|
The Idoneth feel like the only faction where wonder how they interact with the others in an adventuring group, which is still an impressive feat considering you've also got the Daughters and the Darklings.
|
#
?
May 15, 2020 23:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 19:37 |
|
|
MonsterEnvy posted:You skipped the Devoted of Sigmar and Free Peoples. ...dangit. I'll add them to the next post, then. whoops.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2020 23:05
|
|
|
Dawgstar posted:The Idoneth feel like the only faction where wonder how they interact with the others in an adventuring group, which is still an impressive feat considering you've also got the Daughters and the Darklings. Part of this is found in running out of room in the core book. Everything begins to make a lot more sense to me about that when I went looking at the actual army books, which explain two things. First, the main sect of Khainites most Order folks run into is the Draichi Ganeth, who worship Khaine the Executioner and focus on honor, skill in battle and bloody justice, and the Khailebron, who are Morathi's assassins but maintain a cover as entertainers, dancers and gladiators. Second, there's actually only a small set of Idoneth enclaves that actually uphold the Order alliance, mostly those tied to the Ionrach Enclave. They actively attempt diplomacy and try to work with people and reach out; the rest of the Enclaves vary from 'we are going to pay lip service only for this' to, in some cases, actively ignoring the alliance and fighting against it.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2020 23:08
|
|
|
Yeah some parts of all of those factions, could easily be villains in a Campaign instead of allies.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2020 23:32
|
|
|
Mors Rattus posted:Second, there's actually only a small set of Idoneth enclaves that actually uphold the Order alliance, mostly those tied to the Ionrach Enclave. They actively attempt diplomacy and try to work with people and reach out; the rest of the Enclaves vary from 'we are going to pay lip service only for this' to, in some cases, actively ignoring the alliance and fighting against it. That makes sense. If it doesn't say what kind of souls exactly the Deepkin need, they could just as easily raid Chaos groups at the least.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 03:38
|
|
|
Dawgstar posted:That makes sense. If it doesn't say what kind of souls exactly the Deepkin need, they could just as easily raid Chaos groups at the least. That is the thing from what I know of. The Deepkin that are more fully allied with the Alliance of Order will go to war alongside them and target Chaos and Destruction followers for soul stealing. The ones that are only paying Lip Service or decided to not join up at all, will attack those forces if they feel the need, but normally prefer to attack small coastal towns and villages that are not going to put up nearly as much of a fight, wiping the memory of the survivors. Though very few Idoneth groups can resist the urge to attack other aelven groups, as the souls of aelves work much better at restoring their people. (A single aelf soul can restore a Namarti, while it takes multiple of another type to do the same even if strong souls are included.)
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 03:54
|
|
|
Very much of the "this is a wargame setting so we gotta justify why ostensible allies are fighting eachother" situation.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 05:06
|
|
|
Soulbound Hasty Reinsertion Whoops, accidentally skipped some factions!  The Devoted of Sigmar are the faithful (and sometimes fanatical) priesthood of Sigmar. For centuries in the Age of Myth, Sigmar travelled the realms, helping humanity personally, and many cultures ended up worshipping him. When he was forced back to Azyr in the Age of Chaos, many followed him, but others were cut off and their prayers went unheard for a long, long time. However, Sigmar has returned to the other realms now, and his Faithful go before him, purifying the land and bringing fire to the dark. There are many sub-cults and sects within the Sigmarite faith, but all are dedicated to the God-King and his works. Some are peaceful preachers, seeking to spread the teachings of Sigmar and his ways of safety, civilization and mutual defense. Others take up the sword, going into battle against those who would deny Sigmar's attempts to guide and protect. The priests wield miracles in pursuit of both causes, and the shadowy Order of Azyr watches them, seeking out corruption and heresy within the cults of Sigmar before it can harm the people. The core Azyrite church is integrated into the society of the realm of Azyr on essentially every level. The Azyrite Church of Sigmar maintains the cultural traditions of Azyr and runs its bureaucracy. In theory, it and all other sub-cults follow Arch War-Priestess Asvai Stormwright, who rules the Sigmarite churches from Azyrheim, leaving the day-to-day running of the cults to lay priests. In practice, however, not all Sigmarites accept the dogma and authority of the Azyrite Church, and may well practice wildly different traditions from Asvai's orthodox Sigmarism. The Oder of Azyr itself, in theory, answers only to Sigmar. In practice, it's a political entity that, while loyal to the God-King's teachings, has plenty of jockeying for rank and power. Some of its agents hold themselves to exceedingly high moral and ethical standards, but others are more pragmatic and care more about keeping the Free Cities going and most of the people of Order safe than methods, allies or, in some cases, ethics. The Devoted are wildly diverse, and their primary cause is simple: Spread Sigmarism. Some orders are dedicated to the reclamation of holy sites or relics lost in the Age of Chaos, though, and when any of them need outside help they tend to seek out Sigmarite faithful among the adventurers they hire. Trusted adventurers might work as escorts to church officials on covert business or, in rare cases, may even be hired to ambush or sabotage enemies of the church. The Order of Azyr is meant to destroy threats to the Sigmarite flock, after all, and that's not always clean and easy. They have networks of agents, some loyal and some hired, who come from all different backgrounds and have all different skillsets.  The Free Peoples is the collective name for the hundreds or even thousands of disparate cultures and civilizations that seek safety and protection under the banner of Order. Many are Azyrite colonies returning to their old lands, but others are local kingdoms seeking to assert their self-governance and recover from the dangers they were all too recently controlled by. They include the Duardin Dispossessed and the various kinds of Aelf. Overall, their goals can be summarized simply: 'take control of the wilderness and civilize it,' whatever that means for the culture in question. The Azyrites found new cities, the merchants reestablish ancient trade routes, and so on. Their common cause is upholding the ideals of order, law and progress in the face of darkness. Most of the cultures that belong to the Free Peoples are heavily influenced by the nature of their native realms, and can be nearly any kind of human, duardin or aelf. Azyrite is the common language they share these days, but most speak regional variations on it, and while the influence of Sigmar and Azyr has brought them together, their differences remain greater than most of their similarities. With, that is, the notable exception of the Dispossessed, who may have many clans, but share the common Khazalid culture. They have regional differences, to be sure, but while Aelves organize in disparate groups by interest, family and nature, and humans have so many wildly differing nations, the khazalid culture of the Dispossessed and their obsession with their ancient traditions is what's kept them going. A dwarf is a dwarf, just with local cultural flavoring. Given the wide array of cultures in the Free Peoples, there's tons of jobs available for those seeking adventure. The Freeguilds always need new recruits to help in battle and to keep the peace. Merchants need guides and guards, while scholars require the help of adventurers to explore lost ruins. The Dispossessed often hire mercenaries to help clear out the old holds they once ruled or to help reclaim lost relics of their ancestors. The Aelves of Hammerhal and Bataar are famous for hiring mercenaries and freelance scholars alike in search of their kin or lost cultural roots.  The Scourge Privateers are an organized group of Aelvan sailors and pirates, often hired by the councils of port cities like Anvilgard or Excelsis. They once were mere pirates and raiders, but now they focus their skills on the hunting of sea monsters and enemy ships to protect the communities they once preyed on. Their skill means that few foes attack the Cities of Sigmar by sea, with the exception of the Orruk (read: orc) pirates and freebooters, who enjoy the challenge. The Scourge remain ruthless and mercenary in their dealings, and are not above smuggling, hiring themselves out or even piracy to supplement their income. They'll often work for nearly anyone with the cash to pay them and the patience to deal with their coarse and unrefined senses of humor. Profit is their main goal, though not all fleets define profit the same way. For some, it's just cash, but others seek favors, influence and freedom from law. No matter what, though, the Scourge are willing to go to great lengths to achieve their goals. The Scourge center their lives on their fleets, and paritcularly on the Black Arks that serve as their mobile fortress-cities. Each Ark is run by a fleetmaster, who often rules by virtue of combat ability and the raw cunning to defeat any rivals. Crew hierarchy may be determined by violence, democratic election or pure chance, depending on the ship and aelves involved, but all consider their home ship to be their native soil and true nation. For many, the idea of going on land for long is repugnant, but others are no less comfortable on solid ground than with a rolling deck under their feet. Those Scourge who don't mind the land are often tasked as hunters and trackers for their fleets, seeking rare beasts to hunt or spying on rivals. The Scourge are most often found on the water or in harbors and ports. They tend to be veterans of combat and relatively casual about violence as a result, often heavily armed and with many trophies of their hunts and attacks. Most are skilled fencers and excellent shots with crossbow or pistol. Their main work these days is monster hunting, but some monsters are worth more alive than dead. These they capture and sell to the Collegiate Arcane or the gladitorial pits. Others are harvested for their meat and organs, sold on to the markets, the doctors and stranger folk. Typically, the Scourge prefer to hire outsiders to transport and handle these goods once caught, and adventurers can make good money doing this. It sounds boring, but transporting live or dead monsters is often a dangerous and exciting task, as they seek escape or their meat is sought out by predators. Next time: The Stormcast and Sylvaneth, for real this time.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 15:10
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Is it weird that I expect Vendrick to get into it with a Dwarf who is bad-mouthing the High Elves because the Dwarf was not sufficiently insulting to them?
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 15:33
|
|
|
 Sentinels of the Multiverse debuted in 2011 and was successful enough to spawn multiple supplements, a wargame, and two computer games. A RPG was a natural outgrowth, and the Kickstarter that Greater Than Games ran in January 2019 funded in under an hour – possibly fueled by the involvement of Cam Banks, whose popular Cortex-based Marvel Heroic Roleplaying had been ignominously killed by Marvel several years previously. And then they blew the August 2019 deadline for PDF delivery, and the December 2019 deadline for finished books, and it started looking kinda like the last Sentinels card game supplement, OblivAeon, which was also wildly oversubscribed, repeatedly delayed, and, when it came out, an overdesigned, unplayable mess. Well, GTG has finally gotten their poo poo together enough to produce a Sentinels Comics RPG book. This review is based on the (547-MB, un-bookmarked) Early Access PDF sent out to KS backers. The book is bright and colorful, with lots of art from Sentinels art maven Adam Rebottaro and comic-strip style rules explanations showing a GM and players interacting. Maybe I'm just old, but I find it overly busy to read, and I think it could have done with a tad fewer fonts and colors. SCRPG starts out with a discussion of how to play action scenes, and it should be clear right away that this game has a lot of MHR and Fate in its DNA, with a dash of Apocalypse. Here's a look at the character sheet for Legacy, the Supergirl/Captain America stand-in from the Sentinels universe:  Heroes are defined by Powers, Qualities (skills and talents), and Status (a measure of your health and the tension of the situation), plus Abilities, which allow the hero to vary the effects of their die rolls. Like MHR, SCRPG uses popcorn initiative – once you finish your turn, you pick who goes next from among those who haven't gone yet this round – and dice pools to resolve actions. But unlike MHR, where a dice pool could grow to quite a handful, SCRPG only uses a pool of three dice – one from your Powers, one from your Qualities, and one from your Status. Let's say we're at the start of a fight, and Legacy wants to punch out a bad guy – nothing fancy, just a quick right cross. She'd pick up a d8 for Strength, a d10 for Close Combat, and a d10 because she's still in Green status. (If you don't have an applicable Power or Quality for your action, you roll a d4 in their place instead.) Once you roll the dice, you arrange them according to the result. The lowest die is called your Min die, the highest is the Max die, and the middle die is, unsurprisingly, the Mid die. For most basic actions, it's the Mid die that's the effect die, determining the result of the action. So, going back to Legacy rolling 2d10+d8 for her punch, if she gets results of 2, 4, and 7, the Mid die is 4 and she does 4 damage. This is an Attack, which is one of the basic actions available to SCRPG characters. Note that there are no “to hit” rolls in this game – you just roll your Attack and do your damage. The other actions are: * Overcome, which allows you to solve a problem that can't be solved by punching/energy-blasting it. Roll and compare your effect die to this table:  (This is where the Apocalypse comparison comes in -- "success, but at a cost" is the most likely result unless you have really good dice or a bunch of Boost mods.) * Boost and Hinder, which allow you to create a mod (a bonus or penalty) that's applied to someone's effect die. Boosts can be something like “Found a weak point” or “All fired up,” while Hinders might be “Off balance,” “Psychically dazed,” or “Tangled in webbing.” If you're familiar with MHR, these are basically Assets and Complications, except number bonuses instead of extra dice. Mods can be removed with a successful Overcome, or by creating an opposing mod to cancel them out. Depending on your effect die, a mod can be rated from 1 to 4. Most mods are only good for a single roll, but some abilities can create persistent mods that last till the end of the scene. Mods can also be exclusive; only one exclusive mod can be used on a roll at a time. * Defend allows you to reduce the damage of the next Attack against you by your effect die. *.Recover allows you to regain Health, or restore an ally's Health. This is only available if you have an ability that explicitly lets you do a Recover action. The basic actions can be modified by each hero's abilities. For example, Hinder usually affects only one target, but Legacy's Sideswipe ability allows her to do a Hinder against multiple targets, although she only gets her Min die as the effect die instead of Mid. The other way to modify a basic action is by making it a risky action. This can include hitting an extra target, using your Max die instead of Mid as the effect on an Attack, using the Min die to create a Hinder mod as well as doing Mid damage on an Attack, having an in-gameworld effect like knocking your target away, or similar effects. Doing a risky action means having to take a minor twist. That leads us to twists; you may have noticed the Overcome table mentions minor and major twists as well. These represent success at a cost. Minor twists are small setbacks that usually don't last beyond the end of the scene: for example, reducing a power or quality by one die size, losing (Mid die) worth of Health, acquiring a (Max die)-size Hinder, having to make a difficult choice, having to reveal a secret, or simply not succeeding completely. Major twists include persistent Hinders, heavy damage, losing access to a power or quality entirely, drawing a new squad of minions to the fight, or having to make a major sacrifice, and so on, and last for an entire issue (adventure) or possibly even longer, if appropriate to the story. Besides the list of potential twists, each hero has two Principles that can be used to suggest minor and major twists. For example, Legacy has the Principle of the Hero, which is about being called to heroism at the possible expense of having a normal life. So a minor twist for her might have to be dealing with a phone call from a friend in the middle of a fight, and a major twist might be having to choose between going to an important interview or stopping a villain.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 15:40
|
|
|
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Oh Dear So last time, the heroes rescued a cultist (they don't know this yet), recovered the armor of a High Thane and an incredibly powerful relic of Valaya, and slew Elf Skeletor. I miss him already, every time I read ahead to the greenskins section. The dwarfs are so busy being excited about what the protagonists are intentionally turning over to them that they barely even notice the magical hand axe or the gromril one, and certainly don't notice that Elena has a Seriously, even with the taxes and fees they have about 4000 crowns on hand. It's more money than a normal party could spend unless they start buying stuff like Best Quality Plate Armor, whose benefits are pretty marginal and only matter if you're using Encumbrance (Best Armor halves its Encumbrance, and if you're using it, it's quite possible for good enough armor and a strong enough character to avoid being slowed at all by Plate even without Sturdy. This team is not using Encumbrance because who the hell does if it's explicitly an optional rule). They didn't really come here to strike it rich, but they have. They're getting to the point where they really need a way to hide their money. This is where Gorlaz is going to come in; the cult offers a banking service to securely hold treasure for adventurers, for a fee based on the species of whoever comes to deposit (7% of the treasure for a human, 5% for a dwarf, 12% for an elf). Elena usually handles money stuff, so she takes the idol they recovered and the loot sacks and goes to see if returning it can talk the dwarfs into a better deal. Meanwhile, Karl, Anya, and Gilbert are brought in to see the High Priestess of Valaya, who is still one of the Hold's three rulers. What they have done for Skalf's Hold and Karak Azgal is significant; treasures like the Runic Armor and the Staff of Valaya are genuinely priceless. Balkina tells them she believes them, now. They aren't just here to loot, but seem to be genuinely trying to aid in clearing out the hold. They don't know it, but their help has convinced her not to back the Brotherhood of the Forked Beard in the slightest, which will probably have serious repercussions for the Hold at large. She confides in them that her hope is for the ruins to actually be cleared, not simply sacked for treasure that can be extracted from the poor Adventurers going down and dying in the dark as things stand now. She worries about the greed that has been infecting the city, that they're losing the hold below and hollowing it out to feed the coffers of the new Skalf's Hold above rather than making the ruins below a home for the dwarfs. Karl tells her they're certainly here to help, but with only six of them, while they can handle many terrible threats they're not entirely sure they can fix everything by themselves. Gilbert, actually being fairly well versed in governance by now (at least in theory), suggests that perhaps the problem is actually the taxes. The taxes feed the wealth of the hold and grant the temptation to sit back and allow the ruins to be looted; the dwarfs above are still getting rich off of them, but surely the black market exists in part because important goods are being taken without any compensation. He mentions he's noticed peasants hide things more the more they're taxed, and with the high cost of living here, perhaps the draconian taxes and seizures without finders' fees are why things keep going missing. Especially when the people taking them out of the ruins are already skilled adventurers who know how to hide wealth and often have some experience with roguery. Thankfully, this is not taken as a pointed demand to be paid extravagantly for the return of the armor and staff and instead as possible policy advice to take under consideration. They're instead told that as thanks for what they returned, they can be genuinely trusted with their expeditions into the ruins. No magic or gromril items will simply be seized out of hand in the future, and they will be allowed to keep at least some of them when they leave the city entirely, as a gift to repay the favor they've done for the dwarfs. The dwarfs also take a moment to make an entry for Koros in the hold's book of grudges, in case he comes back, but to half-strike him out now because they're reasonably sure he's dead on account of dissolving into ash while cursing the heroes. If their home castle wasn't half a continent away, they'd probably get an offer for dwarfs to come help fix the place up. As it is, they're given a rune to mark that they've done a great favor for the dwarfs, something to show to craftsmen from other holds if they need to prove they're trustworthy and dwarf-friends. Sure, this is all an insertion (most of the town sections are, but you're meant to fill in and do your own things with the town), but I can't imagine there wouldn't be some serious scenes with the heroes getting some degree of thanks if they killed a necromancer who was defiling the dwarfen dead, put them to rest again, and recovered a kingly relic. You're supposed to put the Staff back when you're done, but I think considering Valaya's curse for that king keeping the rod for himself in his tomb that PCs taking it up to the hold to give to the temple would be fine, too. Meanwhile, Elena has accidentally caused a lot of suspicion by telling the bankers they recovered the idol from a swarm of awful daemonettes, in the process of trying to make its recovery sound heroic. She's given the right to deposit their gold at a favorable rate after the clerk discusses things with his manager, because orders from Elgrom have come down: Perhaps a wealthy, powerful adventurer can be turned to the service of Gorlaz, even if she's an umgi. She's asked to come to a service, to hear about the God who wants everyone to be rich and happy and who wants you to know it's totally okay to steal everything. She makes a mental note to keep Anya's fox the hell away from these people and agrees, hoping to find a path to fee-free banking. The sermon is very...enthusiastic. Greed is good. Wealth should be desired. The free market rewards those who are the best. Etc etc. She doesn't know enough about Slaanesh to realize she should be picking up on all the constant talk of 'desire'. She does know enough about charlatans and swindlers (bounty hunter), though, to realize the robed figure giving the sermon (Elgrom) is definitely working the crowd for donations. Seed money, given to Gorlaz to ensure Gorlaz will shower you with gold and blessings. When the hat is passed around to her, she refuses, on the account that 'greed is good, right'? This causes a minor stir, but Elgrom calms it down to say this is a human not quite understanding an ancestor God, and that he'd be happy to explain in private. Elena agrees to meet with him later, wondering if she can solve some kind of criminal conspiracy and get paid for busting a corrupt banker. Their meeting is less sinister than you'd think. Elgrom is actually good at Charlataning and recognizes that Elena is not a mark. He instead tries quietly letting her in on things, telling her that Gorlaz wants the cunning to succeed, that if people are willing to just give him money for nothing, why shouldn't he take it? She can be a part of that, too. He can, of course, introduce her to people who can make them both an awful lot of money on her ruins delving; some of the treasure the team deposited could be worth so much more with a little work. Elena decides to go along with getting 'in on' the scams, hoping to collect further evidence, and takes the huge risk of telling her 'partner' about the Izril Stone. If he fucks her on this, she can probably find a way to turn it on him. If he doesn't, they massively increase their profits, even if it's a little shady. She's still treating this as a matter of money and crime, not Chaos. Elgrom agrees that he can get it made into a proper, cut stone and fenced, they shake on the matter, and she leaves, not realizing she's just handed him a macguffin she doesn't know he needs. If the random treasure table gives me an incredible super-gem, sure I'm going to make it secretly important to the plot. This is what you're meant to do, after all. Meanwhile there's the matter of Althura. Althura isn't that happy that the team took her out of the ruins, but she's sure they intend to go back in, and angling on how she can make herself useful. When Karl and Anya return to the inn, she gives them her full story: Apprentice mage, had to flee the terrible Fae in Bretonnia (that part is probably true, actually), can totally help them out even though her conjurings are minor, really wants to repay them for saving her from the terrible necromancer. Anya and Karl both have Magical Sense, though, and while I don't usually use Insanity Althura's is 'Host of Fiends'. She is occasionally deeply influenced by a Daemonette as part of her bargains with dark powers. This gives enough of a hint that something is up; just some subtle hints of Dhar and black magic around the woman. Which could just be a sign of a witch who has no formal training, mind. Karl talks to her some more, trying to ascertain what happened, and being somewhat forewarned something might be up (and having had to deal with more Chaos in his life than anyone else in the party), he eventually begins to suspect this may be a cultist. Being a Shallyan, though, he takes a different tack than normal. Karl tries to talk the matter out, in between her attempts to tell him he's a very special hero and a very handsome man (these kinds of lines also just don't work on someone who got a taste of being Better Sigmar). Finally, he just takes the risk and outright tells her he can see she's a cultist and that the dark powers have a hold on her soul. She quickly checks if she could safely jump out a window (she cannot) and so decides to do the crazy ivan of cultist evasion techniques, throwing herself on his mercy and confessing that yes, she has made terrible and unwise deals (all to keep ahead of the Fae of course) and that surely a Brother of Shallya wouldn't harm someone who can still be redeemed. She is not quite aware of the extent of Shallyan Anti-Bullshit powers, and this is my chance to show off the third kind of mess a Shallyan can short-circuit. It's not exactly easy, but he does tell her he can exorcise the host of fiends that have taken her. She doesn't realize he's sincere, and figures she'll go along with whatever dove ritual he's planning and then jump out a window later (jumping out a window to escape things is one of those little joys you have to take in being a secret cult mastermind). Karl has Cure Insanity. If someone has an Insanity, Karl can get rid of it. This is one of the only ways in the game to remove Insanities permanently. The other way is Tzeentch magic. This is VERY HARD for Karl. He needs to hit CN 20, he's Mag 2. It's an hour long ritual. He knows to use the blessed water sprinkler (loaded with holy water from the magic fountain in the temple here) for +2 for his Ingredient, and he Channels for it (successfully), and gets lucky, rolling a 9 and 8. At the end of the long invocation of Shallya, he boops her on the nose with the blessed water sprinkler, and in a spray of holy aethyric doves worthy of a John Woo movie, the hold of the Host of Fiends is broken. Karl has now cured the final kind of bullshit Shallyans can nullify. He is a true Shallyan Priest, Ruiner of Premades, which is rather fitting for a character from Thousand Thrones. Althura is immensely confused. She feels different. I mean, she's still a chaos sorcerer and all, but she hadn't realized the whole 'unwise deals' line had been anything but a line. There actually was a demon loving with how she saw the world and how she acted. She tells him that thing led her here, to get something beneath the ruins she doesn't quite remember now. She has no goddamn idea what to do now. Karl suggests she wait for them up above here; throwing around more black magic might make the problem return. She agrees, still kind of dazed. I mean, how do you deal with realizing you were being co-piloted by a demon you didn't know was there? He tells her they'll talk again, but for now there's still a dwarf-hold to free. She wishes him good luck and takes the moment to take a long, hard look at her life. Somewhere, a Daemonette is really annoyed. She was helping, goddamnit! Stupid dove goddess! Always *jumping in front*. Next Time: The Greenskins Night10194 fucked around with this message at 17:11 on May 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 16:54
|
|
|
Soulbound Angel Marines  The Stormcast Eternals are Sigmar's own forces, his last resort in the war on Chaos. Each is stronger, faster and tougher than any human, made into demigods of war. They are encased in Sigmarite army and their weapons spark with the fury of storms. They cannot die but in the most extreme circumstances, but each rebirth is terrifying and painful. At the moment of their death, their soul tears itself apart, flying invisbly back to Azyr to be put back together - always imperfectly, leaving flaws with each reforging that alter the mind and body. They were raised from death to fight Chaos, and their favored method is open warfare. However, not all cultists will meet them on the field, and they must be prepared to investigate the subtler kinds of Chaos cultist or to perform emergency support against Nurgle's plagues. They are divided into Stormhosts, united battalions that come together around shared culture and favored methods, and each Stormhost approaches their job differently based on that. Stormcast tend to see their Stormhost as their family. You join the Stormhost that most aligns with your views, cultural outlook and methods, after all, and then you're working with those same people for decades on end - over a century, for the eldest Stormcast. Each is also a structured military organization, divided into a number of Chambers focusing on different aspects of battle, such as cavalry, arcane artillery and so on. Each Chamber is subdivided into Conclaves, each of which is made of several Retinues. Stormcast Knights serve as the lower and middle command ranks as champions, and report up to their Lords, who command the Chambers. Chambers may work together or seperately as a campaign required, but together is more common to better employ mixed tactics. When they can't do this, they often rely on mortal auxiliaries for support, frequently the Freeguilds or the Ironweld. Every Stormcast was, at some point, a mortal human. Some were nobles, others born in poverty or members of wild tribes. All, however, were heroes, earning Sigmar's notice. Each was taken from death and remade. This means that Stormcast can come from nearly any culture or background. Some are crude, raucous warriors, while others are polite and refined nobles. All, however, are devoted to defeating Chaos and serving Sigmar. They don't often need to hire mercenaries or adventurers to aid them in battle...but off the field, they often need help. Stormcast are not generally particularly subtle, and they often rely on mortal agents to scout for them, gather intelligence or serve as a support network of scholarship and exploration. Mortal investigators are also often brought in to help root out cults or suspicious characters that a Stormcast would be too obvious to iqnuire about subtly.  The Sylvaneth are the favored children of Alarielle, fey spirits she has reshaped and bound into plant bodies through the power of Ghyran. They are grown in soulpod groves in small enclaves, carefully nurtured until they are ready to enter their prepared bodies. Each body is grown from potent wyldwood, its size and shape designed for whatever purpose that spirit is being incarnated for. The smaller and more humanoid Dryads and Branchwraiths, known as the Forest Folk, are designed to tend and nurture the land. The Noble Spirits, such as the Treelords, Branchwyches and Tree-Revenants, serve as defenders and warriors in the name of Alarielle's lands. The Free Spirits are specifically grown to serve as Alarielle's agents, such as the Kurnoth Hunters and the Arch-Revenants. Some, however, fall to madness and become Outcasts like the Spite-Revenants, able to hear only the Song of War that drives the Sylvaneth to battle fury. The Sylvaneth are unlike the other mortal races in that they care little for wealth or personal power in most situations. They are designed and raised from birth to oversee nature, and it is for this that they spread out from Ghyran. They defend the forests and wild lands in the name of their mother goddess. Fortunately, they are able to draw a distinction between the blight of C haos and the dangers to nature posed by less evil outsiders, though they remain hostile to anyone that won't listen to them about nature. They see little distinction between Orruks holding a massive treefire to celebrate something inane and humans engaging in clearcutting a forest to build houses, and their warnings tend to brusque and hostile. They are held together by the Spirit Song of Alarielle, a united communicatory network that flows throughout Ghyran. It is as much emotion as information, and it grows stronger and brighter when Sylvaneth gather in numbers. In dangerous times, it shifts ot the Song of War, awakening the Sylvaneth battle instinct. Each member of the species adds their own part to the song, though total understanding of it is limited solely to Alarielle, and non-Sylvaneth often describe the sensation of hearing the Spirit Song in its fully glory as painful, terrifying or maddening. Alarielle and her Royal Moot are the undisputed leaders of the Sylvaneth. The Moot is made from the leaders of the Sylvaneth glades across the mortal realms, plus a few other special entities that join Alarielle's court. A glade is an extended family or lineage of spirits that is considered to have developed its own internal character and culture. The Oakenbrow, for example, are noted for their regal demeanor and far-thinking tendencies, plus their openness to other peoples, while the Dreadwood are infamously spiteful and malicious towards outsiders. Sylvaneth mostly hire outsiders to help them understand other cultures. They don't really get things like capitalism, trade or houses, for example, which can be a big problem when the Sylvaneth Spirit Song runs into issues it has no immediate solution for. Glades that accept outside help will often hire adventurers to help them understand and deal with these out-of-context problems, and typically rely on the Noble and Free Spirits to liaison with such adventurers - the lesser Forest Folk tend to be stranger and harder for other people to deal with. Next time: The Great Parch
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 19:45
|
|
|
Night: Do ANY of the published adventures actually account for a Shallyan shortcircuiting part of their plot? 
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 20:34
|
|
|
PurpleXVI posted:Night: Do ANY of the published adventures actually account for a Shallyan shortcircuiting part of their plot? Not really, no. Someone in this thread suggested that a lot of the hatred they get from some of the writers comes from their ability to completely gently caress over some of the ways of railroading parties into problems, but it's why I love them. Though Terror in Talabheim does let a Shallyan PC learn to cure the plague once you learn you need both their cure spells, so that's something. Think about it: Forges of Nuln: "Wound the PCs a little to force them to back off and stop inves-" "Cure Wounds." Thousand Thrones: "And now you have Neiglish Ro-" "Cure Disease." "Aha, you're poisoned, and have to do what the rear end in a top hat merchant says to get the-" "Cure Poison." "You lose your arm even though your spent Fate to survi-" "Golden Tears, Critical Hit negated, arm's back on." "Alright, you've gone crazy and now the GM gets to decide what you do when you black-" "Cure Insanity." And so on. They are an rear end in a top hat GM's greatest nightmare, in addition to just being generally well-intentioned people who are mostly good, which annoys some of the writers who prefer more focus on total grimdark. The thing is in return for all this, you have to genuinely commit to playing someone who is mostly a pacifist in an action adventure. Karl's able to fight (if he uses Strike to Stun) and our own Shallyan in my current game is actually surprisingly dangerous with her magic stick (she wields an Old One lab sanitizer tool that they mistook for a quarter-staff), but most of what you do as one is being a healbot and social character. Thankfully, being a healbot and social character is perfectly valid, even before you get the actual super heal magic. E: Oh, also, while they're pacifists and will generally counsel allies not to kill prisoners, etc, they don't actually have to stop their friends from fighting. It's totally valid for a Shallyan to just hide behind an Ulrican or Sigmarite warrior. Everybody has different jobs, after all. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 20:46 on May 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 20:39
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:Somewhere, a Daemonette is really annoyed. She was helping, goddamnit! Stupid dove goddess! Always *jumping in front*. *silly cows*
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 21:10
|
|
|
Soulbound The Lands of Flame  The Great Parch of Aqshy is the default setting of Soulbound, the site of the first Stormcast attack on Chaos and the homeland of both the Fyreslayer Duardin and the Khornite warlord Korghos Khul and his Goretide. It is where a lot of Aqshy's major events take place. The folk of the Great Parch are, on average, passionate and full of love for life, despite the horrific violence and suffering Chaos has visited on them. They are quick-tempered and violent at times, not often subtle and yet fast to forgive. By and large, they are a practical people with little time for useless ornaments, and they value strength in battle or lore they can use, rather than theories and artistry. They tend to idolize the Sylvaneth for their ability to find water, a precious substance in the Realm of Fire. In the Age of Chaos, many of the tribes of the Parch turned to Khorne or the other Gods of Chaos to survive, but many did not. They fought to live as best they could, and now their patience has been rewarded. Large parts of the Parch are free of Chaos now, and they can carve a new path for their history. It's a long one they inherit, too. In the Age of Myth, before Sigmar first came to the Realms, Aqshy was ruled by the Volc-giants, immense and cruel creatures that fought each other constantly and looked on all other races as cattle at best. Their skulls now litter the deserts of the Flamescar Plateau, remnants of when Sigmar destroyed these ancient giants and freed their mortal slaves. And yet, the greatest gift he gave to Aqshy was not while he was there, but rather when he went to Chamon and found the Duardin gods Grungi and Grimnir chained to the peak of the tallest of the Iron Mountains. Sigmar freed these two gods, and Grungni swore to repay him in the future. Grimnir hated being in debt, and immediately asked Sigmar to name a foe that must be slain. Sigmar chose the Godbeast Vulcatrix, the Mother of Salamanders, ancestor of the powerful Magmadroths. Grimnir went to Aqshy and faced Vulcatrix in her mountain lair, in the land that would become the Great Parch. Their battle leveled the mountains, lasting for months on end. At last, Grimnir slew the Godbeast, but as she lay dying, Vulcatrix erupted, and in her explosive death, she took the Slayer God with her. The lands of the Parch, freed from her sulphor gases, became fertile. Agriculture spread, and many empires, kingdoms and tribes took root. The greatest were the mages of the Agloraxi Empire, a proud and terrifying people who enslaved all those without magical talent. The rulers of the Agloraxi were the Arch-Domini, wizards obsessed with power. They built immense constructs, the Colossi, to serve as laborers and warriors for them. Using these, they constructed their finest weapon: the Prismatikon. This sorcerous engine could focus the light and heat of the Realm of Fire into terrifying lasers that could disintegrate even souls. Each of the Arch-Domini wielded a Sceptre of Flame, a tool that could summon the power of the Prismatikon in battle. Wielding their potent magic, they demanded tribute from kings and warlords across Aqshy, to be delivered to their flying capital city, Ahramentia. Besides the Prismatikon, they built many wonders - the Titanworks, a factory in which the Colossi were built, and the Impossible Orrery, a machine said to be able to realign and control realmgates. Eventually, however, the Arch-Domini grew bored with such things and began increasingly bizarre and esoteric studies. They decayed, ignoring the rise of other nations to focus on their magical research and even, eventually, giving up their demands for tribute. As the Agloraxi turned inwards, two nations arose in the west - Bataar and Aspiria. Aspiria, like the Agloraxi, was an empire of wizard lords - but not slavers, valuing freedom and good lives for their subjects. Bataar was a trader's country, fond of money and parties. They almost went to war several times, but eventually developed a network of trade and embassies, their rivalry mixed with alliance. The Bataari traded firesilk and magical artifacts of the Aspirians to other nations, bringing back whatever the wizards of Aspiria desired. Bataar's traders ranged across the Mortal Realms, and both nations prospered. The Aspirians focused on alchemy and experimentation, and the runoff of their works permanently altered the oceans north of them, the oils and chemicals mixing to form the Polychromatic Sea. The Bataari built their Iron Armada on the Ocean of Swords to protect one of their aquatic cities, and the Aspirians enchanted it to fly, creating the famous Floating Market, one of the great wonders of Aqshy. The eastern Parch remained a patchwork of warring tribes. A few might unite for a time under charismatic warlords, but they would inevitably splinter apart when their leader died. Some tribes, like the Direbrands, became famous for their skills and honor, but most never achieved lasting glory or success. Some of the tribal wars lasted centuries, until the Red Feast. This was a great contest of battle, drawing in contestants from all across Aqshy that sought glory and power. It lasted for days under the banner of the warlord Threx Skullbrand, and the great champion to emerge was Korghos Khul, a warrior of unparalleled skull. He slew eight hundred and eighty eight challengers, never losing a fight, and as the last one fell, the realmgate nearby exploded, tearing a hole into reality large enough for an army of daemons to pass through. Thus was born the Goretide. Khorne, above all, sought conquest of Aqshy. He coveted the passion and violent skill of the natives, and he set Korghos Khul to conquer the Parch in his name. Khul swept across all the regions of The Parch, from Aridian to Vitrolia, slaughtering as he went. A large part of the southern Parch is still called Khul's Ravage, marking the grave of hundreds of tribes. The Goretide butchered and ate those they slew, giving their captives a simple choice: partake in the feast of Khorne or become it. Many joined in order to survive, swelling the Goretide's numbers, and however reluctant they were to start, they soon became corrupted by Chaos. Tzeentch's daemons sieged Aspiria, sparking a war of magic so terrible that entire parts of the land were destroyed, the coastlines broken as parts were stolen into the Realm of Chaos, becoming the Disintegrating Shore. When the Goretide reached these lands, the Aspirians fortified themselves in their cities, warding them with magic and hoping for some allies to save them. Those that couldn't get into the cities before they closed fled across the Ocean of Swords - and most died in the reefs of Wrecker's Isle, ambushed by a Nurglite fleet that destroyed the Iron Armada with the power of rotting whales and terrible weapons. What few Bataari survived did so by fleeing to the Floating Market or the mountain peaks, but most were enslaved or killed. Agriculture nearly died out in the Parch, the farms burned and ruined. The survivors sometimes had to turn to cannibalism just to live, tormented by Khorne's forces and kept from proper food. Khorne sent forth an immense daemon army to wipe out the Agloraxi, who responded by unleashing the full power of the Prismatikon, annihilating both sides and allowing not even a drop of blood to flow to the Blood God. Most of the tribes that resisted Chaos were hunted down or, slowly, converted to worship of the Dark Gods, but the defiant few that remained never ceased their battles. It was a losing war, but they fought on until, at last, the realmgates of Aqshy reopened. The Great Parch was Sigmar's first target, sending forth the Stormcast under the leadership of Lord-CElestant Vandus Hammerhand, in life one of the final chiefs of the Direbrands. The Stormcast destoryed a Goretide camp, routing them and ruining the ritual Korghos Khul had been attempting, which would have transformed him into a Daemon Prince. For the first time, Khul was defeated. The Stormcast pushed forward, winning again and again, though often at great cost in Stormcast lives. This revealed the flaws of the Reforging, but it earned them many allies - the Sylvaneth under Alariell and the mysterious Seraphon, who teleported into the battlefield from their temple-ships. At the height of the Realmgate Wars, though, they almost lost the Parch. Archaon the Everchosen, you see, stole the second sun. Unlike any other realm, Aqshy had two - Hysh and the second sun, which burned high in the sky. Only the Fyreslayers knew way - the second sun was Ignax, the Solar Drake, whom Grimnir had chained into the sky in the early Age of Myth. Archaon, however, managed to free her and drive his sword into her brain, claiming Ignax for Chaos. The Fyreslayers of Austarg Lodge were what saved the Parch - they launched a secret mission, attacking Ignax and placing a hidden rune of binding deep into her flesh. Shortly after, the Stormcast launched an attack on the Brimstone Gate that led to the Eightpoints, hoping to deny that access to Archaon's forces. As the battle began to turn against him, Archaon unleashed Ignax, but was shocked to see the golden rune burst from her scales, freeing her of his control. Ignax, free for the first time in millenia, turned on Chaos and unleashed her might. In the end, the battle was won for Order, and the Brimstone Gate was permanently sealed, though now none knows where Ignax ended up. The Free Peoples began their reclamation of the Parch, with many of the surviving tribes joining the Azyrite settlers to form new cities - Anvilgard, Tempest's Eye, Hallowheart and Hammerhal, among others. The Stormcast spent decades consolidating their control over the Parch and expanding it in the Blazing Crusade, forcing Khul's Goretide back. It was hard going, and Chaos frequently sieged Hammerhal Aqsha, but it worked. Trade began. The Bataari used the battles to enact their Grand Ruse, hiring the Fyreslayers to retake their floating city from Chaos. The last remnants of the Aspirians emerged from their cities, only to find that Tzeentch had altered the nature of much of their land, warping it so that time and causality were nearly meaningless. They and the Bataari offered up alliance to the Free Peoples - at least, as best they could given the giant swath of unnatural, maddening timeflows in much of their land. Over a century, the cities grew and expanded, sometimes paying great costs to defeat Chaos. Some of the nomadic tribes joined the alliance, others rejected it, and even now, many Aqshian tribes view the Azyrites with distrust. More recently, the Doom of Nagash flowed over the realms: the Necroquake. An army of burned skeletons and screaming ghosts numbering over a million rose from the snads, attacking Hammerhal. The dead fought without care for their targets - Chaos, Order, orruks, men, it didn't matter. Several Fyreslayer lodghes disappeared in a night, their defenses pierced by ethereal spirits. Magic itself was altered, releasing the living spells into the world to wreak havoc, and a sentient flame nearly destroyed Hallowheart. That's where we stand now, at day zero of game. The Necroquake and Arcanum Optimar have left people reeling, but Aqshy has survived. Beset by the Goretide, the dead and more, there is much to be done. Next time: Daily life in the Great Parch
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 21:40
|
|
|
The Great Parch is cool as the default location. And we get a really cool map that comes with the game. To help the thread figure out where things are and their relation to each other, here is the map. (One taken from a preview from twitter not the massive high quality one included with the PDF, but still good enough quality to get a good look at everything.)  To give you a sense of Scale the Great Parch is supposed to be roughly the size of Eurasia. But it's still just a small part of the Realm of Fire as a whole, maybe 7% 
MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 22:56 on May 16, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 22:46
|
|
|
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal No Sugarcoating It So the orcs and greenskins section just kind of sucks. It has a good distribution of treasure, the combats and challenges are fairly balanced, there's nothing really wrong with it from a gameplay perspective, and yet it completely sucks. An astute reader will note this is the first adventure book to really have a section that focuses on the gobbos and orcs and that WHFRP doesn't devote very much time to them. This is why. The Skaven section was the Skaven played totally straight. They're up to Skaveny nonsense for Skaveny reasons, bouncing off the walls, trying to make rat superheroes, coming up with ridiculous intrigues and plans that can backfire and kill most of them. It ruled because Skaven played totally straight and to expectation still produce lots of wild, funny stuff for RPG level characters to deal with. The Undead section had an unusual antagonist (Koros, because elfs don't usually deal with necromancy) but also unusual allies in the undead that would either give hints or even join to help the party like Balkrag. It showed off why Warhammer Undead are fun: They don't even have to be evil. Necromancers are driven and weird, but undead in general have lots of personality. It was fun to deal with them and to imagine heroes dealing with screaming Elf Skeletor and his juvenile ideas of what it meant to be an evil overlord and how he'd have his revenge. The Orcs are basically played completely straight, too, and they're boring as hell. This is because Orcs just aren't very good for WHFRP. I know orcs are beloved by many, but think about it: In Warhammer 40k, you need the Orks. They're the only people overtly, in universe having fun, the only people there to point out to absolutely everyone how ridiculous and outright stupid everything happening around them is. Watching a grim-faced and pompous Space Marine swear bloody vengeance against 'Mek Badzappa' and then get blown up by a squig with a grenade strapped to it is funny. Watching all these self-serious idiots run headfirst into a bunch of screaming, hooting hooligans who embrace the universe for what it is (ridiculous, constant, total violence) is great, because 40k badly needs that. Fantasy is already a good deal better aware that it's got plenty of silly bits. Just look at the other two villain groups in this adventure so far. Fantasy just plain doesn't need what orcs bring to the table as desperately as 40k does. More importantly, for the RPG and the scale it takes place at, orcs are doomed to mostly end up boring or a short side-joke. Part of the fun of the Fantasy Orcs, from what I've heard from friends who liked TT, is that their TT play was wild and belligerent and they'd constantly be trying to herd their own violent idiots and point them away from their own face. This is the kind of thing you see when there are whole armies of the buggers. You don't really operate on a scale where you're going to see as much of that in the RPG. More importantly, orcs basically have one reaction to encountering PCs: They try to kill you. They are almost entirely there for combat challenges, and they aren't interested in much else. They don't get up to complex schemes, they don't have minions on the inside. They just try to hit you in the face with a choppa. And they tend to come and operate in huge numbers, and fighting an actual green tide just isn't what this combat engine is for. They also occupy kind of an awkward midpoint mechanically where they're tougher and more dangerous than Beastmen, but players will still outlevel the basic orc fairly quickly and stuff like Black Orcs can't live up to Chaos Warriors. And they don't vary up their tactics that much, either. When you combine the belligerence, the fact that the combat engine doesn't handle their primary schtick that well, and the fact that you are kind of spoiled for choice for villains in WHFRP, it's not that much of a surprise you almost never see the orcs. The Orc and Goblin segment of this book is pretty much just a long, slogging combat section where you try to defeat them in detail. More importantly, they don't really have subplots or hooks going on (besides the Warboss trying to buy Skaven guns with mined warpstone, which will blow his arm off and send his tribe into anarchy for a week before he restores order, recovers (probably stapling his arm back on) and sends his boyz up to kill the Skaven for betraying him) and they don't have any interesting treasure, either. The heroes are kind of past the point where money means much except in a roleplay/plot sense. They have thousands in the bank and any new gear they find is stuff they'd find, not buy. The orcs have no special items or interesting treasures beyond a book of magic that can buff Anya's Channel and Magical Sense skills and potentially a staff that makes magic a bit easier (gives one casting test reroll per combat), though who knows if a PC is going to think to use something they took off of a goblin shaman. Mostly it's just huge piles of gold and gems. The team would basically miss out on nothing if they skipped the Greenskin section entirely and moved towards the confrontation with the Beast of Chaos: Just an awful lot of combats and maybe a duel with the Warboss. Now I like writing the silly narrative that accompanies all this, but I really don't feel like doing one for a long series of slogging combats where nothing more interesting happens. So my suggestion instead is that if you're running Karak Azgal, you just skip the orc section or you write your own. What's here just doesn't live up to the other two adventures so far. There was a lot working against orcs on the RPG scale already, and the adventure just doesn't manage to rise above it. It's really not worth your time and it's just going to break the pacing and bore players as it stands. And again, there's nothing wrong with it mechanically. In general, while it's very combat-heavy (being a pure action-adventure dungeon crawl) Karak Azgal is well designed with a lot of signs that the writer understood the system quite well (as long as you start it at mid 2nd/early 3rd tier like our heroes did). The fights are fair, there are plenty of opportunities to split the enemy into manageable chunks, there's a lot of treasure, and if you want a ton of combat with orcs it will do you fine. It's just far weaker than the (pretty excellent and fun) Skaven and Undead adventures, and I think that's mostly down to the inherent problems orcs have as RPG enemies. So for our purposes we'll just be assuming the heroes fought their way through all of this off-screen on their way into the darkest parts of the dungeon. I did roll it out, and Ulrike was absolutely able to duel and kill the Warboss in single combat (one of the likely ways players face him), and it was a very even fight between well-matched warriors with a shared hatred for helmets and a love of big axes. They destroyed the surprisingly intelligent river troll chief and his awful trolls, and they beat the horror of the Great Cave Squig and its gobbo rider. They've returned exhausted, rested a bit more, and prepared to head back down, sure they're close to the end of the campaign, which they are: Only a few tunnels remain totally unexplored now. Soon, they will find what called Althura here. And they still don't realize Elgrom is a Slaaneshi, or that the gem Elena gave him to hopefully make them both a pile of cash is the macguffin he'll need for some extra bullshit to jazz up the finale. Karl has also had to confront the unfortunate fact that while Althura has realized she was being used, she is still a Warlock. She is actually still kind of evil, and would take a lot more effort than one magical ritual to make her less so. She's also insisted on coming with them. Warlock or not, she's genuinely grateful to him for getting her out of a 'sold my soul' style pact she didn't realize she had. And maybe they'll need someone who actually understands Dark Tongue and Daemonic during the finale. Thus, with an extra Mag 2 Wizard with Lore of Chaos in tow, they make their way into the darkest dungeon and the underwhelming canon final boss. It will get much more exciting after that. Next Time: Too Greedily And Too Deep
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 23:21
|
|
|
 Heart: The City Beneath 15 - Adversaries, Ghosts through Wretches In the Heart, full of weird energy, Ghosts are pretty much just a thing that happens when you die. They're tough to kill without using appropriate resources (protection 10), and finding the specific item needed to affect a given ghost makes banishing them much easier. Screw up, and possession is a distinct possibility. Gnoll Incursion Teams sneak into the City Below, evading Aelfir patrols to try and plumb the secrets of the Heart. They operate covertly, wearing suits of enchanted sandwalker leather to protect them from the energies of the place and recording their discoveries into rememberance-djinn. As there's a standing bounty on Gnolls in the Spire, they tend to keep a low profile. Sometimes, when a great hunter dies and their souls awaken in The Forest, the path is open long enough for something to step the other way. Godbeasts are the gigantic, enchanted creatures that come though; deer with crystalline antlers, dragonflies ten feet across or enourmous boars; none are particuarly friendly and all are very resiliant. And I mean it - they have Protection 3 and 30 Resistance. They're not going to hurt as much as an Angel, and don't have a difficulty until they've got 10 resistance or less left, but it'll take time to wear them down. The average PC is generally going to inflict 4 stress per round, less protection. Male Harpies are cat-sized corvids that like to steal sharp and shiny things, that they tie to their beaks and claws to increase the damage they do when they divebomb prey. They work in teams to hunt, bringing anything 'shiny' - anything with an occult resonance - back to their burrows, in order to attract the attention of a female harpy. The females are extra-dimensional creatures; humanoids with wings in the place of their arms, and the males' mating rituals summon them forth from whichever hell they normally live in. They'll then slaughter their way through the City Below, laying eggs in the carcasses of their prey before crumbling into dust once the energy they gather through fear and death runs out. Heartsblood Beasts are like the Blooded - creatures who have absorbed the energies of the Heart over generations, or even original creations of the Heart; constructed from the dreams of travellers and idle thoughts. In either case, they just don't work right - creatures with more or less limbs, inverted spines or the ability to extrude their stomachs to feed on prey. They tend to be just like the normal creatures in terms of motivation - seeking prey and mates - but like so many things in the City Below, they're far more dangerous.  The Heart is conscious, not sapient as we'd understand it, but capable of thought and experimentation. Heartseeds are a product of this; pallid maggots the size of a forearm, they bury themselves in corpses and detritus and pupate, warping the area around them and unwravelling reality. Eventually they bloom (treating the area as a Tier deeper), then finally die, when somebody kills it, or the press of normality withers it away. The Heart learns from this experience, adapting its approach for the next time. They're a potent resource if you can harvest them in time, too. The actual appearence of Heartseeds varies by their Domain; Cursed - a purply-black fleshy heart handing from a web of sticky red tendons. Desolate - a path of nothing, an impossible non-existance. Haven - a huddled drow child in fetal position, rooted to the floor and babbling incoherently. Occult - a book of pure chaotic nonsense; when read it allows the reader access to magic similar to the blood witches. Religion - an altar to no god, decorated by a vague attempt at portaying nonexistant saints and made of calcified bone. Technology - a clockwork device made from teeth, hair, skin and gristle. Warren - a carpet of all-consuming mould, eating organic matter. Wild - a lotus with sophoric perfume, luring animals with its scent, poisoning and rebuilding them in new forms. Market Serfs are the peons of the Incarnadine lords of the Red Market. Riddled with debt, they now act as petty thugs for their crimson-robed masters. Once there was a little god that fled into the Heart and shattered into a thousand spiders, each with a shard of mirror on its back. These Mirror Spiders seek each other out, consuming each other in an attempt to reconstitute the god, all the while accumulating a cult of devoted, but regular spiders. They're not much of a danger, except for the larger ones, but the suicide cults of mad insect devotees can be an issue. Pitchkin are the eventual fate of those where ejected from the City Above after becoming too ill to work in the factories. The Spireblack (a byproduct of the foundries in the City Above, somewhere between gunpowder and tar) in their veins has reacted with the energy of the Heart, leaving them feral but strong. Very territorial, very flammable. The Red Saints of Lekole sit upon their thrones on the Red Moon, until they're called down upon beams of scarlet moonlight by Her faithful. You can fight them, but it's better to run - they cannot be permanently harmed without forbidden rituals. Signal-box Cultists are worshippers of the Vermissian, clad in carriage-curtains, with rivits and valves hammered into their flesh. They're all quite made really (and are a generic template for any kind of zealot). The inhabitants of the Gnollish heaven-construct, Sourceborn Constructs rarely venture out into the City Below, except in search of resources. When they do, they manifest in a multitude of artificial forms; clouds of carbon dust that form hexagons in the air, hovering obsidian orbs, nests of razor-sharp wire. Generally they're not aggresive unless provoked... but are a rich source of unique resources. The Skelton Courtiers of Cairnmor are seldom found outside that landmark unless on a mission from their dead King. Wherever they are, they're still likely to be completely off their tits on the intoxicating tree-sap of their home barrow. Tunnel Brigands are your general thugs and desperados who make life difficult for (relatively) honest folk of the City Below. When the 33rd Regiment was sent on their ill-fated mission to pacify the Heart, it was only the lucky ones, those who went AWOL from their last fight who would go on to form the Hounds. The Walking Wounded however, still follow the last commands of their Aelfir officers, repeating centuries-old atrocities in their eternal fight against heartsblooded creatures, angels and the Heart itself. Ironically, they're now as much a part of the Heart as anything else, and you can occasionally see them, groups of 'injured soldiers' at the edge of a Haven. Look closer, and you'll see that each is fused to each other, and their weapons are part of them too. They're eternally trying to get home - which probably doesn't exist any more. Wretches are the mutated, melded and otherwise degenerate creatures found in the Tunnels of Wet Filth, whose inhabitants enthusastically breed and modify them, keeping them as pets.  Next: Legendary Adversaries
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 23:43
|
|
|
Huh, funny now that you mention it, Night, but I feel like hardly anyone ever really mentions WFRP orcs and goblins at all. Even in the actual canon they feel a bit like an afterthought, occasionally there to be annoying or threatening when something's already wibbly and wobbly, but rarely a major threat in themselves. It's a shame they don't have more personality.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 23:46
|
|
|
They did get the shining moment of kicking Archy in the dick, headbutting him, and then declaring he was too weak to be worth killing, at least.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 23:47
|
|
|
Archaon remains one of the least interesting characters...though I appreciate the latest Age of Sigmar event has him decide to give Slaanesh the universe's worst case of blue balls. See, Slaanesh has been locked up in a pocket dimension for literal millenia thanks to the elf gods. Wrath of the Everchosen begins with Archaon receiving a vision that guides him and most loyal soldiers, the Varanguard, to said pocket dimension. Archaon fights his way through the elf defenders and is literally moments from smashing the chains that hold Slaanesh bound. Slaanesh is crowing, promising Archaon everything he could ever desire, totally jazzed to get free. At which point Nagash decides to invade the Eightpoints, which sends a telepathic phone call to Archaon telling him that ghosts have set all his poo poo on fire and he needs to get home. And Archaon literally just stops what he's doing, turns around and leaves. The text explicitly notes that this is the only chance he's going to get for another thousand plus years at least, because Tyrion and Teclis will move Slaanesh's prison the moment they can. e: the event basically ends with Archaon arriving back home in time to keep Nagash from conquering the Eightpoints, but not in time to keep Nagash from taking over the Shyish gateway and setting up a fortress there.
|
|
#
?
May 16, 2020 23:51
|
|
|
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Gorlaz the Golden and the Beast of Chaos The heroes descend into the deepest parts of the old mines, where only a few rumors can guide them. They know from Althura's visions that there's something terrible down here, especially after the marks they saw on the tunnels of the Dragon Ogres early in their adventure. They've also pieced together old rumors that the dwarfs of the hold found an incredible, rich vein of gromril down here. But that somehow it had to be sealed off. Something had awoken down in the deep, and nothing was keeping it sealed any longer. Whatever blasphemous evil had called to Althura, whatever ancient horror slumbered here, the hold would never be safe until it was destroyed. The heroes have no way of knowing the Beast of Chaos's full backstory. What they know is correct: This thing is ancient, awakened by the original miners of Karak Izril ages ago. A terrible thing formed of the leftover Chaos that cooled and congealed at the center of the world when all was created, rather than the raw evil flowing into the world from beyond at the Gate. The dwarfs absolutely dug too greedily and too deep, and the thing woke up and tore the miners apart. Some of them hid, building shrines to the darkness, and this is where the ancient temple of Slaanesh that waits and seeps its evil into the hold came from. Warriors fought the beast, but none could stop it. Eventually, the dwarfs sent volunteer Runebearers, knowing they would die, to lead it away from the tunnels up so they could seal them with explosives. And so they did. They denied their greed and sacrificed themselves to stop the monster, even as some of their kin were cavorting in a dark temple to praise the awful thing they'd awoken. That temple is what 'enlightened' Hegakin and Elgrom. It is the ultimate evil that the heroes need to destroy, not the Beast itself. The Beast also just plain doesn't live up to that hype once you encounter it in gameplay, so I've decided our heroes are going to have to deal with some extra terror before they're done. For our purposes, assume a long time of being trapped in the dark, awake but unable to feed or gain worship, has made the Beast surprisingly weak. It's a big, WS 67, SB 7, TB 6 (8 against non-magic weapons) 5 Attack 43 Wound beefstick. That's all its got. Also AV 3. It's reasonably tough, has a lot of wounds, hits fairly hard, and has a decent number of attacks. It's also Terrifying. It's a huge, huge sort of chimera-beast, with many tentacles, four legs, and three heads. It also tries to grapple a lot, using the tentacles much like Elena uses her whip. This is actually a fairly interesting way for it to try to even the odds on the numbers it'll be fighting, but it's still one enemy against a high level party with good fighters, a mage, a healer, and a guest star (Althura isn't that strong compared to the party but she's still regularly tossing out 2 Damage 5 Burning Blood missiles a turn, not to be underestimated). The heroes come upon the terrible thing counting its treasures, pawing at the ancient bones of dwarfs and remembering when others fled from it, screaming in terror. It misses those days. And here they are again! A fresh group of mortals, even if these don't seem to be running and screaming very much. Ulrike and Gilbert move to the front, axe and shield ready to form the front-line like they've done so many times. Vendrick and Elena draw longbows (she picked one up from targeteer) to provide support. Karl's got his blessings ready and Anya's spinning an iron dagger on a finger as she readies her magic. Even Althura manages to make the Terror test and surrounds herself with an aura of blackness, preparing her own sorcery. After all, if they kill this thing, the treasure glittering behind it and the gromril will surely be the greatest score of their lives. Weirdly, it's kind of the ranged support that is MVP for this battle. The thing's tentacles were able to keep Ulrike and Gilbert locked down or even throw them around the field from time to time, meaning they didn't get a lot of rounds where they were up and ready to hack at it, though when they did it really didn't appreciate the Great Axe or the magic hand weapon Gilbert is wielding. Breaking the thing's Grapples was difficult when it had a 72% Str. However, with Karl's healing it couldn't put them down, and it had to stay busy with them. Vendrick and Elena both effectively do Damage 6 with every shot, and Vendrick really wasn't going to miss much. Anya's magic ignored both its armor and its Daemonic Aura when she could get a Shadow Knife off, and she was able to Bewilder it briefly, too. It had a 65% WP, but the spell got through and it spent a turn doing nothing before going back on the attack. Althura's steady extra Damage 5 hits (that ignored Aura) actually really helped, too. In the end, it only took them 5 rounds to put the thing down, going down to a last blow from Gilbert and a Fury from Ulrike, as husband and wife each struck off one of the terrible heads at the same time and the horrible thing fell. They quickly hacked the third off to be sure. Killing the Beast gets you a huge reward: Every character gets one automatically successful item roll on the Very Hard encounter table. Each. The past heroes who tried to kill the drat thing had a lot of loots. As the heroes are looking over the massive treasure horde and Karl is quickly healing them in case something else happens, one of the walls nearby explodes outwards in a shower of golden light. Revealing the awful temple, and what Elgorm has become. The Slaaneshi Cult Leader the heroes never really uncovered had made his way down here with the Izril Stone, offering it to his Goddess. In gratitude, she granted him the power he desired: To be the ruler of the hold. As the previous dragon had been. I couldn't resist throwing in a direct Sigurd and Fafnir finale here since the Beast isn't quite strong enough; his mutations were already draconic, and the hold was previously ruled over by a dread dragon. The powers of Slaanesh grant Elgrom ascension, and now he is a terrible, two-headed Chaos dragon, his scales shimmering with gold and gems, the Izril Stone set in two halves upon his foreheads to form the centerpieces of the Mark of Slaanesh. Needless to say this is a surprise to the heroes. This isn't in the module, but I thought it would make a way cooler finale than the Beast by itself and then the heroes just making some rolls to destroy the temple altar, and really, Elgrom's description and the hold previously being taken over by a grand dragon set me up. Plus, the description of 'how to use Chaos Dragons' in ToC is 'to make new characters', and I want to show that glib BS doesn't hold up against a high level party. Thankfully, they had a Shallyan to put them back together for this fight. The great dragon thanks them; without Elena's greed, it never would have gained this marvelous power. The others look to her, and she says she was just out to get the team some extra gold and maybe investigate a criminal conspiracy. How was she to know this was Slaanesh magic bullshit? The creature preens before them, luxuriating in its golden and crystal body, telling them if they kneel and worship, it will spare them as its heralds. While it's busy talking, Gilbert is busy praying. Elgorm's still quite a showman. Althura is cursing herself for not being the first one down here and getting to be a kickass golden dragon, but quickly stops when she realizes her choices here are to help them kill this thing or get eaten by a dragon. Gilbert gets to his feet, his axe ready, and Ulrike forms up with him. They'll each take one head. The difficulty of Chaos Dragons isn't just their attacks and their strength and their monumentally hard scales and high Wounds. It's their breath weapon. They breath twice a round if they feel like it, because two heads. One does Damage 8 fire, one does Damage 4 Ignores Armor acid. Both are AoE. However, if you stack up directly in melee, since they're cones, each can only hit one hero. By spreading themselves out properly, they can make that more of a losing proposition for Elgrom Transformed. The real problem is it makes Karl getting close enough to heal people very risky for Karl. Althura suggests they try to focus on striking the thing's willpower. It's high, but they have a chance of knocking it out of the fight with spells like Bewilder and Vision of Torment, and every turn it isn't attacking buys them time they desperately need. They don't realize it, but they're not facing a normal Chaos Dragon; this thing still has Elgorm's mental stats, plus 2d10 WP for Mark of Slaanesh (So 53%). This strategy probably wouldn't work on a normal Chaos Dragon with an 89% WP, though trying to stun it is probably more useful than minor damage spells. Bewilder doesn't get it round 1, nor does Althura's magic, and the first round of combat it hits both Gilbert and Ulrike with its breath, doing 5 Wounds to Gilbert and 2 to Ulrike. Outnumber makes it take all 6 return hits. Already taking 18 wounds in return; Gilbert's finally gotten enough time to give his hand weapon Impact with prayer. Vendrick sneaks in 4 with an arrow, and Elena another 7. It's already taken 25 by the time it decides to switch to melee attacks. They have very poor luck and it gets 3 hits in on both Ulrike and Gilbert, though thankfully it misses Ulrike's head. Gilbert Parries one despite Unstoppable, somehow deflecting a swipe of a dragon's tail with a shield, before dodging another and the third only doing 1 Wound. Ulrike finally uses Lightning Parry because she needs it even if it reduces her offense. She's able to Parry (using Fortune) and Dodge, but takes a much heavier hit for 7 Wounds. Dragons do Damage 7 Impact AP and have 6 swings. Don't get hit by dragons. Both frontliners are at about half HP. And they only deliver 8 this turn. Then it gets Stunned by Althura's magic. Amusingly, it would've been stunned even if it had the normal 89% WP (rolled a 95). She manages to conjure up an image of the Realm of Slaanesh for the horror, showing Elgrom exactly the sort of damnation he's in for if he loses here after being personally blessed, and he pauses. Taking another 4 damage from ranged fire, but Anya's magic failing. Stunned and outnumbered, the couple fighting him ain't gonna miss. Gilbert and Ulrike both pummel him, each landing a heavy Fury for 13 Wounds and 10 Wounds, though their other swings bounce off, and he's on 1 Wound. Arrows bounce off his hide, and he takes a single magical dart from Anya and a Burning Blood from the cultist. All of it deflects off his armor. Dang! He gets up, almost dead, and breaths as hard as he can, roaring and trying to bring down the two knights. It's just not enough. The terrible dragon falls beneath their axes, too staggered to stand, and like with the Beast, they each hack one head off. The golden beast is dead. They have slain a Chaos Dragon. That was not something they expected this morning. They make their way into the chamber he came out of, and Karl gently holds Althura back from trying anything Warlocky about the bejeweled and monstrous altar they find, tended by a hideous flesh amalgam of the dwarfs who originally built it. They put the Abomination down easily (it's pathetic, PCs should have no trouble releasing it from its torment) and Ulrike walks towards the central altar. It tries its best to make its offers to her, testing her WP, offering her gold and prestige and a harem of beautiful men, and her unflappable demeanor comes through unscatched. She raises the great axe, and brings it down. The altar (Wounds 25, TB 5) can't sustain a full round of Damage 6 Greataxe hits, so before it can force another WP test to try to tempt her, it's hacked apart, the jewels and gold scattering and shriveling back into hideous flesh as the altar bleeds and screams. The temple begins to collapse around them, and they hastily retreat back to where the two great beasts lie dead. It's time to get their loots, then tell the dwarfs. They've truly saved Karak Azgal, despite the GM deciding one boss fight wasn't bad enough and throwing a way worse one at them for not grasping the Chaos Plot in full before now. Elena also takes the stones out of the dead dragon's head. They had a deal, after all. She gives the corpse a kick and thanks him for holding up his end of the bargain. The normal Beast is fine for a big gribbly, it's just...if you won the battles to get to it, you'll kill it pretty easily. It's just not enough of a finale on its own, so like with the Witch, I seized some stuff that already existed to make it more exciting. It's what I'd do if I was running it, and the Temple just being a couple WP tests to destroy it just isn't enough for me for the evil lurking at the heart of the hold and rotting it with greed and desire. So giant golden dragon made out of the greed dwarf! It was fun. Next Time: Epilogues Begin
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 00:45
|
|
|
This playbook can. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_TgymOFRNrVakl2dmNVeldlOHc/view?usp=sharing GimpInBlack posted:"Hi, Mom." Well played !
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 01:13
|
|
|
 Looking back at Legacy's character sheet, you may notice that abilities are arranged by color, the weaker ones at top in green and the more powerful ones at the bottom in red. Normally, when a fight starts, a hero can only use the green abilities on their sheet. So how do you unlock higher status abilities? Two ways. One, losing Health. Look at Legacy's sheet and you'll see that her Health is divided into three bands. When she falls to 24 Health, she's in Yellow status – her status die drops to a d8, but she can use her Yellow abilities. When she gets to 11 Health, she's in the Red and can unleash her Red abilities. At 0 Health, she's Out, and can only use the Out ability at the bottom of her sheet. SCRPG calls this the GYRO system (green/yellow/red/out). Not every hero gets smaller status dice as they lose Health, by the way – some heroes, like Time-Slinger, are steady and use the same status die no matter what color they're at, and others, like Tachyon, actually get bigger status dice as they drop in Health to reflect that they get better when their backs are to the wall. (Tachyon gets only a d6 status die when she's in the Green, and d12 when she's in the Red!) The other way is the Scene Tracker. Every action scene has a Scene Tracker like this:  Once everyone has taken a turn, the GM marks off a space on the Scene Tracker, from left to right. Villains can also make an Overcome action to advance the Tracker, but only once per scene, and the Tracker can also be advanced as the result of a twist. When the Scene Tracker gets to the yellow portion, everyone is considered to be in Yellow status even if their Health is still Green; likewise for Red. If the GM marks off every space in the Scene Tracker, the scene ends with failure for the heroes: the bomb goes off, the villains escape with the loot, the volcano erupts. The Scene Tracker is a useful tool for GM pacing, since you can make things tenser by speeding up how fast the status reaches Yellow/Red, or shortening the Tracker to put a tighter time limit on the players. As for opposition, baddies come in three flavors. Minions are represented by a single die, which they roll for everything – the die result is their effect, without using the Min/Mid/Max system. If a hero hits a minion, the minion rolls a damage save, rolling its die against the amount of damage done. If it doesn't match or beat the damage, it's taken out of the fight; otherwise, its die size drops by one, until it's at a d4, where it remains until it fails a damage save. Lieutenants get only one die as well, which they use for everything. They also roll damage saves when they get hit; on a success, nothing happens, and on a failure, they drop one die size. Lieutenants are also immediately taken out if they get hit with double or more their die's maximum result – e.g, 12 damage to a d6 lieutenant. Villains, on the other hand, have a full sheet with Health, powers and qualities, and abilities, as well as status dice. Villain status dice aren't necessarily based on the GYRO system; they can also be based on specific criteria. Baron Blade, for instance, gets bigger status dice as he activates his gadgets (by creating Boost/Hinder mods); Proletariat gets weaker, with lower status dice, the more clones of himself he creates; Dragonclaw gets more dangerous when she's engaged with multiple opponents at once. While having only one die for minions and lieutenants keeps things simple, it also -- at least in my experience -- can make them a bit more dangerous than minions in most other games, especially since attacks never miss. Remember, Legacy has 32 Health, which is on the high side (Health ranges from 17 to 40 for heroes), but if she runs into a group of four of Baron Blade's bionic troopers (d10 minions) and they focus fire on her, they can potentially knock her out in a single round. It's generally better not to have the minions just attack one target; spread their fire out or have some of them work on creating mods instead. Character advancement is handled in two ways. Characters can earn up to five Hero Points per issue (adventure) – one point for everyone in the team if a character uses one of their Principles to make an Overcome action, and one point for characters who take part in a social scene. Between issues, these points can be traded for one-time bonuses that can be applied to any roll going forward, so if you had five points, you could trade them for five +1 bonuses, a +3 and a +2, etc. Characters also earn a Collection for every six issues they play through. A Collection can be invoked once per session to alter die results, establish a fact in the gameworld, or avoid having to take a minor twist. Outside of action scenes, SCRPG follows MHR's lead in being mostly freeform role-playing. During a montage scene, you can heal up to the next highest health zone from what you're currently at (e.g, if you were beaten down to Red, you can heal up to Yellow), help another PC heal another zone of Health, or make a Boost roll to gain a mod for the next action scene by doing detective work, developing a gadget to use against the opposition, etc. Players can also choose to engage in social scenes, where they just talk and interact. Doing a social scene earns the participants a Hero Point each, although it has to be a scene that's genuinely meaningful and reflects the characters' relationship, as opposed to “Hey, nice weather we're having.” It's up to the GM to ensure that everyone gets a chance to do social scenes, rather than letting the amateur dramatics types hog the spotlight. Selachian fucked around with this message at 03:56 on May 17, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 03:51
|
|
|
It feels like "ha ha! face this... [checks] single gigantic combatant!" is the final hurdle that almost every published WFRP adventure stumbles on. Couldn't it be somewhat solved by giving the Beast of Chaos some Slaaneshi support, maybe some daemonette backup dancers or something? Also aside from everything else, it feels like the Beast has much less "lead-up" than the others. With the Skaven, Undead and even the Orcs, the team batters their way through minions and gets some lore and etc. first. Here it's just "go to room, fight gribbly, celebrate."
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 09:07
|
|
|
It also seems like 30-50 well-drilled and equipped dwarven warriors and thunderers could have handled the whole situation and not needed adventurers at all.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 09:20
|
|
|
The Lone Badger posted:It also seems like 30-50 well-drilled and equipped dwarven warriors and thunderers could have handled the whole situation and not needed adventurers at all. Actually... considering that part of the Beast's plotline has been, both in OG version and resurfaced version, that it's got Dwarven followers seduced to hang around, maybe its backup should've been some of the Cult of Gorlaz inner circle. A bunch of beefy dwarves rich enough to afford some top-notch dwarven gear would definitely be scary support.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 09:32
|
|
|
The thing about the Beast is that it's on this weird tipping point where (especially with its grapple ability) it's just nasty enough that giving it a bunch of support might tip it over into being pretty unstoppable. Certain very large creatures are actually very dangerous even by themselves, like the Chaos Dragon (trust me, that fight was closer than it looked; one or two missed defense rolls could have caused some serious problems and its breath was basically keeping Karl back from providing Cure Wounds). That's often a function of an enemy having enough Toughness and Armor, though. But almost every single giant monster can be taken out no matter how powerful the system thinks they are. My group took down a Great Unclean One in open combat last Friday, albeit that was partly because they're playing a century later and so had things like revolvers and a revolving 10 gauge shotgun to bring against it (as well as the Shallyan 'gently caress your toughness, Nurgle' laser and fireballs from their witch). About the only monster in the game you're simply not going to beat in open combat without cheating it somehow (like with Virtue of Heroism) is the Bloodthirster. Everything else I've seen beaten by action economy and beefy enough protagonists. In almost every case, a group of reasonably skilled enemies with good gear is more dangerous than any large, scary gribbly could be. Numbers matter a lot in this system. E: Also, a lot of things in WHFRP could be beaten by 30-50 well trained soldiers instead of the PCs, but it's one of those places where you mostly ignore that for the sake of the story. And to the Beast's credit, the designers don't necessarily count on you fighting it 'fresh'. This team is lucky enough to have someone with pretty much unlimited HP healing, but a group without a Shallyan or a Sigmarite (they get an okay out-of-combat slow heal, too) might have gone through a bunch of enemies prior to the Beast and be a bit low on HP, which could make it much nastier. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 10:26 on May 17, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 10:08
|
|
|
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal The Fallout Ending Slides The heroes emerged from the tunnels covered in the blood of a transformed dragon and the Beast of Chaos, with tales that were completely unbelievable to the dwarfs above. Soon enough, miners and rangers sent to confirm their story of a huge vein of gromril brought back the first nuggets of ore and excited stories about the wealth below. The Hold had found a treasure beyond anything they could dig up from the ruins, thanks to the efforts of the adventurers. What's more, the dwarfs were able to confirm they did slay a terrible dragon and some kind of awful, mutated horror in the depths. They had repeated the feats of Skalf Dragonslayer himself, despite not being dwarfs. Before the wealth below could be mined properly, it would take years of cleaning out what remained of the dungeons and ruins, but the promise of gromril and rich mining finally spurred the dwarfs to take reclaiming the hold as their top priority. Nothing they could take from adventurers messing about with the ruins could possibly equal the value of what had been found. The celebrations from discovering the gromril lasted for over a week, especially when the miners found the second vein. As had happened hundreds of years ago, the dwarfs confirmed this was one of the richest strikes in the history of gromril mining, and this time there was no primordial horror to turn their discovery to ash. The heroes were toasted throughout the Hold and thanked personally by Thorgin Dragonslayer, the King of Skalf's Hold, especially if they agreed to keep the matter of his second cousin turning himself into a Chaos Dragon to themselves. Even their elf was acknowledged as 'Not Actually That Bad' for his part in securing the hold's future. They would forever be welcome in Karak Azgal, assuming they ever came all the way across the Badlands again. Each was also granted one of the ancient Izril Stones, the incredibly valuable gems that gave the original Karak Izril its fame, as a mark of the wealth and friendship they'd gained. Considering the things are worth about 10,000 crowns each, as long as they don't let anyone else sacrifice the things to Slaanesh they'll be in good shape on money for a long time to come. All wasn't just celebration and happiness, though. Elgorm's actions had revealed that the cult of Gorlaz the Golden was a Slaaneshi cult. Revealing that to the dwarfs required a good deal of tact to prevent staining the Dragonslayer name, but with Elgrom gone the cult had lost its most persuasive member. Most dwarfs were permitted to swear oaths that they had no idea it was a Slaanesh cult (which was quite true, most of the recent converts just liked the libertarianism) and the doctrines of Gorlaz were declared un-dwarfen and dishonorable. Everyone agreed to pretend the evil temple and its dark magic had been behind Elgorm's actions, the sort of comfortable lie that lets Chaos conceal its real roots in greed, brutality, and wickedness. But for the sake of honor and saving face, it can be hard to resist blaming evil relics for the wickedness people choose to do. With the heroes named honorary Dragonslayers (on account of that dragon that they'd slain, but also as a mark that the King considered them honorary kin) they eventually set out from Skalf's Hold to return to their lands, loot sacks exceedingly full and shining gems weighing down their packs. The treasure rolls from the final battle had been good to them, too, and Gilbert left this land in a full suit of gromril armor, while they had yet more gems and gold weighing them down. It wouldn't be long before Althura left the company. While Karl did his best to put her back on the straight and narrow, and she did not go straight back to Chaos, Warlocks gotta Warlock. She swore to stop seeking out ancient artifacts of Chaos and she kept her word, surprisingly. Once they returned to the Empire, she took her gem (the dwarfs didn't realize she wasn't a full member of the company, and she sure as hell wasn't going to correct them) and invested it in sturdy shovels and stout workmen, seeking another ancient treasure deep in the Reikwald forest. Supposedly seeking an unfathomable and fabulous power buried beneath an ancient and imperial home in the dark woods. What she found is unknown; her last letter to Karl suggested it may have something to do with the legendary Old Ones, and 'totally wasn't Chaos this time, I promise'. Whatever happened, it didn't seem to cause any sort of calamity. And a century later, a woman matching her description would stumble into the World's Fair at Nuln, asking what year it was. Warlocks gotta get up to Warlock Moves. Gilbert declared his Quest before they even made it all the way home. He would seek the Grail and become the greatest of heroes. A year and a half of adventure away from his wife and his castle, however, proved to be all that he needed to realize his error. He simply wasn't the sort that could throw it all away to look for the tremendous personal power the Grail conveyed. While it can be considered a failing, he re-swore his oath of vassalship with Duke Adalhard's successor and returned to his lands at Swamp Castle, to properly start a family with Ulrike. This proved to be fortunate, as the Black Knight of Mousillon overran the cordon and moved on Lyonesse not six months later. In a hard-fought siege, Gilbert d'Lyonesse and his people held the Black Knight's army at Swamp Castle long enough for the army of the King to ride to their aid. While King Louen had the honor of confronting and slaying Mallobaude in a glorious duel, it was Gilbert and Ulrike's home that had stopped the invasion from overrunning Lyonesse and possibly presenting a threat to the rest of Bretonnia. Gilbert was raised to the honorary title of Paladin, and granted a mandate to rule and refurbish the Cordon on the Lyonesse side, being named a Baron-Castellan as these new lands were held directly from the King. It wasn't the grand heroic personal struggle he'd dreamed of as a 17 year old Knight Errant, but when you're a grizzled and hard-bitten veteran of 24 in the grim and perilous world of Hams, you start to outgrow such notions. Ulrike fought alongside her husband to defend their holdings, but was never actually granted the official title of a Knight of Bretonnia; you sort of have to be responsible for destroying an entire Chaos Horde and maybe win a duel with Valkia the Bloody or something to get that as a woman. She didn't especially mind; she was an Inner Circle Knight of Ulric, after all. While she never managed to become the Grandmaster (it would have required leaving her new home, her husband, and later their children) she was eventually able to found a chapter-house of the White Wolves with the implicit permission of the king for her role in defending against Mallobaude's incursion. They remain one of the very few spots of Ulric worship in the land of the Lady, too stubborn to admit that a bunch of foreign knights won't find wide acceptance in Bretonnia. While she is mostly accepted (unofficially) for who she is, she's still denounced and given the occasional 'penitent quest' when something is too tough for some of the normal knights of Lyonesse to handle once again. Which suits her just fine. She remains completely unflappable to this day. Elena went back into the Border Princes after it became very clear the Princess Catcher bullshit wasn't going to stop. A full year on from the adventure at Karak Azgal, she was still being assaulted by the occasional hunter of royalty and at that point it became clear this was no minor local quirk. She discovered the dark truth of the matter: The Mist Mountain princedom was a great trap, a blood cult designed to aid in returning mighty vampires to life. The sorts who required the last drop of a royal's blood to return them from ashes. Elena's blood may well have allowed someone to raise Vladimir von Carstein himself, if someone could have gotten hold of his remains. While Vlad is rad, a Hunter has to do what a Hunter has to do, and Elena wasn't especially eager to be used as 'queen blood' for any kind of crazy ritual. She rooted out the cult and slew the powerful Von Carstein backing it after a rather exciting adventure that featured an entire wizard's castle full of dark beasts taking off into the air. With the wealth of a second extremely rich dungeon in her extremely full loot sacks, she went on to buy a stylishly sinister manor house for herself and a title of nobility. The Santiagos became known for their excellence as (highly paid) Witch and Vampire Hunters, passing down the vampire-killer whip and the techniques of the family matriarch, compiling an extensive bestiary on hellish monsters and how to kill them with a magic whip. And fire. Fire usually works. Vendrick found himself without purpose, wandering the lands of the Empire and Bretonnia before finding his way to the Laurelorn Forest. He was astonished to discover other wood elves who did not wear charms made out of the bones of Bretonnian peasants, and who did not steal babies. His tremendous skill as an archer found him a home there for a time, fighting for the Eonir elves against beastmen and other horrors of the woods. But he was never able to sit still for very long, and eventually found his way back into the lands of men. Between adventures he would travel with carnivals and showmen, being an 'authentic' Asrai Waywatcher and astounding humans with his feats of marksmanship; he came to enjoy the attention, if not the occasional actual Waywatcher trying to assassinate him. But few were as good a shot as Vendrick, and he left plenty on the wrong side of a duel of elf-bows. Years and years later, he wandered into the Forest of Arden, and there met a strange elven maiden with a magnificent pair of horns, who took away the curse placed upon his eyes by Queen Ariel and let him see the world both in and out of the forest as it really was, rather than as the Queen had wished him to see it. But that's another story. A very long story. Always bet on the pig being right, though. That's some pig. After a brief attempt to reform Althura further, Karl went with Anya, who worried about the state of her family home. She was correct to worry. Wilhelmina had built her own coven of Warlocks and other black sorcerers; where Ondurin had been content to lead a lonely and vicious existence with just his family, Wilhelmina had bigger plans. Her first goal was kidnapping Karl, who was not at all happy to be back in the role of kidnapped macguffin, but it simply seemed the poor man's lot in life. She had discovered a ritual that might yet grant her the young man's old powers, and also possibly force him to marry her, she wasn't quite sure how classic evil sorcerer she felt like going. Unfortunately for her, Anya was both an excellent thief and a competent Shadowmancer. Rescuing Karl and secretly replacing a ritual component at the last minute, she tricked her sister into a spell that instead destroyed the coven and left Wilhelmina scampering into the woods, swearing vengeance and shaking her fist, just ahead of the wave of annihilation and exploding warlocks. Anya took possession of Schloss Vonreuter soon after, using the wealth from the dwarfs to hire enough help to clean the exploded warlock bits off the carpets and walls as well as removing the many esoteric key puzzles and mazes that had so amused her father. You really can't live in a place where you need to find the goddamn rooster key every time you need to use the privy. Karl stayed with Anya in Schloss Vonreuter after his last ordeal. He spent his time helping to build a small town around the forbidding and ancient estate, hoping to make the place a little less dark and dreary. He never adventured again, happy to be done with the mess after one last kidnapping for old time's sake. His Initiates took over for him in Bretonnia, especially as he'd decided to stay with Anya on a more marital basis (it never would have worked between him and the 'reformed' Warlock). He'd discovered that he really didn't care for adventure; it always led you to more Chaos, more kidnappings, more narrowly being rescued by your fiance before her crazy sister tries to get your old powers of persuasion and force you to marry her or something. You know how life goes for Karl Schmidt. Still, things hardly turned out badly in the end for him. The Izril Stone and piles of gold from the dwarfs let him build a respectable temple at the manor, and because the universe loves irony, Schloss Vonreuter eventually became known for its patronage for Shallyans on pilgrimage and its excellent hospital, as he devoted his time to turning Ondurin's awful laboratory into an actual place of healing and proper, responsible medical study. He lived the rest of his life without further violence, adventure, or kidnapping, even if his wife wandered out to go 'do crimes' from time to time. For Karl, that was what he wanted: A family, a home, a temple to worship in, Initiates to train, and a successful medical practice fusing divine magic and scientific healing. Finally, at long last, Karl Schmidt was free of the constant violence and adventure that had waylaid him his entire life up to that point. Next Time: Final Thoughts on Adventure Books and Karak Azgal
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 12:42
|
|
|
I wonder if Karl working with Anya and her father's old workbooks might invent the science of Anatomy and cutting up dead people to figure out how to put live people back together.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 12:52
|
|
|
The Lone Badger posted:I wonder if Karl working with Anya and her father's old workbooks might invent the science of Anatomy and cutting up dead people to figure out how to put live people back together. You might as well put all the old diagrams in the evil books to use somehow. Hams knows about Anatomy, they're just behind on studying it because it's so strongly associated with necromancy and because Morr's priesthood really doesn't like dissection. There's always been a strong market for 'resurrectionists' bringing fresh corpses to doctors for study. Just sometimes the doctors turn out to be necromancers. E: Someday I want to run a game about just being Warlocks. Just complete idiots with magic they don't understand who think they're the greatest as they bumble around and play Paranoia but with necromancy and demons. I adore them for outright being 'these are the wizards that know exactly enough to get themselves into horrible trouble but also think they're incredible' Night10194 fucked around with this message at 12:58 on May 17, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 12:56
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:E: Someday I want to run a game about just being Warlocks. Just complete idiots with magic they don't understand who think they're the greatest as they bumble around and play Paranoia but with necromancy and demons. I adore them for outright being 'these are the wizards that know exactly enough to get themselves into horrible trouble but also think they're incredible' Using WHFRP or Fiasco?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 13:00
|
|
|
The Warlock entry in Career Compendium is the best thing in the book and I should have covered it. It's all stuff like 'Well of course the prejudiced Witch Hunters don't trust the beings of the aethyr, they are too foolish to learn from them! A Warlock is even-handed enough to study at the feet of these so-called demons, who are weak and clearly easily controlled. A Greater Demon may require you to establish dominance early' or 'Stories about dark magic and warpstone being mutagenic and corrupting are entirely propaganda! Fire can burn down your house, but a blacksmith manipulates it just fine, and so too does a truly skilled mage use Dhar!  'Every single bit of it reads like 'that thing you find as the last entry in a diary next to the manor house full of exploded people and demons and hell horrors'. E: I just adore that they are completely intentionally Dunning Krueger Dark Wizards whose bumbling unleashes disaster and causes adventures. 'That hubristic dumbass who listens to hell demons' being a character class is so good. Night10194 fucked around with this message at 13:11 on May 17, 2020 |
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 13:05
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:Every single bit of it reads like 'that thing you find as the last entry in a diary next to the manor house full of exploded people and demons and hell horrors'. Next to a mirror, a razor, and a distinct absence of wizard-cocaine.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 13:13
|
|
|
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2e: Karak Azgal Final Thoughts Karak Azgal is a good adventure. It's the polar opposite of Barony of the Damned, but it's still a competent example of what it is. It has some rough spots, and it could really do with warning you PCs want to be mid-high level before they start it (I originally worried the party might be overleveled before I read it through), but it's actually kind of interesting to see a straight hack-and-slash dungeon crawl in Warhammer. I can't imagine how hosed you'd be if you started it at low level; even the well-geared and experienced heroes on this team struggled with some of the fights from the sheer potential number of enemies, especially when they got blasted with rats. It would also be much harder without a Shallyan. A team would need to be resting in the dungeon to recover or returning to the surface much more regularly to keep their HP up, and probably wouldn't be able to finish the dungeons in one whack like these guys did. It really shows off just how valuable having an actual healer is; the Heal skill and a surgeon can do you a lot of good and every team wants them, but an actual magical healer can be a godsend for topping off between fights. Going in down 5 Wounds can really hurt when you only have 10-20 depending on level. One thing I appreciate about this adventure is how open it is. It has enough hooks in the Skaven and Undead sections and the two towns to provide plenty of extra adventure and flavor, and the Slaaneshi cult is actually tasteful and very well done. It's meant to be personalized; one reason I felt comfortable adding my own insertions in the narrative is that's the point of the book. The goal is to give you some hooks, some well-balanced encounters and interesting mechanical challenges, and then let the GM and the group fill in the plot around those as they find loots and fight terrible monsters. It's kind of a refreshing break from constant urban adventures and investigations, just having a dungeon full of treasure and evil monsters. Whereas in something like D&D this would be the assumed adventure and the investigative ones would be the novel break, here in Hams pure hack-and-slash action-adventure is novel. The random encounter tables should be ditched, mostly. Combat in WHFRP is dangerous enough (even for a badass team) that completely randomized encounters are a bad idea. Random treasure is fine; rolling to see how much loot you get won't kill the party if they roll badly. Rolling to see if you encounter a couple goblins or an entire party of leveled up Dragon Ogres, though? That's no good. If you run Karak Azgal, for the parts that aren't already filled in you'd be better off making your own extra dungeon levels by hand. The Beast of Chaos could also have used an entire adventure, when I think about it. Encounter the dark worshipers below, fight lesser devils, uncover dire warnings from the dwarfs of old, really build up to it. The fact that I felt I had to insert my own final encounter to make it more dramatic really says a lot about the Beast being a good idea with insufficient execution. It would work fine with more buildup. The Skaven and Undead sections are completely money and I will forever love that this game had evil elf Skeletor. All in all, I think what I've learned over covering the WHFRP adventure books is that they're at their best when they're more open. Liche Lord and Karak Azgal do the hard work of making detailed dungeon levels for the GM, doing a ton of the scutwork and leaving you to adjust things while presenting you some good plot hooks. Barony of the Damned is all about what your characters do when confronted with the choices in it, which all serve a very strong central narrative theme (and come with a good sourcebook to use for a larger campaign). The better adventures in Plundered Vaults were mostly about what you do, like Grapes of Wrath and Carrion Call. The back half of Terror in Talabheim, which is all about looking at what the players enjoy doing and deploying that to let them fight rat nazis as the Resistance how they enjoy doing so, is the strongest part. By contrast, whenever a Hams Adventure tries to have an extremely firm central narrative they tend to fall flat on their face. The adventure books are also strongest when they're primarily by one author and team. Thousand Thrones and Paths of the Damned suffered heavily for being split between very large writing teams with very different ideas of what was happening. Paths went from 'a world full of corruption and bad guys, but a couple reasonable people and protagonists who do their best' to 'comedic dating sim with silly (great) cult thug villain and playfully cliche evil wizard' to 'whatever pointless horseshit Schwalb was getting at in Forges of Nuln, with added misogyny bingo'. None of these things are anything like the other. You went from Chicken Attack to Hornburg's breathlessly boring DEEP LORE to Schwalb smearing poo poo all over the walls and hellwombs in Thousand Thrones and none of it actually cohered into a narrative. Nothing could have a consistent tone, because it was all being written by people with extremely different ideas of what they were writing about, with poor editorial control and a last-minute dictate to throw vampires into it. The central narratives in both were also very weak, because 'the same goddamn Khorne demon' can't sustain three adventures and Thousand Thrones never actually had any idea what to do with Karl and the thousands of pointless sideplots piling up. A 'campaign' of Plundered Vaults, Barony, and Karak Azgal, by contrast, didn't really have a central narrative so much as a central group of characters developing and having adventures over a series of episodes, and I think it came out stronger. The Thousand Crowns trying to struggle through the pointless torrent of bullshit they faced (while also having a cool off-screen adventure fighting the rats) and Brute Squad struggling to come up with reasons why they were still bothering in Paths of the Damned were fun in their own way, but the lighter central plot that focused on character development worked great. And surprisingly, worked wonderfully mechanically; they were always at about the right level for whatever they were dealing with. It's very possible to do a strong central narrative and an epic campaign in WHFRP. I've done it, I've played in it. I'm running it and playing in it right now. I think it is not possible to do it with the pre-made adventure books, not with how they divided them up. The extremely different visions of the Old World held by the authors (Chart's light-hearted black comedy, Graeme Davis's mostly-played-straight darkish fantasy, Schwalb's poo poo-covered grimdark 'grindhouse' nonsense) in Paths of the Damned alone shows you why that was a bad idea, and Thousand Thrones only emphasizes it. Yes, I prefer the lighter form of hams; Chart, Luikart and others did a great job. But Ben Counter's work on Carrion Call and Barony showed a good way to use gothic and darker tones to good effect with the setting, too. He got grim right, unlike Schwalb. William Simoni's work on Karak Azgal is a good example of doing more standard Fantasy RPG stuff well with hams, too. Author matters. Author matters a lot. Having tons of different authors and an inability to agree on what the setting even looks like while trying to write a firm central narrative was never going to work. Not to mention they accomplish that narrative by forcing the PCs onto the tracks and railroading them like mad. So in short, there ARE good WHFRP 2e adventures. Just stick to the ones with only a few authors, and the shorter books. Fight some rat nazis, explore a dwarfhold, get lost in the darkness of Mousillon, and pick out a few of the better Plundered Vaults, and you can have some good stuff to adapt or supplement an ongoing campaign. And with that, hams is officially done. I am, at last, completely out of hams. Like a year after I wrote my first 'I am out of hams' ending post. But now I mean it. It's a sad thing, but the hams have been good to me. Thank you to everyone who read these! The End
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 13:44
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:And with that, hams is officially done. I am, at last, completely out of hams. Like a year after I wrote my first 'I am out of hams' ending post. But now I mean it. It's a sad thing, but the hams have been good to me. Thank you to everyone who read these! Thank you for writing them!
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 13:58
|
|
|
Depending on how bored I get while quarantined, I might cover more of the more fully produced fanworks some time. Also might form a kick-circle around the 'campaign extensions' for Thousand Thrones, being as they're 'Jude Hornburg Is Ridiculously Proud of the Dumb As Hell Backstory In Chapter 7' and also do their best to ruin the vampire bloodlines, too.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 14:05
|
|
|
Night10194 posted:, And thank you for going all the way and for making it as fun to read as possible.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 14:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 7, 2024 19:37 |
|
|
Oh, things also mostly worked out for Portia the magical familiar fox. She kept stealing poo poo. It's all she wanted to do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3sfA0KwceE&t=3s It's who she is.
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2020 14:44
|
|