If (like me) you don't like to dress up...

... But still want to do something halloweeny tonight, this is for you!

Bump in the night is a supplement for LARA; it is about (yeah, you guessed) horror and madness!
You can get it here!
enjoy

The domesticated dungeon (part 1): Welesbur's life and work

So, here we are again. If your players have played “People die at the fair” (or “death at the fair” in its first edition), they now have the outer side of the portable hole, and are sole owners of Welesbur’s dungeon.
The dungeon is a commodity most heroes would cherish: never camp again, never have to carry dry rations, and no need to pay for the Inn, no more worrying about the weight of their equipment; nothing to stop or slow down the adventuring.
But the dungeon is a source of adventuring on its own. In people die at the fair, some questions were left unanswered. Who really was Welesbur, why did Talak Naho want him dead,who the hell is Talak Naho, what about the face –crushed statue, what is the strange amulet and of course, where the hell is the dungeon, geographically?

 

Welesbur's life
For what the heroes know about Welesbur, he was just an itinerant trader, specialized in magic items and other oddities. But the existence of the dungeon, and the portable hole should tell them otherwise.
First his real name was Dorian, and he was, in fact, one of the greatest minds of our time. He was a wizard, a scholar, and a Wiseman, but most of all, he was an inventor. Not the kind that have one idea in its life and just rides the success, no. Welesbur had an idea every twelve minutes, and most of those where good, when they weren’t revolutionary. A quarter of the spells commonly used today are, one way or another, the result of Welesbur’s work. But most of all, the guy invented a totally new kind of magic, Glyph Magic.

One of the apprentices (his name lost to the mists of time) Wanted fame and power, but Welesbur wasn’t the kind. So he took the spells and went out into the world. He died soon after, for he wasn’t that good, and some of the fire based glyphs he tried to demonstrate weren’t tuned yet. But Glyph magic was out there, and with it, Welesbur’s name.

At first, he enjoyed his notoriety, for it enabled him to work with anybody he chose, but soon it all became too much for him. Conferences, diners, social calls, this wasn’t his thing, that impeded his work. So he vanished. He changed his name (to Welesbur) and nobody saw or heard about him for more than two years.

Those two years, he used to get down in the Dungeon, and carve himself a piece of it. He went down to level 6, and searched for the perfect spot. He finally found it, by creating a war between the local deep elves empire and their lizard men slaves. He took advantage of the confusion to isolate a small piece of the dungeon and seal it from the inside. He then installed his lab in there and began a discreet life on the road.

He started working on a new project, linking the magic of wizards with the one priests use. This capacity priests have to tap their power from gods or demi-gods intrigued him and gave him an idea: all wizards know their power is limited by the concept of channel.; to cast a spell, one must open a very narrow channel between reality and the Magic pool; the power used, and thus developed by the spell is limited by the size of the channel and the pressure of power that the wizard is able to control. Welesbur himself knew he was one hell of a wizard, and even he couldn’t manage more than 50 MP a day, on a good day. But what if you could open several channels at once? What if you could open several channels at once? Say one per pool and one per god? Imagine the kind of power you could muster!

He started working with priests, but they soon stopped, for the idea of tapping a god without asking kind of scared them. And by himself, being totally ignorant in the mysteries of faith, he was stuck. So he started again, on another foot, and decided the right way was experimentation. He summoned a Hellion (a semi-god to be precise) from Coal hell, bound it in a powerful circle, and experimented on it. But this proved a dead end too, mostly because it is really difficult to work with a coal hell resident growling and insulting you all day long. One day Welesbur lost his cool and the following argument resulted in the collapse in room 10. Welesbur took it as a sign he wasn’t on the right track, and started all over again, but as most geniuses do, he just… forgot to clean the lab.

That is where Talak naho gets into the story. He is… hum… Let’s say a wiseguy, from the baronies. Well, he’s not from the baronies, but he hides… hum… lives there. Welesbur met him in shady circumstances in a shady bar in the XXXX Barony, and they made a deal. Naho was to furnish Welesbur with an actual piece of a god, that is to say a piece (say an arm) of a sacred idol actually venerated nowadays. Welesbur hoped to use it and the active faith attached to it to reach for the concerned god. He wasn’t precise enough and ended up with an actual piece from the idol of the waves, from the actual temple of the deep on the island of Makuda; the cultist there… let’s say they don’t kid with revenge, and do never shy in front of blood. Moreover, their God was a Dead one, entombed in the darklands, and as such, very dangerous to stir. He got rid of the arm (somewhere on the rock), and refused to pay what he owed Talak naho. But the gangsters had started a war with the cultists, a war they ultimately won, but Naho put the blame on Welesbur. He sent some of his guys to capture the mage and his stuff, for he wanted to make him work through his debt.
Welesbur didn’t want to work for Naho, for anybody in fact, and had a new project in mind which he didn’t want to abandon nor delay.So he rushed to his lab and cast the last spell of his life.

That is where the heroes came in.
 

Glyph Magic

The basic idea was to create spells that would last longer, with no effort. And that would not occupy the caster’s mind continually. The first tries were unsuccessful, until Welesbur went the way of the auto-recast: Spells that do not need to be maintained because they actually recast themselves every once in a while. To make that happen, the magic energy needs to be trapped, so the same power could be used again and again, like a perpetual motion thing.   

Finally, it succeeded, using three spells bound together into one: the first to produce the effect, the second to capture the power (the actual glyph), and the third to recast the whole thing. Welesbur then added a trigger mechanism, a fourth spell that would detect circumstances and turn the loop on or off. Then it was just a matter of simplification and streamlining.

The first actual glyph spell lit a candle in the privy on entrance, and put it out when you left. This may seem ridiculous but it was a magic revolution. Welesbur and his two apprentices of the time worked even harder after this trivial success, and soon had a series of glyph spells ready to use. And then Welesbur went on to another idea.

Something for next week end.

 

Okay, so a little something that's been brewing for a long time... Little follow up to Death at the fair, as Alderion and co continue their travel to arlandia. Their road goes through a little village in dire need of heroes.


Get it Here!

Tools of the trade: About Warriors

As it always is in fantasy roleplay, fighting types seems to rule at the start then kind of stagnate when higher levels are up. Here’s to them.

ABOUT OPPORTUNITY WEAPONS
Those “weapons” are more often associated with protection, for they are usually not used as primary weapons - if you have only one weapon, it won’t be one of those), and release their full potential more often as a reaction to the enemy’s attack than as primary attackers. They are used in conjunction with a primary weapon, and held in the off-hand (the hand that doesn’t hold the weapon), as shields are. As you can guess, you cannot use one if you have a 2-handed weapon, or if you have a shield.
Opportunity weapons produce an effect when an opponent misses his attack roll. The exact nature of the effect depends on the weapon, but it always targets said opponent, nothing else.

Net: Can be made of rope or metal strings. Can be used as a thrown weapon, or an opportunity weapon; it immobilises the opponent, until he succeeds on a roll HAB (TN9). When the opponent frees himself, there are 3/6 chances that the net is rendered unusable (2/6 if metal strings).

Main Gauche: Can be used as a primary weapon (counts as a knife) or a opportunity weapon; it gives you a riposte, which mean you can attack your attacker right now. This doesn’t prevent you from attacking on your turn, and when you are done, the combat turn resumes as usual.

Brise-lame: Can be used as a primary weapon (counts as an improvised knife), or as an opportunity weapon; it is used to disarm the opponent, so that he must finish the fight with his bare hands (or find an improvised weapon).

Dagger-fist: Can be used as a brawl weapon (pair, count as spiked fist with a “bleed” critical) or an opportunity weapon; it causes the opponent the “Bleed” effect. It is a dwarf weapon.

ABOUT SHIELDS
Shields are first hand protective items. Any hero with a minimum combat training can use them that way; bur a really trained fighter can do marvels with those.
We saw three types of shield already (shield and spiked shield in SFK, and tower shield in LARA). A fighter with the reserved skill “Shield training” (see “new skills" below) can also use them as opportunity weapon; shield and tower shield deal [damage reduction] damage and “stun” the opponent. Spiked shield already deals 1 damage, add to it the “Bleed” effect.
And this gives us the opportunity (ha-ha) to add one more type of shield:

Bocle: reduce damages taken in melee by 1 (doesn’t work on ranged attacks); as an opportunity weapon, either cause 1 damage and the “stun” effect, or opens the enemy’s guard, reducing his DEF by 4 until his next turn.

ABOUT COATS
Medieval literature informs us of the varied uses of a coat in combat; I’ll here detail the two most important (and adaptable to LARA that is).
If a hero wears a cape or coat, it can be rolled over the other arm to act as a makeshift shield; it will reduce damage by 1, but to a minimum total damage of 1, and if your opponent misses an attack, you can roll PHY (TN is 6 plus opponent ability) to try and disarm him.
A coat or cape can also be used as a opportunity weapon; the hero can immediately break from melee and move to free position. If used this way, the coat is “lost”, and can be recovered at the end of the fight, or in melee, as a thrown weapon.
At the end of any fight you used your coat one of these ways, you have (2/6 for leather, 4/6 for wool) chances that it is so mangled it cannot be used anymore.

ABOUT SKILLS
As a complement to those, here are new reserved skills for the Fighter:
Precise timing: After he rolled his initiative, the fighter can set it to any score he wants, with the one he rolled as a maximum.
Opportunist: The fighter is trained in the usage of opportunity weapons, and can also use their effect as his main critical if he so wishes. Note: riposte as a critical actually gives you a second attack after the first one.
Shield training: The fighter can use any shield as an opportunity weapon.
Offensive protection: Always inflict 1 damage when an opponent misses its attack. This comes on top of an eventual opportunity attack.
Dirty fighter: the hero’s fists are weapons of opportunity with a “stun” critical / effect.
Beefy: the hero can hold a single 2-handed weapon with one hand (he can have a shield or opportunity weapon in the other hand).

Master of Horror: Episode 4

So, I'm late. But I'm here. Been sidetracked by a bunch of Orks...

Here goes part 4 when you visit the cube, and hope someone dealt with the architect already! the guy must be quite mad.

It's here! enjoy!

Master of Horror: Episode 3

August is not a good month to work, between the kid's holidays and the heat... Anyway, here is part 3, where we go down the pit to the prison of the Wizard king...

It is here!

Also, the introduction, which was not very useful up until now, but becomes necessary from this point, especialy if you have a bard in the team: here!

Master of Horror: Episode 2

 Talk about schedule... Second part of the campaign here! Only one week late! Youhou!

This time, we explore a lost cemetery, and meet its denizen.

It's here! enjoy!

And now for something completely different...

I was working on this for quite some time, and it is not really finished, but circumstances dictate sometimes.

Master of Horror is a mini-campaign for SFK, undead themed. It will be 5 short scenarios, plus one more, a bunch of new monsters... I have 4 parts ready, which gives me a bit of time to finish it ^^

I get this out here now because, well, Mr Romero died last week, and he was instrumental in my deep Undead craze. So here's to him.

There is the first chapter, Hostel. More should follow soon, but maybe you should wait the whole to play it. I will try to keep the delays, but drawing takes me a lot of time...

Tools of the trade: Blessings and curses (part2)

IMBUED WEAPON
A weapon can sometimes become magical of its own, with no particular intervention. Take durandal, Roland’s sword. It was more resilient than any other sword, but nowhere will you find any trace of magic being applied to the blade. A weapon may become imbued by many ways. Whatever the way, it will take time; so much time in fact that the “magical” effect will often be available only after the hero’s death, not before.

- The egregor way : if enough people think an item has magical properties, there is 2/6 chances it will really develop those. We’re talking about at least 2000 people, for at least a year. The people need to be really convinced of the stuff.

- The loving way: This hero wouldn’t think about using another weapon than his trusted blade, and would rather jump into danger to fetch it than leave it in another man’s hands. He passes all his free time and downtime caring about his weapon, oiling it, sharpening it, tending to it. Such a weapon has 2/6 chances to develop “magical” properties.

- The habit way: The wielder is a professional Ork Hunter, he spent his life hunting Orks, using that very weapon; there are 2/6 chances that the weapon will develop ork hunting “magical properties”

Those are of course cumulative and compatible. Our ork hunter (let’s call him Crazy bill) may well place so much faith in its weapon that it cares about it over anything else (my only companion), which will lead many an adjoining soldier to believe the weapon is magical (say twelve thousands in the last orkish crusade); In this case, the weapon will have (2+2+2=6) / 6 chances to develop magical properties.

Crazy bill will become famous for its blade, carreer, and longevity; talk about it! Still fighting orks, at 75 years old? Of course, we know it’s been 25 years since the blade developed its first power (+1 on all to hit rolls against orks), and  developed four more since then (another +1 to hit, a +1 damage, and critical hit on 10, 11 or 12, all only applicable when fighting orks). That helps.
But it has a price: Crazy bill started his career at 15. He uses his blade ever since. Of course the weapon has been repaired so many times there is almost nothing left of the original material but in Bill’s mind, it is still the same sword! So, for 35 years (from 15 to 50), he uses the blade, and become good with it, and kills so many orks he stops counting. As he turns 50,  he starts to wither, and his skills and abilities diminish, but then the sword takes over by compensating the growing weaknesses of the hero.
One day, Bill will die, and give his sword to his most trusted lieutenant. The lieutenant, traumatised by war, will quit the ork hunters and become a drunk. He will finally sell the sword to buy booze (“at least three bottles man! This here blade is Crazy Bill’s  Ork-slayer! Genuine!”); and so the sword enters in legend.
Imbued items will keep growing in power with time, if the conditions are still ongoing. The caretaker doesn’t have to be the same person, for example, the dwarves’s fabled Hammer of Kings is indeed imbued, and quite powerful, but it took seventy generations of kings to empower it so.

An imbued power will always be closely related to the activities of the wearer, for they are born from legend, and legend is born from fact.
Items other than weapons can also be imbued, the coat of a very stealthy thief, the gloves of a healer, the crown of a very wise king…

CURSED ITEMS
There are two ways an item may become cursed. Either someone put a curse on it (see blessings and reverse) or through the imbuing process.
A “spell-curse” can be lifted by a high level priest. See The Arena for details on that.
An “imbued” curse cannot be lifted in any way (well maybe the intervention of a god, but which one would care to do it?). It is permanent, or at least cannot leave the item (whether the hero can leave the item behind is another matter entirely). What’s tricky with this type of curse is that the item is usually also magical, with powerful properties; and then there is the curse.
Consider the Great Bow of Menil Argy, which may well be the most famous cursed items of all: It is a great bow (2 hands, range 1-5, damage D6+1, critical Damage x2) with two properties: it gives a massive +3 to hit and damage against all enemies of the elves (yes, that’s a lot of people); once per day, when hunting only, it insta-kills one target. But, it also has a curse: the holder can never set foot in any house, can never go back home, and will be hated and hunted by any elf recognising the bow (and yes, that’s a lot of people too). So, a perfect weapon for a woodsman, which incidentally makes the most powerful dwellers of the woods want to kill you.

GIVING UP A CURSED ITEM?
Well, most curse don’t prevent the wearer to let the item go. Some require him to give the item to somebody, others to sell it; even heard of one that should be sold for a smaller price than you bought it; and then, there are those few that you cannot get rid of. This can manifest in several ways:

- The hero doesn’t even imagine getting rid of the item, and becomes aggressive when someone else suggests it.

- The item always comes back; it is lying by the bed the next morning, wherever you dumped it. Or someone brings it back.

- If the item is given up, the hero will feel uneasy at first, then (the day after) he looses 1 points of PHY, and another one two days later, and so on until his PHY score reaches –1 (he then dies). If the item is retrieved, all lost points come back in an instant.

Tools of the trade: Blessings and curses

ABOUT BLESSINGS
There is of course the “Bless” prayer and the “Blessed” enchantment, but we are here to discuss true blessing at the temple, with the ceremony and all. All the following blessings are permanent.

CRUSADE BLESSING
A special kind of blessing given by a high priest of Primus, Ultimus, or The Hag. This will only be bestowed at the beginning of a crusade, and only to the leaders of the crusade army. The effects only apply to the enemies of the God, and thus, the potential targets are at best variable. For example, as of right now, The Hag’s crusade weapons have no real targets, since she’s not at war with any other gods.
A Crusade weapon can never be lost in battle (“disarm” critical doesn’t work); it never does fumble, and gets critical on 10, 11 or 12 on the combat roll; and there is a special effect depending on the god concerned.
- The Hag: each critical reproduces the effects of the “Gore” prayer (see the darklands); usually a scythe.
- Primus: +1 to touch and +d6 damage (holly); usually a sword;
- Ultimus: damages provoked by that weapon don’t heal by any non magical means; usually a sword or spear.
Crusade weapons are usually relics of the god’s Clergy, and it is really improbable that any new ones are created, or that those existing may be found outside the bigger temples.

COMMON BLESSING
Sometimes, a temple is in need of adventurers for some mission or another. Those blessings are either part of the mission equipment, or part of the reward. The exact effect of the blessing depends on the god, and can vary; here are a bunch of examples:
- Primus: double damage to nocturnal creatures; +2 to combat rolls against cultists of the dead gods;
- Armalee: +2 to initiative; the user cannot be immobilised in any way;
- Mankha slavra: poisonous attacks;
- Monolith: the item becomes indestructible; The items casts “negate magic” on hit;
- Ultimus: +2 to all attack rolls as long as there are more monsters than heroes; +2 to damage when fighting alone;
- The Hag: All hits cause bleeding; the weapon leeches damages and give them back as HP;
- Maaafsh’tarla: +1 to initiative for all friends in a 10 metres radius; +1 to combat roll against [animal species];
- Moulüd: The user can see as in bright daylight in any circumstances; the holder cannot be lied to.

LOVER’S BLESSING
Sometimes love is just enough. And sometimes, the word of a father can forge the destiny of his children. We’re talking “someone who loves you”, not “someone you sleep with”, here.
Norynn’s people place a good deal of power in family and genealogy; the quest for love, be it filial or flirty, is a highly respected activity. Many a knight goes around wearing a woman’s scarf, just because his lover gave it to him with a kind word –and the same goes for ladies, who can easily wear man jewellery or apparatus, if it was lover-given.
Memento of love hold real – if flimsy- power, as long as the love is true. There are lot of ways to render this in game:
- You can decide it gives the hero one Legend Point per adventure (see the GM’s Folio). This point is only usable against all odds, it is not a bonus, it is a game-changer;
- You may use it in roleplay, and ask less of that hero because of the charm;
- You may authorise one re-roll per adventure, on a very important failed roll, because the hero wants to surpass himself  for his loved one;
anyway, the hero must believe in love and cherish the memento for it to have an effect. In fact, you may want it to works only if the player thinks of it, and gives a flaming monologue about his only true love before the roll. Your call.