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What kind of cool loot can you get from the shore of the lake?
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 12:32 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 16:45 |
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Tevery Best posted:Hey, are we heading for a new thread in 2018? I wanted to start posting something, but if the thread is about to restart in a few weeks, then maybe I should wait. I was told to , so I think you should do the same. The Lone Badger posted:What kind of cool loot can you get from the shore of the lake? Sweet gently caress all! Maybe if you all had hammers to break off the limestone and spent days working on it you sort out the valuable things from the useless/rotten, at which point the lloigor would probably gravitise you into a pretzel if they hadn't done so already. Termona was graciously granted the privilege of removing things from the grotto, and all he got was decorative gewgaws. Down With People fucked around with this message at 12:36 on Dec 28, 2017 |
# ? Dec 28, 2017 12:32 |
The lloigor depression waves seem very well suited for a modern campaign I must say.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 12:48 |
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Warhammer Fantasy: Paths of the Damned Part 1: Ashes of Middenheim Waylaid By Jackassery, Part the First First things first: The party counts up their loot from the first adventure, and finds two doses of rare Manticore poison among Snikkit's stuff. The party actually has someone with Haggle, so Otto goes out to shady crime-town and tries to find a buyer. He gets a whopping 02 on his Haggle roll and he's able to sell the goods to another adventuring party with considerably edgier members and more money for more than its listed price of 65 GC a dose. He instead gets 70 or so. He throws in Snikkit's unique little curved sword for an extra 10 so the other party's assassin can look like a real ninja, then returns back to his friends with 150 GC. Selling everything you're not going to use is an expected part of WHFRP; you're supposed to scrabble for money and loot early on, especially. Pierre is refusing to allow the party to just take the gold they've made and move on to the next adventure; he's going to find that icon and put it in a museum as if his life depended on it. During their downtime, Liniel and Katiya both agree with Pierre, because they could get in really good with the Temple of Sigmar if they find the Icon for them. Fearghus shrugs and agrees that finding a fine dwarven painting IS a worthy task, since thaggoraki wouldn't want it for anything good. Otto, being an Ulrican, is a little less concerned but he's willing to go along with the group. They gear up a little more, spending 100 of the gold on buying an exceptionally fine (Best) longsword for Fearghus to work on and Otto to wield; the dorf needs to make a permanent item to finish his apprenticeship. Thus, during the downtime between adventures, he's going to show off Runesmithing for the audience. To make a 'real' permanent item, Fearghus needs a Best quality item as a base; only the finest craftsmanship will do for true rune magic. Next, Fearghus spends a week trying to inscribe the base rune, rolling his d10 Magic die against a TN of 8 for the Rune of Striking. Fearghus can't miscast or explode, so Runesmiths use their full Mag every time they inscribe. A temporary rune would be much faster (2d10 minutes to Inscribe) and suitable for adding as a montage; this one will take the whole adventure and maybe beyond. Fearghus fails the first roll, but Fortunes it because why the hell not, this is a week of downtime anyway. He gets a 9 on the second try, and after a week or so of work while the others party and look for gossip and stuff about the Icon, Fearghus has Inscribed the Rune of Striking! Next he'll need to keep working on the sword off-screen when they make camp, chanting and empowering it, making one Runecraft skill check a month until he's succeeded 3 of them and permanently empowered the weapon. Then he'll perform a binding and naming ceremony and make it truly magic. When it's done, the sword will give its +5 WS for being Best to all tests, but an extra +10% WS when attacking, while counting as magical. As you can imagine, a weapon that gives +15% to-hit and +5% to parry checks or Maneuver checks is a pretty goddamn huge boost. Runesmiths are awkward but they can do some big stuff. The party's investigations don't turn anything up while Fearghus is working, because the party isn't going to find the Icon for some time. Instead, it attracts the attention of our Main Villain. Klaus Liebnitz is a dick. He is also the Deputy High Priest of Ulric. He is also the head of the Crimson Skull cult. Remember them from Tome of Corruption? They were the Khornates smart enough to fight against Archaon, reasoning that Khorne Cares Not From Whence the Blood Flows, and that being on the winning side would place them really highly in the Empire. They were right! Liebnitz was a hero in the war, and he's long run a crazy warrior-brotherhood within the Teutogen Guard called the Brothers of the Axe. They're all of 'pure' Teutogen ancestory (a big deal among the more racist/dickish Ulricans and Middenlanders) and they're all anti-Sigmarite zealots who are then slowly seduced to Khornate worship, dedicated to bringing about a new time of Three Emperors both to weaken the Empire and to cause enormous war and killing. They pretty much think the only problem with the Thirty Years War would've been that it was only thirty years, if you get me. Liebnitz had his Skaven buddy steal the Icon, and he's got plans for it. However, the PCs killing Snikkit and beginning to poke around might cause him some trouble. To that end, he does something pretty smart: He hires them to deal with something far from the city that will probably kill them on the promise of legitimate pay and using his position as Deputy High priest. My group took to calling him the Medium Priest because they hated this man. Anyway, while the party is working and drinking, they're contacted by an initiate from the Temple of Ulric and asked to come see the Deputy High Priest's secretary and second-in-command, Father Ranulf, about an urgent matter. He's heard of them from Schutzmann and Liebnitz both, and Liniel is really happy that networking is expanding the Brute Squad's business opportunities. One of the older priests, a blind man named Odo, has been having terrible nightmares of a dark shrine out in the Drakwald, and a terrible brass skull that contains some kind of demon essence. It is struggling to break free and the Deputy High Priest has ordered the temple to find some solid freebooters to get Odo out to the site he sees in his dreams and see if anything's there. The party is promised a rich reward, and Liniel takes the job before Pierre can object and say they need to keep searching for the Icon. They're to go to the dark shrine, get the skull, bring it back, and the Ulricans will figure out how to break it. Liebnitz has planned this as a win-win: Either it distracts the PCs awhile and he gets the skull at the end (since no-one suspects him) or the PCs die and no-one investigates the Icon (woo!). The party also gets Father Odo for this adventure, who seems useless when you look at his pathetic old blind man stats until you realize he's Mag 2 and has the Lore of Ulric. Odo can buff the hell out of people in combat. My personal group loved Odo because he doesn't steal any spotlights but instead just follows you around and buffs you. If you're going to have an escort quest, giving the escort the ability to cast 'And now you have +1 Attacks' isn't a bad way to do it. There's also some pointless stuff where you're supposed to roll to see if Odo gains IP from his nightmares every night but eh. The book says to have the party maybe encounter a couple mutants, beastmen, or maybe a Chaos remnant group while they walk to the shrine, but between Odo having Heal and the long walk, they'd likely heal any damage they take on the way, so it seems kinda pointless. We'll say they cut through a couple minor Beastman encounters that don't do much but remind them that Goatman is a far cry from his badass cousin Goatman Prime, but they don't merit any real dice throwing. Then they encounter the next setpiece at the Shrine, Katiya and Pierre (being the stealth specialists, and Katiya having Rover, making her have a fantastic-for-her-level 51% Stealth in the woods) scouting ahead. She and Pierre both succeed at Concealment when they come to the ancient clearing and the thirty-foot altar/herdstone the Beastmen worship, then both fail Fear for awhile and stare for a bit as they realize the shrine is guarded by a Minotaur. Once they recover their wits, they see he's got an alarm horn around his neck, and he's alone. The setpiece here is that the minotaur is dangerous enough on his own (2 attacks, 24 Wounds, Damage 5 Impact hits, 42% WS, 5 DR) for a younger party, having Fear (Need to make a WP test before you can start acting) and hitting like a train if he gets you, but if you don't find a way to deal with the horn he calls for help. If he does, every 10 rounds (2 minutes or so) the party is around here there's a 10% chance that reinforcements arrive to attack them or help the minotaur if he's still fighting. These reinforcements can be anything from a few Beastman mooks to a *second Minotaur* or a bunch of pissed off drunken centaurs, and these are pretty serious threats to a young party. If you don't have a stealth specialist you better take out Gazk Redhorn (the minotaur gets a name) as fast as possible and get to your business around the herdstone right quick. The party HAS a stealth specialist, though, so Katiya is going to try to sneak up and cut the horn off his neck, then run like hell with it. She gets a 01. Then a 15 on the targeted WS test to dramatically cut off the horn. She then uses her Flee! talent and fleet feet to leggit back to the party with a bellowing minotaur in tow. They then ambush him. Fearghus freezes up, but Pierre already made Fear and Otto and Liniel can hack it. Otto does terribly attacking. Liniel, Katiya, and Pierre all hit with pick and sword. Redhorn takes 8 Wounds before he even knows he's fighting. Fearghus recovers and can act normally on Round 1. Much of the party is faster than the Minotaur. They also Outnumber it. Otto gets a hit in, as does Liniel, before he acts. Katiya and Pierre miss. Liniel bounces off. Otto inflicts another 8 Wounds. Redhorn *hits twice*, Otto blocks the axe, Liniel fortunes her missed block (god, the dice are trying to kill the elf) and then parries at the last second. Fearghus then Furies the hell out of him. Hitting for 18 Wounds and smashing the minotaur's leg so hard he tears it clean off. Good job, Dorf. So, as you can see, having Stealth characters is really helpful, as is trying to ambush stuff. Most of the campaign's setpiece battles will either have pretty good odds or have ways you can even the odds like taking Redhorn by surprise and stealing his horn. Surprise is extremely powerful, and the whole 'enemies filter in slowly from reinforcements' trick means that if you can isolate a few, you can use rules like outnumbering to make that 46% WS like Otto's surprisingly high. The final encounter of the book stands out not just because it's crazy, but because there's no way to tilt the odds like this one. Even in a straight fight, too, the party could've taken Redhorn; he's actually weakened a fair bit from the Minotaur statline in Old World Bestiary because he's there to look really scary and make PCs feel good for killing a hulking minotaur of Chaos, but to be doable by an early party. I like this; players get to take on a big, scary monster, they have room to plan things out, and even if they gently caress things up and end up in a straight fight, it's more of a running fight while they explore than a 'you failed everyone dies' sort of situation. There isn't a lot to the Herdstone area; no treasure, no nothing, until the party finds a great burial mound beneath the stone. This is the actual Champion's Tomb that contains the skull, and Pierre's It's a Tomb sense goes off immediately. There's search checks to find the tomb and clear the debris, but those only matter if you have Beastman reinforcements on you (and admittedly, this is the one situation where 'keep rolling until you succeed' actually does make sense, since it's possible it will matter how long finding it takes). There's also a very heavy Str-30 door to open to get into the temple complex, but again, they have no time pressure so everyone assists Pierre working the crowbar and they make their way in. The Tomb fucks with magic because it's consecrated to Khorne and it makes it harder to resist anger-based Insanity effects if you have any. Aside from Odo, who wasn't needed for Redhorn, the party has no spellcasters using magic right now, so this won't matter too much. The tomb is pretty small and a standard dungeon crawl, with the cute detail that the map is a symbol of Khorne. Using Trapfinder, Pierre points out and critiques the one small, sad spear trap placed as a paean to old D&D Traps Everywhere design as the party explores the first T intersection, and Fearghus finds a 'secret' door you have to find to continue (more Search until you make it, I guess). There's an identical door on either side of the intersection, the left side just also has the sad little Damage 3 spear trap Pierre clowned. As the PCs meet a crosspoint in the passages, two horrible spider-skeletons made of living, screaming blood appear on either side and prepare to rush the party! The Bloodcursed are the unique enemy for this tomb, and this is the only time they appear. They're pretty nasty, at 17 Wounds, DR 5, Damage 5, and their attacks can't be Parried, but only WS 35. They're also fast, and only the elf and Katiya go before them. It costs Katiya, Otto, and Liniel Fortune (Liniel only has her Lucky Fortune Point left!) but everyone manages to make the Fear test. Liniel and Katiya shoot one of the things for 9 Wounds, total. Both monsters miss their charge. Otto's sword hits the wounded one for 7. No-one else gets a hit. Bloodcursed hit Pierre and Otto. Otto can Dodge, Pierre doesn't have Dodge and can't parry with hand-weapon-and-dagger like usual. Pierre eats 9 Wounds in one blow. Otto cuts one of the things apart, the entire rest of the party can't hit the other, it misses, and then it gets torn apart by focus fire. Odo uses 2 dice to cast Blessing of Healing, succeeding despite Khorne, healing Pierre to 3 Wounds, then uses Heal to bandage him for 5 more. Pierre should be okay. Next is a big triangle room with a Blood Fountain. Of course it sprays blood. Magic, poison blood. Pierre points out it will take time to spin up and spray the whole room (It will do so on round 3 of being in here, doing 1 Wound per round and if you're using Insanity, causing WP+10 or gain an IP every round you're getting sprayed) and that the obvious solution is to twat it with a hammer. As the party has 3 rounds to do 10 Wounds to an immobile DR 5 fountain, this is a pretty pathetic trap. They just smash the BLOOD FOUNTAIN'S spray system and break the pipes and some Chaos Dwarf engineer is getting twitchy and annoyed elsewhere in the world about savages destroying his elegant blood fountain before it could even cause a metal album cover. There's another Roll Until You Find It door in the back of the room, and the party proceeds. They find a big room full of bones next, blessed and laid as tribute to Khorne, and then the bones get mad that there are skulls in the area that are not in the bone pile. They then begin to animate. If you guessed this was another 'enemies fill in until they equal the PCs in number' fight, there you have it. The Skeletons kinda suck, they're identical to Necromancy skeletons and only really have the fact that they cause Fear going for them. Pierre is the only one to succeed Fear on round one, but he Pick to the Face's a skeleton for his first ever Fury chance! He fails to confirm, but the 10 Wounds still smashes the undead. A SINGULAR STRIKE! He then parries the other Skeleton's hit. Two more skeletons rise, and only Liniel stays scared. Odo buffs Otto with Battle Fury, and Otto attacks each Skeleton once with his new 3 Attacks. In a supreme display of praise for Ulric, Otto gets 2 Fury Chances and a 10 Wound hit, and Confirms both Furies even though it doesn't matter. Otto now has the party record for wounds dealt in a single turn as he cleaves through the skeletons like they weren't there, sword smashing skulls and ribs in a display of martial prowess that makes the old, blind priest wish he could see. He still gives the faithful youngster a holy fistbump. The other skeletons rise right into the waiting pick, sword, and hammer of the others. For the last combat of the dungeon crawl, this was pretty unimpressive. You can get unlucky with Fear, or not have someone go crazy on the enemy like that, but still. They reach the tomb of KHAZRAN GORESPITE, sitting in state surrounded by blood. The party must devise a way to get to the sarcophagus through the poison blood (the fountain fed from this lake of blood) and they do so by busting up the altar from the skull and bone room and using the spare stone to improvise stepping stones. Defilement of a Dark Shrine AND resourcefulness! Then they make a pointless (if you found a way to not get poisoned) Str-30 roll to open the tomb. Inside is the skull, a dead as hell Chaos champion, his non-magic, non-Chaos Armor suit of FULL PLATE ARMOR, his greatsword, and a shield. Fearghus confirms the armor is actually safe and will just need refitting. The party takes the armor, because gently caress, a suit of full plate! and then also maybe grabs the skull. Past here, they also find a treasure room full of trophies and broken weapons from the Champion's foes. Pierre searches around and finds a couple treasures to take back with them: A battle standard of the Knights of the White Wolf and an old dwarven hammer, an ancestral stonework treasure. He insists they be returned to the rightful owners. He could've found more, but he flubbed his third Search test. Each item can be sold for 50 GC or given back to its rightful owner for +30% Fellowship when dealing with them in the future, an interesting choice to make with treasure. He remarks this tomb wasn't very impressive, and the party leaves. The Tomb really isn't a very impressive dungeon or setpiece. It's just a couple minor encounters, some secret doors because you gotta have secret doors, a couple very minor traps because you gotta, and then the Macguffin. I don't especially like it; it feels really empty and boring. Most dungeons in WHFRP do. It's really not a setting that likes classic dungeon-crawling for the most part, and as I have a terrible spatial sense and suck at map-based dungeons, I've never minded. Still, the half-hearted attempt here just isn't very good. Next Time: gently caress you, skull.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 16:34 |
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Freaking Crumbum posted:was that Cold City/Hot War that Hostile V reviewed? I thought the shared setting was cool af too. Eldritch Skies is a science fiction setting from Battlefield Press that has refined mythos magic and combined it with tech so the nasty side effects don't show up.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 17:11 |
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Down With People posted:Man gently caress Italy Honestly, I think it's just there so you aren't kicking your players when they're down if they honestly think they did something good by not giving the depression vampire a powerful mythos artifact. It's clearly the wrong choice in the long term, but I can't blame any parties for having a zero tolerance policy when it comes to giving horrible monsters things that they want.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 17:25 |
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Wait, why is giving the lloigor what it wants better long term?
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 17:28 |
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marshmallow creep posted:Wait, why is giving the lloigor what it wants better long term? Because it doesn't seem to give the Iloigor any actual benefit besides being a thing it wants and not giving it away gives you a curse and pisses off a ghost. You're taking a bunch of sanity damage for the sake of a moral stand that doesn't really seem to do anything, and I'm fine with blunting the edge of that particular price if they think they're doing something good.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 17:44 |
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I suppose I expected it to have nefarious designs but if it is merely covetous then poo poo yeah just hand it over.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 18:01 |
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I imagine the magic amulet is part of some plan over the many eons to do something probably harmful. But frankly, by the time it comes to fruition, everyone involved except the lloigor is going to be dead of old age.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 18:04 |
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Psychic imaginary ghost dragon: The Eeyore of the Mythos.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 18:58 |
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A Lloigor's machinations are basically on par with a Captain Planet villain's goals except stretch 17 minutes of plot over a millennia. Alternatively "But I don't want to fix the planet, I want to cause cancer". Night10194 posted:Psychic imaginary ghost dragon: The Eeyore of the Mythos.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 19:15 |
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Nessus posted:The lloigor depression waves seem very well suited for a modern campaign I must say. It'd be funnier if the Lloigor were actually extremely depressed and hard to motivate. "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, just give us the medallion alreaaaaaady uuuuugh, i don't know why i even care, it's all terrible, maybe it'd be less terrible if you gave us the medallion, but it'd probably all still be poo poo. did i tell you about how i'm going to die alone? well it all started when i was an egg and my mom was too depressed to hold me..." Like it's not a roar of despair, it's just a constant, eroding trickle of self-sympathetic whining, that slowly grinds away your will to live.
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 20:33 |
PurpleXVI posted:It'd be funnier if the Lloigor were actually extremely depressed and hard to motivate. "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, just give us the medallion alreaaaaaady uuuuugh, i don't know why i even care, it's all terrible, maybe it'd be less terrible if you gave us the medallion, but it'd probably all still be poo poo. did i tell you about how i'm going to die alone? well it all started when i was an egg and my mom was too depressed to hold me..."
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# ? Dec 28, 2017 20:49 |
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PurpleXVI posted:It'd be funnier if the Lloigor were actually extremely depressed and hard to motivate. "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, just give us the medallion alreaaaaaady uuuuugh, i don't know why i even care, it's all terrible, maybe it'd be less terrible if you gave us the medallion, but it'd probably all still be poo poo. did i tell you about how i'm going to die alone? well it all started when i was an egg and my mom was too depressed to hold me..." Marvin the Android, except as a cosmic entity.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 00:19 |
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"He's washing his head at you. Take 1d6 SAN."
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 00:23 |
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PurpleXVI posted:It'd be funnier if the Lloigor were actually extremely depressed and hard to motivate. "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh, just give us the medallion alreaaaaaady uuuuugh, i don't know why i even care, it's all terrible, maybe it'd be less terrible if you gave us the medallion, but it'd probably all still be poo poo. did i tell you about how i'm going to die alone? well it all started when i was an egg and my mom was too depressed to hold me..." It’s me, the Great Old One who sucks (plus I got depression).
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 00:24 |
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Loxbourne posted:Yeah this is basically the Laundry Files series, especially the later ones. I found the Laundry Files incredibly obnoxious, honestly. They trivialize the horror of the setting and the whole "heroic yet mediocre IT guy who fixes things by knowing the trick to fixing them" thing gets really grating after a while.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 00:56 |
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Way of the Wicked - Book 2 - Encounter at Farholde Station When last we left the PCs they had destroyed the defenses of Castle Balentyne allowing a Bugbear horde of Sakkarot Fire-Axe to invade Talingarde. With the mission accomplished Thorn’s servant Tiadora picked them up on barge waiting nearby to whisk them away from the battle. Let’s see what the future holds for the PCs. For reference, as well, the GM map of the kingdom. The PCs have come a long way from Brandescar prison. One of my favorite things about this AP is the feeling of distance and time. The other PF APs feel claustrophobic, taking place in a small area and the PCs gaining amazing levels in a short amount of time. This is the opposite, we’re about to spend a long time doing some very wicked poo poo. ACT ONE: FARHOLDE (The PCs are level 5) Event 1 - The Love Boat - Hallstyn’s Folly is a dilapidated river barge whose captain and crew are firmly under the devil Tiadora’s control via castings of enthrall. The single cabin has been claimed by Tiadora so the PCs and crew will have to sleep on deck, the northern nights are cold and unpleasant. The boat is headed to Farholde, a 300 mile journey that will take about 12 days. Along the way the boat will drop anchor each night near a village, Tiadora will use her at will teleport to visit the village in the guise of a holy Knight of Alerion. Conducting a witch hunt for imaginary Asmodean cultist she murders and tortures the most trustworthy members of the community. In the wake of Hallstyn’s Folly is a trail of suffering and lamentation. PCs can try to ask her about their upcoming mission or her nightly activities but in her typical fashion she is evasive and venomous. The power of Satan compels that blouse On the twelfth night of your journey Tiadora informs you that Cardinal Thorn is waiting in the cabin. He’s still in his human disguise looking as devilishly handsome as ever and here to give a boat load of exposition along with their next mission. quote:You have served me faithfully, my ninth knot, and I have rewarded you both in treasure and vengeance. Thanks to your efforts, the Fire-Axe has been unleashed. Even now he writes his name in blood across the Borderlands. Cardinal Thorn will answer questions from the PCs, the book suggests a few topics. If asked about Aiden Kael the Cardinal commands you to kill him for his failure. On the ethics of unleashing plague daemons Thorn is only interested in results, he doesn’t care if you destroy Vetra-Kali or leave him loose upon the world. The PCs are given another clay seal to use if they need to contact him. With that he dismisses the 9th Knot. Event 2 - Arrival - The next day the boat arrives at Farholde and Tiadora gives the PCs another day to dick around before their dinner with Baron Vandermir. There are plenty of shops and taverns in the city where the PCs can reequip including a variety of minor magic items for sale. There are also rumors to be had, we get another d20 table to gather information. Again we get a range of items, true, false or story fluff. Some of it is useful though. quote:My poor Jeffy has gone to war. I hope he’s alright! (A common sentiment about town. Many loved one have gone to fight the Fire-Axe and his horde. Pity them for if Thorn has his way, likely Jeffy will not be coming home.) quote:The Bugbears are marching towards Farholde! We’ve got evacuate the city! (False. This is simple panic in a time of war.) quote:Lord Welshire may have gone to war but at least Sir Valin still mans the Castle Farthyn. A knight of true noble blood, he is! Why, they say he is distant kin of the Victor himself! (True. Sir Valin is actually a distant relative of the Victor. That makes him crucial in Act Four.) Event 3 - Dinner Date - The next night Tiadora meets the PCs at the docks and escorts them to dinner with Baron Arkov Vandermir(Half-elf Sorcerer 7/Aristocrat 3) at his mansion on Calliver’s Green. The house guards will collect any visible weapons from the PCs . An appropriate skill check will let the PCs know that the guard’s livery is a variant of ancient line of House Barca. After a few cocktails and hors d'oeuvres the Baron arrives, he’s a young and handsome half-elf. Looking in his eyes reveals a cruel and wicked man. Greetings M’elf The Baron has no love for Mitra or House Darius, his father was killed at Tamberlyn 80 years ago fighting alongside King Jarad of House Barca. But when given the chance to renounce Asmodeus he took it and later survived the purges of the mad king Markadian IV, he hasn’t lived over a century by being foolish and that is exactly what the PCs represent. Once dinner is on the table and the servants have cleared out his drops pretense. quote:“You come to me as beggars, the last remnants of a forbidden faith. You will promise me much, of that I have no doubt. But all that I am likely to earn from helping you is the inquisitor’s pyre. Tell me, why should I help the likes of you?” Assuming the PCs make nice with the Baron his friendship comes with a number of benefits. He’s currently the richest and most powerful man in the city and will aid the PCs, within reason. He can set them up with a safehouse, provide protection from most run-ins with the law, put them in contact with disreputable merchants in town and act as a negotiator for them if necessary. The Baron will not directly help them in the search for the Horn or fight their fights. He’s cautious and will try to maintain plausible deniability if they are killed or captured. Event 4 - Bird Law - After dinner with the Baron is concluded Tiadora informs the PCs that the White Ravens are arriving on another barge tomorrow. When the PCs meet up with the Seventh Knot Elise hides her fury at being an assistant to the party and immediately begins to plan how she can betray them and gain Cardinal Thorn’s favor. In the meantime she will “help” the PCs and presents this plan. quote:It is my intention in the next few months to have spies set up in every inn, tavern and anywhere else adventurers and explorers might congregate. When you do find the Horn of Abaddon, contact me. For those groups I can’t personally dispatch, I’ll send a messenger with any information I can gather. Event 5 - Finding the Horn - With all this preface and distraction done we get down to the true goal of Act I, finding the Horn of Abaddon. There is no set timeframe for the PCs to accomplish this but they know Cardinal Thorn wants it done ASAP. The Caer Bryr is a dense, dark, dangerous forest that few Talireans have ever entered or explored. In each generation though a foolhardy few do seek adventure and treasure in the Bryr, some even come back alive. The Horn is only about 1-2 days horse ride away but it is hidden amongst similar stone spires in a temperate rainforest crawling with nasty creatures. Their predecessor Aiden Kael was an expert tracker and it took him several weeks to locate the Horn, but the PCs can save time if they find his room at a tavern in Farholde where a detailed map will show them the Horn’s location. If the PCs don’t find the map they will need to search the wilderness making Perception checks whilst dodging the hostile flora and fauna. When the PCs do find the Horn they’ll need to deal with Jurak the Elder, a treant intent on keeping away the curious, a tribe of murderous Boggards, a damned Wraith and a pair of polite daemons. The first visit could be the last for the unwary. Based on a real world thing Eventually they will find the Horn of Abaddon and we can segue into Act II. NEXT TIME: Grab that Horn by the Horn
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 02:07 |
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One of the oddities of Way of the Wicked for me is that working for Evil in D&D Land seems like an even bigger bit of stupid than working for Evil in a lot of other fantasy settings. When you can get enormous financial rewards, renown, and supernatural power killing random stuff for Good without all the skullduggery, it just seems more difficult to structure a campaign around 'We do that, for pretty much the same pay, but, uh, to the shiney guys.' Like, Evil just doesn't seem to have much to offer in D&D Town.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 02:26 |
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Yeah, do the old reverse death bed confession, grind as a hero for 19 levels then don that helm of alignment reversal and rule the world.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 02:35 |
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I misunderstood the pronunciation guide in Cardinal Thorn's big speech. Obviously, it's to help the DM not stumble with the made-up words, but I first thought it was Thorn being a huge pompous jackass and smugly informing the PCs the correct pronunciation, like an anime nerd explaining how "anime" is actually pronounced.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 03:06 |
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Night10194 posted:Psychic imaginary ghost dragon: The Eeyore of the Mythos. If we were at the start of this decade I'd make a Zetsubou Sensei joke.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 03:44 |
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Who else thought this guy was looking for a fist bump at first glance?
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 04:31 |
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Ah, yes, yes. Evil all the way. How about a dap, my good man?
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 04:35 |
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theironjef posted:Who else thought this guy was looking for a fist bump at first glance? I totally did.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 04:40 |
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theironjef posted:Who else thought this guy was looking for a fist bump at first glance? Same.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 04:56 |
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Night10194 posted:One of the oddities of Way of the Wicked for me is that working for Evil in D&D Land seems like an even bigger bit of stupid than working for Evil in a lot of other fantasy settings. When you can get enormous financial rewards, renown, and supernatural power killing random stuff for Good without all the skullduggery, it just seems more difficult to structure a campaign around 'We do that, for pretty much the same pay, but, uh, to the shiney guys.' Well, in theory Evil offers more opportunity for rapid advancement via sudden but inevitable betrayal. There aren't really any good ways for PCs to get fast-tracked experience or wealth in that way.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 05:56 |
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Glazius posted:Well, in theory Evil offers more opportunity for rapid advancement via sudden but inevitable betrayal. There aren't really any good ways for PCs to get fast-tracked experience or wealth in that way. Incredible valor against overwhelming odds is the usual good fast track.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 09:06 |
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First thing that came to mind was Decepticons. Any version of them really. There's an organisation where talented, targeted violence reaps rewards. And all your quest givers double as potential future boss fights.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 11:08 |
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Incredible valor against overwhelming odds is the usual good fast track. Evil too, except it usually involves killing more paladins.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 11:12 |
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IN A CITY OF BELLS AND TOWERS – PART ONE Background This is a very short scenario and most of it is in the artful writing of the thing, so let's see if I can get it done in one-two updates. Pissed about the scroll thing, the Jigsaw Prince sends the investigators a bottle of magic wine that sends them into Dream Zagreb, the reflection of a city which is otherwise not on their itinerary. Of course, if he can convince them to drink strange liquids given to them by an anonymous donor, you might ask why he doesn't go whole hog and give the investigators like, poison wine instead. I'd argue that this actually fits if you accept my personal interpretation of des Esseintes, which is that he's clearly a huge gay bitch who lives for drama and he's definitely petty enough to pull some poo poo like this. This scenario was inspired by the work of Thomas Ligotti, and in fact in the first edition actually quoted The Journal of J.P. Drapeau directly. This is why some lists online actually credit Ligotti as a writer for Horrient. The quotes have been replaced with new messages that more directly relate to the plot of the campaign. This is a very well-written and atmospheric scenario, but sadly, it's not really something you can easily play. Much like the Dream Lausanne part of Nocturne, much of the scenario is going to revolve around the players reading handouts or hearing you describe spooky things. Since it's an optional scenario, see how your players enjoy Lausanne. If they're into it, definitely run Zagreb for them. If they spend the session giving you blank stares and asking, 'So can we keep moving into the city?', skip it and run the next chunk of Dreamlands Express instead. Me, I'm a huge slut for Ligotti and we're covering every scenario, so we're doing this. Chug chug chug chug As the investigators relax in the dining carriage, their waiter Maurice brings them a fine bottle of Sauternes to finish their meal. The label is from Chateau Guirard-Lafon, a vineyard that he believes is near Yquem but in actuality is near no place on Earth. The label has 'un sommeil de seve' scribbled across it, roughly translating to 'dream of the sap'. When uncorked, it fills the room with a sweet fragrance, and if asked to sample it the waiter assures them it's the best wine he's ever had. If they drink it, they'll probably agree. Maurice at this point moves to introduce the anonymous benefactor who offered the wine, but the 'rotund gentleman' has disappeared. Drinking the wine isn't necessary. Simply breathing in its scent has an effect on the investigators. Mind you, Maurice and everyone else just has a really lovely sleep with weird dreams. Only the investigators get to go on an adventure. The dreamers awake in their beds at 3:10AM the next morning. The night conductor announces that the train has arrived in Zagreb, and their names are on the list of those departing here. While they argue with him, they might hear someone speaking to them from the platform. A man in a black robe with a deep hood and holding a skull is standing outside, bidding the dreamers to join him. Their luggage is piled at his feet. quote:“What ho!, [investigator name], abed so early? And you too [another investigator name]? Sluggards! Did you plan to slumber like swine and forego one of Europe’s great cities, hurrying onwards to your gathering task? Bah! Come, come. I have arranged your stay here. Time flows swiftly, and we have much to talk about ere dawn. Perchance you will permit me to tell you the strange history of the Sedefkar Simulacrum in full, and of what you can expect to find on your arrival in Constantinople. Hah! Follow good fellows, and let the Devil steer the course.” He turns and walks away into the thick fog that envelops the station. Where he stands is a page from an illuminated manuscript written on human skin. This is one of 10 player handouts, each one written about the Simulacrum from one of its 'suitors', with the final entry written by the Simulacrum itself. They're found throughout the city and they offer a lot of insight into a lot of the bigwigs in the campaign. The book even suggests writing one for one of the dreamers. I'll include them all in the next post. If the dreamers refuse to get off the train, they'll go back to sleep only to wake up at 3:10AM in Zagreb, same as it ever was. This'll keep happening until they get off the train, just in case you forgot we were playing Horrient and thought you had a say in things. Who Am I To Disagree The dreamers are alone in a fog-covered gothic version of the real Zagreb. The robed man is always just ahead of them, beckoning them from the next street or from across a canal but always disappearing by the time they get there. Time passes strangely, but the bells always ring out the hours. As they explore the city they encounter a series of surreal images much like in Lausanne, but unlike Lausanne there's actually something like a puzzle here. It's not much of one, but it's there. The surreal events here seem to allude to events in the campaign, but there's no explanation for them like the Lausanne events so don't quote me on that. The bells are ringing six by the time the dreamers reach the robed man. He leads them into the great star-shaped fortress in the centre of town. If they ask him about the pages they've been discovering, he explains that they're 'letters from dead lovers'. If they ask him about the Simulacrum, he explains that like them he too once sought knowledge, but eventually learned too much; the skull he holds is in fact his own, no longer able to contain everything he knows. He's willing to share some of his hard-earned knowledge with them, gratis. If dreamers press him about it, he'll even lift his hood and show them his flabby skull-less head; I hope the 1D2/1D6 SAN was worth it, idiot. If they accept, the robed man essentially turns on a Mythos fire hose and sprays gallons of eldritch knowledge all over the dreamers. Mechanically, every minute they listen to his high-density babbling they lose 1D10 SAN and gain an equal number of points in Cthulhu Mythos. If you're playing with the optional 7E rules that let them use the skill for spontaneous spellcasting, this is a significant powerup. If their Sanity reaches 0 doing this, well, the last thing they remember is holding their own bloody skull. If they refuse or leave before they go insane, he shouts at them and warns them that they need to get back to their beds before dawn lest they be lost forever. The bells are now ringing seven and the Orient Express is whistling its imminent departure. For the frantic sprint back to the station, each dreamer must roll Intelligence, Strength, Constitution and Dexterity in order and get no more than 2 failures or be left behind. They fling themselves onto the train just as it leaves, make their way back to their compartments only to see their beds occupied by...themselves (SAN 0/1D3). Then they wake up in Zagreb, at 3:10AM, as the night conductor calls for them to depart. If they tell him there's been a mistake, he'll realise there has and apologise profusely. The Express goes on towards Belgrade. As the train leaves, they'll see raising a sad hand in farewell. 'The other hand cradles a bone-white object that does not speak.' Investigators get refunded up to 2D6 SAN of that lost to the hooded man. Sweet! Dreamers who missed the train sleep a solid 24 hours then wake up every night at 3:10AM for 1D10 nights, screaming in terror. They lose 1 SAN per night but eventually get 1D4 SAN back when the nightmares recede, after which they are averse to bells and the number 7. Dreamers who lost all their Sanity wake up believing that they have no skull. They are permanently insane and can no longer be played. Next time: love letters! Down With People fucked around with this message at 11:48 on Dec 29, 2017 |
# ? Dec 29, 2017 11:25 |
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IN A CITY OF BELLS AND TOWERS - PART TWO It Must Be Love, Love, Love Here's all the love letters to be found in Dream Zagreb. The last one, as mentioned, is from the Simulacrum itself. See if you can figure out the others! An Illuminated Manuscript, in Scar Tissue on Human Skin posted:We were always destined to be together. From the moment I saw you I loved you; so beautiful and cruel, so heartless and perfect. I, your vile servant, was not fit to worship at your feet. Yet I caressed your alabaster limbs. I kissed your shining eyes. I held you close, closer than skull to skin. A Letter Embroidered on Turkish Carpet posted:My love is the pure love of a worshipper who adores the idol that he has never seen. Until we meet I am in torment. I can do nothing but seek you, plot and plan and yearn for that moment when I hold you in my arms. My heart, my body, burn for you. My life is yours. You hold it in your white, white hands. Written in Dried Blood on the Inside of a Strait Jacket posted:I lust. I hunger. I thirst. I rave. I cannot live without you. You are under my skin. You are my self. I had you once. Then I was perfection, killing and reveling and laughing with joy. I lost you and became a brute. Mad with desire for what I have lost I want to kill myself but I cannot. My shriveled skin resists the knife-thrust, my dead heart cannot be stopped again. I will kill all those pathetic would-be lovers who stand between us. When I seize you at last I will despoil you, ravish you, consume you. You will be me. I will be perfection, and laugh and kill and revel once more. Sheet Music with Lyrics posted:I was a weak man yet I dared to raise my eyes to your divinity. I said that I sought you for another. I lied, even to myself. Had I got hold of you I would have caressed you, held you, never let you go. I was a weak man. I could never seize you using my own small strength. Yet I longed for you so that I made a wish, and my wish came true. I saw you on the golden stage, so perfect and beautiful. I should have known that I was too insignificant to succeed, I the unworthy one, a mere bag of flesh and squirting blood, singing with stolen lungs. Yet I dared to dream. Note Held by a Tableaux of Stuffed Animals posted:I loved you once but now no more. Life hurt too much. I sought a way to kill the pain. I found a path to dreams. My love for you was killed. I loved the needle more. The dreamer opened the path to the other world. I tried to sell you, tried to sell what cannot be bought or sold or raised, but I was tricked, swindled, fooled. Now I am trapped in the dreams I once sought and they have become my nightmare. Tattoos on a Tapestry of Human Skin posted:Life rips the weak apart with lion teeth and lion claws. I was strong. I glimpsed you from afar and knew I wanted you, knew that you would only give yourself to the strongest of souls. I ripped others’ flesh from their bones to rebuild myself. I tore through dreams to find the path to your door. A Page Torn from a Diary, Fluttering in the Wind posted:I loved your shifting shape, my dancing, golden dream. I tried to take you for myself. I failed and fell into the abyss. Now you mock me in the ceaseless wind that never lets me rest. You relish my fate, my cruel golden one, and yet I adore you. I cannot pray for my lips are sealed. I cannot speak for my jaw is locked. Oh give me shelter from the heartless ones that gibber in the frozen wastes. I am he who screams at your window. I am the blizzard-driven dead. Sentences Whirling in the Cold Air posted:YOU ARE OURS. Words in Blood, Hanging in Mid-Air posted:Flesh of my flesh, skin of my skin. I love you with the love that devours all things, lives, souls, worlds, time itself. When you return with your thousands of years of hatred and power and madness you will provide one brief chord in the cacophony that surrounds the Throne. Words Engraved Upon a Mirror posted:All you who say you love me do not know what love is. You hunger after power. You love the reflection of yourself that you see in me. Only my master understands what love truly is. It is a weakness to be exploited, a power to be drained, a sickness to be eradicated. Only mortals can love, for only mortality tries to claw a brief moment of meaning from life’s unending brute indifference. I tell you this, none of you really love me, for if you did my beauty would consume you. In order: Sedefkar Mehmet Makryat Fenalik Arturo Faccia Edgar Wellington Jigsaw Prince Johann Winckelmann The Lloigor The Skinless One The Sedefkar Simulacrum Next time: Vinkovci! Down With People fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Dec 29, 2017 |
# ? Dec 29, 2017 11:45 |
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These are new to the reprint, as far as I can tell. You know what else I found is new? Everything involving Conti in the Milan scenario, which means all of the horrible 90's-style railroading is -new material-. It just goes straight from the midnight singing to investigating the theater before the performance! The only "clue" leading the investigators there is a newspaper article about the opera continuing without her.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 12:05 |
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Kavak posted:These are new to the reprint, as far as I can tell. God that loving explains a lot. Bernard Caleo's credited as the sole writer for that scenario so imagine being like, 'Hey Caleo, you really hosed our campaign last time, wanna come back and give it another once-over?'
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 12:56 |
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Down With People posted:God that loving explains a lot. If it's not restored material, they probably brought everyone back to update their scenarios, but Caleo's writing had not improved at all.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 13:27 |
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I have always adored the quotes that 1st ed Horrient had during that sequence. I really, really have to get my hands on some Ligotti now.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 17:08 |
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Do they still do the thing where max sanity is 99-Cthulhu Mythos?
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 17:19 |
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Night10194 posted:Do they still do the thing where max sanity is 99-Cthulhu Mythos? Yeah, that's still the norm.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 17:38 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 16:45 |
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Precambrian posted:I misunderstood the pronunciation guide in Cardinal Thorn's big speech. Obviously, it's to help the DM not stumble with the made-up words, but I first thought it was Thorn being a huge pompous jackass and smugly informing the PCs the correct pronunciation, like an anime nerd explaining how "anime" is actually pronounced. Cardinal Thorn is a lot like Frieza. theironjef posted:Who else thought this guy was looking for a fist bump at first glance? This image is saved as derpy_elf.jpg in my folders.
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# ? Dec 29, 2017 17:43 |