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The Lone Badger posted:One drop is about 0.1ml. So an orb holds 2 tsp and is about the size of a plum. That makes sense the Trade Pioneer is holding a bunch of flasks and Spheres of Aqua Ghyranis.  The book also shows a bag of it. Along with the disk that shows if it's real.  It's also stated that flasks, or special reinforced kegs are also used to store it.
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May 12, 2020 03:07
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Skaven are already so over-the-top wild, I wonder what it would take to make a new Skaven sub-faction on the order of "metal balloon dwarves" and "turtle cavalry elves." edit: I just noticed the fish in the trade pioneer's belt bottle! That's going to be one healthy fish
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May 12, 2020 04:01
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Just Dan Again posted:Skaven are already so over-the-top wild, I wonder what it would take to make a new Skaven sub-faction on the order of "metal balloon dwarves" and "turtle cavalry elves." The Much-Great Sky-Kill Air Armada posted:Inspired by captured Kharadron technologies, Arch-Warlock Steelklaw begins a truly ambitious project. For almost two years, the laboratory burrows of Skryre Clan Shyvik glow with strange lights and swarm with furious industry. At last, the newly self-titled Warlock-Admiral Steelklaw launches his fleet of Skryre airships. Built around cannibalised Kharadron craft and the fevered designs that have poured from Steelklaw’s mind, dozens of armoured dirigibles, lightning-ships, warpfire barges and klawbombers take to the skies. Over the months that follow, the skaven sky-pirates of Steelklaw’s Much-great Sky-kill Air Armada raid Barak-Zilfin and Barak-Mhornar, annihilate Waaagh! Gutcrusha with bombing from on high, and bring their upstart rivals of Skryre Clan Ziknak to their knees. It is not long before Steelklaw’s plans are stolen, copied and spread far and wide, and further skaven armadas begin to menace the skies Death in the Deeps posted:A fleet of strange submersibles launched by the Clans Skryre begins a bloody invasion of the Idoneth enclave of Nautilar. The war beneath the waves rages, the skaven plundering the arcane repositories of the sea aelves and abducting several Isharann in the hope of extracting the secrets of their soul-thieving magics They are also the ones that exposed the Idoneth to the world after accidently draining a sea by opening a portal tunnel under it. (And flooding Blight City in the process.)
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May 12, 2020 05:14
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MonsterEnvy posted:Funny enough the Skaven are taking after those two to combat them in the lore. The Skaven are just the best at being the worst.
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May 12, 2020 05:34
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Night10194 posted:It's like how Yakuza 0 gets around the utter absurdity of both protagonists eating money to gain power: Someone tells Kiryu to invest in himself, and he immediately says 'oh that makes sense' and they never bring it up again nor go into what, exactly, he's doing. It just works because it's funny and lets them use money as the EXP meter, which works in gameplay. Night10194 posted:Oh god, that was the worst thing in 7th Sea. 'Resource you spend now OR gain permanent power with later' is the number 1 way to make players never, ever use the cool stuff resource to do anything cool.
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May 12, 2020 05:36
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Zereth posted:It's the 80s during a real estate boom, everything is about money! That's the big change I think should be made to HeroQuest.
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May 12, 2020 05:47
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MonsterEnvy posted:Funny enough the Skaven are taking after those two to combat them in the lore. So the Skaven are literally turning into TaleSpin baddies? Dammit, I might have to buy this now....
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May 12, 2020 08:15
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GimpInBlack posted:So the Skaven are literally turning into TaleSpin baddies? Dammit, I might have to buy this now.... Tailspin, surely.
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May 12, 2020 08:24
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Night's Black Agents: Solo Ops Part Twelve: Never Say Dead, Chapter Five quote:Leyla Khan Looks like saving Fr. Loretti wins by a landslide, so Leyla's next stop is the erstwhile vampire hunters' safehouse. En route, Hulier explains a bit more about the plan. He and Fr. Foretti were both recruited by Rostami (and it doesn't take much Tradecraft for Leyla to recognize a workname--her mother used to tell her stories about the legendary Persian hero Rostam as a girl): Foretti for his access to the Vatican archives and a rare medieval alchemical manuscript containing a supposed cure for vampiric mind control contained therein, and Hulier for his biomedical acumen in recreating said formula. Unfortunately, there are two major flaws with the Rosewater Potion. First, it's not permanent: it breaks a vampire's ability to directly control anyone who's tasted their blood, but it doesn't prevent "re-indoctrination" or do anything for the addictive properties of vampiric mind control. Second, one of the key ingredients is, in fact, vampire blood, and Hulier used the only sample the hunters had access to to make the dose they gave Leyla. Rostami, allegedly, had a more permanent solution in mind once the initial control was broken, but with the operation scuppered by Stokovitch and Rostami in the wind, Hulier has no idea what happens next. He also can't say why the hunters chose Leyla as their test subject, except to say that Rostami said her profile suggested she'd be able to handle the shock and her skillset would make her suited to continuing the fight. They drive, cautiously, through the city, evading police patrols and Sinclair's men. There's a police band radio in the van, and from listening to their chatter, Leyla's pretty sure the Budapest street cops looking for her are on Sinclair's payroll--thankfully, however, it doesn't sound like he has his hooks in the TEK counterterrorism unit that's currently hunting the perpetrators of the Gellért Cave Massacre. Leyla parks the van around the block from the safehouse, with strict instructions to Hulier to stay in the car and away from the windows, and heads up to take a look. The safehouse itself is an apartment above an abandoned furniture store--Leyla tries to get a look inside, but the mercs are pros--they've closed all the curtains and aren't moving around near the windows. Still, Hulier was confident that there were only two goons with Stokovitch, and as long as they aren't also slugeri, Leyla's pretty sure she can handle them. Plus, since she left Stokovitch to be picked up by the Budapest police, odds are good the mercs don't know their operation is blown. A memory floats up in Leyla's mind: a voice telling her "Sometimes, the only way out is straight through." Leyla climbs the steps to the apartment and knocks on the front door. One of the mercs cracks the door suspiciously, and Leyla puts on a goddamn Oscar-worthy performance about how Jovitzo's men trailed her to the meet, and in the ensuing firefight, Hulier was killed and Leyla and Stokovitch were separated and we have to get to Tököl airfield right loving now. The merc is suspicious, naturally, but she's just dropped enough specific details that he figures she might be telling the truth. He turns to call his partner to confer--and that's when Leyla jams the Syringe Full of Propofol into his neck. He goes down like a sack of bricks, and before he even hits the ground Leyla is into the apartment, clearing corners, moving like greased lightning. She surprises the other merc in the bathroom and drops him with a sharp crack to the head with the baton she took from the goon back at the hospital. This is a bit of a weird spot in the adventure--the safehouse scene talks a lot about how to frame it depending on whether Khan arrives before, during, or after Sinclair's raid on the safehouse--but then completely neglects to tell us when Sinclair does this, or even how he knows about the safehouse at all: it's obviously not just from following Leyla, because the adventure is explicit that they can get here first, and Stokovitch ending up in police (i.e. Sinclair's) custody is sort of an ad-lib I threw in, so it doesn't seem like the intent is for Sinclair to interrogate her. I can buy that the hunters were discovered by Stokovitch off-screen, but if they were separately ID'ed by both Stokovitch and Sinclair, they go from being potentially useful allies to looking like dangerously-incompetent liabilities. Or maybe Sinclair ID'ed Stokovitch and trailer her to the safehouse? I guess it's just one of those action-movie moments you're not supposed to realize is a plot hole until three hours later. In any case, I decided to run the "if you get here before Sinclair" version since we literally just had a "Sinclair's goons show up and attack!" scene. So, since Khan has a depleted Fighting pool from the Stokovitch fight earlier, we're going to at long last use that Syringe Full of Propofol to automatically Advance on this Fighting test. Filch is also depleted, but we can Push Reassurance for a +2 bonus on the quick test, which easily gets us above 4--and since that means we Advance without rolling any dice on the Fighting check, we immediately recoup that Push. Leyla finds Father Foretti in the bedroom, cuffed to a radiator--bruised and afraid, but alive. She hustles him out of the safehouse and back to the van, where he and Hulier have a tearful reunion, and they're off. Rescuing Foretti is a nice character beat for Leyla, and he'll potentially be useful as our first Contact with Vampirology, but plot-wise he's pretty redundant--he mostly gives the same information we picked up from Hulier. The adventure actually assumes that one or both are likely to get killed and therefore only last long enough to give you the next core clue, but it does so in ways that a) don't account for some fairly obvious alternate approaches or b) rely on a not-very-well-explained sequence of off-camera events. The net result is you get a few scenes that have a lot of redundant information--honestly, while I like the first half of this introductory adventure a lot, the stuff with the vampire hunters feels like the weakest link to me. I'll be ad-libbing some stuff to try to punch it up a little, but as written it's kind of "meh." They ditch Stokovitch's van and walk the last few blocks to the safehouse--it's risky, because Sinclair's men are still hunting her and it's wearing on toward nightfall, but Leyla can't guarantee the van is clean. Still, other than Fr. Foretti being severely winded (the man is in his seventies, and spends the whole walk assuring Leyla that if he were a younger man he would have fought the mercs himself, but alas, he is old, and time has robbed him of his strong right cross, and back in the 60s he boxed in the Vatican league--did you know the Vatican has a boxing league?) by the end of the walk, they make it safely back to the hotel. Leyla is barely in the door before Magda has near tackled her in an enormous hug--she's been watching news reports all day about the shootout at the church, and is beside herself with worry--and after hasty introductions are made the group sits down to plan their next move. There's more we could do in the city, but the noose is tightening, so it might be worth figuring out our exit strategy. We've seen enough to know that the local police are on Jovitzo's payroll--just driving out of the city and trying to get out of Hungary isn't going to work, and after what happened on our cross-country trek to Grigor's farm, that doesn't seem like an appealing option either. Next Time: More options to vote on!
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May 12, 2020 11:02
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Part of me thinks that an attack on Sinclair might be a good idea. Either that or Rostami, I am not sure which is best though. I do like the fact that we are essentially starting the beginning of an RPG party, and the potential to make a fairly cool "fight vampires" group going forward.
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May 12, 2020 11:41
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Froghammer posted:Sigmarbux Nah, that's where the Soulbound go for their coffee.
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May 12, 2020 12:17
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Please tell me there's a Sigmadome somewhere.
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May 12, 2020 12:21
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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal That's a Good Rat Stick Something to remember going into this is that while our heroes have fought Skaven before, they've never really fought a serious Skaven force. The ones they took out back in Love or Money were just a bunch of clanrats with the little swords they all love so much. They have no idea marching into this that Skaven are anything but a variant of beastmen. They are about to get a serious lesson in how dangerous screaming idiot rats can be. First they come across sentries as they stumble out of the Dragon Ogre caves. A lot of sentries. Before they can engage, Vendrick's excellent eyesight spots the concealed pit trap between them and the sentries; the rats will almost never fight fair during this section (obviously) and a good Per skill will avoid a lot of bullshit. They love pit traps, hidden entrances, and when they get to the Engineer's minions, pre-ranged emplaced heavy weapons. One nice thing for the team here is that A: Anya can obviate the need for someone to carry a lantern by casting Light on Gilbert's sword or Ulrike's axe as they lead the way and B: Vendrick can see in the dark and his Elfbow outranges most of the Skaven guns. Once they start running into HMGs, Anya's darkness spells and Vendrick's bow both outrange their maximum range of 32 yards. This will lead to some very sad rats as their pre-prepared nests of gunfire get sniped by an elf or shut down by being smothered in darkness to let the team advance. The early sentries aren't a huge problem. Skaven clanrats come in numbers (usually 12-15 per encounter) but an ungeared, untrained first tier with a hand weapon and dagger can handle the average clanrat. Now compare people in plate with Best quality weapons, multiple attacks, an elf who is actually as good of a shot as elfs think they are, a wizard (sure, she's mostly using magic dart in these minor fights, but it's still more damage) and Elena's whip. Hell, at SB-4, Elena's whip is even actually pretty good at killing rats outright. She could really use Mighty Shot/Sure Shot; she might actually do Targeteer herself after Enforcer just to master her whip. The problems come if the heroes don't wipe the Skaven fast enough or let some of the fast little buggers get away, which they accidentally do in room 1. After finding a secret way into the tunnels by messing with a hidden switch to roll aside a granite boulder while pursuing the rats, they find what happens if any rats escape the first battle. The rats go to ready a huge ambush at the tunnel entrances, with d10+3 Clanrats, 2d10 Slaves (even weaker than Clanrats), a Journeyman Seer, six Packmasters (with whips and things-catchers) and 3 Rat Ogres (it's 1-3 depending on how advanced the party is. This party merits 3). Rolling high for number of rats, this means the heroes encounter 36 enemies in one encounter. That is a lot of screaming rats. To the point that running an encounter with that number of enemies is actually genuinely difficult just for keeping track of all the rats. It's the first time in a long time there are enough enemies for the slaves to actually swarm Anya and Karl. Fortunately, Skaven Slaves suck. Also fortunately, the book says to keep in mind Skaven will break and run if things are going badly. Vendrick is actually forced to use his hand weapon for the first time in a long time, but thankfully his and Anya's ranged attacks pick off the Seer before he can get much off. The real danger comes from little guys swarming Anya, though Gilbert's virtue and Ulrike's axe make pretty short work of both clanrats and the Rat Ogres (Roger is kind of a paper tiger and always will be). Anya actually takes a crit and worse, rolls terribly, suffering a Bleedout and having to Burn fate to survive it. So hey, the rats finally forced a fate burn by being numerous enough to actually get to the wizard. While she drops and nearly dies of a bloody wound to her chest, Karl manages to stun the rat who stabbed her and heals her, getting her back up, not really aware she had to Burn to live as he drags her away from the danger (along with Portia tugging at the collar to 'help'). Before the rats can swarm them further, Ulrike and Gilbert have finished off the Rat Ogres and are hacking their way towards them, and the rats break and run. Enemies getting to TB 2, unarmored Anya is really bad for Anya. In future fights if that's a risk, she's turning invisible and backing off. With Karl's magic, she tells the others she's fine to go on, trying to wipe her own blood off of her jacket and muttering about rats ruining it. Thankfully, crushing that fight actually kills a whole bunch of the Skaven opposition in the caverns. The team doesn't know that, and sends Elena, Vendrick and Anya ahead to scout quietly to try to make sure they don't get jumped like that again. Elena finds her nemesis, slipping into the lair of the Skaven chief Packmaster, Thrakk. Packmaster Thrakk is near a bunch of cages full of rat ogres, and worse, rat squigs. Because it's more dramatic, he'll catch her sneaking about on a stone bridge above the cages, uncoiling and readying his own badass magic whip. Yes, he has a magic whip that does SB-2 instead of SB-4. And yes, it's actually totally safe to take. Yes, she gets to have a dramatic whip duel with an insane rat genetic engineer and animal control specialist. Unfortunately for Thrakk, his BS is actually terrible (35) vs. her (56). Both try to drag the other off the bridge and into the cages below, but Elena succeeds, tripping the rat with a squeak and kicking him off the bridge. She grabs his fancy whip as he falls, and is quickly eaten alive by squigs. Elena has the team's first Magic Weapon! I admit, I was never expecting an upgrade for her bullwhip, let alone something so substantial and with the potential for an actual whip specialist vs. whip specialist duel. I was very happy to see that. Keeping track, the team has killed about 30 Clanrats by this point, which means of the 60 that Anya could spot in the main barracks, half are already dead. There are an awful lot more monsters that could be unleashed by the packmasters, but 6 of the 15 are dead and the packmaster leader has been eaten by a great cave (rat) squig, so they're probably panicking. They send Gilbert and Ulrike in alone to deal with the Clanrat barracks. Two very well geared, well armored fighters with 3 attacks each and good WS will mulch 30 clanrats (remember Gilbert gets +1 when fighting outnumbered). These Beastmen are putting up a hell of a fight, and there are a lot of them, but the team feels like they have control of the situation. Vendrick has murdered a Clan Eshin Assassin (ironically, by surprise) while scouting, because it's possible to surprise one of the unnamed assassins while he's squeezing mushrooms for poison juice in the mushroom pit. This is all about to change. Anya slips into the Grey Seer's chambers while the heavy team and Elena kill off a bunch of Plague Monks in the last swarm of chaff (it's only 10 of them, and they're barely better than Clanrats) and discovers the local boss. Because Anya is apparently having her worst day since Schloss Vonreuter, she fails Stealth at a very bad moment. The Seer also has Magical Sense and can potentially track her while invisible. The old seer kicks over his crutch in his surprise and unleashes 'A truly mighty squeak'. This will signal his Stormvermin and his Squig mount and the non-scout team is going to be very surprised to be rushed by them while Anya has to try to deal with Farquan long enough for help to arrive. It's time for a Wizard Duel. Farquan (after the undignified squeak) quickly realizes which language she speaks (man-thing, so Reikspiel.) and begins to threaten the young wizard-rogue. Telling her whatever his enemies promised, she won't be alive to collect it and that he knows she works for Skreet (who the hell is Skreet) and before he can get up his wizarding fingers (he's Agi 20% if he doesn't have his mobility Squig) she casts Pall of Darkness on him, trying to delay him. She doesn't actually know his Mv is 2, and so it will take him a full round to waddle out of the magical darkness so he can see her. Meanwhile, outside, the heroes are actually having a rough time with the Seer Guard. There are 3 groups of 5 (a new group arrives every turn) and they're the most dangerous kind of foe: Numerous, reasonably skilled, hit reasonably hard, reasonably tough. Like all Skaven, they have no leg armor, and the 2 armor they have elsewhere is useless against Vendrick's bow (and honestly, Ulrike's axe and Gilbert's sword), but they're not pushovers and there's a lot of them. And the Big Squeak and the sound of immense bouncing leads to Skarl the Great Rat Squig bowling into the fight, trying to get to his master. As Farquan stumbles out of the darkness, spitting curses, Anya catches him with Shadow Knives. This means his armor is meaningless. Her damage rolls aren't great, but 7 Wounds does hurt the rat-lord. He levels his staff at her and hits back, casting Word of Pain, and oh man is that not fun for Anya. Thankfully, Portia is outside the radius or she'd lose her Familiar here. Also thankfully, he rolled terrible on damage and it only does 9 Wounds. She grits her teeth against the magical attack, and then her fox leaps onto the Grey Seer and tries to bite him. Portia does not confirm a Fury, but actually inflicts 3 wounds. A second casting of Shadow Knives would fail, but Portia's miscast protection is 'if you had a miscast, you may elect to reroll the casting check' and Anya had doubles! The re-cast goes off! The knives do another 8 wounds, which combined with the vicious fox bite, inflict Critical 2! The seer loses his brittle old man hip to a magical knife, and since he's Helpless, Portia tells him to give it up and call off his mates or he'll suffer the natural fate of all rats: Bitten to death by a fox. The others outside are getting overwhelmed a little by sheer numbers, though they've killed the Squig, when the Seer Guard are ordered to stand down and Karl is sent for to, uh, stop the rat seer from bleeding out. Karl saves Farquan from bleedout as the fat old rat complains endlessly, yelling at them for ruining everything and making sure Skreet will win. The Seer Guard seeing this is probably going to go badly now that Karl's had time to heal his buddies and a mage has apparently beaten their lord, scamper off into the tunnels to think about what to do now as Farquan curses them more. The team isn't really sure what to do with a Grey Seer prisoner. They tell him to explain everything, and he tells them about Skreet and his amazing terrible machine. He notably does NOT tell them about the rat-demon, and even tells them there's a powerful talisman against Skreet's bullshit, exactly where the rat demon is. Unfortunately for him, Elena knows when people are feeding her bullshit. She warns the others that's probably a trap, and they bind and gag the Grey Seer. They don't really kill helpless prisoners much (it's against Gilbert's code and Karl wouldn't let them) so they'll figure out what to do about him later. After they collect the many, many treasures loose in the caverns. They'll stumble on the Rat Demon later. After Skreet. They also rescue a bunch of prisoners from the sacrificial pens; d10-1 of Humans, Dwarfs, and Skaven. They tell the humans and dwarfs about the way up they came in on to give them a safe way back to the surface, then question the Skaven, but don't learn much except that Skreet has some kind of deal going down soon with orcs of all things. Trading guns (rats have GUNS?) for some sort of fuel. The book says to put any NPCs you feel like here, or replacement PCs if you've suffered losses, but they don't really need anyone. What they do need is all the loots. By the end of searching the tunnels here, they've made about 700 GC worth of gold and gems. Almost as much as they got for fighting cocaine skulls back in the day! Elena's loot sack is happily full. But they can't stop to go back now! They have to press on and face this awful Engineer, Skreet! Next Time: Mexican Standoff In The Lava Pit
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May 12, 2020 15:58
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GimpInBlack posted:Night's Black Agents: Solo Ops Rostami, let’s get the band back together.
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May 12, 2020 16:05
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If there's one thing Karak Azgal shows, it's that WHFRP's combat engine (even when you can win, or even win easily) really isn't made for 'players engage 30+ enemies at once'. To do larger fights, you want to do what Ashes of Middenheim did and have the enemy continually reinforce, or just focus on one section of a battle at a time.
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May 12, 2020 16:06
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Night10194 posted:If there's one thing Karak Azgal shows, it's that WHFRP's combat engine (even when you can win, or even win easily) really isn't made for 'players engage 30+ enemies at once'. To do larger fights, you want to do what Ashes of Middenheim did and have the enemy continually reinforce, or just focus on one section of a battle at a time. I assume 2e doesn't have a Swarm Trait like 4e does that lets you turn "Clanrats (3-5)" into "Clanrats (15-30)" with a minor statline tweak?
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May 12, 2020 16:19
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No, but it also doesn't have the snowball mechanics or make being outnumbered quite as much of a death sentence. What's interesting is this kind of fight is actually quite unfeasible in both systems, for different reasons. In 2e, it's because of the sheer number of rolls necessary and foes to keep track of. In 4e, it's because Advantage is (if you're using individual combatants) either going to spiral upwards quickly for the more skilled heroes if they're initially lucky on their parries and reach impossible-to-deal-with levels, or the +40 Outnumber bonus and drain is going to get them mobbed and killed, or the Swarm trait is going to make every hero in the fight lose 1 wound per round and thus prevent them gaining any Advantage. Warhammer just isn't a system made for fighting 40 dudes most of the time. E: If you want to fight 40 dudes in 2e, you want toughness above all else. Toughness and armor. This is what makes Exalted Lords of Chaos such scary bastards with their +40 Toughness advance and possible +Tough mutations and divine plate. Though it would also be easy to say 'here's a statline for 10 Clanrats treated as one creature' in 2e, even if there aren't normally official rules for it. Also, Deal with Sinclair. He's been a problem long enough. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 16:41 on May 12, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 16:25
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Night10194 posted:No, but it also doesn't have the snowball mechanics or make being outnumbered quite as much of a death sentence. What's interesting is this kind of fight is actually quite unfeasible in both systems, for different reasons. In 2e, it's because of the sheer number of rolls necessary and foes to keep track of. In 4e, it's because Advantage is (if you're using individual combatants) either going to spiral upwards quickly for the more skilled heroes if they're initially lucky on their parries and reach impossible-to-deal-with levels, or the +40 Outnumber bonus and drain is going to get them mobbed and killed, or the Swarm trait is going to make every hero in the fight lose 1 wound per round and thus prevent them gaining any Advantage. Oh poo poo, yeah, I forgot just how punishing Swarm is in 4e. Yeah, that's pretty brutal.
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May 12, 2020 16:46
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Another thing to remember is that most fights in stuff like 2e don't end in the party killing everyone and everything. Most modules will advise you to have the enemy break and run once they lose X number of their unit to the PCs. I think this should have been made more clear in the core book, because it helps prevent large combat being quite as much of a slog since the enemy usually runs around the point where the PCs have actually won but it might be another 4-5 rounds of mop-up. E: Fun silly detail: Portia the fox familiar is better at melee than her human master. Especially now that she has Dodge and a base 51% Agi. She'll only risk Portia fighting in an absolute emergency, but the fact that a small magical fox is better in a fight than an adult human is hilarious. She is basically a better version of a rat catcher's small but vicious dog, except with a cockney accent. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 18:02 on May 12, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 16:55
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Soulbound Uptime and Downtime The game assumes that, in general, characters will only have around a week or so of downtime between adventures or major events. It imports the idea of Endeavors, stuff you can do during downtime, from WFRP 4e. You get one Endeavor during downtime, plus one per extra week you've got, to a max of three Endeavors. And, like in 4e, there's a species that gets a downtime penalty! This time it's not elves, who are balanced with everyone else. Rather, it's the Stormcast. The first Endeavor of any downtime a Stormcast has must be spent going and reporting in to their Stormhost to help with whatever local military actions are going on. Downtime is also often a good time for Stormcast to return from being Reforged if they died in battle. Possible Endeavors are: Aethercraft/Endrineering: You can make an Extended Crafting test to try and make an Aethercraft or Endrineering item you have the talent and materials for. You get 3 rolls per week, and if you succeed, you make it, though you may have to manage your rig if you don't have enough power for it and what you already had. If you don't finish it by the end of the week, you can keep trying with another Endeavor if you have the itme, give it up and resell the materials for half their value, or store it somewhere safe and come back to it later with all your successes banked until you get back to it. Bond: This has to be done by the entire Binding at once. It's everyone hanging out, strengthening friendshhips and bonding in some way. Once the week is up, the Binding recovers all Soulfire. Cleanse Corruption: Again, this has to be done by the entire Binding at once. You spend your week rooting out local problems and preventing them before they can get worse. At the end of the week, reduce Doom by 1. Contacts: You tell the GM what kind of contact you want to make and work with them to design a new NPC you befriend and how they'll be useful to you in the future, or make a stronger connecting with an existing one to expand how they can help you (which provides a bonus to convincing them to help). Contacts that can be hired for adventures are at half normal cost from a similar hireling, and contacts that can help with Endeavors give two free successes for any related Extended tests. Create Spell: You spend your week making an Extended Channelling test to make a new spell. You get three rolls per week, and if you succeed, now you have a new spell. (The spell design rules are in the magic section of the book.) Create Witchbrew: This is basically limited to Blessed of Khaine, and lets you make an Extended Crafting test like the Aethercraft/Endrineering stuff to prepare three draughts of witchbrew. Witchbrew is all upside: it buffs Melee for one combat and prevents Mortally Wounded from causing Stunned. False Identity: If you have the Master of Disguise Talent, you can create a false identity and work with the GM to figure out how it'll be useful, such as having a paycheck or a place to hide or good information you can't get elsewhere. Forge Ur-Gold Rune: If you have the Zharrgrim Talent, you can use this like the other crafting endeavors to create one or more ur-gold runes, as long as you have 3 pounds of non-inert ur-gold per rune. You can also install them in yourself or another Fyreslayer as part of this. Failure does not use up ur-gold. Forsake: If you're Blessed, you can transfer your Talent from one god to another, swapping out their Miracles, but you're likely to piss off whoever you forsake. Grundtogg: If you can't make your own runes, you can trade 3 pounds of ur-gold as a gift plus 3 more per rune to get them hammered in by a local Fyreslayer Lodge or Runesmiter. No rolls required, but it's more expensive. Learn Spell: If you can find some books or a teacher, you can just automatically learn a new Common Spell or an existing spell from any Lore you have access to. Lost Lore: You work with the GM to figure out some ancient artifact, lost technology or similar that you find something important about and approximate location of. If you then go and find it as an adventure, the GM may choose to give you the Forbidden Knowledge Talent for free. Magical Weapon Weave: If you're a Sylvaneth that can make wooden weapons with Weapon Weave, you can make a crafting check like the others above to give it a new weapon trait - one of Penetrating, Reach, Restraining or Rend - that it doesn't normally have. Any given weapon can only have one of these granted it this way, though. Recuperate: You spend your time resting and recovering, dealing with people and reminding yourself why you fight. The Binding recovers 1 Soulfire. REgular Maintenance: You tend to your Kharadron rig. If you don't do this, it iwll lose 1 Power Capacity. Repair Equipment: You can hire a craftsman to fix any non-magical gear you happen to have that's broken for half the cost of buying it, or you can make an extended Crafting test to fix it yourself for free. Seek Past Life: If you're a Stormcast, you can use this to work with the GM to come up with some story of your past that you recover memories of, which or might not be useful but will be a powerful memory that you can draw on for roleplay. Shopping: You can buy as many Common or Rare items as you can afford, or a single Exotic item. Train Companion: If you have the Loyal Companion talent, you can train your buddy with an extended Beast Handling check to teach them Training or Focus in a skill. If your buddy died in the last adventure, you can instead use this Endeavor to gain a new companion of any type your faction/species allows, so your Talent remains useful. There's also a sidebar saying that you can obviously make new Endeavors if you have an idea that doesn't fit the above. But now, let's move on to setting material. The Mortal Realms are, essentially, a giant pizza-shaped collection of magical energy spinning in the Aertheric Void, split into eight slices. At their center, they are connected by the Eightpoints. The eight Realms are each ruled by a Wind of Magic, and bears its name - so there's Azyr of the Heavens, Aqshy of Fire, Chamon of Metal, Ghur of Beasts, Ghyran of Life, Hysh of Light, Shyish of Death and Ulku of Shadow. The nature of that Wind shapes everything in that realm, and the further you travel from the central tip to the outer edge, the stronger the magic becomes. For example, at the outer edge of Shyish, living things cannot survive, while at the outer edge of Ghyran, plants grow, die and are reborn in minutes. Besides the Eightpoints, the realms are also connected by mystic paths, called the realmgates, which follow a pattern of such complexity that even the gods cannot understand it in full. According to ancient Azyrite texts, the realmgates were created by the Old Ones, the same beings that created the Seraphon (read: Lizardmen). However, many of them were corrupted in the Age of Chaos, making them very dangerous to use, as they might branch off into the Realm of Chaos itself, home of the Dark Gods. The Realm of Chaos is infinitely large and exists as a predator dimension only loosely tied to the rest of reality. Which is good, because its touch corrupts, and it hungers for the lives of mortals. Each of the Mortal Realms is nearly infinite in scope, so few people ever reach the far edges normally. Realmgates serve as the faster way of travel, and they predate even the earliest human civilizations. Even the newest of them seem to be ancient, and each is unique. Some are holes in the air, while others are stone portals or iron gates. Their number is unknown, and while in the Age of Myth, some tried to map them, it never really worked. What maps exist are nearly unusable and very unreliable, and even these are precious. Many realmgates were twisted by Chaos, while others were sealed or destroyed by the Slann. Working realmgates, however, are very highly prized, and wars have been fought over them - most notably in the relatively recent Realmgate Wars, when Sigmar's armies seized a large number from the forces of Chaos, Death or Destruction in order to aid their efforts in pushing back Chaos. Sigmar's forces have spread from Azyr, led by the Stormcast. Their focus has been on key locations - mostly realmgates - to further their strategic control of movement and to black Chaos. They set up Stormkeeps to defend the territories they claim, and the Free Peoples follow after, building their cities around the Stormkeeps. Entire clans of Duardin workers build the foundations and walls, and the Ironweld engineering guilds set up and expand their defensive machinery. After this is prepared, the merchants show up, harvesting goods from the area to fuel growth and exploit new resources. The cities grow, step by step, reclaiming land from the dark. Sigmar's battles began at the sealed realmgates of Azyr, and Azyrite colonists led the development of the original free cities, also called the Cities of Sigmar. They are often the largest and most important cities in the realms, and the greatest of the mis Hammerhal, the Twin-Tailed City, half of which lies in Awshy and half in Ghyran. Hundreds of travellers and pilgrims use the Hammerhal realmgates, which are the sole means of managing the resources and personnel needed to continue the war with Chaos. New cities continue to be founded, though it often takes decades or longer to complete their construction, all watched over by Azyr's architects and engineers. The founding begins with the Stormcast, who set up their STormkeeps around a liberated realmgate. Some of these are immense, lightning-clad towers, while others are recessed fortresses or hidden by protective flame. Still, they form the core of the city's future defense, no matter what. Once they exist, the Ironweld engineers arrive to set up further defensive buildings, which will be manned by the Freeguild regiments that defend the cities while the Stormcast lead the battles elsewhere. The defences are required because Chaos will certainly come to try and wipe out the fledgling city. Once they exist, the lands must then be sanctified. Typically, this is done by the Devoted of Sigmar. PRiests lead mass prayer, while orders of Flagellants whip themselves with barbed flails, spilling their blood onto the earth to burn away the taint of Chaos with their faith. Any remaining taint is dealt with by the Collegiate Arcane and the Stormcast of the Sacrosanct Chambers. Once the land is purified, any forests nearby are felled to make room for barracks and homes. Dams are constructed, irrigation trenches, fields - everything that will be needed for the city to live. Only then can the construction of the city proper begin. The Duardin labor-clans, mostly Ironweld engineers or Dispossessed, set about laying the foundations, usually in the shape of Sigmar's twelve-point star. They use vast resources to protect the nascent city from daemons and ghosts that might try to pass through the walls. Within months, the concentric rings of wills will rise up, followed by wide streets and statues in honor of the heroes that let the city be built. Then the first settlers come, some of them from Azyr and others belonging to the Reclaimed, as the native mortals who have managed to survive the rule of darkness untainted are called. Eventually, they begin their jobs and the city becomes a living place. It will continue to expand and grw until its needs outpace its resources. That's when the slums will start to form on the outer walls, protected by crude palisades raised by local rulers or criminals. Crime can't be avoided as the cities grow. The Collegiate Arcane, Stormcasts, and other organizations frequently hire explorers to seek out lost realmgates to exploit; great armies are saved for the largest gates or those with key strategic value. Others must be reclaimed from evil cults or the forces of Death; most notably, the Beastmen Greatfray called the Darkwalkers, the Arcanite Tzeentch cults and the servants of Neferata, Mortarch of Blood, are always hunting for lost gates to use to harass their foes. Worse, rampaging spirits, skeletons and ghosts now wander the land in the wake of the Necroquake's arcane flood. Entire cities have fallen to their onslaught and must be taken back. Next time: Daily Life in the Realms
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May 12, 2020 18:07
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Night10194 posted:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal So, since they have some extra loot again, does that mean that they're going to to bolt Karl into full plate as well. He does have Armored Caster, after all. And losing their "living healing potion" to swarming rat-things would deeply suck.
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May 12, 2020 19:47
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He can only wear up to Mail and have it work fully; it stops 3 points of casting penalties. He'll be getting mail, yes. It's technically a bit against his vows, but armor is much more forgivable than carrying a weapon. Priests usually top out at medium armor because their talent doesn't help with more.
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May 12, 2020 19:51
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For an idea of how the whole Mortal Realms thing looks we got a map. And to give a bit of a sense of scale. Here is Shyish's Prime Innerlands with a map showing it in comparison to the rest of Shyish. 
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May 12, 2020 19:57
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Making the various realms "functionally infinite" again helps add to that AoS thing of "well what are the stakes again?"
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May 12, 2020 20:11
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PurpleXVI posted:Making the various realms "functionally infinite" again helps add to that AoS thing of "well what are the stakes again?" Being huge and massive just leaves room to put your own stuff in with no issue. We are getting to the nitty gritty details and named locations and stuff now. And from that map above you can see that Shyish is huge, but not 40k galaxy huge. And this book is going to go over a bunch of details of one major area as well to put the stakes in play.
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May 12, 2020 20:45
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What OSR book should I review next? Those keeping up with my work likely know that I reviewed a bunch of 5th Edition books, and I plan on doing so in the future. But it’s good to shake things up a bit and take a break, so I figured that reviewing some old-school style sourcebooks would be a nice change of pace. Below are four books which are of particular interest to me. Let me know which ones seem the most interesting by voting in this StrawPoll. For the sake of transparency this poll is being posted on various sites I plan on releasing my reviews, so results will be a more holistic overview than of one particular website. StrawPoll link. I didn’t see the option for closing results (dunno if this was a feature that was changed or deleted) so as of this posting I’ll judge results 2 weeks from now (May 26th EST).  Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG: A gonzo RPG which is more an inspiration and homage of 70s gaming than a straight clone. Is notable for its “Level 0 Funnels,” where players control 3-4 hapless civilians who get 1 level in a real class should they be lucky enough to survive.  Magical Industrial Revolution: A high-magic Dickensian fantasy city where arcane magic has been repurposed to feed the engines of capitalism, and supernatural innovations bring great prosperity and misery in equal measure.  Stars Without Number Revised Edition: The quintessential sci-fi OSR game, has inspiration from Basic D&D and Traveller where civilization is recovering from a galactic cataclysm that tore apart an interstellar empire, and explorers are needed to make contact with the scattered remnants of star systems and planets. I will also note what changes have been made between the 2010 original edition and the newer Revised version.  The Nightmares Underneath, 2nd Edition: A retroclone with horror influences set in a pseudo-Middle Eastern world where dungeons are otherworldly nightmares feeding off of mortal sins and fears. This review will cover the 2nd Edition, reviewing both the book as a whole and also noting what changes have been made.
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May 12, 2020 21:48
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I'd like to see Stars Without Number.
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May 12, 2020 21:54
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Night10194 posted:I'd like to see Stars Without Number.
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May 12, 2020 22:03
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound I'm still not getting much interest in this world compared to WHFB's world. This all sounds like it's a game of Civiliaztion. Vaston resources are required, you can build an entire city...from what? And what happens when new city A dosn't like the politics of original city B? And then the crime comes when...the resources run out? Maybe don't use them all tok build sttaues? I dunno, it's all seems like Sigmar is just playing a game and everyone else is a icon. I'm very interested in the next topic of a day in the life. Thank you for describing all this!
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May 12, 2020 22:21
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Comstar posted:I'm still not getting much interest in this world compared to WHFB's world. This all sounds like it's a game of Civiliaztion. Vaston resources are required, you can build an entire city...from what? And what happens when new city A dosn't like the politics of original city B? And then the crime comes when...the resources run out? Maybe don't use them all tok build sttaues? I dunno, it's all seems like Sigmar is just playing a game and everyone else is a icon. Normally City Politics are quite different depending on the area, we will go into more details. Plus all the Cities tend to be fairly far from each other due to prioritizing Realm Gates and the logistics they enable. Normally the City building resources are brought from Azyr via Realmgate. And Sigmar would love Civ, even in the old world he was a big fan of nitty gritty details of empire building. The Resources and Crime thing is pretty much the same as it is everywhere, in the world. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 22:36 on May 12, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 22:30
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Night10194 posted:I'd like to see Stars Without Number. Same
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May 12, 2020 22:32
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MonsterEnvy posted:Normally City Politics are quite different depending on the area, we will go into more details. Plus all the Cities tend to be fairly far from each other due to prioritizing Realm Gates and the logistics they enable. Normally the City building resources are brought from Azyr via Realmgate. And Sigmar would love Civ, even in the old world he was a big fan of nitty gritty details of empire building.
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May 12, 2020 22:59
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Soulbound Life In Magic Land It's hard to generalize about all the Realms together, since each is so different. Each realm has a number of beasts and plants unique to it, and even the common ones like cats or rats are adapted to the magic of their environment - the ones in Shyish are pale, to hide among the bone-blossoms, while those in Chamon are adapted to eat aether-gold. Likewise, the cultures that rise up in each realm are greatly influenced by their environment. Many have been wiped out during the Age of Chaos, leaving only ruins and lost artifacts. Only the strongest, luckiest and farthest-reaching great nations survived, and even they tend to have had their grand empires greatly diminished. Other survivor cultures tended to be isolated, very good at driving out invaders or transformed by the experience into something that could survive - frequently they became nomads that kept only some of their traditions to preserve their ways and lives at once. A few commonalities about the needs of the people are universal, though. People need crops, crops need to get turned into food, streets need patrolling, defences need maintaining. There's unique difficulties - farming in Ghyran, for example, is mostly difficult due to the feral plantlife that grows quickly and makes it hard to clear land. It can be managed by moving lava from Aqshy into Ghyran to burn away the plants, and at that point a crop grown in the Realm of Life is going to produce much more than one grown elsewhere. Shyish, on the other hand, has very nutrient-poor soil, and requires hardy, often tasteless plantlife. Ghur and Aqshy get a lot of food from hunting, as their ground is hard and difficult to till. Chamon's mineral-rich earth produces weird if usually edible plants, but its animals are typically toxic to anyone that didn't grow up there. Weather also varies by realm. Ghyran has seasons mostly similar to Earth but usually faster and with more variance, while Ghur has wildly changing weather that can shift without warning, and Aqshy's plains are home to vicious duststorms or firestorms. Chamon's rain is acid, and the boneshards fall like hail in Shyish but are sharp enough to tear flesh easily. Overland travel is difficult and dangerous, and the wealthy prefer to travel by airship, especially if it's Kharadron-run and Kharadron-armed. The skies are dangerous, sure, but the aether-guns are better protection. Trade has been slow to grow, but does exist. Merchants often band together to create large caravans and hire mercenaries to guard them, or to commission fleets that can carry their goods more safely. While some merchant dynasties hide their safer routes, Trade Pioneers are always seeking out new ways to get places and tend to share their knowledge more widely. Overall, one of the biggest emphases of life in the Realms is that people work together. Most people live in cities, with only a few brave souls taking up life on the frontier, working in fishing villages or harbors, logging camps, mining towns and so on. Frontier settlements bring in much-needed resources, but they're always in danger and often require help with security. This might mean hiring a Freeguild to defend the town or some other mercenary group, or if they can afford it, a deal with a Fyreslayer lodge or Kharadron trading concern. Farming and herding are the most common jobs in the settlements, but few settlements are purely agricultural. Those that are tend to be close to cities, relying on them for protection. The farming towns are vital to the cities, and so they are usually protected by city Freeguild forces or even the armored, mechanized fortress of the Ironweld Arsenal. Life is hard, but that doesn't mean people don't find time to have fun. Entertainment is, in fact, a vital thing keeping the Free Peoples going. Taverns and gambling halls are common in any settlement of size, as are brothels and fighting arenas. Excelsis and Hammerhal Aqsha are infamous for their pleasure districts, as are the Duardin taverns in the Greywater Fastness. Aerial racing and archery are popular in Tempest's Eye, and the Jade Kingdoms have a long tradition of friendly singing competitions. Theatre is especially popular in many places, with traveling troupes of actors, singers and acrobats braving the journeys between settlements, often armed with powerful trained beasts to protect them, in order to keep hope alive. Some of the entertainments use the nature of the realms - the lightweavers of Hysh construct art using carefully aligned mirrors to produce near-permanent lightshows, and the Flickering Fist monks of Aqshy put on performances under the hot sun to demonstrate skill and entertain the people. In the floating city of Bataar, you can even purchase magically captured dreams to experience. This kind of togetherness, of working to ensure everyone lives and has some fun, is how things work at their best. The Scourge Privateers do their best to guard the ports in exchange for heavy bounties on beasts and pirates, while Freeguild forges and Ironweld technicians journey between settlements to keep the roads as safe as possible. Most larger settlements have walls, and cities often rely on Ironweld artillery. The Freeguild forces are often the de facto police of the cities and towns, and doing local police work or watch garrison is considered a light duty that Freeguilds use to rotate tired units off the frunt. They are often either new recruits or veterans that need a break, possibly to recover from som injury. They're rarely elites, but they're well-trained. Cities that have sewers or underground sections often hire mercenaries to patrol them as underjacks and warn about Grots or Skaven making their way in, or as pyre-gangs to quarentine and eliminate rogue undead infestations, often with the help of war-priests, exorcists or gheist-hunters. Outside cities, that kind of justice is harder to find. Hired adventurers are more common, usually with some cause they champion. The Hawthorns, for example, are adventuring assassins that specialize in hunting down vampires, while the Black Pipers are freelance underjacks that focus on anti-Skaven work. The Folly are an Aelvan acrobatic troupe that double as investigators that reveal and take down cults of Slaanesh. Young wizards of the Collegiate Arcane can also be hired as defenses, and there's been a lot of work recently in developing wards against the undead unleashed by the Necroquake. So, what's life like in each realm? Azyr, Realm of the Heavens, goes by many names. Humans call it the Peerless Kingdom or the Fortress of the Lost. The Khazalid Dispossessed know it as the Bastion, and the Aelves call it Hearth-Realm or Star-Throne. It is the highest of the realms, its peaks scraping the Firmament of the heavens. The horizons have eternal auroras, and the light of Hysh in the Aetheric Void keeps it bright by day. Its nights are light by the High Star Sigendil rather than its moons, which are the coal-like Mallus (the remnants of the Old World) and the dark Dharroth. Azyr is home to the greatest city in the Realms, Azyrheim. It has never fallen since the Age of Myth, and it is a cosmopolitan place that inherits both Sigmar's civilized impulses and his barbaric origins. The locals often like to trace their lineage back to the oldest human civilizations, which some say may even predate the Age of Myth. However, the massive influx of refugees from the Age of Chaos means they aren't alone. All species and countless cultures made their way to Azyr to be protected by Sigmar. This means that the people that live in Azyr are used to overwhelming diversity, and tend to be accepting of anyone they meet, as just about anyone can be found in Azyrheim. Above it, the Sigmarabulum orbits the husk of Mallus, containing within it the Vault Celestial, where the Gods of Order once met. The Six Smiths work there, reforging the Stormcast as they die and return. Of all the realms, Azyr has suffered least from the Necroquake, protected by Sigmar's wards. Even then, however, it was shaken. Its people have rededicated themselves to Sigmar and the reclamation of the Mortal Realms from darkness. Azyr does not have the finest warriors or the best weapons, it is said, but rather the people with the most determined hearts. It's probably the most self-sufficient of the realms, having been sealed off for so long, and possibly the most Earth-like, though tending to the colder side. Aqshy, Realm of Fire, is the Bright Realm, a land of passion, aggression and flame. It was the most frequent and most hard-suffering target of Chaos, because Aqshy itself is a realm always changing. IT is splintered and broken, its landscape shattered by the natural geological activity of the Realm and its fire-like nature to expand and grow. With each century, the realm has grown larger and the volcanos have never stopped belching forth magma. Despite this, it's not all hot - the snowy mountains of northern Cotha exist, and it's not all on fire, as the jungles near the Searing Sea prove. It has seen hundreds of civilizations fall, scattered into nomadic tribes or Chaos marauders in service to Khorne. The few nomads that did not abandon the Gods of Light try to carry on their ancient traditions from the kingdoms of Aridian and Capilaria, but much has been lost. The floating city of Bataar remains, held in the sky by magic and alchemical science, as the final piece of a once-great empire. Its trading dynasties rule the Ocean of Swords' economy, but little else. New cities dominate the land - Anivlgard, Tempest's Eye, Brightspear, Hallowheart and Hammerhal Aqsha. They dominate the Great Parch as Azyr's froces have tried to reclaim it. Hammerhal is the greatest of them, only half in this realm and half in Ghyran thanks to the Stormrift Realmgate. Its high towers and massive artillery protect the ash-covered lands around it, and the cogforts of the engineers rove the sands in search of Chaos forces that threaten nearby settlements. Aqshy was Sigmar's first target for reclamation, and the Azyrites tend to view it as one of the most beautiful and exotic realms. The merchants of Azyr and Shyish fight to claim firesilk, while the Kharadron try to secure mining and territorial rights in reclaimed land. Sages seek out the lost lore of its fallen empires. The local livestock is mostly the Salamanders, fiery creatures farmed in the humid lowlands for their meat. They're far less dangerous than the volcano-dwelling Magmadroths, the which the Fyreslayers struggle to tame and break as mounts for their greatest heroes. The Fyreslayers are native to Aqshy, and they have hundreds of lodges across the realm. The Kharadron maintain the floating Barak-Kol trade city, and a number of Dispossessed dwarf clans have sought recently to reclaim their old dwarf-holds or create new ones in the Caustic Peaks and Bright Mountains, to work the copper and silver mines. The Aelves seek out the eggs of the swiftfeather hawks in the mountains as well, and some Wanderer Aelves hope to turn the semi-petrified forests of the Resinwood Coast into a new kingdom. The Fuethan enclave of the Idoneth raid out from the Mordacious Sound, seeking souls and slaves. Even now, large parts of Aqshy are held by Chaos forces, and the Great Parch itself is still contested. The Goretide of Korghos Khul is a massive threat, a united band of Bloodbound tribes of Khornites scattered across Aqshy. Havocwild, the headsman of the Thurn, leads a huge Slaaneshi cult and has been waging a great campaign of destruction to try and gain the attention of the absent god. Tzeentch's cults seek to claim Aspiria from the Bright Mages that defend it, waging a shadow war in the libraries and academies of the Collegiate. The Skaven emerge from the Snow peaks and the Vitae Delta swamps, competing endlessly with each other for influence and warring with the Duardin making their way back to their old homes. In the south, the mighty Firebelly Ogor warlord Ashfoot leads a huge warglutt, hunting for the great father of the Magmadroths and eating anything and anyone that gets in the way. The vampire pirate Varkos Varactyr has been a threat to the seas of Aqshy for millenia, thanks to his ghostly Wraith Fleet. The Necroquake has embaldoned him, and he flies his spectral fleet hundreds of miles from the seas to raid inland settlements now, too. We end the Aqshy section with an adventure hook - apparently, trading caravans have been frequently raided the past few months by Skaven. While they were at first thought to just be the normal dangers of travel, the city garrisons have started comparing notes and found a pattern. All of the Skaven attacks have been precise, methodical and executed masterfully - not a common Skaven trait. They've also been consistently hitting caravans that bear goods and equipment meant for use by the Ironweld engineers. Cogsmith-Captain Honna Bromsdottir believes that the Skaven have managed to get spies into the bigger trade cities - probably Hammerhal, possibly Anvilgard or Tempest's Eye. She wants to plant info about a false caravan, but that means she's going to need someone to actually go out and lead this fake caravan to draw out the Skaven attackers so she can figure out where the leaks are. Too much security or too little would be suspicious...but hey, a group of Soulbound disguised as simple mercenaries? That's more than the Skaven would bargain for. Next time: Chamon, Ghur and Ghyran
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May 12, 2020 23:08
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Froghammer posted:Sigmar treating the retaking and rebuilding of the Realms as a game is canon and one of the reasons Nagash has beef with him iirc Well, that and Nagash is Incel Skeletor and literally cannot forgive slights from the prehistory of the last gameline. Nagash doesn't particularly give a poo poo about treating the world as a game, and more that Sigmar decided that mortal lives took precedence over Nagash's ego when he was forced to choose where to focus his forces.
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May 12, 2020 23:09
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I love this line from the Entertainment section.Soulbound Core Book posted:Despite the hardships, or perhaps because of them, the people of the realms find time to live. Companionship and laughter defend the soul against the taint of corruption as much as a shield turns aside an axe. Also just mentioning ahead of time. Lots of names were said in the Realm of Fire Section. This is because we are going to go into more detail about the Great Parch Region of the Realm of Fire later. Which also comes with an awesome map. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 00:13 on May 13, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 23:58
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GimpInBlack posted:Next Time: More options to vote on! I'll vote Rostami for primary choice, with Sinclair as alternate.
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May 13, 2020 00:55
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Soulbound Power Metal Chamon, the Realm of Metal, is unlike the other realms in that it doesn't really take the form of a disc or central plane. Instead, it is a constantly fluctuating sphere of Firmament filled with countless wildly varying planetoids of earth and metal, traversible either by aerial travel or portals and mystic links. It is always flowing and melding and breaking apart, forcing the locals to adapt to the changes that the realm undergoes constantly. Those closest to the core, such as the massive Spiral Crux, have drinkable water and edible plants, but this gets less likely the further from the center of the realm one gets. The trees become metallic and shiny, the water acidic. Liquid and gaseous metal flow in pockets and rains through the sky, and even the animals become metallic, with the birds leaving shining trails in the air and the naturally occuring construct-monsters hunting metal prey through the iron plants. Some say Chamon's unique and changeable nature is a natural resent of entropy, while others argue that the realm suffers some sort of celestial defect worsened by time and that it might be stopped in its fluctuation or even fully stabilized with proper use of alchemy. The people of Chamon learn to take advantage of the fluidic realm. In the Swarf Islands, oxide-hunters use alchemical nets to scrap metals from the air and ground, while in the Impassable Peaks, aether-merchants sift the clouds for aether-gold and other gaseous metals to purify and sell off-realm. Beast hunters track the ferrosaurs of the southern jungles for their metallic body parts, and pirates in Bandit's Point use coral crafts to travel the Straits of Helsilver and raid merchant traders. None can deny the plane holds great attraction for Tzeentch, though, who claimed it for his own in the Age of Chaos. The realmstone Chamonite has great alchemical and arcane transformative power, and Tzeentch desired to command it. Even now, signs of his influence are all over despite the best efforts of the alliance of Order. Just before the Age of Chaos, the Godbeast known as the Lode-Griffon broke and ruined much of the central land of Chamon. It was a huge, magnetic monster thought to have been attracted by a buildup of Chamonite, and possibly influenced by Tzeentch. It survived many attempts to defeat it until nine aethermancers united to end its life. However, one of the nine was in fact a Gaunt Summoner of Tzeentch in disguise, and when the Lode-Griffon died, its death cry ripped open a portal into Tzeentch's home in the Realm of Chaos, allowing a massive invasion of daemons on the Spiral Crux. Many kingdoms perished in warpfire rains, and Chamon was forever altered by the magic unleashed. The mortals fought as best they could, but most fell before Tzeentch's plots, and the rest went into hiding until the Stormcast came. Remnants of the lost kingdoms exist and have begun to reclaim their glory. The Viscid Flux is once more home to alchemists, and Prosperis once more produces clockwork automata turned to protecting the Free Cities. The liquid-core blades of Odrenn are forged once more by singing blacksmiths. Most of the Duardin clans that survived the Age of Chaos took to the skies, becoming the Kharadron Overlords. Their lives are guided by the Kharadron Code and governed by the Admirals Council of the sky-ports, selected from the most successful fleet officers that the ports produce. When the Necroquake (or, as the Kharadron named it, the Garaktormun or Great Gale of Death) came, the aether-gold streams and veins were hugely disrupted, and all claims were rendered void. The Kharadron have thus begun the Gorak-drek, or Great VEnture, seeking new profit and glory in mining new and foreign skies. It's very risky - daemons still haunt the landscape, much of which remains tainted by Chaos, and the shark-like birds of the plane or their prey, the burning cloudfish, are always at their most dangerous around aether-gold. Worse, the undead haunt many cities, particularly the slums. The worst of these undead have gathered in numbers around the broken city of Anvrok, led by a shade named the Silver Maiden. The Stormcast believe the Maiden to have no loyalties or obedience to Nagash and think she may be the ghost of the legendary smith Celemnis, but none of that really matters when her spectral army still attacks the living when they're intruded on. The Gloomspite Gitz have seized most of the island-realm of Ayadah, and the Grots now flow out to attack other lands. Their leader is the mad genius Skragrott the Loonking, who rules an immense coalition of Grot tribes from an underground lair in Skrappa Spill that is said to equal Hammerhal in size. Even so, wealth-seekers come to gain the great riches that lie in Chamon, though they often die in the attempt. The hook for this realm is that the traditionalist Kharadron of Barak-Thryng are asking for help - something they rarely do. The frigate The Thirsty Pilgrim crashed in the Yhorn Mountains on its way to Barak-Urbaz, but the crew managed to get out a distress signal before their communications cut off. The Kharadron worry for the crew, but even more, they worry for the cargo: a full hold of Gumgar Brothers' Hoppery's newest ale, Copper Fire. Kulrin and Vulrin Grumgar have declared the Copper Fire to be their greatest work, and it's been highly anticipated for some time in the ports of Chamon. If nothing is done, the Grots and their Troggoths will seize the ale and drink it all, a horrific concept to any Duardin. Ghur, the Realm of Beasts, is a wild place of primal monsters, massive mountains and vast savannahs. The landmasses themselves shift, predating on each other - chasms open to swallow up other landmasses, mountains grind against each other and forests choke out their rivals' light. Every animal in Ghur is both predator and prey. The Ghurochs, Thundertusks and Shaghorns rule the planes, fedding on the grass and trees, but they are hunted by packs of Rock-lions, Mournfangs and Brachitors, themselves hunted by the Orruks, Beastmen, OGors, Gargants (read: giants) and Humans that make their home in the wild realm. The Orruks are by far the dominant ones. The Bonesplitterz' many tribes hunt the plains beasts, and the Ironjawz fight anywhere they can. The Ogor Mawtribes are common, eating everything on their migration paths. The worst are the Alfrostuns, who are cursed by the Everwinter to bring unnatural cold wherever they go, which can linger for centuries. The Gargants have, since the death of their forefather Behemat, become smarter, more ferocious and more prone to raid and pillage. The human tribes and kingdoms of Ghur dot the land, surviving as they can. The hunters of the Great Coil produce vast amounts of meat, trading them to other realms with the aid of brave or foolhardy Trade Pioneers. The Gnarlwood Treestriders live in the high forests, rarely touching ground and hunting the strange and dangerous beasts that wander the trees while trading precious medicinal plants. The Amber Steppes are home to the Vurm-Tai horse nomads, who hunt the massive worms of the steppes, plundering the remains of towns and cities destroyed by the great worms. The greatest of these worms is Shu'gohl, who has existed for millenia, and who bears the Crawling City on its back. The Crawling City has survived Chaos attacks, Skaven infiltration and even the newly arrived Azyrite administrators, prospering as a trade hub atop their unstoppable worm. The greatest city, though, is Excelsis, built on the Coast of Tusks around the Spear of Mallus, a giant shard of sigmarite that rises from the bay. Excelsis' local currency is the glimmering, shards of stone from the Spear that can be used to summon flashes of prophesy. Their harnessing of prophetic foresight, scattershot as it may be, is what has allowed Excelsis to prosper. Both it and nearby Izalend are home to large Aelven communities, mostly run by the Scourge Privateers, who make an excellent living hunting the massive beasts of the Ghur seas. Of the Dark Gods, the strongest in the realm are Khorne and the Horned Rat. Khorne's Bloodbound in the realm grew out of the bloody hunts of ancient tribesfolk, who reveled in the slaughter of great beasts and bathed in their blood rather than using their flesh properly. They remain common, particularly in the southern jungles, where Khornite warlords rule over the remains of ancient kingdoms and massive herds of Beastkin grow wilder by the day. Clan Rictus of the Skaven have hidden a number of outposts through the realm, uusing them to raid for riches and slaves. Despite this, the Greenskins and Ogors of the realm have, by and large, rejected Khorne in favor of their traditional worship of Gorkamorka. A few have turned to the Blood God, but Chaos is weaker in Ghur than in many realms, unable to sway the savage hearts of the Greenskins. It's gotten worse after the Necroquake, as the Ossiarch Bonereapers have built the Ivory Citadel there, only to have many of their number attacked and gnawed to bits by the local animals. Undead birds and other animals have also been seen in the ruins of the ancient cities of Lendu. Perhaps the worst threat comes from magic itself, however. The living spells formed in the wake of the Necroquake have proven to be far more sentient in Ghur than in most realms, and only the most skilled or foolish spell-hunters risk trying to find and break these potent magics in Ghur. The adventure hook is that the mesa of Donse has been slain and devoured by the coastal lands of Thondia and the swamps of Andtor. It is being torn apart, but local legends in Excelsis say that the Gargants that live in Donse have always been foes of Chaos. Few have been willing to travel into Donse to find them, as the land crumbles under the teeth of its neighbors. Despite this, rumors speak of a group of travelers saved from a Khornite tribe by a gigantic Mega-Gargant (read: really big giant) that destroyed the Chaos cult and then introduced himself as Argol Brightfist of Donse, pointed them towards Excelsis and wandered away. The rulers of the city have no idea if Argol would even accept an offer of mercenary work, but if they could get it, he'd be an immense asset. The Grand Conclave wants to find people to head into Carcass Donse, which is full of colorful and very strange plants and animals even by Ghur standards. They're willing to offer Argol a massive amount of food and alcohol if he's willing to fight Chaos for them, but they need someone to deliver the offer and perhaps convince him. Ghyran, the Realm of Life, is also called the Jade Kingdoms. Practically everything there is alive, from the immense Gighemoths of the lowlands to the intelligent Wandering Mountains. Spores are everywhere, and plants grow on nearly every surface. The forests grow taller than any building, and the undergrowth is so lush that it's nearly impossible for outsiders to navigate. Insects travel in swarms that can darken the skies, and the Ghyroch herds can stretch to the horizon. The air itself feels alive, full of the sounds of animals, wind and Sylvaneth marching groves. The seasonal cycle rules the lands, but what seasons are in play can vary by where you are. Alarielle has lived in Ghyran since the Age of Myth, and she is practically bound to the realm itself, weakening and strengthening with the land. She planted the first Sylvaneth soulpods here, and under her rule in the Age of Myth, they thrived. At least until the coming of the Withering Season, when Nurgle and his plagues invaded. Nurgle desired to control and corrupt Ghyran, tainting its cycles with cancerous growth, miasma and festering rot. Even the weather was infected with his diseases. The Sylvaneth, Aelves and Humans loyal to Alarielle did their best, but Nurgle's forces and his allies in Clan Pestilens of the Skaven seemed impossible to stop. Most of the humans of Ghyran died or turned to worship of Nurgle, and the Aelves fled to become the Wanderers. Only the Sylvaneth remained loyal. Alarielle fell into despair and hid in her secret sanctuary of Athelwyrd, leaving her children alone. Everything changed when Sigmar's Tempest came, reawakening Everqueen from the soulpod in which she slumbered, soaked in life-sap and heroic blood to take on the form of a war goddess. Her song reinvigorated the Sylvaneth for the Season of War, and Nurgle has been put on the defensive. New settlements have risen, most notably Hammerhal Ghyra, along with the three Seeds of Hope - the Living City, the Phoenicium and the Greywater Fastness. Hammerhal Ghyra is a glorious vision of plant-clad terraces surrounded by fertile mountains, its soil farmed by beetle-plows and watered by drift-isles held in place by chains of living ironoak. The city is hugely decentralized, built on a number of terrace tiers and connected to Aqshy by the Stormrift Realmgate. Rivers of lava flow in to burn off the wild plantlife and allow crop cultivation, and in return, food and weapons flow through the other way. The local Sylvaneth have a good deal of tension with the new arrivals, but for now, peace is maintained. The Living City was the first to be founded by Alarielle herself, a representation of her alliance with Sigmar. It is made of living wood and stone, each building a tree that grows still. All the species of the city come together in harmony to tend it, and in one attack by Chaos, the city itself came to life, its trees smashing the invaders apart. Phoenicium, meanwhile, is welcoming but dominated by the Aelves, built atop an ancient city coated in amber. The Phoenix Temple Aleves followed the children of the Ur-Phoenix into the city, harnessing their magic to remove the amber seals and reclaim it. Greywater Fastness, meanwhile, is an industrial zone, and it hasn't done quite as well. It's home to experts in artillery and guns, but the massive amount of weapons and combat magic it unleashes against Nurgle have rendered much of the land around it unusable. They have driven back the cultists and Beastmen, but at great chost. The Ghoul Mere surrounding is full of maddened treefolk and vengeful ghosts, and it's said that only the Everqueen herself and skilled Azyrite negotiators kept the Sylvaneth and the tree-kin from sieging the city until all its people died. Only one safe road enters it even now. While Nurgle is on the wane, he still controls much of the eastern Swath, including Invidia and the Bligthed Duchies, which are patrolled by his corrupted knights of the Order of the Fly. Southern Humidia is home to the Maggot Lords, who seek to destroy the frontier towns of settlers. Clan Pestilens rules the tunnels under Ghyran and continue to spread their diseases. Tzeentch has also been taking advantage of Nurgle's losses, sending in war-flocks of the Tzaangor beastmen near the Nevergreen Peaks around Hammerhal. His cults spread, seeking to incite violence between Humans and Sylvaneth. The undead are weak in Ghyran, even after the Necroquake. Ghosts haunt it, but corporeal undead are swiftly destroyted by the plants and living spells - though those latter are just as dangerous to everyone else. The local adventure hook is that High King Volturnos of the Ionrach Enclave of Idoneth has asked for ambassadors to come to his city, Priom, under the Maithnar Sea. He wants help to negotiate with the Dhom-hain Enclave, a fierce and isolationist group who ignore even other Idoneth. They are coming to discuss diplomacy for the first time in centuries, but Volturnos is afraid that old feuds between the two Enclaves will ruin the negotiations. He wants help from ambassdaros that can earn the Dhom-hain's respect, so that he can bring them around to the idea of helping the Grand Alliance. Next time: Hysh, Shyish and Ulgu
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May 13, 2020 01:35
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Oh, Skragrott. An unexpected source of body horror in AoS thanks to his habit of capturing any oracle, prophet and diviner and turning them into living, babbling fungus so he can use their prophecies to follow the path of the Bad Moon. Wasn't expecting that in my silly goblins army book.
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May 13, 2020 01:48
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Dawgstar posted:Oh, Skragrott. An unexpected source of body horror in AoS thanks to his habit of capturing any oracle, prophet and diviner and turning them into living, babbling fungus so he can use their prophecies to follow the path of the Bad Moon. Wasn't expecting that in my silly goblins army book. Only keeping up the theme with Goblins being the most sadistic fuckers in Warhammer to make up for their position beneath the orcs.
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May 13, 2020 01:53
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Night10194 posted:He can only wear up to Mail and have it work fully; it stops 3 points of casting penalties. He'll be getting mail, yes. It's technically a bit against his vows, but armor is much more forgivable than carrying a weapon. Priests usually top out at medium armor because their talent doesn't help with more. If the party can afford to splurge on Best Quality mail, that would qualify for Rune-work - and the Rune of Gromril would be boost the AV3 of mail to AV5. On plate it makes it AV7.
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May 13, 2020 01:55
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