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Getting an item Runed is simply not going to happen. Especially not with Master Runes. Such things are impossibly rare. Plus I try to keep their gear within what's dropped in the actual adventures because that helps with the measuring stick aspect. Also I generally think the Runic item system isn't especially well done or balanced. At least not at the edges. A weapon with Striking, Fury, and Cleaving is genuinely unbalancing and WHFRP 2e mostly assumes PCs will be lucky to get a single magic item their entire career, if that. Elena's new whip is like, the top end of what you can ever expect. There are a few more minor magical treasures in the modules, and those things are incredibly precious. Cooked Auto posted:Only keeping up the theme with Goblins being the most sadistic fuckers in Warhammer to make up for their position beneath the orcs. Battle Brothers put it best: "A goblin is a creature who has always lived with the benefit of never holding the illusion the world is fair." Night10194 fucked around with this message at 02:01 on May 13, 2020 |
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May 13, 2020 01:57
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Night10194 posted:Battle Brothers put it best: "A goblin is a creature who has always lived with the benefit of never holding the illusion the world is fair." There are some descriptions of goblins creativity when it comes to torture and misery in I think the Skarsnik book and elsewhere that are just 
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May 13, 2020 02:05
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The Battle Brothers gobbos are the best because they invented democracy and then five minutes later invented oligarchy. E: Anyone who has played Battle Brothers will be able to tell you how much they hate Man With Crossbow and his ability to just snipe out and wound one of your men no matter what. Goblin society is entirely ruled by Man With Crossbow.
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May 13, 2020 02:07
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Cooked Auto posted:Only keeping up the theme with Goblins being the most sadistic fuckers in Warhammer to make up for their position beneath the orcs. Appearntly the Novel Gloomspite staring said Goblins, at first appears to be a funny little romp, but quickly becomes a very creepy horror novel.
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May 13, 2020 02:10
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Also fun: Elena's new whip and going into Targeteer will basically make her a Belmont. In time for the Undead adventure. WHFRP can do Castlevania surprisingly well.
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May 13, 2020 02:11
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Night10194 posted:E: Anyone who has played Battle Brothers will be able to tell you how much they hate Man With Crossbow and his ability to just snipe out and wound one of your men no matter what. Goblin society is entirely ruled by Man With Crossbow. Oh Gods I am having flashbacks to Goblins.
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May 13, 2020 12:28
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal I'm gonna level-level with ya boy. I'm a hulk-hulk. Don't tell secret president. Now, Skreet's lot don't have the big swarms of rats that they faced in the last half. Instead, they have HMGs and flamethrowers. The first challenge the heroes face is a chamber full of lava with a rope bridge over it (naturally, the lava does not set the bridge on fire, nor melt anything; you know how lava works in fantasy novels and videogames). It's covered by a pair of HMG turrets, and a rat whose job it is to pull the bridge back if anyone tries to enter. The rats are hot and bored, though, so they aren't paying very close attention. If they pull the bridge up, it's possible for a very agile character to solve a jumping puzzle (Agi-10) to get across and throw the bridge back out, with a Str-10 to catch themselves if they fail. Otherwise, lava. The rats need a -10 Per test to even spot the heroes through the heat distortion and the fact that the rats are busy playing rat-cards because nobody actually attacks this dungeon. To that end, one of the rats squints into the distance as another bites into a pilfered apple. He sees something coming through the heat distortion, he thinks, but isn't sure what. Like some kind of heavily armored knight, running towards him. He decides that's impossible and looks back down at his cards, ignoring the building timpani score that accompanies Gilbert's charge. Moments later he is being run through as his card-playing partner squeaks out 'HEY-HEY!' and the battle is joined. While the Skryre Skirmishers can be quite dangerous in close combat (they all have a pair of Warplock Pistols, which can even pierce Gilbert and Ulrike's armor even if they don't headshot Ulrike, can be used in melee, and can't be blocked or dodged) they're also surprised, thanks to how terrible their awareness of potential attack is. Five rats do not survive very long when surprised by this party. They hear more rats squeaking up ahead, and Elena gets an idea. She grabs Vendrick and gets him to help her push one of the Ratling Guns around, grabbing the links and preparing to load the weapon as the elf sits in the gunner's seat. I strongly suspect part of the reason the Ratling Guns don't actually need BS tests to fire is so you can do exactly this. There's lots of material in this area about getting captured guns firing again or capturing one you can bring along with you into the rest of the dungeon rather than one bolted to the ground. What PC party sees a heavy machine gun and doesn't try to jack the thing? Five more rats run into the room, pistols ready...and face a hail of bullets. They're fairly agile, but with two streams of bullets, three are hit twice, two are hit once. And the bullets benefit from Vendrick's Talents. His damage rolls for the bursts are good, too, and the rats aren't very tough. For the first time in recorded history, an elf has gunned down a bunch of rat-nazis with a captured MG-42. Elena wants to unbolt the gun and bring it with them, but Karl points out the ammunition is laden with Warpstone. They don't want to touch it too much or they'll risk mutation (continued exposure will, in fact, risk it). Moving on, they pass the barracks the Skirmishers were staying at before their unfortunate 'being shot a lot' accident and a big ammunition storage room with an unbolted gun. They pass by and enter the Chamber of Fire, with Anya's rune-handbook showing them why they aren't all burning to death: The dwarfs of old set up powerful runic protection wards in this area so they could work with the lava and use it to provide geothermal energy for their kilns and forges. Neat, they actually explain why you aren't all dying just from being close enough to lava flows. They also come across a tense arms deal going down between a bunch of Orc Boyz, Skreet's rookie Assassin, and several skirmishers. Both sides are eying each other warily across a lava bridge, as the orcs push a cart full of warpstone and the Skaven slowly exchange their own cart full of firearms for the orcs. Now, our heroes don't know if you let this go ahead it's for the better: The Skaven guns are even more explodey than usual (on purpose) and if the orcs get them, their Warboss will try one out and blow his own arm off. Our heroes have a better plan than just barging in, though: Anya slips close enough and casts Eye of the Beholder on each of the carts. Using the spell to make the contents seem worthless, then slips back. The orcs get their cart, and see only rusted, useless pistols that won't fire. The Skaven think their cart is loaded with rocks the orcs painted green to trick them. Screaming ensues as both accuse one another of betrayal. Unfortunately for the orcs, they didn't really set up for the betrayal, while the Skaven did, and so the orcs are soon being incinerated by warpfire throwers before Anya pops up and casts Pall of Darkness on them to suppress them. Grott the Assassin realizes something is wrong and throws down a cute little smoke bomb and scampers off to warn Skreet as the heroes move across the stone bridge while the guns are suppressed. Anya dismisses her spell in time for the gun teams to find a knight stabbing/axing each of them. The team fights through the few Skirmishers (there really aren't many enemies in this section; Skreet has guns, not manpower) and pushes into the final barracks, where Grott and five Skirmishers who're left wait for them. Some of the Skirmishers finally get some gunfire off, and Grott is actually too fast for the team to go before him. He hits Anya and Karl with throwing stars, but bounces off Karl, who is actually quite physically strong. Anya gets poisoned with Manticore Spoor, which knocks her unconscious and could send her into a fatal coma. Karl fixes that immediately. Cure Poison: One of his many ways to be the anti-BS. The gunfire actually hurts both Gilbert and Ulrike some, though thankfully nothing got her in the head, and then the rats are being shot and stabbed and murdered. Skreet pokes his head in, wondering if he should enter the battle, just in time to see Grott go down with an arrow in the heart. Now, Skreet is actually real dangerous if he throws himself into a fight that's still happening. However, if at any time he feels like he's alone or cornered, he will run into the room with his hulk-o-matic and attempt to make himself into a hulk. This process can be stopped by cutting the red wires of the infernal machine, or smashing the metal bits, but our heroes don't know that and only have 2 rounds anyway, and he jumps in before they're really ready as five more Skirmishers emerge from where they were making themselves busy trying to look like they were working, adjusting dials and pushing buttons. I bet they have cute little supervillain rat jumpsuits, too. Maybe hard hats. Skreet screams in agony in the machine and his body begins to grow, rather than disintegrating. The Skirmishers level their pistols at the heroes, not realizing that behind them, Skreet has become THE INCREDIBLE SKAVEN HULK. Skreet's new statline as a 10 foot hyper-muscled warpstone-powered abomination is WS 75, Str *83*, T 71, Agi *91*, with 3 attacks, 21 Wounds, Strike Mighty, and Dodge. However, he does not give a gently caress about friendly fire: He is full of crazy warpstone juice and he is burning hot. His brain is burning hot. HE'S GOTTA COOL HIS HOT BRAIN AND THE ONLY THING THAT WILL DO IS BLOOD. The mixture of Rat, Hulk, and Pillar Man grabs one of the other rats and wrings him like a sponge, pouring the blood all over his sizzling body to try to cool himself down, as the Skirmishers do the smart thing and run like hell. He then charges into the heroes like a wrecking ball, because there's no way they're beating his Init. However, while he's tough, he's alone, and unarmored. His Toughness is high, yes, but not that high. His initial charge fails to hurt Gilbert, and then he goes down to getting whacked with a magic whip, arrows, a magic dart, a big axe, and a sword. Still, I loving love that it totally works, and he'll just wade into whatever fight is going on. If you attacked the orcs and are stuck in a general melee, a paranoid crazy rat will turn himself into the incredible hulk and just slam into that battle, then start trying to oil his rippling abs with the blood of whoever gets close. Skaven are very, very good. There's also an optional encounter with a Manticore in the back rooms the rats are using for the poison, but our heroes have no real reason to go back there. The poor thing will just starve to death with all the rats dead. Sorry, Manticore. Nobody's gonna free you from bottle-jail. They search Skreet's room, and find the jackpot. A chest of 500 solid gold coins, of an older dwarven make, each worth 5 GC now. AND a gem encrusted necklace worth 180. AND a magical axe. Yep! A second magic weapon! It require a WP-20 test to make it recognize the worth of a new user, and it's a one handed axe/hammer combo (the book refers to it as both) that has the Rune of Fury upon it. This is a modified version, which gives +1 Attacks, but only if you base Attacks are less than 3. Gilbert picks it up, and the weapon instantly chooses the young knight as its new, worthy wielder. So goddamn, they got two magic weapons down here. I wonder if that's going to be important? They head back up to check on the Grey Seer, and find he's chewed through his bonds like a good rat and gone to the room of the Verminlord. They stare as the enormous rat-daemon horror walks out of the sacrificial temple behind him, as Farquan squeaks triumphantly about 'FOOL-FOOLS' and brags that they should have killed him while they had the chance, but no-no, they are cold-brain no-furs who do not understand. The Verminlord watches him preen for a moment, then yawns. It informs him and the party that almost all the Skaven here are dead, so its entertainment is at an end. It has one last amusement planned: It wants to see how Farquan gets out of this one. It pats him on the head and walks back out of reality, laughing. Remember, the Great Horned Rat's greatest pleasure is watching his strong idiot rat sons gently caress up. Farquan twitches, and squeaks out 'treaty-pledge?', trying to insist he wasn't really trying to destroy them with a greater demon of the GREAT HORNED RAT before the heroes tie him back up, and resolve to bring him to the dwarfs; Elena suspects there might be a bounty. They'll head back up the tunnels and out into the city again. Normally the Rat Demon is just a fairly fragile but dangerous minor boss that can come to the aid of the Grey Seer to make his boss fight even more dangerous if you mess up, but the heroes would've just steamrolled it on their way back up. So I decided to throw in the Verminlord bit instead because watching Skaven mess up is always funny. So, there's a hell of a lot of treasure in this section. And the Skreet section is dangerous, but surmountable, and doesn't have the same giant meat-grinder mass battles of Farquan's clan. The magic axe-hammer is an interesting treasure, in that it can take PCs to the normal attacks cap but not over (though Gilbert will go to 4 attacks when outnumbered, now; his Ideal bonus is on top of his base stats). The money is immense, but then you just fought through multiple heavy weapons, Farquan and his clan, possibly the orcs, and Skaven Hulk. A chest of amazing dwarfen gold is a fitting reward. If you weren't geared up before now, you will be soon. Elena actually had to use more than one loot sack. That's never happened to her before. She likes it. Next Time: Back to the World Above
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May 13, 2020 12:46
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Now comes the fun part: Getting poo poo past the
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May 13, 2020 13:03
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Yeah, normally you'd lose the magic hammer/axe after leaving the dungeon unless you have some kind of plan. Like blackmailing/helping out the Lawbringer's commander. Or having come in through an illegal entrance. They'll be using the former subplot to explain why they get to keep the gromril breastplate and the weapon. As the whip isn't dwarf-made they don't give a poo poo about it. Well, that, and using Anya's magic to make the items look worthless on the original inspection. Eye of the Beholder is such a good spell!
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May 13, 2020 13:08
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Was that all there was of the orcs? I had expected them to be a larger presence.
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May 13, 2020 13:41
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Night10194 posted:Yeah, normally you'd lose the magic hammer/axe after leaving the dungeon unless you have some kind of plan. That's a grudging!
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May 13, 2020 14:02
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Less Death, More Taxes PurpleXVI posted:Was that all there was of the orcs? I had expected them to be a larger presence. That was just a small team of Boyz doing the arms deal. They have a full dungeon plotline right after the undead, with orcs, trolls, and goblins. It's the weakest of the dungeon plots, but trust me, there's a lot of orc coming. Our heroes emerge from the dungeons, parched, carrying a rat, carrying multiple loot sacks, and equipped with mighty weapons and armor the dwarfs would surely confiscate immediately. To prevent that, Anya tells Gilbert she needs to enchant his stuff to look useless. Like an old, dented breastplate made of iron and a simple warhammer, poorly made. He isn't too happy about the deception, but considering the scale of opposition they'll probably need these treasures, and they have come to aid the dwarfs so it's not like they're just stealing everything. He promises he'll return the items when they're done if the dwarfs want them. Coming out, they dutifully pay their taxes on the normal treasure (noting the dwarfs raise all the tax rates because they have an elf) and lose 30% of what they took down there. Considering they looted 3380 GC worth of stuff, they lose a whopping 1014 GC to dwarfs overcharging them and making up extra taxes just because they have Vendrick. And the dwarf wonder why people are just stealing their poo poo as much as possible. Still, with the huge haul, they have over 2000 crowns on them! Suddenly Gilbert buying that axe doesn't look so silly. Elena will immediately go and buy the Gromril Helmet, and since Ulrike won't wear helmets, it goes on Gilbert, who is quickly becoming one of the best geared PCs I've ever seen short of a Chaos Lord. He's now AV 6 on his chest and head, with a magic hammer that's giving him +1 attacks. He'll also buy a Best quality shield while they're in town, because why the hell not, they have infinite money. EXP being distributed, they're also considerably stronger than when they arrived. Anya has finished Thief and promoted into Cat Burglar. Vendrick finished Targeteer and while he could go straight to something like Champion, I think his going into Duelist is funnier since it will finally teach him to be sociable and will get him Swashbuckler. Which will let him half-action backflip out of melee and then shoot someone. I could also try out that Wildling class from Defenders of the Forest, but eh. He doesn't seem the type to punch people. Elena finished Enforcer and got into Targeteer herself because if life gives you a magic +2 damage whip, you master that magic +2 damage whip. Gilbert's up to 60 Fel and 45 Int (he's not dumb anymore!) and he's learned a bunch about public speaking and diplomacy. Karl picked up some Lesser magic that will let him knockdown people who try to get into melee with him, or let him magically bind peoples' hands. All non-lethal stuff so he can help out without hurting anyone. Ulrike maxed out her WP at 70 and got Stout Heart. She now has an 80% Fear save. Nothing scares Ulrike. Elena goes to spend her time off training with the Myrmidian temple. She makes both of the Int tests for the 2 week course of training and so gets 2 combat advances. She's already picked up Mighty/Sure Shot, so she spends those on BS. She basically spends her time off doing training montages (and occasionally hiding from shadowy figures asking unfortunate questions about princesses) where she learns to do all kinds of amazing tricks with that whip and learning that it is secretly the Myrmidian way to whip vampires to death. Myrmidians, Estalian ones especially, are known for their hatred of vampires since the War of Blood, so her getting secret Belmont training after acquiring a magic whip of destiny is honestly pretty fitting. That's really going to help when they get to the next plotline, even if it doesn't have any actual vampires. This unfortunately leaves the others to deal with the town subplots without her. The mob already hates them, and would happily inform on them to the dwarfs if they find out the team smuggled magic gear out of the dungeon. Gilbert being a Noble Lord helps them get another audience with the head Lawbringer (to turn in the rat they captured), but after handing over the Seer he mentions he needs to talk to the Thane about a private matter. Being somewhat more cunning than he was as a young man, Gilbert frames it as his allies discovering a plot to slander the Lawbringer Thane, by the filthy criminal that is trying to have his wife killed after accosting her. He gives the man an out, letting the Thane pretend the blackmail isn't necessarily true, and offering to help him deal with the problem since Dimitri has made an enemy of both of them. In return, he asks permission to use the items they find in the dungeon until they have completed their tasks and are satisfied they've done enough to aid Karak Azgal, at which point he swears he'll let the dwarfs take back anything they truly need. As Gilbert seems an honorable man and gave him a good talk, the Thane agrees to the deal. Now they just have to deal with a powerful, entrenched crime lord with dozens of mercenaries. While Gilbert and Ulrike are both in favor of just busting down the door, Anya notes that the Ranaldans don't actually like Dimitri. He's the wrong kind of thief, and more importantly, he doesn't pay. As a fun fact, while Dimitri charges less tax if you use his illegal entrance to the ruins, he also has any magic items you find taken from you. He also has twenty 2 attack, reasonably well trained mercenaries on retainer at all times, plus his normal thugs, and he isn't a slouch himself in a fight. Just breaking in the door and trying to kick his rear end is not a good plan; those Kislevites are veteran soldiers and pretty well equipped, too. Any player group trying to deal with Dimitri needs more of a plan. Thankfully, the fact that the Ranaldans don't like him will help. Anya approaches the crime boss on her own at the Ice Maiden, claiming her group wants to make amends for the trouble they caused him at the fighting pit. To that end, she presents him with 10% of their take, and the gem-encrusted necklace as an extra 'apology' from Ulrike. Anya is pretty good at diplomatic skills (she's the second best in the group, since she has Charm+10 and Etiquette so she's good with rich men like Dimitri). They didn't realize who they were offending, and you have to understand, with a Shallyan and an Ulrican, sometimes they get up to things before they understand what is wise. She's able to sell it well enough that the boss accepts the 'tribute' and forgives them for their trespasses against him. She also tells him about the big chamber they encountered in the dungeons, and that they found a gromril item there and there might be more, they just didn't have time to search thoroughly. Dimitri often sends a bunch of his mercs into the ruins to get very valuable finds if he hears about them from adventurers, you see. He thinks he has an opportunity, and sends two parties of mercs down to go try to get him richer. Next, the team approaches the Ranaldans. They don't really need Dimitri assassinated or anything (this is not Ranald's way, anyway), but they plan to teach him a serious lesson and ask the thieves for help in distracting more of his men. The thieves find the idea amusing, and so plan a couple brazen thefts from the casino that will draw off more of the mercenaries. Now facing 5 experienced mercs, Dimitri, and whatever thugs are running security on the floor once they realize something is wrong? That, the team can do. Besides, they need to get their money back. And it isn't like Deadgate has a real police force. Just whatever someone can hire. So soon, they're breaking down the door of Dimitri's private room at the casino as his Kislevite Kossar bodyguards draw big sabers and the crime boss demands to know the meaning of this. Karl asks him to surrender. Ulrike says they know he's behind significant amounts of dwarfen artifacts, and the Lawbringers won't look kindly on it. Dimitri smirks and tells them the Thane won't care. Anya asks him who he thinks hired them, telling him one more time to surrender, but the old crime boss is a former Protagonist and not the sort to back down easily. He still thinks he can win this fight. He probably could! It's actually a very hard fight. Getting him down to 5 men is about what I deemed necessary to make it even, and it makes sense they'd be able to distract some of them since all those hooks are there in the book already (that he sends men down to search, and the Ranaldans hate him). The Kossars are tough bastards, and hit pretty hard, though their armor isn't nearly up to standard. Dimitri knows his way around a fight, too. He'll basically auto-dodge the first attack at him each with, having a 98% Dodge Blow, and he's about even with Gilbert on combat stats. Just in reinforced light armor instead of plate. And doesn't have a magic hammer. Ulrike's lack of a helmet causes her problems again, and she would have gone down without Karl, but Karl makes the front tanks way, way stronger. Anya's Bewilder also helped a ton in this fight, because the Kossars have decent but not unstoppable WP (40). She was able to keep some of them off balance with her magic. Vendrick's consistent ranged damage and ability to shoot into melee accurately also really help with dodgy enemies like Dimitri. Eventually, the man goes down, though the Crit Table ruled that he was merely knocked unconscious by a blow from Gilbert's hammer. Searching him, they also find a stolen, magical dwarfen ring that provides +1 AV to the arm it's worn on as it generates a little force-buckler. An old family relic of one of the clans here. Breaking in the back, they steal back their money, and add his money to the pile: About 1000 coins. There's also 2000 in gems and artifacts in the back at any one time, but they'll turn those over to the Thane as evidence when they hand Dimitri to him. They also burn his records of the Thane's gambling debts. They also return the ring, gaining the gratitude of the dwarfs. So, they got Dimitri arrested, destroyed the records that were keeping the Thane in his thrall, and ended one of the major artifact smuggling rings. In return, they can now smuggle their own artifacts out. Still pay taxes on what they find otherwise, but they're also able to talk him into removing the extra 'ear tax' charges; after all, Vendrick helped the dwarfs get their ring and their gems and treasures back from an evil criminal. Yes, it's a bit of a dodge to explain why they don't have to lose all the cool stuff they find below, but hey. It's a clear subplot already in the book, it makes sense, and it's better than just repeating 'and then the Shadow Mage's magic lets them haul their stuff out' at every dungeon trip. Great success for the team. Next Time: Introducing Koros, The Angriest Elf
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May 13, 2020 14:12
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal NYAAAHHHH! THE DWARFS SHALL FEEL THE WRATH OF KOROS! Koros is probably my favorite villain in this book, and it already had a Skaven turn himself into the incredible hulk and try to bodyslam the heroes for the power of their cooling blood. Warhammer Undead are real good, and Koros is a real good Warhammer Undead. He is an elf, you see. Not normally someone who would be practicing necromancy. He used to be a nobleman and a minor wizard in the armies of the Phoenix King. This was back when Caledor II was king, before he got his head chopped off by High King Gotrek Starbreaker. Koros was sure he was marching off with the army to go teach those arrogant stunties a lesson alongside his beloved wizard master. They were ambushed (yes, they managed to get themselves ambushed. By dwarfs) and hacked to pieces. Koros was hidden under the bodies of the dead, so the dwarfs didn't realize they needed to give him another kick. After getting out of the corpse-pile, he dusted himself off and swore he was not only going to get revenge, he was totally going to find a way to return his master to life. Centuries of studying dark magic later (presumably while hiding from dwarfs), he succeeded! His master was risen from the grave as a wight, and proceeded to tell him he was a total dumbass for messing around with dark magic, lecture him for an hour or two, and then end with 'I'd have rather been killed by dwarfs again than seen you turn out to be such a loser, Koros'. He then destroyed himself. Koros did not take this well. Koros decided this was somehow the fault of the dwarfs, that in killing his master they had somehow broken his elven spirit and made him unable to recognize how powerful and benevolent Koros was. He then made himself into a liche, making himself actually immortal (liches in Hams just seem to be immortal necromancers. None of the powers or drawbacks of being a Vampire), and set out to destroy all of dwarfkind! Five thousand years later, he has mostly accomplished being 'powerful but ineffectual'. He's still kind of an idiot noble failson, you see. He has a great deal of necromantic power, but no actual ability at planning or strategy. He's spent the last few millennia screaming about his grudges (not really recognizing how dwarfy that sounds), occasionally taking apprentices, and making up and failing at impossible plots to get his revenge. Unfortunately for everyone, he has now hit on the one thing that can make him dangerous: He has accidentally kidnapped someone much smarter than him. Well, 'accidentally'. She set the whole thing up on purpose. During the last decade, Koros has taken what he thinks is his most promising apprentice, a conniving little poo poo named Grimald. Grimald being a conniving little poo poo, he would often slip off from his lessons to go get drunk and try to pick up dates in nearby towns while his master continued being elf skeletor, unaware he was even gone because he was still busy ranting. One day, he met a truly beautiful Bretonnian maiden named Althura, and she realized he was a necromancer. She and he got to know one another, her telling him her sob story about having fled an arranged marriage, him trying to make himself sound like the heir of mighty wizard powers to impress her. In truth, she's a better wizard than he is; she's a Slaaneshi sorceress who fled Bretonnia ahead of the witch pyre, and she's been looking for Karak Azgal and the fabled temple of Slaanesh deep within for a long time. On realizing who Grimald's master was, Althura came up with a plan. She got Grimald to 'kidnap' her and bring her to Koros. Koros was pleased to have an authentic Conan-style slave girl to complete his evil overlord schtick. Althura is actually the brains behind the operation, though; she helped put the idea into Koros' head (and made sure he thought he thought of it) of taking over the Halls of Bones for the heroic defenders of Karak Azgal. "Oh no, Koros, only a truly devious wizard would hit on using armies of the dwarfs own fallen heroes to raze their hold, take it over, make mountains of their dead, create an immense distraction I can use to slip into the deep parts of the mine and do my own business, and then destroy all of dwarf-kind." was all it took before he immediately ordered all his minions to dig into the hold and get to work on his genius, devious plan to do exactly that. He is fascinated with Althura, and has already decided she will be a way better apprentice and that he'll just get rid of Grimald soon enough. Grimald realizes he's on the verge of being replaced and hates Althura, but his attempts to turn his master against her keep failing. As for Althura, she enjoys posing at the foot of Koros' throne and feeding his crazy rants. She thinks the guy is hilarious. Plus, if adventurers burst in and kill him, she's got an easy out. It's pretty win-win. Either Koros drowns the hold in the dead and she's free to quietly go study the power of Chaos below, or Koros gets murdered and maybe she hitches a ride with whoever murdered him when they rescue her, then tries to find a good moment to slip off down below and research the power anyway. Plus, how many times do you get to use angry elf skeletor as your minion? Her original plan was just murdering an innkeeper and stealing his money to pay to get here and then hooking up with some adventurers. This has worked out way better for her. Naturally, the heroes will be interrupting her plans as well as Koros' craziness. The Undead section having an outright crazy failson liche with ridiculous, juvenile plans for Revengeance is wonderful. Koros also has an absolute bastard of a special ability AND he's smart enough to always have undead around rather than waiting to summon them when the PCs show up. He is completely immune to non-magical weapons. So only the whip, the hammer, and Anya's magic can hurt him. Vendrick cannot snipe this wizard. The wights he's made out of the dwarfs are also total bastards; since he's set up in an old hall of heroes, he has plenty of experienced bodies to make actual wights out of. They all use great weapons. Great Wight Blade weapons. The average Dwarf Wight does Damage 7 Impact. Even the zombies and poo poo are wearing armor from their grave goods. Koros' undead are very dangerous opponents. Thankfully, they have a Belmont. This is also necessary for killing ghosts, who are immune to normal weapons. The various Wraiths are more meant as traps than enemies you fight, but this group has the means to fight them. Also, because this section has a lot of difficult combat, there's an ally you can recruit. An old Slayer, now a Wight. Balkrag Grimgenson is loving pissed. He found his Mighty Doom, and now some dipshit of an elf has brought him back and tried to make him a puppet soldier. He is so angry he broke his binding, and while he's still a Wight, he cannot be controlled by the necromancer and will do everything he can to team up with the heroes and bodyslam this nerd. He tries to get the PCs to help him kill Koros, telling them of his evil, but if that doesn't work, of his riches. He has a WS of 82. A Str of 64. A T of 71. And a Wight Blade Greataxe. He doesn't have any armor, and he's definitely not invincible, but Balkrag is a total badass and he is so goddamn mad. Recruiting him is as simple as agreeing that Koros needs to get turbodunked, so why wouldn't you? He's awesome. He also gets incredibly mad (somehow, he is capable of being madder) if he finds out Koros defaced a statue of Grimnir, patron of Slayers, with like seven different elf words for Coward. I think it's a fun exercise in seeing if a dwarf can explode from anger. Also, Koros defaced like, all the tombs and statues with juvenile insults and elf graffiti that he thinks is clever, because he's a jerk. Next Time: The Heroes Descend Into Wight Hell
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May 13, 2020 15:13
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Not gonna lie you had me at "helpful/non-hostile undead with principles." That's a hook I always love. I have to wonder whether that means it's possible to, with the other wights, remind them of the past in a way that makes them snap their binding, or whether it's just Balkrag who is so majestically pissed it works.
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May 13, 2020 15:32
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There are a fair number who can't make themselves help you, but if you don't try to loot their tomb they can at least keep themselves from attacking you.
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May 13, 2020 15:33
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Night10194 posted:Getting an item Runed is simply not going to happen. Especially not with Master Runes. Such things are impossibly rare. Plus I try to keep their gear within what's dropped in the actual adventures because that helps with the measuring stick aspect. I always thought that magic items should be relatively common in Warhammer what with the Winds of Magic and all that. You already have healing potions and lucky charms which can't really be anything but magic items. What should be really super-duper-ooper-pooper rare is safe magic items. Say you find a magic sword that gives you +5% WS and +1 damage, AKA your basic D&D +1 Sword. You use it in battle. And then after the battle you roll 2d10 to see if you get pegged by Tzeentch's Curse (figure the formula should be 1d10 (for a permanent magic item) +1d10 for every two levels of Enhancement, rounding up). So, that sword has Enhanced WS and Damage, so it's +1d10. If it'd had +10%WS and +1 Damage, you'd roll 3d10. Is it a nice weapon? Sure. Do you really want to break it out for every single battle? Probably not, because you're gonna get dinged eventually. Figure Dwarven Runic Items get a bit of protection with the idea if you ever roll over a 95 with a Weapon (or you roll over a 95 once a battle has ended) you roll Tzeentch's Curse with 1D10 + 1D10 per rune with Master runes counting as 3 Runes.
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May 13, 2020 17:43
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The thing is that even if magic is relatively inherent to the fabric of the WFRP world, people who can wield that magic competently are not, and creating magic items isn't just an afternoon's work and then down to the pub for a pint. And, as you say, safe magic items are even more rare. To make something that isn't thrumming with warpstone and turns your arm into a mushroom when you pick it up, you need to know what you're doing, and most of the "bad" magic items probably get melted down, put into a College's vaults or tossed into the sea, rather than being kept around. Plus again in WFRP making an "unsafe" item can really only come in four variants, within what the game can support: It physically hurts you. It mutates you(ha ha no) It makes you insane(ha ha GOD no) It penalizes another stat equally while wielded/worn. But the problem is that players usually know when they're about to use a given stat so they can just toss the Sword of Talk Bad over to the team's halfling before getting into serious negotiations. Insanity and mutations are literally just straight up "if you use this item it's a save-or-die every time." And considering that characters are relatively fragile, something that physically hurts them when used is hard to balance so it's not either irrelevant or unusable.
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May 13, 2020 17:52
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In general, the magic items you get in Karak Azgal are well done. They're simple, relatively small benefits (like how Gilbert's hammer won't break out of the normal 'up to 3 base attacks' threshold for a PC), but generally safe to use. Magic items in general are extremely hard to make in-setting. The dwarfs are basically the only people who can do it consistently in a completely safe manner that won't backfire. Wizards of the Colleges can make safe stuff, but it requires months of effort and very specific materials and some of their best mages. Elfs can do it, but generally don't share them and even then it's 'we have hundreds of these things, among our tens of thousands of soldiers'. Chaos can do it easily, and in fact 'I have a magic weapon and magic plate armor' being the standard for a Chaos Champion is part of why they're such scary bastards. And most of those items are safe for them. Just not for you. The other thing to remember is that 2nd/3rd tier characters are already fairly strong. Adding lots of extra numbers to them can get system breaking, and the system is sort of balanced around the assumption PCs won't have magical treasure and if they do, it will be a huge boon even if it's as simple as '+1 damage, +10 to WS' for a gromril sword with a Striking rune. That's effectively a whole tier's worth of Str and WS advances, after all. It isn't just that magic items are rare fiction wise, it's that the PCs don't really need them outside of edge cases. So having them is a big boost, since it's balanced for you never to really need an item treadmill.
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May 13, 2020 18:05
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Soulbound Light Up Your Life Hysh, the Realm of Light, serves as the source of night and day for every realm but Azyr thanks to its shared orbit with Ulgu. Hysh is the sun for the other realms, and Ulgu its dark night sky. The light of Hysh is both physical and metaphysical, inspiring and uplifting, but its purity is too great - it can, if basked in too long, burn away all thought. Within Hysh are the Ten Paradises, formerly lands of perfect beauty, in which symbol and reality were overlaid in balance. This is no longer the case, in large part because of the locals. See, way back in the Age of Myth, Tyrion and Teclis woke up in Hysh, which was beautiful but empty. They wandered but found no one until Sigmar came to them in his travels, offering them a place in his pantheon. Even then, they were depressed, for only a few Aelven souls had escaped the Old World. Eventually, Teclis and Tyrion met Malerion and Morathi, and together, they were able to trap Slaanesh in the Uhl-glysh, the shadowy aetheric void between Ulgu and Hysh. This allowed them to tear the Old World's elf souls from Slaanesh's throat, to make more Aelves. Teclis first created a race of Aelves called the Cythai, for whom he built the city of Leiriu as a place of healing, light and joy. However, the Cythai became withdrawn, for there was a dark shadow in their souls that even Teclis was unable to heal. When he tried, he killed some and maddened others. The Cythai survivors fled their creator and became the first Idoneth. It took many years of work and study for Teclis to stabilize the process and produce his masteriece: the Lumineth Aelves, who are basically 'what if High Elves, but pointier.' The Lumineth create a culture of great scholarship and advanced philosophy, founding the nine Great Nations in nine of the Ten Paradises - all but Haixiah, whose perfection is too great for mortal minds to perceive and survive. The Lumineth nations formed a great web of art and culture, most of it Aelvan - only in the central island of Xintil were any Human settlements found. The Lumineth obsessed over increasing their understanding and enlightenment, creating a set of increasing spiritual tests know as the Teclamentari. Each sought to improve their spiritual power over others, discovering the greatest insights or making the best art. Teclis, who loved the Lumineth, taught them the secrets of aetherquartz, the Hyshite realmstone, and the Lumineth began using it to absorb Hysh's energies and purge themselves of emotion, raising their minds to superhuman capability. They built ever-greater white towers of light...and in doing so, they forged great rivalries with each other, their pride deepending and their envy forming cracks in the realm through which Slaanesh could whisper. It didn't take long for Slaanesh's whispers to push the Lumineth to hatred towards each other. They cast terrible spells, broke the land itself in their battles with each other, and opened the cracks of Chaos wide enough for daemons to attack en masse. This was Ocari Dara, the Spirefall, and it nearly destroyed the Lumineth. Only the direct intervention of Teclis and Tyrion saved them. Tyrion organized their armies to fight, while Teclis sought a solution for their spiritual corruption. He found it in Celennar, the embodied spirit of Hysh's moon. Teclis communed with the spirit and brought it home, using his bond with it to teach the Lumineth how to commune with the spirits of the land, water and sky of Hysh. They made pacts with the spirits, studying their wisdom. Those who dedicated their lives to the spirits became the Aelementiri, granted mystic powers in service to the land. This, the Reinvention, saved Lumineth civilization and Hysh itself, as it allowed the spirits to take physical form and help fight the Daemons. The Lumineth survive now, but to this day, the great reclamation of Hysh from Slaanesh's daemons is ongoing, and the Ten Paradises remain battlefields. The great port of Tor Xillion in the nation of Zaitrec is under constant siege by Chaos warriors, and while the craftsmen of Syar are matchless in skill, they are desperate for safe routes to trade their magical goods for weapons and supplies. The mountain Aelementiri of Ymetrica are amazing warriors, but they are spread thin by the forces of Chaos that they seek out and fight. Between all these battles, the Twin Gods were unable to do anything to stop the Necroquake. Teclis knew it was coming, but all he could do was create aetherquartz towers to try and mitigate the damage. The dead rose, and even with the towers, only the unity of the Lumineth after the Reinvention allowed them to survive. Perhaps the worst thing was the change to how magic worked - the new living spells and flood of energies has increased the power of Lumineth mages, but it has also allowed hundreds of predatory living spells to enter the land. The Lumineth use massive rituals to try and brand symbols into the earth to secure them against the damage of the Spirefall and Necroquake, but it's unclear if it will be enough. The adventure hook has to do with the nation of Syar and its capital, Ar-Ennascath. Every year, they hold a grand contest of artistry, creativity and craftsmanship. Anyone is invited, but the journey to the city is not easy. The craftsmen of Syar, before the Spirefall, unleashed terrible (if beautiful) machines on their own lands, which even now struggle to recover from the devastation wrought by these artistic war-engines. The wastes are full of predatory spells that seek to trap people in time loops. The famous artisan Coradane of Azyrheim was invited to attend by Teclis himself - an honor few mortals have ever gotten. Coradane is a creator of fluid-metal creatures, both pet and weapon, and she is one of Sigmar's favorites. The invitation she received was a crystal marked with the Lumineth rune Senthoi - a symbol of unity, loyalty and, unfortunately, broken promises. Coradane believes this rune is a message for Sigmar, and she and Sigmar need champions strong enough to get her to Ar-Ennascath and help her figure out what Teclis is trying to say. Shyish, the Realm of Death, is a land where the dead are the majority by far. All things end in Shyish, even knowledge, and once it was home to uncountable underworlds of unique and brilliant variety. Some were but a single tomb, others massive continents. Nagash, however, seeks to conquer and consume all of them. Once, each underworld was a vibrant hub of gods and spirits ruling over the deadlands alongside those living souls who joined them there. That was before Nagash's campaign of conquest. He began it not long after awakening, killing many of the lesser death gods and consuming their power for himself. Some remain imprisoned in the lowest parts of Shyish, the Great Oubliette, that he can drain them as he likes. Others are rumored to have escaped, but none have seen them since the Age of Myth, if so. While Nagash commands much of Shyish, new underworlds and new gods to rule them appear regularly. Belief, devotion and new cultural practices call them into existence, creating afterlives for the believers. Nagash continues to conquer them as he can, seeking to command the nature of Shyish itself. Nurgle and Khorne sought power there, for control over the death cycle or eternal battles, but Nagash's undead armies have kept them at stalemate, and he has retained control over the Prime Innerlands. He constructied the Black Pyramid at its heart, unable to be stopped by anyone - except, of course, the Skaven that got inside and hosed up the ritual. The Necroquake was too much even for Nagash to control, but it has changed Shyish in a way he likes. The realm's energies inverted, and the new core, the Shyish Nadir, lies at its center now, dragging power into itself rather than hurling it outwards. Weaker underworlds crumble under the spiritual onslaught, and all is drawn towards Nagash's Nadir. Nagash now seeks to conquer all of the Mortal Realms for himself. Much of Shyish is divided between his Mortarchs, the generals that serve his will. Neferata commands the nation of Nefaratia and leads the Soulblight vampires from her capital of Nulahmia. The Ossiarch Bonereapers serve Orpheon Katakros from his Necropolis, carving out a massive empire within Shyish, extracting their tax of bones from the communities within. Mannfred von Carstein has abandoned his city, Carstinia, having decided it was just a hollow reflection of his lands in the Old World, and he now wanders Shyish in a fit of self-loathing, hating his master but unable to break his chains. In Hallost, the Land of Dead Heroes, both Chaos and Nagash are forced back by the ghosts of the fallen, who refuse to bend knee. However, they are no less enemies of Sigmar, whom they name the Betrayer for "stealing" some of their number to become the Stormcast. In Lyria, at the edge of the Ossiarch empire, Azyrite forces have reclaimed Glymmsforge. The Zirc nomads seek to survive as best they can and take no sides, hoping to continue the life they've had for centuries. It likely won't be long until they must choose. In Culghast, the Obsidian Conclave merchants seek to control the trade of lethwine, shadeglass and other Shyishian goods, seeking only profit, both from the land and the ruins of lost Shadespire or the broken Amethyst Princedoms. It's a risky, dangerous trade, but it makes a lot of money. The Deathrattle skeletons occaisonally just found new kingdoms in the deathlands, demanding control of the lands they lived in in life or facing the shadow of old foes reflected in the living. Ghosts have grown in number, sometimes destroying towns or seiging cities. The Mordant ghoul-clans glut themselves on the fallen of war, and the Soulblight vampires infilitrate human cities and nobility to try and control them. Chaos Warlords and Beast-Kings attack both living and dead alike, seeking glory for the Dark Gods. Every day, the Nadir draws more of the realm under its control. Shyish is being conquered by undeath, and only hope, defiance and valor can stop it. The hook: In the Age of Myth, the Amethyst Princedoms were one of the greatest mortal empires in the Realms. They were wealthy in minerals and gems, and that wealth dominated Shyish's Innelands. However, many of the leaders of the Amethyst were slain in battle against Chaos, and their kingdoms collapsed. Now, their lands are always changing hands, as mortals, Chaos and the undead fight endless battles. Ayzrite scholars have recently discovered the location of the Eternis Gate Orrery, a massive device that mapped the Amethyst realmgate networks. Many of those gates are lost or corrupted, but the map itself is priceless. The problem now is that the network must be investigated to tell which gates still work and where they lead, and which ones, if any, can be reclaimed and fortified. Pity they're all in a place that's basically a constant battlefield. Ulgu, the Realm of Shadow, is a place of lies, illusion and secrecy. Its true name cannot be spoken but in shadow and whisper - Ulgu, the Darklings say, is just a corruption of an Aelven word for 'falsehood.' However, there are some things that are true. Ulgu is forever trapped opposite Hysh in its orbit, and thus has no night or day, just an eternal twilight of gloomy shadow and half-light. It is split into the Thirteen Dominions, each coated in mist and illusion. In the Age of Myth, it is believed to have been a sanctuary for philosophers and dreamers seeking peace, but the coming of Chaos ended all that. The War of Shadows, or Cathtrar Dhule, is the name for the endless raids and guerrilla conflicts between the Daughters of Khaine and the cults of Slaanesh, who come seeking to free their god. The Thirteen Dominions have never been united for long. Each is full of competing kingdoms, webs of plots and intrigue and scheming roulers. They will come together against outsiders, but it never lasts. Malerion and Morathi prefer it this way, for Malerion feeds on secrets and conspiracies, while Morathi wants none but her to dominate. The local Humans are the largest population, but it is the Aelves who truly command. Morathi rules from Hagg Nar, her great temple-city in the Umbral Veil, and it is from there that the Daughters of Khaine have spread. Under the seas is Morladron, one of the darkest and most dangerous Idoneth enclaves. The human city-state of Misthavn, called the City of Scoundrels, is perhaps the strangest of the Sigmarite Free Cities. It is a port made of a huge amount of ships tied together, so that it can break up or be moved along the Penumbral Sea. It is divided into armadas, each commanded by an admiral or Scourge fleetmaster. This is a city where any kind of contraband, drug or illusion can be found, and even stolen Chaos weapons might be purchased. The locals like their poor reputation and seem to enjoy making fun of the stuffy authorities of Azyr. Armies of Chaos assault the realm frequently. The servants of Slaanesh seek any trace of their god, and Tzeentch finds the labyrinth of conspiracies and schemes irresistable. Indeed, it is said that the Host Duplicitous and the Grand Cabal compete to see how many kingdoms of Ulgu they can destabilize. In the Hushed Hills, the Badsnatcher empire of Grots serve Ogwotz Da Magnificent and his spider throne. They like to steal whatever their foes value most, no matter what it is. Clan Eshin makes its home in Ulgu, and rumors of the assassin rats are everywhere along the Penumbral coast and the Akkan Princedoms. Duskwall City maintains a constant bounty on Skaven tails after rats devoured one of its merchant-princes in his own bed. The Necroquake only added to the chaos as ghosts entered battle. Despite all the dangers, though, the many secrets hidden in Ulgu tempt many mages and scholars of the Collegiate Arcane or the noble Aelves of Azyr, and expeditions are well-funded and relatively frequent. Few succeed. Our adventure hook is about Misthavn. It's not safe in the best of times, given the frequency of murder in Ulgu, but it's even worse lately. Corpses have been found, ritualistically flayed, in places where it should be impossible. Some blame the local Daughters of Khaine, but this has only made them angry. Others say it is Chaos, vampires or strange things from the shadows. While Misthavn is rough and likes to make fun of Azyr, its people are still usually Sigmarite. The Lord-Verdant Coldbyrne does his best to police the city, but it's hard even in good times. This, he knows, is beyond his skills. Tensions are high and the factions of the city are ready for war in the streets. He's requested aid from Sigmar to discover who's doing these serial killings and bring them to justice. Next time: The Realm of Chaos, a place you can physically go.
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May 13, 2020 18:11
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Night10194 posted:The other thing to remember is that 2nd/3rd tier characters are already fairly strong. Adding lots of extra numbers to them can get system breaking, and the system is sort of balanced around the assumption PCs won't have magical treasure and if they do, it will be a huge boon even if it's as simple as '+1 damage, +10 to WS' for a gromril sword with a Striking rune. That's effectively a whole tier's worth of Str and WS advances, after all. It isn't just that magic items are rare fiction wise, it's that the PCs don't really need them outside of edge cases. So having them is a big boost, since it's balanced for you never to really need an item treadmill. I honestly like this, a bad thing about D&D is that it discourages you from getting attached to your equipment as you're expected to constantly change it up, doesn't do much to encourage "This sword has been passed down for generations/my village pitched in to buy my equipment/this shield saved my life I will take care of it" type narratives. Warhams of course encourage those who can to get into plate asap, but but as magic weapons that give a little boost isn't literally everywhere, you can get some fun stories out of it.
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May 13, 2020 18:56
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I also like it because, say, when my Questing Knight got jumped at lunch by a Witch Hunter and had to kill one of his minions with a kitchen knife, she could just grab the dead guy's hand weapon and be at 'full' power. If your sword breaks, just get another sword. There's no need to have your specific +5 sword that you kitted out for your build; your PC will do fine with whatever they get their hands on even if a well-forged weapon is a bit better.
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May 13, 2020 19:03
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The nice thing about warhammer fantasy is the struggle to get better armor makes you appreciate the armor you have now all the much more. When leather armor can last for multiple sessions, you really appreciate it over being buck naked. Also the fact you don't throw it away when you get mail armor but just wear mail armor over it helps also.
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May 13, 2020 20:33
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This team actually gets to suffer one really big drawback for not having any dwarfs and it's coming in this adventure section. There's an actual suit of Rune of Gromril armor (AV 7, completely insane). Sized for dwarfs. And a big hint about how to take out Koros. Only available to dwarfs. Though the armor will get taken away almost no matter what. The game suggests an entire sub-campaign about smuggling it out, keeping hold of it somehow, and either finding ways to keep using it or find a way to sell it for anything close to what it's worth (a kingdom's ransom) so you can retire. Also you have to (re)kill the guy wearing it, which is not easy.
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May 13, 2020 20:44
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Real, actual full gromril armor with all the runic trimmings is the kind of thing the Dwarfs will go to war over. It's everything they've lost.
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May 13, 2020 21:57
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Yeah. This group will just be returning it. Because it's easy to recognize this is finding an actual genuine cultural treasure and trying to take something like that is, as you say, effectively an international incident. E: Though the fact that it's as important as it is also means that 'dumber PCs steal it not really realizing this is the kind of thing that starts wars, then try to hock it' IS the kind of thing that does work for seeding an entire campaign. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 22:05 on May 13, 2020 |
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May 13, 2020 22:01
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PurpleXVI posted:The thing is that even if magic is relatively inherent to the fabric of the WFRP world, people who can wield that magic competently are not, and creating magic items isn't just an afternoon's work and then down to the pub for a pint. And, as you say, safe magic items are even more rare. To make something that isn't thrumming with warpstone and turns your arm into a mushroom when you pick it up, you need to know what you're doing, and most of the "bad" magic items probably get melted down, put into a College's vaults or tossed into the sea, rather than being kept around. That's one of the reasons I went with the idea of applying Tzeentch's Curse instead of, well, other kinds of curses. Unlike wizards, you only risk it once an encounter, but it's still a risk. Sure, Halflings are pretty well immune to mutations and certain other effects. Fine, the Halfing doesn't mutate (or otherwise physically change) but taking 2d10 Wounds from Boiling Blood won't exactly be fun for him either. Say you've got a really potent weapon. Something that gives... +25 to WS and does +2 damage. That's a pretty unbalancing weapon - especially to an already very skilled fighter type. But using that weapon means rolling 6d10 for the purposes of Tzeentch's Curse. So how often do you really, honestly want to whip that sucker out given the potential Bad it could drop on your rear end every time you do? I'm guessing not that often. Night10194 posted:This team actually gets to suffer one really big drawback for not having any dwarfs and it's coming in this adventure section. There's an actual suit of Rune of Gromril armor (AV 7, completely insane). Sized for dwarfs. And a big hint about how to take out Koros. Only available to dwarfs. It does occur to me that the current group has become pretty friendly with a super-badass Dwarf Pit Fighter guy to whom that armor would be useful. Plus, he's a Dwarf so they'd be able to get the hint.
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May 13, 2020 22:02
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Soulbound Welcome To Hell The Realm of Chaos exists outside the Mortal Realms, serving as the source of power for the forces of Chaos and the heart of their dark magic. Chaos mutations are manifestations of its vile energy, and it transforms all that it touches. In the Realm of Chaos, daemons exist without need for host bodies, sacrifices or rituals. This is their world, a world of pure nightmare. Each of the Gods of Chaos has a domain within it, whose size reflects their current power. The largest by a wide margin is the home of Khorne, the Blood God. It is an eternal battlefield in which mortals and daemons war without end, celebrating the might of Khorne. In the center of the domain is the Brass Citadel, a massive fortress with the legendary Skull Throne at its heart. The citadel itself rests at the peak of a mountain of skulls, which grows larger with every sacrifice. Plaguefather Nurgle rules from his Garden, a diseased subrealm of swamps, jungles and pus. The Plaguetenders care for it tenderly, brewing new diseases in its filthy habitats. The Garden is full of corrupted realmgates, most of which lead to Ghyran, for Nurgle craves Ghyran more than any other realm. The Garden is frequently attacked by daemons of Tzeentch, whose Crystal Labyrinth spreads into it and tries to crystallize and warp it. The plague daemons generally fend them off, but it's never permanent. The daemons of change always come back soon. Theirs is a realm of constant madness, with the landscape never remaining stable. Nothing in Tzeentch's domain is permanent, save for the pattern of the Crystal Labyrinth. Its form shifts, but it is always a maze, growing and warping. It is where Tzeentch plots and plans, manipulating the world. Sometimes it is a city of glass and diamond, sometimes a jungle of gemstone trees, sometimes an ocean of gold. Its only true constant is its essence of change and confusion. In theory, the realm of Slaanesh is a six-part domain, with each of its six districts designed to tempt mortals in a different way. At its heart is the pleasure palace, site of the gilded throne of Slaanesh...but that throne lies empty. The daemons of Slaanesh have factionalized in the absence of their lord, with some seeking to conquer his realm and take it for their own, others hoping to locate and free their missing god and others just wanting to wait and see what will happen. They remain deadly creatures of seduction and obsession, but their infighting and politics grow ever more complex. The Horned Rat has taken its place as a full Dark God, and its realm is the Blight City, the sprawling, festering capital of the Skaven. Some scholars believe that it is, in fact, Skavenblight of the World-That-Was, lifted whole from that planet and placed in the Realm of Chaos. Certainly, it exists in both a physical and spiritual state unlike the rest of the Realm of Chaos. Its nature of mixed realities allows the Skaven to create gnawholes, temporary portals into the Mortal Realms that let them spread without detection most of the time. However, the Blight City is threatened by a new civil war among the Skaven that eclipses the normal bickering and bloody rivalries that plague their species. Clans Skryre and Pestilens each have a vision for the future of the Skaven, with plans to take advantage of the new magic released by the Necroquake, and it seems likely they will soon go to all-out war with each other to determine whose plans will win. Between the domains are wastelands of darkness and blight, where the lesser daemons lurk. These creatures owe allegiance to no god and are manifestations of Chaos Undivided - terrible, monstrous beings whose only cause is to spread darkness and despair, with no greater plans or causes. Besides these realms, the Realm of Chaos has its greatest links to the center of the universe - the Eightpoints. This is the stronghold of Archaon the Everchosen, the Three-Eyed King, who (in theory, officially) leads the forces of the four Chaos Gods that aren't the Horned Rat. Once, it was a trade dimension, the Allpoints, which linked the mortal realms in business and culture. Now, it is broken, twisted and hideous, its former beauty warped beyond recognition. A few cities still exist within it, but Carngrad and Flayhaunt are only civilized by comparison to the rest of the Eightpoints, places of butchery and monstrosity that is slightly more organized. A portal into the Realm of Chaos fills the sky over the Varanspire, which obeys no physical laws of the Mortal Realms. Unfortunately for Archaon's endless war of conquest, however, the Eightpoints no longer leads to all the Mortal Realms. Sigmar has always kept Azyr locked from him, and the Realmgate Wars saw both Aqshy and Ghyran closed off from the Eightpoints as well. The gate to Ghur, while theoretically open, is lodged in the gullet of the Godbeast Fangathrak, and even Archaon has been unable to take control of it. Worse, the gate to Shyish must now be fortified, as Nagash and Katakros of the Ossiarchs seek to take the Eightpoints for themselves, given their strategic value. Next time: Factional lore.
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May 13, 2020 23:32
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So that doesn't seem like there's any more material than was already in Tome of Corruption. Actually it seems like less, despite these being presumably places you're more likely to go now.
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May 14, 2020 00:28
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Night10194 posted:So that doesn't seem like there's any more material than was already in Tome of Corruption. Actually it seems like less, despite these being presumably places you're more likely to go now. On the other hand, it’s about three pages long. E: I expect it, or at least the Eightpoints, will get a lot more detail come the Chaos book. Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 00:39 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 00:37
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Plus you are probbably only going to go to the Realm of Chaos or Eight Points in the worst possible cases.
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May 14, 2020 00:49
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Soulbound Order In The Court Everyone in the Grand Alliance of Order knows that if they want to survive, they need to work together...but that doesn't mean they like each other or trust each other. Many are motivated not by altruism but survival. The various factions work to their own goals and try to present themselves as unified when the others come looking, but there's definitely divisions and intrigues within. Before the full writeups, we get brief descriptions of several groups that didn't, apparently, have space for full factional briefs. The Dispossessedf are, as we've discussed, the remnant Duardin who seek to reclaim the ancient Khazalid Empire of the Age of Myth. They work closely with Sigmar, and their masonry work is often what keeps the Free Cities standing. Their leaders are the Warden Kings, who seek out great foes to test their skill against and prove the strength of their traditions. The Freeguilds are those common people who wish to fight. Most Freeguilds exist to protect their homes, fighting bravely alongside the Stormcast even when facing monsters and daemons. They're technically mercenaries, but only in the sense that they need to be paid so they can eat, most of the time. They are the de facto police and armies of the Free Cities. The Ironweld Arsenal are a collection of craft guilds focused on cogworks, steam power and black powder. They are a mixture of Humans and Duardin who are united by their love of machinery, science and freedom. Their weaponsmiths are the source of many powerful and strange war machines for Sigmar's forces and the Free Cities, ranging from steam tanks to mobile fortresses to very, very large cannons. The Seraphon are space lizards. They are the lizardmen of the Old World, blessed by Dracothion with the energies of light. They move around in great temple-crafts, though to most of the Free Peoples it appears that their temples just come in from nowhere during mystical convergences because the Seraphon have obsidian-and-crystal teleportation technology. Several cities are now home to small Seraphon enclaves, where the Skinks offer their services as scribes, apothecaries and soothsayers. They tend to show up in battles with dark forces to help without explanation, then wander off as they feel like it. The Wanderers are what has become of the Aelves of Ghyran, whose kingdoms fell in the Age of Chaos. They fought well, but eventually fled to Azyr when Nurgle's forces proved too much to deal with. Now, they seek a new home for their people in the wild lands once more.  Our first real faction writeup is the Collegiate Arcane, an alliance of Human spellcasters of all kinds. They operate out of high towers and lone palaces, away from mundane life, so that their research won't be disrupted. In theory they are an academic group that provides spellcasters with a safe place to explore and master their magic. They welcome alchemists, elemental mages and others into their fold, and they contribute both magical artifacts and battlemages to the cause of Order. The original purpose of the Collegiate was to further magical knowledge and reclaim lost mystical technology from the Age of Myth. More recently, however, their theories have turned to the practice of battle-magic and war. At heart, they are still academics, if more martial now, and they'll happily go to huge lengths to acquire secrets, artifacts or lost technologies. The Collegiate Arcane is loosely organized into eight schools of magic - the same Colleges as were found in the Old World. Typically, each College is most powerful in the realm that matches its Wind, and there's a ton of academic struggling for influence and power. After all, funding is provided to those whom the top ranks feel deserves it, and so being on the outs can mean having to find alternative sources of money to do your research. The leaders of the Collegiate are a council of senior mages, whose authority allows them to fund research or shut it down. They also handle the petitions for magical services that outsiders bring, dispatching battlemages or scholars as required. Battlemages are definitely the most frequently encountered members of the Collegiate for most outsiders, who usually have less need for esoteric scholars than they do for war wizards. However, the schools are full of all kinds of lesser spellcaster and researchers as well. Left to their own devices, the Collegiate Arcane would spend most of their time seeking knowledge lost in the Age of Chaos. They often hire adventurers or mercenaries to hunt for books or artifacts for them. The Bright College specially has an interest in alchemical technology and the magical war machines of the Agloraxi, an old kingdom of Aqshy. They often hire expeditions into the ruins of the Great Parch to recover lost secrets, but they have to be careful to avoid pissing off the wizards of Aspiria, who don't particularly like outsider mages.  The Darkling Covens are matriarchal Aelven cults focused on power and influence over others. Their leaders are the Sorceresses, who use powerful enchantments to bind the minds of other beings. They have influence through the Realms, though it's subtle, and they have at least a few spies in every city, trying to worm their way into positions of power. They are not particularly familiar with ideas like mercy or restraint except as a tool to gain influence. Everything they do is for a purpose, a means of furthering their interests. Their greatest virtue is ambition, and both the Sorceresses and the Black Guard warriors seek power over their fellow Darklings whenever possible. They feel conscience and kindness are weaknesses to be hidden. The Sorceresses once ruled great empires in Ulgu, but most have fallen, and they long to rule once more. Long years in Azyr, however, have taught them that open rule is for suckers - better to be the shadow queens. The Darklings have a number of orders, and most belong to at least one if not several. Their real allegiances are kept secret even from each other, but ultimately, each Darkkling answers to a potent Sorceress who rules over the coven they ultimately belong to. The Sorceresses use many titles and names, but they are universally potent spellcasters. Most are more than happy to treat their underlings as pawns to be sacrificed if the reward is right, and they tend to have large retinues of martial underlings to support them in matters they don't have the skills for. The Black Guard are the greatest of these, and are dedicated servants of their chosen Sorceresses...with the exception of the elite Executioners, who are loyal to no queens whatsoever and do as they will. All Darklings are Aelves, and they tend to be condescendingly and patronizingly racist to other species. They tend to keep to themselves and deal with otusiders only when they have to or see something to gain. They are more than happy to use other species as pawns, however. They never trust such pawns except to the extent they control them, though. They barely trust each other, in fact. Trust, they feel, is something that is only given to people you know cannot betray you without harming themselves. Magical control is strongest, but thralls aren't graceful. Blackmail, favor-trading and simple money will do for more subtle work.  The Daughters of Khaine work from their large, menacing temples to sacrifice blood and lives to the Murder God, day in and day out. They hang the remains of their foes on gibbets as examples, and while they began in Ulgu, almost all cities have at least one Khainite sect at this point. Most have multiple. Azyrheim is home to groups drawn from all major Khainite cults, and in fact has more Khainites in it than anywhere but Hag Narr. Most people view the Khainites as assassins, torturers and fanatics in their war on Chaos, though their gladitorial combats entertain the masses, and their blood rituals, while grisly, can be quite fun for participants. Each temple is host to a Cauldron of Blood, the artifact that links the Daughters to their god. These Cauldrons are enchanted such that no matter how much blood goes in, they can never overflow. Any extra goes to feed Khaine (or, well, Morathi, but she says Khaine gets it). Khainite cults are strict hierarchies, with power flowing downwards from Morathi. She has created several competing sects which each worship Khaine in a different aspect. Khailebron's sword dancers embody the art of killing, while the Draichi Ganeth executioners serve Khaine as the bringer of justice, and the wandering assassins of the Kraith celebrate Khaine as the blade in the night. The cults compete heavily, and Morathi is more than happy to overlook their internecine feuds so long as they obey her when she calls. Most Daughters of Khaine are Aelves raised in the cult. These are the covenite sisters, and they may serve as gladiators, sword-dancers, assassins or spies as well as joining the Witch Aelf warbands. Most male members born into the cult are raised as laethanam, a slave caste that is looked down. The laethanam spend their days being bled for rituals, though rarely to the death - it is only when they are no longer useful that they become sacrifices. The vicious and secretive nature of the Daughters means that they rarely like having outsiders butt into their work. Even the adventurers that they learn to trust are rarely allowed into the temples except for public holidays, and most have no real desire to attend anyway. The Hag Queens mostly find them useful as neutral messengers and go-betweens when dealing with rivals or local authorities. Morathi instructs the Hags to restrain themselves when in the Free Cities and not to piss off Sigmar by going on murder sprees. When things do get out of hand - which is more frequent than anyone would really like, including Morathi - she is quick to make examples and pay reparations. A cunning adventurer can make good money selling their services to Hag Queens pinning their own misdeeds on rivals. Next time: The Devoted of Sigmar, the Free Peoples, the Fyreslayers
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May 14, 2020 01:54
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You mean the gladiatorial games are considered a form of entertainment, I imagine, rather than the grisly blood rites.
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May 14, 2020 02:29
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It still feels really loving weird to have murder cultists and "oh btw we steal peoples' souls to implant them in our own people" as part of the ostensible good guys.
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May 14, 2020 03:01
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Night10194 posted:You mean the gladiatorial games are considered a form of entertainment, I imagine, rather than the grisly blood rites. Generally, yes.
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May 14, 2020 03:35
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Night10194 posted:You mean the gladiatorial games are considered a form of entertainment, I imagine, rather than the grisly blood rites. I can imagine a City of Sigmar where the blood rites operate under the pretense of being a place where ordinary citizens can "blow off steam" sacrificing Chaos warriors they'd never be able to fight toe-to-toe. That's grim as hell, but it also sort of fits in with the heavy metal album cover aesthetic that AoS is going for as it evolves.
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May 14, 2020 05:52
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Cythereal posted:It still feels really loving weird to have murder cultists and "oh btw we steal peoples' souls to implant them in our own people" as part of the ostensible good guys. This short story features a meeting about the whole Murder Cultists thing and why they are tolerated. (And not tolerated in some cases.) https://malignportents.com/story/the-great-and-the-good/
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May 14, 2020 06:04
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Libertad! posted:What OSR book should I review next? I vote for this one, it's got some really inventive ideas in it. Edit: Also the guy who wrote it (and also Veinscrawl) has one of those blogs which are technically RPG related, but also everything else he's interested in and he's interested in a lot. Which is well worth a browse. https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/search/label/feudalism Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 20:08 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 14, 2020 20:02
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 Heart: The City Beneath 14 - Adversaries, Angels through Flightless Owls AKA, the monster bit of the book. Unlike Spire, which made it explicitly clear that the party's enemies were almost always people in their own right, the different emphasis of Heart means that most of what you'll be fighting and encountering is decidedly inhuman. NPC stat blocks are simple; a list of sample names and some descriptors for roleplaying flavour, along with some sample motivations - even the weirdness monster is probably doing what it does for a reason, and this can give the party some leverage. The rest of the NPC stats cover the actual mechanical details - Resistance is the amount of stress the NPC can take before being killed/defeated/charmed/driven off; they only ever have this single stress track. Likewise, they'll also have just the one Protection value that's subtracted from any stress done to them. They've also got a default Difficulty which is the base for any rolls against them, as well as Equipment listings - often just weapons, but sometimes tools that the players can scavenge. In addition to any choice gear, most adversaries will be guarding (or just made of) Resources that can be harvested by an enterprising party. Finally, all NPCs have an example Domain, but this isn't a strict rule, and the GM is pretty free to change it depending on the circumstances. In addition, some adversaries will have further special rules, or might impose unique types of Fallout on failed rolls.  As it's in alphabetical order, we start with one of the most terrifying and dangerous things a party might ever encounter. The Angels of the Heart are Dangerous, with 20 Resistance, doing d10 damage that ignores protection as they literally unmake you, and even looking at them for the first time provokes a roll against taking Mind stress. If you can figure out their motivation, they can be beaten - they're essentially fleshy automata, and it's possible to take advantage of their 'programming'. It takes a well-prepared, experienced and above all, lucky party to take down an Angel. Helps to have an Apiarist along as well for their anti-heartsblood abilities. Domestic beasts are hard to come by in the City Below, so Automata of Burden are a fairly common sight - cobbled together from scavenged machinery and imbued with basic intelligence via occult means (often using the mind of a horse or ox, but some designers use whatever they can get; a hive-mind formed from twenty pigeons, for example). Occasionally, the owner will die, or the automaton will just get lost, making them ripe pickings for scavengers. The Blighted are trees infested by a parasite, that both awakens them to sentience, but also drives them insane with an incurable, itching irritation. As the only way to stop this is to give the parasite something to eat other than the tree, they've become predators; increased control over their forms lets them lope through the forest, hunting for animal flesh. When the Heart's corruption works its way into the inhabitants of the City Below, it can sometimes be passed down to their offspring. Over several generations, the Blooded become stranger, with new organs and the ability to graft onto themselves bits of hearts-blooded beasts. Settlements of the blooded are scattered across the deeper reaches of the Heart, many decidedly unfriendly to outsiders. The Heart is a place of power, and to many, this power is intoxicating. Burnt-out Occultists are researchers and magi who've pushed it too far, too often, driven mad by the desire for just one more fix. Desperate ex-mages form gangs, robbing travellers in search of scraps of occult power, wielding reckless and unpredictable magic.  There are places in the City Below where the walls are flesh, beckoning with lipless mouths. Sometimes the desperate will feed on this sweet meat, and over time, turn into a Butcher. These gangling, warped creatures are extremely strong and very quick, and live in worship of the cave they ate from, fighting each other for terratory, and dragging hapless travellers home to push into the wall, replacing what they've eaten. The Carnival is an eternal dance through the City Below; a brain-wyrm forged by a misguided Aelfir Warrior-Poet that demands the sufferer dance until their feet are bloody stumpts, all the while trying to spread the meme-virus to unfortunate bystanders.  Carrion Pigs are swine that have grown huge and fat on the detritus of the Heart. Easily the size of a horse, they're a popular form of garbage disposal in some settlements; confined to a room and sluiced down regularly they'll eat anything thrown in there and produce foul, but effective fertiliser. The biggest issue (aside form the horrendously cruel treatment) is when mating season comes, and roaming herds of males beseige the settlement, trying to reach the captive females. When a dagger is used in enough murders, it starts to get a taste for it, to awaken into a killing-sentience. The Cult of Knives is a collective of awakened weaponry, a congregation 'borne' by the body of an unfortunate soul, stabbed through by thirteen or more blades. When interrupted, they take control of the bearer and seek to silence their discoverer, possibly even anointing them as a new host (which is eventually fatal, but only once the cult has moved on). The druids of Redcap Grove protect their farms and drug-labs with gangs of shapeshifting Legbreakers. They'd be tough enough just as they are, but when things get tough they adopt twisted, chimerical forms. The Heart attracts messiahs like fly-paper; they often wander through the warrens for a few weeks before dying of the myriad dangers, but sometimes they accumulate a cult around them. False Hallows are the successful ones, and the Church of the Moon Beneath hates them, as do the more orthodox religions from the City Above. It's easy to reach a heaven from the Heart; the walls between the real and the afterlife are thin, and sometimes things leak out. Feral Psychopomps are pathetic creatures - cut off from their divinity they run wild. Howling, mud-stained angels, dead-eyed, rusting valkyries and mad pegasi; they're all dangerous to be around, although they might be thankful if you could get them home. Flightless Owls are a common menace in the City Below, larger than surface owls and congregating in great hives. Packs of them can take down a group of travellers, and hunters can make a lucrative living cleaning out nests.  Next: Adversaries, Ghosts to Wretches
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May 14, 2020 20:47
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Heart delivering on the body horror, drat. The Cult of Knives also owns.
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May 14, 2020 21:01
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I like the possibility/notion that, for all the horror and unreality going on, The Heart may very well be benevolent but just incredibly, unbelievably bad at it because it is a gigantic, chaotic mess that doesn't understand the thoughts and desires of the creatures it is trying to help and also it's just kind of clumsy about it in general.
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May 14, 2020 21:35
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