkness but herself. Ahead, however, she could see a peculiar glowing staircase that wound around a pale pillar. And she could smell sulphur. She reported her discovery to the rest of the party, and it was decided that they should try to find a cure for their comrades' paralysis before continuing. Recalling a door in the chart room that they hadn't bothered to investigate, and which might have something of use to them, they dragged their paralyzed friends back to the lower floor.
Returning to the chart room, Volka, Tilly, and Daedriin headed straight for the door opposite the entrance with Fiona and Potato in tow. Unbeknownst to the able-bodied adventurers, Fiona and Potato were staring at a ceiling that was more than it seemed. The strange patterns of inlaid brass seemed to change as one stared at them until they and the ceiling itself dissolved, revealing the landscape of a world not completely unlike their own, but very different. They beheld a beautiful landscape of abundant vegetation, of rolling grassy hills and forests, all of varying shades of purple. From the tips of the branches of certain trees, bubbles emerged, which floated upward, increasing in size, until they joined enormous bubbles floating high in the sky amongst the purple clouds. They gazed in wonder at this scene as Daedriin picked the door's lock, and their vision came to a rude end as their bodies were dragged into the room.
The room was obviously a laboratory. Daedriin locked the door behind them in case there were more ghouls, and they looked around. There was a long table in the center of the room and another along the far wall. Upon both tables was a wide assortment of equipment, including beakers, vials, tubes, a mortar and pestle, a measuring spoon, a jade bowl, a human skull, a balance with weights, a prism, a copper funnel, a ladle, and other sundry items. Volka promptly claimed the jade bowl. On the right wall there was a bookcase with many large volumes. On the left wall there was a desk and chair. To the left of the desk there was a small furnace, beside which was set a bellows and an iron poker. Daedriin stood Potato up facing the bookcase and the party briefly discussed how to use blinking as a method of communication in case Potato recognized something relevant. Volka was intrigued by the skull. She noticed there were lines and symbols etched into the bone, but they were incomprehensible to her. Thinking it might be capable of speech, she greeted it, but the skull did not respond. Tilly thought the poker might be useful as a weapon, but as she had an aversion to iron (as do the rest of her people), Volka took it instead. Examining the vials, they could find nothing with labels they could understand. Meanwhile, Potato twitched and regained the ability to move. No, he did not see the book they were searching for, but he did see numerous tomes on the subjects of alchemy, natural history, regional flora and fauna, and one in particular containing recipes for various poultices and potions. It was a very large book, with nary an index nor page of contents, and it would doubtless take weeks to study it properly. Potato took it. Volka noticed that the desk had two drawers without locks, one on the left and one on the right, and pondered which to pull out first. She solved her indecision by pulling out both simultaneously. From the drawer on the right came a puff of strange smoke that burned her eyes, throat, and lungs, injuring her greatly. As she staggered about the lab coughing and flailing, Tilly's attention turned to the other drawer. It contained three maps. One indicated the location of a tower, labelled as Kal-Dokk's. One was the floorplan of the first level of a subterranean laboratory, also mentioning Kal-Dokk. The third was a map of the countries of West Somedreadland and East Somedreadland, divided by the legendary city of Sundoria. The party took all three. Volka eventually recovered from her coughing fit, and she looked inside the drawer from which the smoke had come. She found a figurine of smoky quartz in the shape of a frog with an open mouth. It appeared to be partially hollow. She asked Daedriin to check if it was trapped. Daedriin detected none, but said that the figurine probably was the trap. Volka took it. Fiona, too, emerged from her immobilized state and excitedly told the party what she and Potato had seen on the ceiling of the chart room. The party decided that instead of camping in the laboratory, they would exit, look at the chart room's ceiling, head back down to the ground floor, and follow the trail of blood leading down the other spiral staircase. His ear to the door, Daedriin could hear nothing on the other side, so he unlocked it and opened it.
Entering the empty chart room, Potato indicated the strange patterns and symbols of brass inlay and said that they represented coordinates in four dimensions. As they stared at the ceiling, it dissolved, and in its place they saw a blasted, lifeless landscape with mountains of metal and a sky filled with black clouds. Fiona was distressed by this. At first she was concerned that it was the same place they saw before, but upon more careful inspection it seemed to be a different place entirely. Potato believed that the ceiling showed a different time and place depending on the date and time at which one looked at it.
The party exited the chart room and made their way to the reception room on the ground floor. It was as they had left it, with a fire burning in the fireplace. They followed the trail of blood down the spiral staircase. At its end, they found a corridor extending to the west and a passageway to the east. The blood trail led east. They followed it, finding themselves in a large kitchen. The trail led to a large table covered with fresh blood in the center of the room. To the north there was a large cooking hearth with a spit and a large iron pot suspended from a tripod. There were baskets of vegetables, but all had a sickly purplish gray color. Hanging from pegs on the walls there were various game birds, but all were of a somewhat unnatural hue. There was a corridor to the east and another to the south. Daedriin lighted his lantern, providing the party with a second light source.
They continued east, following the corridor to its end where they found two iron-banded doors, each with a small barred window. The doors faced one another, one to the north (on the party's left) and one to the south (on their right). With trepidation, they chose the left. Volka stood before the door and Potato stood on her shoulders to look through the window. Potato noticed that there were claw marks on the iron bars and on the door itself, as if something had tried to get at whatever was inside. Within, he saw a frail man of indeterminate age lying on the straw-covered floor of the cell, his back to the door.
"Hey! You there! Who are you?" Potato asked the frail human.
They heard a moan and shivered, thinking it might not be human.
"Are you Kal-Dokk? Do you know Kal-Dokk?"
The man seemed confused.
"Is this the tower of Syrifex?" Potato persisted.
At this, the man weakly exclaimed "Syrifex!" and clutched his stomach.
Realizing the man was probably starving, Potato threw a piece of bread at his head (and missed). The inmate snatched the piece of bread and devoured it. Potato asked him again, but the inmate hoarsely replied, "Water..." Daedriin handed Potato a skin of water, who tossed it toward the prisoner. After he had quenched his thirst, Potato continued the interrogation. They learned that he was Jilsen, a tax collector who had come to collect the sum that Syrifex owed, but who had been seized upon his arrival and imprisoned. He didn't know how long he had been there, as there were no windows, but he knew that something terrible had happened. He had been having recurring nightmares of Syrifex in Hell, standing upon a cliff, shouting words he could not understand, calling forth a being of darkness that enshrouded the world with its black wings. Eventually, the servants ceased to bring him food or water, and then the ghouls tried to reach him, but were unable. All of this was beyond comprehension to him, as Syrifex had always been a moderate, even-tempered man, neither generous nor cruel. Asked if he had heard anything unusual, he said that he had heard someone yell "SYRIFEX," and then heard what sounded like a storm laughing, but nothing else. Volka grew tired of the interrogation and went to the other door, leaving Potato hanging onto the bars of the window. Potato asked Jilsen how he had arrived at the tower, and Jilsen told him he had ridden his mule. Potato then told Jilsen about his beloved donkey, Julius.
As the pleasantries continued, Volka tried the other cell door and was surprised to find that it wasn't locked. It slowly swung open, creaking loudly. Within, they saw iron shackles attached to the wall, and within the shackles they saw two arms, but no body. The straw on the floor was soaked with blood. They did not venture inside.
Potato dropped down and Daedriin thanked Jilsen for the information, assuring him that they would free him as soon as they could clear the tower of ghouls. In the meantime, he would be safer where he was. They left him some rations and returned to the kitchen.
Proceeding down the corridor to the south, they found that there was a passageway to the west and a passageway to the east farther ahead. The corridor continued on beyond their light source. Nearing the first passageway, they discovered that it was actually a recessed door. Tilly kicked it in, and the noise echoed throughout the complex. A moment after the echoes died, they could hear the sound of footsteps running. Volka estimated that there were four beings of human size headed towards them from the corridor and announced this to her comrades. The party retreated to the kitchen and took strategic positions. Fiona took a stance beside the corridor entrance with her back to the wall and a hand axe raised. Volka stood upon the table with her harpoon at the ready. Tilly and Potato stood behind the table on either side of Volka with staff sling and dagger in hand respectively. Daedriin hid behind the large iron pot in the fireplace with a view of the corridor entrance, nocking an arrow. Moments later, four ghouls who had once been laborers burst into the room. After a volley of misses from Tilly, Volka, and Potato, Tilly raised the holy symbol of the Trinarian Church and bade the undead to turn away. Two of the ghouls cowered in fear and ran back down the corridor. The remaining two, oblivious to the halving of their number, attacked Volka and Potato. The ghoul that attacked Potato slipped on the blood-slick floor and fell, and Potato bent to the task of repeatedly stabbing it in the back. Having thrown her harpoon, Volka switched to her sword, but luck was not with her. Tilly and Potato each inflicted enough injuries on the ghouls to kill a normal person several times over, but it was a well-aimed throw of Fiona's hand axe that ended the misery of one ghoul, and an arrow through the skull courtesy of Daedriin that relieved another of its undead existence.
Heading back down the corridor, they saw that the door Tilly kicked in opened to a small living quarters barely large enough for a bed and a stool. Fiona searched it, finding a pouch under the mattress containing 17 copper pieces (which she took).
The passageway to the east was also a recessed door and, also like the first, was unlocked. This time they opened it cautiously and quietly. It was another living quarters, identical to the first, except that the bed was smashed, the stool was broken, and the mattress had been torn to shreds. They chose not to enter.
They continued down the corridor to its end where it branched to the east and the west. They followed the branch to the east, which led to a circular room, in the middle of which were two corpses in a pool of blood, their limbs twisted in poses of agony. Potato looked up at the ceiling. It was domed and had a design of concentric circles. Potato shrugged and the party decided not to enter the chamber.
Retracing their steps, they took the branch to the west, which turned several times to end in a nondescript L-shaped room with two doors, one to the west and one to the south. The doors were made of a fine rare wood that resembled polished bronze, and the doorknobs appeared to be made of bronze or gold. Daedriin picked the lock of the door to the west and opened it, revealing a well-stocked wine cellar. Volka made a move to take the best bottle of wine she could find, but Daedriin advised her that it might be better to wait until they had cleared the tower of threats rather than risk carrying it into a fight only to have it broken. Volka agreed and made a mental note.
They left the wine cellar after a cursory search and Daedriin picked the lock of the door to the south. The light from his lantern could not penetrate the darkness beyond the doorway. He poked his head through (and Potato felt that increasingly familiar sensation as though the fabric of reality was being stretched). Daedriin could see neither walls, nor floor, nor ceiling. There was only a white pillar hanging in the darkness, tapering to a point at its base, which hung above him. Winding around it were steps, very small near the tip, gradually increasing in size. Looking below, there was a swirl of stars that appeared to be as distant as the stars above in a night sky. Tilly poked her head in as well, and instantly wanted to drop something into the room, but there were no stones or pebbles handy.
Tilly: "Does anyone have anything I can drop down there?"
Potato: "I have an iron spike."
Tilly: "No."
Fiona: "You can have one of my apples."
Tilly: "Yes!"
Potato: "Can I have a bite of it before you drop it?"
Tilly: "No."
Tilly dropped the apple into the room and watched it fall down, down, down, ever downward. By the time they stopped watching it, it was still falling.
Tilly: "Well, I'm not going into that room!"
Daedriin pointed out that it must be connected to the room on the top floor, and that they would need to revisit it. This they all agreed to do.
"I wonder what happened to those ghouls who fled..."
Gains: One jade bowl, one iron poker, one smoky quartz frog figurine, one book of potion recipes, three maps, 17 copper pieces.
Kills: Six ghouls.
Losses: None.
[This campaign uses the silver standard. 10 c.p. = 1 s.p.; 20 s.p. = 1 g.p.]
[The system used for this session was Swords & Wizardry White Box with a helping of house rules and a dash of Lamentations of the Flame Princess.]
[The session report format is inspired by Patrick Wetmore's session recaps in Henchman Abuse.]
CAST:
Potato, 1st level Dwarf Magic-User
Tilly, 1st level Elf Cleric
Daedriin, 1st level Halfling Thief (Specialist)
Volka, 1st level Halfling Fighter (Hunter) and her hawk, Artemisia
Fiona, 1st level Human Fighter (Pirate) and her hen, Frederique
Session III
The party, upon leaving the chart room, had scarcely taken a step up the spiral staircase when they heard furtive footsteps coming from below. Tilly passed the torch down the line to Potato who was in the rear. Potato and Fiona saw a young boy of about eight enter the radius of their torchlight. He was wearing a maroon tunic with astrological symbols embroidered in gold thread. It was open to his chest where they could see he was wounded. He appeared traumatized. Potato greeted him with excessive gusto, which caused the boy to retreat, so Fiona, being the only human in the party, was pushed forward to deal with the child. Fiona approached non-threateningly and lured the child back into the light, moving as if to comfort him, but as soon as she extended a hand of friendship, he seized her arm with unnatural strength and clawed viciously at it. She felt an unholy iciness from his touch, and noticed that his skin had a deathly pallor. His eyes looked crazed, and he licked his lips as his clawed hands shredded her skin. Fiona swung her hand axe and split his skull, striking him down. Tilly immediately blessed the corpse in the hope of preventing it from rising again and to give its soul peace. Fiona inspected the corpse without touching it. The tunic was its only garment. The wound in its chest was deep and probably made with a dagger. Potato ascribed no meaningful significance to the order of the symbols on the tunic, but acknowledged that they were typical decoration for the clothing of a wizard's apprentice. Volka speculated that the apprentice had been sacrificed in a ritual.
Before the party could proceed, they heard footsteps again from below. The footsteps were heavier than before, made by multiple individuals, and they were running. The party braced itself for an attack. A tall man wearing the clothes and hat of a cook burst upon them, his eyes crazed like the boy's and his clawed hands raised to rip out the nearest throat. Fiona threw her hand axe, lodging it in his skull. His body fell backwards down the stairs, just as two others squeezed past him on either side. They were men in the garb of servants, with the same look of homicidal insanity and the same deathly pallor. Fiona and Potato wounded them, but they were unfazed and clawed the pirate and the dwarf mage viciously. This time Fiona was unable to resist the icy horror that filled her veins and she stood immobilized. Potato likewise succumbed to the paralyzing terror. The ghouls did not pause to feast on their victims, but immediately marked their next targets and prepared to pounce. In the mêlée, the remaining ambulatory party members vanquished their undead foes.
Two paralyzed party members was an inconvenience, but the remaining members decided to continue up the staircase. Daedriin tied ropes to Fiona and Potato and dragged them up the staircase by means of his truly formidable strength (even by human standards). Potato feared the possibility of brain damage resulting from this mode of transportation, but was incapable of voicing a protest. The staircase ended at an arched doorway. Tilly, once again in possession of the torch, noticed that its light did not illuminate anything beyond the doorway. It was impenetrably dark. Taking a chance, she stepped halfway through the doorway with her torch raised before her. (Potato immediately recognized a familiar sensation, like a vibration on the surface of reality, but was unable to communicate this information.) The light shed by her torch was now blue rather than yellow, but it illuminated nothing in the darkness but herself. Ahead, however, she could see a peculiar glowing staircase that wound around a pale pillar. And she could smell sulphur. She reported her discovery to the rest of the party, and it was decided that they should try to find a cure for their comrades' paralysis before continuing. Recalling a door in the chart room that they hadn't bothered to investigate, and which might have something of use to them, they dragged their paralyzed friends back to the lower floor.
Returning to the chart room, Volka, Tilly, and Daedriin headed straight for the door opposite the entrance with Fiona and Potato in tow. Unbeknownst to the able-bodied adventurers, Fiona and Potato were staring at a ceiling that was more than it seemed. The strange patterns of inlaid brass seemed to change as one stared at them until they and the ceiling itself dissolved, revealing the landscape of a world not completely unlike their own, but very different. They beheld a beautiful landscape of abundant vegetation, of rolling grassy hills and forests, all of varying shades of purple. From the tips of the branches of certain trees, bubbles emerged, which floated upward, increasing in size, until they joined enormous bubbles floating high in the sky amongst the purple clouds. They gazed in wonder at this scene as Daedriin picked the door's lock, and their vision came to a rude end as their bodies were dragged into the room.
The room was obviously a laboratory. Daedriin locked the door behind them in case there were more ghouls, and they looked around. There was a long table in the center of the room and another along the far wall. Upon both tables was a wide assortment of equipment, including beakers, vials, tubes, a mortar and pestle, a measuring spoon, a jade bowl, a human skull, a balance with weights, a prism, a copper funnel, a ladle, and other sundry items. Volka promptly claimed the jade bowl. On the right wall there was a bookcase with many large volumes. On the left wall there was a desk and chair. To the left of the desk there was a small furnace, beside which was set a bellows and an iron poker. Daedriin stood Potato up facing the bookcase and the party briefly discussed how to use blinking as a method of communication in case Potato recognized something relevant. Volka was intrigued by the skull. She noticed there were lines and symbols etched into the bone, but they were incomprehensible to her. Thinking it might be capable of speech, she greeted it, but the skull did not respond. Tilly thought the poker might be useful as a weapon, but as she had an aversion to iron (as do the rest of her people), Volka took it instead. Examining the vials, they could find nothing with labels they could understand. Meanwhile, Potato twitched and regained the ability to move. No, he did not see the book they were searching for, but he did see numerous tomes on the subjects of alchemy, natural history, regional flora and fauna, and one in particular containing recipes for various poultices and potions. It was a very large book, with nary an index nor page of contents, and it would doubtless take weeks to study it properly. Potato took it. Volka noticed that the desk had two drawers without locks, one on the left and one on the right, and pondered which to pull out first. She solved her indecision by pulling out both simultaneously. From the drawer on the right came a puff of strange smoke that burned her eyes, throat, and lungs, injuring her greatly. As she staggered about the lab coughing and flailing, Tilly's attention turned to the other drawer. It contained three maps. One indicated the location of a tower, labelled as Kal-Dokk's. One was the floorplan of the first level of a subterranean laboratory, also mentioning Kal-Dokk. The third was a map of the countries of West Somedreadland and East Somedreadland, divided by the legendary city of Sundoria. The party took all three. Volka eventually recovered from her coughing fit, and she looked inside the drawer from which the smoke had come. She found a figurine of smoky quartz in the shape of a frog with an open mouth. It appeared to be partially hollow. She asked Daedriin to check if it was trapped. Daedriin detected none, but said that the figurine probably was the trap. Volka took it. Fiona, too, emerged from her immobilized state and excitedly told the party what she and Potato had seen on the ceiling of the chart room. The party decided that instead of camping in the laboratory, they would exit, look at the chart room's ceiling, head back down to the ground floor, and follow the trail of blood leading down the other spiral staircase. His ear to the door, Daedriin could hear nothing on the other side, so he unlocked it and opened it.
Entering the empty chart room, Potato indicated the strange patterns and symbols of brass inlay and said that they represented coordinates in four dimensions. As they stared at the ceiling, it dissolved, and in its place they saw a blasted, lifeless landscape with mountains of metal and a sky filled with black clouds. Fiona was distressed by this. At first she was concerned that it was the same place they saw before, but upon more careful inspection it seemed to be a different place entirely. Potato believed that the ceiling showed a different time and place depending on the date and time at which one looked at it.
The party exited the chart room and made their way to the reception room on the ground floor. It was as they had left it, with a fire burning in the fireplace. They followed the trail of blood down the spiral staircase. At its end, they found a corridor extending to the west and a passageway to the east. The blood trail led east. They followed it, finding themselves in a large kitchen. The trail led to a large table covered with fresh blood in the center of the room. To the north there was a large cooking hearth with a spit and a large iron pot suspended from a tripod. There were baskets of vegetables, but all had a sickly purplish gray color. Hanging from pegs on the walls there were various game birds, but all were of a somewhat unnatural hue. There was a corridor to the east and another to the south. Daedriin lighted his lantern, providing the party with a second light source.
They continued east, following the corridor to its end where they found two iron-banded doors, each with a small barred window. The doors faced one another, one to the north (on the party's left) and one to the south (on their right). With trepidation, they chose the left. Volka stood before the door and Potato stood on her shoulders to look through the window. Potato noticed that there were claw marks on the iron bars and on the door itself, as if something had tried to get at whatever was inside. Within, he saw a frail man of indeterminate age lying on the straw-covered floor of the cell, his back to the door.
"Hey! You there! Who are you?" Potato asked the frail human.
They heard a moan and shivered, thinking it might not be human.
"Are you Kal-Dokk? Do you know Kal-Dokk?"
The man seemed confused.
"Is this the tower of Syrifex?" Potato persisted.
At this, the man weakly exclaimed "Syrifex!" and clutched his stomach.
Realizing the man was probably starving, Potato threw a piece of bread at his head (and missed). The inmate snatched the piece of bread and devoured it. Potato asked him again, but the inmate hoarsely replied, "Water..." Daedriin handed Potato a skin of water, who tossed it toward the prisoner. After he had quenched his thirst, Potato continued the interrogation. They learned that he was Jilsen, a tax collector who had come to collect the sum that Syrifex owed, but who had been seized upon his arrival and imprisoned. He didn't know how long he had been there, as there were no windows, but he knew that something terrible had happened. He had been having recurring nightmares of Syrifex in Hell, standing upon a cliff, shouting words he could not understand, calling forth a being of darkness that enshrouded the world with its black wings. Eventually, the servants ceased to bring him food or water, and then the ghouls tried to reach him, but were unable. All of this was beyond comprehension to him, as Syrifex had always been a moderate, even-tempered man, neither generous nor cruel. Asked if he had heard anything unusual, he said that he had heard someone yell "SYRIFEX," and then heard what sounded like a storm laughing, but nothing else. Volka grew tired of the interrogation and went to the other door, leaving Potato hanging onto the bars of the window. Potato asked Jilsen how he had arrived at the tower, and Jilsen told him he had ridden his mule. Potato then told Jilsen about his beloved donkey, Julius.
As the pleasantries continued, Volka tried the other cell door and was surprised to find that it wasn't locked. It slowly swung open, creaking loudly. Within, they saw iron shackles attached to the wall, and within the shackles they saw two arms, but no body. The straw on the floor was soaked with blood. They did not venture inside.
Potato dropped down and Daedriin thanked Jilsen for the information, assuring him that they would free him as soon as they could clear the tower of ghouls. In the meantime, he would be safer where he was. They left him some rations and returned to the kitchen.
Proceeding down the corridor to the south, they found that there was a passageway to the west and a passageway to the east farther ahead. The corridor continued on beyond their light source. Nearing the first passageway, they discovered that it was actually a recessed door. Tilly kicked it in, and the noise echoed throughout the complex. A moment after the echoes died, they could hear the sound of footsteps running. Volka estimated that there were four beings of human size headed towards them from the corridor and announced this to her comrades. The party retreated to the kitchen and took strategic positions. Fiona took a stance beside the corridor entrance with her back to the wall and a hand axe raised. Volka stood upon the table with her harpoon at the ready. Tilly and Potato stood behind the table on either side of Volka with staff sling and dagger in hand respectively. Daedriin hid behind the large iron pot in the fireplace with a view of the corridor entrance, nocking an arrow. Moments later, four ghouls who had once been laborers burst into the room. After a volley of misses from Tilly, Volka, and Potato, Tilly raised the holy symbol of the Trinarian Church and bade the undead to turn away. Two of the ghouls cowered in fear and ran back down the corridor. The remaining two, oblivious to the halving of their number, attacked Volka and Potato. The ghoul that attacked Potato slipped on the blood-slick floor and fell, and Potato bent to the task of repeatedly stabbing it in the back. Having thrown her harpoon, Volka switched to her sword, but luck was not with her. Tilly and Potato each inflicted enough injuries on the ghouls to kill a normal person several times over, but it was a well-aimed throw of Fiona's hand axe that ended the misery of one ghoul, and an arrow through the skull courtesy of Daedriin that relieved another of its undead existence.
Heading back down the corridor, they saw that the door Tilly kicked in opened to a small living quarters barely large enough for a bed and a stool. Fiona searched it, finding a pouch under the mattress containing 17 copper pieces (which she took).
The passageway to the east was also a recessed door and, also like the first, was unlocked. This time they opened it cautiously and quietly. It was another living quarters, identical to the first, except that the bed was smashed, the stool was broken, and the mattress had been torn to shreds. They chose not to enter.
They continued down the corridor to its end where it branched to the east and the west. They followed the branch to the east, which led to a circular room, in the middle of which were two corpses in a pool of blood, their limbs twisted in poses of agony. Potato looked up at the ceiling. It was domed and had a design of concentric circles. Potato shrugged and the party decided not to enter the chamber.
Retracing their steps, they took the branch to the west, which turned several times to end in a nondescript L-shaped room with two doors, one to the west and one to the south. The doors were made of a fine rare wood that resembled polished bronze, and the doorknobs appeared to be made of bronze or gold. Daedriin picked the lock of the door to the west and opened it, revealing a well-stocked wine cellar. Volka made a move to take the best bottle of wine she could find, but Daedriin advised her that it might be better to wait until they had cleared the tower of threats rather than risk carrying it into a fight only to have it broken. Volka agreed and made a mental note.
They left the wine cellar after a cursory search and Daedriin picked the lock of the door to the south. The light from his lantern could not penetrate the darkness beyond the doorway. He poked his head through (and Potato felt that increasingly familiar sensation as though the fabric of reality was being stretched). Daedriin could see neither walls, nor floor, nor ceiling. There was only a white pillar hanging in the darkness, tapering to a point at its base, which hung above him. Winding around it were steps, very small near the tip, gradually increasing in size. Looking below, there was a swirl of stars that appeared to be as distant as the stars above in a night sky. Tilly poked her head in as well, and instantly wanted to drop something into the room, but there were no stones or pebbles handy.
Tilly: "Does anyone have anything I can drop down there?"
Potato: "I have an iron spike."
Tilly: "No."
Fiona: "You can have one of my apples."
Tilly: "Yes!"
Potato: "Can I have a bite of it before you drop it?"
Tilly: "No."
Tilly dropped the apple into the room and watched it fall down, down, down, ever downward. By the time they stopped watching it, it was still falling.
Tilly: "Well, I'm not going into that room!"
Daedriin pointed out that it must be connected to the room on the top floor, and that they would need to revisit it. This they all agreed to do.
"I wonder what happened to those ghouls who fled..."
Gains: One jade bowl, one iron poker, one smoky quartz frog figurine, one book of potion recipes, three maps, 17 copper pieces.
Kills: Six ghouls.
Losses: None.
[This campaign uses the silver standard. 10 c.p. = 1 s.p.; 20 s.p. = 1 g.p.]
[The system used for this session was Swords & Wizardry White Box with a helping of house rules and a dash of Lamentations of the Flame Princess.]
[The session report format is inspired by Patrick Wetmore's session recaps in Henchman Abuse.]
15 July 2014
Equal Opportunity Energy Drain
Despite the bookkeeping hassle and the strained in-game explanations, level drain has one thing in its favor: inciting terror amongst players. This is a good thing, as the undead ought to incite terror, but it has its drawbacks: namely the fact that high level characters are far less vulnerable than low level characters. Some may assert that this is justifiable for the same reason that high level characters have more hit points, and thus are more difficult to kill, but I would respond that true terror ought to transcend the relative safety of experience. In fact, that's one of its most unsettling characteristics. This is why I have decided that in my own games, energy drain refers not to levels, but to how many six-sided dice you roll to determine your reduction in strength (which, at least in the version of Dungeons & Dragons I play, is independent of character level). Most undead will cause 1d6 points of strength to be drained. More powerful undead, such as vampires, will drain 2d6 points of strength. Zero strength equals death (and probably eventual undeath). If one survives such an attack, strength is restored at the rate of 1 point per week of rest. The usual spells (i.e. restoration and wish) will fully restore lost strength. As with the traditional energy drain, there is no saving throw to avoid its effects.
08 July 2014
We Are Sorry to Interrupt This Spell
I have come to the conclusion that spell interruption makes no sense in the context of Vancian spellcasting. In the Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance, it may take hours to memorize a few spells, but once a spell is in the magician's mind, coiled like a spring, all he or she needs to do is utter a few syllables to unleash it. I imagine the effect being as immediate as the killing words in Dune. Ritual spellcasting, on the other hand, is another matter. Spells cast ritually are not memorized (at least, not in the same manner), but the casting time is greatly extended, affording ample opportunity for interruption. Coupled with an additional cost (such as possible hit point loss or temporary attribute reduction), ritual spellcasting becomes a viable method of extending the spellcaster's usefulness without resorting to power inflation (in theory, I should add, as I am currently playtesting it with Swords & Wizardry White Box). Dispensing with the idea of spell interruption for memorized spells helps me in two other ways. First, since I am no longer using the complicated combat round sequence of post-OD&D, I no longer have to worry about requiring spellcasters to commit to a spell before initiative is rolled—they are as free to cast or not cast as anyone else who is free to use or not use a weapon. Why does this matter to me? It matters because the game flows better, and when the game flows better, my players and I enjoy it more. Second, it preserves the value of memorized spells in contrast to ritually cast spells. And since I'm using Brendan's Simplified Spell Progression (i.e., reduced spell capacity), it's all the more important that the memorized spells become the reliable ones.
(I probably ought to note here that I am not observing the variable casting times of certain editions of Dungeons & Dragons. In my campaigns, memorized spells are cast instantaneously, whereas ritually cast spells have a uniform casting time of one turn [ten minutes].)
Here, then, are my latest revised rules for ritual spellcasting...
Ritual Spellcasting Variant 3
The standard rules of normal spellcasting apply (verbal and/or somatic components only; casting time of 1 round; memorization of all spells in 1 hour after 8 hours of sleep), but spellcasters may also cast any currently unmemorized (or unprayed for) spell that they are qualified to cast (i.e., are of a high enough level to cast) with the following restrictions:
- Casting time is increased to 1 turn, after which the spellcaster makes a saving throw vs. magic. If failed, the caster loses 1 point of strength per level of the spell. Strength lost in this manner is fully recovered after 8 hours of sleep.
- The casting must be uninterrupted. If it is interrupted, the spell is disrupted, but the caster must still make a saving throw or lose strength as described above.
- Material components must be used. Magic-users may use either a magic circle with candles or incense, or an alchemical catalyst to be imbibed, poured, or otherwise destroyed. Clerics may use items appropriate to their religion and culture such as censors, holy water sprinklers, bells, chimes, gongs, prayer wheels, candles, bonfires, etc.
- For magic-users, the book containing the spell must be available to consult during the casting. For clerics, a holy symbol, holy book, or sacred object must be present.
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