52 Weeks of Magic - Item 42 - The Law of Verbena

The herb named Verbena is a cultivated leafy herb from the city of Nace. In nature, Verbena is extremely hard to find and can only be harvested at night. The leaf can be dried for use later or used immediately to staunch bleeding and heal 1d4 points of damage per use. Applying or ingesting the leaf will purify the wound and sanctify the user. Each leaf is sufficient to heal 3 times or three different people.

When used dry, it is typical stored within an earthen vessel and each leaf is handled with a hilt-like device, which acts as both tweeters and handle.

The Law of Verbena comes from one of the side effects of the leaf's use. Typically, the leaf cannot be handled without healing the healer, even with the handle like tool. When healed by the herb, the user is marked with The Law of Verbena. They will glow with a soft light, they will radiate an aura of good and will repel evil 10' for three days after healing. These are the minor effects of Verbena.

The Law of Verbena will curse anyone who injuries the healed during the effects of healing. For this reason, all healing must occur in a temple and the healed and healer must remain within it's confines until the minor effects fade. Should that person be deliberately injured while sanctified, the attacker will suffer a powerful curse. They will lose 1d3 hit points and half of their constitution for 7 days.

This curse was anecdotal know from it's discovery, but not always believed. Under the cruel rule of the Emperor Asinusistic, an elven prisoner was tortured for information. Asinusistic healed the elf to keep the process going. He was immediately struck down the curse.

Over the next seven days, the Capital of 75,000 was stricken with the curse. Many people died outright and the city was thrown into chaos. Asinusistic survived the initial curse, but subsequently died when he was thrown from the palace rooftop. News of his death stopped the Elven incursion and it was another generation before hostilities started anew.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 47 - The Scryer's Beads

Hermin, the King's sister holds a crystal ball
and is scrying a human court house.

The Scryer's Beads are a magical item used in conjuncture with a crystal ball. The device is rather simple in nature, if a bead is touched to crystal ball, the crystal ball will be able to "lock on" to that bead and allow for scrying by anyone using that particular ball. The beads confer the ability to use the crystal ball to anyone, regardless of magical ability. Typically the beads are found in groups of 12 on a chain. Each bead appears as an attractive trinket to be worn.

Anyone holding the crystal ball can switch from bead to be bead on command.

This item first appeared in The Kobold's Folly, which is a series of maps available on DriveThruRPG.

In that book, the Scryer's Beads were separated from the crystal ball and the kobolds do not have the ability to use the crystal ball effectively. The beads were taken from a horse thief in a small provincial town and are sitting on the bench of the local judge.

The Kobold King's sister, Hermin, is in possession of the crystal ball and frequently scries the court room. Hermin believes she is seeing the high court of a human king. Observations of the rural court house have caused the kobold tribe to believe a great number of strange things about human royalty and legal proceedings, which they seek to emulate. While this may be amusing, the tribe has developed a hatred of horse thieves, and perhaps a taste for them.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 46 - The King's Cold

One of Minwan's subjects holds the King's Cold.
Nervously. 

The King's Cold is a magical item owned by the House of Minwan, a tribe of kobolds. It is one of two magical items found by the tribe in the Folly that they now live in. They do not understand the nature or purpose of this torc-like device and it serves as a crown to the kobold king.

King Minwan has observed that the torc will make him unnaturally cold, even on the hottest days on the savanna. This is one power of the device, but isn't it's true purpose. Minwan does not like to wear the torc as a crown due to this property, he is often seen fidgeting with it. On particularly hot days he uses it as a reward, passing it from kobold to kobold so they may gain relief from the heat. This closer to the device's true purpose.

Before the Empire came with it's roads and supply lines, the indigenous half-elves created many of these devices to support their construction efforts. Each crew was 11 workers under a supervisor. The supervisor was identified by his torc, a mark of office. As he gave out assignments, the workers would tap the torc on his arm. This conveyed 4 hours of immunity to the sunburn and proofed them against the heat. When the work was fully completed, the supervisor would often bury his torc as an offering. The kobold's digging in the Folly uncovered the device that is now known as The King's Cold.

There are variants which protect against cold as well as heat.

This item first appeared in The Kobold's Folly, which is a series of maps available on DriveThruRPG.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 45 - The Rings of the One

Today, we have a jump in numbering. Items 43 and 44 will be a part of a story and will be posted when that story is complete.

The Rings of the One are a set of rings normally found in a ornate, locked box. They should be considered an artifact level magic item, however, they can be destroyed by mundane means, unlike other artifacts. Roll on the following table to determine the number of rings contained therein:

01 - One Ring
01-30 - 3 Rings
31-75 - 5 Rings
96-97 - 7 Rings
98 - 9 Rings
99 - 11 Rings
100 - 99 Rings

In order for the rings to work, the complete set must be used, one ring per person.

Each ring allows the wearer to add their Dexterity bonus to initiative rolls at the cost of their Dexterity bonus in combat. They are unlikely to loose initiative, but their reflexes are muted for the duration of the combat. Removing the ring does not remove this penalty for the duration of that combat. This is the cost of Rings.

If multiple rings are found and all are worn by different people, the extreme power of the rings becomes evident. If there are not enough willing people to don all of the rings in the box, then only the first power is in effect. In addition to the cost above, all wears gain many other powers at the cost of their will. This is not subject to a saving throw initially, each wearer must be a willing subject of the Ring's powers. Later, they may change their mind.

First, all hit points of all wears are combined into a single total. No individual will fall in combat so long as one hit point remains in the pool. If the pool is reduced to zero, all of the wearers fall down dead or unconscious. If a wearer has the ability to regenerate or heal, those points are added to the total hit point pool at the same rate they would normally be returned to the wearer. If the hit point pool was 11 and a wizard regenerated two points per round, the pool would be increased by 2 every round. The same goes for a healing spell, all points go to the pool. If one wearer of the ring is incapacitated somehow, they will continue to stand and fight even if they should be asleep or unconscious. Wearers are immune to powers of the mind and cannot be charmed, slept, paralyzed, etc. They can be poisoned, knocked down, tricked by an illusion, teleported away, etc. If one ring is completely destroyed or removed from a wearer, all abilities are lost for that person immediately and everyone else in the next round. In the case of destruction of any one ring, the whole set loses all powers, forever.

Second, one person is selected as the leader by vote. That character's abilities and skills are paramount. If the leader was a thief and the rest were fighters, everyone regardless of class would make all rolls as thieves. These rolls are made at the individual's level, not that of the leader. None of the abilities of fighters could be used because their personalities and knowledge are suppressed. Once this leader is selected, it cannot be changed except when the whole group removes all of the rings to restart the voting process.

The voting process is silent. Once the rings are on, no debate can occur. Players simply point at the person they wish was in charge. If no leader is selected, none of the rings powers are activated. A vote can be carried out every round before initiative is rolled.

Third, special abilities possessed by the lead character may be used by anyone in the group, but only to the extent of normal usage and limited by the level of the individual rather than the leader. In the above example of theft and fighters, one fighter could backstab as a thief while another could pick a lock. But two players could not backstab in the same round nor could every player pick a lock. One thief, one specific use of one ability per round. No player would be permitted more attacks per round as a fighter because the thief is in control. If a fighter was in charge and of high enough level, multiple attacks per round from each character would be permitted.

Fourth, magic works differently for this hive mind. A caster in the role of leader is still able to use spells, but the spells may originate from any person wearing a ring. This allows the use of spells from a more beneficial location. Only the magical abilities of the leader are available and are limited by the caster's ability. If a magic user was the leader, he could permit his magic missile spell to originate from a cleric who was also wearing a ring, but no one could use a clerical spell or ability because the magic user is in control. The ring wearers may not cast multiple spells per round, but could utilize spell like abilities of magic items, if the leader was also able to use that magic item.

Fifth, the weapon proficiency of the leader are extended to the rest of the group, while the lack of proficiency by the leader does not reduce other characters abilities. For example, a fighter under the control of a mage still remembers how to use a sword. A magic user under the control of a fighter can also use a sword.

However, moral limitations DO affect all in the group. A cleric in control of a fighter would not want the fighter to use a sword. If there was no blunt weapon available for the fighter, the fighter would use the flat of the blade or the hilt as a weapon. In the reverse situation, a cleric would be forced to remove the ring to avoid using a sword.

Sixth, there is a bonus to strike if more than one ring wearer attempts to strike a single target in the same round. Each subsequent attack in a round gains a plus one to hit. This is because the Rings allow coordinated attacks, so a miss might set up a later strike. This bonus resets to zero every round.

If one character, other than the leader, wished to cancel the effects of The Rings of the One, they must make a saving throw vs. magic to remove the ring. When this occurs, the powers of the Rings are canceled immediately for that one person and in the very next round for all others. The hive mind effect is canceled completely until that ring is put back on by a willing person. This save causes a noticeable but slight blanch or hesitation in all of the characters but doesn't effect them otherwise. The same happens if someone is disintegrated, turned astral, dispelled, etc.

Removing one ring could place specific characters in hazardous situations, such as a magic user leading an assault on a castle gate might lose some combat abilities at a critical moment.

Groups wearing the ring cause a special morale check in the second round of combat. There is a significant creep factor in seeing a group move as one entity which will cause fear.

The leader is not able to read the minds of others, only issue commands which must be followed. The other CAN read the mind of the leader.

When the powers of the rings are canceled, every character is healed for one hit point before the pool of hit points is divided evenly. All hit points divide are rounded down and must be awarded equally, meaning that all characters could end up with a single hit point and nothing more. Basically, taking the rings off cannot kill the wearer, but could leave them in dire straits.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 41 - The Empty Bouquet

The Empty Bouquet comes in a variety of shapes and forms. It most commonly appears as a mask that covers the eyes, nose and mouth, but sometimes only two of the three. Occasionally, the mask is merely a container that is held against the face. The Empty Bouquet is filled with a collection of spices, flowers and herbs to defend against disease. When the eyes, nose and mouth are completely covered, the device provides total immunity. When only two of the three are covered, the wearer receives a plus +4 to save.

Each packet of spices, herbs and flowers will function for 8 hours before being consumed by the device.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 40 - The Baker's Vessel

The Baker's Vessel is another magical product found in the homes of the very rich. It is a large earthen jar which when filled with dough, will produce bread on it's own, without leavening agents or external heat source. Each Vessel will produce one loaf of bread per hour, typically enough per day to feed 10 or 12 people.

To function, the Vessel must be placed in a designated space. This is usually a counter top, but could be anywhere chosen by the owner. Multiple Vessels will not function in the same building or property, which is why this product is a household item and not a commercial or industrial product. For example, if one owned a house with a garden shed, placing a Vessel in each building would not work. Only the first placed and filled vessel would work. If somehow one contrived to place and fill two of them simultaneously in two different buildings on the same property, which one worked would be random. One exception is in apartment buildings. Each apartment's Vessel would function normally, so long as the renters are of different families and are separated by a door.  Many people have tried to make this work on an industrial level and these quirks prevent it. The Vessel somehow knows if someone is "gaming the system".

When in operation, the Baker's Vessel will turn red hot. This can be used to warm a room, but is not a fire hazard. Touching the vessel conveys the power of heat resistance, but curiously, people will find the vessel impossible to lift when in operation. It cannot be tipped, opened, or otherwise moved while working. When the bread is done, the vessel will cool to room temperature instantly, while the bread inside will remain hot until removed. This magic prevents decay and molding.

Some cultures have special Baker's Vessels which produce stacks of flat breads instead of loaves.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 39 - The Miller's Device

The Miller's Device is small hand held box. It is used to grind grains to flour. It is typically found in the homes of the very rich. It will grind enough flour for one day's baking needs of the house. These items are usually proportional to the size of the household, but as households change, sometimes the device will be to small or large for the house it supports.

The device is self-driven and can be left unattended, except in the case where it is too small for the house and needs to be refilled with grain. The functioning of the device creates a loud grinding sound and moves on it's own. It can mill enough flour for the house in 4 hours, even if it needs to be reloaded several times.

The device merely grinds grains, it does not create anything.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 38 - Ponderous Crampons

Just like the name implies, the Ponderous Crampons fit over boots and secure a climber to a surface. The Ponderous Crampons allow someone to walk on not only ice, but also on walls and ceilings. Movement is limited to a prosperous walk. This device causes each footstep to resound like a giant metal shod foot. The user will behave as if gravity is pointing at their feet, but any item released will fall in the correct direction for normal gravity.

The user is slowed incredibly and cannot sneak up on anyone. However, if they are motionless and on a wall or ceiling, they will receive a +1 to surprise. In combat, the wearer loses their Dex adjustment if standing on the ground. However, the bonus returns if they are standing on walls or ceilings. This is due to the novelty of the situation, not a return of speed. Likewise, thieves attempting to hide in shadows receive a +10% bonus if they abandon the floor for another unusual surface.

The Ponderous Crampons lock firmly on the feet with a sort of crank like contraption. It takes two rounds to don them, but only 6 seconds (a segment) to remove them with the release switch.

52 Weeks of Magic - Item 37 - Splayer's Clothe

The Splayer's Clothe is a magic item used for many purposes. It has a tacky surface that holds things in place on a table. Many people use this item to hold complex parts in place while working on them. It is usually the same size of the table it is used on, perhaps a 48" by 60" oval.The magic of this item allows the user to fold the Clothe up while items are in place. Items resting on the clothe are not disturbed by this folding. The items end up in an extra dimensional space when folded.

While it is meant for taxidermists, tailors, cobblers, and other working people, adventurers can find strange uses for the Splayer's Clothe.

Items in the extra dimensional space are frozen in time. They will not rot, mold, cool, or warm while in the space. Hot or cold food can be wrapped up like this for preservation, as can a body. The only rule for placement is that the shadow of the item to be folded needs to fall entirely on the clothe. A standing person at noon can be folded up, as can someone in a darken room. The user can manipulate the environment to cause shadows to fall entirely on the clothe.

If a person is folded up, they maintain their original orientation when unfolded. People could be standing up, lying down or anything in between when folded, so long as their shadow is entirely on the clothe.

In the case of living creatures, they will be frozen in time, and will require no food, water or air. They cannot unwrap themselves as they can't move or think in this state. It is virtually impossible to wrap one's self up, as this would likely violate the requirement of keeping your shadow on the clothe.

The duration is unlimited. Unfolding a found Splayer's Clothe could be fun or perilous.

Character Sketch - Senator Vitus

I'm not sure if we will get a chance to play over Christmas break, but I want to sketch out a couple of characters for our next session. 

First, the players have asked for a few more NPC followers. With the exception of a new cook, I am going to make the party act out the hiring process. Right now the party has 9 low level characters, four of which are NPCs. I don't mind the endless parade of hired help, the players aren't asking that these NPCs engage in combat. Cooks and horse handlers are fine, but I'll push back if they start looking for gladiators or other combat orientated NPCs. 

On my side of the equation, I need a few more NPC to flesh out the city of Nace. In our last session, the party chased the elven warband around and the elves managed to slip away. Where did they go in a xenophobic, human-centric city?  

They are hiding in the house of Vitus. 

Senator Vitus has a couple of connections to the story so far. He is the third son of Senator class citizen. He lives in Nace, but travels to the Capital for his duties to the Empire. As the third son, he wasn't expected to amount to much and was a miller before the deaths of his two older brothers. The oldest brother was assassinated for pushing for manumission of all slaves in the Capital. The other brother was killed in a skirmish with the elves out on the frontier. These two events shaped Vitus. 

He is a self-made man, having worked his way up in the family business of milling before establishing his own milling company. He specializes in milling the magical herbs and plants from Nace and is extremely rich as a result. Vitus only employs slaves in his own household on a routine basis, most of his workers are freedmen and women with only a handful of slaves in administrative positions in his business. 

After the death of his brothers, he became a stoic, seeking to mitigate the ills of the world in his life. Vitus is a 3rd level monk. He believes that slavery is wrong and a fruitful peace with the elves and dwarves is necessary. This is why he is harboring the elves. He has ingratiated himself with several temples and cults in the north of the Empire and is friendly with several powerful mages in Nace proper. 

He is a thorn in the side of the Coven of Ash. They would kill him in a heartbeat, if given the chance. The massive resources of Vitus and his family are the only thing keeping him safe. He has his own unit of assassins for counter intelligence and personal safety. 

He does have one vice, alcohol. It isn't much of a vice as he selects a couple of bottles and partakes in them only on holidays until he is roaring drunk. This results a private party where he frees one or two of his slaves. The members of his household know about this and are aware that this continuous stream of freedmen annoys the conservative in the Senate and many people in Nace, such as The Coven of Ash. For this reason, his household will prevent him from freeing more than one or two slaves each holiday. When he is in this gregarious mood, the slaves of the house draw lots. The losers absent themselves from Vitus's presence on these days so they cannot be picked for freedom. 

Several years ago, Vitus freed his whole household at once, and the Coven of Ash killed them all. Vitus's response was to target the assassins and personally executed one of the witches himself. Since then, the household has been careful to make sure this isn't repeated as they don't want their freedom to be a death sentence.  

My to-do list is to make some peasant type characters for the household and for the players to hire. I need a character sheet for Vitus and his assassin bodyguards. A handful of magic users and clerics should also be generated. The characters will probably ask to meet some of these people, too, given that Nace is a magical place.  

I hope to be done with all of these by Monday. 

Session Update - Just Let It All Hang Out

After very nearly wiping out the party by accident and the players loving it, I decided to put the pedal to the metal and crank up the intensity. Many of the characters leveled up on the last adventure, so there was some give to the take. 

The characters broke into two groups, then four by necessity. The plan was to meet up at Five Tree Hill, just outside the city gates by lunch time, but it was lunchtime when the first group arrived. Jaime, Jim, Matilda, Megen and Melvin arrived on horse. Jaime made arrangements at the inn and stable for the care of the animals and kicked back to wait for the wagons out on the hill.

Megen and Matilda went to see the sights in Nace. Jim just declared himself to be a 1st level ranger and needed better supplies, so Melvin joined him on a shopping excursion.

The players were given several hints that something was amiss, and everyone but Jaime went to check out the "problem". The denizens of Villa quickly came to the conclusion (click for last pre-session update) that Guilbert should be sent north for trial and execution. Ortaire would be quick marched south to Nace for a mini-Triumph then sold in to slavery.

The four raiders in town were not too pleased by this. Ortaire could rat them out. The elven warband also encountered the sad Triumph over Ortaire, and were thinking of doing something about when Megen noticed them.

The players have an issue with this campaign in respect to the status of non-humans. They have been told elves and dwarves are evil enemies, but they just don't believe it. I decided to let fun and intrigue rule the day and the elves bolted as soon as she pointed them out. The players pursued them using a set of racing min-rules I invented. It was a chase as opposed to combat, which both amused and frustrated the players. It made them believe that the elves were shadowy antagonists without ham-fisting it. The players are probably not inclined to kill off elves for the heck of it, like most citizens of the Empire, which is fine by me. But now they are wary of them.

In the meantime, several other events occurred. All of the characters met up at Five Tree Hill just in time for the wagons to arrive. The raiders also came to Five Tree Hill to see if they could recruit help to free Ortaire by force or maybe just kill him to keep him quiet. Neither was a good plan for the raiders.

In the final act, the characters had not identified the raiders as such, but believed they were cut-purses or something and watched them closely. At this point, all players were playing their main character plus at least one NPC. It takes a load off of me, plus they seem to protect the NPC's better than I do. 

Queue up the finale. The Coven of Ash are the self-appointed defenders of the Empire. They are much higher level than the characters. I figure, why would a high level antagonist hide from the player characters when they have an advantage? This is the opposite of respect and should be every big-bad's operational standard. 

The Coven has walked right into the midst of the party, invisibly. As the party passed near the raiders, Caecilia, the youngest of the 3 witches, dropped her invisibility to cast Stinking Cloud on the raiders. Her intent was to set up the party as aggressors against the town and cause them all kinds of problems when they try to re-enter Nace. 

The Coven knows who and what the raiders are and thinks of them as useful pawns. They also know that the player characters are agents of the Emperor. And the Emperor intends to upset the "natural order of Empire", which cannot be allowed. 

We rolled for surprise. Guess what? 6 siders either hate me or love me*. No one was surprised by Caecilia. The player covering Melvin was living it up by doing some real role-play. He was eating an apple with a knife and managed to hit Caecilia before she could cast. 

Foiled, the other two witches helped Caecilia escape by invisibly tormenting the players, guards and raiders. The guards and raiders lost morale and slammed the gates shut. The players managed to convince them to open up, but only after suffering several rounds of invisible high jinx at the hands of the witches. Wails, loud claps and pokes sent the oxen into a tizzy and annoyed the players.  

The party ended the session in front of a warm fire at the inn, with mugs of beverages to sooth their nerves. The players seemed both frazzled and amused. 

*I have a bad time with surprise dice, but this outcome was even better than the one I planned. I can't wait for the next session. 

The Movement Game

In AD&D, movement is not real clear. On page 39, of the PHB distance is covered. 1" is 10 yards outside or 10 feet inside. Ah, easy. Next it says: "Your referee will have information which will enable him or her to adjust the movement rate to the applicable time scale for any situation".

Actually, that's not true. The information is on 101 and 102 of the PHB. Characters move 12" per round or 120 feet per minute. Outside, the rate changes to 12" = 12 miles per half day of travel, where "day" is defined as "daylight hours". Encumbered characters move less.

It is all very reasonable, so long as one doesn't ask "how fast can I move?". If you can run an 8 and half minute mile, you're moving at 62" in game terms or 621 feet per minute. An Olympic runner would be much faster. That is totally nuts.

But why break the math like this? This is AD&D, not a running simulator.

Last session, my players got in a dice heavy combat that came dangerously close to killing several of them and as the DM, I didn't realize how bad it was. 8 NPCs were actually killed, in some cases over-killed.

In this session, I wanted that fun without the element of danger and without railroading the characters with imaginary danger. The players realized the scenario was good fun without too much danger.

Here are the rules:

1. A character can move 12" per segment, or 6 seconds. Encumbered characters move less fast.   
2. At these speeds, no weapons can be used. 
3. Turning 45 degrees costs 1" of forward movement. 


1. Diagonal movement on the ground has no penalty other than the loss of distance covered, as the character moving parkour style. 
2. Diagonal movement for flying creatures is doubled. One unit at a 45 degree angle counts double as they need to avoid things to stay airborne. 
3. Turning 90 degrees costs 3" of forward movement.
4. To stop, one must roll a 1d4 to see how many inches they will travel before stopping. 
4. You can hit people with things in the environment, such as tree limbs, baskets, boxes, etc. 
5. Everyone is AC 10 to these attacks, less Dex bonus and magical item bonus.
6. These attacks don't do damage, they change the target's facing. 
7. Roll to hit vs. AC 10, then roll a 6 sided die for effect. Consult the following table: 
1. Turned 90 degrees to the left for free, but returning to your previous course costs 3".
2.  As above, but to the right. 
3. Turned 45 degrees to the right for free, but returning to your previous course costs 1". 
4. As above, except to the left. 
5. You hurtled the object and moved one 1" forward for free. 
6. You are knocked down. You are motionless for the remainder of the segment. 
8. Repeat as long as the fun allows. 

What is great about this system, is everyone can participate with little danger of death. Of course, wiley characters will invent ways to kill each other like this.

As near as I can tell, there is no good way to implement normal combat with this set of mini rules. Some rules of thumb. Bow fire could come once every 5 segments, twice per round and always comes last in the order above. Crossbows can fire immediately on segment 1, but then have to reload over the next ten segments. The interesting effect of bow fire and crossbow fire, is the environment itself. In a crowded city street, even a slow character can step around a corner preventing a shot from landing or even being fired.

As far as melee weapons go, even a lowly magic user or urchin should be able to stay one jump ahead...

The Raider War Band

The Raider War Band is waiting for the PC's party to the Southeast of the Villa. There are 7 fighters and 3 thieves. The 3 thieves are mounted and have been hunting for food. Ortaire has been keeping everyone fed with his bow skills, but is running out of arrows.

Albé and Guilbert are the only mounted fighters. Guilbert is one of the younger raiders, but has risen to be the nominal leader of the war band thanks to his high Charisma. All three thieves have short bows as does Warren. Raglan, Albé, Frédéris and Guilbert have slings.

One square is 10 yards.

Guilbert has selected a bend in the road to ambush the party. His plan is to hide the sling armed raiders on the right side of the road with the two melee only fighters on the other side. The horse mounted bow men will charge at the party, which will be the signal for the slingers to attack the oxen. That will allow the bowmen to dismount and attack from the front.

Click the link for a PDF of the 10 characters.

The Honor Guard

The players were not supposed to court any retainers or followers at the Villa. However, due to circumstances beyond their control, they will have an honor guard traveling with them until they reach Nace.

Cassia, Florentina and Lucius have been selected from the ranks of villagers by the Emperor to escort the two accused to justice and then lay their master and mistress to rest. All are slaves that were instrumental in operating the Villa del Vino successfully.

Lucius is an elderly man, however he is a former gladiator. He has a head for accounting. He is in his late 60's but is still powerful. His daughter-in-law is Florentina, the head woman of the villa's mill and presses. Her husband died many years ago and she is representing him. The final member of the honor guard is Cassia, the master's mistress and bodyguard. She was horribly beaten during the raid, but was also responsible for scattering the other villagers before she was incapacitated. She has given a statement that could free or condemn the accused murderers.

Rona has healed Cassia as much as she is able to. Gurwinder has encouraged the woman to take up her master's bow, which is a +2 weapon. Cassia laments not having it during the attack, as she is a deadly archer.

The honor guard will travel with the party several miles north to hand over the prisoners. They will then return to the Villa and transport the Master's family to it's final resting place in Nace. This is a little trickery on the Emperor's part. He wants the bodies of the family removed from the Villa proper, but also honored in a major city so that when he replaces them with his own leadership, no one will have a reminder of the former Master.

NPC stats will have to be generated for these characters as they will respond to any encounters with the enemy with lethal force, for vengeance. These will be loaded to the Pregenerated character lists when time permits.

Who's Out There - Post Twoth

Twoth by sea. Who is out on the water ways?

The elven schooner and the raider ship. The elven schooner put 3 elven warriors ashore and left to go chart the comings and goings of ship of the Empire. The Schooner has a problem as the raider's ship has been ghosting them.

The raiders have a spy and informant network on the shore and believes that the schooner is the source of a power band of warriors who hit them at the Villa del Vino. Well, that's not true at all. The party captured two, killed 3 and the remaining men are scattered to the winds. They know the sea and the coastline, but have poor land navigation skills.

The raiders have a myoparo, a ship with 15 rowers and a crew of 55 men who are also raiders. Most of the rowers are slaves but some of the younger, inexperienced raiders also man the oars. The real crew is less than a quarter of everyone on board.

The raiders believe that the schooner has inflicted all the casualties on their crew, which they count as 25. In reality, only 5 are dead, three are horribly lost and wandering eastward on to the plains and the last two were captured. There are three groups of raiders prowling the area, each unaware of the others. Technically, most of the raiders are not lost, they merely don't know where the others are.

There is a group of 5 men on foot, northwest of the Villa del Vino. They are busy dodging patrols. In actuality, these "patrols" are runners bring news back and forth from the Capital to the Villa. They would like to reach the shore, but keep getting forced into the trees due north of the Villa.

There is a tiny group of 4 that has wandered in to the city of Nace. They are currently drinking themselves silly, believing that the Empire's assassins are on their tail. They couldn't be more wrong.

The third group is southeast of the Villa, waiting to bushwack anyone coming south. There are 10 men, half on foot and half on stolen horses. They have seen their myoparo come and go several times, but they believe that they can catch some or all of the slaves fleeing the Villa. Unfortunately for the raiders, the people of the Villa are now heroes surrounded by real heroes, namely the PC party. They won't be fleeing anywhere and the PC party will encounter these guys soon. So could the elven war party, which could make things interesting.

The last raider is walking home, to his farm.

Meanwhile, back on the myoparo, there are only 35 raiders and 10 slave rowers. All of the inexperienced raider/rowers have gotten lost on shore. Since the ship needs 15 rowers, the older raiders are pulling double duty and are very angry about this. Words have been said that can't be taken back and violence will erupt if they don't find something else to fight. So far, the only thing they have seen small enough to engage is the elven schooner. Things are getting dangerous on the ship, for everyone, except possibly the slave rowers.

(Hey, that adds up to 17 raiders... I am updating the numbers to add to 25.)

Who's Out There?

Ok, the characters are not all alone out there. These are 6 mile hexes, so there are a lot of unfriendly forces hanging out.

Closest to the party resting at the Villa del Vino is an NPC party. This group is unusual as they are made up of 3 elven spies/warriors. Eirien, Liscë and Turu have a couple of problems they need to solve.

They aren't supposed to make contact with anyone as they are spies. But they are wearing military uniforms. They were dumped off just south of the Fortezza Port di Nace during rough weather, because the horses were going crazy. The schooner that dropped them off is tailing ships and marking the tides. The spies are zig zagging the area making maps and avoiding people. They started with 3 horses but lost one, so they are in trouble. This is one of the horses found by the player characters. They don't realize it's an elven horse. 

The elves have spotted Jim, Felice and Felix riding their horse, exploring the area around the Villa. They intend to take the horse back. Elven horses are supposed to respond to a whistle. It should throw any unfriendly rider and return to the owner. Except Jim has been feeding the horse apples galore and the horse now believes Jim is his owner, so it doesn't respond to Turu's calls.

Jim is a zero level character and scout, so he hasn't noticed these calls. In fact, he has walked right by the elves several times.

Plan B. Solve two problems at once. Knock Jim off the horse and steal his clothes. One of the elves will get a horse while someone gets a non-military outfit. Jim's clothes are not much of a disguise, but at least they are not military uniforms.

They do know that Jim has a bow and that he is kind to the horse. He is also not much of a scout, as he has trotted by them several times. They will use Shield to protect themselves from the bow and try to use Floating Disk to prevent Jim from cracking his head. They think they can overpower him and rob him without killing him.

We shall see.

Why hasn't the schooner come back? I'll cover that in the next post.

The Misunderstandings So Far

It looks like we'll get in a game session this weekend. The whole thing petered out two months ago, so I need to refresh myself with what is happening.

The Emperor's Council hired the players to head south and gather intelligence on a Keep. The Council was willing to pay the characters 1d6x100 each for this mission. Additionally, the characters were supposed to buy a ship using 4000 gps cash and a script for 36,000. The ship should be left at the southern port as reinforcement.

What actually happened was, no one mentioned the ship, the characters thought that the 40,000 gps was their pay and that more money will come after the adventure. Since 40,000 gps was put on the table from the get-go, the party thinks the reward will be on the order of 100's of thousands of coin.

The party purchased a modest 1,400 gps worth of supplies, pack animals, horses and wagons using the 4,000 coins they were given. Additionally, they are flashing around the Emperor's signature at the bottom of the script, like it means something more. Most people they have met believe that this IOU from the Emperor is some sort of warrant, order or title. They can't or don't want to read it.

The party has no idea that this is the general interpretation of an IOU letter in the Emperor's hand. They believe they are honoring the deal to the best of their ability and people want to help them.

The Council is a bit confused by all of this. Since the players never inquired as to their pay, the Council believes that they are dealing with professional, super-patriots. There has been some back and forth about either not paying them at all, killing them off or rewarding them handsomely with titles, land, military ranks and duties, etc.

The Council also believes the party is traveling by ship. Because of this misunderstanding, when the characters attacked the raiders at the Villa, the Council believe that the party destroy an enemy ship and killed as many as 100 raiders, not merely 5 guys left to fend for themselves. The captured raiders are rare prize. In the intervening weeks, the Council has received mixed messages from the Villa, which they find suspicious, but continue to believe the characters are on a ship.

The view from on high is not any less confused, but IS slightly better.

The primary reason for human/demihuman antagonism is human slavery. To the Elves and Dwarves, humans are evil because of their culture of slavery. They are only slightly better than the horde of sea-faring raiders who take and use slaves. Since the raider are mostly human, there is little reason for demihumans to look for differences. If this could be settled, the détente with the demihumans could turn to a real peace.

If only there was a way for the Empire to flip a switch and end slavery. The Emperor is willing, but there is too much societal momentum for him to simply command this. What he needs is an opportunity to unleash the manumission sects in the Empire, without setting up a palace coup.

Well, one good thing has happened. The master of the Villa was no friend to the Emperor. The man had hundreds of slaves on several farms around the port towns. Now that he and his whole family is dead, the Emperor has ordered the council to set up several more manors or villas in the area, operated by freedmen. This had been tried before, but each one failed because they couldn't compete with free labor. He has also ordered all the Master's slaves freed, for their service in the defense of the Empire. Thanks to the raiders and the PC's conflict, the Emperor now has a freedman foothold just south of the Capital.

The Emperor himself has taken personal interest in the battle for the Villa, the accused murderers Stephano and Trinculo and perhaps a Triumph for himself if they are convicted. Oddly, the Emperor is fair and good, so Stephano and Trinculo could be found innocent, which would make them a valuable set of prisoners as they are still thieves and brigands. Exactly which is better is a matter of point of view. If the party can continue to kill raiders and slavers, make promises they can't keep and complete the mission, the Emperor should come up smelling like roses.

Next, post: The Slowing of the Party.

The destinations, Tabletop, the Compass Rose Inn and Victory. 

Elven Fire, 4th Level Magic User Spell

Elven Fire

Level: 4                                                                                                    Components: V, S, M
Range: 10"+1 per level                                                                            Casting time: 3 segment
Duration: Instant                                                                                      Saving Throw: Special
Area of Effect: One creature per level over 4

Elven Fire, like Greek fire is named for the culture that created it. The Elven Fire Spell will create one small bomb like projectile per level of the caster. These projectiles have a curious property that causes them to move away from objects and in to any open space. The magic user can force them into contact with a target by making a to hit roll at a -2. Each projectile does 1d6 points of damage, unless the target saves verse spells. A saving throw will reduce the damage by half. A target is entitled to a save for every projectile that hits them. Monks cannot deflect these projectiles but can dodge them. 

It is impossible for a miss to strike another object as they are keyed to a particular set of targets. Any misses will fizzle out as the go by the intended target. The magic user must declare targets at the moment of casting. They may redirect these missiles between the selected targets, but not add more targets as the combat round progresses. For example if a 5th level magic user targeted 2 ogres, if the projectiles downed the 1st ogre they could redirect all remaining missiles to the second ogre, but could not target a goblin that stepped out of hiding, mid-round.  

Initially, the caster will only be able to attack one target with an overwhelming barrage of 4 projectiles. At level each subsequent level, they can attack one more target. A 9th level magic user could attack up to 5 targets with 9 projectiles total, however they are not required to do so. The maximum range for a 9th level caster would be 19". 

Rather than burst like a fireball spell, Elven Fire will envelope the target. Although the projectile appears to as a flaming object, it is a magical force that will not ignite flammable items. While they appear as burning projectiles, they are not a good light source; they are only as bright as a torch. Each one will fizzle out in a single segment, whether they strike or not. 

Elven Fire will function underwater with no modification. Elven Fire does not do fire damage, so regenerating creatures will continue to do so after being damaged. 

The Mac Is Not A Xerox Machine...

Back in June 2019, I released a scan of a Character Sheet I created back in the 80's.

I thought it was the best sheet I'd ever made or used. Still pretty true. You can pick up this one for yourself on DriveThruRPG. This file is pay what you want and it is strongly suggest that you use it before putting any cash down. If you like it come back and drop some change in the tip jar.

Tonight I was looking at it and wished that I still had the disc it came from so that I could have the deep black lines the originals had. Well, I don't have that no matter how much wish I did.

But I still have a Mac.

It turns out that either I have gotten much better at Mac Draw or the processing power of G4 is so much better than a 512K or Claris software has improved before its demise, that I can recreate this document. I started working on it tonight, I hope to have a new version done by Monday. Ah, Veteran's Day.

The new versions will be tacked on the old version of the file on DriveThruRPG, as a thank you to all the people who downloaded it. Many of you paid for it, and I really, really appreciate the support.

What you can expect is a faithful rendition of the old version, a new version with the classic 6 instead of 7 and a few bells and whistles add on, such as Acrobat Abilities added to the thieves table, a better encumbrance chart, AC chart, a space for mounts and pets, and a few other things.

Obviously, this will be more than one file. I might even make a faded version to match my scan of the original.

Never Surrender?

Surrender or not, that is often the end of combat in D&D for the party or their enemies.

But what does surrender mean? Death? Imprisonment?

In history, there are many cases of surrender that end in neither death nor imprisonment. At the Battle of the Caudine Forks, 324 BC, the Romans walked into a trap. The Samnites, lead by Gaius Pontius trapped the Roman Legion in the passes with barricades. The Romans quickly realized their mistake and erected a camp. However, no attack was forthcoming. Gaius Pontius meant to wait until the food and water was gone, then accept terms.

However,  Gaius Pontius was too pleasantly surprised by this victory and sent a message to his father, Herennius, asking what he should do with the Romans. He hadn't expected this outcome. Herennius replied that Gaius should let them go. Herennius was a general in his own right, and this message didn't sound right to his son. The next message was much clearer: "Kill 'em all!" But Gaius was convinced that his father was going senile and sent for him.

Herennius arrived and explained that freeing the Legion and sending them on their way would position the Samnites and Roman for eternal peace through practical magnanimity. The other option, killing them all, would result in peace for a generation as Rome rebuilt it's legion to attack the Samnities.

Gaius Pontius decided on a third path, the yoke. Each Roman would be disarmed and forced to stoop under a spear lashed across the path home. Being wildly driven by honor, the Romans did this but marched home burning with anger. Either the Senate refused the treaty terms or merely waited until an excuse for war in 316 BC is unclear.

In either case, this appears to be a retelling of a tale from either the Punic Wars or a contemporaneous account of something Alexander the Great pulled off in his many campaigns. Truth or no, it establishes many cases where one side will let the other side to walk off relatively intact. Battles to the death in ancient times had a tendency of wiping out citizen farmers, which could result in massive disruptions of the economy or society of both combatants.

So, Herennius message is valid for gamers and generals alike. In the context of lawful or good characters, an honor bound solution is within the realm of possibilities.