Time Out: Wreck it Ralph 2

Yeah...you are going to like this all the way to the end.

Linguistic Archaeology: A follow-up on ten thousand Righteous Robbers

Arkuti is a nice Mountain where ten thousand bandits hung out. Except it isnt in Eastern China, its in Nepal.
The Righteous Robbers lived atop a mountain. Its unlikely that they would tell authorities where that mountain was. But its entirely possible that it is drawn from an older legend passed down through history. Given the population of ten thousand would need to feed themselves, it would be a very large mountain with multiple farming villages.

Its intreaguing that they are not just protoindoeuropean, they are describable in runic.

 

Its one of these...

Basic Training: Wyrmwood House

A nice map of Wyrmwood house...

What is the difference between a house and a manor? The lack of double doors.

I still need to do a cellars.







Cellars: they can be reached from anywhere in the house by casting a darkness spell and stepping into the darkness. PC is transported to 76A.
The return trip dumps the PC back in the house.

Replaced: with something a little less intense.

Post Scarcity: That Next Meal

For those hoping for food replicators and a startrek tomorrow, there is good news and bad news...

B/X Dungeon: Wyrmwood Manor

From the moment you enter the old manor on the hill you need to make a charisma check every turn in the manor or accrue one point of disease.

 Disease Table
Pt         Disease
0-5       Cure Disease removes affliction.
06-09   Epilepsy (cha check required in melee)
10-13   Lycanthropy (Were-rat).
14        Berserker (cha check in melee)
15-16   Incurable Leprosy (-1 Con, -2 Cha)
17        Minor Rot (-2 Con, -2 Cha)
18        Major Rot (-5 Con, -5 Cha)
19        Vampirism
20+      Lichdom     

+1        per magic item from manor.

Linguistic Archaeology: Thieves' Cant

Here is Thieves' Cant in booklet form. It was published in Dragon Magazine in October 1982 by author Aurelio Locsin. Aurelio Locsin III was born in 1960 and this work in 1982 (Age 23) marks his earliest publishing beginnings. He would go on to write GURPS: Aztecs and numerous other GURPS books for Steve Jackson Games.

 Thieves' Cant? It was a real language having its origins in at least the 1500s. We can actually examine the language for geographical markers to determine its origins. Even if this version is modified by the Author to create a fantasy version with orcs, dwarves, elves, and dragons. We can see it is from a landlocked region. At best it has marsh and a lake, its plains with bordering desert and forest with a mountain, a hill, a city, two towns, some farming. There is smuggling (diamonds, rubies, sapphires, opals) and long inspections. There are thieves and bandits.

Geographical Markers
Usal = Mountain
Lyket = Plains
Kunsal = Hill
Suso = Forest
Ratik = Marsh
Utho = Lake
Akbun = Desert
Kuena = Cave
Eslm = Country

Ku refers to a Hill with a Cave.

Specifics
Kuena = Cave
Tontyha = Stronghold
Tonlub = Sanctuary
Raiga = ruins
Fysy = Town
Fysos = Shrine
Holyat = City
Ornek = Castle
Hili = Bridge
Kunahin = Crypt
Ror = Dungeon
Iro = Farm
Mybet = Town
Kauhin = Barracks
Kauta = Temple


Ton refers to a Fortress Sanctuary.
Fys is a Town with a Shrine.
(R)O(R) is associated with a Dungeon linking a Castle to a Farm.
Kau is a temple with barracks.
Hi is associated with a Bridge and Barracks.

Updated: a mountain surrounded by a swamp Marsh.

"In Sung Dynasty China, three generations or so before the time of Marco Polo, legend has it that a  mighty band of Robin Hood-like outlaws gathered together to oppose the corrupt and predatory ruling class. There were some 10,000 of these outlaws dwelling on a mountain called Liang Shan P’o, which was protected from attack by a vast marsh whose labyrinthine waterways permitted easy ambush of assailants. The leaders of these “Righteous Robbers” were 36 chieftains who were actually incarnations of 36 stars of Heaven, and 72 subchieftains who were incarnate stars of Earth. An unknown Chinese authur collected the tales of these heroes into one lengthy book, which Pearl S. Buck translated under the title All Men Are Brothers." -the righteous robbers of Liang Shan P'o, Dragon magazine issue 83.

Suddenly the Idea that Thieves Cant was created by the 10,000 Righteous Robbers of Liang Shan P'o from their mountain stronghold is of historical significance.

RATIK is Marsh. In Runes it is a reversed set with symbols for Arrow(AR), (half) a bow(K of KU), and a sword or spear (using TI).

Its correct form should be Ar-K(u)-Ti.

Update 2: Arkuti is a mountain in Nepal.

Basic Expert: The Watchtower

   

 1: here in the ruins of the old watch tower long ago shattered by some powerful magic, a giant hairy spider makes it's home.

Map section
Limit (120,000 square feet) - 8,000 sq. ft.

Water-bearer: 4HD; AC7; MV 90' (30'); AT 1 Bite; DA 1d4; NA 1(1); SA Fighter L4; ML 5; INT 2; TT nil; AL Neutral; XP 75; Description: this giant, hairy brown spider the size of a dog is going after the PCs waterskin seeking moisture when it first attacks. If sucessful, it bites the waterskin and carries off the water. It will otherwise fight for the water.

Level 2 of the dungeon...
Map section limit: 112,000 sq. ft. - 8,000 sq. ft.

The dungeon should be good for another 13 levels.

Dungeon Mastery: Designing Adventure Modules for the B/X game

I encountered the following rather interesting set of rules for a 1982 B/X Adventure Module Design Competition in Dragon magazine.

Dungeon Adventures
The dungeon adventure should be designed for 4-8 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS characters of levels 1-3, and should be constructed in accordance with the D&D Basic Rulebook. The “dungeon” should be a self-contained adventuring environment consisting of a number of interconnected encounter areas.
The total area (in scale) of the rooms, chambers, corridors, and other features of the “dungeon,” plus the spaces separating those elements, cannot exceed 60,000 square feet on any one level of the dungeon, and there can be no more than 120,000 sq. ft. in the entire adventuring area.
The design can include as many levels or sub-sections as desired, as long as the overall space limitation is met. The “dungeon” can be subterranean (as with an actual dungeon), above ground (a castle or fort), or a combination of both environments. Dungeon modules in other categories must also meet these requirements.

Wilderness Adventures
The wilderness module should be for 4-8 D&D characters of levels 4-14, and should be designed in accordance with the D&D Basic and Expert rules. This is an adventure in which all, or virtually all, of the activity takes place outdoors. The environment may include some artificial (non-natural) structures or enclosures, or natural phenomena such as caves, which have to be entered to be investigated, but the total area of all such enclosures cannot exceed 5,000 square feet (in scale). There is no limit on how much space the outdoor environment can occupy, but it should be apparent that a “wilderness” area measuring hundreds of miles on a side would be impossible to describe fully within the maximum allowable page count of an entry. 

These should be considered standard limits for your own Basic and Expert Module designs. It means there are no megadungeons here.

Must now go design B/X specific dungeons.

Creature Catalogue: A little surprise for your wizards

Fa'au'ash
HD: 1*-9*****
AC: -2
MV: 90' (30')
AT: As Magicuser L1-9
DA: As Spells
SA: Magicuser L1-9
NA: 1(1)
ML: 12
TT: A/HD
INT: 18
AL: Chaotic
XP: 13xp-4,400xp

Description: An otherplanar horror that nests in crystal balls or uses them as planar gates. A Fa'au'ash is outside its nest a creature of enthropic smoke, invulnerable to magic weapons of +2 or less. They will attack with spells as a magicuser of level equal to Hit Dice, collect magic items and slip back into their nest.
A crystal ball that is nest to a Fa'au'ash will be a pocket dimension where the Fa'au'ash keeps all its treasures or a gate to the real nest. They can go unnoticed in a crystal ball for millenia. And there are rumors of 40HD Fa'au'ash out on the planes. PCs can enter the pocket plane and kill its nesting  Fa'au'ash claiming a Crystal ball with a pocket dimension. There is a 1% chance that a crystal ball is a nest to a Fa'au'ash.

Castle Caldwell: A new map

A Castle Caldwell with smaller rooms and a few extra rooms thrown in.

Creature Catalogue: Lord of the Forest

Lord of the Forest
Dont know how I will stat this Deer with big green leaves for antlers but it needs to be awesome.

• 36th level druid?
• Immortal?
• Touch is a finger of death/raise dead fully depending on its mood.
• Loiters in a primordial forest of Giant Trees.

It might be an elder being behind the reforesting of the known world after its all destroyed by that big damn asteroid.

Lord of the Forest
9HD******
AC3
MV 240' (80')
AT Spell or Psionic Aura
DA as spell
NA 0(1)
SA Cleric L9
ML 12
TT Special
INT 18
AL Neutral
XP 5,100

The Lord of the Forest is a Primordial entity who when killed will simply re-form elsewhere in the forest. It is a deer-like creature made of ice from which grows the foliage of a plant unlike any before it. It is very intelligent, Psionic (capable of killing any living thing up to 6HD with a thought, driving off anything of up to 11HD), and capable resorting to cleric spells up to 5th level including a finger of death spell on anything that fails to save vs deathray of any HD.

Psionic Aura
HD | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12+|
DC  | D  | D   |  D |  D  |  D  |  D |  T  |  T  |  7  |  9  | 11 |   -   |

The plant growing from its head will become (on the roll of 1D20) a (1-6) treant, or a (7-20) home tree wherever the creature is slain (or transplanted).
If slain, it will summon animals to attack the intruders and use animal growth seeking to continually harass its enemies driving them from its forest.

Stellar Cartography: looking realy close at Proxima Centauri

 Had to do a lot of work with the Hubble image of Proxima but just there above the edge of the star is what looks like a Saturn with blue metallic rings, and what could be a planet, star, or galaxy with a ring. The pixel colours are always filled with information.

Do you think that Saturn with the ring is Proxima B? Should be interesting to find out.

Linguistic Archaeology: An older Rune script...

 What is interesting about Runes is that some of them fit together to create pictograms. Here we have A-R forming an Arrow shaft with arrow-head and fletching.

Further down a Bow is fully formed from K-U.

 This may not seem anymore than a vague self fulfilment desire until we consider that all the possible combinations of the letters of any written language can be assumed to create every word it is ever capable of describing, so if within that combination of Runes are other words from older languages, it is entirely possible that origin is valid.
ARKU (protoindoeuropean for Archer, or Bow and Arrow) form elder runes of a Bow and Arrow.

 Of course fans of Egyptian hieroglyphics might notice that the KU bow looks sort of like the Egyptian symbol for E.

The prospect that there could be a relationship is of interest because it changes the Danish rune language ahead of it.

 A popular name, simply because it is within the possible combination of Danish Runes is UTHAR. Uthar Pendragon is likely a name you are familiar with, except we now know U should be in the form KU in the elder rune form.

 Ku-th-ar is the earlier name form that is almost Protoindoeuropean...

 We also know that ARKU should not be split, so it should now be TH-ARKU.

 In the Scandinavian Rune TH looks a little different to our Danish TH rune. It looks a lot like a Bow (KU).

 If we consider the two bows are incorrectly identified, then the larger KU might be the Egyptian E, and the smaller TH bow is in fact KU.

Now we have KU-AR-E. This may be familiar to you. Kuare is a Poison used by the Bushmen of Kalahari.

Here we have a poison of the Kalahari Bushmen, Ancient Egyptian, and Protoindoeuropean in an elder rune form all converging to create part of the Vikings rune set. This form still violates protoindoeuropean's older rule for having AR before KU...so its possible we must put the AR arrow first, and the two bows KU-E next to each other but this brings up another problem. In ancient Egyptian two bows next to each other form the letter Y forming ARY in a Proto-indoeuropean/Ancient Egyptian word mash. Kuare becomes Ary. 
Update: 

 In this case we have Y-AR, the two Egyptian feathers with an Arrow rune.

In the Egyptian symbol from the Mendez Stele, we have two feathers and an entire warrior armed with bow and arrows (In the rather repetitive form of Y-ARKU). Y-AR is definatly refering to our Kuare using Bushmen of the Kalahari.