Monday 23 November 2020

Planescrap : Pinnacle of Virtue

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF
 

First of the posts covering a single plane or "realm" as I called them in an attempt to file the serial numbers off from classic d&d. This is one of the more complete realms but after playing Hades I think I could of put more fights in it. Thanks to Patrick Stuart for writing the knights and providing feedback on this , ultimately doomed, project.

Here's the links to the planescrap primer:

1,2,

 


 

THE PINNACLE OF VIRTUE




The titular Pinnacle of Virtue can be seen be from anywhere on this realm. It it stretches up to infinity, becoming a vast needle. Approaching it reveals two other peaks, topping out long before Pinnacle starts to become impossibly thin.


The needle peak is climbed by those seeking purity,shedding ego and pride, and rising above the sins and illusions of the worlds.


The sub-peaks are for those that will not leave the less righteous behind.

Final Fort:


One is entirely composed of a sprawling citadel.

A defiant, squat thing, build in a bewildering range of architecture.

Homages and recreations of lost castles and forgotten palaces, edifices of monumental heroism, seized and preserved trophies. Flags, banners,standards and crests.

Here is the Final Fort. Warriors from a dizzying variety of cultures have gathered here.

Each has chosen righteous conflict instead of spiritual perfection, and each has found no pantheon matching their zeal.


As any pantheon is primarily focused on soul collection and too often has deals or arrangements with its “opposing” half in another realm. Good deeds by the pantheons agents are likely to be about PR than actual concern for others. The rank and file in a pantheon won’t have this “big picture view” but as they under the orders from the members that do, angels and other forces of good can be surprisingly inactive considering the many many wars and conflicts going on in numerous worlds.


The Final Fort does not have “big picture” guys. It has the stubborn, the indefatigable, the most relentless idealists, immortals who just keep sticking up for people. While highly individualistic, especially for place that tends to attract team-players, they do fight under a single banner, that of a flat top mountain.

This has given them the name the Levelers.


The Levellers do not have the backing of a pantheon and the Realm itself seems indifferent to them. This would normally mean that their progress in power would be slow, however they have the Arch-Type.


The Arch-Type is a language found written deep underground in Pinnacle, carved in a anomalous tree root of goliath size.


Not all the language of it could be transcribed before a vast underground spasm buried the root again. Enough of it was transcribed to discover its power.


When used to describe a deed, it empowers the object the words are on with the might of the deed. Unlike other languages, it can not be used to lie, and cannot be distinct from the author. One cannot write of strength unless one is strong, nor write of something they have not seen or done.


It is engraved on armour, the armour becomes part of the immortal and becoming their body.

It is written on prayer wheels, their turning animating wooden limb and more intricate device.

It is sewn into cloth, igniting it with light and the character of steel.


The uses of the Arch-Type enhance but for it more than a fancy raiment, it has to be used as a restoration, after a sacrifice or maiming.


A Leveller losing an arm, engraves the deed of it on their armour and now the armour is their arm. Burns are tattooed over and the skin becomes resplendent in glory.


As all the small parts of a heroic life become eclipsed by their legacy, so do veteran levellers become like figures more suited to monument and statue.


The Arch-Type can also be used for oraltry, ballads, sagas. The first telling will be in Arch-Type and although will understood by all who hear it, the audience then remembers in the language of their childhood.


The Leveller who commits themself to oral saga, has their form become an more of hazey impression than the heroic exaggeration of other Arch-Type enhancements.


Whoever is viewing them has them appear as their cultural idea of a hero, but this memory changing and updating as their understanding of a hero shifts.


Once a Leveller has committed enough of themselves to ballad, they disappear completely existing now only as their oral legacy. The stories of them will be ones that appear in multiple forms in multiple worlds, defying suppression, integration or subjugation.

Leveler, Unique individual



1. Mo’Mo’Boom, wields over sized nunchucks, basically 2 massive over sized iron studded clubs linked with chain.
Arch-type scarified on skin in a flowing calligraphy. Jovial, loves quick wits, brawls, and chaotic situations.

/Likely to be in Spanish revolution type situation, where embattled occupants of a city fight a war against totalitarian powers on two fronts

2. Granddad, now entirely made from Arch-type engraved armour, each piece a trophy from villains and blackguards, and mockingly modified. Kindly, a gentle teacher and observer, humiliatingly effective and effortless martial skill.

/Likely to detaining malcontents, reactionaries, or violent radicals, jovially dismantling their ideology on its inconsistencies and unconsidered consequences. If they get worked up enough to attack him, he disarms and rebukes them almost without noticing it.

3.Piss Rat, a short gnome, halfling, dwarf? Hard to tell under black bottle brush beard and menacing conker spiked armour, like a Brian Froud goblin. Foul mouthed, and fast speaking to the point of nigh incomprehensibility. Uses some kind of contraption like a grappling hook, fishing rod, hand cranked taser and morning star. Endlessly tinkering with it. Actually extremely friendly and curious about people but manner of talking means they come across like they are furious at you.

/ Likely to be engineering an extremely destructive trap to be unleashed on a unjust usurpers coronation, other Levellers concerned about scale and risk of collateral damage

4.A Knight The Cheesiest Ye Knight Of King Arthur knight ever. Actually a insect that got magiked into a humanoid and learned how to be human from plays

Looks like a plate armoured knight but close inspection reveals it’s actually the exoskeleton of A Knight. Uses a lance but without a steed so just kind of like spear or staff, or sometimes just charging people with it. A flag attached to lance documents A Knights deeds in the Arch-Text

/Likely to be rescuing Damsels, fighting ogres, dueling blackguards


5. Charlie Knuckles, pugilist dollymop. 2 red circles on their checks in rouge, a nose countlessly broken, a mean squint, and a foul tobacco chewing habit. As they got older they didn’t have the looks or the charm to make it from trollop to a mistress, so became security instead. Loves a good brawl.

Arch Text tattoos mean they can punch through steel and deflect weapons like they were made of it.

/Likely to be putting down bullys, chasing down marauding army stranglers, punishing wife beaters, or disposing of cruel pimps


6. Ten Five: A sad looking women of 45, simple green silk tunic and a straight sword.

Has not used Arch Text yet, their skill with the blade is legendary, though it brought them only sorrow in their life. Skills are pure Wuxia

/Likely to be trying to save doomed lovers, demolishing small armies, or protecting the naive and hopeful


7. Ever-Buzzing-Worlds Ex-mocker, a savage elven art critic, too critical for his own good, got frustrated with the Mockers “absolutely confused fuckery”, “when it’s not wank, it’s banal wank”. Likes an argument, could start a fight with an empty room. Body patchily replaced with (left arm, right foot, left eyebrow, some ribs) thin black iron sculpture, like something scourged from the guts of typewriter. The Arch Text is engraved on it. Stuff fails spectacular around Ever-Buzzing-Worlds, his opponents have there fumble range increased by 2 and he can dispel magics by kicking at them

/Likely to showing up to a pompous celebration of tyrant and picking a fight with everyone, vandalizing displays of wealth and excess, or distributing food and reclaimed taxes

8 Hemi a smiling soft mountain of man, wielding a sharks half jaw of goliath size, scrimshawed with his deeds in the arch text. Generous and endlessly social, looks pacific islander or Malaysian. Sly humor. Sharks jaw has mismatched teeth of all kinds that Hemi can sow to summon various beasts who feel fiercely indebted to him. Also he hits like his name sake.

/Likely to be rebuking and befriending rampaging monsters, cooking prestigious feasts, locating and returning sacred treasures


Levellers: Non-specific mob

 Appearance:

1: heavily armoured, Japanese, but demon face motifs 90% of armour
2; Heavily armoured, middle eastern cataphract but with volcanic glass
3. heavily armoured, european but celtic knot work in metal cable
4. Zulu
5. Goat men
6. Excitable fish man
7. Demon with cut off horns
8. dinosaur looking fellas
9. Naked with blue paint
10. Swashbuckler but with claymore
11. Super colourful ninja
12. Robin Hood but with long rifle and musketeer hat


Activity:
1. rescuing, losing battle
2. rescuing, refugees
3. enforcing cease fire
4. Wanton destruction of dark forces
5. rescue, execution freedom fighters
6.rescue, natural disaster
7. monster slaying
8. hunting down marauders
9. grain tax robbing and redistributions
10. raid to kill enemy general or king
11. making up numbers in great batter
12. harassing raids against large force

Empowered by:
1.regeneration
2. horns of winds
3. resistant armour
4. Haste effect
5. Elemental weapons
6. Super jumps
7. Cauldron of resurrection
8. weapons inflict near siege weapon damage against inanimate objects
9. Storm cloud brought down for cover, rain, sometimes lightning
10. Can grow and shrink
11. Invisibility
12. Massive tower shield, practically a portable wall


Storm-Riding:

Dust rolls in from Starry Night, and the mismatch of the realms different essences spark off into fierce storms. The Levellers will catch them with harpoon and hook and ride them out into the many worlds ringed by the realms.


It’s an effective if not easily directed means of travel but is the one most often used by the Levellers.

Riding these broiling purple black clouds they will strike against tyranny, rescue the oppressed, and see justice done.

Other forces for good and order grumble about these expeditions are often condemned as short-sighted, escalationary, and destabilizing.



Panacea:




The other peak resembles a androgynous benedicative figure, the viewer will have difficult deciding how much is serendipitous rock formation and how much is deliberate and subtle craft.



. First Here is immortals that choose to remain, so they can tend the sick and pained.


Panacea a place of peace, of gentle meditations, scented gardens, flowing fountains and simple song. The stone here looks worn, like a favourite path, or river stone, and is gentle earth tones, early light yellows, and shallow water blues. There always seems to be at least one endearing songbird or singing cricket near.

It is a Hospice where you will be guided through the curving corridors inside the peak itself, given a private consultation with a cup of tea, the necessary exchange of the service discussed, and nearly any ailment cured.

The immortals here tend to simple dress, but most stick with the costume of their original culture. They are known informally as the “attendants”

They do not change form or gain personal power, but the ones here the longest seem to exist with such gentle serenity in every action, that they are unmistakable an attendant.

No being of less power than a god can willing harm another creature with a soul here, and the Levellers keep an eye on the roads approaching Panacea.

These roads have scattered groups of travellers coming from portals and other realms, the numbers swelling towards the base of Panacea. The hospice itself has numerous paths and entrances and attendants will gracefully guide visitors to separate room; it never feels crowded or hurried.



In exchange for the healing a service must be promised.

The service will not be to Panacea but whoever the recipient next encounters in need.

If the recipient of the healing does not give aid, the “debt” of the service increases.

The greater healing the great the service required.

Degree of debt

Restore hitpoints to full:

10%

Cure debilitating (but not likely to be fatal) poison or disease

20%

Cure permanent infliction (but not one involving missing organs or limbs)

30%

Restore a limb or organ

50%

Misc Really Big Problem like being made out of Stone or Serious Curse

80%

Bring someone back to life (will need intact body and the Soul)

100%


If the ailment is due to the debilitate actions of a Pantheon or its agents, add another 30% to this.

The debt’s percentage refers to how significant to the life of debtor it is.


“10%” means the help they give should use or significantly risk 10% of their resources and capacities.


If it’s a “100%” this means the service required will one requiring total devotion of the rest of debtors life.


Ignoring an opportunity to do a service adds an interest of 10%. If the debt ever goes over 100% the debtor immediate turns into a useful item and will remain in this form for 10 years X the debt. This time will not pass if the item is not being used, and will shortened to weeks instead of years if it used in way that benefits 100s of people.


The exact type of item will be one most likely to be usefully to the person either most likely to help others or most in need, in the surrounding area.


The transformation cannot be reversed in any other way short of a direct action of a god.


The item will be extremely resistant to damage but not indestructible. If destroyed the soul of the debtor moves into another item, which won’t have any particular resistance


WHO IS HEALING YOU?

(if the healer takes a liking to character they will attend to them next time)

Healing Method:

1 Potions, elaborate glass wear everywhere. Some worryingly rattling and bubbling

2 Mud baths, brightly coloured mud baths

3 Massaging. If inflicted is giving cheek, it will be brutal

4 Acupuncture. The needles comedically range in sizes but still cause no pain when insert and sporadically wiggled.

5 Cupping. Slight cuts and heated glass bowls pull weird sick blood from the character.

6 Herbal poultice. The Healers place is overgrown with plants and they are constantly having to move pots around and tuck under vines. The poultices will leave strange, not entirely but definitely slightly unpleasant smells

7 Droning singing and “psychic surgery”, the healer pulls (without injury) horrible looking fleshy globs from the inflicted.

8 Pep talk and really good listening

9 Sweat lodge/sauna/weird smokes

10 Emetics! One treated will throw up some real weird shit like half formed bugs made of knifes and the healer will swat these into a fire.

11 With strange bone needles they hook and wind the sickness out of the character,the sickness appearing like an unsettling mix of wool and water-born ink

12 Guided hallucinogenic experience


Appearance:



  1. Bumble bee, name is ChaCha
  2. Lizard person , MiddleBubble
  3. Very wrinkly old person, possibly a tortoise, Master/Madam Fizazel
  4. Like a living caricature of a motherly cook, Aunty Plum
  5. A sage of stiff posture and formal poise strokes beard when thinking, Lup Grandmire
  6. One armed veteran, covered in scars, looks around 70, Tun’g
  7. Plant women in formal silk with flowers blooming from her skin and hair, SweetSingSour
  8. Nethanderthal , W’t
  9. Booming voice scholar and drinker, Bombo
  10. No nonsense aunty, Florence
  11. Glowing moon child, Misa
  12. Seemingly stoned snake like women, Sunday


Demeanor


  1. Excitable
  2. Serene
  3. Rambling
  4. Stern
  5. Fusses
  6. Cheeky
  7. Droll
  8. Endlessly curious
  9. Gently scolds
  10. Solemn, methodical. Will smile just once with a wink
  11. Very concerned, gentle and caring
  12. Pontificates on their practices and theories, good natured but pompous





Lost Knights



Lost knights are immortals that have quests, missions,obsessions or moral codes that have little chance of resolving anytime soon.

Some are like ghosts or the past-locked elderly, others more lucid but still hyper focused. The more aware ones are sometimes found in the ranks of the Levellers but their own callings prevent them from staying long.

Also for a Lost Knight to be around so many different warriors and heroes is disquieting. Amongst such a multiplicity their relevance and importance seems lessened

This could be because of the nature of the realm shifting, a panethlon they follow collapsing or the path of the knight is so difficult.



They can occasionally drift into Grinder, Starry Knight or Blazing World but core values of martial and ethical duty keep them orientated here.

(individual knights by Patrick Stuart)


#1


Name; Asapatish NoMass

Form; A Noble poltergeist animating empty armour. The horse is real.

Origin; The ‘Good’ half of a magically-divided being, The Asapatish remains active through sheer force of will, determined to oppose the ‘Anathema’ an insidious, disgusting and extremely freaky shapechanger which makes up his other half.

Challenge; Obsessively tests the morality, combat capacity and blood of all he meets to see if they are the monstrous and cunning Anathema.



#2

Name; Sir Graviton Beam

Form; A desiccated revenant.

Origin; The one remaining member of a culture which ascended bodily into the afterlife, leaving only clothes. At the crucial moment he feared leaving his wife and child behind and experienced a single doubt. They did not. Now he wanders bound to immortal flesh and awaits the judgement of a ‘higher power’.


Challenge; Obsessive in the protection of family units, regardless of whether those families are good or bad. If the PCs have killed someone’s parent or child, Sir Beam may challenge or question them.

#3

Name; Laoshi Cerulean Blue-Dawns-Annihilator

Form; As part of his blessing/curse he ages throughout the day from youth at dawn to aged fellow at midnight. Is reborn each morning.

Origin; The shamed survivor of an apocalyptic battle that saved the entire cosmos, Laoshi Blue-Dawns-Annihilator failed to die nobly with his Lord and instead must remain as the only person who can tell the tale of his cultures tragic victory and extremely noble end.

Challenge; He hopes to one day fight and die in another apocalyptic battle against absolute evil and will fiercely question/provoke the PCs to make sure they are doing enough to battle darkness. As in right now. Right. Now. He literally dies at midnight comethefuckon people!


#4


Name; Aswaran Eternity, Speaker of Blood

Form; Closed helm. Seems super-masculine but underneath is… a woman! (This may not be a big deal to the PCs but absolutely is to Eternity.)

Origin; Eternity was thrown through time to an age long after her friends and fellow heroes were forgotten. Only she remains to carry on their story and embody their high ideals.

Challenge; Aswaran Eternity can be somewhat preemptively chippy about the gender thing.

#5


Name; Youxia Lu-Shan, Companion to Chance

Form; Bearded, hairy, wearing furs and sandals. Wields a huge tree-root. Somewhat woodwosey.

Origin; Heroic, noble, self-sacrificing, honest, kind, imaginative and a massive glutton, drunkard, gambling-addict and slut. As a terrible hedonist Lu-Shan could never be fully accepted in most afterlives. As a 100% good guy, he can hardly be kept out.

Challenge; The main challenge is not being sucked into his whirlwind of hedonism.

#6

Name; Lady Mitosis, the Nuclear Saint

Form; Super-Magnificent gilded armour. Blazing dragon headpiece. Jewelled and enamelled gothic plate. Super-old inside, grey hair flows out when visor opened.

Origin; Only remainder of an honour-bound reality which has literally passed into Legend. As in, been curled up inside its own dimension and removed from history and entropy. For this to happen, one individual had to be left behind as an anchor and gateway to that hidden world.

Challenge; Lady Mitosis generally thinks travellers are trying to get access to her hidden world and is pretty tough about making sure no scumbags get in.

#7

Name; Nomarch Corona, to Katharisméno Nou

Form; So pure that he lacks colour, depth and mass, being composed only of lines. His body borrows pigment, texture and weight from the environment around him, making him seem like an artists palette in the shape of a Knight.

Origin; Nomarch Corona is the last, and finest, Nomarch of the Empire of the Ashen Shard, considered a largely bad effort by most people, though with some notable achievements. The Nomarch of the Ashen Shard set out to retrieve the Redeeming Crystal Thought of the Mad God which, if they had achieved it, would have freed a staggering number of dead and mortal souls from terrible madness. Nomarch Corona is determined to fulfil this quest and have his Empire go down in history as Largely Good, with some downsides instead of Broadly Terrible, with some upsides.


Challenge; He really wants that Redeeming Crystal Thought and will interrogate the hell out of everyone just to make sure they don’t know something about it.


#8


Name; Voivode Vantablack Blade (“Simple Victor”)

Form; Dressed in a nobles impression of a peasants dress worn in a sincere attempt to humble self. Carries iron-bound staff. Clearly enormously strong, educated, noble-born and way too clean.

Origin; Formerly a fallen voivode and chief enforcer for an utterly evil regime, Lord Blade was redeemed at the very last moment and struck down his evil master, thereby saving the kingdom. Now he quests to atone for his evil deeds. Unfortunately, his evil deeds are very, very numerous and very, very evil. The number of people legitimately enraged with him is enormous.

Challenge; A really large number of people quite reasonably want to kill him. It’s likely that PCs will end up in the middle of that.

#9

Name; Sar Varsha, Jal Script.

Form; Pale and slender on a pale and slender horse. The weather changes dramatically whenever he silently arrives. Sun becomes storm, storms ease into sunshine.

Origin; An exceptionally noble and pure individual with a massive headwound which has completely destroyed his ability for form long-term memories. Despite this, Sar Varsha core principles and personality are so excellent that he is almost impossible to pervert from a noble course of some kind.

Challenge; If the PCs have genuinely wronged anyone they may well have appealed to Varsha Jal Script, who will not remember any previous meeting he has had with the PCs, positive or no. PC attempts to manipulate him to their advantage will always go horribly wrong


#10


Name; Saint Orcbone Ideal, Knight of the Stone

Form; Lumpy, rawbone sun-browned peasant girl in super-clean armour. Ugly, visionary and intensely charismatic.

Origin; Saint Orcbone successfully faced a complex series of spiritual challenges before she duelled, and defeated, The Tectonic Emperor, an embodiment of the earth's raw geological fury, thereby ending an age of deadly earthquakes, saving the lives of millions and forming the template for a famous Chivalric Order, the Band of Stone, who take her heroism as their ideal. However, during the ordeal she told one lie, and kissed the wife of the Tectonic Emperor on the cheek. She lives overwhelmed by spiritual shame and regards herself as an impure failure.

Challenge; Saint Orcbone deals with her complex internal stresses by having absolutely no time for liars of any kind. Which almost everyone slightly is.

#11

Name; Sen Permenpreus Smie

Form; Magnificent lizardform humanoid with golden scales wearing armour of mother-of-pearl. Rides barded Dinosaur. Carries ancient burning glyph on their brow. Smile is real permafrost icicles.

Origin; Sen Smie is the only good member of the Band of Terror Nnights, a group which seriously frightened everyone in a prehistoric age. His inherent decency and nobility brought him here but every other member of his species and culture is dead and in hell.

Challenge; Though a good person, absolutely every micro-behaviour, cultural gesture and cast of thought he expresses quietly signals that he is evil. Which he is not. But he sure seems like he is. Sen Smie seeks to redeem his horrible fallen race, which is absolutely not going to happen

#12

Name; Gospodine Gargant Nine-Hundred, Ristar Na Hive.

Form; Huge Beetle-Knight rides enormous jumping flea. Carries aura-cloak of iridescent dragonflies in daylight, glowbugs at night. Nearby insects will come out to cheer them in tiny voices as they pass by.

Origin; Gospodine Gargant has sworn before the Empty Insect Saints to do good deeds to evil at a ratio of nine-hundred to one. For every bad act he must do at least 900 good ones. It is almost impossible to go through life actively doing anything without performing at least some bad deeds, and though he keeps his ratio pretty tight, his quest is effectively unending.

Challenge; His need to do a very high volume of good means his presence and attention can be somewhat oppressive over time. He also reacts very poorly to any situation that might lead him into relative badness.


What Are They Up To?


1. Guarding a surprisingly stable portal They absolutely have to challenge everyone coming through. Won’t fight to the death but if you beat them they shall owe you a boon.

2. Something, perhaps valuable, perhaps inconsequential, to the PCs is either a forcibly polymorphed innocent (if an animal) or a sacred object with an illusion cast on it. The Lost Knight has sworn to get it back and has promised not to speak of it in any way, or to tell anyone what they are up to.

3. Tracking some bandits who had the exact numbers and a pretty similar description to the PCs. The PCs will encounter the bandits in one hour.

4. The have been ensorcelled to look and sound like an utterly evil creature. The curse is only lifted if they are beaten and offered mercy. They will test the party to see if they are the type to offer mercy.

5. They are guiding a major religious figure or saint to wherever the PCs recently came from. This individual, while extremely holy, is a massive arsehole and immediately takes against the PCs, causing all kinds of trouble and threatening to ruin their reputation at that location.

6. On a super-secret prisoner-exchange mission with a group from Heart Of Iron. They have a chained-up prisoner (who seems normal) and are expecting the opposing group to appear under an illusion. They will probably assume the PCs are that group. In the middle of this, the actual opposing group will turn up.

7. About to joust or duel with another person from this table (roll again) over an obscure but intense point of honour or duty. Both will accuse the PCs of being secret helpers of the other.

8. Looking for the PCs as someone reported them for the last criminal or sketchy thing they did and they want them to atone or make amends.

9. Locked in a brutal and murderous fight with an apparently innocent group of people. Both sides call for aid. The innocents are actually evil shapechangers

10. Sleeping quietly. Their dream is a prophecy which tells them, in symbolic terms, that they will meet the PCs and that the PCs will somehow lead them to their next quest.

11. In a tense sword-drawn standoff with a bunch of big stones. They claim the stones are an evil Sorceress and her crew that they were chasing. The sorceress means to wait for night or fog, then turn back and either run for it or attack the Lost Knight from behind. The Lost Knight appeals for aid. The stones just look like stones.

12. Dragging a teenage girl in chains. The girl is in love with a Bandit King and only wants to return to him. The Lost Knight has essentially re-abducted her. She asks the PCs for aid. The Bandit King is a really abusive dude but she is totally into him.



The Finest Path, The Pinnacle of Virtue


Ascending this involves shedding their ego and attachment and is like the inside of a spiritual volcano for how relevant it is for the player characters.


The first half of the mountain made of sheer rock faces and goat tracks, with nothing like an easy or gentle path. Often progress will seem impossible. Before one has reached the middle point they will have to overcome 6 different barriers . These can be encountered in any order and each is assumed to take a fugue to pass.

1.Courage: The paths here are barely enough to fit a toe, and winds rip around the stone with a raptorial zeal. If one is brave (but not reckless) and steady , one will never fall and may progress

2. Patience : A storm has picked up and will continue posing a danger from winds, flash floods, lightning , and hail. If one finds a place to wait with acceptance (as opposed to frittering or raging ), the storm will pass.

3. Thoroughness: the stone becomes increasingly cracked and untrustworthy, any hasty or ill considered step risks a long fall. However if one takes the measure of every step they take, they will not come to harm

4. Compassion: here are sheep and some kind of lichen grazing puffin . They will always be in the way, especially the puffins nests. One will never progress if they put their advancement over the lives of these simple beasts.

5. Resolve : appearing as any of the above (d4) but taking the “correct action” will seemingly lead to disaster , sending the ascendant tumbling down . If they still persist and still make the same choices of Compassion , Patience etc then they will progress.

6. Altruism : Appearing as one of the first 4 (d4) but someone else is here and failing to grasp what is needed to progress and looks like it will result in disaster for them soon. If the ascendant risks their progress and time to attempt to teach the other the correct ways, then this part will be surmounted too.



Once progress has happened more than half way up the mountain , it is limited by the ascenders own spiritual progress.

There’s no real good mechanics I can think of for this , and if comes up in play it should be unique enough for the g.m to make whatever rules or rulings they see find.

Once the ascenders understanding has progressed so they can move on from the half point they will no longer have a name.

The next part of the journey will erase their class, level and any related abilities.

Next their physical stats and any related things (hitpoints)

Finally the mentally stats as they become one with eternity.


An ascender might, for the rarest of reasons, return having completely only a portion of the ascent. Whatever is given up will not return, instead it must be chosen or rolled for them by the g.m.

THE REST


The lands stretching from the pinnacles are a rolling terrain, somewhat like a cobblestone road, where the cobbles are the size of buildings and have slumped, forming hollows and rises.


Patches of soil from around them and on them, allowing small groves of trees and scruffy bushes to further break up the stone.

In parts the stone is more evident of flatted and smoothed ruins.


The further you get away from the pinnacle the more the patches of soil and vegetation build up until you get a mediterranean style wildness, which gradually fades into the sands of Starry night.


The exile town of 3-Hare is found here and its existence facilities rogues and vagabonds, scattered out around the trade routes leading through here.


The other notable feature of this realm is a massive snail that has a library build into the shell. This is the Infinite Library.


3-Hares



3-Hares is made up of exiled and calamity fleeing populations. Their cities, lands and even worlds now lost to them. Each of them holds tenaciously to their customs, costumes, manners and even architecture.


This also means they tend to be a little inflexible and tradition bound, never really adjusting or accepting their continuing existence here and the collective memories of their home getting more idealised.

Arbitrary aspects of their cultures past can be invested with far more significance and reverence than would make sense to someone displaced from there and then to now and here.


It can come across as, while not “stereotyped”, but ritualised and a little exaggerated and formal; like everyday was an important festival or anniversary.



This results in 3-Hares being a city of a 100 different “Chinatowns”; one passes through a district of consistent appearance and then abruptly the buildings and adornments change, like a neat slice of somewhere else.


The political structure here is by council vote, each district having a number of votes, determined by a complicated calculation of the population, square area, number of buildings, amount of traffic, exports and imports and how long they have been in 3-hares.


The exact nature of the calculation and the weight of each aspect of it has shifted and been levered in a long history of power plays and shifting alliances.

One educated in this history can see the signs of it: From when the height of buildings was disproportionately effectively in vote allowance there are still spindly minarets and teetering apartments.

Another district shows when the square area was more important, it has broad avenues and parks.


As a g.m you can use any number of cities, towns, villages or cultures that you have available to you and put them all neatly pressed together.


The Infinite Library


A snail of colossal proportions, its shell respondent opaline pearl.

It used to be in Babel but the modrons increasily objected to it including works of fiction so its slid up to here.

It’s still not a comfortable fit as various agents of pantheons and the Levellers keep wanting certain books destroyed or removed, which is an anathema to the librarians.

Thus the the library migrates around, not sticking around in one place in Pinnacle reducing amount of time someone of censorious bend can get worked up enough to do more than come in and yell at them.


Access to the library is done when the snail comes to rest and withdraws into the shell, one will pass its vast struched head as they enter the shell, then ascending over it by ladder, or via a simple platform elevator if the ladder is too difficult for the guest.

Then there is a simple counter with a librarian . The librarian , as all the librarians , has the appearance of a favourite character from a book they have recently read.

Their manner and speaking is still that of a librarian , somewhat flavoured by the character , however at odds it is with their appearance. They will happily answer any questions and explain the nature of the place and the expected conduct (no loudness or activities that could damage the books or disrupt a reader).

Librarian Appearance:


  1. Long John Silver
  2. Peter Rabbit
  3. Sinbad
  4. Puss in Boots
  5. Ulysses
  6. Biggles
  7. Willy Wonka
  8. Poirot
  9. Mowgli
  10. Captain Hook
  11. Don Quixote
  12. Alice


They will only provide services (making a near identical copy of any book that they or you have , making a book list, or finding a book for you in the library ) in exchange for donating a book , retrieving a book needed from the stacks, or collecting a book stolen.




Beyond is a bewildering spiral of non-euclidean shelving, ladders, reading nooks and, of course books.

You will always within shouting distance of at least 1d12 librarians. They will be nonobstructive to the point of near invisibility and move around you via secret paths and folded spaces.


The Librarians are loathe to reject any book regardless of its value and their organisation systems is esoteric (to put it mildly).

Books are to be read at the library and leaving with one will mean you will have bounty placed on you by the Librarians.


A character (mortal) who wishes to find a book can automatically fine a typical book on a typical topic by spending a Derive.

Typical being in this case, something you as g.m would not think twice about letting the character easily access in most established cites.


If they want atypical quality of book or atypical topic, the player should make 2 intelligence checks

If neither of them is successful they don’t find anything of merit

If one of them is successful they get the book but they need to roll on the below table.

If both are successful they get the book they wanted.

IF the character is trying to find a book of both atypical topic and quality they should make 3 intelligence checks.

With 3 successes resulting in want they wanted.

2 successes they get what they wanted but roll on the table below

1 success it’s (odds) the quality they wanted but only generally on that topic or (evens) it’s that topic but the coverage is cursory at best

0 successes they found nothing.

They can try again next Derive but it will cost them 100/exp per level each Derive they spend looking as the Library draws something from them to sustain itself.

This only applies to mortals, not free roaming souls or immortals.

The librarians will warn guests of this.


Roll again but roll on this table:

  1. It’s want they wanted but in an obscure language
  2. Author has a weird sly humour which time has made it unclear when they are sincere and when they aren’t.
  3. Book has slightly out of place tangent in which a major theory about the world is disproved. Worryingly plausible
  4. Unbelievably soporific. Unless extraordinary measures are taken to stay awake a reader will fall asleep after reading 2 and half pages.
  5. The books has extensive speculation and strong hints that the author would of written another book, even more relevant and insightful for the character. It turns out the author died before they could complete this other book however but that’s not a complete dead end..
  6. The sheer amount typos and misspellings cast certain crucial aspects of the book in doubt.
  7.  This book would be unacceptable vague except for the extensive handwritten notes in the margins by unknown and completely unhinged hand.
  8. Due to threat of the inquisition or censorship the author was forced to frame everything hypothetically with numerous disclaimers and retractions. No solid conclusions or extrapolations are made.
  9.  A oddly chimerical book, too much left as poetic evocation or unclear symbolism. A mystic, artistic or just really high character might be able to get something useful from it
  10. The author references at least 5 other books so extensively that this book is near uselessly without them



Foeecho:

If someone is causing problems that need violent solutions, a librarian will sneak off and access the troublemakers biography and conjure out of it the most dangerous enemy each trouble maker has previously fought. This will take 1d20 rounds - the subjects level, (minimum of 1).


This “Foeecho” has identical stats to the original, except in regard to its intelligence and knowledge. It can’t be smarter than the subject or know things the subject doesn’t know.

For everyone other than this subject the foeecho appears as orgaimi version of it and can do no more harm to them than a paper cut (though it still has the same hitpoints and armour class as the foeecho) When the subject is dead it crumbles away. If the subject is merely unconscious it is still active, though it only has a single hitdie and an armour class of 10.

The Stacks:

The Libraries main section and the hidden “stacks” are actually spiraled beside each other, the Stacks like a shadow of interspaces, accessible only by hidden ways know to the librarians.

Here are the dangerous books, unwritten books, and unwritable books

The Librarians will allow access to the Stacks in exchange for a book they don’t have, or if you offer to retrieval books for them.

As books sometimes change from fantasy to history or unwritten to written and will need collecting and reshelving.

The “bad books” are an exception to the rules about not taking books away. The librarians will refuse to acknowledge them even if directly shown them

Exploring the Stacks

Draw a bunch of overlapping squares, drop a bunch of d12, like just a comfortable amount to fit in your hand.

Each line is a corridor, about 2 and half metres across and 2 and half metres high.


Then look at the numbers rolled, that’s what is current in the that corridor.


The corridors are lined with bookshelves, the books are of little quality (both content and construction) and at first glance look decayed. Closer inspection reveals a better term would be “undeformed” like a developing bud or fruit. Some books are of a single piece, others the letters just basic lines. Some appear faded or impossible to focus on.


When you are near a “Bad” Book, these background books will even more damaged, mutated, distorted or otherwise anomalous.



Time it takes to search a corridor = encounter check

Encounter Check

1: npc (use any already on map first)

2: danger (active) (If a danger is within 2 lines, use that instead of rolling new one)

3-5 No encounter

6: cross out something already rolled and drop another d12.


//


D12


1.Npc, hiding book thief


2.Npc, mercenary looking for books


3.Rogue book character (pick a random nearby book, flick through it until you find a character, that’s them. They will be the same level as the characters)

4 lost scholar

5 Doppelganger (roll d4 to see disguise)

6: Someone significant yet low level from characters past alternate history, near opposite personality, similar ethic

7:Bookworm/ Firebrat/ Silverfish: use stats for a large centipede but it has no depth, only “2d”, always appearing on a surface it can’t affect anything that surface isn’t connected to. After it successfully attacks someone it will be “on” them for the rest of the round, any attacks or effects on it affect who its on and vis versa.. Territory, but won’t pursue.

8: Wandering illustration, roll random monster (or open a nearby book to a random page) anyone who has encountered it before its real, anyone who hasn’t it looks like a drawing come to life and can’t affect them more than a cut out bit of paper

9 -11 Bad Book



12. Bad book + other encounter, roll d8 to see



Book Thief:

1:XoX: Paranoid disgraced Academic Gladiator,

2: Lady Veepry Clockface Women Claiming to Be Actual Author And Needs To Make revisions,

3. Tomb Budt:A Dwarf of 100 Bad ideas. This one was stealing a book, and then disguising himself as someone else and claiming to retrieve it. Currently trying to make a disguise out of paper.

4. Peter Fitting: pretends to be a confused 10 year old, actually a 30 year old moderately high level thief. Cannibal.

5. Pluto Lu: A women of elaborate blue wrappings, argumentative to a fault, this is why she stole a book and legged it here

6. Grus Ill: Like a rat man but hairless and not a rat. Just really liked this book you know?


Mercenary: see Torus Primer for random Mercenaries


Lost Scholar


  1. Buns: cursed to be made of delicious bread. You will smell them before you see them. Adorable but dangerously naive
  2. Aayna: Expensive but badly worn and mained sari. Absent minded. Hasn’t realised they are in the Stacks yet
  3. Pluggut: A goblinish with glasses as big as his head and a guide parrot. The parrot is bad at its job
  4. Hernia Williams: a gangly stuttering teenager, this could scare him off books for life, his boxer mother will be happy if it does
  5. Millifenct: A very Beatrix Potter Doormouse. Doormouse sized.
  6. Zhang Wei: a moody twenty year old, trying to find forbidden books to impress a boy he likes. Tends to get fatalistic very fast

BAD BOOKS


When you roll a Bad Book result highlight the every corridor extending from this point until it reaches a corner. Books along these corridors will have a distortion.

Books look more damaged around where an uncommon book is

Books in area have notable errors, misshapen

murmuration of words,


Bad Books (or at the very least “badly behaved”)

Common:

1-2A Biography of someone living that extends into the future. Nothing is definitely coming to pass but will be likely / Distortion All books titles are just 2-3 simple descriptions like A Bad Man, Sad Girl, Drunk Baker


3-4 Maths Intriguing theories and elegant proofs. It’s not quite right though, and a reader will have difficulty telling if the error is with them or the book. This is a trap and will increasingly cause mental instability the longer the reader tries to resolve this. Obsessives, stubborn types, or anyone whose unable to tolerate not solving something are particularly vulnerable Distortion: numbers start erratically appearing in the text and titles of books

5-6 Poetry / The associates, implications, and allusions in this work unsettle the identity and cause explosions of self questioning and discovery The first time it is read in full the readers a great change happens (One stat is swapped with another: roll a d6:1-2 charisma, 3-4 wisdom, 5-6 intelligence, then odds/evens to determine the stat it swaps with from the remaining 2 )

Distortion a whispering susurrus, like distant hushed conversations, this is coming from the pages of the books

7-8 Medicine/ Erratically true. A medical “solution” a player comes up with to a medical problem has a 1/3 chance of actually working. Only one solution can be tried per problem.

Distortion background books starting showing signs of stitching, scars, and repairs


9-10 Engineering Simple “shortcuts”, labour and material saving techniques. Using them allows one to save up to 50% of the time or materials they would use on building something. However there’s also 10% chance that the construction will fail immediately when first used and then anytime its closely inspected by someone with adequate knowledge in this form of construction.

and increasing by 10% for each additional time the techniques are used in construction (the natural laws started catching on)

Distortion: Shelving and book arrangement becomes far more ordered and level.


11-12 Inceptiontive book, This book describes the very reader in the action of reading the book, and then any other action they take. Anyone reading this book with a higher intelligence stat than their wisdom stat will trapped for a minute, their attempted actions rerouted into just reading about them doing these things instead of actually doing them.

If they are physically prevented from reading they will come to but be stunned for 1d4 rounds.


After the first minute of reader being trapped, get the difference between the intelligence and wisdom, multiple it by 10 and treat it as a percentage to determine if the reader is trapped longer. If they are, roll again after an hour. Then a day. Then a week. Then a month. Then a century Distortion Anyone looking will keep noticing books they’ve read or seem familiar to them.

13-14 Bestiary If a character studies this book their player can (once a session) ask the g.m for a monster fact and the g.m has to give them a true little known fact about a monster of their choice in their setting Distortion: Books starting showing an alarming range of bite marks and scratches.

Rare Bad Books

15 Phenology for cities. Referencing this book, if a character makes a careful study of the layout of a city (over a week), the gm has to show them the encounter table for this city Distortion Less shelves and more book towers

16 Theoretical states of death. A student of this book can cheat death once. Distortion Books appear to so decayed they are barely holding together

17 Things that are not here. The player can ask the g.m about the existence of a single thing in the world, the g.m has to answer truthfully Distortion books fall over shelves and move slightly, like something is scuttling around

18 Parasite languages. A parasite language can be used to hide the real meaning or information in any body of writing Only a reader of that parasite language can read the hidden message in the writing. Each time a new person learns this particular parasite language there is 1% chance per person knowing the language that the language parasite begins to break down and become unable to be used to communicate more than basic concepts, the degeneration happening over the next month. Distortion letters missing in the middle of w rds

19 Cancerous Feng-shui. By careful room arrangement the particiner dooms the building to a great calamity within the next year. Distortion everyone keeps knocking stuff over or off shelves

20 How to lie to yourself completely and utterly. The player can choose something the character thinks is true and is unable to be convinced otherwise by any means. If the player uses this repeatedly on their character there’s an exceptionally increase chance (starting at 2%) that their entire identity breaks down, sending them in coma for a Fugue. Upon waking the player must create a new name, (false) memory, and personality for their character.Distortion Anyone looking at the background books will keep noticing authors with similar, or sharing part, of their name.

============

Appendix tables:
General Encounters:


1 or 2 on 6, roll per derive





1 Pilgrims /Nomad Monks
2-3 Refugees
4 Levellers (mob)
5 Bandits (disguised as one of the above roll d4)

6 Obvious Bandits
7 Levellers (individual)
8 Vermin Road Caravan <torus primer>
9 Lost Knight

10 Roll twice, interacting groups. If you roll a 10 again , make it 3 interacting groups.



Pilgrims and Nomad Monks:



  1. Tall masks, as to give the effect of a long neck , the “ head” being a belfrey with bell. The constant pealing of which causes pain to “evil”/ They move in a circuit from and back to 3-hares, their duty done they return to their normal lives/ the purpose of this is to purify
  2. Very tall stilts (4+ metres), herding small clouds / these are mortal monks who were weary of their former lives / they will bestow blessings on kind travellers they meet on their way
  3. Rolling everywhere in circular frames, like living spokes/ They will do this until they have payed off crimes or guilt/ Actually more martially capable than they look, will intervene in robbery or marauding
  4. Body percussionists , elaborate polyrhythms and lively beats carry a surprising distance / Brought up in this life from early age, either through a calling or pushed into it by their families / They will bring luck and moral strength to their familys
  5. Cling together forming a human “pyramid” that walks/ they are unassigned Souls seeking to earn additional merit before entering an afterlife or the peaks/ They seek to inspire others in the merits and powers of duty and disregarding oneself for the group
  6. Pulling and pushing elaborately carved and painted floats wafting out fragrant smoke from scared fires and concealed braziers / It is a coming of age duty for teenagers becoming adults/ This display is remind all not to falter from weakness or temptation.


Bandits: Each group will have a code of conduct. Party because this is this kind of place, and party because utterly amoral ones tend to get wiped out extremely quickly


  1. Will offer to settle things with a duel between their champion and the partys
  2. Won’t attack first , but will extensively insult and provoke. Respect those that can insult them back
  3. Appear to be weak and wounded and ill-tempered to boot. Also carrying a great amount of (fake) treasure which they (deliberately) have poorly concealed
  4. Demand a % of wealth, have proof of where it is going (an orphanage, soup kitchen, emergency housing, a leaking church roof etc)
  5. If party can explain their need and intended uses for their wealth , they will let them go
  6. Demand an accounting of deeds and merits. Cowards, blackguards and sneaks will fought for their wealth


Refugees:


  1. Small fleeing group that stumbled on portal, formerly really sheltered before then
  2. Long progression of different peoples, world entirely destroyed
  3. Kicked out former rulers and supporters / failed revolutionaries. Swear to return!
  4. This group were all people who woke up one day and found the world had changed around them, with no one remembering who they were. Timeline shenanigans .
  5. Souls that somehow got lost and their pantheon's and asocialateds afterlifes are lost to past aeons.
  6. Their world is doomed , it just doesn't know it yet. This group does though and have given up trying to convince others this and have fled
  7. A great evil has been defeated and this is the remains of one of his armies. They have utterly rejected all his dark teachings and their former ways , but have realised the world has decided they are irredeemably and will never believe them capable of anything other than the vile
  8. Great peace, stability, and order has happened in their world. These people are the loose cannons , drifters, and trouble makers that can’t find their place there.






Terrain (d10)

Features of Note


  1. Corpse
  2. Forest
  3. Looming Carving in rock
  4. Massive Cairn
  5. Single large fallen trunk
  6. Columnar basalt
  7. Rock pile
  8. Abandoned shack
  9. Grown over cobble road
  10. Wild flower field




Thursday 19 November 2020

Planescrap 3 : Tables and Appendix

Print Friendly Version of this pagePrint Get a PDF version of this webpagePDF

This is the last bit of "the primer" , the overview document for the " Terminal Torus" / planescrap, it's even more tables  , rules for generating vermin road settlements and some new weapons.




Table: Notable Npc (d20)

Roll and use entire entry for the number or roll multiple times and combine, but this will require more interpretation and input in order to get it to make sense.


Roll | Name | Who Is | Has | Wants

1 | Ting Scarlittle | Pincer-headed rat woman | a cavernous book to return | someone else to take it to the Infinite Library

2 | Broil Tacks | beetle-infested soul | key to a tomb in the Desert of Leavings (Serene Night) | plausible deniability for unloading this key

3 | Das Phant | hungover ogre stunt eater | no clue where she is | a hot bath and a shave

4 | Grace-Brokering-The-Moon | talking giant anteater | a debt they are running from | to steal as much as they can as soon as they can

5 | Zippy | giant squirrel tailor | misplaced optimism in the world | a regular paying job

6 | Onesuch | Squat and sullen sensual nihilist | a compulsion to argue with everyone | to get to somewhere civilized

7 | Plung Array | feathered lizard philosopher | severe blackmail material | to ally with someone powerful

8 | Candlescrap | unemployed Pantheon servant | a grudge against an entire mythology | someone willing to rob the sacred

9: Dogs |derelict looking human | with multiple souls jammed in body | To avoid recapture

10: PleaseNo| Jester from Demon Baron courts| Frightening regenerative abilitys| To come up with new, hideously violent and juvenile, comedy material

11. Buzzy | Discard looking like the wrestling of overly complicated weathervanes| Ashes of a library | Location as directed by a will

12. Fellow Man | a greek Philosopher but with too much ruffles | a willingness to try any belief system | Sheltering in Snail shell

13 : Pissant Glee | Very thin woman covered in weird skin discolourations | a travelling collection of goos , slimes , oozes and grots. Part library, part circus , part market collector | Their transport to stop being so bloody difficult

14; Moody Governance| Metal bearded dwarf| Weapon samples for sale | Someone impressive to to promote one of their weapons

15 : Mikalo | Sharply dressed Tool Head | Wind catching/riding lasso |looking for escaped wind

16. Chumblar the Senior| Poet Knight | Ever smoking censure that causes sleepiness in proportion to aggressiveness| looking for inspiration to impress a luminairy

17: Zoss Acust| Martially competent Archaeologist| Comically Unreliable guides and stewards routine |looking for evidence of previous realm congration and natures

18: Ten-ward | Partially Mummified Natural Philosopher | Dangerous and Large , tiger legged journal | looking for evidence of Natures from Blazing World existing elsewhere

19: Cassandra | Dazed looking oracle type | text book Cassandra Syndrome | To chemically numb the recent memories of watching her entire world burn

20 Courier of Fate| Uniformed Clerk riding a roster| A number of slightly ominous fortune cookie style fortunes to see delivered | To encourage people to do really dumb things


Table: Mercenaries

Roll | Name | Is A | Known For | Currently | Has

1 | Plucked-Ripe | bearded devil | distracting predators | recovering a debt by selling security holes of non-paying former employer | weaponized fungal parasite

2 | Drudg Wheal | 2nd level fighter, humanish, looks like a nu-rich viking | triple-crossing | looking for a better deal | barbed harpoon made from tarantula leg, releases cloud of irritating hairs

3 | Hooty | odd-looking humanoid with bright colour stains | engineering | bodyguarding a merchant's brat | acid frozen in the shape of throwing axes, stored in a white fur cloak

4 | TikTok | albino orc | skinning and butchery | trying to salvage a weirdly killed large carcass | blow gun with crazy poisons

5 | Feliana Snit | halfling with weird fur patches | drug identification and manufacture | looking for medicine for hangover and curse | many many specialized knives that each give +2 for specific situations

6 | Dorr Prunc | jaded urban elf | knowing someone who might sell that | trying to make rep by doing something impressively reckless | snapping severed gargoyle head on a chain

7 | Uddle | slightly undead Georgian English human | escalating situations | mistaking you for someone who tried to kill him | razor sharp throwing shield, returns, hits multiple targets via crazy training

8 | GreasyThree | piranha-jawed amphibious human| poisoning | waiting for a caravan that is apparently not coming | bow that shoots snakes

9 | Harmswind | somber Mongolian | complicated threats | considering a career change | 2-handed sword that looks like a salvaged shard of a much larger broken sword

10 | Sizzle | scorpion-bearded lady | paranoid and sleepnesses | stealing from employer | 3-section staff, made from the bones of a devil, a daemon, and a demon

11 | Boss | ornate Bauhaus Nigerian | requires payment in art | subcontracting out something that requires a particular set of talents and/or stupidity | polished unnatural hard glass sword and stiletto, hard to see

12 | Zeo Pl’| A old woman wrinkled to the point of looking like a dried apple. Might actually be a dried apple | The most undruidy druid | Lighting a cigar on a burning corpse | Blunderbuss loaded with magic fast growing seeds



13 Stov Stovson | Guy wearing a gutted modron as armour | Being Able to disguise himself near perfectly as a Modron | Repairing his armour with a dead modron |Modron weaponary

14 A Crime| Amicable and violent Murder monk from Erebus| Always cheery disposition, love of violence | Conducting an autopsy to see effectiveness of rib crushing strike | Terrifying bare hand combat abilitys

15 Duke of the 5 Direction | French musketeer type , magnificently festooned | Kicked out of the Levellers for post-modern understanding of the truth, excellent teller of tales | Looking for an audience and sponsors | Shrewd Fencer Ability and equilibrist talents

16 Horrorclock | Chitin armoured glistening knight | Has done strange things to self with the insect crafting arts of Heart of It All | Eating garbage | Living armour with numerous insect weapons and abilities bonded with it

17 Scarlet Moon | Plumed Bird Lancer | Bird steed is imaginary and real only to Scarlet Moon | Preening their (apparently non-existing) Steed | Lance and untapped mental abilities

18 Chaha Jun’ll | Modular Meat Cube riding Wizard | Very impressed with their creation, reckons once they have managed to perfectly the formula everyone will want one| Injected formulas in meat cubes | Meat Cube Golem, think of toy constructor bricks but made of meat. Capable of turning in a wall, quadruped , sled ,shelter and ladder.

19 Tsk| Rainbow scarves sullen Stilt Walker | Passionate love affairs with extremely incompatible people that end in bitterness | Brooding after terminated engagement | Ability to fight with razor edged stilts . Pistol crossbow.

20 Grand Voop| A woman smiling like a fox and wearing a large dark shimmering cloak | A intrustionist and assassin | Waiting for go-between to deliver the details of their next target | A pair of scissors the size of shortsword and functions as much in their hands. A cloak that allows to them to become “2d” and projected on the nearest surface.


Generating Vermin Road Settlements:



Vermin Road settlements are most likely to be found in the following places in the Realms:


Paragon of Virtue: broadly anywhere ; but especially on the border with Serene Night and anywhere within a Fugues distance from other populated areas


Serene Night:

Scattered like a rivers tributaries in a line from Paragon to Blazing world


Blazing World :

Along its borders with Protean Ocean and Serene Night. On islands, pontoons and stilt mount settlements . Some just in the parameters of the forest


Protean Ocean:

Adrift on islands spreading out from detropolis.


Erebus:

The plains outside its great central peak, inside caves and side tunnels on the way to Bedlam


Flesh Rifts:

Outskirts of it only , only the most reckless or brazen any deeper.


Plains of Revelation:

On the dire road to Yearnings and Heart of It All


Heart of It All:

In disguised buildings on the fringes, and some in the very heart of it.


Grinder:

Very few, on cubes in the rare quiet and empty patches. Always out of the way


Babel:

Only a few , embedded in the Choral Coral at the base


Size:

1-6 Bivouac (size modifier 1)

7-14 Base Camp (size modifier 1)

15-17 Village (size modifier 3 )

18-19 Hamlet (size modifier 3)

20 Town (size modifier 4)


Purpose:

d8

1 Oasis/ Resting stop/ Choultry.

Some caretakers , shelter , water and simple food available for donation.

2 Trading post (semi permanent) , 2 rolls on Caravan Goods , always has Security.

Meeting hall , tent or patch of ground, storage buildings , caretakers , domestic workers and possibly families. Smallest could just be a distinctive landmark with people hanging around though

3 Trading Post (clandestine) roll once on caravan goods, once on rare items. Roll twice for security , most dangerous or powerful one is here.

As Trading Post but the traders or the traded is of a nature liable to punitive measures by larger forces in the realm . Maybe hidden or heavily disguised.

4 Tick Mine . Always has security

See tick mine for more details

5 Portal

Settlement around here is one that seeks to control , profit, protect, or research travel through the portal and the linked world.

6 Sekem Chemist . Always has security

Any buildings will be subtly indicating their purpose with some kind of irregular cubic icon or motif.

7 Roll twice (d6) 2nd result is disguised

8 Roll twice (d6) and combine





Security:

Multiply amount by size modifier of settlement

D20

1 Horse archers (2d6) ; capable of firing at speed from horse.

2 Bird Lancers. A 2 legged predator bird with plumed helmet Riders. Bird will fight with peak and claw as well.

3 Bombardier . At least 2 of every bomb , very accurate thrower, only have to roll to hit for trick shots like bouncing a bomb off something or getting it to within a couple of centimetres.

4 Fireman. Wielding a flamer or naphtha shooter, wearing asbestos wool hauberk

5 Hookmen : From Erebus. Wrapped up with scarves and rags. Dual wield hook-picks, additional will swing them at the end of ropes to trip and entangle. Skilled Jumpers, grapplers and close fighters

6 Heart Of IT All : “bugmen/bug knight” , Glaive or Stinger plus 2d6 wasp darts

7 Flesh Rift Meat Heads

8 1d10 infected fungal pigeons. Kamikaze, attack as 2 HD monsters, when hit explode for 3d6 poison / concussive damage

9 2d6 trained monkeys with hatchets or machetes

10. 1d6 poison dogs.

11. Pain Bell

12. Canned Skeletons

13 Poor equipped, partially trained , but enthusiastic mob , 0 level local populace,numbering 10 x size modifier.

14 1d4 Well Trained and Dangerous Promital

15 .Arbalest or cannon in fortified position

16 Large Undead Monster or Animal (at least elephant size) . Well preserved and decorated

17 .Entire population is violently inclined and capable

18. Repurposed and Bewildered Tomb Guardians (a Mummy or Similar)

19 Random named Mercenary. If size modifier >1 roll again.

20. Roll twice, combine.



Drama:

Include if needed, 1-2 in 6 chance if undecided , and ignore if there’s too much else going on to worry about this now.


  1. Just been set up, notable percentage of the population has a bad feeling about the location ,and followingly are jumpy and quick to assume to the worst.
  2. Leader or most powerful member has managed to annoy every other member to the point where their murder is being planned
  3. All are members of a Cannibal /Thrill Kill/Plains Of Revelation Annihilism sect/secret society/gentlemen’s club
  4. Majority or at least the highest authority here in the pay of a pantheon to trap particular talented khemists or dowsers.
  5. Deep underlying tensions and distrust between half of the occupants and the other
  6. In the process of rapid growth, steady stream of traffic, next time encountered move it the next size on the size table
  7. Extremely low on food, salt , medicine, or water.
  8. In the process of packing up to relocate
  9. Recent conflicted has halved available security . Many injured
  10. New use has just been discovered or arranged. Roll an additional Purpose which is in the process of being developed.
  11. 70% of defences is hidden in preparation for an ambush.
  12. In talks with powerful Immortal, dire results if talk goes badly.

Other Vermin Road Rackets


Soul poaching:

There is a bell someone learned to craft the sound of which can be heard by Souls.

It is an invention formed by bastardize a dozen or so religious practises and paraphernalia.

A Soul drawn to it and then convinced to accept the Realm will not be accepted into the Realm, instead its Salt will pour from it. If it later finds or is found by a Caller, and accepted into the Realm it will a weaker bonded soul.

These bonded souls, if slain,will be not reform, instead being destroyed utterly. After a Century has passed on their world they will become a proper bonded soul.

Any Immortal will see its duty to utterly annihilate anyone caught Soul Poaching, and there’s a cumulative 1 in 20 chance of the Realm creating an Incarnate to deal with the Poachers if they poach in the same area.




Tick Mining :

There are areas in any Realm where its Salt is secreting in a more accessible form. A “Tick Mine” is an operation to harvest as much of it as they can before someone notices.

Some individuals have a rare talent to find such spots, they each have their own indoscratic methods of doing so and are known as dowsers.

The form the Salt is secreted in and therefore the nature of the operation depends on the Realm:

Pinnacle : grinding up the contents of warriors tombs

Serene Night : digging up a fallen star or distilling the contents of certain pools

Blazing World : Tree Sap

Protean Ocean: Chaos Baiting ;shocking a unstable patch of material, causing it to transform. Leftover bits from the transformation then are potential Salt sources

Erebus: Mining Salt ore

Flesh Rifts Bleeding/Digging up Wound, Lancing Boils, Pulling and grinding up teeth

Plains Of Revelation Tree bleeding, Digging up bog mummies out of mud

Heart Of All :Mining crystallized honey, and coal

Babel :Grinding up certain coral, Modron impersonation and then accessing of strange chemicals


These areas can look unremarkable for the Realm, and often “Soul dowsers”; people with a knack for finding these areas, are necessary.

Richness of Mine:

(Table can be used across the row with a single roll, or each column rolled separately for more erratic mines)


Sekem per Fugue

(reroll and add 10s)*

How many Fugues before drying up

Chance of Intervention

1

1d10

100

1 in 100

2

1d10 x 10

50

1 in 50

3

1d10 x 50

20

1 in 20

4

1d10 x 100

10

1 in 12

5

1d10 x 200

5

1 in 10

6

1d10 x 500

3

1 in 8


*so if you roll a 10, roll again adding the new result to ten, repeating as many times as you roll tens




Interventions:

Roll D4, but on a 4, reroll and intensify the result.

1: Realm environment becomes hostile. If its one with dangerous weather, have that happen. Otherwise environment appropriate effect like a minor cave in, a tree falling over, sudden patch of quicksand. One that can cause injury if action is not taken. If rolled after a 4, this event is life threatening to anyone in the area. If rolled after two 4s the environment changes permanent, becoming inaccessible and/or ongoingly dangerous

2: A concerned local wanders nearby, like a minor Immortal or bonded soul. If they notice and lack the ability to interfere themselves, they will go and get someone else, returning in a derive.

They return with results as If rolled after 4 1d4 immortals of 6 hit dice has located the mine

If rolled after two 4s 2d6 immortals of 6 hit dice and lead by one of 8 hit dice show up

3:The realm manifests an Incarnate with 6 hit dice

If rolled after a 4, It manifests an Incarnate with 8 hit dice

If rolled after a two 4s It manifests an Incarnate with 12 hit dice


If you roll 4 or more 4s in a roll, the Realm manifests a Titan


APPENDIX 1:

Generating an Incarnate
Roll d3 for how many times you roll on the form table, and if the results seem mutually exclusive, roll on sub table. Then roll once on the Power and "What does it do?!?!?!" table.

Table: Form (d20)

1. A glowing child with an echoing, choral voice
2. A cat-headed snake tracing a figure eight with pretty rainbow eyes
3. A giant horse head, silver-flamed
4. A muscular human with golden skin and stars for hair and eyes
5. A burning wheel
6. Dizzying points of light rotating and forming complicated mandala patterns
7. A wise fox
8. Some kind of farming implement formed from ice
9. A huge hand, its voice coming from its palm
10. A save with skin as black as the night sky and flaming hair
11. A hovering flame
12. An inverted tree floating above the ground
13. A naked lady, but with no nipples or sauce grooves
14. Rainbow-colored ribbons
15. A rotating flower head, alarmingly flat and symmetrical
16. A cloud of tiny silver seahorses
17. It Has Wings. If you roll only this result, it's just a pair of wings flapping in space. Other than that, stick the wings wherever. If you roll this result again, why that's just another pair of wings.
18. A pair of flaming eyes. If you are combining this with another result, you may give that result flaming eyes, or have flaming eyes looming behind it. Or whatever
19. A great turtle gently swimming through the air, with a tiny city on its back20. A bronze bell of vast age


Table: Combining Forms (1d6)

1. Have one sitting atop the other, or carrying/riding the other
2. Like a playing card, one is upside down and joined to the other
3. The Incarnate changes back and forth in a gentle manner

4. As above but rapidly, in an unnerving strobe effect

5. Forms exist side-by-side, speaking with one voice

6. One form grows out of the other, in a way somehow not completely hideous


Table: Powers (1d20, roll 1d3 times)

1. Its yell can cause an earthquake and its sing has a disintegrating effect

2. It can glow so bright, everything looking at it has their eyes burst into flames

3. It has a weapon twice its body length that it uses with skill and fury

4. Its laugh heals those it chooses and causes weakness and despair to others it chooses

5. Casts magic spells as a wizard

6. Casts magic spells as a cleric

7. Long, near-invisible razor-sharp threads

8. Mighty gusts of wind and lightning

9. Can liquify stone, entombing people

10. Turns people into living animals / plants / baked goods / salt with a glaze

11. Redirects spells at targets of its choosing

12. At-will Command spell effect

13. Freezing breath

14. Absurdly fast, natural blur effect

15. Re-arrange gravity as it sees fit

16. Laser eyes

17. Blinks as blink dog, and can teleport opponents short distances

18. Can turn into a flaming pillar

19. Can sing a song that makes antithetical creatures vomit up their organs

20. At-will silence effect. Hold Person with a touch



APPENDIX 2
RANDOM WORLDS
(this is a repurposed old blog post that I'm including again here)

Foundation Of Economy Is:
1.Shark Teeth (cutting, jewelry/art objects, trade object)
2.Sewage Methane (fuel , balloons)
3.Coca leaves (stimulant (mild and completely not mild), medicine , memorial(?), rituals)
4.Lobotomized Gnomes (labour, food, books, batteries)
5.Condescend Darkness (sun protection, hiding from gods, sleep aid)
6.Rice (food, ethanol , paper)
7.Tea (mild stimulant , status object, ancestor appeasement)
8.Opium (medicine, drug, astral ablative armour)
9.Uranium (ghost spirit magic protection, heat, armour + supernatural defense penetrating weapons)
10.Gelatine (glues, sealant , protection against environmental diseases)
11.Guano (for fertilizer + gunpower)
12.Silks, various (clothing , rope, sails, dreamcatchers)


Threat that shapes everyone's lives
1. Hungry Soils
2. Evil stars
3.Social Structure Dominated by Scattered Feuding Warlords
4.Player Races not native , difficult to get enough protein and nutrition from flora and fauna
5.Barely Contained "cold-war" between 2 massive empires
6.ongoing Colonisation by distinctly advantaged Others
7.Fundamental Forces Essential To Life are weakened e.g the sun , fertility, water
8.Fauna getting steadily more monstrous and hostile
9.Munitions and weapons from ancient war keep going off or being found and causing upheavals
10. Climate change (either Warming or Cooling)
11.Kaiju Eggs From Space
12.Dangerous Discoveries In Magic or Technology or Brain Powers


Significant Historical Event Which Shaped Quite A Bit I Can Tell You

1.Super Big War
2. Mountains All Started Floating
3. Seas drained to vast underground caves
4.contact with underworld people
5.Gods all killed each other
6.Alien race started using this world as their transitionary afterlife
7.A better version of fire discovered
8.Mutations
9.Universal language discovered, extends to mineral and vegetable kingdom as well as all animals
10.Previous Ancient and Establish Ruling Wizard Class overthrown
11.Doomsday happened but it was mild
12.Seas Rose but super buoyant gas discovered

Immediately Noticeable
1. Warrior Caste Very Important .Tattoos as armour. Class war
2. All domestic animals some form of worm
3. 7 colours of rain with different properties
4. Puppet based technologies
5. Sky Rivers and Lakes
6. All plants quite animated and semi-motile
7. Intensive Vertical Architecture
8. No violence in cities, even warring armies will eat with each other
9.Extremely large anthropods
10.Big chucks of dead things lying around

11. Bridges To Moons

12. Everyone smokes and lights incense to keep imps, batmites,midges and ghosts away

Underlying Thing:

1.Despair

2.Crazed Optimism

3. Mystery , Deception

4.Age of Exploration/Exploitation

5. Corruption of Ideal

6. Total War

7. Heroic War Improving Opportunity

8. Nude Survival

9.Weird Shit All The Time

10.Sacrifice To Maintain Stuff that isn't that great but no-one has better idea 

11.What Cost Is Power

12.Moral Relativism

Apex Predator:

1.Giant Severed Hands

2.Cog Squid

3.Poison Lion

4. Corpse Python

5. Sin Dragon

6. Angels

7. Walking Cruelty Tower

8. Starhound

9. Tyrannosaurus Rex

10. Skinbear

11. Broiling Wheel

12. Trains

Main Adventure Locale:

 

1. Rotting Palaces and Pleasure domes

2. Crashed WarShips

3. The Frontier

4. Glistening Skycaves

5. The Past
6. Ice/bone/wart/timebergs

7.the underworld that's actually underground

8.the underworld that's only accessible from weird places and doesn't really geographically make sense

9.scavenging prisons

10.Trash mounds

11. Islands

12. Dense biomes like jungles or grave forests

 

 

NEW WEAPONS 

Meat Axe (flesh rifts)

A meat axe is a long handed cleaver like axe, with an additional edge so it can serve as a cutting hook. It has a eye on the handle so a rope can be attached. As well as a melee weapon it is used to cut open meat landscapes, the hook edge and the rope attachment allow the axe to be dragged along the skin of meatscape with multiple people.


Blazing World Shelagh


A particular hard and dense wood from Blazing World. A rainbow irrescadent is seen in the grain when it catches the light. Capable of puncturing steel.

Single Tooth Sword (flesh rifts)

A single tooth, serrated like a sharks tooth, but longer and more tapered than most sharks teeth are. A handle is attached or carved and then its crudely wrapped.

Molar Mace (flesh rifts)

A fist size molar driven through bone or wood, or sometimes still attached to the jawbone.

Jaw Blade (flesh rifts)



Like the aztec Macuahuitl, this a big flat blade of wood or bone, with teeth of obsidian, metal or literal teeth. Favoured for the ease that the teeth can a variety of materials and its crushing weight.


Heart Stinger (Heart of It all)


A oversize wasp abdomen and stinger, the stinger now the length of foil. The abdomen is hollowed out and grip inserted. The stinger is hollow and often comes with half dozen wasp darts that can be fired from the blade or a poison gland.




Claw Pick(Erebus)



A short handled hooked pick, with back of the head being a hammer. Capable of penetrating armour or eviscerating a softer target. Effective as climbing and mining aid, as well providing a handhold against sudden tunnel winds.

Chakram and Hat

A refugee culture has brought this to 3 Hares and it has proved to be popular. A conical hat that serves to store spare chakrams, which are sharpen metal throwing discs

Francisea (Bouncing Axe)


Another immigrant weapon that has spread further than its initial users. The strange shape of the axe means it bounces unpredictable when thrown, and becomes even more effective with weird gravity's of Protean Ocean or the close tunnels of Erebus. Bouncestone from Blazing World is often incorporated in the forging.






Gravity Hammer (Protean Ocean)

Resembling a ball and chain or meteor hammer, the incorporation of a weird material in the head means that is mass disproportionately increases with velocity. This results in a weapon that when spun and flung, it will launch its spinner with it, an effective means of travelling through the subjective gravity of Grinder or Protean Ocean.





Loom-bow

Visually distinct with its metal rectangle frame instead of the flattened crescent of crossbow arms. Instead of using the elastic energy transferred to the bent bow, either side of the frame houses some from of spring coil . This can be simply a bundle of rope or sinew which is twisted to load it with energy , or the more familiar to a modern eye spiraling metal spring. These are loaded by cranking the attached throwing arms back towards the user. When released , they fling a bolt through the middle of the frame . While ä fit being can manage to carry it , it needs to braced or held by an absolute brute to be held steady and fired with accuracy.

A variant exists that sits on a braced socket on the saddlehorn, allowing it to be fired from the back of a mounted beast.

The Loom-bow was engineered from the Hapax , and in doing so now closely resembles the Harpax ancestors ; a in-swinging ballista or cheiroballistra.

Strength 16+ , large size, a decent tripod or bracing to fire with any form of positive attack modifier.


Harpax

A “Cherioballistra” modified to be used in ship to ship combat as a grapple . The tip of the bolt is replaced with a hinged grappling anchor, to which rope and tackle is attached. So if it was shot into a ship , it can pull both its ship and the struck ship closer.

Found its way to 3 hares along with the rest of the ship. The inspired duplicates of it are used to solve unique transport problems rather than board ships, being made lighter with folding swivel mount stand and attached rope reel.

Variant: Stinger : A fine chain is used instead of rope and is connected to a large pain-box, which delivers a stored charge and then can keep continuous current as long as the pain box is wound.



Pain Box (Grinder) (can be magnetic)


First seen in grinder made from scavenged materials but now replicated in Heart Of It All, Dead Flags, and 3 Hares. It is a metal box with a wind up handle. From the box is metal cable and a short harpoon. An electric charge is built up in the box by winding of the handle and the harpoon launched by use of non-conductive atlatl. Once the harpoon has penetrated further charge can be delivered by winding up the box. Often comes with a magnetic variant attachment, instead of the harpoon, allowing it to clamp onto metal surfaces like armour or fortifications.



Titans Bow

The combiation of extremely strong individuals and overly inventive mechanical minds has lead to this horror show of cantilevers, pulleys, bracing and cabling. It allows for a very high draw strength but with the risk of turning into a disintegrating mass of wood, metal, and cables whipping through the air at blinding speeds.


Fire Puker

Something like a bagpipe but even more stomach like, being an actual stomach. It has 2 pipes coming from it. One is for the mulched vegetable material and the second is for the ignited methane byproduct of said mulch. As an emergency it can be tightly squeeze causing it to eject an acid spray, but this prevents it from digesting more mulch for a derive. A knot at the base must be periodically untied and the leavings of the stomach emptied out.

Wasp Darts

A large wasp dismantled and carefully glued and sewn into a dart like shape. The sting retains the poison and the wings and malign rutimary intelligence guide it inflight

Bombs :



Fire bomb

A glass ball filled with naphtha mixed with white spirit and a fuse, lit by pulling a strip. The explosion caused by letting the fuse run down is fairly minor, the main use of the fuse is light the contents when the thrown glass shatters against something.

Lacerator

A tightly wound ball of razor sharp spring steel. When the pin is pulled, a thrown impact will cause it to unwind in a blur of lashing metal, entangling anything that hasn’t already been cut into two.

Stink head

A severed head with skull partially fractured and the openings sealed. Throw it will likely shatter it, releasing utterly foul liquids and gas. The gas nauseates and sickens, and anyone struck with the liquid itself becomes ongoing localised generator of the gas.

Smoker

A mass of half dried leaves, glued together with tar and plant resin. Lighting it results in a dense, opaque smoke, that causes additionally causes hallucinations and enhanced emotions.






Living Leather

As the name suggests, it's still alive, often with recognisable features incorporated into the visual design. When damaged it will bleed, but clotting near instantly, the scabs enhancing the protective abilities of the armour

Giant Hair Vest

Wiry black hair from hairy planes. Plaited and crochet into a ugly mass, that nevertheless is resistant to cutting and capable of ensnaring weapons


Chitin Plate

Armour made from giant insects. Often ornate, with striking metallic gleams

Chitin Full Plate


As above but including leg, arm and head protection. The use of a the head as the helmet is often avoided, instead artful deconstructions of it, so a full spider form as a helmet, but the components being repurposed fly mouthparts.