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I really love Reign of Steel. This thread introduced me to it and I've been reading the backstory. I tend to like grim settings, but this one is so bleak it actually made me kind of depressed and I had to quit reading for a while-- still, it's a well-written campaign book, the AIs are powerful but not omnipotent foes with relatable, complex flaws, and I'd like to port it to a system that's not GURPS. A note: I think the reason Zaire is named after a (defunct) nation instead of a city is that, in its paranoia, it has hidden itself away so that nobody knows exactly where it is. Just somewhere in the former African Union nation of Zaire. Zaire derives from nzere, the Kongo word for the river known as the Congo River, so it kind of makes sense that a resurgent pan-African union might want to return to that name. Anyways. Not here to debate the relative cultural sensitivity of 90s GURPS writers, but I do like the setting and appreciate the writeup.
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Jan 8, 2016 00:59
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is brucato the guy who did that setting where America had a red state blue state civil war and the blue states use sex magick and furry gene splices and the red states use power armor and pro life super-soldier teenagers because that was the worst
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Jan 19, 2016 17:51
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Mors Rattus posted:Nah that was Chris Fields, who is worse. This means that there are two TTRPG designers who are completely batshit in the exact same way. Is there something in the water?
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Jan 19, 2016 17:59
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I actually like David's support of gangs and skinheads. It shows that angels aren't just "early 21st century middle class First World humans with wings." Having Angel morality diverge from human morality in striking ways is cool, because the tendency when writing games like this is to just take all the stuff you personally believe to be right and have the angels embody it because wankety wank wank.
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Jan 20, 2016 15:20
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Demons should be disturbing to read about. As they are perversions of God's divine plan and His infinite love and compassion for Mankind, they should always have the most cynical, negative outlook on their spheres of influence. I'd expect writeups about them to portray even relatively innocent things in the most negative possible light.
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Jan 22, 2016 20:01
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I like Andre, because of all of the Superiors I've seen he's the biggest try-hard. Laurence knows that chivalry and martial valor are correct and he has God's blessing. Michael has complete confidence that they will win the War, and that he is the toughest of all (after all, he cast down Lucifer). Even Haagenti doesn't doubt for a second that sating his endless hunger is the truest and best way to behave. Andre has a niggling doubt in the back of his head the whole time. He's not just Lust, he's Lust and the denial of Love, the denial that it could be anything more. He has to try extra hard to be the most selfish, amoral pervert because he is fully aware of his potential to Redeem and is actively fighting it. All of his insistence that his demons care only for themselves and indulge in the most sinister decadence with no regard at all for their partners-- it's grandstanding, proving to himself that he really doesn't care and he really just wants to get his gently caress on and no more, honest, really, she means nothing to me.
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Jan 24, 2016 04:03
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It seems to me like the effective way to play Kobal is more about Schadenfreude that Dark Humor-- he represents the small part of human nature that finds glee in the suffering of others, that lacks empathy and callously distances himself from situations so he can laugh. Kind of like Andre, but with situations instead of relationships. What makes him sinister is that he believes in disregarding the bonds that tie us together in society in favor of taking spiteful joy in others' sorrow. It falls a little flat because they really are trying to write him as the Joker, and the Joker comes across as a total goofball when he's not being written well. Kobal could be sinister, but instead he's just hammy.
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Jan 25, 2016 03:38
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I really wanted to give Khalid a chance, and I tend to be pretty generous in the goodwill I extend towards supposedly insensitive material in RPGs. But Khalid supporting terrorists, hating Female Gabriel, and almost becoming the Demon Prince of Fanaticism is a little too  even for me. Come on, In Nomine, you can be better than this.
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Jan 30, 2016 21:24
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I have always liked the Terry Pratchett conception of sin of "treating people as things, including yourself." That seems to be IN's view. Haagenti urges you to let your appetites drive you; Andrealphus denies the possibility of caring about others; Kobal mocks the suffering of others rather than relieves it. Even the warlike angels care about humans as humans and encourage them to try their best and treat each other with respect.
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Jan 31, 2016 21:28
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Cythereal posted:It's hell. Valefor is a demon prince. This are not nice people, and their primary purpose is to enslave and/or destroy the human race and all of heaven. i don't know about you but i can't enjoy any roleplaying setting where all of the characters, villains included, don't share 21st century Western liberal standards and sensibilities
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Feb 3, 2016 03:22
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Edit: let's just avoid a derail now
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Feb 3, 2016 03:35
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Simian_Prime posted:"I was a Nice Guy angel on the Celestial Ladder, but now I'm a Superior PUA... Thanks to the Andrealphus Method!" Pick Up Angel
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Feb 6, 2016 23:09
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Count Chocula posted:Can you think of a better symbol of toxic masculinity than sports? Hell in many places sports teams essentially are cults that can get away with all sorts of hosed up stuff. are you joking? off the top of my head, the military-industrial complex, PMCs, law enforcement, those stupid militias... a lot of nerds have a chip on their shoulder about not being popular in high school and I think a lot of the aggressive snarkiness about "sportsball" comes from loving up the locus of their resentment the whole idea of punishing your ideological enemies by role-playing them as straw villains is so unbelievably creepy and childish. gently caress soto forever.
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Apr 7, 2016 14:07
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what I hate about Beast is that the juxtaposition of "antiheroic" PCs and the oppression allegory means the cleanest read of the setting is "gay people really are all drugged-out child molesters who recruit teenagers and you're the evil one for trying to stop them!" like, the idea of a world that fears and hates you loses its bite when you deserve every last bit of that fear and hatred
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Apr 26, 2016 20:39
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LatwPIAT posted:Well Beasts actually are dangerous, thereby "justifying" slavery... this is the biggest problem with Beast. the minority-allegory characters actually deserve all of the poo poo they get. stripped of allegory this is a game where you play gay and transgender people on the run from evil, oppressive hate groups, except one of the splats is the Toxic Avenger whose power is that he forcibly gives bad guys AIDS and another is the Recruiter who gets a retinue of preteen followers
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May 2, 2016 04:42
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Anyone have that snippet of Phil Brucato cameo from nWOD? All I remember is "an error of Koreshian proportions."
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May 6, 2016 22:54
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I love, love, love DITV (and really all baker's games). Even though the setting is extremely alien to my personal values I still love it.
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May 12, 2016 20:02
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The hyper-conservative Mormon stuff is the whole point. I always enjoyed Apocalypse World despite thinking that a collapse of global civilization would be unpleasant to live through. I'm not about to get squicked out roleplaying a preacher telling kids premarital sex causes demon possession.
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May 13, 2016 18:53
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You know, you can play and enjoy a game without having to agree with everything in it the whole time. Playing a game that requires you to adopt an alien or even oppressive ideology does not mean you explicitly endorse that ideology. I can see how someone who was raised in a fundamentalist home might prefer to play something else, which is fine: to each their own. But it's not really a strike against DITV that it exists in a particular moral structure. Games like Exalted or even traditional D and D require you to adopt pretty alien moral viewpoints that I would argue are much more repugnant than DITV's patriarchal Mormon analogy, but DITV is just close enough to our real lived experiences to be uncomfortable. Its hard to hate someone like a traditional Gygaxian murderhobo since you've never met someone like that but it's all too easy to hate Jerry Falwell: the Game. For what it's worth I've played DITV with a group that ranged from lefty to super-mega-lefty (and I'm closer to the latter than the former) and we loved it. We found the moral questions it asks of you fascinating. DAD LOST MY IPOD fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Jan 24, 2018 |
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May 16, 2016 23:38
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Double Plus Undead posted:I just don't want to play a game where my existence would cause people to start ritually murdering each other. I don't think that's a weird reaction to have? Then don't. If anyone tries to force you let me know and I'll fight them.
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May 17, 2016 02:06
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My favorite thing about Mephits is that ooze Mephits are stated to be working towards the ultimate goal of amassing enough money to pay a wizard to polymorph them into something other than ooze Mephits.
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May 19, 2016 14:37
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I want to point out that the thing depicted in the picture of Agathion is the motherfucking wand of Orcus, so that gives you an idea of the caliber of item stored there by the powers. In fact you go and find it as part of Dead Gods, one of the finest adventures ever written.
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Jun 1, 2016 04:57
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why did nobody tell me that there's an official sci fi sequel to in nomine where God and Satan both have space empires and giant space fleets and fight against space vikings
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Jun 1, 2016 16:32
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one of the many many things I don't like about beast is that if you approach the setting from anything resembling a normal morality, the mra analogues are absolutely correct and heroic and the good guys. meanwhile the persecuted minority groups are evil monsters who deserve everything that's coming to them.
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Jun 5, 2016 16:41
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one thing I like about beast is that people who act the way beasts do are broken to such an extent that they deserve the abuse that beasts get it's neat that the very actions beasts take to deserve righteous extermination supernaturally summon that righteous extermination down on their heads. it's a closed loop. i would much rather play as a hero than a beast, and i think any reasonable person reading the setting would come to the same conclusion. beasts aren't "punching up," they're supernaturally endowed with enormous powers they did nothing to earn and there is no force compelling them to use these powers responsibly at all. it's hard to take them seriously as avatars of the underprivileged when they are phenomenally privileged compared to everyone else who's not an immortal magical monster. the idea that there are no bad tactics, only bad targets, is sociopathic and i don't think we need a game line reinforcing that idea to a generation of bitter grogs resentful that they're not the cool kids.
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Jun 5, 2016 19:00
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Beasts are basically Habbalah from IN. Who are literal demons. Good job, Beast.
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Jun 7, 2016 21:30
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the zeky are by far the best prometheans. thematically prometheans are similar to the way most people think about nuclear waste anyways: something extremely dangerous and unnatural that we made tinkering around with something we didn't fully understand. they warp the landscape and scare people and their life goal is to safely defuse themselves. Of course their signature pandoran is Pyramid Head.
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Jun 8, 2016 14:16
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MonsieurChoc posted:I remember White Wolf's book on Muslim vampires, Veil of Night, being pretty good, although it wouldn't be the first time a white wolf book I used to love years ago turns out to be bad upon a new reading (Second Sight is an easy example). It portrays Mohamed as a man with a giant blank space instead of a face IIRC. that's kind of a curious way to address the depictions-of-Mohammed issue
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Jul 15, 2016 02:41
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Serf posted:Why the hell would a pistol be more accurate than a rifle? Have you even played Halo bro?
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Jul 20, 2016 20:39
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I admit that I like some Raggi adventures, specifically The God That Crawls and Better Than Any Man, but any enthusiasm I had for F+Fing them died when I read Death Love Doom. gently caress that edgy motherfucker. I am probably just gonna finish Return to the Tomb of Horrors at some point, which I had forgotten about completely.
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Sep 14, 2016 19:24
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Ok, fine. Return to the TOMB OF HORRORS Part 12: A web is a kind of bridge, if you think about  Here's the link to the archive of previous entries, by the way: http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/dad-lost-my-ipod/return-to-the-tomb-of-horrors/ So. When we last left off... literally years ago... the PCs had just escaped from the insane Dr. Tarr of the Tower of Health, a Moilian hospital. Cyndia the nurse might be with them or might not. Either way, they're really no closer to their goal for the experience. As a reminder:  Tower 7 was the medical tower. Tower 8 is totally hollow, having collapsed centuries ago (it was the mint, if anyone cares) (they don't). So on to Tower 9! Like 8, the interior of 9 has collapsed. There are no floors or furnishings left. Unlike 8, however, it is occupied. By what? What manner of creature could live in a hollow tower trapped between planes? it's spiders The entire interior is filled with webs, starting about ten feet below the entrance. They glow a faint green, so as to be conveniently visible to PCs in the lightless tower (there are no windows). The web appears deserted, but poking it has a 10% chance of summoning a wraith-spider, but even if you do the spider can't or won't leave the web so it's not an immediate danger to PCs. Why bother descending into the web and braving these creatures? Well... Acererak's poem posted:Beneath webs of glowing emerald Yeah, there's a piece of the key here. Probably the second piece, since the brine dragon had the first. The PCs start in section 9.1. 9.2 is the web. A few rules about it, since we're about to climb on: 1) The web is pretty tightly spaced. Gaps are no larger than five feet. Although this is good, because it means you probably won't fall screaming to your death, it's also problematic for fliers hoping to bypass the whole thing. 2) The web is also supernaturally cold, colder even than the surrounding air. Any living creatures touching it-- and this isn't bare-skin only, gloves and boots count-- suffer d4 damage per round and must save vs paralyzation or by paralyzed for d6 rounds (though whether this is a property of the cold or something inherent to the web isn't clear). Walking along the web is probably a bad idea for that reason, and fliers have to be intensely maneuverable to make it. Probably the best bet is to hack through it like foliage, which does work. Unfortunately, this definitely attracts the wraith-spiders, who are not happy about it. There are 13 of them and they arrive within d6 rounds. The spiders are fairly nasty; they have a level-draining bite that also injects Con-draining venom, and require silver or magical weapons to hit. They also have 15% innate magic resistance and immunity to cold, poison and death magic. They're vulnerable to turning, but you should remember that the effects of Acererak's ritual are stronger here than in the Tomb, and that includes making undead harder to turn (they turn as mummies, which, good luck). As a side note, if you die of having your Con dropped to 0, you automatically come back as a wraith-spider with a humanoid head. At the bottom of the web hangs a riddle cube from an especially thick mass of webbing:  It's black, with red etchings, and of course that's a winter-wight (remember them?) wearing a ring of universal movement standing on the bottom. It is smart enough to hide on the underside of the cube and ambush PCs. It will also call the spiders for help and use its ring to pursue the PCs even if they run. The bottom of the cube has a riddle engraved into it with three plaques below it that can be pushed like buttons. The riddle reads: "Many tails have I, or many a beginning. If I fail people sigh; wails mark their passing." The three plaques depict a might oak tree with roots reaching down into the soil, a cat with hissing snake-headed tails, and a frayed rope. The answer is, of course, rope, and pressing that plaque... does nothing visible, except make a click sound. Exactly the same with either of the others. If you press any other plaques after the first, nothing happens; it takes 24 hours to "reset" and accept a new choice. However, if you pressed the correct one, one of three portcullises at Area 16 raises. So, good. You can also cut the rope and drop the cube into nothingness, but in 33 days some of Acererak's demon servants go and grab it and put it back. Area 10 is a shattered bridge-- it still spans the abyss, but is dangerously structurally compromised. 10% chance of causing a crumble, which requires a dex check at -4 or over you go. Look out! Area 11 is a weak bridge. It looks normal, but the magic preserving it is imperfect and the keystone has crumbled to dust. When you reach the midpoint-- and here I should note that the bridge is 110 feet long-- a segment of stone drops away from the middle with a loud CRACK! The two halves each collapse backward toward their respective tower. Anyone within 10' of a tower entrance can check Dex to run back inside. Anyone else-- such as, say, the person who triggered the collapse-- has to make a dex check at minus ten to grab hold, then a Strength check at -2 to hold on as the bridge impacts the tower. If you fail either, down you go. If you survived and are now clinging to a collapsed stone bridge... well, too bad, because a murder of negative fundamentals (those bat things, and yes, that's the correct collective noun) was roosting under the bridge and now swarms out to attack the luckless PCs clinging on by their fingertips. It's -35% to climb up, which means that without skills you have a 5% chance to climb up, and it takes one round of climbing per 10 feet out you were on the bridge to reach an archway. You can't climb while defending yourself from fundamentals. After d10+4 rounds, the last remnants of the bridge fall away into darkness. Realistically, you pretty much need to be able to fly to get out of this one. Tower 12 was the home of the Moilian Trader's Consortium and is now empty. Tower 13 has stuff!  This is the Tower of the Forsaken One, a tower that once housed the Orcus-worshipping clergy of Moil. They were the lawmakers in this chaotic city, and it was their cruel and arbitrary decrees that drove the population to rebel. They were the ones that called down the retribution of Orcus on the people of Moil, but I bet this isn't what they were hoping would happen! This tower is also inhabited by a spider, or at least a spider-adjacent creature. It's a darkweaver, a strange creature from one of the Planescape monstrous compendiums, and its web forms a maze of darkness the PCs must penetrate. Also, there's a real maze. Acererak likes mazes. Note that there are no windows above or below the one surviving level to allow access; that would be too easy. 13.1 is the entranceway. Unlike most of Moil's towers, this one has a surviving door of granite with a big Orcus-head etched on it. It is a nasty trap, but since at the time this adventure takes place Orcus is dead and powerless, it does nothing. Wiping frost from the door reveals a message: "Ware the weaver in her lair- D." Desatysso barely escaped this tower with his life and etched this warning in, and it should reassure PCs they're on the right track. 13.2 is a split where PCs can go straight or rightwards. Vision here is heavily impeded by the darkweaver's web. It is, in fact, 1/2 normal, even magical light or spells allowing darkvision. The strands of the web are partially made of shadow and recoil from light, but they are not solid enough to impede your progress. Travel 10 feet into the gloom, however, and things change: now the strands do not shy away from the light, but actively try to prevent your escape. Trying at this point to return to the entrance requires a saving throw vs. spell, and even if successful, you only retreat at half speed; failing a save means you must go deeper into the maze. A light spell produces no illumination but destroys a 10-foot cube of web, while continuous light fares only slightly better, destroying d6 such cubes. Very powerful light spells, like sunray, destroy 2d6 cubes. 13.3 is a dead end (the web allows you to retreat far enough to get back into the main body of the maze) containing two withered, drained humanoid corpses. Acererak knows that the darkweaver needs to eat and has his demons fetch it mortals every now and again. This is a pair of brothers who managed to flee this far from the darkweaver's lair before being overpowered and each bears one piercing wound (from the darkweaver's proboscis). 13.4 is where the webs start getting really thick and clingy. From here onward, all vision is one-quarter normal, and anyone attempting retreat from this point must save vs. spell or move deeper into the web in their confusion; even successful saves slow you until the darkweaver is slain. 13.5 has a little gap in the web where rests a statue of a man in a flowing robe with a long beard. Two pinpricks of light gleam under the hood, where the statue's eyes would be. You can pry out its gemstone eyes for 50gp each, but the real trick is the hands. They are cupped together as if offering or receiving something, and a plaque at the base says in Moilian "Quench the thirst of Golnar, and your reward will be great." Acererak has of course hosed with it; putting any liquid in the hands causes the statue to raise them to its mouth as if to drink, then to blow into its cupped hands, transforming the liquid into 8 map squares worth of poison gas. This is save vs. poison or die stuff, with d10 damage on a successful save, because of course it is. Every liquid has the same results. 13.6 is the darkweaver's lair.  Sup The web is so thick here that PCs must save vs. spell or be held as hold person. Even on a success they are slowed. The area is also as dark as a darkness spell. The darkweaver itself is a nasty foe that has confusion, sleep and suggestion powers, as well as a very good AC and 50% magic resistance. In shadow it can become invisible, make mirror images, teleport, make solid fog, a symbol of despair, shades and other nasty stuff. It can spin one 10' cube of web per turn and can spend multiple turns on the same cube to make it thicker. It has six tentacles and a proboscis. Good news: it is vulnerable to light, and powerful enough light spells not only damage it, they dispel its protection, reducing its AC and Magic Resistance to much more manageable levels. Killing it ends all outstanding slow and hold effects, as well as the omnipresent darkness. Doing so reveals that the ceiling has a lever of dark metal, currently pointing towards "-". The other setting is "+". Next to it is a plaque that says "This is the mechanism you seek. Permanent activation will not only achieve one of your goals, but set in motion events of great magnitude." Setting it to + and then returning it to - makes it light up green, indicating that a portcullis has been raised. Setting it to + and leaving it there makes a click, one round after which the floor, walls and ceiling of the chamber begin to shake wildly. A Wisdom check allows one PC to set the lever back, otherwise poo poo gets real. It's a Dex check every round to stay on your feet, with a full round and another Dex check to get up if you fall. Failing by 10 or more does d4 damage from falling debris. After nine rounds (the game notes that a PC with a movement rate of 12 who begins running immediately takes less than five rounds along the quickest route to escape), the whole tower crumbles into the abyss of the negative energy plane, along with anyone inside it. Good job. Next time: The Tower of Test! DAD LOST MY IPOD fucked around with this message at 22:27 on Sep 14, 2016 |
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Sep 14, 2016 22:02
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Return to the TOMB OF HORRORS Part 13: Face You My Trials Three! Here's the Moil map again, for reference. http://projects.inklesspen.com/fatal-and-friends/images/8ac72538e7e112fc6722effa5c9be075e438e7f90e152aa85da5d3f7897c3f5c.jpeg We last left off after the heroes had activated two of the switches they need to escape Moil: the riddle box in the wraithspider-webbed tower, and the lever in the darkweaver's lair. The next stop is Tower 14, the Tower of Test.  Moil was a potent city-state on its home plane, and part of that was its mighty standing army. The Moilians required their army to be constantly and rigorously tested, and so they devised this tower. It used to be the tallest tower of a complex series of keeps, barracks, armories, and all of the other elements that make up a great fortress; time, and Orcus's curse, has left only this small part remaining. The tower floors that Acererak has modified were once the testing ground for the Exalted Moilian Home Guard, or "exaltants," the army's elite. PCs are most likely to enter on the bottom level and proceed upward. 14.1 is the entryway. It has a sword, axe, fist and crossbow above the doorway, to give PCs a hint as to what kind of business went on here. Anyone who passes through the archway triggers an enchantment that causes war horns to sound: a proud martial bellow in the city's heyday, it is now a "lonely death knell." It also alerts Faericles that he has company, which... well, you'll see. 14.2 is a long, curving corridor with red and white checkered tiles on the floor showing martial scenes. The walls are covered in mounted human heads  , in case you forgot what kind of city Moil is. These are the remnants of those who challenged the Lord High Exaltant, the leader of the Exaltants, to a fight to the death for his spot-- the loser's head would be stuffed and mounted here, so each of the heads has a brass plaque with a Moilian name (Daelis, Goerdyn, Vaekreeth and Suedlow are given as examples). At 14.3, something unusual: Gus! Gustaeth was an unlucky challenger, and his head was mounted on the wall like the others. This head was animated by the Dark Intrusion and has some memory of its former existence. Gus doesn't know he was decapitated and thinks his body is trapped in the wall behind him. Acererak has promised Gus that he will come back to free him if Gus directs people to the first door of the Six Criterion, so that's what he does. He tells the party to enter the door to the south, then begs them to free him so he can feel the wind on his toes and flex his fingers.  oh, gus  If the PCs are dicks enough to convince Gus that he's a disembodied head, he loses the remains of his sanity and descends into screams and moans. Please don't be mean to Gus. The door he points PCs to is the entry to the series of six tests that prospective Exaltants had to face: the Six Criterion. Gus knows that Faericles was the last Lord High Exaltant, but assumes he's dead because he hasn't seen him in over a century. He'll tell the PCs what he knows about Acererak if they ask, which isn't much; Acererak came in the form of a winter-wight ("a skeleton encased in ice") and he saw Desatysso when the wizard passed through, though he's mad that the wizard wouldn't free him. He doesn't know that only five of the six tests are still functioning, either. Once the PCs are within 80 feet of the tower's central core-- ie, when they walk through the door, and thereafter-- no magical or psionic effect that allows special movement or travel ceases to work. No teleporting past the test, or flying through them, or phasing, or anything. 14.4 has a battered four-foot-long horn attached to a plaque. It's faintly blue-black and "speaks of pestilence and dread." The plaque labels it "Horn of an Astral Dreadnought," which it is, although failing to kill the beast when taking its horn ended up proving the doom of the trophy-taker. The Dark Intrusion has suffused it and made it very unpleasant to be around. Anyone within 5 feet of it must save vs. spells at -4 or suffer fear for 1d4 hours. Touching it (why would you do that?!) means you save vs. death magic or forget the events of the past day. Touching a magical item to it causes the item to save vs. disintegration or lose all its powers. If for some insane reason you carry it around, once every 24 hours a random magical item you hold must save vs. disintegration or lose all powers.  You got it, book. 14.5 has a plaque bearing a wriggling severed human hand, labeled "The Hand of Tyr." It is not actually Tyr's hand. It was put up as a joke after being severed from a "lowly criminal" who ended up plea bargaining from death down to dismemberment. "At the time, all who saw the hand got quite a chuckle." If you take it off the wall, it follows you around like a pet. You can graft it to a stub on an arm, and it will fuse and grant you 18/00 Strength-- for the 24 hours until it kills you. Anyways, moving on, we get to the first actual test: 14.6. This is the Test of Deftness, the Standing Spires. The room is full of 4-sided iron pillars placed incredibly close together in a thicket, though a path can be traced through them. The way they're arranged, knocking one over sets off the dominoes from hell as they all topple with a horrendous clanging crash. Many of them fall towards the walls and ceiling and scrape along them, so you can't simply go around. When the first PC makes it halfway through the room, the enchantment binding the pillars triggers, and they start to topple. Everyone in the room has to "jump, dodge, scoot or run" to clear a path before all of the pillars fall. This is three dex checks at -2, -4 and -6 respectively, and each failure results in 3d10 damage as you get squashed by a heavy iron pillar. Getting hit once also gives you an additional -2 on your next check, increasing the likelihood that you get bashed again. It takes one minute for all of the pillars to fall, and then after one week the room resets itself. 14.7 is the depressingly simple Test of Strength. The only exit from the empty room (besides where you came in) is covered by a panel of gleaming silver that is strangely empty of the otherwise everpresent frost. There's a handle at the bottom of the panel which is frozen solid in a block of ice. The panel itself is solid steel and heavily enchanted to resist magic. It opens by sliding up on a pair of vertical tracks. The surface itself is nearly frictionless, due to the same enchantment, so the ice can't accumulate on it. You can only open it by grabbing the handle and lifting. You have to chip away the ice first, then you need someone with 18 Strength at least; less than that won't work, but what else are we lugging Grunther around for? You can also batter it down; it has an AC of -2 and can take 80 points of damage, which must be from blunt or piercing weapons. Hope the Vestige doesn't catch on to what you're doing here. 14.8 is a wide room holding a wide variety of spheres in a dizzying array of colors, all descending from the ceiling on copper chains. This is the Test of Forbearance. Sharp eyes with good memory might be reminded of the TOMB OF HORRORS. There's no actual connection, but I hope it freaks PCs out. Each orb produces a single, clear tone; however, the tones were selected the create maximum discord. You hear them as a low hum when you enter. It starts off unpleasant, but with every foot someone progresses into the chamber, it gets louder... and louder... and louder... The room is 70 feet across. At 35 feet, the sound becomes actively dangerous. You have to test Constitution three times per round (ie once every 20 seconds) with -2 on the first check, -4 on the second, and -6 on all subsequent checks. You can only move at half your maximum due to the noise. Being deaf makes you immune, though a silence spell is not sufficient to block the noise. If you miss a check, you fall over, trying to block the noise. The DM should know where you are at this point, because you have a number of rounds equal to the Constitution divided by three to get out of the room, or you die of a brain hemorrhage. If you pass a Con check at -10, you can get back up and stagger out. PCs will likely need to help each other here; once you're out, one minute of rest sets you to rights. 14.9 is the Test of Intelligence. The far door is a sealed iron valve bearing a plaque with five small gemstones set in it. They pulse with light in a seemingly random fashion. The whole door is completely magicked against cheating, and will only open if you can pass the test. Watching the gems gives you a Wisdom check to notice that they flash in repeating patterns: one series of 20-30 flashes, a 30 second pause, then the same series again, then a 30 second pause, then a new sequence. Repeat. A rogue attempting to Find Traps finds that the gems can be depressed and will spring back into position. You've figured this out. You have to Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! Bop it! It takes three Int checks to follow the pattern, with each failure giving you a shock worth 2d4 damage. If you miss even one you miss the whole pattern and have to start over. Don't worry, you'll get it. Eventually. 14.10 is the Test of Logic... by GIANT SCYTHE! It's basically an Indiana Jones trap, with scything blades on thin wires oscillating back and forth along the staircase. They briefly part to let you through, then the space fills with sharp steel again. You must use patience and wit to figure out the safe path, which takes two Int checks and a Wis check. If you miss one, the next one is at -4, and then -8 if you fail again. For failing, you get hit with 1d4/2d4/4d4 blades doing 1d10 each. The book says a "lenient DM" may allow a player on the wrong path a chance to dodge each blade with a save vs. breath weapon at -3, but if you're a lenient GM, what the gently caress are your PCs doing here?!  how logical Once everyone's all cleaned up and bits have been reattached, then you can proceed to the... oh wait, that's five. You pass! Almost! The next room is 14.11, the Field of Glory, a mostly bare room with all kinds of weapons hung on the wall. This is where the Lord High Exaltant took challenges, which were always fights to the death with the challenger's choice of weaponry. PCs can find any mundane melee weapon they want here. They can also find Faericles, the last Lord High Exaltant, who suffered the fate of all the other Moilians: he died in his sleep. Acererak found that he had a use for Faericles and his martial prowess, and empowered him far beyond the normal Moilian zombie. Faericles spends his unlife endlessly practicing and "honing his martial arts and weapons kata"  . If he is forewarned by the war horn or the spheres, he will hide and spring out when the PCs arrive. He appears as a leathery-skinned human backlit with an eerie violet glow, which is part of the necromancy. He is surrounded by vapor that extends out about 20 feet, which is also his life-drain power's range. Acererak taught him common, so he can challenge the PCs, which he does: You don't have to fight him one on one, but he's not an idiot; a party of PCs vs. one uberzombie still doesn't favor the zombie. If you do pick a champion and Faericles wins, he'll admonish you to be on your way; if you win, you can proceed, though remember the next bridge is #11 (the collapsing bridge). Faericles is a buffed Moilian zombie, with a lower AC, better Thac0, more attacks, and the Blade Perilous, which I mentioned earlier. It's a +3 sword of wounding, but it's also an intelligent weapon with an ego of 31, that can communicate telepathically. It glows a ghastly red in the air and leaves a shimmering trail behind it, can detect invisible in a 10-foot radius (presumably whenever it wants), and three times per day it can entrance by being swung overhead at least twice. Anyone who fails a saving throw vs. spells at -3 must remain entranced for as long as the blade is swingin' plus 1d4+1 rounds. It can entrance up to three times the wielder's HD, which is 16x3=48 for Faericles. When fighting a warrior (fighter, ranger, paladin, etc.) if they're wounded by it, in addition to not being able to heal (as per normal for a sword of wounding), the enemy loses 2 HP per round (instead of the normal 1 for a sword of wounding) for 10 rounds. He also has all normal Moilian zombie powers. He's a fighter, though, so your magic-users will squish him, probably. The last chamber here is 14.12, the sanctum of Faericles. The center of the room has a 10-foot square mat with four violet glowing stones around it, one at each edge. Faericles spends 12 out of every 24 hours here, meditating on the mysteries of his art. The stones give off "necromantic radiation"  that animates Faericles. If you sit on his mat, you feel a sharp pain after one round, an unaccountable feeling of dread, and a strong desire to leave the mat. If you don't, the stones connect you directly to the Negative Energy Plane, sucking your life out and animating you simultaneously as a free-willed undead. This retains all of your stats and skills, except for paladins, who lose divine power and become fighters. You might not even realize what's happened to you!Eventually, you'll figure it out; you don't need to eat, rest or breathe, your heart doesn't beat, your skin takes on a waxy pallor, and other subtle hints. It ain't all roses: Wounds don't heal normally and healing magic hurts you, plus you can be turned. Acererak can also possess you whenever he wants if he achieves his Apotheosis, so you have more reason than anyone else to want to stop him! That's the tower. No switch in here, but you need to pass through it to get to Tower 15, which we'll deal with next time. Again, remember that the bridge that takes you there from Faericles's room is the one that collapses. Next time: Welcome to dreamland! DAD LOST MY IPOD fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Sep 19, 2016 |
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Sep 18, 2016 23:54
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Kavak posted:What's in the tower between 14 and 15? Shouldn't that be the Tower of Test based on the description? I think that's true and the map is just really poorly laid out.
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Sep 19, 2016 01:05
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wiegieman posted:Those undeadify stones seem a pretty solid deal for a wizard or anyone else with access to negative energy spells. Forget hunting down some other form of immortality, sell admission tickets. While you are in the Fortress of Conclusion (the next and last step of the trip) Acererak is stated to be able to freely inhabit and control the actions of any undead present. I have to assume this includes undead PCs, because otherwise you could cheese the hell out of this adventure by all going undead.
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Sep 19, 2016 01:34
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Robindaybird posted:Not to derail from Caster Supremacy, but wasn't Tomb of Horrors originally conceived as a convention game with the idea of seeing which PCs could make it the farthest? Yes, sort of, but this adventure was published years later and was meant to be a fully playable module. It was just trading on the infamy of the original Tomb. The advised character levels are 13-16, which means wizards can have up to 8th-level spells and priests up to 7. This includes favorites like gate, resurrection, polymorph any object, etc. The expected party that would undertake this adventure is very, very tough.
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Sep 19, 2016 17:23
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Return to the TOMB OF HORRORS part 14: It's The Red Ball! When we last left our heroes, they had defeated the might Faericles, passed his trials, and earned the right to die in a really bullshit way when a bridge collapsed. Of course, let's assume they got past that, because it's kind of embarrassing to make it this far and then fall to your death. Moil again: So. We're approaching Area 15. As a reminder, the PCs stole a key from a brine dragon, solved a riddle box in a wraithspider lair, defeated a darkweaver and pulled the lever in its lair, and are now seeking out the last switch/lever/whatever. Area 15 is the Dreaming Tower.  The Moilians were very big on dreams. They believed that dreams allowed them to see the past and future and across great distances, all kinds of great powers. They developed powerful drugs to promote lucid dreaming for their experiments. Of course, Orcus's curse delivered an ironic twist to their dream preoccupation; what he probably didn't foresee was that their work would have consequences that persisted after their deaths. You see, as the Moilians twisted in their cursed sleep, their dream consciousness melded and mutated, creating something terrible from their pain and fear and confusion. One by one they died and one by one their anguish fed this growing evil: the Vestige, that haunts the deserted towers of Moil to this day. The PCs have probably already met it once or twice, and wisely fled from it, but this is its very lair and any disturbance is sure to bring it with a quickness.  Let's talk a bit about the Vestige. To start with, it is basically mindless. It does not eat or sleep or collect treasure. It is extremely maneuverable, and can fly, though it is not particularly fast. Its AC is an unimpressive 10, though it has 20 HD with an impressive 100 HP. Its Thac0 is 3, which is pretty great; it'll rarely miss. The problem with fighting it is twofold. First, it is immune to drat near everything: it takes a +4 or better weapon to hit, and this being 2e, weapons lose pluses the farther they are from the plane where they were forged, so the chance your PCs have a weapon that can hit this thing is close to nil. Even if they do they only inflict damage equal to their bonus. It is completely immune to charm, hold, sleep, cold, poison and death magic. Magic it is not immune to, it has 90% magic resistance against. Lightning and fire deal only half damage. Protection from evil and similar spells keep it at bay... for 2d6 rounds, then it breaks through. Of course it cannot be turned. Second, it can make 1d12 attacks each round, each one doing 2d6 damage (and dissolving a portion of your flesh!) Anyone engulfed in its misty body must take an Int check each round or lose 1d4 int temporarily (get one back every 12 hours). Going to 0 kills you and absorbs your consciousness into the Vestige's, where only a carefully worded wish can restore you. It can sense sentience within 1000 feet and pursues it exclusively. Only an airtight seal can keep it out. It likes to sneak up on you along rooftops or the undersides of bridges. As it approaches, you feel a rising sense of dread; within 100 feet, you can hear the whispers, moans and laments of the Vestige's composite souls, even through a silence spell. Everyone who hears this must save vs. spells at -4 or suffer a -4 to all actions while in range due to immense fear. Fail by more than 4 and you flee in terror. Do NOT fight the Vestige. You will NOT win. No reasonably-leveled party of PCs can hope to take it on. Even a higher-level party would struggle. Your best chance is to flee; if you can get more than 1000 feet away, it loses you, and it's not particularly fast. The Dreaming Tower, however, is the one place where conflict is unavoidable. The Vestige "lives" here and, while it doesn't think, it won't ignore intruders in its "home." Area 15.1 is the entrance, the lintel of which is inscribed with a silver moon and a sprinkling of gemstone stars. They possess no special qualities, and inside the tower is dark and silent. Cross the threshold, and the vestige immediately becomes aware of it and beelines for the tower. 15.2 is the "lethargatorium." It has rows of beds and closed metal cupboards. This is where citizens would come for "dream therapy" with the "dream mystics." The cupboards contained materials for inducing a state of dreamy sleep. Each cabinet is locked but contains various soporifics, 10 per cabinet, in a variety of jars, bowls, vials etc. Using them on you induces unwakeable sleep for 1d10+1 hours. Each container has 4 doses, and taking more than 1 at once causes a saving through vs. poison at a cumulative -1 for additional doses. Failing the throw deals 2d10 per additional dose, passing deals 1d10 per additional dose. Don't OD on sleep drugs, kids. Needless to say they also put you out for much longer. One citizen died here and remains as a Moilian zombie. 15.3 is the store of "Lucidaphen," a special drug developed to induce lucid dreaming. The wooden door is still very well locked, apparently. Inside the room, cabinets are all toppled and smashed up. There are 30, of which 10 are smashed open and their contents destroyed. PCs can search the others and will eventually find one last unbroken vial of Lucidaphen. This stuff was highly addictive, and was considered a "fashionable addiction" in Moil. It contains 10 doses, marked by lines on the vial. The passage of time has not been kind to the lucidaphen. Each dose has a 30% chance to do nothing and a 20% chance to make you save vs. poison at -2 or die. If it works, you must fall asleep within an hour of taking it. If you do, you have complete control of your dream, plus a 75% chance of learning the answer to "some difficult puzzle," which will be revealed in a cryptic, symbolic dream. The DM can, if he or she wants, choose to make the drug send you The Nightmare Court from Ravenloft. Whoops! Each dose also has a 1 in 6 chance to be addictive. If you become addicted, you cannot get restful sleep without lucidaphen. You take a cumulative -1 on everything for each two days without sleep, and unless someone uses remove curse or heal (or similar spell) you'll die after two months. 15.4 is the Vestige's lair. It's a huge room with a giant hole in the stone floor. Through the gap, you can see the tower's support pillar, and a small platform attached to it about 30 feet down. If you get within 5' of the edge of the floor, you have a 50% chance to cause a break, which makes you save vs. breath weapon or topple into the gap and from there into the mists and the Negative Energy Plane. Every round you remain near the edge is a new check. 15.5 is the platform. It has little on it except a 3' tall stone dais bearing an hourglass filled with blue sand. The dais is inscribed with a message: "When the sand runs out, bring the glass about."  You can rotate the glass over, whereupon the sand begins to fall, but it will not turn back. Not for an hour, anyways. After one hour, you can turn it again, which produces a loud click as the last gate is opened. That's all it takes. The complication is the Vestige's territorial nature. The PCs have to wait for an hour... but the Vestige is comin', and it won't simply leave you alone to turn the hourglass over. Nor can you just turn it and flee to return later; the hourglass must be turned back within 1 turn of its sand running out. The Vestige arrives 1d4 turns after the hourglass is first flipped. It approaches from the south end of the tower, flowing up in 15.4's open window and then pouring out through the chasm like a waterfall of miserable murder ghost. The best hope at this point is to flee and lead it through the city. If someone enters the tower, the Vestige immediately heads there, breaking off pursuit if necessary; in this way it might be "tricked" long enough for the PCs to accomplish their goal. Good luck. I really like this "trap," since it's very natural and organic to the setting and requires creative thinking. It's very open-ended. It still won't beat the dispel magic runes in my mind for best trap, but it's nice. Next up: Blowing this popsicle stand!
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Sep 22, 2016 02:23
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wiegieman posted:And what, lasts 5 minutes before the Lady of Pain flays his soul-essence for a subjective eternity? There's a reason none of the gods try and get into Sigil. Nope. it's revealed that Vecna has been empowered by/manipulated by a pre-Power being called the Serpent which is the same kind of thing the Lady is, and acts as a counterweight to keep her from interfering.
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Sep 23, 2016 04:56
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Godly magic is nullified by the Spire, so gods actually present in Sigil are at greatly reduced power. Whatever the Lady is, she isn't subject to that restriction, so on her home turf she's more powerful than any deity.
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Sep 23, 2016 13:17
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Return to the TOMB OF HORRORS part 15: Going Negative The Moil map again: When we last left our heroes, they had escaped the dreaded Vestige with their minds (hopefully) mostly intact. They have flipped the three necessary switches and are ready to get the hell out of Moil. Where to next? Well… As I mentioned earlier, Acererak went to a great deal of trouble to set all this up. He is close to the apotheosis of his great plan (called The Apotheosis by the adventure) and is waiting on the last few pieces to fall into place. What he needs now are souls. Not just any souls, however. The souls he needs must be of surpassing value; great souls of powerful heroes. In other words, high-level PCs. In order to identify these souls Acererak set up the TOMB OF HORRORS and City as “filters” to simply kill off anyone who couldn’t hack it. The third and final “filter” is his true power base in the Negative Energy Plane: the Fortress of Conclusion. Reaching the Fortress is naturally difficult, because of the incredibly hostile nature of the Negative Energy Plane. Acererak has therefore set up a gateway that leads there at Area 16. Unlike the other towers, this is a construction that the lich added later; it’s a massive square spire made entirely of black ice. Powerful magic keeps it standing. It’s got a few traps, of course, because why wouldn’t it? A bridge leads to Area 16.1 of the Spire, but there’s no door into the interior. It’s not hollow at all. Instead, a very steep, very narrow staircase winds around the outside of the tower, going down into the darkness. Each complete circuit of the tower is 300 feet down, making it hard to see lower reaches of the staircase from above.  While on the Spire, all Dex checks are at an additional -2 due to the slippery ice. If you hit or get hit while on it in combat, you must take a Dex check (with a tiny +1 bonus, netting to -1) or fall over; if you’re on the stairs, this gives you a 50% chance of going over the edge, with attendant consequences. The ice can be melted, though it’ll magically regrow at 1 cubic foot/turn. 16.2 is merely the descent. This takes about an hour, and at some point a murder of negative fundamentals burst out and startle a character, who must roll for surprise, and if surprised must take a Wisdom check or jump backwards… and then a Dex check, with failure indicating a plunge into the darkness. The fundamentals of course attack, and there’s 2d10 of them. At the bottom of the staircase, the PCs find themselves just above the roiling mists that mark the border of Moil. There’s a wide landing (Area 16.3) with a 20’x20’ shaft bored into the side of the Spire. It’s the only way forward, so in we go! The tunnel is lined with jackal-headed ice sculptures reminiscent of figures within the original TOMB OF HORRORS. No doubt your PCs will look upon them with suspicion, but these really are just harmless statues. Acererak likes to gently caress with people.  16.4 is, of course, a trap. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all filled with Moilian zombies frozen in place; their faint moaning and screaming can be heard by approaching PCs. Stepping into the corridor puts you in range of their life-drain ability, and since there are about 30 feet worth of zombies, it’s a bit of a gauntlet. To stop you from just running headlong through, the last 20 feet of the corridor are trapped. The ice is very thin and more than 20 pounds of weight will break it. Stepping on it will shatter it and send you plunging through! In one of the most gratuitous examples of dickishness in the book, you can check Dex (with the -2 penalty) to grab on to the edge as you fall, but even if you do the edge breaks off and you fall anyways. The drop is 40 feet into a pit full of razor sharp icicles, with 4d6 falling damage plus 1d6+5 from the spikes. The bottom 20 feet of the pit also has a bunch more Moilian zombies frozen into its walls, so sitting down there puts you in range of their life leech—except for a 2’x2’ square in the exact center. The ice will gradually regrow if broken, and PCs can free the zombies if they want (but why?!). We all know how much Acererak likes pit traps. Assuming the PCs get out of this one, they reach the end of the zombie gauntlet to find a concave depression in the far wall at area 16.5, with a 4-foot diameter shaft bored into it. It slopes away at 45 degrees, and the entrance is ringed with carvings of a ring of snakes writhing around each other. Their eyes gleam like living snakes, and coming within 20’ of the wall causes them to animate. They can’t get away from the wall but they’ll writhe and twist as though alive. If you get within 3’ of the wall they’ll attack you, 1d6+3 at a time, doing 1d4 damage each and injecting a paralytic venom. Fire attacks inflict double damage to these ice snakes but are a particularly bad idea. A fireball will collapse the last 60 feet of the tunnel, burying PCs under tons of ice for 10d10+10 damage. The heat also fuses the ice into a solid mass which takes a weak to naturally regenerate enough to allow passage. You can kill the snakes normally (there are 40) or just dive past them hoping to avoid their attacks; they can’t follow you into the shaft. Shockingly it is not trapped. The slide dumps you out at 16.6, a slick and narrow platform inside the Spire. If you just dove stupidly into the slide you deserve what happens to you: a short trip over the edge into oblivion. If you actually slowed your descent with ropes, anchors etc. you are fine. If you didn’t you can try to arrest your descent by smashing something handheld into the ice, which takes an attack roll against an AC of 2. Any hit stops you. Once stopped, you can help someone else stop themselves, giving them a +2 to their attack roll, but if they miss you BOTH slide away and get one last chance each. Also, there’s a winter-wight on the platform. It’s a jerk, and if you’re hanging on to an anchor or clinging by your fingertips, it’ll stomp on your hands, kick out your lifelines etc. It’ll try to grapple you and throw you into the abyss. Also, being grappled by the thing sets you on blackfire. Once it’s dead, you can get your footing and look across the Last Chasm, the yawning gap that leads to the Negative Energy Plane. You need to either scale the walls somehow or fly to get to 16.7, a 30x30 foot landing. There are three sets of bars here sealing off a door-sized opening: one red, one blue, one green. They glow with a light that does nothing to dispel the shadows that pool in the chamber beyond. Observant PCs can spot movement beyond the bars: two black tentacles, a pair of massive wings, and a broad back are dimly visible through the gloom. Above the door is another message from Acererak. “When the bars fall away The flyer stands revealed. It can bring you my way, By the route once concealed.” The three switches the PCs hit earlier each retract one portcullis, so if they came here in the correct “order” then they can just walk right through. The door leads to a holding cell of sorts, and one that is very well protected by magic: nothing short of a wish will get rid of a set of bars, and it’ll take a separate wish for each one. You can’t teleport in or out, and tunneling does nothing; the cell is in a pocket dimension, and approaching it from any direction other than the proper one gets you nothing but solid ice. Past the three sets of bars is a specialized kind of golem: a Phantom Flyer. It’s manacled to the wall with golden manacles that only unlock with the key from the brine dragon’s hoard. A Phantom Flyer is, despite its horrific appearance, a harmless creature: it is massive, larger than an elephant, and exists to carry up to 10 people to a set destination. Acererak has enchanted this one to provide an envelope of survivable atmosphere around itself to let its passengers survive in hostile environments, and to find its way across the planar boundaries from Moil to the Negative Energy Plane and, in fact, to the doorstep of his Fortress of Conclusion. Freeing it causes it to move out beside the platform, unfurl its wings, and kneel down as if awaiting riders. It cannot communicate but will obey instructions to grab anything the PCs want to load up. When they order it to leave (anything from “go” to “take us to Acererak!”) it will dive into the mists and wing our party straight to the Fortress.  Next time: The beginning of the Conclusion
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Sep 27, 2016 20:16
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Kavak posted:It's been years since the review started. What's our motivation for charging into Acererak's Lair? Stopping the Dark Intrusion or whatsit? There's a number of hooks at the start, mostly related to the Intrusion, but really I think it's Monte Cook's standard hook "once the PCs see something's up they'll really, really want to know what."
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Sep 27, 2016 23:55
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