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   Although the Midgard Heroes' Handbook and the Midgard Player's Guide each cover nearly 200 pages worth of material for 5th Edition and Pathfinder respectively, that hasn't prevented the Worldbook from providing new mechanics. Ordinarily the two appendices are split into their own entries, but to avoid repeating myself I figured to cover them both in one sitting. In some cases there are mechanics found only in one version (usually 5th Edition). I assume that this is because existing material is in the other system already, such as the Lust domain which already exists in Pathfinder. For ease of use, (5e) stands for 5th Edition D&D, while (PF) stands for Pathfinder. Character Options  Gnoll Caravan Raider is a background (5e) and is exactly what it says on the tin: it provides proficiency in Acrobatics, Intimidation, Alchemist's tools, and nomadic gear along with the Feature where you have advantage on sifting through and appraising trade goods. In Pathfinder gnolls get two new archetypes: Havoc Runner for Fighters, and Caravan Raider for Rogues. The Havoc Runner has some mobility-based features where you gain increased speed when you move, and you can impose penalty on attack rolls and movement speed to people you hit while running. The Caravan Raider has some bonus feats, but its signature feature is a Shock Bag which is a limited-use-per-day item generator which can replicate an alchemical weapon. We also have a pair of new Rogue Talents (PF) which increase the damage values and save DCs of alchemical weapons, which work great with multiclass Alchemist builds. Paladins get a new Sacred Oath (5e) of the Giving Grave which is all about transcending the mortal coil. It grants some new blood-themed spells as well as more familiar necromancy spells such as animate dead. Its Channel Divinity can compel undead to attack who you want or stun a target for one minute until it takes damage. Its other class features include granting turn immunity to yourself and allies, gain regeneration when below half your hit points, and as a 20th level capstone you resurrect as a death knight if slain. The new Lust Domain (5e/PF) in 5th Edition is possessed by Bastet, Freyr and Freyja, Marena, and Bacchos. It focuses on enchantment spells, grants proficiency in one of Deception/Performance/Persuasion, and its Lustful Gaze channel divinity is a single-target debuff which impacts perception related abilities and at 17th level can obey your verbal commands. In (PF) the already-existing domain has replacement powers akin to a bard's fascination or enthrall abilities. The Hunger Domain (PF) is exclusive to Vardesain and grants the cleric a rounds-per-day bite attack along with feast of ashes as a spell-like ability (which can starve people). Its domain spells are predictably related to food and water creation, buffs usually in the form of bite attacks, and debuffs like energy drain and a new spell Ravenous Hunger (which forces an affected creature to drop what it's doing and eat something nearby). The Serophage Sorcerous Origin (5e) is all about the dark powers of the blood. It includes reduced damage from bludgeoning weapons, the ability to regain sorcery points or add +1/+2 to save DCs (based on level) if you deal 1d4 slashing damage to yourself, and the ability to form a ring of blood from a recently killed creature to absorb incoming attacks or be launched at foes as a weapon. Its greatest feature at 18th level forcefully exsanguinates blood from nearby creatures to restore your own HP or sorcery points. Wizards get a lot of fun here. They have a School of Blood Magic (5e) where they gain learn the memories of a creature whose blood they drink, and absorb poisons and diseases from other creatures into their own body...and can launch it at others as a ranged spit attack! The School of Void Magic (5e) revolves around the alien nature of the Void, where speaking the dread language as part of a verbal component can impose disadvantage to an affected target's next roll, and other features the ability to impose necrotic damage as a per-long-rest ability, and at 14th level can manifest a 20 cubic feet of darkness which imposes necrotic damage and disadvantage on Wisdom checks. Finally, the Void Savant (PF) is virtually the same as the School of Void Magic, save that they gain free Extend Spell metamgic feat a limited number of uses per day. Occultists (PF) can play around with void magic in the form of new Implements, focus powers, etc. As I never got into Occult Adventures, I cannot really comment on this in an educated way on the base class' powers. Their implements can impose madness debuffs, create a warped major image as a Base Focus Power, and various dark magic related Focus Powers like turning into an aberrant alien form, summoning creepy creatures, devouring spells and souls, and free divinations from violent sacrifice. We have a pair of new feats (PF): the first is the metamagic feat Strengthen Caster where you restore HP equal to twice the level of a cast spell, while Rush of Magic grants a free bull rush using your caster level and spellcasting score on all those affected by an elemental damage spell (acid/cold/fire/electricity). Yes, this applies to area of effect spells for multiple targets, the feat states as such. Nonmagical Items (5e) presents five new pieces of gear, most focused on the cultures of the Rothenian Plains. The Centaur Lance is a super-spear which does double the normal damage as a regular spear and provides advantage against mounted enemies. The Kariv Wheel Shield can be used as both a shield and wagon wheel which act as a +3 AC shield (but needs STR 16 or disadvantage on DEX checks due to bulkiness) or if used on a vehicle grants it bonus AC and HP. The Khazzaki Trick-Bow is meant to be used to show off in archery competitions, with half the range of a shortbow yet grants advantage on Charisma (Performance) checks for archery-based endeavors. The Rothenian Spice Kit can be used to brew food during rests to regain one additional hit die with a DC 5 Intelligence check by the cook. Finally the whip-sash is an unassuming Kariv weapon disguised as a normal piece of clothing but can be turned into a whip with a bonus action. Drugs & Poisons (5e/PF) details Requiem, a drug which allows you the ability to cast the speak with dead spell, but with risk of poison damage (5e) or suffering nonlethal damage and penalties on d20 rolls (PF). It can be imbibed as clay to smoke, or smoked in a more powerful form known as bliss which grants contact other plane or speak with dead, save the spirit cannot lie to you. We get a 5th Edition-exclusive poison known as ghoul saliva paste which can cause paralysis on a failed Constitution save, but is very smelly and as such it's hard to sneak up on creatures with Keen Smell trait while carrying it. We have a new vehicle in the form of a Siwali Dune Ship. In 5th Edition you merely add +25% to the base cost of a ship so it can travel on desert sands; it is not in the Appendix proper but in the Southlands chapter. In Pathfinder it's listed as a vehicle in the Appendix, and provides a full stat block for a Colossal multi-purpose desert and water vehicle: it's 12,500 GP to buy and requires longstrider and pass without trace spells for its creation. A rather reasonable price for a magic item of that kind; nonmagical fortresses are 50,000 GP. Magical Items There's quite a bit of magic items here, 23 typical ones and 2 artifacts to be precise. But only half of them are dual-statted for both Pathfinder. I'm not going to repeat them all, just the more interesting ones. The Black Phial (5e) can provide the effect of a Potion of Greater Healing if filled with fresh blood, but this is limited use item. Blood Mark (5e) is an appropriately creepy coin, as a person can fuel its charges with their own blood, and another person can "fulfill the pledge" to restore their HP at the expense of dealing damage to the original donor. The Keffiyeh of Serendipitous Escape (5e/PF) can be worn as a head garment but also laid out into a flying carpet. The Key of Veles (5e/PF) can be used to locate a ley line or shadow road and open the latter by expending a charge. Memory Philters (5e/PF) are favorites of the shadow fey: they impose various emotion-related buffs and debuffs to the drinker, but their creation requires a mortal to sacrifice knowledge of an appropriate memory (memory of failure or embarassment for shame potion, a nice childhood memory for a joy potion, etc). A Nullifier's Lexicon (5e) allows you to communicate in Void Speech and grants the ability to cast certain spells from its pages, but successive castings deal a cumulative 1d6 necrotic damage whose damage value only resets during long rests. The tome can also rearrange reality to your will once a week. The Staff of the First Labyrinth (5e/PF) is a creation from the days of the Moon Kingdom and can banish stricken opponents to an extradimensional maze for a limited time. Our two artifacts are And'Ducyr (5e), the Khazzaki Khan's legendary longbow which generates its own ammunition, grants truesight to one who draws its string (but deals damage if you don't fire it at a creature within your turn), can fire blinding arrows, and grants advantage and proficiency on Charisma and Intimidation/Persuasion/Performance skills respectively. The Spark of Kjord (5e/PF) is a formless power of divinity which was last possessed by a priest of Mavros before his death at the hands of vampires. It grants advantage/bonuses on Charisma checks to rally people to your cause and deals bonus/radiant damage to undead creatures along with the effects of the bless spell. The spark leaves you to inhabit another creature if you die or waver in your convictions against fighting vampiric tyranny. Fun Fact: the Spark of Kjord is a reference to the divine sparks in the Southlands Campaign Setting. Such things were stored ephemeral energy of the mighty titans of Glorious Umbuso. They were meant to be found as rare treasure, usually in a king's vault or well-guarded dungeon, and in game purposes granted the powers of Mythic Tiers. Alternate Magic This details new magic sub-systems. The first we have is Blood Magic (5e) which was created by the evil wizard Taergash the Bloodpurger. His spells are highly sought after by wicked mages of all kinds, and the book cautions against granting these spells to PCs on account that they are "evil options" not suitable for most parties. Red Portal Magic (5e/PF) meanwhile is is a unique form of extradimensional transportation which connects not only to shadow roads but other planes, times, and alternate realities which the book calls out as being possibly other published campaign settings. It has no game mechanics beyond suggestions on their use and the most well-known red portal locations in Midgard. Shadow Magic (5e/PF) is fully detailed in the Midgard Heroes' Handbook/Player's Guide, but for now we get notes on Shadow Corruption: it's basically a debilitative condition gained from spending a long time in the Shadow Realm, pacts with dark beings, etc and is represented in six stages. Lower stages involve minor debuffs in bright light and social penalties, but later stages make you blind/sickened/etc in light until you eventually become a Shadow Thrall. Those unfortunate souls are maddened people obsessed with the Shadow Realm and can be commanded by creatures of shadow. Void Magic (5e/PF) gets a pretty lengthy entry here. Long story short, it's Lovecraftian magic gleaned from aboleth glyphs, but can also come from the howling denizens in the dark spaces between the stars. For 5th Edition we get a pair of feats for Void Magic: Void Channeler which ups the DC for speaking the language to 8 + proficiency bonus + Charisma modifier for its frightened effect and is no longer limited to just hearing it for the first time. The limiting factor is that you take necrotic damage if you use it too often between rests. Void Scribe lets you inscribe a glyph on an object to make it vulnerable to and take necrotic damage the round after. As far as the feats go, Void Channeler's quite good for the debuff effect of frighten, whereas Void Scribe is rather weak. We get discussion of Void Taint, which usually comes from exposure to related magic, monsters, and terrain poisoned by the powers of the Void. It is resisted with a save appropriate to the method of taint, and people with void-related archetypes and feats have advantage on the saving throws. Failure causes affliction with a short-term madness. Further Void-related maladies can make madness effects last longer or gain physical deformities based on a numeric threshold known as Void Taint. The madness effects are generally role-play focused obsessions, but the deformities have mechanical effects: they are generally a double-edged sword, such as constantly producing slime on your skin which grants advantage on checks to slip out of bonds, but advantage on checks for other people to track you. Spells  The final section of the twin appendices do not disappoint. We have 77 new spells for 5th Edition, and about half that amount for Pathfinder. For new magical types, we also have [blood] and [void] descriptors for both 5th Edition and Pathfinder entries. While you'd think that 5th Edition would get most of the exclusive spells, interestingly there are are several Pathfinder-specific options. Two of them are incantations handled as rituals: Incantation of Fealty Given Form (geas/quest to the Duchy), and Incantation of Walking the Shadow Roads (go through a shadow road). Other Pathfinder specific spells include Essence of Instability (radiate an invisible damaging aura), Grasping Water (water sprouts attacking pseudopods), and Halt Vessel (prevents seacraft from moving). Like the magic item section, I will not cover them all. Instead I'll focus on the most interesting ones. Alone (5e/PF) is an enchantment spell which fools the target into thinking its allies vanished to another realm; this prevents them from interacting and gaining teamwork-related abilities and treats them as if they were invisible and silent. Blood & Steel (5e) allows you to charm a construct by pressing your own blood into a handprint on it. Conjure Undead (5e) lets you summon a shadow to do your bidding, but higher spell slots let you summon stronger undead such as wights or ghosts. Conjure/Summon Minor Voidborn (PF/5e) and Conjure/Summon Voidborn (PF/5e) summon an aberration or outsider of a relative power level, and in 5th Edition expending higher level slots lets you summon them in greater numbers. Doom of the Slippery Rogue (5e) covers a 20 by 20 foot section of wall or floor with bacon fat and can cause people to slip or fail on a failed Dexterity save or Strength (Athletics) depending on circumstances. Find Kin (5e) is a low-level ritual which allows you to learn the identity and general location of a random living blood relative of the target. Hobble Mount (5e) deals 2d6 bludgeoning damage (plus 2d6 per slot over 1st level) to a mounted creature which moves more than half its normal movement speed in a round. Ice Soldiers (5e/PF) creates one or more humanoid constructs made from freezing water poured out of a vial, which has respectable statistics for a melee-focused creature. Mammon's Due (5e) summons a burning figure of ash to grab and deal fire damage to creatures in its space to pull them underneath the ground. Open Red Portal (5e/PF) can create a two-way portal on a nearby Shadow Road to take you anywhere in Midgard in the present day, up to 1,000 years in the past, or another plane of existence. Void Rift (5e/PF) opens up a rift into absolute nothingness akin to a black hole, forcefully dragging creatures within the area of effect, deals damage, and either treats them as blind and deaf (5e) or begin to suffocate from lack of air (PF). Also the Lust Domain for 5th Edition has 3 new spells specific to that ruleset. Throes of Ecstasy causes a target to be overcome with sexual euphoria, is incapacitated, auto-fails Wisdom saves for the duration, and suffers 1 to 3 levels of exhaustion based on how long the spell lasted. Lovesick is akin to confusion in that you roll a 1d10 for random behavior: do nothing and sulk like a lovelorn teenager, burst into tears and take the Dash action in a random direction, fly into a jealous rage and attack a random creature, etc. Finally, Kiss of the Succubus can only be used on a charmed creature or one affected by your Lustful Gaze Channel Divinity: it deals 5d10 psychic damage on a failed Constitution save and reduces the victim's HP maximum by that amount until a long rest (or kills them instantly if their HP max is reduced to 0). Thoughts So Far: There's quite a wealth of material in both appendices, especially for spellcasters. I have to wonder how many of the 5th Edition specific material already exists in a Pathfinder book, on account that most Midgard books have been published for that ruleset. If most of them don't exist in earlier products, I can't help but feel that Pathfinder players are getting the short end of the stick here. Some of the abilities seemed to have questionable balance: the Kariv Wheel shield when combined with heavy armor and magical enhancements can push one's AC beyond bounded accuracy thresholds, the Serophage's boost to spell DC is a great deal for just a little bit of damage, and the Throes of Ecstasy is a great setup for a followup Wisdom-save effect...presuming your gaming group would be comfortable with having you cast that spell, as it's technically sexual assault if done against an unwilling creature. As for what I liked: I found that the Oath of the Grave paladin makes for a pretty good martial necromancer archetype. The Rothenian Spice Kit brings back fuzzy memories of Final Fantasy XV's camping mechanic. The memory philters and the methods of their creation were thematically awesome. The Red Portals have great potential for multi-campaign crossovers or "guy sucked from modern world into fantasy realm" adventure ideas. Requiem's dead-speaking properties make it both a useful resource for players, as well as creating an insidious effect for addicts desperate to speak to loved ones as a social scourge. Concluding Thoughts My feelings for Midgard remain just as strong as they were when I first picked the book up six years ago, albeit perhaps with a more critical eye on its problematic elements. Still, the 2018 Worldbook is a worthy successor for fans and newcomers alike. There are very few settings out there like it: it calls upon fairy tale and folkloric elements without taking a stereotypical "kid-friendly" route, it has a diverse kitchen-sink world which feels naturally connected and not disparately crammed together, and its relative rules-neutrality but with system-specific booklets makes it accessible to gamers of various fantasy RPGs. Between this and Northlands, I am probably going to take an extended hiatus from writing Let's Reads for the time being. But I hope that I demonstrated to readers the strengths of Wolfgang Baur's long-running passion project, and hope that you all enjoyed reading this review as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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May 19, 2018 07:26
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Mors Rattus posted:7th Sea 2: Lands of Gold and Fire - In Which The Barbary Pirates Are Cited As An Inspiration I feel this is a strong reference to Chefcaouen, an actual all-blue city in Morocco. It's super-beautiful, too:  
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Jul 8, 2018 23:37
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I also have to wonder how a Nazified USA would come off to non-Communist Europe as well, who also saw the horrors of that ideology on their home turf. And also for Israel, given that they pretty much survive on American aid. There was an IRC interview with the creator, where he mentioned that the point of historical divergence was around the 1960s, where Joseph McCarthy got away with his witch hunts and was not disgraced. White Coke posted:If the leftists are numerically inferior to the other resistance groups I could see this being balanced, but once they've got special forces training them and weapon shipments I don't see the other groups standing much of a chance against them, especially because the other groups all seem like they'd be competing with each other for members. From the KickStarter March update, the anarcho-capitalist businessmen Resistance faction has lots of money and assets, which they can probably make up for by manufacturing their own firepower. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 04:01 on Jul 26, 2018 |
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Jul 26, 2018 03:59
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Hostile V posted:
Is the bolded part your words or inside the book? It sounds like "inherited the trappings" implies that it's just window dressing, but the whole concentration camps and continual hatred of (((degenerates subversives))) is the core of fascism as well as the trappings. From my initial impressions the Regime are fascists of the overt Hitlerian kind. In the sample pages on Drive-Thru RPG one of them portrays a middle-class family giving the Nazi salute to a television screen:  From the last post SIGMATA reads more like US Red Scare fears cranked up to 11, but no Man in the High Castle style Nazi Parties getting in power or how The Jewish Question came back in vogue; it sounds like SIGMATA's America still has a two-party system, albeit with the Democrats weak and ineffectual. The modern era and our President calling Charlottesville protestors "very fine people" is more a very recent culmination of white nationalism that's been bubbling under the surface since the Southern Strategy, but the whole McCarthy-Nazi pipeline feels a bit far-fetched without more explanation. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 04:45 on Jul 31, 2018 |
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Jul 31, 2018 04:41
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PurpleXVI posted:There's also the issue that like... "Arabic slavery" and "American slavery" remain kind of harsh in people's minds, while other kinds of slavery, like the Romans, Egyptians... I forget if the Greeks practiced it much... have been kind of romanticized to an extent. "Oh, but Egyptian slavery wasn't so bad because the slaves had all sorts of rights!" Probably partially because of how it's been portrayed in the sort of media that nerds consume(like Small Gods by Pratchett). So ancient era white-on-white(and yes a lot of people's mental images of ancient Egyptians is really just gonna be white people with a tan and better jawlines) slavery is, in a lot of people's minds, just an alternate-but-acceptable method of government. This isn't solely Arabic and more a broader perception of the Muslim world, but there's been a recurring literary theme of "Orientalist" artwork and fiction portraying concubines in imperial harems living luxurious lives half-naked and such. There has been a gradual turn away from this though, especially among Western right-wingers who now view said countries' immigrants being in on a plot to destroy the white race. But for the pre-9/11 decades it was definitely a thing. I think since most tabletop gamers are from the US, race-based chattel slavery of dark-skinned people hits really close to home and thus feels more controversial than what went on in distant countries.
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Jul 31, 2018 20:09
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Night10194 posted:There was an extremely detailed takedown of why it's a pile of heresy and evil that helped get me into religious studies when I was in college. That was my main experience with the series; I never bothered to read the actual books themselves because, well, terrible stories AND evil. Was it Fred Clark's Slacktivist blog? Dude was a devout Christian but hated what the Evangelical Right turned into and did a long-term Let's Read analysis of the series. I discovered the existence of Left Behind through him, actually. That, and TV Tropes.
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Oct 22, 2018 08:27
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 Hard to believe it’s been half a year since my last Let’s Read, but here I am back in the swing of things! Like my last two projects, I chose a book of which I am passionate about : the Southlands Campaign Setting. The Southlands is a sort of “setting expansion” to Kobold Press’ Midgard: a thematic blend of Ancient Egypt, the Arabian Nights, and various fantasy counterpart sub-Saharan African kingdoms ranging from antiquity to the Early Modern period. There are also some pulpy tropes such as lost temples of prior civilizations, but is thankfully absent of “evil primitive natives to kill and loot” trope. The Southlands began as a KickStarter in late 2014 and soon grew to be one of the most-backed crowdfunded Pathfinder books with nearly $100k raised. At times it ranked as one of the most popular Pathfinder settings by Drive-Thru RPG sales figures for years, usually eclipsed only by the main Midgard Setting, Ponyfinder, and some other hot sourcebooks of the month. It is one of the few d20 products which goes for a Fantasy Africa vibe as a central setting, and its high production values combined with comprehensive research on the writers’ part make it a unique gem shining among 3rd party worlds. Note:The Southlands Campaign Setting, unlike the Midgard Worldbook, is exclusively Pathfinder in its mechanics, but several supplements such as Southlands Heroes and a few adventure serials imported material from it to 5th Edition. For those familiar with my last review I should also note that its publication was 3 years before the Worldbook which updated the Midgard setting by 10 years. Thus, certain details such as the Nurian alliance with the Seven Cities against the Mharoti have not yet been undertaken. Welcome to the Southlands  The Southlands’ prologue opens up with Seven Secrets of the Southlands in a similar vein to the Midgard Worldbook: important setting elements which emphasize what to expect from the land and what makes it different from other settings on the market. [LIST=1] [*]A Vast Continent: The Southlands is a huge landmass well over 2,000 miles long from north to south. The continent teems with all manner of forbidding lands, diverse nations and city-states, and lost legacies of prior civilizations. Long-term journeys matter even more than the destination. [*]Land of Endless Actions: The Southlands hews more for a pulpy adventure and Fantasy Africa feel in contrast to Midgard’s traditional Ye Old Medieval fantasy. Emphasis is placed on lost wonders, secret conspiracies plotting against each other, and fast-paced action and plot twists. [*]Ancient Powers: The Southlands is home to larger-than-life entities of godlike power who shaped the fate and reach of civilizations. Three of note are highly detailed: the former titan empire of Glorious Umboso which once ruled the majority of the continent; the still-living Wind Lords who hold dominion over most of the northern deserts; and the living gods of Nuria Natal who regularly physically manifest and meddle in the affairs of their mortal subjects. [*]Divine Sparks for the Taking: Not even the divine lasts forever, but their legacies persist in the annals of history. Gods, titans, and other supreme beings have an internal force known as a “spark” which normally dissipates upon their death. But sometimes it lingers on, sealed in sacred vessels or tombs or even claimed by beings seeking great power. [*]New Cultures and Altered Races: The Southlands is in the same realm as Midgard, and includes a few of said setting’s races such as minotaur and ravenfolk albeit with altered cultural mores. For example, ravenfolk are often associated with the Nurian gods Horus. But aside from humans and dwarves, the “traditional” fantasy races are done away with in favor of five playable new ones along with minor regional races. [*]History Reborn: The Southlands is ancient, having gone through numerous empires and dynasties which rarely remain buried in the past. From mummified god-kings who raise from the dead to defend their nation to discovered relics, the past affects the present in ways both metaphorical and literal. [*]Unfolding Plots and Expanding Conflicts: The cultures and nations of the Southlands are rarely stagnant, and even old kingdoms’ borders can shift from invasions, raids, and politicking. Bandits and cults are lower-scale yet just as dangerous, whose evil designs can spell doom to communities. [/LIST] I feel that a few of these points aren’t exactly novel or unique, but I do particularly enjoy the concept of divine sparks (which actually have game mechanics by using the Mythic Adventures system) as well as the overall avoidance of simply replicating the dwarf/elf/etc fantasy races whole-cloth. A Brief History  Even the canniest scribes and blessed scholars can only compile a fraction of the Southlands’ history which stretches back to time immemorial. The sands of past eras eroded the legacies of many rulers to the point that they’re mentioned only as footnotes in papyrus scrolls and oral folklore. Fact turns into legend and rumors, and conquering kingdoms rewrite history to glorify themselves. Even so, there are a few grand nations and events which are remembered thousands of years later. This section of the introduction is peculiar. Instead of a linear progression of years, the text is organized by local cultures and the rise and fall of specific kingdoms. While I suppose it can be good for condensing relevant information for said realms, it is a bit jarring and even the longer-lived nations such as Nuria Natal jump around in places. There’s one entry of the rise of Morreg 1,500 years ago; after that we get the Moon Kingdom which rose 450 years ago; then we jump back to 1,100 years ago to cover how a pair of nomad nations rose from scattered tribes to repel Morreg’s incursions. I’m going to opt for a different approach, where I try to adhere to a more linear timeline. What follows is a condensed history of the Southlands. Around the dawn of creation the giant Aurgelmir’s breath transformed into the four Wind Lords. Said spirits sought to avoid the war between gods and giants, retreating to the newly created plateaus and deserts of the mortal realm. After Wotan and the first gods triumphed over the giants, the defeated remnant titans retreated into far-off lands and founded an empire in the southern continent known as Glorious Umboso. Their civilization sparked many wonders and advances in art, lore, and magic and were worshiped as gods by less-powerful mortals. Alongside Glorious Umboso rose the kingdom of Nuria Natal, where a dynasty of mage-families discovered a powerful ley line within the river that would become the nation’s namesake. Although its borders shifted greatly, the river kingdom survived to the present day with the aid of mummified god-kings of prior generations, ready to wake during times of greatest need. 3,000 years ago the island kingdom of Ankeshel slipped beneath the waves, causing fleeing refugees to make their way to the Southlands’ northern deserts. They intermarried among the indigenous people and would later become known as the Tamasheq. The titans of Glorious Umboso were afflicted with a terrible magical plague which plunged entire cities into madness. No amount of magical or natural healing could halt its progress, so in a desperate bid to preserve their legacy they imparted bits of their divine sparks to trusted mortals. They charged said mortals to act as caretakers for their empire until they recovered. A few titans took shelter among the sea god Nethus, but most sadly destroyed their civilization in an orgy of chaos and violence. The titans’ former core territory became known as the Abandoned Lands, with uncontrolled magic from altered ley lines spilling out into the world and warping flora and fauna. Although they did not intend to be such, the Wind Lords would soon earn their name as political leaders of the Ankeshelian refugees. The four Wind Lords debated how to handle this, and three of them agreed to accept them within their lands. The dissenting voice, Boreas the Northern Wind, viewed this as an invasion and assaulted the refugees with freezing storms and attacks by his elemental minions. The Southern, Eastern, and Western Winds were disgusted by this cruelty and made war against Boreas, driving their bloodthirsty brother out of the Southlands to Midgard’s far north. Some disciples of the titans founded city-states among the Southlands’ western coast about 1,500 years ago. The mightiest two were Morreg and Lignas. Lignas was a metropolis of learning, with compiled lore making their scholars prized by far-off kings who sought the best advisers. Morreg was a more militaristic city whose warriors seized territory all along the coast, turning their humble beginnings into a self-designated Enlightened Empire. Lignas, with its mighty arcanists and theurges, was the only realm which could repel them for an extended period but even they were sacked in time. Alas Morreg’s reign would fall, not at the hands of an outside power by by its own mad Prince Agajay. Their leader's seduction by the teachings of an evil god plunged Morreg into ruinously expensive military campaigns and broke his empire into scattered warbands. Mutual defense pacts forged by far-flung tribes fearful of Morreg’s powers turned the Cattle Queens of Terrotu and the Zulu-like Narumbeki Legions into veritable forces. Lignas regained its independence, and after suing for peace Morreg entered a long period of decline. In the following generations the Southlands saw the rise and fall of other civilizations. The maritime minotaurs founded a Carthage-like Moon Kingdom 450 years ago before the Mharoti Empire razed its cities. 400 years ago the druids of Kush accidentally summoned an eldritch abomination known as the Green Walker. In a fit of desperation the druids conducted a self-sacrificial ritual to freeze the monster's cancerous growth in a bubble of slowed time. 200 years ago the Mharoti Empire’s early expansions pushed into the Southlands, warring against Nuria Natal, razing the Moon Kingdom’s Cities, and even trying to annex the Dominion of the Wind Lords. The Moon Kingdom suffered heavy losses, but the Nurian God-Kings and Wind Lords push back hard. They unleashed the full brunt of their divine and elemental might against the draconic warbands, from undead armies to golem siege engines rising from the pyramids to spirit-infused breath weapons turning against their own dragons. The Empire’s forces retreated from the Southlands, but the dragons did not consider this a total defeat. In future generations they would test their capabilities, conducting smaller scale raids against key targets with decades-long gaps between them to keep the shorter-lived races complacent enough that they won “this time.” Divine Sparks Divine Sparks have their own side-bar in the first chapter. The usually manifest as glowing spheres of energy found within the most secured dungeons, ruins, and and palaces. Oftentimes they are pursued as part of a great undertaking, but more than a few unassuming souls rose to great deeds by accidentally stumbling across them in more unexpected places. Mechanics-wise, a character must absorb the spark into their body in a four hour process of meditation and internal study. The character rolls an integration check, which is 1d20 + their character level + the highest of their Constitution, Intelligence, or Wisdom modifiers against a DC of 30. Success allows the character to become a mythic character as per the Pathfinder Mythic Adventures rules, or counts as a completed trial in the process of gaining new mythic tiers. Failing the integration check afflicts the would-be powerseeker with a permanent curse as per the bestow curse spell. Alternatively for Game Masters who don’t care for Mythic Rules, divine sparks could instead grant powers usable a certain amount of times per day, usually a spell-like ability of up to 5th level, limited shape-changing, or immunity to a specific element or harmful effect. The Mythic Rules are Pathfinder’s answer to 3rd Edition’s Epic Levels. Instead of extending numerical abilities past the 20th level cap, there are Mythic Tiers independent of level which are ascended via the completion of heroic trials. The tiers grant unique abilities as well as Mythic versions of existing feats and spells. I have never played with these rules, but from what I heard of Paizo’s Wrath of the Righteous is that they take Pathfinder’s tenuous balance and rocket launcher tags and amplify them to 11. The later chapters outline examples of divine sparks and their locations, as well as some important NPCs who already have one. As such sparks are rare and implied to be part of the culmination of an adventure arc, the rolling for integration seems unnecessary and should instead be narratively played out. The fact that only one creature can absorb a spark at a time means that scaling will be uneven within PC groups unless discovered sparks are always equivalent in number to the party size when found. Given that the Mythic Rules for Pathfinder are already quite unbalanced, this will only further exacerbate PC power levels if played straight. But I do like the concept of adventurers traveling around in a classic fantasy “find the legendary crystal MacGuffins” as part of an epic quest, with a literal divine power boost as a reward for each one collected. Races of the Southlands The majority of this section provides us a discussion of two existing “major races” of humans and dwarves along with five new races. There is also a list of “minor races” whose presence is smaller, localized to specific regions. The minor races, if they are new and not reprinted from the core rules or existing Midgard books, are detailed in their own respective chapters. Humans dominate the Southlands much like they do in most campaign settings. The major cultural groups are divided into six group categories which are more akin to pan-ethnic groups: spread among many countries but with a shared linguistic and/or cultural origin. The Annites are descendants of Ankeshel refugees and northern nomads, whose two major groupings are the Tamasheq nomads and the Qamari humans of the minotaur kingdoms. They are analogous to the real-world Amazigh and Carthagnian peoples respectively, and start with 4 (!!!) languages by default: Draconic, Nurian, Tamasheq, and the Southern Trade Tongue. Kushites’ name derives from their rainforest kingdom, although their numbers can be found all the way to the far south. They live in isolated tribes but they do have a large capital city called Nangui built on the stump of a fallen World Tree. Kushites produce a high number of albinos among their people, which their enemies ignorantly proclaim to be a sign of demonic blood. If I had to guess, they are analogous to the real-world Kingdom of Kush in antiquity, although the rainforest is a new touch. The Morregi include the people of the western coasts, both of the nation-state and those whose ancestral lands were once claimed by them. Their culture is known for frequent joyous celebrations, and are quite proud of their self-proclaimed ability to produce great priests and prophets. Between Lignas’ centers of learning and Morreg’s powerful diviners, it is a claim that is often backed up with ample examples. As said nations’ regions were known as the Kingdoms of Gold and Salt in prior Midgard publications for the preponderance of said trade goods, I presume that they are analogous to West African Kingdoms such as Mali and Ghana. The Nurians are common throughout not just Nuria Natal, but also portions of Kush, the Spice Coast, and the city-states of Siwal and Saph-Saph. They are a proud people, able to point to an unbroken heritage spanning back thousands of years. They are analogous to real-world Ancient Egyptians (Nuria Natal) and Arabs (Siwal and Saph-Saph). The Tethyians live among the islands of the Southlands’ east coast and engage heavily in maritime trade. They sport heritage not just from the Southlands, but also travelers from Khandiria and Far Cathay (Midgard’s fantasy counterpart India and China). The Zwana are tall people with sharp features who live around the settled edges of the Abandoned Lands and whose most well-known members include the citizens of Narumbeki, Terrotu, and Omphaya. Their customs and regional dialects vary wildly depending on where they live. I do not know what specific real-world counterpart cultures they adhere to beyond the Narumbeki being Zulus, but would probably guess various savanna cultures. Dwarves of the Southlands are related kin to their northern counterparts, but culturally are very different. They are more known for scholarly pursuits such as scribes, alchemy, and magic (as well as engineering and artisanship) than warfare. They are respected in most lands for their high-quality goods.  Gnolls are one of the “new” races of the Southlands. Much like their typical D&D counterparts they are warlike and their societies operate on a Social Darwinist worldview where strength and martial prowess determines one’s station. The weak of their own race and others are often enslaved, but due to their respect of strength they can exist on non-violent terms with cities and nations who more than prove their worth. There’s a sizable number of “civilized” gnolls who integrated into Nurian cities and even adopted their gods. Stat-wise gnolls get +2 Strength and Constitution with no other stat penalties, +2 natural armor, darvkision 60 feet, as well as spear/bow/mace proficiencies and Survival boosts for locating food and water. Their only negative trait is their cowardly nature which gives -2 on fear-based effects. Gnolls make for pretty strong warriors, and their natural armor boost is pretty good.  Kijani are a plantlike pseudo-race whose ancestral homes are the jungles of Kush. The Green Walker’s depredations forced them into a diaspora to the far south. They are calm, contemplative people who seek to master their worser natures of anger and fear which are the result of a sort of cultural PTSD from their exodus of Kush. Kijani appear like green-skinned members of other races in part due to their Great Change, where they implant symbiotic seedlings into willing hosts. This is part of a multi-generational evolutionary plan to turn their race from plants to mammals. The seedling grows over time before separating from its host to rapidly grow into a full-fledged kijani bearing aspects of their host “parent.” Knowledge of this process can be unnerving to outsiders, so they only share the Great Change with trusted non-kijani friends and lovers. Stat-wise they have +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution, and +2 to one other ability score reflecting their humanoid host. They are also treated as the plant type rather than humanoid, gain bonuses to attacks and AC when reduced below half their Hit Points in a pseudo rage, a constant speak with plants effect, and may treat any two knowledge skills as class skills and gain +2 on checks with them. The plant type alone is a powerful defensive ability (immune to mind-affecting, paralysis, polymorph, sleep, and stunning) but otherwise the rest of their abilities are rather balanced and thematically useful.  Nkosi are feline humanoids whose creation lies at the hands of the titan Gamka’s divine spark. Gamka granted trust human servants with the powers of the mighty lion. These ur-nkosi could transform into said wondrous beasts for a limited time and even gained vestigial features long-term. They appear as humans with catlike teeth, eyes, and fur in their natural form and organize their societies into extended family units where children are raised as a group. They treat humans as long-lost kin, and possess binding oaths which are often assigned to family and/or country. Stat-wise they have +2 to Strength and Dexterity but -2 Charisma, have the Monstrous Humanoid (Shapechanger) type, a base speed of 35 feet, treat Perception and Stealth as class skills, a natural bite attack, and can transform into a zwana lion (new monster in this book) a limited number of times per day as akin to the beast shape spell. Nkosi are very much built to favor melee and mobile striker roles.  Tosculi are wasp-like insectoids who have a poor reputation among the rest of the Southlands for being on a constant war footing with their neighbors. They have a caste-based society much like ants (drones, builders, warriors, queens) who seek to conquer for their leader’s glory. Tosculi possess a hive-mind mentality where they are born hearing a song known as the Golden Swarm. A few tosculi are born every so often unable to hear this song and often seek a life of independence. Even then these outcasts rarely fit into other societies, becoming loners or banding together among other misunderstood outcasts. Stat-wise they have +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and -2 Charisma. They are Small Monstrous Humanoids with +1 natural armor, two 1d3 claw attacks, treat Perception and Stealth as class skills, can share a square with another member of their race at once and flank any foes they are engaged with at the same time, can use soften earth and stone once per day as a spell-like ability which they use to build their hive-cities, and have wings which allow them to glide and fall safely from any height even if unconscious, paralyzed, or similarly restrained. Tosculi are begging to be put into roguish and scouting archetypes on account of their skills. Many of their racial traits are useful for all kinds of archetypes, from their auto-class skills to natural armor and gliding wings.  Trollkin are the descendants of all varieties of immortal and monstrous races cross-breeding with humans. “Trollkin” is a catchall term for these people. Trollkin are feared by many and viewed as violent brutes, pushing them to gather into tribes known as septs scattered throughout the Southlands. Their variant bloodlines means they have lots of physical diversity, but tall forms and strong bodies are a near-universal trait. Stat-wise Trollkin have +2 Constitution, -2 Dexteirty, and +2 to one other ability score representing a dominant monstrous/supernatural heritage. They have a natural bite attack, +2 to Intimidate checks, +1 natural armor, and a racial bonus on saves against ingested poisons equal to their Hit Dice. Furthermore they can take alternative racial variants represneting various bloodlines. The default trollkin race has a zimwi ancestor (ravenous lion-like ogres cursed with eternal hunger), but there are three subraces who can swap out the trollkin’s default racial features of bite attack, AC bonus, and saving throws vs ingested poisons in favor of new abilities. Fey-kin can grant a choice of an appropriate cantrip as a once-per-day spell-like ability and bestow curse as a once per month spell. Eloko-kin descend from a race of evil underground dwarves and gain a 1d4 claw attack along with cause fear as a once-per-day spell-like ability; and finally the adze-kin, descendant of a race of vampiric humanoids who gain vampiric touch as a once-per-day spell-like ability and a climb speed equal to half their normal land speed. Overall the trollkin are the half-orcs of the Southlands in being outcasts geared to a brute striker roll. The subraces don’t really impress me besides the adze-kin, which gets a very good spell and a climb speed.  An aasimar of Ishadia. Not from the book proper, but from Kobold Press' Advanced Races: Aasimar. The Minor Races of the Southlands include seven of the more notable peoples not covered above. The Aasimar are concentrated in the continent’s northeast, boasting proud angelic heritage; the Heru are ravenfolk who live in the temples of Horus as honored citizens, respected in Lignas, and in the valleys of the Abandoned lands. Many praise Horus as their patron deity. The Jinnborn are nomads descended from elemental entitites, living in the Dominion of the Wind Lords and possess a literal bond to the land itself. Lizardfolk are a young race of the Southlands, living in the isolated realm of Veles-Sa harboring a giant egg believed to contain the World Serpent’s child. They are currently isolationist, but believe it is their destiny to conquer the surrounding lands in said serpent-god’s name. The Minotaurs are limited mostly to the Southlands’ extremes, be it the crumbling Moon Kingdom remnants of the northern deserts or the kingdom of Sudvall at the continent’s southern tip. A few gave up their heritage and assimilated into the other populations, but even then seem to possess a knack for vessels of all sorts. Even the desert-bound sandships are known to carry minotaurs as crew and good luck charms. The Ramag were once humans allied with Glorious Umboso, manipulating ley lines to connect the titan empire in a magical web for transportation and defense. They still live in the Abandoned Lands, claiming the city of Ramagani as their homeland whose portals connect the city to far reaches of the Southlands. Tieflings appear anywhere demons and devils consort with humans, and face varying levels of acceptance: Nuria Natal and Lignas tolerate them, and in the devil-ruled city of Nangui they rise to positions of great power. Thoughts So Far: Southlands’ introductory chapter starts us off with a strong impression of the setting and what it will be about. The history section contains an organization style different from other setting books, but is not enough to feel too confusing for me. I like the new races as well as the changing of existing ones to better fit into the setting. Join us next time as we visit the River Kingdom of Nuria Natal, whose pyramids hold legacies of great kings and where gods walk the streets! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Oct 29, 2018 |
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Oct 29, 2018 00:12
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 Chapter Two:Nuria Natal  Our first stop in the Southlands is the River Kingdom of Nuria Natal and a few of its autonomous neighbors. The region is heavily Ancient Egyptian in flavor, with its geography centered around the River Nuria whose waters are infused with the magic of ley lines. The kingdom’s earliest founders built their civilizations around said river in order to exploit its supernatural properties as well as its use as a fertile agricultural basin. The pyramids and tombs dotting the cities and countryside are actually complex engines of resurrection designed to bring fallen god-kings back from the veil of death in times of greatest need. Although united in language and culture, the grandest cities are closely keyed to specific deities of the Nurian pantheon. Horus is the gods’ kingly head, but the cults of Anu-Akma (Anubis), Bastet, and Thoth-Hermes are the three most popular and powerful religious organizations in the nation. Anu-Akma’s cult handle affairs of ensuring the transferral of souls into a proper afterlife. Additionally they fund the creation of the many traps, mystical guardians, and other defenses of pyramids and tombs. The worshipers of Bastet are a diverse sort, ranging from alchemists and farmers to hunters and soldiers. She claims the city of Per-Bastet as her home, often walking its streets in disguise as a mortal or feline. Said realm is a vibrant trading hub ruled by a council of secular and religious authorities, resulting in a quite ordered religion for a Chaotic goddess. The worshipers of Thoth-Hermes have heavy representation among the Heru ravenfolk as well as a heavy hand in promoting education and knowledge. The cult is quite active in a secret mission of finding the lost Emerald Tablets of Wisdom. It is believed that said tablets contain writings by their god for altering the face of Midgard or communing with the World-Serpent. Perhaps ironically more than a few militant sects resorted to theft and tomb-robbing in hopes of collecting the tablets; to them, it is but a lesser heresy than letting the knowledge slip into the lost annals of history. The write-up for Nuria Natal’s capital (the same name as the kingdom as a whole) is surprisingly brief. It talks about the god-king’s massive palace which includes a ceiling portraying a perfect copy of the night sky at all hours, to a Well of Ascension whose lotus-infused waters must be drunk in order to undertake the Tests of Inheritance necessary for claiming the throne. Eastern City-States Before diving into Nuria Natal proper we cover three city-states east of the kingdom who maintain heavy trade and cultural exchange with the River Kingdom. Siwal, Saph-Saph, and Makuria were founded as strongholds in the eastern deserts to better connect Nuria Natal’s trade network to the eastern realms, but now exist as independent political entities in and of themselves. They’re more medieval Arabia in culture and feel, and manage large caravans which include magical ships capable of sailing over sand dunes like water in addition to mundane transports. The largest of these cities, Siwal, is called the city of Gardens for its large natural oasis. Elemental magic is built into urban planning to make lush vegetation grow throughout most of the city, including the tops of its walls. It is also home to the Grand Necropolis, the largest of its kind in the northern portion of the continent. Housing great heroes as well as paupers, it has modest natural protections but is heavily guarded by Anu-Akma’s guardians and mages known as gravebinders whose task is to ensure that no undead rise to plague Siwal’s citizens. Interestingly enough, the Necropolis is home to an undead community of ghosts, ghouls, and vampires who hold court at nightfall. They have an arrangement of sorts with the gravebinders to not attack the living (save in self-defense and against tomb-robbers) and to rise only at night, but otherwise can have the necropolis to themselves until the sun rises. This arrangement works out for both parties, even if it does give Siwal a macabre reputation at night. Saph-Saph occupies a deep natural depression filled with springs and groves. The fortress of Per-Saph is its largest community, home to a temple-school of Aten which trains new generations of the god’s priests and paladins. The settlement of Saph-Ket is home to the Oracle of the Sun whose occupation has foretold prophecies for Nurian leaders for a thousand years. The city’s fertile groves are capable of building one new sandship each year. Makuria is not as grand or rich as the former two cities, but it makes up for this with expert guard and mercenary work. Their primary clients are the border cities of Nuria’s south and Kush’s north, accepting coin from and against both sides. The more moral Order of Horus employs a cavalry tasked with keeping vital trade routes open, fighting against banditry and annexation by hostile powers. Per-Bastet, Everlasting City of the Cat  The most famous city of Nuria Natal is not its capital, but one further south along its banks. Named for its relationship with the feline goddess, Per-Bastet is the Southlands’ Waterdeep: a cosmopolitan crossroads of cultures from southern Kush to the Mharoti Empire and beyond, a vibrant city home to all manner of factions, a chaotic council of government which doesn’t see eye to eye, and more than a few villainous figures skulking in the dark. Per-Bastet’s history stretches back millennia, but the oldest historical evidence is lost to time. Bastet’s faithful claim their goddess chose it as a space to revel and host parties with the other gods, and whose divine tears of joy sank into underground caverns which nine great pyramids were built over. Gnolls claim they founded the city, and Nuria Natal’s first god-king claimed it as the capital for a time. Its geographic position as a trade hub placed it at the brunt of clashes with various forces, its most recent enemies the Mharoti Empire of the past 400 years. Legends say that the city has been defeated and razed nine times in its millennia-long history, only to be reborn and rise again to glory. Like a precious jewel everyone wants, Per-Bastet has lured many hands to claim it. This, along with receiving nominal support from the rest of the country in recent campaigns against the Mharoti, has caused its diverse population to be fiercely patriotic of their hometown. Human or gnoll, living or dead, it is a chaotic city unlike anywhere else in the world...and they wouldn’t have it any other way. Neighborhoods and Locations  Per-Bastet is a riverside port of 60,000 souls. The city’s fed by a series of canals and irrigation ditches home to orchards and grain fields along with cattle. A series of monolith colonnades line the western harbor as a magical defense grid, where nine or more clerics or oracles of Per-Bastet can perform a ritual in a specific temple. This summons up mists and silt-filled eddies to teleport hostile creatures and vessels past the colonnade’s outer ring. The level and magical skill of said priestesses matters not, meaning that Per-Bastet has a potent naval defense. Tors line the roads south of the city, home to a gorge known as the Path of the Gods, where immense statues over 80 feet tall are carved in the gods’ likenesses. The last four are so weathered they are unrecognizable and known as the forgotten gods. Temples between the statues’ feet lead into unknown places, whose doors remain locked by long-lost magical keys. The much drier second river of the city is the River of Sand, an always-mobile quarter-mile wide flood of sand winding from the eastern desert into Per-Bastet’s east before ending in a funnel-shaped crater. Many objects and people lost in the flow are sometimes found years, decades, or centuries later in seemingly random locations in the farther deserts. Such “sand-touched” objects are prized for their supposed good luck charms. The river’s magical reputation is further reinforced by the presence of earth elementals swimming within its flow much like fish. The cats of Per-Bastet are numerous and have free roam of the city. They can access a unique form of transportation known as catslide alleys, out-of-the-way magical portals which can lead elsewhere in the city and even farther-flung places such as northern cities or a hellcat den in the Eleven Hells. For neighborhoods proper, Per-Bastet is divided into nine districts. The Palace District occupies a plateau at the feet of Bastet’s statue, an invitation-only neighborhood home to the opulent mansions of the city’s rulers. The District of the Lioness is the city’s spiritual center, a mixture of rich and poor people along with a sizeable presence of feline races from nkosi to werecats, as well as cat-loving humanoids and endless hordes of normal cats. The Dome of the Divine Face of Bastet, the goddess’ greatest temple, calls the Lioness home, and most businesses here are dedicated to entertainment from theaters to brothels. The District of the Cat is a labyrinthine market district most active at dark, whose nkosi inhabitants have their own internal social laws but nonetheless more than happy to welcome visitors. The Wharf District sees to the city’s waterbound trade: it houses the largest slave market in Nuria Natal, mostly derived from the draconic races taken as prisoners of war. Werecrocodiles live in the district and are surprisingly well-mannered...save when gnolls hunt the crocodiles they raise as a rite of passage, which leads to tensions between the two races in the city. The Monument District is the city’s administrative center. Its academies, granaries, and public works buildings sit beneath grand sphinxes and pedestal-clad statues testament to patriotic glory. Of particular shock to most visitors is that the Dead, or Per-Bastet’s name for undead citizens, outnumber the living as civil servants in this district. The God-Queen Meskhenit and an army of the Dead lair in the neighborhood’s local pyramid, capable of fielding the largest army in Nuria Natal. The Guard District is the other undead-majority neighborhood, housing the offices, courts, and jails along with a Sandship Harbor. The Hunt is Per-Bastet’s bad section of town. Occupied by mostly-abandoned builds inhabited by various monsters and elementals, the city’s laws hold no sway here. Fugitives and criminal organizations use the district as a temporary refuge, and its westernmost tip holds an island containing the vampire-run Pallid Court. The district’s Great Sand Pyramid host an amazing phenomenon where a trail of sand falls to the structure’s top from an unknown location high in the sky. The District of the Hyena is a gnoll-majority neighborhood which sits upon multiple layers of ancient buildings comprising a series of underground warrens. The gnolls are mostly self-governing and resolve disputes through blood debts. Its two notable locations are the Temple of Anu-Akma who grant blessings to the departed and decide who is worthy enough to be raised into the Dead. Finally, the Perfume District sits downstream at the city’s northern edge. It hosts the smelliest occupations in a series of bridge-connected islands, and there’s a thriving black market for poison, alchemic constructs, and ingredients for necromantic rites. Government and Military Its own leadership varies wildly on who you ask: King Thutmoses XXIII, the present god-king of Nuria Natal, claims that his brother Haty-a Haakim rules this great jewel of the city. But most citizens point to the Reborn Queen-Goddess Meskhenit as their ruler. The undead sorceress-priestess of Bastet commands a legion of undead and whose inhuman charisma holds the city together. But even she is subservient to her patron deity, who would replace both rulers in rank if she ever bothered to sit on the throne long-term. The Council of Sands acts as an advisory capacity to Haakim, which includes the prototypical traitorous vizier who plans to assassinate said monarch and usurp Meskhenit’s command over the Dead. The other council members are more mundane in their pursuits, such as a rigid lawyer who finds the city’s discordant way of doing things nightmarish for her job. Other notable power players in Per-Bastet include the Pallid Court, a society of rich vampires who are treated as ordinary citizens (if ones the average street-goer doesn’t want to mess with) due to a mixed relationship of deals and tit-for-tat power jockeying with Meskhenit; and the Gnoll Warlord Raykar-Takur, who can field 6,000 elite fighters from the Gnoll Corner in times of war but busies himself with desert hunts and fighting in the Great Arena. Per-Bastet’s major military forces include the living Army of Summer, who comprise the infantry and charioteers along with Raykar-Takur’s gnoll legions. The Legion of Wadjet holds dominion over the river, made up of barges supplemented by aquatic monsters, nagas, and werecrocodiles. The Legion also contains a dire spinosaurus as a secret weapon submerged beneath the city. The Sky Guard of Horus are the city’s air force, made up of griffon-riders, air elementals, and sphinxes. Finally, Reborn Queen-Goddess Meskhenit leads the Dead to battle, who are called the Army of Night by the city’s living soldiers. Tes-Luria, Seat of the Carnidine Kingdom The ruins of Tes-Luria are the last legacy of a long-forgotten kingdom founded by Bastet. It was one of the most powerful nations in the Southlands before collapsing. The causes of this are unknown and debated by scholars, although the most popular explanations are known as the Three Dooms of Tes-Luria. The Dooms point to drought, being forsaken by their patron deity, or the loss of key ley lines from enemy countries’ magical manipulations. What is known now is that its walls are empty, home to none but brave expeditions of tomb-robbers, pilgrims, and undead and golem guardians. We get a write-up of several archeological mysteries to be found within, such as a fane to the demon god of gnolls whose frescoes strangely portray him as a much kinder figure than he is now. We also learn about five tombs holding famed figures and their treasures, such as a werelion warrior believed to be the son of the Hunter, a sinister deity, his corpse encased with his holy ax in a solid block of basalt. Per-Anu, City of Crimson Pillars  Hidden among hills and open only to the faithful of Anu-Akma and his allies, the city of Per-Anu is a strange domain devoted to death in all its forms. Its macabre Red Market is home to trade in necromancy, blood, and spiritual manners, including many sacred tokens and binding agents useful against the undead. Some people swear that newly awakened god-kings and goddess-queens can be spotted in the streets in search of potent charms. Healers find their trade here as well: devotees of Isis operate out of the Temple of White Blossoms, and the famed Embalmer’s Guild know of the secret rites of preparing proper burials for nobles, god-kings, and other Nurian heroes. Their status is so high in the city that any attempts at harming a member of the guild is a great crime which will bring down the wrath of the god-kings themselves. Irsu, Per-Anu’s god-king, is a darakhul, a special type of Midgard ghoul. He arrived at the city as a pilgrim and ruled for centuries since. Irsu prioritizes research into the Red Portals, local extraplanar gateways which grant a direct line of travel into the many Underworlds of the dearly departed. Said portals are watched closely and presided over by the city’s elite guards, which is a good thing as all manner of monsters and fiends seem drawn to them. There is even a grand school of magic, the Society of Portal Wizards, which funds travelling beyond the mortal realm into the myriad worlds beyond. Per-Anu’s other great academy, the Order of Tombkeepers, focuses on all things spiritual and undead along with the guardianship of cemeteries and other places of rest. Perilous Sights of the River Kingdom Rounding out our traveller’s almanac for this chapter is a list of miscellaneous adventure locales for Nuria Natal along with a sidebar containing 20 adventure hooks. I will not list them all, but some of the more interesting ones include the devil-operated Ghatazi Salt Pits whose slaves work the salt mines. Their iconic trade good is colored red, said to be wettened from the miner’s own blood. There is also the Lost Army’s Field, a mass grave of Mharoti soldiers and dragons consumed by the desert and whose spirits haunt this desolate stretch. For some good old-fashioned dungeon-crawling we have the Corrupted Pyramid of Khensu, a structure haunted by the ghosts of slaves perished from the mass sacrifice of a Nurian vizier seeking godhood. We get a page or two of common wilderness terrain types, trade routes and goods along with the game statistics for sandships. Basically it’s a template applied to a mundane vessel which allows it to travel over desert and tundra. We also get a lengthy description of the Eyes of Aten, an organization dedicated to the Nurian sun god. Aten is a rather unique case as far as gods go; in the base Midgard setting, the gods wear masks to obscure their number and allow themselves to appear as different identities in different cultures. Aten and his faithful insist that such deities are but very powerful pretenders and he is the true divinity of reality. His faith holds sway in the Nurian city of Per-Xor, which has an army of its own. But the Eyes of Aten are a secret cult whose members are chosen by the god himself via specific dreaming premonitions and prophecies. It is said that Aten used to unleash the powerful monster Sekhmet and his own burning gaze upon evil, but their powers were so great that they would leave the earth a lifeless, charred ruin if they continued. So he appointed the Eyes as servants to carry out his will in the mortal realm. The Eyes of Aten are part spy agency, part terrorist cell. They are decentralized and clandestine although they do have a clear hierarchy of order. The Eyes prefer to act through unwitting third parties, mercenaries, and bribed civil servants to gain funds and strike at their enemies. They have their own sub-orders dedicated to specialized tasks, such as the Chosen of Sekhmet who are vicious werelion “clean up crews” unleashed when the chips are down, and the Shadowed Suns who are mummies created for long-term surveillance of areas of interest to their god. New Rules  Instead of combining all the crunch into chapters on their own, the Southlands compiles the rulesy bits of character options, equipment, spells, and so on at the end of respective chapters. Said rules are themed for the region in question, and with Nuria Natal we’ll be getting lots of Egyptian-themed goodies. The Necrology of the Mummy takes the iconic monster archetype and expands on it. Unlike most other D&D/Pathfinder settings, Nurian undead and mummies aren’t always evil spreaders of rotting plague; they are sacred sentinels watching over the sleeping heroes of times long past. We get new templates and abilities such as an Animated Shroud attack where a mummy can use its wrappings to entangle opponents; revenant mummies created to exact revenge; mummy death-curses capable of delivering debilitating afflictions to those who destroy them; scholarly tomes which can grant benefits to those studying them for all things mummy, and even alternative plays on the monster trope such as star-crossed lovers who undergo mummification and burial in the hopes of meeting each other in another era. We have new archetypes for existing classes, such as the the Chosen of Aten for the theurge who specializes in evocation and necromancy spells; the Face of Bastet for Clerics, who receive less spells per day and give up a divine domain in exchange for the ability to gain physical properties and attacks of a big cat such as a lion or panther; a gravebinder for the white necromancer who gains a pseudo-favored enemy against undead as well as the ability to permanently sanctify corpses among other themed abilities; and the Sword-Dancer for the Fighter who specializes in lightly-armored stylish moves, such as using attacks of opportunity as counterattacks to melee strikes and adding their Charisma bonus to Armor Class. The only prestige class is the Ray of Aten (he seems to be getting lots of love) which focuses around marking targets as an enemy of the faith for extra damage, using fear-based effects, and an easier ability to cast certain divination spells a limited number of times per day (no material components and shorter casting times).  The last major section of this chapter is Hieroglyphic Magic. Known among the Nurians as the Words of Truth or Weret Hekau, they can inscribe pictographic runes on physical objects associated with concepts and deities in order to grant wards and boons upon the building or wearer. Mechanically, this is a sub-system of magic which actually plays off a system from one of Kobold Press’ other sourcebooks, Deep Magic, so I cannot comment on it holistically. But from what I surmise you take a Rune Mastery feat to gain a mastery bonus which is some mechanical benefit, and treat yourself as having knowledge of certain spells for the purposes of crafting magical items. Finally, knowledge of a rune grants you one of two special once-per-day powers (one or the other can be used, not both): one to use on yourself, or one to inscribe the rune on an object and grant powers to said object. The hieroglyphs are split up by deities they are associated with and have flowery names: The God’s Company Is Like Light is associated with Thoth-Hermes and grants bonuses on knowledge checks, a 1/day increasing bonus to Intelligence-related rolls or cast magic weapon spell if inscribed on a weapon, and you’re treated as having knowledge of spells such as true seeing, tongues, and legend lore. Dress the Wind in the Cloying and Fair is associated with Bastet and grants bonuses on social roles, treats you as having knowledge of enchantment spells such as calm emotions and beguiling gift, a 1/day bonus to increase the DC or saving throw bonus related to enchantment effects for yourself, or can inscribe the rune on an amulet to gain a one-time +10 check to Diplomacy. Our chapter ends with a pair of new spells; Dessicating Breath, a 4th/5th level spell which deals 1d6 strength damage to all living creatures in a 25 foot cone; and Speak with Inanimate Objects, a 1st-level spell which allows you to ask and receive answers from spirits embedded within an inanimate object. The former spell is a bit underwhelming for one of its level, while the latter is rather overpowered in that it more or less does what Speak with Plants does but is lower level and affects a larger criteria of beings. Thoughts So Far: I really like this chapter. Nuria Natal has a healthy mixture of urban intrigue, classic dungeon crawls of pyramids and ruined sites, and wilderness terrain of sufficient danger. I like the incorporation of undead into society, from Per-Bastet’s civil servants to Siwal’s nightly courts. Per-Bastet comes off as an iconic city of adventure, and the touch of metropoli favored by specific gods is a cool touch and one based upon actual ancient Egyptian theology. The variant mummy templates are a good inclusion to keep the iconic Egyptian monster from getting stale in encounters, although the new class archetypes left me a bit cold. The Sword-Dancer was the most interesting conceptually, although I cannot help but feel that the concept is better represented by Paizo’s own Swashbuckler or high-quality martial alternatives from the Path of War or Spheres of Might. What can I say, those books spoiled me on martials. This chapter alone has enough material to generate an entire campaign within Fantasy Not-Egypt, so we’re off to a very strong start! Join us next time as we traverse the Dominion of the Wind Lords, of vast deserts and nomadic tribes presided over by elemental rulers!
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Nov 1, 2018 03:53
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Chapter Three: Dominion of the Wind Lords  To the west of Nuria Natal, across the Crescent Desert, lies a stretch of arid land known as the Dominion of the Wind Lords. It is a harsh realm, its great Stone Desert made of sunbaked plains instead of sandy dunes. To the average observer, the Dominion is a no man’s land whose past glories of Roshgazi and Golden Ulthar are now lost to the elements. This may be true to some extent, but to the inhabitants who claim this harsh territory home, the Dominion is positively alive with unseen wonders. Precious oases are blessed sources of life, unseen nature spirits walk among mortals. The Tamasheq nomads know of these places and guard them from the unworthy, placating said spirits with offerings for protection if the mercurial spectres’ whims align with theirs. The jinnborn are the other major nomadic group, a race of their own claiming descent from powerful elementals. Then there are the gnolls of Dabu and the minotaurs of Cindass, seeking to build new glorious civilizations amidst the wasteland. The Tamasheq and jinnborn recognize four great primordial spirits but only three of them are typically honored in mainstream society. Chergui the East Wind is the friendliest to mortals, bringing cool ocean breezes to quell the harsh heat; Shamal the West hates mortals and summons deadly weather in an attempt to drive them from the Dominion; Khamsin the South is a creature of emotional extremes embodying the hot gales blowing from southern wastelands. Then there is Boreas, the exiled North Wind who sometimes visits the Dominion to stir up trouble; he is placated by three Tamasheq tribes who are opposed by all of their other kin. I find Shamal’s characterization interesting, on account that the history chapter had the Wind Lords disgusted at Boreas’ cruelty to mortals and was the main reason for driving him out. I suppose that millennia can change even a spirit, although the text does not discuss what caused Shamal’s about-face. Beyond the Wind Lords are an endless amount of lesser spirits connected to phenomena and objects of the natural world: every rock formation, every body of water and gale of wind contains a conscious free-willed entity. Said spirits interact with mortals of the Dominion through the Spider Prophet and other oracles and leaders. Politically speaking they are divided between loyalty to the three Wind Lords, or act as agents of Boreas. This civil war operates on a scale imperceptible to mortals, waged with natural phenomena and shifting of ecosystems rather than armies and hordes. The Tamasheq  The Tamasheq are the Dominion’s most well-known population to outsiders and are based off of the real-world Tuareg nomads of the Sahara Desert. Numbering half a million, almost all of them claim the region as their home but some make voyages as far as Nuria Natal for trade. They are recognizable by their indigo-colored clothes, and take great pains to convince and other civilizations that they are but simple nomads. In reality, they have a thriving secret city in the mountains by the name of Kel Azjer, home to magical, artistic, and technological marvels. They hide this from the world so as to prevent invasions and intervention by outsiders. Kel Azjer itself is a sprawling metropolis full of spires, whose hungry mouths are fed by plateau farms managed by slaves captured in warfare. The beautiful Palace of the Spirits contains three empty thrones in the event the Wind Lords ever choose to physically manifest, but perhaps the city’s greatest marvel are the vril mines. Passed down from their Ankeshelian forebears, a rare ore known as vril is capable of nigh-magical wonders and acts as the Midgard setting’s “sufficiently enhanced technology;” naturally the mines are fiercely guarded, but there is a thriving black market of unscrupulous merchants. Not located in Kel Azjer proper but of great importance to the Tamasheq is the Palace of the Spider Prophet, home to an immortal figure of unknown origin who possesses a seemingly boundless well of wisdom. In fact, this insight is due to a vast network of wind spirits carrying overheard conversations and secrets back to to his ears, as well as being the high priest of Kwansi, a god of chaos and luck. Dabu, Twin Land of the Gnolls This loosely organized collection of gnoll packs is not a kingdom in the true sense of the word. Bound in commonality by their race at most, each clan has their own customs and favored divine or demonic patron. The packs operate among themselves in a pseudo-feudal system: secular leaders known as Sas (singular sa) rule individual packs and pledge fealty to a Kasa who is the leader of the strongest pack in the region. The Kasa obey the Ama, who is an oracle. The current Ama is an elderly gnoll by the name of Ninshu who is trying to reign in the gnolls more warlike tendencies. This is not done out of genuine peacemaking, but due to the fact that the tensions with the Narumbeki to the southeast are on the rise and she knows that a true war against them will be one-sided in the humans’ favor. One of her daughters does not share her tempered response: Isha seeks to unite Dabu into a true gnoll empire once she takes the mantle of Ama. An interesting site in Dabu is the Pool of the Sky, a lake filled with clear water capable of granting oracular visions and removal of harmful curses and charms, but with the risk of imposing insanity on the drinker. The gnolls treat the lake as sacred and guard it against unwanted drinkers. Valley of Golden Ulthar Within the Crescent Desert east of the Dominion proper is a most unusual site: a lush magical valley seemingly untouched by the surrounding desert. Once home to a grand civilization, its only major structure is the dust-ridden temple of Serbata which has fallen prey to generations of thieves and overgrowth. It is within this temple that Golden Ulthar’s last remaining citizen still lives: Sepenret the sphinx, a sorrowful woman who seeks to recover the artifacts of her homeland. She employs a company of adventurers and explorers known as the Claws of Sepenret for this task. The other group in the Valley is known as the Order of the Sphinx, a multi-generational group of guardians who serve lifetimes of vigilance in protecting Ulthar’s legacy. In fact, intact stonework and magic items within this valley contain powerful transmutation magic related to the growing of plants and crops. Known as Pieces of Ulthar, their properties have not been reverse-engineered by other civilizations; they seem tied to the era at which Golden Ulthar fell, and the only way new Pieces are made is when Sepenret lays a stone egg. The sphinx treats such eggs as the most valuable things in the valley, and will instruct the Claws to retrieve them by any means necessary if they are stolen. Although some steal pieces for the seemingly noble goal of establishing fertile land in the desert (something Sepenret would approve of if they ever bothered to ask permission), most thieves are more selfish and seek the pieces to gain power and status. In fact, Sepenret’s greatest threat is a wererat tribe led by a cruel chieftain building up territory in hopes of claiming the entire valley for himself. The Ruins of Roshgazi and Emirate of Cindass  The Fantasy Counterpart Carthage of the Southlands, Roshgazi was once the capital of the minotaur’s Moon Kingdom. Several centuries ago the Mhraoti dragon-fleets descended upon the city for the dual purposes of creating a western front against Nuria Natal while also destroying an Orb of Dragonkind they believed the minotaurs possessed. Using illusion magic and destructive alchemy, the Mharoti besieged the city in a devastating ambush. They scorched and poisoned the fields and wells around it for miles to ensure nothing could grow from its soil. Roshgazi, and by extension the rest of the Moon Kingdom, never recovered from this devastation. Most of the city still lies in ruins, inhabited mostly by monsters, ravenous insane minotaurs, and rare explorers from the Seven Cities of the northern continent. Due to the minotaur race’s ability to naturally intuit direction, significant portions of town are a confusing array of mazes meant to hinder invaders (and of limited use against airborne dragon raids). Several ambient magical protections lie in place, especially the Heart of Roshgazi. This sapient sphere lies deep within the First Labyrinth, tasked with keeping the city safe. Unfortunately a deep crack from a saboteur’s magical hammer rent the Heart’s personalities in twain. The Poet is the more benevolent of the two personalities and seeks to bring in people to repair Roshgazi and ward them from its dangers. Broken, the other personality, is downright paranoid and believes the city to still be under attack and treats all newcomers as Mharoti invaders. The minotaur city of Cindass has fared better. It too was razed by dragonfire, but in recent years patriotic minotaurs begun rebuilding and settling it with the aid of jinnborn tribes. Now the city-state is half functional settlement half ruins still inhabited by all the dangerous things in fantasy worlds which are drawn to such places. The rebuilding project is not without its problems: there are disputes with the Tamasheq over grazing grounds, gnoll raiders view Cindass as a risky yet profitable target, and there are people seeking to establish trade with the devil-slavers of the eastern Ghatazi Salt Pits. Perilous Sites and Adventure Seeds  This miscellaneous collection of locales details minor sites of interest to adventurers. The more interesting ones include the Restless Prophet, a gargantuan camel bearing a gnoll fortress upon its back, and the goblin-inhabited ruined city of Mardas Vhula-Gai which is filled with magical glyphs and vril technology. We also get adventure seeds folding in the major factions of the Dominion: an insane noble who believes her bloodline is descended from Sepenret and seeks her stone eggs; a long-lost copper tablet in Roshgazi claiming to detail a land of peace and safety the city’s Moon Queen fled to long ago; and a Tamasheq tribe seeking to expand their holdings into the dangerous Granite Teeth, a series of broken stony lands inhabited by abominations. Character Options  The crunchy options for this chapter contain a little bit of everything. We start out with a new race, the jinnborn. It details their culture as well as their game stats. Basically jinnborn are nomadic people who follow mystical paths known as siraati which determine their customs and cultural values based upon the teachings of their tribe’s Jinn founder, and they call each other sab siraat meaning “people of the path.” They wander along seasonal trade routes and take up occupations which can work for mobile living (traders, mercenaries, herders, etc). Their own cultural origins place their creations at the hands of the Jinn, elemental spirits claimed to be present at the dawn of the world. The world of the Jinn, also known as the Hidden World, plays the role of heaven or enlightenment in their culture. Stat-wise, jinnborn are a very powerful race. They have their choice of +2 Strength or Constitution, +2 Charisma, and -2 Intelligence. They get +2 bonus on Diplomacy, Knowledge (Geography), Sense Motive, and Survival checks and said knowledge skill is always a class skill. Their defensive abilities include energy resistance based on their siraati and have a constant endure elements spell upon themselves. Furthermore, they have their choice of one of four supernatural abilities reflecting the diversity of their magical powers: 1: bonus energy damage on melee rolls a number of rounds per day based on level; 2: an energy-based ranged touch attack whose uses per day are keyed off Charisma; 3: the ability to increase their energy resistance further for 1 minute per level; or 4: once per day the ability to call upon one’s patron jinn to do an appropriately “unseen trickery” based ability such as imposing a miss chance on an incoming attack, cast the prestidigitation spell, or gain a bonus on feints or saving throws. Jinn who live for an extended period of time in cities and settlements begin to suffer mental disorders, which is accompanied by a table of sample negative mechanical effects. There are feats for the jinnborn which can grant them improved uses of their supernatural powers and even new ones altogether. Overall the feats are quite useful in that they grant scaling abilities or broad uses. For example, Vessel of the Hidden World turns the defensive energy resistance to always-active and also grants damage reduction vs bludgeoning, piercing or slashing (based on your siraati) ranging from DR 5 to DR 10 based on your level. Our new class archetypes include the Blessed Scamp (Rogue), a charmed trickster whose main feature is slightly less sneak attack progression in exchange for the ability to perform a mischief in conjunction with said sneak attacks. Mischiefs impose status conditions on an enemy such as dazed, being knocked back 5 feet away, falling prone, etc. The Gnoll Raider (Rogue) is interesting in being keyed specifically to the gnoll race: they grant others of their archetype as well as the Havoc Runner the Coordinated Maneuvers feat, adding their Intelligence modifier to splash damage, and the ability to create temporary magical Shock Bags which can mimic any alchemical item. Related to the archetype, we get a pair of new rogue talents: Improved Alchemical Formula which increases the damage die by 1 and save DC of alchemical equipment by 2, and Superior Alchemical Formula which doubles the damage value and increases the DC by half the rogue’s level (!!!). Overall pretty strong talents.  The Elemental Crusaders (Paladin) are known as the imajaghan* among the Tamasheq. They are warriors who draw their powers from elemental spirits instead of the typical angelic/celestial entities. They gain the ability to cast Summon Monster for elementals whose power is based on their paladin levels, as well as the ability to have a constant elemental whose size and type grows based on level. The Crusader has to give up disease immunity, mercies, channeling positive energy, and the divine bond/mount, but overall this is a worthy trade due to the versatility of elementals in combat and utility adventuring. *Apparently this is a real word, although the only English google search result I could find was a performance of an Amazigh tribal dance and a Kobold Press article on said paladin archetype. The Havoc Runner (Fighter) is the other gnoll-specific archetype, who has the Coordinated Maneuvers bonus feat as the Gnoll Raider, a level-dependent bonus on all Appraise checks and the ability to use said skill as swift or immediate action, bonus movement which can be made only before attacking a foe, and the ability to impose attack roll and movement speed penalties on enemies you attack provided you spend each round attacking a different foe. Finally, the Janni Master (Summoner) gains a janni companion as an eidolon who is stored inside a lamp or similar object. The janni gains new abilities much like an eidolon, although their feats, spell-like abilities, and special powers are more or less already chosen ahead of time. This feels a bit underwhelming in comparison to the sheer versatility of the base summoner’s eidolons. The janni is a mobile fighter, gaining things such as a fly speed, feats such as dodge and weapon finesse, spell-like abilities such as invisibility, enlarge/reduce person, etc. This chapter’s only Prestige Class is the Claw of Sepenret, which is synonymous with the order of the same name. Its prerequisites are easy: 5 ranks in Knowledge (Arcana), Knowledge (Nature), and Survival, must have a neutral aspect in your alignment, and be sponsored by another Claw. Their class features are rather specific to the organization, such as the ability to cast locate object but for Pieces of Ulthar, cast spells involving plants as one level higher, the ability to transform into a lion or dire lion, etc. Additionally, there is a grab-bag list of class features known as Boons the Claw can take in lieu of a caster level increase: most of them grant the ability to cast a pair of themed spell-like abilities such as longstrider or pass without trace (Boon of Striding), the ability to treat your melee attacks as certain types for Damage Reduction purposes, and the ability to teleport at will one-way to Sepenret’s temple if you have a Piece of Ulthar in your possession.  The Spells section is modest. They include Conjure Oasis and Storm Shelter which summon a lush body of water or energy field respectively to protect you from the elements, and four spells known as Air/Earth/Fire/Water Leap which allow you to teleport up to 30 feet within line of sight as a swift action provided you are in physical contact with said element before and after your teleportation. As you can imagine, Air Leap is going to be the most useful to the average party. We end things with some new Magic Items. Most of them are carpets and tapestries woven by nomad artisans. In addition to the iconic flying carpet we also have interesting items such as a Bearhide Rug which can make claw and grab attacks, or a Mindweave Rug which plays out a scene from your memory and grants a +5 bonus on Knowledge or Perception checks to remember details of that scene. We have a few non-tapestry magic items such as an Awakening Rod which conjures a spirit from a natural feature as a summoning spell, a Harnessing Belt which merges your physical body with a summoned or willing outsider, and a Turban of the Desert Waste which allows you to meld into sand and create a livable pocket space within a dune or sandy location. Thoughts So Far: Although not as long or full of detail as Nuria Natal, the Dominion of the Wind Lords is nonetheless a strong chapter. The minotaur rebuilding project of Cindass and a lost tablet of Roshgazi are good adventure fodder, particularly the use of an insane artifact presiding over a maze city. I like how Golden Ulthar is a reverse Indiana Jones: explorers and adventurers traversing the land to return ancestral heirlooms to their proper place makes for a strong plot, and they even have a bad guy faction seeking to take over the Valley for control of its powers. I also liked the new new rules options, particularly the Blessed Scamp and Elemental Crusaders. They felt overall balanced and had plenty of appealing options. This stands in marked contrast to the diamond in the rough Pathfinder mini-game of searching through uninspiring options for an ideal feat/spell/etc. Join us next time as we visit the High Jungles, home to the floating city of Aerdvall and the troubled Kingdom of Kush! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Nov 7, 2018 |
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Nov 3, 2018 22:51
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Chapter Four: The High Jungles  The High Jungles are directly south of Nuria Natal, and is in fact where the mouth of said country’s famous river is located. The rainforest is properly known as Yawchaka, the Living Jungle of Kush, due to the malign influence of the Green Walker. But these are not the only features of this verdant yet dangerous realm. Well of Urd A high plateau known as the Black Lotus Mesa reaches out over the High Jungle’s northern lands. It is an extraplanar crossroads home to a demiplane known as the Well of Urd. The portal hangs in the open air from which pours out the Celestial Waterfall. The Well is actually part of the plane of Loom, home to the great tapestry of the Fates (also known as the Norns in northern lands). The Three Sisters are stand-offish, using the Well as a secret haven open to some gods who use the place as a meeting ground. But even these deities are sworn not to reveal its location to the others. The Well is actually self-aware and its waters help feed the World Tree’s roots. The spring is made unformed potential made manifest from which all reality springs. Those who willingly submerge themselves can change their life choices, effectively retraining classes, feats, etc without time or gold piece cost. Such power comes at a price, requiring a special d20 roll whose DC increases the more aspects you retrain; failure causes the person to instantly reincarnate into a different form as per the spell or have one of their aspects randomly changed. One of the World Tree’s roots encircles part of the Well of Urd, curving up into infinity to the rest of the planes beyond. The root is covered with innumerable runes or spindle-threads (depending on the viewer’s cultural beliefs regarding fate) telling the destiny of all. The Three Sisters guard this area jealously, only allowing outside eyes in times of the greatest importance. Black Lotus Mesa The mile-high cliffs that form the Black Lotus Mesa contain an isolated environment home to some of the strangest creatures and terrain of the continent. The Celestial Waterfall covers the mesa in thick marshes and jungles, home to magical storms and abominations spawned from the Well’s myriad possibilities. The land is also home to lotus blooms containing great magical power; found nowhere else in the world, they are highly sought by all manner of mages, merchants, and alchemists. The book encourages the Game Master to apply all manner of templates to monsters found here, ignoring typical racial and physical restrictions to create some truly alien beings. Notable locations in this isolated realm include a titan-carved series of terraces known as the Pillared Stair, ruined towers home to immense tunnel systems built by an unknown civilization; and the Nurian Falls which form the source of the River Nuria mixed with the spring melt of nearby mountains. Besides the mutated life, the mesa is home to several tribes of sentient white apes, a lost Ramagi colony, and marsh-dwelling humans known as the Bangweulu who can be friendly to outsiders provided they do not bring violence upon their homes. Sky Nation of Aerdvall Even more isolated than the tall cliffs of the Black Lotus Mesa, Aerdvall is a literal floating city-nation comprised of open-air towers and domes kept aloft by a unique form of arcane magic known as aeromancy. Aerdvall’s population are refugees hailing from the distant nation of Sikkim, and the city orbits the Celestial Waterfall as its primary water source. Judging by a Google search of several names and terms (Farhad, Athravan, Dakhma, etc) the people of Aerdvall are Fantasy Counterpart Persians. They worship some of their own deities taken from Sikkim but have adopted a few Southlands gods under new masks and names (Bastet is known as Oyuh Windqueen, for example). Aerdvall’s standard of living is extremely high; basic necessities are universally available, a series of aqueducts fed by the Celestial Waterfall give people the benefit of indoor plumbing, and most citizens have enough spare time to devote to myriad pleasures. The foundations of the gleaming walls and beautiful parks are kept clean and in working order. But it is a conservative society which pines for the glories of their Sikkim past and is ruled by a tight-fisted Council comprised of mages from Aerdvall’s top magic schools. Said council controls citizen’s level of education as well as their access to appropriate forms of magic, and thus can keep the population dependent on them for social ascension. In recent years an insurgent group known as the Whispers of Irkalla arose to foment unrest, which in turn resulted in the Dvatara Guard gaining more wide-ranging disciplinary powers. The Whispers are said to worship a god of the same name, a bird-headed deity known for roguish and wizardly pursuits (it’s Thoth!). Kush, Jungle of Abominations  In the old days Kush’s neighbors respected the kingdom for its kindness and honor. Now such sentiments are but scribe’s memories. The devastation wrought by the Green Walker changed the face of the land forever. When it appeared that their druidic leaders had failed, the people made pacts with demons and devils of the Nine Hells (in Midgard the political divide between the two fiends is nonexistent) to save and rebuild their nation from the abomination’s still-active remnants. Ever since the fiends ruled the rainforest kingdom through Nulu Nagoa, an immortal lich archmage. The culture was reshaped to encourage selfish power-climbing where those with the proper strength and connections are free to do as they please to whose weaker than themselves. Kush’s marketplaces and academies teem with forbidden items and magic from other planes. Kush’s capital is Nangui, the City of Sorcerers. Its foundations are built upon the stump of a former World Tree, an extraplanar breach of one of Yggdrasil’s branches which can be used to traverse the planes. Nangui’s streets openly teem with demons, devils, and other outsiders of a similar moral persuasion. These monsters receive preferential treatment over the city’s mortal inhabitants. Encroaching vines from the Green Walker’s’ influence are kept at bay by sorcerers managing the city walls, and the Nangui’s wealthy live in the higher Branches District which also houses Nulu Nagoa’s dreaded Necrotarium. In addition to the typical things evil undead overlords do, the archmage’s riskiest and greatest research to date is to find a way to control the Green Walker itself. Note: For those who read my Midgard Worldbook review, you may notice some similarities between Kush and the gnomish nation of Neimheim. Both were forest realm existentially threatened by a great evil, and both made a desperate deal with infernal forces to save themselves. I find this interesting conceptually: most fantasy settings have the “deal with the devil” the result of naked ambition or revenge. But in Midgard the demons and devils are making pacts with people who have literally nothing to lose, those on the verge of genocide. Yawchaka, the Living Jungle of Kush  Kush’s rainforests teem with life, but much of that life is bound in service to the Green Walker. The eldritch abomination’s form towers well above the tallest treetops and can be seen from Nangui’s walls. Natives and visitors alike discover new species of plant and animal life regularly, and many plants possess actual sapience. But the most feared creatures of all are the vine lords, bipedal humanoid-shaped plants of great magical power. They receive direct orders from the Green Walker to deposit spores throughout the jungle and lands beyond. Those who pass too close risk infection by the spores, which the vine lords use to mentally dominate the carriers and in turn allow the Green Walker to puppeteer them. The Green Walker itself is a titanic being composed of writhing vines, moss, and all manner of flora. Its six “legs” are giant tendrils of vines, and massive seed pods grow and burst on its back daily. Utterly bizarre and dangerous creatures lair under its shadow. The druidic ritual holding the Green Walker in place slows down time to the point it is practically frozen, but the monstrosity is still very much mentally active. Those brave enough to establish mental contact and avoid going insane can even communicate with it, although the Walker always responds with some iteration of “grow, I must continue to grow…” Divine Spark: The titan Alkush granted his spark to the druids of Kush, who expended it in the ritual to bind the Green Walker. If Alkush’s spark is extracted, this would free the eldritch abomination to resume its campaign of devastation. Beyond the Walker’s monstrous servants and the Kushites, the only other civilization of note is the Green Abyss, populated by orcs who lair deep beneath a giant sinkhole they call the Hungering Craw. The orcs are very much like typical fantasy ones, enthralled to violent warlords who spend time fighting each other as well as the sinkhole’s unknown monsters. I suppose this breaks the “primitive natives to kill and loot” trope I mentioned earlier, although if it’s of any consolation Midgard’s orcs are rare to the point of nonexistence. Finishing this section is a detailed look at the infestation of the vine lords’ spores. It is treated much like a disease which progresses in stages. The first stages are pre-physical symptoms, where they unknowingly share their senses with the Walker and in turn can be affected by a suggestion spell to pursue the Walker’s needs and goals. The next stage manifest in vein-like bulges accompanied by murderous blackouts marked by lost time, and the host only needs sunlight and water to survive. The final stage has a massive tendril completely control the infected’s body in a zombie-like manner, subsuming them entirely to the Green Walker’s will. Hazards of the High Jungles and Adventure Seeds This very short section provides new diseases, hazards, and a random encounter table for Kush along with three adventure seeds. The flora is the most interesting section, which are more or less treated as traps: they include ihlamvu flowers which can siphon/absorb ranged spells but explode when overloaded with energy; or the akataan weather melon which sends out violent cyclones of wind when they burst open. The three adventures include a dwarven elder’s will asking them to deliver his corpse to the fallen city of Haldaheim (ruined dwarven city within the Green Abyss); Siwal’s sultan offering to pay the PCs for plants from the Black Lotus Mesa, only for one of the Green Walker’s puppets to ambush them at court when they return; and an obsessed scholar from Nangui seeking to find an extraplanar portal on the mesa but is actually the pawn of a devil seeking to enslave the mesa’s inhabitants. Character Options of the High Jungles  This chapter contains only one new archetype, the Aeromancer (Wizard). Solely found among Aerdvall’s citizenry and those with ties to them, aeromancers channel unique powers through devices filled with the Celestial Waterfall’s essence to power their elemental magic. They must specialize in the air elemental school and choose earth as their opposition school. In lieu of the Scribe Scroll bonus feat they can draw mystic water from ley lines which is used as a material component for their special abilities; they start play with and can create a device known as an aerosphere which acts similar to an arcane bonus; and can spontaneously convert prepared spells into spells from a special spell list of air and wind magic. And these are all gained at 1st level! At 3rd level they trade in the air school’s lightning flash for windblast, an AoE cone of wind which can bull rush those within its path. At 8th level they trade out the air school’s cyclone ability for the ability to transform into living electricity and damage those they “jump” through in a 120 foot line (400 feet at 15th level). This is a pretty strong archetype; the spontaneous trade-in spells are a good variety of offense (shocking grasp, just of wind, lighting bolt, etc), utility (overland flight, liquefy air, whispering wind, etc), defense (elemental body), and battlefield control (obscuring mist, wind wall, etc). The windblast and lightning rider abilities are both cool-sounding and effective. The mystic water and aerosphere are a bit weak in trade-offs, but given that their utility is determined by down time this is not too out of line for wizards in general. Our next section covers Demonic Items from Nangui. Some of the more interesting ones include chaos stones which bestow random effects on those within its blast radius (akin to a rod of wonder); ashes of the fallen grounded from the remains of celestial creatures which impose spellblights (magical disease-themed spell debuffs) on those covered with it; and an ocular earring which can transfer the voices of the person whose name you utter to your ear if said person fails a Will save. Lotus Magic covers the latent powers of the lotus blooms fed by the Celestial Waterfall. They are magical drugs with a high rate of addiction (DC 25 Fortitude save) but grant spellcasters magical benefits for 1d6 + the caster’s constitution modifier in minutes. Noncasters instead gain bonuses or roll twice on saving throws versus the lotus’ themed spells and similar effects. Alternatively they can be used as a material component for certain spells for 24 hours before their magical properties disappear. Prepared doses can range from 500 to 2,000 gp on the open market (half if you brew them yourself with Craft-Alchemy). We have 8 different types of lotus which are themed around each school of magic save abjuration (the Tchopho Lotus keys to psychic spells or spells involving dreams or sleep). Overall the lotus plants are powerful albeit slightly situational. For example, the blood lotus grants +1 caster level on evocation spells and +1 damage for each damage die of said spells, and 20 temporary hit points used to absorb spell damage. It may be used as a power component for enlarge (+15 foot to movement speeds for enlarged creature), rage (additional +2 STR and CON), vampiric touch (impose 2 bleed damage on target and gain fast healing equal to sum of all bleed damage of targeted creatures) and weapon of blood* (grants weapon dancing quality). Some of the individual power components can be pretty effective: the Ingqondi Lotus (conjuration) allows Planar Ally spells to treat the beseeched tasks of called creature as strongly aligned with its own ethos regardless of their actual nature, while the Amber Lotus (enchantment) allows the requests of suggestion and mass suggestion spells to make unreasonable but not immediately harmful suggestions. *a spell from another Kobold Press book, Deep Magic. I like the lotus magic, mechanically and thematically. They are a bit expensive, but when compared to potions their gold piece value is reasonable. The main problem is that as poisons the lotus plants impose minor ability score damage specific to that plant (indigo lotus imposes 2 wisdom damage for the effect’s duration) which may make certain plants less useful to certain casting classes. Spells from the City of Sorcerers is our final entry in this chapter, focusing on the macabre magic developed by Kush’s mages. There’s six of them, which include bloodknife eruption (ray wounds a target and explodes in a burst of damaging blood to deal half damage to nearby targets); fling skull (exploding throne skull which deals bleed damage); mangle limbs (impose STR/DEX and/or movement speed and drop held objects): song of seduction (cause creatures within radius to move to you like a siren or harpy’s song); sunder barrier (deal sonic damage to a barrier or portal and those nearby); and weeping wounds (suffer 1 bleed damage for every 10 damage the target is below maximum hit points). Thoughts So Far: The High Jungle is smaller in scope than the previous two chapters, with a majority of it focused on Kush and its environs. But I have to give it props for the cool floating city and related air mage archetype. The Well of Urd and its connection to the World Tree and sisters of fate felt rather Nordic than African in feel even if it ties in to the Midgard sister setting. Kush is a stereotypical “evil magocracy” but the sheer creepiness of the Green Walker and the fact that it sees through the eyes of the infected and much of the rainforest provides some perspective on why many of the kingdom’s inhabitants may view their government as a necessary evil. Join us next time as we travel along the Southland’s western coast, visiting the Kingdoms of Salt and Steel! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Nov 7, 2018 |
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Nov 7, 2018 00:55
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Chapter Five: The Kingdoms of Salt and Steel  Our past few chapters covered nations with explicitly supernatural means of leadership. Nuria Natal’s god-kings, the Dominion’s elemental rulers, and Kush’s archmage lich and the demonic forces pulling the kingdom’s strings. The nations along the Southland’s western coast depart from this; although no stranger to their own wonders, their rulers are mortal. Magically proficient mortals who may have a divine spark, but the four kingdoms of this chapter are run by humanoids, for humanoids. Sebbek Sobor This dwarven-majority country claims descent from the refugees of Haldaheim, a marvellous city brought low by the Green Walker’s ascendance. The refugees fled into the land between Lignas and Narumbeki, and struck a deal with the latter group to provide weapons and armor in exchange for land. Sebbek Sobor’s government is balanced between a pair of elders from each city and the Conclave of Brotherhoods, the latter of which are comprised of noble, clan, and guild leaders. Both groups have checks and balances to temper the other’s power, and neither side is stranger to ambushes and feuds to get some resolution passed. The Brotherhoods representing various artisanry disciplines are the most powerful, while the martial Brotherhood of the Axe provides much of the country’s armed forces. Sebbek Sobor’s world-famous crafting is not solely to the credit of dwarves. The Brotherhood of Embers creates pacts with bound elementals to provide their labor in exchange for tasks, items the elemental likes, and in some rare cases the freedom to roam Midgard to a limited degree. Given the natures of elementals, this results in more than a few angry farmers complaining about damaged crops, but the Conclave hems and haws given how vital the elementals are in powering forges, wind and water-driven devices, and other such technology. Sebbek Sobor’s most popular location for foreigners are the Trade Tents, temporary marketplaces which spring up during the summer months. Coins are not accepted as a viable method of exchange, with all business done via bartering physical goods from metalwork to magical items. We also touch on the dwarven practice of golem-making: although such constructs are primarily used as wardens and sentinels in cities and trade routes, the Brotherhood of the Chisel treats their work as an art form, giving elegant and stylish yet functional forms to their creations. Golemwrights are constantly pursuing new methods of innovation and aesthetics, motivated to stand out among an already-gifted pack. Lignas, Land of Serpent Scholars  This tropical rainforest kingdom still stands as a center of lore and trade since its founding, although it is not the most hospitable to visitors. Lignas’ capital is the same name as the country and is ruled by a theocratic dictatorship: the Coil of Memory is a public religious spy agency which pursues intelligence and mysteries of the world as a means of divining existence. But this knowledge is not free, for its membership grants access of religious lore based on seniority. It is believed that the Coil’s heart is dedicated to moon worship where members are “gifted” with transformation into monstrous lamia. Divine Spark: Its aristocratic head has a tradition where one can only ascend to the throne by assassinating the previous ruler. This is because the first queen of Lignas betrayed and killed her own titan ruler, absorbing the spark for herself. The nature of the spark is that only ritual assassination transfers its powers to a successor. Spirits of past rulers are bound to their skulls and serve the current queen, Mwato Yaav, as advisors. The city of Lignas proper contains one of the last preserved remnants of Glorious Umboso’s architecture. Huge cyclopean walls and structures of stone bend and curve in impossible ways as though they were liquid streams frozen in motion. Numerous smaller human structures and dwellings surround these walls. Canals, aqueducts, and barges serve to manage riverbound travel and feed its fertile farms. The mighty Selwheyha River cuts through the metropolis all the way to the sea, but boatmen never travel that far due to legends and tales of a vicious sea monster living at the end. One of Lignas’ two notable locations includes the Tower of the Scaled Fellowship, the headquarters of the Coil of Memory. Libraries, laboratories, classrooms, and vaults brim with jealously hoarded power. Layers of magical, architectural, and physical security make it one of the hardest places in the Southlands to break into, but the repository of magical spells and secrets makes it a tempting target nonetheless. The other location is the Scroll Market within the city’s outer slums. A network of shadowy doorways and magical huts designed to disappear at the first sign of trouble serve as a black market for untested and smuggled magical contraband of the Coil of Memory’s scribes. Untested alchemical concoctions are also for sale, to varying levels of quality. Merchants and customers alike are expected to arrive masked for anonymity. Kingdom of Morreg, Land of the Ancestors  One could claim that every inch of Morreg’s countless hills and valleys are being monitored, and it would not be far from the truth. Its tiered, stonework cities and towns contain numerous multi-level excavated rock structures connected by open-air bridges spanning deep trenches. Aside from this architectural uniqueness, the day-to-day operation of settlements appears normal on the surface. But the Morregi have a radically different sense of privacy than most foreigners, for unrestricted use of divination dominates daily life. Auguries are cast before most activities to ensure the favor of the fates, while some citizens scry on their neighbors to keep tabs on them. The reason for this is that the government encourages its citizens to be abreast of their surroundings and on the lookout for threats in the name of national security. Some of Morreg’s elite forces even preemptively interfere against individuals and communities beyond their lands in a Minority Report fashion, their state seers predicting future dangers before they arise. Or so the kingdom claims. Morreg’s government is ruled by a hereditary king known as the High Saaxir as well as 100 officials known as the Mhondoros Council. While technically elected, the Council members are appointed after a complex divinatory process, leading Morregi to believe that their rulers are destined for their roles. But the Council has its own political factions who have mutually conflicting agendas. Currently the major policy on the minds of the heads of state is preparing for war with Lignas. Divine Spark: The High Saaxir holds the spark of the titan Amhara in a bejeweled orb. Said spark grants the king the ability to create Living Reliquaries, although it is believed that one who absorbs it directly into their body will gain unlimited oracular abilities. Although it is a rumor rather than a mechanical ability set in stone, the book suggests the ability to cast all divination spells at will is a possibility. Besides the potential insanity that would come from unlimited knowledge, there is a difficulty in stealing something when Morreg’s greatest seers already predicted your plan in action. The other notable feature of Morreg is the practice of creating Living Reliquaries known as “ruuxa.” Morregi culture reveres the wisdom of the dead in the belief that they can see things the living cannot; the most valued citizens are chosen for the honor of becoming ruuxa. At the moment of death, the candidate’s skull is removed, their spirit bound to it, and placed into the carved recesses of one of the many obelisks dotting the countryside. They can converse with passing citizens and also strengthen the power of divination spells: this manifests as granting +1 Caster Level on spells of said school cast within the nation’s borders, or +2 (non-stacking) to those cast within 60 feet of an obelisk. Morreg’s capital, Akxuum, holds the Gray Tower. Here wizards and oracles are taught the arts of combat divination and the powers of arcane archery. There is also a black market which sells magical items that protect against divination spells; its location moves regularly to evade the reach of the authorities. Narumbeki, Shield of the South  Within the vast grasslands northeast of Lignas and southwest of Kush lies one of the Southlands’ mightiest warrior societies. In the era of Glorious Umboso the titan Mwari pitted Narumbeki’s ancestors against simulated armies of other titans for recreational sport. After said empire’s fall the Narumbeki scattered among the savannahs as a warrior culture. The tribes united into a more organized fashion as a counter to Morreg’s ascendance and became experts at organized large-scale warfare. Narumbeki society is highly militarized and analogous to Fantasy Counterpart Zulus. At age six a child is trained in the Legions as a messenger and apprenticed in combat at age twelve. Their society is semi-nomadic, with most settlements being a series of enclosures surrounded by thorn-decorated fences and muddy palisades known as kraal. Larger towns and cities are known as akanda, serving as the headquarters of individual Legion organizations. One of the current campaigns of Narumbeki is keeping the Green Walker’s influence from spreading to the plains, and there are always at least 3 Legions maintaining the border with fire and spell. The literal scorched earth tactics christened the Narumbeki-Kush border the Burning Fields. The Narumbeki Legions proper are organized into hierarchical regiments, with a logistical command structure where smaller forces comprise larger formations. For example, a squad is made of 6 soldiers, while 12 squads form a shield, all the way up to an impi of 864 warriors. Their base ranks have armor and shields made from zebra-hide and spears for melee combat. Beyond foot soldiers the twelve Legions are divided into four groups of three. The Fire Legions use arrows and a unique alchemical poison known as naphtha to soften enemy ranks; the Wind Legions are the fastest warriors capable of traveling great distances; the Stone Legions focus on defensive maneuvering; while the Imbangala are a cavalry supplement of sorcerers who mastered magic to domesticate zebras. Zebras both in real life and in the Southlands are too ornery to be broken like normal horses. These “cavalry casters” know the secret to their domestication and these sorcerers are capable of using a wide variety of spells beyond their discipline, yet another set of mysteries outsiders have not yet solved. Every Legion pays homage to the High Warlord, or Mukani, who settles affairs on a national scale and coordinates military campaigns requiring the alliance of multiple tribes. The current Mukani is Ebo Adashe, whose recent decisions have caused doubt, from expelling Lignan ambassadors on charges of spying to breaking treaties with the gnolls of Dabu. The reality of the situation is that Ebo has been infected by the Green Walker’s spores and is a puppet to a vine lord. Divine Spark: Each Mukani passes down Mwari’s spark to the next in line. The spark grants the ability to imbue sorcerers with spells outside their normal tradition. Anyone who has the spark would have total access to the spell lists of every class, but will be hunted to the ends of the world by the Legions if they are not first burned alive in an outpouring of raw magic. Perilous Sites The Kingdoms of Salt and Steel may have a surplus of well-defended bastions from Narumbeki warbands to Morregi diviners, but it is no stranger to swathes of dangerous territory. The most notable are the temple ruins of Ankrhimari, home to a naga lich known as the Whisperer of Shadows. He is currently excavating the place in search of an artifact known as the Black Crown of Veles, said to grant dominion over the dragonkin races. It is said that Veles the World-Serpent himself created at least three such crowns to allow the “hairy races” some degree of protection from his favorite children. There is also the Dunhumadzi, the largest mountain in the western portion of the continent containing a rumored titan stellar observatory; the shadowy Ezana’s Stone in Morreg’s southern border home to a mage silhouette who answers questions posed by visitors, albeit at the price of only giving answers he believes will cause the most misery possible; the Lost Diamond Caverns home to a clan of crystalline demons; and the Stone Bird Grove, whose eponymous statues come to life to guard a rumored treasure against intruders. Character Options of the Kingdoms  The player-facing options of this chapter are more numerous than the previous chapters. Starting off we have five new archetypes. The Arcane Sculptor (Summoner) trades in their eidolon for the ability to build and maintain animated objects or clockwork creatures. The Cavalry Caster (Sorcerer) trades their bloodline arcana and bloodline spells for the ability to learn a small number (1 spell every odd level) from another class list, not have to roll concentration checks for riding, and gain some mounted combat related features such as being able to summon a supernatural mount or gaining bonuses on ranged touch attacks when you make a mounted charge. The Deep Explorer (Rogue) is the prototypical underground explorer who gains favored enemy against aberrations in place of trap sense, the ability to make a single spelunking-related skill roll (Climb, Heal, Survival, Swim) on behalf of all allies within 30 feet in place of uncanny dodge, and a bonus on Perception and Dungeoneering Knowledge checks equal to half their rogue level in place of improved uncanny dodge. The Jali (Bard) are patriotic Morregi who can read the threads of fate in battle via the use of combat divination. They can learn any sorcerer/wizard spell with a swift or immediate casting time, and they may spend a round of bardic performance to grant a one-use swift/immediate spell they know to every ally within 90 feet as long as they maintain performance. Finally, the unimaginatively-named Tunnel Fighter (Fighter) are dwarves who join organizations of underground guards to defend their homes. They gain class features related to close quarters fighting, replacing their bravery bonus with an equal bonus on Acrobatics and Escape Artist checks, the ability to perform attacks of opportunity against those who try to grapple them no matter the circumstance, fight without penalty when squeezing or sharing a space with another tunnel fighter, flank as long as they and an ally are engaged in melee with the same creature, and a burrow speed of 5 feet at 11th level. Next up we have a few new feats: a pair of item creation feats known as Master Sculptor (create constructs even if you’re not a spellcaster) and Master Carver (put 1/day spell-like ability hieroglyphic symbols on constructs) are neat, but the feat with great potential is Foresight Alacrity which allows you to perform up to two swift and two immediate actions per turn. This is really great, potentially overpowered even, if you are making use of the Path of War sourcebook or similar reaction-based classes and abilities. The only trade-off is that you suffer a -2 penalty on all rolls for that round, and the penalty increases by 1 for every consecutive round you use this feat’s benefits. In a section all on their own, Tactical Feats are associated with the Narumbeki Legions. They are akin to teamwork feats in that they impart benefits for the whole party. They have a base Legion Training feat, and most have a hefty +8 Base Attack Bonus requirement, but they are overall pretty good. For example, the base Legion Training grants you a +2 bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense; but you can also elect to have a +1 bonus and share the other half with all allies within 30 feet. If two or more characters have this feat, they can stack the “shared bonuses” on each other but the maximum amount is limited by said recipient’s character level. This really simulates the “coordinated Zulu Warrior” feel of soldiers who are greater than the sum of their parts in that every other Tactical feat has more or less the same share-based fractional mechanics. The Tactical Step feat can grant a bonus 5 foot step, Accurate Thrust grants a base +2 on attack rolls with piercing weapons and can be split akin to Legion Training, Legion’s Fortification grants 20% chance to negate critical hits or sneak attack damage, and Legion’s Balm grants fast healing 5! The rest of the section pre-magic has miscellaneous information, including the ability to teach new tricks to serpent-based creatures with Handle Animal, the dwarven-brewed naphtha alchemical admixture which is a poison that deals fire damage and can be detonated in large quantities, new poisons from Lignas and stats for war zebras (like horses but gain concealment when among others of their kind in close quarters), and a host of new African-themed familiars from lemurs to scarab beetles.  The Magic of the Kingdoms includes a host of cool new items and spells. We have magic items such as an Eggshell mask which can perform a suggestion spell as a gaze attack twice per day, a Narumbeki Mudzimu Figurine which can detect thoughts for hostile intent and transform into a stone giant to attack said threat, and rituals and incantations such as the ability to conjure Venomous Rain of Retribution to deal poisonous fire damage on a wide area, or Bind the Unwilling Adviser which is used by Lignas’ queens to bind spirits of the departed to your service along with all their non-physical skills and knowledge. We have new generic spells, which are alternate versions of more conventional spells: Blood Pact calls an outsider to make a deal and you gain their damage reduction and vulnerabilities in addition to their service; Swarmshape Summon spells are like Summon Monster, but they summon monsters two levels lower on the latter spell chart who burst into swarms should they be “killed;” and Vipershot imbues your arrows with the ability to turn into vipers after they hit a target. But the lion’s share of new spells are in a section of their own: the fabled Morregi art of Combat Divination! I should note that this is one of my favorite mechanics from the Southlands, both in concept and rules and how it covers a traditional weakness of the spell school in Dungeons & Dragons. You see, conventional divination spells are limited in use when the din of battle starts; the most iconic spells either require maintenance (detect magic and clairvoyance) or have long casting times (augury and clairvoyance). Combat divination spells are swift or immediate actions which allow the user to foresee enemy actions and movements in an “I saw that coming” style of foresight. They can be learned by many classes, even the less-arcane types such as bards and rangers get a few! I won’t list all of them, but some of the cooler ones include Anticipate Attack ( take a 5 foot step to avoid an attack if you get out of its reach/AoE), Anticipate Arcana (gain Spell Resistance against an oncoming hostile spell), Distraction Cascade (cause an enemy to become flat-footed against an ally’s incoming attack on a failed Will save), Scry Ambush (can be cast during a surprise round to act normally and not be flat-footed) and Targeting Foreknowledge (cast after you make a successful attack but before damage, granting you +2d6 bonus damage and increase the critical multiplier by x1). Thoughts So Far: The four countries were relatively brief in length, but I did not mind that as much on account that they more than made up for it with cool fluff and new mechanics. The divine sparks are starting to make more frequent appearances now, and just about every nation has its own tricks and local traditions to make PCs from that region stand out. Morreg has potentially the greatest difficulty in adventuring opportunity, as the huge amount of divination-capable citizens requires some unorthodox thinking by Game Masters to implement. The new archetypes and feats were overall stellar choices. I really liked seeing “team player” focused mechanics pop up, from the Deep Explorer’s rolls for the whole party to the Narumbeki Legion feats and the Jali bard’s ability to grant limited spell use to allies. Join us next time as we sail along the eastern Corsair Coast, visiting exotic isles and clashing sword and spell with pirates, slavers, and sealed demons!
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Nov 11, 2018 06:00
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Joe Slowboat posted:So, I'm pretty sure the city is meant to be Great Zimbabwe, especially given the river with sea serpents (a reference to the Nyami Nyami of the Zambezi, I think?) and the 'curving and cyclopean' walls of the city. Also the lush farmland. Zimbabwe's not generally forested but frankly I'm basically onboard with Lignas, snakes are good and Zimbabwe is cool. Interesting fact; I did not know that about Zimbabwe. Although they are few in number, the Fantasy Africa centric D&D books I have read are quite stellar. Spears of the Dawn and Nyambe come to mind, the former of which I made an F&F for as well. Kingdoms of Kalamar has Svimohzia: the Ancient Isle, although I have not read that and cannot attest to its quality. Given that KoK is known for "low-magic medieval realism," I can't help but imagine it looking something like Kingdom Come Deliverance: Africa Edition. Anyhoo, I have another chapter up for review! Chapter Six: The Corsair Coast  The Southlands’ densely-populated east is the heart of intercontinental maritime trade. Ships from Khandiria, Far Cathay, and the Mharoti Empire prize the Showka Passage for connecting them to western realms, and piracy on all sides is rampant. This region is more Arabian Nights in feel, calling upon Sinbad’s voyages with mythical islands of strange monsters and Near Eastern-inspired kingdoms such as Ishadia and the Sultanate of Shibai. Ishadia Positioned on a land-bridge connecting the Southlands and the Mharoti Empire, Ishadia is the second-most densely populated kingdom on the continent, standing at 9 million to Nuria Natal’s 13 million. A country of beautiful ruin, Ishadia’s marble halls portray angelic artwork and a minority of its populace bears celestial heritage as aasimar. Some of the buildings even contained portals to the upper planes, but now the country’s wonders stand inactive from generations-long war with the Mharoti Empire. As the only land-based gateway to the rest of the Southlands, Ishadia is of prominent importance for the dragon lords in conquering the rest of continent; as of now, the dragonkin have to make do with naval travel to get at the Southland’s riches. Unsurprisingly most Ishadians are grimly deterministic and distrusting. They are proud of the fact that they stand resolute against the horrors of dragon fire and magic, but have few true allies beyond that of convenience against a common foe. Nurians, Lignans, and the people of the Fallen Kingdom of Asksaba (Sar-Shaba) are model minorities who the Ishadians respect from an advanced yet still foreign culture, but dismiss the rest of the Southlands as a savage and undeveloped realm. The Sultanate of Shibai was a former colony of theirs which declared independence, leading to skirmishes which may develop into full war. Shuppurak is Ishadia’s holy capital, home to the Basilica of the White Lion. It is one of the oldest temples of Midgard, and holds daily rituals where mages cast mass versions of ability-enhancing spells such as bull’s strength to worshipers. Its reputation among the good-aligned religions is so great that people across Midgard undertake great pilgrimages here in great caravans. The city also holds the Grand Agiary, home to the Portal of the Heavens which leads to the celestial realms. Alas it is barred from travel except in direst need. The scholars of Kush possess an artifact known as the Oridian Papyrus, detailing a ritual to direct the portal to the Eleven Hells. Most Ishadi are unaware of this, but those in the know from Mharoti saboteurs to Kushite diabolists seek some way to take advantage of this forbidden knowledge. Divine Spark: An order of lammasu patrol the flooded districts of the city of Khazephon, whose great dam was sundered during a Mharoti siege. The holy creatures are tight-lipped about their vigil’s true purpose: protecting the sacred flames still burning within the sanctums, for they house a divine spark split among them. A prophecy states that the spark waits for a true scion of Ishadia to unify it and sit upon the Phoenix Throne, leading the country to a new golden age. Sar-Shaba, City of the Seal  Thousands of angelic seals lay across the borders of this ruined city, for within lay a small army of demons. Sar-Shaba was once the capital of Aksaba, a grand nation whose nobility joined with the Ishadians in a mutual lineage which lead both kingdoms to an era of prosperity. But this would not last, for the Aksaban crown was violently seized in a coup by a demonologist named Harnoch-Khedan. He turned Aksaba into a feared yet powerful state, extracting tribute from the rich Spice Coast while its princes slipped into violence and decadence. The last king regretted the path of this country, and via a series of covert public works projects rebuilt sections of Sar-Shaba into angelic runes. Using the last of his magical power he summoned Aksaba’s demons into the city and trapped them within forevermore. He saved the rest of his now-crumbled empire, at the cost of dooming the people within the city for generations to come. Now numbering a few thousand souls, Sar-Shaba’s mortals are caught between the Heirs of Harnoch, the noble scions still pledged to Sar-Shaba’s remaining demons and devils, and the more numerous common descendants of the Azadim and Makudai lines. The latter were raised with the responsibility of holding a never-ending vigil over the city and keeping the demons contained. Mortals are free to travel to and from the city, but the demons remain trapped and can act through mortal intermediaries. Thus the need for a group to keep tabs on them. Those aligned with evil included Beltih Hamona, the Gilded Queen who holds dominion over Sar-Shaba’s treasury. She was cursed into a metallic form when battle-magic fused much of her hoard to her body in a newly-created infernal pool. There is also the Cult of Ru-Ur, insane humans who worship Ruhabulgog the self-declared general of the remaining demons. Ezudai the Hunter is a mad hermit wild card, seeking to slay demons and innocent mortals alike and as such is an unreliable ally at best. Finally there’s the Amunath, also known as the Blades of Punishment, vengeful spirits powered by unholy relics from a fallen angel. Mortal Aksabans are divided between two ethnic groups: the Azadim who act as warriors and belong to one of two organizations: the Knights of Azhanael who maintain guard duty upon Sar-Shaba’s walls, and the School of Salvation who believe that redeeming the souls fallen to demon-worship is the best way of restoring the city. The Makudai are the other ethnic group and compose the majority of the city’s population: they are tasked with preventing mortal cultists from entering and exiting the city. Their two major organizations include the Queen’s Guard, who no longer serve such a noble title but instead devote efforts to rebuilding the city; and the Swords of Sanctity, an extremist faction who believes that cleansing the realm of all mortals bearing the Azadim heritage will end Sar-Shaba’s woes. As Harnoch-Khedan and his bloodline were Azadim, they hold them as possessing a sort of “original sin.” The Spice Coast Isolated from the rest of the continental Southlands by a crescent-shaped mountain range, the shores of the Viungo Jungle are known as the Spice Coast for its year-round fertile harvest. Home to the top producers of all manner of spices and similar plant-based flavorings, its civilizations are split into autonomous farming communities known as zinjs (singular zinj). The zinjs are managed by rich agricultural companies whose labor force is comprised of slaves taken from all races and whose produce is sold across the Southlands and beyond. Ishadia, Shibai, and the remnants of Aksaba claim rulership over various zinjs, but their rich capital and relative isolation means that they can operate with relative impunity. Five beys, or leaders, more or less rule the Spice Coast, all competing against each other and undertaking raids and economic skullduggery to expand their own lands. All but one of them are your typical ruthless businessmen types save the dwarven paladin Gunnar Von Grisal, who operates his zinj as prison colonies using Ishadian convict labor instead of relying upon chattel slavery. Naturally the Spice Coast’s beys have few allies. Even if they have lots of money, slavers and slave-hunters are not respected professions in much of the Southlands. Many pirates operating out of the Free Isles of Tethys love to conduct raids against the zinjs, and there’s a covert group of rebels known as Azadi who operate a network of safe houses and smuggler’s dens to help runaway slaves. Free Islands of Tethys [img]https://i.imgur.com/S8uzysd.jpg][/img] This long chain of tropical islands hangs off the eastern coast of the Southlands. No single government or power group lays claim over its majority, making it a favored stop for all manner of pirates as well as sahuagin and merfolk tribes. Most of the “communities” here are fleets of vessels of varying loyalties, and the only mainland port which regularly trades with the Free Islands is the rowdy city of Mhalmet. Also known as the City of Freedom, this pirate-run community is governed by a council of raiders, swashbucklers, and thieves who collect taxes in the form of protection money from all manner of vessels. Mhalmet is also home to a social club of explorers and big game hunters known as the Sandalwood Club who use the community as a base of operations for future expeditions into the Southlands proper. The three most notable fleets of the Free Island are as follows: The first is the Istagal Raiders, former slaves who wage a war against all those who would put others in bonds. They make liberal use of weather magic to grant concealment and mobility to their ships, and an alchemist among them recently invented a catapult shot which releases maddened mandrills upon impact. His ship is known as the Baboon's Fury for this very reason. Fatima Al-Graghn leads the second fleet and is the undisputed pirate queen of the Spice Coast. An exile from the Mharoti Empire, her flagship is fond of raiding Ishadian vessels and capable of diving beneath the waves only to breach and soar above them for a quarter-league. Intisar the Manacle is a psychotic pirate who spares nobody in his incessant raids along the Southlands’ eastern shore. He only spares survivors so that they can spread tales of his terrible deeds, and his hidden harbor is carved into deep tunnels. Possible Divine Spark: Intisar has been known to wield magic of the titans, which some surmise to be from some lost treasure within his secret island stronghold. Note: In the Southlands Bibliography thread on Paizo, one of the writers mentioned that he drew inspiration from Madagascar pirates of the Age of Sail. Sultanate of Shibai  Founded by a conglomeration of Ishadian merchant houses, the island nation of Shibai sits at the crossroads of the maritime Showka Passage which brings them untold riches from all corners of the world. Ostentatious displays of wealth are not uncommon, including a literal street paved with gold in the capital protected by a magical wall of force to deter thieves. Its government has a sultan who is elected by popular vote, although he rules in name only as a hierarchy of 36 merchant houses controls various aspects of governance and trade. The capital of Mosylon is known as the City of Golden Towers where even the pauper’s homes are made of cut marble. The merchant princes and princesses are fond of building ever-taller and more elaborate towers to outdo each other; children, thieves, and heru are fond of climbing them. Shibai is also the center of the slave trade in the eastern Southlands. Merchant ships are routed through the island nation in a network where spices, manufactured goods, and people are trafficked between the Spice Coast and eastern realms such as Far Cathay. In spite of being heavily armed it is not uncommon for Shibai’s ships to be the target of pirate attacks, whether by altruistic abolitionists or profiteering privateers. Kesara, the Land of the Saffron Rajah  An isolated valley accessible only by a single well-patrolled road sits to the north of the Spice Coast. This kingdom is rich thanks to the cultivated saffron of its name, but its ruler is a mad rakshasa of great power. The isolation of the realm, along with his unmatched magical talent, means that he lives and is treated like a living god where the populace of slaves seek to please him and avoid his wrath. Unfortunately the Saffron Rajah is a mercurial, easily-bored being who finds entertainment in coming up with new ways to torment the populace. For this reason he relishes any and all visitors who come down his way. The lucky ones who entertain him may walk out of the valley with unique artifacts and riches; the unlucky ones never make it out at all. Kesara’s culture can be surmised as an extended, demented piece of performance art conducted by a sociopathic manchild. The citizens are always smiling no matter the occasion, but they are the smiles of worn, tired men and women desperate to conceal their emotions. High positions such as advisor and royal cook are in fact punishments; the Rajah hates when his advisor simply agrees with him on everything even as he ignores said advice so even obsequiousness is a punishment. As for the royal cook, the Rajah has a fondness for the flesh of rebellious citizens and those who cannot please him. Even his own Saffron Watch is measured so that those who grow too skilled (and thus a threat to his power) are promoted to the Rajah’s Guard and never seen again. The Playing FIelds in the Palace of Water are where he hosts all manner of gruesome games, and is a place where visitors have a chance at betting something (usually their lives or freedom) in order to gain some rare treasure or lore from the mercurial rakshasa. Two of the Rajah’s most notable treasures are the contents of the Royal Archives and the secret Godflesh Liquor. The Royal Archives are a series of chambers holding all manner of dark secrets the monster attained over his immortal lifespan. In fact, this is the only location of spells of the shadowflesh subschool (detailed in another Kobold Press product, Deep Magic), which include macabre rituals such as forming slaves out of darkness to hunt and eat one’s enemies. Possible Divine Spark: The Godflesh Liquor is a potent drink of pomegranate wine distilled from a secret vat twice a year. Given only to his most favored subjects, the liquor is distilled from the body of a godling and has unpredictable effects on the imbiber. Sometimes they get prophetic visions, other times they experience strong urges of sin or loftier emotions such as charity and mercy. Lion Kingdom of Omphaya The savannah kingdom of Omphaya is the spiritual homeland of the nkosi, even though they are outnumbered by humans here 5 to 1. It is a warrior society where citizens are encouraged to strive for physical and mental excellence in all they do, and such feelings have only been magnified since the return of Gamka. One of the few surviving titans of Glorious Umbuso, Gamka broke out of his Veles-wrought prison beneath the Gorgonkin Mountains last year and claimed the Lion Throne of Omphaya. He fills his citizens with patriotic fervor, claiming that the country is but the first step on the resurrection of Glorious Umbuso and considers himself the sole legitimate ruler of all of the Southlands. Gamka goes out of his way to endear himself to his people, using his massive size and strength to help with fieldwork and pump the bellows for smiths. But all is not well, for Gamka is insistent on adopting what he claims are the more controversial customs of his heritage, such as hosting gladiatorial games to the death of prisoners and consuming the flesh of those who anger him. He also violently drove the worshipers of Bastet from the country, claiming their temples as his new shrines. The populace is willing to overlook these things for now, treating them as strange obsessions of an overall lovable leader. It is Gamka’s second in command, the raskahsa vizier Bhukasta, who receives the brunt of Omphayan’s ill will. Bhukasta is in charge of the nation’s army which makes regular raids into trollkin lands and sends spies out to far-off kingdoms, and his secret police disappear those who object too loudly to Gamka’s cruel policies. Interestingly one could surmise Gamka’s nature indirectly by looking at the pantheon entries of earlier kingdoms. Recall how the gods wear masks to appear as different entities? In the Lands of the Saffron Rajah, Gamka is listed as one of the gods worshiped, as a mask of Vardesain. Vardesain is one of the Dark Gods of gluttony and hunger from the Midgard Worldbook. Additionally, Bhukasta was the one who freed Gamka from his imprisonment at the hands of the world-serpent, manipulating him with insidious spells to believe that his blood-sports and cannibalism are “Umbuson traditions.” Bhukasta hopes to steal Gamka’s divinity for himself. Divine Spark: Speaking of which, Gamka’s spark could not be easily re-absorbed, so he transferred it into a bone and gold Mantle of the Triumphant Fang. Made from the sharpened teeth of a thousand lions, he is slowly absorbing the spark’s power, and he can transform favored champions into nkosi. Someone mighty, bold, and lucky enough to wrest the spark from the titan can transform into nkosi or dire lion form at will. Not all are satisfied with the new government. The Jaga Rebellion is an independent cell of resistance fighters who believe that the current Gamka is not the one of legend. As of now they are too small and disorganized to put up a sizable threat, but Bhukasta treats them as deadly as any other proclamation of sedition. Cattle Queens of Terrotu This sprawling country of mild climate and rolling hills and grassland is home to nomadic Zwana tribes whose livelihoods revolve around ankole herds. Their society is matriarchal: men serve as defenders and guard the animals, but the ankole are owned by women who virtually control every other societal aspect from government to trade. The “Cattle Queens,” or Malkia, are rulers of their own tent-cities and elect a Malkia Makem, or Queen of Queens, to be their leader. Judging by the names and titles of some of the important NPCs via Google search (The Malkia Mazaber Aussa Mudiato; or Kedafu, Lord General of the Tramplers, etc), the names of the Terrotu are analogous to Ethiopian names of antiquity. Which is interesting, as I do not recall if Ethiopia was renown for a nomadic herding culture. The Malkia Makem’s election process is held at the sacred Temple of Onyx and Ruby. This holy site is the only one of two permanent structures of the kingdom, the legendary resting place of their titan founder. The Temple also hosts a festival known as the Mustering every seven years, where priestly diviners predict whether the next bout of years in the intervening time will bear good fortune or ill by determining the state of Enkai’s battle against the demon. Divine Spark: The Terrotu worship the woman titan Enkai, who created the ankole cattle as a blessed gift for her chosen people. She gave up her spark as an act of great sacrifice when a demon sought to possess her form, imprisoning herself in the Temple of Onyx and Ruby where it is said she still struggles to this day. This internal fight over her own soul is explained as the dual sides of nature itself: Enkai Narok, “the Black Goddess,” represents the benevolence of nature represented in rich bounty and beauty. Enkai Nanyoki, “the Red Slaughter,” represents the crueler and violent sides of nature. The other permanent structure is the stonecut city of Mazabar, Terrotu’s primary trading hub for merchants across the Corsair Coast as well as the people of Ramag. The closest thing the country has to a military are the Tramplers, border guards who defend the nation from threats such as raiding bands and the tosculi of the Titan’s Hive. Both groups are fond of stealing ankole herds. Perilous Sites of the Corsair Coast This vast realm is a cornucopia of dangerous locations ripe with adventure, and quite a few of them are Sinbad-style islands home to some unique feature or group of monsters. Some of the more notable locations are as follows: Behtu-Nari, an island was once home to a tribe of pygmy halflings known as the Behtu. When a brutal demon lord by the name of Mechuiti was spat into Midgard via a volcanic eruption, he unleashed great destruction on the island and spared the Behtu in exchange for their eternal servitude. He enacted a cross-breeding program with apes and demonic blood, turning them into his monstrous tiefling-ape minions. So yeah. The whole “humans breeding with apes to become monsters” has all kinds of problems in a Fantasy Africa context, which makes it stand out all the more on account of how otherwise stellar this book has been in avoiding Unfortunate Implications. Other locations in the Corsair Coast include a dangerous City of the Sahuagin who scavenge great treasures of the sea but view all landbound races as surface food; the Isle of the Rukhs, home to the massive birds of legend whose island is riddled with tunnels of unknown origin; the Kimona Proving Ground, where hopeful Omphayan warriors (and those from lands beyond) visit to take grueling challenges to join the elite Lopwe’s Fang warrior society; and the Twisting Tower, an ominous former retreat of a titan archmage home to all manner of dangerous forgotten experiments. The titan’s insane mind bonded with the tower, and is now capable of molding halls and rooms into all manner of dangerous traps and terrain. We end this section with three adventure seeds: a dungeon-like massive baobab tree serving as a mausoleum for generations of jali bards now inhabited by a malevolent spirit; a Terrotu warrior who made a boast at a Muster of being able to climb the mountainous monuments of the Titan’s Spine and hires the PCs to accompany him on the trip; and a lost diamond mine in the Spice Coast, home to great riches but also deadly monsters and the odd rival treasure hunter band. Character Options of the Corsair Coast  A surprisingly high amount of options for this chapter are Terrotu-centric. The text even mentions that their magical traditions dominate the region. Only the celestial-centric magic in the northern reaches is called out as the other one of note (here we’re helpfully pointed once again to Kobold Press’ Deep Magic sourcebook for more information). Our sole archetype is the Holy Trampler (Slayer) who defend Terrotu’s herding grounds and sacred shrines. They trade in their sneak attack progression for Trampler’s Shape, a progressing form of of polymorph where for 1 minute per level each day they can change into a type of beast. At lower levels they can only take the forms of animals and ones close to Medium size, but as they increase in level they can shapeshift into magical beasts, humanoids with the giant subtype, and sizes from Diminutive to Huge. At 7th level they trade in their Stalker class feature for Above Notice, where they gain a +4 to stealth when they shapeshift into a form of at least Large size. Their 20th level capstone ability, Titanic Slayer, increases the size category an additional level when they transform into a giant subtype creature and increases their Above Notice bonus to +8. We get some new complementary slayer talents, such as Minor/Major Nature Magic which grants the casting power a 0 or 1st level druid/ranger spell as a spell-like ability, or Spellgouge which deals bleed damage with an attack against an opponent about to cast magic and forces them to make concentration checks until the wound is healed. Our two new feats include Lion’s Lope for natives and long-term residents of grassland areas which increases your base movement speed by 5 feet; and Trampler’s Scion, which imposes the sickened condition on targets which you demoralize via Intimidate (the target is sickened and demoralized, so both conditions stack for a whopping -4 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks as well as -2 on weapon damage rolls). For magic, our sole magic item is the Mantle of the Lion, a prized Omphayan relic which can allow the wearer to gain a bite attack (or doubled critical threat range if they already have it) and the ability to polymorph into a dire lion. The Ankole Sorcerer Bloodline is descended from those who had close ties to the titan goddess Enkai. Its bloodline arcana and powers center around the strength of the herd, such as adding twice your Strength bonus to CMB and CMD, projecting ghostly ankole horns to charge an enemy as a ranged attack, inherent bonuses to Strength and natural armor, the ability to cast righteous might as a spell-like ability, and a 20th level capstone ability which increases your size category by 1 permanently along with a host of other features: the scent quality, a 10 foot base speed increase, and even more permanent bonuses to Strength, Constitution, and natural armor. The six new spells include Ankole Stampede, an AoE which summons a herd of ankole spirits; Healer’s Bane, which turn the most recent healed value of a restoration spell (cure x wounds, heal) into damage; Herdmind, which establishes a limited group telepathy with one ally per level; Horned Gore, which is a ranged attack that deals force and bleed damage; Leechspray, which damages and nauseates a targeted creature via a ball of summoned leeches; and Physician’s Eye, which attunes the target to the plagues and illnesses of the world, imposing a bonus on a single Heal or Survival check made anytime within the next X hours equal to the Caster Level of the spell. Our chapter ends with stat blocks for two new animals common along the Corsair Coast. The Ankole is a massive elephant-sized cattle animal: a CR 3 Huge creature with an impressive 31 Strength and an even more impressive gore (+10, 2d6+15) and trample attack (3d6+15, Reflex save DC 21) to boot. The Zwana Lion is a cousin to the standard lion but with the agility of a leopard. They are not as powerful as other big cats (Medium size) so they rely upon speed, group attacks, and high cunning for a creature of the Animal type. Zwana lions are Challenge Rating 2 and have weak natural attacks (bite is +4, 1d6+1 and grab) and 2 claws (+4, 1d3+1) along with the Pounce and Rake special attacks. Interestingly the Zwana lion breaks the Pathfinder rules. Although of the Animal type, its Intelligence score is 4. Animals in Pathfinder can only be 2 or lower. There is no supernatural rationale for why these felines are so canny; they just are. Thoughts So Far: The Corsair Coast is a cool region. You can find urban adventure in Shibai’s golden streets and Mahlmet’s rough and tumble port town. Swashbuckling adventure is a mainstay, and PCs can feel heroic when fighting the pirates and slavers of the Spice Coast or clashing wits with the mad Saffron Rajah. There aren’t many opportunities for traditional dungeon delves, and the racially problematic ape-hybrids of Behtu-Nari are the black mark on an otherwise stellar chapter and book. Join us next time as we head to the Abandoned Lands, the treacherous geographic heart of the Southlands home to the fallen legacies of Glorious Umbuso!
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Nov 14, 2018 02:17
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Chapter Seven: the Abandoned Lands  Dominating the geographical center of the continent, the Abandoned lands are a sparsely inhabited region where the capital of Glorious Umbuso once sat. The collapse of the titan empire and its ley lines left much of the region a dangerous place, but even the promise of riches and lore draw explorers to this forbidding realm every year. Ramag The Ramag people were a tribe of humans allied with Glorious Umbuso, gifted with the ability to manipulate magical ley lines to help their larger neighbors build works of wonder. When the insane plague gripped the titans, the Ramag sheltered themselves within the city of Ramagani (or “home” in their native tongue). Ramagani still stands to this day, geographically spread all over the Abandoned Lands and outlying regions but considered one city thanks to the network of teleportation portals. Said portals are linked together via stable ley lines and maintained by huge monoliths. The ambient magical energies of said structures slowly changed the Ramag humans into a still-humanoid yet highly magical race; most Ramag appear as humans, but with slightly longer limbs and much thicker strands of hair usually tied back in fanciful clasps. Day to day life in Ramagani is much like that of other Southlands cities, although their teleportation network makes their civilization a trade hub par excellence. They also are the greatest repository of titan lore in the Southlands, privy to their language, hidden sites, and magical traditions unknown elsewhere. Ramag’s neighborhoods are arranged in a ring-like pattern with monoliths around the edges, and at least one of those portals leads to the main city which is located on an island off the southern coast of the Southlands. Maintaining the monoliths is a vital public service, and every adult learns an incantation to bind their soul to the structure in death and are entombed in the monolith. At its basic function this keeps the magical energy flowing, but the presence of more powerful spellcaster’s souls can grant bonus effects such as animated statue guardians, long-ranging abjurations covering entire neighborhoods, and so on. If you’re wondering how far-spread Ramagani’s portals reach, the answer is very far. You can download a free copy of the setting map from Drive-Thru RPG to see for yourself, but the book itself lists eight of the largest ones: two just south of Kush, two near the Skittering Ones’ Web, one in Mafri near the Eleyin Mountains, one along the southernmost coast of Terrotu, one west of Terrotu, and countless more not on the map. The book teases us with potential lost portals used as secret refuges, failed settlements, and forgotten streets of other cities. Ramagani’s government has a council of elders whose members are elected by popular vote, and a king or queen chosen from the elders during New Year celebrations to serve a 10 to 15 year term. The end of the term entombs the regent in one of the monoliths, usually to replace one with fading magical energies or reinforce a weakened portion of ley line. Ramagani’s defenses are also appropriately extraordinary. The Stormwatch manages ley-line powered siege ballistae crackling with magical lightning to ward off enemy armies and monsters, while a guild known as the Scaled Keepers raise and hatch pterodactyl eggs in special incubated houses to serve the military as aerial cavalry. In the event of a magical disaster breaking or severing a ley line, the heavily-armed Ley Wardens patrol the Abandoned Lands’ environs to repair and protect them with exacting rituals. Tosculi, the Golden Swarm  Finally we get to learn more about everyone’s favorite wasp-people! This section serves as an overview of all tosculi settlements in the Southlands, and not just the ones in the Abandoned Lands although they are most populous there. The buzzing sounds of the insect’s flying raiders is one of the most-feared things among the realm’s travelers, and there are few things which unite the Abandoned Land’s scattered people than an invasion of the Golden Swarm. The tosculi worship the archdevil Arbeyach, working to expand their hives into new territory. Raiders kidnap people to take back to their hives, where they implant the prisoners with eggs for their larvae to feed off of and grow before emerging from the drained corpse as new tosculi drones or warriors. They have a hostile foreign policy with just about every other political power bloc, even each other. Although tosculi have the same long-term goal and worship the same god, their six major hives are ruled over by queens who all want to be supreme ruler of the Southlands themselves and brook no competition. We get a list of four of the largest hives of the Golden Swarm. There exist smaller ones all over the Southlands, but tend to be tiny affairs ranging from two dozen to a few thousand tosculi at most. Snowcap Hive lairs in the cold mountains of the Southern Fringe (the following chapter), built from immense pillars of mud reaching into the sky. Titans’ Hive lairs in the southwest portion of the Abandoned Lands, a former settlement of Glorious Umbuso now almost completely encased in mud-like resin structures. It is unknown to what extent the tosculi are aware of the titans’ powers, although they do seem knowledgeable of the ruins’ many magical items. Corpsehive is perhaps the most macabre settlement, for a large portion of its structure is composed of tosculi corpses frozen in resignation, arms and jaws locked before death. The Corpsehive tosculi are also known to build sacred cattle of the Terrotu into their structures as well, their skulls separated as trophies on display by their queen. The Great Hive of Arbeyach gets the most detail, and it’s not even in the Abandoned Lands proper: it’s actually east of Kush and west of Sar-Shaba, which would technically place it in the Corsair Coast. The Tosculi call it Crecretellock, or “Green Hill City” in their tongue. It was the first relam of the tosculi to convert to the archdevil’s worship, and for this loyalty they are the strongest and most fanatical of the hives. Arbeyach’s herald, the unique devil Ia-Affrat, sits within the hive and actually has contempt for the wasp-folk. He sees them as dirty, boring, and ugly and is prone to inflict abuse upon them for minor infractions. The Great Hive is a mostly-vertical settlement, divided into sections of chimney-like hives. The Farsight Chimney grants the best view of the surrounding territory, while the Orange Chimney holds scribes, artists, merchants selling unique living items of the Tosculi, and swarm masters raising mundane insects to use in war or as sacrifices to Arbeyach. The Sky-Templer of Arbeyach is the religious center of the city and also home to its butcheries. The War and Commerce Chimney holds the living quarters for most of the soldier caste and serves as a storehouse and armory. The Royal Chimney hosts the hive’s governance and living quarters of Hive-Queen Tekli, who sits upon a throne of carved jet embedded with precious gems. A few travelers of other races are brought here to share news of caravan and settlement development, although the Queen is fond of inviting less-favorable visitors to her private quarters where she promptly insults and dismembers them. Munayo, the Floating Village  Lake Debari, the largest body of freshwater in the Southlands, holds an entire town upon its lulling waves. Hundreds of fishing-boats and barges lashed and tethered together form a city upon the clear waters. Many boats are capable of lone travel and have departed from the fleet, but most remain docked in Munayo for decades. The town’s ancestors swore an oath to never set foot on solid ground, for they are tasked with constant vigil of a threat they claim sleeps at the bottom of the lake. They do not share this with outsiders, but the Munayo’s oldest stories explain of how their ancestors paid tribute to marid genies who lived within a magnificent city surrounding a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water. They later came to revere the titans of Glorious Umbuso who protected them from the dangers of the continent, and this did not seem to cause conflict between them and the marid. When the titan empire collapsed, a leviathan emerged from the portal and devastated the marid city. One of the dying titans tried to kill the creature, but the insanity wrought by her plague made her cast the wrong spell and instead put the beast in a deep slumber. The people of Munayo had a front-view stage to Umbuso’s burning cities and the broken remnants of the marid buildings. After mourning their lost neighbors, they made an oath to continue where the genies and titans left off by watching over the lake. Munayo’s demographics are mostly Zwana humans, but some undines, elves, and fey-touched trollkin live among the boats. Seafood gained from fishing and diving comprises the majority of their diet, although a few sturdy boats with soil grow floating gardens. Everyone knows how to swim and the village’s warriors train in underwater warfare for the inevitable time when the behemoth rises. They have a large community of spellcasters, more divine than arcane, but bards are popular due to strong storytelling traditions. Much of the lake’s natural resources are turned into tools, and mussel shells are the most versatile. They can be used as pottery, eating utensils, or even forged into scale mail armor. The people of Munayo accept foreigners into their settlements for three days, but those who wish to remain longer must become full citizens and “leave behind the land.” They undertake a test to dive to one of the ruined marid towers and retrieve a relic of that land; those who survive the ordeal are welcomed with a weeklong feast along with the full history of the Munayo and their status. For those who wish to play as Munayo PCs, the village holds a blind lottery every three years for six among their number. Those chosen are tasked with venturing into the Abandoned Lands to harvest and trade for resources unobtainable on Lake Debari. Unfortunately this breaks their taboo, and they are treated as outsiders who must leave the village after three days once they return with the needed supplies. Munayo’s entry ends with 14 locations within town and 3 adventure hooks. The hooks include an oracle making contact with a ghostly marid deep beneath the waves who is not all-benevolent, another involves helping an exile return a treasured keepsake to the village they were sworn to never return to, and the third involves braving the underwater ruins at the risk of waking the sleeping behemoth. The locations are nothing special, mostly detailing mundane stores and important personages responsible for community affairs. Perils of the Abandoned Lands Most of the Abandoned Lands is located on the Aggesal Plains, home to very large wildlife such as dinosaurs and towering megafauna. Beyond these obvious dangers, a more subtle one deadly to spellcasters manifests from the warped and broken ley lines. Beyond the stable ones of Ramagani the majority twist, link, break, and form in random patterns. Any time a spell, spell-like ability, or magical item is activated, there is a 20% chance a caster is within a region of broken ley lines, triggering a primal magic effect on a failed concentration check (DC 15 + twice the spell’s level or caster level if a magic item or ability). We have an entire table for failed results here:  As you can see, there’s a fair amount of negative backlash and unexpected positive results. It reminds me of the Wasted West region from the Midgard Worldbook, which more or less operates under similar mechanics. Afterwards we get eight locations of miscellaneous locations within the Abandoned Lands. They include the Trollkin Kingdom of Nmabi ruled over by a reincarnated adventurer who believes himself to be a divine king; the Palace of the Heris, home to a community of white-furred sapient apes awakened by a long-dead race of sorcerers wiped out by a magical plague; the Rift Valley of Kimvai, home to titan-sized cavernous structures dotting the canyon walls where human and heru communities inhabit, some of whom gone mad and form cults to dark gods; the Shattered Roads, huge stone highways reaching out from Glorious Umbuso’s capital capable of doubling travel speed but filled with erratic and hazardous magic; the Skittering Ones’ Web, a rainforest home to a race of spider monsters who sold their souls to a demon lord and make raids against Terrotu and coastal vessels; and the Treehomes of the Mafri, a group of two dozen Zwana villages who live in a jungle canopy east of Lignas. The Mafri worship serpents of all kinds, based on a creation myth where great snakes protected their ancestors from a cataclysmic rain of stone and fire, and leave sacrifices of prisoners to shrines. Precious stones are given back in the same location the day after as a reward from their gods. Their “gods” in question are subterranean serpentfolk who are more than happy to use the Mafri as a buffer against enemies and even have a few spies in Lignas (who they do not treat as an ally just because of a shared love of serpents). Gala’ikos, the former capital of Glorious Umbuso, is second in the list but has more word count so I’m treating it as its own section. Its towering spires of crystal and glass reflect sunlight onto the streets, and some of the city’s floating palaces still orbit the perimeter. Although Gala’ikos still looks beautiful, the lost legacy of the titans can be seen in etched runes of blood written by victims of the maddening plague. The structures are built for inhabitants 70 feet tall, which would ordinarily make conventional travel for human-sized people difficult if not impossible. But many structures have separate human-sized entrances and stairs for the titans’ mortal followers which mitigates this. The titans’ descendants still occupy the city as deformed, insane beings a shadow of their former power. They are prone to violent mood swings, react with hostility to intruders, and worship the city’s magical devices and phenomena as though they were gods. Some of the notable locations within Gala’ikos include a Floating Prison which housed some of the empire’s greatest criminals, but is now mostly empty save for a nest of vrock demons and a trio of evil gods imprisoned near the prison’s center. The Hall of Creatures is a crystal dome housing a menagerie of life forms from across Midgard and other planes. The menagerie’s occupants survived in their own ecosystem, malfunctioning construct caretakers barely able to contain the population. The broken wards are how the Abandoned Lands became home to so many dinosaurs and megafauna. Finally, six cocoons of floating crystal known as the Sleeping Gods each contain the comatose form of a titan, and the academy ruins they orbit hold the secret to awakening them. Character Options of the Abandoned Lands  The PC-facing options are a bit short, focusing heavily on magic. Our sole new race is the ramag. They are heavily inclined towards brainy arcane caster types: -2 Strength and Constitution, +2 Dexterity and Intelligence, are Medium native outsiders, gain +1 racial bonus on all caster level checks made to use ley lines, treat Spellcraft and Use Magic Device as class skills, and have Spell Resistance equal to 11 plus their character level. The only archetype we have is the Snakebound Hunter (Ranger), a tradition among the Mafri people who bond closer with serpents so as to be better hunters and warriors. They trade out wild empathy in exchange for a viper or constrictor animal companion whose progression advances as a druid rather than ranger. But their biggest class feature is replacing favored enemy and favored terrain for the ability to duplicate an extraordinary ability from an animal, vermin, humanoid, or monstrous humanoid within 30 feet as a full-round action a limited number of times per day (and for a limited number of rounds). At higher levels they can mimic more powers at once and choose from a wider amount of up to 6 other creature types (aberration, construct, fey, magical beast, outsider, and plant). The Snakebound Hunter eplaces hunter’s bond with the ability to gain a limited set of snake-themed powers (natural weapons, climb speed, scent, and/or natural armor bonus) for a number of minutes per day equal to his class level. Finally at 20th level they trade out master hunter in exchange for the ability to shapeshift into a giant anaconda at will and can cast spells in that form. This is potentially a very powerful ranger archetype, as the mimicry ability can expose you to a large amount of variant monster-exclusive powers. The only major restriction is that it must be a creature physically present at the time, but with a friendly party summoner this can be circumvented. The Magic of the Abandoned Lands has three parts. The first detail the game mechanics of ley lines, which are a reprint from the main Midgard books (2012 and 2017). For those unfamiliar with said ruleset, it is an unseen geographical feature restricted to locations, but with a proper caster level check a spellcaster can tap into the ley line and enhance a cast spell with an automatic metamagic feat with no increase of spell level. The metamagic in question is randomly rolled, and the ley lines’ overall strength (weak/strong/titanic) determines the overall strength of available feats. A failure on a caster level check means the spell functions as normal, but a natural 1 causes the spell to be lost without effect, the ley line vanishes for 24 hours from being overtaxed, and the caster suffers a backlash which is a randomly rolled long-lasting debuff. The ley line rules are a cool and thematic aspect and give an incentive for spellcasters and nations to fight over land and territory. All of the River Nuria is a Titanic Ley Line, for instance. But the lines being inherent on location means that their frequency in campaigns are subject to and reigned in by GM Fiat. Tosculi Living Items are 8 new magical items made by the insectoid race to augment their drones when higher-caste members are in short supply. They are specially-crafted devices made to be attached to a living body via surgery and cannot be disarmed or removed, but can be attacked and sundered like an object. The items include a stunted wing graft which grants a constant nonmagical feather fall and glide abilities; tosculi antennae grant the scent ability; tosculi carapace grants a +3 natural armor bonus which can stack with innate natural armor, and 2 of those points may be sacrificed as an immediate action to heal the wearer 10 HP per point of sacrificed AC; tosculi healing resin is smeared over wounds and broken objects, granting fast healing to injured creatures or removes the broken condition from an object; tosculi lenses make your eyes insect-like and grant +5 on Sense Motive and Perception checks in exchange for a -2 penalty on saving throws against light, gaze, and pattern illusion effects; tosculi pheromone glands allow silent communication with other gland-possessors at a range of 30 feet (people with scent can detect the general emotions and not the “words”); tosculi saliva allows other living items to be safely removed from helpless, willing, or dead creaturers; and tosculi spurs grant a retractable dagger-like weapon with enhanced versions that can deal acid damage or inject Strength-damaging poison. The magic of the Abandoned Lands revolves around the legacy of the titans. Scholars of Glorious Umbuso deign titan magic as “Words of Power,” utterances which can alter reality. In fact, the 6 new spells are keyed off of the Words of Power optional subsystem of Pathfinder’s Ultimate Magic. In short, Words of Power’s magic are “wordspells” stringed together to form a spell’s combined effects. It is not a system I am familiar with, but this gentleman on Giant in the Playground wrote a comprehensive guide for it. The six new utterances include Fire in the Heavens, which can hurl several creatures into the air and set their blood on fire; Force Spike, a shard of pure force which smashes into a target as a ranged or melee touch attack; Polar Palsy which freezes a target’s muscles and blood with sheer cold, paralyzing them and dealing cold damage; Rending Word, which causes a creature to be afflicted with overwhelming fear to the point that their internal organs burst, potentially causing 200 damage on a failed save and disabling the target’s spell-like abilities for 1d4 rounds; Severed Tendon, which impedes a creature’s movement by reducing their base land speed by 30 feet (5 feet minimum) for the duration of the utterance; and finally Shattering Dream, which commands a creature to throw an object held in its hand as far as possible before the spell’s second effect shatters or severely breaks it. Thoughts So Far: The Abandoned Lands is a bit hit-or-miss for me. I got the feel of the whole “barren wilderness where giants once sat,” but areas with this theme are common enough in the other chapters that it doesn’t feel truly unique. The Ramag’s high-magic society is interesting and can be a useful nexus for “fast travel” across the continent. I cannot put my finger on it, but I liked Munayo. It reminds me of Fisherman’s Horizon from Final Fantasy 8, which had a very calming atmosphere and a populace dedicated to a worthy ideal. The new rules options were the weakest part. The Ramag are a good race mechanics-wise and the Snakebound Hunter is powerful in the right hands, but the reprint of ley lines and the new magic being words of power meant that it was of limited use to me as I already own the Midgard sister setting. It may be of better use for those who purchased Southlands as their own product. Join us next time as we cover the Southern Fringe, home to a lost minotaur colony, an island nation of xorn elementals, and a mysterious Bottled City home toassassins, thieves, and all manner of scum and villainy!
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Nov 15, 2018 23:42
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Chapter Eight: The Southern Fringe  The Southlands’ southernmost tip is literally and figuratively the final frontier. With the exception of Sudvall, its environs are hostile to outsiders and its civilizations just as dangerous. From the conquering lizardfolk of Veles-Sa to the xorn slavers of Zanskar, most of its population are nonhumans or ruled by nonhumans. The Zobanu Jungle dominates much of the Fringe, with the mountainous island of Zanskar off the southeastern coast. Ramagani’s central portal nexus harbor is directly south of the Fringe as well. Former Satrap of Sudvall Sudvall is a melting pot culture of lost refugees from Roshgazi, knights from the northern Magdar Kingdoms who got lost on a shadow road, and the indigenous kijani. Its architectural style bears more in common with the northern kingdoms (think Central/Eastern Europe) than anywhere else in the Southlands along with cultural touchstones such as jousting tournaments. The kijani-influenced reverence for nature is the primary form of religion which keeps in check the brutality and violence inherent in a feudal system. On the surface, Sudvall appears as a harmonious multicultural realm where valiant knights and courtly etiquette really do live up to the ideals told in storybooks. But visitors who wrong a Sudvallan soon learn their crimes bring a disproportionately violent response upon them. Sudvall’s government is ruled by a high marshal drawn from a list of candidates by popular vote every 10 years. The top 16 most-voted for people then compete in the Grand Tourney, a jousting competition of single-elimination matches where the winner becomes the ruler of the nation. An additional clause in the line of selection mandates a minotaur ruler, then a human, then a kijani to ensure that no race gains a disproportionate amount of power. Races not represented in the current marshaldom elect speakers who act as the marshal’s advisors. The current High Marshal is the minotaur Sir Rusa Miklos, whose term is going to end in 1 year. We also cover the Kijani of Sudvall, who more or less repeat the information from Chapter One. Afterwards we cover the iconic locations: the capital Susa, the Jewel of the Southern Moon where buildings are made of green marble and cultivated trees and shrubs line its streets; Pentecor, a manufacturing hub; Nyse the Opened Eye, home to the nation’s most renowned mage college and Tinkers Guild; Mistorak, a jungle city which serves as border protection from Veles-Sa’s aggressions; Anion, its fertile farmland the breadbasket of the nation and where kijani-bound symbiotes are more common. This is due to the belief the race act as good luck charms for harvesting. Finally we have Cusash, an epicurean city of artisans and alchemists whose lives are lived to the fullest with grand feats and sweet wine. Savage Land of the Trollkin Septs Much like the tosculi section of the Abandoned Lands, the overview of trollkin lands applies to just about any of their territory throughout the Southlands. The people known as the trollkin are a diverse lot who can trace their lineage back to various trolls, fey, and other monsters. In the times of Glorious Umbuso the titans sent some demi-humans to live among the fey as ambassadors and their descendants had high status. But after the empire’s fall they descended into chaos and joined and bred with what other races who could shelter them. The trollkin lands of the Southlands lair on the fringes of settled territory, bound together by related clans. Their leaders are known as kurta; according to ancient traditions a new kurta ascends to power by defeating the old. Most tribes have a warrior culture. In some cases this is expressed in a positive manner, standing watch over ruined cities of their ancestors, but others are little better than raiders. They overall are not fond of history beyond knowledge of kurta bloodlines, glorious victories, and crushing defeats yet to be avenged. They extend a similar attitude towards religion; gods are not worshiped unless said deity can aid their talents in warfare, which gravitates those who are religious to gods such as the Hunter, Selket, the White Goddess, or Xevioso. Demon cults also took advantage of this brutal practicality, most notably the Whispers who subtly encourage trollkin to explore dangerous fey ruins brimming with cataclysmic magic, or the Bloodbirds which revere death as a means to an end. The Bloodbirds have a poor reputation for they encourage any excuse to kill, even if it means putting their own tribe at unnecessary risk. Around 40 to 50 trollkin tribes control the largest of the septs, but the book gives us three of the most influential ones as inspirational material. The Burning Arms are ruled by Kurta Vanu who claims he can trace his ancestry to the jinnborn, and their tribe produces many elaborate myths of dubious reliability about his battle prowess and wish-granting capabilities. Vasha’s Face* worships a goddess of the same name and paint their bodies with white dye to better show the spilled blood of their foes. Finally, the Rockeaters are mostly eloko-kin who guard a fey ruin in the southeastern reaches of the Southern Fringe. They treat the ruins as though it were a god, calling it the Sleeping Hunger and provide it with prayer and animal sacrifices (and sometimes more intelligent races) whose offerings are always gone by morning with nothing left save for a splash of blood. *whose entry refers to not one but two other Kobold Press books, Midgard Campaign Setting and Deep Magic, for what mask Vasha is for the former (V’ashra the Tormentor, an archdevil Nurian cult), and the unique discipline of blood magic for the latter. Veles-Sa, Land of Terrible Lizards  Deep within the heart of the Zobanu Jungle is an isolated civilization of lizardfolk. Known to outsiders as the Valley of Lizards for the nation as well as the ferocious dinosaurs thriving in the dark jungles, its major feature is an enormous egg covered in flecks of shimmering gold and green. The lizardfolk built their capital around this egg, which they claim was laid by Veles the World-Serpent and is responsible for the rise of their civilization. With an uncanny ability to tame the largest dinosaurs for labor and war, they quickly erected many cities and temples across the rainforest with advanced engineering. This further strengthens their own elitism, where they believe that they alone, and not even the dragons of the Mharoti Empire when they hear of them, are the true descendants of the World-Serpent. Veles-Sa’s government is a theocracy ruled by Sortaal, the Vessel of Veles, who issues her patron deity’s edicts to a circle of ruler-priests who in turn rule the various castes. Said castes determine a lizardfolk’s lot in life as well as that of their children and children’s children. The engineers design plans for the temples and cities, builders erect them, stonemasons quarry, and the hunters and gatherers exploit the jungle’s food supplies. Lizardfolk’s occupations can be quite specific, with titles such as “Counter of Food for Builders” or “Watcher of the Skies for Terror Birds.” Tantanul, Keeper of Fang and Claw, is the ruler-priest who commands the warriors and scouts. Kesh Kem, the Builder of Veles’ Glory, oversees the many construction projects. Beyond the castes are foreigners and slaves. The latter is derived from the former, who are small in number yet becoming a growing source of labor grown from intruders and prisoners of war. The Vessel of Veles issued a recent edict allowing for small bands of traders from Morreg and Sudvall to come to Veles-Sa’s border for commerce, although such trade is tiny at the moment. Most of Veles-Sa is untouched jungle, and the closest thing to roads are the many rivers manned by dire spinosauruses the lizardfolk use as living boats and warships. There are older jungle ruins of forgotten civilizations, believed to be of Glorious Umbuso or Ankeshel origin, but as the lizardfolk tear them down to get quarry for their own buildings reliable information is hard to come by. The capital city Azmull-Kre is Veles-Sa’s holiest and largest settlement, split by a deep crevice that holds the Egg of Veles which in turn is protected by a dome of marble. The city is still in a process of construction, and most of the buildings are more utilitarian such as granaries, gigantic dinosaur stables, hatcheries for new young, and step-pyramids of administrative buildings, armies, and warehouses. The Egg itself is impossibly large, its 150 foot tall tip barely breaching the surface and whose untouched interiors remain impervious to scrying. Veles-Sa’s clerics receive dreams and omens from it, and sometimes it visits destruction and insanity on those who displease it. There is a bitter debate among the clergy over the Egg’s contents: some claim it holds a titanic dragon infant, others claim it has pure destructive energy which will destroy the world and start it anew, or a host of master-race lizardfolk representing the pinnacle of evolution. Divine Spark: Many religious lizardfolk hint that the Egg of Veles contains a spark of the World-Serpent himself, or one of the masks he wore long ago. That mask supposedly shed its skin when the titans of Glorious Umbuso went mad, and the spark embedded itself into the egg before revealing itself to its lizardfolk progeny. They believe that when the Egg hatches it will be a time of glorious conquest for their people. Naturally, any who wish to claim the divine spark in the Egg itself are faced with the unenviable task of penetrating its shell while fighting off the lizardfolk hordes protecting it. Our section ends with two other settlements of Veles-Sa: KzTall (Ten Spires), a settlement built around a circle of metal poles which remain untouched by rust. They go impossibly deep into the earth, which may hint at them being titan artifacts. Strange supernatural activity occurs around the spires during a full moon, and animals go wild if they come too close to them. The other settlement is Splitwater, sitting at a junction of the Meztat and Qualket Rivers meeting at a massive granite shelf to make a titanic waterfall. A strong ley line pulses through the area, which the lizardfolk exploit to channel into the creation of more towers and pyramids. Sail-backed dinosaurs with howdahs are used to make deeper expeditions into the jungle. Golden Sultanate of Zanskar Located on a large island of its own off the Southlands’ southeastern coast, the Golden Sultanate of Zanskar’s massive mineral deposits grant it an edge in the vast trading hub of the Tethys Ocean. And yet it is an insular place, surrounded by forests with mountains dominating the center. Its ruling elite are xorn, beings of elemental earth with a sweet tooth for precious stones. Serving them are azer, dwarves of elemental fire who act as middlemen and emissaries to outsiders and as warlords and slave overseers for internal affairs. The majority of Zanskar’s population are humanoid slaves, tasked with mining the vast mineral veins beneath the island whose lives are hard and short. The government is lead by a Golden Sultan whose position is drawn from one of the 200 most powerful xorn known as the Granite Conclave. Said members are further divided into familial houses split between the four major settlements, and the azer have their own clans pledged to the nation of Zanskar as a whole and to the Golden Sultan. Zanskaran culture places an almost-religious level of importance on politeness, and public displays of insolence are crimes on par with kidnapping or theft. As a result, most citizens rarely refuse requests, instead pledging good intentions and attempts if they do not wish to follow through on it. The xorn love tales of bravery and heroism, and merchants can often offer new and interesting stories as a trade good. Zanskar’s major cities include the capital of Usunhi Ubakna, its high dome lit with burning gas vents illuminating veins of brilliant quartz crystals known as the Sash of Stars; Chibuuneh, a holiday retreat looking out over a placid bay home to many seasonal villas of the xorn; Khilwah, the main commercial port home to neighborhoods of foreigners whose merchants wage cloak and dagger subterfuge against each other; Sufallah, the primary surface mining town which builds the pumice dhows the azer use to sail the Spice Coast. Said dhows are alchemically treated for Zanskara to deliver its gold and gems to the settlements of the Corsair Coast in exchange for manufactured goods, foods, and slaves to feed the labor force of their mines. We even have a “ship template” for pumice vessels. They require the crafter to have the stoneshape spell and cost 1.75 times as much as the base vessel, but they gain great benefits. One, the ship doubles its total hit points, resists the first 20 fire damage from any source, and gains 10 hardness and +3 natural armor. Our final entry in Zanskar reveals the secret to its wealth: the Hidden Vault. A strange stone repository of the same name sits underneath the mines, which to this day has not been penetrated. Enslaved miners are capable of building a honeycomb of tunnels around it to peel off its gold foundations, which still result in a king’s ransom worth of profit. There are rumors that Mammon holds the Vault as a sacred space, and more than a few of his devils have been seen in the mines’ dark corners offering tempting deals to those who stumble upon them. Beyond the mines are many enormous galleries of unknown origin, containing empty ruins of cities and secret passages to the surface. The Bottled City  Our final major location in this chapter is perhaps the most unique, in that due to its nature can appear just about anywhere. It is a literal city in a bottle, where entry is gained by touching the stopper and saying their name and heart’s desire and thus shrunken down, and whose exit involves whispering one’s greatest sorrow and then enlarged to normal size. The Bottled City appears much like a mundane object on the outside, and it is due to this illusion that it became a perfect hiding spot for a community of assassins, thieves, and other assorted scum and villainy. The Bottled City’s origin began 200 years ago, with an eccentric wizard of Sudvall inspired by genie containment magic. He came up with the idea of a truly private retreat he and his dear friend the high marshal could visit whenever one wished. The high marshal gave his enthusiastic consent, eager at the concept of an entire city devoted to his pleasure. Once the artificial settlement was completed, the wizard and marshal visited it regularly and its secret was miraculously kept. But when the high marshal’s successor was appointed, he made a show of destroying all the contents of his predecessor to prove to the public that he’d be a more serious ruler. The bottle was dumped into the ocean, seemingly lost until it washed up on a remote shoreline. Its inhabitants decided to become criminals, both as a means of vengeance against the government which abandoned them and as the perfect hiding spot for those of their ilk to retreat. Ever since the Bottled City appears in all manner of obscure places, waiting to be found by some clueless forager to bring back to a settlement or inadvertently enter it. The Bottled City is crime-ridden but hardly a slum. Its government is ruled by a Marquin, one of the descendants of Halina, the high marshal’s favorite concubine and city’s head of staff during its heyday. Any heir can claim the title if they are resourceful enough to hold onto power, but the only restriction is that the city tolerates no murderous kin-slaying of said family even among each other. The bottle’s interior is surrounded by translucent porcelain walls capable of drawing in sunlight, and a long coiling staircase leads to the upper streets of the city and eventually the stopper. The streets themselves are concentric terraces which descend to a gently curved floor, and many buildings are remnants of its former status as a pleasure palace: foundations of banquet halls, gardens, fantasy suites, and the mundane laundries, kitchens, and other support buildings for sustaining them. Many buildings are connected by interior hallways, walkways, narrow service passages, and other entryways which result in a complicated maze. Residents go not by street so much as houses and landmarks, and visitors are at the mercy of guides who are hopefully trustworthy. The Palace of the Marquis holds the city’s ruler, surrounded by a glittering moat with lily pads which can be harvested into poisons, salves, and potions. The Marquis meets with the heads of houses and crime syndicates for day-to-day matters of import but otherwise lets the populace govern themselves in exchange for a tax/rent/protection money. Feuds are dealt with by calling the personal guard, or Night Watch, or putting an assassination contract on the troublemaker. The Zehir Tekke, or House of Poisoned Men, is the training lodge for the most feared assassin’s guild in the city. The members are literally poisonous, fed small doses of all types of venoms from infancy to the point that their very bodies become deadly to others. They only leave their lodge fully wreathed in heavy waxed cloths to contain their noxious vapors, lead by a gong or drum-banging beater to warn citizens that a Poisoned Man is coming. The Street of Beasts is a network of alleys containing shops for all manner of creatures, many specially trained in unusual tasks. Monkeys who can pick locks, poisonous vipers, insects with non-lethal and painful stings, and pigeons carrying secret messages are some of the more popular merchandise. The Next-Day Market is where one goes to find stolen goods and is home to the most visitors of the city. Many fences even make a living recovering stolen items, but always with profit in mind. The Tool District contains workshops dedicated to all the necessary items for illegal activities, ranging from simple thieves’ tools and smoke powders to more specialized gear such as magically-warded locks and sleeping dust. The Blood Factor’s Hall are the mob doctors of the Bottled City. Healers staffed and hired by the Marquis himself as a public service, they ease the pains of citizens whose jobs turned south. Even the dead can be raised here for a price and if the corpse can be carried to their facilities. Perilous Sites of the Southern Fringe This section contains five locations, two environmental hazards, and three adventure seeds. Our five locations include the Skyshard, a huge blue crystal spire housing an unknown powerful outsider telepathically promising riches to those who free it; the Citadel of the Dragon Hermit, home to the bronze dragon Sirannonoth who harbors a secret about the Mharoti Empire’s founder which is so valuable that he went into hiding to escape their wrath. He lives as a lonely shapeshifted traveler, visiting villages in Sudvall and Terrotu. Next we have Stoneship Landing, a titan-sized and forged ruined vessel hone to a tribe of medusae; the Trollkin Sept of the Filthborn who are reviled by other trollkin but whose Kurta is desperate to find outside aid; and finally the Zobanu Jungle, home to towering kapok trees and all manner of dangerous creatures of the rainforest. Our two new hazards are a tree and a disease. Chirurgeon’s trees release a pollen when injured creatures approach within 30 feet. On a failed DC 20 Fortitude save they are mentally compelled to climb into the branches and sleep so that predators can scavenge them for easy meals. The new disease we have is the Ravening, which instills a maddening anger and hunger in those who are infected. Minotaurs of ancient eras purposefully gave it to soldiers to strengthen them, but this lead to disaster. Mechanics-wise the DC saving throw is equal to 10 + the exposed creature’s Hit Dice* and can be resisted with either fortitude or will. It causes 2d6 intelligence damage and is transmitted via inflected fluids and clothing. Those who suffer from it fly into a monstrous rage where they see every other being as a foe, and yearns for hearts to devour to gain power. For every number of hearts they eat equal to their own Hit Dice, they gain one Hit Die (does not specify if it’s of the class or creature type in the case of those with class levels). *Yes, we have a disease which is more likely to infect someone the higher level they are. Our three adventure seeds include a mysterious entity stealing kijani pods to bond to dangerous monsters in the Zobanu Jungle; a centaur who claims to know a way to breach the Egg of Veles to gain the treasure within; and the the opportunity to penetrate Zanskar’s Hidden Vault to uncover its mystery. Character Options of the Southern Fringe  This section is brief. So brief in fact that we have no class archetypes or magical options and only a single race and feat! But what we do have is some new equipment and two monsters. Race-wise we cover the lizardfolk, the people of Veles-Sa. Mechanics-wise they vary slightly from the standard Pathfinder lizardfolk race so instead I’ll describe what’s different. For one, they have +2 Strength and Constitution but -2 Intelligence, which is odd on account of having marvellous magical architects. Their swim speed is 15 feet rather than 30, can hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to four times their Constitution score before they risk drowning, and gain a +2 racial bonus to Acrobatics skill checks to account for their lithe natures. They also start play speaking only Draconic, with bonus languages being Aquan, Southern Trade Tongue, Giant, and Orc. Overall they’re much like PF lizardfolk in that they’re geared towards melee rolls. The -2 Intelligence and not having the setting’s “Common tongue” as a starting language hurts unless everyone in the party can speak Draconic. The only feat of note is Kijani Symbiote, where you bond with an immature kijani seedling. The seedling is a living creature all of its own and shares the host’s HP, AC, saving throws, and is considered to the host’s creature type for spell-specific effects. It is a one-inch-thick green vine topped by a leaf, and if destroyed (and you temporarily lose the feat’s benefits) a new one will grow from the tendrils inside the host within 30 days. So what benefits do we gain from this symbiosis? Well we have an entire table for this outlined below dependant upon one’s race. They range from minor utilities (casting cantrips or minor spell like-abilities) to defensive properties such as a 10% chance to negate critical hits or rerolled a failed saving throw of a certain type:  Honestly most of these selections are quite underwhelming for a feat slot: the gearforged one is nigh-useless, and the human/elfmarked is perhaps the most useful. Our new equipment centers around the cavalry of Sudvall, which employs ostriches and axe beaks in addition to horses as steeds. We get prices for said creatures (400 gp for war ostriches, 1,500 for axe beaks) as well as equipment specifically for these animals. A beak blade grants +1 AC to an axe beak, +1 to damage, and +1 bleed damage on a critical hit for the low price of 6 gp. Blinders for 7 GP help guide all manners of mounts, imposing -2 to their Perception but +2 to the rider’s Ride checks, while talon razors grant +1 damage on an ostrich’s feet and +2 bleed damage on a critical hit for 15 gp. In addition to mount-specific weapons we get three lance-heads, alchemical charges attached to lances which can be triggered on a hit. Dragonfire lance-heads deal 1d6 fire damage on all attacks and light enemies on fire for 2 rounds on a critical hit. Entangler lance-heads spray sticky goo, entangling a target on a successful hit and can force a mounted target to fall from a saddle on a failed Ride check (DC = 15 + damage dealt). Finally the greased lance-head sprays slippery goo, doing the same thing as an entangler but disarming rather than entangling. We have two new monsters, which technically are in their own final section but is so brief I’m including them here. The first is the war ostrich, a CR 2 animal. In comparison to a warhorse it is slightly weaker (17 instead of 19 hit points, 13 instead of 15 AC, slightly worse saves) but has a more damaging claw attack (+7 to-hit, 1d8+7 damage), is faster (60 feet vs 50 feet), and has a +11 to Acrobatics (+16 total) when leaping. Our other monster is the zimwi, a distant cousin of northern trolls who are a plague upon the Southlands. Cursed with eternal hunger, they are known to attack entire caravans and patrols without regard to their odds of victory. Their extradimensional stomachs are larger than their entire bodies, capable of holding multiple creatures within akin to a bag of holding. Statwise they are CR 4 Medium-size humanoids (giant subtype) and are perhaps closest mechanically to weak trolls. They have one bite and 2 claw attacks along with the rend special ability to deal more damage if both claws hit. Finally they can make a grapple check on targets they hit, and may swallow grappled opponents up to Medium size akin to swallow whole. Thoughts So Far: The Southern Fringe feels appropriately remote and alien from the rest of the Southlands. Even Sudvall stands apart whose society is based around the ideals of pseudo-European knights. The Bottled City is perhaps my favorite realm of this chapter, in part because it can plausibly show up anywhere and makes for a nice “evil city of intrigue” for parties to visit for all manner of reasons. The bronze dragon exile can make for a fun destination for a campaign’s epic journey spanning the Southlands, of adventurers seeking an ace in the hole against the Mharoti Empire’s depredations. Join us next time for our final chapter, where we cover the Gods of the Southlands in great detail! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Nov 17, 2018 |
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Nov 17, 2018 06:25
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DNA Cowboys posted:What stops people from shaking the bottle city, filling it with water, or using it in a traveling jug band? My hypothetical players need to know. The text does not specify defenses for these things, but given that it was adrift in the ocean for quite some time I presume the inhabitants built architectural or magical counterbalances if it would be a problem.
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Nov 18, 2018 22:00
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Chapter Nine: Gods of the Southlands  Our final chapter covers not a region, but the deities who hold sway over the people of the Southlands. We start out with a brief description on how the gods of this continent are more involved among mortal affairs, walking the physical world and taking delight in the mundane. The reason for this is that in the times of Glorious Umbuso the titans’ Great Web of ley lines made it difficult for any deities to manifest in the Southlands; the titans for their part worshipped long-forgotten Far Ones who do not interfere in mortal affairs. Only after the empire collapsed did the gods return to fill the power vacuum, earning the respect of many people who were otherwise left defenseless in the chaotic days that followed. Most of the Southlands deities are relatively unknown on other continents in Midgard save as masked disguises. The three exceptions are Veles, Thoth-Hermes, and Isis whose names are just as well known in the northern kingdoms as well as the south. Veles is one of the patron gods of the Mharoti Empire, and Thoth-Hermes is beloved by scholars, thieves, and wizards the world over. Isis has a large following due to her association with healing and love, and wears the mask of Lada in the northern region of the Crossroads. We also get a sidebar reiterating the rules of the gods in Midgard, whose true number is unknown due to their ability to disguise their very identities and appear as different forms. Known as masks, this is primarily a practical form of defense as it is possible for one god to gain another’s power via murder, enslavement, or any other number of horrible fates. It also allows a god to further cement their power: if their name and faith falls out of favor in one culture or region, they can carry on with another mask. The concept of masks are public knowledge among religious scholars, although there is much debate over what gods are masks of the other. Finally, most gods and goddesses of the Southlands do not have specific alignments. Much like the wider Midgard setting, they only have one aspect of an alignment axis. For instance, Horus is Lawful and can be worshiped by clerics of any lawful alignment. Gods of Nuria Natal  The only pantheon to remain untouched by the Great Web, the deities of the River Kingdom are perhaps the oldest and most well-known to those beyond the continent. There are hundreds of Nurian deities although most are of limited power and reach. Every city has its own patron, and gaining a large settlement of followers to call your own is a sign of great prestige in Nurian culture. Although many appear as epicurean animal-headed folk content to sleep in their worshiper’s temples, they have millennia worth of experience and wisdom and are not to be underestimated. Anu-Akma holds a prominent position in Nurian society for his dominion over souls and the afterlife. His priests are a diverse lot, ranging from gnolls and undead to royalty and the elderly. They are tasked with the preservation of bodies, proper burial rites, and the construction of pyramids and tombs. He takes a humble role in spite of his duties, and his comfortable temples are made easily accessible for the sick and disabled. Aten Is a jealous sun god who forbids his worshipers to give respect or credence to any other being. Although he takes a role as a defender of the weak and vanquisher of all manner of evil and monsters, his worshipers are violent to the shrines and practices of most other gods. The god has many military orders as a result to protect against his many enemies. His greatest center of worship is in Per-Xor, although he has faithful in Siwal and the independent city-states east of Nuria Natal proper. Worshipers of Heretical Aten belong to a renegade cult who worship the sun god as a destructive fire aspect and make pacts with demons. Naturally they are hated by the mainstream faith, and there is belief that this false Aten is a mask of Kwansi, Baal-Hotep, or some other god seeking to discredit the sun deity. Bastet is a free-spirited goddess of desire, hunters, felines and a friend to alchemists. Cats are a beloved Nurian pet, so she has many followers among farmers who prize the creatures’ rat-killing prowess as well as those who look to lions, cheetahs, and great cats for their hunting prowess. The goddess only grants spells to women, but men are allowed to worship her, and due to her wide portfolio said clerics range in professions from alchemists and temple prostitutes to hunters and warriors.  Interestingly Bastet gets a host of new material in this chapter, unlike any other deity: four and a half pages worth of new spells, domains, and magic items! The three new domains include the following: the Cat domain which grant Acrobatics and Stealth as class skills, a per-day use to grant a bonus to a touched target’s agility-related abilities (AC, ranged attack rolls, Dex based skills, checks, and Reflex saves) equal to half your cleric level, as well as the ability to shapechange into a feline monster at 6th level. The domain spells include presence and animal-themed magic. The Perfume Subdomain is keyed to the Charm domain and trades in the 8th level power to instead cast Allure Senses (new spell) as a swift action against a single target, along with replacing the charm person and heroism domain spells with allure senses and rainbow pattern respectively. Overall, it is a worthy replacement; although charm person has more utility, the allure senses spell imposes the fascinate debuff on a target and can be more useful in combat situations. Finally the Predation subdomain is keyed to the Animal domain, replacing the speak with animals power with Silent Hunter which is a per-day ability that grants you a bonus equal to half your cleric level on any single melee attack you make when you begin a turn using the Stealth skill. It replaces hold animal, dominate animal, and beast shape III spells with bull’s strength, blood scent, and summon huntress (new spell) respectively. By a literal reading, the domain merely states that you need to use the Stealth skill rather than it being successful or not, so this can be a very good option for more martial clerics. Our six new spells are associated with Bastet, but are capable of being learned by worshipers of other deities. The text notes that this would be a case of parallel magical research akin to how various cultures around the real world independently invented the bow and arrow. The spells include Allure Senses, a 1st-level AoE cone which fascinates affected enemies with rainbow auras and hypnotic words; the 0-level Clowder of Cats which signals up to nine non-magical common cats within a wide range to come to your presence; the 2nd-level Feline Gaze which allows you to see through the eyes and hear through the ears of a cat; 1st-level Gnolls’ Ally with is a 50 foot AoE burst which makes you appear more gnoll-like and grants a +5 Diplomacy check on all gnolls within the area; the 4th-level Kitten to Lioness which temporarily transforms at least 9 mundane cats within range into a celestial or fiendish dire lion; and finally the 5th-level Summon Huntress, which summons a female dire tiger immune to mind-affecting spells to your side to pursue and retrieve a specific creature of Small or smaller size of 6 HD or less. Allure Senses is perhaps the most versatile of the spells; most are rather situational or can be replicated by other existing spells in the Paizo rulebooks. Our five magic items include the Cat’s Claw Pendant which grants the wearer natural claw attacks and the rend monster ability; the Mask of Hisses and Purrs which grant you a +3 to Diplomacy or Intimidate checks depending on your catlike expression, but makes you inadvertently mew and meow while speaking and thus imposes a 10% chance of failing to cast spells with verbal components; the Ring of Cat Folk which can let the wearer transform into a tiny black house cat for up to 8 minutes per day; the Ring of Lion Form which allows the wearer to transform into a large black-furred lion up to 11 minutes per day and can emit a damaging deafening roar in an AoE cone in any form; and finally the Statue of Nine Lives, a unique artifact with nine charges capable of reviving a wear from fatal harm, but at the cost of becoming more feline in demeanor and shape. This comes complete with game effects both positive and negative for the progression. Horus is the regal warrior-god of the Nurian pantheon. He encourages his followers to dispense justice and defend the nation from demons, Mharoti incursions, and other maladies. His holy book, the Code of Horus, was the legal foundation upon which the River Kingdom was built. His worshipers also include Tamasheq nomads, heru ravenfolk, and harpy priestesses managing his most famous temple, Khepri Khnum. Ninkash is the dwarven goddess of beer, and has followers beyond Nuria Natal including the dwarves and Romani-like Kariv humans of the North. She can impart guidance through drunken visions. Her matronly attitude means that many of her holidays are joyous festivals and social occasions. Thoth-Hermes is the god of knowledge and has a following among scribes, thieves, wizards, and travelers. His priests view libraries as temples to their god in spirit, and to that end all books are holy books of Thoth no matter the subject. To burn or desecrate the written word is a great sin among his followers. He also was the deity to teach mortals the secrets of hieroglyphic magic and is patron of Nurian theurges who utilize both arcane and divine spells. Gods of the Desert Lands  The gods of the burning sands and badlands are beings of extremes. Some such as Kwansi are tricksters, while others grant the faithful the ability to find safe havens and see through mirages and other deceptions. Kwansi is a spider god whose chaotic nature means that he wears many masks and roles. He is a constant thorn in the side of tyrants and oppressors of all kinds, encouraging the downtrodden to revolt and inspires hope with laughter and optimism. One of Kwansi’s masks is the iconic African folkloric spider Anansi. Kwansi also comes with a new Vermin subdomain, which is keyed to the Animal domain. It replaces the speak with animals power with Vermin Sanctuary, which can force a hostile vermin to stop attacking you on a failed Will save. Its domain spells include various swarm and bug-related abilities. We also get a new 4th level spell, Greater Summon Swarm, which can summon more powerful vermin such as centipedes, crabs, scorpions, wasps, or death butterflies (a new creature from the Midgard Bestiary). Mbanu is a dwarven god of labor, the forge, and law and justice. He counts blacksmiths and artisans along with judges and officers among his ranks. The god is known as a dependable and honorable man whose inventions and leadership bring security and prosperity to communities. He is worshiped among the Narumbeki as well as the dwarves. Sabateus is a mysterious figured, clad in deep blue djebella* designed with sparkling stars. He is worshiped at night when the stars and the moon can be seen in full, representing the guiding light of knowledge of ancient mysteries and forgotten eras. Lamia worship Sabateus as the Moon’s husband, and he is often associated with arcane magic. *apparently a misspelling of Djellaba, a Morroccan garment. Takhar Takhar is a god of war, worshiped by many cultures beyond the desert. He is popular among the Narumbeki Legions, the gravebinders of Siwal, and the Tamasheq nomads; even some gnolls and dwarves honor him. He represents the Lawful unity of battle, and his followers are opposed to all of the Dark Gods and focus just as much on raising morale and defending the wounded as straightforward offensive assaults. Yemaja of the Waters is perhaps the most popular goddess of the inhabitants of arid lands. She was also originally known as the Keeper of Time, only for the title to be stolen by her husband who is said to be either the dragon-god Seggotan or the sea-god Nethus depending on the culture. She was worshiped in the northern kingdoms as the siren Mnemosyne. In the Southlands, Yemaja is worshiped as a protector of women and children as well as a patron of water, rivers, and the oases of the desert which symbolize hope to the lost and parched. She has major temples in Shibai, Cindass, Narumbeki, and even Lignas. Oddly enough, the worshipers of Sabateus despise her even though the two gods are on great terms with each other. Gods of the Green Lands  The gods of the fertile savannah and jungles of the Southlands are so named for their connection to the living things of the world. They technically number three: Ogun, Xevioso, and Yemaja, although the deities Ptah and the World Serpent Veles are counted among their number. Ptah because he and his followers are living in exile from Nuria Natal after the rise of Aten, and the World-Serpent for his connection to the lizardfolk kingdom of Veles-Sa and his repository of earthly wisdom. Ogun is an ideal warrior who also covers metalworking and smithing, leading more than a few to associate him as a mask of Mbanu or vice versa. He is associated with keys, for his dominion over jailers and justices as well as his skill in unlocking any doors. His priesthood and worshipers hew heavily male in membership, and the Fire Legion of the Narumbeki and the prison wardens of Lignas’ Coil of Memory revere him. Ptah is a dwarven god of architecture who was burned to death by Aten and reborn in the mountains of Sebbek Sobor. His is a humorless god without much cause for frivolities, and it is said that only his first wife Ninkash can coax a smile out of him. He is associated with helping build some of the greatest pyramids and tombs of the god-kings and is a maker of everything from weapons to mills and barges. In part due to persecution at the hands of Aten, his priests are meager, wishing for their faith to speak through their creations and charitable endeavors rather than elaborate festivals and grand temples. Many outsiders presume that Ptah and Mbanu are masks of each other due to overlapping portfolios, although dwarves view this as a ridiculous fantasy. The World Serpent goes by many names. He is known as Veles in the Mharoti Empire, Djyy (pronounced “DID-zhah”) in Lignas, Ouroboros in the Western Sea, and Jörmungandr in the Northlands. But in all tales he is the grand god whose form encircles the world of Midgard, biting his own tail to keep the oceans’ waters contained. Some sailors claim to have seen his mossy green mountain-sized scales at the farthest reaches of the world. The World-Serpent cares little for the afterlife, instead encouraging his followers to attend to worldly affairs and safeguard the ley lines from corruption. His faith is rather nihilistic, focused on the inevitable end of all things and the paltry lives of mortals. Xevioso is an agile god of war and thunder, encouraging battle and strife for its own sake. Many offer prayers to him when the time to spill blood has come, whether out of a personal vendetta or for loftier ideals. His temples are secluded in caverns where his priests stand ready to resurrect his greatest warriors, and in northern lands shield-maidens are associated with his masks. Xevioso is thought to be a mask of Perun, Thor, or Mavros in said lands, and his priesthood is 80% male much like that of Mavros (detailed in Midgard Worldbook). Xevioso has a new Speed domain, which has a per-day ability to grant an enhancement bonus of ranged attacks, combat maneuvers, and Dexterity-based skills, saves, and ability checks equal to half your cleric level as well as a 10 foot increase to the target’s base speed. The domain’s 8th level ability, Quickness of the Gods, adds the cleric’s class level to their Dexterity score for a number of rounds per day equal to their class level, but only applies to Dexterity ability and skill checks (no radical AC bonus for you!). Its domain spells include agility and time-based magic such as haste, call lightning storm, ethereal jaunt, and time stop. A new 8th level spell is also included, Speed of Thought: the spell grants greatly heightened speed to one target per level, allowing them to make 3 extra attacks as part of a full attack, a +4 bonus on attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves, can cast full-round and standard action spells as standard and swift actions respectively, and finally increases all modes of movement by 60 feet. Speed of Thought is basically a mega-haste and thus super-powerful in regards to action economy. The extra attacks and shortened casting times make it a must-have for just about any character. Yemaja of the Waters is also worshiped here. Although half of her domains are different reflecting altered cultures. In her desert entry she had Life, Knowledge, Protection, Song, and Water. In the Green Lands she switches out Life and Protection for the Birth and Time domains. Said Song and Time domains are in another Midgard book, Journeys to the West. Gods of the Corsair Coast  The faiths of the Corsair Coast are younger and less stable than the ones of its neighbors, for the seaside settlements are home to people and faiths from gods of many places. It is also one of the few regions where goddesses hold greater sway than gods, and some assume this is related to the high amount of slaves and thralls in the region’s mines and farms.** Others presume the seafaring cultures are a friendlier atmosphere to the goddesses of water, sun, and community. Eshu is the only deity known to originate from the Corsair Coast. He is a chaotic trickster god of travelers and wizards, carrying news and tales between villages and tribes, and his worshipers include all those who make a living off of traveling the roads. He has no holy books, his teachings are carried via oral lore, and his shrines are either mobile tents or small permanent structures built around red sacred stones. He is assumed to be the mask of many other gods, especially Kwansi and Thoth-Hermes. Some claim he is either the mask or resurrected form of a long-dead Nurian god by the name of Osiris. Ninkash has the same domains in the Corsair Coast as she does Nuria Natal: Beer, Charm, Community, Liberation, and Strength Isis is a goddess of Nurian origin who is associated with healing, love, and mercy. In fact, quite a bit of her text and even her portrait are the same as the goddess Lada from the Midgard Worldbook because said deity is one of her masks. She takes the form of a woman of various races depending on local followers, and her temples face east on high ground such as hills and mountaintops to greet the rising sun. Her personality and portfolio means that she has few enemies save the Dark Gods and those of war such as Takhar and Xevioso. Even the priesthood of Aten treat Isis as the offspring of their sole deity, but still regard her followers as deluded rather than actively wicked. Sabateus has the Travel domain rather than Void here (his original domains being Darkness, Magic, Moon, and Transformation). Yemaja has Birth, Knowledge, Protection, Song and Water domains among the Coast’s worshipers. Dark Gods of the South  The Dark Gods are associated with evil and other blighted things by mainstream society. But a few specifically champion the downtrodden and voiceless who the other gods shun, although this is not always done out of charity or liberation. The Dark Gods are not associated with any one region; rather, they are a catch-all term for the Southlands’ “evil pantheon” although only 6 out of 9 are of this alignment. Baal-Hotep is Lawful, while Selket and Set are Chaotic. These three are grouped among the Dark Gods due to their hostile nature with most Southlands civilizations. Note: the Midgard Worldbook went into more detail regarding the specific status of the Dark Gods. One, they were not true divinities so much as those whose power grew smaller to the point that they were “demoted” to archfiends. Thus they crave mortal souls and sacrifice as a means of rebuilding their power base. They were also jealous gods and much like Aten they demanded that their followers worship them exclusively (Baal-Hotep being an exception). Aposis is an eternally-hungry enormous serpent seeking the world’s destruction. He is associated with many apocalyptic prophecies, and most of his priests assume he is a dark mask of Veles the World Serpent. His worshipers seek to bring about the end times and in so doing commit acts of violence to make the world an ever more worse place. Baal-Hotep is known as Baal in the Mharoti Empire, but in Nuria Natal and the Corsair Coast he is associated with war, rage, and fire. Among the dragonkin and kobolds he is associated with laws and public service, his priests reciting his teachings orally and commit his 444 sacred stories to memory. The Hunter goes by countless names and wears an equally uncountable number of forms, although his worshipers claim that their god wears no masks. He is the cruelty of nature made manifest, of Darwinian tooth and claw where all that lives must kill to survive. Bandits, raiders, monsters, enraptured fey, and decadent nobles seeking to hunt their fellow men and women are counted among the Hunter’s priesthood. Mot is a being of nothingness and death, a god of endings in all forms. From drought-plagued fields to the genocide of nations and bloodlines, Mot waits for all on a black throne near the River Styx. His treasury is rumored to contain all the wealth of the dead who fall into his hands. Many intelligent undead and some among Narumeki’s Fire Legion worship him, as do stranger beings such as the orcs of the Green Abyss and the Denizens of Leng. In Nuria Natal his priests share a strange common camaraderie with other inhabitants of the River Kingdom, for his faithful despise Baal and go out of their way to attack his legions. Nakresh originated among worshipers of the eastern realms. He is a monkey-demon whose bottomless avarice encourages him to steal and deceive others. His six to eight hands clutch many items, but one is always empty symbolizing his never-ending grasp for more. Thieves, slavers, tomb-robbers, and those desperate for wealth make offerings to him. The headquarters of his priesthood is a well-defended hidden fortress somewhere below Nuria Natal’s capital city. His priesthood acts much like a thieves’ guild and is led by a conclave of his greatest worshipers known as the Five. Nkishi was known as being more benevolent during the era of the Carnidine Kingdom, but after that civilization fell something changed. Laughing Nkishi’s smiles grew bitter and his patience ran thin, quarreling with other deities over all manner of things. Now he is a cruel god who encourages violence and is a favored deity among many gnoll tribes. He does not view other gods and goddesses as actual deities, but rather as evil spirits whose influence must be purged. His priests engage in bloody battle against other races as well as their own who are perceived to be weak or who integrated into other civilizations (such as Nuria Natal or the Mharoti Empire). In the latter case they offer captured gnolls the choice of offering up their religious leaders for execution and turn to Nkishi’s faith, or be hunted and slaughtered like beasts of the wilds. Selket is a goddess of contrasts. Worshiped among Tamasheq nomads and Lignans, she is simultaneously a patron of healing and protection as well as poison and vengeance. Her devotees guard the faithful and act via assassinations and charmed animals to bring death to those who oppose her and harm her followers. Her cult has become more aggressive in recent years, striking out at merchants in Per-Kush cheating Tamasheq nomads, driving domesticated animals mad among Nurian River settlements, and even poisoning cats in Per-Bastet. Set is the rival of Horus, a former contender for the title of Protector of Nuria Natal before the falcon-headed god claimed it from him. Set is a self-styled defender of peasants, farmers, and the oppressed, protecting villagers from crocodiles and lions, his priests bringing medicines to the ill and dying, and casting illusions to help commoners shelter crops and bread from Nurian armies seeking the plunder as tax. He is also a patron deity of revolutionaries and usurpers, which puts him at odds with established government. He does not trust many gods, viewing many as arrogant bullies. He makes an exception for Bastet who is his sometimes hunting companion, Isis who he admires for her charity, and Selket’s role as a vengeful protector. He is also Yemaja’s husband. The White Goddess was birthed from the skin of the world, and just as soon became the enemy of the sun god: Aten, Horus, or Mbantu depending on the mask and culture. She stared him down, chasing him to the ends of the horizon and reaping a path of destruction among the surface races in her wake. Her primary worshipers are orcs, a small and failing race in Midgard confined to the dark and remote corners of the world. They build altars, armor, and weapons from the bones of her enemies, and solar eclipses are her holiest days where her orc followers rise from their lairs to raid and slaughter. Cults and Sects of the Southlands Beyond the major deities are thousands of lesser outsiders and semi-divine creatures who gather their own following of worshipers. Even in these cases real actual power can be granted to faithful who bond themselves to said beings, and this is expressed in a new series of Cult Feats. The more bonded worshipers such an outsider has, the more powerful they get. 20 sworn and bound worshipers with the Outsider Bond feat grant the false god the advanced template. Every 500 additional worshipers beyond this amount grants the outsider one bonus hit die, to a maximum of 5,020 worshipers for 10 bonus hit die. Feats with the [Cult] descriptor cannot be retrained or replaced until the magical being associated with the feat either dies or releases the character from service. Those who attempt to leave without permission gain a penalty on skill checks equal to the number of [Cult] feats they possess until a restoration spell is cast on them by a fellow cultist. The three [Cult] feats include the following: the base Outsider Bond feat, which grants the worshiper use of one of the outsider’s spell-like abilities of 2nd level or lower or a +2 sacred/profane bonus to AC a number of rounds per day if the outsider has no spell-like abilities. Dedicated Follower increases the amount of times this SLA can be used or the AC bonus to +3. Unflagging Conviction allows the cultist to roll a saving throw twice and take the better result by sacrificing two uses of the SLA/AC ability. Additionally, any character with [Cult] feats gains a negative level if the Outsider they pledged loyalty to dies; if this negative level would kill them, they rise as an undead monster known as a shadow. Infinite Variety is a related [Monster] feat, only able to be taken by monsters with the Outsider type. It grants the creature a new spell-like ability of a level equal to or less than their highest existing SLA, or a level equal to half its Hit Dice minus 1 whichever is lower. They can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 1 + their Charisma modifier (minimum once), and can be accessed by worshipers via the Outsider Bond feat. After this chapter we get two appendices consolidating all of the equipment and feats of the Southlands and their page numbers. Thoughts So Far: The pantheons of gods and goddesses are quite cool, and it’s nice to see more variety than the iconic Egyptian pantheon, I do not know how many of the non-Egyptian deities are from real folklore versus creations of Kobold Press, but I managed to find a few such as the Sumerian Baal, the West African Anansi/Kwansi, and the Yoruban Yemaja. The Cult feats are cool and thematic, as well as being good options for both religious PCs and the prototypical evil cults. The new spells, domains, and magic items did not really wow me. **One thing I wanted to touch on was the implied gender roles of the Southlands and how it tied in to divinities. In my review of the Midgard Worldbook I mentioned how the setting overall has an implied patriarchal world due to several world-building elements. They included things which were individual entries of social institutions and organizations, but when read together created a larger picture. The Southlands overall is more subdued in comparison, and the only times we see gender relations referenced is when a few societies or orders are explicitly called out as being matriarchal: gnoll and nkosi tribes, Terrotu and Lignas’ succession rules, and Bastet’s priesthood come to mind. Which makes the association of goddesses with slaves and the oppressed in the Corsair Coast rather strange, in that the region chapter earlier did not paint it as a place where women are a subjugated underclass. Concluding Thoughts: Southlands puts a fresh and unique spin on the mythology and folklore of a criminally underutilized continent. Its vibrant Fantasy Africa setting is something you don’t see often in the D&D/Pathfinder fandom beyond the typical “vine-choked ruins.” While the setting has more than a few such places, there is enough variety in national and cultural groups to avoid becoming one-note and stereotypical. It has lots of strong, worthwhile game mechanics and adventuring hooks in every chapter, and I can see myself running multiple campaigns in this world without coming close to exhausting its material. In conclusion the Southlands is a worthwhile addition to the already fantastic setting of Midgard and, good enough to be played as its own self-contained setting or transplanted onto another world of your choice with some adjustments. Kobold Press knocked this one out of the park, and I look forward to seeing what other lands and worlds they develop in the future!
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Nov 25, 2018 22:11
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Robindaybird posted:great, with YT's algorithms, I'm going to get a bunch of garbage incel takes recommended to me. I highly recommend Hbomberguy's YouTube Censorship Addon. It's a free extension for Google Chrome which blocks a variety of far-right shitbag channels from showing up in your Recommended. Thanks to it, I haven't seen a Sargon video even peripherally in months.
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Nov 28, 2018 19:43
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Volo's Guide to Monsters posted:Hobgoblin devastators have little knowledge of or use for spells that have no use on the battlefield. They are taught destructive spells and learn the fundamentals of evocation magic. The destruction they cause is worthy of as many accolades as the ruin wrought by traditional warriors. "Luckily for their enemies, devastators seldom employ sophisticated tactics, functioning essentially as a mobile artillery battery. They can bring tremendous force to bear, but rarely display the versatility and inventiveness of spellcasting elves and humans." Some become accomplished tacticians, and it isn’t uncommon for such an individual to serve as the warlord of a legion. Given how broad even many harmless spells can be in fantasy military applications... it reads like the text is implying that the hobgoblin mages only ever learn blasty damage spells and nothing else. Or is that rather their specialty school as opposed to being exclusive in use?
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Dec 15, 2018 05:26
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Halloween Jack posted:I don't know exactly why, but I think hobgoblins are rad as hell. It probably has something to do with the fact that of the "savage monster races" they're one of the few who in books have stood on relatively equal terms with humans/elves/etc. as opposed to being just small-scale raiders and disorganized hordes. They had actual nations in Kingdoms of Kalamar, they were prominent in the Red Hand of Doom (one of 3rd Edition's best adventures), they are open to a variety of magic. They feel like a far worthier opponent when it comes to low-level humanoids.
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Jan 3, 2019 02:59
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 Introduction Aaaah, good ol’ Deadlands. A Wild Western Horror RPG still going strong 20 years later. Like many games written in the 90s it suffered from a case of metaplot, but it had one of such length and scope that it would make even White Wolf blush. To this day the the writers still have an unfolding narrative playing out, and their newer releases are no exception. However, it often had much of the worst aspects of White Wolf-style “narrative stories” where the PCs are little more than audience members watching NPCs do all the cool stuff. This was not to everyone’s taste, and around 2006 Deadlands received an upgrade to Pinnacle Entertainment’s Savage Worlds system. One of the big projects for this line was the creation of 4 massive adventures, each one centered on a major villain in the setting and their subsequent fall from power. But unlike the Classic adventures the PCs would be instrumental in these endeavors. Known among fans as the Reckoner Series, these adventures are Point Point Campaigns or PPC for short. A Plot Point Campaign is Savage Worlds’ equivalent to a Dungeons & Dragons/Pathfinder adventure path but usually more sandbox than linear in style. A PPC has a single main questline whose adventures are known as Plot Points, while side quests and other optional content are known as Savage Tales and bulk up the skeleton of said Plot Points. Savage Tales are locations and adventure hooks which can either be ready from the get-go, or are unlocked upon the completion of an appropriate Plot Point or another Savage Tale. To use a video game analogy, it is sort of akin to a Bioware or Bethesda style RPG where main quest is overall short or medium in length, but the supplementary content really fills out the campaign.  Artwork for the French version of Deadlands, portraying the villains in all their glory The Flood is the first of such sourcebooks, set in California where the blasphemous Church of Lost Angels seeks to plunge the West Coast into a blasted hellscape of Famine and cannibalism. The Flood’s theme is one of desperation: of communities driven impoverished by the cult’s stranglehold of food supplies; of miners’ and prospectors’ mad rush for the miracle fuel known as ghost rock found in pockets along California’s earthquake shattered coasts; and the fractured terrain of California being fought over by various political factions many of whom do not have the common folk’s interests at heart. This is the Plot Point Campaign we’ll be covering for our current Let’s Read. The Last Sons centers around War and its chief villain is Raven. It centers around said villain’s Order of the Raven, a group of outcast Native Americans eager to take revenge upon the white man by making pacts with evil spirits and washing all of North America in a metaphorical tidal wave of blood. What begins with the discovery of an illegal ghost rock mining operation in the Sioux Nation’s Black Hills turns into an invasion of said nation by renegade US soldiers gathering under General Custer’s vengeance-driven battle cry. Traveling through the Disputed Territories of the US and Confederacy and even into the Hunting Grounds themselves, the heroes gradually uncover Raven’s plot and hopefully put a stop to it before the Sioux Nation and other lands become destroyed. The Last Sons is notable for being the Plot Point largest in scope, a 337 page magnum opus in comparison to the Flood’s 192 pages, or Stone and Good Intentions’ 160 pages each. It has a rather novel approach in encouraging players to make Native American PCs, or least ones sympathetic to said groups’ autonomy and resistance against colonialism. Its execution is a bit...scattered, although I’ll cover that more in detail when I get around to it as its own Let’s Read. Stone and a Hard Place covers Deadlands’ most iconic villain, Jasper Stone, and the trail of Death he leaves in his wake. Taking place in the American Southwest it is perhaps the most iconically Western of the Plot Points.* It starts out in the town of Tombstone, Arizona where the PCs befriend notable figures such as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, but after Stone rolls into town it turns into a classic tale of revenge and the hunter becoming the hunted (and then hunter again) as the party desperately finds a way to kill someone who is essentially an undead Anton Chigurh. Good Intentions is the final Plot Point Campaign, set in the Pestilence-choked steampunk nightmare of Salt Lake City. Dr. Darius Hellstromme is the main antagonist, a ruthless businessman whose ingenious devices sent the Mormon state of Deseret kicking and screaming into an advanced age of New Science. Unlike the previous Plot Points it has a central city location and takes place entirely within the confines of Utah/Deseret. This adventure some heavy steampunk and spy themes, as rival mad science companies, foreign agents, and the LDS Church and their Danite enforcers all seek Hellstromme’s secrets for their own purposes. Some Backstory on the Metaplot: In the world of Deadlands, magic and monsters were widespread and wreaked terror on mortals. The four horsemen of the apocalypse from Biblical lore exist and are known as the Reckoners. But instead of being righteous heralds of God’s will they are wicked entities who seek to plunge the world into a literal Hell on Earth. They were sealed away by a group of Native American shamans known as the Old Ones, and along with them the supernatural in general. But this would not last. A Susquehannock Indian known as Raven was the sole survivor of genocide whose tribe, already decimated by disease, were slaughtered by white settlers in the mid-1700s*. Filled with rage and hearing many similar tales from various tribes, he gathered a small army known as the Last Sons. They ventured around North America, accumulating knowledge of sacred spaces and rituals while gaining power from forbidden magic to extend his own lifespan. Raven was willing to do anything to get revenge and prevent white domination of the continent, including tearing a hole into the spirit world and freeing the Reckoners. On July 3rd, 1863, the dead rose on the Battle of Gettysburg. They indiscriminately slaughtered soldiers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line and inadvertently turned the Civil War in the Confederacy’s favor who maintained their independence in the Deadlands timeline. This was but the first taste of stranger things to come, as the collected fears of humanity’s imagination were unleashed into the world. The Reckoner of War claimed Raven as his champion, and the other three Horsemen found their own representatives to hold dominion over certain regions of the North American continent. There’s mention that the rest of the world has been affected by the Reckoner’s release, but for their own reasons they find the American West an ideal staging ground for their plans.  The Tombstone Epitaph’s Guide to California The first few chapters of the Flood are player-friendly facing sections which are also available as a free PDF on the Pinnacle site. The first one is an in-character newspaper handout by the Tombstone Epitaph, whose editors are in the know about many conspiracies and supernatural goings-on. The outlandish nature of their reports cause the paper to be dismissed by many as yellow journalism, while the Union and Confederate governments have yet to quash them on account of not wanting to give them a greater sense of credibility (along with the whole freedom of the press thing). For a general overview, the City of Lost Angels is the most prominent port town on the West Coast and is home to a motherload of ghost rock deposits. This miracle fuel burns hotter and longer than coal and acts as Deadlands’ all-purpose mad science phlebotinum. There’s a huge rush among the big-time rail barons to build the first transcontinental railroad to Lost Angels since both the United States and Confederacy offered some sweet deals to the first company who can do this. Industrial sabotage, dynamiting of rail depots and train tracks, and good ol-fashioned banditry between barons christened what is known as the Great Rail Wars. The winner is uncertain, but will be determined rather early on in the Flood campaign. It’s not just business oligarchs who are stirring up trouble. In spite of being claimed by the United States in 1850, the overall remoteness and lawlessness means that small settlements and cities alike are more or less autonomous and the Sacramento-based Union soldiers are stretched thin. The Confederacy established an outpost in Shannonsburg with cheap goods to attract travelers. Mexico, whose liberal government was successfully overthrown and replaced with a French-backed monarchy in this alt-history timeline, is still smarting from the Mexican-American War and is building up a huge fleet to annex California. As for the City of Lost Angels, they’re not a fan of any of the above nations. A theocratic dictatorship ruled by Reverend Grimme, Lost Angels declared itself an autonomous city-state in 1877. Although it’s common knowledge that the Angels are a brutal and intolerant lot, they manage to win over more than a few converts throughout California and beyond on account of their ample access to food supplies, especially meat of dubious origin. During 1868 an earthquake of unseen proportions busted up California’s entire western sea coast, demolishing countless fertile farmland and replacing it with ghost rock-rich mesas separated by water-filled channels now known as the Great Maze. In fact, attempts at producing and shipping food anywhere in the West Coast is strangely difficult, with mysterious spoilages and wagon trains getting lost along the way. Goods in general costs five times as much here as elsewhere in the West. The Epitaph goes into brief detail over what types of people live in California and why they come here. Overall it’s a very diverse place, although the different races don’t necessarily live side-by-side. Settlers from the East and immigrants from China flock to the Great Maze to mine for gold and ghost rock to send the proceeds back home to their families (or keep it for themselves), along with Mexicans both coming back as soldiers and those who continued living there post-1848. There are some Native American tribes here and there, although the largest tribes banded together in a political unit known as the Necessity Alliance detailed later in the book. Finally, the Epitaph lists several Strange Locales and rumors surrounding them. It includes the City of Lost Angels which is a creepy circular settlement where red-robed police known as Guardian Angels patrol. Its huge central cathedral hosts weekly banquets, but only for those not shunned by the community, while the rival port of Shan Fan is the largest Chinese immigrant community in the Weird West. Less unified than Lost Angels, it is controlled by rival factions of Triad gangsters with a high turnover rate.  Makin’ Heroes The Flood contains additional options for Player Characters beyond the Deadlands core rules. Each of the four Reckoner Plot Points is strongly themed around iconic arcane backgrounds and archetypes, and in the Flood’s case we receive a lot of material for chi-wielding martial artists. For those unfamiliar with Deadlands’ magic system, there are a variety of supernatural powers. The Blessed are holy men and women who receive miracles from their religion’s Almighty, Hucksters are silver-tongued cardsharps who receive their powers from playing spiritual poker duels with evil spirits known as manitou, Shamans commune with the spirits of the land, and Mad Scientists receive visions from manitou to build strange ghost rock-powered gizmos. The Enlightened, or martial artists or chi masters, regulate the flow of energy known as chi from the Hunting Grounds (Deadlands’ all-purpose spirit world) to perform amazing physical feats. We get a new hindrance called The Cup Overflows, which causes all of your chi powers to be obviously supernatural in nature. As many Enlightened powers aren’t normally noticeable by default (especially the self-buffing kind), this makes it harder to conceal your abilities from frightened townsfolk. And you’ll have to deal with rival martial artists seeking to take you down and prove their skill. We have six new Edges, Savage Worlds’ equivalent to D&D feats, for Enlightened. Celestial Kung Fu is an enhanced version of Superior Kung Fu from the Deadlands Player’s Guide. They cover a variety of real-world martial arts styles which grant specific benefits, from Wing Chun (bonus unarmed attack) to less-obvious names such as Monkey (bonus on Agility tricks and Taunt skill rolls). Celestial Kung Fu either increases existing bonuses for Superior Kung Fu or adds a second benefit for the fighting style. Some of the interesting ones include Mantis (discard and redraw cards of 8 or lower in the initiative deck) and Tai Chi (opponents are knocked back 1d6 hexes [6 to 36 feet] per success and raise on your Fighting roll). Chi Focus allows you to substitute your Spirit in lieu of Strength to determine damage in hand-to-hand combat. Feet of Fury can be taken more than once and each time grants you a specific special attack: a foot sweep which can knock an enemy prone and impose Shaken status on a failed Vigor roll; a flying kick which grants a free attack as you Withdraw from Combat; and a spin kick which imposes -2 to your Fighting roll but grants +4 to damage if you hit. Lightning Strike is underwhelming, in that you do double damage against an inanimate object you attack with your bare hands. Mind of Quicksilver is a Legendary Edge which allows you to mimic a spell you do not know you see performed by another chi master on a Smarts roll. While this sounds cool, it requires a d12 Smarts, which is a dump stat for chi masters in Deadlands. Combined with it being an end-game Edge means you won’t see much use of it in the Flood or most campaigns. Finally, Mongoose Leap makes you experienced with lunging strikes and grants +1 reach (1 bonus hex) when making unarmed attacks. We get twelve new Edges which can be taken by anyone who meets their prerequisites. Four of them are tied into California’s particular equipment and economics: Captain lets you begin play with a free Maze Runner ship, Cannoneer lets you slightly modify the results of a critical hit in naval vehicular combat, Silver-Tongued Devil allows you to treat a settlement’s price multiplier for expensive goods as one step less (x5 becomes x4, etc), and Nose for the Rock gives you an uncanny knack for sensing the nearby presence of ghost rock and precious minerals. The remaining eight edges are all martial arts related but can be taken by people are are merely good at fist-fighting rather than superpowered channelers of mystic energy. Blind Fighting removes any penalties for darkness when fighting enemies within 3 hexes, Counterpunch lets you make a free melee attack on a foe who missed you (Improved Counterpunch makes it more accurate), Improved Martial Arts and Martial Arts Master lets you ignore a certain level of penalties for called shots to a body part in unarmed combat, Iron Parry deals damage equal to your Strength die or weapon damage on enemies who fail to hit you in melee, Movement of the Serpent lets you Withdraw from combat without giving opponents free attacks, and Ten-Tiger Punch grants you a free melee attack on an opponent who fails a Test of Will against you (a social debuff via intimidation or taunting). The Edges which grant free attacks or damage can be good, although most of them are not amazing enough to justify purchase. In fact, the Flood starts in Nevada proper, far away from any coastal body of water. As Captain is a Background edge it is expected to be purchased at character creation. So it’s nigh-useless in the standard campaign! Goods and Gear  Here we cover some new equipment. All of said equipment got later reprints in the 1880 Smith & Robards Catalog supplement. We start out with one of the Plot Point Campaign’s unique rules: in the settlements of California, most goods are five times their list price. Some locations may dip as low as 2 or as high as eight, but this is a big deal. In fact, it’s rather prohibitively expensive on account that most ships and mad science devices are already in the several thousand dollar range. These rules will make purchase outright impossible for lot of said gadgets. It’s meant to simulate the grim survival of Famine’s domain, but in line with the rewards of most quests it can make even a single horse of average quality cost a whopping $750. For an estimate, the default Deadlands PC starts play with $250 worth of gear. In 1879 one US dollar was worth 22 US dollars today (or 17 British pounds or 19 Euros). Fortunately this price modifier is only for items purchased during play and not character generation, but it is a little much. I suggest when running the Flood to either knock down the default to x2 or x3 or adjust monetary rewards for quests appropriately. Or simulate the boom-town feel by having lots and lots of ghost rock and gold which is used as a local currency for purchase. We have a list of Chinese melee weapons, which unlike standard Savage Worlds close-combat weapons have a minimum Agility instead of minimum Strength to properly wield. They include fancy things such as the Fighting Fan which grants +1 to Parry when using the Defend action, the whip-like Flying Claw which imposes -2 to an enemy’s Parry on a Fighting roll raise in lieu of bonus damage, and the infamous Flying Guillotine which is a wire mesh bag connected to a long steel chain. It is used by making a called shot to a target’s head and deals Strength + 1d6 damage plus said bonus +4 damage gained from a headshot. The Three-Section Staff is perhaps the most versatile weapon: it can be wielded as either a staff, nunchaku, or whip, has a Reach of 1, can make Disarm and Grapple checks at said reach, and grants +1 Parry on top of all that! The bread and butter of the equipment list is all manner of boats. The waterways of the Great Maze are home to traders, soldiers, pirates, and miners who are more likely to use watercraft over the classic horse and train of the West. Most of them are well out of the PCs’ price range, especially the larger freighters, gunboats, and ironclads which range from $30,000 to $100,000. The more affordable $1,000 barges are merely flat carriers tugged by real boats but can holds lots of crew and cargo. The $5,000 knife boats are speedy maneuverable ships which can mount one gatling gun at most, while the $15,000 Maze Runner is the standard ship of the region. It is more powerful than a knife boat but not as war-worthy as a freighter. $2,000 steam launches are economy-efficient lifeboat-sized crafts used by miners for supply runs, while the two-person $3,000 steam sled is powered by a ghost rock boiler but very fragile. Finally the $10,000 tugboat is capable of carrying multiple barges but is otherwise nothing impressive. Our last bits of equipment include mines and clockwork torpedos designed to do heavy damage against boats, sea monsters, and similar heavy opposition (AoE bursts which do 4d6 or 4d8+2 damage for torpedos and ignore anywhere from 10 to 15 points of Armor). Our two mad science infernal devices include a $2,000 diving suit which pumps a steady stream of air via a long tube into said suit, and waterproof dynamite which can be placed and set off underwater. Thoughts so far: The new rules are a mixed bag. A lot of the Flood takes place on land and while there are some areas cordoned off in the Great Maze, it is by no means the primary means of travel. We did have a martial artist PC in my own run of this Plot Point Campaign, but the new weapons saw limited use on account that the bonus attack from Wing Chun (Superior Kung Fu version) when unarmed was too good to pass up. The new Edges are a bit situational and range from the highly useful to ones which may never see realistic use in play. The Tombstone Epitaph is a nice thematic touch which is present in just about every Deadlands product. It makes for a cool player handout so the PCs really do feel like they’re catching new adventure hooks by reading the news. In fact, the vast majority of Savage Tale sidequests are handouts of help wanted ads! Join us next time in the Marshal’s Section, where we cover the Gamemaster-only information, new setting rules, and strange locales! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Jan 15, 2019 05:04
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Freaking Crumbum posted:i'm amazed that someone is writing new adventure material for deadlands. i thought the savage worlds stuff was just rehashing the same content with a newer mechanical system, but not actually doing anything different with the metaplot. DNA Cowboys has a good answer, but the Reckoner Series are older than you think. The Flood released in 2009. Last Sons in 2012. Stone and a Hard Place in 2015, and finally Good Intentions in 2016. The last one had its own KickStarter partnered up with the 20th Annivesary Edition of Deadlands to drum up support. There's also an Adventure Edition of Savage Worlds which recently released, so Deadlands will get yet another upgrade sometime this year. The default timeline will be moved to 1884, one year after Good Intentions. It should be interesting to see a "Twilight of the West" era if they go for that feel. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 07:33 on Jan 15, 2019 |
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Jan 15, 2019 07:20
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 Deadlands the Flood, Chapter 2: Marshal’s Section This section of the book contains all of the GM-facing material save the adventure proper and NPC stat blocks. We get an overview of Famine’s Domain, new rules specific to the region, a host of notable locations, and a card-based means of drawing for random encounters and making your own sub-plots in the wild and woolly reaches of California.  Famine’s Domain It was touched upon in my last post, but the Reckoners are using fell magic to spread fear and suffering in the mortal world in the hopes of bringing about an apocalypse. The Deadlands setting has a mechanic known as the Fear Level, which is a numeric value for a city, region, or location on a rating from 0 to 6 representing the overall danger and hopelessness which holds sway there. At Fear Level 6, a place turns into a Deadland, a warped hellscape crawling with monsters and whose very terrain is clearly unnatural. The Reckoners hope to turn all of Earth into such a place in due time. Although the Reckoners’ influence is world-wide, they do have their own spheres of influence. In California and the Pacific Northwest, the Reckoner Famine holds dominion. We get some backstory on the supernatural history of California. Shortly after Raven freed the Reckoners, he visited the West Coast and gathered Indians amenable to his cause. Raven set about painting glyphs along natural fault lines of an already tremor-prone region, using the blood of one of his betrayed apprentices to fuel their magic and unleash a cataclysmic earthquake across the state. This event would become known as the Great Quake of ‘68, plunging hundreds of miles of territory into the onrushing sea and creating the Great Maze. The Reckoners sewn the newly-created mesas with ghost rock deposits, more than a few of it on tribal land sacred to the region’s indigenous inhabitants to help stir up trouble and racial tensions with settlers and prospectors. It was this Great Quake which heralded the rise of Reverend Grimme. Far from his present wickedness, the priest was a noble soul who did his best to save who he could amidst the natural disaster. But his congregation sooned turned on him as supplies ran low and starvation grew rampant. They turned on each other over an argument whether or not to eat the bodies of the fallen for sustenance, and Grimme was among the casualties. Only 13 survived the battle, who devoured the dead like savage beasts. Sensing opportunity, Famine drew upon the sins of the 13 and formed a dread copy of Reverend Grimme to lead them. They and the false Grimme would be immortal for as long as at least one of them survived, and were granted powers by Famine to mimic Christian miracles to lure in victims and converts. The survivors would become the inner circle of his new faith, the Church of Lost Angels. Building a new town in southern California, they had no shortage of converts for their ability to seemingly summon up food in a starvation-plagued region. Rock Island Prison was built as a place where the community’s unwanted could “disappear” and later line the tables of Sunday feasts. Unfortunately the Church’s false miracles could not extend far miles beyond the boundaries of their new city without appearing as the black magic that it was, limiting their proselytism. But Grimme found that mass human sacrifice could expand their reach, so he arranged for some summoned demons to attack the congregation of his cathedral which he’d then “heroically stop.” The plan worked, and the event became known as the Day of Righteousness which spread even to otherwise respectable newspapers across the USA and its territories. The other major political issue of the Church of Lost Angels is how to deal with the major rail companies. Lost Angels is the only major natural harbor in the Great Maze’s southern section and sits upon a gigantic ghost rock deposit to boot. A reliable intercontinental rail line will not only bring in all sorts of heretical newcomers, it risks providing a continuous food supply and thus weaken the Church’s power. Grimme’s doing his best to sabotage rail lines covertly, but once a winner of the Great Rail Wars comes in he hopes to negotiate a deal. We get several sidebars detailing a glossary of the Church of Lost Angel’s religious titles and hierarchy, along with a list of Biblical verses both legitimate and altered by Grimme. In the case of the latter, Grimme’s additions are in bold. I find this very clever, and works great for showcasing to players (especially those knowledgeable in Christianity) how the Church perverted religious scripture to wicked ends:  This section ends with a brief write-up of the Twilight Legion, a secret society dedicated to putting a stop to the Reckoner’s evils. They are separate from Deadlands’ own Agency and Texas Rangers in that they are unaffiliated with either the Union or Confederacy, and whose origins actually date back to the Roman Empire. They masquerade as a gentlemen’s club of big-game hunters known as the Explorer’s Society. A group of thrill-seeking, heavily-armed men and women with ample disposable income is the perfect cover for the Twilight Legion. Although most Legion members are aware of supernatural magic and monsters, only the highest-ranking are aware of the Reckoners’ existence. They have a deal with Lacy O’Malley of the Tombstone Epitaph: as a reporter on strange goings-on, he could use his newspaper’s advertisement section to send coded messages to the Twilight Legion and others in the know of potential trouble in needing of fixing. Setting Rules Each of Deadlands Reloaded’s Plot Point Campaigns contain new rules. Part of it is thematic in line with the supernatural pall of one of the Four Horsemen’s influence, while others are more mundane. In the Flood’s case, our theme is Hunger and scarcity. The Savage Worlds ruleset is one meant to simulate pulp-action adventure, and starving to death Oregon Trail-style isn’t in line with this ethos. So the Flood strikes a balance where hunger/starvation is instead represented as a potential debuff which imposes Fatigue levels. Every settlement has a Price Modifier, usually x5 but can be higher or lower which applies to everything, food included. Given the ample supply of ghost rock the GM is encouraged to give PCs various means of earning money, a few dollars more or even a hundred, to restock supplies and stay alive. When away from civilization, the GM can call for a Vigor or Survival roll whenever it’s dramatically appropriate. Even having a week’s worth of trail rations provides a +2 bonus at best, for Famine’s presence artificially ages and spoils food. Starvation never outright kills a PC, but imposes increasingly debilitating levels of fatigue which at its very worst can put a hero into a coma or turn them into a Faminite* on a critical failure of a Spirit roll. *faster and tougher flesh-hungering undead Famine eases (but never eliminates) the pangs of hunger for those who serve her, and human flesh is highly delicious and nutritious. But those who willingly partake of this risk turning into a wretched monster (ghoul, faminite, or wendigo depending on region) on a failed Spirit roll. Reverend Grimme’s weekly church feasts do not result in this, for spontaneous creation of monsters would impact his credibility as a man of God. After covering the dangers of famine, we get rules for Rock Fever, which honestly won’t come into play unless the PCs have a mad scientist in their party or carrying around the fuel for long periods. Basically the fumes of ghost rock are potentially toxic from prolonged exposure, requiring a Vigor roll once per week at increasing penalties. The initial failure causes symptoms of lightheadedness and fevers and -2 penalty on all Trait rolls, but further failures cause a level of fatigue. Those incapacitated gain a long-lasting mental illness drawn from the Mad Scientist’s list of dementias in the Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook. Rolling snake-eyes on a Vigor roll results in instant death as the afflicted spontaneously combusts and leaves behind a chunk of ghost rock the size of their heart. We top off this section with various water-related hazards from sailing in the Great Maze, which can be triggered as part of a random encounter to spice things up or on their own. They include natural disasters such as blasts of superheated sulphur deposits, riptides which can send ships wildly off course, whirlpools, and mischievous invisible water spirits which attack the winning side of ships in naval combat (they love rooting for the underdog) by violently shaking and stirring them. We also get rules for land-based natural hazards such as earthquakes, cave-ins and rockslides, and storms of all stripes.  Strange Locales This covers most of the locations in the Tombstone Epitaph’s Guide to California and then some, revealing the deadly truths for the GM’s eyes. We get a sample Fear Level for each place along with price modifiers for settlements of civilization. The default for California as a whole are 2 and x5 respectively, for when the PCs are in the open wilderness or a one-horse town of no repute. Some location entries also have handy-dandy sheriff badge icons next to the names of Plot Points and Savage Tales to be found in the area along with relevant page numbers. I particularly like this last touch. It makes for a reader-friendly resource and really plays up the sandbox nature of this campaign. Bear’s Claw, Dragon’s Breath, & Lion’s Roar: The owner of Iron Dragon, the largest rail company in the Western Coast, is a Chinese immigrant and warlord by the name of Kang. A veteran of his home country’s turbulent battles and rebellions, he has his fingers in all manner of businesses legitimate and otherwise. Three Chinese immigrant communities serve as safe havens for his pirates, and he even ran a Triad outfit of his own in Lost Angels before the Great Rail Wars hit the city (an event which will happen during the Flood’s main Plot Point). Losing so many soldiers is the catalyst for a major power imbalance among the Chinese Mafia, and various crime lords will start moving in on the rail baron’s turf. Overall, these three towns are home to average Chinese Janes and Joes working the mines of the Great Maze, but the criminal element is in control and indulges in oppressive businesses such as opium dealing and forced prostitution. Interestingly, Kang is knowingly tolerating a resistance movement known as the Men of the Grid who are made up of Lost Angels residents who had a different vision than a theocratic dictatorship. The Gridders as they’re known more or less declared war against Grimme’s church. And given that the Lost Angels aren’t very fond of “Eastern pagans” or vice-peddling gangsters, there’s a bit of “enemy of my enemy is my friend” even if neither side goes out of their way to aid the other. Big M Ranch: Cattle herding is Big Business in the Weird West, and an enterprising cattleman by the name of Dwight Shelton hit upon a business opportunity upon hearing of California’s food shortages. He bought up land for purposes of grazing area and water, and even with a small herd he is making a lucrative living. Unfortunately the Church of Lost Angels are not fond of anybody challenging their dominance over the local food supply. For the past few months the Sheltons have been fending off regular night-time raids on their herd. The fact that the cattle are left mutilated and not stolen points to something other than cattle-rustlers as the culprit, and he’s willing to pay for hired help to get to the bottom of things. Carver’s Landing: This is one of the oldest and most prosperous mesa towns in the Great Maze. The ghost rock rush grants it a heavy merchant presence and is home to all manner of shops and saloons, with the Eight Ball Billiards Hall being the newest and most popular. Devil’s Armpit: This small mining town is run by T’ou-Chi Chow, a self-described God of Bandits. An avid scholar in Taoist philosophy and European anarchism, he styles himself very much as a gunslinging outlaw hero from Chinese folklore that robs from the rich and powerful to distribute the fruits of their bounty among the common populace. This results in his bandit gang maintaining a very large group of volunteers and much goodwill in town. Devil’s Armpit is home to outcasts of many different backgrounds, as T’ou-Chi Chow is fond of granting people a second chance at life. Devil’s Postpiles: These huge octagonal columns stand over 60 feet tall and are surrounded by superstition and folklore. Legends claim that burying loved ones at the feet of the columns along with pleading one’s case grants a chance at local spirits returning the dead to life. The tales are true...to an extent. Fresh corpses no more than a week old have a greater chance at returning as Harrowed, intelligent undead whose corpses are inhabited by the souls of the original owner as well as a wicked spirit wrestling for control over the body. The Devil’s Postpiles ground is cursed, so said spirit will begin with total dominion over the Harrowed that rises. And sometimes zombies of those who didn’t come back rise to attack those waiting for their beloved. Dragonhold: Once a typical mining town, the inhabitants discovered a giant sea serpent known as a Maze dragon within a rocky cave. An enterprising showman by the name of Sutton Thacker turned the affair into a tourist attraction, charging money for people to have the privilege of viewing the beast and tossing fish into its massive jaws. Thacker is in fact a madman who gathered a secret cult who feed the Maze dragon human sacrifices of drunk travelers and others who will not be missed. Felicity Peak: A Russian nobleman by the name of Gregor Petrov purchased a plot of land at a tall, pointed butte not far from Lost Angels. Sufficiently isolated from the rest of the Great Maze, he rules over his serfs with an iron fist. They mine ghost rock to feed his and his family’s coffers back in the old country, and he is a willing minion of the Reckoners who gains fell powers via feeding off the blood of children. Fort Lincoln: The Union’s presence in California extends from Sacramento to various small mining towns in the Great Maze. Fort Lincoln is the largest and most important of all, for it holds the bulk of their naval operations in the region. Their numbers are small and cannot afford to spread themselves too thin, and many sailors are drawn from those who would otherwise have been court-martialled in the Union Navy. They love to curse, drink, and fight with each other as much Mexican, Confederate, and pirate forces. Fort Norton & Kwan Province: General Mu-T’ou Kwan is one of the well-established warlords from Back East. The Far East. His base of operations is in a verdant redwood forest of central California, and he lends out his soldiers to fight for the Confederate and Mexican armies in exchange for steam-powered vehicles and gold. The communities under his protection make their living from the lumber industry, but what is perhaps most interesting are his advisors. Two of them are a pair of shamans from the Cahuilla Indian tribe, Pig Pul and Little Pul. They were cast out for trafficking with evil spirits, acting on behalf of Raven to steer Kwan in an even more warlike direction. During a vision quest Kwan met an owl which explained his destiny to rule “the lands beyond the mountain,” but only if he ruled through a “white man destined to be Emperor.” After hearing of a local eccentric by the name of Emperor Norton, Kwan found his man. In the real world, Emperor Norton was a San Franciscan eccentric who went insane after a disastrous attempt at importing rice from Asia to cater to the burgeoning Chinese community. But in the world of Deadlands, he snapped back to sanity once he realized the enormity of his situation when Kwan more or less pressed him into service as a political advisor. He tries to act as Kawn’s conscience, reigning in his crueler, more vengeful side.  Ghost Town: At Fear Level 6, this burning landscape is an honest-to-God Deadland. Technically speaking it is not in existence until after the third main adventure in the Flood concludes, but is detailed here due to its importance. Ghost Town was originally a shantytown and tent city east of Lost Angels, home to the poor and destitute of the region as well as sheltering the local Chinese immigrant community. Kang’s Lion’s Roar Triad lived like kings in the region, and life was nasty, brutish, and short. But during the Battle of Lost Angels when the rail barons clashed, Dr. Darius Hellstromme dropped deadly Ghostfire Bombs from mad science airships over the area, putting a decisive end to the Great Rail Wars...but at the expense of hundreds of lives lost. The fires of Ghost Town still burn from buried veins of ghost rock, howling like the souls of the damned and inhabited by agonized spirits. It is also home to the original Reverend Grimme’s hickory walking stick, which is one of the few weapons capable of killing him. Interestingly the main quest of the Flood does not involve visiting this forsaken locale, for the plot has another means of killing in mind for good ol’ Grimme. Goodwill, Harmony, & New Opportunity: Although a supernaturally-oriented alternate history, Deadlands has long struggled with portrayals of period racism and the ideal way to handle it in order to not impact the enjoyment of gaming groups. The writers by default opted for making the Weird West a “post-racial society” where genuine bigotry is the province of individual villains rather than systemic institutions or widespread sentiment. But alas this is applied in a haphazard way. Besides the unfortunate implications of whitewashing the Confederacy’s reason for war, widespread racism towards Chinese immigrants and Native Americans is still en vogue. For the former, the Chinese are still segregated from white society and more or less live in their own towns and enclaves. Where their people stand in California is a subject of debate among the immigrants: traditionalists came to America to make a living as miners and send the proceeds to family back home and thus hope to one day rejoin them. The New Tomorrow Triad sought a different way. Instead of becoming gangsters like their counterparts, the New Tomorrow entered into legitimate businesses and formed prosperous communities in northern California. Their settlements have positive-sounding English names such as Goodwill, Harmony, and New Opportunity, and at Fear Level 1 they are among the most pleasant places in California to live. Their stated goal is to assimilate Chinese society into white society, from adopting Western names and modes of dress to even in some cases the Christian religion. This is done in the belief that they will gain greater respect and legal rights. One of its most popular members is the martial arts hero Feichei Li, or Suitcase Lee for his trademark battered suitcase which he uses as a weapon and shield in combat. It is also used for the more mundane purposes of holding his clothes and copies of the New Tomorrow Triad’s speeches. Naturally the traditionalists look down upon them for “betraying their culture for barbaric practices,” while the penny dreadfuls in the Eastern United States are all too willing to portray the New Tomorrow as Yellow Peril-style sinister invaders seeking to infiltrate the United States. They’re at odds with the other Triads who they assert project a bad image of their race. What I Changed: Sooooooo...where to start? Although the model minority status of East Asian Americans is a whole subject in and of itself, I rather found the New Tomorrow distasteful for multiple reasons. They’re more or less the only outright “good guy” Chinese faction in the Flood and whose communities are more or less better than Shan Fan and the other Chinese settlements which are pretty much overtaken by criminal gangs. It also has a double-standard of contradicting Deadlands’ presumed post-racial attitude, while also sending the message that the New Tomorrow’s relative prosperity is because they started “acting white.” When I ran the Flood, I replaced the New Tomorrow Triad with the real-world Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. They were a conglomeration of six San Franciscan business associations who sought to protect their people from racist violence and provided legal protection as well (via the use of white lawyers). They also combated the negative influence of the criminal tong gangs by offering youths alternatives to a life of crime and rescuing women from sexual slavery. Unlike the New Tomorrow they did not seek giving up of cultural values as a primary goal and found them to be a better option than what the campaign gives. Gomorra: Located between Shan Fan and the Devil’s Armpit sits the scorched ruins of Gomorra. Once known as Doomtown, it was perhaps the greatest gathering of scum and villainy in California, and with the Lost Angels and Triad as competition that’s saying something. From the inbred sorcerous clan of Whateleys to demented carnies and mad scientists unfettered by bioethics, Gomorra was no stranger to violence and crime. But its legacy went up in flames, literally, when the Collegium of mad scientists exploded and left an oversized crater in their wake. The town’s central clock chimes 12 times at midnight but does not otherwise function. Fun Fact: Gomorra was the setting of Deadlands card game. Gomorra on a meta-level was an in-universe explanation for how said game’s otherwise far-flung factions were close enough to engage in Mexican standoff style street battles. Although it had a sourcebook of its own in Deadlands Classic, unfortunately due to metaplot reasons Dr. Hellstromme sabotaged the Collegium to take out the rival faction of mad scientists before they could grow to be a threat. It seems that Pinnacle Entertainment realizes how much of a missed opportunity in not bringing Gomorra to Deadlands Reloaded, so they wrote several mini-sourcebooks centered on NPCs and adventures within Doomtown as their latest releases as of 2018. However they take place before the Flood metaplot, so there’s still an official timeline to obey. Junction: This normally-sleepy town of 23 balloons over 200 every two weeks when a freighter of the Great Maze Rock Miner’s Association shows up for its collection of ghost rock and precious metals. The money thus gathered is enough to keep the saloons and brothels going until the next biweekly shipment. The town has long sat within Grimme’s 75 mile radius but has been untouched due to the Lost Angels’ lack of a navy. But after the Great Rail Wars’ end and Hellstromme’s alignment with Grimme, the cult makes plans to take over the town.  Lost Angels: The political and spiritual center of southern California, the autonomous Free and Holy City of Lost Angels casts a dark pall over the region’s geopolitical landscape. Arranged in a pattern of concentric circles rather than the square-like grids common in Western settlements, all major roads lead to Reverend Grimme’s Cathedral in the town’s center. As the largest and most ornate of structures, there is no doubt as to who rules here. At Fear Level 5, the supposedly sacred city is one where just about every citizen is looking over their shoulder. The red-robed Guardian Angels are the town’s police force and eager to find any excuse to dish out punishment for heresy, and the lack of freedom of religion means that only Grimme’s particular brand of pseudo-Christianity is openly practiced. Just about everyone has a nagging suspicion that “something’s not right” in town, and people stay locked up in their homes at night due to reports of ambushes and attacks by unknown things in the city’s darkened streets. Rock Island Prison is the major stockade for heretics, criminals, and those who know too much. It is this place where the Reverend’s inner circle can let down their hair and openly engage in the murderous cannibalism of inmates. Located on an island, the Prison’s natural defenses include giant sharks and saltwater crocodiles along with six Maze Runners. Steam gatlings and batteries of cannons man the walls. The prison has several blocks based on prisoner types, from common rabble, those who show gumption at being recruited into the Guardian Angels, to a few well-guarded cells that hold only the most dangerous inmates. Jasper Stone, the Servitor of Death and TPK Poster Boy of the Deadlands Universe, was once held here before inevitably busting out. Lynchburg: Lynchburg sits on a huge mesa in the middle of the Great Maze, with networks of precarious rope bridges connecting points of land together. It doesn’t have much to set it apart from many other towns of its type save for one Mariposa Lil, the closest thing to the law in Lynchburg. The owner of a brothel, she is protective of her employees and will not hesitate to resort to violence if any customers get abusive or tricky with the girls. Mariposa also manages a local militia of vigilantes and is quite fond of the kind of capital punishment which gives the town its name. Unfortunately she is not concerned about justice so much as putting down any threats to her power, making her a dictator in all but name. Mexicali: Once a popular border town and pit stop for cowboys, Mexicali has seen better days. Santa Anna, who in the world of Deadlands is still alive and general for Emperor Maximilian’s Mexican aristocratic government, is using the town as the staging point for a larger invasion of California. He is no stranger to the many dangers and power players of the state, so the general’s secret weapon is a so-called “Army of the Night.” Tens of thousands of zombies held in secret canyon complexes are herded into night raids against the Lost Angels. Perdition: Technically not in existence until the third Plot Point adventure of the Flood, Perdition is made up of refugees from Ghost Town. After rebuilding far away from the still-smoldering ruins, they set up a town of sorts around Ore Collection Station #37 owned by Hellstromme Industries. It is a great irony that Perdition’s residents and their income are dependent upon the very same organization which destroyed their old home. In spite of its newness, Perdition already has a proper saloon, a hybrid church-schoolhouse, a telegraph office, and a rail station for the Wasatch rail company subsidiary of Hellstromme Industries. But it does not have a proper Mayor or Marshal yet, which causes many to worry about the lawlessness this will generate. Peterson Sanitarium: Located on a lonely mesa overlooking the City of Lost Angels, the sanitarium is far from a house of healing. In fact, Dr. Peterson’s unorthodox methods cause more harm than good, for he’s using patients as tests for a “neo-flesh” experiment which he believes to be the genesis of a new life form. The fact that said life forms are made from the amalgamation of human bodies is of no consequence to the demented doctor. Placerville: This former boom town went bust when the gold sediments in the nearby river went from yellow to dirty brown. Now the people make their living by scouring ghost rock for the benefit of the Shan Fan Triad, whose armed goons take a hefty cut of the profit in exchange for protecting the shipments. Progress: This small community of mad scientists was once the number one place for catching up on the latest innovations in ghost rock technology. But when cash was coming up dry they resorted to building ships for the Church of Lost Angel’s fleet in order to fund their experiments. The gadgeteers here supply cheaper gizmos than Smith & Robard’s delivery service, but they’re more likely to malfunction so you get what you pay for. Quarrytown: The entirety of the mines in this mesa town are man-made, an oddity in the Great Maze. Most on the hunt for ghost rock often find exposed veins in the cliff faces and dynamite them off to waiting barges and tugboats below. But Quarrytown’s smooth tunnels are deep enough that many miners can go for days without seeing the sun. In reality, the tunnels are very ancient and were once home to a tribe of Indians which discovered magic to bind Maze dragons to their will. Their civilization was wiped out by a cataclysmic tidal wave long ago, but the Maze dragons were sealed in underground caverns. That is, until the Great Quake of ‘68 lodged them free to now hunt California’s waters. Sacramento: The Union’s political center in California, Sacramento’s 650-strong all-black regiment can only enforce their country’s power so far into the rest of California. The soldiers’ commander is Captain Clement Tyson, a black Union soldier who was rapidly promoted for his actions during the Civil War. Unfortunately, his career hit a dead end when he was transferred to Sacramento’s “negro regiment.” The soldiers are underfunded and undersupplied, and although they can march to Fort Lincoln’s aid President Grant is hoping this will not happen on account of their ranks being spread thin enough as is. This is another interesting case of the Deadlands Plot Point Campaigns subverting the setting’s “no racism” rule. Although it doesn’t out and out say it, the real-world Civil War did give its all-black regiments comparatively less funding and support, and stationing a talented African-American climbing the ranks to a backwater station is pretty clear on what kind of bureaucratic resistance is keeping him from advancing to Major.  Shan Fan: The other large city in California besides Lost Angels, Shan Fan is a majority-Chinese city made up of millions of immigrants from the old country. It is built on the legacy of San Franciscan survivors of the Great Quake, financed by the Hsieh Chia Jên (Family of Deliverance) due to a need to create a new northern port in the state. Despite the organization’s flowery name it is more popularly known as the Shan Fan Triad, and they are the effective law and government of the city. The Triad has its hands in all manner of businesses, both legitimate and not. It has a hierarchical system where a Big Boss oversees a group of six or seven Big Brothers who all control their own sections of city. The Rascals are the foot soldiers of the Brothers, handling local-sized affairs and serving as expendable muscle when gang wars flair up. The Shan Fan Triad is far from united; the need to present a tough demeanor means that any showing of weakness, or losing business and territory to another gang leader, means that Brothers must answer challenges with sabotage and violence. Otherwise they give the impression that they cannot protect their own, which can result in their own rascals turning on him to take their place or other Triad members moving in on their turf en masse. One of the few taboos the Triad abide by is a city-wide ban on occult magic. This does not cover typical folkloric religious practices or chi-based martial arts. Rather it involves magical rites which involve consorting with evil spirits, necromancy, and the “dark arts.” Most Triad members abide by this save for one Big Brother: Thin Noodles Ma, who is secretly a bonafide sorcerer under the tutelage of the rail baron Kang. The current Big Boss is Big Ears Tam, who keeps his stately position by turning lower-ranking Triad against each other. He believes that having them fight over scraps will prevent up-and-comers from creating a united front against him. The two other power players of Shan Fan are Thin Noodles Ma and Rat-Siinner Hou. Thin Noodles Ma controls most of the brothels and sex trade in town and is a bonafide gourmand of wine, women, and food. Rat-Skinner Hou is a sadistic drug lord who got his title from skinning a snitch alive and sewing his flesh into a hat which he now wears all the time. Beyond city politics we get a run-down of the major neighborhoods, such as the Red Lantern Town which is a favorite tourist spot for out of towners and the source of the bulk of Triad gang wars; the desperate Skids, populated by homeless and destitute people who lost their fortunes in the boom and bust cycle of ghost rock and gold rushes; the financial Taeltown center; and the industrial centers such as Prawn Valley’s fisheries and Stinktown’s tanneries and slaughterhouses. Shannonsburg: The only place in California with a x1 price multiplier, the Confederate government is hoping to win the Maze’s hearts and minds with relatively cheap goods. The entire town is effectively afloat on government subsidies, and the other political factions in the region are doing their best to disrupt Shannonsburg’s supply trains. Such attempts inevitably turn public opinion against the attackers who are already tired of being price-gouged. A port town, Shannonsburg is protected by the 120 foot long C.S.S. Leviathan. Sunken City (San Diego): Like Los Angeles and San Francisco, San Diego was the other big city casualty of the Great Quake. But unlike the former two it never got a spiritual successor and its legacy is a patchwork affair of crumbling underwater ruins strewn about the Great Maze’s water-filled passages. Its proximity to Mexico means that quite a few ironclad ships of said nation’s navy are here, along with the base of the pirate Capitan Sangre (Captain Blood) who acts as a privateer against US and Confederate warships. In regards to non-governmental affairs, more than a few salvage companies do business here, particularly mad scientists who sell various potions, diving suits, and other devices of varying quality for the brave and foolish. 37th Chamber: The 37th Chamber is a community of Shaolin monks who live meager and unassuming lives. Many people regard them as little more than a religious commune from Asia, but naturally there’s more to them than that. For one, the monks are spectacular fighters, and since chi-based powers are more plentiful since Raven’s opening of the Hunting Grounds the Shaolin disciples are some of the greatest martial arts fighters in the region. Overall the Shaolin monks are self-sufficient and do not interact much with society. They do not keep much of value and their abilities to deflect bullets being a provable fact means that most outlaws know better than to tussle with them. The Shan Fan Triad has made attempts to recruit them to their ranks, although the gangsters’ materialism and immoral ways are not great selling points to Zen Buddhists. The monks do break their one rule in regards to non-interventionism: the affairs of ghost rock. The Shaolin regard the substance as an abomination to nature and the universe, which is why they came to the Great Maze in the first place. They send warriors to sabotage weird science devices, mining communities, and others which make use of the substance. They do their best to minimize casualties from their raids: their priority is to make ghost rock mining economically unviable and discourage others from setting up shop, rather than motivating aggrieved miners and scientists to revenge killings from indiscriminate murder.  Van Horn’s Light: Maarten Van Horn came to the Maze to build a great lighthouse for the benefit of seafarers. Unfortunately the geography of the Maze and its huge canyon walls made it so that a lighthouse was of limited use, but adhering to the Sunk Cost Fallacy he began building it anyway. He died penniless 4 years later, but on the plus side ghost rock deposits were discovered beneath the lighthouse and miners built a community below it. The town gets its name from the landmark, and the lighthouse still works albeit at random intervals. Van Horn’s spirit is responsible, sensing lost souls and hoping to guide them to safe shores.  Maze Adventures This section of chapter is a way for Game Masters to generate their own encounters and minor adventures on the fly. We first get a list of travel distances in miles between the major communities of the Great Maze. Geography-wise California is big: 1,040 miles from its northernmost to southernmost point, according to NetState. In Deadlands, going from Lost Angels to Shan Fan can take 400 miles, while going all the way from the Sunken City of San Diego to New Opportunity in Northern California can be as much as 700 miles. The distances are given based on boat or train travel, while traveling on foot can multiply the distances by as much as 3 due to the innumerable channels, mesas, and confusing scattered array of rock and arch bridges which span the mesas. After calculating travel times, the section provides a chart for determining knowledge of the Maze’s channels to see see if the base distance is multiplied in travel time. This is rather debilitating, as it is a Smarts roll with a -4 penalty if the navigator is not native to the Maze, and +2 if a main channel is used: If a posse wanted to travel from New Opportunity to San Diego on foot primarily within the Great Maze, the actual miles traveled may be as as high as 6,300! This system is not used when traveling over the solid land in California’s eastern half, or for very short jaunts. I personally did not use rule for my own campaigns. Quite a few of the Savage Tales and Plot Points take place within California’s “mainland” so to speak or close to Lost Angels’ environs. My party used the Iron Dragon rail line as their primary means of travel when push came to shove, departing on horseback or hiring local Maze Runner guides in the nearest port town when they got close to their objective. Now we get to an Adventure Generator, meant to serve as dropping a quick low-preparation encounter. It creates the basic elements in a four-part step: first the Action Deck is shuffled and three cards are drawn for the People, the Trouble, and the Complications. The card’s value modifies the d20 rolls (which can ace) for the three. The People represent the supporting cast, and can range from existing political factions of California (Triad, Lost Angels, government soldiers, etc) to more generic ones such as small independent towns, prospectors, Indian tribes, or even supernatural investigators from a group such as the Agency or Texas Rangers. If the encounter takes place at sea or involves a ship, there’s a table for determining the ship’s type as well. The Trouble represents the central conflict. They can include being in a fight with another faction, being besieged by supernatural critters who have their own encounter table, planning a heist, survivors of a shipwreck, or even specters of a demolished vessel or ghost town. We get an optional table for motivations representing possible goals of the supporting cast, which include the standard stock of love, money, revenge, politics, and all the meat and fodder of good storytelling. Finally Complications are wrenches the Game Master can throw into the works to make this different from similar random encounter results. They range from freak weather suddenly pouring in, an epidemic sweeping through the area which gives risk of disease from close contact, one of the factions holding a local election asking the PCs to provide support, or a notable NPC showing up in town. Thoughts So Far: Overall this section is quite good. The overview of California’s weird history and the many locales provide for good adventure fodder, and the cross-referencing of pages for main Plot Points and Savage Tales relevant to specific areas is very helpful. Not only does it act as an aid for Game Masters and provides the workings of a sandbox environment, it also gives a hint of how larger events tie into otherwise small-town burgs. It sits very well with the Western trope of how there’s always something happening even in the humblest of places. The variety of locations makes for a good diversity of adventuring environments so that things will not feel stale. I like the interplay of various political factions in California, but being relatively restricted to specific areas of influence prevents things from feeling like an indecipherable game of political chess. Granted some groups get a lot more spotlight than others. Join us next time as we cover the Flood Plot Point Campaign proper, an eight part series of rip-roaring adventure in America’s most Western state!* *Geographically if not thematically.
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Jan 15, 2019 07:32
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 The Flood Plot Point Campaign, Part 1 Finally we’re at the main course, the glue which binds the whole thing together! This chapter covers the eight adventures of the Flood’s primary quest of overthrowing the Church of Lost Angels. But much like Skyrim and other open-world video game RPGs, you’re expected to do quite a bit of exploration and sidequests between most of them in the form of Savage Tales. In the case of Plot Point Seven a certain amount of Savage Tales are required to complete before moving onto the final adventure. Some Tales only show up after certain events in the Plot Points, but overall about half of them can be done at any time by the PCs when they’re in the area. We get a summary of the eight Plot Point adventures, along with when and how they’re triggered. The entirety of the Flood is meant to take place within the span of 8 in-game months, from December 1879 to August 23rd, 1880. This is not set in stone but rather is is in keeping with Deadlands’ overarching metaplot. 1. The Hellbore The first adventure of the Flood is interesting in that it doesn’t take place in California at all. Instead it’s on a Denver-Pacific train ready to cross the Sierra Nevada: Boxed Text posted:A few minutes ago you noticed an odd rattling. The staff of the Denver-Pacific must have noticed it as well, for the conductor in your car flipped a hidden switch and lowered armored shutters over your windows. He then flipped over a seat covering a secret compartment and pulled out a Gatling rifle. With a smile and a wink, he now takes up a position at the front of the car near a gunport you hadn’t noticed earlier. The Indians are an Apache war party far away from home* and number ten in total, although only the war leader and 1 brave per PC directly attacks the party while the others are picking off survivors. The fight takes place among the burning wreckage of the train, with burning piles dealing fire damage to those unlucky enough to be pushed into them. Bulky items owned by the PCs are lying about and require a Notice roll to find, and the conductor’s gatling rifle can be found with 12 shots on said roll if a PC specifically declares they wish to look for it. None of the train car’s passengers survive at the end of this encounter. *technically speaking northern Nevada is Shoshone territory, and the Apache mostly lived around the American Southwest As for the Apache’s motivations, they follow the Old Ways and view the trains as as disturbing the earth spirits of the land. They did not cause the train to derail, but knew of a hollow point created by an underground tunnel in the earth which would cause it to collapse into a sinkhole. They used this as an opportunity to attack the train. What I Changed: I wasn’t exactly keen to replicate the Savage Indian trope where Natives are little more than an encounter bump with no greater relevance to the plot. In line with one of my PCs’ Enemy Hindrances I replaced the Apache with members of a family of crooked cattle barons who caught word that said PC booked passage on the train. I also made Lacy O’Malley, reporter of the Tombstone Epitaph, the sole survivor of the train crash rather than having him encountered later. The crashed train is stranded in the middle of Nevada’s Great Basin desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest settlement. The PCs’ horses, if they have any, survived the crash. Investigating the hole reveals a literal underground railroad: a man-made tunnel going east to west, with the eastern side blocked off by a fresh cave-in. This is a secret project by Wasatch, a rail company subsidiary of Hellstromme Industries.* As said company is based in the mountainous terrain of Utah, they are secretly tunneling beneath North America’s western mountains in order to win the Great Rail Wars. *Deadlands’ Standard Oil megacorp equivalent, specializing ghost rock and mad science. It won’t be long before a resupply train will use digging machinery to rapidly clear the cave-in and will emit a very clear, very loud horn. This gives ample time for spelunkers to get off the tracks in time, no roll necessary. Along the way the PCs can encounter a silent bipedal automaton* guarding a side section of tracks who looks quite intimidating but won’t attack the party unless provoked: it’s been programmed to attack monsters and not humans save in self-defense. By the time they reach the now-parked train not very far away, they can encounter a Wasatch rail crew who ask the party to state their business. They want to avoid casualties because “the press is watching” and hesitantly welcome the PCs into protective custody. Even if a fight does break out they use cover and their head foreman tries to parley. *a steampunk mecha The train itself is very classy despite its underground confines: the rail car is luxuriously decorated with cherry wood and brass fixtures, along with a dining table set with real silver. Partial Boxed Text posted:But what really captures your attention are the two figures seated in plush chairs at the other end of the car. One is no doubt the famous Lacy O’Malley. He wears his trademark white suit and hat, though even from here and by the flickering candles you can tell it’s seen better days. He smiles amiably and tips his hat.  In an uncharacteristically open fashion for the man, Dr. Hellstromme submitted to an interview with the Tombstone Epitaph. He’s very confident that his plan will help win the Great Rail Wars and wants to get his side of the story out first to counteract the bad press his company’s been receiving. Demonstrating the power of his amazing intellect and unsurpassed technological acumen to the world is just a nice side bonus. Hellstromme is rather talkative and explains the plans of his latest device: the Hellebore machine is in the process of digging tunnel through hundreds of miles of rock to lay the foundations for the underground tunnel and thus win the Great Rail Wars. He estimates that he’ll link an existing line into California in two days’ time and is happy to have the PCs along for this historic moment. He will not allow them to leave due to a desire to keep the project a secret, but is more than willing to hire them on as guards, laborers, etc along with food and basic supplies as a goodwill gesture. If the party decides for whatever reason to attack Hellstromme, his two Harrowed bodyguards and six clockwork tarantulas will quickly move to defend him along with the rest of the Wasatch rail warriors. As one of the Big Bad Evil Guys of the setting,* he’s also got every Mad Science power under the sun and has a failsafe where if killed an automaton will take him back to a laboratory and transplant his brain into a robot body. That last part is not part of the adventure; it’s actually part of Hellstromme’s stat block in the Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook. *and the one featured in the last Plot Point Campaign, Good Intentions! Lacy O’Malley will also wish to interview the PCs, and the book plays up to not be too annoying with him and try to role-play him as such that the PCs get to like the fellow. What I Changed: This is also part of why I had him in the wreckage in the adventure’s beginning; as the sole survivor and a recognized face in the West, he’d be what causes the Wasatch rail warriors to stand down and thus give Hellstromme an opportunity to do “good press.” This way, I gave our plucky Irish reporter a shared survivor status with the PCs while also demonstrating his usefulness rather than having him show up out of nowhere. Our last encounter for this adventure involves an attack by tunnel critters, giant insect beings which lair beneath the bowels of the earth. They are weak individually but attack in packs and gang up on lone targets to bring them down.They are in the process of doing as much to Professor Haggerty, the mad scientist operating the Hellebore machine ahead of the train. The group is ushered to move forward to help. There are two juvenile tunnel critters per PC to fight. This is not a hard battle: tunnel critters do not have any ranged or supernatural capabilities, a mere d4 Fighting die, and only deal 1d6 damage with a bite attack which is unlikely to wound heroes with an average Toughness save on an Ace or high roll. Competently-designed novice rank heroes should have little trouble: my own gaming group included a “wandering wuxia hero” martial artist who was virtually untouchable by the monsters due to his high Parry and a Martial Arts edge which prevented ganging-up bonuses. Our Harrowed with high Toughness and a huckster with a multi-target Fear power helped make short work of them. The Wasatch crew is unfazed by the existence of such strange monsters, for they encountered much worse elsewhere underground. Hellstromme and Haggerty work to repair the Hellbore and resume course. 2. Dr. Hellstromme’s Wild Ride This section begins with more boxed text, indicating that a week has passed since the PCs first ventured underground. Finally the Hellbore breaks through to sunlight. The rail crew celebrates as Hellstromme passes around bottles of champagne and people emerge onto the surface in the desert foothills of a mountain range. Inviting the party onto a steam wagon (steam-powered horseless carriage), he explains how they’ll have to fight their way into Lost Angels: the ruling Reverend Grimme has not agreed to any rail barons’ right of way and other companies are sure to be lying in wait. The steam wagon stops in a Wasatch camp where Hellstromme gives another inspiring speech, then they load up on an actual three-car train known as the Good Intentions. It turns out that Hellstromme’s prediction was right, for agents of the Iron Dragon rail company are chomping at the bit for a fight. Notable for being the only company owned and managed by Chinese people, they’re the ones with the most track in California and the Pacific Northwest and thus Hellstromme’s biggest competition in the region. What I Changed: I put Hellstromme’s Good Intentions rail car not far from where where the Hellebore penetrated the ground. This cut down on unnecessary exposition and travel while also being well within a genius mad scientist’s calculations. The Iron Dragon rail warriors pull no punches. Red Petals Su, Kang’s second in command, is arriving by a flying autogyro and is is trying to line herself over the train’s engine to drop a bomb. Meanwhile, 2 steam wagons bearing a total of ten martial artists, a pair of drivers and sharpshooters (one manning a gatling gun, another a flamethrower) come up on both sides of the train. One of the wagons also bears a Chinese Ogre, big and beefy monsters Kang and some among the Triad use as bloodthirsty yet effective enforcers for special missions. Hellstromme will be barricaded in a ghost-rock armored caboose barred to entry along with three guards manning gatling guns, leaving the party to move about the rest of the train. This is a noticeable upturn in lethality from the tunnel critters. There’s an awful lot of enemy NPCs to do actions, although the major advantage PCs have is cover from the train as well as the clustered bundling of enemies due to the steam wagons’ limited size. The Chinese ogre is a beast in melee but has no way to retaliate against ranged attacks. My party caught on to this and plugged the big guy full of lead in between tossing dynamite and making called shots to the wagons’ ghost rock boilers (which if they take enough damage will explode in an AoE burst). The PCs have aid from the soldiers’ gatling guns, but also in their favor favor are small mechanical robots which fly out of Hellstromme’s ghost rock-armored caboose to grab them if any fall off the train. They’ll take a lot of damage even if they fall out (4d6) but they won’t be out of the fight if they survive. As for Red Petals Su, her role is a bit of a railroady red herring: She’d suffer a -4 penalty to hit if it matters due to her vehicle’s speed, and the party has several rounds to shoot at her. The adventure even says that she is not meant to blow up the train in the first place! If hurt badly she’ll dive out of sight as the autogyro steams smoke. She is incapable of death due to literal plot armor: no, nothing like black magic or Hellstromme’s SCIENCE, the text just has her gyro fly out of sight. 3. Out with a BOOM! The Good Intentions’ tracks slow down as the locomotive overlooks a hill leading down into the city of Lost Angels. Banners of the other five rail companies are everywhere, who even if they do not personally have tracks this far out spared no expense in hiring help to sabotage their competitors. Grimme’s own Guardian Angels several hundred-strong line the city’s outskirts flanked by two giant bonfires. The good Reverend stands silent among them, his long white hair in contrast with a cleric’s vestment of deepest black. Stopping at a makeshift fort, Hellstromme gives another speech to the PCs of how they are standing at the forefront of a momentous historic event and how even the Reverend Grimme cannot stop progress. With only the ‘negotiations’ with the latter as his last thing, the Weird West’s pre-eminent mad scientist instructs the PCs to...retreat to a camp in the rear and stay away from the battle. He gives them a hearty goodbye with well wishes. The brief Battle of Lost Angels is only quickly surmised with boxed text of frantic chaos, describing each of the rail company’s unique edges from Black River’s Wichita Witches throwing spells around to Bayou Vermillion’s zombie hordes running amok. It doesn’t matter what the PCs do in these few minutes of chaos, as the battle is happening around them and they cannot personally affect its stakes. Yay metaplot! Eventually some real action happens when Lacy O’Malley shows up. He is quick and to the point: he has a friend named Sam Hellman in mortal danger in the City, and with Grimme’s Guardian Angels occupied this may be the best chance to rescue him. He plays on the party’s conscience, having seen how they handled the tunnel critters to know that they’re competent enough to handle trouble. When the PCs accompany him, venturing into the city is no challenge at all. In fact it’s a veritable ghost town as most civilians stay inside, with but a few packs of rabid dogs as the obvious signs of life. The PCs have a chance at encountering patrols of 5 to 10 Angels who will shoot on sight. Boxed Text posted:You hear voices coming your way. Looks like wounded returning from the battle. Moments later a wagon drawn by two mules emerges from the gloom, and you hear the whining of dogs. Fifteen Guardian Angels escort a wagon that’s completely full of a heap of something, but under the cover it’s impossible to tell what. “Whoa,” murmurs the driver, and the wagon stops uncomfortably close to your hiding spot. The book somehow assumes that this tells the PCs and Lacy the truth about Rock Island Prison and the Lost Angels’ cannibalistic rites, although this is a poor way of showing it. It illuminates the Angels as murderous thugs, but there’s no direct indication that the corpses are meant to be consumed. They could just as easily be taking their curfew orders fanatically, a coup among Angels given the wounded recognized Andrea and seemed comforted by her presence, or any number of other reasons bad guys turn on their own. If the PCs try to intervene, they have to fight Andrea Baird, 15 Guardian Angels, and another 10 Angels in 1d6 rounds if gunfire or loud noises are exchanged. This is not meant to be a fight they can win, but rather to run away from if caught. Sam Hellman is not staying at the boarding house where O’Malley expected to find him; the single clerk there has nothing to tell the party and Hellman’s room is tidy and shows no signs of disturbance. O’Malley will be freaked out and want to leave soon, and the clerk will summon more Guardian Angels to ambush the PCs unless they somehow ensured his silence or loyalty. Bribery works in this case, for he’s no fanatic. Even if they sneak out successfully they’ll have one more combat encounter with a flight of Guardian Angels. A high-ranking priest by the name of Rooster Peterson leads them, and he can summon a bloody zombie via an enchanted bone fragment, something all high-ranking Angels have on their person in case of trouble. With little to show for their expedition, the party is about to either high-tail it out of the place entirely or return to the safety of the Wasatch fort, but this is cut short when Hellstromme plays his trump card. Bringing a decisive end to the Great Rail Wars, a fleet of airships soar through the sky. A grinning Dr. Hellstromme visible from the Good Intentions leaves no doubt as to their allegiance. Passing over the outskirts of the city, the airships drop three objects onto the masses of fighters below, emitting an audible trademark wailing-of-the-damned sound ghost rock devices are known for.  Yup, Hellstromme just dropped ghost rock powered pseudo-nukes. Horrified at this act of barbarity, Lacy O’Malley goes charging into the still-hot fires of Ghost Town, proclaiming that there’s innocents in need of help. Those who accompany O’Malley will need to make Vigor rolls to avoid suffocation from smoke inhalation. They can save a few people, but the neighborhood as a whole burns. Having done all they can, Lacy plops down by the heroes’ side as the town burns. He congratulates them for the heroism they’ve displayed, and explains how it’s clear that there’s evil in the world and not just the obvious kinds of mortal men’s follies. Lacy has an inkling that a lot of said evil is somehow connected, and he’s part of an organization dedicated to fighting it. Showing them a signet ring with a crossed torch and sword, he identifies it as a membership mark of the Explorer’s Society which poses as a gentleman’s club and fraternity of mutual aid. He explains how the Union and Confederacy already have their own groups for handling not-so-natural terrors, but the Explorer’s Society is unaligned from them and doesn’t discriminate. He mentions that the ring can help them with local authorities in the know in case they have to commit minor crimes when putting a stop to supernatural phenomena. Lacy gives them directions and instructions for how to join: a British man by the name of Captain Roderick Pennington-Smythe is headquartered in Shan Fan who helps induct new members, and to mention Lacy’s name when asking for him. Finally, he points out that Page 13 of the Tombstone Epitaph is used to tip off Explorer’s Society members to strange goings on and people in need of help. They take the forms of advertisements and warnings labelled with GOOD INTENTIONS headings. It’s implied that the Epitaph’s newspaper updates regularly with such ads, but we get an in-game player handout listing all of them:  Barring 3 exceptions which are mini-plot arcs in their own right, this is a list of every Savage Tale in the Flood,* an in-universe way of tipping the PCs off to the campaign’s various side-quests. I really like this, and it’s one of my favorite parts of the adventure path. Oddly enough the future 3 Plot Point Campaigns did not replicate this: the PCs do not join the Explorer’s Society in them with the possible exceptions of Good Intentions, so that may be one explanation. The Last Sons still has Help Wanted missives, but not all of them relate to the Savage Tales and they’re not in one convenient handout. The Savage Tales of Stone and a Hard Place and Good Intentions are more or less meant to be stumbled upon by the PCs. *and one main Plot Point which is the one in the upper left corner What I Changed: Hoo boy where to start. The default part of having this big historic climax to one of the setting’s long-running struggles deserves more PC interaction than this. Additionally, the ghost rock atom bomb if handled as is will make the PCs focus on Hellstromme even though Reverend Grimme is the main villain of the campaign. Yeah, there’s that scene with dead bodies being loaded into a wagon, but that does not carry the sheer emotional impact of their employer literally razing a city (or at least the poor section of town). The fact that the PCs had face to face interactions with him in the last 2 adventures makes him a more personal villain than the distant Grimme. There’s a very real chance a gaming group will be going after the wrong BBEG here. I changed quite a bit in this particular Plot Point: first off I had it so Bayou Vermillion technically beat Hellstromme to the punch. Thanks to said rail company’s undead labor force they laid down tracks the fastest and set up a depot right outside Lost Angels, technically making them the winner of the Great Rail Wars. But Grimme and Hellstromme were in secret communications and the latter had a better deal to offer than the Southern necromancers. Hellstromme asked the party to do one more favor: deliver a large sealed box into town to deliver to the Church of Lost Angels. Said box contained a mad science device which acted as a primitive radio beacon and thus give the autogyro bombers a target. The PCs had one, but Hellstromme isn’t putting his eggs all in one basket: his agents had two other boxes to deliver to areas in Lost Angels bearing Grimme’s political opposition. The boxes would target Lost Angel’s Chinatown (technically Ghost Town, but picked a name which would bear more immediate significance to the players), the headquarters of the city’s opposition party who I later made the Men of the Grid, and finally the Bayou Vermillion Rail Depot. This last one was important, as without a functional rail line said company couldn’t claim the exclusive US/Confederate contract while Wasatch can. Through the party’s huckster’s Hunch along with feelings that things were afoot (the person who picked up their package was Sister Andrea Baird of Grimme’s inner circle), the PCs figured that some stuff was about to go down but chalked it up to an internal church power struggle. Not being fond of the Church, whose zealously violent ways were common knowledge in the setting if not their cannibalism, the PCs found out about the boxes’ location and Grimme’s deal via some sleuthing and had enough time to take care of one of them. They opted for Chinatown, figuring it had the greatest number of innocent people. Some of Hellstromme’s unwitting X-Squad troopers (mad scientist rail warriors) were standing guard, unaware they were to become sacrificial lambs. The party had no mechanically-inclined members among their ranks at the time, so they disabled it via brute force. The bombings would thus serve a dual purpose: get rid of Grimme’s enemies right in his home and hand the Great Rail Wars over to Hellstromme, while being plausible enough to be brushed off as indiscriminate casualties wrought by the multi-sided Great Rail Wars. The ghostfire bombs would also act as a deterrent against the United States’ encroachment of Deseret, much like the atomic bomb IRL (in my campaign we used the Dead South campaign variant, meaning there was no Confederacy. 4. Big Trouble in Little Shan Fan Savage Tales: At this point in the campaign a little over half of the Savage Tales listed in the Epitaph are able to be accessed. The other half not unlocked yet are five* involving the glyph hunt (which unlock after Plot Point 7), Treasure Hunters (unlocked after Plot Point 4), Flesh of the Mad Monk and Long Live the New Flesh (unlocked after Plot Point 5), and The Battle o’ Junction and Ballots and Bullets (which trigger after a few months of in-game time passes since the Battle of Lost Angels). *The three arc-length Savage Tales tie into the glyph hunts, which would technically make them eight. This is where the Flood Plot Point Campaign gets off the literal railroad tracks and really opens up. The main adventures are further spaced out between each other instead of occurring right after another, giving the PCs relative freedom to go about California on their own. There’s no timetable for them to get to Shan Fan, and the book recommends tossing them a Savage Tale and several stops at locations along the way even if they wish to make a beeline for the Explorer’s Society. The Iron Dragon Rail Line starts out from Lion’s Roar and goes through Shannonsburg, with the 37th Chamber nearby before going up to Dragon’s Breath and then finally Shan Fan. Quarrytown and Lynchburg are in the Great Maze proper, and a huge amount of Savage Tales actually take place within a few miles of Lost Angels’ environs. And given the above selection, there’s quite a bit to choose from! When the PCs get to Shan Fan and want to find the Explorer’s Society, they have to ask around in Chinese (any dialect) and make a Streetwise roll at a hefty -4 penalty. On a success, they learn that the Society lodge burned down under mysterious circumstances and people suspect they ran afoul of the Triad. They’re pointed to Long-Haired Tony for more information, who explains that most of their order left town but he reckons one of them is holded up in the Sunrise House hotel. Here’s the shindig on what’s going down: there are two Explorer’s Society members in Shan Fan. The one in the hotel is Rutherford Ellington Dillenger, and his partner Roderick Pennington-Smythe is currently in the custody of Thin Noodles Ma’s goons. Said gangster entered into an alliance with Warlord Kwan, who wanted a pendant in the Society’s possession stolen and brought to him. Naturally the Explorer’s Society was unwilling to part with this item for it is actually the Amulet of Rahashimir, a talisman of fell power capable of bringing back the dead but only for truly evil souls. The gangsters reacted by burning down the lodge, causing the members to scatter. Unfortunately the talisman is indestructable to all manner of natural and supernatural means, so Pennington-Smythe tried to discard the amulet in the hills outside of town before he got kidnapped. Now Dillinger is holed up in the hotel at a loss for what to do until the PCs show up. The adventure has no explanation for what happens if none of the PCs speak Chinese or succeed on the roll; I presume they have to keep rolling or hire a translator, which kind of defeats the purpose as otherwise the entire questline is put on hold. Boxed Text posted:Dillenger has taken a suite in the hotel since the lodge burned, and has hired a group of five armed guards. The guards are former gunmen of the Great Rail Wars, so they’re rough and ready for action, but they’re also mostly worried about attackers of the Oriental variety and won’t pose much of an obstacle to the posse. A simple Persuasion roll should suffice for most parties to move past these “gentlemen.” Besides the assumption that no gaming groups will have a Chinese PC in spite of said sourcebook giving many mechanical options for martial artist characters, this is a rather eye-opening entry in that it once again breaks with Deadlands’ ethos of having racism be the dominion of individual villains and the most ignorant of people. These hired guards are in the employ of the good guys, which kind of throws a gear in that wrench even if they’re tough mercs for hire. If the PCs manage to earn Dillenger’s trust (likely by mentioning why they were sent), he opens up and tells the party what he knows. He asks for help but is reluctant to financially compensate the heroes; he can cough up $200 if push comes to shove. To search for Pennington-Smythe’s location. the PCs can roll Streetwise checks at a -4 penalty in a similar manner to the above. They can even approach Big Ears Tam and learn that Ma’s holding their quarry in a safehouse in the Skids. The adventure’s rather vague on how the PCs can get an audience, but also that he has no trouble giving up this information as he views this as a test to see how Ma handles troublemakers. If Ma can’t keep troublemakers from snooping around, he “has no business serving in Tam’s glorious army." Tam is unaware of the amulet or Ma’s machinations, or else the “no black magic” law of Shan Fan would certainly land the latter in hot water. Not that Tam is likely to believe a group of newcomers versus the words of an established Big Brother. The safehouse itself is guarded by eight tong gangsters. They’re all Extras with Veteran Martial Artist stats but no supernatural chi powers, so they shouldn’t be too hard to take out. Four of them stand guard outside while the other four are keeping a close eye on Pennington-Smythe. Once freed he thanks the party in a very dapper British manner and a dusting off of the monocle. He explains that he was kidnapped by the gangsters because he knew the whereabouts of an artifact they wanted, but one of their sorcerers read his mind and dispatched a team to reclaim it. He asks the PCs’ help in retrieving it without delay. He won’t identify the artifact as the Amulet of Rahashimir unless the PCs explain that they heard about it from Dillinger.  The Wailing Hole Captain Pennington-Smythe was not exactly thorough in ensuring the amulet wouldn’t fall into danger. The cave he dropped it into gave life to a very strong, wicked spirit known as the Wailing Doom who helped Raven trigger the Great Quake. Its ghastly wails emanate out of the subterranean reaches, which can be mistaken for escaping air or wind from underground but still sounds creepy as hell. Thin Noodles Ma sent his most trusted lieutenant, a half-ogre known as the Ox, along with a group of gangsters to retrieve it from the hole. All but Ox were pulverized by the Wailing Doom’s stony blows, and now Ox is hiding from the thing in fear of his life. Being a sort of miniature dungeon crawl, the Fear Level here is higher at 4 than the rest of Shan Fan, which is normally at 3. The Flood does this for locations and dungeons that are spookier than normal, which is a nice touch to illustrate when party members step through the threshold of darkness. The Wailing Doom will not attack the heroes immediately. Only after they go further into the cave will it try to ambush them. It is a full-fledged boss: it has a whopping 1d12+6 Strength, and its smash attack deal an additional 1d6 damage meaning it can very easily knock out the average PC with a solid blow. Its Toughness is 17 and it has 6 points of armor which cannot be negated by Armor Piercing attacks, making it practically immune to most firearms. There are two sticks of dynamite among the bodies of the tongs which can be found via a raise on a Notice roll, and every round in combat Pennington-Smythe can make a free Knowledge (Occult) roll. On a success, he figures out the Wailing Doom’s weakness unless the PCs already did: the center of the spirit’s forehead holds an unpolished garnet between its two black eyes. The stone can be targeted via a -6 penalty, but if at least 10 damage is dealt to it this kills the Wailing Doom in one blow. Otherwise the most likely avenues of destruction are bundles of dynamite or heavy-hitting spells which ace on their damage. Ox will either try to steal the amulet during the fight (it’s implied to be lying somewhere nearby) or joins the PCs in fighting the Wailing Doom as an unlikely ally. His first priority is survival and completing his mission, in that order. After the Wailing Doom is killed and Ox is dealt with, the PCs can recover the amulet. A Notice roll identifies a series of glowing runes on a nearby wall, appearing much like a lightning bolt symbol in luminescent paint. This is the symbol for earthquake among Native American tribes of California, and can be IDed by PCs who lived among said cultures. Victorious, a grateful Pennington-Smythe (or Dillenger in the event of the former’s death) officially inducts the party into the Explorer’s Society. He explains that said Society traces its roots back to the Twilight Legion, a fellowship of monster hunters and purgers of supernatural evil which traces its roots back to Ancient Rome. It has undergone many different names in different cultures since such as the Sons of Solomon or the Rippers. The societies are independent and often know nothing of each other, connected only by records and oral tales hinting at common origins. Pennington-Smythe also explains that what they know of the hidden conspiracy of evil is that it is called the Reckoning, those behind it are known merely as the Reckoners, and that it happened very recently in history. An upsurge of all manner of supernatural events and monstrous creatures has been sighted since around the last decade. It’s a worldwide phenomena, but a concentration of such creatures and events is occuring around the American West. He’s also willing and able to answer unrelated questions, like what kind of monsters he’s fought (all sorts, from Chinese folkloric demons to lovecraftian beasts and demons wearing human flesh), as well as his thoughts on the Agency and Texas Rangers (agree with the need to suppress the truth to prevent panic, but too ruthless in their methods). With this adventure complete, the PCs are now on their own. They are not given any leads immediately for the next Plot Point: it is meant to occur an indeterminate amount of time after the PCs get their fill of Savage Tales. Fun Fact: Although it’s not part of the Deadlands universe, the Weird Wars Rome setting by Pinnacle Entertainment featured a Twilight Legion with a night-identical mission statement. They were a secret society among the Roman government which recruited Legionnaires, politicians, and other connected people who not only encountered supernatural dangers but were willing and able to fight them. One of Pinnacle’s other game lines, the Rippers, details an organization of the same name operating out of Victorian England. In addition to scientific and magical aid, some of these monster hunters incorporated the body parts of slain beasts “ripped” from their flesh to enhance their own abilities. Thoughts So Far: The Flood’s main adventure begins rather railroady in a very literal manner, but it opens up immeasurably after this. The first two adventures do a fine job of establishing the game’s basics and strike a good balance between action and role-play, but the third adventure takes a nose dive in quality as the PCs literally sit out the meat of the action and quite possibly get misled about the campaign’s major enemy. What’s even weirder is that Hellstromme more or less disappears from the campaign afterward. His rail warriors and X-squad troopers do not make any further appearances in the Plot Point, and the only Savage Tale which tangentially involves them has the PCs accepting a job offer from them. Which is...odd, given how the ghostfire bombing established Hellstromme as an evil SOB. Plot Point 4 was better in that it was different enough from the previous ones and had a more sleuthing feel with a new villainous group to fight in the Triads. But the investigation portion suffers from the common tabletop adventure curse of “make a skill check or else you’re stuck.” The fight against the Wailing Doom was challenging and high-stakes for my own group, and the whole joining a secret society along with a literal handout of sidequests was pretty cool. Join us next time as we cover the last half of the main Plot Point Campaign! Libertad! fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Jan 16, 2019 |
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Jan 15, 2019 22:30
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Hostile V posted:Quite enjoying your changes from the core, Libertad, and I hope your players had a good time. You're dead on in nailing some of the glaring flaws of Deadlands metaplot adventures. Indeed they did. The adventure spawned 3-4 months worth of great gaming sessions. Unfortunately I came over with a huge case of DM Fatigue near the end and put the campaign on break for now. But I do plan on returning to it someday. And without further do... The Flood Plot Point Campaign, Part 2  5. The Rock Good Intentions! posted:Our Fellowship of Travelers will meet at the Fallen Angel Saloon in Perdition this Saturday at high noon. Attendance is required! The party gets an important notice whenever the GM’s ready to move the plot forward. If for some reason they’re unwilling or unable to attend, Lacy O’Malley tracks them down to help them out of whatever trouble they’re in or gives them an encouragement of reward to motivate them for this next adventure. Lacy O’Malley hasn’t given up on trying to rescue Sam Hellman, and explains at the meeting that he knows a stonemason who is certain that the poor fellow’s being held in Rock Island Prison. A frontal assault would be suicide, so instead Lacy’s plan is to call in a favor from a Maze pirate to do a hit and run raid to distract the Rock’s sentries. The PCs would use this opportunity to sneak around to a weak section of drain the stonemason pretended to seal up while working there as a secret way into the prison. It turns out that O’Malley’s plan goes off without a hitch. The Maze pirates draw the bulk of the prison guards to the southern walls far away from the northern drain entrance. The party has 30 minutes before the pirate fleet retreats which is more than enough time to get in and out. The text also references the metaplot in how Jasper Stone managed to escape Rock Island Prison via this very drain, which Grimme sealed up once he found out about it. Kind of a roundabout way for an otherwise simple explanation (“stonemason left a weak spot in the prison”), but it wouldn’t be Deadlands otherwise! The drain has a sturdy grill which will not budge against anything short of dynamite, but a hidden cord can be pulled to lift the hatch on the other side. The sewer leads into a room with a creepy but dead sea monster and eventually the basement of Rock Island Prison. Home to Cell Block C, the occupants are kept separate from the general population due to either their danger or for Grimme wanting what they know kept secret. There’s a single Lost Angels cultist acting as a guard in the area who is pretty much the only opposition. The four prisoners within are all heavily injured and include a formal town marshal part of the Men of the Grid; a covert werewolf by the name of Eddie Griff who is healthy due to regeneration but will transform and attack everyone nearby at the most dramatic moment; Charley Bill Buckner, the foreman who was part of the underground crew of Dr. Hellstromme’s train and who the PCs would have met back in the first adventure; and finally Samuel Hellman. There are no further complications than what’s above if the PCs manage to escape. Sam Hellman, once he recovers, will tell the PCs all about the Lost Angels’ cannibalistic rites, how whatever thing Grimme actually worships is part of the Reckoning, and how Grimme was granted supernatural powers masquerading as holy miracles in exchange for helping bring about a Hell on Earth. He also explains how Grimme appears near-immortal or at least superhumanly tough, as one person stabbing him through the heart did nothing to the guy. Hellman learned all of this from an Indian shaman cellmate by the name of Sees Far Ahead, who also knew of a way to kill Grimme but was taken out of prison to an unknown fate. The only lead they now have is the Necessity Alliance, a political organization of Native Americans. Their headquarters is unknown, but some members are known to live in Lion’s Roar. One of their leaders knew Sees Far Ahead, and so is the person who has the best chance of either finding out his location or anything the shaman told them about Grimme and the Church. What I Changed: If you run this adventure as is, it’s going to be way too easy and anti-climactic even barring the werewolf surprise. When a gaming group hears “prison break” they’re at the very least going to expect an extensive shoot-em-up, a no-holds-barred prison riot, or both. First off, I actually had the hook for The Rock leaked before the adventure started proper. This took the form of a tip in that the Church of Lost Angels were doing some renovation and construction on the prison due to finding a glyph of some sort beneath it. One just like in the Wailing Hole. The party was thus also tasked with finding out what research the Church was conducting on these glyphs in addition to rescuing Sam Hellman. Furthermore, I had it so that the PCs had to recruit allies for the jailbreak itself rather than leaving it entirely to O’Malley. I presented five Savage Tales related to gaining the friendship of certain factions in California whose favors can be called in later. The more groups the party recruited, the more ground they could cover, and I put a hard minimum of 2 factions required before this Plot Point could be started. Said Tales were: The Rancher’s Life: In trying to gain a monopoly over food production the Church of Lost Angels made lots of enemies among cattle barons. Off the Grid: The Men of the Grid are opposed to the Church on principle, and their ability to create dynamite which can explode underwater would be a boon for this quest. Ballots and Bullets: Installing Luke Watson as mayor in the town of Perdition will ensure the local government is aligned against Lost Angels’ government. The Scientific Method: Depending on how this adventure shakes out, the PCs can gain the aid of either Smith & Robards mad scientists or the Shaolin Monks of the 37th Chamber. Ghost Rot: Helping the US Army in its time of need will give you friends in high places. And they’re no fans of Lost Angels either. Once the time came to do the prison break, I had the Explorer’s Society along with representatives of the five factions gather in a “war room” in the Fallen Angel Saloon. Unfurling a map of the prison’s upper levels, Captain Pennington-Smythe then laid out five complicating factors: Waylay the Warden: I made Sister Andrea Baird, one of Grimme’s inner circle, act as warden for the prison. She delegates to a second-in-command in order to go to church every Sunday. Her absence will result in a less coordinated guard if she is occupied/unable to reach the Rock in time. The Ironclad: The Lost Angels fleet has an intimidating ironclad patrolling the waters near the city. In the event of a disruption at the Rock it can be called in to provide support with cannons and more Guardian Angels. A Getaway Vehicle: The party cannot very well swim their way free. Use of a waterbound or even aerial vehicle is necessary for a quick and clean getaway. Searchlights: Rock Island Prison uses big searchlights to regularly illuminate the surrounding waters at night as well as darkened spots of their own prison. Finding some way to destroy said lights will give the party more blind spots to exploit. Hired Muscle: In a pinch one of the factions can be used to provide NPC allies to accompany the party. The PCs would then assign one allied faction to a particular complication. This really helped give the feel of player autonomy and choice: not only were they planning out how they would infiltrate the prison, this also gave their various side missions a clear and noticeable impact on the main story rather than feeling like isolated incidents. Certain factions had strengths in what they could do: the People of Perdition would be little more than mundane townsfolk with Hired Muscle, but they could arrange for a slowdown at the port to Waylay the Warden. The Men of the Grid may not have a Getaway Vehicle beyond a modest boat, but their underwater dynamite can easily sabotage the foundations of the Searchlights or trigger a rockslide to block off a channel for the Ironclad. For the prison itself, I arranged 20 Guardian Angels about the place, put a vampire as the second-in-command, and had it so the sea monster’s corpse in the sewer entry was alive and whose violent gyrations could cause a flood in Cell Block C. My party gained the aid of the People of Perdition, the US Army (who could provide an ironclad of their own), the Men of the Grid, and in a weird twist of deception and role-play both the Mad Scientists and Shaolin monks. The PCs assigned Perdition to get sharpshooters to snipe out the searchlights, the Mad Scientists for a getaway vehicle, the Men of the Grid to use underwater dynamite to disable the ironclad, and the Shaolin monks would waylay the warden. Our martial artist PC suggested disguising themselves as Guardian Angels delivering a food convoy to the prison, hiding their weapons in large cheese wheels instead of going in through the sewer.  6. Tribal Warfare This Plot Point is triggered anytime the PCs follow up on Hellman’s lead. This is easier said than done: Native Americans are few and far between in California these days, and the bulk of the Necessity Alliance is intentionally isolated to keep their numbers secret from hostile groups. Naturally the party cannot simply walk up to their lands if they cannot find them in the first place, and need to either find a guide with a connection to the tribes* or get at least five total successes on a once-per-day collective Smarts roll to find their headquarters. *The specific tribes of the Alliance are the Klamath as the most populous, followed by the Chumash, Miwok, Ohlone/Costanoan, and Gabrielino tribes. The posse could try contacting the Natives living in Lion’s Roar, too. Said community is a Chinese mining town under the control of the rail baron Kang, ruled over directly by Red Petals Su who the PCs had a tussle with back in Plot Point 2. Complicating matters further is the town’s racial segregation where non-Chinese visitors are limited to the docks. Unless the PCs rely upon cloak and dagger infiltration they’ll likely run afoul of Kang’s pirates and Su. By whatever means, the Necessity Alliance’s leaders and some five hundred Indians live up on a mesa in the Great Maze. Its high position and cliff-side trails make for a great natural defense and vantage point; unless the PCs approach in a small-enough vessel by night or some other means they will be spotted. A dozen Indian braves acting as guards will fire off some warning shots via arrows and dropped rocks but will not kill save in self-defense. In order to secure safe entry a PC must make a Persuasion roll at a near-impossible -8 penalty if they’re white. Black and Mexican/Latino PCs still have a hefty -6, and even Native Americans of any tribe have a -4. The module makes no mention of penalties for other races and ethnicities, not even Chinese. Mentioning Sees Far Ahead’s name grants a +2 bonus on the roll, but even then this is still a very hefty penalty for a “succeed on the skill or the adventure halts” roll. The rest of the adventure presumes that the PCs managed to get into the Mesa via non-violent means. The current leader, Stalks the Night, grants them an audience in a large lodge to explain things. He doesn’t know where Sees Far Ahead is now, but the Alliance’s other leader Born in a Bowl would. Unfortunately said woman has been kidnapped by the Rattlesnake Clan, a secret order of Indian mages seeking to drive the white settlers off their land. Stalks the Night mentions that he likes the cut of their jib, but not how they go about their means on account that the spirits they summon tend to slaughter humans indiscriminately regardless of their ethnicity. Stalks the Night is willing to lend his best warrior, Eyes Like Fire, to help the PCs rescue Born in a Bowl. However he’s loathe to send more of his own braves when he can get some outsiders to risk themselves first. Unfortunately Stalks the Night is a dirty ol’ double crosser. He and the best brave he’s sending out did not get on with Sees Far Ahead in the past. Although not a fan of the Rattlesnake Clan, he used the paranoia of Born in a Bowl’s kidnapping to execute political rivals he accused of consorting with the enemy to establish himself as the Alliance’s leader. He knows that if Born in a Bowl is rescued or Sees Far Ahead returns his little setup will fall apart, so Eyes Like Fire is tasked with killing her. The Rattlesnake Den is a four-room Fear Level 4 dungeon full mostly of traps, located in a creepy grotto covered with jumbled splinters of trees. The entrance trap is the haphazard assembly of splintered wood which imposes a Fatigue level on a failed Agility roll, while the second room is full of rotten fruit-head dolls and thousands of buzzing insects which will impose an automatic Fatigue level if the PCs cannot find a way to either kill them all or protect their flesh from their bites and stings. The third room is a grotesque abattoir of six captured braves suspended between the world of the living and dead. They hang on the walls over a latticework of holes where sharks below swim amidst muddy water, and emit unearthly groans which impart Fatigue on a failed Vigor roll every round. Anyone who falls unconscious is at risk of falling through the lattice work to be eaten by sharks. The groaning can be stopped only by beheading them; personally I would’ve allowed for exorcism to work, too. What I Changed: As room 3 was small enough and the PCs already found ways to dodge the first two traps, I instead had the sharks directly leap up and attack the party in room 3. Our mad scientist managed to zombify one of the sharks and grant it limited locomotion to use as a very beefy meat shield. The final area holds Born in a Bowl, unconscious and near-death, trapped under a bundle of jagged twigs holding her in place. Papa Rattlesnake will appear to attack: he is a Shaman and does not have many powers, but he uses them all as part of his tactics. They all manifest with snake themes: he can use Beast Friend to summon venomous snakes to fight the party, his Bolt power manifests as him throwing snakes at enemies, he can use Quickness to grant him 2 actions in a round, and he liberally uses his Teleport power to keep his distance. He also has an amazing d12+2 Strength score but no weapon, making him not too shabby in melee. He’s also aided by a swarm of possessed kachina dolls which will waylay the party. What I Changed: I kept the same stats but turned the kachina doll swarm into a swarm of rattlesnakes. Was more thematic that way. Once the PCs save Born in a Bowl, she confirms that Sees Far Ahead is dead, and only he knows of the way to defeat Reverend Grimme. If she has his skull they can speak with him directly, but in order to find it they must chop off her pinky finger: a successful Spirit or Healing gives a clean cut while a failed one makes her scream in pain. The finger then animates on its own, hopping about before ‘pointing’ in a certain direction like a compass. She cannot accompany the party as she must take control of the Necessity Alliance, but her finger will help guide them to the shamans’ final resting place: Jehosaphat Valley, the Church of Lost Angels’ mass grave for the bones of the non-believers, poor, and homeless slaughtered for their many meals. Not So Fun Fact: The overall lack of Native Americans so far in this adventure path actually has an historical basis. By the time of the late 1800s the amount of estimated Native Americans in California dwindled to less than 30,000. A century before US statehood the Catholic Mission system of the Spanish Empire engaged in comprehensive attempts at converting and assimilating them into Western Christian culture. Add reservations, the American Indian Wars, and colonialism to the mix and it’s no surprise there’s so few around.  7. Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! Overall the Fear Levels of areas have hovered between 2 to 4, with a rare few areas delineating from that. Lost Angels and Rock Island Prison are both 5, but we have not seen any bonafide Fear Level 6 Deadlands yet. This will all change when the PCs head on over to Jehosaphat Valley. As a huge dumping ground for countless victims of the Church’s depredations, the concentrated despair and misery within Jehosaphat Valley gave life to all manner of fell horrors. The Lost Angels keep said beings contained within tall stone walls with cannons pointed inward and round-the-clock guards, for even the monsters generated have no kin with Famine’s servants. The most common monsters within are ‘gloms, literal shambles of corpses fused together and animated by a manitou spirit, and bone fiends which are massive six-legged conglomeration of bones with a pitch-black human skull as their “heart.” There are four flights of Guardian Angels of five people each on patrol. Each of them mans 6-pounder cannons to blast said creatures to smithereens. Father Ambrose, one of Reverend Grimme’s 13 Elders, oversees the patrols here and loves his job. He lost an arm to a ‘glom at the Battle of Gettysburg, so this is cathartic to him. Beyond the above there’s also seven wraiths trapped within special sarcophagi who have been tortured into madness. The spirits were Blessed dangerous enough to put a damper in Grimme’s plans, so their corpses needed to be sealed in special coffins and will attack anyone who opens them. Sees Far Ahead’s skull is somewhere within a literal pit of bones, which is also guarded over by a bone fiend. The PCs have a bit of freedom to come up with plans on how to get inside Jehosaphat Valley, offering a few possible ideas and how they’d be done (and go wrong), ranging from disguises to using magical intrusion or even a frontrol assault. What I Changed: When playing with my own group, the party mad scientist used a teleportation device to get up onto a section of wall and kill the Lost Angels flight within the nearest tower. They followed the finger to the bone pit, and I described the bone fiend as a giant dinosaur skeleton which the other Lost Angels began shooting at with their cannons. While beating a high-tail retreat, the PCs climbed up to the tower they took control of and aimed the 6-pounder cannons at the other Lost Angel flights to kill them too. Nevermind that this risked unleashing the horrors within the Valley; they really did not like the Church of Lost Angels. Once the skull’s taken back to Born in a Bowl, she channels the spirit of Sees Far Ahead by summoning a shared vision. This vision is a lengthy set of boxed text which more or less tells of the real Reverend Grimme’s final days during the Great Quake of ‘68. The difference is that the PCs collectively see things through his eyes, all the way up to his death and then through through evil not-Grimme’s eyes as he arrives to greet his sinful flock. Boxed Text posted:You wake with the worst hangover of your life. Born in a Bowl continues to chant…then stops. She speaks in a voice that is not her own. So I have several problems with this. First off, although the book acknowledges the huge civilian casualties, evacuating the city of civilians will be nearly impossible for Reverend Grimme and his 13 Elders will escape if so. No matter that this will disrupt their annual pact, this is not given as a legitimate means of ending Grimme and the 13’s immortality. There’s also the very real fact that the PCs, who by now are likely quite “high level” and have all manner of cool gadgets, gear, skills, and magic. “Oh we just have to kill 13 of ‘em within the hour? Screw the Flood, let’s do it the old-fashioned way!” Additionally not part of the boxed text, Born in a Bowl explains that the cathedral must be destroyed as well as the Elders, thus the reason for the Flood. But even with that complication I can see a party trying to use explosives in strategic locations or similar means. Beyond the practical questions there’s also the moral conundrum which is greatly weakened on account of how the adventure setup Hellstromme as a bonafide bad guy for dropping ghostfire bombs. But when he did that, it was mostly on soldiers already fighting and the civilian casualties were in the outskirts of the city. Even though he wasn’t doing it to wipe out a great supernatural evil, the civilian casualties of the Flood ritual will be far higher. The Flood is not just going to destroy a huge section of the city and those living within, it will also do collateral damage to nearby communities which are pointed out in a sidebar in the Marshal’s Section of how the setting changes after the Flood: the Big M Ranch, Carver’s Landing, Dragonhold, Felicity Peak, Junction, Quarrytown, and Van Horn’s Light are all demolished from the rushing waters. What I Changed: I wanted to keep the divine flood as part of the adventure, but changed things around so that the PCs will hunt for the glyphs and use a ritual taught by Sees Far Ahead to disable them. Even if Grimme and the Church fall, their continued existence represents a threat that future evildoers will use, and the Lost Angels are already searching for the glyphs on their own given their research in Rock Island Prison. I added more encounters with Lost Angel agents during the glyph hunt side quests as a result, turning the Glyph Hunt into a Glyph Race. As for what the Church wanted with the glyphs, I tied it back to the mass sacrifice of Grimme’s Day of Righteousness. The demons which slaughtered his congregation helped expand the false holy aura for his followers’ magic to 75 miles from the Lost Angels’ cathedral. Grimme wanted to recreate a Biblical Flood using the glyphs and effectively recreating the Great Quake of ‘68. The casualties and loss of lives would extend the radius exponentially, covering the whole of California and possibly the entire continent! I would then put the final glyph within the Lost Angels Cathedral itself for the Flood of the final adventure. Reverend Grimme will have already activated it in order to extend his 75 mile aura of false holiness by slaughtering the city’s inhabitants, and the PCs would have to disable the glyph in time while also tangling with Grimme and his force. There would still be a Flood even on a victory, but one much less powerful. Glyph Hunting We have not one, but two full-page sidebars talking all about the glyphs. Even though technically near the end of the Plot Point, it is one of the larger and more significant parts of the Flood. The PCs cannot trigger the final mission until they discover and activate seven glyphs. In addition to the one in the Wailing Hole, the sourcebook proper details three others as part of larger Savage Tales arcs not part of the Epitaph’s Good Intentions. Two Savage Tales proper, The Scientific Method and Treasure Hunters, reveal glyphs directly as part of their quests. Cult o’ the Dragon, Head Full o’ Nothin’ and In Search of Goldnose all involve the revelation of a glyph location as their reward. This is more than seven, which is intentional. The book wants there to be relative freedom in how the PCs go about finding the required glyphs, and to customize ones based on the PCs’ own backgrounds and ties. The seven official glyphs listed by the book are all in dungeon-like locations, such as a sea cave filled with all number of sharks and a few Maze Dragons, a tomb holding a powerful demon disguised as an angel which will lead the PCs into death traps, and an ancient Indian burial ground near Shannonsburg in which four major California factions (chosen by the GM) after currently fighting over. Only three of them are detailed fully in the Savage Tales, with the GM expected to do the work for the other four if they’re used.  8. The Flood I will note that of the main Plot Point adventures in the Flood, this is the only one I have yet to run as of this writing. This is not an involved plan, dungeon crawl, or wild goose chase. Just a good old-fashioned shootout with the Servitor of Famine himself and his many minions in front of the Lost Angels Cathedral. Grimme’s not one to be humble when it comes to Unholy Feasts of the Damned, and he invited 100 of his most favored servants to attend a grisly feast of human flesh. The honorary soylent-green-to-be is an NPC of importance, ideally one the party cares about or struck up a rapport with earlier in the campaign. In order to trigger the Flood, any PC who put their blood on a petroglyph can spill their own via a self-inflicted cut within a dozen yards of the cathedral. Once this is done a huge earthquake shakes the foundations of the land, causing mass panic as portions of the cathedral start to come loose. Boxed Text posted:You look toward the ocean. There are swells, but no great flood. No biblical deluge to wipe away the evil that plagues this city. Has something gone wrong? Or does it simply need more time? Given that by default the PCs have never gotten the opportunity to personally meet Reverend Grimme in this adventure yet, it’s incredibly comical that instead of opening with a badass speech or threats of damnation he just shouts “BOOOOOOYYYYY!!!!” as the precursor to the campaign’s final battle. Thanks to the Servitor’s own foul influence they’ll be innately aware of when the blood is spilled and where the PCs are. Like it or not this is going to be a battle for the ages. If the PC who triggered the ritual dies (not wounded or incapacitated) the ritual will end and the flood will uselessly collapse in on itself. However, said PC has four hoodoo (earth spirits) which rise to protect and aid him in battle, and furthermore are immune to the attacks of the 13 Elders and have Improved Arcane Resistance vs Grimme’s magic. Grimme himself will come out swinging with all the unholy powers he can muster, attended by his 13 elders, a demon in the guise of an angel, 10 Guardian Angels and a pair of Avenging Angel superiors. Grimme and the demon are wild cards, meaning the rest are treated as very numerous Extras. His stats are detailed in the Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook, but Reverend Grimme is basically an anti-Blessed who has access to every power available to said arcane background. He has infinite power points to cast what he wills, and in addition to that he can summon up to two demons (one of which is already here). Furthermore he’s surrounded by invisible starvation spirits in a 24 hex radius which impose a level of Fatigue every round on a failed Vigor roll, which can be quite debilitating as the battle goes on. Finally he has a hickory stick which can strike dead anyone it hits in melee. A failed Spirit roll consumes their soul, and even on a success it deals 2d10 damage. This battle can be won if the PCs can fend off Grimme’s forces for 13 rounds, after which the bulk of the flood rises over the city in a gargantuan wave, descending slowly yet surely. Reverend Grimme defiantly curses the descending doom while the Elders who survived cowardly rush and trip over each other in a futile bid for escape. The last thing the PCs see is a column of water crushing Grimme and his servants in a gory splattering of blood and bone… The book then encourages the GM to pretend as though that’s the end of the adventure, close the book, and dwell for a minute on the PCs’ reactions before opening up the book again with a “Wait! Maybe…” Boxed Text posted:You distinctly remember a choir of angels. Lights. Clouds. Peace. And by God—you weren’t hungry any more. But that feeling passed. Now you just feel tired and wet. Soaking wet.You open your eyes. You’re somewhere in the ruins of Lost Angels, lying in a field of broken bodies and scattered debris. The city is destroyed—and flooded. The cathedral is a shattered wreck. Thoughts So Far: The Flood’s second half had a good variety of action scenes and enemies to keep things fresh. I particularly liked the creepy vibes of Jehosaphat Valley and the Rattlesnake Den, although the Rock prison break as is is rather underwhelming. The final battle has the potential to be an intense and challenging fight, and although I don’t like the reason behind it I do enjoy the idea of hunting down glyphs all over California in preparation for the final battle. Join us next time as we cover the Savage Tales of the Flood, all the sidequests fit to bear!
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Jan 16, 2019 03:54
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JcDent posted:Wait, I thought Ghost Town wasn't part of LA, but some nearby town that just go unlucky. Maybe, although what I recall it was close enough and its residents interacted with LA enough (in the form of labor, drugs, and other assorted vices) that I presumed it was akin to a city's metropolitan outskirts than a community of its own. Edit: You're correct, it is a shantytown and tent city east of Lost Angels.
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Jan 16, 2019 22:46
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Savage Tales, Part 1 The Flood’s many side plots are the second-largest portion of the book behind the Marshal’s section. We have 32 Savage Tales in total, 9 of which are part of three plot arcs which culminate or align with finding a glyph. The rest of them are part of the Tombstone Epitaph’s GOOD INTENTIONS help wanted ads: their entries even begin with their relevant newspaper section as a handout! About half of the latter are immediately available after the completion of Plot Point 3, but the rest either unlock after events as part of the main adventure or after a few in-game months. Time-Based Savage Tales: The Battle o’ Junction, Ballots and Bullets Plot Point 3 Completion Unlocks: Fellheimer’s Folly, The Rancher’s Life, Groaning Man Cave, the Russian Menace, Rabid Rance Strikes Again!, The Creature of Archeron Bay, Wanted: Dead or Alive!, Off the Grid, City of Omens and Zeroes, The Scientific Method, Ghost Rot, Harriman’s Legacy, Those Smug Bastards Plot Point 4 Completion Unlocks: Treasure Hunters Plot Point 5 Completion Unlocks: Flesh of the Mad Monk, Love Ling the New Flesh Plot Point 7 Completion Unlocks: Night of the Caretaker mini-arc, The War of the Triads mini-arc, The Rise and Fall of Santa Anna mini-arc, Cult o’ the Dragon, Head Full o’ Nothin’, In Search of Goldnose, Famished!, Hasteli’s Children (after 2 or 3 glyphs)  Night of the Caretaker In the world of Deadlands, the Whateley clan of Lovecraftian fame not only exist, they’re a powerful yet ruthless family of criminals and fell sorcerers who consort with Things That Should Not Be Consorted With. A branch of their family once owned a creepy mansion in San Francisco, but now it’s on a tall mesa recently rumored to be home to new veins of ghost rock as well as strange glyphs. This Tale begins with some investigation: PCs can find out that the Whateley clan also lived in the now-deserted town of Gomorra. There they can find a seemingly dull-witted yet creepy teenage boy who calls himself the Caretaker and offers to accompany the PCs due to a strange need to find his “home.” He will of course turn on the party when it comes time to defend his kin. A PC with the Whateley Blood Edge knows exactly where this place is, while consulting library archives and questioning miners turns up rumors of black magic and monsters summoned from the depths of Hell as being what scared off many would-be claim jumpers. Whateley Isle is now a ruined, shoddy mess of its former self, and given that the place was a rickety mansion at its best that’s saying something. Sometime before the PCs arrived Kang’s pirates set up shop with a squad of martial artists, gunmen, demolitionists, and even a few ogres and a sorcerer of their own to claim the island. They knew better than to brush off the tales as superstition. A fierce battle between them and the Whateley’s grotesque minions ensued, with the latter on the verge of losing. Losing ground to Kang’s goons the Whateleys retreated into the caves where they transformed themselves into slug-like monsters. And said caves are where an earthquake glyph can be found. This Tale is a bit of an open-ended dungeon crawl. Kang’s pirates will try to capture the heroes and interrogate them for what they know, and the cave’s studded with ghost rock which can make for a good fuel source or impromptu explosions for the truly daring. One of the more unique treasures here are pages from the Necronomicon which can grant even noncasters the ability to cast Curse, Environmental Protection, and Puppet (controlling another’s body) but at the risk of being cursed themselves. The Necronomicon’s pages count as a mortal sin if used by a Blessed or Shaman. What I Changed: I figured that keeping the Whateleys as actual humans, if creepy and deformed, would feel more threatening than over-sized slugs. I had one be a super-strong ogre-like being and another as a one-eyed sorcerer. I did not include Kang’s pirates on account I planned on running War of the Triads after this one so didn’t want to overuse them.  The War of the Triads This mini-arc includes four Savage Tales with the reward of a glyph at its conclusion. Unsurprisingly they center around a cold war among the Chinese criminal factions turning into a blazing hot one. Although the entry mentions that it should take place during the glyph hunt, the ending of Plot Point Four mentions it being run much earlier which seems a mistake as some of the opposition in these adventures are a bit high level. There’s also an awful lot of behind-the-scenes politicking in these adventures. The PCs are unlikely to find out several of them unless they manage to pry the information out of various NPCs. Some of it is relevant to the adventure, but others tie into the metaplot or the Triad and warlord’s larger territorial ambitions. It does do a thorough job of explaining where everyone stands and will stand after the civil war’s resolution, but chances are the PCs may not see much of it. Examples include how Thin Noodles Ma’s inability to get the amulet put him in hot water with Kwan and thus said warlord’s spies are still looking over the Explorer’s Society lodge. Another is how the Ravenite shamans Big Pul and Little Pul are convincing Kwan to put Emperor Norton as a figurehead to ensure northern California is put in the hands of an incompetent ruler. While searching for glyphs Captain Roderick Pennington-Smythe summons the party again to meet in Shan Fan. He explains how in spite of its destruction the Explorer’s Society lodge contains a vault full of precious assets and artifacts left untouched by the Triad looters. Unfortunately the key to opening it was lost in a poker game to Big Ears Tam, and said Society member was thereby banned from the organization. So you’d think that Pennington-Smythe is planning a daring caper to break into the mob boss’ estate, right? Or maybe win it back in an even higher-stakes poker tournament? Nope, he wants the PCs to work for Big Ears Tam and gain the skeleton key that way. This is kind of a waste, as Big Ears Tam’s stat block has d12+1 Gambling and the Card Sharp Edge which would otherwise never see play. Sink the Abysmal! Said mob boss is more than eager to meet the PCs at his estate, and offers to give them the key in two weeks time but until then they work for him. The first thing he wants the PCs to do is sink the Abysmal, one of Kang’s warships. After Hellstromme dropped the bombs at the Battle of Lost Angels, Kang lost a lot of men and assets and thus Tam wants to strike while the iron’s hot by taking over the Maze pirate biz. This Savage Tale is a straightforward ship hunt followed by a tough fight: in addition to steam gatlings and cannons the Abysmal has a crew of 27: Red Petals Su (who can die in this adventure but will try to escape via autogyro), 5 ogres, and the rest a mixture of pirates and martial artists. Shan Fan Kumite: The next adventure is a classic martial arts tournament. Tam is impressed that the PCs sunk a battleship and wants to either sponsor them as fighters or keep them as bodyguards at the annual Shan Fan Kumite. This tournament is a classic one-on-one non-lethal fight of hand to hand combat. Even if by chance none of the PCs are built for melee the adventure suggests letting unqualified players run NPC martial artists. The first 3 rounds are against average fighters who use the Martial Artist stat blocks in Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook (no supernatural powers), but the 4th round is against Wang Men Wu who uses the Superior Martial Artist stat block. A character who makes it to the fifth and final round faces Chin-Hsueh Wong of the Shaolin 37th Chamber. Not one who normally showboats at tourneys, Kwan spread rumors that Big Ears Tam is seeking to humble the monks, and then invited Wong to the tournament to let them save face. Chin-Hseuh Wong is an extremely difficult foe to face, and even the adventure acknowledges it. He’s got a whole host of chi powers and his combat-related stats are top-tier. He can make potentially up to 4 attacks with the Quickness power and Improved Frenzy Edge, and his Parry of 10 makes it very difficult to hit him. Moreso if he uses Deflection, and his Counterattack Edge gives him a free strike at those who fail to hit him. A PC who manages to beat him will gain great fame and respect in Shan Fan. After the tourney’s conclusion Kang’s agents posing as Kwan’s soldiers will spring an assassination attempt on Big Ears Tam. Tam will declare that if he dies the PCs will never get the key to help motivate them. This is a much less difficult fight than the Abysmal, in that there are less enemies and none have any supernatural powers to break out against the PCs. Long-Haired Tony, Shan Fan’s sheriff of sorts, will also intervene on Tam’s behalf. Spy Games: The assassination attempt makes Big Ears Tam more paranoid than usual, and hears from his sources that Kang and Kwam are seeking to meet in secret at Dragon’s Breath. Tam wants the PCs to spy on the meeting and relay the information to him. Only then will he give them the vault key. He even gives them disguises and an ironclad of his own for them to make the journey if need be. Dragon’s Breath is closed up tight, and Kang’s palace within even moreso. The many guests and servants here all speak in Chinese, and Kwan and Kang conduct their meeting behind a paper-thin wall the PCs can conveniently eavesdrop upon. PCs not fluent in the tongue are in luck, for Emperor Norton is present and thus the meeting’s conducted in English for his benefit. Kang denies being behind the assassination attempt at the tournament, but convinces Kwan to invade Shan Fan for the Triad will surely strike if he does not strike first. He’s even generous enough to offer Kawn his naval fleet while they march on the city; Kang’s still smarting over the Abysmal. At this point the palace staff will realize that there are intruders about and the PCs have to escape the city, possibly encountering hordes of pirates along the way. Emperor Norton: The conclusion to the War of the Triads involves Kwan’s forces attacking Shan Fan. Tam is horrified at the news but hands over the key all the same. He telegraphs the New Tomorrow Triad and the Shaolin Monks (who learned about Kwan baiting them) for aid. Pennington-Smythe and Dillinger are holed up at the ruins of the Explorer’s Society lodge and ask the PCs to help secure the vault against invaders. This next part is not a typical battle per se, but in fact makes use of Savage World’s Mass Combat Rules. In fact it’s the first of two times said rules every make an appearance in this Plot Point Campaign. Basically the Shan Fan Triad is one side, and General Kwan’s Army the other. The Triad are outmatched, numbering less than half of Kwan’s forces. The Triad factions of Thin Noodles Ma and Rat-Skinner Hou betray Tam and the New Tomorrow by turning on them mid-way through the battle. Hundreds of ordinary townsfolk also gather to fight for their hometown. The non-Mass Combat section of this adventure is a standoff at the lodge, where the PCs and said Society members face off against 24 of Kwan’s soldiers (human and a few ogres) along with the Ravenite shamans Big Pul and Little Pul. Unfortunately, the resolution of the Mass Combat does not matter at all: whether taken as prisoner or basking in glory, Kang himself shows up well after the battle’s resolution and kills his rival-turned-betrayed-ally with a single chest-bursting punch. He makes a brief intimidating speech about what happens to traitors, how everyone who worked for Kwan works for him now, and that he is eager to help Big Ears Tam rebuild the city in exchange for some deals. The Shan Fan Triad realize that having any of their number as a single ruler will repeat the cycle of division, so the assimilationist New Tomorrow Triad convince the others to crown Emperor Norton as leader of California. Isle of Ghost’s Tears: The contents of the lodge’s vault include a carved stone fragment detailing the location of two glyphs in California; one to be determined by the GM, the other on the Isle of Ghost’s Tears in Shan Fan Bay. The adventure suggests giving out magical relics tailored to the PCs as further rewards or simply antique gold if they’re more money-hungry. The Isle in question is a bit of a non-standard conflict. The island has been kept off-limits by the Triad on account of rumors of dangerous spirits. They’re right, up to a point. There are definitely spirits of the dead here, mostly those who died in the Great Quake, but the real villain here is a Sin Eater known as Genjia who can take the form of any person it’s eaten. Said corpses have to be improperly buried to be of sustenance, which California has a lot of in the 11 years since. Genjia pretends to be an insane yet harmless old hermit who will try to mislead the PCs and convince them that the spirits are in the wrong. He will also attempt to kill loners in order to consume their soul. Genjia’s monstrous ability includes rising from ‘death’ in a new grave, and the only way to truly put him to rest is to dismember each of his limbs and bury them separately in sacred ground. As for the ghosts living upon the isle, they too can communicate with the party but are bound to the island due to the glyph’s magic. They’re not exactly friendly to intruders either, more concerned with scaring them away. The ghosts will do things like appear in their crushed, mangled forms upon death or scream vile remarks about a PCs’ dead relative. If reasoned with the party can learn that the most powerful and terrible ghost among them is a woman by the name of Meng Chiang-nu. She was the first Chinese immigrant to have died in the Great Quake, brutally tossed aside by her selfish fiance in an attempt to save himself. Even if the PCs initiate combat the spirits are far from united and there are various other ghosts about the area who can give out more information, including Meng who appears as a crying ghost of the island’s namesake. The resolution to this quest, obviously, is to take care of Genjia. If done she will show the PCs where to find the glyph: in a set of cliffs overlooking the sea caves. What I Changed: Quite a bit of this adventure arc hinges on the PCs doing errands for a Triad boss, which given my group’s own party composition and backstories was simply not going to happen. Instead I changed things around to have the Chinese Six Companies working with the Explorer’s Society to overthrow the Triad itself. I cut out the whole business with Kang and made Thin Noodles Ma the main villain, whose island fortress sat atop a likely glyph location. Instead of infiltrating Dragon’s Breath, the PCs were tasked with a covert search and rescue of Emperor Norton in Warlord Kwan’s fortress. The Six Companies would be more than happy to see the largest Triad leader crippled, but wanted to take control of Shan Fan. I had it so that Emperor Norton was one of the few white Americans trusted by the Chinese immigrant community based off an alleged real-world incident where he dispersed a racist mob from torching San Francisco’s Chinatown by sitting himself in front of the crowd and reciting Bible verses. As Chinese people could not legally own property back then and Norton wanted to feel like a protector and legitimate ruler, he bought up a host of Shan Fan businesses in his name but let community members and employees run them. With him being under the thumb of Warlord Kwan (who was allied with Thin Noodles Ma), this meant that the Triad used his assets for money laundering and a front for illegal activities. Rescuing Emperor Norton would thus give the Six Companies a legal advantage in taking control of Triad-owned property. I also greatly expanded on the enemies and makeup of the fortress, using castle assets from Roll20 to accomplish this and noting structural weak points, autogyro pseudo-helipads, and other things for the PCs to take advantage of in their infiltration. I put the martial arts tournament after the rescue of Emperor Norton. The PCs needed to win the martial arts tournament to get close to Ma, as the Triads headhunted goons among said contest’s winners. The PCs donned luchador masks to compete, in keeping with the unarmed combat theme while also disguising their faces: the martial artist PC had the Wanted hindrance in Shan Fan. When they were invited to wine and dine at Thin Noodles Ma’s fortress, they took the opportunity to start smacking heads and dispelling evil when it became clear that said Triad gangster sought to use the glyph’s secrets to generate earthquakes. I also replaced the Isle of Ghost’s Tears with Thin Noodle’s Ma’s fortress, using the NPC encounters from elsewhere in this plot arc as his various guards.  The Rise and Fall of Santa Anna Although they’ve been mostly a background element, the Mexican Army will invade southern California in full force sometime after Plot Point 7. Santa Anna himself is leading the charge, and with the Church of Lost Angels as the first stepping stone this creates an interesting situation of Baddies vs. Baddies or Lesser of Two Evils. Or it would, if the arc didn’t focus solely on defeating one side. Fort Doom: Our adventure begins when a strangely rich miner by the name of Eldon Strouth managed to find a seacove full of millions of dollars worth of ghost rock. He has not registered a claim for it yet on account that the attention will attract outlaws and pirates so he’s been scraping off enough of the substance to make a comfortable living but no more. He hires the PCs on as hired guns for the princely sum of $45 a day. However said cave is near the US-Mexican border, and during the third night of guard duty in the area the group spots Mexican and Confederate forces clashing. But something’s off about the latter, for their jerky movements and cannibalizing of fallen troops shows they are not among the living. Santa Anna’s Army of Night destroys the Confederate forces and begins riding up to the City of Lost Angels. A smaller squad goes into the PCs’ path as a possible random encounter. The only other encounter is a group of outlaws who try to take Strouth’s cave for themselves. Having had enough trouble the PCs’ employer will wish to ride up to the Rockies’ Assayer’s Office in Lost Angels by himself while the party stays on guard. Unfortunately the Mexican Army arrives shortly after he does, and the zombie army clashes against Grimme’s own Guardian Angels and Wasatch allies before being held at bay. Smash the Machines: A Twilight Legion NPC or one from another allied faction sends an urgent message to the PCs. Although no fans of Reverend Grimme, they believe that the Emperor of Mexico is hardly a better leader for the region. Therefore, the PCs are given 32 sticks of dynamite and plungers to blow up a supply line in Mexicali and cripple the war effort. Although I do not know much about Mexican history or Emperor Maximilian, the adventure does not explain exactly why the Mexican government would be just as bad for southern California as Grimme’s doomsday cult. On the contrary, I can see some gaming groups letting the two sides duke it out, figuring that even if Grimme wins his forces will be severely weakened. If Mexico wins, well...the Lost Angels just lost a major city and power base. It’s win-win for the PCs! The bulk of this adventure is a dungeon crawl in a Mexicali mine, which is heavily guarded inside and out by soldiers. The goals in question are a pair of factories which can either be reached openly (bad idea) or snuck into via said mine shaft. Within its many tunnels the party can find entire rooms of captive undead kept docile with a strange plant admixture known as plantagrito. The adventure is open-ended on how and where the PCs wish to plant the dynamite: the GM asks the party how they wish to accomplish their plan and calls for appropriate rolls with modifiers based on how ingenious/foolish it is. Failed rolls do not spell failure, rather it means more Mexican soldiers (both living and dead) will fight the PCs and complicate matters. Demolishing the factories will cut off the dragon’s head, as Santa Anna’s forces will run out of arms and supplies to further besiege the city. Forced to retreat, their own undead will turn hungry from lack of plantagrito and attack their living peers. Getting a Leg Up: His Army of Night in tatters, his supply line destroyed, things seem about over for poor Santa Anna. But there is one thing which can turn the tide of battle. He caught wind that his famed prosthetic leg is somewhere within the vicinity; an out of the way tourist trap souvenir shop called Stanley’s Live Bait & Curios. With this good news he’s refocusing his efforts by personally leading a small squad to fetch it for the low, low price of 0 dollars and pesos! This is not just sentimental value. In the world of Deadlands the ambient history, emotions, and energy surrounding the Leg of Santa Anna turned it into a magical item. The one in the Springfield Museum is a replica, while the real one was under lock and key by the Union’s Agency before it disappeared under mysterious circumstances. One who uses the leg as a prosthetic gains a host of leadership Edges along with a bonus on Intimidation and Persuasion rolls. Additionally any army or group merely carrying it in their possession gains immunity to becoming Wounded by the attacks of anyone under Santa Anna’s command but not the man himself. The trade-off is the person using the leg becomes obsessed with invading and conquering Texas. If Santa Anna himself regains his leg, he becomes immune to all physical attacks save the muskets of the Illinois regiment that captured the leg in the first place. The PCs are either in the area of Stanley’s or they manage to covertly follow or interrogate a patrol of Mexican soldiers. When they go into the shop and interact with the owner (who tries to sell them all sorts of fake stuff), Santa Anna’s 50 strong forces and two gatling guns surround the shop with the good General demanding his leg back. Fortunately Stanley is aware of the immunity part of the leg’s powers and explains to the PCs his crazy idea. The PCs are encouraged to go out in style: bullets graze them at most, Mexican guns inexplicably jam, and a host of way too many coincidences makes them obviously charmed. After several rounds of the party strutting their stuff, Santa Anna challenges them to combat, unwilling to needlessly throw his soldier’s lives away. The famed Mexican General is Legendary in more ways than one: he has more than a few skills at d12 or even d12+1 or +2. His d8 Strength is nothing special but his 13 Parry makes him nigh-untouchable in melee combat, and a 10 Toughness is nothing to sneeze at. He has a number of leadership Edges which will be of no use on account of his soldiers’ harmlessness, and his sole firearm is a Colt Frontier pistol. If he dies or is routed then all hopes of him conquering California and Texas are squashed. But if he gets back his leg he’ll be gearing up for a big war against Texas in the nearby years. What I Would Have/Will Change: As of this writing I have not run this particular arc of Savage Tales. I planned to make the Mexican Army’s invasion based on two other particular adventures: Off the Grid and Wanted: Dead or Alive! In the former, the Men of the Grid were at a loss for funding and support and thus turned to the Mexican government due to their shared enmity of Reverend Grimme. For the latter quest Captain Blood’s depredations if not dealt with will weaken the US Navy to the point that they cannot pose a united front against Santa Anna’s forces. Therefore, helping out the Gridders hastens the invasion, while Captain Blood’s death or capture would delay it. Both quests can cancel each other out; if the Men of the Grid were helped out and Captain Blood not dealt with then they’d invade early by Plot Point 6. If Blood’s days of piracy were put to an end and the Gridders were left high and dry they wouldn’t invade until the PCs found all 7 glyphs (not including this arc’s) and just about ready to take the fight to Grimme himself. In an early invasion I’d pepper sessions with more scenes and random encounters with Mexican Army personnel. I did have plans for the Mexican forces to assault Lost Angels by the time of the final fight, making things feel desperate as only the most fanatic and poor of the city’s residents stay behind. The PCs will also have to deal with a potentially hostile third party in order to infiltrate the city and make their way to the Cathedral, dealing with Guardian Angel-Mexican crossfire along the way. Other Savage Tales  Fellheimer’s Folly: This is a miniature dungeon crawl taking place on an island appearing like a conical spike. The top of the island has a corpse pinned to it, a German immigrant by the name of August Fellheimer who gives the macabre place its name. All attempts at climbing or flying to remove or inspect the body result with coincidentally-timed catastrophes such as rockslides or autogyro engines suddenly failing. A member of the Agency is on standby to inspect this strange occurance and shoo away onlookers. He will accept the PCs’ help if they seem like skilled people, which they most certainly are in this case! The reality of the situation is that the corpse is the result of a black magic jinx woven by Gerhardt Von Stroessner. He killed Fellheimer to absorb his life force which he hopes will grant him immortality if he collects more of the stuff from other sacrifices. The tunnels below the island are filled with spear and magic blasting glyph traps, with Stroessner at the bottom in a creepy laboratory. Activating traps will alert the mage to intruders and give him time to buff himself up with spells. He also has a demon who pretends to be his servant; he’ll let the upstart mortal know who’s really in charge soon enough! Things I Changed: I excised the demon in favor of making Stroessner a load-bearing boss. When the island started sinking I called for Agility checks for the PCs to make it out in time, along with Swim checks and possible drowning if they were too slow. The Rancher’s Life: The cattle rancher Dwight Shelton is looking for some hired help to protect his cattle from whoever is killing them. Hiring the party on for $5 a day, one night a near-dozen Lost Angels land on the mesa via a gunboat and sneak around to start killing cattle. If the PCs kill or drive them off, they return with twice the number with two gunboats and start blasting the ranch with cannonfire. If repelled again the Lost Angels will decide the ranch is a sunk cost and leave them be for now. Things I Changed: I ran only the first encounter, but I added in an environmental obstacle of cows everywhere. Using firearms or AoE attacks risked killing cattle, something the Lost Angels have no reservations against. If enough cattle die you can kiss your payment goodbye! Groaning Man Cave: This is less a quest and more a puzzle. This infamous cave is very close to Lost Angels, located in a seaside cove with a pair of two smaller cavities above. Lined with ghost rock, the cave’s “eyes” and “nose” give a constant stream of smoke and the sounds of its consumption make it seem like the place really is groaning. The treasure in question is $10,000 worth of molten gold heated by ghost rock fire. The entire place is filled with poisonous vapors and radiates dangerous amounts of heat, threatening damage and fatigue just about every round. The adventure is open-ended for just exactly how the PCs can obtain the liquid gold, and the “After the Flood” sidebar in the Marshal’s Section mentions how the waters submerge the cave but cool off the gold. However, the Environmental Protection power can render a character immune to the negative effects and thus safely retrieve the gold. What I Changed: I made it so the molten gold puzzle was the end of the adventure rather than the majority. I ran Snatched, a mini-adventure from the Saddle Sore sourcebook, for this Savage Tale. Said adventure is a roguelike dungeoncrawl where the cave’s foundations are generated via card draws, and the goal is to kill enough tunnel critters to clear out the cave. I made it so the gold was the goal instead, but the monsters would stop coming after 30 were killed. My party’s mad scientist quickly discovered how Environmental Protection could be used to gain the treasure, and with the Gadgeteer Edge he gained temporary access to said power. I will admit that the $10,000 treasure is quite a bit for the Flood’s “desperate survival, taking odd jobs when you can” stated theme. My own group used the cash to buy various mad science devices from the 1880 Smith & Robards Catalog sourcebook. If you choose to run it, I’d suggest lowering the amount to what you think is reasonable for your group. Flesh of the Mad Monk: Hao-T’e Zui used to be a good-natured exorcist helping out the Chinese community, but then the met a demon which killed him and took on his form. Now he spreads terror around the vicinity of Devil’s Armpit, gathering human sacrifices possessing remarkable traits to fuel his own power. The adventure’s open-ended for how and when the PCs find out about Hao’s depredations and suggests making one or more kidnapping victims the children of NPCs they know. Tao-T’e Zui has 1 Chinese ogre bodyguard per hero and his own stats are nothing to sneeze at: he has the Chi Mastery Arcane Background, monstrously high Spirit (d12+2) and Strength (d12+4) scores, several buffing powers, and can roll a Vigor die every round to heal wounds. He is weak to fire and cannot regenerate from it. Cult o’ the Dragon: Sutton Thacker is a huckster and salesman who formed a group of Maze dragon worshipers. He discovered the remnants of the old native civilization that bound the dragons to their will, and enacted the rites himself. Now the cult’s cave is home to a flock of young Maze Dragons and their parent “Jericho.” Currently Sutton runs the place as a tourist hotspot for the town of Dragonhold, but sometimes the cult kidnaps lone travelers spending the night to sacrifice to their false god. The rock paintings within the caves tell of the glyph’s location, but otherwise the Savage Tale is open-ended how the PCs find this out and/or deal with the cult. Thacker himself is a spellcaster with a mixture of buffing and offensive powers along with sticks of dynamite and a shotgun, which are some of the deadliest weapons for purchase in Deadlands damage-wise. What I Changed: I made it so that the Church of Lost Angels and the Cult of the Dragon were at odds, putting the PCs in an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” scenario. The dragon-cult had a glyph within their caves in addition to their famed dragon, and the PCs were tasked with holding off a small army of Lost Angels outside during a skirmish. Sutton Thacker in a fit of desperation activated the glyph to cause a tremor, plunging a significant amount of the army (and the PCs) into a watery cave containing the Maze Dragon. Realizing this was their “holy beast” the PCs escaped by the skin of their teeth via a mad science grapnel launcher. I also had Garrett Black, the Angel of Death and Grimme’s best assassin detailed in the NPC/bestiary chapter, lead the Lost Angels forces in the battle. He retreated to become a recurring villain The Russian Menace: A tortured, starving 12-year-old girl is found by Lacy O’Malley or the PCs, and she tells them all about the horrors of Felicity Peak. As detailed in the Marshal’s Section, Gregor Petrov is a Russian nobleman who uses a community of imported serfs to mine the mesas and work the fields. He is also a sorcerer of fell power whose own life force is re-energized by drinking the blood of slain children. With twelve outlaws and an infamous gunslinger by the name of El Jéfe under his employ, he seems unstoppable to the hopeless serfs...but perhaps a fair challenge for crusading good guys. El Jéfe and the outlaws use Veteran Gunman and Outlaw stats from the Marshal’s Handbook, but Gregor Petrov is a unique one. He doesn’t have spellcasting powers so much as a Blood Boost which can increase all of his physical attributes by one if he has drunk the blood of a child within the last day. He also has the Filthy Rich Edge so he can be outfitted with any sort of mundane, mad science device, or relic the GM wishes to assign him. What I Changed: I made El Jéfe a Harrowed to act as a sort of foil to our party’s own Harrowed PC.  Rabid Rance Rides Again! A classic “hunt down the outlaw” quest, Rabid Rance is a notorious bandit who has a network of contacts among the mining communities. He finds out who struck it rich and ambushes the now-unlucky prospector with six other gunmen to loot the proceeds of the miners’ hard labor. Rabid Rance is an optimized gunslinger, with a d12 Shooting, the Quick Draw and Duelist Edges, and has Hip-Shooting to lessen the penalties of fanning the hammer with a pistol. In Western parlance fanning the hammer is when you pull down the trigger of a single-action revolver and rapidly smack the hammer to fire off shots in quick succession. In game terms this allows a character to make up to six attacks albeit at a hefty penalty, making it one of the better damage-dealing options in Deadlands. The Creature of Archeron Bay: A giant undersea monster is sinking ships around the Maze. The creature itself is believed to be some giant octopus or squid, but the reality is far stranger. The Beast of Archeron Bay is actually a colony of individual strands of kep which feed off of the souls of the living. The kelp strands are very tough: their Strength is d12+4 and their slaps deal d6 on top of that; they also count as Heavy Weapons meaning they can damage ships. They also can grapple individual opponents, and they have a 19 Toughness to withstand attacks. What I Changed: I liked the idea of a pseudo-kaiju monster for the PCs to fight, so I still used the tentacle stats but had the monster’s “central body” emerge after several of those were destroyed. The party stuffed bundles of underwater dynamite onto buoys to target with guns in preparation for the battle, which was both clever and fun to use. Wanted: Dead or Alive! General Gill of the Union Army has a very nasty thorn in his side in the form of Captain Blood. This Mexican privateer acts at the behest of said country’s government to waylay vessels of enemy nations, and his Conquistador flagship is home to 40 sailors and 12 even tougher marines. Captain Blood’s stats are more social and charisma-themed, with some Leadership Edges such as Command and Natural Leader to let his followers spend his Fate Chips if need be. The ship as such has some pretty heavy opposition due to sheer numbers alone if it can be found, although the PCs get unlikely aid in the form of a grizzled bounty hunter by the name of Hephaestus Girty. The man assimilated into an unnamed Native American tribe and fights with a tomahawk in one hand and a Colt Peacemaker in the other. Head Full o’ Nothin’: This adventures’ GOOD INTENTIONS is rather vague, but is meant to put the PCs in contact with Suitcase Lee of the New Tomorrow Triad in order to help find one of the glyphs. But just like everyone else in this chapter he cannot help the PCs until they take care of a not-so-small problem for him. Lee gives the party a brief rundown of the Taiping Rebellion: a Chinese civil war which occurred when a theologian by the name of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan (Hong Xiuquan) sought to bring about a heavenly kingdom on earth. Proclaiming himself the literal brother of Jesus Christ, Hung formed a rebellion of unheard proportion against the Qing Dynasty, immersing the country in a 14 year war with 20 million dead to show for it. As for what this has to do with things today, some guy stole the head of Hung and took it with him to California, claiming that the spirit of the man himself speaks through it. Declaring himself the King of the Horizon, this madman’s building an army for a second chance at building a Heavenly Kingdom! And Lee wants the party to destroy/steal the skull and kill the King of the Horizon. In addition to a 500-man army, the King of the Horizon has a martial artist bodyguard pretending to be a demon by the name of White-Tipped Cap, and the man himself is a competent chi-wielding martial artist. The King of the Horizon’s skull has no spirit. In fact, the spirit of Hung Hsiu-ch’uan possessed the man’s body and is downright insane. The adventure encourages to play up his comic villainy as an over-the-top megalomaniac, and may possibly drop hints as to the location of a glyph in the process. In Search of Goldnose: A Russian immigrant nicknamed Goldnose Slim earned the title for his uncanny ability to literally sniff out gold, and also for replacing said nose with a 24-carat prosthetic when some jealous miners cut off the first one. His knack has been so helpful he located four out of six of the richest gold veins in California, earning him lots of money but quite a bit of enemies. He refuses to prospect for ghost rock, but he did find the location of a glyph. Reverend Grimme found out about the PCs’ plans regarding the glyph hunt and hired a bunch of outlaws known as the Hensworth Gang to kidnap Goldnose. This is pretty much the only adventure where the Church acts as a foil during the Glyph Hunt arc. The Hensworth Gang are nothing special statwise, although their leader dual-wields a pair of Colt Peacemakers and has Steady Hands allowing him to shoot from horseback no problem. If rescued, a grateful Goldnose is willing to find a claim for the PCs as well as a potential glyph. The Battle o’ Junction: This is the only other adventure in the Flood where Mass Combat rules come into play. Like the one in War of the Triads it has little in the way of actual stakes. If taken, Junction will become a Lost Angels stronghold and thus a lot less friendly to the PCs, but day-to-day operations do not change much. However, the PC actions do not have a direct effect unless they act as leaders or get involved. In such a case the PCs will control the Confederate side, with the GM the Lost Angels. Thanks to the scientists of Progress, the Church of Lost Angels is quickly building a fleet of their own to challenge the existing American powers. Several months after the Battle of Lost Angels they’ll send a host of Maze Runners, gun barges, auto-gyros, and an ironclad to annex the Confederate city of Junction. The Angels have the aid of Wasatch rail warriors as part of the deal reached with Hellstromme, and the Confederate forces are slightly under-equipped to retaliate.  Famished! Although this does not reveal or grant a glyph location to the party, it is meant to be stumbled upon while they’re hunting for glyphs. A short while after the Reckoning occurred a Chinese junk crashed on California’s beaches. It carried a very powerful Hunger Spirit in service to Famine and was the epicenter of the first faminite epidemic which swept over the region. Personal experience from other gaming groups said this was a very dangerous encounter, and I can see why. The Hunger Spirit is outright immune to all non-magical attacks and even magical attacks halve their damage before determining Shaken and wound results. With a Toughness of 10 it will take at least 20 damage to even so much as scratch the fiend. The spirit is attended by 2 faminites for every PC, and it has an AoE ability it can activate freely on every turn to induce fatigue levels from starvation on those who fail a Test of Wills against its d12 Intimidation. Off the Grid: The Men of the Grid were one of Lost Angels’ early political factions. They had a falling out with Grimme, as they wanted to build the city in a grid fashion typical to many Western settlements while Grimme wanted a circular one to properly channel his evil magic (he didn’t tell that last part to the Gridders). The Church violently agreed to disagree, and now the Men of the Grid are a clandestine insurgent force against the Church. The Lost Angels Chamber of Commerce put a bounty on the organization and their leader on account that they found a way to sabotage the Churchs’ new naval ships via explosions of unknown origin. The reality is that the Men of the Grid ordered a mad science diving suit from Smith & Robards. With this device they can plant charges of waterproof dynamite created by one of their chemists to attach to and blow open ship hulls. This adventure is more investigation and less combat. It’s unlikely that the PCs will turn in the Men of the Grid, but rather seek them out for an alliance. They can be met in Bear’s Claw, specifically at a rather tacky Big Chief Chinese Restaurant which serves Chinese food but whose furniture and walls are decorated in a hodge-podge of Native American art. The Gridder’s leader, Anscal Pascal, is cozy with the owner so he has his very own table with a shotgun attached to the underside in case those dealing with him are less than straight. If they trust the PCs, they can provide them with charges of underwater dynamite, and the adventure mentions that the Men of the Grid can come to their aid during Plot Point Eight. However no specific examples are given either here or in that adventure of what such aid entails. Fighting on their side against Grimme, dynamiting the Church, helping evacuate the city? It’s a mystery! What I Changed: I turned the investigation into a rescue mission by informing the PCs that members of the Grid are trapped in a mountain valley surrounded by bounty hunters and Hellstromme’s X-Squad troopers. The PCs posed as fellow hired guns before turning on the X-Squadders and rescuing the Men of the Grid. I inserted a bipedal steampunk mecha boss, using its stats from another Deadlands adventure: Shoot out at Circle-R Corral. Ballots & Bullets: The survivors of Ghost Town formed Perdition at an incredibly fast pace. The lack of government worries many businesses at the lawlessness sure to ensue, and at Dr. Hellstromme’s insistence they plan to hold elections for Marshal and Mayor. Lacy O’Malley is concerned that the powers-that-be will resort to all manner of dirty tricks to get a puppet candidate, so he convinces the ghost rock magnates to set up interim lawmen to oversee things. And our plucky Irish reporter sees the PCs as the best candidates for this! In fact he’s already signed them up by the time they arrive as a woman at the local ore processing station hands out badges. The two candidates running are Luke “Joker” Watson and Granville Kurtz. Watson is the owner of Perdition’s telegraph office and runs on a populist message of seeing to the laborers’ needs over rich moneyed interests. Granville Kurtz is the heir to a shipping company and presses up the need on how he can bring in wealth and trade. Granville Kurtz is financially backed by his father Masheck Kurtz who is a serial killer and a willing servant of the Reckoners. He’s more than willing to resort to all manner of dirty tricks to get the election to go his way, and if the PCs do not intervene in at least 2 of them the election will go to Kurtz. Masheck’s schemes include hiring a bunch of dockworkers from Lost Angels to stuff the ballots in Perdition, round up some outlaws to rough up Watson’s supporters, and bribing the town newspaper The Perdition Harbinger to endorse Granville. The adventure is open-ended in how the PCs go around stopping this, as well as what can happen if the PCs poorly handle any interviews/interrogations with the Harbinger’s staff (aka if the PCs come off as hired thugs for Watson that will damage his campaign). There’s also a random encounter table of potential violent mishaps during the election, such as people dueling in daylight, political riots of clashing protestors, and even a train robbery! What I Changed: I had it so that Kurtz was backed by the Church of Lost Angels, giving the PCs an even stronger incentive to instill a mayor not in their pocket. I also had it so that when the party came to arrest (and thus get a shootout with) Kurtz, they found notes about Famine and the Reckoning in a hidden safe with a Notice roll. This gave an inkling of what’s really going on with Reverend Grimme to the party as well as a useful piece of evidence of trafficking in black magic if they wanted to use it to damage Kurtz’s campaign. City of Omens and Zeroes: Before its untimely demise in Gomorra, the Collegium served as the largest assembly of mad scientists in California. They ran a ghost rock processing facility near Perdition, and smelling blood in the water Wasatch/Hellstromme Industries wants to hire salvagers to visit and report back their findings for $250. A company representative will contact the PCs specifically due to their prior engagement with Dr. Hellstromme. The ghost rock facility went quiet due to their equipment digging out the egg of a prairie tick queen, an insectlike abomination whose spawn wiped the entire complex and surrounding town of all life. The PCs will find the old Collegium station a quiet ghost town, the processing station’s sole elevator in a state of disrepair. The lift descends into a storage chamber containing $200,000 (2 to 3 tons) of pure ghost rock. Unfortunately the PCs cannot claim this bounty for a swarm of 60 ghost ticks (prairie ticks warped by ghost rock) will attack en masse at the smell of fresh meat! Besides fleeing the group can ignite the ghost rock to quickly kill all of the ghost ticks. The load-bearing treasure dramatically blows the entire station sky-high if the PCs escape in time. The ghost ticks’ have rather pitiful toughness; they deal no damage but have d10 fighting and crawl into a target’s mouth on a raise to force them to roll Vigor against Fatigue every round. The poor soul who dies from Fatigue causes said tick to explode out of their ribcage. What I Changed: The ghost ticks despite being high in number have rather pitiful toughness and no ranged capabilities, meaning that a party with lots of attacks and/or AoE powers can make quick work of them if lucky enough. I didn’t want to have the ghost rock as false treasure, so I had the ticks come in waves of 4 to 6 while the PCs operated a crane to scoop up ghost rock onto the elevator lift. It then became a risk/reward decision of how long the PCs wished to stay in the station in exchange for a greater payoff.
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Jan 17, 2019 02:45
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Savage Tales, Part 2  Hasteli’s Children: A Chumash Native American by the name of Hasteli had a daughter who was raped and murdered by white settlers. Filled with anger and hatred, his story reached the ears of Raven who taught him of a way to take revenge. By using the blood of slain white people he could create a blood painting able to instill himself and other disciples with supernatural powers. Ever since he’s been a willing servant of the Reckoners and he now leads a warband known as Hasteli’s Children. This adventure comes to our heroes rather than the other way around, as Raven becomes aware of the PCs searching for the glyphs and orders Hasteli to track down and “find the white men who seek to undo our plans.”* Hasteli will use guerilla warfare, using hit and run tactics, bait in the form of cryptic messages and warnings, and environment where they can corner their quarry easily. Hasteli’s Children are 12 in number and fight with bladed war clubs. Their unholy rituals granted them +4 armor and 12 toughness to boot, and they can attack twice with Improved Frenzy. Haseli is not as physically adept but he has the Black Magic Arcane Background and can use the armor, bolt, puppet, and stun powers to harm the PCs or further enhance his war party’s already impressive defenses. *the adventure has no explanation for this if the party is mostly or entirely made up of women or people of color.  Long Live the New Flesh! Taking place sometime after the PCs freed Sam Hellman, the Explorer’s Society calls for another meeting at the Fallen Angel Saloon in Perdition. The place is a lot livelier than usual with a hoedown going on. Sam tells the party of how two of his fellow Agency members were interred in Peterson Sanitarium after some horror in the Maze broke their minds. After his own time in Rock Island Prison and hearing of the sanitarium’s controversial “therapies,” he wants their help in freeing them and ensure that they’re alive and well. Dr. Petersen is happy to see the party, although he and the place has an audible aura of creepiness. He’s even kind enough to show them to the Agents’ room... only for them not to be there. In fact the Agents are now undead patchwork men posing at orderlies who the not-so-good doctor sics on the party. Attempts at chasing after the Doctor corner him in the basement. There he unleashes an undulating mass of Neo-Flesh, his greatest experiment, against the party. The Neo-Flesh is rather frail for a monster (Toughness 9), but it is immune to magic attacks and can dissolve grappled opponents for 4d6 damage and gain their skills, Edges, and Hindrances after incorporating their forms into its mass. It is weak to all forms of alcohol which can deal quite a bit of damage to it. What I Changed: I sprung this Savage Tale on the party during a drunken bender after their success at Rock Island Prison. They somehow fell upon an abandoned asylum built under one of the houses they were celebrating at, which housed the Neo-Flesh beneath. During the chaos it shied away from spilt barrels of whiskey, tipping off the party to its weakness. The Scientific Method: In this Savage Tale the PCs hear the sound of a ghost rock steam engine from a cave near the town of Progress. It is home to Professor Vandergrift, a mad scientist belonging to the Explorer’s Society who is willing to tell the PCs about his latest work if they prove their membership. He managed to discover a glyph of his own, and after much testing of various kinds of blood and consultation with native tribes believes it is home to an earth spirit. Furthermore he explains how human blood triggers it, revealing a bandaged arm and applying it to the symbol. The glyph reacts with a tremor greater than the previous times. The earthquake summons a group of hoodoos, angered at being roused from their slumber and will begin smashing up equipment! If the PCs can save the scientist and/or his notes, they can gain some useful information (determined by the GM) about the glyphs and likely locations. Also notable is that this adventure, along with Treasure Hunters, can be ran before the PCs discover the existence of the glyphs. It can thus be used as a precursor of things to come. What I Changed: I made Professor Vandergrift a woman on account a huge amount of NPCs so far have been male. Treasure Hunters: In this adventure the PCs have the opportunity to find another glyph near a now-demolished hillside California Mission buried underneath layers of rubble. Various salvagers dig through the rubble in search of gold and other fundaments, but a young boy by the name of Junior Watson (related to Luke “Joker” Watson of Ballots & Bullets) went missing. This is a skill-based obstacle adventure, where Climbing rolls are required to avoid randomly-triggered hazards ranging from avalanches to getting stuck between rocks while searching for the boy. They can also find a journal in Spanish belonging to a now-dead Catholic priest who discovered a glyph nearby, and which can be accessed in the mission’s ruins. What I Changed: I had a Triad goon snooping around the place who was an Enemy of our Martial Artist PC. He had sets of dynamite set up to trigger landslides against them. I also had a pack of carcajou (wolverine-like abominations) ambush the party once they found Junior. Ghost Rot: A snakeoil salesman by the name of Dr. Thaddeus Carr has been selling alcohol tinged with ghost rock to Union soldiers. This has had some terrible side effects, causing outbreaks of violent insanity and the name “ghost rot” to spread once the drink’s nature became known. The Union does not know the culprit, so the PCs are either hired on by Captain Clement Tyson for a $1,000 reward; or they stumble upon a group of drunk soldiers who flip out on the stuff after inviting the party for a drink. The PCs can investigate the bottles to see the label “Steampress Rye Whiskey” and go from there, as well as interrogating the soldiers over who gave them their shipment. Catching up with Dr. Carr is not difficult for he is not very far from the scene of the last crime, miles-wise that is. He regularly travels about northern Californian settlements on a regular 16 day route so a few people know his name. He sells the bottles for a very steep $20 each ($440 by modern day standards), and will violently attack anyone who tries to arrest him. He also has a Chinese woman assistant and adopted daughter, Xiu Li, who knows chi powers and will defend him from danger.  Harriman’s Legacy: A salvager by the name of William Blumquist operates a small business specializing in retrieving valuable objects from the Sunken City of San Diego. The last few employees he hired disappeared in the dead of night while out at sea, and so did the hired guns that went on with him next time. He’s willing to hire the PCs on for $5 plus an equal share of salvage found. Blumquist takes the PCs on a boat ride over the San Diego ruins, and has a diving suit one of them can wear while they explore the depths below. The party is capable of finding lots of valuables at a hefty -4 Notice every four hours, with a success giving 1d20 x 100 dollars in loot. But on the first night 1d6 channel chompers (deep one-like humanoid fishpeople) will climb onto the vessel with stealth and try to drag people into the water. If repelled they will attack the boat in greater numbers the next night at 2d12 strong, and during the third 30 of them at once will attack! Their lair is a series of catacombs on the ocean floor, but the diving suit doesn’t go that far down. Explosives can seal up the entrance, although Blumquist is against that plan given there might be more treasure beneath...treasure his equipment cannot reach. No, the Savage Tale does not detail the environs of the channel chomper’s domain. As for why it’s named Harriman, an occultist of the same name owned a mansion in San Francisco who consorted and bred with the channel chompers. The monsters were trapped beneath its ruins and were set free due to salvagers mucking about. Those Smug Bastards: Smith & Robards is looking for hired help to guard some mad science devices from acts of sabotage in Elsbethtown. The culprits are a pair of Shaolin monks from the 37th Chamber. Their leader Chin-Hsueh Wong and Kuai Yao the “Goblin” are the responsible parties, who find the ghost rock-powered devices unnatural creations and worry about the scientists becoming a new ruling class of California...somehow. The monks are loathe to kill anyone and use non-lethal attacks even against those who respond with deadly force. I talked about Wong’s stats during the War of the Triads arc, and Kuai Yao is pretty tough herself. She is a chi master who has an entangle power to hinder foes, and she has a unique ability where those who see her stupendously ugly unmasked face must make a Guts roll or be shaken and suffer -1 on all trait rolls against her. Both martial artists are very tough to take down in melee, although Kuai Yao does not have as many defensive options as Wong. The adventure suggests that the PCs can use Persuasion checks and good old-fashioned role-playing to help them see the light or divert the 37th Chamber’s anger towards a more worthy foe. Thoughts So Far: The Savage Tales are numerous enough to provide many sessions worth of adventures. They are mostly unlinked save for the arcs, being more “small town trouble” than multiple missions for any single faction. The Triad and Mexican plot arcs are a bit weak in motivating hooks, and there’s quite a few combat-free puzzle or role-playing themed ones (Groaning Man Cave, Treasure Hunters, Off the Grid, Ballots & Bullets potentially) which I found to be interesting if needing the right group to pull off well. The Savage Tale section is larger than the main Plot Point itself and is what I think makes the Flood. On its own the campaign would be rather average, but the many places the PCs can go to and stir up or defuse trouble really gives California’s Weird West its shine. Join us next time on the final chapter of the Flood, where we cover the new monsters and NPCs found in this adventure!
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Jan 17, 2019 02:47
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Encounters We’re in the final home stretch of this book! Although labelled “encounters,” this section is more akin to stat blocks for monsters and NPCs than events on their own. All of the entries are for new creatures and characters in this adventure not detailed in the Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook. We also have a sidebar explaining what existing “core” monsters are particularly endemic to California. In breaking with the sheriff’s star icon for Wild Card monsters and NPCs, we instead get Reverend Grimme’s face alongside the baddies’ names to designate this status. For this section I’ll do this (WC) next to the names of relevant monsters.  Monsters Our first section’s the bestiary, along with some of who’s who among the Church of Lost Angels. Blood Sharks are mutated varieties of their kind which feed from the tainted runoff of Rock Island Prison. They’re super-huge (around 40 feet long) and pretty much like the mundane Great White but even bigger and badder. Burnin’ Dead are the tortured souls of Ghost Town whose screams of agony are never ending due to the fuelless fire covering their forms. They’re fond of grappling victims and smothering them in their own inferno. Chinese Ogres are the muscle-bound foot soldiers of Chinese Hell’s bureaucracy. They have deathly white skin, unnatural hair colors such as green and blue, and an irregular number of eyes on their face ranging from one to three. Rolewise they are much like typical fantasy ogres: big, beefy, and utter brutes in melee. Chinese Ogre Sorcerers (WC) are those smart and skilled enough to learn black magic, having the same stats as their kin save with the Black Magic Arcane Background and 4 powers. Channel Chompers are humanoid fishpeople who live in the abyssal depths of the Pacific Ocean. They kidnap humans to sacrifice to their gluttonous god, who they believe will consume and destroy them along with every living thing in the ocean if not appeased. Channel Chompers are fast swimmers and can deliver a paralytic poison via their bite and claw attacks. Crying Ghosts (WC) are the spirits of jilted lovers (usually women) whose deadly hair can choke the life out of those they trick. In addition to their grappling hair they have typical ghostly powers: incorporeal, provokes fear, appears only at night, and cannot cross sacred ground. What’s unique to this variety of ghost is that any who die at their hands have their souls consumed and cannot come back as undead or spirit themselves. Faminites are the ravenous zombie hordes of California. They originated from the Hunger Spirit which came to land on a crashed Chinese boat, and their numbers have been spreading from infecting others as well as those who succumb to cannibalism. They are much like typical zombies save they can use weapons (including guns!) and those so much as nicked by their teeth or claws (Shaken or wounded) risk becoming faminites on a failed Vigor roll in 24 hours. Gyonshee (WC) are hopping vampires from Asia. These undead create more of their number by wounding others, a fate which can be averted by a Chinese folkloric cure found via Knowledge Occult roll or having contacts in Chinese immigrant communities. They can also jump really far, unsurprisingly, and attaching a paper written with Chinese prayers on their forehead can paralyze them. Hoodoo are earth spirits who inhabit the canyons of the Great Maze. They are tough bruisers who can dish out hell in melee, but they are helpless in water and being sufficiently soaked in the stuff can weaken their Strength and even immobilize them. Hoop snakes are beasts from Native American folklore who rapidly travel across the arid plains and desert by biting their own tails and spinning around like a hoop. When in this form of locomotion their Pace is 18, triple that of a normal human’s. Their poison is so deadly that on a failed Vigor roll at -4 it can kill within minutes and Exhaust those who succeed. Besides magic the only other cure is if the afflicted jumps through the hoop snakes’ “hoop.” Maze Dragon Young’uns are juvenile versions of their larger parents detailed in the Marshal’s Handbook. Even then they are strong, as large as a bear and with the strength to match. Tomb Guardians are ceramic automations created by Chinese sorcerers to guard tombs, vaults, and other areas of high importance. They appear as deer-lizard-human hybrids and are not very strong individually.  Famine’s Servants This section covers both generic and named NPCs high up in the Church of Lost Angel’s ranks. They are all Wild Cards without exception, save for the 13 Ghouls who are treated as Extras only during the final Plot Point adventure. Avenging Angels are those Guardian Angels tough, smart, and mean enough to climb the unholy ladder of Grimme’s cult. They usually command a flight of 15 or more regular Guardian Angels and have the Arcane Background (Black Magic) Edge in addition to some other leadership and combat Edges. Evil Ike used to be a kind soul known as “Ironman” Murray in life. After the bombing of Ghost Town he is now a a scorched undead monstrosity whose eye sockets glow an eerie orange. He’s a melee bruiser who can cause nearby targets to spontaneously combust as a free action. Garrett Black, Angel of Death is a Harrowed whose own manitou is scared of the guy’s ruthlessness. Garrett labors under the delusion that he’s the Grim Reaper and serves Reverend Grimme with sadistic glee. The entry mentions that he’ll be sent as a professional hitman once the PCs become a real thorn in the Church’s side. Alas he does not show up officially during the adventure. Garrett Black is built as a Harrowed, with the Arcane Background (Black Magic) Edge and a host of firearms-centric Edges such as Marksman, Improved Hip-Shooting, Quick Draw, etc along with some Harrowed abilities. The 13 Ghouls share a universal stat-block, although their individual entries give them some new or higher skills and an Edge or two. I will not be going over all of them, but they comprise various roles in the church hierarchy. Gabriel Fannon is the gunslinging enforcer of the city, Darren Ambrose watches over Jehosaphat Valley, Mordecai Noss helps commission the building of new chapels across the Weird West, Vertiline Grindle’s a former thief who Grimme sends on covert operations, etc. What all 13 share in common is that if killed their bodies crumble away and reappear alive and whole again in Lost Angels Cathedral 13 days later. Only the Flood ritual can kill them, and thus Reverend Grimme, for good.  Famous Folks Guy in the photo is Rutherford Ellington Dillenger This is a rather strange section. It details the stat blocks of most named NPCs in the Flood who are not already present in the Marshal’s Handbook. However, this is not all-in-one: quite a few NPCs have their stat blocks provided either in the relevant Plot Points and Savage Tale adventures or this chapter. For example, Sutton Thacker block is in Cult o’ the Dragon while Santa Anna’s is detailed here. Usually most adventure sourcebooks either go for one option or the other. The Flood does both. I’m not going to detail every single character here, particularly if I discussed them earlier in this Let’s Read. And some entries, such as the individual Men of the Grid or Mariposa Lil, aren’t particularly noteworthy in abilities. Every single Famous Folk is a Wild Card. Big Ears Tam was a tax collector back in Shanghai, but had to flee the country after his criminal undertakings were discovered. He’s now an elderly yet influential crime lord oddly content with his lot in life. He desires little but to die peacefully at an old age with his fortune and legacy intact. He is not exactly optimized for combat nor does he have supernatural powers, but he has a lot of high skills and is an expert gambler. Big Pul & Little Pul are identical twin Ravenite shamans who serve Warlord Kwan. They are Black Magicians whose only main offensive powers of note are bolt and fear, but if one of them dies then the other dies as well due to a shared mystical connection. Captain Blood styles himself as a dashing ladies man even though he’s a bloodthirsty sadist who never takes prisoners or captives alive. He has some leadership and Charisma boosting Edges, the latter of which sadly go to waste on account of his Bloodthirsty hindrance: -4 Charisma along with the aforementioned personality flaws. Captain Roderick Pennington-Smythe is a Crimean War veteran who’s been forever changed by witnessing the evils that men and monsters do. He dedicates himself to the Twilight Legion, eager to recruit new blood to replace the old. He is a skill monkey, having just about every skill of note in Savage Worlds of appreciable rank along with a host of Knowledge ones. Emperor Joshua Norton I is surprisingly unremarkable in spite of his fame. His d10 Persuasion and Charismatic and Connection Edges are the only good things going for him. Goldnose Slim is is a very lucky fellow who seems tailor-made for the new Nose for the Rock Edge of this book, detailed earlier in the Player’s Guide. His other Edges are themed around his charmed life such as Dodge and Luck, and he has a host of Hindrances from Pacifist to Curious which guarantees he’ll need to be rescued from danger by some traveling heroes. H.J. Kent is more than a mere Lynchburg assayer. He’s secretly a huckster who uses his powers to get revenge on people who wronged him. He does his best to lay low, knowing that having the Agency and Texas Rangers on his back can be even worse than being run out of town. Lacy O’Malley is one of the more well-known names of the Deadlands setting. But unlike many other 90s metaplot recurring NPCs he does not have god-like stats. He has lot of high-ranked skills but is a terrible fighter: Fighting and Shooting of d6 each and the only weapon on his person a two-shot Derringer pistol. He does have a Grit score of 6...but no Guts* skill, making him merely quite brave rather than near-unflappable. *Guts is the skill used to resist fear and keep one’s cool in the Deadlands setting. Grit is a flat bonus to all Guts rolls and keys off of a few Edges such as Duelist. Rat-Skinner Hou has been talked about before in the Shan Fan entry. What is notable statwise is that he’s more of the “bruiser” type of martial artist than the graceful, agile warriors we associate with Wuxia. His Superior Kung Fu (Shuai Chao) focuses around grappling, and with his d12 Strength, Boost/Lower Trait and No Mercy (Fighting) Edge to reroll damage with a fate chip he’s all about putting on the hurt. He also has the Cup Overflows flaw, meaning that all of his martial arts powers are larger than life and obviously supernatural. Rutherford Ellington Dillenger is still a bit out of his element as a British gentleman on the American Frontier. He is not much of a fighter (fighting d6, shooting d4) but his d10 Persuasion and 3 social edges (Attractive, Noble, Tale Teller) make him very much a ‘face’ roll for the Explorer’s Society. Sam Q. Hellman is a member of the Union’s Agency who is working with the Twilight Legion due to an alliance of convenience. He is built as an end-level Legendary character with a host of skills for his investigator-type role. As for combat, he has a d12+2 Shooting, and the Marksman and Improved Trademark Weapon Edges with his gatling pistol add another +2 bonus each on top of that. With the Rock and Roll! Edge to negate recoil penalties, this makes him a peerless sharpshooter with an automatic weapon. Suitcase Lee is a young man and exemplar martial artist with Fighting d12+1 and the Chi Mastery Arcane Background. In spite of his optimism and talent he is incredibly nervous around the female persuasion. His own reputation and handsome smile further compounds the problem when said ladies swoon at his presence. Statwise he has a mixture of buffing, combat, and defense powers, a Colt Peacemaker pistol, and can use a battered suitcase as a unique weapon which can grant +1 Parry and +2 Armor against all ranged attacks. Thin Noodles Ma got his nickname as a play on his obese frame. His pact with Warlord Kang granted him access to Black Magic, and he has Bolt and a pair of buffing powers in the form of Armor and Boost/Lower Trait. He is not much of a fighter in comparison to other Triad gangsters, with a d6 in fighting and shooting and social and magic-focused Edges. Warlord Mu-T’uo Kwan has an owl as his totem spirit, which he keeps secret on account that the animal is regarded as bad luck among indigenous Californians.* His other dark secret is that he does not wish for the life of a warlord, but his own totem says he will be destroyed if he relents and does not wish to leave things in chaos from a power vacuum. Statwise he has no Arcane Background but has good Fighting and Shooting (d10). He uses a regal-looking Chinese ceremonial armor and sword to project the image of a warlord alongside a more modern Colt and Winchester. He has a healthy mixture of leadership, melee, and ranged Edges, making him a well-rounded opponent. *I don’t know if this is true IRL or an artistic license. Afterwards we get an Index and the full-page Tombstone Epitaph handout of Good Intentions Savage Tales. And thus we’re done with the Flood. Final Thoughts: Of the four Reckoner Series adventures of Deadlands Reloaded, the Flood ranks highly in my opinion. It has a weak start, does a bit more telling than showing, and its resolution is a bit too moral dilemma “shades of grey” for an RPG that expects PCs to be bonafide good guys. But the thematic setting, its many locales and groups, and variety of sidequests more than makes up for the otherwise okay core adventure. The tying of the PCs to a secret organization of do-gooders makes for a strong lead to handle trouble in far-flung spots as well as providing a built-in rationale for new PCs to come out of nowhere. I did have to do my fair share of work in changing around adventures, but most of its content could be used as is. Overall I’d recommend the Flood for Deadlands fans, especially those who want a wide-ranging epic adventure in a lawless “ghost rock rush” frontier with a dash of wuxia and doomsday cults on the side. Our next Let’s Read will cover the following Plot Point Campaign, the Last Sons, where we save the Sioux Nations from the Reckoner of War! PS One other major weaknesses of the Flood is the haphazard quality of mapping assets. More than a few major fights and setpieces do not have maps, although some dedicated fans made high-quality maps for just about every major adventure and a few Savage Tales in this thread.
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Jan 17, 2019 03:56
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Night10194 posted:But like, the funniest part of this to me is that this is all pointless. Like if I'm running Deadlands, and I decide my PCs have figured out there's a time-traveling deathbot from the future hunting them for the crime of being main characters but that they have a chance to see him coming, take his future guns in a cunning trap, then say a pithy one liner and banish him from the time stream, what are the developers going to do? Come flip my gaming table? There's jack and poo poo they can actually do to stop someone because this is all fiction. I'm going to review Last Sons next, but in Stone and a Hard Place you get to kill Stone not once but twice. It makes sense in context.
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Jan 17, 2019 05:06
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Evil Mastermind posted:What no I didn't fall behind on the thread again just missing an entire discussion about this. I wouldn't consider that a writing style so much as bad game design, at least in regards to Unity. If that book was a Dungeons & Dragons adventure it would be condemned by reviewers for what you just said. A railroad can be salvageable if the stops along the way make the PCs feel like they're doing something that well, matters. As for the Reloaded Plot Point Campaigns, Shane Lacy Hensley was one of the two main writers for the Flood. Matthew Cutter is credited as the other, and incidentally is the sole major writer for the other 3 Plot Point Campaigns. Shane is credited with "Additional Material" for the post-Flood PPCs, but his name is alongside several other Pinnacle Entertainment writers so his influence is not as great. I'd also like to note that my write-up of the Last Sons is currently in rough draft mode. It'll be a while before it's  ready, though, although for teasers there is one noticeable thing: it more or chucks Reloaded's "post-racial society" design decision, at least in relation to Native Americans and white settlers. Albeit this time it's intentional rather than the writers forgetting that American racism extends beyond black slavery and Jim Crow.Unlike the Flood it seems a much more conscious writing decision in that you can't really talk about the American Indian Wars without touching on systemic racism, and a Presidential candidate running on a "gently caress the Indians!" platform is skyrocketing in the polls.
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Jan 20, 2019 22:23
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megane posted:Which was the one where the PCs get locked in a room and are forced to kill a PC in order to proceed and the GM is specifically told to stare at them smugly and enjoy "real, hard role-playing" or something, was that Deadlands Yes, and it was Evil Mastermind's Unity adventure specifically. Evil Mastermind posted:Yeah, the Reloaded plot point campaigns are a little better about things, but ultimately it's just Shane's writing style. Unless you haven't read/still reading it, any further thoughts on the Flood? Libertad! fucked around with this message at 01:27 on Jan 21, 2019 |
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Jan 21, 2019 01:14
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Halloween Jack posted:I will not quote Engels in the tabletop thread I will not quote Engels in the tabletop thread I will not quote Engels in the tabletop thread I will not quote Engels in the tabletop thread The samurai are the bourgeoise, the Kolat are the lumpenproletariat, and the peasants are the true proletariat.
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Jan 26, 2019 01:28
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 Introduction Howdy pardner, and welcome back to the Weird West! Today we’ll be covering the second of the Reckoner Series mega-adventures for Deadlands. I went into more detail in the opening post of the first adventure, the Flood, but in short as part of the system upgrade to Savage Worlds the fine folks at Pinnacle Entertainment Group saw to making a series of four full campaigns centered around the downfall of the settings’ greatest villains. Known as Plot Point Campaigns, they have the progression and structure of Dungeons & Dragons/Pathfinder Adventure Paths via a main Plot Point. However, they’re interspersed with a host of optional locations and events known as Savage Tales. Savage World Plot Point Campaigns are closer in structure to a video game RPG such as Skyrim or Mass Effect, which has the skeleton of a main quest but a host of side quests. For The Last Sons we cover Raven’s machinations. Whereas Reverend Grimme of the Flood exemplified Famine, Raven is the Servitor of War and the one who broke the Reckoners free in the first place. It is by far the largest of the Plot Point Campaigns in both page count and scope,* and like the Flood also has an epic feel whose resolution will dramatically change the socio-political landscape of a notable region of the Weird West. Whereas the Flood centered around the destruction of the Church of Lost Angels, the Last Sons focuses on helping the Ghost Dance Movement battle the Order of the Raven, the latter of whom seek to reignite a second war between the Sioux Nations and United States. It takes place mostly within the aforementioned region as well as the Disputed Territories of the Union and Confederate border states. As a result Last Sons feels more classically Western in comparison to the Flood’s wuxia-naval-doomsday-cult mashup, if more Native-centric than the classic cowboy feel. *In fact, the designers felt it was a bit too big, and one of their design diaries mentions that if they could go back they’d cut it down to a more manageable size. Some Backstory on the Metaplot: In the world of Deadlands, magic and monsters were widespread and wreaked terror on mortals. The four horsemen of the apocalypse from Biblical lore exist and are known as the Reckoners. But instead of being righteous heralds of God’s will they are wicked entities who seek to plunge the world into a literal Hell on Earth. They were sealed away by a group of Native American shamans known as the Old Ones, and along with them the supernatural in general. But this would not last. A Susquehannock Indian known as Raven was the sole survivor of genocide whose tribe, already decimated by disease, were slaughtered by white settlers in the mid-1700s. Filled with rage and hearing many similar tales from various tribes, he gathered a small army known as the Last Sons. They ventured around North America, accumulating knowledge of sacred spaces and rituals while gaining power from forbidden magic to extend his own lifespan. Raven was willing to do anything to get revenge and prevent white domination of the continent, including tearing a hole into the spirit world and freeing the Reckoners. On July 3rd, 1863, the dead rose on the Battle of Gettysburg. They indiscriminately slaughtered soldiers on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line and inadvertently turned the Civil War in the Confederacy’s favor who maintained their independence in the Deadlands timeline. This was but the first taste of stranger things to come, as the collected fears of humanity’s imagination were unleashed into the world. The Reckoner of War claimed Raven as his champion, and the other three Horsemen found their own representatives to hold dominion over certain regions of the North American continent. There’s mention that the rest of the world has been affected by the Reckoner’s release, but for their own reasons they find the American West an ideal staging ground for their plans.  The Tombstone Epitaph’s Guide to the Disputed Territories Much like the Flood, Pinnacle produced a free PDF with all the player-friendly content. The Tombstone Epitaph is Deadland’s primary in-game newspaper, which details the major events, places, and all the wild goings-on that are the grits and gravy of a gaming session’s worth of good adventure. We first open up with an explanation of how a devastating Flood ripped through the southern portions of California’s Great Maze, with the City of Lost Angels suffering the brunt of the damage. Reverend Grimme and a significant portion of his chain of command were killed along with nearby adjoining settlements, and Mexico’s invasion was halted. California is now more or less autonomous territory. Back in America’s heartland, the rail barons are jockeying to claim what territory they can. Although Hellstromme Industries built the first intercontinental railroad and thus is on the path of securing some sweet trade deals with the Union and Confederacy, the other Rail Barons are fighting bitterly over what land and shipping rights remain. Bleeding Kansas is at the forefront of the fighting on account of the two American nations being heavy sponsors of Jayhawkers and border ruffians. These proxy partisans are now tempted with job offers by very rich independent rail barons. What’s going on in the Union? It’s 1880 and the Presidential elections are on everyone’s mind! The incumbent Ulysses S. Grant, whose administration is one of the most corrupt in US history, is running against the rising star James A. Garfield also of the Republican Party. Although Grant touts his ceasefire deal with the Confederacy as one of his greatest achievements while in office, the proxy wars in Bleeding Kansas and the unresolved racial tensions between white settlers and Sioux Natives in Deadwood are making Grant very unpopular among the American public. Speaking of which, the tribes of the Sioux and their allies are faring better in this alt-history than in real life. For one, the prolonged Civil War made the Union soldiers’ presence in the Great Plains far fewer. With the aid of shamans and spirits, Sitting Bull’s forces repulsed US encroachment in the Dakotas in 1872, sparing but humiliating General Armstrong Custer in the process. The Union was forced to sign the Deadwood Creek Treaty, which ceded land rights and significantly cut down on freedom of movement and mining claims for settlers while also recognizing the borders of the Sioux Nations. The town of Deadwood, connected by the Iron Dragon rail line, is the sole ‘safe zone’ for non-Nation citizens, but the recent spate of miners murdered under mysterious circumstances inflamed racial tensions. Deadwood townsfolk and Union citizens are both demanding protection and vengeance. Naturally, James Garfield is seizing on this, casting the Sioux as crazed savages holding American citizens hostage with President Grant too spineless to do anything about it. Add in some “Manifest Destiny” of how the Indians are sitting on a pile of rich ghost rock veins going to waste, and you have the perfect mix of greed and racial fears going on. Garfield’s stump speech was greeted with a standing ovation and a giant leap in poll numbers. During the course of the Plot Point Campaign he wins the election and becomes President. We also talk about the Ghost Dance, a relatively new religious movement growing in popularity among Native American tribes from the Paiute of Deseret to the Sioux Nations and Coyote Confederation. Its leader is Wovoka, a man credited with all manner of miracles. The Union and Confederacy are worried about this spreading faith, fearing the strength of a pan-Indian movement. The rest of the Epitaph section covers smaller local interest places. They include the Colorado town of new Jerusalem which seems to have literally sprung up out of nowhere; a gentleman-thief Stagecoach Robber roaming Kansas in a fancy steam wagon; sightings of Night Trains filled with the souls of the dead who kidnap townsfolk; rising tensions between the Confederacy and the Comanche Native Americans; and a lone eccentric searching for the lost village of Quivira, said to hold clues to the mythical Seven Cities of Gold. The Epitaph ends with The Round-Up, an in-game help wanted section full of adventure hooks and jobs sorted by state or region in the case of Indian Countries. It’s an obvious call-back to the Flood’s GOOD INTENTIONS section and even acknowledges it in-universe. Unfortunately not all of the entries directly link to a Savage Tale sidequest. Some of them are just dangling hooks, and the Last Sons does not make it clear which ones are which.  Makin’ Heroes Opening Text posted:There’s no place in the Weird West untouched by Indian history, culture, and traditions. Before the first buffalo hunters and settlers invaded the Plains, before the railroads and boomtowns laid down foundations of steel and wood, before telegraph wires crisscrossed the landscape like some giant spider’s web, the Indians were here. They built great civilizations all over North America, only to see their cities fall into decline hundreds of years before the first whites set foot in the so-called “New World.” As you can imagine by this quote, the writers of the Last Sons are gently pushing you into making Native American PCs for this Plot Point Campaign and it shows in this chapter. Many of the new roles, Edges, equipment, and other material tie into culture of various tribes, and the Plot Point’s first adventure involves helping out the Ghost Dancers. The Last Sons is trying to evoke a deconstructionist Western feel from the Native perspective, a la Dances With Wolves or Little Big Man. At least initially; it will take a while to explain here, so I’ll cover what I think works and doesn’t work in the main Plot Point Campaign chapter. Without further ado, we get a hefty list of major Native American tribes by region in the Weird West, along with their political relationships with other tribes, the US and/or Confederacy, and in some cases their stance towards with the Ghost Dance Movement. I’ll cover some of the major bases: the Sioux Nations is comprised of the Lakota, who are further divided into seven bands: Hunkpapa, Oglala, Burnt Thigh (Brule), Minneconjous, Sihasapa (Blackfeet), Itazipacola (Sans Arcs), and Oohenupa (Two Kettles). The Northern Cheyenne are also citizens of the Nation despite not being Lakota due to their role as a diplomatic bridge with the Coyote Confederation. The Coyote Confederation was formerly an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma before tribal uprisings during the Civil War managed to gain an autonomous territory. They are made up of the Arapaho, Cherokee, Comanche, Kiowa, and Southern Cheyenne. Each tribe’s leader convenes yearly in a meeting to discuss policy, and a mysterious figure known as Coyote acts as the nation’s leader. The indigenous tribes of California banded together under the Necessity Alliance, who make their headquarters in the many twisting channels of the Great Maze. The Klamath are their most populous tribe, and count the Chumash, Miwoka, Coastanoan, and Cabrielino tribes as members. The Pomo and Mojave are independent of the Alliance, either being too spread out in the former’s case or isolated until recent times in the latter’s case. The major tribes of the Disputed Territories include the Crow, Pawnee, and Shoshone people. All of them are on hostile footing with the Sioux Nations and Coyote Confederation, although all but the Crow follow the Old Ways.* The Shoshone are allied with the Paiute, a Great Basin tribe responsible for forming the Ghost Dance Movement, and their warriors often serve as bodyguards for Paiute preachers. *In-game spiritual movement where avoiding use of modern technology grants increased power with spirits The major tribes of the American Southwest include the Apache and Navajo, who allied with each other as a defense pact against hostile white settlers. The Yaqui are a Mexican/Arizonan tribe who have been on hostile footing with the Mexican government, and the Zuni Pueblo are an isolated and secretive group descended from the Anasazi. We also get a host of new role-playing considerations, major language families and what tribal tongues fall under them, and new character concept ideas for Native Heroes. In this last case, this covers general ideas such as scouts as chieftains along with different types of priests and shamans: war leaders call upon spirits to fight and lead the tribe during war, medicine men negotiate with spirits to heal others and ward off misfortune, etc. In regards to spirituality and religion, Deadlands has a bit of a monolithic discussion of indigenous culture. Although the section mentions that there’s no substitute for serious research, we do get some entries which are well, this: Berdache posted:If a young man lacks the salt to be a warrior, has no talent for speaking with spirits, and lacks the speed and skills vital for scouts, he is no longer considered a man by his tribe. He wears women’s clothes, takes a woman’s name, and does a female’s chores. But that doesn’t mean the berdache is disrespected. Far from it. They are among the best craftspeople in a tribe, and in elder years considered as wise as priests in the ways of the world. From what knowledge I know of gender identity among Native American tribes, this entry is inaccurate and the term “berdache” is considered outdated by most indigenous people of the United States. The more proper term is two-spirit and can cover Native Americans who do not conform to Western ideas of gender norms. Various tribes have different levels of acceptance, but two-spirit people were not necessarily banned from warrior and religious roles and can refer to different kinds of LGBT identities. New Hindrances are for PCs of all ethnicities save for Coup Counter, which is specific to indigenous cultures. We have Allergy, where exposure to a certain element can cause Fatigue; Coup Counter, where your first attack in combat must be a “false attack” in melee; Intolerant quite simply means you’re bigoted to a certain race or culture, suffer a Charisma penalty with dealing with them, and cannot use leadership Edges in conjunction with individuals from said groups until you’ve been in contact with them for at least a week; and finally Trouble Magnet causes something to go wrong for your PC at least once per session in addition to the typical troubles PCs face. New Edges are equally open for all PCs and include Gallows Humor, where by saying a joke in-character regarding some horrible situation allows you to substitute Taunts instead of Guts to resist Fear Effects; Two-Gun Kid, where you can apply the bonus from your Marksman edge to two separate targets; new Knacks marking your character’s birth on a certain auspicious event, such as being born under a Shooting Star which increases the distance of your leadership Edges or being contacted by a spirit while in the womb which grants you a single supernatural spell even if you don’t have an Arcane Background; Liquid Courage increases your Vigor and lets you ignore one level of wound penalties when drunk; Patron Spirit is for Blessed where spending fate chips on a power extends its duration; Seen the Elephant for Veteran experience ranked PCs allows them to subtract 4 from the result on a Fear Effects table due to being numb to trauma; and finally Totem Spirit for Shamans, where getting a raise (4 above the Target Number) on a power linked to your totem animal halves the Power Point cost. The Last Sons gets one New Power, and it’s a pretty potent and versatile one at that. Contact Spirit World is available only to Voodooist Blessed, Mad Scientists, and Shamans. Overall it involves opening the caster up to the Hunting Grounds. Said place is the all-purpose “spirit world/afterlife” of the Deadlands setting and appears differently depending on a person’s belief system. Contact Spirit World can be taken at Novice rank, but gives a new use for the spell at every rank thereafter. At Novice Rank a caster can call forth a lesser spirit to demand one service from it. At Seasoned Rank you can Summon Normal Spirit which are more powerful. Veteran rank allows the caster to Spirit Travel and project their soul into the Hunting Grounds while leaving their body behind in a comatose state. At Heroic rank Group Spirit Travel can let the caster take on multiple companions at once equal to their Spirit die. Finally Open Portal at Legendary rank creates a two-way portal to the Hunting Grounds or back to the mortal if in the Hunting Grounds. Summoning spirit results are randomly determined via a die roll, or the caster can pick an individual spirit they know the spirit’s true name. The caster can learn a summon spirit’s true name by getting a raise on their relevant arcane background skill roll, or via learning it from some other person or place. The various uses of Contact Spirit World cost a different number of Power Points, but they share a duration of 1 hour, plus an additional hour per Power Point beyond the base cost spent. In the case of a summoned spirit the entity returns back from whence it came at the end of the normal duration, or until the single task they were summoned for is finished, whichever comes first. Even at Seasoned rank the types of spirits you can summon can be pretty potent, ranging in power from the Holy People who have d12 in several traits and gain a host of powers depending on their clan, to the mighty Wakinyan thunder spirit who are gigantic stormclouds with 28 Toughness and a long-range infinite-use version of the bolt power.  Gear & Goods We start out with some new mundane gear, such as a coup stick used to “count coup” among some the Natives of the Great Plains that can grant improved NPC attitudes among your tribal group per use in battle; peyote which grants a bonus on Tribal Medicine rolls when using Vision Quest and Contact Spirit world; shields which can grant Parry vs melee and Armor against ranged attacks;* snowshoes which negate the effects of traveling in Heavy Snow; and tipis and travois which are survival gear. *it does not specify if bullets ignore these bonuses or not. Infernal Devices are mad scientist inventions whose blueprints and function have been refined to the point that even those without the aforementioned Arcane Background are capable of using them. They all run on ghost rock and tend to explode or inflict other maladies when the user rolls a 1 on the relevant skill die. Our two new devices include a Steam Cart, which is a railroad handcart outfitted with a ghost rock boiler and can be mounted with Gatling guns and flamethrowers, and the Steam Velocipede which is quite literally a motorcycle. Although I realize that steam wagons exist in the core rules of Deadlands and are effectively primitive cars in function, the Velocipede feels aesthetically out of place to my sensibilities in being too “modern” for the Western genre. It effectively renders the classic trope of the trusty horse useless. Secret Services Revisited covers new equipment specific to the Agency and Texas Rangers. In Deadlands, the respective organizations are FBI equivalents for the Union and Confederacy who are also secretly tasked with investigation and putting a stop to supernatural threats. PCs who are members can requisition special equipment which cannot be purchased otherwise, determined based on their Persuasion roll, rank within the organization, and the overall level of rarity and power of said item requested. Although both groups use the same system, their equipment is unique. The Agency has more espionage gadgets, while the Texas Rangers specialize in things which shoot, stab, and explode. This is a major upgrade from the base Deadland’s Player’s Guide, whose only pair of equipment for said organizations respectively include a Men in Black style “memory changer” Mnemomizer, and a Fugitives from Justice in the Confederacy which acts like an FBI’s Most Wanted List. The Agency by contrast gets far more gadgets. They range from automatic keys which can open a lock in seconds, a black duster with hidden compartments, a code wheel used to encrypt secret messages, an Ectoplasmic Calcifier Mk II which can make ghosts and other spirits physical in form and thus vulnerable to regular attacks, an exploding pocketwatch which acts as a timed explosive, or a telegraph tap which can eavesdrop on messages carried through telegraph lines. The Texas Rangers of high enough rank can get a copy of the Special Edition of Fugitives from Justice in the Confederacy, whose Chapter 13 details all manner of monsters and ways to kill them. This grants a +2 bonus on Knowledge (Occult) and Tracking rolls related to such creatures. Beyond this, their gear includes things such as a Bowie Survival Knife which is much like a Swiss Army Knife, a Rains Hand Grenade Mk II which are waterproof and can deal 3d6 damage in a Medium Burst Template (4 hex diameter), an Improved Whitworth Rifle which is a heavy-hitting (3d8 damage) ghost steel rifle; a LeMat Undertaker which is an improved version of the Lemat grapeshot pistol which can accept special rounds (3d6); and finally a Supernatural Phenomena Survival Kit which comes stocked with all manner of folkloric defensive charms (rock salt, wolfsbane, garlic, etc) along with special ghost steel-silver hybrid ammunition allowing for Blessed to more easily imbue powers on them. Thoughts So Far: The player-facing section of the Last Sons has a good amount of material which can be useful for a variety of character types. Very few options are underpowered or situational enough to be useless, and I did like the overview of the various Native American groups and their position within the Deadlands setting. The Contact Spirit World is a very strong power, perhaps a bit too strong, and the Velocipede just rubs me the wrong way. The Agency got a lot of neat spy tools, which although cool feels a bit out of place given the US government aren’t exactly big fans of indigenous autonomy or the Ghost Dance Movement. Join us next time as we visit the Marshal’s Section, covering the war-torn lands of the Disputed Territories and Indian Country!
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Jan 27, 2019 23:51
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Cythereal posted:For a Florida perspective, are the Seminole and the Seminole Wars brought up in this new Deadlands bit at all? Deadlands is very West-centric. Beyond national politics the individual states and regions east of the Mississippi River don't get much play. The last two big books centering on Back East for the North and South respectively were made in the 90s, and a planned Trail Guide* for said regions in Reloaded were scrapped due to time constraints. Unfortunately the Seminoles do not have much of a presence in Deadlands as far as I can tell, Last Sons or no. *mini-campaign
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Jan 28, 2019 04:08
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 Marshal’s Section  War’s Domain The first section of the Marshal’s handbook provides some detailed backstory expanding on the origins of Raven, the first of the Reckoners’ Servitors. I’m going to paraphrase things here, as a lot of it details his various plots and machinations both past and present. Building off what was said in the first post, Raven’s secret to immortality was a literal Fountain of Youth of the long-dead Anasazi. After gathering the Last Sons and breaking open the Reckoners’ prisons guarded by the Old Ones, one of the latter by the name of Jordrava escaped at the expense of literally losing his heart. His body became a corpse in the Grand Canyon, his spirit powerless to affect the world or witness the events of time’s passing. After their victory, Raven gathered together the Last Sons to discuss new plans. First came a restructuring of their organization and thus the birth of the Order of the Raven. The Last Sons would spread the word of Raven among Natives who suffered from colonialism and were willing to do anything to resist. A few of the most trusted Last Sons would take on the false identity of Raven for the dual purpose of turning his legacy into something larger than the self while confusing their enemies over contradictory reports of his sightings. A few of the false prophets even grew to believe they were the genuine article in due time. The real Raven for his part ventured to California around 1865. There, he learned of the ancient pictograms of long-passed tribes and their connection to the spirits of the earth, as well as the ludicrous stories of Emperor Norton I. Quite a bit of this part is detailed in the Flood Plot Point Campaign, but long story short Raven activated the pictogram glyphs to trigger a statewide Great Quake, formed the Rattlesnake Clan of sorcerers to provide more warriors for the Order of the Raven, and manipulated the dreams of the Chinese warlord Kwan to appoint Emperor Norton I as an incompetent proxy ruler when the time came to seize power. He also went south of the border into Mexico, helping form a secret society of Aztec sorcerers who influenced Mexico’s aristocratic emperor to invade California. When word came of the Sioux Nations’ victory against the United States in 1872, Raven ventured north and took on the identity of the Hooded One. The Order of the Raven drew the bulk of its forces from this territory by building up a rapport with Sitting Bull, who was convinced to join the Order of the Raven in secret. Discovery of ghost rock in the Black Hills led to violent conflicts with white settlers and Sioux Nation braves. The United States sent an army division lead by George Armstrong Custer to break the Native spirit. This is where history departs: the Battle of the Little Bighorn (aka the Battle of the Greasy Grass to the Sioux and Cheyenne) results in an American loss, but Custer is not killed. Crazy Horse, Red Bear, and the Hooded One, who by now is a respected warrior among the Sioux Nations, take Custer hostage. Raven said that the man’s life is at their whims, and he “mercifully” granted him the opportunity to retreat and spread tale that the Sioux Nations will never be broken. Raven claimed that this warning would teach the USA not to mess with them, but he privately knew an arrogant man like Custer would seek vengeance. Jordrava was reborn due to the unintentional efforts of the Explorer’s Society during an expedition to the Grand Canyon. Rutherford Ellington Dillenger* put Jordrava’s preserved heart into the cavity of the Old One’s corpse in a moment of desperation from attacking monsters. Thanking them for their revival he traveled North America, learning of how bad things have gotten since the Reckoning. He later indirectly founded the Ghost Dance Movement by appearing in a vision to the Paiute Native American Wovoka, who presumed that Jordrava in his vision was the “Creator.” Regardless, the Ghost Dance Movement spread, especially when its beneficial effects became known among its more learned shamans. Alas Jordrava made an error in returning to the Hunting Grounds to find an old medicine rock of his; he got ambushed by an evil spirit and remains captured in its terrible lair to this day.** *he was one of the Society’s senior members during the previous Plot Point Campaign, the Flood. **or at least until the PCs spring him free In the current time of September 1880, Raven’s plots are coming to fruition. Emperor Norton is now the figurehead ruler of northern California, the demoted and now-rogue George Armstrong Custer is building an army of several thousand irregular hired guns and low-down varmints in order to invade the Sioux Nations. The news of slaughtered miners gives him the perfect opportunity to swoop in as a savor and “liberate Deadwood.” Sitting Bull is now insane and more than willing to plunge his people into war if it means killing every white person on the High Plains. He’s even gone so far as to allow the desecration of the Black Hills via a secret deal with the Iron Dragon rail baron Kang. The rail baron set up a secret illegal mining operation to extract its ghost rock, and in return supplies the Order of the Raven with guns, explosives, and mad science devices. One way or another, War is coming. What I’d Change: I’d would not make Sitting Bull a Ravenite and instead replace him with a Wicasa of my own creation. In the real world Sitting Bull was not only one of the most famous Native Americans, he was also a celebrated figurehead among many indigenous people for fighting to preserve his people’s autonomy from US aggression. Turning him into an insane villain, along with one who would compromise the Sioux Nations’ ceasefire with the United States for some equal opportunity bloodshed is a pretty big departure from how the man acted in real life. Technically speaking Raven speaking to him in dreams caused him to go insane, although this is not explained in either the Marshal’s Handbook or the Last Sons until his relevant stat block entry in the final chapter.  Setting Rules Each of the Deadlands Plot Point Campaigns features a set of new rules pertinent to the specific locale and the Reckoner which holds sway over the area. In the previous campaign the Flood, we had inflated prices, food spoiling quickly, and how giving into cannibalism risked turning into literal monsters in keeping with Famine. Here the Reckoner of War holds sway, and nothing generates hatred and fear like violence. Overall, people in the Native American nations and the Disputed Territories are on edge and Bad Impressions are easy to make. Even if not in an active battle zone the memories of border ruffian depredations, Indian raids, rail war skirmishes, and more keep people distrustful of newcomers. Resentment, anger, and grief cause situations to quickly escalate and just about everyone is openly carrying a firearm or other weapon. As such, PCs suffer a -2 modifier on rolls on the NPC Reaction Table for initial impressions, which means that NPCs never start out Helpful and rarely Friendly. On that note, the default Deadlands Reloaded tends to avoid the issue of real-world systemic racism. Via this sidebar in the Player’s Guide the designers wanted more of a “post-racial” alternative history:   Well minus the Neo-Confederate stuff, the Last Sons subverts this HARD. Real-world, widespread racial fears are a recurring element in this Plot Point Campaign, primarily between white settlers and soldiers and Native Americans. You probably guessed earlier based on the fact that Intolerant can be taken as a Hindrance by PCs, but it’s not just the province of individuals, either. I counted two NPCs who the PCs have to work with as part of a Plot Point or Savage Tale express either distrust or contempt for the other side of the divide in some way, and a quest where Ghost Dancers are initially reluctant to rescue a nun from a group of Ravenite raiders on account that she’s an unknown white woman deep in Sioux territory. There’s also the factor of the situation in Deadwood where the local white settlers and Sioux/Cheyenne Natives are deathly afraid of starting another war due to the very real chance either side’s society will not survive the second round. And the in-game text doesn’t shame or condemn them for this: both sides have normal people who quite rightly view any instance of inter-racial violence in or around Deadwood as the match that strikes the dynamite that kills everybody. Moving on with the review, we cover Battlefield Horrors. The mass graves of battlefields scattered throughout the Midwest are teeming with undead monstrosities and the atmosphere is perpetually dark and gloomy. The Fear Level in these areas is 1 higher than usual, and those who die here draw 3 additional cards to determine whether or not they come back Harrowed.* *sapient PC-friendly undead option who share their body with an evil spirit in addition to their own soul. Following are rules for the Ghost Dance. Basically the Ghost Dance Movement is a pan-Indian religious and political organization. It foretells Native Americans regaining autonomy of their traditional lands, an end to colonialism, reuniting the living with the dead, and more good stuff if sacred dances and moral living of its participants are followed. Basically the rituals of the Ghost Dance can be learned from one who knows it, provided you have the Arcane Background (Shaman) and invest d6 into Knowledge (Ghost Dance). The dance itself is a group-focused activity where everyone in a war party or village must participate for hours on end. The one leading the Ghost Dance makes a Knowledge roll to cause at least one event to happen per success and raise: they can reduce an area’s ambient Fear Level by 1 in a 20 mile radius, improve the chances of a dead character coming back Harrowed or even alive and fit as a fiddle, or forcefully cast out the manitou spirit sharing a Harrowed’s body albeit at the expense of causing said Harrowed to perish and go on to the afterlife. Ghost Rock is covered, that miracle fuel which just so happens to be an artificial creation of the Reckoners. We have some basic information repeated here, particularly what happens when a ghost rock boiler overheats or is damaged in combat.* We also get game stats for Ghostfire Powder, a refined version of the substance whose creation is known only to the highest echelons of Hellstromme Industries. The stuff is responsible for the creation of the Ghostfire Bombs used during the Battle of Lost Angels in the Flood Plot Point Campaign. A small barrel can cover a Large Burst Template and is treated as a Heavy Weapon, igniting all flammable substances, dealing 2d10 damage per round, and can cause instant incapacitation on a failed Vigor (-3 penalty) roll. A Ghostfire Bomb does the same but covers two square acres.** *big explosions **87,120 square feet, or 26,554.176 square meters for our non-US readers. As you can imagine, Ghostfire Power is incredibly strong, and being hit with a Ghostfire Bomb almost assuredly means certain death for PCs caught anywhere but the outskirts of the blast radius. The Hunting Grounds gets some rules for traveling about it it, which will be useful as one of the Plot Point adventures takes place entirely within its confines. It is basically Deadlands’ all-purpose spirit world/afterlife, and while the name intones a naturalist/shamanistic connotation it appears differently to people depending on their religious views of the afterlife. Native Americans see the spirit realm as a giant tree.* The faint outline of a hardwood tree takes up half the sky, and the various realms appear on different portions of the tree. The actual Sky is the dominion of the gods and the most virtuous of people; the Boughs are where visiting mortals commonly visit traveling ancestors; the Trunk is home to most spirits and is a dark place of tunnel-like passages, vines, and pits; the Roots are the gateway to the Deadlands and thus most of it is controlled by the Reckoners; finally the Deadlands are the land of the Reckoners, a dark wasteland built upon the foundations of an eternity of fallen leaves and branches. The Deadlands are home to legions of manitous and kidnapped souls serving as slaves. *once more that indigenous monolith writing strikes again. This perception of the Hunting Grounds changes to whatever closest religious equivalent exists for travelers, and in the case of an interfaith party the one who gets the highest Spirit roll imposes their interpretation of the Hunting Grounds upon their companions. We cover various rules specific to the place: for one, the entirety of the Hunting Grounds is Fear Level 0 save for the Deadlands which are Level 6, although this does not mean the former is happy and safe. Characters who travel here without using a physical portal do not carry their equipment with them, not even their clothes, although any totem spirits they have manifest as allies with stats to the closest animal equivalent. For Harrowed their possessing manitou is much stronger here and local spirits hate the dead guy. Spellcasters recover Power Points at twice the normal rate, but mad scientists and those with technological trappings have a more difficult time casting their powers at a -2 penalty. Hucksters get a good deal, as their Deal with the Devil power cuts out the manitou middleman and they can “draw” the power from their surroundings with no chance of backlash. However this power is not infinite, for excessive use summons manitous angry at the huckster for “cheating.” We get new Relics which are Deadlands’ equivalent of magic items. They are unique items filled with potent emotional weight, usually formed from the hopes, dreams, and failures of some particularly heroic or villainous soul. They grant potent powers to their wielders, but many have a Taint which colors the user’s personality in some manner. The relics detailed here include Crazy’s Horses’ Coup Stick which allows the wielder to draw a Fate Chip whenever they first count coup on a dangerous opponent; Ghost Guns of unknown origin but evil disposition which never run out of ammunition and give bonuses on Intimidation, but at the expense of adding the Bloodthirsty, Mean, and Vengeful (Major) hindrances; Harrowed Boots which give those who die wearing them a greater chance to come back Harrowed but cannot benefit from helpful spells cast by a Blessed; Tom “Bear River” Smith’s Spurs which increase one’s Intimidation die but grant the wear the Mean hindrance*; an Unholy Symbol of an evil cult which comes imbued with a single Black Magic spell but has a wicked soul which tries to possess a user much like a Harrowed’s manitou; and finally Wild Bill Hickock’s Six-Shooters, a pair of Colt Navy revolvers which reroll 1s on Shooting rolls (barring snake eyes) but make it so that anyone who shoots you in the back deals a bonus 2d6 damage. *a bit unimaginative when you look at Ghost Guns We top off this section with rules for Stampedes, Telegraphs, and Wild Weather. All three are rather situational: stampedes are an opposed Agility or Riding roll to either get out of the way or round up a panicked herd, with failure imposing quite a bit of damage as you’re run over. Telegraphs are a semi-reliable long-distance communication device which can be tampered with by mischievous spirits known as gremlins. A table of various negative effects is provided: doesn’t get through, delayed message, scrambled/misinterpreted message, etc. Finally Wild Weather covers the historic Long Winter of 1880-1881. On the High Plains a record-breaking 132 inches* of snow covered the ground, resulting in impassible railroad tracks, mass flooding when it eventually melted, starvation from ruined crops, etc. Blizzards can last 2d20+2 hours and freeze up even mad science vehicles, while heavy snow and storms can impose penalties on movement and physical-based actions. *3.35 meters  Strange Locales By far the longest part of the Marshal’s Section, Strange Locales details all the towns, landmarks, and other points of interest in War’s domain. Like the Flood we get each location’s listed Fear Level along with relevant Savage Tales in the area to complete. Before diving into locations proper we get an outline over each of the six major rail companies and where they stand in the seemingly never-ending Great Rail Wars. Union Blue is the state-funded rail company of the United States, and they’re not looking too good lately. Their last saving grace is running a line through cattle country in Kansas to increase shipping revenues, perhaps as far south as the Santa Fe Trail. Black River is notable for being managed by women known as the Wichita Witches and is a heavy player in Bleeding Kansas’ wars. Its owner Mina Devlin is a ruthless woman who trains the most promising rail warriors in black magic. Although she had a secret alliance with Union Blue, that deal soured and now she’s their primary competitor in seizing rail lines for cattle country. Iron Dragon managed to do the unthinkable and cut a deal with Sitting Bull to build rail lines through the Sioux Nations. In fact it is the only legal port of entry for foreigners to enter, with a rail line connecting to the haven town of Deadwood. The rail baron Kang is playing a tricky game, having set up an illegal mining operation in the Black Hills to trade guns for ghost rock. The Sioux Ravenites doing business with him care more for crushing the white settlers than maintaining the sanctity of their land.* *The Black Hills are a place of great cultural and spiritual significance to the Lakota tribes. Dixie Rails is the closest thing the Confederacy has to an official rail line, being owned by one of the dearly departed Robert E. Lee’s nephews. It is in dire financial straits, with the lion’s share of resources and rail warriors stationed in western Missouri and unable to contribute heavily to securing Kansas’ rail lines. Wasatch is sitting pretty after building the first transcontinental railroad. Its owner Darius Hellstromme accomplished this in the prior Plot Point Campaign, the Flood by using the powers of Mad Science to dig a literal underground railroad from the Rocky Mountains all the way to southern California. As of now he’s taking a bit of a background role, trying to secure alliances and deals rather than outright warfare. Hellstromme’s current pet projects have him holed up in Deseret’s City o’ Gloom, aka Salt Lake City. Bayou Vermillion cuts through the Confederacy’s Deep South and American Southwest, placing it far from the Disputed Lands. However rail baron Simone LaCroix has a secret project to cause harm to his northern competitors. Beyond regular spies and saboteurs he secretly built a special train with an adjustable carriage to ride on the gauges of other rail companies. These “Night Trains” became legendary scourges of towns and depots throughout the American heartland as its undead hordes poured out and laid waste to all they could get their hands on. Fun Fact: One of Deadlands Classic’s most infamous adventures is the eponymous Night Train, where the PCs get caught up in the middle of one of these “night of the walking dead” raids. The adventure was intentionally designed in a Tomb of Horrors like fashion where Total Party Kills are almost guaranteed. Now come the Strange Locales proper! Abilene: The oldest cow town in Kansas, this rough and tumble place connects to a Union Blue rail line but there’s more than a few Confederate sympathizers in town to lead to spirited political debate in the form of fist-fights. Tom “Bear River” Smith is a former US marshal, but more of a lawman than the actual sitting sheriff whose predecessor was gunned down by a supernatural cowboy known as the Revenant. The town’s also home to a mansion the locals believe is cursed on account of various mysterious accidents befalling the builders. Amarillo: In time this will become a populous city, but as of 1880 it’s a tiny town in the middle of nowhere in the Texas Panhandle. Cowboys, ranch hands, and anyone involved in the cattle industry comprise the majority of its transient citizens. Bear Butte: This mountain in the Sioux Nations is considered holy ground to the tribes living within its borders. Sioux and Cheyenne pilgrims leave offerings on its cliffs for the Creator, and the land is regularly guarded by braves ensuring that outsiders do not desecrate this place. Bear Butte’s sacred reputation isn’t just for show: spellcasters receive a +2 bonus on casting magic related to exorcism, healing, and costs half the usual Power Points. Bismarck: Situated at the northeast border of the Sioux Nations and Dakota Territory, Bismarck was so named by Iron Dragon officials hoping that the name’s resemblance to a contemporary German chancellor would encourage immigrants from that nation to set up shop. The place is a diverse frontier town home to Native American traders, white locals and laborers, and a large Chinatown. Black Hills: To say that the Black Hills are important to the Sioux tribes would be an understatement. It is their ancestral lands and where all manner of holidays, ceremonies, and religious rites take place. In addition to existing gold deposits the Reckoners seeded the place with extensive veins of ghost rock to act as a shining jewel to settlers and spawned more than a few violent conflicts. As part of the Deadwood Treaty of 1875 the tribal elder Wicasas allow very limited mining rights to the towns’ inhabitants. The $100 fee and regulations merely spurred miners on to set up covert illegal operations, and those caught by Sioux patrols without a legal claim end up roughed up or killed if they resist arrest. The trail to the Black Hills is lined with poles displaying corpses of the latter as a warning. When Custer invades, the number of “pole men” increases exponentially. Black Mesa: This tall mountain stands in the middle of Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Beyond its obvious namesake the place is famous for being a magnet for the supernatural. The Order of the Raven set up one of their strongholds here and mercilessly hunt down and slay anyone without a membership tattoo caught snooping around. At Fear Level 5 it’s one of the most scary locales in the Last Sons. Cauldron: The second of the Fear Level 5 locations, this place was so named for the caldera present. One of the bloodiest battles of the Great Rail Wars took place here, and after a month of fighting the fallen began to walk as undead. The rail barons in question presumed their opposition was harboring some secret weapon and thus poured even more fighters and resources into the area which only made the problem worse. The fighting’s died down but the small town here hasn’t been the same; horrific wailing emits from the caldera at night, and people hear voices in the wind whispering past sins in their ears. The entire place is still riddled with mass graves, shelled-out automatons, and burned steam wagons. Cheyenne: This place gots its beginnings as a boomtown, and it has the theaters, hotels, and saloons to show for it. Its location on the Denver-Pacific* line means that it’s a popular location for upper class ladies and gents for its preponderance of fancy shops. There’s even a Freemason Lodge here which has been corrupted by members delving into the dark arts. *a minor rail company owned by Smith & Robards, the major mad science competitors of Hellstromme Industries Coffeyville: Built at an Indian trading post next to what is now the Coyote Confederation, Coffeyville sits by a Black River rail line which gave the place quite a bit of financial prosperity. The fertile soil does well for the farms and milling, and entire warehouses and freight cars full of crops ship their goods across the West. Deadwood: Perhaps the most iconic town in this entire sourcebook, Deadwood is a little slice of Union surrounded by Sioux Country. Native Americans are allowed inside the town but are given a wide berth by the populace given that the racial tension is thick enough to be cut with a knife. Union soldiers are a heavy presence, and during Custer’s invasion their numbers become supplemented by irregular troops. This causes the Sioux Nations to violently retaliate, with both Old Ways* and Ravenite braves making temporary alliances of convenience to strike at the invaders. *Religious pledge to the spirits not to use modern industrial technology. We get a sidebar detailing the Deadwood Creek Treaty and its major provisions: the US government recognizes the Sioux Nations’ as a sovereign territory, none of their soldiers are allowed within the Nation’s borders,* non-Native Americans require special permission by a tribal council to live within said borders, those who are found outside Deadwood or off the sole trail and rail line leading there will be escorted by a party of braves to the border, mining rights require expensive fees, mines can only be owned by individuals and not companies, no mine may be worked by more than five people at once, and any miners found violating these rules have their mines collapsed and are thereby ejected from the Sioux Nations. *It doesn’t mention if the ones currently in Deadwood before Custer’s invasion are an exception in regards to the treaty. Denver: The biggest city in Colorado, Denver is the other big rail hub besides Dodge City. Wasatch, Union Blue, Black River, and Denver-Pacific all have rail lines here and due to the ceasefire treaty between the Union and Confederacy both countries left the state unclaimed. As a result, Denver gets representatives from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line and even rail companies without track who need to keep an eye on the competition. In spite of housing a major covert Agency office and anti-firearm ordinance within city limits, Denver’s still a violent place and half of its City Council is riddled with bribery and corruption. The Agency operates a Supernatural Research Facility here for the study and use of all items and monstrous remains of an abnormal nature. They even have a special Star Chamber which is capable of binding a Harrowed’s possessing manitou to the ritualist’s service. Derry’s Ford: This small Colorado town is unusually low-key and quiet. It used to be home to a cult by the name of the Church of Holy Flame, but it burned down in 1876. Devil’s Tower: Known as Bear Lodge Butte to the local Natives, this gigantic column of rock can be seen for a good long way on the horizon. Recently the Sioux began speaking of sighting strange monsters lurking in the shadows around the area at night, possessing strange artifacts which can melt the flesh off one’s bones or freeze the blood in their veins. The Rail Baron Kang made an offer to destroy the monsters in exchange for building a rail line to Deadwood. Ever the crowd-pleaser, Kang made a deal with said monsters to stop their attacks and stay in Devil’s Tower in exchange for providing them with the human flesh of captives Iron Dragon wanted disappeared. Kang got his rail line, and today his company maintains guard around the area. The guards also secretly trade with Ravenites here to provide them with firearms and ammunition.  Dodge City: Lost Angels has been claimed by Wasatch, so now all the other rail barons want a piece of the pie in Kansas’ most violent city. As of now Black River and Union Blue rail lines run through town. In addition to rail wars sabotage, passionate Northern and Southern partisans are eager to look for any excuse for a fight, and masked riders at night kill civilians in the name of patriotism. Buffalo hunters have gotten more well-armed on account of the nearby Sioux sabotaging efforts at depopulating their primary food source. Blood runs thick in Dodge City, but so does the stream of money for these many industries. Dusky Jewel: Kang’s secret mining operation in the Black Hills is a small town built into the back of a canyon guarded by a wall of ghost steel armor. With barbed wire and gatlings lining the top, the Dusky Jewel is far too well-armed for the Sioux to put a stop to it. There are also other factors at play: Kang has leverage over the Wicasas on account that he can release his hold on the monsters in Devil’s Tower, and he can reveal Sitting Bull’s allegiance to the Order of the Raven to the other elders. Fargo: Although known for its harsh winters, its wheat fields are the primary food supplier for Deadwood. The Wells-Fargo & Co. shipping company used to have headquarters here before Iron Dragon bought them out. During the Plot Point Campaign the Long Winter of 1880 will snow the town in and desperate times will cause people to resort to cannibalism. Jayhawk Flats: This is one of the most pro-Union towns in Kansas, if one couldn’t already tell by its name. Its citizenry is known for their decades-long vanguard against Southern border ruffians, and its stranger claim to fame is the town’s complete lack of mirrors. Three years ago on All Hallow’s Eve every single mirror in town turned black and shattered, and others brought into town today turn the same ebony shade. This bad luck manifests as a -1 penalty to all rolls for situations regarding luck and random chance such as gambling. Laramie: This Union town became located within Sioux lands unintentionally, although currently no action has been taken against the settlement due to the problems in Deadwood and Dusky Jewel. An alliance of cattle barons were the effective rulers of Laramie, but after the recognition of the Sioux Nations their wealth and influence have faded. Lawrence: This Kansas town wears its scars like so many others of the recent decades, but as of 1879 it has the epic Battle of Broken Rails to show for it. This massive clash between four different rail companies destroyed half the town. The victorious Union Blue is doing its best to win the people's’ trust back by shipping in supplies for rebuilding. The town is more racially diverse than usual due to being a former Underground Railroad nexus as well as sporting a lot of Chinese immigrants. Medicine Wheel: Cheyenne Natives tend to a pattern of stones laid in the earth known as a Medicine Wheel. This configuration is important to the local nature spirits, and its remote location from any trails or rail lines means few people visit. Powers related to healing or spiritual insight gain a +2 bonus on rolls when cast here along with half the normal amount of Power Points required. New Jerusalem: This would be yet another no-name burg in the Weird West where it not for a terrible event four years ago. New Jerusalem and its inhabitants were transported to another dimension and enslaved by alien beings before mysteriously returning to its original location in 1880. Beyond the obvious psychological scars, sounds are strangely muted and nothing echoes. New Varney Flats: This town had the unfortunate honor of falling victim to a Night Train attack in 1876. The survivors long moved elsewhere, with those unconnected to the events moving into the new ghost town only to encounter another set of troubles. The large population of buffalo hunters means more clashes with Native tribes, and the hunters use the town as a base of operations for raids into the Coyote Confederation. Perry: Known as Hell’s Half-Acre even to residents, Perry is famed for having over 100 saloons and a multitude of other entertainment-based businesses. The place is also home to a huge number of Union agents keeping tabs on the Deep South. Confederate counterspies sent more than a few of them into numerous shallow graves outside of town. Quivira: This ruined town is one of the last sites of the now-vanished Wichita tribe. It is located deep within the Coyote Confederation and well known to its citizens. The Confederation’s leaders gather here during the winter to meet, greet, negotiate, and make policy for the year to come. Salina: This town is the first spot in Union Blue’s construction project to build a spur south to New Varney Flats. This will link the line with Black River, and Mina Devlin is none too fond of this idea. Her efforts to sabotage this process are at the hands of Baron LaCroix, who relishes the thought of another convenient access point for his Night Trains to wreak havoc in Kansas. Tallulah: Although nominally neutral in the Civil War, the townsfolks’ desire to “avoid politics” has been taken advantage of by the Confederacy to set up Texas Rangers in town. When some unknown monster began kidnapping miners the Rangers went to work hunting it down and thus earned Tallulah’s trust. Captain Jim Pinto operates an import company to secretly arm a Confederate army with the eventual plan to strike at supernatural threats in the state. Topeka: Even though the man himself was given a dirt nap, undead Bloody Bill Quantrill’s still fighting like it’s 1865 and Topeka, Kansas is his favorite target for raids. The town is extensively fortified by Union Blue rail warriors, and the local Lincoln College hosts an extensive library second to none. The all-women College of the Sisters of Bethany is an Episcopal center of learning whose students sport a high amount of mad scientists among their number. This has given more than a few rumors of witchcraft in the college, and the Sisters merely play along by staging phenomena created by sufficiently enhanced technology. Wichita: The local sheriff is known throughout the region for his relentless pursuits of criminals even into the Coyote Confederation, but he’s not who troublemakers should worry about. Headquarters of Black River’s Wichita Witches, these dangerously smart and ruthless women are fast on the draw with both pistol and whip. In the event of truly deadly opposition they can call in their trademark black magic.  Worm Canyon: The third Fear Level 5 location in this chapter, this is the most remote and dangerous place in the Sioux Nations. Even the local braves do not venture here save in very big war parties, and even then only when they absolutely must. The place is home to subterranean serpent-like monsters known as rattlers, 40-foot tentacled monstrosities who burrow through the earth like a fish swims through water. A strange cult lead by the self-appointed Queen Ursula worships the rattlers as gods. She and the rest of the cult do their part to honor the worms by dying their skin purple, living in filth, literally singing their praises, and offering them human sacrifices. With the places’ bad reputation making the last part harder to come by, Ursula’s taken to posing as a prospector looking for gold in the area and offering what few travelers she can find safe passage to help spread the word. The sacrifices take place on an altar overlooking the forlorn badlands, and at Fear Level 6 the surrounding area is a certified Deadland. Victims are slain by being pushed off a cliff to a squirming clutch of young rattlers below to have their souls consumed. Adventures in the Disputed Lands The final part of the Marshal’s Section provides an adventure generator for Game Masters who want something more novel rather than the existing Plot Point and Savage Tale quests provided in the book. Basically it is divided as such: first the generator details one of six likely adventuring motivations to act as the backdrop. They range from monster-hunting and freelance troubleshooters to simply traveling from Point A to Point B. Second is a d10 table to determine the Affiliations of involved NPCs, such as Union/Confederate soldiers and outlaws. Third is the Trouble in the case of PCs acting as troubleshooters, which can range from gathering a posse to hunt down kidnappers or a villainous/hostile faction setting up a secret base in the region to cause trouble. Fourth are Complications, possible twists on existing encounters such as freak weather swooping in to a ghostly visitor haunting a PC with cryptic hints and troubling proclamations. This section also provides random encounter tables for both the Hunting Grounds and general travel if the Game Master doesn’t wish to use the sample regional tables from the Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook. The Hunting Ground encounters can be quite deadly if a lone PC rather than a group is adventuring there, which is quite possible if they have Contact Spirit World and don’t have the ability to take others along for the ride. The encounters in the real world are nothing special, most of which are meant more as springboards for future adventures than complete encounters in and of themselves. Thoughts So Far: This chapter has a little bit of everything. The new relics are thematic, the locations varied over a large portion of land, and the detailing of the Hunting Grounds is a valued addition considering the place has been hardly detailed in prior Deadlands works. The Strange Locales strike a good mix of supernatural evil and mortal folly, and the Balkanization of fighting rail barons provides plenty of adventure opportunities and intrigue. Join us next time as we cover the first half of the Last Sons Plot Point Campaign!
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Jan 29, 2019 10:47
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Loxbourne posted:Ehhh, it's full of interesting ideas and good places for adventures but we can already see "the Neo-Confederacy is awesome guys!" stuff leaking back in. That's a hard dealbreaker for me even if I love the Great Rail Wars concept and company ideas. Sounds like they'd make for a good Let's Read if anyone ever gets around to them. I don't think I will myself anytime soon, on account of how big the Reckoners Series books are to cover. Dedman Walkin posted:This is a throwback to a Deadlands Classic adventure Adios A-Mi-Go, which is a crossover with Chaosium's Call of Cthluhu rpg. You'll be pleased to know that this town will feature in one of the Savage Tales later on. By popular demand posted:You gotta admire Kang's pragmatism, he's just as evil as Helstromme but much better at recruiting useful monsters. Hellstromme: "Why recruit monsters when you can build more automatons?"
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Jan 29, 2019 22:24
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Nessus posted:You could probably do some cross-line round-ups of Confederate apologia and see if you can trace particular ideas back to particular authors. Now considering we're talking about nerds who freelanced in the nineties I don't think this would accomplish anything, but it would be conceptually interesting. Back East: the South was written by Chris McGlothlin, who was a pretty big fan of the Confederacy and he often inserted his fondness of the regime in various works. He helped write the Mutants & Masterminds Golden Age sourcebook, which had a picture of a tank with the Confederate battle flag. He also did a Worlds of Freedom sourcebook detailing the M&M universe throughout the eras. It caused some consternation on the message boards a while ago when one poster took issue with two superteams representing the Union and Confederacy being portrayed as morally equivalent. This entry from said book in particular sticks out to me: The Knights of the Confederacy posted:Though outnumbered by the Patriot Regiment, the Liberators, and other mystery men fighting for the Union, the Knights of the Confederacy were able to stave off their country’s defeat for four long years. Courage and cunning were the team’s greatest assets, and they served the Knights well in their shadowy war with the Union’s super-agents. Though theirs was ultimately a Lost Cause, the Knights proved that glory, honor, and valor are not exclusively the victor’s province. But like others said, the pro-Confederacy stuff cannot be laid solely at the feet of one writer. Although McGlothlin's writings are the most well-known to me due to the above examples, he hasn't to my knowledge written for any Deadlands or RPG books in general for a while. Even then Pinnacle's works still hew to the false equivalence of North and South. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 00:51 on Jan 30, 2019 |
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Jan 30, 2019 00:48
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Mors Rattus posted:"Knights of the Confederacy" is a loving loaded name, given the love of white supremacist terror groups of the period to posture at being knights. The Golden Circle and the White Camellia, for example. First they came for the Vikings, now they're coming for the knights. Unrelated: Valkyria Chronicles, in spite of being a rather weeaboo Fantasy WWII game, was pretty head-on in examining fascist aesthetics. The Empire in it has a fetish for Ye Medieval Times, outfits its troopers in plate mail-looking uniforms, and refers to tank operators as "the modern-day knight errant." Libertad! fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Jan 30, 2019 |
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Jan 30, 2019 01:09
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 The Last Sons Plot Point Campaign, Part 1 Now we come to the main 9 adventures of the Last Sons. It covers the PC’s attempts to put a stop to Raven’s machinations by traveling through the heart of the West, from the Sioux Nations in the north down to Oklahoma and back north again for one last great big battle. Much like the Flood before it and various “open world” RPGs, it has a lot of side stories the PCs can accomplish at their relative leisure between major chapters or whenever the Game Master fancies. Many of these Savage Tales are location-centric, but a few are meant to trigger after a certain progression in the timeline. We get a summary of the nine Plot Point adventures, along with a timeline for the Last Sons. It spans from late Late July 1880 to July 4th 1881 and most of its events are independent of PC actions save near the end which explicitly cover the events of the last two adventures. The timeline covers political dealings and rising tensions which act as a backdrop to War’s ambitions, notably Custer’s invasion of the Sioux Nations, the Union’s Presidential election results, and Hellstromme’s double-dealings between the USA and Sioux Nations. One thing I forgot to mention in my write-up of the Flood is that each of the 4 Plot Point Campaigns start out with two quotes meant to reflect on the adventures’ major themes. They tend to be a mixture of historical quotes, Bible verses, or even lines from Spaghetti Westerns. The Flood quoted Genesis 6:17 and a children’s song about Noah’s Ark. The Last Sons borrows quotes from two historical figures contemporary to this time period: Wovoka posted:Our land is everything to us. I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it with their lives. William Tecumseh Sherman posted:There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but boys, it is all Hell. You can bear this warning voice to generations yet to come. I look upon war with horror. These quotes, along with the build-up of the setting in the last two sections, gives the impression that this Plot Point Campaign’s going to be participating in a lot of large-scale battles using the Mass Combat Rules, where building a PC with leadership Edges would be useful. The Last Sons...does not deliver on this save in a few adventures. Much like the Flood a good portion of the major plot involves traveling around the Weird West as local troubleshooters. The major difference is that instead of joining a secret society of monster-hunters and do-gooders, you’re helping out Jordrava and the Ghost Dance Movement stymie the Order of the Raven’s plans. A Friend to the Indians posted:The Last Sons depends on the heroes—or at least one of them—being sympathetic to the Indians’ cause. If one or more heroes are Indian shamans or warriors, all the better! We’ve given players all sorts of new incentives to make Indian characters in the Makin’ Heroes chapter (see page 15). If those don’t work, you’ll have to have a chat with your group. It’s not often you see games of the Western genre, tabletop or otherwise, give a heavy emphasis on experiencing things from the indigenous perspective. This is not just fluff: the first few Plot Points in particular will be much harder to run if none of the PCs are citizens of the Sioux Nations. Their freedom of movement outside Deadwood and the Iron Dragon rail line will be severely curtailed otherwise, which can make it hard to justify running some of the Savage Tales in the area unless the party goes out of their way to hide, run from, or fight every Sioux patrol they come across in order to get to the adventure locale in the first place. I’ve read about some gaming groups online whose GMs did not specify this sidebar, and tended to either end up with the party getting out of the Sioux Nations as soon as possible due to this or just not having enough incentive to ask “why would my PC get involved in all this?” The whole unnamed stranger drifting through town and fixing trouble which happens to come their way is a classic trope, but in starting the Last Sons you need a much stronger hook than this. 1. The White Calf The Plot Point Campaign proper begins with the PCs taking the Deadwood Stage stagecoach service out of Bismarck along the Sioux Nations’ sole legal trail for foreign travelers. The driver is Jeb McKeever, an otherwise ordinary fellow but handy when something needs fixing. He’s accompanied by his brother Big Danny McKeever, a tough guy armed with a Gatling shotgun. The vehicle’s brought to a sudden stop for our first encounter with a group of stagecoach robbers seeing green. The robbers are nothing special, but the ditch they dug in the center of the road is not. It damaged the stagecoach’s two front wheels and caused the horses to detach and go running off into the wilds. Retrieving the horses is left to skill checks while the McKeever’s stay put to repair their ride. While repairs are being completed the PCs hear the whistle of a train followed by the shrieking of brakes. This is the Iron Dragon line and is common enough knowledge that PCs will recognize its Chinese logo, but the plot will interfere to have a wounded NPC in distress stumble up to them on horseback. Said NPC is a Shoshone man by the name of Sky Hawk who is not fluent in English or any of the Sioux Nations tribal languages. PCs who can speak with him by a related language family or speak language spell learn his name, that he was the bodyguard of Wovoka, and that his charge is in danger and asks them for help. Sky Hawk will gesture to the trouble spot otherwise. The adventure presumes that the PCs will be eager to help him out, but... Fun Fact: In both real life and the world of Deadlands the Shoshone people were on hostile footing with the Sioux tribes on account that the former group fought alongside the United States and Crow tribe during the Black Hills War of 1876. Although the Shoshone also subscribe to the Ghost Dance Movement, if PCs belong to tribes of the Sioux Nations they may very well be suspicious of a lone Shoshone man who can’t even speak with them. The adventure also really doesn’t want the PCs to investigate the train further or even view it as a faster route to Deadwood on account of their broken stagecoach. You see, there’s no rail depot anywhere close by. It is in fact dropping off a secret detachment of rail warriors delivering weapons shipments to the Ravenites via wagon. Nine guards stand vigilant and will try to kill any witnesses they spot. The adventure for its part acknowledges the possibility of a PC victory, and this will cause Kang to send out hired guns to track down those responsible. Otherwise Sky Hawk accidentally leads the PCs into a filler encounter with devil bat monsters before arriving at Wovoka and the Ravenite’s location. Wovoka and his surviving encourage of Ghost Dancers are trapped on the cliffs of a narrow valley with a river far below, and a much larger force of Ravenites are overlooking the place and preparing bundles of dynamite to literally blow them off the cliff face. Due to darkness they do not have sure shots with their guns (thus the dynamite), but loud fighting with the devil bats may have alerted them to oncoming trouble. Otherwise the PCs can ambush the Ravenites, using cover between trees and rocks or even crawling prone in tall grass. I like this last idea; it’s a good way of introducing a group to the powers of stealth in Savage Worlds* and figure out ways to save Wovoka. *you get hefty attack and damage bonuses After saving the Ghost Dancers, Wovoka calls the PCs around a campfire to introduce himself and dump some mucho exposition on them. He was traveling to the Sioux Nations to spread word of the birth of a white buffalo calf. This auspicious event foretells a prophecy in line with the Ghost Dance, where white settlers are driven off indigenous land as part of the culmination of a bunch of other events. He also talks about how the ones who attacked them belong to the Order of the Raven, and that the monsters the PCs saw earlier are evidence of a phenomenon known as the Reckoning which the Ghost Dance Movement also seeks to end. Wovoka can answer more questions for the PCs, which actually reveal some pretty big plot secrets in the overall setting: he explains a bit of Raven’s origins, how he unleashed slumbering evils, and how the Order of his name seeks to destroy both indigenous ways of life as well as the white man’s society. He cannot teach any PCs the Ghost Dance yet, but offers to do so after they meet again and help him out. This adventure ends with Wovoka saying that if the PCs wish to help him out to head to Deadwood and ask for a man named Bull All the Time, aka Charley Bull to non-Natives. He will then give them a task as a means of ascertaining their dedication to the cause. Otherwise Wovoka can provide them with shelter and lodging in town. By this point the McKeever brothers repaired the stagecoach and are ready to take the PCs the rest of the way to Deadwood. What I’d Change: I have not GMed or played in the Last Sons, so the entries of campaign alterations are in the theoretical rather than actual play. First off, I would have the campaign begin differently depending on several factors. The Ghost Dance was a huge pan-Indian movement which saw representatives from tribes as far south as the American Southwest attending, so PCs who are not members of the Sioux Nations can be diplomatic emissaries arriving from elsewhere in addition to the suggested “A Friend to the Indians” sidebar origins. The starting PCs could just as easily be braves on patrol as stagecoach travelers, or as two groups combined into one due to shared trouble. Furthermore, I would make Sky Hawk a Paiute rather than Shoshone and fluent in one of the PCs’ tongues. I would also not have Wovoka infodump so much; I’d have him tell the PCs about the white calf and the Ghost Dance Movement, but not about the Reckoning, Raven’s motivation, or the Order of the Raven. I’d lead into the Ravenites’ plots slowly, by having Sky Hawk mistake the Ravenites for members of the Crow tribe due to seeing a Raven tattoo he mistook for a Crow symbol. A raven’s tail appears wedge-shaped, a crow’s is shaped like a fan. Later on I’d insert a friendly Sioux NPC who will help the party in Savage Tales around the Nations, only to have him appear in Kang’s illegal mining camp to uphold the “guns for ghost rock” deal. The party has a chance to notice that very same tattoo on him, or survivors of the initial fight with the Ravenites among him. Not only would this feel personal, it would put the Order of the Raven firmly in the bad guy camp for willfully participating in large-scale desecration of the Black Hills. It will also demonstration said Order’s initially understandable motivation. The United States has superior numbers and steampunk technology, and if they’re coming for the ghost rock they figure they may as well use it to fight for their lands.  2. Dark Doings in Dusky Jewel Technically speaking this Plot Point begins as the stagecoach driver approaches Deadwood, but the plot does not kick off until the PCs go searching for Charley Bull. We get some boxed text complete with some period-appropriate expletives (“Well I’ll be a suck-egg mule!”) when Jeb McKeever spots a marching column of blue-suited Union soldiers moving towards Deadwood. The stagecoach starts to rush in hopes to beat them before they could set up a blockade, but PCs who approach one of the smaller bands of soldiers will find them surprisingly non-hostile. They’re headed up by Colonel Brook Manning who originally headed to apprehend Armstrong Custer before his private army could start an international incident. They failed in part because the sight of US troops on Sioux soil was quite rightly interpreted as a violation of the Deadwood Treaty. Manning’s forces suffered losses and now they’ve decided to join Custer’s rag-tag band rather than arrest them. Regardless, the joint Union Army-irregular soldiers number 4,000 and more or less take over the town of Deadwood. They bunker down for the long haul, building fortifications and trenches around the place. Charley Bull is not hard to find: he’s quite fond of European plays and is a frequent attender of the Langrishe Theater. The play in question is King Lear, one of Shakespeare's tragedies. Charley Bull is less than impressed at the yokels’ performance: “Foolish white men, no respect for the source material” he mutters in the Siouan language. Sitting next to Charley will cause him to pull out a knife, thinking that the PCs are there to rough him up for paying the entry fee with a wooden nickel. Mentioning Wovoka will only provide a +2 on the Persuasion rather than an auto-success, and failure can cause him to refuse to speak with the party any further or try to escape. Advancement of the main plot hinging on a single skill check. Never a good sign. As for the job the Ghost Dancers have in mind, Charley talks about how Wovoka’s message hasn’t been met with universal agreement among the Wicasas, and that the “ravens” are roosting in bigger numbers in Deadwood. Four days ago one of his miner contacts went missing after witnessing a secret deal between a group of Sioux and Chinese Iron Dragon employees. Said miner went missing, and he wants the PCs to help track him down. The PCs have three leads to find the miner, whose name is Wallace Blount. The first involves checking in at the Office of Indian Affairs, whose operator is secretly a Ravenite and will try to get more information out of the PCs while passing said information to Sitting Bull. Second is Blount’s favorite saloon, who believes that Blount was kidnapped by spirits of dead miners along with serving as a general information provider for various Savage Tales in the general vicinity of town. Third is following Charley Bull’s map to Blount’s claimed mine, whose trail has decomposing corpses on poles put up as warning by the Sioux. Two of which animate to attack the party. The mine itself bears bloody signs of a fight, but there are no bullet holes or gunpowder residue. The blood was scattered there by a pair of miners who figured to use the ghost miner tales to scare off others and use it for their own purposes. They can be encountered and interrogated and are loathe to put up a fight. They mention that Wallace was poking around for a hidden mining town by the name of Dusky Jewel shortly before he disappeared. Finally there’s a group of Hunkpapa Sioux warriors who will attempt to secretly track the PCs’ movements, and if spotted will be hard to win over their trust even if the party includes a Sioux PC. They know of the existence of Kang’s mining camp, but due to Sitting Bull’s deal with Kang, along with the rail baron’s small army, they can do little but keep tabs on the situation. Dusky Jewel itself is a stealth-based segment of the Plot Point. The large amount of rail warriors combined with the party’s Novice rank means that a straight fight is ill-advised. Kang also has a group of Japanese samurai known as the Seven working for him, who due to some anti-feudal attitudes in their homeland made them seek new forms of employment abroad. Failing a stealth roll will cause a group of them to attack the party. Although they’re Extras, the Seven are quite strong: they have Fighting d12+1 which is a Legendary level of skill, their Parry is 10 which will be very hard to hit in melee, and their Toughness is 10 which is high as well. They deal 2d10 damage with their katanas*, can attack everyone within melee range with the Improved Sweep Edge, and they each have a steam velocipede vehicle to ride around in! *for comparison, the average revolver deals 2d6, a shotgun close-range 3d6, and most rifles and carbines 2d8. Fortunately Dusky Jewel is rather large and has lots of mining tunnels to evade patrols, and Wallace Blount’s location is plain as day: hanging from the gallows in front of the general store. Although the man is dead, he has an obvious journal poking out of one of his shirt pockets which will give the PCs the skinny of his most recent investigations. It discusses how Blount saw the Sioux and Chinese deal go down at night at the foot of Devil’s Tower, along with its estimated location near the particular mountain trail in question. The adventures notes that it is possible for lucky PCs to sneak in and out without raising an alarm, but for those who need to make a hasty escape a Smarts rolls will reveal a nearby steam-powered mining cart which can also be learned about from the Hunkpapa warriors. There’s discussion for how to handle a mine cart pursuit, using the Chase rules from Savage Worlds with rail warriors in their own steam carts and velocipede-riding samurai hot on their trail! Once the PCs return to Charley Bull, he’ll be saddened about Blount’s death but also surprised about Duskey Jewel’s existence. He’ll encourage the PCs to check out the meeting place at Devil’s Tower to find out more information. What I’d Change: First off I’d remove the Persuasion check necessary for earning Charley Bull’s trust if the PCs mention Wovoka’s name. Additionally, there’s a rather ingenious way to bypass the Dusky Jewel encounter: I recall reading on one group’s online campaign journal that the party Shaman shapeshifted into a hawk who scanned the mining camp from overhead. Upon spotting Blount’s journal, he dived for it and flew off with the thing in his clutches. I’d suggest having Blount’s corpse in a coffin or harder-to-reach place, or maybe have the journal in one of the rail warrior’s office quarters but grant the PCs opportunity to overhear conversation about its location. Additionally, the arrival of Custer’s joint army in Deadwood feels off. It seems strange that the PCs will be able to come and go as they please given that the adventure does not mention any complications or difficulty in entering and leaving the town. McKeever’s mad rush seems to suggest that a blockade would happen, although it’s possible in-character for an NPC to be wrong, so... Personally speaking I’d have it so that the army shows up sometime after the PCs escape Dusky Jewel and reunite with Charley Bull, ideally after they had several opportunities to pursue some local Savage Tales. In combination with my idea of the Ravenite-traitor present this will show the PCs that there’s a conspiracy going on to plunge the Sioux Nations into war. Once the Union and irregular soldiers start marching on Deadwood, it’s not out of the question for someone to assume that the weapons shipments in exchange for desecrating the Black Hills cannot be a coincidence. There’s also the fact that if the PCs are committed to the cause of Native autonomy like the adventure suggests, there’s a very real chance that the party will prioritize Custer’s invasion over some shifty trade deals and look for ways to stymie and sabotage the army. Disappointingly the adventure provides no room for this, either in the Plot Point or in Savage Tales.  3. In the Fortress o’ Fright Fun Fact: This entire Plot Point is a callback to Fortress o’ Fear, the third adventure of the Devil’s Tower trilogy of Deadlands Classic. Said adventure was notable for being the book to introduce readers to the Reckoners as the masterminds behind all the supernatural badness, as well as the first in-game appearance of Stone. In that adventure the PCs dungeon-delved in the eponymous monument to prevent Stone from using a magical gem to create a Deadland and thus help jumpstart the Reckoners’ return. Going by page-length this is by far the longest Plot Point of the Last Sons. Most of them run 5 pages on average, but this one’s a whopping 24! The major reason for this is that this is a multi-level open-ended dungeon crawl. Devil’s Tower is a rather static location and not time-sensitive, and the adventure recommends that at least one in-game month passes while the PCs do Savage Tales around Deadwood and reach at least Seasoned rank. Devil’s Tower is inhabited by an alien race whose names are unknown to humanity but are a Crossbred species of humans and aliens whose otherworldly masters arrived to colonize Earth thousands of years ago. The overlords departed, leaving the Crossbreeds behind who were overthrown by human uprisings. The colony in Devil’s Tower is one of their few remaining enclaves. For a while the Crossbreeds managed to maintain a high standard of living via use of a portal to the Hunting Grounds powering their technological devices, and their deal with Kang kept their food supply intact. But 4 years ago things changed for the worse when a futuristic version of Stone came through the portal and cleaved a path of destruction through their colony. He returned with the Heart of Darkness with a group of heroes on his tale, which in turn caused even more devastation as the generator was destroyed. The Crossbreeds fell into infighting among their number and now their civilization is a primitive remnant amid a war-torn backdrop. When investigating the location in Blount’s journal, one of the PCs will experience a vision from Jordrava talking of how they need to free him from the “mirror realm.” Further visions will follow, providing clues for them to find ways into the Devil’s Tower and maybe even helpful warnings if they’re at risk of wandering into a deadly area so as to build trust. There are three main ways into the Devil’s Tower: through an underground lake with air pockets and vicious genetically-modified barracudas; the “front gate” guarded by a Prairie Dog Town full of Crossbreed-created flesh-eating prairie dogs* and 8 of Kang’s hired guns and martial artists; and finally the top which can be climbed with rope and lots of endurance and patience or landed on by autogyro.** The eyrie is home to a dozen devil bats, and contains a shaft going into the Devil’s Tower itself home to manta ray-bat creatures. These last monsters were bred as a swarm of aerial guards for the Crossbreeds. *Iron Dragon guards use a steam wagon going at full speed to cross this section of land **which can be hired in Deadwood for $200 The portal to the Hunting Grounds is the goal of this Plot Point, where the PCs can enter the spirit world and find Jordrava. As it is located in the Crossbreed’s laboratory which is nearer the top of Devil’s Tower, the higher entrances may result in a faster dungeon delve. The river enters into the underground lake, Kang’s guard entrance the Middle Caverns, and the Eyrie leads down into the Garden Level. For the sake of brevity I’m only going to cover each level in short detail. The Garden Level on down to the Training Grounds are the Crossbreed’s living quarters connected by ramps of stone. Lack of acoustics means that loud noises do not carry between levels well, so barring fleeing Crossbreeds the PCs do not have to worry about alerting the entire complex if a fight breaks out. The rooms contain pieces of malfunctioning technology, from water pumps which now contain stagnant liquid to light sconces which are burnt out. The cavern levels below are natural passages full of all manner of savage, animalistic monsters. Garden Level: This is a single large chamber strewn with plant life of both alien and terrestrial flora, although the latter are super-sized crops such as apple trees and corn stalks. The specially bred wasps and worms will attack intruders in swarms. Home o’ the Folk: The living quarters of the civilian Crossbreeds, about 150 of their kind live here due to infighting and a low birthrate. They live in pitch darkness and most are not very tough to fight in combat. The one unique enemy here is an imprisoned hovering metallic orb which will try to “clean” all organic life with burning cones of energy beams. The Barracks: The soldier caste of Crossbreeds live here in tiny Spartan chambers. Their numbers are 30 but they’re much tougher physically than the ones above. A few of their rooms contain functioning alien technology, randomly determined and detailed at the end of this adventure section. The Laboratories: The only inhabitants of this level are an elderly miner by the name of Mortimer Johns who is mortally wounded from vivisection, and a Crossbreed scientist known as General Nor who has welded armor plates, additional arms, steam-powered mechanical legs, and networks of rubber tubes entering and exiting his flesh. Nor is the boss battle of the Devil’s Tower, as he has a deadly raygun along with armor providing him a total 13 Toughness. He also has Improved Frenzy to make two Fighting attacks per round in case he’s forced into melee, and he’s not too shabby with 1d10+1d8 claw damage. The adventure ends in a final scene when the PCs approach the shattered power generator in the portal room. Training Grounds: This maze-like level is full of pit traps, tripwires connected to explosive charges, pendulum blades, and crushing wall traps along with 10 mutant Crossbreed soldiers who know the level like the back of their hand along with all of the unpsrung trap locations. There’s a locked metal gate which blocks access to the Caverns below. Upper Caverns: Packs of dog-like scaly creatures known as stingers live here. Once a Crossbreed’s best friend, they now view anyone else as an enemy and attack with sharp teeth and paralytic stinging tails. Middle Caverns: The sole living creature here is referred to as the Darkblob by Kang’s soldiers for its tar-like appearance. It is in fact a sapient colony of slime mold which can communicate in a psychic hivemind. The darkblob is outright immune to most attacks save fire, electricity, explosives, and magic. Even then it can regenerate from even a single cell over time which renders it effectively immortal. It can also split itself into up to 3 smaller forms. Lower Caverns: This level is home to a giant rattler whose corpse constitutes a fair bit of this level’s western portion. Around 100 of its still-living spawn are scattered throughout the level, but will only attack in groups of up to 2 rattler young’uns per PC. Underground Lake: A water pump used to provide the Crossbreed with a steady stream of clean water, but now it is broken down. It can be repaired, which the Crossbreeds will be grateful for and try to find the responsible party.* There is an unconnected section of sewage home to a leviathan living within the sludge, which will attack anyone who goes to close to the muck. *the adventure does not expand or discuss what happens if the PCs manage to open communications and earn the Crossbreed’s trust. At the Portal: The room is home to what appears to be a tear in reality, and Jordrava will show the whole party a vision of himself walking through it before vanishing. In the center of the room’s shattered machine is the corpse of a Pony Express rider with his head blown to pieces. The rider’s corpse is wearing Harrowed Boots and has $250 worth of Confederate coins in his satchel. The last danger in this Plot Point is a masau’u Kachina, an evil spirit which will try to possess the body of one of the PCs. It does this in hopes of following the party into the Hunting Grounds and betray them later if possible (or until its 1d6 hour duration possession runs out). The book advises taking a possessed PC’s player aside for a moment to explain what happens, but oddly expects them to control the possessed PC when the time comes to turn on the rest of the party. This seems like it can end poorly for most groups. I’d suggest the GM takes control instead at the moment of betrayal. We also have a full page worth of seven Crossbreed technological devices. Three of them have combat uses, such as a concealable tunic of armor, a raygun which can deal a varying level of damage based on charges expended, and a stunstick which can cause a target to be Shaken on a failed Vigor roll with penalty based on charges expended. I found the stunstick boring on account that you can already cause the Shaken condition by default by hitting an enemy’s Toughness with damage from just about any source. The other four are utility devices: a medikit which can heal wounds with a d10 healing die and a Wild Die; a handtorch which can generate 1d6 years’ worth of light but is fragile and can shatter if dropped; a powercell which can provide chargers for other gadgets listed here; and finally a translator necklace which when worn around the neck can generate a canned translation of the user’s native language to those in the vicinity. General Nor and Kang’s soldiers guarding the entrance have copies of the last device on their person, which can allow for communication with the Crossbreeds. What I’d Change: I’d first change the rationale for why the PCs are heading to Devil’s Tower. The existence of Dusky Jewel will soon be found out, and when push comes to shove the Sioux Nations will accept the aid of Kang’s forces in Plot Point 8 to fight the invading US thanks to the new Garfield Administration. I’d make it so that a Ghost Dance member sometime after Deadwood’s occupation approaches the party, and have Jordrava appear in visions before Plot Point 3 here and there.* The Ghost Dance member would speak of how one of their number knows of a way to repel the invading forces, but said person is within the world of spirits. Jordrava’s description would match his account, and thus the PCs would have a strong incentive to check out Devil’s Tower. I’d also have it so that a scouting legion of Custer’s forces are camping near the Tower based on word of the Indians gaining supplies from outside aid, who may or may not have dealt with Kang’s forces at the entrance already. *the book mentions doing this already, but only at one point during Plot Point 1 when the PCs are fighting the Ravenites, and only see his face and nothing else. As for the Devil’s Tower interior, it all depends on the makeup of my potential party. This Plot Point can become combat-heavy, and the number of Crossbreed fought can vary wildly due to encounter die rolls. I would change the Kachina encounter to either not happen, have them attack the party immediately upon possession, or provide some “out” for other party members to figure out the PCs’ status.  4. Vision Quest This Plot Point immediately kicks off at the last one’s end. The boxed text opens up with the PCs adjusting to being in a cool, dim place with an otherworldly sensation of “being aware of your own soul.” Beyond them stretches the massive tree as described in the Marshal’s Section for the Hunting Grounds. They do not have much time before a swarm of manitous disguised as leaves attack, proclaiming that the “medicine man is ours!” The Hunting Grounds are separated by a series of suggested scenes supplemented by the Spirit Encounters table from the Marshal’s Section. There’s encouragement to play upon the PCs’ Worst Nightmares and elements from their past in the form of visions and eerily familiar spirits. The scenes are rather thematic, from a bound procession of ancestor spirit slaves captured by manitous taking them to the Deadlands, a repeating loop of the Battle of the Cauldron where spirits of rail warriors fight each other with the PCs in the crossfire, or a stand of massive pine trees forming a pseudo-roof tended by Little People which serves as a peaceful resting place. There are only two fixed, mandatory encounters, and the first one is a bridge made of vines spanning a canyon. The canyon stretches out to infinity on the wide ends and a yawning black void reaches across the bottom. The bridge is a spirit named Wakanda, and when the PCs step on it will scold them for their rudeness. He will forgive them if they can entertain him, otherwise he will refuse to let the party cross. The entertainment necessary is open-ended and to be decided on by the players with an appropriate roll at a -2 penalty; Wakanda has high standards. Failure causes him to jeer the performer, but the PCs can try an infinite number of times unless they get a snake eyes, which means they will not be allowed to cross. Crossing by force will cause the spirit to do his best in throwing them into the darkness below, which will cause the PC and their soul to fall into the Deadlands and never be seen again...unless the GM’s feeling merciful and lets the entire party go there to rescue them. The adventure notes that Wakanda means “possesses magical powers” in Sioux. I tried to ascertain the veracity of this, and found that there is a similarly-spelled name called “Waconda” by the Kaw tribe of modern-day Kansas and Oklahoma. It means “Great Spirit” in their language. The second mandatory encounter is beyond the chasm within a barren rocky land full of tangled vines and thorns. It leads to a 50 foot tall hill resembling a tortured man’s face, and Jordrava is at the top suspended on a huge dead oak tree. Said “oak tree” is actually a greater manitou by the name of Hex. It is accompanied by a lesser manitou swarm and will attack the PCs on sight. Statwise the lesser manitous are more a minor foe or nuisance who deal automatic damage within their sphere of influence, while greater manitous are big bruisers with 14 Toughness whose claws can ignore all forms of armor. Along with a 1d12 Strength and 2d6 claw attacks, Hex can hit pretty hard. Jordrava is heavily wounded, but once tended to he will be thankful to his rescuers. Introducing himself, he will infodump on the party about Raven being responsible for the widespread blight of evil spirits, and that their actions so far have made them enemies of him and his Order whether they like it or not. He will ask the party if they wish to run or to fight. Jordrava will let the party leave back to the mortal world and even talk with them further, but he’ll be visibly disappointed if the choose “run.” He can further tell the party of an abridged version of how he and the other Old Ones sealed the supernatural powers of the world to prevent a great evil from gaining sway. He will also tell them of their battle against the Last Sons, his recent awakening, and eventual capture at the hands of the manitou Hex. He also goes into more detail on the prophecy of the white calf, how it heralds the exile of white settlers, reclaiming of ancestral lands, along with an era of peace and prosperity. He will also explain how Wodziwob, Wovoka’s father, saw a dark future which is basically the Deadlands Hell on Earth setting and how Raven will be responsible in bringing it about. Finally, Jordrava says that he cannot aid the PCs directly as his famous face will cause the Ravenites to descend on him and cause trouble for everyone involved. But he mentions how two tools of his are somewhere back in the mortal realm: a medicine rock in the shape of a buffalo, and a supernaturally-sharp tomahawk. He knows that the rock was put in his peoples’ burial ground in what is now “a town the white man call Dodge,” but he does not know of the tomahawk’s location. He trusts the PCs will be able to find the second one if they managed to find him in the Hunting Grounds. He’ll then create a portal back to the physical world, which can drop the PCs off at any of the locations in this book the GM desires. The writers suggest it being far enough away from Dodge City to allow the PCs an eventful journey and opportunity to complete some Savage Tales. What I’d Change: Not much honestly. The infinite-rolling save snake eyes is almost guaranteed to let the PCs pass and seems more of a pure role-play thing, which I like. Thoughts So Far: The adventure’s fine so far. It’s not as railroady as the Flood’s first plot points, but it does have the same sins of a big event happening while the PCs are off doing other things. It also has the possibility of misdirecting the party to the “wrong enemy” in the process: Custer’s forces won’t be dealt with until much later at Plot Point 8, and even then it’ll be an offscreen affair. The Ghost Dancers are this campaign’s Explorer’s Society equivalent, although they’re weaker in the sense that the PCs don’t have opportunities to take Savage Tales on their behalf or a Tombstone Epitaph equivalent of an “adventuring list.” Despite being a prominent pan-Indian movement they feel much more in the background. Join us next time as we cover the second half of the Last Sons, starting in Bleeding Kansas and ending up once again in the Hunting Grounds for one final showdown!
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Jan 30, 2019 10:26
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PurpleXVI posted:Wait so, Deadlands has loving aliens? This seems like a strange thing to just breeze over in a side quest rather than something that's a major plot point. Evil Mastermind posted:The third game of the original line (Lost Colony) took place on an alien planet, complete with a native species that were pretty much just Native Americans In Space. Yes. There are also other "supernatural" life forms not created by the Reckoners. The rattlers for example, are a very primordial life form on Earth which recently awakened. Although not called out by name in the Last Sons, the "overlord" aliens are revealed to be the S'suth, flying saucers and all. One of the Reloaded adventures, The Land Beyond the Busted Doorframe, involves meeting them in a crashed ship in the Hunting Grounds. I do not think that they appear in Hell on Earth or Lost Colony, as I'm not as familiar with those setting lines. Libertad! fucked around with this message at 05:23 on Jan 31, 2019 |
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Jan 31, 2019 01:59
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