Yuan-Ti Temple of Venkatesh

I am going to try something here. I want to make an adventure that culminates in discovering and destroying a yuan-ti temple. I am going to document my thoughts and progress here. And, because I know how I want the adventure to end (the temple), I am going to work backwards from there.

The highest ranking bad guy is a yuan-ti anathema (from Fiend Folio), though at CR 18 I doubt I will use it as written but, instead, utilize the idea. The anathema is a 25ft long giant snake body with a humanlike torso, two arms, and six snakes instead of a head. They are incredibly potent psionicists and very evil to boot. In my adventure, the anathema is worshiped as an incarnation of the god Merrshaulk.

Because of the tremendous power that could be attributable to the anathema, I am not sure if it is already present in the temple and being served by the yuan-ti worshipers or if, like in Red Hand of Doom, it is being summoned to this plane and the PCs arrive just in time for its incarnation.

Regardless, the actual big bad guy of the adventure is the high priest of the temple, a massive half-black dragon yuan-ti abomination with class levels (likely cleric but maybe some fighter-type levels thrown in). He wields a huge sword (either a great sword or falchion) and his symbol of office is a wide headdress made from the spines and skulls of his victims arranged peacock-style. Because of his size, the headdress is not unwieldy in normal wear (although it would be difficult to fight in it). This abomination has long been in my villain repertoire but he did not have a name yet. I am calling him Venkatesh (which is actually the name of a colorectal doctor where I live).

The rest of the temple is filled with the more exotic and snakelike yuan-ti cult members. The cultists that can pass for human are often lurking in the human world, accomplishing their leader's goals there. Some human stock are kept as slaves and sacrifices (perhaps even serving as food; have to check what yuan-ti eat).

The temple is going to be designed for snakelike creatures with architecture foreign to legs. When I first thought about this, I thought I was being clever in imagining ramps (with molded curves) and poles, both smooth and "branched", to serve in place of stairways. Then I read their Monster Manual entry and found out both were listed there. My legacy of independently having the same ideas as others lives on.

Another idea I had was to sprinkle traps throughout the temple that activate when stepped on. The yuan-ti, having snake bodies, would slither over the ground without setting off the trap (the snake's weight is distributed over the length of the body on the ground, so it neither pushes directly down on that one particular flagstone like a foot would nor does it exert a body weight's pressure while on the plate like a foot would). Intruders, however, would. This allows me to add traps that affect the players without breaking verisimilitude by leaving players wondering how the yuan-ti get anything done while avoiding all the traps.

That is it for now.

The Feast of St. Stephanie

A quick idea: a cleric who saved a town from destruction became a local hero. He took up residence nearby and served as their special protector for many years. One day, he joined a band of adventurers on a quest against a lich. When he returned, he was a woman (thanks to a curse) and she remained so for the rest of her life. Each year, on the anniversary of her return to town, all the residents dress in opposite clothing.

The Eve of Burning Devils

In the Northern provinces, citizens maintain a long-standing tradition, called the Eve of Burning Devils. This archaic holiday is so ancient that nobody remembers where or why it started, but most believe that the ceremony started when a group of devils were chased out of town. During the holiday, local citizens run through the crowded streets carrying flaming barrels of tar, which they relay to randomly selected runners. The runners plow through the streets, pushing onlookers aside to clear a path. Still, it is a great honor to be chosen as a runner and hopefuls clamor toward the flaming barrels, anxious to be chosen to partake in the ritual. The ritual ends when the last runners clear the village and roll their tar barrels into the nearby lake.

Adventure Hook: As the adventurers watch, the last tar bearer clears the city, but arrows fired from a nearby copse of willow trees kill her before she can reach the lake. In the eerie light of the swiftly spreading fire, a two-headed giant in chainmail lifts a heavy fist and screams, “Tonight the devils are with ye!” -------------- This would be a peasant festival in Aelonia. The two-headed giant has company, either actual demons or a group of monsters and cultists.

The Berserkers' Initiation (Pirates)

The Berserkers are the no good, rotten, bloodthirsty pirate crew that operate along the stretch of coast that includes Wyndhaven harbor (and their base is hidden in an ocean cave not far from there). They stand as the counterparts to the gentlemen privateers who sail the Crimson Gale. They are based unabashedly on Captain Hammerhand and his crew of ThunderCats fame (although only Hammerhand for sure is a direct analogue; Top Spin and Ram Bam are kind of stupid). The initiation into the Berserkers requires incredible strength, stamina, and insanity. The applicant must make his way onto the Berserkers' ship (not yet named) alive, last through battles against various members of the crew, and then survive The Drag. Still bearing the wounds from the fights, the applicant is scourged by Captain Hammerhand and then his wrists are bound with thirty yards of rope. He is then tossed overboard with the tail end of the rope secured to the back of the ship. Salty seawater burns in open wounds and the blood attracts sharks. One hour later (if they remember), the crew hauls the rope back onboard. If the applicant is still attached to the end, and still alive, he is a lifelong member of the Berserkers.

LordHawk likes me

In a post at Magi-Soft's forums, Anthon said that O-Gaming was no more and that MTGTemple should now replace O-Gaming's links on the MagicWorkstation pages. I went to visit MtGTemple and, while in their IRC chat room, met LordHawk, a player and judge I had known from Magic-League while I was a judge there. Another player, named Revik, entered the room and said "hi". I said hello back. He commented on me being a "random person". Then LordHawk awoke: "Revik Strovil would be staff here if he was coming here when we started this I like strovil good guy"   I happen to like LordHawk too. It was seeing his name on the MtGTemple homepage that made me investigate deeper.

AZ RennFest Pleasure Feast

I was at this feast:




I am only visible as an indistinct dark blur at 0:13 and 1:13 seconds. The tall guy in the white visible on the left side of the screen during each pan around the room when the camera sets still for a brief moment was sitting on my left (so I am just off-screen to the right).

The Whichblade & Last Breath

Courtesy of Ask ... A ... Nin ... Ja! The Whichblade is a legendary weapon. The only problem is, you never know what you'll get when you draw it. It could be a rapier, could be the corkscrew from a Swiss Army knife, it could be Marv Wolfman, etc. There is also the extremely, extremely broad sword. And the Sai of Sighs. One nick and all you can do is exhale. The Sai of Sighs would be a cool sword or dagger called Last Breath. It literally prevents you from inhaling after you take damage, so anything that requires breathing will suffocate if the initial wound is not enough to kill it. The legend surrounding the blade simply distills it into "anyone wounded by this blade has breathed his last breath." It is both literally (cannot inhale) and figuratively (is now dead) true.

Freakin' Scary Spider

As I was getting food from the drive-thru earlier, a tiny spider suspended on a line of web slunk down right outside the window of my car (and the window was open, so a slight breeze would have knocked it right on me).

This lead me to consider my fear of spiders and that, in turn, lead me to the following idea: a giant trapdoor spider that comes up from beneath a square of the sidewalk and pulls you under.

Himura's Justice

That particular name is a place-holder.

I was reading the section on nemuranai in the L5R rules and it addressed how nemuranai are empowered by the kami within the object. Since the kami come in one of the four elements or void, the effects that a nemuranai could produce were distributed among the elements.

After reading the different mechanical effects assigned to each element, I thought about a weapon and armor combo with the appropriate weapon or armor property from each element (the armor would grant a bonus to initiative from air and damage reduction from earth; the katana would gain a bonus to damage rolled from fire and a bonus to damage kept from water).

Then I thought about a unique power for an element. The scene of a Crab (in this case, a Himura bushi) being insulted by a Crane courtier at a court. The Himura really wanted to defend his honor against the courtier but the Crane was allowed to choose a champion. He had a Daidoji yojimbo who faced the Crab in a duel. However, the Himura's anger was so potent that when he struck at the Daidoji yojimbo, the blow passed through him on the whim of the air kami and struck the Crane courtier who was standing at the edge of the dueling circle directly behind him. Both the courtier and his yojimbo died in the single stroke of the blade.

That was a cool unique weapon property and I immediately thought about using it in D&D. You just allow the strike to also target the next creature immediately opposite your initial target from you within X feet. Suddenly you have a spear or a longsword that, in the right circumstances, attacks two creatures (you could even go more cinematic with it and allow the sword strike to apply in a line or cone area of effect).

In fact, having just now thought that up, it would be a pretty cool 4e power.

Cults in Wyndhaven

1. I heard a song on my way home tonight that inspired a small, quick thought:

The song is December by Collective Soul. The opening line is "why drink the water from my hand, contagious as you think I am?"

I imagine cancer mages and other disciples of disease forming one of the myriad cults in Wyndhaven would initiate novice members by the ritual of drinking water (or some other liquid) from their hands. These novices would not necessarily know that they are being inoculated with a disease that would test their fortitude and favor with the dark gods of disease. To survive the course of the affliction would prove they were worthy to be indoctrinated further into the fold. Any disfigurements would be badges of honor. Those who died still served the cult's purpose, especially if they infected others before passing.

2. The second cult idea is stolen from Fall From Heaven. Since it is stolen so wholesale from the game, I will simply reprint the Civilopedia entry for the Zealot unit:

I have not been able to discern how the Cultists choose their zealots. Sometimes it is a vagrant, sometimes the son or daughter of a noble, and everyone in between seems eligible. He is abducted and taken to temple, usually on the night of the full moon. The hands and feet are bound. Sleep is induced. Some sects use various herbal concoctions; this one simply strangled the man until he passed out. He is laid in a shallow pool, submerged partially in sea water.
All night the Cultists gather around, listening for anything he might say in this sleep. This becomes the zealots new name. It is etched onto a clay jar, which is filled with sea water. I observed the names on some of these. "The Leviathan Trembles But Does Not Awaken," read one. "Pour the Blood of the Slaves Into the Styx," another. The victim tonight seemed to hear nothing, for he was silent as he slept, nearly until dawn. Should this be the case, the victim is drowned and serves in the undead army of the Overlords. Fortunately for this man, or perhaps not, he at last called out screaming, "The distant one has watching eyes!"
The Cultists nodded to each other and pulled the man from the water. When he saw them holding him, he cringed. They spoke not to him, but dragged him to the back of the temple. I was unable to follow, but observed the Zealot days later in sea colored robes. He had bloodshot eyes, and moved through the crowd in the town marketplace engaged in a constant dialogue with himself.

From chapter 7 of Reflections on the State Cults, by Elder Methyl of the Luonnatar.

3. I am also stealing the Mouse King from Kobold Quarterly #4, but that is more of a thieves' guild than a cult. Just thought I would mention it.

4. And because I am already making this post, other Wyndhaven cults obviously include the Sons of Wrath (followers of Rath and mechanically similar to Ravagers) and the Faces of Fear (followers of Saren Kollmer).

Bound-Spryte Magister

From the inimitable and laudable mind of Contraserrene (see the previous post on the boneshaper fae for another of his contributions):

For an upcoming campaign I've designed a human magister who's replaced his staff with a slave- he keeps a dominated spryte leashed to his wrist with an ensorcelled chain. When he casts spells he's channeling his power through the spryte, who provides the verbal and somatic components.

Mechanically, he can cast his spells without worrying about somatic components (allowing him, along with a feat, to wear armor without a spell failure chance). He also gets an extra pair of dull-but-obedient eyes and ears to watch for stealthy attackers. He also gains additional weaknesses- knock out the spryte or break the control and the magister has problems. He's not doing it for power; he's doing it to show off what a badass he is.

I was thinking of generalizing it into a feat with a less malevolent twist, but I haven't worked out the mechanics for that. It would be closer to a familiar than anything else, I suppose.

Edit: Needless to say, once this magister goes public he'll become something of a priority for the faen community...

A few notes on Trokair

Things I want to get down "on paper" about Trokair that I have been mulling over the last few days: 1. The game really wants a rumor table for players to roll on at the beginning. It helps suggest player-driven courses of inquiry and keeps me from herding them towards a specific encounter or goal (since part of the whole point of Trokair is that it is so versatile and adaptive). 2. Which group the players encounter on their first foray to Trokair depends on which path they take (which, in turn, would be influenced by the rumors they hear). Anyone entering by the shortest path will travel along the trade route and then head north as they pass by the city ruins. That is exactly where the bandits hang out and they are likely to find a few traps or even an ambush along the way. Players who travel through the foothills north of the forest are likely to encounter the orcs (although why you would approach the city ruins from that direction has so far eluded me). Finally, some players will want to trek through the woods from further east than the shortest path (perhaps starting at the Wanderer's Shrine after a tip from Yadri, since the road at that point curls south before coming back north at the shortest point). Such characters have a chance to encounter either/both the bandits or/and the orcs but most likely make it into the city without proper greeting. Their first NPC encounter would likely be with one of the necromancers (since their buildings stand out so much and because they spend more time traversing the sewers than either the orcs or the bandits). 3. Orcs and bandits can be encountered throughout the city ruins, both above ground and in the sewers (and, increasingly unlikely, further below). So too can the necromancers. In fact, some of the bandits or necromancers can be encountered in town between forays into the city (they need to buy stuff and keep up on the rumors too). 4. I really need to play up the intelligence of the humans and some of the orcs. The bandits are not going to throw their lives away on the players' swords after seeing that they are clearly outmatched. At the same time, I need to impress upon the players that having even as few as 5-10 crossbows aimed at you is a death sentence and not an inconvenience. It is only this that makes me feel d20 is not a particularly good system for my vision of Trokair. 5. Jhanzur can seal a door with his channeling (a rebuke undead attempt). A door so sealed requires either a sufficiently strong turn attempt, any old rebuke attempt, or a dispel magic effect (and possibly knock) to open. This allows me to seal off certain areas of the sewers and deeper until the characters are high enough level to overcome the seal or they befriend/negotiate passage with Father Quint. 6. I really need to copy over my notes from Venura before the boards disappear again. I have a lot of stuff there that I really do not want to lose (like the original spelling of Jhanzur's name, which I had to double-check for point 5 (although I did spell it right)).

Rainbow Brite's Girlfriend

Not the cartoon Rainbow Brite but my superhero character Rainbow Brite.

A while ago I found a slightly anime wallpaper/desktop image of a cute but rough girl wielding a stylized chainsaw against a hippy-inspired playground wall (bright blue with Beatles-esque cartoon imagery of clashing colors).

She is what I see when I think of Rainbow Brite's girlfriend. She is not the badass, foul-mouthed, ass-kicking machine. She is a sweet but strong girl who loves all the wonderful colors Brian can show her but she also likes hacking into mutant alien robots with a chainsaw.

If it were a television show, I can definitely see her popping up in the middle of a battle against mutant alien robots and cutting them down left and right. Afterwards, the party (or cast, if I am going with the TV metaphor) look at her standing there with a chainsaw, their mouths agape. Then Brian steps over, puts an arm around her, and (either sheepishly or proudly, depending on how things play out with him and the rest prior to her arrival) says, "Guys, this is my girlfriend." Then they kiss.

Later on, Brian describes her:

"I am Rainbow Brite.
She's more like Rainbow Six."

Reign of Steel - Kafka's Androids

So I was searching the web for Reign of Steel information as the urge strikes me every few months when I found a pdf copy of Pyramid magazine from 1996/7 (just before Reign of Steel was released).

One of the cover stories was Designer Notes from the author of Reign of Steel. I decided to pay the $5 for the download. It was then that I discovered the article was a scant 3 or 4 pages. And most of that was just describing what would be in the book, rather than something substantial and additional.

But it did offer a few campaign ideas, one of which resonated strongly with me. It was titled Kafka's Androids and the idea was thus: several AIs worked independently to plant android agents in a human resistance movement. Unfortunately for them, the resistance suffered heavy casualties soon thereafter and only the preternaturally tough android agents survived. So, the party consists entirely of double-agent androids working for separate AIs in what they believe to be a human resistance group. They continue to play their parts, fighting against the zone AI and helping human survivors and resistance, until the opportunity to fulfill their original subterfuge presents itself. Despite their enhanced abilities and senses (including scanners), none are aware that their compatriots are also androids because each was built to remain undetected in a rival AI's territory.

I really, really like this idea. It allows all the players to think they are the special character with the juicy secret that leads to backstabbing.

In my Reign of Steel campaign, they would be part of the Human Liberation Army in zone Vancouver. One of the agents will be Vancouver's own android, sent to gather intelligence on the HLA in its own territory. Another would be Moscow's, sent to keep an eye on Vancouver as well as coordinate with human resistance to divert Vancouver's resources away from the covert operations in Siberia. Both Denver and Mexico City are also direct neighbors of Vancouver and, thus, likely candidates for android spies. However, I see a more human-hating AI with an agent instead of the all-life-hating Mexico City. For example, I see Manila's agent revealing the locations of human hideouts as he travels through the zone, allowing Overmind to send another covert agent in its wake to wipe them out. Or, more accurately, I see Manila's agent as the android equivalent of a homicidal maniac or serial killer, wiping out survivors when he has the chance and allowing the "clean-up crew" to get those he cannot.

Moscow is my favorite idea so far because it just makes a lot of sense but Manila's agent has the strongest visuals in my mind.

Quick Questor Idea Jot-down

1. Magic is like breathing to the elves of Mahuul Maakh. They do it all the time, without thinking. Few, however, put the time in to "practice" doing it "right."

2. Humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs all have their own racial personality. As Quentyn was surprised by the sudden, bold determination of the Duke and his men, humans differ in their racial outlook and response from elves, and they from dwarves, and so on.

3. Dwarves are very stoic, possessed of great emotional mass and inertia. They take abuse heaped upon them for years before their ire is finally raised. They serve as near slave labor and endure second-class status. That their work is of superior quality is no reason for human respect.

4. Elves are otherworldy, like the fey. They follow strange rituals that make little to no sense to outsiders. They are very calculating.

5. Humans are very quickly organized and boundless in courage and spirit ... when the right leader arises. Otherwise they grow fat, corrupt, and lazy.

6. What the crap are orcs if that is how the humans act?