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spider bethlehem
Oct 5, 2007
Makin with the stabbins
I like the Kintypes and Cultures. They give more shape and flavor to the world and are clearly intended to support the tone that the game wants to strike.

And different playbooks having different XP triggers is just how FitD games work. You don't have a lot of the normal trappings of an RPG character, and Icon doesn't even have official Traumas and Equipment Load systems, so this is a way to encourage players to play their characters. It's something I like about the system in general, although Icon casts too wide a net with theirs.

One assumption the game lays out that I don't like: you're supposed to be running a very strongly attritional game - much like Lancer that way - but I have fairly short sessions once a week, so I prefer to do fewer encounters and press harder. Stress tap-out and recharge hasn't been a major factor for us, but I can see it being one, and it's so much easier for The Mighty that it's noticeable.

By popular demand posted:

That sweet-rear end pastoral setting gave me an idea to ask about :
Is there a Mecha+D&D amalgamation system in existence? It honestly makes more sense for a mecha-warrior to fight a dragon while a mecha-rogue sneaks into position for a killing shot and a mecha-wizard in support role than having humans with the same amount of 'health' as the dragon



Yeah, I think I've seen these books at the used book store. It's by the Dungeon Crawl Classics guys, and it looks... extremely like a 3.x product.

That said, I've seen people run exactly idea that in rethemed Lancer.

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Nessus
Dec 22, 2003

After a Speaker vote, you may be entitled to a valuable coupon or voucher!



Loxbourne posted:

That bit about the enhanced guard dogs who are exterminated if their master dies makes me imagine a bold party of PCs rallying all the abandoned Rothounds who fled. Earning their trust and leading them out of the wilderness to overrun a secure facility and forge a new nation.
Pugmire: Origins

Asterite34
May 19, 2009



By popular demand posted:

That sweet-rear end pastoral setting gave me an idea to ask about :
Is there a Mecha+D&D amalgamation system in existence? It honestly makes more sense for a mecha-warrior to fight a dragon while a mecha-rogue sneaks into position for a killing shot and a mecha-wizard in support role than having humans with the same amount of 'health' as the dragon

The Greasemonkey's Handbook on DMs Guild might be worth looking into

PoontifexMacksimus
Feb 14, 2012

spider bethlehem posted:

I like the Kintypes and Cultures. They give more shape and flavor to the world and are clearly intended to support the tone that the game wants to strike.

Cultures feels marginally more valid as there could be some mechanical balancing requirement (though my preference is always for Warhammer style nationality-agnostic social occupations) but telling players to make an aesthetic choice from only 4 feels needlessly reductive, and personally I don't find the choices themselves all that evocative of anything unique in terms of fantasy. Just fill an entire page of every possible recombination of physical features and tell players to pick whatever or make up their own. We all know Abaddon can draw a mean crowd scene...

Obviously, just my hasty opinion. But it does feel like a vestigal "Fantasy RPG" inclusion

PoontifexMacksimus fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Nov 29, 2021

Cythereal
Nov 8, 2009

I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

Nice to see the Decanter of Endless Water making the jump to Sigmar.

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

Cythereal posted:

Nice to see the Decanter of Endless Water making the jump to Sigmar.

And being treated as probably one of the most valuable items in the world like it is.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Hasn't Dragonmech been covered in this thread already? I felt sure that it had.

Edit:
https://writeups.letsyouandhimfight.com/mors-rattus/dragonmech/
https://writeups.letsyouandhimfight.com/mors-rattus/dragonmech-steam-warriors/

The Lone Badger fucked around with this message at 09:09 on Nov 30, 2021

Winklebottom
Dec 19, 2007

Mors Rattus posted:



The Mane is huge and white as snow […]

hmm

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
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#1 Builder
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Artists, man.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

It's hasn't been washed for 300 years.

Covermeinsunshine
Sep 15, 2021

The Lone Badger posted:

It's hasn't been washed for 300 years.

Ach a nod to classic old world then.

Glagha
Oct 13, 2008

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAaaAAAaaAAaAA
AAAAAAAaAAAAAaaAAA
AAAA
AaAAaaA
AAaaAAAAaaaAAAAAAA
AaaAaaAAAaaaaaAA

PoontifexMacksimus posted:

Cultures feels marginally more valid as there could be some mechanical balancing requirement (though my preference is always for Warhammer style nationality-agnostic social occupations) but telling players to make an aesthetic choice from only 4 feels needlessly reductive, and personally I don't find the choices themselves all that evocative of anything unique in terms of fantasy. Just fill an entire page of every possible recombination of physical features and tell players to pick whatever or make up their own. We all know Abaddon can draw a mean crowd scene...

Obviously, just my hasty opinion. But it does feel like a vestigal "Fantasy RPG" inclusion

I don't agree with this at all because Icon has a setting, and setting up what kind of people exist in this world is important. It's also important to explain what the different kin are like so players can make a conscious choice of playing with, or against type. It's really good set dressing to tell whoever is reading the book that we don't have orcs or gnomes, but we do have frog people.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Soulbound: Artefacts of Power
Goddess Bits



The Falsestone Robe is an extremely potent tool of Morathi. In the earliest days of the Age of Myth, she desired to hide her cursed true form. It is said that to hide herself from even gods, she wove an entire robe out of falsestone with her magic. Even once she learned to disguise her nature, she kept the robe, and some Khainites even claim she has used it to spy on the other gods. She sometimes gifted the robe to her greatest servants, allowing them to move unseen as they hunted down and assassinated Chaos leaders. However, she soon realized they were too tempted by the power of perfect invisibility, using it to take out their rivals as well. Thus, Morathi altered the Falsestone Robe, ensuring that she could always see through the eyes of its wearer and could, if she chose, take control of them. With the Age of Sigmar, she placed the robe on display in Hag Narr, occasionally letting her spies use it to watch over her nominal allies. (She has always, however, avoided its use around Teclis and his servants, as she is unsure it would fool him.) She has even allowed word of its massive power out into the world now, though she has not revealed that she can share senses with or control the wearer.

The Falsestone Robe appears as whatever clothing someone wants, as long as it has a hood. When worn and the hood raised, the wearer becomes perfectly and completely impossible to perceive by any mundane means. They cannot be seen, heard, or smelled, they automatically pass any Stealth rolls, and people ignore their touch, though they will notice any effects of that touch. Only those with Witch-Sight can see the wearer, and even they get a large penalty to do so. The robe can also be used to alter appearance instead of concealing it, altering even coice and smell, though you need a Guile roll to mimic a specific person. In combat, the Robe gives a massive boost to Defence and a small boost to Melee, and further prevents any enemy from targeting you unless they suspect you're present in the first place.

Of course, there's the drawback. Wearing the Falsestone Robe links you to Morathi immediately. She can hear and see everything you can while you wear it. Further, she can attempt to control your body while you wear it. She prefers to use this ability subtly, such as making the wearer drop their weapon at the wrong moment or shifting their grip to make a nonlethal blow kill. In extreme circumstances, however, Morathi can take over for extended periods, forcing a very difficult Determination roll to taky any action she does not approve of.

The plot is Thieves in the Temple. It's intended to be used when the party has need of the Falsestone Robe's power, likely because they need to steal something very hard to steal or otherwise need a way to avoid the vision of even gods. They will also need to know someone or something Morathi is interested in. If both are true, the plot is usable - the party learns that the Falsestone Robe exists, a cloak of perfect and total invisibility that might accomplish their needs. However, there's only one person willing to talk to them about it: Kalebrax Slaughterborn, a rebel Hag Queen living in an Ulguan island castle. She refuses to help unless she is convinced the party is no friend to Morathi...but what she doesn't realize is that Morathi allowed her to know about the Falsestone Robe's location in the tunnels under Hag Narr specifically so she could tell people about it.

The secret route to Hag Narr is a dangerous one, passing through misty mountains full of fog and monsters, with the high passes guarded by Khinerai flocks and disguised bands of Melusai hunting for Morathi's foes and traitors to her cause. The first sign of approaching Hag Narr itself is the scent of burning flesh, then the light of the braziers and the red-black, smokey mist that endlessly swirls around it. The place is a city with normal residents, but everyone knows that it is death to cross the Daughters of Khaine there. Getting into the secret passages means getting access to them through the gladiatorial pens. A group of three Witch Aelf gladiators per PC is guarding them, and once they're bypassed or taken out, it's still a pretty hard Awareness roll to find the entrance. If the party fails to find it quickly, Khinerai will arrive to fight them some more, drawn by the noise.

The tunnels lead to a black granite vault. There are no lights in the room, and nothing present but an obsidian bowl filled with water. No robe to be found. The entrance the party uses is through a grate in the floor intended for sacrificial blood. The robe can only be seen by its reflection in the obsidian bowl, but once someone touches it, it takes on a shape based on their desires and is now visible. The party can easily get out with it - but that's exactly what Morathi is counting on, and she's going to use her control at the worst possible time in whatever the party needs the thing for.

No, there isn't more. That is indeed where the adventure plan stops. This really is just intended to insert the Robe into something you've already got planned. I'm not a huge fan, but mostly because I don't like the Morathi Seizes Control thing.



The Scale of Vulcatrix dates back to Grimnir's great battle against the Mother of Salamanders. No one knows where the fight took place, and very little remains of it, given the massive explosion that ended it. The Fyreslayers, however, say their ancestors went to the battle site to find out what had become of their god when it did end. Nothing was left of him, for his soul had shattered, but Vulcatrix's corpse did remain. The first Fyreslayers sought vengeance by carving it up, turning her scales into shields and her claws into spears. They used these tools to fight Vulcatrix's children, destroying the firedrakes of the mountains. Fyreslayer legend claims that before Chaos came, a band of Fyreslayers that wielded these ancient weapons and shields existed, but they were all slain by the forces of Chaos.

Only a single shield is known to have survived the Age of Chaos, and unfortunately, it is not in Fyreslayer possession. Rather, it is currently held by the Wurrgog Prophet Gritt Broketooth, chief of the nomadic Bonesplitter clan called the Thousand Fangz. The Scale is an artefact of great power for orruks as well as Fyreslayers, for it is charged with Vulcatrix's endless rage. The Fangs have long used it to channel that rage, making them a feared force in Ghur. The Fyreslayers would very much like to recover the scale, though - it is a very holy thing to them, representing their god and the history of the many duardin who wielded it before the Age of Chaos.

The bearer of the Scale of Vulcatrix must be able to handle great heat, for their veins burn with liquid fire and a layer of lava washes over their skin. It's practically unbearable for any non-Fyreslayer; anyone but one of the fiery duardin must make a Fortitude roll each round to avoid dropping the Scale. While wielding the shield, you get a large bonus to Defence, you are immune to all fire and heat-based damage, magical or otherwise, and whenever you take damage, all other creatures in your Zone take 3 damage as your skin cracks and releases a spew of lava. Further, as an Action, you can spew a jet of magma at a Zone within Medium range, forcing all foes in that Zone to make a Reflexes roll or take 5 damage and have their Armor reduced by 1. While an orruk still needs to make the Fortitude roll to hold the shield each round, they get a special benefit - on top of all the normal bonuses, they inspire all nearby orruks, who quickly form a Waaaagh! centered on them. All orruks in the Waaagh! get +1 Mettle and +1 damage on all attacks as their weapons glow with heat.

Our adventure seed is One Scale, A Thousand Fangs. The party learns that the Thousand Fangz are a major threat to the Ghurish Free City of Izalend. They live on a huge mesa that travels across the landscape, crushing anything in its path. The mesa is approaching Izalend, and the orruks are preparing to attack the city. Unfortunately, the army sent to stop them failed. Most of them died when the mesa destroyed the Cliffs of Dawn, and few of the soldiers survived. Tracking them down to learn more about the Fangz is going to mean passing through a wilderness full of dangerous, violent orruks. A Survival roll to track the survivors will lead the group to Mykl Gorax, a wounded pistolier, but each failure means running into orruks hunting for him. In the fighting, Mykl saw Gritt Broketooth, and he's happy to tell the party about the giant firebreathing orruk and his giant shield. A moderately difficult Lore roll will reveal that the shield might be the lost Scale.

Now, the party has to get to the Fangz. They call their traveling mesa Fangtown, and it moves around 10 miles per hour, though it makes frequent stops for its orruks to get off and go hunting or raiding. The orruks are currently after a Maw-Krusha that Britt wants the bones of. The party is likely to run into a Thousand Scalez hunting party - a pair of Ardboys, 20 Grots and Flint, a Savage Big Boss leading them all in pursuit of the Maw-Krusha, which will show up at a dramatically appropriate moment mid-fight. It'll fight everyone and cause chaos for a while before it runs off. If given the chance to show off and boast, Flint will yell about how his clan is going to hunt a world spirit as soon as they've got enough boyz, and he's sure they'll manage it, because the Wurrgog's got a godbeast bit that makes him even stronger.

The party should have no trouble following Flint's trail back to Fangtown. Just one problem: Fangtown is more than a mile long, half a mile wide, and has several thousand orruks living on it. Gritt lives in a cave on top of what's probably the front of the living mesa. Climbing up isn't too hard an Athletics roll if the mesa is stationary, but it's rather harder while it's moving, and either way you'll need to sneak past the orruks guarding it or fight your way in. Once the party makes it to Gritt's cave, they find the Wurrgog Prophet has managed to trap the Maw-Krusha since they last saw the beast. He and 2 Ardboyz per PC are taunting it with spears. The party can free the monster by dealing 10 Damage total to the chains holding it. If the orruks are alerted to their presence, however, 5 Ardboys will arrive every other round. And of course, through all this Gritt has the Scale of Vulcatrix and is assumed to keep making his rolls to hold it, so all of the orruks are buffed.

If Gritt dies, Fangtown starts rampaging, upset that its master has been slain. The entire mesa becomes a Major Hazard, and the orruks will rush to flee the place and get somewhere safer. The party should probably do the same, ideally with the Scale. Once word gets out that they have it, orruks from all over will come hunting them to reclaim it, and Fyreslayers from all over will also be quite interested in getting hold of it. Good luck with that!

Next time: Faecris's Knife and the Black Choppa

spider bethlehem
Oct 5, 2007
Makin with the stabbins

Glagha posted:

I don't agree with this at all because Icon has a setting, and setting up what kind of people exist in this world is important. It's also important to explain what the different kin are like so players can make a conscious choice of playing with, or against type. It's really good set dressing to tell whoever is reading the book that we don't have orcs or gnomes, but we do have frog people.

I also should point out that while there are four choices, the choices are:

Thrynn: Any regular humans/demihuman
Trogg: Any big demihuman
Beastfolk: animal people of any kind (implicitly, the game does list common kinds, but at no point is there a restriction saying AND NO FUCKIN PANGOLINS)
Xixo: bug/crustacean/spider people of any kind

So if you want to be an orc, Trogg will put the right image in someone's mind, if you want to be a gnome you're probably a short variety of Thrynn, but in any case the Kintypes are both significantly broader than "elf with brown hair" "elf with blonde hair" and "bad elf" while not handing down :biotruths: about the fantasy world and letting you be anyone who does anything. This serves the ambition of the game. It could be removed and replaced with just "be whatever you want, it's not mechanically important" but that usually leads to people defaulting to a Lord of the Rings character, these Kintypes are intended to open your eyes up to how you can be a member of a sweet KSBD crowd shot.

With that said I am surprised there are no angels or automata, knowing the house style.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso
Having elves, dwarves, and the whole kit-and-kaboodle with different names is terrible, but dividing them into broad groups seems like a pretty good idea.

Fivemarks
Feb 21, 2015

spider bethlehem posted:

With that said I am surprised there are no angels or automata, knowing the house style.

A Relict Kintype is absolutely coming, in case you want to be a magically animated suit of armor.

SkyeAuroline
Nov 12, 2020

Fivemarks posted:

A Relict Kintype is absolutely coming, in case you want to be a magically animated suit of armor.

Yup, we playtested with it. Made for some very interesting times when we ran into another group while raiding a Relict "tomb" and they mistook our Relict for one of the hostile ones.

spider bethlehem
Oct 5, 2007
Makin with the stabbins

SkyeAuroline posted:

Yup, we playtested with it. Made for some very interesting times when we ran into another group while raiding a Relict "tomb" and they mistook our Relict for one of the hostile ones.

Interesting. Can you share? I had heard something about The Severed but I haven't found a doc for them.

Doctor Zaius
Jul 30, 2010

I say.
I'm said relict player, and really since kintypes are entirely cosmetic, you can kinda just go 'yo I'm one of these' without the rules really getting in the way of that, which is nice. We're still waiting on a more thorough lore explanation for what Severed Relict's deals are so I was really just winging it characterization wise.

sasha_d3ath
Jun 3, 2016

Ban-thing the man-things.
Eugghghhh, I am really not excited for the Faecris' Knife update. I'll let it speak for itself but imo it's...problematic, at best.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power
Wait, He What



Faecris's Knife is...well, it's a weird one. At the start of the Age of Sigmar, many helped fight against Chaos, and one in particular was a Lumineth mage named Faecris, who heroically defended the city of Syar against a Slaaneshi horde. While she was fighting, her lover, Ethina, left the city on a mission that took her to Azyrheim. They swore they'd be reunited later. As the fighting reached its peak in the Battle of Ar-Ennascath, massive numbers of daemons appeared. Faecris used all of her magical skill to create a weapon, a knife that could cut apart any magic. The knife turned the tide, but Faecris wielded it personally, and while the battle was won, she was taken captive by the retreating Slaaneshi forces and assumed dead.

When Ethina learned that her lover was probably dead, she went into mourning and decided to give up the rest of her life to aid the world. She became Soulbound, hoping that it'd allow her to bring peace to others even if she had none herself. Years later, her Binding would go on to rescue Faecris, who had actually been held captive by the sorcerer Hepsellion, not sacrificed. They were overjoyed to be brought together again, but it soon became clear that they could not reunite perfectly while Ethina's soul was tied to the Binding. Faecris pulled out her knife and cut through the Binding itself, severing the ties that held them together. This should have been impossible, and the rest of the Binding fled, their souls wounded by the severing. Sigmar himself felt the shattering of the Binding, and he realized the power of the knife. One day later, he appeared to the pair and killed both of them personally, then ordered the rest of the Binding to bury them and hide the knife forever.

I don't really like this backstory! It is deeply out of character for Sigmar as portrayed through AoS materials and especially Soulbound materials. The straight up killing of Faecris and Ethina doesn't make a ton of sense...but, well, we'll get a bit more in the adventure. Mechanically, the Knife is a simple nullstone weapon, no more than a hand's width across, but perfectly balanced and very sharp. As a weapon, it's a nullstone dagger with Rend and can use its Rend on magical armor. However, unlike most nullstone w eapons, the Knife is able to use its Unbind on miracles, too. It can also Unbind ongoing spells or miracles with a Channelling roll, and it gives a massive bonus to unbind rolls using it. If you want to use it to break a Binding, the roll is extremely difficult, and harder the more people are in the Binding. If you pull it off, everyone in the Binding permanently loses 1 Soul, and if that drops them to 0, they die immediately.

The adventure seed is Fractured Memories. Baradine is a Stormcast Knight-Questor who was working with Ethina's Binding. While he was a close friend to her, he obeyed Sigmar's orders and helped hide the bodies and knife. He has since been Reforged many times and has suppressed all memory of that day. While in Hysh, Baradine runs across a familiar mountain and is overcome by incoherent grief and memories he doesn't really understand. He insists "it must be kept safe," but is unclear on what. His friend, Lord-Celestant Armanus Clearstrike, asks the PCs to help investigate what the hell Baradine is talking about.

Getting anything out of Baradine takes a lot of talking and a Guile roll, as he's been very traumatized. He does talk about how a long time ago, he worked with a noble Binding. However, the Binding was severed by a magic blade, and the survivors fled. He says that "Sigmar killed them, but I do not understand why, he had no need to fear them." He also says that Sigmar would not touch the blade, and that they buried the pair and hid the blade behind a "white curtain." The mountain that triggered his breakdown is called Mount Ethina, though no one alive remembers why. Climbing it is hard, especially as it's full of wild griffons that are quite territorial. If the party heads up the mountain, they will find a double grave there, carved with the names Faecris and Ethina. A Lore roll will reveal that Faecris was a hero who helped defend Syar from Chaos. Exhuming the graves will reveal a pair of skeletons holding hands, typically an arrangement used for married aelven couples. Both show clear signs of death by lightning.

There is nothing else in the gravesite. However, a view from the cave mouth shows an icy waterfall from one of the mountains, which must be the 'white curtain' Baradine mentioned. This is where the knife was hidden, and a fairly easy Awareness roll reveals a discolored bit of ice that may have been broken in the past. At the base of the waterfall is another grave - that of a duardin named Kellax Tideson, who was another member of the Binding. He apparently died by falling off the waterfall after the knife was hidden. Climbing the waterfall is a simple Athletics roll, and halfway up the party finds a sword jammed in the ice, with the name Baradine on the hilt. Breaking through the ice is tricky but doable through whatever means the party likes.

Behind the ice is an empty space. All that's there is a simple knife lying on the ground - Faecris' knife. Anyone that tries to pick it up must be very careful and make a Reflexes roll to avoid taking damage from it cutting their hand. Next to the knife are three bronze sheets upon which Kellax carved the story of the blade. That's it. That's the whole thing. The knife is immensely potent, able to cut through divine miracles, and all kinds of people are going to want it. Once its existence is revealed, many, many people will be after it. And...that's the whole thing! This would all make a ton more sense, as TK_Nyarlathotep has talked about before on Discord, as a Slaaneshi-influenced plot to frame Sigmar for what was done, because again, it's massively out of character...and lightning is definitely within the power of Chaos, especially if a Dragon Ogor Shaggoth gets involved. But, as presented, it's just weird and deeply out of character and never explained beyond Baradine's breakdown.



The Black Choppa originates among the orruks who resisted the invasion of the Sorrow Peaks by Khorne's Reapers of Vengeance. The last of the orruk defenders to die in the fighting was Gozrakk the Bloody, who died in the act of beheading the Bloodthirster Kalabrax with his big black axe. After his death, the Reapers purged the Sorrow Mountain orruks and moved on. Eventually, they took the skulls to the Khornate fortress Skulpile, where they left the axe as tribute to Khorne along with the skulls and broken standards of the orruk clans. It remained there through the entire Age of Chaos, revered but also feared by the Bloodbound of the Skulpile, who claimed Kalabrax's soul lived on within it.

Several orruk Waaagh!s attempted to sack the Skulpile and retrieve the axe in that time, but all failed. Despite this, they spread the legend of Gozrakk and his Black Choppa, the tale that the axe bears Gozrakk's soul and will to fight. That legend remains quite powerful among Aqshy's orruk clans, who claim that the biggest, baddest orruk of Aqshy will be the one to reclaim it and return it to its true people. And...they're not wrong. Either group. Gozrakk and Kalabrax are both inside the double-headed axe. Half of it is Gozrakk, the other Kalabrax, and which one is dominant depends on the wielder. For an orruk, Gozrakk is ascendant. For a Chaos warrior, Kalabrax is. For anyone else, well, the wielder can pick.

Either way, the Black Choppa is a powerful two-handed Magical axe with Rend. Whenever you attack with it, you must pick which of the axe heads to use - the one that bears Kalabrax or the one that bears Gozrakk. You can swap with each attack (unless, presumably, you're an orruk or Chaos-aligned fighter, in which case you're stuck with the one that aligns with you). The Kalabrax blade has a bonus that triggers on killing a non-Minion foe, allowing you to immediately make another melee attack as a Free Action against any creature in Close range, and if that one kills a non-Minion foe, you have to do it again, repeating it until you fail to kill a non-Minion or you run out of targets in Close range. The Gozrakk blade has a different bonus on the same trigger - whenever you kill a non-Minion foe, you heal Toughness equal to half the dead victim's Toughness and must immediately make a Move as a Free Action toward the nearest non-Minion target.

The axe has additional benefits for the folks it locks into one axehead. For a Khornate, Kalabrax infuses the wielder with power, increasing their maximum Mettle to (Doom+1) and restoring (Doom) extra Mettle at the start of each turn. For an orruk, Gozrakk blesses the wielder with growth. For every week they have the weapon, they gain 1 Body, to a max of twice their original Body. The axe will also send out visions to orruks on the same continent, summoning them to the wielder's Waaagh! Each week, (Doom*2) orruks will show up to join. This call will not stop until the Skulpile is destroyed.

The adventure is Race to the Sorrow Peaks. It opens with scouts spying on Skulpile reporting back that something big is going down - the Khornates are sending teams of riders out in all directions, but they're not sure why. The party can get a jump start on the plot by capturing some of the riders, who reveal under interrogation that the Black Choppa has been stolen from the fortress and the Khornate rulers of the place are extremely worried about what that might mean. Talking to local orruks will reveal the legends of Gozrakk the Mighty and the Black Choppa and how it ended up at Skulpile. (Presumably this will involve fighting the orruks at some point, but it could be friendly! Sometimes orruks just like fighting, after all.) The orruks also tell the party that a lot of them have been having visions of the Aqshy's Sorrow Peaks and heading to them for a big fight. Ancient duardin records could be checked, too, and would reveal that they knew of Gozrakk, because his axe was forged by a traitor duardin.

The axe is currently in the hands of Grobniz da Grabba, a very cunning but not especially brutal orruk. He claims he snuck into Skulpile after disguising himself in Khornate armor, grabbed the axe and ran off with it; whether this is true or not is up for debate. Grobniz is making his way to the Sorrow Peaks as orruks flock to him. Chaos Lord Homisid Balefist is chasing him, aided by a pack of Flesh Hounds and a horde of Marauders and Chaos Warriors on horseback. The Khornates are planning to just kill everyone between them and the Sorrow Peaks. Grobniz, meanwhile, has 500 Ardboys with him, and more coming every day. He is quickly growing to immense size, and is now effectively as strong as the average Megaboss, but smarter and better at lying. If he gets to the Sorrow Peaks and survives long enough, he's going to hit Body 10 eventually.

The party is going to have to decide how they want to handle this. Both Grobniz's Waaagh! and Homisid's warband are likely too big for a direct fight to be viable for the party, but if they could be made to face each other, the chaos might let the PCs nab the Choppa. Both groups are moving pretty quickly, so the party will need to figure out a way to keep pace; likely, they will be able to get their patrons to lend an Arkanaut skyship or set of gyrocopters if they want an aerial effort or at least fast mounts if they want to go by land. There's three spots that are best suited for interception of the Choppa or the Chaos force.

The first is the Dry Sea, a desert of huge dunes and lots of sand. It's impossible to cross it quickly, mounted or no, so it's a good spot to catch up...but it's also largely trackless and confusing, so it's easy to get lost in. The second is the Cinder Canyon, which only has two viable crossings - either you use a set of narrow trails up and down the sides or you cross at Princesses' Span, an ancient and thin bridge over 1500 feet above the canyon floor. Last is Heartbreak Pass, a narrow pass up to the Sorrow Peaks' foothills that runs for a good two miles. There's a small base of Hammerhalian soldiers at the start, and they might be convinced to blockade the pass - but they don't have a lot of men to manage the defense. No matter what, if the party can't stop Grobniz from reaching the Peaks, he will arrive to find tens of thousands of orruks waiting for him. Within weeks, he will have a bigger Waaagh! than Aqshy has seen in centuries. He will almost certainly destroy Skulpile - and then move on to what any orruk with a big Waaagh! does: smash things. (Skulpile's forces and particularly Homisid Balefist are definitely not the nicer bunch, of course, and Skulpile deserves to be burned to the ground, but ideally you want it to not then be followed by orruks attacking everyone nearby.)

Next time: The Cauldron of Tahotom and Squiglick's Chariot

Rand Brittain
Mar 25, 2013

"Go on until you're stopped."
Soulbound really, really seems to want Sigmarites to be fascists and doesn't know when to stop.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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Rand Brittain posted:

Soulbound really, really seems to want Sigmarites to be fascists and doesn't know when to stop.

It's weird because it's deeply inconsistent with just about everything else outside of very specific groups that are very definitely not Sigmar himself.

That Old Tree
Jun 24, 2012

nah


The whole adventure connected to the knife seems kind of boring, too. Like, I'm a fan of understated, lonely graves for the powerful, but it seems like your PCs pick up an interesting thread, then just sort of walk in a straight line until they get to the end and are told the rest of the backstory, at which point they have acquired one of the most threatening weapons in existence. Bwuh?

Covermeinsunshine
Sep 15, 2021

I honestly do not get it - do they think AoS fans want this? I don't want 40k in my AoS. Also fluff so far was consistent that every time Sigmar went with "hard man making hard choices" routine it backfired horribly while every time he was reasonable it paid off.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Fantasy and AoS just seem to suffer hard from GW thinking thing that made 40K popular is something all their lines should have, despite the fanbase being pretty vocal that no - if they want grimdark they'd play 40k.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power
Blood Bather



The Cauldron of Tahotom is the brainchild of the eponymous vampire lord, who ruled over a large chunk of Shyish and attempted to make an empire free of Nagash. His armies conquered many lands, and after each conquest, he would have his cauldron filled with blood from defeated foes so he could bathe in it. After literal centuries of this, his power and vanity flowed into the cauldron itself. Tahotom was incredibly proud of his handsome visage in life, and in death he worked to preserve it as perfectly as possible. Eventually, this turned the Cauldron into a surprisingly potent artefact. It was not, however, potent enough to save Tahotom. His rule was ended by an alliance of rebellious aelves and duardin. The Cauldron had the power to restore him to unlife, and his servants carried it off to Ghyran to do so, but they were killed by the rebels before they could succeed.

The Cauldron itself is made from black iron, decorated on the exterior with skull engravings. The interior is engraved in detailed pictures with a history of Tahotom's reign and his great victories, though it takes a Lore roll to figure out what all the pictures actually mean. Doing so will also reveal the powers of the Cauldron and the need to fill it with blood to activate it. The Cauldron needs the blood of 50 Medium creatures, 5 Large creatures or 1 Enormous creature to fill, and a Monstrous creature can fill it 5 times before running out of blood. The blood lasts for a month before the Cauldron needs to be refilled. As long as it is full, all of the Cauldron's abilities remain active.

First, any Undead creature that bathes in the cauldron will be transformed into the appearance they had in life, detectable as false only to Witch-Sight or other magic, and then only with an Awareness roll. If the Undead is a Champion or Chosen with spellcasting, they get reduced difficulty on Channelling rolls. (It's unclear if this applies to undead PC spellcasters.) Further, any Undead Champion or Chosen without Spellcasting gains 2 Mettle. (Again, unclear if this works on PCs.)

Second, any living creature that bathes in the Cauldron will slowly be transformed into Tahotom. After bathing in it regularly for a full month, the living bather either adjusts one of their three main stats to match that of the Vampire Lord statblock or gain one of the Vampire Lord's traits. This is not optional, and it's again unclear if PCs have to spend XP but probably not. However, the bather also begins suffering from echoes of Tahotom's mind in their own, and parts of his personality start overwriting theirs. They must now make a Determination roll every week or be compelled to continue bathing. As soon as the living bather gains the Lifeless trait from the Vampire Lord block, their personality is wholly overwritten by that of Tahotom. If they are a PC, they immediately become an NPC. (This is clearly signposted. Do not do this.) The Doom also rises by 2. Lastly, if you throw a corpse into the Cauldron, its skin is boiled off the bones and it emerges as a Deathrattle Skeleton. Said skeleton is able to use the first function to regain their mortal appearance as normal.

The adventure seed is Heart of Oak. The Ghyranite city of Oak's Heart is a rising one, a good forward base for exploration in the wilderness, but is regularly under threat from the Beasts of Chaos. If the party happens to be there, they'll run into the plot happening, but there's no special reason it might attract them, apparently. While Tahotom's history and rule is well-documented in Shyishan history books, in Ghyran he is little known. All that survives of him is a tale of legendary monster, Kyleesh, who used a magic cauldron to hide her evil monster before eventually being killed by the folk hero Old Greenhands. A simple Guile roll will allow the PCs to learn that this is a common bedtime story among the locals.

The problem is that the Freeguild captain of the city's defenders, Burrin Kerrero, found a cave recently while patrolling for bandits. He and his men found a large cauldron there, too heavy to move, and decided to use the cave as a regular campsite, using the cauldron for cooking. He began to study the patterns on the cauldron out of curiosity, aided by a local priestess of Alarielle, an aelf named Phylamire Runestaff. Phylamire was convinced the Cauldron was evil and potentially necromantic, asking Burrin to destroy it, but he refused because he found it fascinating. Shortly before the party shows up in Oak's Heart, Burrin and his men have a fight with the local Gors in which both sides take heavy casualties. Burrin uses the blood of the fallen to fill the cauldron in an effort to restore his dead soldiers to life. It kind of works - they come back as Wights, and Burrin starts his transformation into Tahotom by bathing in the blood.

It is now a matter of time before Oak's Heart suffers horrible disaster. Burrin has ordered his now-undead men to only attack Beastfolk, but accidents do happen in the Realms. Whenever someone dies in the city and Burrin can get ahold of their body, or whenever someone discovers the truth and gets killed by the wights, the dead get taken to the cauldron and "revived," then sent back to live in hiding in the city. Over several months, the city will be transformed, especially if Burrin decides to allow murders of important people - which gets more and more likely and Burrin becomes more and more Tahotom. The book presents three possible ways the party might get clues to what's happening.

First, a young and particularly perceptive human woman named Artis Brightsong starts having nightmares and panic attacks about monsters replacing people. She wants help investigating, and if left alone too long without PC help, she will go missing for a day or so, then return and announce that everything is fine actually but now she doesn't like fruit any more. Phylamire has also realized that there's problems up - she set out for the cave a while back, in fact. Burrin killed her to stop her revealing the truth, but when he tried to revive her, Alarielle miraculously protected her body from reanimation, so Burrin and the wights hastily buried her in the wilderness, where PCs might find the body and realize there's a big problem. Lastly, the PCs might run into an aelf bandit, Drenzen Ridgestalker. He's uninterested in fighting - he just wants to flee, because he says he's seen the town guard hunting down bandits, dragging them to a cave, and ritually torturing them with bloodletting. If the party doesn't put together the clues within three weeks, though, Burrin will complete his transformation into Tahotom, becoming a Vampire Lord and using his skeletal forces to try to take over the city.



Squiglick's Chariot is the personal transport of legendary grot Squiglick the Squiglicker, who is famous for licking squigs. A lot. (Not actually a rare hobby among Moonclan grots.) Squiglick, like many lickers, received visions of flying through the void to the Bad Moon...but what makes him legendary is he managed to actually do it. Inspired by his squig-granted visions, Squiglick set in search of a breed of flying squig he was sure existed, hunting through the depths of Ghur for them. He was forced to brave terrifying sights like the clear sky, flower-filled fields and clear springs, but after some indeterminate amount of time hunting in the mountains, he found the flying squigs. Bright red, energetic, spherical squigs with wings. Squiglick climbed up a cliff and then jumped into the flock.

The flying squigs took Squiglick on a terrifying ride through the realms, a ride no Squig Hopper has ever recreated. Eventually, he managed to tame or control or otherwise master the art of using flying squigs, and he got the entire flock to follow him home. His tribe worked together to build a giant chariot for them to pull, recognizing his mighty heroism. Shortly after, Squiglick rode the chariot out to chase the Bad Moon. He moved across many realms, landing frequently to aid the Gloomspite wherever he went. ("Landing," in this case, meaning coming crashing down out of the sky on top of enemies.) Eventually, he chased the Bad Moon to Chamon, got as close he could, and tried to jump onto it. No one knows if he made it or if he fell to his death, but the Gloomspite Gitz insist he still lives on the Bad Moon to this day. They say that his chariot fell to Chamon in a rain of loonstone, landing somewhere in the Brass Mountains.

The Chariot must be pulled be a pair of bat squigs and can carry up to five passengers of grot size (or a bit bigger, like a human). The Chariot is indestructible and will survive any crash with only minor dents, though it offers no special protection to the riders when it crashes. Piloting it is very hard and requires a difficult Beast Handling roll to get it to go where you want. (Using "Spirit," which is clearly a Soul typo.) If you fail the control roll, the bat squigs will take you somewhere within (2d6)*(2d6) miles of your intended destination. Piloting to another realm is even harder...unless you pick the realm closest currently to the Bad Moon, in which case you automatically succeed. If you fail a roll to go to another realm, you arrive in a randomly selected one.

Our seed is Chariot of the Grots. The party are exploring a brass island in Chamon when they spot what appears to be a flock of Ghurish balloon fish flying in the air around a nearby mountain. A closer inspection or letting them get near reveals that no, those are actually bat squigs. A Lore roll will allow the party to recall the rudiments of the legend of Squiglick the Squiglicker, who rode a chariot pulled by flying squigs. They also recall the only book they've ever seen that mentions the legend is Professor Humbrum Wilkenstein's Almanac of Celestial Mechanics and Grot-Related Disasters, written a few centuries back. Another Lore roll will get a copy of the book if the party has access to a good magical library. The book describes many encounters with a flying chariot aiding the Gloomspite in battle.

The Chariot, it turns out, is lying on top of a peak in the Brass Mountains, overgrown by silvergrass and ruby moss but otherwise in good condition. It's just been drifting on its island through Chamon, inhabited by a nest of bat squigs descended from Squiglick's original flock for the past several centuries. Any attempt to move the chariot will anger the squigs, who will rush the party and have the power to bounce into another Zone after making a charge attack. To actually use the chariot is going to require getting a pair of the squigs to pull it. The only way to tame a squig is to grab it and hold on until it tires itself out and decides you're tolerable. This means getting on top somehow and then making a fairly difficult Beast Handling roll; failure means you get thrown off and take some fall damage.

Even with the squigs harnessed, however, the Chariot will not travel between realms - yet. That requires the pilot to achieve a state of transcendence. (Or madness, if you think grot transcedental mindsets are crazy.) The only way to achieve this state is to lick the squigs. This is not something, the game notes, that should be immediately obvious to the PCs - they should have to try some stuff and get into a properly grotty mindset. Anyone that licks a squig suffers visions of the Bad Moon for 1d6 days and rolls on the accompanying chart to find out what other effects accompany their Bad Moon-granted enlightenment. This ranges from suddenly seeing everything as if standing on the Bad Moon for an instant, which increases Channelling Focus permanently but also permanently reduces Reflexes Training due to persistent issues with mundane reality, to an affinity for the dark and damp that permanently increases Stealth and Survival Focus but causes a permanent penalty to Mind while in sunlight, to suddenly receiving an intuitive understanding of the world that gives you a major clue to one of your current Goals, to suddenly meeting the gaze of Skagrott the Loonking across reality, revealing your location to him. (He will soon send someone to get the Chariot back.)

Four of the six results give a permanent bonus and permanent penalty. The other two are either all upside (the Goal clue) or all downside (Skagrott). Other than this, that's just where this seed stops. Now you have the Chariot! It is extremely hard to use but is a terrifyingly good transport if you can manage it! Also, you licked a squig.

Next time: The Hair Comb of Nefemne Goldeneyes and the Hunt Horn of Kresh'ta

TheGreatEvilKing
Mar 28, 2016





Re: Icon, I can see things like Harlequin or Bright who have to screw over the party by picking fights with coos/ Leroy Jenkins get extremely old and annoying real fast, to the point of "why don't we leave the clown in jail and recruit someone who doesn't suck?"

Ettin
Oct 2, 2010


Ancient Enemies: Mrs Beeton's Book of Cocoon Management

The next two sections (Metamorphosis and Continuing Training) describe what character advancement looks like in-universe, which is honestly a good idea if you ask me. Continuing Training is pretty straightforward: Tagers practice meditation with a master once a month, study occult knowledge and Society records, get daily updates on Chrysalis activity in their area (though they have to ask an Operator which packs are doing what, for security reasons), and do monthly combat training.

Metamorphosis introduces a new system that appears later in this book. Basically, Tagers who advance far enough and vibe hard enough with their symbiont can evolve into a new, stronger form, like an eldritch Pokémon. A month beforehand a metamorphosing Tager feels a distracting tugging sensation, which escalates into restlessness until they can barely sit still; a few days out they get the urge to wrap their lives up for now, "for he is about to leave it for a while". In fact:

quote:

Finally, metamorphosis takes hold. The Tager does not know the moment it will happen – it just does. One moment he could be having breakfast and the next flaments start to snake out of him. While each manifestation of Tager has its own style, somehow the body of the metamorphosing Tager creates a hard cocoon that envelops him. Over the coming solar month, from 28 to 32 days, he will slowly begin to change inside.

Imagine hanging out in your local secret Eldritch Society base and heading into the bathroom to discover a big, sweaty orb on the shitter. The Tager's pack usually finds their cocoon and moves it somewhere safe, so hopefully they don't open your apartment door to find you and your weird egg on the couch with Bible Black still on the TV.



Being enveloped in a cocoon for a month sounds like the dream, except for the Tager inside it feels like the Rite of Sacred Union v2 with longer, more vivid alien visions. The good news is you emerge as a new creature, with new powers and new authority within the Eldritch Society. The final paragraph mentions rumours that there's "a step beyond metamorphosis", laying the groundwork for a future book, but since CthulhuTech has been on ice for years (and they're doing a whole reboot) it's still unknown what happens to a Tager who goes even further beyond.

The next couple pages are about the Daily Life of Tagers. The basics don't change, but they don't need to work out to be in peak physical shape—you can eat all the Doritos you want, baby! A lot of it is about how Tagers spend most of their time working (doing missions, talking to informants, patrolling the shadowy corners of the city for leads/Dhohanoids to hunt), but are expected to take time off when they can. Tagers have to take breaks and maintain their relationships, so they remember what they're fighting for.

Since they don't have time to make money, Tagers survive with a combination of government assistance and Society support. Many Tagers live in government housing (with their paperwork carefully fudged by the Society so nobody will check on them) or Society-owned residences. They can get fake jobs in Society sympathizer organizations as a cover, or get part-time jobs. Society members are also given disposable income "as determined by their assumed level of lifestyle", and "most are middle-class, with all their material needs covered". This might sound like the Society has better welfare than most governments, but a) that's not hard and b) I would argue that being a Tager is a form of workfare, which is a blight on society.

That said, some Society members were already rich and famous before signing up; they're expected to "use their influence to create a lifestyle that works with being a part of the organization" and kick some money into the Society. Rich people often hide away from the poors already, so I doubt anyone would notice.

Anyway, check this out:

quote:

Some Tagers prefer to let their symbiont out to play as often as possible. They spend their time behind closed doors in their monstrous forms, getting more acquainted with the sensation and contemplating their new existence. For some, it's just fun. Such Tagers often spend as much time patrolling as possible, leaping from roof-top to roof-top as their shifted selves, daring someone to catch them. Furthermore, there are those that choose to sleep in their shifted forms, sometimes tucked away in some inaccessible corner, clinging to a wall or ceiling.

I really hope these Tagers running about on the rooftops are the stealthy ones, because if not, hoo boy. (I have no questions about the ones that sleep weird, because that's just me.)

quote:

Despite the fact that most Tagers still classify themselves as mortal, many begin to suffer from a subtle kind of elitism. They begin to think that they are superior to those who have not undergone the Rite of Sacred Union. They intellectually know that there is no way the Eldritch Society could run without the invaluable assistance of the mortal contingent, but that makes little difference. It isn't an overt kind of thing, where the Tagers become obviously arrogant and begin to treat the mortals in their life with disrespect. It's more like the Victorian view of women, which were regarded as creatures to be loved and cherished, but who simply were not as hearty and capable as men. No one knows if this is simply a cultural thing that begins to weave its way through new Tagers as they work in their new packs or if it is something that is a part of the way the symbiont influences a Tager's personality. Most mortals don't even notice those Tagers that fall prey to this attitude and those that do let it go. After all, it's the Tagers that have to face death every day, so they get some leeway with regards to their personal beliefs.

They don't disrespect mortals, they just treat them the way the Victorians treated women— oh. Oh no.

(And setting that aside for a second: few things say "written in America after 2001" to me like "you gotta respect the troops though, right?")

The rest of the section just covers how Tagers deal with having to always look over their shoulder and the fact that most will die violent deaths. Some party hard, some become fatalists, some live in denial. Boom, done. I feel like this is a good place to take a breather so I'll finish the Eldritch Society section next time.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007
Probation
Can't post for 14 hours!
I'll bet the writers are barely even aware that the feminist struggle is still a thing.

JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

Halloween Jack posted:

[Attunement enchants the weapon to hurt a specific type of Kin. It will ignore any Armor Edge possessed by those Kin.

Human Register enchants the weapon so that it can’t hurt humans.

OK, what's the limit here? Can you put both of these on an AK-47 to make a very... Persona-ish demon detector?

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
Goddamn that's one hell of a note to end the post on.

I do rather like the "whoops, you're an orb for a month now"-bit just for like... comedy and character situation purposes mostly. It just lends itself to so much potential comedy, like the HIGH ROLLING LIFESTYLE ARTIST TAGER has suddenly turned into an orb while going to the bathroom at a private party. Now you have to smuggle them out of there without anyone noticing. Good luck on your advanced stealth mission. Or maybe they ORBED while at the park, and some local kids found them, thought they were a novelty sculpture and have built a snowman around them or something.

Does it mention whether Dhohanoids have ACUTE ORBOSIS as something to deal with, too? Because that could be interesting as a plot point as well. Dhohanoid has been noticed going to ORB, here's a chance to capture one of their agents or take them out before they mutate into something even worse than they already were.

I think what I hate most is when these absolutely trash games have like one or two smaller interesting aspects or ideas that I could see being used for something fun. Like a reverse pearl where it's a little speck of beauty at the heart of an oblate spheroid of filth.

Halloween Jack
Sep 12, 2003

La morte non ha sesso

JcDent posted:

OK, what's the limit here? Can you put both of these on an AK-47 to make a very... Persona-ish demon detector?
As a matter of fact, you can't enchant a weapon with Human Register without Attuning it first! So pick the type of Kin you hate most, and then get another enchantment so it can't hurt humans.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power
Legends of the Past



The Comb of Nefemne Goldeneyes was believed lost during the Lumineth Spirefall. It is an elaborate comb made from precious metals and studded with gemstones. At the center of it is a thumbnail-sized stud of aetherwuarts. Its creator was Nefemne Goldeneyes, a Syaran mage who made it to help her advancement in the Teclamentari. It was exquisite, but more importantly, it granted greater insight than her peers using the aetherquartz. She quickly advanced in her school, becoming a prominent philosopher among the Lumineth...until the Spirefall came, bringing destruction and Slaaneshi corruption.

During the Spirefall, the forces of Slaanesh stole many great relics, as did many Lumineth who sought to keep them for themselves. No one is quite sure what happened to Nefemne, but it's known that a thief stole the comb. The thief was captured and executed, but the comb was not with him at the time. It passed between various owners, few of them understanding the power of what they held, then got locked in a box for years. It has only recently been rediscovered, and few remember its legend. Fewer remember what it looked like. It use doesn't require knowledge - but the effects are easy not to notice, too. Wearing it improves mental speed and makes detailed subjects like magic or craft to be easier to understand. You also lose the need to sleep.

While wearing the Comb, you get two Endeavors per week of Downtime, not one, thanks to the lack of sleep. You also get a near perfect photographic memory and may recall any details of any event you witness while wearing it, as vividly and clearly as when it happened. This incidentally gives a large bonus to all Mind rolls. However, in addition to these benefits, the wearer becomes obsessed with gaining knowledge and perfecting skill. They are unable to ignore any chance to discover new lore or obtain rare items that exemplify their chosen art or craft. They also become distant and distracted due to their hyperfocus, dropping their Natural Awareness to 1 regardless of their stats or skills, though for actual rolls those stats and skills are unaffected.

The adventure seed is To Build An Empire. Rumors begin spreading about a human living in Syar who has somehow produced craft that exceeds the skill even of the Syaran aelves. Her name is Sloane Piaget, and an extremely old Xintillian aelf, Belatryn, is suspicious of her meteoric rise. Sloane is never seen without her expensive comb, and Belatryn is extremely suspicious of where she got that comb, what it is, and how she's managed to get this good in such a short time. The party is invited to a party at Sloane's home, but before they arrive, Belatryn approaches them. She shares her suspicions, explaining that she was a youth during the Spirefall and remembers extremely elaborate competitions which led Nefemne to make her comb. She can't quite remember what the Comb does, but remembers enough about Nefemne to be worried about it in connection with Sloane's weird behavior.

Sloane is nouveau riche, having recently bought a massive a giant mansion. She frequently holds elaborate parties to show off her increasingly eccentric and elaborate craftwork. The Binding has been invited to her latest party because she's curious about their adventures. She is a recent arrival in the nation of Syar, which makes her rapid ascent in their artistic world even weirder. No one seems to know where she came from, and some suspect she's actually a local who just has gone entirely unnoticed until recently. She is the sole inhabitant of her mansion - she has a lot of hired servants, but none live with her. However, they come in before dawn and often do not leave until well into the night when working.

The truth? Sloane is a Slaaneshi cultist. The voice of Slaanesh or one of his daemons led her to the Comb, and she quickly used it to become rich and powerful. She maintains a secret shrine to Slaanesh in her bedroom, which otherwise even she rarely visits or uses. It's kept hidden behind her wardrobe. If she is attacked or her cultic worship is discovered, she will flee and beg Slaanesh for help, which he will grant by transforming her into a daemonic Viceleader in a very painful moment, then send her three teams of 6 Daemonettes to serve her. Sloane is also a wizard, and the Comb's dice boost does apply to spellcasting.

Getting an invite to Sloane's parties through Belatryn is fairly easy if the party wants to investigate that way. Alternatively, they might sneak into the mansion to steal the comb. The problem is that Sloane is only ever without the relic when she sleeps, which is exceptionally rare. When she is asleep, the comb is kept in a small jewelery box on her nightstand. Sloane's daily routine also includes a daily trip to the market with at least one servant, so she could be intercepted during that for a daring heist. It'll tip her off and she'll transform, but likely not until after the scene, as she has to go to her room to do it.

If the party gets the Comb, Belatryn becomes very happy and relieved, especially if she learns that Sloane was Slaaneshi - she desperately wants to keep the thing out of the hands of a Chaos cultist. She will offer to pay 500D for the Comb, but if the party doesn't want to sell, she's happy to let them keep it as long as it's in the hands of someone not corrupted. The party will have an ongoing problem, though - Sloane was not the only cultist in the city, having spread her practices through several members of the merchants of Syar. They are not happy about their leader being killed (which almost certainly is the result of the adventure, since daemon Sloane will go after the party to get her comb back if she survived) and even more unhappy about the loss of their precious relic, which they think is holy to Slaanesh.



The Hunt Horn of Kresh'ta is exceptionally old. It was carved from the tusk of a gigantic beast, and originally it was bigger than a full-size orruk. It has long since been trimmed, cut and broken down to smaller size, now able to hang from the average person's belt. It is yellowed by time and marked with many old bloodstains from the prey taken by its owners, and under the stains are deep, intricate carvings of humanoids and great beasts hunting each other. It originates in Ghur in the Age of Myth, long before the coming of Sigmar, when the worlds were young. Kresh'ta was a legendary hunter, near to a demigod, who was said to be both fully orruk and fully human. He went into the wilds and fought a great monster, a godbeast, for twenty days and twenty nights. When the battle ended, the only whole thing remaining of the creature was its massive horn, which Kresh'ta brought home in triumph. From it, he made a hunting horn so big it took four men to carry.

The horn was huge and hard to use, but its sound would freeze the blood of enemies and send the most terrible beasts fleeing. For generations, Kresh'ta's tribe was unstoppable in battle. They also learned something odd - when the horn was blown by someone whose heart was homesick or filled with the need to rest, it did not blow a clarion call. It blew a dirge, a mournful cry. Many believed that cry was the death cry of the godbeast the horn came from - not least because it opened a great hole in the ground when it sounded. When one of the hunters lept in, the tribe discovered it led to the resting place of the godbeast Kodzodon, just where Kresh'ta had left it, for the beasts had refused to disturb the bones for fear of the fury still within them. The hunters settled into the skeleton, using the horn to travel home from all across the realms in an instant. They were feared as mighty hunters of beasts wherever they went. Unfortunately, they were betrayed by one of their own. Kresh'ta's people lost the horn to their enemies, losing their unstoppable power with it. The horn traded hands several times, but was finally lost when its bearers attempted to hunt a giant worm and failed. The horn was believed devoured and no one ever retrieved it.

The Hunt Horn is exceptionally powerful. When an Action is spent to blow it, the bearer and all allies in their Zone become Fast if they weren't already and get a bonus to Melee and Accuracy, both lasting a full minute. All enemies in the Zone must make a Determination roll or become Frightened of the bearer for a full minute. Both effects end early if the bearer loses possession of the Horn. If the Horn is blown while thinking of home or rest, instead, a giant toothy maw opens in the earth in a Zone within Long range. Anyone in that Zone must make a Reflexes roll to not fall in. Anyone that jumps or falls in is teleported to the settlement of Kodzodon in Ghur, built in Kodzodon's skeleton. The portal remains open for a minute, at which point it snaps shut with a snarl, causing a Deadly Wound to anyone caught in the closing. If the horn is blown to open the mouth while in Kodzodon, the mouth still opens, but instead leads to the last location the horn was blown. The horn can only open a maw once per day.

The seed is Hunt or Be Hunted. A massive Tzaangor warflock has gathered in the lands of Ghur, bigger than seen in a very long time. They are immensely powerful for Beasts of Chaos and have been making a name for themselves hunting monsters in the wilds. Many are worried they'll soon start hunting cities instead. The party, if traveling in the region, will also hear many folk legends about Kresh'ta and his hunts. While the man (or orruk, or both) is long gone, his legend remains among the tribes of Ghur, including the story about his taking of the Horn. Any of the local nomadic tribes knows the story and will claim descent from either people who once used the horn or fought the people who had it.

Eventually, as long as the party remains in Ghur, they will run into the Tzaangors. That said, a more proactive group might seek out the city of Kodzodon, aka the Great Coil, which is a meeting point for the nomad tribes of the region. It is directly in the path of the warflock and is trying to rally the tribes to help defend the city. The warflock is so powerful because Tzeentch led them to the Amber Steppes, where they found the corpse of a giant worm. They tore it open thanks to their god's advice, and within it, they found the Hunt Horn of Kresh'ta. They have since been using it to hunt the plains monsters and gather more Tzaangors to their banner. The horde is now quite sizable - 75 Tzaangors and 125 Vulcharcs, all following a shaman named Anguz Onyxbeak, plus a whole lot of Tzeentchian mutant monsters that are just hanging around the edges. If Anguz's main flock fails, the monsters will quickly flee, so they can safely be ignored for now.

The party is going to need to rally the local tribes and the Sigmarites that live permanently in the Great Coil to help fight off the horde. There's a lot of nomads around Kodzodon that have come to seek protection in its walls, but most aren't powerful enough to offer much. The ones that can are the five strongest local tribes. Each is easily able to offer 20 warriors (equivalent to Freeguild guards) and 20 hunters (equivalent to Wanderer archers) if conbvinced to help, likely with Guile or Intimidation rolls to impress them or sweet talk them. Each tribe will need to be convinced to commit their forces seperately, though, and getting more than the 40 fighters each will be harder. Any combination of three fighters is able to defeat one Tzaangor or two Vulcharcs in battle - any left over are for the PCs to clean up. Anguz has a Disc of Tzeentch he rides around in battle, making him easy to spot, at least, but he's going to blow the Horn the moment combat starts.

If at any point Anguz gets disarmed of the Horn, the battle is essentially over. The surviving human warriors will defeat the remaining Tzaangors and put them to flight, leaving Anguz on his own if he's still alive. Should the party win, the Beastmen flee and the area returns to relative peace. Indeed, it's actually safer than it used to be, since Anguz's flock wiped out most of the native dangerous monster population for a while. If the party fails to stop Anguz's force, though, Kodzodon falls and becomes a Tzeentchian stronghold. The Doom rises by 2.

Next time: Bramblethorn and the Forgehammer of the Fates

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
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Soulbound: Artefacts of Power
Building the Future



Bramblethorn is a living bow, a weapon grown rather than made. It is a construction of vines, strong wood and living flowers, ever-shifting as the seasons cycle. At the top, flowers blossom in spring colors, and as the bow descends, it transitions into autumn red and golds. It is quite recent, technically born when Alarielle believed Ghyran lost and wept in despair. Her tears fell to earth, and where they landed, weeping willows grew in a grove now known as Alarielle's Lament. When the wind blows through them, it sounds like a woman sobbing, and the leaves of the trees are sharp as razors. The Sylvaneth protected the Lament against invasion, keeping it safe so their mother's grief could not be weaponized by Nurgle.

When Alarielle returned to the Athelwyrd and the Season of War began, she went into the Lament and pulled weapons from the wood of the trees, living things of hardwood and leafy blades as strong as metal. These became terrifying wepaons against Nurgle's forces. Bramblethorn was the greatest of them, wielded by the bravest Sylvaneth warriors. Its arrows are no less alive - they are actually living chains of razorleaf insects interlocked together. The bugs live inside Bramblethorn, forming its arrows as it is drawn. They are able to split into swarms once fired, moving around obstacles, using their bladed wings to tear into foes or even coming together in thick spheres to smash through armor.

Bramblethorn is an extremely high-damage Magical bow. Its attacks ignore Cover and Obscured traits and ignore Armor, as the insects that make up the arrows seek out the smallest weak spots and fly around obstacles. Further, the wielder can spend an Action to unleash a swarm of razorleaf bugs from the bow to fight independently. These have similar stats to a Scryfish Shoal, but with a Fast flight speed and no Aquatic. The swarm will use a Defend action on you each turn by default, but you can command them as a Free Action on your turn, though they're not bright enough for more than simple orders. You can have up to (Soul*2) active swarms at a time, and you can return any number of them them to the bow at once as an Action. As long as you hold the bow, you can sense the presence of all Sylvaneth and all soulpod groves within a hundred miles. Also, the bow has a secondary use - you can spend an Action to plant it and purify the land. It will quickly grow into a massive tree that will purge all Chaos taint from the landscape within Long range. The tree summons ten swarms of razorleaf insects to defend itself automatically. If the bow is removed from the tree, the insects return to dormancy within it and the tree is left as just a big tree.

Our adventure seed is Blossom and Blight. The Living City of Ghyran has sent out a call for aid, as Nurgle's forces have been spotted at the borders. They don't think the city itself is the target, though - instead, scouts have noticed a weird bulge in the landscape that wasn't there in weeks prior. A huge tree has grown atop it, a weeping willow that resembles those of Alarielle's Lament. The Sylvaneth remember the weapons of the Lament, and many remain in use among the upper echelons of their forces. The aelves of the Phoenicium know their legends, as do even some among Greywater Fastness. However, many of the stories of the weapons are caught up in legends and song rather than strict history. Everyone's sure of two things, though - the tree that Nurgle's forces are arming against is of a breed only seen in the Lament until now, and if they want it, they can't be allowed to get to it.

The armies of the Living City are preparing to attack the Nurglites, but they need a small team of elites that can make their way through the battle and check the tree for weapons or tools or something that'll explain why it's there. The Sylvaneth ambassador to the city, Theden Ironoak, asks the party to do the job. She doesn't care how they get it done - she just wants to ensure that the willow-weapon does not fall into Nurgle's hands, by any means necessary. Unfortunately, the Nurglites have formed a wall around the willow. A pack of Plague Drones are guarding it even during the battle, though they are currently being held off from the tree itself by swarms of razorleaf insects. (Yes, obviously the tree is Bramblethorn.)

The Zone around the tree is full of pus and rot from the bloodied daemons. Anyone entering it must make a Fortitude roll to avoid becoming Poisoned until their next Rest. The Living City forces, backed by Theden's wargrove, are busy with fighting the main Nurglites...but they can be called on to help by drawing off half the Plague Flies if necessary. Bramblethorn is at the core of the tree, and it's quite hard to get it out. To do it requires three Athletics or Reflexes rolls to get past the tree branches, which are whipping about wildly. Each failure does 5 damage, as the leaves are razor sharp. Sylvaneth get a small bonus to the rolls, though.

Once someone gets to the tree's center through three successful rolls, the tree calms down. Now, you need to make an Intuition roll to get the tree to accept you. Success causes it to split open with a huge noise, revealing Bramblethorn at the center. A Branchwych or other worshipper of Alarielle can instead make a Devotion roll to convince the tree without having to dodge the branches, incidentally. Once the bow has been claimed, though, all of the Plague Drones immediately focus hard on trying to get it from them, and will not stop until killed. Should the party fail to protect the bow, the Plague Drones tear the willow apart and fly off with the weapon. It will be corrupted beyond all hope of recovery, and the Doom goes up by 2.

It's an incredibly simple and straightforward adventure, but I guess some folks like that.



The Forgehammer of the Fates doesn't look like one of the most powerful and dangerous relics in all of existence. It looks like a simple blacksmith's hammer made from dark metal, its handle wrapped in leather. Only a close inspection will reveal that the entire thing is laced through and through with layers of chamonite. No one is certain who made the tool, but its first wielder was the legendary Celemnis, a swordsmith of impossible skill. She used it to imbue her masterworks with magical properties beyond the reach of mortals, for it allowed flawless working of chamonite by harnessing the transformative power of the metal itself. The hammer was lost (among so much else) during the rampage of the corrupted Lode-Griffon, as the lands where it was held were fractured.

The reason it is known as the Forgehammer of the Fates, however, is its destructive power. Before the weapon was lost, Celemnis had traveled to Aqshy and the city of Steel Spike in the early Age of Chaos. The place came under attack by Khornates, led by Daemon Prince Kato'sha, a massive brass monster armed by daemonic weapons and armor given directly from Khorne. As the battle began, Kato'sha fought his way to the forge district, and the locals were terrified to see Celemnis calmly step up from her anvil to meet him. The proud daemon prince laughed at her, giving her the chance to strike - three quick, light blows with the hammer. In seconds, Kato'sha's sword shattered, then his armor. The third blow sent him to his knees, as his fate of victory itself broke under the hammer's weight.

Mechanically, the Forgehammer is a simple chamonite handhammer. As a weapon, it is not exceptional statwise. However, when you attack with it, you can perform an Unmaking Strike instead of going for damage. The attack is rolled with Crafting, and instead of dealing damage, you destroy a single item or piece of armor worn or carried by your target - which can destroy even Magical or otherwise indestructible gear, even Sigmarite. Anything destroyed this way cannot be repaired by any means. Period. The GM may choose to allow the Unmaking Strike to work even on other Relics, but may rule this requires multiple hammer blows or that it may destroy the Forgehammer in the process. When used for crafting instead, you can spend a week of Downtime to make a simple Crafting roll to add a single Artefact Property or Artefact Eccentricity to a mundane object.

The adventure seed is Lost and Found. One or more of the PCs has a vision of a shimmering, clearly potent hammer sitting on a pile of vast wealth within a flying, shifting Chamonian cave system. (The book suggests that if any of the PCs are duardin, they're the ones to get the vision.) Describing the vision to duardin crafters will get the party pointed at Brogdon Skysson of Chamon, manager of the Aethermutable Floating Athenaeum. He's a Recordskeeper for the Kharadron, and the Athenaeum is his ship, a frigate filled top to bottom with scrolls and books and records of all kinds. Brogdon is an expert on relics of historic Chamon and can easily tell the part about the Forgehammer, and he has enough detail on Chamon's current island movements to have a reasonable guess as to where the cave system from the vision is.

In fact, Brogdon is deeply excited by the idea that the Forgehammer might be found and is even willing to unmoor the Athenaeum for the first time in decades to help the party find it. (Alternatively, the PCs might hire another ship or hire extra crew for the Athenaeum - Bogdon is grumpy if they do but will accept that they feel it's necessary.) The Athenaeum is entirely unarmed, but the PCs can certainly spend their own time and money to outfit it for combat if they like. Getting to the floating caverns requires a Survival roll, made easier if the party hired local Kharadron crew. On a failure, the ship gets lost and is accosted by a pack of flying Megalofins before they find the cavern.

The caverns are set within a flying chunk of stone and metal about two miles wide, its surface eternally shifting and changing. Tunnels and caves open and close frequently. Landing the ship is not safe, but it can drop anchor and lower a ladder for the party. Getting through the tunnel is another Survival roll, with failure meaning getting lost in the caves for hours and eventually running into a griffon pack. The griffons have been living in the caves for ages, and their feathers have been transmuted to metal after generations, giving them extra Armor. Whether the party faces them or not, this is not their final challenge. The central cavern is home to a powerful Magmadroth. It used to be the treasury for a Fyreslayer hold, and it has plenty of ways in and out. The Magmadroth is easily visible, sleeping, and the Forgehammer is sitting on top of a pile of gold and jewels. Getting the Forgehammer without waking the Magmadroth requires a pretty hard Stealth roll, and failure means waking up and fighting it.

Should the PCs successfully get past all these challenges and retrieve the Forgehammer, Brogdon requests a chance to inspect and study it. He will take extensive notes on its construction, as well as on the adventure to recover it (and, likely, the party and their deeds). He will eventually publish a book on the Forgehammer, which will receive acclaim in scholarly circles. If the PCs fail to get the hammer and are forced to flee, the caves will close up behind them if they spend any significant time away. The Magmadroth and the treasure chamber are sealed up, and the island will fly off, proving nearly impossible to track down again. You get one shot at the hammer, not more.

Again, very simple and straightforward. The hammer's an incredible artefact, though.

Next time: Blooddrinker and the Everwinter Chest

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
As a Chamonite Hammer that means it also does extra damage and can change its shape too.

Leraika
Jun 14, 2015

Luckily, I *did* save your old avatar. Fucked around and found out indeed.
I know the adventure seed is about the hammer but if I were offered a choice between a legendary hammer and a catbird with feathers made of gold or similar, I'm gonna be trying to take home a new pet 100% of the time.

Everyone
Sep 6, 2019

by sebmojo

Leraika posted:

I know the adventure seed is about the hammer but if I were offered a choice between a legendary hammer and a catbird with feathers made of gold or similar, I'm gonna be trying to take home a new pet 100% of the time.

I'd get both and that comb, too. That way I could forge/build a really nice chair for my new pet. A literal catbird seat.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
#1 Builder
2014-2018

Soulbound: Artefacts of Power
Bad Ideas



Blooddrinker is a vicious-looking dagger designed by the Khainites, cold to the touch and shimmering in the light. Liquid shadows drip from its blade constantly. It was created when the forces of Chaos attacked Ulgu, leading a coven of Hag Priestesses to unite their power and call forth blades of shadow and blood. Each was given a hand-selected Witch Aelf, who wielded them with skill in the Cathrar Dhule, the Khainite War of Shadows against Slaanesh (and other Chaos, but mostly Slaanesh). Over time, many of the weapons were destroyed. Only Blooddrinker survived to the present day. Even it was almost lost, though.

A Slaaneshi cultist killed the assassin who wielded it, claiming the blade. However, she was eventually also slain, the knife taken from her as well. It passed between the Khainites and Slaaneshi forces many times, at least until it eventually fell into the hands of a duardin weapon collector, who put it in a box for a while. That collector has recently died, and all of his collection was auctioned off. As luck would have it, Blooddrinker has at this point returned to Ulgu, though the specific details are harder to come by.

Blooddrinker is a Magical dagger that does slightly more damage than normal...but more importantly, it is a prison for the souls of everyone it has ever killed, including daemons. Any time you hit someone with it, they have to make a Determination roll as a bit of the shadow souls slip into their wound. If they fail, the soul fragment controls them, letting you force them to take a single Action on their next turn. Further, as long as you carry the weapon, you have access to all Grey spells and all Khainite Miracles - and you can use them even without Spellcasting or Blessed Talents. You can roll 6d6 or your own normal pools, whichever is higher, for all of them.

Lastly, you can perform an extended ritual over any living creature to permanently implant one of the captive souls in Blooddrinker into them. This requires a day and a night in the presence of the target, ritually cutting them with the blade and infusing them with the shadow souls. Over the period of the ritual, you have to make three Channelling rolls against their Channelling, and to have the ritual succeed, you have to win at least two of them. Once the target gets imbued with the soul, you have to make another Channelling roll. On a success, the now-permanently-possessed victim must obey your orders. On a failure, it is free to do anything it wants.

Our adventure is Shadow Black. Blooddrinker has surfaced in Misthavn, the City of Scoundrels. There's going to be an auction in a few days, and tons of people are interested. Several have come to the city specifically for the blade, and not all of them intend to wait for the auction. Several are more than willing to hire the PCs to kill their competitors or drive them away. All kinds of rumors are flying about where the weapon is until the auction - though as always with Misthavn, definite answers have a price tag. Among the interested parties are the Fyreslayer warrior Jin Boersdottir, a Sigmarite priest named Urol, and a Khainite going by The Matron. While she hasn't yet revealed herself, a Darkling Sorceress named Naeve Umbraborne is also trying to get it. All four will do nearly anything to acquire the blade. Jin and Naeve want it for personal use, Urol wants to ensure that Chaos can't get it, and the Matron doesn't actually want it for any reason other than to deny it to the others.

It's possible to steal Blooddrinker before the auction, but the party will definitely not be the only ones trying. The blade is in a safe on one of the many ships that make up the city - the Gloomcutter. The Freeguild are guarding it, but Stealth or Guile can get you past them. Opening the safe takes a Dexterity roll to pick it or a slightly easier Might roll to break it...but before the party can get out with the weapon, Naeve Umbraborne will show up with four enthralled aelves in tow, and she's willing to fight for it. The PCs can also get rid of their competitors by any number of means - bribery, intimidation and murder are all workable, and murdering one will make bribing or scaring the others easier. However, Naeve cannot be gotten rid of this way except by running into her during a heist - she otherwise remains an unknown factor.

If the party doesn't go for a heist and get out with the dagger, it will go up for auction aboard the Gloomcutter. The auction is attended by any competitors that are still in the running, including Naeve. However, no matter who wins the auction, Naeve will immediately bring in her thralls and demand that everyone abandon the blade to her. She will happily pay the winner for it, but if whoever won doesn't accept her offer, she and her servants attack. If the PCs got the dagger, by theft or auction, they can hand it to their employer or keep it as they like. If they didn't, Naeve presumably got it and will vanish with it. That's it, story over.



The Everwinter that follows the Beastclaw ogors is exceptionally powerful, able to freeze people in place and turn even deserts into frozen wastes. One alchemist became fascinated by its power to the point of utter obsession, spending his entire life researching it. He even bought Everwinter ice from the ogors to learn more directly, and it paid off - he used the knowledge he gained to make the Everwinter Chest. It killed him. The Chest is a massive iron box covered in magical sigils. It emits a terrible cold, enough to cause frostbite on contact with the box. Should it be opened, it releases an artificial Everwinter on the area around it, sending forth unending frost and hail. Left open, it produces enough cold to freeze an entire town in hours.

Mechanically, you can open the Chest as an Action to release the storm. Depending on how long it stays open, this has several effects. For the first round (or up to 10 seconds), the Zone around the Chest becomes a Deadly Hazard, Difficult Terrain and Heavily Obscured. In the second round (or 11-20 seconds), all other Zones within Medium range of the Chest become Major Hazards, Difficult Terrain and Lightly Obscured. In the third round (or 21-30 seconds), all other Zones within Long range of the Chest become Major Hazards, Difficult Terrain and Lightly Obscured. For every round after that, the radius of the effect extends another Zone out in all directions. This will continue until all Zones within a full mile are Major Hazards, Difficult Terrain and Lightly Obscured, which takes about an hour. Anyone that becomes Mortally Wounded as a result of Everwinter Chest Hazard damage, they are instantly flash frozen, dying immediately and turning into a statue. Closing the chest is harder - you need an extended Might roll that's pretty dang difficult, aiming for 12 successes before you die. Once the box is shut, the wind and cold end immediately, stopping all Hazard and Obscured effects. Difficult Terrain, however, lasts another hour until the ice melts.

Our adventure seed is The Frozen Sea. Anvilgard's rumor network quickly lights up with news - a single sailor arrived at Bleakscale Harbor overnight, nearly dead, in a rowboat. The boat was coated in ice and the man had limbs black with frostbite. He raved about a pirate attack, loss of precious cargo and magical frost on the ocean before falling unconscious. The sailor's an aelf named Zarius Brineblood, and he's currently recovering in Lady Vespril's Infirmary. If questioned, he explains that his trade vessel was attacked by a pirate fleet nearby. In the battle, a massive storm came up from their hold, freezing everything. Zarius was the only escapee, and is he fled, he saw an iceberg rise from the open ocean, lifting the ships into the air and freezing them solid. Soon after, a human woman from the Guild of Certified Thaumaturgists, Kaeline Myrebrook, shows to question Zarius as well. She explains that the Guild was the intended recipient of the vessel's cargo, goods they bought from the estate of a late alchemist. Along with a number of other relics, they'd acquired the Everwinter Chest. Kaeline explains that if the chest isn't closed soon, the iceberg will keep growing and the current will probably bring it to the city, along with its artificial Everwinter.

The party is going to have to find someone who'll sail them to the iceberg and probably want a way to resist the cold. Suitable winter gear will reduce the damage of the Everwinter Hazards, at least. Finding a ship is harder - it's going to take the party teaming up with rolls of Intimidation and Guile to cajole or browbeat a captain into doing the work at a reasonable price. Failure means they find a ship, but they're either paying out the nose or have to promise a future favor to someone untrustworthy to get it. Either way, the party makes their way to the iceberg, which is now massively tall and a mile wide, with the trade ship at the center. It is fortunately traversable through a series of tunnels, some caused by rough tools, some left from the pirate ships trapped in the ice.

Various aelven pirate crews are surviving on and inside the iceberg, wrapped in thick furs from their cargo. They will beg and bargain for aid in escaping, and if refused, they will attack to try and seize the party's ship. They'll also mention some kind of monster in the tunnels that hunted them and picked them off, but have no idea where the hell it came from. In fact, the monster is a Skitterstrand Arachnarok that arrived via extradimensional web-tunnel, drawn in by the scent of death from the conflict. It has used its webbing to create an insulated veil for itself to stay safe from the Hazards, though the veil can be burned off or destroyed by Rend weapons if they deal 3+ damage total. The spider is making heavy use of the Lightly Obscured terrain to hide and ambush people, and will attempt to force the party into traps and wear them down before it goes for the kill.

When the spider is defeated, the party will be able to more safely make their way to the Everwinter Chest. Sealing it is the big challenge, necessary to keep Anvilgard safe. Once the chest is sealed, the iceberg starts melting and sinking into the water. If the party wants to get the chest out, they'll have to act fast - it's big and heavy and they're in a rapidly unfreezing iceberg. Alternatively, they might leave it to sink to the ocean floor. However, if it is brought home, the Guild of Certified Thaumaturgists will pay 500D per person or, if pressed, will offer various magical items from their vaults in exchange for it.

Next time: Endless spells.

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JcDent
May 13, 2013

Give me a rifle, one round, and point me at Berlin!

The entire English language was leading up to this sentence. posted:

These portals connect to mobile relics which can be used to shoot snakes at people.

Man, Soulbound is doing tremendous work of turning AoS into something you'd want to interact with.

Like learning if you can get the flying sniper Stormcast learn how to shoot guns, and then get the realm version of a rilfe.

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