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Night10194 posted: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. There's a pretty funny questline like this in Disco Elysium, of all places Hell yeah what a snype. People should play Disco Elysium, it's obviously a pnp rpg adapted for the computers, it's even got dice rolls!
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May 14, 2020 21:52
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My gang tang should definitely tell people I agree that yes, everyone should play Disco Elysium. You can become some kind of hyper star!
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May 14, 2020 21:58
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Playing Disco Elysium is a very good decision.
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May 14, 2020 22:04
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Obligatum VII posted: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. This is just it - it's trying to fulfill the wishes and desires of every living thing that lives there. Unfortunately it's go no real concept of what creatures actually need, nor can it distinguish between hopes and nightmares. So it experiments, throwing all sorts of weirdness out. The Aelfir trying to turn it into a train network didn't help, and the various afterlives/parasitic realities just make the whole mess even worse.
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May 14, 2020 22:04
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I see the writers of Heart really enjoyed Bloodborne (I know this by it being listed as one of the inspirational materials in Spire) This is good, because Bloodborne is one of the best takes on 'cosmic horror' in a long while.
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May 14, 2020 22:05
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Night10194 posted:I see the writers of Heart really enjoyed Bloodborne (I know this by it being listed as one of the inspirational materials in Spire) There's an interesting bit in the class design article for the Heretic - they originally envisaged the Lajhan in Spire to be a very Bloodborne-inspired cleric, but pulled back the weirdness there a bit, whereas the 'blessings' of the Moon Beneath wouldn't feel out of place amongst the Healing Church in Bloodborne.
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May 14, 2020 22:13
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Night10194 posted:My gang tang should definitely tell people I agree that yes, everyone should play Disco Elysium. PurpleXVI posted:Playing Disco Elysium is a very good decision. Really hope they loop back and release a pnp game. The 2d6 system looks easy enough to hack a version of, but I would kill for more worldbuilding details...
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May 14, 2020 22:13
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PoontifexMacksimus posted:Really hope they loop back and release a pnp game. The 2d6 system looks easy enough to hack a version of, but I would kill for more worldbuilding details... There's apparently a novel from 2013 set in the same setting, written by one of the game designers. I've been considering grabbing it.
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May 14, 2020 22:28
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Finally got around to getting NBA: Solo Ops in the humble bundle package. That makes it the second Night's Black Agents product, and probably the second product, I've bought largely on the strength of recommendations from this thread.
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May 14, 2020 22:59
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It's definitely one I'm considering, too, though I'm not certain how much I'd actually run Spies vs. Vampires specifically.
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May 15, 2020 00:12
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Deptfordx posted:I vote for this one, it's got some really inventive ideas in it. Coins & Scrolls is one of my more recently-discovered blogs. And in part helped bring Magical Industrial Revolution to my attention. I'd rather not say any more in case of biasing my own polls, but I am a fan.
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May 15, 2020 04:32
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LatwPIAT posted:NBA: Solo Ops I know what you mean by this but I cannot stop picturing Jordan dunking over Dracula.
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May 15, 2020 06:06
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PantsOptional posted:I know what you mean by this but I cannot stop picturing Jordan dunking over Dracula. Space Jam 2 lookin good
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May 15, 2020 06:11
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Midjack posted:Space Jam 2 lookin good
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May 15, 2020 06:14
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Mortals are so OP, they can practice in daylight. And don't get me started on those Teen Wolf builds.
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May 15, 2020 07:37
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PantsOptional posted:I know what you mean by this but I cannot stop picturing Jordan dunking over Dracula. A player in my girlfriend's girlfriend's Night's Black Agents game didn't know what "the NBA roleplaying game" was, so he made Charles Barkley, jewel thief.
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May 15, 2020 08:06
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LatwPIAT posted:A player in my girlfriend's girlfriend's Night's Black Agents game didn't know what "the NBA roleplaying game" was, so he made Charles Barkley, jewel thief. But can he do a Chaos Dunk?
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May 15, 2020 10:55
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Night's Black Agents: Solo Ops Part Thirteen: Never Say Dead, Chapter Six quote:Leyla Khan We're pretty close to endgame here--technically we could cut and run at this point if we're willing to deal with bluffing or fighting our way past Stokovitch's . But as we've learned, the Rosewater Potion is a temporary solution to the problem of vampire mind control, and making more of the potion requires vampire blood. And while "must continually hunt vampires to remain free of their mind control" is a pretty strong gameplay loop, it's not really how Leyla wants to spend her life. Fr. Foretti said that Rostami had a more permanent solution in mind, and now that they have a few moments he can confirm that the mysterious crucifix in the photo Leyla found in her stash is that solution. It was made by the same alchemist who created the Rosewater Potion, as the pinnacle of his craft. (As to why they didn't just give Leyla the crucifix right away, a) the crucifix has... adverse effects on those actively under vampiric control, and b) they couldn't be entirely sure that Leyla wouldn't immediately run back to Jovitzo like a junkie looking for another fix--there's a powerful psychological addiction component to vampire blood in addition to the direct mind control). Rostami has the crucifix, and she's somewhere in the city--Leyla needs to find her. Leyla knows that Rostami is hoping to make contact with her as well, but since they have no prearranged signals, Leyla's only real option is to trail her coat around places Rostami might be watching and hope the other woman initiates contact. That's obviously risky with Sinclair's goons out looking for her too, but Leyla doesn't see any other options. Hulier and Foretti are both unsuited to this sort of operation, and Rostami wouldn't know Magda from a hole in the ground. So, with nothing else to try, Leyla heads back to the safehouse. And immediately walks into a goddamn ambush. Spinning some plates here to weave this into something like a coherent storyline rather than a bunch of "and then Leyla goes here" scenes. The book advises that if the player goes looking for Rostami, we should run a Surveillance challenge to represent Sinclair's dragnet of the city. By default that challenge just determines how many Heat or Shadow cards you end up taking, but I'm going to merge it with one of the challenges we didn't end up using with Stokovitch and say that, on a Setback, Leyla gets nabbed by Sinclair's goons and brought to him. Then I'm exercising the "voluntary failure" rule to just take a Setback on that challenge so we can see the "captured" rules in play. Sinclair apparently found out about the safehouse--probably from interrogating Stokovitch. He and several of his goons went there to secure Fr. Foretti, only to find a pair of unconscious mercenaries and no priest. In a staggeringly bad turn of luck, Leyla comes back to the safehouse at precisely the wrong moment. Leyla's a badass, but even she's not going to try to engage a half-dozen heavily-armed goons with guns trained on her, plus a Renfield with SAS training. Reluctantly, she surrenders her gun, gets handcuffed, and is bundled into a car and taken to Sinclair's apartment/command post. Once they're inside, Sinclair dismisses his men so he and Leyla can talk privately. It's a couple of hours until sunset, after all, so they have time to kill before Sinclair can summon the master and put an end to this messy business. In the meantime, he assures her, he wants to help (not that that prevents him from keeping a gun on her, of course). He's aware, you see, that Leyla was knowingly working with "the poisoners" (as he calls Rostami and her crew) even before they gave her the potion. So far, Sinclair has kept that tidbit from Jovitzo--the Master thinks she was stolen and suborned, and his rage would be staggering if he knew she had willingly betrayed him. Sinclair is willing to cover for her out of respect for their long friendship. And yeah, that is unquestionably bullshit, Sinclair obviously plans to hold that blackmail over her quite literally forever. Leyla lets him monologue, playing like she's tired, frightened, broken. She even plays up how much of her memory she's missing, acting like she doesn't remember Sinclair at all, playing for time against the hard deadline of approaching sunset. Leyla's in a rough spot here, picking up both the Captured Problem (-1 on all Manual and Physical tests) and The Drop. This is a special Problem that sits on the table during the scene with Sinclair, and imposes a whopping -4 penalty on the eventual challenge to wrestle his gun away from him. Every Interpersonal Push spent during this scene reduces that by -1, and we have an Edge that's good for a free Push or an extra die against Sinclair. In this case, though, using it for the Push would be a spectacularly dumb idea, because removing a -1 is in no way better than getting a +1-6 on the Challenge. We'll spend one of our own Pushes to Push Reassurance and make Sinclair think he has us under control, but then we're just going to go for it. We're at a net -5 penalty here (-3 from The Drop, -1 from Hurt, and -1 from Captured)--and our first roll is a freaking 1, we're in trouble. Fighting is still depleted from the safehouse scene, so it's time to start burning resources. We can discard Memories of Sinclair for an additional die and take an extra Heat Problem for another die, but the luck of the dice rolls we've been having throughout this adventure finally runs out on us, and we roll a 2 followed by another 2, leaving us with a whopping final total of 0. Even if we played our trump card, the Ice Cold Mastery that lets us ignore all penalties for one challenge, we'd be in Setback land. Leyla waits until Sinclair gets into full, patronizing "I can shield you from the Master's wrath" mode, then lunges for the gun. Sinclair's taken totally off-guard, but he's faster and stronger than Leyla is. They go down together, wrestling over the pistol. Leyla feels something snap in her arm as Sinclair bears down on her, but Sinclair is fighting to recapture a wayward asset for his master. Leyla is fighting for her soul. The gun goes off once, twice--and suddenly Sinclair is dead weight on top of her. Leyla rolls the corpse off of her, and the sudden, searing agony in her stomach lets her know that she's in serious trouble. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she pushes herself to her feet, nearly slipping in the rather large puddle of what she's pretty sure is mostly her blood and stumbles for the door. She has no idea how she's going to fight Sinclair's goons in this condition, but somehow it turns out she doesn't have to. No one stops her on her way out. On the stairs, her head starts swimming and her vision goes dim--she nearly tumbles down them, but suddenly there are strong hands catching her arm, holding her steady. A woman's voice--soft, and somehow familiar--whispers "come with me, we must leave, quickly!" Through the growing darkness, Leyla looks into the face of her rescuer, and it all falls into place. How Rostami found her. Why she chose to move heaven and earth to free Leyla from the vampires' clutches. With her last ounce of strength before the blackness takes her, Leyla manages to speak two words. "Hi, Mom." Next Time: Never Say Dead: The Finale! And here's my big ad-lib for this adventure. As written, and IMHO the weakest part of this adventure, there's no actual connection between the vampire hunters and Leyla. There's one brief aside that Leyla remembers fighting Rostami at some point when she was under Jovitzo's control, but otherwise there's not really a compelling motivation for why Leyla, of all the Renfields in the world, is the one they chose to rescue other than "they thought she'd survive." It's a huge missed opportunity for some character-driven stakes. So I've decided that, instead of Rostami being a former Romanian intelligence operative turned vampire hunter, she's a former Iranian VEVAK operative under cover as a Lebanese academic who married a British diplomat to feed intelligence back to Iran. We'll see how that relationship plays out later. In any case, Leyla has picked up a Serious Injury in the form of being gutshot during the struggle over the gun. We now have two Problems we need to get rid of before the end of the operation or Leyla's story ends here--and given that one is a Shadow Problem and one an Injury, I think that will mean Leyla ends up turned as an assign. I'm going to let the rest of this adventure play out with legit dice rolls--if Leyla doesn't make it, we'll create a new PC for the other two adventures and have Leyla turn up somewhere as a major antagonist. Oh, there's also a brief aside in the book about what happens if you convince or force Sinclair to drink the last dose of Rosewater Potion. It honestly kinda sucks. Basically, he says "thank you for that, but I'm not as strong as you are, I can already feel him calling me and I know I can't resist." Then he lets Leyla go, calls for Jovitzo, and blows his own brains out when the Master arrives. All of this is worth... discarding a single Shadow Problem because Jovitzo is distracted. That is in no way worth trading in a guaranteed Hold on a challenge to resist vampire mind control, even if you don't know there's a very difficult one coming up in the climax--and that, since it's the climax, this is one of those cases where a Setback does mean Game Over. I get that Leyla needs to be special as the PC, but this is still a really weak, disappointing outcome for a player gambling on spending an incredibly valuable resource. GimpInBlack fucked around with this message at 11:33 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 11:29
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Something about the Neo-New York currency being neo-shekels is making me go 
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May 15, 2020 13:42
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Libertad! posted:Coins & Scrolls is one of my more recently-discovered blogs. And in part helped bring Magical Industrial Revolution to my attention. If you like Coins & Scrolls check out False Machine as well. http://falsemachine.blogspot.com/ Edit: Actually we should create a thread for good RPG and other blogs of interest. I for one am doing a lot more browsing the internet at the moment for extremely obvious reasons. I don't think there's a thread for that at the moment? Deptfordx fucked around with this message at 14:37 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 13:52
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal The Wight Stuff So before our heroes descend into Wight Hell, they must first face the random encounter table again. I am not actually rolling 100% randomly this time, it's true. I want to show off a paradox of this thing. So they will encounter a LAND WYVERN by GM Fiat. Wyverns are dangerous because they can fly, and they're smart enough to make good use of being able to fly. Land Wyverns are cave-dwelling mutant wyverns who cannot fly, and who are famously stupid as all hell. Yes, it's a big scary monster with a poison tail and a lot of DR, but it doesn't have the power to kill the frontliners quickly (Wyverns have 3 attacks, 2 claws, then the tail at the end of the round, giving Karl time to heal anyone hurt by the normal attacks) though it does have Unstoppable Blows. Both Gilbert and Ulrike actually have a good chance to block it, even then, since the penalty is -30 and Gilbert has a shield and Ulrike an irresponsibly high WS. The team cut the wyvern's 40 wounds down pretty easily compared to the swarm of Dragon Ogres. However, Wyverns are 'Very Hard' enemies, so it drops more treasure. They find the creature's bower-bird nest of gold and gems and oddities, which contains tons of silver coins (worth 64 Crowns), an 'Izril Stone' (only dropped from Very Hard encounters, worth 30d10x10 GC! x5 if it's cut properly!), a gromril hatchet (Best Hand Weapon w/+1 Damage, Vendrick grudgingly replaces his barely-used elf-hatchet with it), a tablet listing 23 different reasons to dislike elves, and an elegantly made stone doll of a fair dwarven princess, with somewhat less elegant engravings to mark her accessories and dress, indicating a young dwarf girl practiced her stone-carving in ancient days by making stone extras for her toy. I love the 'oddities' and 'heirlooms' drops (both the stone doll and the tablet are suggestions on the tables). The rainbow-stone diamond they found is both huge, and extremely rare, and worth 1550 GC even uncut, outstripping even the finest of diamonds. They'll have to hide that one, which Elena reasons is fine since this isn't exactly some grand cultural treasure, the dwarfs would just take it because it's so valuable. If she can get it to a discreet gem cutter and share the profits, they'll be rich. Something to do the next time they're in town, and a good way to accidentally introduce the team to the Cult of Gorlaz. Note how much more treasureful that was than 'the hardest fight of their goddamn careers'. They also take the wyvern's hide; you don't just discard those carves, man. Ulrike even chopped the thing's tail off, not really knowing why she was compelled to do this or why it seemed to get them more treasure. The ways of MonHun are strong. They also had an encounter with something truly bizarre: A troupe of 5 cavorting daemonettes. You know them: Slaaneshi daemons, quick and agile but don't hit that hard, have a debuff aura, unfortunate crabclaws. The team didn't especially struggle with them; Elena's whip is magical and really hosed them up since they can't dodge it (which is funny on its own: Slaaneshi getting their asses kicked with a whip?), and the frontliners hit so hard and have enough armor that the Damage 4 Daemonettes struggled a lot with them. Still, what are Slaanesh demons doing running around in a dwarf hold? They actually rolled they'd encountered Bloodletters, but again, I want to move towards them getting hints that Slaanesh is something to look out for here. Being Hard, the Daemonettes had some coins and an old heirloom. Just a few shiny pennies, nothing worth mentioning, and an idol to one of the Ancestors, it looks like. Some bloke called Gorlaz? Heirlooms are meant to be a place to drop plot hooks, so again, having this point them towards the false ancestor cult for their next trip to town works out perfectly. As with most random tables, they work best when you don't use them full random. One of the best bits of advice in Renegade Crowns' excellent randomization sections was 'Hey, if you roll the dice and find yourself disappointed and realize you wish you'd really rolled X, then put in X, because your reaction told you what would work for your story'. Do the same with a table like this. Rolled demons and realized you wanted a hint about Gorlaz? Switch 'em to Daemonettes. Want to show off the absurdities of the treasure table? Land After their random encounters, they come to a hefty dwarfen tomb. As soon as they enter, the door slams shut behind them, and two heavily armored, shambling dwarfs rise from the nearby catacombs and attack, wielding axes dripping with black magic. The Wights are tough bastards: Their main weakness is only having 1 Attack, and this won't be the case for all of them. They're well armored (medium armor), fairly tough, well trained, and they hit for Damage 7 Impact. The heroes can definitely handle 2, but these are enemies that cannot be taken lightly and they're going to be all over the place in this adventure: Koros is dug in deep in the Hall of Bones and it contains many heroes. Karl warns them that despite the wights, this is still holy ground; it would be an affront to Morr and the ancestors to loot the tombs heavily. He's correct; you can get a ton of treasure in these sections by looting everything, but only some items are safe to take. Specifically, the less defended the treasure is, the more you're going to piss something off by taking it. Taking a warrior-wight's grave goods after you put them to rest? Fine. Stealing from his wife/her husband buried nearby? Angry dwarf ghosts. The rule of thumb is if you already put whoever was in the tomb to rest, they're probably okay with you taking some of their gold because you freed them from undeath. Searching deeper because now they're worried a necromancer's gotten into the dwarf tombs, they encounter a Wight who won't attack unless he's attacked or robbed. This is Karmir, the patriarch of the family. He tells them in Khazalid (Good thing Karl and Anya picked up the language) that they must return any treasures they took from his sons or their wives. They didn't take any...oh, right, Portia. Anya shakes the fox upside down and takes the golden, jeweled amulet out of her muzzle, then carefully returns it to where it stood atop a monument to one of the dwarfen noblewomen. Karamir is satisfied with this, and tells the heroes he has been awake somehow, not really knowing how. His sons bodies were controlled by...something, but he has defended the tomb as best he can. He thanks them for putting his sons back to rest (they'll take a moment to rebury the remains in their tombs, as a result) and tells them he does indeed feel some kind of presence deeper below. Something that is twisting the 'hall of bones'. Anya goes a little pale at the thought of an experienced necromancer with an entire hold-tomb to work with. The heroes who can be made into lethal wights would be clearly marked, and there would be many, many bodies he could work with otherwise. She tells the others they absolutely have to make this a priority. Whoever this necromancer is, he has to be stopped. Karamir is pleased to hear they intend to defend the hold and its dead. He will not leave the side of his family and their graves, but he bids them Valaya's protection and Grimnir's courage, and stands aside to let them go deeper, taking an old dwarfen supply lift down into zombie town. It's going to be a long battle. Next Time: Everything Causes Fear
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May 15, 2020 14:35
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Gorluz sounds like the sort of thing Ranald decided to pre-empt in Marienburg.
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May 15, 2020 14:46
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The Lone Badger posted:Gorluz sounds like the sort of thing Ranald decided to pre-empt in Marienburg. Unfortunately for Ranald, Handrich got away from him. Assuming Handrich was ever his thing. In our continuation of the timeline in the 2600s, Handrich and Gundred (the lovely Capitalism and Cattle Theft/Goonery Gods from Tome of Salvation) have only gotten worse. Handrich eventually bought into the Grand Conclave, because the Industrial Revolution era Empire was always going to like him some and they re-incorporated Marienburg anyway. Gundred's priests have found a new lease on life becoming fantasy pinkertons, strikebreakers, and thugs for Handrich followers. Turns out it's way more profitable than banditry. The Industrial Revolution was always going to have some really lovely parts if/when it hit hams, it's only in keeping with the spirit of things. E: But yes, Gorlaz the Golden being Dwarf Handrich (except also Slaanesh) is pretty spot on. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 15:11 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 14:54
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Night10194 posted:The Industrial Revolution was always going to have some really lovely parts if/when it hit hams, it's only in keeping with the spirit of things. The thought that jumps out at me is Hashut starting to gain more than just Chaos Dwarf followers.
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May 15, 2020 15:48
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Like a Dark Souls 2 Boss: The Dudes (and Dudette) In Armor One of the biggest issues the heroes will face in the Undead adventure is that the basic zombies are kind of bastards. They're zombies, but with the dwarf species bonuses applied. So instead of WS 20 chaff, they're still WS 30. And TB 4. And because dwarf burial customs include at least a coat of mail, they're wearing 2 points of armor. This makes them considerably more dangerous than basic unarmored TB 3 WS 20 chaff zombies. And they still have Frightening, so every fight starts with the heroes having to make fear checks or lose some actions. Now, they don't hit hard (they'll struggle with the team's armored fighters) and Fear is no object for Ulrike. Most of the party has WP in the 50s. They'll mostly be fine, but it does make the various undead fights longer. Especially as undead don't break and run. You run into 10 zombies? You're fighting 10 zombies. Add to this occasional encounters with wights, spectres, and nastier foes, and depending on how clever Koros is being (it's up to the GM, with the advice being to use his arrogance to temper the pace of combat if PCs are less combat capable or struggling; he likes to create even fights because they're fun to watch and he's kind of terrible at strategy) this can be some of the hardest combat in the module outside of an unlucky random encounter. Most encounters are also variable: For instance, in the supply room they lower themselves into, they face d10 Zombies, rolled into 8. Most of the combats that are purely Zombies aren't hard. They're just a matter of how long they take and anyone taking lucky chip damage can be healed fairly easily between Karl's doctor skills and his magic. Zombies are also incredibly slow; they can't actually use the Run action and have 10% Agi scores. Considering they're wearing mail, which is -10% to Agi, they cannot actually succeed Agi tests. This leads to the hilarity of Karl walking into the middle of most zombie groups and slamming his staff down to cast Tremor turn 1. Which automatically sends zombies sprawling like bowling pins. He's also actually allowed to hit zombies, not that his staff is particularly good for it, because they're undead and mindless. Knocked over enemies are much easier for the fighters to deal with, so assume every fight with basic zombies has a Shallyan shockwaving them to the floor before they got bodyslammed by knights. Making it to the servant's quarters for the temple of Grungi, they encounter their first spooky ghost. The ghost doesn't attack, and doesn't actually know what's going on with the necromancer; he thinks he's a ghost because when the Hall of Bones was overrun by Skaven ages ago the priests fought bravely to the last and he ran and hid until the rats found him. He begs the heroes to take his bones to a tomb below, so he can rest. You actually get bonus EXP for doing so! Being nice to dead people is usually a good idea in Hams. Because they agreed to help him, the dwarf ghost also draws them a rough map of the area. He's never been into the major tombs before, but he can tell them about the rest of the place, which will help their explorations quite a bit. Anya points out that necromancers often like to take over preparatory or embalming facilities (she actually has Knowledge: Necromancy and grew up in a hellcastle, she knows things) so they head past the priests' quarters towards the preparation rooms, only to get blindsided by a pair of wights made of the priests of Grungi. They're a normal wight fight, and the heroes can deal with 2 of them comfortably without further foes. Afterwards, they find a nice symbol of Grungi that should probably be recovered for the dwarfs above; the temple above in Skalf's Hold will pay a princely 400 GC or so for it. The embalming chamber turns out to be a mistake. It contains d10 Ghouls, and this was a bad time to roll a 10. Ghouls are not especially easy enemies; they're not the toughest, but they have 2 attacks, they don't know fear, and their claws are poison and do bonus damage if they get through. The team does not, in fact, have the services of a licensed and bonded ghoul wrangler and there are enough of them that they threaten to slip past the front-liners. This is a good place to insert Balkrag. As the heroes are struggling some to hold back the tide of flashing yellow claws from getting at their soft and valuable Shallyan and Mage, they hear someone screaming 'GRIMMMMMMNIIRRRR' before some kind of maggoty cannonball covered in tufts of fading orange hair slams into the ghouls. The addition of the extra melee badass is enough to turn things around fairly handily, and soon the ghouls are in the ground and the party is staring at a worm-eaten dwarf who radiates pure anger. He's a little annoyed the dwarf gods sent him allies who don't have any actual dwarfs, but he'll make due. He tells them his name and tells them he needs help destroying a dread necromancer. Anya calms the others down; this is unlikely to be a trick. She knows wights. They're made out of great heroes and are often capable of breaking free of their necromancer. Balkrag here is almost certainly telling the truth and asking for help in earnest. While he's still a horrifying figure, he did just come to their aid and they have the same goal; they agree to help the Slayer find his revenge. He would have killed the man himself, but he's afraid he would simply fail and leave the tombs unguarded, so he has waited for heroes (manlings this deep in a fallen dwarf-hold who are still alive must be heroes of some kind) to help him make up for the weight of numbers. He's not actually under his Slayer's Oath anymore, after all. He did die. So he's free to retreat or do wiser things in combat. No armor, though. Never armor. He still kind of wants to die again so he can go back to sleep. They next stumble through the quarters of Grimald, Koros' lovely apprentice. He's not here; they've alerted Koros so he'll be taking up miniboss duty in the chambers below. His treasure is, as is one wight, but the single wight is dispatched with contemptuous ease by the ferocious slayer (Balkrag only has 2 attacks, but he hits for Damage 9 Impact at WS 80%. Do not get hit by Balkrag. If you attack Balkrag, you are making a mistake. He's beatable but you'd rather have him as a buddy), and the team quickly loots Grimald's coin collection for Elena's loot sack. It sure is a good thing they have someone who can Pick Locks on their team. Almost like I made Anya a rogue hybrid knowing that skill was going to be essential. Area 7 is the main chapel, and requires the team to both take on nearly twenty lesser undead (which is doable) and find a secret lever for the elevator to proceed. If they don't, the zombies and skeletons try to grapple and push them down the shaft, which will still get them to the next area if it works out for the undead, but with some nasty fall damage from sliding down an inclined elevator shaft. Once they fight through the chaff and get down the elevator, they discover Grimald. Grimald is considerably smarter than Ondurin in Carrion Call. He is not only hiding from the PCs where he can try to raise more skeletons, he's also hiding next to the controls for the elevator. His plan is thus: Have the skeletons he pre-raised rush them, and try to keep them on the elevator. Raise the elevator. While they're riding it back up and down, raise more undead. So until the heroes manage to fight off the elevator, he's just going to keep re-raising undead and calling up more chaff to reinforce him. If you don't prioritize getting off the elevator, you can get drowned in lovely skelingtons. He's also just not in an easy position for the heroes to snipe immediately; he understands that peaking around a corner and loving with people with the infinite skeleton generator that is necromancy is way more effective than stepping out into the open to give speeches about your endless power. Honestly, the kid could've gone far as a dungeon wizard. Unfortunately, the team is enough of a wrecking ball to immediately fight off the elevator before he can raise it and retreat. If he gets to retreat, he flees to the main worker's tombs where he has tons of material to work with. Sadly for Grimald, he instead gets wrapped up in a whip, punched in the face, and then tied up for questioning. Being a lovely little apprentice, he tells them as much as he can in return for his life (it isn't in the module that you might capture Grimald, but it's definitely something adventurers would consider since they need information). Anya says he can't possibly be the main necromancer; he's less powerful than she is. He tells them his master is Koros, an amazing elf sorcerer, and warns them extensively that an evil seductress has taken over his master's mind of late (he's hoping they'll kill Althura for him, not realizing he's 100% on the money), before something reaches through the wall behind him and just grabs his heart in his chest. This would be the other minion of Koros, the Wraith. Volkin the Wraith pulls the favorite trick of Wraiths, attacking someone from within a solid object, then flees after silencing Grimald. The heroes now know the name of their target. They decide their first priority is to get below, to the bottom of the hall and face this Necromancer, meaning they inadvertently avoid an extremely dangerous trap with two crazy dwarf spectres who mutually assassinated one another in life and who now compete to get each other killed by adventurers in death. Instead, they walk directly into the level 1 boss fight. The Hall of Heroes, in a place with a bunch of wights...what did you think was going to happen? All the tombs here have been defaced with Eltharin curses, and the heroes of the hall have all risen. Balkrag is by the PCs side, but the other 5 aren't. They each get their own profiles, all of them being unique. Most are more powerful than normal. A great dwarfen schaldmaiden, a hero with a broken axe held together by magic, a long-dead runesmith powered by his hatred for how his runic works have been stolen and ruined by Koros, a dwarf so strong he can break stone with his hands (He's SB 7! With an SB+2 Impact weapon and Strike Mighty! Dude could cleave a Chaos Warrior in one or two blows) and the worst: The former High Thane and commander of the hold's Ironbreakers (the absolute elite of dwarfen tunnel fighters). The High Thane is clad in literally invulnerable armor: He has actual runic gromril armor, magical and far stronger than any Chaos Armor at AV 7. He's also got an extra attack and about 10 more Str compared to most of the skilled-but-1-attack Wights. This is a genuinely difficult boss battle. The wights don't have a lot of attacks, but there are 5 of them, one of them is armored like a tank, all of them are superior to the normal wight profile, and one of them hits so hard that every missed blow is crushing columns of stone and leaving deep rends in metal. They're all highly skilled, too. They will not leave this area unless peppered with missile fire, though. You can pick one or two off and then retreat to recover. Add to that having to deal with Fear, and it's pretty clear why the game drops Balkrag for you as a potential ally before this fight. It's actually fairly likely Balkrag will go down in this fight; the enemies hit really hard and he's not good at defense. The team barely got him through it, and the whole front line got pretty beat up fighting through all these badass wights. It's a cool fight, though; all of them having unique armor and gear and fighting a bunch of dwarfen heroes forced into undeath is a cool climactic battle for the first part of the dungeon. Sadly, you can never find the named hammer that the Runesmith was supposed to have made, the Wrath of Grungi. It's implied Koros destroyed it somehow. Jerk. They do find plenty of treasures as thanks for rendering these dwarfs to their rest, but decide they're not going to try to take the gromril armor. They can't use it (no dwarfs), and this is legitimately the kind of priceless, ancient artifact the dwarfs retook the Hold to get. It is genuine kingly armor, the kind of thing that makes a hold-king, and wars have been fought over relics like this before. On their way back up, they'll take it with them and bring it to the authorities to reclaim it; this is a genuine cultural treasure marked with a Master Rune, and they are here to help reclaim this hold after all. They take a moment to catch their breath, then head down the stairs to confront Koros and the rest of level 2. Next Time: NYAAHHHHH!
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May 15, 2020 16:25
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By popular demand posted:Mortals are so OP, they can practice in daylight. Hey, there's nothing in the rules that says a dog can't play basketball.
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May 15, 2020 16:58
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Night10194 posted:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Everything causes Fear kind of sums up most Chaos/Necromancer encounters any way. I still wish they'd brought that Put Fighter with them. I read a little ahead about the Staff of Valya. That would be a nice item for Karl. And as crappy/perfunctory as the Greenskin part is, there's a couple of useful items for Anya with that staff that allows or rerolled failed magic tests and the book that boosts Channeling and Magical Sense tests. Plus, if they encounter the River Trolls before the Orcs and Goblins, they can actually win then over as allies. So there's a chance to use actual Diplomacy down in the dark, which is kind of cool, honestly. Still, assuming they pull this bit off successfully, figure freeing the Dwarven dead from not just a Liche but an Elven Liche will gain everyone involved some huge good will from the Dwarves, even Vendrick - who will likely despise Koros as much as the Dwarves would.
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May 15, 2020 17:14
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Masters of the Universe One of the important things about fighting Koros is that Koros is a dumb bastard. He's gotten as far as he has because Althura helped him with his homework and directed him to this tomb. He likes 'to savor the slow torment of his enemies', which means he will intentionally spread out the use of the overwhelming numbers he has on level 2 into a series of even fights and harassment rather than 'I drown them in 30 skeletons, 30 zombies, 10 wights, and every ghost I can'. The heroes descend into a hall of crying statues; Grungi is not happy with what's going on and the statues of lamenting dwarfs will actually be lamenting until the heroes put Koros in the ground. That's not going to be easy. Especially when they get dive-bombed by an old enemy I never would have expected to show up again: It's the goddamn flaming screaming Cocaine Skulls! They're back! Well, not really back, so much as Koros has command of some extremely similar things. The heroes wonder if they're being haunted by the spirit of Henri-Phillipe as Elena and Vendrick's ranged weapon and whip pick the first couple skulls out of the sky and they move into the great hall of bones. They also note that the nearby statue of Valaya has been completely unharmed, while the undead have managed to hack down the statue of Grimnir and it's covered in Eltharin graffiti. While Vendrick still cannot read, he does manage to just barely make out the word for 'coward', and notes this seems to be Asur script. Balkrag hears him say that and flies into a rage, challenging the necromancer to appear, which only leads to a further Cocaine Skull attack. The heroes don't have a dwarf, so they don't get the hint about the Staff of Valaya, a very, very powerful item that makes taking on Koros much easier. Thankfully, they're thorough (while Elena whips down more Cocaine Skulls like they were goddamn medusa heads) and so they'll probably find it on their own. This area is much more open than the tunnels above, being full of individual crypts for important individuals. Assume the heroes are being harassed by Cocaine Skulls and minor undead encounters the entire time they're searching around the place. Thankfully for the team, with the ancient grimoire, Anya can translate runic script. This gets them some of the hints they'd also need to search the place; she can translate the inscriptions on some of the ruined coffins, and more importantly, the party is smart enough to realize that some of the crypts have been undisturbed, as if there was some power or force stopping Koros' forces from messing with them. Maybe there's something that can help them with all these drat zombies? After all, it doesn't really matter how many they kill. Koros can raise any of them they put down with a little bit of time, and at long range. He effectively has infinite forces at this time and only his personal obsession with 'wearing them down' and 'tormenting them' keeps them from being overwhelmed. The first tomb is peaceful, and speaking the name of Valaya after learning a short prayer for the king gets them an amulet that seems to have no powers, but glows to anyone with magical sight. The second is their first encounter with a hostile ethereal undead. They don't know who King Morgundson is; nobody here has knowledge (Dwarfs). They just know a crazy terrifying hell-ghost of a dwarf king is immediately trying to kill them on entering. While he resisted Koros' ability to control him, Morgundson was a greedy and tight-fisted bastard, who suffered a divine curse because he insisted he be buried with the Rod of Valaya rather than letting it be used by his ancestors. He's a tough fight, considering only magic weapons can hurt him, armor doesn't work against him, he causes and can re-cause Terror, he can turn invisible at will when not attacking, and his attacks can cause one-turn paralysis. Thankfully, they have both a wizard and a Belmont, which is the answer to all evil ghosts. Gilbert is fully capable of fighting him, too, but it's much more dangerous for Gilbert since he has to get close and risk the chill touch. Which got him good; it can't be Parried and Gil messed up Dodge. Gilbert took 15 Wounds in one turn from the guy, beyond even Karl's ability to heal quickly, and if Elena and Anya hadn't managed to finish him off that round, he would have killed a Paralyzed Gilbert. Never, ever take Wraiths or Spectes lightly. They're utter bastards of enemies. Robbing the graves of anything but the Rod (which is not robbing, Valaya cursed this guy for holding onto it) will curse you. Having any common knowledge (Dwarfs) or a Dwarf PC (in this case, Balkrag warns them) will tell you the 500 or so GC you can drag out of Morgundson's family tomb is not worth the -5% to everything you'll suffer until you make Grungi stop hating you. At least you can do so by simply putting everything back and apologizing. You can also do appropriate penance for a Priest of Grungi later. I do like that while it can be a little inconsistent which treasures will cause you trouble, if you do get cursed by loving with treasure here you can always just put it back and apologize and the dwarf spirits will back off. It's better than you just getting hosed up over it. When they pick up the magical rod, though, it glows. As does the amulet, even to the eyes of people who can't see magic. The rod is goddamn awesome, even in this incomplete form. You need a WP-20 to get it to trust you, but after that, speaking the Khazalid for 'protect' will give you an AV+2 (maximum 5 still, but still useful) magical shield with a WP-20 test, and saying 'heal' will give you the Earthblood spell (Choose between 1 to 10 Half Actions, heal that many wounds at the end, great for out-of-combat healing) for WP-10. Doubles on any of the percentiles will cause a Divine miscast. Karl takes the rod, barely succeeding the WP test. It still isn't fully powered. The final kingly tomb doesn't have any real danger (except the heroes outside it holding off skulls and undead while Karl and Anya try to puzzle it out) but does contain the last part of the Staff of Valaya, the Haft of Grungi. The runic scripts on his tomb tell of how they'll need this and to combine it with the other two items in the hands of Grungi (there's a big statue of him nearby) to make a powerful tool against the forces of evil. The king, however, can't bear to let go of the axe haft. While the rod and amulet make his coffin open without needing a Str-30 test, he still tries to hold on to his haft. Thankfully, Karl is pretty strong physically (he's always been a big guy) and is able to pull it free, resisting the Terror of the long-dead king's screaming. Still fighting off random undead, the team gets the items to the statue of Grungi, and in a flash of light, Karl is now holding the best staff he'll ever see: The Staff of Valaya. It has the previous powers, but now it can insta-gib d10+2 minor Undead with a WP-20 and cause Fear in wights, wraiths, specters, and liches. Karl's WP isn't the greatest (it's okay), but now he can just mow through the undead by setting them to rest. Koros is about to get serious about stopping the heroes. You cannot keep this item; if you do not return it, Valaya will curse you for it. This weapon is meant to defend and comfort the dwarfs, and wielding it against Koros definitely counts, but this isn't something you take as an equipment upgrade. Searching further, they find one last royal tomb. As Karl stands guard outside it, a little fidgety about holding a holy relic of another peoples' Goddess but fairly resolute in exploding the occasional waves of lesser undead with bursts of holy light, Anya leads them through the tomb of Belgrina Fargunsdottir, the one queen of Karak Azgal. The runic scripts say she ruled for 75 years, beloved of Valaya and known as a great warrior and adjudicator. The party having the staff means her coffin opens wide for them, and offers a statue of Valaya that must be returned after facing Koros, but that again provides a huge benefit: Anyone carrying it is immune to Necromancy spells. I actually quite like the feel of this part of the dungeon: Racing against periodic attacks as Elf Skeletor fucks with you (and because he can talk through his undead, and hear through them, probably starts talking to you) as you put together a powerful relic you can use to clear his chaff and even the odds. They realize where he has to be: There's one structure down here that isn't anything like the others. It looks like a very crude attempt to build a High Elven building, made over the weeks by Koros' zombies to his somewhat inexact instructions. The Elf Liche strides out at the head of all his surviving undead, including the Wraith Volkin, with Althura at his feet because he thinks it makes him look cool. He introduces himself, his name, and declares they face a prince of Caledor, a master of death, the invincible necromancer who will avenge the War of the Beard. Vendrick tells him in Eltharin that the war was the fault of people like him, who threw away a grand alliance and reduced those who still live in the Old World to hiding in hell-forests (he doesn't know the Laurelorn is different, okay?), and tells the liche he is a shame to all of elvenkind. He then tries to do the Ondurin Special, and is extremely annoyed when his cool speech and pair of arrows into Koros' eyes just bounce off, because his arrows aren't magic. The liche laughs at him, and then the fight is joined. Now the fight with Koros is extremely variable. For one, if you have Balkrag, his weapon can hurt Koros. Probably another reason he's here. Anya's Shadow Knives and Magic Darts can, too. Gilbert's hammer can. And Elena's whip can. But Vendrick cannot give him the traditional Warhammer Wizard Elf Greeting. Koros is an elf. He knows elfs are pointy and good at sniping wizards. If Karl knew Bless Weapon, he could bless Vendrick's arrows, but he doesn't. What enemies are left is kind of left to the GM; it should be a very challenging encounter, but doable. Volkin is a major problem, since he's about as dangerous as the specter earlier. Koros is also smart enough to stick behind his minions, so while he can be shot at, getting close to apply a magic axe to his face is hard. He's also crazy powerful; he's a full wizard lord, with a staff of power that gives a static +2 to his casting rolls. Thankfully, he doesn't know Withering Wave from the Lore of Vampires or he'd be whacking the heroes with d10 unreducable AoE damage (save with WP for 0) every turn. As it is, he can either raise up downed undead, or he can do the real bastard move and keep casting Call of Vanhel. Which instantly lets d10 undead (including wights) move or attack outside of the turn order. Koros is an extremely serious boss fight, and if he had been smarter earlier in the encounter, the PCs would be extremely dead. As it is, he is instead facing them with a smaller bodyguard of 3 Wights, 10 Skeletons, and 10 Zombies, and 11 of those lesser undead get obliterated by Karl on turn 1. Koros is Fearless, so fear doesn't bother him, but it does freeze two Wights. It's still a nasty fight. The Wights will still attack from Call of Vanhel even when they're hit with Fear. Koros is able to empower his undead to fight much harder, and even the thick armor on Gilbert, Elena, and Ulrike isn't enough to keep them from taking damage, especially once the Wights recover. Anya's attempt to Shadow Knife Koros does work, but she also suffers her first triple and decides to keep it, not wanting the spell to fail. Then the best thing possible happens: She suffers Kin Afflicted, meaning the miscast is passed off to her closest relative. MEANWHILE: Wilhelmina Vonreuter has finally managed to fully stock the old castle. To get rid of the crazy firebug in the upstairs, to get actual servants, and to turn it into her own private supervillain lair. She uses it to plot revenge on her younger sister. As she's hosting a banquet of some fellow Warlocks from one of the lodges in Marienburg and about to give the toast and the speech to finalize their compact as a coven of dark sorcerers, she begins to vomit. A lot. More than her body could possibly contain. The evening is completely ruined. SOMEHOW SHE KNOWS THIS IS ANYA'S FAULT! IT MUST BE! (It is, but she's just being paranoid and has no evidence) Anya has no idea why her spell didn't actually miscast but she's not asking questions. It's not an easy fight, and it took them about ten rounds to finally chew through everything (Karl's luck with the stick did not hold, and it gave Koros time to summon more help), but in the end, Elena's whip brings down the dark liche. His casting Armor on himself to give himself AV 4 that would stop Shadow Knives and magic whips fairly well did not help. An intelligently played necromancer who starts with minions is so, so much more dangerous than Ondurin was back in Carrion Call. He collapses into a pile of dust, cursing the dwarfs, trying to refuse to die, but in the end even hatred can't keep them going. Althura runs forward and hugs Karl, thanking the mighty holy mage for saving her life and asking them to take her with them. Balkrag gives the team a nod, then collapses into dust, finally allowed to rest as undead all throughout the hall begin to crumble. The team gathers up the holy relics and the kingly armor, bringing them and Althura up above with them to return these powerful items and prepare for their next journey. RIP Elf Skeletor, you were my favorite villain in this. And you put up a fight and got to no-sell the heroes' own elf-bullshit. The Undead section is a lot of fun. The Skaven are pitch perfect to Skaven, but fairly standard. Koros is unusual. He's not at all what you'd expect from the Necromancer villain, and crazy elf failson noble turned impossibly powerful but kind of dorky liche is a great mix of comedy and actually extremely dangerous. Sadly, the team can't use his gear: His Staff of +2 Casting and SB+2 Damage would be great, but nobody has Dark Magic and thus it would cause problems. His magic crown of command is only useful to a Necromancer. They'll still drag it with them to see if they can get it destroyed or sealed away, though. Oh, they also get a very basic but still extremely valuable magic axe with +10% WS on it. That would've been helpful while fighting the liche, goddamnit. I suppose if you confront him in his lair you can realize it's hanging on the wall and pull it off to fight him with if you don't have anything that can hurt him. Next Time: Slaanesh Is A Problem Night10194 fucked around with this message at 19:53 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 18:13
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Night10194 posted:Elf Skeletor Skelfetor, surely.
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May 15, 2020 19:05
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 I'LL BE BACK! in another 5,000 years or so I'll get my revenge on you! ahhh... On your descendants!Fast forward to Age of Sigmar and he's now Nagash's bitch, much worse off. He's probably underqualified even to clean up after the ghouls.
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May 15, 2020 19:10
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The Kin Afflicted miscast is also why large families of wizards must be the most hilarious and terrible things in the world.
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May 15, 2020 19:15
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I really enjoyed your description of the adventure and the climactic fight! The complete immunity to nonmagical weapons on a lot of the enemies really irked me, though. This group had a handful of options to solve that particular problem, but totally immunity is just a frustrating thing in RPGs for me in general. At least in tabletop Warhammer ordinary troops could still beat a bunch of invincible ghosts through combat resolution. Combat resolution would also potentially help with the "kill every single zombie" situation- the undead didn't break and run if they lost a fight, but if you beat them real bad their magic would unravel and some of them would fall apart (at least in some editions)
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May 15, 2020 19:54
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Yeah magic being something really rare you should be really careful about throwing out flat out "immune to regular weapons" in WFRP, unless your group has a Wizard or some other way to deal with it it'll end up a complete wipe.
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May 15, 2020 19:55
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I think those fights are why this adventure drops more magical treasure. Most of the specters/wraiths could be avoided or you could get what you need and run, but yes, they're the most dangerous thing in the adventure. Their ability to ignore armor will gently caress you, too. Pair that with a temporary stun if you fail WP and they're just bastards. Thinking about it, if I wanted Althura to immediately ingratiate herself to PCs who were struggling to hurt Koros, I'd have her toss them the magic axe with a 'Use this, brave hero!', but at least they give you ways to deal with Koros' actual immunity. Outside Ethereal enemies, Koros is the only 'immune to non-magical weapons' enemy I've seen in WHFRP. Normally it's more like Daemonic Aura, where enemies get extra DR against purely mundane weaponry, which usually works better. E: In practice, I find miscasts do make characters limit when they use magic and how much power they use, but aren't that supremely dangerous to them. You'll almost certainly never kill or seriously hurt yourself with magic at the levels of dice most PCs use (2-4). But you potentially can, and it adds just a tiny bit of 'do I really want to use magic for this' to the decisions making of a mage. Combine that with only having one color, and it makes mages interesting and useful, but not quite so prone to constantly trying to solve everything with magic. The danger really comes when you have like Mag 6 (Mutation bonus, Familiar, maybe using Dark Magic, which lets you drop your lowest die and adds an extra die, but everything counts for miscasts). THEN you accidentally kill yourself trying to cast some kind of earth-shattering spell that could kill a small army. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 20:02 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 19:58
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I'd probably include an option to get the party's weapons temporarily blessed by Valaya and/or Grugni so they can hurt Koros. Something like "lay your weapon in the statue's hands, weapon starts glowing."
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May 15, 2020 20:02
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Ethereal itself got changed in 4e (and Soulbound) to ‘half damage from non-magic sources.’
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May 15, 2020 20:03
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On some level I just enjoy it here, with this group, because their normal solution to all evil wizards (Vendrick has a 92% BS, long range, and does good damage) just absolutely wouldn't work and it's funny to imagine them panicking momentarily before remembering all their other tools. E: Like I know it's not the best design, but it made me laugh the moment I saw it on my readthrough and compared it to Ondurin getting shot and dying on round 1. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 20:11 on May 15, 2020 |
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May 15, 2020 20:06
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Mors Rattus posted:Ethereal itself got changed in 4e (and Soulbound) to ‘half damage from non-magic sources.’ Yeah that works, given metal weapons all have some trace of winds in them, along with arrows which would also have some form as well.
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May 15, 2020 20:07
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Soulbound Nasty, Brutish and Short?  The Fyreslayers are duardin that, originally, were native to Aqshy. They are infamous for their quick tempers, their greed and their stubborn obedience to any sworn oath. They are infamously mercenary, working for nearly anyone that can pay their price. Indeed, many Lodges will even temporarily serve the forces of darkness if they think it'll get them enough gold. This obsession with gold, however, is not about material greed, but about spiritual longing. The Fyreslayers seek out the shattered remains of ur-gold that form the body of Grimnir. If enough is found and used in battle to awaken its spirit, they believe Grimnir will once more return to life. Acquiring ur-gold is the chief motive of any Fyreslayer, ever since the shared deaths of their god and the godbeast Vulcatrix. Each lodge has its own ideas about how to pursue that quest. Some are openly mercenary and don't care who they work for, while others choose their sides more carefully, wait for potential employers to seek them out or offer protection to towns in exchange for a ithe of gold. No matter what, though, a contract once sworn is a matter of honor and cannot be broken. The Fyreslayers will always honor their contracts, no matter the consequences, and expert the same from clients. Unpaid debts and broken promises earn their wrath. Fyreslayer society is heavily patriarchal, with each Lodge led by a Runefather and inherited by one of his male children, the Runesons, who compete to earn their inheritance with valor in battle. A Runefather chooses his inheritor, and any sons that refuse to accept this can split from the lodge to found their own. The ruling line can typically be traced all the way back to the founding of the lodge. Fyreslayer women are only rarely permitted to bear the ur-gold runes that mark a member of the lodge's warriors or enter battle. However, despite the patriarchal nature of most lodges, there are rare lineages of matrilineal inheritance in smaller lodges, resulting in the rare Runemothers. This is typically the result of a lodge's male population being nearly destroyed by war or disaster, leaving only the daughters of a Runefather alive to inherit. By Duardin standards, even the Fyreslayer women are considered huge, heavily muscled fanatics. While most women never leave the lodge, Fyreslayer men can be found anywhere that battles are fought, trying to earn their gold. As a people, they are easily adapted to extreme environments and temperatures, and wear little but a heavy kilt and helmet in most cases, trusting their lives to their ur-gold runes. It is rare for them to trust outsiders, but may hire adventurers as go-betweens for negotiation or messengers as needed. A Fyreslayer may even call on adventurers as they lay dying, asking for them to send a message to their lodge to send out a Runesmiter to retrieve their body and reclaim their runes. Some lodges also hire local scouts to travel through terrain they aren't familiar with. The Idoneth Deepkin are reclusive and rarely appear in the Free Cities, living as they do in small enclaves on the sea floors. They are terrified of Slaanesh's taint on them, and so they typically attempt to live in dark, cold places where they can avoid strong sensations. Only one percent of them are born with souls strong enough to reach adulthood, and so their survival is assuared only by using magic to tear out the souls of others and transplant them into their children. They tend to have little in the way of material concerns, caring only for ensuring enough souls are gathered to keep their culture going. However, they will go to great lengths to protect their enclaves and keep them isolated, and they despise those who would steal from them. While they fled Teclis and rejected him, he instilled in their souls an instinctive yearning for enlightenment, and adult Idoneth often spend much of their time on philosophy and introspection, attempting to solve the riddles of the world. The greatest of them study the spiritual wound left on their people and try to find better ways to fix it than soul theft. The Idoneth hate being around each other almost as much as they hate being around outsiders. Their social structure is still modelled on the society Teclis tried to teach them, and they keep it up as much to ensure that they don't become too depressed and isolated from each other as for any cultural tradition. Their enclaves are led by Akhelian commanders and Isharann priests. The chief Akhelian will use the title King or Queen, but it isn't hereditary, and will instead pass to the next highest ranking Akhelian on their death, especially because Idoneth family lines tend to be short due to the soul issues. Trade between enclasves is minimal, and contact with surface peoples even rarer except for raids. A few enclaves, however, have been growing more outward-looking and deal more and more with other nations, particularly if these enclaves have agreed to help Sigmar's armies. Deepkin society has a very strict caste divide between the half-souled Namarti and the true-souled Akhelian and Isharann. Namarti are physically the same as any other aelf, but the rituals that implant souls in them as infants leaves them blind and branded for the rest of their lives. They are considered the property of the noble castes and treated as slaves. True-souled have their talents and aptitudes examined as children, then taken from their family to be raised either as Isharann or Akhelian, with the two csastes being considered to be the halves that make up true Idoneth society. While the noble castes may argue, most enclaves believe they should be treated as equal in terms of leadership and importance. They rarely deal with the outside world except hwen forced to ask for aid. They tend to be go to the Sylvaneth, who they consider to be more predictable allies than other species, or to the Stormcast, whose souls are impossible for them to steal, and thus can trust them more easily. Those aelves that deal with the Idoneth are in most danger, for their souls are extremely valuable - moreso than any other payment, in fact. Some enclaves will offer their protection to surface towns in exchange for a tithe in souls, and many Idoneth will pay whatever they can to get information on wounds or diseases of the soul or artifacts of the sea. They have little use for the treasures they harvest from sunken ships, after all. Threatened enclaves also may turn to adventurers to gather information on their enemies in the surface world.  The Kharadron Overlords are a culture of duardin who, with some exceptions, have largely rejected their ancient traditions. Instead, they focus on engineering, technology and sophisticated weapons to keep trade moving. Their wide array of airships are used to explore and trade, and the Kharadron always need new markets. The most precious thing to most Kharadron is aether-gold, which fuels their ships and powers many of their devices. As a culture, profit is their greatest virtue. Advancement in Kharadron society is largely based on business success, military rank or advancement in a craft-guild. The more successful in this a Kharadron is, the higher their status in the sky-ports. The Kharadron are eminently pragmatic in their alliances, focusing their power to defend the more profitable ones over the less important ones when they must choose. Generally, it is their commercial goals that focus their works, even in war. The Kharadron society was formed in the Age of Chaos, when they escaped into the sky to avoid the daemons ravaging Chamon. Their cities float above the earth on balloons and endrins, and aether-gold keeps their cities flying. They developed the Kharadron Code - a strict and highly codified set of laws covering all aspects of commerce, war and exploration - to reduce infighting and provide some structure to their otherwise rather disorganized society. While almost no Kharadron will break the Code knowingly, they are happy to interpret it in the most beneficial way for them in a given situation. Presumably, Kharadron lawyers are very well paid. Their sky-ports are each led by an Admirals Council, itself answerable to the Geldraad, a council formed by members of the six wealthiest sky-ports. The wealthiest port has the most seats on the Geldraad, which tends to ensure a lot of patriotic self-interest and loyalty to one's port, within the terms of the Code. Under the Councils are the guilds, the largest of which are the Nav-League, the Endrineers Guild and the Aether-Khemists Guild. Most crew members and military officers on a ship don't belong to them, but rather are trained by the Arkanaut academies or independent contractors like the Grundstok Corporation. Kharadron tend to be heavily influenced by the culture of their home sky-port or the one they trained in. Barak-Thryng Kharadron are often strict traditionalists who still believe in respecting the gods and adhering to the strict letter of the Code, while those of shadowy Barak-Mhornar are known for their ambushes, shack attacks and very fluid and creative interpretations of the Code. Most adventurers will work with the Kharadron was part of expeditions. The sky-duardin are always looking for new resources or markets, and they're happy to hire anyone who will help them - with allowances for how much that particular dwarf cares about morals and the kind of people they hire. One thing that seems universal, however, is that the Kharadron love to improve things, not least because making something new and better than its predecessor is a good way to increase one's wealth and fame. Next time: The Scourge, the Stormcast and the Sylvaneth
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May 15, 2020 21:34
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound Faction Lore. You skipped the Devoted of Sigmar and Free Peoples.
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May 15, 2020 22:45
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