Posts

Declare Yourselves!

Variant reaction roll for when you arrive at a settlement in an 'iron age' type game. I'm not a historian, this is primarily inspired by Beowulf , when he and his company come across Hrothgar's men. A couple years back I very briefly ran Wolves Upon the Coast , but felt I wasn't doing a good job providing direction to the adventure locations, and was unprepared to handle lodgings without inns and taverns. This is my attempt to give myself a framework for both of these things in the future. If I was using these rules at my table, I would set prices for lodging depending on reaction rolled, based on what felt appropriate for the system.   Declaring Yourself When coming into contact with warriors of a town or larger settlement, you may be asked to declare yourselves . To do so, state who you are, what your purpose is, and what you wish to gain from the settlement (a place to rest, a place to trade). Brag about your accomplishments for good measure. Make a reaction roll...

A Monster from a Dream

A while ago I had a dream about a giant bear made out of wood, filled with books. This is my attempt to expand on that. [If I ever actually put this in a dungeon, I would try to add a rumor table entry indicating its contents, or describe it as sounding hollow, rather then try to use the fire weakness as a gotcha.] The Li-Bear-Y Magnesius the One-Armed was a mage of unmatched hubris. As he traveled the world, he grew tired of paying increasingly exorbitant fees to transport his large selection of tomes. Eventually, he came up with an idea: A giant beast which could carry all of his books in its belly, which could easily be extracted through the mouth. After Magensius's untimely death, the schematics for his Li-Bear-Y were sold at auction. Every so often, a wizard makes another one.   Li-Bear-Y Abilities Very rare. Appears as a giant wooden bear, covered in arcane runes. Stats as a Bear AC as a ship's hull. Filled with scrolls! Roll below. Takes -1 damage per die from weapons...

Knock

Speak: "I am the thief of fate the stoat that drinks gold from the hen's empty nest no lock will go un-broken no hoard will go un-plundered I am trespasser and transgressor I will take everything from you." strike a door or container with your staff and it will reveal its secrets to you swinging open with a thunderous crack.

The Elemental Plane(t)s

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This is my contribution to the 'Elements' Blog Bandwagon from the Prismatic Wasteland Discord server! [Edit: all the posts from the Blog Bandwagon can be found collected here! ] I've never been the biggest fan of the elemental planes, and I wanted to re-imagine them as something that excited me. For a while I've been interested in the idea of mapping them onto planets. These turned out a lot more science-fantasy then I typically like to run my games, but I enjoyed that aspect of writing them! Obviously these are not in any way reflective of the real planets in our own solar system. Meteor Shower - Étienne Léopold Trouvelot - re-cloured by me Mercury, Plane of Fire Vast oceans of magma span the surface of Mercury, the planet of fire. Her continents are woven from smooth black stone, with high mountains and tens of thousands of volcanoes. Home to the cruel and ruthless Iron Empire.  Legends of Mercury (d6): ...

Silly Little Minecraft Bestiary

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I'm not gonna cross-post this anywhere because I don't really consider it polished/finished/whatever, but if you're reading this it can be our little secret :) I've been really busy with classes and low on spoons lately, but that hasn't stopped me from getting back into Minecraft after a couple years away, on a little server with some friends. Currently we're working on a trading hall, styled as a big fortified library-keep. I added a little rare book room for decoration, and wanted to fill it with some books of my own writing, little poems, stuff like that. This is one of them: (I can't promise there won't be any typos! I usually write with spellcheck!) ...

Session Log: Hagfish Hall 4

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In case you missed it, tomorrow (Jan 18), I'm up for the Debut Blog category in the #BLOGGIES24. If you've been enjoying Dungeon Doll, I would love it if you considered me for this! Without further ado, our fifth delve into my od&d dungeon: Hagfish Hall! Dandelion's Map The Party Daevon, a Veteran, armed with a polearm. Isabella, an Acolyte, armed with a pike. Dandelion, a Medium, armed with a sword. Hirelings Vanessa , a monk of the lawful faith, sporting a tonsure.   The Delve Date: January 13th. Cold wind, mild flurries. "A" Entry Hall-- The party returned to Hagfish Hall in the usual fashion. In the entry hall, the painted lady seemed to be ignoring them. "B" Cage Trap Room-- They headed east to the T-junction, then north. Since their last time here, the cage had been re-covered with another white sheet. Creeping in, they surrounded it, stabbing in with pike and polearm. The cage turned out to be empty. The party carried on to the north. List...

Transient Realms Cosmology

[i originally wrote this as an intro to the Saints post, but ended up cutting it. i decided to put it up as its own post because i got a couple questions about it on blogger and discord] *** At the beginning of time, the Voice of Fire spoke over a black universe. The dragons were the first to inherit the flame. They ruled a sea of cold planets, as the sole source of fire. Either by force of will or a deliberate usurpation, fire came into the possession of the gods. They began to slay the dragons, in attempt to keep the fire for themselves alone. In a Promethean act, the goddess Learia granted a spark of divine fire to the beasts who would become humanity. In doing so, she was cast out from the home of the gods, which mortals call Jupiter. She is now worshiped as God by the Church of Law. *** The Voice of Fire is known only to a select few: monks and sages. Angels, the machines of creation, work in the service of the Voice. Only a small number of mortals, called Vocists, would se...