Markdoc

Re: And off we go!

Re: I DISBELIEVE YOUR REALITY! OR The couch is really there! I mostly agree, with the exception that making an active "act of disbelief" is one way of getting a bonus to your breakout roll. If that roll fails of course, you take the consequences.... I agree that your mind will fill in the details: you see and hear the fire, you feel the heat - but if you know you are facing Illusio, master of magic, then some scepticism is reasonable. In a way, this is a hangover from D&D days where there was nothing to define "disbelieving" as an action, as noted above. cheers, Mark

Re: Tekumel? We did, long ago: in fact we played three of excellent campaigns, set there. But alas, that was before teh interwebz, so I have no idea what happened to all that stuff we wrote up. Still, if anyone else has done it, add me to the list of people who would be interested. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! The next day, the PCs go the temple, to ask about the flute and to get it so that Khatz can scry using it. They find that a priest called Janas has taken it to try some divinatory magic, but no-one can seem to find him. The head priest, Cressis, takes them aside, asks about their adventure the night before and gives them a lecture against the church militant. He warns them not to make more trouble. Eventually the PCs get tired of waiting for Janas, so back to the ship and fetch their magic stone. They take it to a master mason and give it to him to examine after warning him against the use of magic, but after examining it and discussing it with another stonemason, they are also unable to identify it. They also assure the PCs that there is no stone like that around here. Meanwhile Khelsen is doing some trading. He goes to the castle, taking the rest of the stuff he had made sales on and this time manages to wander about a bit while waiting to be seen. He comes away convinced there is no place in the castle that could hide a garden like the lush vegetation that Khatz saw in his vision. The rest go back to the temple, where they are immediately ushered in – it has been discovered that Brother Janas has disappeared. When they go to his cell, they can see a blacked ring on the floor like that seen in Master Thomas’ cellar. They tell Cressis this and he finally agrees that there may be more to this than a monster. They go over a story about the “insect legs” man and he reluctantly agrees to ask to city guard to search the shop where he was seen in the hope of finding Brother Thomas. Most of the PCs go with a couple of guardsmen, and though they intimidate the shopkeeper and turn his shop and house upside down, nothing in the least suspicious is found. Meanwhile Khatz has stayed in the temple to scry some of brother Janas’ belongings to see if he is alive. He gains a vision of caverns, lit by a weird, bluish flickering light, so at least they know he’s alive, but the general description of where he’s going does not sound very inviting. At a dead end, the PCs decide to go to visit Master Thomas’ cousin. Early the next morning, they hire qurrocks and having gotten directions, set off. They ride through pleasant coastal countryside, through a small fishing village and then follow the road inland to a little manor arriving in the late afternoon. The servant who answers the door is a bit suspicious of these armed strangers at his door, but the players flash their warrant with lord Flanghall’s seal and a few coins persuades him to answer some questions. It turns out that yes, Master Thomas has come to visit, bringing 6 friends. One of the “friends” matches the description of the cultists’ leader – the man with the big black, bushy beard. According to the servant, these men have been to the manor before, though he doesn’t really know much about them. No, the men and Master Thomas are not home, having spent some days gathering supplies – they left the day before with Master Thomas’ cousin to go to Porton Town to rent a boat. They are not expected home for some time. When the players hear this, they immediately start preparing to ride for Porton Town, the small village they passed through. On a whim, Gen suddenly draws his knife on the servant, thinking that he too is probably a monster like Master Thomas’ man and thinking to provoke him into changing shape. Nothing of the sort happens – they just scare him badly – and after some hasty apologies, they ride off at high speed, with the servant shaking his fist and vowing to summon the militia! It’s after nightfall when they return to Porton Town. They approach carefully in the darkness, but all seems quiet: the town has no wall, or gate so they ride down the main street to the harbour, where they find an inn. They settle in, talk to the local armiger and Khatz enthralls the locals with an embellished story of their monster hunt in Sillith town. It takes them a fair few drinks and a lot of conversation plus a few coins, but they eventually find out that Master Thomas, his cousin and 6 other men hired a small boat and a sailor to ferry them offshore where they rendezvoused with a galleass – a large, well kept, well crewed boat. It sounds like an armiger’s ship and sailed away southwards. Master Thomas and co. took several large bundles – one of which sounds large enough to hold the missing priest! The players puzzle over why they came all the way out here to join the ship and decide it’s perhaps because they did not want to be seen leaving Sillith town on that boat. At any rate, it is too late to return to Sillith, so they stay for a few hours at the inn, eat dinner and then buy a lantern and ride towards the Sillith town, just in case the servant’s threat to raise the militia eventuates. Whether he did or not, the PCs return to Sillith Town without trouble, taking a brief break to nap and entering the town at daybreak, very tired, as soon as the gates open. The players return to their ship, pay the habourmaster his fees and take their ship out without trouble. They are behind the galleass but hope to try and track it southwards anyway. Since their chances of finding the ship at sea are minimal, they decide to sail to Anaria, in the hopes that their target did too and that they can pick up the trail there. They reach Anaria in 3 days without problems, and after sailing down the coast come to a small village, where they stop to refill their water barrels and hunt for news. They find no news of their prey, so stock up as much as possible and with a couple of months food and water, decide to head south into the Teeth. Sailing south, 2 days brings them into an area of shallower waters and Dalarna, using a spell to sound out the bottom, guides them through an area of reefs and the occasional small, barren island. They carefully sail south, keeping a careful weather eye out for underwater hazards. On the 4th dayAquila is up in the crows nest scanning the horizon for sails with the telescope he “acquired” from Master Thomas’ house, when he sees a smudge of smoke on the horizon. They sail towards it and soon see a small, desolate crag with a few scrubby bushes and a man standing on the shore madly waving a cloth. A castaway? Keeping careful eye out for trouble they sail close and then lower the jolly boat and row out to meet this mysterious stranger, who stands waiting calling out blessings. The man is a rangy figure with tattered clothes and hair in a pigtail. He immediately climbs into the jolly boat and once on board the Sea Ghost, introduces himself as captain Thana, a pirate lord, betrayed by a mutinous crew, who set him adrift in a small boat. The smoke the PCs saw was the boat going up in flames to attract their attention. Captain Thana wants revenge, swearing there will be blood. The PCs in turn ask him about the volcanic island. Thana allows that he has heard of it, but never seen it – he’s not even sure it exists. However, if the PCs help him with his revenge, he promises to put his ship and those of his friends at their disposal to find this mysterious island! cheers, Mark

Re: The Silence of the Catgirls or too much realism in fantasy

Re: Legends Setting If'n you love maps, have you seen Fitz's? I still think these are the nicest fantasy maps I've seen. cheers, Mark

Re: A song of Ice & Fire

Re: A song of Ice & Fire Shucks, he could wrap up many of those plots right smart, if he was only prepared to kill a character or two cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! Several day’s sailing brings them to the cast of Sillith and soon after that to Sillith town. It’s a tightly-packed city with crooked streets straggling up the hill from the harbour and high city walls with many towers. Above the city sits a huge, ancient looking castle. When they dock the harbourmaster and several armigers are waiting to check their ship and they are not pleased to find that Khelsen has a trading warrant exempting him from port fees (He got if from Lord Sorghall’s brother back at the festival in Houndsgard months before: now it turns out useful!) However, the PCs break out some wine and a small bribe and the Sillith men turn friendly: after all the warrant establishes the PCs as solid citizens, albeit foreigners and backs up the claim of the two Nobles who claim to know Lord Sorghall. Under pretext of checking out business prospects, Khelsen quizzes them about shipping, and soon learns that the Queen’s Envy was here, discharged six passengers and left a few days ago. The passengers have not taken ship from Sillith town. In addition to small fishing boats and trading ships there are a couple of galleasses, well crewed by armigers. This doesn’t look like a place to start trouble…. After getting settled, the PCs split up. The three sailors they hired in Theyre town, who have been mostly minding the ship take their pay and head for the taverns that line the harbour square. Lamoniak offers to keep an eye on the ship as he has difficulty with the local accent. The rest go into town. Aquila wanders about scoping the place out. Khatz and Gen find the temple and manage to locate a priest of the Sage, who looks at their copy of the stone’s runes and allows that he has seen something similar. He says it’s old, old writing maybe from the days of the first Hadawan empire. For a small donation he agrees to compare it to some old scrolls they have and see if he can translate it. Khelsen combs the sailors’ taverns collecting gossip and gambling. He learns that many sailors have heard of a “smoking island” far to the south, but that the details are regrettably vague – along the lines of “Some sailors, my uncle knew were blown far off their course through sucking reefs and countless dangers and they saw…. Etc” The players begin to wonder if their “pirate’s recollections” book was just a mishmash of old sailors’ stories. He does make one good discovery though. The PCs are worried that now that Castor is gone they have no priest. Khelsen meets an itinerant priest of the Woman of Tides called Dalarna who might be interested in sailing with them - even better like most of his cult, he’s a ship’s mage with weather spells. (GM’s note: this is Lars’ PC – an old friend who rejoins the gaming group after being away for years in the UK). The PCs talk to him about where he’s been and what he’s done and in the course of this he mentions an odd thing he’s seen. Some while ago while sitting to rest on a doorstep in the street, he saw a heavily cloaked and hooded man going into a shop. The man drew his attention because he was heavily hooded and robed though the day was warm, and as he went up the stairs Dalarna could see his feet under his robes. Or rather he could see where his feet should have been: instead there was amass of tiny chitinous limbs like there was a giant centipede under there. This catches the PCs attention and over the next few days they comb the city looking for “hooded men”. They check out the shop where Dalarna saw his strange man: their intense questioning upsets the shopkeeper – the players in turn mark him down as “suspicious” because he claims not to recall the man. Eventually Aquila sees two he think might be of interest and tails them all over town, before they go into a large house – oddly, when one reaches up to pull the doorbell, his long sleeves are held so that they hide the man’s hand and fingers. He watches as they are admitted, checks carefully to see that the door is in fact bolted from the inside and then scuttles off to get the rest of the PCs. Some quick questioning soon reveals that the house – which is in a good craftsman’s area with many 3 and 4 storey houses - belongs to Master Thomas, a brewer. When the PCs return to check the place, they notice that all the shutters on the upper floors are closed which is a bit strange in the middle of the day. There’s a tavern at the end of the street with tables out under a tree: the PC’s take turns sitting there to keep the house under surveillance, but nothing happens. Aquila checks out the neighbourhood. The houses front right onto the street, and at the back open onto a narrow mews, where they all have small (and stinky) fenced yards with stables or workshops. In the meantime the other go back to the temple, where their sage priest has translated their parchment. He says it’s some sort of ritual curse in a very old language called Selestrian but that in places it’s too smudgy to read. What he has got translates roughly as “We abominate …. unreadable … we block/prevent use of the gate/place. We curse and …. unreadable … opening/door”. The players think it’s an anti-demon summoning spell, but the priest is dubious: he’s not sure there’s any such thing as demons. This skepticism makes Gen in particular angry: he quite certain there are such things and as they leave he’s all suspicious that the Temple is trying to hide something – there’s Samadrians all over the place, after all! Anyway, not far from master Thomas’ house there’s a hole where a house partly burned down and has not been rebuilt yet and the cellar is exposed. The players agree to hide there at night to watch the place and go back to the ship to get some sleep and set it in order in case they have to make a fast escape. Dalarna goes up the house and rings the bell – he asks to talk to master Thomas, on the grounds of soliciting a donation to the temple but cannot get past the front door – the servant who answers explains that the house is closed, the master being in the country with is cousin. There’s no-one here (he says) but himself. That night is cloudy with only a half moon. Khatz goes into the mews behind the house, while Gen leaves a cobblestone propped up at the front door, so if it falls they will hear it, while Khatz climbs over the back fence. He does so silently and sneaks up to the house. There’s a big midden and a stable, but it’s empty, suggesting that Master Thomas really is away. He peers into the low cellar window – he can see a vaulted brick room with shelves of bottles and a few kegs, but no people, lit by a guttering lamp. Also tries the back door but it’s bolted. He sneaks back to the rest of the group, unlatching the back gate on the way and returns with Aquila, who has been keeping watch at the end of the street. They sneak up and Aquila gets the back door open. He creeps carefully inside, and the light coming up the stairs from the cellar let him make out the general layout: he’s beside the kitchen in a hallway that runs right through the house, with stairs up and down. The sounds of voices drift up from the cellar. Aquila decides to check out the rest of the house and begins to sneak up the stairs, but they creak loudly under his feet and in a flash he’s out the back door, pulling it to. He and Khatz hide in the back yard. A man comes up into the kitchen, looks out the window, but doesn’t spot them in the darkness. He does notice the back door is unbolted and calls this information back to someone in the house. He bolts the door and Khatz and Aquila take the opportunity to sneak away. Unfortunately, before they can get out of the street they see the lanterns of the watch approaching. Thinking quickly, Khatz draws them into a doorway and as the watch pass, they pretend they are kissing – with Aquila’s cloak over them, all the watch see is his long hair. They snicker and pass by. The guards also make a cursory check of the ruined house, but miss the PCs crouched under the cellar stairs. After that, the PCs flee back to their ship to try and make a coherent plan but failing that, go to sleep. The next day they go to the temple again and try to interest the priests in hunting for robed men with centipede feet. The priests look at them like they are complete loonies, but they notice one man in red robes – a priest of the Laughing Man - watching them. As they leave, he mutters to Khatz that he wants to talk privately and to come back later. When they do, he takes them to a side shrine and quietly tells them that he thinks the PCs are members of the Church Militant and advises them to leave. The Church Militant is not popular here. He admits that some months ago there were some bestial murders and a few commoners who claim they saw monsters, but that it was probably just hysteria over the killings - and the authorities don’t want anybody stirring up trouble or monster-hysteria in town again. The priest – whose name is Cressis - warns them not to take their monster tales to the authorities. The PCs reckon out that the murders he refers to took place prior to the festival of the Butterfly Girl’s wedding and were probably the work of the Gherent. The PCs decide to steal a possession of master Thomas’ for Khatz to scry. Khelsen goes to the front door rings the bell and then poses as a merchant wanting to buy ale. The servant who answers tells him that Master Thomas is away and that he can’t make any sales while the master is away. Khelsen notices that all the windows are shuttered although it’s broad daylight. While this is going on Aquila hops over the back fence and steals a qurrock brush from the stable. They retreat to the ship and Khatz meditates on it. After an hour or so, he gets a vision: It’s night but moonlight through leaves allows him to see lush, broadleafed vegetation, pierced here and there by broken columns of white stone, and low tumbled walls. When he comes out of his meditation, and tells the others, this confirms their suspicions that Master Thomas is working with the Samadrian sorcerors and that they are all going to the smoking island. Bellona goes and asks the harbourmaster, and a few stall owners some questions and they work out that actually Master Thomas left for the country a day or two after the Queen’s Envy dropped off its passengers. This is enough to convince the players that they have to break in to Master Thomas’ house. To prepare the PCs scatter and check out as best they can the house (to look for ways in), the city walls and gates (to try and work out how to flee the city if they have to) and the surrounding streets and alleys. Khelsen picks out two old men in a bar, who clealrly lived here sincelong before Sorghall and his Samdrian allies came to power. A hour’s talking and plenty of ale loosens their tongues and they confide that sometimes “strange things” are seen about in the town and that people in the castle are probably responsible – though lots of people have thrown their lot in with them. Nobody makes a fuss though because Sorghall’s soldiers enforce a brutal peace. After this, Khelsen goes to the castle in his merchant guise and tries to wangle a meeting with Sorghall’s brother Flanghall. He’s hoping to find “something suspicious” but in the event, gets no further than the buttery. He does sell some of the silks he got from the lamia for a good price though, so departs happily enough. That night, the PCs wait until twilight, when most people are at dinner and head to master Thomas’s house. Aquilla guards the back door, while Khelsen, heavily hooded, rings the doorbell and when the servant opens the door simply barges in with the rest of the PCs flowing behind him. Dalarna has magically raised a fog which blocks the sight of this from most of the street. The servant tries to flee, but is swiftly bought to bay in a ring of blades. The PCs demand he show them around the house and they start with the cellar, Khelsen remaining on the ground floor to watch the front and back doors. In the cellar they find nothing odd except a black circle on the floor, looking like it was burnt there. But there is no soot or smoke on the ceiling. The servant claims not to know what made it. They search upstairs through master Thomas’ chambers and the servant’s room above. They find no-one. When asked about the robed strangers the servant claims to know nothing saying that he had been instructed to let them stay the night and that they had departed. The players find this unlikely, since someone has been watching the house most of the time. The eventually check the attic, but it too is empty. However, in the dust Gen can see by lamplight that something or someone has been going back and forth. The tracks lead to a skylight which opens easily, but merely gives access to the steeply sloping roof. Gen looks down into the backyard which is now sunk in darkness and hastily retreats, but he notices that there is no moss on the sill – as though the skylight had been routinely used. He shudders at the thought of what might have been going in and out at night. Lighting lamps, the PCs ransack the house while Khatz and Lamoniak stand guard on the servant and tie his hands. They takes notes from his desk (Aquila also pockets some small valuable looking items). In one drawer Aquila also finds a false bottom to a drawer with a flute in it made of some strange blue-grey metal: light but strong with an iridescent sheen. Not finding anything else, they douse all but one lamp and head downstairs. Partway down the stairs, something fast and whip-like darts upwards and knocks the lamp out of Khatz’s hands, It falls over the stair rail and hits the floor, putting the candle out. In the darkness, a fight breaks out on the stairs. Lamoniak is bitten, but manages to grapple his foe and they struggle, eventually toppling through the stair railing and crashing down into the hallway. The other stumble downstairs in the dark: the air is full of what seem to be whips and several PCs are bitten. Gen races to the kitchen where the light from the window and the banked fire lets him see but cannot find a candle, so he opens the back door to shed some light into the hall. IN the faint twilight, he sees a horrific sight, The servant’s hands are sill tied, but from his mouth, his tongue has elongated several metres and it is thrashing and striking like an angry serpent: it is tipped with a fanged mouth that bites viciously. The players are shocked into immobility for an instant by this sight and the tongue lashes at Gen, who ducks back into the kitchen. The melee continues in the semidarkness with several more bites until Bellona land a lucky blow with a sword and with a shriek the thing breaks loose and heads for the back door on its hands and one foot. The other is lying in the hall, severed by Bellona’s sword. Gen tries to intercept it, but it barrels into him, knocking him down. That does slow it enough for Khatz and Aquila to gain the door and they pursue it across the yard, stabbing at it as it scales the back fence. Bleeding from a dozen wounds, it shows unnatural vitality and still manages to get over the fence, but Khatz with acrobatic grace leaps to a barrel top, over the fence and cuts off its escape. As Aquila and Gen scale the fence, the monster grapples Khatz. The tongue wraps around his neck and suddenly the thing’s shirt tears open, revealing a mouth lined with heavy fangs that runs vertically from his groin to his neck. With a roar, it wraps its arms around Khatz and drags him towards that gaping maw – and then thrashes and goes limp as Aquila and Gen run it through from behind again and again. The roaring, screams, and bladework have not gone unnoticed and calls for the watch ring out through the night: after a hasty, whispered conference, half the party rapidly heads for the ship while Gen, Lamoniak, Aquila and Khatz, covered in blood and mud from the alley, drag the monster out of the alley and into the main street, where torches shed some light. The city guard finds them in a minute or two and their suspicion of the players is rapidly overtaken by awe and disgust at the fanged and tentacled thing lying in the street. The players explain that they were on their way back to their ship when this thing, in the guise of a man lured them into its house and tried to eat them. They also manage to imply that maybe this thing was responsible for the murders months ago that they have heard about in the taverns. The guard captain who has heard their story with a look of skepticism, nonetheless apparently accepts it and takes charge. He orders some guardsmen to keep watch on the body and leads the others into Master Thomas’ house to check it for more monsters. The PCs offer to accompany him and with a look at the corpse he agrees. They go into the house but as before find nothing – except that Lamoniak “discovers” the strange flute on Master Thomas’s desk. Once the house is searched, the captain places some of his men there to guard it. Others take the monster’s body away. At the player’s suggestion, they all go to the temple to see if the priests can shed any light on the monster and the strange flute. On the way the PCs are interrogated and they admit that they were in Houndsgard when the murders were committed there, describe them, and say that they had come to Sillith hunting a monster, when they had heard rumors of similar killings there. That seems to satisfy the guard captain who in turn suggests that the monster had found Master Thomas’s house was empty and that’s why it planned to lure victims in there. When the players protest that the monster was master Thomas’ servant, the guardsmen claim that he was not and that the servants have been sent home when the house was closed up. The players are smart enough to agree that Master Thomas has had a lucky escape then, and shut up. They talk with the priests, but even the wisest among them cannot (or will not) identify their description of the monster. They look at the flute and agree that it is odd – they offer to examine it and try to determine it’s nature. Having told the guard captain where they are staying and pledging not to leave Sillith telling without telling him, the PCs return to their ship, treat their wounds and collapse. cheers, Mark

Re: A song of Ice & Fire

Re: Legends Setting Yep. A lot of this of course is inspired by historical events, so there's no surprise that a lot of concepts are common to multiple settings. It is online, but like everything game related I have been pretty slack about writing it up the last 9 months: too busy with real life, I guess. But the basic background and history is online at http://www.rpglibrary.org/settings/gothick_empires/ To get to this particular corner of my gameworld choose "Races and peoples" from the top menu and then "Societies and Cultures" from the lower menu. This setting is the first one on that list. Cheers, Mark

Re: Legends Setting Interesting. I've been running a game for the last couple of years called "7 Kingdoms". The action spreads across an archipelago, which is riven into many many demesnes of various sizes: the seven "kings" are only somewhat more powerful than their strongest vassals, and enforcing rule across all of the islands has proven difficult. Because of this, warfare is mostly carried out by a hereditary caste (called Armigers) of elite warriors, who are also skilled sailors. Since most trade is by sea, controlling fortified ports and sea lanes is the key to dominance. Armiger clans serve noble clans who concentrate more on religion and culture than war, but occasionally they can rise to dominance - usually adopting the trappings of nobility as they do so. Likewise an unusually skilled commoner can be adopted into an armiger clan, so that his children will be warriors. The lands have 12 gods (13 if you count the old, original god, whose worship is still maintained in rural areas) who led the current human inhabitants to the archipelago and conquest over the original inhabitants. The current ruling people call themselves "The people of the Sea" or "Vath Moram" . The 12 Gods established the original empire which spanned the archipelago, and lived among humans, teaching them, religion, arts and magic, but then long ago, vanished, entering a temple at the giant complex called the White City and not re-emerging. Their deputies were the original seven kings. In the current day, there are no major wars, but tension is rising as Samadria, the largest of all the kingdoms, is seeking to re-unite the archipelago into one empire, aided by a new - and many say, evil - form of magic more powerful than that taught in the temples. Magic is common, but mostly on a small scale, and tightly tied to religion: most magic is related to specific cults. The technology level is somewhere between high medieval and early renaissance, but without gunpowder, printing press or domestication of large mammals (there aren't any). There are also no demihumans (elves, gnomes, etc) - all players are human. I guess we were thinking along similar lines Cheers, Mark

Re: Alignments

Re: Disadvantages that Kill! Not lethal, just funny. Players making characters for a Champ.s game. One of them chose a Witch who had used a spell to flee the lynch mob in Salem and ended up in the current era. Among other things, she had a big ass psych. Lim "Afraid of lightning" which she saw as God's vengeance. I'm not wild about the character (mostly because it's hard for players to play PCs who are "unfamiliar with modern culture" very well: either it's farce or it's forgotten), but it looks quite playable, so I OK it. Player #2, completely independently comes up with "Stormlord" a fairly standard flying energy projector with - you guessed it - lightning powers Needless to say, some changes were instituted. cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th

Re: And off we go! I'll check that the players are OK with it, but otherwise, sure. cheers, Mark

Re: And off we go! On arrival the PCs immediately talk to the Harbor master and find that the Sea Ghost has been to Houndsgard, but no passengers were on board. The ship was actually searched since the captain had a reputation as “a bad ‘un” but nothing irregular was found. They then go to the Temple, where they tell their story to an audience of priests and priestesses over a meal. The PCs decide the Samadrians were hiding in the secret compartment on the Sea Ghost. Khatz decides to try scrying some of the cloth fragments they had noted down there. When he and Gen go to get some though, they note that the cloth actually seems to be stuck in a crack in the hull and deduce that there is some sort of secret compartment there. They are not sure though if it is above the waterline, so decide to leave it alone for the moment, just pulling some cloth fibres free. While this is going on Khelsen visits the merchants to trade for goods and rumours, while Aquila looks up some old acquaintances to try and get some rumours. All seems to be quiet in Houndsgard. After several hours, Khatz gets a vision – a lushly forested island with a sharp black peak from which smoke is drifting. The group discusses this, but are puzzled – no-one knows of a volcanic isalnd anywhere in the archipelago, though Bellona has heard rumours of volcanoes in the far east. They also check the hull and conclude that although the little secret compartment is below the water line, there’s no evidence that it goes right through. They carefully pry it open and find a bundle about the size of a loaf of bread, wrapped in black cloth: it was this that left the fragments on the wood. They take it outside to examine and find a rounded cone of smooth white stone that looks a little like alabaster, carved with strange runes – this is clearly the “magic stone” from the captain’s log! They can’t make anything out of it though and eventually take it back to the temple. There it is examined, and after some discussion, one of the priestesses casts a “detect magic” spell on it. The stone reacts in an unexpected fashion, suddenly shooting a sharp pike of stone more than a metre outwards and piercing the hand of the spellcasting priestess! There’s a moment’s panic and the stone is dragged out of her wound, and carried swiftly out of the temple, so a healing spell can be cast. Clearly the stone reacts to magic and the meaning of the Captain’s words “be careful!” are now also clear. When everything has settled down they gingerly inspect the stone, taking a charcoal rubbing of the runes, which seem to be carved in a continuous spiral around the stone, ending abruptly at its base, which is broken. Clearly this stone was part of something larger – could it have come from the “ruined city” the lamia spoke of? It does show signs of weathering. They take it to some carvers, but the best they can tell the PCs about the stone is that it’s “not from anywhere around here”. The PCs decide the ruined city is probably on the volcanic island! The next day, Khelsen finds out what happened to the bounties they had put on the Samadrians and Vathmar. No one has claimed them. Khatz, Lamoniak and Bellona go to the Lord’s house and take him some gifts. After a pleasant chat they get his permission to ask the harbourmaster about ships in and out and also to check his library for maps of this mysterious island. They don’t find anything on the maps, but Khatz finds a book by a former pirate telling of his adventures in The Teeth and gets permission to loan it for a few days. At the harbourmaster’s they find that yes, 6 passengers boarded a ship bound for Sillith a week ago. The ship is called the “Queen’s envy” and is regular trader going back and forth from Ostragya to Sillith. Since autumn is here, he does not expect it back in Houndgard before the next spring. The players fan out asking merchants, street idlers and the city guard about the strangers and eventually find out that they did not stay in town, but turned up the day the Queen’s Envy was due to leave port and took passage. Good descriptions are hard to get, but what they do get is enough to convince the players that Sillith should be their next port of call. They start making preparations. Khatz and Gen buy gifts and ride off to see their families on hired Qrrocks, taking the horse which they regretfully decide cannot be taken on a long sea voyage – they will leave it at Gen’s family’s farm. Lamoniak and Aquila scour the surrounding countryside and eventually find a farmer who rented his stable to the six strangers – it looks like they were landed by small boat off the Sea Ghost, and took stayed at the farm from where they close to the port, but could stay out of sight. The farmer says they paid his son to keep an eye on the docks for their ship. Now the group is convinced these are their men. At his father’s farm Gen finds that his father has gone to Doorn to identify and bring back the qurrocks and that the thief (presumably Ned) will be sent to the galleys. That makes Gen happy. He instructs the stablehands on how to treat the horse and then goes to Khatz’s family. There’s a big party at Khatz’s family’s manor, gifts are exchanged and then the PCs ride back to Houndsgard. Over these days they read the retired pirate’s account and learn about the pirates of the Teeth. It turns out that they are the descendants of the lords and armigers who fled Anaria after the war with Samadria and they regard themselves not as pirates but privateers, waging an honourable war with Samadria and living a hardscrabble existence in The Teeth. They do find one fascinating note though: at one point, driven south by a storm, the pirates saw a “smoking island” on the horizon. Short on supplies, they opted not to go south to explore but sailed for home (the book is disappointingly vague as to where “home” is for the pirates.) The players nonetheless have a goal and they refurbish the ship for a trip to Sillith. After making a sacrifice for good weather at the temple they set off! cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th That's pretty much our approach. Need bat guano or a strip of parchment? It's assumed you have some in your pouch. Need a fine, flat ivory figurine of the caster? You need to get one made and make sure you keep hold of it. cheers, Mark

Re: Cool Guns for your Games Actually part of it also is the projectile and the rails ablating: there's a fair amount of molten metal flying about - currently the rails have to be replaced every shot, because of the melting and warping. cheers, Mark

Re: Urban Fantasy: Warnings That's why he's red-eyed! cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th

Re: Because we need another "Magic System Thread"... One answer to this problem is that huge spells tend to be ritual things - you know raise an army of 10,000 shambling dead, turn all the men in city X into lawyers, that kind of stuff. You can do this by putting a power called "ritual magic" outside the VPP, said power being an Aid (that feeds two powers - Aid and your VPP) and a very slow return. You can limit the cost down with things like "requires a real live virgin sacrifice only in the tomb of a reanimated necromancer, requires hot vampire cheerleading section, etc etc" so that the user can spend a couple of days pumping up his VPP to accomodate a huge spell (or spells). The limitations should keep it from being a game breaker. cheers, Mark

Re: D&D 4th

Re: Defences against the stun of KAs

Re: And off we go! Eventually, the players all end up back at Lamoniak’s house where they get some sleep. The next day (apart from Gen, who is still back at the temple) they straggle up to the Castle, where the chamberlain and Lorn Thorn meet them in the solar where they were first introduced. The chamberlain is haggard – he’s clearly been up all night. Lord Thorn is not in much better shape. It seems the charms are completely broken and it seems that not as many people were affected as first feared. However, many of those freed of the charm are apparently not happy to be free of it. Lord Thorn obviously feels the same. He tells the PCs “You have, I suppose done both me and the town a great service, and I acknowledge my debt. But I cannot bring myself to thank you. You killed something beautiful last night.” He then tells the chamberlain to arrange a suitable reward and leaves the room. Lamoniak goes after him impulsively and after some conversation – as one who was also charmed – manages to cheer him up, in part by persuading him to join Lamoniak on the conquest of his beautiful castle in far off Moncu! At least, that is, when he finds out where Moncu is…. The prospect of a nice war in a good cause cheers Lord Thorn up somewhat. Meanwhile the other PCs have convinced the chamberlain to let them equip themselves in the castle armoury and provision their ship for sea. He also gives them under Lord Thorn’s seal a letter of recommendation. Gen has also managed to wrangle a reward – over the next few days, the high priestess initiates him into her cult and teaches him a secret and powerful cult healing spell, although it is obviously going to take him a while to master it. (GM’s note: he didn’t have enough Xp, so is saving up). The priestess has her work cut out – in addition to treating Gen, six women are bought to her suffering from miscarriages all bought on when the lamia died and all eventually delivered of dead… things. They, apparently, experienced the lamia as a man. The priestess of the Crone is also busy as two men apparently commit suicide. All in all, the town is pretty miserable place and the players plan to leave as soon as they can - so the players debate the lamia’s last words. She said something about a ruined city to the south. But south of the island they are on is only the sea, stretching away out of knowledge. South-east are the small, waterless crags known as The Teeth – rocky outcrops and dangerous reefs, made all the more threatening for shipping by lurking pirates. The archipelago is littered with ancient ruins and tumuli, but the only ruined city they can think of are the old capital on Talarg, weeks if not months travel westward and the quasi legendary ruined city of Pelnash which is …. umm …. somewhere far away – none of the PCs are exactly sure where. They decide to sail south and see if they can pick up the trail of the Samadrians. All except for Castor the priest. He’d had enough of the adventuring life and has decided to go back to the hermitage on the Bald Man of Lossach and see if he can get taken on there (GM’s note: the player, Brian, had been having a hard time making the game regularly, so we decided it would be best if he dropped out). The PCs build a cage on the deck to hold Lamoniak’s horse and a hoist and sling to get it on board and then they get underway, first sailing back to Theyre Town to drop Castor off. While there - they stay several days, converting some of their loot into coin and hiring sailors to help with the ship. They get the welcome news that someone answering the description of Ned has been arrested in Dorn with a flock of Qurrocks (the armiger in Salterton sent a message about the theft to Theyre by pigeon some time back) and they hire two men to go collect the qurrocks and take them to Gen’s father’s house. Khatz pays a visit to his cousin, Lamoniak goes the to castle and eventually the PCs get to see Kehan, the lord’s “agent” to tell him the story. After some wrangling, Lamoniak gets a letter of recommendation there as well, plus a charter guaranteeing the PCs ownership of their ship. He also tries to get the lord of Theyre to help support his reconquest of lost Moncu, but Kehan is too slippery for him and fobs him off with vague promises. They also visit the temple where the Gargoyle was – the roof has been repaired and the chief priest of the Smiler is happy to see them and hear their stories. They need his help, as Bellona has discovered that she cannot get rid of the black stone she acquired from the corpse of the alchemist back in Salterton, She’s thrown it away, given it away, dropped it in the sea, but it always ends up back in her pocket or pack as soon as she takes her eyes off it. She’s afraid that it might be what killed the alchemist (it isn’t, directly, but it does give the “owner” 1d6 unluck!). In the end, several PCs agree to donate blood – which the temple needs for some spells – in return for having the stone’s magic identified. She’s not happy with the result but is relieved it’s not going to kill her. Gen suggests she learn to use the sling – then she’s never run out of ammo! Eventually the PCs cough up the cash to get it dispelled and after a long ritual, it shatters into a rainbow and disappears. Finally the PCs go to visit the Hermitage with Castor and look for maps in the library there. But turn up nothing that might be a ruined city on any of the maps. They go through the notes and find a comment about “magic stone, be careful!” This is clearly not the one Bellona has since that had been long locked away. What magic stone? Where did it come from? They ponder: could it be on some of the tiny islands in the Teeth? They are supposed to be uninhabitable, but you never know… The group bids farewell to Castor, walk back to Theyre Town where Khelsen has been minding the ship and doing some trading. They take sail and after a week’s uneventful sailing they finally reach Houndsgard, from whence they set out so long ago! cheers, Mark