Under the Giant's Shadow: Resources, Surprises, Maps, and Magic Items

Had another session of my B/X game Under the Giants Shadow, where the PCs were able to prevail upon Edmund and his horseclan to stay an extra week in the city ruins so they could recover from the injuries in their camp. These injuries were earned hopefully dealing a crippling blow to the cult of Brother Blade (one of the various Brotherhood of the Stars cults that are run by individual charismatic leaders for individual gods). Blade and his men somehow got into Galmagia's undercity and are stripping the cathedral of the Matriarchs of the Moon (the organized polytheistic religion), leaving the human members of the party incensed. (Since Dwarves are atheists after their gods went mad, the Dungar the Dwarf didn't care, but wants the loot.) 

Despite the party members at-best-average Charisma - Oland Seven-souls the thief is deliberately average with his 10, where as Athyera the Magic-User is closed off, harshly critical and sometimes dismissive at her 8, and Jessethera the cleric is overly evangelistic and passionate at her 7 - Oland manages to close the deal with two of the three horseclan youths, hiring them on for them to split a share of the treasure (and minimum of 10 GP each per delve) and, once back in civilization, be outfitted with steel swords rather than their current spears. 

This was the first time we had really made use of the recruiting rules - last time the Pcs offered something insanely valuable for the use of some of Edmund's men, Edmund lowballed them an offer and they took it - and the players got into the mini-game aspect of it. And despite the Dungar's player's die hard belief that having henchmen just meant you were sending them to do your cool things, Oland's Player immediately grasped the "have these two guys guard doors/our backs while we do stuff" utility of them. Never mind how useful they were when the fight against the animated dead happened. 

Yes that's right, when you obliterate the fighter-type members of the evil clerics cult, he will just bring them back. Maybe not in the same fashion, but in the same wrapping. The fight with the zombies was quick but impressive, with a Zombie scoring well enough with their first attack to activate their special power of "lob target across room for extra damage" on Jessethea. Fortunately for the party she was not incapacitated and was able to Turn Undead (also the first time we got to play with my new Acts of Faith rules) and 2 of the 4 zombies off into a stairwell where the stairs collapsed under them. The remaining two were dispatched by Dungar and Oland (with his two henchmen). Oland then sent arrows into the zombies trapped in the stairwell until they collapsed. 

But I get ahead of myself. Once they were back in the cathedral they found all of the corpses they made last time gone and the room cleaned up. They better mapped the room, discovering one corridor they didn't expect to be there and doors exiting on the narrower sides to the East and West. Opting for East as based on what they knew of the above ground floor plan should be a smaller area, they find the Abbess' private study, which Brother Blade was now using as his quarters, which contained 4 reanimated cult members guarding the doors to the flanking water-destroyed libraries that had stairs down to the crypts. There was much ganishing of teeth that the libraries water-wards had broken and a quarter century of fluid coming through the giant-created cracks in the ceiling. as my room notes stated "the shelves contain nothing but bitter disappointment". 

Aethrya had fortuitously prepared Read Languages, so when they found Brother Blade's personal journal they were immediately able to collect a lot of information on their opponent, and that he is looking for The Swords of the Soul of the City, which are Behind the Last Door in the Ancestral Crypts. Blade is assuming these are inside the Cathedral's crypts and he has been using his group of zombies to explore the crypts for them, but Atherya knows from the journal that they found of the head clerk of the custom's house that the Last Door is under the custom's house vault. There was a brief moment of "He's digging in the wrong place!" 

This was when the players surprised me by saying they were following him into the crypts, which I had not mapped yet. Time to hit the internet and find maps, in this case Dyson Logos' Iseldic's Drop, which I decided was mirrored on both sides of the Abbess' study room. The players really appreciated the multi-level circular interconnectivity of the space. The internet: so helpful. I don't have it stocked with monsters, but I can say that any of the spaces they are entering now have been cleared out by Blade and his zombies. 

Winging it madly based on the maps and my own knowledge of what I intended to find down there, the players pieced together more of what was going on, found a spell book in a secret compartment inside a desecrated sarcophagus - and until you have seen B/X or AD&D magic users find a spell book with new spells in it you have never seen a player truly happy - and had an encounter with a haunt, the 27th Abbess to is pissed about her grave being desecrated. 

Fortunately Oland Sevensouls has a possessed grappling hook that lets him summon his dead colleague Azric to act as an intercessor with other ghosts. Sol Atherya was able to tell Oland to ask Azric to ask the Abbess x questions, and then the chain used for response. Nearly forced the players to actually play Telephone but in the interest of time I decided to just keep it open, and everyone had a lot of fun with the absurdity of the scene. Especially since Jessethea's player played the killed-by-a-dragon Azric, so it was a three player chain. The Abbess gave them more information on Blade's activities, told them to reference the library archives for the location of more information on magic in the crypts ("we can't! They're sludge!", identified the dodecahedron they found earlier as a Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, and finally possessed her silver caduceus amulet for Oland to carry. He's at 4 souls now and counting!

The amulet gives him perfect knowledge of the crypt's labyrinthine layout (in other words I can print all the Logos maps for him), and gives him the Abbess' Divine Favor Score (17) rather than his own for saving throw bonuses (+2 rather than +0) when he's wearing it. Another unique magic item for him to carry. Now the group is setting up an ambush for Blade when he returns from this trip, hoping surprise will overcome his 7 zombies +1 acolyte + him as a 5th level Cleric. Their fallback is Aethrya using the 2nd level iteration of "floating disk" (which mirrors the 1E "Push" spell) to shove him down the 16 level open well. 

Yes, please please please send the higher level antagonist to his "death" where you can't see the body after. That would be perfect!

Henchmen and Hirelings in Under the Giant's Shadow

Sunday was the first session of Under the Giants Shadow where the human PCs made use of the "human dungeoneering" power: they hired and brought along henchmen. 

Each of the races in my B/X variant has a racial power that is useful for adventuring - Dwarves have Cavesense (follow trail back* + usual dwarf underground detects). Elves have Elfsight (improved detect secret doors and illusions). Halflings have keen ears (improved hearing at doors/resisting surprise). Humans have Naturally Social, which means not only do they NOT have any reaction penalties for other races (as all the others do), they get to reroll one Henchmen action each round. I felt this was a good balance of a dungeon delve special ability. It's taken over a year for the people with human PCs to make use of it. 

Now, part of this is because the players have been super-secretive about their venturing under the Giant's Shadow to loot one of the destroyed cities there. They suspect that once what they are doing becomes public they will face pressure to stop OR their success will generate competition. In this they are not wrong, but it has made it very difficult for them to get help. (It's also forcing them to make a commercial trading business to hide where their money is coming from; they now own a mule farm... which means by extension they own donkeys and horses and it all gets complicated.)

But another part of it is the psychology against Henchmen that's rooted in post Hickman Revolution play. As the guy playing one of the Dwarves who has been playing since the 1E days said, "Every time I hire a henchmen to do something for me it feels like I'm denying myself the chance for my character to do a cool thing and handing it to this NPC." 

When I was a kid playing B/X and AD&D we never used henchmen; from 1981-1984 it seemed like too much work to have to run the additional characters, and we didn't have a lot of structure to those games. Post 1984 when I started playing with someone who was already running for sweeping plot arcs (and then we did some Dragonlance, and we were all theater kids into our character psychology), having henchmen as back up characters, or anything that smacked of decentralized power, just wasn't comme il faut. 

Since Under the Giants Shadow is specifically leaning into the Exploration and Shenanigans pillars of D&D and not as deeply on the Role Playing and Combat pillars I wanted explore how they would work in play. Making it the human special power would help, I thought. Hopefully after this the players will start to see their value. Unfortunately the three human PCs have Charisma scores of 7, 8, and 10, limiting how many Henchmen they can have in play and how loyal they are. 

The UtGS rules are built for x in 6 chance, so monster armor classes are None (8), Leather (11), Chain (14), Plate (17) or Adamant (20), which are 4-in-6, 3-in-6, 2-in-6, 1-in-6, and 0 in 6 chances. So Henchmen attacks can be handled with a single die roll - d4 if they are not a combat oriented Henchman, d6 of they are - and the damage of their attack equals the die roll. Does this mean every time they do hit someone in plate armor they do 6 damage? Yes, but its also super simple so there you go. 

Finally, Magic-Users can skip the rules for finding and hiring normal henchmen all together and summon and bind creatures to work for them. This process that takes as much time and resources as trying to get conventional henchmen, but their summoned creatures can be incredibly dangerous for everyone. These creatures roll d8 or even d10 in combat, letting them tear through even Adamant armor for potentially massive damage, but they also have an (unknown to the Magic User) maximum number of times they can roll higher than a 6 before the binding snaps and the summoned creature turns on you and your allies.

The Magic-User player thought long and hard about this, but ultimately she opted against it for now. Instead they traded a magic item with inconvenient-for-them side effect to a horseclan leader who wouldn't be bothered by it to get a trio of his men to assist in cleaning out part of the dungeon. Each of the human PCs had a fighter type henchmen with them, and it made the "4 PCs vs 1 Acolyte + 12 Berserkers" fight something they could (and did) win. The 3 human PC players got into having the bonus d6 attack rolls from the Henchmen, and being able to reroll the miss from their one Henchman each should they occur. Never mind the Henchmen soaking up attacks from the berserkers - a huge advantage. 

Is this something they're likely to do again? Time will tell, but as a test this worked great. 

Levels, Structure, and Creativity

So some time back I was having a chat with my much younger cousin who had gotten into D&D in the 5E generation, and I was trying to explain to him why I preferred the relative simplicity of 13th Age's character design during level up.

Now, in 13th Age, each class has a list of a half dozen or so Talents, which are classic genre beats for that type of character (some also have Talents baked in - every Barbarian can Rage, for example, that's just part of being a Barbarian). You also have 8 points to divide as bonuses to player defined Backgrounds, which include within them flags and world building and generally have huge penumbras in play. You have 1 feat, or two if you're playing a human. Depending on the class you may have some additional bits such as spells accessible or fighter maneuvers. And you pick your 3 icon relationships. 

All skill checks and attacks add Level to them. Your basic attack damage is your level in weapon dice. So when you level up everything automatically gets better, no need to fiddle around with decisions for points spends, and your basic attack damage scales with level so it removes the linear fighter/logarithmic wizard problem. You get another feat, maybe a new options in your additional bits (more spells, a new maneuver, etc.), and you're done. 

He said he found this uncomfortably formulaic and a bad design, because he doesn't get all those decisions and design bits and levers to pull as he levels up. He was sure every 6th level fighter would therefore look like every other 6th level fighter while 5E lets everyone be different. 

This was flabbergasting to me, because it's the exact opposite of what I see happening. 

In 13th Age and other freeform games I get to make a unique character at the jump. No one else has my backgrounds because I defined them. The powers are genre classics that I get to mix and match from so there are some 30 possible talent builds per baseline class. The icon relationships are equally in the players hands. The rules are explicitly loose in a variety of places to make sure you're getting the character you want to play very quickly. The feat selection is so much an afterthought of "oh that might be neat" rather than "I need x to get to y" because the character. The characters also start at about the 3rd level of power in 5E terms. (Mind you, I'm not 100% on board with how much the rules assume you're maximizing attributes to class given the strength of the underlying math, but that's been a bugaboo of mine across a lot of non-random roll systems where attributes provide a lot of the bonus)

What I've seen in 5E is MUCH more structured, with 1st level PCs looking very close to one another and the differentiation not starting until 3rd level, and after that it's navigating a tree of decision points to make every character fit within a tree of branching, evenly powered options, so you can carry your character from game table to game table and know that you're balanced. He wanted that list of switches and options, the system mastery and the regular decision points. 

In short, when he looked at 13th Age he didn't see the structure to build the character over play. When I looked at 5E I saw all the characters the structure wouldn't let me play without someone official coming up with a design tree to "allow" it. I'm not saying I'm right and he's wrong, but it's amazing to me that we can be looking at the same two systems and see completely different outcomes on it. Especially as I do work again now on B/X and 3E, which are at other places on that spectrum.

Thinking About Armor Class

As things gear back up for my B/X game I was having more thoughts on Armor Class , where it came from, and how to use it. 

Right there in the title we're in to old wargame design, where the Class is a number or letter code to let you know a) what the thickness of warship armor was and b) what column to cross reference on to see if a hit occurred. D&D and other F20 games just absorbed that even as the linkage between the Armor's Class and the chance to be hit attenuated. 13th Age even makes a joke of it, saying that it should be Armor Defense to go along with Physical Defense and Mental Defense, but they are traditionalists.

Now, I know almost no one used the weapons vs. armor tables in AD&D. I know I didn't... but I am a fan, because I love the implied physics engine. (Something you'll see more of in my V&V natter later; there's a similar one in early Gamma World.) It was just too complicated because there were too many weapons and too many armors and Armor Class lost all meaning because the AC on your sheet wasn't the Armor Class on the chart, which was just your armor, or maybe armor and shield (which also got weird because AC 7 could be Studded Leather or Leather and Shield, which doesn't make much sense on how weapons interact with the armor). 

So lets strip this down to B/X levels and my own "get the d20 roll to match 1 in 6 chances" ethos. There are 5 "Armor Classes", that is to say, broad classes of armor.

1. None: This is everything from nudity to general clothing. Unless the clothes are constructed with the goal of blocking weapons, your Armor Class is "None". 
1. For animals, this is light fur; everything from cats to dogs to cows and horses are Armor Class "None" 
2. This gives a bonus on stealth and physical action. 
3. An average opponent hits you 4 times in 6. (8+ on d20)
2. Leather: This is any sort of animal products being used to protect the bulk of your body, with or without some metal studding, of which there are a million variations. 
1. For animals this is heavy furs and moderately thick hides, such as wolves and bears. 
2. This gives you a bonus on stealth and no penalty on physical action.
3. An an average opponent hits you 3 times in 6. (11+ on d20)
3. Chain: This intermediate stage is, for humans, interlocking chains covering at least your torso backed with some leather or hard metal in form of greaves, bracers, etc. 
1. For animals this is rhinoceros and elephants, or large lizards where the scales approximate chain, or insects with basic exoskeletons.
2. This gives you no bonus to stealth and a minor penalty on physical action if you don't have specialized training. 
3. An average opponent hits you 2 times in 6. (14+ on d20)
4. Plate: This is classic conception of "Knight" or "Royal Guard", where the bulk of the body is covered with solid metal backed by chain mail. 
1. For animals we're now talking giant insects with natural carapaces, younger dragons, and other thing that have that level of protection. 
2. It gives you a minor penalty to stealth and a major penalty to physical action which is reduced to minor by training. 
3. An average opponent hits you 1 time in 6 (17+ on d20)
5. Adamant: This final category is for magical plate armor. It is nigh impermeable. 
1. For animals this is elder dragonscale, or extraplanar creatures
2. It gives you a major penalty to stealth and and a minor penalty on physical action if you don't have specialized training.
3. An average opponent almost never hits you (20 on d20)

This seems self explanatory, and lends itself easily to naturalism: lots of animals will have Armor Class None or Leather, you can easily eyeball threats as they come up. Now... how much complexity do you want to add? 

Shields: Ugh, I love them conceptually, I hate the idea of of them messing with how weapons interact with the armor, and I'm meh on having them affect the number needed to hit you. So what to do with them? 

1. In my current rules hacks, Fighters gain bonuses in combat based on their raw d20 rolls, as per 13th Age. Rolls of 1-7 give them an informational or defensive bonus, rolls of 17+ give them an attack bonus, determined by what style they're fighting with. 
1. Weapon and Shield is already a style here, so there's already a mechanical reason for fighters to have a shield - fighters want to unlock those benefits
2. I can add a 1-7 benefit that is only accessible for shield carriers, to give another reason to carry them which feels diegetic. 
3. The problem is that these are Fighter only benefits, but Magic Users and Rogues don't use them. So why do Cleric carry shields? Cleric is a pain because it's such an amalgamation - it's scholarly magic and divine channeling and armor using combat - that it's hard to split apart. Since I'm already planning to make the current 'Cleric' a multi-class off the scholarly magic class and the divine channeling class, the divine channeling class needs some sort of shield bonus. 
2. There's a lovely rule in Feng Shui section edition for bulletproof vests where they don't reduce damage or change your chance to hit, but give you a chance to pop back up from an otherwise fatal wound. Likewise, the Magic Shield in 13th Age just give you more Hit Points. 
1. A similar to Feng Shui rule here, where the Shield lets you evade death, might be helpful. But maybe too helpful? Or too complex? The Shield let you eliminate the damage from one attack per fight, or two attacks if you let the shield break and renders it unusable for later fights? That would work for Fighters and "Prophets"
2. A similar to 13th Age rule might also work, where carrying a shield just gives you 1.5*level more HP, but how does that effect healing. Given my own healing rules are idiosyncratic that's less of a concern as it hard to do in dungeon healing. 

Now what about Dexterity Modifier? That also changes the "to be hit" threshold of your Armor Class. That's easier. Dex Mod adds to your Hit Points, just like Constitution. Hit Points are, to me, "Don't Get Hit" points, the reserve that turns what would have been a fight ending hit into a lesser one. The pool is an indicator of your tricks and skills that minimize attacks, but you get tired and run out of tricks eventually. Constitution modifiers show how much pain you can take that might put other people out of a fight. Dexterity shows how much faster you are than other people and gives you a deeper bag of tricks. Make that change and the rules for Armor get a lot easier because it's not BOTH dodging and blocking, It's just blocking. Dodging is back into HP. 

Lost Galmagia Write Up Session 2.4

Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]

The still woozy Aethra sits to go through the ogre’s possessions – turning up a large pouch containing 500 GP in mixed imperial coin! – while Brömm and Oland go through the crates. Two of them, full of tea and paper, were both too damaged by elements and time to have any value. The other 4 hold woven rugs, salt blocks, teak boards, and packed jars of dyes and pigments, any of which could have real value in Amethyst Spire! But it’s all so big! Under Aethra’s direction the chest of paper is emptied and refilled by one or two examples of each chest, and then with a gesture the magic-User calls on her remaining spell to lift the crate in the air. 

Abandoning cautious movement over the path they just took the adventurers move as quickly as Aethra’s wounds allow to the Customs House ballroom (stopping to make a prayer gesture at the arch, just in case). They reach camp just as both the floating disk enchantment and Aethra’s stamina give out. It’s still before noon and if they hurry they can make Amethyst Spire before gate-close. The mule is loaded with their newfound trade goods and everyone moves at their best speed back along the road towards the town. The plan is to take the same circuitous route back to keep their entry into Lost Galmagia a secret. 

Without losing speed they keep eyes peeled for any evidence of where a wagon or two might have gone astray… say, a caravan of goldsmith’s guild vault contents. To their shock Ayleton does locate something! The cat’s keen senses (and high Divine Favor!) reveal some overgrown ruts that might have been a side road a quarter century ago. Their need to get home overrides their desire to pursue this lead so they mark the spot and keep moving. 

Arriving at Amethyst Spire’s ‘Gate Ward’ just at sunset the garrulous Richard Stockton wheedles their way in, sharing stories of a visit to Turnip Hill to the north to explain their crate of mixed trade goods.  The group decamp to the Axe and Thistle, where Stockton is part owner and arranged for the party’s goods to be stored in their basement. As a first proof of concept the delve was a remarkable success! No one died! Bags of Gold! Perhaps not enough to retire on but certainly enough to fund a return trip. 

Over the next five weeks the adventurers heal up, divide their treasure (with Brömm and Aethra holding the Ogres bag of coin as an emergency reserve), purchase equipment, and line up possible buyers for the crates of goods based on the samples they returned with. Brömm estimates the crates in total will fetch around 500GP (the rugs fetching the least at 50 GP, then the wood at 100, the salt at 150 and the dyes at 200), if they can get them back here. Mules? Multiple trips with Aethra’s magic? Hiring porters? 

Aethra spends her time looking for other methods past the Amber but finds nothing else: she needs to locate either a Hold Portal spell and gain enough experience to reverse it, or find the even more complicated Knock spell. Her efforts turn to finding someone she can learn those from, while she copies the Protection from Evil spell into her spellbook. 

Ayleton sneaks into the undercity of Amethyst Spire several times to listen in on the scholarly salons there, learning more about Goblins – that they were evicted from the Unseelie Court for not being cruel enough, but are altogether too capricious for the Seelie to tolerate, with their markets and trades in human foibles – and passes that along to Aethra. 

Brömm tried to dig into the history of Robert the Chief Custom’s Clerk, but with no success. 

Oland asks around concerning the private rituals of the matriarchy and confirms that none of them correspond to the outfit worn by the ogre-murdered man; it’s equally unlikely that it was the guard of a Brotherhood of the Stars cult. If the man was practicing a religion, it doesn’t correspond to one Oland can identify.

Lost Galmagia: Rogues and Initiative

I designed Rogue’s combat abilities to be distinct from fighters. While fighters (and by extension elves and dwarves) use the natural die roll to determine if their special abilities activate, Rogues have options that open up based on surprise or whether their side of the combat has initiative. So far it's working, but we'll see how well this works. 

Surprise Rounds

•            When it’s time to roll for surprise, the rogue rolls individually, applying their Sharp Senses bonus both to the group roll and their individual roll. The rogue uses the better roll, which means they may avoid surprise, or surprise opponents, even if the rest of the party does not.

•            When the rogue has Surprise, they can ‘backstab’ a target, gaining +4 to hit and doing extra damage.

Without Initiative

•            The rogue can try to ‘seize the initiative’ with a risky attack. They act before the side that won initiative but must attack the most dangerous foe/obvious leader. If they hit, they do normal damage and their side regains the initiative. If they miss, they are at –4 AC for the round and a prime target.

•            If the rogue doesn’t have initiative, they can skip their attack on the back half of the round this round and reposition themselves to set up a backstab attack on their next round (regardless of which side wins initiative).

•            If the rogue’s side doesn’t have initiative, they can announce they are skipping their attack in the back half of this round to gain +4 AC for the front half of the round.

With Initiative

•            The rogue may apply their dexterity modifier to their attacks rather than their strength modifier.

•            If the rogue’s total attack bonus (Class + dexterity modifier) is +2 or greater, they can make two attacks, each at half the bonus (round down), for one die code lower damage (so d4 rather than d6 for a regular short sword). This also applies during a surprise round and can be combined with backstabbing if the rogue has initiative or surprise.

•            The rogue can press an opponent, where a successful attack does not do damage, but reduces the targets AC by 3 for the round, and any attacks allies land on that target do +2 damage.

Lost Galmagia Write Up Session 2.3

Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]

The Ogre has nearly caught up with Oland when Aethra makes a gesture and a missile of magical energy silently streaks from her a strikes the creature square in the shoulder. Against a man, that would have blown its arm clean off. The ogre is slowed, but just enough for Brömm to clear the distance and interpose himself between the ogre and Oland. Brömm’s armor takes the first blow, and the dwarf responds with a counter-stroke that fails to connect but plants the battle here. Ayleton shifts to cheetah form and prepares to leap but Aethra warns him off – whatever parasites are under that ogre’s skin might be communicable to the cat via its bite – and then the mage lights a torch off the lantern to better illuminate the battle.

There are several tense seconds of attack and counter-attack between the dwarf and ogre before Brömm manages to set the ogre up for one of Oland’s sling stones, and then follow up almost immediately with brutal strike that should have laid the creature low. Alas those carrying the gift of Growth Eternal are hard to kill, and Ogres are past the age of boundless rage and are canny fighters. Aethra steps ahead and to the side and lobs the torch at the ogre, who bats it contemptuously away, where it lands in the oil. Unable to get past the dwarfs guard the Ogre slams its club down onto the ground, sending shrapnel from the floor up to cut the dwarf’s face and hands. It then leaps to the side and lays out Aethra with a single blow. Ayleton leaps forward and drags his mistress to safety confirming she’s badly  bruised and stunned but their familiar bond is keeping her alive. Brömm gets inside the ogres guard and wrong foots it, keeping it from dodging Olands sling. The stone strikes it square and it staggers back several paces before falling into the fire.

[If you’re wondering, this is Players win initiative, Brömm rolls under a 7 for tactical insight, Aethra uses her Magic Missile for 6 damage, Ogre misses Oland(chromed as because of the magic missile). Ogre wins initiative but misses Brömm, Brömm misses back with a roll low enough to “aid” Oland’s attack, Oland misses with sling, Aethra grabs torch; Players win initiative, both hitting for a combined 8+3=11 damage, Aethra lights torch, Ogre misses, but with a high enough roll that it doesn’t fail a morale check for being under half HP. Players win initiative, but all miss again, including with the thrown torch even with Brömm’s Aid for Aethra, and the ogre misses poorly enough to activate its ‘save or take shrapnel damage’ attack. Ogre wins initiative, hits Aethra, Ayleton makes a stabilize check with a roll of 19, confirming Aethra will survive if she’s not hit again, Brömm rolls poorly enough again to give Oland a +2 to hit, which just puts the rogue over the hit threshold, doing the last HP of damage needed on the 18 HP Ogre. 5 tense rounds of combat in under 20 minutes play time.]

Everyone gives a heavy sigh of relief, and are amazed when two glowing snakes rise out from the ogre’s skin, turn to the adventurers, nod, and fade away into mist. Oland, conscious of the role snakes play in human religion even if he’s generally agnostic, takes a moment to bow his head back at whatever hold forces were weakening the ogre into something they could defeat. Aethra staggers to her feat and everyone heads into the space between the crates to hide and recover. They will have to return to the surface soon; Aethra cannot manage another battle, and indeed needs time in a truly safe space to recover from that injury.

To their surprise they find the corpse of the man they had been following, his skull smashed by an ogre’s club. The figure is powerfully built but even of limb, with a beetle brow, jutting jaw and craggy features that somehow still convey nobility. They find his mask, amorpha and a sliver-chased club that must have been under his cloak tossed atop the ogre’s possessions, and Ayleton insists to his mistress that they give him as proper last rites as they can manage, with the cat dragging the mask back onto the fellows face. The others generally agree its best to be in the gods’ good graces, even at the cost of the silver-plated mask.

That done Ayleton takes a watch position on the ramp, spotting a trio of enormous rats approaching. A cat vs. rat stand-off leads the rats to accept the less threatening meal of slow roasted ogre.

Lost Galmagia: What are Goblins part 3

1)      Sprites, Pixies, and Nixies: These are other remnants of the Unseelie court that followed the goblins here. Much more Fae in nature than the goblins are they have settled in pockets around Lost Galmagia, and since they can all ‘blink’ short distances the Amber doesn’t hinder their passage. As such they have the safety of the Mages Ward, but can appear anywhere. They cannot blink through lead, and the Neanderthals know this. All of them are aligned, more or less, with Queen Mab, and others aligned with that kindly one can treat with them.

a.       The Sprites are mostly benign, doling out curses when they think it would be funny, but also helping people when they think that might be more fun. They aren’t really a threat as level 0 monsters, and the Goblins tolerate them with good grace. The Neanderthals/Galmagian Noble Families hunt them (the sprites in particular) for use as material components in their own curse magic, trapping them in lead lined casks. The Brotherhood has learned how to buy them off with flowers (brotherhood members will carry wildflower batches for this purpose) rather than waste time fighting them.

b.       The Pixies are chaotic and malicious little twerps, but not actually killers. They’re more than happy to mess with people, lead them to monsters or monsters to them, or knife them to sow distrust or fear in the party, but are too vulnerable to want to engage in real combat. If the PCs engage with them openly and offer presents they are more focused than the Sprites and can offer real help.

c.       Nixies are water spirits that now live on the 3^rd floor waterways and in the canal nearby, charming people to come down and serve them for a day that is a year and a day on the surface. They can also manipulate water to an extent, or more precisely water acts ‘strangely’ when they’re around.

d.       One basic purpose of them, narratively, is to “funhouse dungeon” up the Mages Ward. They appear in other places but they do their weirdest stuff in the already magic high environments of the Mages Ward.

2)      Kobolds: this is an interesting question. I had not considered using them because they clutter up the landscape Dwarves, Orcs, Ogres, and Giants form one clear lineage. Elves, Goblins, Hobgoblins, Bugbears, Sprites, Pixies and Nixies form another in the Seelie and Unseelie courts. Kobolds are odd creatures out. Their main shticks of fast breeding trap makers are either co-opted by the Hobgoblins or not something I want to emphasize in the OSR style game where hidden traps slow things down. But if I have Sprites with their curses be fire fey, nixies as water fey, pixies as air fey, maybe we get back to kobolds as knockers/earth fey? Something to consider for a different dungeon. There’s not space for them in Galmagia.

Lost Galmagia Session Write Ups 2.2

Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]

The quartet discuss the various advantages of the customs house stairs vs. the sward ward gate, ultimately deciding to retrace their steps. Returning to the ballroom they find the doo they had spiked shut to the east had been hammered open from the other side, restoring passage into and out of these rooms. Oland pocketed the spikes and they moved east. The space contains a dozen or so fire beetles who immediately scatter – some running in circles, some back past the adventurers, some to through the open door and then turning west. As expected from the clerk’s journal this was the Ramp Room, dominated with a circular ramp that would lead to the surface were it not for the rubble up top. A closed door lies to the south, an open one to the north, but no passage further east to the hoped for East Storage Room that is supposed to have the lift down to the vault.

A cautious 10 minutes allows Brömm to confirm that the ramp and room are solid, for Ayleton to listen and sniff at the south door and hear nothing but smell canal water, and for Oland and Aethra to explore north, where the room past contains broken-to-destroyed crates, two archways leading west (behind the ballroom) and east (to parts unknown) and the door to the room holds anti-water wards. Before the pair can explore further Oland hears something large approaching from the west and the group hunkers down in the ramp room with their lantern closed.

A large male figure, stoop shouldered but with a powerful build in a hooded cloak covering a silver facemask, holding an amorpha in one hand and an oil-bowl lamp the other, enters the room of broken crates, drops to one knee before the east archway, places his amorpha on the ground and raise that hand over his head in a curved shape. That done he picks up the amorpha and passes through the arch. The adventurers mark a hundred count and then check out the room with as little light as possible. Aethra finds two runes in the keystone – ‘pray’ and ‘enter’ – and Ayleton points out the curved shape is a crude crescent moon. The figure left a scent of soap and incense. Perhaps this is one of the pilgrims they’ve been hypothesizing about. Oland notes that none of the fire beetles went east. The group opts to follow the figure, all repeating the prayer motion (save for the cat), before entering. They feel energy wash over them but nothing happens. Aethra checks the far side of the arch and sees no runes; she hopes this means if they have to flee back through that direction of passage is safe.

The passage turns out to be the Customs House Road, and spending an hour moving at a cautious pace to cover what should have been 20 minutes of walking before they hit a bend in the road – at the edges of their light it turns to the northeast while a ramp runs to the southeast off the passage. The light glistens off some sort of puddles, one coppery red and one shiny. “Is that blood?” Brömm asks. “Maybe he performed a ritual? Was the amorpha full of blood?” Aethra speculates. At 20 feet removed Brömm and Aethra hunker down in the dark and wait while Oland and Ayleton approach with the bullseye lantern giving a sliver of light. “That’s blood,” Ayleton’s nose confirms, “and oil.” Oland is able to make out two shapes on the floor further up – one a hemispherical bulge, the other a small pile of goo.

“What the hell happened here?” Brömm wonders. The cat treads around the puddle to explore the goo pile while Oland sweeps the light across the ramp, finding a trail of blood up it into a space full of crates – some sort of rest and storage space on the customs house road. Is this the east storage room? That doesn’t seem likely. Did the stooped figure perform the ritual and then climb the ramp? Ayleton reaches the goo to find it a pile of brains and skull bits knocked some distance away from the pool by something…. Oland spots a figure looming in the crates and flips the lantern aperture wide, temporarily blinding the ogre in the shadows preparing to leap at them from the cover of the crates!

Ayleton runs back to his master with all speed while Oland backpedals furiously, trying to keep the light on the ogre to both slow it and make it a clear target for his allies. Brömm prepares to throw his hand axe but never sees a clear shot; in the moment he is struck with the relative slowness of the ogre, and the writhing shapes moving under the beast’s skin. It should have easily outmatched Olands backpedaling speed, but it hasn’t yet caught up. Something is weakening the beast, which might be their only chance at survival….

Lost Galmagia: The Sword Ward Vaults

The Goblin King has an array of 10 ‘leaders’ in his court, 8 of which are warriors. The court members don’t have family clusters like other goblins, but are instead their own cluster (albeit without kids and non-combatants, obviously). While all the goblins are polyamorous with no societal sexual roles, but the warriors in the court and the goblin king are even more so.

3.27: War Leaders Room 1
The three Goblin War-Leaders that live here are most often out and about so there is only a 2 in 6 chance of them being present. The path into this room from the Park Ward requires going through a passage reduced to 4’ in height by the sinkhole in 2.12. Dwarves will see that this is inferior but acceptable construction given the constraints they’re working under. Inside the room are bedding for several goblins, a fountain/pool of fresh water coming through the ceiling from the sinkhole, and an arch of shiny but valueless rocks embedded in copper-covered stone (if you melt everything down it’s about 1,000CP) over the door to the throne room

3.28 War Leaders Room 2
This space is home to three more of the war leaders, and is similar in many ways to 3.27 (including the only 2 in 6 chance that the goblins will be present). The big difference is that the arch over the exit door here is carved wood of exquisite elvish design. If the heavy wood could be moved without damaging it, it would fetch 500 GP, but magic is required.

3.29 The Goblin Kings Room
This space can be entered from 3.27 or directly from above in 2.10, though doing so will draw the attention of the elemental spirts that power the machinery in the room. The whole space has a steampunk feel as the clockwork that drive the great reflecting mirror of the watchtower is still and functional. Either entrance to the room is outside the curtains that block of the walls and that space is designed to reflect the grandeur of the Goblin King. The curtains are grand tapestries of Galmagian families stolen from the noble manors and glamored to replace the human scenes with goblin ones (if pulled down and moved they can be sold for 500 GP or returned to the Galmagian families for considerable good will). There’s a 2 in 6 chance the Giblin King and 2 of his warriors are here, and he has glamored them so they fight for him. The spirits will mess with the PCs perceptions and once a round a random PC has to save vs. traps or stumble into the clockworks and take 1d6 damage. (if not in fight but the PCs entered from above, everyone saves every turn they are in the room without the goblin king). If a fight breaks out here each round there’s a 2 in 6 chance of more goblins arriving.

3.30 Stairs to the Gate
This room is home to 3 warriors and 2 war-leaders (except at night there’s a 1 in 6 chance that 3 of those are out hunting), as well as leather armor, shields, spears, slings, and other hunting accoutrement. There are steel bars around the stairs, blocking the stairs except for 5’ at the exit. The stairs are steel as well, and have been trapped to collapse and snap back up if anything more than one goblin weight is on them (there’s a switch on floor near the stair exit that shuts that off). The trigger is one third of the way down the 20’ stairwell, so 1d6 damage is taken as you fall into the circular wedge of a cage. The Goblins will then question the PCs and possibly attack them depending on circumstances.

3.31 The Blocked Silver Stairs
The door to this space is barred from the hallway, and locked. Past that is a constructed pile of stones that any dwarf can see is designed to be taken down and rebuilt. Past that are stairs down into the silver vein that is deeply contested Nobleman/Goblin territory. At the moment the Nobles are in control and the Goblins have it blocked off. The Goblin King wants it back, but has to focus his attention on the Hobgoblin threat.

4.1 The Elf Wood
Beyond the wooden arch is an unnatural vast space, half actual woodland, half glamour, with a false sky overhead that mirrors the real one above, that was the home of the Green Sword Company of Deepwater before they gave their lives defending the city. The place is very comfortable to Seelie and very uncomfortable to Unseelie, so the goblins never enter. That’s good for them because an Owlbear stalks the place, hunting anyone who is not of Seelie blood (hairfoot halflings qualify, which is good for them). Because of the magics on the place, anyone not a elf or hairfoot halfling has their movement rates effectively halved by the illusionary woods. Oddly, the Owlbear is immune to this. The Owlbear will stalk, attack, fall back and harass the party, taking them out one by one, unless it is distracted by a rabbit or commanded in Elvish to stand down.

4.1 a: The Warren
This space is home to a warren of fey rabbits who will help the PCs if they help them in return. Possible 7 room dungeon.

4.2 The Green Sword Meditation Room
This stone structure inside the glamoured woods has a stout oaken door and no other means of access. The door has rune traps that force a Polymorph save or turn those in 5’ of the door into rabbits for 24 perilous hours. Inside the room are several spellbooks full of Elvish spells of levels 1-4, The Manual of Seelie Blade Puissance (read to get +1 to attack with swords, the book vanishes after that for non-elves) two elfcraft bows, 100 elfcraft arrows, one enchanted sword with special powers, and a bag with 100 electrum pieces of the sort used in Deepwater.

Lost Galmagia: What are Goblins part 2

1)      Classic Hobgoblins: these are goblins who have accepted the Giant’s Gift of growth eternal. They quickly attained man size and considerable fecundity. Their skins have darkened, moving to reddish-brown to grey-black while their faces remain bright orange to red. They favor bright, bloody colors and black leather. Since they have accepted the Giant’s Gift they no longer reincarnate, but they are also very hard to kill: unless a coup-de-grace is performed on any Hobgoblin they will heal given enough time (usually a full month or more; this is not combat regeneration). Their community population is 4-24 combatants (not counting the kings court), 150% that in non-combatants and 300% (!) that in youths. The largest Hobgoblin tribes so far are 160 individuals; give them time.

a.       For all goblins their night vision is very sharp, but no longer suffer from daylight penalties. At human size they no longer have the Goblin advantages and disadvantages from stature, and they have forsaken the last of their Unseelie heritage. They do revive from serious wounds unless deliberately killed, and recover (as per the Cure Wounds act of faith) in one month of their wounding. They are solely warriors.

b.       Their ‘non-combatants’ are 1 level with a Typical morale. There aren’t really Hobgoblin non-combatants, just those not big enough or healed enough to fight at the moment. Given their healing abilities they practice combat constantly, so much of their force is too wounded to act. Given a month they convert all of non-combatants to full Hobgoblin warrior stats. Their youth are as powerful as goblin warriors.

c.       Among their combatants, all are warriors. Level 2 foes (AC 14, HP 7, 6 damage) with a Good morale, Excellent if their King is still alive. If the Hobgoblin’s attack roll is 1-3, they left themselves open to an attack, target must save vs. Wands or do 2 damage to the Hobgoblin and lose their weapon as the creature falls back with it embedded in its body. On an 18+ their blow will shatter an opponents shield (if they have one) or damage their non-magical weapon (-1 damage until repaired).

d.       The Hobgoblin King has a ‘court’ of 1d4 bodyguards, Level 3 (AC 14, HP 11, +2 to hit, they wield huge weapons that can either be one swing for 9 or a swing and backswing for 6 and 4). They have the same special abilities as warrior Hogoblins, just with more chances with their extra attacks.  

e.       The Hobgoblin King, like the goblin king, has a magic sword (but the sword actively hates him for abandoning his Fey Nature and therefore refuses to activate its special abilities). He is Level 5 (AC 14, HP 23, +3 to hit or +4 with their magic sword, making 3 attacks at 4/4/8 (5/5/9 with their sword) and Excellent morale. They have the same special abilities as a Warrior, but again, more chances to use it.

f.        Hobgoblins have no pets. Animals shun them, and will make noise and kick up a fuss if approached.

2)      Bugbears: These are Hobgoblins who have grown in twisted ways, with their pumpkin heads, dull yellow skin and tannish brown to brick red fur, expecting their head-fur, which is deep orange. Like Hobgoblins they have accepted the gift of eternal growth with similar powers, but are even larger (7’ high) and stronger, even as the rage and brute cunning that comes with their growth has made them less savvy fighters.

a.       Like hobgoblins they fight equally well in low light and daylight, and recover from near mortal wounds.

b.       They don’t have non-combatants, or a society. All are level 3 foes, with cobbled together armor and thick fur giving AC 14, 11 HP, making one attack a round at +2 for 9 damage, Good morale. On a roll of 1-3 they appear to retreat but are just setting up another ambush. They always carry 2 large weapons and a couple stone hand axes. They can throw their large weapon for full damage at no penalty, and on a roll of 18+ they do 4 damage to another target with a thrown axe.

c.       Animals fear them so much they fall silent at their approach, but the Bugbear itself is so stealthy that it gives a -2 penalty to opponent surprise rolls.

Lost Galmagia Session Write-Up 2.1

 Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf] NPCs Dungar [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Treasure Hunter]; Azric [Rogue 1 – Assassin / leatherworker]; Richard Stockworth [Hairfoot Halfling 1 – Satyr / Tavernkeeper & Cook]

After recovering from their wounds the adventurers spend another 10 minutes exploring their general vicinity – Ayleton, Aethra and Brömm stay with Dungar at the door for Ayleton to listen at it while Oland leads Richard and Azric up the North passage to see what’s there. Ayleton’s cat-ears confirm that the bugs have calmed down at least some, and that group plots an exit back the way they came. Aside from the heavily armored dwarves everyone should be able to get across the quicksand at a run without getting mired. Some plans involve one of Aethra’s precious spells, but ultimately the ideas if have Ayleton (whose cat form is still as strong as a strong man) carry the grappling hook and rope over the quicksand to the far wall and set it; then if need be the dwarves can be hauled across. 

Oland’s team, using a single fire beetle glad inside a belt pouch for minimal light, discover a crack in the wall that’s clearly a secret door that closed improperly – quick study shows a broken lever inside circular arrays – and is firmly set  enough to not give way to the crowbar. During this the rogues hear something trying to move quietly further up the passage – perhaps other tomb robbers? Pilgrims that got lost below? – and decide trying to progress here is just too dangerous. They fall back and join the others in the escape. 

Said escape goes as planned, more or less: the lightly armored members of the party get past the again docile bugs, which are now crowding in the quicksand room away from the smoke, and prepare to pull the dwarves across. The highly wounded Dungar goes first, and while he’s crossing several creatures race down the custom’s house road towards Brömm, ineffectually using their slings on his sturdy armor. The creatures stand a yard tall with broad pointed ears, carrying spears with glowing red lights at their ends. Seeing no advantage to this battle Brömm flees, being yanked across the room. Whatever the creatures are – Ayleton refers to them as Angry Goblinos – they close the door Brömm passed through. 

Another 10 minutes are spent making sure that nothing has disturbed the rooms they passed through, resetting the spikes on the west door, and exiting before the bugs get riled up again. The exhausted adventurers then limp their way back to camp to find their mule has survived their absence. None can believe they were underground but 2 hours. 

Camp security is boosted as people lay in to rest and recover. The next two nights pass quickly. During the first Ayleton perched on watch in a window of the stone lean-tos hear metal scraping on metal, and then scream that the cat knows came from a rabbit: something is coming through the gated door in the sword ward to hunt. The party continues to adopt a live and let live attitude. Ayleton and Aethra recall stories the cat overheard in the elven city of Deepwater of the history of the North Vale – Goblins, outcasts from both the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, have probably returned there – which would explain the figures underground. 

One day was spent traveling from Amethyst Spire, one for the initial delve, and one to rest; they each have a week’s rations, plus one extra week to split between the seven for an emergency day. Today marks the halfway point of their expedition. So far they have confirmed no simple entry to Aethra and Dungar’s goals in the Mage’s Ward, the answer to the nighttime lights in the Trade Ward, and the presence of some other creatures (likely goblins) below. Leaving their more wounded members to guard the mule and treasure found (so far two ornate gold candlesticks that would fetch 25 GP each, a bracelet with 100 coin weight in silver and a 25 GP stone, a pouch of 50 GP and one of 400 SP. 175 GP total). Plus the sash, key, and plaque/script from the clerk’s room. 

The biggest find is likely the chief clerk’s journal, which hints at so many things: the path to and entry mechanism for the vaults. That one of the vaults contains valuable artwork. The existence of sub-vaults. The existence of something called the Final Door under the vaults, the contents of which disillusioned the ever-faithful chief customs clerk. That the goldsmith’s guild caravanned their vault contents out before they end but they never made Amethyst Spire, just a day away. So many possible treasures and mysteries just in this ward. 

Lost Galmagia Week 12: The Park Ward Vaults West

This is the western half of the park ward vault level, accessed from the two sets of stairs in 1.20, and via a secret passage from the Sword Ward Vaults. It represents the bulk of the goblin community space.

3.20 Entry to the Farm
Stairs down from 1.20, this floor is covered with a thin later of dirt and grey dust coming from the west door, with goblin  tracks and trails like something had been dragged through here to the door. Stacked up by the door are goblin-sized backpacks with poles holding a dented metal canopy that is counter-weighted to always stay up..

3.21 The Fungal and Piercer Farm
This large room – it stretches up to an otherwise inaccessible basement that was between 1.20 and 1.21 – is covered with a layer of dirt, decayed/decaying plant matter, and mushrooms, all running up the wall; the distant, dark ceiling obviously has other shapes on it. There are large animal skeletons here, including a centaur that was killed the last day of winter (which will determine the state of the body) that has braided into its main 100 Platinum Pieces from the old Seelie Court – the goblins won’t touch them, Elves will recognize them, Magic-Users might – and a leather bracer with markings on it that are the command phrases for the magical saddlebags in 3.26. On the ceiling are 15 piercers, only 5 of which are hungry enough to drop. The goblins feed the piercers the herd animals, then harvest their nutrient rich flesh.

3.22 The stairs up
This room is the Goblin’s main passage up to level 1, and the door is barred from the hallway side – quick examination of the door will reveal a sliding peephole at 3’ in height and another at 6’, and that the door is split so the top and bottom halves can open separately. In a secret space under the stairs there’s a locked chest with 200 GP worth of herbs and ointments used for preparing bodies in room 1.22. There’s a magical trap on the lock that, unless the rune is detected and removed, the opener saves vs. spells turns bright green and glows faintly for a season (or until magic is dispelled).

3.23a Guards
The passage between 3.23b and 3.22 is a guard space, with two goblin veterans and a giant ferret on a bored watch (unless circumstances have obviously changed), playing a dice game over the same pile of 20 coppers and feeding rats to their ferret, in a space lit by treated fire beetle glands. How they react depends on the state of things with he PCs – they will slide the wood (but not the mesh) parts of the lower peephole open, but if the PCs get obviously violent or snarky they will unleash the ferret through the lower door, then fire centipede venom blowgun darts through the upper one.

3.23 b: Insect Reverence Room:
This space holds at least one goblin adept (20% chance of 2) who is either treating fire beetle glands for light or to compress them for holy symbols, and a terrarium filled with giant centipedes. There’s a wooden chest here filled with 10,000 CP into which the centipedes are deposited and their paths are read for divination. (Their venom is also collected for hunting). If pressed the adpt will smash the terrarium, unleashing 2d6 giant centipedes into the room.

3.24 Goblin Families
This room is normally home to three goblin families (the veterans, not the adepts who are in 3.18 and 3.19) and while their accoutrements are here, they are not, all being out and about.

3.25 Goblin Families 2
Like 3.24, this holds the families of the military goblins (3 veterans, 2 non-combatants, 3 kids) and their pet giant ferrets. Each family has 1/3^rd of the space but nothing of real value. They will respond quickly and as a unit to protect the non-combatants and unleash the ferrets in face of an attack.

3.26 Goblin Families 3
This is identical to 3.25, save that the center unit has in their possession the apparently empty saddlebags of the centaur whose skeleton is in 3.21. If the PCs have the bracer with the command words (or the time to suss them out), the saddlebags will be revealed to hold 2 weeks of rations (1 week for a centaur sized being), an adventurer’s kit worth of rope and other gear, and 2000 copper, 700 silver and 10 gold coins of imperial vintage.

Lost Galmagia: Goblins

We have now established that Goblins are the scattered remnants of the Unseelie Courts, who are creeping back into the North Vale that used to be a center of Unseelie power. We also know that they see insects as being key parts of of their religion, and we know that while the human mind is unable to capture the shape of a deity, giving them mammal or bird heads/features but never insect ones. I quite like the idea that in the absence of the Elvish gods the Goblins have taken up the worship of a singular insect-affiliated deity in the shape of a comet that is at distance to the world. Therefore Goblin acts of faith have been deeply limited – causing a schism in the goblin community with some falling prey to the Giants’ Gods’ gifts (Hobgoblins, Bugbears), while others have stated true to the insect faith.

This moves them away from the Tolkien Goblins imagery of Basic D&D, but I think makes them more interesting. It also means that we have several different types of Goblins to play with:

1)      Classic Goblins: these are small, incredibly ugly humanoids of yellow through dull orange through brick red in skin tone and their eyes reflect red in dim light; their soldiers wear dark brown leather and muted colors for utilitarian and strategic reasons, while their civilians run a panoply of shades and designs. Unlike elves, goblins are mortal, living some 50 years or so, but like elves they reincarnate freely so death is not the end. Their community population is 6-60 combatants (not counting the King’s court), 60% more in non-combatant adults, and 100% more in young. The largest tribes have 190 individuals.

a.       For all goblins their night vision is very sharp, but they are at -1  to attacks in full daylight. With their reduced stature Goblins have a +3 AC vs. foes larger then they are (so halflings, familiars, or Reduced people strike as normal) and a 20’ move. They all have some weird unseelie fae abilities they can draw on, and gain experience as either Warrior or Acolyte of the Green Star.

b.       Their non-combatants are 0 level with a Poor morale. If they are attacked they will defend themselves, but most importantly on a roll of 1-7 they mirror the face of their attacker (Morale check for NPCs). Non-Combatant goblins are able to Make Trades once a month (often during the faerie market), happily handing over things the PCs consider valuable (and _are_ valuable) for impossible things like the color of their eyes, the memory of their first love, and so on. Making the trade also marks the PC – they now show up on a Detect Evil spell, and at the start of Winter must save vs. Death or waste away in 3 months unless extraordinary efforts are taken. (Thank you, Christina Rosetti.)

c.       Among their combatants, 80% are warriors. Level 1 foes (AC 11, HP 4, 3 damage) with a Typical morale, Good if leader present. On 18+ their wounds carry an icy chill that reduces foe movement by 10’ for next round. On a 1-3 they close their eyes and slip into shadow for a second (only matters when it’s a morale loss, in which case they just vanish).

d.       20% are acolytes of The Green Star. Level 1 (AC 8, HP 5, 3 damage) with Typical morale, Good if leader present. When appropriate they can Turn Undead (levels 1-3 fall back); cast Abey/Enhance Curse, or cast Protection from Evil. On an 18+ they do no damage but target instead saves vs. Polymorph suffer the following for the fight (1d4) 1) weapon in hand turns to bugs, 2) armor (or shield, if worn) turns to bugs, 3) mouth disappears (no spellcasting/talking), 4) target swaps faces with foe (NPC Morale check ).  

e.       The Goblin King will have a court of 2d6 leaders, with the same 80/20 fighter/acolyte percentage.

                                                               i.      Warrior Leaders are Level 2 (AC 11, HP 9, +1 to hit, 6 damage) their chill wound lasts all fight. They fade into shadows on a roll of 1-7.

                                                             ii.      Acolyte Leaders are level 2 (AC 11, FP 9, +1 to hit, 6 damage), and can also cast an Summon Swarm erudition spell, and Remove Fear. Their 18+ effect is unchanged, but on 1-3 they now vomit up either a single big bug or a lot of little ones that menace their foes but don’t attack.

f.        The Goblin King has unlocked much more of their Unseelie power thanks to their magic sword (there is one such sword per goblin kingdom). They are Level 3 (AC 11, 14 HP, +2 to hit or +3 with their magic sword, making 3 attacks at 3/3/5 (4/4/6 with their sword) and Good morale. They have the same special abilities as a Warrior, but can also at will Glamour to look like a human or elf (normally a beautiful version of that race, but it can be someone in particular). A Goblin King’s Short Sword is Intelligence 10, Speaks Goblin and Faespeak, can Detect Magic and Evil, and create an Illusion 3 times a day.

g.       Goblins live in and amongst Fire Beetles, whom they view as symbolic psychopomps – their preferred disposal of corpses is being eaten by insects – and the use fire beetles to light in their communities (and to grow their crops!). While Acolytes will preserve the lights of dead beetles they do so with reverence; anyone just hacking apart beetles to steal their lights earn considerable enmity.

h.       Goblins in Lost Galmagia have no wolves, instead having trained giant ferrets as guards against white apes and rat hunters. These are Level 2, AC 11, HP 9, 50’ move, 1 attack at +1 for 6 damage, Good Loyalty but on a roll of 1-3 they have turned and bitten their trainer for 3 pts. Ferrets aren’t trustworthy.

Lost Galmagia Write Up Session 1.4

Aethra Chatoyant [Magic-User 1 – apprentice of a famous master / elf-sister]; Ayleton the Cat [Familiar 1 – animal familiar / ship cat of unknown port]; Oland [Rogue 1 – Spy / personal keyword not yet defined]; Dungar [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Treasure Hunter]; Brömm [Dwarf 1 – Dwarf-raised / Bonded Clockwork Guilds-dwarf]; Azric [Rogue 1 – Assassin / leatherworker]; Richard Stockworth [Hairfoot Halfling 1 – Satyr / Tavernkeeper & Cook]

The crew takes a 10-minute rest, eating rations and using the convenient garderobe, as Azric flips through the journal. The owner, Jon Thompskin, is a customs house clerk working on his ‘flourish hand” every lunch break. 20 pages in we learn that he achieved his goal of becoming chief steward of the Customs House, and he marries his beloved Victoria. He now escorts people to the private vaults (to the first-class waiting room via a lift the eastern storage area). He lays out the roughs of roughs of how one accesses the vaults, but the group opts to keep moving and explore more later.

It's been impossible to track the beetles but their helpful light is shining in the next room, into which flows the stream on the dirt floor. There’s a low archway in the east wall… another drainage grate? There are things sticking out of the floor that they can’t clearly see as the beetles’ lights point up not down. Brömm, Aethra and Dungar approach and find parts of halfling-sized skeletons each with silver circlets, torques, bracelets and anklets. Concerned with Disquiet Dead they start breaking the skulls and scattering the bones, only to find themselves sinking into the wet mud. Brömm, the furthest in, glances madly, spotting another 3’ of door concealed in the mud to their west and surges towards it.

This is when the adventurers learn the fire beetles attack hindered targets. The four in the room deploy mandibles on the slowed adventurers; while Aethra can ward off one with her athame she gets a nasty bite on her other arm. The dwarves are for the moment safe due to their heavy armor, but that plus their short stature may doom them in the mud. Oland beats surprise to leap across the scriveners’ room to spike the door to the ballroom shut, blocking 4 beetles.

The beetles still have the initiative, despite Oland and Azric’s attempts to seize it with risky attacks – if the beetles were interested in anyone outside the mud the rogues would be in trouble – but the beetles only manage a strike on Brömm due to Aethra’s luck and Dungar’s heavy armor. The hearty dwarf ignores the small cut and gives back better, killing one with an axe blow as he reaches the door. Everyone save Aethra is surprised when her familiar leaps from her hood, transforming mid-flight to a cheetah that batters away one of the bugs menacing its master.  Dungar considers making a run for the drainage ditch but pulls his hemp rope free and lobs it loosely to Richard. Aethra grabs the slack of the rope and is pulled free by the doughty satyr’s strength. The rogues’ attacks are frustrated by the beetles’ carapaces.

The adventurers win initiative, and Brömm shatters the concealed door’s latch, shlorking out to a corridor with mud, half of the glowing beetle, and some skeletal remains. Richard yanks Dungar free, and, seeing the bugs still attracted to Aethra’s blood, the dwarf staggers to his feet and hurls the magic-user onto one of the tables to get her clear. Aethra desperately binds her wound to hopefully calm the beetles. Azric hurls her grappling hook and rope across the mud room to latch into Brömm’s open doorway to give them a path. Olands dagger and Ayleton’s claws find no purchase.

This is when the beetles all sphincter their light-glands shut, and the room goes dark. The only light remaining is in the mud room from Brömm’s bisected beetle, and in those feeble shadows the adventurers see the beetles go mad, feel the bugs skittering over them, hear the chittering from the beetles trying to get in from the ballroom, and the blossoming of blood and pain as bite after bite lands as the adventurers are unable to recover the initiative and the horror continues.

“Marines, we are lea-ving!” Aethra yells. Dungar, severely bloodied despite his armor, snags the rope from Richard and vows to be the last to leave. Fearing their light might die Oland yanks open one of the paperwork filled drawers and lights it with flint & steel, throwing light as others scramble across the surface of the mud with the rope for support, as Brömm keeps watch to make sure they’re not ambushed from a different direction. Within seconds the scriveners’ room contains just Oland and Dungar, and the they lose the initiative. They should die here save that Oland seizes it back with a risky attack, wounding one of the beetles as he breaks for the door and across the mud. Dungar finishes the bug, finally getting a clean strike that impales the bug on his axe. He drags it behind him as he runs for the door. He wouldn’t have made the distance before the mud took him save for Brömm yanking the rope and pulling his dwarvish ally to safety. Richard and the now-cheetah Ayleton shove the concealed door closed and Oland spikes it shut. End of session 1.

Lost Galmagia Week 11: The Park Ward Vaults East

This is the interconnection of spaces under the eastern space of the Park Ward Vaults accessed from 1.17b and 1.20

This is the interconnection of spaces under the eastern space of the Park Ward Vaults accessed from 1.17b and 1.20 above, as well as from 3.10

3.13 The Goldsmith Guilds Vaults
This room, accessible through the shared stairwell from 1.17b, is the goldsmiths’ guild’s locked vault. The vault is locked and requires Thieves’ Tools to open, but none of the traps are enabled. There is nothing inside because the guild got everything out before the city fell. (but they never made it out of the Giant’s Shadow and are in the New Forest).

3.14 The Jewelers Guild Vaults
This room, also accessible through the shared stairwell, is the circular vault of jeweler’s guild. The vault is locked and requires Thieves’ Tools to open, but none of the traps are enabled. Inside the vault there is evidence of a hasty departure but nothing of value. There’s an elaborate citrine circle filled with rubies – reminiscent of a fruit pie – which is simply paste – it’s a training tool for the apprentice setters. Maximum resale value to a nostalgic guildsman is 2 GP.

3.15 The Elevator Shaft
This room is the space where the shaft from 1.20 descends through. Unless the PCs have moved it the lift is jammed midway between floors, but not has not yet cleared the space between floors, so the ‘ceiling’ of the lift area is 1’ higher and the center of the room is an open shaft surrounded by a 5’ walkway. There are controls in the room that will manage the lift (It’s run on hydraulics, so if the Pcs break room 3.8 there are repercussions here. Passage here to 3.10

3.16 The Goblin Market
This room will appear empty when the PCs first enter, then it will go black, have a bang of light and sound, and be full of the non-combatant goblins who are quick to trade their wares. This is technically an illegal gathering, and if the PCs linger two things will happen: 1) the merchants will realize their queen is missing and send someone to 3.11 to find her and 2) guards will show up to break things up and respond to the PCs based on current state of goblin relations.

3.17 The Treasure Vault
This room is managed by the Goblin Religious Caste, and the PCs will encounter their High Priest here, as he oversees preparation of the ritual grave goods from the silver and gems here. There are also several acolytes, four warriors and an officer here acting or guarding, though the guard detail might be reduced if the Goblin Market forms. There’s considerable treasure inside the room in the form of precious silver, gemstones, and jewelry, as well as stacks of salvaged Tarmalanian gold coins which the Goblins find worthless but they could use to trade with the outside world.

3.18 Goblin Families 1
This room is home to two distinct Goblin Families, separated by a pull curtain across the room, similar to 3.9 and 3.10, but these are higher status families with, ya’know, a floor and stuff. Each family is 3 combatants, 2 non-combatants and 3 children. They don’t have anything of value from the PCs perspective here. These numbers might change if there’s a Goblin Market running and the non-combatants disappear to go hawk their wares. If the PCs make a thorough inventory they’ll calculate that the Goblin families are really twice this size, but half of them are out and about.

These are solid, dependable goblin citizens, loyal the Green Star and the Goblin King, and potential allies (as long as you don’t trade with them and become corrupted with the Unseelie).

3.19 Goblin Families 2
This is identical to the layout of 3.19, except inverted, and has the same population with the same general reaction. 

Lost Galmagia: Clerical Acts of Faith 2

Third level of Devotion: Stillness

The cleric is able to enter a space of stillness in their faith, or expand that stillness to others. This can have some surprising effects in the world, and now the cleric is able to use faith to demonstrably change the natural world.

3^rd level effect: Sanctuary

The cleric can eschew attacks during a combat to remove themselves from the combat. For each success on the roll, the caster can make force an opponent to make a save to be able to attack them. The first time an opponent attack the cleric they must make a save vs. spells or lose track of the cleric completely; this lasts 10 minutes, and opponents are effected in the order they attack the cleric. If the opponents have no other viable targets, the fight ends and the cleric can make a reaction roll; if this opens things to communication the cleric may do so, or they can exit the scene. 

4^th level effect: Silence

The cleric can negate noise for 1 turn in a radius of 5’ per success on the roll, with a range of up to 10’ per success on the roll. The cleric can’t take other faith based actions while maintaining the silence, and Erudition-based on spellcasting can’t occur inside the space of silence. The maximum duration of the silence is 1 turn, or until the cleric tries some other faith-based effect.

5^th level effect: Hold Person

The cleric can force stillness on other people, paralyzing them for the spells duration if they fail a save vs. spells. The hold person spell will affect any human, demi-human, or human-like creature but not undead or creatures larger than an ogre. Each success on the roll means the cleric can add another target to the hold person.

6^th level effect: Haruspex

The cleric can sacrifice an animal and read the entrails to gather information when not in a Place of Safety. As with Snake Charm the caster can enter the rumor phase while on a delve, gathering one piece of information on a particular topic per success on the die. The answers may well be cryptic or incomplete, but they will give valid information. This can only be performed once a day.

Forth Level of Devotion: Healing

At this level, the cleric is able to physically close wounds, remove the effects of disease and poison, or even bring back the dead, based on faith alone.

4^th level effect: Cure Disease

In one round this devotion will cure the creature it is cast on of any disease, such as lycanthropy and mummy rot, though magical diseases may require multiple successes. Cure disease will also kill green slime.

5^th level effect: Neutralize Poison

This devotion will cancel the effects of poison and revive a poisoned character if cast within one turn per success. It can also be cast on a poison or a poisoned item to make it harmless. It acts only on poison present at the time it is cast.

6^th level effect: Cure Wounds

This devotion will restore anyone who has taken a serious enough wound to be removed from combat (i.e. reduced to 0 HP) to functionality with a single success – the target is restored to their 1^st level HP. For each success part the first, the cleric can restore another sorely wounded person to functionality. Alternately an number of successes can be used to restore one levels worth of HP to any allies within the clerics reach.

7^th level effect: Raise Dead

By means of this devotion the cleric can raise any human, dwarf, halfling, or elf from the dead. With one success the cleric can raise a body up to four days dead. For each level of success past that four days are added to this time. A raised character has a stabilized 0 hit point and cannot fight, cast spells, use abilities, carry heavy loads, or move more than half speed, and heals normally. A raise dead cast against one undead creature will slay it unless it makes its saving throw vs. Spells.