Memories of Connor's Adventures

Orlando the Adventurer pulled a Scimitar from beneath his Robes and smiled...

Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Linguistic Archaeology: Religion in Japan

The words for Religion and Religious Factions are built from three phonetics.

  • Shu
  • Kyo
  • Ha
Shu
The shu phonetic appears in the words for monastary, archive, and capital city implying a monastic authority that has established monastaries and the capital city.

Kyo
The Kyo phonetic appears in the word for arena implying a martial art. It also appears in the words for world-jungle, frontier, canyon. So martial arts begins life in a canyon off in the world-jungle of south-east asia on the frontier of civilization.

Ha
The Ha phonetic appears in the words for pillar and tomb. Basically islam has reached Civilization. Hadj in far off Mecca with the pillar and tomb.

Kyo emerges from the jungle and enters the monastary system giving rise to martial arts dedicated monastaries. Shukyo becomes the primary religion. Kyo is now a faction. With the arrival of Islam it infiltrates the monastaries evolving into a new cult (shuhu). Islam infiltrates the martial arts faction kyo forming a new faction (kyoha). Ha and Shu become individually extinct.

The influence of Islam on eastern civilization could mean the expulsion of women from martial arts schools and religious monastaries. The emergence of a new religious cult and a new martial art.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, 11 October 2016

Campfire Tales: A Shared Meal

A Shared Meal
A dwarf named Yob camped in the wild with his fellow adventurers. They caught a fat boar and cooked it over a fire and Yob spilled fat in his beard and went to bed unclean. On the first night something small bit Yob on the toe while he slept and he woke in the middle of the night. He was unable to see what had bit him but it had drawn blood. He got very little sleep that night and was weary all the next day. In the evening the companions caught wild hens and Yob again spilled meat in his beard before going to sleep. On the second night while Yob Slept something bit him on the tip of his index finger again drawing blood and rousing him from sleep. Irritated at the pain he was unable to sleep the rest of the night. The day gave Yob no rest. Weary and tired Yob fell asleep that evening missing the meal all together. That night a dozen small things came in the night and finding no food in Yob's beard, each bit Yob for one point of damage until he bled to death.

DM Briefing: This is a cautionary tale about camp hygiene when outdoors. Leaving food out can attract scavengers and predators.

Character Origin: The Survivor

Five years ago, a masked killer brutally murdered a group of friends. Since then, [character A], the lone survivor, has struggled to reclaim a shattered life. Wracked with guilt and paranoia, [Character A] leads a depressingly lonely existence until [Character B] befriends [Character A] and attempts to integrate [Character A] into the Adventuring Party.
But just when [Character A] might be ready to start a new life, [Character A]'s past comes back to haunt them all.

Out damn spot
How is it that PCs can go off and murder hundreds without being psychologically changed by the experience? I suggest that every life taken requires a charisma check with a cumulative -1 penalty for every life taken. If the PC is unable to cope emotionally, it should cost one point of charisma or an alignment shift toward chaotic and evil. When charisma reaches three a multiple personality emerges with an alternate alignment (and even class).

Creature Catalogue: Men-rei-ki

Men-rei-ki
AC: -2
HD: 8*
MV: as wearer
AT: touch
DA: as mask
SA: F8
NA: 1 (1-12)
ML: as mask personality
TT: as wearer
AL: Chaotic
XP: 1200

Men-rei-ki are personalities of a would-be immortal looking to purge itself of all emotions and contemplate immortality from a purely logical perspective. It trapped its emotions and personality in mortal form. The masks posesses the wearer.

Mask.....ML...DA
Hunger: 10, attacks others out of Ravenous Hunger biting for 1d6.
Fear: 1, paralyzed with fear for one turn
Despair: 3, catatonic for one turn
Hate: 11, attack others as berserker for one turn
Love: 4, distracted for one turn
Lust: 7, distracted for one turn
Joy: 5, distracted for one turn
Pleasure: 6, Distracted for one turn
Suffering: 2, 1hp/round
Inquisitivness: 12, Death
Greed: 8, wisdom reduced to three when confronted with gold
Jealousy: 9, alignment shift to chaos.

Destroying a mask is impossible. It regenerates after twenty four hours even if disintegrated.


Sunday, 9 October 2016

B/X Dungeon Building: The Caves of Ominous Sufferance

Building a dungeon adventure requires that you pick a scenario and a setting.

1d10-scenario
1 - explore unknown
2 - investigaye chaotic outpost
3 - recover ruins
4 - destroy ancient evil
5 - visit a lost shrine
6 - fulfill a quest
7 - escape from enemies
8 - rescue prisoners
9 - use a magic portal
10 - find a lost race


1d6-location
1 - castle or tower
2 - caves or cavern
3 - abandoned mine
4 - crypt or tomb
5 - ancient temple
6 - stronghold or town

Ex. Our adventure is to Fulfill a quest (6) by fetching some object from some caves (2).

Specifics: The local wizard's previous apprentice perished in the caves. You need to fetch his remains. The caves are occupied by stirge (1-10) and giant geckos (1-3) which are wanering monsters.

Caves 1,3,4: trapped with pendulum blades (1d8).
Caves 2, 9: flying daggers attack when pcs enter.
Caves 6, 10: empty caves.
caves 7, 8: each is guarded by a living statue.
Cave 5, a concealed chute drops the pc down a slide into cave 9.

Treasure: the flying daggers are cursed magic daggers -1 and the pendulums are battle axes on ropes. The apprentice's remains have a scroll-levitate, and 5gp in a pouch.

So that should give you an adventure.

Thursday, 6 October 2016

Hidden Temple: When Adventures Go Bad

Legends of the Hidden Temple was a Nickelodeon game show obstacle course for kids. Basically they spoke to the talking stone head who tells them stuff, they then get quizzed on what they were told on the temple stairs for the right to retrieve (via an obstacle course) some single-use holy symbols that will protect them from the zombie guards within the temple of the monkey god while they search for the three parts (4 counting a rod spine up the centre) to the silver monkey statue.
They have three minutes to search a three floor inner sanctum (thats 18 d&d rounds) and assemble the statue while being accosted by zombie guardians (if you dont have a holy symbol you die). The statistics were horrible. The Success rate is four percent. Primarily this was to do with the design of the structure being for larger adult sized players not little children. So silver statue parts were atop shelves out of eye level perspective...and the only position to view them from was from the top of the rope from the entry hole in the ceiling or the top of the stairs.

Learning from LotHT
Adventurers should find adventures almost impossible to suceed at. A 4% chance of success shouldnt be unreasonable. Dont be afraid to feed your adventurers to the zombies.

Tuesday, 4 October 2016

Short Fiction: Fire, to destroy all you've done

Title: Fire, to destroy all you've done

"The Reichmarshal is expected in three hours for the demonstration and that..." Vosk crushed his gloves in his right hand and pointed at the colossal generator occupying the cavern, "...needs to be operational in ten minutes."
"I assure you Commander," Professor Bern cleared his throat. "the n-space generator is ready."
"Bring it online then Professor." Vosk twirled his glove occupied hand in a circular motion indicative of a generator that made physical rotation causing Professor Bern to wince at the man's ignorance. The n-space generator lacked any moving parts. "I want to test it before we demonstrate it to the Reichmarshal."
"Of course." Professor Bern signalled the Technician to turn the key before focusing his attention on Commander Vosk. "The capacitors are charging."
The air in the cavern became the colour of television tuned to a dead channel.
"As you can see," Professor Bern pointed at the centre of it. "the n-space generator is functioning perfectly."
"What of the previous problem?" Vosk could see a bubble of gold growing mid cavern.
"Solved by a filter replacement." Professor Bern pointed at the Gold bubble. "And before you ask No thats not gold."
"I know its not gold Professor Bern," The bubble of gold continued to swell. "I read the research."
"In that case...yes," Bern smiled. Vosk was a rare jewel amongst the leadership. "that is the n-space boundary."
"And beyond it is," Vosk could almost feel the presence of the Fuhrer who was waiting on the otherside for the n-space boundary to reach the volume of the chamber in an almost identical cavern beneath the Berlin. Vosk could feel the weight of the promotion pinned to his uniform. "the second facility beneath Berlin."
A bell rang alerting those in the chamber that the second facility was online.
"We can build these n-space generators anywhere," Vosk was excited at the prospect of instantaneous travel. "and simply step through."
A surge in the electrical bus and molten gold poured from the bubble splashing the floor of the cave.
"Professor?" Vosk turned to look at Professor Bern whose face had become ashen. "Is there going to be a problem?"
"Berlin has just been destroyed," Professor Bern was physically shaking. "The n-space boundary will reach us shortly."
"What do you mean?" The bubble had stabilized. "The boundary looks stable."
"The fluctuation in the power grid was the other facility failing." Professor Bern was terrified. "The n-space boundary is now expanding uncontrolled."
"How long?" Vosk stared at the perfectly stable n-space boundary in front of him. "How much time do we have Professor?"
"Minutes." The Professor was breaking down emotionally. "The Universe is collapsing to n-space."
"So it will not go further than this boundary?"
Vosk formed an idea walking forward. "Where does that lead?"
"Without a second facility?" Professor Bern understood where Vosk was going. "Anywhere."
"Anywhere?" Vosk moved toward the bubble of gold to get a closer look before looking back at the Professor. "Then we go where we can."
"With haste Professor," Vosk turned his attention to the n-space boundary in front of him.
"The end of the Universe waits for no Aryan." Vosk stepped through the n-space boundary.

The Universe was bright light. An infinite sea of aromas that Vosk was sure was the outdoors. The light faded from white revealing an ancient forest.
"Professor?" Anywhere now looked a lot like somewhere. Shadows gathered and stirred. They were Men wearing animal hides for clothing and armed with wooden spears. Spears now pointed at Vosk.
"Gun-sar will decide your fate." They spoke something akin to early German. 'Gun-sar' was a name. 'Gun-sar will decide?' The warrior indicated a direction of travel with the motioning of his spear. "Move."

"I am Gun-sar. I rule by right of challenge."
Gun-sar looked at one of his warriors. "What's the tally of challenges?" Vosk considered the value of the warriors surounding him. They smelled of dung, urine, sweat, and blood.
"Twenty five dead and one missing. " The warrior who spoke was closest to his chief.
"Oh come on Ka-to, Ba-tu fell backward off the cliff. " Vosk needed them to build his empire.
"Yes..." This one would serve as a lieutenant.
"So he's dead. You can't say Ba-tu is missing when he has fallen into a bottomless gorge. "
"No..." but the chief, "So its twenty six dead."
Vosk pulled the Lugher, fired with considerable accuracy and brought Gun-sar's reign to an end.
"I am Vosk," Vosk pointed his gun at Ka-to, "and this is my boom-stick."
"Now," Vosk pulled Gun-sar's corpse from the throne, sat down on the throne and looked at Ka-to.
"Where exactly is this village?" A warrior leaped forward in attack. Vosk met the challenge with another round from his lugher dropping the nameless corpse on that of Gun-sar.
"Are there any further challenges today?" Vosk looked about expectantly. "No?"
"You four dispose of these two." Vosk pointed about before turning his gaze on Ka-to. "How far are we from Berlin?"
"Ber?" Ka-to seemed wary of the new tyrant as he watched the newest corpse dragged from the hall.
"Ber-lin." Perhaps some other nest of civilization. "How far are we from Rome?"
"Rome?" Ka-to was confused by the word. It was unfamiliar. "Sel-ka. This is Sel-ka."
"Sel-ka." Vosk nodded his head. "Great. Just great." Vosk contemplated the world. No Berlin. No Rome. There was only one thing for it. "No more Sel-ka." Decisive leadership was needed. "This is now Ber-lin."